To this, as far as I am aware, no editor has objected: but I question if we ought not to read,—

The Ms. Corrector completes this speech with what Mr. Collier calls “a welcome addition:"-he ought to have said, "an addition welcome to those who will have the speech filled up." (Mr. Collier talks of "the elongation of the hyphen in modern editions,”-forgetting that here the folio has NO HYPHEN.)

P. 24. (16)

"Farewell, dear heart, since I must needs be gone.

[Singing."

In the folio, this line, and "His eyes do show," &c., and " But I will never die," are not marked as sung (that is, they are not in italic type): but it is evident that Sir Toby and the Clown were intended to sing these as well as the verses which presently follow, "Shall I bid him go," &c., -all being quotations (slightly altered) from the same ballad.

So Theobald. The folio has "Out o' tune," &c.: but see, in the preceding page, "We did keep time, sir," &c. (The whole of this is obviously spoken to Malvolio: yet Mr. Collier, who retains the old reading, and gives a new punctuation to the passage, tells us-"all that Sir Toby means, is that the Clown had sung out of tune. 'Sir, ye lie,' is addressed to Malvolio with the purpose of affronting him"! The Clown would hardly sing out of tune: he is the

singer of the play; see pp. 23, 28, 72.)

P. 29. (16)

"Duke. Give me now leave to leave thee."

For this courteous form of dismissal Mr. Collier's Ms. Corrector substitutes most unhappily, "I give thee now leave to leave me."

P. 29. (19)

"Duke. I cannot be so answer'd."

The folio has "It cannot," &c.; which is proved to be wrong by the next speech,-"Sooth, but you must. . . . must she not, then, be answer'd?" And compare, at p. 18, "He might have took his answer long ago."

66

May mean (see notes to the Variorum Shakespeare) my girl of gold, my precious girl. The second folio has My Nettle of India,”—a reading which some have thought more suited to the context. (Mr. W. N. Lettsom remarks:

"It is to me a matter of doubt whether 'Nettle' was, as Malone says, an arbitrary alteration by the editor of the second folio, or a mere misprint for ‘Mettle' [the spelling in the first folio], and consequently it is also doubtful in my mind whether that editor found a difficulty in the reading of the first folio.”)

"May signify," says Steevens, "some rich jewel of my own." Perhaps so: but the "my" may be only an accidental repetition, occasioned by the preceding "my watch."

P. 32. (22)

66

Though our silence be drawn from us with cars," &c.

gave

66

In the notes to the Variorum Shakespeare, we are told that here Johnson would read “ with carts," &c. (comparing "but a team of horse shall not pluck that from me," Two Gent. of Verona, act iii. sc. 1);-that Steevens observed, "It is well known that cars and carts have the same meaning;"and that Tyrwhitt proposed altering “cars" to "cables "[!]:-but we are not told that Hanmer drawn from us by th' ears;" which is also the emendation of Mr. Collier's Ms. Corrector; and which, I must be allowed to think, Mr. Singer (Shakespeare Vindicated, p. 66) treats with undeserved contempt. (Formerly "bith" was not uncommon as the contraction of "by the;" and therefore “bith ears" might easily be corrupted into “with cars.”)—The late Mr. Sidney Walker's alteration is "— drawn from us with racks,”-as I am informed by Mr. W. N. Lettsom, in whose opinion it is much preferable to Hanmer's.

Hanmer's correction.-The folio has "the stallion," &c.

Here the folio has "champian:" but I have not retained that spelling, because in King Lear, act i. sc. 1, it has "With shadowie Forrests, and with Champains rich'd."

P. 35. (26)

"To the gates of Tartar," &c.

Mr. Collier declares that this "is to be read," with the Ms. Corrector, " To the gates of Tartarus,”—he and the Corrector having altogether overlooked the following passage in our author's Henry V. act ii. sc. 2,—

"If that same demon, that hath gull'd thee thus,
Should with his lion gait walk the whole world,
He might return to vasty Tartar back," &c.

Here the folio has "conster." See note (30) on The Taming of the Shrew, vol. ii. p. 504. (Had "conster" been a mere vulgarism, I should have retained it as perhaps not inappropriate in the mouth of the Clown: but it is nothing more than a variety of spelling.)

The folio has "And like the Haggard," &c.—Johnson remarks: "The meaning [of the original reading] may be, that he must catch every opportunity, as the wild hawk strikes every bird. But perhaps it might be read more properly, ‘Not like the haggard.' He must choose persons and times, and observe tempers; he must fly at proper game, like the trained hawk, and not fly at large like the unreclaimed haggard, to seize all that comes in his way." Mr. Collier's Ms. Corrector also gives “Not, like the haggard," &c.; and the alteration is indispensable,-for who can fail to perceive that Johnson would fasten on the old reading a sense which it will not bear? (The line next above but two begins with "And:" hence perhaps the error here.)

P. 37. (29) "But wise men, folly-fallen, quite taint their wit.”

So Capell and Tyrwhitt.-Mr. Collier prints " But wise men's folly fall'n quite taints their wit," and calls it "the old and correct reading:" but in the folio the line stands literatim thus,-" But wisemens folly falne, quite taint their wit."

