The daily dispatch. [volume] (Richmond [Va.]) 1850-1884, 1853-03-03
SHAKESPEARE.

.,;.n If this article; yet SO many persons
ia II reading about the great English
-, ,h., NE have no fears for the consequent
r.s. Every new discovery relative 70 num- 10
n;s works. or to those even who are suppos-
"A n have had any the slightest lection
,,;,b him. becomes, at once, intensely interest
=, 70 the whole circle Of reading people
,hroushout the world. We propose to intro
ance one on this occasion, which is of far more
importance than all others combined, from the
death Of the poet to this day.
All those who have made themselves fami-
liar with Shakespeare jand who that reads En-
glish has not n are aware of the obscurity
which his text presents in numberless instan-
ces, and Of the unbounded field of investiga-
ton, enquiry and emendation this obscurity
has opened. The amount that has been writ
ten upon this subject, is absolutely incredible.
Some OF the greatest in,ellects that England
has produced, have been enlisted in the task.
Poets, philosophers, historians, sages, men
OF all classes, and every grade of pretensiOn
in the literary world, have tried their strength
upon this bow of Ulysses, and none OF them
have succeeded in bending it, according to our
humble opinion. Persons of the most opposite
character of understanding, and of the utmost
dissimilarity of taste in every other particular,
have been attracted to this all inviting SUBJECT.
Howe and Farmer, Pope and Theobald, War
burton and Malone, johnson and Stevens, to
say nothing of Burke, Scott, Coleridge, and
the German commemorative all, IN various
WAYS. given their serious attention to Shaks-
peare. No writer, except, perhaps, Plato,
ever produced such profound impression
upon literary men, or men Of study and retlec-
1ion-no man was ever so much written about,
except Napoleon, or, perhaps, Juluas Caesar.
The conseque noes Of all the commentaries,
cancellations, interpretations, and suppressions,
that have been made or suggested by these
commentators, have been such as mig ht have
been expected. Shakespeare is far more OBJ
scure to the modern reader, than he would
have been had not word been written about
him-had the curse which he pronounces in
his epitaph upon the man who should move
his bones, actually fallen on him who first ven.
tured to touch his text, and thereby prevented
others from following his example. The first
great corrupters were the players, who pub
lished the first complete edition of his drama.
tic works, seven years after his death, only
fourteen of them having been printed during
his life. 1t is much to be regretted that he did
NOT superintend the publication even of these.
They were all spurious or pirated editions,
never corrected by the author, and not even
- L: IL he 10 haya l. cd No
care whatever OF the offspring of his brain. and
not to have disturbed himself in the least with
regard to their well being after they had is
sued, full armed, from his brain. The players
edition was printed from tine stage copy, and,
of course teemed with inaccuracies. The
correction of these inaccuracies, and the resto-
ration of the original text, as far as possible
has been the object of the unnumbered COM
mentares to which we have alluded. And this
brings us to the object with which we set out.
Mr.. ]. Payne Collier, one of the best of the
late commentators upon Shakespeare, in the
year 1S49, acquired possession OF copy of
the second folio edition of Shakespeare, pub
fshed in 1923 tseven years after his DEATH
which was SO tattered that he at first laid
il aside in despair of Obtaining any thing
useful from it. On examining it three years
after, however, he discovered, from certain
cancellations of the text recorded in the mar
gin, that it must have been an old actors
copy, which had been used, probably, near
the time of publication. 1t was written all
over with stage directions, prompter's marks,
and ensures of passages omitted IN the re-
presentation, many of which, of themselves,
throw light on passages heretofore obscure.
But another circumstance of far more i'm
portance renders this volume invaluable
1t is found that, from beginning to end, the
text itself has been altered in every conceiva-
BILE way" the sense restored by proper pune
tuation, wrong words substituted by light ones,
dropped phrases replaced, and whole lines re-
stored-most essential ones-whch were never
dreamed of by commentators, because never
seen before in any printed copy of the works of
Shakespeare. 81 discovered" says Mr.. Collier
that there was hardly paper which did
not present, in hand writing of the time, some
cancellations in the pointing or in the text;
while in most of them they were frequent, and
ON many, numerous" The total number of
these corrections is at least tmeaty thousand,
and they were, beyond all question, made by
some one who had access TO information not
within the reach of the public-probably the
authentic manuscript copies preserved in the
theatre Of which Shakespeare had himself once
been manager. The name of Thomas Perkins
is written in the book, and he was, in all proba.
bility. the owner. Richard Perkins was a d;s.
tinguished actor of the day, and il NAV be that
this Thomas was his relation. Mr.. Collier has
issued supplemental edition, in which the
cancellations derived from this copy are com.
prised.
II is proper 10 say tina, we have no, seen the
supplemental volume alluded to. and tba, we
are indebted to an editorial note in Pu,nam's
Monthly, for the information detailed above
Wewili add, that more than one thousand pas.
sages have been restored.
II certainiy is Of great Importance to the |;
terary world that ii should have the text of
Shakspeare as he wrote it, But II would have
sraiihed curiosity far more, could something
have been brought to Iigh, about the man. W.