text has swithold and Swithold. S. is the old abbreviation for saint, and the Poet probably wrote S. Withold. ACT III., SCENE VI. P. 146. He's mad that trusts in the tameness of a wolf, a horse's health, a boy's love, &c.— So all the old editions. Several commentators are very positive it should be "a horse's heels"; there being an old proverb in Ray's Collection, "Trust not in a horse's heels, nor a dog's tooth." But men that way skilled know it is about as unsafe to trust in the soundness of a horse as in the other things mentioned by the Fool. P. 146. Come, sit thou here, most learnèd justicer.—The quartos have justice instead of justicer. Further on, however, they have justicer. This part of the scene, beginning with "The foul fiend bites my back," down to "Bless thy five wits," is wanting in the folio. P. 146. Come o'er the bourn, Bessy, to me.-The quartos have broome instead of bourn. Not in the folio. P. 149. Hound or spaniel, brach or lym. — The old copies have Him and Hym instead of lym. Corrected by Hanmer. P. 150. This rest might yet have balm'd thy broken senses, Which, if convenience will not allow, - Stand in hard cure. - So Theobald. The speech is not in the folio; and the quartos have sinews instead of senses. White, Dyce, and the Cambridge Editors retain sinews. But, surely, senses is right. And the same speaker has said, a little before, "All the power of his wits have given way to his impatience." And again, "his wits are gone." Can there be any doubt that he means the same thing here? Moreover, Lear has no broken sinews; he is out of his senses; that is, his wits are broken. Besides, sleep does not heal broken sinews; but it has great healing efficacy upon such “perturbations of the brain" as the poor old King is racked with. So in Macbeth, ii. I : "Innocent sleep, balm of hurt minds." P. 151. When false opinion, whose wrong thought defiles thee, In thy just proof repeals and reconciles thee. So Theobald. This speech is not in the folio; and the quartos have thoughts defile. But a rhyme was probably intended. It may be well to add Heath's explanation of the passage: "Observe the event of those disturbances that are now on foot, and discover thyself when the present false opinion entertained of thee, which stains thy reputation with a crime of which thou art innocent, being convicted by thy full proof, repeals thy present banishment from society, and reconciles thee to thy father." Of the whole speech I can but say that I do not believe Shakespeare wrote a word of it. The workmanship, in all points, smacks of a very different hand. The Cambridge Editors note upon it, "internal evidence is conclusive against the supposition that the lines were written by Shakespeare." P. 155. ACT III., SCENE VII. My lord, you have one eye left To see some mischief on them. The old copies have him instead of them. But, as Dyce says, "the Servant is evidently speaking of Cornwall and Regan." The pronouns him and them or 'em are often confounded. ACT IV., SCENE I. P. 157. Yet better thus, unknown, to be contemn'd, Than still contemn'd and flatter'd. - So Collier's second folio; as Johnson had conjectured, and Tyrwhitt and Malone approved. The old copies read "Yet better thus, and knowne to be contemn'd." P. 158. Full oft 'tis seen, Our maims secure us, and our mere defects Prove our commodities. Instead of maims, the old copies have means; which may possibly be explained somewhat thus: "The having what we desire makes us reckless, while privation or adversity sobers us." This takes secure in the sense of the Latin securus, negligent or presumptuous. But this, to say the least, seems a harsh and strained interpretation. Pope reads "Our mean secures us." Collier's second folio substitutes wants for means, and Singer proposes needs. Walker says, "There can be no doubt that Johnson's mains is the right reading." See foot-note 6. P. 160. Five fiends have been in poor Tom at once; as ObidiSo cut, of lust; Hobbididance, prince of dumbness; &c. Walker. The old text has an awkward inversion,- of lust, as Obidicut. The passage is not in the folio. ACT IV., SCENE II. P. 164. If that the Heavens do not their visible spirits It will come, &c. -This speech is not in the folio; and the quartos have the and this instead of these. The limiting force of the demonstrative is clearly required by the context. P. 164. France spreads his banners in our noiseless land, With plumed helm thy state begins to threat; &c. The old copies have "thy slayer begin threats," "thy slaier begins threats," and "thy state begins thereat." The reading in the text was proposed by Eccles, and adopted by Staunton and the Cambridge Editors. P. 165. Thou changèd and sex-cover'd thing, for shame, Be-monster not thy feature!—The old text has “selfe-cover'd thing," out of which it is hardly possible to extract any fitting sense. Theobald reads "Thou chang'd and self-converted thing"; which does not really better the passage at all. Other readings have been proposed, as "chang'd and self-discover'd," and "chang'd and self-uncover'd." The emendation here adopted (and I deem it of the first class) was proposed to me by Mr. Joseph Crosby. See foot-note 13. P. 165. Marry, your manhood mew. So corrected copies of the second quarto, and the Cambridge edition. The other old copies have now instead of mew. See foot-note 16. ACT IV., SCENE III. This scene is wanting altogether in the folio. As it is, both poetically and physiognomically, one of the best in the play, the purpose of the omission could hardly have been other than to shorten the time of representation; which would infer the folio to have been printed from a stage copy. &c. The affirma P. 167. Ay, sir; she took them, read them in my presence; So Theobald. The old copies have "I say she." tive ay was very often printed I. - P. 167. You have seen Sunshine and rain at once; her smiles and tears Were like a better way, those happy smilets, &c.Such, literally, is the reading of all the quartos; which has been unnecessarily and dangerously tampered with and tinkered in most of modern editions; some reading "like a better May"; some, "like a wetter May"; and some, "like a better day." But the old reading is assuredly right. The sense is clearly completed at like, and should there be cut off from what follows, as it is in the text: "You have seen sunshine and rain at once; her smiles and tears were like "; that is, were like "sunshine and rain at once." Then begins another thought, or another mode of illustration: "To speak it in a better way, those happy smilets," &c. And I insist upon it that the passage so read is better poetry, as well as better sense and better logic, than with way turned into day or May, and made an adjunct or tag to like. The pointing here given was suggested by Boaden. P. 168. In brief, sir, sorrow Would be a rarity most beloved, if all, &c.—So Capell and Walker. The old text is without sir. The holy water from her heavenly eyes, And, clamour-moisten'd, then away she started To deal with grief alone. — So White. The old copies read "And clamour moistened her "; her having probably been repeated by mistake from the line above. Theobald reads "And, clamour-motion'd, then away she started." The more common reading is "And clamour moisten'd: then away," &c. ACT IV., SCENE IV. P. 169. Crown'd with rank fumiter and furrow-weeds, With burdocks, hemlock, nettles, cuckoo-flowers, &c. In the first of these lines, the quartos have femiter, the folio Femitar, instead of fumiter. In the second line, the quartos have, instead of burdocks, hoar-docks, and hor-docks; the folio, Hardokes. The correction is Hanmer's. Heath says, "I believe we should read burdocks, which frequently grow among corn." P. 170. 'Tis known before; our preparation stands It is thy business that I go about; Therefore great France My mourning and important tears have pitied. No blown ambition doth our arms incite, But love, dear love, and our aged father's right: Soon may I hear and see him! - In this speech, again, all after "expectation of them" is, I am sure, an interpolation by some other hand. It has not the flavour either of Shakespeare or of Cordelia. P. 173. ACT IV., SCENE VI. The murmuring surge, That on th' unnumber'd idle pebbles chafes, Lest my brain turn, and the deficient sight Topple down headlong. —So Pope. The quartos have "idle peebles chafe"; the folio, "idle pebble chafes." - In the fourth line, Mr. Daniel Jefferson, of Boston, suggests to me that we ought to read "and through deficient sight." As the Poet may well have written |