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B 50185 3


S. M. STOCKER, M. D.
ARTES
1617
SCIENTIA
VERITAS
LIBRARY
OF THE
UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN
EXC PLURIBUS UNUM
TUEBOR
SI·QUERIS PENINSULAM-AMŒNAM
CIRCUMSPICE
PAPAJAJAJA
شالله
THE GIFT OF
Effen Stocker
P. O. BOX 157
FERGUS FALLS, MINN.
PR
2951
+
THE TEXT OF
SHAKESPEARE VINDICATED
FROM THE INTERPOLATIONS AND CORRUPTIONS
ADVOCATED BY
JOHN PAYNE COLLIER Esq.
IN HIS NOTES AND EMENDATIONS.
BY
SAMUEL WELLER SINGER
TO BLOT OLD BOOKS AND ALTER THEIR CONTENTS"-
Rape of Lucrece.
"Shakespeare probably little thought, when he wrote this line, that his
own compositions would afford a more striking example of this species
of devastation than any that has appeared since the first use of type."
Malone.
"

K
LONDON
WILLIAM PICKERING
1853
GiftStocker
Elin .
Reclase
© SKV
12-24-40
OV = 23-30 Lux
5-9-30
TABLE OF CONTENTS.
Page
HE Tempest.
THE
Two Gentlemen of Verona
Merry Wives of Windsor
Measure for Measure
Comedy of Errors
•
Much Ado about Nothing
1
3
6
9
14
18
Love's Labour's Lost
21
A Midsummer-Night's Dream
28
The Merchant of Venice
32
As You Like It
37
The Taming of the Shrew
All's Well that Ends Well
Twelfth Night
Winter's Tale
King John
King Richard II.
First Part of King Henry IV.
Second Part of King Henry IV.
King Henry V. .
First Part of King Henry VI..
Second Part of King Henry VI.
Third Part of King Henry VI.
King Richard III. .
King Henry VIII.
•
44
51
63
71
82
96
103
111
120
136
147
157
165
180
iv
TABLE OF CONTENTS.
Troilus and Cressida
Coriolanus
Titus Andronicus
Romeo and Juliet
Timon of Athens
Julius Cæsar
Macbeth
•
Page
. 190
207
227
230
235
244
250
Hamlet
261
King Lear
269
Othello
278
Antony and Cleopatra
288.
Cymbeline
299
B
PREFACE.
ENTLEY, in his "Dissertation on the Epistles of
Phalaris," relates that: "The great Scaliger
published a few Iambics, as a choice fragment of
an old tragedian, given him by Muretus; who soon
after confessed the jest, that they were made by him-
self." I should have thought that Mr. Collier, in
the same manner, meant to mystify the Shakespearian
Scaligers of this age by the publication of his volume
of "NOTES and EMENDATIONS;" but as he had formerly
evinced such praiseworthy respect for the remains of
our great poet, and had been such a staunch defender
of the integrity of the old text, I could not bring myself
to believe that he would indulge in a hoax which might
lead to mischievous results. I am constrained, there-
fore, to imagine it possible that he has himself been
made the victim of such a delusion by some "Puck* of
a commentator," who finding a tattered copy of the se-
cond folio edition of Shakespeare's plays, which had
belonged to some old player or person connected with
the stage, containing erasures of those parts considered
superfluous in representation, and numerous stage direc-
tions, grafted upon it all that he could glean from some
edition or editions with notes, and added conjectures and
* The Poet Tieck, in his "Mittsommer Nacht," or Shakespeare's
b
vi
PREFACE.
interpolations of his own, foisting in rhymes and whole
lines without reserve or scruple.
It would not be the first time that such knavish in-
genuity has misled a well-trained Shakespearian anti-
quary and commentator; witness the Ireland forgeries,
which, clumsy as they were, had numerous believers
and apologists. I am in possession of several written
sheets of a strenuous defence of them by one of the
learned antiquaries of the time, who afterwards became
convinced of the fraud.
That this is the true state of the case I have no doubt,
for chance has furnished me with a similar tattered
copy of the third folio edition of Shakespeare, (which,
like Mr. Collier's book, has belonged to some theatre or
dramatic corps,) in which the plays most frequently
acted have been similarly treated. In The Merry
2
Youthful Dream, has put into the mouth of PUCK the following vale-
dictory lines to the dreaming Boy:-
Must I depart, and nothing leave with thee?
I am no Spirit of high rank 'tis true;
Such royal gifts as Oberon and his Queen
I have not to bestow :-Yet I can breathe
A merry humour into thee.-Be thine
The power, whene'er thou will'st, to drive away
Black melancholy from each human brea st!
No trifling privilege.-So forget me not!
When thou art dead, Boy, what a strife I'll raise
Among a hundred little carping souls.
WHO WILL MISJUDGE, WITH ENDLESS BLUNDERINGS
Thy noble works:-Yet all the brighter thence
Shall grow the light of thy world-wide renown.
PUCK is therefore still at work, and we have in Mr. Collier's book one
of his promised vagaries. I owe the above version of the German to
a fair friend, who has admirably rendered the spirit of the whole poem.
While I write this I learn that Tieck, celebrated for his enthusiastic
love of Shakespeare no less than for his own highly poetical dramatic
talent, has paid the last debt of nature, full of years as of fame.
PREFACE.
vii
Wives of Windsor, The Comedy of Errors, Midsummer-
Night's Dream, Twelfth Night, the two Parts of K.
Henry IV. K. Henry VIIIth, Julius Cæsar, Macbeth,
Hamlet, K. Lear, and Othello, the greatest liberties
have been taken. Not only are passages deemed too
long for recitation, or otherwise unfit for the stage,
crossed out, but interpolations and alterations of the
language frequently occur. One passage from Mac-
beth is thus altered, in the style of Mr. Collier's cor-
rector. It is in the scene of the Apparitions, where we
have a stage-direction "Horrid Music," and, when the
third spectre rises, the witches say:
Listen, but speak not to it.
3 Appar. Be Lion-mettled, proud, and take no care
Who chafes, or frets, or where conspirers are;
Macbeth shall never vanquish'd be, until
Great Birnam-wood to high Dunsinnan Hill
Shall come against him.
This is thus "improved :"
Be Lion-hearted, proud, and take no care,
Who chafes, who frets, or where conspirers are,
Macbeth shall never vanquish'd be or slaine
Till Birnam-wood shall come to Dunsinane.
The volume would afford many more interpolated and
altered lines and passages, about equal in value to the
boasted nine in Mr. Collier's book; but we have surely
already enough. Very numerous and minute stage-
directions are also added, many of them even more cir-
cumstantial than those in Mr. Collier's second folio.
The names of the players representing the different
characters are also frequently added. The hand-wri-
ting is not always the same; but the oldest in the volume
bears such a striking similarity to that in the fac-simile.
given by Mr. Collier, that one very like it might have
been made from this third folio, had I thought it de-
viii
PREFACE.
•
sirable. The volume, too, like Mr. Collier's, has sub-
sequently passed into other hands, who have made
numerous corrections of evident typographical errors,
and also given various conjectural readings.
Of the very little value of such corrections of the text
on the ground of authority there can surely be but one
opinion, for Mr. Collier himself must be aware at how
very early a period it was the practice to tamper with the
text, and to solve a difficulty not understood by altering
the language, changing a word, or interpolating one. Mr.
Halliwell has justly observed, that even "the editor of
the second folio, whoever he was, altered the original
text without the slightest reference to proper authority,
in many cases adapting the idiom to the changes which
had been made in English phraseology, during even
that brief period" which had elapsed since the death of
the poet.
How little the genuine productions of Shakespeare,
as they issued from his pen, were appreciated at the
time when these manuscript innovations were made, will
appear from the license used by Shadwell, Durfey,
Crowne, Davenant, and Dryden, in adapting them to
the depraved and altered taste of the town; and in a
manuscript copy of verses I found written on the fly-
leaf of a copy of the fourth folio, it is thus adverted to :
TO THE MEMORY OF THE LEARNED AND FACETIOUS AUTHOR.
Hail learned dust! the once renowned case
Of famous Shakespeare, whose dramatick grace
Enrich'd each line of his admired plays;
So far beyond the scribblers of our days,
(That Laureat Dryden, and fam'd Mistress Behn,
With all the train of modern rhyming men,
Must yield the laurel to thy conqu'ring pen )
PREFACE.
ix
Whose paltry fustian, and base flashing wit,
Since thy decease have so debauch'd the pit,
That graver lines are damn'd or hiss'd for dull,
And must give place to some quaint jangling fool
Or smutty gibes of an unlearned scull.
But live, brave Shakespeare! in thy nobler sense,
And may thy works ne'er want a residence
In best repositories, whilst their stuff
Be torn to bake under some penny puff,
Or high'st preferment be to line a trunk,
To light Toback, or
1691.
The lines are not of much value, but may deserve
preservation as individual testimony to the little respect
with which the precious remains of our poet were
treated for a long period. This, perhaps, did not apply
to poetical readers; yet the fourth edition, printed in
1685, has numerous corruptions, and it is evident, from
the slashing performances of Mr. Collier's expurgator
as well as mine, what liberties were deemed allowable,
and even necessary, to accommodate the language to
the notions of those connected with the stage.
In June, 1852, I purchased from Mr. Willis, the
bookseller, a copy of the second folio edition of Shake-
speare, in its original binding, which, like that of Mr.
Collier, contains very numerous manuscript corrections
by several hands; the typographical errors, with which
that edition abounds, are sedulously corrected, and the
writers have also tried their hands at conjectural emen-
dation extensively. Many of these emendations corre-
spond with those in Mr. Collier's volume, but chiefly
in those cases where the error in the old copy was
pretty evident, but the readings often vary, and some-
times for the better. It seems to me that the correc-
tors, like Mr. Collier's, have often availed themselves
of some edition with notes, and, as Mr. Collier says of the
corrections in his volume, "In many cases the older con-
X
PREFACE.
jectures of Pope, Theobald, Warburton, and Hanmer are
remarkably confirmed." These Mr. Collier would treat
as coincident anticipations, but, as they form the greater
bulk of the corrections, they are far too numerous to
have been fortuitous, and there can be no doubt that
they have been engrafted in his book by some later
hand than that of the earlier theatrical possessor, to
whom the stage directions and striking out of passages,
with some few of the alterations of the text, can alone
be fairly attributed. A few fortuitous coincidences we
might admit, but it is not within the doctrine of proba-
bilities that two writers, at distant periods, without any
communication or knowledge of each other, should in
hundreds of instances coincide so exactly as we find the
major part of the corrections in Mr. Collier's volume do
with the later emendations, slowly elaborated by a suc-
cession of commentators, and many of them far from
obvious. Where the error, as in some cases, is what
Mr. Collier calls "self-evident," coincidence would be
possible, but where, as in many instances, the correc-
tions take the form of acute and happy conjecture, such
extraordinary sympathy would be something miracu-
lous. Mr. Collier's first impression that (the ink being
of various shades) two distinct hands have been em-
ployed on these corrections, is undoubtedly correct;
for in the case of both the second and third folios with
manuscript corrections which I possess, this is evi-
dently the case. There is a temptation to add to manu-
script notes, when a volume has once been invaded in
this manner, which is very frequently indulged by
successive possessors.
The external evidence for the authenticity of Mr. Col-
lier's book, even in the judgment of his most friendly
critics, entirely fails; the only person who could have
PREFACE.
xi
thrown light upon it is unhappily no more. Those
who knew the late Mr. Thomas Rodd, must be aware
of his zeal for the illustration of Shakespeare, and his
acute perception of the value of all that would be sub-
servient to it; nor was he hasty in his examination of
the literary curiosities in which he so extensively dealt.
We may presume, therefore, that, had he not suspected
the authenticity of these manuscript corrections, the
volume would never have passed from his hands, even
to favour Mr. Collier, for the paltry consideration paid
for it; but would have passed to the library of the
British Museum, for which Mr. Rodd had so long been
an assiduous and able provider.
We are reduced, therefore, to the alternative of ex-
amining the internal evidence which the contents of the
volume afford. Now Mr. Collier implies, and in-
sinuates in almost every page, that the corrections
may have been, nay, were, derived from some old
authentic source, and that therefore there is no appeal
from their authority! Had he fortuned to chance
upon some autograph remains of Shakespeare, (and
I sincerely wish he yet may do so, in order that
he may make the first bonfire on the occasion with
his volume of Notes and Emendations and his Pseudo-
Shakespeare,) he could not have urged a more strenuous
and decided claim to have them accepted as unequivocal
authority! This is to be regretted, for it has been justly
observed that such an uncompromising claim to autho-
rity excites a natural repugnance against enforced opi-
nion, and endangers the success of the few suggestive
emendations his volume affords.
The following pages will however clearly demonstrate
how very far from probable, or even possible, it is that
the correctors of this volume had any ancient authority
1
xii
PREFACE.
for their doings; that, on the contrary, the greater
part of them are adopted from recent annotators; and
that, of what are original, or can be considered new
readings, abundance are changes for the worse, and
a still larger number entirely unnecessary and imperti-
nent!
*
Such a number of glaring mistakes and misapprehen-
sions of the language of the poet have never before ap-
peared at once among all the voluminous comments
which have from time to time been published; and
the reader has only to refer to the blunders about
the words strain, voyage, imperseverant, and carve,'
to be convinced that such fatal perversions of the
language of the poet could not have been made by
any one who could be at all held to have had old
authority for what he or they have done. Indeed,
it has been observed, that many of the substitutions
bear such evident marks of savouring of modern
phraseology, as to render it highly improbable that they
were made by any one living at an earlier period than
the last century. This is a conviction which nothing
but the discovery of the "authorities" upon which Mr.
Collier dwells would have power to shake.
We can
therefore yield to these manuscript corrections no more
credit than we should give those of any other anony-
mous note-writer, whether printed or manuscript, and
proceed to scrutinize their merits and defects, by which
they must stand or fall.
When Mr. Collier published his first edition of Shake-
speare, begun in 1842, and finished in 1844, he was a
strict conservative, and his notes afford critical canons
* See pages 6, 27, 74, 301-2, 308-9, and PASSIM for other in-
stances.
!
PREFACE.
xiii
!
which are entirely at issue with his recent conduct.
Thus, in one place, he tells us : "There cannot, we ap-
prehend, be a moment's doubt as to the propriety of ad-
hering to the text of every old edition, and of rejecting
that of every modern one." (Vol. iv. p. 137.) Again:
"Malone and the modern editors silently omit ‘an,'
probably under the notion that they had a right to cor-
rect Shakespeare's metre"! And speaking of one of
Malone's additions to the text, he says: "To insert
lines of his own is a province of a commentator of which
we never before heard ; but this is an error to be pointed
out by an annotator, not to be corrected in Malone's
mode." (Vol. iv. p. 146.) How strenuously he opposed
himself to alterations for the sake of the rhyme, such as
he now advocates, (even when they were manifestly re-
quired from the whole of the dialogue being in rhyme,)
will
appear from his rejection of Theobald's judicious
alteration in Midsummer-Night's Dream:
"And in the wood, where often you and I
Upon faint primrose beds were wont to lie,
Emptying our bosoms of their counsel sweet,
There my Lysander and myself shall meet;
And thence, from Athens, turn away our eyes,
To seek new friends and stranger companies."
Mr. Collier adheres to the old evidently erroneous
readings swell'd and companions. Yet he would now
admit uncalled for rhymes substituted where they are
by no means so clearly indicated. What can have
converted Mr. Collier to such an entirely opposite
extreme of revolutionary rashness? Is it that he has
found the adherence to long-exploded typographical
errors and evidently erroneous readings had been urged
against his edition, and had prevented it from becom-
xiv
PREFACE.
ing extensively popular, and that the discovery of his
pseudo-antique commentary afforded him an apt ex-
cuse for furnishing a more readable text? It has
been remarked that convertites are very prone to fall
into a course opposite in the extreme to that which
had guided them before conversion; and from Mr.
Collier's volume of Notes and Emendations, as well
as from the garbled one-volume edition of Shake-
speare he has just put forth, it is but too evident
that this is the case with him. The following canons.
have been deduced from the course he has recently
pursued and advocated:-
CANON 1.
A professed critic on Shakespeare has a right to de-
clare that his author wrote whatever he thinks he should
have written, with as much positiveness as if he had
been at his elbow.
CANON 2.
Should lines or rhymes seem to him to be wanting,
he may boldly supply them without much regard to the
sense of the context; and he may re-write, or re-con-
struct any passage which he fancies he can " improve."
CANON 3.
He has a right to alter what he does not understand,
even when parallel passages in the poet might be ad-
duced to explain the meaning.
CANON 4.
These alterations he may make in spite of the evi-
dence afforded by the old copies, even where perfectly
intelligible, upon the plea of lines having too few or too
many syllables, according to finger scansion.
PREFACE.
XV
CANON 5.
Where he does not like an expression, he may call it
“awkward,” and impute the defect to the author, or he
may condemn it as an interpolation.
CANON 6.
He may find out obsolete words, or coin new ones,
and put them in the place of such as he does not like
or does not understand.
CANON 7.
He may prove a reading, or support an explanation
by any sort of reasons, no matter whether good or bad;
and call that" illogical" which his own want of logic
prevents him from comprehending.
CANON 8.
He may interpret his author, so as to make him ap-
pear to mean directly the contrary to what he says.
CANON 9.
He should extirpate all poetical licenses, or playful
banter, which he does not understand.
CANON 10.
He may explain a difficult passage by circumlocu-
tion, which shall be less intelligible than the passage he
has to explain.
CANON 11.
He may contradict his own assertions without any
regard to consistency, and what was at one time impos-
sible, may be at another not only possible, but indis-
putable.
xvi
PREFACE.
CANON 12.
In adducing the opinions of the commentators, he
may suppress part of their words that would not serve
his purpose, but controvert his own; and he may use
the very same reasons for confirming his own observa-
tions, that he has concealed or disallowed.
CANON 13.
He may parade as original emendations of a favorite
corrector, readings that were proposed long ago by other
commentators, and that have even formed part of the
text of current editions for years.
Of these Canons, Mr. Collier's Notes and Emen-
dations will afford ample illustration; and it is to
endeavour to stem the torrent of corruption with which
the text of our great poet is threatened, under the
sanction of a name which ought to have been a guaran-
tee against such doings, that the following pages have
been hastily written.
The amusing author of De la Charlatanerie des
Savans,' Menken, has graphically described the cor-
rectors of Mr. Collier's volume-" Bien loin de s'y pro-
poser de faire des Restitutions heureuses, qui repandent
de la clarté sur les passages obscurs, ils cherchent des
difficultez où il n'y en a point; ils raportent sans choix et
sans jugement les differens leçons d'un vieux Manuscrit,
et ils font ensuite main basse sur tout qui se rencontre
malheureusement sur leur passage.
""
I am happy to find that I do not stand alone in the
view I have taken of Mr. Collier's volume, and the mis-
chief which might result from his advocacy of such
reckless innovations on the text of Shakespeare's dramas,
if unchecked and unanswered, and that many are ready
to exclaim with me-
PREFACE.
xvii
Annius or Ireland 'tis to me the same.
But who could have expected that Mr. Collier would
have been so inconsiderate of the due reverence in which
the writings of Shakespeare ought always to be held,
as to engraft upon the text the whole batch of these
crudities and inanities, without a note or mark to desig-
nate the interpolation! In his preface to his Pseudo-
Shakespeare, in one volume, he says, "It is not to be
understood that the Editor approves of all the changes
in the text of the plays contained in the ensuing volume;
but while he is doubtful regarding some, and opposed
to others, it is his deliberate opinion, that the great
majority of them assert a well-founded claim to a place
in every future edition of Shakespeare!"
So, although he does not approve of some, is op-
posed to others, and doubtful about many of these
readings, he does not hesitate to vitiate the text by
their insertion! without the slightest mark by which
the corruption might be distinguished from the genuine
text! Of such a garbled book as this we may be
assured that he or his booksellers may have occasion
to say, in the words of Sir Philip Sidney, "What
fools were we, to mingle such driveling speeches
amongst noble thoughts." The only means by which
any one can truly appreciate the extent of these
unwarrantable corruptions, is to follow the course in-
dicated by Mr. Collier; and, after having paid their
guinea for the Pseudo-Shakespeare, to purchase Mr.
Collier's eight volume edition, costing some four or
five pounds more; and even then, to possess them-
selves of his reasons for vitiating the text, they must
also procure his volume of Notes and Emendations!
It has been justly said, that "the mislayer of a mere
xviii
PREFACE.
•
stone is to blame; but it is the erroneous and untrue
critic that is the capital remover of land-marks, when
he altereth or defineth amiss words and sentences."
Mr. Collier will recollect the anathema imprecated upon
him who should disturb the mortal remains of the poet,
inscribed on his grave-stone: surely to vitiate and in-
terpolate
His well-torned and true-filed lines,
In each of which he seems to shake a lance,
As brandish'd at the eyes of ignorance—
would not be less reprehensible! it would be to disturb
his immortal remains:
Dear son of Memory, great heir of Fame
What need'st thou such weak witness of thy name?
Thou in our wonder and astonishment,
Hast built thyself a live-long monument :
For whil'st to the shame of slow-endeavouring art
Thy easy numbers flow, and that each heart
Hath, from the leaves of thy unvalued book,
Those Delphick lines with deep impression took;
Then thou, our fancy of itself bereaving,
Doth make us marble with too much conceiving;
And so sepulcher'd in such pomp dost lie
That kings, for such a tomb, would wish to die.
I have been impelled to this ungrateful and weari-
some task* of exposing the little claim Mr. Collier's vo-
樂
​Regretting as I do the necessity of this self-imposed task, I may
yet presume that it was in some degree expected at my hands, Mr.
Collier having appealed to me with an assurance that he " shall at any
time be happy to be set right, especially by Mr. Singer." I trust, there-
fore, that it will be accepted only as it is meant, simply as a Vindication
of Shakespeare's Text from threatened corruption, and that Mr. Collier
will recollect what Steevens has said on a similar occasion; "Success
is not in every instance proportionable to zeal and effort; and he who
shrinks from controversy should also have avoided the vestibulum
ipsum primasque fauces of the school of Shakespeare."
PREFACE.
xix
:
lume has to be considered an important accession to
the means of correcting the text of our great poet; and
at the same time pointing out the mischief which might
arise from reliance upon the claim set up for it, from a
sense of duty, and of heartfelt gratitude to that “ my-
riad-minded" being, whose magic pages have been the
delight of my youth, and the solace of my declining
years; of whose transcendent productions it may be said,
in his own words, Age cannot wither, nor custom
stale the infinite variety." And I feel assured, that if
I have succeeded in removing a few of the spots which
threatened to obscure his radiant language, my time will
not have been misspent.
66
Mickleham, May 5th, 1853.
Thy book,,
When brass and marble fade, shall make thee look
Fresh to all ages; WHEN POSTERITY
SHALL LOATH WHAT'S NEW
THAT IS NOT SHAKESPEARE'S EVERY LINE AND VERSE.
L. Digges.
SHAKESPEARE VINDICATED.
P. 2.
THE TEMPEST.
ACT I. Scene II.
HE sky, it seems, would pour down stinking pitch,
But that the sea, mounting to the welkin's cheek,
Dashes the fire out.
The correctors would substitute heat for cheek. This is quite
wrong and unwarrantable, (indeed Mr. Collier seems to have
his misgivings) for we have "the welkin's face", and "hea-
ven's face" elsewhere. I am persuaded we should read
flaming instead of ſtinking; "dashes the fire out" then
follows naturally. In the old copies fl and ft have been else-
where confounded.
P. 6.
They all have met again,
And are upon the Mediterranean Flote,
Bound sadly home for Naples.
Mr. C. says, "In order to make the sense grammatical, it has ·
been necessary to consider flote' a substantive, from the
Fr. flot a wave. The misprint of' are' for all near the be-
ginning of the second line has led to this imaginary introduc-
tion of a foreign and affected word into our language, when
it was never contemplated by Shakespeare. The reading, as
given in manuscript in the corrected folio, 1632, is,
They all have met again,
And all upon the Mediterranean float,
Bound sadly back to Naples.
Float,' in fact, is a verb, used by every body, and not a
substantive, used by no other English writer."
The question is not whether "Flote" is used by any other
English writer, but whether Shakspeare used it. There is
good evidence to conclude that he did; it is printed with a
B
2
SHAKESPEARE VINDICATED.
capital letter as a substantive in both the first and the second
folio, and has never been doubted. It may not be from the
French, as Mr. Collier asserts, but more probably from the
Anglo-Saxon. The poet would not have written as the cor-
rector makes him do, "They ALL have met again, and all
upon the Mediterranean float." Interference with the old
genuine text is therefore not to be tolerated for a moment.
P. 9.
ACT II. SCENE I.
And the fair soul herself
Weigh'd, between lothness and obedience, at
Which end o' the beam she'd bow.
The corrector would read
And the fair soul herself
Weigh'd between lothness and obedience, as
Which end o' the beam should bow.
Again, unnecessary interference, which gives an awkward
reading much less intelligible than the received one. The old
copy has should, the old construction of she would, and pro-
perly given by Malone she'd. The passage should stand as it
does in all recent editions, even in Mr. Collier's, who has a
note defending it.
SCENE II.
P. 10. Another wanton interference with the text would
change the dregs of the storm," for "the drench of the
storm." The poet never uses drench in the sense here assumed,
and dregs is the more expressive word. We may confidently
read "till the dregs of the storm be past."
ACT III. SCENE I.
P. 11. The proposed reading in Ferdinand's soliloquy of
“Most busy—blest when I do it," is the very worst and most
improbable of all that have been suggested. I believe nothing
better has yet been proposed than my own reading, “Most
busiest." See Notes and Queries, vol. ii. p. 260.
ACT IV. SCENE I.
P. 12. The substitution of "tilled brims" for "twilled
brims" was long since suggested and rejected; the old read-
THE TEMPEST.
3
ing being perfectly intelligible. To read "brown groves" in-
stead of “broom groves" is equally inadmissible. Mr. Collier's
objection that "broom-trees are seldom found in groves.
will have no weight with those who recollect that it has given
its name Broomgrove to several places in England. Evelyn
tells us that the Spanish broom "in the western parts of
France, and with us in Cornwall grows to an incredible
height."
P. 15.
ACT V. SCENE I.
Whe'r thou beest he, or no,
Or some enchanted trifle to abuse me,
As late I have been, I not know.
"The word trifle,” says Mr. C. seems a most strange one to
be employed in such a situation, and it reads like a misprint:
the manuscript-corrector of the folio, 1632, informs us that it
undoubtedly is so, and that the line in which it occurs ought
to run,
Or some enchanted DEVIL to abuse me.
Sebastian just afterwards declares of Prospero, that 'the devil
speaks in him.'"
Think of an enchanted devil! This is surely to indulge the
pruritus emendandi without bounds, or consideration for the
Poet. The enchanted trifle was what he makes Prospero in
a future Scene call " some vanity of mine art." Not a devil
certainly.
P. 18.
THE
TWO GENTLEMEN OF VERONA.
ACT I. SCENE I.
HE throwing part of Speed's speech into rhyme by the
arbitrary insertion of words might be an allowable license
in a player in old times, for effect on the stage, but would be
an unwarrantable license in an Editor at any time.
""
The same may be said of the liberties taken in "restoring
rhyme to some of Lucetta's replies to her mistress. But the
work is performed in so clumsy a manner as to vindicate the
poet from such inane expressions as are interpolated for the
purpose.
4
SHAKESPEARE VINDICATED.
P. 21.
ACT II. SCENE VII.
And so by many winding nooks he strays
With willing sport to the wild ocean.
"The epithet wide," says Mr. C."substituted by the cor-
rector, seems more appropriate. This is, of course, one of the
cases in which either reading may be right: if we prefer wide,
it is mainly because the old corrector had some ground for
adopting it."
This ground I think we must strike from beneath his feet.
The substitution of wide for wild would destroy the consistency
of the passage. The contrast of progress with willing sport
to wild ocean, is the same that recurs in pastime and weary
step, rest and turmoil, in the same passage. The corrector's
wide would take the allusion all to sea.
P. 21. The same may be said of changing Julia's "longing
journey,” to “loving journey." Independent of the constant
practice of the poet to interchange the terminations ing and
ed, "Loving journey" is a most unmeaning epithet. By her
longing or longed journey, Julia means her longed for journey,
arising from her longing to see her lover again. She had just
before said
Pity the dearth that I have pined in,
By longing for that food so long a time.
ACT III. SCENE I.
P. 22. To read Milano instead of Milan on account of the
metre, would be rash indeed; unless instances could be ad-
duced of its being so used in the poet's time. In the folios it
usually occurs as Millaine.
ACT IV. SCENE III.
P. 23. "We have here," says Mr. C. " a very important
emendation, supplying a whole line, evidently deficient, and
yet never missed by any of the commentators.
Madam, I pity much your grievances,
And the most true affections that you bear ;
Which since I know they virtuously are plac'd,
I give consent to go along with you.
TWO GENTLEMEN OF VERONA.
5
10
We shall hereafter see that other passages, more or less valu-
able, are supplied by the corrector of the folio, 1632, These
were, probably, obtained from some better manuscript than that
used by the old printer."
Most certainly not. To make Sir Eglamour pity the most
true affections of Silvia is only to increase the defect of his
sympathetic speech. This will never do as evidence that the
corrector had any authority for his botching.
SCENE IV.
P. 25. "It is worth notice that Julia, descanting on Silvia's
picture, says, in the first folio, that her eyes are grey as
glass,' which may be right; but which the second folio alters
to' her eyes are grey as grass,' which must be wrong. The
manuscript-corrector of the folio, 1632, converts grey into
green- ' her eyes are green as grass;' and such we have good
reason to suppose was the true reading."
Is the absurdity of departing from the unquestioned reading
of the first folio, the good reason for supposing this the true
one?
ACT V. SCENE IV.
P. 26. "We are informed, in an unprinted stage-direction,
that shouts are heard, and then follow these lines:-
These my rude mates, that make their wills their law,
Have some unhappy passenger in chase;
which is certainly better than the common mode of printing
the passage, which leaves the verb have' without any an-
tecedent:
C
These are my mates, that make their wills their law,
Have some unhappy passenger in chase."
It is highly improbable that Valentine would call the outlaws
his rude mates for he soon afterwards speaks of them to the
Duke as men civil and fit for great employments. Valentine's
previous interrogation, " What halloing and what stir is this
to-day?" would be awkwardly followed by the words, "These
are," which appear to be a misprint for 'Tis sure. Valentine
answers doubtingly his own question.
'Tis sure my mates, who make their wills their law,
Have some unhappy passenger in chase.
6
SHAKESPEARE VINDICATED.
The violent and unauthorised substitution of "These my rude
mates," for "These are my mates," has no probability in its
favour.
SCENE IV.
P. 27. There is not the slightest necessity for changing
"We will include all jars " to We will conclude. Include is a
Latinism having nearly the same sense; to shut up, to close
up. The insertion of the words Valentine and stripling on ac-
count of the metre, is to rewrite the Text. The same remark
applies to the alterations to rhyme throughout this play.
1
P. 30.
“A
MERRY WIVES OF WINDSOR.
ACT I. SCENE III.
MISPRINT in the old editions of 'carves' for craves,
has occasioned some difficulty in the passage where
Falstaff, speaking of the expected result of his enterprise
against Mrs. Ford, observes, as the words have been invaria-
bly given,' I spy entertainment in her; she discourses, she
carves, she gives the leer of invitation.' A note in the margin
of the corrected folio, 1632, shows that we ought to read 'she
craves, she gives the leer of invitation.' There seems no suf-
ficient reason for supposing that 'carves' ought to be taken in
the figurative sense of wooes; and although ladies might now
and then carve' to guests, in the literal meaning of the
word, yet carving was undoubtedly an accomplishment pecu-
liarly belonging to men. Falstaff evidently, from the context,
intends to say that Mrs. Ford has a craving for him, and
therefore gave
'the leer of invitation.'
፡
I cannot see the evidence in the context at all; and it is
quite certain there is not the slightest reason for disturbing
the text. To carve is not to be taken in its literal sense, but
in a conventional one which may be gathered from Torriano's
explanation in his Proverbial phrases: "Trinciarla alla
grande, to carve it magnificently, viz. to spend like a prince;
to lay it on, take it off who will." But for this happy illustra-
tion of Falstaff's meaning, Shakespeare's text might here again
MERRY WIVES OF WINDSOR.
7
have suffered, and an expressive old colloquial phrase have
It should be remembered that Torriano had
been lost to us.
Florio's papers.
ACT II. SCENE III.
P. 35. “I will bring thee where Mistress Anne Page is, at
a farm-house a feasting, and thou shalt woo her. Cried game,
said I well?"
"The difficulty has been," says Mr. C. "how to make any
sense out of 'Cried game;' but the truth seems to be, that the
Host, having said that Anne Page was feasting at a farm-house,
in order still more to incite Dr. Caius to go there, mentioned
the most ordinary objects of feasting at farm-houses at that
time, viz. curds and cream. This in the hands of the old com-
positor became strangely metamorphosed into cried game.'
""
A strange metamorphose indeed! Perhaps a more absurd
conjecture was never entertained. There can be no doubt that
Mr. Dyce's suggestion of "Cried I aim" [i. e. did I give you
encouragement?] "Said I well?" is the true one. Warburton
was near the mark but missed it. Ford, in a previous scene,
saysTo these violent proceedings all my neighbours shall
cry aim" [i. e. give encouragement].
ACT IV. SCENE V.
P. 38. I must here give the whole of Mr. Collier's argument
in order to do it justice.
"Modern editors have needlessly changed the prefixes of
the folios in this part of the scene: the corrector of that of
1632 has altered two small words, and made the dialogue run
quite consistently. Simple tells Falstaff and the Host that
he had other things to have spoken on behalf of his master to
'the wise woman of Brentford :'
Fal. What are they? let us know.
Host. Ay, come; quick.
Fal. You may not conceal them, sir.
Host. Conceal them, and thou diest.
C
The common method has been to put I may not conceal
them, Sir,' into the mouth of Simple, followed by a mark of
interrogation; and the Host's next speech has been invariably
8
SHAKESPEARE VINDICATED.
•
printed Conceal them, or thou diest!' The Host was de-
sirous that Simple should reveal, and would not, therefore,
threaten death if he disclosed them. Dr. Farmer wished re-
veal to be substituted for conceal,' but the only alteration
here required is and for 'or,'-Conceal them and thou
diest.' Such is the emendation of the corrector of the folio,
1632."
It is not the only alteration, for we have also you substituted
for Iin Simple's speech, in order to accommodate it to Falstaff!
I turn to Mr. Collier's edition of Shakespeare (Vol. i. p. 258)
and find, to my great surprise, that he is one of the modern
Editors who have made the “needless" change in the pre-
fixes to which he alludes, and what is more singular, contrary
to his usual custom, he has not noticed the deviation from the
old copy! taking it for granted, I presume, that it could never
be disputed!
That the modern editors were right is beyond a doubt. In
the folios the passage stands thus:—
Fal. What are they? let us know.
Host. Ay come: quicke.
Fal. I may not conceale them, (Sir.)
Host. Conceale them or thou diest.
Now the most obtuse understanding would, I should think,
perceive at once that the line "I may not conceale them, Sir,"
could not belong to Falstaff, but that it belongs to Simple,
and that the whole spirit and humour of the passage depends
upon poor Simple mistaking conceal for reveal. Mine Host
with his accustomed waggery mistifies him by using his own
mistaken word:-" Conceal them or thou diest!"
That the corrector should not have entered into the humour
of the passage does not surprise us, for it is possible he may
not have seen the simple transfer of the line, erroneously given
to Falstaff, to its right owner; and he has shown himself else-
where incapable of entering into the playful humour of a like
kind in which Shakespeare delights to indulge. But that Mr.
Collier should, when it had been clearly pointed out, and
even adopted by him, for a moment deem the impertinent and
absurd substitutions of the corrector of his folio preferable,
must shake one's faith in his consistency at least. I hope this
is not one of the passages considered as resting on better au-
thority than we possess !
9
P. 41.
MEASURE FOR MEASURE.
ACT I. SCENE I.
OF government the properties to unfold,
Would seem in me t'affect speech and discourse;
Since I am put to know, that your own science
Exceeds, in that, the lists of all advice
My strength can give you: then, no more remains,
But that, to your sufficiency, as your worth is able,
And let them work.
The corrector would substitute
Since I am apt to know, that your own science
Exceeds, in that, the lists of all advice
My strength can give you: then, no more remains,
But add to your sufficiency your worth,
And let them work.
""
Here the change of " I am put to know to "I am apt to
know" is a mischievous deviation from Shakspeare's language,
for he uses the same phrase several times elsewhere, for I am
constrained or obliged to know; and to leave out the word
able after worth, and substitute add for that, is a very violent
departure from the old text which is certainly not required. I
read with a very slight deviation from the old copy :-
Since I am put to know, that your own science,
Exceeds in that, the lists of all advice
My strength can give you: then no more remains,
But thereto your sufficiency, as your worth is able,
And let them work.
The compositor mistook thito for thito, which rectified, all
is clear. The sense of the whole passage is," since I must
acknowledge that you are better skilled in the nature of go-
vernment than I am, it would be idle in me to lecture you on
the subject. Then nothing more remains [is wanting] but
thereto your sufficient authority [i. e. to govern] as you have
the ability, and let them [your skill and authority] come into
operation. The authority is the commission the Duke just
afterward gives him.
SCENE II.
P. 42. The insertion of bawdy before houses in the Clown's
speech is entirely uncalled for; by all houses, the Clown of
10
SHAKESPEARE VINDICATED.
course means all such houses; but it is a common form of
speech, in use every day, to say houses where public houses, or
any other houses of business are meant.
SCENE III.
P. 43. The substitution of pronunciation for denunciation is
again over-busy meddling : denunciation is used for pronuncia
tion; as in K. John, Act iii. Sc. 1, Pandulph says, "I will
denounce a curse upon his head. So Baret, "To denounce
openly, and tell before hand." And Philips, "Denunciation
a proclaiming or denouncing." Propagation is also used by
the poet for getting or increasing; and no change of the old
text is necessary.
Ib.
SCENE IV.
In time the rod
Becomes more mock'd than fear'd, so our decrees, &c.
Pope supplied the word Becomes to complete the sense and
metre. The corrector adds two words and alters another for
the same purpose, but with less effect; thus:—
In time the rod's
More mock'd than fear'd; so our most just decrees,
Dead to infliction, &c.
There can be but one opinion as to which is the best and most
simple correction.
Ib.
And yet my nature never in the fight,
To do in slander.
This is the reading of the old copy. The corrector would
substitute
And yet my nature never in the sight
To draw on slander.
The true reading is
And yet my nature never in the fight
To do it slander.
Perhaps we might read light for fight?
ACT II. SCENE I.
""
P. 44. The foolish constable, master Froth, is made to say
"I have so; because it is an open room and good for winter;
the corrector, not comprehending the humour of the scene,
would, in sober sadness, read, "I have so; because it is an
MEASURE FOR MEASURE.
11
open room, and good for windows"! I do not marvel at the
corrector's want of perception of the ludicrous; but that Mr.
Collier should think this is to set Shakespeare right does cre-
ate some surprise.
SCENE II.
P. 45. The substitution of God of judgment for top of
judgment is quite unwarranted and uncalled for. And to
change sickles, the old form of shekels, to circles is to mar a
fine and expressive passage. Such interference is nothing
less than absurd. But it is nothing new, for Mr. Collier has
elsewhere said, “Shakspeare's word may have been cycles”!
SCENE IV.
P. 46. Tyrwhitt's reading of in-shell'd for enshield is a very
doubtful alteration, and how it can be authorized any more.
than it was, by the concurrence of Mr. Collier's folio I am at
a loss to imagine. But this is one of the coincidences.
Ib.
As I subscribe not that, nor any other,
But in the loss of question.
"The corrector,” says Mr. Collier," writes in the margin, ‘but
in the force of question '-that is to say, in the compulsion of
question, or for the sake of question, a sense the word will
very well bear, the copyist having misheard force ‘loss.’
Is it possible that Mr. Collier can be serious? There is
no such idea as compulsion in the case. A very ingenious
attempt was made by a correspondent of Notes and Queries
(Vol. vi. p. 271) to show that by "loss of question" the
casus quæstionis of the Logicians was meant; it is infinitely
preferable, as a solution of the difficulty in the passage, to the
force of Mr. Collier's corrector: but in my corrected copy of
the second folio I find lofse altered to loose, and the meaning
would then be "in the looseness of conversation." Question is
most frequently used by Shakspeare for conversation.
ACT III. SCENE I.
P.47. The "prenzie Angelo" and "prenzie guards.” Priestly
has been over and over again proposed and rejected; for Angelo
could not have affected the priestly garb. Mr. Hickson's
suggestion of saintlie guards, i. e. saintly facings, or disguise,
is by far the best that has been offered.
12
SHAKESPEARE VINDICATED.
P. 48.
SCENE II.
What say'st thou, Trot?
The corrector would substitute troth, but the true reading is
What say'st thou to't?
The printer mistook to't for trot. In Coriolanus, Sc. 1, Me-
nenius says to the Citizens, "What say you to't?" where it
is also misprinted toot.
P. 49. The change of " Making practice on the times" to
Masking practice is a very unhappy one. The old reading is
correct, but in the previous line we should read "wade in
crimes" instead of made in crimes, as Mr. Halliwell has sug-
gested.
P. 50.
ACT IV. SCENE II.
Wounds th' unsisting postern with these strokes.
The corrector reads resisting and Mr. Collier approves. A
much better reading and nearer to the old copy is
Wounds th' unwisting [i. e. unconscious] postern with his strokes.
SCENE III.
P. 51. What do we gain by deviating from the unques-
tioned old reading " Injurious world!" and substituting
Perjurious? It is hardly possible that the one word could be
mistaken for the other.
In the Duke's speech
I am combined by a sacred vow.
There was no necessity for changing combined to confined.
Johnson tells us, Shakspeare used combine for to bind by a
pact or agreement. The Duke calls Angelo the combinate
husband of Mariana. He himself is bound by his vow, his
sacred pact with heaven. Confined would be a poor inexpres-
sive word here.
P. 52.
SCENE IV.
But that her tender shame
Will not proclaim against her maiden loss,
How might she tongue me! yet reason dares her; no;
For my authority bears of a credent bulk,
That no particular scandal once can touch,
But it confounds the breather.
MEASURE FOR MEASURE.
13
(
"
Mr. Collier says,
"The folios have of a credent bulk,' and
Steevens suspected of' to be a blunder, as it appears in fact
to have been. Malone reads 'off a credent bulk,' which hardly
affords sense, whereas bears such a credent bulk' is, at least,
intelligible. Still, though the poet's meaning may be collected
from his language, it is obscure.”
<
Now it is very improbable that the words "of a" could have
been mistaken by the printer for such! The mistake evidently
lies in another word: "here's" would be easily mistaken for
"beares," and this was doubtless the poet's word.
For my authority here's of a credent bulk,
That no particular scandal once can touch.
We thus get a lucid and unquestionable sense, and avoid the
violent substitution and omission of the corrector, who cer-
tainly could not have had recourse to better authority than we
possess for such an improbable reading.
P. 53.
ACT V. Scene I.
O, gracious duke!
Harp not on that; nor do not banish reason
For inequality; but let your reason serve
To make the truth appear.
"Inequality," says Mr. C. "could not be right: and what
does the manuscript-corrector of the folio tell us is the real
word that ought to be put in its place ?—
O, gracious duke!
Harp not on that; nor do not banish reason
For incredulity;
i. e. do not refuse to give your reason fair play, on account of
the incredulity with which you listen to my complaint."
I boldly pronounce that the old text is right; and that in-
credulity could not be Isabella's word. It will be necessary to
revert to what precedes; Isabella, in her preceding speech, had
said,-
O prince, I conjure thee, as thou believ'st
There is another comfort than this world,
That thou neglect me not, with that opinion
That I am touch'd with madness: make not impossible
That which but seems unlike.
Now what is inequality but unlikeness, inconsistency; Isabella
14
SHAKESPEARE VINDICATED.
means to say," Do not harp on my seeming insanity, do not
banish reason for seeming inconsistency." The corrector has
neglected the most difficult part of this speech, in which a
slight typographical error, having been hitherto unperceived,
has made it a crux to the commentators-
but let your reason serve
To make the truth appear, where it seems hid
And hide the false seems true.
The last line should be read
And hide the false seems-true.
That is, Use your reason to make the truth appear, and hide
the true-seeming false. The hyphen is all that is wanting.
P. 54. And, on my trust, which the corrector would change
to truth, should be troth.
Ib.
The Duke's unjust,
Thus to retort your manifest appeal,
And put your trial in the villain's mouth,
Which here you come to accuse.
"The manuscript-corrector informs us that 'retort,' in the
second line, is a misprint for reject," says Mr. Collier.
There is no necessity for change. Johnson informs us that
to retort is to refer back, the Duke had not rejected the appeal,
but referred it to Angelo.
P. 56.
AT
COMEDY OF ERRORS.
ACT I. SCENE I.
T the outset of this play the corrector commences his
unnecessary interference with the text in the speech of
Ægeon.
Yet that the world may witness, that my end
Was wrought by nature, not by vile offence,
I'll utter what my sorrow gives me leave.
He substitutes fortune for nature. Mr. Collier might well say
"Possibly by nature we might understand the natural course
of events." Yes, to be sure!
COMEDY OF ERRORS.
15
P. 57. Mr. Collier tells us that "the line, near the end of
the Duke's last speech, as it appears in the folios,—
To seek thy help by beneficial help,
has produced several conjectures for its emendation, and among
them one by [himself] who suggested that the true reading
might be,-
To seek thy hope by beneficial help ;
and that such is precisely the change proposed by the corrector
of the folio, 1632."
Although a remarkable instance of coincidence, a more im-
probable and unhappy conjecture could hardly have been
made, for Ægeon had no hope; he immediately afterwbees to toul tore, why
says
Hopeless and helpless does Ægeon wend.
So that the corrector and Mr. Collier have both conjectured
ill. It is most probable that the word help was accidentally
repeated by the printer for fine; which the context shows must
have been in the Duke's mind, when he immediately adds
Beg thou or borrow to make up the sum.
We may therefore, I think, safely read,-
To seek thy fine by beneficial help.
ACT III. SCENE I.
P. 60. There are some unwarrantable interpolations made
in two of Dromio's speeches at the commencement of the
third act, by which neither the sense, humour, nor metre are
improved. The conceit of this corrector who thought he
could improve upon Shakespeare is intolerable!
SCENE II.
Ib. At the commencement of Scene 2 of Act iii. the cor-
rector has again used the unwarrantable liberty of changing
the words of the poet to suit his own fancy, and substitutes
"Shall unkind debate" for "shall, Antipholus," because, for-
sooth, in the next line ruinate has been misprinted for ruinous.
He seems to have adopted the principle that "we are at liberty
to substitute any one word for another" at our own discretion;
a license that Malone attributes to Steevens. Some of his
norees it?
16
SHAKESPEARE VINDICATED.
changes Mr. Collier cannot avoid confessing "seem scarcely
required."
ACT IV. SCENE II.
P. 62. As in this play there was little legitimate correction
to make, the corrector indulges largely in his vagaries, he
would substitute swift for sweet in Dromio's speech when he
comes for his master's purse, as too familiar a word! accord-
ing to Mr. Collier, but Dromio is familiar enough in all the
rest of his speeches.
The impertinent additions, even to a whole unnecessary line
in another doggrel of Dromio's, implies that the corrector
thought he was warranted in rewriting the text ad libitum.
We know what liberties are sometimes taken for supposed
dramatic effect, but they are not the less objectionable where
the printed text of the poet is concerned.
ACT V. SCENE I.
P. 63. "The line in the Merchant's speech, as it is given in
the folios,-
The place of depth and sorry execution,
is amended" by the corrector to
"The place of death and solemn execution."
The first correction is Rowe's; of which Mr. Collier has said,
in a note to his Edition of Shakspeare, "We doubt much
whether in this instance, where sense can be made of depth,
the word in the original copy, we ought not to have adhered
to the text." Mr. Hunter is of opinion that the old reading
is right, and that "in this Greek story, the Barathrum, the
deep pit into which offenders were cast" is meant by the
place of depth. And the second ought never to have been
made: sorry, i. e. sad is the poet's expressive word.
P. 64. They fell upon me, bound me, bore me thence,
And in a dark and dankish vault at home
There left me, &c.
"The corrector of the folio, 1632," says Mr. Collier, "alters
it to,' They left me,' which is clearly right." WHY CLEARLY
RIGHT?
COMEDY OF ERRORS.
17
P. 64. “Ægeon, astonished at not being recognized by
Antipholus of Ephesus, exclaims, in the reading of the folios,-
O, time's extremity!
Hast thou so crack'd and splitted my poor tongue? &c.
but we learn from the manuscript-corrector that the last line
ought to be, as seems natural,—
O, time's extremity!
Hast thou so crack'd my voice, split my poor tongue?"
Why? again,-more natural than the reading of the old
copy?
Are we to change the poet's language to suit our
own fancies?
Ib. "All copies agree in what appears to be a decided though
a small error in reading,—
And thereupon these errors are arose.
"These errors all arose' has been suggested as the poet's words;
and we find all in the margin of the corrected folio, 1632,
while are is erased in the text."
When Mr. Collier published his edition of Shakespeare, how
entirely at issue was his opinion. He then said "there is,
however, no warrant for alteration."
Ib. In the following lines Mr. Collier says, "The corrector
makes the slightest possible change in the second line, and at
once removes the difficulty."
Thirty-three years have I been gone in travail
Of you, my sons, and at this present hour
My heavy burdens are delivered.
In the first line but is in the first folio, been in the se-
cond. I read the passage many years since thus :—
Twenty-five years have I but gone in travail
Of you my sons, and till this present hour
My heavy burden ne'er delivered.
Thus conforming to the text of the first folio, with the excep-
tion of the necessary rectification of the number of years, and
the substitution of ne'er for are. A much more probable
misprint than at for till.
I may here venture to add that the two lines just following,
Go to a gossip's feast, and go with me
After so long grief such nativity,
C
18
SHAKESPEARE VINDICATED.
which are evidently corrupt, are passed over both by Mr.
Collier and the corrector in silence. Perhaps they should be
read thus :-
Go to a gossip's feast and joy with me
After so long grief such festivity.
These readings are suggested by Heath and Johnson, and have
my entire concurrence, notwithstanding the dissent of Stee-
vens and Malone. The word nativity, in the last line, had
evidently been caught by the eye of the compositor from the
preceding line.
I
MUCH ADO ABOUT NOTHING.
ACT III. SCENE I.
PASS over many of the proposed corrections in this play
because they have already been suggested and some of
them adopted. The coincidences are too numerous to admit
for a moment that they are fortuitous. Others are doubtful
improvements; I may possibly have to deal with them in an-
other place.
P. 71. What fire is in mine ears? Can this be true?
Stand I condemn'd for pride and scorn so much?
Contempt, farewell! and, maiden pride, adieu !
No glory lives behind the back of such.
Mr. Collier says, "Nobody has explained what is meant by
the words 'behind the back of such,' nor need we inquire into
it, since they are merely one of the perversions arising out of
the mishearing of the scribe of the copy of the play used by
the printer the real words of the fourth line appear to be,
No glory lives but in the lack of such."
We must conclude, therefore, that the corrector had access
to the original MS. of the poet, or that this is one of his own
conjectures! Mr. Collier would probably favour the first of
these conclusions? But as the text is perfectly intelligible as
we have it in the old authentic copies, it cannot but be deemed
a rash and uncalled-for substitution. "Behind the back of
MUCH ADO ABOUT NOTHING.
19
such as are condemned for pride, scorn, and contempt, their
reputation suffers, their glory dies." When we can make
perfectly good sense of the old text, such sweeping changes
come under the category of impertinent assumption. The
corrector thought he could improve upon Shakespeare!
P. 72.
ACT IV. SCENE I.
Chid I for that at frugal nature's frame.
"Frugal nature's frame," says Mr. C., "puzzled the commen-
tators, and they endeavour to reconcile us to the word frame
in various ways; but they never seem to have supposed, as
now appears to be the case, that frame had been misprinted for
frowne."
I should have much wondered if they had; frame stands
here for framing, contrivance, order, disposition of things, as
Steevens has well observed. "The frugality of nature that
so ordained it." Frown is a much less likely word to have been
used by the poet; and here, as elsewhere, the meddling of the
corrector is mischievous.
P. 73. And salt too little that may season give
To her soul-tainted flesh.
"Hero's flesh," says Mr. Collier, "was tainted to the soul
by the accusation just made against her"!
The original has "foul tainted flesh."
How her flesh could be tainted to the soul requires a stretch
of imagination beyond the comprehension of common sense!
I have no objection to the change of foul for soul, as it is a
probable error of the printer, but it must have a better ex-
positor than Mr. C. has here shown himself to be.
P. 74.
Whose spirits toil in frame of villanies.
"The corrector changes frame of to fraud and :—
Whose spirits toil in fraud and villanies,
which seems a much more easy and natural expression than
frame of villanies; but in this way the commentators have
sometimes vindicated one corruption by another."
Nothing can be clearer than the old text.
Frame is here
20
SHAKESPEARE VINDICATED.
again used for framing, contrivance, and the interference of
the corrector in both instances is impertinent and uncalled
for. Mr. C. is obliged himself to admit that "the fabrication
of villanies may be meant !
Ib.
""
But they shall find, awak’d in such a kind,
Both strength of limb and policy of mind.
The corrector would substitute,—
But they shall find awak'd in such a cause.
Mr. Collier's exposition is, " The cause in which his strength
and policy were to be awaked, was, of course, that of his
daughter, should it turn out that she had been traduced. The
taste of the corrector may here have come in aid of the change.”
I do not hesitate to pronounce it very bad taste, and such as
must tend to throw suspicion around all that he does. Kind
is nature, and this is Shakespeare's common use of the word.
The whole tenor of Leonato's speech shows that he means
to say, Time hath not so dried this blood of mine; nor age
impaired my faculties;
But they shall find awak'd in such a kind [i. e. nature].
Both strength of limb and policy of mind.
SCENE II.
P. 75. When Dogberry, to show his importance, says that
he is "a rich fellow enough, go to; and a fellow that hath
had losses," it has naturally puzzled some persons to see how
his losses could tend to establish that he was rich. Here in
truth we have another misprint: leases was often spelt of old
-leasses, and this is the origin of the blunder; for according
to the corrector of the folio, 1632, we ought to read, "a rich
fellow enough, go to; and a fellow that has had leases." To
have been the owner of leases might very well prove that
Dogberry was" a rich fellow enough."
If anything more were wanted to show how utterly incapa-
ble the corrector, whoever he may have been, was to enter into
the spirit of Shakespeare, this might suffice. To make poor
Dogberry speak consistently, would be to destroy the very
spirit of this humorous scene. But still to have had losses, he
LOVE'S LABOUR'S LOST.
21
must have had property to lose, and to bear those losses he
might consider, in his simplicity, sufficient evidence that he
was a rich fellow. Leases certainly never entered into the
mind of the sagacious constable. How they came into the
mind of the sagacious corrector I know not.
There are some other capricious and unnecessary attempts
to improve upon the old readings, but for the present I pass
them by, but on p. 79 Mr. Collier has the following remark.
ACT V. SCENE IV.
(
P. 79. "The old editions assign Peace! I will stop your
mouth' to Leonato; but most modern editors following the
example of Theobald, have transferred it to Benedick. So
does the corrector."
This was of course right; but Mr. Collier, in his edition of
Shakespeare, says, "It may be very well as a piece of stage-
effect to make Benedick kiss Beatrice at this juncture, but
there is no warrant for it in any old stage-direction;" and
the speech is restored to Leonato!
"6
LOVE'S LABOUR'S LOST.
ACT I. SCENE I.
P. 81. A man in all the world new fashion planted.
Planted," says Mr. C., " yields but a poor sense, and the
corrector reads,-
A man in all the world-new fashions flaunted;
that is, a man flaunted, or decked out, in all the world-new
fashions. Shakespeare elsewhere uses the substantive 'flaunts,'
but not the verb.”
Even could Mr. Collier succeed in finding this word, with
the meaning he attaches to it, which I am persuaded he never
will, it would be inapplicable. Armado's jargon is alluded to,
as what follows evidently shows. He was a man of fire-new
words, that hath a mint of phrases in his brain." We may be
assured, therefore, that planted was the poet's word, and that
the corrector here improves upon him in vain.
22
SHAKESPEARE VINDICATED.
Ib.
"
A high hope for a low hearing
“Theobald,” says Mr. C. "congratulated himself on the
change of heaven' to having in this passage. A high
"A
hope for a low heaven: God grant us patience.' He was
most likely wrong."
""
The corrector's substitution of hearing for heaven is wrong.
Theobald's correction having is much more to the purpose,
In 1842 Mr. C. had told us " he was probably right"! Mr.
Collier's attempt to support the corrector is unfortunate, for
in the passage he quotes,
he quotes," to hear or forbear hearing," that
word is a misprint for laughing, as the answer of Longaville
plainly shows.
SCENE II.
P. 83. The correction of Armado's speech, "Most pretty
and pathetical" to poetical, would spoil the humour of it, by
destroying his affected jargon.
ACT III. SCENE I.
P. 85. The same may be said of changing Moth's reply
"By my penny of observation" to "my pain of observation."
Which even Mr. Collier himself cannot defend.
P. 87. We may be assured that to change Biron's depre-
ciating description of his mistress from "a whitely wanton
with a velvet brow" to "a witty wanton," must be wrong,
for Biron's whole tirade is disparaging, and followed as it is
by " with a velvet brow," it can never have been his expres-
sion.
ACT IV. SCENE I.
Ib. "The Princess good-humouredly rebukes the Forester
for flattering her, and exclaims,—
O, heresy in fair, fit for these days!
A giving hand, though foul, shall have fair praise.
The corrector has it,—
O, heresy in faith, fit for these days!"
Thus destroying the antithesis and play upon the word which
pervades the whole scene! It is scarcely necessary to mention
that by fair beauty is meant.
LOVE'S LABOUR'S LOST.
23
Pp. 87-8. We are favoured with a line of the corrector's
composition in Costard's rhyming Soliloquy, which, of course,
Mr. Collier accepts as genuine and necessary. So do not I.
There is also some busy meddling with Sir Nathaniel's dog-
grel, but still more needless. No true admirer of Shakespeare
will be satisfied with such barefaced patch-work.
SCENE III.
P. 89. “Two transpositions, one of them of some moment,
are pointed out by the corrector: the first occurs in the line
where 'night of dew,' (strangely justified by Steevens,) is
altered to' dew of night.' The second is only thou dost for
'dost thou,' in the 15th line of the King's sonnet."
And these two transpositions are as strangely and per-
versely printed by Mr. Collier in his edition of Shakespeare!
P. 90. "When Jaquenetta and the Clown enter with Bi-
ron's letter, the King, according to all the copies of the play,
asks them,-
What present bast thou there?
when he had no reason whatever to think that they had
brought any present.' The mistake has been the printing
of 'present' for peasant. Costard was a clown or peusant.
The corrector points out the blunder,-
What, peasant, hast thou there?"
I know not what Mr. Collier's notion of the clowns in Shake-
speare's dramas may be, but Costard was the Court-fool, the
"minnow of the King's mirth." The King would certainly
not so address him; but, seeing the letter in his hand, may
be supposed to ask him,-
What presentment hast thou there?
Taking it for a memorial or petition of some kind. The syl-
lable ment was most probably omitted by accident at press.
ACT V. SCENE II.
P. 93. "The commentators have been puzzled by the fol-
lowing line in the folios :-
So pertaunt like would I o'ersway his state.
24
SHAKESPEARE VINDICATED.
It turns out that the disputed word. (obviously not under-
stood by any old editor or printer) is purely an error of the
press."
The corrector reads:-
So potently would I o'ersway his state,
"and it seems scarcely possible to doubt that it was the word
of the poet, and for this reason it is placed in the margin of the
corrected folio, 1632."
As I have never seen the corrector's book, I am obliged in
self-defence to think it possible that he had seen mine; for in
the edition of Shakespeare I gave in 1826 the line stands :-
So potent-like would I o'ersway his state.
And having no faith in coincidences, when they are so mar-
vellously repeated hundreds of times, I feel constrained to
draw this conclusion. Be it observed, however, that potent-
like is a nearer approach to the old reading than potently, and
I cannot but wish the corrector had kept closer to my reading.
“
P. 94. Boyet brings word of the intended attack upon
the Princess and her Ladies by the King and his Lords:—
Arm, wenches, arm! encounters mounted are.
But it is not encounters but C encounterers' that are
'mounted,' and so the old corrector notes.'
My own corrected folio has also this amendment, if it be
one. I however doubt it, and think encounters more likely
to be right.
"Six lines lower, the Princess, in all ordinary editions, is
made to ask :-
What are they
That charge their breath against us?
"To charge their breath' is nonsense, says Mr. Collier, and
the corrector alters it most naturally to,—
What are they
That charge the breach against us?
The Princess carrying on the joke of supposing that she and
her Lady are in a state of siege.”
Should any one wish to be convinced of the utter impossi-
bility of the corrector having had access to "better authority
LOVE'S LABOUR'S LOST.
25
than we possess;" nay, of his utter incapacity to comprehend
the poet, I would recommend this example of his skill to their
consideration. The encounters with which the Ladies are
threatened, are encounters of words, a wit combat. I must give
the whole passage:
Boyet.
Prepare, madam, prepare!—
Arm, wenches, arm! encounters mounted are
Against your peace: Love doth approach disguis'd
Armed in arguments; you'll be surpris'd:
Muster your wits; stand in your own defence;
Or hide your heads like cowards, and fly hence.
Prin. Saint Dennis to Saint Cupid! What are they
That charge their breath against us?
"}
!
To "charge their breath," says Mr. Collier," is nonsense
Yes. It is such acute nonsense that Barrow tells us is one
species of wit." To charge the breach would indeed in this
place be sheer nonsense, and anywhere, I believe, breaches are
not charged but stormed.
O that the Poet could witness this attempt to travesty his
language, and visit it upon the offenders! This is indeed a
specimen of that infeliciter audentia which must move the in-
dignation of all who admire Shakespeare, and are competent
to understand him.
P. 94. Mr. Collier continues, "We do not feel so confident
respecting the next emendation:-
That in this spleen ridiculous appears,
To check their folly, passion's solemn tears.
'Solemn tears' may possibly be right; but we do not think
it is, because the corrector erases the word, and substitutes
another in the margin, which certainly better answers the
purpose:-
To check their folly, passion's sudden tears."
Although this alteration may not, perhaps, be necessary; yet,
had I been Mr. Collier, I should have been much more confi-
dent about it than its predecessors. Another word, "spleen,"
in this passage, which has escaped the corrector, seems to me
a probable misprint. I think we should read,-
That in this scene ridiculous appears,
To check their folly, passion's sudden tears.
26
SHAKESPEARE VINDICATED.
P. 95. O, poverty in wit! kingly poor flout!
“Of which,” says Mr. Collier, "readers have been left to make
what sense they could. The old corrector clearly saw no sense
in it, and has furnished us with other words so well qualified
for the place that we cannot hesitate to approve them. The
enemy had been utterly routed and destroyed, and the Prin-
cess, in the excess of her delight, breaks out,—
O poverty in wit! kill'd by pure flout."
Now the succeeding line, had it been attended to by the cor-
rector, would have shown him that kill'd could not be the
misprinted word, for the Princess continues,-
Will they not, think you, hang themselves to-night?
I have no doubt we should read,—
O poverty in wit! stung by poor flout.
Stung by, as written, might easily be mistaken for kingly.
