ACT V., SCENE 1. P. 92. In the same fashion as you gave in charge, In the line-grove, &c. text reads "all prisoners, sir." In the second of these lines, the old The Poet could hardly have been so indifferent to rhythm as to leave such a gap. Pope reads "all your prisoners." The reading in the text is from Collier's second folio. P. 93. And the remainder mourning over them, He that you term'd "The good old lord, Gonzalo": From eaves of reeds. In the third of these lines, the original has Him for He, and inserts sir after term'd, to the manifest spoiling of the metre. - In the fourth line, again, the old text has "winters drops." Corrected in the fourth folio. P. 94. And 'twixt the green sea and the azure vault Set roaring war. The original has "azur'd vault." See note With your sedge crowns," page 125. P. 95. A solemn air, as the best comforter To an unsettled fancy, cure the brains, Now useless, boil'd within the skull! - In the first of these lines, the old text has and instead of as. But the latter is clearly required; for Prospero certainly means that a "a solemn air" is itself "the best comforter." Shakespeare is almost classical in his estimate of the power of music; and here he probably had in mind the effect of David's harp and voice in charming the evil spirit out of King Saul. See I Samuel, xvi. 23. — In the second and third lines, again, the original has "cure thy brains," and "within thy skull." But Prospero is evidently speaking either to all six of the men or else to none of them. If he is speaking to them, it should be your — your; if merely in reference to them, it should be either the the or their - their. The correction is Dr. C. M. Ingleby's, and is manifestly right; though, for my part, I should prefer their their, but that it involves more of literal change. The old copies have many clear instances of like error. — The original also has boile instead of boil'd, which the sense naturally requires. Probably the Poet wrote boild; and here, as in many other cases, final d and final e were confounded. See foot-note 10. P. 95. O thou good Gonzalo, My true preserver, &c. So Walker. The original lacks thou, and so has an ugly gap in the verse. "O my good Gonzalo" is the reading of some editors. After Summer merrily. — In the second of these lines, I adopt the punctuation proposed by Heath. The original reads "There I couch when owls do cry." Heath notes as follows: "If Ariel 'couches in the cowslip's bell when owls do cry,' it follows that he couches there in Winter; for that, as Mr. Warburton hath shown, from the authority of our Poet himself, as well as from the general notoriety of the fact, is the season when owls do cry. How, then, can it consistently be said, as it is in the words immediately following, that he constantly flies the approach of Winter, by following the Summer in its progress to other climates?" - - In the fourth line, Theobald changed Summer to sunset; plausibly, as it assimilates the meaning to matter of fact. But the Poet ascribes to Ariel and his fellows something of the same qualities which the Fairies have, as delineated in A MidsummerNight's Dream. These beings move entirely according to the pleasure and impulse of their inner nature, unlimited by any external order of facts; wandering everywhere swifter than the moony sphere," in quest of whatever they have most delight in, or most affinity with. Oberon puts it thus: 66 tured, and so the context clearly requires. The original has awake. Another instance of d and e confounded, the Poet having probably written awakd. P. 98. But you, my brace of lords, were I so minded, I'll tell no tales. Sebas. [Aside to ANTO.] The Devil speaks in him. Now, For you, most wicked sir, whom to call brother, &c.— In the last line but one, the original has No instead of Now. No must of course refer to what Sebastian has just said, “The Devil speaks in him." But this is evidently spoken either to himself or to his partner in guilt; and things so spoken are, I think, never supposed to be heard by the other persons of the scene. Besides, we naturally want the sense of now as a transitional word. The correction was proposed by the late Professor Allen, of Philadelphia. P. 99. As great to me, as late; and, portable To make the dear loss, &c. — The original has supportable, which makes shocking work with the metre. Steevens printed portable, which keeps the sense, saves the verse, and is elsewhere used by the Poet. Their eyes do offices of truth, these words Are natural breath. - So Capell. The original has "their words." But Prospero evidently refers to the words himself is speaking. See foot-note 30. P. 101. Let us not burden our remembrance with A heaviness that's gone. Corrected by Pope. The original has remembrances. P. 103. When we, in all her trim, freshly beheld Our royal, good, and gallant ship. The original reads, "Where we, in all our trim.” The last is Thirlby's correction. P. 105. This is as strange a thing as e'er I look'd on. reads "This is a strange thing as," &c. Corrected by Capell. The original P. 106. Where I have hope to see the nuptial Our Of these our dear-belovèd solemnized. - The original has deere-belov'd solemnized"; which White and Dyce retain. This, it seems to me, is pushing conservatism one letter too far. It is true, the Poet sometimes has it solemnizéd; but then he oftener has it as in the text. P. 107. Now my charms are all o'erthrown, &c. - All Shake. spearians, I believe, are pretty much agreed that this Epilogue was not written by Shakespeare. The whole texture and grain of the thing are altogether unlike him. Any one, who will take pains to compare it with the passages of trochaic verse in A Midsummer-Night's Dream, must see at once, I think, that the two could not have come from the same hand. It cannot be affirmed with positiveness who did write the Epilogue. As Mr. White observes, such appendages were very apt to be supplied by some second hand; and in Shakespeare's circle of friends and fellow-dramatists there were more than one who might well have done this office for him, either with or without his consent; especially as his plays are known to have passed out of his hands into the keeping of the theatrical company for which he wrote. Both the Prologue and the Epilogue of King Henry VIII. have been noted by Johnson and others as decidedly wanting in the right Shakespearian taste. THE WINTER'S TALE. `IRST printed in the folio of 1623; but heard of as early as and quack of that time, who evidently took great delight in the theatre, and who kept a diary of what he witnessed there. In 1836 the manuscript of this diary was discovered in the Ashmolean Museum, and a portion of its contents published. Forman was at the Globe theatre on Wednesday, the 15th of May, 1611, and under that date he records "how Leontes the King of Sicilia was overcome with jealousy of his wife with the King of Bohemia, his friend that came to see him, and how he contrived his death, and would have had his cup-bearer poison him, who gave the King warning thereof, and fled with him to Bohemia. Also, how he sent to the oracle of Apollo, and the answer of Apollo was that she was guiltless; and, except the child was found again that was lost, the King should die without issue: for the child was carried into Bohemia, and there laid in a forest, and brought up by a shepherd; and the King of Bohemia's son married that wench, and they fled into Sicilia, and by the jewels found about her she was known to be Leontes' daughter, and was then sixteen years old." This clearly identifies the performance seen by Forman as The Winter's Tale of Shakespeare. It is altogether probable that the play was then new, and was in its first course of exhibition. For Sir George Buck became Master of the Revels in October, 1610, and was succeeded in that office by Sir Henry Herbert in 1623, who passed The Winter's Tale without examination, on the ground of its being an "old play formerly allowed by Sir George Buck." As the play had to be licensed before it could be performed, this ascertains its first performance to have |