Page 15 (Act I. Scene i.) "Our isle be made a nourish of salt tears." "Our isle be made a martih of salt tears."—Pope. And in support of tbls reading, Ritson quotes, from "The Spanish Tragedy," this line: "Made mountains marBh with spring-tide of my tears." Pago 18 (Act I. Scene i.) "The king from eltham I intend to send, And sit at chlefest stern of public weal." "Send," In the folio: the rhyme proposed by Mason, and confirmed in the Perkins folio. Puc. Page 22 (Act I. Scene ii.) "Here is my keen-edged sword Decked with wine flower-de-luces on each side." An easy misprint for five. Holinshed states that fire flowerde-luces were graven on each side of the sword of Joan of Arc. Page 28 (Act I. Scene It.) "So piled-esteemed." "So rife-esteemed," the more common reading. Page GO (Act III. Scene ii.) "Warlike and martial Talbot."—This seems a tautology. "Warlike and matchless Talbot."—Perkins folio. Page 89 (Act V. Scene iii.) "Ay; beauty's princely majesty is such, and makes the senses rough.-Folio. and makes the senses crouch.—Han. Confounds the tongue, and mofla the 9enscs' touch.-Perk. and wakes the senses' touch."--Sing. The reader must choose amongst these four lections. prefer Hanmer's. Page 96 (Act V. Scene iv.) "Boiling choler chokes The hollow passage of my poisoned voice." Read prisoned, with Pope. We KING HENRY VI. PART SeCOND. Page 114 (Act I. Scene i.) "And hath his highness in his infancy [Been] crowned in Paris, In despite of foes?" Been is the addition of Steevens, in order to make out the sense. Mr Grant White has suggested a much more trifling change—namely, had for hath. The whole passage will then read: "Or hath mine Uncle Beaufort and myself, How Prance and Frenchmen might be kept in awe, And had his highness in bis infancy And shall these labours and these honours die?" "Have we studied so long, and sat in the council-house, and had his highness crowned in Parisi and shall these labours die!" Pago 122 (Act I. Scene iii.) "And then we may deliver our supplications in the quill." —This seems plain enough; but both Mr Dyce and Mr Singer insist on it that the true reading is "in the quail;" that is, coil or confusion. Page 159 (Act III. Scene i.) "Liko a sharp-quilled porcupine."—Porpentine ia the word used by Shaksperc throughout, and is as much entitled to respect as any of the other obsolete forms which we find in his writings. In the "Comedy of Errors," Mr Knight himself has preserved the form—Porpentine. Page 163 (Act III. Scene ii.) "Erect his statue then, and worship it." Then is not in the original, but added by the editors to supply a supposed halt in the metre. They have overlooked that "statue" in the old writers is often a trisyllable. There are, in fact, three forms of the word-statue, statua, and stature. Page 164 (Act III. Scene ii.) Upon his face an ocean of salt tears." Rain—Steevena, and the Perkins folio. Page 171 (Act III. Scene li.) "Live thou to joy thy life; no Myself{ joy in nought, but that thou liv'st." to To, in the Perkins folio. Page 175 (Act IV. Scene I.) "The lives of those which wo have lost In fight The See Note. Mr Knight's interpretation is ingenious. "Can lives of those," &c. VOL. VI. 2 c Page 194 (Act IV. Scene viii.) "Or let a rabble lead you to your deaths?" "Or let a rebel lead you to your deaths?"—Perkins folio. Page 228 (Act I. Scene i.) "Henry of Lancaster, resign thy crown." "Henry of Lancaster, resign the crown."—Singer. York, all through the scene, denies that the crown is Henry's. Page 250 (Act II. Scene ii.) "And this soft courage." "And this soft carriage."—Monck Mason and Perkins. Page 259 (Act II. Scene v.) "And so ohsequious will thy father be, "Men for the loss of thee," in the folio. of thee."—Dycet and the Perkins folio. "Een for the loss Page 264 (Act III. Scene i.) "Let me embrace these sour adversities." This is Pope's emendation of the original: "Let me embrace the sour adversaries." But Is not Mr Dyce's proposition worth attending to? "Let me embrace thee, sour adversity." Page 300 (Act IV. Scene viii.) "Waterflowing tears." "Bitterflowing tears," Perkins folio. Plausible, but not preferable to the original. RICHARD III. Page 329 (Act I. Scene i.) "That tempers him to this extremity."—Quarto. "That tempts him to this harsh extremity."--Folio. As throughout the play Mr Knight accepts the text of the folio as the best, it is difficult to understand on what principle he refuses the reading of the folio in the present passage. Evidently there is no printer's mistake here; and the only reason why an editor can insert the line of the quartos into the text is, that he individually likes it better, and thinks Shakspere unhappy in his correction. Page 347 (Act I. Scene iii.) "Bottled spider." "Bottle spider."—Perkins folio. Page 385 (Act III. Scene iii.) "Make haste, the hour of death is expiate." Read expirate, with Steevens. Page 383 (Act III. Scene iv.) "That harlot strumpet Shore." Mr Dyce rejects the comma, and adduces evidence to show that harlot is an adjective, not a substantive, in this passage. Page 399 (Act III. Scene vii.) Buck. "Come, citizens, we will entreat no more. Glo. O, do not swear, my lord of Buckingham." The latter line, as here printed, Is an enigma, Buckingham not having sworn in the speech just concluded. It does not occur in the first folio; but the editor, unwilling to lose a most characteristic speech in the quarto, which Shakspere seems to have purposely struck out, inserted it in the present text —although it is not to be found in Mr Knight's previous editions of the play. In adopting the line, however, from the quarto, the conclusion of Buckingham's speech should also have been borrowed from that text: "Come, citizens: Zounds, I'11 entreat no more. Qlo. O, do not swear, my lord of Buckingham." |