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ACT II., SCENE 4.

P. 49. Ned, pr'ythee, come out of that fat room, &c. - None of the commentators, so far as I know, have satisfactorily explained “fat room." I have hardly any doubt we ought to read "hot room." So, in the last scene of Hamlet, we have "He's fat, and scant of breath"; where I am quite satisfied that hot is the right word. See foot-note 2.

P. 54. He that kills me some six or seven dozen of Scots at a breakfast, washes his hands, &c.- Here 66 at a breakfast" apparently means "before breakfast." Dyce says, "An anonymous critic proposes after." I suspect the anonymous proposer is right; as "after breakfast" would accord better with the words, "how many hast thou kill'd to-day?"

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P. 54. Didst thou never see Titan kiss a dish of butter? pitifulhearted butter, that melted at the sweet tale of the Sun.- -The old copies repeat Titan instead of butter; a palpable error, which, however, Staunton retains. Theobald made the correction.

P. 58. Thou nott-pated fool, thou whoreson, obscene, greasy tallowkeech. - The old copies have " 'knotty-pated" and "tallow catch." The first was corrected by Douce, and the correction is justified by a previous speech in this scene: "Wilt thou rob this leathern-jerkin, crystal button, nott-pated, agate-ring," &c. As to catch, this was probably but another spelling of keech. See foot-note 28.

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P. 59. Away, you starveling, you eel-skin. - So Hanmer. The old text has "elfe-skin."

P. 59. We two saw you four set on four; you bound them, &c. The old copies read " and bound them." Corrected by Pope.

66

P. 64. For God's sake, lords, convey my tristful Queen. - The old editions have "trustful Queene”; an error which the context easily rectifies.

P. 65. Banish not him thy Harry's company, banish not him thy Harry's company. I suspect, with Dyce, that Pope was right in rejecting the last six words " as an accidental repetition." To my thinking, the sense is much better every way, without them.

P. 68. Thou art essentially mad, without seeming so. — copies till the third folio have made instead of mad.

All the old

P. 69. Now, my masters, for a true face and a good conscience. The last a is wanting in the old copies. Supplied in Collier's second folio.

P. 70. Pointz. Falstaff!-fast asleep behind the arras, &c.— Here, and in the dialogue that follows about Falstaff, the old copies have Peto instead of Pointz. This is clearly wrong, as Pointz is in the Prince's confidence, and Peto is not. And the fact of Pointz having acted with the Prince in the robbery business is conclusive that his name is the right one here. We have the same mistake again near the close of the third Act: "Go, Pointz, to horse, to horse." The correction was made by Johnson, who justly remarks, "What had Peto done, to be trusted with the plot against Falstaff? Pointz has the Prince's confidence, and is a man of courage."

ACT III., SCENE 1.

P. 71. Lord Mortimer, — and cousin Glendower, — will you sit down? and uncle Worcester, -a plague upon it! I have forgot the map. — This and the three following speeches of Hotspur I have no scruple in printing as prose. In the folio, two of them, the first and the fourth, are indeed printed as verse; and some modern editions give them all in that shape; but, even after using hardly warrantable liberties with the text, they make them verse only to the eye. For example, Dyce, in the second speech, changes oft to often, and, in the third, “had but kitten'd” to “had kitten'd," and never to ne'er ; — -a pretty bold proceeding at the best, while the result is far from satisfying on the score of metrical harmony.

P. 72. The front of heaven was full of fiery shapes,
Of burning cressets; ay, and at my birth

-

So Capell.

The frame and huge foundation of the Earth, &c.The old copies are without ay in the second line. Glendower, throughout this scene, is careful of his rhythm and numbers; and I can hardly think the Poet meant to spot him with so gross a breach in that kind.

P. 73. The goats ran from the mountains, and the herds

Were strangely clamorous in the frighted fields.— So Pope.

The old text has "clamorous to the frighted fields." I do not understand the meaning of to here.

P. 73. How 'scaped he agues, in the Devil's name?—The old copies have scapes instead of 'scaped. Corrected in Collier's second folio. I am not quite sure that the correction ought to pass.

P. 74. And in my conduct shall your ladies come;

From whom you now must steal, and take no leave,

Or there will be a world of water shed

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Upon the parting of your wives and you. So Walker, and, I think, with evident propriety. The old text has For instead of Or. Walker produces several clear instances of the same misprint; as in Antony and Cleopatra, ii. 7: “These quicksands, Lepidus, keep off them, for you sink."

