but who can read the passage without seeing that here Shakespeare must have written "as I am"? (So in Midsummer-Night's Dream, act ii. sc. 1, "But when I call to mind your gracious favours Done to me, undeserving as I am,” &c.).— Again, the old text, "censure thus on" is strongly supported by the rejoinder of Julia, "Why not on Proteus," &c.-As to the imperfect rhyme, vide note (21). In most of the modern editions an interrogation-point is put after this sentence,-wrongly for "What fool is she" is equivalent to "What a fool is she” (as indeed the folio shows by having " What' foole," &c.). Several other examples of this phraseology occur in Shakespeare. The folio has no point after "set" but this speech of Lucetta is complete, though Julia is pleased to continue it, playing on the word "set." Mr. Collier's Ms. Corrector gives "you are so metamorphosed," &c.; an addition which Mr. Collier thinks absolutely necessary. Nevertheless, our old writers frequently omit the “so” in sentences of this kind. P. 100. (10) “O, that she could speak now like a wood woman !” The folio has "— a would-woman."-Theobald made the correction "wood," i.e. frantic (with grief). As to "she,"-Mason well observes, that Launce “uses the feminine pronoun in speaking of the shoe, because it is supposed to represent a woman.' P. 100. (11) vice, and the tied!" "Lose the tide, and the voyage, and the master, and the ser There is probably some corruption in this passage: it has been variously altered; but none of the alterations are satisfactory. P. 102. (12) "I know the gentleman To be of worth, and worthy estimation," &c. Mr. Collier's Ms. Corrector substitutes "To be of wealth, and worthy estima tion," &c. But, in the first place, the repetition "worth"-"worthy" is quite in Shakespeare's manner. Secondly, as far as concerns the sense, the alteration of "worth" to "wealth" is altogether unnecessary; for "worth" (whatever be its meaning in the present passage) is often used by our early writers as equivalent to “substance, wealth:” compare, 66 'They are but beggars that can count their worth; Romeo and Juliet, act ii. sc. 6. "This is the life of the Prigger, who trauailes vp and downe the whole kingdome vpon his geldings of 20 and 40 pound price, and is taken for a man of good worth by his outward shew," &c. Dekker's Belman of London, sig. G 2, ed. 1608. P. 102. (13) "Duke. You know him well? Val. I know him as myself," &c. The folio has " Val. I knew him as my selfe," &c.,-a stark error. (Just above we have, "Duke. Know ye Don Antonio, your countryman ? P. 103. (14) "Pro. That you are worthless. Enter a Servant. Serv. Madam, my lord your father would speak with you." The folio has, "Pro. That you are worthlesse. Thur. Madam, my Lord your father would speak with you." which is given by Mr. Collier and by Mr. Halliwell,-they having sent Thurio out immediately on the entrance of Proteus, and made him "re-enter" here: but Thurio, after what the Duke, in the presence of Silvia, had said to him about welcoming Proteus, would hardly run off the moment Proteus appeared. —Mr. Knight also adheres to the folio, and without having previously marked the exit of Thurio, who, he says, may now "be supposed to step to the door and receive a message,”—which is contrary to all stage-practice, ancient or modern.—That Theobald was right in assigning to a Servant “Madam, my lord your father would speak with you," is proved by the immediately following speech of Silvia, "I wait upon his pleasure. Come, Sir Thurio, Go with me." for the words, “I wait upon his pleasure,” are evidently not spoken to Thurio. (Let me add, that the folio erroneously prefixes "Thu." to the speech of Julia, p. 139, ""Tis true, such pearls," &c.)-As to the "exit" of Speed in this scene, Malone, Mr. Collier, and Mr. Knight, make him accompany Silvia and Thurio, when they go out to the Duke! and Mr. Halliwell sends him off earlier,—with Thurio, on the entrance of Proteus. But surely nothing can be plainer than that Speed does not leave the stage till the departure of his master, Valentine (p. 106). P. 106. (15) The folio has, “Is it her mien, or Valentinus' praise," &c. "It is mine, or Valentines praise ?" &c. which the editor of the second folio altered to Warburton reads, "Is it mine then, or Valentineans praise ?" &c. "Is it mine eye, or Valentino's praise," &c. Hanmer, "Is it mine eyne, or Valentino's praise," &c. Capell, "Is it mine own, or Valentino's praise," &c.