from a naked bed signified to get up naked from bed; and to say one lay on a sick bed (a form of expression far from uncommon even now) implied merely that he was lying sick a-bed."

The quartos have "keepe thy words iustly."-The first folio has "keepe thy words Iustice;" and the second folio "keepe thy word, justice."-Mr. Knight and Delius make out from the first folio the ridiculous reading, "keep thy word's justice," &c.

"Read wide;' see context. And so the 1770 edition of King Lear, 'collated with the old and modern editions;' with a note,-'All editions read wild; but wide is better opposed to little'." Walker's Crit. Exam, &c. vol. iii. p. 278.

P. 305. (75) "All the power of his wits have given way”

See note 114 on Love's Labour's lost, vol. ii. p. 251.

The quartos have "iustice."-This portion of the scene, from the preceding speech but one," Edg. The foul fiend bites my back" to "False justicer, why hast thou let her scape ?" inclusive, is omitted in the folio.

The quartos have "broome."-See the preceding note.

Here Theobald's very specious alteration of "sinews" to "senses" is generally adopted (and without any note by Mr. Knight, who seems to take it for the original reading).—This speech, and all that follows to the end of the scene, excepting "Glo. Come, come, away," is omitted in the folio.

In my former edition I altered this (with Theobald) to "thought defiles:" see note 48 on The Two Gentlemen of Verona, vol. i. p. 332.

P. 310. (83)

66

"Be simple-answer'd,"

The old quarto reads ' Be simple answerer. Either is good sense: simple means plain." STEEVENS.

The old eds. have ". on him." But the Servant is evidently speaking of Cornwall and Regan; and "them" (and “em”) are often confounded with "him" by transcribers and printers: so afterwards in this play, p. 344, the folio has erroneously "I would have made him [the quartos rightly "them"] skip," &c. And compare what the other Servants say at the close of the present scene, "If this man come to good"-" If she live long," &c.

"I think with Mr. Tyrwhitt that Dr. Johnson's conjecture ["unknown"] is well founded." MALONE. And so Mr. Collier's Ms. Corrector.

Pope printed" Our mean secures us," Mr. Collier's Ms. Corrector substitutes "Our wants secure us," Mr. Singer (Shakespeare Vindicated, &c. p. 272) proposes" Our needs secure us ;" and Walker (Crit. Exam. &c. vol. iii. p. 281) is confident that Johnson's conjecture, “Our maims secure us," is the right reading. In some remarks on this passage (Notes and Queries, vol. xii. p. 98), Mr. Arrowsmith says; "I affirm that not only is means or meanes the right reading, but secures is so likewise; that is, I affirm the correctness of the two first folios in both these words." Now I, in my turn, "affirm" that neither the first nor the second folio has "secureS;" they both agree with the other old eds. in reading "secure."

Rowe printed "Tis the time's plague." But compare Sec. Part of King Henry IV., "The times are wild," act i. sc. 1; "to dignify the times,” ibid. ; 66 as the times do brawl," act i. sc. 3; "the visage of the times," act ii. sc. 3: King John, "the times conspire with you," act iii. sc. 4: The Merchant of Venice, "the chaff and ruin of the times," act ii. sc. 8.

Walker (Crit. Exam, &c. vol. ii. p. 249) proposes " as Obidicut, of lust."

The quartos have "the" and "this."-The present speech, and indeed the greater portion of the dialogue between Albany and Goneril, is omitted in the folio.

P. 318. (92) "The Marshal of France, Monsieur La Far."

Here "Marshal" is usually altered to "Mareschal" (see note 126 on The First Part of King Henry VI. vol. v. p. 98); and "La Far" to "Le Fer," because there is in King Henry V. act iv. sc. 4, a common soldier of the latter name, whom Pistol threatens to fer, firk, and ferret.-The whole of this scene is omitted in the folio.

Theobald's correction.-The quartos have "I say she."-See the preceding note.

Pope's correction.—The quartos have "streme.”—See note 92.

The quartos have "way;" which, though retained and defended by Delius, cannot be right.—I prefer, on the whole, the reading in the text to the other modern alteration, "May."-See note 92.

P. 318. (96) "As pearls from diamonds dropt.—In brief, sorrow" "I think Shakespeare wrote 'In brief, sir, sorrow'." Walker's Crit. Exam. &c. vol. ii. p. 255. An insertion made long ago.

