in some degree 'to prepare the reader's mind for his own emendations of Shakspeare, yet we come to his book with every disposition to allow to a man of his taste and genius very considerable licence of conjecture. We are so thoroughly con vinced that a good deal of what is usually printed as Shakspeare's, was never written by him, that were we to undertake an edition of the poet, we should feel no great remorse at obliterating several obscure or dull passages in scenes in which no traces of his genius can be detected:—at least we should not re-print the tiresome annotations which have been wasted on such passages; and if we preserved the text, we should subjoin a brief note to acknowledge that we did not understand the passages, and to state our opinion that they were not worth understanding. In those obscurities which occur in passages which "confess the god," we should certainly, like Dr. Warburton and Mr. Becket, venture boldly upon conjecture. Above all we should cancel a great portion of those tedious verbal notes which throw no light upon Shakspeare's ideas, but which drag us on through pages of black-letter rubbish till we forget that there is such a thing as poetry before us, and find it difficult to resume the illusion from which the mind has been called. We should have no objection sometimes to abridge these notes, or to give the substance of any little useful information which may be buried under them; but never should we occupy our margin with mere marks of our agreement with the commentator, or dissent from him. Adoption only of things useful should be our praise; - omission, our censure; silent correction should be the funda mental maxim of our task. It seems that Mr. Becket projects an edition of Shakspeare, for in a note, he says, that he has expunged such of Johnson's and Steevens's notes as define common intelligible words, from the edition now preparing for the press; at the same time that he manifests a determination to retain Mr. Steevens's "examples" as that commentator calls them. "There is a necessity (he says) that they should keep their place. It is highly expedient that he be confuted; that his errors be fully and particularly shown; for were not this to be done his opinions, which have largely gone abroad, might at some future day be received by an injudicious editor, and even recommended by him to the notice of the world; so that the great poet of nature would be reduced nearly to a level with those whom he was born to instruct." Some people would have thought it time enough to meet this evil with a remedy when it had arrived.

We doubt somewhat whether Mr. Becket has perused with due attention, the last variorum edition of Shakspeare by Mr. Isaac Reed, in which some of his corrections and observations appear to have been anticipated by commentators, who have written since Steevens and Malone appeared before the public. For instance, although he is right in the following note, which we meet with in his second volume, others had been right before him as to the same point.

"King Henry V. Act I.

1 "Chorus. Whose high upreared and abutting fronts

The perilous narrow ocean parts asunder."

"Perilous narrow, in burlesque and common language, means no more than very narrow. STEEV.

Perilous, narrow' means in this place much more than very narrow. It is used to signify perilous on account of its narrowness. Every one knows that sailing in a narrow sea is infinitely more dangerous than in the broad and open ocean. In the former, the waves, by being confined, have usually the appearance of breakers, while in the latter, except in very tempestuous weather, their motion is regular and uniform. There should be a comma hetween the words, perilous nur row, as printed above. B."

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No doubt there should; and if Mr. B. had published with an eye to the last edition of Shakspeare, he would have found the comma already there. Mr. Steevens had discovered, that "narrow seas were always reckoned dangerous;" but how did he discover it? By common information? or from the first sailor No.

"he met with?

"Golding in his version of the 14th book of Ovid's Metamorphoses, translates Savior illa freto surgenti,

the lady crueller

Than are the rising narrow seas."

"Again in Buston's Anatomy of Melancholy, 3 ed. 1632, p. 326 : "How full of feare, how furious?

The narrow seas are not so boisterous."

Mr. M. Mason had come home to the conclusion at which Mr. Steevens arrived only half way; and the latter's fancy, that perilous narrow was burlesque, having met him, completely misled him. In Mr. Reed's edition of Shakspeare, the following note is given at length;

"The present reading is right, but there should be a comma betwee:: the words perilous and narrow, as it was by no means Shakspeare's intention to join them together, and to make a burlesque phrase of them, such as Steevens describes. The perilousness of the ocean to be passed by the army, before the meeting of the kings, adds to the grandeur and interest of the scene; and it is well known that narrow seas are the most perilous. So the chorus in the next act insinuates that it was necessary to

Charm the narrow seas

To give them gentle pass.

“And in the Merchant of Venice the narrow sens are made the scene of shipwrecks, where Salarino says, Antonio hath a ship of rich lading wrecked on the narrow seas; the Goodwins, I think, they call the place, a very dangerous flat and fatal.” M. MASON."

Some editors well enough disposed towards both the poet and the public, would have put this same important comma between perilous and narrow, and have dashed a quill through all the annotation without saying a word about the matter. Or they would, and with sufficient propriety, have left the said comma to be taken due care of by the compositor.

Having dipped into the notes upon the play of King Henry V., that curious interpolatation in the description of Falstaff's death which we find preserved by Mr. Reed, occurred to us, "and a babbled of green fields." There is, there can be no authority for so senseless a passage; and it does not affect to stand upon conjecture. We recommend to Mr. B, to omit it, and to give the following short reason for the omission.

"The first folio reads, and a table of green fields; but these words are not to be found in the editions of 1600 and 1608."

