CRITICAL NOTES.

ACT I., SCENE I.

Page 10. Blow, till thou burst thy wind, &c.- Steevens conjectured "Blow, till thou burst thee, wind. " This accords with a similar passage in King Lear, iii. 2: "Blow, winds, and crack your cheeks!" See, however, foot-note 3.

I am now convinced that

P. 10. If you can command these elements to silence, and work the peace of the present, we will not hand a rope more; use your authority. — Hereupon Mr. Joseph Crosby writes me as follows: "I have never been satisfied with this passage: ever since I can remember, when I read these lines, there always seemed to me to be something wrong. You know I tried to correct it by transposing some of the words; but that did not much help the matter. the word that is wrong is present, which is a misprint (phonetic) for tempest, a typographical error from mishearing. Work the peace of the present' is a very strange expression; while 'work the peace of the tempest' fits and dove-tails in exactly with the context." This strikes me as a highly sagacious and probable conjecture; and, if any change be needed, is, I should say, undoubtedly the right one. I am strongly tempted to adopt it, but rather think, on the whole, it had better stand over for further trial.

P. II. Bring her to try wi' th' main-course.- In the original, "bring her to Try with Maine-course"; which leaves us in doubt as to how the clause should be punctuated. Mr. Grant White, at the suggestion of Mr. W. W. Story, prints "Bring her to try wi' th' main-course"; and quotes the following from Lord Mulgrave, a sailor critic: "The gale increasing, the topmast is struck, to take the weight from aloft, make the ship drive less to leeward, and bear the mainsail, under which the ship is brought to." The likelihoods seem about evenly

balanced between the two ways of printing the passage. Of the more recent editors, Collier, Staunton, Singer, and Dyce punctuate as in the text. See foot-note 9.

P. 12. And as leaky as an unstanch wench. — The original has unstanched. But unstanched, as used in the Poet's time, has a sense quite unsuited to the context.

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P. 13. Ling, heath, broom, furze, any thing. — The original has Long heath, Browne firrs." But it does not appear that there are or ever were any plants known as long heath and brown furze. The reading in the text is Hanmer's, and has the unqualified approval of Walker; who observes, "The balance requires it. Besides, what are long heath and brown furze ?" See foot-note 18.

P. 14.

ACT I., SCENE 2.

A brave vessel,

Who had no doubt some noble creatures in her. - So Theobald and Collier's second folio: the original has creature instead of creatures.

P. 15. I have with such prevision in mine art. The old text has provision. The change is from Collier's second folio, and accords with what Ariel says in ii. I: "My master through his art foresees the danger that you, his friend, are in."

Was Duke of Milan; thou his only heir,

A princess, -no worse issued. The old text reads "and his onely heire "; the and being evidently repeated by mistake from the preceding line. Steevens made the correction. The original also has "And Princesse ; no worse Issued." Corrected by Pope. The old copies have various instances of and thus misprinted for a. So in King Henry VIII., ii. 4: On the debating And Marriage 'twixt the Duke of Orleance and Our daughter Mary."

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P. 18. The ivy which had hid my princely trunk,

And suck'd the verdure out on't. - The original reads "Suck'd my verdure"; the my being probably repeated by mistake from the preceding line.

Who having unto truth, by falsing of it,
Made such a sinner of his memory,

To credit his own lie.

The old copies read "having into truth, by telling of it." This reading, with unto substituted for into, is commonly explained by making it refer to lie in the second line after. But is this, or was it ever, a legitimate English construction? Collier's second folio substitutes to untruth for into truth; rather plausibly, at first sight. But the meaning in that case would be, “having made his memory a sinner to untruth by lying"; whereas the sense required clearly is, "having made his memory a sinner unto truth by lying." This sense is aptly expressed by falsing, as, I think, every one will see. Nor does it seem to me at all unlikely that tell should have been misprinted for fals; especially as the verb to false was passing out of use before 1623. The quotations given in foot-note 27 appear to yield the present reading ample support; but, as several eminent Shakespearians with whom I have corresponded object to it, I here add a few others. So in The Faerie Queene, 1. 9, 46:

Is not enough, that to this Lady mild

Thou falsed hast thy faith with perjuree?

