his tea, but he makes his dinner ; he takes his departure,
but he makes his exit. Nay, there are some noims with
which both verbs are used indiscriminately, so that one may
take or make his choice between them.
And, with respect to haste ; although in English the familiar
idiom is to make haste, yet in Latin it was adhihere celeritatem,
— to take haste. Timon of Athens is a serious play, and, in
Timon's own speeches more especially, abstruse phraseology
abounds. It is then even more in character with the rest of
the play that Timon should here make use of the more
abstruse idiom.
Is it, then, in the possessive his, prefixed to haste, that we
must look for the nonsense ? No, for that point is speedily
settled by reference to Mrs. Cowden Clarke's Concordance,
which furnishes nearly a score examples in Shakespeare's
plays of haste conjoined with a personal pronoun.
Lastly, is it in the absence of a meaning appropriate to
the situation, that the sheer nonsense of *' take his haste" is
50 THE FELICITY OF THE MARGINS.
to be searched for ? No, for there cannot be more excellent
sense than let him hasten and come hither; it is the exact
sense of all other that fits the place.
But it has been premised that this abominable substitution
of " take his halter" is easy of refutation.
It may be shown to be not only at variance with the text,
but destructive of it, by marring the point and animus of
Timon's speech.
The citizens of Athens are in extremity of danger. They
repent, when too late, that they have driven from amongst
them, in Tim on, the only man who could have saved them.
Two of the Senators are deputed to seek him in the woods
and implore his return. They find him, and are assailed by
him with the bitterest scoffs and execrations ; or if Timon
suffers them for an instant to suppose he is relenting, it is
only to plimge them all the deeper in despair. In the
speech of which the passage in question is a portion, he
bitterly cajoles them, luring on their hopes, bit by bit, and
word by word, until the very last, when he crowns the
infliction by the suddenness of disappointment.
But the whole context must be seen together : —
Timon. Commend me to my loving countrymen,
* » *
Commend me to them,
* • *
I will some kindness do them.
Senator. I like this well, he will return again.
Timon. I have a tree which grows here in my close
That mine own use invites me to cut down
And shortly must I fell it : TeU my friends,—
Tell Athens — in the sequence of degree
From high to low throughout — that whoso please
To stop affliction, let him take his haste,
Come hither, ere my tree hath felt the axe,
And — hang himself.
THE FELICITY OF THE MARGINS. 51
Now the slightest real perception of the spirit of this
speech would teach the Edinburgh Reviewer that the sur-
prise must be reserved to the last line ; and that " let hiin
take his haste, come hither," is an augmentative of the
hopes of the expectant senators.
Let not a moment be lost ! Let each man hasten hither
to learn the remedy I am about to provide !
But let halter be substituted for hade in the antepen-
ultimate line (to say nothing of the platitude, nor of the
injury to the metre by the intrusion of a redundant
syllable), it would mar the whole contrivance of the
speech by prematui-ely revealing the climax, and thus, by
destrojdng the suspense, deprive the dernier coup " hang
himself" of all its point !
Fortunately the great mass of the corrections are as
demonstrably bad as this striking example of the " Edinbui'gh
Review," and may, in like manner, be brought to bar
and convicted. But they cannot all be so : some must of
necessity be only negatively bad, and how are these to be
dealt with if they are to be permitted to assume, without
proof, the legitimate position belonging of right to the text
in possession ?
The causes which have combined to bring about this
anomalous reversal in the position of assailants and de-
fendants would appear to be these : —
First, the mystery under which these corrections were
originally presented to the public, — always disposed to
believe in the marvellous and to receive omne ignotum pro
mugnifico.
Second, the extraordinary and persevering support they
have received from the Press generally.
Third, the strange license, practically assumed for them,
of denying their joint liability as correlatives in the same
performance.
52 THE FELICITY OF THE MARGINS.
By means of this last admirable contrivance an unlimited
power of disclaimer has been obtained, and piece-meal refu-
tation rendered of no avail, by the simple expedient of
disowning all the palpably worthless and disproved correc-
tions, and shifting the felicity to the indefinite remainder.
Many of the corrections, boasted of at first as of the
greatest value, have been abandoned by Mr. Collier himself
without in the least diminishing the general cry of felicity :
and even the apparently vital element of antiquity may be,
as has been seen, surrendered in the lump, while in the same
breath the felicity is as confidently but as vaguely asserted
as ever.
