which Mr. Collier's Ms. Corrector gives. But "this usage, whereby the latter of two superlatives copulated with and is changed into a positive, is frequent in Shakespeare and his contemporaries." See Walker's Crit. Exam. &c. vol. i. p. 221.

Walker (Crit. Exam. &c. vol. ii. p. 224) suspects that "this" should be "his.”

So Roberts's quarto (and rightly, see note 56).-Heyes's quarto has "Salerio;" the folio "Solanio."

The proper punctuation of this passage is very doubtful.

This word is supposed to be derived from the Italian tranare,—the passageboat on the Brenta, at about five miles from Venice, being drawn out of the river, and lifted over a dam or sluice by a crane.-But Rowe substituted "traject" (from the Italian tragetto, a ferry), which is perhaps the right reading.

P. 394. (66) "And if on earth he do not merit it,

In reason he should never come to heaven."

So Pope; and so Walker, except that he reads ""Tis reason," &c. Crit. Exam. &c. vol. iii. p. 110. (He evidently did not know that Pope had anticipated him in reading "merit it.")-Roberts's quarto has

"And if on earth he doe not meane it, then
In reason," &c.

Heyes's quarto has

"And if on earth he doe not meane it, it

In reason," &c.;

and so the folio, except that it has "Is reason," &c.

i. e. release, remit the forfeiture. See Walker's Crit. Exam, &c. vol. iii. p. 55.

P. 396. (68) "And others, when the bag-pipe sings i' the nose,

Cannot contain their urine: for affection,

The old eds. have

Master of passion, sways it to the mood
Of what it likes or loathes."

"And others, when the bagpipe sings ith nose,

Cannot containe their vrine for affection.

Masters [Heyes's 4to Maisters] of passion swayes it to the moode

Of what it likes or loathes."

I give here the reading and punctuation recommended by Thirlby, who (not Waldron, as Steevens supposes) also proposed "Mistress of passion," &c.— Concerning this passage see more in my Remarks on Mr. Collier's and Mr. Knight's editions of Shakespeare, p. 57.

The old eds. have "a woollen bag-pipe :"-and, says Mr. Knight, "Douce very properly desires to adhere to the old reading, having the testimony of Dr. Leyden in his edition of The Complaynt of Scotland,' who informs us that the Lowland bag-pipe commonly had the bag or sack covered with woollen cloth of a green colour; a practice which, he adds, prevailed in the northern counties of England." But, in the first place, what writer ever used such an expression as a woollen bag-pipe in the sense of a bag-pipe covered with woollen cloth? (Might he not, with almost equal propriety, talk of a woollen lute or a woollen fiddle?) And, in the second place, can any thing be more evident than that Shylock does not intend the most distant allusion to the material which either composed or covered the bag-pipe? Steevens remarks; "As the aversion was not caused by the outward appearance of the bag-pipe, but merely by the sound arising from its inflation, I have placed the conjectural reading [of Sir John Hawkins], ' swollen,' in the text." So also Mason; "There can be little doubt but 'swollen bag-pipe' is the true reading. I consider it as one of those amendments which carry conviction the moment they are suggested: and it is to be observed, that it is not by the sight of the bag-pipe that the persons alluded to are affected, but by the sound, which can only be produced when the bag is swollen."-I adopt the Ms. Corrector's emendation, which has exactly the same meaning as Hawkins's; and, as Mr. Collier notices, the word occurs in our author's Rape of Lucrece,

"Here one, being throng'd, bears back, all boll'n and red."

(I have repeatedly met with old handwriting in which the initial b bore such resemblance to w, that a compositor might easily have mistaken it for the latter.)-1863. Dr. Ingleby declares that "it surpasses his ability to understand" how, in the face of Mason's remark above quoted, I can adopt the Ms. Corrector's “bollen,” — Dr. Ingleby himself preferring "wauling," or rather "waulin'"!! See A Complete View of the Shakspere Controversy, &c. p. 228.-Mr. Staunton (Addenda and Corrigenda to his Shakespeare) defends the old reading, "a woollen bag-pipe," by citing from Massinger's Maid of Honour, act iv. sc. 4,

"Walks she on woollen feet?"—

not considering that "woollen bag-pipe" (if right) means a bagpipe actually covered with woollen cloth, while "woollen feet" is a purely metaphorical expres

sion.

The old eds. have "forfeiture."-"Read," says Ritson, "forfeit.' It occurs repeatedly in the present scene for 'forfeiture'." But the correction had been made long before Ritson's time.

So the third folio,-in which the misprint "inexecrable dog" was first corrected.

The old eds. have "twice the summe." But a little after, Portia says, "Shylock, there's thrice thy money offer'd thee;" and so too Shylock himself, at p. 403, "I take his offer, then ;-pay the bond thrice," &c. (Malone's attempt to reconcile the inconsistency of the old eds. is very far from happy—“ Bassanio had offered at first but twice the sum, but Portia goes further," &c.)

"Of

The "a" was added in the second folio.-Mr. Swynfen Jervis proposes such-like misery;" Mr. W. N. Lettsom (somewhat boldly), "And searching misery."

P. 402. (74) "Whether Bassanio had not once a lover." The old eds. have ". — once a loue."-Compare, p. 390,

"this Antonio, Being the bosom lover of my lord," &c.

"lover," i. e. friend.

P. 403. (75)

"I take his offer, then ;—”

The old eds. have "I take this offer then" (which Malone and Mason defend).

So Hanmer (Warburton).—The old eds. have “formorly” and “formerly."

P. 406. (77) "Be valu'd 'gainst your wife's commandment." Roberts's quarto has,

Heyes's quarto,

The folio,

"Be valew'd gainst your wiues commandement."

