SOME NEW EMENDATIONS IN SHAKESPEARE. 383 



hidden by the logs of wood which he had been carrying to Pros- 

 pero's cave, and which he had thrown down in terror on seeing 

 Trinculo. 



" What have we here — a man or a fish — dead or alive 1 Were I 

 in England now, &c, then would this monster make a man. When 

 they will not give a doit to relieve a lame beggar, they will lay out 

 ten to see a dead Indian." I venture to suggest that Shakespeare 

 wrote live, and not lame. The two words, if carelessly written, look 

 very much alike, but live seems the natural and true word, and gives 

 force to the contrast which the jester Trinculo wishes to draw, viz. : 

 That the English sight seer would spend ten times as much on seeing 

 a dead Indian as in relieving a live countryman. 



The opening speech of Ferdinand in the 3rd Act of the same play 

 contains a line which has been a veritable enigma for the critics. 

 Ferdinand, being commanded by Prospero to pile up a number of 

 logs at his cave, enters carrying one. Pausing in his work he thus 

 soliloquizes : 



' ' There be some sports are painful, 

 But these sweet thoughts do even refresh my labour ; 

 Most busie least when I do it." 



The last line is hopelessly meaningless. To quote Staunton : 

 "It is the great crux of the play. .No passage of Shakespeare has 

 occasioned more speculation, and on none has speculation proved less 

 happy. The first folio reads, ' most busie lest when I do it/ The 

 second, 'most busie least when I do it.' Pope prints, 'least busie 

 when I do it.' Theobald, ' most busiless when I do it.' " 



All will agree with Staunton that none of the emendations pro- 

 posed are very happy, and it were prudence, probably, not to attempt 

 to solve a difficulty which has bafHed so many. It seems to me, 

 however, clear that " most " and " least " cannot stand together in 

 the line, and that one or the other was written as a gloss for the 

 one which Shakespeare wrote. Either " most busie when I do it," 

 or " least busie when I do it," is intelligible. " Most busie," how- 

 ever, would refer to "these sweet thoughts" of which he has just 

 spoken, and " least busie " to his feelings when at work. " Studio 

 fallente laborem." I am disposed to believe that Shakespeare wrote : 



" But these sweet thoughts do even refresh my labour ; 

 Most busie — when I do it." 