Mr. Collier's Ms. Corrector reads " maugre all my pride," &c. Mr. W. N. Lettsom observes to me; "The alteration 'my' is very specious; but does not Olivia allege 'wit' and 'reason' as the principles that are overpowered by her passion? and does not 'pride' apply better here to Cesario ?"

P. 41. (31)

"the youngest wren of nine comes."

Theobald's correction.-The folio has "— wren of mine comes."

P. 43. (32)

"And thanks, and ever thanks; and oft good turns," &c. The folio has "And thankes: and euer oft good turnes," &c.-I adopt the emendation of Theobald, which doubtless is not far off from the true reading.-Steevens fancied that he was improving Theobald's emendation when he altered it to "- thanks: often good turns," &c.,-which, in fact, introduces a disagreeable abruptness of expression. Mr. W. N. Lettsom proposes thanks; though oft good turns," &c.—Mr. Collier's Ms. Corrector gives "And thanks, still thanks; and very oft good turns," &c.

46

P. 45. (33)

"Mal. Remember who commended thy yellow stockings,'—

Oli. Thy yellow stockings!"

Mr. W. N. Lettsom would read" Oli. My yellow stockings !" for Olivia has no idea that Malvolio is quoting the letter; and when he presently continues "Go to, thou art made, if thou desirest to be so," she exclaims "Am I made ?"

P. 49. (34)

The folio has ".

"I have said too much unto a heart of stone,

And laid mine honour too unchary out."

too unchary on 't;" which Mr. Collier and Mr. Knight erroneously retain (see my Few Notes, &c. p. 76).

P. 51. (35) "SCENE V. The street adjoining OLIVIA's garden.
Enter Sir TOBY BELCH and Sir ANDREW AGUECHEEK."

:

In the preceding page, Sir Toby, before going out, has desired Fabian to "stay by this gentleman" (Viola) till his return from talking with Sir Andrew a little after, Fabian says to Viola, "will you walk towards him” (Sir Andrew)? and accordingly makes his exit with her. Sir Toby now enters accompanied by Sir Andrew; and though the folio does not mark a new scene, it is certain that, previous to the entrance of the two knights, the audience of Shakespeare's days (who had no painted moveable scenery before their eyes) were to suppose a change of scene. Presently Antonio enters, draws his sword in defence of Viola (whom he mistakes for Sebastian), and is arrested by the Officers and from the speech of the First Officer, in act v. sc. 1, p. 62, we learn distinctly where his arrest took place;— "Here in the streets, desperate of shame and state,

:

In private brabble did we apprehend him."

Sir Andrew, then, was waiting for the pretended page, "at the corner of the orchard," p. 48, "at the orchard-end,” p. 49,—that is, in the street at the extremity of Olivia's orchard or garden: there Sir Toby had joined him; and thither Fabian and Viola walk.-I may add that the rather unsatisfactory stage-arrangements here were in a certain degree forced upon Shakespeare : he found it necessary to get rid of Viola while Sir Toby was terrifying Sir Andrew with an account of his antagonist's ferocity. (Since writing the above, I have examined a modern acting copy of the play: in it the scene is changed here from "A Room in Olivia's house" to "Olivia's garden.”)

P. 53. (36) "And to his image, which methought did promise

Most venerable worth, did I devotion.

But O how vile an idol proves this god!"

The Ms. Corrector reads "Most veritable worth ;" and, according to Mr. Collier, "veritable' must have been the author's own word." But the context (“devotion," "idol,” “god”) is decisive against the alteration.

In most of the recent editions "tall" is altered to "fat ;" and Tyrwhitt says "I should have no objection to read—pale” !

P. 57. (38) “Why, it hath bay-windows transparent as barricadoes, and the clear-stories," &c.

The folio has " the cleere stores," &c.-The second folio has "the cleare stones," &c. (which is defended by Mr. Hunter, New Illust. of Shakespeare, vol. i. p. 409: “what,” he asks, “have clear-stories to do with the cell in which Malvolio was confined ?" As much surely as "bay-windows" have.)

So Rowe in his ed. 1714 (and Mr. Collier's Ms. Corrector).-The folio has good man diuell."

66

P. 68. (40)

"Where lie my maiden weeds; by whose gentle help

I was preserv'd to serve this noble count."

Theobald reads " my maid's weeds" (so, lower down, we have "my maid's garments"); and he alters “preserv'd” to “preferr'd" (comparing,

"I'll serve this duke.

Thou shalt present me," &c. p. 6.)

P. 69. (41)

"A most extracting frenzy," &c.

Here Mr. Collier's Ms. Corrector alters "extracting" to "distracting,". wrongly beyond doubt: see the notes of Malone and Steevens ad l., and Richardson's Dict. in v. Extract.

P. 70. (42)

"And now I do bethink

me,

it was she

First told me thou wast mad; then camʼst in smiling,

And in such forms which here were presuppos'd

Upon thee in the letter."

In Shakespeare (as in other early writers) passages where the nominative is understood are frequent enough; and nothing can be plainer than that in the second of the above lines "cam'sť" is equivalent to “cam'st thou :" yet here Mr. Knight and Mr. Collier's Ms. Corrector alter "then" to "thou,”-not observing, it would seem, that "then" is absolutely necessary for the sense. The Ms. Corrector also improperly changes "pre-suppos'd" to "pre-impos'd."