COMEDIES.

It hath the primal eldest curse upon it:A brother's murder.—Pray can I not?—Ham. iii. 3.

It hath the primal eldest curse upon it:

A brother's murder.—Pray can I not?—Ham. iii. 3.

Of greatest justice.—Write, write, Rinaldo.

All's Well, iii. 4.

Splitted the heart.—This is the sword.

Ant. and Cleop. v. 1.

In the case of final riming couplets the first line may be short, butneverthe second.

Nothing is more common in the works of our old dramatists than malarrangement of the text, some lines being too long, some too short; but among them theyare sure to contain the requisite number of feet. Editors have often taken the most justifiable liberty of rearranging the text; but on other occasions they have exclaimed against those who have followed their example. In this case, however, the only limit to the discretion of an editor is that of not putting—except in the cases above mentioned—more or less than five or six feet in a line. I must not omit to observe that editors have done injury to many passages, by the decasyllabic superstition which I have already noticed.

I will give one instance of a place where a most slight rearrangement gives perfect harmony to what has been a stumblingblock to editors:—

And sandy-bottom'd Severn have I sent himBootless home, and weather-beaten back.

And sandy-bottom'd Severn have I sent him

Bootless home, and weather-beaten back.

1 Hen. IV. iii. 1.

The last line, it will be seen, is the merest prose, but transfer "him" to it from the preceding line, and we at once get harmonious verse.

The following passages are thus arranged in the original editions:—

The poet's eye, in a fine frenzy rolling; doth glanceFrom heaven to earth, from earth to heaven;And, as imagination bodies forth the forms of thingsUnknown, the poet's pen turns them to shapes,And gives to airy nothing a local habitationAnd a name. Such tricks hath strong imagination, &c.

The poet's eye, in a fine frenzy rolling; doth glance

From heaven to earth, from earth to heaven;

And, as imagination bodies forth the forms of things

Unknown, the poet's pen turns them to shapes,

And gives to airy nothing a local habitation

And a name. Such tricks hath strong imagination, &c.

Mids. Night's Dream, v. 1.

It seldom visits Sorrow; when it doth, it is a comforter.We two, my lord, will guard your person,While you take your rest, and watch your safety.—Thank you. Wondrous heavy.

It seldom visits Sorrow; when it doth, it is a comforter.

We two, my lord, will guard your person,

While you take your rest, and watch your safety.—

Thank you. Wondrous heavy.

Temp. ii. 1.

Those, then, who would refuse an editor the right of rearrangement are bound, if they would be consistent, to retain such passages as these unaltered. I may here make the boast that mine is theonlyedition of these plays in which the text is strictly metrical throughout.

Beside all those forms of verse, the plays of our old dramatists contain a large quantity of prose. But itis only prose to the eye; for it is in reality as metrical as what is printed in separate metric lines, consisting of lines of five or six feet, each of two or three syllables, but printed continuously like prose. I therefore denominate it "Metric Prose" as being metric in substance, prose in form, and as, moreover, it is termedproseboth by Chaucer and Shakespeare, probably from its less elevated character and from its being written continuously and without rime or alliteration. I am disposed to regard the former as being its inventor; and perhaps his reason for writing it continuously may have been merely the wish to save paper. We know, from M. de Maucroix's letter to Boileau, that the French poet Racan, whose poems were of course in rime, also wrote them continuously, and, as it would appear, for the same reason, though paper must have been less valuable in his time. As, however, the Anglo-Saxon and early English alliterative verse was written continuously, Chaucer may have been only following an established mode. It may be remarked that the poetry of the Hebrew Scriptures is also written and printed continuously.

