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534 And if these four Worthies in their first show thrive,
535 These four will change habits, and present the other five.
Biron. There is five in the first show.
King. You are deceived; ’tis not so.
Biron. ‘The pedant, the braggart, the hedge-priest, the fool and the boy:—
540 Abate throw at novum, and the whole world again
541 Cannot pick out five such, take each one in his vein.
542 King. The ship is under sail, and here she comes amain.
Enter Costard, for Pompey.
543 Cost. I Pompey am,—
You lie, you are not he.
Cost. I Pompey am,—
With libbard’s head on knee.
545 Biron. Well said, old mocker: I must needs be friends with thee.
Cost. I Pompey am, Pompey surnamed the Big,—
Dum. The Great.
Cost. It is, ‘Great,’ sir:—
Pompey surnamed the Great;
That oft in field, with targe and shield, did make my foe to sweat:
550 And travelling along this coast, I here am come by chance,
And lay my arms before the legs of 551 this sweet lass of France.
If your ladyship would say, ‘Thanks, Pompey,’ I had done.
553 Prin. Great thanks, Great Pompey.
Cost. ’Tis not so much worth; but I hope I was perfect:
555 I made a little fault in ‘Great.’
Biron. My hat to a halfpenny, Pompey proves the best Worthy.
Enter Sir Nathaniel, for Alexander.
Nath. When in the world I lived, I was the world’s commander;
By east, west, north, and south, I spread my conquering might:
560 My scutcheon plain declares that I am Alisander,—
Boyet. Your nose says, no, you are not; for it stands too right.
562 Biron. Your nose smells ‘no’ in this, most tender-smelling knight.
563 Prin. The conqueror is dismay’d. Proceed, good Alexander.
Nath. When in the world I lived, I was the world’s commander,—
565 Boyet. Most true, ’tis right; you were so, Alisander.
Biron. Pompey the Great,—
Cost. Your servant, and Costard.
Biron. Take away the conqueror, take away Alisander.
Cost. [To Sir Nath.] O, sir, you have overthrown Alisander 570 the conqueror! You will be scraped out of the painted cloth for this: your lion, that holds his poll-axe sitting on a close-stool, will be given to Ajax: he will be the ninth 573 Worthy. A conqueror, and afeard to speak! run away for shame, Alisander. [Nath. retires.] 574 There, an’t shall please 575 you; a foolish mild man; an honest man, look you, and 576 soon dashed. He is a marvellous good neighbour, faith, and a very good bowler: but, for Alisander,—alas, you see 578 how ’tis,—a little o’erparted. But there are Worthies a-coming 579 will speak their mind in some other sort.
580 Prin. Stand aside, good Pompey.
Enter Holofernes, for Judas; and Moth, for Hercules.
Hol.
581 Great Hercules is presented by this imp,
Whose club kill’d Cerberus, that 582 three-headed canis;
And when he was a babe, a child, a shrimp,
Thus did he strangle serpents in his manus.
Quoniam he seemeth in minority,
585 Ergo I come with this apology.
587 Keep some state in thy exit, and vanish. [Moth retires.
Judas I am,-
Dum. A Judas!
Hol. Not Iscariot, sir.
590 Judas I am, ycliped Maccabæus.
Dum. Judas Maccabæus dipt is plain Judas.
593 Biron. A kissing traitor. How art thou proved Judas?
Hol. Judas I am,—
595 Dum. The more shame for you, Judas.
Hol. What mean you, sir?
Boyet. To make Judas hang himself.
Hol. Begin, sir; you are my elder.
Biron. Well followed: Judas was hanged on an elder.
600 Hol. I will not be put out of countenance.
Biron. Because thou hast no face.
Hol. What is this?
Boyet. A cittern-head.
Dum. The head of a bodkin.
605 Biron. A Death’s face in a ring.
Long. The face of an old Roman coin, scarce seen.
607 Boyet. The pommel of Cæsar’s falchion.
Dum. The carved-bone face on a flask.
Biron. Saint George’s half-cheek in a brooch.
610 Dum. Ay, and in a brooch of lead.
Biron. Ay, and worn in the cap of a tooth-drawer.
