Page:Notes and Queries - Series 10 - Volume 10.djvu/205

 10 s. x. AUG. 29, 1908.] NOTES AND QUERIES.

165

Uterarum. What was that word ? I con- ceive that Shakespeare, instead of repeating " farmer," made use of a word which was equivalent to it ; that word was " yeoman," commonly spelt " yeman." The y was turned upside down, or otherwise badly formed, so as to look like t, and " teman " was much more likely to be taken for "time" (Anglo-Saxon tima) than for "ye- man," " yeoman," which I contend that Shakspeare wrote. PHILIP PEERING.

7, Lyridhurst Road, Exeter.

1 HAMLET,' I. ii. 150 : " A BEAST, THAT WANTS DISCOURSE OF REASON." Sir Walter Raleigh uses the phrase " discourse of reason," but he also uses it in the precise terms of Hamlet (' History of the World/ Part I. Book II. chap. iv. sect, viii.) :

"It is true, that all the creatures of God were directed by some kind of unwritten Law; the Angels intuitively ; Men, by Reason ; Beasts by sense and instinct, without discourse," &c.

CHAS. A. HERPICH. New York.

4 ANTONY AND CLEOPATRA,' I. iii. 6-12 :

Char. Madam, me thinkes if you did loue him

deerly,

You do not hold the method, to enforce The like from him.

Clto. What should I do, I do not?

Cfi. In each thing giue him way, crosse him in nothing.

Clto. Thou teachest like a foole : the way to lose him.

Char. Tempt him not so too farre. I wish for- bear e, In time we hate that which we often feare.

The ' New Variorum Edition ' gives the following comment on " wish forbeare " :

"Staunton, 'That is, I commend forbearance.' Keightley ('Exp.' 311), '"Wish" here signifies recommend, advise. I think we should read " wish you" [so reads Keightley's text], as it is always followed by its object when used in this sense.' John Hunter, 'Forbear is my wish. The verb " forbear" is here in the imperative mood.' Deigh- ton, 'An elliptical expression for " I should like to see you forbear to try him so far." ' To the fore- going may be added : Chase (Arden edition), ' Prithee, forbear. Nicholson needlessly proposes th& wish or your ivish.' "

Furness, in referring to the comment which he quotes, says : " The paraphrases just given are all of them obvious, but none of them supplies the strength which the weak expression ' I wish, forbear,' lacks." He thinks that Nicholson's conjecture, " the wish forbear," " is plausible, and is certainly stronger than the weak ' I wish.' It is better than his alternative conjecture, ' your wish, forbear.' " While concluding that ** weakness is, however, no sufficient

ground for disturbing the text," Furness:- goes on record as not being satisfied with the Folio text in the following words : "It is this weakness, this childishness, almost infantile, which renders the words suspicious,, so it seems to me."

My belief that the text is corrupt receives confirmation from the foregoing. This is doubtless another of the many instances where the compositor made a mistake through a mishearing. On p. viii of the preface Dr. Furness gives a list of errors in the present play due to the practice of" reading the copy aloud to the compositor,, the admitted errors being some seventeen in number. The context calls for something different from "I wish" or the meaning assigned to it. " Tempt him not BO too far " and " In time we hate that which we often fear" indicate something very dis- agreeable, which Charmian cautions her mistress to avoid. Instead of "I wish r forbear," read " shrewish, forbear " " for- bear to be shrewish." The line reads- smoothly with the proposed change when we consider the necessary pause and the- fact that " far " is a long syllable.

E. MERTON DEY.

St. Louis.

' CYMBELLNE,' III. iii. 29-35 :

Haply this life is best, It quiet life be best ; sweeter to you That have a sharper known ; well corresponding" With your stiff age : but unto us it is A cell of ignorance ; travelling a-bed ; A prison for a debtor, that not dares To stride a limit.

There are several notes on this passage,. Howe changed " travailing " to " travelling" which may or may not change the sense ; Pope made the correction "for" in place of " or." But the phrase which I find obscure seems to have elicited no comment.

What "travelling a-bed" means I can form no idea. It has been suggested, that with the original spelling, " travailing," it might be equivalent to suffering in bed,, but this hardly seems satisfactory. t|

Tentatively I suggest this reading, follow- ing the punctuation of the First Folio :

Haply this life is best, (If quiet life be best) sweeter to you That have a sharper known, well corresponding With your stiff age ; but unto us it is A cell of ignorance : travelling forbid, [it is] A prison for a debtor, that dares not To stride a limit.

The young princes, forbidden to travel,, were in the position of a debtor who is not- permitted to cross certain bounds.