p. 20.

p. 21.

p. 23.

But so very brief a text, so abruptly introduced, would hardly head such a sermon; and as there is no reason for accepting these words more than any other, and the loss has probably been much greater, the passage is left as it stands in the original, with an indication of the hiatus.

SCENE II.

"The Florentines and Senoys" :— The Siennese are called Senoys by Painter, in the old novel.

"It is the Count Rousillon": The original prints the name here and in another place "Rosignoll," as it appears in the old tale; elsewhere Rossillion. The variation was probably in the MS.

in honour so like a courtier : -The original has a colon after honour' and a comma after courtier.' The punctuation given in the text was suggested by Blackstone. The points of the folio, though in some respects a guide, are never to be relied upon absolutely.

"You're loved, sir":— Thus the original, in accordance with the orthoepy of Shakespeare's time, when the full pronunciation of the participial termination was the rule; and yet every edition till the present, for the last hundred years, has, "You are lov'd, sir." This not only destroys a textual trait, but the rhythmical emphasis given to the line by the author. Loved,' not 'are,' is the emphatic word.

"Isbel your woman and I will do as we may : The original has, "Isabel the woman and w," &c.: the latter error was corrected in the second folio; the former, which resulted from a mistaking of yr for ye, has remained uncorrected hitherto.

Thus the ori

they say barns are blessings": ginal, which all other editions Scotch-ify into “bairns.” See Note on "you'll look he shall lack no barns." Much Ado about Nothing, Act III. Sc. 4.

"He that ears my land": - To 'ear' is to till: the word still survives in composition in ‘arable.'

young Charbon the Puritan, and old Poysam the Papist": Malone thought that the name of the Puritan [coal] was an allusion to the fiery zeal of the sect, and plausibly conjectured that we should read "old Poisson [fish] the Papist," as an allusion to the Roman Cath

olic custom of eating fish on Fridays. The nomenclature of this play is noteworthy for its unusual local keeping. It is purely French and Italian. See also the second Note on Scene 1.

"Your cuckoo sings by kind” : — It was an old notion, not only that "marriage comes by destiny," or as the phrase is now,. 'marriages are made in Heaven,' but that cuckoldry was ordained of Fate, and was inevitable.

"Was this fair face, quoth she," &c. :- In the original this bit of an old ballad appears in the following evidently mutilated form :

"Was this faire face the cause, quoth she,

Why the Grecians sacked Troy

Fond done, done, fond was this king Priams ioy

With that she sighed as she stood, bis

And gave this sentence then, among nine bad if one be good, among nine bad if one be good, there's yet one good in ten."

The word 'bis,' at the end of the fourth line, is a make-shift to avoid the trouble of writing or printing the line twice; and yet the corresponding line is repeated. Warburton saw that there was not only mutilation of form, but loss of substance; and he proposed,

"Fond done, done fond, for Paris he,”

as the third line, because Paris was King Priam's joy.
But the words, though they complete the measure and
furnish the rhyme, do nothing else: they are impertinent.
Mr. Collier's folio of 1632 makes the transposition in the
first line and the addition to the third, which are found
in the text. This emendation is to be received solely be-
cause of the fact that the Clown is evidently quoting a
popular jingling song which had survived to the time of
the MS. corrector. The corrector's authority for it was
the same as Shakespeare's; that is, its existence in the
mouths of the people. An unrepaired accident in the
printing office, which left its traces on the page, seems to
have been the cause of the mutilated condition in which
the lines appear in the folio. "Fond done" means fool-
ishly done. "Was," in the fourth line, is used not in-
terrogatively, but indicatively such reduplication is
found in numberless old ballads. Warburton conjectured
that the lines which the Countess accuses the Clown of
corrupting, were,

"If one be bad amongst nine good
There's but one bad in ten.'

p. 25.

p. 26.

p. 27.

p. 28.

which is purifying o' th' song": folio of 1632 adds, "and a mending o' th' sex.

Mr. Collier's

but for every blazing star": - The folio has, "ore every blazing star," a manifest corruption, for which Malone gave "but or," Mr. Collier "but ere," his folio of 1632 "but one," and Mr. Singer "but on." Blazing stars, however, were regarded as portents, not as portended, and 'for' seems more idiomatic than 'on,' or 'or.'

it will wear the surplice of humility," &c. : The allusion here is double: first, to the horror which the Puritans affected at the surplice, as a vestment pertaining to the service of the Lady of Babylon; next, to its similarity to the sheet in which ladies, not of Babylon, did penance for a fault in the flesh, which was epithetically attributed to the former in the spirit; the fondness of these ladies for fine linen being also suggested. Thus in a passage quoted from Cupid's Whirligig, 1607, by Steevens: "She loves to act in as clean linen as any gentlewoman of her function about the town; and truly that's the reason your sincere puritans cannot abide a surplice, because they say 'tis made of the same thing that your villainous sin is committed in, your prophane holland." The notes upon this passage in the Variorum and other editions are many and voluminous.

