oticing my
prior remonstrance on this subject. It is to be lamented, that MR. COLLIER
should have hurried out his new edition of Shakspeare, adopting all the
sweeping _emendations_ of his newly-found commentator, without paying the
slightest heed to any of the suggestions which have been offered to him in
a friendly spirit, or affording time for the farther objections which are
continually pouring in. At the risk of probably wearying some of your
readers, I cannot forbear submitting to you a few more remarks; but I shall
confine them on this occasion to one play, _The Winter's Tale_: which
contains, perhaps, as many poetical beauties as any single work of our
great dramatic bard. With reference to the passage quoted in p. 437., I can
hardly believe that Shakspeare ever wrote such a poor unmeaning line as--

" . . . they are false as _dead blacks_."

nor can I perceive any possible objection to the original words "o'er dyed
blacks." They may either mean false mourners, putting an _over_ dark
semblance of grief; or they may allude figuratively to the material of
mourning, the colours of which if _over-dyed_ will not stand. In either of
these senses, the passage is poetical; but there is nothing like poetry in
"_our dead blacks_."

In p. 450. the alteration of the word "and" to "heaven" may be right,
though it is difficult to conceive how the one can have been mistaken for
the other. At all events, the sense is improved by the change; but I do not
see that anything is gained by the substitution in the next line of "dream"
for "theme." Whatever the king said in his ravings about Hermione, might as
aptly be called part of his "theme" as part of his "dream." The subject of
his _dream_ was in fact his _theme_!

Neither can I discover any good reason for changing, in p. 452.,

" . . . and one may drink, depart,
And yet partake no venom,"

into "drink a part." The context clearly shows the author's meaning to have
been, that if any one _departed_ at once after tasting of the beverage, he
would have no knowledge of what he had drunk; {96} but if he remained, some
one present might point out to him the spider in the cup, and _then_ "he
cracks his gorge," &c.

In p. 460. MR. COLLIER says that the passage, "dangerous, unsafe lunes i'
the king," is mere tautology, and _therefore_ he follows the old corrector
in substituting "_unsane lunes_." Now it strikes me that there is quite as
much _tautology_ in "_u