Point and write,— "Even till the &c. Opening on Neptune, with fair-blessed beams Turns into yellow gold" &c. The folio has a comma after Neptune, and also after beams. (Compare, as to the thought, Sonnet xxxiii., where the sun is described as Gilding pale streams with heavenly alchemy;" and King John, iii. 1, near the beginning,— "To solemnize this day, the glorious sun Stays in his course, and plays the alchemist Turning with splendour of his precious eye The meagre cloddy earth to glittering gold.") iv. 1, "When in a wood of Crete they bay'd the bear" &c. Dyce's conjecture, boar (Remarks, p. 49,-or is he referring to another critic who has proposed it ?) deserves attention. The story of Meleager would be sufficient to suggest it to Shakespeare. Ib., "Of this discourse we more will hear5 anon." I somewhat suspect the inversion. Fol., we shall heare more anon. At the end of the speech read, with Steevens, "Come, my Hippolyta." v. 1,— "That is hot ice and wondrous strange snow." 4 That critic was Hanmer.-Ed. 5 This is the reading of Fisher's quarto; Roberts's has we will hear more anon; here we have three authorities at variance, and who knows but Shakespeare wrote more will we hear?—Ed. 6 Walker's note would lead any one to conjecture swarthy for Perhaps scorching might serve as a bad makeshift; but the word required is one synonymous with black. This false reading perhaps misled Carey into imitating the flatness, Hell, Canto xx. 1. 11,— "Each wonderously seem'd to be revers'd Ib., "And what poor duty cannot do, Noble respect takes it in might, not merit." Something evidently has dropt out. Note, for the chance of its throwing some light on the meaning of this passage, Spenser, F. Q., B. iv. C. i. St. lii.,— "False traitour squire, Why doth mine hand from thine avenge abstaine, i.e., on thee who art now in my power. Ib., "Where I have come, great clerks have purposed Compare Browne, Britannia's Pastorals, B. ii. Song i.,— "If e'er you saw a pedant 'gin prepare To speak some graceful speech to Master Mayor, That in his eloquence he may be out; He oft steps forth, as oft turns back again, strange; it is wondrous strange that it did not occur to himself. Mr. Staunton has also proposed it in a note. Upton (Critical Observations, p. 205) proposed "strange black snow."-Ed. Ib., "Sweet moon, I thank thee for thy sunny beams; Fol., beams; streams originated in the second folio. I think the alliteration requires gleams, and so Collier reads.7 Aliter tamen Dycius, Remarks, p. 49. MERCHANT OF VENICE. i. 1, "I hold the world but as the world, Gratiano; Sad is grave. See context. B. xviii. St. xi.,— And so, I think, Fairfax, 7 This is a mistake. Mr. Knight suggested gleams, but both he and Mr. Collier retained streams; the latter, because, in his opinion, the editor of the second folio perhaps acted "upon some then existing authority which we have no right to dispute." I am afraid this irrefragable authority never existed but in Mr. Collier's imagination. Mr. Dyce, who prefers streams, has supported his opinion by the somewhat more weighty authority of still-existing examples. Mr. Singer and Mr. Staunton have placed gleams in the text. I must confess I should prefer it, but for one reason. If I may trust Mrs. Cowden Clarke, this common and convenient word never once appears in so voluminous a writer as Shakespeare. Even its kinsman gloom is also an exile from his pages. Glooming or gloomy has slipped in at the close of Romeo and Juliet; otherwise it is confined to 1 King Henry VI. and Titus Andronicus. It really looks as if Shakespeare had an objection to these words; still, for that very reason, he may have put gleams into the mouth of Bottom.-Ed. "Thus he advis'd him, and the hardy knight Thoughtful he past the day, and sad the night.” Sidney, Arcadia, B. iii. p. 374, l. 38; see context, there might the sadder matrons give good counsel to Kala." Ib., I urge this childhood proof, Because what follows is pure innocence." Compare Midsummer Night's Dream, iii. 2,— ii. 4,— and take no doit Of usance for my moneys: And you 'll not hear me: This is kind I offer." "We have not spoke us yet of torch-bearers." Until this can be shown to be English, I would read, with Pope, "We have not spoke as yet" &c. 1 This neat and elegant conjecture contrasts remarkably with the operation of the Old Corrector, who changes Is he into Are you. Walker probably was not aware that the reading of the Var. 1821 was authorized by Heyes's quarto. Boswell's note is just calculated to mislead a reader on that point. It also misrepresents the reading of the first folio, which does not insert have, but reads, "How much he would?"-Ed. 5, "Nor thrust your head into the public street, To gaze on Christian fools with varnish'd faces." A writer in the Athenæum, Mar. 15, 1845, p. 275, col. 2, suggests that this may mean masked; see his observations. He is very probably right. 5, Laun. "Say, I will come. I will go before, sir." Qu., I'll go before you, sir." a Jewess' eye." Folio, p. 170, col. 1, Jewes eye." May not this be right? the proverb in Shakespeare's days, perhaps, was still pronounced "a Jewës eye." Ib., ad fin. Arrange,— "Do as I bid you; shut doors after you: Fast bind, fast find, A proverb never stale in thrifty mind." In Middleton the former line of the concluding couplet is frequently a short one; in Shakespeare, very seldom. 8, my ducats and my daughter!" Sidney, Arcadia, B. ii. p. 178, 1. 17 (describing the death of "the old bad Chremes"),—" But one thing was notable for a conclusion of his miserable life, that neither the death of his daughter, who (alas, poor gentlewoman!) was by chance slain among his clowns, while she overboldly for her weak sex sought to hold them from me, nor yet his own shameful end, was so much in his mouth as he was |