P. 96. The extreme parts of time extremely forms
All causes to the purpose of his speed.
Thus the old copies. Mr. Collier says this is "a passage
hitherto passed over, but which evidently requires the emen-
dation which it has received from the corrector, who thus sets
it right, and renders the sense distinct: the Princess is on the
point of hastily quitting Navarre, on the news of the death
of her father, and the King observes,-
·
The extreme parting time expressly forms
All causes to the purpose of his speed."
Mr. Collier has forgotten Mr. Field's observations on this
passage, in which he approves a silent deviation from the first
4to. and folio, made by Mr. Collier, in reading form for forms;
but which last is the true reading. The corrector has not
succeeded, in substituting parting for parts of, as it destroys
the personification; and to substitute expressly for extremely
destroys the meaning. The most probable reading is,—
The extreme haste of time extremely forms
All causes to the purpose of his speed;
And often, at his very loose, decides
That which long process could not arbitrate.
Parts was an easy misprint for haste. The hasty flight of time
in the end "forms all causes to the purpose of his speed," &c.
LOVE'S LABOUR'S LOST.
27
P. 96. "Another error occurs in the answer of the Princess
to the request of the King, that she would not forget his love-
suit; the reading has been,-
I understand you not: my griefs are double.
She did not understand him, because her sorrows had dead-
ened her faculties, and the line as we find from the manuscript
correction in the folio, 1632, ought to be,—
I understand you not: my griefs are dull.”
Specious but incorrect; the error lies in the small word are,
which is a misprint for see. Read,-
I understand you not: my griefs see double.
The Princess's griefs were too recent to have dulled her wits,
but her tears might make her see double. She uses the ex-
pression metaphorically, as an evasive answer.
Ib. "Biron then takes up the subject, and when, among
other things, he says,—
As love is full of unbefitting strains,
As wanton as a child,
we ought to read strangeness for "strains," which is quite
consistent with what he adds just afterwards, when he tells us
that love is—
Full of strange shapes, of habits, and of forms,
instead of 'straying shapes,' as it is misprinted in the folios.
Both these words are altered by the old corrector.”
Here the "old corrector" has manifested again his ignorance
of the language of Shakespeare, and his unfitness to assume
the office of correcting it. Strains here signifies wanton,
light, unbecoming behaviour.-"Skipping and vain, full of
strange shapes, of habits, and of forms," deviations from pro-
priety of conduct; such as Mrs. Ford, in the Merry Wives of
Windsor, alludes to, when she says of Falstaff, "unless he
knew some strain in me, he would never have boarded me in
this manner." See the note on Winter's Tale, Act iii. Sc. 2.
P. 97. The corrector would here again change
"dear
groans” to “dire groans;" but dear was unquestionably the
28
SHAKESPEARE VINDICATED.
Poet's word, for this is not a solitary instance of its use.
"Johnson and Malone," says Tooke, "who trusted to their
Latin to explain Shakespeare's English, for dear and dearest
would have us read dire and direst; not knowing that Deɲe
and Deɲiend meant hurt and hurting mischief, and mischievous ;
and that their Latin, dirus, is from our Anglo-Saxon Dene,
which they would expunge.'
""
That the corrector should fall into the error we are not sur-
prised, but that Mr. Collier should advocate the mischievous
interference with the Poet's language is not a little surprising.
Af
A MIDSUMMER NIGHT'S DREAM.
T the opening of this play we have some of those mani-
fold "coincidences" with the corrected text of the
variorum editions, which excite no little surprise and some
misgiving, but I pass them over, as needing no other notice.
ACT I. SCENE I.
P. 100. The corrector would substitute for Bottom's com-
mon colloquial phrase, " and so grow to a point," to " and so
go on to appoint." What but the pruritus emendandi could
induce him to interfere with this passage, which is much
better than his substitution, we are at a loss to imagine.
Ib. The same observation will apply to the proposed change
of "I will move storms" to "I will move stones." Bottom
had said, "let the audience look to their eyes,” and his mean-
ing, in his bombastic style, was, "I will move storms of pas-
sion in them, let them look to their eyes."
ACT II. SCENE I.
Ib. The next is a most mischievous piece of meddling with
a fine passage full of fancy, as it stands in the old authentic
text:-
The cowslips tall her pensioners be;
In their gold coats spots you see:
Those be rubies, fairy favours, &c.
MIDSUMMER NIGHT'S DREAM.
29
The corrector would have it,
The cowslips all her pensioners be;
In their gold cups spots you see.
The passage has reference to the band of gentlemen pen-
sioners, in which Queen Elizabeth took much pride. They
were some of the handsomest and tallest young men of the
best families and fortune, and their dress of remarkable splen-
dour; their coats might well be said to be of gold. Mrs.
Quickly's notice of them, as among the suitors of Mrs. Ford,
will be remembered: "And yet there has been earls, nay,
what is more, pensioners." Mr. Collier's objection, that "cow-
slips are never tall," is a strange one. Drayton, in his Nym-
phidia, thought otherwise, and surely a long stalked cowslip
would be well designated by a fairy as tall. Thus Drayton :
For the queen a fitting tower,
Quoth he, is that fair cowslip flower,-
The tallest there that groweth.
Much of a piece with this objection is the notion that "Ru-
bies would be singular decorations for a coat!!" Mr. Col-
lier seems to have no notion of the splendid jewelled dresses
of our ancestors. Every one who has imagination enough
to follow Shakespeare in his exquisite fanciful imagery, would
pronounce this attempt at improving upon the Poet, as imper-
tinent and unwarrantable.
P. 102. Love takes the meaning in love's conference.
The corrector changes conference to confidence, to the utter de-
struction of the meaning.
The passage evidently means, "Let no suspicion of ill enter
thy mind. In the conversation of those who are assured of
each other's kindness, not suspicion, but love, takes the meaning."
P. 104.
ACT III. SCENE II.
You spend your passion on a mispris'd mood:
I am not guilty of Lysander's blood;
which the corrector would change to—
You spend your passion in a mispris'd flood.
This certainly does not add to the force or intelligibility of
30
SHAKESPEARE VINDICATED.
the passage.
ner.
"On a mispris'd mood," is, in a mistaken man-
On was frequently used where we should now use in.
P. 104. "The conjecture hazarded in note 6," (Mr. C.'s edit.
of Shakesp. p. 431,)" that, ' princess of pure white,' ought to
be read 'impress of pure white,' is confirmed by the manu-
script corrector of the folio, 1632, and the quotation ought in
future to stand,-
O, let me kiss
This impress of pure white.
In fact, the use of the word impress, in the beginning of the
line, naturally led to the word seal, at the end of it."
There is no valid reason for the conjecture, and conse-
quently not the slightest ground for the substitution. Mr.
Collier's argument is easily answered by a parallel passage in
Antony and Cleopatra:-
My playfellow, your hand: this kingly seal
And plighter of high hearts.
Hanmer's proposal to read "pureness of pure white," might pro-
bably suggest to some follower that change was necessary,
and hence the needless interference with the passage.
P. 106.
ACT IV. SCENE I.
Fairies, be gone, and be all ways away.
The corrector here again unnecessarily interferes, and would
read, and be a while away. Mr. Collier's observation is, that
"Titania does not wish her attendants to be permanently, but
only temporarily, absent." But Titania only means to tell
the attendant fairies to disperse themselves, and watch that
no danger may approach. This is the sensible view Theobald
takes of the passage; which, but for such meddling, would
disturb no reader of the Poet for a moment.
ACT V. SCENE I.
P. 108. That is, hot ice and wonderous strange snow.
The corrector would substitute wond'rous seething snow.
There is not the slightest necessity for the alteration. The
MIDSUMMER NIGHT'S DREAM.
31
line is metrical as it is, for wonderous is pronounced as a tri-
syllable, and we are not always to look for an antithesis. The
speech is printed as prose in the folio.
P. 109. Now is the mural down between the neighbours.
This is Theobald's rational correction for the misprint moral
in the old copies. The corrector substitutes wall, a very un-
likely word to have been misprinted moral. The observation
of Mr. Collier, that " of mural, as a substantive, no instance
has been adduced," is of no weight, for the same objection
might be made to several other words peculiar to Shakespeare.
We have mure for wall in the Second Part of King Henry IV.
Act iv. Sc. 4. That it was in use, however, can hardly be
doubted, for Evelyn, in his Kalendarium Hortense, speaks of
"mural fruit-trees." There may have been an equivoque in-
tended. The Poet delights in such equivocal inuendoes.
1
Now is the moral down between the neighbours.
I find, however, that Theobald proposed to read :—
Now is the mure all down between the neighbours.
Ib. Mr. Barron Field's reading of a lion's fell, for "a lion
fell," is a good and legitimate correction, which did not want
the authority of the corrector to give it currency. But this
is one of the "coincidences."
P. 111. The punctuation in the song had long been cor-
rected, and the reading, “Ever shall it safely rest,” was anti-
cipated by Pope, who reads,-
E'er shall it in safety rest,
which fully answers the purpose.
We have a similar exhortation to the fairies in The Merry
Wives of Windsor :-
About, about:
Search Windsor Castle, Elves, within and out;
Strew good luck, Ouphes, on every sacred room,
That it may stand to the perpetual doom,
In state as wholesome, as in state 'tis fit,
Worthy the owner, and the owner it.
32
SHAKESPEARE VINDICATED.
P. 113.
THE MERCHANT OF VENICE.
PORTIA
ACT I. SCENE II.
ORTIA observes of the Neapolitan Prince and his horse,
that "he makes it a great appropriation to his own good
parts that he can shoe him himself." Appropriation to" is
altered by the corrector to " approbation of."
(6
This will hardly obtain the approbation of those who would
preserve the Poet's language. Appropriation to is equivalent
to addition to his other accomplishments. I must again repeat
that nothing can be concluded from this being the only in-
stance of Shakespeare's use of the word.
ACT II. SCENE II.
P. 115. To make Launcelot Gobbo speak consistently, by
changing "couragious fiend" into "contagious fiend," as the
correctors would do, would be to spoil the humour of it.
We might as well change, in a future speech, the order of the
words in, "you may tell every finger with my ribs." The
corrector has no conception of this kind of humour.
SCENE IX.
P. 116. “There is a material emendation in the speech of the
Prince of Arragon, when commenting on the caskets. The
reading has been,—
What many men desire: that many may be meant
By the fool multitude, that choose by show,
Not learning more than the fond eye doth teach ;
Which pries not to th' interior, but, like the martlet,
Builds in the weather.
"The corrector informs us that the words of the poet in the
fourth line were,-
Which prize not th' interior, but, like the martlet,
Builds in the weather."
If the corrector does so inform us, he ought to have given us
better reasons for his substitution than are afforded by his
expositor. Not learning more than the fond eye doth teach
which pries not to the interior," as applied to the fool multi-
THE MERCHANT OF VENICE.
33
tude" that choose by show, and like the martlet builds in the
weather," is quite satisfactory without over-busy innovation
on the old authentic text.
ACT III. SCENE II.
P. 117. I speak too long; but 'tis to peize the time,
To eke it, and to draw it out at length;
To stay you from election.
"To peize is to weigh, to poise; but the sense wanted is to
delay, and that sense we have in the corrector's manuscript,
who writes pause for peize.”
To pause the time is surely an expression unwarranted, and
not more expressive than to peize it. The true reading probably
is," but 'tis to piece the time, to eke it, and to draw it out at
length," and thus I find it corrected in my copy of the second
folio.
P. 118.
Thus ornament is but the guiled shore
To a most dangerous sea, the beauteous scarf
Veiling an Indian beauty; in a word,
The seeming truth which cunning times put on
To entrap the wisest.
The second folio has guilded shore; this is the way in
which gilded is generally spelt in the folios. The corrector
gives the passage thus :—
"Thus ornament is but the guiling shore
To a most dangerous sea, the beauteous scarf
Veiling an Indian: beauty, in a word,
The seeming truth which cunning times put on
To entrap the wisest."
With regard to the first substitution guiling for guiled, as the
poet frequently interchanges the terminations ed and ing, it is
quite unnecessary. The other variation, in the pointing, is no
novelty, it occurs in an edition of Shakespeare published by
Scott and Webster in 1833, and has been satisfactorily
shown to be erroneous and untenable, by a correspondent in
Notes and Queries, vol. v. p. 483. But Mr. Collier says,
"here everything is clear and consistent." I think he will
find few converts to his opinion. I have advocated the fol-
D
34
SHAKESPEARE VINDICATED.
lowing reading, but must confess that I should now be dis-
posed to print the passage as it stands in the first folio, with
the exception of retaining my correction of stale for pale,
which is unquestionably right.
This 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 dost promise aught,
Thy paleness moves me more than eloquence,
And here choose I; joy be the consequence.
Those who are desirous of seeing the arguments pro and con
upon the disputed readings of this passage, I must refer to the
5th and 6th volume of Notes and Queries.
**
P. 118. “Bassanio, descanting on the portrait of Portia,
thus expresses his admiration of the eyes:
How could he see to do them? having made one,
Methinks, it should have power to steal both his,
And leave itself unfurnish'd.
The corrector has it, ' And leave itself unfinish'd,' which reads
extremely well, if we suppose that the word applies to the
portrait, and not to the eye alone. Unfurnish'd,' if it refer
to the fellow eye, reads awkwardly, and Shakespeare would
scarcely have left the expression of what he intended so im-
perfect."
6
(
It is a trite saying that "second thoughts are best." Mr.
Collier, in a note on the passage in his edition of Shakes-
peare, says: "Steevens doubted if Shakespeare's word were
not 'unfinish'd;' but unfurnish'd' would seem to refer to the
other eye in the counterfeit,' or portrait, the one the painter
had completed not being furnished with a fellow." I cannot
think that Mr. Collier's second thoughts here are his best,
and regret that in his zeal for his new acquaintance, the cor-
rector, he should abandon his common sense view of the
passage, and become the advocate of a vicious and uncalled
THE MERCHANT OF VENICE.
35
for corruption of the text, which had long since been proposed
and rejected.
ACT IV. SCENE I.
P. 119. "We here meet," says Mr. C.," with an emendation
which must, in all probability, have been derived from some
good authority; certainly better than any resorted to for all the
printed editions, judging from the result. The commentators
have been at fault respecting an epithet applied by Shylock to
a bagpipe:-
As there is no firm reason to be render'd
Why he cannot abide a gaping pig,
Why he, a harmless necessary cat,
Why he, a woollen bagpipe."
Mr. C. proceeds to state, that Hawkins and Steevens pro-
posed the plausible correction swollen. "As to the meaning
they were right, though wrong as to the word. Shakespeare's
word unquestionably was bollen,' from the Anglo-Saxon,
which means swollen. He avails himself of it in his Lucrece.
(
Here one, being throng'd, bears back, all boll'n and red.
It was, therefore, a word with which he was well acquainted,
and there can be no doubt that in future the passage ought to
be so printed.”
Now what do we gain by this brilliant discovery, “ derived
from some good authority?" That Shakespeare was well
acquainted with the word bollen, and better acquainted with
the word swollen, that they both signify the same thing; but
that one is more obsolete than the other, and was used by the
poet in his youthful poem, but that in his dramas he uni-
formly uses swollen, and therefore bollen is mightily preferable!
Parturiunt montes, nascitur ridiculus mus.
Let us hear Mr. Collier's argument against either of these
readings, "WOOLLEN bagpipe.-This is the reading of every
ancient copy; and as we know at this day the bag is usually
covered with woollen, the epithet is perfectly appropriate,
without adopting the alteration of Steevens to swollen"!
P. 120. Or even as well use question with the wolf,
The ewe bleat for the lamb: when you behold.
Such is the reading of the folio, 1632. The first folio omits
36
SHAKESPEARE VINDICATED.
the words "when you behold." The corrector transposes
these words to the beginning of the line. But the reading of
the 4to. by Roberts, and some copies of the 4to. by Heyes,
adopted in the variorum edition of Shakespeare, is far pre-
ferable, and of undisputed authority:
You may as well use question with the wolf,
Why he hath made the ewe bleat for the lamb.
P. 121. "The change of a word in the subsequent passage,
seems, if not required, probable :-
If thou tak'st more
Or less than a just pound,-be it so much
As makes it light or heavy in the balance.
The usual reading has been in the substance,' but the addi-
tion by the heroine,-
Nay, if the scale do turn
But in the estimation of a hair,
renders it likely that balance was the right text.”
Why? Because the corrector thought he could improve
Shakespeare's language! The corrector's substitution would
require us to alter Or at the commencement of the next line
to By. And his interference with a perfectly intelligible pas-
sage is as impertinent as it is uncalled for.
ACT V. SCENE I.
P. 122. We have here another instance of the busy unwar-
rantable meddling of the corrector, who had substituted beasts
for trees, in the line,-
Therefore the poet
Did feign that Orpheus drew trees, stones, floods, &c.
But he subsequently found that he was wrong, and replaced
Can we for a moment imagine that he had access to
"better authority than we possess?"
trees.
P. 123. The corrector changes contain for retain in the
line :-
Or your own honour to contain the ring.
THE MERCHANT OF VENICE.
37
But contain and retain are words used with the same meaning
in the poet's time. Thus Bacon, in his Essays, 4to. 1627,
p. 327: "To containe anger from mischiefe, though it take
hold of a man, there be two things."
Interference here, therefore, to alter the poet's language was
entirely unnecessary.
There are two or three other corrections of a like character,
which I pass over, not to tire the patience of the reader.
P. 125.
THE
AS YOU LIKE IT.
ACT I. SCENE I.
HE first correction here noticed was suggested nearly a
century ago, by Sir W. Blackstone, and was long since
adopted by me in my edition of Shakespeare in 1826. "As
I remember Adam it was upon this fashion :-He bequeathed
me by will but a poor thousand crowns."
This is another of the numerous coincidences.
In the two next instances words were added or omitted
without the slightest necessity, merely to satisfy the capricious
conceit of the corrector, who thought he could amend the
language of the poet.
SCENE II.
P. 126. There is another capricious amendment of the poet's
language, substituting spot for sport, for which there is not the
slightest ground. The gracious mystification of Le Beau by
Celia is obvious enough, without interference with the text.
The substitution of shorter for taller, is a less probable amend-
ment than Malone's smaller, which much more nearly resem-
bles the old word.
SCENE III.
P. 127. "We are rejoiced to find Coleridge's delicate con-
jecture fortified, or rather entirely justified, by the folio, 1632,
as amended in manuscript: Celia asks,—
But is all this for your father?
38
SHAKESPEARE VINDICATED.
and Rosalind replies, as her answer has always been printed,-
No, some of it is for my child's father,
which turns out to be an unnecessary piece of coarseness.
The passage, as it stands with the change in manuscript, is
merely this;-
No, some of it is for my father's child."
Can it be possible that Mr. Collier did not know that this
judicious transposition was made by Rowe? or that Mr.
Knight, among other editors, had the good sense to adopt it;
while he himself adhered to the old form of the line! This is
another of the corrector's coincidences.
Pp. 127, 128. Here are several other trifling changes of the
text proposed, but not one of them can be deemed such im-
provements as to warrant interference with the old authentic
text, which here stands in no need of any of these so-called
corrections.
P. 128.
ACT II. SCENE I.
Here feel we not the penalty of Adam,
The seasons' difference; as, the icy fang
And churlish chiding of the winter's wind, &c.
The sentence is improved by a very small restoration by the
corrector, who reads,-
"The seasons' difference, or the icy fang, &c."
This "restoration" is far from being an "improvement;" as
stands here for such as. The churlish chiding of the winter's
wind was one of the differences of the seasons. But was sub-
stituted for not by Theobald. The inclemency of nature and
the seasons' difference are manifestly exponents of the penalty
of Adam-the former unclothed and happy denizen of Eden.
These physical inconveniences the Duke admits that he is ex-
posed to in his forest home,—but they are merely physical,
and their very harshness favourably contrasts with the smooth
flatterers and disingenuous counsellors,—the moral pests of a
AS YOU LIKE IT.
39
court. The passage should be read and pointed thus:-
P. 129.
Here feel we but the penalty of Adam,
The seasons' difference; as the icy fang,
And churlish chiding of the winter's wind;
Which when it bites and blows upon my body,
Even till I shrink with cold, I smile and say,-
This is no flattery: these are counsellors
That feelingly persuade me what I am.
SCENE III.
Of a diverted blood, and bloody brother.
The corrector would have it,-
"Of a diverted, proud, and bloody brother."
The old reading is much more intelligible than the proposed
substitution. “Of a diverted blood," blood turned out of the
course of nature. The affections of consanguinity alienated.
That the antithesis is Shakespeare's there can be no doubt,
when we remember that he often uses it. Thus, in Macbeth,
"The near in blood, the nearer bloody;" and in K. Richard
III. “Nearer in bloody thoughts, and not in blood."
The next instance of changing, service for favour, injures
the sense, and it is quite uncalled for.
SCENE IV.
P. 130. Mr. Collier himself, in a supplemental note, sees
that his corrector was egregiously mistaken in substituting
spake for sate in the line in the speech of Silvius,
Or if thou hast not spuke, as I do now!!
for, in a future scene, Act iii. Sc. 4, Corin says, that Silvius
was sitting by him on the turf. Could this be one of the re-
storations "derived from authority unknown to us?"
I shall say nothing of the gratuitous addition of a line in
the Clown's answer to Rosalind. We must have better au-
thority for such licence than is yet before us, or indeed than
we are likely to get; before it can be for a moment tolerated
by any true lover of the poet.
40
SHAKESPEARE VINDICATED.
SCENE VII.
P. 131. It is a matter of indifference whether we supply
the words Not to, as supplied by Theobald, or take the But to
of the corrector. Mr. Whiter explains the old text satisfac-
torily, and neither of these additions are absolutely necessary.
Ib. "Lower down, in the same page" (p. 41, Collier's edit.),
occurs another line, which has caused dispute. The printed
words in the folio, 1623, are these :-
Till that the weary very means do ebb.
This is indisputably corrupt; and Pope, and nearly all editors
after him, altered it as follows:-
Till that the very very means do ebb.
This repetition is poor and unlike Shakespeare, and the cor-
rector gives us, we may believe, the poet's words,-
Till that the very means of wear do ebb.”
Mr. Collier had, in his edition of Shakespeare, suggested a
reading very similar to this. So that here is another singular
instance of coincidence. Mr. Collier says, "The compositor
may have misread wearie for 'wearing,' and transposed very;
and if we consider Jacques to be railing against pride and ex-
cess of apparel, the meaning may be that the very wearing
means, or means of wearing fine clothes do ebb.””
My authority whispers me that the poet certainly did not
write either "the very means of wear" or "the very wearing
means." But, as is obvious from what is printed in the folios,
the old compositor's eye having caught the termination ie in-
stead of er's from the succeeding word verie, he printed,—
instead of,-
Till that the wearie verie meanes do ebb,
Till that the wearer's verie meanes do ebb,
which the poet had written.
ACT III. SCENE III.
P. 133. "A misprint is met with in the middle of Touch-
AS YOU LIKE IT.
41
stone's speech upon horns, which, we think, has hitherto not
been suspected, but the correction of which makes an obscure
passage quite clear. It is given in the four folios in these
terms:-
“Many a man has good horns and knows no end of them. Well,
that is the dowry of his wife: 'tis none of his own getting; horns, even
so poor men alone: No, no, the noblest deer hath them as huge as the
rascal."
Malone and others printed, "Horns? even so:-Poor men
alone?""
The corrector would have us read, "Are horns given to poor
men alone?" A very large licence to take with the old text,
which may be set right by a much slighter correction of two
words only. It appears to me that the printer has mistaken
neuer for for euen fo. We should therefore read, in the Clown's
soliloquy: "Horns! never for poor men alone? No, no, the
noblest deer hath them as huge as the rascal."
The probability of this typographical error, and the effective
sense its correction affords, are sufficient to render it, if not
doubtless, at least highly probable.
P. 134.
SCENE IV.
Will you sterner be
Than he that dies and lives by bloody drops?
"Silvius is asking Phebe whether she will be more cruel
than the common executioner. If we may read kills for
dies,' the difficulty upon which the commentators' have
dwelt is at an end. Can dines have been the true word?”
<
Surely Mr. Collier cannot be serious in his last proposition!
but I have no wonder he should be dissatisfied with the cor-
rector's kills. Nothing more is necessary than the transposi-
tion of the words dies and lives. To live and die by a thing.
is merely a phrase for, to be constant to it, to persevere in it to
the end. And Silvius means to say to Phebe,—
"Will you be sterner than the executioner, whose constant course
of life familiarizes him with blood."
"Whose heart the accustom'd sight of death makes hard.”
42
SHAKESPEARE VINDICATED.
Ib.
Lean but on a rush,
The cicatrice and capable impressure
Thy palm some moment keeps.
Here I must necessarily approve the corrector's change of
capable to palpable, having myself made that palpable substi-
tution in my edition of Shakespeare in 1826. Mr. Collier has
mentioned elsewhere the happy coincidence. But capable has
still its advocates, and may yet prove to be the true reading.
SCENE V.
I will here mention, that in Rosalind's invective against
Phebe's heartless conduct to her lover, the passage—
Who might be your mother?
That you insult, exult and all at once
Over the wretched—
we should evidently read, as Warburton suggested, "rail at
once."
P. 135. In Rosalind's speech: "Marry, that should you, if
I were your mistress, or I should think my honesty ranker
than my wit," the corrector would read, "or I should thank
my honesty rather than my wit." This would be very far
from an improvement on the poet's language, Rosalind means
to say, that if she did not put him out she should think her
simple honesty greater than her wit. Shakespeare's use of the
word in Hamlet, Act iv. Sc. 4, is in point:-
Nor will it yield to Norway or the Pole
A ranker rate.
That is, a greater rate.
Yet Mr. Collier says, "This is a singular restoration of
Shakespeare's text, which could scarcely have arisen from
any ingenious guess at the author's meaning!" Restoration
indeed!
Ib. The correction of chroniclers to coroners is legitimate, as
appears by the technical word found, but this had been long
since set right by Hanmer. It is therefore one more of the
numerous coincidences.
Ib. "Sir Thomas Hanmer made a tolerable guess, when he
AS YOU LIKE IT.
43
altered occasion, in the following sentence, to accusation,—‘O,
that woman that cannot make her fault her husband's occa-
sion, let her never nurse her child herself, for she will breed it
like a fool.' It is accusing in the corrected folio, 1632; no doubt,
Shakespeare's word." Is this another tolerable guess, or a
happy coincidence? But accusation is the more likely word to
have been mistaken for occasion.
ACT V. SCENE II.
There are two or three more coincident corrections in this
scene, but as they have been long since admitted into the text,
the mention of them would be superfluous, but for the frequent
occurrence of such wonderful sympathy between the corrector
and those who are supposed to have come after him.
SCENE IV.
P. 138. "A misprinted line in Orlando's first speech has
produced much doubt, and many proposals for emendation.
It stands as follows in all the old copies :-
As those that fear they hope, and know they fear.
It seems strange that nobody should yet have suggested the
right change; for the mere substitution of to for they, in the
first instance, gives a very intelligible and consistent meaning.
The Duke asks if Orlando believes Rosalind can do what she
has promised, and Orlando replies:
I sometimes do believe, and sometimes do not,
As those that fear to hope, and know they fear.
He was afraid to hope that she could be as good as her word,
and knew that he was afraid.”
This is precisely the exposition Mr. Collier
Collier gave
of the pas-
sage as it stands in the old text, in his edition of Shakespeare,
so that in his opinion change was not necessary to elucidate
it. But the opinions have been very discordant. I know of
at least twelve various readings attempting to amend the pas-
sage. The following explanation of the old text is by a friend:
"As those who are alarmed at their own tendency to be san-
guine—(fear that they are harbouring secret hopes which will
44
SHAKESPEARE VINDICATED.
lead to disappointment) and are quite aware that they fear.
Hope and Fear alternating, they are not quite certain whether
they hope, but fear they do. They fear, because to hope is
imprudent :—they are quite certain that they fear.
Ib. "In the next line but one Rosalind observes,-
Patience once more, whiles our compact is urg'd.
"Urg'd' seems a word not well adapted to the place, and
the corrector informs us that it is another error of the press,
and that we ought to read,-
Patience once more, whiles our compact is heard;
and then she proceeds, orderly and audibly, to recapitulate to
the party the several articles of the compact.
"To recapitulate" certainly, but in recapitulating to urge
them home to each party to the compact. Rosalind could
hardly say,
"while our compact is heard." The propriety of
the word in the old authentic text is so undoubted, that it
seems wonderful any busy meddling emendator should think
he could improve it.
There are some minor alterations which I pass over,
pass over, because
some of them are superfluous, and others have already been
corrected as evident errors; and some verses made to rhyme,
obviously with a view to stage effect, according to the fancy
of the old players, who liked to make their exit with a couplet,
but these would require better authority than that of the cor-
rector to be considered for a moment improvements of the text.
P. 141.
THE TAMING OF THE SHREW.
N the Induction there are some words interpolated which
are entirely superfluous.
I are
IN
INDUCTION. SCENE II.
P. 142. Heaven cease this idle humour in your honour.
The corrector strikes out idle and inserts evil, for what
TAMING OF THE SHREW.
45
reason we are at a loss to imagine, except the busy desire of
improving upon the language of the poet, and a conceit that
the corrector could write more correctly than Shakespeare!
"Sheer ale" is altered to " Warwickshire ale,” an unwar-
rantable licesne, and a very improbable name to have been
given to Sly's liquor. Sheer ale was most likely ale which the
Tinker had drunk at his own charge on Sheer Tuesday, a day
of great comfort to the poor from the doles or distribution of
clothes, meat and drink, made to them by the rich on that
day. But, should this conjecture be unfounded, we may
perhaps satisfy ourselves that Sheer ale was the name of a
pure and potent liquor, as we have stark beer for stout and
strong beer in Beaumont and Fletcher.
Sly is made to rhyme in the concluding speech by transpo-
sition and changing a word; while all that he says elsewhere
is prose !
ACT I. SCENE I.
P. 144. "Recollecting how many learned hands our great
dramatist's works have passed through, it is wonderful that
such a blunder as that we are enabled now to point out, should
not have been detected and mentioned in print at least a
century ago. Our quotation is the same in all impressions,
ancient and modern:
Let's be no stoics nor no stocks, I pray;
Or so devote to Aristotle's checks,
As Ovid be an outcast quite abjur'd.
What are 'Aristotle's checks?' Undoubtedly a misprint for
Aristotle's Ethics, and hence the absurd blunder. The line
stands authoritatively corrected in the margin of the folio,
1632."
Will it be believed possible that Mr. Collier, who is so well
acquainted with the variorum Shakespeare, should not have
known that this correction was proposed nearly a century since
by Sir W. Blackstone, whose note has been since that time
properly preserved in subsequent editions; thus :-" Tranio is
descanting on academical learning, and mentions by name six
of the seven liberal sciences. I suspect this to be a misprint,
made by some copyist or compositor, for ethics. The sense
confirms it."
46
SHAKESPEARE VINDICATED.
There is also a note by Steevens, with a quotation from
Ben Jonson, confirming the reading! I will merely add,
that in the edition I gave of Shakespeare, in 1826, I inserted
this undoubted reading in the text, and mentioned Sir W.
Blackstone's suggestion of it.
In this and the next scene there are unnecessary and unwar-
ranted changes which, for brevity's sake, I pass over.
In one
case Malone had done all that was necessary.
ACT II. SCENE I.
P. 146. "In the line of Bianca's speech,-
That I disdain; but for these other goods.
Theobald reads gauds for 'goods,' but the corrector tells us
that gards or guards, in the sense of ornaments, was our great
poet's true word. It may be so."
""
Theobald's correction is quite satisfactory, and much more
likely to have been "our great poet's true word " than gards.
Ib. The substitution of " Her woman's qualities” for “Her
wondrous qualities" is no improvement, and therefore mere
wanton interference with the text.
Ib. "The point of Katherine's retort to Petruchio has been
lost by an error either of the copyist or of the printer. Petru-
chio tells her,-
Women are made to bear, and so are you;
to which she replies, as the line has been given since the pub-
lication of the second folio,-
No such jade, sir, as you, if me you mean;
thus calling Petruchio a jade; but the point of her reply is,
that although a woman and made to bear, she was not such a
jade as to bear Petruchio:
No such jade to bear you, if me you mean.”
I hope that Mr. Collier does not consider this "emenda-
tion" as "obtained from some better manuscript than that in
the hands of the old printer," for it is quite wrong. The printer
TAMING OF THE SHREW.
47
found in the MS. loade and misread it Iade. The passage
undoubtedly should stand thus:-
Pet. Women are made to bear, and so are you.
Kath. No such load as you, sir, if me you mean.
The first folio has not the word sir, which was inserted in
the second on account of the metre, but is wrongly placed there.
P. 147. There is a clumsy attempt at making the closing
couplet of this scene rhyme. The old copy has :-
fathers commonly
Do get their children; but in this case of wooing
A child shall get a sire, if I fail not of my cunning.
"The corrector," according to Mr. Collier, “makes it appear
that, for the purpose of the rhyme, wooing ought to be winning.
but in this case of winning
A child shall get
A pretty rhyme truly!
rity when he made the
a sire, if I fail not of my cunning."
Steevens had access to better autho-
couplet run thus:—
but in this case of wooing
A child shall get a sire; if I fail not of my doing.
ACT III. SCENE I.
Ib. "Lucentio and Hortensio, disguised as a language-
master and a musician, quarrel as to precedence in the instruc-
tion of Bianca. All editions represent Hortensio's speech as
beginning thus defectively.
But, wrangling pedant, this is
The patroness of heavenly harmony, &c.
6
The corrector gives But' as a misprint for the interjection
Tut! and furnishes two missing words in the following
manner :-
Tut! wrangling pedant, I avouch this is
The patroness of heavenly harmony, &c.
<
which is somewhat better than the insignificant mode adopted
by Ritson, who only wanted to fill up the line, But, wrang-
ling pedant, know this lady is,' &c. There must have existed
some original for I avouch."
We may rationally ask why? The correction of Sir T.
48
SHAKESPEARE VINDICATED.
Hanmer (not Ritson) cited by Mr. Collier, may as well be said
to have been derived from some original authority, for the
corrector's addition is in no way preferable.
SCENE II.
P. 148. "Biondello's exclamation, as it is given with ob-
vious defectiveness in the early impressions, Master, master!
news, and such news as you never heard of,' has been
amended in various ways; but the manuscript correction in the
folio, 1632, differs from all others, and is doubtless what the
poet intended, viz. 'Master, master! news, and such old news
as you never heard of.'”
I must say that this is a very disingenuous note. It will
hardly be credited that the word old was supplied by Rowe,
which the reply of Baptista shows to be necessary, and that
the only difference between the corrector's reading and that
universally adopted, is the place of it in the sentence, certainly
not a more effective one. All recent editions read:
master! news, old news, and such news as you never heard
of." Why the corrector's collocation of the words should be
"doubtless what the poet wrote," I am at a loss to imagine!
This is only a specimen of partial coincidence.
6
Master,
Ib. "Biondello, bringing an account of the arrival of Pe-
truchio and his man Grumio, and of their strange caparisons
and appearance, says of the latter, that he wore an old hat,
and the humour of forty fancies, prick'd in't for a feather."
Warburton and Steevens speculated that the humour of
forty fancies' was a collection of short popular poems, which
Grumio had stuck in his hat by way of ornament. The notion
that such was the case is strengthened by the corrector, but
he gives us more than a hint what was the publication in
question, by altering the text as follows:-"An old hat and
the Amours, or Forty Fancies, prick'd in't for a feather.”
Now upon this, " more than a hint," Mr. Collier builds up
a strange rhodomontade story that Drayton, who had pub-
lished some poems under the title of "Ideas Mirrour, Amours
in Quatorzains, 1594," was alluded to by Shakespeare, and
that Drayton had been so annoyed by the reference, that he
expunged from the later editions of his "Matilda" the praise
he had given to Shakespeare in the first impression in 1594!!
TAMING OF THE SHREW.
49
Credat Judæus Apella! Mr. Collier can hardly be serious in
his supposition that Drayton alluded to the Lucrece of Shakes-
peare in these lines, for it will be quite apparent that it must
have been a Drama to which the allusion is made:
Lucrece, of whom proud Rome hath boasted long,
Lately revived to live another age,
And here arriv'd to tell of Tarquin's wrong,
Her chaste denial, and the tyrant's rage,
ACTING HER PASSIONS ON OUR STATELY STAGE.
There is as little ground for imagining that the "Humour
of forty fancies," so wantonly changed by the corrector to
"Amours, or Forty Fancies," thus destroying the humour of
the passage, could by any possibility allude to Drayton.
There is something pleasant in the expression, "the Humour
of forty fancies,” the spirit of which entirely evaporates in the
substitution; and it would require much better authority to
induce us to believe they were Shakespeare's words. But
Mr. Collier is quite bent upon conjuring up a quarrel between
these two illustrious men, and would now find an allusion to
Drayton in Shakespeare's xxi Sonnet, an idea that he formerly
repudiated!
It is grievous to think that, upon such assumptions, he, of all
men, should originate an idle and entirely unfounded calumny
upon two such beings as William Shakespeare and Michael
Drayton.
Pp. 150, 151. There are here some minor changes as unim-
portant as unnecessary, upon which, for brevity's sake, I for-
bear to remark.
ACT IV. SCENE II.
P. 151. "The word ' Angel' in the following line,—
An ancient Angel coming down a hill,
has produced various conjectural emendations, the one usually
adopted being that of Theobald, who proposed to read ´an-
cient engle;' but we are to recollect that the person spoken.
of was on foot, and we have no doubt that the word wanting
is ambler, which we meet with in the margin of the corrected
E
50
SHAKESPEARE VINDICATED.
6
folio, 1632. As to engle or ingle, which means a person of
weak understanding, how was Biondello to know that the
Pedant' was so, by merely seeing him walk down the hill?
he could see at once that he was an ambler. How ambler
came to be misprinted angel' is a difficulty of perpetual
recurrence.”
'
How, indeed! these perpetually recurring innovations on
the old authentic text could originate, except in the brain of the
over busy" corrector," it would be difficult to conceive. Here
his substitution is ridiculous as well as mischievous. Gifford,
in a note on Jonson's Poetaster, is decidedly in favour of
enghle, and refers to Gascoigne's "Supposes," from which
Shakespeare took part of his plot. There Erostrato, the Bion-
dello of Shakespeare, looks out for a person to gull by an idle
story, judges from appearances that he has found him, and is
not deceived :—" At the foot of the hill I met a gentleman,
and as methought by his habits and his looks he should be none
of the wisest." Again,-" This gentleman being, as I guessed
at the first, a man of small sapientia." Dulippo (the Lucentio
of Shakespeare), as soon as he espies him coming, exclaims,
"Is this he? go meet him, by my troth, HE LOOKS LIKE A
GOOD SOUL, he that fisheth for him might be sure to catch a
codshead." These are the passages (says Gifford) which our
great poet had in view; and these, I trust, are more than suf-
ficient to explain why Biondello concludes at first sight, that
this "ancient piece of formality" will serve his turn. All this
is very true, and is a sufficient refutation of the corrector's
stupid substitution. But I will add that it is not necessary
to change the reading of the old copy, which is undoubtedly
what the poet wrote. AN ANCIENT ANGEL, then, was neither
more nor less than the good soul of Gascoigne; or, as Cot-
grave (often the best commentator on Shakespeare) explains it :
"AN OLD ANGEL, by metaphor, a fellow of th' old sound,
honest, and worthie stamp: un angelot a gros escaille." One
who being honest himself, suspects no guile in others, and is
therefore an easy dupe. Thus I illustrated the passage nearly
thirty years since, and now gladly avail myself of it to vindi-
cate our illustrious bard from threatened mischievous per-
version of his language by busy and blundering correctors;
TAMING OF THE SHREW.
51
and to show how groundless are the inuendoes of "better
authority than we possess."
SCENE IV.
P. 152, 153. There are here again two or three attempts at
emendation, one by supplying a word not wanted, and another
the substitution of still for so erroneously repeated, which had
been suggested by Ritson long since.
ACT V. SCENE I. II.
P. 153. The change of haled to handled is a work of super-
erogation, and the substitution of gone for come, is much like
Rowe's emendation of done.
P. 154. "Lucentio's wife, Bianca, not obeying his directions
to come to him, he tells her that her refusal,-
Hath cost me five hundred crowns since supper time.
Pope corrected it properly to one hundred, and the corrector
adopts this reading, and omits the word Hath at the com-
mencement of the line."
I read long since,—
The wisdom of your duty, fair Bianca,
Hath cost one hundred crowns since supper time.
ALL'S WELL THAT ENDS WELL.
P. 155.
THE
ACT I. SCENE I.
HE first of the corrector's operations in this play is to
strike out the auxiliary verb in the following sentence.
The Countess is speaking of Gerard de Narbonne :-"Whose
skill was almost as great as his honesty; had it stretched so
far, would have made nature immortal." The corrector reads
"Whose skill, almost as great as his honesty." But the error
in the old text is more likely to have been one of omission,
52
SHAKESPEARE VINDICATED.
than redundant insertion of the verb was, and the passage may
be rendered much more intelligibly regular, by the mere addi-
tion of the letter t. Thus :-"Whose skill was almost as great
as his honesty; had it stretched so far, 't would have made
nature immortal." In the first folio the 't has most probably
fallen out at press.
P.155. "In the dissertation on virginity by Parolles, 'ten' is
altered to two, which has not been the usual mode of printing
the sentence,' Within two years it will make itself two, which
is a goodly increase.' This was Steevens's mode of curing the
misprint, and, on the whole, it seems preferable to Sir Thomas
Hanmer's change of two' in the second instance to ten,
'Within ten years it will make itself ten.' Parolles would
hardly look forward to so distant a period."
A much more likely amendment of the passage would be to
read, "Within ten months it will make itself two," which
more fully obviates Mr. Collier's objection, and is more in
accordance with what follows," and the principal not much the
worse."
The two minor additions of "Will you do anything with it,"
and “Not with my virginity yet," are not necessary; Helen
means to say," my virginity is not yet old and withered."
P. 156. The corrector would change, without the slightest
necessity,—
to-
The mightiest space in fortune nature brings
To join like likes, and kiss like native things,
The mightiest space in nature fortune brings.
The disparity is not in the nature but in the fortunes of
Bertram and Helen, and it is to this that the whole tenor of
her soliloquy shows she alludes. Such unwarranted and un-
necessary perversions of the text are too frequent with this
busy meddler, and ought to be strictly guarded against.
SCENE III.
Ib. Here is another unnecessary interpolation of the words
good sooth it was" in the clown's song, which mars it
ALL'S WELL THAT ENDS WELL.
53
more than improves it. Mr. Collier would probably say as
he does on other similar occasions, "Words would hardly
have been inserted in this way without some adequate warrant
in the possession of the corrector"!
Pp. 156-7. But the meddler shows that he had no warrant
for marring the text, by an interference with the clown's
speech, which required no such addition. He thus garbles it:
"One good woman in ten, madam, which is a purifying o' the song
and mending o' the sex. Would God would serve the world so all the
year! we'd find no fault with the tithe woman, if I were the parson.
One in ten, quotha! An we might have a good woman born-but one—
every blazing star, or at an earthquake, 'twould mend the lottery well.”
The first interpolation is impertinent and not at all requisite ;
the reading one for or in the old copy is much less to the
purpose, and less probable than on every blazing star, which
is the reading given by me nearly thirty years since. Mr.
Collier, in his edition of Shakespeare, adopted the much less
likely reading "ere every blazing star"!
P. 157. The alteration in the soliloquy of the Countess is
specious, but intrusive and uncalled for. The corrector would
read:
By our remembrances of days foregone
Search we out faults-for then we thought them none.
The ordinary reading adheres more closely to the old
copy:-
Such were our faults;-oh then we thought them none.
The substitution of oh for or of the old text was the judicious
suggestion of Warburton.
P. 158. The change of manifest to manifold in Helena's
speech, describing her father's prescription, is also certainly
specious but still not necessary, as the experience of Helen's
father was as manifest as it was manifold.
54
SHAKESPEARE VINDICATED.
ACT II. SCENE I.
P. 158. Whether we read araise or upraise in Lafeu's speech
is of little consequence, but why depart from the old authentic
text? The word To substituted for And, at the commence-
ment of the last line, is mere guess work, and does not well
supply the deficiency, which Malone more effectively proposed
to do by reading,—
To give great Charlemain a pen in's hand,
And cause him write to her a love-line.
Pp. 158-9. The reading fits, in the last line of Helena's
speech, is certainly a more suitable correction of the old cor-
rupt reading shifts than Pope's reading sits. Mr. Collier had
already adopted it from a correction in Lord Ellesmere's first
folio. This is another of the numerous surprising coincidences.
SCENE III.
P. 160. To change "and writ as little beard" to" and with
as little beard," is wantonly to alter an idiomatic expression
common in the poet's age. "Since I first writ man" is an
expression often occurring.
Ib.
My honour's at the stake, which to defeat
I must produce my power.
Theobald, like the corrector, would have substituted "which
to defend," but the poet's expression has been well defended
by Dr. Farmer and Mr. Tyrwhitt. Shakespeare, as Mr. Collier
has himself elsewhere observed, here "uses the word defeat in
its etymological sense, defaire, Fr. to free or disembarrass."
Why, therefore, now treat it as an error of the press, without
the least occasion?
Ib. "You are more saucy with lords and honourable personages, than
the commission of your birth and virtue gives you heraldry."
"
"Malone altered the places of commission' and 'heraldry'
without any improvement, and without being aware that ‘com-
mission' was merely a blunder for condition: 'than the con-
dition of your birth and virtue gives you heraldry,' is the true
reading supplied by the corrector."
ALL'S WELL THAT ENDS WELL.
55
It is strange that Mr. Collier had not perceived this when
he wrote his note on the passage which, after objecting to
Malone's sensible correction, adds, "The sense is evident
without any alteration"!
P. 160. Rowe's emendation of detected for detested wife was
so obvious, that it is not surprising to find it here; but it is one
more of the surprising coincidences.
SCENE IV.
P. 161. Here is a gratuitous addition of a speech for
Parolles, the loss of which was most sympathetically antici-
pated by Mr. Collier, in a note on the passage; which, how-
ever, he closes by saying, "but it was not wanted for the
congruity of the dialogue.
""
I fully subscribe to Mr. Collier's dictum, and think the in-
terpolation impertinent. Mr. Collier adds,
“The omission was not of much value in itself; but we are
of course glad to preserve any lost words (if such they be) of
our great dramatist.”
BE?
Ay, truly, IF SUCH THEY B
SCENE V.
Ib. "End ere I do begin." We have here another surprising
coincidence with one of Mr. Collier's emendations !
ACT III. SCENE II.
Ib. "All the griefs are thine," which the corrector would
change to "all the griefs as thine," is an elliptical expression
for all the griefs that are thine, and needs no alteration; but,
according to Mr. Collier, the corrector "tells us, and we
readily believe him, that it is a small but important error" !
P. 162.
Indeed, good lady,
The fellow has a deal of that too much,
Which holds him much to have.
The corrector would read,-
Which 'hoves him much to leave.
Surely such an ellipsis as 'hoves for behoves never existed but
56
SHAKESPEARE VINDICATED.
in the imagination of the corrector. It must be confessed that
the passage as it stands in the old copies is obscure, and not
easily explained. Perhaps we might read :-
Or-
The fellow has a deal of that too much
Which fouls him much to have.
Which soils him much to have.
Both words are used by Shakespeare in the sense required
here.
Ib.
O you leaden messengers,
That ride upon the violent speed of fire,
Fly with false aim; move the still peering air,
That sings with piercing, do not touch my lord! &c.
The corrector would read volant for "violent," and wound
for “move." Malone corrected" still peering" to still-piecing,
and the corrector adopts this reading. To substitute volant
would be to depart from Shakespeare's idea: violent is much
more expressive of the motion of gun shot, and we have else-
where violent swiftness, and violent motion. To wound the air
for to move it, would be a very questionable alteration; and
these innovations, like many others of the corrector, are un-
called for.
ACT IV. SCENE II.
P. 163. If the quick fire of youth light not your mind,
You are no maiden, but a monument:
When you are dead, you should be such a one
As you are now, for you are cold and stern.
"Steevens," says Mr. Collier, "seems to have had a notion
that'stern' was not the right word, but he did not know
what to put instead of it. Bertram complains that Diana is
not a maiden, but a monument,' and the corrector explains
how she was a monument,—' For you are cold and stone.'
6
It is well for Mr. Collier that Steevens has not to deal with
his misrepresentation. Malone having said that Shakespeare
"had in his thoughts some of the stern monumental figures
by the rude sculptors of his own time," Steevens adds, "I be-
lieve the epithet stern refers only to the severity often impressed
1
ALL'S WELL THAT ENDS WELL.
57
by death on features which in their animated state were of a
placid turn."
The corrector seems to have cherished the idea he has here,
for he has treated us with an erroneous line of his invention in
The Winter's Tale, Act v. Scene 3, where he makes Leonato
say,-
"I am but dead stone, looking upon stone,"
and yet it is a living and breathing figure he was looking on,
of which Leonato immediately afterward says, " would you not
deem it breath'd, and that those veins did verily bear blood.”
So much for the "authority" of this interpolator!
P. 164. "The seven lines in Diana's speech which begin
'What is not holy,' and end, 'That I will work against him,'
are erased in the corrected folio, perhaps as difficult to be
understood, and Johnson and others have admitted themselves
to be at a loss' for the meaning."
6
But why, if the corrector had access to "better authority
than we possess," as Mr. Collier would lead us to suppose,
did he not avail himself of it?
I trust it will not be deemed temerity if I attempt what the
corrector shunned. The passage stands thus in the folios:
What is not holy, that we swear not by,
But take the high'st to witness: then pray you tell me,
If I should sweare by Jove's great attributes
I lov'd you dearly, would you believe my oaths,
When I did love you ill? This has no holding
To swear by him whom I protest to love
That I will work against him.
I must cite Mr. Collier's own comment on the three last
lines. "These lines have not been understood on account of
the inversion to swear by him' is to swear by Jove pre-
viously mentioned; and the meaning seems evident when we
read the passage thus:- This has no holding, to swear by
him [i. e. Jove] that I will work against him whom I profess
to love.' The exposition seems to me at least as obscure as
the passage thus expounded. I read :
What is not holy, that we swear not by,
But take the highest to witness: Then pray you tell me,
58
SHAKESPEARE VINDICATED.
If I should swear by Jove's great attributes,
I lov'd you dearly, would you believe my oaths
When I did love you ill? This has no holding,
To swear by him, when I protest to Love
That I will work against him.
The slight change I have made of when for whom gives us
a clear sense.
Diana refers to Bertram's double vow, his mar-
riage vow, and the subsequent vow, or protest he had made
not to keep it. If I should swear by Jove I loved you dearly,
would you believe my oath when I loved you ill? This has no
consistency, to swear by him [i.e. Jove] when secretly I pro-
test to Love that, I will work against him [i. e. Jove] by not
keeping the oath I have taken to him. Bertram's previous
speech,—
do not strive against my vows,
I was compell'd to her; but I love thee
By Love's own sweet constraint,-
clearly indicates that this is the true meaning of the
passage.
In the "Passionate Pilgrim" we have almost Bertram's
argument :-
If Love make me forsworn, how shall I swear to love?
O, never faith could hold, if not to beauty vowed.
Compare also the poet's 152nd Sonnet.
P. 164. “The following passage, as it is printed in all the old
editions, has caused much vexation. Diana is speaking to
Bertram, who is doing his utmost to make his suit acceptable
to her:
I see, that men make ropes in such a scarre,
That we'll forsake ourselves.
Rowe reads:-
I see that men make hopes in such affairs,
That we'll forsake ourselves.
"
"Malone adopted hopes from Rowe, and substituted 'in such
a scene' for in such a scarre.' The corrector appears to
have detected the real misprint, and the correction makes it
evident that Diana intends to say, that when men endeavour
to seduce women from virtue, they indulge hopes that the
ALL'S WELL THAT ENDS WELL.
59
weaker sex, thus assailed, will abandon themselves 'in such a
suit,' and submit to importunity :—
(
I see, that men make hopes in such a suit,
That we'll forsake ourselves.
"Thus we find that hopes (as Rowe supposed) had been mis-
printed ropes,' and that suit (often spelt suite of old) had
been misprinted 'scarre.' With these two errors set right,
the meaning of the poet seems ascertained."
The correction of hopes for ropes by Rowe is legitimate,
because an easy typographical error; but so large a departure
from the form of the old word as suit for scarre is inadmissible,
without much better reasons than are here given for its
adoption. But it is not necessary to change the word scarre
at all; it here signifies any surprise or alarm, and what we
should now write a scare. Shakespeare has used the same
orthography of the participle scarr'd for scar'd in Coriolanus,
and in The Winter's Tale. In Palsgrave, both the noun and
verb are written Scarre, and Minsheu has it "to scurre, G.
Ahurir." There can be no doubt that the word had then the
broad sound it still retains in the north. Jamieson tells us that
it was so pronounced, and used to signify "whatever causes
alarm."
P. 164.
You have won
A wife of me, although my hope be done.
The corrector erases 66 done" and inserts none.
Mr. Collier's observation is singular. "We may take it for
granted, perhaps, that the original word was none; but here,
as in some former cases, it may be thought, on any other ac-
count, a matter of indifference"!
It is not "a matter of indifference" thus wantonly to tamper
with the poet's language.
SCENE III.
P. 165. "Is it not meant damnable in us to be trumpeters
of our unlawful intents." The corrector reads "most damn-
able." A reading which Malone says he also once thought
of adopting; but that he was afterwards convinced that no
change was necessary. Adjectives are often used as adverbs
60
SHAKESPEARE VINDICATED.
by Shakespeare and his cotemporaries. Malone also shows
that "company," which the corrector would change for com-
panion, is right: we have companies for companion in K.
Henry V.
These are more coincidences.
P. 166.
We must away;
Our waggon is prepar'd, and time revives us.
"Johnson (says Mr. Collier) suggests invites as the proper
word; but the corrector informs us that 'revives' is an error
for reviles; the time found fault with Helena and her com-
panions for delay."
It is disingenuous in Mr. Collier not to tell us that Steevens
also suggests" time reviles us," i. e. reproaches us for wasting
it, "might be Shakespeare's word." But the corrector must
be made to appear the originator of the correction he adopts.
I incline to think that Warburton was right, and that we
should read "time revies us," that is, challenges us. To vie
and to revie were terms used at various games, and became
familiar words for any other species of challenge. Shake-
speare has used to vie several times in this sense. The reader
may consult with advantage a note in Gifford's Ben Jonson,
vol. i.
p. 106;
"time reviles us," does not seem to be so per-
tinent a phrase, and revies might easily be mistaken for
revives.
Ib.
Yet I pray you:
But with the word the time will bring on Summer.
Here the corrector would substitute world for word, a change
that does not at all improve the sense of the passage, which is
undoubtedly corrupt; and has been most admirably corrected
by Sir W. Blackstone. He would read-
Yet I fray you
But with the word: the time will bring on Summer,
When briars shall have leaves as well as thorns,
And be as sweet as sharp.
The sense will then be, "I only frighten you by mentioning
the word suffer; for a short time will bring on the season of
happiness and delight.”
ALL'S WELL THAT ENDS WELL.
61
SCENE V.
P. 166. How the corrector could think of reading "pot-
herbs" one is at a loss to imagine; for what the Clown has
said naturally leads to Rowe's correction "salad herbs." The
correction of maine to name is also Rowe's.
The substitution of place for pace in the Countess's descrip-
tion of the Clown was suggested by Tyrwhitt, but would be
a very doubtful improvement. Pace is perfectly intelligible.
I pass over adoptions of readings already received, which
forms so large a portion of the corrector's labours, as to throw
a doubt over the possibility of such numerous reiterated coin-
cidences. I shall only contrast Mr. Collier with himself in
the next note.
ACT V. SCENE III.
<
P. 167. "The alteration of blaze for blade' in the line,
Natural rebellion, done in the blade of youth,
of the old copies, is confirmed by a manuscript marginal note
in the folio, 1632. Theobald was the first judiciously to sub-
stitute blaze."
"the
In Mr. Collier's edition of Shakespeare we have these words
—“ done i̇' the BLADE of youth," i. e. as Johnson says,
spring of early life;" and since the sense is very intelligible,
we adhere to the old text, as it stands in all editions anterior
to that of Theobald. Malone and Steevens adopted the cor-
rupted reading “blaze," which could hardly have been an error
of the press"!
Was the corrector judicious in following the "corrupted
reading” of Theobald? which Mr. Collier thinks injudicious
in others; and restores " blade" in his own edition!
P. 168. "The conclusion of the speech as it stands in the
old impressions,-
Such a ring as this,
The last that ere I took her leave at court,
I saw upon her finger.
runs much more intelligibly as follows,—
62
SHAKESPEARE VINDICATED.
Such a ring as this,
The last time ere she took her leave at court,
I saw upon her finger.
"Rowe proposed she," says Mr. Collier.
Rowe did more, he read, "The last that e'er she,"-leaving
time to be understood; which now, with wonderful coincidence
to Mr. Collier's suggestion, is given at full by the corrector.
P. 169. "The line in Bertram's explanation how Diana
obtained the ring from him,-
"Her insuit coming with her modern grace,
has been supposed to refer to her solicitation for the ring;
but the words 'insuite comming' as they are spelt in the folio,
1623, (the folio, 1632, omits the final e) are merely misprint-
ed; and on the evidence of the manuscript corrector, as well as
common-sense, we must print the passage hereafter,-
"Her infinite cunning with her modern grace,
Subdued me to her rate.
This appears to be one of the instances in which a gross
blunder was occasioned, in part by the mishearing of the old
scribe, and in part by the carelessness of the old printer. The
sagacity of the late Mr. Sidney Walker hit upon this most
excellent emendation. See Athenæum, 17th April, 1852."
This is indeed a wonderful instance of coincidence! It
was well for Mr. Walker's memory that his claim to be
the originator of this acute rectification of a typographical
error, preceded the publication of Mr. Collier's volume. Why
"the evidence of the manuscript-corrector" should be neces-
sary to the admission of this self-evident correction I cannot
imagine. Common sense would at once decide in its favour,
and for my own part I should sooner rely on the " saga-
city" of Mr. Walker than on that of one who has blundered
egregiously, if all that we find in Mr. Collier's volume is to be
considered the work of one hand or head. But this I think
improbable if not impossible.
63
P. 171.
TWELFTH NIGHT.
ACT I. SCENE I.
N AUTHORITY has been long wanted for the word south
(in preference to 'sound' of all editions until Pope's
time) in the passage:-
O! it came o'er my ear like the sweet south,
That breathes upon a bank of violets.
The corrector supplies that authority.”
I hold Pope in matters of tasteful emendation a much better
authority than the corrector has manifested himself to be, al-
though Pope also sometimes indulged too much licence. This
is another coincidence.
SCENE III. IV. V.
P. 172. There are here again several minute corrections,
some of which have long since been made in the text, and
none of them require notice.
P. 173. "The expression, 'Such a one I was this present
has excited much comment, editors not exactly knowing what
to make of it. The manuscript corrector says that we ought
to read,' Such a one I am at this present,' which, bearing in
mind that Olivia unveils at the instant, is reasonable.”
The substitution of I am at for "I was " is a violent innova-
tion, and very unsatisfactory. Mr. Collier has wisely doubted
whether the old reading might not stand, notwithstanding the
authority of the corrector. The passage might be made more
intelligible by a very slight addition: I think we should read,
"Such a one I was as this presents."
ACT II. SCENE I.
"Sebastian is speaking of his reputed likeness to his sister:
"A lady, sir, though it was said she much resembled me, was yet of
many accounted beautiful: but, though I could not, with such estimable
wonder, overfar believe that, yet thus far I will boldly publish her, &c.
"It is not surprising that the commentators should have been
64
SHAKESPEARE VINDICATED.
at strife regarding the meaning of this passage; and War-
burton was so gravelled by it, that he felt obliged to omit
the words 'with such estimable wonder' as a player's inter-
polation. This is a very ready way of overcoming any obstacle.
It certainly is difficult to account for the gross misprints in the
above short sentence; but they are distinctly pointed out by
the corrector in his own clear and accurate manner; and when
we read the words he has substituted for those of the received
text, we see at once that he could not be mistaken. Sebastian
modestly denies that he much resembled his beautiful lost
sister, observing,-
"A lady, sir, though it was said she much resembled me, was yet of
many accounted beautiful; but, though I could not with self-estimation
wander so far to believe that, yet thus far I will boldly publish her, &c.
May we conclude that this new and self-evident improve-
ment of the absurd old reading was derived from some original
source, perhaps from some better manuscript than that em-
ployed by the old printer. Such an emendation could hardly
be the result of mere guess-work."
Why not? Here is a much better rectification of the pas-
sage that does not pretend to be anything more; for the cor-
rector of my second folio makes no pretension to any other
authority than his own conjecture. And yet I think it will not
be denied that his emendation is more "clear and accurate,"
and does less violence to the old reading than the "self-
evident" one of Mr. Collier's annotator.
"A lady, sir, though it was said she much resembled me, was yet of
many accounted beautiful; but though I could not, with such estima-
tors, wander overfar to believe that, yet thus far I will boldly publish
her," &c.
Here the only addition to the old text is the small word to;
changing the termination ble to tors, and o to a, in the two
words estimable and wonder, a trifling innovation when com-
pared to the sweeping one Mr. Collier advocates. We find
the corrector sometimes guilty of overcoming difficulties in
the "
very ready way" attributed to Warburton, but more
frequently sinning by unwarrantable interpolation.
TWELFTH NIGHT.
05
SCENE III.
P. 174. "We meet here with a welcome addition to the text
where it cannot be doubted that something is wanting. One
of the speeches of Sir Andrew has hitherto only terminated
with a hyphen, showing that even the conclusion of a word
has been carelessly omitted in the old copies in modern edi-
tions the hyphen has been elongated, as if the knight had
been interrupted by the Clown, and not allowed to finish his
sentence. In the first and other folios, this part of the dia-
logue stands exactly as follows:-
Sir To. Come on: there is sixpence for you; let's have a song.
Sir An. There's a testril of me, too: if one knight gave a-
Clo. Would you have a love-song, or a song of good life?
"The elongation of the hyphen in modern editions, has made
Sir Andrew's speech of course appear thus, but it is a misre-
presentation of the originals:-
Sir An. There's a testril of me too: if one knight give a
"Now, what ought to be the text, according to the addition
made to it by interlineation in the corrected copy of the folio,
1632 ?-We give the speech, to the minutest particular, in the
form in which it appears, partly in print, and partly in the
hand-writing of the old corrector, marking the latter by Italic
type:-
Sir An. There's a testrill of me too: if one knight give a- way sire pence
so will I give an other go to, a song.
Unless, therefore, the corrector invented this termination of
an unfinished sentence, he must have obtained it from some
accurate and authentic source."
I have shown pretty clearly the impossibility of the corrector
having had any "authentic source" for some of his misdeeds,
so that I give him credit here for the invention. But his addi-
tion is an improbable one, which I cannot hail as welcome;
and what would fully answer all the purposes of filling up the
hiatus, should it be thought necessary, would be to complete
the sentence thus:
Sir An. “There's a testril of me too: if one knight give another should.
F
66
SHAKESPEARE VINDICATED.
This avoids supplying too many words to the poet, which is
always extremely delicate and dangerous ground. There is a
considerable degree of self sufficiency in the individual who
ventures to assume that he can divine what he would have
written!
P. 175. We have here again an impertinent and uncalled for
alteration in the Clown's Song of the words "stay and hear,'
to "stay for here."
SCENE V.
