Becomes the field, but heere showes much amisse.
Goe, bid the souldiers shoote.

385

Exeunt marching: after the which, a peale of ordenance are shot off.

FINIS.

384 amis D. 385 marching &c. not in ABC.

NOTES.

Act. I. Sc. 1. L. 23. If it had not been my purpose to follow the original copies in every particular, I would have printed "him, along". L. 60. "sleaded (sledded)" may be a mistake, but "pollax" is certainly not.

L. 90. That "comart" is a misprint I make no doubt; perhaps the quarto of 1676 has hit right in reading "compact".

L. 114. A line is probably lost here.

L. 124. ABC' have the stage-direction "It spreads his armes”.

L. 158. "dare" is the genuine pret. pres. form, still usual in Shakespeare's time; "dares" the product of a later time ignorant of its nature.

L. 164. Warburton observes, The old quarto has it better "eastward"; to which Steevens replies, The superiority of the latter of these readings is not, to me at least, very apparent. I find the former used in Lingua &c. 1607:

Again, in Browne's Britannia's Pastorals, book IV, sat. IV, p. 75, edit 1616:

And ere the sunne had clymb'd the eastern hills.

Again, in Chapman's version of the thirteenth book of Homer's Odyssey:

Sc. 2. L. 38. The poet should have written allows. Many writers fall into this error, when a plural noun immediately precedes the verb. Malone. Surely, all such defects in our author were merely the errors of illiterate transcribers or printers. Steevens. If these critics had known the grammar of the 16th century, they would have been aware, that Shakespeare was perfectly right in using the subjunctive here.

L. 39. Perhaps "commend your service": at any rate, "duty" is wrong. S. Walker, Crit. Exam. 1, 277.

L. 67. "sonne" is certainly a misprint for "sunne". Farmer questions whether a quibble between sun and son be not intended.

L. 72. "lives", the true old form of the 3d pers. plur., is arbitrarily changed by the modern editors to "live".

L 110. B. Tschischwitz (Shakspere's Hamlet, Halle 1869) boldly substitutes for "with", "wis", which he pretends to be = iwis.

L. 132. Of course, canon (xaváv) is meant.

L. 175. All the editors adopt the reading of D; still I think "deepe" was put in by the printer of D, in order to avoid "for to". The agreement of A* may be accidental. See note on III. 1. 167.

L. 182. "dearest" for direst. Johnson. Cmp. Forby, Vocabulary of East Anglia, p. 91.

L. 218. "it" is not a mistake for "its" (as the modern editors seem to think), but the older form. In Shakespeare's time use had not yet decided for its. See V. 1. 208.

Sc. 3. L. 21. "safety (sanctity)" is evidently an error for "sanity", to which Hanmer (Theobald) altered it. A. Dyce, the works of W. Shakespeare, 2 edit. London 1865, vol. VII, p. 216. Cmp. II. 2. 207.

L. 31. I think loose (solvatis), not lose (perdatis) is intended.
L. 36, 38 & 39 are marked with inverted commas in ABC.

L. 65. I confess "courage" is unintelligible to me; still, as ABCF agree with A*, I cannot prevail upon myself to displace it for "comrade" of DE, which seems to be a mere conjectural reading.

L. 73. Probably the author had originally written:

And they in France of the best rank and station
Are most select and generous in that:

and then given between the lines or in the margin "of", "chief”, meaning these as alternative readings for "in" and "best" in the first line. The transcriber by mistake inserted them in the second line. Clark and Wright, the works of W. Shakespeare, London and Cambridge 1866, vol. VIII, pref. p. VIII.

L. 109. "Wrong" is evidently a mistake, as well as "Roaming"; Pope conjectures "Wronging", Theobald "Wringing", and Collier "Running".

Sc. 4. according to Capell.

L. 33. Instead of "His" Theobald, Singer, Collier and Dyce print "Their".

L. 36 & 37. Steevens prints "base" for "eale", and "often dout" for "of a doubt"; Singer "bale", "often doubt"; Collier "ill", "often dout"; Delius "bale", "off and out"; Dyce "evil", "oft debase”.

Sc. 5. according to Capell.

L. 33. The superiority of the reading of the folio is to me apparent : to be in a crescent state (i. e. to root itself) affords an idea of activity; to rot better suits with the dullness and inaction to which the ghost refers. Steevens. I have preferred the reading of the original copy, because to root itself is a natural and easy phrase, but to rot itself, not English. Malone. "rots" probably a misprint. Collier. L. 43. Malone prints "wit", observing, The old The subsequent line shows that it was a misprint. adopt Malone's emendation, without even noticing the original reading. L. 56. That "sate" is the true reading is proved by "fate" in 4*, which cannot be but a mistake for "fate".

copies have "wits”. Singer and Collier

L. 80. It was ingeniously hinted to me by a very learned lady, that this line seems to belong to Hamlet, in whose mouth it is a proper and natural exclamation. Johnson.