Surely it is no egotism to state a plain truth! I therefore say that, as far as I know, I am myself the very first who, for the last century or more, has discerned the existence of this metric prose. My discovery was very gradual. I first recognized it in the plays of Beaumont and Fletcher, and, advancing step by step, I at length arrived at the certainty that for three centuries and a half, from Chaucer and Wickliffe to Dryden and Tillotson, almost every work claiming to be regarded as a literary composition is in this form. Such are histories from Sir T. More to Clarendon, translations, controversial and philosophical works, as those of Hooker, Brown, Taylor, and Cudworth, versions of the Scriptures from Wickliffe to the authorized one inclusive, sermons, inclusive of those of Barrow, South, and Tillotson, the Liturgy, except the Creeds, Te Deum, and Catechism, all prefaces, dedications and letters of compliment, &c.The chief exceptions were Hall and the other chroniclers, Purchas, Hakluyt, Fuller, Bunyan, Ludlow, L'Estrange, and Mrs. Hutchinson. The Ecclesiastical Policy, The Liberty of Prophesying, and The Areopagitica, for example, are as decidedly metrical as The Paradise Lost, only admitting more trisyllabic feet, and being printed continuously. Hence, too, in a great measure, arises the charm which we find in the prose of our old writers, and of which we have been ignorant of the secret source; as when Cowper styles Sidney "warbler of poetic prose."

I do not, however, say that this prose was read as verse, with a slight elevation of tone at the end of each metric line. It was, I think, read as prose, as Cowper of course read the Arcadia; but the metre diffused a secret charm through it, which could be felt even by those who were ignorant of the cause. How easy, by the way, must this mode of writing prose have made verse-making to the writers of those days! and how rapidly that prose could be written is proved by the assertion of Sir Kenelm Digby, who says that in the space of twenty-four hours he sent out and bought the Religio Medici, read it through, and wrote his Observations on it, which fill upwards of seventy printed pages, and are metrical—a fact almost inconceivable.

The only writer of the last century who, as far as I am aware, used this metric prose—for we seek it in vain in Addison, Pope, Johnson, Gibbon, &c.—is the historian Robertson, of which fact Mr. Buckle seems to have had a dim conception; for he speaks of his "measuredstyle." It is a question where Robertson got it; for he could hardly have invented it, and I think it must have been in Knox, Spottiswoode, and the Scottish writers of the two preceding centuries, who all wrote like their English contemporaries. At the same period, however, his countryman Macpherson invented a new kind of metric prose for his 'Poems of Ossian.' Even the present century presents us with an instance in Mr. Lecky's eloquent 'History of Rationalism,' which is as metricalas the Areopagitica of Milton. Possibly my own remarks on the subject in 'Notes and Queries' may have directed his attention to it.

Gascoigne's comedy of The Supposes, performed in 1566, a translation from the Italian of Ariosto, appears to have been the first play written in this metric prose; Lyly also, somewhat later, wrote in it his courtly comedies; and it gradually, combined with blank verse, got entire possession of the scene. The last, I believe, to use it was Dryden. Ordinary prose—probably in imitation of the French and Italian comic drama—seems to have been first used after the Restoration, in the comedies of Killigrew, Shadwell, Wycherley, Etheridge, Sedley, and other dramatists of that period.

It is rather remarkable that a union of verse and prose, similar to this union of regular and irregular verse of our drama, occurs also in that of India. Sir William Jones tells us, in his preface to Sacontala, that the Hindoo plays "are all in verse where the dialogue is elevated, and in prose where it is familiar." Coleridge, who had not the slightest suspicion of the existence of metre in the dramatic prose, makes the following just remarks in a note on Fletcher's Custom of the Country:—"In all comic metres the gulping of short syllables and the abbreviation of syllables ordinarily long, by the rapid pronunciation of eagerness and vehemence, are not so much a licence as a law—a faithful copy of nature." This I think completely justifies the frequent use of the syncope and synæresis in metric prose.

The same critic again says of Milton's noble conclusion of his treatise 'Of Reformation in England,' "Written in the fervour of his youthful imagination, in a high poetic strain that wanted metre only to become a lyrical poem." He felt, but did not see, that the metre actuallywasthere.