P. 176. The change of "humour of state," to "honour of
state” in Malvolio's soliloquy is a very doubtful interference
with the old text; and certainly the former word is more in
keeping with the usual language of Shakespeare, not to say
of Malvolio, and is therefore unnecessary meddling.
P. 176. “ Fabian is enforcing silence in order that Malvolio,
while they are watching him, may not discover them, and
says in the folio, 1623, Though our silence be drawn from
us with cars, yet peace!' The folio, 1632, prints' cars'
'cars' cares,
and many proposals have been made to alter' cars' to cables,
carts, &c.; but with cars' turns out to be an error of the
press for by th' ears, or by the ears, and the meaning is perfectly
clear when we read, 'Though our silence be drawn from us by
th' ears, yet peace !
(
A most improbable phrase, and one which, in such a case,
the poet could not have used; and what resemblance, suppos-
ing it to be an error of the press, has with cars to by th' ears?
There seems to me good reason to think that we should read
"Though our silence be drawn from us with tears, yet peace!"
Their risible faculties were so excited by the ridiculous con-
duct of Malvolio, that to suppress loud laughter brought tears
into their eyes- i. e. they laughed till they cried in the effort
to suppress it, in the endeavour to stifle its audible expression.
I give this as the most likely solution of the press error, in
which the t had been accidentally omitted. That Mr. Collier,
in a note on the passage in his edition of Shakespeare, had
suggested ears for cars is another most remarkable instance of
coincidence.
TWELFTH NIGHT.
67
ACT III.
It may be useful here to cite a passage at the opening of
this Act, with Mr. Collier's note upon it, as it may serve to
explain some of the singular misconceptions of similar humor-
ous passages, in his recent book, which the intelligent reader
might otherwise be at a loss to account for :-
Enter Viola, and Clown.
Vio. Save thee, friend, and thy music. Dost thou live by thy tabor?
Clo. No; Sir, I live by the church.
Vio. Art thou a churchman?
Clo. No such matter, Sir: I do live by the church; for I do live by
my house, and my house doth stand by the church.
Vio. So thou may'st say, the king lives by a beggar, if a beggar
dwell near him: or the church stands by the tabor, if thy tabor stand
by the church.
In his edition of Shakespeare, vol. iii. p. 372, Mr. Collier
has the following note:-" Dost thou live by thy tabor?
Theatrical fools often appeared with a tabor, and in the repre-
sentation of Tarlton (see the Bridgewater Catalogue, p. 300),
he is furnished with one. The clown's reply,' No, sir, I live
by the church,' is not intelligible, if we do not suppose him to
have wilfully misunderstood Viola to ask whether he lived
near the sign of the tabor, which might either be a music-
shop or a tavern." ! ! !
We can now comprehend the sympathetic support Mr.
Collier gives to the corrector's attempts to get rid of similar
passages of playful banter, which he had not capacity to
understand!
SCENE I.
P. 177. The suggestion of not for and in Viola's speech
had already been made by Johnson.
Of the next proposed substitution of shamefac'd for "shame-
ful," although the corrector tells us it is "the poet's original
language," Mr. Collier says, "The fitness of this emendation
seems disputable.”!
68
SHAKESPEARE VINDICATED.
SCENE III.
The old copy reads in Sebastian's speech :-
And thanks and ever oft good turns,
Are shuffled off with such incurrent pay.
The corrector would have it :-
And thanks, still thanks; and very oft good turns
Are shuffled off with such incurrent pay.
Steevens's reading with a much less violent departure from the
old text is far superior,
And thanks, and ever thanks: Often good turns
Are shuffled off with such uncurrent pay.
SCENE IV.
P. 178. "The moment the following misprint is pointed
out it will probably be admitted. Antonio, seized by the of
ficers, appeals to Viola, thinking her Sebastian, and to his
grief and disappointment is repelled as a stranger. He then
reproaches the supposed Sebastian with the services he had
rendered to him, and with the affection he had borne him,
adding these lines,-
And to his image, which, methought, did promise
Most venerable worth, did I devotion.
"The corrector places the letters in the margin, which convert
' venerable' (an epithet hardly applicable to persons like
Viola or Sebastian) to veritable."
The word devotion would at once determine that venerable
was the poet's word. Mr. Collier himself is constrained to
admit that "venerable,' in a certain sense, answers the au-
thor's purpose."-But strangely adds, "though his own word
must have been veritable." !!!
ACT IV. SCENE I.
P. 179. To change "this great lubber the world ” to “lub-
berly world," is at least supererogation. The personification
adds to the humour, and was evidently intended.
TWELFTH NIGHT.
69
SCENE II.
P. 179. The adoption of drivel instead of devil, as Farmer
and Steevens had done, was judicious, and is one more of the
myriad of coincidences.
6
ACT V. SCENE I.
6
Ib. "For The triplex, sir, is a good tripping measure,'
said by the Clown when he wishes the Duke to give him a
third piece of money, the manuscript-corrector gives the
triplet,' the allusion apparently being to the triplet, or triple
mode of rhyming in poetry."
The Clown in this play is musical, witness his songs
and his tabor, and he uses musical phrases correctly. The
"triplex (i. e. tempus triplex) is a good measure" courted like
the bells of St. Bennet's 1, 2, 3. But it is incorrect to say a
triplet is a measure; it is only part of a measure, and may be
part of a measure in Common Time as well as Triple. The
substitution therefore would convert a proper word to one that
is erroneous, and this is another instance of impertinent in-
terference.
P. 180. "The resemblance in sound between true and' drew,'
may have misled the copyist of this play in the second of the
following lines :-
So comes it, lady, you have been mistook;
But nature to her bias drew in that.
The old corrector converts' drew? into true, by merely striking
out d, and inserting t in the margin; nature was true to her
bias, although Olivia had been mistaken in supposing herself
contracted to Viola."
Surely DREW is the better word as applied to bias, which
may be anything but a true inclination: and we see that in
Olivia's case it is peculiarly applicable, she was drawn toward
Viola on account of her resemblance to her brother. What
could possibly be the motive for interference here? It will not
do to plead better authority.
72
SHAKESPEARE VINDICATED.
judiciously adopted by Mr. Collier in his edition. This, there-
fore, is another coincidence.
P. 184.
You may ride's
With one soft kiss a thousand furlongs, ere
With spur we heat an acre.
But to the goal:
My last good deed was to entreat his stay:
What was my first?
The corrector would read,
With spur we clear an acre. But to the good: &c.
It is evident that the poet here had a race in his mind, and
he uses heat, for to run a heat over an acre as in a race. The
word goal, which the corrector would so wantonly change to
good, is in keeping with the rest of the speech; but to the
goal, signifies but to the end or purpose of my question. The
corrector's interference rather mars than improves the passage.
P. 183.
But were they false
As o'er-dyed blacks, as wind, as waters.
The corrector would read—As our dead blacks.
It would require much stronger authority than we at pre-
sent possess, to induce us to adopt this reading, which could
hardly be a misprint or a mishearing. One would think it
had been suggested by Steevens, who has adduced a passage
from "The Old Law" of Massinger, which might be cited in
its favour. But "o'er-dyed blacks" may be used figuratively,
for mourning put on as an outward show of grief, when there
was none in the heart. Thus Hamlet, ""Tis not alone my
inky cloak, good mother, nor customary suits of solemn black.
-But I have that within, which passeth show."
P. 186. Good expedition be my friend, and comfort
The gracious queen, part of his theme, but nothing
Of his ill-ta'en suspicion.
The corrector would read,
Good expedition be my friend: heaven comfort
The gracious queen, part of his dream, but nothing
Of his ill-ta'en suspicion.
Perhaps the passage would require no other correction
WINTER'S TALE.
73
than to read God instead of and, in the first line. The sug-
gestions of the corrector depart too widely from the old text.
The passage, as it stands there, will bear the following inter-
pretation: "Good expedition be my friend, and may my ab-
sence bring comfort to the gracious queen, who is part of his
theme, but who knows nothing, is entirely guiltless of that
which he unjustly suspects."
P. 187.
ACT II. SCENE I.
If it prove
She's otherwise, I'll keep my stables where
I lodge my wife.
The corrector would read, "I'll keep me stable." Surely
the words, "I'll go in couples with her," would show that
stables, where the dog-kennel would also be, is the true word.
This, however, is another extraordinary coincidence with the
suggestion made by Mr. Collier, in a note to his edition of
Shakespeare; and when we see that the improbable word
lamback, also suggested by Mr. Collier, is likewise confirmed
by the corrector, our surprise at such a marvellous jumping
of wits is increased tenfold!
SCENE II.
Ib. "When Paulina, in the subsequent exclamation, speaks
of the ' dangerous unsafe lunes i' the king,' it is mere tautology,
for what is dangerous' is evidently 'unsafe.' By 'lunes,'
Shakespeare means fits of distraction, and when the old cor-
rector directs us to read, instead of 'unsafe,' unsane,—
These dangerous unsane lunes i' the King, beshrew them,—
we must at once admit the value of the emendation."
I think we should be unsane if we did! lunes are fits of in-
sanity. So we are to read "unsane insanity," to avoid what
Mr. Collier thinks is 'mere tautology.'!!
P. 188.
ACT. III. SCENE II.
Since he came,
With what encounter so uncurrent I
Have strain'd, t' appear thus.
74
SHAKESPEARE VINDICATED.
"Few passages in this play," says Mr. Collier, "have occa-
sioned more notes than this, in Hermione's address. She is
alluding to the visit of Polixenes, out of which, by some un-
current encounter,' or unjustifiable meeting, the present ac-
cusation had grown. The difficulty has chiefly arisen out of
the word strain'd, for which the corrector writes stray'd; and
it seems to clear away much of the difficulty. Hermione was
charged with having strayed from her duty by an 'uncurrent
encounter' with Polixenes, and she inquires where and how it
had happened, in order to justify her appearance before the
court. Perhaps the meaning would be still clearer, had the
whole been put interrogatively, 'Have I stray'd,'" &c.
This is a most unwarrantable attempt to improve upon the
poet. But the corrector, as well as Mr. Collier, manifest how
little they comprehend his language. Let us cite him as a
witness against them:- He uses to strain for “to behave
wantonly, lightly, or unbecomingly." Thus, in The Merry
Wives of Windsor, Mrs. Page says of Falstaff, "Unless he
knew some strain in me, he would never have boarded me
in this manner." And, in Love's Labour's Lost, Biron says,
“Love is full of unbefitting strains; all wanton as a child.”
Where Mr. Collier's corrector has again shown his ignorance
of the true language of the poet, by substituting strayings
for strains, to the entire destruction of the sense of the pas-
sage! And yet we are to believe that he had access to "better
authority than we possess"!
P. 189.
What's gone, and what's past help,
Should be past grief: do not receive affliction
At my petition, I beseech you; rather,
Let me be punish'd, that have minded you
Of what you should forget.
Here, says Mr. Collier, "Paulina begins to repent the
cruel recapitulation she has previously made of the conse-
quences of the King's conduct to his dead wife, son, &c.
Now, what can here be the meaning of the words, ' at my peti-
tion?' It is merely an error of the press, or of the copyist.—
The corrector of the folio, 1632, striking out' my,' and in-
serting re before 'petition,' makes the sentence stand thus:
Do not receive affliction
At repetition, I beseech you,-
WINTER'S TALE.
75
"in other words, 'Do not allow my repetition of the fatal re-
sults of your jealousy to afflict you.' Nothing can surely be
plainer, or more pertinent."
The corrector, seeing something wrong, has here again ex-
ercised his usual license by omission and alteration; but al-
though the word "petition" is very possibly wrong, there is
no necessity to omit "my.
my." Petition has most probably
been misprinted for relation. It is not repetition that Paulina
makes, but a RELATION of circumstances from which Leontes
has received affliction. We should perhaps read :—
P. 190.
Do not receive affliction
At my relation, I beseech you.
SCENE III.
I never saw a vessel of like sorrow,
So fill'd, and so becoming.
The corrector would read, " So fill'd, and so o'er-running."
A very improbable misprint. Becoming is decent, dignified;
the old reading beautifully describes an expression of extreme
sorrow, without violent or undignified manifestations. We
must not alter the language of the poet to suit our own fancies,
without better ground for the change. The same may be said
of the substitution of wend for weep, about which Mr. Collier
himself seems to have doubts.
ACT IV. SCENE I.
To substitute musingly for “missingly," would be, as Mr.
Collier himself confesses, "a somewhat questionable change."
What necessity, therefore, for impertinent interference with
the old text?
SCENE II.
Pp. 190, 191. There is not the slightest necessity for chang-
ing "pugging tooth" to "prigging tooth." The word
pugging is used by Greene in one of his pieces, and a puggard
was a cant name for some particular kind of thief. Steevens
has adduced a passage from The Roaring Girl, 1611, in which
it occurs. Why, therefore, propose an unnecessary change?
P. 191. (6
According to the corrector, there has been a
singular misconception in the last sentence given to Autolicus
76
SHAKESPEARE VINDICATED.
at the close of this scene. It is where, according to the inva-
riable misrepresentation of Shakespeare's text, the Pedlar wishes.
that his name may be unrolled,' and 'put in the book of
virtue'; the word should be enrolled, and placed in the book
of virtue."
In the name of common sense, Why? Must not Autolicus
be first unrolled from the gang or company of strolling vaga-
bonds, before he can be put into the book of virtue? As
Warburton well remarks," Begging gipsies were in gangs
or companies, having something of the show of incorporated
bodies."
SCENE III.
Pp. 191, 192. "Perdita contrasts her own gay apparel with
theswain's wearing' in which the Prince was clad: she
remarks:
But that our feasts
In every mess have folly, and the feeders
Digest it with a custom, I should blush
To see you so attir'd, sworn, I think,
To show myself a glass.
"In what way was Florizel' sworn' to show Perdita a glass?
Besides, the line wants a syllable, which is supplied by the
correction in the margin of the folio, 1632, while the sense is
also improved:-
I should blush
To see you so attir'd, so worn, I think,
To show myself a glass.
"The meaning, therefore, is that Florizel's plain attire was 'so
worn' to show Perdita, as in a glass, how simply she ought
to have been dressed."
A very clumsy attempt to amend a passage which requires
but the omission of a letter to make it quite clear and con-
sistent. Hanmer long since made the only alteration requi-
site, by reading:-
I should blush
To see you so attir'd, swoon I think
To show myself a glass.
This reading, but for the opposition of Steevens and the
pertinacity of Malone, should long since have been that of the
WINTER'S TALE.
77
text. Perdita, in her charming modest way, tells Florizel
that, but it was a rural custom to put on these disguises, she
should blush to see him so meanly attired, and swoon, she
thinks, to see herself in a glass so finely dressed. All is
consistent and clear with this slight omission of a letter; and
Malone's objection that swoon is spelt swound in the old
copies is quite unreasonable; for if so written, it might easily
be mistaken in manuscript for sworne.
Ib. To change Florizel's address to Perdita," Be merry,
gentle;" to the familiar "Be merry, girl"; would be to de-
prive it of its characteristic delicacy. All that he utters to
her is fraught with affectionate and passionate consideration.
P. 193.
He tells her something
That makes her blood look on't.
(
"This is the old text of the folios, but Theobald, for on't,"
in spite of the apostrophe, printed out, and missed the correc-
tion of the true error, viz. ' makes' instead of wakes :-
He tells her something
That wakes her blood-look on't.
"Such is precisely the mode in which the passage stands cor-
rected in the folio, 1632; 'look on't' being addressed em-
phatically to Polixenes, to direct his attention to the blush of
Perdita, thus poetically described as ' waking her blood.'"
Theobald's reading is far preferable to that of the corrector,
which requires quite as much variation from the old copy;
the one changes n to u, and omits the apostrophe; the other
changes m to w, and inserts a stop or break to mark a pause
before the words "look on't." Thus:-
He tells her something
That makes her blood look out. Good sooth she is
The Queen of curds and cream.
Surely the new pointing is a more violent alteration than the
omission of the apostrophe.
But the reading of the corrector has a surprising coinci-
dence with Mr. Collier's note on the passage in his edition of
Shakespeare.
78
SHAKESPEARE VINDICATED.
Ib. The correction of the word gap, in the Clown's speech,
to jape, is very plausible, and probably right.
6
Ib. "Some controversy has arisen respecting the words,
'unbraided wares.' Johnson, Steevens, Tollet, Malone,
Monk Mason, and Boswell, have each endeavoured to ex-
plain what turns out to be a mere misprint for embroided
wares,' as embroidered commodities were then frequently
spelt. This point has, therefore, been set at rest by the cor-
rected folio."
So far is it from being set at rest by this conjecture of the
corrector, that I venture to assert his reading is not to be
entertained for a moment. “Unbraided wares" are un-
damaged wares,” true and good. Thus, in "Any Thing for a
Quiet Life"-" She says that you sent ware which is not
warrantable, braided ware, and that you give not London
measure." See also "Marston's Scourge of Villainie," Sat. v.
and a passage I have quoted from "An Iliade of Meta-
morphosis," probably also Marston's, the MS. of which was
in the Heber collection:
Bookes of this nature, being once perused,
Are then cast by, and as brayed ware refused.
An apt description of this as well as Mr. Collier's book, I
fear!
<
6
P. 193. "For whistle off those secrets,' the folio, 1632, as
corrected, has, perhaps needlessly,' whisper off those secrets.'
In the same speech and on the same authority, Clamour
your tongues' ought indisputably to be' Charm your tongues,'
as Grey originally suggested, and as Gifford maintained. In
fact, the expression, Charm your tongue,' occurs in The
London Prodigal.' See Malone's Supplement, ii. 466, though
he never thought of illustrating by it' clamour your tongues'
in The Winter's Tale.' The editors of Shakespeare have not
hitherto felt themselves warranted in altering his text on the
mere suspicion of a misprint, or 'charm your tongues' would
long ago have been adopted; and note 2 on this page " (Col-
lier's Shakespeare, Vol. iii. p. 501) "affords evidence that the
error has been stated, though not always acknowledged, ever
since the time of Grey."
(
WINTER'S TALE.
79
Mr. Collier's note, above referred to, concludes thus:
"Nevertheless, it may be urged that the Clown means that
the Shepherdesses should ring off their peal at once, and then
be silent" !
Mr. Hunter says, "Clamour your tongues.' This ex-
pression is not well explained; but as in words like this there
is always a temptation to disturb the text, and in this particu-
lar instance it has been proposed to substitute charm; I add,
that the same phrase is found in John Taylor (Works, 1630).
'He thus began; Cease friendly cutting throats,
Clamour the promulgation of your tongues,
And yield to Demagorgon's policy,
Stop the refulgent method of your moods.'
For my own part I am disposed to think that clamour is a
vulgar depravation of an older word used in the same sense,
and derived from the French chommer, which became chammer
and chaumbre. It is used in this sense by Udall, in his
Apophthegmes, p. 76, 1st Ed. From no sort of men whatever
did he refreine or chaumbre the taunting of his tongue."
This is quite enough to show that it would be mischievous.
to interfere with the old reading, and clamour must remain.
P. 194.
Were I the fairest youth
That ever made eye swerve; had force and knowledge,
More than was ever man's, &c.
The corrector would substitute sense for "force," but it would
be difficult to find a good reason for the change. Force and
knowledge are terms that together express the accomplish-
ments of youth :-All grace of person and all gifts of mind.
The alteration would cut off half the definition. Are we to alter
every word in the poet that does not suit our capricious fancies?
Ib.
Can he speak? hear?
Know man from man? dispute his own estate?
Lies he not bed-rid?
Dispute his own estate," says Mr. Collier, "may be re-
conciled to sense, but 'dispose his own estate' seems a much
more likely expression, and the manuscript-corrector informs
us that it was employed in this place."
80
SHAKESPEARE VINDICATED.
If the corrector does so inform us, he must have better
reasons than Mr. Collier advances for the change. The
phrase is undoubtedly that of the poet, who has it again in
Romeo and Juliet, Act iii. Sc. 3.
'Let me dispute with thee of thy est ute."
P. 195. There are three minor alterations of the text here,
none of which are necessary although specious.
P. 196.
ACT V. SCENE I.
You have a holy father,
A graceful gentleman.
"For 'holy,' which seems quite out of place," says Mr.
Collier, "the corrector of the folio, 1632, writes noble in the
margin, the right word having been misheard by the scribe.
Precisely the same mistake was made in 'The Tempest,' and
from the same cause"!
The scribe then was most probably deaf, for holy and noble
do not sound much alike! But as it happens the epithet is
in both instances peculiarly appropriate and emphatic, as
applied to Gonzalo in the Tempest, and to Polixenes here,
and simply means reverend.
SCENE III.
P. 197. “One of those highly-important completions of the
old, and imperfect, text of Shakespeare, consisting of a whole
line, where the sense is left unfinished without it, here occurs.
Warburton saw that something was wanting; but in note 3"
(Collier's Shakespeare, vol. 3, p. 539) "it is suggested that
Leontes in his ecstasy might have left his sentence unfinished:
such does not appear to have been the case. The passage has
hitherto been printed as follows:-
Let be, let be!
Would I were dead, but that, methinks, already—
What was he that did make it? &c.
"Let be, let be!' is addressed to Paulina, who offers to draw
the curtain before the statue of Hermione, as we find from a
manuscript stage-direction, and the writer of it, in a vacant
WINTER'S TALE.
81
space adjoining, thus supplies a missing line, which we have
printed in italic type :-
Let be, let be!
Would I were dead, but that, methinks, already
I am but dead, stone looking upon stone.
What was he that did make it? &c.
:'
(
"But for this piece of evidence, that so important an omission
had been made by the old printer, or by the copyist of the
manuscript for the printer's use, it might have been urged
that, supposing our great dramatist to have written here no
more elliptically than in many other places, his sense might
be complete at already: Would I were dead!' exclaims
Leontes, but that methinks I am already;' in other words,
it was needless for him to wish himself dead, since, looking
upon the image of his lost queen, he was, as it were, dead al-
ready. However, we see above that a line was wanting, and
we may be thankful that it has been furnished, since it adds.
much to the force and clearness of the speech of Leontes."
6
I cannot say that I feel any gratitude to the corrector, for
putting such improbable words into Leontes' mouth. War-
burton's note is much more to the purpose: "The sentence
completed is:
—but that methinks, already I converse with the dead.—
But here Leontes' passion makes him break off.
The corrector's line,
I am but dead stone, looking upon stone,
is not a little absurd, for in the next breath Leontes says,
"Would you not deem it breath'd? and that those veins did
verily bear blood?" If a line were wanting, and that is more
than doubtful, a much better one has been suggested :-
but that, methinks, already
I am in heaven, and looking on an angel.
P. 198. The last important emendation of the corrector in
this play is the omission of two words, by and the, in the line,
Come Camillo,
And take her by the hand, whose worth and honesty
Is richly noted and here justified.
G
82
SHAKESPEARE VINDICATED.
Of which Mr. Collier says, "We may feel assured that the
expletives' by the,' obtained insertion without the participa-
tion of the pen of the author."
upon
this
Had any one but Mr. Collier's corrector ventured
piece of superfluous meddling, they would have brought down
his indignant censure upon them, and with some degree of
justice.
P. 199.
"WR
KING JOHN.
ACT I. SCENE I.
E cannot but approve of a change made in an im-
portant epithet in the reply of King John, where he
despatches Chatillon with all haste, and tells him that the
English forces will be in France before the ambassador can
even report their intention to come. The reading has always
been :-
Be thou the trumpet of our wrath,
And sullen presage of your own decay.
"In the first place, the sound of a trumpet could not, with
any fitness, be called a sullen presage;' and secondly, as
Chatillon was instantly to proceed on his return, it is much
more probable that Shakespeare wrote,-
Be thou the trumpet of our wrath,
And sudden presage of your own decay.
"
"The old corrector says that sudden' was the word of our
great dramatist, and a scribe or a printer might easily mistake
sudden and 'sullen.'
The corrector has an unreasonable dislike to this expressive
word, for he would again change it as unwarrantably in
Othello. But Shakespeare has also used it for sad, gloomy,
in K. Richard II. and in the Second Part of K. Henry VI.
Every poetical reader will remember Milton's use of it, "Swing-
ing slow with sullen roar.”
Ib. "Besides a misprint, there appears to be an error in
KING JOHN.
83
punctuation in this part of the Bastard's soliloquy, as given
in modern editions:-
For new-made honour doth forget men's names :
'Tis too respective, and too sociable
For your conversion. Now your traveller,
He and his tooth-pick at my worship's mess, &c.
"The corrector of the folio, 1632, informs us that we should
point and read as follows:-
For new-made honour doth forget men's names:
'Tis too respective, and too sociable.
For your diversion, now, your traveller,
He and his tooth-pick at my worship's mess, &c.
"It was common to entertain 'picked men of countries,'
for the diversion of the company at the tables of the higher
orders, and this is what the Bastard is referring to in the
last two lines, while the sense of the first two is complete at
sociable."
The punctuation in the first folio is entirely against this
innovation, which may probably have been suggested by
Pope, who took the same erroneous view of the passage,
and read "for your conversing." Malone's view of the old
authentic reading is quite satisfactory. The Bastard means
to say,-To remember the name of an inferior has too much
of the regardful consideration which is paid to superiors, and
of the social and friendly familiarity of equals, for your con-
version, i. e. for your present condition, now converted from
the condition of a common man to the rank of a knight.
P. 200. Whether we read,
Sir Robert could do well; marry, to confess,
Could he get me? Sir Robert could not do it.
or, as the corrector would have it,
Could not get me;
is a matter of perfect indifference; but the established reading
is quite as probable and quite as good as the corrector's.
84
SHAKESPEARE VINDICATED.
ACT II. SCENE I.
P. 200. The reading in the line, in Arthur's speech to Aus-
tria,
But with a heart full of unstrained love,
instead of unstained, is very plausible. There is some ap-
pearance that Arthur would express the uncompelled and
spontaneous character of his love, notwithstanding his power-
less hand.
P. 201. The same may be said of the correction of “indi-
rectly" to indiscreetly, in the speech of Constance.—O si sic
omnia! But corrections of this kind, without presuming that
the change is made in conformity to "some better manuscript
than that used by the printer," have all the character of cor-
rection of a printer's error.
Ib. The correction of " An Ace" to "An Até," which had
been set right since Rowe's time, is certainly not improved
by being changed to " As Até."
P. 202.
All preparation for a bloody siege,
And merciless proceeding by these French,
Comfort your city's eyes.
Rowe properly corrected the misprint, " comfort," in the last
line, to confront, which was admitted by all subsequent editors
until Mr. Collier rejected it, and restored the old misprint,
saying that "King John was evidently speaking ironically"!
And he would now admit the corrector's inferior substitution
of "Come 'fore" !
Ib. The correction of "near" to niece is quite legitimate
and undoubted on all accounts.
Ib. The confirmation of Mason's correction of “aid” to
"aim" is another coincidence, and the confirmation of Mr.
Collier's view of the correction required in the Bastard's speech
is equally remarkable.
KING JOHN.
85
ACT III. SCENE II.
P. 203. “Constance says, that she should be content with
her grievous disappointment, if Arthur had been
'
Full of unpleasing blots and sightless stains.
"For and sightless,' the manuscript-corrector substitutes
'unsightly, which was most likely the author's word, the scribe
having misheard what was read or recited to him."
Johnson says,
"The poet uses sightless, for that which we
now express by unsightly, disagreeable to the eyes." There
is no possible mistaking of the two words, either as written or
recited; and will Mr. Collier venture to say that Shakespeare
did not use the word for the opposite to sightly? We are not
to alter his language to please our own fancies, because words
are used by him in a peculiar sense.
Ib.
"The same circumstance has produced the next
blunder pointed out by the corrector. All impressions have
this line,
66
Is cold in amity, and painted peace.
Why should the epithet 'painted' be applied to peace? What
propriety is there in it, unless we can suppose it used to
indicate hollowness and falsehood? The correction in the
margin of the folio, 1632, shows that the ear of the scribe
misled him: Constance is referring to the friendship just
established between France and England, to the ruin of her
hopes, and remarks:-
The grappling vigour, and rough frown of war,
Is cold in amity, and faint in peace,
And our oppression hath made up this league.”
Now it appears to me, that there is no reason to doubt the
integrity of the old text, nor has it ever before been doubted.
Constance upbraids Philip with having" beguil'd her with a
counterfeit." He came in arms to spill her enemies' blood,
but now his warlike help against John is cooled down into a
league with him,-the rough collision of war to the smooth
or painted courtesies of peace. But if any change should be
86
SHAKESPEARE VINDICATED.
thought advisable, it would not be the substitution of the
corrector-"faint in peace," but "feigns a peace." The
old reading being perfectly intelligible, should not, however,
be disturbed.
Ib. The substitution of "heaven" for "him," in K. John's
speech, is a piece of supererogation entirely unwarranted and
uncalled for.
P. 204. "The error of 'cased' for 'caged,' in the follow-
ing line :-
A cased lion by the mortal paw,
“is so evident, as pointed out by the old corrector, that it is
surprising the emendation was never conjecturally adopted;
especially when Malone's quotation from Rowley's' When
you see me you know me,' regarding a lion in his cage,' so
inevitably led to it.” ”
"
This is another remarkable coincidence with Mr. Collier's
own conjecture in his note on the passage. But that those
who have read chafed have made the true correction is evident
from a parallel passage in K. Henry VIII. Act iii. Sc. 2:—
So looks the chafed lion
Upon the daring huntsman that has gall'd him.
Mr. Dyce has adduced other passages from Beaumont and
Fletcher quite decisive of this reading. See "Remarks on
Mr. Collier's and Mr. Knight's Editions of Shakespeare,"
1844, p. 92.
SCENE II.
Now, by my life, this day grows wond'rous hot :
Some airy devil hovers in the sky,
And pours down mischief.
"The word is spelt ayery in the folio, 1632, and the corrector
has changed the word to fyery, which, we may feel confident,
was that of the poet, and which is so consistent with the con-
text. Percy quotes Burton's Anatomy of Melancholy,'
where, among other things, it is said, ' Fiery spirits or devils
are such as commonly work by blazing stars.'
Warburton's exploded reading is here followed!
KING JOHN.
87
This is only half the truth, for a much more pertinent sup-
port of the old reading is to be found in the same place, in a
note by Henderson. "There is a minute description of dif
ferent devils or spirits, and their different functions, in
Pierce Pennilesse his Supplication, 1592." With respect to
the above passage take the following, (and it is remarkable
that this Tract has been edited by Mr. Collier!)—" the spirits
of the aire will mix themselves with thunder and lightning,
and so infect the clyme where they raise any tempest, that
sodainely great mortalitie shall ensue to the inhabitants. The
spirits of fire have their mansions under the region of the
moone." Nash and Shakespeare most probably drew their
pneumatology from the same source. The evidence is there-
fore decisive in favour of the old reading.
P. 205. Three minor corrections are proposed, of “ time”
for" tune," "ear of night" for "race of night," and "tingling"
for "tickling." The first was long since set right by Pope,
who has been since constantly followed. The second is also
apparently suggested by Steevens; and the last is very doubt-
ful; tickling or trickling would be quite as expressive as
tingling. In the two last of these instances interference with
the old text is not at all required.
Ib.
Then in despite of broaded watchful day.
(
"The corrector has the broad watchful day,' as if Pope's
broad-eyed were merely fanciful." Mr. Collier adds, "we
own a preference for broad-eyed."
This is candid. Mr. Collier does not therefore suppose
this to have been derived from "better authority than we
possess." But in his own edition we find the much more
probable reading of brooded, without any note. Brooded was
most likely the poet's word for brooding. The allusion being
to the vigilance of animals while brooding, or sitting on brood.
Thus, in Hamlet, the King says of him :—
There's something in his soul
O'er which his melancholy sits on brood.
And Milton
Where brooding darkness spreads his jealous wings.
88
SHAKESPEARE VINDICATED.
SCENE IV.
P. 205. "The same editor was nearly right when he pro-
posed collected sail' for convicted sail,' in what follows:-
(
A whole armado of convicted sail
Is scatter'd, and disjoin'd from fellowship.
"The true word, given in the margin of the folio, 1632, has
the same meaning as collected, but is nearer in form and
letters to the misprint in the ordinary text, viz.—
A whole armado of convented sail, &c.
i. e. a fleet had been convened at some port to bring aid to
the Dauphin. There is no need, therefore, to strain after a
meaning for 'convicted,' if, as we are assured, it was not the
word of the poet."
Yet Mr. Collier retained it in his edition, and explained it
"conquered sail"!
I once thought it should be “connected sail," the word is
sufficiently near to the form of the old misprint conuicted, and
suits the context better than convented. Mr. Dyce suggests
that Shakespeare may have written convected, from the Latin
convectus.
Ib. "Upon the passage in the speech of Constance, where
she is speaking of death,
Which cannot hear a lady's feeble voice,
Which scorns a modern invocation.
"Now we know that our great dramatist often uses 'modern'
for common or ordinary; but 'modern,' as used above, is one
of the strange errors of the press which found their way into
the text; and a marginal note in the corrected folio, 1632,
proves that we ought to substitute for it a word exactly appli-
cable to the condition of Constance :-
Which cannot hear a lady's feeble voice,
Which scorns a widow's invocation.
"Such an emendation could hardly have had its source in the
fancy, or even in the ingenuity of the old corrector."
For my own part, I cannot conceive what other possible
KING JOHN.
89
source, than the misplaced ingenuity of the corrector, this
perversion of the clear and intelligible text of the poet could
have had, unless it was suggested by Mr. Knight, who, with
similar misplaced ingenuity, substitutes:-
Which scorns a mother's invocation.
Upon this rash interference with the old text, Mr. Dyce
has thus expressed himself," Mr. Knight's alteration is one
of the rashest ever attempted by an editor. He had appa-
rently forgotten the following passage in Romeo and Juliet :-
Why follow'd not, when she said-Tybalt's dead
Thy father, or thy mother, nay, or both,
Which modern lamentation might have mov’d?
Act iii. Sc. 2."
P. 206. I pass over the unnecessary interpolation of the
word that, and the introduction of the word not, from the
fourth folio, as of no importance.
ACT IV. SCENE II.
P. 207. "John has been assigning some reasons to Salis-
bury, Pembroke, &c. for the repetition of his coronation,
principally founded upon apprehensions arising out of his
defective title at length he tells them, as the folio, 1623,
represents his language :-
:
Some reasons for this double coronation
I have possessed you with, and think them strong.
And more, more strong, then lesser is my fear
I shall indue you with.
"
"The folio, 1632, prints then less is my fear.' Theobald
read the lesser is my fear;' Steevens and Malone, [follow-
ing Tyrwhitt's suggestion,] 'when lesser is my fear.' But,"
says Mr. Collier, "they omitted to show why John should
defer the statement of his stronger reasons till his fear was
less, or why he should fancy that his fear would be less at
any time, than just after his coronation, which was to confirm
him on the throne. The corrector makes it clear that the
king referred to his strong reasons as having diminished his
90
SHAKESPEARE VINDICATED.
own apprehensions, which reasons he was ready hereafter to
communicate to his peers. He puts it thus:-
And more, more strong, thus lessening my fear,
I shall indue you with.
"The strength of his reasons had lessened his own fear, and
he imagined that, when stated, they would produce a good
effect upon others. The misprint was, ' then lesser is,' for
thus lessening, not a very violent change, and rendering the
meaning apparent.”
If we were to admit that "lesser is" was misprinted for
lessening we should read:-
And more, more strong,-than lessening my fear
I shall indue you with.
But this involves an ellipsis. King John would say:--I have
given you some reasons for this double coronation, and I shall
furnish you with more, stronger than that of lessening my fear.
In his edition of Shakespeare, vol. iv. p. 68, Mr. Collier has
the following note:-" The first folio has then for than,' the
commonest mode of printing the word in the time of Shake-
speare; but the commentators, not adverting to this circum-
stance, do not seem to have understood the passage, and
printed' when lesser is my fear,' putting it in parenthesis: the
meaning, however, seems to be, that the king will hereafter
give his lords reasons 'stronger than his fear was lesser: the
comparative lesser' is put for the positive little, because the
poet had used 'more strong' in the preceding line."
6
Upon this Mr. Dyce observes," Such a portentous reading,
and such a super-astute explanation, were perhaps never
before exhibited in any critical edition of any author, either
ancient or modern :-and all because Mr. Collier would not
alterthen' to ' when,' the latter word being as certainly the
right lection here, as it is in a passage at p. 412 of the same
volume (Vol. iv. Collier's Shakespeare), where he has not
scrupled to substitute it for 'that' of the old copy."-Remarks
on Mr. Collier's and Mr. Knight's editions, p. 95.
P. 207. The transposition of then and should, would certainly
be an advantage to the lucidus ordo. As it is, we must un-
KING JOHN.
91
derstand "why then is it." The same may be said of reading
ill deeds, for deeds ill. The transposition was made by Mr.
Knight, in his edition, and suggested to Mr. Collier, but re-
jected by him!
P. 208. But thou didst understand me by my signs,
And did'st in signs again parley with sin.
"The last word is spelt sinne in the old copies, and ought
undoubtedly, as we are instructed in manuscript, to be sign,
formerly signe."
Although this is specious, the reading of the old copy is
perfectly intelligible, and in some respects preferable, and
must not be disturbed for a fanciful conjecture.
SCENE III.
"We here meet with an error of the press, which shows
how the letters m and w were again mistaken by the old
printer. Pembroke asks,—
Who brought that letter from the cardinal?
"and Salisbury's answer relates to a private communication
he had received at the same time. The words of the folios
have always been taken as the true text, viz.
The count Melun, a noble lord of France,
Whose private with me of the Dauphin's love,
Is much more general than these lines import.
"The notes upon this passage have all referred to the word
private,' when the blunder lies in with me:'
Whose private missive of the Dauphin's love.
"is the way in which the corrector says that the line should
have been printed: The Count of Melun had, at the same
time that he conveyed the Cardinal's letter, brought to Salis-
bury a private missive,' or communication, containing as-
surances of the Dauphin's regards. This correction seems to
imply resort to some original, such as that which the printer
of the folio, 1623, had misread."
It is very improbable that the words "with me" should
have been a misprint for missive! Every one familiar with
92
SHAKESPEARE VINDICATED.
the diplomatic correspondence of the reign of Elizabeth,
would at once recognise this as a common form of expression
for the oral communication confided to a trust-worthy mes-
senger who carried despatches; and some of the numerous
volumes of State Papers of that time would no doubt
furnish the express words of the poet. Allusions to this
private oral communication are perpetual. "Haynes' Bur-
leigh Papers" afford many examples. Thus in minutes of
Queen Elizabeth's letters to Lord Scrope and others: "Of
which matters we have somewhat more largely imparted our
mind to this bearer," p. 571. "As for all other things, we
remit you to the declarations of our mind by Sir P. Carew,'
&c. "The present time giveth us occasion to send unto you
our trusty servant Thomas Warcop, this Bearer, to th' intent
that you may be at good length better informed by him,-
then conveniently is to be now don by writing,” p. 555.
The words of the folio must still, therefore, continue to "be
taken as the true text," until we have better "authority"
than that of the corrector for interference.
P. 208.
The king hath dispossessed himself of us:
We will not line his thin bestained cloak.
The corrector reads "sin-bestained," which is, doubtless,
a good and probable conjectural emendation.
P. 209. The reading,-
"Till I have set a glory to this head,”
was long since suggested by Pope, and Dr. Farmer tells us
that Gray was much pleased with it; yet, from the perversity
I
of Malone, it did not find a place in the variorum text.
adopted it in my edition, in 1826, but it was rejected by Mr.
Collier, as well as Mr. Knight.
ACT V. SCENE I.
Ib. The wanton arbitrary changes of "sad distrust" to
"blank distrust," and meet for be, are, as Mr. Collier feels
constrained to acknowledge, "not forced upon our adoption
by anything like necessity.
KING JOHN.
93
"
P. 210. The two readings proposed of " courage and run,'
instead of "forage and run," and "send fair-play offers,” in-
stead of “orders," have both some show of plausibility, but the
first is by no means a necessary correction.
Ib. The same may be said of the correction in Salisbury's
speech,-
I must withdraw, and weep
Upon the spot of this enforced cause.
The corrector would substitute thought for "spot;" but the
latter may be right, and signify stain or disgrace. In a former
passage we have:—
"To look into the spots and stains of right."
P. 211. The corrector would change,—
To thrill, and shake,
Even at the crying of your nation's crow,
to "the crowing of your nation's cock," but there is no neces-
sity for change. Mr. Collier misrepresents my friend Mr.
Douce's note, which is "your nation's crow," i. e. at the crow-
ing of a cock; gallus meaning both a cock and a French-
man."
Ib. For-
SCENE IV.
Unthread the rude eye of rebellion
the corrector would substitute-
Untread the road-way of rebellion
Mr. Collier says, "To misprint untread the road-way, 'un-
thread the rude eye,' seems an excess of carelessness, which
we cannot in any way explain."
I should wonder if it could be explained; for never was a
more improbable conjecture, though Theobald had stumbled
on it, and perhaps the corrector derived it from him? To
unthread the rude eye of rebellion, is merely a metaphor for
to undo what you have done, and return to your allegiance to
the king. It is impossible to consider it a typographical
error, and of this Mr. Collier seems to be conscious.
94
SHAKESPEARE VINDICATED.
P. 211.
For I do see the cruel pangs of death
Right in thine eye;
The corrector reads "Bright in thine eye." This is plausible,
but not necessary. The old text is perfectly intelligible.
SCENE V.
P. 212. "For the line, as it stands in the folios,-
And wound our tott'ring colours clearly up.
“the corrector has,—
And wound our tott'red colours closely up.
"Tattered was then usually spelt 'tottered,' and he preferred
the passive to the active participle, though we may doubt if
Shakespeare exercised any such discretion. Neither are we
prepared to say that we like closely better than 'clearly;' the
latter, perhaps, indicating the winding up of the colours with-
out obstruction from the enemy."
Mr. Collier, in a note on the passage, in his edition of
Shakespeare, also defends tattering, and informs us that
"Steevens altered it to tatter'd, against all the authorities."
Ignorance of the true language of the poet has, on all hands,
here caused this unnecessary interference with the text. Tot-
t'ring, as it stands in both the folios, is the poet's word, and
does not signify, as Mr. Collier explains it, (but without
adducing any authority,) tattered, but wavering, shaking.
Thus Baret: "to tottre, nutare, vacillare see shake and
wagge."
The Dauphin means to put the best face on a
drawn battle, and says: Our colours that were tott'ring, and
like to have gone down in the action, were fairly furled up at
its close without disaster. Though not lords of the field, we
were the last to quit it. It is obvious that this is the true
meaning of Shakespeare, for how could tatter'd colours be
clearly wound up? We may, therefore, safely follow the read-
ing of the old copies, and read tott'ring and clearly, in despite
of the authority of the corrector, and the argument of his
editor.
KING JOHN.
95
SCENE VII.
P. 212. "Much contention has arisen upon a question,
which the amended folio, 1632, will set at rest, founded upon
this passage, where Prince Henry refers to the King's fatal ill-
ness :-
Death, having prey'd upon the outward parts,
Leaves them invisible; and his siege is now
Against the mind.
"In the old copies 'mind' is misprinted wind; and besides
setting right this obvious blunder, the corrector remedies an-
other defect of greater importance. It has been suggested by
different annotators that 'invisible' ought to be insensible, in-
vincible, &c. There is no doubt that invisible' is wrong, and
the corrector converts it into unvisited, which may, we think, be
adopted without hesitation-death has abandoned the king's
external form, and has laid siege to his understanding :-
6
Death, having prey'd upon the outward parts,
Leaves them unvisited; and his siege is now
Against the mind.”
Mr. Collier, in his edition of Shakespeare, retains the cor-
ruption "invisible" of the old copy, and says that the adjec-
tive stands for the adverb invisibly; that "Death, after he has
preyed upon the outward parts, invisibly leaves them—and
that alteration is quite unnecessary." !
As this passage has had a pretty large discussion, it may be
as well to take the whole context together, and see to what it
leads.
P. Hen. O vanity of sickness! fierce extremes,
In their continuance, will not feel themselves.
Death, having prey'd upon the outward parts,
Leaves them insensible; and his siege is now
Against the mind, the which he pricks and wounds
With many legions of strange fantasies;
Which, in their throng and press to that last hold,
Confound themselves.
Now, that invisible and unvisited would be absurd and sense-
less in this passage, who can doubt? The correction of it to
insensible is so obvious, so near to the form of the old word,
96
SHAKESPEARE VINDICATED.
and affords such excellent sense, that few, I think, would for
a moment entertain the corrector's unvisited. It may be ob-
served that" that last hold," is the last place where sensation
remains. I hope Mr. Collier would not assume, that the cor-
rector's reading " may have been obtained from some better
manuscript than that in the hands of the old printer."
P. 214.
"AT
KING RICHARD II.
ACT I. SCENE I.
T the very beginning of Bolingbroke's first speech, a
word has dropped out, the absence of which spoils the
metre; it is found in a manuscript correction of the folio,
1632."
So, then, we are to insert or omit words ad libitum, when the
metre does not suit us! Let us hear what Mr. Collier says of
others, on a like occasion. "Malone and the modern editors
silently omit an, probably under the notion that they had a right
to correct Shakespeare's metre."! (Shaksp. Vol. iv. p. 55.)
Ib. Of the next piece of meddling, the substitution of
"wrath or" for "other," Mr. Collier himself confesses,
"We
may question the necessity for this change." Truly we may !
Ib. To the substitution of " a clear account” for a dear ac-
count, in Mowbray's speech, there appears no objection; it
bears the marks of a probable misprint, cl and d are easily
mistaken for each other.
SCENE II.
P. 215. “We may feel assured that the word 'farewell'
was repeated in the following line, and we find it in manu-
script in the margin of the folio, 1632, though not in any ex-
tant copy of the play :-
Why then, I will. Farewell, farewell, old Gaunt."
KING RICHARD II.
97
In a note on this passage, in his edition of Shakespeare,
Mr. Collier says, "Sir T. Hanmer, Steevens, and Ritson con-
sider this line defective, inasmuch as it has only eight sylla-
bles. All the old copies are uniform in giving it as in our
text (i. e. without the second farewell), and probably Shake-
speare meant so to leave it. The time is amply made up by
the pause after Why then, I will,' before the Duchess con-
tinues, Farewell, old Gaunt.' Shakespeare has many lines of
eight syllables." What then becomes of Mr. Collier's assur-
ance that it was repeated?
to
'
(
Ib. To change
Desolate, desolate, will I hence and die-
Desolate, desperate, will I hence and die—
is of a piece with the other wanton innovations on the lan-
guage of the poet which offend us in every page.
ACT II. SCENE I.
P. 216. "On the entrance of the King, Queen, &c. York
says to Gaunt, as the passage has always stood:-
The King is come: deal mildly with his youth ;
For young hot colts, being rag'd, do rage the more-
"which is nothing better than a truism, that young hot colts
rage the more by being raged. This defect has arisen from a
misprint, which seems very obvious as soon as it is pointed out
by the corrector of the folio, 1632, who alters the second line
as follows:-
For young hot colts, being urg'd, do rage the more.
"This is beyond controversy an improvement.
I must say this is disingenuous on the part of Mr. Collier,
for he would evidently lead us to believe that this was first
pointed out' by the corrector, whereas Ritson had long since
proposed what I consider a better and more probable reading,
For young hot colts, being rein'd, do rage the more.
H
98
SHAKESPEARE VINDICATED.
York means to say, do not thwart him or irritate him, for
young hot colts fret and rage when they are restrained by being
rein'd. The corrector's urg'd is as much a truism as Mr.
Collier represents rag'd to be.
P. 216. The substitution of wives for lives in Northumber-
land's speech is plausible, but not necessary.
P. 217. The substitution of our for as in Ross's speech is
very plausible, and is borne out by the context, which seems
to require the correction.
SCENE II.
Ib. “More than one passage in the scene between the
Queen, Bushy, and Bagot, in which she states that she feels
that some unknown calamity is hanging over her, has occa-
sioned difficulty. The first place in which the corrector of the
folio, 1632, offers us any assistance, stands thus in the folios :—
So heavy sad,
As though on thinking on no thought I think,
Makes me with heavy nothing faint and shrink.
"Here perplexity has been produced by misprinting the word
unthinking as two words, 'on thinking:' the Queen was so
sad, that it made her faint and shrink with nothing, although
she was so unthinking as not to think. Malone and others
have 'in thinking,' which seems just the opposite of what
was intended.”
In his note on the passage, in his edition of Shakespeare,
Mr. Collier says, "It seems necessary, with Johnson, to alter
on to in; the meaning being, that the queen in reflecting can
fix her thought upon nothing." Mr. Collier may be assured
that the old text is right, and does not require even Johnson's
alteration of on to in; and that his own explanation of the old
reading is nearly right. The queen means "though musing on,
I fix my thoughts on nothing definite, yet I faint and shrink
with this heavy nothing." As Johnson has well observed,
"The involuntary and unaccountable depression of mind which
every one has sometimes felt, is here very forcibly described."
KING RICHARD II.
99
To be "so unthinking as not to think" could hardly make
her sad. It was her too busy, but indefinite, thoughts con-
juring up forebodings of evil, that weighed her down with
grief.
P. 218. "Bushy assures [the Queen] that her sadness was
merely 'conceit,' to which she replies in five lines, which have
still more puzzled commentators:
'Tis nothing less: conceit is still deriv'd
From some forefather grief; mine is not so,
For nothing hath begot my something grief,
Or something hath the nothing that I grieve:
"Tis in reversion that I do possess, &c.
"The old corrector shows that the four last lines ought to be
rhyming-couplets, which the scribe seems to have written at
random, and has thus made utterly unintelligible what, at the
best, is difficult. In the corrected folio the lines are thus
given, we may presume upon some authority :-
'Tis nothing less: conceit is still deriv'd
From some forefather grief; mine is not so,
For nothing hath begot my something woe;
Or something hath the nothing that I
guess
'Tis in reversion that I do possess, &c.
“i. e. the nothing that the Queen guessed, had some woe in it,
and she possessed it in reversion, before it actually came upon
her. The scribe blundered from not at all understanding what
he was putting upon paper, and the compositor made it worse
by knowing nothing of the meaning of what he was putting in
print. The proposed changes, woe for 'grief,' and guess for
'grieve,' besides receiving support from the rhyme, at all
events, supply a meaning to words which some commentators
gave up in despair."
I am afraid there are other scribes who are in the same pre-
dicament that Mr. Collier figures to himself. Does Mr. Col-
lier mean to say that the licentious changes indulged in by his
corrector have elucidated the passage? Why should woe be
more intelligible than grief? Or the Queen guess nothing?
Every day's experience affords instances of grieving by antici-
pation for nothing, i. e. some dreaded but unknown event to
100
SHAKESPEARE VINDICATED.
come, and this was the Queen's case. She makes no guess,
but anticipates some uncertain calamity. Are Shakespeare's
words to be changed at the caprice of such a lover of rhyming
verses, as the corrector manifests himself to be? What scribe
or what printer could mistake grief, as written, for woe, or
even grieve for guess!
P. 218. The insertion of near in York's speech is a gratu-
itous piece of meddling for the sake of the metre, forsooth!
A plague on all these metre-mongers!
P. 219. "The epithet used by the Duke of York, in his
reproof of Bolingbroke, when he asks him,-
But then, more why, why have they dar'd to march
So many miles upon her peaceful bosom,
Frighting her pale-fac'd villages with war,
And ostentation of despised arms?
"Despised arms' would not 'fright' by their 'ostentation;'
and Warburton recommended disposed, not a very happy sug-
gestion; and Sir T. Hanmer, despightful; while Monck Mason
fancied that York meant that the arms were 'despised' by
himself. A misprint misled them; for, according to the cor-
rector of the folio, 1632, we ought to read:-
66
With ostentation of despoiling arms :
villages might well be frighted by the 'despoiling arms' of
Bolingbroke."
The misprint has misled the corrector as well as his prede-
cessors. His epithet is quite as unhappy. The word displaied
has been mistaken for despised, and we may with some degree
of certainty read,
With ostentation of displayed arms.
The rash and uncalled for substitution of 'But more than
that' for the effective' But then more why?' three lines above,
is only another instance of the impertinent conceit of this
would-be improver of the poet's language."
KING RICHARD II.
101
ACT III. SCENE II.
P. 219. Again the corrector tampers unnecessarily with the
text, by inserting a word in one line, and omitting one in
another, neither of them improvements. If such license is to
be indulged and approved, every line in Shakespeare might be
rewritten.
P. 220. The first two corrections in the following lines, of
clasp for "clap," and feeble for "female," armour for "arms,"
though plausible, are not required; the poet using arms for
armour frequently: the latter correction necessitates the
elision of a in " against."
Strive to speak big, and clasp their feeble joints
In stiff unwieldy armour against thy crown.
Mr. Collier, in his edition, retained the old reading clap, al-
though clasp had long since been suggested by Pope, which
may have led to that of the corrector. Another reading, clip,
had been proposed by Ritson.
SCENE III.
P. 221. The substitution of storm for "harm in York's
speech is a legitimate correction, which I find also in my own
corrected second folio. The change of "fearful" to faithful
is not at all necessary or advisable.
Ib. The variations made in the Gardener's speech are no
improvement upon the reading adopted by Malone and fol-
lowed by Mr. Collier in his edition.
ACT IV. SCENE I.
P. 222. The readings in Bolingbroke's speech are those
adopted in the modern editions, with the exception of the
striking out of the word "himself," which is an unwarrantable
liberty, not at all requisite. The reading, "As surely as I.
live, my lord," is a remarkable coincidence with Mr. Collier's
adoption of it from the 4to of 1597.
102
SHAKESPEARE VINDICATED.
P. 222. "The folio, 1632, misprints the following line,—
Give sorrow leave a while to tutor me,-
"by absurdly putting return for 'tutor.' This blunder is set
right by the old corrector; but it seems as if he had previously
substituted some other word, and had erased it. Such may
have been the case in several other places where he himself
blundered."
This is hardly candid on the part of Mr. Collier, for who
would not think that this "blunder was set right" by the
sagacity of the corrector; whereas it is only the reading of the
first folio, where the word is tuture, and the misprint had
been corrected in all editions! Do not the frequent erasures
in this corrected volume excite any suspicion in Mr. Collier's
mind that it has been extensively tampered with?
ACT V. SCENE I.
P. 223. The insertion of this in the Queen's speech is en-
tirely supererogatory, and the omission of hath he quite unwar-
rantable. Mr. Collier would visit the transgression severely
on any other emendator.
Ib. Mr. Collier finds his own predilection for the reading of
tale from the 4to, rather than that of the folio full, supported
by his corrector. I incline to think with Malone, that the
word was altered by Shakespeare himself, and that full is the
true reading.
SCENE III.
P. 225. The variations from the received text in the following
lines would not be worthy of notice, but that Mr. Collier
insinuates that they "may lead to the conclusion that the
corrector was guided by some authority not now known!
Good uncle, help to order several powers
To Oxford, or where else the traitors be.
They shall not live within this world, I swear,
But I will have them, so I once know where.
Uncle, farewell, and, cousin mine, adieu,
I should like to know for which of their transcendent merits
KING RICHARD II.
103
these innovations upon the text, as it has long been satisfac-
torily printed, would lead to Mr. Collier's conclusion? I have
printed them here, to enable the reader to compare and judge
whether they have the slightest advantage over the ordinary
reading, except that of a wider departure from the old text.
P. 226. There is nothing in the few remaining notes on
this play that calls for remark, but the system of interpola-
tion is continued to suit the caprice of the corrector. One
specimen will suffice; this "notable instance” occurs where
Bolingbroke passes sentence on the Bishop of Carlisle :-
Carlisle, this is your doom," which is extended to :—
Bishop of Carlisle, this shall be your doom.
If, for the sake of the metre or the rhyme, we are allowed
to thrust words into the text wherever we think them wanting
-the poet's language may soon be entirely submerged.
FIRST PART OF KING HENRY IV.
P. 228.
"TH
ACT I. SCENE I.
HE first line of this play presents an alteration, but
a questionable improvement, by the corrector of the
folio, 1632: for-
6
So shaken as we are, so wan with care,
"he has worn with care,' which may be right, although, as
far as the sense of the passage is concerned, it may not be
necessary to do the violence of changing the received text.”
Here, at least, Mr. Collier is candid; and tacitly confesses
that the authority of the corrector is not sufficient to sanction
any interference with the text, which is not a SELF-EVIDENT
improvement.
104
SHAKESPEARE VINDICATED.
P. 229. The transfer of "Faith, 'tis," from the end of the
King's speech to the beginning of that of Westmoreland,
which had been done by Pope, is another coincidence. But
the interpolation of "the bold," on account of the metre, is
of a piece with the other innovations. I pass over two or
three other meddlings of the same kind, not to tire the pa-
tience of the reader. There is one remarkable correspondence
with the quartos, which has been set right in all modern edi-
tions, and did not call for notice, except as a coincidence.
SCENE III.
P. 230. “ All impressions, quarto and folio, ancient and mo-
dern, have, one after the other, repeated a flagrant error of
the press in the earliest edition of this play in 1598: the mis-
take has given vast annoyance to each succeeding editor, and
the emendation is one of those that must strike the moment
it is pointed out. Nobody has been able to explain satisfac-
torily the use of the word' fears' in the subsequent lines,
where the King indignantly asks,—
Shall our coffers, then,
Be emptied to redeem a traitor home?
Shall we buy treason, and indent with fears,
When they have lost and forfeited themselves?
"It seems strange," says Mr. C. " that, in the course of two
hundred and fifty years, nobody should ever have even guessed
at foes for 'fears:' if it were inerely a guess by the old cor-
rector, it is a happy one; and some may be disposed to enter-
tain the opinion that he had an opportunity of resorting to a
better original than any of the printed copies.”
The corrector is, indeed, a wonderfully frequent guesser at
what others have guessed; but perhaps Sir Thomas Hanmer
had also access to his "better original?" For, although Mr.
Collier would appear to be ignorant of it, Hanmer gave this
reading at least a century ago! It is certain, however, that it
found no favour with the succeeding vastly annoyed editors,
any more than it did with Mr. Collier in 1842, when to in-
dent with fears" appears to have been perfectly intelligible, at
least to him! The discovery of his corrected folio seems to
have “collied his better judgment." It is one of the canons
laid down, that when good sense can be obtained from the
66
FIRST PART OF KING HENRY IV.
105
old reading it must not be disturbed. The King evidently
means, "Shall we purchase back a traitor, buy treason, and
enter into a compact with fears?" (i. e. with objects of fear),
when they have lost and forfeited themselves. Still, if any
one is inclined to think foes the true reading, let Hanmer have
part at least of the triumphant honour which Mr. Collier
claims for his corrector, on account of this marvellous dis-
covery!
P.231. No! yet time serves, wherein you may redeem
"
Your banish'd honours, and restore yourselves
Into the good thoughts of the world again.
"For banish'd honours,' we are very reasonably instructed
to put' tarnish'd honours," says Mr. Collier.
To" redeem tarnish'd honours," would, at all events, be a
very singular mode of expression! Why interfere with the old
text, which is perfectly intelligible ?
Ib. Why dwell upon the reading " Lord Mortimer," which
has been that of all editions for upwards of a century? Is it
to swell the list of the wonderful deeds of this extraordinary
corrector, and his coincidences?
(
ACT II. SCENE I.
Ib. "Much speculation has been the result of the subse-
quent speech by Gadshill, where he is talking of the high
rank of the parties with whom, as a highwayman, he was in
league :-
I am joined with no foot land-rakers, no long-staff, sixpenny strikers:
none of these mad, mustachio purple-hued maltworms; but with no-
bility and tranquillity: burgomasters, and great oneyers, such as can
hold in; such as will strike sooner than speak, &c.
"No question seems to have arisen regarding the word 'tran-
quillity'—'nobility and tranquillity'— although it has no mean-
ing in this place; but ingenuity has been exhausted upon
great oneyers,' which we have been desired to read moneyers,
one-eers, mynheers, &c. when it is merely, as we learn from
the corrector of the folio, 1632, a misprint, the word 'tran-
quillity,' which precedes it, being in the same predicament.
106
SHAKESPEARE VINDICATED.
He sets the whole matter right thus: I am joined with no
foot land-rakers, &c. but with nobility and sanguinity; burgo-
masters, and great ones—yes, such as can hold in,' &c. The
first error seems to have arisen from mishearing, and the last
from misprinting."
This is only one more of the absurd attempts to alter cha-
racteristic language; to reduce the intended slang of Gads-
hill to the rule and square of ordinary speech! I am not sur-
prised at this folly in the corrector, but at Mr. Collier's seri-
ous comment upon it. Johnson had a glimpse of the truth.
In a note on this passage, in my edition of Shakespeare, in
1826, I observed that "The ludicrous nature of the appella-
tions which Gadshill bestows upon his associates, might have
sufficiently shown the commentators that such attempts must
be futile.'
The corrector's idle attempts are here, therefore, quite out
of place, and supererogatory.
SCENE III.
P. 232. There is an impertinent interpolation of four words
in the first line of Hotspur's speech to his wife, " Come; wilt
thou see me ride?" which are not only improbable, but out of
character. And yet Mr. Collier says, "They are of little im-
port, excepting as they serve to prove that our great dramatist
did not leave the line imperfect." !
P. 233. Here are two or three more trifling meddlings with
the text, none of them improvements. One deserves notice,
in Mr. Collier's own words: "The Prince calls Falstaff, ac-
cording to the old corrector of the folio, 1632, not that
trunk of humours,' but that hulk of humours,' against all
known authorities, but it may very likely be right.” !
<
ACT III. SCENE I.
•
P. 234. We have here again more interpolations, quite un-
called for, upon any other ground than the pragmatical no-
tion that the corrector everywhere evinces, that he could im-
prove upon the language of the poet!
FIRST PART OF KING HENRY IV.
107
P. 234. In faith, my lord, you are too wilful-blame.
"The epithet wilful,'" says Mr. Collier, "in some way
became misplaced, and 'too' for 'to,' and vice versa, was a
The old corrector tells us it was,-
very common error.
In faith, my wilful lord, you are to blame.”
And so we are to twist and turn about the phraseology of
the poet according to our own caprice! It has been well ob-
served, that "phrases are not always to be construed gramma-
tically; a phrase is an abridgment of a sentence, and com-
prehends essentially the whole meaning." This phrase is
like others in Shakespeare, where the first adjective has the
power of an adverb; and signifies, "You are wilfully to
blame." Tyrwhitt has pointed out similar compounds in K.
Richard III. where we have childish-foolish, senseless-obsti-
nate, and mortal-staring.
SCENE II.
P. 235. “The old printer took more pains than usual with
the great scene between Henry IV. and the Prince, but still,
if we may rely upon the corrector of the folio, 1632, intro-
duced several important blunders. One of them applies to
the words carded his state,' which Warburton, with great
sagacity, proposed to read, 'discarded state:' such is the emen-
dation proposed in manuscript."
6
Warburton's" sagacity" here is about equal to that of
the corrector. The text undoubtedly needs no "emendation.”
To card is to mix, to mingle, or debase by mixing. The
metaphor is most probably derived from the mingling of coarse
wool with fine and carding them together, thereby diminish-
ing the value of the latter. The phrase is used by other
writers for to mingle or mix. Thus in Beaumont and Fletcher's
"Tamer Tamed:
But mine is such a drench of balderdash,
Such a strange carded cunningness.
And in Greene's "Quip for an Upstart Courtier:"-" You
card your beer (if you see your guests beginning to get drunk)
half small, half strong." It is also mentioned by Nash, by
108
SHAKESPEARE VINDICATED.
