thinke, To shew my selfe a glasse." Here sworn must be taken as agreeing with you, and so may possibly be made to yield a fitting sense, but hardly. Hanmer changed sworn to swoon, and is followed by Singer, Staunton, and Dyce: nevertheless I cannot abide that reading: Perdita could never speak so. Nor can I get the meaning, "to see myself in a glass," out of the words, "to show myself a glass." The change of sworn to more was proposed by Dr. C. M. Ingleby and by Mr. Samuel Bailey. Theobald made the other changes. The reading here printed is something bold indeed, but gives a sense so charmingly apt, that I cannot choose but adopt it.

P. 213.

Welcome, sir:

It is my father's will I should take on me, &c. - So Capell. The original reads Sir, welcome," which leaves the verse defective. Hanmer printed “Sir, you're welcome." This accomplishes the same object, but not, I think, so well.

P. 214.

So, even that art

Which you say adds to Nature is an art

That Nature makes.· The original reads "so over that Art," which is commonly printed "so, o'er that art." With o'er, I cannot make the expression tally with the context. The reading in the text is Craik's. Capell reads e'er.

P. 215.

O Proserpina,

66

For th' flowers now, that, frighted, thou lett'st fall From Dis's wagon! golden daffodils, &c. Golden is wanting in the original; which leaves both verse and sense defective. Coleridge remarks the upon passage, An epithet is wanted here, not merely or chiefly for the metre, but for the balance, for the æsthetic logic. Perhaps golden was the word which would set off the violets dim." What with Coleridge's authority, and Walker's approval, and the evident fitness of the thing, venture to supply the word.

P. 217. Nothing but that; move still, still so, and own
No other function. Each your doing is

So singular in each particular,

Crowning what you have done i' the present deed,

That all your acts are queens. — The original gives these five lines thus:

Nothing but that: move still, still so:

And owne no other Function. Each your doing,

(So singular, in each particular)

Crownes what you are doing, in the present deeds,
That all your Actes, are Queenes.

"Here," says Walker, “I think, a line, or possibly two have dropt out, which, if preserved, would have obviated the difficulty of construction, which forms the only blot on this most exquisite speech." I can hardly assent to this as regards the amount lost; but there is evidently some bad corruption in the passage, both sense and verse being out of joint: and I have no doubt that a word or two got lost from the text, and one or two other words changed. Instead of "what you are doing," the sense clearly requires "what you have done." In this point, my conjecture is, that doing got repeated from the second line before, and then you have was altered to you are, so as to accord with doing; thus rendering the clause incoherent with the context. With the changes I have ventured to make, both sense and verse seem brought into proper order. The old text is, to my sense, convicted of error by certain comments it has called forth; not explanations at all, but sheer obfuscations, and hyperbolical absurdities. "Each your doing crowns what you are doing, in the present deeds," is neither English nor sense, and no glozing can make it so. And the comments aforesaid amount to just this, that the passage means something which, if the writers could only tell what it means, would be seen to be superlatively fine.

P. 217. And the true blood which peeps so fairly through't. - So Capell, Walker, and Collier's second folio. The original lacks so.

P. 217.

Nothing she does or seems

But smacks of something greater than herself. — Instead of seems, Collier's second folio has says, which is adopted by White; perhaps rightly.

P. 218.

He tells her something

See

That makes her blood look out. So Theobald. The old text has "look on't." The misprint of on't for out occurs repeatedly. note on "laid mine honour too unchary out," vol. v. page 249.

P. 218. Pray you, good shepherd, what fair swain is this

Which dances with your daughter? — So Walker. The orig

inal lacks you. Hanmer printed "I pray."

P. 218.

I but have it

Upon his own report, and I believe it.

The original reads

"but I have it," which quite untunes the sense of the passage. rected by Walker.

Cor

P. 219. And break a foul jape into the matter. - The original has gap instead of jape, which is from Collier's second folio. See footnote 26.

-

P. 220. Has he any embroided wares. - So Collier's second folio. The original has " unbraided Wares." This has been explained "not braided, not knitted," and " undamaged, genuine "; but neither of these senses answers the occasion very well, or has much affinity with the context.

