p. 106) "is by some persons pronounced as if written with
' th' a pronunciation which our theatres have adopted."
" Spenser has written it sythe, and rhymed it to Jjlythe,
which differs from the theatrical mode only in giving the
soft sound to th, instead of the hard." See Spenser's Colin
Clout, line 23, v. p. 106; and Tyrwhitt's Glossary on
Chaucer, voc. Sighte ; Todd's Spenser, vol. vii, 43, &c. &c.



THE SEA VOYAGE.

P. 302. Constrained us to sea, to save our lives,
Our horses and our riches.
With all we had, our kinsmen and our jewels,
In hope to find some place free from such robbers,
Where a mighty storm severed our barks, that where
My wife, my daughter, and my noble ladies
That went with her, virgins and loving souls,
To scape these pirates.

The editor says, " There is some gross corruption here,
Qy. should the second where be bore?''

' It appears that Sympson, at Seward's suggestion, omitted
" where," and made some alterations in the next tw'o
speeches. This was quite unnecessary. Read —

"fFhen a mighty storm severed our barks, whereat
Mv wife," Sfc.



2G

"Whereat" is clianged into "that where," which is all
the error ; and the first " where " has replaced •' when," —
the original reading. See "when" io\'' where' in Marlowe's
Jew of Malta, act v, p. 340, ed. Dyce.

VOL. IX.
BEGGAR'S BUSH.
P. 24. "An eye of tame pheasants" (editor's note).
" Phasianorum foetura." — Cole's Dictionary. An eye of
pheasants is a corruption of a nide, or nest, of pheasants.

LOVE'S CURE.
P. 131. Thou art a proper man, if thy beard were not red.

It is observed in the note to this passage that Judas
Iscariot was painted with a red heard ; it might have been
added, with red hair also. See vol. v, p. 201 ; vol. viii,
p. 318.* And this may perhaps be the reason of the tree
called the Judas Tree, the " Cercis siliquastnim" being so
named, for it is distinguished by its red blossom, which,
coming out in profusion before the leaves are open, have a
brilliant and remarkable appearance. The tree is common
in Italy, South of Europe, and Judcea. When it is in bloom
and lit up by the rays of the setting sun, as often seen in
our garden, this last month [of June], it is most beautiful,
and its bright red flowers attract immediate attention and
admiration. This will be mentioned again.



MAID IN THE MILL.

P. 246. Mother or " mauther," a young girl or maid.

It is quite true, as stated in the note, that " mauther " is
commonly used in the Eastern Counties for a country girl ;
only "2>" should be changed for "teas," for it is a word
seldom now heard, and only in the contracted and
familiar form of niaw. The old Saxon and provincial
words have been dispossessed of their long dominion by
the late parochial schools, and the last quarter of a century

* On this subject I may observe, that the ItaUan painters never (so far as
1 know, unless perhaps the later, as Carlo Dolce, &c.) give the Tirgin Marv tlie
colour or complexion of the Eastern countries, but rather that of a fair Saxon
beauty. See Raphael as an example. Did they consider that there was less purity,
less of chaste and delicate modesty, in the dark eye, the rich brow, and the redun-
dant tresses of the South ? Among the Spanish school the case is quite different.



27

has made a great difference, in the language of the ''country
doion." The children now do not understand certain
words used by their parents, and the cottage has become
so refined as to borrow from the French, to express what the
homelier Saxon used to signify ; no young female, among
the poorest of the peasantry, would think of pronouncing the
words "shift" or "smock," which was good Saxon enough
for the maternal tongue, and they go to the Franks for
a substitute. Sweat is also beginning to make way for
jKrspiratlon. Tusser's Hmhandry will give the best idea
what the language of East Anglia was in his time, and up
to the commencement of the present century.*

RULE A WIFE, &c.
P. 467. Thy maid shall be thy mistress, thou the maid,
And all those servile labours that she reached at.
* * * *

And go through cheerfully or else sleep empty, &c.
The editor says, there is not the smallest doubt but that
a line is wanting ; and he has accordingly marked its place
with asterisks. I would however read —

Thy maid shall be thy mistress, thou the maid,
And all those servile labours that she reached at
Shall go through cheerfully, or else sleep empty.

