ACT II. SCENE 4.-C. p. 148. Methinks, I should not thus be led along, Mail'd up in shame, with papers on my back," &c. In 'Love's Labour's Lost,' vol. ii. p. 312, we have had mail or male used for a bag or wallet; and Johnson tells us, that 'Mail'd up in shame' means 'wrapped up, bundled up in disgrace.' Possibly however, mail' is here to be taken in the sense of armour, as if the shame of the duchess inclosed her like a coat of mail." COLLIER. Drayton makes the speaker of the above lines use the same expression in an Epistle to her husband; "How could it be, those that were wont to stand Should after see me may'ld up in a sheet, Doe shamefull penance three times in the street ?” Elinor Cobham to Duke Humphrey,--England's In the passage of our text "shame" certainly alludes to the sheet of penance; and therefore the expression "mail'd up" would seem to mean 'wrapped up as a hawk is in a cloth:' "Mail a hawk is to wrap her up in a handkerchief or other cloath, that she may not be able to stir her wings or struggle.' R. Holme's Ac. of Armory, 1688, b. ii. p. 239. (A hawk was sometimes mailed by pinioning her with a girth or band: see Beaumont and Fletcher's Philaster, act v. sc. 4). I must allow, however, that "mail'd up in" are words applied to armour; Mail'd up "have I stood in steel, when my tough sinews shrunk," &c. Beaumont and Fletcher's Captain, act ii. sc. 1. My friend Mr. Halliwell was, no doubt, only joking when he conjectured that in the present passage of Henry VI. the right reading might be "maul'd"! see his note on The First Sketches of the Second and Third Parts of King Henry the Sixth, p. 91. ACT III. SCENE 1.-C. p. 159. "for that is good deceit Which mates him first, that first intends deceit." "To mate is to destroy or confound, and in that sense it is often used by Shakespeare, as well as by Greene, Peele, Drayton, &c. See p. 142." COLlier. vol. ii. I incline to believe that Percy was right when he observed that "mates" is used here with an allusion to chess-playing: at all events, Ritson was wrong when he confidently asserted that "to mate is no term in chess." Palsgrave, in his Lesclarcissement de la Lang. Fr., 1530, gives not only "I Mate or ouercome, le amatte," but also "I Mate at the chesses, Ie matte." fol. ccxcix. (Table of Verbes); and in the following stanza of Sir John Harington's Orlando Furioso we have both 66 amated" in the sense of confounded, and "mated" with an allusion to chess; The wound was great, but yet did greater show; Which sight faire Isabella much amated: The Prince that seemed not the same to know, With force increased rather then abated, Vpon the Pagans brow gave such a blow As would (no doubt) have made him checkt and mated, His armour was not easie to be pierst." B. xxiiii. st. 55,—p. 193, ed. 1634. SCENE 2.-C. p. 169. "Oft have I seen a timely-parted ghost Of ashy semblance," &c. On this passage Mr. Collier has no note. Steevens cites several passages from early writers, in which, as in the text, ghost means 'dead body;' and that the word continued to be used in that sense long after the days of Shakespeare, we have a proof in the following lines; "What stranger who had seen thy shriv'led skin, K Conceited he had seen a ghost i' th' bed, ACT IV. SCENE 4.-C. p. 194. "My gracious lord, retire to Kenilworth. Therefore, away with us to Kenilworth." All the old eds. have "Killingworth;" and why alter a form of the name so repeatedly found in contemporary authors? "We'll enter in by darkness to Killingworth." Marlowe's Edward the Second, act v. sc. 3. SCENE 9.-C. p. 205; K. p. 96. "Mess. Please it your grace to be advertised, The duke of Somerset, whom he terms a traitor. K. Hen. Thus stands my state, 'twixt Cade and York distress'd, Like to a ship, that, having scap'd a tempest, Is straightway calm, and boarded with a pirate." The reading "arms" is not questioned by any of the editors. In Observations, &c. appended to The First Sketches of the Second and Third Parts of K. Henry the Sixth, p. 223, Mr. Halliwell says, "The second folio reads ' armies,' a variation not noticed by the editors, though apparently more congenial to the context." Oh, no! it is much worse than "arms," and, besides, spoils the metre. There cannot be a shadow of doubt that the true reading is "aims:" see my remarks on a passage of Troilus and Cressida, act ii. sc. 3. Malone Mr. Collier gives "calm" without any comment. also prefers that nonsensical lection, and defends it in an equally nonsensical note. In this passage the varia lectiones of the old eds. (stated incorrectly in the Variorum Shakespeare) are these: the first folio has "calme;" the second folio "claimd;" the third folio "claim'd;" the fourth folio "calm'd," -which is obviously the right reading, and has been adopted by Mr. Knight. ACT V. SCENE 1.-C. p. 213. "Som. O monstrous traitor!—I arrest thee, York, Of capital treason 'gainst the king and crown. Obey, audacious traitor: kneel for grace. York. Would'st have me kneel? first let me ask of thee, If they can brook I bow a knee to man? Sirrah, call in my sons to be my bail," &c. "Thus all the old copies, and the sense seems to be, first let me ask of thee, Somerset, if they (i. e. his sons, mentioned in the next line) can brook that I should bow a knee to man?' Theobald substituted these for thee,' and modern editors have followed him, some with and some without notice that it was a variation from the authentic text. To Mr. Amyot I owe the suggestion that no alteration is required." COLLIER. York would hardly put so strange a question to Somerset as let me ask of THEE, if my sons can brook that I should kneel to man,"—and one so altogether unnecessary, since he immediately after orders them to be summoned. But the use of "they" without an antecedent to which it can be referred, If they can brook I bow a knee to man," is alone sufficient to determine that there is some corruption in the passage. Theobald, I apprehend, gave the right reading: "these" is not improperly applied to the sons of York, who are supposed to be within sight. THIRD PART OF KING HENRY VI. [Vol. v. COLLIER; vol. vi. KNIGHT.] ACT I. SCENE 1.-C. p. 234; K. p. 180. "K. Hen. I know not what to say: my title's weak. Tell me, may not a king adopt an heir?" The first of these lines ought to be marked as spoken aside. ACT II. SCENE 1.-C. p. 253. "I, then in London, keeper of the king, Muster'd my soldiers, gather'd flocks of friends, Bearing the king in my behalf along; For by my scouts I was advertised, Touching king Henry's oath, and your succession." After this line [Muster'd my soldiers, gather'd flocks of friends'], modern editors have added another, from The True Tragedy :' And very well appointed, as I thought,' which is not at all necessary to the sense. If we were to adopt this line into the text, we should have no excuse for not inserting many more from the old 4to, not found in the folio, 1623, which we may presume were rejected by Shakespeare, when he made his alterations in, and additions to, 'The True Tragedy.'" COLlier. Mr. Collier is clearly right in not making a patch-work of the text by inserting ad libitum from The True Tragedy passages which there is every reason to suppose were rejected by Shakespeare: but I do not believe that the great poet intended the line in question to be thrown out. The want of "and" |