and stimulates his large imaginative discourse with arguments against it; so that his purpose dies for the present in the fires which itself has kindled. The received punctuation ought by no means to be disturbed.

Page 276.

"The night has been unruly."

This and the eight following lines are not rightly arranged in the text. They should be thus:

"The night has been unruly: where we lay,

Our chimneys were blown down, and, as they say,
Lamentings heard i'the air, strange screams of death:
And, prophesying with accents terrible

Of dire combustion and confus'd events,

New-hatch'd to th' woful time, the obscure bird

Clamour'a the livelong night: some say the earth
Was feverous, and did shake.

"Macb.

'Twas a rough night."

Page 284.

“Lay your highness'

Command upon me."

The original has Let instead of Lay. The change is from Collier's folio. It is more than "plausible," the passage being hardly English without it, or something like it.

Page 286.

"In our last conference pass'd in probation with you."

This and the four following lines are wrongly arranged in every text with which the Editor is acquainted. thus

They should be

"This I made good to you

In our last conference, pass'd in probation

With you, how you were borne in hand; how cross'd;

The instruments; who wrought with them;

And all things else, that might to half a soul,

And to a notion craz'd, say, 'Thus did Banquo.'"'

Page 294.

"'Tis better thee without, than him within."

The original reads, "than he within; " which gives a wrong Collier's folio makes the change.

sense.

Page 310.

"Rebellion's head rise never, till the wood

Of Birnam rise."

The original has Rebellious dead for Rebellion's head. The latter word was corrected long ago; the other change is from Collier's folio. Singer thinks "it is quite evident that we should read Rebellion's head;" and he justly remarks that "the personification adds much to the effect of the passage."

Page 332.

"This push

Will chair me ever, or disseat me now."

The original has cheer instead of chair. The apt correction is found in Collier's folio, and the use of disseat ought to have secured its adoption long ago, at the suggestion of Bishop Percy. Probably cheer is but a phonographic spelling of chair, which appears to have been pronounced cheer in the Poet's time.

Page 335.

"For where there is advantage to be ta'en."

The old reading is, "advantage to be given," the word having probably got repeated from the line below. Walker proposed the change.

KING JOHN.
Page 377.

"And then we shall repent each drop of blood
That hot rash haste so indiscreetly shed."

The old reading is, “indirectly shed." Indiscreetly is from Collier's folio. It does not well appear how "hot rash haste" should act indirectly.

Page 392.

"That daughter there of Spain, the lady Blanch,

Is niece to England."

Neere of the old copies, spelt near in modern editions, is with obvious propriety changed to niece in Collier's folio.

Page 398.

"Hath drawn him from his own determin'd aim."

The original misprints aid for aim. Set right in Collier's folio.

Page 406.

"In likeness of a new untrimmed bride.”

Such is the original reading of this much disputed passage. Collier's folio changes untrimmed to up-trimmed, and Dyce says the change is right "beyond the possibility of a doubt." Notwithstanding this weight of authority, the old reading is certainly right. Mr. White retains it, but is wrong in his explanation of it. "An untrimmed bride," says he, "is a bride in dishabille; and in some such condition was Blanche on account of her unexpected nuptials, and the haste in which they were performed." The truth is, an untrimmed bride, in the language of the old dramatists, is simply a virgin bride, as the passage in hand was explained long ago. The meaning of untrimmed, as used in the text, is aptly shown in "Titus Andronicus," Act v., Scene i.:

"Aar. They cut thy sister's tongue, and ravish'd her, And cut her hands, and trimm'd her as thou saw'st.

"Luc. O, detestable villain! call'st thou that trimming? "Aar. Why, she was wash'd, and cut, and trimm'd; and 'twas Trim sport for them that had the doing of it."

The word trim and its derivatives are repeatedly used by Beaumont and Fletcher in the same sense; and once, at least, by Mas singer

Page 414.

"Sound on into the drowsy ear of night."

The original has "race of night." That race was a misprint for ear, then spelt eare, seems probable in itself, and is rendered all but certain by the context. Collier's folio makes the change, and Dyce approves it

Page 440.

"We will not line his sin-bestained cloak."

Sin-bestained is the happy substitution of Collier's folio for thin bestained.

Page 447.

"Courage! and run

To meet displeasure further from the doors."

Instead of Courage, the original has Forage, which can hardly be made to yield any appropriate sense; and the attempts that have been made to explain it in harmony with the context seem rather far-fetched.

Ibid.

"Send fair-play offers, and make compromise."

The old reading is "fair play orders." Offers gives just the right sense, and might easily have been misprinted orders. Both of these changes are from Collier's folio; as is also the following:

Page 449.

"I must withdraw, and weep

Upon the thought of this enforced cause."

"Upon the spot" is the old reading; doubtless caused, as Mr. White suggests, by thought's being written tho't. At all events, spot is all wrong, and thought all right, for the place.

VOLUME V.

KING RICHARD II.

Page 41.

"It boots thee not to be so passionate."

The old copies all have compassionate, instead of so passionate.

Compassionate bore no such meaning in the Poet's time as is required by the context. The correction is Singer's. It has been proposed to read "become passionate."

Page 109.

"Lest children's children cry against you

woe!"

The reading of all the old copies is, "Lest child, child's children cry;" which it is not easy to believe Shakespeare could have written. The correction is White's, and is eminently judicious.

SECOND PART OF KING HENRY IV.

Page 329.

"And so both the diseases prevent my curses.

The old copies have degrees instead of diseases. The latter is so evidently required by the context, that we may well wonder the change should have waited for Collier's folio.

Page 354.

"Grant that, my pure virtue, grant that."

The old reading is "my poor virtue," which does not seem to smack rightly of Sir John in the premises. Both Collier's and Singer's copies of the second folio make the change.

Page 370.

"Then, happy lowly clown!

Uneasy lies the head that wears a crown."

Warburton's correction of low lie down to lowly clown is so strongly recommended by the sense of the passage, that there seems no good reason why it should not be accepted. As stated in the note in loco, the old spelling, lowlie, might easily be mistaken for low lie, and cl for d.

Page 388.

"Led on by bloody youth, guarded with rags."

The old copies have rage, which is quite at odds with the context. The change was proposed by Mr. Sidney Walker, and is found in both Collier's and Singer's folios.