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diff --git a/.gitattributes b/.gitattributes new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6833f05 --- /dev/null +++ b/.gitattributes @@ -0,0 +1,3 @@ +* text=auto +*.txt text +*.md text diff --git a/15566-8.txt b/15566-8.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..553c22f --- /dev/null +++ b/15566-8.txt @@ -0,0 +1,12315 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of Notes to Shakespeare, Volume III: The +Tragedies, by Samuel Johnson + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: Notes to Shakespeare, Volume III: The Tragedies + +Author: Samuel Johnson + +Editor: Arthur Sherbo + +Release Date: April 6, 2005 [EBook #15566] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK NOTES TO SHAKESPEARE *** + + + + +Produced by David Starner, David King, and the PG Online +Distributed Proofreading Team + + + + + +THE AUGUSTAN REPRINT SOCIETY + +SAMUEL JOHNSON + +NOTES TO SHAKESPEARE + + +Vol. III + +Tragedies + +Edited, with an Introduction, by +Arthur Sherbo + +Los Angeles +William Andrews Clark Memorial Library +University of California +1958 + +GENERAL EDITORS + +Richard C. Boys, _University of Michigan_ + +Ralph Cohen, _University of California, Los Angeles_ + +Vinton A. Dearing, _University of California, Los Angeles_ + +Lawrence Clark Powell, _Clark Memorial Library_ + + +ASSISTANT EDITOR + +W. Earl Britton, _University of Michigan_ + + +ADVISORY EDITORS + +Emmett L. Avery, _State College of Washington_ + +Benjamin Boyce, _Duke University_ + +Louis Bredvold, _University of Michigan_ + +John Butt, _King's College, University of Durham_ + +James L. Clifford, _Columbia University_ + +Arthur Friedman, _University of Chicago_ + +Louis A. Landa, _Princeton University_ + +Samuel H. Monk, _University of Minnesota_ + +Ernest C. Mossner, _University of Texas_ + +James Sutherland, _University College, London_ + +H. T. Swedenberg, Jr., _University of California, Los Angeles_ + + +CORRESPONDING SECRETARY + +Edna C. Davis, _Clark Memorial Library_ + + + + +Introduction on Tragedies + +Dr. Johnson's reaction to Shakespeare's tragedies is a curious one, +compounded as it is of deep emotional involvement in a few scenes in +some plays and a strange dispassionateness toward most of the others. I +suspect that his emotional involvement took root when he read +Shakespeare as a boy--one remembers the terror he experienced in reading +of the Ghost in _Hamlet_, and it was probably also as a boy that he +suffered that shock of horrified outrage and grief at the death of +Cordelia that prevented him from rereading the scene until be came to +edit the play. Johnson's deepest feelings and convictions, Professor +Clifford has recently reminded us, can be traced back to his childhood +and adolescence. But it is surprising to learn, as one does from his +commentary, that other scenes in these very plays (_Hamlet_ and _King +Lear_, and in _Macbeth_, too) leave him unmoved, if one can so interpret +the absence of any but an explanatory note on, say, Lear's speech +beginning "Pray, do not mock me;/I am a very foolish fond old man." +Besides this negative evidence there is also the positive evidence of +many notes which display the dispassionate editorial mind at work where +one might expect from Johnson an outburst of personal feeling. There are +enough of these outbursts to warrant our expecting others, but we are +too frequently disappointed. Perhaps Johnson thought of most of +Shakespeare's tragedies as "imperial tragedies" and that is why he could +maintain a stance of aloofness; conversely, "the play of _Timon_ is a +domestick Tragedy, and therefore strongly fastens on the attention of +the reader." But the "tragedy" of Timon does not capture the attention +of the modern reader, and perhaps all attempts to fix Johnson's likes +and dislikes, and the reasons for them, in the canon of Shakespeare's +plays must circle endlessly without ever getting to their destination. + + + + +TRAGEDIES + + +Vol. IV + + +MACBETH + + +(392) Most of the notes which the present editor has subjoined to this +play were published by him in a small pamphlet in 1745. + +I.i (393,*) _Enter three Witches_] In order to make a true estimate of +the abilities and merit of a writer, it it always necessary to examine +the genius of his age, and the opinions of his contemporaries. A poet +who should now make the whole action of his tragedy depend upon +enchantment, and produce the chief events by the assistance of +supernatural agents, would be censured as transgressing the bounds of +probability, be banished from the theatre to the nursery, and condemned +to write fairy tales instead of tragedies; but a survey of the notions +that prevailed at the time when this play was written, will prove that +Shakespeare was in no danger of such censures, since he only turned the +system that was then universally admitted, to his advantage, and was far +from overburthening the credulity of his audience. + +The reality of witchcraft or enchantment, which, though not strictly the +same, are confounded in this play, has in all ages and countries been +credited by the common people, and in most, by the learned themselves. +These phantoms have indeed appeared more frequently, in proportion as +the darkness of ignorance has been more gross; but it cannot be shown, +that the brightest gleams of knowledge have at any time been sufficient +to drive them out of the world. The time in which this kind of credulity +was at its height, seems to have been that of the holy war, in which the +Christians imputed all their defeats to enchantments or diabolical +opposition, as they ascribed their success to the assistance of their +military saints; and the learned Dr. Warburton appears to believe +(_Suppl. to the Introduction to Don Quixote_) that the first accounts of +enchantments were brought into this part of the world by those _who_ +returned from their eastern expeditions. But there is always some +distance between the birth and maturity of folly as of wickedness: this +opinion had long existed, though perhaps the application of it had in no +foregoing age been so frequent, nor the reception so general. +Olympiodorus, in Photius's extracts, tells us of one Libanius, who +practised this kind of military magic, and having promised [Greek: +choris opliton kata barbaron energein] to perform great things against +the Barbarians without soldiers, was, at the instances of the empress +Placidia, put to death, when he was about to have given proofs of his +abilities. The empress shewed some kindness in her anger by cutting him +off at a time so convenient for his reputation. + +But a more remarkable proof of the antiquity of this notion may be found +in St. Chrysostom's book _de Sacerdotia_, which exhibits a scene of +enchantments not exceeded by any romance of the middle age: he supposes +a spectator overlooking a field of battle attended by one that points +out all the various objects of horror, the engines of destruction, and +the arts of slaughter. [Greek: Deichnuto de eti para tois enantiois kai +petomenous hippous dia tinos magganeias, kai oplitas di' aeros +pheromenous, kai pasaen goaeteias dunomin kai idean.] _Let him then +proceed to shew him in the opposite armies horses flying by enchantment, +armed men transported through the air, and every power and form of +magic._ Whether St. Chrysostom believed that such performances were +really to be seen in a day of battle, or only endeavoured to enliven his +description, by adopting the notions of the vulgar, it is equally +certain, that such nations were in his time received, and that therefore +they were not imported from the Saracens in a later age; the wars with +the Saracens however gave occasion to their propagation, not only as +bigotry naturally discovers prodigies, but as the scene of action was +removed to a great distance. + +The Reformation did not immediately arrive at its meridian, and though +day was gradually encreasing upon us, the goblins of witchcraft still +continued to hover in the twilight. In the time of queen Elizabeth was +the remarkable trial of the witches of Warbois, whose conviction is +still commemorated in an annual sermon at Huntingdon. But in the reign +of king James, in which this tragedy was written, many circumstances +concurred to propagate and confirm this opinion. The king, who was much +celebrated for his knowledge, had, before his arrival in England, not +only examined in person a woman accused of witchcraft, but had given a +very formal account of the practices and illusions of evil spirits, the +compacts of witches, the ceremonies used by them, the manner of +detecting them, and the justice of punishing them, in his dialogues of +_Daemonologie_, written in the Scottish dialect, and published at +Edinburgh. This book was, soon after his accession, reprinted at London, +and as the ready way to gain king James's favour was to flatter his +speculations, the system of _Daemonologie_ was immediately adopted by +all who desired either to gain preferment or not to lose it. Thus the +doctrine of witchcraft was very powerfully inculcated; and as the +greatest part of mankind have no other reason for their opinions than +that they are in fashion, it cannot be doubted but this persuasion made +a rapid progress, since vanity and credulity co-operated in its favour. +The infection soon reached the parliament, who, in the first year of +king James, made a law, by which it was enacted, chap. xii. "That if any +person shall use any invocation or conjuration of any evil or wicked +spirit; 2. or shall consult, covenant with, entertain, employ, feed or +reward any evil or cursed spirit to or for any intent or purpose; 3. or +take up any dead man, woman or child out of the grave,--or the skin, +bone, or any part of the dead person, to be employed or used in any +manner of witchcraft, sorcery, charm, or enchantment; 4. or shall use, +practise or exercise any sort of witchcraft, sorcery, charm, or +enchantment; 5. whereby any person shall be destroyed, killed, wasted, +consumed, pined, or lamed in any part of the body; 6. That every such +person being convicted shall suffer death." This law was repealed in our +own time. + +Thus, in the time of Shakespeare, was the doctrine of witchcraft at once +established by law and by the fashion, and it became not only unpolite, +but criminal, to doubt it; and as prodigies are always seen in +proportion as they are expected, witches were every day discovered, and +multiplied as fast in some places, that bishop Hall mentions a village +in Lancashire, where their number was greater than that of the houses. +The jesuits and sectaries took advantage of this universal error, and +endeavoured to promote the interest of their parties by pretended cures +of persons afflicted by evil spirits; but they were detected and exposed +by the clergy of the established church. + +Upon this general infatuation Shakespeare might be easily allowed to +found a play, especially since he has followed with great exactness such +histories as were then thought true; nor can it be doubted that the +scenes of enchantment, however they may now be ridiculed, were both by +himself and his audience thought awful and affecting. + +I.i.10 (396,5) Fair is foul, and foul is fair] I believe the meaning is, +that _to us_, perverse and malignant as we are, _fair is foul, and foul +is fair_. + +I.ii.14 (398,9) And Fortune, on his damned quarry smiling] Thus the old +copy; but I am inclined to read _quarrel_. _Quarrel_ was formerly used +for _cause_, or for _the occasion of a quarrel_, and is to be found in +that sense in Hollingshed's account of the story of Macbeth, who, upon +the creation of the prince of Cumberland, thought, says the historian, +that he had _a just quarrel_, to endeavour after the crown. The sense +therefore is, _Fortune smiling on his excrable cause_, &c. This is +followed by Dr. Warburten. (see 1765, VI, 373, 4). + +I.ii.28 (400,4) Discomfort swells] _Discomfort_ the natural opposite to +_comfort_. _Well'd_, for _flawed_, was an emendation. The common copies +have, _discomfort swells_. + + I.ii.37 (400,5) As cannons overcharg'd with double cracks, + So they + Doubly redoubled strokes upon the foe] + +Mr. Theobald has endeavoured to improve the sense of this passage by +altering the punctuation thus: + + --_they were + As cannons overcharg'd, with double cracks + So they redoubled strokes_-- + +He declares, with some degree of exultation, that he has no idea of a +_cannon charged with double cracks_; but surely the great author will +not gain much by an alteration which makes him say of a hero, that he +_redoubles strokes with double cracks_, an expression not more loudly to +be applauded, or more easily pardoned than that which is rejected in its +favour. That a cannon is charged _with thunder_, or _with double +thunders_, may be written, not only without nonsense, but with elegance, +and nothing else is here meant by _cracks_, which in the time of this +writer was a word of such emphasis and dignity, that in this play he +terms the general dissolution of nature the _crack of doom_. + +The old copy reads, + +_They doubly redoubled strokes_. + +I.ii.46 (401,8) So should he look, that seems to speak things strange] +The meaning of this passage, as it now stands, is, _so should he look, +that looks as if he told things strange_. But Rosse neither yet told +strange things, nor could look as if he told them; Lenox only +conjectured from his air that he had strange things to tell, and +therefore undoubtedly said, + + _What haste looks thro' his eyes? + So should he look, that_ teems _to speak thinks strange_. + +He looks like one that _is big with_ something of importance; a metaphor +so natural that it is every day used in common discourse. + +I.ii.55 (402,1) Confronted him with self-comparisons] [Theobald +interpreted "him" as Cawdor; Johnson, in 1745, accused Shakespeare of +forgetfulness on the basis of Theobald's error; and Warburton here +speaks of "blunder upon blunder."] The second blunderer was the present +editor. + +I.iii.6 (403,5) _Aroint thee, witch_!] In one of the folio editions the +reading is _Anoint thee_, in a sense very consistent with the common +accounts of witches, who are related to perform many supernatural acts +by the means of unguents, and particularly to fly through the air to the +places where they meet at their hellish festivals. In this sense, +_anoint thee, Witch_, will mean, _Away, Witch, to your infernal +assembly_. This reading I was inclined to favour, because I had met with +the word _aroint_ in no other authour till looking into Hearne's +Collections I found it in a very old drawing, that he has published, in +which St. Patrick is represented visiting hell, and putting the devils +into great confusion by his presence, of whom one that is driving the +damned before him with a prong, has a label issuing out of his mouth +with these words, OUT OUT ARONGT, of which the last is evidently the +same with _aroint_, and used in the same sense as in this passage. + +I.iii.15 (405,8) And the very points they blew] As the word _very_ is +here of no other use than to fill up the verse, it is likely that +Shakespeare wrote _various_, which might be easily mistaken for _very_, +being either negligently read, hastily pronounced, or imperfectly heard. + +I.iii.21 (405,9) He shall live a man forbid] Mr. Theobald has very +justly explained _forbid_ by _accursed_, but without giving any reason +of his interpretation. To _bid_ is originally _to pray_, as in this +Saxon fragment, + + Ðe iÿ þiÿ þ bit y bote + _He is wise that_ prays and makes amends. + +As to forbid_ therefore implies to _prohibit_, in opposition to the word +_bid_ in its present sense, it signifies by the same kind of opposition +to _curse_, when it is derived from the same word in its primitive +meaning. + +I.iii.42 (409,3) are you aught/That man may question?] Are ye any beings +with which man is permitted to hold converse, or of which it is lawful +_to ask questions_? + +I.iii.53 (410,5) Are ye fantastical] By _fantastical_, he means +creatures of fantasy or imagination; the question is, Are these real +beings before us, or are we deceived by illusions of fancy? + +I.iii.97 (412,8) As thick as tale] [As thick as hail] Was Mr. Pope's +correction. The old copy has, + + --_As thick_ as tale + _Can_ post _with_ post;-- + +which perhaps is not amiss, meaning that the news came as _thick_ as a +_tale_ can _travel_ with the _post_. Or we may read, perhaps yet better, + + --_As thick as tale_ + Came _post with post_;-- + +That is, posts arrived as fast as they could be counted. + +I.iii.130 (414,4) This supernatural solliciting] _Solliciting_ is +rather, in my opinion, _incitement_ than _information_. + +I.iii.134 (414,5) why do I yield] To _yield_ is, simply, to _give way +to_. + +I.iii.137 (414,6) Present fears/Are less than horrible imaginings] [W: +feats] _Present fears_ are _fears of things present_, which Macbeth +declares, and every man has found, to be less than the _imagination_ +presents them while the objects are yet distant. _Fears_ is right. + +I.iii.140 (415,7) single state of man] The _single state of man_ seems +to be used by Shakespeare for an _individual_, in opposition to a +_commonwealth_, or _conjunct body_. + +I.iii.40 (415,8) function/Is smother'd in surmise; and nothing is,/ But +what is not] All powers of action are oppressed and crushed by one +overwhelming image in the mind, and nothing is present to me, but that +which is really future. Of things now about me I have no perception, +being intent wholly on that which has yet no existence. + +I.iii.147 (415,9) Time and the hour runs through the roughest day] I +suppose every reader is disgusted at the tautology in this passage, +_Time and the hour_, and will therefore willingly believe that +Shakespeare wrote it thus, + + _Come what come may_, + Time! on!--_the hour runs thro' the roughest day_. + +Macbeth is deliberating upon the events which are to befall him, but +finding no satisfaction from his own thoughts, he grows impatient of +reflection, and resolves to wait the close without harrassing hinaelf +with conjectures. + + _Come what come may_. + +But to shorten the pain of suspense, he calls upon Time In the usual +stile of ardent desire, to quicken his motion, + + _Time! on!_ -- + +He then comforts himself with the reflection that all his perplexity +must have an end, + + --_the hour runs thro' the roughest day._ + +This conjecture is supported by the passage in the letter to his lady, +in which he says, _they referred me to the_ coming on of time, _with +Hail, King that shalt be_. + +I.iii.149 (416,1) My dull brain was wrought] My head was _worked_, +_agitated_, put into commotion. + +I.iv.9 (417,3) studied in his death] Instructed in the art of dying. It +was usual to say _studied_, for _learned_ in science. + +I.iv.12 (417,4) To find the mind's construction in the face] The +_construction of the mind_ is, I believe, a phrase peculiar to +Shakespeare; it implies the _frame_ or _disposition_ of the mind, by +which it is determined to good or ill. + +I.iv.26 (418,5) Which do but what they should, by doing everything, Safe +toward your love and honour] Of the last line of this speech, which is +certainly, as it is now read, unintelligible, an emendation has been +attempted, which Dr. Warburton and Dr. Theobald once admitted as the +true reading: + + --_our duties + Are to your throne and state, children and servants, + Which do but what they should, in doing every thing_ + Fiefs _to your love and honour._ + +My esteem for these critics inclines me to believe that they cannot be +much pleased with these expressions _fiefs to love_, or _fiefs to +honour_, and that they have proposed this alteration rather because no +other occured to them, than because they approved of it. I shall +therefore propose a bolder change, perhaps with no better success, but +_sua cuique placent_. I read thus, + + --_our duties + Are to your throne and state, children and servants + Which do but what they should, in doing_ nothing, + Save _toward_ your love and honour. + +We do but perform our duty when we contract all our views to your +service, when we act with _no other_ principle than regard to _your love +and honour_. + +It is probable that this passage was first corrupted by writing _safe_ +for _save_, and the lines then stood thus: + + --_doing nothing + Safe toward your love and honour._ + +which the next transcriber observing to be wrong, and yet not being able +to discover the real fault, altered to the present reading. + +Dr. Warburton has since changed _fiefs_ to _fief'd_, and Hanmer has +altered _safe_ to _shap'd_. I am afraid none of us have hit the right +word. + +I.v.2 (420, 6) _by the perfected report_] By the best intelligence. Dr. +Warburton would read, _perfected_, and explains _report_ by +_prediction_. Little regard can be paid to an emendation that instead of +clearing the sense, makes it more difficult. + +I.v.23 (420, 7) thoud'st have, great Glamis,/That which cries, _Thus +thou must do, if thou have it_] As the object of Macbeth's desire is +here introduced speaking of itself, it is necessary to read, + + --_thoud'st have, great Glamis, + That which cries_, thus thou must do, if thou have _me_. + +I.v.39 (422, 8) The raven himself is hoarse] Dr. Warburton reads, + + --_The raven himself's_ not _hoarse_. + +Yet I think the present words may stand. The messenger, says the +servant, had hardly breath _to make up his message_; to which the lady +answers mentally, that he may well want breath, such a message would add +hoarseness to the raven. That even the bird, whose harsh voice is +accustomed to predict calamities, could not _croak the entrance of_ +Duncan but in a note of unwonted harshness. + +I.v.42 (422, 2) mortal thoughts] This expression signifies not _the +thoughts of mortals_, but _murtherous, deadly_, or _destructive +designs_. So in act 5, + + _Hold fast the_ mortal _sword_. + +And in another place, + + _With twenty_ mortal _murthers_. + +I.v.47 (422, 3) nor keep peace between/The effect, and it!] The intent +of lady Macbeth evidently is to wish that no womanish tenderness, or +conscientious remorse, may hinder her purpose from proceeding to effect; +but neither this, nor indeed any other sense, is expressed by the +present reading, and therefore it cannot be doubted that Shakespeare +wrote differently, perhaps thus, + + _That no compunctious visitings of nature + Shake my fell purpose, nor keep_ pace _between + Th' effect, and it_.-- + +To _keep_ pace _between_ may signify _to pass between_, to _intervene_. +_Pace_ is on many occasions a favourite of Shakespeare's. This phrase is +indeed not usual in this sease, but was it not its novelty that gave +occasion to the present corruption? [The sense is, _that no compunctious +visitings of nature_ may prevail upon her, to give place in her mind to +_peaceful_ thoughts, or to rest one moment in quiet, from the hour of +her purpose to its full completion in the effect. REVISAL.] This writer +thought himself perhaps very sagacious that be found a meaning which +nobody missed, the difficulty still remains how such a meaning is made +by the words. (see 1765, VI, 394, 6) + +I.v.49 (423, 5) take my milk for gall] _Take_ away _my milk_, and put +_gall_ into the place. + +I.v.51 (423, 6) You wait on nature's mischief!] _Nature's mischief_ is +mischief done to nature, violation of nature's order committed by +wickedness. + +I.v.55 (423,8) To cry, _hold, hold_!] On this passage there is a long +criticism in the _Rambler_. + +I.v.58 (424,1) This ignorant present time] _Ignorant_ has here the +signification of _unknowing_; that it, I feel by anticipation these +future hours, of which, according to the process of nature, the present +time would be _ignorant_. + +I.vi.3 (425,3) our gentle senses] _Senses_ are nothing more _than each +man's sense_. _Gentle senses_ is very elegant, as it means _placid_, +_calm_, _composed_, and intimates the peaceable delight of a fine day. +(see 1765, VI,396,2) + +I.vi.7 (426,5) coigne of 'vantage] Convenient corner. + +I.vi.13 (426,7) How you should bid god-yield as for your pains] I +believe _yield_, or, as it is in the folio of 1623, _eyld_, is a +corrupted contraction of _shield_. The wish implores not _reward_ but +_protection_. + +I.vii.1 (428,1) If it were _done_] A man of learning recommends another +punctuation: + + _If it were done, when 'tis done, then 'twere well. + It were done quickly, if, &c._ + +I.vii.2 (428,2) If the assassination/Could tramel up the consequence] Of +this soliloquy the meaning is not very clear; I have never found the +readers of Shakespeare agreeing about it. I understand it thus, + +"If that which I am about to do, when it is once _done_ and executed, +were _done_ and ended without any following effects, it would then be +best _to do it quickly_; if the murder could terminate in itself, and +restrain the regular course of consequences, if _its success_ could +secure _its surcease_, if being once done _successfully_, without +detection, it could _fix a period_ to all vengeance and enquiry, so that +_this blow_ might be all that I have to do, and this anxiety all that I +have to suffer; if this could be my condition, even _here_ in _this +world_, in this contracted period of temporal existence, on this narrow +_bank_ in the ocean of eternity, _I would jump the life to come_, I +would venture upon the deed without care of any future state. But this +is one of _these cases_ in which judgment is pronounced and vengeance +inflicted upon as _here_ in our present life. We teach others to do as +we have done, and are punished by our own example." (1773) + +I.vii.4 (428,3) With his surcease, success] I think the reasoning +requires that we should read, + + _With its_ success surcease. + +I.vii.6 (429,4) shoal of time] This is Theobald's emendation, +undoubtedly right. The old edition has _school_, and Dr. Warburton +_shelve_. + +I.vii.22 (429,7) or heavens cherubin, hors'd/Upon the sightless couriers +of the air] [W: couriers] _Courier_ is only _runner_. _Couriers of air_ +are _winds_, air in motion. _Sightless_ is _invisible_. + +I.vii.25 (430,8) That tears shall drown the wind] Alluding to the +remission of the wind in a shower. + +I.vii.28 (430,9) _Enter Lady_] The arguments by which lady Macbeth +persuades her husband to commit the murder, afford a proof of +Shakespeare's knowledge of human nature. She urges the excellence and +dignity of courage, a glittering idea which has dazzled mankind from age +to age, and animated sometimes the house-breaker, and sometimes the +conqueror; but this sophism Macbeth has for ever destroyed, by +distinguishing true from false fortitude, in a line and a half; of which +it may almost be said, that they ought to bestow immortality on the +author, though all his other productions had been lost: + + _I dare do all that become a man, + Who dares do more, is none_. + +This topic, which has been always employed with too much success, is +used in this scene with peculiar propriety, to a soldier by a woman. +Courage is the distinguishing virtue of a soldier, and the reproach of +cowardice cannot be borne by any man from a woman, without great +impatience. + +She then urges the oaths by which he had bound himself to murder Duncan, +another art of sophistry by which men have sometimes deluded their +consciences, and persuaded themselves that what would be criminal in +others is virtuous in them; this argument Shakespeare, whose plan +obliged him to make Macbeth yield, has not confuted, though he might +easily have shewn that a former obligation could not be vacated by a +latter: that obligations laid on us by a higher power, could not be +over-ruled by obligations which we lay upon ourselves. + +I.vii.41 (431,1) + + --Whouldst thou have that, + Which then esteem'st the ornament of life, + And live a coward in thine own esteem?] + +In this there seems to be no reasoning. I should read, + + Or _live a coward in thine own esteem_? + +Unless we choose rather, + + --_Wouldst thou_ leave _that_. + +I.vii.45 (431,2) Like the poor cat i' the adage?] The adage alluded to +is, _The cat loves fish, but dares not wet her feet, Catus amat pisces, +sed men vult tingere plantas_. + +I.vii.64 (432,5) Will I with wine and wassel so convince] To _convince_ +is in Shakespeare to _overpower_ or _subdue_, as in this play, + + --_Their malady_ convinces + _The great assay of art_. + +I.vii.67 (433,6) A limbeck only] That is, shall be only a vessel to emit +_fumes_ or _vapours_. + +I.vii.71 (433,7) our great quell] _Quell_ is _murder_. _manquellers_ +being in the old language the term for which _murderers_ is now used. + +II.i (434,8) _Enter Banquo, and Fleance with a torch before him_] The +place is not mark'd in the old edition, nor is it easy to say where this +encounter can be. It is not in the _hall_, as the editors have all +supposed it, for Banquo sees the sky; it is not far from the bedchamber, +as the conversation shews: it must be in the inner court of the castle, +which Banquo might properly cross in his way to bed. + +II.i.25 (435,2) If you shall cleave to my consent, Then 'tis,/It shall +make honour for you] Macbeth expressed his thought with affected +obscurity; he does not mention the royalty, though he apparently has it +in his mind, _If you shall cleave to my consent_, if you shall concur +with me when I determine to accept the crown, _when 'tis_, when that +happens which the prediction promises, _it shall make honour for you_. + +II.i.49 (437,6) Now o'er the one half world/Nature seems dead] That is, +_over our hemisphere all action and motion seem to have ceased_. This +image, which is perhaps the most striking that poetry can produce, has +been adopted by Dryden in his _Conquest of Mexico_: + + _All things are hush'd as Nature's self lay dead, + The mountains seem to nod their drowsy head; + The little birds in dreams their song repeat, + And sleeping flow'rs beneath the night dews sweat. + Even lust and envy sleep!_ + +These lines, though so well known, I have transcribed, that the contrast +between them and this passage of Shakespeare may be more accurately +observed. + +Night is described by two great poets, but one describes a night of +quiet, the other of perturbation. In the night of Dryden, all the +disturbers of the world are laid asleep; in that of Shakespeare, nothing +but sorcery, lust, and murder, is awake. He that reads Dryden, finds +himself lull'd with serenity, and disposed to solitude and +contemplation. He that peruses Shakspeare looks round alarmed, and +starts to find himself alone. One is the night of a lover, the other, of +a murderer. + +II.i.52 (438,8) + + --wither'd Murther, + --thus with hia stealthy pace, + With Tarquin's ravishing strides, tow'rds his design + moves like a ghost.--] + +This was the reading of this passage [ravishing sides] in all the +editions before that of Mr. Pope, who for _sides_, inserted in the text +_strides_, which Mr. Theobald has tacitly copied from him, though a more +proper alteration might perhaps have been made. A _ravishing stride_ is +an action of violence, impetuosity, and tumult, like that of a savage +rushing at his prey; whereas the poet is here attempting to exhibit an +image of secrecy and caution, of anxious circumspection and guilty +timidity, the _stealthy pace_ of a _ravisher_ creeping into the chamber +of a virgin, and of an assassin approaching the bed of him whom he +proposes to murder, without awaking him; these he describes as _moving +like ghosts_, whose progression is so different from _strides_, that it +has been in all ages represented te be, as Milton expresses it, + + _Smooth sliding without step_. + +This hemiatic will afford the true reading of this place, which is, I +think, to be corrected thus: + + --_and wither'd Murder_. + --_thus with his_ stealthy _pace_. + _With Tarquin ravishing_, slides _tow'rds his design_, + _Moves like a ghost_.-- + +_Tarquin_ is in this place the general name of a ravisher, and the sense +is, Now is the time in which every one is a-sleep, but those who are +employed in wickedness; the witch who is sacrificing to Hecate, and the +ravisher, and the murderer, who, like me, are stealing upon their prey. + +When the reading is thus adjusted, he wishes with great propriety, in +the following lines, that the _earth_ may not _hear his steps_. + +II.i.59 (439,3) And take the present horrour from the time,/Which now +suits with it] Of this passage an alteration was once proposed by me, of +which I have now a less favourable opinion, yet will insert it, as it +may perhaps give some hint to other critics: + + _And take the present horrour from the time, + Which now suits with it_.