The printer's eye in the last line caught the ''And'' which
begins the line previous — a very common mistake.

VOL. X.
THE FAIR MAID OE THE INN.

P. 31. violating

So continued and so sacred a friendship.

This verse would be much improved by reading —

"A friendship so continued and so sacred."
P. 54.

After the Duke's speech — •

No interruptions ! Lady ; on —



* On the subject of provincial words. — " 8loj) " is a word often used by the
dramatists for the loose Dutchman's trousei's, then much worn. It is now retained
in the Eastern counties, but with a change of meaning, for the round frock worn
ly country labourers. When I was chaplain to tlie sheriff at the assizes at Bury
St. Edmunds, at an important trial for an act of felony, where the life of the
criminal was in great danger, Lord Ellenborough in his charge, not understanding
the word slop aa part of the dress, mistook it for flap (of the breeches), and was
set right by Mr. Capel Lloft, a provincial counsel in court, and the only legal person
present who understood it.



28

to Mariana, who is entering on her story, the first folio has

inserted the words in italics.

Mariana. How ever !
Baptlsta. A faulkners sonne.
Mariana. Mistake not.

With these last Avords of Mariana the text goes on again *
Speaking of the two short speeches marked in itahcs, the
editor says : " They are manifestly ont of place here, nor do
they suit any subsequent part of this scene." Yet, turning to
p. 57, I think there is a place where Baptista's speech may
come in not only with propriety but even with advantage.
For the first words, "How ever" of Mariana, I have nothing
to observe, but that ''henceforth ever" occurs a little further
on : then for Baptista's — " afalkoners so7i."
Duhe. — "Go not yet —

A sudden tempest that might shake a rock,

Yet he stands firm against it. Much it moves me. —

He not Alberto's son, and slie a toidow —

And she a widoto ! — Lords, your ear."

Now why the words " And she a widow " should be re-
peated I do not see, as the repetition adds nothing to the
sense or to the poetical expression. I would read —

"He not Alberto's son, — a falconer'' s son, —
And she a widow. —

The three circumstances to be remarked are thus brought
together: 1, he was not Alberto's son; 2, he was a
falconer's son ; 3, she was a widow. Csesario's being the
son of a falconer is too important a part of the confession,
not to be enumerated here.

— My falconer's wife was brought a-bed
Of this Csesario ; him I owned for mine,
Presented him unto a joyful father.
Buhe. Can you prove this true ?

Thus, I think these words, now out of place, may be
accounted for, and arranged.

* At page 53, there is a line in Mariana's speech which seems to want correc-
tion : —

Yet let my griefs have vent ; yet the clearness, &c.
Nor is Mason's note on "If strict opinion cancel shame" at all satisfactory.
There is mucli in the speeeli most strangely and faultily expressed, and not to be
easily comprcliended. "The style of Beaumont and Fletclier," says a critic of
taste and knowledge, " is elliptical and not very perspicuous : they use words in
peculiar senses," &e. — See Hallam's History of Literature, vol. iii, p. 587.



29

P. CO. Perhaps it would be better to retain " then'' as
the editor has done, in Mariana's speech, and read —

''And if all fail, I will learn then to conquer, &c."

P. 95. The following passage has occasioned nnich
doubt and perplexity. Mariana had openly denied that she
was the mother of Csesario, and disclaimed him : —

It was not hate.

But fond indulgence in me, to preserve
Cesario's threatened life, in open court
That forced me to disclaim him, choosing rather
To rob him of his birthright and his honour,
Thau suffer him to run the hazard of
Enraged Baptista's fury.

