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January 29, 1853.] THE LEADER. 113
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" It was, as may be inferred, very littl...
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(jRKCrS ESSAYS ON SOCIAL SCJIKNOK. JJJsa...
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Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
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New Lights On Shakspeare. Notes And Emen...
« It was while putting my books together for removal , that I first observed some marks in the margin of this folio ; but it was subsequently placed upon an upper shelf , and I did not take it down until I had occasion to consult it . It then struck me that Thomas Perkins , whose name , with the addition of' his T 3 ooke / was upon the cover , might be the old actor who had performed in Marlowe ' s ' Jew of Malta / on its revival shortly before 1633 . At this time I fancied that the binding was of about that date , and that the volume might have been his ; but in the first place , I found that his name was Richard Perkins , and in the next I * became satisfied that the rough calf was not the original binding . Still , Thomas Perkins might have been a descendant of Richard ; and this circumstance and others induced me to examine the volume more particularly : I then discovered , to my surprise , that there was hardly a page which did not present , in a hand-writing of the time , some emendations in the pointing or in the text , while on most of them they were frequent , and on many numerous .
" Of course I now submitted the folio to a most careful scrutiny ; and as it occupied a considerable time to complete the inspection , how much more must it have consumed to make the alterations ? The ink was of various shades , differing sometimes on the same page , and I was once disposed to think that two distinct hands had been employed upon them : this notion I have since abandoned ; and I am now decidedly of opinion that the same writing prevails from beginning to end , but that the amendments must have been introduced from time to time , during , perhaps , the course of several years . The changes in punctuation alone , always made with nicety and patience , must have required a long period , considering their number ; the other alterations , sometimes most minute , extending even to turned letters and typographical trifles of that kind , from their very nature could not have been introduced with rapidity , while many of the errata must have severely tasked the industry of the old corrector . "
Mr . Collier thinks that the corrector was some manager or actor—some one connected with our early theatres . This supposition explains the erasure of whole speeches , the insertion of stage directions , and the insertion also of lines and passages which connect the disjointed meanings of the text . He estimates these corrections of punctuation , printing , and meaning at little less than 20 , 000 ! We scarcely know what to say to the assault made on the authenticity of our old friends , Heminge and Condell , Shakspeare ' s first editors and his fellow-actors .
" It is to be observed that thepe last emendations apply to plays which were printed for the first time in the folio , 1623 . This fact tends to prove that the manuscript , put into the hands of the printer by Heminge and Condell , in spite of what they say , was not in a much better condition than the manuscript used by stationers for the separate plays which they had previously contrived to publish . The effect of the ensuing pages must be considerably to lessen our confidence in the text furnished by the player-editors , for the integrity of which I , among others , have alwhys strenuously contended . Consequently , I ought to be among the last to admit the validity of objections to it ; and it was not until after long examination of the proposed alterations , that I was compelled to allow their general accuracy and importance .
January 29, 1853.] The Leader. 113
January 29 , 1853 . ] THE LEADER . 113
" It Was, As May Be Inferred, Very Littl...
" It was , as may be inferred , very little , if at all , the habit of dramatic authors , in the time of Shakespeare , to correct tbe proofs of their productions ; and as we know that , in respect to the plays which had been published in quarto before 1623 , all that Heminge and Condell did , was to put the latest edition into the hands of their printer , bo , possibly , in respect to the plays which for the first timp appeared in the folio , 1623 , all that they did might be to put the manuscript , such as it was , into the hands of their printer , and to leave to him the whole process of typography . It is not at all unlikely that they borrowed playhouse copies to aid them ; but these mig ht consist , sometimes at least , of the separate parts allotted to the different actors , and , for the sake of speed in so long a work , scribes might be employed , to whom the manuscript was read as they proceeded with their transcripts .