Skelton, and by Fletcher, in Hakluyt, vol. ii. p. 489, "they
drinke milke, or warm blood, and for the most part card them
both together." Shakespeare himself affords an illustration
of the term in All's Well that Ends Well:-"The web of our
life is of a mingled yarn, good and ill together." But the
context shows clearly that this is the meaning, "carded his
state, mingled his royalty with carping fools." And Mr.
Collier himself, in 1842, thought this reading and explanation
preferable to Warburton's " sagacious" conjecture.
SCENE III.
P. 236. The introduction of not in Falstaff's speech, "Thou
art our Admiral, thou bearest the lantern in the poop,—but it
is in the nose of thee," is quite unnecessary, but is adversative
and not would be quite superfluous.
ACT IV. SCENE I.
The notice taken of the two next corrections, both of them
long set right in all editions, serves only to swell the list of
the corrector's coincidences with all improved readings!
P. 237. "Worcester observes, in the folios,-
The quality and heire of our attempt
Brooks no division.
6
<
"In the quartos of 1598 and 1599, heire' was haire,' the
old mode of spelling hair; and this, the old corrector assures
us, was the true word, the meaning of the speaker being as
suggested in note 1," (Collier's Shakesp.)
"that the power
he, and the other revolted lords could produce, was too small
to allow of any division of it"!
This is a strange exposition of the passage, which I cannot
comprehend! does Mr. Collier think of splitting a hair?
"The hair of our attempt" is the nature or complexion of it.
To be " of the same hair" was to be of the same grain,
texture, character or complexion. Hair is the reading of all
modern editions; and no discovery of the corrector.
(C
an
Ib. "An old faced ancient" is quite as intelligible as
old pieced one," which the corrector would substitute. The
reading “but a shirt and a half," instead of not, is Rowe's,
FIRST PART OF KING HENRY IV.
109
and needed no mention here, for it has long been the received
text.
P. 238. The omission of this day, on account of the metre,
in the following lines,
I hold as little counsel with weak fear,
As you, my lord, or any Scot that this day lives.
was long since made by Steevens, and restored by Mr. Collier
in his edition!
Two other substitutions of with for and, and due for well,
are mere capricious alterations of the text, without the slightest
warrant or necessity.
ACT V. SCENE I.
Of the insertion of say in Worcester's speech the same may
be said, and the restoration from the 4to of the deficient word
your, in the last line of the King's speech, had been made
time out of mind in all editions.
SCENE II.
P. 239. The palpable error of supposition for suspicion has
also been corrected in all editions since Pope's time, as well as
the evident misprint of he for we. Surely these trifles were
scarcely worthy of notice but to swell the catalogue of happy
coincidences!
Ib. "The last four lines of Percy's address are these, as
always hitherto printed :—
Sound all the lofty instruments of war,
And by that music let us all embrace ;
For, heaven to earth, some of us never shall
A second time do such a courtesy.
“Warburton was of opinion that the poet meant that the
odds were so great, that heaven might be wagered against
earth, that many present would never embrace again. This
is a mistake, according to the manuscript-corrector: Hotspur
calls heaven and earth to witness to the improbability that some
of those present would ever have an opportunity of regreeting
each other:-
Fore heaven and earth, some of us never shall
A second time do such a courtesy."
110
SHAKESPEARE VINDICATED.
I must confess I cannot see what we gain by this alteration.
The objection still remains of an idle imprecation, which would
not have entered Hotspur's mind at such a solemn moment.
In May 1852, I suggested the following reading, which
I have reason to know has been admitted, by many competent
judges, to redeem this fine passage, and restore to it the true
expression of heroic pathos which it was intended to breathe,
Sound all the lofty instruments of war,
And by that music let us all embrace;
For here on earth some of us never shall
A second time do such a courtesy.
The words heaven to earth and here on earth were easily mis-
taken for each other in old manuscript, and the page preceding
that on which the error occurs in the folio has a much stranger
misreading.
P. 239. For,
The King hath many marching in his coats:
the corrector would read :—
The King hath many masking in his coats.
This is specious; but, as Mr. Collier himself says, “The old
reading is intelligible, and does not positively require change."
Why then propose it?
P. 240. The reading of the quartos "earthy" instead
of the earth of the folios, has been that of all editions, time
out of mind, and therefore nothing new; and the substitution
of which for since, and the omission of it in the line of Wor-
cester's last speech, were neither of them called for.
P.241. The following lines are not in the folios. The cor-
rector writes them in the margin—
I thank your grace for this high courtesy,
Which I will give away immediately-
but with this substitution,
Which I shall put in act without delay.
Upon which Mr. Collier observes, "This variation may induce
FIRST PART OF KING HENRY IV.
111
the belief that the corrector had access to some authority in-
dependent of any of the printed copies of this play, whether
in quarto or folio; although not a few of his emendations,
as we have seen, correspond with the earliest and some other
quartos, which had been abandoned by the folios.'
The variation induces no such belief; for the corrector shows
on all occasions that he thought he could improve upon the
language of Shakespeare. "Not a few" indeed of the so
called emendations of the corrector are adoptions of such read-
ings as have been supplied by successive editors from the
earlier quartos. It would be wonderful, truly, if he should
have fortunately hit upon the very copies which furnished
these readings on all occasions. It leads to the conclusion
that we owe these corrections to some comparatively recent
hand, who adopted them from one of the variorum editions.
SECOND PART OF KING HENRY IV.
INDUCTION.
P. 242. The very first two corrections in the Induction to
this play, mentioned by Mr. Collier, are merely the readings
of misprints, which have been adopted silently in all editions,
even Mr. Collier's and Mr. Knight's. In fact, the first folio
has surmises. Why it was necessary to mention these, but for
the purpose of swelling the catalogue of the corrector's coin-
cidences, I cannot conceive.
Mr. Collier judiciously says, "We may doubt the fitness of
changing peasant-towns, as printed with a hyphen in the folios,
to pleasant towns." He adds, however, "but it may be right,
and it ought, therefore, to be mentioned!" Does Mr. Collier
think it necessary to mention all the crudities of the corrector?
His book would have consisted of but few pages, but would
have been much more valuable, had he confined himself to the
few corrections of evident errors, which were new to the world.
ACT I. SCENE I.
P. 243. Again! Why mention at all the correction of the
112
SHAKESPEARE VINDICATED.
palpable misprint of the folio able for armed; which had been
set right from the 4to long since, in all editions, even in Mr.
Knight's, who says very truly, that "the compositor caught
the word able from the preceding line." But Mr. Collier's
notion-" that if the corrector did not obtain the word from the
quarto, he might have heard the passage accurately recited on
the stage in his day, or possibly he used some independent but
concurrent authority," explains his motive.
Ib. The adoption of Theobald's reading of " ruggeďst hour"
for ragged'st hour, which had long been rejected, was not
perhaps very judicious in the corrector, but may serve to show
that he was acquainted at least with Theobald's edition, or
some later one that adopted his reading, or mentioned it.
SCENE II.
P. 243. The reading "costermonger days," instead of
costermonger times, and "about three of the afternoon,” in-
stead of “ about three o'clock in the afternoon," are certainly
no improvement upon the received reading of the quartos,
adopted in all editions, but a capricious variation; perhaps
Mr. Collier would say, on authority unknown to us."!
(6
P. 244. The substitution of diseases for degrees in Falstaff's
speech is a good and legitimate correction; which has also
been made in my copy of the second folio. It was one which,
although it has escaped the commentators, would be very
likely to suggest itself to any one whose attention was espe-
cially directed to the numerous typographical errors that dis-
figure that book.
SCENE III.
P. 244. "Farther on, Lord Bardolph draws a parallel be-
tween the building of a house and the carrying on a war,
which is obscured by the omission of a whole line, fortunately
inserted in the margin by the old corrector. Our first extract
is as it stands in the folios, and we will follow it by the same
quotation as amended. The speaker is supposing that a man
SECOND PART OF KING HENRY IV.
113
purposes at first to construct a dwelling, which he afterwards
finds beyond his means :—
What do we then, but draw anew the model
In fewer offices; or at least desist
To build at all? Much more in this great work,
(Which is almost to pluck a kingdom down,
And set another up,) should we survey
The plot of situation, and the model;
Consent upon a sure foundation;
Question surveyors; know our own estate,
How able such a work to undergo,
To weigh against his opposite; or else,
We fortify in paper, and in figures, &c.
"As amended by the old corrector, the same passage runs
as follows:-
What do we then, but draw anew the model
In fewer offices; or at last desist
To build at all?
Much more in this great work,
(Which is almost to pluck a kingdom down
And set another up) should we survey
The plot, the situation, and the model,
Consult upon a sure foundation,
Question surveyors, know our own estate,
How able such a work to undergo.
A careful leader sums what force he brings
To weigh against his opposite; or else
We fortify on paper, and in figures, &c.
“That the furnishing of this new connecting line (to say no-
thing of verbal emendations, the first of which Steevens specu-
lated upon) between Lord Bardolph's simile and its application,
is an important improvement, although the question still re-
turns upon us, from whence was it derived?”
I unhesitatingly answer this question-Certainly from the
perverse misapprehension of the passage by the corrector, who-
ever he may have been, and from his conceit that he could
improve the language and thoughts of the poet. His inter-
polation mars entirely the integrity of the poet's simile, by
introducing a new element, and interrupting its course; mak-
ing what was before perfectly simple and consecutive, in-
volved. The reading last for "least" may have been adopted
I
114
SHAKESPEARE VINDICATED.
from Steevens. The only other correction which the passage
requires, if indeed that be necessary, is to read "this oppo-
site," instead of his. "Much more in this great work," says
Lord Bardolph," should we examine our plan, our situation,
and the frame of it. Agree upon a secure foundation of it.
Question lookers-on, know our position; how far we are able
to undertake such a work, and preponderate against this
adversary." There is no necessity for further deviation from
the old copy.
P. 244. "The first twenty lines of Lord Bardolph's second
speech are only in the folio impressions, and the corrector of
that of 1632 shows that they have been most corruptly printed,
probably from defects in the manuscript in the hands of the
compositor. Malone and others set right one error in the first.
line, by converting if' to in, but the second line appears to
be even more strangely blundered, for instead of—
66
(
Indeed the instant action, a cause on foot, &c.
we ought to read the whole passage thus: it is in answer
to Northumberland's question, whether it could do harm to
hope?-
Yes, in this present quality of war:
Indeed the instant act and cause on foot
Lives so in hope, as in the early spring
We see appearing buds, &c.
"Thus the measure is amended, and the sense cleared."
But surely act and for action, is anything but an improve-
ment. There have been numerous suggestions for the correc-
tion of this passage, none of them more satisfactory than this
conjecture of the corrector. The reading of the old copy,
merely substituting in for "if," as Johnson suggested, will
bear this construction :
It never yet did hurt (says Hastings) to be sanguine. To
which Lord Randolph replies :-
Yes, in this present quality of war-(it has done hurt)
Indeed the instant action, (i. e.) a cause on foot
Lives so in hope, as in the early spring, &c.
SECOND PART OF KING HENRY IV.
115
To be over sanguine, has been and is most injurious in that
particular crisis we are now arrived at; on the point of com-
mitting ourselves irrevocably:-false hopes at this time are as
treacherous as early blossoms.
ACT. II. SCENE I.
Pp. 245-246. To substitute score for loan, in Dame Quickly's
speech, is again to interfere with her characteristic language;
and the insertion of red and but, next noticed, entirely super-
erogatory.
P. 246. The substitution of pure for "poor virtue,” in Fal-
staff's speech to Doll Tearsheet, is a good and probable con-
jectural emendation.
ACT III. SCENE I.
P. 247. The substitution of "high canopies," for the cano-
pies, was not at all necessary. The alteration of clouds to
shrowds is nothing new, and may have been suggested by
some edition of recent times; it was rejected by Steevens, who
observes, that " A moderate storm would hang the waves in
the shrowds of a ship; a great one might poetically be said to
suspend them on the clouds, which were too slippery to retain
them." There is no valid reason for departing from the old
text: the poet himself is evidence in its favour.
Julius Cæsar :—
I have seen
The ambitious ocean swell, and rage, and foam,
To be exalted with the threatening clouds.
Thus, in
I do not think that Mr. Collier will find "This emendation to
settle the question."
116
SHAKESPEARE VINDICATED.
ACT IV. SCENE I.
Ib. "At the end of Mowbray's speech," the corrector "points
out a curious blunder, arising, in all likelihood, from mishear-
ing on the part of the scribe, which has been the occasion of
several notes. In old and modern impressions, the line has
thus been printed :-
Let us sway on, and face them in the field.
"Johnson truly says, that he had never seen 'sway' used in
this sense, and Steevens takes the trouble to insert several
quotations in which sway is found, but always in its ordinary
meaning, so that they prove nothing. The plain truth is, that
the copyist ought to have written different words, that have
exactly the same sound, viz. :-
Let's away on, and face them in the field.
We need have no hesitation in at once admitting this change
of the received text."
I do not hesitate to say, that to change "Let us sway on,"
for "Let's away on," would be to substitute a pedestrian
phrase for a poetical one. But Mr. Collier misrepresents Dr.
Johnson, whose note is confirmatory of the old reading; he
"I know not that I have ever seen sway in this sense;
says,
but I believe it is the true word, and was intended to express
the uniform and forcible motion of a compact body. There is
a sense of the noun in Milton kindred to this, where, speaking
of a weighty sword, he says, 'It descends with huge two-
handed sway.' And the quotations of Steevens are quite con-
firmatory. Thus Holinshed, 'The left side of the enemy was
compelled to sway a good way back, and to give ground,'" &c.
And in K. Henry VI. Part 111. Act ii. Sc. 5:-
Now sways it this way, like a mighty sea,
Forc'd by the tide to combat with the wind:
Now sways it that way, like the self-same sea,
Forced to retire by fury of the wind.
Every one who is anxious to preserve the text of the poet un-
corrupted, would therefore hesitate to admit this innovation.
SECOND PART OF KING HENRY IV.
117
P. 248. Led on by bloody youth guarded with rags,
instead of rage, is a specious but not an undoubted correc-
tion. If" bloody youth" is the true reading, it rather makes
against it; but Warburton thought we should read "heady
youth." My copy of the second folio also makes this cor-
rection, to which, upon the whole, I incline. Warburton's
correction of glaives, for graves, has been adopted by the cor-
rector, yet the reading of Steevens, greaves, is at least equally
probable, and nearer to the old word.
Ib. "The last line of what Westmoreland says, is thus
given in the folio, 1623—
To a loud trumpet and a point of war.
"The folio, 1632, makes the matter worse, by putting low for
loud." The corrector would read-
To a loud trumpet and report of war.
But it is most probable that the poet wrote
To a loud trumpet and a bruit of war.
bruit might easily be misprinted point. The preceding words—
The harsh and boisterous tongue of war-
very much favours this reading.
P. 249. The substitution of "her man," for "him on,” in
the lines at the end of Scroop's speech, is a very plausible
correction, and is evidently called for. This may be consi-
dered one of the corrector's few admissible conjectures.
SCENE II.
P. 249. The same may be said of the correction of zeal to
seal, in the line at the close of Prince John's speech,-
Under the counterfeited seal of heaven
The subject of heaven's substitute, &c.
The quarto has:-
Under the counterfeited zeal of God
The subjects of his substitute, &c.
Which reading Mr. Collier adopted in his edition, although
he now says seal" must be the true reading."! ·
Note
118
SHAKESPEARE VINDICATED.
SCENE III.
Ib. The substitution of dull for place, twice in Falstaff's
speech, is hardly necessary, and the words could not well have
been mistaken for each other.
P. 250. Surely, to change rigol to ringol, was superfluous
meddling, for Shakespeare has it again in his Lucrece; and
Mr. Collier has shown that rigol-eyed is used by Middleton
for round-eyed. Its etymology is uncertain, but Mr. Nares
says it is from the old Italian Rigoletto, a little wheel.
I may here take occasion to notice that Mr. Collier, follow-
ing others, in his edition of Shakespeare, vol. iv. p. 428, has
mistakingly pointed a speech of the King, thus:
K. Hen. 'Tis seldom, when the bee doth leave her comb
In the dead carrión.
And has fallen into the same error in Measure for Measure,
Act. iv. sc. 2, by printing-
Seldom, when
The steeled gaoler is the friend of man ;
where the comma is wanting in the folio. Seldom-when is a
compound word, signifying rarely, not often. Thus, in Chau-
cer, we have selden-time in The Clerke's Tale, v. 7958,-
I me rejoiced of my lybertie
That selden-tyme is founde in mariage.
And Palsgrave has a similar compound, " Seldom-what, Gueres
souvent, and Other-whyles, Aulcunes foys, or Parfoys." Any-
when, of the same construction, is still current provincially in
familiar language.
Ib. The corrector adopts the reading win, instead of the
misprint joyne from the quartos, or some later authority, which
is more probable.
P. 250. "The expression, for what in me was purchas'd,'
the corrector changes to 'for what in me was purchase,' i. e.
booty, a meaning constantly given to the word by our poet and
his contemporaries; the verb, to purchase, was, we believe,
never used in. this sense."
SECOND PART OF KING HENRY IV.
119
This is another needless interference with the old text; Mr.
Collier has here, and elsewhere, entirely mistaken the mean-
ing of the word. In our poet's time, and long before, to pur-
chase was to get, or obtain, especially by eager pursuit. It had
the same sense as the old French pourchas, from which it is
derived. "POURCHAS s. m. du Latin proquassus (grand se-
cousse), vieux mot qui signifiait chasse, longue poursuite. Il
nous reste le verbe pourchasser, poursuivre, rechercher avec
obstination." Noel et Carpentier Dict. Etymol.
Bishop Hall, in his 2nd Satire, B. 1, speaking of the fruit-
less pursuit of literature, says :—
Long would it be ere thou hast purchase bought,
Or wealthier waxen by such idle thought.
Shakespeare himself would have shown that the significa-
tion Mr. Collier attaches to it, is a perversion of the true sense
of the word. Thus, in K. Henry V. Act iii. sc. 2," they will
steal anything, and call it purchase." So, in the prophecy
attributed to Chaucer :-
Whan roberie is holdin purchas,
And letcherie as privie solas.
Gadshill, in 1st Part of K. Henry IV. Act ii. sc. 1, says-
"Give me thy hand, thou shalt have a share in our purchase,
as I am a true man." What K. Henry means to say by
"what in me was purchas'd, falls upon thee in a more fairer
sort," is "what I obtained by eager pursuit, you obtain by
succession." Hear Minsheu," POURCHAS (perquisitum)
commeth of the French (pourchasser, i. solicitare, ambire,
eagerly to pursue or follow)." It signified acquiring or obtain-
ing by any other means than title or descent. Rosalind says
to Orlando, in As You Like It, "Your accent is something
finer than you could purchase in so removed a dwelling.'
And Ben Jonson, in The Devil is an Ass, Act i. sc. 1:—
"I will share, sir,
In your sports only, nothing in your purchase."
That is, what you get in the pursuit.
120
SHAKESPEARE VINDICATED.
ACT V. SCENE I.
P. 251. We have here the restoration of the word without,
the reading of the quarto, which had long since been that of
all editions, and certainly required no notice.
SCENE III.
The alteration in the last line of Pistol's speech is uncalled
for. The line preceding, "Where is the life that late I led,
say they," is all that can be considered a quotation from a
ballad, occurring again in the Taming of the Shrew.
P. 252. Why notice the correction of the error, peculiar to
the second folio, of forgotten for forgiven, which had also been
set right in all editions? But none of the minutest deeds of
the correctors are to be passed over.
KING HENRY V.
CHORUS.
P. 253. We have happily escaped from the meddling of the
corrector in respect to the word imaginary in the Prologue of
the Chorus. It is used for imaginant. The active for the
passive, according to the practice of the poet and some of his
cotemporaries.
ACT I. SCENE II.
To find his title with some show of truth-
"Is not altered," says Mr. Collier, " to "to fine his title,' as in
Malone, &c. but to 'to found his title,' which, on some ac-
counts may be considered the better reading of the three."
Can Mr. Collier possibly think so? Both to find and to
found are equally wrong. Mr. Collier should have told us that
to fine is the undoubted reading of the quartos, and signifies
to adorn, decorate, set off, or embellish, like the French embel-
KING HENRY V.
121
lir, or Ital. abbellire, and not to refine, as Mr. Collier, in a
note on the passage in his edition of Shakespeare, seems to
imagine!
P. 254. "The king, speaking of Scotland, says:—
Who hath been still a giddy neighbour to us.
"The old corrector inserts greedy for 'giddy;' either word will
suit the place, whether we suppose Henry to mean that Scot-
land has been an unsteady neighbour, or a rapacious one,
anxious to seize all opportunities of pillaging England. Greedy
seems rather better adapted to the context, but the printed
copies are uniformly in favour of' giddy.""
If this is Mr. Collier's genuine opinion, I am sorry for it;
and am quite sure he will find no one of the same mind who
has paid much attention to the language of the poet. Giddy
here, as elsewhere, means unstable, insecure, uncertain, and not
to be trusted.
Ib. "Lower down, we need have less doubt regarding the
alteration of an important word :-
The King of Scots, whom she did send to France
To fill King Edward's fame with prisoner kings.
C
"The manuscript-correction here is train for fame.'
Whoever looks at the context would have at least equal
doubt of this innovation.
To fill King Edward's fame with prisoner kings,
And make their chronicle as rich with praise
As is the ooze and bottom of the sea,
With sunken wreck and sumless treasuries.
Truin, Mr. Collier may be assured, was not the poet's word;
and the corrector here makes a futile endeavour to improve
upon him.
Ib. "In the subsequent passage,-
Playing the mouse in absence of the cat,
To tear and havoc more than she can eat,
"the folios have tame, and the quartos spoil, for tear.' 'Tear,'
which was conjecturally placed in the text, is supported by an
122
SHAKESPEARE VINDICATED.
emendation in the folio, 1632, where teare for tame' is written
in the margin."
Here we have another remarkable instance of sympathetic
coincidence with a conjecture of Mr. Collier on the part of the
corrector? But as the quartos afford a much better reading,
spoil, we may surely adhere to them, and leave the corrup-
tion of the folios, tame, out of the question; as it is at least
quite as probable that this was a misprint for spoil, as that the
quartos put that more expressive word for tear. No inter-
ference with the received text is therefore here needed.
"
Ib. "In the next line but one, the old corrector seems to
have taken crush'd' in the sense of compelled; while for
'but,' of the old copies, he has substituted not, a misprint of
the most frequent occurrence:
Yet that is not a crush'd necessity, &c."
Mr. Collier, in his edition of Shakespeare, adopted the erro-
neous reading of the quartos, curs'd, with the following note:
"So the quartos, in reference perhaps to the disposition of a cat.
The folios read crush'd. It has been suggested to me that we
might read' a cur's necessity,' or necessity imposed by a cur,
Scotland being afterwards called 'the dog'"!
There is not the slightest necessity for interfering with the
text of the folios, "A crush'd necessity" signifies a forced in-
ference-a strained or forced conclusion from premises that do
not naturally make it a necessity. Exeter would say, " Your
drift is, that it is necessary for the cat to stay at home; but
such a necessity only follows by a crushing of the argument;
since the cat is not our only protection, we can lock up, and
set traps, and do without her." Where could Mr. Collier find
authority for the corrector's notion of its meaning compelled?
See the second sense of the word given in Dr. Richardson's
most excellent Dictionary.
Ib. "In the last line but one of this page" (Collier's Shakesp.
iv. 476) " for 'sorts' the plausible alteration is state :—
They have a king and officers of state."
The reading of the old copies is "officers of sorts," and it is
KING HENRY V.
123
undoubtedly right. The "plausible" alteration of the cor-
rector is as absurd as it is uncalled for, as a mere glance at the
context will show; for it is bees that are spoken of:-
•
They have a king and officers of sorts; [i. e. various kinds.]
Where some, like magistrates, correct at home,
Others, like merchants, venture trade abroad,
Others, like soldiers, armed in their stings,
Make boot upon the summer's velvet buds; &c.
Ib. "The line, as it has always been printed,
Come to one mark; as many ways meet in one town
" is obviously overloaded, and the corrector of the folio, 1632,
gives it, with the context, thus:-
As many arrows, loosed several ways
Come to one mark; as many ways unite;
As many fresh streams meet in one salt sea, &c.
"Thus the repetition of the word 'meet' in two succeeding
lines, is avoided; but it may still be a question, whether Shake-
speare might not wish here to vary the regularity of his lines
by interposing one of twelve syllables.
""
Unquestionably. The poet has frequently thus varied his
metre; and it is rash and intolerable thus to rewrite his verses.
By what possible accident could "meet in one town" be mis-
taken for the corrector's unite? But here as elsewhere his
conceit made him imagine that he could improve upon Shake-
speare! In this way every line might be rewritten and the
poet submerged.
P. 255. To the substitution of soul for "sail," in the follow-
ing lines of King Henry's speech, there is little objection, as
the words might easily be mistaken for each other :-
I will keep my state,
Be like a king, and show my sail of greatness,
When I do rouse me in my throne of France.
Ib. The same perhaps may be said of the substitution of
seasonable for "reasonable," in the passage where the king
124
SHAKESPEARE VINDICATED.
urges expeditious preparation for the invasion of France. Yet
reasonable has never hitherto been doubted, as it answers
every purpose.
Therefore, let our proportions for these wars
Be soon collected, and all things thought upon
That may with reasonable swiftness add
More feathers to our wings.
But had this change been proposed by any one else but Mr.
Collier's corrector, it would not, I think, have obtained his
prompt concurrence.
ACT II.
P. 256. The change in the third line of the chorus, "Now
thrive" the armourers, to, " Now strive," is quite unnecessary,
and the true word thrive expresses the same thought as the
Latin multis utile bellum, although Mr. Collier says, "We
feel convinced strive was the poet's word."
Ib. "Pope completed a defective line in the chorus as
follows:-
Th' abuse of distance, while we force a play.
"While we is in no ancient copy; and the old corrector of the
folio, 1632, informs us that the words wanting were not those,
for he puts it,-
Th' abuse of distance, and so force a play."
Neither are these words, and so, to be found in any ancient
copy; why then should they be preferable to Pope's? whose
authority I hold as at least equal to that of the anonymous
blundering corrector. The lines stand thus in the first folio,-
Linger your patience on, and wee'l digest
Th' abuse of distance; force a play: &c.
Mr. Collier has the following note in his edition of Shake-
speare: "This is the reading of the folio, 1623, excepting
'well' [wee'l] for we'll'; and though the measure be de-
fective, we have no warrant for an arbitrary correction of it,
especially when sense may be extracted without any addition"!
KING HENRY V.
125
SCENE I.
P. 256. The adoption of Farmer's suggested reading of smites
for" smiles" is merely another coincidence; and the substitu-
tion of jade, instead of the misprint of the folios "name," for
the undoubted" mare," as it stands in the quartos, Mr. Col-
lier himself tacitly abandons; and well he may!
SCENE II.
Ib. "By too earnest an anxiety to follow the old copies, an
evident misprint, which could nevertheless be reconciled to
fitness by ingenuity, has been preserved. It is in one of the
king's speeches at Southampton, ordering the enlargement of
a drunkard who had railed on him, and the passage has
always been thus printed :-
It was excess of wine that set him on,
And on his more advice, we pardon him.
"Our is substituted for 'his' in the folio, 1632; it was on the
king's 'more advice,' and not on that of the prisoner, that he
was to be set at liberty."
Can there be "too earnest a desire to follow the old copies "
wherever perfect sense can be obtained from them without
innovation? It is quite as probable that the drunkard when
sober had expressed contrition, had "more advice:" his and
our could hardly have been mistaken for each other.
Thus in Measure for Measure, Act v. Sc. i.
Pardon me, my noble lord,
I thought it was a fault, but knew it not,
Yet did repent me after more advice.
P. 257. This consideration would make us reject at once the
substitution of state for "late," in the King's inquiry-
Who are the late commissioners?
Which Mason has shown clearly means the "lately appointed
commissioners."
SCENE III.
P. 257. "We are sorry to be obliged to part with Theobald's
fanciful emendation in Mrs. Quickly's description of the death
of Falstaff, 'for his nose was as sharp as a pen, and a' bab-
126
SHAKESPEARE VINDICATED.
bled of green fields,' founded upon the following words in the
old copies, never understood, and containing two misprints,
which we shall point out presently, on the authority of the
corrector of the folio, 1632 :-'for his nose was as sharp as a
pen, and a table of green fields.' The mention of a pen,' and
'a table,' might have led to the detection of the error: wri-
ting tables were no doubt, at that period, often covered with
green cloth, and it is to the sharpness of a pen, as seen in
strong relief on a table so covered, that Mrs. Quickly likens
the nose of the dying wit and philosopher, for his nose was
as sharp as a pen on a table of green frieze.' The emendation is
merely on for and,' and frieze for 'fields;' and it is found in
the margin of the folio, 1632. Pope's ridiculous suggestion re-
specting a table of Greenfield's,' whom he supposed (there
is no extraneous syllable to countenance the notion) to have
been the property-man of the theatre, has long been exploded;
and such, we apprehend, must now be the fate of other propo-
sals in connexion with this obviously corrupt passage.
If Mr. Collier does feel himself" obliged to part" with the
admirable reading of Theobald, I can only say that I am sorry
for him; but if he would wish to administer the corrector's
nostrum to the true lovers of the poet, he and the corrector
must expect to be addressed by them in the words of the Ar-
give theatrical enthusiast :-
Pol! me occidistis, amici
Non servastis, cui sic extorta voluptas,
Et demptus per vim mentis gratissimus error.
The conjecture of the corrector, however, is not at all
new. Mr. Collier might have found a note in the Variorum
Shakespeare, bearing the signature of "Smith," proposing to
read "his nose was as sharp as a pen upon a table of green
fells"! But is Mr. Collier assured that " a table of green
"
* I must indulge the reader with a portion of it to show how great
wits jump together. "Mother Quickly compares Falstaff's nose (which
in dying persons grows thin and sharp) to one of those silver or steel pens,
and she meant probably to have said on a table-book with a shagreen cover,
or shagreen table; but in her usual blundering way, she calls it a table of
green fells, or a table covered with green skin; which the blundering
transcriber turned into green fields"!!
KING HENRY V.
127
frieze" would signify what we should now call a writing-table?
or that it was likely to come into Dame Quickly's mind? The
emendation of Theobald is so much more in character and
keeping with the whole of her speech, as to carry conviction
with it; add to that, it involves less change of the text, the va-
riation being only an apostrophe at a, and babled for table.
Perhaps no conjectural amendment, of a corrupt passage in
Shakespeare, ever gave more universal satisfaction; and even
Pope, who must have been extremely vexed by the exposure
of his own absurd suggestion, seems to admit it. It has not,
I think, been remarked that the emendation was suggested to
Theobald, as he tells us, in his Shakespeare Restored :-"I have
an edition of Shakespeare by me, with some marginal conjec-
tures of a gentleman, some time deceased, and he is of the
mind to correct this passage thus-'for his nose was as sharp
as a pen, and a' talked of green fields.' It is certainly ob-
servable of people near death, when they are delirious by a
fever, that they talk of moving; as it is in those in a calen-
ture, that their heads run on green fields. The variation from
table to talked, is not of very great latitude; though we may
still come nearer to the traces of the letters, by restoring it
thus-' for his nose was as sharp as a pen, and a' babled of
green fields.'
To no one are we indebted for a greater number of happy
conjectural emendations of the text of Shakespeare, than
to this man, so unjustly traduced by the rancorous spite of
Pope. Until he became connected with Pope, Warburton
thought highly of Theobald; see the correspondence between
them, printed in Nichols's Literary Anecdotes. It is true that
he is not always right, but he had not the aids at command,
which some of those, who have blundered so egregiously in
more recent times, have possessed.
SCENE IV.
P. 258. The proposed substitution of mighty sire, for "moun-
tain sire," had been suggested by Mr. Tollet, and rejected by
Steevens and Malone; the latter observes, that "the repeti-
tion of the word mountain, is much in Shakespeare's manner."
Steevens says,
"I believe the poet meant to give an idea of
more than human proportion to the figure of the king." This
is another coincidence.
128
SHAKESPEARE VINDICATED.
ACT III.
P. 258. "In the Chorus, describing the embarkation and
sailing of Henry V. from Southampton, we read,—
Behold the threaden sails,
Borne with th' invisible and creeping wind,
Draw the huge bottoms through the furrow'd sea.
"It is true that, in a certain sense, the sails of a ship may be
said to be 'borne' by the wind; but the old corrector supplies
us with a word, which, as it is more picturesque, as well as ap-
propriate, we may confidently attribute to the poet :-
Behold the threaden sails,
Blown with th' invisible and creeping wind,
Draw the huge bottoms through the furrow'd sea."
It is vexatious to be called upon to rebut such mischievous
interference with the undoubted and authentic old text. The
very expressions in the line show the meddler to be wrong.
Think of:-
Blown with th' invisible and creeping wind!
Borne is the true, and hitherto undoubted, word of the poet,
and this is only another instance of impertinent and absurd
interference.
SCENE II.
Ib. The stupid interpolations in the fragments of ballads
the poet has put into the mouth of Pistol and the boy, which
Mr. Collier accepts as genuine, bear on the face of them evi-
dence of being the clumsy attempt of an arrant botcher, and
would deceive no one, but a prejudiced favourer of this inter-
polator's doing. Until better" authority" for piecing these
fragments shall be forthcoming, they must remain as they are
found in the old authentic text, and most probably as the poet
left them.
SCENE III.
I pass over the two next rectifications, as having been made
in all editions since Pope's time.
KING HENRY V.
129
SCENE VI.
The substitution of new-coined oaths, for "new-tuned" of
the old copies, is a very plausible and probable correction of
a typographical error.
SCENE VII.
To change the word "hairs" for air in the line where the
Dauphin is praising his horse, and says: "He bounds from
the earth as if his entrails were hairs," would be absurd. The
allusion is, as Warburton remarks, to the bounding of tennis-
balls, which were stuffed with hair and not with air! As we
learn from the poet himself, in Much Ado About Nothing,
"And the ornament of his cheek hath already stuff'd tennis-
balls."
ACT IV. SCENE I.
The alteration of the reading of the folio, "speak fewer,”
in Fluellin's speech, to "speak lower," is another coincidence
with modern editions, especially Mr. Collier's. But there can
be no doubt that the reading of the folio is correct, and that
the word was intended to mark the provincial dialect of Fluel-
lin. The two earliest quartos misprint the word lewer, and
the printer of the quarto, 1608, turned it into lower. Steevens
had heard the phrase in use provincially: "Speak fewer, or
my mistress will hear you.'
""
P. 260. “A line in the King's soliloquy,-
What is thy soul of adoration?
"has hitherto presented insurmountable difficulties to the
commentators. Henry is descanting upon the vanity of regal
accompaniments, maintaining that ceremony is all that dis-
tinguishes a monarch from a subject, and apostrophising
ceremony, he asks,-
What are thy rents? What are thy comings in ?`
O ceremony! show me but thy worth!
What is thy soul of adoration?
K
Note
130
SHAKESPEARE VINDICATED.
"The old corrector points out this last line as having been
misprinted; and reading it as follows, the whole dispute be-
tween Johnson, Steevens, and Malone, seems at an end :-
O ceremony! show me but thy worth!
What is thy soul but adulation?
"which is strongly supported by the whole context, and
especially by two lines that follow almost immediately:-
Think'st thou the fiery fever will go out
With titles blown from adulation?
"Therefore, the answer, when Henry asks what is the worth
of ceremony, is what he himself supplies, that the soul of
ceremony is nothing but adulation."
Here there is no doubt that the meddling of others has led
to the unnecessary interference of the corrector. The old
text is quite satisfactory. The King says, "O ceremony!
show me what value thou art of? what is thy soul or essence
of external worship or adoration?
Art thou aught else but place, degree, and form,
Creating awe and fear in other men?
This is the immediate context which Mr. Collier thinks sup-
ports the absurd substitution of but adulation for "of adora-
tion" of the old copy! Nothing but a pertinacious determi-
nation to support a bad cause could have so blinded him.
P. 261. Who would have thought that any reasonable
being, who was moderately conversant with the language of
Shakespeare, would have deemed it necessary to change the
word "distressful" for distasteful, in the following passage:-
Not all these, laid in bed majestical
Can sleep so soundly as the wretched slave;
Who with a body fill'd, and vacant mind
Get him to rest, cromm'd with distressful bread;
Never sees horrid night, the child of hell;
But like a lackey, from the rise to set,
Sweats in the eye of Phoebus, and all night
Sleeps in Elysium.
KING HENRY V.
131
The King's previous question to ceremony, which con-
cludes-
Can'st thou when thou command'st the beggar's knee,
Command the health of it?
might have led Mr. Collier to see that distressful here has not
the meaning he would give it, but that the poor slave, cram-
med as he is with coarse bread, which would distress the sto-
mach of the child of pomp and luxury and make him restless,
sleeps soundly under circumstances in which the less health-
ful and pampered being would not sleep at all.
Johnson has observed that "these lines are exquisitely
pleasing," and the meaning never troubled any one, until
this unnecessary piece of meddling.
SCENE III.
Ib. "A passage in which the King supposes that the
dead bodies of the English left in France will putrify and
infect the air, and thus pursue their enmity to the inhabitants,
has never been properly understood, because never properly
worded; it has been thus given in ancient as well as modern
editions:-
Mark, then, abounding valour in our English;
That, being dead, like to the bullets grazing,
Break out into a second course of mischief,
Killing in relapse of mortality.
'
(
"The simile of the bullet's grazing from one object, which
it destroys, to another which it also wounds, shows that we
ought not to read abounding,' but rebounding valour' of
the English; and that instead of 'relapse,' which ill suits the
rhythm of the line, we ought to read reflex, in allusion to the
power of the bullet to injure, when reflected backward from
the object first struck. The four lines, therefore, ought to be
printed in this manner:—
Mark, then, rebounding valour in our English,
That, being dead, like to the bullets grazing,
Break out into a second course of mischief,
Killing in reflex of mortality."
The difficulties which some commentators, beginning with
132
SHAKESPEARE VINDICATED.
Theobald, fancied in this passage, have apparently given rise
to the corrector's substitutions, which are far from improve-
ments. It requires no meddling interference. The sense
is clearly this:-" Mark, then, how valour abounds in our
English, that (who) being dead, like an almost spent bullet,
break out into a second course of mischief, killing even in
their mortal relapse to mother earth." That in the word
abounding there may have been an equivoque intended in
allusion to the rebound of a cannon-ball is possible, be-
cause the poet elsewhere indulges in playing upon words.
But no change in the text is at all requisite. This "putrid
valour," as Johnson pleasantly calls it, is common to the de-
scription of other poets. Thus Lucan, Pharsalia, lib. viii.
v. 821:-
Quid fugis hanc cladem, quid olentes deseris agros?
Has trahe. Cæsar, aquas; hoc si potes utere cœlo,
Sed tibi tabentes populi Pharsalica rura
Eripiunt, camposque tenent victore fugato.
And, as Steevens tells us, Corneille has imitated this pas-
sage in the first speech of his Pompée:-
de chars
Sur ces champs empestés contusément épars,
Ces montagnes de morts privés d'honneurs suprêmes,
Que la nature force à se venger eux-mêmes
Eh de leurs troncs pourris exhale dans les vents
De quoi faire la guerre au reste des vivans.
SCENE VI.
P. 262. "Exeter, giving a description of the deaths of York
and Suffolk, speaking of the former, says, as the text has
been always repeated,——
In which array, brave soldier, doth he lie,
Larding the plain."
which the corrector would change to loading the plain. A
most unlikely expression. The idea of the poet, evidently,
expressed by the word larding, is enriching, manuring the
plain with his blood. The King had just before said :-
From helmet to the spur all blood he was.
And although Mr. Collier thinks Steevens's quotation of Fal-
KING HENRY V.
133
staff "larding the lean earth as he walks along," not apposite,
he may be assured that the idea here is of the same nature;
and that his corrector's "loading the plain," with one poor
hero bleeding to death, will never do.
SCENE VII.
Ib. Montjoy, the French herald, after the battle, appears
before the King, and says:-
I come to thee for charitable license,
That we may wander o'er this bloody field
To book our dead, and then to bury them-
for which the corrector would substitute "to look our dead."
Unless Shakespeare meant to make Montjoy here speak
broken English, which he does nowhere else, to look our dead
would be indeed a strange phrase. Every one knows that
after a battle, in all times, it was usual for each party to make
a list of their killed and wounded, and it is to make such a list
that "to
to book our dead" relates. It is wearisome, at every
step, to have to correct the misapprehensions of this intruder
upon the language of Shakespeare.
ACT V.
Ib. The two minute corrections in the first lines of the Cho-
rus may probably be admissible, although the first of them
seems scarcely needed.
SCENE II.
P. 263. As a specimen of the puerile and unnecessary trifling
of this corrector, take the following:-
"The Duke of Burgundy, in the course of his long ha-
rangue, asks why Peace should not, as formerly, in France,—
Put up her lovely visage?
"An awkward phrase, arising, no doubt, from the misprint of
one short word for another, and the manuscript-corrector
therefore has,-
Should not in this best garden of the world,
Our fertile France, lift up her lovely visage.
134
SHAKESPEARE VINDICATED.
"This change," continues Mr. C. "may, nevertheless, have
been proposed as a mere matter of taste”!
Comment is here unnecessary.
P. 263. “A trifling error of the press has been committed
in the last line of the speech of the French King, in reply to
Henry's request that he would answer, whether he refused or
accepted the articles of peace proposed. As always printed,
the passage has stood,—
We will suddenly
Pass our accept, and peremptory answer.
"Pass our accept,' seems to have been taken for 'pass our
acceptance,' but what the French King intends to say is, that,
after further consideration, he will either pass by articles to
which he may object, or accept others which seem admissible:
he says,
Pleaseth your Grace
To appoint some of your council presently
To sit with us once more, with better heed
To re-survey them, we will suddenly
Pass, or accept, and peremptory answer.
“The blunder here was merely 'our' for or, and this use of
the word 'pass' was common.
This is no new proposition, but one derived from some edi-
tion with notes; it has been very satisfactorily answered long
since by Mr. Tollet, who observes,—“ If we read 'pass or ac-
cept,' is not peremptory answer superfluous, and plainly implied
in the former words?" To pass an accept seems to have been
an old legal term for, to agree upon conditions, or acceptance
of terms proposed. We elsewhere have suspect for suspicion.
"
I may be permitted to cite my own note on the passage,
published in 1826. "Pass our accept and peremptory an-
swer.' To pass, here signifies to finish, end, or agree upon
the acceptance which we shall give them, and return our pe-
remptory answer.' Thus, in The Taming of the Shrew,-'To
pass assurance of a dower,' is to agree upon a settlement.”
The old authentic text here, again, required none of the
meddling of the correctors.
KING HENRY V.
135
P. 264." A few lines lower, we may feel assured that the line,
Shall see advantageable for our dignity,
"was written by the poet-
"
Shall see advantage for our dignity;
and, accordingly, 'able' is erased by the corrector of the folio,
1632."
Who, besides Mr. Collier, would countenance this ruthless
stroke of the pen of the pragmatic corrector? It is of a piece
with his other incursions upon the language of the poet. Ad-
vantageable was used by him for likely to be of advantage; it
is the vantaggevole of the Italians. But what shall we say of
Mr. Collier's absolute "was written by the poet"!
Ib. The proposition to read untempting, for "untempering,"
in the passage near the end of the scene between the King
and Katherine:-"I dare not swear thou lovest me; yet my
blood begins to flatter me thou dost, notwithstanding the poor
and untempering effect of my visage," is Warburton's, and was
most probably derived from him. It has been satisfactorily
answered by Steevens-"Untempering, I believe, to have been
the poet's word. The sense is, I conceive, 'that you love me,
notwithstanding my face has no power to temper, i. e. soften
you to my purpose." The phrase" untempering effect,"
clearly shows this to be the true reading, which the corrector
would needlessly alter to untempting.
Ib. "All the folios have,' girdled with maiden walls, that
war hath entered,' a negative having been accidentally omit-
ted; modern editors have invariably inserted 'never;' but al-
though the difference is not material, the true word was pro-
bably not,'' that war hath not entered,' because the old cor-
rector places it in the margin.'
When Mr. Collier can get the world, at any rate the true
lovers of Shakespeare, to pin their faith upon his blundering
corrector, not may possibly find a place in the text, and the
more expressive never be discarded. But not till then.
136
SHAKESPEARE VINDICATED.
FIRST PART OF KING HENRY VI.
P. 265.
TH
ACT I. SCENE I.
HE corrector adventures to supply the hiatus, perhaps
purposely left in the old copy, in the following line :
Than Julius Cæsar or bright-
with Cassiopé. Johnson had proposed Berenice, and Pope
imagined that it might have been supplied on the stage by
the name of the then popular hero-Francis Drake, notwith-
standing the anachronism; but he offers it merely as a slight
conjecture. It is, however, wiser to leave it as we find it in
the old copy, where it has a distinct mark of interruption.
P. 266. For-
He being in the vaward placed behind-
the corrector substitutes rearward, thus following an exploded
conjecture. For, as Steevens justly observes, "Some part of
the van must have been behind the foremost part of it."
Ib. With the same unnecessary interference the corrector
substitutes cause for "make" in the following lines :-
Ten thousand soldiers with me I will take,
Whose bloody deed shall make all England quake.
thus changing the proper expressive word for an awkward one,
Whose bloody deed shall cause all England quake.
Mr. Collier thinks the word may have been altered “ as a
mere matter of taste."
Taste, indeed!!
Ib. The obvious correction of steal for "send," long since
proposed by Mason, and admitted into the text, until Mr.
FIRST PART OF KING HENRY VI.
137
Collier again restored the corruption in the following lines,
The King from Eltham I intend to steal,
And sit at chiefest stern of public weal,
is one more of the corrector's coincidences.
P. 266. “When the Dauphin observes, in reference to the
disastrous state of English affairs in France,—
At pleasure here we lie near Orleans,
Otherwhiles, the famish'd English, like pale ghosts,
Faintly besiege us one hour in a month.
"we may be satisfied that the second line, for the sake of
measure and meaning, ought to run,-
The whiles the famish'd English, like pale ghosts, &c.
"The correction in the folio, 1632, is precisely this; and it is
surprising that so small, so obvious, and so easy a corruption
as 'otherwhiles' should have remained till now in the text of
this drama."
What is "surprising" is not that the poet's genuine word
should have remained, but that any one should have the
temerity to change it! To substitute The whiles would be to
destroy the meaning of the passage. Otherwhiles signifies
sometimes, or at times (see Palsgrave or Huloet in voce), and
is used in that sense here. The whiles could only signify in
the meantime or interim, and would not suit the context; so
that the corrector has here again only displayed his ignorance
and propensity to innovation.
P. 267. There is here again not the slightest necessity for
changing the word " forlorn" to forborne, in the following line:
Now for the honour of the forlorn French:
Indeed forborne is a word entirely unexpressive, for the for-
bearance of the English had certainly not dishonoured the
French, but their former want of success may well make
Charles use the epithet forlorn as having been applied to them
by their adversaries.
Ib. Another piece of interpolation and alteration of the text,
to make a rhyme where none was intended, occurs in the
138
SHAKESPEARE VINDICATED.
Dauphin's speech, where he challenges Joan of Arc, which
Mr. Collier thinks a decided improvement! It is thus tra-
vestied:
And if thou vanquishest, thy words are true,
Or I renounce all confidence in you.
The discarded word otherwise being necessary to the intelli-
gence of the passage, which needs no alteration :—
And if thou vanquishest, thy words are true,
Otherwise I renounce all confidence.
Why attempt to improve upon the language of the poet ?
ACT II. SCENE III.
P. 269. An uncalled-for interpolation of the word lady in
the first line of Talbot's speech,-
That will I show you presently,
is another of the attempts of the corrector at improvement.
SCENE IV.
Ib. The adoption of Theobald's reading of faction for the
misprint "fashion" of the old copies, which has since his time
been the received text, hardly required notice, but as another
coincidence.
To change "bears" for braves, in the line
He bears him on the place's privilege,
is another erroneous piece of meddling which would require
better" authority" than that of the corrector, to induce us to
change it for the old authentic reading. Mr. Collier forgets
everywhere his own maxim, "It is not the province of an
editor to attempt to improve Shakespeare!"
Ib. The same remark applies to changing "A thousand souls"
to "Ten thousand."
SCENE V.
P. 269. "Theobald made, and most modern editors have
adopted, a needless change in the text of the old copies, at the
FIRST PART OF KING HENRY VI.
139
conclusion of Plantagenet's soliloquy after the death of old
Mortimer :-
And therefore haste I to the Parliament,
Either to be restored to my blood,
Or make my will th' advantage of my good.
"The word Theobald altered was 'will,' which he converted to
ill; but the mistake is in a different word,' advantage,' which
the corrector states ought to be advancer;' he leaves 'will'
as it stands in all old copies, and gives the last line of the
quotation thus :-
Or make my will th' advancer of my good:
"i. e. if he be unable to procure from Parliament the reversal
of the attainder of his blood, he resolves to make his own will
the advancer of his own interests. The proposed emendation
of ill for 'will,' by Theobald, was merely arbitrary and fanciful.”
And is the proposed alteration of the corrector anything
else? But Mr. Collier may be assured that Theobald was
right, and that his corrector is wrong. There can be no doubt
that ill was the poet's word, and that the antithesis between
ill and good was intended. Mr. Collier was once himself of
this opinion, until his judgment was blinded or perverted by
the pretensions of his pragmatic new acquaintance. In 1842
he tells us "we adopt Theobald's amendment, which clears
the sense, and preserves the antithesis."!
ACT III. SCENE I.
P. 270. " Of the ensuing emendation by the old corrector, we
can only speculate from probabilities: there are two points in
its favour, viz., that both the context and the measure of the
line call for the alteration. It occurs in Winchester's answer
to Gloucester's accusation of covetousness, ambition, and
pride:-
If I were covetous, ambitious, proud
As he will have me, how am I so poor?
"The common reading is, or perverse,' for proud; but, in the
first place, Gloucester has not charged the prelate so much
with perverseness, as with pride:
As very infants prattle of thy pride;
140
SHAKESPEARE VINDICATED.
"and, in the next place, proud exactly fits the measure, while
' or perverse' overloads it by two syllables. We may, there-
fore, perhaps conclude that the emendation in the folio, 1632,
was in some way authorized."
And so we are to indulge ourselves in changing any or every
word in the poet to satisfy our own caprice! I venture to say
that perverse is a more suitable word in this passage than
proud. Gloucester had accused the prelate of "dissentious
pranks," "lascivious wantonness," and "envious malice;"
surely these were perversities of character enough! and what
is ambition but pride of nature? therefore in the old text he
is accused of pride without the new reading! Mr. Collier's
notion of the line being overloaded is somewhat singular, and
hardly to be expected from one who has so severely animad-
verted upon Steevens and others! He tells us, in 1842, “ If
commentators and verbal critics were to be allowed on all
occasions to AMEND what they might consider the defective
METRE of Shakespeare in their own way, they would make
strange work of it!" And again :-" I am firmly persuaded
that many passages, now considered defective, were purposely
left so by the poet, with a view of giving variety, and avoiding
that weighty and tedious monotony observable in the works of
all his predecessors, with the solitary exception of Marlowe.
Hence not only Shakespeare's lines of eight, but those of
twelve or more syllables, of which there are frequent examples ;
the first some of his commentators would lengthen by NEEDLESS
EXPLETIVES, and the last they would shorten by cutting out
what they are pleased to consider unimportant epithets—as if
a poet, of whom it has been said that he never used a word for
which a better could be substituted, could employ unimportant
epithets."
Here Mr. Collier must certainly have had the corrector of
his folio in his thoughts, for he has graphically described him.
But what shall we say of the strenuous advocacy of such
liberties as he now indulges in?
P. 270. To change "prefer" to preserve, in King Henry's
speech to the Bishop of Winchester, would be admissible as
a probable misprint, but, as Mr. Collier himself says, “prefer
a peace is perfectly intelligible, and well warranted." Why
therefore change it?
FIRST PART OF KING HENRY VI.
141
P. 271. The repetition of humble, in Plantagenet's speech,
may have been occasioned by the eye of the compositor taking
the word instead of honour'd from the next line; but "humble
servant" would be quite unexceptionable otherwise.
SCENE II.
Ib. To read "hag of hell's despite,” instead of "hag of all
despite," is specious, but as the old reading is quite effective,
why, again, interfere with it?
P. 272. The same question may be urged in respect to the
proposed substitution of matchless for "martial” in Bur-
gundy's address to Talbot. The words could hardly have
been mistaken for each other, and it will not do to abandon
the old authentic text, because we have the presumption to
think we can supply a better word than that we find there,
when perfectly good sense can be made of it.
SCENE III.
Ib. The alteration of "lowly" to lovely in the following
line-
So looks the mother on her lowly babe,
had long since been proposed by Warburton, and rejected,
with good reason, by Johnson. The old text is quite as ex-
pressive. But this is another coincidence.
Ib. To change "your truth" for "that truth," in the
King's address to Talbot, in the lines-
I do remember how my father said
A stouter champion never handled sword.
Long since we were resolved of your truth,
Your faithful service, and your toil in war, &c.
would be to destroy the congruity of the passage, and is a
mere piece of wanton interference with an undoubted reading.
142
SHAKESPEARE VINDICATED.
ACT IV. SCENE I.
P. 273. The substitution of "worst extremes
worst extremes" for "most
extremes," although specious, is doubtful, and would require
better authority than that of the corrector to induce us to
interfere with the old authentic text, which is quite as intel-
ligible.
"When Gloucester asks—
""
Or doth this churlish superscription
Pretend some alteration of good will.
"Pretend answers the purpose, but portend was most
likely our great dramatist's word, which he often uses else-
where."
Why "most likely"? Does not our great dramatist as
frequently use " pretend" elsewhere in the sense of intend?
It is one of the Latinisms so frequently used by Shakespeare
and his cotemporaries, prætendo, to design. We have it in a
previous passage of this scene-
Such are his friends;
And none your foes, but such as shall pretend
Malicious practices against his state.
And in Macbeth, Act ii. Sc. 4.—
What good could they pretend.
Mr. Collier, in 1842, says: "The verb pretend is here
used in its etymological sense of hold out. In the opening of
this scene we have had it employed in the kindred sense of
intend, which was its commonest signification in the time of
Shakespeare"! How could Mr. Collier, therefore, now think
portend was most likely our great dramatist's word?
Ib. The restoration of the words envious, and I pray, from
the folio of 1623, which have been the reading of all editions,
called for no notice, but that Mr. Collier must insinuate that
they may have been obtained from "some other source."! I
can think of no other source but some later edition, which in
my mind is most probable.
FIRST PART OF KING HENRY VI.
143
The substitution of "still" for "shall" in the King's
speech, is plausible, but not necessary.
SCENE V.
P. 274. "Old Talbot and his son John are contending for
the honour of keeping the field, one, by so doing, being cer-
tain of destruction, and each is persuading the other to fly. A
marginal note in the folio, 1632, instructs us to read fly for
'bow' in the ensuing lines; and we can hardly doubt that
'bow' is a misprint, though we may not be able to account
for it. John Talbot speaks:-
Flight cannot stain the honour you have won,
But mine it will, that no exploit have done:
You fled for vantage, every one will swear,
But if I bow, they'll say it was for fear.
There is no hope that ever I will stay,
If the first hour I shrink, and run away.
"There seems no assignable reason why the poet should not
have used the word fly; and the old corrector informs us that
he did use it.”
This is all very plausible, except the insinuation about being
informed that the poet did use the word fly! His word,
however, upon the "authority" of my corrected second folio,
was one more resembling the misprint. The line stands there
thus corrected :—
But if I flew they'd say it was for fear.
A much more probable emendation: flew and bow were easily
confounded.
SCENE VII.
There are several petty pieces of meddling with the text in
this scene, all of them impertinent surplusage, and such as
no one would think of adopting; but, not to be over tedious,
I pass them over for the present.
ACT V. SCENE I.
P. 275. "For our Christian blood,' in Gloucester's speech,
144
SHAKESPEARE VINDICATED.
Yote
(
thec orrector of the folio, 1632, has much Christian blood.'
This is hardly necessary; but the substitution of kin for
"knit,” where he speaks of the Earl of Armagnac is right.
SCENE III.
Ib. The observation about the error in the introduction to
this scene might well have been spared; it is set right in all
editions of recent times at least.
Mr. Collier continues:-"Capel was justified in transposing
three lines, near the bottom of this page, where Suffolk lays
his hands 'gently on the tender side' of Margaret, and after-
wards kisses her fingers. The old corrector always indicates
an error of this kind by figures, and 1, 2, 3, in the margin
instructs us to read Suffolk's speech thus:-
For I will touch thee but with reverent hands,
And lay them gently on thy tender side.
I kiss these fingers for eternal peace, &c. [kissing."
As this had been also set right in all editions since Capel's
time, except those of Mr. Knight and Mr. Collier, the cor-
rectors may have availed themselves of some of them. Mr.
Collier follows Mr. Knight's suggestion in his edition of
Shakespeare, and says, "Malone and others transpose these
lines, but without necessity. Somerset takes the lady Mar-
garet's hand, which was hanging down by her side, and when
he has kissed it, he restores it to its place again."! So that
what was "without necessity" in 1842, becomes evidently
necessary in 1853 !
4
P.276. The substitution of go for "pass," and the omission
of s in "beams," on account of the rhyme, are admissible
corrections, as that part of Suffolk's speech seems to have
been intended to be in rhyme.
Ib. "The text (in the two last lines of this speech) in the
old editions, is this:-
Aye; beauty's princely majesty is such,
Confounds the tongue and makes the senses rough.
"Sir Thomas Hanmer printed crouch for 'rough'; and Ma-
FIRST PART OF KING HENRY VI.
145
lone was obliged to pass over the passage by saying that the
meaning of 'rough' is not 'very obvious.' Read with the aid
of the marginal notes in the folio, 1632, and the obscurity is
at an end
Aye; beauty's princely majesty is such,
Confounds the tongue, and mocks the sense of touch.
"Here, again, who is to determine whether the preceding
emendations were derived from some good authority, or whether
it was only a lucky guess on the part of the individual through
whose hands this copy of the folio, 1632, passed? Certain
it is, that not one of the many editors of Shakespeare were
ever so fortunate as to stumble on the meaning, which is thus
rendered obvious, while, at the same time, the intended rhyme
is preserved: the princely majesty of beauty confounded the
power of speech, and mocked all who would attempt to touch
it. The printer, not understanding the copy he was composing,
seems to have put down words at random, and to have made
nonsense of a beautiful and delicate expression.
""
The corrector's acuteness, whoever he may have been, must
be confined to the restoration of the rhyme, in substituting of
touch for “rough," in the rest he is egregiously mistaken.
What can be the meaning of the princely majesty of beauty
mocking all who would attempt to touch it, which Mr. Collier
finds such "a beautiful and delicate expression"? The cor-
rector of my second folio has made a much more "lucky
guess." He reads :—
Aye; beauty's princely majesty is such
Confounds the tongue, and wakes the sense's touch.
Here, by a closer adherence to the old text, we have much
better sense; makes was a much more probable misprint
for “wakes” than for mocks, and occurs elsewhere. Beauty,
although it confounds the tongue, awakes desire. This must
have been the meaning of the poet.
P. 277. The liberties taken in the dialogue between Suffolk
and Margaret, by changing words, and introducing rhymes,
is only another manifestation of the conceit of this interpo-
L
146
SHAKESPEARE VINDICATED.
lator, who seems to have had no scruple about rewriting the
text to suit his own pragmatic fancy!
Ib. "The suggestion thrown out in note 6," (Collier's
Shakesp. vol. v. p. 95), “that 'mad' is to be read mid in the
following passage,—
Bethink thee on the virtues that surmount,
Mad natural graces that extinguish art,
"is fully borne out by a correction in the folio, 1632, the
meaning being, that the virtues of Margaret (with whom Suf-
folk is secretly in love), are pre-eminent 'mid the natural
graces by which she is adorned."
Wherever Mr. Collier has thrown out a suggestion of a
reading for which "authority" is wanting to introduce it into
the text, the corrector has a most wonderful sympathy with
him, and comes to his aid. Were these coincidences only
occasional, we might think them possible, but when they
occur on all occasions, we cannot conceive them altogether
fortuitous; the doctrine of probabilities is entirely opposed to
such happy concurrence on all occasions.
Mason's proposed correction And for "Mad" with proper
punctuation, is all that is required:-
Bethink thee on the virtues that surmount,
And natural graces that extinguish, art.
P. 278. The corrector, in reading prison'd for poison'd in
the following lines, followed Pope :-
Speak, Winchester; for boiling choler chokes
The hollow passage of my poison'd voice.
Ib. The proposed substitution of interchange for “enter-
tain," in York's address to the Dauphin—
Hang up your ensigns, let your drums be still,
For here we entertain a solemn peace-
would be mischievous and absurd. Think of "interchanging
FIRST PART OF KING HENRY VI.
147
a solemn peace"! Mr. Collier's concluding observation is
most remarkable:-"It cannot be said, however, that the
change is imperatively called for, though recommended on
strong presumptive evidence"! PRESUMPTIVE indeed! So,
although no change is called for, we are to presume to garble
the text of the poet upon no ground whatever but the caprice
of this corrector!
SECOND PART OF KING HENRY VI.
P. 279.
THE
ACT I. SCENE I.
HE corrector judiciously adopts the emendation of
Steevens in the lines-
And hath his highness in his infancy
Been crown'd in Paris, in despite of foes?
which Mr. Collier, in his edition, rejected for a reading pecu-
liarly his own:—
And was his highness in his infancy
Crowned in Paris, in despite of foes?
All other editions follow the reading of Steevens.
Ib. Mr. Collier himself confesses that the substitution of
helpless for "hapless," in the lines-
While as the silly owner of the goods
W
Veeps over them, and wrings his hapless hands-
is a work of supererogation, and that "it is impossible to
maintain that 'hapless' does not fit the place, and might not
be the poet's word." Why, then, are we to be pestered with
these idle attempts at improving upon the undoubted language
of the poet?
SCENE III.
P. 280. "Johnson, Steevens, Tollet, and Hawkins, have
all wasted time and space upon a mere error of the printer,
148
SHAKESPEARE VINDICATED.
or of the copyist. The first Petitioner says, as has been uni-
versally represented,—
My masters, let's stand close: my lord protector will come this way
by and by, and then we may deliver our supplications in the quill.
"The puzzle has been as to the meaning of in the quill,' and
each of the commentators had a different notion upon the
point. The several Petitioners were to deliver their supplica-
tions to Suffolk in succession, one after another, and the
quill' ought, indisputably, to be sequel, used ignorantly for
sequence,-
My lord protector will come this way by and by, and then we may
deliver our supplications in sequel.”
Does Mr. Collier really believe that Master Peter would
have used the word sequel? There cannot be the slightest
doubt that "in the quill" is intended for, in the quoil,
or coil; that is, in the bustle or tumult which would arise
at the time the Protector passed. Shakespeare frequently
uses the word for bustle, tumult, stir; and that it was
sometimes spelt quoil and quoyle, appears from Nares, in v.
Quoyl. The orthography may have been intended to mark
Master Peter's mode of pronunciation, quile for coil, and the
misprint be only in the last letter l for e.
This is another instance of the danger of discarding words
because we are mistaken in their meaning.
Ib. The substitution of all the realm for "all at last," at
the close of Suffolk's speech is an unwarranted liberty. Who
shall say that the poet intended a rhyming couplet? But the
corrector is quite determined on overcharging the text with
rhymes of his own invention, and Mr. Collier accuses Shake-
speare of having writen "lamely and tamely"!
Ib. "
Pope was quite right in printing fast for 'far' of the
old copies, in the following line, where Buckingham is speak-
ing of Eleanor:-
She'll gallop far enough to her destruction.
