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Act ii. sc. 1.

"So deliver I up my apes, and, away to Saint Peter for the heavens: he shews me where the bachelors sit, and there live we as merry as the day is long."

With the above very erroneous punctuation the passage stands in all the modern editions, except that of Mr. Knight, who properly follows the old copies in pointing it, "and away to Saint Peter: for the heavens, he shews me," &c. That "for the heavens" is nothing more than a petty oath has been proved by Gifford, Jonson's Works, ii. 68, vi. 333.

Act ii. sc. 1.

"D. Pedro. My visor is Philemon's roof; within the house

is Jove.

Hero. Why, then your visor should be thatch'd.

D. Pedro. Speak low, if you speak love."

"Perhaps," says Blakeway, "the author meant here to introduce two of the long fourteen-syllable verses so common among our early dramatists, and the measure of Golding's translation [of Ovid]." Nobody, I should suppose, that has eyes and ears, could doubt it. lines Shakespeare's own, or taken (at least some poem of the time which has perished? read like a quotation.

But are the partly) from

To me they

Act ii. sc. 1.

"Bene. Well, I would you did like me!

F

Marg. So would not I, for your own sake; for I have many ill qualities.

Bene. Which is one?

Marg. I say my prayers aloud.

Bene. I love you the better; the hearers may cry, Amen.
Marg. God match me with a good dancer!

Balth. Amen.

Marg. And God keep him out of my sight, when the dance is done! Answer, clerk.

Balth. No more words: the clerk is answered."

From a note in Mr. Knight's edition I learn that Tieck would give to Balthazar all the speeches in the above dialogue which are now assigned to Benedick; and several years before seeing that note, I had made, in my copy of the Variorum Shakespeare, the alteration which the German critic proposes. Mr. Knight remarks that, though Tieck is probably right, "still Benedick may first address Margaret, and then pass on, leaving Balthazar with her." I cannot think so. Benedick is now engaged with Beatrice, as is evident from what they presently say. Besides, -is not the effect of the scene considerably weakened,* if Benedick enters into conversation with any other woman except Beatrice?

Two prefixes, each beginning with the same letter, are frequently confounded by transcribers and printers: so, in Love's Labour's lost, act ii. sc. 1, six speeches in succession which belong to Biron are assigned in the folio to Boyet.

* Shortly before his death, Mr. Kenney the dramatist told me, that, having spent much time in examining each play of Shakespeare, scene by scene, merely with a view to ascertain what were its merits in point of construction, distribution of the dialogue, stage-effectiveness, &c., he had come to the conclusion that Shakespeare, even in the veriest minutiæ, was a consummate artist.

Indeed, we sometimes find in old plays such mistakes in the prefixes as it is impossible to account for: of this we have an instance in the present comedy, towards the close of which, the words, "Peace, I will stop your mouth,"words that indubitably belong to Benedick,—are assigned, both in the quarto and in the folio, to Leonato.

Act ii. sc. 1.

"but civil, count, civil as an orange."

It may be noticed that a "civil (not a Seville) orange" was the orthography of the time. See Cotgrave's Dict. in ‘Aigre-douce” and in “ Orange.”

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Act ii. sc. 3.

"Enter BENEDICK and a Boy."

Mr. Collier (ad l.) observes; " In the old copies Benedick enters' alone' before the boy makes his appearance; and the reason is obvious, for Benedick should ruminate, and pace to and fro, before he calls the boy. In all the modern editions Benedick and a Boy' enter together: a very injudicious arrangement." Mr. Collier has accordingly given the opening of the scene thus;

Bene. Boy!

"Enter BENEDICK.

Enter a Boy.

Boy. Signior:"

but probably, when Mr. Collier reprints his Shakespeare,

he will acquiesce in the modern arrangement, since the Manuscript-corrector of the folio, 1632, has added to the entrance of Benedick, "Boy following."-The truth is, the entrances of "such small deer" as Pages are frequently omitted in the old copies of plays. Compare Dekker's Match me in London, 1631, where a scene commences thus;

"Enter Don John.

Joh. Boy!

Pach. My lord ?" &c.

p. 54 [55],—the entrance of the page

Pacheco not being marked.

Act iii. sc. 2.

"he hath twice or thrice cut Cupid's bow-string, and the little hangman dare not shoot at him.”

Farmer says that this character of Cupid is from Sidney's Arcadia (B. ii. p. 156, ed. 1598), where we are told that Jove appointed Cupid

"In this our world a hangman for to be

Of all those fooles that will have all they see."

Perhaps so. But I suspect that "hangman" is here equivalent to-rascal, rogue. (In Johnson's Dict. sub "Hangman," the present passage is cited to exemplify the word employed as a term of reproach.) It is at least certain that hangman, having come to signify an executioner in general-(so in Fletcher's Prophetess, act iii. sc. 1, Dioclesian, who had stabbed Aper, is called "the hangman of Volusius Aper;" and in Jacke Drums Entertainement, Bra

bant Junior, being prevented by Sir Edward from stabbing himself, declares that he is too wicked to live,

"And therefore, gentle knight, let mine owne hand

Be mine own hangman."

Sig. H 3, ed. 1616)—

was afterwards used as a general term of reproach (so in Guy Earl of Warwick, a Tragedy, printed in 1661, but acted much earlier; "Faith, I doubt you are some lying hangman," i. e. rascal).

Act v. sc. 1.

"And made a push at chance and sufferance."

This passage was misunderstood, till Mr. Collier explained "push" to be an interjection (a form of pish),— referring to some of my editions for examples of its use. I subjoin two others;

"Pem. Deare friend

Fer. Push, meet me."

The Tryall of Cheualry, 1605, sig. c 4.

"Grac. But I prithee practise some milder behauiour

at the ordinarie, be not al madman.

Acut. Push, ile bee all obseruatiue," &c.

I may add ;

Everie Woman in her Humor, 1609, sig. E 2.

"Well, jest on, gallants; and, vncle, you that make a pish at the Black Art," &c.

Day's Law Trickes, 1608, sig. 1 2.

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