This supposition , and the fraudulent manner in which plays in general found their way into print , may account for many of the blunders they unquestionably contain iu the folios , and especially for the strange confusion of verse and proso which they sometimes exhibit . The not uufrcquont errors iu prefixes , by which words or lines lire assigned to one character , which certainly belong to another , may thus also bo explained ¦ tlio render of the drama to the scribe did not at all times accurately distinguish the persons engaged in the dialogue ; and if ho hud only the separate parts , and what nro technically called the cues , to guide him , we need not be surprised at the circumstance . The following is a single proof , the first that occurs to memory : it is from Romeo and Juliet , Act 111 . Scene V ., whore tbe heroine declares to her mother that , if she must marry , her husband shall bo Itoiuoo : —
'And whon I do , 1 swear , It , shall bo Ttorneo , whom you know I Late , ^ ¦ Rather than Paris . —These nro iiowh indued ! This is tho universal regulation ; but , as we may very well believe , the . closing words « These are news , indeed ! ' do not belong to Juliet , but to Lady Capu et , who thus egresses her astonishment at nor daughter's resolution : therefore her speech ought to begin earlier than it appears in any extant copy . Juliet ends , —
< And whon 1 do , I swear , II shall bo Itoineo , whom you know i halo , Knl . her than Paris . / ¦ „ c . < tn These nnmewfl , lmlond ! HorV .-om ' * your flitlior ; loll him ho yourHc'lf , And hco how ho wnl tuko it at your hands . , ii , ; i ; unlil <> that this in the- mode in which tho poet distri" szztrti ; :: s ' ; ,: ,, !;!'• .,,.,,,,, ¦ ,. ¦ * . ., » . «* .. «» . -.. «»
dialogue divided on the stage in bis time . \ L bo it from us to put on oven the show of tmclung Mr . Oolher any-Vtu t > oii , yon I ,- . cannot forbear recalling to his 11 Sri"LiS . - sellby H ^ lnge and Comloll . in opposition to that attention mi ' j fa ,, ; rn ] inuH < . ript , " hucIi us it was , having P ;^ 1 ft n " house copies , which ' might sometimes consist of T 1 illottod to dim-rent actors—a pannage winch throws Ul ° m ! I lirst folio . Tbe Linkage of these player unmontod d h . « < , 1 . 1 " * H , Rof ( vn . illg to tho surreptitious cop . es m btors iH pn ; c he o < uv lllo ( M ? ftn , IIOW onere / l to your view , vvh . cl . hud f , Hoi *• ' '" I- ; , 1 " : " h , ) H ¦ and all tl . « rest absolute in tlmir « umberT ^ t ! itw tin Who , aB be was a happy imitator of nature ,
waB a gentle expresser of it . Sis mind and hand went together ; and what he thought he uttered with that easiness that we have scarce received from him a blot in his papers . " This passage , be pleased to observe , not only records an interesting literary fact—viz ,, that Shakspeare , like Goethe , Voltaire , Scott , Dickens * and other men of great intellectual energy , wrote without hesitation , without "blotting "—but it also distinctly states that the papers from which Heminge and Condell printed were written by Shakspeare's hand , and were not playhouse copies or actors' parts . Now , of two suppositions , one : either Heminge and Condell deliberately lied ; or their word is absolute on this pt > int . We leave it to critics to settle the question .
Respecting the emendations themselves , only a careful perusal of the book will convey an adequate idea of their importance . It is curious to see them cutting short the vexed disputes of commentators in the simplest way . It is curious also to see the new signiiicance given to passages by an altered punctuation , or the insertion of a line . We will cull , ad aperturam , a passage or two . In the celebrated passage of the Twelfth Night— * " It had a dying fall ; O , it came o ' er my ear like the sweet south That breathes upon a bank of violets , Stealing and giving odour . " The reading of all the editions until Pope ' s time
was" O , it came o ' er my ear like the sweet sound . And Charles Knight has returned to the old reading . In the long note he appends * to this passage we see his perverse erudition and ingenuity striving in vain against common sense . A sound may be said to breathe , but how can it be said to give or steal odours P Moreover , Shakspeare does not compare the sound of music to the sound of tbe breeze , but the effect of music to the effect of the breeze on a bank of violets . The * ' old corrector , " whom Mr . Collier follows , anticipated Pope , and corrected " ¦ sound" into " south . " In the same way this old corrector anticipated Theobald in the obvious correction of " weary" for " merry , " disdained by Charles Knight . Rosalind , in As you Like it , says" O Jupiter ! how weary are my spirits !"
