BOUGHT WITH THE INCOME 
 FROM THE 
 
 SAGE. ENDOWMENT FUND 
 
 THE GIFT OF 
 
 1891 
 
 JA-a^.c.:^::^.'^..:^ >»^ 
 
 VM\V>- 
 
Cornell University Library 
 PR 651.D32 
 
 The old dramatists; conjectural readings 
 
 3 1924 013 271 568 
 
The original of tliis bool< is in 
 tine Cornell University Library. 
 
 There are no known copyright restrictions in 
 the United States on the use of the text. 
 
 http://www.archive.org/details/cu31924013271568 
 
THE OLD DRAMATISTS 
 CONJECTURAL READINGS 
 
THE OLD DRAMATISTS 
 
 CONJECTURAL READINGS 
 
 ON THE TEXTS OF 
 
 MARSTON: BEAUMONT AND 
 FLETCHER : PEELE : MARLOWE 
 CHAPMAN: HEYWOOD : GREENE 
 MIDDLETON: DEKKER: WEBSTER 
 
 By K. DEIGHTON 
 
 ARCHIBALD CONSTABLE AND CO. 
 1896 
 
 A a rights reserved 
 
Kzb'b^'^^ 
 
 Edinburgh: T. and A. Constable, Printers to Her Majesty 
 
PREFATORY NOTE 
 
 Most of the conjectures in this volume upon the 
 texts of Marston, Beaumont and Fletcher, Peele, 
 and Marlowe, with some that I have withdrawn, 
 were printed for private circulation in 1894. 
 These were so kindly received by several eminent 
 scholars that, having now added six more of the 
 old dramatists to my list, I venture to ask for a 
 wider hearing. 
 
 Something in the way of apology should per- 
 haps be said of an attempt which covers so large 
 a field, especially as most of the dramatists with 
 whose texts I deal have been subject to the 
 criticism of many able editors and to the exercise 
 of much sagacity. That I should hope to succeed 
 where great names have failed may seem presump- 
 tuous. I am not, however, unmindful of the 
 dangers of conjectural criticism, nor of the warn- 
 ings addressed to would-be emendators. Among 
 such warnings none perhaps is more" to the point 
 than that of the late Dr. Ingleby when he says in 
 his Shakespeare Hermeneutics, p. 1 14 : ' The simple 
 
viii Prefatory Note 
 
 truth is, that successful emendation is the fruit of 
 severe study and research on the one hand, and of 
 rare sensibility and sense on the other. The 
 number of really satisfactory conjectures are 
 comparatively few ; and few are those critics who 
 have shown any remarkable sagacity in this kind 
 of speculation.' 
 
 Now I, of course, make no claim whatever to 
 ' rare sensibility and sense ' ; I cannot dignify my 
 reading as ' severe study and research ' ; still less 
 do I imagine myself endowed with those excellent 
 gifts so justly ascribed to scholars and critics like 
 Theobald, Steevens, Dyce, and others of the past. 
 At the same time, I shall be disappointed if these 
 conjectures of mine are not recognised as the out- 
 come of much patient industry, and of consider- 
 able familiarity with the language and thought of 
 our old dramatists. K. D. 
 
THE OLD DRAMATISTS: 
 CONJECTURAL READINGS 
 
 I. MARSTON 1 
 
 I. Antonio and Mellida, i. 1.258: — 
 
 ' Ros. Sweet Lady; nay good sweet, now by my troth 
 We '11 be bedfellows : dirt on compliment froth ! 
 Exeunt ; Rossaline giving Antonio the way.' 
 
 Bullen explains the last words of the speech 
 thus : ' No empty compliments ! take the lead.' 
 
 In spite of the closer similarity of spelling 
 between troth and froth, I would read, ' dirt on 
 compliment ! forth ! ' 
 
 I. Antonio and Mellida, ii. 1. 14 : — 
 
 ' Dil. Upon mine honour. 
 
 ' Cat. Your honour with a paugh ! 'slid, now every jack- 
 anapes loads his back with the golden coat of honour ; 
 every ass puts on the lion's skin and roars his honour. 
 Upon your honour ? By my lady's pantable, I fear I shall 
 live to hear a vintner's boy cry '"Tis rich neat canary." 
 Upon my honour ! ' 
 
 ^ The references are to BuUen's edition, 2 vols., 1887. 
 A 
 
2 The Old Dramatists 
 
 The inverted commas should come after honour I 
 not after canary ; the words ' 'Tis rich . . . 
 honour ! ' being part of the boy's cry. 
 
 I. Antonio and Mellida, iii. 2. 9 : — 
 
 ; "■ ' ■ ' ' '' • < I "have walk'd all night, - ; 
 
 To see if the nocturnal court delights 
 
 Cpuld force me'eaVj? their felicity ; ^ . . . - O 
 
 And by plain troth, I will confess plain troth, 
 
 I envy nothing but the travense light. 
 
 O, had it eyes, and earsj and tongues, it might 
 
 See sport, hear speech of most strange surquedries. 
 
 O, if that candle-light were made a poet. 
 
 He would prove a rare firking satirist, 
 
 Asnd dra* th'e dore forth of imposthum'd sin.' 
 
 For travense Bullen conjectures traverse, ' i.e. 
 light cast slantwise.' I can see no point in such 
 an explanation, but would read tavern's. 
 
 ■ I. Antonio and Mellida, iii. 2. 107 : — 
 
 For dramatis persona DiL read Cat. Dildo has 
 not entered yet. 
 
 I. Antonio and Mellida, iii. 2. 125 : — 
 
 ' By the sugar-candy sky, hold up the glass higher, that 
 I may see to swear in fashion. O, one loof more, would' 
 ha' made them shine ; God's neaks, they would have shone 
 like my mistress' brow.' 
 
 iBullen says ' there is no meaning iti the word; 
 " loof," ' and proposes 'touch.' : may not /o(?/ mean 
 turn, i.e. pi the barber's hand ? • - 
 
Conjectural Readings 3 
 
 \, Antonio and Mellida,\v.x. "JO: — - 
 
 ' O you that made open the glibbery ice 
 Of vulgar favour view Andrugio.' 
 
 For made open, Bullen gives slide up>on, and upon 
 is evidently right. But the change of made should, 
 I think, be to make. In the sense of ' move,' make 
 is frequent in the dramatists with prepositions and 
 conjunctions, e.g., to make to, towards, after, away 
 forth, from, up, etc. 
 
 I. Antonio and Mellida, iv. i. 80: — 
 
 ' O rotten props of the. crazed multitude, 
 How still you double, falter under the lightest chance 
 That strains your veins ! Alas, one battle Ibst, , 
 Your whorish love, your drunken healths, your houts 
 
 and shouts. 
 Your smooth God save's, and all your devils last, 
 That tempts our quiet to your hall of throngs.' 
 
 In 1. 80, for devils last, I propose devils' lust. 
 Bullen gives devils lost, which makes scarcely 
 better sense than devils last, to say nothing of lost 
 being used two lines above. After throngs some- 
 thing has apparently dropped out, to the effect of 
 ' are heard no more,' or an aposiopesis should be" 
 marked. ' 
 
 In 1. TJ, I fancy that double and falter were 
 originally alternatives, one of which, probably 
 falter, Marston forgot to erase. 
 
4 The Old Dramatists 
 
 II. Antonio and Mellida, i. i. 73 : — 
 
 ' That fair show 
 Of death, for the excessive joy of his fate 
 Might choke the murder.' 
 
 For death, I would read grief. 
 
 II. Antonio and Mellida, i. i. 76 : — 
 
 ' Whose sinking thought friightened my conscious heart.' 
 
 For sinking, perhaps soaking. Compare The 
 Winter's Tale, i. 2. 224, 
 
 ' Was this taken 
 By any understanding pate but mine ? 
 For thy conceit is soaking, will draw in 
 More than the common blocks.' 
 
 Piero, as ^^ullen remarks, dreads lest his villainies 
 should be detected by Feliche. 
 
 11. Antonio and Mellida, i. 2. 130-132 : — 
 Balurdo, 'a rich gull,' is relating a dream he 
 has had. 
 
 ' For methought I dreamt I was asleep, and methought 
 the ground yawned and belkt up the abhominable ghost 
 of a misshapen simile, with two pages ; the one called 
 master, even as going before ; and the other mounser, 
 even so following after ; whilst Signor Simile stalk'd most 
 prodigiously in the midst.' 
 
 On this Bullen remarks, 'Balurdo is talking 
 arrant nonsense.' But punctuate as follows, 
 and it will be seen that Balurdo is (for him) 
 talking excellent sense: The one called master 
 
Conjectural Readings 5 
 
 ' even as,' going before ; and the other, mouriser 
 {i.e. monsieur) ' even so,' following after ; whilst, etc. 
 
 II. Antonio and Mellida, ii. i. 58 : — 
 ' He that 's ambitious-minded, and but man, 
 Must have his followers beasts, damrid slavish sots. 
 Whose service is obedience, and whose wit 
 Reacheth no further than to admire their lord. 
 And stare in adoration of his worth.' 
 
 The old editions giver dub'd : read dumUd. Cf. 
 A.C. i. 5. 50, 
 
 • what I would have spoke 
 Was beastly dumffd by him ; ' 
 
 Theobald's certain conjecture for dumbe of the 
 earlier folios. 
 
 II. Antonio and Mellida, ii. i. 154: — 
 
 ' The port-holes 
 Of sheathed spirit are ne'er corVd up. 
 But still stand open, ready to discharge 
 Their precious shot into the shrouds of heaven.' 
 
 Bullen, who prints corbed, remarks, 'Corbed 
 (old eds. corb'd) is "good," as Polonius would 
 say ; but I have no suspicion as to its meaning. 
 It would be a pity to suggest an emendation.' 
 Still, as Pandulpho is not meant to talk nonsense, 
 I would suggest cooped. Compare 1. 144, 'Pish, 
 thou canst not coop me up.' 
 
 The Malcontent, iv. 2. 112: — 
 
 ' Duke Pietro he banished for banishing his blood's 
 dishonour.' 
 
 For banishing, I would xea^d publishing. Pietro 
 
6 The Old Dramatists 
 
 has made known his wife's infidelity, but has not 
 banished her. . .- ." 
 
 The Malcontent, v. i. 9 : — 
 Bilioso, ' an old choleric marshall,' is boasting of 
 his prowess. ,. : 
 
 ' When Monsieur Gundi lay here as ambassador, I could 
 have carried a lady up and down at arm's end in a platter ; 
 and I can tell yau, there were those at that time who, to try 
 the strength of a man's back and his arm, would be coistered.' 
 
 Of coistered no other instance has been found in 
 English literature. Reed suggests that the word 
 may be derived from Old French coisser=in- 
 commoder, or colter =presser, exciter. Nares thinks 
 the meaning may be ' coiled up into a small com- 
 pass.' Halliwell, Diet, of Arch, and Prov. Words, 
 gives ' inconvenienced ' (Fr.). But these seem 
 unhappy guesses. Read hoistered, an Essex word 
 meaning supported, held up, an extension of hoisted, 
 as hoisted is of hoised. 
 
 The Malcontent, v. 2. 262 : — 
 
 -. , ' So 't be of our devising.' ; - - 
 
 Qy. ' oi soon devising'? Compare 1. 256 above, 
 'ai.ny quick-done Action.' 
 
 The Malcontent, v. 2. 286 : — 
 
 ' For no disastrous chance can ever move him, ; 
 That leaveth nothing but a God above him.' 
 
 I Read feareth. Malevole is rejoicing at the turn 
 
Conjectural Readings 7 
 
 matters have taken, and encoufages'Celso'to be of 
 good, heart. ■ . '. 
 
 The Malcontent, v.. 3. 154 : — , . . ' 
 
 ' Speech to such, ay, O, what will. affords ! ' , - 
 
 The line as it stands is to me, unintelligible. 
 Perhaps we should read, 
 - " • ' Speech to such'y(yj O,' etc. ■" ; 
 
 i.e. there is no need for you to, say 'no words,' for 
 my joy is such that it chokes iiiterance. It may 
 be noted by the way that the words, ' O my 
 'Altofront,' 1. 150, are extra metrum. ., -" . .'- 
 
 - The Dutch. C0urtesan,^x\, 2.2\i^, 2\^ : — -• 
 
 ' Yet man 's but maris excrement — man breeding man, 
 As he does worms, or this, to spoil this nothing. 
 
 ■" ' . , , [He spits: 
 
 Perhaps, 
 
 ' Yet man 's but excrement — man breeding man, 
 As he does worms, or this [He spits], to spoil this nothing.' 
 
 The Dutch Courtezan, iii. i. 17 : — 
 
 . 'Soft skins jave -us ! there was stub-bearded John-a- 
 Stile with a ploydeiis face saluted me last day and struck, 
 his bristles through my lips.' 
 
 What is ployden's ? Surely hoyden's. 
 
 The Dutch Courtezan, v. 2. 139 : — 
 ' Come, come, turn not 2^ man of time to make all ill 
 ;:v. Whose geodness. you conceive not.' 
 
 ' The text seems corrupt,' says Bullen. Read 
 'man 0' i"^' time.' '1-1 ; - '-.s,. ,j 1 J i. . ' . 
 
8 The Old Dramatists 
 
 The Fawn, ii. i. lOi : — 
 
 ' Nym. That I am ; and my beneficence shall show it. 
 ' Here. I know you are by that word beneficence, which 
 only speaks of the future tense (shall know it).' 
 
 Read, shall show it. 
 The Fawn, ii. i. 179 : — 
 
 'What? we are mutually incorporated, turn'd into one 
 another, brued together.' 
 
 Does this mean brewed, i.e. of one and the same 
 brew? 
 
 The Fawn, ii. 1.197 '■ — 
 
 ' to lie with one's brother's wedlock, O, my dear Herod, 
 'tis vile and uncommon lust.' 
 
 Bullen remarks, 'This must be a misprint. 
 Should we read " royal " ? ' 
 
 Is ' vile and uncommon ' anything else but a 
 hendiadys for ' monstrously vile ' ? 
 
 The Fawn, ii. i. 218 : — 
 
 ' Her afternoon's private nap is taken. I shall take her 
 napping.' 
 
 Qy. ' I shall noi take her napping ' ? 
 
 The Fawn, iii. i. 151 : — 
 
 ' O, Fawn, 'tis a lady even above ambition ; and like the 
 vertitial sun, that neither forceth others to cast shadows, 
 nor can others force or shade her.' 
 
 Qy. ' nor can others' force shade her ' ? 
 
Conjectural Readings 9 
 
 The Fawn, iii. i. 214: — 
 
 ' Dul. Because I love him ; and because he is virtuous I 
 love to marry him. 
 
 ' Phil. His virtues ! 
 
 ' Dul. Ay, with him, his virtues. 
 
 ^ Phil. Ay, with him ! alas, sweet princess, love or virtue 
 are not of the essence of marriage ! 
 
 ' Dul. I jest upon your misundorstandrng ! I '11 maintain 
 that wisdom in a woman is a most foolish quality.' 
 
 The first edition gives / iest, the second A jest, 
 the third / rest. Perhaps, Ay, pest, or A pest ; Ay, 
 as is well known, was of old commonly written /. 
 
 The Fawn, iii. i. 254 : — 
 
 ' No, let my wise, aged, learned, intelligent father, — that 
 can interpret eyes, understand the language of birds, inter- 
 pret the grumbling of dogs and the conference of cats, etc' 
 
 For * interpret eyes' I think we should read 
 ^penetrate eyes,' the word interpret being caught 
 from the line below. 
 
 The Fawn, iii. I. 354 : — 
 
 ' Why, I did V-acrnyou feigned.' 
 Read, ^ he feigned' ; comparing 11. 343, 351 above. 
 
 The Fawn, iv. 1. 133 : — 
 
 ' Why, then, hath not the direction of Nature thought it 
 just that customary coyness, old-fashions, terms of honour 
 and of modesty, forsooth, all laid aside, they court not us, 
 beseech not us rather, for sweets of love than we them ? ' 
 
 Omit not in both cases. 
 
lo The Old Drumdtisti 
 
 The Fawn, iv. i . 397 : — ■ ' 
 
 1 '■ Yet r hope k Tnan~6f wit may pfeverit his own mishap 
 or if he can prevent it,' etc. 
 
 Read, ' if he can't ptevent,' etc 
 
 " The Fawn, v:\.2\^\—r . _ , _ - . ,. 
 
 r ' A statute made in the£ve thousand four hundred three- 
 score and, thiree year of .'the .easeful reigir of the mighty 
 potent Don Cupid, emperor of sigh? and prote_stati(His, great 
 king of kisses, archduke of dalliance, ^jid sole lpv£d,of ker^ 
 for the maintaining ah^ relieving of his old soldiers, maim'd 
 or disabled in love.' ' '^ ' "■ "' - 
 
 The second edition gives ' sole' loved of /^/m.' 
 Read, .'sole lord. oShymeny ' hymen ', being often 
 spelt ' himen.' Note the gradation of titles from 
 'emperor '. to ' lord ' and compare What You Will, 
 iii. 3. 6-8 : ' Emperor of Cracks, Prince of Pages, 
 Marquess of Mumchance, and jo/e Regent over a 
 Bale of False Dice.' Both passages are founded; 
 upon Love's Labour's Lost, iii. I. 182-188, in which 
 nearly all the titles used by Marston are ascribed 
 to Cupid : — : 
 
 ' This senior-junior, giant-dwarf, Dan Cupid .- 
 Regent of love-rhymes, lord of folded arms, . 
 The anointed sovereign of sighs and groans, 
 Liege of all loiterers and malcontents> ' 
 
 'Dxea.A. prince of plackets, king of codpieces. 
 Sole im^erator and great general 
 Of trotting paritors.' 
 
 As an instance of the converse change, we have 
 
Conjectural Readings 1 1 
 
 irh -Fletcher's Elder Brother, v. 2. 15, 'my lord 
 Charles ' for ' my /(?T^'af Charles.' - . " 
 
 The Fawn, v. r. 406 : — 
 
 ' I remember when I was a young man, in my father's 
 days, there were four gallant spirits, for resolution, as 
 proper for body, as witty in discourse, as were any in 
 Europe, nay, Europe had not such ; I was one of them.' 
 
 Read, ' four as gallant spirits for resolution, as,' 
 etc., omitting the comma' after ' spirits.' 
 
 Sophonisba,\. 2: \2 :— 
 
 ' I hate these figures in locution, 
 . These about phases forced by ceremony.' 
 
 Read, ' these about-faces ' : ' figures in locutioti ' 
 suggest to the speaker figures in dancing, or in 
 riiilitary exercises in which 'faces about' was a 
 common order. 
 
 Sophonisba, i. 2. ^6 : — 
 
 ' Hannibal, our ancor is come back ; thy slight, ' 
 
 Thy stratagem, to lead war into Rome 
 To quite ourselves, hath now.taught desperate Rome 
 T'assail our Carthage : n,ow the war is here.' 
 
 For ancor BuUen substitutes rancour, observing 
 ' old'eds. " ancor " an obvious misprint.' The mean- 
 ing is. Our rancorous hatred of the Romans has 
 recoiled on our own heads.' But ancor, 'Ca& older 
 and more correct spelling of oirichor, is undoubtedly 
 sound, and the meaning is, ' the anchor to which 
 our vessel of state trusted {sc. the stratagem : of 
 
12 The Old Dramatists 
 
 carrying the war into the enemy's country) has 
 given way, has failed to take hold of the bottom.' 
 Compare Camillo's words, The Winter's Tale, 
 i. 2. 213, 214, in reference to the difficulty Leontes 
 had in persuading Polixenes to stay : — 
 
 ' You had much ado to make his anchor hold. 
 When you cast out, it still came home.' 
 
 Sophonisba, i. 2. 83, 84 : — 
 
 ' Desire, fear, and hope receive no bond 
 By whom, we in ourselves are never but beyond.' 
 
 Does this mean, ' Desire, fear, and hope, by 
 whose agency, prompted by which, we are never 
 within rational limits, but always out of our orbits, 
 acknowledge no restraint'? If so, the comma 
 after whom should be removed and placed after 
 never. If not, I see no sense in the passage. 
 
 Sophonisba, i. 2. 169 : — 
 
 ' 'Twas I lost the fight ; 
 My choice vexed Syphax, enraged Syphax struck 
 Arm's fate ; yet Sophonisba not repents.' 
 
 For arm's fate Bullen conjectures arm'd hate. 
 I think arm's fate, or rather arms' fate, is sound, 
 and the metaphor that of deciding the fate of 
 arms by a sudden blow on the scale which held 
 the fortune of the Carthaginians ; with an allusion 
 to Brennus. 
 
Conjectural Readings 1 3 
 
 Sophonisba, i. 2. 228 : — 
 
 ' Nature made all the rest of thy fair sex 
 As weak essays to make thee a pattern 
 Of what can be in woman.' 
 
 Read, ' to make o/"thee a pattern.' 
 
 Sophonisba, ii. 2. 71 : — 
 
 ' O my king, 
 My uncle, father, captain, O over all.' 
 
 Omit caught from the line above. 
 Sophonisba, iii. i. 63 : — 
 
 ' Zanthia, Zanthia ! 
 
 Thou art not foul, go to ; some lords are oft 
 So much in love with their known ladies' bodies 
 That they oft love their vailes : hold, hold, thou'st find 
 To faithful care kings' bounty hath no shore.' 
 
 Bullen reads, ' That they oft love their — avails : 
 hold,' etc., and remarks, ' Old eds. " that they oft 
 love their vailes: hold," etc. If the text is not 
 corrupt, we must suppose that a sentence breaks 
 off at the word " their." Marston is fond of em- 
 ploying the horrid figure aposiopesis. " Vails " 
 is intelligible on the supposition that Syphax is 
 feeing the waiting-women.' He is no doubt doing 
 so, perhaps with kisses as well as money (else 
 why the words ' thou art not foul ' ?), but the 
 obvious correction, as it seems to me, is ' that 
 they oft love their maids! Compare Fletcher, 
 The Noble Gentleman, \v. 2. 12, 'I love thee for 
 
14 The Old Drmnatists 
 
 thy lady's sake,' said by Longueville in love with 
 Madam Mount-Marine to her maid Maria. . 
 
 Sophonisba, iii. i. 147 : — 
 
 ' Close the vault's mouth lest we do slip in drink.' 
 
 Probably sleep: Vangue has just been given 
 a ' carouse,' and is afraid of sleeping on his watch. 
 A few lines lower he says, ' I am very sleepy.' 
 Possibly, however, slip may mean, ' be guilty of 
 carelessness,' 'be taught tripping.' 
 
 Sophonisba, iii. 2. 7-9 : — 
 
 ' know, best of lords, 
 It is a happy being, breath well famed. 
 For which love sees these thus.' 
 
 Bullen says, 'The, text is corrupt. "Sees me 
 thus " {i.e. sees me grateful), " sees the thus " {i.e. 
 incense), and "sees this use" {i.e. interest of 
 thanks), are alike unsatisfactory.' Quite so^ 
 But I think the text is sound, and that the sense 
 is, ' For whom love sees these, sc. being and breath, 
 to be thus,' sc. happy and well famed. Compare 
 above, ii. i. 135-137: — 
 
 • - - ' Nor are you vile 
 
 Because the gods foresee ; for gods, not we. 
 See as things are ; things are not as we see.' 
 
 Sophonisba, iii. 2. "j^: — 
 
 ' Before then Syphax join. 
 
 With new-strength'd Carthage, or can once unwind " 
 His tangled sense from- out so wild amaze! - '^ 
 
Conjecttcrai Readings 1 5 
 
 Read, a -maze : ' unwind,' and ' tangled ' show 
 this,.! think. 
 
 Sophonisba, v; 3. 36, 37 •.■^— 
 
 'Help, — help to bear ■ '* 
 
 Sotne happiness, ye powers ! I have joy to spare.' 
 
 Bullen reads bar, which' he says the sense 
 clearly requires. I would retain bear, the reading 
 of the old editions, with the sense of bear some 
 of the happiness which is too great a burden for 
 him ; or, if any change is necessary^ would 
 substitute such for some. . • ■ • ■ 
 
 Sophonisba, v. 3. 89 : — 
 
 ' How near was I unto the curse of man. Joy'!'' 
 
 Read, ' unto the cuirse of man — ^joy ! ' i.e., to joy 
 which is- the curse of man. , • 
 
 What You Will, Induction, 1. 106 : — > 
 
 'I'll not stand it; way chance recoil, and ^«wi? stuffed 
 with saltpetre.' 
 
 iProbably, 'V may chance recoil and {i.e. an) 
 't be stuffed,' etc. 
 
 What You Will, Induction, 1. 1 1 1 : — 
 
 ' Phil. Genteletza, the women will put me out. 
 ' Dor. And they strive to put thee out, do thou endeavour 
 to put them.' . ; ■-• 
 
 Read, ' to put them in! 
 
 What Y/)u. Will, Prologue, 1. 15 : — ■ 
 
 ' That can as soon slight of as, find a blemish, ^ 
 
 Read, 'slight 0/:' .. - : ■ 
 
1 6 The Old Dramatists 
 
 What You Will, i. i. 102 : — 
 
 ' 'Tis foully writ, slight wit, cross'd here and there, 
 But where thou find'st a blot, there ^// a tear.' 
 
 Read, I think, /«//. 
 
 What You Will, i. i. 119:— 
 
 ' I '11 craze my brain, 
 But I '11 dissever all. Thy hopes unite.' 
 
 Read, ' all thy hopes unite ' ; i.e., I will dissever 
 all that your hopes unite. 
 
 What You Will, ii. i. 51 : — 
 
 ' Devote to mouldy customs of hoary eld.' 
 
 Qy. hoarf 
 
 What You Will, ii. i. 149 : — 
 
 ' Sits howling at deserts more battle fate.' 
 
 ' If,' says Bullen, ' the text is not corrupt, " more 
 battle fate " must mean " more prosperous fortune." 
 Battle and batful, applied to land, had the xs\tz.x\- 
 mg— fertile, fruitful.' 
 
 I would read, better. 
 
 What You Will, ii. 2. 45 : — 
 
 ' Come on, you Nathaniel, say you, say you next ; not too 
 fast ; say tretably : say.' 
 
 Bullen remarks, ' Chaucer has tretable in the 
 sense of tractable, well-disposed \ but that sense 
 does not suit the present passage.' 
 
 The pedant is hearing his pupils say their 
 
Conjectural Readings 1 7 
 
 lessons, and after Nathaniel has repeated a line of 
 the Propria Quae Maribus, he exclaims ' Faster ! 
 faster ! ' 
 
 Can tretably be a misprint for trotably, the 
 pedant's translation of the Latin pedetentim ? 
 
 What You Will, ii. 2. 90 : — 
 ' Facundius, and elaborate elegance make your presence 
 gracious in the eyes of your mistress.' 
 
 Read, 'Facundious and elaborate elegance makes,' 
 etc., and omit the comma. 
 
 What You Will, ii. 2. 134: — 
 
 ' They live and eat, and sleep, and drink and die. 
 And are not touched with recollections 
 Of things o'er past, or stagger'd infant doubts 
 Of things succeeding.' 
 
 Read, in faint. 
 
 What You Will, ii. 2. 160 : — 
 
 'Delight, my spaniel slept, whilst I iaus'd leaves, 
 Toss'd o'er the dunces, pored on the old print 
 Of titled words, and still my spaniel slept.' 
 
 Bullen passes baus'd without a note. Halliwell 
 explains it in his Dictionary as ' kissed,' as though 
 from the Latin basiare. 
 
 Lampatho, the student, is enumerating his 
 various studies ; and I have no doubt we should 
 read brous'd, an old spelling of brows'd, with a 
 play upon leaves of trees and leaves of books. 
 B 
 
1 8 The Old Dramatists 
 
 What You Will, iii. 2. i6 :— 
 
 ' Marry, since we were hung by the heels on the batch of 
 Sicily, to make a jail-delivery of the sea in our maws, 'tis 
 just three months.' 
 
 Either beach should be printed, or a note should 
 explain that batch is a corruption of beatch, an old 
 spelling of beach. 
 
 What You Will, iii. 2. 93 : — 
 
 ' The tailors, starchers, sempsters, poulterers.^ 
 
 Read, poulters, as the word was commonly 
 spelt. 
 
 What You Will, iii. 2. 117 : — 
 
 'Sest, I'll to Celia.' 
 
 Probably, Pest; and so in iv. i.'362. 
 
 What You Will, iv. I. 96, 97 : — 
 
 ' He capers the lascivious blood about 
 Within heart-pants, nor leaps the eye nor lips ; 
 Prepare yourselves to kiss, for you must be kiss'd.' 
 
 Read, 
 
 ' He capers, the lascivious blood without. 
 Within heart-pants ; now leaps the eye, now lips ; ' etc. 
 
 The reference is to the presumptuous lover, 
 Laverdure, who is cock-a-hoop with the certainty 
 of winning his mistress ; and the meaning is, ' he 
 frisks about in his exultation, the glow of antici- 
 pated triumph causing his cheeks to burn, his 
 heart beating wildly in his breast, his eyes and 
 
Conjectural Readings 1 9 
 
 lips betraying ecstasy at the thought of the 
 amorous encounter at hand.' 
 
 What You Will, iv. i. 127: — 
 
 ' by this light the duU-ey'd thinks he does well, does 
 very well.' 
 
 After dull-ey'd, qy. should we not insert /ool? 
 
 What You Will, iv. i. 140-146 : — 
 
 ' Lamp. Bless you, fair ladies ! God make you all his 
 servants ! 
 
 ' Meletza. God make you all his servants ! 
 
 ' Quadra. He is holpen well had need of you ; for be it 
 spoken without profanism, he hath more in his train. I 
 fear me you ha' more servants than he : I am sure the devil 
 is an angel of darkness.' 
 
 This, as it stands, seems to me stark nonsense. 
 I would therefore read, ' For, be it spoken without 
 profanism, if he hath more in his train, I fear me 
 you have more servants than he,' etc., with the 
 meaning, ' He [sc. God), who has many nominal 
 attendants {is holpen well), needs you sadly ; for, 
 if I may say so without profanity, if he has 
 more who nominally follow in his train, I fear 
 you have more devoted servants^ and among 
 those servants I may reckon the devil, who, as 
 an angel of darkness, is well suited to your service.' 
 In servants there is, of course, an allusion to the 
 old sense of devoted admirers. 
 
20 The Old Dramatists 
 
 What You Will, iv. i. i8i, 182:— 
 
 The student, Lampatho, abjures all study. 
 
 Lamp-oil, watch-candles, rug-gowns and small juice, 
 Thin commons, four o'clock rising, — I renounce you 
 
 all. 
 Now may rternally abandon meat. 
 Rust, fusty, you which most embraced disuse. 
 You ha' made me an ass.' 
 
 Read, 
 
 ' Now my eternally abandon' d meat. 
 Rust fusty you with most enforced disuse.' 
 
 What You Will, iv. i. 238, 241 : — 
 
 ' Were not a pleasing jest for me to clothe 
 Another rascal like Albano, say. 
 And rumour him return'd, without all deceit ? 
 Would not beget errors most ridiculous ? ' 
 
 Read, ' WereV,' and ' WouldV.' 
 Eastward Ho, iv. I. 43 : — 
 
 ' Poor man, how weak he is ! the weak water has wasted 
 away his strength.' 
 
 The second weak should, I think, be omitted ; 
 and perhaps we should read washed for wasted. 
 
 The Insatiate Countess, i. i. 97 : — 
 
 ' You're virtuous, man ; nay, let me not blush to say so.' 
 
 This, BuUen's reading, seems to me pointless. 
 The edition of 16 13 gives, ' your vertues man'; that 
 of 1 63 1, 'Your vertues 7nay! 
 
Conjectural Readings 2 1 
 
 Read, I think, 
 ' Your virtues wan me ; let me not blush to say so.' 
 
 Compare Fletcher, The Custom of the Country, 
 iii. 2, where the equally ' insatiate ' Hippolyta 
 solicits the obdurate Arnaldo. 
 
 ' You make me fonder : 
 You have a virtuous mind ; I want that ornament.' 
 
 And Dekker, The Honest Whore, vol. ii. p. 39, 
 Pearson's Reprint, 
 
 ' For thou then destroy'st 
 That which I love thee for, thy virtues,' 
 
 said by Bellafronte, the Honest Whore, to Hip- 
 polito. 
 
 The Insatiate Countess, i. i. 108 : — 
 
 ' Thai fame-insatiate devil jealousy.' 
 Read, 
 
 ' That same insatiate devil, jealousy.' 
 
 The Insatiate Countess, ii. 2. 2.8-34 : — 
 
 'You are the party, I perceive, and here's a white sheet that 
 your husband has promised me to do penance in . . . though 
 there be not such rare phrases in 't [sc. as in that from her 
 husband to Thais], 'tis more to the matter : a legible hand, 
 but for the dash or the (he) and (as) : short bawdy paren- 
 theses as ever you saw, to the purpose.' 
 
 Abigail is showing to her friend, Thais, an 
 insulting love-letter which she has received from 
 that friend's husband ; Thais having just before 
 
2 2 The Old Dramatists 
 
 shown one written in very high-flown terms which 
 she has received from Abigail's husband. Bullen 
 notes, ' I follow the reading of the old copies.' 
 But that reading is free from all suspicion, except 
 that perhaps there should be a comma rather than 
 a colon after {as). The dash is the mark of a 
 break, and the {he) and {as) are the brackets used 
 in omissions for decency sake, the short bawdy 
 parentheses she goes on to mention, {he) and {as), 
 indicating the monosyllabic character of the words 
 omitted. Such parentheses are not infrequent in 
 the old dramatists, and we have an instance of 
 one in The Malcontent, v. 2. 4 : — 
 
 ' The Dutchman for a drunkard, — 
 The Dane for golden locks, — 
 The Irishman for usquebaugh, — 
 The Frenchman for the ( ).' 
 
 The Insatiate Countess, iii. 2. 7 : — 
 
 ' Fear keep with cowards, air-stars cannot move.' 
 
 Read, 
 
 ' Fear keeps with cowards, air stars cannot move ' : 
 
 i.e. fear dwells with cowards, such an airy nothing 
 cannot move fixed stars like ourselves. So, a few 
 lines lower, after arguing the matter, Massino 
 says, ' Madam, I yield to you, fear keeps with 
 love.' For move compare The Malcontent, v. 
 2. 285. 
 
Conjectural Readings 23 
 
 The Insatiate Countess, iii. 2. 46 : — 
 
 ' Nature did rob herself when she made him, 
 Blushing to see her work excel herself; 
 'Tis shape makes mankind y^w^/ag/.' 
 
 Perhaps, 
 
 ' 'Tis shape makes mankind'^ simulacracy,' 
 
 i.e. it is form that makes men worshipped as 
 though they were idols. Compare The Widow, 
 i. I, 'Now as he stands he's worth a woman's 
 love'; and The Laws of Candy, ii. i., 'Carriage 
 and state makes us seem demi-gods! 
 
 The Insatiate Countess, iii. 4. 52 : — 
 
 ' My love was dotage till I loved thee, 
 For thy soul truly tastes our petulance ; 
 Condition's lover, Cupid's intelligencer.' 
 
 Read, I think, 
 
 ' Coition's lover, Cupid's intelligencer.' 
 
 The Insatiate One speaks of ' petulance,' i.e. a 
 provoking coyness, as Coition's bosom-lover, arch- 
 confederate, Cupid's go-between. Compare above, 
 iii. 2. 1 00- 1 1 2. 
 
 The Insatiate Countess, iii. 4. 96 : — 
 
 ' Never to seek weaking variety.' 
 Read, 
 
 ' Never to seek wasting variety.' 
 
 Commenting upon Swynfen Jervis's conjecture 
 
24 The Old Dramatists 
 
 wakefull couche for wastefull cocke, Timon of 
 Athens, ii. 2. 1.7 1, Ingleby, The Still Lion, p. 117, 
 remarks, ' In the " upper case " of the compositor 
 the ft and k are in contiguous " boxes," so that an 
 ft would sometimes be dropped into the k box 
 by mistake . . . whence it might well happen 
 that wakefull was set up for wastefull! This 
 accident has, I think, happened here ; for Marston, 
 rugged as he is, would scarcely have written any- 
 thing so cacophonous as ' seek weaking.' For an 
 instance of the converse, compare Heywood's 
 Silver Age, ii. i : — 
 
 ' Whose powerful arm gave strength unto my lord 
 To worst his safety through these dangerous wars : ' 
 
 where we should read work. 
 
 The Insatiate Countess, iv. 2. 66 : — 
 
 ' Her quenchless lust has quite benumbed my knowledge.' 
 
 This, the conjecture of the editor of 1820, is 
 retained by Bullen. The old editions give vselesse, 
 which it seems to me could not have been a 
 corruption of quenchlesse. Read cureless, i.e. in- 
 curable ; and cc^mpare The Rape of Lucrece, 1. 772, 
 ' Since thou art guilty of my cureless crime ' ; The 
 Merchant of Venice, iv. i. 142, ' Repair thy wit, 
 good youth, or it will fall To cureless ruin ' ; 
 Fletcher, Monsieur Thomas, iii. i, 'In all thy 
 course's cureless disobedience ' ; and Thierry and 
 Theodoret^ v. 2, ' this cureless malice.' 
 
Conjectural Readings 25 
 
 The Insatiate Countess, iv. 5. 17 : — 
 
 ' Bawds to lust and murder, 
 Be all propitious to my act of justice 
 Upon the scandalizer of her fame, 
 That is the life-blood of deliciousness, 
 Deenid Isabella, Cupid's treasurer. 
 Whose soul contains the richest gifts of love.' 
 
 Q;y. ^ queen' d Isabella,' i.e. queen-like? Some- 
 what similar is ' kingdom' d Achilles,' Troilus and 
 Cressida, ii. 3. 185, and the dramatists abound in 
 adjectives formed from nouns, and often mistaken 
 for participles. Bullen proposes dear or divine, 
 both of which seem equally tame, especially in 
 Don Sago's mouth, while it is improbable that 
 even the perverse ingenuity of copyist or com- 
 positor should have substituted deem'd for either 
 of such ordinary words. Queen' d would be a word 
 unfamiliar to them, and they might easily substi- 
 tute Deem'd, which was of common use. 
 
 The Insatiate Countess, iv. 5. 22 : — 
 
 ' Sago. Who 's there ? 
 ' Massino. A friend to thee, if thy intents 
 Be just and honourable. 
 ' Sago. Count Massino, speak, 1 am the watch. 
 ' Massino. My name is Massino : dost thou know me? 
 ' Sago. Yes, slanderous villain,' etc. 
 
 I believe the words Count Massino should be 
 omitted. That Sago does not recognise Massino, 
 till he declares himself, is evident from the words 
 ' I am the watch,' which Sago uses in order to 
 
26 The Old Dramatists 
 
 make Massino give his name ; for, upon his doing 
 so, Sago at once fiercely attacks him with every 
 epithet of vituperation, and declares his intention 
 of killing him. It is no objection to this thai 
 upon Massino's asking, ' Dost thou know me ? 
 Sago replies, ' Yes,' for he merely means that he 
 knows Massino from what Isabella had said oi 
 him. Note that by omitting the words Couni 
 Massino the metre of the line becomes perfect 
 also that there is certainly corruption in the 
 passage since the old editions give ' Rogero ' foi 
 ' Massino,' and prefix ' Rog.' to his ispeeches here. 
 
 The Insatiate Countess, v. i. 4 : — 
 
 'Don Sago, quakest thou not to behold this spectacle — 
 .This innocent sacrifice, murder'd nobleness — 
 When blood, the Maker ever promiseth, 
 Shall though with slow, yet with sure vengeance restV 
 
 For rest read rise. The corpse of Massino 
 murdered by Sago, has just been brought in, anc 
 the allusion is to Genesis, iv. 10, ' The voice of thj 
 brother's blood crieth unto Me from the ground.' 
 
 The Insatiate Countess, v. i. 42 : — 
 
 ' What Tanais, Nilus, or what Tigris swift, 
 What Rhenus ferier than the cataract, — 
 Although NeptoUs cold, the waves of all the Northern Set 
 Should flow for ever through these guilty hands, 
 Yet the sanguinolent stain should extant be.' 
 
 Read, 
 ' Although, Niphates-cold, the Northern Sea,' etc.. 
 
Conjectural Readings 27 
 
 i.e. though the Northern Sea, as cold as Mount 
 Niphates, should flow, etc. I imagine that Mars- 
 ton originally wrote, ' Although the waves of all 
 the Northern Se^,' etc., that he then, in order to 
 intensify the idea by a comparison with the Snow 
 Mountain, inserted the words ' Niphates-cold ' 
 (which the compositor corrupted into ' Neptolis 
 cold '), and that he either forgot to strike out the 
 words 'the waves of all,' or that the compositor 
 did not notice that they had been struck out. 
 Note that ' Neptolis,' if there were such a word, 
 would be accented on the first syllable, whereas 
 we require a word, like ' Niphates,' accented on 
 the second syllable. Don Sago is very fond of 
 classical allusions, and in his ' Ercles' vein ' would 
 be likely to drag in one to Mount Niphates. 
 BuUen proposes, ' Though Neptune cold,' but this 
 seems unbearably tame, and Sago would at least 
 have said ' Neptunus.' Marston was a classical 
 scholar ; had he in his mind Oedipus Tyrannus, 
 1227, 1228, 
 
 o£/iai. yap ovt av Itrrpov oiSre ^do'tv &v 
 vlifrai KaBapfita Tj]vhc rfjv ariy-qv. 
 
 The Scourge of Villainy, i. 2. 135 : — 
 
 ' When tenure for short years (by many a one) 
 Is thought right good be XuvcCA forth Littleton, 
 All to be heady, or freehold at least. 
 When it is all one, for long time be a beast, 
 A slave, as have a short term'd tenancy.' 
 
