ROMEO AND JULIET. ACT I. SCENE I. P. 375. A manuscript-emendation in the folio, 1632, makes it certain that "civil," in the following portion of Sampson's speech, is a misprint:-"When I have fought with the men, I will be civil with the maids; I will cut off their heads. "Civil" is struck out, and cruel inserted instead of it. lone rightly preferred cruel. Ma P. 378. The corrected folio, 1632, gives one line differently from any other authority: it is a reading which may be right, but which ought not, perhaps, to have weight enough to induce us to alter the received and very intelligible text. It is met with in the Prince's reproof of Montague and Capulet for allowing the quarrels of their followers to disturb the public peace; the universal reading has been,— "Three civil brawls, bred of an airy word," &c. For "ayery word" (so spelt in the folios) the substitution is angry word." P. 382. Romeo, describing love, remarks,— "Love is a smoke, made with the fume of sighs; Johnson, Steevens, Reed, and others, have contended that "purg'd" cannot have been the poet's language; and they suggest urg'd, in the sense of excited. This emendation might answer the purpose, if no better were offered, but in the margin of the folio, 1632, we are told to substitute a word that exactly belongs to the place, and that might be easily misread "purg'd" by the printer : "Being puff'd, a fire sparkling in lovers' eyes." Every body is aware how a fire sometimes sparkles in the eyes of those who blow it with their breath: the smoke is first "made" by the gentle "fume of sighs," and then caused to sparkle by being violently puffed by the lover's breath. If this emendation be capable of dispute, that in a line at the top of the next page cannot be doubted, since it accords, almost exactly, with the old copies, and obviously gives the sense of the author. Romeo is speaking of Rosaline, "She hath Dian's wit, And in strong proof of chastity well arm'd, From love's weak childish bow she lives unharm'd." Such has always been the reading since the time of Rowe; but the quarto, 1597, and the folios have,— "From loves weak childish bow she lives uncharm'd." "Unharm'd" may here again be said to answer the purpose, by giving a clear meaning; but the alteration required by the corrector of the folio, 1632, is only of a single letter, and a much more poetical turn is given to the thought: "She hath Dian's wit, And in strong proof of chastity well arm'd, From love's weak childish bow she lives encharm'd." That is to say, she was magically encharmed from love's bow by chastity. Nobody will deny that "unharm'd" is comparatively flat, poor, and insignificant. SCENE II. P. 384. The line, which in the folios is printed,— "And too soon marr'd are those so early made," had been given in the quartos, "And too soon marr'd are those so early married;" and that should seem to be the true proverbial word, for the old corrector adopts it, and expunges "made." SCENE IV. P. 395. He makes three emendations in Mercutio's description of Queen Mab, all deserving notice, if not adoption: the first is the most singular, where, of the Fairy's wagoner, it is said, in the folio, 1623, that he is not half so big as a worm, "Prick'd from the lazy finger of a man ;" and in the folio, 1632, "Prick'd from the lazy finger of a woman ;” while in the quarto, 1597, only, it stands,— "Pick'd from the lazy finger of a maid.” The modern reading has been compounded of both : "Prick'd from the lazy finger of a maid." From whence the writer of the manuscript note in the folio, 1632, derived his information we know not, but he presents us with a fifth variety: "Pick'd from the lazy finger of a milk-maid.” As might be expected, seven lines lower, he alters countries knees, of the same edition, to "courtiers' knees," and cursies to "courtesies;" but his emendation of the last line of the page,― "Sometime she gallops o'er a courtier's nose," merits most attention. It has been properly objected that this is the second time the poet has introduced "courtiers" into the description. To avoid this, Pope read "lawyer's nose," adopting in part the "lawyers lap" of the quarto, 1597 but while shunning one defect, he introduced another; for though the double mention of "courtiers" is thus remedied, it occasions a double mention of "lawyers." In what way, then, does the old corrector take upon himself to decide the question? He treats the second "courtiers" as a misprint for a word which, when carelessly written, is not very dissimilar: "Sometime she gallops o'er a counsellor's nose," That counsellors, and their interest in suits at court, should thus be ridiculed, cannot be thought unnatural. The third emendation is in the line, "And bakes the elf-locks in foul sluttish hairs," which is changed, more questionably and unpoetically, to "And makes the elf-locks," &c. P. 397. The quarto, 1597, when the wind is spoken of, alone has, "Turning his face to the dew-dropping south :" it is altered in all other old impressions to "Turning his side to the dew-dropping south;" and by the old corrector, more than plausibly, to "Turning his tide to the dew-dropping south." The modern reading has been, "Turning his face," &c. ; but as the quarto, 1597, has a decided mistake in the preceding line, we may receive "Turning his tide" as Shakespeare's language, though tide may more fitly and strictly belong to water than to wind. ACT II. SCENE I. P. 404. The Acts and Scenes (excepting the first) are not marked in any of the old impressions; and by a manuscript note in the folio, 1632, Act II. is made to begin before, and not after the Chorus. Such was, perhaps, the ancient arrangement, but the point, though requiring notice, is one of comparatively little consequence. The words in this page, "Nay, I'll conjure too," assigned in all the quartos and folios to Benvolio, clearly belong to Mercutio, and the prefix is, therefore, altered in manuscript in the edition of 1632. The blunder has, we think, never been repeated in modern times. SCENE II. P. 406. Romeo, speaking of the moon, and apostrophising Juliet, tells her, "Be not her maid, since she is envious; Her vestal livery is but sick and green, Here we meet in the folio, 1632, with an emendation that calls for explanation : "Her vestal livery is but white and green, And none but fools do wear it." The compositor perhaps caught "sick" from a line above, where Romeo describes the moon as "sick and pale;" "white and green" must be the true reading, as is proved by what follows, where it is said that it was worn by none but fools." "White and green" had been the royal livery in the reign of Henry VIII., but Elizabeth changed it to scarlet and black; and although motley was the ordinary dress of fools and jesters, it is capable of proof that, earlier than the time of Shakespeare, the fools and jesters of the court (and perhaps some others) were still dressed in "white and green:" thus it became proverbially the livery of fools. Will Summer (who lived until 1560, and was buried at Shoreditch on the 15th June in that year) wore "white and green," and the circumstance is thus mentioned in "Certain Edicts of Parliament," at the end of the edition of Sir Thomas Overbury's "Wife," in 1614:-"Item, no fellow shall begin to argue with a woman, &c., unless he wear white for William, and green for Summer"-that is, unless he be a fool, like Will Summer. Again, in Fox's "Acts and Monuments," iii. 114, a story is told of a person, who, noticing the colours in which St. John had been painted by the Papists in St. Paul's, said, "I hope ye be but a Summer's bird, in that ye be dressed in white and green." It appears also that Skelton (Works by Dyce, I. xii. and 128), who boasts of "the habit the king gave" him, wore "white and green," because he was the royal jester, though he also assumed the rank of laureat. In the time of Shakespeare it may have been discontinued as the dress even of court-fools, but it seems to have been traditionally so considered; and on this account it is stated by him that "none but fools do wear it." P. 407. For "lazy-pacing clouds," the old corrector (in conformity with the suggestion in note 8) converts lazypuffing of the folios into lazy-passing; and gives the line,— "Thou art thyself though not a Montague," |