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A Maze; see Note III. iii. 2.

Projected from an engraving in The Country Housewife's Garden (1617).

Critical Notes.

BY ISRAEL GOLLANCZ.

I. i. 68. 'long heath, brown furze'; so the folios; Hanmer's emendation has been generally accepted:-'ling, heath, broom, furze.'

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I. ii. 24. my magic garment'; the magician's mantle, circle, and book (cp. Act V.) are well illustrated by the following woodcut:

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From the History of Doctor John Faustus (1664).

I. ii. 100. Who having into truth'; 'into,' used in the sense of 'unto,' and so emended in most editions; the sentence though very involved is intelligible without any alteration; 'into truth' depends upon a sinner'; and 'it' refers vaguely to 'his own lie'; 'to credit'='as to credit.'

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I. ii. 169. Now I arise'; probably derived from astrology; 'now my star is in the ascendant'; it should be noted that the stage direction 'Resumes his mantle' is not in the Folios.

I. ii. 266. for one thing she did'; Shakespeare does not tell us what he refers to here; perhaps he merely added the point in

order to account for her preservation, or the incident may have been mentioned in his original. I am, however, strongly inclined to suggest that there is no mystery about the passage; the 'one thing she did' probably anticipates 'hither brought with child'; for that reason alone her life was spared.

I. ii. 333.stroakst me and made,' so Folios; Rowe, 'strokedst me and madest,' so Camb. Ed. and Mod. Edd. generally. I. ii. 334. Water with berries in 't;' Mr. W. G. Gosling quotes the following striking parallel from Strachey's Narrative:

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“They are full of shaws of goodly cedars . . The berries whereof Our men straining, and letting stand some three or four daies, made a kind of pleasant drink."

I. ii. 378, 379. 'kiss'd The wild waves whist'; so the Folios; i.e. 'Kissed the wild waves into silence;' often printed with a comma after 'kissed.'

I. ii. 461. I'll manacle thy neck and feet together:' specimens of this form of torture are preserved in the Tower of London. Knight

gives the accompanying illustrative sketch.

II. i. 5. The masters of some merchant'; ie. 'the owners of some merchantman'; Steevens sug

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gested mistress' (old spelling 'mais

tres'); the Cambridge editors

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II. i. 12. he's winding up the watch of his wit; by and by it will strike'; watches that struck the hours were known as early as the commencement of the XVIth century; the striking portion of the accompanying specimen is an alarum which acts to any hour at option.

II. i. 27. 'which, of he or Adrian'; 'he' for 'him,' used somewhat substantively, probably owing to the use

of the word in the previous sentence, From the collection belonging

'he will be talking.'

to the late R. Bernal.

II. i. 35, 36. The Folios read: 'Seb. Ha, ha, ha! Ant. So, you're paid. Theobald gives the whole line to Sebastian; and his reading is adopted by the Camb. Ed. Possibly a better emendation is the transposition of the prefixes to the speeches; the point of the quibble is no doubt the old proverb 'let them laugh that win. Capell ingeniously suggested that the Folio reading should stand, with the slight change of 'you've paid' for 'you're paid.'

II. i. 127. 'who hath cause'; the antecedent of 'who' is most probably 'she'; some make the relative refer to 'eye,' i.e. ' which hath cause to weep.'

II. i. 131. 'should bow'; so Folios; seemingly unnecessary corrections have been made, e.g. 'she'd bow'; 'which end the beam should bow'; the omission of the pronoun 'it' or 'she' before should' can easily be paralleled in Shakespeare.

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II. i. 243. But doubt discovery there'; i.e. 'Cannot but doubt that anything can be discovered there.'

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II. i. 250. she that from whom'; the unnecessary. 'that' is perhaps intentionally repeated, owing to the previous repetition of 6 she that.'

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II. i. 279. candied'; generally explained as 'sugared over, and so insensible; congealed; ' perhaps a better interpretation is 'made sweet as sugar,' as in

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the phrase 'the candied

tongue.' Is Antonio

possibly playing on 'candied' and 'candid' (a word not yet fully naturalized in the language, but probably familiar)?

II. ii. 28. A strange fish! Were I in England now, as once I was, and had but this fish painted, etc; an allusion to the popularity of exhibitions of strange monsters, to which there are many allusions in con

temporary records. The accompanying drawing is from a print of the time of Charles I.

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