This falsehood being believed, that Casario was not her
son, and as the duke had sentenced her to luarr^ him, she
being the supposed widow of the now deceased Alberto ; — to
escape the unnatural and incestuous marriage, she invented
this difficult and dangerous plan of evasion to which she
now alludes, first mentioning her daughter Clarissa's inno-
cent and consequently happy marriage, which was to be
celebrated that day, and com})aring it with her own : —

— To me.
That am environed with black guilt and horror,
It does appear a funeral. Though promising much
In the conception ......

Were hard to manage .....

But sad in the event.

It is the opinion of the commentators that a line or
more is lost, and various are the conjectures to supply it.
Seward's long and complicated amendment, as it is called,
is very tame and prosaic, his accustomed faidt. I would
read, only changing the place of one word (though). —

" It does appear a funeral, promising much
In the conception (though 'twere hard to manage).
But sad in the event." —

P. 184. '' Bamex!' This word, generally obsolete, is
preserved in the provincial glossary of the East Anglians,
and signifies the very thick hedging gloves of labourers,
formed of strong materials to resist thorns ; probably once
made of some foreign material. It is still in common and
constant use. — Suff. Gh^x. M.



30

THE ELDER BROTHER.

P. 237. Enter Charles from his study, with a book in

his hand.

Charles. What a noise is in this house. My head is broken :
Within a parenthesis — in every corner,
As if the earth were shaken with some strange colic.

— Come near
And lay thine ear down — hear'st no noise ?

Here is one of the strangest corruptions that occur in
the text of these plays, and which has occasioned much
alarm and consternation among the commentators.

Charles is a timid, retired scholar, who has gone to his
book and studies (in the last scene), saying —

Let me have no noise, nor nothing to disturb me —
I am to find a secret.

In the mean time, great preparation is making below for
his brother's wedding. Brisac says —

Wait on your master, for I know he wants you.
And keep him in his study, that the noise
Do not molest him. —

Charles, utterly ignorant of what is going forward,

hearing various noises, but knowing nothing of the cause,

nor whence they proceed, comes forward and says —

What a noise is in the house — my head is broken
With unapparent noises !

Tlie printer having divided the words wrongly, as —

Within a parenthesis, ")
With inapparent noises : )

although Charles heard the noises, yet whence they came
was not apparent, as he was in the upper part of the house,
and nothing toas visible. This is clear, for he says to Andrew,

Lay thine ear down — hear'st no noise ? *

* AVhen I first considered tlie corruptions apparent in these lines, and the
useless attempts to set them right by any conjecture, I saw they must all fail,
while tlie words "Within a parent/iesis" were retained as a portion of tlie fea^^, and
I concluded that tliey formed a marginal direction ; that the words " My head is
broken" were to be understood as spoken so^^a t'oce (aside), or in an under-tonc, and
were not to be brought into the regular text, which was therefore to run thus : —

" What a noise is in this house, — in evei'y corner,
As if the earth were shaken, &c. ;"

or, at full length, with the stage direction, —



31

THE NICE VALOUK.
P. 333. Go not so diffmedly,

beautifully used by Milton, Sam. A<jon. v. 118.

Chorus. See how he lies at random, carelesdy diffused,
With languish'd head unpropp'd,
As one past hope, abandoned, &c. —

where the commentator points to Euripides' //(?/•« c//^. v. 75.

— 'icirt Tov y'ipovTa

fXaWoV iVl TTi^OI
XVfXtVOV. —

p. 358. — Awa}', receptacle

Of luxury and dishonour ! most unfortunate
To make thyself but lucky to thy spoiler-
After thy sex's manner ! —

Seward, who is indefatigable in guessing, proposes
" lucky." Mason says, " he has entirely overlooked the
word ' but ' before 'lucky,' which must be attended to."

