The Shakespeare-Expositor: An Aid to the Perfect Understanding of Shakespeare's Plays

See Introd. p. 61. For the first 'help,' Pope read _life_; I read _ransom_, a word already used by the Duke. If the error should be in the second 'help,' we might, with Malone,...

"I see the jewel best enamelled Will lose his beauty, yet the gold bides still, That others touch.--And often touching will Where gold; and no man that hath a name By falsehood...

To be merry in spite of mirth is like laughing in spite of laughter, dying in spite of death, living in spite of life--pure nonsense. With great confidence I therefore made the...

For 'Sweet,' which is rather free in the mouth of Dromio, Collier's folio reads _Swift_; we might also conjecture _Speed_. The truth, however, seems to be that _mistress_ has be...

"Thirty-three years have I but gone in travail, Of you, my sons; and till the present hour My heavy burthen are delivered. The Duke, my husband, and my children both, And you, t...

A syllable is wanting. Some read _moneth_, but that is not a Shakespearian form. We might also read '_un_to' for 'to' but I prefer 'I see _that_ you'; as I have given it in my E...

So it stands in the original. It need hardly be observed that the two first words must be transposed. It is also plain to me that a substantive has been lost after 'mine,' and n...

Here again 'Verona,' the poet's word, has been altered by the editors. Pope, who is usually followed, read '_sir_, in _Milan_,' and Mr. Dyce adopts the unheard-of term _Milano_...

This is mere nonsense; 'grievance' never had any meaning but that which it has at present. A line has evidently been lost; something like this:--"_And sympathize with your affec...

To which editors have given the preference, not a little, I think, moved by what seemed to them the metric regularity of the last line. I prefer the reading of the folio, and ex...

'Several' is the very opposite of 'common.' "Truth lies _open_ to all; it is no man's _several_."--Jonson, Discoveries. We should therefore, I think, for 'though' read _for_, wh...

The original editions have 'This _signior Junio's_ giant-dwarf,' which possibly may be right, there being an allusion to some poem or tale now lost. The text is the correction o...

'Pin' is the correction of the 2nd folio; both the 4to and 1st folio have _is in_, as in preceding line, and possibly so the poet wrote it; for it makes a kind of sense, and he...

The 2nd folio reads, and, I think, most properly, 'affec_ta_tion.' It is much more likely that a syllable should have been omitted by the printer, than that Nathaniel, who in ge...

In the folio the first of these speeches is given to the Countess; but Tieck saw rightly that it could only belong to Helena. I have transposed the next two speeches; for Lafeu...

This passage has never been understood, yet it is perhaps plain enough. By 'higher Italy' is meant the part more distant from France. "Will you travel higher [_i.e._ go further...

The folio reads "of that too much." As yet no one has made sense of the second line. Perhaps for 'holds' we should read _hurts_, _foils_, or _soils_. I have adopted the first. '...

I read _to_ for 'by,' in which I had been anticipated by Johnson, who was followed by Malone. 'Swear' naturally suggested 'by' to the printer's mind. (See on Macb. i. 5, R. and...

Something seems evidently lost here; for the address to Bertram is too abrupt. I would read 'season_able weather_.' We have, 'Like an _unseasonable_ stormy day (Rich. II. iii. 2...

"I have a widow aunt, a dowager, Of great revenue, and she hath no child, And she respects me as her only son. From Athens is her house remote seven leagues."

This is the reading of the folio; the 4tos, which all the editors follow, have _hast_. I prefer the former; for Shakespeare invariably employs the verb substantive with 'stolen...

For 'princess' Hanmer read _pureness_; Collier proposes _impress_; but no change is needed. 'White' is whiteness, and 'princess of pure white' is sovereign lady of whiteness, _i...

Fisher's 4to has 'nights,' of which I have made a dissylable, as being more Shakespearean than 'the night's' of the folio and Roberts' 4to, which most feebly and inharmoniously...

This is the reading of the 2nd folio; for the old editions repeat 'beams' from the preceding line. "Phebus of _gold his stremès_ down hath sent" (Chauc. Merch. Tale), was probab...

