Page:Notes and Queries - Series 12 - Volume 1.djvu/371

 12 S.I. MAY 6, 1916.]

NOTES AND QUERIES.

365

rumours that prevailed at the time, and how the assertion was positively made that the Prince had been committed to the Tower. Delane offered to take up the cudgels in defence of the Court, but, after consultation with the Prince, it was considered best not to take any notice, so The Times remained all but silent. That this was the wisest course is shown by the fact that the Earl of Aberdeen,* on the 17th of January, 1854, was able to write and to congratulate the Queen " on the commence- ment of a change with respect to the news- paper attacks upon the Prince," and referred to " a very sensible letter in The Standard of last night signed D. C. L." (Beresford Hope). JOHN COLLINS FRANCIS.

(To be concluded.)

EMENDATIONS OF SHAKESPEARE. (See ante, p. 343.)

' Romeo and Juliet,' III. v. 178-80 : Day, night, hour, tide, time, work, play, Alone, in company, still my care hath been To have her match'd.

The first of these lines can be made to scan by making hour, like " fire," &c., a dissyllable, but it is plain that the words go in couples, and that consequently something has dropped out, unless "time" or "tide" be ejected, and the three or four lines here be divided differently. I suggest

Day, night, sun, shower, tide, time, work, play, where sun might have dropped out, and hour been naturally substituted for shower.

' Romeo and Juliet,' III. v. 222 :

An eagle, madam,

Hath not so green, so quick, so fair an eye As Paris hath.

How can Paris' s eye be said to be green, even if an eagle's can, though the latter is brown ? The epithet is comically applied to the eyes of Pyramus (' M. N. D.,' V. i. 342). I would substitute grey for green, as in ' Venus and Adonis,' 140:

Mine eyes are grey and bright and quick in turning. But we do find in ' The Two Noble Kinsmen,' in a very Shakespearian passage, " O vouch- safe with that thy rare greenef eye, which never yet beheld thing maculate, look on thy virgin." Possibly in our passage, as the Nurse is speaking, it may be an inten- tional absurdity.

t Meaning, however, "fresh," "youthful."
 * * Letters of Queen Victoria,' vol. iii. pp. 7, 8.

' Julius Caesar,' I. ii. 38 :

Cassius,

Be not deceived : if I have veil'd my look, I turn the trouble of my countenance Merely upon myself.

Here the word vailed, i.e. lowered, is more appropriate. Though the other spelling may well have stood for both words, it would be ambiguous to retain it nowadays.

' Julius Caesar,' III. i. 174 : Our arms in strength of malice, and our heart* Of brothers' temper, do receive you in With all kind love. For " malice " read allies.

'Hamlet,' III. iv. 169:

For use almost can change the stamp of nature, And either .... the devil or throw him out.

Here Shakespeare, or his printer, has set us a fine missing - word competition, which has proved a pretty field for the exercise of ingenuity. The earliest guess was " master," which wrecks the metre. Other suggestions are curb, chain, quill, lay, charm, foil, &c., while some prefer an antithesis to " throw out," e.g. throne. My contribution is cheat, for we find the expression in ' L. L. L/

IV. iii. 288.

'Hamlet,' IV. i. 40:

And let them know, both what we mean to do, And what's untimely done, .... Whose whisper o'er the world's diameter .... Transports his poison'd shot, may miss our name^

Here there can be little doubt but that we- should fill the gap with that calumny, a subject on which Shakespeare is always- eloquent and vehement.

' Othello,' IV. ii. 55 : A fixed figure for the time of Scorn To point his slow unmoving finger at.

This, the reading of the Quarto, seems better than that of the Folio, which is followed in the ' Variorum Shakespeare ' and by so many other authorities. The apparent con- tradiction between the two words slow and unmoving, which has led to many forced explanations, seems to be best removed bjr taking " unmoving " to mean " that cannot be removed."


 * Macbeth,' I. vii. 7 :

But here upon this bank and shoal of time

We 'Id jump the life to come.

For shoal a contributor to *N. & Q.' on July 7, 1888, suggested shore. I would prefer shelf, which is used in ' 3 Hen. VI. /

V. iv. 23, though this is perhaps not a Shake- spearian passage. But shoal is used only once elsewhere, namely, in 'Henry VIII ' (III. ii. 436). C. R. HAINES.

Petersfield.