The fact of this prose being metric causes us sometimes to doubt whether a passage should be printed as verse or as prose; and sometimes what is verse in oneedition is prose in another. Thus Mercutio's celebrated account of Queen Mab, in Romeo and Juliet, which is most perfect decasyllabic verse, is properly printed as such in the 4to, 1597, while in all the subsequent early editions it is made prose; and prose it would probably have been at this day had no copy of that edition remained. On the other hand, most modern editors have most improperly printed the Nurse's speeches in the preceding scene as verse, while they are, and rightly, prose in all the original editions. An editor is, I think, at perfect liberty to use his judgement in this matter.

The following extracts, in which the termination of each line is marked, will enable the reader to judge of the truth of my theory. I must at the same time remind him that such contractions asI'll,I've, are rare in these prose scenes, such being left to the knowledge and skill of the actor or reader.

"As I remember, Adam, it was upon this fashion. |Hebequeathed me by will but poor a thousand crowns; | and, as thou sayest, charged my brother on his blessing | to breed me well; and there begins my sadness. | My brother Jacques he keeps at school, and report | speaks goldenly of his profit; for my part he keeps me | rustically at home, or, to speak more properly, | stays me here at home unkept; for call you that keeping | for a gentleman of my birth, that differs not from the stalling | of an ox? His horses are bred better; for besides that | they are fair with their feeding, they are taught their manage, | and to that end riders dearly hired; but I, his brother,| gain nothing under him but growth, for the which | his animals on his dunghills are as much | bound to him as I. Besides this nothing that he | so plentifully gives me, the something that Nature gave me | his countenance seems to take from me. He lets me feed | with his hinds, bars me the place of a brother, and as much as | in him lies mines my gentility with my education. | This it is, Adam, that grieves me; and the spirit of my father, | which I think is within me, begins to mutiny | against this servitude. I will no longer endure it, | though yet I know no wise remedy how to avoid it."—As You Like It, i. 1."I will tell you why; so shall my anticipation | preventyour discovery, and your secresy | to the king and queen moult no feather. I have of late |—but wherefore I know not—lost all my mirth, | foregone all custom of exercises, and indeed | it goes so heavily with my disposition, | that this goodly frame, the earth, seems to me a sterile | promontory, this most excellent canopy, | the air, look you, this brave o'erhanging firmament, | this majestical roof, fretted with golden fire, | why, it appeareth nothing to me but | a foul and pestilent congregation of vapours. | What a piece of work is a man! how noble in reason! | how infinite in faculties! in form and moving | how express and admirable! in action how like an angel! | in apprehension how like a god! | the beauty of the world! the paragon | of animals! And yet to me what is | this quintessence of dust? Man delights not me; | no, nor woman neither, though by your smiling you seem to say so."—Hamlet, ii. 2."Here comes Romeo, here comes Romeo.—Without his roe, | like a dried herring. O flesh, flesh, how art thou fishified! | Now is he for the numbers that Petrarch flowed in; | Laura to his lady was a kitchen-wench; | marry, she had a better love to be-rime her; | Dido a dowdy; Cleopatra a gypsy; | Helen and Hero hildings and harlots; Thisby | a grey eye or so, but not to the purpose. | Signior Romeo,bon jour. There's a French salutation | to your French slop. You gave us the counterfeit | fairly last night."—Romeo and Juliet, ii. 4."Nay, sure, | he's not in hell. He's in Arthur's bosom, if ever | man went to Arthur's bosom. 'A made a finer end, | and went away as it had been any christom child. | 'A parted even just between twelve and one, | even at the turning of the tide. For after I saw him | fumble with the sheets, and play with flowers, and smile | upon his finger's end, I knew there was but one way; | for his nose was as sharp as a pen, and 'a babbled of green fields. | How now, Sir John! quoth I. What, man! be of good cheer! | So 'a cried out God, God, God! three or four times. | Now I, to comfort him, bid him he should not think of God; | I hoped there was no need to trouble himself | with any such thoughts yet. So 'a bade me lay | more clothes on his feet. I put my hand into the bed, | and felt them, and they were as cold as any stone. | Then I felt to his knees, and so upward and upward, and all was | as cold as any stone."—King Henry V. ii. 3.

