Oswald is the only one upon the stage."-The old copies are quite right:Oswald is the messenger "from our sister," Kent the messenger "from the king." A line slightly mutilated.-The usual modern emendation is, “As knowing naught," &c.—Mr. Collier's Ms. Corrector reads, “And knowing naught,” &c. P. 636. (35) "Come, bring away the stocks! [Stocks brought out." In the folio the stage-direction" Stocks brought out" is placed two lines earlier (as it no doubt stood in the prompter's book, that the stocks might be in readiness); and so it is given by the modern editors, without any regard to the present speech. Here the quartos have no stage-direction. P. 636. (36) "Is such as basest and contemned'st wretches," &c. So Steevens found the line corrected in an old hand on the margin of one of the quartos, which all have "Is such, as basest and temnest wretches," &c.— This passage, from "His fault is much" to "Are punish'd with” inclusive, is not in the folio (where, in consequence of that omission, the words "The king must take it ill" are altered to "The King his Master needs must take it ill"). Mr. Collier, who gives "Turlygood," remarks; "In all the old copies it is printed Turlygod, but 'Turlygood' is perhaps a corruption of Thoroughlygood,”—a rather bold conjecture about a name, the very orthography of which is so uncertain. P. 643. (38) "Dear daughter, I confess that I am old, &c. [Kneeling." The "[Kneeling" is not in the old eds. (which are generally sparing of stagedirections): but even if the present speech were not sufficient (and I think it is) to show that Lear, wishing to impress Regan with the utter absurdity of his asking forgiveness of her sister, drops upon his knees,—the immediately following words of Regan would be decisive on the point, "Good sir, no more; these are unsightly tricks.”— Here Mr. Collier's Ms. Corrector also inserts "Kneeling," in accordance with what was the stage-practice of his time, just as it is of ours, and as it will no doubt continue to be, in spite of what Delius has said to the contrary. So the quartos.-The folio has "To fall, and blister," a mere blunder,—which, however, Mr. Knight finds a reason for preferring. P. 646. (40) You heavens, give me that patience, patience I need!" Capell says this line "was to be altered of course [by the modern editors], for having a middle redundancy, and a repetition of which they saw not the meaning; and so its tame conclusion is this, in the four latter moderns give me that patience which I need, &c." Notes, &c. vol. i. P. ii. 162. Other alterations have been suggested by Malone, Ritson, Mason, and Mr. Collier's Ms. Corrector; nor would I assert, with Capell, that the old text is uncorrupted. Has been altered, and, I suspect, rightly, to “Throne and,” &c. P. 648. (42) "Which are to France the spies and speculations," &c. Mr. Collier's Ms. Corrector alters "speculations" to "spectators," which violates the metre.-Mr. Singer (Shakespeare Vindicated, &c. p. 272) says, "There can be no doubt that it should be speculators, as I find it corrected in my second folio; and Mr. Collier, in a supplemental note, has seen that this is most probably the true word." (Johnson too, in his Dict. sub v., suggested speculators.")-But I wonder that Mr. Singer should advocate any change here, since he rejects the alteration, made by Mr. Collier's Corrector and his own, of "encounters" to "encounterers," in Love's Labour's lost, act v. sc. 2, 66 "Arm, wenches, arm! encounters mounted are," &c. where "encounters" is used for encounterers, as in the present passage "speculations" is equivalent to "speculators." P. 651. (43) "That keep this dreadful pother o'er our heads," &c. Here the spelling of the folio is "dreadfull pudder," which Mr. Knight retains, observing "this is always modernized into pother," &c. But one of the quartos (considerably less "modern" than the folio) has “dreadfull powther:" and in Coriolanus, act ii. sc. 1, the folio has, "such a poother, As if that whatsoever God," &c.; where Mr. Knight prints "such a pother." So the folio. (See vol. iii. p. 658, note (55)).—The quartos have “I will seeke him," &c. P. 654. (45) "Through the sharp hawthorn blows the cold wind." So the quartos.