The question is, who is the "him" referred to in the fifth of these lines? It can be no other than the king. He, the husband, being excited to chastise his wife—that is, the rebellious country—she, as he is striking, holds his infant (that is, certain of his friends) up, and thus stays his arm, and suspends the execution of his vengeance. The MS. corrector substitutes "her man" for the words "him on." Mr Collier approves, and even Mr Singer says that this "is a very plausible correction, and is evidently called for." If these gentlemen will reconsider the passage, they will find that it cannot construed with the new reading, unless several additional words are inserted; thus, "So that this land (is), like an offensive wife who hath enraged her man to offer strokes, (and who) as he is striking, holds his infant up, and hangs resolved correction in the arm that was upreared to execution." This is as intelligible as the ordinary text, though not more so; but the introduction of so many new words—which are absolutely necessary to complete the grammar and the sense—is quite inadmissible; and therefore the MS. correction must be abandoned.
King Henry V.—In this play none of the MS. corrector's emendations are entitled to go into the text. First, we shall call attention for a moment to a very small correction of our own, which perhaps may have been made in some of the editions, but not in that which we use, the variorum of 1785. In Act I. Scene 2, the Bishop of Ely says—
"For government, though high, and low, and lower
Put into parts, doth keep in one consent
Congruing to a full and natural close
Like music."
Surely "though" ought to be through. "For government, put into parts, like a piece of music, doth keep in one consent or harmony, through high, and low, and lower," &c. In the same Act, same scene, an emendation is proposed by the MS. corrector, which, though specious, we cannot bring ourselves to endorse. King henry, in reply to the dauphin's taunting message, says—
"But tell the Dauphin, I will keep my state,
Be like a king, and show my sail of greatness,
When I do rouse me in my throne of France."
The corrector proposes soul for "sail." But Shakespeare's is a grand expression—"I will show my sail of greatness,"—will set all my canvass—will shine,
"Like a proud ship with all her bravery on."
It is a pity that he did not write hoist or spread, which would have removed all doubt as to the word "sail." "Show," however, is, on some accounts, better than hoist or spread. Neither do we perceive any necessity for adopting the MS. correction "seasonable swiftness" instead of "reasonable swiftness." Nor is it by any means necessary to change "now thrive the armourers" into "now strive the armourers." In Act II. Scene 2, the king says, in reference to a drunkard who had railed on him—
"It was excess of wine that set him on,
And on his more advice, we pardon him."
The margins read, "on our more advice," overturning the authentic language of Shakespeare, who by the words "on his more advice," means on his having returned to a more reasonable state of mind, and shown some sorrow for his offence.
Act II. Scene 3.—We now come to one of the most memorable corrections—we might say to the most memorable correction ever made on the text of our great dramatist. In Dame Quickly's description of the death of Falstaff she says, as the old copies give it, "for after I saw him fumble with the sheets, and play with flowers, and smile upon his fingers' ends, I knew there was but one way; for his nose was as sharp as a pen, and a table of green fields." There is evidently something very wrong here. Theobald gave out as a new reading. "and a' (he) babbled of green fields," the history and character of which emendation he explained as follows: "I have an edition of Shakespeare by me with some marginal conjectures by a gentleman some time deceased, and he is of the mind to correct this passage thus: 'for his nose was as sharp as a pen, and a' talked of green fields.' It is certainly observable of people near death, when they are delirious by a fever, that they talk of
