314 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



[No. 205. 



would doubtless have "blotted" much that we 

 should have regretted submitting to his judgment. 

 Yet, after all, the anecdote is not according to the 

 fact. Shakspeare did " blot " thousands of lines, 

 probably many more than Ben Jonson himself 

 ever did ; and of this we have the best evidence 

 in whole plays almost re-written. Even in the 

 single instance rare Ben gives of Shakspeare's in- 

 correctness, published many years after the latter's 

 death, the memory or hearing of the former either 

 were at fault, or the line had been " blotted." 



Absolute perfection is, of course, not to be 

 looked for ; there is no such thing in reference to 

 human affairs, unless it be in constant and unob- 

 structed growth and development. This is ex- 

 hibited in Shakspeare's writing to a degree shown 

 by no other writer. The shortcomings of Shak- 

 speare are most evident when he is compared with 

 himself, — the earlier with the later writer. But 

 take his earliest work, so far as can be ascertained, 

 in its earliest form, and the literature of the age 

 cannot produce its equal. Samuel Hickson. 



" I knew there was but one way, for his nose was as 

 sharp as a pen, and 'a babbled of green fields." — 

 Shakspeare. 



" I knew there was but one way, for his nose was as 

 sharp as a pen on a table of green frieze." — Shakspeare 

 corrected. 



Some of the alterations in the manuscript cor- 

 rections in Mr. Collier's old edition of Shak- 

 speare's plays I agree with, but certainly not in 

 this one, since we lose much and gain nothing by 

 it. Shakspeare, in drawing a character such as 

 Falstaff, loaded with every vice that flesh is heir 

 to, and yet making him a favourite with the au- 

 dience, must have been most anxious respecting 

 his death, and therefore awakened our sympathy 

 in his favour. In ushering in the account of the 

 death-bed scene, he makes Bardolph say : 



" Would I were with him, wheresome'er he is, either 

 in heaven or in hell." 



This expression Burns the poet considered the 

 highest mark of regard that one man could pay to 

 another, for in his poem on a departed friend, he 

 says: 



" With such as he, where'er he be, 

 May I be saved, or damn'd." 



Mrs. Quickly, in describing the scene, says : 



" He's in Arthur's (Abraham's) bosom, if ever man 

 went to Arthur's bosom. 'A made a finer end, and went 

 away, an it had been any christom child ; for after I 

 saw him fumble with the sheets, and play with flowers, 

 and smile upon his finger's ends, I knew there was but 

 one way ; for his nose was as sharp as a pen, and 'a 

 babbled of green fields." 



Mrs. Quickly, after describing the outward signs 

 of decay and second childishness, tells us he bab- 

 bled. Shakspeare, as the only means of gaining 



our forgiveness, makes him die in repentance for 

 his sins, and seems to have had the Twenty-third 

 Psalm in his mind, where David puts his trust in 

 God's grace, when amongst other passages it says : 

 " He maketh me lie down in green pastures^' and 

 further on, "Yea, though I walk through the 

 valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, 

 for thou art with me." I have endeavoured to 

 give you a reason why I prefer the old reading of 

 the text : if any of your correspondents will give 

 a better for the new, I shall be glad to see it, as I 

 am convinced the more we examine into the works 

 of our wonderful bard, the more we shall be con- 

 vinced of his superhuman genius ; we are, there- 

 fore, all indebted to Ma. Collier for his searching 

 investiiiations, as they set us in a reflective mood. 

 J.B. 



Your just remarks on Theobald's " 'a babbled 

 of green fields " recalls to me a note which I find 

 appended to the passage in the margin of my 

 Shakspeare, 



" ''A babbled of green fields, i.e. singing snatches of 

 the 23rd Psalm : 



' In pastures green He feedeth me,' &c. 

 ' And though 1 walk e'en at death's door,' &c." 

 This note I jotted down in my schoolboy days, 

 and thirty years' experience at the beds of the 

 dying only convinces me of its correctness. 

 Again and again have I heard the same sweet 

 strains hymned from the lips of the dying, and 

 soothing with hope the sinking spirit, ay, even of 

 great and grievous sinners. Indeed, I have come 

 to stamp it as a sure mark of impending death, 

 and have said with the dame, " I knew there was 

 but one way, for 'a babbled of green fields ; " 

 though I trust with different doctrine than her's, 

 viz. that religion is the business of none but the 

 dying, and thence, that to talk of religion is a 

 sure sign of approaching death. 



When Falstaff " babbled of green fields," he 

 was labouring under no " calenture." His heart 

 was far away amid the early fresh pure scenes of 

 childhood, and he was babbling forth snatches of 

 hymns and holy songs, learned on his mother's 

 knee, and now called up, in his hour of need, to 

 cheer, as best they might, his parting spirit. 

 Strange is it that Theobald, when he suggested so 

 happy an emendation, missed half its beauty and 

 its real bearing. 



Throughout the whole passage it is evident that 

 Falstaff was ejaculating scraps of long forgotten 

 hymns and Scripture texts, which were utterly 

 incomprehensible to those about him. " 'A h&h- 

 bled of green fields," — "he cried out of sack," — 

 " and of women," — " incarnate," — " whore of 

 Babylon," — all suggest holy ejaculations, per- 

 verted by the ignorance of the godless bystanders. 

 In all Shakspeare there is hardly to be found a 

 more touching scene, or one more true to nature ; 



