Oldalképek
PDF
ePub

scrupling to assert that "fall had in Shakespeare's day the same meaning as 'fail'." The Shakespeare Fabrications, p. 115.

[blocks in formation]

P. 201. (148) "And stand a comma 'tween their amities;"

Here "comma" has been altered to "commere,' 99.66 cement," &c.-"The only circumstance of resemblance the poet seems to have had in view in this similitude is merely that of standing between. As a comma stands between two several members of a sentence, without separating them otherwise than by distinguishing the one from the other, in like manner Peace personized, or the Goddess of Peace, is understood to stand between the amities of the two kings." HEATH.-Perhaps so.

66

P. 201. (149) "That, on the view and knowing of these contents,"

So the quartos, 1604, &c.; a reading which some editors have altered to - and knowing these contents." But see Walker's Shakespeare's Versification, &c., where, p. 119, this line is cited as containing an example of a "present participle contracted," and where, p. 120, among other instances, the following is cited from our author's King Henry VIII, act i. sc. 2, "Not well dispos'd, the mind growing once corrupt."

The folio has "That on the view and know of these Contents."

P. 202. (150) "Does it not, thinks't thee, stand me now upon,-" The quartos, 1604, &c. have “Dooes it not thinke thee" (quarto 1637 "you"), &c.-The folio has "Does it not, thinkst thee," &c.-Walker (Shakespeare's Versification, &c. p. 281) observes, that "thinks it thee occurs in the Elizabethan poets in the sense of uŵv dokeî σoi;” and, after citing and correcting the present passage, he adduces from Cartwright's Ordinary (Dodsley's Old Plays, vol. x. p. 216, last ed.)

"Little think'st thee, how diligent thou art

To little purpose;"

adding, "thinks't thee, of course."-Compare too, in All's well that ends well, "methinks't, thou art a general offence," &c., act ii. sc. 3, vol. iii. p. 236.

[blocks in formation]

Mr. Collier's Ms. Corrector substitutes "his own?"

[blocks in formation]

VOL. VII.

'It will be short:

The interim's mine; and a man's life's no more
Than to say one."'"

Walker's Crit. Exam, &c, vol, iii. p. 272,

R

[blocks in formation]

Rowe's correction.-The folio has "count."-From "To quit him with this arm" in the preceding speech but one to "Peace! who comes here?" inclusive, is not in the quartos.

[blocks in formation]

So the quartos, 1604, &c.—The folio has “your friendship;" which Mr. Knight retains (and so does Dr. Delius, who defends it in a note). But it is merely an error:-and how easily such errors creep in! Though the copy from which the present edition [1857] was printed had here "your lordship," yet in the first proof-sheet which was sent to me I found "your worship.”— Elsewhere in this scene Osric four times addresses Hamlet as "your lordship."

[blocks in formation]

So the folio and quarto 1637.-The quartos, 1604, &c. have "or my complection," which some editors adopt, putting a break after the words.

[blocks in formation]

So the quarto 1604, except that it has "and yet but," &c.-The later quartos have "and yet but raw neither," &c.-The preceding speech (except its first sentence), the present speech, and a good deal more of the dialogue till the entrance of the King, Queen, &c., are not in the folio; nor to be traced in the quarto 1603.

P. 204. (157)

[ocr errors]

"in another tongue?"

Surely, with the critic in Var. [Johnson], 'a mother tongue." Walker's Crit. Exam. &c. vol. iii. p. 273.

[blocks in formation]

“Rarely' (Theobald), of course." Walker's Crit. Exam. &c. vol. iii. p. 273.

[blocks in formation]

"Surely the sense requires 'for' [which Capell gave]." Walker's Crit. Exam. &c. vol. iii. p. 274.

P. 204. (160)

"The king, sir, hath wagered with him”

So the quartos, 1604, &c.-The folio has "The sir King ha's wag'd with him," the "wag'd" having perhaps grown out of the spelling "wagerd” in the quartos.-Compare afterwards in this page, "The king, sir, hath laid,” &c. (Here the quarto 1603 has "The King, sweete Prince, hath layd a wager on your side.")

P. 205. (161)

66

a kind of yesty collection, which carries them through and through the most fanned and winnowed opinions;"

The quartos 1604 and 1605 have "- the most prophane and trennowed opinions," &c., and so the later quartos, except that they have "trennowned." -The folio has " the most fond and winnowed opinions," &c.-In my Remarks on Mr. Collier's and Mr. Knight's editions of Shakespeare, p. 221, I maintained that "fond and winnowed" had been rightly amended by Warburton to "fanned and winnowed;" and I still think it is an alteration which most probably restores the true reading, though Mr. Grant White (Shakespeare's Scholar, &c. p. 422) pronounces it to be altogether wrong. He says that "carries them through and through the most fond and winnowed opinions" means "they go through and through [they stop at no absurdity in] the most fond [affected or foolish] and winnowed [elaborately sought out] opinions ;" an interpretation which, in my judgment, the words cannot possibly bear.-1865. Mr. Grant White in his edition of Shakespeare prints "fann'd and winnowed.”.

[blocks in formation]

"I suspect that, according to the old grammar, we ought to read, with the folio, trials'." Walker's Crit. Exam, &c. vol. i. p. 264.

P. 206. (163)

"since no man has aught of what he leaves, what is't to leave betimes ?" A very suspicious passage. I give it as it stands in the folio.-The quartos, 1604, &c. have "since no man of ought he leaves, knowes what ist to leave betimes, let be."

[blocks in formation]

Walker (Crit. Exam. &c. vol. i. p. 245) suspects that "masters" is a mistake for "master," and that "honour" originated in the "honour" of the preceding line but one.

[blocks in formation]

The old eds. have "sounds," &c.-See note 93 on The Winter's Tale, vol. iii. p. 519.

P. 209. (166)

"Ho! let the door be lock'd :"

That here Caldecott, Mr. Knight, and Mr. Collier, should print "How? let the," &c., retaining the old spelling and punctuation, is marvellous.

P. 209. (167) "Drink off this potion :—is thy union here?”

"It should seem from this line, and Laertes's next speech, that Hamlet here forces the expiring king to drink some of the poisoned cup, and that he dies while it is at his lips." MALONE,

P. 211. (168) "Take up the bodies:—such a sight as this
Becomes the field, but here shows much amiss.—”

So the quartos, 1604, &c.-The folio has "Take up the body," &c.; which Caldecott, Mr. Knight, and Mr. Collier adopt, though it is such a manifest error, that, even without the authority of any old copy, an editor would be bound to make the word plural. Fortinbras is now speaking of the bodies generally, of Hamlet, the King, the Queen, and Laertes, who are all lying dead, and who, he says, present a spectacle that only becomes the field of battle. It would almost seem that the restorers of "body" had forgotten what precedes the present speech, viz.

[merged small][ocr errors]

give order that these bodies

High on a stage be placed to the view;

And let me speak to the yet unknowing world, &c.

[ocr errors][merged small][ocr errors][merged small][merged small][merged small][ocr errors][merged small]

KING LEAR.

« ElőzőTovább »