FALSTAFF'S DEATH WORDS [To the Editor of the Sams-Axon.] Snt,—Your
reviewer, "R. J.," in criticizing Shakespeare's play of Henry V, alludes to " that exquisite speech, wherein Mrs. Quickly tells of Falstaff's death words, whose per- fection in characteristic prose we owe, in part, to the brilliant emendation of the once despised Theobald."
The emendation consists of altering " his nose was as sharp as ;pen on a table of green fields " into " a babbled of green fields."
"On a table of green fields" is obviously corrupt. The words do not occur in the Quartos. They appear first in the folio. How,anyone can suppose that the emended words are characteristic of either Shakespeare, Falstaff, or Mrs. Quickly passes my comprehension. Thek are not even Theobald's emendation, but those, he says, of " a gentleman sometime deceased."
Falstaff, says Mrs. Quickly, was crying out for sack, which is, indeed, characteristic. I cannot believe that Shakespeare imputed to him, through Mrs. Quickly, the sloppy sent, mentality of " babbling of green fields " at the same time.— I am, Sir, &c.,
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