Now since it is impossible to bring to trial the whole
muster-roll, item by item, an operation that would extend
to many volumes of useless labour, which, when completed,
no one, probably, would take the trouble to wade through, a
sort of middle course is about to be resorted to here, on the
principle that a thorough examination of a consecutive por-
tion, complete in itself, may create a deeper conviction of
the real worthlessness of these corrections than any number
of detached examples, taken here and there from the whole
collection.
The method of complete analysis, although exercised on
only one play, shall yet, by giving an account of every grain
in the sample, leave no stone unturned, no corner xmsearched,
for the brimming felicity of the " Athenaeum," and the
" exquisitely felicitous" o{ Hie ** Edinburgh Review" to hide
themselves from admiration.
The play on which this experiment is about to be tried is
not one selected by an enemy of the margins for the purpose
of exposing their weakest points ; neither is it selected, as
complained of by the Edinburgh Reviewer in the case of
Hamlet, because there are quarto impressions of it extant ;
but it is selected because it is the choice of Mr. Collier
THE FELICITY OF THE MARGINS. 63
himself, in the preface to " Seven Lectures," and there made
the theme of all his strong allegations against those whom
he accuses of having pilfered from the treasures of his Old
Corrector (see Preface, page Ixi., et seq.). It has also been
selected for the most obvious reason of all, that the promi-
nence it receives in the volume just referred to, renders it
the fittest subject for this, a review of it.
The play so selected is Love's Labour's Lost : and besides
being the choice of Mr. CoUier, it is in other respects a
favourable example for the Old Corrector. The alterations
of the text comprised in it amount to not less than 99 — the
greatest number in any one play with the exception of
Hamlet ; and it is the fortimate recipient of one of those
far-famed nine entire lines — the wonders of the age —
the miracles of the margins !
The conditions of the examination shall be these : —
1. The several items of correction shall be set down
verbatim from the "List" printed by Mr. Collier in his
"Seven Lectures," and extending from page 170 to page
174 of that volume.
2. Such corrections as have been traced to sources known
previously to the promiJgation of the margins, shaU be
restored to their several owners, and, where necessary,
specially commented upon. [It is clearly imnecessary to
treat this class in any other way : Firstly, because, in any
case, the text derives no advantage from them through the
Old Corrector, inasmuch as they were previously obtainable
elsewhere. Secondly, because anterior possession, on which
alone the Corrector coidd have any claim to them, has been
abandoned : for if the folio coidd not " lose any part of its
authority, if proved to have originated in the nineteenth
century," of course it can have no anterior claim to what
was written in the eighteenth.]
54 THE FELICITY OF THE MARGINS.
3. Such corrections as have been abandoned shall be
so marked on the evidence of Mr. CoUier's latest edition
of Shakespeare's works, 1858 ; in which he professes to
have incorporated all the marginal corrections approved of
by him.
4. Corrections of errors which exist no where but in the
2nd Folio, and which, therefore, are of no interest to the
general text, shall be simply marked " 1632."
5. In the remaining items the reasons for the decisions
arrived at respecting them shall be set forth as briefly as
may be consistent with the nature of the several readings.
AN ANALYSIS
OF THE CORRECTIONS IN
LOVE'S LABOUR'S LOST,
AS SET FORTH IN MK. COUJEK'S LIST, ENTITLED
" A LIST OF EVERY MANUSCRIPT NOTE AND EMENDATION IN
MR. COLLIER'S COPY OF SHAKESPEARE'S WORKS,
Folio, 1632."
The following notification is prefixed to Mr. Collier's List : and,
as the same arrangement is pi'eserved, it may be repeated here.
" *^* It is to he observed that the column to the left hand
supplies the old, or the received text; and the column to the
right hand the manuscript alterations made, or proposed, in
the folio, 1632. Some of the printed readings, or misreadings,
peculiar to that edition, have the figures 1632 added to them'*
CHAPTER V.
ANALYSTS OF THE MANUSCRIPT CORRECTIONS IN
LOVE'S LABOUK'S LOST.
ACT I.— Scene 1.
The grosser manner of these The grosser manner of this
worlds' delights. world's delights.
The original phrase lias a fine meaning of its own, wliicli
is entirely lost in this stupid alteration.
World's-clelights is a compound word, equivalent to
worldly delights, and may therefore take a plm-al demon-
strative. The distinction is obvious : there are many
delights of this world that are not world's-delights. What
these are, is explained in the next line : —
" To love, to wealth, to pomp, I pine and die ;"
Mr. CoUier misleads his readers as to the meaning of the
original by printing in the left hand column a possessive
apostrophe after worlds\
II.
