Not knowing that contrary was used as a word of four syllables, he reads:

"Whereas the contrary bringeth forth bliss."

So sure is used in the same play, as a dissyllable: "Gloster, we'll meet: to thy cost, be sure."

but this editor, not aware of this, reads:

"Gloster, we'll meet; to thy dear cost, be sure."

Again, in King Henry VI. P. II.

"And so to arms, victorious father,—'

"

arms being used as a dissyllable. But the second folio reads:

"And so to arms, victorious noble father."

Again, in Twelfth-Night, Act I. sc. i. we find

when liver, brain, and heart,

"These sovereign thrones, are all supply'd, and fill❜d, (Her sweet perfections) with one self-king."

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for which the editor, not knowing that perfections was used as a quadrisyllable, has substituted

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when liver, brain, and heart,

"These sovereign thrones, are all supply'd, and fill'd, (Her sweet perfections) with one self-same king."

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Again, in King Henry VI. P. II:

"Prove it, Henry, and thou shalt be king."

for which the editor of the second folio, not knowing Henry to be used as a trisyllable, gives us,

"But prove it, Henry, and thou shalt be king.”

In like manner dazzled is used by Shakspeare as a trisyllable in The Two Gentlemen of Verona, Act II. sc. iv:

"And that hath dazzled my reason's light."

instead of which, we find in the second folio,

"And that hath dazzled so my reason's light."

The words neither, rather, &c. are frequently used by Shakspeare as words of one syllable. So, in King Henry VI. P. III:

"And neither by treason, nor hostility,

"To seek to put me down-."

for which the editor of the second folio has given

1 us,

"Neither by treason, nor hostility," &c.

In Timon of Athens, Act III. sc. v. Alcibiades asks,

"Is this the balsam, that the usuring senate
"Pours into captains' wounds? banishment?"

The editor of the second folio, not knowing that pours was used as a dissyllable, to complete the supposed defect in the metre, reads:

"Is this the balsam, that the usuring senate
"Pours into captains' wounds! ha! banishment?"

Tickled is often used by Shakspeare and the contemporary poets, as a word of three syllables. So, in King Henry VI. P. II:

"She's tickled now; her fume needs no spurs."

instead of which, in the second folio we have,—

"She's tickled now; her fume can need no spurs." So, in Titus Andronicus, Act II. sc. i:

"Better than he have worn Vulcan's badge."

This editor, not knowing that worn was used as a dissyllable, reads:

"Better than he have yet worn Vulcan's badge."

Again, in Cymbeline, Act II. sc. v:

"All faults that name, nay, that hell knows, why hers, "In part, or all; but rather all: for even to vice," &c.

These lines being thus carelessly distributed in the original copy,―

"All faults that name, nay, that hell knows,
"Why hers, in part, or all; but rather all :" &c.

the editor of the second folio, to supply the defect of the first line, arbitrarily reads, with equal ignorance of his author's metre and phraseology,

"All faults that may be named, nay, that hell knows, "Why hers," &c.

In King Henry IV. P. II. Act I. sc. iii. is this line:

"And being now trimm'd in thine own desires,-.”

instead of which the editor of the second folio, to remedy a supposed defect in the metre, has given

us

"And being now trimm'd up in thine own desires,-."

Again, in As you like it, Act II. sc. i:

instead of which we find in the second folio, (the editor not knowing that country was used as a trisyllable,)

he pierceth through

"The body of city, the country, court."

In like manner, in The Winter's Tale, Act I. sc. i. he has given us :

"The doctrine of ill-doing, no nor dream'd
"That any did :-

instead of

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"The doctrine of ill-doing, nor dream'd," &c.

doctrine being used as a word of three syllables. Pay him six thousand," &c. says Portia in The Merchant of Venice,

"Before a friend of this description

"Should lose a hair through Bassanio's fault."

the word hair being used as a dissyllable, or Bassanio as a quadrisyllable. Of this the editor of the second folio was wholly ignorant, and therefore reads:

"Should lose a hair through my Bassanio's fault."

In The Winter's Tale, Act IV. sc. iii. Florizel, addressing Perdita, says,

my desires

"Run not before mine honour; nor my lusts
"Burn hotter than my faith."

To complete the last hemistich, Perdita is made to reply,

VOL. I.

H H

"O but, sir,

"Your resolution cannot hold."

Here again this editor betrays his ignorance of Shakspeare's metre; for not knowing that burn was used as a dissyllable, he reads

"O but, dear sir," &c.

Again, in King Henry VIII. Act II. sc. iii. the Old Lady declares to Anne Boleyn,

""Tis strange; a three-pence bow'd would hire me,
"Old as I am, to queen it."

But instead of this, hire not being perceived to be used as a word of two syllables, we find in the second folio,

"'Tis strange; a three-pence bow'd now would hire me," &c.

This editor, indeed, was even ignorant of the author's manner of accenting words, for in The Tempest, where we find,

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Spirits, which by mine art

"I have from their confines call'd to enact

"My present fancies,"

he exhibits the second line thus:

"I have from all their cónfines call'd to enact," &c.

Again, in King Lear, Act II. sc. i. instead of

"To have the expence and waste of his revénues,—" the latter word, being, I suppose, differently accented after our poet's death, the editor of the second folio has given us,

"To have the expence and waste of revenues."