lume has to be considered an important accession to the means of correcting the text of our great poet; and at the same time pointing out the mischief which might arise from reliance upon the claim set up for it, from a sense of duty, and of heartfelt gratitude to that “ myriad-minded" being, whose magic pages have been the delight of my youth, and the solace of my declining years; of whose transcendent productions it may be said, in his own words, Age cannot wither, nor custom stale the infinite variety." And I feel assured, that if I have succeeded in removing a few of the spots which threatened to obscure his radiant language, my time will not have been misspent.

66

Mickleham, May 5th, 1858.

Thy book,

When brass and marble fade, shall make thee look

Fresh to all ages; WHEN POSTERITY

SHALL LOATH WHAT'S NEW

THAT IS NOT SHAKESPEARE'S EVERY LINE AND VERSE.

L. Digges.

CALIFORNIA

SHAKESPEARE VINDICATED.

P. 2.

THE TEMPEST..

ACT I. SCENE II.

HE sky, it seems, would pour down stinking pitch,
But that the sea, mounting to the welkin's cheek,
Dashes the fire out.

The correctors would substitute heat for cheek. This is quite
wrong and unwarrantable, (indeed Mr. Collier seems to have
his misgivings) for we have "the welkin's face" and "hea-
ven's face" elsewhere. I am persuaded we should read
flaming instead of ftinking; "dashes the fire out" then
follows naturally. In the old copies fl and ft have been else-
where confounded.

P. 6.

They all have met again,

And are upon the Mediterranean Flote,
Bound sadly home for Naples.

Mr. C. says, "In order to make the sense grammatical, it has
been necessary to consider 'flote' a substantive, from the
Fr. flot a wave." The misprint of' are' for all near the be-
ginning of the second line has led to this imaginary introduc-
tion of a foreign and affected word into our language, when
it was never contemplated by Shakespeare. The reading, as
given in manuscript in the corrected folio, 1632, is,

They all have met again,

And all upon the Mediterranean float,

Bound sadly back to Naples.

Float,' in fact, is a verb, used by every body, and not a substantive, used by no other English writer."

The question is not whether " Flote" is used by any other English writer, but whether Shakspeare used it. There is good evidence to conclude that he did; it is printed with a

B

capital letter as a substantive in both the first and the second folio, and has never been doubted. It may not be from the French, as Mr. Collier asserts, but more probably from the Anglo-Saxon. The poet would not have written as the corrector makes him do, "They ALL have met again, and all upon the Mediterranean float." Interference with the old genuine text is therefore not to be tolerated for a moment.

P. 9.

ACT II. SCENE I.

And the fair soul herself
Weigh'd, between lothness and obedience, at
Which end o' the beam she'd bow.

The corrector would read

And the fair soul herself

Weigh'd between lothness and obedience, as
Which end o' the beam should bow.

Again, unnecessary interference, which gives an awkward reading much less intelligible than the received one. The old copy has should, the old construction of she would, and properly given by Malone she'd. The passage should stand as it does in all recent editions, even in Mr. Collier's, who has a note defending it.

SCENE II.

P. 10. Another wanton interference with the text would change "the dregs of the storm," for "the drench of the storm." The poet never uses drench in the sense here assumed, and dregs is the more expressive word. We may confidently read" till the dregs of the storm be past."

ACT III. SCENE I.

P. 11. The proposed reading in Ferdinand's soliloquy of "Most busy-blest when I do it," is the very worst and most improbable of all that have been suggested. I believe nothing better has yet been proposed than my own reading, “Most busiest." See Notes and Queries, vol. ii. p. 260.

ACT IV. SCENE I.

P. 12. The substitution of "tilled brims for "twilled brims" was long since suggested and rejected; the old read

ing being perfectly intelligible. To read brown grovės" instead of "broom groves" is equally inadmissible. Mr. Collier's objection that "broom-trees are seldom found in groves will have no weight with those who recollect that it has given its name Broomgrove to several places in England. Evelyn tells us that the Spanish broom "in the western parts of France, and with us in Cornwall grows to an incredible height."

P. 15.

ACT V. SCENE I.

Whe'r thou beest he, or no,
Or some enchanted trifle to abuse me,
As late I have been, I not know.

"The word trifle,” says Mr. C. “ seems a most strange one to be employed in such a situation, and it reads like a misprint: the manuscript-corrector of the folio, 1632, informs us that it undoubtedly is so, and that the line in which it occurs ought

to run,

Or some enchanted DEVIL to abuse me.

Sebastian just afterwards declares of Prospero, that 'the devil speaks in him.""

Think of an enchanted devil! This is surely to indulge the pruritus emendandi without bounds, or consideration for the Poet. The enchanted trifle was what he makes Prospero in a future Scene call "some vanity of mine art." Not a devil certainly.

P. 18.

THE

TWO GENTLEMEN OF VERONA.

ACT I. SCENE I.

HE throwing part of Speed's speech into rhyme by the arbitrary insertion of words might be an allowable license in a player in old times, for effect on the stage, but would be an unwarrantable license in an Editor at any time.

The same may be said of the liberties taken in "restoring rhyme to some of Lucetta's replies to her mistress. But the work is performed in so clumsy a manner as to vindicate the poet from such inane expressions as are interpolated for the purpose.