ACT II., SCENE VIII.

P. 130. I will assume desert. — Give me a key,

And instantly unlock my fortunes here. - The old copies read "Give me a key for this, And instantly," &c. As the words for this are plainly superfluous both for sense and for metre, and as Hanmer, Ritson, Steevens, and Dyce concur in thinking them an interpolation, I have struck them out.

P. 131. So be gone, sir; you are sped. So the second folio; the earlier editions omit sir.

ACT III., SCENE I.

P. 136. Good news, good news! ha, ha!-Where? in Genoa? - Instead of where, the old copies have here. Evidently wrong. Corrected by Rowe.

ACT III., SCENE II.

P. 139. There may as well be amity and league

'Tween snow and fire, as treason and my love. -So Walker. The old text has "amity and life." The latter is certainly a strange word for the place, and is made still more unfitting by what the same speaker says a little after,· "Promise me life," &c.

P. 140. How begot, how nourished? [Reply.

It is engender'd in the eyes, &c.—So Hanmer and Johnson, following the old editions, all of which, both quarto and folio, print Reply in the margin, and in the same line with "How begot," &c. Other modern editions, generally, print "Reply, reply" in a separate line, between the two lines here quoted, and thus make it a part of the song itself. It is true, the old copies repeat the word," Replie, replie"; but the word was evidently meant as a stage-direction. And it seemed to me that so the arrangement ought to be, long before I knew the printing of the old copies. Perhaps I ought to add that, in the second line, the quartos have eye instead of eyes, the reading of the folios.

P. 141. There is no vice so simple, but assumes
Some mark of virtue on his outward parts.

-So the second folio. It is well-nigh superfluous to note that, instead of vice, the originals have voice; which is readily corrected from virtue in the next line.

P. 141. How many cowards, whose hearts are all as false

As stayers of sand, wear yet upon their chins, &c. - So the folio. Modern editions generally print stairs; for what reason, or with what propriety, is, I think, not very apparent: for, surely, stayers, in the sense of props, supports, or stays, agrees much better with the context. And in most other places, if not in all, the folio has stairs spelt staires.

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P. 142. Thus ornament is but the guilèd shore

To a most dangerous sea; the beauteous scarf
Veiling an Indian feature; in a word,

The seeming truth, &c.—Instead of "guilèd shore," which is the reading of the quartos and the first folio, the second folio has "guilded shore." This is merely an old way of spelling gilded, which is Rowe's reading. I am apt to think that so we ought to read. Lettsom has "little doubt that the Poet was thinking of Raleigh's 'Discovery of Guiana,' and wrote guilded." See, however, foot-note 21. — In the third line, the old editions read "Vailing an Indian beautie; in a word," &c. With this reading I believe all modern editors are dissatisfied, as indeed they well may be. Hanmer reads "Indian dowdy," and Walker conjectures "Indian gipsy." Collier's second folio undertakes to heal the difficulty by changing the punctuation, thus: "Veiling an Indian: beauty, in a word," &c. But the corruption is in the word beauty, which clearly has no business there, and probably crept in by a sort of contagion from beauteous in the preceding line. The Cambridge Editors propose "Indian beldam"; which seems to me well worth considering. Lettsom conjectured favour, which suggested to me the reading in the text. After having settled upon feature, I was glad to find that Mr. Spedding had anticipated me in that conjecture. It has some advantage over the others in the ductus literarum, as it involves a substitution of only two letters. And Shakespeare repeatedly uses feature in a sense well suited to the place. See foot-note 22.

ness.

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P. 143. Nor none of thee, thou stale and common drudge 'Tween man and man: but thou, thou meagre lead, Which rather threatenest than dost promise aught, Thy plainness moves me more than eloquence. Here the old copies have pale instead of stale, and paleness instead of plainStale is Farmer's correction; and Dyce, who adopts it, remarks that the two words are frequently confounded by early transcribers and printers." We have stale coupled with common in 1 Henry IV., iii. 2: “So common-hackney'd in the eyes of men, so stale and cheap to vulgar company." — Warburton changed paleness to plainness, which Staunton adopts, with the just remark, that "the plainness, which moves Bassanio more than eloquence, is the plain speaking of the inscription on the leaden coffer, contrasted with the tempting labels of its neighbours."

