P. 558. (17) "limbs are his instruments," &c. So the second folio.-The first folio has "limbs are in his," &c.-This is not in the quarto. P. 558. (18) "Ulyss. Give pardon to my speech; Therefore 'tis meet Achilles meet not Hector. Let us, like merchants, show our foulest wares, The lustre of the better shall exceed, By showing the worse first. Do not consent," &c. In the fourth line something seems to be wanting.—The passage stands thus in the quarto; "Uliss. Giue pardon to my speech? therefore tis meete, First shew foule wares, and thinke perchance theile sell; If not; the luster of the better shall exceed, By shewing the worse first: do not consent," &c. In the folio thus; 66 Vlys. Giue pardon to my speech: Therefore 'tis meet, Achilles meet not Hector : Let vs (like Merchants) shew our fowlest Wares, P. 559. (19) And thinke perchance they'l sell: If not, The luster of the better yet to shew, Shall shew the better. Do not consent," &c. "Nest. Now, Ulysses, I begin to relish thy advice," &c. The quarto has "thou vnsalted leauen," &c.; the folio, "you whinid'st leauen," &c. P. 562. (21) "ere your grandsires," &c. The old eds. have "ere their grandsires," &c. P. 563. (22) "when Achilles' brach," &c. Rowe's correction. The old eds. have "when Achilles brooch," &c. P. 563. (23) "That Hector, by the fifth hour of the sun," &c. So the folio.-The quarto has "by the first houre," &c.: but, as Mr. Collier observes, it would seem by what Thersites says afterwards (p. 594),—“If tomorrow be a fair day, by eleven o'clock it will go one way or other,"that "fifth hour" is right. P. 565. (24) "whose youth and freshness Wrinkles Apollo's, and makes stale the morning." So the folio.-The quarto has “ and makes pale the morning" but the reading of the folio (though Mr. Collier declares that it "cannot be right") seems preferable; "stale" is more properly opposed to "freshness" than "pale." Compare,— P. 566. (25) "Pallas for all her painting than, Her face would seeme but pale; Then Juno would haue blusht for shame, And Venus looked stale." Lyly's Maydes Metamorphosis, 1600, sig. D 2. "Faire Iris would haue lookt but stale and dimme Wither's Epithalamia, sig. D 2, ed. 1620. "wrinkled old," &c. So the folio. The quarto has "wrinckled elders," &c. (Mr. Collier adopts Ritson's reading, “wrinkled eld," &c.) 66 P. 569. (26) "which short-aimed ignorance," &c. Here the old eds. have "short-armd" and "short-arm'd."-The correction, 'short-aimed," was made in my Remarks on Mr. Collier's and Mr. Knight's eds. of Shakespeare, &c. p. 152. Compare our author's Coriolanus, act i. sc. 2; "By the discovery We shall be shorten'd in our aim." P. 571. (27) "He shent our messengers," &c. The quarto has "He sate our messengers," &c.; the folio, "He sent our messengers," &c.-I adopt the emendation of Theobald: the word "shent" is several times used by our author; and Steevens, ad l., has aptly cited from the romance of The Sowdon of Babyloyne, “All messengeris he doth shende:" moreover, if the reading of the quarto, "He sate our messengers," &c., be, as I suspect it is, a mistake for "He rates our messengers," &c., Theobald's alteration of the folio's "sent" to "shent" is still further strengthened.-Mr. Collier (at the suggestion of a friend) gave in his ed. of Shakespeare, "We sent our messengers," &c.; and so reads his Ms. Corrector. But, "We sent our messengers,”—a simple declaration that Agamemnon had sent messengers to Achilles, without any mention of the treatment which those messengers had received from the latter,-by no means suits with what immediately follows in the sentence. The objection which Mr. Collier brings against Theobald's emen dation, viz. that "Achilles had not rebuked any messengers" (meaning, I presume, that the said rebuking is not previously mentioned in the play), forms really no objection at all; for neither is there previously the slightest hint of messengers having been sent by Agamemnon to Achilles; yet from the present passage (whichever reading be adopted) it is clear that they had been sent; and, as we are expressly told (act i. sc. 3) that Achilles used to take pleasure in seeing Patroclus "pageant" Agamemnon, we surely may suppose that he would treat his messengers with any thing but respect. P. 572. (28) "His pettish lunes, his ebbs, his flows, as if," &c. The folio has "His pettish lines, his," &c.; the quarto, “His course, and time, his ebbs and flowes, as if," &c. Both the quarto and the folio give these words to Ajax. P. 575. (30) 66 Thrice-fam'd, beyond all erudition." 66 The quarto has "Thrice fam'd beyond all thy erudition;" the folio, “ Thrice fam'd beyond, beyond all erudition." The folio gives these words to Ulysses.