" •■ as doth the mandrake* s groan": — In BuUeine's

Bulwarke of Defence against Sickness, folio, 1579, p. 141,
is the following passage relative to the mandrake, which
was first quoted by Reed : —

" They do affyrme that this herbe cometh of the seede
of some convicted dead men ; and also without the death
of some lyvinge thinge it cannot be drawen out of the
earth to man's use. 'Therefore, they did tye some dogge
or other lyving beast unto the roote thereof with a
corde, and digged the earth in compasse round about,
and in the meane tyme stopped their own eares for feare
of the terrible shriek and cry of this Mandrack. In
whych cry it doth not' only dye itselfe, but the feare



392 KING HENRY VI. PAET II. act iv.
thereof kylleth the dogge or beast which puUeth it out
of the earth."

It need hardly be remarked that the lizard's sting men-
tioned below is equally a nonentity with the mandrake's
groan.
, 335. " weit thou thence" : — The second folio needlessly

has, '* wert thou hence.'*

. 336. " Myself to joy in naught " : — The folio has, " Myself
no joy," &c. The obviously antithetical character of the
two clauses of the sentence justifies the trifling correction,
which was found in Mr. Collier's folio of 1632.
337. " a fretful corrosive": — Here ' corrosive' is to be

accented on the first syllable. It was generally written
corsive in Shakespeare's day.
Scene HI.
