Taming of the Shrew, i. 2 ("Aμɛтçov),—

"O, sir, such a life with such a wife, were strange;
But if you have a stomach, to 't a' God's name."

Here, too, the a originated in its neighbours. K. H. VIII.

Qu., She's stranger, &c.; yet this seems harsh. A. C.

"You shall not now be stol'n, you have locks upon you;

So, graze, as you find pasture.

2 Gaoler.

Ay, or a stomach."

Dele a. (The folio, by the way, reads “ So graze, as," &c., without a comma after so; I think rightly.)

Hamlet, ii. 2,-"O Jephtha, judge of Israel, what a treasure hadst thou! Pol. What a treasure had he, my lord ?" What treasure, surely, for grammar's sake.

Othello, iii. 1, contra metrum; see S. V. art. lviii.,—

"I humbly thank you for 't. I never knew

A Florentine more kind and honest."

Qu. "I humbly thank you for 't.

I ne'er knew Florentine more kind and honest."

Perhaps we should arrange rather,

"I humbly thank you for 't; I ne'er knew Florentine
More kind and honest."

Instances in which this interpolation has taken place in the folio, even according to the commonly received text. Julius Cæsar, ii. 1,—

and the state of a man,

Like to a little kingdom, suffers then," &c. ;

quod restituerunt Eques et Collierius, jure a Dycio reprehensi, Remarks, p. 185. T. G. of V. ii. 4,——

To have a look of such a worthy a mistress."

Cymbeline, iii. 3,—

This gate

Instructs you how t' adore the heavens; and bows you

To a morning's holy office."

King Henry V. v. 1,—“ News have I, that my Doll is dead i' th' spital of a malady of France." (By the way, just below, qu.,—

'

Honour is cudgelled. Well, bawd, I'll (Ile, fol.) turn,” &c.) 2 K. Henry IV. ii. 1,-" How comes this, Sir John? Fy, what a man of good temper would endure this tempest of exclamations ?" 32 Troilus and Cressida, iv. 5,—

"There's a language in her eye, her cheek, her cheek, her lip." K. Henry V. iv. 3,-"I fear thou wilt once more come again for a ransom." Comedy of Errors, i. 2,

"So I, to find a mother and a brother,

In quest of them (unhappy a) lose myself."

32 In this and the next example the quartos omit the a. above, Mr. Collier reads cudgelled.-Ed.

Just

Hamlet, ii. 2,-" What a piece of work is a man!" 33 Julius Cæsar quoted a little above. Timon, iv. 3,—

Have you forgot me, sir?

Timon. Why dost ask that? I have forgot all men ;

as

Then, if thou grant'st thou 'rt man, I have forgot thee."

I have not the folio at hand; but Knight reads thouʼrt a man, whence I conclude that the folio has a,34

no quarto edition of Timon.

as there is

In the above instances I have not retained the spelling of the folio, partly through accident. Some of these, it is true, are owing to the near neighbourhood of one or more other a's.

On the other hand, there are a few instances in Shakespeare, in which a has, as I believe, been erroneously omitted. Taming of the Shrew, v. 2,

Gre.

"Is that an answer?

Ay, and a kind one, too:
Pray God, sir, your wife send you not a worse.

Petr. I hope, better."

"I hope, a better." Twelfth Night, iii. 2, near the end : yond gull Malvolio is turned heathen, a very renegade." Qu. "is turned a heathen."-4, He is knight, dubbed with unhacked rapier," &c. "He is a knight ?" Coriolanus, iv. 5, near the end,-" Peace is a very apo

33 The quartos whimsically enough omit the a before piece, and retain it before man.- Ed.

34 The reading, punctuation, and arrangement of the first folio deserve to be recorded:

"Then, if thou grunt'st, th' art a man.
I haue forgot thee."

Ed.

plexy, lethargy; mulled [mute], deaf, sleepy, insensible :” qu., "a lethargy." Othello, iv. 3,

my love doth so approve him,

That even his stubbornness, his checks, his frowns,
(Pr'ythee, unpin me,) have grace and favour in them.”

Whence in them? it is not in the folio.35 Qu., "have a grace and favour;" as (if an example were wanted), Tempest, iii. 3,

"Bravely the figure of this harpy hast thou

Perform'd, my Ariel; a grace it had, devouring."

I have met with some instances of the interpolated a in other old poets. Ford, &c., Witch of Edmonton, iv. 2, Moxon, p. 202, col. 2,

"All life is but a wandering to find a home;
When we are gone, we 're there."

Dele second a. Beaumont and Fletcher, Faithful Friends, ii. 3, Moxon, vol. ii. p. 537, col. 2, duérpws

"What cause could you pretend for so foul a wrong,
But only we were weak," &c.

Island Princess, iii. 3, p. 247, col. 2,-

Is it, to fall thus prostrate to your beauty,

A ruffian's boldness? is humility a rudeness?

The griefs and sorrows that grow here, an impudence ?" Dele second a. Fletcher, &c., Love's Pilgrimage, iv. 2, p. 627, col. 2,

“What a man have they now in the town
Able to maintain a tumult, or uphold

A matter out of square, if need be?

35 The words in them appear in the quarto 1622. The folio reading, as emended by Walker, is such as Shakespeare might well have written: on the other hand, the additional words do not look either like a sophistication or a printer's blunder.-Ed.

What man. (By the way, the whole, or nearly the whole of this scene is in prose.36) Fletcher, Honest Man's Fortune, i. 1, p. 476, col. 2,

my first increase of means

Shall offer you a fuller payment. Be content

To leave me something."

Dele a, metri gratia; and so ii. 1, p. 479, col. 1,—
we will first set down ourselves

The method of a quarrel, and make choice
Of some frequented tavern, or such a place
Of common notice to perform it in."

Middleton, &c., Old Law, v. 1, Moxon's Massinger, p. 439,

col. 1,

"Therefore to be severely punished

For thus attempting a second marriage,
His wife yet living."

(Just below, arrange and write,

"He leads a triumph to the scorn of't; which
Unreasonable joy," &c. ;

and "at's second marriage.") A occurs four lines above, and four or five below. Ford and Dekker, Sun's Darling, V. 1, p. 181, col. 2,—" Farewell, frost! I'll go seek a fire to thaw me."-The speeches of the Clowns and Folly, in this first part of the scene, are in verse, though erroneously printed as prose,

36 And so it has been printed by Mr. Dyce, who has also ejected a on the authority of the second folio.-Ed.