SC. 1. "Pisa, renowned for grave citizens, Gave me my being, and my father first, A merchant of great traffic through the world, Vincentio[s] come of the Bentivoglii. Vincentio'...

The 2nd folio adds _yes_, Malone _them_, Dyce _guests_ after 'invite'; my own conjecture was _aye_. Would it not be better, however, to read as I have done, "Make friends _be_ i...

If 'angel' be right, it must mean that he was an angel of deliverance to them. Singer and Dyce quote from Cotgrave's Dictionary "_Angelot à la grosse escaille_. _An old Angel_,...

For 'docks' the editors read, after Rowe, 'dock'_d_'; but it is simpler to read 'dock,' the _s_ being the usual printer's addition. We might even perhaps retain the text, readin...

Surely 'temple' has no meaning here. Must not the poet have written _table_. In Lucrece (st. 168), in the Var. Shakespeare, "Her sacred _temple_" is printed "Her sacred _table_....

Unless we take it ironically--which is unworthy of the poet--'beauty' here is nonsense. It plainly owes its origin to the preceding 'beautious.' Hanmer read _dowdy_; Sidney Walk...

The original editions all read "Cannot contain their urine for affection;" but that this cannot be right is proved by the context. The only question then is, should we read _Mas...

notion in Much Ado, ii. 3, I yet cannot but adhere to _stint your_ for 'think you,' as I have given it in my Edition. It seems to me so much more forcible, and more suited to th...

The 2nd folio reads 'a poor thousand,' but the metre is in favour of the original reading, and we meet "What poor an instrument" (Ant. and Cleop. v. 2). It is really surprising...

As the Duke proceeds to show that he _did_ feel this difference, the text cannot be right. Critics, therefore, for 'not' read _but_, as these words were frequently confounded by...

Rowe read '_a_ desert'; Tyrwhitt '_silent_ be.' I rather prefer the latter; but it is against it that, excepting in one of the following and the six last lines, the first foot i...

This seems to mean occasioned, caused by her husband. Or we may read, with Hanmer, _accusation_. I find I have done so, but doubt if I was justified in so doing.

To give sense here, I read 'the_ir_ hope' and 'the_ir_ fear,' and for 'know' _hope_. In the change of 'they' to _their_ I find I had been anticipated by Heath. The thought is th...

There must certainly be an error either in 'left' or in 'before.' For the latter we might read _after_; for the former perhaps _lent_ or _about_. I think the true reading is _le...

"Whilst I have meat and drink love cannot starve me; For if I die of the first fit I am unhappy, And worthy _to be buried with my heels upward_;" (Fletcher, Wild-goose Chase, i. 3)

It seems evident that the initial _s_ of _sway_ was effaced, a thing not unusual. As to the change of _y_ to _g_, I lately read a work on South America, in which the well-known...

For 'the' we must, with Pope, read _this_. We have, "For this revolt of thine" (Hen. V. ii. 1). Theobald, whom some critics follow, read _mien_ for 'mine,' which I utterly rejec...

Theobald's reading, '_fat_ men' has been generally and properly adopted. There is a similar omission of _fat_ in 1 Hen. IV. ii. 2. In the 4to she says, "Well, I shall trust _fat...

Mr. Douce, Mr. Dyce, and myself, all independently corrected 'Cried I _aim_?' and Warburton had proposed _Cry aim_. The correction might therefore appear to be certain; and yet...

SC. 5. Among the characters given in the heading of this scene, we meet Mrs. Quickly and Pistol; the 4tos have "Mrs. Quickly, like the Queen of Fairies," and prefix _Quic._ to t...

As a sound breathing is pure nonsense, Pope read _south_ for 'sound'; and, with the exception of Mr. Knight and Mr. Staunton, all the editors, I believe, have followed him. Yet...

As it is evident from Malvolio's reply that this was not what Viola said, the negative may have been omitted here, as in so many other places; Malone read '_no_ ring.' Singer re...

So it is in the folio, with the omission of the last letter, which had either been effaced in the MS. or was left out by the printer. Mason seems also to have seen the truth: ye...

