NEW READINGS IN SHAKESPEARE. [1]
A copy of almost any ancient author, with its margins studded with antique manuscript jottings, is a treasure to the scholar who possesses it, and a sore temptation to all his antiquarian friends. What, then, must be the pricelessness of an early folio, thus annotated, of Shakespeare the Emperor of all the Literatures? Would not a lover of the poet be almost inclined to sell his whole library in order to purchase that single book? And when secured, with what zest would he not set himself to decipher the crabbed hieroglyphics on the margins of the intoxicating windfall! The 'various readings, recommended by the charm of novelty, and yet apparently as old, and perhaps as genuine as the printed text, would gradually become its rivals. Alterations, occasionally felicitous, would throw an air of respectability over their less insinuating associates. Sole possession would enhance the importance of the discovery. Solitary enjoyment would deepen the relish of the entertainment. The situation is one not at all favourable to the exercise of a sound critical judgment. Imagination goes to work, and colours the facts according to its own wishes; and faith and hope, "hovering o'er," at length drive away all misgivings as to the authenticity of the emendations. That fine old handwriting, which is as conscientious as it is curious, is itself a guarantee that the corrections are not spurious—are not merely conjectural. The manuscript-corrector must have had good grounds for what he did. He may have been Shakespeare's bosom friend, his boon companion, his chosen confidant, and perhaps the assistant in his labours; or, if not that, at any rate the friend of some one who had known the great dramatist well—was acquainted with his innermost thoughts—and as intimate with his works, and with all that he intended to express, as if he himself had written them. At all events, the corrector must have had access to sources of information respecting the text of the plays, the results of which have perished to all the world—except me, the happy holder of this unique and inestimable volume. Such, we conceive, would be the state of mind and the train of reasoning into which a man would naturally be thrown by the acquisition of such an agitating prize as we have supposed. Under the excitement of his feelings, the authority of the corrector of the work would, in all likelihood, supersede the authority of its composer; the penman would carry the day against the printer; and the possessor of the book would do his best to press the "new readings" into the ears and down the throats of a somewhat uncritical but not altogether passive or unsuspicious public. The case which we have described is to be understood as a general and ideal one; but something of this kind
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Notes and Emendations to the Text of Shakespeare's Plays, from Early MS Corrections in a Copy of the Folio, 1632, in the possession of J. Payne Collier, Esq., F.S.A.; forming a Supplemental Volume to the Works of Shakespeare, by the same Editor.
The Text of Shakespeare vindicated from the Interpolations and Corruptions advocated by J. P. Collier, Esq., in his Notes and Emendations. By Samuel Weller Singer. 1853.
Old Lamps or New? A Plea for the Original Editions of the Text of Shakespeare, forming an Introductory Notice to the Stratford Shakespeare. Edited by Charles Knight. 1853.
A Few Notes on Shakespeare, with Occasional Remarks on the Emendations of the MS. Corrector in Mr Collier's Copy of the Folio, 1632. By the Rev. Alexander Dyce. 1853.
A Few Remarks on the Emendation "Who smothers her with Painting," in the Play of Cymbeline, discovered by Mr Collier in a Corrected Copy of the Second Edition of Shakespeare. 1852.
New Illustration, of the Life, Studies, and Writings of Shakespeare, supplementary to all Editions. By Joseph Hunter. In 2 vols. 1845.
