are bound to admit by far the greater body of the substitutions it contains, as the restored language of Shakespeare. As he was especially the poet of common life, so he was emphatically the poet of common sense; and to the verdict of common sense I am willing to submit all the more material alterations recommended on the authority before me. If they will not bear that test, as distinguished from mere verbal accuracy in following old printed copies, I, for one, am content to relinquish them. Hitherto the quartos and folios have been our best and safest guides; but it is notorious that in many instances they must be wrong; and while, in various places, the old corrector does not attempt to set them right, probably from not possessing the means of doing so, the very fact, that he has here refrained from purely arbitrary changes, ought to give us additional confidence in those emendations he felt authorized to introduce.

I shall probably be told, in the usual terms, by some whose prejudices or interests may be affected by the ensuing volume, that the old corrector knew little about the spirit or language of Shakespeare; and that, in the remarks I have ventured on his emendations, I prove myself to be in a similar predicament. The last accusation is probably true: I have read and studied our great dramatist for nearly half a century, and if I could read and study him for half a century more, I should yet be far from arriving at an accurate knowledge of his works, or an adequate appreciation of his worth. He is an author whom no man can read enough, nor study enough; and as my ambition always has been to understand him properly, and to estimate him sufficiently, I shall accept, in whatever terms reproof may be conveyed, any just correction thankfully.

J. P. C.

famo

Enter Charles, Alanson, Burgundie, Bastard,
and Pucell.

Char. Had Yorke and Somerfet brought refcue in,
We fhould have found a bloody day of this.

Baft. How the yong whelpe of Talbots,raging wood,
Did flesh his puny-fword in Frenchmens blood.
Pue. Once I encountred him,and thus I faid:
Thou Maiden youth,be vanquifht by a Maide.
But with a provd Majefticalf high fcorne So rushing
He answer'd thus: Yong Talbot was not borne
To be the pillage of a Giglot Wench,of the
He left me proudly, as unworthy fight.

in

ce

Bur. Doubtleffe he would have made a noble Knight:

See where helyes inherced in the armes

Of the most bloody Nurffer of his harmes. fix blooding
Baft. Hew them to peeces, hack their bones affunder,
Whofe life was Englands glory, Gallia's wonder.
Char. Oh no forbeare: For that which we have fled
During the life, let us not Wrong it dead.

Enter Lucy, and Beranto
Lu.Herald,conduct me to the Dolphins Tent,
To know who hath obtaind the glory of the day.
Char. On what fubmiffive meflage art thou fent?
Lucy. Submiffion Dolphin? Tis a meere French word:
We English Warriours wot not what it meanes.
I come to know what Prifoners thou haft tane,
And to furvey the bodies of the dead.

Char. For prifoners askst thou? Hell our prison is.

fely But tell me whom thou feek t

Now

Luc. But where's the great Alcides of the field,

Valiant Lord Talbot Earle of Shrewsbury?

Created for his rare fucceffe in Armes,

Great Earle of trafford, Waterford, and Valonso,
Lord Talbot of Goodrig and Vrchfield,

Lord Strange of Blackmere, Lord Verdon of Alton,
Lord Cromovell of Wingefield, Lord Furnivall of Sheffeild,
The thrice victorious Lord-of-Falconbridge,

Knight of the Noble Order of S. George,
Worthy S. Mishael,and the Golden Fleece,
Great Marshall to our King Henry the fixt,

Of all his Warres within the Realme of France.