A few remarks on the emendation, “Who smothers her with painting,” in the play of Cymbeline. Discovered by Mr. Collier, in a Corrected Copy of the Second Edition of Shakespeare. By J. O. Halliwell, Esq., F.R.S. &c.

A few remarks on the emendation, “Who smothers her with painting,” in the play of Cymbeline. Discovered by Mr. Collier, in a Corrected Copy of the Second Edition of Shakespeare. By J. O. Halliwell, Esq., F.R.S. &c.

Author: Halliwell, J. O. (James Orchard)

Year: 1852

8vo. pp. 15, [1]. This booklet by John Payne Collier’s rival James Orchard Halliwell (1820-1889) considers and rejects the alteration of ‘Whose mother was her painting’ (Cymbeline, iii.4.50), referring to a specimen passage from a work that Collier was working on and which would be published in 1853 as ‘Notes and Emendations’ to the Text of Shakespeare,’ and which was based on the “discovery” of a copy of the Second Folio (1632), also known as the Perkins Folio, a document shedding new light on Shakespeare’s life and business. This document contained numerous manuscript alterations by an "old corrector," which were actually produced by Collier. Collier had claimed in the Athenaeum of 7 February 1852 that the emendation ‘Whose mother was her painting’ ‘must produce instant conviction’ but it was sensibly demolished one month later by Halliwell in the present work as being an unnecessary change. See A. & J. Freeman, John Payne Collier. Scholarship and Forgery in the Nineteenth Century. New Haven, 2004, I, pp. 602-603.