And now forward; for we have put thee in countenance.
Hol. You have put me out of countenance.
Biron. False: we have given thee faces.
615 Hol. But you have out-faced them all.
Biron. An thou wert a lion, we would do so.
617 Boyet. Therefore, as he is an ass, let him go.
And so adieu, sweet Jude! nay, why dost thou stay?
Dum. For the latter end of his name.
620 Biron. For the ass to the Jude; give it him:—Jud-as, away!
Hol. This is not generous, not gentle, not humble.
Boyet. A light for Monsieur Judas! it grows dark, he may stumble. [Hol. retires.
623 Prin. Alas, poor Maccabæus, how hath he been baited!
Enter Armado, for Hector.
625 Biron. Hide thy head, Achilles: here comes Hector in arms.
626 Dum. Though my mocks come home by me, I will now be merry.
628 King. Hector was but a Troyan in respect of this.
Boyet. But is this Hector?
630 King. I think Hector was not so clean-timbered.
631 Long. His leg is too big for Hector’s.
Dum. More calf, certain.
633 Boyet. No; he is best indued in the small.
Biron. This cannot be Hector.
635 Dum. He’s a god or a painter; for he makes faces.
Arm. The armipotent Mars, of lances the almighty,
Gave Hector a gift,—
638 Dum. A gilt nutmeg.
Biron. A lemon.
640 Long. Stuck with cloves.
Dum. No, cloven.
642 Arm. Peace!—
The armipotent Mars, of lances the almighty,
Gave Hector a gift, the heir of Ilion;
645 A man so breathed, that certain he would fight; yea
From morn till night, out of his pavilion.
I am that flower,—
647 That mint.
That columbine.
650 Arm. Sweet Lord Longaville, rein thy tongue.
Long. I must rather give it the rein, for it runs against Hector.
Dum. Ay, and Hector’s a greyhound.
Arm. The sweet war-man is dead and rotten; sweet 653 chucks, beat not the bones of the buried: when he breathed, he was a man. But I will forward with my device. [To the Princess] 655 Sweet royalty, bestow on me the sense of hearing.
Prin. Speak, brave Hector: we are much delighted.
Arm. I do adore thy sweet Grace’s slipper.
Boyet. [Aside to Dum.] Loves her by the foot.
Dum. [Aside to Boyet] He may not by the yard.
660 Arm. This Hector far surmounted Hannibal,—
661 Cost. The party is gone, fellow Hector, she is gone; she is two months on her way.
Arm. What meanest thou?
Cost. Faith, unless you play the honest Troyan, the 665 poor wench is cast away: she’s quick; the child brags in her belly already: ’tis yours.
Arm. Dost thou infamonize me among potentates? thou shalt die.
Cost. Then shall Hector be whipped for Jaquenetta that 670 is quick by him, and hanged for Pompey that is dead by him.
Dum. Most rare Pompey!
Boyet. Renowned Pompey!
Biron. Greater than great, great, great, great Pompey! Pompey the Huge!
675 Dum. Hector trembles.
Biron. Pompey is moved. More Ates, more Ates! stir 677 them on! stir them on!
Dum. Hector will challenge him.
Biron. Ay, if a’ have no more man’s blood in’s belly 680 than will sup a flea.
Arm. By the north pole, I do challenge thee.
Cost. I will not fight with a pole, like a northern man: 683 I’ll slash; I’ll do it by the sword. I bepray you, let me borrow my arms again.
685 Dum. Room for the incensed Worthies!
Cost. I’ll do it in my shirt.
687 Dum. Most resolute Pompey!
688 Moth. Master, let me take you a button-hole lower. Do you not see Pompey is uncasing for the combat? What 690 mean you? You will lose your reputation.
Arm. Gentlemen and soldiers, pardon me; I will not combat in my shirt.
Dum. You may not deny it: Pompey hath made the challenge.
695 Arm. Sweet bloods, I both may and will.
Biron. What reason have you for’t?
Arm. The naked truth of it is, I have no shirt; I go woolward for penance.
699 Boyet. True, and it was enjoined him in Rome for want 700 of linen: since when, I’ll be sworn, he wore none but a dish-clout 701 of Jaquenetta’s, and that a’ wears next his heart for a 702 favour.
