“King John”
Act i. sc. 1.—
“Bast. James Gurney, wilt thou give us leave awhile?
Gur. Good leave, good Philip.
Bast. Philip? sparrow! James,” &c.
Theobald adopts Warburton’s conjecture of “spare me.”
O true Warburton! and the sancta simplicitas of honest dull Theobald’s faith in him! Nothing can be more lively or characteristic than “Philip? Sparrow!” Had Warburton read old Skelton’s Philip Sparrow, an exquisite and original poem, and, no doubt, popular in Shakespeare’s time, even Warburton would scarcely have made so deep a plunge into the bathetic as to have deathified “sparrow” into “spare me!”
Act iii. sc. 2. Speech of Faulconbridge:—
“Now, by my life, this day grows wondrous hot;
Some airy devil hovers in the sky,” &c.
Theobald adopts Warburton’s conjecture of “fiery.”
I prefer the old text: the word “devil” implies “fiery.” You need only read the line, laying a full and strong emphasis on “devil,” to perceive the uselessness and tastelessness of Warburton’s alteration.