The word is familiarly used by Shakespeare in this acceptation, an instance of which occurs a page further on. The prologue says:

"We do not come as minding to content you:
Our true intent is"

Another instance in "Henry VI." Part III. may be cited:

"We will consider of your suit,

And come some other time to know our mind."

Act iii. sc. 2.

This acceptation is commcn enough even now.

In the second line of the speech of Theseus above quoted, there is a deficiency of two syllables to make up the metre, and it has been proposed to supply it by introducing the epithet willing before duty. We have here nothing to guide us but the appropriateness of the suggested phrase. On this ground I would read in preference:

And what poor duty cannot aptly do.

Inasmuch, however, as several other plausible emendations might be made, both by adjectives prefixed to duty and by adverbs to do, the proposed insertion of aptly may be fairly regarded as leaving the reading of the second line still indeterminate.

Lost," in a passage already commented upon; and Antony and Cleopatra," where the Queen, speaking to one of her attendants who has professed his willingness to play billiards with her as well as he

can, says:

"And when good will is show'd, though it come too short, The actor may plead pardon." Act ii. sc. 5.

With the two proposed emendations the lines under review will, at all events, bring out this sentiment with clearness and precision:

Our sport shall be to take what they mistake:
And what poor duty cannot aptly do,

Noble respect takes it in mind, not merit.

THE MERCHANT OF VENICE.

THIS admirable comedy contains a considerable number of blunders, which detract from its poetry and its vigour, and yet are of a kind to be easily passed over by the ordinary reader.

The first I have to point out is in the speech of the Prince of Arragon, one of the candidates for Portia's hand, just before he makes his choice of the caskets. He is touching upon the superficial observation of "the fond eye":

"Which pries not to the interior, but, like the martlet,
Builds in the weather on the outward wall,
Even in the force and road of casualty."

Act ii. sc. 9.

Force is here palpably out of place, especially as combined with road. Taking Steevens's interpretation of it in the sense of power, we have an odd jumble of ideas: "the martlet builds in the and road of casualty.'

power

To rid the passage of this incongruity I propose to read:

Even in the course and road of casualty:

it is amusing that Steevens fancies ne nas justi

fied the employment of force in this case by citing the phrase, "in the force of his will," from "Much Ado about Nothing". - a most unexceptionable expression. If the dispute had been whether the term is Shakespearian or not, the citation would have been apt; but plainly it has no bearing on the use of the word in a totally different connexion.

In the same speech a much more important corruption, or rather series of corruptions, occurs, unjustly subjecting Shakespeare again to the imputation that he "is perpetually violating the integrity of his metaphors "-a violation in this case, as it appears in the received text, so gross, that it must have been owing to copyists or compositors who were probably not capable of appreciating, and consequently blundered over his figurative language. It is hard that his reputation should suffer from other people's stupidity.

The speaker is wishing:

"that clear honour

Were purchas'd by the merit of the wearer!
How many then should cover that stand bare!
How many be commanded that command!

* "Othello." Farther on in the play under review, we find, "the intent and purpose of the law." These are all relics of Shakespeare's legal education, of whatever kind that may have been.

Here, it will be observed, there are a number of gross incongruities, producing utter confusion. It is asserted that in the supposed events:

1. Peasantry would be gleaned, and gleaned too from seed.

2. Honour would be picked from chaff.

3. Honour would be picked also from the ruin of the times.

4. Honour, having been so picked, would be varnished anew.

No one can extract any sense out of this chaotic jumble, and the explanations in the Variorum Edition, as well as the attempts at amendment, are wholly abortive. The four last lines of the passage consist of metaphors drawn from agricultural operations, and it is only by consistently carrying out these figures that the genuine text can be even approximately restored.

The reader will doubtless be startled at some of the emendations now to be submitted to him; but if he bear in recollection the extreme corruption of the whole sentence, he will hardly be inclined to quarrel with extraordinary suggestions, for it is by such alone that the extraordinary corruption can be remedied.