VARIOUS READINGS.

"Yet, that the world may witness that my end
Was wrought by fortune, not by vile offence."

"The manuscript corrector of the folio, 1632," says Mr. Collier, "states that nature ought to be fortune, since Egeon was not about to lose his life in the course of nature."

(ACT I., Sc. 1.)

He was brought to his end by nature,-by the impulses of nature, in the desire to find his children, as he subsequently tells;not by "offence" against the laws of Ephesus.

"To seek thy hope by beneficial help." (ACT I., Sc. 1.) Mr. Collier, in his edition of 1842, suggested this alteration of the line of the folio,

"To seek thy help by beneficial help."

The MS. Corrector has the same change.

Malone holds to the original. We have not altered the text, but we have expressed a former opinion that Mr. Collier's own suggestion was valuable. But still, it may be asked, what hope has Egeon? He is ready to welcome death. His character is stoical.

"If thou had'st been Dromio to-day in my place,

Thou would'st have chang'd thy face for a name, or thy name

for a fuce."

The original has, "thy name for an ass." This correction would 66 seem more accurately to preserve the antithesis and the rhyme."

(ACT III., Sc. 1.)

"Far more, far more to you do I incline."

The original line is,

"Far more, far more, to you do

I decline."

Mr. Collier thinks the change of the Corrector is preferable.

(ACT III., Sc. 2.)

Mr. Dyce truly says of this proposed change, that the MS. corrector merely substituted a word more familiar to himself, and those of his time, than" decline."

"No, he's in Tartar limbo, worse than hell:

A devil in an everlasting garment hath him, fell:
One whose hard heart is button'd up with steel,

Who has no touch of mercy, cannot feel." (ACT IV., Sc. 2.)

Mr. Collier gives the additional word, and the additional line of the MS. Corrector, as valuable things that had been lost.

We cannot but consider these additions as sentimental stuff, very much out of character-added in a more recent period than that of Shakspere, to make couplets,

GLOSSARY.

A-ROW. Act. V., Sc. 1. In a row; one after the other.

ASSURED. Act III., Sc. 2.

Affianced.

"Swore I was assured to her."

The word is used in the same sense of contracted or affianced, in 'King John.'

BAND. Act IV., Sc. 2. Bond.

So, in 'Richard II.'

"Hast thou, according to thy oath and band."

BUFF. Act IV., Sc. 2.

"A fellow all in buff."

The "shoulder-clapper," the bailiff, of Shakspere's time, was clothed in the buffjerkin, the coat of ox-skin, which was worn for defence by great captains as well as by humble ministers of the law.

CARCANET. Act III., Sc. 1. Chain, or necklace.

CIRCE. Act V., Sc. 1.

"I think you all have drunk of Circe's cup."

The companions of Ulysses, as described in Homer's 'Odyssey,' were transformed into swine, upon drinking out of the cup of the enchantress Circe.

COMPACT OF CREDIT. Act III., Sc. 2. Credulous.

COMMON. Act II., Sc. 2.

"And make a common of my serious hours."

Dromio intruded upon his master's meditations, and thus made his private hours a common property.

DEFEATURES. Act II., Sc. 1.

"Then is he the ground

Of my defeatures, my decayed fair."

Adriana complains that the neglect of her husband is the cause of her decayed beauty-fair being used as a substantive for beauty-and of her de-features, or alteration of countenance. In 'Othello' we have "defeat thy favour," which means disfigure thy countenance.

DOORS MADE. Act III., Sc. 1.

To make the door is to fasten the door-an expression not uncommon at present.

EPHESUS. In Act II., Sc. 2, the city is described as

"the fairy

land;" and in Act I., as "full of cozenage"-of jugglers, sorcerers, and witches. In the Acts of the Apostles' the same city is mentioned as containing "exorcists," and those who practised "curious arts." (Ch. xix. v. 13. 19.)

EXEMPT. Act II., Sc. 2.

"Be it my wrong; you are from me exempt."

The wife must bear the wrong; the husband is exempt, released, from the consequences. Customs and laws have produced and kept up this injustice in the relations of the

sexes.

FAIR. See Defeatures.