Enter Marcade.
Mar. God save you, madam!
704 Prin. Welcome, Marcade;
705 But that thou interrupt’st our merriment.
706 Mar. I am sorry, madam; for the news I bring
Is heavy in my tongue. The king your father—
Prin. Dead, for my life!
Mar. Even so; my tale is told.
710 Biron. Worthies, away! the scene begins to cloud.
Arm. For mine own part, I breathe free breath. I have 712 seen the day of wrong through the little hole of discretion, and I will right myself like a soldier. [Exeunt Worthies.
King. How fares your majesty?
715 Prin. Boyet, prepare; I will away to-night.
King. Madam, not so; I do beseech you, stay.
Prin. Prepare, I say. I thank you, gracious lords,
718 For all your fair endeavours; and entreat,
Out of a new-sad soul, that you vouchsafe
720 In your rich wisdom to excuse, or hide,
The liberal opposition of our spirits,
If over-boldly we have borne ourselves
In the converse of breath: your gentleness
Was guilty of it. Farewell, worthy lord!
725 A heavy heart bears not a nimble tongue:
726 Excuse me so, coming too short of thanks
For my great suit so easily obtain’d.
728 King. The extreme parts of time extremely forms
All causes to the purpose of his speed;
730 And often, at his very loose, decides
731 That which long process could not arbitrate:
And though the mourning brow of progeny
Forbid the smiling courtesy of love
734 The holy suit which fain it would convince;
735 Yet, since love’s argument was first on foot,
Let not the cloud of sorrow justle it
From what it purposed; since, to wail friends lost
738 Is not by much so wholesome-profitable
As to rejoice at friends but newly found.
740 Prin. I understand you not: my griefs are double.
741 Biron. Honest plain words best pierce the ear of grief;
And by these badges understand the king.
For your fair sakes have we neglected time,
Play’d foul play with our oaths: your beauty, ladies,
745 Hath much deform’d us, fashioning our humours
Even to the opposed end of our intents:
And what in us hath seem’d ridiculous,—
748 As love is full of unbefitting strains;
All wanton as a child, skipping, and vain;
750 Form’d by the eye, and therefore, like the eye,
751 Full of strange shapes, of habits and of forms,
Varying in subjects as the eye doth roll
To every varied object in his glance:
Which parti-coated presence of loose love
755 Put on by us, if, in your heavenly eyes,
756 Have misbecomed our oaths and gravities,
Those heavenly eyes, that look into these faults,
Suggested us to make. Therefore, ladies,
Our love being yours, the error that love makes
760 Is likewise yours: we to ourselves prove false,
By being once false for ever to be true
762 To those that make us both,—fair ladies, you:
763 And even that falsehood, in itself a sin,
Thus purifies itself, and turns to grace.
765 Prin. We have received your letters full of love:
766 Your favours, the ambassadors of love;
And, in our maiden council, rated them
At courtship, pleasant jest and courtesy,
As bombast and as lining to the time:
770 But more devout than this in our respects
771 Have we not been; and therefore met your loves
In their own fashion, like a merriment.
Dum. Our letters, madam, show’d much more than jest.
Long. So did our looks.
We did not quote them so.
775 King. Now, at the latest minute of the hour,
Grant us your loves.
A time, methinks, too short
To make a world-without-end bargain in.
No, no, my lord, your grace is perjured much,
Full of dear guiltiness; and therefore this:—
780 If for my love, as there is no such cause,
You will do aught, this shall you do for me:
Your oath I will not trust; but go with speed
To some forlorn and naked hermitage,
Remote from all the pleasures of the world;
785 There stay until the twelve celestial signs
786 Have brought about the annual reckoning.
If this austere insociable life
Change not your offer made in heat of blood;
If frosts and fasts, hard lodging and thin weeds
790 Nip not the gaudy blossoms of your love,
But that it bear this trial, and last love;
Then, at the expiration of the year,
793 Come challenge me, challenge me by these deserts,
And, by this virgin palm now kissing thine,
795 I will be thine; and till that instant shut
My woeful self up in a mourning house,
Raining the tears of lamentation
For the remembrance of my father’s death.
