The Shakespeare Conference: SHK 22.0033   Wednesday, 2 February 2011

From:         Larry Weiss <
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Date:         Thursday, January 27, 2011 11:56:49 PM ET
Subject: 22.0024 Collier, MND, and The Oxford Shakespeare
Comment:      Re: SHK 22.0024 Collier, MND, and The Oxford Shakespeare

Taylor says he was influenced by Antony's speech at JC,III.ii.226-30 (Riv.) about rhetorical skill that 
"should move | The stones of Rome to rise and mutiny." However, while the difference between "storms" and 
"stones" is, as Taylor says, "an easy minim" difference, I also am not convinced that "stones" is 
correct. It may be that Collier, like Taylor, was also influenced by the external analogy in JC. Without 
better textual support, or at least the need to correct a patently absurd text, I would not make the 
change. This is especially so as the sense of the QF reading is better as "storms". Bottom is saying that 
his histrionics will produce storms of tears in the audience's eyes.

As an aside, Collier was much more than an adept forger, and it would be a mistake to dismiss all his 
scholarship because of his hobby. There is no reason to suspect that his tendency to make mischief caused 
him to make deliberately false emendations when he spoke in his own name.

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