hensible, the difficulty may possibly be with ourselves; but, chiefly, because it is better to have in the works of Shakespeare an obscure text which may be Shakespeare's, than one which is clear, but with the light of another mind than his ? 6 NOTES AND COMMENTS. Pedant. What mening hath your worshyp? Nor lesse, nor more. What I saie: The Wyse Man's Folie.-Old MS. "And if by chaunce thou light of some speache that seemeth dark, consider of it with judgment, before thou condemne the worke: for in many places he is driven both to praise and blame with one breath, which in readinge wil seeme hard, and in action appeare plaine.' Promos & Cassandra. [The Printer to the Reader. OT what Shakespeare might, could, would, or should have written, but what, according to the best evidence, he did write, is the only admissible or defensible object of the labors of his editors and verbal critics. Obviously true as this is, its binding force has been regarded by but a very few of the many who have undertaken the supervision or correction of Shakespeare's text. They have not simply sought the word, the expression, or the line which the authentic copy gives in this or that passage; but each has undertaken to decide what it should be, by exercising his own taste in choosing from the text of the various ancient copies which accident or fraud gave to the world, or by substituting that which, in his judgment, the poet should have written. With the labors of such critics I have no sympathy; for such labors I can imagine no excuse. To me they are folly, presumption, desecration,-literary crimes which should be remorselessly denounced, let them be perpetrated by whom they may. During the patient study of years, I have day by day become more and more convinced that the authentic text of Shakespeare cannot be held in too great |