"Well, if my wind were but long enough, I would repent." —and again, in Much Ado About Nothing, Act IV. Sc. 2, Dogberry's reply, "Write down that they hope they serve God;-and write God first; for God forbid but God should go before such villains," is altogether omitted. Now, as we want exactly what Shakespeare wrote, and have not the fear of the statute of James I. before our eyes, we must disregard these changes and suppressions in all cases; and not regard them in some cases and disregard them in others, as many editors have done, and even Mr. Knight among them. On points like these, and these only, the quartos are of higher authority than the folio, because of the effect of the law in question. "Pistol. Convey, the wise it call. Steal? foh! a fico for the phrase.” Nothing could be plainer, it would seem, than this speech, which is remarkable among the bombastic explosions of mine ancient' for its direct simplicity. He says, "a fig for the phrase!" and, after his fashion of always using a mouth-filling, high-sounding word, when his memory can command, or his tongue coin one, he uses the Italian, fico,' instead of the English, 'fig.' 'A fig,' or 'a fig's end,' is perhaps the commonest phrase of thoughtless, careless contempt used in our language. It occurs five times in Shakespeare's works. Pistol uses it twice, and each time airs his Italian. But as a certain disease was known to the Romans as ficus, and as a gesture indicative of loathing and dread, used on the continent of Europe, and which is of ancient and unknown origin, was called 'making the fig,' even Mr. Douce could not resist the temptation to confuse so plain a passage by learned disquisition; and consequently he perpetrates nine octavo pages of grave and erudite comment upon poor Pistol's "fico." How it would have gratified the ancient had he known that his speech would attain to such consequence and dignity! Mr. Douce thus concludes his remarks: "On the whole, there is no other way of extricating ourselves from the difficulties and ambiguities that attend the present subject, than by supposing some little confusion of ideas in our poet's mind, a weakness not more uncommon with him than with many of his commentators. Or, his phraseology might have been inaccurate; and it is to be feared that too much time and conjecture have been frequently expended on passages originally faulty, and which it might have been sufficient to have stated as such, to the exclusion of further comment or useless explanation." Illustrations of Shakespeare, Vol. I. p. 500. The admission of "a confusion of ideas" on the part of the poet's commentators, is both appropriate and naïve, considering the occasion of making it. But what shall be thought of the commentator who allows his learning to involve him in "difficulties and ambiguities" which have no actual existence, and then attempts to extricate himself by attributing confusion of thought and inaccurate phraseology to Shakespeare ! In Henry IV., Part II., Act V. Sc. 3, Pistol says :— "When Pistol lies, do this; and fig me, like Here, indeed, there is allusion to 'making the fig.' "Do this," manifestly refers to an action with which the speaker accompanied his words; "fig" becomes an active verb; and the comparison to "the bragging Spaniard" comes in to confirm the reference. But this use of the word is no more like that in "a fico for the phrase" in this play, or "a fico for thy friendship," in Henry V., than it is like that in Iago's "Virtue ? a fig," in the third Scene of the first Act of Othello, or his "blessed fig's end," in the first Scene of the second Act. Truly, much learning hath made these commentators mad. ACT V. SCENE 5. Fal. Ignorance itself is a plummet over me.” Trouble about this. Johnson proposes plume, and Farmer, planet, instead of "plummet." The matter seems very plain. Falstaff is made to appear such an ass, he is so overwhelmed by the reproofs and jeers heaped upon him, -and particularly by Sir Hugh Evans, whom Ford has quizzed but a moment before for his inability to speak correctly, that he says: "I am your theme; you have the start of me; I am dejected; I am not able to answer the Welch flannel. Ignorance itself is a plummet over me:" —that is, 'even this blundering Welchman attempts to decide upon my rectitude.' He has but just said, in reply to a gibe from the parson, "Seese and putter! have I lived to stand the taunt of one that makes fritters of English ?" MEASURE FOR MEASURE. MR. HUNTER thus opens his comments upon Measure for Measure. "Few of Shakespeare's plays give so little pleasure as this. The fault is, in a great measure, in the plot, which is improbable and disgusting. But the play wants character. The principal persons are unindividualized men and women, and it may be doubted whether they always exhibit the feeling which really belongs to the strange situations in which they are placed." In this opinion he is sustained by Coleridge, and by Mr. Knight. It is prudent, as well as pleasant, to agree with such critics; but sometimes both policy and preference must needs be set aside; and I cannot err in supposing that there are many who, though lacking with me the sanction of such opinion, find, with me, in their enjoyment of the transcendent poetry, the subtle and far-reaching thought, and the nicely discriminated characters of this play, an ample compensation for the consciousness that they have opposed their judgments, even to that of Coleridge. As to the plot, it should be remarked, that though the incidents upon which it turns are such as cannot in these days be made the topics of conversation in gen * New Illustrations of the Life, Studies, and Writings of Shakespeare. By Joseph Hunter. 2 vols. 8vo. London, 1845. eral society, or the subjects of dramatic representation before a polite audience, there is nothing in them to make the play repulsive in the closet. Interdicted, as the story must now be considered in the social circle, there is nothing in it to contaminate the individual. Its themes are excluded from the drawing-room, as we avoid there a discussion of the internal economy of the Lying-in Hospital, or anatomical disquisitions upon the viscera; though moral taint would not sooner follow upon the just consideration of the one than from the professional examination of the others. It was not so in the days of Elizabeth and James. Then, ladies of irreproachable character listened to that, in the company of men, and from men, which would offend the ears of a high-bred courtesan of these days. But it may be justly questioned whether women are chaster, men more continent, or society in general has a higher moral tone now, than when Measure for Measure was performed before the most unexceptionable audience which the court and city of London could furnish. The elegant dissoluteness of the court of Charles II., and the gross debauchery of the days of the first Georges and their predecessor, do not contrast more strongly with the tone of our society than with that of the public for which Shakespeare wrote; though many are thoughtlessly apt to attribute somewhat of the social looseness of the former period to that which preceded it by half a century. With regard to the latter,that of Anne and the first two Georges, which copious contemporary records show to have been marked by an open disregard of almost every restraint upon the relations of the sexes, accompanied by a coarseness of tone truly disgusting, it should be here remembered, that it was for the public of those times that Pope changed "toes" to feet, in the fifth Scene of the first Act of Romeo and Juliet, for |