L. 89. Elze (Shakespeare's Hamlet, Leipzig 1857) suspects "matine" to be a misprint for "matines".

L. 93. "O fie". These words (which hurt the measure, and from that circumstance, and their almost ludicrous turn, may be suspected as an interpolation) are found in the two earliest quartos. Steevens.

L. 177. The modern editors tacitly change "and" to "an", probably supposing a correction what a true critic cannot but call a falsification. [Koch, hist. Gram. der engl. Sprache 2, 410, thinks this an (for and) = A.-Sax. ono, Goth. an, and Tschischwitz implicitly takes it for granted. See however Diction. of the O. Engl. language in voce and.]

L. 179. Instead of "to note" Theobald proposes to read "denote". Act. II. Sc. 1. L. 85. Theobald, who is followed by Hanmer, Warburton, and Johnson, reads "loose" for "foul'd", on the authority, as he says, of the elder quartos. It is not the reading of any of the first six, but of those of 1676, 1683, 1695 and 1703. Had Capell been aware of this, he would scarcely have designated Theobald's mistake as a downright falsehood. Theobald, at the time of writing his Shakespeare Restored, knew of no quarto earlier than that of 1637, and it is just possible that some copy of this edition, from which that of 1676 was printed, may have had the reading "loose". Clark and Wright.

Sc. 2. L. 52. In the erroneous repetition of "newes" in D Tschischwitz will discover the true reading, viz. "nuttes", which he does not scruple to take into his text.

L. 109-110 and 116-123 in D, 109-113 and 116-123 in BC, 109-113 and 116-119 in A are printed in Italics.

L. 336. Pope, Singer, Collier, and Dyce print "most like", instead of "like most".

L. 384. The reading of the quarto of 1676 "wit" (for "writ") is perhaps the right one; it has been adopted by Rowe, Theobald, Warburton etc. See S. Walker's Crit. Exam. vol. III, p. 265.

L. 467. Collier and Dyce print "Aroused".

L 529. The folio reads "warm'd", which reading Steevens contended for: he was probably moved by a spirit of opposition; for surely no one can doubt, who considers the context, that "wann'd" is the poet's word. Singer.

L. 566. According to Clark and Wright, the copy of B* in Capell's collection reads "braines". The copy which I have collated is that of the British Museum.

Act. III. Sc. 1. indicated in the quarto edition of 1676.

L. 39. Walker (Crit. Exam. 1, 252) supposes that Shakespeare wrote "beautie".

L. 87. "awry (away)". The same printer's error occurs in the old

copy of Antony and Cleopatra, where we find "Your crown's away", instead of "Your crown's awry". Steevens.

L. 167. The printer of D left out for, probably because he thought "for to" vulgar.

Sc. 2. according to Capell.

L. 31. I have no doubt that our author wrote "had made them". Malone.

L. 56. “faining” in D is not a misprint, as Collier thinks, but another form of "fauning", just as good, if not better. See Diction. of the O. Engl. language in voce fainen.

L. 154. A line rhyming to "love" seems to be lost here; that "Either none" was part of it, as Malone supposes, is not likely to me.

L. 169. in the margin in A, to mark it as spoken aside.

L. 207. Theobald changes "And" to "An"; a correction approved by all the subsequent editors.

L. 212. in the margin in A.

L. 242. I have admitted the reading of ABC, "considerate", because it seems to suit the context best; still the reading of A*D, "confederate", may be the true one; it is adopted by most editors.

L. 262. "Provinciall" is by several editors changed to "Provencial". Douce (Illustrations of Shakespeare p. 467) shows that the Provincial roses took their name from Provins, not from Provence.

L. 266. I agree with Malone, that not the pronoun, but the adverb, now spelt ay, is meant here.

L. 270. "pajock" is traced by Tschischwitz to Pol. pajok (footman). The quarto of 1676 has "paicock", that of 1695 "pecock". Pope, Malone, Singer, and Collier print "peacock", Theobald, and Elze "paddock".

Sc. 3. L. 7. "browes" in ABC seems to be a mistake clumsily corrected by D to "lunacies". Theobald thinks "lunes" to be the true reading.

L. 14. Instead of "depends and rests" the modern editors, of course, print "depend and rest". See note on I. 2. 72.

Sc. 4. according to Capell; Sc. 2. according to Rowe.

L. 4. Hanmer, Dyce, Clark and Wright will read "sconce" for "silence".

L. 13. I think with Collier and Dyce, that "idle" in D is repeated by the transcriber or compositor from the preceding line.

L. 49. Tschischwitz judiciously conjectures "contractation"= Ital. contrattazione, contract, which meaning was already supposed by Warburton. Cmp. affection = affectation, II. 2. 423.

L. 100. "kyth", evidently the true reading, is not even noticed by the editors.

L. 107. I am of Dyce's opinion, that "your" is the right reading, and that r here (as V. 1. 283) is left out in D. Caldecott, Collier and Knight print "What would you, gracious figure?"