— I have adopted Blakeway's conjecture,-not in perfect confidence that it is the true lection, but because it agrees better with the next line than the other emendations do; and let us remember that in The Merry Wives of Windsor, act i. sc. 3, the folio has, "the reuolt of mine [i.e. mien] is dangerous.”—The form "Valentinus" has occurred already, p. 93. P. 106. (16) "And that hath dazzled my reason's light," &c. To show that "dazzled” is used here as a trisyllable, Malone aptly cites from Drayton, "A diadem once dazeling the eye, The day too darke to see affinitie," &c. [Lady Jane Gray to Gilford Dudley,—England's Her. Epistles, p. 241, ed. 1619.] "If thou wilt go with me to the alehouse, so; if not," &c. The folio omits "so," which was properly added by the editor of the second folio. Mr. Collier's Ms. Corrector substitutes "the wide ocean." P. 114. (20) "There is a lady in Milano here," &c. The folio has "There is a Lady in Verona heere," &c.; which Pope altered to "There is a lady, sir, in Milan here," &c., observing that "the scene apparently is in Milan, as is clear from several passages in the first act, and in the beginning of the first scene of the fourth act. A like mistake has crept into the fifth scene of act ii. [p. 106], where Speed bids his fellow-servant Launce welcome to Padua :"-and Pope's reading has been usually adopted.- Mr. Halliwell prints "There is a lady of Verona here," &c., by which we are to understand "There is a lady belonging to Verona who is now in Milan," &c.— Some alteration being absolutely necessary, I have adopted, as far preferable to any other, that of Mr. Collier's Ms. Corrector. Nothing was more common than for poets to use different forms of the same name, as the metre might require. So, at p. 93 of this play, Valentine is called "Valentinus:" and in our author's Comedy of Errors, act v. sc. 1, we have both and, "I ne'er saw Syracusa in my life," "No, sir, not I; I came from Syracuse." So too Drayton, in the epistle From Henry Howard to the Lady Geraldine, has, "Which on the banke of goodly Thames doth stand," and, further on, "As goodly flowers on Thamesis doe grow." England's Her. Epistles, p. 228-9, ed. 1619. I may add, that Italian names, whether of persons or places, were quite as familiar to Englishmen in Shakespeare's time as they are at present:—indeed I believe I might say that the Italian language was then much more generally known among us than it is now-a-days. P. 114. (21) "Duke. But she did scorn a present that I sent her. Val. A woman sometime scorns what best contents her," &c. For the sake of a closer rhyme, Mason would read "—— what best content her," &c., i.e. "those gifts which best content her," &c. But I agree with Malone that, considering "the laxity of ancient rhymes," the original text ought to stand.-See note (°). P. 119. (24) 'Speed. [reads] Imprimis, She can milk.' Farmer would omit this, because "Launce clearly directs Speed to go on with P. 120. (25) “Item, She is not to be kissed fasting, in respect of her breath.” Missie Here the word "fasting" was supplied by Rowe; and since the commentators have not brought forward any passages from early authors to show that he was undoubtedly right in making that addition to the text, I subjoin one of the half-dozen which I could adduce:-in Webster's Duchess of Malfi, act ii. sc. 1, Bosola says to the Old Lady, "I would sooner eat a dead pigeon taken from the soles of the feet of one sick of the plague, than kiss one of you fasting." (In an earlier part of this play more than a single word has dropt out from the folio: see note (4).) P. 125. (2) "Or else I often had been miserable.” So the second folio.—The first folio has “Or else I often had beene often miserable." P. 126. (27) "An heir, and near allied unto the duke." The folio has "And heire and Neece, alide," &c.-In the third folio the line was partially amended,-"An heir, and Neice allide," &c.-Theobald altered Neece" to "near." 66 P. 126. (26) "Come, go with us, we'll bring thee to our cave, And show thee all the treasure we have got; Which, with ourselves, all rest at thy dispose." The folio has " we'll bring thee to our Crewes," &c.—I adopt the alteration of Mr. Collier's Ms. Corrector, which I feel confident is the right word, whatever be the number of Outlaws now on the stage:-"we'll bring thee to our cave, and show thee all the treasure which we have there laid up." And compare, p. 140, 66 Come, I must bring you to our captain's cave." P. 130. (29) "in his grave," &c. The folio has" in her grave," &c.-Corrected in the second folio. |