Purged is purified, whether by fire or otherwise. So in Hamlet, "burnt and purged away!" The striking absurdity of puffed, which has not much resemblance to 'purg'd', might well be left without comment, but that "we are told to substitute a word that exactly belongs to the place"!! P. 375. The adoption of encharm'd for "uncharm'd," is as likely a reading as Rowe's unharm'd; but, as Mr. Collier says, unharm'd" answers the purpose, and gives a clear mean ing," so that it is a mere question of "taste." SCENE II. Ib. The reading of the quarto, 1597, and mentioned by all the commentators, And too soon marr'd are those so early married, is undoubtedly the true one; as we have it in Puttenham, "The maid that soon married soon marred is." But Mr. Collier adheres to made in his edition of Shakespeare ! SCENE IV. P.376. Of the three alterations made in Mercutio's description of Queen Mab, and Pick'd from the lazy finger of a milkmaid. Sometime she gallops o'er a counsellor's nose— Makes the elf-locks in foul sluttish hairs— not one of them are required, and makes, as Mr. Collier confesses, is more unpoetical than the original reading bakes. But the correctors must be meddling unnecessarily. ACT II. SCENE II. P. 378. The substitution of white for 'sick,' in the line And none but fools do wear it is quite unnecessary and inadmissible, for sick could never be a misprint for white; to be sick is to be pale in Shakespeare's language. Thus "sicklied o'er with the pale cast of thought." &c. &c. Ib. But lazy-passing for "lazy-pacing" will never do; and the old reading is infinitely the best. The substitution of although for not, and the erasure are equally unnecessary and impertinent. P. 379. The alteration of "vow" of the folio, to sweur of the quarto, 1597, and the insertion of blessed only wanting in the second folio, were most likely corrections copied from some later edition. They have long been the established text. SCENE III. Ib. The substitution of unbusied for "unbruised youth" is certainly plausible, but still unbruised may well be the poet's word. SCENE IV. P. 380. The conjecture of wicked for "weak," in the Nurse's speech, is also very specious; but the Nurse is not very precise in her language, and the word weak may be intended as a characteristic misapplication. SCENE V. Ib. The substitution of my for "any" makes the alteration of "straight" to straightway necessary, and the same remark applies to the Nurse's language here, which was most probably intended to be anything but formal. ACT III. SCENE I. Ib. In respect to the adoption of the readings of the quarto of 1597, it is much more probable that they are adopted from some one of the more recent editions, than that the corrector had access to all the quartos on all occasions. The interpolation of the word home is an unlicensed liberty, and would require better authority than that of the correctors to induce us to admit it into the text. the SCENE II. P. 381. The substitution of enemies, for "run-aways," in passage Spread thy close curtain love-performing night, is worse than the reading by Jackson, of unawares, which Mr. Collier adopted in his edition. A very good conjecture on this long disputed passage, is given by the Rev. Mr. Halpin, in the Shakespeare Society's Papers. The circumstantial evidence adduced for the retention of the old reading, showing that Cupid was the runaway in Juliet's mind, is extremely ingenious, if not satisfactory. Enemies is entirely out of the question, and Mr. Collier has evidently his misgivings about it. SCENE V. P. 382. The correction of "Cynthia's brow" to Cynthia's bow is quite unexceptionable, as an easy amendment of an evident misprint, which I also find so corrected in my second folio. ACT IV. SCENE I. Ib. The substitution of way for "sway" is by no means so evident an improvement, and the old reading is quite satisfactory. SCENE II. P.383. The correctors have an evident distaste for Shakespeare's peculiar use of the termination ed for ing of which we have such frequent and undoubted examples, and would here correct" becomed" to becoming. It will not do to bring modern notions of grammatical forms and construction to bear upon the poet's language, and becomed must remain. ACT V. SCENE I. Ib. "The first line of this act has hitherto presented a serious difficulty. Romeo says, If I may trust the flattering truth of sleep, Nobody has been able at all satisfactorily to explain the expression, flattering truth,' since 'truth' cannot flatter; and Malone, not liking Johnson's interpretation, preferred what is to the full as unintelligible, the text of the quarto, 1597-'the flattering eye of sleep.' The real truth (not the 'flattering truth') seems to be, that the old compositor was confounded between trust,' in the first part of the line, and death near the end of it, and printed a word which he compounded of the beginning of the one word, and of the end of the other. Sleep is often resembled to death, and death to sleep; and when Romeo observes, as the correction in the folio, 1632, warrants us in giving the passage, If I may trust the flattering death of sleep; "he calls it 'the flattering death of sleep,' on account of the dream of joyful news from which he had awaked: during this flattering death of sleep,' he had dreamed of Juliet, and of her revival of him by the warmth of her kisses." 6 A more unhappy and absurd conjecture than this of the flattering death of sleep,' is scarcely to be paralleled even by some of the other doings of the correctors. I read : If I may trust the flattering soother sleep, My dreams presage some joyful news at hand. The similarity of sound, in recitation of the words truth of and soother, may have led to the error; and the poetical beauty of the passage is much heightened by the personification of sleep. SCENE III. P. 384. The correction of the two misprints of the folio had been long since effected, and may have been copied from any later edition. Surely the notice of them was superfluous? The change of stand to stay, in the speech of the Page, is as unnecessary as it is improbable that the one word should have been mistaken for the other. P. 385. "The words 'Shall I believe,' which are mere surplusage, are struck out, as well as the whole passage, obviously foisted in by some strange mistake, beginning, 'Come, lie thou in my arms,' and ending, 'Depart again.' Similar erasures are made in my corrected second folio, except that, in the first instance, the words, "I will believe," are effaced. It is obvious that both Mr. Collier's corrector and mine have taken the hint from some later edition, in which these passages are omitted. In Mr. Collier's edition, both I will believe,' and 'Shall I believe,' are retained! They were not, in his opinion, then, mere surplusage. Ib. The substitution of outcry for outrage,' although Mr. Collier says "The necessity for this change is not very apparent," seems to me judicious, for "the mouth of outrage is not quite so consistent. But there is no accounting for difference of taste in such matters. I must confess I cannot see the same propriety in the change made in the linesThere shall no figure at such rate be set As that of true and faithful Juliet to "fair and faithful." But Mr. Collier thinks "it looks like the exercise of taste," on the part of his correctors! I have already pointed out some instances of the kind of taste in which they have indulged. TIMON OF ATHENS. ACT I. SCENE I. P. 387. The substitution of gum and issues for the corruption of the old copies was made by Pope, and from him most likely, or some succeeding edition, adopted by the correctors. Johnson's reading oozes is however quite as good, if not better. Ib. "It seems improbable that Shakespeare, who, like other dramatists of his day, cared little about representing correctly the customs of the time or country in which he laid his scene, should make the poet speak thus of the new work he was about to present to Timon :— My free drift Halts not particularly, but moves itself In a wide sea of wax. "Why in a wide sea of wax?' Admitting that not only the |