"It was gravely," says Mr. A., "almost magisterially, proposed by one of the disputants [MR. SINGER] to corrupt the concluding lines by altering _their_ the pronoun into _there_ the adverb, because (shade of Murray!) the commentator could not discover of what noun _their_ could possibly be the pronoun, in these lines following:
'When great things labouring perish in their birth, Their form confounded makes most form in mirth;'
and it was left to MR. KEIGHTLEY to bless the world with the information that it was _things_."
In all the modern editions that I have been able to consult, these lines are thus printed and punctuated:
"Their form confounded makes most form in mirth; When great things labouring perish in the birth:"
and _their_ is referred to _contents_. I certainly seem to have been the first to refer it to _things_.
Allow me, as it is my last, to give once more the whole passage as it is in the folios, unaltered by MR. COLLIER's Magnus Apollo, and with my own punctuation:
"That sport best pleases, that doth least know how, Where zeal strives to content, and the contents Dyes in the zeal of that which it presents. Their form confounded makes most form in mirth, When great things labouring perish in the birth." _Love's Labour's Lost_, Act V. Sc. 2.
My interpretation, it will be seen, beside referring _their_ to _things_, makes _dyes in_ signify _tinges_, _imbues with_; of which use of the expression I now offer the following instances:
"And the grey ocean _into purple dye_." _Faery Queene_, ii. 10. 48.
"Are deck'd with blossoms _dyed in white and red_." _Ib._., ii. 12. 12.
"_Dyed in_ the dying _slaughter_ of their foes." _King John_, Act II. Sc. 2.
"And it was _dyed in mummy_." _Othello_, Act III. Sc. 4.
"O truant Muse! what shall be thy amends For thy neglect of truth _in beauty dyed_?" Sonn. 101.
For the use of this figure I may quote from the Shakspeare of France:
"Mais pour moi, qui, caché sous une autre aventure, D'une âme plus commune ai pris quelque _teinture_." _Héraclius_, Act III. Sc. 1.
"The house ought to _dye_ all the surrounding country with a strength of colouring, and to an extent proportioned to its own importance."--_Life of Wordsworth_, i. 355.
Another place on which I had offered a conjecture, and which MR. A. takes under his patronage, is "Clamor your tongues" (_Winter's Tale_, Act IV. Sc. 4.) and in proof of _clamor_ being the right word, he quotes passages from a book printed in 1542, in which are _chaumbreed_ and _chaumbre_, in the sense of restraining. I see little resemblance here to _clamor_, and he does not say that he would substitute _chaumbre_. He says, "Most judiciously does Nares reject Gifford's corruption of this word into _charm_ [it was Grey not Gifford]; nor will the suffrage of the 'clever' old commentator," &c. It is very curious, only that we _criticasters_ are so apt to overrun our game, that the only place where "charm your tongue" really occurs, seems to have escaped MR. COLLIER. In _Othello_, Act V. Sc. 2., Iago says to his wife, "Go to, charm your tongue;" and she replies, "I will not charm my tongue." My conjecture was that _clamor_ was _clam_, or, as it was usually spelt, _clem_, to press or restrain; and to this I still adhere.