When I to fast expressly am When I to feast expressly am
forbid. forbid.
THEOBALD.
58 ANALYSIS OF MR. COLLIER's LIST.
III.
If study's gain be thus. If study's gain be this.
RITSON.
IV.
Light, seeking light, doth light Light, seeking light, doth light
beguile. of light beguile.
1632.
V. and VI.
So you, to study now it is too late. So you, hy study now it is too late,
That were to climb o'er the house Climb o'er the house-iop to unlock
t' unlock the gate. the gate.
These two items form but one sentence, and must be taken
together. The alterations made by the Corrector are clumsy
and unsuccessful attempts to remedy a passage, corrupt it is
true, but not so much so as these corrections would make it.
No emendation can be satisfactory which does not begin
by reversing the meaning of so with which the first of these
lines commences. Because there must be, at that point,
an opposition to what has just preceded. Biron has
described, first his owti principle, and then he opposes to it
that which he attributes to the King and the rest.
An amended form of the passage is obtained by the
easiest and simplest of all suppositions, viz : — that so and hd
had originally belonged each to the other's line, and had
accidentally become misplaced, — a very common accident
with outside or terminal words. Their transposition gives
very satisfactory sense, whether the last line be retained as
printed in the Quarto, or as in the Folio of 1623, which in
many respects is better, especially in preserving the hypo-
thetical meaning. The following is the entire passage as
ANALYSIS OF MR. COLLIER's LIST. 59
altered by the proposed transposition of two of the existing
words : —
** Why should I joy in any abortive birth ?
At Christmas I no more desire a rose,
Than wish a snow in May's new fanglcd shows ;
So, like of each thing that in season grows :
But you, — to study now it is too late, —
That, were to climb o'er the house to unlock the gate."
Biron says that, in so liking, he likes everything in its
proper season (so having the meaning of thus), which is
just and reasonable. " But you," he says, to attempt " to
study now it is too late," — now that the fitting season has
passed, — that, is the true absurd ! Here the opposition is
perfect.
VII.
Yet confident I'll keep what I Yet confident I'll keep to what I
have swore. swore.
Here the Corrector corrects a correction, — marring still
worse that which had been already marred. The abomin-
able / have swore, originated with the Folio 1632 : the
previous copies, both quarto and foKo, having "I have
sworne." The object of the change was to obtain a better
rhyme to " more," at the expense of a gross inelegance of
expression ; against which it is the more necessary to protest
as it has been adopted in all modern editions.
The old poets considered an assimilation in the pre-
dominant sound of words as quite sufficient for the purposes
of rhyme. There is scarcely one in whose works evidence of
this fact may not be found. The following pairs of words
intended to rhyme together, have been obtained from a
cursory glance at such as are at hand.
In Sylvester, — wine— binde, can— hand, round— down,
seem— keen.
60 ANALYSIS OF MR. COLLIER S LIST.
In Lord Surrey, — some— undone, meane— stream, come—
son, dust— first.
In Love's Leprosie, — sweete— sleepe, wreathe— leave, text-
sex.
In Hutton, — sex— perplext, Hang'd—land, times— lines,
(besides which, this poet constantly rhymes singulars with
plurals, as, declares—rare, takes— make ; both of which occur
in the same stanza of " Ixion's Wheele.")
In Rowley, — crown— ground.
In Roffe, — ^backs— sack.
In George Chapman, — light— eighth.
In "Warner, — crowne— ground, fairer— rather, death— birth.
And in Shakespeare, himself, a repetition in another place
of the very same rhyme which occasions these remarks.
These examples require exactly the same management of
voice as the rhyming of more and sworm ; that is, a suppressed
utterance of the supernumerary or discordant letter. In
the example death, birth, the sound of the letter r is
suppressed ; and it occurs so often with Warner, that it
seems, in him, to have arisen from a physical insensibility
to the soimd of that letter, to which many people,
particularly those born in the metropolis, are subject ;
and which, analogically with "colour blindness," may be
termed letter deafness. In Warner it amoimts to an
established mannerism: — in one place, with better flattery
than rhyme, he styles Queen ElizaSe^A a goddess upon
earth.
It has been said above that there is a recurrence in
Shakespeare of the same rhyme which occasions these
remarks : it occurs in the same play of Love's Labour's Lost,
not far from the place imder consideration ; —
" My Lord Biroon see him delivered o'er :
And go we, lords, to put in practice that
"Which each to other has so strongly sworn."