Mr. Pope says, that this nonsense got into all the editions by a pleasant mistake of the stage-editors, who printed from the common piece-meal written parts in the play-house. A table was directed to be brought in (it being a scene in a tavern where they were drinking) and this direction crept into the text from the margin. Greenfield was the name of the propertyman at that time, who furnished implements, &c. for the actors. We know not where Mr. Pope learnt this. Mr. Theobald is the author of the emendation in the text of Shakspeare, which we have heard quoted as if the poet wrote it; and he gave, as

his reason, that men babbled of green fields in the ravings of a

calenture! Dr. Warburton pointed out the difference between Falstaff's illness and a calenture, nd was inclined to accept Pope's explanation. Mr. Theobald then writes another note, that fills a page, to prove, that no table could be wanted; and then Pope in an appendix admits Theobald's emendation. None but editors of great books will readily believe, that men in their sound senses, who might have found some rational way of amusing themselves, could occupy their time with such arrant trifles. But on the tavern table Dr. Johnson has a note, and Mr. Malone has a note, and several others have notes; and then comes Mr. No. IX. Aug. Rev.

VOL. II.

C.

Smith and proposes to read upon a table of green fells! All this annotation upon annotation we have struck out in our copy of Shakspeare, and the passage on which the foolish annotations are made, ought to share the same fate. It is not to be found in the most authentic old editions, viz. those of 1600 and 1608, and it certainly is not worth all this coil. Such, however, is the stuff of which annotators make merchandise.

It cannot be expected that we should go through all Mr. Becket's notes. The fairest way will be to examine a few consecutively; and as he has put Hamlet in the van, we shall take the beginning of his book.

"Hamlet, Act I. Scene 1.

"Mar. That if again this apparition come,

66

He may approve our eyes, and speak to it.

-approve our eyes.] Add a new testimony to that of our eyes.

Your power and potency."

JOHNSON.

STEEVENS.

"Approve our eyes. Have proof that we were no way mistaken, that we have not been fanciful. He had said in the first line of the speech,Horatio says, 'tis but our phantasy,"

B.

Now Dr. Johnson's explanation is all that this word wanted. To approve is (etymologically from ad and probo) according to Ainsworth unà cum aliis probare, and in this sense the word is used in law. An approver, in treason or felony, confesses the fact and appeals or accuses others his accomplices in order to obtain his pardon. The approver proves the accusation together with other evidence. If it were necessary to make more of this note, we might bring passages to shew that approve in Shakspeare's time was used for prove. In Reed's edition Mr. Steevens quotes from King Lear:

"this approves her letter,
That she would soon be here."

“He may make good the testimony of our eyes; be assured by his own experience of the truth of that which we have related, in conse quence of having been eye-witnesses of it. To approve, in Shakspeares age, signified to make good, or establish, and is so defined in Cawdrey's Alphabetical Table of hard English words, 8vo. 1604. So in King Lear: "Good king that must approve the common saw ! Thou out of heaven's benediction comest

To the warm pen."

1 4 Black. Com. 330.

So too we might quote from King Henry V.

"For God doth know how many now in health,
Shall drop their blood in approbation

Of what your reverence shall incite us to."

And, on turning to the notes upon this passage we find (for there is no end of them) the following additional authorities: "So in Braithwaite's Survey of Histories, 1614: Composing what he wrote not by report of others, but by the approbation of his own eyes :' and again in the Winter's Tale:

"That lack'd right only-nought for approbation
But only seeing."

MALONE.

1

The following is Mr. Becket's second note:

"Hor. It harrows me with fear and wonder.

"It harrows me, &c.] To harrow is to conquer, to subdue. The word is of Saxon origin. So, in the old b. 1. romance of Syr Eglamoure of Artoys:

"He swore by him that harowed hell." STEEVENS.

"It harrows me with fear and wonder,] I am lost in fear and wonder, I am astounded. B."

Here Mr. Becket falls into the error of which he complains in Johnson and Steevens: he explains the intelligible.

and this is right. Comart signifies a bargain, and carrying of the articles, the covenant entered into to confirm that bargain. Hence we see the common reading makes a tautology. WARBURTON."

"I can find no such word as comant in any dictionary. STEEVENS." "Comurt is unquestionably the proper word. Every body knows that mart is a place for making bargains or agreements in. Co is a prefix signifying mutual. The word comart is used by the poet for interchange, eciprocation. But comart is not to be found in any dictionary,' Unfortunate Mr. Steevens! and still more unfortunate Shakspeare! to fall into the bands of such an editor. B."

Now this is going too far. Mr. Steevens had long ago received correction for this offence. Mr. Malone restored the word comart; and so too it stands in Mr. Reed's edition,

"Hor. In the most high and palmy state of Rome,

A little ere the mightiest Julius fell,

The grave stood tenantless, and the sheeted dead

Did squeak and gibber in the Romau streets,

Stars shone with trains of fire: dews of blood fell;

Disasters veil'd the sun."

"Stars shone with trains of fire, dews of blood fell.

Disasters veil'd the sun.] Thus Mr. Rowe altered these lines which have no immediate connection with the preceding ones. read (for the passage is not in the folios):

The quartos