trace of the old letters. Secondly, staniels accords well with the context, 'from the rock'; for, as Montagu's Ornithological Dictionary tells us, the ‘Kestrel, Stannel, or Windhover, is one of our most common species of hawks, especially in the more rocky situations and high cliffs on our coasts, where they breed. Thirdly, in another passage of Shakespeare, where nobody doubts that the genuine reading i staniel, all the old editions exhibit the gross misprint, stallion: ‘Anc with what wing the stallion checks at it!' Twelfth Night, ii. 5." P. 98. Nor scrape trencher, nor wash dish. — The original has trenchering, "which," says Dyce, "is undoubtedly an error of the transcriber or compositor, occasioned by the preceding words firing and requiring." Pope's correction. P. 99. ACT III., SCENE I. This my mean task would be As heavy to me as 'tis odious, but The mistress, &c. — The original lacks 'tis, which was inserted by Pope; and rightly, beyond question. P. 99. But these sweet thoughts do even refresh my labour ; Most busy when I do it least. — The original has labours instead of labour, and also reads "Most busie lest, when I doe it." The second folio changes lest to least. But the two forms were often used indifferently, and either form was used in both the senses of our present words lest and least. Modern editions generally print labour instead of labours, so as to harmonize with it in the next line. Few passages in Shakespeare have been more fruitful of comment and controversy than this. The list of changes made or proposed is quite too long for reproduction here. With the old reading it is uncertain what most busy refers to or is the predicate of; that is to say, whether the meaning be "I being most busy," or "these sweet thoughts being most busy." For the latter sense the best reading I have met with is "most busiest," proposed by Holt White, and adopted by Singer and Grant White. But had this been the Poet's thought he would probably have written "Most busy they, when I do it." Dyce prints, with Theobald, "Most busiless," which, of course, makes the phrase refer to the speaker himself; but the reading is to me quite unsatisfactory. On the whole, it seems much better to connect lest or least with what follows, and not with what precedes. It is worth noting, also, that the old reading throws the ictus on I and it, whereas it ought, apparently, to fall on when and do. Hardly any corruptions are more frequent in Shakespeare than those resulting from misplacement of words, and even of whole lines. Many are the cases where similar transpositions have to be made. In this case we might read “Most busy, least when I do it"; but this gives us a very awkward inversion, and both sense and rhythm come much better by transposing least to the end. But I suspect, after all, that the Poet first wrote most busie, then interlined lest or least as a correction, and that the two got printed together; so that we ought to read "Least busy when I do it." And so Pope reads. - Perhaps I ought to add that Mr. A. E. Brae proposes to read "my labour's most busy hest"; hest being taken in the sense of task or exaction. With this reading, as the proposer observes, an object is given to the possessive s in labour's, and an antecedent provided for the pronoun it in the last line." But this reading, I think, would make the passage rather too tame. See foot-note 2. 66 P. 103. So glad of this as they I cannot be, Who am surprised withal. The old text reads "Who are surprised with all." Theobald changed with all to withal, and rightly, beyond question. The same misprint occurs frequently, as Walker has shown. And so are is, I have no doubt, a misprint for am. Prospero is himself surprised, as indeed he well may be, that his wish has been crowned so far beyond his expectations; and it is most natural that he should be expressing that surprise: but the lovers, I take it, are not at all surprised at what has sprung up in their hearts; it seems to them the most natural thing in the world. To hearken once again the suit I made thee? - The original prints this speech as prose, and reads "to hearken once again to the suit I made to thee." Caliban everywhere else, I believe, except in his next speech, uses verse: it seems indeed one of his leading characteristics to do so. Dyce thinks the present speech should be printed as in the text. P. 107. He has brave útensils,—for so he calls them,· Which, when he has a house, he'll deck't withal. - So Hanmer and Walker. The original, decke for deck't. "I But only Sycorax my dam and she.-The original reads " never saw a woman." Corrected by Pope. P. 109. Cal. The sound is going away; let's follow it, And after do our work. — The old copies assign this speech to Trinculo. The correction is Mr. P. A. Daniel's, who justly observes that "Stephano replies to it, 'Lead, monster; we'll follow.' P. 110. Steph. I would I could see this taborer! he lays it on.— Wilt come? Trin. I'll follow, Stephano. Such is clearly the right distribution, as Ritson observes. The old copies make Wilt come the beginning of Trinculo's speech. ACT III., SCENE III. P. 113. Each putter-out of one for five.