"I will tell you why; so shall my anticipation | preventyour discovery, and your secresy | to the king and queen moult no feather. I have of late |—but wherefore I know not—lost all my mirth, | foregone all custom of exercises, and indeed | it goes so heavily with my disposition, | that this goodly frame, the earth, seems to me a sterile | promontory, this most excellent canopy, | the air, look you, this brave o'erhanging firmament, | this majestical roof, fretted with golden fire, | why, it appeareth nothing to me but | a foul and pestilent congregation of vapours. | What a piece of work is a man! how noble in reason! | how infinite in faculties! in form and moving | how express and admirable! in action how like an angel! | in apprehension how like a god! | the beauty of the world! the paragon | of animals! And yet to me what is | this quintessence of dust? Man delights not me; | no, nor woman neither, though by your smiling you seem to say so."—Hamlet, ii. 2.

"Here comes Romeo, here comes Romeo.—Without his roe, | like a dried herring. O flesh, flesh, how art thou fishified! | Now is he for the numbers that Petrarch flowed in; | Laura to his lady was a kitchen-wench; | marry, she had a better love to be-rime her; | Dido a dowdy; Cleopatra a gypsy; | Helen and Hero hildings and harlots; Thisby | a grey eye or so, but not to the purpose. | Signior Romeo,bon jour. There's a French salutation | to your French slop. You gave us the counterfeit | fairly last night."—Romeo and Juliet, ii. 4.

"Nay, sure, | he's not in hell. He's in Arthur's bosom, if ever | man went to Arthur's bosom. 'A made a finer end, | and went away as it had been any christom child. | 'A parted even just between twelve and one, | even at the turning of the tide. For after I saw him | fumble with the sheets, and play with flowers, and smile | upon his finger's end, I knew there was but one way; | for his nose was as sharp as a pen, and 'a babbled of green fields. | How now, Sir John! quoth I. What, man! be of good cheer! | So 'a cried out God, God, God! three or four times. | Now I, to comfort him, bid him he should not think of God; | I hoped there was no need to trouble himself | with any such thoughts yet. So 'a bade me lay | more clothes on his feet. I put my hand into the bed, | and felt them, and they were as cold as any stone. | Then I felt to his knees, and so upward and upward, and all was | as cold as any stone."—King Henry V. ii. 3.

"Yet that the world may witness that my endWas wrought by Nature, not by vile offence."

"Yet that the world may witness that my end

Was wrought by Nature, not by vile offence."

It was surely wrought byFortunerather than by Nature, and so the poet may have written it. Collier's folio makes the same correction.

"And by me, had not oür hope been bad."

The editor of 2nd folio read 'metoo,' not being aware of the dissyllabic form of 'our.'

"Apoormean woman was delivered."

The editor of 2nd folio addedpoor, which was probably the poet's word.

"Unwilling I agreed. Alas! too soonWe came aboard * * * * * *A league from Epidamnum had we sail'd."

"Unwilling I agreed. Alas! too soon

We came aboard * * * * * *

A league from Epidamnum had we sail'd."

We might supply 'our ship. Somewhat more than.'

"Which being violently borne upon,Our helpful ship was splitted in the midst."

"Which being violently borne upon,

Our helpful ship was splitted in the midst."

It was the mast, not the ship; but the text is probably as the poet wrote it.

"At length another ship had seiz'd on us."

We should surely read 'theother.'

"That by misfortune was my life prolong'd."

It might be better to readThusfor 'That.'

"That his attendant—for his case was like."

For 'for,' the judicious correction of 2nd folio, the 1st hasso.—See on L. L. L. i. 1; 1 Hen. IV. i. 3.

"To seek thy help by beneficial help."

See Introd. p.61. For the first 'help,' Pope readlife; I readransom, a word already used by the Duke. If the error should be in the second 'help,' we might, with Malone, readmeans; which, however, is rather feeble.

"And live, if no thou then art doom'd to die."

For 'no' we should surely, with Rowe, readnot.

"Who falling there to find his fellow forth."

Mr. Barron Field proposedfailing, which may be right.

"Methinks your maw, like mine, should be your clock,And strike you home without a messenger."