I know of no meaning 'put' has in English that will make any sense here. We must, then, regard it as a misprint; and as a negative is plainly wanting, I read _not yet_, the nega...

We have a similar sentiment in Cymb. v. 1. As _of ice_ and _of vice_ are pronounced exactly alike, we may safely assume the latter to be the true reading. The whole difficulty t...

There might seem to be no need of adding anything here. But we may see that there is not an end of a paragraph. (See Introd. p. 82.) I therefore read, 'And Death _in fine_.'

Mr. Singer reads 'seldom-when' as one word, and quotes in defence of it _seldom-time_, _any-when_, _seldom-what_; and he might have added _seld-when_, from Gower's Conf. Amantis...

"A due sincerity govern'd his deeds, till he Did look on me. Since it is so, let him not die.-- My brother had but justice, in that he did The thing for which he died. For Angelo."

The third line has apparently no sense. The critics say 'let' is detain; but no instance of its use in that sense is to be found. We might read _sit_, which occurs in the sense...

'Federary' is an unknown word. It may be a printer's error for _federate_; but I rather think--as I find that Malone, followed by Singer and Dyce, reads, and which is also more...

I read 'have I Strain'd to appear thus?' in which I had been anticipated by Hanmer. An 'uncurrent encounter' was an unusual kind of meeting; and 'strain'd' signifies pulled agai...

A syllable is lost apparently. We might add _hither_ or _to us_ at the end, or, as I have done,'_you're_ welcome.' Malone would read 'welcome, sir,' which sounds rather flat. Mr...

"Would make her sainted spirit Again possess her corpse, and on this stage, Where we offenders now appear, soul-vex'd, And begin, Why to me?...--Had she such power She had just...

As the epithets are here most inappropriate, we should probably transpose them, as I have done (see on iv. 1); for heath is brown, and "they were in a clump or cluster of _tall...

I make the transposition of "So have we all--of joy," in the second line boldly; for surely neither Shakespeare nor any other writer would put a parenthesis between a noun and i...

We should perhaps read _on_ for 'of'; or, with Thirlby and Malone, transpose 'five' and 'one,' of which both Gifford and Dyce approved. Yet it may be that no change is necessary...

For 'third,' which might easily have been a printer's error for _thrid_, i.e. _thread_, editors in general follow Theobald in reading this last word. It is easy to conceive how...

For 'our' in the first line we must of course read _her_ with Thirlby and Theobald. It was probably caused by the 'Our' of the next line; but from similarity of pronunciation _o...

This, and all that has been written upon it, is sheer nonsense. As 'shoes' and _shews_ are alike in sound, Theobald proposed this last word; but as there was neither picture nor...

Hanmer reads _stout_ for 'stoop,' but I see no need of change. We talk of a person being bowed to the earth with grief, and this is what the poet meant. 'Owner' was used of one...

I read '_in_ my fear.' We have _Is_ for _In_ also in Jul. Cæs. i. 3; the same confusion of these words occurs more than once in Chaucer. I have often met with it in books printe...

As there is mention of cards in the next line, I think that in 'bank'd' there may be an allusion to card-playing. The same is the opinion of Mr. Staunton. In Ant. and Cleop. (ii...

This is the merest prose. Ritson for _ask_ repeats 'demand of'; but it seems to me that the simplest way is to read 'ask _of_,' making 'Marshal' a trisyllable, as the King of co...

So this place is pointed in the original and subsequent editions, making little or no sense. I punctuate--'As the last taste of sweets is sweetest--last'; in which I find I had...

With Theobald, I am dubious of the last line. The scene would end better with the couplet, and Glendower is not mentioned anywhere else in the play. A little higher up in the sc...

As, on account of the rime, we must read 'day,' it is evident that 'of' is a superfluous addition made by the printers. We have just the same in Meas. for Meas. iv. 4, and elsew...

We might incline to read _lead_; but the text is right. Gifford quotes "Scipio before he _levied_ his forces to the walls of Carthage," from Gosson's School of Abuse, and other...

