only compare what he has before said to the Queen on the same subject (the death of Polonius), p. 173;

"O heavy deed!

It had been so with us, had we been there :

His liberty is full of threats to all;

To you yourself, to us, to every one.

Alas, how shall this bloody deed be answer'd?
It will be laid to us," &c.

again, p. 183, we have

and ibid.

"Let him go, Gertrude; do not fear our person," &c.

"That I am guiltless of your father's death," &c.

P. 182. (116)

"Eats not the flats"

The late Mr. W. W. Williams (under the signature W. D.) in The Literary Gazette for March 15, 1862, p. 263, would read "Beats not the flats." But is not "Eats" to be defended on classical authority?

¿. e. into. So the quartos, 1604, &c.—The folio has "on.”

P. 184. (119)

666

"It could not move thus."

· move me thus ;' at least I am all but sure that this is the true reading." Walker's Crit. Exam. &c. vol. ii. p. 261.

P. 184. (120) 666
"Down a-down, an you call him a-down-a."

Whether these words are rightly given as above, I cannot determine. (On the modern stage they are sung by Ophelia.)

P. 185. (121)

"Go to thy death-bed," &c.

Mr. Collier's Ms. Corrector substitutes "Gone to his death-bed," &c.; which agrees with what seems to be a sort of parody on this ballad in Eastward Ho, by Jonson, Marston, and Chapman (see Dodsley's Old Plays, vol. iv. p. 228, last ed.);

"But now he is dead,

And lain in his bed,

And never will come again."

P. 185. (122)

"I must commune with your grief,"

So the quartos, 1604, &c.-The folio has "I must common with your greefe;" which Boswell would understand as, "I must be allowed to participate in your grief, to feel in common with you;" and, much to my surprise, Mr. Grant White (Shakespeare's Scholar, &c. p. 421) approves of that most erroneous reading and interpretation.-The "common" of the folio is merely an old spelling of "commune:" see Richardson's Dict. in "Common" and "Commune."-1865. Mr. Grant White in his edition of Shakespeare prints "commune."

See note 87 on The Second Part of King Henry IV. vol. iv. p. 414; and compare Phaer's Virgil's Eneidos, Book ii. ;

"The towne inuade they do forthwith, in sleepes [the original somno] and drinking drownd." Sig. C vii, ed. 1584.

Walker (Crit. Exam. &c. vol. iii. p. 208) suspects, and, it would seem, with good reason, that we ought to read "Of them that brought them."

"Perhaps 'Ay, my good lord'." Walker's Crit. Exam, &c. vol. iii. p. 270.

Mr. Collier prints "As liking not his voyage;" and observes, "This is the clear and correct reading of the undated quarto, that of 1611, &c. Malone seems to have referred here to no other quarto than that of 1604, and finding it read corruptly 'As the king at his voyage,' he adopted the text of the folio, 'As checking at his voyage,' which, no doubt, was there introduced as a conjectural emendation." Here I altogether differ from Mr. Collier : "the King at," of the quarto 1604, is obviously a mistake for "checking at;" a reading much more in Shakespeare's manner than "liking not."

So the quartos, 1604, &c.-" The folio has ran for 'can.' It was a mere printer's error." COLLIER.-Assuredly it was: yet Caldecott and Mr. Knight retain it.

The quartos, 1604, &c. have "Lamord."-The folio has "Lamound.""Shakespeare, I suspect, wrote 'Lamode.' See the next speech but one;

'he is the brooch, indeed,

And gem of all the nation'." MALONE.

Mr. Grant White prints "Lamont."

This passage (from "There lives within the very flame" to "the quick o' th' ulcer" inclusive) is only in the quartos, 1604, &c.; all which, except that of 1637, have "a spend-thrifts sigh,"-quite wrongly, I conceive; though Capell, Mr. Collier, and Mr. Knight think otherwise.

So the quartos, 1604, &c.-The folio has "commings;" which Caldecott and Mr. Knight retain (old spelling and all) in the sense of-venues, bouts.

Here the "now," which had been accidentally omitted in the first folio, was inserted by the editor of the second folio. Instead of these words, the quartos, 1604, &c. have "but stay, what noyse:" but the corresponding passage of the quarto 1603 is, "How now Gertred, why looke you heauily?"

"I would read 'had I'." Walker's Crit. Exam, &c. vol. ii. p. 246. And so some of the earlier editors.

Walker (Crit. Exam. &c. vol. iii. p. 270) would add "true" to these words: but the expression is elliptical.

So the folio.-The quartos, 1604, &c. have " Goe get thee in."—Mr. Collier ad 1. oddly conjectures that "Yaughan" may be "a mis-spelt stage-direction to inform the player that he was to yarn at this point;" and his Ms. Corrector, oddly too, substitutes "get thee to yon'."-1865. Mr. Collier in the second edition of his Shakespeare adopts his Corrector's "yon :" and certainly the Corrector is fortunate in such an expositor as Mr. Collier; without whom we never should have guessed that "yon" is equivalent to "yon alehouse."-Mr. Grant White, not happier than others in his note on this passage," suspects that' Yaughan' is a misprint for 'Tavern'."

