verses of Shakspere, can be only received as ingenious guesses at what may possibly have been lost in the text as we now have it. One of the most probable of these suggested lines,-that in the Clown's speech in Love's Labour Lost, To see him kiss her hand! and how sweetly a' will swear, is shown by Mr. Knight (supposing it not to be Shakspere's) to be taken from Fletcher's Loyal Subject, first printed in 1647: Look babies in your eyes, my pretty sweet one. Another of our corrector's additional lines is, we confess, of so shabby a character as to throw some discredit even on those which in themselves are extremely probable conjectures. We allude to the words supplied in the speech of Gloucester in Henry VI. Part II. act ii. sc. 3, My staff? here, noble Henry, is my staff: To think I fain would keep it makes me laugh. We are somewhat surprised to find Mr. Collier asking whether we ought not "to welcome this addition with thankfulness, as a fortunate recovery and a valuable restoration." There are many interesting questions with respect to the reading of single words in Shakspere's text, which to the contemporaries of the author would have been questions of meaning, but have now, owing to the alteration of our orthography, and perhaps our pronunciation too, become questions of reading. A passage discussed by Mr. Dyce and Mr. Hunter supplies an example of this: If the midnight bell Did with his iron tongue and brazen mouth (King John, act iii. sc. 3.) In the last of these lines Mr. Dyce accepts the substitution of ear for race proposed in Mr. Collier's volume, and defends the reading one for on which has been usual in the late editions. Mr. Hunter, on the other hand, prefers on, understanding" sound on" of continuous sounding. No weight is due to the objection that the bell does not sound one at midnight, but we think that on gives the better sense. Compare Othello (act v. sc. 1) Who's there? Whose noise is this that cries on murder? In King John, act v. sc. 2, it was a question of interpretation in what sense the following line should be understood: This unheard sauciness, and boyish troops; and modern editors, in reading This unhaired sauciness, and boyish troops, have in all probability only represented, in our fashion of spelling, the word intended by the folio. A similar doubt arises in Othello, act i. sc. 2: Abused her delicate youth with drugs or minerals, And in the same play, act ii. sc. 1,— I cannot, 'twixt the heaven and the main, the quarto has the word spelt haven, and the folios heaven. We believe the modern spelling should be heaven. The horizon, on which a distant sail is first seen, is between the heaven and the main." This interpretation is fortified by the passage in the same scene in which Montano says,— Let us throw out our eyes for brave Othello, In all these instances the question, properly understood, is one of interpretation rather than of reading, and must be determined by taste and skill in the language of Shakspere, and not by authority. The case is not far removed from the same category, where the words which dispute for a place in the present text are such as in the writing of Shakspere's age would be scarcely distinguishable. The question raised by Mr. Collier as to the reading in Macbeth, “What boast was 't then," &c. instead of the received word "beast," is of this character, and we are still of opinion that boast is an acceptable emendation. The two arguments urged against this reading are, first, that "the force of the passage lies in the contrast between the word man in Macbeth's exclamation I dare do all that may become a man, Who dares do more is none and the word beast in this; and secondly, that Macbeth's language in first speaking of the murder to his wife was "far removed from vaunting."* To these reasons we answer, first, that not "beast," but fiend, would be the contrast to man required by the sense; and secondly, that, although Lady Macbeth might well wish to represent her husband to himself as having boasted of his determination, the proposed reading does not make her do so. She would merely imply that there must have been some boastful feeling as the cause of his breaking the enterprise to her. There is a passage in As You Like It (act iv. sc. 3) which furnishes a curious parallel to these lines of Macbeth as they are now read. Rosalind, in reading Phebe's letter, by an intentional perversion, understands man as opposed to beast, where the true antithesis is god. ROSALIND (reading). Why, thy godhead laid apart, Warr'st thou with a woman's heart? Did you ever hear such railing? Meaning me a beast. Whiles the eye of man did woo me, We have not the space for any detailed notice of the observations of Mr. Singer and Mr. Dyce. The former of these gentlemen is in general strongly opposed to all suggestions which come from Mr. Collier's authority, but in some few instances he is willing to accept even from that source a good and probable correction. For example, Coriolanus (act iii. sc. 3), I would not buy Their mercy at the price of one fair word, Nor check my courage for what they can give, To have 't with saying Good-morrow. Here