—The quarto prefixes to them (and rightly, as the context shows) "Nest.":-yet Mr. Knight says; "Because Nestor was an old man, THE MODERN EDITORS make him reply to the question of Ajax," &c. P. 578. (32) 66 And, my lord, he desires you," &c. "Here I think the speech of Pandarus should begin, and the rest of it should be added to that of Helen; but I have followed the copies." JOHNSON.-The arrangement which suggested itself to Johnson had been previously made by Rowe. P. 579. (33) "You must not know where he sups." Both the quarto and the folio assign these words to "Hel." But does P. 579. (34) "Par. I'll lay my life, with my disposer Cressida." Steevens proposed giving this speech to Helen; and Mr. Singer (Shakespeare Vindicated, &c. p. 195) says that “it undoubtedly belongs" to her. not the context show most distinctly that she is not the speaker? servable that through the whole of the dialogue Helen steadily perseveres in soliciting Pandarus to sing;-'My lord Pandarus'-' Nay, but, my lord,'-&c. I do not therefore believe that Shakespeare intended she should join in the "It is ob present inquiry. Mr. M. Mason's objection also to such an arrangement is very weighty. 'Pandarus,' he observes, 'in his next speech but one clearly addresses Paris, and in that speech he calls Cressida his disposer."" MALONE. Here in the old eds. he is called "Troylus Man:" but this is evidently the attendant whom they have previously (see p. 548) designated “ Troilus' Boy.” Pope's correction.—The old eds. have "Comming in," &c. P. 586. (37) "let all constant men be Troiluses," &c. Mr. Grant White (Shakespeare's Scholar, &c. p. 356) says that here "evidently 'constant' should be 'inconstant' [Hanmer's reading]": but see the notes of Tyrwhitt, Malone, and Heath, ad l. P. 586. (38) 66 Whereupon I will show you a chamber and a bed; which bed," &c. The old eds. have only "Whereupon I will shew you a Chamber, which bed," &c. (This has been variously amended,-". a bed-chamber; which bed," &c.; and " a chamber with a bed; which bed," &c.—Qy. ber, whose bed," &c.?) P. 586. (39) 66 66 a cham That, through the sight I bear in things to Jove, A much-controverted passage:-in which it is doubtful whether the reading of the old eds. be "to love" or "to Jove." (Elsewhere in this play the word "Jove" occurs twelve times; in the quarto always in Italic,—in the folio three times in Roman, and nine times in Italic.)—According to Steevens, if we read to love," and alter the punctuation thus,— 66 66 That, through the sight I bear in things, to love the meaning may be, "No longer assisting Troy with my advice, I have left it to the dominion of love, to the consequences of the amour of Paris and Helen:" which, though ridiculous enough, is plausible when compared to Mr. Knight's, 66 'That, through the sight I bear in things to love," &c.,— i. e. "through my prescience in knowing what things I should love," &c.!Rowe printed, 66 'That, through the sight I bear in things to come," &c.,— a violent alteration,-"made," as Johnson observes, "to obtain some meaning."-Mr. Collier's Ms. Corrector gives,— 66 'That, through the sight I bear in things above," &c. (a reading which, before the Corrector's emendations were discovered, had been suggested by Mr. Collier himself in his note ad l., and perhaps by others).-Johnson and Malone preferred,— 66 That, through the sight I bear in things, to Jove I have abandon'd Troy," &c., to which the strong objections are obvious. P. 587. (40) "Why such unplausive eyes are bent, why turn'd on him." "If the eyes were bent on him, they were turn'd on him. This tautology, therefore, together with the redundancy of the line, plainly show that we ought to read, with Sir Thomas Hanmer [Pope]; 'Why such unplausive eyes are bent on him."" The certain emendation of both the Ms. Correctors,-Mr. Collier's and Mr. Singer's.-The old eds. have "and is married there," &c. P. 590. (43) "Nor doth he of himself know them for aught Till he behold them form'd in the applause Where they're extended; who, like an arch, reverberates The voice again; or, like a gate of steel Fronting the sun, receives and renders back His figure and his heat." Both the quarto and the folio have, "Where th'are [the folio they are] extended: who like an arch reuerb❜rate The voice againe," &c.,— "i.e.," says Boswell, "They who applaud reverberate. This elliptic mode of expression is in our author's manner." But, if we retain "reverberate,” we must also change "receives and renders back" to "receive and render back.' -I have merely (with the editor of the second folio) altered "reverb'rate" to reverberates,”—understanding "who" as equivalent to which. Compare, in 66 p. 592, "There is a mystery (with whom relation Durst never meddle)," &c. The modern reading is, "which, like an arch, reverberates," &c. |