28 The Old Dramatists 
 
 Read and punctuate as follows : — 
 
 ' When tenure for short years, by many a one 
 Is thought right good be tum'd {fourth Littleton) 
 All to be heady, or freehold at least ; 
 When it is all one for long life be a beast, 
 A slave, as have a short term'd tenancy.' 
 
 The meaning being, 'when by many it is thought 
 right good that tenure for a short term should be 
 converted into tenure in cafite, or freehold tenure 
 at least; when it is thought that to have a short 
 tenure (i.e. anything less than a tenure in capite, 
 or a freehold tenure) is no better than to be a 
 beast or a slave for long life.' There is an evident 
 allusion to Littleton's Tenures, and '^r/-i^ Littleton,' 
 i.e. ^fourth Littleton,' I take to be a jocose refer- 
 ence to an apocryphal fourth book (there are only 
 three), as who should say, by way of hoax, ' see 
 Iliad bk. xxv.,' or ' Genesis, chap, li.,' the form of 
 reference being in imitation of that to statutes, as 
 we say, 'iv. Vict.' etc., or, as they said of old, 
 ' quarto Edw.' etc. Compare The Staple of News, 
 iv. I, 'Thou shalt read All Littleton's Tenures to 
 me ' ; and, for the form of citation. The Queen of 
 Corinth, v. 4, 'Lycurgus the nineteenth against 
 rapes.' 
 
 The Scourge of Villainy, iii. 11. 33 : — 
 
 'A hall, a hall! 
 Room for the spheres, the orbs celestial 
 Will dance Kempe's Jig ; they'll revel with neat jumps ; 
 A worthy poet has put on their pumps. 
 
Conjectural Readings 29 
 
 O wit's quick traverse, but sance ceo's slow ; 
 Good faith, 'tis hard for nimble Curio. 
 Ye gracious orbs, keep the old measuring ; 
 All 's spoil'd if once ye fall to capering.' 
 
 Among the objects of this satire is one Curio, 
 whose aim and occupation in life is dancing. 
 After describing his fantastic behaviour, the poet 
 imagines a dance of the spheres, as in the Rehearsal 
 'the earth, sun, and moon come out upon the 
 stage and dance the Hay.' The clumsy efforts of 
 the 'celestial orbs' to show their agility irritate 
 the ' nimble Curio,' and he begs them to return 
 to their former stately manner of moving, the 
 ' measure ' of old days, and not attempt to rival 
 him in capering. 
 
 Read therefore, 
 
 ' O wits quick traverse, but san cielo 's slow ; ' 
 
 i.e. poets are nimble enough in their imagination, 
 but holy heaven (the ' celestial orbs ') cannot keep 
 pace with such thoughts. The word 'traverse' 
 was formerly used for ' moving the feet with pro- 
 portion, as in dancing,' as well as for ' marching ' ; 
 compare e.g., Heywood, A Woman Killed with 
 Kindness, i. 2, 'Jack Slime, traverse you with 
 Cicely Milkpail.' 
 
 The Scourge of Villainy, iii. 1 1. 54 : — 
 
 ' Of counter "Cva^tA, finctures, sly passatas. 
 
 '&.q.2lA fincturas ; pluralising the Italian form, as 
 
30 The Old Dramatists 
 
 in passatas. Murray, Eng. Diet., quotes Saviolo, 
 Practice, H. iv. a, ' If he use a.r\y Jincture or false 
 thrust, answer him not ' ; and gives the Italian 
 finctura, modern fintura. Bullen therefore is right 
 in explaining the word as ' feints.' 
 
II. BEAUMONT AND FLETCHER.1 
 
 Thierry and Theodoret, i. i. vol. i. p. 109: — 
 
 ' I do but gently tell you what becomes you, 
 And what may bend your honour ; how these courses 
 Of loose and lazy pleasures, not suspected. 
 But done and known ; your mind that knows no limit 
 (And all your actions _/o//oa/), which loose people, 
 That see but through a mist of circumstance, 
 Dare term ambitious.' 
 
 For follow the old editions give follows ; I 
 would read fellows. I also suspect loose in 1. 5 
 of the extract, the word apparently having been 
 caught from the line but one above. 
 
 Thierry and Theodoret, i. i. vol. i. p. 1 1 r : — 
 
 ' And by a rush that one day's warmth 
 Hath shot up to this swelling.' 
 
 Qy. ' one day's sudden warmth ' ? compare The 
 Princess, v. 292, 
 
 ' in her a Jonah's gourd 
 Up in one night, and due to sudden sun.' 
 
 Thierry and Theodoret, i. i. vol. i. p. 1 1 1 : — 
 
 ' Bless us ! 
 
 For now I do begin to feel myself 
 Turning into a halter, and the ladder 
 Turning from me, one pulling at my legs too.' 
 
 1 The references are to Dyce's edition, eleven vols., 1843-1846. 
 
32 The Old Dramatists 
 
 Qy. girning, i.e. grinning ? Compare The Lovers' 
 Progress, v. 3, 
 
 ' I ever had 
 A hanging look ; and a wise woman told me, 
 Though I had not the heart to do a deed 
 Worthy the halter, in my youth or age 
 I should- take a turn with a -wry mouth.' 
 
 Thierry and Theodoret, iii. i. vol. i. p. 149 : — 
 
 ' The best of men in full ability 
 Cap only hope to satisfy a wife ; 
 And for that hope ridiculous, I in my want, 
 And such defective poverty, that to her bed 
 From my first cradle brought no strength but thought, 
 Have met a temperance beyond her's that rock'd me. 
 Necessity being her bar ; where this 
 Is so much senseless of my depriv'd fire. 
 She knows it not a loss by her desire.' 
 
 Dyce notes, ' Mason proposed to read, " as my 
 first cradle," i.e. as to my first cradle, the particle to 
 referring to cradle as well as to bed in the preceding 
 line : with this amendment the passage requires no 
 explanation. That rocked here means that nursed 
 me." This conjecture was adopted by Weber, who, 
 however, allows that " the vford from was not easily 
 corrupted into as." ' 
 
 I believe there is no corruption here, but take 
 the construction, harsh as it is, to be ' in my want 
 and that defective poverty (inherent in me) from 
 my first cradle which brought,' etc. The sense 
 will then be. And as regards such hope, I, made 
 ridiculous by that congenital impotence which 
 
Conjectural Readings 33 
 
 brought to her bed only the will and not the 
 power to satisfy a wife, have found in her a 
 temperance beyond that of my nurse, in whose 
 case it (her temperance) was a matter of necessity, 
 whereas in thexase of my wife no looseness of 
 desire makes her conscious of my deficiency. 
 
 Thierry and Theodoret, y. 2. vol. i. p. 1 89 : — ■ 
 
 ' Yet I must crave 
 That feed ye and protect ye and proclaim ye.' 
 
 Qy. maintain, the prefix /r^? — being caught from 
 protecfi 
 
 Philaster, i. i. vol. i. p. 218 : — 
 
 ' Do but view yon stranger well, and you shall see a fever 
 through all his bravery, and feel him shake like a true 
 tenant ; if he give not back his crown again upon the report 
 of an elder-gun, I have no augury.' 
 
 Pyce notes, ' So all the old editions, except 4tp 
 1620, which has " true truant." Theobald printed, 
 " true recreant " ; and so his successors. I am not 
 satisfied that " tenant " is the right reading ; but I 
 am far from thinking with Theobald that " it is as 
 arrant nonsense as ever the press was guilty of" ; 
 see what immediately follows : " if he [shaking 
 like a true tenant — like one who has only a tem- 
 porary possession] £-ive not back his crown." etc, 
 The Rev. J. Mitford conjectures " true tyrant'' ' 
 
 With Theobald I regard ' true tenant,' as arrant 
 nonsense, and suggest trutinant, i.e. a pair of 
 scales. ' Trutinate ' and ' trutination ' are not un- 
 C 
 
34 The Old Dramatists 
 
 common, and ' trutinant ' is an easy coinage on the 
 analogy of a ' ruminant,' a ' variant,' an ' esculent.' 
 
 The Mai(fsTragedy, i. 2. vol. i. p. 338 :— 
 ' Nept. Great queen of us and heaven, hear what I bring 
 To make this hour a full one, if not her measure. 
 Cynth. Speak, sea's king.' 
 
 The passage, says Dyce, ' stands thus in the old 
 editions, 
 
 " Great queen of us and heaven. 
 Hear what I bring to make this hour a full one. 
 If not her measure." 
 
 'The words "if not her measure" were thrown 
 out of the text by Theobald, and, as far as the 
 metre is concerned, it was certainly an improve- 
 ment. " Some careful annotator," he says, " had 
 made a marginal quare at the close of the second 
 song, if not her measure, i.e. whether this 
 measure is not to be sung by Cynthia ; as it 
 undoubtedly is : but the note of reference to this 
 quaere being forgot, it was mistaken at press for a 
 part of the text and casually clapt to Neptune's 
 speech." Theobald had forgotten that measure 
 meant a dance, not a song ; and, if we suppose 
 that the words in question are not a portion of the 
 text, the probability would be that they are a 
 corruption of "If not, here measure," i.e. if the 
 present speech and the two next speeches (none 
 of which are found in the 4to 1619) be omitted 
 by the actors, let the measure be danced here. In 
 
Conjectural Readings 3 5 
 
 the Postscript to vol. i. of ed. of 1750, Seward 
 proposed to read, " If not, oV^-measure " ; and 
 observes, " as to the interruption of the measure \i.e. 
 metre] such intercalations of words between verses 
 are used by our authors. Thus [in The Faithful 
 Shepherdess, towards the end of the last act], 
 
 " We have perform'd a work 
 Worthy the gods themselves. 
 Sat. Come forward, maiden ; do not lurk," 
 
 the hemistich is an intercalation ; the liberties 
 in measure taken by our old dramatic poets being 
 quite boundless." The edition of 1778 and Weber 
 adopted Seward's needless alteration, " o'er-mea- 
 sure." The meaning of Neptune's speech is 
 clearly this : Great queen of us and heaven, hear 
 what I bring, endeavouring to make this hour a 
 full one, though perhaps what I bring may not 
 completely fill up her measure. The pronoun her 
 is frequently applied to hour by our early writers.' 
 That Dyce of all critics should offer such an 
 explanation is to me astounding. I believe that 
 the words are a stage direction to come after the 
 second song, and that for ' if not her measure,' we 
 should read ' another measure ' {if being misread 
 for a) : each song will then have its own ' measure,' 
 as in the case of the four songs in the Masque of 
 the Inner Temple. And the passage will run, 
 
 ' Nept. Great queen of us and heaven, hear what I bring 
 To make this hour a full one. 
 Cynth. Speak, sea's King.' 
 
36 The Old Dramatists 
 
 Seward's remark as to the passage in Tha 
 Emthful Shepherdess is hardly tp the poirit, for 
 there the metre changes from decasyllabics, in 
 the one speech to octosyllabics in the other. Here, 
 the masque, except for the songs, is throughpwt 
 in one metre, and is remarkable fqr its perfect 
 rhythrn, 
 
 The Maids Tragedy, ii, 2. vol. i. p. 359 :— 
 
 ' I have done, sit down ; and let us 
 Upon that point fix all our eyes, that poiiit there. 
 Make a dull silence, \!i& you feel a sudden sadness 
 Give us new souls.' 
 
 Theobald rejects sudden. Rather reject you 
 feel. The poet had written 'till you feel a sad- 
 ness ' ; he then changed it to ' till a sudden sad- 
 ness,' for two reasons. First that the thought is 
 thus made more vivid and poetical ; secondly, 
 that ' till you feel a Sadness give us new souls ' is 
 illogical and scarcely grammatical. 
 
 The Faithful Shepherdess, i. i. vol. ii. p, 26 : — 
 
 ' Nuts more brown 
 Tl^an the squirrel's teeth that crack them.' 
 
 Here in opposition to Seward's remark that ' the 
 teeth of the squirrel is the only visible part that is 
 npt brown,' — a remark not wholly accurate, Weber 
 cites from Herrick's Oberofis Feast, 
 
 ' The red capp'd worm, that's shut 
 Within the concave of a nui 
 Brown as his tooth.' 
 
Coiijectural Readings 37 
 
 But the quotation is in no wise apposite, for 
 Herrick is stating an actual fact, the mandibles of 
 the worm being brown ; whereas here we have no- 
 thing to do with brown teeth, the words of the text 
 meaning bnly ' nuts more brown than the squirrel 
 whose teeth crack them,' — an inversion which it is 
 strange the various editors should not have seen. 
 
 The Faithful Shepherdess, 5i. 3. vol. ii. pp. 48, 
 
 ' Thou blessfed star, I thank thee for thy Kght, 
 Thou by whose power the darkness of sad night 
 Is binish'd from the earth, in whose dull place 
 Thy chaster beams play on the heavy face 
 Of all the world, making the blue sea smile, 
 To see how cunningly thou dost beguile 
 Thy brother of his brightness, giving day 
 Again from chaos j whiter than that way 
 I That leads to Jove's high court, and chaster far 
 
 Than chastity itself, you blessld star 
 That nightly shines. Thou all the constancy 
 That in all women was or e'er shall be ; 
 From whosfe fair eye-balls flies that holy iSre. 
 That poets style the mother of desire, 
 Infusing into every gentle breast 
 A soul of greater price, and far more blest. 
 Than that quick power which gives a difference 
 'Twixt man and creatures of a lower sense.' 
 
 ' So,' says Dyce, ' the two earliest quartos^ ex^ 
 cept that the first has '^brightly shines." Later 
 editions, "yon blessed," etc. Seward printed, 
 
 " Thou blessed star 
 That nightly shiii'rf" ; 
 
38 The Old Dramatists 
 
 ' So the editors of 1778 ; and so Weber, except 
 that he gave "shines." This speech is a very 
 obscure one. That part of it is addressed to the 
 moon (see the eleventh line [i.e. 1. 7 of my extract]), 
 " Thy brother," etc., is not be doubted. Qy. in the 
 present passage is "j/on blessed star," the right 
 reading, and does Thenot begin to address Clorin 
 at " whiter than that way," proceeding to call her 
 chaster than the goddess of chastity, "jfon blessed 
 star," z'.e. the moon, which he had so terfned in 
 the fourth [i.e. 1. i of my extract] line of the speech, 
 " Thou blessed star, I thank thee," etc. ? ' 
 
 Before giving my conjecture, 1 will state the 
 objections I feel to the reading in Dyce's edition, 
 (i) The change in the person apostrophised, if 
 there is a change, is very abrupt, and whiter is a 
 strange epithet to apply to Clorin ; (2) except in 
 'you blessed star (1. 10 of the extract) the second 
 person singular is used throughout ; (3) ' that 
 nightly shines,' to say nothing of the grammar, 
 is contrary to fact, and has no pertinence here-: 
 (4) ' Thou all the constancy,' etc., is a very awk- 
 ward construction of doubtful sense. Taking, 
 then, the reading of the first quarto brightly, and 
 substituting thou for you (in 1. 10), I suggest that 
 the lines should run : — 
 
 ' TAou blessed star 
 That brightly ouishin'si all the constancy,' etc. 
 
 It may be objected that the moon was by no 
 means an emblem of constancy ; but from the 
 
Conjectural Readings 39 
 
 words 'thy chaster beams,' and 'thy brother,' it 
 seems to me that here Fletcher was especially think- 
 ing of the moon as representing Diana, the goddess 
 of chastity (and the sun as representing Phoebus). 
 The Faithful Shepherdess, ii. 3. vol. ii. p. 55 : — 
 
 ' This holy well, my grandame that is dead, 
 Right wise in charms, hath often to me said, 
 Hath power to change the form of any creature. 
 Being thrice dipp'd o'er the head, into what feature 
 Or shape 'twould please the letter-down to crave. 
 Who must pronounce this charm too, which she gave 
 
 [Showing a scroll. 
 Me on her death-bed ; told me what, and how, 
 I should apply it to the patient's brow 
 That would be changd, casting them thrice asleep 
 Before I trusted them into this deep.' 
 Read, 
 
 ' That would be changid, casting them asleep.^ 
 Nothing is said about casting them thrice asleep 
 (which, in fact, would be almost nonsense), but the 
 word thrice has crept in from 1. 4, ' Being thrice 
 
 dipp'd ' ; see below :— 
 
 ' Come, my temples bind 
 With these sad herbs, and when I sleep, you find, 
 As you do speak, thrice down me let. 
 And bid the water raise me Amoret.' 
 So, ii. I. 1-6: — 
 
 ' From thy forehead thus I take 
 These herbs, and charge thee not awake 
 Till in yonder holy well 
 Thrice, with powerful magic spell 
 Fill'd with many a baleflil word. 
 Thou hast been dipp'd.' 
 
40 The Old Dramatists 
 
 Note, too, the rhythm of the whole passage 
 dbwn to the end of the scene as beiiig oppOsed 
 to the reading in the text. 
 
 The Faithful Shepherdess, iii. i. vol. ii. p. 64: — 
 
 ' She was alone 
 With me ; if then her presence did so move 
 Why did I not assay to win her love ? 
 She woiild not sure have yielded unto me ; 
 Women love only opportunity. 
 And not the meii ; or if she had denied. 
 Alone I might have forc'd her to have trifed 
 Who had been stronger : oh, vain fool, to let 
 Such bless'd occasion pass.' 
 
 Read, 
 
 ' She would most sure have yielded.' 
 
 The whole context, especially the alternative 
 ' or if she had denied,' shows this, and not has 
 been caught from the line above.^ 
 
 The Honest Man's Fortune, i. i. vol. ii. p. 345 : — 
 
 ' Sec. Law. Courage ! you have, the law. 
 Long. And you the profit! 
 
 Dyce's reading, that of the MS., is profit- Both 
 the folios give profits ; and rightly, I think, for 
 this reason. A few speeches above (p. 344) 
 Dubois says, ' He is but his brother-in-law,' and 
 
 ^ Curiously enough, a day or two after correcting the first proof, 
 I found in Mortimer CoUins's novel A Fight with Fortune, ii. 65, 
 a precisely similar misprint : ' And dreams have not power over us 
 when the vital power is not at its highest ; then they come, often 
 in a refreshing, but often also in a torturing form ' ; the two nets, 
 as here, being exactly over and under each other in two lines of 
 printing. 
 
Conjectural Readings 4 r 
 
 Longueville punningly answers, ' Law ! that 's as 
 bad.' So here, I feel sure, he is punning upon 
 the biblical expression ' the law and the prophets' 
 
 Cupid's Revenge, i. i. vol. ii. p. 363 : — 
 
 ' If younger sisters 
 Take not the greater charity, 'tis lawful.' 
 
 Qy. ' as 'tis lawful ' ? 
 
 Cupid's Revenge, ii. 2. vol. ii. p. 378 : — 
 
 ' That I am a widow, full of tears in show, 
 (My husband dead, and one that lav'd me so. 
 Hardly a week) forgot my modesty,' etc. 
 
 I would omit am, which does not improve the 
 metre, while it involves ari unnecessary ellipsis of 
 the relative. 
 
 Cupid's Revenge, ii. 6. vol. ii. p. 393 : — 
 
 ' Now Heaven defend me ! 
 Your whore you shall never. I thank the gods I have 
 A little left to keep me warm and honest : 
 If your grace take not that, I seek no more.' 
 
 Dyce notes, 'The two earliest 4tos, and the 
 folio of 1679, have "your whore shall never." 
 The 4to of 1635 has the reading which I have 
 adopted, and which (though I hardly think it can 
 be the genuine one) may mean : " Your whore you 
 shall never win me to be.'' Seward printed, " Your 
 
 whore? you shall never ," marking it as a 
 
 broken sentence ; and so Weber.' 
 
 Qy. ' Your whore, sir, never ' ? 
 
 Cupid's Revenge, v. 4. vol. ii. p> 441 : — 
 
42 The Old Dramatists 
 
 ' I cannot tell ; 
 If I go from you, sir, / shall nier dawn day more} 
 
 Seward and the editors of 1778 print draw for 
 dawn. I would read, ' I '11 ne'er see day dawn 
 more,' comparing her words above v. i. p. 437, 
 ' Why, an I do, would / might ne'er see day again'. 
 Urania uses provincialisms, but does not misuse 
 speech. Cp. also The Woman's Prize, vol. vii. 
 p. 163. 
 
 Four Plays in One: The Triumph of Honour, 
 Sc. i. vol. ii. p. 490 : — 
 
 ' Valerius, 
 'Tis less dishonour to thee thus to kill me 
 Than bid me kneel to Martius ; 'tis to murder 
 The fame of living men, which great men do ; 
 Their studies strangle ; poison makes away, 
 The wretched hangman only ends the play.' 
 
 Seward writes, ' By making the first part of the 
 sentence end at strangle, the following sense 
 may be deduced from it. To make their fellow- 
 creatures kneel to them, as great men frequently 
 do, is worse than murdering them ; it renders 
 them servile and slavish, debases them below the 
 dignity of their nature, murders therefore their 
 fame, and fetters and strangles their studies, 
 i.e. the free exertions of their rational faculties. 
 Whereas poison makes away or destroys a man 
 without injuring his fame or diminishing the 
 dignity of his soul ; and the wretched despicable 
 hangman only puts an end to the part we act 
 upon the stage of this world. The sentiment is 
 
Conjectural Readings 43 
 
 continued and improved in Sophocles's next 
 speech upon death.' The editors of 1778 remark, 
 ' Probably we should point, 
 
 " Which great ones do 
 Their studies strangle." 
 
 The sense is, You will dishonour me less by 
 killing me than by bidding me kneel to Martius. 
 Great men exert themselves to murder the fame 
 of the living ; which is greater cruelty than poison 
 or hanging, which but concludes our misery.' 
 Mason, ' I should read, 
 
 "'Tis to murder 
 
 The fame of living men, when great ones do 
 
 Their studies strangle," etc., 
 
 and the meaning may possibly be this : that when 
 great men, by their power, force others to depart 
 from the principles they have formed from their 
 studies, they destroy their fame.' Weber adopted 
 the alteration proposed by Mason. Dyce ' amid so 
 much uncertainty ' prefers ' following the old eds.' 
 None of the above readings or explanations at 
 all commend themselves to me. I feel convinced 
 we should read, 
 
 ' Their studies strangling poison makes away,' 
 
 with the meaning that the suffocating poison of 
 dishonour utterly distroys the noble objects for 
 which they have lived, while the executioner 
 merely puts an end to their lives. The word only 
 indicates an emphatic antithesis between studies 
 used (as often in the old dramatists) in the tech- 
 
44 The Old Dramatists 
 
 nical sense of the part which the actor has to 
 study, and the play itself, i.e. the player's action 
 on the stage of life. The fornier would endure if 
 calumny did not destroy them, though the latter 
 might have come to an end. The consequent 
 antithesis between the effect of poison, i.e: poison- 
 ous dishonour, and the hangman's action is com- 
 pletely slurred over by Mason and the editors of 
 1778. 
 
 For the sentiment, compare The Triufnph of 
 Fame, sc. i. vol. ij. p. 510, 
 
 ' Wouldst have me murder thee beyond thy death ? 
 Unjustly scandal thee with ravishment?' 
 
 So, The Laws of Candy, i. 2. vol. v. p. 3^6 r — 
 
 ' 'Tis a cruelty 
 More than to murder innocents, to take 
 The life of my yet-infant honour from me ' ; 
 
 and Vdtentinian, iv. 4. vol. V. p. 283 : — 
 
 ' See my poor body burnt, and some to sing 
 About my pile, and what I have done and sufFet'd, 
 If Csesar kill not that too.' 
 
 For strangle, in the sense of suffocatBj compare 
 Romeo and Juliet, iv. 3. 35 :^ 
 
 ' Shall I not then be stifled in the vault 
 
 And there lie strangled ere my Romeo comes ? ' 
 
 Also Marston, ii. Antonio and Mellida, i. 172 : — 
 
 'That I should drop strong /(?w(7« in the bowl, . . . 
 "rliat it should work even in tKe hush of high't. 
 And strangle him on sudden.' 
 
Conjeclurctl Readings 45 
 
 In the present passage the word is figuratively 
 used in contrast with the physical strangling by 
 the hangman's rope; 
 
 Four Plays in One : The Triumph of Honour, 
 sc. ii. vol. ii. p. 499 : — 
 
 ' When men shall read the records of thy valour, 
 Thy hitherto-brave virtue, and approach 
 (Highly content yet) to this foul assault 
 Included in this leaf, this ominous leaf; 
 They sha}l throw down the book, and read no more, 
 Though the best deeds ensue, and all conclude 
 That ravelled the whole story, whose sound heart 
 (Which should have been) prov'd the most leprous part.' 
 
 ' Heath,' says Dyce ' (MS, notes), conjectures 
 " Thou'st ravell'd the whole story." Mason pro- 
 posed to read, " That ravell'd thy whole story," 
 an alteration which Weber adoptefd. The text 
 rnay be corrupted ; but passages which can hardly 
 be reconciled to grammar occur elsevvhere in these 
 plays.' 
 
 I do "pot think any emendation is called for, 
 except that ' the foul ' would be an improvement 
 upon ' this foul,' and that possibly ravelled should 
 be travelled. In the two last lines of the passage 
 there is a plethora of relatives, and a confusion 
 of constructions between ' he whose heart should 
 have been sound, proved leprous in that part,' 
 and 'his heart which should have been sound 
 proved the most leprous part.' In The Queen of 
 Corinth, iv. 3. vol. v. p. 464, there' is a closely 
 parallel passage : — 
 
46 The Old Dramatists 
 
 ' But yet Vemfimber, when posterity 
 Shall read your volumes fiU'd with virtuous acts, 
 And shall arrive at this black bloody leaf, 
 Noting your foolish barbarism, and my wrong 
 (As time shall make it plain), what follows this, 
 Decyphering any noble deed of yours. 
 Shall be quite lost, for men will read no more.' 
 
 Here the wprds ' shall arrive . . . leaf perhaps 
 confirm my suggestion travelled, while, on the 
 other hand, 'decyphering' may support ravelled. 
 There is also perhaps in the two last lines a 
 similar confusion of constructions. 
 
 Four Plays in One: The Triumph of Death, 
 sc. iv. vol. ii. p. 552 : — 
 
 ' Hang thee. 
 Base bigamist, thou honour of ill women.' 
 
 Dyce notes, ' Altered by Seward to " thou horror 
 of all women." " Seward's alteration, which Mr. 
 Mason wishes [is " rather inclined "] to restore, is 
 very tame, and, what is more, incorrect, for Lavall 
 is far from being detested by all women." — 
 Weber.' 
 
 Read without doubt, 
 
 ' Hang thee ! 
 Base bigamist thou, <?Kjhonour of all women ' ; 
 
 comparing p. 558, 
 
 ' Nay, out it shall ; there take his false heart to ye, 
 
 [Throwing down Lavall s heart. 
 The base dishonour of a thousand women! 
 
Conjectural Readings 47 
 
 Four Plays in One: The Triumph of Death, 
 sc. V. vol. ii. p. 5 54 : — 
 
 ' Law. Now I am bravely quarried. 
 
 Per. 'Tis my sister. 
 
 Gab. No, bawdy slave, no treacher, she is not carried.^ 
 
 Qy. quarried} i.e. provided as your prey. 
 
 The Scornful Lady, ii. 3. vol. iii. p. 44 : — 
 ' Go, thou art a pretty y&r«-handed fellow ! ' 
 Qy. free-handed ? 
 
 The Coxcomb, ii. 2. vol. iii. p. 152 : — 
 
 ' 'Twin be a black time with you else ; sheathe your 
 bung whore.' 
 
 No doubt bung was frequently used for a purse, 
 but we have no authority for its being used for 
 the knife with which a purse was cut ; I would 
 therefore read ' hvx^^-nipper! 
 
 The Coxcomb, ii. 3. vol. iii. p. 157 : — 
 
 ' Maria. What 's he would speak with me ? 
 Serv. A Kilkenny ring ; 
 There he stands, madam.' 
 
 Weber conjectures that the right reading is 
 rung, which in Scotland signifies a coarse heavy 
 staff: Dyce, in his Addenda et Corrigenda, 
 vol. i. p. cxiv. says, 'No alteration is required. 
 In Looke About You, 1600, we find: "Cauilero 
 Skinke being beleagerd with an hoste of leaden 
 
4,8 The Old Dramatists 
 
 heeles arm'd in ring Irish, cheated my hammerer 
 of his Red cap and coate," etc., Sig. L.' 
 
 Read, 'A Kilkenny rug', i.?. a rough-headed 
 fellow. So p. 159, Maria addresses him as, 'Sirra 
 Thatclid head', ' you Hobby-headed rascal,' in which 
 latter expression the epithet, as Weber points out, 
 refers to the high-platted hair of the Irish wood- 
 kern, hanging over his eyes, the substantive 
 'hobby' to the Irish hobby or small pony. So, 
 again, p. 160, 'I 'll lead you by your Jack-a-lent 
 hair', the 'Jack-a-lent' being a stuffed puppet, 
 dressed in rags, i.e. a thing ' made up of patches, 
 parings, shreds ' ( Tale of a Tub, iv. 2). Compare 
 also The Night Walker, v. i. vol. xi. p. 201: 
 ' One has the rug and he 's turned Irish ' ; Satiro- 
 mastix, vol. i. p. 199, Pearson's Reprint, 'that 
 Judas yonder that walks in rug'; The Honest 
 Whore, vol. ii. p. 131, Pearson's Reprint, 'a shag- 
 haired curl said of the Irish footman ; Richard HI., 
 ii. I. 156, 'r«^-headed kerns'; Macbeth, Hi. 1.96,' 
 ' water-rugs,' i.e. rough-haired dogs. 
 
 Dyce's quotation is only another instance of the- 
 same misprint ; for the ' leaden heeles ' were the 
 watch in their 'rug gowns,' coats of Irish frieze, their 
 ordinary dress ; cp. e.g. stage direction to Lady 
 Alimony, iii. 5, Dodsley's Old Plays, vol. xiv. p. 332: 
 ' Enter Constable and Watch, in rug gowns, bills, 
 and dark lanthorns' ; and note that the name of one 
 of the Watch is ' Rugweed,' where weed= dress. 
 Cp. also A Woman Never Vexed, ii. i, Dodsley's 
 
Conjectural Readings 49 
 
 Old Plays, vol. xii. p. 127 : ' Thoud'st been press'd 
 to death under two Irish rugs ' ; and TAe Mis- 
 fortunes of Arthur, Argument to the second Act, 
 Dodsley's Old Plays, vol. iv. p. 279 : ' There came 
 a man bareheaded, with long black shagged hair 
 down to his shoulders, apparelled with an Irish 
 jacket and shirt! 
 
 The Coxcomb, iv. 2. vol. iii. p. 181 : — 
 
 ' I hate drink, there 's the end on 't. 
 And that man that drinks with meat is damn'd.' 
 
 For the metre's sake Sympson would read 
 without instead of with, an alteration which, as 
 Mason remarks, is no remedy. I propose, 
 
 ' And hold that man that drinks with meat is damn'd.' 
 
 Wit at Several Weapons, i. 2. vol. iv. p. 16 : — 
 
 ' Witty. Pax, there 's nothing puts me besides my wits, 
 but this fourth, this lay illiterate share ; there 's no con- 
 science in 't. 
 
 Sir Ruin. Sir, be compendious ; either take or refuse : 
 I will bate no token of my wife's share ; make even the last 
 reckonings, and either so unite, or here divide company. 
 
 Pris. A good x^%o\oAot\ profecto : let every man beg his 
 own way, and happy man be his dole ! 
 
 Witty. Well, here 's your double share, and single 
 brains ; pal, adepol, here 's toward a castor ecastor for you.' 
 
 On the words 'here's toward a castor ecastor 
 
 for you,' Dyce notes, ' A friend observes to me, 
 
 " castor (or caster, — and so the first folio spells the 
 
 word) meant, in the canting language of rogues 
 
 D 
 
50 The Old Dramatists 
 
 and vagabonds, a cloak ; and hence the present 
 pun." I doubt this explanation, though some 
 quibble is evidently intended here.' 
 
 I find a totally different meaning in the words. 
 Sir Ruinous Gentry, Wittypate, and Priscian have 
 entered into a conspiracy for-cheating people, and 
 the scene opens with a dispute between Sir Ruinous 
 and Wittypate as to whether a share of the pro- 
 ceeds is to be allowed to the former's wife for her 
 help in the business. In the speech to which 
 Dyce's note refers, Wittypate, imitating Priscian's 
 scraps of Latinity, makes use of the oaths pol, 
 csdepol, so frequent in Plautus and Terence. The 
 mention of Pollux naturally suggests Castor and 
 the equally frequent and correlative oath, ecastor. 
 Reduplicating the . word as castor ecastor, Witty- 
 pate again tenders money to Sir Ruinous. His 
 meaning, then, is, ' here is something towards the 
 double share you claim,' 'a castor ecastor' being 
 equal to ' a reduplication, a double portion.' 
 
 Wit Without Money, i. i. vol. iv. p. 1 1 1 : — 
 
 ' 'Tis like enough ; but pray satisfy me. 
 Are not these ways as honest as persecuting 
 The starVd inheritance with musty corn 
 The very rats were fain to run away from, . . . 
 
 Do not I know your way of feeding beasts 
 
 With grains and windy stuff, to blow up butchers .' 
 
 Your racking pastures, that have eaten up 
 
Conjectural Readings 5 1 
 
 As many singing shepherds and their issues 
 As Andaluzia breeds ? These are authentic. 
 I tell you, sir, I would npt change ways with you, 
 Unless it were to sell your state that hour, 
 And, if it were possible, to spend it then too. 
 For all your beans in Rumnillo.' 
 
 Dyce notes, ' So all the old eds. Seward 
 printed, " for all your beasts in Rumne}i"\\ observ- 
 ing, "The uncle is before described as a great 
 grazier ; his beasts therefore are more likely to be 
 mentioned as the chief of his wealth than his 
 beans. Rumney Marsh in Kent is remarkably 
 famous for fatting cattle ; I think, therefore, my 
 conjecture was probably the true reading." The 
 editors of 1778 adopted Seward's alteration." 
 Weber left the old text undisturbed, remarking, 
 " Rumnillo might, however, have been a cant ter- 
 mination for the same name [Rumney], or perhaps 
 an arbitrary denomination for the uncle's estate." 
 Qy. is the true reading, "For all your benes in 
 Rome-vile " ? i.e. for all your goods in London : in 
 canting language bene is " good " and Rome-vile 
 '• London." . . .' 
 
 In spite of Dyce's scorn, I believe that Seward 
 was not far wide of the mark ; my suggestion is, 
 ' For all your beeves on Bromhillt.' 
 
 Bromhille being a hill on the outskirts of Romney 
 Marsh : your may be taken generically. In the MS. 
 of The Faithful Friends, i. 2. vol. iv. p. 214 ' Bunhill ' 
 is spelt ' Bunnill,' the same mistake of n for h. 
 
52 The Old Dramatists 
 
 Wit Without Money, ii. 2. vol. iv. p. 119: — 
 
 ' If you '11 needs 
 Do things of danger, do but lose yourselves, 
 (Not any part concerns your understandings. 
 For then you are meacocks, fools, and miserable) ; 
 March off amain, within an inch of afurcug. 
 Turn me o' the toe like a weathercock, 
 Kill every day a sergeant for a twelvemonth, 
 Rob the Exchequer, and burn all the rolls, 
 And these will make a show.' 
 
 For furcug Theobald proposed firelock,, and 
 Weber printed firecock, a term, he says, ,by which 
 the cock of a gun may have been denominated. 
 Now, independent of the fact ih3.\. firecock, in such 
 a sense, does not exist, and that it is highly im- 
 probable Fletcher would have written meacock, 
 firecock, weathercock, in three successive lines, 
 firelock and firecock are equally out of place here. 
 For it would be no greater proof of hardihood 
 to ' turn o' the toe like a weathercock within an 
 inch of a firearm, than to stand up or do any- 
 thing else in such a neighbourhood. The idea 
 here is clearly parallel to that in Lear, v. 6. 
 24-26 ; — 
 
 ' You are now within a foot 
 
 Of the extreme verge : for all beneath the moon 
 
 Would I not leap upright' : 
 
 and we want some synonym for precipice, abyss, 
 to ' turn o' the toe like a weathercock within an 
 inch of,' which would be to ' do a thing of danger.' 
 I believe that we have here an image very frequent 
 
Conjectural Readings 53 
 
 in Fletcher, and that for furcug we should read 
 Curtius-gulf. In The Custom of the Country, 
 iv. 4. vol. iv. p. 467, we have : — 
 
 ' But women, women ! oh, the devil ! women 1 
 Curiius^sgulf-w&% never half so dangerous.' 
 
 In The Double Marriage, iv. 4. vol. vi. p. 393 : — 
 
 ' Like Curtius 
 I '11 leap the ^^ before you, fearless leap it.' 
 
 In The Woman's Prize, \. 2. vol. vii. p. 107 : — 
 
 ' Like Curtius, to redeem my country, I have leap'd 
 Into this gulf of marriage.' 
 
 In The Bloody Brother, iii. i. vol. x. p. 424 : — 
 'The Curttan gulf oi ih\s conspiracy.' 
 
 As in the third of these passages, marriage is 
 the danger that has been encountered, so in the 
 passage before us marriage is the danger which 
 Valentine is warning Harebrain and his fellows to 
 avoid, the dangers he enumerates being preferable 
 to it ; and again in The Custom of the Country the 
 danger is that which proceeds from women. For 
 the form Curtius-gulf, compare Bonduca, ii. i. 
 vol. V. p. 27, ' this Britain-gulf' ; also note that 
 the second quarto and the folio spell furcug with 
 a capital letter. 
 
 Wit Without Money, ii. 2. vol. iv. p. 121 : — 
 ' Take a maid, 
 A maid not worth a penny ; make her yours, 
 Knead her, and mould her yours ; a maid worth nothing ; 
 ' There is a virtuous spell in that word " nothing" ; 
 
54 The Old Dramatists 
 
 ' A miifl mdkes conscience , 
 
 , Qf hajfra-crown a week for pins and puppets ; 
 
 ' 'A niaid^'j content with one coach and two horses.' 
 
 'Thp first 4to,' says Dyce, 'has "a maid con- 
 tent " ;' '. and the first 4to is quite right, there being 
 an ellipsis .of , who in the, line ' A maid makes 
 coriscien'ce.' ■ ■ - ■ . ' 
 
 Wit. Without Money, iii. i. vol. iv. p. 139: — 
 
 ., 'May zealous smiths 
 '" So Hotisel all bui* hackneys that they may feel 
 •Cornpunctiohin their feet, and tire at Highgate.' 
 
 Seward and Dyce are no doubt right, in spite 
 of "Weber's, conjecture, in taking housel as a pro- 
 fane allusion to the Eucharist ; but they have not 
 noticed that in ' compunction ' there is a further 
 allusion to the rite of extreme unction. 
 
 Wit Without Money, iii. i. vol. iv. p. 139 : — 
 ' Hum. At St. Albans, let all the inns be drunk, 
 
 Not an host sober, to bid her worship welcome ! 
 
 Short. Not a fiddle, but all preach'd down by puritans ; 
 
 No meat but legs of beef ! 
 
 Hwn^ No beds but woolpacks ! 
 • Short, And those so cramm'd 
 
 With warrens of starv'd fleas that bite like ban-dogs. 
 
 Let Miros be angry at their St. bel-swagger, 
 
 And we pass in the heat on't, and be beaten, 
 
 Beaten abominably, beaten horse and man. 
 
 And" all my lady's linen sprinkled 
 
 With suds and dish-water.' 
 
 ' " Mims is in the neighbourhood of St. Albans, 
 and some local custom, tumultuously celebrated, 
 
Conjectural Readings 55 
 
 is plainly alluded to in this speech. It was, we 
 doubt not, familiarly known in the times of our 
 authors ; but we have in vain endeavoured to 
 trace its memory or discover its origin." — Ed. 1778. 
 The allusion here is as dark to me as tq the 
 other editors' , . . (Dyce), who quotes from 
 Richardson's Dictionary, ' Bel-swagger. Perhaps 
 no more than a fine, a brave, swaggerer, a braggart, 
 a bully,' and the passage cited there and by 
 Johnson from Dryden's Spanish Friar, act V., in 
 which the term is used in sueh sense, Murray, 
 English Dictionary, gives other instances with the 
 same meaning. As ' to this convenient ' local 
 custom,' I am very sceptical, and believe that the 
 line here indicates nothing more than the anger 
 of Mims at the drunken revelry of its swaggering 
 neighbour with its aristocratic prefix of ' St.,' anger 
 which it vents upon all coming from that place. 
 
 Wit Without Money, iii. i. vol. iv. p, 142 : — 
 ' In you men 
 'Tis held a coolness, if you lose your right, 
 Affronts and loss of honour,' 
 
 Punctuate, 
 
 ' if you lose your right 
 Affronts, and loss of honour.' 
 
 i.e. it is considered as' a slight and loss of honour if 
 
 you do not receive the salutations due to your rank. ' 
 
 Wit Without Money , iv. 2. vol. iv. p. 159: — 
 
 ' But, Luce, didst ever know a woman melt so ? 
 She is finely hurt to hunt.^ 
 
56 The Old Dramatists 
 
 What does hunt mean here? Qy. heartl So 
 in The Knight of Malta, ii. ,i. vol. v. p. 128, the 
 folios give hurt for heart. 
 
 Wit Without Money, iv. 4. vol. iv. p. 172 : — 
 ' Do you think you are here, sir, 
 Amongst your waistcoateers; your base wenches 
 That scratch at such occasions ? ' 
 
 Qy. snatchf Possibly the scribe taking the 
 words 'the woman will not bite,' a few lines 
 above, in a literal sense, thought that scratch was 
 a continuation of the idea. 
 
