Abbildungen der Seite
PDF
EPUB

The Quarto seems to me very much more dramatic.

IV. iv. 196, Quarto:

36.

"Though far more cause, yet much less spirit to curse
Abides in me; I say Amen to all."

That is, "to all that she has said." The Folio weakly substitutes to her for to all.

IV. iv. 359, Quarto :

37.

"Then in plain terms tell her my loving tale."

Folio:

"Then plainly to her tell my loving tale."

IV. iv. 369, Quarto:

38.

"The George, profaned, hath lost his holy honour."

The Folio, probably in order to get rid of the alliteration, changes holy into lordly. But surely this involves a sacrifice of the proper epithet, which Shakspere would not have made. To say nothing of the sacred character of the George, the word profaned shows that holy is the true reading.

IV. iv. 385, Quarto:

39.

"[The princes,] two tender playfellows for dust."1

The Folio substitutes bed-fellows for playfellows!

IV. iv. 445, Quarto:

66

40.

Why stand'st thou still, and go'st not to the duke?" Instead of the former half of this line the Folio has why stay'st thou here.

IV. iv. 461, Quarto:

41.

"Why dost thou run so many mile about."

The Folio changes mile into miles.

where we find " some score

A similar change is made in I. ii. 257, or two" in the Quarto altered into " a score or two" in the Folio. In both passages the Quarto reading is in accordance with Shakspere's usage.

IV. iv. 503, Quarto:

42.

"Sir Edward Courtney, and the haughty prelate,
Bishop of Exeter, his brother there."

'The reading of the Quarto receives some confirmation from the following passage, in which Queen Elizabeth apostrophizes the Tower:

"Rude ragged nurse, old sullen playfellow

For tender princes, use my babies well!" IV. i. 103.-E. H. P.

The Folio changes the last two words into elder brother, a piece of particular information with which I cannot think that Shakspere would have favoured us upon such an occasion.

V. i. 17, Quarto:

66

43.

By the false faith of him I trusted most."

The Folio changes the last three words into whom most I trusted.

V. ii. 17, Quarto:

66

44.

Every man's conscience is a thousand swords."

The Folio tamely substitutes men for swords.

V. iii. 11, Quarto :

66

45.

Why, our battalion trebles that account."

The Folio reads battalia instead of battalion. This may certainly be the Italian battaglia. But if it is the plural, can any one suppose that Shakspere would have used this pedantic form of the plural? If any one can, let him refer to Hamlet, IV. v. 88, where he will find that, as a matter of fact, Shakspere preferred the plural in 8:"When sorrows come, they come not single spies, But in battalions."

In accordance with my prescribed plan, I should now proceed to adduce examples to show that in most cases where the Folio is an improvement upon the Quarto, "the improvement is altogether below what we should expect from Shakspere, if we suppose him assuming the character of a reviser of his own work;" whilst, upon the other hand, it is "precisely what we might anticipate from a corrector of moderate capacity, setting himself to the task of dressing up the play according to his lights." Upon re-consideration, however, I propose to omit these examples: first, because the characteristics of the reviser's work which they would illustrate have been sufficiently (I think) developed incidentally in the course of the foregoing discussion; and, secondly, because Mr Spedding himself appears to have been content to dispute the superiority of the Quarto, without, for the most part, affirming or maintaining the actual superiority of the Folio. I pass on, therefore, to the next part of my subject: namely, to endeavour to establish that the so-called 'inserted passages' of the Folio formed part of the play as it was originally written.

THE PASSAGES PECULIAR TO THE FOLIO PART OF THE PLAY AS IT WAS ORIGINALLY WRITTEN,

Mr Spedding, on page 35 of his Paper, has given a table, tolerably complete, of the new lines printed in the Folio of 1623. I do N. S. SOC. TRANS., 1875,

8

not propose to give a separate discussion to each of these. Single lines, or even lines inserted by twos and threes, cannot help us much towards a solution of the question at issue. Confining my attention, therefore, to the six longest of the inserted passages, I shall quote each of them at length, along with its immediate context as it stands in the Quarto. The reader will thus be in a position to form his own judgment upon two points: first, whether the character of the inserted passage is conformable with the theory that it was added by the author upon a revision of the play several years after it was originally written; or whether, upon the other hand, it rather tends to favour the alternative theory that the passage formed part of the original play, but being omitted by the actors in representation, was consequently omitted from the Quarto editions; and secondly, whether there is a marked metrical difference between the 'inserted' passage and its context, as the latter stands in the Quarto. If it does not appear that there is such a difference, it will be unnecessary to discuss Mr Spedding's opinion that the metrical characteristics of these passages correspond with those of Shakspere's work in or about the year 1602.

Note: the passages peculiar to the Folio are enclosed within brackets.

I. ii. 149-183.

1.