-- + +I believe every one that has attentively read this dreadful soliloquy is +disappointed at the conclusion, which, if not wholly unintelligible, is, +at least, obscure, nor can be explained into any sense worthy of the +authour. I shall therefore propose a slight alteration: + + --_Thou sound and firm-set earth, + Hear not my steps, which way they walk, for fear + Thy very stones prate of my where-about, + And talk--the present horrour of the time! + That now suits with it_.-- + +Macbeth has, in the foregoing lines, disturbed his imagination by +enumerating all the terrors of the night; at length he is wrought up to +a degree of frenzy, that makes him afraid of some supernatural discovery +of his design, and calls out to the stones not to betray him, not to +declare where he walks, nor _to talk_.--As he is going to say of what, +he discovers the absurdity of his suspicion, and pauses, but is again +overwhelmed by his guilt, and concludes, that such are the horrors of +the present night, that the stones may be expected to cry out against +him: + + That _now suits with it_.-- + +He observes in a subsequent passage, that on such occasions _stones have +been known to move_. It is now a very just and strong picture of a man +about to commit a deliberate murder under the strongest conviction of +the wickedness of his design. Of this alteration, however, I do not now +see much use, and certainly see no necessity. + +Whether to _take horrour from the time_ means not rather to _catch_ _it_ +as communicated, than to _deprive the time of horrour_, deserves te be +considered. + +II.ii.37 (443,6) sleave of care] A skein of silk is called a _sleave_ of +silk, as I learned from Mr. Seward, the ingenious editor of Beaumont and +Fletcher. + +II.ii.56 (444,8) gild the faces of the grooms withal,/For it must seem +their guilt] Could Shakespeare possibly mean to play upon the similitude +of _gild_ and _guilt_. + +II.iii.45 (447,5) I made a shift to cast him] To _cast him up_, to ease +my stomach of him. The equivocation is between _cast_ or _throw_, as a +term of wrestling, and _cast_ or _cast up_. + +II.iii.61 (448,7) + + --strange screams of death; + And prophesying, with accents terrible + Of dire combustions, and confus'd events, + New hatch'd to the woeful time: The obscure bird + Clamour'd the live-long night: some say the earth + Was feverous, and did shake] + +Those lines I think should be rather regulated thus: + + --_prophecying with accents terrible, + Of dire combustions and cosfus'd events. + New-hatch'd to th' woful time, the obscure bird + Clamour'd the live-long night. Some say the earth + Was fev'rous and did shake._ + +A _prophecy_ of an _event new hatch'd_, seems to be a _prophecy_ of an +_event past_. And _a prophecy new hatch'd_ is a wry expression. The term +_new hatch'd_ is properly applicable to a _bird_, and that birds of ill +omen should be _new-hatch'd to the woful time_, that is, should appear +in uncommon numbers, is very consistent with the rest of the prodigies +here mentioned, and with the universal disorder into which nature is +described as thrown, by the perpetration of this horrid murder. (see +1765, VI, 413, 7) + +II.iii.117 (452,3) Here, lay Duncan,/His silver skin lac'd with his +golden blood] Mr. Pope has endeavoured to improve one of these lines by +substituting _goary blood_ for _golden blood_; but it may easily be +admitted that he who could on such an occasion talk of _lacing the +silyer skin_, would _lace it_ with _golden blood_. No amendment can be +made to this line, of which every word is equally faulty, but by a +general blot. + +It is not improbable, that Shakespeare put these forced and unnatural +metaphors into the mouth of Macbeth as a mark of artifice and +dissimulation, to shew the difference between the studied language of +hypocrisy, and the natural outcries of sudden passion. This whole speech +so considered, is a remarkable instance of judgment, as it consists +entirely of antithesis and metaphor. + +II.iii.122 (432,5) Unmannerly breech'd with gore] An _unmannerly +dagger_, and a _dagger breech'd_, or as in some editions _breech'd +with_, gore, are expressions not easily to be understood. There are +undoubtedly two faults in this passage, which I have endeavored to take +away by reading, + + --_daggers_ + Unmanly drench'd _with gore_:-- + +_I saw_ drench'd _with the King's blood the fatal daggers, not only +instruments of murder but evidence of cowardice_. + +Each of these words might easily be confounded with that which I have +substituted for it, by a hand not exact, a casual blot, or a negligent +inspection, [W: Unmanly reech'd] Dr. Warburton has, perhaps, rightly put +_reach'd_ for _breech'd_. + +II.iii.138 (454,8) + + In the great hand of God I stand; and thence, + Against the undivulg'd pretence I fight + Of treasonous malice] + +_Pretence_ is not act, but _simulation_, a _pretence_ of the traitor, +whoever he might be, to suspect some other of the murder. I here fly to +the protector of innocence from any charge which, yet _undivulg'd_, the +traitor may pretend to fix upon me. + +II.iii.147 (454,7) This murtherous shaft that's shot,/Hath not yet +lighted] The design to fix the murder opon some innocent person, has not +yet taken effect. + +II.iv.15 (456,9) minions of their race] Theobald reads, + + --_minions of_ the _race_, + +very probably, and very poetically. + +II.iv.24 (456,1) What good could they pretend?] To _pretend_ is here to +_propose to themselves_, to _set before themselves_ as a motive of +action. + +III.i.7 (457,2) As upon thee, Macbeth, their speeches shine] _Shine_, +for appear with all the _lustre_ of _conspicuous_ truth. + +III.i.56 (459,4) as, it is said,/Mark Anthony's was by Caesar] Though I +would not often assume the critic's privilege of being confident where +certainty cannot be obtained, nor indulge myself too far in departing +from the established reading; yet I cannot but propose the rejection of +this passage, which I believe was an insertion of some player, that +having so much learning as to discover to what Shakespeare alluded, was +not willing that his audience should be less knowing than himself, and +has therefore weakened the authour's sense by the intrusion of a remote +and useless image into a speech bursting from a man wholly possess'd +with his own present condition, and therefore not at leisure to explain +his own allusions to himself. If these words are taken away, by which +not only the thought but the numbers are injured, the lines of +Shakespeare close together without any traces of a breach. + + _My genius is rebuk'd. He chid the sisters._ + +This note was written before I was fully acquainted with Shakespeare's +manner, and I do not now think it of much weight; for though the words, +which I was once willing to eject, seem interpolated, I believe they may +still be genuine, and added by the authour in his revision. The authour +of the _Revisal_ cannot admit the measure to be faulty. There is only +one foot, he says, put for another. This is one of the effects of +literature in minds not naturally perspicacious. Every boy or girl finds +the metre imperfect, but the pedant comes to its defence with a +tribrachys or an anapaest, and sets it right at once by applying to one +language the rules of another. If we may be allowed to change feet, like +the old comic writers, it will not be easy to write a line not metrical. +To hint this once, is sufficient. (see 1765, VI, 424, 2) + +III.i.65 (460,5) For Banquo's issue have I fil'd my mind] [W: 'filed] +This mark of contraction is not necessary. To _file_ is in the bishop's +_Bible_. + +III.i.69 (460,6) the common enemy of man] It is always an entertainment +to an inquisitive reader, to trace a sentiment to its original source; +and therefore, though the term _enemy of man_, applied to the devil, is +in itself natural and obvious, yet some may be pleased with being +informed, that Shakespeare probably borrowed it from the first lines of +the Destruction of Troy, a book which he is known to have read. This +expression, however, he might have had in many other places. The word +_fiend_ signifies enemy. + +III.i.71 (461,7) come, Fate, into the list,/And champion me to the +utterance!] This passage will be best explained by translating it into +the language from whence the only word of difficulty in it is borrowed, +"_Que la destinée se rende en lice, et qu'elle me donne un defi a +l'outrance_." A challenge or a combat _a l'outrance_, _to extremity_, +was a fix'd term in the law of arms, used when the combatants engaged +with an _odium internecinum, an intention to destroy each other_, in +opposition to trials of skill at festivals, or on other occasions, where +the contest was only for reputation or a prize. The sense therefore is, +_Let Fate, that has foredoom'd the exaltation of the sons of Banquo, +enter the lists against me, with the utmost animosity, in defence of its +own decrees, which I will endeavour to invalidate, whatever be the +danger_. [Johnson quotes Warburton's note] After the former explication, +Dr. Warburton was desirous to seem to do something; and he has therefore +made _Fate_ the _marshal_, whom I had made the _champion_, and has left +Macbeth to enter the lists without an opponent. + +III.i.88 (462,9) Are you so gospell'd] Are you of that degree of precise +virtue? _Gospeller_ was a name of contempt given by the Papists to the +Lollards, the puritans of early times, and the precursors of +_protestantism_. + +III.i.94 (463,1) Showghes] _Showghes_ are probably what we now call +_shocks_, demi-wolves, _lyciscae_; dogs bred between wolves and dogs. +(1773) + +III.i.95 (463,2) the valued file] In this speech the word _file_ occurs +twice, and seems in both places to have a meaning different from its +present use. The expression, _valued file_, evidently means, a list or +catalogue of value. A station in the _file_, and not in the worst rank, +may mean, a place in the list of manhood, and not in the lowest place. +But _file_ seems rather to mean in this place, a post of honour; the +first rank, in opposition to the last; a meaning which I have not +observed in any other place. (1773) + +III.i.112 (465,2) So weary with disasters, tug'd with fortune] _Tug'd +with fortune_ may be, _tug'd_ or _worried_ by fortune. + +III.i.130 (465,4) Acquaint you with the perfect spy o' the time] What is +meant by _the spy of the time_, it will be found difficult to explain; +and therefore sense will be cheaply gained by a slight +alteration.--Macbeth is assuring the assassins that they shall not want +directions to find Banquo, and therefore says, + + _I will_-- + _Acquaint you with_ a perfect spy _o' the time_. + +Accordingly a third murderer joins them afterwards at the place of +action. + +_Perfect_ is _well instructed_, or _well informed_, as in this play, + + _Though in your state of honour I am_ perfect. + +though I am _well acquainted_ with your quality and rank. [Warburton +explained this as "the critical juncture"] How the _critical juncture_ +is the _spy o' the time_ I know not, but I think my own conjecture +right. + +III.ii.38 (467,1) nature's copy's not eternal] The _copy_, the _lease_, +by which they hold their lives from nature, has its time of termination +limited. + +III.iii.1 (469,6) But who did bid thee join with us?] The meaning of +this abrupt dialogue is this. The _perfect spy_, mentioned by Macbeth in +the foregoing scene, has, before they enter upon the stage, given them +the directions which were promised at the time of their agreement; yet +one of the murderers suborned suspects him of intending to betray them; +the other observes, that, by his exact knowledge of _what they were to +do_, he appears to be employed by Macbeth, and needs not be mistrusted. + +III.iv.1 (470,9) You know your own degrees, sit down: at first,/And last +the hearty welcome] As this passage stands [sit down:/At first and +last], not only the numbers are very imperfect, but the sense, if any +can be found, weak and contemptible. The numbers will be improved by +reading, + + --_sit down at first, + And last a hearty welcome_. + +But for _last_ should then be written _next_. I believe the true reading +is, + + _You know your own degrees, sit down_.--_To first + And last the hearty welcome_. + +All of whatever degree, from the highest to the lowest, may be assured +that their visit is well received. + +III.iv.14 (471,1) 'Tis better thee without, than he within] The sense +requires that this passage should be read thus: + + _'Tis better_ thee _without, than_ him _within_. + +That is, _I am better pleased that the blood of Banquo should be on thy +face than in his body_. + +The authour might mean, _It is better that Banquo's blood were on thy +face, than_ he _in this room_. Expressions thus imperfect are common in +his works. + +III.iv.33 (472,2) the feast is sold] The meaning is,--That which ia not +_given cheerfully_, cannot be called a _gift_, it is something that must +be paid for. (1773) + +III.iv.57 (473,3) extend his passion] Prolong his suffering; make his +fit longer. + +III.iv.60 (473,4) O proper stuff!] This speech is rather too long for +the circumstances in which it is spoken. It had begun better at, _Shame +itself_! + +III.iv.63 (473,5) + + Oh, these flaws, and starts, + (Impostors to true fear,) would well become + A woman's story at a winter's fire, + Authoriz'd by her grandam] + +_Flaws_, are _sudden gusts_. The authour perhaps wrote, + + --_Those flaws and starts_, + Impostures true to fear _would well become_; + _A woman's story_,-- + +These symptoms of terrour and amazement might better become _impostures +true_ only _to fear, might become a coward at the recital of such +falsehoods as no man could credit, whose understanding was not weaken'd +by his terrours; tales told by a woman over a fire on the authority of +her grandam_. + +III.iv.76 (474,6) Ere human statute purg'd the gentle weal] The _gentle +weal_, is, the _peaceable community_, the state made quiet and safe by +_human statutes_. + + _Mollia securae peragebant otia gentes_. + +III.iv.92 (475,7) And all to all] I once thought it should be _hail_ to +all, but I now think that the present reading is right. + +III.iv.105 (475,8) If trembling I inhabit] This is the original reading, +which Mr. Pope changed to _inhibit_, which _inhibit_ Dr. Warburton +interprets _refuse_. The old reading may stand, at least as well as the +emendation. Suppose we read, + + _If trembling I_ evade _it_. + +III.iv.110 (476,9) Can such things be,/And overcome us, like a summer's +cloud,/Without our special wonder?] [W: Can't] The alteration is +introduced by a misinterpretation. The meaning is not that _these things +are like a summer-cloud_, but can such wonders as these pass over us +without wonder, as a casual summer cloud passes over us. + +III.iv.112 (477,1) You make me strange/Even to the disposition that I +owe] You produce in me an _alienation of mind_, which is probably the +expression which our author intended to paraphrase. + +III.iv.124 (477,2) Augurs, and understood relations] By the word +_relation_ is understood the _connection_ of effects with causes; to +_understand relations_ as _an angur_, is to know how these things +_relate_ to each other, which have no visible combination or dependence. + +III.iv.141 (479,5) You lack the season of all natures, sleep] I take the +meaning to be, _you want sleep_, which _seasons_, or gives the relish to +_all nature_. _Indiget somni vitae condimenti_. + +III.v.24 (480,8) vaporous drop, profound] That is, a drop that has +_profound_, _deep_, or _hidden_ qualities. + +III.v.26 (480,9) slights] Arts; subtle practices. + +III.vi (481,1) _Enter Lenox, and another Lord_] As this tragedy, like +the rest of Shakespeare's, is perhaps overstocked with personages, it is +not easy to assign a reason why a nameless character should be +introduced here, since nothing is said that might not with equal +propriety have been put into the mouth of any other disaffected man. I +believe therefore that in the original copy it was written with a very +common form of contraction Lenox and An. for which the transcriber, +instead of Lenox and Angus, set down Lenox and _another Lord_. The +author had indeed been more indebted to the transcriber's fidelity and +diligence had he committed no errors of greater importance. + +III.vi.36 (482,3) and receive free honours] [_Free_ for grateful. +WARBURTON.] How can _free_ be _grateful_? It may be either honours +_freely bestowed_, not purchased by crimes; or honours _without +slavery_, without dread of a tyrant. + +IV.i (484,5) As this is the chief scene of enchantment in the play, it +is proper in this place to observe, with how much judgment Shakespeare +has selected all the circumstances of his infernal ceremonies, and how +exactly he has conformed to common opinions and traditions: + + _Thrice the brinded cat hath mew'd_. + +The usual form in which familiar spirits are reported to converse with +witches, is that of a cat. A witch, who was tried about half a century +before the time of Shakespeare, had a cat named Rutterkin, as the spirit +of one of these witches was Grimalkin; and when any mischief was to be +done she used to bid Rutterkin _go and fly_, but once when she would +have sent Rutterkin to torment a daughter of the countess of Rutland, +instead of _going_ or _flying_, he only cried _mew_, from whence she +discovered that the lady was out of his power, the power of witches +being not universal, but limited, as Shakespeare has taken care to +inculcate: + + _Though his bark cannot be lost, + Yet it shall be tempest-tost._ + +The common afflictions which the malice of witches produced were +melancholy, fits, and loss of flesh, which are threatened by one of +Shakespeare's witches: + + _Weary sev'n nights, nine times nine, + Shall he dwindle, peak, and pine._ + +It was likewise their practice to destroy the cattle of their +neighbours, and the farmers have to this day many ceremonies to secure +their cows and other cattle from witchcraft; but they seem to have been +most suspected of malice against swine. Shakespeare has accordingly made +one of his witches declare that she has been _killing swine_, and Dr. +Harsenet observes, that about that time, _a sow could not be ill of the +measles, nor a girl of the sullens, but some old woman was charged with +witchcraft_. + + _Toad, that under the cold stone, + Days and night has, thirty-one, + Swelter'd venom sleeping got; + Boil thou first i'the charm'd pot_. + +Toads have likewise long lain under the reproach of being by some means +accessory to witchcraft, for which reason Shakespeare, in the first +scene of this play, calls one of the spirits Padocke or Toad, and now +takes care to put a toad first into the pot. When Vaninus was seized at +Theleuse, there was found at his lodgings _ingens Bufo Vitro inclusus, a +great toad shut in a vial_, upon which those that prosecuted him, +_Veneficium exprebrabent, charged him_, I suppose, _with witchcraft_. + + _Fillet of fenny snake, + In the cauldron boil and bakae: + Eye of newt, and toe of frog;-- + For a charm, &c_. + +The propriety of these ingredients may be known by consulting the books +_de Viribus Animalium_ and _de Mirabilibus Mundi_, ascribed to Albertus +Magnus, in which the reader, who has time and credulity, may discover +very wonderful secrets. + + _Finger of birth-strangled babe, + Ditch deliver'd by a drab_;-- + +It has been already mentioned in the law against witches, that they are +supposed to take up dead bodies to use in enchantments, which was +confessed by the woman whom king James examined, and who had of a dead +body that was divided in one of their assemblies, two fingers for her +share. It is observable that Shakespeare, on this great occasion, which +involves the fate of a king, multiplies all the circumstanaces of +horror. The babe, whose finger is used, must be strangled in its birth; +the grease must not only be human, but must have dropped from a gibbet, +the gibbet of a murderer; and even the sow, whose blood is used, must +have offended nature by devouring her own farrow. These are touches of +judgment and genius. + + _And now about the cauldron sing-- + Black spirits and white, + Blue spirits and grey, + Mingle, mingle, mingle, + You that mingle say_. + +And in a former part, + + --_weyward sisters, hand in hand,-- + Thus do go about, about. + Thrice to thine, and thrice to mine. + And thrice again to make up nine!_ + +These two passages I have brought together, because they both seem +subject to the objection of too much levity for the solemnity of +enchantment, and may both be shewn, by one quotation from Camden's +account of Ireland, to be founded upon a practice really observed by the +uncivilised natives of that country: "When any one gets a fall, _says +the informer of Camden_, he starts up, and, _turning three times to the +right_, digs a hole in the earth; for they imagine that there is a +spirit in the ground, and if he falls sick in two or three days, they +send one of their women that is skilled in that way to the place, where +she says, I call thee from the east, west, north, and south, from the +groves, the woods, the rivers, and the fens, from the fairies _red, +black, white_." There was likewise a book written before the time of +Shakespeare, describing, amongst other properties, the _colours_ of +spirits. + +Many other circumstances might be particularised, in which Shakespeare +has shown his judgment and his knowledge. + +IV.i.53 (489,6) yesty waves] That is, _foaming_ or _frothy waves_. + +IV.i.88 (491,1) the round/And top of sovereignty?] This _round_ is that +part of the crown that encircles the head. The _top_ is the ornament +that rises above it. + +IV.i.95 (492,3) Who can impress the forest] i.e. who can command the +forest to serve him like a soldier impress'd. (1773) + +IV.i.97 (492,4) Rebellious head, rise never] Mr. Theobald, who first +proposed this change ["head" for "dead"] rightly observes, that _head_ +means _host_, or power. + + --_Douglas and the rebels met, + A mighty and a fearful_ head _they are_. + +And again, + + _His divisions--are in three heads_. + +IV.i.113 (493,6) Thy crown does sear mine eye-balls] The expression of +Macbeth, that the _crown_ sears _his_ eye-balls, is taken from the +method formerly practised of destroying the sight of captives or +competitors, by holding a burning bason before the eye, which dried up +its humidity. Whence the Italian, _abacinare_, to _blind_. + +IV.i.113 (493,7) And thy air,/Thou other gold-bound brow, is like the +first:--/A third is like the former] In former editions, + + --_and thy_ hair, + _Thou other gold-bound brow, is like the first_:-- + _A third is like the former_:-- + +As Macbeth expected to see a train of kings, and was only enquiring from +what race they would proceed, he could not be surprised that the _hair_ +of the second was _bound with gold_ like that of the first; he was +offended only that the second resembled the first, as the first +resembled Banquo, and therefore said, + + --_and thy_ air, + _Thou other gold-bound brow, is like the first_. + +This Dr. Warburton has followed. + +IV.i.144 (495,2) Time, thou anticipat'st my dread exploits] To +_anticipate_ is here to _prevent_, by taking away the opportunity. + +IV.ii.9 (496,3) He wants the natural touch] Natural sensibility. He is +not touched with natural affection. + +IV.ii.71 (498,7) To do worse to you, were fell cruelty] To do _worse_ +is, to let her and her children be destroyed without warning. + +IV.iii.2 (500,9) Let us rather/Hold fast the mortal sword; and, like +good men,/ Bestride our down-faln birthdom] In former editions, + + _Let us rather + Hold fast the mortal sword; and, like good men, + Bestride our_ downfal birthdoom.--] + +He who can discover what is meant by him that earnestly exhorts him to +_bestride_ his _downfal birth-doom_, is at liberty to adhere to the +present text; but it is probable that Shakespeare wrote, + + --_like good men, + Bestride our_ downfaln birthdom-- + +The allusion is to a man from whom something valuable is about to be +taken by violence, and who, that he may defend it without incombrance, +lays it on the ground, and stands over it with his weapon in his hand. +Our birthdom, or birthright, says he, lies on the ground, let us, like +men who are to fight for what is dearest to them, not abandon it, but +stand over it and defend it. This is a strong picture of obstinate +resolution. So Falstaff says to Hal. + + _When I am down, if thou wilt_ bestride me, _so_. + +_Birthdom_ for _birthright_ is formed by the same analogy with +_masterdom_ in this play, signifying the _privileges_ or _rights_ of a +_master_. + +Perhaps it might be _birth-dame_ for _mother_; let us stand over our +_mother_ that lies bleeding on the ground. + +IV.iii.19 (501,4) A good and virtuous nature may recoil/In an imperial +charge] A good mind may _recede_ from goodness in the execution of a +_royal commission_. + +IV.iii.23 (501,5) Though all things foul would wear the brows of +grace,/Yet grace must look still so] This is not very clear. The meaning +perhaps is this:--_My suspicions cannot injure you, if you be virtuous, +by supposing that a traitor may put on your virtuous appearance. I do +not say that your virtuous appearance_. + +_proves you a traitor; for virtue must wear its proper form, though that +form be often counterfeited by villany_. + +IV.iii.26 (502,6) Why in that rawness left you wife and children] +Without previous provision, without due preparation, without _maturity_ +of counsel. + +IV.iii.33 (502,7) Wear thou thy wrongs] That is, _Poor country, wear +thou thy wrongs_. + +IV.iii.69 (503,1) Sudden, malicious] [_Sudden_, for capricious. WARBUR.] +Rather violent, passionate, hasty. + +IV.iii.85 (504,2) Than summer seeming lust] When I was younger and +bolder I corrected it thus, + + _Than fume, or seething lust_. + +that is, Than angry passion, or boiling lust. (1773) + +IV.iii.135 (506,4) All ready at a point] [W: at appoint] There is no +need of change. + +IV.iii.136 (506,5) and the chance of goodness/Be like our warranted +quarrel!] The _chance of goodness_, as it is commonly read, conveys no +sense. If there be not some more important errour in the passage, it +should at least be pointed thus: + + --_and the chance, of goodness, + Be like our warranted quarrel_!-- + +That is, may the event be, of the goodness of heaven, [_pro justitia +divina_] answerable to the cause. + +The author of the _Revisal_ conceives the sense of the passage to be +rather this: _And may the success of that goodness, which is about to +exert itself in my behalf, be such as may be equal to the justice of my +quarrel_. + +But I am inclined to believe that Shakespeare wrote, + + --and the chance, O goodness, + Be like our warranted quarrel!-- + +This some of his transcribers wrote with a small _o_, which another +imagined to mean _of_. If we adopt this reading, the sense will be, _and +O thou sovereign Goodness, to whom we now appeal, may our fortune answer +to our cause_. (see 1765, VI, 462, 7) + +IV.iii.170 (508,9) A modern ecstacy] I believe _modern_ is only +_foolish_ or _trifling_. + +IV.iii.196 (509,2), fee-grief] A peculiar sorrow; a grief that hath a +single owner. The expression is, at least to our ears, very harsh. + +IV.iii.216 (511,4) He has no children] It has been observed by an +anonymous critic, that this is not said of Macbeth, who had children, +but of Malcolm, who having none, supposes a father. + +V.i.86 (515,8) My mind she has mated] [Conquer'd or subdued. POPE.] +Rather astonished, confounded. + +V.ii.24 (516,1) When all that is within him does condemn/Itself, for +being there?] That is, when all the faculties of the mind are employed +in self-condemnation. + +V.iii.1 (516,2) Bring me no more reports] _Tell me not any more of +desertions--Let all ny subjects leave me--I am safe till,_ &c. + +V.iii.8 (517,3) English Epicures] The reproach of Epicurism, on which +Mr. Theobald has bestowed a note, is nothing more than a natural +invective uttered by an inhabitant of a barren country, against, those +who have more opportunities of luxury. + +V.iii.22 (518,6) my way of life/Is fall'n into the sear] As there is no +relation between the _way of life_, and _fallen into the sear_, I am +inclined to think that the W is only an M inverted, and that it was +originally written, + + --_my_ May _of life_. + +_I am now passed from the spring to the autumn of my days, but I am +without those comforts that should succeed the spriteliness of bloom, +and support me in this melancholy season._ + +The authour has _May_ in the same sense elsewhere. + +V.iv.8 (521,1) the confident tyrant/Keeps still in Dunsinane, and will +endure/Our setting down before't] He was _confident_ of success; so +_confident_ that he would not fly, but endure their _setting down_ +before his castle. + +V.iv.11 (521,2) For where there is advantage to be given,/ Both more and +less have given him the revolt] The impropriety of the expression, +_advantage to be given_, and the disagreeable repetition of the word +_given_ in the next line, incline me to read, + + --_where there is_ a 'vantage _to be_ gone, + _Both more and less have given him the revolt._ + +_Advantage or 'vantage_, in the time of Shakespeare, signified +_opportunity_. _He shut up himself and his soldiers_, (says Malcolm) _in +the castle, because when there is an opportunity to be gone they all +desert him_. + +_More and less_ is the same with _greater and less_. So in the +interpolated _Mandeville_, a book of that age, there is a chapter of +_India the More and the Less_. + +V.iv.20 (522,4) arbitrate]--_arbitrate_ is _determine_. + +V.v.11 (523,3) fell of hair] My hairy part, my _capillitium_. _Fell_ is +_skin_. + +V.v.17 (523,7) She should have dy'd hereafter;/ There would have been a +time for such a word] This passage has very justly been suspected of +being corrupt. It is not apparent for what _word_ there would have been +a _time_, and that there would or would not be a _time_ for any _word_ +seems not a consideration of importance sufficient to transport Macbeth +into the following exclamation. I read therefore, + + _She should have dy'd hereafter. + There would have been a time for--such a_ world!-- + _Tomorrow_, &c. + +It is a broken speech in which only part of the thought is expressed, +and may be paraphrased thus: _The queen is dead_. Macbeth. _Her death +should have been deferred to some more peaceful hour; had she liv'd +longer_, there would at length have been a time for the _honours due to +her as a queen, and that respect which I owe her for her fidelity and +love. Such is the_ world--such is the condition of human life, that we +always think_ to-morrow _will be happier than to-day, but to-morrow and +to-morrow steals over us unenjoyed and unregarded, and we still linger +in the same expectation to the moment appointed for our end. All these +days, which have thus passed away, have sent multitudes of fools to the +grave, who were engrossed by the same dream of future felicity, and, +when life was departing from them, were, like me, reckoning on +to-morrow_. + +Such was once my conjecture, but I am now less confident. Macbeth might +mean, that there would have been a more convenient _time_ for such a +_word_, for such _intelligence_, and so fall into the following +reflection. We say we send _word_ when we give intelligence. + +V.v.21 (524,8) To the last syllable of recorded time] _Recorded time_ +seems to signify the time fixed in the decrees of Heaven for the period +of life. The _record_ of _futurity_ is indeed no accurate expression, +but as we only know transactions past or present, the language of men +affords no term for the volumes of prescience, in which future events +may be supposed to be written. + +V.v.23 (524,9) The way to dusty death] _Dusty_ is a very natural +epithet. The second folio has, + + _The way to_ study _death_.