I propose (the second brother is addressing the lady) —

— " away, receptacle
Of luxury and dishonour ! most unfortunate
To make thyself unlucky to thy spoiler,
After thy sex's manner," —

the lady's reflection on the result of such connections
iDcing —

" In midst of mirth comes ruin''' &c. &c.

P. 408. A passage somewhat perplexed in its structure
and difficult of explanation : —

Your brother is a royal gentleman,
Full of himself, honour, and honesty ;

" What a noise is in this bouse ! {my head is hroTcen !)
' Within a parenthesis.

— in every corner.
As if the earth were shaken," &c.

Mr. Dyce says, " 'Within a parenthesis' cannot be omitted without injury to the
metre" which words I should so far alter as to say, it cannot be omitted without
injury to the sense, as it tells us tliat " My head is broken" is not to form part of
the regular text, but is a privately spoken interstitial observation. Now read
the whole : —

What a noise is in this house! (my head is broken.*)

— ill every corner,
As if the earth were shaken with some strange colic.



* 'â– 'Within a parenthesis," i.e. not to form part of the text.
See the word "parenthesis," in Webster's 'â– Northward Jloe^ vol. iii, p. 242,
ed. Dyce ; Dayo's Laiu Tricks, 1(300 ; sig. D 4, in another seuse.



32

And take heed, sir, how Nature bent to goodness

(So straight a cedar*) to himself, uprightness

Being wrested from his true life, prove not dangerous.

The difficulty seems most to exist in the fourth line —

So straight a cedar to himself, uprightness,

ami how to adapt it to the rest of the speech.
The old editions thus : —

And take heed, sir, how Nature bent to goodncsse
(So straight a cedar to himselfe) uprightnesse,
Be wrested from its true life, prove not dangerous.

On these lines Mr. Seward has made no less than fve
amendments — only one of which Mr. Mason thinks to be
necessary. Heath's MS. notes also contain an alteration,
that must be put aside without hesitation. The passage
may have been originally ill expressed or materially injured
by some means, probably by the transcriber or printer's
negligence ; and no conjecture can recover the true and
exact reading of the author.

We must keep in mind, that both Sophia, the mother of
the royal brethren, and Aubrey, their kinsman, the speakers,
at the present time, are not mistrustful of Rollo, and do
not partake in Otto's suspicion and fears of his brother's
evil designs, and are trying to persuade him that they are
groundless : — thus then I would read their language : —

Your brother is a royal gentleman.

Full of himself — honour and honesty ;

And take heed, sir, how (Nature bent to goodness,

So straight a cedar to herself) uprightness,

Being wrested from his true use, prove not dangerous.

The meaning, — "Take heed, sir, how Nature having
bent t to goodness" his disposition ("straight as a cedar") —
" this uprightness" being by you " wrested from its true

* It is curious, and sliows how stroug is the habit of taking words ior uud in
place of the tilings signified by them, that, frequent as is the allusion to the
"cedar-tree" by our old poets, probahly not one of them had ever seen one; and,
the trees not being introduced into England till 1670, arc not to be found figured
in the plates of our old Herbals. The poets borrowed their allusions to them from
the Old Testament : hence their mistakes in calling tliem " lofty," wliich they are not
in growth, but are, if the word is applied, as meant, to situation; as gro\N ing on the
lofty heiglits of Lebanon ; nor is the epithet straight appropriate or characteristic.
The word cedar, when used by American writers, whether poets or travellers, of
:\ tree of their own country, means a very different one.

t Natiu'e bent ; i. e. haviny bent.



33

use, prove not dangerous. — I have retained JdmsclJ ;
attentive to Mr. Mason's admonition, that " the right of
personifying virtues and passions has been assumed by
all dramatic writers, and by some more frequently than
by Shakespeare." — The word straicjU is used in a similar
manner a little before —

Soph. Now I am straight, my lords, and young again.

Compare Ecclesiasticus, cap. iv, v. 12 :

" He himself stood . . . as a young cedar in Libanus.
he behaved himself uprightly."

