Ib. The interpolation of his in the words "a proper man of person," was entirely unnecessary, as Mr. Collier confesses, The insertion of the word see, in "You shall see Troilus anon," had been made in all editions, time out of mind. SCENE II. Ib. How the correctors came to blunder in copying Mr. Harness in his excellent emendation of Cressida's maxim Achiev'd men us command; ungain'd beseech, is little to their credit; for still is a much less likely and effective word than us, for which is might easily have been a misprint. The line being in italics, with inverted commas, in the old copies, is evidently a quotation. That the corrector has "been at a feast of commentators, and stolen the scraps," is evident, for "no man's pie is freed from his ambitious finger!" P. 331. The alteration of "works" to wrecks, in the following passage: Why then you princes, Do you with cheeks abash'd behold our works, And call them shames. has, it must be confessed, some appearance of probability, and would be a good conjectural correction of a misprint very likely to occur; wracks, as written, might easily be taken for works, and yet works may have been the poet's word. SCENE III. Ib. Beside the obvious corrections which had been made in all editions, of sway for the misprint "may," and godlike for "godly," the correctors adopt Hanmer's correction of replies for "retires," in preference to Pope's returns. These coincidences, of course, are noticed to augment the catalogue of the corrector's astounding deeds. I will here take occasion to observe, that a trifling misprint has hitherto been suffered to remain, to the injury of a fine passage, which the change of a single letter, merely reading ether for other, renders translucent. It is in the speech of Ulysses: The heavens themselves, the planets, and this center, Insisture, course, proportion, season, form, Had the correctors possessed better authorities than have come down to us, other would hardly have been suffered to remain, "Amidst the other," is surely not what the poet wrote. The classical reader will be reminded of a passage in the Somnium Scipionis:"Medium fere regionem SOL obtinet, dux et princeps, et moderator luminum reliquiorum, mens mundi, et temperator," &c.; and of the lines of Lucretius on Epicurus, which have been applied to Shakespeare :— Qui genus humanum superavit et omneis Restinxit, stellas exortus uti ætherius SOL. P. 331. "A mistake in the second great speech of Ulysses, where he is referring to the mimicry, by Patroclus, of the chiefs of the Grecian army: And in this fashion, All our abilities, gifts, natures, shapes, "fell under the ridicule of Achilles: here the words, ' of grace exact,' seem wrong, although always so printed, because the complaint was, that they were not of grace exact,' but grossly caricatured. Therefore the corrector of the folio, 1632, thus altered the expression to a form much more in accordance with the context: Severals and generals, all grace extract ; "i. e. deprived of all the grace which really belonged to the persons Patroclus imitated. This appears to be an important improvement of the received text; but is certainly one which did not require resort to any independent authority, inasmuch as close attention to what must have been the meaning of the author, may have led to the detection of the error." A little more "close attention" to the defects of this passage was necessary to give the true meaning of the poet, and had the correctors followed "better authority than we possess," perhaps they would have found it stand thus : And in this fashion, All our abilities, gifts, natures, shapes, As stuff for these two to make paradoxes. It is evident that are, instead of all, is necessary to the construction of the passage, and the necessity to omit the word of is obviated. Yet the passage as it stands in the old copies may be explained, " all our individual and accomplishments, and becoming characteristics are stuff to make paradoxes, are materials for caricature." I may as well mention that an error, in the next speech by Nestor, has escaped the correctors, as well as all who have preceded or followed them. Ajax is grown self-will'd, and bears his head In such a rein, in full as proud a place [read pace] As broad Achilles. P. 332. The substitution of soul-pure for "sole pure," in the following passage of the speech of Æneas, is not necessary to the perfect intelligence of it; the sole transcendently pure praise is that yielded unwillingly by an enemy. The worthiness of praise distains his worth, If that the prais'd himself bring the praise forth; But what the repining enemy commends That breath fame blows; that praise sole pure transcends. Where perfect sense is afforded by the old reading, we must have more undoubted authority before we admit innovation. And although Mr. Collier thinks sole pure a poor expression," it was most probably that of the poet. P.333. "We may, perhaps, receive with thankfulness a change in what Paris says, regarding the dangers which had attended his enterprise in securing and retaining Helen,— Yet, I protest, Were I alone to pass the difficulties, And had as ample power as I have will, Paris should ne'er retract what he hath done, "Here for 'pass the difficulties' (spelt passe in the old copies), the old corrector tells us to substitute' poise the difficulties,' or weigh them, which we may believe, if only from the context, to have been Shakespeare's word"! What could be the motive for interference here? The proposed substitution is quite senseless. What " ample power" could Paris possibly want to weigh the difficulties? He might require it to get over them. Mr. Collier feels himself constrained to acknowledge, in a supplemental note, that the old reading" is very intelligible, and may be right”! P. 334. The adoption of Hanmer's correction of lunes for the misprint "lines" of the folios, is evidently another coincidence. ACT III. SCENE I. Ib. "Much discussion has been occasioned by the words of Paris, in all the early impressions, where he calls Cressida his 'disposer,' saying that Troilus is going to sup' with my disposer Cressida.' The difficulty has been to discover why Paris should call Cressida his 'disposer;' and some commentators have recommended deposer, others despiser, instead of disposer,' while Steevens wished to deprive Paris of the speech altogether, and to transfer it to Helen. It is surprising that no editor should have guessed at the right word, when speculating that 'disposer' was an error of the press: a manuscript note in the folio, 1632, informs us that for 'disposer,' we should substitute dispraiser, Cressida being a person who did not allow the merits of Paris. Pandarus, just after Paris has called Cressida his dispraiser, observes that there had been some difference between them-'She'll none of him; they two are twain'-and though he does not state on what point they had disagreed, it is enough to warrant us in believing that Paris calls Cressida, not his 'disposer,' but his dispraiser. The word recurs twice in this part of the dialogue, and in each instance the old corrector has converted disposer' into dispraiser. It is to be remarked also, that he makes no change in the prefixes, but allows' You must not know where he sups' to remain in Helen's speech, in contradiction to the practice of modern editors, which, it must be allowed, seems founded upon a correct notion of the course of the dialogue. Possibly the mistake in the prefix in this place, did not attract the attention of the writer of the marginal emendations; but it can make no difference in the apparent fitness of changing disposer' to dispraiser." The speech," I'll lay my life with my disposer Cressida," belongs to Helen, not to Paris, and this has occasioned the difficulty the commentators found in explaining the word disposer, which simply means handmaid. Thus learning is called the poor disposer of Poetry [i. e. her handmaid], in the Epistle Dedicatorie to Chapman's Homer :— Then let not this divinitie in earth (Deare Prince) be slighted, as she were the birth Of idle Fancie, since she workes so high; Nor let her poore disposer (Learning) lye Still bed-rid. The corrector's conjecture of dispraiser for "disposer" is a most unhappy one, even if the speech could be considered as appropriate in the mouth of Paris. But it undoubtedly belongs to Helen, who designates Cressida as her handmaid, which in fact she was. SCENE II. P. 335. The substitution of" thrice repured nectar" for thrice reputed, is indeed a marvellous coincidence with the reading of one of the quartos of 1609, which had escaped every one until Mr. Collier's vigilant eye discovered it. The corrector is evidently omniscient! We cannot, however, wonder that the reading aims for "arms," which is found only in one copy |