"Methinks your maw, like mine, should be your clock,

And strike you home without a messenger."

'Clock' is Pope's correction forcookof the folio, which, however, may be right after all; for the cook used tostrikeon the dresser to give notice that the dinner was ready.

"Will you comehome? quoth I."

Hanmer properly addedhome, which was plainly omitted.

"I see the jewel best enamelledWill lose his beauty, yet the gold bides still,That others touch.—And often touching willWhere gold; and no man that hath a nameBy falsehood and corruption doth it shame."

"I see the jewel best enamelled

Will lose his beauty, yet the gold bides still,

That others touch.—And often touching will

Where gold; and no man that hath a name

By falsehood and corruption doth it shame."

To give sense to this passage I read in the second linebide; in the fourth, with Warburton,wear, with Heathso afor 'no'; in which two I had thus been anticipated. The punctuation given here is my own. I am dubious of 'others' in the third line, for which we might readfingers, or some other word.

"Your sauciness will jest upon."

For 'jest' Mr. Dyce readsjet, referring to Rich. III. ii. 4, Tit. Andron. ii. 1; and "It is hard when Englishmen'spatience must be thusjettedupon by strangers."—Play of Sir T. More, p. 2.

"And what he hath scanted them in hair he hath given them in wit."

For the first 'them' Theobald properly readmen.

"The one to save the money that he spends in trying."

For 'trying' Pope readtyringby simply transposing, Rowetrimming. I rather prefer the former, astyringis attiring, and 'attire' is head-dress; but whether used of a man or not I am not certain.—See my note on Milton's On Time,v.21.

"I live distain'd, thou undishonoured."

Quite the contrary; for she would rather "live an unstain'd life." R. and J. iv. 1. Theobald readunstain'd, but I preferundistain'd. The printer was more likely to omitun(see on Cymb. i. 7) than to change it todi. There is also an agreeable effect on the ear produced by the accents falling onunin both words. In all these plays lines frequently begin with an anapæst.

"I'll entertain the freed fallacy."

For 'freed,' which can hardly be right, Pope readfavour'd, Capell, much better,offer'd.

"We talk with goblins, owls, and sprites."

To complete the measure, the editor of 2nd folio insertedelves, and before 'sprites'; from which Rowe madeelvish'sprites.' For 'owls' Theobald readouphes; but that term occurs only in The Merry Wives. I read—

"For herewe talk with goblins, elves, and sprites."

"I am transformed, master, am not I?"

Theobald also made this obvious and necessary transposition of 'I not.'

"By the wrongsthatI suffer, and the blowsthatI bear."

"Ay, to a niggardly host, andamore sparing guest."

"I thought to have ask'd you * * * ** * * * * and you said, No."

"I thought to have ask'd you * * * *

* * * * * and you said, No."

Malone also saw that something was lost. We might read—

"I thought to have ask'd you,had you brought a rope.—I ask'd you to let us in, and you said, No."

"I thought to have ask'd you,had you brought a rope.—

I ask'd you to let us in, and you said, No."

"Once this. Your long experience of her wisdom."

'Her' is Rowe's correction ofyourof the folio.

"And in despite of mirth mean to be merry."

To be merry in spite of mirth is like laughing in spite of laughter, dying in spite of death, living in spite of life—pure nonsense. With great confidence I therefore made the correctionmy wife, and so gave it in my Edition. Meeting, however, in the Cambridge Edition with Theobald's correctionwrath—for Editors had ignored it—I saw at once that the poet must have writtenmy wrath(see Introd. p.67), which resembles 'mirth' both in form and sound, and I have therefore adopted it without hesitation. Like a similar correction in Twelfth Night, i. 1, I regard it as absolutely certain.

"Shall love in building grow so ruinous?"

So Theobald, in accordance with the rime, read forruinateof the folio.

"Alas, poor women! make us but believe."

Here again we have Theobald's correction of 'but' fornot.

"Spread o'er the silver-waves thy golden hears,And as a bed I'll take them and there lie."

"Spread o'er the silver-waves thy golden hears,

And as a bed I'll take them and there lie."