P. 318. (97)

"There she shook

The holy water from her heavenly eyes,

And clamour moisten'd: then away she started

To deal with grief alone."

The quartos have " And clamour moistened her, then away she started," &c. -See note 92.-Theobald, at Warburton's suggestion, printed

"There she shook

The holy water from her heavenly eyes;

And, clamour-motion'd, then away she started," &c.

Walker (Crit. Exam, &c. vol. i. p. 157) bids us write

"There she shook

The holy water from her heavenly eyes

And clamour-moisten'd (luctu madentes): then away she
started," &c.

Mr. Grant White gives

"There she shook

The holy water from her heavenly eyes;

And, clamour-moisten'd, then away she started," &c.

The quartos have "femiter;" the folio has "Fenitar.”

So Hanmer. The quartos have "hoar-docks" and "hor-docks;" the_folio "Hardokes."-Farmer would read "harlocks" (a plant mentioned by

has

Drayton).

P. 322. (100)

"The folios give

"the murmuring surge,

That on th' unnumber'd idle pebbles chafes,"

'The murmuring Surge,

That on th' vnnumbred idle Pebble chafes,'

while Steevens's reprint of the quarto reads 'peebles chafe.' Perhaps 'pebbles chafe' is the true reading, and 'surge' consequently a plural. The ordinary reading, 'pebbles chafes,' which sounds awkward even to modern ears, would have been still more offensive to those of our ancestors." Note by Lettsom,Walker's Shakespeare's Versification, &c. p. 268.

Which means, I believe, "Ten masts joined each to the other,"-has given rise to sundry bad conjectural emendations.

P. 324. (102) "To say 'ay' and 'no' to every thing that I said !—‘Ay' and 'no' too was no good divinity."

The following reading was suggested to Pye by a friend; "To say 'ay' and 'no' to every thing [that] I said 'ay' and 'no' to was no good divinity."

P. 325. (103) "When I do stare, see how the subject quakes!” "I think Shakespeare wrote quake. Subject, more prisco, meaning, not subjectus but subjecti; as we say the elect, the reprobate. Old writers passim; indeed the usage occurs as late as Burke." Walker's Crit. Exam. &c. vol. i. p. 246.

P. 326. (104)

66

Through tatter'd clothes small vices do appear ;" The quartos have "through tattered ragges small vices," &c.-The folio has "Thorough tatter'd cloathes great Vices," &c.

The folio has " Place sinnes."-From these words to "accuser's lips" inclusive is only in the folio.

Here I follow Walker (Shakespeare's Versification, p. 80) in altering “This” to" This," the contraction of "This is," which the folio has in Measure for Measure, act v. sc. 1.-After these words an interrogation-point or an exclamation-point is usually put, in opposition to the old eds.-" Upon the king's saying, 'I will preach to thee,' the poet seems to have meant him to pull off his hat, and keep turning it and feeling it, in the attitude of one of the preachers of those times (whom I have seen so represented in ancient prints), till the idea of felt, which the good hat or block was made of, raises the stratagem in his brain of shoeing a troop of horse with a substance soft as that which he held and moulded between his hands. This makes him start from his preachment.-Block anciently signified the head part of the hat, or the thing on which a hat is formed, and sometimes the hat itself." STEEVENS, —who borrowed this explanation from Capell.—Mr. Collier's Ms. Corrector substitutes ""Tis a good plot."

The folio has "haue Surgeons."-The quartos read "haue a chirurgeon."

66

P. 327. (108) Ay, and for laying autumn's dust."

So the quartos, except that they omit "for."-These words are not in the folio.

P. 328. (109)

"made tame to fortune's blows;"

So the folio. The quartos have "made lame by fortunes blowes" (which Malone considers to be the right reading, because in our author's xxxviith Sonnet we find "So I, made lame by fortune's dearest spite," &c.).

P. 329. (111) "O undistinguish'd space of woman's will!” The quartos have "O vndistinguisht space of womans wit:" the first folio has "Oh indinguish'd space of Womans will;" the second and third folios have "Of indinguish'd space of Womans will;" and the fourth folio has "Of indistinguish'd space of Womans will.”—The reading of the quartos,