Page:The Plays and Poems of William Shakspeare (1790) - Vol. 1a.djvu/29

This page has been proofread, but needs to be validated.
PREFACE.
xv

Another line in Act V. sc. ult. is thus exhibited in the quarto, 1598:

"But that the earthy and cold hand of death—”

Earth being printed instead of earthy, in the next and the subsequent quarto copies, the editor of the folio amended the line thus:

But that the earth and the cold hand of death—.

Again, in the preceding scene, we find in the first copy,

"I was not born a yielder, thou proud Scot.”— instead of which in the fifth quarto, 1613, we have

"I was not born to yield, thou proud Scot.” This being the copy that was used by the editor of the folio, instead of examining the most ancient impression, he corrected the errour according to his own fancy, and probably while the work was passing through the press, by reading—

"I was not born to yield, thou haughty Scot.”

In Romeo and Juliet, Juliet says to her nurse,

"In faith, I am sorry that thou art not well.” and this line in the first folio being corruptly exhibited—

"In faith, I am sorry that thou art so well.” the editor of the second folio, to obtain some sense, printed—

"In faith, I am sorry that thou art so ill.”

In the quarto copy of the same play, published in 1599, we find—

"————O happy dagger,

"This is thy sheath; there rust, and let me die.”