SINGER'S " SHAKESPEARE."*

THE object of all editors of Shakespeare may be presumed to be the presentation of as pure a text as possible—a text, that is to say, purged, on the one band, from such misprints and obvious errors as the older authorities have occasionally fallen into, and free from the alloy of conjectural emendation, on the other— which makes it somewhat curious to observe the discrepancies of their views, and the widely different methods they have apparently considered best calculated to ensure success. Some pin their faith on the Quartos,—Steevens, for example, bases his edition of Hamlet on the Quarto of 1611, and follows the same edition in several of his other plays ; while others insist upon the Folio, the whole Folio, and nothing but the Folio. But side by side with these undoubted authorities, there now exists a text (in default of a better name, it may be called the Editorial), which has its votaries too, and which, originally, of necessity, founded on a collation of the other two, has undergone such transformation at the hands of successive editors as to have become altogether distinct from both. A story told by Barham, somewhere in the introduction or notes to the Ingoldshy Legends, well illustrates, though in a burlesque and exaggerated fashion, their reckless manner of introducing their con- jectures, for though it is hardly _necessary to say that seriously pro- posed readings are free from the grotesque character of the "early purl" and "Earl of Burleigh " of the anecdote, yet the editors, in their anxiety to find that Shakespeare wrote not what, ac- cording to the best authorities, he actually did write, but what they think he ought to have written, are frequently almost as arbitrary in their alterations. An example will beat illustrate our meaning. The Clown in Twelfth Night, act iv., scene 2, when preparing to play the part of Sir Topas, the curate, says in the Folio, "I am not tall enough to become the function well, nor lean enough to be thought a good student,"—that is to say, "I lack dignity of appearance ;" but not content with this obvious meaning, Tyrwhitt proposed " pale " instead of "tall," as more suitable to the idea of a student ; and Farmer, still more arbitrarily, " fat " in antithesis to "lean," which latter reading is generally adopted by later editors — Mr. Singer among others. Indeed, it is very remarkable what a number of words, sometimes even combinations of words, are attributed to Shakespeare, and have become indelibly associated with him in the popular mind, which cannot be proved to be from his pen at all. How many general readers are there who, on reading the opening speech in Twelfth Night, or the account of Falstaff's death, do not accept "the sweet South" and "a' babbled of gre- en fields" as being as indubitably Shakespeare's as the rest of the passages to which they belong, or suspect that for the words as we have them, we are indebted in the one case to Pope, and to Theobald in the other? The author of the Grammar of Assent, discussing the merits of Theobald's emendation, evidently leans to "on a table of green frieze," the reading of the Corrector of the 1632 Folio. But he attaches a quite undue importance • The Dramatic Works of William Shakmreare. The Text carefully Revised, with Note,, by S. W. Singer, F.S.A. 2 vols. London ileorge Bell and Sons. 1875.

to the authority of the Corrector, even saying, among other things, that there is nothing to show he was not a contempo- rary of the poet. Surely the onus of proof is on the other side. Trying the question on its own merits, "a' babbled of green fields " seems more likely than the Corrector's reading to have been misprinted "a table of green fields" (which is what the Folio has), beside being an infinitely more apposite and poetical expression. In the other case also, "sound," the word of the Folio, is an evident misprint, but we must be allowed to put in a good word for Rowe's conjecture, "wind." It is far more likely, when written, to be confounded with "sound," besides being quite as poetical a word as "south," though it may seem to lack its sweet individuality.

Readers of Shakespeare, however, are aware that the ideas he associates with that particular point of the compass suggest

nothing sweet or balmy ; we read in Cymbeline of the "spongy south," Rosalind compares the sighing and weeping Silvius to the

"foggy south, puffing with wind and rain ;" Mercutio speaks of the "dew-dropping south," and just before the battle of Shrews- bury, Prince Henry observes that the southern wind,

by his hollow whistling in the leaves,

Foretells a tempest and a blustering day."

Moreover, "sweet wind" is a combination of words elsewhere used by the poet, and though no other passage exists, to our knowledge, where he is introduced playing with flowers, yet in the Merchant of Venice, act v., scene 1, we find him engaged in the apparently analogous occupation of gently kissing the trees !

The edition before us opens with a short biography, from the pen of Mr. Lloyd, which confines itself almost entirely to the facts of the poet's practical life, and in which there seems nothing calling for special remark, except a confusion (on page lxxxiii., and elsewhere), between nobles and marks. If twenty nobles

had amounted to .£13 6s. 8d., Mrs. Quickly (II. Henry I V., act scene 1) would scarcely have wished Falstaff to accept them in lieu of the £10 which he asked for. Nor would Pistol (Henry V., act ii., scene 1) have offered Nym present payment of 13s. 4d. to escape a future claim of 8s. There is one other point, too, on which we must enter a protest, though aware that all remonstrance on the subject is perfectly useless. Is it absolutely inevitable, this attempt to con- nect Shakespeare with the landed classes, and to furnish him, collie que cou'le, with a far-stretching genealogical tree? Do his works become one whit the more admirable, when it is shown that a col- lateral ancestor of his grandmother occupied the proud position of squire of the body to the meanest of English Kings ? Anything

calculated to throw light on the external life, and still more on the internal development, of the poet cannot fail to be of interest, but our enthusiasm is only moderately excited by such a passage as the following :—

" The family of the Ardens had possessions adjoining the forest of Arden, or Arderne, and their pedigree is traced by Dugdale, without interruption, to Edward the Confessor. In later times, a Walter Arden married a daughter of John Hampden of Bucks and was brother to Sir John Arden, Squire to tho body of Henry VII!, and grandfather to a Robert Arden, groom of the chamber to the sam3 monarch, and from this junior branch, within the moderate limits of family tradition, was deducible the line of the mother of Shakespeare."

