all verbal critics, more or less, have had to pay, and always will have; for verbal criticism neither can, nor will, be stopped: it is essential to the advancement of learning. The eminent philologist Gottfried Hermann, who stands in the frontrank of verbal critics, in one of his lectures, delivered it as his conviction that a verbal critic of the true stamp should be willing like Saturn to devour his own offspring. As one of his disciples, therefore, I cannot be blamed if, following his precept and example, I hereby eat those conjectural emendations of Elizabethan dramatists which I have hitherto published and which are not contained in my editions of Elizabethan plays, in Messrs Warnke's and Proscholdt's Edition of 'Mucedorus', and in the present collection; at the same time let me breathe the hope that the emendations published in those editions and in this collection may not need, at some future day, to be subjected to the same Saturnian process. My conjectural emendations in the text of 'Mucedorus', which appeared originally in the ShakespeareJahrbuch XIII, 45 seqq., have been excluded from the present collection merely on the ground that almost all of them and some fresh ones to boot have been embodied in the edition of that play by Messrs Warnke and Proscholdt. The emendations of 'Mucedorus' contained in the present volume have not been published before. Halle, November 1879. K. E. UNIV OF ANONYMOUS PLAYS. I. Then is there Michael, and the painter too, Chief actors to Arden's overthrow. ARDEN OF FEVERSHAM, III, 5 (ED. DELIUS 45). Is Chief to be taken as a so-called monosyllabic foot followed by a trochee! or are we to read: Chief actors both to Arden's overthrow? II. Toclio. Me, Madam! 's foot! I'd be loath that any man should make a holy-day for me yet: In brief, 'tis thus: There's here arriv'd at court, Sent by the Earl of Chester to the king, A man of rare esteem for holiness, A reverend hermit, that by miracle But without aid of man o'erthrew The pagan host, and with such wonder, sir, As might confirm a kingdom to his faith. THE BIRTH OF MERLIN, I, I (ED. DELIUS 5).* * Both here, and in the passages taken from Edward III and The London Prodigal, I have not quoted the Tauchnitz Edition of the Doubtful Plays, since its text, as far as I have compared it, does not differ from that of Delius. These lines should be thus regulated: Toclio. Me, madam! 'S foot! I'd be loth that any man In brief, 'tis thus: there's here arriv'd at court, A man of rare esteem for holiness, A reverend hermit, that by miracle Not only sav'd our army, but without The aid of man o'erthrew the pagan host, And with such wonder, sir, as might confirm A kingdom to his faith. The monosyllabic pronunciation of madam (in the first line) is too frequent to call for any further remark. In the second line a syllable is wanting; the regular blank verse might be restored, if we were to read: Should make a holiday for my sake yet. III. Prince. Nay, noble Edol, let us here take counsel, It cannot hurt, It is the surest garrison to safety. Arrange and transpose: THE BIRTH OF MERLIN, IV, 2 (DEL. 71). Prince. Nay, noble Edol, Let us take counsel here, it cannot hurt, It is the surest garrison to safety. Some twenty lines lower down we meet with a striking parallel, as far as versification is concerned: Prince. Hold, noble Edol, Let's hear what articles he can enforce. |