ACT V. SCENE I.

P. 256. The defective line,

"And bid him speak of patience,"

Ritson, who had no very good ear, but who was nevertheless right in this instance, recommends should be thus printed :"And bid him speak to me of patience."

The addition is obvious enough, and it is made by the corrector of the folio, 1632.

Few passages have produced more contention and doubt than this line, as it is given in the first and other folios,

"And sorrow, wag! cry hem, when he should groan."

Leonato is telling his brother, that his grief is beyond all example, and that he can never be comforted, until he shall meet with a man, suffering under equal calamities, who can defy his misfortunes,

"If such a one will smile, and stroke his beard;

And sorrow, wag! cry hem, when he should groan," &c.

The corrector of the folio, 1632, shows that, "And sorrow wag," was a misprint for "Call sorrow joy," so that he reads,— "If such a one will smile, and stroke his beard; Call sorrow joy; cry hem, when he should groan; Patch grief with proverbs; make misfortune drunk With candle-wasters; bring him you to me,

And I of him will gather patience."

This seems to be as good a solution as we are likely to obtain: the difficulty is to account for the misprint.

P. 261. Boiled calf's head and capers was formerly not an unusual dish; and when Claudio tells Don Pedro, that Benedick hath "bid him to a calf's head and a capon," the corrector of the folio, 1632, marks it as an error of the press, and alters it to "calf's head and capers." Claudio means to joke upon the challenge that he had received.

P. 262. For the scriptural allusion, in the words "God saw him, when he was hid in the garden," the corrector puts it as

a question, "Who saw him, when he was hid in the garden ?" It seems likely that the speech was so amended, in consequence of the increased prevalence of puritanism soon after the date when the folio, 1632, was published. We shall have to notice other changes of the same kind and, perhaps, for the same reason hereafter.

P. 265. According to the folio, 1623, Leonato says to Claudio,

"I cannot bid you bid my daughter live.”

The folio, 1632, in its uncorrected state, gives it,

"I cannot bid you daughter live ;"

and the manuscript-corrector of that impression tells us that the line should be,

"I cannot bid you cause my daughter live."

It is impossible now to know from what source this euphonious emendation was derived.

SCENE III.

P. 271. The following is the "Song" as it is found corrected in the folio, 1632:

“Pardon, goddess of the night,
Those that slew thy virgin bright,
For the which, with songs of woe,
Round about her tomb we go.

Midnight, assist our moan; help us to sigh and groan
Heavily, heavily,

Graves yawn and yield your dead

Till death be uttered,

Heavily, heavily."

Thus we see virgin bright for “virgin knight;" we go for ''they go ;" and Heavily, heavily, in the last instance, for "Heavenly, heavenly." There was a well-known tune of "Heavily, heavily," and probably the above was sung to it. (See British Bibliographer, ii. 560.) It will be remarked that the rest of this scene is in rhyme, with the exception of these two lines:

:

"Thanks to you all, and leave us: fare you well.
Good morrow, masters: each his several way."

Probably this couplet also rhymed as the play was originally

written, and the corrector of the folio, 1632, shows how slight a change was necessary to restore the jingle,

"Good morrow, masters: each his way can tell."

SCENE IV.

P. 272. Leonato desires his daughter, his niece, and Ursula to withdraw, and to return to the scene "masked." Such was, no doubt, the course when this comedy was originally produced, about the year 1599; but it should seem that in the time of the corrector of the folio, 1632, it was the practice for the ladies to enter veiled, when Claudio was expecting to be married to the niece, and not to the daughter of Leonato. Therefore, when Antonio enters with the ladies (p. 274), we are told, in a manuscript stage-direction, that they are veiled; and when Hero, and subsequently Beatrice, discover themselves, unveil is in both instances written in the margin. In the interval between the first acting of "Much Ado about Nothing," and the reprinting of it in the folio, 1632, the fashion of wearing masks had perhaps declined among ladies, and for that reason veils may have been substituted for masks in the performance.

P. 274. When Hero unveils, Claudio can hardly believe his eyes, but the lady re-assures him by saying, according to the folios,

"One Hero died, but I do live;"

which is a defective verse, and the quarto, 1600, has the line thus:

"One Hero died defil'd, but I do live."

Now, it is most unlikely that Hero should herself tell Claudio that she had been "defiled," and the word supplied by the corrector of the folio, 1632, seems on all accounts much preferable :

"One hero died belied, but I do live."

Here we see the lady naturally denying her guilt, and attributing her death to the slander thrown upon her. Shakespeare's word must have been belied, and the mishearing of it may have led to the insertion of "defiled" in the 4to, 1600. The editor of the folio, 1623, perhaps purposely omitted defiled on account of its unfitness.

P. 275. Sir Thomas Hanmer conjecturally added for in the subsequent line to the improvement of the metre,—

"Have been deceived; for they swore you did."

The corrector of the folio, 1632, takes precisely the same course, and in the few succeeding lines makes changes clearly recommended by the greater accuracy of the verse and language. We transcribe them as they stand in manuscript, but it is not necessary to accompany them by the text as ordinarily represented, and we have printed the added or altered words in italics :

"Bene. Why then your uncle, and the prince, and Claudio
Have been deceived; for they swore you did.

Beat. Do not you love me?

Bene. Troth, no more than reason.

Beat. Why then, my cousin Margaret and Ursula
Are much deceived, for they swore you did.
Bene. They swore that you were almost sick for me.
Beat. They swore that you were well-nigh dead for me.
Bene. It is no matter.-Then, you do not love me.
Beat. No truly, but in friendly recompence."

Here the halting measure of the lines, as contained in all the folios is set right, and the effect of the retorts much increased by the adoption by each party of precisely the same forms of expression.

P. 276. The old editions assign "Peace! I will stop your mouth" to Leonato; but most modern editors, following the example of Theobald, have transferred it to Benedick. So does the corrector of the folio, 1632.

After the word "Dance," at the very conclusion of the play, the manuscript-corrector has added of all the actors, to show that every person on the stage joined in it. Perhaps it might have been guessed from what is said, without this information.

LOVE'S LABOUR'S LOST.

ACT I. SCENE I.

P. 285. Theobald judiciously proposed to alter the line,— "When I to fast expressly am forbid,"

"When I to feast expressly am forbid.”

The same change was made in manuscript by the corrector of the folio, 1632. Lower down, that edition has,

"Light, seeking light, doth light beguile;"

evidently defective in sense and measure, and the corrector, by inserting "of light" in the margin, makes the passage run as in the folio, 1623,

"Light, seeking light, doth light of light beguile;'

which of course is the true reading.

P. 287. The folio, 1623, presents us with this passage:

"So you to study now it is too late,

That were to climb o'er the house to unlock the gate."

This text the folio, 1632, adopted, excepting that it has t'unlock for "to unlock." The quarto, 1598, had previously printed the couplet thus :

"So you to study now it is too late,

Climb o'er the house to unlock the little gate."

Finally, we present it as it appears in the folio, 1632, corrected in manuscript, which seems preferable to the other authorities::