 Wit Without Money, iv. 5. vol. iv. p. 176: — 
 
 ' You shall stay till I talk with you, 
 And not dine neither, but fastingly my fury ; 
 You think you have undone me ; think so still 
 
 Till you return to what I found ye, people 
 Betrayed into the hands of fencers', challengers'. 
 Tooth-drawers' bills, and tedious proclamations 
 In meal markets, with throngings to see cut-purses ; 
 (Stir not, but hear and mark ; I 'U cut your throats 
 
 else) — 
 Till water- works, and rumours of New Rivers, 
 Rid you again, and run you into questions 
 Who built the Thames' 
 
 Dyce notes, ' The first 4to has " built Theamea " ; 
 the second 4to and the folio read " built Thames." 
 " The allusion to the New River, projected in the 
 time of James I., is sufficiently plain. That to the 
 building of the Thames is not explicable as sense ; 
 but the authors most probably wish only to 
 
Conjectural Readings 57 
 
 exemplify the absurd stupidity of the conversation 
 among the three suitors, previous to their acquaint- 
 ance with Valentine." — WEBER. If built the 
 Thames be the right reading (which I greatly 
 doubt), it may perhaps mean — ^built bridges over 
 the Thames.' 
 
 Now, I must premise that in no single play of 
 our authors are there so many corruptions of the 
 text as in the present one. The printer of the 
 first quarto was evidently not only a very careless 
 but a very ignorant man, and when he came to 
 proper names, was greatly at a loss. I must also, 
 before coming to my conjecture, notice the word 
 water-works, which is important to the under- 
 standing of the passage. The reference is to a 
 particular water-work described in Stowe's Survey 
 of London, p. 294, quoted by Nares : ' Within the 
 gate of this house [Bigod's house] (now belonging 
 to the citie of London), is lately, to wit, in the 
 yeare 1594 and 1595, builded one large house of 
 great height, called an engine, made by Bevis 
 Bulmar, gentleman, for conveying and forcing 
 of Thames water to serve in the middle and 
 west parts of the cities.' To this water- work 
 Jonson in his Alchemist, a play first acted in 
 16 10, refers, ii. i. p. 47, ed. Gifford : 'As he that 
 built the water-work does with the water ' ; and 
 again iii. 2. p. 105: 'being cessed at eighteen 
 pence, for the water-work! It was evidently, there- 
 fore, a work of great importance. Of a similar 
 
58 The Old Dramatists 
 
 nature, though on a larger scale, was the New 
 River, the opening of which was celebrated by 
 a public pageant on Michaelmas Day, 1613 
 (the dramatist Middleton writing the speech), 
 and which would be fresh in the memory of 
 those who saw Wit Without Money, produced 
 soon after 16 14, for the first time. Weber's 
 supposition that ' our authors probably wish only 
 to exemplify the absurd stupidity of the conversa- 
 tion among the three suitors previous to their 
 acquaintance with Valentine,' seems to me a most 
 extravagant one. Though Valentine constantly 
 taunts them with their stupidity, or rather their 
 ignorance of the world, he throughout addresses 
 them as men to be reasoned with, and also men- 
 tions their having been at the University. On 
 the other hand, if ' built Thames,' or ' built the 
 Thames,' can mean ' built bridges over the 
 Thames,' then, it seems to me that anything can 
 mean anything. My belief is that we should 
 read ' who built the Aniena.' The Aniena (Aqua) 
 was the greatest of the aqueducts of Rome, being 
 to that city what Bulmar's water-work and the 
 New River were to London. It extended some 
 sixty miles in length, and over the double arch 
 which spanned it and the Claudia, there were 
 three , inscriptions which recorded the names of 
 Claudius as the builder, and of Vespasian and 
 Titus as the restorers, of the aqueduct. The 
 suitors, though University men, may not have 
 
Conjectural Readings 59 
 
 known anything of this aqueduct, but Fletcher 
 no doubt did, and. he is by no means careful to 
 adapt.the language of his characters to the under- 
 standing of the speakers ■ or of those addressed. 
 If the words Theamea and Th$ aniena be com- 
 pared stroke for stroke, it will be found that but 
 for the omission pf the one letter n in the final 
 syllable, they are absolutely identical ; and it is 
 a curious fact that in this play the. letter n is 
 frequently omitted, its place being supplied by a 
 horizontal , stroke over the vowel immediately, 
 preceding, a stroke which might easily have been! 
 .omitted here. It will, perhaps, be objected to my 
 conjecture ' that no compositor, however careless, 
 would, print the article with a capital, and' the 
 proper name with a small letter. To this I 
 answer that twice in Dekker's Honest Whore, 
 vol. ii. p. 32, Pearson's Reprint, '.the Antelope,' 
 the name of a tavern, is printed ' Th' antilop ' ; 
 and so again, without any mark of elision, in 
 Chapman's Blind Beggar of Alexandria,vo\. i. p. 45, 
 Pearson's Reprint, we have, ' Men say, piy lord, he 
 cast his desperate body From Thahxandrian tower 
 into, the sea.' Add Sir .Thomas Wyatt's Com- 
 plaint upon Love, I. 88, 'And Thaffricaine Scipion 
 the famous.' Here the corruption into Thames- 
 would be made all the easier by the fact of the water 
 for the \^ater- work being supplied from that river. 
 I take the meaning of the sentence to be ' till your 
 ears are so dinned with talk about .w^ter- works: 
 
6o The Old Dramatists 
 
 and New Rivers, that you begin to speculate 
 about the builders of the Anienan aqueduct.' 
 
 Wit Without Money, v. 2. vol. iv. p. 184 : — 
 ' Take his Nellson.' 
 
 So, says Dyce ' the first 4to, the second 4to, and 
 the folio have, " Take this Nelson " ; and so Seward 
 who pointed the words thus, " Take this. Nelson." 
 Weber says that Nellson is " probably a cant term 
 for a sword " ; rather, I believe, for a club.' 
 
 Read 'his keelson! The keelson, or kelson, is 
 the beam that battens down the flooring of the 
 lowest deck to the keel ; and the cudgel with 
 which Lance is ready to 'labour,' i.e. belabour, 
 his master is humorously likened to this beam. 
 Note that Valentine has already likened Lance 
 to a ship of war named after the Dutch admiral, 
 Peter Bassel, and used the nautical metaphor 
 ' bear up ' (curiously enough the same phrase as 
 that used by Stephano in Tempest, iii. 2. 3, to 
 his fellow drunkards, ' ^^«r up, and board 'em'); 
 also that in calling Lance ' Peter Bassel ' he 
 alludes to his Dutch courage inspired by 'sack.' 
 Cotgrave gives, ' Quille. The keel of a ship ; also 
 a keyl, a big peg, or pin of wood, used at nine- 
 pins or keyls, etc' 
 
 The Faithful Friends, i. i. vol. iv. p. 200 : — 
 ' Do you, then, malign his happiness. . . . ? ' 
 
 The MS. has, ' Do you then malign then his 
 happiness . . . ? ' 
 
Conjectural Readings 6 1 
 
 Read, 
 
 ' Do you malign, then, this his happiness. . . . ? ' 
 The omission of this before his is not un- 
 common. 
 
 The Faithful Friends, i. i. vol. iv. p. 204 : — 
 
 ' Learch. TuUius is general, and with greatest pomp 
 Is coming this way ; the king leaning thus 
 Upon his shoulder ; eyeing as they pass 
 The looks and gestures of each gazer-on, 
 How they relish his election. 
 Ruf. But rawly without salt ; 
 They have a fresh soldier to their general.' 
 
 Surely a full stop should be put after ' gazer-on,' 
 and the next line, with the reading, ' How relish 
 they his election ? ' be given to Rufinus, Learchus 
 answering, ' But rawly,' etc. Both sense and 
 metre seem to demand this. 
 
 The Faithful Friends, iv. I. vol. iv. p. 273 : — 
 
 ' Villain, keep off ! 
 
 Thou art mad, a pandar, nay, what 's worse, 
 A Iraitor to thy friend.' 
 
 Dyce remarks, ' There seems to be some corrup- 
 tion here.' I feel sure we should read 'thou art 
 made a pandar,' i.e. you have become a pandar. 
 Tullius is under the impression that Armanus had 
 been a party to the plot for seducing his wife, 
 Philadelpha. 
 
 The Widow, \. 2. vol. iv. p. 318 : — 
 ' Ric. Say you so, sir ? 
 I '11 try your ladyship's faith. — Lady, well met. 
 
62 The Old Dramatists 
 
 Franc. I do not think so. 
 
 Ric. A scornful gom ? and at the first dash too ! 
 
 My widow never gave me such an answer.' 
 
 ' " Junius in his etymologicon says that gom or 
 gome signifies a man. Ricardo- therefore means 
 that Francisco, in his assumed character of a 
 woman, acts not with the softness and delicacy of 
 a female, but with the scorn and haughtiness of a 
 male." — REED. Surely "gom" (though the present 
 passage is quoted under that word, both by Todd 
 and Nares) cannot be the right reading. Qy. 
 " glum " ? i.e. a gloomy, sour look.' (Dyce.) 
 
 Read gum, i.e. flout, piece of insolence. 
 
 The Widow, v. I. vol. iv. p. 38 1 : — 
 ' Hang thyself when thou wilt, a slave go with thee ! ' 
 
 Read, ' a slave goes with thee ! ' 
 
 Bonduca, i. I. vol. v. p. 7 : — 
 
 ' Are these the men that conquer by inheritance ? 
 The fortune-makers 'i these the Julians 
 That with the sun measure the end of nature, 
 Making the world but one Rome and one Csesar ? 
 Shame how they flee ! Ccesar's soft soul dwells in 'em ; 
 Their mothers got 'em sleeping. Pleasure nursed 'em.' 
 
 . Read, ' Ease's soft soul dwells in 'em,' corre- 
 sponding with ' Pleasure nurs'd 'em,' Ccesar's being 
 caught from the line above. In Valentinian, v. 8 
 ' please her ' rhymes with ' Caesar.' 
 
 The Knight of. Malta, ,ii. 2. vol. v. p. 134; — 
 ' I have seen him scale 
 As if a falcon had run up a train, 
 
Conjectural Readings 63 
 
 Clashing his warhke pinions, his steel'd cuirass, ' 
 And at his pitch inmew the town below him.' 
 
 Read ennew, and see note, p. 1 50, on Heywood's 
 Woman KilPd with Kindness. The words pinions, 
 pitch, etc., are, as Weber says, used metaphorically : 
 but the verb does not here mean to ' inclose in a 
 mew or cage,' as he adds. A falcon is inmewed 
 or enmewed while it is moulting, but does not 
 itself inmew or enmew anything. 
 
 The Knight of Malta, iii. 4. vok v. p. 167 : — 
 
 ' No entertainment 's perfect 
 Without it, on my word, no livery like it ; 
 /'// tell her he looks for it as duly 
 As for his fee ; there's no suit got without it ; 
 Gold is an ass to 't.' 
 
 Mason conjectures, 
 
 ' Your- lawyer, he. looks,' etc. 
 
 I would rather retain the words, I'll tell her and 
 read, 
 
 ' /'// tell her the lawyer looks,' etc. 
 
 The change is less, merely the insertion of 
 lawyer, and the metre is improved. 
 
 The Knight of Malta, iv. 2. vol. v. p. 186: — 
 
 ' Thou art a dog, I '11 make thee swear, a dog stav'd, 
 A mangy cur-dog.' . ; 
 
 Weber explains stav'd as ' beaten with staves ' ; 
 Heath as ' beaten from his hold.' Qy, starv'd} 
 
64 The Old Dramatists 
 
 ValenHnian,"iv. 4. vol. v. p. 287 : — 
 
 ' Thou canst fight well, and bravely, 
 Thou canst endure all dangers, heats, colds, hungers ; 
 Heaven's angry flashes are not suddener 
 Than I have seen thee execute, nor more mortal ; 
 The winged feet of flying enemies 
 I have stood and view'd thee mow away like rushes, 
 And still kill the killer : were thy mind 
 But half so sweet in peace,' etc. 
 
 Though no commentator has noticed the italic- 
 ised words, their want of meaning, their cacophony, 
 and the imperfection of the metre, show, I think, 
 that the line is corrupt. I would read, 
 
 'And still toil kill the killer' : 
 i.e. though you mowed them down like rushes, 
 so great was their number that you were almost 
 dead with the mere labour of slaying. The word 
 toil is suiificiently like kill to have been accidentally 
 omitted. Cf. Bonduca, i. 2. vol. v. p. 22, 
 
 ' They [the enemy] are so infinite, so ever-springing. 
 We shall be kilPd with killing^ : 
 ii. I. p. 27, 
 
 ' Where we lie buried quick above the ground. 
 And are, with labouring sweat and breathless pain, 
 KiWd like to slaves, and cannot kill again ! ' 
 
 and A Wife for a Month, v. 3. vol. ix. p. 382, 
 ' But what . . . kill'd with killing! 
 
 The Laws of Candy, iii. 3. vol. v. p. 364 : — 
 ' Alas, it is a misery I grieve 
 To put you to ! and I will suffer rather 
 In his tyranny, than thou in mine.' 
 
Conjectural Readings 65 
 
 Altered by Seward to ' under his tyranny ' : 
 Qly. ' In this his tyranny ' ? 
 
 T/ie Queen of Corinth, i. 2. vol. v. p. 404 : — 
 
 ' If I speak 
 Too much, though I confess I speak well, 
 Prithee remember 'tis a woman's weakness, 
 And then thou wilt forgive it.' 
 
 Sympson would insert not after confess ; Seward, 
 not after /. Qy. 'though I confess not, I speak 
 2'//'? One does not confess that one speaks well 
 — except to one's-self. My alteration completes 
 the metre of the line. 
 
 The Queen of Corinth, iii. i. vol. v, p. 440: — 
 
 ' And whate'er he be 
 Can with unthankfulness assoil me, let him 
 Dig- out mine eyes, and sing my name in verse. 
 In ballad verse,' etc. 
 
 Surely assail 
 
 The Loyal Subject, iv. 3. vol. vi. p. 85 : — 
 
 ' Words steep'd in honey. 
 That will so melt into your minds, buy chastity 
 A thousand ways, a thousand knots to tie ye.' 
 
 Qy. ply ? buy can hardly be right. 
 
 The Loyal Subject, iv. 4. vol. vi. p. 88 : — 
 
 ' A dog ! drunken people, 
 That in their pot see visions, and turn states 
 Madmen and children ! ' 
 
 Seward printed statists : possibly statesmen, the 
 E 
 
66 The Old Dramatists 
 
 suffix being omitted owing to the proximity of 
 'madmen.' Compare Coriolanus,\. i. 180-186. 
 
 The Mad Lover, Epilogue, 1. 2. vol. vi. p. 212: — 
 
 ' Here lies the doubt now ; let our plays be good, 
 Our own care sailing equal in the flood, 
 Our preparations new, new our attire. 
 Yet we are here becalm'd still, in the mire. 
 Here we stick fast. Is there no way to clear 
 The passage of our judgment, and our fear ? ' 
 
 For care, I would read crare, i.e. boat. This 
 seems to be shown by ' becalm'd,' ' stick fast,' and 
 • passage.' The word occurs in The Captain, i. 2. 
 vol. iii. p. 230, ' Let him venture in some decay'd 
 crare of his own,' where it has a figurative sense. 
 
 The False One, ii. 2. vol. vi. p. 250 : — 
 
 ' Now I will outbrave all, make all my servants [drunk], 
 And my brave deed shall be writ in wine for virtuous.' 
 
 Here drunk is an insertion of Dyce's which was 
 questioned by a correspondent, T. S., and defended 
 by Dyce in his Addenda et Corrigenda. 
 
 I think T. S. is certainly right. Though Sep- 
 timius is afterwards seen in ' brave apparel,' what 
 he boasts here is that he will no longer shrink 
 before those who scorn him, but will meet them 
 with a brave face now that he has gold to back 
 him up ; while ' make all my servants ' is merely 
 a hyperbolical expression. Of his servants we 
 nowhere hear anything ; but in a later scene, iii. 2, 
 
Conjectural Readings 67 
 
 he has the audacity to patronise Antony, Dola- 
 bella, and Scseva with offers of money and wine, 
 and immediately afterwards tries to ' make ' their 
 disabled soldiers his 'servants,' employing the 
 same temptation of wine. In the latter of the 
 two lines I am inclined to think that brave has 
 been caught from the former. 
 
 The False One, iv. 3. vol. vi. p. 289 : — 
 
 ' Sept. Womanish fear, farewell ! 1 '11 never melt more ; — 
 Lead on to some great thing, to wake my spirit : 
 I cut the cedar Pompey, and I '11 fell 
 This huge oak Caesar too. 
 Pho. Now thou sing'st sweetly, 
 And Ptolemy shall crown thee for thy service- 
 Achil. He 's. well wrought ; put him apace for cooling.' 
 
 Wake is the reading of the second folio, adopted 
 by all modern editors, though Dyce conjectures 
 steel. The first folio gives weale, and this I believe 
 to be perfectly sound, it being nothing else than 
 an older spelling of the modern weld. The earliest 
 form of the word, wel (later welle), was in use at 
 all events as late as 1570. It comes from the 
 Anglo-Saxon weallan, to boil, and the present d 
 is a late excrescence. Here to weld agrees better 
 than wake or steel with the context melt, wrought, 
 and cooling. It is also in keeping with cut and fell. 
 
 The Double Marriage, v. 3. vol. vi. p. 409 : — 
 
 ' We are cold, 
 Cold walls shall not keep him from us,' 
 
68 The Old Dramatists 
 
 Read ' Stone walls ' ; Cold being caught from the 
 previous line. 
 
 The Humorous Lieutenant-, iii. 5. vol. vi. p. 478 : — 
 ' What a. flatten face he has now ! ' 
 
 The MS. gives slotten. I would read shotten ; 
 Compare Women Pleased, ii. 4. 9, 'My shotten 
 friend ' ; Wit Without Money, ii. 4. 2, ' You shotten- 
 soul'd slight fellows.' 
 
 Women Pleased, iv. i. vol. vii. p. 57 : — 
 
 ' The people simple, plain, and harmless-witty. 
 Whose honest labours Heaven rewards with plenty 
 Of com, wine, oil, which they again as thankful. 
 To their new crops new pastimes celebrate, 
 And crown their joyful harvests with new voices.' 
 
 Heath and Dyce think that something has fallen 
 out here, and pronounce the passage as it stands 
 to be nonsense. If any alteration were necessary, 
 while for which would make the sense quite clear, 
 viz., while they on their part, in return, express 
 their gratitude by new pastimes in honour of their 
 new crops, etc. But which was often used of old 
 adverbially = as to which. 
 
 The Woman's Prize, ii. 4. vol. vii. p. 1 39 : — 
 
 ' She should ride the -wild mare once a week, she should. 
 Believe me, friends, she should ; I would tabor her.' 
 
 Dyce says that Petruchio means ' that his wife 
 should be mounted on something, and well 
 drubbed.' The 'something' is surely the ' cucking- 
 stool,' a common engine for the punishment of 
 
Conjectural Readings 69 
 
 shrews and scolds, while in ' I would tabor her,' i.e. 
 make her dance with a cudgel, there is perhaps 
 an allusion to Katharina's vigorous treatment of 
 Hortensio in The Taming of the Shrew, ii. i. 157, 
 when he ' stood amazed for a while, As on a pillory, 
 looking through the hole.' 
 
 The Woman's Prize, ii. 4. vol. vii. p. 140: — 
 
 ' They heave ye stool on stool, and fling main pot-lids 
 Like massy rocks, dart ladles, tossing irons. 
 And tongs like thunderbolts.' 
 
 Sympson proposed 'toasting irons'; Nares 
 thinks ' tossing irons ' means pokers ; rather, I 
 fancy, shovels. 
 
 The Woman's Prise, ii. 6. vol. vii. p. 144 : — 
 
 ' I peep'd in 
 At a loose lansket.' 
 
 It has been conjectured that lansket means the 
 panel of a door, or a lattice, or a lancet-window. 
 The last of these seemed negatived by the word 
 •'loose.' I believe we should read wainscot, of old 
 spelt wainskot, and used not merely for the wains- 
 cot against a wall, but for partitions, etc. In The 
 Elder Brother, iv. 4. vol. x. p. 270, we have, ' He 
 had better have stood between two panes of wains- 
 cot' ; though there the phrase is used figuratively 
 of the pillory. Cp. also The Fair Maid of the Inn, 
 V. 2. vol. X. p. 92, ' I saw him this morning, through 
 a chink of wainscot that divides my lodging and 
 the Host's of the house.' 
 
70 The Old Dramatists 
 
 Monsieur Thomas, ii. 3. vol. vii. p. 338 : — 
 
 ' He ne'er perceives 'em 
 Longer than looking on.' 
 
 Qy. ^pursues'! Sam refers to the fickleness of 
 Hylas. 
 
 Monsieur Thomas, iii. i. vol. vii. p. 349 : — 
 
 ' Equal affections \born\ and shot together.' 
 
 The word born was 'inserted,' says Dyce, 'by 
 the editors of 1778. Both in the 4to and in the 
 folio the line stands thus : — 
 
 " Equal affections and shot together.'' 
 
 ' Seward printed, 
 
 " Equal affections, and shot up together." ' 
 
 The metaphor does not seem to me from plants 
 but from arrows both levelled and discharged 
 together. I would therefore read, 
 
 ' Equal affections, aitrfd and shot together.' 
 
 From its resemblance to and, aim'd might easily 
 have been dropped by the transcriber. 
 
 The Island Princess, iii. i. vol. vii. p. 458 : — 
 
 ' Ruy. My private benefits I have forgot, sir ; 
 But those you might lay claim to as my follower, 
 Yet some men would remember ; — 
 Pin. I do daily. 
 Ruy. The place which I have put you in, which is no 
 
 weak one ; 
 Next to myself you stand in all employments,' etc. 
 
Conjectural Readings 7 1 
 
 ' Heath's explanation of this passage (which 
 agrees with Mason's) is,' says Dyce, ' as follows : 
 " I have forgot, and think not worth urging, the 
 benefits I have conferred on you in my private 
 character as a friend and near relation ; but yet 
 there are men who would remember those benefits 
 which, as one of my followers and in common with 
 the rest of them, you might think yourself entitled 
 to a share of, and with which I have distinguished 
 you above the others," etc. Weber gives a different, 
 and, I think, an erroneous interpretation.' 
 
 Heath's explanation seems to me to slur over 
 but 2Js\6L.yet. I would punctuate thus : — 
 
 ' My private benefits I have forgot, sir, — 
 But those you might lay claim to as my followers, — 
 Yet some men,' etc. 
 
 with the explanation, ' I have forgotten the private 
 benefits I have conferred on you — but {those I 
 need not refer to, for') you might lay claim to them 
 as my follower — yet some men,' etc. Such ellipses 
 are very frequent. 
 
 The Pilgrim, ii. 2. vol. viii. p. 30 : — 
 
 ' Then thou should'st have brav'd me, 
 And, arm'd with all thy family's hate, upon me 
 Done something worthy feat.^ 
 
 Sympson put a comma after something ; Weber 
 a hyphen to connect something and worthy, i.e. 
 worthy in some degree, a sense which Dyce rightly 
 says the words could not bear unless preceded by 
 
72 The Old Dramatists 
 
 the article a. Seward conjectured, ^ Have done 
 some worthy feat ' ; Mitford, ' Done some feat 
 worthy thee! 
 
 I believe we should read, 'Done something 
 worth thy feat." 
 
 The Wild-Goose Chase ^ i. i. vol. viii. p. 117 : — 
 
 'Within this eight hours I took leave of him, 
 And ov&r-hied him, having some slight business 
 That forc'd me out o' the way.' 
 
 ' Both the old eds. " over-ey'd" ' says Dyce ; 
 ' and so Sympson, though he pronounced it to be 
 a corruption, and proposed " over-ria," and " over- 
 yed." The editors of 1778 printed "over-rid" and 
 conjectured "over-hied" which was adopted by 
 Weber, and which certainly seems to be the right 
 reading.' 
 
 I would read 'ovex-vy'd' (the old spelling of 
 vied), i.e. out-vied him in my speed. There were 
 formerly many compounds of to vie (used at games 
 of cards), e.g. out-vie^ re-vie, and probably over-vie 
 was among them. 
 
 The Wild-Goose Chase, iv. i. vol. viii. p. 176: — 
 
 ' One of your London light-o-loves, a right one. 
 Came over in thin pumps and half a petticoat. 
 One faith, and one smock, with a broken haberdasher.' 
 
 '"The word faith seems a corruption here." 
 Ed. 1778. "The text seems to imply possessing 
 just as much faith and as large a stock of linen as 
 
Conjectural Readings 73 
 
 a bankrupt haberdasher whose credit is destroyed 
 and his goods seized by law." — Weber' (Dyce). 
 
 Weber's explanation is simply ridiculous. Read, 
 ' One fall' i.e. falling-band. Compare Middleton, 
 Your Five Gallants, i. i. 81, 'A fine white beaver 
 band, three falls; I ha' known her have more in 
 her days ' ; Michaelmas Term, i. 2. 16, ' wires and 
 tires . . . felts and falls' Ladies of this class 
 seem to have been particular in the matter of 
 this article of dress ; compare Dekker, The Honest 
 Whore, vol. ii. p. 41, Pearson's Reprint, 'I would 
 thou wouldst give me five yards of lawn to make 
 my punk some falling bands o' the fashion, three 
 falling upon one another ; for that 's the new 
 edition now.' 
 
 The Sea- Voyage, i. 2. vol. viii. p. 302 : — 
 
 ' Where a mighty storm sever'd our barks, that where 
 My wife, my daughter, and my noble ladies 
 That went with her, virgins and loving souls, 
 To scape those pirates — ' 
 
 ' At Seward's suggestion,' says Dyce, ' Sympson 
 omitted this word \where\, and made some alter- 
 ations in the next two speeches. There is some 
 gross corruption here. Qy. should the second 
 where be bore 7' 
 
 Against Dyce's suggestion it may be urged that 
 bore is rather a violent change for where, that that, 
 referring to barks, will have to be taken as = one 
 of which bore (for, as is seen from v. 4. p. 367, 
 
74 The Old Dramatists 
 
 there were but two barks, 'the one bore all the 
 able men ... in the other the women were em- 
 barked '), and that bore will not, in point of con- 
 struction, go well with the broken sentence, ' To 
 
 scape those pirates .' Further, it seems to me 
 
 that both rhythm and sense indicate corruption in 
 the former where. I would therefore read, 
 
 ' Whereon a mighty storm sever'd our barks, that there,' etc. 
 
 i.e. so that there (in that storm) my wife, etc., in 
 order to escape those pirates, etc. 
 
 The Spanish Curate, v. 2. vol. viii. p. 481 : — 
 
 ' They have played their prizes with me. 
 And with their several flurts have lighted dangerously.' 
 
 Seward reads 'they've lighted danger.' The 
 editors of 1778 supposed lighted to mean 'trifled,' 
 though they produce no authority for such a 
 meaning. Mason explains, 'they had succeeded 
 in their several flurts, and that to his prejudice ' ; 
 comparing, for the neuter sense of lighted, Mac- 
 beth, ii. 3. 148, 'This murderous shaft that's shot 
 Hath not yet lighted.' Dyce explains, ' They have 
 . . . with me ' as ' they have played their feats, 
 pranks.' But neither Mason nor Dyce seems to 
 me to bring out the full sense of the passage, 
 which I take to be this : ' They have ventured 
 to cross swords with me (as pupils in fencing did 
 with the master when being tested for their certi- 
 ficates as scholars, " playing their prizes " as it was 
 
Conjectural Readings 7 5 
 
 called) in order to prove how cunning of fence 
 they are, and their various passes of wit have come 
 dangerously near wounding my reputation.' 
 Beggars' Bush, iii. 4. vol. ix. p. 67 : — 
 ' Now for myself.' 
 
 Read, ' my help,' i.e. the help promised him by 
 Clause. Heath would read 'his help^ with the 
 same meaning. 
 
 Beggars' Bush, v. 2. vol. ix. p. 103 : — 
 
 ' The spirit of Bottom is grown bottomless.' 
 
 Of this allusion to Midsummer Nighfs Dream 
 Steevens says : ' It may mean that either the public 
 grew indifferent to bad actors, to plays in general, 
 or to actors the humour of which consisted in 
 blunders.' On which Dyce remarks : ' Whatever 
 be the meaning of the passage, I do not believe 
 that Steevens has hit it by any of his conjectures.' 
 
 Certainly not. I once thought the meaning 
 was, 'The spirit of Bottom which was equal to 
 any undertaking, equal to playing any part, how- 
 ever ambitious, has had its bottom knocked out,' i.e. 
 we, without our former allies, can no longer under- 
 take such exploits as of old, but must content 
 ourselves with mere petty filching. But perhaps 
 we might read, ' The spirit of Bottom '.f not grown 
 bottomless.' Higgen (the speaker) has just said, 
 
 ' Higgen will seek 
 Some safer shelter, in some other climate 
 With this his tatter' d colony : ' 
 
76 The Old Dramatists 
 
 and, as spokesman of the Beggars, 'orator Higgen,' 
 ' the fine well-spoken Higgen,' is not without re- 
 semblance to Bottom. 
 
 A Wife for a Month, i. 4. vol. ix. p. 326 :— 
 
 ' Those are poor fools, 
 A set, people call them honest.' 
 
 ' The folios,' says Dyce, ' have no comma after set. 
 Seward proposed to read, " Yet people call them 
 honest," and Sympson, "And yet people," etc. The 
 editors of 1778 supposed that "A set people " might 
 perhaps signify, formal, precise people. Heath 
 {M.S. Notes') conjectured " A set of people," etc. 
 Mason first gave the right punctuation, comparing 
 what Sorano says (act v. sc. 3) : — 
 
 " They are such 
 The foolish call their country's honour," ' etc. 
 
 I think we should punctuate, 
 
 ' A set, people call them, honest' 
 
 i.e. an honest set, at least so people call them. 
 
 Rule a Wife and Have a Wife, i. 2. vol. ix. 
 p. 403 :— 
 
 ' To be tied to a man's pleasure is a second labour.' 
 
 'To obtain a man's pleasure,' says Mason, 'is 
 the first labour ; to be tied to it, a second. This 
 appears to be Sanchio's meaning.' Does it not 
 rather mean that compulsion to pleasure is only 
 another name for labour ? 
 
Conjectural Readings 'j'j 
 
 The Fair Maid of the Inn, ii. 2. vol x. p. 36 : — 
 
 ' I '11 tend my master, and instantly be with you for a cup 
 of cherelly' 
 
 So the first folio ; the second gives cherally. 
 No other instance has been found of either form. 
 Murray, English Dictionary, suggests an analogy 
 with bonally; but bonally is not the name of a 
 liquor, nor does to 'drink bonally' mean more 
 than to 'drink bon voyage' Possibly we should 
 read cheerhelly, i.e. belly-cheer. That word, though 
 generally used of food, would equally apply to 
 ' wine that maketh glad the heart of man ' ; and it 
 is a clown who is speaking. 
 
 Tfie Fair Maid of the Inn, iii. i. vol. x. p. 49 : — 
 
 ' My often visits, sweet Bianca, cannot 
 But constantly inform thy judgment wherein 
 Thy happiness consists.' 
 
 Qy. Myl 
 
 The Fair Maid of the Inn, iii. 2. vol. x. p. 53 : — 
 
 ' Though divided 
 
 I stand between the laws of Truth and Modesty, 
 Yet let my griefs have vent ; yet the clearness 
 Of strange necessity requires obedience 
 To Nature and your mercy.' 
 
 Qy. for-i 
 
 The Fair Maid of the Inn, iii. 2. vol. x. p. 53 : — 
 
 ' Wherein, if strict opinion cancel shame. 
 My frailty is my plea.' 
 
78 The Old Dramatists 
 
 'The meaning of this sentence,' says Mason, 
 ' appears to me to be this : If the strictness of 
 my principles gets the better of my shame, and 
 induces me to reveal what I should blush to con- 
 fess, let my frailty plead my excuse.' 
 
 Qy. ' counsel shame ' ? In Webster's The Devils 
 'Law Case, p. 13S/1, ed. Dyce, where precisely the 
 same incident occurs, Leonora, when asked why 
 she sq. late reveals -the truth, answers : — 
 
 ' Because, my lord, I loath'd that such a sin 
 Should lie smother'd with me in my grave, my penitence 
 Though to my shame, prefers the revealing of it 
 'Bove worldly reputation.' 
 
 The Noble Gentleman, i. 2. vol. x. p. 123 : — 
 
 ' Think her fair 
 And great, clapt in velvet, — she is so.' 
 
 ' Sympson,' says Dyce, ' printed yclad, and so 
 the editors of 1778 ! Heath {MS. Notes) would 
 read " clasped." I believed that the poet wrote, 
 " And great, and clapt," etc' 
 
 Qy. ' clapt up ? ' 
 
 The Noble Gentleman, iii. 2. vol. x. p. 149: — 
 
 ' 'Twill be rarely strange 
 To see him stated thus, as though he went 
 A shroving through the city, or intended 
 To set up some new stake.' 
 
 Sympson understands stake to mean a May- 
 pole ; Dyce takes it for a ' magnifico's post,' 
 
Conjectural Readings 79 
 
 as in The Fair Maid of the Inn, iii. i. Qy. 
 statue ? 
 
 The Noble Gentleman, v. i. vol. x. p. 187 : — 
 
 ' First Gent. Monsieur Marine, pray, let me speak with you ; 
 Sir, I must wave you to conceal this party ; 
 It stands upon my utter overthrow. 
 Seem not discontented, nor do riot stir a foot. 
 For if you do, you and your hope — 
 I swear you are a lost man, if you stii: !' 
 
 ' Sympson,' says Dyce ' (after proposing a need- 
 less alteration of the passage), explained "party^- 
 resolution of going down,'" etc. 
 
 Mason would alter ' party ' to 'parley ' ; and 
 Weber says, ' " The Gentleman requests Marine to 
 conceal the party or side which he took by giving 
 him such advice," etc. I believe that ' this party ' 
 is used SetKTtKws, and is equivalent to — me, the 
 person addressing you. Heath, not understand- 
 ing the passage, would read "your" [for my,\. ^].' 
 
 I suggest, 
 
 ' Sir, I must warn you to conceal this parting,' , 
 
 and perhaps, with Heath, your for my. The 
 object of the First Gentleman is to befool both 
 Marine and Clermont by persuading thenj to stay 
 at court and fall in with the ways of those about 
 it, so that he and his friends may make love to 
 their wives. As he says, iv. 4. p. 175, ' To me the 
 fooling of this fool is venery'; and when Cler- 
 
8o The Old Dramatists 
 
 mont, p. 174, is angry at Longueville's familiarity 
 with his wife, the Gentleman addresses him in 
 almost the same words as he uses here : — 
 
 ' Let her ^lone : be wise ; stir not a foot ; 
 For, if you do, all your hopes are buried. ; 
 I swear you are a lost man if yoU stir.' 
 
 In Marine's case the Gentleman endeavours to 
 detain him at court by pretending that the king 
 is angry at the idea of his departing, and that he 
 must do all in his power to hide the fact that he 
 was already on the point of setting out. ' It 
 stands upon my utter overthrow ' may perhaps be 
 nothing more than the Gentleman's exaggerated 
 pretence that, if Marine goes, all the blame will 
 be cast upon him ; but he is so strongly empha- 
 sising the ruin of Marine's hopes, that your looks 
 more probable. Parting^ departing is of course 
 frequent enough. 
 
 The Elder Brother, iii. i. vol. x. p. 235 : — 
 
 ' He 's young, and may be good, yet he must make it ; 
 And I may help, and helpd too, thank him also.' 
 
 ' Old eds.,' says Dyce, 
 
 " He 's young, and may be good, yet he must make it ; 
 And. I may heipe, and helpe to thank him also." 
 
 ' Theobald printed : — 
 
 He's young, and may be good, yet he must make him so, 
 And I may help, a.rxA. for help thank him also" 
 
Conjectural Readings 8 1 
 
 the conjectural emendation of Seward, who 
 observed : " The sense I take to be this : He 's yet 
 too young to be iixed to either good or evil, but 
 he may hereafter make himself good, and I may 
 help to make him so ; and, as I am young, he,- in 
 return, may help to fix me in goodness. The 
 slight reformation I have offered entirely gives 
 this sense." I have adopted (with Weber) the 
 much slighter alteration which ^ was introduced 
 into the text by the editors of 1778.' 
 
 Seward's explanation seems to me a very 
 strained one. Angelina has shown no doubts 
 about herself, no symptom of thinking that she 
 needs to be 'fixed in goodness.' Perhaps we 
 might read : — 
 
 ' And I may help and hope to win thanks also.' 
 
 The Elder Brother, iii. 3. vol. x. p. 242 : — 
 
 ' Eust. Thes^ are but harsh words, uncle. 
 
 Mir. So I mean 'em. 
 
 Sir, you play harsher play wi' your elder brother. 
 
 Eust. I would be loath to give you. 
 
 Mir. Do not venture ; 
 
 I '11 make your wedding- clothes sit closer to you, then. ' 
 
 On the words, ' I would be loath to give you,' 
 Dyce says, ' i.e. harsher play which I would be 
 loath to give you.' 
 
 I believe we should read, ' I would be loatli to 
 grieve you.' 
 
 F 
 
82 The Old Dramatists 
 
 The Elder Brother, v. i. vol. x. p. 286 : — 
 
 ' For your credit, 
 Which you think you have lost, spare Charles, and swinge 
 
 me, 
 And soundly, three or four walking velvet cloaks, 
 That wear no swords to guard 'em, yet deserve it, 
 Thou art made up again.' 
 
 ' Theobald, at Seward's suggestion, printed " that 
 wear swords not to guard 'em." The editors of 
 1778, "That wear not swords to guard" 'em." 
 Seward reads not instead of «o;, because, as he 
 says, Eustace could give no proof of his valour by 
 beating three or four beaux, who had no swords 
 to defend themselves with. But there is little force 
 in this reasoning, as there is as much prowess in 
 swinging [? swingeing] a man who had no sword by 
 his side, as in beating one who dare not draw the 
 sword he had. It appears to me that the old 
 reading is the true one, and that it was the in- 
 tention of the authors to reprobate in this place 
 the fashion which then prevailed amongst the 
 young gentlemen of going without swords, as 
 they did in The Custom of the Country, when 
 Duarte, finding Alonzo armed with a dagger only, 
 insults him in the grossest manner and says : — 
 
 " Such as you are 
 Have studied the undoing of poor cutlers. 
 And made all manly weapons out of fashion ; 
 You carry poniards to murder men. 
 Yet dare not wear a sword to guard your honour.'' 
 
Conjectural Readings 83 
 
 ' To which Rutilio adds : — 
 
 " That 's true, indeed. Upon my life, this gallant 
 Is brib'd to repeal banish' d swords." 
 
 ' And Alonzo afterwards (vol. iv. p. 254) says, — 
 
 " I am paid, 
 For being in the fashion."— MASON (Dyce).' 
 
 Surely all is this very far-fetched. I agree, in- 
 deed, with Mason that the text is sound ; but I put a 
 very different interpretation upon the passage, viz. 
 ' who although they do not, like Charles, go about 
 with swords to guard them (and so give you the 
 same opportunity of proving your valour), yet 
 deserve beating for their silly vanity.' In Mason's 
 explanation the adversative _^^/ is overlooked, and 
 with it we should have had and. 
 
 The Elder Brother, v. 2. vol. x. p. 289 : — 
 ' In what is my love Charles defective, sir ? ' 
 
 The old editions, except the quarto of 165 1, 
 read lord, and so Theobald. Read lov'd, and com- 
 pare Marston, The Fawn, v. i. 213, where con- 
 versely the old editions read ' sole lov'd' instead of 
 ■ sole lord! 
 
 The Nice Valour, ii. i. vol. x. p. 305 : — 
 
 ' You ha' not seen the like, madam ; 
 A monster worth your sixpence, lovely worth.' 
 
 Qy. ' lively worth 't', i.e. thoroughly deserving it ? 
 
84 The Old Dramatists 
 
 The Nice Valour, ii. i. vol. x. p. 314 : — 
 ' For I can cog with you — 
 
 Talk of battalions, woo you in a skirmish ; 
 Divine my mind to you, lady ; and, being sharp set. 
 Can court you at half-pike — or name your weapon. 
 We cannot fail you, lady.' 
 
 With Seward, who gives discharge (adopted by 
 the editors of 1778, and approved by Mason), I 
 believe that a technical term of war is here needed 
 and I would read darraign, i.e. draw out in battle 
 array. The word was of old spelt darraine, 
 darrayne, darr eigne, darreine, derine ; and the 
 last form is very near to divine. The word was 
 moreover used in various figurative senses. Cp. 
 The Mad Lover, i. 2. vol. vi. p. 137 : — 
 
 ' Calis. Mark how he muses. 
 Lucip. H'as a battalia now in's brains ; he draws out.' 
 
 The Nice Valour, v. i. vol. x. p. 358 : — 
 
 ' Away, receptacle 
 Of luxury and dishonour ! most unfortunate 
 To make thyself but lucky to thy spoil. 
 After thy sex's manner.' 
 
 ' Seward,' says Dyce, ' altered " lucky " to 
 " lackey" explaining the line with that alteration 
 to mean : " To make thyself a lackey, servant, or 
 minister of thy own spoil " ; and so the editors of 
 1778. Mason observes that the old text "may 
 mean, You are most unfortunate in every attempt 
 
Conjectural Readings 85 
 
 to redeem yourself, and lucky in more oppor- 
 tunities which conducted you to ruin." " Lackey " 
 suggests to my mind no meaning whatsoever ; 
 and in the kind of explanation the editor gives it, 
 he has entirely overlooked the word "but" before 
 " lucky " which must be attended to.' 
 
