Evidently "remedied" is misprinted for rendered, as Mr.

Dyce suggests.

Read,

"But shall be rendered to your public laws

At heaviest answer."

JULIUS CÆSAR.

ACT I. SCENE 2.

"Cas. When could they say, till now, that talk'd of Rome, That her wide walks encompass'd but one man."

If correction be necessary in these lines, the suggestion of walls for "walks" made by Theobald, and adopted also in Mr. Collier's folio, must be accepted.

Where wilt thou find a cavern dark enough

To mask thy monstrous visage? Seek none conspiracy;

Hide it in smiles, and affability:

For if thou path thy native semblance on,

Not Erebus itself were dim enough

To hide thee from prevention."

Difficulty has been found by all editors and commentators in "path." I thought it might be a misprint for put, and afterwards found that Coleridge had proposed the same word with confidence. But none of the editors or commentators have noticed that the quarto of 1691 reads,

"For if thou hath thy native semblance on," &c.

I do not mean to say that hath is the word; but neither do I believe that it is a mere misprint in the old quarto. 'Hath' is very frequently used by Shakespeare and his contemporaries for 'have ;' and in his time, and long after, the bow of the letter h was short, while the second stroke was brought far below the line. Three examples occur on the fac-simile page of Mr. Collier's second folio, published with his Notes and Emendations.

ACT III. SCENE 1.

In the original, the following passage is evidently not properly distributed among the characters :

Cin.-Caska, you are the first that rears your hand.
Caes. Are we all ready? What is now amisse
That Cæsar and his Senate must redresse!"

"Are we all ready ?" plainly does not belong to Cæsar, and has been made a continuation of Cinna's speech to Casca. But it more probably belongs to Casca; who, as the leader of the onset, would naturally ask the question. This is the distribution recommended first by Ritson, and recently by Mr. Collier, on the credit which he gives to his folio.

"Cœs.

I must prevent thee, Cimber.

These couchings and these lowly courtesies," &c.

Mr. Collier's folio suggests, with more than plausibility,

crouchings for "couchings." But it is by no means certain that Shakespeare has not used the words convertibly in several instances.

ACT IV. SCENE 1.

"Ant. A barren-spirited fellow; one that feeds

On objects, arts, and imitations,

Which out of use, and stal'd by other men,
Begin his fashion."

How did Lepidus feed or exist "on objects, arts," &c.? Out of question there is an error of the press; and we should read,

one that feeds

On abject arts and imitations."

I find that this passage is considered obscure: all sorts of alterations are proposed in it by editors and commentators of every grade and period. It has always seemed to me, and yet seems to be perfectly clear. By "if the assassination could trammel up the consequence," Macbeth evidently means, if the killing of Duncan could also set aside the consequences of such an act.' "His" refers to Duncan, not to the assassination, as some, Johnson among them, appear to think, and "surcease" means 'ending,' 'decease,' 'death;' and the sentence may, if it must, be paraphrased,--'If, in the act of killing Duncan, I could protect myself against the consequences of such an act, and obtain by his death, success.' See Rape of Lucrece, near

the end.

"If they surcease to be that should survive."

The commentators complain that this whole soliloquy is