See also the Device of Mortimer, in Marlowe's Edward
ike Second (p. 201, ed. Dyce) —

" A lofty cedar tree fair flourishing," &c.

Again, King Edward says —

" 1 am that cedar, shake me not too mucli."



r. 209. BLOODY BROTHER.

The tale of Sinon, when he took upon him
To ruin Troy.

The tale of " Sinon " forms a favourite allusion in our
older poets. See Peele's Works {Edward I) vol. i, p. 1 28 (a
corrupt passage); vol. ii, p. 188, "false Sinon had betrapped
in his snares ;" p. 287, she-sinnow, where, with the editor,
"Sinon" or "Sinner" should be read; Marlowe's Dido,
vol. ii, p. 353; ed. 1826,* " Sinon's Perjury." Fletcher's
Pilgrim, vol. viii, p. 85 ; Braithwaite's Nature's Embassie,
p. 94 ; Subtill Sinon, &c.

P. 415. The following passage is corrupt in the text, or,
if not, most obscure and ill expressed. In the course of



* Marlowe's Works, 1826 ; an edition often wrongly attributed to Mr. Dyce, who
was then only j;;*/wffro Jlore jiiventrp. His edition of the Dramatist, in 1850, is
mucli to be commended. We would inform him that the words which puzzled him-
self and the learned Mr. Crossley, "quod tvmeraris, in Dr. Faustus (vol. ii, p. 18)
should be read ^' quibs. numeratis;" i. e., the names of the infernal deities invoked.



34

five lines, adding one a little previous and one following,
the word " alV is repeated no less than seven times !

Matilda. — tis justicestill.

For goodness' sake to encounter ill with ill.

Otto. Past all doubt,

For all the sacred priviledge of night,
This is no time for us to sleep or rest in.
Who knows not all things holy are prevented
With ends of all impiety ? — all but
Lust, gain, ambition.

Otto is fearful of tlie designs of his " bloody brother "
Rollo against him. His sister Matilda advises him to meet
"mines of treason with counter-mines," to which his speech,
as given above, is the answer. "Night," he says, " has the
sacred priviledge of security ; but in our present and
peculiar case it is no time now for us to take sleep and
rest." Then come the lines —

Who knows not all things holy are prevented
AVith ends of all impiety ? — all but
Lust, gain, ambition. —

The argument being, that things or places, however holy
and sacred (as night is), are used to impious and wicked
purposes by the evil passions of mankind ; and then he
mentions three of the strongest and fiercest of them. I
would, with no more change than in such a passage is allow-
able, in order to restore the sense, read —

" Who knows not all things holy are perverted
To the ends of all impiety? — 'hove all.
Lust, gain, ambition."

" Perverted " is Seward's reading, followed Iw his para-
phrase of the author's lines. " 'bove all " for " all but " is
the only alteration I have made.*

* The commentators on Beaumont and Fletcher (with the exception of the present
editor) are far too lavish in loose conjectural alterations of the text of the authors,
and consequently must bear with the title of "Volatici et ventosi homines," as given
to persoQS of their class ; — a passage in that most learned prelate's (Bishop Horsley)
translation of Hosea — which has been with justice called "admirable for its de-
ference to the authority of ilSS., and distrust of conjectural criticism " — is well
worth the deep attention of all who take on themselves the character of critics, and
the office of editors of works, where the integrity of the text has been injured, or
the structure of the language is peculiar, affected, and anomalous. See also
Prof. Wyttenbach's Life of D. Euhnken, pp. 33-40.



35



VOL. XI.
THE NIGHT WALKER.

P. 135. Nurse (speaking- of an old man married).

" Would be had been hanged when he first saw her,
' Termagant.^ "
Lady. What an angry quean is this ! — &c.