Also, in the same, ii. 5, 9:

Sometimes athwart, sometimes he strook him strayt,
And falsed oft his blowes t' illude him with such bayt.

Also, in the Epilogue to The Shepheard's Calendar :

To teach the ruder shepheard how to feede his sheepe,
And from the falsers fraud his folded flocke to keepe.

Also, in Daniel's Complaint of Rosamond :

Such one was I, my beauty was mine own;

No borrow'd blush, which bankrupt beauties seek,
That new-found shame, a sin to us unknown, -

Th' adulterate beauty of a falsed cheek.

So

As to the other change, unto for into, it appears that these two forms were often used indiscriminately; at all events, the old editions often have into where our present idiom absolutely requires unto. in Cymbeline, i. 6 : “Such a holy witch, that he enchants societies into him." And, as an instance of the converse, in A Midsummer-Night's Dream, i. 1, the quartos read, "That he hath turn'd a heaven unto a hell"; while the folio has "a heaven into a hell."

But the Rev. Mr. Arrowsmith has lately proposed an ingenious application of the old text, which seems to call for some notice. He thinks the right construction to be, "by telling of it into truth." And he quotes several instances of like expression; as the following from South's Sermons : "Till he has thought a distasteful apprehension into an action of murder." And again : "Yet vice cannot be praised into virtue." This form of speech is not indeed uncommon, and it has long been familiar to me; but I cannot think the cases parallel. In that construction of the passage the pronoun it must refer to some antecedent, and cannot be used absolutely, as it well may be in the reading here given; yet there is nothing for it to refer to, at least nothing but lie, in the second line after, which is, I think, inadmissible, for the reason already stated. Moreover, the sense of telling a lie into truth seems to me quite unsuited to the place. In short, this explanation is so strained and far-fetched, that it only operates with me as a further argument against the old text.

P. 19. To have no screen between this part he play'd
And them he play'd it for, he needs will be

Absolute Milan. The original reads "And him he play'd it for." The correction is Mr. P. A. Daniel's, and seems to me eminently judicious. I never could make any sense out of the old text. foot-note 31.

See

To think but nobly of my grandmother.

Pros. Good wombs have borne bad sons. In the old text, the last line is made a part of Miranda's speech. Theobald thought it should be as here given, and so Hanmer printed it.

Fated to th' practice did Antonio open

The gates of Milan; and, i' the dead of darkness,

The ministers for th' purpose hurried thence

Me and thy crying self.— The original has "Fated to th' purpose." The change is from Collier's second folio, and is admitted on the ground that purpose may have got repeated by mistake from the second line after. Staunton thinks it "an improvement," and Dyce adopts it. Still I do not feel quite sure about it.

P. 20. I, not remembering how I cried on't then,

Will cry it o'er again. - The original has "how I cried out then"; which gives nothing for it, in the next line, to refer to. Lettsom would read "how I cried it then."

P. 21.

Dear, they durst not·

So dear the love my people bore me — set

nor set

A mark so bloody on the business. -The original has ". A marke." The nor both spoils the metre, and, to say the least, hurts The omission was proposed by Mr. William Aldis Wright.

the sense.

P. 21.

Where they prepared

A rotten carcass of a boat, not rigg'd,

Nor tackle, sail, nor mast; the very rats

Instinctively had quit it.—The original has butt instead of

boat, and, in the last line, have instead of had.

When I have degg'd the sea with drops full salt. The original reads "When I have deck'd the sea." The word deck'd has given the editors a deal of trouble; and no wonder, for neither of its admitted senses at all suits the context. Dyce, I think, was the first to suggest that it might be " a corruption of the provincialism degg'd, that is, sprinkled." See foot-note 43.

P. 22. Some food we had, and some fresh water, that

A noble Neapolitan, Gonzalo,

Out of his charity, — being then appointed

Master of this design,—did give us. —'

-The original has "who

being then appointed." The pronoun who upsets both grammar and metre, and also obscures the sense. Pope omits it.

P. 24.

Jove's lightnings, the precursors

O the dreadful thunder claps, more momentary

And sight-outrunning were not: the fire, and cracks

Of sulphurous roaring, the most mighty Neptune

Seem'd to besiege, &c.— The original has lightning for light

nings, and "Seeme to besiege."