The old copies Capell printed "runs Collier's second folio

P. 75. And then he runneth straight and evenly. have "And then he runnes straight and even." straightly and evenly," and is followed by Dyce. reads "runs all straight and evenly.".

P. 76. I do not care: I'll give thrice so much land

To any well-deserving friend. — An octo-syllabic line seems quite out of place here. Hanmer, to cure the defect, printed "As that to any well-deserving friend"; which, to my sense, is a worse defect than the old one of metre. Walker suggests "To any worthy, welldeserving friend"; but queries, as he well may, whether this would not be a tautology. Still it is much better than Hanmer's. If I were to venture any supplementing of the verse, it would be noble or honest.

P. 76. The Moon shines fair; you may away to-night:
I'll in and haste the writer, and withal

Break with your wives, &c.—The words I'll in, which are needful both for sense and metre, are wanting in the old copies, and were proposed by Steevens.

P. 77. He held me last night at the least nine hours

In reckoning up the several devils' names

That were his lacqueys: I cried hum, and well,

But mark'd him not a word. In the first of these lines the old text is without the, and to the third it adds go to, which Pope struck

out.

Ritson comments upon the addition thus: "These two senseless monosyllables seem to have been added by some foolish player, purposely to destroy the metre."

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As is a tirèd horse, a railing wife. — So Capell. The old copies lack is in the second line; an omission not to be endured.

P. 77. In faith, my lord, you are too wilful-blunt. - The old text has "too wilfull blame." Walker says, “Of course, 'too wilful-blunt'; and so Johnson suggests." Dyce, however, retains blame, and refers to Nares, who shows that the phrase to blame is a corruption of too blame, which formerly meant too blamable or blameworthy. But it seems to me that the phrase, even so explained, does not yield a fitting sense here.

P. 78. Good father, tell her she and my aunt Percy

Shall follow in my conduct speedily. The old text mars the rhythm by thrusting in the useless word that between her and she. Corrected by Pope.

P. 79. One no persuasion can do good upon. — Here, again, the metre is spoilt in the old copies by inserting that after One.

P. 79. I understand thy looks: that pretty Welsh

Which thou pour'st down from those two swelling heavens

I am too perfect in. - So Pope, and Lettsom. The old copies read "these swelling heavens." The omission of two untunes the verse utterly. Pope's reading gives just the sense required, meaning, of course, the lady's sky-blue eyes, which seem to grow larger when brightened with tears.

P. 79. Nay, if you melt, then she will run quite mad. - Here quite is wanting in the old text. Dyce says, "This addition occurred to me before I knew that Capell had inserted it."

P. 80. An those musicians that shall play to you
Hang in the air a thousand leagues from hence,

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Yet straight they shall be here. - Instead of An and Yet, at the beginning of the first and third lines, the old copies have And in both places. But an, the old equivalent of if, was very often printed and; and here the word probably got repeated from the first line in the place of Yet. The latter word was substituted by Rowe.

P. 81. Heart, you swear like a comfit-maker's wife! Not mine, in good sooth; and, As true as I live; &c. - The old copies have you instead of mine; the former having probably crept in by mistake from the line before. Collier's second folio changes you into yours, and Lettsom would substitute I. But, as Hotspur is repeating his wife's oathlets, it appears to me that mine is the right word.

P. 81. Come, come, Lord Mortimer; you are as slow
As hot Lord Percy is on fire to go.

By this our book's drawn; we'll but seal, and then
To horse immediately.

Mort.

With all my heart.

The Poet often

closes a scene with one or more rhyming couplets. So I strongly suspect we ought to read here with Collier's second folio:

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P. 82. Such poor, such base, such lewd, such mean attempts. The old copies have bare instead of base. The two words were often confounded. Corrected by Rowe.

P. 83. As, in reproof of many tales devised

By smiling pick-thanks and base news-mongers,

Which oft the ear of greatness needs must hear. — The old text has the second and third of these lines transposed. The correction was proposed by Keightley.

Carded his state,

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P. 85. Mingled his royalty with capering fools. So the first quarto. The other old copies have carping instead of capering. For "carded his state" Collier's second folio substitutes "discarded state," and is followed by White; very unadvisedly, I think. Carded, taken as the word was often used, gives a very fitting sense, namely, "mixed, and debased by mixing." So in Bishop Andrewes' Sermons, quoted by Mr. Arrowsmith: "And these - for that by themselves they will not to mingle and to card with the Apostles' doctrine." See footnote 13.

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