 Mason's explanation is possibly the right one, 
 and the oxymorouj ' unfortunate to make thyself 
 lucky,' may be intentional ; but I doubt the 
 phrase ' to make thyself lucky,' and think we 
 should read lusfy, i.e. to deck yourself up for your 
 own ruin. Compare The Humorous Lieutenant, 
 ii. 2 : — 
 
 ' And you shall see us all like sacrifices. 
 In our best trim, fill up the mouth of ruin,' 
 
 a passage borrowed from i. H. iv. iv. i. 113. The 
 confusion of st and ck is not uncommon. 
 
 The Bloody Brother, iii. i. vol. x. p. 413 : — 
 
 ' Who knows not all things holy are prevented 
 With ends of all impiety ? all but 
 Lust, gain, ambition.' 
 
 I think we should read, 
 
 ' With ends of all impiety ? all : but 
 Lust, gain, ambition ' 
 
 all emphasising his statement, and the next 
 sentence being broken off by Rollo's sudden 
 entrance. 
 
86 The Old Dramatists 
 
 The Bloody Brother, iv. i. vol. x. p. 431 : — 
 
 ' Set not forth your leg 
 Of haste, nor put your face of business on ; 
 An honester affair than this I urge to, 
 You will not easily think on ; and 'twill be 
 Reward to entertain it. 'Tis your fortune 
 To have our master's ear above the rest 
 Of us that follow him ; but that no one envies ; 
 For I have well consider' d triith sometimes 
 May be conveyed by the same conduits 
 That falsehood is.' 
 
 Heath {MS. Notes) explains, 'but that con- 
 fidence no one envies you ; for I (and others too) 
 have well considered, that truth,' etc., and Dyce 
 approves the explanation. But we have nothing 
 to indicate the insertion of ' and others too ' ; and 
 even if we had authority for it, there seems to me 
 no just sequence of ideas. I believe that the 
 words ' 'Tis your fortune . . . envies ' are merely 
 parenthethical, that an aposiopesis should be 
 marked after ' entertain it,' and the sense be made 
 to run on with the words 'For I,' etc. 
 
 The Night Walker, iii. 6. vol. xi. p. 175 : — 
 
 ' Ha legs ! what, does her speag hard urds to her, to make 
 poor Guennith' ridicles? was no mannerly sentilman to 
 abuse her.' 
 
 Dyce notes, ' So the folio of 1679 (" Ha leggs "). 
 The 4tos " Haleggs.'' 'See the conclusion of 
 Maria's next speech.' 
 
 This reference is to me the strangest of explana- 
 
Conjectural Readings 87 
 
 tions. Maria there says, ' Yet in her own countries 
 was held a fine ense [wench], her can tell her, and 
 honest ense too, marg you dat now : her can keep 
 her little legs close enough, warrant her ' ; which is 
 nothing more than a confirmation of her assertion 
 that she was an 'honest (i.e. chaste) wench.' I 
 take Haleggs, the reading of the quartos, to be 
 Maria's Welsh for Alack, she pretending that 
 Heartlove had spoken severely to her. All her 
 k's are, Welsh-like, ^s; and in every line she 
 pluralises words, e.g. 'London^,' 'seeze and butterj,' 
 ' alej and bred^,' ' under.? and mazementf,' ' be her 
 defence^,' ' prain panj,' etc., etc. 
 
 JL,ove's Pilgrimage, iii. 2. vol. xi. p. 277 : — 
 
 ' But I shall find her out, with all her witchcrafts, 
 Her paintings and her pouncings : for 'tis art, 
 And only art preserves her, and mere spells 
 That work upon his powers. Let her but show me 
 A ruirid cheek like mine, that holds his colour 
 (And writes but sixteen years) in spite of sorrows. 
 An unbath'd body, smiles that give but shadows. 
 And wrinkle not the face ! ' 
 
 Surely ruin'd cannot be right here; a 'ruin'd 
 cheek' could not be said to 'hold his colour.' 
 Leocadia, it is true, speaks of her sorrows as 
 having somewhat marred her beauty : — 
 
 ' No, sir, I hold my beauty 
 (Wash but these sorrows from it) of a sparkle 
 As right and rich as hers,' 
 
 but in the present speech she is emphasising the 
 
88 The Old Dramatists 
 
 freshness of her beauty in contrast with that of 
 Theodosia. I beheve we should read ruMd, 
 i.e. rubied. 
 
 The Two Noble Kinsmen, i. 4. vol. xi. p. 351 : — 
 
 ' Since I have known fight's fury, friends' behests, 
 Love's provocations, zeal in a mistress' task. 
 Desire of liberty, a fever, madness. 
 Hath set a mark which Nature could not reach to 
 Without some imposition, sickness in will, 
 
 • Or wrestling strength in reason.' 
 
 Littlqdale explains ' which Nature . . . imposi- 
 tion ' as meaning ' which could only be combated 
 by practising some deception.' I cannot believe 
 this to be the sense ; but take it to be that ' fight's 
 fury,' etc., have marked a man in a way that would 
 have been impossible in the natural order of things 
 unless there had been in his case some super- 
 induced cause, such as weakness of will or severe 
 mental struggle. 
 
PEELEi 
 
 The Arraignment of Paris, i. i. 84 : — 
 
 ' Her trailing tresses that hang flaring round, 
 Oi July-flowers so graffed in the ground.' 
 
 Bullen notes : ' Qy. carnations ? Cf. Drayton's 
 Polyolbion, song xv : — 
 
 " The brave carnation then, of sweet and sovereign power 
 (So of his colour called, although a. July flower).^" 
 
 I do not understand the query. July-flower is 
 nothing more than another spelling oigillofer, our 
 modern gilly-flower or carnation. 
 
 The Arraignment of Paris, iii. i. 121 : — 
 
 ' His 'ticing curlfed hair, his front of ivory, 
 Then had not I, poor I, bin unhappy.' 
 
 ' Mr. P. A. Daniel,' says Bullen, ' suggests 
 "poor I unhappy bin," which destroys the last 
 vestige of rhyme.' 
 
 But neither Bullen nor Daniel seems to have 
 noticed that the question is settled beyond dispute 
 by 11. 73, 74, of The Tale of Troy : — 
 
 ' His 'ticing curlfed hair, his front of ivory, 
 The careless nymph had ne'er been so unhappy.' 
 
 ' The references are to Bullen's edition, 2 vols., 1888. 
 
go The Old Dramatists 
 
 Edward I. sc. iii. 39-41 : — 
 
 ' Then, nobles, since you all agree in one. 
 That for a crown so disagree in all, 
 Since what I do shall rest inrevocable, 
 And lovely England, to thy lovely Queen, 
 Lovely Queen Elinor, unto her turn thy eye. 
 Whose honour cannot but love thee well; 
 Hold up your hands in sight, with general voice,- 
 That are content to stand to our award.' 
 
 That lines 39-41 are corrupt was seen by Dyce. 
 Bullen further pointed out that they are misplaced. 
 The scene in question is that in which, after his- 
 coronatidn, Edward gives his decision between 
 the several competitors for the Scottish crown ; 
 and this speech is addressed to them upon Baliol's 
 announcing their agreement to accept his award 
 in the matter. Its drift is entirely arrested by 
 the italicised lines, and the only question is to 
 what place they should be transferred. Now, 
 after Edward has made his award, Elinor, 11. ^- 
 73, thus addresses Baliol : — 
 
 ' Now, brave John Baliol, Lord of Galloway, 
 And King of Scots, shine with thy golden head ; 
 Shake [thou] thy spears, in honour of his name. 
 Under whose royalty thou wear'st the same.' 
 
 Immediately after these lines we have the stage 
 direction, ' Queen Elinor's Speech' a direction 
 altogether unnecessary if that speech followed 
 continuously upon the words just quoted, but 
 necessary if, as I believe, Edward here reciprocates 
 
Conjectural Readings 9 1 
 
 the compliment his Queen has paid him. Elinor 
 calls upon Baliol to do honour to the name of 
 Edward ; Edward, in his turn, calls upon England 
 to do honour to Elinor. I would, then, place 
 11. 39-41 here, emending them as follows : — 
 
 ' And, loyal England, to thy lovely Queen, 
 Lovely Queen Elinor, unto her turn thy eye, 
 Whose honour cannot choose but like thee well,' 
 
 i.e. whom you cannot but be glad to honour. The 
 insertion of choose is Dyce's suggestion. Before 
 becoming aware of it I proposed help; but choose 
 is decidedly better as being more Elizabethan. 
 
 Edward I. sc. iii. 8 1 : — 
 
 ' The welkin, spangled through with golden spots. 
 Reflects no finer on a frosty night 
 Than lovely Longshanks in his Elinor's eye : 
 So, Ned, thy Nell in every part of thee, 
 Thy person's guarded with a troop of Queens, 
 And every Queen as brave as Elinor, 
 Give glory to the glorious crystal quarries. 
 Where every robe an object entertains 
 Of rich device and princely majesty.' 
 
 This (as it stands) very obscure speech by 
 Queen Elinor is addressed to Edward, clad in the 
 suit of glass which she had provided for his 
 coronation ceremony. The lines, 'So, Ned, . . . 
 Elinor,' apparently mean that she is reflected any 
 number of times in the mirror of this suit of glass, 
 and so he seems to be guarded by a troop of 
 queens each as splendidly dressed as herself. 
 
92 The Old Dramatists 
 
 But for robe I believe we should read orbe (orb) 
 = panel, i.e. these glorious crystal squares, every 
 panel of which contains the image of her brave 
 attire. As an archaeological term orb is a blank 
 window or panel ; and the transposition of robe 
 for orbe is made the more likely by the subject 
 being one of dress. 
 
 Edward I. sc. iii. 93 : — 
 
 ' On thee, sweet Ned, it shall become thy Nell 
 Bounteous to be unto the beauteous : 
 Cfer-pry the palms, sweet fountains of my bliss, 
 And I will stand on tiptoe for a kiss.' 
 
 The 'sweet fountains of her 'bliss' are, no 
 doubt, Edward's lips ; a few lines above she 
 says : — 
 
 ' From forth whose coral lips I suck the sweet 
 Wherewith are dainty Cupid's caudles made.' 
 
 But (Jer-pry the palms is absolute nonsense. 
 I would read, O'er breathe your balm : compare 
 Othello, v. 2. 16 : — 
 
 ' Ah, balmy breath, that dost almost persuade 
 Justice to break her sword ' : 
 
 and Greene, Looking-Glass, etc., p. 13 7/1, ed. 
 Dyce : — 
 
 ' Meanwhile my balm shall from thy breath arise.' 
 
 As pry would in Peek's day be written prie, the 
 likeness of breathe to priq the would be consider- 
 
Conjectural Readings 93 
 
 able ; and, the mistake once made, the omission 
 oiydur would naturally follow. 
 
 Edward I. sc. iii. 95 : — 
 
 ' He had no thought of any gentle heart 
 That would not seize desire for such desart.' 
 
 For seise Dyce suggests feel, which does not 
 seem to me at all in keeping with the context. 
 The sense we require is this : He must be utterly 
 wanting in all gentle thought who would not 
 gratify desire for what is so well deserved, i.e. for 
 the kiss Elinor had asked. I think we should 
 read ease, as a verb. The words seize and cease 
 are constantly written for each other in the old 
 dramatists, and if ease had been mistaken for cease, 
 that word might have then been altered to seize. 
 
 Edward I. sc. iii. 107- 114: — 
 
 ' Brother of Scotland, you shall to your home. 
 And live in honour there fair England's friend, — 
 And thou, sweet Nell, Queen of King Edward's heart. 
 Shall now come lesser at thy dainty love. 
 And at coronation meet thy loving peers, 
 When storms are past, and we have cool'd the rage 
 Of these rebellious Welshmen, that contend 
 'Gainst England's majesty and Edward's crown.' 
 
 Surely there is considerable corruption here, 
 though both Dyce and Bullen pass the lines by 
 without comment. For what possible sense can 
 there be in Edward's telling his Queen that she 
 ' shall now come lesser at ' her ' dainty love, when 
 
94 The Old Dramatists 
 
 storms are past,' etc.? What sense in saying that 
 she shall ' at coronation meet ' her ' loving peers,' 
 seeing that the coronation is over, and that she 
 has no peers? To me it seems plain that 1. iii, 
 which as it stands is unmetrical, has been shuffled 
 out of its place, and that there are at least four 
 corruptions. I would read the passage thus : — 
 
 ' Brother of Scotland, you shall to your home. 
 At coronation meet your loving peers. 
 And live in honour there fair England's friend. 
 And thou, sweet Nell, Queen of King Edward's heart, 
 Shalt not come lesser at thy dainty love 
 When storms are past,' etc. 
 
 In scene ix. 1-3, Baliol's coronation is spoken of 
 as having taken place, and he is there with his 
 peers :— 
 
 Baliol. Lords of Albania, and my peers in France, 
 Since Baliol is invested in his rights. 
 And wears the royal Scottish diadem,' etc. 
 
 The words 'come lesser,' 1. no, are perhaps 
 suspicious, though capable of interpretation, 
 
 Edward I. sc. vii. 91, 92 : — 
 
 ' It is enough yisz/e change his glittering robes 
 To see Mnemosyne and the flies' 
 
 'The text,' says Bullen, 'is horribly corrupt. 
 Mnemosyne was the mother of the Muses by 
 Jupiter (see ApoUodorus). Is it possible that 
 Peele wrote — 
 
 " To woo the mother of the Muses nine " ; 
 
Conjectural Readings 95 
 
 and that the word "Mnemosyne" is a marginal 
 note imported into the text? A proper name 
 may perhaps be concealed under "the flies." 
 Mitford proposed : — 
 
 " It is enough. Jove changes glittering robes 
 And then he' flies to see Mnemosyne." ' 
 
 Neither of these conjectures seems to me to be, 
 at all in keeping with the context. For the last 
 twenty lines or so Mortimer has been considering 
 his chances of winning Elinor away from Lluellen, 
 and in the latter ten of these twenty he comforts 
 himself with the assurance that gold and eloquence 
 and ease are temptations sufficient to purchase 
 any woman's love, and to lure her from her lover 
 if in desperate case, as Lluellen is. What has 
 Jove to do in such a matter? That word and 
 Love are frequently misprinted for each other, and 
 I feel sure that this has happened here. I would 
 therefore read : — 
 
 ' It is enough Love change his glittering robes 
 To scare Mnemosyne, and then she flies.' 
 
 i.e. the change from prosperity to adversity is 
 enough in matters of love to' scare away all 
 memory of what has been, to blow to the winds 
 all former vows of constancy : an expectation 
 which earlier in the scene Elitior has falsified by 
 declaring that no change of fortune shall ever 
 induce her to forsake Lluellen. 
 
96 The Old Dramatists 
 
 Edward I. sc. x. 85-90 : — 
 
 ' Lancaster. I had forgot to ask your majesty, 
 How do you with the abbeys here in Wales ? 
 Longsh. As kings with rebels, Mun ; our right prevails. 
 We have good Robin Hood and Little John, 
 The Friar and the good Maid Marian : 
 Why our Lluellen is a mighty man.' 
 
 The whole passage seems to me corrupt ; 
 though, except that Bullen questions abbeys, it is 
 passed over by the -editors. Robin Hood, Little 
 John, Friar Tuck, and Maid Marian are the names 
 assumed by Lluellen, Rice, Friar David, and Eli- 
 nor, while wandering in the forest ; and as yet 
 Edward has not been able to come upon them. I 
 would read : — 
 
 ' Lancaster. I had forgot to ask your majesty 
 
 How do you with the rabble here in Wales ? 
 
 Longsh. As kings with rebels, Mun ; our right prevails. 
 
 Why, tho^ Luellen is a mighty man, 
 
 WsV/have good Robin Hood and Little John, 
 
 The Friar, and theya;/> Maid Marian.' 
 
 Just below we have ' Robin's rabble^ and in 
 sc. xii. 71, ' Robin and his rabble! 
 
 Edward I. sc. xi. 1-8 : — 
 
 '■Enter [Jack] the Novice and his company to give the 
 Queen music at her tent. 
 
 Jack. Come, fellows, cast yourselves even round in a 
 string — a ring I would say ; come, merrily on my word, for 
 
Conjectural Readings 97 
 
 the Queen is most liberal, and if you please her well, she 
 will pay you royally ; so, lawful to brave well thy British 
 lustily to solace our good Queen; God save her grace, and 
 give our young prince a carpell in their kind! Come on, 
 come on, set your crowds, and beat your heads together, 
 and behave you handsomely. 
 
 [Here they sing and then exeunt. 
 
 Of the words ' so, lawful . . . kind ! ' Dyce re- 
 marks, ' Of this I can make nothing satisfactory.' 
 Bullen contents himself with suggesting brawl for 
 brave. 
 
 I would read, ' Sol, la, mi, fa ! to't ! raise your 
 British voices lustily to solace our good Queen, 
 God save her grace, and give our young prince 
 a carol in their kind ! ' In solace I take it there 
 is a pun on sol, la ; and my conjecture here re- 
 ceives support from a stage direction in TAe 
 Arraignment of Paris, after L 124 of Act v.: 
 'The music soundeth, and the Nymphs within 
 sing or solfa with voices and' instruments awhile,' 
 the instruments here being their 'crowds,' i.e. 
 fiddles. The word well, in L 4, I believe, to have 
 been caught from ' please' her weW As to carpell, 
 though Murray, English Dictionary, gives carpell, 
 S.v. carpel, i.e. ' one of the divisions or cells of the 
 compounded pistil or fruit,' I feel convinced that 
 the word is nothing more than a misprint . of 
 carrell, one of the many forms in the sixteenth 
 century of the modern carol. For ' in their kind,' 
 = as befits such personages, cf. sc. i. 173 : ' There, 
 G 
 
98 The Old Dramatists 
 
 my lord ; neither one, two, nor three, but a poor 
 cipher in agrum to enrich good fellows, and com- 
 pound their figure in their kind! 
 
 Edward I. sc. xii. 155 : — 
 
 ' I must lop his longshanks, 'fore I '11 ear to a pair of long- 
 shanks.' 
 
 The words are, spoken by Lluellen before en- 
 gaging in combat with Edward (Longshanks) ; 
 and ear is evidently corrupt. Brinsley Nicholson 
 proposes lower. I would read carve, in the sense 
 of do homage to, show deference to. For the 
 word in this sense, cp. Beaumont's Remedy of Love, 
 Beaumont and Fletcher's works, ed. Dyce, vol. xi. 
 p. 483 :— 
 
 * Salute him friendly, give him gentle words, 
 Return all courtesies that he affords ; 
 Drink to him, carve him, give him compliment ' : 
 
 and see Dyce, Glossary to Shakespeare, s.v. Here 
 I believe Lluellen is playing upon the words lop 
 and carve. 
 
 Edward I. sc. xviii. 8 : — 
 
 ' And now since, like one of Mars his froBen knights, I 
 must hang up my weapon upon this tree,' etc' 
 
 ' " Qy- chosen" says the editor of Dodsley's 
 O. P.? But perhaps Peele alludes to some in- 
 cident in some romance." — Dyce. There may be 
 an allusion to the gladiators' custom of hanging 
 up their weapons, when they retired from their 
 
Conjectural Readings 99 
 
 profession, as a votive offering to the patron 
 deity. " Frozen "= numbed with age ' (Bullen). 
 
 There is no doubt an allusion to the hanging 
 up of arms in this way ; but the custom was not 
 peculiar to gladiators. Knights in the Middle 
 Ages frequently hung up their arms in churches, 
 cathedrals, etc., when their career was run (cf. e.g, 
 Archas, in The Loyal Subject, and the conspirators 
 in The White Devil, who pretend to do so) ; and 
 here I would read proven for frozen, a term fre- 
 quently applied to knights of established reputa- 
 tion. 
 
 Edward I. sc. xxv. 9 : — 
 
 ' Queen Elinor. Ah, Joan, I perish through a double war. 
 First in this painful prison of my soul, 
 A world of dreadful sins hglp thee to fight. 
 And nature having lost her working power, 
 Yields up her earthly fortunes unto death. 
 Next of a war my soul is over-preased, 
 In that my conscience loaded with mis deeds, 
 Sits seeing my confusion to ensue. 
 Without especial favour from above.' 
 
 For help thee Collier gives holp here; Dyce, 
 holp there ; while Bullen suggests hale me : none 
 of them,- in my opinion, satisfactory-emendations. 
 Moreover, none of the commentators notices sins, 
 which I feel sure is corrupt. Elinor is speaking 
 of a double warfare, that going on in her body, 
 ' this painful prison of my soul ' (as Bullen notices, 
 and for which we niay compare King John, iii. 4, 
 
lOo The Old Dramatists 
 
 17-19), and that going on in her soul. What 
 then, in the former of these conflicts can sins have 
 to do ? I would read • — 
 
 ' A world of dreadful yj>« bold them to fight.' 
 
 ' Nature,' as she goes on to say, ' having lost her 
 working power,' can no longer struggle against 
 these foes, but gives up the fight and dies. 
 For the verb bold, here used reflexively, compare 
 Lear, v. i. 27, ' It toucheth us, as France invades 
 our land. Not holds the King.' In All's Well, 
 iii. 2. 93, we have, 
 
 ' This fellow has a deal of that too much 
 Which holds him much to have,' 
 
 and there Addis and Jervis both conjecture holds, 
 — a conjecture I myself had made many years 
 before it appeared in The Cambridge Shakespeare. 
 For a struggle similar to that of Elinor, compare 
 Julius Cmsar, ii. i. 67-69, though there the struggle 
 is of the powers of the soul. 
 
 Edward I. sc. xxv. 18: — 
 
 ' Subdue your fever ^yj precious art, 
 And help you still through hope of heavenly aid.' 
 
 For precious, Bullen queries religious or religion's. 
 But Joan is referring to the two different kinds of 
 suffering of which Elinor has just complained, her 
 physical and her moral malady. I would there- 
 fore read ^physician's art' In the Merry Wives 
 
Conjectural Readings i o i 
 
 of Windsor, ii. i. 5, all the old editions h&ve pre- 
 cisians where physicians is now generally read. 
 
 Edward I. sc. xxv. 29 : — 
 
 ' So thou, poor soul, may tell a servile tale, 
 May counsel me ; but I that prove the pain 
 May hear thee talk but not redress my harm.' 
 
 For servile, Bullen proposes suasive or soothing. 
 I would read civil, i.e. decorously comforting, 
 platitudinous. 
 
 Edward I. sc. xxv. 70 : — 
 
 ' Whose love coniparfed with my loose delights, 
 With many sorrows that my soul affrights.' 
 
 As Dyce says, ' the couplet, as it now stands, is 
 nonsense.' Qy. ' with many sorrows black', etc. ? 
 
 Edward I. sc. xxv. 113: — 
 
 ' Pyropus' hsxAtridi flames did ne'er reflect 
 More hideous flames than from my breast arise.' 
 
 Here 'hardened flames' may mean substance 
 looking like concreted flames. The pyrope was 
 both a precious stone (a kind of garnet), and also 
 a metallic composition, gold-bronze, made by 
 adding six scruples of gold, or one quarter, to the 
 ounce of copper (see Munro on Lucretius, ii. 803) ; 
 and here as the passage is clearly an allusion to 
 Ovid, Met. ii. 2, Clara micante auro, flammasque- 
 imitante pyropo, the metallic composition seems 
 to be intended. But I am inclined to read 
 
I02 The Old Dramdtist& 
 
 ' harden'd veins,' ' flames ' being , caught from the 
 line below. 
 
 Edward I. sc. xxv. ii8, 120: — 
 
 ' O, that those eyes that lighten'd Ctzsar's bmin, 
 O, that those looks that master'd Phoebus brand, 
 Or else those looks that stain Medusa's far, 
 Should shrine deceit, desire, and lawless lust.' 
 
 ■ Medusa's is Collier's certain correction of 
 Melisaes, but looks' s\io\i\& undoubtedly be changed 
 to locks, for it was by her golden hair that Medusa 
 captivated Neptune ; and the mistake here is due 
 to looks in the previous line. Dyce (queries , this, 
 and quotes from The Arraignment of Paris, i. 2. 
 24:— 
 / ' How Phqrcys wife, th'at was so trick and fair, 
 That tangled Neptune in her golden hair' : 
 
 a passage that escaped me When these conjectural 
 readings were first published. For Ccesar's brain 
 I should like to read Cere^ brow, supposing brain 
 to be caught from brand in the next line. The 
 three similes will then be all taken from mytho- 
 logy. A friend suggests that Peele was thinking 
 of the vegeti oculi ascribed to Csesar by Suetonius : 
 but would the poet liken Elinor's eyes to those of 
 a man, however lively they might be ? 
 
 Edward /. sc. xxv. 1S2 : — 
 
 'Ayi but when ladies list to tun "k'stray, 
 The poor supposed father wears the horn, - ' 
 Aijd fleaUng leave their liege in princes' laps.'- . ^' 
 
Conjectural Readings 1 6 j 
 
 ' Mitford,' says Bullen, ' proposed : — 
 
 " Ay, but when ladies list to run astray, 
 And leave their plighted liege in princes' laps. 
 The poor supposed father wears the horn." 
 
 But the text would still be wretchedly unin- 
 telligible. The transposition of lines 181-2 is, 
 I think, right. For "pleating" I would read 
 " fleeting " ; but the rest of the verse is unmanage- 
 able. Qy. " and fleeting leave their liege lord's 
 princely bed ? " (Very unsatisfactory).' : 
 
 Accepting Mitford's transposition and Bullen's; 
 z<ya]^c\.VLX& fleeting, I would read -.-^ 
 
 ' KnA fleeting leave their siege in prinees' laps,' 
 
 the word siege being used, as it frequently is, for 
 seat, place, position ; with perhaps an allusion to 
 the term as technically applied to a heron who,' 
 when disturbed while watching for her prey, is 
 said to be put from her siege. • ■ 
 
 Edward I. sc. xxv. 269 : — 
 
 ' Pale death, alas, hath banished all thy pride. 
 Thy wedlock-vows.' 
 
 Qy. ' all thy pride Of wedlock-vows,' Thy being 
 caught from the next line, ' Thy eyes, thy looks, 
 thy lips,' etc. ? 
 
 The Battle of Alcazar, i. (The Presenter's 
 Address), 21 : — ^ 
 
 ' Like those that were by kind of murder mumdi 
 Sit down and see what heinous stratagems 
 
I04 The Old Dramatists 
 
 These damned wits contrive ; and lo, alas, 
 How like poor lambs prepared for sacrifice, 
 This traitor-king hales to their longest home 
 These tender lords, his younger brethren both.' 
 
 For mumd Daniel conjectures numb'd, and, in- 
 fluenced, I suppose, by this suggestion, Bullen 
 for down in the next line queries dumb ; while, 
 rightly feeling the awkwardness of kind in such 
 a context, he queries sight for that word. 
 
 But, with all these alterations, I fail to find any 
 sense in the passage ; nor do I see why the Pre- 
 senter should prescribe to the audience how they 
 were to sit. On the other hand, I do understand 
 why, when the murder of the boys is to be per- 
 formed on the stage, the Presenter should apolo- 
 gise for such violation of the Horatian precept ; 
 and I would read, 
 
 ' Ze/ those that are by kind of murder^«^, 
 Sit down,' etc. : 
 
 i.e. let those who are by nature fond of witnessing 
 murderous spectacles, sit, etc. 
 
 The Battle of Alcazar, i. 2, 38, 39 : — 
 
 '• The Bassa grossly flatter' d to his face. 
 And AinuratKs praise advanced above the clouds ; 
 Upon the plains the soldiers being spread. 
 And that great guard of sturdy janizaries 
 That Amurath to Abdelmelec gave, 
 And bade him boldly be with them as safe 
 As if he slept within a wallfed town ; 
 Who take them to their weapons, threatening revenge 
 Bloody revenge, bloody revengeful war.' 
 
Conjectural Readings 105 
 
 The two first lines should come at the end of the 
 speech, with a comma only after war. Without 
 this transposition the passage has neither sense 
 nor grammatical construction ; and the Moor's 
 answer plainly shows the necessity. 
 
 The Battle of Alcazar , i. 2. 54 : — 
 
 'Sith they begin to bathe [their swords] in blood, 
 Blood be the theme whereon our time shall tread! 
 
 ' This line,' says Bullen, ' is very corrupt.' Qy. 
 " Blood be the theme whereof our stile shall treat!' ? 
 The emendation would give a grimly jocular turn 
 to the line. The' " stile " (Lat. stilus) would be 
 cold steel.' 
 
 , A much simpler alteration would be read for 
 tread, a word which may have been due to the 
 -on in whereon. 
 
 The Battle of Alcazar, ii. 4. 19 : — 
 
 ' These lines, my lord, writ in extremity, 
 Contain therefore but during fortune's date.' 
 
 ' There must,' says Bullen, ' be some corruption 
 here. Qy. " Contain their force but," etc' I see 
 no need of emendation, for contain was of old 
 sometimes used for continue, endure. 
 
 The Battle of Alcazar, ii. 4. 120, 121 : — 
 
 ' Both nature, time, and fortune all agree 
 To bless and serve her royal majesty. 
 The wallowing ocean hems her round about ; 
 Whose raging floods do swallow up her foes 
 
io6 The Old Dramatists 
 
 And on the rocks their ships in pieces split, 
 And even in Spain, where all the traitors dance 
 And play themselves upon a sunny day, 
 Securely guard the west part of her isle.' 
 
 The passage .is part of a long panegyric of 
 Elizabeth and England, spoken by King Sebas- 
 tian of Portugal. Biillen thus annotates : ' Dyce 
 makes no comment here ; but it is plain that this 
 line and the next are hideously corrupt. We 
 should, put a full stop after " split " (1. 1 19) ; and 
 some reckless emendator might then propose :— 
 
 . « -j-jji Atlantic main, where gayly dolphins dance 
 And 'joy themselves upon the sunny wave, 
 Securely guards," etc. 
 
 Very far from the original ; but the original is 
 nonsense.' ' 
 
 •Reckless indefed ! I think in the first place 
 that there is a clear allusion to the defeat of the 
 Spanish Armada, 1588, an allusion that would be 
 apt enough in a play published in 1594, and 
 probably, according to Dyce, in existence as early 
 as February 1 591-2. There is^ I believe, the same 
 allusion in Cymbeline, iii. i. 26-29, though the 
 Queen is there speaking of Caesar's invasion : — 
 
 '. . . his shipping — 
 Poor ignorant baubles !— on our terrible seas, 
 , Like egg-shells moved upon their surges, crack'd 
 As easily 'gainst our rocks.' 
 
 In the second place, I believe that the corruption 
 
Conjectural Readings 107 
 
 is not so much in the words of 11. 120, 121, as in 
 the omission of a line after split, and of another, 
 such as I have suggested in order to' show the 
 construction, after 1. 121. I propose to substitute 
 there for where, tritons for traitors, and splay for 
 play : the lines would then run : — 
 
 ' Whose raging floods do swallow up her foes, 
 And on the rocks their ships in pieces split, 
 
 And even in Spain : there all the tritons dance 
 And splay themselve? upon a sunny dayj 
 [The tutelary deities that froin harm] -. .^ 
 Securely guard the west p'ai-t of her isJeV 
 
 With the words 'there all . . . day' we may 
 compare Antany and Cleopatra, v.- 8. 88-90 :^" 
 
 '. . . his delights 
 Were dolphin-like ; they show'd his back above 
 The element they lived in ' : 
 
 and Friar Bacon and Friar Bungay', sc'.' viii. 57- 
 59:— 
 
 ' Like Thetis shalt thou wanton on the waves. 
 And draw the dolphins to thy lovely eyes, 
 To dance lavoltas iil the purple streams': 
 
 and, as in the following lines of the * passage; 
 Neptune and Venus are spoken of as frequenting, 
 and. throwing their protection over, the seas to 
 the south and east of England, we need some 
 deities like the tritons to do the same office for 
 the west. For i^/i^;'==display, compare Gascoigne's 
 Works (quoted, by Nares), ' Let bring his banners 
 
io8 The Old Dramatists 
 
 splaidel and again, ' Our ensigns splayde! So, too, 
 Hickscorner, 1. 19, 'Splayed on a crow.' Possibly 
 the mention of the tritons and Neptune is a 
 reminiscence of Vergil ^n. v. 817, etc.; Venus 
 of course being given her part as having risen 
 from the sea. 
 
 The Battle of Alcazar, v. i. 9-1 1 :— 
 
 ' My lord, when with our ordnance fierce we sent 
 Our Moors with smaller shot, as thick as hail 
 FoUtjws apace, to charge the Portugal ; 
 The valiant Duke, the devil of Avero, . . . 
 Breaks through the ranks, and,' etc. 
 
 ' The text,' says Bullen, ' is corrupt. I suggest 
 the following emendation :— 
 
 " My lord, when -we our ordnance force had spent. 
 Our Moors with smaller shot, as thick as hail, 
 Follows \i.e. follow] apace." ' 
 
 The emendation is a taking one ; but there is 
 this objection to it, that we lose the connection 
 with the lines immediately following. Possibly 
 with a comma only after 'Portugal,' the sense 
 may be, ' When together with our heavy artillery, 
 with which we plied them, we sent our Moors 
 with shot, poured forth with the rapidity of hail, 
 to charge,' etc. The word ' charge ' is not neces- 
 sarily used here in the commoner sense of rushing 
 upon the enemy with sword, bayonet, etc., but 
 may mean merely to attack, assail. 
 
Conjectural Readings 109 
 
 The Battle of Alcazar, v, i, 37 : — 
 
 ' His honours and his types he hath resign'd.' 
 Here and in I. 211, 
 ' With all allegiance and with honour's types I 
 
 I am inclined to read styles: in both cases, it 
 may be noticed, the word follows one ending in s. 
 
 The Battle of Alcazar, v. i. 252 : — 
 
 ' His skin we will be parted from his flesh, 
 And being stiflfenfed and stuffd with straw. 
 So to deter and fear the lookers-on 
 From any such foul fact or bad attempt.' 
 
 'After these words \i.e. "stufPd with straw"], a 
 line,' says Dyce (about the stuffed skin being set 
 up in some conspicuous place) is certainly wanting.' 
 
 I rather doubt this, and think that if we 
 substitute ^^for and,'vc\. 1. 252, we shall get the 
 idea of the scarecrow being set up. 
 
 David and Bethsabe, sc. i. 6^ : — 
 
 ' Bright Bethsabe gives earth to my desires, 
 Verdure to earth, and to that verdure flowers.' 
 
 ' This word,' says Bullen, ' is suspicious ; but 
 Collier's correction "birth" is not happy.' The 
 word is not merely 'suspicious,' but manifestly 
 corrupt. I would read warmth. 
 
 David and Bethsabe, sc. i. 85 : — 
 
 ' My lord the king, elect to God's own heart 
 Should not His gracious jealousy incense 
 Whose thoughts are chaste : I hate incontinence.' 
 
no The Old Dramatists 
 
 ' Daniel,' says Bullen, ' suggests and for /' : 
 rather, I think, ay, which was of old so often 
 written /; with a comma only after 'chaste.' 
 
 David and Bethsabe, sc. i. io6, 115 : — 
 
 ' David. Welcome, fair Bethsabe, King David's darling. 
 Thy bonei fair covering, erst discovered TazV, 
 And all mine eyes with all thy beauties pierced. 
 As heaven's bright eye burns most when most he climbs 
 The crooked zodiac with his 'fiery sphere, 
 And shineth furthest from his earthly globe ; 
 So since thy beauty scorch'd my conquered soul, 
 I called thee nearer for my nearer cure. 
 Beth. Too near, my lord, was your unarmed hfeart 
 When furthest off my hapless beauty pierced ; 
 And would this dreary day had turned to night, 
 Or that some pitchy cloud had cloaked the sun. 
 Before their lights had caused my lord to see 
 His name disparaged and my chastity.' 
 
 On 1. 107 Bullen remarks, ' By reading " En- 
 thrall'd mine eyes," we could make some sense of 
 this corrupt passage.' 
 
 I believe the corruption is not here, but in the 
 previous line. David's simile is in effect this : 
 ' As the sun's rays scorch most fiercely when he is 
 furthest from the earth, so, when formerly you 
 were far from me, the beams of your beauty most 
 scorched my heart ; and therefore I summoned 
 you to me in the hope that, when near me, your 
 beauty would less inflame me.' To this simile I 
 see no pertinence in the words ' Thy bones' fair 
 
Conjectural Readings 1 1 1 
 
 covering, erst discovered fair ' ; nor can I believe 
 that Peele, even in his most turgid, mood, would 
 speak of her ' bones' fair covering ' as ' piercing ' 
 the eye. I would read, 
 
 ' Thy beams far hovering erst discovered ^r« ' ; 
 
 putting a comma only after ' pierced ' : fair, 
 I imagine, was caught from the line above, 
 and the copyist ingeniously found a play of 
 words in ' covering ' and ' discovered.' For 
 dreary, 1. 115, Bullen suggests garish; I should 
 prefer fiery, a reference to David's words. Com- 
 pare also, for the whole passage, Bethsabe's words, 
 11. 7-10 : — 
 
 ' Let not my beauty's fire 
 Inflame unstaid desire, 
 '^ox pierce any bright eye, 
 That wandereth lightly : ' 
 
 and those of David 11. 26-27 : — 
 
 ' What tunes, what words, what looks, what wonders pierce 
 My soul incensed with a sudden yfr^.' 
 
 David and Bethsabe, sc. iii. 95 : — 
 
 ' To figure Amnon's resting cruelty, 
 And tragic spoil of Tamar's chastity.' 
 
 Bullen notes, ' There seems to be some corrup- 
 tion here ; but "resting" maybe used in the sense 
 of lasting. (Qy. " wresting " .?).' 
 
 I would read resty, i.e. rank. Cotgrave gives 
 
112 The Old Dramatists 
 
 ^ Rand: Musty, fusty, reasie, resty, tainted, , . . 
 putrified . . . stinking, unsavoury, ill-smelling': 
 'Relant: Musty, fusty, resty, reasie, dankish, un- 
 savoury ' : and Minsheu : ' Resty, rank.' . 
 
 David and Bethsabe, sc. iii. 1 37 : — 
 
 ' Smite, David, deadlier than the voice of heaven. 
 And let hate's fire be kindled in thy heart : , 
 Frame in the arches of thy angry brows. 
 Making thy forehead, hke a comet, shine. 
 To force false Amnon tremble at thy looks.' 
 
 Read, without doubt : — 
 
 * And let hate's fire, be-kindled in thy heart, 
 Flame in the arches of thy angry brows,' etc. 
 
 What sense the editors may have found in 
 framing in the sockets of the eyes, I am quite 
 unable to guess. 
 
 David and Bethsabe, sc. v. 26 : — 
 
 ' There came a stranger to this wealthy man ; 
 And he refused and spared to take his own ; 
 Or of his store to dress and make him meat. 
 But took the poor man's sheep, partly, poor man's store. 
 And dressed it for this stranger in his house.' 
 
 Bullen remarks ' The text is hopelessly corrupt.' 
 Not ' hopelessly,' I think. I would read : — 
 
 ' But took the poor man's sheep, pardy, the poor man's 
 store ' : 
 
 ?,e. the poor man's sheep, or, by God, I might 
 
Conjectural Readings 1 1 3 
 
 say the poor man's whole store, for this ewe lamb 
 was all he had. Peele is fond of this oath, ' pardy ' 
 or ' perdy,' 
 
 David and Bethsabe, sc. viii. 106 : — 
 
 ' O thou, that hold'st his raging bloody bound 
 Within the circle of the silver moon, 
 That girds earth's centre with his watery scarf, 
 Limit the counsel of Achitophel.' 
 
 Bullen remarks, 'Very corrupt. Qy. "sea's 
 ranging body bound " ? That raging is a misprint 
 for ranging I am convinced ; but the rest is dark.' 
 Read:— 
 
 ' O thou, that hold'st his r&gaigjiood y-bound' : 
 
 with the sense, ' O thou, that boldest bound within 
 the circle of the silver moon the raging flood of 
 him that girds,' etc., or, in plain prose, ' O thou, 
 that by the moon's influence controllest the tides,' 
 etc. Compare T^ie Battle of Alcazar, iii. 4. 118 : — 
 
 ' Whose ra^ng floods do swallow up her foes.' 
 
 As y-bound here, so in The Tale of Troy Peele 
 writes y-clypped, y-blinded; in An Eclogue Gratu- 
 latory, y-bom, y-comen ; in Polyhymnia, y-clad. 
 
 David and Bethsabe, sc. xi. 13 : — 
 
 ' Making huge floods upon the land I leave 
 To ravish them and all their fairest fruits.' 
 
 Bullen says that by them are to be understood 
 H 
 
114 The Old Dramatists 
 
 Achitophel's countrymen. Surely not; the word 
 refers to land, which it is hardly necessary to 
 pluralise. So, in the next couplet, he prays that 
 his sighs may hang upon ' his hedges like eternal 
 mists.' 
 
 Sir Clyomon and Sir Clamydes, sc. xi. 96 : — 
 ' If your grace, O noble dame, will so accept of me.' 
 
 Qy. ' If that your grace,' etc., or is your a dis- 
 syllable ? 
 
 The Praise of Chastity, 43 : — 
 
 ' Believe me, to contend 'gainst armies royal, 
 
 To tame wild panthers but by strength of hand. 
 To praise the triumph, not so special. 
 As 'ticing pleasure's charms for to withstand.' 
 
 ' Unintelligible,' says BuUen. ' Q^y. " raise " ? ' 
 This hardly mends matters, I think. The whole 
 poem is on the praise due to chastity, and the 
 essence of a real triumph, I would read : — 
 
 ' To praise ^triumph 's not so special : ' 
 
 i.e. has no such special claim to the praise of having 
 triumphed. Compare the immediately following 
 stanzas : — 
 
 ' And, for me list compare with men of war. 
 For honour of the field, I dare maintain. 
 This victory exceedeth that as far 
 As Phoebus' chariot Vulcan's forge doth stain. 
 