-- + +which Mr. Upton prefers, but it is only an errour by an accidental +transposition of the types. + +V.v.42 (525,2) I pull in resolution, and begin/To doubt the equivocation +of the fiend,/ That lies like truth] Though this is the reading of all +the editions, yet, as it is a phrase without either example, elegance or +propriety, it is surely better to read, + + _I_ pall _in resolution,-- + I languish in my constancy, my confidence begins to forsake as_. + +It is scarcely necessary to observe how easily _pall_ might be changed +into _pull_ by a negligent writer, or mistaken for it by an unskilful +printer. With this emendation Dr. Warburton and Mr. Heath concur. (see +1765, VI,478,8) + +V.viii.9 (529,3) the intrenchant air] That is, air which cannot be cut. + +V.viii.20 (529,5) That palter with us in a double sense] That _shuffle_ +with ambiguous expressions. + +V.viii.48 (531,7) Had I as many sons as I have hairs, I would not wish +them to a fairer death] + +This incident is thus related from Henry of Huntingdon by Camden in his +_Remains_, from which our authour probably copied it. + +When Seyward, the martial earl of Northumberland, understood that his +son, whom he had sent in service against the Scotchmen, was slain, he +demanded whether his wounds were in the fore part or hinder part of his +body. When it was answered, in the fore part, he replied, "I am right +glad; neither wish I any other death to me or mine." + +General Observation. This play is deservedly celebrated for the +propriety of its fictions, and solemnity, grandeur, and variety of its +action; but it has no nice discriminations of character, the events are +too great to admit the influence of particular dispositions, and the +course of the action necessarily determines the conduct of the agents. + +The danger of ambition is well described; and I know not whether it may +not be said in defence of some parts which now seem improbable, that, in +Shakespeare's time, it was necessary to warn credulity against vain and +illusive predictions. + +The passions are directed to their true end. Lady Macbeth is merely +detested; and though the courage of Macbeth preserves some esteem, yet +every reader rejoices at his fall. + + + + +Vol. VII + +CORIOLANUS + + +1.i.19 (292,1) but they think, we are too dear] They think that the +charge of maintaining us is more than we are worth. + +I.i.23 (292,3) ere we become rakes] It is plain that, in our authour's +time, we had the proverb, _as lean as a rake_. Of this proverb the +original is obscure. _Rake_ now signifies a _dissolute man_, a man worn +out with disease and debauchery. But the signification is, I think, much +more modern than the proverb. _Raekel_, in Islandick, is said to mean a +_cur-dog_, and this was probably the first use among us of the word +_rake_; _as lean as a rake_ is, therefore, as lean as it dog too +worthless to be fed. + +1.i.94 (294,4) I will venture/To scale't a little more] [Warburton had +taken Theobald to task for emending to "stale't", offering two +quotations to prove that "scale" meant "apply."] Neither of Dr. +Warburton's examples afford a sense congruous to the present occasion. +In the passage quoted, to _scale_ may be to _weigh_ and _compare_, but +where do we find that _scale_ is to _apply_? If we _scale_ the two +criticks, I think Theobald has the advantage. + +I.i.97 (295,5) fob off our disgraces with a tale] _Disgraces_ are +_hardships, injuries_. + +I.i.104 (295,6) where the other instruments] _Where_ for _whereas_. + +I.i.112 (296,7) Which ne'er came from the lungs] with a smile not +indicating pleasure, but contempt. + +I.i.120 (296,9) The counsellor heart] The heart was anciently esteemed +the seat of prudence. _Homo cordatum_ is a _prudent man_. + +I.i.163 (297,1) Thou rascal, that art worst in blood, to ruin,/ Lead'st +first, to win some 'vantage] I think, we may better read, by an easy +change, _Thou rascal that art worst, in blood, to_ ruin [to run] +_Lead'st first, to win_, &c. + +Thou that art the meanest by birth, art the foremost to lead thy fellows +_to ruin_, in hope of some advantage. The meaning, however, is perhaps +only this, Thou that art a hound, or running dog of the lowest breed, +lead'st the pack, when any thing is to be gotten. (see 1765, VI, 493, 1) + +I.i.172 (298,4) What would you have, ye curs,/ That like not peace, nor +war? The one affrights you,/ The other makes you proud] [W: likes] That +_to like_ is _to please_, every one knows, but in that sense it is as +hard to say why peace should not _like_ the people, as, in the other +sense, why the people should not _like_ peace. The truth is, that +Coriolanus does not use the two sentences consequentially, but +reproaches them with unsteadiness, then with their other occasional +vices. + +I.i.202 (300,6) I'd make a quarry/With thousands] Why a quarry? I +suppose, not because he would pile them square, but because he would +give them for carrion to the birds of prey. + +I.i.215 (300,7) To break the heart of generosity] To give the final blow +to the _nobles_. _Generosity_ is _high birth_. + +I.i.231 (301,8) 'tis true, that yon have lately told us./The Volscians +are in arms] Coriolanus had been but just told himself that _the +Volscians were in arms_. The meaning is, _The intelligence which you +gave us some little time ago of the designs of the Volscians is now +verified; they are in arms._ + +I.i.255 (302,8) Your valour puts well forth] That is, You have in this +mutiny shewn fair blossoms of valour. + +I.i.260 (303,9) to gird. To _sneer_, to _gibe_. So Falstaff uses the +noun, when he says, _every man has a _gird _at me_. + +I.i.281 (304,3) in what fashion,/More than his singularity he goes/ Upon +this present action] We will learn what he is to do, besides _going +himself_; what are his powers, and what is his appointment. + +I.ii.28 (305,4) for the remove/Bring up your army] [W:'fore they] I do +not see the nonsense or impropriety of the old reading. Says the senator +to Aufidius, _Go to your troops, we will garrison Corioli_. If the +Romans besiege us, bring up your army _to remove them_. If any change +should be made, I would read, + + --_for_ their _remove_. + +I.iii.16 (307,5) brows bound with oak] The crown given by the Romans to +him that saved the life of a citizen, which was accounted more +honourable than any other. + +I.iv.14 (311,9) nor a man that fears you less than he,/That's lesser +than a little] The sense requires it to be read, + + _nor a man that fears you_ more _than he_, + +Or more probably, + + _nor a man_ but _fears you less than he, + That's lesser than a little_. + +I.v.5 (314,4) prize their hours] In the first edition it is, _prize +their_ hours. I know not who corrected it [to _prize their honours_]. A +modern editor, who had made such an improvement, would have spent half a +page in ostentation of his sagacity. + +I.vi.36 (317,6) Ransoming him, or pitying] i.e. _remitting his ransom_. + +I.vi.61 (318,8) swords advanc'd] That is, swords lifted high. + +I.vi.83 (319,9) Please you to march,/And four shall quickly draw out my +command,/Which men are best inclin'd] I cannot but suspect this passage +of corruption. Why should they _march_, that _four_ might select those +that were _best inclin'd_? How would their inclinations be known? Who +were the _four_ that should select them? Perhaps, we may read, + + --_Please you to march, + And_ fear _shall quickly draw out_ of _my command, + Which men are_ least _inclin'd_. + +It is easy to conceive that, by a little negligence, _fear_ might be +changed to _four_, and _least_ to _best_. Let us march, and that fear +which incites desertion will free my army from cowards. (see 1765, VI, +512, 1) + +I.viii.11 (320,1) Wert thou the Hector,/That was the whip of your +bragg'd progeny] The Romans boasted themselves descended from the +Trojans, how then was Hector the _whip of their progeny_? It must mean +the whip with which the Trojans scourged the Greeks, which cannot be but +by a very unusual construction, or the authour must have forgotten the +original of the Romans; unless _whip_ has some meaning which includes +_advantage_ or _superiority_, as we say, _he has the_ whip-hand, for _he +has the_ advantage. + +I.viii.14 (321,2) you have sham'd me/In your condemned seconds] For +_condemned_, we may read _contemned_. You have, to my shane, sent me +help _which I despise_. + +I.ix.12 (321,4) Here is the steed, we the caparisons!] This is an odd +encomium. The meaning is, _this man performed the action, and we only +filled up the show_. + +I.ii.14 (322,5) a charter to extol] A privilege to praise her own son. + +I.ix.29 (322,6) Should they not] That is, _not be remembered_. + +I.ix.72 (325,9) To the fairness of any power] [_Fairness_, for _utmost_. +WARE.] I know not how _fairness_ can mean _utmost_. When two engage on +_equal_ terms, we say it is _fair_; _fairness_ may therefore be +_equality; in proportion equal to my power_. + +I.ix.76 (325,1) The best] The _chief_ men of Corioli. + +I.x.5 (326,3) Being a Volsce, be that I am] It may be just observed, +that Shakespeare calls the _Volsci, Volsces_, which the modern editors +have changed to the modern termination [Volscian]. I mention it here, +because here the change has spoiled the measure. _Being a_ Volsce, _be +that I am. Condition_. [Steevans restored _Volsce_ in the text.] + +I.x.17 (326,2) My valour's poison'd,/With only suffering stain by him, +for him/ Shall flie out of itself] To mischief him, my valour should +_deviate from_ its own native generosity. + +I.x.25 (327,4) At home, upon my brother's guard] In my own house, with +my brother posted to protect him. + +II.i.8 (328,5) Pray you, who does the wolf love?] When the tribune, in +reply to Menenius's remark, on the people's hate of Coriolanus, had +observed that even _beasts know their friends_, Menenius asks, _whom +does the wolf love_? implying that there are beasts which love nobody, +and that among those beasts are the people. + +II.i.43 (329,6) towards the napes of your necks] With allusion to the +fable, which says, that every man has a bag hanging before him, in which +he puts his neighbour's faults, and another behind him, in which he +stows his own. + +II.i.56 (330,7) one that converses more with the buttock of the night, +than with the forehead of the morning] Rather a late lier down than an +early riser. + +II.i.84 (330,1) set up the bloody flag against all patience] That is, +declare war against patience. There is not wit enough in this satire to +recompense its grossness. + +II.i.105 (331,2) herdsmen of beastly Plebeians] As kings are called +[Greek: poimenes laon]. + +II.i.115 (331,3) Take my cap, Jupiter, and I thank thee] [W: cup] +Shakespeare so often mentions throwing up caps in this play, that +Menenius may be well enough supposed to throw up his cap in thanks to +Jupiter. + +II.i.146 (333,4) possest of this?] _Possest_, in our authour's language, +is fully informed. + +II.i.178 (334,6) Which being advanc'd, declines] Volumnia, in her +boasting strain, says, that her son to kill his enemy, has nothing to do +but to lift his hand up and let it fall. + +II.i.232 (337,3) Commit the war of white and damask, in/Their nicely +gawded cheeks] [W: wars] Has the commentator never heard of roses +_contending_ with lilies for the empire of a lady's cheek? The +_opposition_ of colours, though not the _commixture_, may be called a +war. + +II.i.235 (338,1) As if that whatsoever God] That is, _as if that God who +leads him, whatsoever_ God he be. + +II.i.241 (338,2) From where he should begin, and end] Perhaps it should +be read, + + _From where he should begin_ t'an _end_.-- + +II.i.247 (338,3) As he is proud to do't] [I should rather think the +author wrote _prone_: because the common reading is scarce sense or +English. WARBURTON.] _Proud to do_, is the same as, _proud of doing_, +very plain sense, and very common English. + +II.i.285 (340,4) carry with us ears and eyes] That is, let us observe +what passes, but keep our hearts fixed on our design of crushing +Coriolanus. + +II.ii.19 (340,5) he wav'd indifferently] That is, _he would wave +indifferently_. + +II.ii.29 (341,6) supple and courteous to the people; bonnetted] The +sense, I think, requires that we should read, _unbonnetted_. Who have +risen only by _pulling off their hats_ to the people. _Bonnetted_ may +relate to _people_, but not without harshness. + +II.ii.57 (342,7) Your loving motion toward the common body] Your kind +interposition with the common people. + +II.ii.64 (342,9) That's off, that's off] That is, that is nothing to the +purpose. + +II.ii.82 (343,1) how can he flatter] The reasoning of Menenius is this: +How can he be expected to practice flattery to others, who abhors it so +much, that he cannot bear it even when offered to himself. + +II.ii.92 (343,2) When Tarquin made a head for Rome] When Tarquin, who +had been expelled, _raised a power_ to recover Rome. + +II.ii.113 (344,6) every motion/Was tim'd with dying cries] The cries of +the slaughter'd regularly followed his motions, as musick and a dancer +accompany each ether. + +II.ii.115 (345,7) The mortal gate] The gate that was made the scene of +death. + +II.ii.127 (345,8) He cannot but with measure fit the honours] That is, +no honour will be too great far him; he will show a mind equal to any +elevation. + +II.ii.131 (345,1) + + rewards + His deeds with doing them; and is content + To spend his time, to end it] + +I know not whether my conceit will be approved, but I cannot forbear to +think that our author wrote thus. + + --he _rewards + His deeds with doing them, and is content + To spend his time, to spend it. + +To do great acts, for the sake of doing them; to spend his life, for the +sake of spending it. + +II.iii.4 (348,2) We have power in ourselves to do it, but it is a power +that we have no power to do] [Warburton saw this as "a ridicule on the +Augustine manner of defining _free-will_."] A ridicule may be intended, +but the sense is clear enough. _Power_ first signifies _natural power_ +or _force_, and then _moral power_ or _right_. Davies has used the same +word with great variety of meaning. + + _Use all thy_ powers _that heavenly_ power _to praise, + That gave thee_ power _to do_.-- + +II.iii.18 (348,3) many-headed multitude] Hanmer reads, _many-headed_ +monster, but without necessity. To be _many-headed_ includes +_monstrousness_. + +II.iii.115 (352,7) I will not seal your knowledge] I will not strengthen +or compleat your knowledge. The seal is that which gives authenticity to +a writing. + +II.iii.122 (352,8) + + Why in this woolvish tongue should I stand here + To beg of Bob and Dick, that do appear, + Their needless vouches?] + +Why stand I here in this ragged apparel to beg of Bob and Dick, and such +others as _make their appearance_ here, their _unnecessary votes_. I +rather think we should read [instead of _voucher_], _Their needless_ +vouches. But _voucher_ may serve, as it may perhaps signify either the +act or the agent. + +II.iii.122 (352) this woolvish gown] Signifies this _rough hirsute_ +gown. + +II.iii.182 (355,1) ignorant to see't?] [W: "ignorant" means "impotent"] +That _ignorant_ at any time has, otherwise than consequentially, the +same meaning with _impotent_, I do not know. It has no such meaning in +this place. _Were you_ ignorant _to see it_, is, did you want knowledge +to discern it. + +II.iii.208 (356,2) free contempt] That is, with contempt open and +unrestrained. + +II.iii.227 (357,4) Enforce his pride] Object his pride, and enforce the +objection. + +II.iii.258 (358,7) Scaling his present bearing with his past] That is, +_weighing_ his past and present behaviour. + +II.iii.267 (359,8) observe and answer/The vantage of his anger] Mark, +catch, and improve the opportunity, which his hasty anger will afford +us. + +III.i.23 (360,9) prank them in authority] _Plume, deck, dignify_ +themselves. + +III.i.58 (362,3) This paltring/Becomes not Rome] That is, this trick of +dissimulation, this shuffling. + + _Let these be no more believ'd + That_ palter _with us in a double sense_. Macbeth. + +III.i.60 (362,4) laid falsly] _Falsly_ for _treacherously_. + +III.i.66 (362,5) Let them regard me, as I do not flatter, and/ Therein +behold themselves] Let them look in the mirror which I hold up to them, +a mirror which does not flatter, and see themselves. + +III.i.89 (363,6) minnows] a _minnow_ is one of the smallest river fish, +called in some counties a _pink_. + +III.i.90 (364,6) 'Twas from the canon] Was contrary to the established +role; it was a form of speech to which he has no right. + +III.i.98 (364,9) Then vail your ignorance] [W: "ignorance" means +"impotence."] Hanmer's transposition deserves notice + + --_If they have power, + Let them have cushions by you; if none, awake + Your dang'rous lenity; if you are learned, + Be not as commmon fools; if you are not, + Then vail your ignorance. You are Plebeians_, &c. + +I neither think the transposition of one editor right, nor the +interpretation of the other. The sense is plain enough without supposing +_ignorance_ to have any remote or consequential sense. _If this man has +power, let the_ ignorance _that gave it him_ vail _or bow down before +him._ + + III.i.101 (365,1) You are Plebeians, + If they be Senators: and they are no less, + When, both your voices blended, the greatest taste + Most palates theirs] + +These lines may, I think, be made more intelligible by a very slight +correction. + + --_they no less [than senators] + When, both your voices blended, the great'st taste_ + Must palate _theirs._ + +When the _taste_ of the _great_, the patricians, must _palate_, must +_please_ [or must _try_] that of the plebeians. + +III.i.124 (366,3) They would not thread the gates] That is, _pass_ them. +We yet say, to _thread_ an alley. + +III.i.129 (366,4) could never be the native] [_Native_ for natural +birth. WARBURTON.] _Native_ is here not natural birth, but _natural +parent_, or _cause of birth_. But I would read _motive_, which, without +any distortion of its meaning, suits the speaker's purpose. + +III.i.151 (367,7) That love the fundamental part of state/More than you +doubt the change of't] To _doubt_ is to _fear_. The meaning is, You +whose zeal predominates over your terrours; you who do not so much fear +the danger of violent measures, as wish the good to which they are +necessary, the preservation of the original constitution of our +government. + +III.i.158 (368,2) Mangles true judgment] _Judgment_ is _judgment_ in its +common sense, or the faculty by which right is distinguished from wrong. + +III.i.159 (368,3) that integrity which should become it] _Integrity_ is +in this place _soundness_, uniformity, consistency, in the same sense as +Dr. Warburton often uses it, when he mentions the _integrity_ of a +metaphor. To _become_, is to _suit_, to _befit_. + +III.i.221 (370,5) are very poisonous] I read, _are very_ poisons. + +III.i.242 (371,7) One time will owe another] I know not whether to _owe_ +in this place means to _possess by right_, or to _be indebted_. Either +sense may be admitted. _One time_, in which the people are seditious, +will _give us power_ in some other time; or, _this time_ of the people's +predominance will _run them in debt_; that is, will lay them open to the +law, and expose them hereafter to more servile subjection. + +III.i.248 (372,8) Before the tag return] The lowest and most despicable +of the populace are still denominated by those a little above them, +_Tag, rag, and bobtail_. (1773) + +III.ii.7 (376,4) I muse] That is, _I wonder. I am at a loss_. + +III.ii.12 (376,5) my ordinance] My _rank_. + +III.ii.51 (378,8) Why force you] Why _urge_ you. + +III.ii.56 (378,9) bastards, and syllables/Of no allowance, to your +bosom's truth] I read, + + _Of no_ alliance,-- + +therefore _bastards_. Yet _allowance_ may well enough stand, as meaning +_legal right, established rank_, or _settled authority_. (see 1765, VI, +566, 7) + +III.ii.64 (379,1) I am in this/Your wife, your son] I rather think the +meaning is, _I am in their_ condition, I am _at stake_, together with +_your wife, your son_. + +III.ii.66 (379,2) our general lowts] Our _common clowns_. + +III.ii.69 (379,3) that want] The _want_ of their loves. + +III.ii.71 (379,4) Not what] In this place _not_ seems to signify _not +only_. + +III.ii.77 (379,5) Waving thy head,/With often, thus, correcting thy +stout heart] [W: thy hand,/Which soften thus] The correction is +ingenious, yet I think it not right. _Head_ or _hand_ is indifferent. +The _hand_ is _waved_ to gain attention; the _head_ is shaken in token +of sorrow. The word _wave_ suits better to the hand, but in considering +the authour's language, too much stress must not be laid on propriety +against the copies. I would read thus, + + --_waving thy head_, + With _often, thus, correcting thy stout heart_. + +That is, _shaking thy head_, and _striking_ thy breast. The alteration +is slight, and the gesture recommended not improper. + +III.ii.99 (381,6) my unbarb'd sconce?] The suppliants of the people used +to present themselves to them in sordid and neglected dresses. + +III.ii.113 (381,8) Which quired with my drum] Which played in concert +with my drum. + +III.ii.116 (382,1) Tent in my cheeks] To _tent_ is _to take up +residence_. + +III.ii.121 (382,2) honour mine own truth] [Greek: Panton de malis +aischuneui sauton]. Pythagoras. + +III.ii.125 (382,3) let/Thy mother rather feel thy pride, than fear/ Thy +dangerous stoutness] This is obscure. Perhaps, she means, Go, _do thy +worst; let me rather feel the_ utmost _extremity that thy pride can +bring upon us, than live thus in fear of thy dangerous obstinacy_. + +III.iii.17 (384,3) + + Insisting on the old prerogative + And power in' the truth o' the cause] + +This is not very easily understood. We might read, + + --o'er _the truth o' the cause_. + +III.iii.26 (384,4) and to have his word/Of contradiction] _To have his +word of contradiction_ is no more than, _he is used to contradict_; and +_to have his word_, that is, _not to be opposed_. We still say of an +obstinate disputant, _he will have the last word_. + +III.iii.29 (384,5) which looks/With us to break his neck] To _look_ is +to _wait_ or _expect_. The sense I believe is, _What he has in his +heart_ is waiting there _to help us to break his neck_. + +III.iii.57 (386,8) Rather than envy you] _Envy_ is here taken at large +for _malignity_ or ill intention. + +III.iii.64 (386,9) season'd office] All _office established_ and +_settled_ by time, and made familiar to the people by long use. + +III.iii.96 (387,1) has now at last] Read rather, + + --has _now at last_ [instead of _as now at last_]. + +III.iii.97 (387,2) not in the presence] _Not_ stands again for _not +only_. + +III.iii.114 (388,3) My dear wife's estimate] I love my country beyond +the rate at which I _value my dear wife_. + +III.iii.127 (389,4) + + Have the power still + To banish your defenders'; till, at length, + Your ignorance, (which finds not, till it feels)] + +_Still retain the power of banishing your defenders, till your +undiscerning folly, which can foresee no consequences, leave none in the +city but yourselves, who are always labouring your own destruction._ + +It is remarkable, that, among the political maxims of the speculative +Harrington, there is one which he might have borrowed from this speech. +_The people_, says he, _cannot see, but they can feel_. It is not much +to the honour of the people, that they have the same character of +stupidity from their enemy and their friend. Such was the power of our +authour's mind, that he looked through life in all its relations private +and civil. + +IV.i.7 (390,1) Fortune's blows,/When most struck home, being gentle +wounded, craves/A noble cunning] This it the ancient and authentick +reading. The modern editors have, for _gentle wounded_, silently +substituted _gently warded_, and Dr. Warburton has explained _gently_ by +_nobly_. It is good to be sure of our authour's words before we go about +to explain their meaning. + +The sense is, When Fortune strikes her hardest blows, to be wounded, and +yet continue calm, requires a generous policy. He calls this calmness +_cunning_, because it is the effect of reflection and philosophy. +Perhaps the first emotions of nature are nearly uniform, and one man +differs from another in the power of endurance, as he is better +regulated by precept and instruction. + + _They bore as heroes, but they felt as men_. + +(see 1765, VI, 577, 9) + +IV.i.33 (391,3) cautelous baits and practice] By artful and false +tricks, and treason. + +IV.ii.15 (393,6) + + _Sic._ Are you mankind? + _Vol._ Ay, fool; Is that a shame? Note but this fool. + Was not a man my father?] + +The word _mankind_ is used maliciously by the first speaker, and taken +perversely by the second. A _mankind_ woman is a woman with the +roughness of a man, and, in an aggravated sense, a woman ferocious, +violent, and eager to shed blood. In this sense Sicinius asks Volumnia, +if she be _mankind_. She takes _mankind_ for a _human creature_, and +accordingly cries out, + + --_Note but this, fool. + Was not a man my father?_ + +IV.ii.18 (394,7) Hadst thou foxship] Hadst thou, fool as thou art, mean +cunning enough to banish Coriolanus? + +IV.iii.9 (395,7) but your favour is well appear'd by your tongue] [W: +well appeal'd] I should read, + + --_is well_ affear'd, + +That is, _strengthened, attested,_ a word used by our authour. + + _My title is_ affear'd. Macbeth. + +To _repeal_ may be _to bring to remembrance_, but _appeal_ has another +meaning. + +IV.iii.48 (397,8) already in the entertainment] That is, tho' not +actually encamped, yet already in _pay_. To _entertain_ an army is to +take them into pay. + +IV.iv.22 (398,1) + + So, with me:-- + My birth-place hate I, and my love's upon + This enemy's town:--I'll enter: if he slay me] + +He who reads this [My country have I and my lovers left;/This enemy's +town I'll enter] would think that he was reading the lines of +Shakespeare: except that Coriolanus, being already in the town, says, he +_will enter it_. Yet the old edition exhibits it thus + + --_So with me. + My birth-place have I; and my loves upon + This enemic towne; I'll enter if he slay me_, &c. + +The intermediate line seems to be lost, in which, conformably to his +former observation, he says, that _he has_ lost _his birth-place, and +his loves upon_ a petty dispute, and is trying his chance in _this enemy +town_, he then cries, turning to the house of Anfidius, _I'll enter if +he slay me_. + +I have preferred the common reading, because it is, though faulty, yet +intelligible, and the original passage, for want of copies, cannot be +restored. + +IV.v.76 (403,3) a good memory] The Oxford editor, not knowing that +_memory_ was used at that time for _memorial_, alters it to _memorial_. + +IV.v.90 (403,4) A heart of wreak in thee] A heart of resentment. + +IV.v.91 (403,5) maims/Of shame] That is, disgraceful diminutions of +territory. + +IV.v.207 (406,5) sanctifies himself with's hands] Alluding, improperly, +to the act of _crossing_ upon any strange event. + +IV.v.212 (407,6) He will go, he says, and sowle the porter of Rome gates +by the ears] That is, I suppose, drag him down by the ears into the +dirt. _Souiller_, Fr. + +IV.v.214 (407,7) his passage poll'd] That is, _bared, cleared_. + +IV.v.238 (408,8) full of vent] Full of _rumour_, full of materials for +_discourse_. + +IV.vi.2 (408,1) His remedies are tame i' the present peace] The old +reading is, + + _His remedies are tame, the present peace_. + +I do not understand either line, but fancy it should be read thus, + + --_neither need we fear him; + His remedies are ta'en, the present peace, + And quietness o' the people_,-- + +The meaning, somewhat harshly expressed, according to our authour's +custom, is this: _We need not fear him_, the proper _remedies_ against +him _are taken_, by restoring _peace and quietness_. + +IV.vi.32 (410,2) affecting one sole throne,/Without assistance] That is, +without _assessors_; without any other suffrage. + +IV.vi.51 (411,3) reason with the fellow] That is, have some _talk_ with +him. In this sense Shakespeare often uses the word. + +IV.vi.72 (412,4) can no more atone] To _atone_, in the active sense, is +to _reconcile_, and is so used by our authour. To _atone_ here, is, in +the neutral sense, to _come to reconciliation_. To _atone_ is to +_unite_. + +IV.vi.85 (412,5) burned in their cement] [W: "cement" for "cincture or +inclosure"] _Cement_ has here its common signification. + +IV.vi.98 (413,5) The breath of garlick-eaters!] To smell of garlick was +once such a brand of vulgarity, that garlick was a food forbidden to an +ancient order of Spanish knights, mentioned by Guevara. + +IV.vi.112 (414,7) + + they charge him even + As those should do that had deserv'd his hate, + And therein shew'd like enemies] + +Their _charge_ or injunction would shew them insensible of his wrongs, +and make them _shew like enemies_. I read _shew_, not _shewed, like +enemies_. + +IV.vi.124 (414,8) They'll roar him in again] As they _hooted_ at his +departure, they will _roar_ at his return; as he went out with scoffs, +he will come back with lamentations. + +IV.vii.37 (417,1) + + whether pride, + Which out of daily fortune ever taints + The happy man; whether] + +Ausidius assigns three probable reasons of the miscarriage of +Coriolanus; pride, which easily follows an uninterrupted train of +success; unskilfulness to regulate the consequences of his own +victories; a stubborn uniformity of nature, which could not make the +proper transition from the _casque_ or _helmet_ to the _cushion_ or +_chair of civil authority_; but acted with the same despotism in peace +as in war. + +IV.vii.48 (418,2) he has a merit,/To choak it in the utterance] He has a +merit, for no other purpose than to destroy it by boasting it. + +IV.vii.55 (418,4) Right's by right fouler] [W: fouled] I believe +_rights_, like _strengths_, is a plural noon. I read, + + _Rights by rights_ founder, _strengths by strengths do fail_. + +That is, by the exertion of one right another right is lamed. + +V.i.20 (420,2) It was a bare petition] [_Bare_, for mean, beggarly. +WARBURTON.] I believe rather, a petition unsupported, unaided by names +that might give it influence. + +V.i.63 (422,4) I tell you, he does sit in gold] He is inthroned in all +the pomp and pride of imperial splendour. + + [Greek: Chruzothronos Aerae]--Hom. + +V.i.69 (422,5) Bound with an oath to yield to his conditions] This if +apparently wrong. Sir T. Hanmer, and Dr. Warburton after him, read, + + _Bound with an oath_ not to _yield to_ new _conditions_. + +They might have read more smoothly, + + --_to yield no new conditions_. + +But the whole speech is in confusion, and I suspect something left out. +I should read, + + --_What he would do, + He sent in writing after; what he would not, + Bound with an oath. To yield to his conditions_. + +Here is, I think, a chasm. The speaker's purpose seems to be this: _To +yield to his conditions_ is ruin, and better cannot be obtained, _so +that all hope is vain_. + +V.ii.10 (424,7) it is lots to blanks] A _lot_ here is a _prize_. + +V.ii.17 (424,8) + + For I have ever verify'd my friends, + (Of whom he's chief) with all the size that verity + Would without lapsing suffer] + +[W: narrified] [Hanmer: magnified] If the commentator had given any +example of the word _narrify_, the correction would have been not only +received, but applauded. Now, since the new word stands without +authority, we must try what sense the old one will afford. To _verify_ +is _to establish by testimony_. One may say with propriety, he brought +false witnesses to verify his title. Shakespeare considered the word +with his usual laxity, as importing rather _testimony_ than _truth_, and +only meant to say, _I_ bore witness _to my friends with all the size +that verity would suffer_. + +V.ii.45 (426,1) the virginal palms of your daughters] [W: _pasmes_ or +_pames_, French for "swooning fits." Warburton also quotes _Tarquin and +Lucrece_, "To dry the old oak's sap, and cherish springs" and emends to +"tarnish," from the French, meaning "to dry up," used of springs and +rivers.] I have inserted this note, because it contains an apology for +many others. It is not denied that many French words were mingled in the +time of Elizabeth with our language, which have since been ejected, and +that any which are known to have been then in use may be properly +recalled when they will help the sense. But when a word is to be +admitted, the first question should be, by whom was it ever received? in +what book can it be shown? If it cannot be proved to have been in use, +the reasons which can justify its reception must be stronger than any +critick will often have to bring. Even in this certain emendation, the +new word is very liable to contest. I should read, + + --_and_ perish _springs_. + +The verb _perish_ is commonly neutral, but in conversation is often used +actively, and why not in