These lines should be pointed thus— For what end do I walk for men to wonder at; Page 87. FIRST PRESENTER........ This is the old wives' holiday. Read The old wife's holiday. Page 89. DUCHESS.... You are my prisoner. DUKE....I am so, and I must be so till it please youThere should be no break at the end of this line: the sense is completed; for till it please you, means whilst it please you, or whilst you please. So, in the Scornful Lady, Loveless says to Morecraft the usurer, who was turned gallant Will you persevere ? MORECRAFT....'Till I have one penny. That is, Whilst I have a penny. The word till has the same meaning in Pericles, Prince of Tyre; where Antiocleus, speaking of his daughter, says At whose conception, till Lucinda reigned, &c. Which evidently means, whilst Lucinda reigned. VOL. VIII. THE NIGHT-WALKER; OR, THE LITTLE THIEF. Page 93. WILDBRAIN........ What plough? thou hast no land: stealing is I have no doubt but we should read Thy only purchase. The sense requires it. Stealing is Page 96. WILDBRAIN....I know she loves him; We should supply the deficiency of this last line by reading Beyond the hopes of heaven. Which the printers, from false delicacy, have omitted here, as they have in other passages. Page 99. HEARTLOVE........ You would encase yourself, and I must credit you. I will not say that this is absolute nonsense; but have no doubt that we ought to read, with Sympson You would excuse yourself. Page 102. LADY........ 'Where be these knaves? Who strew up all the liveries? This is not sense as it stands. We should probably read Who sewer up all the liveries? That is, Who serve up the portions of victuals to the servants, which was the business of the sewer. Page 103. LADY....Where, who looks to him? This question is so very abrupt, that I suspect there is an omission in the passage, and that we ought to read---, Where's Heartlove? who looks to him? Heartlove is certainly the object of it, as appears from the answer of Toby, and the Nurse's speech; and the Lady immediately after asks, How does the bridegroom? which proves that he could not be the person alluded to here. Page 103. TOBY........ And dances like a town-top, and reels and hobbles. These words, in former editions, belonged to the Nurse; but Sympson, with whom the Editors concur, has given them to Toby, supposing them to be a continuance of his former speech, which ended with be sighs and tipples. But that cannot possibly be the case; for the subject of Toby's former speech was Heartlove, and that of this speech is evidently Algripe, whose drowsiness and imbecillity the Nurse means to describe. This passage, therefore, must be restored to her as her just property. Toby's next speech, in which he says that he shall have no wine with his consent, proves that they were not speaking of his friend Heartlove. Page 103. LADY........ Alas! good gentlemen, give him not much wine. We must read good gentleman, as in Seward's edition. Page 105. HEART LOVE........ I will go presently; now, now, I stay thee. Sympson appears to be right in giving the latter words of this line to Wildbrain: they agree better with his impetuosity than the irresolution of Heartlove, who does not acknowledge that he feels the business, till after another speech from Wildbrain. The passage, therefore, should be arranged thus-- HEARTLOVE....I will go presently, That is, I wait for thee. Sympson's amendment, the reading of I say, instead of I stay thee, is therefore unnecessary. It is almost needless to observe, that the word presently is never used to signify immediately, but by and by, some time hence, which would ill agree with the impatience expressed by the words following, if supposed to be spoken by the same person. Page 117. WILDBRAIN...... For this is the malicious house he walks in, The hour he blasts sweet faces. Sympson is clearly right in reading the malicious hour, instead of house. The word house could not have been used in an astrological sense, for they were not talking of the planets. Page 128. WILDBRAIN........ I hope I had but dissembled. I had is an error of the press, for s'had. Talking of change and transformations, That wittily and learnedly he bangs him. The sense absolutely requires that we should read-- Thus wittily and learnedly he bangs him, Page 137. FIRST SERVANT........ So may a puritan's ruff, tho' starch'd in print, A play in a puritan's ruff? I'll buy his works for it. This passage is nonsense as it stands. It appears to me, that the lines should be transposed, and arranged thus-- |