To all appearance, _gentility_ would be more correct; but he may be playing on the ignorance of the Chamberlain, to whom the word was unknown. He then says 'great-onyers' for gr...

We have "wilful-opposite" (K. John, v. 2), "wilful-negligent" (Wint. Tale, i. 2), "wilful-slow" (Son. li.), and "wilful-ignorant" (Fletcher, Woman-hater, v. 2). For my part, I r...

It is plain that something has been lost here; it may be a line, but I think the slight addition I have made, and in the very place where the loss was most likely to occur, remo...

So the 4tos. The folio reads '_at_ liberty'; Capell _libertine_, which is the reading usually adopted, even by the Cambridge editors. In Com. of Err. (i. 2) we have "such like _...

From Doll's reply, and the fact of Falstaff's being the only man present, I incline to think that we should read _mistress_ for 'masters.' See on Tam. of Shr. i. 2.

What the poet seems to mean is, that the billows though hung in the clouds, would not adhere to them, on account of their slippery nature, but fell back into the sea. _Shrouds_,...

For 'graves' Warburton and Hanmer read _glaives_, Steevens, _greaves_. Neither of these words occurs in Shakespeare, and I rather suspect that the poet's word was _braves_, _i.e...

This last line is difficult. By 'ragged' seems to be meant mean, unworthy, paltry; or it may be the same as _rugged_, and denote the roughness with which his application would b...

It is really marvellous that for two centuries and a half no critic--not even Theobald or Tyrwhitt--should have discerned that this was the true distribution of the speeches. Se...

Here 'Linger' is a causative verb. (Introd. p. 71). Editors, in their ignorance of the meaning of 'digest,' to regulate, arrange, read _well_. By 'abuse of distance' is meant th...

Johnson thought that a line was lost here. I would add _In, in!_ at the end of the first line, and read 'to' for 'unto,' the printer's word. Introd. p. 67.

A most happy emendation was that made by Dr. Thackeray, and by an Anon. _ap._ Rann: "I stay but for my _guidon_.--To the field!" This is amply confirmed by the following line, a...

I retain this reading of the folio; for I cannot see what should make the printer change England to Ireland, while the Queen may have done so to vary the title.

One of these 'realms' must be wrong. (Introd. p. 60.) Johnson proposed _helm_ for the first; I make that change in the second. "And you yourself shall steer the happy _helm_" (i...

The proper place of this line is at the end of the speech, where I have placed it in my Edition. It then, it will be seen, refers to the fox, and the preceding line to the brook.

The folio has _jealious_, which may be read as a trisyllable, of which Sidney Walker has given examples, though none from Shakespeare. I, however, prefer reading 'yeärs' and 'fa...

It might be better, though the meaning is the same, to read '_at_ peace,' as in the following line. The second 'to' was probably in the printer's mind. The usual reading is '_in...

Surely it was too _soon_ or too _early_. This may, perhaps, be regarded as an instance of the substitution of a contrary term. In the Faerie Queen, however, we have "Saying, tha...

There is evidently a syllable wanting after 'sleep'; and _now_ seems, being as it were opposed to the preceding line, to be the most likely word. We might, perhaps, but with los...

So the folio reads. Steevens and Malone read 'he gives us note,' and Singer 'Oh, _it_ gives us note.' Mr. Collier says, very plausibly, that the 'Oh' arose from '_a_ being writt...

We may, with Rowe, read 'forsake _me_' making 'vows and prayers' the subj. to 'Shall cry'; but a line may have been lost, as 'my soul' is a more suitable subj. to 'cry.'

I do not understand 'Tied' here. Hanmer proposed _Tith'd_; the word might also be _Tir'd_; or perhaps _task'd_. "And in the neck of that _task'd the whole state_" (1 Hen. IV. iv...

SC. 1. "Have broken with the King; who hath so far Given ear to our complaint, _that_ of his great grace And princely care--foreseeing those fell mischiefs, Our reasons laid bef...

This is the reading of all the old editions; but the correction of Theobald, _sun_ for 'same,' is so obvious and so natural that I had made it long before I was aware I had been...

