of doing him full justice. Some of Johnson's notes are very amusing,
and those of recent editors occasionally provoke a smile. If once
a blunder has been made it is persisted in. Take, for instance, a
glaring one in the 2nd part of Henry IV., where, in the apostrophe
to sleep, "clouds" is substituted for "shrouds."

"Wilt thou, upon the high and giddy mast,
Seal up the ship-boy's eyes, and rock his brains
In cradle of the rude imperious surge,
And in the visitation of the winds,
Who take the ruffian billows by the top,
Curling their monstrous heads, and hanging them
With deafening clamours in the slippery _clouds_,
That with the hurly death itself awakes?"

That _shrouds_ is the correct word is so obvious, that it is
surprising any man of common understanding should dispute it. Yet
we find the following note in Knight's pictorial edition:--

"_Clouds_.--Some editors have proposed to read _shrouds_. A line
in Julius Cæsar makes Shakspere's meaning clear:--

"'I have seen
Th' ambitious ocean swell, and rage, and foam,
To be exalted with the threatening _clouds_.'"

_Clouds_ in this instance is perfectly consistent; but here the scene
is altogether different. We have no ship-boy sleeping on the giddy
mast, in the midst of the shrouds, or ropes, rendered slippery by the
perpetual dashing of the waves against them during the storm.