"Like the crimson drops I' th' bottom of a cowslip." The alteration authorised in manuscript in the folio, 1632, is, therefore, as follows:: "The cowslips all her pensioners be; In their gold cups spots you see: Those be rubies, fairy favours, In those freckles live their savours." Rubies would be singular decorations for a "coat," but were common ornaments to golden chalices. P. 405. Johnson and others saw that the line commenced by the Fairy's question, "Are you not he?" was not completed by Puck's answer, "Thou speak'st aright;" and it was proposed to fill up the vacancy by "I am; thou speak'st aright;" but the true word seems to be that given by the corrector of the folio, 1632,— "Fairy, thou speak'st aright." P. 408. It is a mere trifle, but still, in relation to the integrity of Shakespeare's text, worth notice, that in the corrected folio, 1632, Titania tells Oberon,— "Thy fairy land buys not the child of me." It is "The fairy land" in the old editions; but Titania afterwards repeats nearly the same words when she again refuses the boy to Oberon, "Not for thy fairy kingdom." We may, therefore, conclude, that thy is the original. In a later part of the same speech the expression occurs, "her womb then rich with my young squire," which is altered in manuscript in the folio, 1632, to "her womb then ripe with my young squire;" the word "rich" had perhaps been caught from a line just below. P. 410. There is a defect in the construction of the subsequent extract: "The juice of it, on sleeping eye-lids laid, accordingly we find the old corrector altering the last line thus, which is probably what the poet wrote: Upon the next live creature that is seen.” Puck's answer to Oberon has constantly been printed, "I'll put a girdle round about the earth In forty minutes;" but Oberon had not required any such task of him, but merely to fetch a plant of "Love in idleness." What Puck means is to show his readiness to obey, even if he had been commanded to do much more, and therefore the manuscriptcorrector has it, "I'd put a girdle round about the earth The word "round," which is also inserted by him as necessary to the measure, is only met with in the quarto published by Fisher. P. 412. The change recommended, from "flowers" (which is the old reading) to bowers, in the following passage, may admit of doubt: but bowers certainly appears best adapted to the place; and if best adapted, we may feel well assured that it was the word Shakespeare employed: "Quite over-canopied with lush woodbine, With sweet musk-roses and with eglantine : It is certain that the "lush woodbine," musk-roses, and eglantine, which "quite over-canopied" the bank, converted it into bowers. Lush (also supplied by the manuscriptcorrector of the folio, 1632) is a decided improvement upon "luscious," which is too much for the verse. Theobald had proposed to read lush, and we have already met with it in "The Tempest," Act II. Scene I. SCENE II. P. 415. Hermia and Lysander, wearied by wandering in the wood, are about to lie down, when Hermia, in maiden modesty, asks her lover to rest farther from her, but he urges her to repose her trust in him. The usual text has been: "O, take the sense, sweet, of my innocence; Love takes the meaning in love's conference." But the passage, as amended by the corrector of the folio, 1632, is clearly much more to the purpose: "O, take the sense, sweet, of my innocence; ACT III. SCENE I. P. 421. In the rehearsal scene of the mock-play by the Athenian artisans, the corrector of the folio, 1632, gives Bottom's speech, as to the contrivance of a wall, thus: "And let him have some plaster, or some lime, or some roughcast about him, and let him hold his fingers thus," &c. The ordinary reading is "loam" and "or"; but the sentence is clearly not in the alternative. Theseus afterwards speaks of the wall as made of "lime and hair." In the play itself, the first line delivered by Pyramus ought to run, "Thisby, the flowers have odious savours sweet," and not "of odious savours sweet;" because the next line is,— "So hath thy breath, my dearest Thisby, dear." Pope, to meet the difficulty, altered "hath" to doth; but the error was, as the corrector of the folio, 1632, shows, in the word "of" in the previous line; properly, therefore, the passage ought to be printed hereafter, "Thisby, the flowers have odious savours sweet, P. 422. The manuscript stage-directions in this scene, and indeed in others, are as precise and full as can possibly be required, and supply all deficiencies of the kind in the printed copies. Thus, when the "hempen home-spuns" are in the utmost dismay and confusion, just previous to the return of Bottom after his transformation, we are told that Robin is among them, that the Clownes all exeunt in confusion, and that Snout afterwards Exit frighted, having seen the Weaver with the Ass head on his own. It may be here mentioned that when the eyes of Titania and the others are to be touched with the magic herbs, there is no information in the printed copies as to the exact moment; but in manuscript we have annoint her eyes and annoint his eyes in the precise place in the margin, in the hand-writing of the corrector. In the same way, though the printed copies state when the characters sleep, we are told only in manuscript when they wake, which is quite as material. P. 424. The five lines in Titania's speech, declaring her love for Bottom, are strangely confused in the folio editions, and in Roberts' quarto; but the corrector of that of 1632, by inserting a figure opposite each line, shows that they are to be read in the order in which they stand in Fisher's quarto, and such has properly been the modern arrangement. SCENE II. P. 428. Hermia, imagining that Demetrius has killed Lysander, vents her rage upon him in a speech of some length and great violence; upon which, as the passage has hitherto been given, Demetrius coolly remarks,— "You spend your passion on a mispris'd mood: I am not guilty of Lysander's blood;" but the corrector of the folio, 1632, says that we ought to read, "You spend your passion in a mispris'd flood;" that is, in a mistaken torrent, which appears to give additional force and greater intelligibility. P. 431. The conjecture hazarded in note 6, that "princess of pure white" ought to be read "impress of pure white," is confirmed by the manuscript-corrector of the folio, 1632, and the quotation ought in future to stand, "O, let me kiss This impress of pure white, this seal of bliss." In fact, the use of the word "impress" in the beginning of the line naturally led to the word "seal" at the end of it. P. 432. The old corrector, in accordance with Fisher's quarto, inserts Helen before "It is not so," in Lysander's speech, in order to complete the verse. P. 433. In Helen's speech occurs the same misprint as that pointed out in "The Two Gentlemen of Verona," Act I. Scene II. p. 18. "So we grew together Like to a double cherry, seeming parted, Two lovely berries moulded on one stem." It is not at all likely that Helena would call herself one of the "lovely berries," whatever she might say of Hermia; but the fact is that the whole speech turns upon their mutual employment and mutual affection, and as the old corrector of the folio, 1632, informs us, we ought to displace "lovely" for loving: "Two loving berries moulded on one stem." The heraldic couplet which follows is struck out by the same hand, probably because, like most other readers, he did not understand it. P. 436. In Hermia's first speech, on this page, a ludicrous error of the press has been eternally repeated. She is wonder-struck and bewildered by Lysander's infidelity, "What! can you do me greater harm than hate? and then what follows? this strange question, "What news, my love?” It is astonishing that the blunder did not long ago expose itself; but it is easily accounted for: "news" was formerly spelt newes, and so it stands in the folios, and the printer or copyist misread meanes "newes." Hermia's question ought, indisputably, to be,— "What means my love?" |