If this thou do deny, let our hands part,
800 Neither intitled in the other’s heart.
King. If this, or more than this, I would deny,
802 To flatter up these powers of mine with rest,
The sudden hand of death close up mine eye!
804 Hence ever then my heart is in thy breast.
805 Biron. And what to me, my love? and what to me?
806 Ros. You must be purged too, your sins are rack’d,
807 You are attaint with faults and perjury:
Therefore if you my favour mean to get,
A twelvemonth shall you spend, and never rest,
810 But seek the weary beds of people sick.
Dum. But what to me, my love? but what to me?
812 A wife?
A beard, fair health, and honesty;
With three-fold love I wish you all these three.
Dum. O, shall I say, I thank you, gentle wife?
815 Kath. Not so, my lord; a twelvemonth and a day
I’ll mark no words that smooth-faced wooers say:
Come when the king doth to my lady come;
Then, if I have much love, I’ll give you some.
Dum. I’ll serve thee true and faithfully till then.
820 Kath. Yet swear not, lest ye be forsworn again.
Long. What says Maria?
At the twelvemonth’s end
I’ll change my black gown for a faithful friend.
Long. I’ll stay with patience; but the time is long.
Mar. The liker you; few taller are so young.
825 Biron. Studies my lady? mistress, look on me;
Behold the window of my heart, mine eye,
What humble suit attends thy answer there:
828 Impose some service on me for thy love.
829 Ros. Oft have I heard of you, my Lord Biron,
830 Before I saw you; and the world’s large tongue
Proclaims you for a man replete with mocks,
Full of comparisons and wounding flouts,
833 Which you on all estates will execute
That lie within the mercy of your wit.
835 To weed this wormwood from your fruitful brain,
And therewithal to win me, if you please,
Without the which I am not to be won,
You shall this twelvemonth term from day to day
Visit the speechless sick, and still converse
840 With groaning wretches; and your task shall be,
With all the fierce endeavour of your wit
To enforce the pained impotent to smile.
Biron. To move wild laughter in the throat of death?
It cannot be; it is impossible:
845 Mirth cannot move a soul in agony.
Ros. Why, that’s the way to choke a gibing spirit,
Whose influence is begot of that loose grace
Which shallow laughing hearers give to fools:
A jest’s prosperity lies in the ear
850 Of him that hears it, never in the tongue
Of him that makes it: then, if sickly ears,
852 Deaf’d with the clamours of their own dear groans,
853 Will hear your idle scorns, continue then,
And I will have you and that fault withal;
855 But if they will not, throw away that spirit,
And I shall find you empty of that fault,
Right joyful of your reformation.
Biron. A twelvemonth! well; befall what will befall,
I’ll jest a twelvemonth in an hospital.
Prin. [To the King] Ay, sweet my Lord; and so I take 860 my leave.
King. No, madam; we will bring you on your way.
Biron. Our wooing doth not end like an old play;
Jack hath not Jill: these ladies’ courtesy
Might well have made our sport a comedy.
865 King. Come, sir, it wants a twelvemonth and a day,
And then ’twill end.
That’s too long for a play.
Re-enter Armado.
Arm. Sweet Majesty, vouchsafe me,—
868 Prin. Was not that Hector?
Dum. The worthy knight of Troy.
870 Arm. I will kiss thy royal finger, and take leave. I am a votary; I have vowed to Jaquenetta to hold the 872 plough for her sweet love three years. But, most esteemed greatness, will you hear the dialogue that the two learned men have compiled in praise of the owl and the cuckoo? it 875 should have followed in the end of our show.
King. Call them forth quickly; we will do so.
877 Arm. Holla! approach.
Re-enter Holofernes, Nathaniel, Moth, Costard, and others.
This side is Hiems, Winter, this Ver, the Spring; the one maintained by the owl, the other by the cuckoo. Ver, 880 begin.
The Song.
Spring.
