P. 123. If Time be in debt and theft. -The old copies read "If I be in debt," &c. Some editors, following Malone, read "If he be in debt," he referring to Time in the line before. Rowe printed Time, which Dyce adopts, noting, withal, that "the word was probably written here contractedly, T, which the compositor might easily mistake for I.

ACT IV., SCENE 3.

P. 124. The man, sir, that, when gentlemen are tired, gives them a bob, and 'rests them.- So Hanmer, followed by Dyce. Instead of bob, the original has sob, which is commonly changed to fob. prints sop, and White stop. See foot-note 3.

Staunton

P. 126. If you do, expect spoon-meat; so bespeak a long spoon. — The original has "or bespeak a long spoon." and is followed by Dyce. White prints bespeak."

Capell changed or to so, 'expect spoon-meat, and

P. 126. Avoid thee, fiend! - The original reads "Avoid then fiend." Then is commonly changed to thou; but, as Dyce remarks, the reading in the text was "the more usual expression" in such cases.

ACT IV., SCENE 4.

P. 128. Off. I'll serve you, sir, five hundred at the rate. — The original assigns this speech to Dromio of Ephesus, in whose mouth it is quite unintelligible. The Cambridge Editors proposed to transfer it to the Officer.

P. 129. Or rather, to prophesy like the parrot, &c. — The original reads "or rather the prophesie like the parrot." From this I can gather no meaning at all. The reading in the text is Dyce's. See foot-note 4.

P. 130. I dined at home! Thou villain, what say'st thou? - I, at the beginning of this speech, and required by the metre, was inserted by Capell. I am surprised that Singer and White reject it.

P. 131. God and the rope-maker now bear me witness! — So Collier's second folio, followed by Dyce. The original lacks now, which Pope supplied the place of with do.

ACT V., SCENE 1.

P. 134. Good sir, draw near with me, I'll speak to him.—The old copies read "draw near to me." The change is from Collier's second folio, and seems fairly needful to the sense.

P. 135. This week he hath been heavy, sour, sad,

And too much different from the man he was.—The first folio reads “And much different," &c., which leaves an incredible gap in the verse. The hole was stopped in the second folio by repeating much; but I much prefer the reading in the text, which was proposed by Mr. Swynfen Jervis, and is supported by a line in Richard II., ii. 2: "Madam, your Majesty is too much sad."

P. 136. Sweet recreation barr'd, what doth ensue

But moody, moping, and dull melancholy?—The original lacks moping, — another incredible gap in the verse. Hanmer supplied the word, which has also been proposed by Heath and Walker.

P. 138. The place of death and sorry execution.-The original has "The place of depth," which some would still retain! The correction was made by Rowe, and is also found in Collier's second folio.

P. 139. Anon, I wot not by what strange escape,
He broke from those that had the guard of him;
And then his mad attendant and himself,

Each one with ireful passion, with drawn swords,

-

Met us again, &c. In the first of these lines, the original has "what strong escape," and in the third, "And with his mad attendant." Strange is found in Collier's second folio, and was also proposed by Walker, who points out other instances of that word thus misprinted. The correction of with to then is Ritson's, which I prefer to Capell's here. I cannot but wonder that Singer, White, and Dyce should still retain with; for, to speak of a man as breaking away from guard, and going with himself to do something, seems not far from absurd. Doubtless with crept in there by repetition from the next line.

-The old copies read

P. 140. He cries for you, and vows, if he can take you, To scotch your face, and to disfigure you. "To scorch your face." Warburton made the correction, which, however, is rejected by many, Singer and White among them. It is remarkable that the old copies have the same misprint in Macbeth, iii. 2: "We have scorch'd the snake, not kill'd it."

P. 142. They fell upon me, bound me, bore me thence,

And in a dark and dankish vault at home

They left me.-So Walker and Collier's second folio, followed

by Dyce. The original, "There left me."

P. 143. I never saw the chain. So help me Heaven,

-

As this is false you burden me withal. The original reads "the Chaine, so helpe me heaven: And this is false," &c. The correction is Dyce's, who still thinks it "absolutely necessary, though Mr. Grant White has pronounced it 'quite needless.”” And he justly quotes from a preceding speech of Adriana's: "So befall my soul, as this is false he burdens me withal."

