In restoring these words from the quarto, Mr. Collier has made a mistake which I should hardly have expected. "She comes blubbered," instead of being addressed to Bardolph within, is obviously a stage-direction, which (as very frequently happens in early dramas) has crept into the text by an error of the transcriber or printer. "She comes blubbered" means merely that the boy who acted Doll was to come in a fit of weeping:' formerly, the word "blubbered" did not convey the ludicrous idea which it does at present; 66 When her arms, Able to lock Jove from a synod, shall By warranting moonlight corslet thee; oh, when Of rotten kings or blubber'd queens?" The Two Noble Kinsmen, act i. sc. 1. ACT III. SCENE 1.-C. p. 394; K. p. 189. "Then, happy low, lie down! Uneasy lies the head that wears a crown.' On this passage,-containing the singular expression "happy low," and "lie" followed almost immediately by " lies,”—Mr. Collier makes no comment, as if its integrity had never been questioned. The conjecture of Warburton at least (which was adopted by Johnson) ought to be mentioned by every editor of Shakespeare. In a note on Lucretius, Gilbert Wakefield tells us (and his veracity is not to be impeached) that the very same correction had occurred to himself: "Unde virum elegantissimum, Shakespeari nostri sospitatorem, et mihi amicissimum [Steevens], mirari soleo, ad partem ii. Henrici IV. iii. 1. vulgata, insulsorum omnium longe insulsissima, defendentem; postquam vere Warburtonus emendaverat, quod et ipse seorsim perspexeram, ad hunc modum; Then, happy lowlie clown! Uneasy lies the head that wears a crown : ubi similis literarum cl adhæsio lectionem vitiosissimam, low I lie down, pepererat ; quam futuram esse expectavisses tam lepido ingenio terriculum." Ad Lib. ii. 1035. When I add, that a passage of a song in Beaumont and Fletcher's Captain (act iii. sc. 4), which stands as follows in the old eds., "For ever will I sleep, while poor maids cry, And let us die With thee! men cannot mock us in the day," ("day" being an obvious misprint for "clay"); and that a line in Sec. Part of King Henry VI. act iv. sc. 1, "Obscure and lowly swain, King Henry's blood," &c. may both be cited in confirmation of Warburton's conjecture, I must not be understood as if recommending its adoption into the text. The old reading is at least preferable to that given by Mr. Knight; "Then, happy low-lie-down!" an emendation of Coleridge, who had persuaded himself that the words were "either a proverbial expression, or the burthen of some old song." In the higher department of criticism, Coleridge was indeed mighty; but as a verbal critic, he was among the very worst. SCENE 2.-C. p. 402. "Fal. Well said, good woman's tailor! well said, courageous Feeble! Thou wilt be as valiant as the wrathful dove, or most magnanimous mouse.-Prick the woman's tailor. Well, master Shallow, deep master Shallow.” Surely, Mr. Collier (who appears to have been misled by the quartos) would never have given this very erroneous punctuation, instead of "Prick the woman's tailor well, master Shallow; deep, master Shallow,"-if he had recollected that Falstaff, a little after, desires Shallow to "prick Bullcalf till he roar." ACT IV. SCENE 1.-C. p. 414. Then take, my lord of Westmoreland, this schedule, For this contains our general grievances : Each several article herein redress'd; All members of our cause, both here and hence, And knit our powers to the arm of peace." So both the quarto and folio editions; and there is no need of alteration, though Johnson proposed consign'd, and it has found its way into all modern editions: the meaning is, the execution of our wills being confined, or restricted, to us and to our purposes.'" COL LIER. 66 When Mr. Collier brought back into the text the nonsensical reading, “ confin'd," it would almost seem as if Malone's note ad loc., in which the following passages are adduced, had entirely escaped his eye; "And, (God consigning to my good intents) No prince nor peer shall have just cause to say, Act v. sc. 2, of the present play. And take with you free power to ratify, King Henry V. act v. sc. 2. It were, my lord, a hard condition for a maid to consign to." Id. ibid. 66 6 SCENE 4.-C. p. 426. 'As humorous as winter, and as sudden As flaws congealed in the spring of day." Alluding,' says Warburton, 'to the opinion of some philoso phers, that the vapours being congealed in the air by cold, (which is most intense towards the morning), and being afterwards rarified and let loose by the warmth of the sun, occasion those sudden and impetuous gusts of wind which are called flaws." Collier. An interpretation altogether wrong, as the epithet here applied to "flaws” might alone determine,—“ congealed gusts of wind" being no where mentioned among the phenomena of nature except in Baron Munchausen's Travels. Edwards rightly explained " flaws” in the present passage -"small blades of ice." I have myself heard the word used to signify both thin cakes of ice and the bursting of those cakes. Bard. Good lieutenant-good corporal, offer nothing here.” In this passage Mr. Collier adheres to the folio, perceiving none of those difficulties which compelled the other modern editors to deviate from its text. The reading, "if he be not hewn now!" is evidently a misprint for, "if he be not drawn now!" (compare Beaumont and Fletcher's Valentinian, act iv. sc. 4, where the cowardly Licinius, seeing Aëcius with his sword in his hand, exclaims, He's drawn ; By Heaven, I dare not do it!" and Romeo and Juliet, act i. sc. 1, "What! art thou drawn among these heartless hinds?") In what follows there is also manifest error; for " good lieutenant" cannot possibly be addressed to ancient Pistol by Bardolph, who in Henry V. is himself the lieutenant: Mr. Collier, however, is satisfied with all this intolerable confusion; "the first part of the speech," he assures us, "is addressed to Pistol, though called 'lieutenant,'"-leaving us to conclude that Bardolph had suddenly forgotten the exact military rank of his intimate associate, whom previously in the present scene he has twice termed "ancient Pistol"! I must here notice a passage in act iii. sc. 6, where Fluellen, speaking of Pistol, says, according to the folio, "There is an ancient lieutenant there at the pridge," &c., and according to the quarto, merely, "There is an ensign [equivalent to ancient] there," &c. Malone printed, " There is an ensign |