tainpersons in Ephesus. All that he required to do was to obtain this pecuniary assistance; obtaining that, he of course would obtain the money by which his life was to be redeemed. The received text of the line ought on no account to be disturbed. The repetition of the word "help" is peculiarly Shakesperian.
Act II. Scene 1.—A very little consideration may convince any one that the following correction is untenable. The ordinary text is this: Dromio the slave having been well drubbed by his master, says—
"He told his mind upon mine ear; Beshrew his hand, I scarce could understand it.
"Luciana.—Spake he so doubtfully, thou couldst not feel his meaning?
Dromio.—Nay, he struck so plainly, I could too well feel his blows; and withal so doubtfully that I could scarce understand them."
The manuscript corrector proposes "doubly" for "doubtfully," in both instances; losing sight, as we think, of the plain meaning of words. To speak doubly is to speak deceitfully; to speak doubtfully is to speak obscurely or unintelligibly. But certainly Luciana had no intention of asking Dromio if his master had spoken to him deceitfully. Such a question would have been irrelevant and senseless. She asks, spake he so obscurely that you could not understand his words?—and the slave answers, "By my troth, so obscurely that I could scarce understand (that is, stand under) them." This is the only quibble.
In Act II. Scene 2, the expression "she moves me for her theme," that is, "she makes me the subject of her discourse," occurs. This is changed by the MS. corrector into "she means me for her theme;" that is, "she means to make me the subject of her discourse." But the "she" who is here referred to is actually, at that very moment, talking most vehemently about the person who utters these words; and therefore this emendation is certainly no restoration, but a corruption of the genuine language of Shakespeare.
Act IV. Scene 2.—The bum-bailiff Is thus maltreated. The words in italics are the MS. corrector's wanton and damaging interpolations.
"Adriana.—Where is thy master, Dromio, is he well?
Dromio.—No: he's in Tartar limbo, worse than hell;
A devil in an everlasting garment hath him, fell;
One whose hard heart is buttoned up with steel,
Who has no touch of mercy, cannot feel;
A fiend, a fury, pitiless, and rough;
A wolf, nay worse, a fellow all in buff."
Here the only doubt is, whether the word "fury" (the MS., and also Theobald's reading) is a judicious substitute for the word "fairy," which the old copies present. We think that it is not, being satisfied with Johnson's note, who observes—"There were fairies like hobgoblins, pitiless and rough, and described as malevolent and mischievous."—Nowadays a fairy is an elegant creature dressed in green. So she was in Shakespeare's time. But in Shakespeare's time there was also another kind of fairy—a fellow clothed in a buff jerkin, made of such durable materials as to be well-nigh "everlasting;" and whose vocation it was, as it still is, to pay his addresses to those who may have imprudently allowed their debts to get into confusion. Let us not allow the old usages of language to drop into oblivion.
Act IV. Scene 3.—"The vigor of his rage," is obviously a much more vigorous expression than "the rigor of his rage," which the MS. corrector proposes in its place.
Act V. Scene 1.—" The following lines," says Mr Collier, "as they are printed in the folio 1623, have been the source of considerable cavil," meaning, we presume, dispute. The words are uttered by the Abbess, who has been parted from her sons for a great many years, and has but recently discovered them.
"Thirty-three years have I but gone in travail
Of you, my sons, and till this present hour
My heavy burden are delivered."
"That the above is corrupt," continues Mr Collier, "there can be no question; and in the folio 1632, the printer attempted thus to amend the passage:—
'Thirty-three years have I been gone in travail
Of you my sons, and till this present hour
My heavy burthens are delivered.'
