P. 238,

Making the wind my post-horse, still unfold
The acts commenced on this ball of earth," &c.
Sec. Part of Henry IV.,-Induction.

act i. sc. 2.

"What! I, that kill'd her husband, and his father,

To take her in her heart's extremest hate;
With curses in her mouth, tears in her eyes,

The bleeding witness of my hatred by,' &c.

The bleeding witness of My hatred by,] So the folio, and correctly: the 4tos. and modern editors have her hatred ;' but the corse of Henry VI. was the bleeding witness' of Gloster's hatred to the Lancastrian family."

6

The second of these lines proves as all editors except Mr. Collier have perceived that the reading of the folio "my hatred" is a gross misprint.

P. 244, act i. sc. 3.

Q. Eliz. As little joy, my lord, as you suppose
You should enjoy, were you this country's king,
As little joy you may suppose in me,

That I enjoy, being the queen thereof.

Q. Mar. A little joy enjoys the queen thereof;
For I am she, and altogether joyless."

[Aside.

Here Margaret ought assuredly to say, "As little joy enjoys the queen thereof," &c., a correction which first appeared in my edition of Shakespeare.

P. 305,-act iv. sc. 1.

"Now, for my life, she's wand'ring to the Tower,
On pure heart's love to greet the tender prince."

Read "to greet the tender princes,”—nor does the emendation require to be confirmed by what presently follows,"To gratulate the gentle princes there."

P. 337,-act v. sc. 2.

"The reckless, bloody, and usurping boar,

That spoil'd your summer fields, and fruitful vines,' &c.

The RECKLESS, bloody, and usurping boar,] Here, in the old copies, we have an instance of a misheard epithet, viz. wretched for 'reckless,' the word substituted in the corr. fo. 1632. Wretched could not have been Shakespeare's language, but 'reckless' is precisely adapted to the place and person, in reference to the indiscriminating character of Richard's, i. e. the boar's, slaughters: we have therefore inserted it in the text.”

6

When this very improper alteration was first published, Mr. Singer remarked on it as follows: "Mr. Collier can have 'read and studied the poet for nearly half a century' but to little purpose, if he really thinks reckless more appropriate' to Richard here than wretched. Shakespeare uniformly uses the word reckless in the sense of careless. . . That wretched is the word of the poet, and therefore the most 'appropriate' and undoubted, will appear from the use of it by Roderigo in Othello, when he receives his death-wound, and exclaims, 'Oh, wretched villain!' The corrector's meddling is therefore superfluous and mischievous." Shakespeare Vindicated, &c., p. 176.

P. 346,-act v. sc. 3.

“Methought, their souls, whose bodies Richard murder'd,
Came to my tent, and cried-On! victory!"

In printing "cried - On! victory!" Mr. Collier erroneously deviates from the old copies, which have "cried on victory."-Here in my edition of Shakespeare, vol. iv. 424, I have observed; "Compare, for the expression, "This quarry cries on havoc,' Hamlet, act v. sc. 2; and whose noise is this that cries on murder?' Othello, act v. sc. 1." (As I find these two passages cited by Mr. Staunton to illustrate “cried on victory," I may mention that Mr. Staunton's Richard III. did not appear till after the publication of my Shakespeare.)

P. 352,-act v. sc. 4.

666 Rebate the edge of traitors,' &c.

In every edition, ancient and modern, the text here has been, Abate the edge of traitors;' and, for the first time since this play was originally printed in 1597, the emendation of 'Rebate' for Abate was proposed in

our vol. of Notes and Emendations,' on the foundation of the corr. fo. 1632. The following quotation was also there made from 'Measure for Measure,' Act i. sc. 5 :—

'But doth rebate and blunt the natural edge," &c.

in order to support the change, which indeed could not be disputed," &c.

In his Supplemental Notes (vol. i. 272) Mr. Collier further remarks;

"The same blunder, abate for 'rebate' is made in the novel founded on Pericles, recently reprinted in Germany, p. 20, 1. 24, ‘Absence abates that edge that presence whets.' Here 'abates' ought to be rebates."

As in the opening speech of Love's Labour's lost,

“That honour which shall bate his scythe's keen edge,” &c. "bate" is manifestly the contraction of "abate," and equivalent to “rebate," so in the present passage of Richard III., and in that which Mr. Collier cites from the novel founded on Pericles (where he fancies he has discovered a misprint), "abate" is manifestly equivalent to "rebate."

