been able to comprehend it, we should not have been troubled with this erroneous piece of meddling. P. 325. The addition of the syllable ness, in the following passage, may perhaps make it accord with modern notions; but had there been any doubt that the poet wrote"of an earthy cold," it would not have escaped the editor of the second folio, who frequently adds a syllable or word on account of the metre. We may, therefore, confidently continue to read: How long her face is drawn! How pale she looks, The reader will no doubt recollect-" the earthy and cold hand of death," in Hotspur's last speech. In the phraseology of Shakespeare we have similar substitutions frequently elsewhere. ACT V. SCENE I. P. 326. The meddling change of to for "you" is abandoned by Mr. Collier himself; and the substitution of ground for "good," in the line of Cranmer's speech, The good I stand on is my truth and honesty— is Johnson's proposition revived, which had long since been properly repudiated both by Steevens and Malone, but it serves with the next to swell the list of coincidences. SCENE II. Ib. The adoption of Monck Mason's suggestion of culpable for "capable,” in the passage, is another coincidence, which Mr. Collier now thinks is "what was necessary," although, in 1842, he found the old reading perfectly intelligible ! Ib. The substitution of strives for "stirs," in Cranmer's speech, would be high treason against a nervous Shakesperian expression. Strives against would be poor in place of stirs against, which occurs elsewhere, as in K. Richard II. To stir against the butchers of his life. The old reading had never yet been questioned. SCENE III. P. 327. The last of the corrector's doing in this play is ingenious, if it should be thought necessary to diminish the quaint and humorous rhodomontade of this would-be popular wit, and make him speak consistently in sober sadness. But I must confess I should part with the chine unwillingly, although I have no objection to the crown. Let any impartial judge read the Porter's-man's next speech, and decide whether that acute nonsense, which Barrow has told us is one species of wit, may not be here intended by Shakespeare? P. 329. TROILUS AND CRESSIDA. HE adoption of “ THE PROLOGUE. sparre up the sons of Troy," from Theobald, instead of the misprint " stirre," is, of course, another coincidence; but Mr. Collier's assertion, that "the proper orthography is sperr," is quite wrong, and Spenser doubtful authority. The word is from the A. s. sparran, and is properly sparre or spar, as given by Skelton, Warner, and most old authorities; among others, in the lines from The Cobbler of Canterbury, 1590, cited by Mr. Collier himself, and from whence he imagines Shakespeare may have received the hint for the use of it. ACT I. SCENE I. P. 330. The adoption of Rowe's corrections of when for "then," and storm for "scorn," are more coincidences, and but for this might have been passed over unnoticed. Ib. The interpolation of his in the words " a proper man of person," was entirely unnecessary, as Mr. Collier confesses. The insertion of the word see, in "You shall see Troilus anon," had been made in all editions, time out of mind. SCENE II. Ib. How the correctors came to blunder in copying Mr. Harness in his excellent emendation of Cressida's maxim— Achiev'd men us command; ungain'd beseech, is little to their credit; for still is a much less likely and effective word than us, for which is might easily have been a misprint. The line being in italics, with inverted commas, in the old copies, is evidently a quotation. That the corrector has "been at a feast of commentators, and stolen the scraps," is evident, for "no man's pie is freed from his ambitious finger! P. 331. The alteration of "works" to wrecks, in the following passage: Why then you princes, Do you with cheeks abash'd behold our works, And call them shames. has, it must be confessed, some appearance of probability, and would be a good conjectural correction of a misprint very likely to occur; wracks, as written, might easily be taken for works, and yet works may have been the poet's word. SCENE III. Ib. Beside the obvious corrections which had been made in all editions, of sway for the misprint "may," and godlike for "godly," the correctors adopt Hanmer's correction of replies for "retires," in preference to Pope's returns. These coincidences, of course, are noticed to augment the catalogue of the corrector's astounding deeds. I will here take occasion to observe, that a trifling misprint has hitherto been suffered to remain, to the injury of a fine passage, which the change of a single letter, merely reading ether for other, renders translucent. It is in the speech o Ulysses : The heavens themselves, the planets, and this center, Insisture, course, proportion, season, form, Had the correctors possessed better authorities than have come down to us, other would hardly have been suffered to remain, "Amidst the other," is surely not what the poet wrote. The classical reader will be reminded of a passage in the Somnium Scipionis:-" Medium fere regionem SOL obtinet, dux et princeps, et moderator luminum reliquiorum, mens mundi, et temperator," &c.; and of the lines of Lucretius on Epicurus, which have been applied to Shakespeare: Qui genus humanum superavit et omneis Restinxit, stellas exortus uti ætherius SOL. P. 331. "A mistake in the second great speech of Ulysses, where he is referring to the mimicry, by Patroclus, of the chiefs of the Grecian army : And in this fashion, All our abilities, gifts, natures, shapes, "fell under the ridicule of Achilles: here the words, ' of grace exact,' seem wrong, although always so printed, because the complaint was, that they were not of grace exact,' but grossly caricatured. Therefore the corrector of the folio, 1632, thus altered the expression to a form much more in accordance with the context: Severals and generals, all grace extract; "¿. e. deprived of all the grace which really belonged to the persons Patroclus imitated. This appears to be an important improvement of the received text; but is certainly one which did not require resort to any independent authority, inasmuch as close attention to what must have been the meaning of the author, may have led to the detection of the error." A little more "close attention" to the defects of this passage was necessary to give the true meaning of the poet, and had the correctors followed "better authority than we possess," perhaps they would have found it stand thus : And in this fashion, All our abilities, gifts, natures, shapes, As stuff for these two to make paradoxes. It is evident that are, instead of all, is necessary to the construction of the passage, and the necessity to omit the word of is obviated. Yet the passage as it stands in the old copies may be explained, " all our individual and accomplishments, and becoming characteristics are stuff to make paradoxes, are materials for caricature." I may as well mention that an error, in the next speech by Nestor, has escaped the correctors, as well as all who have preceded or followed them. Ajax is grown self-will'd, and bears his head In such a rein, in full as proud a place [read pace] As broad Achilles. P. 332. The substitution of soul-pure for "sole pure," in the following passage of the speech of Æneas, is not necessary to the perfect intelligence of it; the sole transcendently pure praise is that yielded unwillingly by an enemy. The worthiness of praise distains his worth, If that the prais'd himself bring the praise forth; But what the repining enemy commends That breath fame blows; that praise sole pure transcends. Where perfect sense is afforded by the old reading, we must have more undoubted authority before we admit innovation. And although Mr. Collier thinks sole pure a poor expression," it was most probably that of the poet. |