Imatges de pàgina
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"Seemes, maddam, nay it is, I know not seemes,

"Tis not alone my incky cloake could smother," &c.

Here is proof positive that "good mother" not only could be, but was, misunderstood, could smother; a mistake, in its principal feature, identical with that made by the corrector of Mr. Collier's folio, and which suggests another mode of accounting for the manuscript correction. It is evident that whoever made the emendations in that volume, studied the quartos thoroughly; indeed, Mr. Collier frequently claims that such was the case. Now, it is not at all improbable that the corrector, finding this mistake of could smother, in the quarto, for "good mother" in the folio, took from it the hint for the change of "whose mother," into who smothers; and thus was enabled to make a sense for a passage which had before been to him meaningless. It is somewhat strange that this correlative error, almost conclusive in itself, has not occurred to either of Mr. Collier's learned opponents.* Under all these circumstances, it is impossible to receive the new reading, plausible as it seems at first.

These are but a very few indeed of the instances in which the corrector of the folio of 1632 has shown his inability to apprehend the poetical thoughts of the author whose works he undertook to amend. Passages which prove his incapacity in other respects, and which establish the late date of his labors, and the remaining points which go to show the entire inadmissibility of the claims which Mr. Collier sets up for him, might be quoted to an extent which would fill the remainder of this volume; but a con

* As I know of no original impression of either of the quarto copies of this play in America, I am obliged to content myself with Steevens's reprint, which is from the edition of 1611. I therefore cannot say whether this strange and important error appeared in the editions of 1604, 1605, and 1609.

sideration for the patience of my readers must limit my selections. One or two instances which clearly establish a point are as conclusive upon the authority of his corrections as a hundred.

He cannot appreciate Shakespeare's humor. For instance, after the lamentation of Bottom (as Pyramus) over the death of Thisbe, Theseus says,

"This passion, and the death of a dear friend, would go near to make a man look sad;"

the humor of which consists in coupling the ridiculous fustian of the clown's assumed passion, with an event which would, in itself, make a man look sad. The corrector extinguishes the fun at once, by reading,

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This passion on the death of a dear friend," &c.

And, incomprehensible as it is, Mr. Collier sustains him by saying, that the observation of Theseus "has particular reference to the 'passion' of Pyramus on the fate of Thisbe!"

In Much Ado About Nothing, Beatrice, being sent to call Benedick, he asks her if she takes pleasure in the office. She replies,

"Yea, just so much as you may take upon a knife's point, and choke a daw withal."

This, our precise and literal corrector ruins, by inserting 'not,' and reading:

"Yea, just so much as you may take upon a knife's point and not choke a daw withal."

In Antony and Cleopatra, Act I., Sc. 3, Charmian advising Cleopatra how to keep the love of Antony, says :

"In each thing give him way, cross him in nothing."

To which Cleopatra replies :

"Thou teachest like a fool: the way to lose him."

Meaning, of course, "You are a fool, girl; that is the way to lose him; " but this the corrector changes to,

"Thou teachest, like a fool, the way to lose him;"

a reading which makes, in substance, the same assertion as the original, but which destroys all the delicate and characteristic humor of the gay queen's reply.

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So when, in the Merry Wives of Windsor, Act IV., Sc. 5, poor Simple, mistaking conceal' for 'reveal,' says, in reply to Falstaff, "I may not conceal them, Sir," and the Host, after his waggish fashion, bewilders yet more the serving man's feeble brain, by turning his own blunder upon him, and saying, "Conceal [i. e. reveal] them, or thou diest," Mr. Collier's folio expurgates all the fun from the passage by retaining an obvious typographical error of the original, and making Falstaff and the Host use "conceal" in its legitimate and sober sense.*

The corrector's obtuseness as to dramatic propriety is equally obvious with his incapacity to appreciate poetry and humor. In Act IV., Sc. 4, of the Merry Wives of Windsor, Sir Hugh Evans, talking of Falstaff, with Page and Ford and their wives, remarks of the plot to entice the knight to another meeting,

"You say he has been thrown into the rivers, and has been grievously peaten, as an old 'oman: methinks there should be terrors in him that he should not come:" &c.

"You see he

The old corrector makes the parson say, has been thrown," &c., and Mr. Collier sustains the change, by the remark that "the other persons in the scene had said nothing of the kind." But the corrector and his backer were obviously blind to the fact that the scene opens with the

* This has also been pointed out by Mr. Singer in his "Text of Shakespeare Vindicated," &c.

entry of the whole party in the midst of a conversation upon the subject of Ford's jealousy and Falstaff's mishaps; as is plain from the speeches of Evans and Page, when the scene opens.

"Evans.-Tis one of the pest discretions of a 'oman as I ever did look

upon.

'Page. And did he send you both these letters at an instant?"

But no 669 'oman or "letters" have been mentioned on the stage. Yet evidently Mrs. Ford is the "'oman," and the letters are those of Falstaff to Mrs. Ford and Mrs. Page, which had been the subjects of a conversation begun before the entrance of the party. Shakespeare was not such a bungler at his art as to make his characters always stalk upon the stage, and formally commence their conference. Sir Hugh's "You say " refers to something said before the scene opened. As an examination of the first part of the scene would have prevented this error, it has a place also among those blunders which result from a neglect of the context. The corrected text of this folio and the stage directions furnish many instances of similar carelessness and incapacity; but as my present object is not to attack the emendations in detail, but to establish the corrector's want of authority, and also of ability, by showing that in certain instances his work is essentially inconsistent with Shakespeare's obvious intention, and as this one case fully proves the point for which it is quoted, I pass on to the next.

The entire absence of a higher authority for the corrections, as well as the narrowness of view of the corrector,— or, rather, of one of the correctors, for there were evidently more than one,-is shown by his continual neglect of the context; his insight appearing to have been limited to the sentence, or the very line which he corrected. Thus, in the Tempest, Act. I. Sc. 2, Prospero speaks of,

66 one

Who having, unto truth, by telling of it,
Made such a sinner of his memory
To credit his own lie."

The construction of which plainly is, 'one who having made such a sinner of his memory unto truth, to credit his own lie by telling of it.' But Mr. Collier's corrector saw only the apparent contradiction in the second line, and, seeking to remedy that, changed "unto truth" to "to untruth;' reading,

"Who having to untruth, by telling of it," &c.

not seeing the absurdity of asserting that a man made a sinner of his memory to untruth, by telling a lie.

In Love's Labour's Lost, Act V. Sc. 2, the Princess, learning from Boyet that visitors are approaching to lay open siege to their hearts, exclaims,

"Saint Dennis to Saint Cupid! What are they

That charge their breath against us? Say, scout, say."

Mr. Collier assures us that to charge their breath' is nonsense," and the MS. corrector of his folio changes the phrase to "that charge the breach against us." And this, in the face of the very announcement to which the Princess replies, and in which Boyet says, that

"Love doth approach disguis'd

Armed in arguments: you'll be surpris'd.

Muster your wits," &c.

What would have been the confusion of the old corrector, if the text had been "What are they that tilt their tongues against us?" instead of "charge their breath," which it might well have been. In that case he certainly would have changed it to "what are they that tilt with tongs against us?"-which is a fair type of the literal sort of emendation with which Mr. Collier's folio furnishes us.

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