P. 194. (135)

"which this ass now o'er-reaches;"

So the quartos, 1604, &c.-The folio has "which this Asse o're offices;" the less proper reading undoubtedly.

P. 195. (136)

"For and a shrouding-sheet :"

Is generally printed “For — and a," &c. But " For and" in the present version of the stanza answers to "And eke" in that given by Percy (Rel. of A. E. Poetry, vol. i. p. 188, ed. 1794);

"And eke a shrowding shete."

Compare the following passages (to which many others might be added); "Syr Gy, Syr Gawen, Syr Cayus, for and Syr Olyuere."

Skelton's Sec. Poem Against Garnesche,- Works, vol. i.
p. 119, ed. Dyce.

"Your squire doth come, and with him comes the lady,
For and the Squire of Damsels, as I take it."

Beaumont and Fletcher's Knight of the Burning Pestle,
act ii. sc. 3,-Works, vol. ii. p. 160, ed. Dyce.

"A hippocrene, a tweak, for and a fucus."

P. 195. (137)

Middleton and W. Rowley's Fair Quarrel, act v. sc. 1,
-Middleton's Works, vol. iii. p. 544, ed. Dyce.

"of fine dirt?"

Walker (Crit. Exam. &c. vol. i. p. 316) proposes "of foul dirt?" But I believe the old text is right here.

P. 197. (138) "This same skull, sir, was Yorick's skull,"

So the quartos, 1604, &c. (except that they have "sir Yoricks").-The folio has "This same Scull Sir, this same Scull sir, was Yoricks Scull;" which is given by Mr. Collier and Mr. Knight. (Mr. Collier observes that the folio "characteristically repeats" the words; which is very true, it being a marked characteristic of the folio to blunder in that way.)-1865. Here both Mr. Staunton and Mr. Grant White give the reading of the folio; Mr. Grant White observing, that "if the repetition of the words were accidental, the chance must be reckoned among gli inganni felici." I wish he had told us what force is added to the dialogue by the repetition.

66

P. 197. (139) "and now, how abhorred in my imagination it is!"

So the quartos, 1604, &c.-Mr. Grant White-who confines the meaning of "it" in that reading to the skull-prefers the lection of the folio, "and how abhorred my Imagination is."

P. 197. (140) "To what base uses we may return, Horatio!” "Surely the old syntax requires may we'." Walker's Crit. Eram, &c. vol. ii. p. 249.

"Thus the quarto 1604 [and the other quartos]. The editor of the folio substituted 'imperial,' not knowing that 'imperious' was used in the same sense." MALONE.-Compare

"The scepters promis'd of imperious Rome."

The Tragedie of Antonie (translated by the Countess of
Pembroke), 1595, sig. G 3.

"tis imperious Rome,

Rome, the great mistress of the conquer'd world."

Fletcher's Prophetess, act ii. sc. 3.

We find, indeed, "imperial Cæsar" in Cymbeline, act v. sc. 5: but then that play comes to us only through the folio.-Qy. are these four lines a quotation? I believe not.

So the quartos, 1604, &c. down to the quarto of 1637, which, like the folio, has "her Virgin Rites."-"For this unusual word ['crants'] the editor of the first folio substituted rites. By a more attentive examination and comparison of the quarto copies and the folio, Dr. Johnson, I have no doubt, would have been convinced that this and many other changes in the folio were not made by Shakespeare." MALONE.

"Most of the editors explain 'crants' by garlands; but the German kranz is singular, and the singular seems indispensable here. From a note to Prior's Danish Ballads it would seem that young unmarried Danish ladies wear, or wore, chaplets of pearl; at least, 'fair Elsey' is described as wearing one, and the translator (vol. iii. p. 111) says that this is the same as the 'virgin crant' (sic) of Ophelia." W. N. LETTSOM.

P. 198. (143)

"To sing a requiem, and such rest to her"

So the quartos, 1604, &c.—The folio has "To sing sage Requiem," &c.; an error of the transcriber or printer, which Caldecott and Mr. Knight adopt. (Mr. Collier's Ms. Corrector alters the "sage" of the folio to "sad :" but is it not a mistake for "such" ?)

"Fol. 'woer. 'Woes,' I conjecture." Walker's Crit. Exam. &c. vol. iii. p. 271.

"Woo't drink up eisel?"

P. 199. (145) The quarto 1603 has "Wilt drinke vp vessels."—The later quartos have "Woo't drinke vp Esill."-The folio has "Woo't drinke rp Esile."-A great dispute has arisen about the "Esill" or "Esile" of this line; whether we are to understand by it "the river Yssell, Issell, or Izel, the most northern branch of the Rhine," or else eisel (i.e. vinegar). It is at least certain that eisel in the sense of vinegar was formerly common enough; and is used by our author in his exith Sonnet,

"I will drink

Potions of eisel [old ed. Eysell] 'gainst my strong infection," &c.

Nor is the expression" drink up" at all opposed to that interpretation; for Shakespeare has various passages where "up" is what we should now con

sider as redundant: e.g.;

"prisons up

The nimble spirits in the arteries," &c.

Love's Labour's lost, act iv. sc. 3.