Paccuvius, Accius, him of Cordova dead, Of all that insolent Greece or haughtie Rome As they were not of Natures family. And such wert thou. Looke how the father's face Of Shakespeares minde and manners brightly shines In his well-torned and true-filed lines: In each of which, he seemes to shake a Lance, And make those flights upon the bankes of That so did take Eliza and our James! And despaires day, but for thy Volumes light. The Two Gentlemen of Verona. The Taming of the Shrew. HISTORIES. The Life and Death of King John. The Life and Death of Richard the Second. The First Part of King Henry the Fourth. The Second Part of K. Henry the Fourth. The Life of King Henry the Fift. The First Part of King Henry the Sixt. The Second Part of King Hen. the Sixt. The Third Part of King Henry the Sixt. The Life and Death of Richard the Third. The Life of King Henry the Eight. TRAGEDIES. The Tragedy of Coriolanus. Titus Andronicus. Romeo and Juliet. Timon of Athens. The Life and Death of Julius Cæsar. The Tragedy of Hamlet. Othello, the Moore of Venice. ADDITIONAL COMMENDATORY POEMS Upon the Effigies of my worthy Friend, Master William Shakespeare, and his Workes. SPECTATOR, this Life's Shaddow is; To see Turne Reader. But, observe his Comicke vaine, An Epitaph on the admirable Dramaticke Poet, WHAT neede my Shakespeare for his honour'd bones C Dear Sonne of Memory, great Heire of Fame, On Worthy Master Shakespeare and his Poems. A MIND reflecting ages past, whose cleere Troilus and Cressida although not found in this list, is yet inserted in the collection. From this circumstance, and because the play has only one leaf paged, the figures of which, 79 and 80, do not correspond, any more than the signatures, with the preceding and following pages, Farmer inferred that the insertion of Troilus and Cressida was an after-thought of Heming and Condell. Its omission from the Catalogue may be accounted for by the supposition that the folio was printed off Them in their lively colours, just extent. In that deepe duskie dungeon to discerne While the Plebeian Impe, from lofty throne, This, and much more which cannot bee express'd But by himselfe, his tongue, and his own brest, Was Shakespeare's freehold; which his cunning braine Improv'd by favour of the nine-fold traine, And lowder tone of Clio; nimble hand, And there did sing, or seeme to sing, the choyce The author of this magnificent tribute to the genius of Shakespeare is unknown. By some writers it has been ascribed to Milton; by others to Jasper Mayne; Mr. Boaden conjectured it was from the pen of George Chapman; and the Rev. Joseph ADDENDA AND CORRIGENDA. VOL. I. INTRODUCTION TO "THE TWO GENTLEMEN OF VERONA." P. 1. "- a work very popular in Spain towards the end of the seventeenth century." Read: "sixteenth century." P. 52. LOVE'S LABOUR'S LOST. "Why should I joy in any abortive birth? At Christmas I no more desire a rose, Than wish a snow in May's new-fangled shows: But like of each thing that in season grows." "Shows" here is a manifest misprint. I would read :"—a snow on May's new-fangled wreath." P. 53, note (a). Add, after " very small game" :-But Steevens was evidently unconscious of its being a proverbial expression. It occurs in Whetstone's "Promos and Cassandra," Part I. Act III. Sc. 6: "A holie hood makes not a Frier devoute He will playe at small game, or he sitte out." Ibid. note (b). "Mr. Collier's old annotator proposes garrulity;"-Read: Mr. Collier's annotator proposes garrality, which he borrowed no doubt from Theobald, who in 1729, suggested it to Warburton. See Nichols's Illustrations, Vol. II. p. 317. P. 64, note (b). Add:-Belly-doublet is in fact nonsense. The doublets were made some without stuffing-thin bellied-and some bombasted out:-"Certain I am, there never was any kind of apparel ever invented, that could more disproportion the body of man, than these doublets with great bellies hanging down, and stuffed," &c. &c.STUBBES. Ibid. note (c). Add:-Mr. Collier's annotator reads, "By my pain of observation," a reading first suggested by Theobald in 1729. Nichols's Illustrations, Vol. II. p. 320. P. 67. "This senior-junior (4) giant-dwarf." Dele (4). P. 80. · prisons up,”-Read: with the old editions: poisons up, and, in corroboration, see Act V. Sc. 2:"If this, or more than this, I would deny, To flatter up these powers of mine with rest, The sudden hand of death close up