Notes and Queries, No. 181, April 16, 1853 | Page 7

what I believe to be the true reading, unrogued.
King John, Act V. Sc. 7., p. 212.:
"Death, having prey'd upon the outward parts, Leaves them unvisited; and his siege is now Against the mind."
How could death prey upon the king's outward parts without visiting them? Perhaps, however, we have here only a corruption of a genuine text. Query, "ill-visited."
Troilus and Cressida, Act I. Sc. 3., p. 331.:
"And, with an accent tun'd in self-same key, Replies to chiding fortune."
This, which is also Hanmer's reading, certainly makes sense. Pope read returns. The old copies have retires. I believe Shakspeare wrote "Rechides to chiding fortune." This puzzled the compositor, who gave the nearest common word without regard to the sense.
Troilus and Cressida, Act V. Sc. 1., p. 342.--The disgusting speeches of Thersites are scarcely worth correcting, much less dwelling upon; but there can be little doubt that we should read "male harlot" for "male varlet;" and "preposterous discoverers" (not discolourers) for "preposterous discoveries."
Coriolanus, Act V. Sc. 5., p. 364.:
"I... holp to reap the fame Which he did ear all his."
To ear is to plough. Aufidius complains that he had a share in the harvest, while Coriolanus took all the ploughing to himself. We have only, however, to transpose reap and ear, and this nonsense is at once converted into excellent sense. The old corrector blindly copied the blunder of a corrupt, but not sophisticated, manuscript. This has occurred elsewhere in this collection.
Antony and Cleopatra, Act I. Sc. 5., p. 467.:
"And soberly did mount an arm-girt steed."
This reading was also conjectured by Hanmer. The folios read arme-gaunt. This appears to me a mere misprint for rampaunt, but whether rampaunt was Shakspeare's word, or a transcriber's sophistication for ramping, is more than I can undertake to determine. I believe, however, that one of them is the true reading. At one period to ramp and to prance seem to have been synonymous. Spenser makes the horses of night "fiercely ramp," and Surrey exhibits a prancing lion.
This communication is, I am afraid, already too long for "N. & Q.;" I will therefore only add my opinion, that, though the old corrector has reported many bad readings, they are far outnumbered by the good ones in the collection.
W. N. L.
Mr. Collier's "Notes and Emendations:" Passage in "The Winter's Tale."--At p. 192. of MR. PAYNE COLLIER'S new volume, he cites a passage in The Winter's Tale, ending--
"... I should blush To see you so attir'd, sworn, I think To show myself a glass."
The MS. emendator, he says, reads so worn for sworn; and adds:
"The meaning therefore is, that Florizel's plain attire was 'so worn,' to show Perdita, as in a glass, how simply she ought to have been dressed."
Now MR. COLLIER, in this instance, has not, according to his usual practice, alluded to any commentator who has suggested the same emendation. The inference would be, that this emendation is a novelty. This it is not. It has been before the world for thirty-four years, and its merits have failed to give it currency. At p. 142. of Z. Jackson's miscalled Restorations, 1819, we find this emendation, with the following note:
"So worn, i. e. so reduced, in your external appearance, that I should think you intended to remind me of my own condition; for, by looking at you thus attired, I behold myself, as it were, reflected in a glass, habited in robes becoming my obscure birth, and equally obscure fortune."
{379} Jackson's emendations are invariably bad; but whatever may be thought of the sense of Florizel being so worn (instead of his dress), it is but fair to give a certain person his due. The passage has long seemed to me to have this meaning:
"But that we are acquiescing in a custom, I should blush to see you, who are a prince, attired like a swain; and still more should I blush to look at myself in the glass, and see a peasant girl pranked up like a princess."
& more, in MS., might very easily have been mistaken for sworn by the compositor. Accordingly, I would read the complete passage thus:
"... But that our feasts In every mess have folly, and the feeders Digest it with a custom, I should blush To see you so attir'd, and more, I think, To show myself a glass."
C. MANSFIELD INGLEBY.
Birmingham.
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MINOR NOTES.
Alleged Cure for Hydrophobia.--From time to time articles have appeared in "N. & Q." as to the cure of hydrophobia, a specific for which seems still to be a desideratum.
In the Miscellanea Curiosa (vol. iii. p. 346.) is a paper on Virginia, from the Rev. John Clayton, rector of Crofton in Wakefield, in which he states the particulars of several cures which he had effected of persons bitten by mad dogs. His principal remedy seems to have been the "volatile