Mr. Dyce reads auburn, and he gives undoubted instances of _Abraham_ or _Abram_ being used for this word. Still I incline to the general reading, first given by Upton, of _Adam_...

Of 'runaway,' which cannot possibly be right, the Cambridge edition enumerates no less than twenty-nine various corrections! Warburton understood by it the sun; Steevens, the ni...

The 4to 1597 reads 'Under _this_ yew-tree'; the others 'Under yond' _young_ trees. Further on they all read 'As I did sleep under this _young_ tree here.' There can be little do...

This--with the omission of _To_, which had probably been effaced in the MS.--is the reading of the 4tos, and is most probably correct. (Introd. p. 79.) The editors of the folio,...

This is hard to understand; but there is no reason to suspect any corruption of the text. The allusion seems to be to the loud shrill tones of the children in acting.

Warburton transposes 'niggard' and 'most free'; and certainly, unless the poet forgot himself, he was by no means 'niggard of question'; and 'niggard' would also accord better t...

Pope, who has been generally followed, struck out 'not'; but though the printers often omitted the negative (as once already in this play) they rarely added it. We have, however...

Those who maintain that 'Esil' is the acid of that name have not observed that 'drink up' means drink the whole of, and so could hardly be used of any liquid in the abstract. It...

The attempts made to give sense to 'wife' here are utterly ridiculous. I cannot see any objection to _life_, the reading of the sagacious Tyrwhitt. Here, as elsewhere, it may be...

This is another instance of the poet's negligence or forgetfulness; for in the first Act he had called him a Florentine. Though the metre is perfect, it might be better to inser...

This is the reading of the old copies. Southern and Hanmer read _make_ for 'mock,' which appears to me to be indubitable; for this is the very thing which jealousy does--witness...

In the third line I think that for 'convinced or' we should read 'convinc'd _her and_'; the confusion of 'or' and _her_ was easy: _and_ must of course be added to get sense. See...

The reading of the 4to; the folio has 'medicinable.' Mr. Dyce doubts if at that time 'medicinal,' with the accent on the penult, was in use; but this place might seem to prove i...

As, so far as I know, the subs. _couching_ does not occur anywhere else, we might read, with Hanmer, _crouchings_; for nothing is more common than the omission of a letter by th...

I most willingly adopt this excellent addition of Malone's, which is every way to be preferred to the usually adopted reading of the 2nd folio, "_and_ our _best_ means stretched...

'Minds' is Warburton's correction of 'winds.' This confusion of _m_ and _w_ is not unusual. In King John (v. 7) we have, "And the siege is now against the _wind_;" and in Cymb....

I see no sense in in 'wand.' Some editors read _wan'd_, taking perhaps the image from the moon. I have read _wanton_, in the sense of soft, yielding like "the wanton rushes" (1...

Theobald, who is always followed, read _wept_, but, it seems to me, from not understanding the passage: what is meant is, accept this explanation till you see _me_ weep from pur...

Here both 'But' and 'still' may cause some difficulty. The former is to be taken in its original and proper sense, except, unless; the latter in the sense of quiet.

With Mr. Dyce I would read _dug_, the correction of Warburton. _Of_ may have been lost in the beginning of the last line. Still 'dung' may be right, denoting earth; so I have re...

How could the pure and gentle Cordelia suppose herself to be suspected of murder? which, moreover, accords not with the other charges she enumerates. Collier's folio reads _or o...

It is strange that the editors have not seen that _Reg._ is out of place. It belongs to the third line. (See on Hen. V. i. 1.) In her usual forward impatient manner she takes, a...

As these seem to be the words of the French King to his son in a ballad quoted by Steevens, I have given the French _cesse_ instead of the Spanish _cesa_ for the _cease_ of the...

Holinshed, treating of this very matter, says, "to assist him in that rebellious _quarrel_." Hence the usual correction of _quarrel_ for 'quarry' seems to be justified. In the o...

The correction of Malone for 'offices' of the folio, which also makes good sense. In a following line 'shut up' seems to apply to Duncan, as denoting the pleasure he felt. The e...