mine eye:" And, stronger still, the following from King John, Act IV. Sc. 3: Ibid. "Put but a little water in a spoon, "Makes heaven drowsy with the harmony." A consonant idea occurs in Shirley's "Love Tricks," Act IV. Sc. 2: "Those eyes that grace the day, now shine on him, He her Endymion, she his silver moon, The tongue that's able to rock Heaven asleep, And make the music of the spheres stand still." P. 83, note (c). and Mr. Dyce says nothing can be more evident than that Skakespeare so wrote," &c. Read: and Mr. Dyce says, "Nothing can be more evident than that Shakespeare wrote," &c. P. 84, note (e). In this note, strike out the clause, "Hence the equivoque, which was sometimes in allusion to snuff for the nose, and sometimes to the snuff of a candle." P. 85. "And shape his service wholly to my behests; And make him proud to make me proud that jests!" I would now read, hests, with Mr. Sidney Walker, instead of behests. Ibid. "Arm'd in arguments ;-Read: "Armed in arguments; &c." Ibid. note (e). It meant I now suspect, deeply in love, applied to a love-sick person. In this sense it occurs in the excellent old comedy of "Roister Doister," Act I. Sc. 2. P. 91. "Above this world: adding thereto, morever." Read: moreover." 66 COMEDY OF ERRORS. P. 120, note (a). See also note (b) Vol. III. p. 62. P. 121, note (f). But to carry out this metaphor, serious hours, should be several hours. The integrity of the allusion is destroyed by serious. I suspect, however, the corruption lies in the word common. P. 124, note (b). So also in Ben Jonson, "Sejanus," Act V. Sc. 4:"Cut down, Drusus, that upright elm; wither'd his vine." P. 129. "Sing, syren," -Read: "Sing, siren." P. 136. "With his mace." It ought to have been mentioned that the sergeants carried a staff or small mace in their hands. See "The Example," by Shirley, Act III. Sc. 1. "He that's a mizer all the yeere beside Will revell now, and for no cost will spare, P. 228, note (a). Add:-By "Brach Merriman,-the poor cur is emboss'd," &c. is meant, Couple Merriman with a female hound,-the poor cur is, &c. So in the next line," and couple Clowder with the deep-mouth'd brach." P. 229, note (a). "Sinclo to this line. Sinclo," &c. Read: "Sinklo to this line. Sinklo," &c. P. 233. 1-wis, it is not half way to her heart. Dele the hyphen. P. 239. " My mind presumes, for his own good, and yours." Mr. Collier's annotator, adopting a suggestion of Theobald's, (see Nichols's Illustrations, Vol. II. p. 334,) reads, "for his own good, and ours.' P. 246. "In cypress chests my arras, counterpoints," &c. -Read : arras counterpoints," &c. P. 264. "What! up and down, carv'd like an apple tart?" Read: "What up and down, carv'd like an apple tart!" P. 266, note (c). I am now partly of opinion that "expect" here means, attend, pay attention, and that the passage should be pointed thus,-"I cannot tell. Expect they are busied," &c. The word occurs with this sense apparently in Jonson's Masque of "Time Vindicated." "Hark! it is Love begins to Time. Expect. [Music].” P. 272, note (a). Perhaps, after all, the old text is right, but the two words have been inadvertently made into one: "therefore, sir, as surance," i.e. as proof. P. 273. "We three are married, but you two are sped." Of sped, in this place, the commentators can make no sense. It perhaps means promised. See "A Proper Sonet, Intituled, Maid will you Marrie," in "the Gorgeous Gallery of Gallant Inventions," part ii. p. 48:- "Why then you will not wed me?— The lover then goes on in answer to say, To keep her promise faithfully." KING JOHN. P. 293, note (a). I now think the original text is possibly correct, and that the thought running through the passage and which sufficiently explains it, is, that there is peculiar hardship in Arthur suffering, not only for the sins of the grandmother, (which might be regarded as the common lot-" the canon of the law,") but by the instrumentality of the person whose sins were thus punished; the grandmother being the agent inflicting retribution on her grandson for her own guilt. "I have but this to say, That he's not only plagued for her sin, But God hath made her sin and her the plague And with [or by] her plague-her sin his injury All [is] punished in the person of this child, P. 302, note (a). I am not at present so satisfied of the propriety of Mr. Dyce's ingenious emendation uptrimmed as I was formerly. In old