When daisies pied and violets blue
882 And lady-smocks all silver-white
883 And cuckoo-buds of yellow hue
884 Do paint the meadows with delight,
885 The cuckoo then, on every tree,
Mocks married men; for thus sings he,
Cuckoo;
Cuckoo, cuckoo: O word of fear,
Unpleasing to a married ear!
890 When shepherds pipe on oaten straws,
And merry larks are ploughmen’s clocks,
When turtles tread, and rooks, and daws,
And maidens bleach their summer smocks,
The cuckoo then, on every tree,
895 Mocks married men; for thus sings he,
Cuckoo;
Cuckoo, cuckoo: O word of fear,
Unpleasing to a married ear!
Winter.
When icicles hang by the wall,
900 And Dick the shepherd blows his nail,
And Tom bears logs into the hall,
And milk comes frozen home in pail,
903 When blood is nipp’d and ways be foul,
Then nightly sings the staring owl,
905 Tu-whit;
Tu-who, a merry note,
While greasy Joan doth keel the pot.
When all aloud the wind doth blow,
And coughing drowns the parson’s saw,
910 And birds sit brooding in the snow,
And Marian’s nose looks red and raw,
When roasted crabs hiss in the bowl,
Then nightly sings the staring owl,
Tu-whit;
915 Tu-who, a merry note,
While greasy Joan doth keel the pot.
917 Arm. The words of Mercury are harsh after the songs 918 of Apollo. You that way,—we this way. [Exeunt.
NOTES.
Note I.
Dramatis Personæ. Biron is spelt ‘Berowne,’ Longaville ‘Longavill,’ in Q1 F1 Q2; Mercade ‘Marcade,’ in Qq Ff. Armado is written sometimes ‘Armatho.’ Mr Grant White suggests that Moth should be written ‘Mote,’ as it was clearly so pronounced. See note (vi). ‘Boyet’ is made to rhyme with ‘debt’ in V. 2. 334; ‘Longaville’ with ‘ill’ in iv. 3. 119, and with ‘mile’ in V. 2. 53; ‘Rosaline’ with ‘thine,’ iv. 3. 217. Costard, in the old stage directions, is called ‘Clown.’
Note II.
Mason says, ‘I believe the title of this play should be ‘Love’s Labours Lost,’ but it is clear, from the form in which it is written in the running title of Qq F1 F2 ‘Loves Labour’s Lost,’ that the full name was intended to be ‘Love’s Labour is Lost.’ On the title pages however of Q1 and Q2 it is written respectively ‘Loues labors lost,’ and ‘Loues Labours lost.’ It is called by Meres (1598) ‘Love Labour Lost,’ and by Tofte ‘Love’s Labour Lost,’ which is in favour of the ordinary spelling.
Note III.
As the scene through the play is in the King of Navarre’s park, and as it is perfectly obvious when the action is near the palace and when near the tents of the French princess, we have not thought it necessary to specify the several changes.
Note IV.
i. 1. 23. This is an instance of the lax grammar of the time which permitted the use of a singular pronoun referring to a plural substantive, and vice versa, as in The Two Noble Kinsmen, Act i. Sc. 1;
‘You cannot read it there; there, through my tears,
Like wrinkled pebbles in a glassy stream,
You may behold ’em.’
Note V.
i. 1. 110. Singer says that in a copy of F1 which he used, the reading is ‘sit.’
Note VI.
i. 2. 86. There is probably an allusion in the words, ‘for she had a green wit,’ to the ‘green withes,’ with which Samson was bound. In Shakespeare’s time, ‘mote’ was frequently written ‘moth,’ as in iv. 3. 157 of this play, and in Much Ado about Nothing (ii. 3) the same variety of spelling gives rise to an obscure pun, ‘Note notes, forsooth, and nothing.’ Compare, also, As You Like It, iii. 3. 5.
Note VII.
ii. 1. 88. We have retained in this passage the reading of the first Quarto, ‘unpeeled,’ in preference to the ‘unpeopled’ of the second Quarto and the Folios, which is evidently only a conjectural emendation, and does not furnish a better sense than many other words which might be proposed. In the same way, in Act iii. Sc. 1, line 61, we have followed the first Quarto in reading ‘volable’ instead of ‘voluble,’ as it has direct reference to Moth’s last words ‘thump, then, and I flee,’ and is in better keeping with the Euphuistic language of the speaker.
