word "school" to be right, and that the allusion is to the different badges and colours by which different schools or sects or fraternities were formerly distinguished. "Black," says the passage before us, "is the hue worn by all who belong to the school or brotherhood of night."
The context of the following passage seems fairly to justify the MS. correction, by which "beauty" is changed into "learning." Beauty may have been a misprint. Loquitur Biron—
"For where is any author in the world
Teaches such learning as a woman's eye?
Learning is but an adjunct to ourself,
And where we are our learning likewise is,
Then, when ourselves we see in ladies' eyes,
Do we not likewise see our learning there?"
This, we think, is one of the very few emendations which ought to be admitted into the text.
It is curious to remark, what we learn incidentally from this play, that, in Shakespeare's time, the words "doubt" and "debt" were pronounced as they are spelt, the "b" being sounded no less than the "t," and that it was the height of affectation to say "dout" and "det," as we do nowadays. So changes the norma loquendi.
Act V. Scene 2.—The following, in the old copies, is obviously a misprint—
"So pertaunt-like would I o'ersway his state,
That he should be my fool, and I his fate."
The variorum edition reads "portent-like." In 1826, Mr Singer published "potent-like." The MS. corrector suggests "potently;" and this we rather prefer.
When the princess is informed of the intended wit-assault on her and her ladies by the king and his lords, she exclaims—
What are they
That charge their breath against us?"
"To 'charge their breath,' " says Mr Collier, "is nonsense, and the corrector alters it most naturally to
What are they
That charge the breach against us
"Should any one," says Mr Singer,[1] "wish to be convinced of the utter impossibility of the corrector having had access to better authority than we possess—nay, of his utter incapacity to comprehend the poet, I would recommend this example of his skill to their consideration. The encounters with which the ladies are threatened, are encounters of words, wit combats;" and therefore it was quite natural that they should talk of their opponents as "charging their breath against them." We agree with Mr Singer; but we willingly change "love-feat," in this same scene, into "love-suit," at the bidding of the MS. corrector.
"Oh, poverty in wit!" exclaims the princess, when she and her ladies have demolished the king and his companions in the wit-encounter. "Kingly-poor flout!" The MS. corrector reads, "killed by pure flout;" and Mr Singer "has no doubt" that "stung by poor flout" is the true reading. We see no reason for disturbing the original text. A double meaning is no doubt intended in the expression "kingly-poor flout." It means "mighty poor badinage;" and then, a king being one of the performers, it also means "repartee as poor as might have been expected from royal lips;" these being usually understood to be better fitted for taking in than for giving out "good things."
Midsummer Night's Dream.— Act I. Scene 1.—"Near the end of Helena's speech," says Mr Collier, "occurs this couplet where she is stating her determination to inform Demetrius of the intended flight of Lysander and Hermia—
'And for this intelligence
If I have thanks, it is a dear expense—
which," continues Mr Collier, "is only just intelligible; but the old corrector singularly improves the passage by the word he substitutes—
'And for this intelligence
If I have thanks, it is dear recompense.' "
The old corrector is an old woman who, in this case, has not merely mistaken, but has directly reversed Shakespeare's meaning. So far from saying that Demetrius's thanks will be any recompense" for what she proposes doing, Helena says the very reverse,
- ↑ The Text of Shakespeare Vindicated, &c., p. 24.
