Steevens calls this a "glaring corruption : "—I content myself with saying that it is obscure to me.-Farmer's very bold alteration,—

"Dem. And so comes Pyramus.

Lys. And then the moon vanishes,"-
-

66

used to keep its place in the text till Mr. Collier and Mr. Knight restored the old reading. Mr. Collier remarks that, as there is no necessity for making any change, it ought to be avoided;" but he adds nothing in the way of explanation. "Demetrius and Lysander," observes Mr. Knight, "do not profess to have any knowledge of the play; it is Philostrate who has heard it over.' They are thinking of the classical story." Now, if they had no knowledge of the play, they must have been sound asleep during the Dumb-show and the laboured exposition of the Prologue-speaker at p. 229. And if they were 'thinking of the classical story," they must have read it in a version different from that of Ovid; for, according to his account, the "lea sæva' had returned" in silvas" before the arrival of Pyramus,-who, indeed, appears to have been somewhat slow in keeping the assignation, "Serius egressus," &c. (Compare, too, the long and tedious History of Pyramus aud Thisbie in the Gorgious Gallery of Gallant Inventions, 1578,-p. 171 of the reprint.)

66

P. 233. (35) "For, by thy gracious, golden, glittering streams," &c.

Both the 4tos and the folio have " of the second folio substituted "

glittering beames."-When the editor glittering streams," he undoubtedly gave the true reading: see my Remarks on Mr. Collier's and Mr. Knight's eds. of Shakespeare, p. 49.

P. 233.

"The. This passion, and the death of a dear friend, would go near to make a man look sad."

An American critic (Mr. R. Grant White), in Putnam's Monthly Magazine for October, 1853, p. 393, writes as follows: "The humor of the present speech consists in coupling the ridiculous fustian of the clown's assumed passion with an event which would, in itself, make a man look sad. Mr. Collier's Ms. Corrector extinguishes the fun at once, by reading, This passion on the death of a dear friend,' &c. And, incomprehensible as it is, Mr. Collier sustains him by saying that the observation of Theseus has particular reference to the passion of Pyramus on the fate of Thisbe'!"

A corrupted passage.—Theobald, for the sake of the rhyme, altered “lips” to "brows."-The Ms. Corrector reads,

"This lily lip,

This cherry tip," &c.,

"in allusion,"- —as Mr. Collier carefully informs us,-" to the tip of the nose of Pyramus."

P. 235. (38) "Whilst the screech-owl, screeching loud," &c.

Here the recent editors (Mr. Collier excepted) print, with Roberts's 4to and the folio, "scritch-owl" and "scritching :" but why? when the best of the old eds., Fisher's 4to, has "scriech-owle" and "scrieching."

P. 236. (39)

66

'Through the house give glimmering light,

Johnson conjectured,

By the dead and drowsy fire," &c.

"Through this [the] house in glimmering light," &c.;

and other alterations have been proposed to me, with which I shall not trouble the reader.

P. 237. (40)

"Shall upon their children be.

With this field-dew consecrate,

Every fairy take his gait," &c.

So the passage is distinctly pointed in the old copies; and, with that punctuation, "field-dew consecrate" must be understood as equivalent to consecrated field-dew, i.e. fairy holy-water.-Mr. Collier's Ms. Corrector alters the pointing thus,

"Shall upon their children be,
With this field-dew consecrate.
Every fairy take his gait," &c.

P. 237. (1)

"Ever shall in safety rest,
And the owner of it blest."

"Thus all the old copies, from which I have not ventured to deviate, because there are many other instances, in these plays, where the nominative case is not expressed, but understood. Mr. Pope and the subsequent editors read 'E'er shall it in safety rest.'" MALONE,-with whom I agree as to the propriety of not disturbing the text. He has, however, misrepresented the reading of Pope; which is "Ever shall it safely rest,”- -a reading which could scarcely fail to suggest itself to any person who was bent on having a nominative case in black and white; and accordingly it is found among the emendations of the Ms. Corrector, Mr. Collier producing it as something quite new, which "renders the whole song consecutive, grammatical, and intelligible."

THE MERCHANT OF VENICE.

Magnificoes of Venice, Officers of the Court of Justice, Gaoler, Servants, and other Attendants.

SCENE-Partly at Venice, and partly at Belmont, the seat of Portia, on the Continent.

THE MERCHANT OF VENICE.

ACT I.

SCENE I. Venice. A street.

Enter ANTONIO, SALARINO, and SOLANIO.

Ant. In sooth, I know not why I am so sad:
It wearies me; you say it wearies you;
But how I caught it, found it, or came by it,
What stuff 'tis made of, whereof it is born,
I am to learn;

And such a want-wit sadness makes of me,
That I have much ado to know myself.

Salar. Your mind is tossing on the ocean;
There, where your argosies with portly sail,—
Like signiors and rich burghers on the flood,
Or, as it were, the pageants of the sea,-
Do overpeer the petty traffickers,
That curt'sy to them, do them reverence,

As they fly by them with their woven wings.

Solan. Believe me, sir, had I such venture forth,

The better part of my affections would

Be with my hopes abroad. I should be still
Plucking the grass, to know where sits the wind;
Peering in maps for ports, and piers, and roads;
And every object that might make me fear

Misfortune to my ventures, out of doubt
Would make me sad.

Salar.

My wind, cooling my broth,

Would blow me to an ague, when I thought