Mr. Singer accepts the old emendator's correction of carriage for courage. And in Macbeth's exclamation after hearing of Macduff's escape, and forming his murderous resolution against his family, This deed I'll do before this purpose cool; But no more sights! he adopts flights as a good correction. It is remarkable that in both these instances the same corrections, which we believe have not been published before, are, as Mr. Singer informs us, made in manuscript in a copy of the second folio belonging to that gentleman. In Macbeth's defiance of Banquo's ghost (act iii. sc. 4), Mr. Singer is for retaining the reading of the folios: Or be alive again, And dare me to the desert with thy sword: If trembling I inhabit then, protest me The meaning, he says, is-" If trembling I stay in my castle or any habitation." * Dyce's Notes, p. 124. GENT. MAG. VOL. XL. 2 L Mr. Dyce thinks with reason this reading "very doubtful," but rejects our old annotator's conjecture of “exhibit" as all but ludicrous. In the play-speech in Hamlet (act ii. sc. 2),— Would have made milch the burning eyes of heaven, And passion in the gods. Mr. Singer rightly observes that the change to passionate is entirely unnecessary. Passion is used for compassion-a mode of expression, we may observe, borrowed from the Italian. Compare Dante, Inferno, canto xx. Qui vive la pietà quand' è ben morta. Chi è più scellerato di colui, Ch' al giudicio divin passion porta? 66 In the first scene of Othello Roderigo speaks of the Moor as an extravagant and wheeling stranger;" and Mr. Collier's corrector, by changing wheeling to wheedling, is convicted, according to Mr. Singer, of having lived not earlier than the last century. This is perhaps an exaggeration. We are indebted to Mr. Richardson's Dictionary for a reference to Locke's Essay (book iii. cap. 9), in which he apparently employs wheedle as an example of a newly-coined word. This was written before 1689, and it does not at all follow that the word had not been for some time in use in familiar language. Somner, by the way, derives it from the Saxon wædlian, to beg. "Wheeling" we understand, not as synonymous with extravagant, as Mr. Knight interprets it, nor as having the sense of "inconstant," as Mr. Singer supposes, but simply that of "circumverting or "insidious." In the same play (act ii. sc. 1) Mr. Singer, assuming the modern origin of Mr. Collier's corrections, says the correctors were right in adopting Warburton's reading, brach for "trash." If this poor brach of Venice, whom I trace For his quick hunting, stand the putting on. In this correction we fully coincide. Brach is required for the sense of the next line. A brach is a dog which hunts by scent. So the Italian bracco: "Ogni bontà propria in alcuna cosa, siccome nel bracco il bene odorare," &c. (Dante, Convivio, 72.) Mr. Dyce's Notes abound with happy illustrations of the sense and text of Shakspere. For example, the following verse in Romeo and Juliet (act ii. sc. 1) has in his hands, for the first time in modern days, found its true meaning. Young Abraham Cupid, he that shot so trim, When king Cophetua loved the beggar maid. Modern editors, following Upton, have read Adam Cupid, understanding the allusion to be to Adam Bell, the archer of the ballads. In Soliman and Puseda, 1599, (says Where is the eldest sonne of Pryam In Middleton's Blurt, Master Constable, 1602, A goodlie, long, thicke, abram-coloured beard; and in our author's Coriolanus, act ii. sc. 3, according to the first three folios, "not that our heads are some browne, some blacke, some abram ;" there being hardly any reason to doubt that in these passages abraham (or abram) is a corruption of abron, which our early writers frequently employ for auburn. Every body familiar with the Italian poets knows that they term Cupid, as well as Apollo," il biondo Dio:" and W. Thomas, in his Principal Rules of the Italian Grammar, &c. gives-Biondo, the aberne [i.e. auburn] colour, that is, betwene white and yelow. We are glad to see that Mr. Dyce is preparing a new edition of Shakspere. No one is better qualified by taste, learning, and judgment to furnish us with an edition which shall avoid the extremes of servility and presumption in the choice of readings, and of tediousness and incompletness in the annotations. WANDERINGS OF AN ANTIQUARY. BY THOMAS WRIGHT, F.S.A. THE line of railway westward of Shoreham runs along the low ground between the sea and the edge of the downs, the latter of which are seen to the right, their distance increasing considerably as we approach towards Arundel, where the first range of hills turns inland, and a rather wide valley intervenes before the commencement of the ridge on which Arundel stands. As we proceed, we are forcibly reminded of a peculiarity of the Southern Sussex names-the termination in ing. The stations between Shoreham and Arundel are Lancing, Worthing, Goring, and Angmering. At several of these places, and indeed all along this district, Roman antiquities are frequently found, and the country seems to have been covered with handsome villas in the Roman period. Not only Roman antiquities of various kinds, but