-The folio has "through the sharpe Hauthorne blow the windes;" which Mr. Knight and Delius adopt, though in the next page Edgar repeats, "Still through the hawthorn blows the cold wind,"—a quotation doubtless from some ballad. P. 654. (46) "go to thy cold bed, and warm thee." So the quartos: and the very same words (which, originally intended to ridicule a passage of The Spanish Tragedy, appear to have passed into a sort of proverbial expression) occur in the Induction to The Taming of the Shrew. The folio has only "goe to thy bed and warme thee;" though, as Capell observes, "the banter's essence is 'cold,' and that word as necessary in this place as the other, for their intentions are like." Notes, &c. vol. i. P. ii. 166. (Delius, who, with the folio, omits "cold," conjectures that Shakespeare himself may have struck out the word, in order to get rid of the comic turn which it gives to the sentence:-if so, why did not Shakespeare also strike out what Edgar presently says about "eating cow-dung for sallets"? The fact is, the poet has studiously made the assumed madness of Edgar somewhat akin to the comic, that it might contrast the better with the real insanity of Lear.— Elsewhere in this play passim Delius has adopted from the quartos a great number of words that are wanting in the folio, without any misgivings that they may have been struck out by the author.) The quartos have "keepe thy words iustly," &c.—The first folio has "keepe thy words Iustice," &c.; and the second folio "keepe thy word, justice," &c.— Mr. Knight and Delius make out from the first folio the ridiculous reading "keep thy word's justice," &c. Mr. W. N. Lettsom informs me that here the late Sydney Walker read in a wide field," &c.; and, on looking into Mr. Collier's one-volume Shakespeare, I find that his Ms. Corrector makes the same alteration. But why may not " wild" stand in the sense of-desert? (Shakespeare has "forests wild," and "wild wood," and "wild hills.") Is usually altered to "the wild," &c.: but see Farmer's note ad l., and Nares's Gloss. in v. "Old." P. 659. (50) "All the power of his wits have given way," &c. The quartos have "learned iustice," &c.-This portion of the scene, from the preceding speech but one, “Edg. The foul fiend bites my back" to "False justicer, why hast thou let her scape ?" inclusive, is omitted in the folio. The quartos have “the broome,” &c.—See the preceding note. The old eds. have "or him," &c., and "or hym," &c. P. 661. (54) "This rest might yet have balm'd thy broken sinews," &c. Here Theobald's very specious alteration of "sinews" to "senses" is generally adopted (and without any note by Mr. Knight, who seems to take it for the original reading).—This speech, and all that follows to the end of the scene, excepting "Glo. Come, come, away," is omitted in the folio. The quartos have "thoughts defile thee," &c.-See the preceding note. P. 664. (56) "To see some mischief on him." Qy. on them" or 66 on 'em" (i. e. on Cornwall and Regan)? for "them" and "'em" are often confounded with "him" by transcribers and printers so afterwards in this play, p. 699, the folio has erroneously, “I would have made him [the quartos rightly "them"] skip," &c. And compare what the other Servants say at the close of the present scene,—“If this man come to good"-"If she live long," &c. P. 666. (57) "Our means secure us, and our mere defects Pope printed " Our mean secures us;" Mr. Collier's Ms. Corrector substitutes meanes the right reading, but secures is so likewise; that is, I affirm the correctness of the two first folios in both these words." Now, I, in my turn, "affirm" that neither the first nor the second folio has "securEs;" they both agree with the other old eds. in reading “secure.” According to Delius, here Shakespeare wrote "'Tis the time's plague, when,” &c.,-which is by no means certain. Compare Sec. Part of Henry IV., “The times are wild," &c., act i. sc. 1; "to dignify the times," &c. ibid.; “as the times do brawl," &c., act i. sc. 3; "the visage of the times," &c., act ii. sc. 3: King John, "the times conspire with you," &c., act iii. sc. 4: The Merchant of Venice, "the chaff and ruin of the times," &c., act ii. sc. 8. The quartos have "of mobing, and Mohing," &c.-The latter part of this speech, from "five fiends have been" inclusive, is omitted in the folio. The quartos have "Humanly must," &c.—This speech, and indeed the greater portion of the present dialogue between Albany and Goneril, is omitted in the folio. P. 671. (62) "The Marshal of France, Monsieur La Far.” Here Marshal" is usually altered to "Mareschal" (see vol. iv. p. 92, note (67)); and “La Far” to “Le Fer," because there is in Henry V. act iv. sc. 4, a common soldier of the latter name, whom Pistol threatens to fer, firk, and ferret.-The whole of this scene is omitted in the folio. Theobald's correction.-The quartos have "I say she," &c.-See the preceding note. Pope's correction.-The quartos have "sorrow streme," &c.-See note (®). P. 672. (65) The quartos have " "Were like a better day," &c. a better way," &c., which, though retained and de fended by Delius, cannot be right.-I prefer, on the whole, the reading in the text to the other modern alteration, a better May," &c.-See note (). 66 |
