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and in some other passages of this play, where the word occurs in the same position as in the last-cited instance.5

4. Rather, perhaps,—

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iv. 1,

We lop away."

The superfluous branches

"I take the earth (!) to the like," &c.

Possibly,—“ I take oath to the like;" (oath is from the Var. notes ;) or perhaps, "I task thee to the like.” 7

Ib.,

"Sweet peace conduct his sweet soul to the bosom

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Of good old Abraham! Lords appellants," &c. If all is right, we must pronounce appellants. Are there any traces of such a pronunciation ?

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Be judg'd by subject and inferior breath?"

Fol., breathe. E is not ordinarily or regularly subjoined

5 See S. V., Art. ix. and Art. xxvii.— Ed.

6 The second folio supplies All to fill up the gap. Qu.,

"They might have liv'd to bear, and he to taste,

Their fruits of duty still. Superfluous branches" &c. Ed. 7 So Capell. Task is warranted by the first quarto. The error seems to have arisen from the words "thee to the like" having been misprinted "the earthe like,” and from the correction having been inserted without ejecting the blunder. So Walker explains (Art. lxix. above) a blunder in All's Well &c. i. 3, where the folio reads "ton tooth to th' other," for "one to th' other."-Ed. 8 Capell reads, My lords appellants.”—Ed.

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to breath in the spelling of that time. I think that the Elizabethan grammar requires breaths. 2 K. Henry IV. v. 3, near the end," Boote, boote Master Shallow;" perhaps Boots.

v. 2. I think,—

"Ho! who's within there? Saddle me my horse." Var.,

"Ho! who is with in there? | Saddle | my horse."!!!9

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3,- The Beggar and the King." In both cases the beggar is a woman; at least, if the allusion is to King Cophetua. Hence it occurs to Bolingbroke's mind.

Ib.,

"His eyes do drop no tears, his prayers are in jest." dele in? [So Capell.-Ed.]

5,

"It is as hard to come, as for a camel

To thread the postern of a needle's eye."

66

a

Collier, on the authority of all the quartos, corrects small needle's eye;" and observes that needle should be pronounced as a monosyllable. That the epithet is from Shakespeare's hand, I feel certain. How needle could be monosyllabized, I do not understand. Nares, Glossary, in v., Neeld, or Neele,-" In Gammer Gurton it is most frequently neele, and rhymes to feele, &c. O. Pl. ii." From Richardson's Dictionary I learn that the Swedish word is nael. Neele, originally of course neelè, still sur

9 This apology for a verse is authorized by the quartos. The folio has who's.-Ed.

vives in the mouths of some homely folk as neely. In Pericles, v., Gower's speech,

"Deep clerks she dumbs; and with her neeld composes

Nature's own shape;"

neele is the spelling of the original edition, teste Malone, Var., vol. xxi. p. 132, n. 1.10 In Midsummer Night's Dream, iii. 2,

"We

Have with our neelds created both one flower,"

the old copies, as Steevens states, have needles; contrary to the metre, as in King Richard II. above. Cymbeline, i. 2,

"I would they were in Afric both together,

Myself by with a needle, that I might prick

The goer back."

There is not pause enough for an extra syllable. Write neeld or neele. Here, too, needle is from the folio, the only authority for Cymbeline.

Ib.,

"For though it have holp madmen to their wits,

In me it seems it will make wise men mad."

Is wise men here simply men in their wits-wise cognate with wit?

6. We should arrange, perhaps,

North.

Welcome, my lord: What is the news?

Thy sacred state wish I all happiness."

First, to

10 I suppose Malone is mistaken, as Mr. Dyce reads needle in both Gower's speeches that precede Acts iv. and v.-Ed.

133

i. 1,—

1. KING HENRY IV.

"A gallant prize? ha, cousin, is it not? West. In faith,

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3. The lines, from "But shall it be, that you" &c. to "these shames ye underwent," should be printed as one sentence; for such they certainly are in meaning.

ii. 3,

"Thy spirit within thee hath been so at war,
And thus hath so bestirr'd thee in thy sleep,

That beads of sweat have stood upon thy brow," &c.

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Read, "And thou hast so &c. Perhaps in the MS. it was written, "And thou hath" &c. from the hath in the preceding line, and hence the further corruption.

1 The folio, following the quartos, gives the passage thus,— "And is not this an honourable spoyle ?

A gallant prize? Ha Cosin, is it not? Infaith it is.

West. A Conquest for a Prince to boast of."

Ed.

Ib.-Qu.,

"One horse, my lord he brought even now.

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"In faith, my lord, you are too wilful-blame."

Of course, "too wilful-blunt;" and so Johnson suggests.2
See also Timon, i. 2,—

"Fie, thou 'rt a churl; you 'have got a humour there
Does not become a man, 'tis much to blame."

Fol.,-"too blame;" (so, by the bye, to blame is always, I think, printed in the folio). I suspect we should read, "'tis much too blunt."

iv. 1,—Arrange, perhaps,—

"I' faith, and so we should; where now remains
A sweet reversion: we may boldly spend

Upon the hope of what is to come in."

v. 2. Is something lost?

"[

Suspicion, all our lives,

Shall be stuck full of eyes."

Note, too, suspect-Suspicion; yet can Supposition (old copies) be right? Impossible, I think.

Ib. Possibly,

"There is no seeming mercy in the king. Hot. Did you bid any of him? God forbid."

See, however, Nares on the word Blame.-Ed.

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