[Diana, no] queen of virgins": The words in brackets, which seem necessary to the sense, are not in any old copy. They were supplied by Theobald. He also needlessly read, "suffer her poor knight to be surpris'd," which has been retained even in Mr. Collier's text. The elision of the verb before the participle was common of old.

sithence, in the loss," &c. : 'Sithence' is the old uncontracted form of since.' It is noteworthy that this word, which, I believe, is found nowhere else in Shakespeare's works (though 'sith' occurs), and which was antiquated in his time, appears in the early part of the old tale: "why should I disdain to prove her cunnyng? sithens she promiseth to heale me within a litle space," &c.

Why? - that you are my daughter?"— In the original this passage appears thus:

The many-colour'd Iris rounds thine eye?

Why, that you are my daughter ?” "Or were you both our mothers" :— That is, of course, the mother of both of us.' Farmer was of the opinion that in “I care no more for than I do for Heaven," there

p. 28.

p. 29.

p. 30.

p. 31.

is a designed ambiguity, and that Helena means, I care just as much for,' &c. "Can't no other," &c., means, plainly, Is there no other way?

"The mystery of your loneliness” : — The folio has your loueliness, a misprint hardly worth notice, which yet was left for Theobald to correct.

"Confess it, th' one to th' other": — · Pronounced tone to tother. The original has, "Confess it, 'ton tooth to th' other." See the quotation from Wiclyffe in the Note on "o' the to side." Love's Labour's Lost, Act IV. Sc. 1. "Have to the full appeach'd": — The commentators say that appeach'd' here is equivalent to 'impeached; ' but is it not more akin to that other form of the same root used by London thieves, 'peach' — inform?

this captious and intenible sieve”: — A characteristic form of expression with Shakespeare; meaning, as it would seem no one who reads him worthily need be told, 'this sieve which receives, but will not hold.' See Note on "the cicatrice and capable impressure." As You Like It, Act III. Sc. 5. The original has “intemible," which was corrected in the second folio.

"More than they were in note": - i. e., more than was written down of them. The repetition of 'note,' the word in its second sense being suggested by its occurrence in another, is a trait of Shakespeare's style.

There's something in't":- Hanmer needlessly read, "There's something hints."

p. 31.

p. 32.

"

ACT SECOND.

SCENE I.

"Farewell, young lords": - The original has the plural in this and in the next line; but most editors read "lord," because the King says, in the third line, “if both gain all." But action would make this plain: the King addresses first one party or knot of young noblemen, then another, and finally both. The old stage direction requires "divers "divers young lords" to enter, not two, as is the case in most modern editions.

"After well enter'd soldiers": - The meaning of this very elliptical expression is, plainly, after having well entered life as soldiers.'

66

he owes the malady": This is not an impersonation, or a misprint. He' and 'she' were often used in Shakespeare's time where we would use it.'

p. 32.

p. 33.

リ

let higher Italy," &c. :- Formerly the principal geographical division of Italy was, somewhat vaguely, into higher and lower; and Sienna, with which Florence was at war, was in the former. The parenthetic clause of this sentence, ("Those bated," &c.) is full of difficulty. The most obvious meaning of "those bated' is excepting those;" and "the fall of the last monarchy" was very reasonably explained by both Hanmer and Johnson, as an allusion to the degeneracy of those Italians who inherited but the decadence of the last, i. e., the Roman, empire. But we look in vain for any reason why the King should wish to except these degenerate people from the number of those either with whom or against whom the young Frenchmen were to acquit themselves manfully. The same difficulty occurs, in a greater degree, if we accept Warburton's explanation of 'bated,' which he takes in the sense of abased' or 'subdued.' Hanmer did most for the passage in reading 'those bastards;' though he did not properly support the change. But is it not probable, at least, that the King of the great realm of France, the most absolute of monarchs, speaking of Sienna, which was one of the little independent republics that rose upon the ruins of the Western Empire, might call its citizens, in contempt, those bastards that inherit but the fall of the last monarchy'? Coleridge brought forward, as an independent conjecture, the reading which Hanmer had given long before; but as he failed to see why the King should "except the then most illustrious states," i. e., the republics, his note in this regard is vague and inconsequential. He however, with

characteristic perception of the relation of ideas, suggests that the woo' and 'wed' in the next line are so far confirmative of the reading, 'bastards,' "as they indicate Shakespeare's manner of connection by unmarked influences of association from some preceding metaphor." Taken together, these reasons seem almost sufficient to justify a change in the text.

with his cicatrice": The original misprints, "One Captain Spurio his ficatrice, with an emblem," &c. It was corrected by Theobald.

the

Stay [with] the King": The original has, “Stay the King;" and all modern editors read, "Stay ; King-"making these words an interrupted speech, and adding the stage direction, Seeing him rise. But it does not appear that the King rises; rather the contrary, as the subsequent business of the Scene seems to show; whereas when the King bids the departing lords farewell, he says to Bertram, "Come hither to me; " and Bertram and the