Maid, xxvi. p. 45, 1.4, nymphs, qu. nymph; see context. Masque, p. 196, That fix their seats in mediocrity, Mind? See context. Chapman, Commentary on Il. iii. Taylor, vol. i. page 96, 5 lines from the bottom,- "What touch, then, is it to me to bear spots of depravations, when my great master is thus muddily dawbed with it?" Depravation, I suspect. Endymion Porter on Donne, edition 1633, p. 406, ad fin., "Time hath no soul, but his exalted verse; Which with amazements we may now rehearse." Amazement? Jonson, Cynthia's Revels, v. 2, Gifford, vol.ii. p. 357; see context, ... that may conform them actually To God's high figures, which they have in power;" (in power, i.e., potentially, as opposed to actually). Figure surely. Poem in Sidney's Arcadia, iii. 387, 14,— "Blithe were the commons cattle of the field, Common? or shall we point, "Blithe were the commons, cattle," &c. The book is very correctly printed for that age. Chapman and Shirley, Chabot, i. 1, Gifford and Dyce, vol. vi. p. 94, "Which will so much increase [incense] his precise justice, That, weighing not circumstances of politic state, He will [He'll] instantly oppose it," &c. Circumstance. ii. 1, p. 103,— " What commands of yours, Not to your expectation obey'd By him, is ground of your so keen displeasure? Command, surely. Wedding, iv. 4, vol. 1, p. 427,- Some fearful man or woman, seeing me, Walk up and down thus ? buried! no, 'twas drown'd; Treasure, I imagine. Brothers, v. 3, p. 262, Her friend, advise her to contain her passions, And wisely love one that can entertain it." Passion; at least I know not otherwise how to construe the passage. Court Secret, v. 2, vol. v. p. 506,— "Clara, I envied, now allow thy happiness, Love. Fairfax's Tasso, B. xvii. St. xcvi.,— The tents, the towns, the hills, and dales descries" [i.e., Town? Orig., "Le tende e'l piano e la cittade e'l monte." Sackville and Norton, Ferrex and Porrex, iv. 2, near the end, Dodsley, vol. i. p. 158, happy he that can in time beware By others harmes, and turne it to his good." Harme. It is necessary, however, not to be hasty in condemning passages where this error seems to have taken place; inas much as there are several words, now used in the singular, which were then employed frequently-some of them, perhaps, always—in the plural, with the same meaning. Such were comforts, wars, spirits, revenges, parts (in such phrases as to perform one's parts, I will do my parts, &c.; mediately or immediately from the Latin partes). Such too, I think, are the following. Commons, in such places as Julius Cæsar, iv. 1, noticed above,- "And graze in commons." At least I am all but certain that such was the ancient use. Suits (of clothes). Hamlet, i. 2; see context, customary suits of solemn black." Massinger, Fatal Dowry, i. 1, Moxon, p. 266, col. 1,- cr You think, becomes your sorrow, and sorts well Succours is certainly an instance. Massinger, Fatal Dowry, as above,― that happy age, when justice Had no guards to keep off wrong'd innocence From flying to her succours." Fairfax, B. ii. St. xlvii., the King says to Clorinda,— "Since on my side I have thy succours got, I need not fear in these mine aged days." Fr. secours. So also, I imagine, virtues; though of this I am somewhat less confident. Some light may possibly be thrown on the origin of this error by the fact, that in a few instances a hyphen has usurped the place of the final s. 1 King Henry IV. v. 2, folio, p. 70, col. 2, "Vnkle, what newe-?" 2 King Henry VI. iv. 1, folio, p. 70, col. 2,"And like ambitious Sylla ouer-gorg'd, With gobbets of thy Mother-bleeding heart." Browne, Brit. Past., B. i. Song i., Clarke, p. 47; for the error can hardly be attributable to the modern editor,— "Accounting women-beauties sugar'd baits That never catch but fools with their deceits," &c.; for women's beauties. I have noted above the instances, somewhat more frequent, in which the final s has been superseded by a comma. On the other hand, the concluding s is frequently dropt in the folio, though the instances of its omission are not so numerous as those of its interpolation. Timon, v. 5,— "We sent to thee, to give thy rages balm, To wipe out our ingratitude with loves Read ingratitudes (for it is to this that their refers, not to rages); and so "the modern editors,"99 repugnante Malonio. Mr. Barron Field, in the Shakespeare Society's Papers, vol. ii. p. 58, proposes to read, Midsummer Night's Dream, v. 1,— "Then know that I, one Snug the joiner, am A lion's fell, nor else no lion's dam." Perhaps rightly, if A can be tolerated. But surely Shakespeare wrote and pointed,— "Then know that I one Snug the joiner am, No lion fell, nor else," &c. 99 This emendation is Capell's. As to the modern editors, Walker was misled by Malone's note. In the next example, Rowe and the earlier editors read No. Mr. Collier's Old Corrector agrees with Mr. Barron Field. Mr. Singer reads, "A lion-fell." The old copies and Capell have no comma after joiner.-Ed. King Henry V. i. 2, or else our grave, Like Turkish mute, shall have a tongueless mouth;' read mutes, as the old grammar requires. Much Ado, &c., iv. 1, 66 Call me a fool; Trust not my reading nor my observation, Books? Measure for Measure, v. 1,— O, most kind maid, It was the swift celerity of his death, Which I did think with slower foot came on, That brain'd my purpose. But peace be with him!" ,, Possibly purposes; yet an old writer would scarcely have used the plural; qu. "But God's peace be with him!' the name of God having been omitted in deference to the well-known act. At You Like It, i. 2,- Monsieur the challenger, the princess calls for you. Orl. I attend them with all respect and duty." Certainly "the princesses call for you," as some editions have it. Timon, iii. 6, towards the end, "Of man, and beast, the infinite malady Crust you quite o'er!" For maladie read maladies; 100 infinite in the sense of innumerable, as, e.g., King Henry VIII. iii. 1,— "Madam, you wrong the king's love with these fears; Your hopes and friends are infinite." King Henry VIII. iii. 2,— "Look'd he o' th' inside of the paper? Cromwell. Presently 100 So Hanmer.--Ed. |
