P. 14. (1)

66

deliver I

vens, he shows me," &c.

up my apes, and away to Saint Peter: for the hea

The modern editors (Mr. Knight excepted) erroneously alter the original punctuation to " and away to Saint Peter for the heavens: he shows me," &c.,—not being aware that "for the heavens" is a petty oath (see Gifford, Jonson's Works, ii. 68, vi. 333).

P. 15. (1) “falls into the cinque-pace faster and faster, till he sink into his grave."

Mr. Collier's Ms. Corrector reads, "

till he sink a-pace into his grave;"

and there is no denying that, in this instance at least, he has drawn on his invention with considerable success.

P. 16. ()

"Balth. Well, I would you did like me.

Marg. So would not I, for your own sake; for I have many ill qualities.
Balth. Which is one?

Marg. I say my prayers aloud.

Balth. I love you the better," &c.

The three speeches which I have here assigned to Balthazar are given, both in the quarto and in the folio, to Benedick. That they belonged to Balthazar I had felt confident long before I learned from a note in Mr. Knight's edition that Tieck was of the same opinion.-Benedick is now engaged with Beatrice, as is evident from what they presently say. (Two prefixes, each beginning with the same letter, are frequently confounded by transcribers and printers : so, in Love's Labour's lost, act ii. sc. 1, six speeches in succession which belong to Biron are assigned in the folio to Boyet.) See more on this alteration in my Few Notes, &c. p. 42: and compare (16), (28), (31), of the present notes.

P. 18. (4) "it is the base, though bitter, disposition of Beatrice," &c. This has been changed to "the base, the bitter disposition," &c.; but (obscure as the meaning is) there does not seem to be any error in the old copies, which distinctly exhibit “though bitter" within parentheses.

P. 19. (5) "with such impossible conveyance," &c.

Dr. Johnson and Mr. Collier's Ms. Corrector would alter " impossible" to "importable." But Shakespeare, like other early writers, employs the word “impossible” with great license: so, before in this play (p. 16), we have “ impossible slanders;" in The Merry Wives of Windsor, act iii. sc. 5, “I will examine impossible places;" in Twelfth Night, act iii. sc. 2, “impossible passages of grossness;" in Julius Cæsar, act ii. sc. 1, “strive with things impossible.”

P. 24. (6)

“hear me call Margaret, Hero; hear Margaret term me Claudio." Theobald altered "Claudio" to "Borachio"; and Mr. Collier's Ms. Corrector does the same. But as Margaret was on that occasion to pass herself off for Hero (compare what Borachio says, p. 64, "how you were brought into the orchard, and saw me court Margaret in Hero's garments"), so was Borachio to be addressed by her as Claudio: there was certainly a secret agreement between them, though we learn from his subsequent declaration, p. 66, “Nor knew not what she did when she spoke to me," that she was not aware to what a villanous project she was lending her aid. Mr. Knight aptly observes, "The very expression term me shows that the speaker assumes that Margaret, by connivance, would call him by the name of Claudio." Mr. Collier says, "Claudio' must be an error, as Claudio was to be one of the spectators :" but surely Claudio would not doubt his own identity,-he would know that she was not talking to him.

P. 24. (7)

The folio has "

"such seeming truth of Hero's disloyalty," &c.

· seeming truths," &c.—The Ms. Corrector is pleased to read "seeming proofs,' ‚”—“ which,” says Mr. Collier, “is unquestionably what is meant,"-forgetting, I presume, that the 4to has "seeming truth."

P. 25. (8)

66

Enter DON PEDRO, CLAUDIO, and LEONATO, followed by BALTHAZAR and Musicians."

The quarto has "Enter prince, Leonato, Claudio, Musicke," and, six lines after, "Enter Balthaser with musicke."-The folio has, and rightly, only one stagedirection,-"Enter Prince, Leonato, Claudio, and Iucke Wilson" [i. e. the singer who acted Balthazar].

P. 26. (9)

The old copies have “

clearly to be an error.

P. 26. (10)

"Note notes, forsooth, and noting!"

and nothing;" which the preceding speech shows

"The fraud of men was ever so," &c.

The folio has "The fraud of men were ever so," &c. The Ms. Corrector gives "The frauds of men were ever so;" which Mr. Collier calls an evident improvement of the line, and adds, "the usual mode of printing it has been, 'The fraud of men was ever so."" The "usual mode" is the "mode" of the 4to.

As this reading has been adopted only by one modern editor, I may mention that it is derived from the 4to. That of the folio is " unworthy to have so good a lady."

P. 34. ()

"No glory lives behind the back of such."

If there be any uncorrupted lines throughout these plays, certo certius this is one of them. Yet the Ms. Corrector substitutes “No glory lives but in the lack of such ;" and, strange to say, his preposterous alteration has found other admirers besides Mr. Collier.

So the old copies: nor have I ventured to deviate from them in the prefixes to the subsequent speeches of the watchmen,—unsatisfactory as those prefixes are.

P. 48. (1)

"Claud.

Not to be married,

Not to knit my soul to an approvèd wanton.”

