of rectifying Shakespeare where his text may happen to be corrupted.
Act III. Scene 1.—Now and then, however, as we have all along admitted, the old corrector makes a good hit. A very excellent emendation, about the best which he has proposed, occurs in the scene where Mortimer says—
"My wife can speak no English, I no Welsh."
The lady then speaks to him in Welsh, being at the same time in tears; whereupon her husband says—
"I understood thy looks, that pretty Welsh
Which thou pourest down from the swelling heavens."
"The swelling heavens"—her eyes might no doubt be swollen; but that is not a pretty picture. The correction, which is a manifest improvement, and worthy of a place in the text, is "from these welling heavens." This correction is taken from Mr Collier's appendix, or "notes," where it might be easily overlooked.
Act V. Scene 1.—The MS. corrector is very fond of eking out imperfect lines with conjectural interpolations, and of curtailing others which present a superfluity of syllables. This is a practice which cannot be permitted even in cases where the alteration improves the verses, as sometimes happens; much less can it be tolerated in cases, which are still more frequent, where the verses are manifestly enfeebled by the change. A conspicuous instance of the latter occurs in these lines. The rebellious Worcester says to the king,
——"I do protest
I have not sought the day of this dislike.
K. Henry.—You have not sought it—How comes it then?"
Here the words, "How comes it then?" are vehement and abrupt, and the verse is purposely defective. Its impetuosity is destroyed by the corrector's stilted and unnatural interpolation—
"You have not sought it—say, how comes it then?"
That word say takes off the sharp edge of the king's wrathful interrogative, and converts him from a flesh and blood monarch into a mouthing ranter, a mere tragedy-king.
The Second Part of Henry IV.— Act I. Scene 2.—We agree with Mr Collier and Mr Singer that the substitution of diseases for "degrees" in Falstaff's speech is a good and legitimate emendation, and we willingly place it to the credit of the MS. corrector.
Act I. Scene 3.—The MS. corrector attempts to amend the following passage in several places—not very successfully, as we shall endeavour to show. The rebellious lords are talking about their prospects and resources. Bardolph counsels delay, and warns his friends against being over-sanguine.
"Hastings.—But, by your leave, it never yet did hurt,
To lay down likelihoods, and forms of hope.
Bardolph—Yes, in this present quality of war;
Indeed, of instant action. A cause on foot
Lives so in hope, as in an early spring
We see the appearing buds; which, to prove fruit,
Hope gives not so much warrant, as despair,
That frosts will bite them. When we mean to build,
We first survey the plot, then draw the model;
And when we see the figure of the house,
Then must we rate the cost of the erection;
Which if we find outweighs ability,
What do we then, but draw anew the model
In fewer offices; or, at least., desist
To build at all? Much more in this great work
(Which is, almost, to pluck a kingdom down
And set another up), should we survey
The plot of situation and the model
Consent upon a sure foundation;
Question surveyors; know our own estate,
How able such a work to undergo,
To weigh against his opposite; or else
We fortify in paper and in figures,
Using the names of men, instead of men."
In this speech of Bardolph's we shall confine our attention to the two main points on which the corrector has tried his hand. These are the two first lines, and the verse printed in italics. The two first lines are somewhat obscure; but we are of opinion that a much better sense may be obtained from them than is afforded by the corrector's emendation, which we shall advert to. "Hope," says Hastings "never yet did harm."
"Yes," says Bardolph, "in a state of affairs like the present, where action seems imminent, it has done harm to entertain (unfounded) hopes." He then proceeds to press on his friends, as their only chance of safety, the