the works of a writer negligent beyond all +others of grammatical niceties? + +V.ii.60 (427,2) Back, I say, go; lest I let forth your half pint of +blood;--back, that's the utmost of your having:--Back] [Warburton +emended the punctuation] I believe the meaning never was mistaken, and +therefore do not change the reading. + +V.ii.69 (428,3) guess by my entertainment with him] I read, _Guess_ by +_my entertainment with him, if thou standest not i' the state of +hanging_ [in place of _guess_ but _my entertainment_]. + +V.ii.80 (428,4) Though I owe/My revenge properly] Though I have a +_peculiar right_ in revenge, in the power of forgiveness the Volacians +are conjoined. + +V.ii.104 (429,5) how we are shent] _Shent_ is _brought to destruction_. + +V.iii.3 (430,6) how plainly/I have born this business] That is, _how +openly, how_ remotely from artifice or concealment. + +V.iii.39 (431,7) The sorrow, that delivers us thus chang'd,/Makes you +think so] Virgilia makes a voluntary misinterpretation of her husband's +words. He says, _These eyes are not the same_, meaning, that he saw +things with _other eyes_, or other _dispositions_. She lays hold on the +word _eyes_, to turn his attention on their present appearance. + +V.iii.46 (431,8) Now by the jealous queen of heaven] That is, _by Juno_, +the guardian of marriage, and consequently the avenger of connubial +perfidy. + +V.iii.64 (432,1) The noble sister of Poplicola] Valeria, methinks, +should not have been brought only to fill up the procession without +speaking. + +V.iii.68 (432,2) epitome of yours] I read, + + --_epitome of you_. + +_An epitome of you_ which, _enlarged by the commentaries of time_, may +equal you in magnitude. + +V.iii.74 (433,4) every flaw] That is, every _gust_, every _storm_. + +V.iii.100 (435,2) Constrains them weep, and shake] That is, _constrain_ +the eye to _weep_, _and_ the heart to _shake_. + +V.iii.149 (436,3) the fine strains] The niceties, the refinements. + +V.iii.159 (436,5) he lets me prate,/Like one i' the stocks] Keep me in a +state of ignominy talking to no purpose. + +V.iii.176 (437,6) Does reason our petition] Does _argue for_ us and our +petition. + +V.iii.201 (438,7) I'll work/Myself a former fortune] I will take +advantage of this concession to restore myself to my former credit and +power. + +V.iii.206 (438,8) Come, enter with us,--Ladies, you deserve] [Warburton +proposed to give the speech beginning "Ladies, you deserve" to Aufidius] +The speech suits Aufidius justly enough, if it had been written for him; +but it may, without impropriety, be spoken by Coriolanus: and since the +copies give it to him, why should we dispossess him? + +V.iv.22 (439,1) He sits in state as a thing made for Alexander] In a +foregoing note he was said to _sit in gold_. The phrase, _as a thing +made for Alexander_, means, _as one made to resemble Alexander_. + +V.vi.39 (443,2) He wag'd me with his countenance] This is obscure. The +meaning, I think, is, he _prescribed_ to me vith an air of authority, +and gave me _his countenance_ for _my wages_; thought me sufficiently +rewarded with good looks. + +V.vi.44 (443,3) For which my sinews shall be stretch'd upon him] This is +the point on which I will attack him with my utmost abilities. + +V.vi.66 (444,4) answering us/With our own charge] That is, _rewarding us +with our own expences_; making the cost of the war its recompence. + +V.vi.125 (446,5) his fame folds in/This orbe o' th' earth] His fame +overspreads the world. + +(447) General Observation. The tragedy of Coriolanus is one of the most +amusing of our author's performances. The old man's merriment in +Menenius; the lofty lady's dignity in Volumnia; the bridal modesty in +Virgilia; the patrician and military haughtiness in Coriolanus; the +plebeian malignity and tribunitian insolence in Brutus and Sicinius, +make a very pleasing and interesting variety: and the various +revolutions of the hero's fortune fill the mind with anxious curiosity. +There is, perhaps, too much bustle in the first act, and too little in +the last. + + + + +Vol. VIII + +JULIUS CAESAR + + +I.i.20 (4,2) _Mar._ What meanest thou by that?] [Theobald gave this +speech to Flavius] I have replaced _Marullus_, who might properly enough +reply to a saucy sentence directed to his colleague, and to whom the +speech was probably given, that he might not stand too long unemployed +upon the stage. + +I.ii.25 (7,5) [_Sennet. Exeunt Caesar and Train_] I have here inserted +the word _Sennet_, from the original edition, that I may have an +opportunity of retracting a hasty conjecture in one of the marginal +directions in _Henry_ VIII. _Sennet_ appears to be a particular tune or +mode of martial musick. + +I.ii.35 (8,6) You bear too stubborn and too strange a hand] _Strange_, +is alien, unfamiliar, such as might become a stranger. + +I.ii.39 (8,7) Vexed I am,/Of late, with passions of some difference] +With a fluctation of discordant opinions and desires. + +I.ii.73 (9,9) To stale with ordinary oaths my love/To every new +protester] To invite _every new protestor_ to my affection by the +_stale_ or allurement of _customary_ oaths. + +I.ii.87 (10,1) And I will look on both indifferently] Dr. Warburton has +a long note on this occasion, which is very trifling. When _Brutus_ +first names _honour_ and _death_, he calmly declares them indifferent; +but as the image kindles in his mind, he sets _honour_ above _life_. Is +not this natural? + +I.ii.160 (12,6) eternal devil] I should think that our author wrote +rather, _infernal devil_. + +I.ii.171 (13,7) chew upon this] Consider this at leisure; _ruminate_ on +this. + +I.ii.186 (13,8) Looks with such ferret, and such fiery eyes] A ferret +has red eyes. + +I.ii.268 (16,2) a man of any occupation] Had I been a mechanick, one of +the Plebeians to whom he offered his threat. + +I.ii.313 (17,3) Thy honourable metal may be wrought/From what it is +dispos'd] The best _metal_ or _temper_ may be worked into qualities +contrary to its original constitution. + +I.ii.318 (17,4) If I were Brutus now, and he were Cassius,/He should not +humour me] The meaning, I think, is this, _Caesar loves Brutus, but if +Brutus and I were to change places, his love should not humour me_, +should not take hold of my affection, so as to make me forget my +principles. + +I.iii.1 (18,5) brought you Caesar home?] Did you attend Caesar home? + +I.iii.3 (18,6) sway of earth] The whole weight or _momentum_ of this +globe. + +I.iii.21 (19,7) Who glar'd upon me] The first edition reads, + + _Who_ glaz'd _upon me_,-- + +Perhaps, _Who_ gaz'd _upon me_. + +I.iii.64 (20,8) Why birds, and beasts, from quality and kind] That is, +Why they _deviate_ from quality and nature. This line might perhaps be +more properly placed after the next line. + + _Why birds, and beasts, from quality and kind; + Why all these things change from their ordinance._ + +I.iii.65 (20,9) and children calculate] [Shakespeare, with his usual +liberty, employs the _species_ [calculate] for the _genus_ foretel]. +WARB.] Shakespeare found the liberty established. _To calculate a +nativity_, is the technical term. + +I.iii.l14 (22,2) My answer must be made] I shall be called to account, +and must _answer_ as for seditious words. + +I.iii.117 (22,3) Hold my hand] Is the same as, _Here's my hand_. + +I.iii.118 (22,4) Be factious for redress] _Factious_ seems here to mean +_active_. + +I.iii.129 (23,5) It favours, like the work] The old edition reads, + + It favours, _like the work_-- + +I think we should read, + + In favour's, _like the work we have in hand, + Most bloody, fiery, and most terrible._ + +_Favour_ is _look, countenance, appearance_. (rev. 1778, VIII, 25, 7) + +II.i.19 (25,6) Remorse from power] [_Remorse_, for mercy. WARB.] +_Remorse_ (says the Author of the _Ravisal_) signifies the conscious +uneasiness arising from a sense of having done wrong; to extinguish +which feeling, nothing hath so great a tendency as absolute uncontrouled +power. + +I think Warbuton right. (1773) + +II.i.21 (25,7) common proof] Common experiment. + +II.i.26 (25,8) base degrees] Low steps. + +II.i.33 (26,9) as his kind] According to his nature. + +II.i.63 (27,3) + + Between the acting of a dreadful thing, + And the first motion, all the interim is + Like a phantasma, or a hideous dream: + The genius, and the mortal instruments + Are then in council; and the state of man, + Like to a little kingdom, suffers then + The nature of an insurrection] + +The [Greek: deinon] of the Greek critics does not, I think, mean +sentiments which _raise fear_, more than _wonder_, or any other of the +tumultuous passions; [Greek: to deinon] is that which _strikes_, which +_astonishes_, with the idea either of some great subject, or of the +author's abilities. + +Dr. Warburton'a pompous criticism might well have been shortened. The +_genius_ is not the _genius_ of a _kingdom_, nor are the _instruments, +conspirators_. Shakespeare is describing what passes in a single bosom, +the _insurrection_ which a conspirator feels agitating the _little +kingdom_ of his own mind; when the _Genius_, or power that watches for +his protection, and the _mortal instruments_, the passions, which excite +him to a deed of honour and danger, are in council and debate; when the +desire of action and the care of safety, keep the mind in continual +fluctuation and disturbance. + +II.i.76 (29,5) any mark of favour] Any distinction of countenance. + +II.i.83 (30,6) For if thou path thy native semblance on] If thou _walk_ +in thy true form. + +II.i.114 (31,7) No, not an oath. If not the face of men] Dr. Warburten +would read _fate of men_; but his elaborate emendation is, I think, +erroneous. _The_ face _of men_ is the _countenance_, the _regard_, the +_esteem_ of the publick; in other terms, _honour_ and _reputation_; or +_the face of men_ may mean the dejected look of the people. + +He reads, with the other modern editions, + + --_If_ that _the face of men_, + +but the old reading is, + + --_if_ not _the face_, &c. + +II.i.129 (32,1) Swear priests, and cowards, and men cautelous] This is +imitated by Utway, + + _When you would bind me, is there need of oaths?_ &c. + Venice preserved. + +II.i.187 (34,2) take thought] That is, _turn_ melancholy. + +II.i.196 (34,3) Quite from the main opinion he held once] _Main +opinion_, is nothing more than _leading, fixed, predominant opinion_. + +II.i.225 (36,6) Let not our looks put on our purposes] Let not our faces +_put on_, that is, _wear_ or _show_ our designs. + +II.ii.36 (42,3) death, a necessary end,/Will come, when it will come] +This is a sentence derived from the Stoical doctrine of predestination, +and is therefore improper in the mouth of Caesar. + +II.ii.41 (42,4) The Gods do this in shame of cowardice:/Caesar should be +a beast without a heart] The ancients did not place courage but wisdom +in the heart. + +II.ii.88 (44,7) and that great men shall press/For tinctures, stains, +relicks, and cognisance] [Warburton conjectured some lines lost] I am +not of opinion that any thing is lost, and have therefore marked no +omission. This speech, which is intentionally pompous, is somewhat +confused. There are two allusions; one to coats armorial, to which +princes make additions, or give new _tinctures_, and new marks of +_cognisance_; the other to martyrs, whose reliques are preserved with +veneration. The Romans, says Brutus, all come to you as to a saint, for +reliques, as to a prince, for honours. + +II.ii.104 (45,8) And reason to my love is liable] And reason, or +propriety of conduct and language, is subordinate to my love. + +II.iii.16 (47,9) the fates with traitors do contrive] The fates join +with traitors in contriving thy destruction. + +III.i.38 (51,2) And turn pre-ordinance and first decree/Into the lane of +children] I do not veil understand what is meant by the _lane_ of +children. I should read, the _law_ of children. It was, _change +pre-ordinance and decree into the law of children_; into such slight +determinations as every start of will would alter. _Lane_ and _laws_ in +some manuscripts are not easily distinguished. + +III.i.67 (52,4) apprehensive] Susceptible of fear, or other passions. + +III.i.68 (52,5) but one] One, and only one. + +III.i.69 (52,6) holds on his rank] Perhaps, _holds on his_ race; +continues his course. We commonly say, To _hold a rank_, and To _hold +on_ a _course_ or _way_. + +III.i.75 (52,7) Doth not Brutus bootless kneel?] I would read, Do _not +Brutus bootless kneel_! + +III.i.152 (55,9) Who else must be let blood, who else is rank] Who else +may be supposed to have _overtopped_ his equals, and _grown too high_ +for the public safety. + +III.i.257 (59,3) in the tide of times] That is, in the course of times. + +III.i.262 (60,4) A curse shall light upon the limbs of men] Hanmer +reads, + + --kind _of men_. + +I rather think it should be, + + --_the_ lives _of men_. + +unless we read, + + --these lymms _of men_; + +That is, _these bloodhounds_ of men. The uncommonness of the word _lymm_ +easily made the change. + +III.i.273 (60,5) Cry _Havock_] A learned correspondent has informed me, +that, in the military operations of old times, _havock_ was the word by +which declaration was made, that no quarter should be given. + +In a tract intitled, _The Office of the Conestable & Mareschall in the +Tyme of Werre_, contained in the Black Book of the Admiralty, there is +the following chapter: + +"The peyne of hym that crieth _havock_ and of them that followeth hym. +etit. v." + +"Item Si quis inventus fuerit qui clamorem inceperit qui vecatur +_Havok_." + +"Also that no man be so hardy to crye _Havok_ upon peyne that he that is +begynner shal be deede therefore: & the remanent that doo the same or +folow shall lose their horse & harneis: and the persones of such as +foloweth & escrien shal be under arrest of the Conestable & Mareschall +warde unto tyme that they have made fyn; & founde suretie no morr to +offende; & his body in prison at the Kyng wylle.--" + +III.ii.116 (66,8) Caesar has had great wrong] [Pope has a rather +ridiculous note on this] I have inserted this note, because it is +Pope's, for it is otherwise of no value. It is strange that he should so +much forget the date of the copy before him, as to think it not printed +in Jonson's time. (see 1765, VII, 81, 1) + +III.ii.126 (68,9) And none so poor] The meanest man is now too high to +do reverence to Caesar. + +III.ii.192 (68,2) + + And, in his mantle muffling up his face, + Even at the base of Pompey's statue, + Which all the while ran blood, great Caesar fell. + O, what a fall was there, my countrymen!] + +[Warburton suggested transposing the second and third of these lines] +The image seems to be, that the blood of Caesar flew upon the statue, +and trickled down it. And the exclamation, + + _O what a fall was there--_ + +follows better after + + _-great Caesar fell,_ + +than with a line interposed, (see 1765, VII, 64, 3) + +III.ii.226 (70,4) For I have neither writ] The old copy reads instead of +_wit_, + + _For I have neither_ writ, _nor words,--_ + +which may mean, I have no _penned_ and premeditated oration. + +IV.ii.4 (77,1 + + Your master, Pindarus, + In his own change, or by ill officers, + Hath given me some worthy cause to wish + Things done, undone] + +[W: own charge] The arguments for the change proposed are insufficient. +Brutus could not but know whether the wrongs committed were done by +those who were immediately under the command of Cassius, or those under +his officers. The answer of Brutus to the servant is only an act of +artful civility; his question to Lucilius proves, that his suspicion +still continued. Yet I cannot but suspect a corruption, and would read, + + _In his own change, or by ill_ offices. + +That is, either _changing_ his inclination _of himself_, or _by_ the +_ill offices_ and bad influences of others. (see 1765, VII, 71, 8) + +IV.iii.30 (80,4) To hedge me in] That is, to limit my authority by your +direction or censure. + +IV.iii.32 (80,5) To make conditions] That is, to know on what terms it +is fit to confer the offices which are at my disposal. + +IV.iii.86 (82,7) + + A friend should bear a friend's infirmities, + But Brutus makes mine greater than they are. + _Bru._ I do not, till you practise them on me] + +The meaning is this; I do not look for your faults, I only see them, and +mention them with vehemence, when you force them into my notice, _by +practising them on me._ (see 1765, VII, 77, 6) + +IV.iii.100 (53,8) + + There is my dagger, + And here my naked breast; within, a heart + Dearer than Plutus' mine, richer than gold: + If that thou be'st a Roman, take it forth] + +[W: thou needst a Roman's,] I am not satisfied with the change proposed, +yet cannot deny, that the words, as they now stand, require some +interpretation. I think he means only, that he is so far from Avarice, +when the cause of his country requires liberality, that if any man +should wish for his heart, he would not need enforce his desire any +otherwise, than by showing that he was a Roman. + +V.i.5 (92,5) They mean to warn as at Philippi here] To warn, seems to +mean here the same as to alarm. Hanmer reads, + + _They mean to_ wage _us_. + +V.i.43 (93,6) While damned Casca, like a cur behind,/Struck Caesar on +the neck] Casca struck Caesar on the neck, coming _like_ a degenerate +_cur behind him._ + +V.i.100 (96,2) + + Even by the rule of that philosophy, + By which I did blame Cato for the death + Which he did give himself; (I know not how, + But I do find it cowardly and vile, + For fear of what might fall, so to prevent + The time of life:) arming myself with patience] + +Dr. Warburton thinks, that in this speech something is lost, but there +needed only a parenthesis to clear it. The construction is this; I an +determined to act according to that philosophy which directed me to +blame the suicide of Cato, arming myself with patience. + +V.iv.12 (102,6) _Luc._ Only I yield to die:/There is so much, that then +wilt kill me straight] Dr. Warburton has been much inclined to find +_lacunae_, or passages broken by omission, throughout this play. I think +he has been always mistaken. The soldier here says, _Yield, or thou +diest_. Lucilius replies, I yield only on this condition, that I may +die; here is so much gold as thou seest in my hand, which I offer thee +as a reward for speedy death. What now is there wanting? + +(106) General Observation. Of this tragedy many particular passages +deserve regard, and the contention and reconcilement of Brutus and +Cassius is universally celebrated; but I have never been strongly +agitated in perusing it, and think it somewhat cold and unaffecting, +compared with some other of Shakespeare's plays; his adherence to the +real story, and to Roman manners, seems to have impeded the natural +vigour of his genius. + + + + +ANTONY AND CLEOPATRA + + +I.i.9 (110,2) And is become the bellows, and the fan,/To cool a gypsy's +lust] In this passage something seems to be wanting. The bellows and fan +being commonly used for contrary purposes, were probably opposed by the +author, who might perhaps have written, + + _--is become the bellows, and the fan_, + To kindle and _to cool a gypsy's lust_. + +I.i.10 (110,3) gypsy's lust] Gypsy is here used both in the original +meaning for an _Egyptian_, and in its accidental sense for a _bad +woman_. + +1.i.17 (110,6) Then must thou needs find out new heaven] Thou must set +the boundary of my love at a greater distance than the present visible +universe affords. + +1.i.18 (110,7) The sum] Be brief, _sum_ thy business in a few words. + +I.i.33 (111,8) and the wide arch/Of the rang'd empire fall!] [Taken from +the Roman custom of raising triumphal arches to perpetuate their +victories. Extremely noble. WARBURTON.] I am in doubt whether +Shakespeare had any idea but of a fabrick standing on pillars. The later +editions have all printed the _raised_ empire, for the _ranged_ empire, +as it was first given, (see 1765, VII, 107, 8) + +I.i.42 (112,1) + + Antony + Will be himself. + _Ant._ But stirr'd by Cleopatra] + +_But_, in this passage, seems to have the old Saxon signification of +_without, unless, except. Antony_, says the queen, _will recollect his +thoughts_. Unless _kept_, he replies, _in commotion by Cleopatra_. (see +1765, VII, 108,1) + +I.ii.5 (113,2) change his horns with garlands] [W: charge] Sir Thomas +Hanmer reads, not improbably, _change_ for _horns_ his _garlands_. I am +in doubt, whether to _change_ is not merely to _dress_, or _to dress +with changes of_ garlands. + +I.ii.23 (114,3) I had rather heat my liver] To know why the lady is so +averse from _heating_ her _liver_, it must be remembered, that a heated +liver is supposed to make a pimpled face. + +I.ii.35 (114,5) Then, belike, my children shall have no names] If I have +already had the best of my fortune, then I suppose _I shall never name +children_, that is, I am never to be married. However, tell me the +truth, tell me, _how many boys and wenches_? + +1.ii.38 (114,6) If every of your wishes had a womb, and foretel every +wish, a million] [W: fertil ev'ry] For _foretel_, in ancient editions, +the latter copies have _foretold_. _Foretel_ favours the emendation, +which is made with great acuteness; yet the original reading may, I +think, stand. _If you had as many wombs as you will have wishes; and_ I +should _foretel all those wishes, I should foretel a million of +children._ It is an ellipsis very frequent in conversation; _I should +shame you, and tell all_; that is, _and if I should_ tell all. _And_ is +for _and if_, which was anciently, and is still provincially, used for +_if_. + +I.ii.105 (117,8) extended Asia] To _extend_, is a term used for to +_seize_; I know not whether that be not the sense here. + +I.ii.113 (118,9) Oh, when we bring forth weeds,/When our quick winds lie +still] The sense is, that man, not agitated by censure, like soil not +ventilated by _quick winds_, produces more evil than good. + +I.ii.128 (118,1) + + the present pleasure, + By revolution lowring, does become + The opposite of itself] + +[The allusion is to the sun's diurnal course; which rising in the +_east_, and _by revolution lowering_, or setting in the _west_, becomes +_the opposite of itself_. WARB.] This is an obscure passage. The +explanation which Dr. Warburton has offered is such, that I can add +nothing to it; yet perhaps Shakespeare, who was less learned than his +commentator, meant only, that our pleasures, as they are _revolved_ in +the mind, turn to pain. + +I.ii.146 (119,3) upon far poorer moment] For less reason; upon meaner +motives. + +I.ii.169 (120,4) It shews to man the tailors of the earth; comforting +therein] I have printed this after the original, which, though harsh and +obscure, I know not how to amend. Sir Tho. Hanmer reads, They shew _to +man the tailors of the earth comforting_ him therein. I think the +passage, with somewhat less alteration, for alteration is always +dangerous, may stand thus; _It shews to_ men _the tailors of the earth, +comforting_ them, &c. + +I.ii.187 (121,6) more urgent touches] Things that touch me more +sensibly, more pressing motives. + +I.ii.190 (121,7) Petition us at home] Wish us at home; call for us to +reside at home. + +I.ii.201 (121,9) + + Say, our pleasure + To such whose places under us, requires + Our quick remove from hence] + +This is hardly sense. I believe we should read, + + Their _quick remove from hence_. + +Tell our design of going away to those, who being by their places +obliged to attend us, must remove in haste. + +I.iii.3 (122,1) I did not send you] You must go as if you came without +my order or knowledge. + +I.iii.37 (123,2) a race of heaven] [i.e. had a smack or flavour of +heaven. WARB.] This word is well explained by Dr. Warburton; the _race_ +of wine is the taste of the woil. Sir T. Hanmer, not understanding the +word, reads, _ray_. + +I.iii.44 (124,3) Remains in use] The poet seems to allude to the legal +distinction between the _use_ and _absolute possession_. + +I.iii.54 (124,4) should safe my going] [T: salve] Mr. Upton reads, I +think rightly, + + --_safe_ my going. + +I.iii.62 (125,5) + + O most false love! + Where be the sacred vials thou shouldst fill + With sorrowful water?] + +Alluding to the lachrymatory vials, or bottles of tears, which the +Romans sometimes put into the urn of a friend. + +I.iii.77 (125,6) the tears/Belong to Egypt] To me, the queen of Egypt. + +I.iii.90 (126,7) Oh, ny oblivion is a very Antony,/And I am all +forgotten] [The plain meaning is, _My forgetfulness makes me forget +myself_. WARBURTON.] [Hanmer explained "all forgotten" as "apt to forget +everything"] I cannot understand the learned critic's explanation. It +appears to me, that she should rather have said, + + _O my_ remembrance _is a very_ Antony, + _And I am all forgotten._ + +It was her memory, not her oblivion, that, like Antony, vas forgetting +and deserting her. I think a slight change will restore the passage. The +queen, having something to say, which she is not able, or would not seem +able to recollect, cries out, + + _O my oblivion_!--'Tis _a very Antony_. + +The thought of which I was in quest is a very Antony, is treacherous and +fugitive, and has irrevocably left me, + + _And I am all forgotten._ + +If this reading stand, I think the explanation of Hanmer must be +received, (see 1765, VII, 122, 6) + +I.iv.3 (127,9) One great competitor] Perhaps, _Our_ great competitor. + +I.iv.12 (128,1) as the spots of heaven,/More fiery by night's blackness] +If by spots are meant stars, as night has no other fiery spots, the +comparison is forced and harsh, stars having been always supposed to +beautify the night; nor do I comprehend what there is in the +counter-part of this simile, which answers to night's blackness. Hanmer +reads, + + --_spots_ on ermine + Or fires, _by night's blackness_. + +I.iv.14 (128,2) purchas'd] Procured by his own fault or endeavour. + +I.iv.21 (128,3) say, this becomes him, (As his composure must be rare, +indeed, Whom these things cannot blemish] This seems inconsequent. I +read + + _And his composure_, &c. + _Grant that this becomes him_, and _if it can become him, he must + have in him something very uncommon_; yet, _&c._ + +I.iv.25 (128,4) So great weight in his lightness] The word _light_ it +one of Shakespeare's favourite play-things. The sense is, His trifling +levity throws so much burden upon us. + +I.iv.25 (129,5) + + If he fill'd + His vacancy with his voluptuousness, + Full surfeits, and the dryness of his bones, + Call on him for't] + +_Call on him_, is, _visit him_. Says Caesar, _If Antony followed his +debaucheries at a time of leisure, I should leave him to be punished by +their natural consequences, by_ surfeits _and_ dry bones. + +I.iv.31 (129,6) boys; who being mature in knowledge] For this Hanmer, +who thought the _maturity_ of a _boy_ an inconsistent idea, has put, + + --_who_, immature _in knowledge_, + +but the words _experience_ and _judgment_ require that we read _mature_; +though Dr. Warburton has received the emendation. By _boys mature in +knowledge_, are meant, _boys old enough to know their duty_. + +I.iv.38 (129,7) he is belov'd of these/That only have fear'd Caesar] +Those whom not _love_ but _fear_ made adherents to Caesar, now shew +their affection for Pompey. + +I.iv.49 (130,2) which they ear] To _ear_, is to _plow_; a common +metaphor. + +I.iv.52 (130,3) Lack blood to think on't] Turn pale at the thought of +it. + +I.v.4 (132,5) mandragora] A plant of which the infusion was supposed to +procure sleep. Shakespeare mentions it in _Othello_: + + _Not poppy, nor_ mandragora, + _Can ever med'cine thee to that sweet sleep_. + +I.v.38 (133,8) that great medicine hath/With his tinct gilded thee] +Alluding to the philosopher's stone, which, by its touch, converts base +metal into gold. The alchemists call the matter, whatever it be, by +which they perform transmutation, a _medicine_. + +I.v.48 (134,9) arm-gaunt steed] [i.e. his steed worn lean and thin by +much service in war. So Fairfax, _His_ stall-worn _steed the champion +stout bestrode_. WARB.] On this note Mr. Edwards has been very lavish of +his pleasantry, and indeed has justly censured the misquotation of +_stall-worn_, for _stall-worth_, which means _strong_, but makes no +attempt to explain the word in the play. Mr. Seyward, in his preface to +Beaumont, has very elaborately endeavoured to prove, that an _arm-gaunt_ +steed is a steed with _lean shoulders_. _Arm_ is the Teutonick word for +_want_, or _poverty_. _Arm-gaunt_ may be therefore an old word, +signifying, _lean_ for _want_, ill fed. Edwards's observation, that a +worn-out horse is not proper for Atlas to mount in battle, is +impertinent; the horse here mentioned seems to be a post horse, rather +than a war horse. Yet as _arm-gaunt_ seems not intended to imply any +defect, it perhaps means, a horse so slender that a man might clasp him, +and therefore formed for expedition. Hanmer reads, + + --_arm-girt steed_. + +I.v.50 (134,1) Was beastly dumb by him] Mr. Theobald reads _dumb'd_, put +to silence. _Alexas means_, (says he) _the horse made such a neighing, +that if he had spoke he could not have been heard_. + +I.v.76 (136,3) Get me ink and paper: he shall have every day/ A several +greeting, or I'll unpeople Aegypt] By sending out messengers. + +II.i (136,4) _Enter Pompey_, _Menecrates_, _and Menas_] The persons are +so named in the first edition; but I know not why Menecrates appears; +Menas can do all without him. + +II.i.4 (136,5) While we are suitors to their throne, decays/The thing we +sue for] [W: delays] It is not always prudent to be too hasty in +exclamation; the reading which Dr. Warburton rejects as _nonsense_, is +in my opinion right; if _delay_ be what they sue for, they have it, and +the consolation offered becomes superfluous. The meaning is, _While we +are praying_, _the thing for which we pray_ is losing its value. + +II.i.38 (138,8) The ne'er-lust-wearied Antony] [Theobald emended "near +lust-wearied" to "ne'er-lust-wearied"] Could it be imagined, after this +swelling exultation, that the first edition stands literally thus, + + _The_ neere _lust wearied Antony_. + +II.i.45 (139,9) square] That is, quarrel. + +II.i.51 (139,1) Our lives upon] This play is not divided into acts by +the authour or first editors, and therefore the present division may be +altered at pleasure. I think the first act may be commodiously continued +to this place, and the second act opened with the interview of the chief +persons, and a change of the state of action. Yet it must be confessed, +that it is of small importance, where these unconnected and desultory +scenes are interrupted. + +II.ii.7 (140,2) Were I the wearer of Antonius' beard,/I would not shav't +to-day] I believe he means, _I would meet him undressed_, _without shew +of respect_. + +II.ii.25 (141,3) Nor curstness grow to the matter] Let not _ill-humour_ +be added to the real _subject_ of our difference. + +II.ii.28 (141,4) _Caes_. Sit./_Ant_. Sit, sir!] [Antony appears to be +jealous of a circumstance which seemed to indicate a consciousness of +superiority in his too successful partner in power; and accordingly +resents the invitation of Caesar to be seated: Caesar answers, _Nay +then_--i.e. _if you are so ready to resent what I meant an act of +civility, there can be no reason to suppose you have temper enough for +the business on which at present we are met_. STEEVENS.] The following +circumstance may serve to strengthen Mr. Steevens's opinion: When the +fictitious Sebastian made his appearance in Europe, he came to a +conference with the Conde de Lemos; to whom, after the firat exchange of +civilities, he said, _Conde de Lemos, be covered_. And being asked by +that nobleman, by what pretences he laid claim to the superiority +expressed by such permission, he replied, I do it by right of my birth; +I am Sebastian. (1773) + +II.ii.43 (142,5) their contestation/Was theam for you, you were the word +of war] [W: theam'd] I am neither satisfied with the reading nor the +emendation; _theam'd_ is, I think, a word unauthorised, and very harsh. +Perhaps we may read, + + --_their contestation_ + +Had _theme_ from _you_, _you were the word o' th' war_. _The dispute +derived its subject from you_. It may be corrected by mere +transposition, + + --_their contestation_ + +You were theme for, _you were the word_. + +II.ii.51 (143,8) Having alike your cause?] The meaning seems to be, +_having the same cause as you to be offended with me_. But why, because +he was offended with Antony, should he make war upon Caesar? May it not +be read thus, + + --_Did he not rather + Discredit my authority with yours, + And make the wars alike against my stomach_, + Hating _alike_ our _cause_? + +II.ii.53 (143,9) As matter whole you have not to make it with] The +original copy reads, + + _As matter whole you_ have _to make it with_. + +Without doubt erroneously; I therefore only observe it, that the reader +may more readily admit the liberties which the editors of this authour's +works have necessarily taken. + +II.ii.61 (144,1) fronted] i.e. _opposed_. + +II.ii.85 (145,4) The honour's sacred which he talks on now,/Supposing +that I lack'd it] [_Sacred_, for unbroken, unviolated. WARB.] Dr. +Warburton seems to understand this passage thus; _The honour which he_ +talks _of me as_ lacking, _is_ unviolated, _I never lacked it_. This may +perhaps be the true meaning, but before I read the note, I understood it +thus: Lepidus interrupts Caesar, on the supposition that what he is +about to say will be too harsh to be endured by Antony; to which Antony +replies, _No, Lepidus, let him speak, the security of_ honour on which +he now speaks, _on which this conference is held now_, is sacred, _even_ +supposing that I lacked _honour_ before. + +II.ii.112 (146,5) your considerate stone] This line is passed by all the +editors, as if they understood it, and believed it universally, +intelligible. I cannot find in it any very obvious, and hardly any +possible meaning. I would therefore read, + + _Go to then_, you _considerate_ ones. + +You, who dislike my frankness and temerity of speech, and are so +_considerate_ and discreet, _go to_, do your on business. + +II.ii.113 (146,6) I do not much dislike the matter, but/The manner of +his speech] I do not, says Caesar, think the man wrong, but too free of +him interposition; _for't cannot be, we shall remain in friendship: yet +if it were possible, I would endeavour it_. + +II.ii.123 (147,7) your reproof/Were well deserv'd] In the old edition, + + --_your_ proof + _Were well deserv'd_-- + +Which Mr. Theobald, with his usual triumph, changes to _approof_, which +he explains, _allowance_. Dr. Warburton inserted _reproof_ very properly +into Hanmer's edition, but forgot it in his own. + +II.ii.159 (148,8) Lest my remembrance suffer ill report] Lest I be +thought too willing to forget benefits, I must barely return him thanks, +and then I will defy him. + +II.ii.210 (150,1) And what they undid, did] It might be read less +harshly, + + _And what they did_, undid. + +II.ii.212 (150,2) tended her i' the eyes] Perhaps _tended her_ by th' +_eyes_, discovered her will by her eyes. + +II.iii.21 (153,6) thy angel/Becomes a Fear] Mr.Uptan reads, + + _Becomes_ afear'd,-- + +The common reading is more poetical. + +II.iii.37 (154,7) his quails ever/Beat mine] The ancients used to match +quails as we match cocks. + +II.iii.38 (154,8) inhoop'd, at odds] Thus the old copy. _Inhoop'd_ is +_inclosed, confined_, that they may fight. The modern editions read, + + _Beat mine_, in whoop'd-_at odds_.