" Which challenges itself as honours born,
"And is not like the sire. Honours thrive," &c.

This editor, not knowing that sire was used as a dissyllable, reads:

" And is not like the sire. Honours best thrive," &c.

So, in King Henry VI. P. I:

"Rescued is Orleans from the English."

Not knowing that English was used as a trisyllable, he has completed the line, which he supposed defective, according to his own fancy, and reads:

" Rescu'd is Orleans from the English wolves."

The same play furnishes us with various other proofs of his ignorance of our poet's metre. Thus, instead of

" Orleans the bastard, Charles, Burgundy,-"

he has printed (not knowing that Charles was used as a word of two syllables,)

" Orleans the bastard, Charles, and Burgundy."

So, instead of the original reading,

" Divinest creature, Astræa's daughter,-"

(Astræa being used as a word of three syllables,) he has printed

" Divinest creature, bright Astræa's daughter."

Again, ibidem :

"Whereas the contrary bringeth bliss."

Not knowing that contrary was used as a word of four syllables, he reads:

" Whereas the contrary bringeth forth bliss." So sure is used in the same play, as a dissyllable: " Gloster, we'll meet: to thy cost, be sure." but this editor, not aware of this, reads: " Gloster, we'll meet; to thy dear cost, be sure." Again, in King Henry VI. P. II.

"And so to arms, victorious father,-"

arms being used as a dissyllable. But the second folio reads:

" And so to arms, victorious noble father."

Again, in Twelfth-Night, Act I. sc. i. we find

when liver, brain, and heart, "These sovereign thrones, are all supply'd, and fill'd, " (Her sweet perfections) with one self-king."

for which the editor, not knowing that perfections was used as a quadrisyllable, has substituted

when liver, brain, and heart,

" These sovereign thrones, are all supply'd, and fill'd, " (Her sweet perfections) with one self-same king."

Again, in King Henry VI. P. II:

" Prove it, Henry, and thou shalt be king."

for which the editor of the second folio, not knowing Henry to be used as a trisyllable, gives us,

" But prove it, Henry, and thou shalt be king."

In like manner dazzled is used by Shakspeare as a trisyllable in The Two Gentlemen of Verona, Act II. sc. iv:

" And that hath dazzled my reason's light."

instead of which, we find in the second folio,

" And that hath dazzled so my reason's light."

The words neither, rather, &c. are frequently used by Shakspeare as words of one syllable. So, in King Henry VI. P. III:

" And neither by treason, nor hostility,
"To seek to put me down-.”

for which the editor of the second folio has given

us,

"Neither by treason, nor hostility," &c.

In Timon of Athens, Act III. sc. v. Alcibiades asks,

" Is this the balsam, that the usuring senate
" Pours into captains' wounds? banishment?"

The editor of the second folio, not knowing that pours was used as a dissyllable, to complete the supposed defect in the metre, reads :

" Is this the balsam, that the usuring senate
" Pours into captains' wounds! ha! banishment ?"

Tickled is often used by Shakspeare and the contemporary poets, as a word of three syllables. So, in King Henry VI. P. II :

" She's tickled now; her fume needs no spurs."

instead of which, in the second folio we have,

" She's tickled now; her fume can need no spurs." So, in Titus Andronicus, Act II. sc. i:

"Better than he have worn Vulcan's badge." This editor, not knowing that worn was used as a dissyllable, reads:

" Better than he have yet worn Vulcan's badge."

Again, in Cymbeline, Act II. sc. v:

" All faults that name, nay, that hell knows, why hers, " In part, or all; but rather all: for even to vice," &c.

These lines being thus carelessly distributed in the original copy,

"All faults that name, nay, that hell knows,

" Why hers, in part, or all; but rather all :" &c.

the editor of the second folio, to supply the defect of the first line, arbitrarily reads, with equal ignorance of his author's metre and phraseology,

" All faults that may be named, nay, that hell knows,
" Why hers," &c.

In King Henry IV. P. II. Act I. sc. iii. is this line:

"And being now trimm'd in thine own desires,-." instead of which the editor of the second folio, to remedy a supposed defect in the metre, has given

us

" And being now trimm'd up in thine own desires, -."

Again, in As you like it, Act II. sc. i:

instead of which we find in the second folio, (the editor not knowing that country was used as a trisyllable,)

"

he pierceth through

"The body of city, the country, court."

In like manner, in The Winter's Tale, Act I. sc. i. he has given us :

"The doctrine of ill-doing, no nor dream'd

"That any did :--"

"The doctrine of ill-doing, nor dream'd," &c.

doctrine being used as a word of three syllables. "Pay him six thousand," &c. says Portia in The Merchant of Venice,

" Before a friend of this description

" Should lose a hair through Bassanio's fault."

the word hair being used as a dissyllable, or Bassanio as a quadrisyllable. Of this the editor of the second folio was wholly ignorant, and therefore reads:

" Should lose a hair through my Bassanio's fault."

In The Winter's Tale, Act IV. sc. iii. Florizel, addressing Perdita, says,

my desires

"Run not before mine honour; nor my lusts

"Burn hotter than my faith."

To complete the last hemistich, Perdita is made

to reply,

VOL. I.

HH