The Works of William Shakespeare

VOL. II.

MUCH ADO ABOUT NOTHING.

P. 3. "Enter LEONATO, HERO, and BEATRICE, with a Messenger." The old eds. have "Enter Leonato Gouernour of Messina, Innogen his wife, Hero his daughter, and Beatrice his Neece, with a messenger" (and again at the commencement of act ii. they make his "wife" enter with Leonato). "It is therefore clear," says Mr. Collier ad l., "that the mother of Hero made her appearance before the audience, although she says nothing throughout the comedy;" and in his Notes and Emendations, &c., he remarks that "the manuscript-corrector of the folio, 1632, has expunged the words Innogen his wife, as if the practice had not then been for her to appear before the audience in this or in any other portion of the comedy." p. 66.

The great probability is, that she never appeared before any audience in any part of the play; and that Theobald was right when he conjectured that "the poet had in his first plan designed such a character, which, on a survey of it, he found would be superfluous, and therefore he left it out." One thing I hold for certain, viz. that, if she ever did figure among the dramatis personæ, it was not as a mere dummy: there are scenes in which the mother of Hero must have spoken;-she could not have stood on the stage without a word to say about the disgrace of her daughter, &c.

P. 35.

"Well, every one can master a grief but he that has it."

The old eds. have "Well, euery one cannot master," &c.

P. 57.

"Dog. Come, let them be opinioned.

The old eds. have

Verg. Let them be in the hands

Con. Off, coxcomb!

Dog. God's my life," &c.

"Constable. Come, let them be opiniond.

Couley [the folio "Sex."]. Let them be in the hands of
Coxcombe.

The "for" is a modern addition.—Mr. Halliwell (Shakespeare, i. 275, folio ed.) thinks the old reading is right, and that "came" is equivalent to -I cannot agree with him.

66 came for:"

P. 75. Note (3).

When I wrote this note, I ought to have recollected that Theobald had assigned to Balthazar the three speeches in question.

P. 177.

A MIDSUMMER-NIGHT'S DREAM.

"like to a silver bow

New-bent in heaven," &c.

The old eds. have "Now bent in heauen," &c.

P. 184.

"To the rest :-yet my chief humour," &c.

Point, with the old copies, "To the rest yet, my chief humour," &c.

P. 192.

"The one I'll slay, the other slayeth me."

Thirlby's correction. The old eds. have "The one Ile stay, the other stayeth me."

P. 193.

"Hast thou the flower there? Welcome, wanderer.

Puck. Ay, there it is.

Obe.

I pray thee, give it me."

Mr. W. N. Lettsom has very recently observed to me; "The first part of each of these two verses is inconsistent with the second part. Should we not read and point?

'Hast thou the flower there, welcome wanderer?
Puck. Ay, here it is.

Obe.

I pray thee, give it me.'"

P. 197.

"Nature here shows art," &c.

This is the reading of the second folio.-The quartos have "nature shewes arte," &c.—the folio has "nature her shewes art," &c.—I now prefer Malone's reading, "Nature shows her art," &c.

So Fisher's 4to ("I swoune," &c.).-The other old eds. "I swound," &c. and "I sound," &c.

Since these volumes were printed, I have received from Mr. W. N. Lettsom the excellent correction of the late Mr. Sidney Walker;

"Being o'er shoes in blood, plunge in knee-deep,

And kill me too."

P. 211. "Thy threats have no more strength than her weak prayers." The old eds. have " her weak praise."

When I mentioned, in a note, that Mr. Collier's Ms. Corrector reads "what means my love?" I ought also to have cited a passage from The Taming of the Shrew, act i. sc. 1, which makes that alteration a very doubtful one: there Lucentio exchanges dress with his servant Tranio: presently Lucentio's other servant, Biondello, enters, and exclaims in great surprise;

"Master, has my fellow Tranio stolen your clothes?
Or you stolen his ? or both? pray, what's the news?"

P. 214.

"to try whose right,

Of thine or mine, is most in Helena."

See note (19) on The Tempest, vol. i. p. 69.

P. 219.

"Seeking sweet favours for this hateful fool," &c.

Mr. Grant White (Shakespeare's Scholar, &c. p. 216) observes; "Mr. Dyce [in his Few Notes, &c.] would read, with one of the quartos,

'Seeking sweet favours for this hateful fool,'

because 'Titania was seeking flowers for Bottom to wear as favours.' But surely Mr. Dyce must have forgotten that 'savours,' the word in the authentic [??] folio, is supported by the fact that Bottom in this scene expresses a wish for the sweet savour' of a honey-bag, and that Titania begs him to sit that she may stick musk-roses' in his head," &c. Now, Bottom uses no such expression in this scene or any where else: but in act iii. sc. 1, he says, in the character of Pyramus, "Thisby, the flowers of odious savours sweet—,” which certainly does not support the reading "savours" in the present scene. I still adhere to "favours:" which, since my text of this play was printed off, I find adopted both by Mr. Halliwell and by Mr. Staunton; the former of whom, after quoting my note on the passage, adds, “She [Titania] had, amongst other favours,' gathered the musk-roses she stuck in Bottom's sleek smooth head,' having previously adorned his temples with a 'coronet of fresh and fragrant flowers."

Mr. Staunton proposes "All melted as the snow," &c.,-a better correction than that usually adopted,-" Melted as doth the snow," &c.

P. 227. "That is, hot ice and wonderous strange snow."

Here I have inadvertently allowed Malone's spelling, “wonderous,” to remain. Read, with the old eds., "wondrous." See note (29) on The Merchant of Venice.

So Theobald.-The old eds. " she means," &c.-Mr. Staunton observes ad l., that the change was made by Theobald "perhaps without necessity, as means appears formerly to have sometimes borne the same signification. Thus in The Two Gentlemen of Verona, act v. sc. 4,

'The more degenerate and base art thou,

To make such means for her as thou hast done.""

But in that passage, "To make such means" certainly signifies (as Steevens explains it)" to make such interest for, take such pains about."

Qy. "Ever shall't in safety rest," &c.?-Mr. Staunton gives,

"And the owner of it blest,

Ever shall in safety rest;"

it having been suggested to him "by Mr. Singer, and by an anonymous correspondent, that the difficulty in the passage arose from the printer's having transposed the two last lines." But in that case two printers at least must have oddly enough made the same mistake, since the two 4to editions of the play, 1600, were printed from two different manuscripts. As to the text of Midsummer-Night's Dream in the folio of 1623, it is, for the most part, that of the least accurate of the two quartos,-the one put forth by Roberts.

THE MERCHANT OF VENICE.

"So is Alcides beaten by his page," &c.

P. 263.
The old eds. have ".

by his rage," &c.

P. 277.

"Gilded tombs do worms infold."

So Johnson.-The old eds. have "Guilded timber doe," &c.

VOL. I.