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Still less can the Commentary pretend to any completeness in what it may contain in reference to the history and constitution of the language generally, or of particular classes of words and constructions. Among the fragments, or specimens, however—for they can be nothing more-which occur in it of this kind of speculation are a few which will be found, perhaps, to carry out the examination of a principle, or the survey of a group of connected facts, farther than had before been done; such as those in the notes on Merely (45), on Its (54), on Shrew and Shrewd (186), on Statue (246), on Deliver (348), on the prefix Be (390), on The in combination with a comparative (675), etc.

Queen's College, Belfast;
October, 1856.

G. L. C.

xiii

ADDITIONS AND CORRECTIONS.

66

p. 23: Add to first foot-note :-In one place, at least, ever has pretty evidently been misprinted even; where, in The Merry Wives of Windsor, iv. 6, Fenton describes Mrs. Page as even strong against " the marriage of her daughter with Slender, "and firm for Doctor Caius." The error, if it be one, however, has apparently been left uncorrected by Mr. Collier's MS. annotator.

p. 24: Add to the foot-note:-It would appear from Nichols's Illustrations, II. 199, that Theobald in the Preface to the Second Edition of his Play of The Double Falsehood (1727), which he pretended was written by Shakespeare, spoke of private property perhaps standing so far in his way as to prevent him from putting out a complete edition of Shakespeare's Works.

p. 33, 1. 5; For Ferrez r. Ferrex.

p. 41: To the passages here enumerated the following ought to be added:

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55. "I do believe that these applauses are

For some new honours that are heaped on Cæsar."

355. "And am moreover suitor, that I may

494.

Produce his body to the market-place."

The Capitol."

"Or here, or at

But this last is the only true or perfect instance of the peculiarity in question that occurs in the present Play.

p. 42: Add to foot-note:-Another case of the same kind

is unquestionably that of the word old in the line (As You Like It, iv. 3),—

"Under an (old) oak, whose boughs were mossed with age."

Nor can I have any doubt that another text, equally familiar to the modern ear, has suffered a similar corruption,— Bassanio's

"In my school-days, when I had lost one shaft,

I shot his fellow of the self-same flight

The self-same way with more advised watch,

To find the other forth; and by adventuring both
I oft found both."

To find forth may, I apprehend, be safely pronounced to be neither English nor sense. The forth has apparently been transferred from the preceding line, which was either originally written The same way forth," or, more probably, was so corrected after having been originally written "The self-same way."

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p. 55. It ought to have been noted here, or at p. 161, that the passage in Hamlet, i. 1, is found only in the Quarto edition of the Play published in 1604, and is omitted i all the Folios. Nor, although retained by Mr. Collier i his "regulated" text, is it stated to be restored by his MS. annotator.

p. 61, 1. 17; For "303. Cass." r. "303. Caes."

p. 64, 1. 11: Add:-Other verbs that are found in Shakespeare sometimes construed in the same manner are endure, forbid, intend, vouchsafe; as,

"The treason that my haste forbids me show."

Rich. II., v. 3.

"How long within this wood intend you stay ?"

Mid. N. Dr., ii. 1.

"Your betters have endured me say my mind."

Tam. of Shrew, iv.3.

"Most mighty Duke, vouchsafe me speak a word."

Com. of Er. v. 1.

-For another ex

p. 66: Add to note on owe and own:planation of these forms the reader is referred to the Second Edition of Dr. Latham's Handbook of the English Language (1855), pp. 304 and 309. Dr. Latham distinguishes the own in such expressions as "He owned his fault" by the name of the Own concedentis (of concession or acknowledgment). May not this sense be explained as equivalent to I make my own, I take as my own?

p. 69: To note on Soles, add :-Yet we might seem to have a distinction of pronunciation between soul and sole indicated in The Merchant of Venice, iv. 1, "Not on thy sole, but on thy soul, harsh Jew."

r.

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p. 70, 1. 14; For "being out " being out." And add to note:-For another play upon the various senses of the word out see the dialogue between Rosalind and Orlando in As You Like It, iv. 1.

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66

p. 70, 1. 5 from foot; For "A proper man r. A proper man. And add to note:-In The Tempest, ii. 2, we have the same expression that we have here distributed into two successive speeches of the drunken Stephano :"As proper a man as ever went on four legs;" and "Any emperor that ever trod on neat's leather." But, in the prevailing tone of its inspiration at least, it is not with the present Play that one would compare The Tempest, but rather with The Winter's Tale.

66

p. 71, 1. 19; For "to pass a street" r. "to pass a street." p. 72, 1. 9; For "But it need not be assumed " r. But, perhaps, it need not be assumed.”

p. 72: Add to note on Cull out a holiday :-In an earlier state of the language, however, an was commonly used before h in some cases where we now use a. Thus in the present Play we have in 246 " an hundred spouts" in both the First and Second Folios. The expression, also, in the New Testament is " when I was an-hungered;" and, in like manner, Shakespeare writes, in Coriolanus, i. 1, "They said they were an-hungry." But it may be questioned if the an here be the article. It is apparently the same element that we have in the "Tom's a-cold" of Lear, iii. 4

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