Conjectural Readings 1 1 5 
 
 Both noble, and triumphant in their kinds, 
 And matter worthy Queen Remembrance' pen ; 
 
 But that that tangles both our thoughts and minds. 
 To master that, is mx)re than over men 
 
 To make thy triumph.^ 
 
 Also the opening stanzas of the poem. 
 
MARLOWE 1 
 
 I. Tamburlaine,v. i. 117: — 
 
 ' Techelles, straight go charge a few of them 
 To charge these dames, and show my servant, death.' 
 
 I would read take : charge being caught from 
 the previous line. Immediately afterwards Tam- 
 burlaine says : — 
 
 ' Away with them, I say, and show them death,' 
 
 and the stage direction to the line is The Virgins 
 are taken out. 
 
 I. Tamburlaine,v, i. 183-187: — 
 
 ' I thus conceiving and subduing both 
 That which hath stoopt the chief est of the gods 
 Even from the fiery-spangled veil of Heaven, 
 To feel the lowly warmth of shepherd's flames. 
 And mask in cottages of strowed reeds' 
 
 ' The 8vo,' says Bullen, ' reads : — 
 
 " That which hath stopt the tempest of the gods . . . 
 
 And martch in cottages of strowed weeds'' 
 
 'The quarto makes matters worse by reading 
 march in coatches. Broughton suggested stoopt for 
 ' The references are to BuUen's edition, 3 vols. 1885. 
 
Conjectural Readings 117 
 
 stopt and mask for martch^ but left Ufnpest. . . .' 
 The other alterations are Dyce's. 
 I would read : — 
 
 ' That which hath stoopt the topmost of the gods . . . 
 
 And mask in cottages oi straivid weeds.'' 
 
 It seems to me impossible that chiefest could 
 ever have been corrupted into tempest ; whereas if 
 in topmost the p and m were transposed, we should 
 at once have tempest, e arid being so constantly 
 confused. It Is true that topmost as applied to 
 Jove would be a rather unusual epithet ; but, the 
 metaphor being taken from hawking, that epithet 
 would not be inappropriate to the quarry that was 
 soaring highest in the air. To strawed weeds= 
 thatch, I can see no objection ; compare As You 
 Like It, iii. 3. 11, 'worse than Jove in a thatch'd 
 house ' ; and Marlowe's translation of Ovid's 
 Elegies, ii. 9. 18 : — 
 
 ' With strawy cabins now her court should build.' 
 
 In 1. 183 I am inclined to suspect both, for it 
 can there only mean ' moreover,' and in such a 
 sense the position of the word is very strange. 
 
 I. Tamburlaine,v. i. 236: — 
 
 'And then shall we in this detested guise, 
 With shame, with hunger, and with horror stay. 
 Griping our bowels with retorqufed thoughts 
 And have no hope to end our ecstasies.' 
 
ii8 The Old Dramatists 
 
 For stay the 8vo givee aie ; the 4to aye. I 
 think we should read vie, i.e. contend against. 
 See note on The Wild-Goose Chase, i. i., p. 72 
 above. 
 
 11. Tamburlaine, i. 3. 147 :■ — 
 
 ' . . . as if infernal Jove 
 
 Should pierce the black circumference of hell 
 With ugly Furies bearing fiery flags, 
 And millions of his strong tormenting spirits. 
 From strong Tesella unto Biledull 
 All Barbary is unpeopled for my sake.' 
 
 Dyce suspects strong in ' strong tormenting ' 
 (which, by the way, I would write 'strong-tor- 
 menting '). Rather, I think, the latter strong has 
 been caught from the former, and I would read 
 ' From far Tesella.' 
 
 II. Tamburlaine, iii. 2. 99 : — 
 
 ' Hast thou beheld a peal of ordnance strike 
 A ring of pikes, mingled with shot and horse.' 
 
 Dyce conjectured y^o^ for shot, though admitting 
 that ' a ring of pikes ' is the same as ' foot." 
 Mitford would read : — 
 
 ' A ring of pikes and horse, mangled with shot.' 
 
 But mangled is discredited by the very next 
 words, ' whose shatter'd limbs,' etc. I believe that 
 shot is sound. The word was of old used for 
 soldiers armed with guns, as contrasted with pike- 
 
Conjectural Readings 1 1 9 
 
 men, and also for horse-soldiers, as in Peele's 
 Battle of Alcazar, iv. i. 57 : — 
 
 ' Hamet, my brother, with a thousand shot 
 On horseback.' 
 
 So, in i. H. vi. i. 4. 53, ' a guard of chosen shot^ 
 
 II. Tamburlaine, v. 3. 188 : — 
 
 ' If not resolved into resolved pains.' 
 
 The latter resolved cannot, I think, be right, but 
 must have been caught from the former. Amyras 
 shortly afterwards prays heaven to send his soul 
 the 'burning agony' from which his father is 
 suffering, and some such word as ' burning ' or 
 'torturing' is wanted here, the final syllable of 
 resolved being accented. 
 
 II. Tamburlaine, v. 3. 199 : — 
 
 ' Leading a life that only strives to die, 
 PLXiii plead m vain unpleasing sovereignty.' 
 
 The word plead makes no sense. Bullen 
 suspects that the true reading is pleased. But 
 this gives no construction to the words ' unpleasing 
 sovereignty.' I would read wield, supposing plead 
 to be due to leading in the line above. 
 
 Faustus, Chorus, 1. 2.: — 
 
 ' Where Mars did mate the Carthaginians.' 
 
 For wa/^ = associate with, compare The Winter's 
 Tale, i. 2. 142 : — 
 
 ' With what 's unreal thou coactive art, 
 h.-ad/elloii/st nothing.' 
 
I20 The Old Dramatists 
 
 It seems to me rather a gratuitous assumption 
 to suppose with Ward and Bullen that Marlowe 
 had forgotten that the Carthaginians were vic- 
 torious ; though of course mate in the sense of 
 ' defeat,' ' confound,' is common enough. 
 
 The Jew of Malta, i. 1.4: — 
 
 ' As for those Samintes, and the men of Uz, 
 That bought my Spanish oils and wines of Greece, 
 Here have I purst their paltry silverlings.' 
 
 For Samintes modern editors read Santnites. 
 Bullen gives Sabans, and remarks: 'Between 
 " Samnites " and the " men of Uz " there can be 
 no possible connection. My emendation suits the 
 context, We have Saba for Sabaea in Faustus, 
 xii. 25, etc' But surely Sabans is a very violent 
 change, and there seems no other justification for 
 it than the fact that the Sabseans are mentioned, 
 Job, i. 15, as falling upon Job's herds. I would 
 read Samarites. The enmity between the Jews 
 and Samaritans would account for the scornful 
 tone of Barabas's words ; and as Uz, so far as its 
 position has been ascertained, lay either east or 
 south-east of Palestine, there would be nothing 
 strange in its being associated by Marlowe with 
 Samaria. 
 
 The Jew of Malta, i. 2. 383 : — 
 
 ' Though countermined with walls of brass.' 
 
 Both here and in v. 3. 3, ' Strong-countenm'ned 
 
Conjectural Readings t 2 1 
 
 with other petty isles,' I would read ' counter- 
 mured! Murray, English Dictionary, quotes 
 another instance of the misuse of ' zo\irA&xmine ' 
 from R. Johnson's Kingdom and Commonwealth, 
 1630, but the misprint is so easy that I feel sure 
 it has occurred in each case. Marlowe was not 
 likely to make a blunder of this kind. 
 
 The Jew of Malta, ii. i. 44 : — 
 
 '' Abig. Then, father, here receive thy happiness. 
 
 [Throws down bags. 
 Bar. Hast thou' tf 
 
 Abig. Here [Throws down the bags'], hast thou 't ? 
 There 's more, and more, and more.' 
 
 The words Hast thou 't f in the mouth of 
 Barabas seem to me quite out of place. I believe 
 they belong to Abigail only, and are said by her 
 in inquiry whether Barabas has caught the bags 
 which in the dim light of the coming dawn she 
 has thrown down. I would read :^- 
 
 'Then, father, here receive thy happiness [Throws down 
 
 bags'] : hast thou 't ? 
 There 's more, and more, and more. 
 
 [Throws down MORE bags! 
 
 The second stage direction seems to me to 
 require the insertion of the word more. 
 
 The Jew of Malta, iv. i. 124 : — 
 
 ' Therefore 'tis not requisite he should live. 
 
 Though such inversions are common enough 
 
122 The Old Dramatists 
 
 the rhythm of the line would be improved by- 
 reading : — 
 
 ' Therefore His requisite he should not live.' 
 
 The Jew of Malta, iv. 4. 74 : — 
 
 ' Go to, no more. I '11 make him send me half he has, and 
 Glad he scapes so. \Pen and ink. 
 I '11 write unto him ; we'll have money straight.' 
 
 The words pen and ink, which Dyce and Bullen 
 print as a stage direction, stand in the original 
 edition as part of the text ; and, I think, rightly 
 so, they being Ithamore's call for writing materials. 
 Compare Heywood, If you know not me, etc., 
 vol. i. p. 3 14, Pearson's reprint : — 
 
 '■Pen and ink! I '11 set it down in black and white.' 
 
 Dido, iii. 2. 3 : — 
 
 ' Here lies my hate, j^^neas cursed brat. 
 The boy wherein false Destiny delights. 
 The heir of Fury, the favourite of the Fates.' 
 
 ' Heir of Fury,' says Bullen, 'is certainly a strange 
 expression, but I dare not adopt Cunningham's 
 emendation " heir of Troy." ' Troy seems to me 
 very tempting, but perhaps we should read : — 
 
 ' Heir of the Furies, favourite of the Fates.' 
 
 Dido, iv. I. 4 : — 
 
 ' Ach. Did ever men see such a sudden storm 
 Or day so clear so suddenly o'ercast ? 
 Jar. I think some fell enchantress dwelleth here, 
 That can call them forth whenas she please.' 
 
Conjectural Readings 1 2 3 
 
 Bullen suggests, ' That can ccdl forth the winds' 
 etc. A lesser change would be ' One that can call 
 them,' etc., them referring to ' storms ' implied in 
 storm, 1. I. 
 
 Dido, iv. 5. 28 : — 
 
 'Especially in women of your years.' 
 
 Qy. our 7 She is not here apostrophising 
 herself, and when she does, she uses thou and thy. 
 
 Dido, V. I. no: — 
 
 'Then let me go, and never say farewell : 
 Let me go J farewell: I must from hence.' 
 
 'A word,' says Bullen, 'which it is not easy 
 to supply has been omitted. Dyce's "farewell 
 [none]," and Cunningham's "let me go is fare- 
 well," are equally unsatisfactory.' 
 
 I would read, ' Let me forgo farewell.' The 
 copyist finding ' Let me go ' in 1. 109, carelessly 
 repeated the words without reference to the sense 
 and, zs, forgo would be written 'forego,' his blunder 
 may have been helped by the first syllable of 
 '^rewell.' 
 
 Dido, V. I. 221 : — 
 
 ' Traitress too keend and cursed sorceress.' 
 
 So the old editions. Dyce takes keend as 
 = ' kenned,' i.e. known, manifest. Qy. 'Traitress 
 to kind}' i.e. to those of your own household. 
 
1 24 The Old Dramatists 
 
 Dido,v. I. 276: — 
 
 ' Not far from hence 
 There is a woman famousfed for arts, 
 Daughter unto the nymphs Hesperides.' 
 
 Bullen" liotes, ' Daughter is nonsense; Should 
 we read "Guardian to" (or "unto")? Cf. Verg. 
 jfEn. iv. 484 : " Hesperidum templi custos." ' But, 
 to say nothing of the violence of the alteration, 
 surely there is a vast difference between ' guardian 
 to the nymphs Hesperides ' and ' guardian of the 
 temple of the Hesperides.' Vergil's lines are : — • 
 
 ' Hinc mihi Massylae gentis monstrata sacerdos, 
 Hesperidum templi custos, epulasque draconi 
 Quae dabat) et sacros seruabat in arbore ramos, 
 Spargens humida mella, soporiferumque papauer.' 
 
 There is no doubt a difficulty as to the last of 
 these lines if applied to the care of the dragon by 
 the priestess, an application which, however, does 
 not seem to me a necessary one ; but, whatever 
 the exact sense here, that functionary dealt in 
 drugs as well as charms ; and when the funeral 
 pile is erected, it is by her that 
 
 ' Falcibus et messae ad Lunam quaeruntur aenis 
 Pubentes herbae, nigri cum lacte ueneni j 
 Quaeritur et nascentis equi de fronte reuolsus 
 Et matri praeraptus amor.' 
 
 I would therefore propose drugster for daughter ; 
 the termination -ster being of old a feminine 
 one. 
 
Conjectural Readings 1 2 5 
 
 Hero and Leander, First Sestiad, 1. 477 :— 
 ' And fruitful wits that inaspiring are.' 
 
 BuUen suggests ' kz^k-aspinng.' Perhaps we 
 might read : — 
 
 ' And wits that fruitful in aspiring are.' 
 Ovid's Elegies, iii. 7. 29 : — 
 
 ' With virgin wax hath some imbast my joints ? ' 
 
 Dyce queries, ' Is this to be understood as 
 embasted or as embased, impaired, relaxed ? ' 
 Bulleh takes the word in the latter sense. , 
 
 Qy. 'impaste, i.e. impasted ? Compare Hamlet, 
 ii. 4. 281 : — 
 
 ' . . . horridly trick'd, 
 With blood of fathers, mothers, daughters, sons, 
 Baked and impasted with the parching streets. 
 
 The Latin has, Sagave poenicea defixit nomina 
 cera? 
 
 I may perhaps mention that in two conjectures 
 I find myself anticipated, in one by Dyce, in the 
 other by Steevens. On i, Tamburlaine, iii. 3. 
 1 58:- 
 
 ' And make your strokes to wound the senseless lights 
 
 I had written, 'The old copies give lure. Surely 
 we should read air : if the loop of the a in aire were 
 open, the word would look very like lure. The 
 idea is more poetically expressed in Hamlet, iv. i. 
 44, "hit the woundless air."' On The Jew of 
 Malta, iv. 6. 22, 'Snickle hand too fast', my note 
 
126 The Old Dramatists 
 
 was, ' I would read "Snickle hand to fist" i.e. each 
 pulling hard at the end of the noose.' Heywood, 
 I now find, uses the phrase in The Witches of 
 Lancashire, v. i. 6: 'Zooks, did I ever think that 
 a godson of mine should have fought hand to fist 
 with the devil ! ' The fact that these conjectures 
 were made independently adds to the likelihood of 
 their being sound. 
 
CHAPMAN^ 
 
 The Blind Beggar of- Alexandria, vol. i. p. 5 : — 
 
 ' To him that succours him, lie threaten death, 
 But he that doth not threaten him shall die, 
 For who is worthy, life shall see him want. ' 
 
 Read, 
 
 ' To him that threatens him, I '11 threaten death, 
 But he that doth not succour him, shall die ; 
 For who is worthy life will see him want ? ' 
 
 The Blind Beggar of Alexandria, vol. i. p, 24 : — 
 
 ' If I would let him have his statutes in. 
 And take other assurance for another thousand.' 
 
 Omit other, comparing p. 27, ' and take assurance 
 for another thousand.' 
 
 The Blind Beggar of Alexandria, vol. i. p. 29 : — 
 
 ' Bright Nimph, I come in name of all the worlde. 
 That now sustains dead winter in the spring, 
 To have a graces from thy summer darted.' 
 
 Read, 
 
 ' To have a summer from thy graces darted.' 
 
 ' The references are to Pearson's Reprint, 3 vols., 1873. 
 
128 The Old Dramatists 
 
 An Numerous Dayes Mirth, vol. i. p. 54 : — 
 
 ' Colenet you know no man better, that you are mightily in 
 love with love by Martia daughter to old Foyes.' 
 
 Read, 
 
 ' Colenet, you knpw, no man better, that you are mightily 
 in love with lovely Martia, daughter, etc' 
 
 An numerous Dayes Mirth, vol. i. p. 58 : — 
 
 ' Sure, my lord, if I thought I shold be rid of this same 
 banishment of barrenes,' etc. 
 
 ViQad, punishment ; and compare The Malcontent, 
 iv. 2. 112, vfhere banishing is misprinted iox pub- 
 lishing. 
 
 All Fooles, vol. i. p. 143 : — 
 
 ' Val. Toyes, toyes, a pox ; and yet they be such toyes 
 As every gentleman would not be without. 
 Cor. Vayne glory makes yea judge on tyte y faith.' 
 
 Read, 'em light, ifaith. 
 
 All Fooles, vol. i. p. 150 : — 
 
 ' And, take um from their close deere hples, aSj^^ 
 As a Phisician.' 
 
 Read, pat. 
 
 All Fooles, vol. i. p. 168 : — 
 
 ' Their winckes, their beckes, due gard.' 
 
 Read, dieu garde I 
 
 Monsieur D' Olive, vol. i. p. 211 : — 
 
 ' Your Grace, tere his time.' 
 
Conjectural Readings 129 
 
 Read, ere this ; a correction which I give in order 
 to remark that I shall not notice in their places 
 such obvious misprints as court for count, topics for 
 topless, Sonne for sun, saite {or say it, fivers for fibres 
 desolate for dissolute, yee for ice, cuming for burning, 
 rubers for riders, must for most, iyrck for yerk, ter 
 for after, haud ior hand, start for stark, name in the of 
 God for in the name of God, cowsheds for cowsherds, 
 cowherd for coward, trunchman for truckman, bfit 
 for but, tist for 'tis, fures for furies, hotiy for hotly 
 rfist for first, tender for tinder, KvKyavov Se, 
 7ravTo<; for ' A.fi.rjj(avov Se iravTO';, etc., etc. The 
 editor more than once takes credit to himself for 
 having ' followed the original word for word, and 
 letter by letter with religious exactness, except in 
 the case of a misplaced or inverted letter or some 
 obvious clerical slip which it would have been 
 absurd to perpetuate ' : I cannot therefore see upon 
 what principle such instances as I have quoted 
 were allowed to stand uncorrected. 
 
 Monsieur D' Olive, vol. i. p. 212 : — 
 
 ' As private as I had King Giris Ring.' 
 
 Read, Gygesi". 
 
 Monsieur nOlive^ vol. i. p. 220 : — 
 
 ' For how can you be ever sound or safe. 
 Where in so many red steps of your wounds 
 Gaspe in your eyes ? with change of place be sure. 
 Like sicke men mending, you shall find recure.' 
 
 Read, lips, and perhaps gape for gaspe : Vandome 
 I 
 
130 The Old Dramatists 
 
 is speaking of St. Anne's dead wife, whose body 
 he persists in keeping unburied ; and the sense is 
 of course ' by doing which you give your wounds 
 no chance of healing.' 
 
 Monsieur D' Olive, vol. i. p. 235 : — 
 
 ' I did ever dreame, that this head was borne to bear a 
 breadth, this shoulder to support a state, this face to looke 
 bigg, this bodie to beare a presence, these feete were borne to 
 be reuellers, and these calues were borne to be courtiers : 
 In a worde, I was borne Noble, and I will die Noblie.' 
 
 Read, ' to bear a brain! 
 
 The Gentleman Usher, vol, i. p. 258 : — 
 
 ' Or (to say true) nay o/'honest part.' 
 
 Read, of any. 
 
 The Gentleman Usher, vol. i. p. 267 : — 
 
 ' Bright Nimph, that Boare figured your crueltie 
 Chared by love, defended by your beautie.' 
 
 Read, Chased. 
 
 The Gentleman Usher, vol. i. p. 268 : — 
 
 ' O, my lord Medice became it rarely, 
 Me thought I likde his manly being out 
 It becomes Noblemen to doe nothing welU 
 
 Transpose out and well. 
 
 The Gentleman Usher, vol. i. p. 283 : — 
 
 ' O these be godly gudgeons : where 's the deedes 
 The perfect Nobleman ? ' 
 
 Read, 
 
 ' O, these h& goodly gudgeons, whereas the deed's 
 The perfect nobleman.' 
 
Conjectural Readings 1 3 1 
 
 The Gentleman Usher, vol. i. p. 3 1 S : — 
 
 ' No ladie, not a whit, 
 Stood, and you think to make an Asse of me, 
 May chance to rise betimes ; I know't, I know.' 
 
 A line seems to be missing after me, and of 
 course stood should be 'sblood. 
 
 The Gentleman Usher, vol. i. p. 538 : — 
 
 ' Hence haplesse Ornaments that adorn'd his head : 
 Disorder ever these entering carles 
 And leave my beautie Uke a wildernesse.' 
 
 Read, enticing curls. 
 
 Bussy dAmbois, vol. ii. p. 10 : — 
 
 ' And because 
 His Grace's pleasure is to give your good 
 His Passe through my Command : Me thinks you might 
 Use me with more respect.' 
 
 After good, lordship seems to have dropped 
 out ; and there should be only a comma after 
 command. 
 
 Bussy dAmbois, vol. ii. p. 59 : — 
 
 ' That y' aue a tongue so scandalous, 'twill cut 
 A perfect crystall ; and a breath that will 
 Kill to that wall a spider.' 
 
 Qy. 
 
 ' That you 've a tongue so scandalous, 'twill cut 
 A perfect crystal ; and a breath that will 
 Kill equal to a spider ? ' 
 
132 The Old Dramatists 
 
 Bussy d'Ambois, vol. ii. p. 82 : — 
 
 ' So nature laies 
 A deal of stuffe together, and by use, 
 Or by the mere necessitie of matter, 
 Ends such a worke, fils it, or leaues it emptie, 
 Of strength, or vertue, error or deere truth ; 
 Not knowing what she does ; but usually • 
 Gives that which she calls merit to a man. 
 And beliefe must arriue him on huge riches. 
 Honour, and happinesse, that effects his ruine ; 
 Even as in ships of warre, whose lasts of powder 
 Are laid (men think) to make them last, and guards, 
 When a disorder'd sparke that powder taking, 
 Blowes up with sudden violence and horror 
 Ships that kept emptie, had sail'd long with terror.' 
 
 Here the line ' And beliefe . . . riches ' seems to 
 me manifestly corrupt. Eveil if the construction 
 'arrive him on huge riches' is allowable, it is 
 obvious that belief alone would not produce such 
 a result, still less would it be a necessary conse- 
 quence. I would read, 
 
 'And he liefmxxst arride him on huge riches,' 
 
 i.e. and he cannot help pleasing himself with the 
 certainty of huge riches, as a consequence of his 
 merit. For last, and guards, I propose lasting 
 guards. 
 
 The Revenge of Bussy d'Ambois, vol. ii. p. 108: — 
 
 ' As twere not all. 
 Or made by custom nothing.' 
 
 Read, not at all. 
 
Conjectural Readings 133 
 
 The Revenge of Bussy d'Ambois, vol. ii. p. 
 
 113:— 
 
 ' The splenative Philosopher that ever 
 Laught at them all,' etc. 
 
 Read, splenativ'st. 
 
 The Revenge of Bussy d'Ambois, vol. ii. p. 134 : — 
 
 ' So great in Athens grew, that he erected 
 Three hundred statues of him.' 
 
 Read, she, i.e. Athens. 
 
 The Revenge of Bussy d'Ambois, vol. ii. p. 143 : — 
 
 ' Good and bad hold neuer 
 Any thing common : you can neuer finde 
 Things outward care, but you neglect your minde. 
 God hath the whole worlde perfect made and free ; 
 His parts to the vse of th' all ; men then that are 
 Parts of that all, must as the general sway 
 Of that importeth, willingly obay,' etc. 
 
 I would read, ' Things outward worth care ; ' and 
 be for are, the passage from this point being all 
 rhymed verse. 
 
 Byrons Conspiracie, Prologue, vol. ii. p. i86 : — 
 
 ' As when in wealthy Autumne, his bright starre 
 (Washt in the lofty Ocean) thence ariseth ; 
 Illustrates heaven, and all his other fires 
 Outshines and darkens : so admird Byron, 
 All France exempted from comparison, 
 He toucht heaven with his lance ; nor yet was toucht 
 With hellish treacherie : his countries love. 
 He yet thirsts : not 'Cas.faire shades of himselfe : 
 Of which empoisoned Spring ; when policie drinkes. 
 He bursts in growing great ; and rising, sinckes.' 
 
134 The Old Dramatists 
 
 Read, ' 
 
 ' his country's love 
 He yet thirsts, not \h^ fierce hates of himself ; ' 
 
 i.e. not for the gratification of his own fierce 
 hatred against his countf-y. For thirsts, used 
 transitively, compare Ccesar and Pompey, vol. iii. 
 p. 158, 'Who more thirsts the conquest than- 
 resolves to bear the foil.' 
 
 Byrons Conspiracie, vol. ii. p. 2 1 1 : — 
 
 ' Against two squadrons, but with fifty horse.' 
 
 Probably transpose but and with. 
 
 Byrons Conspiracie, vol. ii. p. 223 : — 
 
 ' And as a glorious Poeme fronted well 
 With many a goodly herald of his praise. 
 So farre from hate of praises to his face. 
 That he praies men to praise him, and they ride 
 Before, with trumpets in their mouthes, proclayming 
 Life to the holie furie of his lines : 
 All drawne, as if with one eye he had leerd. 
 On his lou'd hand, and led it by a rule ; 
 That his plumes only imp the muses wings. 
 He sleepes with them, his head is napt with baies. 
 His lips break out with Nectar, his tunde feet 
 Are of the great last, the perpetual motion, 
 And he puft wirh their empty breath beleeues 
 Full merit, ea^d, those passions of winde. 
 Which yet serue, but to praise, and cannot merit. 
 And so his furie in their ayre expires.' 
 
 Read, I think, 
 
 ' His lips break out with nectar, his tuned feet 
 Are of the great blast the perpetual motion. 
 
Conjectural Readings 135 
 
 And he, puffed with their empty breath, believes 
 Full merit caused those passions of wind. 
 Which yet serve but to praise,' etc. 
 
 The whole passage is villainously punctuated as 
 usual. 
 
 Byrons Conspiracie, vol. ii. p. 241 : — 
 
 ' Drowne the dead noises of my sword in laughter.' 
 Read, dread. 
 Byrons Conspiracie, vol. ii. p. 254: — 
 
 ' When guilty, made Noblesse, feed on Noblesse.' 
 Read, 
 
 ' When guilty, mad Noblesse^^ferf on Noblesse.' 
 Byrons Conspiracie, vol. ii. p. 255 : — 
 
 ' Let him by verfue, quite out o/from fortune. 
 Her fetterd shoulders, and her winged shoes.^ 
 
 Read, 
 ' Let him by virtue quite cut o^f^from fortune,' etc. 
 
 Compare Ccesar and Pompey, vol. iii. p. 155, 
 'so may fortune now, displume her shoulders, 
 cast off her wing'd shooes.' 
 
 Byrons Tragedie, vol. ii. p. 256: — 
 
 ' To your unmatcht, and more than humaine winde! 
 
 Read, mind. 
 
 Byrons Tragedie, vol ii. p. 282 : — 
 
 ' Noble happy beast. 
 That hie, not having to their wills to live.' 
 Read, die. 
 
136 The Old Dramatists 
 
 Byrons Tragedie, vol. ii. p. 285 : — 
 
 'The Duke instructs me 
 With such grave lessons oi mortalliUe.' 
 
 Read, moraiity. 
 
 Byrons Tragedie, vol., ii. p. 288 : — 
 
 'All this my Lord to me is misery! 
 
 Read, mystery. 
 
 Byrons Tragedie, vol. ii. p. 292 : — 
 
 - ' ' All popular gifts. 
 
 Are couUors, it will bear no vlneger.' 
 Read, 
 
 ' Are Colours" //5a/ wilt bear^ etc. 
 
 Byrons Tragedie, vol. ii. p. 296 :— 
 
 ' Assaults the light, strikes down himself, not out.' 
 
 Read, it. 
 
 Byrons, Tragedie, vol. ii.'p.jiO/^:^^^ .„ ' 
 
 !The vengeful Satumcds of the league.' 
 
 Read, ' Saturnalians of the league.' 
 
 Byrons Tragedie, vol. ii, p. 306 : — 
 
 ' Though we may condole.' 
 
 Read, although. 
 
 Byrons Tragedie, vol. ii. p. 307 : — 
 
 ' The clowdes (obseruing their Aeriall natures) 
 Are borne aloft, and then to moisture hang'd' 
 
 Read, chang'd. 
 
Conjectural Readings 1 3 7 
 
 Byrons Tragedie, vol. ii. p. 312: — 
 
 ' (Being but one man) render the kingdomes dome.' 
 
 Read, under. 
 
 Byrons Tragedie, vol, ii. p. 314 :^ 
 
 ' I know this bodie but a sinck of folly, 
 The groundwork, and rais'd frame of woe and frailtie : 
 The bond and bundle of corruption ; 
 A quick corse, onely sensible of griefe, 
 
 , A walking sepulcher, or household thiefe : 
 A glasse of ayre, broken with lesse than breath, 
 A slaue bound face to face, to death, till death : 
 And what sayd all you more ? I know, besides 
 That life is but a darke and stormy night, 
 Of sencelesse dreams, terrors, and broken sleepeg ; 
 A Tyrannie, deuising paines to plague 
 And make man long in dying, racks his death ; 
 And death is nothing ; what can you say more ? 
 I bring a long globe, and a, little earth, 
 Am seated like earth betwixt both the heauens : 
 That if I rise ; to heauen I rise ; if fall 
 I likewise fall to heauen ; what stronger faith. 
 Hath any of your soules ? what say -you more ? ' 
 
 Read, 
 ' I being a blown globe (j/a little breath' ; 
 
 comparing a few lities above ' A glasse of ayre 
 broken with lesse than breath ' ; in the next line 
 but one to which sayd should be say. 
 
 Byrons Tragedie, vol. ii. p. 314: — 
 
 ' When I have lost my armes, my fame, my winde.' 
 Read, mind 
 
138 The Old Dramatists 
 
 Byrons Tragedie, vol. ii. p. 318: — 
 
 ' Thou seest I see not ? yet / speake as I saw.' 
 
 Qy. you ? 
 
 May-Day, vol. ii. p. 335 : — 
 
 '. . .for your place, take it as it fals, but so as youthinke 
 no place to good for you ; fall too with ceremony whatso- 
 euer the company be.' 
 
 Read, too, and ' fall to with ceremony,' etc. 
 
 May-Day, vol. ii. p. 347 : — 
 
 ' Crownes, chickins, bracelets.' 
 
 Read, chequins. 
 
 May-Day, vol. ii. p. 366 : — 
 
 ' Now your worship is Oracle to your owne miracles ; 
 how you shine in this smoaky cloud ? which you make the 
 golden net to embrace Venus, y 'aue past the pikes yfaith, 
 and all the layles of the love-god swarme in yonder house, 
 to salute your recovery.' 
 
 Read,y(yj. 
 
 May -Day, vol. ii. p. 371 : — 
 
 ' But indeed I thinke it safer to sit closer, and so to 
 cloud the summe of my visnomy, that no eye discerne 
 it.' 
 
 Read, sun. 
 
 May -Day, vol. ii. p. 376 : — 
 
 ' And therefore, though I held it good discretion in me to 
 winke at the blow not seeing to take notice of it.' 
 
 Read, seeming. 
 
Conjectural Readings 1 39 
 
 May-Day^ vol. ii. p. 379 : — 
 
 ' I tell thee I smelt a voice here in my entry, s'fut he 
 make it smell worse and' cheare it againe.' 
 
 What is the point in making Quintilliano speak 
 broad Somersetshire here ? Why not, ' and I hear 
 it,' i.e. if I hear it ? 
 
 May -Day, vol. ii. p. 384 : — 
 
 ' In the more then temper my late rage 
 And showj/oar vertues perfectly deriued 
 From the Venetian noblesse.' 
 
 Read, 
 
 ' /'// do thee more than temper my late rage, 
 And show you virtues,' etc. 
 
 A few lines above, for remnine read remain, and 
 for miads read minds. 
 
 May -Day, vol. ii. p. 385 : — 
 
 ' In any honoured vse shall command.' 
 
 Read, 
 
 ' In any honour'd ns&you shall command.' 
 
 May-Day, vol. ii. p. 386 : — 
 ' A poxe upon thee, tame your bald hewed to\i%n^.' 
 
 Read, bald-haired. 
 
 The Widdowes Teares, vol. iii. p. 48 : — 
 
 ' Cry mercie Sir, here 's a whole chorus of Syluans at 
 hand, cometting, and tripping ath' toe,' etc. 
 
 Qy. curvetting} 
 
140 The Old Dramatists 
 
 The Widdowes Teares, vol. iii. p. 55: — 
 
 ' If the braine of the West were in the heades of the 
 learned ; then might Parish- Clerkes be common counsaile 
 men.' 
 
 Read, wise. 
 
 The Widdowes Teares, vol. iii. p. 69 : — 
 
 ' Canero. What ? thy husbands bodie .'" 
 
 Read, Canero : see Florio, Italian Dictionary : 
 ' Cdncaro, Cdnchero, Canero, one of the twelve signs 
 in the Zodiacke, called Cancer ; also the Crab- 
 star ; also any sea-crab ; also that foul, devouring 
 sore or evil, called a Canker, much used among the 
 Italians for a bitter curse, one to another, as we 
 use to wish the pox to our enemies ; used also for 
 an interjection of denial or refusal'. 
 
 The Widdowes Teares, vol. iii. p. 70 : — 
 
 ' Let me be brought 
 To die for that most famous villanie ; 
 Not for this miching base transgression 
 Of tenant negligence.' 
 
 Read, truant. 
 
 The Widdowes Teares, vol. iii. p. 71 : — 
 
 ' Thou foolish thirster after idle secrets. And ill's abrode ; 
 looke home, and store and choke thee ; 
 
 There sticks an Achelons home of all, Copie enough. 
 As much as Alizon of streames receiues, 
 Or loftie Ilea showes of shadie leaues.' 
 
 On this passage the editor has the following 
 
Conjectural Readings 141 
 
 note : ' The first line \i.e. There sticks . . . enough] 
 seems hopelessly corrupt. I once thought the 
 words " Copie enough " were attributable rather to 
 the printer's devil than to Lysander, and had got 
 interpolated into the text through the stupidity of 
 the compositor and the negligence of the " reader." 
 But I find that a former editor of this play 
 explains " Copie " as Copia, and supposes the 
 passage to refer to the cornucopia, or horn of 
 plenty.' 
 
 The reference in Achelons \i.e. Achelous''] home 
 is of course to the cornucopia, but ' Copie enough ' 
 is equally of course merely a marginal explanation 
 of those words. Read, 
 
 ' Thou foolish thirster after idle secrets, 
 And \i.e. if] ill's abroad, look home, and stare and 
 
 choke thee ; 
 There sticks an Ackelous' horn of ill, 
 As much as Alison of streams receives, 
 Or lofty Ida shows of shady leaves.' 
 
 The Widdowes Teares, vol. iii. p. 82 : — 
 
 ' If you Parrat to me long ; goe to.' 
 Read,/r«^e. 
 
 CcBsar and Pompey, vol. iii. p. 136 : — 
 
 ' And where all fortune is renounc't, no reason 
 Will think one man transfer'd with affectation 
 Of all Romes Empire.' 
 
 Qy. transformed or transfused ? 
 
142 The Old Dramatists 
 
 C(Bsar and Pompey, vol. iii. p. 152 : — 
 
 ' .... but I doubt 
 There will come humble offer on his part, 
 Of honor'd peace to you, for whose sweet name 
 So cryed out to you in our late-met Senate 
 Lost no fit offer of that wished treaty.' 
 
 Read, Lose. 
 
 CcBsar and Pompey, vol. iii. p. 155: — 
 
 ' O night, O jealous night, of all the noblest 
 Beauties, and glories, where the gods have stroke 
 There yoar£ digestions, from thy gastly chaos. 
 Blush thus to drowne them all in this houre sign'd 
 By the necessity of fate for Cassar.' 
 
 That foure should be sour is evident, but stroke 
 also looks to me corrupt. A few lines above Ram 
 should be ram. 
 
 Ccesar and Pompey, vol iii. p. 167 : — 
 
 ' I beare the touch of feare for all their safeties, 
 Or for mine owne ? enlarge with twice as many 
 Selfe-liues, selfe-fortunes ? they shall sink beneath 
 Their own credulities, before I crosse them.' 
 
 Read and punctuate as follows : — 
 
 ' I bear the touch of fear for all their safeties, 
 Not for mine own : enlarged with twice as many 
 Self-lives, self-fortunes, they shall sink beneath,' etc. 
 
 Ccesar and Pompey, vol. iii. p. 168 : — 
 
 ' Inscrib'd with this true soull of funerall.' 
 
 Read, scroll. 
 
Conjectural Readings 1 4 3 
 
 Ccesar and Pompey,vo\. iii. p. 171 : — • 
 
 ' Cato sole accepted.' 
 
 Read, excepted. 
 
 Ccesar and PompeyyVoX. iii. p. 171 : — 
 
 ' Come Demetrius, 
 We now must sute our habites to our fortunes.' 
 And since these changes ever change to greatest 
 
 Transpose the two last lines. 
 
 CcEsar and Pompey, vol. iii. p. 174 : — 
 
 ' Tongue, shew, falsehood, are 
 
 To bloodiest deaths his parts so much admir'd, 
 
 Vaine glory, villany.' 
 
 Qy- 
 
 ' Tongue-show, falsehood, are 
 The bloodiest deaths ; his parts,' etc. .^ 
 
 Alphonsus, vol. iii. p. 218 : — 
 ' Empress. Nephew, she thinks you mock her in her mirth. 
 Edward. I think the Princes make a scorn of me. 
 If any do, I '1 prove it with my sword, 
 That English courtship leaves it from the world.' 
 
 ^ea.<i,your, and braves. 
 Revenge for Honour, vol. iii. p. 290 : — 
 'ancouge the 12 signs.' 
 
 Read, among. 
 
 Revenge for Honour, vol. iii. p. 293 : — 
 
 ' I cannot play the fool rightly, I mean, the Physician 
 Without I have licence to expalcat 
 On the disease.' 
 Read, expatiate. 
 
144 "^^^ ^^"^ Dramatists 
 
 Revenge for Hononr. vol. iii. p. 301 : — 
 
 ' doubt not 
 
 That I '11 deceive your trust.' 
 
 Read, deserve. 
 
 Revenge for Honour, vol. iii. p. 317 : — 
 
 'To me 
 Count that cure, I '11 stand between the Lady 
 And Mura's fury.' 
 
 Read, commit. 
 
HEYWOODi 
 
 Edward IV. vol. i. p. 83 : — 
 
 ' Ah, Jane, this kills my heart, 
 That thou reckes others, and not rust my smart.- 
 
 Read, ru'st, i.e. ruest. 
 
 I. Edward IV. vol. i. p. 105 : — 
 
 ' By blazing to the world his high deserts 
 Of wisedom, valour, and his heroicke birth ? ' 
 
 Omit his, caught from the line above. 
 
 II. Edward IV. vol. i. p. 119 : — 
 
 ' You must imagine since you saw him last 
 Preparde for trauaile, he hath been abroade, 
 And seene the sundry fashions of the world, 
 Vlysses-like, his countries loue at length. 
 Hoping his wiues death, and to see his friends. 
 Such as did sorrow for his great mishaps. 
 Come home is hee ; but so unluckily 
 As he is like to loose his life thereby.' 
 
 There seems to be a confusion of constructions 
 here between ' his country's love and the hope of 
 finding his wife dead have brought him home,' 
 and ' through love of his country and hope of his 
 wife's death, he is come home.' 
 
 ' The references are to Pearson's Reprint, 6 vols. 1874. 
 K 
 
146 The Old Dramatists 
 
 II. Edward IV. vol. i. p. 156 :^- 
 
 ' I warrant you, woman, be not so afraid. 
 If not this bloud-stone hang'd about his necke, 
 This balme will stanch it, by the helpe of God. 
 Lift vp his arme, whilst I do bathe his wound. 
 The sign belike was here when he was hurt. 
 Or else some principal and chief vein is pierst.' 
 
 I think we should read, 
 
 ' The sinew belike was here where he was hurt.' 
 
 The anatomical knowledge of our old dramatists 
 seems to have been very vague : thus, in Hamlet, 
 
 i. 4- 82, 83, 
 
 ' My fate cries out, 
 And makes each petty artery in this body 
 As hardy as the Nemean's lion's nerve,' 
 
 Shakespeare apparently looks upon arteries and 
 nerves as being of the same texture ; and Hey- 
 wood may have- supposed that sinews bled when 
 severed. In The Faithful Friends, iii. 3. p. 264, 
 ed. Dyce, there is perhaps the same vagueness of 
 knowledge in the words : — 
 
 ' Till my veins 
 And sinews crack, I '11 stretch my utmost strength.' 
 
 II. Edward IV. vol. i. p. 160 : — 
 
 ' So you did swear you would be true to Shore ; 
 But you were not so good as your word. 
 My oathes disherit which by the King's command.' 
 
 Qy-, 
 
 ' My oath's disherited by the King's command ' ? 
 i.e. she is discharged of her vow to treat Jane with 
 
Conjectural Readings 147 
 
 compassion by the king's command that no one 
 should harbour or help her (Jane). 
 
 , II. Edward IV. vol. i. p. 166 : — 
 
 ' No man can say that he is master now 
 Of anything is his, such is the tide 
 Of short disturbance running through the land.' 
 
 (^y. swift} 
 
 I. If you Know not Me, etc., vol. i. p. 197 : — 
 
 ' If your highness will 
 Your own estate preserue, you must foresee 
 Fore danger,' etc. 
 
 Read, Your; Fore having been caught from 
 foresee. 
 
 I. If you Know not Me, etc., vol. i. p. 239 : — 
 
 ' For there 's another raised, more base than he, 
 Poole, that Arch, for truth and honesty.' 
 
 Read, 
 
 ' Poole, that archfoe to truth and honesty.' 
 