Note VIII.
In ii. 1. 114 sqq. the speakers are ‘Berowne’ and ‘Kather.’ in Q1. This is followed by Capell, who justifies it as follows: ‘When the King and his lords enter, the ladies mask, and continue mask’d ’till they go: Biron, while the letter is reading, seeks his mistress; accosts Catharine instead of her, finds his error, and leaves her: the King’s exit gives him an opportunity to make another attempt, and he then lights on the right but without knowing her; makes a third by enquiry, and is baffled in that too, for he describes Maria, and is told she is Catharine.’ In this and other scenes the characters are so confused in the old copies that they can be determined only by the context, in this play a very unsafe guide.
Note IX.
ii. 1. 212. In this line, as well as in iii. 1. 140, 142, &c. and iv. 3. 279, the ‘O’ is superfluous and appears to have crept into the text from the last letter of the stage direction ‘Bero.’ In the first instance in which this occurs the first Quarto stands alone, and the error is corrected in the second Quarto and the Folios, and we have therefore ventured to make the same correction in the other cases.
Note X.
iii. 1. 186. As ‘wightly,’ in the sense of ‘nimble,’ has no etymological connection with ‘white,’ we have thought it best to retain the spelling which is least likely to mislead.
Note XI.
iv. 2. 27. Which we of taste and feeling are, for those... In Qq Ff this passage stands as follows: ‘which we taste and feeling, are for those parts that do fructify in us more than he,’ except that Q1 F4 put a comma after ‘taste’ and Q2 omits ‘do.’ Theobald, on Warburton’s suggestion, reads, ‘parts (which we taste and feel ingradare) that do, &c.’ Hanmer is the first to print it as verse, reading,
‘And such barren plants are set before us, that we thankful should be,
For those parts which we taste and feel do fructify in us more than he.’
Johnson proposes, ‘When we taste and feeling are for those parts, &c.’ Tyrwhitt conjectured, ‘Which we of taste and feeling are, &c.’ and is followed by Collier and several modern editors. This reading appears to make the best sense with the least alteration. In Collier MS. we find ‘which we having taste and feeling &c.’
Note XII.
iv. 2. 63, 70, 74. In Qq Ff these three speeches are incorrectly assigned to Nath., Hol. and Nath. respectively, whereas the third evidently belongs to Holofernes. Similarly the speeches beginning with lines 79, 83, 89, 99 are assigned to Nath. instead of Hol., and vice versâ line 99 which properly belongs to Nath. is given to Hol. Again 115–122 and 125–129 are given to Nath. in consequence of which ‘Sir Nathaniel,’ in line 129, was written ‘Sir Holofernes,’ a title to which the pedant had no claim. The mistake probably arose from the stage direction ‘Ped.’ being confounded with ‘Per.,’ that is, Person or Parson. Besides, in line 114, the ‘Ped.’ of F1 is changed in the later folios to ‘Pedro.’
Note XIII.
iv. 3. 142. In Q1 this line stands at the top of the page. The catch-word on the preceding page is ‘Fayth,’ shewing that the word omitted, whatever it be, was not the first in the line.
Note XIV.
iv. 3. 178. By the kind permission of the Duke of Devonshire, we have collated the copy of the first Quarto, which is in his Grace’s library, with that which is in the Capell collection. Besides the important difference mentioned in the foot-note, the following are found:
E. 3. (r) line 5, paper (Capell) p a d e r (Devonshire).
E. 3. (v) line 12, corporall (Capell) croporall (Devonshire).
I. 3. (r) line 22, then w i (Capell) then w (Devonshire).
Note XV.
iv. 3. 244. Theobald’s note is: ‘O word divine! This is the reading of all the editions that I have seen; but both Dr Thirlby and Mr Warburton concurred in reading (as I had likewise conjectured) O wood divine!’
‘Wood,’ however, is the reading of Rowe’s first edition. It was perhaps only a happy misprint, as it is altered to ‘word’ in the second.
