The Works of William Shakespeare [Cambridge Edition] [Vol. 3 of 9]

Scene III. A chapel in Paulina's house.

NOTES.

Note I.

I. 2. 42. Warburton, who reads 'good heed' with the later Folios, says that Mr Theobald, not understanding the phrase, altered it to 'good deed.' In reality Theobald recalled the reading of the first Folio, which Warburton had not taken the trouble to collate.

Note II.

I. 2. 154. 'Methoughts' is of course a form grammatically inaccurate, suggested by the more familiar 'methinks.' It occurs, however, sufficiently often in the old editions to warrant us in supposing that it came from the author's pen. We therefore retain it.

Note III.

I. 2. 272. Mr Collier tells us that some copies of the second Folio read 'think it.' Ours has 'think.'

Note IV.

I. 2. 459. Johnson says: 'Dr Warburton's conjecture is, I think, just; but what shall be done with the following words of which I can make nothing? Perhaps the line, which connected them to the rest, is lost.' In fact we should have expected Polixenes to say that his flight without Hermione would be the best means not only of securing his own safety but of dispelling the suspicions Leontes entertained of his queen.

Note V.

II. 1. 136. The Folios spell 'than' and 'then' indifferently 'then.' In this passage Malone was inclined to restore 'then.'

Note VI.

II. 1. 143. If 'land-damn' be the right reading it has not yet received a satisfactory explanation. The word 'lamback' which in his first edition Mr Collier offered as a conjecture, he afterwards found in the corrected copy of the second Folio. But with the sense which he assigns to it 'to beat,' it seems an anticlimax after the threat contained in the line preceding. We omitted to record in our note that Dr Nicholson proposes to read 'Lent-damn.'

Note VII.

II. 3. 177. 'It,' as a possessive pronoun, is found again in this play (III. 2. 99). In the latter place Rowe was the first to make the correction 'its.' In The Tempest (II. 1. 157), as here, the change is made by the third Folio. See our note on that passage. It is remarkable that the only comedies in which this ancient usage occurs, viz. The Tempest and The Winter's Tale, are among the latest of our author's works. Perhaps the printer is responsible for the singularity.

Mr Staunton has mentioned the following instances in the Histories and Tragedies: King John, ii. 1, Timon of Athens, v. 2, King Lear, i. 4, Hamlet, i. 2 and v. 1. 'It' occurs besides in Henry V., v. 2, Cymbeline, iii. 4, Romeo and Juliet, i. 3, and Antony and Cleopatra, ii. 7.

In Hamlet, i. 2, the first Quarto has his, the first Folio, published twenty years later, has it. In the same play, v. 1, one of the Quartos has it's. Professor Craik quotes also from the Quarto, ith or it in King Lear, iv. 2. But the two Quartos of 1608 in Capell's collection both read it. 'Its' is found in The Tempest, i. 2. 95, 393, Measure for Measure, i. 2. 4, Winter's Tale, i. 2. 151, 152, 157, 266, iii. 3. 46, 2 Henry VI. iii. 2, Henry VIII. i. 1. On the whole we think it most probable that Shakespeare would not deliberately have written it for its, or his, except when imitating the language of rustics or children. It is only fair, however, to mention that Mr Staunton and Professor Craik are of a different opinion. After all it is not of very great consequence which form we preserve in the text, as we carefully record all the minutest variations at the foot of the page.

Note VIII.

III. 2. 10. The first Folio prints 'silence' in italics, like a stage-direction. The subsequent Folios have 'Silence. Enter,' also in italics. Rowe printed it, as we have done, as part of the officer's speech. Capell assigned it to a crier, and Mr Dyce, in support of this, quotes the commencement of Queen Catharine's trial, in Henry the Eighth, ii. 4. But there is no reason why in this play the officer who has already spoken should not also command silence.

Note IX.

III. 2. 41. "It is surprising," says Mr Staunton, "that this passage should have passed without question, for grief must surely be an error. Hermione means that life to her is of as little estimation as the most trivial thing which she would part with; and she expresses the same sentiment shortly after in similar terms,—'no life,—I prize it not a straw.' Could she speak of grief as a trifle, of no moment or importance?"

Is not the meaning this, that Hermione now holds life and grief to be inseparable and would willingly be rid of both? Johnson's note is to this effect.

Note X.

III. 3. 59. If written in Arabic numerals 16 would be more likely to be mistaken for 10 than 13, which Capell suggested. Besides 'sixteen' seems to suit the context better than 'thirteen.' Another mistake of one number for another occurs IV. 2. 3, but this may have been an error on the author's part.

Note XI.

III. 3. 122. Capell's copy of the first Folio has distinctly 'fight.' A copy in the possession of the Rev. N. M. Ferrers, Fellow of Gonville and Caius College, has as distinctly 'sight.'

Note XII.

IV. 1. 1. Johnson followed Theobald and Warburton in printing Time's speech at the end of the third act, but said in his note: 'I believe this speech of Time rather begins the fourth act than concludes the third.' He had not referred, apparently, to the Folios or to Rowe and Pope. Theobald did not mean to include the speech in either act, but drew a line above it to mark that it was an interlude between the third and fourth. Warburton, and Johnson after him, omitted the line.

Note XIII.

IV. 3. 48. A writer in The Gentleman's Magazine, 1st series, Vol. LX. p. 306, suggests that by 'me—' in this place is meant 'mercy,' and that the clown's exclamation is interrupted by Autolycus.

Note XIV.

IV. 4. 82. We have retained here the spelling 'gillyvors' in preference to the more familiar form 'gillyflowers,' because the latter is due to an etymological error. The original word is 'caryophyllus,' which becomes 'girofle' in French, and thence by metathesis 'gilofre,' 'gillyvor.'

Note XV.

IV. 4. 263. We have retained wives in this passage because Steevens' reading wives' is too strictly grammatical to accord with the reckless volubility of the charlatan. To be consistent, Steevens ought to have printed witnesses' for witnesses in line 275.

Note XVI.

IV. 4. 288. The first three Folios read thus;