P. 145.

-

But the full sum of me

Is sum of something. - Instead of something, which is the reading of the quartos, the folio has nothing. The latter, though generally preferred, savours, I think, rather too much of affectation of humility to accord well with Portia's character. Besides, she seems to be playing with the likeness of sound in sum and some.

P. 145. Happy in this, she is not yet so old

But she may learn; then happier in this, She is not bred so dull but she can learn ; Happiest of all, in that her gentle spirit Commits itself to yours, &c. - In the old copies, the second of these lines stands thus: "But she may learne: happier then this"; which leaves both sense and metre defective. In the fourth line, again, the old copies have is instead of in, which is the reading of Collier's second folio. The phrase in that for inasmuch as is often used by the Poet.

P. 147. What, and my old Venetian friend Solanio. - Here the old copies introduce, for the first time, a new name, Salerio; but the person is clearly the same who appears in the first scene of the play under the name of Solanio, and as the common friend of Antonio, Bassanio, and Salarino. In fact, the old copies present a strange

confusion in regard to two of the names: Salarino, Slarino; Solanio, Salanio, Salino, Salerio. I therefore concur with Staunton and Dyce in substituting Solanio for Salerio wherever the latter occurs in this

scene.

P. 149. And I must have the half of any thing
That this same paper brings you.

The old copies read "And I must freely have"; a redundancy both in sense and in metre. The word freely occurs five lines after; hence, probably, it crept in here out of place. Corrected by Pope.

P. 151. Shall lose a hair through my Bassanio's fault. - So the second folio. The other old copies are without my. To cure this defect in the metre, some editors change through to thorough, which is indeed but another form of the same word, and is often used by Shakespeare.

ACT III., SCENE III.

So Capell, who is

P. 153. The Duke cannot deny the course of law, For the commodity that strangers have With us in Venice: if it be denied, 'Twill much impeach the justice, &c.followed by Staunton. The old copies set a (:) after law, print Will instead of 'Twill; and so make commodity the subject of will impeach. This greatly obscures, if it does not quite defeat, the meaning of the passage. Staunton aptly notes that, without the second line, "the passage is perfectly logical and easy." See foot-note 3.

ACT III., SCENE IV.

P. 156. And use thou all th' endeavour of a man

In speed to Padua. — Mantua in the old copies; but Padua

is spoken of repeatedly as the residence of Bellario.

ACT III., SCENE V.

P. 160. He finds the joys of Heaven here on Earth;

And if on Earth he do not merit it,

In reason he should never come to Heaven. Here the old copies present a remarkable variety of readings. Instead of merit it, one of the quartos has meane it, then; the other, meane it, it; which latter the folio repeats, merely changing In to Is at the beginning of the next line. The reading in the text is Pope's. And it appears that Walker, without knowing of Pope's correction, hit upon the same as regards merit it, though he proposed to substitute "'Tis reason" for "In reason."

ACT IV., SCENE I.

P. 163. And others, when the bag-pipe sings i' the nose,
Cannot contain themselves for affection.

Masters of passion sway it to the mood

Of what it likes or loathes. So the old copies, except that they have swayes instead of sway. The more common reading, which was first proposed by Thirlby, sets a (:) after themselves, changes Masters to Master, and puts it in apposition with affection, and makes affection the subject of sways. But it is not altogether clear to me how, or in what sense, affection may be said to be the master of passion. Then too, in Thirlby's reading, I am something at a loss what the second it refers to, whether to affection or to passion. The old reading, with the simple change of sways to sway, leaves no doubt on that point; and, if we take affection in the sense the Poet elsewhere uses it in, gives an apt and natural meaning; for it is strictly true that masters of passion do sway it, that is, passion, to the mood of its own predispositions. See foot-notes 15 and 16.

P. 163. Why he cannot abide a gaping pig;

Why he, a harmless necessary cat;

Why he, a wauling bag-pipe. - The old editions read " a woollen bag-pipe." It has been urged, in defence of this reading, that bag-pipes were wont to be carried or kept in woollen cases: so were