and needed no mention here, for it has long been the received text. P. 238. The omission of this day, on account of the metre, in the following lines, I hold as little counsel with weak fear, As you, my lord, or any Scot that this day lives. was long since made by Steevens, and restored by Mr. Collier in his edition! Two other substitutions of with for and, and due for well, are mere capricious alterations of the text, without the slightest warrant or necessity. ACT V. SCENE I. Of the insertion of say in Worcester's speech the same may be said, and the restoration from the 4to of the deficient word your, in the last line of the King's speech, had been made time out of mind in all editions. SCENE II. P. 239. The palpable error of supposition for suspicion has also been corrected in all editions since Pope's time, as well as the evident misprint of he for we. Surely these trifles were scarcely worthy of notice but to swell the catalogue of happy coincidences ! Ib. "The last four lines of Percy's address are these, as always hitherto printed :— Sound all the lofty instruments of war, "Warburton was of opinion that the poet meant that the odds were so great, that heaven might be wagered against earth, that many present would never embrace again. This is a mistake, according to the manuscript-corrector: Hotspur calls heaven and earth to witness to the improbability that some of those present would ever have an opportunity of regreeting each other:— Fore heaven and earth, some of us never shall I must confess I cannot see what we gain by this alteration. The objection still remains of an idle imprecation, which would not have entered Hotspur's mind at such a solemn moment. In May 1852, I suggested the following reading, which I have reason to know has been admitted, by many competent judges, to redeem this fine passage, and restore to it the true expression of heroic pathos which it was intended to breathe, Sound all the lofty instruments of war, And by that music let us all embrace; The words heaven to earth and here on earth were easily mistaken for each other in old manuscript, and the page preceding that on which the error occurs in the folio has a much stranger misreading. P. 239. For, The King hath many marching in his coats: the corrector would read:— The King hath many masking in his coats. "The old This is specious; but, as Mr. Collier himself says, reading is intelligible, and does not positively require change." Why then propose it? P. 240. The reading of the quartos "earthy" instead of the earth of the folios, has been that of all editions, time out of mind, and therefore nothing new; and the substitution of which for since, and the omission of it in the line of Worcester's last speech, were neither of them called for. P.241. The following lines are not in the folios. The corrector writes them in the margin I thank your grace for this high courtesy, but with this substitution, Which I shall put in act without delay. Upon which Mr. Collier observes, "This variation may induce the belief that the corrector had access to some authority independent of any of the printed copies of this play, whether in quarto or folio; although not a few of his emendations, as we have seen, correspond with the earliest and some other quartos, which had been abandoned by the folios." The variation induces no such belief; for the corrector shows on all occasions that he thought he could improve upon the language of Shakespeare. "Not a few" indeed of the so called emendations of the corrector are adoptions of such readings as have been supplied by successive editors from the earlier quartos. It would be wonderful, truly, if he should have fortunately hit upon the very copies which furnished these readings on all occasions. It leads to the conclusion that we owe these corrections to some comparatively recent hand, who adopted them from one of the variorum editions. SECOND PART OF KING HENRY IV. INDUCTION. P. 242. The very first two corrections in the Induction to this play, mentioned by Mr. Collier, are merely the readings of misprints, which have been adopted silently in all editions, even Mr. Collier's and Mr. Knight's. In fact, the first folio has surmises. Why it was necessary to mention these, but for the purpose of swelling the catalogue of the corrector's coincidences, I cannot conceive. Mr. Collier judiciously says, "We may doubt the fitness of changing peasant-towns, as printed with a hyphen in the folios, to pleasant towns." He adds, however, "but it may be right, and it ought, therefore, to be mentioned!" Does Mr. Collier think it necessary to mention all the crudities of the corrector? His book would have consisted of but few pages, but would have been much more valuable, had he confined himself to the few corrections of evident errors, which were new to the world. ACT I. SCENE I. P. 243. Again! Why mention at all the correction of the palpable misprint of the folio able for armed; which had been set right from the 4to long since, in all editions, even in Mr. Knight's, who says very truly, that "the compositor caught the word able from the preceding line." But Mr. Collier's notion-" that if the corrector did not obtain the word from the quarto, he might have heard the passage accurately recited on the stage in his day, or possibly he used some independent but concurrent authority," explains his motive. Ib. The adoption of Theobald's reading of " rugged'st hour" for ragged'st hour, which had long been rejected, was not perhaps very judicious in the corrector, but may serve to show that he was acquainted at least with Theobald's edition, or some later one that adopted his reading, or mentioned it. SCENE II. P. 243. The reading "costermonger days," instead of costermonger times, and "about three of the afternoon," instead of "about three o'clock in the afternoon," are certainly no improvement upon the received reading of the quartos, adopted in all editions, but a capricious variation; perhaps Mr. Collier would say, " on authority unknown to us."! P. 244. The substitution of diseases for degrees in Falstaff's speech is a good and legitimate correction; which has also been made in my copy of the second folio. It was one which, although it has escaped the commentators, would be very likely to suggest itself to any one whose attention was especially directed to the numerous typographical errors that disfigure that book. SCENE III. P. 244. "Farther on, Lord Bardolph draws a parallel between the building of a house and the carrying on a war, which is obscured by the omission of a whole line, fortunately inserted in the margin by the old corrector. Our first extract is as it stands in the folios, and we will follow it by the same quotation as amended. The speaker is supposing that a man purposes at first to construct a dwelling, which he afterwards. finds beyond his means:— What do we then, but draw anew the model In fewer offices; or at least desist To build at all? Much more in this great work, We fortify in paper, and in figures, &c. "As amended by the old corrector, the same passage runs as follows: What do we then, but draw anew the model In fewer offices; or at last desist To build at all? Much more in this great work, (Which is almost to pluck a kingdom down And set another up) should we survey "That the furnishing of this new connecting line (to say nothing of verbal emendations, the first of which Steevens speculated upon) between Lord Bardolph's simile and its application, is an important improvement, although the question still returns upon us, from whence was it derived?" I unhesitatingly answer this question-Certainly from the perverse misapprehension of the passage by the corrector, whoever he may have been, and from his conceit that he could improve the language and thoughts of the poet. His interpolation mars entirely the integrity of the poet's simile, by introducing a new element, and interrupting its course; making what was before perfectly simple and consecutive, involved. The reading last for "least" may have been adopted |