On looking over some of Mr. Staunton's annotations, I find he has anticipated me in the words cumber'd for number'd in Cymbeline, and sheaf for cheff or chiefe in Hamlet : "Of a most select and generous sheaf in that." I had previously marked the passage in Every Man out of his Humour, but his extract from the Magnetic Lady is conclusive: "That it is found in noblemen and gentlemen Of the best sheaf." Act iii., scene 4. Perhaps he may not object to the following remark as corroborative of his discovery: cheff in French has the meaning of "fag-end of a piece of cloth," and chiffe is a "paltry cloth or rag." The origin and meaning of the word sheaf may probably be found in an old French dictionary. But as there are spots in the sun, Mr. Staunton, I presume, has committed an oversight in his reading of "it lifted up his head," instead of its head; Hamlet, act first, scene second. In the quarto of 1603, to which he refers, we read : : "And lifted up his head to motion, Like as he would speak." Pem. "If what in rest you have, in right you hold," King John, act iv., scene 2. This passage has caused much discussion; may not in right be a misprint for unright? Brut. "For if thou path, thy native semblance on," Julius Caesar, act ii., scene 1. Another contested passage; may not path be a misprint for pass? "O, it came o'er my ear like the sweet sound, That breathes upon a bank of violets, Stealing and giving odour."— Twelfth Night, act i., scene 1. "So the early text," says Mr. Staunton, "but Pope changed sound to south, and the alteration has been approved, perhaps too readily, by nearly every editor since his time." Mr. Knight, I think, adopts the same reading, and has given other reasons than those adduced by Mr. Staunton, why south could not have been the word used by Shakspere. Both editors, I believe, are correct in rejecting south; but I never heard of a sound "stealing and giving odour;" the image is too incongruous, although a sound breathing is unobjectionable. Sound is merely a misprint for wind, and the "sweet wind" is the Zephyr, which "is said to produce flowers and fruits by the sweetness of its breath." How the poor ignorant Shakspere would have been belaboured by the classical Popes, Johnsons, and Farmers, had the misprint in the early text been south, for then they might have discovered, "the breath of Auster is pernicious to flowers." * "Mild as when Zephyrus on Flora breathes."-Milton. Since writing the above, I find Rowe changed sound into wind, meaning, it must be presumed, the south wind; but the following lines appear to settle the question :-"O thou goddess, Bel. Thou divine Nature, how thyself thou blazon'st Not wagging his sweet head." Sooth. I saw Jove's bird, the Roman eagle, wing'd Cymbeline, act iv., scene 2. Mr. Halliwell in his edition of Marston, appears to have misapprehended the following passage: Ant. "The first thing he spake was,-Mellida ! And then he swooned. Ros. Nothing but little humours; good sweet, on.- In a note, the editor observes," Ros. This prefix should obviously be Mel.;" but that it is the lively Rosaline, and not the gentle Mellida, who pertly replies to Antonio dressed as an Amazon, may be judged from the last line in the scene : Ros. "Sweet Lady, nay good sweet, now by my troth weele be bedfellows." "O thou allbearing earth;"-" O chaune thy breast.' Act iii., p. 31. instead of "O chaune," Mr. Dilke reads,-" Open thy breast." But chaune is merely a misprint for cleave ;-and "wound the earth that it may cleave in twain," says Tamburlaine. On entering upon this inquiry I commenced, as already stated, with Romeo and Juliet; I then read Hamlet, being the next play in the same volume of the Pictorial Shakspere; and not having seen either of the plays for more than twenty years, I was forcibly struck, however paradoxical it may sound, with the similarity of character in Romeo and Hamlet; that is, as far as the elements are concerned. Romeo is gentleness with resolution, a keen wit, a little more impulsive, but then he is younger, under a southern sky, and his disease is love; whilst Hamlet's simulated madness necessitates an increased watchfulness over his impulses. In two plays so dissimilar and representing two so dissimilar phases of the mind, parallel passages are not likely to occur; but we may compare Hamlet's state of mind after the interview with his father's spirit, and Romeo's on hearing of the death of Juliet : Hor. Нат. "These are but wild and hurling words, my lord, You hear this fellow in the cellarage. Well said, old mole! can'st work i' the ground so fast."-Hamlet, act i., scene 5. Bal. "Your looks are pale and wild. Rom. Tush, thou art deceived. Death, lie thou there, by a dead man interr❜d. Have they been merry."-Romeo and Juliet, act v. The cast of thought in these passages is evidently similar; the difference lies in time and circumstance; both Romeo and Hamlet give vent to their overwrought feelings in bitter jests. The behaviour of Hamlet to Laertes, is throughout identical with Romeo's behaviour to Tybalt and Paris. "The wit of Romeo," says Mr. Knight, "is the unaccustomed play of the intellect, when the passions have come to the clenching point,— but it is under control;" "the courage of Romeo is reflective and forbearing;" assuredly Hamlet's courage is also reflective and forbearing; and his wit is certainly under control. The resemblance is much stronger, and the divergence far less in the first sketch, than in the perfect Hamlet. "Mr. Hallam, speaking of Romeo and Juliet as an early production of our poet, points out as a proof of this, the want of that thoughtful philosophy, which, when once it had germinated in Shakspere's mind, never ceased to display itself.' Hamlet, as it now stands, is full of this thoughtful philosophy. But the original sketch, as given in the quarto of 1603, exhibits few traces of it in the form of didactic observations. The whole dramatic conduct of the action is indeed demonstrative of a philosophical conception of incidents and characters: but in the form to which Mr. Hallam refers, the thoughtful philosophy' is almost entirely wanting in that sketch.”—Pictorial Shakspere. That Hamlet is Shakspere himself ought only to be |