226 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



[No. 149. 



In the other two copies this part of the cross- 

 line of the f is not so visible to the naked eye, but 

 when magnified is distinctly seen to have been 

 bent and broken off by an accident at press. 



I feel it incumbent upon me to let Me. Collier 

 know that there are variations in the copies of the 

 second folio as well as in the first; corrections 

 evidently made while the book was at press ; but 

 the printer certainly outdoes the negligence of him 

 who put forth the first folio. 



If Mr. Collier will turn to Loves Labour's 

 Lost, p. 143. col. 2. line 38., he will find a passage 

 which, in the copies W and H in my possession, is 

 thus given : 



" If this austere unsociable life, 

 Change not you offer made in heate of blood: 

 If frosts, and fasts, hard lodging, and thine weeds 

 Nip not the gaudy blossomes of your Love." 



Which in copy S is properly corrected by the 



printer thus : 



" If this austere insociable life. 

 Change not your offer made in heate of blood : 

 If frosts, and fasts, hard lodging and thin weedes 

 Nip not the gaudy blossomes of your Love." 



Again, in Much Ado about Nothing, p. 119. col. 1. 

 line 10., copies W and S have "righthly," copy H 

 corrects " rightly ; " and in the same column, line 

 10 from bottom, Wand Shave "/if thank," H 

 corrects " / thank." 



The pagination of the second folio is very con- 

 fused and incorrect; the mistakes are too numerous 

 to mention, but in one instance I find it corrected. 

 In copy S, Loves Labours Lost, the page which 

 should be 123 is 132 ; this is remedied in the 

 other two copies, which have it rightly 132. 



There are probably many other instances of va- 

 riation which a closer examination would develope. 

 Mr. Collier is doubtless aware of the lines re- 

 peated in pp. 171. and 196., and of the numerous 

 other sphalmata which disfigure this volume. 



It is singular that I should, just at this moment, 

 have met with a copy of the second folio, which, 

 like Mr. Collier's, has been carefully corrected 

 throughout, and it may not be unsatisfactory to 

 him to know that the passage in Coriolanus, 

 " You Heard of Byles and Plagues," 



has not escaped the MS. corrector, who has de- 

 leted 1/ou, and reads, 



" A Heard of Byles and Plagues." 



It however appears to me that these anonymous 

 corrections must stand upon their own intrinsic 

 merits, and I cannot consider the correction " uri" 

 heard of boils, &c." so undoubted that I could say 

 of it, with Mr. Collier, " this must be right." 

 Heard is the way in which herd is spelt in other 

 places; it occurs again in Act III. Sc. 1., where 

 Coriolanus says : 



" Are these your Heard?" 



and the word being printed as it is with a capital 

 letter, raises a doubt whether you Herd could 

 possibly have been a mistake for unheard. The 

 speech, interrupted and broken by passion, as it 

 now stands seems to me more satisfactory. 



But in these matters how difficult it is to pro- 

 pose any change which shall carry universal 

 assent! I thought, with many others, the sub- 

 stitution of Bissau Multitude for Bosom Multi- 

 plied a happy emendation, yet we find that one 

 strenuous dissentient voice is raised against it : 

 " Non equidem invideo ; miror magis." 



The majority on this occasion may be in the 

 wrong, for I heard a defeated candidate at the late 

 election declare that the minority were generally 

 right ! S. W. Singer. 



Mickleham, Aug. 18. 1852. 



The following are the readings in a copy of the 

 folio edition of Shakspeare, 1632, in my possession. 

 The first is Measure for Measui'e, Act III. Sc. 1. : 

 in my copy the reading is, — 



" Friend hast thou none. 



For thine own bowels which do call thee, fire 

 The meere efTusion of thy proper loynes, 

 Do curse the gout," &c. 

 The second passage is thus printed in my copy, 

 Richard //., Act I. Sc. 3. : 



" The flye flow hours shall not determinate 

 The datelesse limit of thy deer exile : " 



You will observe the word is printed "flye" 

 with the final e, and the word dear is printed 

 " deer." Mine is a very clean, well-printed copy, 

 and the type remarkably distinct and clear. 



It may be proper, however, to state, that al- 

 though I have always considered my folio to be 

 the edition of 1632, having purchased it as such 

 about twenty years ago, when it had that date let' 

 tered on the back, yet it has not the original and 

 genuine title-page, but instead thereof one beau- 

 tifully executed with a pen : 



MR. WILLIAM 



SHAKESPEAaE's 



COMEDIES, 



HISTORIES, & 



TRAGEDIES. 



[^Here is inserted the Portrait by Droeshout.J 



LONDON 



Printed by Isaac laggard, and Ed. Blount. 



I once bad an opportunity of comparing it, 

 rather hastily, with one which professed to be the 

 third edition, and I was struck with their exact 

 resemblance in many particulars. 



Perhaps Mr. Collier may be able to determine 

 whether my copy be indeed the edition of 1632, 

 or favour me with some certain criteria for settling 

 the point. J. T. A. 



