Page:Richard III (1927) Yale.djvu/187

Richard the Third upon no valid authority. the line should remain as it stands in the text.

laid. Many editors prefer the reading 'lead' of the first Quarto. In all the Folios, however, and in the quartos from 2 through 8 the reading is 'laid' or 'layd.'

for hope. Wright's paraphrase 'I died as regards hope' is probably correct, since it is confirmed by a passage in Greene's James IV, V. vi. (Dyce ed., p. 217). Steevens suggested 'I died for hoping to give you aid, before I could actually give it.'

coward conscience. Cf. Hamlet, III. i. 83: 'Thus conscience does make cowards of us all.'

lights burn blue. There was an old superstition to the effect that spirits signified their presence by causing lights to become dim or to burn blue. Cf. Julius Cæsar, IV. iii. 274: (at entrance of Ghost of Cesar) 'How ill this taper burns!'

now. The 'not' of the Folio is probably a misprint. Cf. Hamlet, III. ii. 413: Tis now the very witching time of night, When churchyards yawn, and hell itself breathes out Contagion to this world.'

The punctuation of the line in the Quarto deserves consideration: 'What do I feare? my selfe?'

shall. The Quarto reading 'will' has been generally accepted.

These lines are omitted in the Folio, by 'an accident of the press,' according to Spedding.

eaves-dropper. The Folio 'ease-dropper' appears to be a misprint, although the same reading occurs in the quartos. The fourth Folio is the first text to make the emendation 'eaves-dropper.'

cried on. An idiomatic expression. Cf. Hamlet, V. ii. 378: 'This quarry cries on havoc';