P. 142. Let us not burden our remembrance with A heaviness that's gone. -The original has remembrances. Corrected by Pope. P. 143. When we, in all her trim, freshly beheld Our royal, good, and gallant ship. — The original reads, “Where we, in all our trim." The last is Thirlby's correction. P. 145. This mis-shaped knave, — His mother was a witch. So Pope and Walker. The original -The original has "mis-shapen." P. 146. This is as strange a thing as e'er I look'd on. —' reads "This is a strange thing as," &c. Corrected by Capell. P. 147. Where I have hope to see the nuptial Of these our dear-belovèd solemnized. -The original has “ Our deere-belov'd solemnized"; which White and Dyce retain. This, it seems to me, is pushing conservatism one letter too far. It is true, the Poet sometimes has it solemnized; but then he oftener has it as in the text. P. 148. Now my charms are all o'erthrown, &c.— All Shakespearians, I believe, are pretty much agreed that this Epilogue was not written by Shakespeare. The whole texture and grain of the thing are altogether unlike him. Any one, who will take pains to compare it with the passages of trochaic verse in A Midsummer-Night's Dream, must see at once, I think, that the two could not have come from the same hand. It cannot be affirmed with positiveness who did write the Epilogue. As Mr. White observes, such appendages were very apt to be supplied by some second hand; and in Shakespeare's circle of friends and fellow-dramatists there were more than one who might well have done this office for him, either with or without his consent; especially as his plays are known to have passed out of his hands into the keeping of the theatrical company for which he wrote. Both the Prologue and the Epilogue of King Henry VIII. have been noted by Johnson and others as decidedly wanting in the right Shakespearian taste. |