"Be valued gainst your wiues commaundement."

"Be valued against your wiues commandement."Here "commandment" is to be read as a quadrisyllable,—and so again in a line in The First Part of King Henry VI. act i. sc. 3, which the folio gives

thus, "From him I haue expresse commandement," &c. (In all the other passages of Shakespeare where it occurs in his blank verse it is a trisyllable.) But the spelling of this word in the old copies goes for nothing: e. g. in King John, act iv. sc. 2, the folio has

"Haue I commandement on the pulse of life?"

though "commandement" is there a trisyllable. And I cannot understand why several of the modern editors should print "commandement” here and in the above-mentioned line of Henry VI., while in a great number of other words, which, if the orthography is to be suited to the metre, require the addition of a syllable, they content themselves with the usual spelling; for instance, they print "dazzled,” “children,” “England,” “remembrance," "juggler," "handling," "enfeebled," &c. &c.,-when, to be consistent, they ought to have printed "dazzeled," "childeren," "Engéland," "rememberance," "juggeler," "handeling," "enfeebeled," &c. &c.

This, as well as the "And" at the commencement of the next speech, is found in some copies of the second folio.-"Read (and so Pope), ‘And in such a night," &c. Walker's Crit. Exam, &c. vol. iii. p. 58.

In the old eds. these words form the conclusion of the preceding speech.

Here Heyes's quarto and the folio have "pattens;" Roberts's quarto has "pattents.”—Whether we spell the word "patines,” “patens," or "patents," matters perhaps little: but we must consider the reading of the second folio "patterns" (which Mr. Collier adopts) as a mere misprint.-The poet means that the floor of heaven is thickly inlaid with plates or circular ornaments of gold. Compare Sylvester's Du Bartas;

"Th' Almighties finger fixed many a million

Of golden scutchions [the original has "platines dorees"] in that rich pavillion." The Fourth Day of the First Week, p. 33, ed. 1641.

"That sumptuous canapy,

The which th' un-niggard hand of Majesty

Poudred so thick with shields [the original has “escussons”] so shin

ing cleer," &c.

Id. p. 34.

1863. Mr. W. N. Lettsom observes, "Patterns,' the reading of the second folio, seems to me rather a sophistication than a misprint."

P. 409. (81) 'Such harmony is in immortal souls;

But whilst this muddy vesture of decay

Doth grossly close it in, we cannot hear it.”

So Heyes's quarto.-Roberts's quarto and the folio have "Doth grossly close in it," &c.-In the words, "close it in," we must understand "it" as referring

to the soul: but some of the earlier editors printed “close us in.”

("Our walls of flesh, that close our soules, God knew too weak, and gaue A further guard," &c.

Warner's Albions England, book x. ch. lix. p. 258, ed. 1596.)

P. 411. (82) "Peace, ho! the moon sleeps with Endymion,

And would not be awak'd.

[Music ceases." The old eds. have "Peace, how the moone," &c.—I adopt Malone's alteration; and since one critic has been pleased to say that "there is not a more inexcusable defeat committed on the text of Shakespeare by any editor than is done by Mr. Malone in this exquisite passage," I am forced, at the risk of being tedious, to state fully the grounds of my conviction that Malone's is the true reading.-I. Shakespeare would hardly have employed such a phrase as "how the moon sleeps with Endymion," &c.;-he would have interposed some adverb (or adverbial adjective) between "how" and "the moon," &c.: so previously in this scene (p. 409) we have

"How sweet the moonlight sleeps upon this bank!"

II. "Ho," as I have already observed, was often written with the spelling "How," '—see p. 253, note 133, of this volume; and I may add, that previously in the present play, p. 369, where Lorenzo calls out, "Ho! who's within ?" Heyes's quarto has "Howe whose within?" (In like manner examples are not wanting of "Low" being put for "Lo;" as in Hubert's Edward the Second, p. 32, ed. 1629,

"Low now (quoth he) I haue my hearts desire.")

III. That Portia is enjoining the musicians to be silent, is proved by the stage-direction of the old eds., "Music ceases." So in Julius Cæsar Casca silences the music with,

and we have the same expression in other of our author's plays;

Peace, ho! Cæsar speaks."

66

Peace, ho! I bar confusion," &c.

As you like it, act v. sc. 4.

"Peace, ho, for shame! confusion's cure lives not

In these confusions."

Romeo and Juliet, act iv. sc. 5.

IV. It is quite natural that immediately after the command “Peace, ho!” we should have the reason for that command, viz. "the moon sleeps with Endymion," &c.: while, on the contrary, there is (as Malone saw) an "oddness" in "Peace?" being followed by a mere exclamation, “how the moon sleeps,” &c. 'Malone,” says Mr. Knight, "substituted Peace, ho! the moon, thinking that Portia uses the words as commanding the music to cease. This would be a singularly unladylike act of Portia, in reality as well as in expression." But, for my own part, I see no impropriety in a lady ordering her own musicians, in her own domain, to leave off playing; and as to the "expression,"Mr. Knight seems to have forgotten both that in the next page we have “ho” from the mouth of Portia,-"A quarrel, ho, already!" and that "ho" in our early writers does not necessarily convey the idea of bawling. It is really difficult to believe that Mr. Knight can be serious when he goes on to say that "Portia, having been talking somewhat loudly to Nerissa as she approached the house, checks HERSELF, as she comes close to it, with the interjection Peace!" — (If she speaks piano, how happens it that Lorenzo immediately exclaims,

"That is the voice,

Or I am much deceiv'd, of Portia"?)—

and that "the stage-direction, Music ceases, is a COINCIDENCE with Portia's Peace! but not a consequence of it:"'—a coincidence more surprising than

any upon record.