"We find fast in the margin, and 'far' struck out. The ad-
SECOND PART OF KING HENRY VI.
149
herence to 'far' was, of course, occasioned by the desire, in all
possible cases, to abide by the early editions."
This was
"of course" a virtuous desire, which every true
lover of the poet would approve, when not carried to extreme
absurdity. But why should Pope be quite right now and
quite wrong in 1842?
SCENE IV.
(
P. 281. "For the silent of the night,' the corrector has 'the
silence of the night,' which is the very word used in the old
drama from which this play was mainly taken. For 'break up
their graves,' he reads, break ope their graves,' which was
also, most likely right.'
Mr. Collier may be assured that no one who can enter into
the spirit of Shakespeare will consent, on the " authority" of
his corrector, to part with the appropriate and highly poetical
phrase," the silent of the night," which the context clearly
shows was the poet's expression.
Wizards know their times:
Deep night, dark night, the silent of the night,
The time of night when Troy was set on fire;
The time when screech-owls cry, and ban-dogs howl,
And spirits walk, and ghosts break up their graves,
That time best fits the work we have in hand.
As for the substitution of "break ope" for "break up,” we
have only, as on other occasions, to call the poet to our aid in
refutation of the pragmatical corrector. Thus in King Henry
V. Act iv. Sc. 1:-
When the mind is quicken'd, out of doubt,
The organs, though defunct and dead before,
Break up their drowsy grave, and newly move
With casted slough and fresh legerity.
These would-be "corrections" smack of a much later day
than that which Mr. Collier would assign to them.
150
SHAKESPEARE VINDICATED.
ACT II. SCENE I.
P. 281. "Gloster, addressing the Cardinal, says,-
Churchmen so hot? good uncle, hide such malice ;
With such holiness can you do it.
"The second line, as it stands in all the early copies, is imper-
fect and prosaic; the corrector of the folio, 1632, states that
two small words have been omitted, and his emendation is
better than either of those offered by Warburton and Johnson.
Churchmen so hot? good uncle, hide such malice;
And with such holiness you well can do it.”
Nothing more is necessary than the transposition of the
word you.
Churchmen so hot? good uncle, hide such malice ;
With such holiness you can do it.
Mr. Collier forgets his own censure of those who would
amend the metre of Shakespeare. These interpolations of the
corrector ought, at least, not to have approbation.
SCENE III.
Pp. 281,282. "The whole of what passes just before Gloster,
who has been required to give up his staff of office, quits the
scene, is in rhyme; but there is one line which has nothing to
answer to it, and we meet with the corresponding line, as an
important addition, in the margin. There are also two emen-
dations deserving notice in the preceding speech by Queen
Margaret, and the whole of this part of the play runs as follows
in the folio, 1632, the new portions being printed, as usual, in
italic type:
"Q. Mar. I see no reason why a king of years
Should be protected, like a child, by peers.
God and King Henry govern England's helm,
Give up your staff, Sir, and the king his realm.
"Glo. My staff?-here, noble Henry, is my staff:
To think I fain would keep it makes me laugh.
As willingly I do the same resign,
As e'er thy father Henry made it mine," &c.
SECOND PART OF KING HENRY VI.
151
"There appears no sufficient reason for disbelieving that these
changes and additions might be made on some independent
authority."
Again, more impertinent and uncalled for interpolations,
even to one whole absurd line, and all for the sake of increas-
ing the number of rhyming verses! We must have better
authority" than that of the corrector, or of his advocate,
before we submit to have Shakespeare travestied thus. Putting
such a line as this,
To think I fain would keep it makes me laugh—
into the mouth of Duke Humphrey, who had just before said,
Mine eyes are full of tears, my heart of grief,
and whose subdued and broken spirit are manifest throughout
the scene, must at once open the eyes of all who are not
blinded by prejudice to the impossibility of this barefaced
interpolator having had any other ground than his own conceit
for doings of a similar kind elsewhere, of which so much won-
derment has been made by those who ought to have known
better.
Ib. "Lower down, a striking misprint occurs, and is set right
by the old corrector, to the great improvement of the passage:
the couplet has always thus been given :-
Thus droops this lofty pine, and hangs its sprays,
Thus Eleanor's pride dies in her youngest days.
"
"Now, as Monck Mason observes, Eleanor was certainly not
a young woman;' and in order to overcome the difficulty, he
compelled 'her' to refer to 'pride,' and not to Eleanor; but
the printer was in fault for mistaking the poet's word :—
Thus Eleanor's pride dies in her proudest days,
"is a form of expression peculiarly like Shakespeare, and
perfectly consistent with the situation and character of the
Duches sof Gloster."
A much more probable word is substituted in my second
folio, where the line is thus given :-
152
SHAKESPEARE VINDICATED.
Thus Eleanor's pride dies in her strongest days.
This is a very slight variation from the reading of the old copy,
youngest, which was a much more likely misprint for strongest,
than for proudest. It might well be said of Eleanor, that from
the possession of power, these were her strongest days.
ACT III. SCENE I.
P. 282. The adoption of the palpable emendation by Stee-
vens of suspect for "suspense," misprinted in the following
lines, is another of the numerously reiterated coincidences :-
My lord of Gloster, 'tis my special hope,
That you will clear yourself of all suspect.
Steevens wrote suspects for suspicions, the corrector merely
omitted the s.
P. 283. The substitution of march for "nourish" in the
line,-
Whiles I in Ireland nourish a mighty band,
I will stir up in England some black storm, &c.
though specious is uncalled for, and would require better
authority" to induce us to alter the old text.
((
Ib. The emendation of ungentle for "gentle" of the old
copies had not escaped the observation of the corrector of
my second folio, who has also added the syllable un, in manu-
script. The obvious change of "Eleanor" to Margaret had
been made in all editions.
P. 284. The adoption again of the reading of Steevens, rain
for "drain," is another coincidence; and the adoption of the
necessary readings, foes and send, from the first folio, certainly
required no notice, as they exist in all modern editions.
Ib. Of the substitution sharp for "smart," Mr. Collier
himself acknowledges that "we ought to pause before we
SECOND PART OF KING HENRY VI.
153
admit it into the text," and therefore we may be sure it was
supererogatory.
The substitution of "to" for "no" might be admissible,
although not absolutely necessary.
ACT IV. SCENE I.
Pp. 284, 285. “Discussion has been produced by the sub-
sequent lines, as they stand in the early impressions :-
The lives of those which we have lost in fight
Be counterpois'd with such a petty sum.
"Malone read,' Cannot be counterpois'd,' &c. and Steevens,
perceiving at once that the last line had thus more than the
regular number of syllables, proposed to leave out two small
words, but without the slightest warrant, printed or manu-
script. Note 1" (Collier's Shakespeare, vol. v. p. 180) “gives
a hint of the proper emendation, such, indeed, as we meet with
it, in the shortest possible form, in the margin of the folio,
1632: there the lines are put thus interrogatively,—
Can lives of those which we have lost in fight
Be counterpois'd with such a petty sum?
"Surely this slight change is unobjectionable, where some
change is absolutely necessary.'
The corrector has a marvellous prescience of the emenda-
tions which would be suggested by Mr. Collier! but be anti-
cipates every body who has anything good to suggest! Mr.
Collier's suggestion, however, was nothing new, for many
editions have a similar reading, by Steevens.
Nor can those lives which we have lost in fight
Be counterpois'd with such a petty sum.
P. 285. For,
Speak, captain, shall I stab the forlorn swain?
the corrector substitutes,
Speak, captain, shall I stab the foul-tongued slave?
Mr. Collier says,
"We cannot believe that the writer of
ماری کی اتنی اچھی
A
154
SHAKESPEARE VINDICATED.
that note was merely indulging his taste, or exercising his
fancy. It is to be remarked that the correction of 'forlorn'
to foul-tongued, is in a different ink to that which was used for
the correction of swain' to slave."
Does Mr. Collier really believe that his correctors had any
other foundation for their capricious alterations and interpola-
tions of the old copy than that of indulging their fancies or
their taste for innovation? And does not the different ink
excite any suspicion in his mind as to the integrity and au-
thority of many of the absurd changes made? which could not
possibly have been derived from 'better authority than we
possess.'
SCENE V.
P. 286. We have here another of those unwarranted inter-
polations for the sake of the rhyme, in which this corrector,
whoever he may have been, seems so largely to indulge. In
the speech of Lord Scales :-
Fight for your king, your country, and your lives,
And so farewell; for I must hence again—
he changes the last line thus:-
And so farewell: rebellion never thrives.
We must have better authority before we admit of such re-
writing of the poet's text.
SCENE VIII.
Ib. In the address of Clifford to the followers of Cade there
are two alterations made by the correctors. The lines stand
thus in the old copies :-
What say ye, countrymen, will ye relent
And yield to mercy whil'st 'tis offered you,
Or let a rabble lead you to your deaths—
which is thus altered :-
What say ye countrymen; will ye repent,
And yield to mercy, whil'st 'tis offer'd you,
Or let a rebel lead you to your deaths.
The first is not at all required, " relent" is doubtless the
SECOND PART OF KING HENRY VI.
155
poet's word. Thus Baret: "To relent, and to yield himself
into the safeguard and power of another." The change of
" rabble" to rebel is more plausible, as the word lead seems to 15
refer to Cade, and therefore admissible. This word is also
corrected in my second folio.
P. 287. The alteration made in these lines, where united is
substituted for “mighty,” and Irish interpolated before kernes,
are neither of them required:-
And with a puissant, and mighty power
Of Gallowglasses and stout kernes
Is marching hitherward in proud array.
Mr. Collier has told us that the poet has numerous lines of
eight syllables, and that interpolations on account of the metre
are always to be reprehended!
Pp. 287, 288. The substitution of fell-looking for " fell-lurk-
ing" is not at all required; indeed lurking is the more ex-
pressive epithet; and this piece of meddling has evidently been
suggested by the note in which the attempts of Roderick and
Heath to amend what needed no amendment, is mentioned:
"fell-lurking curs," means curs at once a compound of cruelty
and treachery. Elsewhere we have “lurking serpents” and
"lurking treasons."
P.288. "Just below occurs another slight, but decided error,
of the same kind, in Richard's simile of an overweening cur:-
Who being suffer'd with the bear's fell paw,
Hath clapp'd his tail between his legs and cried.
"Here one auxiliary was used for another, for we ought
clearly to read having for 'being'—
Who having suffer'd from the bear's fell paw, &c.
"It seems strange that Malone should ingeniously strive to
vindicate 'being,' without perceiving that having would at
once put an end to the difficulty."
Mr. Collier suppresses the fact that it is necessary to change
156
SHAKESPEARE VINDICATED.
two words, and to read from instead of " with !" He may be
assured that the old copy needs no change, and that suffer'd
is here used passively in the sense of punished. The meddling
of the corrector, and Mr. Collier's defence of it, are therefore
equally supererogatory.
SCENE II.
Pp. 288, 289." We may be pretty sure, if only on account
of the disagreeable jingle of 'hearts' and parts' in the same
line, that Shakespeare did not write the following, as it has
always been handed down to us. Young Clifford is speaking
of the total rout of King Henry's troops :-
Uncurable discomfit
Reigns in the hearts of all our present parts.
"Some corruption found its way into the text, and the cor-
rector of the folio, 1632, informs us what it is, but he does not
tell us how the word he substitutes became mistaken for that
he expunges:
Uncurable discomfit
Reigns in the hearts of all our present friends.
"If the transcriber of this play for the press had written as
plain a hand as the corrector, such a blunder would not have
been committed, and we do not see how any want of clearness
could well pervert friends into 'parts.' That the one fills the
place better than the other, will, probably, not be denied:
neither will it be denied, by those who have examined it, that
the latter portion of this play is very incorrectly printed."
Mr. Collier may well say "he cannot see how 'parts' could
be printed for friends;'" the latter word never entered into
the mind or text of the poet. The error lies only in a letter,
s is printed for y; we should read:-
Uncurable discomfit
Reigns in the hearts of all our present party.
Had this authoritative corrector had access to "better au-
thority than that of the old printers, or than we possess," he
would never have fallen into this and similar errors of con-
jecture.
SECOND PART OF KING HENRY VI.
157
P. 289.
Of Salisbury, who can report of him?
That winter lion, who in rage forgets
Aged contusions and all brush of time,
And, like a gallant in the brow of youth,
Repairs him with occasion.
The corrector substitutes old for" of," adopts Warburton's
reading of bruise for "brush," and modifies Johnson's reading
of blow for "brow," reading bloom.
Old for "Of" though not wanted, might be admissible,
but bruise for "brush" Steevens has shown to be quite unne-
cessary; and Johnson's suggestion, blow for "brow," although
more likely, as nearer to the old word, and a more probable
misprint, is not at all needed. bloom could never have been
mistaken for brow, which is preferable to either of the altera-
tions proposed.
THIRD PART OF KING HENRY VI.
P. 290.
ACT I. SCENE I.
DWARD, speaking of the Duke of Buckingham,
says that he
ED
Is either slain or wounded dangerous.
"There are two pieces of evidence to show that we ought to
read' wounded dangerously'; the one is the play from which
this drama was in great part taken, and the other a manu-
script-correction in the folio, 1632. Either ought, in such a
case, to be conclusive.”
Both of these I hold to be suspicious evidence'; and
although it is not a matter worth disputing, the poet himself
uses other adjectives adverbially, and may so have used this.
Thus we have damnable for damnably, honourable for honour-
ably, voluntary for voluntarily, light for lightly, &c.; and
why not dangerous for dangerously?
158
SHAKESPEARE VINDICATED.
Pp. 290, 291. "The folio, 1632, thus blunderingly gives
the passage, where Henry consents to reign only during
life:
My lord of Warwick, hear but one word.
Let me for this time reign as king.
"Manuscript-corrections change the lines thus:-
My lord of Warwick, hear me but one word.
Let me for this my life time reign as king.
“Me, necessary at least to the measure, is found in no
known edition of this play; but my life, in the second line, makes
the passage agree with the folio, 1623; the insertion of me,
in the first line, may induce a doubt whether the corrector of
the folio, 1632, did not resort to some independent source.
This notion is strengthened by an emendation, a few lines
above, where, according to all authorities, York exclaims,-
Henry of Lancaster, resign thy crown;
"but York, from the commencement, had demanded the
crown as his; and, in consistency with this assertion of right,
and perhaps warranted by some then extant authority, the
old corrector makes York say,—
Henry of Lancaster, resign my crown.
"At all events, such would seem to be the true reading."
It is scarcely to be credited that Mr. Collier, who has so
keen an eye for the readings and notes of the Variorum Edi-
tion of Shakespeare, should have been ignorant that the
word me in the first line is to be found in the third folio edition
of Shakespeare, and that Monck Mason advocated its admis-
sion into the text! That, in fact, it is the reading of many
subsequent editions; among others, of mine, printed in 1826,
which has the passage exactly as it is given by the corrector,
who may here again have taken a leaf out of my book!
With regard to the reading,-
Henry of Lancaster, resign my crown;
by which Mr. Collier thinks to strengthen his supposition
that the corrector "resorted to some independent source;" I
THIRD PART OF KING HENRY VI.
159
have to offer a much more probable reading, which I find in
my own corrected second folio:-
Henry of Lancaster, resign the crown.
But my corrector lays no claim to any other "authority"
than his own conjecture.
I am sorry to be obliged to waste time, and risk wearying
the reader by so many words about such evident trifling, but it
is quite essential that the false pretensions set up for "autho-
rity," on this as on other occasions, should be fully and fairly
exposed.
SCENE IV.
Pp. 291, 292. “The folio, 1623, has this exclamation by
York, in allusion to the death of young Rutland:-
That face of his the hungry cannibals
Would not have touch'd, would not have stain'd with blood;
"and why the passage should have been altered to the fol-
lowing form in the folio, 1632, it is not very easy to under-
stand, unless when properly given, it corresponded with some
better original than that from which the folio, 1623, was
printed :—
((
That face of his
The hungry cannibals would not have touch'd,
Would not have stain'd the roses just with blood.
Theobald, to keep, we suppose, as near the letters of the
second folio as possible, proposed, somewhat absurdly, to
print 'juic'd with blood;' but the printer was in fault, by
converting hues into 'just;' and hues is substituted for 'just'
by the old corrector.
Would not have stain'd the rose's hues with blood.
"is intelligible enough, and on some accounts superior to the
language of the earlier folio, which was derived from the old
play Shakespeare altered. We know of no original for the
insertion of the rose's hues' in the folio, 1632."
The words "the roses just" were probably an interpolation
160
SHAKESPEARE VINDICATED.
pot
from some manuscript memorandum on the margin of the
copy from which the folio, 1632, was printed. They are cer-
tainly not the poet's words; and how Mr. Collier can fancy
that absurd reading superior to the undoubted and authentic
text of the first folio is to me a mystery! The corrector's
substitution of hues for "just" is therefore a work of supere-
rogation, although it does not much mend the matter. The
poet would not have thought of making the cannibals 'stain
the rose's hues.' In a future scene, King Henry, speaking
of a son killed by his father, says,—
The red rose and the white are on his face,
The fatal colours of our striving houses s;
The one, his purple blood right well resembles;
The other, his pale cheeks, methinks, present!
There it is an appropriate thought.
P. 292. The reading of "carriage" for courage in the fol-
lowing lines--
My lord, cheer up your spirits: our foes are nigh
And this soft courage makes your followers faint—
is adopted from Monck Mason, and is so obvious that it is
surprising it had not been admitted into the text long since,
especially as it is warranted by the corresponding passage in
the old play.
P. 293. “When the Yorkists defy the party of the King
and Queen to battle, this poor couplet is put into Edward's
mouth:
Sound trumpets! let our bloody colours wave,
And either victory, or else a grave.”
“The last line is vastly improved in expression and energy by
a manuscript alteration in the folio, 1632:-
Sound trumpets! let our bloody colours wave,
And either victory, or a welcome grave."
"It seems hardly possible that a copyist should mishear wel-
come, and write or else' for it; but whether welcome were
or were not the word of the poet, we may be quite sure that
THIRD PART OF KING HENRY VI.
161
!
he never wrote or else;' and the great probability seems to
be that he wrote welcome.”
How are those who have no faith in the authority of the
corrector, or in Mr. Collier's assurance, to be convinced that
the poet did not write "or else." They are words quite suited
to the circumstances of Edward, and signify briefly, death or
victory. What has "welcome" to do here? What energy or
expression is superinduced by it? Mr. Collier may rest
assured that it is a mere impertinent interference with the old
text.
Ib. The substitution of E'en for "Men" in the following
lines:-
And so obsequious will thy father be,
E'en for the loss of thee, having no more,
As Priam was for all his valiant sons.
was very judicious and one of the few rectifications of typo-
graphical errors which may fairly be attributed to the cor-
rectors of Mr. Collier's second folio.
ACT III. SCENE III.
P. 294. Two unnecessary pieces of meddling here occur,
changing thy for "thee," and the interpolation of warlike,
without the slightest reason or necessity.
ACT IV. SCENE VII.
P. 296. The same remark applies to the interpolation of
he in the sarcastic line of Gloster :—
A stout wise captain, and soon persuaded.
But these unlicensed liberties Mr. Collier thinks meritorious
deeds!
SCENE VIII.
Ib. “The old corrector informs us that mind has been mis-
printed 'meed,' where King Henry says,—
That's not my fear; my meed hath got me fame;
"and the context tends to convince us that the alteration was
proper, and that the poet did not intend to use 'meed' in
the sense of merit. The mild and pious King refers not so
M
162
SHAKESPEARE VINDICATED.
770%
much to his own acts, as to the gentle character of his dispo-
sition; and, in conformity with this view, he remarks, just
afterwards, as the passage has been uniformly printed,-
My mildness hath allay'd their swelling griefs,
My mercy dried their water-flowing tears.
"Water-flowing' seems a poor and tautologous epithet for
'tears;' and bitter-flowing is substituted in the corrected
folio, 1632. Water-standing eyes' is used afterwards, but
under very different circumstances."
There cannot be a doubt that meed is the authentic word
of the poet, who has used it before in this play, for merit or
desert, Act ii. Sc. 1, when Edward says of himself and his
brothers,—
Each one already blazing by our meeds.
That the King would speak of his mind having got him fame
is very much more unlikely.
The proposed substitution of bitter-flowing for "water-
flowing," is very plausible, and merits attention.
ACT V. SCENE V.
Pp. 296, 297. "The young Prince having been stabbed by
Edward, Clarence, and Gloster, Margaret exclaims,-
O traitors! murderers!
They that stabb'd Cæsar shed no blood at all,
Did not offend, nor were not worthy blame,
If this foul deed were by to equal it.
"This passage cannot have reached us as Shakespeare wrote
it, because one foul deed being present, and only equal to
another, also present, would not show either of them off as
more heinous. An evident and easy mistake, either by the
copyist or by the printer, has represented our great poet as
writing what is little better than illogical nonsense; and the
corrector of the folio, 1632, by placing a single letter in the
margin, has shown us what, we think, must have come from
Shakespeare's pen:
O traitors! murderers!
They that stabb'd Cæsar shed no blood at all,
Did not offend, nor were not worthy blame,
If this foul deed were by to sequel it.
THIRD PART OF KING HENRY VI.
163
"That is, if this foul deed had been by, to follow up the stab-
bing of Cæsar, the latter act would have appeared no crime
in comparison."
The "illogical nonsense" is, I fear, not in the reading of
the old copy, but in Mr. Collier's conception of it.
66 то
equal it," is to liken or compare with it; see Baret's Alvearie,
under the word equal. "To compare or equal to, Equiparo."
The words, "If this foul deed were by," manifestly show that
the deeds were to be in juxtaposition, not to follow each
other; and to sequel it would be the "illogical nonsense,"
which the poet, who is remarkable for his logical concinnity,
would never have used, although Mr. Collier thinks that it
"must have come from Shakespeare's pen."!
SCENE VI.
Pp. 297, 298. "Henry, referring to the birth of Richard,
tells him,-
The owl shriek'd at thy birth, an evil sign;
The night-crow cried, aboding luckless time.
"For 'aboding,' as one word, the corrector writes a boding,
as two words; and for time,' he writes tune,—
<
The night-crow cried, a boding luckless tune.
"This appears to be the right reading, for in the older play,
which is here followed more exactly than usual, the words are
the same; but it is, nevertheless, to be admitted that in
'Henry VIII.' Shakespeare used 'aboded' for forboded, and
that 'time' was often misprinted tune. There is the same
double reason for altering 'indigested' to indigest, just below;
it stands so in the older play, and it is changed so in the mar-
gin of the folio, 1632; the line, too, consists only of the regu-
lar number of syllables in the old play, the additions being,
in all probability, corruptions. This circumstance is, there-
fore, adverse to the opinion expressed in note 3 on this
page." (Collier's Shakesp. vol. v. p. 334.)
Can it be possible that Mr. Collier could for a moment
imagine that the evident error of the old play, tune for time,
could be the “right reading" in Shakespeare? when both the
folios have so distinctly—
The night-crow cry'de, aboding lucklesse time.
164
SHAKESPEARE VINDICATED.
With regard to the change of "indigested" to indigest, Mr.
Collier would have done better to adhere to his former opinion,
thus expressed:—" This is only one of Shakespeare's numerous
twelve-syllable lines, which modern editors would reduce to
ten, by reading indigest, and omitting the conjunction." The
innovation is, however, nothing new; Mr. Collier to support
his new acquaintance suppresses the fact that Malone reads,
To wit,-an indigest deformed lump-
with the following note:-"The folio has indigested; but the
metre and the old play show that it was a misprint."!
SCENE VII.
P. 298. "The folios, where King Edward adverts to the
losses sustained during the civil war, have two lines thus
printed :-
Three dukes of Somerset, threefold renown,
For hardy and undoubted champions.
"The corrector of the folio, 1632, instructs us to read,-
Three dukes of Somerset, threefold renown'd
For hardy and redoubted champions.
6
"Modern editors have renown'd,' and it is the word in the
older play; but, like the folios, it has undoubted' for
redoubted."
As renown'd is the reading of all editions of modern times,
it was hardly worth notice. In regard to the substitution of
redoubted for undoubted,' it is a needless alteration of the
poet's word, undoubted is dauntless. "To doubt is to fear,-
also to cause to fear; to daunt: and undoubted undaunted
=dauntless." This interpretation of the word was kindly
furnished me by Dr. Richardson, to whose excellent Dictionary.
I have been much indebted on many occasions.
165
P. 300.
WE
KING RICHARD III.
ACT I. SCENE I.
E notice the following, not so much as an emenda-
tion, but as a change of the received text, which the
old corrector would, perhaps, not have thought it necessary
to make, had it not accorded with some other than the usual
authorities. All copies of this play, of our own or of former
times, give this line,-
66
I, that am curtail'd of this fair proportion;
whereas, by a marginal note in the folio, 1632, we are told
to read,-
I, that am curtail'd thus of fair proportion."
"Not so much as an emendation, but as a change"!! So
we are at liberty to make whatever changes may suit our
caprice! Emendation is out of the question! Where is the
evidence for "authority" in this absurd interpolation?
Ib. "There is a considerable increase of contempt, as well
as an improvement in the verse, in the following line, where
same is added in manuscript, not being found in any printed
copy:
Was it not she, and that good man of worship,
Anthony Woodeville, her same brother there,
That made him send lord Hastings to the Tower?
"If Woodeville could be read as a trisyllable, there is no
absolute need of the addition."
No absolute need, indeed! The interpolation only adds
"a considerable increase of contempt" for such impertinent
meddlers.
P. 301. The change of "posthorse" to posthaste, we may
allow to be an admissible correction of a probable misprint,
and therefore "possibly right."
Note
166
SHAKESPEARE VINDICATED.
SCENE II.
P. 301. The insertion of the line "To take is not to give,'
from the quarto, 1597, was most probably derived from some
later edition, unless we are to suppose that this fortunate cor-
rector had all the early editions at his command!—a suppo-
sition highly improbable. The substitution of suppliant for
servant," from the same source, which Mr. Collier says, “we
may feel assured was the word of the poet," he rejected in
his own edition, as a matter indifferent!
66
SCENE III.
P. 302. "One of the most striking and satisfactory emen-
dations in the corrected folio, 1632, occurs in Queen Mar-
garet's denunciation of Richard, where she addresses him, in
all editions, in the following terms :—
Thou elvish-mark'd, abortive, rooting hog,
Thou that wast seal'd in thy nativity
The slave of nature, and the son of hell, &c.
"Here'slave of nature,' but especially son of hell,' sound so
flatly and tamely near the conclusion of the curse, that an
impression rises at once in the mind, that Shakespeare must
have written something more fierce and vigorous. How, then,
does the old corrector inform us that the last line ought to
run? not as the words are spelt in the folio, 1623, and followed
in that of 1632,-
f
The slaue of Nature, and the sonne of Hell,
"but with two remarkable changes,-
The stain of nature, and the scorn of Hell.
"Stain and scorn must surely have been the language of our
great dramatist; and when we bear in mind that stain' was
of old spelt staine, and scorn' scorne, it is not difficult to
discover how the blunders arose."
(
Although Mr. Collier feels so confident that stain and scorn
must have been the words of our great dramatist, I do not
KING RICHARD III.
167
think that they are exactly the words he would have used:
for Richard would have been rather the glory than the scorn
of hell. It is remarkable that the corrector of my second folio
should have tried his hand also on this passage, and, as it
seems to me, with better success. He would read :—
The shame of nature and the spawn of hell.
SCENE IV.
6
P. 303. "The second Murderer, who was for saving the life
of Clarence, says, in the quartos, 'I hope my holy humour
will change;' in the folios, I hope this passionate humour of
mine will change;' and in the corrected folio, 1632,' I hope
this compassionate humour of mine will change.""
Although this word is also altered in my second folio, by
the interlineation of the prefix com-; it may be doubted
whether passionate is not the true reading when we recollect
that in Hamlet we have passion for compassion:-
Would have made milch the burning eye of heaven,
And passion in the gods.
We have the verb to passionate in Spenser and in Titus An-
dronicus.
Ib. The following lines, which are only in the folios, are
there thus given :—
Which of you, if you were a Princes sonne,
Being pent from liberty, as I am now,
If two such murtherers as yourselves came to you,
Would not intreat for life, as you would begge
Were you in my distress.
The corrector, making a gratuitous interpolation, and altering
the punctuation, would read thus,-
for "
Which of you,
*
*
If two such murderers as yourselves came to you,
Would not intreat for life? As you would beg,
Were you in my distress, so pity me.
All that is necessary is the substitution of the word so
as," which is judiciously done by the corrector of my
second folio, the passage will then read :-
168
SHAKESPEARE VINDICATED.
Which of you,
*
If two such murderers as yourselves came to you,
Would not intreat for life? so you would beg
Were you in my distress.
The addition of the three words, and the alteration in the
structure of the passage by the interpolator, are thus avoided,
and the old copy closely adhered to.
ACT II. SCENE I.
P. 303. The corrector supplies the word guilty, which had
been omitted by accident in the folio, 1632; for it is found
in the first folio, as well as in the quartos, although Mr. Col-
lier ignores the fact! and is the common reading.
Ib. "Just above," says Mr. Collier, " an unimportant word is
added to complete a defective line, which is not found in any
known impression of the play,—
Come, Hastings, prithee, help me to my closet.
“Modern editors have generally finished this line by adding to
it,' Ah! poor Clarence!' a hemistich spoken by the king just
before he goes out, which renders the line as redundant as it
was before deficient."
Does Mr. Collier really think this interpolation necessary ?
or that the reading of the old copy was not quite intelligible.
Among the modern editors who without reason added the
hemistich to the line, we must number Mr. Collier. Mr.
Knight has not done so he has printed the passage as it
stands in the folios :-
Come, Hastings, help me to my closet!
Ah! poor Clarence!
SCENE II.
P. 304. “The quartos, speaking of the death of Edward IV.
represent him as having gone
To his new kingdom of perpetual rest,
"while the folios have it,-
To his new kingdom of ne'er changing night.
"In the corrected folio, 1632, 'night' is made light. How
KING RICHARD III.
169
it happens that the quartos in some places differ so materially
from the folios has never been explained."
This is a barefaced attempt of the conceited corrector, who-
ever he may have been, to alter the language of the poet to
please his own capricious fancy. Nothing can be more cer-
tain than that the poet wrote-
To his new kingdom of ne'er changing night.
For in Clarence's narration of his dream we have it again
I pass'd methought, the melancholy flood,
With that sour ferryman which poets write of,
UNTO THE KINGDOM OF PERPETUAL NIGHT.
Such instances as these are quite sufficient to show us what
reliance is to be put on the meddlings of this corrupter of the
text of Shakespeare, or on Mr. Collier's perpetual inuendoes.
of his having had access to better authority than we possess !
ACT III. SCENE I.
P. 304. "Two emendations, for which we have reason to
be thankful, are made in the opening of Buckingham's speech,
where he is arguing that the Duke of York cannot be entitled
to sanctuary on account of his youth and innocence. Cardinal
Bourchier maintains that sanctuary ought in no case to be
violated:-
God in heaven forbid
We should infringe the holy privilege
Of blessed sanctuary! not for all this land,
Would I be guilty of so great a sin.
"The words,' in heaven,' are not in the folios, but were in-
serted by the corrector of the folio, 1632, and they accord
with the text of the quartos; but in Buckingham's reply we
encounter two changes, which we can hardly hesitate in ad-
mitting, since they so importantly contribute to enforce and
explain the meaning of the poet. The first line of what
Buckingham addresses to the Cardinal (as always hitherto
printed), is needlessly offensive and coarse in its terms; and
the third line contains two misprints which have been the
source of much speculation between Warburton, Johnson,
Malone, &c. The passage, as invariably given, is this:-
170
SHAKESPEARE VINDICATED.
<
You are too senseless-obstinate, my lord,
Too ceremonious and traditional :
Weigh it but with the grossness of this age,
You break not sanctuary in seizing him.
"For senseless-obstinate,' a strange and unmannerly com-
pound, the corrector of the folio, 1632, states that we must
substitute words quite consistent with the good breeding of
Buckingham, and at the same time quite consistent with the
argument he is employing, viz. that the Cardinal is too rigid
and scrupulous in his unwillingness to violate sanctuary, in a
case for which it was never intended:-
You are too strict and abstinent, my lord,
Too ceremonious and traditional :
Weigh it but with the goodness of his age,
You break not sanctuary in seizing him.
•
"The point for which Buckingham contends is, that age and
purity, such as belong to little York, did not require the
holy privilege,' and could not claim it; the goodness of his
age,' refers to the youth and innocence of the prince, and
those words have been, (in all cases but in one of the quartos,
where greatness is found) misprinted 'the grossness of this
age.' Warburton suggested greenness as the true reading;
but the errors were 'grossness' for goodness, and 'this' for his.
These mistakes are remedied in the folio, 1632; and nothing
but an excess of carelessness could have been guilty of them.
What "reason have we to be thankful" for this precious
piece of pragmatic interference with the old authentic read-
ing? It is quite evident that the suggestion of Warburton
has led to it, yet his reading "greenness of his age" would be
preferable to the corrector's goodness, which is unmeaning.
Johnson's exposition of the old reading was nearly right:
Weigh the act of seizing him with the grossness, i. e. plainness,
simplicity of these times, it will not be considered as a violation
of sanctuary," for as we have it in More's History of Richard
III. "he that taketh one out of saintuarye to do him good, I
ṣay plainely that he breaketh no saintuarye." The substi-
tution of strict and abstinent for "senseless obstinate," in the
first line, is a violent and unnecessary change, senseless could
never be misprinted for strict and. Were we to read "his
age" instead of" this age," grossness might then possibly ex-
KING RICHARD III.
171
press the number or sum total of his age, and refer to the
youth of the prince,-" a sanctuary child," as it is afterwards.
expressed. There is no good reason for the corrector's inno-
vation.
P. 305. "Little York has been taunting his uncle Richard,
upon which Buckingham remarks,—
With what a sharp provided wit he reasons.
"The manuscript-corrector assures us that, although the in-
tention of the dramatist is evident, a decided misprint has crept
into the line: he reads,―
With what a sharply pointed wit he reasons.
Again: "sharp provided" could never be a misprint for
sharply pointed, nor do they resemble in sound.
But the old reading, according to Baret, may well be con-
tinued:-" provided of those things which he should saie."
With what a sharp provided wit he reasons,
To mitigate the scorn he gives his uncle
He prettily and aptly taunts himself:
So cunning and so young is wonderful.
Interference, and especially such a violent change as the
correctors propose, is entirely unnecessary.
But they must be meddling, and we have e'en for "needs"
in the line,—
My lord protector needs will have it so.
Mr. Collier's observation is worthy of remark, “The dif
ference scarcely merits notice on any other account than be-
cause it shows a preference for a word not in any extant
authorities."
A strange reason for preferring it!
P. 306. The adoption of the reading of the quartos in the
line-
Chop off his head, man, somewhat we will do,
may have been made from some recent edition, as it has long
been the established reading.
172
SHAKESPEARE VINDICATED.
note
SCENE VII.
P. 307. "Buckingham, giving an account to Richard how
he had proceeded and succeeded among the Citizens at Guild-
hall, tells him that he had thus adverted to the bastardy of
Edward IV. :-
As being got, your father then in France;
And his resemblance, being not like the duke.
"This last line is only in the folios; but Buckingham was to
enforce, not Edward's likeness, but his want of likeness to his
father; not his resemblance,' but dis-resemblance; and pre-
cisely in this form the corrector of the folio, 1632, has put it:
As being got, your father then in France;
And dis-resemblance, being not like the duke.
"However unusual the word, it exactly suits the poet's mean-
ing, and dis may easily have been read his.' At a later
date, dissemblance' seems to have been employed to express
want of similarity."
'
There is no authority for such a word as " disresem-
blance;" and dissemblance is not, that I am aware of, ever
used for “want of similarity," but for feigning.
Shakespeare uses resemblance here for semblance, i. e. ap-
pearance, which is his usual word. Thus in a former scene,
the Duchess of York says:-
I have bewept a worthy husband's death,
And liv'd by looking on his images:
But now two mirrors of his princely semblance
Are crack'd in pieces by malignant death.
And in the Rape of Lucrece :-
Poor broken glass, I often did behold
In thy sweet semblance my old age new born.
We must therefore adhere to the old reading, and reject
the new-coined word, dis-resemblance, of the pragmatic cor-
rector.
Ib. The substitution of sore for sure, in the line,-
But, sure I fear, we shall not win him to it-
KING RICHARD III.
173
has something plausible about it, although it is not necessary,
but such a slight typographical error is very probable.
P.308. The adoption of the word zounds, from the quartos,
instead of "come," of the folios, is another happy sympathy,
with a suggestion by Mr. Collier, who says, "There is little
doubt this proceeded from Shakespeare's pen, on whatever
account the text might afterwards be altered."
"Call him again," for "call them again," may be right, but
not necessarily so, for the citizens, according to the old
"exeunt," went out with Buckingham.
ACT IV. SCENE III.
P. 309. "Tyrrell, who had suborned the two ruffians,
Dighton and Forrest, to murder the young princes, says of
them, and of the part they had acted, according to all
editions,-
Albeit they were flesh'd villains, bloody dogs,
Melted with tenderness and mild compassion,
Wept like to children in their death's sad story.
“The passage is surely much improved by the trifling altera-
tions in the folio, 1632:-
Albeit they were flesh'd villains, blooded dogs,
Melted with tenderness and mild compassion,
Wept like two children in their death's sad story.
"The two villains had been fleshed, and were like dogs that
had been allowed the taste of human blood; yet they wept,
like two children, while narrating the particulars of the murder
of the princes."
If Mr. Collier can adduce any example of the use of
blooded in the sense here intended to be given to it, it will
surprise me very much. All authorities I am acquainted with
are against it; and I hold it to be an invention of the in-
genious correctors, who do not hesitate at coining a word. It
will be seen from the following examples, that it was not
known to Shakespeare's cotemporaries at least :-Thus Dray-
ton, in "The Miseries of Queen Margaret:"-
·
Note
174
SHAKESPEARE VINDICATED.
When this stout Duke, who in his castle stood
With Sal'sbury, who beat them all at Blore,
Both which were flesht abundantly with blood,
In those three battles they had won before.
And in Holland's Ammianus, p. 346:-
The Asturians growne insolent by reason of this twofold success,
like unto ravening foules, made more cruel and eagre with the taste of blood
that had so FLESHED them, flew upon the inhabitants.
""
We must therefore hold to "bloody dogs," notwithstanding
Mr. Collier's opinion that the passage "is much improved
by the introduction of this neologic word! But we have surely
a surfeit of these improvements on Shakespeare!
P. 310. The adoption of the reading of the quarto, intes-
tate, instead of intestine of the folios, may have been derived
from any edition within the last century; it is therefore no-
thing new.
Ib. The alteration of hear to bear is evidently wrong, in
the line of the Duchess of York's speech :-
Then patiently hear my impatience,
for Richard replies that he "cannot brook the accent of re-
proof."
The substitution of once for "have" is not needed, and
the words could not be mistaken for each other either by
scribe or printer.
Ib. The change of "leads" for treads, in the line where
Richard tells Queen Elizabeth that Dorset
Leads discontented steps in foreign soil,
is also an unnecessary innovation. Mr. Collier confesses that
"leads may be right."
Ib. "The following lines, in reference to the intercession
of Queen Elizabeth with her daughter in favour of Richard's
pretensions, conclude the King's speech in the folios:-
Urge the necessity and state of times,
And be not peevish found in great designs.
KING RICHARD III.
175
"The quartos have 'peevish fond,' and the old corrector
amends the couplet as follows:--
'
Urge the necessity of state and times,
And be not peevish fond in great designs.
That is to say, she was to enforce the necessity of state and
of the times for the marriage. It may still be a question
whether peevish found,' of the folios, be not preferable, as
avoiding all appearance of tautology; on which account it is
advocated in note 10 on this page" (Collier's Shaks. vol. v.
p. 466): "nevertheless, 'peevish fond' has, we see, two pieces
of evidence in its favour."
The alteration in the first line is anything but probable,
and certainly no improvement. To bring back the depraved
reading of the quartos is a mark of bad taste, whoever may
have done it. Mr. Collier himself observes that, "be not
peevish fond' is merely saying the same thing by two different
words, fond being also silly or foolish. And be not peevish
found,' the reading of the folio, seems on all accounts pre-
ferable."
<
The "two pieces of evidence in its favour," are therefore
not the evidence of common-sense.
SCENE V.
P. 311. The insertion of the words and mark, in the line
where Stanley inquires of Sir Christopher Urswick,
What men of name resort to him,
is an unwarrantable interpolation, for Mr. Collier himself has
told us that the poet often varies his verse by lines of eight
syllables. We must therefore reject it until we have better
"authority" than this barefaced interpolator.
ACT V. SCENE II.
Ib. "Richmond speaking of Richard, calls him, as the
words have always stood in print,—
The wretched, bloody, and usurping boar:
"Wretched' is an epithet that has little comparative appro-
176
SHAKESPEARE VINDICATED.
priateness, while the word recommended in manuscript to
supply the place of it, is especially adapted to the character
of Richard, and we may readily believe it to have been that
of the poet :-
The reckless, bloody, and usurping boar.
"Reckless was of old frequently spelt wreckless, and hence,
perhaps, the misprint."
That
Mr. Collier can have "read and studied the poet for nearly
half a century" but to little purpose, if he really thinks reck-
less more "appropriate" to Richard here than wretched.
Shakespeare uniformly uses the word reckless in the sense
of careless. It was formerly written "Rechelesse, carlesse, in-
diligens," as in Huloet, and is from the A. s. recan.
wretched is the word of the poet, and therefore the most
"appropriate" and undoubted, will appear from the use of
it by Roderigo in Othello, when he receives his death-wound,
and exclaims, "Oh, wretched villain!" The corrector's
meddling is therefore superfluous and mischievous.
SCENE III.
Ib. As life is the reading of all editions except the second
folio, I cannot see the virtue of the act of making that con-
form to them, or the necessity of noting it.
P. 312. The rectification of passages from the quartos, or
rather from those who have availed themselves of them, calls
for no remark, but that it would be a most extraordinary cir-
cumstance if any old annotator, as Mr. Collier would have us
believe, could have had access to all that have fallen into the
hands of successive editors! It is quite as staggering as the
numerous coincidences with the readings and suggestions of
others who can believe in such divination?
P. 313. The interpolation here of pointless, in the line,
Let fall thy lance. Despair and die-
is gratuitous interference. Why pointless lance? And Mr.
Collier knows that lines of eight syllables are frequent in the
poet, to vary the measure.
KING RICHARD III.
177
The insertion of him in the line just subsequent,
Will conquer him. Awake, and win the day—
was most probably, as in other cases, derived from some
later edition, in which the reading of the quartos had been
adopted.
The "important" change in the line,
And fall thy edgeless sword. Despair and die—
which the ghost of Anne addresses to Richard, and which is
altered to
And fall thy powerless arm. Despair and die—
is another instance that this meddler thought it allowable to
substitute his own language for that of the poet, where he
fancied he could improve upon him! As for the notion that
the words "may have been obtained from some better autho-
rity on or off the stage," had the authority been valid, he
would not have blundered so sadly, and made such absurd
alterations in the true language of Shakespeare, as we have
clearly shown he has done on many occasions.
P. 314. Mr. Collier points out some more trifling of the
corrector; in one instance the interpolation of the word foul
where it is not wanted, and only spoils the verse, and one of
these a transposition of the words "I have dream'd a fearful
dream," he thinks looks like one of the "emendations” made
from recitation. Recitation would be a very doubtful source
for emendation of the text of Shakespeare, even in more cul-
tivated times than that in which he assumes these corrections
to have been made.
Ib. Another impertinent interpolation, of the word ranks,
occurs in the line,—
My forward shall be drawn out all in length,
which Mr. Collier is constrained to acknowledge "corresponds
more with the words of Holinshed," and the corrector's inter-
ference is therefore futile and absurd.
N
178
SHAKESPEARE VINDICATED.
not
<
P. 315. "In the King's address to his army, Steevens pro-
posed to read ventures for adventures,' and Warburton dis-
train for restrain: both these changes are warranted by
manuscript emendations in the folio, 1632.”
my
Another extraordinary instance of coincidence; and, in
mind, no doubt derived, with many others, from some variorum
edition.
Ib. The adoption of the punctuation, indicated by Johnson,
is a case of the same kind.
Ib. I see no objection to the correction of "abate” to
rebate. It was a possible typographical error of a common
word for one not quite so familiar; and I will assist Mr. Col-
lier in his argument, with a quotation from a book with which
I have reason to think Shakespeare was familiar. "To rebate
or make dull, Aciem ferri hebetare." Baret's Alvearie, 1580.
I will here mention a passage occurring at the close of the
3d Scene of Act III. in this play, in which hitherto, from per-
verse adherence to a typographical error in the first folio,
Mr. Collier, as well as Mr. Knight, have continued an absurd
reading, which Steevens long since proposed to set right. It
is where Ratcliffe, with a guard, is conducting Rivers, Grey,
and Vaughan to execution, and Ratcliffe exclaims,—
Make haste; the hour of death is expiate.
For expiate Steevens properly substituted expirate.
Mr. Collier's note upon the passage says:-" For this line
we have in the quartos a line previously omitted,-
Come, come, despatch; the limit of your lives is out.
"The editor of the folio, 1632, altered 'expiate' into is now
expir'd, not understanding expiate in the peculiar sense in
which it seems used here, viz. that of completed, or ended !"
Mr. Knight says, " However forced the meaning of expiate
may be, Shakespeare has used it in his 22d sonnet in a similar
manner:
My glass, shall not persuade me I am old,
So long as youth and thou are of one date;
But when in thee time's furrows I behold,
Then look I death my days should expiate."
KING RICHARD III.
179
Malone, with singular stolidity, and perhaps with a de-
termination to oppose Steevens, asserts that expiate means
fully completed and ended! And in a note on the sonnet he
explains it, fill up the measure! citing a line from Locrine,
1595,-
Lives Sabren then to expiate my wrath.
Where the word, as Mason observes, is nothing to the pur-
pose, but means to atone for, or satisfy.
How expiate can be made to signify completed, or ended, or
fill up the measure, I cannot understand. Shakespeare always
uses expressive words, and did not write nonsense. He again
uses to expire as a verb active, in Romeo and Juliet, in a
similar manner :—
Of a despised life.
and expire the term
And Spenser, in Mother Hubberd's Tale, v. 308,-
Now when as Time flying with winges swift
Expired had the term that these two Jewels
Should, &c.
Steevens has remarked that Shakespeare delights to introduce
words with this termination. We have festinate and conspi-
rate in King Lear; combinate in Measure for Measure, and
ruminate in King Henry VI. We may safely, therefore, in
future read,--
Make haste, the hour of death is expirate.
And in the sonnet,—
Then look I death my days should expirate.
180
SHAKESPEARE VINDICATED.
P. 317.
TH
KING HENRY VIII.
ACT I. SCENE I.
HEOBALD very properly altered the distribution of the
dialogue, and the words, and the corrector follows him,
but the words,
The office did
Distinctly his full function-
which the corrector gives to Buckingham, should evidently
be the conclusion of Norfolk's speech.
Ib. The substitution of consummation for "communication”
was not at all necessary. Johnson's view of the passage is
quite satisfactory:-"What effect had this pompous show,
but the production of a wretched conclusion?" Why inter-
fere with a perfectly intelligible text?
P. 318. To substitute "a beggar's brood" for "a beggar's
book," is mere wanton interference. The reading of the old
copy is by far the most likely, as ascribing Wolsey's arrival
at eminent station chiefly by his book learning. There was a
natural jealousy, on the part of the nobility, at seeing them-
selves surmounted by a man of low extraction, on account of
acquirements they despised; brood can never have been the
poet's word. The immediate suggestion is apparent in the
stage business. Wolsey enters with two secretaries, with
papers, and it is as he looks over these-the examination of
Buckingham's purveyor,-handed to him by a secretary, that
hé exchanges disdainful glances with the duke.
SCENE II.
Ib. "According to the corrector of the folio, 1632, there are
several misprints in this scene which need correction. The
first is in the Queen's speech, where she is remonstrating
against the exacting commissions sent out by the Cardinal,
which had led to the use against the King of 'language un-
mannerly,'-
KING HENRY VIII.
181
Yea, such which breaks
The sides of loyalty, &c.
"We are here instructed to read 'ties of loyalty.' The Car-
dinal answers (p. 512) that he has done no more, and knows
no more than others; to which the Queen replies :-
You know no more than others; but you frame
Things, that are known alike, which are not wholesome, &c.
(
"For alike,' the correction is belike:—
Things that are known, belike, which are not wholesome.
"Again, at the end of the Queen's next speech, the expression,
"There is no primer baseness,' of all the folios, is altered (in
accordance with Southern's suggestion mentioned in [Collier's
Shakesp.]) to 'There is no primer business;' and such we
may hereafter treat as the original word. Farther on (p.
514), the King, struck at the amount of the exactions under
Wolsey's commissions, exclaims,—
Sixth part of each ?
A trembling contribution!
"The old corrector here put his pen through the m in 'trem-
bling,' making the word trebling, as if the King meant to say
that the sum was treble what it ought to have been. When the
Duke of Buckingham's Surveyor enters to give evidence against
his lord, the Queen says to the King,—
I am sorry that the Duke of Buckingham
Is run in your displeasure;
"which may be quite right, but it ought to be noticed that a
marginal emendation makes the last line,—
Is one in your displeasure.
"This last change, like some of the others, may be deemed no
necessary emendation.”
"Ties of loyalty" for "sides of loyalty" is not necessary.
"Breaks the sides of loyalty" is parallel expression to "flaw'd
the hearts of their royalties," a few lines earlier. So in An-
tony and Cleopatra, Act iv. Scene 12:-
Oh, cleave my sides! heart, crack thy frail case!
182
SHAKESPEARE VINDICATED.
belike for 'alike' I find also in my corrected second folio,
where a is deleted and be written over it. But alike seems to
me the unquestionable reading. Wolsey says he knows no
more than others-the answer is, that he is the framer or
originator of things which are "known alike," - i. e. known
equally to all, but very unwelcome to some who would not know
them. The Queen speaks with determination, and such an
expression as belike would spoil the effect of her speech.
"There is no primer business" for baseness was the correction
of Warburton, and had long been the established reading, and
undoubtedly the true one, until Mr. Collier, as well as Mr.
Knight, restored the old corruption. This is another coinci-
dence on the part of the corrector.
Of the substitution of one for "run," in the passage-
I am sorry that the Duke of Buckingham
Is run in your displeasure—
Mr. Collier himself says, "This last change, like some of the
others, may be deemed no necessary emendation."
What then becomes of the "better authority," which we are
led to suppose that the corrector had access to?
P. 319. We have here another coincidence in the adoption
of Theobald's correction of " under the confession's seal" for
under the commission's seal.
Ib. We must have better evidence than the mere fancy of
the corrector before we admit the interpolation of the words
a daring in the rhyming conclusion of the King's speech.
Let him not seek't of us: By day and night
He's traitor to the height.
SCENE III.
Ib. "The manuscript-corrector leads us to believe that
there are two errors of the press in the following, where Lord
Sands is speaking of Wolsey:-
Men of his way should be most liberal;
They are set here for examples.
KING HENRY VIII.
183
"We can readily accord in the first, if not in the second emen-
dation
Men of his sway should be most liberal;
They are sent here for examples."
Neither of these innovations on the old undoubted text are
to be tolerated. Lovel has said of Wolsey,
That Churchman bears a bounteous mind indeed,
A hand as fruitful as the land that feeds us:
His dews fall everywhere.
On which Lord Sands remarks:
He may, my lord, he has wherewithal: in him
Sparing would show worse than ill doctrine.
Men of his way should be most liberal; -
They are set here for examples.--
Can there be a doubt that his ecclesiastical function is
meant, by his way? Churchmen, especially of high rank, are
set here for examples. It is wearisome to have to point out
such egregious misunderstanding of the poet's language, and
yet necessary to defend him from his conceited improvers.
SCENE IV.
P. 320. The insertion of me at the end of the line,-
Because they speak no English, thus they pray'd me
To tell your grace—
is admissible. Valeat quantum!
ACT II. SCENE I.
Ib. The addition of thus, to the imperfect line as it stands
in the folio, 1632, may have been derived from that of 1623,
or some other edition, but it has long been in the text, and
therefore required no notice. Of the substitution of when for
"where," by which nothing is gained, Mr. Collier very pru-
dently says, "The change is not material." Then why in-
terfere? for to throw doubt on any old perfectly intelligible
reading is "miching malhecho, and means mischief."
184
SHAKESPEARE VINDICATED.
SCENE III.
P. 321. "Anne Bullen, reflecting on the fall of Queen Ka-
tharine, observes of power,-
Though it be temporal,
Yet, if that quarrel, fortune, do divorce
It from the bearer, 'tis a sufferance panging
As soul and body's severing.
(
"Warburton, Hanmer, Johnson, and Steevens have all written
notes upon the words, that quarrel, fortune,' some taking
quarrel' as an arrow, others in the sense of quarreller, &c.;
but, if we may believe the old corrector, it is only a misprint,
for he gives the second line thus
Yet, if that cruel fortune do divorce, &c.
"which certainly removes the difficulty, and applies to 'for-
tune' an epithet, to which its commonness seems the main ob-
jection. When cruel was spelt crewell, as was sometimes the
case, the mistake was not difficult.”
I cannot think it probable that "quarrel" could be mis-
printed for cruel; and as the passage can be explained, as it
stands in the old copy, the substitution would be rash. Quar-
rel must be taken as used for quarreller. We have Fortune
personified so frequently by Shakespeare, and the epithets
applied to her so varied; as that false huswife, that strumpet,
that giglot, giddy, fickle, &c. &c. that we cannot be surprised
at quarrel or quareller for contentious. I am confirmed in this
opinion by a beautiful passage in Beaumont and Fletcher's
Philaster, Act v. Sc. 3.
never-pleased fortune shot up shrubs
Base underbrambles, to divorce these branches.
Ib. The substitution of improve for "approve," in the Lord
Chamberlain's speech to Anne Bullen,—
I shall not fail to approve the fair conceit
The king hath of you,
is quite unnecessary, although Mr. Knight had silently an-
KING HENRY VIII.
185
ticipated the corrector by substituting it. Shakespeare fre-
quently uses approve in the sense of confirm, which is, in fact,
its old legitimate meaning. Thus Baret: -"To approve or
confirm. Ratum habere aliquid." This, therefore, is another
piece of superfluous meddling, from ignorance of the poet's
language.
P. 322. The substitution of elate for "salute," in the pas-
sage where Anne Bullen declares that her advancement gives
her no satisfaction,-
Would I had no being
If this salute my blood a jot,
is specious; but it should be remarked that we have no other
instance of Shakespeare's use of the word, either as a verb or
an adjective.
SCENE IV.
Ib: "The trial scene of the Queen seems to have been
taken more than usual pains with, both by copyist and com-
positor; but two exceptions to its general accuracy are pointed
out in the margin of the corrected folio, 1632: both are mis-
prints; the first less obvious, though more important than the
last. Katharine desires that if any charge of infidelity can
be made out against her,-
In God's name
Turn me away; and let the foul'st contempt
Shut door upon me, and so give me up
To the sharp'st kind of justice.
"We can have no hesitation here in substituting another in
the place of the very tame word 'kind,' in the last hemistich,
when the substitution adds much to the force of the passage,
and impresses us at once as the language of the poet :--
And let the foul'st contempt
Shut door upon me, and so give me up
To the sharp'st knife of justice.
"We can hardly suppose this striking improvement merely
speculative and conjectural."
186
SHAKESPEARE VINDICATED.
The sharp'st knife of justice is much less probable than the
old reading, kind, and there is not the least reason to suspect
the integrity of the established text. If we were to indulge in
the liberty of changing any word which fully answers its pur-
pose, there would be no end to capricious improvement of the
poet's language.
P. 323. "In the fourth folio, and in all the modern edi-
tions," says Malone, " defer is substituted for desire," and from
some one of these editions the correctors doubtless took it.
But it is a doubtful IMPROVEMENT, and Mr. Collier himself
prints desire! To desire, or pray, for a longer day, is yet the
language used in criminal trials.
ACT. III. SCENE II.
Ib. "Now may all joy trace the conjunction," instead of
"Now all my joy," is a good conjecture, and may, I think,
be safely adopted.
P. 324. The change of leisure to labour, in the King's ad-
dress to the Cardinal,-
You have scarce time
To steal from spiritual leisure a brief span
To keep your earthly audit-
is more doubtful. Spiritual leisure seems to be a figurative
expression for leisure from spiritual occupations; or the King
may use the word leisure ironically. We must have better
ground and authority for the change, than the supposition that
"the two words were confounded by the ear of the scribe."
I may here be indulged in pointing out a passage in
this scene which has escaped Mr. Collier's corrector, but
which has long called for amendment. The Cardinal is pro-
fessing his devoted attachment to the King's service, and the
old copies have the following reading:-
I do professe
That for your Highnesse good I ever labour'd
More than mine owne: that am have and will be
(Though all the world should crack their duty to you,
KING HENRY VIII.
187
And throw it from their Soule, though perils did
Abound, as thick as thought could make 'em, and
Appeare in formes more horrid) yet my Duty,
As doth a Rocke against the chiding Flood,
Should the approach of this wilde River break,
And stand unshaken yours.
Upon this Mason observes, "I can find no meaning in
these words (that am have and will be), or see how they are
connected with the rest of the sentence, and should therefore
strike them out."
There have been attempts by Malone, by Mr. Collier, and
by Mr. Knight, to extract a meaning from the passage, and
conjectures that something may have been lost, but all to no
purpose. Mr. Collier indeed goes so far as to say that
"Wolsey had forgotten how he commenced his sentence !"
But who could possibly believe that the poet would have put
a short speech into the Cardinal's mouth, making him forget
how he commenced it? Nor do I believe that anything has
been lost, except the slender letter I preceding am. The
printer or transcriber made the easy mistake of taking the
word true for have, which, as written of old, would readily
occur; and having thus confused the passage, had recourse to
the unconscionable long mark of a parenthesis. The passage
should undoubtedly stand thus:
Car.
I do profess
That for your Highness' good I ever labour'd
More than mine own that I am true, and will be,
Though all the world should crack their duty to you
And throw it from their soul: though perils did
Abound, as thick as thought could make them, and
Appear in forms more horrid; yet my duty
(As doth a rock against the chiding flood)
Should the approach of this wild river break,
And stand unshaken yours.
Here all is congruous and clear; this slight correction of a
printer's error redeems a fine passage hitherto entirely unin-
telligible. Yet such is the proper jealousy of any interference
with the old text, where it is possible to extract a meaning
from it, that even this simple change of a misprinted word, has
found an opponent, who on other occasions has manifested
great acuteness, and has himself suggested some very in-
188
SHAKESPEARE VINDICATED.
genious emendations. We may, therefore, hope for his aid in
repelling the extensive innovations with which we are now
threatened.
66
P. 324. As Mr. Collier very properly abandons the next un-
necessary interference with the text, in substituting lightly for
gently," it calls for no remark, but that it is evidence of the
propensity of his corrector to interfere unnecessarily with the
old text.
P. 325. The correction of the punctuation in the passage
where Griffiths characterizes Wolsey, which, says Mr. Collier,
"had been erroneously given over and over again, from the
year 1623 to our own day," was properly made in my edi-
tion in 1826, with a note showing the absurdity of the old
pointing. So that this is one more of the numerous coin-
cidences.
Ib. "Lower down," (p. 581, Collier's Shaksp. vol. v.)
"occurs a line that has occasioned discussion, relating to
Wolsey's foundations at Ipswich and Oxford :-
One of which fell with him,
Unwilling to outlive the good that did it.
"The good that did it has been construed, the virtue that
raised the edifice;' but a note in the folio, 1632, has the pas-
sage in a form which clears away all difficulty, and is in all
probability the true reading:
Unwilling to outlive the good man did it.
"i. e. the good man (for such Griffith represented Wolsey)
who laid the foundation."
This would be to introduce an awkward elliptical phrase,
not at all clear, for the undoubted language of the poet.
Good here is put for goodness, as in the passage just above.
May it please your highness
To hear me speak his good now [i.e. his goodness.]
Had the corrector paid attention to what he was reading, or
KING HENRY VIII.
189
been able to comprehend it, we should not have been troubled
with this erroneous piece of meddling.
P. 325. The addition of the syllable ness, in the fol-
lowing passage, may perhaps make it accord with modern
notions; but had there been any doubt that the poet wrote-
"of an earthy cold," it would not have escaped the editor of
the second folio, who frequently adds a syllable or word on
account of the metre. We may, therefore, confidently con-
tinue to read:
How long her face is drawn! How pale she looks,
And of an earthy cold! Mark her eyes.
The reader will no doubt recollect—“ the earthy and cold
hand of death,” in Hotspur's last speech. In the phraseology
of Shakespeare we have similar substitutions frequently else-
where.
ACT V. SCENE I.
P. 326. The meddling change of to for "you" is aban-
doned by Mr. Collier himself; and the substitution of ground
for "good," in the line of Cranmer's speech,
The good I stand on is my truth and honesty—
is Johnson's proposition revived, which had long since been
properly repudiated both by Steevens and Malone, but it
serves with the next to swell the list of coincidences.
SCENE II.
Ib. The adoption of Monck Mason's suggestion of culpable
for "capable," in the passage,
But we are all men,
In our own natures frail, and capable
Of our flesh,
is another coincidence, which Mr. Collier now thinks is "what
was necessary," although, in 1842, he found the old reading
perfectly intelligible!
Ib. The substitution of strives for "stirs," in Cranmer's
190
SHAKESPEARE VINDICATED.
speech, would be high treason against a nervous Shakesperian
expression. Strives against would be poor in place of stirs
against, which occurs elsewhere, as in K. Richard II.
To stir against the butchers of his life.
The old reading had never yet been questioned.
SCENE III.
P. 327. The last of the corrector's doing in this play is inge-
nious, if it should be thought necessary to diminish the quaint
and humorous rhodomontade of this would-be popular wit, and
make him speak consistently in sober sadness. But I must
confess I should part with the chine unwillingly, although I have
no objection to the crown. Let any impartial judge read the
Porter's-man's next speech, and decide whether that acute
nonsense, which Barrow has told us is one species of wit, may
not be here intended by Shakespeare?
P. 329.
TROILUS AND CRESSIDA.
PROLOGUE.
HE adoption of "sparre up the sons of Troy," from
Theobald, instead of the misprint " stirre," is, of course,
another coincidence; but Mr. Collier's assertion, that "the
proper orthography is sperr," is quite wrong, and Spenser
doubtful authority. The word is from the A. s. sparran, and is
properly sparre or spar, as given by Skelton, Warner, and most
old authorities; among others, in the lines from The Cobbler
of Canterbury, 1590, cited by Mr. Collier himself, and from
whence he imagines Shakespeare may have received the hint
for the use of it.
ACT I. SCENE I.
P. 330. The adoption of Rowe's corrections of when for
"then," and storm for "scorn," are more coincidences, and
but for this might have been passed over unnoticed.
TROILUS AND CRESSIDA.
191
Ib. The interpolation of his in the words " a proper man of
person," was entirely unnecessary, as Mr. Collier confesses.
The insertion of the word see, in "You shall see Troilus
anon," had been made in all editions, time out of mind.
SCENE II.
Ib. How the correctors came to blunder in copying Mr.
Harness in his excellent emendation of Cressida's maxim-
Achiev'd men us command; ungain'd beseech,
is little to their credit; for still is a much less likely and ef-
fective word than us, for which is might easily have been a
misprint. The line being in italics, with inverted commas, in
the old copies, is evidently a quotation.