Note XVI.
iv. 3. 251. As ‘suiter’ was pronounced and sometimes written ‘shooter’ (iv. 1. 101), so probably ‘suit’ was sometimes written ‘shoote,’ a word easily corrupted into ‘schoole.’
Note XVII.
iv. 3. 285. Although it is not necessary to omit a syllable on account of the metre, as Mr Sidney Walker seems to have thought, we have adopted one of his conjectures for the reason mentioned in note (ix). A similar error, which has hitherto escaped notice, seems to occur in iv. 2. 83, where the word ‘Of,’ which in the original MS. was part of the stage direction ‘Holof.’, has crept into the text. If this hypothesis be true, it follows that the frequently recurring error of ‘Nath.’ for ‘Hol.’ is not due to the author himself, but to an unskilful corrector.
Note XVIII.
iv. 3. 295. Mr Dyce omits lines 295–300, For when would you...true Promethean fire; and lines 308–315, For where is...forsworn our books, which are repeated in substance, and, to some extent verbatim, in the latter part of the speech.
There can be no doubt that two drafts of the speech have been blended together, and that the author meant to cancel a portion of it; but as there also can be no doubt that the whole came from his pen, we do not venture to correct the printer’s error. We would ‘lose no drop of the immortal man.’ The error is indeed a very instructive one. It goes to prove that the first Quarto was printed from the author’s original MS.; that the author had not made a ‘foul copy’ of his work; and that he had not an opportunity of revising the proof sheets as they passed through the press.
For the same reason we have retained V. 2. 805–810.
Note XIX.
iv. 3. 341. We have here retained ‘make,’ because the inaccuracy is so natural, that it probably came from the pen of the author. It escaped correction in all the Quartos and Folios, as well as in Rowe’s and Pope’s editions.
Note XX.
v. 1. 24, 25. The reading which we have given in the text, and which had occurred to us before we discovered that Capell had hit upon nearly the same conjecture, comes nearer to the words and punctuation of the Quartos and Folios than Theobald’s, which, since his time, has been the received reading. Sir Nathaniel is not represented elsewhere as an ignoramus who would be likely to say ‘bone’ for ‘bene.’ Holofernes patronizingly calls him ‘Priscian,’ but, pedagogue-like, will not admit his perfect accuracy. ‘A little scratched’ is a phrase familiar to the schoolmaster, from his daily task of correcting his pupils’ ‘latines.’
Capell’s conjecture, given in his Notes, Vol. i. p. 44 of the Various Readings, is ‘Nath. Laus Deo bone intelligo. Hol. Bone! bon, fort bon; Priscian.’ In his printed text he follows Theobald.
Some corruption is still left in line 22: insanie: ne intelligis. Perhaps we should read insano fare: intelligis...
Note XXI.
v. 1. 110. There is some corruption in this passage, which cannot with certainty be removed. In the subsequent scene five ‘worthies’ only are presented, viz. Hector by Armado, Pompey by Costard, Alexander by Nathaniel, Hercules by the Page, and Judas Maccabæus by Holofernes.
Note XXII.
v. 2. 43. Johnson says ‘The former editions read Were pencils,’ and attributes the restoration of Ware to Hanmer. Mr Halliwell repeats the assertion. In reality, all the editions read Ware.
Note XXIII.
v. 2. 232. Mr Sidney Walker, in his Criticisms, Vol. ii. p. 153, remarks that, ‘and if (he means an if) is always in the old plays printed ‘and if.’ Here is an instance to the contrary. See also Mr Lettsom’s note, l. c. And, not an, seems to be printed in nine cases out of ten, whatever the following word be.
Note XXIV.
v. 2. 247. ‘Dutchman’ here, as usual, means ‘German.’ The word alluded to is ‘Viel,’ a word which would be likely to be known from the frequent use which the sailors from Hamburg or Bremen would have cause to make of the phrase ‘zu viel’ in their bargains with the London shopkeepers.
Note XXV.
v. 2. 312. Mr Collier says that in some copies of Q1 ‘thither’ is omitted.
Note XXVI.
v. 2. 528. The modern editors who have followed Hanmer’s reading ‘della,’ in preference to Theobald’s ‘de la,’ have forgotten that Armado is a Spaniard, not an Italian.