KING HENRY VIII.

P. 366,-act i. sc. 1.

"What did this vanity,

But minister consummation of

A most poor issue?'

CONSUMMATION of

A most poor issue?] i. e. The accomplishment or attainment of a most poor result. The old printer misread consummation,' and, not attending to the sense of the passage, composed communication, which is struck out in the corr. fo. 1632, and 'consummation' written in the margin instead of it. The old text is little better than nonsense.'

66

The "consummation of an issue" is such language as, I apprehend, fo writer would think of using; and, moreover, consummation" cannot be right here because it utterly spoils the metre. (Mr. Staunton's explanation of the old reading, "But minister communication of," &c., is perhaps the true one-"But furnish discourse on the poverty of its result.")

P. 374,- act i. sc. 2.

""" and it's come to pass,

Their tractable obedience is a slave

To each incensed will.'

THEIR tractable obedience] It is This tractable obedience' in the folios; but just before we have had 'their duties,'' their curses,' 'their prayers,'

and it is evident that we should also read Their tractable obedience' with the corr. fo. 1632."

:

The lection of the old eds. ought to keep its place in our early writers, "this" (like "these," see p. 37- of the present volume) is sometimes little more than redundant.

P. 375,- act i. sc. 2. Here, in a note on the words, "Is run in your displeasure," Mr. Collier writes;

"We admit, however, that blunders were frequently made from the circumstance, that actors or others imperfectly pronounced the letter r. Thus in Webster's 'Appius and Virginia' (Edit. Dyce, ii. 160), this passage occurs in the old edition :

'Let not Virginia wate her contemplation
So high.'

All commentators have been unable to understand 'wate,' and have printed it in various fashions, but none the right. The actor, or the person who read to the scribe or the printer, could not pronounce the letter 1, and said 'wate' for rate: read rate, and nothing can be more comprehensible :

'Let not Virginia rate her contemplation
So high.'

She was not to value herself too much upon the importance of her contemplation."

Here, Mr. Collier, in the most unqualified manner, asserts what is untrue.

If the reader will turn to my ed. of Webster's Works, ii. 160, he will find that there the text is,—

"Let not Virginia RATE her contemplation

So high, to call this visit an intrusion,"

"rate" being the emendation of the editor of 1816 for "wate" of the old copy :—yet Mr. Collier now declares that “all commentators have been unable to understand 'wate,' and have printed it in various fashions, but none the right."

Mr. Collier had previously touched on this passage of Webster in his Preface to Seven Lectures on Shakespeare and Milton by Coleridge, &c., p. lxxxv.: there, however, he went no further than concealing the fact that "rate" stands in my text of Appius and Virginia:-here he goes the length of asserting that "rate" never occurred to any of the " commentators" except himself.

P. 381,-act i. sc. 3.

"Lov. That churchman bears a bounteous mind indeed,

A hand as fruitful as the land that feeds us :

His dews fall every where.

He had a black mouth that said other of him.

Sands. He may, my lord, he has wherewithal: in him
Sparing would show a worse sin than ill doctrine.

Men of his sway should be most liberal;

They are set here for examples.'

Men of his sway should be most liberal;] It is 'Men of his way' in the folios, but amended to 'Men of his sway,' i.e. men of his influence and power, in the corr. fo. 1632: between 'his' and 'sway' one of the letters, 8, was accidentally omitted, and the meaning of the passage much tamed and injured. In the next line, we are informed on the same authority, that 'set' ought to be 'sent,' 'They are sent here for examples;' but examples are 'set' as well as sent, and we refrain from alteration where there is no apparent improvement. As for 'sway' instead of way, there can be no doubt: see the contrary error, detected on the same authority, in 'Henry IV., Part II.,' A. iv. sc. 1, Vol. iii. p. 485."

Of the two alterations so unnecessarily made here by the Ms. Corrector, the one adopted by Mr. Collier is perhaps the least innocent. That "his way" means "his ecclesiastical function" admits of no doubt (as Mr. Singer long ago remarked, Shakespeare Vindicated, &c., p. 183): it is manifest from the context, "That churchman" and "ill doctrine."

P. 383,―act i. sc. 4.

"For 'tis to such a thing,

Anne.

You cannot show me.

Sands. I told your grace, how they would talk anon.
[Drum and trumpets within; chambers discharged.
What's that?

Wol.

L