That the corrector has "been at a feast of commentators,
and stolen the scraps," is evident, for "no man's pie is freed
from his ambitious finger!
P. 331. The alteration of "works" to wrecks, in the follow-
ing passage:-
Why then you princes,
Do you with cheeks abash'd behold our works,
And call them shames.
has, it must be confessed, some appearance of probability, and
would be a good conjectural correction of a misprint very
likely to occur; wracks, as written, might easily be taken for
works, and yet works may have been the poet's word.
SCENE III.
Ib. Beside the obvious corrections which had been made
in all editions, of sway for the misprint "may," and godlike
for "godly," the correctors adopt Hanmer's correction of re-
plies for "retires," in preference to Pope's returns. These
coincidences, of course, are noticed to augment the catalogue
of the corrector's astounding deeds.
I will here take occasion to observe, that a trifling misprint
has hitherto been suffered to remain, to the injury of a fine
passage, which the change of a single letter, merely reading
note
192
SHAKESPEARE VINDICATED.
ether for other, renders translucent. It is in the speech of
Ulysses :-
The heavens themselves, the planets, and this center,
Observe degree, priority, and place,
Insisture, course, proportion, season, form,
Office and custom, in all line of order:
And therefore is the glorious planet, Sol,
In noble eminence enthron'd and spher'd
Amidst the ether, whose med'cinable eye
Corrects the ill aspects of planets evil, &c.
Had the correctors possessed better authorities than have come
down to us, other would hardly have been suffered to remain,
"Amidst the other," is surely not what the poet wrote. The
classical reader will be reminded of a passage in the Somnium
Scipionis :-" Medium fere regionem SoL obtinet, dux et prin-
ceps, et moderator luminum reliquiorum, mens mundi, et
temperator," &c.; and of the lines of Lucretius on Epicurus,
which have been applied to Shakespeare:-
Qui genus humanum superavit et omneis
Restinxit, stellas exortus uti ætherius SOL.
P. 331. "A mistake in the second great speech of Ulysses,
where he is referring to the mimicry, by Patroclus, of the
chiefs of the Grecian army :-
And in this fashion,
All our abilities, gifts, natures, shapes,
Severals and generals of grace exact,
Achievements, plots, &c.
"fell under the ridicule of Achilles: here the words, ' of grace
exact,' seem wrong, although always so printed, because the
complaint was, that they were not 'of grace exact,' but grossly
caricatured. Therefore the corrector of the folio, 1632, thus
altered the expression to a form much more in accordance with
the context:-
Severals and generals, all grace extract ;
"¿. e. deprived of all the grace which really belonged to the
persons Patroclus imitated. This appears to be an important
improvement of the received text; but is certainly one which
TROILUS AND CRESSIDA.
193
did not require resort to any independent authority, inasmuch
as close attention to what must have been the meaning of the
author, may have led to the detection of the error.”
A little more
"close attention" to the defects of this pas-
sage was necessary to give the true meaning of the poet, and
had the correctors followed "better authority than we possess,"
perhaps they would have found it stand thus:-
And in this fashion,
All our abilities, gifts, natures, shapes,
Severals and generals, are of grace extract :
Achievements, plots, orders, preventions,
Excitements to the field, or speech for truce,
Success, or loss, what is or is not, serves
As stuff for these two to make paradoxes.
It is evident that are, instead of all, is necessary to the con-
struction of the passage, and the necessity to omit the word of
is obviated. Yet the passage as it stands in the old copies
may be explained, ❝ all our individual and accomplishments,
and becoming characteristics are stuff to make paradoxes, are
materials for caricature."
I may as well mention that an error, in the next speech by
Nestor, has escaped the correctors, as well as all who have
preceded or followed them.
Ajax is grown self-will'd, and bears his head
In such a rein, in full as proud a place [read pace]
As broad Achilles.
P. 332. The substitution of soul-pure for "sole pure," in
the following passage of the speech of Æneas, is not neces-
sary to the perfect intelligence of it; the sole transcendently
pure praise is that yielded unwillingly by an enemy.
The worthiness of praise distains his worth,
If that the prais'd himself bring the praise forth;
But what the repining enemy commends
That breath fame blows; that praise sole pure transcends.
Where perfect sense is afforded by the old reading, we
must have more undoubted authority before we admit inno-
vation. And although Mr. Collier thinks sole pure
(( a poor
expression," it was most probably that of the poet.
O
194
SHAKESPEARE VINDICATED.
P. 333. "We may, perhaps, receive with thankfulness a
change in what Paris says, regarding the dangers which had
attended his enterprise in securing and retaining Helen,—
Yet, I protest,
Were I alone to pass the difficulties,
And had as ample power as I have will,
Paris should ne'er retract what he hath done,
Nor faint in the pursuit.
"Here for 'pass the difficulties' (spelt passe in the old copies),
the old corrector tells us to substitute' poise the difficulties,'
or weigh them, which we may believe, if only from the context,
to have been Shakespeare's word"!
What could be the motive for interference here? The pro-
posed substitution is quite senseless. What " ample power"
could Paris possibly want to weigh the difficulties? He might
require it to get over them. Mr. Collier feels himself con-
strained to acknowledge, in a supplemental note, that the old
reading" is very intelligible, and may be right"!
P. 334. The adoption of Hanmer's correction of lunes for the
misprint "lines" of the folios, is evidently another coincidence.
ACT III. SCENE I.
6
Ib. "Much discussion has been occasioned by the words
of Paris, in all the early impressions, where he calls Cres-
sida his 'disposer,' saying that Troilus is going to sup' with
my disposer Cressida.' The difficulty has been to discover
why Paris should call Cressida his disposer;' and some
commentators have recommended deposer, others despiser,
instead of 'disposer,' while Steevens wished to deprive Paris
of the speech altogether, and to transfer it to Helen. It
is surprising that no editor should have guessed at the right
word, when speculating that 'disposer' was an error of the
press: a manuscript note in the folio, 1632, informs us that
for 'disposer,' we should substitute dispraiser, Cressida being
a person who did not allow the merits of Paris. Pandarus,
just after Paris has called Cressida his dispraiser, observes
that there had been some difference between them-'She'll
TROILUS AND CRESSIDA.
195
none of him; they two are twain'-and though he does not
state on what point they had disagreed, it is enough to war-
rant us in believing that Paris calls Cressida, not his 'disposer,'
but his dispraiser. The word recurs twice in this part of the
dialogue, and in each instance the old corrector has converted
'disposer' into dispraiser. It is to be remarked also, that he
makes no change in the prefixes, but allows' You must not
know where he sups' to remain in Helen's speech, in contra-
diction to the practice of modern editors, which, it must be
allowed, seems founded upon a correct notion of the course of
the dialogue. Possibly the mistake in the prefix in this place,
did not attract the attention of the writer of the marginal
emendations; but it can make no difference in the apparent
fitness of changing' disposer' to dispraiser."
The speech, "I'll lay my life with my disposer Cressida,"
belongs to Helen, not to Paris, and this has occasioned the
difficulty the commentators found in explaining the word dis-
poser, which simply means handmaid. Thus learning is called
the poor disposer of Poetry [i. e. her handmaid], in the Epistle
Dedicatorie to Chapman's Homer :—
Then let not this divinitie in earth
(Deare Prince) be slighted, as she were the birth
Of idle Fancie, since she workes so high;
Nor let her poore disposer (Learning) lye
Still hed-rid.
The corrector's conjecture of dispraiser for "disposer"
is a most unhappy one, even if the speech could be considered
as appropriate in the mouth of Paris. But it undoubtedly
belongs to Helen, who designates Cressida as her handmaid,
which in fact she was.
SCENE II.
P. 335. The substitution of" thrice repured nectar" for thrice
reputed, is indeed a marvellous coincidence with the reading
of one of the quartos of 1609, which had escaped every one
until Mr. Collier's vigilant eye discovered it. The corrector
is evidently omniscient! We cannot, however, wonder that
the reading aims for "arms," which is found only in one copy
196
SHAKESPEARE VINDICATED.
of the quarto, and there not very distinctly, should have
escaped his penetration.
P. 335. “In the amorous dialogue between Troilus and
Cressida, the latter, affecting coyness, distinguishes between
her two selfs, in all the ordinary copies of this play, as fol-
lows:-
I have a kind of self resides with you,
But an unkind self, that itself will leave,
To be another's fool.
"The antithesis, undoubtedly intended by the poet, is thus,
according to a note in the folio, 1632, sacrificed to an error of
the press, and we are instructed, therefore, to read the passage
thus:-
I have a kind self, that resides with you,
But an unkind self, that itself will leave,
To be another's fool.
<
"Cressida represents her kind self as wishing to remain with
Troilus, and her unkind self' as wishing to separate itself
from his company.
""
There is not the slightest reason for omitting the word of.
The thought is elsewhere expressed by the poet, as in Antony
and Cleopatra, Act i. Sc. 3.
Our separation so abides, and flies,
That thou, residing here, go'st yet with me,
And I, hence fleeting here remain with thee.
Cressida says, that in leaving Paris she quits her own com-
pany, which offends her-because she has a kind of self that
resides with him—a self which in doing so-" leaving itself to
be another's fool," is unkind. The words kind and unkind
are opposed, but not by proper antithesis-but in quibble.
If the self residing with Paris were a kind one-how could
Cressida saythat she leaves him to be rid of her own com-
pany which offends her?
"A kind of self" is necessary to convey a distinct notion of
the meaning; we must take the context: Troilus says :-
TROILUS AND CRESSIDA.
197
What offends you, lady?
Cressid. Sir, mine own company.
Troilus.
Yourself.
Cressid.
You cannot shun
Let me go try,
I have a kind of self resides with you,
But an unkind self, that itself will leave
To be another's fool.
SCENE III.
P. 336. "All the old editions have the subsequent passage
near the commencement of the speech of Calchas, and several
pages of notes have been written upon it:
Appear it to your mind,
That through the sight I bear in things to love
I have abandon'd Troy.
"Some modern editors have given the second line,-
((
That through the sight I bear in things to come,
an amendment that unquestionably clears the sense of the
author, and which Monck Mason considered so happy as to
require no authority in its favour. Nevertheless, the most
usual course has been to print differently, viz. :-
That through the sight I bear in things, to Jove
I have abandon'd Troy.
"Here it has been reasonably asked, why should Calchas
desert and abandon his native city to Jove, who was its pro-
tector? Theobald, Warburton, Johnson, Steevens, and Ma-
lone, all wasted their time and ingenuity on a mere misprint,
which is set right in a moment, and which proves that the old
compositor misread above to love:' there is an error also, but
of minor importance, in the preceding line, where' appear' is
put for appeal, in the sense of recall or bring back, and the
whole should, therefore, stand thus:
Appeal it to your mind,
That, through the sight I bear in things above,
I have abandon'd Troy ;
"i. e. recall to mind that I abandoned Troy by reason of the
198
SHAKESPEARE VINDICATED.
Note
sight I enjoy in things above-foreseeing what would be the
issue of the struggle. If Monck Mason thought things to
come' an emendation not requiring authority, à fortiori, 'things
above' is an emendation even less requiring it, because nearer
the misprinted letters in the quartos and folios, while we have
the testimony of the old corrector of the folio, 1632, and com-
mon sense in its behalf."
Mason's is by far the best and most probable conjecture.
It was not "things above," but coming events that Calchas
had foresight of. How can Mr. Collier make out that to loue
is more like above than to come, I am at a loss to imagine.
The corrector of my second folio thought otherwise, for he has
made the obvious correction, by erasing love and writing come
in the margin. The change of "appear" to appeal is quite
wrong; appeal is never used in the sense of recall by Shake-
speare, and the evident meaning of " appear it to your mind,"
is “Let it appear to you." The meddling here is therefore
quite superfluous.
P.337. The substitution of mirrored for "married," so evi-
dently required by the sense in the lines-
For speculation turns not to itself,
"Till it hath travell'ḍ, and is married there
Where it may see itself,
had not escaped the corrector of my second folio, who has
taken considerable pains with the corrupt text of this play, but
I should think a hint for this emendation will be found some-
where in print, and that both correctors have availed them-
selves of it. It is on all accounts a legitimate and desirable
correction.
Ib. The adoption of the reading of the quarto, shrieking
instead of shrinking, which is found in the folios, is a doubtful
improvement; but it may have been derived from some edition
that followed the quarto. It could hardly be a conjecture.
P. 338. The corrector's guess of quicklier in the line-
Since things in motion 'gin to catch the eye,
TROILUS AND CRESSIDA.
199
is of no value, as the quarto affords a better reading,
Since things in motion sooner catch the eye-
and the substitution of out for once had long since been made
in all editions.
P.338. "The following is a couplet, in which there ap-
pear to be two lapses by the printer :-
Keeps place with thought, and almost, like the gods,
Does thoughts unveil in their dumb cradles.
“Hanmer read, ‘Keeps pace with thought,' and so did the old
corrector: Warburton vindicated 'place,' though in the next
line, properly represented (which it has never yet been), Shake-
speare follows up the idea, and tells us that the providence of
a watchful state, like the gods, almost anticipates thoughts
—not only keeps pace with them, but goes beyond them,—
Does thoughts unveil in their dumb crudities;
❝i. e. unveils them before they even become thoughts. This
must have been the poet's language, and we find crudities for
'cradles' in the margin of the folio, 1632. Hanmer, Malone,
Steevens, &c., saw that 'cradles' was not, in point of measure,
enough for the line, but they never dreamed that the word was
a misprint. The whole passage is, therefore, thus cleared:-
The providence that's in a watchful state
Knows almost every grain of Plutus' gold,
Finds bottom in th' uncomprehensive deeps,
Keeps pace with thought, and almost, like the gods,
Does thoughts unveil in their dumb crudities.
"Here meaning and metre are both accomplished; but in
what way the emendation was arrived at, we have no know-
ledge: it seems something better than a merely speculative
suggestion."
Hanmer's reading here followed, of pace for "place," was
ingenious, and place for pace has before been misprinted in
this play, but Warburton thought place " exquisitely fine," as
referring to the ubiquity of providence. With regard to the
corrector's substitution of crudities for "cradles," I must con-
fess I cannot conceive a more erroneous and absurd proposi-
tion. Shakespeare has not the word crudities, but he puts the
200
SHAKESPEARE VINDICATED.
word crudy into Falstaff's mouth in the 2d part of K. Henry
IV. where, in his praise of sack, the Knight says, "It ascends.
me into the brain; dries me there all the foolish, dull, and
crudy vapours which environ it." Here it most probably
means indigest; the sense in which crudity is always used by
his cotemporaries. How, therefore, it could be here applied to
nascent thoughts, it is impossible to conceive! It has been
thought that a word may have been accidentally omitted, as
the line is defective, and Malone's suggestion to read-
Does infant thoughts unveil in their dumb cradles,
or Hanmer's reading" Does even our thoughts," are either of
them infinitely preferable to the corrector's crudities, for which
cradles could never have been misprinted.
P. 339. “For 'sweet, rouse yourself,' addressed by Patroclus
to Achilles, when he is endeavouring to excite him to renewed
action, we are instructed in manuscript to read' Swift, rouse
yourself.' We have before had swift misprinted sweet.'
[See page 16 ante.] "Three lines lower, the old corrector does
not strike out airy in the passage, 'be shook to airy air,' as it
stands in the folios; but he makes it,' be shook to very air,'
which is much more emphatic than merely be shook to air.'
Nevertheless, if the poet intended his measure to be regular,
very is not required."
Here Mr. Collier commits the same fault he has accused
others of, by referring to a corruption of the corrector's in
support of his present innovation. There is no necessity here
for change. Sweet is not inconsistent with the affectionate
address of Patroclus to Achilles, who just after calls him "sweet
Patroclus." As for the substitution of very for airy, inserted
by mistake in the folios, Mr. Collier himself sees that the
passage is better without it. Airy is deleted by the corrector
of my second folio.
ACT IV. SCENE I.
Ib. "Diomed tells Eneas, that when the truce is at an
end, he will play the hunter for his life,'-
With all my force, pursuit, and policy:
TROILUS AND CRESSIDA.
201
"The line seems to run more properly as it is, amended in the
folio, 1632-
By Jove, I'll play the hunter for thy life
With all my fierce pursuit, and policy.
"However, the change is by no means unavoidable.'
"
Certainly not but it is to be avoided by all means, as an
impertinent interference with the undoubted language of the
poet.
"
SCENE II.
P. 339. “When Troilus tells Æneas to keep his counsel,
the latter replies, in the folios,-
<
Good, good, my lord; the secrets of nature
Have not more gift in taciturnity.
Now, unless we read 'secrets' as a trisyllable, the measure
is faulty: Theobald proposed the secret things of nature;'
and here resort to the quartos affords no aid, for they absurdly
have the secrets of neighbour Pandar.' The corrector of the
folio, 1632, inserts a word which, most likely, had dropped
out in the press, and which we may, perhaps, accept upon his
evidence, because it is the very word required, in reference to
the hidden operations of nature:-
Good, good, my lord, the secret laws of nature
Have not more gift in taciturnity."
What have nature's laws to do with it? Steevens proposed
a much better reading-
Good, good, my lord, the secrecies of nature
Have not more gift in taciturnity.
which is rendered very probable by a similar thought occurring
in Antony and Cleopatra :-
In Nature's infinite book of secrecy
A little I can read.
202
SHAKESPEARE VINDICATED.
SCENE IV.
P.340. We must have better authority before we disturb the
text of the fragment of a ballad, and read silence for "friend-
ship," an impossible misprint. The misprint, sittest for "sigh-
est," is peculiar to the second folio, and had been corrected in
more recent editions.
Ib. The line,-
Presuming on their changeful potency-
has been much more effectively corrected by reading :
Presuming their unchangeful potency.
The corrector's reading,-
Presuming on their chainful potency.
is absurd, and cannot be tortured to signify "chain and fetter
us to the object of our affections"!
SCENE V.
P. 341. For what possible reason, but a determination to im-
prove upon the clear and undoubted reading of the poet, could
the word same be foisted into the line-
And parted thus you and your argument?
Even the stage direction to which is added "Puts back Mene-
laus," would require the reading of the quartos, therefore, in
copying the line from some later edition, the corrector has
corrupted instead of improving it.
Ib. "Few lines in this play have produced more comment
than the second of the following, where Ulysses is censur-
ing the wanton spirit of Cressida :
O! these encounterers, so glib of tongue,
That give a coasting welcome ere it comes, &c.
"What is a coasting welcome?' has been the question; and
we learn from the old corrector that the word, miswritten, we
TROILUS AND CRESSIDA.
203
may suppose, in the manuscript used by the printer, was most
appropriate to the place,-
((
O! these encounterers, so glib of tongue,
That give occasion welcome ere it comes,
And wide unclasp the tables of their thoughts,
To every tickling reader, set them down
As sluttish spoils of opportunity,
And daughters of the game.
They became the 'spoils of opportunity' by giving welcome
to occasion even before it arrived.'
""
What can be the meaning of "giving welcome to occasion
before it arrived?" In a note on the passage, Mr. Collier, in
his edition of Shakespeare, says "Coleridge suggests accosting
for 'a coasting."" He might have told us that Monck Mason had
long before suggested it, and that it ought long since to have
been the reading of the text. Mason very justly observes,
that "in the passage, as it stands in the folios, it has no ante-
cedent." What is meant by accosting, the poet himself in-
forms us through Sir Toby, in Twelfth Night :-
Sir To. Accost, Sir Andrew, accost.
Sir And. What's that?
Sir To. My niece's chambermaid.
Sir And. Good mistress Accost, I desire better acquaintance.
Mar. My name is Mary, sir.
Sir And. Good mistress Mary Accost-
Sir To. You mistake, knight, accost is, front her, board her, woo her,
assail her.
We may therefore safely refuse occasion, and read in future,
instead of a coasting:-
And give accosting welcome ere it come.
66 to the
P. 342. Whether we read "to the uttermost," or
utterance,” is not a matter of much consequence, as they both
signify the same thing. Mr. Collier's concluding observation
surprises us; "breach," he says, "is a printed emendation in the
folios instead of 'breath,' of the earlier editions in quartos
which can only be understood as a breathing time."
In his own edition Mr. Collier gives us the reading breath,
without even a note of the variation from the folio! He was,
204
SHAKESPEARE VINDICATED.
however, right then in his preference, as the whole context
shows; a breath was a breathing, or mere act of exercise, the
poet's constant sense of the word, which occurs again in Act
ii. Sc. 3 of this play. Why therefore now treat breach as an
emendation?
ACT V. SCENE I.
P. 342. Nobody has attempted to explain why Ther-
sites, when he calls Patroclus the 'male varlet' and 'mas-
culine whore' of Achilles, ends by wishing a list of loath-
some diseases (part of which only are mentioned in the folios)
to afflict such preposterous discoveries.' What can be the
meaning of 'discoveries' so applied? The old corrector has
it such preposterous discolourers;' and perhaps rightly, the
allusion being to the painting and discolouring of nature by
Patroclus, like a female prostitute."
Is it reasonable to think that the allusion was to Patroclus
and his being painted, when, from what immediately follows,
we are assured that the curses were not imprecated against
him? Thus it is when we disregard the context and spirit of
any passage. The corrector's suggestion of discolourers seems
to me to want common sense. It is possible that we should.
read discoverers instead of discoveries, which would give the
required personification. But, as Iago says in Othello, "the
blood and baseness of our nature would conduct us to most
preposterous conclusions," discoveries here may have the same
meaning, and Thersites imprecates the curses ironically on
those who had made such discoveries, or come to such con-
clusions. It has been suggested that for "male varlet,” we
should read "male harlot."
SCENE II.
P. 343. What shall we say to the wanton attempt upon the
passage where Thersites says of Cressida, " any man may sing
her, if he can take her cliff; she's noted:" or to Mr. Collier's
notion that any man may find her, if he can but take her clefft,'
"seems preferable" to the undoubted reading of the quartos!
"
Ib. The substitution of lord for la, in Cressida's speech, is
TROILUS AND CRESSIDA.
205
only another example of unnecessary and impertinent med-
dling, and of this Mr. Collier is at least half conscious, for he
says, "Still the earliest impressions may be right, and Cressida
may merely have used 'la' as a feminine expletive." I can-
not, however, agree with him that "it is not a point of im-
portance." It is of the highest importance to prevent all
wanton and uncalled-for alterations of the text of our great
poet.
SCENE III.
P. 343. "Andromache's speech to Hector only consists of
these words in the amended folio, 1632:-
O! be persuaded: do not count it holy
To hurt by being just.
"The rest is struck through with a pen, as if the person who
introduced the manuscript-emendations could make nothing
of the passage either by guess or guide. This, therefore, is
one of the places in which we are still left in the dark, not,
indeed, as to the meaning of the poet, since that is pretty
obvious, but as to the precise form in which he expressed that
meaning."
The correctors then here had not access to better authority
than we possess, or this difficult passage would not have been
got rid of in the easy way of striking it out. Mr. Collier tried
his hand upon it in his edition of Shakespeare unsuccessfully.
I adhere to the emendation of it given in vol. 2 of Notes and
Queries, p. 386. The passage stands thus in the folios :-
O, be persuaded, doe not count it holy,
To hurt by being iust; it is as lawfull:
For we would count give much to as violent thefts,
And rob in the behalfe of charitie.
The third line is evidently a nonsensical jumble, and has
probably been printed from an interlineation in the copy
that the printer used; two words being evidently transposed,
and one of them at the same time glaringly mistaken. The
poet would never have repeated the word count, which
occurs in the first line, in the sense given to it either by Mr.
Collier or Mr. Knight.
206
SHAKESPEARE VINDICATED.
Preserving every word in the old copy, it should be read
thus,-
O! be persuaded. Do not count it holy
To hurt by being just: it is as lawful as
(For we would give much)-to commit violent thefts,
And rob in the behalf of charity.
To count violent thefts here would be sheer nonsense; and
when we recollect how easy it is to mistake comit, as written
in old manuscript, for count, we may suppose that the printer
mistook and misplaced commit, and transposed as, probably
following an interlineated copy. The emphasis should be laid
on for, commencing the parenthesis, we would give much;
for stands there for cause, and commit should be accented on
the first syllable.
SCENE IV.
Of a piece with other substitutions and interpolations, is
the conceited attempt of the correctors to improve upon
Shakespeare, by altering the words "th'other" to sleeveless, in
the speech of Thersites,-
Soft! here comes sleeve and th' other;
and the word "sleeve" is altered to sleeveless, in the next speech
of Thersites, to countenance the first falsification! If such
liberties were allowed and approved, every line of the poet
might be vitiated to suit the caprice of the innovators.
P. 345. The alteration of "brother lackey" to brothel
lackey having been made in the third folio, and in some other
editions, was doubtless thence derived, for it has also been
adopted by the corrector of my second folio. There cannot,
however, be a doubt that "Hence! broker! lackey!" is the
true reading as given by the quartos and the first folio. Mr.
Collier once thought so, although he now thinks brothel a
change for the better!
207
CORIOLANUS.
ACT. I. SCENE I.
P. 346. “The earliest manuscript-emendation cannot be
called a necessary one; but still it seems, taking the context
into account, a considerable improvement, and may, perhaps,
be admitted on the evidence of the corrector of the folio, 1632.
It occurs in the speech of 1 Citizen, where he is referring to
the wants of the poor, and to the superfluities of the rich :-
But they think we are too dear; the leanness that afflicts us, the
abjectness of our misery, is an inventory to particularize their abundance;
our suffering is a gain to them.
<
"For abjectness, the common reading has been object '-
'the object of our misery;' that is to say, the sight of our
misery; but the speaker has talked of the leanness' of the
poor citizens of Rome, and he follows it up by the mention of
the abjectness of their misery. This substitution could hardly
have proceeded from the mere taste or discretion of the old
corrector, but still it is hardly wanted."
Hardly wanted, indeed! How could object be mistaken
for abjectness? Their misery was the object which served by
comparison to make the Patricians the more satisfied with
their own abundance, and thus the sufferings of the Plebs
were a gain to them. What should we gain by the adoption
of this needless piece of pragmatic interference? The cor-
rectors never think of the poet, but of their own ingenuity in
finding faults where none exist.
Ib. "We encounter an important change in one part of
Menenius' apologue, where the belly admits that it is the
general receiver of food, adding, as the passage has always
been given,—
But, if you do remember,
I send it through the rivers of your blood,
Even to the Court, the heart, to the seat o' the brain,
And through the cranks and offices of man.
"It is evident that the last line but one is not measure; and
208
SHAKESPEARE VINDICATED.
6
we are instructed to read it, and the next, in a way that not
only cures this defect, but much improves the sense, by fol-
lowing up the figure of the court, the heart,' and completing
the resemblance of the human body to the various parts of a
commonweath :-
Even to the Court, the heart, the Senate, brain;
And through the ranks and offices of man.
"Tyrwhitt thought 'the seat o' the brain' a very languid
expression;' and Malone agreed with him in taking 'seat'
to mean royal seat. When 'seat' was written seate, the
mistake for senate was easy; and the change (which never
occurred to any commentator) is supported both by what
precedes, and by what follows it, going through the various
degrees in a state-the court, the senate, persons of different
ranks, the holders of offices, &c."
Perhaps there was never a more perverse and impertinent
attempt made to alter the true language of the poet. The
authority Shakespeare followed for the fable, was Plutarch.
Camden's Remaines, where it is also related, the heart is made
the seat of the brain, or understanding; and there is no doubt
that seat means the royal seat,-the throne; for in a previous
passage, (which Mr. Collier, as well as his predecessors, gives
to one of the Citizens, although it evidently belongs to Me-
nenius,) we have
The kingly crowned head, the vigilant eye,
The counsellor heart.
The alteration of "cranks" to ranks is equally unwar-
ranted. What could the ranks signify here?
I send it through the rivers of your blood,
Even to the Court, the heart,-to the seat o' the brain;
And through the cranks and offices of man,
The strongest nerves, and small inferior veins,
From me receive that natural competency
Whereby they live.
cranks and offices were certainly the words of the poet; cranks
are sinuosities, the meandrous ducts of the human body; and
offices the functionary parts, as Shakespeare himself will show.
Thus, in Cymbeline, Act v. Sc. 5:-
CORIOLANUS.
209
A certain stuff, which, being ta'en, would cease
The present power of life; but, in short time,
All offices of nature should again
Do their due functions.
The corrector's instructions to read it otherwise will therefore
be in vain, and of no effect.
P. 347. The 'important' correction of "almost" to all most, ↑
is, "of course," admissible: but as "shouting their emula-
tion" has long been the unexceptionable reading of every
edition, Mr. Collier would have done wisely to pass the cor-
rector's exultation unnoticed, as he confesses that "emulation
does not seem to require change.'
""
SCENE III.
İb. The self-evident correction, which I long since adopted,
of " At Grecian swords contemning," should have been also
adopted by Mr. Collier, when he suggested, that contemning
seemed "possibly the word which was written by Shake-
speare," and yet contented himself with the very inferior
reading, "At Grecian swords contending.
SCENE IV.
""
P. 348. "When the Romans are beaten back to their
trenches, Marcius enters, 'cursing' his flying followers; and
we here arrive at a line which has been fertile of discussion.
Malone and most modern editors have concurred in sup-
posing that Marcius, in his rage and vexation, commences
a sentence which he does not finish, and have represented
the passage thus :-
Boils and plagues
All the contagion of the south light on you,
You shames of Rome! you herd of
Plaster you o'er; that you may be abhorr'd
Further than seen, and one infect another
Against the wind a mile!
"In the folios, the words, spelling, and punctuation, are-
You shames of Rome: you Heard of Byles and Plagues
Plaister you ore, &c.
A
P
210
SHAKESPEARE VINDICATED.
"This mode of spelling heard leads us to the corruption, which
was detected (possibly by mere conjecture, but more probably
with the aid of some extraneous authority) by the manuscript-
annotator of the folio, 1632; and when pointed out, it must,
we apprehend, be admitted without an instant's controversy :-
All the contagion of the south light on you,
You shames of Rome!
Plaster you o'er, &c.
Unheard of boils and plagues
"The whole seems to have been produced by a strange lapse
on the part of the old printer."
I do not hesitate to prefer the reading universally adopted,
to the very improbable reading proposed. "Unheard of boils
and plagues;" why unheard of? Heard is the way in which
herd is spelt in other places. Marcius is in a vehement pas-
sion, and the interruption in his invective marks his impatient
anger. He thus breaks off from hasty indignation elsewhere;
and every one must see the superior effect this would have in
representation, to what it is now proposed to substitute. The
corrector of my second folio has, however, substituted A for
You, and reads,-
A herd of byles and plagues
Plaster you o'er.
P. 349. An equally improbable substitution of “To the
port," for "To the pot, I warrant him," is made when the
gates of Corioli are closed, and Marcius is shut in. One of
the soldiers exclaims, "See they have shut him in;” the rest
say: "To the pot, I warrant him," where the meaning is evi-
dently that it is all over with Marcius, or in the popular lan-
guage "he is gone to pot." What possible meaning "to
the port" could have, I am at a loss to imagine, notwith-
standing Mr. Collier's attempt to reconcile it to sense as the
continuation of an interrupted sentence. I therefore hold
this to be another perfectly unnecessary interference with the
text.
SCENE VI.
Ib. "Marcius, by permission of Cominius, and after an
animating speech, wishes to select a certain number of sol-
CORIOLANUS.
211
diers to accompany him in an attack upon Aufidius and his
Antiates he, therefore, tells the troops,-
Please you to march ;
And foure shall quickly draw out my command,
Which men are best inclin'd.
"Here a difficulty has arisen, why 'four' were to draw out
his command, and many notes have been written upon the
question. We print the passage, as we find it amended,
which shows that the scribe or the compositor (most likely
the former in this instance) was to blame:
Please you march before,
And I shall quickly draw out my command,
Which men are best inclin'd.
"Whoever made the copy for the printer, must have under-
stood before as by four, and put it in the wrong place, curing
the defect in the metre of the first line by arbitrarily inserting
to. Nothing could be more natural than for Marcius to direct
the soldiers to march in front of him, that he might himself
make the selection of such as he was to lead."
To say the least of it, this is a very unlikely conjecture
indeed. That And foure should not only have been misprinted
for before, but also have jumped out of its place; that to should
have been inserted without reason in the first line; and I
omitted in the second what an accumulation of errors!
The misprinting of one small word appears to be the only
defect in the passage. The word fome, as written, would be
easily mistaken for foure, and we have seen how frequently the
long ſand ƒ are mistaken for each other. We should proba-
bly read,-
Please you to march ;
And some shall quickly draw out my command;
Which men are best inclin'd.
The passage in Plutarch merely says:-"Wherefore, with
those that willingly offered themselves to follow him, he went
out of the city."
212
SHAKESPEARE VINDICATED. ·
SCENE VIII.
P. 350. "When Marcius and Aufidius meet, the latter ad-
dresses the former, as the text has always been given,-
Not Afric owns a serpent I abhor
More than thy fame and envy.
"This cannot be right, inasmuch as, taking envy' even in
the sense of hate, Aufidius could hardly mean that he ab-
horred the fame and the hate of Marcius: the printer made
a slight error by mistaking the pronoun I for the contraction
of the conjunction; therefore the old corrector reads,-
Not Afric owns a serpent I abhor
More than thy fame I envy."
All that is required, without interpolation, is to understand
the passage properly as an inversion:-
Not Afric owns a serpent I abhor-
More than thy fame-and envy.
Afric owns not a serpent I abhor and hate, more than thy
fame. Shakespeare's meaning of envy may be understood
from Baret, who explains "to envie, to have spite at another
man's prosperitie." From the tenor of the dialogue, the speech
requires an expression of more than envy,-fierce hatred.
Ib. "
SCENE IX.
Tyrwhitt's emendation of coverture for 'overture,'
in the subsequent lines, is precisely that found in the margin
of the folio, 1632; but 'them' is also there altered to it,
with obvious fitness:
When steel grows soft as the parasite's silk
Let it be made a coverture for the wars.
"If coverture were not introduced into the text, it was from
the hope that sufficient meaning might be made out of the
old printed language of the folios; but the authority of a
manuscript-correction here comes in aid of a speculative
emendation, and it appears to us that we need not hesitate
upon the point hereafter."
CORIOLANUS.
213
In 1826 I also had inclined to adopt Tyrwhitt's reading,
but now think it doubtful, and feel inclined to read:-
May these same instruments which you profane
Never sound more; when drums and trumpets shall
I' the field prove flatterers, let courts and cities be
Made all of false-fac'd soothing.
When steel grows soft as the parasite's silks
Let them be made an overture for the wars.
That is, silks instead of steel and warlike instruments.
The only change here is in the punctuation, and reading
silks for "silk."
ACT II. SCENE I.
P. 351. The alteration, in the speech of Menenius, of first
for thirst is not necessary, for it seems that thirst was some-
times provincially pronounced and spelt first and furst. Thus,
in Piers Plouhman, passus vii:-
For whetshod thei gangen
A furst and a fingered: i. e. thirsty and hungered.
Menenius uses it jocularly.
Ib. "Lower down in the same speech," says Mr. Collier,
"a negative and a pronoun are omitted, and 'bisson' is mis-
printed beesome."
The negative has long been placed in the text; and it is
doubtful whether the pronoun is wanted. As for beesome
being a misprint, it is just the contrary. The dictionaries of
the poet's time give it beesome and beasome, and Skinner, who
tells us it is of common use for blind in Lincolnshire, gives it
Beesen. The substitution of pleading for "bleeding" is very
plausible, as a probable misprint.
P. 351. The proposed reading of empirick physique for the
strange word "emperickqutique," is plausible. The cor-
rector of my second folio has effaced six letters in the middle
of the word, leaving it empirique, which answers every pur-
pose. The third folio made a step toward it, by printing
empiricktique.
Note
214
SHAKESPEARE VINDICATED.
P. 352. “The first part of the subsequent quotation hardly
requires a note; while the awkward expression in the last
part of it has attracted no observation :—
Your prattling nurse
Into a rapture lets her baby cry,
While she chats him.
"
"Brutus is here referring to the triumphant return of Corio-
lanus (now so called) to Rome; and chats him' is certainly
intelligible in the sense of talks about him, though 'chats of
him' would be more proper: but a note in the folio, 1632,
induces us to believe that Shakespeare did not use the term
'chats' at all, and that the word has been misprinted, the
compositor taking ee for a, and t (the commonest blunder)
for ri-
Your prattling nurse
Into a rapture lets her baby cry,
While she cheers him.
"This change is quite consistent with the context."
That "chats him" is a misprint there can be no doubt,
but much doubt whether "cheers him," is the word wanted.
It savours too much of recent times. I have no doubt we
should read—
Your prattling nurse
Into a rapture lets her baby cry,
While she claps him.
For in Julius Cæsar the rabblement "clap their chapped
hands" in approbation of Cæsar. Cheers is never used by
Shakespeare in the sense of applauding.
Ib. The substitution of “shall touch the people,” for “shall
teach the people," has been anticipated by Mr. Knight, who
says, "We do not alter the text, but we incline to think that
touch is the word; as in Othello,—
Touch me not so near.
SCENE II.
P. 353. "When the Senators and Tribunes have assembled
'to thank and to remember' the services of Coriolanus,
Sicinius remarks,-
CORIOLANUS.
213
We are convented
Upon a pleasing treaty.
"The corrector of the folio, 1632, directs us to substitute
treatise for 'treaty,' a change supported by 'theme,' which
immediately follows."
""
That the old copy is right in reading treatie, and that the
corrector's treatise is wrong, will appear from the poet's own
use of the latter word twice only, and then in the sense of a
dissertation, which is not the meaning here required. Treaty,
according to Huloet, is, "Traictement de quelque matiere,
which is exactly what is wanted. The same authority has,
"To treate and debate some matter, Traicter quelque ma-
tiere et la debattre." There can be no doubt, therefore,
that the old reading is what the poet intended, and that the
corrector's substitution would be mischievous. The Senators
were assembled to discuss the meritorious actions of Corio-
lanus, and what honour should be conferred upon him, he
was the theme of the assembly.
Ib. The substitution of prest for "blest," in the speech of
Brutus-
Which the rather
We shall be blest to do, if he remember
A kinder value of the people, than
He hath hitherto priz'd them at-
is a good and legitimate emendation, which I also find con-
firmed in my corrected copy of the second folio, as well as
destiny for the misprint defamy, in the next column.
Ib. In the substitution of woolless for "wolvish" in the
following passage, there is another singular coincidence with
a hint by Mr. Collier, in his edition of Shakespeare, where
attention is called to the gown being napless. In the first
folio, the passage is thus given :-
Why in this woolvish tongue should I stand here
To beg of Hob or Dick?
In the second folio, the misprinted word tongue for toge is
changed to gown. In regard to woolvish toge (or gown) the
216
SHAKESPEARE VINDICATED.
idea is quite evident: Coriolanus says, Why should I stand
here playing the hypocrite, in this gown of humility, like the
wolf in sheep's-clothing. That the idea was in familiar use
in the poet's time, is apparent from Churchyard's Legend of
Wolsey, in the Mirror for Magistrates:-
O, fye on wolves that march in masking clothes.
Whether the gown had a nap on it or no, would hardly enter
here into the mind of the poet or of Coriolanus. It is sufficient
that it was simulating humility not in his nature, to bring to
mind the fable of the wolf.
P. 354. "Pope's line respecting Censorinus, as one of the
ancestors of Coriolanus, was not wanted, inasmuch as this
portion of the speech of Brutus was struck out by the old
corrector, possibly, because he saw the defect, and was not in a
condition to remedy it. Nevertheless, something was at one
time written in the margin, but it is so erased as not now to
be legible."
A pretty argument truly! What then becomes of his
"authorities," which we are led to believe he consulted on
other occasions? I undertake to say that Pope's line is a
much more judicious addition to the text, as evidently neces-
sary and warranted by the passage in Plutarch, than any of
the uncalled for interpolations of the correctors so triumph-
antly dwelt upon by Mr. Collier!
ACT III. SCENE I.
Ib. "Modern editors, since the time of Theobald, have pro-
perly corrected the first line of the speech of Coriolanus,—
O, good, but most unwise patricians!
which stands in the old copies, O God! but most unwise,'
&c.; but there are very important blunders in subsequent
lines, which they have allowed to pass without remark. We
will first, as usual, insert the text as it stands universally
printed, and follow it by the excellent emendations contained
in the folio, 1632:-
CORIOLANUS.
217
O, good, but most unwise patricians! why,
You grave but reckless senators, have you thus
Given Hydra here to choose an officer,
That with his peremptory "shall,” being but
The horn and noise o' the monsters, wants not spirit
To say, he'll turn your current in a ditch,
And make your channel his? If he have power,
Then vail your ignorance: if none, awake
Your dangerous lenity.
"In the above, besides the first,-God for 'good,'-there
are no fewer than five striking errors of the press, or perhaps
of the scribe, for some of them are hardly to be imputed to
the compositor. Trusting to the corrector of the folio, 1632,
we ought hereafter to give the passage as follows:-
O, good, but most unwise patricians! why,
You grave but reckless senators, have you thus
Given Hydra leave to choose an officer,
That with his peremptory "shall” (being but
The horn and noise of the monster) wants not spirit
To say, he'll turn your current in a ditch,
And make your channel his? If he have
If he have power,
Then vail your impotence: if none, revoke
Your dangerous bounty.
"The meaning of the last portion of the quotation is, that if
the Tribune have power, let the impotence (not 'ignorance,'
which is not the proper antithesis of power) of the senate
submit to it; but if he have none, let the senate revoke the
bounty by which such a perilous privilege had been conceded
to the populace. The 'lenity' of the patricians was not to
be 'awakened:' Coriolanus calls upon them to revoke the
bounty which had caused them to relinquish a power pro-
perly belonging only to themselves. What the hero says
afterwards is in entire consistency with this view of the pas-
sage:-
At once pluck out
The multitudinous tongue: let them not lick
The sweet which is their poison.
"The corrector of the folio, 1632, therefore, informs us that
the whole passage ought, hereafter, to be printed as above;
and the faults of the received text are glaring enough, without
supposing, with Johnson, that, farther on in the same speech,
218
SHAKESPEARE VINDICATED.
note
1
we ought to read most palates,' must palate, which the cor-
rector does not require, and which he would, no doubt, have
required, had it been necessary.'
This is a sweeping liberty to be taken with the old text;
leave is not wanted in the third line. To give is to concede,
to permit, and given stands for permitted. To change "mon-
sters" to monster, destroys the meaning; the plural refers to
the many heads of the hydra; the reference is to Sicinius as
the mouth-piece of the Plebs. This is evident from what
Coriolanus has said just before :-
(6
You being their mouths, why rule you not their teeth?
Have you not set them on?
Ignorance" could hardly be a misprint for impotence, nor
is the change requisite, for the next sentence proves that igno-
rance is the right word-" If you are learned be not as com-
mon fools:" revoke for "awake" may have been, and seems
a likely substitution; but bounty for "lenity" is not required,
the concession of power to the plebs, and the indulgence
given to the tribune, was ill-judged lenity, not bounty.
With regard to the observation about "most palates," and
Johnson's proposal to read must palate; had the correctors
compared the passage in which it occurs with their "original
authorities," they would have found it run thus:-
You are plebeians
If they be senators: and they are no less,
When both your voices blended, the greatest state
Most palates theirs.
The compositor finding palates in the subsequent line, printed
taste instead of state, consisting of the same letters. The
meaning evidently is," In giving the plebs a voice, you
reduce yourselves to a level with them, and your voices being
blended, the greatest state, the people being the most nume-
rous, most relishes theirs." The same mistake of taste for
state occurs in the two early quartos of King Richard III.,
Act ii. Sc. 1.
P. 356. Of the substitution of bisson multitude for "bosome
multiplied," I have elsewhere (Notes and Queries, vol. vi.
p. 84) spoken with unqualified approbation, and still think it
an undoubted and acute rectification of an evident misprint.
CORIOLANUS.
219
Little did I then anticipate the extensive mischief with which
we are now threatened. Yet this evident emendation has
met with one strenuous dissentient voice, which we may still
hope to see raised in opposition to the flagrant misapprehen-
sions of the language of the poet with which Mr. Collier's
volume abounds.
I may as well notice that in the next speech of Coriolanus,
a remarkable misprint has hitherto existed, and all attempts
to give it a reasonable meaning have failed.
The passage
stands thus in the old copies :-
You that will be lesse feareful than discreet,
That loue the fundamentall part of State
More than you doubt the change on't: That preferre
A noble life before a long, and wish
To iumpe a body with a dangerous physicke
That's sure of death without it: at once plucke out
The multitudinous tongue, let them not licke
The sweet which is their poyson.
The first folio having misprinted iumpe for impe, the second
folio made it "To jumpe a body," which has been printed
jump ever since. Nothing, however, can be made of it. The
poet was fond of using terms of falconry in a metaphorical
sense, and in King Richard II., Act ii. Sc. 1, we have
Impe out our drooping country's broken wing.
The word originally signified to insert, and, in falconry, to
insert a feather into an injured or deficient wing of a hawk;
but its general meaning is to mend by artificial means, and
this is the sense required here,-to patch up. Thus, in The
Pilgrim, by Beaumont and Fletcher, Act i. Sc. 1:-
None of your PIECED companions, pined gallants
That fly to fitters, with every flaw of weather;
None of your imped bravadoes.
Ib. The change of "deserved" to deserving, would be a
violation of the poet's language, who frequently uses the active
participle where we should now use the passive.
SCENE II.
P. 357. After having mentioned that the correctors sub-
stitute “O, son, son," for "O sir, sir," in Volumnia's speech,
220
SHAKESPEARE VINDICATED.
which is perhaps an admissible change; Mr. Collier pro-
ceeds :-
"On the same evidence, we here recover a line, which
is certainly wanting in the old copies, since they leave the
sense incomplete without it. It is in Volumnia's entreaty to
her son,—
Pray be counsell'd.
I have a heart as little apt as yours,
But yet a brain, that leads my use of anger
To better vantage.
"To what was Volumnia's heart as little apt' as that of
Coriolanus? The insertion of a missing line (the absence of
which has not hitherto been suspected) enables us to give the
answer :-
I have a heart as little apt as yours
To brook control without the use of anger,
But yet a brain, that leads my use of anger
To better vantage.
"The line in italics is written in a blank space, and a mark
made to where it ought to come in. The compositor was,
doubtless, misled by the recurrence of the same words at the
ends of the two lines, and carelessly omitted the first. From
whence, if not from some independent authority, whether
heard, or read, was this addition to the text derived?”
This interpolation is absurd; if a line is missing it must
have been something very different. It seems probable that the
word apt has been misprinted for soft, and we may then read,
without the superfluous and tautologous line interpolated :—
Pray be counsell'd.
I have a heart as little soft as yours,
But yet a brain that leads my use of anger
To better vantage.
The poet's use of the word elsewhere countenances this con-
jecture. Thus Baret: "To become or wax soft, to appease
itselfe, and become gentle: to wax effeminate."
P. 358. "The following must be allowed to be a valuable
CORIOLANUS.
221
emendation of a passage, which is thus given in every edi-
tion, ancient or recent:-
He hath been us'd
Ever to conquer, and to have his worth
Of contradiction.
"Malone gravely says, that to have his worth of contradic-
tion,' means to have his pennyworth of it; but the whole
figure here is taken from horsemanship.
When a restive
animal obtains his own way, he is said to have his mouth
given to him: to give a horse his mouth, is to free him from
restraint; therefore Brutus, speaking of Coriolanus and of
his irritable spirit, remarks,—
He hath been us'd
Ever to conquer, and to have his mouth
Of contradiction: being once chaf'd, he cannot
Be rein'd again to temperance.
"The old printer again confounded m and w, and read mouth
'worth.' The necessary letters are written in the margin of
the folio, 1632, and struck through in the text.”
Think of Shakespeare writing, "his mouth of contradic-
tion"!! It does not tend to confirm Mr. Collier's presump-
tion that these correctors had access to better authority than
we possess, or give a very high idea of their acuteness, to pro-
pose such a change. The error lies only in a single letter; we
should read:-
He hath been us'd
Ever to conquer, and to have his word
Of contradiction, &c.
P. 258. The substitution of "courage" for carriage, in the
following passage, is a good and probable correction, which
is countenanced by the same alteration in my copy of the
second folio, where ou is struck out, and ari interlined. The
same misprint occurs in the Third Part of King Henry VI.
p. 160, ante.
222
SHAKESPEARE VINDICATED.
Note?
P. 359.
ACT IV. SCENE I.
Nay mother,
Where is your ancient courage? you were us'd
To say, extremity was the trier of spirits;
That common chances common men could bear;
That, when the sea was calm, all boats alike
Show'd mastership in floating. Fortune's blows,
When most struck home, being gentle wounded, craves
A noble cunning. You were us'd to load me
With precepts, that would make invincible
The heart that conn'd them.
The corrector's substitution of gentle-minded for "gentle
wounded" has some show of plausibility, but the old reading
will bear this construction: Coriolanus, after enumerating his
mother's other precepts, adds, "to be gentle (i.e. mild and
patient), when wounded by Fortune's hardest blows, requires a
noble skill (i. e. of self-government.)" Mr. Collier has told us
that it is not rational to alter the old reading when sénse can
be extracted from it, and I quite agree with him.
Ib. "The suggestion of Steevens that, in the speech of the
Volsce, appeared' should be approved, is supported by the
testimony of the old corrector, who also warrants the change
by the same commentator on p. 229," (Collier's Shakespeare,
vol. viii.) "of my birth-place have I' to 'my birth-place hate
I.'"
(
In adopting the alteration of "well appeared" to well ap
proved, from Steevens, the correctors have not done wisely,
for the phrase should be well appaied, i.e. compensated for,
satisfied by. The phrase is very common in our older lan-
guage. The Volscian means to say, "The change in your
appearance is compensated for by your voice, which perfectly
satisfies me! Shakespeare has the word in his Lucrece:-
They buy thy help, but sin ne'er gives a fee,
He gratis comes, but thou art well appay'd
As well to hear as grant what he hath said.
The other correction has long formed the text of all editions
where we have hate uniformly. The substitution of house for
"hours" is most probably right.
CORIOLANUS.
223
SCENE V.
P. 360. “Where the third Servant is speaking of the friends
of Coriolanus, who do not dare to show themselves so 'whilst
he's in directitude.' The first Servant naturally asks what is the
meaning of directitude?' and receives no answer, excepting
by implication, derived from the supposition that Coriolanus
will soon be again in prosperity, and surrounded by his sup-
porters. 'Directitude' is clearly a misprint for dejectitude, a
rather fine word, used by the third Servant to denote the
disastrous condition of the affairs of Coriolanus, which might
be just as unintelligible to the first Servant as directitude."
The blunder must have been produced by the scribe having
written deiectitude with an i instead of a j. It has remained
however directitude' from the earliest times to the present."
6
'
What does the passage gain by the change of directitude
for the equally non-descript word dejectitude? There can be
no doubt that the Servant is intended to blunder in the use of
"directitude," which he mistakes for discreditude.
Ib. "The first Servant, stating his preference of war to
peace, says that war is 'sprightly, waking (walking in the
folios), audible, and full of vent.' Johnson tells us that full
of vent' means 'full of rumour, full of materials for discourse.'
Full of vaunt,' says the old corrector, with much greater
plausibility, full of deeds deserving to be vaunted."
66
This again is a very unnecessary change; Johnson is right
in his explanation of “ full of vent,” i. e. full of rumour, full
of materials for talk. Shakespeare puts this word into the
mouth of this conceited Servant to ridicule it, as he, in com-
mon with Ben Jonson, has done in Twelfth Night. Thus in
Volpone, Act ii. Sc. 1:—
Pray you what news, sirs, vents our climate?
SCENE VI.
1S
The alteration of " Good Marcius" to "God Marcius"
very specious, and a probable misprint. Perhaps the same
may be said of the substitution of handycrafts for "crafts."
224
SHAKESPEARE VINDICATED.
SCENE VII.
P. 361. "The conclusion of the speech of Aufidius, where
he is adverting to the manner in which high merits may be
obscured, and even extinguished by the character and conduct
of the possessor, has excited much comment. We print it
first as the passage appears in the folio, 1623:
So our virtue
Lie in th' interpretation of the time,
And power, unto itself most commendable,
Hath not a tomb so evident as a chair
T'extol what it hath done.
One fire drives out one fire; one nail, one nail ;
Rights by rights fouler, strengths by strengths do fail.
"The only difference between the folio, 1623, and that of
1632, is, that the latter corrects a grammatical blunder by
printing' virtue' in the plural; but, besides this trifle, there
appear to be several other mistakes, of more consequence, and
we subjoin the text as amended in manuscript:
So our virtues
Live in the interpretation of the time,
And power, in itself most commendable,
Hath not a tomb so evident as a cheer
T' extol what it hath done.
One fire drives out one fire, one nail, one nail;
Rights by rights suffer, strengths by strengths do fail.
<
"Most editors have seen that Rights by rights fouler' must
be wrong, and have proposed various changes, though none so
acceptable as that above given. However, the main difficulty
has arisen out of the word 'chair,' which the old corrector in-
forms us should be cheer, in reference to the popular applause
which usually follows great actions; and, by extolling what
has been done, confounds the doer. The change of lie' to
live, in a preceding line, is countenanced by the word "tomb,"
afterwards used; and the whole passage means, that virtues
depend upon the construction put upon them by contempo-
raries, and that power, though praiseworthy, may be buried
by the very applause that is heaped upon it, &c. The last
couplet requires no elucidation, when suffer is substituted for
'fouler,' an error that may, in part, have been occasioned by
CORIOLANUS.
225
the letter f having been employed instead of the long. It is
difficult to say how far some independent authority may, or
may not, have been used in this emendation."
To substitute live for "lie," in the second line, would be
to destroy the meaning, according to Mr. Collier's own expo-
sition. For "evident as a chair," we might possibly read "so
evident as a hair :" Shakespeare considered a hair as the small-
est visible thing. Thus in the Tempest "not a hair perished,"
and in the Comedy of Errors, among the smallest possible
things we have, "a rush, a hair, a drop of blood, a pin." What
possible meaning can be attached to "a tomb so evident
as a cheer"? And for "rights by rights fouler," I substitute,
rights by rights foil'd are, which, as anciently written, might
easily be mistaken for fouler. The passage may then be found
to convey the sense of the poet without any very violent de-
parture from the old authentic text:-
So our virtues
Lie in the interpretation of the time,
And power, unto itself most commendable,
Hath not a tomb so evident as a hair
To extol what it hath done.
One fire drives out one fire; one nail, one nail;
Rights by rights foil'd are, strengths by strengths do fail.
P. 362. In the lines spoken by Menenius to the guard—
For I have ever verified my friends
(Of whom he's chief) with all the size that verity
Would without lapsing suffer-
The correctors would substitute magnified for "verified." If
any change is necessary, which seems doubtful, notified could
hardly be distinguished, when written or printed as of old,
from uerified. Magnified has little similarity with it.
Mr. Collier has remarked that "there is no play in the
whole volume so badly printed as this;" we cannot, therefore,
be surprised that the "authorities" of the correctors had not
enabled them to detect more of the errors. A remarkable one,
which had struck the keen eye of Warburton, but which he
failed in attempting to set right, has however been passed
226
SHAKESPEARE VINDICATED.
over in silence. It is in the dialogue between Menenius and
the Guard:
1 Guard. You are a Roman are you?
Men. I am as thy general is.
1 Guard. Then you should hate Rome, as he does. Can you, when
you have pushed out of your gates the very defender of them, and, in a
violent popular ignorance, given your enemy your shield, think to front
his revenges with the easy groans of your old women, the virginal palms
of your daughters, or with the palsied intercession of such a decayed
dotant-as you seem to be.
As the varied passions of the intercessors are evidently
intended to be represented, it is possible that for “virginal
palms” we should read “virginal qualms;" the words would
be easily mistaken for each other in old manuscript. War-
burton made an unhappy proposal to substitute a non-exist-
ent French word, pasmes! We have the word virginal in
Spenser, and in Woman's a Weathercock, 1612 :-
66
Lav'd in a bath of contrite virginal tears.
Virginal palms" may however mean, the palms or hands of
the maidens joined in supplication.
P. 362. The next impertinent piece of meddling, in substi-
tuting quite unnecessarily mistaking for mistaken, Mr. Collier
himself wisely repudiates.
P. 363. "An alteration which can hardly be subject to
doubt or dispute, occurs where Aufidius is descanting on the
manner in which he had 'served the designments' of Corio-
lanus to his own injury: the passage in all editions has stood
as follows:-
Serv'd his designments
In mine own person; holp to reap the fame
Which he did end all his.
"Rowe printed make for 'end,' and he was followed by
several editors, who did not see how sense could be extracted
from end.' Shakespeare is here only using a metaphor
which he has often employed before, and it is obvious from
the context that for 'end' we ought to read ear, which means,
in its derivation as well as in its use, to plough: therefore,
when Aufidius says that he had
CORIOLANUS.
227
Holp to reap the fame
Which he did ear all his ;
"he means that Coriolanus had ploughed the ground, intend-
ing to reap a crop of fame, which Aufidius had assisted him
to harvest. The use of the word 'reap' proves what was in
the mind of the poet. It is needless to enumerate the places
where Shakespeare employs the verb, to ear, in the sense of
to plough."
The substitution of ear for "end" is a good emendation of
an evident misprint, but the correctors have only half done
their work; ear, i. e. plough, and reap should change places;
or Aufidius is made to say that he had a share in the harvest,
while Coriolanus had all the labour of ploughing, and the
passage will then run thus:
serv'd his designments
In mine own person; holp to car the fame
Which he did reap all his.
This is the suggestion of a correspondent of Notes and Queries,
vol. vii. p. 378.
P. 366.
TH
TITUS ANDRONICUS.
ACT I. SCENE I.
HE alteration of "continence" to conscience may be a
matter of " taste," but it is by no means requisite.
SCENE II.
Ib. The same may be said of the alterations of words for
the purpose of multiplying the rhymes throughout this play;
but the first instance is so truly absurd as to show that the
taste of the correctors was rather a love of rhyme than of
reason. Mr. Collier says :-" where Titus tells Tamora that
her son must be slain as a sacrifice for his dead sons, the
228
SHAKESPEARE VINDICATED.
rhyme seems so inevitable, that we can hardly suppose it relin-
quished excepting by design":-
To this your son is mark'd; and die he must
T' appease their groaning shadows that are dust.
"The printed copies poorly read' gone' for dust."
It must have been a desperate love of rhyme that could
have induced the correctors to perpetrate this piece of non-
sense-groaning shadows that are dust!!! Why is this rhyme
inevitable,” at least what the printed copies " poorly read"
is perfectly intelligible, and gone could not be a misprint for dust.
66
P. 367. The change of "proclamations" to acclamations,
and of “abroad" to abroach, have something specious about
them; but, as sense can be made of the old reading, Mr.
Collier's own canon of non-interference is against their intro-
duction.
Ib. "We have here a proof that the old corrector may have
resorted to the quarto copies of this play, where only, and not
in the folios, in the following line,--
That slew himself and wise Laertes' son,
"the epithet 'wise' is found. It is possible, however, that
the necessary word was obtained from recitation, or even from
some independent authority, written or printed. Some of the
changes in this play could scarcely have been made without
some such aid.”
Why not from subsequent editions adopting the reading of
the quartos? Does Mr. Collier think that "shadows that are
dust" was obtained from " some independent authority"?
ACT II. SCENE II.
Ib. We have here a large specimen of the skill of the
correctors in turning unexceptionable dramatic blank verse
into bad and, in one place again, senseless rhyme. And yet
Mr. Collier thinks that "Nothing can well read more easily,
naturally, or harmoniously"! For the line:-
TITUS ANDRONICUS.
229
we have,
Sons let it be your charge, as it is ours,
Sons let it be your charge, and so will I!!!
"How far," says Mr. Collier, "any of these changes were sup-
ported by authority, must remain a question; at least we are
not in a condition to answer it."
I think the question may be unhesitatingly answered; that
the correctors had no other "authority" than their own prag-
matic conceit. Let any one compare the passage as it stands
in the old text with this rifaccimento, and I shall be much sur-
prised if the preference be not given to the former. But what
right have we even to improve the text by rewriting it?
SCENE III.
P. 368. There are two trifling substitutions, neither of them
of the slightest importance or necessity, in this scene; which,
not to be tedious, I pass over.
SCENE V.
P. 369. Here is an uncalled for interpolation to complete a
hemistich, as if hemistichs never occurred in these dramas!
ACT III. SCENE I.
Ib. The substitution of 'tis true for " you do" is again a
mere matter of taste.
ACT IV.
P. 370. There are two or three more trifling substitutions
in this act, most of them questionable, as Mr. Collier seems
to admit.
ACT V.
•
P. 371. There is abundant indulgence of the correctors'
love of innovation for the rhyme toward the close of this play,
but we have already said enough on that subject.
230
SHAKESPEARE VINDICATED.
P. 374.
"A
Α
ROMEO AND JULIET.
ACT I. SCENE I.
MANUSCRIPT-emendation in the folio, 1632, makes
it certain that civil,' in the following portion of
Sampson's speech, is a misprint:-'When I have fought with
the men, I will be civil with the maids; I will cut off their
heads.' 'Civil' is struck out, and cruel inserted instead of
it. Malone rightly preferred cruel."
And yet Mr. Collier wrongly preferred civil! notwithstand-
ing the evidence of the excellent undated quarto, and of that
of 1637, which is almost an exact copy of it. It did not want
the evidence of the correctors to make it certain that this was
the true reading, which I adopted in my edition in 1826.
Ib. Of the unnecessary substitution of "angry word," for
"airy word," Mr. Collier judiciously says, of the authority
of the correctors, that it "ought not, perhaps, to have weight
enough to induce us to alter the received and very intelligible
text." Their authority, then, misled them here.
Ib. "Romeo, describing love, remarks,—
Love is a smoke, made with the fume of sighs;
Being purg'd, a fire sparkling in lovers' eyes.
"Johnson, Steevens, Reed, and others, have contended that
'purg'd' cannot have been the poet's language; and they
suggest urg'd, in the sense of excited. This emendation
might answer the purpose, if no better were offered, but in
the margin of the folio, 1632, we are told to substitute a word
that exactly belongs to the place, and that might be easily.
misread 'purg'd' by the printer:—
""
Being puff'd, a fire sparkling in lovers' eyes.
Every body is aware how a fire sometimes sparkles in the
eyes of those who blow it with their breath: the smoke is first
'made' by the gentle 'fume of sighs,' and then caused to
sparkle by being violently puffed by the lover's breath."
ROMEO AND JULIET.
231
Purged is purified, whether by fire or otherwise. So in
Hamlet, "burnt and purged away!" The striking absurdity
of puffed, which has not much resemblance to 'purg'd',
might well be left without comment, but that "we are told to
substitute a word that exactly belongs to the place"!!
P. 375. The adoption of encharm'd for “uncharm'd,” is as
likely a reading as Rowe's unharm'd; but, as Mr. Collier
says, unharm’d “answers the purpose, and gives a clear mean-
ing," so that it is a mere question of “taste.”
SCENE II.
Ib. The reading of the quarto, 1597, and mentioned by all
the commentators,
And too soon marr'd are those so early married,
is undoubtedly the true one; as we have it in Puttenham,
"The maid that soon married soon marred is." But Mr.
Collier adheres to made in his edition of Shakespeare!
SCENE IV.
P. 376. Of the three alterations made in Mercutio's descrip-
tion of Queen Mab,
and
Pick'd from the lazy finger of a milkmaid.
Sometime she gallops o'er a counsellor's nose-
Makes the elf-locks in foul sluttish hairs-
not one of them are required, and makes, as Mr. Collier con-
fesses, is more unpoetical than the original reading bakes. But
the correctors must be meddling unnecessarily.
