monda overhears and adverts to with bitter sarcasm; in which she is immediately joined by D'Avolos. G. 428. W.393.-To witness that I spake is truth. Read: To witness that I speak is truth. i. e. that which I am now saying. Three times in this very scene has Mr. Weber blundered on the same string, and given us spake for speak, though the corruption perverts the meaning in every one of them. G. 434. W.399.-and for the process we'll give them courage. i.e. when the women have agreed on their plan of vengeance, we'll aid them in the performance of it. But this is too simple for our author. "Process," he says, "generally means summons, but seems here to be employed in the sense of executing a warrant.” G. 435. W.399.-Will ye? Hold! Read: Will you hold? Ferentes is anxious to stop the clamour of Marana. G. 439. W.403.-To entertain the presence with delight. "The 4to reads the present, which conveys no meaning." This positiveness might have been spared. The present for the present time, conveys a very good meaning; it is common to all our old writers in this sense; and, though it naturally escaped the notice of Mr. Weber, occurs in the opening of the very next play, "Perkin Warbeck." "But, noble counsellors, since now the present G. 446. W.408.-She is as far beneath thy thought, as I Read: She is as far beneath my thought, as I, G. 448. W.410.-By all our wish of loves. Read: By all our wish of joys. G.458. W. 418.-be rather wiser. Read: be rather wise. Wise is opposed to mad, in the former part of the verse. G. 459. W.419.-If the morn serve, some that are safe shall bleed. Read: If the moon serve, some that are safe shall bleed. Mr. Weber's corruption of this passage originates in igno rance. In our old almanacks, the days of the moon favourable to bleeding were always carefully pointed out: it is to this practice that the Duke alludes. G.460. W.420.-Nay 'tis Bianca.-Go too, D'Avolos. Read: Nay 'tis, Bianca, go to.-D'Avolos, G461. W.421.—" My lands and all I have is begg'd.” Your fury or affection-judge the rest. Could not the critic see that he was printing mere jargon? but as for me, Read: Be record all my fate! I do detest Your fury or affection:-judge the rest. A whole line dropt! G. 473. W.431.-The iron of laws of ceremony bar. Read: The iron laws of ceremony bar. G. 475. W.432.-Do you see? Read: Do you see? do you see, sir? G. 479. W.435.-Nor did I often urge the violence Of my affection- This, besides being contrary to the fact, makes nonsense of what follows. Read: G. 479. W. 436. Nor did I ofter urge the violence the sum of all thy rained follies. Vained.] "This is a singular and perhaps unique phrase, and one for which Ford must probably be arraigned as the coiner. He means to employ it in the sense of raunted." Why there's all the wit of a bell-wether now"! as the clown says. Had Ford meant vaunted, there was surely nothing, either in the measure or sound of the word, to prevent him from " employing it." But not to trifle-read : "the sum of all thy veined follies." i. e. ingrained, as we say; follies that run in the blood. G. 480. W. 436. Would angels sing A requiem at my hearse! But to dispense "This seems to be merely a figurative way of saying, I would I were dead!” More matter for a May morning! Read: Would angels sing A requiem at my hearse, but to dispense With my revenge on thee, 'twere all in vain: i. e. if so plain a passage needs explanation-" Could I secure a happy immortality by sparing thy life, I would not forego my revenge." G. 481. W. 437.-No tragedy to thee.] i. e. "no tragic fate." False and nonsensical. Read: My tragedy to thee. Bianca is enumerating her dying bequests: she bequeaths her tragedy to her husband, who had just poniarded her, her heart to her lover Fernando, and dies with the word on her lips. The reader, who has seen and admired Mr. Weber's happy discovery of the great similarity between the Edgar of King Lear and the drivelling idiot of this play, will not be unprepared to find him detecting another wonderful resemblance between the chaste, faithful, broken hearted Calantha, and the shameless and abandoned character before us." In Love's Sacrifice," he says, we have two very striking resemblances-Mauruccio is another Cuculus; and the identity of Bianca and Calantha will become more and more obvious, as we approach towards the catastrophe"! p. 396.-i. e. as the libidinous propensities of the former become more open and avowed! G. 481. W.437.-I'll slake no time. Read: I'll slack no time, i. e. I'll hasten. G.482. W.438. Read: none of sprucest. 'tis none of the sprucest. G. 402. W.369.-Thus bodies walk unsoul'd. "A very quaint word coined by Ford." It was a word in common use before Ford was born. Spenser has it in the Faery Queene "Ne aught to see, but like a shade to ween. Unbodied, unsoul'd, unheard, unseen." And I could easily trace it down, through a variety of writers, to the present day. So much for this "quaint coinage of Ford's brain"! It was not discovered, till the preceding sheet was printed off, that this passage had been dislocated from the note, p. cxxix. k G. 483. W. 439.-Duke, Stand, and behold thy executioner. This loses much of its effect from the total omission of the preceding speech. Read: Nibrassa. Look to yourself, my lord! the Duke comes. [Enter Duke with his sword drawn. 1 Duke. Stand, and behold thy executioner. G. 386. W.355.-Would tie the limits of our free effects. fections. Would tie the limits of our free affects, i. e. af G. 488. W. 443.-Fellow, learn to new live the way to thrift. This is a strange passage. i. e. The Read: Fellow, learn to new live. The way to thrift way G.489. W. 443.—“ Associate. i, e. companion." No doubt. G. 489. W.443.-" Else. i. e. otherwise." Clearly; it stands so in " Daniel Fenning, Philomath.” Read: Pouring oblations of a wounded heart We have a similar expression in the Ladies Trial. My sister shall to me stand an example Of pouring pure devotions for your safety." What is this, but pouring oblations, &c.? G. 492. W.447.-" Period. i. e. end." Very good; you have judiciously given us Shakspeare's authority for it; and all doubt is over. |