ANALYSIS OF MR. COLLIER's LIST. 61
The first and last lines are manifestly intended to rhyme :
nor does it in the least invahdate that fact that Biron — as
he does in other places — catches them up and over-caps
them with two other Hnes : —
" I'll lay my head to any good man's hat
These oaths and laws will prove an idle scorn."
Indeed it is fortunate these last lines were added, as the
over-capping with scorn has, perhaps, saved sicorn, in this
instance, from undergoing the same elegant transformation.
The proper correction of the line at the head of this
note would be to restore " I have sworn," the reading of the
earKer copies ; instead of attempting, as the Old Corrector
has done, to remove one corruption by introducing another.
While on this subject of irregular rhymes, a remarkable
peculiarity is worth recording as affecting Shakespeare.
AU words ending in tight were occasionally admitted to
rhyme with those in ft : the conversion of sound being, in fact,
the same as now prevails in coughed, laughed, roughed, &c.
But the peculiarity in question is this : that certain other
words, with those terminal letters, had that pronunciation
or not, at the option of the poet. There is a notable example
in Shakespeare's Passionate Pilgrim which has puzzled
some of his editors : —
" Have you not heard it said full oft
A woman's nay doth stand for naught."
Where the rhyme requires that the last word should be
pronoimced noft. The following examples will show that it
was a very common license : —
" Farewell ! thou hast me taught
To think me not the first
That love hath set aloft
And casten in the dust."
Lord Surrey, The Forsaken Lover.
62 ANALYSIS OF MR. COLLIER's LIST.
" Sharper to man is than the swiftest shaft,
His eye the way by which his heart is caught."
Geo. Chapman, Hero and Leander.
— " Though throned aloft,
Of each man weighs yet both the work and thought."
Geo. Chapman, Hesiod. Georg. 1.
" Hatred, and strife, and fighting, cometh after
Effusion of blood, and often-time manslaughter."
Barclay, Eclogue 2.
A knowledge of these peculiarities of old rhyming is useful
as a guide to the correction of probable misprints. In
Lore's Leprosie, for example, this couplet occurs : —
" With finding him my muse hath lost herself,
Come back : for nature's banquerout of her wealth."
Here self rhymes with icealth. But who would dream of
proposing such a rhyme as a restoration of a misprint ?
And yet it is obviously the very correction required in a
previous couplet of the same poem : —
— " When as his second self
Breathed forth his soul divorst from life and death."
The last word, death, cannot be right : it accords with
neither sense nor rhyme, and most certainly is a misprint —
arising, perhaps, from the common verbal association of life
and death. The true reading is, doubtless, life and health, as
indicated by the couplet first quoted.
On the other hand — to exemplify with what caution
proposed amendments in rhyme ought to be received,
however plausible they may appear at first sight — the
ANALYSTS OF MR. COLLIER's LIST. 63
following stanza, also from The Passionate Pilgrim, is
instructive : —
" And when thou com'st thy tale to tell,
Smooth not thy tongue with filed talk,
Lest she some subtle practice smell —
A cripple soon can find a halt."
Here, on account of the imperfect rhyming of talk and halt,
it might with some plausibility be proposed to substitute,
for the latter word, balk, in the sense of stumbling block, or
impediment ; which, it might be said, a cripple would meet
with sooner than another. But the context shows that the
sense of the proverb is, that he who is afflicted with any
defect himself, can easily discover it in another. Therefore
halt must stand, to contribute one more example, in addition
to those already enimierated, of the rhyme by predominant
sound.
VIII.
A dangerous law, against gentility. A dangerous law against garrulity.
Stupidly mistakes the penalty for the crime ! The law is
not against speaking, but against coming within the precincts.
The penalty is loss of tongue ; just as loss of ears was once
the penalty for other crimes than eaves-dropping. Biron
means that the enacting of such a law is contra bonos mores.
A dangerous law, — against gentility !
IX.
Or vainly comes th' admii-ed Or vainly comes th' admired
princess hither. princess rather.
ABANDONED.
If I break faith, this word shall If I break faith, this word shall
break for me. plead for me.
ABANDONED.
64 ANALYSIS OF MR. COLLIER's LIST.
The received correction is " s^ieak for me." But the
characteristic reduplication of break should hy no means
be disturbed. The particle it has evidently fallen out : —
If I break faith this word shall break it for me.
