ALL'S WELL THAT ENDS WELL.

ACT I. Sc. 1.

HELENA...

That they take place when virtue's steely bones
Look bleak in the cold wind; withal full oft we see
Cold wisdom waiting on superfluous folly.

Should not the word withal be omitted, which
injures both the sense and the metre?
HELENA....Impossible be strange attempts to those
That weigh their pains in sense, and do suppose
What hath been cannot be.

This is the reading of all the old editions, yet it is evidently erroneous; the whole tenor of Helena's speech proves that we ought to read,

....And suppose

What han't been cannot be.

ACT I. Sc. 3.

HELENA....Did ever, in so true a flame of liking,
Wish chastly, and love dearly, that your Dian
Was both herself and love.

The meaning of this paffage appears to me to be this: If ever you wished chastly, and loved dearly, so that your Dian was both herself and love; that is, so that chastity and love had both possession of your breast.

E

1

Malone's transposition is proposed from a misconception of the meaning.

ACT II. Sc. í.

HELENA....Ere twice the horses of the sun shall bring Their fiery torches his diurnal ring;

Ere twice in murk and occidental damp

Moist Hesperus hath quench'd his sleepy lamp. &c. This passage is exactly in the style of Lazarillo's speech, in the third act of Fletcher's Woman-hater, which is intended to be ridiculous, and might possibly have been a sneer upon this. PAROLLE'S Letter...

Men are to mell with, boys are not to kiss.

It appears to me that Theobald is clearly right in reading,

Boys are but to kiss;

And his explanation of to mell with, is just.

Boys will do very well to kiss and toy with, but men are the persons to mell with.

PERICLES, PRINCE OF TYRE.

ACT III. Sc. 2,

1st GENTLEMAN....

Our lodgings standing bleak upon the sea,
Shook as the earth did quake;

The very principals did seem to rend,

And all to topple.

And all to topple means, and every thing to tumble down; the word all does not refer, as an argumentative, to principals only.

ACT V.-Sc. 1.

MARINA....

I said, my Lord, if you did know my parentage,
You would not do me violence.

I could not at first conceive what violence Marina had to complain of, on the part of Pericles; but that is explained in the subsequent part of this scene, in which he says,

Didst thou not say, when I did push thee back,
(Which was when I perceived thee) that thou camest
From good descending:

The pushing her back was the violence she alludes to..

Mr. Malone, in his enumeration of the plays altered from Shakspeare, has omitted Lillo's Marina, which is entirely formed from this play, and fhould have been inserted in his list, if Pericles be really the production of Shak÷ speare.

I must observe, that Mr. Malone's edition of Pericles is the most defective of any of his publications, and much inferior to that of Steevens, which will evidently appear to every reader, that shall take the trouble of comparing them.

ACT 1. Sc. 1.

·TWELFTH NIGHT.

DUKE.......

Those several thrones, are all supplied and filled (Her sweet perfections) with one self kingThe second folio reads, with one self-same king; and this is, in my opinion, the reading that ought to be adopted, as it improves both the language and the metre.

Malone has proved, that in Richard II. the word self is used to signify same; but there it is a licentious expression. Once more he accuses the editor of the second folio as ignorant of Shakspeare's language and metre; it is surely rather hardy in a commentator, at the close of the 18th century, to pronounce, that an editor in 1632, but 16 years after the death of Shakspeare, was totally ignorant of his language and metre; and it happens unfortunately, that in both the passages on which Mr. Malone has preferred this accusation, the second folio is clearly a correction of the first, which is the case with some other passages in this very play.

ACT I. Sc. 5.

MARIA....You will be hang'd for being so long absent, or to be turned away.

The second folio omits the word to, which is certainly right, and reads or be turn'd away.

ACT II. Sc. 5.

SIR TOBY....Here comes my little villain-how now, My metal of India?

That is, my precious girl; my girl of Gold.

STEEVENS.

This was the first idea of Steevens, but on further consideration he has followed the second folio, which reads, my nettle of India, which he has ingeniously explained, and which certainly better corresponds with Sir Toby's description of her-bere comes the little villain. The nettle of India is the plant that produces what is called cow-itch, a substance only used for the purpose of tormenting, by its itching quality.

ACT III. Sc. 5.

FABIAN...Sowter will cry upon it, tho' it be as rank as a fox.

Mr. Malone's explanation of this passage appears to me far fetched and unnatural; I fhould therefore adopt Hanmer's amendment, and read, Tho' it be not as rank as a fox.

Sowter will cry upon it, means, Sowter will give his tongue, as a dog does, when he scents the game, though the scent be not so rank as that of a fox, and this explanation is confirmed by Fabian's next speech