-- + +II.v.1 (155,9) musick, moody food] [The _mood_ is the _mind_, or _mental +disposition_. Van Haaren's panegyrick on the English begins, +_Groot-moedig Volk, great-minded nation_.] Perhaps here is a poor jest +intended between _mood_ the _mind_ and _moods_ of musick. + +II.v.41 (l57,4) Not like a formal man] [_Formal_, for ordinary. WARB.] +Rather decent, regular. + +II.v.103 (161,8) Thou art not what thou'rt sure of!] For this, which is +not easily understood, Sir Thomas Hanmer has given, + + _That_ say'st but _what thou'rt sure of!_ + +I am not satisfied with the change, which, though it affords sense, +exhibits little spirit. I fancy the line consists only of abrupt starts. + + _Oh that his fault should make a knave of thee_, + That art--not what?--Thou'rt sure on't.--Get thee + hence. + +_That his fault should make a knave of thee that art_--but what _shall I +say thou art not_? Thou art then sure of _this marriage._--Get thee +hence. + +Dr. Warburton has received Sir T. Hanmer's emendation. + +II.v.115 (161,9) Let him for ever go] She is now talking in broken +sentences, not of the messenger, but Antony. + +II.vi.24 (163,2) Thou canst not fear us] Thou canst not affright us with +thy numerous navy. + +II.vi.28 (163,3) But since the cuckow builds not for himself] Since, +like the cuckow, that seizes the nests of other birds, you have invaded +a house which you could not build, keep it while you can. + +II.vii.1 (167,6) some o' their plants] _Plants_, besides its common +meaning, is here used for the _foot_, from the Latin. + +II.vii.14 (167,9) a partizan] A pike. + +II.vii.16 (167,1) To be call'd into a huge sphere, and not to be seen to +move in't, are the holes where eyes should be, which pitifully disaster +the cheeks] This speech seems to be mutilated; to supply the +deficiencies is impossible, but perhaps the sense was originally +approaching to this. + +_To be called into a huge sphere, and not to be seen to move in it_, is +a very ignominious state; great offices _are the holes where eyes should +be, which_, if eyes be wanting, _pitifully disaster the cheeks_. + +II.vii.88 (170,2) thy pall'd fortunes] _Palled_, is vapid, past its time +of excellence; _palled_ wine, is wine that has lost its original +spriteliness. + +II.vii.102 (171,3) Strike the vessels] Try whether the casks sound as +empty. + +II.vii.116 (171,4) The holding every man shall bear] Every man shall +accompany the chorus by drumming on his sides, in token of concurrence +and applause. [Theobald had emended "beat" to "bear"] (1773) + +III.i.1 (173,6) Now, darting Parthia, art thou struck] _Struck_ alludes +to darting. Thou whose darts have so often struck others, art struck now +thyself. (1773) + +III.ii.12 (175,8) Arabian bird!] The phoenix. + +III.ii.16 (176,9) + + Ho! hearts, tongues, figure, scribes, bards, poets, cannot + Think, speak, cast, write, sing, number, ho!] + +Not only the tautology of _bards_ and _poets_, but the want of a +correspondent action for the _poet_, whose business in the next line is +only to _number_, makes me suspect some fault in this passage, which I +know not how to mend. + +III.ii.26 (176,1) as my furthest bond] As I will venture the greatest +pledge of security, on the trial of thy conduct. + +III.ii.40 (177,1) The elements be kind to thee, and make/Thy spirits all +of comfort!] This is obscure. It seems to mean, _May the different_ +elements _of the body, or principles of life, maintain such proportion +and harmony as may keep you cheerful_. + +III.iv.26 (182,7) I'll raise the preparation of a war/Shall stain your +brother] [T: strain] I do not see but _stain_ may be allowed to remain +unaltered, meaning no more than _shame_ or _disgrace_. + +III.iv.30 (182,8) Wars 'twixt you 'twain would be/As if the world should +cleave] The sense is, that war between Caesar and Antony would engage +the world between them, and that the slaughter would be great in so +extensive a commotion. + +III.v.8 (183,9) rivality] Equal rank. + +III.v.11 (183,1) Upon his own appeal] To _appeal_, in Shakespeare, is to +_accuse_; Caesar seized Lepidus without any other proof than Caesar's +accusation. + +III.v.21 (184,3) More, Domitius] I have something _more_ to tell you, +which I might have told at first, and delayed my news. Antony requires +your presence. + +III.vi.9 (184,4) made her/Of Lower Syria, Cyprus, Lydia./Absolute queen] +For _Lydia_, Mr. Upton, from Plutarch, has restored _Lybia_. + +III.vi.68-75 (187,6) Mr. Upton remarks, that there are some errours in +this enumeration of the auxiliary kings; but it is probable that the +authour did not much wish to be accurate. + +III.vi.95 (188,7) And gives his potent regiment to a trull] _Regiment_, +is _government, authority_; he puts his _power_ and his empire into the +hands of a false woman. + +It may be observed, that _trull_ was not, in our author's time, a term +of mere infamy, but a word of slight contempt, as _wench_ is now. + +III.vii.3 (188,8) forespoke my being] To _forespeak_, is to +_contradict_, to _speak against_, as _forbid_ is to order negatively. + +III.vii.68 (191,1) + + By Hercules, I think, I am i' the right. + Can. Soldier, thou art: but his whole action grows + Not in the power on't] + +That is, his whole conduct becomes, ungoverned by the right, or by +reason. + +III.vii.77 (191,2) distractions] Detachments; separate bodies. + +III.x.6 (193,4) The greater cantle] [A piece or lump. POPE.] _Cantle_ is +rather a _corner_. Caesar in this play mentions the _three-nook'd +world_. Of this triangular world every triumvir had a corner. (see 1765, +VII, 185, 6) + +III.x.9 (193,5) token'd pestilence] Spotted. + +III.x.10 (193,6) Yon' ribauld nag of Aegypt] The word is in the old +edition _ribaudred_, which I do not understand, but mention it, in hopes +others may raise some happy conjecture. [Tyrwhitt: hag] The brieze, or +oestrum, the fly that stings cattle, proves that _nag_ is the right +word. (1773) + +III.x.11 (193,7) Whom leprosy o'ertake!] _Leprosy_, an epidemical +distemper of the Aegyptians; to which Horace probably alludes in the +controverted line. + + _Contaminato cum grege turpium + Morbo virorum._ + +III.x.36 (195,1) The wounded chance of Antony] I know not whether the +author, who loves to draw his images from the sports of the field, might +not have written, + + _The wounded_ chase _of Antony_,-- + +The allusion is to a deer wounded and chased, whom all other deer avoid. +_I will_, says Enobarbus, _follow Antony_, though _chased_ and +_wounded_. + +The common reading, however, may very well stand. + +III.xi.3 (195,2) so lated in the world] Alluding to a benighted +traveller. + +III.xi.23 (196,3) I have lost command] I am not master of my own +emotions. + +III.xi.35 (196,4) He at Philippi kept/His sword e'en like a dancer] In +the Moriaco, and perhaps anciently in the Pyrrhick dance, the dancers +held swords in their hands with the points upward. + +III.xi.39 (196,6) he alone/Dealt on lieutenantry] I know not whether the +meaning is, that Caesar acted only as lieutenant at Philippi, or that he +made his attempts only on lieutenants, and left the generals to Antony. + +III.xi.47 (197,7) death will seize her; but/Your comfort] _But_ has +here, as once before in this play, the force of _except_, or _unless_. + +III.ii.52 (197,8) How I convey my shame] How, by looking another way, I +withdraw my ignominy from your sight. + +III.ii.57 (197,9) ty'd by the strings] That is by the _heart string_. + +III.xii.18 (199,1) The circle of the Ptolemies] The diadem; the ensign +of royalty. + +III.xii.34 (199,2) how Antony becomes his flaw] That is, how Antony +conforms himself to this breach of his fortune. + +III.xiii.1 (200,3) Think, and die] [Hanmer: Drink] This reading, offered +by sir T. Hanmer, is received by Dr. Warburton and Mr. Upton, but I have +not advanced it into the page, not being convinced that it is necessary. +_Think, and die_; that is, _Reflect on your folly, and leave the world_, +is a natural answer. + +III.xiii.9 (201,4) he being/The meered question] The _meered_ question +is a term I do not understand. I know not what to offer, except, + + _The_ mooted _question_.-- + +That is, the _disputed_ point, the subject of debate. _Mere_ is indeed a +_boundary_, and the _meered question_, if it can mean any thing, may, +with some violence of language, mean, the _disputed boundary_. + +III.xiii.25 (202, 5) + + I dare him therefore + To lay his gay comparisons apart + And answer me declin'd] + +I require of Caesar not to depend on that superiority which the +_comparison_ of our different fortunes may exhibit to him, but to answer +me man to man, in this decline of my age or power. + +III.xiii.42 (202,6) The loyalty, well held to fools, does make/Our faith +meer folly] [T: Though loyalty, well held] I have preserved the old +reading: Enobarbus is deliberating upon desertion, and finding it is +more prudent to forsake a fool, and more reputable to be faithful to +him, makes no positive conclusion. Sir T. Hanmer follows Theobald; Dr. +Warburton retains the old reading. + +III.xiii.77 (204,9) Tell him, from his all-obeying breath I hear/The +doom of Aegypt] _Doom_ is declared rather by an _all-commanding_, than +an _all-obeying breath_. I suppose we ought to read, + + --_all_-obeyed breath. + +III.xiii.81 (205,1) Give me grace] Grant me the favour. + +III.xiii.109 (206,3) By one that looks on feeders?] One that waits at +the table while others are eating. + +III.xiii.128 (207,4) The horned herd] It is not without pity and +indignation that the reader of this great poet meets so often with this +low jest, which is too much a favourite to be left out of either mirth +or fury. + +III.xiii.151 (208,5) to quit me] To repay me this insult; to _requite_ +me. + +III.xiii.180 (209,9) Were nice and lucky] [_Nice_, for delicate, +courtly, flowing in peace. WARBURTON.] _Nice_ rather seems to be, _just +fit for my purpose, agreeable to my wish_. So we vulgarly say of any +thing that is done better than was expected, it is _nice_. + +IV.i.5 (210,1) I have many other ways to die] [Upton: He hath.../I +laugh] I think this emendation deserves to be received. It had, before +Mr. Upton's book appeared, been made by sir T. Hanmer. + +IV.i.9 (211,2) Make boot of] Take advantage of. + +IV.ii.8 (212,3) _take all_] Let the survivor take all. No composition, +victory or death. + +IV.ii.14 (212,4) one of those odd tricks] I know not what obscurity the +editors find in this passage. _Trick_ is here used in the sense in which +it is uttered every day by every mouth, elegant and vulgar: yet sir T. +Hanmer changes it to _freaks_, and Dr. Warburton, in his rage of +Gallicism, to _traits_. + +IV.ii.26 (213,5) Haply, you shall not see me more; or if,/A mangled +shadow] _Or if_ you see me more, you will see me _a mangled shadow_, +only the external form of what I was. + +IV.ii.35 (213,6) onion-ey'd] I have my eyes as full of tears as if they +had been fretted by onions. + +IV.iv.3 (215,8) Come, good fellow, put thine iron on] I think it should +be rather, + + --mine _iron_-- + +IV.iv.5 (215,9) Nay, I'll help too] These three little speeches, which +in the other editions are only one, and given to Cleopatra, were happily +disentangled by sir T. Hanmer. + +IV.iv.10 (215,1) Briefly, sir] That is, _quickly_, sir. + +IV.v.17 (218,3) Dispatch. Enobarbus!] Thus [_Dispatch, my Eros_] the +modern editors. The old edition reads, + + --_Dispatch Enobarbus_. + +Perhaps, it should be, + + --_Dispatch! To Enobarbus!_ (see 1765, VII, 208, 3) + +IV.vi.12 (219,6) persuade] The old copy has _dissuade_, perhaps rightly. + +IV.vi.34 (219,7) This blows my heart] All the latter editions have, + + --_This_ bows _my heart_; + +I have given the original word again the place from which I think it +unjustly excluded. _This generosity_, (says Enobarbus) swells _my +heart_, so that it will quickly break, _if thought break it not, a +swifter mean_. + +IV.vii.2 (220,8) and our oppression] Sir T. Hanmer has received +_opposition_. Perhaps rightly. + +IV.viii.1 (221,9) run one before,/And let the queen know of our guests] +[W: gests] This passage needs neither correction nor explanation. Antony +after his success intends to bring his officers to sup with Cleopatra, +and orders notice to be given her of their _guests_. + +IV.viii.12 (222,1) To this great fairy] Mr. Upton has well observed, +that _fairy_; which Dr. Warburton and sir T. Hanmer explain by +_Inchantress_, comprises the idea of power and beauty. + +IV.viii.22 (222,2) get goal for goal of youth] At all plays of barriers, +the boundary is called a _goal_; to _win a goal_, is to be superiour in +a contest of activity. + +IV.viii.31 (223,4) Bear our hack'd targets like the men that owe them] +i.e. hack'd as much as the men are to whom they belong. WARB.] Why not +rather, _Bear our hack'd targets_ with spirit and exaltation, such as +becomes the brave warriors _that own them_? + +IV.ix.15 (224,5) + + Throw my heart + Against the flint and hardness of my fault; + Which, being dried with grief, will break to powder, + And finish all foul thoughts] + +The pathetick of Shakespeare too often ends in the ridiculous. It is +painful to find the gloomy dignity of this noble scene destroyed by the +intrusion of a conceit so far-fetched and unaffecting. + +IV.xii.13 (226,1) Triple turn'd whore!] She was first for Antony, then +was supposed by him to have _turned_ to Caesar, when he found his +messenger kissing her hand, then she _turned_ again to Antony, and now +has _turned_ to Caesar. Shall I mention what has dropped into my +imagination, that our author might perhaps have written +_triple-tongued_? _Double-tongued_ is a common term of reproach, which +rage might improve to _triple-tongued_. But the present reading may +stand. + +IV.xii.21 (227,2) That pannell'd me at heels] All the editions read, + + _That_ pannell'd _me at heels_,-- + +Sir T. Hanmer substituted _spaniel'd_ by an emendation, with which it +was reasonable to expect that even rival commentators would be +satisfied; yet Dr. Warburton proposes _pantler'd_, in a note, of which +he is not injur'd by the suppression; and Mr. Upton having in his first +edition proposed plausibly enough, + + _That_ paged _me at heels_,-- + +in the second edition retracts his alteration, and maintains _pannell'd_ +to be the right reading, being a metaphor taken, he says, from a +_pannel_ of wainscot. + +IV.xii.25 (227,3) this grave charm] I know not by what authority, nor +for what reason, _this_ grave _charm_, which the first, the only +original copy exhibits, has been through all the modern editors changed +to _this_ gay _charm_. By _this_ grave _charm_, is meant, _this sublime, +this majestic beauty_. + +IV.xii.29 (227,4) to the very heart of loss] To the utmost loss +possible. + +IV.xii.45 (228,7) Let me lodge, Lichas] Sir T. Hanmer reads thus, + + --thy _rage_ + Led thee _lodge Lichas_--and-- + _Subdue_ thy _worthiest self_.-- + +This reading, harsh as it is, Dr. Warburton has received, after having +rejected many better. The meaning is, Let me do something in my rage, +becoming the successor of Hercules, + +IV.xiv.19 (230,2) Pack'd cards with Caesar, and false play'd my +glory/Unto an enemy's triumph] [Warburton had explained and praised +Shakespeare's "metaphor"] This explanation is very just, the thought did +not deserve so good an annotation. + +IV.xiv.39 (231,3) The battery from my heart] I would read, + + This _battery from my heart_.-- + + +IV.xiv.49 (232,4) Seal then, and all is done] I believe the reading is, + + --seel _then, and all is done_-- + +To _seel hawks_, is to close their eyes. The meaning will be, + + --_since the torch is out, + Lie down, and stray no further. How all labour + Marrs what it does_.--Seel _then, and all is done_. + +Close thine eyes _for ever, and be quiet_. + +IV.xiv.73 (233,5) pleach'd arms] Arms folded in each other. + +IV.xiv.77 (233,6) His baseness that ensued?] The poor conquered wretch +that followed. + +IV.xiv.86 (233,7) the worship of the whole world] The _worship_, is the +_dignity_, the _authority_. + +IV.xv.9 (237,9) + + O sun, + Burn the great sphere thou mov'st in!--darkling stand + The varying shore o' the world] + +She desires the sun, to _burn_ his own _orb_, the vehicle of light, and +then the earth will be dark. + +IV.xv.19-23 (237,1) I here importune death] [Theobald had regularized +the versification and had added two words] Mr. Theobald's emendation is +received by the succeeding editors; but it seems not necessary that a +dialogue so distressful should be nicely regular. I have therefore +preserved the original reading in the text, and the emendation below. + +IV.xv.28 (238,2) still conclusion] Sedate determination; silent coolness +of resolution. + +IV.xv.32 (236,3) Here's sport, indeed!] I suppose the meaning of these +strange words is, _here's_ trifling, _you_ do not work _in earnest_. + +IV.xv.39 (239,4) Quicken with kissing] That is, _Revive by my kiss_. + +IV.xv.44 (239,6) That the false huswife Fortune break her wheel] This +despicable line has occurred before. + +IV.xv.65 (240,8) The soldier's pole] He at whom the soldiers pointed, as +at a pageant held high for observation. + +IV.xv.72 (240,9) + + _Char_. Peace, peace, Iras. + _Cleo_. No more--but e'en a woman] + +[W: peace, Isis] Of this note it may be truly said, that it at least +deserves to be right, nor can he, that shall question the justness of +the emendation, refuse his esteem to the ingenuity and learning with +which it is proposed. + +Hanmer had proposed another emendation, not injudiciously. He reads +thus, + + Iras. _Royal Aegypt! empress!_ + Cleo. _Peace, peace, Iras. + No more but a mere woman_, &c. + +That is, _no more an empress, but a mere woman_. + +It is somewhat unfortunate that the words, _mere woman_, which so much +strengthen the opposition to either _empress_ or _Isis_, are not in the +original edition, which stands thus, + + _No more but_ in a _woman_. + +_Mere woman_ was probably the arbitrary reading of Rowe. I suppose, +however, that we muy justly change the ancient copy thus, + + _No more, but_ e'en a _woman_. + +which will enough accommodate either of the editors. + +I am inclined to think that she speaks abruptly, not answering her +woman, but discoursing with her own thoughts, + + _No more--but_ e'en a _woman_. + +_I have_ no more _of my wonted greatness_, but am even a woman, _on the +level with other women; were I what I once was_. + + --It were for me + To throw my scepter, _&c_. + +If this simple explanation be admitted, how much labour has been thrown +away. _Peace, peace, Iras_, is said by Charmian, when she sees the queen +recovering, and thinks speech troublesome. + +V.i.15 (244,4) The round world/Should have shook lions into civil +streets] I think here is a line lost, after which it is in vain to go in +quest. The sense seems to have been this: _The round world should have +shook_, and this great alteration of the system of things should send +_lions into streets, and citizens into dens_. There is sense still, but +it is harsh and violent. + +V.i.27 (244,5) but it is tidings/To wash the eyes of kings!] That is, +May _the Gods rebuke me_, if this be not _tidings to make kings weep_. + +_But_, again, for _if not_. + +V.i.46 (245,7) that our stars,/Unreconciliable, should divide/Our +equalness to this] That is, _should have made us_, in our equality of +fortune, disagree _to_ a pitch like this, that one of us must die. + +V.i.52 (246,8) A poor Aegyptian yet; the queen my mistress] If this +punctuation be right, the man means to say, that he is _yet an +Aegyptian_, that is, _yet a servant of the queen of Aegypt_, though soon +to become, a subject of Rome. + +V.i.65 (246,9) her life in Rome/Would be eternal in our triumph] Hanmer +reads judiciously enough, but without necessity, + + _Would be_ eternalling _our triumph_. + +The sense is, _If she dies here, she will be forgotten, but if I send +her_ in triumph at Rome, _her memory and my glory_ will be eternal. + +V.ii.3 (247,1) fortune's knave] The _servant_ of fortune. + +V.ii.4 (247,2) + + it is great + To do that thing, that ends all other deeds; + Which shackles accidents, and bolts up change; + Which sleeps, and never palates more the dung, + The beggar's nurse, and Caesar's] + +[Warburton added a whole line and emended "dung" to "dugg"] I cannot +perceive the loss of a line, or the need of an emendation. The +commentator seems to have entangled his own ideas; his supposition that +_suicide_ is called _the beggar's nurse and Caesar's_, and his +concession that the position is _intelligible_, show, I think, a mind +not intent upon the business before it. The difficulty of the passage, +if any difficulty there be, arises only from this, that the act of +suicide, and the state which is the effect of suicide are confounded. +Voluntary death, says she, is an act _which bolts up change_; it +produces a state, + + _Which sleeps, and never palates more the dung, + The beggar's nurse, and Caesar's_. + +Which has no longer need of the gross and terrene sustenance, in the use +of which Caesar and the beggar are on a level. + +The speech is abrupt, but perturbation in such a state is surely +natural. + +V.ii.29 (249,4) I am his fortune's vassal, and I send him/The greatness +he has got] I allow him to be my conqueror; I own his superiority with +complete submission. + +V.ii.34 (249,5) You see how easily she may be surpriz'd] This line in +the first edition is given not to Charuian, but to Proculeius; and to +him it certainly belongs, though perhaps misplaced. I would put it at +the end of his foregoing speech, + + _Where he for grace is kneel'd to._ + [Aside to Gallus.] _You see, how easily she may be surpriz'd._ + +Then while Cleopatra makes a formal answer, Gallus, upon the hint given, +seizes her, and Proculeius, interrupting the civility of his answer, + + _--your plight is pity'd + Of him that caus'd it._ + +Cries out, + + _Guard her till, Caesar come._ + +V.ii.40 (250,6) who are in this/Reliev'd, but not betray'd] [W: +Bereav'd, but] I do not think the emendation necessary, since the sense +is not made better by it, and the abruptness in Cleopatra's answer is +more forcible in the old reading. + +V.ii.42 (250,7) rids our dogs of languish] For _languish_, I think we +may read, _anguish_. + +V.ii.48 (251,8) Worth many babes and beggars] Why, death, wilt thou not +rather seize a queen, than employ thy force upon _babes_ and _beggars_. +(see 1765, VII, 238, 9) + +V.ii.50 (251,9) If idle talk will once be necessary] [This nonsense +should be reformed thus, + + _If idle_ TIME _whill once be necessary._ + +i.e. if _repose_ be necessary to cherish life, I will not sleep. +WARBURTON.] I do not see that the nonsense is made sense by the change. +Sir T. Hanmer reads, + + _If idle talk will once be_ accessary; + +Neither is this better. I know not what to offer better than an easy +explanation. That is, _I will not eat_, and _if it will be necessary now +for once_ to waste a moment in _idle talk_ of my purpose, _I will not +sleep neither_. In common conversation we often use _will be_, with as +little relation to futurity. As, Now I am going, it _will be_ fit for me +to dine first. + +V.ii.98 (254,2) + + yet to imagine + An Antony, were Nature's piece 'gainst Fancy, + Condemning shadows quite] + +[W: Nature's prize] In this passage I cannot discover any temptation to +critical experiments. The word _piece_, is a term appropriated to works +of art. Here Nature and Fancy produce each their _piece_, and the +_piece_ done by Nature had the preference. Antony was in reality _past +the size of dreaming_; he was more by _Nature_ than _Fancy_ could +present in sleep. + +V.ii.121 (255,3) I cannot project mine own cause so well] [W: procter] +Sir T. Hanmer reads, + + _I cannot_ parget _my own cause---_ + +meaning, I cannot _whitewash, varnish_, or _gloss_ my cause. I believe +the present reading to be right. To _project a cause_ is to _represent_ +a cause; to _project_ it _well_, is to _plan_ or _contrive_ a scheme of +defense. + +V.ii.139 (256,4) "tis exactly valued, /Not petty things admitted] [T: +omitted] Notwithstanding the wrath of Mr. Theobald, I have restored the +old reading. She is angry afterwards, that she is accused of having +reserved more than petty things. Dr. Warburton and sir T. Hanmer follow +Theobald. + +V.ii.146 (257,5) seel my lips] Sew up my mouth. + +V.ii.163 (258,7) Parcel the sum of my disgraces by] _To parcel her +disgraces_, might be expressed in vulgar language, _to bundle up her +calamaties_. (see 1765, VII, 244, 8) + +V.ii.176 (259,8) + + _Cleo._ Be't known, that we, the greatest, are misthought + for things that others do; and, when we fall, + We answer others merits in our names; + Are therefore to be pitied] + +I do not think that either of the criticks [Warburton and Hanmer] have +reached the sense of the author, which may be very commodiously +explained thus; + +We suffer at our highest state of elevation in the _thoughts of mankind +for that which others do, and when we fall_, those that contented +themselves only to think ill before, call us to _answer in our own names +for the merits of others. We are therefore to be pitied. Merits_ is in +this place taken in an ill sense, for actions _meriting_ censure. + +If any alteration be necessary, I should only propose, _Be 't known, +that we_ at _greatest_, &c. + +V.ii.185 (259,1) Make not your thoughts your prisons] I once wished to +read, + + _make not your thoughts your_ poison:-- + +Do not destroy yourself by musing on your misfortune. Yet I would change +nothing, as the old reading presents a very proper sense. _Be not a +prisoner in imagination, when in reality you are free._ + +V.ii.215 (261,2) scald rhimers] Sir T. Hanmer reads, + + --stall 'd _rhimers. + +Scald_ was a word of contempt, implying poverty, disease, and filth. + +V.ii.216 (261,3) quick comedians] The gay inventive players. + +V.ii.226 (261,5) Their most absurd intents] [T: assured] I have +preserved the old reading. The design certainly appeared _absurd_ enough +to Cleopatra, both as she thought it unreasonable in itself, and as she +knew it would fail. + +V.ii.243 (263,7) the pretty worm of Nilus] _Worm_ is the Teutonick word +for _serpent_; we have the _blind-worm_ and _slow-worm_ still in our +language, and the Norwegians call an enormous monster, seen sometimes in +the northern ocean, the _sea-worm_. + +V.ii.264 (263,9) the worm will do him kind] The serpent will act +according to his nature. + +V.ii.305 (205,2) He'll make demand of her, and spend that kiss,/ Which +is my heaven to have] He will enquire of her concerning me, and kiss her +for giving him intelligence. + +V.ii.352 (267,5) something blown] The flesh is somewhat _puffed_ or +_swoln_. + +(268) General Observation. This play keeps curiosity always busy, and +the passions always interested. The continual hurry of the action, the +variety of incidents, and the quick succession of one personage to +another, call the mind forward without intermission from the first act +to the last. But the power of delighting is derived principally from the +frequent changes of the scene; for, except the feminine arts, some of +which are too low, which distinguish Cleopatra, no character is very +strongly discriminated. Upton, who did not easily miss what he desired +to find, has discovered that the language of Antony is, with great skill +and learning, made pompous and superb, according to his real practice. +But I think his diction not distinguishable from that of others: the +most tumid speech in the play is that which Caesar makes to Octavia. + +The events, of which the principal are described according to history, +are produced without any art of connexion or care of disposition. + + + + +TIMON OF ATHENS + + +I.i.3 (271,3) + + _Poet_. Ay, that's well known: + But what particular rarity! what strange, + Which manifold record not matches? See, + Magick of bounty!] + +The learned commentator's [Warburton's] note must shift for itself. I +cannot but think that this passage is at present in confusion. The poet +asks a question, and stays not for an answer, nor has his question any +apparent drift or consequence. I would range the passage thus: + + Poet. _Ay, that's well known. + Bat what particular rarity? what so strange, + That manifold record not matches?_ + + Pain. _See!