I can make nothing of this term, if it is to belong to the
nurse's speech in the text, and to be used of a man, as it
anciently was occasionally ; vide A King and no King, vol. ii,
p. 300. " This would make a saint swear like a soldier, and
a soldier like a termagant!' But " termagant" is also used
of a female, and in the sense of " angry quean." I consider
it to be only a marginal variation of that term, as if she
said, " What a termagant is this !" Nares says, " the word
has subsided into the signification of k scolding woman!'
Hear what a learned Master of the Art says on the subject
of marginal readings : —

" Perhaps you think it cm affected and absurd idea, that a marginal note
can ever creep into the text ; yet I hope you are not so ignorant as not to
know that this has actually happened not merely in hundreds or thousands,
but in millions of places." — Porson's Letters to Travis, p. 150.



LOVE'S PILGRIMAGE.

P. 230. With a Zardina and Zant oil.

The editor might with benefit have omitted Sympson's
note, in which he tells us that a sardine and an anchovy are
the same fish ! ! The catalogues of the Italian warehouses
would instruct him better. One is the ''Clupea Sardinia''
of Cuvier, the other the ''Clupea JEncracicolus." The
sardine is preserved and eaten with oil, Avhich is alluded
to by the poet,

TWO NOBLE KINSMEN.

P. 333. The crow, the slanderous cuckoo, nor

The boding raven, nor chough hoar.

So in Mr. Dyce's edition; but ''chough hoar" is
Mr. Sympson's correction, to make the couplet rhyme, the



36

original reading being " cliougli hee!' But this is a most
rash conjecture, and cannot stand, being opposed to the
truth. The chough has a shining hlach plumage, like the
raven and crow. In the old editions it stands thus : —

" The crow, tlie slanderous cuckoe, nor
The boding raven, nor chough hee."

I would observe that the chougli is a daw, and that
"chough" and "daw" are convertible terms. — 1, Corvus
monedida ; 2, Corvus graculus. See Higgins's Nomen-
clator, p. 59, ' A chough or daw ;" Milbourne on Dryden's
Virgil, p. 51, "The chough or daw;" Cotgrave, ChoucheUe,
"the chough, daw." These words were therefore easily
interchanged, and the true reading appears to be —

" The crow, the slanderous cuckoo, nor
The boding raven, chough, nor daw."

It is impossible to account for corruptions of a text ;
but, as the first line in the old edition stood thus —

" The crow, the slanderous cuckoo,"
an ignorant printer might endeavour at a rhyme by

" The boding raven, nor chough hee."

However, the learned critic, Mr. Sympson, should have
remembered —

"Nigras inter aves, avis est, quiie plurima turres,
Antiquas sedes, celsaque fana colit," &c.

The dress of the chough * is the same as the daw, with
the exception of his legs, which are of a bright orange ;
and they are both, in fact, of the same colour as the
reverend editor's is, or should be, because, like him, he
is, for the same twofold purpose,

" A great frequenter of the church,
Where, bishop-like, he finds a perch,
And dormitonj too."

P. 336. Thesem. It is true,

And I will give you comfort

To give your dead lords graves



* See a note on the " Chough," in the Yariorum Shakespeare, toI. svii, p. 257, n. 3.



37

As Mr. Dyce says both sense and measure are some-
what deficient and some words are wanting ; I think they
may be thus supplied by referring to the speeches of the
two Queens, whom Theseus is addressing : —

" Anil I will give you comfort in your beds,
To give your dead lords graves, wJio yet have none.''^

ist Queen. — think, dear Duke, think

What beds our slain kings have !

2W Queen. — What griefs our beds,

Tiiat our dead lords have none !

Id Queen. — our lords

Lie blistering 'fore the visitating sun.

P. oSl. Theseus. Since I have known fight's fury, friends' behests,
Love's provocations, zeal in a mistress' task ;
Desii'e of liberty, a fever, madness,
'T hath set a mark which Nature could not reach to
Without some imposition, sickness in will,