 I. If you Know not Me, etc., vol. i. p. 245, : — 
 
 ' Be not ashamed, mgp ; look me in the face. 
 Who have you now to ■patronize your strictness on.' 
 
 Q;y., practise ? 
 
 II. If you Know not Me, etc., vol. i. p. 270 : — 
 
 ' I must tell you John, and I know it, you have not fed of 
 the spirituall food, but edifiedhy faithe and sufferedxhe. tares 
 of the wild affections to be burnt.' 
 
 Read, ' but be edified by faith and suffer,' etc, 
 
148 The Old Dramatists 
 
 11. If you Know not Me, etc., vol. i. p. 307 : — 
 
 ' I have tride ere now 
 The sweaty Spaniard, and the carowsing Dane, 
 The foggy Dutchman, and the fiery French, 
 The briske ItaHan, and indeed what not ; 
 And yet of all and all, the Englishman 
 Shall goe for me : I, y 'are the truest louers, 
 The ablest, last night, and the truest men 
 That breathe beneath the sun.' 
 
 Qy. lastingesfi The n and / being transposed, 
 the change of est to ht would naturally follow. In 
 the same line truest has probably been caught from 
 the one above. 
 
 The Faire Maide of the Exchange, vol. ii. p. 40 : — 
 
 ' Speake, why then I say ? ' 
 
 Read, ' why tvhen ? I say.' 
 
 The Faire Maide of the Exchange, vol. ii. p. 40 : — 
 
 ' I know your wifulnesse. 
 These words are but to show the world your humour : 
 I often use to square these parchment pieces 
 Without occasion : I 'm sure you are not writing, 
 The Lawnes you late bought,' etc. 
 
 Punctuate, 
 
 ' I often use to square these parchment pieces : 
 Without occasion I 'm sure you are not writing. 
 The lawns,' etc. 
 
 i.e. You have other business in hand, and I am 
 sure you never write unless you are obliged, and 
 therefore you cannot have need of these sheets of 
 parchment, 
 
Conjectural Readings 149 
 
 The Faire Maide of the Exchange, vol. ii. p. 47 : — 
 
 ' I could doe more, for I could make enquiry 
 Where the best-witted gallants use to dine 
 
 And over-heare their talke, observe their humours, 
 Collect their jeasts, put them into play, 
 And tire them too with payment to behold 
 What I have filcht from them.' 
 
 Read either lure or tice. 
 
 The Faire Maide of the Exchange, vol. ii. p. 64 : — 
 
 ' I will resigne the same 
 To you my friend, knowing my unworthy selfe 
 Too foule for such a beauty and too base 
 To match in brightnesse with that sacred comet 
 That shines like Phoebus in LondorCs element.' 
 
 Read, Love's. 
 
 The Faire Maide of the Exchange, vol. ii. p. 69 : — 
 
 ' What are you cursing too ? then we catch no fish : 
 Comes there any more, here's two SnightsXo a dish.' 
 
 Mr. Barron Field reads knights, which seems 
 meaningless. I believe snights is sound, it being 
 merely another spelling of snite, i.e. snipe, a word 
 used like 'woodcock' for a fool, empty-headed 
 fellow ; the snights here being Frank's two 
 brothers, whom he has gulled about Phillis. 
 Lydgate, apud Halliwell, Dictionary of Archaic 
 and Provincial Words, has ' A downg-hille doke 
 as deyntd as a snyghte.' 
 
150 The Old Dramatists 
 
 The Faire Maide of the Estchange, vol. ii. p. yS : — 
 
 ' You love my daughter ; so you thought you said ; 
 You said moreover that she loves you well.' 
 
 Read, methought. 
 
 A Woman Kild with Kindnes, vol. ii. p. 99 : — 
 
 ' I but our Merlin first had plum'd the Fowle, 
 And twice reneiifd her from the Hiver too.' 
 
 Read, enevfd^ A writer in the Edinburgh 
 Review, for October 1873, has shown that this 
 word was a term in common use in aquatic 
 falconry. ' If the fowl succeeded in swerving 
 towards the water, she escaped with comparative 
 immunity. In this case the hawk might stoop 
 and sometimes apparently even strike without 
 doing much damage, as the blow could not be 
 followed up, the fowl taking refuge in diving. In 
 this case the fowl was said to be enewed — the 
 hawk enewed the fowl ; that is, forced it back to 
 the water again, from which it had to be driven 
 afresh by the falconer, and landed before the 
 hawk could stoop and seize, or strike and truss 
 her quarry. The fowl was often enewed once or 
 twice before it was landed effectively enough for 
 the final swoop. From this explanation of its 
 meaning the etymology of enew will be apparent ; 
 and in support of it we have in Kelham's Norman 
 Dictionary ' Enewance de drops, watering of cloth ' ; 
 while Cotgrave gives eneaUer, ' to turn into water,' 
 and eneaiie, 'watered, turned into water.' The 
 
Conjectural Readings 15 1 
 
 Reviewer then quotes passages from Drayton 
 and Turberville illustrating the use of the term ; 
 other instances will be found in Murray's English 
 Dictionary. 
 
 A Woman Kild with Kindnes, vol, ii. p, 1 1 1 : — 
 
 ' Such is my fate, to this suite was I borne, 
 To wear rich pleasures crowne, or fortunes scorne.' 
 
 Qy. repeat fate for suite ? 
 
 A Woman Kild with Kindnes, vol. ii. p. r 15 : — 
 
 ' Rac'd from the bed-xoW. of Gentility.' 
 
 Read, ' bead-xoW. ' ; and after ' glow'd within,' 
 three lines lower, put a colon. 
 
 A Woman Kild with Kindnes, vol. ii. p. 121 : — 
 ' Before the double guilt, the well-hatch Ore,' etc. 
 
 Read, well-hatch' d. 
 
 The Foure Prentises of London, vol. ii. p. 219 : — 
 ' Shall our bar'd horses clime yond Mountain tops.' 
 
 Read bard. The word has nothing to do with 
 the verb to bare, but is from the French bard^, 
 'which,' says the Edinburgh Reviewer quoted 
 above, ' Cotgrave renders " barbed, or trapped like 
 a great horse." ' 
 
 The Foure Prentises of London, vol. ii. p. 251 : — 
 
 ' Tancred behold the Lady you once ceaid.' 
 
 Read, seized — a very common misspelling. 
 
1 5 2 The Old Dramatists 
 
 The Faire Maid of the West, vol. ii. p. 287 : — 
 
 ' Sir will you take the wine.' 
 
 Read, taste ; see quotation from The Silver 
 Age, vol. iii. p. 100, given below, and note on 
 The Insatiate Countess, iii. 4. 96. 
 
 The Faire Maid of the West, vol. ii. p. 384 : — 
 
 ' I could be angry with you above measure, 
 Vayour four deaths I die, that had before 
 Tasted but one.' 
 
 Read, you. 
 
 The Faire Maid of the West, vol. ii. p. 389 : — 
 
 ' And by the devils first spew'd upon earth.' 
 
 Read, up on. 
 
 The Golden Age, vol. iii. p. 26 : — 
 
 ' Should all affect the strict life you desire, 
 The world it selfe would end when we expire. 
 Posterity is all, heavens number fill, 
 Which by your helpe may be increased still.' 
 
 Qy. ' posterity is all heaven's number fill ' ? 
 with the sense that it is posterity alone that helps 
 to fill up the number of heaven. 
 
 The Golden Age, vol. iii. p. 40 : — 
 
 ' Here ease my life, for them thou shalt not kill.' 
 Qy. cease} 
 
Conjectural Readings 1 53 
 
 The Golden Age, vol, iii. p. 68 : — 
 
 ' Charming sleepe 
 Deaths yonger brother, show thyself as still lesse 
 As death himself.' 
 
 Read, stir-less. 
 
 The Golden Age, vol. iii. p. 69 : — 
 
 They are deafe in rest ; then gentle sweet ly further, 
 If you should call, I thus your voyce would murther. 
 And strangle with my kisses.' 
 
 Can ly be sound, or should we read, ' no further '? 
 
 The Siluer Age, vol. iii. p. 91 : — 
 
 ' The keene-edged harpe.^ 
 
 It would be better to print harpi or Harpi, the 
 well-known scimitar of Perseus. 
 
 The Siluer Age, vol. iii. p. 100 : — 
 
 ' Whose powerful arme gaue strength unto my Lord 
 To worsts his safety through these dangerous warres.' 
 
 Read, work. 
 
 The Siluer Age, vol. iii. p. 159 : — 
 
 ' Danae spare your tubs.' 
 
 Read, Danaids. 
 
 The Brazen Age, vol. iii. p. 174 : — 
 
 ' Nere let my streames wash Acarnania's bankes 
 Or we confin'de in Thoas.' 
 
 Read, be. 
 
1 54 The Old Dramatists 
 
 The Brazen Age, vol. iii. p. 196 :— 
 ' And but an equall language.' 
 Read, on. 
 The Brazen Age,vo\. iii. p. 235 : — ■ 
 
 ' If I can catch them, all the Gods I '11 call 
 To see my wrongs, their sports I '11 neere to marre. 
 And venge me on that letcherous God of warre.' 
 
 Qy. to-mar, i.e. thoroughly to mar ? 
 
 The Brazen Age, vol. iii. p. 249 : — 
 
 ' Shall torture pale our cheeke ? No, Prjest proceed'. 
 We will not feele the painCi thou shalt not breed! 
 
 Qy. brede, i.e. burn ? Hercules is in his death- 
 agony from the poisoned shirt. A little lower 
 down for ' my bulk inflames^ read inflames. 
 
 I. The Iron Age, vol. iii. p. 273 : — 
 
 ' The Chritian scepter now in contrauersie.* 
 
 Read, Cretan. 
 
 I. The Iron Age, vol. iii. p. 288 : — 
 
 '' Faire Heauen I doe.' 
 
 Read, Fore. 
 
 I. The Iron Age, vol. iii. p. 304 : — 
 
 ' And weave it Diomed.' 
 
 Read, swear. 
 
 I. The Iron Age, vol. iii. p. 309 : — 
 
 ' Yet shall no stroke fall from Achilles arme 
 Faire Polixena, so powerful is thy charme.' 
 
 Qy. omit Faire ? 
 
Conjectural Readings 155 
 
 I. The Iron Age, vol. iii. p. 313: — 
 
 ' Had I lost a Patroclus, a deere friend 
 As thou hast done, I would have dond these armes 
 In which he dyed, sprung through the Troian hoast, 
 And mauger opposition, let the Mow 
 Or by the same hand dy'd.' 
 
 Read, laid them low. 
 
 I. The Iron Age, vol, iii. p. 331 : — 
 
 ' Though the dammage you have done to Troy, 
 Might cease our armes, and arme our browes with 
 wrath,' etc. 
 
 Read, although ; but what does ' cease our 
 armes' mean? Can it mean put a stop to the 
 embraces they had just interchanged ? 
 
 I. The Iron Age, vol. iii. p. 333 : — 
 
 'How cheeres Achilles, though thy too much pride 
 Which heldi^^ heart of Ajax from thy loue. 
 He '11 be the formost to reuenge thy death.' 
 
 Read, Withheld, and put a note of interrogation 
 after 'Achilles.' A few hues lower down for 
 ' send to youthfull Pirhus,' read ' send the,' etc. 
 
 I. The Iron Age, vol. iii. p. 337 : — 
 
 ' Thou that fightst all byd craft an in the night.' 
 Read, ' by craft and in,' etc. 
 I. The Iron Age, vol. iii. p. 339 : — 
 
 ' He had a Bow too much Achilles drew, 
 So by his strength the Ithacan him knew.' 
 Read, 
 
 ' He had a bow, too, which,' etc. 
 
156 The Old Dramatists 
 
 I. The Iron Age, vol. iii, p. 345 : — 
 
 ' Hector, a worthy Call,' etc. 
 Read, 
 
 ' Hector, a Worthy calPd,' etc. 
 
 Hector being the first of the three Gentile 
 Worthies. 
 
 II. The Iron Age, vol. iii. p. 368 : — 
 
 ' Penthesilea, with her bustain troopes.' 
 Read, buskin'd. 
 II. The Iron Age, vol. iii. p. 370 : — 
 
 ' If then a villaine 
 Can driue into their eares, the gpddesse Pallas 
 Offended for the stolne Palladium : 
 ( Will you erect this Machine to her honour ?) 
 Withall that it were brought into her Temple,' etc. 
 
 Read, will'd {i.e. desired), putting commas 
 after ' Pallas,' ' Palladium,' and ' honour,' and 
 removing the brackets. 
 
 II. The Iron Age, vol. iii. p. 406 : — 
 
 Pyr. Beauteous Lady, 
 
 The great'st ambition Pyrhus aymes at now, 
 
 Is how to know you farther. 
 
 Her. . . . . ■ 
 
 Hath been so mighty to revenge the wrongs 
 
 Of my faire mother, can from Hermione 
 
 Challenge no lesse than welcome.' 
 
 I would insert for the missing words ' The hero 
 who.' 
 
Conjectural Readings 157 
 
 II. The Iron Age, vol. iii. p. 409 : — 
 
 ' Oh Cethus, what 's this musicke vnto me, 
 That am compos'd of discords ? what are healths 
 To him that is struck heart-sicke ? all those joyes 
 Whose leaders seem to pierce against the roofes 
 Of these high structures, to him that is struck downe 
 Half way below the Center ? ' 
 
 Qy. ' Whose peal does seem to pierce again the 
 roofs,' etc. ? 
 
 II. The Iron Age, vol. iii. p. 420 : — 
 
 ' And undertake that one man easily spar'd,' etc. 
 
 Read, But. 
 
 The English Traveller, vol. iv. p. 16 : — 
 
 ' Rob. Farewell Musk-cat. 
 
 Reig. Adue good Cheese and Oynons, stuff thy guts 
 
 With Specke and Barley-pudding for disgestion.' 
 
 Read, spelt, i.e. vetches. 
 
 The English Traveller, vol. iv. p. 22 ; — 
 
 ' To preuent Surfit 
 
 Thy Diet, shall bee to one Dish confin'd 
 And that too Rifled, with as uncleane hands. 
 As ere were laid on thee.' 
 
 Qy. rested, i.e. roasted ? 
 
 The English Traveller, vol. iv. pp. 26, 27 : — 
 
 ' Enough, enough, your wit hath plai'd too long upon 
 
 our patience ; 
 Wife, it grieues me much both for the yong and old 
 man, the one 
 
158 The O id Dramatists 
 
 Graces his head with care, endures the parching heat, 
 
 and biting cold, 
 The terrours of the Lands, and feares at Sea in trauel, 
 
 onely to gaine 
 Some competent estate to leaue his sonne.' 
 
 Divide the lines at ' long ' . . . ' much ' . 
 ' Graces ' . . . ' heat ' . . . ' Lands ' . . . ' gaine,' 
 and for Lands read land. 
 
 The English Traveller, vol. iv. p. 73 : — 
 
 ' Well, if he now come off well. Fox you all ; 
 Goe, call for wine.' 
 
 Qy. 'Well, if he now come ; off! well fox you all'? 
 i.e. make yourselves well drunk. 
 
 The English Traveller, vol. iv. p. 87 : — 
 
 ' But though their riots tript at my estate.' 
 
 Read, up. 
 
 A May den-head well Lost, vol. iv. p. 1 10 : — 
 
 ' To hast your marriage with Xht. former Prince.' 
 
 Read, Parma. 
 
 A May den-head well Lost, vol. iv. p. 1 27 : — ■ 
 
 ' Come Mounsieur, night steales on, not mznyyeares 
 Shall passe me,' etc. 
 
 Read, hours ; and so again p. 1 29 for ' some 
 two yeares after.' 
 
 A Mayden-head well Lost, vol. iv. p. 128 : — 
 ' Nor adde vnto your blushes by our rude reproofes,' 
 (^y. omit our rude ? 
 
Conjectured Readings 1 59 
 
 A Maydsn-head well Lost, vol. iv. p. 1 30 : — 
 
 ' Goodly large Arras ... he hath caus'd to be hang'd 
 round about the Chamber : My Lady and Mistresse, now 
 my Lady,' etc. 
 
 Read, ' the chamber of my Lady and Mistress ; 
 now my Lady,' etc. 
 
 A May den-head well Lost, vol. iv. p. 146 : — 
 
 ' ThaXjioudhe a Mecenas unto virtue.' 
 Read, would. 
 
 A Mayden-head well Lost, vol. iv. p. 156: — 
 ' Come Mounsieur, now 'tis cast, 
 Reuenge neere rules, so it be found at last.' 
 
 Read, rues. 
 
 A Mayden-head well Lost, vol. iv. p. 164: — 
 ' You crowne me with your wishes, Royall father.' 
 Read, my. 
 
 The Witches of Lancashire, vol. iv. p. 178 : — 
 
 ' Your monies ready.' 
 Read, moneys. 
 
 The Witches of Lancashire, vol. iv. p. 181 : — 
 'Why - . . you may look ^OK^.' 
 
 Read off on' t; and a few lines below for ' But 
 this time forget,' read, ' But^r this time,' etc. 
 
 The Witches of Lancashire, vol. iv. p. 182 : — 
 
 ' Give me a stroke and He beat him.' 
 <^y. stick ? 
 
i6o The Old Dramatists 
 
 The Witches of Lancashire, vol. iv. p. 189 : — 
 
 ' I shall know thee Peg, by thy grissel'd guV 
 
 Qy. Meg, and scut ? 
 
 The Witches of Lancashire, vol. iv. p. I91 : — 
 
 ' We '1 try if we can finde in our way home 
 When Hares come from their coverts, to reliffe, 
 A course or two.' 
 
 I can make nothing of reliffe, unless it should 
 be relieve, i.e. alvum exonerare. With rabbits it is 
 a habit to seek a spot for this purpose away from 
 their burrows ; but hares do not burrow (at all 
 events in England), and I am not aware of their 
 having this habit. 
 
 The Witches of Lancashire, vol; iv. p. 196 : — 
 
 ' Give me the keies, ile stand it all danger. 
 
 Read, ' stand it at all danger.' 
 
 The Witches of J^ancashire, vol. iv. p. 199 : — 
 
 ' There will I tie you, . . . and though not task you, yet 
 ash you whilest my switch will hold.' 
 
 Read, leash. 
 
 The Witches of Lancashire, vol. iv. p. 207 : — 
 
 ' Sir I will not goe about to over-rule your reason, bu 
 for my part 
 I will not out of a house on a Bridall day, till I see the 
 last man borne.' 
 
 MXex borne add out. 
 
Conjectural Readings 1 6 1 
 
 A Challenge for Beauty, vol. v. p. 9 : — 
 
 ' Nay, we terme this law, 
 Or meere oppression.' 
 
 Read, 
 
 ' May we term this law, 
 Or mere oppression ? ' 
 
 A Challenge for Beauty, vol. v. p. 12 : — 
 
 ' Aid. Ene in the mid'st meane, daughter, or let me see 
 and thou wilt be ruld by me, beare thyself — E'ne how thou 
 wilt, provided it be to thine own profit, and my further 
 honour: Noble Bonavide has Valladaur a daughter'^ do 
 you know this gallant. 
 
 ' Peir. Valladaura I hate, this gentleman acquainted with 
 my beauty, reveald it to Bonavide : Sir you haue bound 
 me to you, and comes to usher him to my presence.' 
 
 The text as it stands is nonsense. Read, 
 
 ' Aid. E'en in the midst mean, daughter, or, let me see, 
 and {i.e. an] thou wilt be ruled by me, bear thyself— e'en 
 how thou wilt, provided it be to thine own profit, and my 
 further honour. Noble Bonavide — ha ! [Enter Valladaurd\ 
 daughter, do you know this gallant ? 
 
 ^Petr. Valladaura! I ha't [i.e. I have it, understand the 
 meaning of matters], this gentleman, acquainted with my 
 beauty, revealed it to Bonavide, — Sir, you have bound me 
 to you, — and comes,' etc. 
 
 A Challenge for Beauty, vol. v. p. 13 : — 
 
 ' I writ myselfe 
 (And truly) lover ere 1 could write man, 
 Passing my service as a star, where she 
 The blest Idea of thy glorious feature, 
 Drawn by the curious working of my thoughts 
 Gave me the better,' etc. 
 L 
 
1 62 The Old Dramatists 
 
 Read, spaying my service as to a star,' and 
 ' gave me thee better,' i.e. ' made you seem superior 
 to any star.' 
 
 A Challenge to Beauty, vol. v. p. 17 : — 
 ' For her breeding, 
 It hath been 'mongst her equalls, and so farre 
 From least taxation, to the sayle of tongues 
 It merits imitation.' 
 
 Read, soil ; omit the comma after ' taxation ' 
 and put one after ' tongues.' 
 
 A Challenge for Beauty, vol. v. p. 23 : — 
 
 ' As of the man himself, more frivolous and idle.' 
 
 Read, mere. 
 
 A Challenge for Beauty, vol. v. p. 39 : — 
 
 ' Cent. You find her pliant. 
 
 ^ Pin. As a thing of wax, never was thrifty trader more 
 willing to put of a sulke commodity than she was to truck 
 for her maydenhead.' 
 
 For of, of course read off; but is sulke genuine, 
 or should we read sullied} 
 
 A Challenge for Beauty, vol. v. p. 47 : — 
 
 ' What wilt thoxifeele me still ?' 
 
 Read,/(?o/. 
 
 A Challenge for Beauty, vol. v. p. 48 : — 
 
 ' I am shee. 
 That beg to be implyde so.' 
 
 Read, employed, and remove the full stop after 
 shee. 
 
Conjectural Readings 163 
 
 A Challenge for Beauty, vol. v. p. 59 : — 
 
 ' Vnseene I left 'em, and by a private key, 
 Went to my chamber, where I said, I '11 dare call her 
 Neither my wife, nor Bride ; your lustful! daughter.' 
 
 Read, 
 
 ' Unseen I left 'em, and by a private key 
 Went to my chamber, where I spied— \ '11 dare call her 
 Neither my wife, nor bride. — your lustful daughter.' 
 
 A Challenge for Beauty, vol. v. p. 73 : — 
 ' I am shee 
 For whom this noble Sir hath undertooke. 
 And wrongly stands convicted, this that body 
 So stain'd and sullied by these barbarous tongues. 
 That even in scolding lies justice, for heav'n 
 Hath forc't them to sweare truth.' 
 
 Perhaps we ought to read : — 
 'That even in scolding justice lives, for heaven,' etc. 
 
 But scolding looks to me questionable. A few- 
 lines above, after calling insert is, i.e. which is. 
 
 A Challenge for Beauty, vol. v. p. yj : — 
 
 ' You are shee 
 By whom I'll henceforth dress mee, and not weare 
 No hurt, of which you are not president.' 
 
 Read, Honour ; the h and N being transposed 
 in printing. 
 
 Loues Mistris, vol. v. p. 98 : — 
 
 ' If you meete Psiche, charge your Mercury 
 To send mee to her.' 
 
 Transpose mee and her. 
 
164 The Old Dramatists 
 
 Loues Mistris, vol. v. p. 1 36 : — 
 
 ' We shall deceive the gods and goddesses, 
 For a plow-jogging hinde.' 
 
 Transpose wee and shall, and put a note of 
 interrogation after hinde. 
 
 Loues Mistriss, vol. v. p. 137 :— 
 
 ' This cologing wagge 
 Will not be answered.' 
 Qy. cogging} 
 
 The Rape of Liicrece, vol. v. p'. 246 : — 
 
 ' Weele "^xoy&for Tarquin, if they faile our hopes, 
 Peace shall be made with Rome.' 
 
 Read, our Tarquins. 
 
 The Wise-woman of Hogsdon, vol. v. p. 281 : — 
 
 ' Nay M. Boyster, 
 I barre you : let us work upon the winners. 
 Gramercy sinks.' 
 
 Read, ' Gramercy, cinques' 
 
 The Wise-woman of Hogsdon, vol. v. p. 319 : — 
 
 ' I am satisfied good M. Harringsfield touching your 
 friend, and since I see you have left his dangerous com- 
 pany, I limit you to bee a welcome guest unto my Table.' 
 
 Read, invite. 
 
 The Wise-woman of Hogsdon, vol. v. p. 330 : — 
 
 ' If he bee gone, then call mee vent my griefe, 
 Father I am undone.' 
 
 Should we read vent-my-grief as one word 
 
Conjectural Readings 165 
 
 within inverted commas, and was there any flower 
 popularly so called on the analogy of ' Love-in- 
 idleness,' ' Heart's-ease,' ' Lady-smocks,' etc. ? 
 
 The Wise-woman of Hogsdon, vol. v. p. 333.: — 
 
 ' If shee and you see me not, I am but dead.' 
 
 (^y. save} 
 
 Procus and Puella, vol. vi. p. 120 : — 
 
 ' Crookt-backt, ^ora/-bellied, bending at the knee 
 His legs.' 
 
 Read, '^o;'-bellied ' ; and compare /. H. iv. ii. 2 
 93, ' Hang ye, gor-bellied knaves, are ye undone ! ' 
 
 Procus and Puella, vol. vi. p. 122 : — 
 
 ' I had been in vaine j 
 She onely sties to such as have no braine.' 
 
 'SjssA, flies. 
 
 Earth and Age, vol. vi. p. 134 : — 
 'Let into Ganges drops' 
 Read, drop. 
 
 Earth and Age, vol. vi. p. 138 : — 
 
 ' Where's the Tarpeian masse, sta ructure none 
 More famous ? ' 
 
 Read, a structure. 
 
 The Man-hater, vol. vi. p. 158 : — 
 
 ' Hie expiat for 
 This inexhausted wickedness ' 
 
 Read, How. 
 
1 66 The Old Dramatists 
 
 The Man-hater, vol. vi. p. 191 : — 
 
 ' His guts full stuft, and braines well toxt with wine.' 
 
 Qy. foxed} Nares {Glossary) says, 'This word 
 occurs twice in Hey wood's Philocothonista, 1635, 
 in the sense of intoxicated. We also find taxing, 
 p. 29, intoxicating.' In all these cases I suspect 
 there is the same misprint. 
 
 Jupiter and To, vol. vi. p. 273 : — 
 
 "Tis as I said before : but kavingher, 
 Some pretty tale, I prethee.' 
 
 Read, leaving. 
 
 Pelopcea and A lope, vol. vi. p. 301 : — 
 
 ' That done, we toucht our Beagles, and so made 
 Both hills and vallies eccho to his death.' 
 
 Read, bugles. 
 
 Fortune by Land and Sea, vol. vi. p. 392 : — 
 
 'Come . . . thy melancholy makes our teems to vaile 
 heir foretops, and all our Jades crestfaln, and to see thee 
 wail in woe in the deep cart-roots up to the bellies plunge 
 in pain.' 
 
 Read, cart-ruts. 
 
 Fortune by Land and Sea, vol. vi. p. 409 : — 
 
 ' Sirrah I have a Proclamation to publish and because 
 myself am somewhat hoarse, and thou hast a large wide 
 mouth and a laudible voice,' etc. . 
 
 Read, an audible. 
 
Conjectural Readings 167 
 
 Fortune by Land and Sea, vol. vi. p. 42 1 : — ' 
 
 ' If please your worship here is a manner, or a kind of 
 some foul desire to have some conference with you.' 
 
 Read, mariner, and seafowl desires, i.e. who 
 desires. Old Harding asks, 'A sea-fowl ? ' and the 
 Clown answers, ' Yes, a sea-gul, I mean a Mariner.' 
 
MIDDLETONi 
 
 Blurt, Master Constable, I. 2. 153 : — 
 
 ' No, sir, you are ingrost : you must give my officer a 
 groat ; it 's nothing to me.' 
 
 Read, ' So, sir,' etc. 
 
 The Phoenix, iii. i. 60: — 
 
 ' I ha' seen the day I could have told money put of other 
 men's purses.' 
 
 Qy. tolFdl though of course told may mean 
 ' counted out.' 
 
 Michaelmas Term, ii. 3. 383 : — 
 
 'Easy. How like you my Roman hand, i' faith ? 
 ' Dust. Exceeding well, sir, but that you rest too much 
 upon your R, and make your ease too little.' 
 
 Read, Ks, for the sake of the coarse pun on ease 
 and g'j. 
 
 Mayor of Queenborough, iv. 2. 135 : — 
 
 ' Her uncle and myself, 
 Wild in this tempest, as e'er robb'd man's peace. 
 Will undertake, upon life's deprivation. 
 He shall accept this oath.' 
 
 Dyce suggests, ' In this wild tempest.' I would 
 read, ' Wild tho' this tempest.' 
 
 • The references are to BuUen's edition, 8 vols. 1885-6. 
 
 168 
 
Conjectural Readings 1 69 
 
 The Old Law, i. i. 207 : — 
 
 ' Forty of 'em I know my seniors, 
 That did due deeds of darkness too ; their country 
 Has watch'd 'em a good turn for 't.' 
 
 (^y. ' That did do deeds,' etc. ? 
 
 The Old Law, i. i. 223 : — 
 
 ' I have felt nature's winters, sicknesses, 
 Yet ever kept a lively sap in me 
 To greet the cheerful spring of health again.' 
 
 Bullen would prefer ' winter-sicknesses ' ; but 
 surely ' sicknesses ' is in apposition with ' winters.' 
 
 The Old Law, i. i. 320-324 : — 
 
 ' Improvident, at least partial nature ! 
 (Weak woman in this kind), who, in thy last 
 Teeniing, forgets the former, ever making 
 The burden of thy last throes still the dearest 
 Darling ; oh yet,' etc. 
 
 This is Bullen's reading. The old edition 
 gives : — 
 
 ' Teeming still forgets the former, ever making 
 The burthen of thy last throws the dearest 
 Darling ; oh yet,' etc. 
 
 Gifford and Dyce give : — ■ 
 
 '(Weak woman in this kind), who, in thy last teeming 
 
 Forgetest still the former, ever making 
 
 The burthen of thy last throes the dearest darling.' 
 
 I cannot believe that last was repeated as in 
 
1 70 The Old Dramatists 
 
 Dyce, Gifford, and Bullen's editions, or that still 
 can have crept in. I would therefore suggest : — 
 
 ' Who, in thy teeming 
 Still dost forget the former, ever making 
 The burthen of thy latest throes the dearest 
 Darling; oh yet,' etc. 
 
 The Old Law, i. i. 426 : — 
 
 ' I cannot (this knowing) fear 
 That, when I am gone hence, I shall be there.' 
 
 ' GiiTord,' Bullen notes, ' says : " The conclusion 
 of this speech I do not understand." Should we 
 read " here," and understand by the passage, " I 
 cannot doubt but that, after my death, my name 
 will live among my countrymen." Cf. 1. 174, 
 ' Buried my name in Epire."' 
 
 I would read, ' What, when,' etc. 
 
 The Old Law, ii. i. 183 : — 
 
 ' Now I would have men know what I resemble 
 A truth indeed.' 
 
 Read, A' truth indeed, i.e. in truth. 
 The Old Law, v. i. 148 : — 
 
 ' More reverence to the place than to the persons : 
 To the one I offer up a [spreading] palm 
 Of duty and obedience [a]s to heaven, 
 Imploring justice, which was never wanting 
 Upon that bench whilst their own fathers sat ; 
 But unto you, my hands contracted thus,' etc. 
 
 Gifford remarks : ' I have inserted spreading. 
 
Conjectural Readings 1 7 1 
 
 not merely on account of its completing the verse, 
 but because it contrasts well with contracted. 
 Whatever the author's word was, it was shuffled 
 out of its place at the press, and appears as a mis- 
 print {showdu) in the succeeding line.' 
 
 Perhaps under showdu the word concealed was 
 shadowing. 
 
 The Old Law, v. i. 225, 226 : — 
 
 'This were the judgment-seat we [stand at] now ! 
 [Of] the heaviest crimes that euer made up [sin] 
 Unnaturalness and inhumanity, 
 You are found foul and guiltly,' etc. 
 
 This is Gifford's text for that of the old 
 edition : — 
 
 ' This were the judgment seat, we now 
 The heaviest crimes that ever made up, 
 Unnaturalness in humanity.' 
 
 ' This were,' he explains as ' O, that this were.' 
 I suggest: — 
 
 ' Were this the judgment-seat, we now to judge 
 The heaviest crimes that ever made up all 
 Unnaturalness and inhumanity,' etc. 
 
 A Trick to catch the Old One, v. 2. 127 : — 
 
 '■Hoard. Daintily abus'd ! you've put ay««/upon me ! 
 
 Luc. Ha, ha, ha ! 
 
 Hoard. A common strumpet ! ' 
 
 I would read ' a punk! 
 
172 The Old Dramatists 
 
 The Family of Love, i. 2. 161 : — 
 
 'Thou wilt tomorrow, thou, sayest, begone ; if thou wilt 
 know the worst of a country's marry before thou goest ; for 
 if thou canst endure a curst wife, never care what company 
 thou comest in.' 
 
 Qy. Insert curses after country's ? 
 
 The Family of Love, v. 2. 25 : — 
 
 ' Aurora, now the blushing sun's approach 
 Dart not more comfort to this universe 
 Than thou to me.' 
 
 ' Dyce,' says Bullen, ' reads : — 
 
 " Aurora, now the blushing sun approaches " ; 
 
 adding, 'I suspect that the whole line is corrupted, 
 and that the epithet "blushing" belongs to 
 "Aurora."' The old edition gives now, and with 
 Bullen's emendation nor, no change seems to be 
 needed ; but it would be easy to read, 
 
 ' Blushing Aurora, nor the sun's approach.' 
 
 Your Five Gallants, ii. i. 123 : — 
 
 ' It is no affliction, gentlemen.' 
 
 Dyce suggests, ' It is not a fiction.' Qy. ' It is 
 no affection^ i.e. affectation? Compare Hamlet, 
 ii. 2. 464 ; Lov^s Labour's Lost, v. i. 4. 
 
 Your Five Gallants, ii. 3. 337 : — 
 ' Why, what 's the business ? filch it on hob goblet ! ' 
 
 I would read, 'filching on {i.e. of) yon goblet ! ' 
 
Conjectural Readings 173 
 
 the blunder being possibly due to some confusion 
 with the word ' hob-goblin.' 
 
 Your Five Gallants, iii. 5. 62 : — 
 
 ' Pur. No less than three at once, sir, 
 Made a triangle with their swords and daggers. 
 And all opposing me. 
 
 Fit. And amongst those three only one hurt you, sir ? 
 Pur. Ex for ex.' 
 
 Dyce queries, ' Can this expression mean " ecce, 
 for example"?' I believe it is nothing more than 
 a contraction of the old legal phrase ' except before 
 excepted,' exceptis excipiendis, which in Twelfth . 
 Night, i. 3. 7, Sir Toby burlesques in the words, 
 ' Why, let her except, before excepted.' 
 
 Your Five Gallants, iv. 7. 112: — 
 
 ' You unlucky, maple-faced rascal.' 
 
 Dyce remarks, ' Whether this epithet is to be 
 explained rough-faced, or brown-faced, or broad- 
 faced, seems doubtful. See Gifford's note on 
 B. Jonson's Works, vol. vi. p. 156.' Gifford there 
 suspects that the term rather refers to. colour, and 
 means tann'd, or sun-burnt, than alludes, as Malone 
 thinks, to the rough bark of the maple. Surely the 
 word means ' mottled,' like the grain of maple. 
 
 A Mad World, my Masters, ii. 2. 19 : — 
 
 'Tomorrow your lordship shall see my cocks, my fish- 
 ponds, my park, my champion grounds : I keep champers 
 in my house, can show your lordship some pleasure.' 
 
174 The Old Dramatists 
 
 Dyce suggests that champers perhaps means 
 horses; Halliwell, hounds; Nares, caters. Surely 
 we should read chambers ; it is the house that now 
 is being shown, and horses are not kept in houses. 
 What caters, as in Bullen's copy of Nares and my 
 own, or' eaters, as in Dyce's, may mean, 1 cannot 
 guess. 
 
 A Fair Quarrel, iii. i. 146 : — 
 
 ' Sir, either draw 
 And that not slightingly, but with the care 
 Of your best preservation, with that watchfulness 
 As you 'd defend yourself from circular fire, 
 Your siris rage, or her lord — this will require it — 
 Or you'll be too soon lost, for-I 've an anger 
 Has gathered mighty strength against you, mighty : 
 Yet you shall find it honest to the last, 
 Noble and fair.' 
 
 I suppose Dyce and Bullen discover some sense 
 in the italicised words, but to me they yield none 
 whatever. It seems plain that it is a material 
 danger of which Captain Agar speaks, and I would 
 read, ' The sea's rage in her flood' ; supposing Y' 
 to have been taken for Y'', as is so frequently the 
 case : the two most terrible of material forces will 
 thus have been named. 
 
 No Wit, No Help like a Woman's, ii. 3. 258 : — 
 
 ' What deeps I sge beneath me, in whose falls 
 Many a nimble mortal toils 
 And scarce can yg^rf himself.' 
 
Conjectural Readings 175 
 
 Dyce records a friend's conjecture _/?««/, i.e. float, 
 which Bullen rightly rejects. I would x&a.dfend. 
 
 A Chaste Maidin Cheapside, i. i. 27: — 
 
 ' Errors ? nay, the city cannot hold you, wife, 
 But you must needs fetch words from Westminster : 
 Thd done, i' faith.' 
 
 Read, Hd done, etc. 
 
 Anything for a Quiet Life, i. i. 88 : — 
 
 ' Good Sir Francis, you have had sore eyes too, you have 
 been a gamester, but you have given it o'er ; and to redeem 
 the vice belonged to't, you now entertain certain far eels of 
 silenced ministers, which, I think, will equally undo you.' 
 
 Oi farcels Dyce remarks that 'it 'is, perhaps, a 
 word formed from the verb to farce (to stuff), 
 though I have not elsewhere met with it.' Even 
 if there were such a word, I cannot see what 
 appositeness it would have here. I would read 
 parcels, comparing The Merchant of Venice, i. 2. 
 119, ' I am glad this parcel oivfooevs are so reason- 
 able' ; All's Well, ii. 3. 58, 'this youthM parcel Of 
 noble bachelors stand at my bestowing.' 
 
 The Witch, ii. 2. 1 36 : — 
 
 ' By the sweet health of youth, I will be carefial, 
 And never prate on 't, nor like a cunning snarer. 
 Make thy c/z^rfname the bird to call in others.' 
 
 Bullen notes, 'Cleped, called.' But surely the 
 metaphor is from the clipped wing of a bird in a 
 
176 The Old Dramatists 
 
 snare, her 'clipped name' being her injured 
 reputation. Compare below, iv. 2. 52-53 : — 
 
 ' So 'tis our trade to set snares for other women, 
 'Cause we were once caught ourselves.' 
 
 The Changeling, v. 2. 60 : — 
 
 After this line, a line, to be given to Tomaso, 
 has dropped out in Bullen's edition. 
 
 The Spanish Gipsy, ii. i. 240: — 
 
 'You told I was some copper coin.' 
 
 Dyce queries trowed} Possibly the meaning is, 
 ' You counted me for some copper coin.' 
 
 The Spanish Gipsy, iv. i. 70: — 
 
 ' Vow, as these flowers themselves entwine, 
 Of April's wealth building a throne 
 Round, so your love to one or none.' 
 
 Bullen suggests that we should place a comma 
 after ' throne,' and read, ' To bound your love,' etc. 
 I should prefer, placing the cornma after ' throne,' 
 to read ' Bound so your love,' etc., as an ellipti- 
 cal expression for 'that so your love is bound,' 
 etc. 
 
 Women Beware Women, i. 2. 56 : — 
 
 'ZzV. Then I must tell you 
 Your money was soon parted. 
 Guar. Light her now, brother. 
 Liv. Where is my niece ? ' 
 
Conjectural Readings 177 
 
 Bullen remarks, 'The text is corrupt. I fear 
 the following emendation is hardly satisfactory : — 
 
 " Liv. Then I must tell you 
 Your money was soon parted. 
 Fab. Like enow. 
 Liv. Brother, where 's my niece ? " 
 
 The reader will remember that the last syllable 
 of enow was frequently sounded like the adverb 
 now. Between light her now and like enow there 
 is no great difference of pronunciation.' 
 
 Assigning the speeches as in the text, I would 
 read : — 
 
 ' ^Slight, her own brother ! ' \aside. 
 
 Guardiano being surprised at Livia's sarcastic 
 answer to Fabricio. 
 
 Women Beware Women, iii. 2. loi : — 
 
 ' Who was 't told us lately 
 Of a match-making right, a marriage-tender?' 
 
 Qy. rite ? The two words are often confounded. 
 
 Women Beware Women, iii. 2. 149 : — 
 
 ' What harder chance can fall to woman, 
 Who was born to cleave to some man, 
 Than to bestow her time, youth, beauty, 
 Life's observance, honour, duty. 
 On a thing for no use good. 
 But to make physic work, or blood 
 Force fresh in an old lady's cheek ? 
 She that would be 
 
 Mother of fools, let her compound with me.' 
 M 
 
178 The Old Dramatists 
 
 Has a line fallen out after cheek ? The rest of 
 the lines rhyme regularly. 
 
 More Dissemblers Beside Women, ii. i. 57 : — 
 
 ' Your goodness simple, without gain or art.' 
 Dyce queries ^//g? Possibly _/«?'«, i.e. feign. 
 
 The World Tost at Tennis, 1. 300 : — 
 
 ''Ju'p. Were not these precedents for all future ages ? 
 Scho. But none attains their glories, king of stars ; 
 These are the fames are foUow'd and pursu'd 
 But npver overtaken. 
 Jup. The/a/e's below, 
 
 The god's arms are not shorten'd, nor do we shine 
 With fainter influence.'. 
 
 , Bullen notes, ' Qy. " The Fates bestow ? " (i.e. 
 the Fates are as bountiful as in former days).' 
 
