Page:Notes and Queries - Series 9 - Volume 3.djvu/288

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NOTES AND QUERIES. [9* s. m. APRIL 15, m

Collot-D'Herbois, rue Favart, No. 14. Billaud-Varenne, rue des Arcs, ci-devant Saint- Andre, No. 40.

But in July, 1794, while this little book was in the press, Robespierre and his party fell, and therefore at the bottom of p. 127, the last in the book, we are told that instead of Robespierre, Couthon, Saint-Just, Barrere, Collot-D'Herbois, and Billaud-Varenne, we are to read Thuriot, Legendre, Delmos, Cochon, Merlin (de Douay), and Fourcroy.

SHAKSPEARIANA.

' OTHELLO,' I. i. 21 (5 th S. xi. 383 ; 9 th S. i. 83, 283, 422, 483 ; ii. 203, 402, 524 ; iii. 64, 222). I am as weary as DR. SPENCE of this " in- terminable controversy," and with more reason, for its prolongation is due to DR. SPENCE'S own misapprehensions and ir relevancies. His last note, coming from one whose special department is verbal criticism, I cannot allow to pass without protest ; for it puts into my mouth words I never used, and utterly mis- represents what I did say. I never averred that Shakespeare could not have tolerated two sibilants at the end of a verse, or said that such a verse -ending would necessarily be horrible. What I said was that DR. SPENCE'S line ends with a " horrible sibilation," and that I could not think Shakespeare would invert a common phrase without some strong reason when by doing so he would both obscure his meaning and necessitate such an ending. Possibly DR. SPENCE does not see any difference between this and what he makes me say, but I do.

But the controversy is not merely per- sonal. DR. SPENCE sins more against Shakespeare than against me ; for he debits him with his own inability to distinguish between an agreeable and a disagreeable sibilation. His long string of quotations is entirely irrelevant ; for in none of them is there a verse ending with two long syllables, each carrying a sibilant. If DR. SPENCE can- not appreciate the difference in sound between "his wife was false" and "in affairs wise" I can ; and I venture to think that Shakespeare could. But even if such a phrase were found in his plays, it would not be a case in point, unless it were also shown that he went out of his way for it.

The inversion DR. SPENCE is now willing to give up. This, it seems to me, is equivalent to giving up everything except the objection to " a fair wife." I am asked to give her up ; but how can I ? She is not my wife.

0. C. B.

Epworth.

Shakspeare wrote many bad lines, for he often had to write when he was not in the vein; but I feel quite sure that he never wrote the line which DR. SPENCE suggests as the right reading. Whether corrupt or not,

A fellow almost damned in a fair wife is a strong line. Shakspeare was a fast writer, and probably did not always look over or correct his poetry. When he made mistakes in his plays he seems sometimes to have left them there, arid not to have altered them. Perhaps he first intended that Cassio should be a married man, and then abandoned or forgot his original purpose. Referring to the construction of the words, " damned in a fair wife," I will remark that Shakspeare has the same, " damned in evils," in ' Macbeth,' Act IV. sc.^iii. This may be thought a slight matter, or it may confirm the impression that Shakspeare wrote the words "damned in a fair wife." E. YARDLEY.

Reams of paper have been covered in mendations of this line. To me it is, as it stands, quite Shakespearian in form and full of suggestion. I know what has been and is urged against it. No emendation that has yet been made is in the least degree satisfactory, and I strongly urge that it should in future be rigorously let alone. H. T.

'2 HENRY IV.,' V. ii.

You are right Justice, and you weigh this well : Wherefore still beare the ballance and the sword.

Quarto, 1600. So it is printed, without comma between "right" and "justice," in the folio, and in the editions of 1709 (Tonson's) and of 1733 (Theobald's). The first edition in which I have found the comma is that of 1769. Thenceforward it is in all the editions that I have looked into. Is the comma right 1 I am disposed to think not.

1. The phrase "You are right" has a some- what modern sound. It cannot have been common in Shakspeare's time, as with the help of the Concordance I find one, but only one, certain example of his use of it. In ' Coriolanus,' II. iii., Menenius says, "O sir, you are not right." So I may just indicate, but must not insist upon, the point.

2. Henry is hereby made to address the Lord Chief Justice familiarly as "Jus- tice." Was it not alien to the ceremonious custom of Shakspeare's age that any one, even a king, should address so distinguished a personage in this curt, off-hand fashion? Such curtailment of ceremonious address is rather a thing of our own day. I am not, in- deed, clear on the point. Possibly such cases might be alleged against me as that of