The republic. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1849-1853, 1853-05-07

margin OF the iOlO, loJZ.
And this, which belongs to Gloves Iabou
LOST
"Costnrd speaks soliloquy in rhyme at tn
ciose OF TINS scene, one line in which 10 wanting
as evident from the corresponding line, and frou
me insertion OF the addition, though in vronl
place, by the correcor of the folio, 1852. He per
maps intended TO write IT in the blank space near
est TO where il ought TO come in but he has writer
u IN another blank space above it, and has draw
marx with his pen to the spot where It'll wanted
The whole passage ia this, and the line in manu-
script We have printed in italics:
Armada % the one side, 20, a most dainty mani
10 see him walk before lady, and to bear her fan
10 see him kiss his hand and how most sweetly a
will swear
Looking babIs in her eyes his passion to declare;
AND his page o. Z other side, that handful of small
All heavens, it is a most psthetical hit
Besides the entire line, which escaped the printer
or the copyist of the drama, the word small wal
also left out"
And of somewhat differing quality. but of th,
same general class, this, from "A Midsummei
Nights Dream"
'-The Fairy, soon after meeting Puck, saws
speaking of Titania-
The cowslips tall her pensioners be;
In their gold coats spots you see;
These be rubies, fairy favors,
In those freckles 1--we their savors
There seem several objections to this passa ge as
has stood IN all editions. First, cowslips are never
tall and next, the crimson spots are not in thei
coats or on their petals, bot at the bottom of tbt
cahx, as Sha kspeare has himself told us in Gym.
oeline,' Act ii. Scene =:
Like the crimson drops
i tn bottom of a cowslip,
The alteration authorized in manuscript in tbs
folio 1882, is, therefore, as follows:
The covslips all her pensioners be:
In their gold cups spots you see;
These be-rubies, fairy fsvors,
In those freckles live their savors.
Rubies would be Singular decorations for a coat
but were common ornaments to golden chaces. y
In the same play:
'Uermia. ina ginning that Demetrius has killed
Lysandsr, vents her rage upon him in a speech o.
some length and great violence; upon which nj
the passage has hitherto been given, Demetriui
coolly remarks
You spend your sssion a misprisd mood;
am not guilty Of Lysander's blood;
but the corrector of the folio, 1852, says that we
ought to read
You spend your passion IL, mispris'd flood;
that is, in mistaken torrent, which appears to
give additional force and greater intelligi oity."
One more from the same:
'ln part of Thisbe's dying rhapsody, as it ap-
peared before Theobald's time, he saw that the
rhymes did not correspond, as they ought:
These lily lips,
This cherry nose,
These yellow cowsip cheeks &c
He therefore proposed broics instead of lips;
but he missed the alteration of the right word; the
manuscript corrector of the folio 1892, gives it
and, no doubt, accurately
This lily lip,
This cherry tip,
in allusion to the tap of the nose of Pyramus, to
which, we may imagine, Thisbe pointed at the
moment"
al he Merchant of Venice furnishes the next:
There is a material emendaton in the speech OF
the Prince Of Afragon, when commenting on the
caskets. The reading has always been
What many men desire; that many may be meant
BY the fool multitude, that choose by show,
Not learning more than the fond eye doth teach;
Which prizes not to tn interior, but, like the mart
let,
Builds in the weather, &c.
This is certainly ineligible. but the verse ia re-
dundant in the frat line by many which Ia
erased and the corrector of the folio 1852 farther
informs that the words Of the poet, in the fourt
line, were
Which prize not tn Interior but like the martlet
Builds in the weather, sc.
That IL to say, the fool multitude do not prize or
value the interior, but jud &c only by externals IL
Will be observed aso that this reading restores
in some degree the regularity of the verse"
And at no great interval from this, in the same
play, this:
1.-The expression to 'peize the tme,' in Portia' .
introd uction of Bassauio to the caskets, has not
been well understood. To 'peiEe' is to weigh, to
poise; but the sense wanted ia to delay and that
sense have in the corrector's man uscript who
writes pause for 'peze, in the following extract:
speak too long: but tits to pause the time,
To exc il, and to draw it out at length,
To stay you from election.
Portia wished to postpone Bassanio's choice, lest
he should select the wrong casket and thus neces-
sa rily and suddenly terminate their intercourse
So far for the present In another paper we shall
continue this important case.