SOME NEW EMENDATIONS IN SHAKESPEARE. 387 
I cannot help referring to a remarkable instance which this play 
affords of a corrupt passage being retained in the text long after the 
obviously true reading had been suggested. See III. Act, s. 2: 
Etsow.—‘‘ He must before the Deputy, &e. 
The Deputy cannot abide a whoremaster.” 
DvKE (who is now aware what a hypocrite the Deputy is) says : 
‘* That we were all as some would seem to be, 
Free from our faults as faults from seeming free.” 
The last line is sheer nonsense, and the ingenuity of all the com- 
mentators from Warburton to Staunton has failed to extract any 
sense from it. The simple transposition of faults and from in the 
latter part of the line makes the whole passage perfectly clear, and 
gives exactly the idea in the mind ot the Duke, namely, that 
Angelo was not as faultless as he seemed to be. The same opinion of 
Angelo is expressed by the Duke in other passages of the play : 
“* Hence we shall see 
If power change purpose what our seemers be.” 
And again, when he says : 
“OQ, what may man within him hide, 
Tho’ angel or the outward side.” 
When it occurred to me many years ago thus to correct the line, 
I jumped at once to the conclusion that the suggestion had never 
been made before. For if made I thought it could not but have 
been immediately adopted. What was my surprise then to find 
that the suggestion had been actually proposed by Hamner, a very 
sensible fellow by the way, more than 100 yearsago. The correction 
has not even now been generally adopted in the recent editions of 
Shakespeare, which aim at special accuracy in the text. The cele- 
brated “Globe” edition of Shakespeare, published within the last 
twenty years, marks the passage with an obelus (+), mdicating that 
it is a corrupt one for which no admissible emendation has been 
proposed. 
Let us take up now the tragedy of Macbeth, and turn to the 
king’s speech (Act I.,s. 4), which he addresses to Macbeth returning 
after his victory : 
‘© O worthiest cousin. 
Would thou hadst less deserved 
That the proportion both of thanks and payment 
Might have been mine.” 