 This seems to ,me very unsatisfactory, I would 
 read, ' The fauli 's below,' i.e. it is not the im- 
 potence of the gods in bestowing, but the lack of 
 deserving on the part of men. Compare above 
 1. 251 : — 
 
 ' How can it be but they have both abus'd, 
 And vf omIA, for their ills, make our justice guilty ?' 
 
 The Black Book, vol. viii. p. 14 : — 
 
 ' Thus in a pair of hoary slippers, his stockings dangling 
 about his wrists^ etc. 
 
 I do not remember to have elsewhere met with 
 wrists = ankles. 
 
Conjectural Readings 179 
 
 Micro-Cynicon, His Defiance to Envy, 1. 6 : — 
 
 ' Avaunt, I say 1 I '11 anger thee enough, 
 And fold thy fiery eyes in thy smazky snuflf.' 
 
 Dyce says, ' i.e. perhaps smitchy or smeechy 
 (reechy, black).' Qy. only a misprint of smoaky, 
 i.e. smoky?. 
 
GREENEi 
 
 Orlando Furioso, p. 90/1 : — 
 
 ' And I, my lord, am Mandricard of Mexico, 
 Whose climate 's fairer than Iberia's, 
 Seated beyond the sea of Tripoly, 
 And richer than the plot Hesperides, 
 Or that same isle wherein Ulysses' love 
 LuU'd in her lap the young Telegonus : 
 That did but Venus tread a dainty step. 
 So would she like the land of Mexico, 
 As Paphos and brave Cyprus set aside, 
 With me sweet lovely Venus would abide.' 
 
 Of the line in italics Dyce remarks, 'This line — 
 before which something has certainly dropt out — 
 appears to be corrupted.' I doubt there being 
 any corruption, and take the meaning to be that 
 if Venus would only condescend to leave her 
 usual haunts and pay a visit to Mexico, she would 
 prefer it to Paphos, etc. 
 
 Orlando Furioso, p. 90/2 : — 
 
 ' Swift fame hath sounded to our western seas 
 The matchless beauty of Angelica, 
 Fairer than was the nymph of Mercury, 
 
 ' The references are to Dyce's Edition, i vol., 1874. 
 ISO 
 
Conjectural Readings 1 8 1 
 
 Who when bright Phcsbus mounteth up his coach, 
 And tracts Aurora in her silver steps, 
 And sprinkles from the folding of her lap 
 White lilies, roses, and sweet violets.' 
 
 Dyce notes, ' In England's Parnassus, 1600, 
 p. 415, this passage is quoted with the variation 
 "And sprinkling" etc. I have no doubt that 
 a line which immediately preceded the present 
 one has dropped out. A critic in The Re- 
 trospective Review, iii. 1 11, silently prints "Doth 
 sprinkle." ' 
 
 I would read Besprinkles ; dnd being caught 
 from the line above, and the nymph being 
 Maia. 
 
 Orlando Furioso, p. 92/2 : — 
 
 'Honour, — methinks the title is too base ; 
 Mighty, glorious, and excellent, — ay, these, 
 'Vbj glorious genius sound within my mouth.' 
 
 Of 'glorious,' in the third line, Dyce says, 'A 
 wrong epithet, — repeated from the preceding line.' 
 I am inclined to think that the corruption is in 
 the second line, and that for glorious we should 
 there read renowned. The rhythm of the line 
 would be improved. 
 
 Orlando Furioso, p. 95/1 : — 
 
 ' Brave country, know, where sacred love unites. 
 The knot oigordian at the shrine of Jove 
 Was never half so hard or intricate 
 As be the bands which lovely Venus ties. 
 
1 82 The Old Dramatists 
 
 Sweet is my love ; and, for I love, my lord, 
 
 Seek not unless, as Alexander did, 
 
 To cut the plough-swain's traces with thy sword, 
 
 Or slice the slender fillets of my life : 
 
 Or else, my lord, Orlando must be mine.' 
 
 Yox gordian I would read Gordium. On p. 96/2 
 Greene writes correctly ' This gordian knot,' and 
 here he would scarcely use such a phrase as ' knot 
 of gordian' For Or Dyce would read 'For,' 
 remarking, ' But the whole speech is corrupted.' 
 I doubt this, and would read and punctuate thus : — 
 
 ' Seek not, useless, as Alexander did. 
 To cut the plough-swain's traces with thy sword : 
 Or slice' the slender fillets of my life, 
 Or else, my lord, Orlando must be mine.' 
 
 From his punctuation, with a comma only after 
 ' sword,' and a colon after ' life,' Dyce apparently 
 takes the construction to be, ' To cut . . . sword, 
 or to slice,' etc. To me it seems that the meaning 
 is, ' Do not uselessly hope to cut the knot of the 
 diiificulty as Alexander cut the Gordian knot with 
 his sword : either kill me, or Orlando must be 
 mine.' 
 
 Looking - Glass for London and England, 
 p. 1 42/ 1 :— 
 
 ' Thine eldest sister is Lamana, 
 Arid Sodom on thy right hand seated is.' 
 
 Of Lamana Dyce says, ' Some corruption here.' 
 The lines are a jportion of Jonas's warning to 
 
Conjectural Readings 183 
 
 Nineveh, and the sense is that that city is own 
 sister, and (morally) next neighbour, to the ' cities 
 of the plain.' One of these cities was Admah, or 
 Adama, mentioned with Sodom and Gomorrah in 
 Genesis, x. 19, xiv. 2, 8 ; Deuteronomy, xxix. 23 ; 
 and I would here suggest El Adama for Lamana, 
 thereby making the line metrical. 
 
 Looking- Glass for London and England, 
 p. 143/2 :— 
 
 'The covetous man sorry for his sin.' 
 The 4to gives 'forie sorry ' ; read, ' sore sorry.' 
 
 fames the Fourth, p. 187/1 :-^ 
 
 'Stage direction. Music playing within, enter Aster 
 Oberon, King of the Fairies ; and Antics, who dance about 
 a tomb placed conveniently on the stage ; out of which 
 suddenly starts up, as they dance, Bohan, a Scot, attired 
 like a ridstall man.' 
 
 Of ridstall Dyce remarks, ' A mis-spelling, if 
 not a corruption.' Can the word be byr-stall, i.e. 
 cowherd ? 
 
 James the Fourth, p. 192/1 : — 
 
 ' . . . and if your queen repine. 
 Although my nature cannot brook of blood. 
 And scholars grieve to hear of murderous deeds, 
 But if the lamb should let the lion's way, 
 By my advice the lamb should lose her life.* 
 
 I would read Yet. 
 
184 The Old Dramatists 
 
 James the Fourth, p. 193/1 : — 
 
 ' If any gentleman . . . will entertain ... a young 
 stripling . . . that can sleep with the soundest, eat with 
 the hungriest, work with the sickest, lie with the loudest, 
 face with the proudest,' etc. 
 
 On sickest Dyce notes, 'A friend conjectures 
 •' sickerest." Qy. "stoutest?"' 
 
 Against both conjectures I object that Ateukin's 
 catalogue of pretended qualifications is a cata- 
 logue of ^zyqualifications ; and I would therefore 
 read ' shirk work with the sickest ' ; the omission 
 of shirk before work from the similarity of sound 
 would be very likely. 
 
 James the Fourth, p. 195/2 : — 
 
 ' Go shroud us in our harbour, where we '11 see 
 The pride of folly, as it ought to be.' 
 
 Dyce notes ' Qy. " prize " {i.e. reward) ? ' 
 I think pride is sound, taking ' as it ought to 
 be ' to mean ' properly represented,' not, as Dyce 
 apparently understands, ' well-deserved.' 
 
 James the Fourth, p. 195/2 : — 
 
 ' Whoso thou be that passest [by]. 
 For I know one shall pass, know I 
 Am Cyrus of Persia, and I pray 
 Leave me not thus like a clod of clay 
 Wherewith my body is covered.' 
 
Conjectural Readings 185 
 
 ' The 4to,' says Dyce, ' gives 
 
 " I am Civus of Persia 
 And \ prithee leave me not thus," etc. 
 
 But all this is stark nonsense. See the inscription 
 on the tomb of Cyrus in Plutarch, Alex. 69.' 
 
 The inscription is as follows : ' O man^ whoso- 
 ever thou art, and whensoever thou comest (for 
 come I know thou wilt), I am Cyrus, the founder 
 of the Persian empire ; envy me not the little earth 
 that covers my body! Surely, following this, we 
 should read : — 
 
 '■Envy me not this little clod of clay.' 
 
 James the Fourth, p. 196/1 : — 
 
 ' I can no more ; my patience will not warp 
 To see these flatterers how they scorn and carp.' 
 
 Read, but. 
 
 James the Fourth, '^.»2o6\'i : — 
 
 ' What, shall I jet in breeches like a squire ? 
 Alas, poor dwarf, thy mistress is unmeet ! ' 
 
 ' Corrupted,' says Dyce ; ' this line ought to 
 rhyme with the preceding one.' 
 
 This is clear ; and I would read, ' unmeet is such 
 attire! 
 
 James the Fourth, p. 21 9/1 : — 
 
 ' Stay, princes, wage not war : a privy grudge 
 'Twixt such as you, most high in majesty. 
 Afflicts both nocent and the innocent. 
 
1 86 The Old Dramatists 
 
 How many swords, dear princes, see I drawn ! 
 The friend against his friend, a deadly ^»«?,' 
 A desperate division in those lands 
 Which, if they join in one, command the world.' 
 
 The 4to gives friend, which Dyce alters to 
 fiend. The next words, however, 'A desperate 
 division,' show clearly that we should read feud. 
 For an apparent misprint of fiend for feud, see 
 note on p. 197. 
 
 Alphonsus, p. 225/1 : — 
 
 ' The time hath been when Homer's sugar'd Muse 
 Did make eacli echo to repeat his verse. 
 That every coward that durst crack a spear, 
 And tilt and tournay for his lady's sake. 
 Was painted out in colours of such price 
 As might become the proudest potentate. 
 But nowadays so irksome idless' sleights. 
 And cursed charms have witch'd each student's mind. 
 That death it is to any of them all. 
 If that their hands to penning you do call.' 
 
 Can so irksome be right? I think we should 
 read frolicsome. 
 
 Alphonsus, p. 230/1 : — 
 
 ' Pardon, Alphonsus, this my first offence. 
 And let me die if e'er I flight again.' 
 
 Read, slight. It is his 'uncourteous words' 
 for which Lselius is apologising. 
 
Conjectural Readings 187 
 
 George-A-Greene, p. 268/2 : — 
 
 ' To mend thy living take thou Middleham-castle, 
 Th£ hold of both ; and if thou want living, complain, 
 Thou shalt have more to maintain thy estate.' 
 
 I would read That, Y* having been mistaken 
 for Y®, i.e. hold that from both of us, King James 
 and myself; and would omit living, as being 
 caught from the line above. 
 
DEKKERi 
 
 Th-e Gentle Craft, vol. i. p. 28 : — 
 
 ' They gingle in my pocket like S. Mary Queries bels.' 
 
 Read, Overy's ; a correction made in the margin 
 of my copy. St. Mary Overy, now St. Saviour's, 
 Southwark, was once a church of great beauty ; 
 famous, among other things, as being the burial 
 place of Massinger, Fletcher, and Gower. It has 
 a peal of twelve bells, nine of which are over four 
 hundred years old. See Hare, Walks in London, 
 i. 495. 
 
 The Gentle Craft, vol. i. p. 48 : — 
 
 ' Say that I 
 Do constantly believe ^o«<, constant haue.^ 
 
 Qy. 'Do constantly believe your constant 
 love ' ? 
 
 Olde Fortunatus, Prol. 1. 3. vol. i. p. 85 : — 
 
 ' Of Loues sweete war, our timerous Muse doth sing, 
 And to the bosome of each gentle deare, 
 Offence her Artless tunes.' 
 
 Read, ' Offers her artless tunes.' 
 
 1 The references are to Pearson's Reprint, 4 vols. 1873. 
 188 
 
Conjectural Readings 1 89 
 
 Olde Fortunatus, vol. i. p. 91 : — 
 
 ' Onely for sport, to see the Apish world 
 Worship such beast with sound idolatrie.' 
 
 'R.ez.A,fond. 
 
 Olde Fortunatus, vol. i. p. 106 : — 
 
 ' Inmockerie hXo-wes from his rotten browes.' 
 
 Read, 'from off his.' 
 
 Olde Fortunatus, vol. i. p. 116: — 
 
 ' Andel. But hast no sharper reasons than this ? 
 
 ' Shad. Yes one ; the dagger in Cyprus had never 
 stab'd out such sixe ^tme pipes but for hunger. 
 
 ^ Andel. Why, you dolt, these pies are but in their 
 minority.' 
 
 Read, pies. The Dagger, in Holborn, was an 
 ordinary famous for its pies, which were called 
 ' dagger-pies.' 
 
 Olde Fortunatus, vol. i. p. 122 : — 
 
 ' It had been so, if riches had been mine.' 
 
 Read, wisdom. He had chosen riches, and 
 hence his ruin. 
 
 Olde Fortunatus, vol. i. p. 133 : — 
 
 ' Till uow, I did not dally with loues fire.' 
 Read, now and but. 
 Olde Fortunatus, vol. i. p. 140 : — 
 
 ' Here was no Princesse but my princely self.' 
 Read, thy. 
 
iQO The Old Dramatists 
 
 Satiro-mastix, vol. i. p. 196 : — 
 
 'Who's there? stray, treade softly.' 
 Read, stay. 
 
 Satiro-mastix, vol. i. p. 204 : — 
 
 'For I ha some things that were fetcht (I am sure) as 
 faire as some of the Low Countries.' 
 
 Readj/a^. 
 
 Satiro-mastix, vol. i. p. 213 : — 
 
 ' The Muses birdes the Bees were hiu'd sxidjled 
 Vs in our cradle.' 
 
 Read,yKflf. 
 
 Satiro-mastix, vol. i. p. 221 : — 
 
 ' Wut thou be proude little Lucifer ? well, thou shalt goe 
 how then thou wilt Maide-marian ; come busse thy little 
 Anthony now, my cleane Cleopatria ; so, so, goe thy waies 
 Alexis secrets, th' a breath as sweet as the Rose, that growes 
 by the Beare-garden, as sweete as the proud'st head a 
 Garlicke in England.' 
 
 Of Alexis secrets I can make no sense, but take 
 it to be a corruption of alexiterick, i.e. having the 
 power to ward off infection. The allusion in the 
 next lines is, as Collier points out, to the effluvia 
 from the Hope bear-garden which penetrated to 
 the Rose tavern ; and Tucca vies with Pistol 
 in his variety of names and epithets. 
 
 Satiro-mastix, vol. i. p. 229 : — 
 
 ' Wher 's the sering thou carries! about thee ? have 
 I found thee my scowring-sticke ; what's.my name Bubo .?' 
 
Conjectural Readings 191 
 
 I suppose sering is another spelling of syringe, 
 formerly spelt siringe, from O. F. seringue, and the 
 allusion to Horace's ink-horn from which he 
 squirted gall upon his enemies. 
 
 Satiro-mastix, vol. i; p. 229 : — 
 
 ' Death of Hercules, he could never play that part well 
 in 's life, no Fulkes you could not.' 
 
 I think we should read, ' no hulks, you could 
 not.' The allusions to Horace's {i.e. Ben Jonson's) 
 bulky stature are frequent. 
 
 The Honest Whore, vol. ii. p. 3 1 : — 
 
 ' Belike then shee 's some sale curtizan.' 
 
 Read, stale. 
 
 The Honest Whore, vol. ii. p. 33 : — • 
 
 ' At your best pleasure ivhewsome rubbers there.' 
 
 Read, 
 
 ' At your best pleasure ; whew ! some rubbers there ! ' 
 
 i.e. Holla, let some rubbers attend ! 
 
 The Honest Whore, vol. ii. p. 44 : — 
 
 ' I faith they ha pepperd me, sister : look, dost not spin ? ' 
 
 Read, does 't i.e. does it (sc. the blood) not spin 
 from my head ? For ' spin,' of blood, cf H. V. iv. 
 2. 10, ' That their hot blood may spin in English 
 eyes.' Misprints of this trivial kind abound in this 
 edition ; but, except where they are at all likely to 
 obscure the sense, I do not notice them. 
 
192 The Old Dramatists 
 
 The Honest Whore, vol. ii. p. 52 : — 
 
 ' And all you gallants can bestow on them, 
 Is that French Infant, which ne'er acts, but speaks.^ 
 
 Transpose acts and speaks ; the ' infant ' of 
 course being the Morbus Gallicus. 
 
 The Honest Whore, vol. ii. p. Sj : — 
 
 ' A sister's thread yfaith had been enough 
 To lead me anywhere.' 
 
 Read, spinster's. 
 
 The Honest Whore, vol. ii. p. 69 : — 
 
 ' Itch lurch if you will.' 
 Read, ' Vth lurch,' etc. 
 
 The Honest Whore, vol. ii. p. 117 : — 
 
 ' Mat. And an old knave, there 's more deceit in him then 
 in sixteene Poticaries : its a Deuill, thou maist beg, starue, 
 hang, damne ; does he send thee so much as a cheese ? 
 
 ' Orl. Or so much as a Gammon of Bacon, 
 
 He '11 giue it his Dogs first. 
 
 ''Mai. Pi.Jayle, Kjayle. 
 
 ' Orl. A Jew, a Jew, sir. 
 
 ' Mat. A Dog. 
 
 ' Orl. An English Mastiffe, sir. 
 
 ' Mat, Pox rot out his old stinking garbage.' 
 
 For Jayle should we read Javd {i.e. worthless 
 fellow) ? The word, in the sense of villain, rogue, 
 etc., occurs twice in More's Utopia, and twice in 
 Rede me and be nott wrothe, 1528. 
 
Conjectural Reading^ 193 
 
 The Honest Whore, vol ii. p. 1 56 : — 
 
 ' I commit your Grace.' 
 
 Is this a contracted (or perhaps iaterrupted) 
 form of the old conclusion of dedicatory epistles, 
 etc., ' I commit your Grace to the tuition of God' ? 
 Compare Much Ado about Nothing, i. i. 281, 282. 
 
 The Whore of Babylon, vol. ii. p. 219: — 
 
 ' They have but 17 daughters young and faire, 
 Vowd to liue uestalls, and to know the touch 
 Of any forced or vnreuerend hand.' 
 
 Read, not. 
 
 The Whore of Babylon, vol. ii. p. 220 : — 
 ' Stands my beard right ? the gowne I must look graue.' 
 
 Read and punctuate, 
 
 ' Stands my beard right ? my gown ? I must,' etc. 
 
 The Whore of Babylon, vol. ii. p. 224: — 
 ' O Ye^s unkind, hard-hearted.' 
 
 Read, she's. 
 
 The Whore of Babylon, vol. ii. p. 234 : — 
 
 ' Some lyne sea cards, that know not the seas tast.' 
 Read, limn, i.e. paint. 
 
 The Whore of Babylon, vol. ii. p. 258 : — 
 
 ' These totald vp, 
 You shall a hundred thousand swordes behold 
 
 Brandisht at once, whose standes 
 
 Men will -seeme borne with weapons in their handes.' 
 
 N 
 
194 The Old Dramatists 
 
 Perhaps we may insert, 
 ' Brandished at once, vA\oi&fury who withstands ? ' 
 
 If This be not a Good Play, etc. vol. iii. p. 267 :- 
 
 ' Get thee gon : 
 That call'd for.' 
 
 Read, Thou'rt. 
 
 If This be not a Good Play, etc., vol. iii. p. 305 :- 
 
 ' Onely to eate a liquorish appetite 
 Digst our religious wales up.' 
 
 Read, sate and walls. 
 
 Match Me in London, vol. iv. p. 1 6 1 : — 
 
 ' Heare me, thou shin'stwith thunder, yet this hand 
 That can shake kingdomes downe, thrusts into thine 
 The scepters, if proud yiz//, thou lets them fall 
 Thou beat'st thyself in peeces on a rocke.' 
 
 Read, 'if proud /iii?/, thou,' etc. 
 
 Match Me in London, vol. iv. p. 1 87 : — 
 
 ' Why is this rose denied with a pearled teare.' 
 Read, dew'd. 
 
 The Wonder of a Kingdome, vol. iv. p. 234 : — 
 
 ' A benefit given by a Niggards hand 
 Is stale sxiit. gravity bread, the hunger-sterv'd 
 Takes it, but cannot eate it.' 
 
 Read, gravelly, i.e. like gravel. 
 
Conjectural Readings 195 
 
 77^1? Sun's Darling, vol. iv. p. 338 : — 
 
 ' Never till now 
 Did admiration beget in me truly 
 The rare match'd twins at once, pittie and pleasure ; 
 So royal, so aboundant in earth's blessings, 
 Should not partake the comfort of those beames.' 
 
 Qy. Should we insert after ' pleasure,' 
 ' Pleasure at this brave sight, pity that one ' ? 
 
WEBSTERi 
 
 The White Devil, "p. 23/1 : — 
 I 
 ' My lord Cardinal, 
 Were your intelligencing ears as loving 
 As to my thoughts, had you an honest tongue, 
 I would not care though you proclaim'd them all.' 
 
 I believe we should read and punctuate thus : 
 
 ' Were your intelligencing ears as loving, 
 A?td to my thoughts had you an honest tongue,' etc. 
 
 i.e. were your ears as ready to put a generous 
 construction upon any rumours to my discredit as 
 they are eager to believe such rumours, and had 
 you an honest tongue to speak my thoughts, etc. . 
 
 The White Devil, p. 46/1 : — 
 
 ' I have liv'd 
 Riotously ill, like some that live in court. 
 And sometimes when my face was full of smiles, 
 Have felt ike maze of conscience in my breast.' 
 
 Surely the maze cannot be right : Qy. tk' 
 
 amaze ? 
 
 ^ The references are to Dyce's edition, I vol. 1857. 
 196 
 
Conjectural Readings • igy 
 
 2'he Devits Law-Case, p. 127/1 : — 
 
 ' O jealousy, 
 How violent, especially in women ! 
 How often has it raised the devil up 
 In form of a law-case ! my especial care 
 Must be to nourish craftily \!ias fiend 
 'Tween the mother and the daughter, that the deceit 
 Be not perceiv'd.' 
 
 I think we should read feud. It is true that 
 Romelio speaks of raising the devil up, but he 
 would hardly talk of nourishing ' this fiend 'tween 
 the mother and the daughter.' The word ' devil ' 
 would account iox fiend instead oifeud. 
 
 The DevWs Law-Case, p. 130/1 : — 
 
 ' Why, you whoreson fogging rascal, 
 Are these not whores enough for presentations 
 Of overseers wrong the will o' the dead. 
 Oppressions of widows or young orphans, 
 Wicked divorces, or your vicious cause 
 Of Plus quam satis to content a woman 
 But you must find new stratagems, new pursenets.' 
 
 Can whores be right, or has it been caught from 
 whoreson in the line above, and should we read 
 courts ? Why should whores bring cases against 
 overseers, guardians, who mal-administer wills? 
 What have they to do with oppressions of widows 
 or young orphans, with wicked divorces, etc. ? 
 
 The Devits Law-Case, p. 130/2 : — 
 
 ' Bad suits, and not the law, bred the law's shame.' 
 (^y. breed} 
 
I gS The Old Dramatists 
 
 The Devil's Law-Case, p. 131/2 : — r 
 
 ' Into the noble ancient family 
 Of the Palavafini! 
 
 Qy. Paravicini'i 
 
 Afpius and Virginia, p. 168/2 : — . 
 
 ' I am amongst curs a trindle-tail, and amongst fishes a 
 poor iper.' 
 
 Surely viper. Corbulo, though a clown, does 
 not misuse speech. 
 
 Appius and Virginia, p. 180/1 : — 
 
 ' Judges are term'd 
 The gods on earth : and such as are corrupt 
 Read me in this my ruin ; those that succeed me 
 That so offend, thus punish.' 
 
 Qy. Heed {i.e. let them heed) ? 
 
 Sir Thomas Wyatt, p. 186/2: — 
 
 ' Honour and happy reign. 
 Attend the new majesty of England ! ' 
 
 Qy. ' nevf-made majesty ' .? 
 
 Sir Thomas Wyatt, p. 187/1 : — 
 
 ' I^ardon me, madam, that so boldly / press 
 Into your chamber.' 
 
 Qy. omit /? 
 
 Sir Thomas Wyatt, p. 187/1^ — 
 
 ' Ask that of Suffolk's duke, and great Northumberland, 
 Who in your stead have crown'd another' 
 
 Qy. ' another queen ' ? 
 
Conjectural Readings 199 
 
 Sir Thomas Wyatt, p. 1 87/2 : — 
 
 ' Honourable friends,: and native peers, 
 That have chosen me to be the leader 
 Of these martial troops, to march against,' etc. 
 
 Qy- 
 
 '■ My honourable friends, and native peers 
 That have now chosen me to be the leader 
 0( these _j'o«;^ martial troops, to march against,' etc. ? 
 
 Sir Thomas Wyatt, p. 1 87/2 : — 
 
 ' In your hands we leaue the queen elected : 
 She hath seizure of the Tower.' 
 
 ' In your strong hands we leave the Queen elected : 
 She hath the seizure of the Tower ' ? 
 
 Sir Thomas Wyatt, p. 189/1 : — 
 
 ' The obligation wherein we all stood bound 
 To the deceas'd late King's will and our decree. 
 His cousin Jane and the two absent dukes, 
 Cannot be conceal'd without great reproach 
 To us and to our issue.' 
 
 Omit late, and read cancell'd. 
 
 Sir Thomas Wyatt, p; 189/2-: — 
 
 ' Besides this sacred proof, the princely maids, 
 Had they no will nor act to prove their right. 
 Have birthrights no privilege, being a plea so strong 
 As cannot be refell'd but by plain wrong.' 
 
200 The Old Dramatists 
 
 1 would punctuate and read as follows : — 
 
 ' Besides this sacred proof, the princely maids, — 
 Had they no will nor act to prove their right,— 
 Have Urihrighfs privilege, being a plea so strong 
 As cannot be refell'd but by plain wrong.' 
 
 Sir Thomas Wyatt, p. 192/1 : — 
 
 ' But I am overtook, and you are kind, 
 I am, beshrew _)'«>« else.' 
 
 Read, me. 
 
 Sir Thomas Wyatt, p. 193/1 : — • 
 
 ' This is the place where I betray'd my lord ; 
 This is the place where oft I have reliev'd. 
 And villain, I betray'd him to the jaws of death.' 
 
 Read, retir'd. 
 
 Sir Thomas Wyatt, p. 195/2 : — 
 
 ' Guild. The nights are tedious, and the days are sad : 
 And see you how the people stand in heaps, 
 Each man sad-looking on his oppos'd object, 
 As if a general passion possessed them ? 
 Their eyes do seem as dropping as the moon, 
 As if prepar&d for a tragedy ; 
 For never swarms of people there do tread, 
 But to rob life and to enrich the dead. 
 And show they wept. 
 Lieut. My lord, they did so, for I was there.' 
 
 On the last line but one of the passage Dyce 
 remarks, ' Either something which preceded these 
 words has dropt out, or else they are corrupted.' 
 
 I would enclose the lines ' For never . . . dead ' 
 
Conjectural Readings 2 o i 
 
 in brackets as being parenthetical, and read sure 
 for show. The Lieutenant's answer clearly indi- 
 cates this change. 
 
 Sir Thomas Wyatt, p. 196/2 : — 
 
 ' No knave, Sir Thomas ; I am a true man 
 To my queen, to whom thou art a traitor.' 
 
 Qy. ' To my dear queen ' ? 
 
 Sir Thomas Wyatt, p. 203/2 : — 
 
 ' A ruddy lip, a clear reflecting eye. 
 Cheeks purer than the maiden orient pearl, 
 That sprinkle bashfulness through the clouds.' 
 
 'Corrupted, of course,' says Dyce, '(the old 
 copies have " That sprinkler," etc.).' I think the 
 old copies are right, and that with thorough for 
 through the passage is sound. The idea is similar 
 to that in Orlando Furioso, p. 90/2 :— 
 
 ' Who when bright Phoebus mounteth up his coach, 
 And tracts Aurora in her silver steps' : 
 
 the ' bashfulness ' being the ruddy glow that causes 
 Aurora to blush as her silver steps advance. 
 
 Westward Ho, p. 21 6/1 : — 
 
 ' I think, when all 's done, I must follow his counsel, and 
 take a patch ; I['d] have had one long ere this, but for dis- 
 figuring my face : yet I had noted that a mastic patch upon 
 some women's temples hath been the very rheum of beauty.' 
 
 Of rheum, Dyce says, ' A misprint, I believe ; 
 but qy. for what?' I think undoubtedly for 
 crown. 
 
202 The Old Drdmatisijs 
 
 Westward Ho, p. 21 7/1 : — 
 
 ' It 's the fault of many that fight under this- band.' 
 Qy. banner? 
 
 Northward Ho, p. 263/1 : — ■ 
 
 ' Come, my Uttle punk, with thy two compositors to the 
 unlawful pamting-hoxxst, thy pounders : my, old poetical 
 dad will be here presently.' 
 
 The old edition has ' thy pounders a my old 
 poeticall dad,' etc. Dyce says, ' I am doubtful 
 about the right reading.' 
 
 1 1 think we should certainly read, ' Come . 
 to this unlawful printing-house ; thy ^^-founders 
 and my old,' etc. There is, of course, an indelicate 
 equivoque in ' cornpositors,' ' printing-house,' and 
 ' type-founders.' 
 
 Northward Ho, p. 267/2 : — 
 
 ' A thousand pound to a penny she spoil not her face, or 
 break her neck, or catch a cold that she may ne'er claw off 
 again.' 
 
 QY- omit notf Though in such constructions 
 old writers were often very weak in their logic. 
 
 Northward Ho, '^. 280/1 : — 
 
 ' Why, look you, was he aware of those broken patience 
 when you met him at Ware and possessed him of the down- 
 fall of his wife.' 
 
Conjectural Readings 203. 
 
 For patience Dyce suggests patients ; I know 
 not with what meaning. I would read : — 
 
 ' Why, look you, / was aware of those broking pretences 
 when ,you met him . . . wife.' 
 
 Bellamont was present throughout th^ meeting 
 at Ware between' Mayberry on the one side and 
 Greenshield and Featherstone on the other, when 
 the latter gentlemen relate how they won Mrs. 
 May berry's love. 
 
INDEX I 
 
 Of passages discussed 
 
 Beaumont and Fletcher 
 '''j Bush. . 
 
 Bloody Brother, The, 
 
 Bonduca, . 
 Coxcomb, The, . 
 
 Cupids Reuenge, 
 
 Double Marriage, The, 
 Elder Brother, The, 
 
 Fair Maid of the Inn, The, 
 
 Faithful Friends, The, 
 Faithful Shepherdess, The, 
 
 False One, The, 
 
 iii. 4 vol. 
 V, 2 ,, 
 
 11. ^ 
 
 ii. 3 
 
 iv. 2 
 
 i. I 
 
 ii, 2 
 
 ii. 6 
 
 V. 4 
 
 V- 3 
 
 iii. I 
 
 iii. 3 
 
 1. I 
 1. I 
 
 11. ,1 
 iv. 3 
 
 IX. p. 
 
 .. P 
 
 *. p. 
 
 ., P- 
 
 V. p. 
 iii. p. 
 
 ,, p. 
 
 ,, P- 
 
 ii. p. 
 
 ., p. 
 
 „ p. 
 
 ., p. 
 vi. p. 
 
 *. p. 
 
 ., p. 
 
 .. P- 
 
 „ p. 
 
 A. p. 
 .. p. 
 .. P- 
 ,, p. 
 
 iv. p. 
 
 „ p. 
 
 .. P- 
 
 ii. p. 
 
 „ p. 
 
 „ p. 
 
 ,, p. 
 
 vi. p. 
 
 „ p. 
 
 103, 
 
 413. 
 431. 
 
 7. 
 152 
 
 IS7. 
 181, 
 363, 
 378, 
 393. 
 441. 
 409. 
 235. 
 242, 
 286, 
 289, 
 
 36. 
 
 49. 
 
 S3. 
 
 S3. 
 200, 
 204, 
 
 273. 
 
 26, 
 
 48, 
 
 S5. 
 
 64, 
 250. 
 289, 
 205 
 
 EAGB 
 75 
 
 75 
 85 
 86 
 6a 
 47 
 47 
 49 
 41 
 41 
 41 
 41 
 67 
 80 
 81 
 82 
 83 
 77 
 77 
 77 
 77 
 60 
 61 
 61 
 36 
 37 
 39 
 40 
 66 
 67 
 
206 
 
 Conjectural Readings 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 PACE 
 
 Four Plays in One: The Triumph Sc. i. 
 
 vol. ii, p. 490, 
 
 42 
 
 of Honour. 
 
 
 
 
 
 II M 
 
 ,1 
 
 Sc. ii. 
 
 II II P- 499i 
 
 ■ 45 
 
 Four Plays in One; The Triumph Sc, iv. 
 
 II ii- p. 5S2i 
 
 46 
 
 of Death. 
 
 
 
 
 
 II M 
 
 1, 
 
 Sc V. 
 
 ,1 II P- SS4i 
 
 47 
 
 Honest Man's Fortune, 
 
 The, 
 
 i. I 
 
 II ii- P- 34Si 
 
 40 
 
 Humorous Lieutenant, 
 
 The, 
 
 iii. 5 
 
 1, vi. p. 478, 
 
 68 
 
 Island Princess The, 
 
 
 iii. I 
 
 ,, vii. p, 458, 
 
 70 
 
 Knight of Malta, The, 
 
 
 
 ii. 2 
 
 1, V. p. 134, 
 
 62 
 
 J 1 1 II 
 
 
 
 iii. 4 
 
 1, II p. 1671 
 
 63 
 
 II -It 
 
 
 
 iv. 2 
 
 p. 186, 
 
 63 
 
 Laws of Candy, The, 
 
 
 
 iii. 3 
 
 II V. p. 364, 
 
 64 
 
 Love's Pilgrimage, 
 
 
 
 iii, 2 
 
 II xi. p. 277, 
 
 • 87 
 
 Loyal Subject, The, , 
 
 
 
 iv. 3 
 
 1, vi. p. 85, 
 
 • 65 
 
 .11 II 
 
 
 
 iy. 4 
 
 II ,1 p. 88, 
 
 65 
 
 Ma^ Lover, The, 
 
 
 
 Epil. 
 
 . 2 vi. p. 212, 
 
 66 
 
 Maids Tragedy, The, 
 
 
 
 i. 2 
 
 ,1 i. p. 338, 
 
 34 
 
 ,, II 
 
 
 
 ii. 2 
 
 II .1 P- 359. 
 
 36 
 
 Monsieur Thomas, . 
 
 
 
 ii. 3 
 
 ,1 vii, p, 338, 
 
 70 
 
 II II 
 
 
 
 iii. I 
 
 II ,1 P- 349. 
 
 70 
 
 Niqe Valour, The, . 
 
 
 
 ii. J. 
 
 II 'I- P- 30S1 
 
 ■ 83 
 
 II 11 
 
 
 
 ii. jL 
 
 II II P- 3141 
 
 84 
 
 II II 
 
 
 
 V. I 
 
 1, 1, P- 3581 
 
 84 
 
 Night Walker, The, . 
 
 
 
 iii. 6 
 
 II xi, p. 175, 
 
 . 86 
 
 Notle Gentleman, The, 
 
 
 
 i. 2 
 
 ,, X. p. 123, 
 
 78 
 
 . II II 
 
 
 
 iii. ^ 
 
 ., ,1 p. 149. 
 
 78 
 
 II II 
 
 
 
 V. I 
 
 II II p. 1871 
 
 ■ 79 
 
 Philaster, . 
 
 
 i. I 
 
 ,1 i. p, 218, 
 
 33 
 
 Pilgrim, The, . 
 
 
 ii. n 
 
 ,, viii. p. 30, 
 
 - 71 
 
 Queen of Corinth, 
 
 
 i. 2 
 
 II v. p. 404, 
 
 65 
 
 ,, II 
 
 
 iii. I 
 
 .1 II P- 44O1 
 
 65 
 
 Jfulea Wife, etc., . 
 
 
 i. 2 
 
 ,, ix, p. 403, 
 
 76 
 
 Scornful Lady, The, . 
 
 „ 
 
 ii- 3 
 
 ,, iii. p. 44i 
 
 47 
 
 Sea-Voyage, The, 
 
 
 i. 2 
 
 ,1 viii. p. 302, 
 
 73 
 
 Spanish Curate, The, 
 
 
 V. 2 
 
 II 1, p. 48I1 
 
 74 
 
 Thierry and Theodoret 
 
 
 i. I 
 
 ,, i. p. 109, 
 
 31 
 
 II 
 
 
 i. I 
 
 ,, ,, p. Ill, 
 
 31 
 
 1. 
 
 
 i. 1 
 
 , ,, p. III. 
 
 31 
 
 II 
 
 
 iii. X 
 
 1 ,1 p. I49i 
 
 32 
 
 ri II 
 
 
 
 V. I 
 
 1 ,, p. 1891 
 
 • 33 
 
Index I 
 
 207 
 
 
 
 
 
 PAGE 
 
 Two Noble Kinsmen , The, 
 
 ■i. 4 vol. xi, p. 
 
 3Sii 
 
 . 88 
 
 Valentinian, 
 
 iv. 4 ,, V, p. 
 
 287, 
 
 64 
 
 Widow, The, . 
 
 i. 2 ,, iv. p. 
 
 318, 
 
 . 61 
 
 
 
 V. 1 ,, ,, p. 
 
 38I1 
 
 . 62 
 
 Wife for a Month, A, 
 
 . i. 4 ,1 ix. p. 
 
 326, 
 
 . 76 
 
 Wild-Goose Chase, The, 
 
 i. I ,1 viii. p. 
 
 ii7i 
 
 • 72 
 
 ,, ,, 
 
 . iv. I ,, ,, p. 
 
 1761 
 
 72 
 
 Wit at Several Weapons, 
 
 i. 2 ,, iv. p. 
 
 16, 
 
 49 
 
 Wit without Money, . 
 
 i. I ,, iv. p. 
 
 HI, 
 
 • 50 
 
 
 
 . ii. a ,, I, p. 
 
 "9i 
 
 • 52 
 
 
 
 ii 2 ,, ,, p. 
 
 121, 
 
 • 53 
 
 
 
 . iii. I ,, ,1 p. 
 
 139. 
 
 • 54 
 
 
 
 . iii. I ,, ,, p. 
 
 139. 
 
 ■ 54 
 
 
 
 . iii. I ,, ,, p. 
 
 142. 
 
 ■ 55 
 
 
 
 iv. -^ ,, ,, p. 
 
 1.59. 
 
 • 55 
 
 
 
 . iv. 4 .1 ,. P- 
 
 172, 
 
 56 
 
 
 
 . IV. 5 1. II P- 
 
 176, 
 
 . 56 
 
 
 
 . V. 2 ,, ,, p. 
 
 184, 
 
 60 
 
 Womans Prize, The, 
 
 ii. 4 ,1 vii. p. 
 
 139. 
 
 . 68 
 
 ») n 
 
 . ii. 4 .. .. P- 
 
 140. 
 
 ■ 69 
 
 ,, ,, 
 
 . ii. 6 ,, ,, p. 
 
 144. 
 
 . 69 
 
 Women Pleased, 
 
 . iv. 1 ,, ,, p. 
 
 57i 
 
 . 68 
 
 Chapman : — 
 
 
 
 
 All Fooles, 
 
 . vol. i. p. 143, 
 
 
 128 
 
 ,, 
 
 II „ P- ISO. 
 
 
 128 
 
 ... 
 
 p. 168, 
 
 
 128 
 
 Alphonsus, 
 
 ,, iii. p. 218, 
 
 
 • 143 
 
 Blind Beggar of Alexai 
 
 tdria, 
 
 
 
 The, 
 
 . ,1 ii. p. 5. 
 
 
 127 
 
 ,, ,, 
 
 ,1 .1 p. 24, 
 
 
 127 
 
 ,, ,, 
 
 ,1 I, p. 29. 
 
 
 127 
 
 Btissy dAmbois, 
 
 ,, ii. p. 10, 
 
 
 131 
 
 ,, 
 
 P- 59. 
 
 
 131 
 
 ,, 
 
 ,, ,1 p. 82, 
 
 
 132 
 
 Byrons Consfiracie, , 
 
 . „ ,, p. 186, 
 
 
 133 
 
 II 
 
 p. 211, 
 
 
 134 
 
 i> 
 
 . ,. ,1 p. 223i 
 
 
 134 
 
 .1 
 
 P- 241. 
 
 
 13s 
 
 J, 
 
 P- 254. 
 
 
 135 
 
 
 II 
 
 P- 255. 
 
 . 
 
 135 
 
208 
 
 Conjectural Readings 
 
 Byrons 
 
 Tragedle, 
 
 
 
 vol. ii. p. 256, 
 
 13s 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 , ,,, p. 282, 
 
 I3S 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 . M. p. 285, 
 
 136 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 , „ p. a88, 
 
 136 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 , „ p. 292, 
 
 136 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 , ,, p. 296, 
 
 136 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 , „ p. 304. 
 
 136 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 , ,, p. 306, 
 
 136 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 , .. P- 307, 
 
 136 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 . M P- 312. 
 
 137 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 , „ P. 314. 
 
 137 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 . „ p. 318, 
 
 138 
 
 Casar and Pomfey, 
 
 
 
 
 , iii. p. 136, 
 , ,, p. 152. 
 , „ p. ISS. 
 , ., p. 167, 
 . „ p. 168, 
 , ,, p. 171. 
 . ,, p. 174, 
 
 141 
 14a 
 142 
 
 142 
 
 142 
 
 143 
 143 
 
 Gentleman Usher, The, 
 
 
 
 , i. p. 258, 
 , ,, p. 267, 
 , ,, p. 268, 
 , ,, p. 283, 
 . ,. P- 31s. 
 , „ p. S38, 
 
 130 
 130 
 130 
 130 
 131 
 131 
 
 Numerous Dayes Mirth, 
 
 
 
 , .. p. 54. 
 . ,. p. S8, 
 
 128 
 128 
 
 May-Day, . 
 
