Page:The Plays and Poems of William Shakspeare (1790) - Vol. 1a.djvu/36

xxii Again, ibidem: when Macbeth says, "Hang those that talk of fear,” it is evident that these words are not a wish or imprecation, but an injunction to hang all the cowards in Scotland. The editor of the second folio, however, considering the passage in the former light, reads:

"Hang them that stand in fear!" From the same ignorance,

"And all our yesterdays have lighted fools

"the way to dusty death.”

is changed to—

"And all our yesterdays have lighted fools

"The way to study death." In K. Richard II. Bolingbroke says, "And I must find that title in your tongue," &c. i.e. you must address me by that title. But this not being understood, town is in the second folio substituted for tongue.

The double comparative is common in the plays of Shakspeare. Yet, instead of "———I'll give my reasons

"More worthier than their voices."

Coriolanus, Act III. sc. i. First Folio. we have in the second copy,

“More worthy than their voices." So, in Othello, Act I. sc. v.—"opinion, a sovereign mistress of effects, throws a more safer voice on you,” —is changed in the second folio, to—"opinion, &c. throws a more safe voice on you."