Preserving every word in the old copy, it should be read thus,― O! be persuaded. Do not count it holy (For we would give much)—to commit violent thefts, To count violent thefts here would be sheer nonsense; and when we recollect how easy it is to mistake comit, as written in old manuscript, for count, we may suppose that the printer mistook and misplaced commit, and transposed as, probably following an interlineated copy. The emphasis should be laid on for, commencing the parenthesis, we would give much ; for stands there for cause, and commit should be accented on the first syllable. SCENE IV. Of a piece with other substitutions and interpolations, is the conceited attempt of the correctors to improve upon Shakespeare, by altering the words "th'other" to sleeveless, in the speech of Thersites, Soft! here comes sleeve and th' other; and the word "sleeve" is altered to sleeveless, in the next speech of Thersites, to countenance the first falsification! If such liberties were allowed and approved, every line of the poet might be vitiated to suit the caprice of the innovators. P. 345. The alteration of "brother lackey" to brothel lackey having been made in the third folio, and in some other editions, was doubtless thence derived, for it has also been adopted by the corrector of my second folio. There cannot, however, be a doubt that "Hence! broker! lackey!" is the true reading as given by the quartos and the first folio. Mr. Collier once thought so, although he now thinks brothel a change for the better ! 207 CORIOLANUS. ACT. I. SCENE I. P. 346. "The earliest manuscript-emendation cannot be called a necessary one; but still it seems, taking the context into account, a considerable improvement, and may, perhaps, be admitted on the evidence of the corrector of the folio, 1632. It occurs in the speech of 1 Citizen, where he is referring to the wants of the poor, and to the superfluities of the rich :— But they think we are too dear; the leanness that afflicts us, the abjectness of our misery, is an inventory to particularize their abundance; our suffering is a gain to them. "For abjectness, the common reading has been object 'the object of our misery;' that is to say, the sight of our misery; but the speaker has talked of the leanness' of the poor citizens of Rome, and he follows it up by the mention of the abjectness of their misery. This substitution could hardly have proceeded from the mere taste or discretion of the old corrector, but still it is hardly wanted." Hardly wanted, indeed! How could object be mistaken for abjectness? Their misery was the object which served by comparison to make the Patricians the more satisfied with their own abundance, and thus the sufferings of the Plebs were a gain to them. What should we gain by the adoption of this needless piece of pragmatic interference? The correctors never think of the poet, but of their own ingenuity in finding faults where none exist. Ib. "We encounter an important change in one part of Menenius' apologue, where the belly admits that it is the general receiver of food, adding, as the passage has always been given, But, if you do remember, I send it through the rivers of your blood, Even to the Court, the heart, to the seat o' the brain, "It is evident that the last line but one is not measure; and that not we are instructed to read it, and the next, in a way Even to the Court, the heart, the Senate, brain; "Tyrwhitt thought the seat o' the brain' a very languid expression;' and Malone agreed with him in taking 'seat' to mean royal seat. When 'seat' was written seate, the mistake for senate was easy; and the change (which never occurred to any commentator) is supported both by what precedes, and by what follows it, going through the various degrees in a state-the court, the senate, persons of different ranks, the holders of offices, &c." Perhaps there was never a more perverse and impertinent attempt made to alter the true language of the poet. The authority Shakespeare followed for the fable, was Plutarch. Camden's Remaines, where it is also related, the heart is made the seat of the brain, or understanding; and there is no doubt that seat means the royal seat, the throne; for in a previous passage, (which Mr. Collier, as well as his predecessors, gives to one of the Citizens, although it evidently belongs to Menenius,) we have The kingly crowned head, the vigilant eye, The counsellor heart. The alteration of "cranks" to ranks is equally unwarranted. What could the ranks signify here? I send it through the rivers of your blood, Even to the Court, the heart,-to the seat o' the brain; The strongest nerves, and small inferior veins, cranks and offices were certainly the words of the poet; cranks are sinuosities, the meandrous ducts of the human body; and offices the functionary parts, as Shakespeare himself will show. Thus, in Cymbeline, Act v. Sc. 5 :— A certain stuff, which, being ta'en, would cease Do their due functions. The corrector's instructions to read it otherwise will therefore be in vain, and of no effect. P. 347. The 'important' correction of "almost" to all most, is, "of course," admissible: but as "shouting their emulation" has long been the unexceptionable reading of every edition, Mr. Collier would have done wisely to pass the corrector's exultation unnoticed, as he confesses that "emulation does not seem to require change." SCENE III. Ib. The self-evident correction, which I long since adopted, of "At Grecian swords contemning," should have been also adopted by Mr. Collier, when he suggested, that contemning seemed "possibly the word which was written by Shakespeare," and yet contented himself with the very inferior reading, "At Grecian swords contending." SCENE IV. P. 348. "When the Romans are beaten back to their trenches, Marcius enters, 'cursing' his flying followers; and we here arrive at a line which has been fertile of discussion. Malone and most modern editors have concurred in supposing that Marcius, in his rage and vexation, commences a sentence which he does not finish, and have represented the passage thus: All the contagion of the south light on you, -Boils and plagues Plaster you o'er; that you may be abhorr'd Against the wind a mile! "In the folios, the words, spelling, and punctuation, are— You shames of Rome: you Heard of Byles and Plagues P "This mode of spelling heard leads us to the corruption, which was detected (possibly by mere conjecture, but more probably with the aid of some extraneous authority) by the manuscriptannotator of the folio, 1632; and when pointed out, it must, we apprehend, be admitted without an instant's controversy :All the contagion of the south light on you, You shames of Rome! Plaster you o'er, &c. Unheard of boils and plagues "The whole seems to have been produced by a strange lapse on the part of the old printer." I do not hesitate to prefer the reading universally adopted, to the very improbable reading proposed. "Unheard of boils and plagues;" why unheard of? Heard is the way in which herd is spelt in other places. Marcius is in a vehement passion, and the interruption in his invective marks his impatient anger. He thus breaks off from hasty indignation elsewhere; and every one must see the superior effect this would have in representation, to what it is now proposed to substitute. The corrector of my second folio has, however, substituted A for You, and reads, A herd of byles and plagues P. 349. An equally improbable substitution of "To the port," for "To the pot, I warrant him," is made when the gates of Corioli are closed, and Marcius is shut in. One of the soldiers exclaims, "See they have shut him in;” the rest say: "To the pot, I warrant him," where the meaning is evidently that it is all over with Marcius, or in the popular language "he is gone to pot." What possible meaning "to the port" could have, I am at a loss to imagine, notwithstanding Mr. Collier's attempt to reconcile it to sense as the continuation of an interrupted sentence. I therefore hold this to be another perfectly unnecessary interference with the text. SCENE VI. Ib. "Marcius, by permission of Cominius, and after an animating speech, wishes to select a certain number of sol |