The simile of the bullet's glancing from one object, which it destroys, to another, which it also wounds, shows that we ought not to read "abounding," but "rebounding valour" of the English; and that, instead of "relapse," which ill suits the rhythm of the line, we ought to read reflex, in allusion to the power of the bullet to injure, when reflected backward from the object first struck. The four lines, therefore, ought to be printed in this manner:

"Mark, then, rebounding valour in our English,

That, being dead, like to the bullet's grazing,
Break out into a second course of mischief,
Killing in reflex of mortality."

Theobald printed "a bounding valour," and saw the meaning of the poet, as far as that word is concerned, though he did not give the right emendation; but Malone poorly imagined that abounding" was only to be taken as abundant; and neither of them had any notion that "relapse" was a misprint for reflex. Both these changes are made by the corrector of the folio, 1632.

P. 543. Henry tells Montjoy, as the line has been tautologously and prosaically printed,—

"I fear thou wilt once more come again for a ransom."

The old corrector gives it thus unobjectionably:

"I fear thou wilt once more come here for ransom."

P. 546. The old corrector instructs us to read, not "Let us die:-in," &c., but

"Let us not fly :-in! Once more back again,"

which gives us both improved measure and meaning.

SCENE VI.

P. 548. Exeter giving a description of the deaths of York and Suffolk, speaking of the former, says, as the text has been always repeated,

"In which array, brave soldier, doth he lie,
Larding the plain."

Steevens illustrates the word "larding" by a passage in
Henry IV. Part I. Act II.. Scene II, where it is humorously

said of Falstaff that he "lards the lean earth as he walks along." No quotation could well be less apposite: Falstaff larded the lean earth by the perspiration which fell from his huge carcase; but it is no where said that the Duke of York was obese, nor have we any reason to suppose that it might be appropriately said of him after death that he "larded the plain;" the true word is thus given in manuscript :

"In which array, brave soldier, doth he lie

Loading the plain.”

In the "Tempest," Act I. Scene II., we have seen loaded misprinted "lorded."

SCENE VII.

P. 551. Montjoy, the herald, after the battle comes to ask leave on behalf of the French to select and bury their dead; but hitherto the line has been given as if he asked leave to "book" the dead, and as if the French had been in a condition, after their disastrous defeat, to take and note down on paper a particular account of the loss. The fact is, that look, in the sense of search for, or select, has been misprinted "book:"— "I come to thee for charitable licence,

That we may wander o'er this bloody field,
To look our dead, and then to bury them."

The manuscript-corrector merely altered the first letter of "book ;" and the use of look, as above, is frequent in all our old writers. It was an English herald who made out a statement of the killed, wounded, and prisoners on both sides, and afterwards presented it to the King.

ACT V.

P. 559. In the Chorus which opens this Act, the first words are altered from "Vouchsafe to those," to "Vouchsafe all those;" and in the next line, instead of "and of such as have,” we are told to read, "and for such as have." A more material change was made when the celebrated lines, which relate to the return of the Earl of Essex from Ireland, were struck out. We may easily believe that they would be distasteful after that nobleman's execution, but we may presume

that they were not recited in the time of the corrector of the folio, 1632, if only because they could then have no application. They form, however, one of the least disputable, as well as one of the most important, notes of time to be found in any of the plays of our great dramatist.

SCENE II.

P. 565. The Duke of Burgundy, in the course of his long harangue, asks why peace should not, as formerly, in France,— "put up her lovely visage?"

An awkward phrase arising, perhaps, from the misprint of one short word for another, and the manuscript-corrector therefore has,

"Should not in this best garden of the world,

Our fertile France, lift up her lovely visage?"

This change may, nevertheless, have been proposed as a mere matter of taste.

P. 567. A trifling error of the press has been committed in the last line of the speech of the French King, in reply to Henry's request that he would answer, whether he refused or accepted the articles of peace proposed. As always printed, the passage has stood,

"We will suddenly

Pass our accept, and peremptory answer."

"Pass our accept seems to have been taken for "pass our acceptance;" but what the French King intends to say is, that, after further consideration, he will either pass by articles to which he may object, or accept others which seem admissible: he says,

"Pleaseth your grace

To appoint some of your council presently
To sit with us once more, with better heed
To re-survey them, we will suddenly

Pass, or accept, and peremptory answer."

The blunder here was merely "our" for or, and this use of the word "pass was not uncommon. A few lines lower, we may feel sufficiently assured that the line,

"Shall see advantageable for our dignity,"

UNIVERSIDAD GENTS

HBLISTECA

was written by the poet,—

"Shall see advantage for our dignity;"

and, accordingly, able, at the end of the word, is erased by the corrector of the folio, 1632.

P. 571. The corner of the leaf, containing the interview between Henry V. and Katharine, has been torn away, and there is here only one emendation that demands notice: it occurs not far from the end of the scene, where the King observes, "I dare not swear thou lovest me; yet my blood begins to flatter me thou dost, notwithstanding the poor and untempering effect of my visage." Warburton's note is "Certainly untempting," and he was right, for a marginal correction directs us to read untempting for "untempering."

P. 573. All the folios have, "girdled with maiden walls, that war hath entered," a negative having been accidentally omitted; modern editors have invariably inserted "never;" but, although the difference is not material, the true word was probably not, "that war hath not entered," because the old corrector places it in the margin.

THE FIRST PART

OF

KING HENRY VI.

ACT I. SCENE I.

Vol. v. P. 7. In the sixth line of the first speech in this play,

"King Henry the fifth, too famous to live long,"

the word "king" seems merely injurious surplusage, and the old corrector, we may presume, had sufficient reason for erasing it.

P. 9. The subsequent imperfect couplet closes Bedford's address, just before the entrance of the Messenger:

"A far more glorious star thy soul will make,
Than Julius Cæsar on bright

Johnson proposed to fill the blank with Berenice, which, in any point of view, could hardly be right. Malone was of opinion that the blank had been left, because the copyist could not read the name: it is improbable that the copyist could not read the name, and still more improbable, that, even if he could not read it, he would have hesitated in putting down something, whether right or wrong. The corrector of the folio, 1632, wrote Cassiopé in the margin, which, as far as regards the measure, answers the purpose; but from whence he derived the information, it is impossible to conjecture he therefore reads,

"Than Julius Cæsar on bright Cassiopé."