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310 of rectifying Shakespeare where his text may happen to be corrupted.

''Act III. Scene 1''.—Now and then, however, as we have all along admitted, the old corrector makes a good hit. A very excellent emendation, about the best which he has proposed, occurs in the scene where Mortimer says—

The lady then speaks to him in Welsh, being at the same time in tears; whereupon her husband says—

"The swelling heavens"—her eyes might no doubt be swollen; but that is not a pretty picture. The correction, which is a manifest improvement, and worthy of a place in the text, is "from these welling heavens." This correction is taken from Mr Collier's appendix, or "notes," where it might be easily overlooked.

Act V. Scene 1.—The MS. corrector is very fond of eking out imperfect lines with conjectural interpolations, and of curtailing others which present a superfluity of syllables. This is a practice which cannot be permitted even in cases where the alteration improves the verses, as sometimes happens; much less can it be tolerated in cases, which are still more frequent, where the verses are manifestly enfeebled by the change. A conspicuous instance of the latter occurs in these lines. The rebellious Worcester says to the king,

Here the words, "How comes it then?" are vehement and abrupt, and the verse is purposely defective. Its impetuosity is destroyed by the corrector's stilted and unnatural interpolation—

That word say takes off the sharp edge of the king's wrathful interrogative, and converts him from a flesh and blood monarch into a mouthing ranter, a mere tragedy-king.

— Act I. Scene 2.—We agree with Mr Collier and Mr Singer that the substitution of diseases for "degrees" in Falstaff's speech is a good and legitimate emendation, and we willingly place it to the credit of the MS. corrector.

Act I. Scene 3.—The MS. corrector attempts to amend the following passage in several places—not very successfully, as we shall endeavour to show. The rebellious lords are talking about their prospects and resources. Bardolph counsels delay, and warns his friends against being over-sanguine.

In this speech of Bardolph's we shall confine our attention to the two main points on which the corrector has tried his hand. These are the two first lines, and the verse printed in italics. The two first lines are somewhat obscure; but we are of opinion that a much better sense may be obtained from them than is afforded by the corrector's emendation, which we shall advert to. "Hope," says Hastings "never yet did harm."

"Yes," says Bardolph, "in a state of affairs like the present, where action seems imminent, it has done harm to entertain (unfounded) hopes." He then proceeds to press on his friends, as their only chance of safety, the