Roman and Gaulish coins, have been found in the neighbourhood of Lancing; and the Lancing downs are remarkable for discoveries of this kind. The same may be said of Worthing, where Gaulish gold coins have been found in considerable numbers, besides an abundance of Roman antiquities. The presence of the Gaulish coins is no doubt a proof that the settlements in this district date from the beginning of the Roman occupation of the island. Still further on, at a place called Avisford, on the other side of Arundel, a very interesting Roman sepulchral interment was found in the year 1817. In a pasture-field a labourer was making holes with a crowbar for the purpose of setting up hurdles, when the resistance offered to his implement a few inches below the surface excited his curiosity, and his employer causing the surface to be removed, discovered a square stone chest, five feet long, two feet wide, and fifteen inches deep. When opened, it contained a very miscellaneous collection of articles. In the middle stood a beautiful large square vase of green glass, with a reeded handle, similar to those frequently found in Roman sepulchres. It contained the calcined bones of the deceased. Round it were arranged, in no apparent order, three elegantly-shaped vases or jugs of earthenware, with handles; several pateræ ; a pair of sandals studded with innumerable little hexagonal brass nails fancifully arranged; three lamps; four vessels, which appeared to be lampstands, placed on brackets or corbels at the four corners; an oval dish, escalloped round the edge, with a handle, and containing a transparent agate of the size and shape of a pigeon's egg; another dish, which it is said contained a black stone of a similar size and form; and a small glass bottle with a double handle.* The Arundel and Littlehampton station is a short distance beyond that of Angmering, and from it the visitor has a not unpleasant ride of full four miles to the town of Arundel. During the last mile the road is a gradual ascent, until we reach the brow of the hill on the southern slope of which the town is built, and which is crowned by the imposing masses of Arundel castle. The town of Arundel is singularly well placed for picturesque effect, and the general views, especially in the approach from Littlehampton by the river, are singularly beautiful. The principal street leads us by a very steep ascent to the top of the hill, where are the entrances to the castle and park. The castle, large portions of the buildings of which are modern, occupies a platform at the top of the hill, to the north-east of the town, in a position which, from the circumstance of the hill being here almost perpendicular, is singularly bold. The town has several points of interest; besides the castle and the church, it contains some monastic ruins, and there are a few interesting examples of old street architecture. But its great interest is the beauty of the surrounding country and of the rural walks in its neigh * A plate of these curious relics is given in the first volume of Mr. Roach Smith's "Collectanea Antiqua." bourhood. I know few places within easy reach of London which offer so many attractions in this respect as Arundel. I will choose on the present occasion an excursion which is remarkable equally for the beauty of its views, and for the interesting site to which it will lead us. For between two and three miles our course lies over the truly sylvan glades of Arundel Park. Undulating hills, covered with a rich and soft carpet of green sod, broken with frequent and magnificent clumps of trees, every now and then reveal to us fine views over the vale below to the east and south-east. The scene is enlivened with herds of deer, which abound in the park. When at length we quit the inclosure of the park, we come upon a range of bold downs running out in a north-westerly direction, while the view to the right, upon the valley of which we have already spoken, is extensive and extremely fine. To the left the valley running towards Chichester, totally different in its character from the other, is thickly and beautifully wooded. If we proceed a little way along the road and then look back, we see to advantage the boldlyelevated position of the park we have left, while below our view wanders over the whole extent of low ground which stretches down to the coast. Now pursuing our course, we have an elevated down before us, which is called Bury hill, no doubt from a large barrow or tumulus at the top. We will now turn off to the left from the high road, and walk across the grass until we come to a cartway, which leads us over the western slope of Bury hill. Below us, to our left, is a little comb or hollow, from which on the other side rises another elevation called Bignor hill. Before us we have a very noble prospect, bounded westwardly by a range of chalk hills, and northwardly by more distant hills. Among the trees, at the distance of about a mile or rather more, in the valley below, at the foot of the chalk hills, stands the village of Bignor. An attempt is made in the accompanying sketch to give a faint idea of the grandeur of this scene. |