of all kinds. At all events, Decker and his contemporaries were not trained under James;—but this is not the place for a discussion of this nature. In the next speech, Mr. Weber has ingeniously interpolated of, and converted the whole into nonsense. G. 420. IV. 380.-Every doubt, that resolution kills, Read: Springs up a greater in the year's revolution. Springs up a greater. In the year's revolution, G. 421. IV. 381.-" Snipe. For snipe, the old copy reads snite." The old copy is right; snite was the more common word, and should not have been displaced. G. 423. W. 383.-For by swords; read, with swords. G. 429. W. 388.-To him, brave prince, to you.] "The old copy reads tho' you." Mr. Weber has still missed the right word. Read: To him, brave prince, thro' you. Read: bring me thither; and for your guide, Read the guide. G. 436. W. 395.-Ray. Oh, gracious lord!] "This speech in the old copy is not appropriated, and appears thus: 'Oes, gracious lord.' This is an innocent mistake. The speech is appropriated, but Mr. Weber's scholarship did not enable him, perhaps, to discover that ocs. was a common contraction of omnes, and meant ALL. THE WITCH OF EDMONTON. G. 449. W. 408.-" Carriage, i. e. conduct." Right! 'twould be a thousand pities had this been forgotten, now we are so near the end of the work. G. 449. IV. 409.--Tho' my poor fortune. G. 452. W. 411.-Win. I have heard the news; all now is safe. This is incorrect. Winnifrede is not the speaker here; nor is the language such as she would have used. She is addressed, on her entrance, by Sir Arthur, who evidently wishes to anticipate and silence her reproaches, and who then continues his speech. Read: Win, I have heard the news, &c. G. 453. W. 411.-For "The dower of virginity," which enfeebles the verse, read: "The dower of a virginity." This is far from the G. 454. W. 412.-For former deeds of love. Essex. Read: In Westham, by Essex; i. e. bordering on G. 460. IV. 417.-Am I a property for you to use As stale to your fond, wanton, loose discourse? "Stale seems to be used here in the same sense as in Shak speare: "I stand dishonoured to have gone about To link my dear friend to a common stale." Here, again, Mr. Weber has blundered upon the old string! In his author stale means a cover, a pretext for the use of loose language; in the quotation from Shakspeare, it means a common prostitute. G. 461. W. 417.-For "I will use him kindly," which neither suits the time, nor the speaker, read: "I use him kindly." G. 466. W. 422.-The nurse shall not stand thee in a penny-worth of milk. Read: The nursing shall not stand thee, &c. for spare her not, read, spare not. G. 468. W. 424.-Gathering a few rotten sticks. Read: Gather a few, &c. And, Mr. Weber's emendation arises from his ignorance of the sense of make, in the preceding line. G. 472. W. 427.-He (the hobby-horse) shall not want a belly when I am on him. This spoils both the sense and the humour, such as it is. Read: when I am in him. G. 475. W. 430.-I cancel then my gift. Read: I will cancel. It is a threat. And, for I will be revenged, read, I would be. G. 478. W. 433.-What would'st thou? It is optative. Read: What would'st have? And, for What, not a counter? read, What! nor a counter? G. 482. W. 436.-Here Mr. Weber boasts of having "corrected the old copy," which, as he says, reads: "Love in this kind admits to reason no wear her." The old copy reads: -no reason to wear her! Where were the critic's eyes? Just below, for But the sheath, read, the sheath might, &c. G. 485. W. 438.-Give me thee fully. "The old copy reads: Give me the fully. A slight variation was required here. The text, though somewhat stiff, is the language of the age." Would any one believe, after this, that the old copy clearly, and distinctly, and simply, reads: "Give me the reason fully"? Yet such is the fact. G. 486. W. 439.-Thy liking is a glass. Read: Thy liking is the glass by which, &c. G. 486. W. 439.-You, sweet, have the power To make me passionate as an April day. "Passionate is not used here in the usual sense of the word, but signifies disposed to grief;" and then we have the Variorum to confirm it. Had Mr. Weber thought less of his index, and more of his author, he must have seen, from the first words of the very next line--" Now smile, then weep,”—that it alluded to the common and characteristic description of an Aprilday, changeable, subject to sudden vicissitudes, &c. G. 489. W. 440. Read: such presages proves. such presages prove. Nonsense. G. 490. W. 441.-Not until then? Read: Not until when? G. 491. W. 442.-Dear Sue, I will not. Read: Dear Sue, I shall not. It seems an acquiescence in her own affectionate language. G. 491. W. 442. Read: do not leave us. prithee, do not, &c. G. 492. W. 443.-Witches are SO common now-a-days, &c. "In the days of the sapient James, witchcraft, by his own royal example, was become the subject of many publications, and supposed witches were hunted down in every quarter of the kingdom without mercy." I am weary of these audacious falsehoods, and should pass them in silence, were it not that some better natures, as Jonson says, continue to run in the same vile line, whose understandings may not be altogether so impassible to truth and honesty, as this dolt's. "What the judgment of King James was of witchcraft, (Osborne says,) you may in part find by his treatise on that subject, and the charge he gave the Judges to be circum spect in condemning those committed by ignorant justices for diabolical compacts. Nor had he concluded his advice. in a narrower circle, as I have heard, than the denial of any such operations, but out of reasons of state, and to gratifie the Church."--This was in Scotland; and there is better authority than Osborne's for believing that James, "on his arrival in this country, gave way to the general prejudice against witches, in order to oblige his new subjects." Witchcraft, in fact, had been the terror of the English people for many centuries. Under the Catholic princes, sorcerers and witches were hanged and burned, secundùm artem, by the Church, as heretics; scarcely had the Reformation taken place, when Henry VIII. reclaimed the victims for the civil law, and passed the Act making witchcraft felony. This, of course, fell into disuse under Mary, who had bloodier and more agreeable business in hand; but scarcely was Elizabeth seated on the throne, when she was assailed on all sides for the recal of the statute of felony; and reminded by some of the principal clergy and laity, that "witches and sorcerers were wonderfully increasing, and that her Majesty's subjects pined away until death." In consequence of this alarming representation, "her Majesty and the Lords Spiritual and Temporal in Parliament assembled" made witchcraft once more felony. This was many years before James was born. Again the law fell into disuse, much to the discomfort of her subjects, who never ceased to preach and petition for its revival, and who would probably have been heard, had not the Pope officiously engaged the gallows about this period, for the fit disposal of the culprits under other names-poisoners, seminaries, and traitors. While James was yet a stripling, he had been indulged with the cross-examination of the Scotch witches; for the defaults of his education, which (thanks to the satellites of the Regent and Elizabeth) was at once frivolous and gloomy, |