P. 145. Æge. If I dream not, thou art Æmilia. — The original misplaces this speech of Ægeon and Æmilia's reply to it, inserting them between the last two lines of the Duke's following speech. The transposition was made by Capell, and is generally accepted.

P. 146. Besides her urging of the wreck at sea. -The old copies read "urging of her wreck." Some have supposed her to be a misprint for his. Probably the word got repeated by mistake. The correction is Walker's.

P. 147. And thereupon these errors all arose. have 66 errors are arose." Corrected by Rowe.

"these Errors rare arose."

The old copies
Staunton prints

P. 147. Twenty-five years have I but gone in travail

Of you, my sons; and, till this present hour,

My heavy burden ne'er delivered. — Here, in the first line, the original has "Thirtie three yeares." Twenty-five is known to be right, because Ægeon has said that he had parted from his son seven years before, the latter being then eighteen. The correction was made by Theobald. — In the third line, also, the original reads “burthen are delivered." We owe the happy emendation to Dyce.

P. 147. And you the calendars of their nativity,
Go to a gossips' feast, and joy with me;

After so long grief, such felicity! - Here the original has, in the second line," and go with me." The apt correction, joy, was proposed by Heath, and is adopted by Singer, White, and Dyce. - In the third line, again, the original has “such nativity," thus repeating the word from the end of the first. The correction is Hanmer's. Walker notes upon the passage thus: "For the second nativity, read, not as is suggested in the Variorum edition, festivity, but felicity."

P. 148. Master, shall I go fetch your stuff from ship-board? - So Walker. The old copies lack go.

THE

TWO GENTLEMEN OF VERONA.

FIRST printed in the folio of 1623.

Also mentioned by Beyond this, we have

Meres, in his Palladis Tamia, 1598. no external indication as to the date of composition; though the internal evidence, of style, diction, dramatic structure, and delineation of character, is conclusive of its having been among the earliest-written of Shakespeare's comedies.

No note has been discovered of the performance of this play during the author's life. Doubtless it was put upon the stage, for Shakespeare had no thought of writing dramas merely for the closet; but, if it had been acted as often as his other plays, we should most likely have some record of the performance, as we have in the case of so many others. Notwithstanding its superiority to most of the plays then in use from other hands, its comparative excess of the rhetorical over the dramatic elements may have made it less popular in that most action-loving age than many far below it in all other respects.

No novel or romance has been found, to which the Poet could have been much indebted for the plot or matter of this play. In the part of Julia and her maid Lucetta there are indeed some points of resemblance to the Diana of George Montemayor, a Spanish romance at that time very popular in England, and of which an English translation by Bartholomew Yonge was published in 1598. The Diana is one of the books spared from the bonfire of Don Quixote's library, because, in the words of the Priest who superintends the burning, "They do not deserve to be burnt. like the rest, for they cannot do the mischief that those of chivalry have done: they are works of genius and fancy, and do

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nobody any hurt." The part from which Shakespeare is thought to have borrowed is the story of Felismena, the heroine :

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'My father having early followed my mother to the tomb, I was left an orphan. Henceforth I resided with a distant relative; and, at the age of seventeen, fell in love with Don Felix, a young nobleman of the province where I lived. The object of my affections felt a reciprocal passion; but his father, having learned the attachment between us, sent his son to Court with a view to prevent our union. Soon after his departure, I followed him in the disguise of a page, and on the night of my arrival discovered, by a serenade I heard him give, that he had disposed of his affections. Not being recognized, I was taken into his service, and engaged to conduct the correspondence with the mistress who had supplanted me."

Though Yonge's version of the Diana was not published till 1598, the story was generally well known before that time; parts of it were translated in Sidney's Arcadia, which came out in 1590; and there is reason to think that the History of Felix and Philiomena, which was acted at Court as far back as 1582, was a play partly founded on the story of Felix and Felismena. So that, Shakespeare being admitted to have followed the tale in question, he might well enough have been familiar with it long before Yonge's translation appeared. But, indeed, such and similar incidents were the common staple of romances in that age. And the same may be said touching the matter of Valentine's becoming captain of the outlaws; for which the Poet has been written down as indebted to Sidney's Arcadia.