"The folios omit 'politic,' probably unintentionally, but possibly because it was not clearly understood why the worms should be called 'politic.' The old corrector of the folio, 1632, leads us to suppose that 'politic' was misprinted, or miswritten, for an epithet, certainly more applicable in the place where it occurs, in reference to the taste of the worms for the rich repast they were enjoying : : A certain convocation of palated worms are e'en at him. Your worm is your only emperor for diet: we fat all creatures else to fat us, and we fat ourselves for maggots. "It is easy to suppose that 'politic,' a word with which the scribe was familiar, was misheard by him for the unusual word palated. Shakespeare employs to palate as a verb in 'Coriolanus,' Act iii. Scene 1, and in 'Antony and Cleopatra,' Act v. Scene 2; and it is doing no great violence to imagine that he here uses the participle of the same verb. If the text had always stood 'palated worms,' and it had been proposed to change it to 'politic worms,' few readers would for an instant have consented to relinquish an expression so peculiarly Shakespearian." An expression so truly Shakespearian!! Had this been applied to the old genuine language of the poet it would have been appropriate, but what possible meaning would Mr. Collier give to the absurd substitution of palated? The old definition of politique is cunning, crafty; and what could be more to the purpose or more effective. Nothing but an over busy desire to find faults in what they had not the capacity to understand, could have induced the correctors to vitiate the text on this and other similar occasions. They were evidently innocent of the reference of Hamlet's phrase to the political Diets of the Empire, convoked by the Emperor at Worms; but had they lived near the time of Shakespeare, it would have been strange if they had missed the allusion to a matter so notorious from its connection with the history of Protestantism. SCENE V. P. 428. The petty meddling with Ophelia's fragments of ballads are none of them required, or apparent improvements. P. 429. The correction of the obvious and absurd misprint of by for "lay," as it had been made in all editions, required no notice, but to swell the list of the doings of the correctors. ACT V. SCENE I. P. 430. The interpolation of the second I'll do't in Hamlet's speech is as unnecessary as unwarranted; and the transfer of the two lines from the Queen to the King interferes with the consecutive consistency of the whole speech, which is rightly given to the Queen. SCENE II. P. 431. Of the correction of the three misprints here mentioned Mr. Collier himself has observed, "such errors detect themselves." They had been set right in all editions. Ib. The gratuitous addition of my son to the Queen's speech may have been a license allowable on the part of a player, but we have no right to make such additions to the text. P. 432. The interpolation to make a rhyming couplet of the pathetic ejaculation of Horatio, is in Now cracks a noble heart.-Good night, sweet prince, very bad taste, but the correctors are inveterate lovers of rhyme, and attend but little to reason. Ib. The adoption of the corrected readings of the quartos, as represented in all editions of recent times, was of course to be expected in a volume which seems to have been carefully compared with them, and might have been passed over without notice. P. 433. The substitution of scene for "same" is quite unnecessary, but may be a fancy of one of the correctors, who has been connected with the stage. When Horatio says,— But let this same be presently performed, he alludes to what he has just before requested Fortinbras to do, i. e. Give order that these bodies High on a stage be placed to public view; And let me speak, to the yet unknowing world It seems to me that a passage in the dialogue between Hamlet and Horatio, at the commencement of this scene, which has baffled the commentators, contains a misprint, and that its correction would make it much more intelligible. It is where Hamlet is describing the commission he wrote, and substituted for that in which the King had requested the King of England to put him to death: Ham. Hor. Wilt thou know The effect of what I wrote ? Ay, good my lord. Ham. An earnest conjuration from the king, As England was his faithful tributary; As love between them like the palm might flourish; Warburton suggested "stand a commére; " Hanmer, “stand a cement; others," a column," and "stand commercing." Well might some one say, "none of these words please me, yet I would rather it should be 'stand an elephant' than a comma." It is evident that Peace is personified, and if we read "stand a co-mere 'tween their amities," it would be that Peace might stand as a mark or evidence between them. A co-mere would be a joint landmark, the Lapis Terminalis of the ancients; and it should be remembered that the God of meres or bounds, Terminus, was wont to end the strifes and controversies of people in dividing their lands. Shakespeare has the mered question in Antony and Cleopatra, and Co-mart.in this play as well as Co-mates in As You Like It. The words stand and 'tween show that a word with the meaning of co-mere is requisite. 269 P. 434. THE KING LEAR. ACT I. SCENE I. HE alteration of the misprint "professes" to possesses, which is peculiar to the folios, had long since been made in Regan's answer to her father, Myself an enemy to all other joys I profess That the most precious square of sense possesses. In regard to the other correction of "square" to sphere, the correctors have only half done their work, having left the word "precious" untouched. The passage should be read thus : Myself an enemy to all other joys I profess That the most spacious sphere of sense possesses. Mr. Collier does not attempt in his exposition to take this erroneous word into the account. P. 435. The addition of the necessary words from the quartos had of course been made in all editions, and did not require notice. The alteration of the line on account of the omission of the word great in the second folio,— As my great patron thought on in my prayers, is mischievous and unwarranted, but I find the same liberty taken by some player or prompter in my third folio. The reading of the first folio is indubitable. Ib. The substitution of seventh for "tenth" unnecessarily can only be considered as an arbitrary innovation to suit the fancy of the corrector; as for "authority" it is out of the question. P. 436. The substitution of nor other for "murther" as it stands in the folios is a good conjecture on a probable misprint; but there is not the slightest necessity to change "step" to stoop, any more than there was in the passage of Hamlet to which Mr. Collier refers to confirm this innovation. SCENE IV. P. 436. The liberties taken with the fool's ballad are unwarrantable, and only show that the conceited correctors thought they were better hands at a ballad than Shakespeare. As I have said before, to plead authority for such license is out of the question. ACT II. SCENE I. P. 437. In the disputed passage where, after hearing of the flight of Edgar, when he is supposed to have wounded Edmund for not entering into the conspiracy to murder their father, Gloster says, according to the old copies : Let him fly farre : Not in this Land shall he remaine uncaught And found; dispatch, the Noble Duke my Master, The correctors following Warburton would read:— Let him fly far: Not in this land shall he remain uncaught And found, dispatch'd. The noble duke my master, Thus countenancing a nearly similar reading adopted by Mr. Collier himself; who was perhaps not aware that Warburton long since had this reading! I some time since proposed to read : Let him fly far: Not in this land shall he remain uncaught, -Dispatch.-The noble duke my master, But I now incline to adopt the old reading, merely making a |