I have printed 'hears' for the 'hairs' of the folio, as it rimes with 'tears,' and was the constant pronunciation of Chaucer, and frequently of Spenser; and in his early plays Shakespeare indulged in riming archaisms of this kind occasionally. We are to recollect that this play was not printed till thirty years after it had been written, and by that timehairhad been established as the sole orthography. The matter is, however, put out of dispute by the Poems, in which Shakespeare himself spells ithearwhen riming withtearandear. 'Bed' is the correction of 2nd folio forbud. Mr. Dyce proposedbride.

"Call thyself sister, sweet, for I am thee."

For 'am' Capell read, I think rightly,aim, and Singer quotes "I make my changes aim one certain end."—Drayton Leg. of Rob. Duke of Normandy.

"Well, sir, but her name and three quarters."

The folio hasisfor 'and'; the correction is Thirlby's.

"Belike you thought our love would last too longIf it were chain'd together."

"Belike you thought our love would last too long

If it were chain'd together."

For 'it' I think we should readwe.

"First she denied you had in him no right."

This structure seems strange, but it was in use:—

"You may deny that God was not the cause."

Rich. III. i. 3.

"Fortune forbid my outside have not charm'd her."

Twelfth Night, ii. 2.

"Here go. The desk! the purse! Sweet, now make haste."

For 'Sweet,' which is rather free in the mouth of Dromio, Collier's folio readsSwift; we might also conjectureSpeed. The truth, however, seems to be thatmistresshas been omitted after 'Sweet.'

"A devil in an everlasting garment hath him."

There is something evidently lost here, riming with 'steel.' It may have beenby the heels, orlaid by the heels, alluding to 'Tartar Limbo'; butstill, orat his will, seems preferable.

"A fiend, a fairy, pitiless and rough."

For 'fairy' Theobald proposedfury, and we have "O, my good lord, deliver me from thesefuries" (i.e.bailiffs).—Massinger, Fatal Dowry, v. 1. "Fiends,fairies, hags thatfight in beds of steel."—Peel, Battle of Aleazar, where Mr. Dyce readsfuries. In Jonson's Poetaster (iii. 1) the Lictors are termedfuries.

"Master, if you do, expect spoon-meat, or bespeak a long spoon."

For 'or' we should readand, as usual. Mr. Dyce readsso.

"In verity you did; my bones bear witnessThat since have felt the vigour of his rage."

"In verity you did; my bones bear witness

That since have felt the vigour of his rage."

The change of pronouns is so frequent that I think it would be simpler to readyourfor 'his' than as is usually done make 'my bones,' etc. anaside.

"And much different from the man he wasbefore."

"In company I often glancedatit."

"Butonlymoody and dull melancholy."

See Introd. p.55. In my Edit.onlyis at the end.

"And at her heels a huge infectious troop."

We should probably readhisfor 'her,' as kinsman is the antecedent.

"Hath scar'd thy husband from the use ofhiswits."

As 'his' was probably written's, it escaped the printer's eye.

"The place of death and sorry execution."

I would readsoreorsourfor 'sorry'; Collier's folio proposessolemn. The 1st folio hasdepthfor 'death.' The correction was made in the 3rd.

"To scorch your face and to disfigure you."

Mr. Dyce properly readsscotch; for, as he observes, the very same misprint occurs in Macb. iii. 2, and Knt. of Burning Pestle, iii. 4.

"On the way we met * * *as we were going along"(?)

"These left me and my man, both bound together."

For 'These' we should perhaps readThey.

"Besides her urging of her wreck at sea...."

"And thereupon these Errors are arose."

Editors ought to be ashamed of themselves for not seeing that 'arose' is the same as 'arisen.' See Introd. p.70.

"Thirty-three years have I but gone in travail,Of you, my sons; and till the present hourMy heavy burthen are delivered.The Duke, my husband, and my children both,And you, the calendars of their nativity,Go to a gossip's feast, and go with me,After so long grief such nativity!"

"Thirty-three years have I but gone in travail,

Of you, my sons; and till the present hour

My heavy burthen are delivered.

