grossly erroneous or merely impertinent,—he yet deserves our thanks for having successfully removed some corruptions, and must be allowed the honour of having anticipated several happy conjectures of Theobald and others. 15-Mr. Collier complains of the reception which the Emendations have met with in certain quarters :16 but, even granting that they have 15 1863. But the unanimous opinion now is, that the manuscript emendations throughout Mr. Collier's folio, in spite of their antique appearance, are of modern date. See, among other publications on this subject, Mr. Hamilton's Inquiry into the Genuineness of the Manuscript Corrections in Mr. J. Payne Collier's Annotated Shakspere, &c. 16 In his Preface to Seven Lectures on Shakespeare and Milton by Coleridge, &c., Mr. Collier writes at great length about those who have assailed the Emendations,-about their animosity to the Corrector and to himself; and, p. lxvi., speaking of what he conceives to be unfair dealing on the part of Mr. Singer, he says, "I dislike using hard words: all who are acquainted with me know that it has never been my practice; but if I acquit Mr. Singer of intentional misrepresentation, the assertio falsi, how is he to answer the accusation of suppressio veri? Of this minor offence proofs present themselves to me," &c. Further on, after attempting to support the Corrector's foolish alteration in King Henry the Eighth, act i. sc. 2, "I'm sorry that the Duke of Buckingham Is one in your displeasure,”— Mr. Collier notices certain mistakes in early books which have arisen from "the inability of some people to sound the letter r," and then observes, p. lxxxv., that "the most remarkable proof to the same effect occurs in Webster's 'Appius and Virginia' (Edit. Dyce, ii. 160), where this passage is met with as it is printed in the old copy: 'Let not Virginia wate her contemplation So high, to call this visit an intrusion.' It is clear that 'wate' must be wrong, and the editor suggests waie (i.e. weigh) as the fit emendation; when he did not see that it is only a blunder of w for r, because the person who delivered the line could not pronounce the letter r: read rate for 'wate,' and the whole difficulty vanishes." Now, in my edition of Webster the passage stands verbatim thus; "Let not Virginia rate her contemplation So high, to call this visit an intrusion :" and with the following note; "rate] So the editor of 1816. The old copy, 'wate.' Qy. if a misprint for 'waie,' i. e. weigh." Yet Mr. Collier,—who charges Mr. Singer with want of candour,—most carefully conceals the fact that "rate" is the reading in my text of Webster. 1863. In a note on his second edition of Shakespeare, vol. iv. p. 375, Mr. Collier, speaking of this passage of Webster, absolutely asserts that the reading "rate" never occurred to any one except himself. not always been fairly criticised, he has himself, in a measure, to blame. He went far to create a prejudice against, if not to provoke a spirit of opposition to, the Corrector's labours en masse, when, in the commentary with which he encumbered them, he advocated hundreds of the most unnecessary changes ever devised by perverse ingenuity; and when, moreover, from his limited knowledge of what conjecture had attempted on the poet's text during the eighteenth century, he paraded as novelties a number of alterations already to be found in the editions of Pope, of Hanmer, and elsewhere. It would seem that Mr. Collier's judgment, nay, his recollection of the phraseology of our old writers, was at times affected by his blind admiration of the Corrector. E. g. In The Two Gentlemen of Verona, act iv. sc. 2, the first folio has "Her eyes are grey as glass," &c.; on which line Theobald aptly cites from Chaucer," hire eyen grey as glas." But the second folio, by a misprint, has "Her eyes are grey as grass," &c. The Corrector,--who used the second folio,—not perceiving that the error lay in the word "grass," altered the unoffending epithet "grey” to “green,”— "Her eyes are green as grass," &c. ; " and such," says Mr. Collier, "we have good reason to suppose was the true reading;" though a little before he admits that the first folio "may be right." In The Second Part of King Henry the Fourth, act iv. sc. 1, the old copies have "and your tongue divine To a loud trumpet and a point of war." The Corrector substitutes 66 your tongue divine To a loud trumpet and report of war;" which Mr. Collier declares "ought to be printed in future," for "here 'point of war' can have no meaning:" yet Mr. Col lier formerly edited an early drama which contains the follow ing passage; "Matrevers, thou Sound proudly here a perfect point of war In honour of thy sovereign's safe return.” Peele's Edward I.,-Dodsley's Old Plays, vol. xi. 13, ed. Collier. But enough of the Ms. Corrector's Emendations, with their particles of golden ore and their abundant dross. When, at the desire of Mr. Moxon, I undertook this edition of Shakespeare,-with a reluctance arising from the conviction that, even if it proved not wholly unacceptable to others, it must fail to satisfy myself,-the arrangement was, that I should merely revise the text, without adding notes of any kind. But it soon became evident that, though notes explanatory of words, manners, customs, &c. might not be essentially necessary (for with such matters the reader is often as conversant as the editor17), yet notes regarding the formation of the text were indispensable. Hence it is, that an edition originally meant to be entirely free from annotation comprises a considerable quantity of notes:18—in disjoining which from the text, and placing them at the end of each play respectively, I have consulted the taste of those who have little relish for the minutiae of verbal criticism. It was also originally understood between the publisher and myself, that I should not be required to supply the memoir of Shakespeare intended to accompany the present edition: circumstances, however, which it is needless to explain, eventually imposed on me that ungrateful task. Owing to the scantiness of materials for his history, and to our ignorance of what we most wish to know concerning him, a Life of Shakespeare, in spite of its subject, is generally among the least readable efforts of the biographer: and I cannot but 17 1863. In the above remark I have been thought to overrate the knowledge of the general reader; and hence the Glossary to the present edition. 18 1863. Now enlarged to more than double the number. feel that, if my own memoir of the poet has any claim to another character, it is solely on account of its comparative shortness. I have to return my best thanks to Mr. W. N. Lettsom for the extracts from the late Sidney Walker's unpublished papers on Shakespeare, as well as for his own critical remarks, with which from time to time he furnished me; to Mr. John Forster, for much kind and judicious advice on various points of difficulty; and to Mr. Singer, for his prompt assistance whenever I had occasion to request it: nor ought I to conclude without acknowledging my obligations to Mr. Robson, from whose press the present edition comes forth, not only for the care he has bestowed in revising the sheets with an eye to verbal correctness, but for innumerable suggestions during the whole progress of the work. December 1857. A. DYCE. |