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P. 410.

his Humour. Act I. Sc. 1. It may be that this gives the
correct interpretation of the passage which is the occasion
of the present Note; and that also when Hamlet (Act V.
Sc. 2) says to Osric, " But, I beseech you, remember
and moves him to put on his hat, he was about to add,
your courtesy." But by what mental process such a
phrase came to have such a significance is past my con-
jecture; for, beyond a doubt, taking off the hat was a
courtesy two hundred and fifty years ago, as it is now.

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Let us make a lawe that no man put off his hat or cap, &c., &c. This is a kind of courtesy or ceremony rather to be avoided than otherwise at table," &c., &c. Florio's Second Fruites. 1591. Again, in Greene's Tu Quoque, Staines, who is teaching an Englishman Italian manners, says, "Only, sir, this I must condition you off: in your affront or salute never to move your Hatte: But here, here is your courtesie."

shall pass Pompey the Great":- So the old copies. The Cambridge editors conjecture, "shall pass as Pompey," &c.

p. 437. "

my griefs are dull":— Read, with the old copies, "my griefs are double," i. e., heavy, strong. So, "a voice potential,

p. 459.

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As double as the Duke's."

Othello, Act I. Sc. 1. which to annotanize." From Mr. Halliwell's folio edition I have learned that Mr. Knight has made this correction. I was first directed to it by remarking the pronunciation of th as t. See Introduction to Much Ado about Nothing (Noting).

p. 25.

p. 35.

VOL. IV.

A Midsummer-Night's Dream.

-

"[Hermia,] for aught," &c. : Read, with the 4to, "Ay me, for aught," &c.

66 the choice of merit":- Read, with the 4to, "the choice of friends." My defence of the folio text is over subtle.

"Or on the beached margent of the sea": — Read, "Or in the beached margent," &c., with the old copies. In' has been too frequently changed toon' in these plays. It was used as we use on it is the Latin in = upon. Christ's great exposition of his doctrine is "The Sermon in the Mount."

p. 36.

p. 40.

p. 41.

p. 49.

p. 53.

p. 57.

P. 71.

p. 76.

p. 80.

p. 86.

p. 158.

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"The human mortals want," &c. :- To whom I am indebted for the suggestion, The human mortals chant," &c., I do not remember. In any case, I cannot regard it as having even the least plausibility.

"I know a bank where the wild thyme blows": - I am now much inclined to doubt that Shakespeare could use where' to fill the place of two syllables, the second of which would be accented. Whereon' might be well received into the text.

·

"Lull'd in these bowers": I yielded too readily to the plausibility of the reading found in Mr. Collier's folio of 1632. Read, with the old copies, "Lull'd in these flowers;" in' having, of course, the sense of upon. and let him hold his fingers," &c. :- The folio,

"or let," &c.

"I desire you of more acquaintance, good Master Mustard-seed": - Mr. Dyce, in his recent edition, first pointed out that the old copies accidentally omit' of' in this speech. See Bottom's two preceding speeches. A trifling change in the plate enables me to profit by this suggestion.

against she doth appear":-The reading, "she do," &c., is from the 4tos.

"So doth the woodbine," &c.:-There can be no doubt that the names woodbine and honeysuckle were applied in Shakespeare's time, if indeed they are not now applied, to the same vine. But there are two kinds of honeysuckle, very distinct, mentioned by Dodoens in his Herbal, a translation of which was published in 1578. Perhaps one was called, or has since come to be called, 'woodbine,' and the other, honeysuckle.' I certainly have heard country folk thus distinguish them.

"And he did bid us follow":-The folio and Roberts's 4to omit he,' as well as did.'

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what abridgment have you?"-The suggestion that here abridgment' means brief, though plausible, is not sound. In Hamlet, Act II. Sc. 2, the prince calls the players his abridgment.' We have evidently lost the meaning with this use of the word.

"Now is the moral down":-The Note upon this passage assumes too subtle a meaning. Mural is probably right; or perhaps moral' is a misprint for 'wall.'

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The Merchant of Venice.

land-thieves and water-thieves": - By an oversight, I neglected to quote "Notable pirate, thou salt

water thief," (Twelfth Night, Act V. Sc. 1,) in support of the transposition made here, which I have since discovered in the "List" of the corrections in Mr. Collier's folio of 1632.

p. 175. "Will be worth a Jewes eye":- In support of this reading, add to the Note the following passages:

p. 203.

"And so did bastard Astrey, too, whose mother was

a Jew." Golding's Ovid, Book V. fol. 57 b. 1612.
"And after certain days, when Felix came with his
wife Drusilla, which was a Jew."

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Acts xxiv. 24. Authorized translation, ed. 1611. an equal yoke of love": - Read, "an egal yoke," &c.

p. 315.

p. 354.

p. 393.

p. 440.

As You Like It.

"Atalanta's better part": ;-- Some doubt has been expressed as to the interpretation of this passage given in the Note upon it. But there should be none. Atalanta's legs are meant. The word 'parts' was specially applied to the lower limbs of women.