P. 222. Clammer your tongues, and not a word more. So Crosby. The original has "clamor your tongues." The common reading is clamour, and various attempts have been made to connect it with the ringing of bells. Dyce, though he prints clamour, thinks that "the attempts to explain this by referring it to bell-ringing ought to have ceased long ago." We have an instance of the word so applied in Much Ado, v. 2:

Bene. If a man do not erect in this age his own tomb ere he dies, he shall live no longer in monument than the bell rings and the widow weeps.

Beat. And how long is that, think you?

Bene. Question: why, an hour in clamour, and a quarter in rheum.

But here the word is evidently used in a sense just the opposite of that required in the text. Clamor may there be an instance of phonographic spelling; or the two words, though quite distinct in origin and meaning, may have been sometimes spelt alike. Mr. Crosby writes me that "clammer in The Winter's Tale is the Clown's way of pronouncing clam; and in Westmoreland, England, the word is mainly pronounced clammer. Were I editing the play, I should assuredly print it clammer; and every Northern man would instantly know it meant stop; literally stick, fasten up, or together." In confirmation of what is quoted from Mr. Crosby in foot-note 36, it may be well to add the following from Richardson: "CLAM, or CLEM, to hold tight; Anglo-Saxon, Clam, a band. Clamm'd, in Gloucestershire, Mr. Grose says, means to be choked up, as the mill is clamm'd up; and in the North, starved. Ray: 'Clem'd or clam'd, starved; because, by famine,

the bowels are, as it were, clammed or stuck together. Sometimes it signifies thirsty; and we know in thirst the mouth is very often clammy!"

P. 225. Master, there is three goat-herds, three shepherds, three neatherds, three swine-herds, &c. So Theobald and Walker. The original has carters instead of goat-herds. In the second speech after, Polixenes says, "pray, let's see these four threes of herdsmen.

For a reply, at least if you make care

Of happy holding her. — The original has "make a care."

The interpolated a is among the commonest errors.

P. 226. As soft as dove's down, and as white as it,

Or Ethiop's tooth. The original has "

Corrected by Dyce.

P. 229. If I may ever know thou dost but sigh

'Ethyopians tooth."

That thou no more shalt see this knack, -as never

I mean thou shalt, &c. - The old text repeats never by antici

P. 229. Hides not his visage from our cottage, but

P. 231. You know your father's temper. — In the original, “ my Fathers temper." An obvious error, corrected in the second folio.

P. 231.

For all the Sun sees, or

The close earth wombs, or the profound sea hides. — The original has "profound seas hides." Capell's correction.

P. 232. And, most oppórtune to our need. — In the old text, "to her need." Corrected by Theobald.

P. 232. I am so fraught with serious business, that

I leave out ceremony.

text has curious instead of serious.

So Collier's second folio. The old

P. 234. Asks thee, the son, forgiveness. — In the original, "asks thee there Sonne."

P. 234.

Sent by the King your father

To greet him, and to give him comfort. comforts. Corrected anonymously.

P. 235. She is as forward-of her breeding as

I' the rear our birth.

- The old text has

The original has She's instead of She

is at the beginning of the first line, and also begins the second with She is. Hanmer struck out the latter, as overfilling the verse to no purpose; and Lettsom thinks the second She is to be "a mere double of the first, as Hanmer saw, if indeed it is not a correction out of place." He means, that it was probably intended as a correction of

She's in the first line.

P. 235. We are not furnish'd like Bohemia's son,

lacks so.

Nor shall appear so in Sicilia. - So Lettsom. The original
Staunton also proposed the insertion of so.

P. 235.

It shall be so my care

To have you royally appointed, as if

The scene you play'd were mine.

The original has " as if The

scene you play." The reading in the text is Lettsom's.

P. 236. They throng'd who should buy first, as if my trinkets had been hallowed. - The original has “ they throng." An obvious error, hardly worth noting.

P. 236. I would have filed keys off that hung in chains. nal reads "would have fill'd Keyes of."

P. 238. For I do fear eyes over us. required both for sense and for metre.

The origi

- The original lacks us, which is

P. 239. If I thought it were not a piece of honesty to acquaint the King withal, I would do't. — The original transposes the not into the last clause, - -- "I would not do't." Corrected by Hanmer.