Chapter CLV: Act II: SC. 1. "And leave eighteen. Alas, poor princess! Alas!"

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SC. 2. "Swift, swift, you dragons of the night, that dawning
May bear the raven's eye."

This is the reading of the folio; but Theobald read _bare_, and he is generally followed. Collier's folio has _blear_ which I have adopted; for nothing was more common than an omission, by the printer, of a letter or even a syllable in a word. By 'raven,' the poet probably meant the _night_-raven, of which he had already spoken in Much Ado, ii. 3, and for his knowledge of which he was probably indebted to Spenser, in "Here no _night-ravens_ lodge, more black than pitch" (Shep. Cal. June, _v._ 23).

"The ill-fac'd owl, death's dreadful messenger,
The hoarse _night-raven_, trump of doleful drear."
F. Q. ii. 12. 36.

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SC. 3. "With everything that pretty is."

As the riming line ends in 'begin,' and as 'every' is very generally plural in our poet, and he uses obsolete terms at the end, though not in the body, of lines for rime-sake, it is the merest printer-worship to reject _bin_ for 'is,' the correction of Hanmer.

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"It is a vice in her ear, which horse-hairs and calves-guts, nor
the voice," etc.

The folio for 'vice' has _voice_. 'Calves-guts' should be '_cats_-guts.'

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"Last night 'twas on my arm; _for_ I kiss'd it."

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SC. 4. "In these fear'd hopes
I barely gratify your love."

Tyrwhitt, whom some late critics follow, proposed _sear'd_ for 'fear'd.' The text is, in my opinion, right, 'fear'd' being one of the numerous instances of the past part. for the present; 'fear'd hopes' are hopes that are mingled with fear. See on As You Like it, v. 4.

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"Now mingled with their courage[s], will make known."

The 1st folio has '_w_ingled'; the correction was made in the 2nd.

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"If I had lost it."

The folio has _have_; but the correction is certain.

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"Who knows if one _of_ her women, being corrupted."

The correction was made in the 2nd folio.

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SC. 5. "Must be half-workers? We are all _of us_ bastards."

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"All faults that _men do_ name; nay, that hell knows."

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"For even to vice." * * *

We might add _to which they are so prone_.