The Duke, my husband, and my children both,

And you, the calendars of their nativity,

Go to a gossip's feast, and go with me,

After so long grief such nativity!"

I read this passage thus:

"Thirty-three years have Ibeengone in travailOf you, my sons,untilthe present hour.My heavy burthenheredelivered,The Duke, my husband, and my children both,And you, the calendars of their nativity,Cometo a gossip's feast, and go with me.—After so long grief suchfelicity!"

"Thirty-three years have Ibeengone in travail

Of you, my sons,untilthe present hour.

My heavy burthenheredelivered,

The Duke, my husband, and my children both,

And you, the calendars of their nativity,

Cometo a gossip's feast, and go with me.—

After so long grief suchfelicity!"

All the corrections here made are my own; and yet in all but one I had been anticipated! inbeenby 2nd folio; inuntilby Boaden; inhereby Grant White; infelicityby Hanmer. In my Edition of these plays I have printed "Go ...comewith me." The difference is unimportant. In the first line Theobald, followed by succeeding editors, readtwenty-five; but such alterations are not to be allowed.

"Master, shall I fetch your stuff from ship-boardnow?"

"I leave myself, my friends, and all for love."

The folio has 'Ilove.' Pope made the obvious correction.

"But what said she?did she nod?"

These last words are an addition by Theobald, and the context shows they had been lost.

"Yet he of all the rest I think best loves ye."

'Lov'dye' would rime better with 'mov'd me.'

"That I might sing it, madam, to a tune."

Astimeand 'tune' were synonymous, perhaps the poet used the former, which would accord with 'rime.'

"Let's see your song.Why, how now, minion!"

"You do notlike it!—No, madam, it is too sharp."

"I see you have a month's mind to them."

A syllable is wanting. Some readmoneth, but that is not a Shakespearian form. We might also read 'unto' for 'to' but I prefer 'I seethatyou'; as I have given it in my Edition.

"And be intheeye of every exercise."

"And now you aresometamorphosed with a mistress."

A just and necessary addition of Collier's folio.

"And you, being in love, cannot see to put on your hose."

For 'hose,' apparently suggested by what went before, Ishould incline to read, with the Cambridge editors,shoes; orclothesmight be better.

"Nay, take themagain—Madam, they are for you."

"Oh, that she could speak now like a wood woman!"

For 'she' Blackstone proposedshoe; betterthe shoe, as I have given it.

"Come, go with me. Once more, new servant, welcome."

"She is alone.—Then let herbealone."

"So the remembrance of my former loveIs, by a newer object, quite forgotten."

"So the remembrance of my former love

Is, by a newer object, quite forgotten."

It seems to me that the best way to give sense to this passage is to take 'by' in the sense of beside, near. SeeIndexs. v.

"It is mine or Valentine's praise?"

So it stands in the original. It need hardly be observed that the two first words must be transposed. It is also plain to me that a substantive has been lost after 'mine,' and none seems so likely to be the right word aseye, the conjecture of Warburton, and which seems to be omitted in the same manner in the last line of Son. cxiii.

"As love is full of unbefitting strains* * * * *Form'd by the eye, and therefore like the eye."

"As love is full of unbefitting strains

* * * * *

Form'd by the eye, and therefore like the eye."

L. L. L. v. 2.

"I know there is no beauty,Till our eyes give it 'em, and make 'em handsome."

"I know there is no beauty,

Till our eyes give it 'em, and make 'em handsome."

Fletch. Maid in Mill, i. 2.

See also his Love's Pilgrimage, ii. 3. Steevens and others read 'hermine,' taking the latter asmien, a term not Shakespearian. (See on Mer. Wives, i. 3.) As there is still a syllable wanting, I would read 'Valentinès,' a mode of forming the genitive not unusual in our author's early plays.

"Launee, by mine honesty, welcome to Padua."

That 'Padua' was the poet's word is proved by the metre, and the editors had no right to change it toMilan. 'By mine honesty' occurs in exactly the same manner in the play of Damon and Pitheas, with which Shakespeare was familiar.

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