 
 
 . "• P- 33S. 
 
 '38 
 
 
 
 
 
 . .. P- 347. 
 
 138 
 
 
 
 
 
 , „ p. 366, 
 
 138 
 
 
 
 
 
 . ,. P- 371. 
 
 138 
 
 
 
 
 
 , ,. P- 376. 
 
 138 
 
 
 
 
 
 . .. P- 379. 
 
 139 
 
 
 
 
 
 , .. p. 384. 
 
 139 
 
 
 
 
 
 , ,. p. 38s. 
 
 139 
 
 
 
 
 
 , ,. p. 386, 
 
 139 
 
 Monsieur d Olive, 
 
 
 
 , i. p. 211, 
 , ,, p. 212, 
 
 128 
 129 
 
 .. " 
 
 
 , ,, p. 220, 
 
 129 
 
 ,, . , 
 
 , ,. p. 235, 
 
 130 
 
 Reveng 
 
 eof 
 
 Bussy dA 
 
 •nbois 
 
 The 
 
 
 , ii. p. 108, 
 
 132 
 
Index I 
 
 209 
 
 Revenge of Bussy dAmbais, The, 
 Revenge for Honour, 
 
 Widdowes Teares, The, 
 
 Dekkee :— 
 
 Gentle Craft, The, 
 
 Honest Whore, The, 
 
 If this be not a good Play, etc., 
 Match me in London, 
 Olde Fortunatus, 
 
 Satira-Mastix, 
 
 vol. ii. p. 113, 
 
 • 133 
 
 ,1 II p. 1341 
 
 • 133 
 
 1, .1 P- 143. 
 
 • 133 
 
 „ iii. p. 290, 
 
 • 143 
 
 II ' .. p. 293. 
 
 ■ 143 
 
 1, 1, P- 301, 
 
 ■ 144 
 
 .1 .. P- 317. 
 
 • 144 
 
 „ iii. p. 48, 
 
 • 139 
 
 .. .. P- S5. 
 
 . 140 
 
 ,1 11 p. 69. ~ 
 
 . 140 
 
 11 .., P. '70, 
 
 . 140 
 
 Pe 71, 
 
 . 140 
 
 11 11 P- 82, 
 
 . 141 
 
 rol. i. p. 28, 
 
 . 188 
 
 ,1 „ p. 481 
 
 . 188 
 
 II ii. p. 31. 
 
 . 191 
 
 .1 .1 p. 33i 
 
 . 191 
 
 1. 1. p. 44. 
 
 . 191 
 
 1/ ii. p. 52. 
 
 . 192 
 
 ,1 1. p. 67, 
 
 . 192 
 
 ., „ p. 69. 
 
 . 192 
 
 1, .1 P- 117. 
 
 . 192 
 
 .. II p. 1561 
 
 • 193 
 
 „ iii. p. 267, 
 
 ■ 194 
 
 .. II p. 30S1 
 
 • 194 
 
 ,, iv. p. 161, 
 
 • 194 
 
 1. 11 p 187, 
 
 • 194 
 
 .1 i. p. 85, 
 
 . 188 
 
 1. ,1 p. 91. 
 
 . 189 
 
 ,, ,, p. 106, . 
 
 . 189 
 
 ,, ,, p. 1 16, 
 
 . 189 
 
 .1 „ p. 122, 
 
 . 189 
 
 » „ P- 133, 
 
 . 189 
 
 1, „ P- 14O; 
 
 . 189 
 
 „ i. p. 196, 
 
 . 190 
 
 „ ,, p. 204, 
 
 . 190 
 
 II >, P. 213, 
 
 . 190 
 
 „ „ p. 221, 
 
 . 190 
 
 ,. ,. P- 229, 
 
 . 190 
 
2IO 
 
 Conjectural Readings 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 PAGE 
 
 Sun's Darling, The. 
 
 . vol. iv. p. 338, . . 195 
 
 Whore of Babylon, The, . . „ ii. p. 156, 
 
 
 • 193 
 
 n >• 
 
 • >• ., P- 219. 
 
 
 • 193 
 
 )» J5 
 
 „ „ p. 220, 
 
 
 • 193 
 
 j» »> 
 
 • ,. » P- 224. 
 
 
 • 193 
 
 >> J) 
 
 • ,. ., P- 234, 
 
 
 193 
 
 j» i> 
 
 . „ ,. p. 258, 
 
 
 • 193 
 
 J^o«&?- of a Kingdor 
 
 n. The, , ,, iv. p. 23*4, 
 
 
 194 
 
 Greene : — 
 
 
 Alphonsus, , 
 
 , p. 225/1, . . .186 
 
 It ' 
 
 ■ P- 230/1. 
 
 
 
 187 
 
 George-a-Greene, 
 
 . p. 268/2, 
 
 
 
 187 
 
 James the Fourth, 
 
 . p. 187/1, 
 • P- 192/1, 
 
 
 
 183 
 183 
 
 11 
 
 
 • P- r93/ii 
 
 
 
 184 
 
 ,, 
 
 
 ■ P- 195/2, 
 
 
 
 184 
 
 )t 
 
 
 ■ P- 19S/2, 
 
 
 
 184 
 
 J) 
 
 
 . p. 196/1, 
 
 
 
 I8S 
 
 )* 
 
 
 . p. 206/2, 
 
 
 
 185 
 
 >i 
 
 
 . p. 2ig/i, 
 
 
 
 186 
 
 Looking- Glass for Lon 
 
 don. A, etc., p. 142/1, 
 p. 143/2, 
 p. 187/1, 
 
 
 
 182 
 
 183 
 
 " 183 
 
 Orlando Furioso, 
 I) 
 
 . p. 90/1. 
 . p. 90/21 
 ■ P- 92/2, 
 • P- 9S/i.' 
 
 
 
 180 
 180 
 181 
 181 
 
 Heywood :— 
 
 
 Age, Brazen, The, 
 
 . vol. iii. p. 174, . . 153 
 
 ■ 
 
 p. 196, 
 
 
 IS4 
 
 r, 
 
 • ., ,. p. 235, 
 
 
 154 
 
 )j n 
 
 • .. ,. P- 249. 
 
 
 IS4 
 
 Age, Golden, The, 
 
 iii. ,, p. 26, 
 
 
 152 
 
 II II 
 
 • ,. 1. p. 40, 
 
 
 152 
 
 M 
 
 - 1, „ p. 68, 
 
 
 153 
 
 ,1 
 
 P- 69. 
 
 
 153 
 
 /. Age, h'on. The, 
 
 ,, iii. p. 273, 
 
 
 154 
 
 .. 
 
 
 ,, ,, p. 288, 
 
 
 
 154 
 
Index I 
 
 211 
 
 /. Age, Iron, The, 
 
 II. Age, 
 
 Iron, The, 
 
 Age, Silver, The, 
 
 e far Beauty, A, 
 
 Earth and Age, 
 
 I. Edward the Fourth, 
 
 II. Edward the Fourth, 
 
 English Traveller, The, 
 
 
 PAGE 
 
 iii. p. 304, 
 
 • 154 
 
 ,, p. 309. 
 
 • 154 
 
 M P- 313. 
 
 • I5S 
 
 .. P- 331. 
 
 • 155 
 
 .. P- 333. 
 
 • i';5 
 
 ...P-337. 
 
 • 15s 
 
 .. P- 339. 
 
 ■ 155 
 
 .. P- 34S. 
 
 156 
 
 ., p. 368, 
 
 ■ . 156 
 
 .. P- 370. 
 
 . . 156 
 
 .. p. 406, 
 
 . . 156 
 
 .. P- 409. 
 
 • 157 
 
 .. p. 420. 
 
 ■ 157 
 
 .. P- 91. 
 
 • 153 
 
 ,, p. 100, 
 
 ■ 153 
 
 .. P- 159. 
 
 • 153 
 
 V. p. 9, 
 
 . 161 
 
 .. P- 12, 
 
 . 161 
 
 .. P- 13. 
 
 . 161 
 
 ., P- 17. 
 
 . 162 
 
 .. P- 23. 
 
 . 162 
 
 .. P- 39. 
 
 . 162 
 
 .. p. 47. 
 
 . 162 
 
 .. P- 48, 
 
 . 162 
 
 .. P- 59. 
 
 . 163 
 
 . P- 73, 
 
 . 163 
 
 . P- 77. 
 
 . 163 
 
 "• P- 134. 
 
 . 165 
 
 . P- 138. 
 
 . 165 
 
 i- p. 83, 
 
 ■ 145 
 
 . P- 105, 
 
 • 14s 
 
 . P- "9. 
 
 • 145 
 
 . P- 156. 
 
 . 146 
 
 , p. i6o, 
 
 . 146 
 
 , p. 166, 
 
 • 147 
 
 '• P- 16, 
 
 • 157 
 
 . P- 22, 
 
 ■ 157 
 
 . P- 26, 
 
 • 157 
 
 . P- 73. 
 
 . 158 
 
 , P- 87, 
 
 . 158 
 
212 
 
 Conjectural Readings 
 
 Fa ire Maide of the Exchange 
 
 
 
 
 The 
 
 vol. ii. 
 
 p. 40, 
 
 . 148 
 
 .. 
 
 >> II 
 
 P- 47i 
 
 • 149 
 
 ,. 
 
 ti fi 
 
 p. 64, 
 
 • 149 
 
 »» t> 
 
 M it 
 
 P- 69. 
 
 • 149 
 
 it n 
 
 >> I. 
 
 p. 78, 
 
 . 150 
 
 Faire Maide of the West, The, 
 
 M n. 
 
 p. 287, 
 
 . 152 
 
 >) >> 
 
 •1 M 
 
 P- 384. 
 
 ■ 152 
 
 »■ .1 
 
 II 11 
 
 P- 389. 
 
 152 
 
 Fortune by Land and Sea, 
 
 ,, vi. 
 
 P- 392. 
 
 . 166 
 
 .» fi 
 
 II >i 
 
 p. 409, 
 
 166 
 
 1*1 1. 
 
 II n 
 
 p. 421, 
 
 . 167 
 
 Foure Frentises of London, The 
 
 >. ii- 
 
 p. 219. 
 
 • 151 
 
 M ,. 
 
 M »l 
 
 P. 2511 
 
 • 151 
 
 If you know not Me^ etc., . 
 
 „ I. 
 
 P- 197, 
 
 • 147 
 
 »> ») 
 
 
 >. ,. 
 
 P- 239i 
 
 147 
 
 >j »i 
 
 
 1, ,, 
 
 P- 24s. 
 
 ■ 147 
 
 77 >) 
 
 
 1. ,. 
 
 p. 270, 
 
 • 147 
 
 )» JJ 
 
 
 ,, ,, 
 
 P- 3071 
 
 . 148 
 
 Jupiter and lo, . 
 
 
 ,, vi. 
 
 P- 273i 
 
 . 166 
 
 Loues Mistris, . 
 
 jt )» ■ ■ 
 
 
 ?t V. 
 
 p. 98, 
 P- 136, 
 P-. I37i 
 
 . 163 
 . 164 
 . 164 
 
 Man-Bater, The. . 
 
 
 ' M vi 
 
 p. 158, 
 p. 191, 
 
 165 
 . 166 
 
 Mayden-head well Lost, A 
 
 
 II iv 
 
 p. no, 
 p. 127, 
 
 . 158 
 . 158 
 
 }} '} 
 
 
 II.',: 
 
 p. 12S, 
 p. 1301 
 p. 1461 
 p. 156, 
 p. i64i 
 
 . 158 
 
 • 159 
 ■ 159 
 
 • 159 
 
 • 159 
 
 Pelopda and Alope, . 
 
 
 .1 vi 
 
 P- 30I1 
 
 . 166 
 
 Procus and P-uella^ , 
 
 
 II II 
 
 p. 122, 
 
 . i6S 
 
 l^ape of LucrecBy The, 
 
 
 II V. 
 
 p. 246, 
 
 . 164 
 
 Wise-woman of Hogsdon, The, 
 
 
 p. 281, 
 
 . 164 
 
 )> »» 
 
 II II 
 
 P- 3191 
 
 164 
 
 >> 91 
 
 ■ 1 .1 
 
 P- 33O1 
 
 164 
 
 M )] 
 
 II II 
 
 P- 333. 
 
 . 164 
 
 Witch^es of Lancashire^ The, 
 
 II iv 
 
 p. 178, 
 
 • 159 
 
 „ 
 
 
 
 
 p. 181, 
 
 • 159 
 
Index I 
 
 213 
 
 
 
 
 
 PAGE 
 
 Witches of Lancashire, The, 
 
 vol 
 
 iv. p. 182, 
 
 ■ 159 
 
 jj 
 
 
 ,, 
 
 „ p. 189, 
 
 . 160 
 
 ,, 
 
 
 ,, 
 
 „ p. 191. 
 
 160 
 
 
 
 " 
 
 „ p. 196. 
 .. P- 199. 
 
 . 160 
 . 160 
 
 „ 
 
 
 ,, 
 
 1. P- 207, 
 
 . 160 
 
 Woman Kild with Kindnes, 
 
 ,, 
 
 ii. p. 99, 
 
 . 150 
 
 i» 
 
 , 
 
 ,, 
 
 ,, p. Ill, 
 
 151 
 
 }} 
 
 » 
 
 ,, 
 
 ., P- 115. 
 
 . 151 
 
 >f 
 
 
 .. 
 
 ,, p. 121, 
 
 . 151 
 
 Marlowe :— 
 
 
 
 
 
 Dido^ 
 
 , 
 
 iii. 
 
 ■'■ 3. 
 
 . 122 
 
 11 *' 
 
 
 iv. 
 
 I. 4. 
 
 122 
 
 )■ ■' • 
 
 
 iv. 
 
 S- 28, 
 
 . 123 
 
 ' .» 
 
 
 V. 
 
 I. no, 
 
 . 123 
 
 >> 
 
 
 V. 
 
 I. 22r, 
 
 . 123 
 
 11 • ■ 
 
 
 V. 
 
 I. 276, 
 
 . 124 
 
 Faustust Chorus^ 
 
 
 1. -^ 
 
 . 
 
 . 119 
 
 Hero and Leander, Firs 
 
 i 
 
 
 
 Sestiad', 
 
 
 1. 477. . 
 
 . 12s 
 
 Jew of Malta, The, 
 
 , 
 
 i. 
 
 I- 4. 
 
 120 
 
 >i >> 
 
 
 i. 
 
 2. 283, 
 
 120 
 
 ,, 
 
 
 ii. 
 
 I- 44. 
 
 . 121 
 
 ,, „ 
 
 
 iv. 
 
 i. 124, 
 
 . 121 
 
 11 •» 
 
 
 iv. 
 
 4- 74. 
 
 . 122 
 
 Ovids Elegies, . 
 
 
 iii. 
 
 7. 29. 
 
 • 125 
 
 /. Tantburlaine, 
 
 
 V. 
 
 I. 117, 
 
 . ■ 116 
 
 ' (I ' 
 
 
 V. 
 
 I. 183-187 
 
 . n5 
 
 ,1 ' 
 
 
 V. 
 
 I. 236, 
 
 . 117 
 
 //. Tamburlaine, 
 
 
 i. 
 
 3- 147. 
 
 . 118 
 
 J, 
 
 
 iii. 
 
 2- 99. 
 
 . 118 
 
 ,, 
 
 
 V. 
 
 3. 188, 
 
 . 119 
 
 - 
 
 
 "■ 
 
 3. 199. 
 
 . 119 
 
 Marston :— 
 
 
 
 
 
 /._ Antonio and Mellida, . 
 
 i. 
 
 I. 258, 
 
 I 
 
 ,, 
 
 , 
 
 ii. 
 
 I. 14. 
 
 I 
 
 * '» 
 
 
 iii. 
 
 "■ 99. 
 
 2 
 
 ,, 
 
 
 iii. 
 
 2. 107, 
 
 2 
 
 ,, 
 
 , 
 
 iii. 
 
 2. 125, 
 
 2 
 
214 
 
 Conjectural Readings 
 
 I. Antonio and Mellida, 
 
 II. Antonio and Mellida, 
 
 Dutch Courtezan, The, 
 
 Eastward Ho, 
 Fawn, The, 
 
 Insatiate Countess, The, 
 
 Malcontent, The, 
 
 Scourge of Villainy, The, 
 
 IV. 
 
 •■■ 70. • 
 
 iv. 
 
 1. 80, 
 
 i. 
 
 I. 73. • 
 
 i. 
 
 I. 76, . 
 
 i. 
 
 2. 130-132, 
 
 ii. 
 
 '■■ 58, . 
 
 ii. 
 
 '■■ IS4. • 
 
 ii. 
 
 2. 214, 215 
 
 iii. 
 
 I. 17. • 
 
 V. 
 
 2. 139, . 
 
 iv. 
 
 •■■ 43. • 
 
 ii. 
 
 1. lOI, 
 
 ii. 
 
 I. 179. . 
 
 ii. 
 
 I. 197. . 
 
 ii. 
 
 1. 218, 
 
 ii. 
 
 ±. 151, . 
 
 iii. 
 
 X. 214, . 
 
 iii. 
 
 I- 254. . 
 
 iii. 
 
 I- 354. • 
 
 iv. 
 
 '■■ 133. • 
 
 iv. 
 
 I- 397. • 
 
 V. 
 
 I. 213, 
 
 V. 
 
 i. 406, 
 
 i. 
 
 •■■ 97. ■ 
 
 i. 
 
 I. 108, 
 
 ii. 
 
 IS. 28-34, . 
 
 iii. 
 
 ■■'■ 7. • 
 
 iii. 
 
 2, 46, 
 
 iii. 
 
 4. 52. . 
 
 iii. 
 
 4. 96, . 
 
 iv. 
 
 2. 66, . 
 
 iv. 
 
 5- 17. • 
 
 iv. 
 
 5- 22. ■ 
 
 «. 
 
 I. 4, . 
 
 V. 
 
 '■■ 42. . 
 
 iv. 
 
 2. 112, 
 
 V. 
 
 •■■ 9. 
 
 V. 
 
 2. 262, 
 
 V. 
 
 2. 286, 
 
 V. 
 
 3- 154. • 
 
 i. 
 
 2. 135, . 
 
Index I 
 
 Scourge of Villainy, The, 
 
 What You Will, 
 
 What You Will, 
 
 . ill. 
 
 "■ 33. • 
 
 . 'iii. 
 
 II. 54. . 
 
 . • i. 
 
 ■i. 12, 
 
 i. 
 
 2. 76, . 
 
 i. 
 
 2. 83, . 
 
 . . i. 
 
 ■^ 169, . 
 
 i. 
 
 ■^. 228, 
 
 . -ii. 
 
 2. 71, . 
 
 . -iii. 
 
 ^. 63, . 
 
 . iii. 
 
 X. 147, . 
 
 . iii. 
 
 2- 7-9. • 
 
 . iii. 
 
 z. 73. • 
 
 V. 
 
 3- 36, 37. 
 
 . ' V. 
 
 I. 89, . 
 
 . Ind. 1. io6, . 
 
 
 ,. Ill, 
 
 . Prol. IS, . 
 
 i. 
 
 1. 102, 
 
 . i. 
 
 I. 119, 
 
 ii. 
 
 I. SI. • 
 
 ii. 
 
 X. 149, . 
 
 ii. 
 
 2- 45. • 
 
 ii. 
 
 2. 90, 
 
 ii. 
 
 2. 134, . 
 
 ii. 
 
 2. 106, 
 
 . -iii. 
 
 2. 16, 
 
 . iii. 
 
 ■■'■ 93. • 
 
 . iii. 
 
 2. 117, 
 
 . iv. 
 
 I. 96, 97, 
 
 . iv. 
 
 1. 127, . 
 
 ■iv. 
 
 X. 140-146, 
 
 ,iv. 
 
 I. 181, 182 
 
 . iv. 
 
 1. 238, 241 
 
 MiDDLETON :— 
 
 Anything for a Quiet Life^ 
 Blurij Master Constable^ . 
 Chaste Maid in Cheapside, A, 
 Fair Quarrel^ A, 
 Family of Love f The, 
 
 111. 
 
 1. ■^. 153, 
 i. I. 27, 
 r. 146, 
 i. 2. 161, 
 V. a. 25, 
 
 215 
 
 PAGE 
 29 
 
 13 
 13 
 13 
 14 
 14 
 14 
 
 IS 
 
 ■IS 
 
 IS 
 
 IS 
 
 IS 
 
 16 
 16 
 16 
 16 
 16 
 17 
 
 17 
 
 17 
 18 
 18 
 18 
 18 
 19 
 19 
 
 17s 
 168 
 
 I7S 
 
 174 
 
 172 
 
 172 
 
2l6 
 
 Conjechiral Readings 
 
 
 
 
 
 PAGE 
 
 Mcii World,, my Masters, Ay 
 
 . , ii 
 
 2. 10, 
 
 • 173 
 
 Mayor, of Queenborough, . . 
 
 . iv 
 
 2. 135. ■ 
 
 . 168 
 
 Michaelmai Term, , 
 
 ii 
 
 3- 3831 . 
 
 . 168 
 
 Micro-CyniQon, 
 
 . 1. 
 
 6, 
 
 179 
 
 More DissenfMers Beside Womet 
 
 I, ii. 
 
 I. S7i . 
 
 . . 178 
 
 No Wit, No Help, etc., . 
 
 . ii. 
 
 3- 2581 . 
 
 . 174 
 
 Old Law, Xlte, . 
 
 . i. 
 
 I. 207, 
 
 . . 169 
 
 ... 
 
 i. 
 
 >■■ 223, 
 
 . . 169 
 
 1 . . 
 
 i. 
 
 i. 320-324, 
 
 . . 169 
 
 
 i. 
 
 I. 426, 
 
 . 170 
 
 .1 , ■ • . 
 
 ii. 
 
 I. 183, 
 
 . 170 
 
 >> ... 
 
 . V. 
 
 i. 148, 
 
 . 170 
 
 ,, ... 
 
 V, 
 
 1. 225, 226, 
 
 . 171 
 
 Phcenix, The, . 
 
 . iii. 
 
 I. 60, . 
 
 . 168 
 
 Spanish Gipsy, The, . 
 
 ii. 
 
 I. 240, . 
 
 • . ■ 176 
 
 i» ti ... 
 
 . iv. 
 
 I. 701 • 
 
 170 
 
 Trick to catch the Old One, A., 
 
 V. 
 
 ■^. 127, . 
 
 . 171 
 
 Witch, The, . 
 
 ii. 
 
 -.=• 1361 
 
 • ^7S 
 
 Women Beware Women, . 
 
 i. 
 
 - 56. . 
 
 . 176 
 
 t, t. 
 
 iii. 
 
 2. lOI, 
 
 , . 177 
 
 ,, 1, 
 
 iii. 
 
 2. I49i . 
 
 • 177 
 
 World Tost at Tennis, The, 
 
 1. 300, 
 
 . 178 
 
 Your Five Qallants, . 
 
 ii. 
 
 i. 123, . 
 
 . 172 
 
 ,1 II . . 
 
 ii. 
 
 3- 337. . 
 
 . 172 
 
 . . 
 
 iii. 
 
 S- ^2, 
 
 • 173 
 
 . ,, . „ . . 
 
 iv. 
 
 7. 112, 
 
 . 173 
 
 Peele : — 
 
 
 
 
 Arraignment of Paris, The, 
 
 i. 
 
 i. 84, 
 
 . 89 
 
 II ■ 11 
 
 iii. 
 
 I. 121, 
 
 . 89 
 
 Battle of Alcazar, The, 
 
 i. 
 
 2. I, 
 
 . 103 
 
 ,1 . . 
 
 i. 
 
 2. 381 39i 
 
 . 104 
 
 
 
 i. 
 
 2. 54. • 
 
 . los 
 
 
 
 ii. 
 
 4i 19, . 
 
 . los 
 
 
 
 ii. 
 
 4. 120, 121, 
 
 . los 
 
 
 
 V. 
 
 I. 9-11, . 
 
 . 108 
 
 
 
 V. 
 
 I. 37. . 
 
 . 109 
 
 
 
 V. 
 
 I. 252, 
 
 . 109 
 
 David and Bethsabe, 
 
 sc. 
 
 i. 67, . . 
 
 . 109 
 
 .1 - II . • 
 
 ,, 
 
 i. 8s, . . 
 
 . 109 
 
 II 
 
 1. 
 
 ,, 
 
 i. 106, 115, 
 
 . no 
 
Index I 
 
 217 
 
 
 
 
 
 PAGE 
 
 D,avid,and peihsabe, , . 
 
 . ,sc, iii. 95, . 
 
 . Ill 
 
 .1 ... 
 
 „ iii. 137. • 
 
 . 112 
 
 »» < i> • 
 
 . „ . V. 26, . 
 
 . 112 
 
 ... 
 
 ,, viii. 106, . 
 
 "3 
 
 . .. .» 
 
 . ,, xi. 13, . 
 
 113 
 
 Edward/.,. 
 
 . ,. iii. 39-41, . 
 
 90 
 
 " •. • • . 
 
 ,, Jii. 81, . 
 
 91 
 
 . .► , . . . , 
 
 - . „ iii. S3. • 
 
 93 
 
 . .. , . • 
 
 ..... iii. 95. • 
 
 93 
 
 >. 
 
 
 ,, iii. 107-114, . 
 
 93 
 
 >> 
 
 
 ,, vii. 91, 92, 
 
 94 
 
 ,, 
 
 
 X. 85-90, . 
 
 96 
 
 ,, 
 
 
 . , .. xi. 1-8, 
 
 96 
 
 ,, 
 
 
 ,, xviii, 8, . 
 
 98 
 
 ,, 
 
 
 ,, XXV. 9, . 
 
 98 
 
 ,, 
 
 
 . „ xii. 155, . 
 
 100 
 
 ,, 
 
 
 
 ,, XXV. iB, . 
 
 100 
 
 ,, 
 
 
 . 
 
 ,, XXV. 29, . 
 
 101 
 
 
 
 
 ,, XXV. 70, . 
 
 lOI 
 
 ,, 
 
 
 
 ,, XXV. 113, . 
 
 lOI 
 
 ,, 
 
 
 
 ■ ,, XXV. 118, 120, ■ 
 
 102 
 
 ,, 
 
 
 
 ,, XXV. 1S2, .• 
 
 102 
 
 >i • 
 
 . 
 
 ,, XXV. 269, . 
 
 103 
 
 Praise of Chastiiy, The, . 
 
 . 1.43- •■ ■ 
 
 114 
 
 Sir Clyomon and Sir Clamydt 
 
 's, sc. xi. 96, 
 
 114 
 
 Webster :— 
 
 
 
 Appius and Virginia, 
 
 . p. 168/2, 
 
 198 
 
 .r- • .. 
 
 . .p. 180/1 . 
 
 198 
 
 - DeviVs Law-case, The, 
 
 • P- 127/1. 
 
 197 
 
 M I 
 
 
 . P-. 130/1. 
 
 197 
 
 .r , 
 
 
 • P- 130/2 
 
 197 
 
 ./ 
 
 
 . p. 131/2. 
 
 193 
 
 Northward Ho, 
 
 
 • P- 263/1 
 
 202 
 
 ,, ,, 
 
 
 . p. 267/2, 
 
 202 
 
 ,, ,, 
 
 
 . p. 280/1, 
 
 202 
 
 Westward Ho, 
 
 
 . p. 216/1, 
 
 2Q1 
 
 ■ .. >» 
 
 
 . p. 217/1, 
 
 202 
 
 White Devil, The, . 
 
 . p. 23/1, 
 
 169 
 
 ,, ,, . . 
 
 . p. 46/1, 
 
 169 
 
 Wyatt, Sir 
 
 Thai 
 
 nas, 
 
 . p. 186/2, 
 
 198 
 
2l8 
 
 Conjectural Readings 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 PAGE 
 
 Wyatt, Sir Thomas, . . -p. 187/1, 
 
 198 
 
 M l> • • 
 
 
 p. 187/2, 
 
 
 199 
 
 
 
 
 
 p. 189/1, 
 
 
 199 
 
 
 
 
 
 p. 189/2, 
 
 
 199 
 
 
 
 
 
 p. 192/1, 
 
 
 200 
 
 
 
 
 
 P- 193/1. 
 
 
 200 
 
 
 
 
 
 p. 19S/2. 
 
 . 
 
 200 
 
 
 
 
 
 p. 196/2, 
 
 . 
 
 201 
 
 
 
 
 
 p. 203/2, 
 
 
 201 
 
 INDEX II 
 
 
 Of Principal Emendations Proposed 
 
 
 TEXT EMENDATION 
 
 PAGE 
 
 Abbeys, Rabble, 
 
 96 
 
 About, 
 
 
 
 
 Without, . 
 
 18 
 
 About phases, . 
 
 
 
 
 About faces, 
 
 II 
 
 Aie, . 
 
 
 
 
 . Vie, . 
 
 118 
 
 Alexis secrets, ,. 
 
 
 
 
 Alexiterick, . 
 
 190 
 
 Amaze, 
 
 
 
 
 A maze. 
 
 15 
 
 And sprinkles, . 
 
 
 
 
 Besprinkles, 
 
 181 
 
 Arch for truth, .. 
 
 
 
 
 . Arch foe to truth, 
 
 147 
 
 Ay 
 
 
 
 
 Joy, . 
 
 7 
 
 Banishing, . 
 
 
 
 
 Publishing, . 
 
 S 
 
 Banishment, 
 
 
 
 
 Punishment, 
 
 . 128 
 
 Bdus'a, . 
 
 
 
 
 Brows'd, 
 
 17 
 
 Beans, 
 
 
 
 
 Beeves, 
 
 • SI 
 
 Bekindled, 
 
 
 
 
 Be kindled, . 
 
 . 112 
 
 Belief .must arrive, 
 
 
 
 
 , He lief must arride. 
 
 . 132 
 
 Bloody bound . 
 
 
 
 
 Flood y-bound, . 
 
 "3 
 
 Bones' fair covering 
 
 
 
 
 Beams far hovering, 
 
 no 
 
 Breadth, . 
 
 
 
 
 Brain, . 
 
 . 130 
 
 Bring a long globe. 
 
 
 
 
 Being a blown globe. 
 
 • 137 
 
 Broken patience, 
 
 
 
 
 . . Broking pretences. 
 
 . 203 
 
 Cassac's, ,. 
 
 
 
 
 . Ease's, 
 
 . 
 
 . 62 
 

 
 Index II 
 
 219 
 
 TEXT EMENDATION 
 
 PAGE 
 
 Caesar's brain Ceres' brow, • 
 
 102 
 
 Cancel, . 
 
 
 
 Counsel, 
 
 77 
 
 Canero, , 
 
 , 
 
 
 Canero, 
 
 140 
 
 Care, 
 
 
 
 
 Crare 
 
 66 
 
 Carpell, . 
 
 
 
 
 Carol, . . . . 
 
 97 
 
 Cherelly, . 
 
 
 
 
 Cheerbelly, . 
 
 77 
 
 Conceal'd, 
 
 
 
 
 Cancell'd, . 
 
 199 
 
 Condition, 
 
 
 
 
 Coition, 
 
 23 
 
 Coistered, 
 
 
 
 
 Hoistered . 
 
 6 
 
 Corb'd, . 
 
 
 
 
 Cooped, 
 
 S 
 
 Count, 
 
 
 
 
 Commit, 
 
 144 
 
 Countermined, 
 
 
 
 
 Countermured, . 
 
 120 
 
 Damn'd, . 
 
 
 
 
 Daub'd, 
 
 s 
 
 Daughter, 
 
 
 
 Drugster, . 
 
 124 
 
 Death, . 
 
 
 
 Grief, . 
 
 4 
 
 Deceive, . 
 
 
 Deserve, 
 
 144 
 
 Deem'd 
 
 
 Queen'd, 
 
 25 
 
 Deui'd, . 
 
 
 Dew'd, 
 
 194 
 
 Divine, 
 
 
 - Darraign, . 
 
 84 
 
 Earth, 
 
 
 Breath. 
 
 137 
 
 Earth, 
 
 
 Warmth, . 
 
 109 
 
 Embraced, 
 
 Enforced, . 
 
 20 
 
 Entering carles. 
 
 Enticing curls. 
 
 131 
 
 Expalcat ..... 
 
 Expatiate, . 
 
 143 
 
 Fair, 
 
 
 Fire, . 
 
 no 
 
 Faith, 
 
 
 Fall, . . 
 
 73 
 
 Fame-insatiate, 
 
 
 Same insatiate, . 
 
 21 
 
 Parcels, . 
 
 
 
 Parcels, 
 
 175 
 
 Femelacy, 
 
 
 
 Simulacracy, 
 
 23 
 
 Fiend, . 
 
 
 
 Feud, . 
 
 186 
 
 Fiend, 
 
 
 
 Feud, . 
 
 197 
 
 Filch it on hob goblet, 
 
 
 Filching on yon goblet 
 
 172 
 
 Flames, . 
 
 Veins, . 
 
 lOI 
 
 Flatten, . 
 
 Shotten, 
 
 68 
 
 Flight, 
 
 Slight, 
 
 187 
 
 Follow, . . . . 
 
 Fellows, 
 
 31 
 
 Fore-handed, . 
 
 Free-handed, 
 
 47 
 
 Forth, 
 
 Fourth, 
 
 • 27 
 
 Frame, 
 
 Flame, 
 
 . 112 
 
 Froth, 
 
 Forth, 
 
 I 
 
 Frozen, 
 
 
 
 
 ■ Proven, 
 
 . 98 
 
220 
 
 Conjectural Readings 
 
 TEXT 
 
 Fulkes, . 
 
 Furcug, . 
 
 Giris, 
 
 Give, 
 
 Go farewell, 
 
 Gom, 
 
 Haue, 
 
 Hunt, ■'■ 
 
 Imbast, . 
 
 Infant, 
 
 Interpret, . 
 
 I'ternally abandon 
 
 Jayle, 
 
 Jest, 
 
 Jove, 
 
 Lamana, . 
 
 Lansket, . 
 
 Last, 
 
 Last night, 
 
 Leaders, . 
 
 Leave, 
 
 Leaves, . 
 
 Leaveth, . 
 
 Let the blow, 
 
 Liege, 
 
 Like, 
 
 Limit, 
 
 London's, 
 
 Looks, 
 
 Lov'd of her, 
 
 Lucky, 
 
 Lure, 
 
 Lyne, 
 
 Mad, 
 
 Mad, 
 
 Man, 
 
 Nellson, . 
 
 Neptolis, . 
 
 No hurt, . 
 
 Not, 
 
 P'er-pry the palms, 
 
 EMENDATION 
 
 Hulks, 
 
 Cuirtius-gulf, 
 
 Gyges, 
 
 Grieve, 
 
 Fprgo farewell, 
 
 Gum, . 
 
 Love, . 
 
 Heart, ■ 
 
 Impaste, 
 
 In faint. 
 
 Penetrate, . 
 
 Eternally abandon' 
 
 Javel, . 
 
 Pest, . 
 
 Love, . 
 
 El Adama, . 
 
 Wainscot, . 
 
 Lust, . 
 
 Lastingest, . 
 
 Peal does 
 
 Envy, . 
 
 Braves, 
 
 Feareth, 
 
 Laid them low. 
 
 Siege, . 
 
 Little, . 
 
 Invite, . 
 
 Love's, 
 
 Locks, 
 
 Lord of Himen, 
 
 Lusty, . 
 
 Air, . 
 
 Limn, . 
 
 Made, . 
 
 Made, . 
 
 Wan, . 
 
 Keelson, 
 
 Niphates, . 
 
 Honour, 
 
 Most, 
 
 O'er-breathe your 
 
 balm, 
 
 PAGE 
 
 191 
 
 S3 
 129 
 
 3i 
 123 
 
 62 
 188 ■ 
 
 SS 
 
 I2S 
 
 17 
 
 9 
 
 20 
 
 192 
 
 9 
 
 9S 
 
 i8a 
 
 69 
 
 3 
 148 
 
 157 
 
 143 
 6 
 
 iSS 
 102 
 
 185 
 
 164 . 
 
 149 
 
 102 
 
 10 
 
 84 
 
 12s 
 
 193 
 
 61 
 
 13s 
 
 21 
 60 
 26 
 
 163 
 40 
 92 
 
TEXT 
 
 Offence, 
 
 Over-hied, 
 
 Painting, 
 
 Partly, 
 
 Party, 
 
 Passing, 
 
 Perceives, 
 
 Pipes,' 
 
 Play, • 
 
 Ployden, 
 
 Reliev'd, 
 
 Renew'd, 
 
 Best, 
 
 Resting, 
 
 Rheum, 
 
 Riches, 
 
 Ring, 
 
 Robe, 
 
 Ruin'd, 
 
 Rumnillo, 
 
 Sale, 
 
 Samintes, 
 
 San ceo, 
 
 Sayle, 
 
 Scratch, ' . 
 
 Seize, 
 
 Sering, 
 
 Sest, 
 
 Show. 
 
 Sign, , 
 
 Sins holp thee. 
 
 So irksome, 
 
 Sister, 
 
 So lawful to brave, 
 
 Soul, 
 
 Sound, 
 
 Steps, . 
 
 Strangle, . 
 
 Stray, , 
 
 Tempest, 
 
 Tenant, , 
 
 Index II 
 
 
 
 221 
 
 EMENDATION PAGE 
 
 . - . • Offers, .- . .188 
 
 
 
 Over-vy'd, 
 
 
 
 72 
 
 
 
 Printing, 
 
 
 
 202 
 
 
 
 Pardy, 
 
 
 
 112 
 
 
 
 Parting, 
 
 
 
 79 
 
 
 
 Paying, 
 
 
 
 161 
 
 
 
 Ptu-sues, 
 
 
 
 70 
 
 
 
 Pies, . 
 
 
 
 189 
 
 
 
 Splay, . 
 
 
 
 107 
 
 
 
 Hoyden, 
 
 
 
 7 
 
 
 
 Retir'd, 
 
 
 
 200 
 
 
 
 ■ Enew'd, 
 
 
 
 150 
 
 
 
 Rise, . 
 
 
 
 26 
 
 
 
 Resty, . 
 
 
 
 III 
 
 
 
 Crown, 
 
 
 
 291 
 
 
 
 Wisdom, 
 
 
 ■ 
 
 i8g 
 
 
 
 Rug, . 
 
 
 
 47 
 
 
 
 Orb, . ■ 
 
 
 
 91 
 
 
 
 Rubi'd, 
 
 
 
 88 
 
 
 
 Bromhille, 
 
 
 
 SI 
 
 
 
 Stale, 
 
 
 
 191 
 
 
 
 Samarites, 
 
 
 
 120 
 
 
 
 San cielo. 
 
 
 
 29 
 
 
 
 Soil, . 
 
 
 
 i6a 
 
 
 
 Snatch, 
 
 
 
 56 
 
 
 
 Ease, . 
 
 
 
 93 
 
 
 
 Syringe, 
 
 
 
 . 191 
 
 
 
 Pest, . 
 
 
 
 18 
 
 
 
 Sure, . 
 
 
 
 200 
 
 
 
 Sinew, 
 
 
 
 146 
 
 
 
 Foes bold them. 
 
 
 98 
 
 
 
 Frolicsome, 
 
 
 iB6 
 
 
 
 Spinster, 
 
 
 . 192 
 
 
 
 So, la, mi, fa, to't 
 
 , raise, 97 
 
 
 
 Scroll, 
 
 . 142 
 
 
 
 Fond, . 
 
 
 . 189 
 
 
 
 Lips, . 
 
 
 . 129 
 
 
 
 Strangling, 
 
 
 • 43 
 
 
 
 Stay,, . 
 
 
 . 190 
 
 
 
 Topmost, 
 
 
 . 117 
 
 
 
 Truant, 
 
 
 
 . 140 
 
222 
 
 Conjectural Readings 
 
 TEXT 
 
 Theamea, , 
 
 The flies, . 
 
 Thou honour of ill, 
 
 Thy pounders. 
 
 Tire, 
 
 Too fast, . 
 
 Too keend, 
 
 Travense, 
 
 Traitors, . 
 
 Tread^ 
 
 Tretably, . 
 
 Turning, . 
 
 Types' ., 
 
 Uselesse, . 
 
 Vails,' , 
 
 Wake, . 
 
 Wave, . 
 
 Weaking, 
 
 Whores, . ^ 
 
 Worthy feat. 
 
 Your sin's rage, or her lord, 
 
 EMENDATION 
 
 PAGE 
 
 The Aniena, 
 
 • 59 
 
 Then she flies, . 
 
 • 95 
 
 Dishonour of all. 
 
 46 
 
 Thy type-founders^ 
 
 saz 
 
 Tice, . 
 
 149 
 
 To fist, 
 
 
 12s 
 
 To kind. 
 
 
 123 
 
 Tavern's, 
 
 
 2 
 
 Tritons, 
 
 
 107 
 
 Read, . 
 
 
 loS 
 
 Trotably, 
 
 
 17 
 
 Girning, 
 
 
 31 
 
 Styles, 
 
 
 109 
 
 Cureless, 
 
 
 24 
 
 Maids, 
 
 
 13 
 
 Weale, 
 
 
 67 
 
 Warn, 
 
 
 79 
 
 Wasting, 
 
 
 23 
 
 Courts, 
 
 
 197 
 
 Worth thy f 
 
 sat, . 
 
 72 
 
 Tbesea'srageinherflood, 174 
 
 THi; END 
 
 Printed by T.and A^ Constable, Printers to Her Majesty 
 at the Edinburgh University Press