ACT II. SCENE II.
P. 378. The substitution of white for 'sick,' in the line
Her vestal livery is but sick and green,
And none but fools do wear it-
is quite unnecessary and inadmissible, for sick could never be a
misprint for white; to be sick is to be pale in Shakespeare's
language. Thus "sicklied o'er with the pale cast of thought."
&c. &c.
Ib. But lazy-passing for "lazy-pacing" will never do;
232
SHAKESPEARE VINDICATED.
note
and the old reading is infinitely the best. The substitution
of although for not, and the erasure are equally unnecessary
and impertinent.
P. 379. The alteration of "vow" of the folio, to sweur of
the quarto, 1597, and the insertion of blessed only wanting in
the second folio, were most likely corrections copied from
some later edition. They have long been the established text.
SCENE III.
Ib. The substitution of unbusied for "unbruised youth" is
certainly plausible, but still unbruised may well be the poet's
word.
SCENE IV.
P. 380. The conjecture of wicked for "weak," in the
Nurse's speech, is also very specious; but the Nurse is not
very precise in her language, and the word weak may be in-
tended as a characteristic misapplication.
SCENE V.
Ib. The substitution of my for "any" makes the alteration
of “straight” to straightway necessary, and the same remark
applies to the Nurse's language here, which was most pro-
bably intended to be anything but formal.
ACT III. SCENE I.
·
Ib. In respect to the adoption of the readings of the
quarto of 1597, it is much more probable that they are
adopted from some one of the more recent editions, than that
the corrector had access to all the quartos on all occasions.
The interpolation of the word home is an unlicensed liberty,
and would require better authority than that of the correctors
to induce us to admit it into the text.
?
SCENE II.
P. 381. The substitution of enemies, for "run-aways," in
the passage--
Spread thy close curtain love-performing night,
That run-aways eyes may wink, and Romeo
Leap to these arms untalk'd of and unseen-
ROMEO AND JULIET.
233
is worse than the reading by Jackson, of unawares, which
Mr. Collier adopted in his edition. A very good conjecture on
this long disputed passage, is given by the Rev. Mr. Halpin,
in the Shakespeare Society's Papers. The circumstantial evi-
dence adduced for the retention of the old reading, showing
that Cupid was the runaway in Juliet's mind, is extremely in-
genious, if not satisfactory. Enemies is entirely out of the
question, and Mr. Collier has evidently his misgivings about it.
SCENE V.
P. 382. The correction of "Cynthia's brow" to Cynthia's
bow is quite unexceptionable, as an easy amendment of an
evident misprint, which I also find so corrected in my second
folio.
ACT IV. SCENE I.
Ib. The substitution of way for "sway" is by no means so
evident an improvement, and the old reading is quite satis-
factory.
SCENE II.
P.383. The correctors have an evident distaste for Shake-
speare's peculiar use of the termination ed for ing of which
we have such frequent and undoubted examples, and would
here correct" becomed" to becoming. It will not do to bring
modern notions of grammatical forms and construction to
bear upon the poet's language, and becomed must remain.
ACT V. SCENE I.
Ib. "The first line of this act has hitherto presented a
serious difficulty. Romeo says,--
If I may trust the flattering truth of sleep,
My dreams presage some joyful news at hand.
(
"Nobody has been able at all satisfactorily to explain the
expression, flattering truth,' since 'truth' cannot flatter;
and Malone, not liking Johnson's interpretation, preferred
what is to the full as unintelligible, the text of the quarto,
1597-'the flattering eye of sleep.' The real truth (not the
'flattering truth') seems to be, that the old compositor was
confounded between trust,' in the first part of the line, and
234
SHAKESPEARE VINDICATED.
death near the end of it, and printed a word which he com-
pounded of the beginning of the one word, and of the end of
the other. Sleep is often resembled to death, and death to
sleep; and when Romeo observes, as the correction in the
folio, 1632, warrants us in giving the passage,-
If I may trust the flattering death of sleep;
"he calls it 'the flattering death of sleep,' on account of the
dream of joyful news from which he had awaked: during
this flattering death of sleep,' he had dreamed of Juliet,
and of her revival of him by the warmth of her kisses."
"
A more unhappy and absurd conjecture than this of the
'flattering death of sleep,' is scarcely to be paralleled even by
some of the other doings of the correctors. I read:
If I may trust the flattering soother sleep,
My dreams presage some joyful news at hand.
The similarity of sound, in recitation of the words truth of
and soother, may have led to the error; and the poetical
beauty of the passage is much heightened by the personifica-
tion of sleep.
SCENE III.
P. 384. The correction of the two misprints of the folio had
been long since effected, and may have been copied from any
later edition. Surely the notice of them was superfluous?
The change of stand to stay, in the speech of the Page, is as
unnecessary as it is improbable that the one word should have
been mistaken for the other.
P. 385. "The words 'Shall I believe,' which are mere sur-
plusage, are struck out, as well as the whole passage, obviously
foisted in by some strange mistake, beginning, 'Come, lie
thou in my arms,' and ending, Depart again.
ލ. މ
Similar erasures are made in my corrected second folio,
except that, in the first instance, the words, "I will believe,"
are effaced.
It is obvious that both Mr. Collier's corrector
and mine have taken the hint from some later edition, in
which these passages are omitted. In Mr. Collier's edition,
ROMEO AND JULIET.
235
both 'I will believe,' and 'Shall I believe,' are retained!
They were not, in his opinion, then, mere surplusage.
(
""
Ib. The substitution of outcry for outrage,' although Mr.
Collier says
"The necessity for this change is not very appa-
rent," seems to me judicious, for "the mouth of outrage'
is not quite so consistent. But there is no accounting for
difference of taste in such matters. I must confess I cannot
see the same propriety in the change made in the lines-
There shall no figure at such rate be set
As that of true and faithful Juliet-
to "fair and faithful." But Mr. Collier thinks "it looks
like the exercise of taste," on the part of his correctors! I
have already pointed out some instances of the kind of taste
in which they have indulged.
TIMON OF ATHENS.
ACT I. SCENE I.
P. 387. The substitution of gum and issues for the corrup-
tion of the old copies—
Our poesie is a gown which uses,
was made by Pope, and from him most likely, or some suc-
ceeding edition, adopted by the correctors. Johnson's reading
oozes is however quite as good, if not better.
Ib. "It seems improbable that Shakespeare, who, like
other dramatists of his day, cared little about representing
correctly the customs of the time or country in which he laid
his scene, should make the poet speak thus of the new work
he was about to present to Timon:
My free drift
Halts not particularly, but moves itself
In a wide sea of wax.
"Why in a wide sea of wax?' Admitting that not only the
236
SHAKESPEARE VINDICATED.
"
ancients, but that the English, at a very early date, wrote upon
waxen tablets (and such is the forced explanation of Hanmer,
Steevens, and Malone,) it would scarcely be understood by
popular audiences before whom this drama was originally
acted. (
Wax,' of old, was commonly spelt waxe (although
it is wax' in the folios), and confiding, as we are disposed to
do, in a representation in the margin of the folio, 1632, the
compositor must have read waxe' for a word not very dis-
similar in form, but much more appropriate and intelligible :-
My free drift
(
Halts not particularly, but moves itself
In a wide sea of verse.
"The poet's work was, of course, in verse, and there is no ap-
parent reason why Shakespeare should not have employed
that word instead of wax,' which looks something like a
sort of pedantry, of which he would certainly be the last to be
guilty."
If the poet would not himself have been "guilty of the
pedantry," there is no reason why he should not have thought
it characteristic in the Athenian poet, and have placed the
words in his mouth without any allusion to waxen tablets, but
that wax is a type of the flexibility of the poet's matter; the
theme easily moulded to any drift, not rigidly fixed to one.
Wax and verse bear not the slightest resemblance either as
written or pronounced. We must, therefore, adhere to the
old reading until better reasons can be given for disturbing it.
P. 388. "The following answer by Apemantus has produced.
much dispute:-
That I had no angry wit to be a lord.
"It is introduced as follows: Apemantus exclaims,-
Heavens, that I were a lord!
Tim. What would'st do, then, Apemantus?
Apem. Even as Apemantus does now; hate a lord with my heart.
Tim. What, thyself?
Apem. Ay.
Tim. Wherefore?
Apem. That I had no angry wit to be a lord.
Though a meaning, as Johnson says, may be extracted from
TIMON OF ATHENS.
237
these last words, yet nearly all editors have agreed that some
corruption has crept into the text.
Warburton proposed,
"That I had so hungry a wit to be a lord;' and Monck Mason,
'That I had an angry wish to be a lord.' The restoration
offered in the folio, 1632, is the same as parts of both these
suggestions, and at once renders the sense evident- That I
had so hungry a wish to be a lord.' Apemantus would hate
himself for having entertained so strong a desire to be a lord.
It thus seems that Warburton and Monck Mason were both
right, and yet both wrong."
The corrector of my second folio has substituted a much
more probable reading—
That I had an empty wit to be a lord.
The words have here much greater resemblance to the pro-
bable misprint. Mr. Collier in his edition follows the old
reading, and thinks change unnecessary!
SCENE II.
P. 389. The substitution of fire for " sinner," on account
of the rhyme, is plausible; but the epithet, "Honest water,
in the next line, is much in favour of the old reading, which is
perfectly intelligible, and the words could hardly be taken for
each other.
ACT II. SCENE II.
Ib. "Flavius, Timon's Steward, lamenting over his master's
lavish and thoughtless expenditure, as the text has always
stood, says of him that he
Takes no account
How things go from him, nor resumes no care
Of what is to continue. Never mind
Was to be so unwise, to be so kind.
"
"This can hardly be right: nor resume no care,' as it stands
in the folios, is a very uncouth, even if an allowable phrase,
and the last line reads still more objectionably. Two valuable
manuscript changes are made which remove all ground of
complaint:
238
SHAKESPEARE VINDICATED.
""
12:
Takes no account
How things go from him! no reserve; no care
Of what is to continue. Never mind
Was surely so unwise, to be so kind.
Perhaps the occurrence of 'to be' in the last part of the
line, led to the mis-insertion of it in the first part; and we can
see at once how no reserve might become 'nor resume.'
""
The corrector of my second folio has also paid attention
to this passage, but he merely adds s at the end of "resume,
and instead of" to be so unkind," has truly so unkind; and it
must be confessed that truly was much more likely to have
been mistaken for to be than that surely should be so travestied.
ACT III. SCENE I.
In the speech of Flaminius, at the end of the scene, there is
an evident misprint; the old copies read—
O, you Gods!
I feel my master's passion; This slave
Unto his honour, has my lord's meat in him, &c.
This was once properly corrected to "This slave unto this
hour has my lord's meat in him;" but the old corruption has
been restored, and is followed, implicitly and silently, by Mr.
Collier, as well as Mr. Knight. Lucullus is anything but a
slave to his honour!
SCENE V.
P. 390. “When Alcibiades is pleading before the Senate
on behalf of his friend, who had killed an adversary, he
observes,-
He did behave his anger, ere 'twas spent,
As if he had but prov'd an argument.
"Here the printer was in error; in the old copies the lines.
are thus printed :—
He did behoove his anger, ere 'twas spent,
As if he had but prov'd an argument.
"Modern editors have consented to suppose behoove intended
TIMON OF ATHENS..
239
for behave,' and they have taken great pains to justify the
expression, he did behave his anger;' but the old corrector
of the folio, 1632, shows that their labour has been thrown
away, since the author did not use the phrase, but wrote as
follows:
He did reprove his anger, ere 'twas spent,
As if he had but mov'd an argument.
"If these small, but more than plausible, emendations be ad-
mitted, no explanation is wanted."
The corrector's reading," he did reprove his anger, ere 'twas
spent," is infinitely inferior to that of Rowe, and in conse-
quence of substituting reprove, the corrector feels it incumbent
on him to change prov'd, in the next line, to mov’d. If behave
should be objected to, perhaps we might read—
He did behood his anger ere 'twas spent
As if he had but prov'd an argument.
Here the slight change of the termination ve to d makes all
clear. The poet uses to hood for to hide or conceal as with a
hood; in Romeo and Juliet :-
Come civil night-
Hood my unman'd blood bating in my cheeks
With thy black mantle-
And in K. Henry V. Act. iii. Sc. 7:-
Orl. He need not, it is no hidden virtue in him.
Con. By my faith, sir, but it is: never anybody saw it, but his lackey:
'tis a hooded valour, and, when it appears it will bate.
We should recollect how fond Shakespeare is of deriving
figurative expressions from Falconry.
P. 391. The interpolation of itself and alteration in the
passage-
If there were no foes, that were enough
To overcome him,
is re-writing the text.
Hanmer's addition of alone at the end
of the line was much more simple, and at least equally ef-
240
SHAKESPEARE VINDICATED.
fective; but the passage needs no alteration, and Mr. Collier
thought so when he printed his edition of Shakespeare.
ACT IV. SCENE II.
P. 391. "Old and modern impressions furnish us with this
text:
Who would be so mock'd with glory, or to live
But in a dream of friendship?
To have his pomp, and all what state compounds,
But only painted, like his varnish'd friends.
"Much of this speech is in rhyme, and a couplet precedes the
above, which, after the interval of a line, is succeeded by four
other rhymes. We learn from manuscript-emendations, that
what we have just quoted most imperfectly represents the
passage; that the hemistich ought to be completed by two
words carelessly omitted, and that an important verb ought to
be altered: the whole passage will then remain as follows:-
Who'd be so mock'd with glory as to live
But in a dream of friendship, and revive
To have his pomp, and all state comprehends,
But only painted, like his varnish'd friends?"
The rhyming lines are not consecutive in this speech, and,
although it is carelessly printed, interpolation is not necessary;
with but little departure from the old text it will stand thus-
Who'd be so mock'd with glory as to live
But in a dream of friendship? or to have
His pomp, and all what state compounds,
But only painted, like his varnish'd friends.
Here the only alterations are transposing or, and substituting
as in its place. Possibly we should read vanish'd friends
instead of varnish'd, as we are told that they were
"All gone,
and not one friend to take his fortune by the arm, and gọ
along with him. All gone, all slunk away.”
TIMON OF ATHENS,
241
SCENE III.
P. 392. Of the alterations in Timon's speech when he enters
the wood; the first,
Raise me this beggar and decline that lord,
instead of deny't, is not at all necessary. The construction is
"Raise me this beggar to great fortune and deny it to that
lord." Of the second "Rother's sides for Brother's sides," I
must of course approve, as I suggested it some years since,
and Mr. Collier has been pleased to say that it is one of the
most valuable emendations in his. edition. Idol-votarist for
idle votarist is quite an uncalled-for change; by no idle vota-
rist Timon means to say no insincere or inconstant suppliant
for gold; roots will satisfy me. Steevens has truly said, how-
ever, that “the condition in which this play was transmitted
to us, is such as will warrant repeated doubts in almost every
scene of it."
Ib. "There are few instances where mishearing on the
part of the scribe has been the origin of a corruption of the
text more striking, than the blunder we are now about to
point out, and set right, on the authority of the annotator of
the folio, 1632. It is where Phrynia and Timandra entreat
Timon to give them some of his gold, and ask if he has
more he replies,—
Enough to make a whore forswear her trade,
And to make whores, a bawd. .
"Johnson strives hard to extract sense from this last clause,
for of course the meaning of the first is very evident it is in
the hemistich that the error lies, for we ought beyond dis-
pute to read,-
Enough to make a whore forswear her trade,
And to make whores abhorr'd.
"Whoever read, or recited, to the copyist dropped the aspirate,
and induced him, merely writing mechanically and without
attending to the sense, to put 'a bawd' for abhorr'd.”
R
242
SHAKESPEARE VINDICATED.
Why should abundance of gold make whores abhorr'd?
Mr. Collier may rely on it, although he thinks this alter-
ation" beyond dispute," that the old copy is right, and that
Johnson did not strive in vain when he explained it, “That is
enough gold to make a whore leave whoring, and a bawd leave
making whores." But forswear cannot here mean renounce,
it means promise to renounce, as appears by the rest of Timon's
speech; and this meaning fits the clause as interpreted by
Johnson.
P. 393. The substitution of meadows for "marrows" is
specious, but marrows seems to have a relation to unctuous, in
a following line, which forbids us to alter it. It is more pro-
bable that thy is a misprint for your :
Dry up your marrows, (ye) vines and ploughtorn leas.
Ib. "Timon reproaches Apemantus with his base origin,
and tells him that he had never known luxury, adding,—
Hadst thou, like us, from thy first swath, proceeded
The sweet degrees that this brief world affords
To such as may the passive drugs of it
Freely command, thou would'st have plung'd thyself
In general riot.
"The passive drugs' of the world surely cannot be right.
Timon is supposing the rich and luxurious to be, as it were,
sucking freely at the 'passive dugs' of the world; and an emen-
dation in manuscript, which merely strikes out the superfluous
letter, supports this view of the passage, and renders need-
less Monck Mason's somewhat wild conjecture in favour of
drudges."
The corrector of my second folio has also struck out the r
in drugges, yet it is most probable that the old reading drugges,
is right, and that Monck Mason's conjecture was not so "wild,"
for drudge is constantly spelt drugge. Thus Huloet, "A drudge
or drugge, a servant which doth all the vile services."
In the same speech lower down we have ragge printed for
rogue, as is evident from the context:
If thou wilt curse, thy father, that poor rugge,
Must be thy subject; who, in spite, put stuff
To some she beggar, and compounded thee
Poor rogue hereditary.
TIMON OF ATHENS.
243
This Johnson proposed to correct, but was opposed by Steevens
and Malone.
Ib. It is very doubtful whether the interpolation of him
would not be to violate the poet's language, the "falling-from
of friends" is quite intelligible without it.
P. 394. The substitution of "load our purses" for "load our
purposes” is a violent and uncalled-for innovation, although
Mr. Collier says, the original reading! is very like nonsense;
but in a supplemental note he admits that it may mean
"the
poet and the painter came to have their designs loaded."
SCENE IV.
Ib. There was no great merit in the adoption of Warbur-
ton's correction in the line,-
Some beast rear'd this; there does not live a man.
Ib. The last substitution of is't not severe for "it is not
square" in the passage:-
All have not offended ;
For those that were, it is not square to take
On those that are, revenge.
Mr. Collier is himself obliged to acknowledge "is certainly
not one of the changes that must be adopted." I do not
think any one will be found to differ with him, for a more
absurd piece of meddling is hardly to be found among the
number that his volume furnishes.
ACT V. SCENE III.
There is a passage in this scene which has escaped the
correctors, where Steevens remarks, "I am fully convinced
that this and many other passages have been irretrievably cor-
rupted by transcribers or printers, and could not have pro-
ceeded, in their present state, from the pen of Shakespeare;
for what we cannot understand in the closet, must have been
wholly useless on the stage. The awkward repetition of the
verb made, very strongly countenances my present observation."
The passage stands thus in the folios
Messenger. I met a currier, one mine ancient friend,
Whom though in generall part we were oppos'd,
Yet our old love made a particular force
And made us speak like friends, &c.
244
SHAKESPEARE VINDICATED.
We should probably read,-
I met a courier, one mine ancient friend,
When, though on several part we were oppos'd,
Yet our old love had a particular force
And made us speak like friends.
The sense and grammar require When for "Whom"; in
generall was an easy mistake of the printer for on feuerall,
and the repetition of the word made was evidently caught
from the succeeding line instead of had. Several is very fre-
quently used by Shakespeare for separate, as on this occasion.
If the correctors, as Mr. Collier would have us suppose, had
access to "better authority than we possess," there can be no
doubt that this passage would not have been passed over in
silence.
P. 396.
JULIUS CÆSAR.
ACT I. SCENE II.
F the substitution of walls for "walks," in the line:-
OF
That her wide walks encompassed but one man-
Mr. Collier himself says, "strictly speaking a change is not
necessary," and yet it is not an improbable misprint, and there-
fore much more plausible than many he feels more confident
about.
P. 397. The substitution of such for " these" is of course a
matter of "discretion," but "these" could hardly be a mis-
print for such; and perhaps to read which for "as" would be
a more probable change, if it were allowable to interfere with
the grammatical construction of the poet's language.
SCENE III.
Ib. "A note in the margin of the folio, 1632, will, pro-
bably, settle a dispute carried on at considerable length, and
with some pertinacity, between Johnson, Steevens, and Ma-
JULIUS CÆSAR.
245
lone, regarding a word in a couplet thus printed in the folio,
1623 :-
Against the Capitol I met a lion
Who glaz'd upon me, and went surly by.´
"Pope was the first to read glar'd for 'glaz'd,' and Johnson
poorly substituted gaz'd: in the folio, 1632, the second line
stands,-
Who glaz❜d upon me, and went surely by;
"there can be no doubt about the last error, and that, as well
as the first, is set right by striking out the e in surely, and by
converting 'glaz'd' into glar'd."
This correction is no doubt suggested by some one of
the more recent editions. Surly is the reading of the first
folio, and Steevens corrected "glaz'd" to glar'd: as the
passage has long been set right in all editions, even in Mr.
Collier's, there seemed no motive for placing it among the
coincidences of the correctors, unless to swell the catalogue.
P. 398. The same observation applies to the obvious cor-
rection of the misprint Is to "In," which has also been made
in all editions.
ACT II. SCENE I.
Ib. The correction of "make" to mark is plausible, and as
a probable. misprint admissible.
Ib. The mention of the adoption of the reading of the first
folió,-
Caius Ligarius doth bear Cæsar hard,
in place of the variation of the second folio, hatred, has most
probably been suggested as in other cases, by some more re-
cent edition; for it is the received reading, and the variation
was not even deemed worthy of notice by Mr. Collier in his
edition!
Ib. The transposition of "honey-heavy" to "heavy honey-
dew of slumber," is judicious, and has also been made by the
corrector of my second folio.
Note
246
SHAKESPEARE VINDICATED.
ACT III. SCENE I.
P. 399. The alteration of the punctuation in the line,-
What touches us ourself shall be last served,
is a very doubtful interference with the old reading.
Ib. The propriety of the transfer of the words "Are we all
ready" from Cæsar's speech to one of the conspirators, had
been pointed out by Ritson, and was most likely adopted from
his notice of its necessity.
(6
Ib. Of the three proposed alterations, crouchings for
couchings," the "law of children," for the "lane of chil-
dren," and "low crouched courtesies" for "low crooked cour-
tesies ;" the only one absolutely required, lane for "law,” had
been made by Johnson, and is the received reading. Couch-
ing had the same meaning as crouching; thus Huloet:—
cowche, like a dogge; Procumbo, Prosterno. Low-crooked is
also the same as low-crouched; for the same authority has
crooke-backed or crowche-backed, and to crook was to bow.
Interference with the old text therefore is here again quite un-
necessary. Indeed the substitutions savour of much later
times than those in which Mr. Collier would place the cor-
rectors.
SCENE III.
P. 400. In the speech of Cinna the poet :—
I dreamt to-night that I did feast with Cæsar,
And things unluckily charge my fantasy :
I have no will to wander forth of doors,
Yet something leads me forth—
the correctors would substitute unlikely for "unluckily," but
this would be mischievous. The poet's presentiment is of
some misfortune to happen, and nothing more is required than
to omit the letters il and read unlucky.
"I learn," says
Steevens, "from an old Treatise on Fortune Telling, that to
dream of being at banquets betokeneth misfortunes," &c.
JULIUS CÆSAR.
247
ACT IV. SCENE III.
Ib. To change "bait" to bay in the passage
“Brutus bait not me,"
is mere mischievous meddling. The old text is quite right.
Beside the instances cited by Malone in defence of the old
reading, Leontes in Winter's Tale says of Paulina when she
rails at him,
A callat
Of boundless tongue; who late hath beat her husband,
And now baits me.
P. 401. The substitution of abler for “noble" in the speech pote
of Brutus is specious but not necessary, yet as a probable mis-
print is admissible; noble might be mistaken for able or abler.
Ib. “A question arising in council, whether the forces of
Brutus and Cassius should march towards the enemy, or
wait for him, Brutus urges the former course, and Cassius the
latter. Brutus contends that if they delay, the enemy will be
strengthened and refreshed as he advances:-
The enemy, marching along by them
By them shall make a fuller number up,
Come on refresh'd, new-added, and encourag'd.
"The corrector of the folio, 1632, implies by his proposed
change, that 'new-added' is merely a repetition of what is said
in the preceding line-by them shall make a fuller num-
ber up'—and he inserts a word instead of 'added,' which is
not only more forcible, but more appropriate, and which we
may very fairly suppose had been misheard by the scribe:—
By them shall make a fuller number up,
Come on refresh'd, new-hearted, and encourag'd.
"This error might be occasioned by the then broad pronuncia-
tion of added' having been mistaken for hearted."
"New-added" could not have been a misprint for "new-
hearted," we should undoubtedly read:—
९
The enemy, marching along by them,
By them shall make a fuller number up,
Come on refresh'd, new-aided and encouraged.
248
SHAKESPEARE VINDICATED.
Mr. Collier's observation that added in pronunciation "might
have been mistaken for hearted" is very improbable.
ACT V. SCENE I.
P. 402. The substitution of word of traitor for "sword of
traitors" is quite uncalled for, and Mr. Collier himself seems
sensible of it by his remark that "we may not be disposed to
insist upon it."
it." With the judicious at least we should insist
in vain upon such wanton interference with the old text, which
the correctors evidently do not understand.
P. 403. "So with the next emendation, where Cassius in-
forms Messala :-
Coming from Sardis, on our former ensign
Two mighty eagles fell.
"For 'former ensign,' we are told to read 'forward ensign,'
which is probably right, although 'former' need not necessarily
be displaced, and may be understood as foremost. The en-
sign being described as in front, at the head of the army, the
copyist may have misheard, and therefore miswritten 'former'
for forward."
The correctors have here again manifested their ignorance.
of the language of the poet and of his times. Former is fore,
first, or chief. Thus Baret "the former teeth [i. e. fore-teeth]
Dentes primores." And in Adlyngton's Apuleius, 1596. "First
he instructed me to set at the table upon my taile, and how
I should leape and daunce, holding up my former-feete." It
is from the A.S. forma, first. It is quite evident to me that
these corrections are of later times than those in which Mr.
Collier would place them, when these archaisms had entirely
passed out of use and were forgotten.
Ib. "We are told to read term for 'time' and those for 'some:'
it is where Brutus declares against suicide,-
But I do find it cowardly and vile,
For fear of what might fall, so to prevent
The term of life,-arming myself with patience,
To stay the providence of those high powers,
That govern us below.
JULIUS CÆSAR.
249
"The above unquestionably reads better than as the text has
been ordinarily given to prevent the term of life' means, as
Malone states, to anticipate the end of life; but still he
strangely persevered in printing 'time' for term."
It would have been more strange if Malone had ventured
to change the undoubted word of the poet! One of his chief
merits is close adherence to the old text where good sense
can be made of it. He tells us that "By time is meant the
full and complete time, the period," time is duration. We
may learn, if necessary, from "our old authority," Baret, the
poet's meaning. "Died before his time," Filius immaturus
obit," and "To prevent one daie, Anticipare uno die."
SCENE V.
P. 403. The insertion of the two omitted words in the second
folio was probably suggested by later Editions, for they have
long been restored. The second folio also omits the word
master in Messala's question to Strato,-
How died my master, Strato?
which is found in the first folio, but that the third folio was not
corrected upon it is evident, the line there being:-
How died my Lord, Strato?
P. 404. The alteration of "general" to generous, and chang-
ing "And" to Of in the speech of Antony:
All the conspirators, save only he,
Did that they did in envy of great Cæsar;
He, only, in a general honest thought
And common good to all, made one of them—
are mere capricious innovations, and not at all required. Mr.
Collier may well say "the propriety of introducing the change
into the text is a matter of discretion." We may trust he will
be discreet enough to avoid it.
250
SHAKESPEARE VINDICATED.
I
P. 405.
MACBETH.
ACT I. SCene I.
CANNOT say it conveys to my mind a very high opinion of
the corrector's sagacity that he should change " quarry,"
the reading of all the old copies, to quarrel, which was the sug-
gestion of Johnson adopted by Malone on anything but good
grounds. The epithet "damned" [i.e. doomed] is inapplicable
to quarrel in the sense which it here bears of condemned. Mr.
Collier himself says that quarry "gives an obvious and striking
meaning much more forcible than quarrel." We cannot
therefore avail ourselves of what he calls the "confirmatory
authority" of the correctors.
Ib. The substitution of comes for "seems" in the speech of
Lenox, when Ross enters in haste:—
What a haste looks through his eyes!
So should he look that seems to speak things strange.
is no great improvement upon Johnson's proposal to read
"that teems to speak things strange." But the old reading
may be right, and seems be received in its usual sense of ap-
pears.
SCENE III.
P. 406. As usual we have here the words to show interpo-
lated to make out the rhyme, where no rhyme was evidently
intended, for the word know already rhymes to "blow" in the
preceding line.
Ib. "The old impressions have,-
As thick as tale
Can post with post.
"Rowe wished to read hail for 'tale,' but without warrant;
but Can was unquestionably misprinted for Came.' Near the
bottom of the next page" (p. 107, vol. vii. Collier's Shakesp.)
"That trusted home' of the folios, is changed to 'That thrusted
home.' In modern times the word has been variously treated.”
MACBETH.
251
66
Rowe was right in correcting the obvious misprint can to
came, but wrong in disturbing the old undoubted word tale,
as thick as tale” is as quick as they could be told or num-
bered. Shakespeare has the word thick for quick twice,
and Baret in v. "Crebritas literarum, the often sending, or
thicke coming of letters." To substitute thrusted for "trusted"
would be to introduce a very doubtful anomalous word, instead
of the undoubted and perfectly intelligible one: in all the old
copies trusted home is entirely, thoroughly relied on.
SCENE IV.
P. 407. In the passage where Duncan speaks of the merits
of Macbeth, the lines stand thus in the first folio:-
Thou art so far before,
That swiftest wing of recompense is slow
To overtake thee-
The second folio misprints the line—
That swiftest wine of recompense is slow.
The correctors of Mr. Collier's copy convert it into winde.
It is remarkable that the corrector of my second folio has con-
verted the e into a d, and reads wind, and what else could be
done with it by conjecture? I have a copy of the third folio,
which has belonged to some theatre, or company of players,
in which the same correction is made. But there can be no
doubt that the reading of the first folio, wing, is the true word.
These later folios and their correctors are of little or no
authority.
Ib. The substitution of more for mine in the following.
passage-
Would thou hadst less deserved
That the proportion both of thanks and payment
Might have been mine.
Mr. Collier thinks "a doubtful change," but I confess it
seems to me much more plausible than many that he con-
siders undoubted.
SCENE V.
Ib. "A very acceptable alteration is made, on the same
evidence, in Lady Macbeth's speech invoking night, just
252
SHAKESPEARE VINDICATED.
before the entrance of her husband: it is in a word which has
occasioned much speculation:-
Come, thick night,
And pall thee in the dunnest smoke of hell,
That my keen knife see not the wound it makes,
Nor heaven peep through the blanket of the dark,
Hold, hold!"
To cry,
6
"Steevens, with reference to blanket,' quotes rug and rugs
from Drayton; and Malone seriously supposes that the word
was suggested to Shakespeare by the coarse woollen curtain
of the theatre,' when, in fact, it is not at all known whether the
curtain, separating the audience from the actors, was woollen
or linen. What solution of the difficulty does the old cor-
rector offer? As it seems to us, the substitution he recom-
mends cannot be doubted :—-
Nor heaven peep through the blankness of the dark
To cry, Hold, hold!'
"The scribe misheard the termination of blankness, and ab-
surdly wrote blanket.'"
(
To say nothing of the want of euphony in this perversion of
the language of the poet, the old authentic reading has been
so fully established by similar thoughts from Drayton, and
even from Shakespeare, that no one can now be disposed to
change it for the corrector's blankness. Thus in Polyolbion,
26th song,-
Thick vapours, that like ruggs, still hung the troubled air.
And in Mortimeriados-
The sullen night in mistic rugge is wrapp'd.
And in Lucrece-
Her twink'ling handmaids too [the stars] by him defil'd
Through night's black bosom should not peep again.
We have also "the night's black mantle," in the 3rd part of
K. Henry VI., and "night-whose pitchy mantle over-veil'd
the earth," in the 1st part.
MACBETH.
253
SCENE VII.
P. 408. Who could have imagined that any one familiar
with the poet, as Mr. Collier tells us he has been, "for the last
fifty years," could for a moment entertain the absurd change
of "beast" to boast, in the following celebrated passage!
Macbeth, after his wife's taunting speech,-
Was the hope drunk
In which you dress'd yourself? hath it slept since,
And wakes it now, to look so grim and pale
At what it did so freely? From this time,
Such I account thy love. Art thou afeard
To be the same in thine own act and valour,
As thou art in desire? Would'st thou have that
Which thou esteem'st the ornament of life,
And live a coward in thine own esteem,
Letting I dare not wait upon I would
Like the poor cat in the adage?
To which Macbeth replies,
Pry'thee peace;
I dare do all that may become a man ;
Who dares do more is none.
and she rejoins,
What beast was't then,
That made you break this enterprise to me?
When you durst do it then you were a man,
And to be more than what you were, you would
Be so much more the man.
Mr. Collier would have Lady Macbeth mince matters, after
the passionate and intemperate remonstrance she has ad-
dressed to her husband. And then with regard to the word
boast, what boast was it in Macbeth to break the matter to
her! The almost gentle manner in which, in a former scene,
he hints at his purpose in the words,
My dearest love,
Duncan comes here to night-
shows that what may be supposed to have passed in their
future conference would be any thing but a boast. If the
correctors had no other presumptive follies to answer for
than this attempt to alter the undoubted language of the poet,
they would deserve our commiseration.
"It is not easy to
254
SHAKESPEARE VINDICATED.
imagine (indeed) a case in which the alteration of a single
letter would make so important a difference," and for the
worse too!
ACT III. SCENE I.
66
P. 410. Monck Mason's reading, set your highness'
commands upon me," is the most admissible alteration, if any
deviation from the old reading, "Let your highness command
upon me," should be deemed requisite.
<
SCENE III.
P. 411. There is not the slightest reason for deviation from
the received reading—
Now spurs the lated traveller apace
To gain the timely inn; and near approaches
The subject of our watch.
SCENE IV.
Ib. "The conclusion of this great scene is not well
printed in the folio, 1623, and worse in the folio, 1632, where
sights' is made signs, stept' spent, &c. These errors the
corrector carefully amends, and then offers a solution of a
passage that has hitherto baffled satisfactory explanation.
It is where Macbeth dares the Ghost of Banquo to the desert,
and adds, as the folios give it,—
If trembling I inhabit, then protest me
The baby of a girl.
"Malone was for converting inhabit then' to inhibit thee;
but we do not quite approve of the manuscript change in the
folio, 1632, not because it is not very intelligible, allowing for
a transposition, but because it is too prosaic
If trembling I exhibit, then protest me, &c.
"i. e. if you perceive me tremble. We have been so used to
attach some indefinite meaning to 'if trembling I inhabit,' of
the old impressions, that the reader is hardly prepared for so
simple an explanation as if trembling I exhibit.' Yet, after
all, it may be right."
""
The correction of the obvious typographical errors, which
MACBETH.
255
have all long since been set right, needed no notice. The
substitution of exhibit for inhabit in Macbeth's speech-
If trembling I inhabit then, protest me
The baby of a girl-
is a wretched piece of meddling, probably suggested by Pope's
attempt, who changed inhabit to inhibit; but no change is
required. The meaning is evidently: "if trembling I stay in
my castle or any habitation; if I then hide my head, or dwell
in any place through fear, protest me the baby of a girl."
ACT IV. SCENE I.
P. 412. "In his interview with the Witches, Macbeth calls
upon them to answer him, as the lines have been always
printed,-
Though bladed corn be lodg'd, and trees blown down;
Though castles topple on their warder's heads ;
Though palaces and pyramids do slope
Their heads to their foundations, &c.
"No particular objection is obvious in the wording of this
quotation; but still the writer of the emendations states that
three words in it are wrong, and he alters them thus:
Though bleaded corn be lodg'd, and trees blown down;
Though castles topple o'er their warder's heads;
Though palaces and pyramids do stoop
Their heads to their foundations, &c.
bladed
"As to the word bleaded, we are to recollect that
corn' is never' lodged' or layed; but corn which is heavy in
the ear is often borne down and flattened by wind and rain.
Shakespeare must have been aware that green corn, or corn in
the blade, is not liable to be affected by violent weather.
Hence we may safely infer that he wrote 'bleaded corn,' which
means, in some of the provinces, and perhaps in Warwick-
shire, ripe corn, corn ready for the sickle.
Blead is a general
name for fruit; and the bleading of corn means the yielding
of it, the quantity of grain obtained from the blead, or ear.
There can be no doubt that for bladed,' we ought in future
to substitute bleaded in the text of our author."
256
SHAKESPEARE VINDICATED.
""
Here there is not the slightest necessity for change, and
Mr. Collier is wrong in his conception of what is meant by
bladed corn. Hear what a cotemporary of the poet, Bar-
naby Googe, says in his translation of Conrad Heresbach's
Husbandry, 1601, fol. 38, rev. "Varro saith the best time for
harvest is betwixt Sun-stay" [i. e. the summer solstice] “and
the Dogge-daies, for the corne, they say, doth lie in the blade
xv daies, flowreth xv daies, ripeth xv daies.
And again,
fol. 26, “upon the third or fourth joint thereof cometh out the
eare, which first appears inclosed in the blade, it flowreth the
fourth or fifth day after," which he subsequently says is about
the 10th of June; " bladed corn," therefore, is corn when the
ear is enclosed in the blade, or in other words is said to have
bolted; at which time it is particularly subject to be lodged by
storms, high winds, or heavy rain.
Florio in voce Biada defines it," any kinde of corne or
graine, any blade of corne;" and Ducange, citing an author
of the middle ages, says, "unde collegit blada esse fruges
immaturas neque adhuc demessas."
Mr. Collier may be assured that the word is not blead, but
bláed, or blade, that our ancestors used to signify any kind of
fruit; and that it had the broad sound in Anglo-Saxon is
evident from Caedmon :—
On tham brád bládo bealwa Į i. e. Thence began broad fruits of
gehwilces spritan ongunnon. every woe to spring.
} every woe to spring
The bleeding of corn, not bleading, for the yielding of it, is
common in the north; as "the aits dinnae bleed weel the
year, but the bere bleeds weel." This has nothing to do with
blead; for there is a popular phrase, he bleeds well, to de-
signate any one who parts with his money freely.
We may safely, therefore, adhere to the old text, and disre-
gard the attempt to introduce a less intelligible and erroneous
word. I must say that I think this piece of meddling smacks
of later times than the period in which Mr. Collier would
place his player-corrector.
The other two substitutions of o'er for "on," and stoop for
"slope," are equally unnecessary, and even mischievous. For
the castle to topple on the warder's head being more serious
than toppling over it. Slope is an original phrase; stoop a
hackneyed one.
MACBETH:
257
P. 413. The correction of head for "dead," was of course
adopted from Theobald. The change of "Rebellious" to Re-
bellions is judicious, and had been adopted by me some time
since. The passage may safely be read,—
Rebellion's head, rise never, till the wood
Of Birnam rise.
•
Ib. "When Macbeth is about to leave the cave of the
Witches, Lenox enters and informs him that Macduff has
escaped to England. Fled to England?' exclaims Macbeth
in astonishment; and he goes on to declare his resolution in
future to execute instantly whatever he determines, and first
of all to surprise Macduff's castle :
No boasting like a fool;
This deed I'll do, before this purpose cool:
But no more sights.
"Some commentators have supposed that no more sights'
refers to the visions he had just seen conjured up by the
Witches; but the corrector of the folio, 1632, gives the words
an entirely new aspect, completely borne out by the context,
which relates to the unexpected escape of Macduff:—
This deed I'll do, before this purpose cool:
But no more flights.
"That is, he will take care, by the rapidity with which per-
formance shall follow decision, that nobody shall again have
an opportunity of taking flight. The compositor mistook the
ƒ for a long s, and omitted to notice the l which followed it.”
This is a good correction, and is evidently supported by noti
what precedes. It had not escaped the corrector of my second
folio who has altered the ſi to fl, and inserted i above.
SCENE III.
is
P. 414. The substitution of open'd for "ripen'd,” iɛ inad-
missible; Mr. Collier himself sees that, "Malcolm represents
these particulars of vice in him as already at maturity."
Ib. The alteration of the word "convey" to enjoy in the
speech of Macduff to Malcolm :-
You may
Convey your pleasures in a spacious plenty,
And yet seem cold-
S
note
258
SHAKESPEARE VINDICATED.
is a very plausible correction of a probable misprint, by which
the sense is improved.
ACT V. SCENE II.
P. 415. There is certainly some reason from the context
to think "cause" should be changed to course, in what Caith-
ness says of Macbeth :-
But, for certain,
He cannot buckle his distempered cause
Within the belt of rule-
and as a correction of a probable misprint, which might easily
occur, it would be admissible.
SCENE III.
(
Ib. "In Coriolanus (p. 361) we have met with 'cheer'
misprinted chair; and here, if we may trust the emendation,
we have chair misprinted cheer.' Macbeth, distracted, be-
tween his guilt, his fear, and his confidence in preternatural
promises, when besieged in Dunsinane Castle, exclaims,―
6
This push
Will cheer me ever, or disseat me now.
I have liv'd long enough: my way of life
Is fall'n into the sear, &c.
"These lines we are advised to correct in the following man-
ner; and with regard to the first word amended, as we are to
take disseat' in the sense of unseat (the folio, 1632, mis-
prints it disease), there can be little objection to understanding
chair, as having reference to the royal seat or throne, which
Macbeth occupies, and from which he dreads removal:-
This push
Will chair me ever, or disseat me now.
I have liv'd long enough: my May of life
Is fall'n into the sear, &c.
"Chair was Bishop Percy's suggestion, and 'May of life' was
proposed by Johnson: both, we see, are confirmed by a much
anterior authority."
The first folio has,-
Will cheere me ever or dis-eate me now-
MACBETH.
259
The second folio reads:-
Will cheere me ever or disease me now.
In Macbeth's desponding state, the idea of being cheered is a
natural turn of agreeable anticipation, and therefore change
is unnecessary, but Percy's suggestion of chair for "cheer,"
however is another coincidence, as well as the adoption of
Johnson's proposition of "May of life" for "way of life,"
which was thought wrong by Gifford, who says, "Way of
life" has the same signification with the Latin 'cursus vitæ.
Yet it may be urged in favour of " May of life," that there is
an apt opposition between it and Autumn. Macbeth's course
of life had arrived at the commencement of its autumnal season,
and he laments, in a strain of great pathos and beauty, that it
is unaccompanied by those blessings which render old age sup-
portable. As his manhood was without virtue, so he has now
before him the certain prospect of an old age without honour.
P. 416. The substitution of grief for "stuff" in the ques-
tion of Macbeth to the Doctor:-
Canst thou not minister to a mind diseas'd,
Pluck from the memory a rooted sorrow,
Raze out the written troubles of the brain,
And with some sweet oblivious antidote
Cleanse the stuff'd bosom of that perilous stuff
Which weighs upon the heart?
has some appearance of probability, and has also a very re-
markable sympathy with Mr. Collier's note in his edition of
Shakespeare. The repetition stuff'd and stuff seems to indi-
cate a misprint. It has been observed that "when a word
is repeated without propriety in the same or two succeeding
lines, there is great reason to suspect some corruption." But
where no manifestly correct change has been suggested, we
must respect the text, and in such cases take the propriety of
the old reading for granted.
SCENE IV.
Ib. "Malcolm says of Macbeth's power and followers,-
For where there is advantage to be given,
Both more and less have given him the revolt.
260
SHAKESPEARE VINDICATED.
((
Advantage was hardly so much to be 'given,' as to be pro-
cured by revolt; and as it also seems unlikely that the same
verb should have been used in the very next line, we may feel
confident that when the old corrector puts it,—
For when there is advantage to be gotten,
“he was warranted in making the change."
This is most likely adopted from Steevens, who proposed to
read "where there is advantage to be got." In my edition of
Shakespeare I suggested that we might read, "where there is
advantage to be gain'd," and I find that Mr. Collier's friend
and adviser, the late Mr. Amyot, was of that opinion. "Where
there is advantage to be gone" has also been suggested. The
word gotten is to my ear very inharmonious.
P. 417. The substitution of farc'd for "forc'd" in the pas-
sage where Macbeth complains that his enemies are strength-
ened by those who ought to have been his friends, is almost
absurd; forc'd is used in the sense of reinforced. There is
nothing about their ranks being stuffed or filled out.
Ib. "Just afterwards, we encounter another alteration of
more moment, when Macbeth asks the meaning of the 'cry
of women' that he has heard within: he says,—
The time has been, my senses would have cool'd
To hear a night-shriek.
It
"The manuscript-correction here is quailed for 'cooled,' a much
more forcible word; but this is one of the places where it is
possible, that the person recommending the change may have
exercised his taste, rather than stated his knowledge.
scarcely seems likely that one word should have been mistaken
for the other, but this observation will, of course, apply to
many of the extraordinary errors that have been from time to
time pointed out.”
This has been probably suggested by Malone's notion that
we should read coil'd, of which Steevens has shown the ab-
surdity, and well defended the old reading. We must not
therefore indulge the correctors in the alteration of a per-
fectly intelligible text to gratify their capricious taste.
261
P. 418.
STE
HAMLET.
ACT I. Scene I.
SCENE
TEEVENS conjectured that instead of "'tis now struck
twelve" we should read "'tis new struck twelve," and the
correctors adopt his reading; this is another coincidence.
P. 419. The adoption of the reading of the quartos, lawless
for" landless," and morn instead of " day," may have been de-
rived from any of the editions that notice these variations; the
adoption was, of course, a matter of taste in the correctors.
SCENE II.
Ib. The substitution of night-like for "nighted" in the line,—
Good Hamlet cast thy nighted colour off—
is certainly no improvement, but as the folios have nightly, it
may have suggested it.
SCENE III.
P. 420. I cannot think with Mr. Collier that " bechill'd to
jelly with the act of fear," is a superior reading to that of the
quartos, distilled; but it is of course a mere matter of " taste,”
only the reading of the quartos is undoubted, and therefore to
be preferred to any conjecture.
Ib. The substitution of choice for "chief" in the lines of the
advice of Polonius to his son,-
And they in France, of the best rank and station,
Are of a most select and generous chief in that—
is adopted from the suggestion of Steevens; but he himself
reads,
Are most select and generous, chief in that-
which is, I think, to be preferred.
P. 421. Theobald's correction of "Sanctified and pious
262
SHAKESPEARE VINDICATED.
bawds," instead of the misprint bonds has never for a moment.
been doubted; and the correctors adopt it of course. The
change of" slander" to squander, in the passage of Polonius's
advice to Ophelia, is quite uncalled for, and most assuredly
erroneous :—
I would not, in plain terms, from this time forth,
Have you so slander any moment's leisure,
As to give words or talk with the lord Hamlet.
It is doubtful if Shakespeare would have used squander here,
indeed it is rarely used at all by him; but we have in Cymbe-
line a similar figurative use of slander. Cloten says of Imo-
gen,-
But
Disdaining me, and throwing favours on
The low Posthumus, slanders so her judgment, &c.
We must therefore adhere to the authentic old text, and reject
the innovation of the correctors.
The interpolation of so now in the line at the end, is of course
unwarranted intrusion on the text.
SCENE V.
P. 422. The adoption of Heath's reading "confined to last-
ing fires," instead of "fast in fires," is the expression of a pre-
ference for that reading, but nothing more except that it is
another coincidence.
Ib. "Regarding the subsequent lines, as invariably printed,
an advantageous proposal is made in the corrected folio,
1632:-
Thus was I, sleeping, by a brother's hand,
Of life, of crown, of queen, at once dispatch'd.
"Dispatch'd' cannot be right, and why should Shakespeare
employ a wrong word when another, that is unobjectionable,
at once presented itself, viz.-
((
Of life, of crown, of queen, at once despoil'd?
Misreading was, most likely, the cause of this blunder; the
HAMLET.
263
'
earliest quarto, 1603, has depriv'd for dispatch'd,' of the
other quartos and folios; but we may feel confident that the
poet's misprinted word was despoil'd. It is written upon an
erasure, and possibly the old corrector first inserted depriv'd,
and afterwards saw reason to change it to despoil'd, as the true
language of the poet."
This is another unnecessary interference with the old au-
thentic reading, and there is not much probability that dis-
patch'd could have been misprinted for despoil'd. The reading
of the quartos deprived is however perhaps to be preferred as
being of more undoubted authority. There is not the slightest
reason to "feel confident that the poet's word was despoil'd."
ACT II. SCENE II.
P. 423. The correction of the misprint news for fruit, the
reading of the quartos, having been made in all editions, has
consequently been adopted from one of them; it is mere as-
sumption that the correctors had all the quartos at their com-
mand, unless we are to suppose they lived in our times, which
is most probably the case.
Ib. The same remark applies to the correction of “mean”
to read, which, however, was obvious without recourse to any
copy.
Ib. Pope's correction of salt for "sallets" is properly adopted
from him or one of the successive editors.
P. 424. The interference with the text in altering "passion
to passionate in the lines,—
Would have made milch the burning eye of heaven,
And passion in the gods-
>>
is entirely supererogatory. To have made "passion in the gods"
would have been to move them to compassion. So in Titus
Andronicus, Act iii. Scene 2:-
Alas! the tender boy, in passion mov’d,
Doth weep to see his grandsire's heaviness.
264
SHAKESPEARE VINDICATED.
Ib. To substitute transgression for "oppression" is not to
improve the language of the poet. We should probably read,—
To make aggression bitter—
aggression might easily be mistaken for oppression. Aggres-
sion is defined in the old dictionaries " a setting upon, or en-
trance into an assault."
ACT III. SCENE I.
Ib. To change "beck" for back would be an undoubtedly
injurious change. The very context "than I have thoughts to
put them in" indicates that “ more offences at my beck" must
bear the construction Steevens gives to it "always ready to
come about me.”
P. 425. Theobald had long since proposed to read "so you
must take your husbands," and the correctors probably fol-
lowed his suggestion or the mention of it; but there is no valid
reason for departing from the reading of all the old copies,
"so you mistake your husbands," i. e. you do amiss for your-
selves to take husbands for the worse.
Ib. The correctors show a remarkable sympathy with Mr.
Collier's suggestion to read "raised shoes" instead of "rac'd"
or "raz'd." Steevens had the merit of first proposing this
reading, which is most probably the true one.
SCENE III.
P. 426. As Mr. Collier, on more mature consideration,
abandons the meddling substitution of purse for "prize" in the
passage of the king's soliloquy :-
Offence's gilded hand may shove by justice,
And oft 'tis seen the wicked prize itself
Buys out the law.
what becomes of the "authority" of the correctors here?
SCENE IV.
Ib. The correctors with their usual tact at coincidence, have
HAMLET.
265
followed even Mr. Hunter's reading of "I'll sconce me e'en
here," instead of "I'll silence me e'en here;" Mr. Collier
himself reads silence, and did not even dream of its requiring
explanation. In the exposition of sconce he follows Mr.
Hunter.
P. 427. I must confess that I cannot see the advantage that
stoop would have over the old reading "step" in the following
passage in Hamlet's remonstrance with his mother:—
For at your age
The hey-day of the blood is tame, it's humble
And waits upon the judgment; and what judgment
Would step from this to this.
and why should the old text, which is most likely the language
of the poet, be considered "feeble and inexpressive?"
Ib. The determination to improve upon the language of the
poet is so evident at every step, that we are not surprised to find
a change proposed where the reading is undoubted and the
alteration a detriment; such is the substitution of fume for
"time," in the following passage of Hamlet's address to the
Ghost:-
Do you not come your tardy son to chide,
That, laps'd in time and passion, lets go by
The important acting of your dread command?
Mr. Collier himself is obliged to confess that "the old reading
may be right," and interference with it therefore impertinent.
ACT IV. SCENE III.
P. 427. To do Mr. Collier justice I must here give the
whole of the argument.
"The emendation next to be noticed is well worthy of con-
sideration, and perhaps of adoption. The King asks Hamlet
where Polonius is at supper, and the answer is this in the
quartos:-
Not where he eats, but where he is eaten a certain convocation of
politic worms are e'en at him. Your worm is your only emperor for
diet, &c.
266
SHAKESPEARE VINDICATED.
"The folios omit 'politic,' probably unintentionally, but pos-
sibly because it was not clearly understood why the worms.
should be called 'politic.' The old corrector of the folio, 1632,
leads us to suppose that 'politic' was misprinted, or miswrit-
ten, for an epithet, certainly more applicable in the place where
it occurs, in reference to the taste of the worms for the rich
repast they were enjoying:
A certain convocation of palated worms are e'en at him. Your worm
is your only emperor for diet: we fat all creatures else to fat us, and we
fat ourselves for maggots.
"It is easy to suppose that 'politic,' a word with which
the scribe was familiar, was misheard by him for the unusual
word palated. Shakespeare employs to palate as a verb in
'Coriolanus,' Act iii. Scene 1, and in 'Antony and Cleopatra,'
Act v. Scene 2; and it is doing no great violence to imagine
that he here uses the participle of the same verb. If the text
had always stood ‘palated worms,' and it had been proposed to
change it to 'politic worms,' few readers would for an instant
have consented to relinquish an expression so peculiarly
Shakespearian.'
""
An expression so truly Shakespearian!! Had this been ap-
plied to the old genuine language of the poet it would have
been appropriate, but what possible meaning would Mr. Col-
lier give to the absurd substitution of palated? The old defi-
nition of politique is cunning, crafty; and what could be
more to the purpose or more effective. Nothing but an over
busy desire to find faults in what they had not the capacity to
understand, could have induced the correctors to vitiate the
text on this and other similar occasions. They were evidently
innocent of the reference of Hamlet's phrase to the political
Diets of the Empire, convoked by the Emperor at Worms;
but had they lived near the time of Shakespeare, it would have
been strange if they had missed the allusion to a matter so
notorious from its connection with the history of Protest-
antism.
SCENE V.
P. 428. The petty meddling with Ophelia's fragments of
ballads are none of them required, or apparent improvements.
HAMLET.
267
P. 429. The correction of the obvious and absurd misprint
of by for "lay," as it had been made in all editions, required
no notice, but to swell the list of the doings of the correctors.
ACT V. SCENE I.
P. 430. The interpolation of the second I'll do't in Hamlet's
speech is as unnecessary as unwarranted; and the transfer of
the two lines from the Queen to the King interferes with the
consecutive consistency of the whole speech, which is rightly
given to the Queen.
SCENE II.
P. 431. Of the correction of the three misprints here men-
tioned Mr. Collier himself has observed, "such errors detect
themselves." They had been set right in all editions.
Ib. The gratuitous addition of my son to the Queen's speech
have been a license allowable on the part of a player, but
we have no right to make such additions to the text.
may
P. 432. The interpolation to make a rhyming couplet of the
pathetic ejaculation of Horatio,—
is in
Now cracks a noble heart.-Good night, sweet prince,
And flights of angels sing thee to thy rest.
very
bad taste, but the correctors are inveterate lovers of
rhyme, and attend but little to reason.
Ib. The adoption of the corrected readings of the quartos,
as represented in all editions of recent times, was of course
to be expected in a volume which seems to have been carefully
compared with them, and might have been passed over with-
out notice.
P. 433. The substitution of scene for "same" is quite un-
necessary, but may be a fancy of one of the correctors, who
has been connected with the stage. When Horatio says,-
But let this same be presently performed,
he alludes to what he has just before requested Fortinbras to
do, i. e.-
208
SHAKESPEARE VINDICATED.
Give order that these bodies
High on a stage be placed to public view;
And let me speak, to the yet unknowing world
How these things come about.
It seems to me that a passage in the dialogue between Ham-
let and Horatio, at the commencement of this scene, which
has baffled the commentators, contains a misprint, and that
its correction would make it much more intelligible. It is
where Hamlet is describing the commission he wrote, and sub-
stituted for that in which the King had requested the King of
England to put him to death:-
Hum.
Hor.
Wilt thou know
The effect of what I wrote?
Ay, good my lord.
Ham. An earnest conjuration from the king,—
As England was his faithful tributary;
As love between them like the palm might flourish ;
As peace should still her wheaten garland wear,
And stand a comma 'tween their amities; &c.
66
Warburton suggested "stand a commére;" Hanmer, "stand
a cement;" others, "a column," and "stand commercing."
Well might some one say, none of these words please me,
yet I would rather it should be 'stand an elephant' than a
comma." It is evident that Peace is personified, and if we
read "stand a co-mere 'tween their amities," it would be that
Peace might stand as a mark or evidence between them. A
co-mere would be a joint landmark, the Lapis Terminalis of the
ancients; and it should be remembered that the God of meres
or bounds, Terminus, was wont to end the strifes and contro-
versies of people in dividing their lands. Shakespeare has the
mered question in Antony and Cleopatra, and Co-mart in this
play as well as Co-mates in As You Like It. The words stand
and 'tween show that a word with the meaning of co-mere is
requisite.
269
P. 434.
T
KING LEAR.
ACT I. SCENE I.
HE alteration of the misprint "professes" to possesses,
which is peculiar to the folios, had long since been made
in Regan's answer to her father,-
Myself an enemy to all other joys
I profess
That the most precious square of sense possesses.
In regard to the other correction of "square" to sphere, the
correctors have only half done their work, having left the word
precious" untouched. The passage should be read thus:-
"6
Myself an enemy to all other joys
I profess
That the most spacious sphere of sense possesses.
Mr. Collier does not attempt in his exposition to take this
erroneous word into the account.
P. 435. The addition of the necessary words from the quar-
tos had of course been made in all editions, and did not require
notice. The alteration of the line on account of the omission
of the word great in the second folio,—
As my great patron thought on in my prayers,
is mischievous and unwarranted, but I find the same liberty
taken by some player or prompter in my third folio. The
reading of the first folio is indubitable.
Ib. The substitution of seventh for "tenth" unnecessarily
can only be considered as an arbitrary innovation to suit the
fancy of the corrector; as for "authority" it is out of the
question.
P. 436. The substitution of nor other for "murther" as it
Noti
270
SHAKESPEARE VINDICATED.
stands in the folios is a good conjecture on a probable misprint;
but there is not the slightest necessity to change "step" to
stoop, any more than there was in the passage of Hamlet to
which Mr. Collier refers to confirm this innovation.
SCENE IV.
P. 436. The liberties taken with the fool's ballad are unwar-
rantable, and only show that the conceited correctors thought
they were better hands at a ballad than Shakespeare. As I
have said before, to plead authority for such license is out of
the question.
ACT II. SCENE I.
P. 437. In the disputed passage where, after hearing of the
flight of Edgar, when he is supposed to have wounded Ed-
mund for not entering into the conspiracy to murder their
father, Gloster says, according to the old copies :—
Let him fly farre :
Not in this Land shall he remaine uncaught
And found; dispatch, the Noble Duke my Master,
My worthy Arch and Patron comes to night, &c.
The correctors following Warburton would read:-
Let him fly far:
Not in this land shall he remain uncaught
And found, dispatch'd. The noble duke my master,
My worth arch and patron comes to night, &c.
Thus countenancing a nearly similar reading adopted by Mr.
Collier himself; who was perhaps not aware that Warburton
long since had this reading! I some time since proposed to
read:
Let him fly far:
Not in this land shall he remain uncaught,
Unfound.
*
-Dispatch.-The noble duke my master,
comes to-night.
But I now incline to adopt the old reading, merely making a
KING LEAR.
271
broken sentence of, “And found—-” to mark the indignant
passion of Gloster.
Ib. Three instances of interpolation or omission are here
noticed; mere impertinent interference with the text, which the
correctors think may be altered any way to suit their caprice.
The same caprice may have dictated the substitution of Fins-
bury Pinfold for Lipsbury Pinfold.
P. 439. We have here again more interpolation to augment
the number of the fool's rhyming verses, and two words quite
erroneously transposed. Mr. Collier may be assured that the
words knave and fool are in their right places in the old text,
and that his exposition is wrong.
SCENE IV.
Ib. The substitution of mouth for "house," in Lear's reply
to Regan, would be a change for the worse:—
Ask her forgiveness!
Do you mark how this becomes the house?
By the house a father is meant, who is not only the head of a
house or family, but its representative. And what possible
resemblance have the words house and mouth? So that a
misprint is out of the question. But we have evidence that
it was a familiar expression for the order of families, the
duties of relation; as in Painter's Palace of Pleasure: "The
gentleman's wife one day could not refraine (beholding a
stagges head set up in the gentleman's house) from breaking
into a laughter before his face, saying how that head became
the house very well." See other examples in the Variorum
Shakespeare.
P. 440. Tender hearted for "tender-hefted" is another co-
incidence with Mr. Collier's own suggestion in his edition of
Shakespeare; which I am enabled to support by the same cor-
rection being made in my second folio.
272
SHAKESPEARE VINDICATED.
P. 440. The substitution of howl for owl, in Lear's exclama-
tion,
Return to her? and fifty men dismiss'd?
No, rather I abjure all roofs, and chuse
To wage against the enmity o' the air;
To be a comrade with the wolf and owl.—
Necessity's sharp pínch!
may be a matter of " taste" with the correctors, in which they
are pleased to indulge; but as all the old copies read "Owl,"
and it appears in the folios with a capital letter, there is no
probability of any mistake; and therefore innovation of this
kind is merely a conceited attempt at improving the language
of the poet, of which we have had abundant examples.
ACT III. SCENE I.
Ib. The change of "speculations" to spectators, does not
do much credit to the correctors. There can be no doubt that
it should be speculators, as I find it corrected in my second
folio; and Mr. Collier, in a supplemental note, has seen that
this is most probably the true word.
!
ACT IV. SCENE I.
P. 441. The correction of " and known" to unknown had
long since been suggested by Johnson; I some time since
advocated it, but should now hesitate to adopt it, and think
Sir Joshua Reynolds took a true view of the old reading,
which requires no change. But no opportunity for a suggestion
of change escapes the correctors.
P. 442. In the passage where the blind Gloster says:-
I have no way, and therefore want no eyes;
I stumbled when I saw. Full oft 'tis seen
Our means secure us; and our mere defects
Prove our commodities.
""
but
It is
the correctors would substitute "Our wants secure us;
"wants" could not have been mistaken for "means."
most probable that the true reading is, " Our needs secure us.'
needs might easily be mistaken for means, in recitation.
KING LEAR.
273
Ib. "Gloster, giving his purse to Edgar, whom he still
supposes a lunatic beggar, says,—
Heavens, deal so still!
Let the superfluous, and lust-dieted man,
That slaves your ordinance, that will not see, &c.
(
that
"Discussion has been produced by the expression,
slaves your ordinance:' Johnson understood it to mean, that
slights or ridicules it, and Steevens, that makes a slave of it;
while Malone, because he could suggest nothing, was in
favour of adhering to the quartos-' that stands your ordi-
nance.' The setting right of a trifling typographical error
clears the sense of the whole :-
Heavens, deal so still!
Let the superfluous and lust-dieted man,
That braves your ordinance, that will not see,
Because he doth not feel, feel your power quickly.
"He braves the ordinance of heaven by his luxury, selfishness,
and want of charity. This emendation can want no support."
This is "of course" adopted from Warburton, who says
slaves “will not do here. Gloster is speaking of such who, by
an uninterrupted course of prosperity, are grown wanton, and
callous to the misfortunes of others; such as those who, fear-
ing no reverse, slight and neglect, and therefore may be said.
to brave the ordinance of heaven; which is certainly the right
reading." Mr. Collier should not have passed over Warbur-
ton, when he mentioned the suggestions of Johnson and
Steevens, as it may tend to raise a suspicion of unfair con-
cealment in favour of his correctors.