Rowe printed "Not knit my soul," &c.-But for breaking the metrical connection of this speech with what precedes and with what follows it, I should have preferred the arrangement,——

"Claud. Not to be married, not to knit my To an approved wanton."

soul

P. 48. (15)

“Out on thy seeming! I will write against it :
You seem to me as Dian in her orb," &c.

66

against this false repre

Mr. Knight, who retains the error of the old copies, "the seeming," puts a comma after "against it,”—which, he says, means sentation, along with this deceiving portrait,

'You seem to me as Dian in her orb,' &c." :

and that, too, in the very face of the lines cited ad l. by Steevens from Cymbeline, act ii. sc. 5,—

"I'll write against them [i. e. women],

Detest them, curse them,”—

which ought to have saved him (as well as Mr. Collier, who follows him) from such a misconception of the passage.

P. 48. (16)

"Claud. Sweet prince, why speak not you?"

Here the old copies have the prefix "Leon."-"Tieck," observes Mr. Knight, "proposes to give this line to Claudio, who thus calls upon the prince to confirm his declaration." To Claudio, as I saw long ago, it assuredly belongs: and Claudio has, only a few speeches before, addressed Don Pedro in the

same terms,

"Sweet prince, you learn me noble thankfulness."

:

In the next act the old copies assign two speeches to Leonato wrongly,—one of them belonging to Antorio, see note (26), the other to Benedick, see note (*1).

P. 50. (17)

66

'Myself would, on the rearward of reproaches,
Strike at thy life."

i. e. I would follow up the reproaches I cast upon you, by slaying you myself. -So the 4to.-The folio, by a misprint, has " the reward of reproaches,” &c.-The Ms. Corrector substitutes ". the hazard of reproaches," &c.,-— which, says Mr. Collier, "appears to be the true reading"! Leonato, I should suppose, was not likely, in his then state of mind, to trouble himself about the reproaches he might incur; and indeed, if his thoughts had but glanced at the consequences of such an act, he must have been aware that a gentleman who kills his own daughter does it "on the hazard" of something heavier than reproaches.

P. 50. (18)

"And salt too little that may season give
To her foul-tainted flesh!"

For "her foul-tainted flesh" Mr. Collier's Ms. Corrector substitutes "her soultainted flesh," which (like his substitution of "soul-pure" for "sole-pure" in Troilus and Cressida, act i. sc. 3) can only be regarded as an ingenious attempt to improve the language of Shakespeare,—or, in other words, as a piece of mere impertinence.-Be it observed that Leonato, who now uses the expression, "her foul-tainted flesh," presently goes on to say,

"Would the two princes lie? and Claudio lie,

Who lov'd her so, that, speaking of her foulness,
Wash'd it with tears ?"

With "foul-tainted" we may compare "foul-defilèd" in our author's Rape of Lucrece,

"The remedy indeed to do me good,

Is to let forth my foul-defilèd blood."

P. 51. (19)

“A thousand blushing apparitions start,” &c. The old copies have, by a manifest mistake, “

apparitions to start."

Lest it should be supposed that in this well-known passage I have accidentally omitted a word, I may notice that I adopt the reading of the folio.-The modern editors give, with the 4to, "as anie is in Messina."

In my Few Notes, &c. p. 46, I have said, "Here Mr. Knight, alone of the modern editors, follows the old copies in printing 'fashion-monging,' — and rightly," &c. but now, on considering the inconsistency in spelling which those old copies exhibit, I think that the other modern editors have done more wisely.

P. 65. (24) "Art thou the slave that with thy breath hast killed

Mine innocent child?"

So the 4to.-The folio has " Art thou thou the slave," &c. (which Mr. Knight pronounces to be an "exquisite repetition").

P. 70. (*)

Pardon, goddess of the night,

Those that slew thy virgin knight.”

Here Mr. Collier's Ms. Corrector alters "virgin knight” to “virgin bright,”— how improperly, will be evident to any one who consults the notes ad l. in the Variorum Shakespeare.-I may mention that we have already had "night" used as a rhyme to "knight" in The Merry Wives of Windsor, act ii. sc. 1.

And Hymen now with luckier issue speed's," &c.

Here the old copies have ". speeds:" but (unless we change "weeds" to “weed” and “speeds" to "speed") there seems to be no other course than to follow the advice of Thirlby, who says: "Claudio could not know, without being a prophet, that this new proposed match should have any luckier event than that designed with Hero. Certainly, therefore, this should be a wish in Claudio; and, to this end, the poet might have wrote speed's, i. e. speed us: and so it becomes a prayer to Hymen.”

The modern editors (more unforgiving than Leonato) exclude Margaret from the present assembly, though the old copies mark both her entrance here and her re-entrance afterwards with the other ladies. (In what is said of her at the commencement of the scene there is nothing which would lead us to suppose that the poet intended her to be absent.)

P. 72. (28) "Ant. This same is she, and I do give you her."

Here the old copies have the prefix "Leo.": which is at variance with the words of Leonato in the preceding page,—

"You know your office, brother:

You must be father to your brother's daughter,
And give her to young Claudio."