ACT III. SCENE I. P. 399. The alteration of the punctuation in the line,— What touches us ourself shall be last served, is a very doubtful interference with the old reading. Ib. The propriety of the transfer of the words "Are we all ready" from Cæsar's speech to one of the conspirators, had been pointed out by Ritson, and was most likely adopted from his notice of its necessity. Ib. Of the three proposed alterations, crouchings for couchings," the "law of children," for the "lane of children," and "low crouched courtesies" for "low crooked courtesies;" the only one absolutely required, lane for "law," had been made by Johnson, and is the received reading. Couching had the same meaning as crouching; thus Huloet:— cowche, like a dogge; Procumbo, Prosterno. Low-crooked is also the same as low-crouched; for the same authority has crooke-backed or crowche-backed, and to crook was to bow. Interference with the old text therefore is here again quite unnecessary. Indeed the substitutions savour of much later times than those in which Mr. Collier would place the cor rectors. SCENE III. P. 400. In the speech of Cinna the poet : I dreamt to-night that I did feast with Cæsar, I have no will to wander forth of doors, the correctors would substitute unlikely for "unluckily," but ACT IV. SCENE III. Ib. To change "bait" to bay in the passage "Brutus bait not me," is mere mischievous meddling. The old text is quite right. Beside the instances cited by Malone in defence of the old reading, Leontes in Winter's Tale says of Paulina when she rails at him, A callat Of boundless tongue; who late hath beat her husband, And now baits me. P. 401. The substitution of abler for " noble" in the speech of Brutus is specious but not necessary, yet as a probable misprint is admissible; noble might be mistaken for able or abler. Ib. "A question arising in council, whether the forces of Brutus and Cassius should march towards the enemy, or wait for him, Brutus urges the former course, and Cassius the latter. Brutus contends that if they delay, the enemy will be strengthened and refreshed as he advances : The enemy, marching along by them By them shall make a fuller number up, Come on refresh'd, new-added, and encourag'd. "The corrector of the folio, 1632, implies by his proposed change, that'new-added' is merely a repetition of what is said in the preceding line-' by them shall make a fuller number up'-and he inserts a word instead of 'added,' which is not only more forcible, but more appropriate, and which we may very fairly suppose had been misheard by the scribe:By them shall make a fuller number up, Come on refresh'd, new-hearted, and encourag'd. "This error might be occasioned by the then broad pronunciation of 'added' having been mistaken for hearted." "New-added" could not have been a misprint for "newhearted," we should undoubtedly read: : The enemy, marching along by them, Mr. Collier's observation that added in pronunciation "might have been mistaken for hearted" is very improbable. ACT V. SCENE I. P. 402. The substitution of word of traitor for "sword of traitors" is quite uncalled for, and Mr. Collier himself seems sensible of it by his remark that "we may not be disposed to insist upon it." With the judicious at least we should insist in vain upon such wanton interference with the old text, which the correctors evidently do not understand. P. 403. "So with the next emendation, where Cassius informs Messala: Coming from Sardis, on our former ensign "For 'former ensign,' we are told to read 'forward ensign,' which is probably right, although ‘former' need not necessarily be displaced, and may be understood as foremost. The ensign being described as in front, at the head of the army, the copyist may have misheard, and therefore miswritten 'former' for forward." The correctors have here again manifested their ignorance of the language of the poet and of his times. Former is fore, first, or chief. Thus Baret "the former teeth [i. e. fore-teeth] Dentes primores." And in Adlyngton's Apuleius, 1596. “First he instructed me to set at the table upon my taile, and how I should leape and daunce, holding up my former-feete.” It is from the A. S. forma, first. It is quite evident to me that these corrections are of later times than those in which Mr. Collier would place them, when these archaisms had entirely passed out of use and were forgotten. A.S. Ib. "We are told to read term for 'time' and those for 'some:' it is where Brutus declares against suicide,— But I do find it cowardly and vile, For fear of what might fall, so to prevent The term of life,-arming myself with patience, "The above unquestionably reads better than as the text has been ordinarily given to 'prevent the term of life' means, as Malone states, to anticipate the end of life; but still he strangely persevered in printing 'time' for term." It would have been more strange if Malone had ventured to change the undoubted word of the poet! One of his chief merits is close adherence to the old text where good sense can be made of it. He tells us that " By time is meant the full and complete time, the period," time is duration. We may learn, if necessary, from "our old authority," Baret, the poet's meaning. "Died before his time," Filius immaturus obit," and "To prevent one daie, Anticipare uno die." SCENE V. P. 403. The insertion of the two omitted words in the second folio was probably suggested by later Editions, for they have long been restored. The second folio also omits the word master in Messala's question to Strato, How died my master, Strato? which is found in the first folio, but that the third folio was not corrected upon it is evident, the line there being:— How died my Lord, Strato? P. 404. The alteration of "general" to generous, and changing" And " to Of in the speech of Antony : All the conspirators, save only he, Did that they did in envy of great Cæsar; He, only, in a general honest thought And common good to all, made one of them are mere capricious innovations, and not at all required. Mr. Collier may well say " the propriety of introducing the change into the text is a matter of discretion." We may trust he will be discreet enough to avoid it. I CANNOT say it conveys to my mind a very high opinion of the corrector's sagacity that he should change " quarry," the reading of all the old copies, to quarrel, which was the suggestion of Johnson adopted by Malone on anything but good grounds. The epithet " damned" [i. e. doomed] is inapplicable to quarrel in the sense which it here bears of condemned. Mr. Collier himself says that quarry "gives an obvious and striking meaning much more forcible than quarrel." We cannot therefore avail ourselves of what he calls the "confirmatory authority" of the correctors. Ib. The substitution of comes for "seems" in the speech of Lenox, when Ross enters in haste: What a haste looks through his eyes! So should he look that seems to speak things strange. is no great improvement upon Johnson's proposal to read "that teems to speak things strange." But the old reading may be right, and seems be received in its usual sense of pears. ap SCENE III. P. 406. As usual we have here the words to show interpolated to make out the rhyme, where no rhyme was evidently intended, for the word know already rhymes to "blow" in the preceding line. Ib. "The old impressions have,— As thick as tale "Rowe wished to read hail for tale,' but without warrant ; but Can was unquestionably misprinted for Came.' Near the bottom of the next page" (p. 107, vol. vii. Collier's Shakesp.) "That trusted home' of the folios, is changed to 'That thrusted home.' In modern times the word has been variously treated." |