Chapter LIV: Act I

SC. 1. "Oh! it came o'er my ear like the sweet sound
That breathes upon a bank of violets."

As a sound breathing is pure nonsense, Pope read _south_ for 'sound'; and, with the exception of Mr. Knight and Mr. Staunton, all the editors, I believe, have followed him. Yet even this correction does not remove the difficulty, for _south_ alone, no more than _north_, _east_, or _west_, is never used of the wind. It seems to me then that the poet wrote _south wind_, and as the _th_ was usually suppressed in _south_, _north_, etc., as _sou'-west_, _sou'-east_, the printer pronounced _sou wind_ or, it may be, _sou 'ind_, which easily became 'sound' in his mind, and so he printed it. (See Introd. p. 67.) It is rather remarkable that this very correction is made by an _Anon._ in the Cambridge Shakespeare. The same idea, I may observe, occurs in the Antonio and Mellida of Shakespeare's contemporary, Marston (Act I.):

"Smile heaven and softest southern wind
Kiss her cheek gently with perfumed breath."

Both were probably indebted to "Her breath is more sweet than a gentle south-west wind, that comes creeping over flowery fields and shadowed waters" in Sidney's Arcadia. For a similar omission of _wind_, see on Temp. i. 2.

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"So please _you_, my lord, I might not be admitted."

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"The element itself, till seven years heat _'em_,
Shall not behold her face at ample view."

That is, not for seven summers, possibly with an allusion to racing, as in Win. Tale, i. 2. As the element is the sky, the heaven, we might also read _it_.

* * * * *

"_Of_ her sweet perfections with one self-king."

That is with Love. We might also transpose, but, I think, with a loss of force. We have an instance of this prefixing of the genitive in Temp. iii. 3.

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SC. 2. "They say she hath abjur'd the company
And sight of men."

This is the judicious transposition of Theobald. The folio has 'sight' in the first, 'company' in the second line, to the manifest injury of the metre.

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SC. 3. "_Castiliano vulgo!_ for here comes Sir Andrew Aguecheek."

Warburton's conjecture of _volto_ for 'vulgo' is ingenious, and may be right, meaning putting on a grave countenance, like a Castilian.

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"An thou let _her_ part so sir Andrew."

It was left to the 3rd folio to supply the needful _her_.

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"Thou seest it will not curl by nature."

Theobald's indubitable emendation of 'cool my nature' of the folio.

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"In a flame-coloured stock."

This is Pope's correction of 'dam'd coloured' of the folio. Knight reads _damask_; Collier's folio _dun_, which is very bad indeed. We meet in other dramatists with _straw-_, _peach-_, _carnation-colour'd_ stocks. It is perhaps impossible to recover the right word, yet I see little objection to _flame-colour_; for if we suppose _flame_ pronounced as in Latin and French (see Introd. p. 74), _flame-coloured_ might easily become 'damn'd (pr. _dam_) coloured' in the printer's mind. In confirmation we have elsewhere in the folio '_scar_-crow,' not '_scare_-crow,' and other like words.

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SC. 4. "Is as the maiden's organ, shrill and sound;
And all is semblative a woman's part."

I have read '_in_ sound'; for _and_ and _in_ are perpetually confounded. I also read 'semblative _to_.'

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SC. 5. "Of fools _to be_ no better than the fools' zanies."

So also Capell.

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"At your door like a sheriff's post, and be the supporter
Of a bench."

For 'and' I read _or_, and so did Hanmer.

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"If you be not mad, begone; if you have reason, be brief."

Mason omitted the negative, but perhaps needlessly.

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_Oli._ "Tell me your mind.--_Vio._ I am a messenger..."

This is Warburton's arrangement, the folio giving the whole to Viola. (See on Meas. for Meas. ii. 3.) I have added the sign of the break, which seems necessary.

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"Look you, sir; such one I was, _as_ this present.... Is it not
well done?"

By reading and pointing thus we get most excellent sense, and increase the vivacity and humour of the passage. Mason, whom Singer follows, read "_as_ this presents," which no doubt may be right, but is far less effective.

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"With adorations, _with_ fertile tears."

See Introd. p. 55.

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"The countes man, he left this ring behind him."

Capell, who is invariably followed, made it _county's_. I, however, read, as in iii. 3, 'count _his_.' With one exception (Mer. of Ven. i. 2), _County_ is peculiar to Romeo and Juliet; formosissima in Much Ado, ii. 1, we should, I think, read _Count_.