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JULIUS CÆSAR.

Act iv. sc. 3.

"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 :

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'By them shall make a fuller number up,

Come on refresh'd, new-hearted, and encourag'd.'

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The error might be occasioned by the then broad pronunciation of added' having been mistaken for hearted." Collier's Notes and Emendations, &c. p. 402.

I can hardly think that Mr. Collier is serious in the concluding sentence.

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Here the Manuscript-corrector does away with one repetition," only to introduce another: for what is the difference between "hearted" and " encourag'd?"

Read,

"Come on refresh'd, new-aided, and encourag'd."

Act v. sc. 1.

"I draw a sword against conspirators;

When think you that the sword goes up again?-
Never, till Cæsar's three and twenty wounds

Be well aveng'd; or till another Cæsar

Have added slaughter to the sword of traitors."

"Steevens," says Mr. Collier, "subjoined what he considered a parallel passage from King John,' act ii. sc. 2:

'Or add a royal number to the dead,

With slaughter coupled to the name of kings.'

There is certainly some resemblance, but it is stronger when the quotation from 'Julius Cæsar' is printed as the old corrector advises ::

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เ or till another Cæsar

Have added slaughter to the word of traitor.'

Octavius terms Brutus a traitor, and challenges him to add slaughter to the word, in the same way that slaughter in King John' was to be coupled 'to the name of kings.' This emendation seems plausible, though we may not be disposed to insist upon it." Notes and Emendations, &c. p. 402.

The Manuscript-corrector's alteration (to say nothing of its tameness) is a most unnecessary one. Surely, Octavius means;-" or till you, traitors, have added the crime of slaying me (another Cæsar) to that of having murdered Julius."

Act i. sc. 3.

MACBETH.

"As thick as tale,

Came post with post."

Mr. Collier (Notes and Emendations, &c. p. 406) informs us that the Manuscript-corrector of the folio, 1632, has left the word "tale" unaltered.

In my Remarks on Collier's and Knight's eds. of Shakespeare, p. 188, I declared myself "strongly inclined to believe that 'hail' is the right reading:" I now entertain no doubt that it is so; because I am convinced that such an expression as "thick as tale" was never employed by any writer whatsoever; while, on the contrary, "thick as hail" is of common occurrence;

"Curse, ban, and breath out damned orisons,

As thicke as haile-stones for[e] the springs approach." First Part of The Troublesome Raigne of King John, sig. F 4, ed. 1622.

"The English archers shoot as thick as haile."

Harington's Orlando Furioso, B. xvi. st. 51.

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As thick as hail, upon their armies proud."

Sylvester's Du Bartas,—Fourth Day of First Week,

p. 38, ed. 1641.

"More thick they fall then haile," &c.

A Herrings Tayle, &c. 1598, sig. c 2.

"Darts thick as haile their backs behinde did smite." Niccols's King Arthur,-A Winter Night's Vision, &c. (Contin. of A Mir. for Mag.), 1610, p. 583.

Act i. sc. 3.

"Come what come may,

Time and the hour runs through the roughest day."

The commentators have given several examples of this expression from English authors. It is not unfrequent in Italian;

"Ma perch' e' fugge il tempo, e così l'ora,

La nostra storia ci convien seguire."

Pulci,-Morg. Mag. c. xv. last stanza.

"Ferminsi in un momento il tempo e l'ore."

Michelagnolo,-Son. xix.

Aspettar vuol ch' occasion gli dia,

Come dar gli potrebbe, il tempo e l' hora."

Dolce,-Prime Imprese del Conte Orlando,

c. xvii. p. 145, ed. 1572.

Act i. sc. 4.

"Thou art so far before,

That swiftest wing of recompense is slow

To overtake thee."

The second folio has "wine of recompense,"—which the Manuscript-corrector of that folio alters to "wind of recompense;" and Mr. Collier says, "This may, or may not, have been the line as it came from the poet's pen:

at all events, and for some unexplained reason, a person writing soon after 1632 seems to have preferred wind to 'wing,' when either would answer the purpose." Notes and Emendations, &c. p. 407.

I cannot be persuaded that " either reading would answer the purpose:" I think that "wing" is decidedly right, that "wind" is one of the worst emendations in Mr. Collier's volume.

Act i. sc. 5.

"the golden round,

Which fate and metaphysical aid doth seem

To have thee crown'd withal."

The words which Shakespeare here applies to a diadem had been previously applied to a ring by Abraham Fraunce;

"Wedding ring, farewell! shee's gone, whose yuory finger Should haue been thy grace: full well did I cause to be grauen In thy golden round those words as true as a Gospell,

Loue is a bitter-sweete, fit woords for bitter Alexis."

Sec. Part of The Countesse of Pembrokes Yuychurch, 1591, sig. K 4.*

Perhaps in Milton (who was a careful reader of many poets now long forgotten) we may trace some slight obligations to Fraunce's hexameters ;

"I fled, and cried out Death!

Hell trembled at the hideous name, and sigh'd
From all her caves, and back resounded Death."

Par. Lost, b. ii. 787.

"Death, sayd euery man: Death, death with an eccho rebounded." The Countess of Pembrokes Emanuel, 1591, sig. c 2.

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