turning "the weeder-clips aside" of Mr Collier's ruthless spoliator, and on rejecting the vulgar weed which he offers to plant in its place.
Act IV. Scene 2.—In the following passage, however, we approve of the spoliator's punctuation, which it seems Mr Singer had adopted in his edition 1826.
"This Cardinal
Though from an humble stock undoubtedly,
Was fashioned to much honour from his cradle.
He was a scholar, and a ripe and good one."
All the common copies place a full stop after honour, and represent the cardinal as a scholar "ripe and good from his cradle," as if he had been born with a perfect knowledge of Greek and Latin.
Act V. Scene 2.—It is very difficult to say what should be made of the following:—
"But we all are men,
In our natures frail; and capable
Of our flesh few are angels."
Malone proposed—
"In our natures frail: incapable;
Of our flesh few are angels."
The margins propose "culpable of our flesh," which was also recommended by Mr Monck Mason. We venture to suggest—
"in our natures frail; incapable
Of our flesh."
i.e., Incontinent of our flesh. But whatever may be done with this new reading, the next ought certainly to be rigorously excluded from the text.
Loquitur Cranmer—
"Nor is there living
(I speak it with a single heart, my Lords)
A man that more detests, more stirs against,
Both in his private conscience and his place,
Defacers of a public peace, than I do."
"The substitution of strives for 'stirs,' " as Mr Singer very properly remarks, "would be high treason against a nervous Shakespearean expression."
Scene 3.—The MS. emendation in the speech of the porter's man (queen for "chine," and crown for "cow") is certainly entitled to consideration; but it is quite possible that his language, being that of a clown, may be designedly nonsensical.
Troilus and Cressida.— Act I. Scene 2.—Cressida says,}}
"Achievement is, command—ungained, beseech."
This line is probably misprinted. Mr Harness long ago proposed,
"Achieved, men us command—ungained, beseech,"
—that is, men command us (women) when we are achieved or gained over—they beseech us, so long as we are ungained. The MS. corrector's emendation falls very far short of the perspicuity of this amendment. He gives us—
"Achieved, men still command—ungained, beseech."
Scene 3.—We may notice, in passing, a "new reading" proposed by Mr Singer, which, though ingenious, we cannot be prevailed upon to accept. It occurs in the following lines, where Ulysses says—
"The heavens themselves, the planets, and this centre
Observe degree, priority, and place,
Insisture, course, proportion, season, form,
Office, and custom in all line of order;
And therefore is the glorious planet, Sol,
In noble eminence enthroned and sphered
Amidst the other; whose med'cinable eye
Corrects the ill aspects of planets evil,
And posts like the commandment of a king,
Sans check, to good and bad."
Instead of "other, "Mr Singer proposes to read "ether." But "other" is more in harmony with the context, in which the sun is specially described as exercising a dominion over the other celestial luminaries. The parallel passage from Cicero, which Mr Singer quotes, tells just as much against him as for him. "Medium fere regionem sol obtinet, dux, et princeps, et moderater luminum reliquiorum." We therefore protest against the established text being disturbed.
To return to Mr Collier. He must have very extraordinary notions or verbal propriety when he can say that "a fine compound epithet appears to have escaped in the hands of the old printer, and a small manuscript correction in the margin converts a poor expression into one of great force and beauty in these lines—
'What the repining enemy commends
That breath fame blows; that praise, sole pure. transcends;"'
—that is, praise from an enemy is praise of the highest quality, and is the only pure kind of praise. The poor expression here condemned is "sole pure,"
