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used in the sense of overcome. Webster in his Appius and Virginia' uses convince for convict. Edit. Dyce, vol. ii. p. 241." COLLIER.

Qy. did Shakespeare write "convected," (from the Latin convectus)? the next line,

"Is scatter'd, and disjoin'd from fellowship,"

seems to render it probable.

SCENE 4.-C. p. 56; K. p. 306.

'O! that my tongue were in the thunder's mouth;
Then with a passion would I shake the world,
And rouse from sleep that fell anatomy,

Which cannot hear a lady's feeble voice,
Which scorns a modern invocation."

"i. e. a common or ordinary invocation." COLLIER.

Mr. Knight prints,

and observes;

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Which scorns a mother's invocation;"

The reading of the original, which has been constantly followed, is modern-trite, common. Thus, in 'As You Like It,'

Full of wise saws and modern instances.'

This is the only explanation we can give if we retain the word modern. But the sentence is weak, and a slight change would make it powerful. We may read a mother's invocation' with little violence to the text: moder's (the old spelling) might have been easily mistaken for modern."

Mr. Knight's alteration is one of the rashest ever attempted by an editor. He had apparently forgotten the following passage in Romeo and Juliet;

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Why follow'd not, when she said-Tybalt's dead,

Thy father, or thy mother, nay, or both,

Which modern lamentation might have mov'd ?”

Act iii. sc. 2.

SCENE 4.-C. p. 58.

"There's nothing in this world, can make me joy :
Life is as tedious as a twice-told tale,

Vexing the dull ear of a drowsy man ;

And bitter shame hath spoil'd the sweet word's taste,

That it yields nought, but shame, and bitterness."

"Malone understands 'word' here to refer to life, and as such may be the sense, we prefer the old text, although Pope, with much plausibility, altered word's' to world's." COLLier.

Malone's explanation is sheer foolishness. The misprint of word for world is one of the most common errors not only in early, but in modern books.

ACT IV.

SCENE 1.-C. p. 63.

"The iron of itself, though heat red-hot,

Approaching near these eyes would drink my tears,

And quench this fiery indignation,

Even in the matter of mine innocence."

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"Such is the reading of the old copies, unnecessarily altered in modern editions to his fiery indignation.' This fiery indignation' refers to the iron heat red-hot' of a line just preceding: that was the fiery indignation which was to be quenched." COLLIER.

As usual, Mr. Collier patronises a mere misprint. If the iron had been on the stage (and as yet the attendants have not brought it in), the reading "this," though very questionable, might perhaps have been tolerated.

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SCENE 2.-C. p. 68.

Some reasons of this double coronation

I have possess'd you with, and think them strong;
And more, more strong than lesser is my fear,

I shall indue you with: mean time," &c.

"The first folio has then for than,' the commonest mode of printing the word in the time of Shakespeare; but the commentators not adverting to this circumstance do not seem to have understood the passage, and printed when lesser is my fear,' putting it in parentheses: the meaning, however, seems to be, that the king will hereafter give his lords reasons' stronger than his fear was lesser:' the comparative lesser' is put for the positive little, because the poet had used 'more strong' in the preceding part of the line." COLLIER.

Such a portentous reading, and such a super-astute explanation, were perhaps never before exhibited in any critical edition of an author either ancient or modern : - and all because Mr. Collier would not alter "then" to "when," the latter word being as certainly the right lection here, as it is in a passage at p. 412 of the same volume, where he has not scrupled to substitute it for "that" of the old copy.

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ACT V.

SCENE 2.-C. p. 88.

This apish and unmannerly approach,

This harness'd masque, and unadvised revel,
This unheard sauciness, and boyish troops,
The king doth smile at; and is well prepar'd
To whip this dwarfish war, these pigmy arms,
From out the circle of his territories."

So the old copies without exception, and we adhere to the ancient and most intelligible text, notwithstanding Theobald's suggestion, that unheard' ought to be unhair'd. Some modern editors have unscrupulously printed unhair'd, without the slightest intimation that it was not the old reading." COLLIER.

Το me it is so evident from the context that "unhair'd" (i. e. beardless) is the true reading, that I should hardly blame any editor who omitted to state that the word happens to be misspelt in the old copies. Malone's remark that hair was formerly often written hear, might be confirmed by many passages besides the following one;

"But die their heare with sundrie subtill slights."

Epilogue to Gascoigne's Steele Glasse. Faulconbridge-now expresses to the Dauphin that contempt for him and his forces, with which in the preceding scene he had spoken of him to the King;

"shall a beardless boy,

A cocker'd silken wanton, brave our fields," &c.

P. 84.

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SCENE 2.-C. p. 89.

" and to thrill, and shake,

Even at the crying of your nation's crow."

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"Malone thinks that this line refers to the voice or caw of the

French crow,' but Douce truly contends that the allusion is to the

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crow' of a cock, that being the national bird of France; gallus meaning both a cock and a Frenchman.' COLLIER.

Except those explanatory of customs, dress, &c., the notes of Douce are nearly worthless. Would Shakespeare (or any other writer) employ such an expression as " the crying of the crow [of a cock]?"

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KING RICHARD II.

[Vol. iv. COLLIER; vol. iv. KNIGHT.]

ACT I.

SCENE 1.-C. p. 116.

K. Rich. Wrath-kindled gentleman, be rul'd by me.

Let's purge this choler without letting blood:
This we prescribe, though no physician;
Deep malice makes too deep incision.
Forget, forgive; conclude, and be agreed;
Our doctors say this is no month to bleed."

"So all the quartos; the king addressing himself to Norfolk, who had just concluded his angry speech. The folio reads gentlemen; but Bolingbroke, merely as the accuser, was not so properly wrathkindled,' and, moreover, had had time to cool." COLLIER.

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In the first place, whoever reads this scene with any attention will find that Bolingbroke is to the full as angry as Norfolk. Secondly, the fifth line of the present speech proves that the preceding part of it is addressed to both the "wrathkindled gentlemen." Thirdly, the variations of the old eds. are here of no moment: in those мs. early plays which I have had an opportunity of examining, the contraction" gent." is often put for "gentleman," "gentlemen," "gentlewoman," and "gentlewomen;" hence frequent mistakes in the printed copies. In the following passage of Beaumont and Fletcher's Scornful Lady, act v. sc. 4,

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I have cast beyond your wit: that gentlewoman

Is your retainer Welford,"

(which, of course, is the right reading, Welford having been disguised as a gentlewoman), the first 4to has "gent.," and the later eds. (the abbreviation having been misunderstood) "gentleman."

SCENE 3.-C. p. 129; K. p. 399.

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"Boling. Norfolk, so fare, as to mine enemy.—

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