that will or may be crushed or overcome by the use of locks and traps? The Poet has many like instances of prolepsis. With curst, the meaning seems to be, that it is but a perverse or untoward necessity,- — one that may vex and annoy; yet it is by no means invincible, since the cat's presence can be made up by something else.—In the third line, Steevens proposed petty instead of pretty. But Shakespeare repeatedly uses pretty with the sense of fit, apt, or suitable.

P. 52. Creatures that, by a rule in Nature, teach

The art of order to a peopled kingdom.—So Pope and Collier's second folio. The old text reads "The Act of Order." To teach an act is rather odd English.

P. 53. France being ours, we'll bend it to our awe,
Or break it all to pieces: there we'll sit,

Ruling in large and ample empery, &c.—The old text reads "Or there wee'l sit"; or having no doubt been repeated by mistake. Corrected by Pope.

So

Like Turkish mutes, shall have a tongueless mouth. Walker. The folio has "Like Turkish mute." The corresponding passage in the quartos has "like toonglesse mutes.”

P. 54. Did claim some certain dukedoms, in the right

Of your great predecessor, Edward Third.-So Collier's second folio. The old text has "King Edward the Third." Pope left out King, and Walker would omit the.

P. 56. We never valued this poor seat of England;

And therefore, living here, did give ourself

To barbarous license.

The old text reads "living hence."

The correction is Hanmer's. Mason justly says of the old reading, that it "cannot be reconciled to sense."

P. 56. But tell the Dauphin, I will keep my state,
Be like a king, and show my soul of greatness,
When I do rouse me in my throne of France:

For here I have laid by my majesty,

And plodded like a man for working days;

But I will rise there with so full a glory, &c. So Collier's second folio. The old copies have, in the second line, sail instead of soul, and, in the fourth, that and this instead of here. The words sail and throne, it seems to me, do not pull very well together; while the strained attempts which have been made, to explain that or this, are enough, I think, to put the old text out of court.

ACT I., SCENE 3.

P. 58. SCENE III. — London, &c.— In the folio the first Act of this play has no marking of the scenes at all, and extends down to the end of what modern editions give as the end of the second Act. And the matter of the present scene is there placed after the second Chorus. Various editors, from Pope downwards, have judged, and rightly, no doubt, that the scene ought to come in before the Chorus, and thus close the first Act, instead of opening the second Act, as it does in modern editions generally. The propriety of the transposition is so evident, that I have ventured to make it.

P. 58. But, when the time comes, there shall be smites. The old text has smiles instead of smites. The correction was proposed by Farmer, and is made in Collier's second folio.

P. 58. And we'll be all sworn brothers in France. The old text has "brothers to France," to having probably crept in out of place from the line above. The correction is Johnson's.

P. 58. And, when I cannot live any longer, I will die as I may. So Mason and Walker. The old copies have do and doe instead of die.

P. 59. O well-a-day, Lady, if he be not drawn! - The old text reads "if he be not hewne." Corrected by Theobald.

P. 61. Mine host Pistol, you must come to my master, — and you, hostess. The old text has "and your hostess."

ACT II., CHORUS.

P. 63. Now thrive the armourers.

Collier's second folio substi

tutes strive for thrive. I suspect strive is right; but it may be that, in such cases, the armourers were wont to receive a fee from those whom they served.

P. 65. And by their hands this grace of kings must die,

If Hell and treason hold their promises,

Ere he take ship for France, and in Southampton.

The sum is paid; the traitors are agreed;

The King is set from London; &c. Between the third and fourth of these lines, the folio has the following:

Linger your patience on, and wee'l digest

Th' abuse of distance; force a play.

Pope tinkered this into “and well digest th' abuse of distance, while we force a play." Collier's second folio reads "and so force a play." No one, so far as I know, has explained the meaning of force a play; and it seems to me stark nonsense. I cannot but regard the two lines

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as an interpolation: besides being unintelligible, they have no sort of fitness to the context, and are simply a nuisance. Knight thinks they 'were intended to be erased from the author's copy"; and Lettsom says "they appear to have formed a portion of the close of this Chorus, and to have been replaced by the lines beginning with 'The sum is paid.""

P. 65. We'll not offend one stomach with our play. — Here, again, the folio has two lines added, thus:

But till the King come forth, and not till then,
Unto Southampton do we shift our Scene.

This flatly contradicts what the Chorus has just said, “The scene is now transported, gentles, to Southampton." Moreover, the first line flatly contradicts itself, and cannot be reduced to consistency without changing "Till the King come forth" to "When the King comes forth," which is indeed Hanmer's reading. As I have already noted, the folio

sets this Chorus before the scene which here precedes it; and the two lines were probably added by some "scribbler," in order to patch up the disorder resulting from that misplacement of the Chorus.

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ACT II., SCENE 1.

P. 66. And shall forget the office of our hand,

Sooner than quittance of desert and merit

According to their weight and worthiness. The folio has 'According to the weight." The correction is derived from the quartos, which read "According to their cause."

It was excess of wine that set him on;

And, on our more advice, we pardon him.—The old copies read "on his more advice." The correction is from Collier's second folio. Lettsom thinks "the error proceeded from him and his occurring in the neighbourhood."

P. 68. To furnish him with all appertinents.—The first folio lacks him, which is supplied in the second.

P. 70. But he that tempted thee bade thee stand up, &c.—The old text has temper'd instead of tempted, which was proposed by Johnson. As Lettsom says, "the context requires tempted."

Why, so didst thou: or seem they grave and learnèd, &c. The old text omits or, which was supplied by Pope. I cannot think

the Poet would leave such a gap in the metre here.

P. 71. And thus thy fall hath left a kind of blot,

To mark the full-fraught man and best-indued

With some suspicion.—The old text reads "To make thee full

fraught." Corrected by Theobald.

P. 72. Which I in sufferance heartily will rejoice.—The first folio ómits I, which is supplied in the second.

ACT II., SCENE 2.

P. 74. 'A made a fine end.- So Capell. The old text has "a finer end." Mason says, "He made a fine end' is at this day a vulgar expression, when any person dies with resolution and devotion." And Walker notes upon the text, "Surely fine is the right reading."

P. 74. For his nose was as sharp as a pen, and 'a babbled of green fields. — The old text reads “and a Table of greene fields." The wellknown emendation is Theobald's, and is probably the happiest one ever made in Shakespeare's text. I subjoin Theobald's account of it: "I have an edition of Shakespeare by me with some marginal conjectures of a gentleman sometime deceased; and he is of the mind to correct this passage thus; for his nose was as sharp as a pen, and 'a talked of green fields.' It is certainly observable of people near death, when they are delirious by a fever, that they talk of moving; as it is of those in a calenture, that they have their heads run on green fields. The variation from Table to talked is not of a very great latitude; though we may still come nearer the traces of the letters by restoring it thus; for his nose was as sharp as a pen, and 'a babled of green fields.' To bable, or babble, is to mutter, or speak indiscriminately, like children that cannot yet talk, or dying persons when they are losing the use of speech."

ACT II., SCENE 3.

P. 78. So the proportions of defence are fill'd;
Which of a weak and niggardly projection,

Doth, like a miser, spoil his coat with scanting

A little cloth. The construction here is very awkward and irregular, to say the least. I strongly suspect we ought to adopt Malone's conjecture, "While oft a weak," &c. See, however, footnote 5.

P. 78. Whiles that his mighty sire—on mountain standing, &c. Not in the quartos. The folio has mountain instead of mighty. Theobald substituted mounting, and Coleridge proposed monarch, not happily, I think. The reading in the text was proposed anonymously in