times it was a custom for the bride at her wedding to wear her hair unbraided, and hanging loose over her shoulders. May not Constance by "a new untrimmed bride," refer to this custom? Peacham in describing the marriage of the princess Elizabeth with the Palsgrave says that "the bride came into the chapell with a coronet of pearle on her head, and her haire dischevelled and hanging down over her shoulders." Compare, too, "Tancred and Gismunda," Act V. Sc. 1.: "So let thy tresses flaring in the wind Untrimmed hang about thy bared neck." P. 303, note (b). Against the thing thou swear'st," query, "swearest by"? P. 318, note (a). "Whose confidential parley." Rather whose secret dispatch. There is an instance of private used substantively in Ben Jonson's "Every Man in his Humour," Act IV. Sc. 5. "I will tell you, sir, by the way of private, and under seal.” P. 319. "Thou'rt damn'd as black-" It should have been remarked that Shakespeare had here probably in his mind the old religious plays of Coventry, some of which in his boyhood he might have seen, wherein the damned souls had their faces blackened. In Sharp's Dissertation on these performances, the writer speaking of "White and Black Souls," observes:"Of these characters the number was uniformly three of each, but sometimes they are denominated 'savyd' and 'dampnyd Sowles,' instead of white and black." the same work we meet with, "Itm payd to iij whyte sollys "Itm payd to iij blake sollys And in vjd" "Itm for makyng and mendynge of the blakke soules hose "p'd for blakyng the sollys fassys." Ibid. note (c). Add the following example from Florio's "Worlde of Wordes." "Ruffare, to rifle, to skamble." P. 321, note (c). Johnson is right. Florio after explaining Foragio to mean fodder, &c., says it had anciently the sense of Fuora, which is out, abroad, forth, &c. A MIDSUMMER NIGHT'S DREAM. P. 358. In some of the early copies of this edition, a part of Bottom's speech runs, "Ladies, fair ladies, I would wish you, I would request you, I would entreat you not to fear,"&c. Read: "Ladies, or fair ladies, I would, wish you, or I would request you, or, I would entreat you, not to fear," &c. P. 359. For "Erit," after "thou art translated: "— Read: Exeunt Snout and Quince. P. 363, note (a). "The critical remedy applied, afforded." Dele applied. Subsequent consideration induces me to believe that the emendation of Mr. Collier's annotator, mentioned in the above note, is uncalled for. P. 365, note (b). "O me! what means my love?" I should now adhere to the old text, 66 "O, me! what news my love?" Mr. Collier's attempt to substantiate his annotator's reading means by reference to a passage in Nash and Marlowe's Dido, Queen of Carthage," where he proposes the puerile change of "newly clad" for "meanly clad," is a signal failure. The passage in the original stands thus :— "Achates, thou shalt be so meanly clad, As sea-born nymphs shall swarm about thy ships, And wanton mermaids court thee with sweet songs." And meanly is an obvious misprint for "mienly," i.e. shapely. P. 377. "For, by thy gracious, golden, glittering gleams.” For gleams, I would now read with the second folio, "streams. MERCHANT OF VENICE. P. 417, note (f). Add: which the said corrector borrowed from Theobald. (See Nichols's Illustrations, Vol. II. p. 308.) P. 419, note (a). "For intermission," after all may mean, for fear of interruption. So in "King Lear," Act II. Sc. 4: “Delivered letters spite of intermission.” P. 421. "How true a gentleman you send relief." See note (d), p. 342, Vol. I. 66 P. 425. "A woollen bagpipe." Mr. Collier's annotator reads, "bollen bagpipe," and Mr. Dyce adopts the change: for "What writer," he says, ever used such an expression as a woollen bagpipe! Might we not with almost equal propriety talk of a woollen lute, or a woollen fiddle?" But see Massinger's play of "The Maid of Honour," Act IV. Sc. 4:"Walks she on woollen feet?" P. 534. "The likeness of a fat old man."' We should read as in the quarto, "the likeness of an old fat man." P. 540, note (e). Add: It meant to mix or mingle: thus, in Greene's "Quip for an Upstart Courtier:"-" You card your beer (if you see your guests beginning to get drunk), half small half strong." Again, in Hackluyt's Voyages, Vol. II. p. 489 :-"They drinke milke, or warme blood, and for the most part card them both together." P. 631, note (1). For "Asunctus," read "Asunetus.” |