Imatges de pàgina
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The Tribune Brutus would not speak of Coriolanus as "good Marcius;" but he would very naturally call him, in derision, "god Marcius," which is the reading of Mr. Collier's folio.

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This, the generally received reading, and that of the folio, is utterly incomprehensible; but the errors which make it so are those of a compositor who sets his 'matter' by ear, as many of them do. 'Chair' and 'cheer' were formerly pronounced alike; and I have even heard some old people call a chair, a cheer. To this fact we owe the misprint of Macbeth's speech in the third Scene of the fifth Act of the tragedy:

"This push

Will chair [cheere in the original] me ever, or disseat me now."

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Mr. Collier's folio very properly changes "chair" to cheer, in the passage which we are now considering. But Mr. Singer then asks the very pertinent and unanswerable question, "what meaning can be attached to a tomb so evident as a cheer'?" and himself proposes a tomb so evident as a hair,' which he must pardon me for thinking deplorably tame and prosaic, even if it have any meaning at all. It is plain to me that Aufidius, after saying that "our virtues lie in the interpretation of the time," (that is, in the time's appreciation of us, not in our appreciation

of the time, as the writer in Blackwood, Sept. 1853, seems to think,) adds, that the most elaborate eulogy upon a great man's tomb is a testimony to his power, not so eloquent as a cheer to him in his lifetime. Few who write for the press can be fortunate enough not to know many compositors who would find no difficulty in setting up 'evident' for 'eloquent.' Long since, it seemed plain to me that we should read,

"So our virtues

Lie in th' interpretation of the time,
And power, unto itself most commendable
Hath not a tomb so eloquent as a cheer
To extol what it hath done."

ACT V. SCENE 2.

"1 Guard. Then you should hate Rome as he does. Can you, when you have pushed out of your gates the very defender of them, and, in a violent popular ignorance, given your enemy your shield, think to front his revenges with the easy groans of your old women, the virginal palms of your daughters, or with the palsied intercession of such a decayed dotant as you seem to be?"

Can any thing be more deplorable than Mr. Singer's proposal to read "virginal qualms" for "virginal palms" in this passage? But Warburton had been at the trouble to suggest "Virginal pasmes!" Mr. Singer adds however that "Virginal palms" may mean the palms or hands of the maidens joined in supplication." Indeed, Mr. Singer! may it? Is it possible? Can such an obvious and simple construction of a plain but beautiful passage be dreamt of in your philosophy? I must ask pardon for noticing such attempts upon Shakespeare's text, and for noticing them as I do; for, in truth, I should as soon expect an intelligent reader, not to say a competent editor of Shakespeare,

"to expostulate,

"Why day is day, night, night, and time is time,"

as thus to raise a question on what it would seem impossible to misunderstand.

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Mr. Collier's folio suggests ear (plough) for "end," This Mr. Singer finds to be "a good emendation of a probable misprint," but adds, with reason, that if "ear be accepted, 'reap' and 'ear' must change places thus,

'holp to ear the fame

Which he did reap all his.'"

"or," as Mr. Singer well continues, "Aufidius is made to say that he had a share in the harvest, while Coriolanus had all the labor of ploughing," which is just what he does not mean to say. The Blackwood critic thinks with Mr. Singer. But there is not the least necessity for this violence to the original text. Aufidius helped to reap the fame which Coriolanus made, in the end, all his.

TITUS ANDRONICUS.

ACT I. SCENE 2.

"Mar. My lord,-to step out of these dreary dumpsHow comes it," &c.

The first folio has "sudden dumps" which is evidently an error for "sullen dumps," as Mr. Dyce suggests.

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It is more than probable that "drive" is a misprint for dine, as Mr. Collier's folio suggests.

"Lav. When did the tiger's young ones teach the dam?

O, do not learn her wrath: she taught it thee:

The milk, thou suck'dst from her, did turn to marble;

Even at thy teat thou hadst thy tyranny.—

Yet every mother breeds not sons alike;

Do thou entreat her show a woman pity.

“ Chi.

[To Chiron.

What! would'st thou have me prove myself a bastard?

Lavinia says nothing about Chiron's father; but his reply would justify the belief that Tamora had played false with a true Milesian. How was he to prove himself

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a bastard," by being unlike his mother? Can any one believe that Shakespeare could have been guilty of such a bull as this? However, there are but few passages in this horrid play which were touched by his pen.

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