Is it possible that Shakespeare should have written so ungrammatically? They, surely. Sonnet xciv.,

"The summer's flower is to the summer sweet,
Though to itself it only live and die;

But if that flower with base infection meet,
The basest weed outbraves his dignity."

Is it base that is wrong? or can Shakespeare have written barest, in the sense of poorest, most meagre, scantiest in flowers and leaves? Bare with him is a "verbum solenne" in describing the ravages made by winter on trees and plants, which indeed is a somewhat different matter; and the substitution of a letter for the one next to it in the alphabet is a frequent source of error in the folio, as indeed in other books. Love's Labour's Lost, i. 1,

"Study is like the heaven's glorious sun,

That will not be deep-search'd with saucy looks;
Small have continual plodders ever won,

Save base authority from others' books."

Certainly bare. Two N. Kinsmen, i. 2, near the beginning,— what strange ruins,

Since first we went to school, we may perceive
Walking in Thebes! Scars, and bare weeds,

The gain o' th' martialist," &c.

Perhaps base; if indeed we ought not to write,-"Scars, crutches, and base weeds." King Henry VIII. v. 2 (quoted art. xxxviii. above),—

"They are too thin and base to hide offences."

Evidently bare. 1 King Henry IV. iii. 2,

"Such poor, such bare, such lewd, such mean attempts," &c. Base. 2 King Henry IV. iv. 1,—

Perhaps bare; the image seems to require it.108 Beaumont and Fletcher, Bloody Brother, ii. 2, Moxon, vol. i. p. 524, col. 2,

“When he shall brand me here for 109 base suspicion ; bare, I imagine; see context. Richard Brome, A Jovial Crew, ii. 1, Dodsley, vol. x. p. 304; (by the bye, this speech, with the preceding one, and the three following, ought to be printed as prose),

Thou talk'st

O' th' house: 'tis a base melancholy house.

Our father's sadness banishes us out on 't."

Bare, I suspect. Two Noble Kinsmen, ii. 1 (Fletcher's part), vol. ii. p. 560, col. 1,

when the north comes near her,

Rude and impatient, then, like Chastity,
She locks her beauties in her bud again,
And leaves him to base briars."

Bare. My emendation, however, of Sounet xciv. was sug-
gested by the passage itself. The erroneous notion, so
prevalent in the last century, of Shakespeare's hasty and
slovenly habits of writing, reconciled the commentators to
these inelegant repetitions. As You Like It, v. 3,—
"All adoration, duty, and observance

All humbleness, all patience, and impatience,

All purity, all trial, all observance ;

I thought of obedience in the latter line; and so Malone;

108 We have, besides, "base and abject routs," eight lines above, where probably "bloody youth," in spite of Johnson's note, is derived from "bloody insurrection" here. Warburton's heady seems right.-Ed.

109 The quarto 1639 has for, that of 1640 with. The latter is adopted by Mr. Dyce, and, if genuine, would authorize base; but is it not a sophistication ?—Ed.

but Ritson reads obeisance, which is, I think, preferable. All's Well, &c. ii. 5,

'

This drives me to entreat you,
That presently you take your way for home,
And rather muse, than ask why I entreat you;
For my respects are better than they seem;" &c.

Read "why I dismiss you," or an equivalent word. iii. 4, what angel shall

Bless this unworthy husband?"

and three lines below,

To this unworthy husband of his wife."

(i.e., if the error be not in this line, this husband unworthy of his wife. See art. xxvii.) This is a very corrupt play. iv. 3,—“ Sir, for a quart d'écu he will sell the fee-simple of his salvation, the inheritance of it, and cut the entail from all remainders, and a perpetual succession for it perpetually." King John, iii. 4,—

"And bitter shame hath spoil'd the sweet world's taste, That it yields nought but shame and bitterness ;"

Something is wanting that shall class with bitterness; possibly gall. King Richard, ii. 1, 3, fol. p. 26, col. 1,— "And let thy blows, doubly redoubled,

Fall like amazing thunder on the casque

Of thy amaz'd pernicious enemy.

Rouse up thy youthful blood, be valiant, and live."

The conjunction of amaz'd with pernicious seems unnatural. Var. 1821, "Of thy adverse," &c., doubtless from the quartos. The passage is puzzling on account of the metre of 1. 4. Possibly Shakespeare wrote,-

"Of thy pernicious enemy. Rouse up
Thy," &c.

Yet whence came adverse? Valiant, too, seems strange in this place of the line. ii. 2,

"Save bidding farewell to so sweet a guest
As my sweet Richard."

Perhaps, "As my dear Richard." iv. 1,-
"That lie shall lie so heavy on my sword,

That it shall render vengeance and revenge."

This is probably right. Two Noble Kinsmen, i. 1,—

I have heard the fortunes

Of your dead lords; which gives me such lamenting
As wakes my vengeance and revenge for 'em."

Fairfax, B. vi. St. lxiv.,—

"To thee, my beauty,-thine be all these wrongs,—
Vengeance to thee, to thee revenge belongs."

B. xvii. St. xciii.,

"O what revenge, what vengeance shall he bring
On that false sect and their accursed king!

But Fairfax is frequently tautological; to which he was led by the law (perhaps a necessary one) of rendering the original stanza for stanza in our more concise language, thus necessitating the introduction of supplementary matter. 1 King Henry VI. iii. 1,—

Thy humble servant vows obedience,

And humble service, till the point of death."

Probably "faithful service." The affinity of servant and service rendered the slip easier. 2 King Henry VI. iii. 2, "In pain of your dislike, or pain of death."

3 King Henry VI. iii. 3,—

ແ

I must take like seat unto my fortune,
And to my humble seat conform myself."

State. The old pronunciation of the diphthong ea (on which the modern Irish one is grounded) would facilitate the

corruption. So in Chapman, Il. xix. Taylor, vol. ii. p. 144, seat seems to have superseded state,—

Dismiss them then to meat,

And let Atrides tender here, in sight of all his seat
The gifts he promis'd."

Qu., "his state;" the princes and nobles surrounding him.
Merry Devil of Edmonton, Dodsley, vol. v. p. 229,—
"For look you, wife, the riotous old knight

Hath over-run his annual revenue

In keeping jolly Christmas all the year:

Besides, I heard of late his younger brother,
A Turkey-merchant, hath sore suck'd the knight,
By means of some great losses on the sea;

That (you conceive me) before God, all's naught,
His seat is weak: thus each thing rightly scann'd,
You'll see a flight, wife, shortly of his land."

What can seat mean here? Unless some intelligible mean-
ing can be attached to it, I would read state, i.e., estate.
Weak, unsound, in an impoverished condition; Greene,
Friar Bacon and Friar Bungay, Dyce, vol. i. p. 164,-
"And, as I am true Prince of Wales, I'll give
Living and lands to strength thy college [college'] state.”

Green's Tu Quoque, Dodsley, vol. vii. p. 84,

"A man must trust unto himself, I see;

For if he once but halt in his estate,

Friendship will prove but broken crutches to him."

Beaumont and Fletcher, Wit at Several Weapons, iv. 1, Moxon, vol. ii. p. 345, col. 1, Cunningham says to Mirabel, with (I think) a play upon the words,—

"Alas, your state is weak, you 'had need of cordials,

Some rich electuary, made of a son and heir,

An elder brother, in a cullis, whole;