XI.
A man in all the world's new A man in all the world-new
fashion planted. fashions flaunted.
This abominable alteration is obviously based upon a
supposition that "fashion" here relates to dress! The
pluralizing of fashion is especially atrocious.
XII.
A high hope for a low heaven. A high hope foi* a low hearing.
The preceding adjuration, and the trite association of
hope with heaven, sufficiently prove that heaven is a true
word. It was Theobald, who, by first changing it to having,
gave the hint to the Old Corrector to try another variation
upon him. Moreover, heaven is a familiar metonymy for
enjojTnent, so that a high hope for a low enjoyjnent seems
as good sense as any reasonable intellect need desire.
XIII.
Cause to climb in the merriness. Cause to chime in the merriness.
"REV. MR. BARRY" IN COLLIER, 1842,
The error of this correction is evident in the equivoke
of style, (composition), and stile, (a barrier). The joke is as
old as Chaucer : —
" Albeit I cannot soune his stile
Ne cannot climben over so high a stile."
" Squire's Tale," 98.
ANALYSIS OF MR. COLLIEr's LIST. 65
XIV.
Is the manner of a man. It is the manner of a man.
1632.
XV.
That shallow vassal. That shallow vessel.
Another equivoke — unperceived by the Old Corrector,
who is so old that he does not know that vassall or vassaile
meant, in Shakespeare's time, a low, lewd, fellow. Examples
might be had by the dozen out of " Folie's Anatomie" and
other books of the age.
XVI.
Until then, set down, sorrow. Until then, set thee down, sorrow.
EARLIEST QUARTO.
Scene 2.
XVII.
Most immaculate thoughts. Most maculate thoughts.
EARLIEST QUARTO.
XVIII.
Most pretty and pathetical. Most pretty v^nA poetical.
ABANDONED.
XIX.
For your manager is in love. For your armiger is in love.
There are few readers who will not recollect the charm
with which this speech was invested, on first perusal, by this
66 ANALYSIS OF MR. COLLIEr's LIST.
beautifully quaint epithet " manager." And yet now this
wretched Old Corrector woidd kidnap this and other legiti-
mate offspring of Shakespeare and drop his own abortions in
their stead. Mr. Collier in adopting this one into his recent
edition thinks it necessary to explain that — *' Armado was
the armiger or bearer of his own sword ! " And of his own
" drum," of course !
XX.
I am sure I shall turn sonnet. I am sure I shall turn sonnet-maker.
ABANDONED.
The absence of an article before sonnet, is the plea
upon which some haK dozen various alterations have been
proposed. That most in favour is " I shall turn sonneteer,
and more recently " I shall turn sonnets ; " the s being added
to get over the fancied want of a singular indefinite article.
To be consistent, the gentlemen who adopt it should apply
the same remedy to " s/>iY," in Much Ado About Nothing, in
the passage, —
" She would have made Hercules have turned spit."
ACT II.— Scene 1.
XXI.
Summon up your dearest spirits. Summon up your clearest spirits.
Dearest = choicest. The alteration is inexcusable.
XXII.
His eye begets occasion for wit. His eye begets occasion for his wit.
1632.
ANALYSIS OF MR. COLLIER's LIST. 67
XXIII.
All liberal reason would I yield unto. All liberal reason I will yield unto.
EARLIEST QUARTO.
XXIV.
Though so denied farther harbour Though so denied free harbour
in my house. in my house.
ABANDONED.
The well-known difficulty wliich occurs in tliis scene, in
the line, —
" My lips are no common though several they be,"
Arises from the incongruity of opposing a noun to an
adjective. This ought to be amended by adding a final t to
no : that letter having most probably dropt out at press.
The line would then read, —
My lips are not common though several they be.
This slight change, by giving an adjective form to common,
removes the incongruity and renders the equivoke perfect.
ACT III.— Scene 1.
XXV.
If you had swallowed love. As if you had swallowed love.
THEOBALD.
Except the word " had," which can only be explained by
Mr. Collier himself, as it is not to be found anyvs^here but
in his List.
68 ANALYSIS OF MR. COLLIER S LIST.
XXVI.
By my penue of observation. By vnj paine of observation.
ABANDONED.
XXVII.
A message well sympathised. A messenger well sympathised.
This alteration will require to be treated at more length
than it would otherwise deserve, on account of its being one
of those pet corrections, which are selected by Mr. Collier, in