2°'! S. VII. Atril 23. '59.] 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



329 



LONDON, SATURDAY, APRIL 23. 1859. 



No 173.— CONTENTS. 



NoTKs:- Page 



Siiakspeare, and the Old Historical Play, " Edward III.," by 



J. Payne Collier - 329 



Was Shakspeare ever a Soldier ? by William J. Thorns - - 330 



Shnk8pcare's"TwelfthNiKht,"by W. H. Husk - - - 333 



8haksjx;are's French, by C. Manslield Ingleby - - - 33t 



New Catalogue of Shakspeariana - - - - - 335 



SiiAKsrEARfANA : — The Stocks— Shakspcarc's "Parish Top" — 

 " Aroint thee. Witch! " — Bust of Shakspeare, &c. - - 335 



The Birthday of Shakspeare, by Bolton Corney - . - 337 



Proposed Emendations of the Text of Shakspeare, by S. Ve rges - 337 



Minor Notes : — Parish Library giyen by S. P. G. Society to a 

 Church in America — Robert Greene and Robert Bums : Parallel 

 Passages — Harwood's Irish Almanac, 1666 - - - 339 



QuEniEs : — 

 AstrologiealEffectsof the Sign Taurus, by John Bruce - - 339 



Minor Qoeriks : — Rev. George Whitefleld — Serjeant John Ball 

 — Vitality of Eggs — Miracles of J. J. Rousseau, &e. - - 340 



Minor Qceuies with Answeus :_ Sam. llieron —Viscount Stir- 

 ling — Anonymous MS. Comedy— The Maudeleyue Grace, &c. 341 



Kri-mfs : - , . 



Execution of Domestic Animals for Murder - - - 313 



Oxford Ale Wives, by Dr. Doran - .... 343 



William Coddington, by P. Hutchinson - - - - 344 



Bei-mes to Minor QaEiiiEs: — Scandal against Queen Elizabeth — 

 Wlio was the Father of William of Wykeham ? — Voyding 

 Knife- Letters of the Herbert Family — Orders of Monks, &c. - 345 



SHAKSPEARE, AND THE OLD HISTORICAL PLAT, 

 "EDWARD THE THIRD." 



I contemplate ere long a new edition of all the 

 old plays that have been imputed to Shakspeare, 

 but are not included in the folios, 1623 and 1632. 

 They will form one volume 8vo., and I shall have 

 them printed uniformly with my last impression 

 of Shakespeare's Comedies, Histo7-ies and Trage- 

 dies^ 6 vols. 8vo. 1858. tjpon this task I shall 

 enter as soon as I have completed tlie charming 

 work I have in hand. 



I have been fortunate enough to procure some 

 new materials ; and the principle by which I shall 

 be governed, in regard to the text, will be that 

 by which I have liitherto been controlled ; viz. 

 to accept the old reading?, and to reprint them 

 most carefully, whenever no sufficient ground can 

 be offered for varying from them. In all cases I 

 shall give the reader his choice between the an- 

 cient text and each emendation, by inserting 

 either the one or the other in notes, according to 

 their respective worth and importance. If a pro- 

 posed change seem incontrovertible, it will find its 

 place in the text; if doubtful, in the notes — those 

 notes being as few in number, and as brief in form, 

 as I can render them. 



In the selection of the plays I shall allow my- 

 self, and I hope I shall be allowed, considerable 

 latitude ; for I shall not only reprint those which 

 came out in Shakspeare's lifetime, or soon after 

 his death, with his name on the title-pages, but 

 those which at any subsequent date have been, 

 upon plausible grounds, assigned to him either in 

 whole or in part. For example, a century ago 

 Capel, in his Prolusions^ inserted a historical 

 drama entitled The Reign of Edward the Thirds 



admitting at once that there was no external evi- 

 dence of the authorship of our great dramatist, 

 and relying confidently upon the internal evidence 

 afforded by the language, and by the character of 

 the piece itself. It was published originally in 

 1596, and re-published in 1599 ; and the subject 

 was taken from Shakspeare's usual sources, the 

 Chronicles of Holinshed, and The Palace of Plea- 

 sure. I am convinced that Shakspeare must 

 have had a considerable hand in the play ; but 

 this is not a point upon which I am disposed to 

 dwell now, nor could it be sufficiently enforced by 

 the extraction of select passages : the reason why 

 I mention it upon the present occasion is, that I 

 may thereby illustrate the manner in which I 

 intend to proceed as to the choice of plays. 



Everybody who knows anything about the col- 

 lation of, and criticism upon, old plays, and espe- 

 cially upon those of Shakspeare, is aware that 

 Capel was a most scrupulous and careful editor ; 

 but owing either to want of courage, or want of 

 aptitude, as regards the drama now under consi- 

 deration (where he could obtain no help from 

 precursors), he allowed the most absurd blunders 

 to disfigure it. I am far from advocating too 

 bold a use of the critical knife ; but needless 

 timidity, I am persuaded, has hitherto perpetuated 

 many really obvious mistakes in the language of 

 our old dramatists, and especially of Shakspeare. 

 The employment here of the word "really" brings 

 to my recollections a singular error which Capel 

 has allowed to remain in the text of Udward III. 

 as it stands in the old copies, and in his reprint. 

 The king is represented dictating to Lodowick, his 

 secretary, a passionate love-letter to the Countess 

 of Salisbury : — 



" Now, Lodowick, invocate some golden muse, 

 To bring thee hither an enchanted pen, 

 That may for sighs set down true sighs indeed, 

 Talliing of grief to make thee ready groan." 



" Golden muse " may possibly be right, though 

 I am much disposed to think that the poet wrote 

 g'ZoM^in^ muse ;" but can "ready groan" be tolerated 

 for an instant ? The simple substitution of I for 

 d, i. e. realy (as it was then spelt) for " ready " at 

 once cures the defect ; but this mode of making 

 sense of the passage never struck Capel, or he 

 would have placed " really" in his text, or among 

 his "various readings," where he has proposed 

 one or two verbal changes. 



How excessively careless the old compositor (or 

 his assistant) was, we have a strange proof on the 

 very same page ; and it is still stranger that Capel 

 was so obtuse as not to have detected the ridiculous 

 blunder. I must here quote four or five conse- 

 cutive lines. Edward tells the Countess : — 

 " Fairer b}' far thou art than Hero was ; 

 Beardless Leander not so strong as 1 : 

 He sworn an easy current to his love, 

 But I will through a hellj' spout of blood, 

 Arrive at Sestos where my Hero lies." 



