to "blasted in the bud;" for the bud does not blast, but is itself blasted the "young and tender wit" is a "bud" passively blasted by love. P. 96. Steevens and Malone differed about Speed's observation to Proteus, as it stands in the folio, 1623:-" And being so hard to me that brought your mind, I fear she'll prove as hard to you in telling your mind." Steevens adopted the words from the folio, 1632—“ And being so hard to me that brought your mind, I fear she'll prove as hard to you in telling her mind." Probably neither old reading is quite right, and the manuscript-corrector of the folio, 1632, has made it intelligible by his emendation,"And being so hard to me that brought to her your mind, I fear she'll prove as hard to you in telling you her mind." The words to her and you are added in the margin. The fact is, that the whole speech was intended for irregular familiar verse, and the manuscript-corrector has added the word better at the end of the first line, which had apparently dropped out the whole will therefore run as follows: "Sir, I could perceive nothing at all from her better, As a slight confirmation of the opinion that rhyming verse was intended, it may be mentioned, that in the folios the lines begin with capital letters as they are above printed. Still the same circumstance belongs to other places, where it is clear that prose only was spoken. SCENE II. P. 97. Rhyme is also restored in the next scene between Julia and Lucetta, where they are discussing the merits and claims of various amorous gentlemen. An apparent misprint of another kind, "lovely" for loving, is also corrected in manuscript in the folio, 1632. Julia has asked her maid what she thinks of Proteus, and Lucetta's answer provokes the following, as we find it in all editions: "Jul. How now! what means this passion at his name? That I, unworthy body as I am, Should censure thus on lovely gentlemen. Jul. Why not on Proteus, as of all the rest? Luc. Then thus,-of many good I think him best." It seems clear that the two middle lines should rhyme as well as the others; and the manuscript-corrector not only cures this defect, but gives Lucetta's answer a particular application to the very person of whom both she and her mistress are speaking. The emendation is this:— "That I, unworthy body, as I can, Should censure thus a loving gentleman." Lucetta, knowing that Proteus is a "loving gentleman" to her mistress, wishes to be excused from giving her opinion, as well "as she can " form one, upon him, until Julia compels her to do so. The above is by no means the only part of the scene that is in rhyme, and in two subsequent places the corrector restores what we may presume to have been the original jingle, thus (p. 100) : "She makes it strange, but she would be pleas'd better To be so anger'd with another letter." Here for "pleas'd better," the ordinary reading has been "best pleas'd." Again (p. 101):— "Ay, madam, you may see what sights you think; I see things too, although you judge I wink." Hitherto the first of these lines has been, 66 Ay, madam, you may say what sights you see." It is not improbable, that in this comedy, confessedly one of its author's earliest works, rhymes originally abounded more frequently than at the time it was printed in 1623, the fashion in the interval having so changed, that they were considered not only unnecessary, but possibly had become distasteful to audiences. When "The Two Gentlemen of Verona" was, according to our best conjectures, first produced, blank verse had only recently been adopted on the stage. We shall see this point more fully illustrated hereafter, when we come to speak of "Titus Andronicus," in which several passages have been restored by the corrector of the folio, 1632, apparently to the form in which they were recited when the tragedy was acted quite in the beginning of Shakespeare's career. C 2 ACT II. SCENE I. P. 106. There can be no doubt that the small word we have printed below in italics, and which was inserted by the manuscript-corrector of the folio, 1632, is necessary in the following ridicule by Speed of his master, for having been changed by his love for Silvia : - "You were wont, when you laughed, to crow like a cock; when you walked, to walk like one of the lions; when you fasted, it was presently after dinner; when you looked sadly, it was for want of money; and now you are so metamorphosed with a mistress, that, when I look on you, I can hardly think you my master." Nevertheless so has been always omitted. SCENE IV. P. 116. The following passage as it stands in all impressions, is unquestionably a piece of tautology. The Duke asks Valentine if he knows Don Antonio ? "Val. Ay, my good lord; I know the gentleman And not without desert so well reputed." The manuscript-corrector of the folio, 1632, substitutes a word in the second line, easily misprinted, and which being restored is certainly an improvement : "To be of wealth and worthy estimation.” Wealth would be an additional recommendation to the Duke, and it entirely avoids the objectionable repetition: if Antonio were of "worth" and "worthy estimation," he could not well be so reputed "without desert." P. 119. The line "Disdain to root the summer-swelling flower," has been disputed, the epithet "summer-smelling" having been preferred by some critics; but the old copies having "summer-swelling," that reading has generally prevailed. The corrector of the folio, 1632, has however altered the compound, probably on good authority with which we are not now acquainted, to "summer-smelling." 4 SCENE VI. P. 124. Johnson tells us, that "O sweet suggesting love! if thou hast sinn'd, means, "Oh, tempting love! if thou hast influenced me to sin;" but when Proteus is lamenting the breach of his vows to Julia, it seems much more natural for him to say, "if I have sinn'd," and so it is given by the corrector of the folio, 1632. Further on, in the same soliloquy, he reads, "precious to itself" for "precious in itself," which is quite consistent with the context, "I to myself am dearer than a friend, SCENE VII. P. 126. The epithet wide substituted by the corrector of the folio, 1632, seems more appropriate in the following lines, but it has been uniformly printed "wild:" Julia is speaking of a current that "with gentle murmur glides" between its banks, "And so by many winding nooks he strays This is, of course, one of the cases in which either reading may be right: if we prefer wide, it is mainly because the old corrector must have had some ground for adopting it. P. 128. There is a misprint in the following line,— "To furnish me upon my longing journey." Julia is about to travel in male attire in search of the object of her devoted regard, Proteus, and desires her maid to provide her with all the apparel necessary, and to come with her to her chamber "To take a note of what I stand in need of, "Loving journey," in reference to the purpose of it, seems to recommend itself, even if it had not the support of the corrector of the folio, 1632, ACT III. SCENE I. P. 131. There are several oversights as to the place of action in this comedy. For instance in Act II. Scene V. (p. 122), Speed welcomes Launce to Padua instead of Milan; and here we find the Duke telling Valentine "There is a lady in Verona here," when it ought also to be Milan. Again, in Act V. Scene IV. (p. 168), Valentine is made to speak of Verona, when he means Milan. In the two last places three syllables are necessary for the verse; and Pope and Theobald resorted to different contrivances to obviate the difficulty in one case Pope interpolated "sir," and in the other Theobald read behold for "hold." The manuscript-corrector of the folio, 1632, has shown how both these changes may be avoided, by only supposing that Shakespeare, instead of speaking of Milan, as it is called in our language, inserted Milano, the Italian name of the city. Milano suits the measure just as well as Verona, and it is more likely that the printer, or copyist, was in fault than the poet. SCENE II. P. 141. On the same authority, "some" ought to be printed sure in the following line, where the Duke is about to employ Proteus most confidentially : "For thou hast shown some sign of good desert." "struck out, Sure is written in the margin, and "some because Proteus had already given undoubted proofs of fidelity to the Duke, and of treachery to Valentine. In the next page, "weed," as it stands in the folios, and in subsequent editions, reads like an error of the press, and doubtless it was so, since "weed" was displaced by the corrector of the folio, 1632, and wean, a word much better adapted to the situation, inserted :— "But say, this wean her love from Valentine, It follows not that she will love Sir Thurio." A third mistake of the same kind is pointed out on p. 146, |