A careful examination of his text has not enabled us to pro- nounce decidedly to which of the three categories of editors_ 111r. Singer belongs, for though he draws expressions freely from all three sources, it is not clear which he has selected as the basis of his edition—besides that his method varies somewhat in different plays—and he has omitted to prefix any preface or introduction which might have contained an explicit statement of his views. . Whichever he may have preferred, however, he has nowhere failed to make such selections as pleased him from the others, and no doubt for a popular edition this was the wisest course to pursue. Within the limits of a single speech, as, for instance, in Iago's soliloquy (Othello, act ii., scene 1), we find words from each of the above-mentioned texts, "lusty" being from the Folio, "even' from the Quarto, while "this poor brach of Venice whom I trash," &c., is an (entirely gratuitous) alteration of the editors. By the way, may not the rejected reading supply the correct word in the disputed passage, Taming of the Shrew, induction, scene 2, where several editors have tried their hands at correcting the obviously erroneous " brach " of the original. "Leash," " bathe " and " breathe " are the conjectures of Hanmer, Johnson, and Mitford respectively, but the reading " trash " which was proposed by Dyce has possession of the text for the present. Why not "trace "? Just as Iago traces Roderigo "for his quick hunting," the hunts- man is bidden to trace Merriman, that is to say, put him in traces (thongs or straps of some sort to restrain him), as the reluctant Cressida (Troilus and Cressida, act iii., scene 2) is to be put "in the phills " for drawing backward. After

what has been said above of editorial tampering with the text, it may seem inconsistent to approve, as we are about to do, of two suggestions of the Corrector, nay—even to make one of our own ; but it will be seen that both of the former are instances in which similarity of sound might easily have given rise to a clerical error, and consequent misprint, while the latter is merely an affair of_ punctuation. In I. Henry IV., act iii., scene 1, Mr. Singer accepts a reading from Collier's Corrector, and prints "these welling heavens" instead of "these swelling heavens," which, considering that Mortimer is here speaking of a lady's eyes, cer- tainly seems a great improvement, though we do not recollect the word "welling" elsewhere. In Troilus and Cressida (act iv., scene 5), would it not be better to adopt the emendation from the same source (coincident here with Mason), and read, "and give accosting welcome ere it comes," instead of the "a coasting welcome" of the Folio? "Accosting," a word which Shakespeare himself explains, Twelfth Night, act L, scene 3, is, of course, here no epithet, its participial form notwithstanding. In Macbeth, act i., scene 7, the usual reading (adopted by Mr. Singer) is,—

" If it were done, when 'tie done, then %were well It were done quickly ;"

But does not a semicolon at the end of the first line, and no stop whatever at "quickly,"—which is Mr. Irving's reading of the passage,—bring out the poet's meaning much more clearly? Macbeth says it would be a good thing if the whole affair were over when the crime is committed ; it would be done quickly if, &c.

Whichever reading, however, Mr. Singer admits into the text, he is almost invariably careful to mention, in a note, both the original word and whatever variant has been pro- posed. Instances are extremely rare where this precaution is omitted, though they occur sometimes, as where he joins the editors in Italianising the motto of Pistol's sword, II. Henry IV., act ii., scene 4 (though, singularly enough, he mentions Douce's discovery of a rapier with the French words almost as in the Folio) ; and where, in the Merry Wives of Windsor, act iv., scene 5, he, still in the same company, makes Falstaff say, "Ay Sir Tyke, who more bold," though Mr. Dyce has quite satisfactorily explained the " Ay ! Sir, like who more bold" of the Folio and one of the Quartos. Besides drawing attention to the various readings, the judicious and frequent notes by which the text is accom- panied—in some parts they are so frequent as almost to serve the purpose of an interwoven commentary—labour to explain, honestly

and carefully, such difficulties and allusions as occur. Few, in- deed, are the statements in them which admit of disputec—though as the plot, in the poet's mind, must have preceded the play, it seems probable that when Viola (Twelfth .Night, act i., scene 2) begs the Captain to present her to the Duke as "an eunuch," she merely means page or chamberlain—not the regular Tawdshi- and however that may be, it is evident to any formal capacity that the "good neighbours" (Much Ado About Nothing, act v., scene 2), in whose time, according to Benedick, men needed not to praise themselves, have no more to do with,the fairies than they have with the Furies. Again, in a note on Hamlet, act v., scene 2, he falls foul of Dr. Johnson for explaining " approve " by "re- commending to approbation," on the ground of Shakespearian usage being against the interpretation. But though, no doubt, the poet generally uses the word in a different sense, Johnson might have pointed to more than one passage in support of his view. Malvolio (Twelfth Night, act iv., scene 2) says, "I think nobly of the soul, and no way approve his opinion ;" and

-Coriolanus, when missing the approbation of his mother, says:—

" I muse my mother

Does not approve me farther."

In both of which cases the word must bear Johnson's meaning— besides two or three similar passaies in Othello, which we have not space to quote.

Our readers, however, must always bear in mind that these few examples have necessarily been cited from those passages where the editor's views seemed liable to objection, while the numberless instances in which nothing but the most cordial agreement could be expressed have been left unnoticed ; nor can we do better, in conclusion, than recommend any student of Shakespeare, who wishes to combine the advantages of a good text and really useful notes with excellent paper and a clear type, to prosecute his studies with the help of Mr. Singer's edition.