FALL. Act II., Sc. 2.

"As easy may'st thou fall

A drop of water."

The verb is here used as a verb active-to let fall. There are many similar expressions in Shakspere.

FALSING. Act II., Sc. 2.

"Nay, not sure in a thing falsing."

False is used by Shakspere as a verb active. Gold makes "Diana's rangers false themselves." Falsing is the participle.

GROWING. Act IV., Sc. 1. Accruing.

HARLOT. Act V., Sc. 1. A hireling of either sex.

HELL. Act IV., Sc. 2.

A place of confinement under the Exchequer Chamber, for

debtors of the Crown, was so called-not only in vulgar parlance, but in the Journals of the House of Commons as late as the reign of William and Mary.

HOUND THAT RUNS COUNTER, &c. Act IV., Sc. 2.

The bailiff furnishes occasion for an exuberance of Dromio's wit. He is the hound that runs counter-(the term for a hound upon a false course)—but he also follows the game by the scent of the foot-dry-foot-the excellence of a hound. In this contradiction counter is an allusion to the old place of confinement in Southwark, the Compter. To Falstaff the counter-gate is as "hateful as the reek of a lime-kiln." ('Merry Wives,' Act III., Sc. 3.)

IDLE. Act II., Sc. 2. Useless.

"Usurping ivy, briar, or idle moss.'

IMPORTANT. Act V., Sc. 1. Importunate.

"Your important letters."

There are several instances in Shakspere of this use of the word, which Mr. Todd says is peculiar to him.

LASH'D. Act II., Sc. 1. Bound; fastened.

"Headstrong liberty is lash'd with woe."

LAPWING. Act IV., Sc. 2.

"Far from her nest, the lapwing cries, away."

Lily, one of the earlier contemporaries of Shakspere, says, "You resemble the lapwing, who crieth most where her nest is not."

LIVELESS. Act I., Sc. 1. Lifeless.

LOVE. Act III., Sc. 2.

66

'Let Love, being light, be drowned if she sink.”

Love is here used as the queen of love.

MATED. Act III., Sc. 2.

"Not mad, but mated."

Mated is here used to express deprived of sense. Motan (Anglo-Saxon) is to dream. It is also used by old writers in the sense of to dismay, to confound. Dr. Nares says that the term in chess of check-mate is from the Persian mat, vanquished or dead.

MOME. Act III., Sc. 1.

"Mome, malt-horse, capon, coxcomb, idiot, patch!" In this collection of abusive terms it is difficult to attach a precise meaning to mome. Some say it is a buffoon-one who plays in a mummery. Patch is a fool-and the words seem synonymous. The derivation is French; and a modern

French Dictionary (National) explains it as a young thief, and says it is a term applied to the gamin, or vagabond, of Paris.

MORRIS-PIKE. Act IV., Sc. 3.

As the morris-dance is the dance of the Moors, so the morrispike is a Moorish weapon. The passage implies that it was a formidable weapon.

O'ER-RAUGHT. Act I., Sc. 2. Over-reach'd.

OWE Act III., Sc. 2. Own.

In the original the stage direction is, "Enter a schoolmaster called Pinch." The cunning-man and the schoolmaster were synonymous in the days when few could read and scarcely any could write. In our days the profession has

lost much of this attribute of dignity.

PORPENTINE. Act III., Sc. 2.

"I thought to have ta'en you at the Porpentine."

This word has the same meaning as Porcupine; and it is invariably used by Shakspere, instead of the form now more

common.

POST. Act I., Sc. 2.

"I shall be post, indeed,

"For she will score your fault upon my pate."

In primitive shop-keeping days the score was chalked upon the door-post-as the publican still scores his tally-board.

ROUND. Act II., Sc. 1.

Dromio of Ephesus is round-that is, plain-spoken. He is spurned as the round football.

STALE. Act II., Sc. 1. Stalking-horse.

STIGMATICAL. Act IV., Sc. 1.

"Stigmatical in making; worse in mind."

A stigmatick is one branded in form, as in 'Henry VI., Part II.' "A foul, mis-shapen stigmatick."

TIRING. Act II., Sc. 2. Attiring.