Whereupon Touchstone answers" I care not for my spirits , if my legs were not weary . " This answer , one would think , sufficiently explains the old misprint" O Jupiter ! how merry . arc my spirits !" But Charles Knight prefers sticking to the folio , and restores " merry , " adding in a note , that " Whiter , with great good sense , suggests that Rosalind ' s merriment was assumed as well as her dress" ! This great good sense never asked itself why Rosalind should assume merriment in presence of Touchstone , nor why , if the merriment was assumed , her remark following Touchstones answer should be , " I could find in my heart to disgrace my man ' s apparel , and cry like a woman . " Tbe effect of slight alterations may be judged from these two
specimens : — " P . 540 . All appeals failing to move Shylock , Antonio entreats for judgment , observing , as the lines are printed in the folio , 1632 , — ' Or even as well use question with tbe wolf , The ewe bleat for the lamb : when you behold . ' Such are the words , and sueb tbe punctuation ; but the earlier folio , of 1623 , gives the sentence even more imperfectly : — ' Or even as well use question with tho wolf , Tho ewe bleat for tho lamb ;'
tbe rest of tho line beinjr wanting . How , then , is the defect remedied by tbe corrector of the folio , 1 G 32 ? Simply by a transposition and the removal of a colon , which accomplishes all that is wanted by making tho meaning indisputable : ho reads , — ' Or even as well uso question with tho wolf , When you behold the own bleat for tho Jamb . ' "P . 557 . At tbe end of Portia's speech wo have this passage , as it is found in all the old copies : — ' Poaee ! how the moon Bleeps with Endymiou , And would not bo uwak'd . '
Malone changed it to * Peace , hoa ! the moon , ' Ac ; but the manuscript-corrector of tho folio , 1 G 32 , tells us that the error was not jWfor ' hoa / but how for ' now : ' this is the more likely , because when the folios came from tho press it was not usual to spell the interjection « boa , ' but ho ; and wo know that it was a very common mistake to print " ' bow' for now , and vice versa ; therefore wo ought to read , — ' IVaeo ! now the moon sleeps with Kndymion , And would not bo uwak'd . '" Have we fired your curiosity ? IT so , we havo done enough . Possess tbe book by all means , if you " have any care for Shakspearo ' n text .
(Jrkcrs Essays On Social Scjiknok. Jjjsa...
( jRKCrS ESSAYS ON SOCIAL SCJIKNOK . JJJsaaus on Volitical and Social titnvnce , contributed chlejhf to the " Edinbxirgh jLiow . " By William It . ilrvg . ti vols . Longman and Co . Mr . W . It . ( Jtticu in among the active contributors to our IieviewH , and by no moans one of thn leant able ; but wo cannot bring oiinujh ™ to regard hia IWitive articles as of Huflicient important to justify their rppublication in iliiH imposing form . They can Wo no nrctcnHion to stand oil the diolf boHido M aranlay , Jolfirry , Hi « l .. oy «» ' ¦( , , , and MiMjintoj h ; - indeed , on a far lower hIuhT they woi , ld be out of place . Mr . Henry Roger * roprintr . l but articles , nud was juHtifmd b y Ui « permanence of bin topics / no 1 chs limn by tluf thoughtful « ur « . and ability of their treatment Mr . Greg writes in newspapers and reviews on paBHing subee 8 ; writes well , wo are bound lo add , but not better limn hundreds of others , and not so well as several who do not reprint then- ephemera ; and we are at , a
loss to divine ( be motive which could have suited tboso reprints from tbe Kdintmrqh Westminster , North fin fish , and hconowtst . Mr . Greg has no views ' of his own to justify rc-publical . ion , nor does be make tbe views of other * forcible iu novel applications ; ho brings a well-
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Citation
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Leader (1850-1860), Jan. 29, 1853, page 113, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/cld_29011853/page/17/
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