_ + + Poet. _Magick of--bounty, &c._ + +It may not be improperly observed here, that as there is only one copy +of this play, no help can be had from collation, and more liberty must +be allowed to conjecture. + +I.i.10 (272,4) breath'd as it were/To an untirable and continuate +goodness] _Breathed_ is _inured by constant practice; so trained as not +to be wearied. To _breathe_ a horse, is to exercise him for the course. + +I.i.20 (273,8) _Poet_. + + A thing slipt idly from me. + Our poesy is as a gum, which oozes + From whence 'tis nourished. The fire i' the flint + Shews not, 'till it be struck: our gentle flame + Provokes itself, and, like the current flies + Each bound it chafes. What have you there!] + +This speech of the poet is very obscure. He seems to boast the +copiousness and facility of his vein, by declaring that verses drop from +a poet as gums from odoriferous trees, and that his flame kindles itself +without the violence necessary to elicit sparkles from the flint. What +follows next? that it, _like a current, flies each bound it chafes_. +This may mean, that it expands itself notwithstanding all obstructions: +but the images in the comparison are so ill-sorted, and the effect so +obscurely expressed, that I cannot but think something omitted that +connected the last sentence with the former. It is well knovn that the +players often shorten speeches to quicken the representation; and it may +be suspected, that they sometimes performed their amputations with more +haste than judgment, (see 1765, VI, 169, 6) + +I.i.27 (274,9) _Poet_. Upon the heels of my presentment, sir.] As soon +as my book has been presented to lord Timon. + +I.i.29 (274,1) This comes off weil and excellent] [By this we are to +understand what the painters call the _goings off_ of a picture, which +requires the nicest execution. WARBURTON.] The note I understand less +than the text. The meaning is, This figure rises weil from the canvas. +_C'est bien relevè._ + +I.i.37 (275,3) artificial strife] _Strife_ is either the contest or act +with nature. + + _Hic ille est_ Raphael, _timuit, quo aospite vinci + Rerum magna parens, & moriente, mori_. + +Or it is the contrast of forms or opposition of colours. + +I.i.43 (275,4) this confluence, this great flood of visitors] _Mane +salutantúm totis vomit aedibus undam_. + +I.1.46 (275,5) Halts not particularly] My design does not stop at any +single characters. + +I.1.47 (276,7) + + no levell'd malice + Infects one comma in the course I hold; + But flies an eagle-flight, bold, and forth on, + Leaving no tract behind] + +To _level_ is to _aim_, to point the shot at a mark. Shakespeare's +meaning is, my poem is not a satire written with any particular view, or +_levelled_ at any single person; I fly like an eagle into the general +expanse of life, and leave not, by any private mischief, the trace of my +passage. + +I.i.51 (276,8) I'll unbolt] I'll open, I'll explain. + +I.i.53 (276,9) glib and slippery creatures] Hanmer, and Warburton after +him, read, _natures_. _Slippery_ is _smooth_, unresisting. + +I.i.58 (276,1) glass-fac'd flatterer] That shows in his own look, as by +reflection, the looks of his patron. + +I.i.65 (277,3) rank'd with all deserts] _Cover'd with ranks_ of all +kinds of men. + +I.i.67 (277,4) To propagate their states] To advance or improve their +various conditions of life. + +I.i.72 (277,5) conceiv'd to scope] Properly imagined, appositely, to the +purpose. + +I.i.82 (278,8) through him/Drink the free air] That is, catch his breath +in affected fondness. + +I.i.90 (278,9) A thousand moral paintings I can shew] Shakespeare seems +to intend in this dialogue to express some competition between the two +great arts of imitation. Whatever the poet declares himself to have +shewn, the painter thinks he could have shewn better. (1773) + +I.i.107 (279,1) 'Tis not enough to help the feeble up,/But to support +him after] This thought is better expressed by Dr. Madden in his elegy +on archbishop Boulter. + + --_He thought it mean + Only to help the poor to beg again._ + +I.i.129 (280,2) Therefore he will be, Timon] I rather think an +emendation necessary, and read, + + _Therefore_ well be him, _Timon. + His honesty rewards him in itself._ + +That is, _If he in honest_, bene fit illi, _I wish him the proper +happiness of an honest man, but his honesty gives him no claim to my +daughter_. + +The first transcriber probably wrote _will be him_, which the next, not +understanding, changed to, _he will be_. (1773) + +I.i.149 (281,3) + + never may + That state, or fortune, fall into my keeping, + Which is not ow'd to you!] + +The meaning is, let me never henceforth consider any thing that I +possess, but as _owed_ or _due_ to you; held for your service, and at +your disposal. + +I.i.159 (281,4) pencil'd figures are/Even such as they give out] +Pictures have no hypocrisy; they are what they profess to be. + +I.i.165 (282,5) unclew me quite] To _unclew_, is to _unwind_ a ball of +thread. To _unclew_ a man, is to draw out the whole mass of his +fortunes. + +I.i.171 (282,5) Are prized by their masters] Are rated according to the, +esteem in which their possessor is held. + +I.i.178 (282,8) + + _Tim._ Good-morrow to thee, gentle Apemantua! + _Apam._ 'Till I be gentle, stay for thy good-morrow. + When thou art Timon's dog, and these knaves honest,--] + +[Warburton conjectured a line lost and added one of his own making] I +think my punctuation may clear the passage without any greater effort. + +I.i.180 (283,9) Then thou art Timon's dog] When thou hast gotten a +better character, and instead of being Timon, as thou art, shalt be +changed to Timon's dog, and become more worth; of kindness and +salutation. (1773) + +I.i.241 (284,9) That I had no angry wit to be a lord] [W: so hungry a +wit] The meaning may be, I should hate myself for _patiently enduring to +be a lord_. This is ill enough expressed. Perhaps some happy change may +set it right. I have tried, and can do nothing, yet I cannot heartily +concur with Dr. Warburton. + +I.i.259 (286,2) The strain of man's bred out/Into baboon and monkey] Man +is exhausted and degenerated; his _strain_ or lineage is worn down into +monkey. + +I.ii.12 (288,5) + + If our betters play at that game, we must not dare + To imitate them. Faults that are rich, are fair] + +[Warburton gave the second line to Apemantus] I cannot see that these +lines are more proper in any other mouth than Timon's, to whose +character of generosity and condescension they are very suitable. To +suppose that by _our betters_ are meant the Gods, is very harsh, because +to imitate the Gods has been hitherto reckoned the highest pitch of +human virtue. The whole is a trite and obvious thought, uttered by Timon +with a kind of affected modesty. If I would make any alteration, it +should be only to reform the numbers thus: + + _Our betters play that game; we must not dare + T' imitate then; faults that are rich are fair._ + +I.ii.34 (289,6) thou art an Athenian,/Therefore welcome: I myself would +have no power] If this be the true reading, the sense is, _all Athenians +are welcome to share my fortune_; I would myself have no _exclusive +right or power in this house_. Perhaps we might read, _I myself would +have no_ poor. I would have every Athenian consider himself as joint +possessor of my fortune. + +I.ii.38 (289,7) I scorn thy meat, 'twould choke me, for I should/ Ne'er +flatter thee] [W: 'fore/I should e'er] Of this emendation there is +little need. The meaning is, I could not swallow thy meat, for I could +not pay for it with flattery; and what was given me with an ill will +would stick in my throat. + +I.ii.41 (290,8) so many dip their meat/In one man's blood] The allusion +is to a pack of hounds trained to pursuit by being gratified with the +blood of the animal which they kill, and the wonder is that the animal +on which they are feeding _cheers them_ to the chase. + +I.ii.52 (290,9) wind-pipe's dangerous notes] The notes of the windpipe +seem to be the only indications which shew where the windpipe is. (see +1765, VI, 184, 4) + +I.ii.54 (290,1) My lord, in heart] That is, _my lord's health with +sincerity_. An emendation hat been proposed thus: + + _My_ love _in heart_;-- + +but it is not necessary. + +I.ii.89 (292,2) we should think ourselves for ever perfect] That is, +arrived at the perfection of happiness. + +I.ii.94 (292,4) did not you chiefly belong to my heart?] I think it +should be inverted thus: _did I not chiefly belong to_ your hearts. +Lacius wishes that Timon would give him and the rest an opportunity _of +expressing some part of their zeals_. Timon answers that, _doubtless the +Gods have provided that I should have help from you; how else are you my +friends_? why are you stiled my friends, if--what? _if I do not love +you_. Such is the present reading; but the consequence is not very +clear; the proper close must be, _if you do not love me_, and to this my +alteration restores it. But, perhaps, the old reading may stand. [The +_Revisal_'s note on this line is quoted.] The meaning is probably this. +Why are you distinguished from thousands by that title of endearment, +was there not a particular connection and intercourse of tenderness +between you and me. (see 1765, VI, 185, 8) + +I.ii.97 (293,5) I confirm you] I fix your characters firmly in my own +mind. + +I.ii.99 (293,7) O joy, e'en made away, ere it can be born!] For this +Hanmer writes, _O joy, e'en made a joy ere't can be born_; and is +followed by Dr. Warburton. I am always inclinable to think well of that +which is approved by so much learning and sagacity, yet cannot receive +this alteration. Tears being the effect both of joy and grief, supplied +our author with an opportunity of conceit, which he seldom fails to +indulge. Timon, weeping with a kind of tender pleasure, cries out, _O +joy, e'en made away_, destroyed, turned to tears, before _it can be +born_, before it can be fully possessed. + +I.ii.110 (293,8) Mine eyes cannot hold water, methinks: to forget their +faults, I drink to you] In the original edition the words stand thus: +_mine eyes cannot hold out water, methinks. To forget their faults, I +drink to you_. Perhaps the true reading is this, _Mine eyes cannot hold +out_; they _water. Methinks, to forget their faults, I will drink to +you_. Or it may be explained without any change. _Mine eyes cannot hold +out water_, that is, cannot keep water from breaking in upon them, (see +1765, VI, 186, 2) + +I.ii.113 (294,9) _Apem_. Thou weep'st to make them drink] Hanmer reads, + + --_to make then drink_ thee, + +and is again followed by Dr. Warburton, I think without sufficient +reason. The covert sense of Apemantus is, _what thou losest, they get_. + +I.ii.118 (294,1) like a babe] That is a _weeping babe_. + +I.ii.138 (295,3) + + They dance! They are mad women. + Like madness is the glory of this life, + As this pomp shews to a little oil and root] + +[Warburton conjectured some lines lost after the second verse] When I +read this passage, I was at first of the same opinion with this learned +man; but, upon longer consideration, I grew less confident, because I +think the present reading susceptible of explanation, with no more +violence to language than is frequently found in our author. _The glory +of this life is very near to madness_, as may be made appear from _this +pomp_, exhibited in a place where a philosopher is feeding on _oil and +roots_. When we see by example how few are the necessaries of life, we +learn what madness there is in so much superfluity. + +I.ii.146 (296,5) who dies, that bears/Not one spurn to their graves, of +their friends gift?] That is, given them by their friends.(1773) + +I.ii.155 (297,6) mine own device] The mask appears to have been design'd +by Timon to surprise his guests. + +I.ii.157 (297,7) _L Lady_. My lord, you take us even at the best] This +answer seems rather to belong to one of the ladies. It was probably only +mark'd _L_ in the copy. + +I.ii.169 (298,1) 'Tis pity, bounty has not eyes behind] To see the +miseries that are following her. + +I.ii.170 (298,2) That man might ne'er be wretched for his mind] For +nobleness of soul. + +I.ii.176 (298,3) to/Advance this jewel] To prefer it; to raise it to +honour by wearing it. + +I.ii.230 (300,6) + + all the lands thou hast + Lie in a pitch'd field. + _Alc._ I' defiled land, my lord] + +This is the old reading, which apparently depends on a very low quibble. +Alcibiades is told, that _his estate lies in a_ pitch'd _field_. Now +_pitch_, as Falstaff says, _doth defile_. Alcibiades therefore replies, +that his estate lies _in defiled land_. This, as it happened, was not +understood, and all the editors published, + + _I defy land_,-- + +I.ii.237 (301,8) Serving of becks] [W: serring] The commentator +conceives _beck_ to mean the _mouth_ or the _head_, after the French, +_bec_, whereas it means a salutation made with the head. So Milton, + + "Nods and _becks_, and wreathed smiles." + +To _serve a beck_, is to offer a salutation. + +I.ii.238 (301,9) I doubt, whether their legs] He plays upon the word +_leg_, as it signifies a _limb_ and a _bow_ or _act of obeisance_. + +I.ii.247 (302,1) I fear me, thou/Wilt give away thyself in paper +shortly] [W: in proper] Hanmer reads very plausibly, + + --_thou + Wilt give away thyself_ in perpetuum. + +I.ii.235 (302,2) I'll lock/Thy heaven from thee] The pleasure of being +flattered. + +II.i.10 (304,5) No porter at his gate;/But rather one that smiles, and +still invites] I imagine that a line is lost here, in which the +behaviour of a surly porter was described. + +II.i.12 (304,6) no reason/Can found his state in safety] The supposed +meaning of this [Can sound his state] must be, _No reason_, by +_sounding_, fathoming, or trying, _his state_, can find it _safe_. But +as the words stand, they imply, that _no reason can_ safely _sound his +state_. I read thus, + + --_no reason + Can_ found _his state in safety_.-- + +_Reason_ cannot find his fortune to have any _safe_ or solid +_foundation_. + +The types of the first printer of this play were so worn and defaced, +that _f_ and _s_ are not always to be distinguished. + +II.ii.5 (305,9) Never mind/Was to be so unwise, to be so kind] Of this +mode of expression conversation affords many examples: "I was always to +be blamed, whatever happened." "I am in the lottery, but I was always to +draw blanks." (1773) + +II.ii.9 (306,1) Good even, Varro] It is observable, that this _good +evening_ is before dinner; for Timon tells Alcibiades, that they will +_go forth again as soon as dinner's done_, which may prove that by +_dinner_ our author meant not the _coena_ of ancient times, but the +mid-day's repast. I do not suppose the passage corrupt: such +inadvertencies neither author nor editor can escape. + +There is another remark to be made. Varro and Isidore sink a few lines +afterwards into the servants of Varro and Isidore. Whether servants, in +our author's time, took the names of their masters, I know not. Perhaps +it is a slip of negligence. + +II.ii.47 (308,4) _Enter Apemantus and a Fool_] I suspect some scene to +be lost, in which the entrance of the fool, and the page that follows +him, was prepared by some introductory dialogue, in which the audience +was informed that they were the fool and page of Phrynia, Timandra, or +some other courtesan, upon the knowledge of which depends the greater +part of the ensuing jocularity. + +II.ii.60-66 (309,4) Poor rogues] This is said so abruptly, that I am +inclined to think it misplaced, and would regulate the passage thus: + + Caph. _Where's the fool now?_ + Apem. _He last ask'd the question._ + All. _What are we, Apemantus?_ + Apem. _Asses._ + All. _Why?_ + Apem. _That you ask me what you are, and do not know yourselves. Poor rogues', and usurers' men! bawds between + gold and want! Speak_, &c. + +Thus every word will have its proper place. It is likely that the +passage transposed was forgot in the copy, and inserted in the margin, +perhaps a little beside the proper place, which the transcriber wanting +either skill or care to observe, wrote it where it now stands. + +II.ii.71 (309,5) She's e'en setting on water to scald] The old name for +the disease got at Corinth was the _brenning_, and a sense of _scalding_ +is one of its first symptoms. + +II.ii.117 (311,7) with two stones more than's artificial one] Meaning +the celebrated philosopher's stone, which was in those times much talked +of. Sir Thomas Smith was one of those who lost considerable sums in +seeking of it. + +II.ii.152 (312,9) Though you hear now, yet now's too late a time] +[Warburton objected to this, an emendation by Hanmer] I think Hanmer +right, and have received his emendation. + +Il.ii.155 (313,1) and at length/How goes our reckoning?] [W: Hold good +our] It is common enough, and the commentator knows it is common to +propose interrogatively, that of which neither the speaker nor the +hearer has any doubt. The present reading may therefore stand. + +II.ii.171 (314,2) a wasteful cock] [i.e. a _cockloft_, a garret. And a +_wasteful cock_, signifies a garret lying in waste, neglected, put to no +use. HANMER.] Hanmer's explanation is received by Dr. Warburton, yet I +think them both apparently mistaken. A _wasteful cock_ is a _cock_ or +pipe with a turning stopple _running_ to _waste_. In this sense, both +the terms have their usual meaning; but I know not that _cock_ is ever +used for _cockloft_, or _wasteful_ for _lying in waste_, or that lying +in waste is at all a phrase. + +Il.ii.187 (314,4) And try the arguments] [_Arguments_ for natures. +_WARB_.] How _arguments_ should stand for natures I do not see. But the +licentiousness of our author forces us often upon far fetched +expositions. _Arguments_ may mean _contents_, as the _arguments_ of a +book; or for _evidences_ and _proofs_. + +II.ii.209 (315,5) I knew it the most general way] _General_ is not +speedy, but _compendious_, the way to try many at a time. + +II.ii.219 (316,6) And so, intending other serious matters] _Intending_ +is _regarding, turning their notice_ to other things. + +II.ii.220 (316,7) these hard fractions] [Warburton saw an allusion to +fractions in mathematics] This is, I think, no conceit in the head of +Flavius, who, by _fractions_, means _broken_ hints, _interrupted_ +sentences, _abrupt_ remarks. + +II.ii.221 (316,8) half-caps] A _half cap_ is a _cap_ slightly moved, not +put off. + +II.ii.241 (317,3) I would, I could not] The original edition has, _I +would, I could not think it, that thought_, &c. It has been changed +['Would], to mend the numbers, without authority. + +II.ii.242 (317,4) + + That thought is bounty's foe; + Being free itself, it thinks all other so] + +_Free_, is _liberal_, not parsimonious. + +III.i.57 (319,6) Has friendship such a faint and milky heart, It turns +in less than two nights?] Alluding to the _turning_ or acescence of +milk. + +III.ii.3 (320,3) We know him for no less] That is, _we know him_ by +report to be _no less_ than you represent him, though we are strangers +to his person. + +III.ii.24 (321,5) yet had he mistook him, and sent him to me] [W: +mislook'd] I rather read, _yet had he_ not _mistook him, and sent to +me_. + +III.ii.45 (322,7) If his occasion were not virtuous] [_Virtuous_, for +strong, forcible, pressing. _WARBURTON_.] The meaning may more naturally +be;--If he did not want it for a good use. (1773) + +III.ii.51 (322,9) that I should purchase the day before for a little +part, and undo a great deal of honour?] [T: a little dirt] This +emendation is received, like all others, by sir T. Hanmer, but neglected +by Dr. Warburton. I think Theobald right in suspecting a corruption; nor +is his emendation injudicious, though perhaps we may better read, +_purchase the day before for a little park_. + +III.ii.71 (323,1) And just of the same piece is every flatterer's soul] +This is Dr. Warburton's emendation. The other editions read, + + _Why this is the world's soul; + Of the same piece is every flatterer's_ sport. + +Mr. Upton has not unluckily transposed the two final words, thus, + + _Why, this is the world's_ sport: + _Of the same piece is ev'ry flatterer's_ soul. + +The passage is not so obscure as to provoke so much enquiry. _This_, +says he, _is the soul_ or spirit _of the world: every flatterer_ plays +the same game, makes _sport_ with the confidence of his friend. (see +1765, VI, 211, 4) + +III.ii.81 (324,2) He does deny him, in respect of his, What charitable +men afford to beggars] That is, _in respect of his_ fortune, what Lucius +denies to Timon is in proportion to what Lucius possesses, less than the +ususal alms given by good men to beggars. + +III.ii.90 (324,3) I would have put my wealth into donation, And the best +half should ha' return'd to him] Hanmer reads, + + _I would have put my wealth into_ partition, + _And the best half should have_ attorn'd _to him_. + +Dr. Warbarton receives _attorn'd_. The only difficulty is in the word +_return'd_, which, since he had received nothing from him, cannot be +used but in a very low and licentious meaning, (see 1765, VI, 212, 6) + +III.iii.5 (325,4) They have all been touch'd] That is, _tried_, alluding +to the _touchstone_. + +III.iii.11 (325,5) His friends, like physicians,/Thrive, give him over?] +The original reading is, + + --his friends, (_like physicians_) + Thrive, give him over? + +which Theobald has misrepresented. Hanmer reads, _try'd_, plausibly +enough. Instead of _three_ proposed by Mr. Pope, I should read _thrice_. +But perhaps the old reading is the true. + +III.iii.24 (326,6) I had such a courage] Such an ardour, such an eager +desire. + +III.iii.28 (326,8) The devil knew not what he did] I cannot but think +that, the negative _not_ has intruded into this passage, and the reader +will think so too, when he reads Dr. Warburton's explanation of the next +words. + +III.iii.28 (326,9) The devil knew not what he did, when he made men +politick; he cross'd himself by't: and I cannot think, but in the end +the villainies of man will set him clear] [_Set him clear_ does not mean +acquit him before heaven; for then _the devil_ must be supposed _to know +what_ he did: but it signifies puzzle him, outdo him at his own weapons. +WARBURTON.] How the devil, or any other being, should be _set clear_ by +being _puzzled_ and _outdone_, the commentator has not explained. When +in a crowd we would have an opening made, we say, _Stand clear_, that +is, _out of the way of danger_. With some affinity to this use, though +not without great harshness, to _set clear_, may be to _set aside_. But +I believe the original corruption is the insertion of the negative, +which was obtruded by some transcriber, who supposed _crossed_ to mean +_thwarted_, when it meant, _exempted from evil_. The use of _crossing_, +by way of protection or purification, was probably not worn out in +Shakespeare's time. The sense of _set clear_ is now easy; he has no +longer the guilt of tempting man. To cross himself may mean, in a very +familiar sense, _to clear his score, to get out of debt, to quit his +reckoning_. He knew not _what he did_, may mean, he knew not how much +good he was doing himself. There is then no need of emendation. (1773) + +III.iii.42 (327,2) keep his house] i.e. keep within doors for fear of +duns. + +III.iv (328,3) _Enter Varro, Titus, Hortense, Lucius_] Lucius is here +again for the servant of Lucius. + +III.iv.12 (328,4) a prodigal's course/Is like the sun's] That is, like +him in blaze and splendour. + + _Soles occidere et redire possunt._ Catul. + +III.iv.25 (329,5) I am weary of this charge] That is, of this +_commission_, of this _employment_. + +III.iv.32 (329,6) Else, surely, his had equall'd] Should it not be, +_else, surely, mine had equall'd_. + +III.iv.67 (330,7) _Enter Servilius_] It may be observed that Shakespeare +has unskilfully filled his Greek story with Roman names. + +III.v.14 (333,6) + + He is a man, setting his fate aside, + Of comely virtues: + Nor did he soil the fact with cowardise; + (An honour in him which buys out his fault)] + +I have printed these lines after the original copy, except that, for _an +honour_, it is there, _and honour_. All the latter editions deviate +unwarrantably from the original, and give the lines thus: + + _He is a man, setting his fault aside, + Of virtuous honour, which buys out his fault; + Nor did he soil_, &c. + +III.v.22 (333,3) + + He did behave, his anger ere 'twas spent, + As if he had but prov'd an argument] + +The original copy reads not _behave_ but _behoove_. I do not well +understand the passage in either reading. Shall we try a daring +conjecture? + + --_with such sober and unnoted passion + He did behold his adversary shent, + As if he had but prov'd an argument_. + +He looked with such calmness on his slain adversary. I do not suppose +that this is right, but put it down for want of better. (1773) + +III.v.24 (334,4) You undergo too strict a paradox] You undertake a +paradox too _hard_. + +III.v.32 (334,5) and make his wrongs His outsides: to wear them like an +argument, carelessly. We outside wear; hang like his] The present +reading is better. + +III.v.46 (335,6) What make we/Abroad?] _What do we_, or _what have we to +do in the field_. + +III.v.46 (335,7) + + what make we + Abroad? why then, women are more valiant, + That stay at home, if bearing carry it; + The ass, more than the lion; and the fellow, + Loaden with irons, wiser than the judge, + If wisdom be in suffering] + +Here is another arbitrary regulation, the original reads thus, + + _what make we + Abroad, why then women are more valiant + That stay at home, if bearing carry it: + And the ass more captain than the lion, + The fellow, loaden with irons, wiser than the judge, + If wisdom_, &c. + +I think it may be better adjusted thus: + + _what make we + Abroad, why then the women are more valiant + That stay at home; + If bearing carry it, than is the ass + More captain than the lion, and the_ felon + _Loaden with irons, wiser than the judge, + If wisdom_, &c. + +III.v.54 (336,8) sin's extreamest gust] _Gust_ is here in its common +sense; the utmost degree of _appetite_ for sin. + +III.v.55 (336,9) by mercy, 'tis most just] [By _mercy_ is meant +_equity_. WARBURTON] _Mercy_ is not put for equity. If such explanation +be allowed, what can be difficult? The meaning is, _I call_ mercy +_herself_ to witness, that defensive violence is just. + +III.v.68 (338,2) a sworn rioter] A _sworn rioter_ is a man who practises +riot, as if he had by an oath made it his duty. + +III.v.80 (337,3) your reverend ages love/Security] He charges them +obliquely with being usurers. + +III.v.96 (337,5) Do you dare our anger?/'Tis in few words, but spacious +in effect] This reading may pass, but perhaps the author wrote, + + _our anger_? + _'Tis few in words, but spacious in effect._ + +III.v.114 (338,7) + + I'll cheer up + My discontented troops, and play for hearts. + 'Tis honour with most hands to be at odds] + +[Warburton had substituted "hands" for "lands"] I think _hands_ is very +properly substituted for _lands_. In the foregoing line, for, _lay for +hearts_, I would read, _play_ for _hearts_. + +III.vi.4 (339,7) Upon that were my thoughts tiring] A hawk, I think, is +said to _tire_, when she amuses herself with pecking a pheasant's wing, +or any thing that puts her in mind of prey. To _tire_ upon a thing, is +therefore, to be _idly employed upon it_. + +III.vi.100 (342,9) Is your perfection] Your _perfection_, is _the +highest of your excellence_. + +III.vi.101 (342,1) and spangled you with flatteries] [W: with your] The +present reading is right. + +III.vi.106 (342,2) time-flies] Flies of a season. + +III.vi. 107 (342,5) minute-jacks!] Hanmer thinks it means +_Jack-a-lantern_, which shines and disappears in an instant. What it was +I know not; but it was something of quick motion, mentioned in Richard +III. + +III.vi.108 (342,4) the infinite malady] Every kind of disease incident +to man and beast. + +IV.i.19 (344,6) + + Degrees, observances, customs and laws, + Decline to your confounding contraries, + And yet confusion live!] + +Hanmer reads, _let_ confusion; but the meaning may be, _though by such +confusion all things seem to hasten to dissolution_, yet _let not +dissolution come, but the miseries of_ confusion _continue._ + +IV.ii (345,1) Enter Flavius] Nothing contributes more to the exaltation +of Timon's character than the zeal and fidelity of his servants. Nothing +but real virtue can be honoured by domesticks; nothing but impartial +kindness can gain affection from dependants. + +IV.ii.10 (345,2) So his familiars from his buried fortunes/Slink all +away] The old copies have _to_ instead of _from_. The correction is +Hanmer's; but the old reading might stand (see 1765, VI, 231, 2) + +IV.ii.38 (346,4) strange unusual blood] Of this passage, I suppose, +every reader would wish for a correction; but the word, harsh as it is, +stands fortified by the rhyme, to which, perhaps, it owes its +introduction. I know not what to propose. Perhaps, + + --_strange unusual_ mood, + +may, by some, be thought better, and by others worse. + +IV.iii.1 (347,5) O blessed, breeding sun] [W: blessing breeding] I do +not see that this emendation much strengthens the sense. + +IV.iii.2 (347,6) thy sister's orb] That is, the moon's, this _sublunary_ +world. + +IV.iii.6 (348,7) Not nature,/To whom all sores lay siege] I have +preserved this note rather for the sake of the commentator [Warburton] +than of the author. How _nature, to whom all sores lay siege_, can so +emphatically express _nature in its greatest perfection_, I shall not +endeavour to explain. The meaning I take to be this: _Brother, when his +fortune is inlarged, will scorn brother_; for this is the general +depravity of human nature, which, _besieged as it is by misery_, +admonished as it is of want and imperfection, when _elevated by fortune, +will despise_ beings of _nature like its own_. + +IV.iii.12 (349,9) It is the pastor lards the brother's sides,/The want +that makes him leave] [W: weather's sides] This passage is very obscure, +nor do I discover any clear sense, even though we should admit the +emendation. Let us inspect the text as I have given it from the original +edition, + + _It is the_ pastour _lards the_ brother's _sides, + The want that makes him_ leave. + +Dr. Warburton found the passage already changed thus, + + _It is the_ pasture _lards the_ beggar's _sides, + The want that makes him_ lean. + +And upon this reading of no authority, raised another equally uncertain. + +Alterations are never to be made without necessity. Let us see what +sense the genuine reading will afford. Poverty, says the poet, _bears +contempt hereditary_, and _wealth native honour_. To illustrate this +position, having already mentioned the case of a poor and rich brother, +he remarks, that this preference is given to wealth by those whom it +least becomes; _it is the_ pastour _that greases or_ flatters _the rich_ +brother, and will grease him on till _want makes him leave_. The poet +then goes on to ask, _Who dares to say this man_, this pastour, _is a +flatterer_; the crime is universal; through all the world _the learned +pate_, with allusion to the pastour, _ducks to the golden fool_. If it +be objected, as it may justly be, that the mention of pastour is +unsuitable, we must remember the mention of _grace_ and _cherubims_ in +this play, and many such anachronisms in many others. I would therefore +read thus: + + _It is the pastour lards the brother's sides_, + 'Tis _want that makes him leave_. + +The obscurity is still great. Perhaps a line is lost. I have at least +given the original reading. + +IV.iii.27 (350,2) no idle votarist] No insincere or inconstant +supplicant. _Gold_ will not serve me instead of _roots_. + +IV.iii.38 (351,5) That makes the wappen'd widow wed again] Of _wappened_ +I have found no example, nor know any meaning. To _awhape_ is used by +Spenser in his _Hubberd's Tale_, but I think not in either of the senses +mentioned. I would read _wained_, for _decayed by time_. So our author +in _Richard the Third_, _A beauty_-waining _and distressed widow_. + +IV.iii.41 (352,6) To the April day again] That is, _to the wedding day_, +called by the poet, satirically, _April day_, or _fool's day_. + +IV.iii.44 (352,7) Do thy right nature] Lie in the earth where nature +laid thee. + +IV.iii.44 (352,8) Thou'rt quick] Thou hast life and motion in thee. + +IV.iii.64 (353,9) I will not kiss thee] This alludes to an opinion in +former times, generally prevalent, that the venereal infection +transmitted to another, left the infecter free. I will not, says Timon, +take the rot from thy lips by kissing thee. + +IV.iii.72 (353,1) + + _Tim._ Promise me friendship, but perform none. If + Thou wilt not promise, the Gods plague thee, for + Thou art a man; if thou dost perform, confound thee, + For thou art a man!] + +That is, however thou may'st act, since thou art man, hated man, I wish +thee evil. + +IV.iii.82 (354,2) + + Be a whore still! They love thee not that use thee; + Give them diseases, leaving with thee their lust: + Make use of thy salt hours] + +There is here a slight transposition. I would read, + + --_They love thee not that use thee, + Leaving with thee their lust; give them diseases; + Make use of thy salt hours; season the slaves + For tubs and baths_;-- + +IV.iii.115 (356,6) milk-paps,/That through the window-bars bore at mens' +eyes] [W: window-lawn] The reading is more probably, + + --_window-bar_,-- + +The virgin that shews her bosom through the lattice of her chamber. + +IV.iii.119 (356,8) exhaust their mercy] For _exhaust_, sir T. Hanmer, +and after him Dr. Warburton, read _extort_; but _exhaust_ here signifies +literally to _draw forth_. + +IV.iii.120 (356,7) + + Think it a bastard, whom the oracle + Hath doubtfully prunounc'd thy throat shall cut] + +An allusion to the tale of OEdipus. + +IV.iii.134 (357,8) And to make whores a bawd] [W: make whole] The old +edition reads, + + _And to make whores a bawd._ + +That is, _enough to make a whore leave whoring, and a bawd leave making +whores_. + +IV.iii.139 (357,9) I'll trust to your conditions] You need not swear to +continue whores, I will trust to your inclinations. + +IV.iii.140 (358,1) Yet may your pains, six months,/Be quite contrary] +The explanation [Warburton's] is ingenious, but I think it very remote, +and would willingly bring the author and his readers to meet on easier +terms. We may read, + + --_Yet may your pains six months + Be quite_ contraried.