manuscript in the folio, 1632, can be considered at all conclusive, the difference is at an end: it is there printed. "bait" in both instances, and in both instances bay is substituted in the manuscript.

Another emendation of some interest is made in a celebrated passage in the quarrel-scene between Brutus and Cassius. The latter has said,

"I am a soldier, I,

Older in practice, abler than yourself

To make conditions."

Brutus afterwards makes this calm remark:

"You say, you are a better soldier:

Let it appear so; make your vaunting true,

And it shall please me well. For mine own part,

I shall be glad to learn of noble men."

Cassius had said nothing about "noble men," and his reply to the above has reference to what he did actually utter:

"You wrong me every way; you wrong me, Brutus ;

I said an older soldier, not a better."

His word had been "abler," not noble, nor nobler; and in order to make the retort of Brutus apply to what Cassius had asserted, Brutus unquestionably ought to say,—

"For mine own part,

I shall be glad to learn of abler men."

"Noble" is struck through by the old corrector, and abler inserted in the place of it; whether upon any other authority than apparent fitness must remain doubtful.

P. 75. A question arising in council, whether the forces of Brutus and Cassius should march to meet the enemy, or wait for him, Brutus urges the former course, and Cassius the latter. Brutus contends that if they delay, the enemy will be strengthened and refreshed as he advances:

"The enemy, marching along by them,

By them shall make a fuller number up,
Come on refresh'd, new-added, and encourag'd."

The corrector of the folio, 1632, implies by his proposed change, that "new-added" is merely a repetition of what is said in the preceding line "by them shall make a fuller number up"-and he inserts a word instead of “added,”

which is not only more forcible, but more appropriate, and which we may very fairly suppose had been misheard by the scribe:

"By them shall make a fuller number up,

Come on refresh'd, new-hearted, and encourag'd."

This error might be occasioned by the then broad pronunciation of "added" having been mistaken for hearted.

P. 77. The printer of the folio, 1632, blunderingly transposed two lines, spoken by Brutus to the drowsy Lucius. The error has not been noticed, that we are aware of, and we only mention it, to state that it is corrected in manuscript: nothing of the kind seems to have escaped attention. When Lucius, after singing, falls asleep, and when Brutus takes his book, the circumstances are duly noted in the margin.

ACT V. SCENE I.

P. 81. Octavius, in his interview with Brutus and Cassius, declares that he will never sheathe his sword,

“Till Cæsar's three and thirty wounds

Be well aveng'd; or till another Cæsar

Have added slaughter to the sword of traitors."

Steevens subjoined what he considered a parallel passage from "King John," Act II. Scene II. :

"Or add a royal number to the dead,

With slaughter coupled to the name of kings."

There is certainly some resemblance, but it is stronger when the quotation from "Julius Cæsar" is printed as the old corrector advises :

"Or till another Cæsar

Have added slaughter to the word of traitor."

Octavius terms Brutus a traitor, and threatens to add slaughter to the word, in the same way that slaughter, in "King John," was to be coupled "to the name of kings." This emendation seems only plausible, and we may not be disposed to insist upon it.

P. 82. So with the next emendation, where Cassius informs Messala,

"Coming from Sardis, on our former ensign

Two mighty eagles fell."

For "former ensign," we are told to read "forward ensign," which is probably right, although "former" need not necessarily be displaced, and may be understood as foremost. The ensign being described as in front, at the head of the army, the copyist may have misheard, and therefore miswritten "former" for forward.

Near the bottom of this page we are told to read term for time," and those for "some:" it is where Brutus declares against suicide,—

"But I do find it cowardly and vile,

For fear of what might fall, so to prevent

The term of life,-arming myself with patience,
To stay the providence of those high powers,
That govern us below."

The above unquestionably reads better than as the text has been ordinarily given: to "prevent the term of life" means, as Malone states, to anticipate the end of life; but still he strangely persevered in printing "time" for term.

P. 89. The folio, 1632, omits "word" in the following:

"And see whe'r Brutus be alive or dead,
And bring us word unto Octavius' tent."

The line stands correctly in the folio, 1623, and perhaps from thence the emendator derived "word;" but the vacancy seems almost to supply itself. The second folio is as carelessly printed here as in many other places; and not long afterwards (p. 90) "in" was omitted, or allowed to drop out: Brutus, just before he runs on his own sword, and after he has shaken hands severally (these stage-directions, like others, are only in manuscript) with his countrymen, observes,—

"My heart doth joy that yet, in all my life,
I found no man but he was true to me."

The folio, 1632, alone has "that yet all my life :" "in" is necessary to the metre, though, as far as the absolute meaning is concerned, it might possibly be spared. It is written in the margin.

P. 91. In Antony's brief character of Brutus, at the close of the tragedy, we meet with two material variations pointed out by the old corrector, which merit notice, and perhaps adoption: the passage has hitherto appeared as follows:"All the conspirators, save only he,

Did that they did in envy of great Cæsar;

He, only, in a general honest thought

And common good to all, made one of them."

It must, we think, be admitted that the last two lines are improved if we read them as, we are told, they ought to be amended:

"He only, in a generous honest thought

Of common good to all, made one of them."

"A general honest thought and common good to all," is at least tautology; and to say that Brutus was actuated by "a generous honest thought of common good to all” (i. e. a thought worthy of his rank and blood) is consistent with the disinterested nobility of his character, and an admission that might be expected from his great adversary. It is hardly requiring too much, in such a case, to suppose that the scribe misheard generous, and wrote general; but the propriety of introducing the change into the very intelligible text is a matter of discretion. Generous, in the sense of magnanimous, was of rather later use in our language.

MACBETH.

ACT I. SCENE I.

P. 101. Although, as is stated in note 5, "quarry quarry" (so printed in the old copies) affords an obvious meaning, we find the old corrector substituting for it a word sounding very like it, for which it might be mistaken, and which, in fact, Johnson proposed. The line is as follows, and it relates to the rebellion of Macdonwald, who, having supplied himself with kerns and gallowglasses from the Western Isles, for a time had been successful:

"And fortune on his damned quarry smiling."

While they continued triumphant the rebels could hardly be called a "quarry," unless by anticipation; and the corrector of the folio, 1632, introduces this alteration:

"And fortune on his damned quarrel smiling."

Malone, who was well disposed to adopt the language of the early editions, here deserted them (mainly on the ground that at the end of this play, "quarrel" is used in the same way for the cause of quarrel), and this without any confirmatory authority, such as we now possess.

P. 102. When Ross enters suddenly, with tidings of the victory by Macbeth and Banquo over the Norwegians, Lenox observes,

"What a haste looks through his eyes!

So should he look, that seems to speak things strange."

Various commentators have here seen the difficulty of making Ross "seem to speak things strange" before he had spoken at all: it was, therefore, suggested that teems was the word

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