—The original inverts the order here, of five for one; which can hardly be made to yield the right sense. The correction is Thirlby's. See foot-note 12. P. 114. The never-surfeited sea Hath caused to belch up; yea, and on this island, Where man doth not inhabit.—The original reads "to belch up you." But the object of belch up is expressed in whom, fourth line above; the regular construction being, "You are three men of sin, whom Destiny hath caused the never-surfeited sea to belch up." So that you coming in after belch up is, to say the least, extremely awkward. And, as we have you again in the next line, right under yea, the misprint, if it be one, is easily accounted for. The correction is Staunton's. Like poison given to work a long time after. - The original reads "work a great time after.”—The change is Walker's, who supposes great to have been repeated by mistake from the preceding line. For quiet days, fair issue, and long life, With love such as 'tis now, the murkiest even, The most opportune place, the strong'st suggestion Our worser genius can, &c. -The old text has "the murkiest den." The reading even or e'en for den was proposed by "C. T.” in Notes and Queries, July 25, 1874. The natural logic of the passage plainly requires some word denoting time; as the speaker is apparently supposing a concurrence of the several inducements of time, place, and inclination. Besides, the sense of “murkiest den" is better expressed in "most opportune place." The misprint of d for e occurs, I think, oftener than any other. P. 119. Thy banks with peonéd and twillèd brims, To make cold nymphs chaste crowns.—The first of these lines has proved, with one exception, more fruitful of comment and controversy than any other passage in the play. Those who retain the old reading commonly explain peoned or pioned as meaning dug, and twilled as meaning ridged, or made into ridges, - -a sense which it bears in reference to some kinds of cloth. But the words so explained will nowise cohere with the purpose assigned, "to make cold nymphs chaste crowns." Others understand peoned as referring to the well-known flower called peony, and change twilled to lilied. This gives a meaning in harmony with the context indeed, but hardly consistent with fact: for, though it appears from Bacon's essay Of Gardens that peonies and lilies bloomed in April, it nowhere appears that those flowers bloomed, or even grew, in such places as the brims of rivers. In fact, the peony, as it is known to us, is not a wild flower, does not grow in marshy grounds, and has no connection with river-banks. The difficulty, I think, is fairly cleared up by The Edinburgh Review for October, 1872. The learned writer has the following: "We could not but believe that there must be some flower, most probably a water-flower, or one living on marshy ground, that was provincially known as a peony. In confirmation of this view, we were informed by a clergyman who was for many years incumbent of a parish in the county, that peony is the name given in Warwickshire to the marsh-marigold. On a little reflection it was not difficult to see why the name of the peony should have been transferred to the marsh-marigold. In their early stages, when the peculiar state of the bud naturally attracts attention, the peony and marsh-marigold are alike, not only in growth and form, but in colour also. The marsh-marigold haunts the watery margins as the constant associate of reeds and rushes, blooms in ‘spongy April,' and, in common with other water flowers, is twined with sedge 'to make cold nymphs chaste crowns.' The writer also quotes from Mrs. Loudon's description of the flower: "This is one of the most showy of the British plants, and it is also one of the most common, as there are few ponds or slow rivers in Great Britain that have not some of these plants growing on their banks in April and May." In regard to twillèd also, the same writer shows that twills was an old provincial name for reeds and certain species of sedge. "The word is indeed," says he, "still retained in its secondary application, being commercially used to denote the fluted or rib-like effect produced on various fabrics by a kind of ridged or carded weaving. Twilled is, therefore, the very word to describe the crowded sedges in the shallower reaches of the Avon as On the whole, then, I am satisfied that it winds around Stratford." the old reading must stand; though, without the foregoing explanation, I was never able to see any sense in it. See foot-note 14. P. 120. And thy brown groves, Whose shadow the dismissed bachelor loves. So Hanmer and Collier's second folio. The original has "thy broom groves." Milton uses brown repeatedly in the same way. So in Paradise Lost, ix. 1088: "Where highest woods spread their umbrage broad and brown at evening." The change in the text is strongly opposed by some. I can well understand why a grove should be called brown, but not how a growth of broom should be called a grove; the broom, or genista, being, |