SCENE IV.
P. 443. The substitution of the true reading of the quartos,
"distress" for the misprint of the folios desires, has been
made in all editions, and from some one of them the correctors
most probably adopted it.
SCENE VI.
Ib. "Lear having entered dressed with straws and flowers,
according to the manuscript stage-direction (for no printed
T
274
SHAKESPEARE VINDICATED.
note of the kind is found, even where it is most wanted),
inveighs against lust and hypocrisy :·
Behold yond' simpering dame,
Whose face between her forks presageth snow;
Who minces virtue, and does shake the head
To hear of pleasure's name.
"Malone says that' who minces virtue' means 'whose virtue
consists in appearance;' but that is the meaning of the poet,
rather than of the words imputed to him; for it does not fol-
low that 'a lady who walks mincingly along,' as Malone has
it, means thereby to affect virtue. Minces,' in truth, is a
lapse by the printer for mimics-a dame that mimics virtue;"
that is, who puts on the externals of modesty :-
6
Who mimics virtue, and does shake the head
To hear of pleasure's name.
"Unless it can be shown that 'minces' means the same as
mimics, this emendation must surely hereafter form part of the
text of Shakespeare."
There is not the slightest necessity to change the language
of the text, which is assuredly that of the poet. Minces,
i. e. puts on an outward seeming of virtue. Thus Cotgrave,
in v. 66
Mineux-se, outward seeming, also squeamish, coy, that
minces it exceedingly." To mimic is a much less appropriate
expression.
""
P. 444. There is not the slightest degree of probability in
the conjecture of the correctors that we should read ""Tis a
good plot," in Lear's incoherent, wandering preachment. Mr.
Collier represents the commentators as "puzzled" to explain
why Lear starts away with the words "This a good block.'
This is hardly just, for Steevens has certainly given a very in-
genious and probable explanation of it. And while so good
and well supported an interpretation can be offered of the old
authentic text, according to Mr. Collier's own axiom, "we have
no right to alter it." I hold the "authority" of his correctors
cheap in comparison with that of the old copies, which all agree
in the established reading.
KING LEAR.
275
Ib. "After reading Goneril's letter to Edmund, Edgar
exclaims, as the words have always been printed after the
folios,—
O, undistinguish'd space of woman's will!
A plot upon her virtuous husband's life;
And the exchange my brother!
"Editors have speculated differently as to the meaning of the
first line; but they reasoned upon false premises, since it does.
not by any means represent the poet's language, if we may
put faith in the alteration introduced in the folio, 1632, or if
we may trust to common sense. Edgar is struck by the un-
controllable licentiousness of the desires of woman :-
(
O, unextinguished blaze of woman's will!
"Blaze' is to be taken for fire, and 'will' for disposition;
and the scribe misheard, or miswrote, unextinguish'd blaze
as undistinguish'd space,' making nonsense of a passage
which, properly printed, is as striking as intelligible. Ma-
lone's explanation was particularly unfortunate, viz. that there
was no distinguishable space between the likings and loath-
ings of women: the meaning clearly is, 'Oh, the blaze of wo-
man's licentiousness, which can never be extinguished!''
What can possibly be the meaning of "unextinguished blaze
of woman's will"? Surely not what Mr. Collier attaches to
it? Could this have been derived from better authority than
we possess? The quartos read: "O undistinguisht space of
woman's wit." The folios have all the singular misprint of
indinguish'd, and will instead of wit; and as evidently this
must have been very careless work on the part of the compo-
sitor, we may therefore presume that space is also a corrup-
tion. Without changing many letters in the first word we may
read undisguised, and by only a transposition of the letters of
space, substituting o for a, we get scope; this will afford us a
very good reading, possibly what was intended by the poet.
From what precedes it is evident that Edgar apostrophizes
the letter after having read it, and exclaims,
O, undisguised scope of woman's will!
If we were to adopt the reading wit from the quartos, we
might read:-
O, undisguised scape of woman's wit!
276
SHAKESPEARE VINDICATED.
and the following passage from Donne will illustrate it.
scape was a wile or trick :-
Having purpos'd falsehood, you
Can have no way but falsehood to be true;
Vain lunatick! against these scapes I could
Dispute, and conquer if I would.
These are offered merely as conjectures.
SCENE VII.
P. 445. "Cordelia urges Kent to put off his humble dis-
guise, but he answers,-
Pardon me, dear madam;
Yet to be known shortens my made intent.
<
"For 'made intent,' Warburton would substitute laid intent;'
but Johnson contends that made intent' is only another
word for formed intent. Both were wrong: 'main intent'
was miswritten made intent,' and hence the doubt. Kent
refers to the chief purpose for which he had disguised himself,
which would be anticipated and defeated, if he were too soon.
known:
Yet to be known shortens my main intent."
There is no necessity for change; Johnson is right, for, as
he observes, we still say to make a design, and to make a reso-
lution. Made and main have little typographical resemblance.
Ib. The insertion of good after " make," and the omission of
it is a very doubtful change, but as the quartos afford the un-
equivocal reading "prove," we may conclude that to make was
used in the folios as an equivalent expression, to avoid the re-
petition of prove in the line:-
If none appear to prove it on thy person.
Ib. The substitution of skill for “place" without the slightest
reason or necessity is another impertinent attempt to improve
upon the language of the poet.
P. 446. "When Lear enters, bearing the dead Cordelia, he
asks for a looking-glass :—
KING LEAR.
277
Lend me a looking-glass;
If that her breath will mist or stain the stone,
Why then she lives.
"The looking-glass was not 'stone,' and a manuscript-cor-
rection substitutes shine, as having been misprinted 'stone:'-
If that her breath will mist or stain the shine;
"i. e. the polish of the looking-glass. 'Stain' and 'stone'
read awkwardly in juxta-position, and the error might easily
be committed. Of old, mirrors were made of steel, and Gas-
coigne wrote a well-known satire called by the contradictory
title of 'The Steel-glass :' hence it would not have surprised
us if the poet's word had been steel for 'stone.""
Both the correctors' shine and Mr. Collier's suggested steel
would be absurd readings. Stone may surely have been used
in the same metaphorical manner that we now term glass
chrystal? The word however was most probably same,-
Lend me a looking-glass;
If that her breath will mist or stain the same,
Why then she lives.
Ib. The substitution of light for sight is another piece of
pragmatic interference with the undoubted language of the
poet; which needs no improvement. Dull is the appropriate
epithet to sight and not to light. Thus Huloet "To waxe dulle
of sight, Hebetesco;" and Baret, "Dulle eie-sight, Hebes,
acies oculorum." Add to this that Lear has just before,
"Who are you? Mine eyes are none of the best." How Mr.
Collier can countenance and advocate such mischievous at-
tempts to disturb the true text of the poet, I am at a loss to
conceive.
278
SHAKESPEARE VINDICATED.
P. 448.
TH
OTHELLO,
ACT I. SCENE I.
HE first "striking emendation" in this tragedy, the sub-
stitution of" learn'd in forms and usages of duty" instead
of "trimm'd in forms and visages of duty," Mr. Collier very
wisely deems "unsafe to be received into the text," and there-
fore he does not here urge that it was derived from some "au-
thority" unavailable to us. He may be assured that its adop-
tion would be ruinous to the sense, and for the credit of his
correctors it would have been as well to have suppressed it.
Ib. "We should feel no hesitation in altering' timorous' to
clamorous in the following passage, where Iago tells Roderigo
to awake and alarm Brabantio :-
Do; with like timorous accent, and dire yell,
As when by night and negligence, the fire
Is spied in populous cities.
“Here ‘timorous,' even taking it as frightened, seems quite
out of place, when coupled with 'dire yell;' and we may,
therefore, fairly conclude that the poet wrote, as the old correc-
tor states,-
Do; with like clamorous accent, and dire yell," &c.
Is Mr. Collier to be told that the old synonym of timorous
is not "frightened" but feareful, and that Shakespeare always
uses it in that sense? We have it in the Dictionaries of the
poet's time," Timerous, feareful, Meticulosus, Horridus, For-
midolosus." Meddling here would therefore be mischievous.
P. 449. "Roderigo informs Brabantio that his daughter
had 'made a gross revolt,'-
Tying her duty, beauty, wit, and fortunes
In an extravagant and wheeling stranger.
“Here the commentators have notes upon 'extravagant,' but
pass overwheeling' without explanation, although very un-
OTHELLO.
279
intelligible where it stands: a manuscript-correction in the
folio, 1632, shows that it is a misprint for a most applicable
epithet; and other emendations are proposed, such as Laying
for 'Tying,' and on for 'in,' which render the meaning much
more obvious than in the ordinary reading :-
Laying her duty, beauty, wit, and fortunes
On an extravagant and wheedling stranger.
"Pope, adopting 'Tying,' follows it in the next line by the
preposition to instead of 'in;' neither Laying nor on are by
any means absolutely necessary, but wheedling for' wheeling'
is an important improvement of the text, and shows that the
word was of older employment in our language than some
lexicographers have supposed. Nothing can be more natural
than that Roderigo should call Othello a 'wheedling stranger,'
who had insinuated himself into the good graces of both father
and daughter."
Even could Mr. Collier adduce an instance of the use of
this word wheedling before the reign of Charles II. it would
be difficult to persuade us to displace the reading of the old
copies; for connected as it is with the word extravagant, i. e.
wandering, wheeling is no doubt used in the sense of the Ita-
lian “Girevole,” which had also a secondary meaning of in-
constant, unsteady. Iago afterwards designates him as "an
erring [i. e. wandering] Barbarian." That this word should
have been suggested makes it certain that the corrector in
this instance lived not earlier than the last century.
Ib. Surely the mention of the rectification of the press er-
ror apines for "paines," so long since set right, was entirely
superfluous.
SCENE III.
P. 450. The substitution of with the same for "where they
aim," is a stupid misapprehension of the passage,-
As in those cases, where they aim reports,
"Tis oft with difference.
i. e. in those cases where reports are made from guess or con-
jecture. Thus in Hamlet, Act iv. Sc. v.-
280
SHAKESPEARE VINDICATED.
they aim at it,
And botch the words up to fit their own thoughts,
as the correctors have done here!
P. 450. To substitute evidence for "wider" and omit “more”
is another instance of the slashing liberties these correctors in-
dulge in; but the reading of the quarto, now the received text,
is quite satisfactory:
To vouch this is no proof,
Without more certain and more overt test;
These are thin habits, and poor likelihoods
Of modern seeming, you prefer against him.
P. 451. Mr. Collier says, "We subjoin the representation of
the text as made by the corrector of the folio, 1632:-
I therefore beg it not,
To please the palate of my appetite,
Nor to comply wi' the young effects of heat,
(In me defunct) and proper satisfaction,
But to be free and bounteous to her mind :
And heaven defend your counsels, that you think
I will your serious and great business scant,
When she is with me. No; when light-wing'd toys
Of feather'd Cupid foil with wanton dullness
My speculative and offic'd instruments, &c.
"In the third line it seems that 'heat' got transposed, while
of was omitted; in the fourth line, me was misprinted 'my;
and in the sixth line, counsels became 'good souls,' terms
Othello would hardly apply to the Duke and Senators of Venice.
Foil, in the ninth line, agrees with the quartos, where instru-
ments is also in the plural. These changes appear to be so
effectual, as far as regards the plain sense of the passage, that
all that some commentators have said in favour of disjunct,
instead of defunct' (the word in every old edition), is thrown
away: Othello did not ask for the company of his wife for his
own proper satisfaction, or to comply with the young effects
of heat, in him defunct at the age at which he had arrived;
and he therefore undertook that no amorous trifling should
induce him to neglect the great duties entrusted to him."
(
In his edition of Shakespeare Mr. Collier adheres to the
OTHELLO.
281
reading of the old copies, and says, "It seems to us that no-
thing can be clearer, allowing only a little latitude of expres-
sion. Othello refers to his age, elsewhere several times alluded
to, and 'in my defunct and proper satisfaction' is merely 'in
my own dead satisfaction' or gratification, the youthful pas-
sions or 'young affects' being comparatively' defunct' in him.
For the sense, though not for the harmony of the verse, it
ought to have run for my proper and defunct satisfaction,'
and had it so run, we doubt if so much ink would have been
spilt and wasted upon it."
(
I am at a loss to determine whether the sweeping alterations
of the correctors, or the lucid exposition of the old text given
by Mr. Collier has the advantage in point of absurdity. We
may say with Warburton, "What a preposterous creature is
this Othello made, to fall in love with and marry a fine young
lady, when appetite and heat and proper satisfaction are dead
and defunct in him!" The passage will possibly never be so
corrected as to satisfy every one, but the most probable reading
and one that adheres pretty closely to the old text is a slight
modification of that given by Malone :-
I therefore beg it not,
To please the palate of my appetite;
Nor to comply with heat i' the young affects,
In my disjunct and proper satisfaction,
But to be free and bounteous to her mind: &c.
The variations from the old text here are only the inser-
tion of ", and the substitution of disjunct for defunct, words
easily mistaken for each other. The meaning will then
be," I ask it not to please my appetite, nor to comply with
the vehemence of my young affections, to my own separate
and peculiar satisfaction, but to be liberal and compliant to
her wish."
P. 452. That the old reading, "super-subtle," is right, and
the corrector super-supple wrong, there can be no doubt from
the context. "If sanctimony and a frail vow between an
erring barbarian and a super subtle Venetian be not too hard
for my wits, and all the tribe of hell, thou shalt enjoy her."
Being super supple would make the task easy, being super
282
SHAKESPEARE VINDICATED.
subtle might make it somewhat hard. The meddling here is
of a piece with the rest.
ACT II. SCENE I.
P. 452. The substitution of censurer for "counsellor" has
some show of plausibility, and we have a hint of the same
kind in Johnson's note. "Counsellor seems to mean not so
much a man that gives counsel as one that discourses fearlessly
and volubly."
P. 453. The correctors were right in adopting Warburton's
reading, brach for "trash;" but wrong in following Malone's
erroneous alteration of "trace" to trash. Mr. Collier, in his
note on the passage in his edition of Shakespeare, mistakes
entirely the meaning of trace; which he says "seems used to
indicate some species of confinement (like a trace applied to
horses), in order to keep back a dog which was too quick in
hunting!' The fact is, that the word means just the con-
trary. To trace is the appropriate hunting term for to follow;
the old French tracer, tracher, trasser, and the Italian trac-
ciare, have the same meaning. Thus Florio, "Tracciare to
trace, to track, to follow by the footing." Iago did not want
to keep Roderigo back; and he says of himself, " I do follow
here in the chase, not like a hound that hunts, but one that
fills up the cry."
the cry." I read the
I read the passage:
Which thing to do,
If this poor brach of Venice whom I trace
For his quick hunting, stand the putting on, &c.
SCENE III.
Ib. Nothing can be more improbable that the word elfs,
which the correctors would substitute for the misprint of else
for lads in the folios; notwithstanding Mr. Collier's conviction
that Shakespeare wrote elfes!
P. 454. “We have several times seen words which begin
with q printed with c: thus in Henry VIII. we have had chine for
'queen,' and in Macbeth cooled for quailed.' Here we meet
OTHELLO.
283
with a repetition of the same strange mistake, in regard to a word
that has been the source of considerable discussion in the line,-
And passion having my best judgment collied.
"The quarto has cooled for 'collied;' and various explanations
of 'collied' have been given, but we are not required to state
them, in as much as collied' was, probably, not the poet's
word:-
'
And passion, having my best judgment quelled,
"is the substitution of the folio, 1632; and Malone says that
some 'modern editor,' whom he does not otherwise distinguish,
had proposed quelled: Othello's judgment was quelled, or sub-
dued, by his passion. There can hardly be a doubt that this
is a proper restoration."
To quell is never used by Shakespeare in any other sense
than that of killing or exterminating. I pity the man who
could for a moment think of displacing the effective, and now
consecrated, word collied. Its obvious meaning is darkened,
obfuscated; and a more appropriate and expressive word could
not have been used.
ACT III. SCENE III.
P. 455. “In the parenthesis in Desdemona's appeal to
Othello on behalf of Cassio,-
(Save that, they say, the wars must make examples
Out of her best),
“the word 'her' is altered naturally, but by no means neces-
sarily, to 'Out of our best.' All this part of the play is so well
printed in the folios, that few corrections, excepting of punc-
tuation, are introduced in the margin. It ought not to escape
notice, however, that mock, of all the early impressions, is
converted into make' in the disputed line (p. 564),-
It is the green-ey'd monster, which doth make
The meat it feeds on;
"while the conclusion of the same speech is thus given :
Who dotes, yet doubts; suspects, yet fondly loves.
284
SHAKESPEARE VINDICATED.
<
"It is strongly loves' in the quartos, and 'soundly loves' in
the folios; but the old corrector changed soundly to fondly,'
and we are disposed to conclude that such was the received
text in his time."
For "her best" read "the best." Make for "mock" is
adopted from Warburton, or some more recent edition, as it is
now the common reading. Fondly for the misprint " soundly,"
of the folios, is undoubtedly the true reading, although Mr.
Collier adopted the reading of the quartos, with a note in which
the reading fondly, adopted by some modern editors, is noticed:
soundly is altered to fondly in my corrected second folio.
P. 455. The alteration of "position" to suspicion, in the pas-
sage,-
But pardon me; I do not in position
Distinctly speak of her.
Mr. Collier says, 66
seems questionable," and therefore we
may be sure it is erroneous.
P. 456. The reading of the quartos:-
If she be false, O! then heaven mocks itself.
is much better than that substituted by the correctors,-
If she be false, O! heaven doth mock itself.
The correction of the obvious misprint "sent" for sense, and
the omission of the superfluous words "fed well," has been
made in all editions for ages.
P. 457. The substitution of knows for "keeps," in the
line,-
Ne'er keeps retiring ebb, but keeps due on,
is inadmissible, as we have the authority of the quarto, 1630,
to read ne'er feels, which was also Pope's correction, and
Mr. Collier formerly considered it a happy one, although knows
was found substituted by him in Southerne's copy of the fourth
folio.
SCENE IV.
Ib. To change "sullen rheum" to sudden rheum is no im-
OTHELLO.
285
provement upon the undoubted reading of the quarto, but
Mr. Collier would support it by a similar attempt at corrup-
tion by the correctors in King John. See p. 82 ante.
Ib. "Cassio entreats Desdemona, if she cannot remove
Othello's displeasure, to let him know the result, in order that
he may at once adopt some other method of life :
So shall I clothe me in a forc'd content,
And shut myself up in some other course
To fortune's alms.
"This is as the passage has always appeared, but we are
directed in the margin of the folio, 1632, to correct the two
following lapses by the printer:-
So shall I clothe me in a forc'd content,
And shift myself upon some other course
To fortune's alms.
6
"Cassio was not to 'shut himself up in,' but to shift himself
upon some other course' to obtain the favours of fortune,
perhaps, by changing his profession."
The first line would show that this meddling alteration is
wrong, and that the old reading is unquestionable; but the
correctors are always upon the alert to improve upon the
poet. Here they are, however, only sympathizing with Mr.
Collier, who, in a note on the passage, says, " Possibly there
is some corruption, and that we ought to read,-
And set myself upon some other course
To fortune's alms."
ACT IV. SCENE I.
P. 458. "Just before Othello falls in a trance, as the old
copies describe it, he exclaims, I tremble at it. Nature
would not invest herself in such shadowing passion, without
some instruction. It is not words that shake me thus.' He
means, of course, that his own conviction of the fact of Des-
demona's guilt, not Iago's promptings, produced such a trem-
bling and shaking effect upon him. Warburton has a note in
favour of reading induction for 'instruction;' and Johnson
286
SHAKESPEARE VINDICATED.
(
(
calls a speculation respecting the induction of the moon before
the sun, so as to overshadow it, a noble conjecture.' It
appears, however, that shadowing' (often of old spelt shad-
dowing) is a misprint for shuddering, which is entirely consis-
tent with what precedes, as well as with what follows about
trembling and shaking; the old corrector alters the passage in
the following manner:—
I tremble at it. Nature would not invest herself in such shuddering
passion, without some instruction. It is not words that shake me thus,
&c.
"Shadowing passion' seems to have no meaning, but that
fancifully suggested by Warburton, where he supposes Othello,
in the height of his grief and fury, to illustrate his own con-
dition by reference to an eclipse. It was the mistake of an
epithet, very naturally applied to 'passion,' that forced the
commentator upon this speculation."
This is interference from an entire misconception of the
passage on the part of the correctors, as well as their expositor,
who, if he had read the very sensible and satisfactory note on
the passage by Sir Joshua Reynolds, would at once have seen
that Othello adverts to the story told him about Cassio's
dream, and he says, "Nature would not express such adum-
brations of passion without some former experience." This is
confirmed by the words in a former scene,-
Iago.
Nay, this was but his dream.
Oth. But this denoted a foregone conclusion.
For Sir Joshua Reynolds justly observes, "Othello, in bro-
ken sentences and single words, all of which have a refer-
ence to the cause of his jealousy, shows that all the proofs are
present at once to his mind, which so overpower it that he falls
into a trance."
P. 459. There was no great merit in making the correction
of the misprint of the folios" conserve" for conster, or construe,
of the quarto, in which any of the more recent editions may
have been followed; and to change the evident and undoubted
"Roman" to o'er me, is to alter the language of the poet; for
as Johnson observes, the word " triumph" naturally brought
OTHELLO.
287
Mr.
Roman into the mind, and the word is used ironically.
Collier may well say "it might require considerable courage
to insert in the text of our great poet so peculiar an emenda-
tion."
Peculiar emendation, indeed!
SCENE II.
Ib. The adoption of Rowe's reading, “ the hand of scorn,"
instead of "the time of scorn," was no doubt judicious; but
Mr. Collier should have told us that "slowly moving," instead
of "slow and moving," was Mason's. Mr. Collier himself
adopted the reading of the quarto,-
But alas! to make me
A fixed figure for the time of scorn
To point his slow unmoving finger at.
But what can "the time of scorn" signify? and finger evi-
dently seems to indicate hand as the true reading.
P. 460. There is not the slightest reason for changing
“misuse” to misdeed. Misuse is deceit or guile, and seems to
have been used synonymously with abuse. Huloet has "To
misuse, deceive or beguile one. Abuser quelqu'un et le tromper.”
SCENE III.
Ib. The correction of "singing" to sighing, from the ballad
in Percy's Reliques, calls for no remark.
ACT V. SCENE II.
P. 461. The corrections which have been adopted from the
quartos in all editions of it for " thee," and Should for “ Did,”
are of course adopted.
The alteration in the line,-
Ay, with Cassio. Nay, had she been true,
by introducing but, is an unwarranted deviation from the
authentic reading of the quarto; and the same may be said of
288
SHAKESPEARE VINDICATED.
the substitution of wind for "air," and the interpolation of
now instead of "here" in Montano's speech. The old copies
are to be followed in preference to such capricious variations,
even were they improvements, which they certainly are not.
The insertion of them, and the alteration of "where" to
when, are also fanciful variations for the sake of doing some-
thing to improve upon the old authentic text.
P. 464.
THE
ANTONY AND CLEOPATRA.
ACT I. SCENE I.
to doom may have been
HE alteration of "damn "
deemed advisable by a player living in times long sub-
sequent to the poet, but damn meant nothing more than con-
demn in his time, and would not have offended the ears of his
cotemporaries. It can only therefore serve as evidence that
the note-writer lived at a period in subsequent times when the
word had become vulgarised, and had an ill sound. Huloet
has "
Damne, to condemn. Damnare."
Ib. The substitution of fitly for "fully," although unne-
cessary, has something specious about it.
SCENE II.
P. 465. “It only requires a brief note to state that War-
burton's emendation of 'fertile,' for foretell of the folios, is not
confirmed by the corrector of the folio, 1632: the word in
the margin of that impression is fruitful; fertile may come
nearer the letters, but fruitful is certainly better adapted to the
sense."
If every of your wishes had a womb,
And fertile every wish, a million.
As the words fertile and fruitful were considered quite
synonymous by our ancestors, Warburton's emendation as
ANTONY AND CLEOPATRA.
289
nearer to the old reading must be preferred. Huloet has
"Fertile woman.
Mulier fœcunda."
Ib. To substitute repetition souring for "revolution lower-
ing" in the following lines,—
The present pleasure,
By revolution lowering, does become
The opposite of itself.
would be using an unwarrantable license, as the old text is
perfectly intelligible. "By the revolution of events and change
of circumstances the pleasure of to-day often loses all its value
to us and becomes to-morrow a pain." When perfectly good
sense can be made of the text, according to Mr. Collier him-
self, it would be anything but a meritorious deed to attempt
alteration.
P. 466. The substitution of credence for “evidence” in the
following passage,-
My precious queen, forbear;
And give true evidence to his love, which stands
An honourable trial-
would be specious, but that the occurrence of trial in the
third line, shows that the old text is right, and needs no alter-
ation. Cleopatra had just cast a doubt on Antony's love; he
bids her give true evidence in favour of it, not bear false-wit-
ness against it, as she had done.
SCENE IV.
Ib. The adoption of Johnson's reading our for "one," and
the insertion of the negative there can be no objection to; but it
is doubtful whether the change of "call" to fall is necessary.
The same may be said of the alteration of "ports" to fleets.
Mr. Collier says that "ports" answers the purpose quite as
well as fleets, and therefore interference with the old text is
mere meddling.
SCENE V.
P. 467. The old copies have :-
So he nodded,
And soberly did mount an arm-gaunt steed,
Who neigh'd so high, that I what would have spoke
Was beastly dumb by him.
U
290
SHAKESPEARE VINDICATED.
The correctors would read:
So he nodded
And soberly did mount an arm-girt steed,
Who neigh'd so high, that what I would have spoke
Was boastfully dumb'd by him.
Arm-girt is a very doubtful epithet, and as we have had a
much more effective word suggested by Mr. Boaden, which I
adopted in my edition in 1826, where arrogant is the word,
we may fairly refuse this substitution. That the word arro-
gant would be fitly applied to the proud steed of Antony
will appear from a passage in the Auraco Domado of Lope
de Vega,-
Yel cavallo arrogante, en que subido
El hombre parecia
Monstruosa fiera que sies pies tenia.
arrogant answers to the Latin ferox, fierce, proud, and as
written in old manuscript might easily be mistaken for arm-
gaunt. There is not the slightest reason to prefer the cor-
rectors' boastfully dumb'd to the reading of the old text, beastly
dumb, i. e. dumb as a beast, and Mr. Collier sees that as a
trisyllable boastfully spoils the verse. Alexas says, The proud
steed neighed so loud, that what I would have spoke was made
unintelligible, no better than the sound of a dumb animal.
ACT II. SCENE I.
P. 468. As Mr. Collier candidly confesses that even he is
not satisfied with the liberties taken with the following passage,
in substituting warm for "wan'd," Lay for "Tie," and flood
for "field," we may presume that here at least he abandons
the notion of "better authorities than we possess." The old
reading required none of these pragmatic and conceited at-
tempts at improvement of the language of the poet :—
Salt Cleopatra, soften thy wan'd lip.
Let witchcraft join with beauty, lust with both;
Tie up the libertine in a field of feasts,
Keep his brain fuming, &c.
SCENE II.
P. 469. The adoption of Warburton's correction of reproof
for "proof" was no doubt right; to alter "for" to of was
ANTONY AND CLEOPATRA.
291
by no means necessary, but the correctors always think they
can improve the language of the poet's text. We may safely
continue the established reading,—
Say not so, Agrippa,
If Cleopatra heard you, your reproof
Were well deserv'd of rashness.
P. 470. The substitution of smell for “swell” in the follow-
ing passage is specious but not necessary, yet as a probable
misprint easily made, we might be inclined to adopt it,-
/
The silken tackle
Swell with the touches of those flower-soft hands,
That yarely frame their office.
SCENE III.
Ib. It was very injudicious to prefer Upton's alteration of
the undoubted reading of all the old copies :-
to
Becomes a fear.
But near him thy angel
Becomes afear'd," thus spoiling the personification which
adds to the poetic effect. Mr. Collier seems to be conscious
that "the poet may have intended here to vary the expression"
of his thought which occurs elsewhere.
P. 471. To change "Possess it" to "Profess it" is certainly no
improvement. Mr. Collier says, "What does he (Cæsar) mean
by telling Antony to possess it.'" (i. e. time.) Cæsar may
mean to answer Antony's " Be a child of the time" by saying
"Possess it" rather than waste it, like a child o' the time in
drunkenness. What he adds implies this, "but I had rather
fast four days than drink so much in one." He could hardly
be meant to say that he would profess to be a child o' the
time.
ACT III. SCENE IV.
P. 472. "The usual reading of the following has been,-
When the best hint was given him, he not took't,
Or did it from his teeth.
note
292
SHAKESPEARE VINDICATED.
"The folio, 1623, has 'he not look'd,' and the folio, 1632, 'he
had look'd.' There appears no sufficient ground for doing
more than amend the frequent error of 'not' for but; it avoids
an awkwardness when Antony complains of Cæsar that,—
When the best hint was given him, he but look'd,
Or did it from his teeth.
"Such is the emendation in the folio, 1632, the meaning being,
that Cæsar only looked when the best hint was given him, or
merely applauded Antony from his teeth, and not from his
heart. The opinion of Steevens that 'from his teeth' is to be
understood 'in spite of his teeth,' of course, cannot be sus-
tained for an instant."
Mr. Collier may be assured that the substitution of but for
"not" will never do. To look from the teeth would indeed be
a strange mode of expression! That Thirlby's correction of
the misprint "look't" for took't is right there can be little
doubt. To take it from the teeth was to take it outwardly, to
appearance only, not to heed it. Thus Dryden in his Wild
Gallant: "I am confident she is only angry from the teeth
outward." And Fuller in his Holie Warre (b. iv. c. 17) "This
bad breath though it came but from the teeth of some, yet
proceeded from the corrupt lungs of others."
SCENE VI.
P. 472. "Cæsar finds fault with Antony for sending back
Octavia without due ceremony and attendance:—
But you are come
A market-maid to Rome, and have prevented
The ostentation of our love, which, left unshown,
Is often left unlov'd.
"Left unlov'd' is the reading of all editions; but, neverthe-
less, it seems to be wrong, and in the folio, 1632, as corrected,
we are told to print the last part of the quotation thus;-
Is often held unlov'd;
Which, left unshown,
"the meaning being, that where the ostentation of love was
omitted, it was often held, or considered, that love did not
exist. Lower down, the alteration of two letters in the mar-
ANTONY AND CLEOPATRA.
293
gin, properly converts abstract into 'obstruct,' which Warbur-
ton first introduced."
The correctors have here missed what is probably the true
correction; the word "felt," by a common accident at press,
may have been jumbled into "left," consisting of the same
letters.
Which, left unshown,
Is often felt unlov'd.
When love is not manifested by acts, the neglect is often felt
as if we were unloved. The correction of "abstract" to ob-
struct was properly adopted from Warburton.
P. 473. The alteration of "wrong led" to wronged would be
a legitimate and probable emendation, were there not every
appearance that by "wrong led" Cæsar means that Octavia had
been misled in what she wrote which prevented him from
"breaking forth."
SCENE VIIL
Ib. "After the loss of the battle, Scarus attributes it to
the presence and flight of Cleopatra. Enobarbus asks, 'How
appears the fight?' and Scarus replies,-
On our side like the token'd pestilence,
Where death is sure.
Yond' ribald-rid nag of Egypt,
Whom leprosy o'ertake, i' the midst o' the fight,
When vantage, like a pair of twins, appear'd
Both as the same, or rather ours the elder ;-—
The brize upon her like a cow in June,
Hoists sails, and flies.
<
"Here the folio, 1632, omits take in 'o'ertake,' and has 'Both
of the same' for 'Both as the same,' of the folio, 1623; but
the two folios read, 'Yond ribaldred nag of Egypt,' an expres-
sion that has occasioned much doubt and comment. Tyrwhitt
suggested hag for nag,' but the prevailing text has been
'nag' and 'ribald-rid,' for ribaldred. It is to be remarked,
however (a circumstance mentioned in note 7, Collier's Shake-
speare, vol. viii. p. 74), that the line is overloaded by a syllable:
this redundancy the old corrector remedies, but he also in-
structs us, in conformity with Tyrwhitt's notion, that hag has
been misprinted 'nag,' and that the line ought to run thus:-
Where death is sure. Yond' ribald hag of Egypt, &c.
294
SHAKESPEARE VINDICATED.
"Ribald hag is most appropriate to Cleopatra on account of
her profligacy, as well as her witchcraft; and it is just possi-
ble that in the manuscript before the compositor the word was
miswritten ribaldry, which in his hands became ribaldred, and
has been the occasion of considerable difficulty. Besides, how
was leprosy to afflict a nag?
Here is another singular piece of sympathy with a sugges-
tion of Mr. Collier's in a note on the passage where he says,
"the line would read better with ribald only!" As long since
as 1826 I had shown that Steevens had mischievously de-
parted from the language of the poet in substituting 'ribald-
rid nag' for the undoubted word ribaudred, which is the read-
ing of the three first folios, and not ribaldred as Mr. Collier
I then gave the passage as it ought certainly to
asserts.
stand:-
Yon ribaudred hag of Egypt,
Whom leprosy o'ertake, &c.
and I have since given a more detailed note on the reading in
the 3rd vol. of Notes and Queries, p. 272. It is a matter of
no small surprise that Mr. Collier should have adopted the
reading of Steevens, "ribald-rid nag" in his edition of Shake-
speare, against the evidence of the old copies. Ribaudred is
found in the Dictionaries of the poet's time. And it should
be recollected that hagge had also been misprinted ragge in
the Merry Wives of Windsor. The correctors had evidently
no ancient authority on this occasion.
SCENE XI.
P. 474. The correctors here again speak from a hint given
by Mr. Collier, in a note in his edition of Shakespeare, sug-
gesting that mered might be a lapse by the printer for mooted;
in which he himself followed Johnson's suggestion,
Ib. I do not hesitate to say that the substitution of miseries
for "measures" in the reply of Enobarbus to Antony, would
be to corrupt the text; the meaning of which is self-evident.
Mr. Collier, in a supplemental note, has wisely abandoned his
correctors here.
ANTONY AND CLEOPATRA.
295
P. 475. The interpolation of the words who is in the speech
of Thyreus is an uncalled-for alteration of the text; of which
we have had such abundant instances from the hands of these
meddling correctors.
There can be no objection to the adoption of Mason's cor-
rection of disputation to "deputation," as that evident mis-
print ought long since to have been set right in all editions,
although Mr. Collier thought a clear meaning could be obtained
from the old depraved reading which he gives in his text.
ACT IV. SCENE IV.
P. 476. All necessary regulation of the confusion of the
speeches here had long since been made by Hanmer, and
adopted in all editions. The reading bear instead of hear is
very doubtful.
SCENE VIII.
Ib. The self-evident correction of "guests” to gests, I had
adopted from a copy with copious anonymous manuscript
notes of the edition of Johnson and Steevens given by Isaac
Reed in 1785. It is referred to as a proposed reading then
well known.
SCENE IX.
P. 477. The change of "for" to fore in what the soldier
says
of Enobarbus seems unnecessary. The soldier means to
say that such a prayer as the last speech of Enobarbus was
not an invocation to sleep.
SCENE X.
Ib. It seems to me that the substitution of spell for "soule,"
and great for "grave" in Antony's ejaculation,—
O, this false soul of Egypt! this grave charm,
would be a very doubtful improvement; yet although I find
"grave "altered to great in one of my own copies, it would be
dangerous to interfere with the old reading without more cer-
tain and valid reasons for changing it.
296
SHAKESPEARE VINDICATED.
SCENE XII.
P. 478. To change "disposed" to composed in the line,—
You did suspect
She had disposed with Cæsar-
would be to adopt modern phraseology for that of the poet's
time; when to dispose would have been the word used for to
make arrangements.
SCENE XIII.
Ib. The alteration of "conclusion" to condition in what
Cleopatra says of Octavia seems quite unnecessary, although
the words might easily be mistaken for each other. Still
conclusion is moral judgment conveyed, not in words, but by
mute demure expression of countenance.
P. 479. "A good deal of doubt has been occasioned by
Cleopatra's 'strange words,' as Johnson calls them (and
justly, if they were such as they have always been repre-
sented), when she and her women are endeavouring with all
their strength to raise the dying Antony into the monu-
ment:
Here's sport, indeed!
(
"Steevens calls it affected levity,' and Boswell wishes to
make it a melancholy contrast with her former sports.' The
corrector of the folio, 1632, strikes out the letter s in sport,'
and leaves the word merely port-'Here's port indeed!'
Milton uses the participle ported, and here Shakespeare ap-
pears to have employed port as a substantive to indicate
weight:-
Here's port indeed!-How heavy weighs my lord!
"The French use port for burden, and navire de grand port
is a ship of great burden. Cleopatra speaks of the weight of
Antony by the same word; and though we may not be able
to point out any other instance where port signifies in English
a load or weight, we can hardly doubt that such is the fact
in the case before us, and that, when the heroine exclaims,
'Here's port, indeed!' she means, here's a load, weight, or
ANTONY AND CLEOPATRA.
297
burden, indeed. It is evident that the person who made the
emendation in the folio, 1632, so understood it; the printer
probably did not, and hence his blunder. The alteration is
very trifling, and it overcomes a great difficulty."
This is indeed a most extraordinary attempt at emendation!
It would astonish me, and many more, if Mr. Collier should
succeed in finding port used for "a load or weight" in the
whole range of English literature. As for the instance he
cites from Milton of ported, is he to be told that it is there
used in the sense of borne or carried? A very slight alteration
of the misprinted word sport will give us what is probably the
true reading :-
Here's support indeed! How heavy weighs my lord!
Our strength is all gone into heaviness,
That makes the weight.
By the word sport, Boswell imagined that Cleopatra may be
supposed to contrast the melancholy task in which they are
now engaged with their former sports.
ACT V. SCENE I.
P. 480. The adoption of the reading suggested by Steevens:
Go to him, Dolabella; bid him yield.
Being so frustrate, tell him that he mocks
The pauses that he makes—
is very inferior to the accepted reading of Malone, in which
the words us by were supplied at the end of the line,-
tell him he mocks us by
The pauses that he makes.
Steevens no doubt proposed his reading in mere opposition to
Malone, a motive that often governed him.
Ib. The alteration of "split" to splitted, and the interpo-
lation of the words self noble in the following account Dercetas
gives of Antony's death :-
But that self hand,
Which writ his honour in the acts it did,
Hath with the courage which the heart did lend it,
Splitted the heart. This is his sword
I robb'd the wound of it, &c.
298
SHAKESPEARE VINDICATED.
is entirely unwarranted. The pause in the line of eight sylla-
bles makes it quite unnecessary to interpolate the line,-
Split the self-noble heart. This is his sword.
Mr. Collier knows that lines of eight syllables are often used
for effect as well as to vary the cadence of the metre, by Shake-
speare. And we are not to re-write his lines.
SCENE II.
P. 481. The adoption of Warburton's reading of dug for
"dung" was, I think, judicious in the correctors, although it
did not find favour in the judgment of Steevens and Malone,
or of Mr. Collier, who passes over the old reading dung with-
out comment, although he now sees "the impropriety of talk-
ing of palating 'dung,' and afterwards calling that 'dung'
'the beggar's nurse and Cæsar's.""
Ib. I cannot say that the correctors were judicious in fol-
lowing Hanmer's substitution of accessary for "necessary" in
the passage where Cleopatra tells Proculeius that she will take
all means to destroy herself:-
Sir, I will eat no meat, I'll not drink, sir;
If idle talk will once be necessary,
I'll not sleep neither.
The correctors, following the commentators, have misunder-
stood the passage. The line "If idle talk will once be neces-
sary" is parenthetical, and means "If idle talk be any time
necessary about my purposes." Shakespeare uses once for
one time, any time; and will be, as Johnson remarks, is often
used without relation to the future. All that we have to do,
therefore, is to mark the second line as a parenthesis. The
word once has often been misunderstood by the commentators.
P. 482. Judgment is shown by the correctors in sympa-
thizing with Mr. Collier in his adoption of the late Mr. Barron
Field's emendation of "suites" to smites, which was a very
good conjecture; but Mr. Collier should not have omitted to
mention the circumstance, and leave the reader to believe
that it was an entire new reading, now first brought forth.
ANTONY AND CLEOPATRA.
299
Ib. The alteration of "spirits" to spirit, and "my chance"
to mischance, as Mr. Collier says, "can hardly be said to be
necessary," but the notice serves to swell the catalogue of the
one thousand and one new readings.
P. 483. The adoption of Theobald's reading of assur'd for
“absurd" I can also approve, and think with Mr. Collier that
there was no necessity to alter "fool" to foil:-
Why, that's the way
To fool their preparation, and to conquer
Their most assur'd intents.
The remaining few corrections of the flagrant misprints,
which had already been made in all editions, scarcely deserved
notice on the part of Mr. Collier, and may well be passed over
without notice by me, as there was neither merit nor demerit
in the deed. I presume they form part of the one thousand
new readings!
CYMBELINE.
ACT I. SCENE I.
P. 485. "The mode in which the person who made the
emendations in the folio, 1632, points and corrects the three
first lines in this play, is the following; showing Tyrwhitt's
sagacity in omitting the s after 'kings,' as it is printed in all
the early editions:
You do not meet a man but frowns. Our bloods
No more obey the heavens, than our courtiers
Still seem as does the king.
"i. e. Our bloods do not more obey the heavens, than our
courtiers imitate the king: as the king frowns, so all others
look gloomy. There cannot be a doubt that this is the right
reading."
The correctors have of course sympathised with Mr. Collier
300
SHAKESPEARE VINDICATED.
in adopting Tyrwhitt's reading. But there is perhaps no neces-
sity for departing from the old copy, except in the pointing;
we should read :-
You do not meet a man but frowns: our bloods
No more obey the heavens, than our courtiers
Still seem as does the king's.
Our bloods (i. e. our dispositions or temperaments) are not
more regulated by the heavens, by skyey influence, than our
courtiers follow in appearance the king's disposition, when he
frowns every man frowns. The word seem is emphatic, for the
speaker a little after says,—
But not a courtier,
Although they wear their faces to the bent
Of the king's looks, hath a heart that is not
Glad of the thing they scowl at.
Ib. To read “fond of's issue" for the perfectly intelligible
old reading "fond of issue," would be a mark of very bad
taste. What a disagreeable elision is of's for of his, one
always to be avoided where possible, and it is not at all re-
quired here.
Mr. Collier says "the correction is of little importance."
"Correction," indeed! It is of no little importance to avoid
such.
SCENE II.
P. 486. To change "would'st" for would in the passage,—
Thou took'st a beggar, would'st have made my throne
A seat for baseness:
is a parallel case, introducing an ellipsis where none existed.
How Mr. Collier can imagine a question was intended, or a
note of interrogation necessary in the old authentic reading, I
cannot conceive. The king says to Imogen, "you took a
beggar; would have made my throne a seat for baseness!"
What question is there in this?. Imogen's reply is naturally
consecutive," No; I rather added a lustre to it."
Here cor-
rector and expositor are both sympathetically at fault.
SCENE V.
Ib. The substitution of, and her dolours for "under her co-
lours," in Iachimo's observation respecting the marriage of
CYMBELINE.
301
Posthumus and Imogen, is a blundering piece of impertinent
innovation, where the old text was right and perfectly intel-
ligible
Ay, and the approbation of those, that weep this lamentable divorce
under her colours, are wonderfully to extend him; be it but to fortify
her judgment, which else an easy battery might lay flat, for taking a
beggar without less quality.
By "those who under her colours," those who were on her
side, her partisans, are meant. The context shows, that this
must be the meaning; it was those of her party who extended,
i. e. praised excessively, the good qualities of Posthumus, to
fortify the judgment of Imogen in marrying a man beneath
her in rank and fortune. The utter improbability of so wild a
misprint as under her colours for and her dolours has not the
slightest appearance of probability.
P. 487. "Another remarkable corruption has been perpetu-
ated near the close of this scene. Iachimo has vaunted that
he will overcome the chastity of Imogen, and Posthumus has
accepted his wager: the latter observes, as the text has always
stood,-
Let us have articles betwixt us.-Only, thus far you shall answer: if
you make your voyage upon her, and give me directly to understand
you have prevailed, I am no farther your enemy, &c.
66
Now, if you make your voyage upon her,' may be un-
derstood as referring to the voyage Iachimo was to make to
Britain, in order to endeavour to carry his vaunt into effect;
but still the expression is awkward, and one which a correction
in the folio, 1632, informs us the poet did not use the word
´voyage' is a misprint, in part, perhaps, occasioned by the
omission of an adjective which ought almost immediately to
precede it: Posthumus observes, that if Iachimo make good
his boast, then Imogen would not be worth anger: he there-
fore says,—
Only, thus far you shall answer: if you make good your vauntage upon
her, &c.
"In other words, if you succeed and accomplish your
boast, she does not merit debate.' It seems probable that
302
SHAKESPEARE VINDICATED.
'
(
good was left out in the manuscript, and that the compositor
mistook vauntage,' and printed voyage,' knowing that
Iachimo must necessarily cross the sea, in order to carry out
his project. The sense of the poet appears to have been as
different as it was superior to the ordinary interpretation."
COLLIER.
If anything were necessary to show the utter impossibility
of the corrector of Mr. Collier's folio having had access to
better authorities than we possess, this would suffice. And it
also shows that both the corrector and Mr. Collier have “read
their Shakespeare ill."
If the expression is awkward, at least it is certain that it
was what the poet thought expressive, and one that he cer-
tainly did use; for on a similar occasion he has repeated it.
Thus, in The Merry Wives of Windsor, Act ii. Sc. 1, Page
says of Falstaff's attempt upon his wife, " If he should make
this voyage toward my wife, I would turn her loose to him."
This may be a lesson, not only to Mr. Collier and his MS.
corrector, but to us all, to be a little more cautious how we
venture to pronounce our judgments of what we find in the old
text, and insinuate that it is awkward, and what we can
amend. It is always better to be wisely diffident; and, if we
cannot comprehend the language of the poet, rather to suspect
our own capacity than to impugn his judgment by attempting
to improve what he has written.
SCENE VII.
P. 488. “Two emendations were proposed by Warburton
and Theobald in the following: both are found in the margin
of the folio, 1632, with a confirmatory addition of some im-
portance. We here give the passage as amended, marking
the changes in italics as usual:—
What! are men mad? Hath nature given them eyes
To see this vaulted arch, and the rich cope
O'er sea and land, which can distinguish 'twixt
The fiery orbs above, and the twinn'd stones
Upon th' unnumber'd beach, &c.
"For cope the ordinary text has been
and for th' unnumber'd' the number'd.'
<
<
crop,' for O'er Of,'
We may in future
CYMBELINE.
303
safely adopt these emendations, which require no explanation.
O'er is proposed for the first time."
The only admissible alteration in this passage is Theobald's
reading unnumber'd for "number'd," and even that Mr. Col-
lier himself did not adopt. The " rich crop of sea and land"
means only the productions of those elements; to change crop
for cope would be to introduce a repetition of " the vaulted
arch." The correctors have therefore adopted readings long
since rejected.
Ib. The bo-peeping is ludicrous enough: Shakespeare's “by-
peeping" is quite satisfactory.
P. 489. “On such evidence we can readily believe in another
amendment proposed on the next page, which, however, is not
so necessary, but, at the same time, by no means uncalled for:
it is part of the same description of the dealings of Post-
humus
With diseas'd ventures,
That play with all infirmities for gold
Which rottenness lends nature.
"The corrector states that they do not 'play' with these
infirmities for gold, but pay, or make a return for gold by the
most loathsome diseases :-
That pay with all infirmities with gold."
In a supplemental note Mr. Collier says: "At the same
time the meaning may certainly be, that they gamble with
their infirmities, staking them against the gold that is paid
to them"!!
Is it possible that this simple passage should have been so
perversely misapprehended? Is it not self-evident that the
"diseased ventures" are the "tomboys" or gross strumpets
who for gold dally with any diseased person? The passage
has never before been deemed to require a note, and it certainly
ought now to have been passed over without notice. One is
at a loss to know which is most absurd, the corrector's "emen-
dation," or the exposition of the passage.
304
SHAKESPEARE VINDICATED.
P. 489. The two substitutions of contemn for "condemn,"
and out-stay'd for outstood, are unnecessary meddling.
ACT II. SCENE II.
P. 490. How any one could have conceived that he could
amend the passage,—
Swift, swift, you dragons of the night, that dawning
May bare the raven's eye—
and suggest dare and bleare, is past my comprehension! One
must be blear-eyed indeed not to perceive that "dawning
may bare the raven's eye" is a highly poetical image for re-
turning day opening the eye of night. The celebrated passage
in Macbeth,-
Come, seeling night
Scarf up the tender eye of pitiful day—
alone might have opened the eyes of the correctors to the
meaning of the passage, and spared us their dare and bleare!
SCENE IV.
P. 491. The double elision produced by the alteration of
the correctors in the following passage, has a most disagree-
able effect, and can never have been what the poet wrote:-
Which, I wonder'd,
Could be so rarely and exactly wrought,
Since the true life on't 'twas.
Monck Mason's emendation is not only much better, but
more probable:
Such the true life on't was.
The interpolation of most in the reply of Posthumus is quite
unnecessary. Mr. Collier has told us himself, that a pause or
break in the verse often compensates for a deficient syllable.
Shakespeare's versification is not to be scanned by the fingers.
P. 492. The change of "winking cupids" to winged cupids,
Mr. Collier himself virtually abandons, and says it is "one
CYMBELINE.
305
of the many cases where the fitness of altering the received
text is doubtful."
This is at least a candid acknowledgment that Mr. Collier
abandons all idea of authority from better sources than we
possess.
SCENE V.
Ib. The proposed substitution of foaming for the old cor-
rupt reading "Iarmen," (which has been absurdly made Ger-
man in modern editions, even in Mr. Collier's) is specious, but
the correctors have missed the true word. There can be no
doubt that the misprinted word was brimmen, or brimeing.
Thus Bullokar: "Brime, a term among hunters, when the
wild boar goeth to the female." Shakespeare has everywhere
displayed his knowledge of and fondness for terms of the
chase. I am told that the word still lingers in the purlieus of
the New Forest, and elsewhere provincially.
ACT III. SCENE II.
P. 494. "Warburton justly calls the phrase the sands that
run i' the clock's behalf,' fantastical; but it is only so because
'behalf' was misprinted. Imogen is speaking of horses that
run much faster than the sands in clocks, and she goes on, by
a familiar expression, to state how much faster they run :—
(C
I have heard of riding wagers,
Where horses have been nimbler than the sands
That run i' the clocks by half;
adding, but this is foolery,' in reference, perhaps, to her own
simile.'
This is a "super-astute" view of the passage. The sands
"that run i' the clock's behalf" are the sands in an hour-
glass that run to mark the hour, in lieu of, or on the part of the
clock.
What miserable sophistication of a clearly intelligible old
reading is the by half of the correctors! This is indeed foolery.
Ib. "
SCENE III.
Belarius, contrasting the life he, Guiderius, and
X
806
SHAKESPEARE VINDICATED.
Arviragus lead in the woods and mountains with that at court,
observes, in the ordinary text,—
O! this life
Is nobler, than attending for a check;
Richer, than doing nothing for a bribe;
Prouder, than rustling in unpaid-for silk.
"The old copies give the third line,—
Richer than doing nothing for a babe,
‘
"and Hanmer substituted 'bribe,' though bribe's are seldom
given for doing nothing, while Warburton has bauble, and
Malone adhered to babe. All three are unquestionably wrong:
the second line supposes a courtier to dance attendance, and
only to obtain a check,' or reproof, for his pains; and the
third line follows up the same notion, that he does nothing,
yet is rewarded with a blow: Shakespeare repeatedly uses bob
(the word in manuscript in the margin of the folio, 1632) in
this way; and babe, then pronounced with the broad open a,
was miswritten for it: therefore, the passage, properly printed,
appears to be this:
O! this life
Is nobler, than attending for a check,
Richer, than doing nothing for a bob, &c."
The correctors here, like the old printer, from ignorance of
an archaism, have made sad work with their bob. The word
should be a brabe, i. e. a contemptuous or proud look, word, or
gesture. Speght, in his Glossary to Chaucer, interprets the
more obsolete word Heth [or hething] brabes, and such like,
that is, scornful or contumelious looks, or words.
P. 495. What possible reason but that of a desire to improve,
where no interference was necessary, could have induced the
correctors to substitute vigour for "figure" in the following
passage?-
He sweats,
Strains his young nerves and puts himself in posture
That acts my words. The younger brother, Cadwal,
(Once Arviragus) in as like a figure
Strikes life into my speech.
CYMBELINE.
307
SCENE IV.
Ib. "We here arrive at a most singular instance of mis-
hearing, which we must impute wholly to the writer of the
manuscript used by the compositor. It is in a speech by
Imogen, where she supposes that Posthumus has been seduced
by some Italian courtezan :—
Some jay of Italy,
Whose mother was her painting, hath betray'd him :
Poor I am stale, a garment out of fashion; &c.
(
"Now, for whose mother was her painting,' of all editions,
we are told by the amender of the folio, 1632, to read,-
Some jay of Italy,
Who smothers her with painting, hath betray'd him.
(
"We fairly admit it to be possible that the old corrector, not
understanding the expression, Whose mother was her paint-
ing,' as it was recited before him, might mistake it for Who
smothers her with painting;' but it is much more likely that in
this place, where Imogen was to give vent to her disgust and
anger, she would not use a metaphor, especially so violent a
one, as to call the daubing of the face actually the 'mother'
of a courtezan.”
This specious but erroneous substitution has been so fully
discussed, and shown to be improbable, by Mr. Halliwell, that
I must content myself with referring to his pamphlet, and a
note by a most intelligent and acute correspondent of Notes
and Queries, vol. v. p. 484. Merely remarking that "Some
jay of Italy" would naturally bring to the mind the fable of
the jay dressed in the painted feathers of the peacock.
P. 497. The substitution of followers for "fellows" is en-
tirely unnecessary; by "princely fellows" Imogen means, as
Mr. Collier himself formerly perceived, means noble suitors,
her equals in rank.
Ib. To change, I'll wake mine eyeballs into I'll crack
308
SHAKESPEARE VINDICATED.
Not
mine eyeballs, would be a far less intelligible reading than
that which has long been. the established text-
I'll wake mine eyeballs blind first.
The word wake is evidently right from the preceding-
I have not slept one wink.
and Imogen's reply :—
Do't and to bed then.
The corrector's crack was most probably suggested by the
long-ago rejected reading break.
P. 497. The interpolation of empty in the line
With that harsh, noble, simple nothing-
is entirely an unnecessary and unlicensed liberty. The line is
quite as harmonious and more effective without it.
P. 498. The alteration of "pretty" to privy is plausible,
and as a likely misprint therefore admissible.
We should probably read mien instead of “mind,” in a pre-
ceding part of this speech,-
Now if you could wear a mind
Dark as your fortune is.
mien being often written mine, may have been mistaken for
mind. Warburton justly remarks, "What had the darkness
of mind to do with the concealment of Imogen's person?"
Ib. Of the substitution of carriage for "courage," Mr.
Collier himself remarks, that it may be contested, and inas-
much as "courage" answers its purpose, perhaps it would be
unwise to displace it. Authority, therefore, is here tacitly
abandoned.
ACT IV. SCENE I.
P. 499. "The word 'imperseverant,' as it stands printed in
the folios, has naturally given trouble to the commentators,
CYMBELINE.
309
who have not known what to do with it. Hanmer altered
it to ill-perseverant,' meaning persevering in ill, while
Steevens argued that it was to be understood as perseverant.
It appears, on the authority of an emendation in the folio,
1632, that the compositor blundered by combining two words,
one of which had relation to the obstinacy of Imogen, and the
other to the wandering life to which she had taken. It is
Cloten who speaks, and who is complaining of the perverse-
ness of the heroine, who absurdly preferred Posthumus to him,
and ran away from court in order to avoid him. Very pro-
bably the manuscript was here confused and illegible, which
led to the printing of 'imperseverant' for perverse errant, as it
is amended, and as we may be confident it ought hereafter to
be printed-Yet this perverse, errant thing loves him in my
despite.' Cloten had come to Milford Haven in search of this
perverse, errant thing,' and to destroy Posthumus."
If Mr. Collier had looked into Mr. Dyce's Critique of
Knight and Collier's Shakespeare, which he might have con-
sulted with adyantage, he would have found that perseverance
was used by our ancestors for discernment, and that “imper-
severant❞ here was doubtless the poet's word, and simply
meant undiscerning. The Rev. Mr. Arrowsmith (in Notes and
Queries, vol. vii. p. 400) has adduced such numerous instances
of the use of perseverance for discernment, that it argues but an
imperfect acquaintance with our old phraseology on the part
of the correctors to have been unacquainted with it. Mr.
Arrowsmith has truly said that "the noun substantive, perse-
verunce, discernment, is as common a word as any of the like
length in the English language.'
This is one more instance of the danger of discarding or
altering a word in the poet because we happen not to under-
stand it. Yet had it not been for the evidence adduced, the
specious perverse errant would probably have supplanted the
true reading, for Mr. Collier tells us we may be confident it
ought hereafter to be printed perverse errant !
SCENE II.
P. 500. What great merit was there in adopting Theobald's
310
SHAKESPEARE VINDICATED.
пой
·
correction of "honour" to humour? It wanted not the
very
suspicious" authority" of the correctors to decide any one who
looked at the context, that it was a misprint. But this is one
more coincidence.
66
P. 500. "An emendation in the folio, 1632, changes 'the leaf
of eglantine,' very naturally, but not necessarily, into 'the leafy
eglantine." Why very naturally" if "not necessarily?"
Unless we can show the necessity of an alteration in the poet's
language, interference is the over-busy meddling of conceit,
and very mischievous. We have had too much of this.
Ib. The conjecture of winter-guard for winter-ground is
evidently suggested by Warburton's winter-gown; but to
"winter-ground" may have been the technical phrase for
protecting a tender plant from the inclemency of winter, as
practised by gardeners, by covering it with some light material.
The conjecture, however, deserves attention.
Ib. The substitution of lasses for "girls" necessitates the
omission of "all;" and, as Mr. Collier himself confesses,
that "Shakespeare here perhaps purposely avoided the re-
petition" of a common-place, and that it" by no means forces
adoption upon us," we may be sure it ought to be rejected
as superfluous and impertinent.
P. 501. The "trifling change" of so to lo is admissible as
a probable misprint.
P. 502. "The last emendation we have to notice is in the
soliloquy of Posthumus, and it relates to a passage which has
been much discussed, but never clearly understood: the old
text has been this;-
You some permit
To second ills with ills, each elder worse;
And make them dread it, to the doer's thrift.
" Here, in the first place, is an admitted inaccuracy, because,
as Malone remarked, the last ill deed, which was the 'worse,'
CYMBELINE.
311
(
was, in fact, the younger, and not the elder.' For this
the corrector provides a remedy, and writes later in the
margin forelder,' which was, perhaps, a misprint. The
line that follows is far from intelligible, for to what does 'them
in it apply?—
And make them dread it to the doer's thrift.
"The last antecedent was 'ills,' but 'them' cannot refer to
the crimes committed. This appears to be another instance
where' them' has been misheard for another word, the adop-
tion of which, on the testimony in our hands, makes a clear
meaning out of an obscure line. The passage, therefore,
stands thus, as amended in the folio, 1632 :-
You some permit
To second ills with ills, each later worse,
And make men dread it, to the doer's thrift.
"The doer of ill deeds profited by the fears produced in men
by still-increasing enormities. Later, therefore, was mis-
printed' elder,' and men misheard 'them.' The word men is
only just legible in the margin, in consequence of a stain and
the abrasion of the paper."
The correctors have entirely missed the mark in their aim at
emendation here. The passage is very incorrectly printed in the
folios, and I think there is no doubt that it should stand thus:
Gods! if you
Should have ta'en vengeance on my faults, I never
Had liv'd to put on this: so had you saved
The noble Imogen to repent; .and struck
Me wretch, more worth your vengeance. But alack!
You snatch some hence for little faults; that's love,
To have them fall no more: you some permit
To second ills with ills, each alder-worst ;
And make them dreaded, to the doer's shrift.
Here there is but the slight correction of three misprints, which
would easily occur. "Each alder-worst" is each as bad as it
could be. Shakespeare has alder-liefest, in K. Henry VI.
pt. 1.; dreaded for "dread it" is necessary, otherwise we have.
a relative without an antecedent substantive; and shrift is
312
SHAKESPEARE VINDICATED.
easily mistaken for "thrift." Posthumus is intended to say:
"How various are the dispensations of Providence: Some, as
in the case of Imogen, are taken away for little faults, in
mercy that they may fall no more. Others are allowed to add
ill deed to ill deed, each as bad as it could be, to promote a
horror of their condition; that by penitence and sorrow they
may obtain absolution or shrift. Such, continues Posthumus,
is my case; Imogen is happy under the former dispensation;
do your best wills, and make me also happy by my future
obedience." Shrift is elsewhere used by Shakespeare for ab-
solution.
FINIS.
C. Whittingham, Tooks Court, Chancery Lane.
Preparing for immediate Publication, in 10 Volumes,
fcp. 8vo. size,
THE DRAMATIC WORKS OF
WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE,
THE TEXT COMPLETELY REVISED, WITH NOTES,
AND VARIOUS READINGS,
BY SAMUEL WELLER SINGER.
TH
HE Edition of Shakespeare given by me in the
year 1826 has been for some time out of print;
and I am induced at the earnest solicitation of several
friends to undertake a New Edition in the same form,
but with such changes and improvements as have
resulted from much attention to the text and its illus-
tration since that time. Duly appreciating the zeal
and labours of his latest editors, Mr. Collier and
Mr. Charles Knight, I have elsewhere expressed re-
gret that the editions of our great Poet given to the
world by those gentlemen should have been disfigured
by the retention of obvious errors and corruptions of the
old copies, many of which had long since been rectified
judiciously by some of their predecessors, who were
sufficiently tenacious of adhering to the old text where-
ever it was possible to do so without injury to the sense
and meaning of the Poet.
But we are now, it seems, in danger of running
into the opposite extreme! Mr..Collier has put forth
a volume of Notes and Emendations founded on the
manuscript-corrections of an anonymous writer, in a
copy of the folio edition of 1632, in which such ex-
treme license in altering the text is taken, as would
make any edition in which such changes were admitted
no longer Skakespeare. Still, a few corrections of
apparent typographical errors in the old copies which
had escaped observation, are suggested by the anony-
mous annotator, these shall have the attention due to
them in the thoroughly revised text now printing;
and I trust it will be found that much has been done
towards its purification and amendment.
The notes will contain all that is necessary to the
elucidation of the Poet, either in the explanation of
obsolete words, phrases, obscure sentences, or allusions
to manners and customs, incidents and literature, of
the Poet's times; avoiding alike prolixity and unsatis-
factory conciseness. All variations from the old copies
will be noticed, and the reasons for such variation
stated. A Critical Essay from the pen of a learned
and highly gifted friend will be appended to each
play.
I have the satisfaction of knowing that the utility
of my former Edition has been appreciated by our
Transatlantic brethren, and that it has long been a
favourite book in America, where, as well as in Ger-
many, it has received the honour of more than one
re-impression.
The accumulated experience of nearly thirty years
will, I trust, enable me to render the New Edition
still more worthy of public favour; but, above all,
I hope to have the gratification of leaving the text of
Shakespeare in a much more satisfactory state than I
found it.
S. W. SINGer.
Mickleham, March 1853.
NON
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