Peace might stand as a mark or evidence between them. A co-mere would be a joint landmark," &c. Shakespeare Vindicated, &c. p. 268.-But our author's text is not to be amended by the insertion of words coined expressly for the occasion: and to me at least all this tampering of critics with the passage does not prove that it is corrupt. P. 569. (91) "Does it not, thinks't thee, stand me now upon-" &c. The quartos, 1604, &c. have "Dooes it not thinke thee," &c.-The folio has "Does it not, thinkst thee," &c.-Sidney Walker (Shakespeare's Versification, &c. p. 281) observes, that "think it thee occurs in the Elizabethan poets in the sense of pov doкeî σoι;" and, after citing and correcting the present passage, he adduces from Cartwright's Ordinary (Dodsley's Old Plays, vol. x. 216, last ed.), "Little think'st thee, how diligent thou art adding, "thinks't thee, of course."-Compare, too, in All's well that ends well (vol. ii. 541), “methinks't, thou art a general offence," &c. Mr. Collier's Ms. Corrector reads "To quit him with his own ?" see Mr. Collier's one-volume Shakespeare. Rowe's correction.-The folio has "Ile count his fauours," &c.-From "To quit him with this arm" in the preceding speech but one to “Peace! who comes here ?" inclusive, is not in the quartos. So the quartos, 1604, &c.-The folio has "if your friendship," &c., which Mr. Knight retains (and so does Dr. Delius, who defends it in a note). But I believe it to be merely an error:-and how easily such errors creep in! Though the copy from which the present edition was printed had here "your lordship,” &c., yet in the first proof-sheet which was sent to me I found "your worship," &c.-Elsewhere in this scene Osric four times addresses Hamlet as "your lordship." So the quarto, 1604, except that it has "and yet but," &c.-The later quartos have "and yet but raw neither," &c.-The preceding speech (except its first sentence), the present speech, and a good deal more of the dialogue till the entrance of the King, Queen, &c., are not in the folio; nor to be traced in the quarto, 1603. (The verb yaw, as well as the substantive, was formerly in common use: see my Remarks on Mr. Collier's and Mr. Knight's eds. of Shakespeare, p. 220.) P. 571. (96) "The king, sir, hath wagered with him," &c. So the quartos, 1604, &c.-The folio has "The sir King ha's wag'd with him," &c., the "wag'd" having perhaps grown out of the spelling "wagerd" in the quartos.-Compare afterwards in this page, "The king, sir, hath laid," &c. (Here the quarto, 1603, has "The King, sweete Prince, hath layd a wager on your side," &c.) P. 572. (97) "a kind of yesty collection, which carries them through and through the most fanned and winnowed opinions," &c. The quartos, 1604 and 1605, have "— the most prophane and trennowed opinions," &c., and so the later quartos, except that they have "trennowned." -The folio has". the most fond and winnowed opinions," &c.—In my Remarks on Mr. Collier's and Mr. Knight's eds. of Shakespeare, p. 220, I maintained that "fond and winnowed" had been rightly altered to "fanned and winnowed;" and I still think that it is an alteration which most probably restores the true reading, though Mr. Grant White (Shakespeare's Scholar, &c. p. 422) pronounces it to be altogether wrong. He says that "carries them through and through the most fond and winnowed opinions" means, "they go through and through [they stop at no absurdity in] the most fond [affected or foolish] and winnowed [elaborately sought out] opinions,"-an interpretation which, in my judgment, the words cannot possibly bear. P. 573. (98) “since no man has aught of what he leaves, what is't to leave betimes ?" A suspicious passage. I give it as it stands in the folio.—The quartos, 1604, &c. have "since no man of ought hee leaues, knowes what ist to leaue betimes, let bee." The old eds. have "She sounds," &c.-See note (87), p. 88. Here Caldecott, Mr. Knight, and Mr. Collier, most unaccountably print, "How? let the," &c.,-retaining the old spelling of some of the quartos and of the folio. P. 578. (101) "Take up the bodies:-such a sight as this So the quartos, 1604, &c.-The folio has "Take up the body," &c.,-which Caldecott, Mr. Knight, and Mr. Collier, adopt, though it is such a manifest error, that, even without the authority of any old copy, an editor would be bound to make the word plural. Fortinbras is now speaking of the bodies generally, of Hamlet, the King, the Queen, and Laertes, who are all lying dead, and who, he says, present a spectacle that only becomes the field of battle. It would almost seem that the restorers of “body” had forgotten what precedes the present speech, viz,— give order that these bodies High on a stage be placed to the view; And let me speak to the yet unknowing world," &c. I find that in note (20), p. 583, I have made a slight mistake in quoting Delius's unhappy emendation: he reads,― "the dram of bale Doth all the noble substance off and out |