"Anne. Out of my sight, thou dost infect my eyes.
Glou. Thine eyes, sweet lady, have infected mine.
Anne. Would they were basilisks, to strike thee dead!
Glou. I would they were, that I might die at once;
For now they kill me with a living death.
Those eyes of thine from mine have drawn salt tears,
Shamed their aspect with store of childish drops:
[These eyes, which never shed remorseful tear,
No, when my father York and Edward wept,
To hear the piteous moan that Rutland made
When Black-faced Clifford shook his sword at him;
Nor when thy warlike father, like a child,
Told the sad story of my father's death,

And twenty times made pause to sob and weep,
That all the standers-by had wet their cheeks,
Like trees bedashed with rain: in that sad time
My manly eyes did scorn an humble tear;

And what these sorrows could not thence exhale,
Thy beauty hath, and made them blind with weeping.]
I never sued to friend nor enemy;

My tongue could never learn sweet soothing words;
But, now thy beauty is proposed my fee,

My proud heart sues, and prompts my tongue to speak.
Teach not thy lips such scorn, for they were made

For kissing, lady, not for such contempt.

If thy revengeful heart cannot forgive,

Lo, here I lend thee this sharp-pointed sword;
Which if thou please to hide in this true bosom,
And let the soul forth that adoreth thee,

I lay it naked to the deadly stroke,

And humbly beg the death upon my knee.

Nay, do not pause; 'twas I that killed your husband,
But 'twas thy beauty that provoked me.

Nay, now despatch; 'twas I that killed King Henry,

But 'twas thy heavenly face that set me on."

I think the reader will agree with me that the passage enclosed in brackets must have formed part of the original play; indeed, in the Quarto, the abrupt conclusion of the lines,

"Those eyes of thine from mine have drawn salt tears,
Shamed their aspect with store of childish drops,"

is quite noticeable, and suggests that something has been omitted. As regards metre, my ear cannot detect any difference between the lines which are, and those which are not, in the Quarto. Counting, however, gives a result partly in Mr Spedding's favour, partly against him. There are 21 old lines, and 12 new; in the former there is only one run-on line, in the latter there are two run-on lines. This result tells for Mr Spedding. But, upon the other hand, whilst the 12 new lines contain only one line with an extra syllable, the 21 old lines contain three such lines. This result tells against Mr Spedding; for, if it proved anything, it would prove that the passage peculiar to the Folio is earlier than the rest. With regard to the run-on lines in that passage, I may observe that the proportion in the Quarto is not unfrequently even very much greater: e. g. in Gloucester's opening soliloquy, containing 41 lines, there are 12 unstopped, or about 1 in 3.1

II. ii. 79-106:

2.

"Duch. Was ever mother had a dearer loss ! Alas, I am the mother of these moans !

Their woes are parcell'd, mine are general.

She for Edward weeps, and so do I;

I for a Clarence weep, so doth not she:

These babes for Clarence weep, and so do I;

I for an Edward weep, so do not they :

Alas, you three, on me threefold distressed

Pour all your tears! I am your sorrow's nurse,

And I will pamper it with lamentations.

I Would Shakspere in 1602 have written these added lines? They surely belong to his early manner. I have no doubt they were originally part of the play, and were omitted for stage purposes.-W. A. W.

[Dor. Comfort, dear mother: God is much displeased
That you take with unthankfulness his doing:

In common worldly things, 'tis called ungrateful,
With dull unwillingness to repay a debt
Which with a bounteous hand was kindly lent;
Much more to be thus opposite with heaven,
For it requires the royal debt it lent you.

Riv. Madam, bethink you, like a careful mother,
Of the young prince your son: send straight for him;
Let him be crown'd; in him your comfort lives:
Drown desperate sorrow in dead Edward's grave,
And plant your joys in living Edward's throne.]
Enter Gloucester, with others.

Glou. Madam, have comfort: all of us have cause
To wail the dimming of our shining star;

But none can cure their harms by wailing them.
Madam, my mother, I do cry you mercy;

I did not see your grace: humbly on my knee
I crave your blessing."

In the first place, if the passage in brackets were inserted on a careful revision of the play, one would not expect to find a phrase put into Dorset's mouth-comfort, dear mother-so closely resembling Gloucester's-Madam, have comfort. Upon the other hand, what is more probable than that a slender company should cut out these two unimportant speeches of Dorset and Rivers, and so set free the actors who personated them to undertake other characters in this scene? As regards the metre, there are 15 old lines and 12 new; the former contain 3 run-on lines, and the latter contain 2. The old lines appear to run more smoothly than the new.

II. ii. 112-142:

3.

"Buck. You cloudy princes and heart-sorrowing peers, That bear this mutual heavy load of moan,

Now cheer each other in each other's love:

Though we have spent our harvest of this king,

We are to reap the harvest of his son.

The broken rancour of your high-swoln hearts,
But lately splinter'd, knit, and join'd together,
Must gently be preserved, cherish'd, and kept:
Me seemeth good, that, with some little train,
Forthwith from Ludlow the young prince be fetch'd
Hither to London, to be crown'd our King.

[Riv. Why with some little train, my Lord of Buckingham ?

Buck. Marry, my Lord, lest, by a multitude,

The new heal'd wound of malice should break out;
Which would be so much the more dangerous,

« ZurückWeiter »