P. 302. (80)

"Go'd strew'd i' the floor."

Here “¿" has been altered to "o"" by editors who forgot that formerly “in” was often equivalent to "on."

P. 303. (81)

"I bid for you as I do buy.”

Has been altered to "I'd bid for you as I would [and “I'd”] buy,” and to “I bid for you as I'd buy.”

(the folio sometimes having an interrogation-point where it is quite out of place: see vol. iv. p. 529, note (47)). In the second folio thus,

"Mongst friends.

If Brothers: would it had," &c.

Rowe rectified the old punctuation (though Theobald takes the credit of having done so).

Here, as Sidney Walker recommends (Shakespeare's Versification, &c. p. 98), I have marked the elision of "is" after "Leonatus."

P. 304. (84)

His absolute commission."

"he commends

So Theobald (at Warburton's suggestion).—The folio has "he commands," &c., which Capell maintains to be right, as “a direct Gallicism" (Notes, &c. i. 114), and which, according to Johnson, means “he commands the commission to be given to you." But, as Mr. Singer observes (Shakespeare, 1856), 'to commend was the old formula: we have it again in King Lear, ‘I did commend your highness' letters to them'."

66

P. 305. (85)

“this imperceiverant thing," &c.

The folio has "this imperseuerant Thing," &c.—In my Remarks on Mr. Collier's and Mr. Knight's eds. of Shakespeare, p. 258, I observed that the right reading (according to modern orthography) is “this imperceiverant thing," i.e. this undiscerning thing,—this thing without the power of perceiving my superiority to Posthumus; and I quoted from The Widow (a play by Jonson, Fletcher, and Middleton),

"had he but the perseuerance Of a Cock sparrow," &c. Act iii. sc. 2.

where, of course, “perseuerance” is, with our present spelling, “perceiverance,” i.e. discernment, power of perceiving.— More recently, Mr. Arrowsmith, in Notes and Queries, vol. vii. 400, has given an example of "perseuerant,” i.e. discerning, from Hawes's Pastime of Pleasure, p. 43, ed. Percy Society; and has adduced from early writers numerous instances of "perseuerance" (with various spelling).—It is certain, therefore, that when in the present passage Hanmer substituted this ill-perseverant thing," &c. and Mr. Collier's Ms. Corrector "this perverse, errant thing," &c., they were both equally far from the mark.

66

Warburton reads "before her face," &c.; to which the words of Cloten in p. 300, lend some support, "first kill him, and in her eyes," &c.: but see Malone's note ad l.

P. 306. (87)

66

Pisanio,

I'll now taste of thy drug.

[Swallows some."

Here the folio has no stage-direction.-Rowe, himself a dramatist, saw that at these words Shakespeare evidently intended Imogen to swallow secretly some of the "drug ;" and he accordingly added a stage-direction (which is retained in the acting-copies of the play), “Drinks out of the vial:”—but the "drug," it appears, was a solid.

P. 307. (88) "Gui. But his neat cookery! he cut our roots," &c.

The folio has,

"Gui. But his neate Cookerie?

Arui. He cut our Rootes," &c.

P. 307. (89)

"rooted in him both," &c.

The folio has "rooted in them both," &c. (which Mr. Hunter defends: "who," he asks, "can doubt that 'them' has for its antecedent the smile and the sigh ?" New Illust. of Shakespeare, ii. 297).—See note (6).

Here the folio has "Mountainers?" a form which I should have retained, but that in the five other passages where the word occurs the folio spells it with the double e.

P. 309.

"for defect of judgment

Is oft the cure of fear."

The folio has "Is oft the cause of Feare."-Theobald printed,

The folio has" Though his Honor," &c.-Theobald restored the right word,-to do which, indeed, required no great acuteness.

Capell's correction.-The folio has "thou thyselfe," &c. (The editor of the second folio omitted "thou.")

The folio has "My ingenuous Instrument,”—which (though "ingenious" was often used for "ingenuous," and, in rare cases, the latter for the former) Shakespeare would hardly have written here: afterwards in this play, p. 339, we have "torturers ingenious."

and so the second folio, except that it alters "Might'st" to "Might."-Simpson substituted “crare" for "care."

P. 312. (99)

See note (4).

"With female fairies will his tomb be haunted,

And worms will not come to thee."

P. 313. (100)

"sing him to the ground,

As once our mother," &c.

The folio has "As once to our Mother," &c.,-"the compositor having probably caught the word 'to' from the preceding line. The correction was made by Mr. Pope." MALONE.

P. 315. (101)

"so is their pain."

The folio has "so are their pain."

P. 315. (102)

"For so I thought," &c.

Pope printed "For sure I thought," &c.; and Mr. Collier's Ms. Corrector substitutes "For, lo, I thought," &c.

Was altered in the third folio to " And left his head on."-Hanmer substituted "And left thy head on,”—which (though "this" may be defended as not repugnant to old phraseology) is rendered a very probable reading by “Where is thy head?" in the preceding line but one.

P. 316. (104)

"and Cloten's," &c.

The folio has "and Cloten," &c.

P. 316. (105) "You here at Milford-Haven with your ships :

They are in readiness."

So the second folio.-The first folio has,

"You heere at Milford-Hauen, with your Shippes:

They are heere in readinesse,”

the transcriber or compositor having repeated "heere" by mistake.

P. 317. (106)

"There is no more such masters," &c.

The modern editors print, with the second folio, "There are no more," &c.: yet earlier in this play (p. 283) they are content to give," there is no more such Cæsars,” &c. (which, by the by, is not altered in the second folio).

P. 317. (107) "Try many, all good, serve truly," &c.

Has been amended to "Try many, all good, serve them truly," &c.; and to "Try many, and all good, serve truly,” &c.

"This might have been a phrase in Shakespeare's time. We yet say 'I have not heard a syllable from him'." MALONE.-Hanmer printed “I've had no letter," &c.; Capell, “I have had no letter,” &c.; and Mr. Collier's Ms. Corrector gives "I had no letter," &c. (see Mr. Collier's one-volume Shakespeare).

The folio has "we finde in life," &c.-Corrected in the second folio.

The modern editors (misled by the folio, which sometimes, as here, puts the interrogation-point for the exclamation-point) very improperly make this passage interrogative. By "what thing is it," &c., Arviragus means "what a thing is it," &c.,—the “a” in such exclamations being frequently omitted by our early writers: see vol. v. p. 368, note (1o).

Altered by Pope to "for I wish'd," &c.; and by Mr. Singer, Shakespeare, 1856, to “for I e'en wish'd," &c. (which weakens the sense not a little).

P. 322. (113)

“you some permit

To second ills with ills, each elder worse,

And make them dread it, to the doers' thrift."

Various alterations (and all equally unsatisfactory) have been proposed and made in this passage. But, hough obscure, it is not necessarily corrupt. As to "elder," I agree with Malone that Shakespeare here "considered the later evil deed as the elder."