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Read, with the other modern editors, "Perséver," &c.: see p. 204.

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SCENE 6.-C. p. 344.

"Thou'rt the damn'd door-keeper to every coystrel

That hither comes inquiring for his Tib."

Coystrel' seems to be corrupted from kestrel, a bastard kind of hawk. The word has occurred before in Vol. iii. p. 331. In the quarto, 1609, it is spelt custerell." COLLIER.

I have no doubt (in spite of Gifford's note on Jonson's Works, i. 109), that coystrel and kestrel are distinct words;

"Coustrell that wayteth on a speare covsteillier." Palsgrave's Lesclar. de la Lang. Fr., 1530, fol. xxvii. (Table of Subst.)

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A carter a courtyer, it is a worthy warke,

That with his whyp his mares was wonte to yarke;
A custrell to dryue the deuyll out of the derke," &c.
Skelton's Magnyfycence,-Works, i. 241, ed. Dyce.
See also Nares's Gloss. in v. Coistrel, where we find;

Among the unwarlike attendants on an army are enumerated, 'Women, lackies, and coisterels.' Holinsh. iii. 272."

In the present passage coystrel is equivalent to 'low groom' in the next page Marina says;

"And prostitute me to the basest groom
That doth frequent your house."

ACT V.

SCENE 1.-C. p. 348; K. p. 103.

"There is some of worth would come aboard: I pray

Greet him fairly."

"So the quarto, 1609: the later editions, them; but Helicanus refers to Lysimachus, who had been mentioned by the Tyrian sailor; and by some of worth,' Helicanus, of course, means some person of worth. Modern editors, not perceiving this, have, without warrant or notice, thrust a word into the line, and read some one of worth.'” COLLIER.

It is really astonishing to find Mr. Collier gravely stating

that "by some of worth,' Helicanus, of course, means some person of worth!" Could he, in any English writer, point out an example of the expression being so employed? he certainly could not. "Some of worth" cannot possibly mean 'some single person of worth;' it can have no other meaning than "some persons of worth" (applied here to Lysimachus and his train, for Helicanus did not suppose that the governor of Mitylene would come unattended; and the present speech is immediately followed by "Enter Lysimachus and Lords"). In the next line, therefore, the reading of the later editions, "them," is the right one: that "him" was often put by a mistake of the compositor for "them," has been already shewn: see p. 64.

Mr. Knight interpolates the passage.

SCENE 1.-C. p. 350; K. p. 103.

"O, sir! a courtesy,

Which if we should deny, the most just God
For every graff would send a caterpillar,
And so inflict our province."

So also Mr. Knight, and without any note.

tained "inflict," observing, however,

Malone re

"I do not believe to inflict was ever used by itself in the sense of to punish. The poet probably wrote- And so afflict our province.'"

Doubtless he did: "inflict" is merely one of the hundred gross misprints which vitiate the text of this drama.

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SCENE 2.-C. p. 357; K. p. 106.

Or perform my bidding, or thou liv'st in woe:

Do 't, and be happy, by my silver bow.

Awake, and tell thy dream."

"Be,' necessary to the sense and measure, is omitted in all the old editions." COLLIER.

The word "be" supplied by Malone (and adopted also by Mr. Knight) is an unnecessary addition. The passage ought

to stand thus;

"Or perform my bidding, or thou liv'st in woe;

Do it, and happy; by my silver bow."

"and happy” meaning, as the preceding line evinces, and thou liv'st happy.'

Mr. Knight's punctuation,

by my silver bow

Awake, and tell thy dream."

is quite wrong: Diana declares, "by her silver bow," that Pericles shall be either wretched or happy, as he disobeys or obeys her bidding.

SCENE 3.-C. p. 360.

66

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'Per. What means the woman? she dies: help, gentlemen!"

So the quarto, 1619, and subsequent editions: the quarto, 1609, 'What means the mum ?' which may have been a misprint for nun it would suit the measure better, and it would not be unprecedented to call a priestess of Diana a nun." COLLIER.

I do not believe that the author wrote "the woman," -a lection which would seem to have been substituted in the later impressions only because the editors were unable to elicit the genuine one from "the mum."

or,

Probably, the right reading is either,

“Per. What means she? mum!-She dies: help, gentlemen!"

"Per. What means she? hum!" &c.

In the first scene of this act we find,

"Mar. Hail, sir! my lord, lend ear.

Per. Hum! ha!"

p. 351.

RAPE OF LUCRECE.

[Vol. viii. COLLIER; Poems, appended to vol. ii. of Tragedies, Pict. ed. KNIGHT.]

C. p. 451.

"O! let it not be hild

Poor women's faults," &c.

"Thus the old copies; and it may be necessary to preserve the false orthography for the sake of the rhyme." COLLIER.

Shakespeare doubtless used "hild" for the sake of the rhyme; nor was he singular in doing so ;

"And in the black and gloomy Arts so skild,

That he euen Hell in his subiection hild."

Drayton's Moone-Calfe, p. 174, ed. 1627.

nay, we not unfrequently find that form employed when no rhyme is in question;

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I hild such valiantnes but vaine."

Warner's Albions England, p. 83, ed. 1596. With Tantalus hild starued Ghosts, whose pleasure was their paine."

Id. P. 86.

"Henry (the forth so named) hild the King deposed strate," &c.

Id. p. 142.

"She oft behild, and hild her peace," &c.

Id. p. 144.

"Some hild with Phoebus, some with her," &c.

Id. p. 151.

'He never hild but gracious thoughts of women," &c.

Id. p. 173.

SONNETS.

[Ibid. COLLIER; ibid. KNIGHT.]

SON. xxviii.-C. p. 489.

"I tell the day, to please him thou art bright,

And dost him grace when clouds do blot the heaven :

So flatter I the swart-complexion'd night,

When sparkling stars twire not, thou gild'st the even.”

"Totwire' occurs in Chaucer, in the sense of susurro, as Tyrwhitt remarks, and that may be the meaning here, though Steevens supposes that twire' is only a corruption of quire. Ben Jonson, in his Sad Shepherd,' uses the word 'twire' for peep, and such is the sense his last editor assigns to it in the line in our text (Works, by Gifford, vol. vi. p. 280)." COLLIER.

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In the excellent note alluded to, Gifford sneers (as he well might) at the "foolery" of the commentators on the present passage,-at Steevens, who "having learned from Tyrwhitt that twire (spoken of a bird) is probably a translation of susurro, inclines to think that twire means quire, and consequently that the sense of the line is, 'When sparkling stars sing not in concert,' &c." Yet Mr. Collier, whose distinct reference to Gifford's note shews that he must have read it, not only retails this obsolete "foolery," but declares that twire may here be used in the same sense as in Chaucer!

Now, could "twire" in the sense of sing accord with the context?

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When sparkling stars TWIRE not [i. e. as Gifford well explains it-do not gleam or appear at intervals], thou GILD'ST the even."

Besides, independently of the context, the expression "when sparkling stars sing not" is in itself nonsense; because the music of the spheres was supposed to be unceasing,—as Shakespeare knew ;

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There's not the smallest orb, which thou behold'st,
But in his motion like an angel sings,

Still quiring to the young-ey'd cherubins."

T

Merch. of Venice, act v. sc. 1.

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