SCENE 3.

"K. Hen. Mark, then, abounding valour in our English;
That, being dead, like to the bullet's grazing,

Break out into a second course of mischief,
Killing in relapse of mortality."

Mr. Collier's folio reads "rebounding valour," and Mr. Collier defends it, failing, it would seem, to see the pun which Shakespeare puts into Henry's mouth, and which the emendation destroys. Strangely enough this word is a stumbling block to the Variorum men, who read a bounding and abundant.

SCENE 4.

"Fr. Sol. Est il impossible d'eschapper la force de ton bras?
Pist. Brass, cur?"

Two pages of blunders inconceivable are perpetrated upon Pistol's reply by the commentators in the Variorum Edition. Sir William Rawlinson leads off after this fashion :

:

"Brass, cur!'-Either Shakespeare had very little knowledge in the French language, or his over-fondness for punning led him, in this place, contrary to his own judgment, into an error. Almost every one knows that the French word bras is pronounced brau; and what resemblance of sound does this bear to brass, that Pistol should reply, 'Brass, cur?' The joke would appear to a reader, but could scarce be discovered in the performance of the play."

Samuel Johnson, LL. D., follows thus:

"If the pronunciation of the French language be not changed since Shakespeare's time, which is not unlikely, it may be suspected that some other man wrote the French scenes.

Samuel Farmer, D.D., who decided on the no-learning of Shakespeare, sustains his brother Doctor, the lexicographer and great moralist. Malone says that "the word bras was, without doubt, pronounced, in the last age, and by the English who understood French, as at present, braw;" and as to that language, he thinks Shakespeare's "knowledge of it was very slight." Douce has sense enough to see the triviality of the controversy, but passes the same judgment. And all this, because these very learned men did not know the first elements of French pronunciation, and Shakespeare did. The "English who understood French" in Malone's day, may have pronounced bras like braw; and from the remarks which Frenchmen make upon the pronunciation of their language by the English, this was very probably the case; but Frenchmen, and all Americans who have any pretence to French scholarship, pronounce bras as brah, which is surely similar enough in sound to "brass" for a stage pun upon the words.

KING HENRY VI. PART I.

ACT III. SCENE 2.

"Bur. Warlike and martial Talbot, Burgundy Enshrines thee in his heart."

For the tautological "Warlike and Martiall Talbot" of the original, Mr. Collier's folio plausibly suggests, "Warlike and matchless Talbot."

ACT IV. SCENE 5.

Young Tal. You fled for vantage, every one will swear;
But if I bow, they'll say it was for fear."

For "bow" Mr. Singer proposes flew, instigated thereto by a MS. correction on the margin of a copy of the second folio in his possession. But did Mr. Singer ever see 'flew' used as the præterite of 'fly,' meaning 'to run away?' If I do not err, 'flew' is exclusively confined to the action of wings, except when it is used figuratively, to picture rapidity and eagerness of motion, as, 'he flew to her relief,' the soldiers flew to arms.' But when we wish to say, in English, that a man ran away, we say that he 'fled.'

As for instance, "Sisera lighted down off his chariot, and fled away on his feet;" it would hardly do to say that Sisera "flew away on his feet." There is not an instance in all the Bible or in Shakespeare of such a use of the word, often as there is occasion for it, if it were English; and indeed both Bible and Shakespeare do not together furnish a dozen instances of the use of the word in

any sense.

ACT V. SCENE 4.

"York. Speak, Winchester; for boiling choler chokes The hollow passage of my poison'd voice."

Can there be any doubt that "poison'd," is a misprint for prison'd, as Pope suggested? I think that it should have been received into the text; and cannot imagine a reason for its rejection.

* Judges, iv. 15.

KING HENRY VI. PART II.

ACT I. SCENE 1.

"Glos. And hath his highness in his infancy Crowned in Paris in despite of foes?"

Steevens obviated the difficulty in these lines, by reading,

"And hath his highness in his infancy

Been crown'd in Paris," &c.,

which is the generally received text. Mr. Collier laudably endeavors to avoid so great a change as the insertion of a word and the elision of a syllable, by reading,

"And was his highness in his infancy
Crowned," &c.

But this change, though better, is almost equally great. It seems plain to me that for 'hath' we should read had. King Henry, when he ascended the throne, was not only a minor, but a child of tender years, under the guardianship of Gloster and Beaufort, who, from motives of policy, had him crowned in France as king of France. Gloster, enumerating all that he and his uncle have done to preserve the kingdom of France to the English crown, asks,