-- + +Timon is wishing ill to mankind, but is afraid lest the whores should +imagine that he wishes well to them; to obviate which he lets them know, +that he imprecates upon them influence enough to plague others, and +disappointments enough to plague themselves. He wishes that they may do +all possible mischief, and yet take _pains six months_ of the year in +vain. + +In this sense there is a connection of this line with the next. Finding +_your pains contraried_, try new expedients, _thatch your thin roofs_, +and _paint_. + +To _contrary_ is on old verb. Latymer relates, that when he went to +court, he was advised not to _contrary_ the king. + +IV.iii.153 (359,3) mens' spurring] Hanmer reads _sparring_, properly +enough, if there be any ancient example of the word. + +IV.iii.158 (359,5) + + take the bridge quite away + Of him, that his particular to foresee + Smells from the general weal] + +[W: to forefend] The metaphor is apparently incongruous, but the sense +is good. To _foresee his particular_, is _to provide for his private +advantage_, for which _he leaves the right scent of publick good_. In +hunting, when hares have cross'd one another, it is common for some of +the hounds _to smell from the general weal, and foresee their own +particular_. Shakespeare, who seems to have been a skilful sportsman, +and has alluded often to falconry, perhaps, alludes here to hunting. + +To the commentator's emendation it may be objected, that he used +_forefend_ in the wrong meaning. To _forefend_, is, I think, never to +_provide for_, but to _provide against_. The verbs compounded with _for_ +or _fore_ have commonly either an evil or negative sense. + +IV.iii.182 (361,8) eyeless venom'd worm] The serpent, which we, from the +smallness of his eyes, call the _blind worm_, and the Latins, +_caecilia_. + +IV.iii.183 (361,9) below crisp heaven] [W: cript] Mr. Upton declares for +_crisp_, curled, bent, hollow. + +IV.iii.188 (361,1) Let it no more bring out ingrateful man!] [W: out to +ungrateful] It is plain that _bring out_ is _bring forth_, with which +the following lines correspond so plainly, that the commentator might be +suspected of writing his note without reading the whole passage. + +IV.iii.193 (362,2) Dry up thy marrows, vines, and plough torn leas] I +cannot concur to censure Theobald [as Warburton did] as a _critic_ very +_unhappy_. He was weak, but he was cautious: finding but little power in +his mind, he rarely ventured far under its conduct. This timidity +hindered him from daring conjectures, and sometimes hindered him +happily. + +This passage, among many others, may pass without change. The genuine +reading is not _marrows, veins_, but _marrows_, vines: the sense is +this; _O nature! cease_ to _produce men, ensear thy womb_; but if thou +wilt continue to produce them, at least cease to pamper them; _dry up +thy marrows_, on which they fatten with _unctuous morsels_, thy _vines_, +which give them _liquorish draughts_, and thy _plow-torn leas_. Here are +effects corresponding with causes, _liquorish draughts_ with _vines_, +and _unctuous morsels_ with _marrows_, and the old reading literally +preserved. + +IV.iii.209 (363,3) the cunning of a carper] _Cunning_ here seems to +signify _counterfeit appearance_. + +IV.ii.223 (364,4) moist trees] Hanmer reads very elegantly, + + --moss'd _trees_. + +IV.iii.37 (364,5) + + _Tim._ Always a villain's office, or a fool's. + Dost please thyself in't? + + _Apem._ Ay. + + _Tim._ What! a knave too?] + +Such was Dr. Warburton's first conjecture ["and know't too"], but +afterwards he adopted Sir T. Hanmer's conjecture, + + _What a knave_ thou! + +but there is no need of alteration. Timon had just called Apemantus +_fool_, in consequence of what he had known of him by former +acquaintance; but when Apemantus tells him, that he comes _to vex him_, +Timon determines that to _vex_ is either _the office of a villain or a +fool_; that _to vex by design_ is _villainy, to vex without design_ is +_folly_. He then properly asks Apemantus whether he takes delight in +_vexing_, and when he answers, _yes_, Timon replies, _What! and knave +too?_ I before only knew thee to be a _fool_, but I now find thee +likewise a _knave_. This seems to be so clear as not to stand in need of +a comment. + +IV.iii.242 (365,6) Willing misery/Out-lives incertain pomp; is crown'd +before] Arrives sooner at _high wish_; that is, at the _completion of +its wishes_. + +IV.iii.247 (365,7) Worse than the worst, content] Best states +contentless have a wretched being, a being worse than that of the worst +states that are content. This one would think too plain to have been +mistaken. (1773) + +IV.iii.249 (365,8) by his breath] It means, I believe, by his _counsel_, +by his _direction_. + +IV. iii. 252 (366,l) Hadst thou, like us] There is in this speech a +sullen haughtiness, and malignant dignity, suitable at once to the lord +and the man-hater. The impatience with which he bears to have his luxury +reproached by one that never had luxury within his reach, is natural and +graceful. + +There is in a letter, written by the earl of Essex, just before his +execution, to another nobleman, a passage somewhat resembling this, with +which, I believe every reader will be pleased, though it is so serious +and solemn that it can scarcely be inserted without irreverence. + +"God grant your lordship may quickly feel the comfort I now enjoy in my +unfettered conversion, but that you may never feel the torments I have +suffered for my long delaying it. _I had none but deceivers to call upon +me, to whom I said, if my ambition could have entered into their narrow +breasts, they would not have been so precise. But your lordship hath one +to call upon you, that knoweth what it is you now enjoy; and what the +greatest fruit and end is of all contentment that this world can +afford._ Think, therefore, dear earl, that I have staked and buoyed all +the ways of pleasure unto you, and left them as sea-marks for you to +keep the channel of religious virtue. For shut your eyes never so long, +they must be open at the last, and then you must say with me, _there is +no peace to the ungodly_." + +IV.iii.252 (366,2) from our first swath] From infancy. _Swath_ is the +dress of a new-born child. + +IV.iii.258 (366,3) precepts of respect] Of obedience to laws. + +IV.iii.259 (366,4) But myself] The connection here requires some +attention. _But_ is here used to denote opposition; but what immediately +precedes is not opposed to that which follows. The adversative particle +refers to the two first lines. + + _Thou art a slave, whom fortune's tender arm + With favour never claspt; but bred a dog. + --But myself, + Who had the world as my confectionary,_ &c. + +The intermediate lines are to be considered as a parenthesis of passion. + +IV.iii.271 (367,5) If thou wilt curse, thy father, that poor rag,/ Must +be thy subject] If we read _poor rogue_, it will correspond rather +better to what follows. + +IV.iii.276 (367,6) Thou hadst been knave and flatterer] Dryden has +quoted two verses of Virgil to shew how well he could have written +satires. Shakespeare has here given a specimen of the same power by a +line bitter beyond all bitterness, in which Timon tells Apemantus, that +he had not virtue enough for the vices which he condemns. + +Dr. Warburton explains _worst_ by _lowest_, which somewhat weakens the +sense, and yet leaves it sufficiently vigorous. + +I have heard Mr. Bourke commend the subtilty of discrimination with +which Shakespeare distinguishes the present character of Timon from that +of Apemantus, whom to vulgar eyes he would now resemble. (see 1763, VI, +249, 6) (rev. 1778, VIII, 424, 4) + +IV.iii.308 (369,8) Ay, though it look like thee] Timon here supposes +that an objection against hatred, which through the whole tenor of the +conversation appears an argument for it. One would have expected him to +have answered, + + Yes, _for it looks like thee_. + +The old edition, which always gives the pronoun instead of the +affirmative particle, has it, + + _I, though it look like thee_. + +Perhaps we should read, + + _I_ thought _it_ look'd _like thee_. + +IV,iii.363 (371,2) Thou art the cap] i.e. the property, the bubble. +WARBURTON.] I rather think, the _top_, the _principal_. + +The remaining dialogue has more malignity than wit. + +IV.iii.383 (372,4) 'Twixt natural, son and sire!'] + + [Greek: dia touton ouk adelphoi + dia touton ou toxaeas. ANAC.] + +IV.iii.398 (373,6) More things like men?] This line, in the old edition, +is given to Aremantus, but it apparently belongs to Timon. Hanmer has +transposed the foregoing dialogue according to his own mind, not +unskilfully, but with unwarrantable licence. + +IV.iii.419 (373,7) you want much of meat] [T: of meet] Such is Mr. +Theobald's emendation, in which he is followed by Dr. Warburton. Sir T. +Hanmer reads, + + --_you want much of_ men. + +They have been all busy without necessity. Observe the series of the +conversation. The thieves tell him, that they are _men that much do +want_. Here is an ambiguity between _much want_ and _want_ of _much_. +Timon takes it on the wrong side, and tells them that their _greatest +want is_, that, like other men, _they want much of meat_; then telling +them where meat may be had, he asks, _Want? why want?_ (see 1765, VI, +254, 5) + +IV.iii.420 (374,8) the earth hath roots;/Within this mile break forth an +hundred springs] + + _Vile plus, et duris haerentia mora rubetis + Pugnantis stomachi composuere famen: + Flumine vicino stultus sitit._ + +I do not suppose these to be imitations, but only to be similar thoughts +on similar occasions. + +IV.iii.442 (375,2) The sea's a thief, whose liquid surge resolves/The +moon into salt tears] [W: The mounds] I am not willing to receive +_mounds_, which would not be understood but by him that suggested it. +The _moon_ is supposed to be humid, and perhaps a source of humidity, +but cannot be _resolved_ by the _surges_ of the sea. Yet I think _moon_ +is the true reading. Here is a circulation of thievary described: The +sun, moon, and sea all rob, and are robbed. + +IV.iii.456 (376,3) 'Tis in the malice of mankind, that he thus advises +us; not to have us thrive in our mystery] [Hanmer: his malice to] +Hanmer's emendation, though not necessary, is very probable, and very +unjustly charged with nonsense [by Warburton]. The reason of his advice, +says the thief, is _malice to mankind_, not any kindness to us, or +desire _to have us thrive in our mystery_. + +IV.iii.468 (378,5) What an alteration of honour has/Desperate want +made!] [W: of humour] The original copy has, + + _What an alteration of honour has desperate want made!_ + +The present reading is certainly better, but it has no authority. To +change _honour_ to _humour_ is not necessary. _An alteration of honour_, +is an _alteration_ of an _honourable state_ to a state of disgrace. + +IV.iii.474 (378,8) + + Grant, I may ever love, and rather woe + Those that would mischief me, than those that do!] + +[W: rather too/...that woo] In defiance of this criticism, I have +ventured to replace the former reading, as more suitable to the general +spirit of these scenes, and as free from the absurdities charged upon +it. It is plain, that in this whole speech _friends_ and _enemies_ are +taken only for those who _profess friendship_ and _profess enmity_; for +the _friend_ is supposed not to be more kind, but more dangerous than +the _enemy_. In the amendation, _those that would mischief_ are placed +in opposition to _those that woo_, but in the speaker's intention _those +that woo_ are _those that mischief_ most. The sense is, _Let me rather +woo or caress those that_ would _mischief, that_ profess to mean me +mischief, _than those_ that really _do_ me _mischief under false +professions of kindness_. The Spaniards, I think, have this proverb; +_Defend me from my friends, and from my enemies I will defend myself_. +This proverb is a sufficient comment on the passage. + +IV.iii.484 (379,9) all/I kept were knaves, to serve in meat to villains] +_Knave_ is here in the compounded sense of a _servant_ and a _rascal_. + +IV.iii.492 (379,1) Pity's sleeping] I do not know that any correction is +necessary, but I think we might read, + + --_eyes do never give + But thorough lust and laughter, pity sleeping_. + +_Eyes never flow_ (to _give_ is to dissolve as saline bodies in moist +weather) _but by lust_ or _laughter_, undisturbed _by_ emotions of +_pity_. + +IV.iii.499 (380,2) It almost turns my dangerous nature wild] [W: mild] +This emendation is specious, but even this may be controverted. To _turn +wild_ is _to distract_. An appearance so unexpected, says Timon, _almost +turns my savageness_ to distraction. Accordingly he examines with nicety +lest his phrenzy, should deceive him, + + _Let me behold thy face. Surely this man + Was born of woman_. + +And to this suspected disorder of mind he alludes, + + _Perpetual, sober, Gods_!-- + Ye powers whose intellects are out of the reach of perturbation. + +IV.iii.533 (381,3) thou shalt build from men] Away from human +habitations. + +V.i (382,5) _Enter Poet and Painter_] The poet and the painter were +within view when Apemantus parted from Timon, and might then have seen +Timon, since Apemantus, standing by him could not see them: But the +scenes of the thieves and steward have passed before their arrival, and +yet passed, as the drama is now conducted within their view. It might be +suspected that some scenes are transposed, for all these difficulties +would be removed by introducing the poet and painter first, and the +thieves in this place. Yet I am afraid the scenes must keep their +present order; for the painter alludes to the thieves when he says, _he +likewise enriched poor straggling soldiers with great quantity_. This +impropriety is now heightened by placing the thieves in one act, and the +poet and painter in another: but it must be remembered, that in the +original edition this play is not divided into separate acts, so that +the present distribution is arbitrary, and may be changed if any +convenience can be gained, or impropriety obviated by alteration. + +V.i.47 (384,6) While the day serves, before black-corner'd night] [W: +black-cornette] _Black-corner'd night_ is probably corrupt, but +_black-cornette_ can hardly be right, for it should be _black-cornetted +night_. I cannot propose any thing, but must leave the place in its +present state. (1773) + +V.i.101 (386,8) a made-up villain] That is a villain that adopts +qualities and characters not properly belonging to him; a hypocrite. + +V.i.105 (386,9) drown them in a draught] That is, _in the_ jakes. + +V.i.109 (388,1) + + But two in company-- + Each man apart, all single and alone, + Yet an arch villain keeps him company] + +This passage is obscure. I think the meaning is this: _but two in +company_, that is, stand apart, _let only two be together_; for even +when each stands single there are two, he himself and a villain. + +V.i.151 (388,3) Of its own fall] [The Oxford editor alters _fall_ to +_fault_, not knowing that Shakespeare uses _fall_ to signify dishonour, +not destruction. So in _Hamlet_, + + _What a_ falling_ off was there_! WARBURTON.] + +The truth is, that neither _fall_ means _disgrace_, nor is _fault_ a +necessary emendation. _Falling off_ in the quotation is not _disgrace_ +but _defection_. The Athenians _had sense_, that is, felt the danger _of +their own fall_, by the arms of Alcibiades. + +V.i.151 (388,4) restraining aid to Timon] I think it should be +_refraining aid_, that is, with-holding aid that should have been given +_to_ Timon. + +V.i.154 (389,5) Than their offence can weigh down by the dram] This +which was in the former editions can scarcely be right, and yet I know +not whether my reading will be thought to rectify it. I take the meaning +to be, We will give thee a recompence that our offences cannot outweigh, +_heaps of wealth down by the dram_, or delivered according to the +exactest measure. A little disorder may perhaps have happened in +transcribing, which may be reformed by reading, + + --_Ay, ev'n such heaps + And sums of love and wealth, down by the dram, + As shall to thee_-- + +V.i.165 (389,6) Allow'd with absolute power] _Allowed_ is _licensed_, +_privileged_, _uncontrolled_. So of a buffoon, in _Love's Labour lost_, +it is said, that he is _allowed_, that is, at liberty to say what he +will, a privileged scoffer. + +V.i.139 (390,7) My long sickness/Of health and living now begins to +mend] The disease of life begins to promise me a period. + +V.i.211 (391,8) in the sequence of degree] Methodically, from highest to +lowest. + +V.iii.4 (393,2) Some beast read this; here does not live a man] [W: +rear'd] Notwithstanding this remark, I believe the old reading to be the +right. _The soldier had only seen the rude heap of earth._ He had +evidently seen something that told him _Timon was dead_; and what could +tell that but his tomb? The tomb he sees, and the inscription upon it, +which not being able to read, and finding none to read it for him, he +exclaims peevishly, _some beast read this_, for it must be read, and in +this place it cannot be read by man. + +There is something elaborately unskilful in the contrivance of sending a +soldier, who cannot read, to take the epitaph in wax, only that it may +close the play by being read with more solemnity in the last scene. + +V.iv.7 (394, 3) traverst arms] Arms across. + +V.iv.8 (394,4) the time is flush] A bird is _flush_ when his feathers +are grown, and he can leave the nest. _Flush_ is _mature_. + +V.iv.18 (395,7) + + So did we woo + Transformed Timon to our city's love, + By humble message, and by promis'd means] + +[T: promis'd mends] Dr. Warburton agrees with Mr. Theobald, but the old +reading may well stand. + +V.iv.28 (395,8) Shame, that they wanted cunning, in excess/Hath broke +their hearts] [Theobald had emended the punctuation] I have no wish to +disturb the means of Theobald, yet think some emendation nay be offered +that will make the construction less harsh, and the sentence more +serious. I read, + + _Shape that they wanted, coming in excess, + Hath broke their hearts._ + +_Shame which they_ had so long _wanted at last_ coming in _its utmost_ +excess. + +V.iv.36 (396,8) not square] Not regular, not equitable. + +V.iv.35 (397,9) uncharged ports] That is, _unguarded gates_. + +V.iv.59 (397,1) not a man/Shall pass his quarter] Not a soldier shall +quit his station, or be let loose upon you; and, if any commits +violence, he shall answer it regularly to the law. + +V.iv.76 (308.,3) our brain's flow; Hanmer and Dr. Warburton read, + + --brine's flow,-- + +Our brain's flow is our tears; but we any read our brine's flow, our +salt tears. Either will serve. (see 1765, VI, 276, 6) + +(399) General Observation. The play of _Timon_ is a domestic tragedy, +and therefore strongly fastens on the attention of the reader. In the +plan there is not much art, but the incidents are natural, and the +characters various and exact. The catastrophe affords a very powerful +warning against that ostentations liberality, which scatters bounty, but +confers no benefits, and buys flattery, but not friendship. + +In this tragedy are many passages perplexed, obscure, and probably +corrupt, which I have endeavoured to rectify, or explain, with due +diligence; but having only one copy, cannot promise myself that my +endeavours shall be much applauded. + + + + +TITUS ANDRONICUS + + +(403,1) It is observable, that this play is printed in the quarto of +1611, with exactness equal to that of the other books of those times. +The first edition was probably corrected by the author, so that here is +very little room for conjecture or emendation; and accordingly none of +the editors have much molested this piece with officious criticism. + +I.i.70 (406,2) Hail, Rome, victorious in thy mourning weeds!] [W: my] +_Thy_ is as well as _my_. We may suppose the Romans in a grateful +ceremony, meeting the dead sons of Andronicus with mourning habits. + +I.i.77 (407,3) Thou great defender of this Capitol] Jupiter, to whom the +Capitol was sacred. + +I.i.168 (410,5) And fame's eternal date for virtue's praise!] [W: In] To +_live in fame's date_ is, if an allowable, yet a harsh expression. To +_outlive_ an _eternal date_, is, though not philosophical, yet poetical +sense. He wishes that her life may be longer than his, and her praise +longer than fame. + +I.i.309 (414,6) changing piece] Spoken of Lavinia. _Piece_ was then, as +it is now, used personally as a word of contempt. + +II.i (421,8) In the quarto, the direction is, _Manet Aaron_, and he is +before made to enter with Tamora, though he says nothing. This scene +ought to continue the first act. + +II.i.9 (421,9) So Tamora--/Upon her wit doth earthly honour wait] [W: +her will] I think _wit_, for which she is eminent in the drama, is +right. + +II.i.116 (425,2) by kind] That is, by _nature_, which is the old +signification of _kind_. + +II.ii (425,3) _Changes to a Forest_] The division of this play into +acts, which was first made by the editors in 1623, is improper. There is +here an interval of action, and here the second act ought to have begun. + +II.iii.8 (427,6) + + And so repose, sweet gold, for their unrest, + That have their alms out of the empress' chest] + +This is obscure. It seems to mean only, that they who are to come at +this gold of the empress are to suffer by it. + +II.iii.72 (430,9) swarth Cimmerian] _Swarth_ is _black_. The Moor is +called Cimmerien, from the affinity of blackness to darkness. + +II.iii.85 (430,1) + + _Bas._ The king, my brother, shall have note of this. + _Lav._ Ay, for these slips have made him noted long] + +He had yet been married but one night. + +II.iii.104 (431,2) Should straight fall mad, or else die suddenly] This +is said in fabulous physiology, of those that hear the groan of the +mandrake torn up. + +II.iii.126 (432,3) And with that painted hope she braves your +mightiness] [W: cope] _Painted hope_ is only _specious_ hope, or ground +of confidence more plausible than solid. + +II.iii.227 (435,4) A precious ring, that lightens all the hole] There is +supposed to be a gem called a carbuncle, which emits not reflected but +native light. Mr. Boyle believes the reality of its existence. + +II.iv.13 (438,5) If I do dream, 'would all my wealth would wake me'] If +this be a dream, I would give all my possessions to be delivered from it +by waking. + +III.i.91 (443,8) It was my deer] The play upon _deer_ and _dear_ has +been used by Waller, who calls a lady's girdle, _The pale that held my +lovely_ deer. + +III.i.216 (447,1) And do not break into these deep extremes] [We should +read, instead of this nonsense, + + --woe-_extremes_. + +i.e. extremes caused by excessive sorrow. But Mr. Theobald, on his own +authority, alters it to _deep_, without notice given. WARB.] It is +_deep_ in the old quarto of 1611, (rev. 1778, VIII, 510, 8) + +III.ii (450,2) _An apartment in Titus's house_] This scene, which does +not contribute any thing to the action, yet seems to have the same +author with the rest, is omitted in the quarto of 1611, but found in the +folio of 1623. + +III.ii.45 (452,3) by still practice] By _constant_ or _continual_ +practice. + +IV.i.129 (458,6) Revenge the heavens] It should be, + + _Revenge_, ye _Heavens_!-- + +_Ye_ was by the transcriber taken for _y'e_, the. + +IV.ii.85 (461,7) I'll broach the tadpole] A _broach_ is a _spit_. I'll +_spit_ the tadpole. + +IV.ii.99 (462,8) Coal-black is better than another hue,/ In that it +seems to bear another hue] We may better read, _In that it_ scorns _to +bear another hue_. + +IV.iii.88 (466,1) Yet wrung with wrongs] To _wring_ a horse is to press +or strain his back. + +IV.iv.90 (472,4) With words more sweet, and yet more dangerous,/ Than +baits to fish, or honey-stalks to sheep] _Honey-stalks_ are +clover-flowers, which contain a sweet juice. It is common for cattle to +over-charge themselves with clover, and die. + +V.i.102 (476,7) As true a dog, as ever fought at head] An allusion to +bull-dogs, whose generosity and courage are always shown by meeting the +bull in front, and seizing his nose. + +V.ii.189 (484,1) And of the paste a coffin will I rear] A _coffin_ is +the term of art for the cavity of a raised pye. + +V.iii.19 (486,2) break the parley] That is, _begin_ the parley. We yet +say, he _breaks_ his mind. + +(492) General Observation. All the editors and critics agree with Mr. +Theobald in supposing this play spurious. I see no reason for differing +from them; for the colour of the stile is wholly different from that of +the other plays, and there is an attempt at regular versification, and +artificial closes, not always inelegant, yet seldom pleasing. The +barbarity of the spectacles, and the general massacre, which are here +exhibited, can scarcely be conceived tolerable to any audience; yet we +are told by Jonson, that they were not only borne, but praised. That +Shakespeare wrote any part, though Theobald declares it _incontestible_, +I see no reason for believing. + +The testimony produced at the beginning of this play, by which it is +ascribed to Shakespeare, is by no means equal to the argument against +its authenticity, arising from the total difference of conduct, +language, and sentiments, by which it stands apart from all the rest. +Meeres had probably no other evidence than that of a title-page, which, +though in our time it be sufficient, was then of no great authority; for +all the plays which were rejected by the first collectors of +Shakespeare's works, and admitted in later editions, and again rejected +by the critical editors, had Shakespeare's name on the title, as we must +suppose, by the fraudulence of the printers, who, while there were yet +no gazettes, nor advertisements, nor any means of circulating literary +intelligence, could usurp at pleasure any celebrated name. Nor had +Shakespeare any interest in detecting the imposture, as none of his fame +or profit was produced by the press. + +The chronology of this play does not prove it not to be Shakespeare's. +If it had been written twenty-five years, in 1614, it might have been +written when Shakespeare was twenty-five years old. When he left +Warwickshire I know not, but at the age of twenty-five it was rather too +late to fly for deer-stealing. + +Ravenscroft, who in the reign of Charles II, revised this play, and +restored it to the stage, tells us, in his preface, from a theatrical +tradition, I suppose, which in his time might be of sufficient +authority, that this play was touched in different parts by Shakespeare, +but written by some other poet. I do not find Shakespeare's touches very +discernible, (see 1765, VI, 364) (rev. 1778, VIII, 559) + + + + +Vol. IX. + +TROILUS AND CRESSIDA + + +Prologue. (4,2) + + _And hither am I come + A prologue arm'd; but not in confidence + Of author's pen, or actor's voice; but suited + In like conditions as our argument_] + +I come here to speak the prologue, and come in armour; not defying the +audience, in confidence of either the author's or actor's abilities, but +merely in a character suited to the subject, in a dress of war, before a +warlike play. + +I.i.12 (8,3) And skill-less as unpractis'd infancy] Mr. Dryden, in his +alteration of this play, has taken this speech as it stands, except that +he has changed _skill-less_ to _artless_, not for the better, because +_skill-less_ refers to _skill_ and _skilful_. + +I.i.58 (10,4) The cignet's down is harsh, and spirit of sense/Hard as +the palm of ploughman!] _In comparison with_ Cressid's _hand_, says he, +_the spirit of sense_, the utmost degree, the most exquisite power of +sensibility, which implies a soft hand, since the sense of touching, as +Scaliger says in his _Exercitations_, resides chiefly in the fingers, is +hard as the callous and insensible palm of the ploughman. WARBURTON +reads, + + --SPITE _of sense_: + +HANMER, + + --to th' _spirit of sense_. + +It is not proper to make a lover profess to praise his mistress in +_spite of sense_; for though he often does it in _spite of the sense_ of +others, his own senses are subdued to his desires. + +I.i.66 (10,5) if she be fair, 'tis the better for her; an she be not, +she has the mends in her own hands] She may mend her complexion by the +assistance of cosmeticks. + +I.ii.4 (12,1) Hector, whose patience/Is, as a virtue, fix'd] [W: Is as +the] I think the present text may stand. Hector's patience was as a +virtue, not variable and accidental, but fixed and constant. If I would +alter it, it should be thus: + + --Hector, whose patience + Is ALL a virtue fix'd,-- + +_All_, in old English, is the _intensive_ or enforcing particle. + +I.ii.8 (13,2) Before the sun rose, he was harness'd light] [Warburton +stated that "harnessed light" meant Hector was to fight on foot] How +does it appear that Hector was to fight on foot rather to-day than on +any other day? It is to be remembered, that the ancient heroes never +fought on horseback; nor does their manner of fighting in chariots seem +to require less activity than on foot. + +I.ii.23 (14,4) his valour is crushed into folly] To be _crushed into +folly_, is to be _confused_ and mingled with _folly_, so as that they +make one mass together. + +I.ii.46 (15,6) Ilium] Was the palace of Troy. + +I.ii.120 (17,7) compass-window] The _compass-window_ is the same as the +_bow-window_. (1773) + +I.ii.212 (20,2) + + _Cre._ Will he give you the nod? + _Pan._ You shall see. + _Cre._ If he do, the rich shall have more] + +[W: rich] I wonder why the commentator should think any emendation +necessary, since his own sense is fully expressed by the present +reading. Hanmer appears not to have understood the passage. That to +_give the nod_ signifies to _set a mark of folly_, I do not know; the +allusion is to the word _noddy_, which, as now, did, in our author's +time, and long before, signify, _a silly fellow_, and may, by its +etymology, signify likewise _full of nods_. Cressid means, that _a_ +noddy _shall have more_ nods. Of such remarks as these is a comment to +consist? + +I.ii.260 (22,3) money to boot] So the folio. The old quarto, with more +force, Give _an eye_ to boot. (rev. 1778, IX, 25, 1) + +I.ii.285 (22,4) upon my wit to defend my wiles] So read both the copies) +yet perhaps the author wrote, + + Upon my wit to defend my will. + +The terms _wit_ and _will_ were, in the language of that time, put often +in opposition. + +I.ii.300 (23,5) At your own house; there he unarms him] [These necessary +words added from the quarto edition. POPE.] The words added are only, +_there he unarms him_. + +I.ii.313 (23,6) joy's soul lies in the doing] So read both the old +editions, for which the later editions have poorly given, + + --the _soul's joy_ lies in doing. + +I.ii.316 (23,7) That she] Means, that woman. + +I.iii.31 (25,2) With due observance of thy godlike seat] [T: godlike +seat] This emendation [for goodly seat] Theobald might have found in the +quarto, which has, + + --the _godlike_ seat. + +I.iii.32 (25,3) Nestor shall apply/Thy latest words] Nestor _applies_ +the words to another instance. + +I.iii.54 (26,7) Returns to chiding fortune] For _returns_, Hanmer reads +_replies_, unnecessarily, the sense being the same. The folio and quarto +have _retires_, corruptly. + +I.iii.62 (27,8) + + both your speeches; which are such, + As Agamemnon and the hand of Greece + Should hold up high in brass; and such again, + As venerable Nestor, hatch'd in silver, + Should with a bond of air (strong as the axle-tree + On which heaven rides) knit all the Greekish ears + To his experienc'd tongue] + +Ulysses begins his oration with praising those who had spoken before +him, and marks the characteristick excellencies of their different +eloquence, strength, and sweetness, which he expresses by the different +metals on which he recommends them to be engraven for the instruction of +posterity. The speech of Agamemnon is such that it ought to be engraven +in brass, and the tablet held up by him on the one side, and Greece on +the other, to shew the union of their opinion. And Nestor ought to be +exhibited in silver, uniting all his audience in one mind by his soft +and gentle elocution. Brass is the common emblem of strength, and silver +of gentleness. We call a soft voice a _silver_ voice, and a persuasive +tongue a _silver_ tongue.