The Works of William Shakespeare [Cambridge Edition] | Page 3

Ff; and in the same play, IV. 1: 'O how mine eyes do loath' Q1, altered to 'doth loath' in Q2 F1, and restored, evidently by a grammatical reviser, to 'do loath' in F2 F3 F4. Again, I. 1: 'what all but he do know,' Qq, is altered to 'doth know' in Ff.
This last error points to a very common anomaly in grammar; one which seems almost to have become a rule, or, at any rate, a license in Shakespeare's own time, that a verb shall agree in number with the nominative intervening between the true governing noun and the verb.
B. Grammar.
In general, we do not alter any passage merely because the grammar is faulty, unless we are convinced that the fault of grammar was due to the printer altogether, and not to Shakespeare. We look upon it as no part of our task to improve the poet's grammar or correct his oversights: even errors, such as those referred to in note (VII) to the Two Gentlemen of Verona, and notes (I) and (X) to the Merry Wives of Windsor, because we thought them to be Shakespeare's own blunders, have been allowed to stand. But many phrases that are called bad grammar by us, and rightly so called, were sanctioned by usage among the contemporaries of Shakespeare, especially, no doubt, by the usage of conversation, even among educated persons. And as a learned correspondent (Dr B. Nicholson) remarks, this would naturally be the style of English which Shakespeare would purposely use in dramatic dialogue.
As examples of the anomalies of grammar sanctioned by Elizabethan usage we may mention:--
Singular verbs, with plural nouns, especially when the verb precedes its nominative:
Hath all his ventures failed? What; not one hit? Merchant of Venice, III. 2.
Nominatives for accusatives:
She should this Angelo have married. Measure for Measure, III. 1. 204.
And repeatedly 'who' for 'whom.'
Omission of prepositions:
Most ignorant of what he's most assured. Ibid. II. 2. 119.
------ which now you censure him. Ibid. II. 1. 15.
The changes of accidence are less frequent than those of syntax, yet such occur. In the Folios verbs ending in d and t are constantly found making their second persons singular in ds and ts instead of d'st and t'st. This was a corruption coming into vogue about the time of their publication, and in the earlier Quartos we frequently find the correct form; for example, in Midsummer Night's Dream, V. 1: 'standst' in Q1 is corrupted to 'stands' in Q2 and in Ff. We have therefore confidently replaced the correct form for the incorrect, even without authority to back us; looking upon the variation as a corrupt abbreviation of spelling.
But, in general, our practice has been not to alter the text, in order to make the grammar conform to the fixed rules of modern English. A wide latitude of speech was allowed in Shakespeare's age both as to spelling and grammar.
C. Orthography.
It was not without much consideration that we determined to adopt the spelling of the nineteenth century. If we had any evidence as to Shakespeare's own spelling, we should have been strongly inclined to adopt it, but to attempt to reproduce it, by operating by rule upon the texts that have come down to us, would be subjecting Shakespeare's English to arbitrary laws, of which it never yet was conscious. This argues no want of education on the part of Shakespeare; for if Lord Bacon himself had rules for spelling, they were but few, as we may easily perceive by inspection of his works published under his own eye. But if we have not Shakespeare's own spelling to guide us, what other spelling shall we adopt? Every student of Shakespeare has now an easy opportunity of acquainting himself with the text of F1, by means of Mr Booth's excellent reprint, and we are certain that not one of them will consider the spelling of that volume intrinsically better than that of our day. Rather more like Shakespeare's it certainly is, but we doubt whether much is gained by such approximation, as long as it is short of perfect attainment. Moreover, in many of the Plays there is a competing claim to guide our spelling, put forward by an array of Quartos, of earlier date than F1. To desert F1 for these, where they exist, would be but an occasional, and at best an uncertain means of attaining the lost spelling of Shakespeare, while the spelling of our volume would become even more inconsistent than that of F1 itself. Add to this; there are places, though, as has been seen, not many, where we have had to leave the reading of F1 altogether. How then shall we spell the correction which we substitute?
D. Metre.
Corrections of metre are avoided even more carefully than those of grammar. For the rules of prosody have