330 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



[2«>'i S. VII. April 23. '69. 



How any critic could reprint such stuff as this, 

 and fancy that it might have been written by a 

 man of sane mind, seems incomprehensible. Will 

 any modern editor, however bigotted to ancient 

 corruptions, contend that " helly spout " (" hellie 

 spout," 4to. 1596, and " helly spoute," 4to. 1599) 

 is right ? To be sure, it may be strained to some 

 meaning, but can we doubt for one instant that 

 the fourth line ought to run, v/,ri rl tj.>^ 



" But I will through a Hellespont of hlooif" -, ~'i 

 in reference to the narrow sea that Leander swam 

 across in order to meet Hei'o ? Marlowe's " Hero 

 and Leander" was not printed until 1598, but it 

 had long floated about in MS., and the story was 

 known to every dramatist, if not to every auditor. 

 Prone as some are, in our day, to perpetuate an- 

 tiquated and unquestionable absurdities, I do not 

 believe there is a single person (and that, with 

 certain examples before us, is saying a great deal) 

 who will stand up to defend " helly spout." 



I may take this opportunity also of pointing out 

 what I consider a decided error in the same play, 

 but which may possibly meet even with reasoning 

 advocates. It is where false tidings have been 

 brought to the king and queen at Calais that the 

 Black Prince has been slain by the French. Ed- 

 ward, in a fury of grief, declares the manner in 

 Avhich the funeral obsequies of his son shall be 

 performed : — 



" The mould that covers him their city ashes ; 

 liis knell the groaning cries of dying men, 

 And in the stead of tapers on his tomb, 

 An hundred fifty towers shall burning blaze." 



Let me ask, does the last line read as if it were 

 the correct text ? and why does the king name 

 precisely " An hundred fifty towers," even if we 

 suppose the conjunction to have been omitted for 

 the sake of the measure ? I am persuaded that 

 the poet wrote, 



" An hundred loftt/ towers shall burning blaze." 



The word " fools " in a speech by the King 

 of France, disgusted at the silly and cowardly 

 flight of his troops, may be said to be in a similar 

 predicament : — 



" Return and hearten up those yielding fools : " 



" fools " is souls in the old copies and in Capel, 

 but " fools " must be the genuine reading : the 

 words were frequently mistaken, and near the 

 end of Twelfth Niglit Olivia is made insultingly 

 to call Malvolio a " poor fool," instead of com- 

 passionating him as " a poor soul." 



But I will briefly introduce two instances, like 

 the rest passed over by Capel, where it cannot be 

 disputed by the most obstinate, that the old edi- 

 tions of the historical play of Edward the Third 

 are in error. One is where the king exclaims, 



"The lion scorns to touch the yielding prey, 

 And Edward's sword must flesh itself in such, 

 As wilful stubbornnegs hath inad,e perverse." 



Can any " wilful stubbornness " on the part of 

 critics induce readers to believe that " flesh," as I 

 give it in the second line, ought to he. fresh ? Yet 

 so Capel gave it, and so it stands in the 4tos. 1596 

 and 1599. Another instance of the same kind is 

 met with after the battle of Poictiers, where Ed- 

 ward orders the Black Prince and Lord Audley 

 to pursue the flying enemy with all speed. In 

 the old copies and in the reprint, the following is 

 represented as the language of the poet : — • , 



" Ned, thou and Audley shall pursue them still, . . . 

 And wistly follow Avhile the game's ou foot." 



Surely, no word need be added by me to esta- 

 blish that " wistly "^here ought to be swiftly: young 

 Edward and Audley were to allow the enemy no 

 time to make their escape. I might produce 

 twenty other instances to the same effect ; but I 

 will only subjoin one, which almost corrects itself, 

 yet never has been corrected. In an early scene 

 the Countess, speaking of the castle she has de- 

 fended, is made to tell the King, — 



" These ragged walls no testimony are 

 What is within ; but like a cloke do hide 

 From weathers West the under garnish'd pride." 



All that Capel did here was to reject the 

 capital to " West," but what could he have under- 

 stood to be the sense of the passage ? Did he sup- 

 pose that " weather's West " meant the ive.st 

 weather, or west wind ? Read, 



"... but like a cloke do hide 

 From weather's waste the under garnish'd pride," 



and all is as intelligible as need be, even if we do 

 not suppose (as I certainly do suppose) "garnish'd" 

 to be a misprint for garments. 



The question is, whether blunders such as these 

 ought to be set right, or to be perpetuated ? I 

 am for setting them right ; but, at the same time, 

 I am directly and strongly opposed to merely 

 arbitrary and capricious changes. Upon the prin- 

 ciples I have thus explained and illustrated, I 

 shall hereafter engage in the task of editing 

 dramas, generally of much merit in themselves, 

 but of peculiar interest in relation to Shakspeare. 



J. Payne Collier. 



Maidenhead. 



WAS SHAKSFEABE EVER A SOLDIER ? 

 " Have I not heard great ordnance in the field ? 



Have I not in a pitched battle heard 

 Loud 'larums, neighing steeds, and trumpets clang?" 

 T'aming of the Shrew. 



In the year 1843, when the expectancy of being 

 relieved from a great portion of my official em- 

 ployments gave me a prospect of devoting my 

 time more exclusively to literary pursuits, I sate 

 down to a pleasing task which I had long pre- 

 scribed to myself, — namely, that of making a mi- 

 nute examination into the writings of Shakspeare 