"And last of all (though couered) stretched out her round cleane foote,

Supporter of that building brave, of beautious forme the

roote.

The rest (and better part) lay hid. Yet what was to be

seene

To make one lose his liberty enough and more had beene."

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Honour's Academy, 1610, Part III. p. 97. I have at hand a dozen more such examples in point. which are your only prologues," &c.:- Read, with the old copies, "which are the only prologues," &c. The old idiom was "the only" where we now say "only the."

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"Go by, St. Jeronimy" :- Mr. Keightley proposes to read, "Sr. or Signior Jeronimy." There can hardly be a doubt that this is the correct reading.

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like to mose in the chine": — - Good reason why I could not understand this phrase. It is corrupt. Read, "mourn in the chine." See Urquhart's translation of Rabelais: "In our Abbey we never study for fear of the mumps, which disease in horses is called mourning in the chine." Book I. Chap. 39.

P. 13.

p. 22.

p. 50.

p. 79.

VOL. V.

All's Well that Ends Well.

"You shall find of the King a husband": This can hardly be distinguished as a French construction. 'Of' was used two or three centuries ago very much in this manner by many English writers. In the Note, read, "Vous trouverez de par le Roi," &c.

"This his good melancholy," &c. :-Read,
"Let me not live-

Thus his good melancholy oft began," &c.

And perhaps, as Mr. Staunton suggests, in the next line below, "When wit was out."

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"War is no strife":- Read, "Wars is," &c. See "is there not wars?" Second Part Henry IV., Act I. Sc. 2. make rope's in such a scarre": Since the Note on this line (in which Mr. Dyce reads, "make hopes in such a case") was stereotyped, I have met with an important passage which confirms me in the opinion that the text should not be disturbed, although it cannot be explained. In the old play, Lingua, or the Combat of the Tongue, in the first edition, Act I. Sc. 6, Sig. B, Tactus, having found Lingua's crown and robe, which she lays in his way, puts them on, assumes them as his due, and with them royal airs; and he says,

"Peasants I'le curb your head-strong impudence,

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And make you tremble when the Lyon roares, Yea [ye] earth-bred wormes, O for a looking glasse: Poets will write whole volumes of this scarre.' Now, here we have the same word, with exactly the same spelling; and in both passages the word refers to a startling event or emergency. It seems quite impossible that exactly the same arrangement of types should have been fortuitous in both instances. In Mr. Collier's edition of Dodsley's Old Plays, 1825, the line is printed, "Poets will write whole volumes of this change," with a note by him to the effect that, "Poets will write whole volumes of this scar' was the reading of the edition of this work in 1780; but it is mere nonsense: the true word has been supplied from the old copies. C." Which "old copies furnished this reading does not appear: the original edition, which only I possess, we have seen, was not among them; and I cannot believe that had Mr. Collier consulted the first edition, and remembered the obscure passage in All's Well that Ends Well, he would have been

p. 80.

p. 106.

p. 198.

p. 206.

p. 211.

so confident as to his change,' which is, besides, not very well suited to the context. If scarre' must be accepted in the sense of emergency, or a similar sense, the change of rope's to hopes' is more than plausible.

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he has sworn to marry me":- -The original reads, "he had sworn," &c. - an error of the press hitherto unnoticed. Bertram says, earlier in the Scene, "How have I sworn;" and note in this speech Diana's declaration, "therefore I will lie," &c.

"Find him, and bring him hither":— After this order from the King, there should be a stage direction, Exit an attendant, which Mr. Dyce has added.

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Twelfth Night.

I'll get them all three all ready : Mr. Dyce says, with great plausibility, "read all three ready.' The folio has, "all three already;" and it is quite probable, though not, I think, sufficiently certain for a change in the text, that the latter all,' oral,' is a mere repetition of the first.

"My yellow stockings":―The folio has, "Thy yellow stockings." The emendation, which is Mr. W. N. Lettsom's, appears imperative. For not only has Olivia "no idea that Malvolio is quoting the letter," as Mr. Lettsom remarks, but she is entirely ignorant that he has received any letter, and the pronoun in the second person addressed to her, can to her mean only herself; and therefore, when Malvolio quotes, "Go to, thou art made," &c., she replies, "Am I made?" And then, too, the humor of the Scene, which with the old misprint depends only on Malvolio's conceit, becomes stupendous by this logical bringing in of the Countess's supposition that her steward talks to her about her stockings and her garters!

"too unchary on't":- Read, with Theobald, "too unchary out." Olivia might lay her love, but not her honor, upon a heart of stone. The misprint is an easy one to be made.

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p. 222. Nay, I am for all waters

· - - There have been various comments upon this passage, none of which have been accepted as satisfactory. The Clown's meaning is plain enough, without comment; but is not his allusion to the Waterologers,' who were the sovereign quacks in the reigns of Elizabeth and James, and later, although their absurd pretensions were made the subject of constant ridicule? See the following passage in the Satire

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