NOTES.

NOTE I.

I. 1. 8, 9. The suggestion that a line has been lost in this place came first from Theobald. It is scarcely necessary to say that there is no mark of omission in the Folios. Malone supposes that a similar omission has been made II. 4. 123. The compositor's eye (he says) may have glanced from 'succeed' to 'weakness' in a subsequent hemistich.

In order to relieve the plethoric foot-note we set down in this place some conjectures for which we are indebted to Mr Halliwell's note on the passage.

The reading assigned in the foot-note to Steevens is found in a note to the Edition of 1778. He afterwards changed his mind.

1. 2. 15.

NOTE II.

Hanmer's reading is recommended by the fact that in the old forms of 'graces' used in many colleges, and, as we are informed,

at the Inns of Court, the prayer for peace comes always after, and never before, meat. But as the mistake may easily have been made by Shakespeare, or else deliberately put into the mouth of the 'First Gentleman,' we have not altered the text.

NOTE III.

I. 2. 22-26. In the remainder of this scene Hanmer and other Editors have made capricious changes in the distribution of the dialogue, which we have not thought it worth while to chronicle. It is impossible to discern any difference of character in the three speakers, or to introduce logical sequence into their buffoonery.

NOTE IV.

I. 2. IIO. We retain here the stage direction of the Folio, ‘Enter ...Juliet, &c.' for the preceding line makes it evident that she was on the stage. On the other hand, line 140 shows that she was not within hearing, nor near Claudio while he spoke. We may suppose that she was following at a distance behind, in her anxiety for the fate of her lover. She appears again as a mute personage at the end of the play.

NOTE V.

1. 2. 115, 116. Johnson in the first Edition, 1765, says, 'I suspect that a line is lost.' This note was omitted in the Edition of 1778.

NOTE VI.

I. 4. 70. 'To soften Angelo: and that's my pith of business.' We have left this line as it is printed in the Folios. There is a line of similar length and rhythm in The Two Gentlemen of Verona, IV. 2. 16. 'But here comes Thurio: now must we to her window.'

NOTE VII.

II 2. 149. A writer, 'A. E. B.' in Notes and Queries (Vol. v. p. 325) points out that in Wickliffe's bible, 'shekels' is spelt 'sickles,' which he says ought, therefore, to be retained. There is no doubt of the meaning; but we, in accordance with our custom, have modernized the spelling.

NOTE VIII.

11. 2. 155–161. The printing in the Folios gives no help towards the metrical arrangement of these and other broken lines. In the present case we might read:

'Ang. Well, come to me to-morrow.

Or, considering the first two lines as prose, we might read the last :

'Isab.
Ang.

Heaven keep your honour safe!

Amen: for I

Am that way going to temptation

Where prayers cross.'

NOTE IX.

II. 4. 9. 'fear'd.' Mr Collier, in Notes and Queries, Vol. VIII. p. 361, mentions that in Lord Ellesmere's copy of the First Folio the reading is 'sear'd.'

NOTE X.

II. 4. 94. 'all-building.' 'Mr Theobald has binding in one of his copies.' Johnson.

NOTE XI.

II. 4. 103. That longing have been sick for.' Delius says in his note on this passage, 'Das I vor have lässt sich nach Shaksperischer Licenz leicht suppliren.' The second person singular of the governing pronoun is frequently omitted by Shakespeare in familiar questions, but, as to the first and third persons, his usage rarely differs from the modern. If the text be genuine, we have an instance in this play of the omission of the third person singular 1. 4. 72, 'Has censured him.' See also the early Quarto of the Merry Wives of Windsor, Sc. XIV. 1. 40, p. 285 of our reprint:

'Ile cloath my daughter, and aduertise Slender

To know her by that signe, and steale her thence,
And vnknowne to my wife, shall marrie her.'

NOTE XII.

II. 4. 111-113. Mr Sidney Walker adopts Steevens' emendation, and affirms that among all the metrical licenses used by Shakespeare, the omission of the final syllable of the line is not one. But if the reading of the first Folio be allowed to stand, we can find many instances of lines which want the final syllable. The line immediately preceding may be so scanned:

'Ignomy in ransom and free pardon.'

And in this same scene, line 143, we have

And in v. 1. 83:

'And you tell me that he shall die for't.'

'The warrant's for yourself; take heed to't.'

It is conceivable that 'mercy' may be pronounced as a trisyllable; but in all the undoubted examples of such a metrical license, the liquid is the second of the two consonants, not the first.

S. Walker's Shakespeare's Versification, pp. 207 sqq.

See, however,

Possibly a word may have dropt out, and the original passage may have stood thus:

Ignomy in ransom and free pardon are

Of two opposed houses: lawful mercy
Is nothing kin to foul redemption.'

NOTE XIII.

III. 1. 29. Mr Collier's copy of the second Folio has 'sire.' Notes and Queries, Vol. vi. p. 141.

III. I.

NOTE XIV.

56, 57. The metrical arrangement is uncertain here. It is not probable that the last word of the Duke's speech, 'concealed,' should be the first of a line which would be interrupted by his exit. Perhaps, too, the true reading of the following line may have been: 'As comforts all are good, most good indeed.'

NOTE XV.

III. I. 91, 94. The word 'prenzie,' occurring, as it does, twice in this passage, rests on such strong authority that it is better to seek to explain than to alter it. It may be etymologically connected with 'prin,' in old French, meaning 'demure;' also with 'princox,' a 'coxcomb,' and with the word 'prender,' which occurs more than once in Skelton: e.g.

'This pevysh proud, this prender gest,
When he is well, yet can he not rest.'

Mr Bullock mentions, in support of his conjecture, that 'pensie' is still used in some north-country dialects. 'Primsie' is also found in Burns' poems with the signification of 'demure, precise,' according to the glossary.

NOTE XVI.

III. 1. 118. Johnson says the most plausible conjecture is 'benighted.' It does not appear by whom this conjecture was made.

NOTE XVII.

III. I. 168. We must suppose that Claudio, as he is going out, stops to speak with his sister at the back of the stage within sight of the audience.

NOTE XVIII.

IV. 2. 91. This is a case in which we have thought it best to make an exception to our usual rule of modernizing the spelling. The metre requires 'Haply' to be pronounced as a trisyllable. Perhaps it would be well to retain the spelling of the first two Folios 'Happely,' and as a general rule it would be convenient if an obsolete spelling were retained in words used with an obsolete meaning. We have, however, abstained from introducing on our own authority this, or any other innovation in orthography. In IV. 3. 126, we have retained 'covent,' which had grown to be a distinct word from 'convent,' and differently pronounced. Shakespeare's ear would hardly have tolerated the harsh-sounding line

'One of our cónvent and his cónfessor.'

NOTE XIX.

IV. 3. 17. The reading 'cry' (i.e. ‘crie') for ‘are' was suggested by a passage in Nashe's Apologie for Pierce Pennilesse, 1693, quoted by Malone: 'At that time that thy joys were in the fleeting, and thus crying 'for the Lord's sake' out at an iron window.'