necessity of making the war not imminent—of postponing it until they have pondered well their resources, and received further supplies. All this is intelligible enough, and may be elicited with perfect ease from the ordinary text which was adjusted by Dr Johnson—the original reading of the two lines in question being obviously disfigured by typographical errors. There is therefore no call whatever for the MS. corrector's amendment, which seems to us infinitely more obscure and perplexing than the received reading. He writes—
"Yes, in this present quality of war;
Indeed the instant act and cause on foot
Lives so in hope," &c.
Mr Collier says that this emendation "clears the sense" of the passage. We should have thanked him had he shown us how; for, if the old reading be obscure, the only merit of the new one seems to be that it lends an additional gloom to darkness. In regard to the other point—the line printed in italics—the MS. corrector breaks the back of the difficulty by means of the following interpolated forgery—
"A careful leader sums what force he brings
To weigh against his opposite."
This, and the other similar delinquencies of which the MS. corrector is frequently guilty, are neither more nor less than swindling—and swindling, too, without an object. Nothing is gained by the rascality; for the sense of the passage may be opened without resorting to the use of such a clumsy crowbar, such a burglarious implement as
"A careful leader sums what force he brings."
It means, before we engage in any great and perilous undertaking, we should know how able we are to undergo such a work—how able we are to weigh against the opposite of such a work; that is, to contend successfully against the forces of the enemy. Mr Singer says that, if any change is necessary, we should read "this opposite," instead of "his opposite." With submission we beg to say, that, if any change is necessary, "its" and not "this" is the word which must be substituted for "his." But no change is necessary; "his opposite" means the work's opposite; and it is no unfrequent idiom with Shakespeare to use "his" for "its."
Act II. Scene 1.—Hostess Quickly says, according to the old copies—
"A hundred marks is a long one for a poor lone woman to bear."
"One" being obviously a misprint, Theobald substituted "loan;" and this is the usual reading. The MS. corrector proposes "score;" and this, we think, ought to go into the text. But it will be long before the MS. corrector, by means of such small instalments, clears his "score" with the ghost of Shakespeare. As a help, however, towards that consummation, we are rather inclined to place to his credit the substitution of high for the in the line—
"Under the canopies of costly state."
—Act III Scene 1.
Perhaps, also, he ought to get credit for "shrouds" instead of" clouds "—although the former is now no novelty, having been started long ago by some of the early commentators. The original reading is "clouds;" but the epithet "slippery" renders it highly probable that this is a misprint for shrouds.—that is, the ship's upper tackling; and that "slippery shrouds" is the genuine reading. It seems probable also that rags, the MS. correction, and not rage, the ordinary reading, is the right word in the lines where rebellion is spoken of (Act IV. Scene 1) as
"Led on by bloody youth, guarded with rags,
And countenanced by boys and beggary."
The MS. corrector seems to be retrieving his character. We are also willing to accept at his hands "seal" instead of" zeal" in the line—
"Under the counterfeited seal of heaven."
We cannot, however, admit that there is any ground for emendation in the following passage (Act IV. Scene 1) where the king is spoken of, and where it is said that he will find much difficulty in punishing his enemies without compromising his friends:—
"His foes are so enrooted with his friends,
That, plucking to unfix an enemy,
He doth unfasten so, and shake a friend,
So that this land, like an offensive wife,
That bath enraged him on to offer strokes;
As he is striking, holds his infant up,
And hangs resolved correction in the arm
That was uprear'd to execution."
