propriety not to leave a wreck' behind; but it would be very strange indeed, if it should leave a small fleeting cloud behind; neither does that object furnish a simile at all appropriate to what would remain after such an all-devouring catastrophe. It is indeed surprising that any one who had ever heard the old phrase 'gone to rack and ruin,' should have had a doubt about the word in question.

"Steph. Now is the jerkin, under the line; now jerkin you are like to lose your hair, and prove a bald jerkin."

Stephano's pun is supposed to allude to the hair lines on which it is said clothes were hung in the time of Shakespeare; but may not the loss of hair consequent upon being "under the line," be an allusion to the baldness which so frequently attacks northerners when under the heat of the equatorial line?

[I find in the Variorum Ed. a note from Edwards' MSS. which coincides with this, my early conjecture.]

ACT V. SCENE 1.

"Prosp. His mother was a witch, and one so strong That could control the moon; make flows and ebbs, And deal in her command, without her power."

Mr. Collier's MS. corrector changed "without her power," to "with all her power," an alteration which appears more than plausible, until we recollect that 'power' is used for 'legitimate authority' to this day. Thus, we say that an officer 'exceeded his powers.' Mr. Charles Knight* is

* I credit Mr. Knight with the defence of this reading, only on the authority of Blackwood's Magazine,—Aug, 1853, p, 186. I have not seen Mr.

unquestionably right in his defence of the old reading, which cannot be disturbed. Sycorax was a witch, "so strong," that she could usurp the functions of the Moon, and "deal in her command without her " legitimate authority.

OMISSION.

ACT III. SCENE 3.

"Gonz. Each putter out of five for one will bring us," &c.

This line, which refers to the habit of adventurers by sea in Shakespeare's day, to put out a sum of money on condition of receiving five for one, if they chanced to return alive, is evidently corrupt, as was long ago discovered. The voyagers did not put out "five for one," but one for five. So the line has been changed to,

and to,

"Each putter out of one for five," &c.

“Each putter out on five for one," &c.

the former being the most common reading. But surely this is to avoid the most natural correction of the typographical error, and the most appropriate phrase for the expression of the idea. We do not put out money on five per cent., we put it out at five per cent. ; and these adventurers, instead of putting it out at five for a hundred, put it out at five for one. Read,

"Each putter out at five for one will bring us," &c.

Knight's book, or, indeed, the labors of any other of Mr. Collier's opponents, except Mr. Singer, Mr. Dyce, Mr. Halliwell, and the writer in Black. wood.

7

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TWO GENTLEMEN OF VERONA.

ACT I. SCENE 1.

Speed. Ay, sir; I, a lost mutton, gave your letter to her, a laced mutton; and she, a laced mutton, gave me, a lost mutton, nothing for my labour."

"In the present passage, is 'laced mutton,'" asks Mr. Dyce, "to be regarded as synonymous with courtesan? I doubt it. When Speed applies that term to Julia, he probably uses it in the much less offensive sense of a richly attired piece of woman's flesh." Mr. Dyce has well expressed a signification, which, until I read the comments of the Variorum men, I took for granted, as that obviously required by the context, and as a point upon which no question could arise. Would Speed tell Proteus plainly that his mistress was a courtesan ? And had he done so, would he have escaped with a sound skin?

ACT II. SCENE 1.

"Speed. When you look'd sadly, it was for want of money. And now you are metamorphos' d with a mistress, that when I look on you, I can hardly think you my master."

The MS. correction in Mr. Collier's folio, "And now you are so Metamorphos'd with a Mistris that when," &c., seems very plausible; but still, with the sentence punctuat

ed as it is above, I am not sure that the so is necessary. Speed's meaning is, you are metamorphosed with a mistress, so that when I look on you, I can hardly think you my master'; and the particle is dropped by a not uncommon, and, it appears to me, rather elegant elision.

ACT II. SCENE 3.

"Launce. This hat is Nan, our maid; I am the dog:-no, the dog is himself and I am the dog,-oh! the dog is me, and I am myself."

Will it be believed by those who have not seen it for themselves, the exquisite confusion of poor Launce's feeble ideas is not appreciated by Dr. Johnson and Sir Thomas Hanmer! How delightful is the complacence with which, after doubting whether he is the dog or the dog is himself and he is the dog, he triumphantly extricates himself from his dilemma, by exclaiming : "Oh! the dog is me, and I am myself." And yet Dr. Johnson is not certain "how much reason the author intended to bestow on Launce's soliloquy," and Sir Thomas Hanmer actually printed the passage, "I am the dog :-no, the dog is himself and I am me; the dog is the dog, and I am myself." This it was to edit Shakespeare in the 'Augustan age' of English literature! Augustan in what? Its looseness, its servility, its maliciousness, its marrowless thought, its inability to make its philosophy more than an iteration of trite orthodoxy or triter scepticism, or its poetry more than an oily flow of pretty epigrams?

SCENE 4.

"Val. I, my good Lord, I know the gentleman

To be of worth, and worthy estimation;

And not without desert so well reputed."

The MS. correction, by Mr. Collier's folio, in the second line,

"To be of wealth and worthy estimation,"

seems required by the context, and to be justified by a probable misprint, until we remember that "worthy estimation” may mean, 'the esteem of worthy people.' Valentine evidently means to say that the father of Proteus is not only "of worth" but "of worthy estimation;" and the substitution of wealth for "worth" impoverishes both the declaration and the subject of it. "I," in the first line, is the old mode of spelling 'Aye,' and furnishes a guide as to the varying pronunciation of that word.

ACT III. SCENE 1.

"Proteus. Even in the milk-white bosom of thy love."

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The commentators remark upon this passage, that the lady of the 16th century had a pocket in the front of her stays;" and they suppose this fashion again referred to when Valentine says,

"My herald thoughts in thy pure bosom rest them;"

and also in Hamlet's fancy,

"These to her excellent white bosom."

What need, what need of all this mantua-making lore! Where have Eve's daughters put their lover's letters and their own nameless little knick-knacks ever since their mother's apron of fig leaves was first accommodated with a boddice? Do lovers send their thoughts to the "pure" pockets, the excellent white" stays of their mistresses? What absurd misconstruction of beautiful and appropriate thoughts, for the purpose of displaying a little knowledge of antiquated man-millinery!

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The Earl of Surrey, who wrote his poetry to a "lady of