This line cannot be as the poet wrote it, for the metric accents fall on 'be' and 'you.' We might read _good bye_, but it would be somewhat too familiar. On the whole, I think t...

Both Singer and Dyce read _hair'd_, and I think rightly. _Hair_ was originally pronounced _hear_, under which form it occurs in two of Shakespeare's older plays; so _shag-heared...

So I think we should punctuate. It was from the keep, not the walls, that the banner (as perhaps we should read) was hung. We have, no doubt, "Advance our waving colours on the...

This should be a single line, and is a sort of proof that the Prologue is by Shakespeare (see Introd. p. 82). N.B.--In the beginning of the Address prefixed to this play I read...

As I have not met with the verb 'roist' anywhere else, I suspect that the poet may have written _roistering_, and the transcriber or printer have omitted a syllable, as in Meas....

Mr. Collier found this excellent reading in one of the 4tos, 1609. The reading of all the others and of the folio is _reputed_. Nothing is more common than the confusion of _r_...

In Son. xxi. we have, "I will not praise that purpose not to sell." Hence some would add a negative here; but it is not necessary. He means that they would sell Helen dearly.

As he elsewhere, it might appear, calls him _brach_, Hanmer's reading _harlot_ would seem to have been the poet's word. But on the other hand, in the Honest Whore, _varlet_ is u...

SC. 1. "My free drift Halts not particularly, but moves along In a wide sea of wax. No levell'd malice Infects one comma in the course I hold, But flies an eagle's flight, bold...

As this is not sense it requires emendation, and the simplest, I think, is _dishonour_ for 'his honour.' I had also conjectured _this hour_, in which I had been anticipated. Col...

In its ordinary sense, and I know no other, 'lined' cannot be applied to a crutch. I therefore read _lean'd_, with an ellipsis, in the usual manner, of _on_, which would give a...

Here 'bragg'd' is, bragged of, that you brag of; 'progeny' progenitors, and 'whip' the implement with which they scourged their foes. Chaucer (Tr. and Cr. ii.) terms Hector the...

Regarding 'beesome' as a corruption, the editors have all adopted Theobald's reading, _bisson_, which occurs in Hamlet (ii. 2) in the sense of blinding. Mr. Singer, however, quo...

I do not think that the text is, in any place in these plays, more certainly correct than it is here; yet some late editors adopt without hesitation _bisson multitude_, the read...

Though this may seem devoid of sense, it is, I think, what the poet wrote. If so, we must take 'wounded' actively, like "Under my burden _groan'd_" (Temp. i. 2). "It is twice _b...

For 'end' Rowe read _make_; Collier's folio _ear_; Singer, after a writer in Notes and Queries, reads _ear_ for 'reap,' and _reap_ for 'end.' I would read _inn_ for 'end.' "Give...

Tyrwhitt read 'king'; Coleridge _countenances_ for 'courtiers.' It is better to suppose a word effaced at the end of the second line; so I add _faces_. A few lines lower they ar...

This is the reading of the folio; but Theobald read _bare_, and he is generally followed. Collier's folio has _blear_ which I have adopted; for nothing was more common than an o...

As the riming line ends in 'begin,' and as 'every' is very generally plural in our poet, and he uses obsolete terms at the end, though not in the body, of lines for rime-sake, i...

The metre would require '_O_ Leonatus!' but as "What false Italian" follows, it might be better to read 'monster's her accuse_r_,' the _r_ having been lost as in Macb. ii. 1. Se...

"To winter-ground a plant," says Steevens, "is to protect it from the inclemency of the winter-season by straw, dung, etc., laid over it." This seems decisive; otherwise the men...

In English we have _good_ and _the good_ as nouns, but never _a good_. A monosyllabic noun may, then, have been lost, and the poet may have written 'a good _flood_,' as she "wep...

_Able_ (Lear, iv. 6), enable, back, maintain, support. "Admitted! aye into her heart. I'll _able_ 'em" (Chapman, Widow's Tears, ii); "You might sit and sigh first till your hear...