--I once read for _hand_, the _band_ of Greece, +but I think the text right.--To _hatch_ is a term of art for a +particular method of _engraving_. _Hatcher_, to cut, Fr. + +I.iii.78 (28,1) The specialty of rule] The particular rights of supreme +authority. + +I.iii.81 (29,2) When that the general is not like the hive] The meaning +is, _When the general is not_ to the army _like the hive_ to the bees, +the repository of the stock of every individual, that to which each +particular resorts with whatever be has collected for the good of the +whole, _what honey is expected_? what hope of advantage? The sense is +clear, the expression is confused. + +I.iii.101 (30,5) Oh, when degree is shak'd] I would read, + + --So when degree is shak'd. (see 1765, VII, 431, 5) + +I.iii.103 (30,6) The enterprize] Perhaps we should read, + + _Then_ enterprize is sick!-- + +I.iii.104 (30,7) brotherhoods in cities] Corporations, companies, +_confraternities_. + +I.iii.128 (31,8) That by a pace goes backward] That goes backward _step +by step_. + +I.iii.128 (31,9) with a purpose/It hath to climb] With a design in each +man to aggrandize himself, by slighting his immediate superior. + +I.iii.134 (31,1) bloodless emulation] An emulation not vigorous and +active, but malignant and sluggish. + +I.iii.152 (31,2) Thy topless deputation] _Topless_ is that has nothing +_topping_ or _overtopping_ it; supreme; sovereign. + +I.iii.167 (32,3) as near as the extremest ends/Of parallels] The +parallels to which the allusion seems to be made are the parallels on a +map. As like as East to West. + +I.iii.179 (32,4) + + All our abilities, gifts, natures, shapes, + Severals and generals of grace exact, + Atchievements, plots] + +The meaning is this, All our good _grace exact_, means of _excellence +irreprehensible_. + +I.iii.184 (32,5) to make paradoxes] _Paradoxes_ may have a meaning, but +it is not clear and distinct. I wish the copies had given, + + --to make _parodies_. + +I.iii.188 (33,6) bears his head/In such a rein] That is, holds up his +head as haughtily. We still say of a girl, _she bridles_. + +I.iii.196 (33,7) How rank soever rounded in with danger] A _rank weed_ +is a _high weed_. The modern editions silently read, + + How _hard_ soever-- + +I.iii.202 (33,8) and know by measure/Of their observant toil the +enemies' weight] I think it were better to read, + + --and know _the_ measure, + _By_ their observant toil, _of_ th' enemies' weight. + +I.iii.220 (34,1) Achilles' arm] So the copies. Perhaps the author wrote, + + --_Alcides'_ arm. + +I.iii.262 (35,4) long continu'd truce] Of this long _truce_ there has +been no notice taken; in this very act it is said, that _Ajax coped +Hector yesterday in the battle_. + +I.iii.270 (36,7) (With truant vows to her own lips he loves)] That is, +_confession made with idle vows to the lips of her whom he loves_. + +I.iii.319 (37,1) nursery] Alluding to a plantation called a nursery. + +I.iii.341 (38,4) scantling] That is, a _measure_, _proportion_. The +carpenter cuts his wood to a certain _scantling_. + +I.iii.343 (38,5) small pricks] Small _points compared_ with the volumes. + +II.i (40,1) _The Grecian camp. Enter Ajax and Thorsites_] ACT II.] This +play is not divided into acts in any of the original editions. + +II.i.13 (41,2) The plague of Greece] Alluding perhaps to the plague sent +by Apollo on the Grecian army. + +II.i.15 (41,3) Speak then, thou unsalted leaven, speak] [T: +unwinnow'dst] [W: windyest] Hanmer preserves _whinid'st_, the reading of +the folio; but does not explain it, nor do I understand it. If the folio +be followed, I read, _vinew'd_, that is _mouldy leven_. Thou composition +of _mustiness_ and _sourness_.--Theobald's assertion, however confident, +is false. _Unsalted_ leaven is in the old quarto. It means _sour_ +without _salt_, malignity without wit. Shakespeare wrote first +_unsalted_; but recollecting that want of _salt_ was no fault in leaven, +changed it to _vinew'd_. + +II.i.38 (42,5) aye that thou bark'st at him] I read, _O_ that thou +_bark'dst_ at him. + +II.i.42 (42,6) pun thee into shivers] _Pun_ is in the midland counties +the vulgar and colloquial word for _pound_. (1773) + +II.i.125 (45,1) when Achilles' brach bids me] The folio and quarto read, +_Achilles'_ brooch. _Brooch_ is an appendant ornament. The meaning may +be, equivalent to one of _Achilles' hangers on_. + +II.ii.29 (47,2) The past-proportion of his infinite?] Thus read both the +copies. The meaning is, _that greatness, to which no measure bears any +proportion_. The modern editors silently give, + + The _vast_ proportion-- + +II.ii.58 (48,4) And the will dotes that is inclinable] [Old edition, not +so well, has it, _attributive_. POPE.] By the old edition Mr. Pope means +the old quarto. The folio has, as it stands, _inclinable_.--I think the +first reading better; _the will dotes that attributes_ or gives _the +qualities which it affects_; that first causes excellence, and then +admires it. + +II.ii.60 (48,5) Without some image of the affected merit] The present +reading is right. The will _affects_ an object for some supposed +_merit_, which Hector says, is uncensurable, unless the _merit_ so +_affected_ be really there. + +II.ii.71 (48,7) unrespective sieve] That is, into a _common voider_. +_Sieve_ is in the quarto. The folio reads, + + --unrespective _fame_; + +for which the modern editions have silently printed, + + --unrespective _place_. + +II.ii.88 (49,9) + + why do you now + The issue of your proper wisdoms rate; + And do a deed that fortune never did, + Beggar that estimation which you priz'd + Richer than sea and land?] + +If I understand this passage, the meaning is, "Why do you, by censuring +the determination of your own wisdoms, degrade Helen, whom fortune has +not yet deprived of her value, or against whom, as the wife of Paris, +fortune has not in this war so declared, as to make us value her less?" +This is very harsh, and much strained. + +II.ii.122 (50,2) her brain-sick raptures/Cannot distaste the goodness of +a quarrel] Corrupt; change to a worse state. + +II.ii.179 (52,3) benummed wills] That is, inflexible, inmoveable, no +longer obedient to superior direction. + +II.ii.180 (52,4) There is a law in each well-ordered nation] What the +law does in every nation between individuals, justice ought to do +between nations. + +II.ii.188 (52,5) Hector's opinion/Is this in way of truth] Though +considering _truth_ and _justice_ in this question, this is my opinion; +yet as a question of honour, I think on it as you. + +II.ii.196 (53,6) the performance of our heaving spleens] The execution +of spite and resentment. + +II.ii.212 (53,7) emulation] That is, envy, factious contention. + +II.iii.18 (54,8) without drawing the massy iron and cutting the web] +That is, _without drawing their swords to cut the web_. They use no +means but those of violence. + +II.iii.55 (55,1) decline the whole question] Deduce the question from +the first case to the last. + +II.iii.108 (57,6) but it was a strong composure, a fool could disunite] +So reads the quarto very properly; but the folio, which the moderns have +followed, has, _it was a strong_ COUNSEL. + +II.iii.118 (57,7) noble state] Person of high dignity; spoken of +Agamemnon. + +II.iii.137 (58,8) under-write] To _subscribe_, in Shakespeare, is to +_obey_. + +II.iii.215 (60,2) pheese his pride] To _pheese_ is to _comb_ or _curry_. + +II.iii.217 (60,3) Not for the worth that hangs upon our quarrel] Not for +the value of all for which we are fighting. + +II.iii.267 (62,6) + + _Ajax._ Shall I call you father? + _Nest._ Ay, my good son] + +In the folio and in the nodern editions Ajax desires to give the title +of _father_ to Ulysses; in the quarto, more naturally, to Nestor. + +III.i.35 (64,1) love's invisible soul] _love's_ visible _soul_.] So +HANMER. The other editions have _invisible_, which perhaps may be right, +and may mean the _soul of love_ invisible every where else. + +III.i.83 (65,3) And, my lord, he desires you] Here I think the speech of +Pandarus should begin, and the rest of it should be added to that of +Helen, but I have followed the copies. + +III.i.96 (65,4) with my disposer Cressida] [W: dispouser] I do not +understand the word _disposer_, nor know what to substitute in its +place. There is no variation in the copies. + +III.i.132 (67,6) _Yet that which seems the wound to kill_] _To kill the +wound_ is no very intelligible expression, nor is the measure preserved. +We might read, + + _These lovers cry, + Oh! oh! they die!_ + But _that which seems to kill, + Doth turn_, &c. + _So dying love lives still_. + +Yet as _the wound to kill_ may mean _the wound that seems mortal_, I +alter nothing. + +III.ii.25 (69,1) tun'd too sharp in sweetness]--and _too sharp in +sweetness_,] So the folio and all modern editions; but the quarto more +accurately, + + --_tun'd_ too sharp in sweetness. + +III.ii.99 (71,4) our head shall go bare, 'till merit crown it] I cannot +forbear to observe, that the quarto reads thus: _Our head shall go bare, +'till merit_ lower part no affection, _in reversion_, &c. Had there been +no other copy, hov could this have been corrected? The true reading is +in the folio. + +III.ii.102 (72,5) his addition shall be humble] We will give him no high +or pompous titles. + +III.ii.162 (74,6) + + but you are wise, + Or else you love not; to be wise and love, + Exceeds man's might] + +I read, + + --but _we're not_ wise, + Or else _we_ love not; to be wise and love, + Exceeds man's might;-- + +Cressida, in return to the praise given by Troilus to her wisdom, +replies, "That lovers are never wise; that it is beyond the power of man +to bring love and wisdom to an union." + +III.ii.173 (74,8) Might be affronted with the match] I wish "my +integrity might be met and matched with such equality and force of pure +unmingled love." + +III.ii.184 (75,2) As true as steel, as plantage to the moon] _Plantage_ +is not, I believe, a general term, but the herb which we now call +_plantain_, in Latin, _plantago_, which was, I suppose, imagined to be +under the peculiar influence of the moon. + +III.ii.187 (76,3) + + Yet after all comparisons of truth, + As truth's authentic author to be cited + _As true as Troilus_, shall crown up the verse] + +Troilus shall _crown the verse_, as a man _to be cited as the authentic +author of truth_; as one whose protestations were true to a proverb. + +III.iii.1-16 (77,5) Now, princes, for the service I have done you] I am +afraid, that after all the learned commentator's [Warburton's] efforts +to clear the argument of Calchas, it will still appear liable to +objection; nor do I discover more to be urged in his defence, than that +though his skill in divination determined him to leave Troy, jet that he +joined himself to Agamemnon and his army by unconstrained good-will; and +though he came as a fugitive escaping from destruction, yet his services +after his reception, being voluntary and important, deserved reward. +This argument is not regularly and distinctly deduced, but this is, I +think, the best explication that it will yet admit. + +III.iii.4 (78,6) through the sight I bear in things, to Jove] This +passage in all the modern editions is silently depraved, and printed +thus: + + --through the sight I bear in things to come. + +The word is so printed that nothing but the sense can determine whether +it be _love_ or _Jove_. I believe that the editors read it as _love_, +and therefore made the alteration to obtain some meaning. + +III.iii.28 (79,7) + + he shall buy my daughter; and her presence + Shall quite strike off all service I have done, + In most accepted pain] + +Sir T. HANMER, and Dr. WARBURTON after him, read, + + In most accepted _pay_. + +They do not seem to understand the construction of the passage. _Her +presence_, says Calchas, shall strike off, or recompence _the service I +have done_, even in these _labours_ which were _most accepted_. + +III.iii.44 (80,8) derision med'cinable] All the modern editions have +_decision_. The old copies are apparently right. The folio in this place +agrees with the quarto, so that the corruption was at first merely +accidental. + +III.iii.96 (82,9) how dearly ever parted] I do not think that in the +word _parted_ is included any idea of _division_; it means, _however +excellently endowed_, with however _dear_ or precious _parts_ enriched +or adorned. + +III.iii.113 (82,2) but the author's drift:/Who, in his circumstance] In +the detail or circumduction of his argument. + +III.iii.125 (83,3) The unknovn Ajax] Ajax, who has abilities which were +never brought into view or use. + +III.iii.134 (83,4) + + How some men creep in skittish Fortune's hall, + While others play the idiots in her eyes!] + +To _creep_ is to _keep out of sight_ from whatever motive. Some men +_keep out of notice in the hall of Fortune_, while others, though they +but _play the idiot_, are always _in her eye_, in the way of +distinction. + +III.iii.137 (83,5) feasting] Folio. The quarto has _fasting_. Either +word may bear a good sense. + +III.iii.145 (84,6) Time hath, my lord, a wallet at his back] This speech +is printed in all the modern editions with such deviations from the old +copy, as exceed the lawful power of an editor. + +III.iii.171 (85,2) for beauty, wit,/High birth, vigour of bone, desert +in service] The modern editors read, + + For beauty, wit, high birth, desert in service, &c. + +I do not deny but the changes produce a more easy lapse of numbers, but +they do not exhibit the work of Shakespeare, (see 1765, VII, 435, 2) + +III.iii.178 (85,3) + + And shew to dust, that is a little gilt, + More laud than gilt o'er-dusted] + +[T: give to ... laud than they will give to gold] This emendation has +been received by the succeeding editors, but recedes too far from the +copy. There is no other corruption than such as Shakespeare's +incorrectness often resembles. He has omitted the article _to_ in the +second line: he should have written, + + _More laud than_ to _gilt o'er-dusted_. (1773) (rev. 1778, IX, 93, 7) + +III.iii.189 (86,4) Made emulous missions] The meaning of _mission_ seems +to be _dispatches_ of the gods _from heaven_ about mortal business, such +as often happened at the siege of Troy. + +III.iii.197 (86,5) Knows almost every grain of Pluto's gold] For this +elegant line the quarto has only, + + Knows almost every _thing_. + +III.iii.201 (86,7) (with which relation/Durst never meddle)] There is a +secret administration of affairs, which no _history_ was ever able to +discover. + +III.iii.230 (87,9) + + Omission to do what is necessary + Seals a commission to a blank of danger] + +By _neglecting_ our duty we _commission_ or enable that _danger_ of +dishonour, which could not reach us before, to lay hold upon us. + +III.iii.254 (88,1) with a politic regard] With a _sly look_. + +IV.i.11 (91,1) During all question of the gentle truce] I once thought +to read, + + During all _quiet_ of the gentle truce. + +But I think _question_ means intercourse, interchange of conversation. + +IV.i.36 (92,4) His purpose meets you] I bring you his meaning and his +orders. + +IV.i.65 (93,6) + + Both merits pois'd, each weighs no less nor more, + But he as he, the heavier for a whore] + +I read, + + But he as he, _each_ heavier for a whore. + +_Heavy_ is taken both for _weighty_, and for _sad_ or _miserable_. The +quarto reads, + + But he as he, _the_ heavier for a whore. + +I know not whether the thought is not that of a wager. It must then be +read thus: + + But he as he. Which heavier for a whore? + +That is, _for a whore_ staked down, _which is the heavier_. + +IV.i.78 (94,7) We'll not commend what we intend to sell] I believe the +meaning is only this: though you practise the buyer's art, we will not +practise the seller's. We intend to sell Helen dear, yet will not +commend her. + +IV.ii.62 (96,4) My matter is so rash] My business is so _hasty_ and so +abrupt. + +IV.ii.74 (97,6) the secrets of neighbour Pandar] [Pope had emended the +Folio's "secrets of nature" to the present reading] Mr. Pope's reading +is in the old quarto. So great is the necessity of collation. + +IV.iv.3 (99,1) The grief] The folio reads, + + The grief is fine, full perfect, that I taste, + And no less in a sense as strong + As that which causeth it.-- + +The quarto otherwise, + + The grief is fine, full, perfect, that I taste, + And _violenteth_ in a sense as strong + As that which causeth it.-- + +_Violenteth_ is a word with which I am not acquainted, yet perhaps it +may be right. The reading of the text is without authority. + +IV.iv.65 (101,3) For I will throw my glove to death] That is, I will +_challenge_ death himself in defence of thy fidelity. + +IV.iv.105 (103,5) + + While others fish, with craft, for great opinion, + I, with great truth, catch mere simplicity.] + +The meaning, I think, is, _while others_, by their art, gain high +estimation, I, by honesty, obtain a plain simple approbation. + +IV.iv.109 (103,6) the moral of my wit/Is, _plain and true_] That is, the +_governing principle of my understanding_; but I rather think we should +read, + + --the _motto_ of my wit + Is, plain and true,-- + +IV.iv.114 (103,7) possess thee what she is] I will _make thee fully +understand_. This sense of the word _possess_ is frequent in our author. + +IV.iv.134 (104,9) I'll answer to my list] This, I think, is right, +though both the old copies read _lust_. + +IV.v.8 (105,1) bias cheek] Swelling out like the bias of a bowl. + +IV.v.37 (106,3) I'll make my match to live./The kiss you take is better +than you give] I will make such _bargains_ as I may live by, _such as +may bring me profit_, therefore will not take a worse kiss than I give. + +IV.v.48 (107,4) Why, beg then] For the sake of rhime we should read, + + Why beg _two_. + +If you think kisses worth begging, beg more than one. + +IV.v.52 (107,5) Never's my day, and then a kiss of you] I once gave both +these lines to Cressida. She bids Ulysses beg a kiss; he asks that he +may have it, + + When Helen is a maid again-- + +She tells him that then he shall have it: + + When Helen is a maid again-- + + _Cre._ I am your debtor, claim it when 'tis due; + Never's my day, and then a kiss _for_ you. + +But I rather think that Ulysses means to slight her, and that the +present reading is right. + +IV.v.57 (107,6) motive of her body] _Motive_ for _part that contributes +to motion_. + +IV.v.59 (107,7) a coasting] An amorous address; courtship. + +IV.v.62 (107,8) sluttish spoils of opportunity] Corrupt wenches, of +whose chastity every opportunity may make a prey. + +IV.v.73 (108,9) _Aga._ 'Tis done like Hector, but securely done] +[Theobald gave the speech to Achilles] As the old copies agree, I have +made no change. + +IV.v.79 (108,1) Valour and pride excel themselves in Hector] +Shakespeare's thought is not exactly deduced. Nicety of expression is +not his character. The cleaning is plain, "Valour (says AEneas) is in +Hector greater than valour in other men, and pride in Hector is less +than pride in other men. So that Hector is distinguished by the +excellence of having pride less than other pride, and valour more than +other valour." + +IV.v.103 (109,2) an impair thought] A thought suitable to the dignity of +his character. This word I should have changed to _impure_, were I not +over-powered by the unanimity of the editors, and concurrence of the old +copies, (rev. 1778, IX, 120, 8) + +IV.v.105 (109,3) Hector in his blaze of wrath subscribes/To tender +objects] That is, _yields, gives_ way. + +IV.v.112 (110,4) thus translate him to me] Thus _explain his character_. + +IV.v.142 (111,5) _Hect._ Not Neoptolemus so mirable] [W: Neoptolemus's +sire irascible] After all this contention it is difficult to imagine +that the critic believes _mirable_ to have been changed to _irascible_. +I should sooner read, + + Not Neoptolemus th' admirable; + +as I know not whether _mirable_ can be found in any other place. The +correction which the learned commentator gave to Hanmer, + + Not Neoptolemus' _sire_ so mirable, + +as it was modester than this, was preferable to it. But nothing is more +remote from justness of sentiment, than for Hector to characterise +Achilles as the father of Neoptolemus, a youth that had not yet appeared +in arms, and whose name was therefore much less knovn than his father's. +My opinion is, that by Neoptolemus the author meant Achilles himself; +and remembering that the son was Pyrrhus Neoptolemus, considered +Neoptolemus as the nomen gentilitium, and thought the father was +likewise Achilles Neoptolemus. + +IV.v.147 (112,6) We'll answer it] That is, answer the _expectance_. + +IV.v.275 (117,5) Beat loud the tabourines] For this the quarto and the +latter editions have, + + To taste your bounties.-- + +The reading which I have given from the folio seems chosen at the +revision, to avoid the repetition of the word _bounties_ [273]. + +V.i.5 (118,1) Thou crusty batch of nature] _Batch_ is changed by +Theobald to _botch_, and the change is justified by a pompous note, +which discovers that he did not know the word _batch_. What is more +strange, Hanmer has followed him. _Batch_ is any thing _baked_. + +V.i.19 (119,3) Male-varlet] HANMER reads _male-harlot_, plausibly +enough, except that it seems too plain to require the explanation which +Patroclus demands. + +V.i.23 (119,4) cold palsies] This catalogue of loathsome maladies ends +in the folio at _cold palsies_. This passage, as it stands, is in the +quarto: the retrenchment was in my opinion judicious. It may be +remarked, though it proves nothing, that, of the few alterations made by +Milton in the second edition of his wonderful poem, one was, an +enlargement of the enumeration of diseases. + +V.i.32 (119,5) you ruinous butt; you whoreson indistinguishable cur] +Patroclos reproaches Thersites with deformity, with having one part +crowded into another. + +V.i.35 (119,6) thou idle immaterial skeyn of sley'd silk] All the terms +used by Thersites of Patroclus, are emblematically expressive of +flexibility, compliance, and mean officiousness. + +V.i.40 (119,7) Out, gall!] HANMER reads _nut-gall_, which answers well +enough to _finch-egg_; it has already appeared, that our author thought +the _nut-gall_ the bitter gall. He is called _nut_, from the +conglobation of his form; but both the copies read, _Out, gall_! + +V.i.41 (120,8) Finch egg!] Of this reproach I do not know the exact +meaning. I suppose he means to call him _singing bird_, as implying an +useless favourite, and yet more, something more worthless, a singing +bird in the egg, or generally, a slight thing easily crushed. + +V.i.64 (121,2) forced with wit] Stuffed with wit. A term of cookery.--In +this speech I do not well understand what is meant by _loving quails_. + +V.i.73 (121,3) spirits and fires!] This Thersites speaks upon the first +sight of the distant lights. + +V.ii.11 (124,1) And any man may sing her, if he can take her cliff] That +is, her _key_. _Clef_, French. + +V.ii.41 (125,2) You flow to great distraction] So the moderns. The folio +has, + + You _flow_ to great _distraction_.-- + +The quarto, + + You _flow_ to great _destruction_.-- + +I read, + + You _show too_ great distraction.-- + +V.ii.108 (128,7) But with my heart the other eye doth see] I think it +should be read thus, + + But _my heart with_ the other eye doth see. + +V.ii.113 (128,8) A proof of strength she could not publish more] She +could not publish a stronger proof. + +V.ii.125 (129,1) I cannot conjure, Trojan] That is, I cannot raise +spirits in the form of Cressida. + +V.ii.141 (129,2) If there be rule in unity itself] I do not well +understand what is meant by _rule in unity_. By _rule_ our author, in +this place as in others, intends _virtuous restraint, regularity of +manners, command of passions and appetites_. In Macbeth, + + He cannot buckle his distemper'd cause + Within the belt of rule.-- + +But I know not how to apply the word in this sense to _unity_. I read, + + If there be rule in _purity_ itself, + +Or, If there be rule in _verity_ itself. + +Such alterations would not offend the reader, who saw the state of the +old editions, in which, for instance, a few lines lower, _the almighty +sun_ is called _the almighty fenne_.--Yet the words may at last mean, If +there be _certainty_ in _unity_, if it be a _rule_ that _one is one_. + +V.ii.144 (130,3) Bi-fold authority!] This is the reading of the quarto. +The folio gives us, + + _By foul_ authority!-- + +There is _madness_ in that disquisition in which a man reasons at once +_for_ and _against himself upon authority_ which he knows _not to be +valid_. The quarto is right. + +V.ii.144 (130,4) + + where reason can revolt + Without perdition, and loss assume all reason + Without revolt] + +The words _loss_ and _perdition_ are used in their common sense, but +they mean the _loss_ or _perdition_ of _reason_. + +V.ii.157 (131,6) And with another knot five-finger-tied] A knot tied by +giving her hand to Diomed. + +V.ii.160 (131,7) o'er-eaten faith] Vows which she has already swallowed +_once over_. We still say of a faithless man, that he has _eaten his +words_. + +V.ii.161 (131,8) + + _Ulyss._ May worthy Troilus be half attach'd + With that which here his passion doth express!] + +Can Troilus really feel on this occasion half of what he utters? A +question suitable to the calm Ulysses. + +V.iii.21 (133,2) + + For us to count we give what's gain'd by thefts, + And rob in the behalf of charity] + +This is so oddly confused in the folio, that I transcribe it as a +specimen of incorrectness: + + --do not count it holy, + To hurt by being just; it were as lawful + _For we would count give much to as violent thefts_, + And rob in the behalf of charity. + +V.iii.23 (133,3) + + _Cas._ It is the purpose that makes strong the vow; + But vows to every purpose must not hold] + +The mad prophetess speaks here with all the coolness and judgment of a +skilful casuist. "The essence of a lawful vow, is a lawful purpose, and +the vow of which the end is wrong must not be regarded as cogent." + +V.iii.27 (134,4) + + Life every man holds dear; but the dear man + Holds honour far more precious dear than life] + +_Valuable_ man. The modern editions read, + + --_brave_ man. + +The repetition of the word is in our author's manner. + +V.iii.37 (134,5) + + Brother, you have a vice of mercy in you, + Which better fits a lion, than a man] + +The traditions and stories of the darker ages abounded with examples of +the lion's generosity. Upon the supposition that these acts of clemency +were true, Troilus reasons not improperly, that to spare against reason, +by mere instinct of pity, became rather a generous beast than a wise +man. + +V.x.33 (137,9) Hence, broker lacquey!] For _brothel_, the folio reads +_brother_, erroneously for _broker_, as it stands at the end of the play +where the lines are repeated. Of _brother_ the following editors made +_brothel_. + +V.iv.18 (138,2) the Grecians begin to proclaim barbarism, and policy +grows into an ill opinion] To set up the authority of ignorance to +declare that they will be governed by policy no longer. + +V.vi.11 (142,1) you cogging Greeks] This epithet has no particular +propriety in this place, but the author had heard of _Graecia Mendax_. + +V.vi.29 (144,3) I'll frush it] The word _frush_ I never found elsewhere, +nor understand it. HANMER explains it, to _break_ or _bruise_. + +V.viii.7 (146,1) Even with the vail and darkening of the sun] The _vail_ +is, I think, the _sinking_ of the sun; not _veil_ or _cover_. + +(149) General Observation. This play is more correctly written than most +of Shakespeare's compositions, but it is not one of those in which +either the extent of his views or elevation of his fancy is fully +displayed. As the story abounded with materials, he has exerted little +invention; but he has diversified his characters with great variety, and +preserved them with great exactness. His vicious characters sometimes +disgust, but cannot corrupt, for both Cressida and Pandarus are detested +and contemned. The comic characters seem to have been the favourites of +the writer; they are of the superficial kind, and exhibit more of +manners than nature; but they are copiously filled and powerfully +impressed. Shakespeare has in his story followed, for the greater part, +the old book of Caxton, which was then very popular; but the character +of Thersites, of which it makes no mention, is a proof that this play +was written after Chapman had published his version of _Homer_. + + + + +CYMBELINE + + +I.i.1 (153,2) + + You do not meet a man, but frowns: our bloods + No more obey the heavens, than our courtiers' + Still seen, as does the king's] + +[W: brows/No more] This passage is so difficult, that commentators may +differ concerning it without animosity or shame. Of the two emendations +proposed, Hanmer's is the more licentious; but he makes the sense clear, +and leaves the reader an easy passage. Dr. Warburton has corrected with +more caution, but less improvement: his reasoning upon his own reading +is so obscure and perplexed, that I suspect some injury of the press.--I +am now to tell my opinion, which is, that the lines stand as they were +originally written, and that a paraphrase, such as the licentious and +abrupt expressions of our author too frequently require, will make +emendation unnecessary. _We do not meet a man but frowns; our +bloods_--our countenances, which, in popular speech, are said to be +regulated by the temper of the blood,--_no more obey_ the laws of +_heaven_,--which direct us to appear what we really are,--_than our +courtiers_;--that is, than the_ bloods of our courtiers_; but our +bloods, like theirs,--_still seem, as doth the king's_. + +I.i.25 (155,3) I do extend him, Sir, within himself] I extend him within +himself: my praise, however _extensive_, is _within_ his merit. + +I.i.46 (156,4) liv'd in court,/(Which rare it is to do) most prais'd, +most lov'd] This encomium is high and artful. To be at once in any great +degree _loved_ and _praised_ is truly _rare_. + +I.i.49 (156,5) A glass that feated them] _A glass that featur'd them_] +Such is the reading in all the modern editions, I know not by whom first +substituted, for + + A glass that _feared_ them;-- + +I have displaced _featur'd_, though it can plead long prescription, +because I am inclined to think that _feared_ has the better title. +_Mirrour_ was a favourite word in that age for an _example_, or a +_pattern_, by noting which the manners were to be formed, as dress is +regulated by looking in a glass. When Don Bellianis is stiled _The +Mirrour of Knighthood_, the idea given is not that of a glass in which +every knight may behold his own resemblance, but an example to be viewed +by knights as often as a glass is looked upon by girls, to be viewed, +that they may know, not what they are, but what they ought to be. Such a +glass may _fear the more mature_, as displaying excellencies which they +have arrived at maturity without attaining. To _fear_ is here, as in +other places, to _fright_. [I believe Dr. Johnson is mistaken as to the +reading of the folio, which is _feated_. The page of the copy which he +consulted is very faintly printed; but I have seen another since, which +plainly gives this reading. STEEVENS.] If _feated_ be the right word, it +must, I think, be explained thus; _a glass that_ formed _them_; a model, +by the contemplation and inspection of which they formed their manners. +(see 1765, VII, 260, 4) + +I.i.86 (158,1) + + I something fear my father's wrath; but nothing + (Always reserv'd my holy duty) what + His rage can do on me] + +I say I do not fear my father, so far as I may say it without breach of +duty. + +I.i.101 (158,2) Though ink be made of gall] Shakespeare, even in this +poor conceit, has confounded the vegetable _galls_ used in ink, with the +animal _gall_, supposed to be bitter. + +I.i.132 (160,4) then heapest/A year's age on me] Dr. WARBURTON reads, + + A _yare_ age on me. + +It seems to me, even from SKINNER, whom he cites, that _yare_ is used +only as a personal quality. Nor is the authority of Skinner sufficient, +without some example, to justify the alteration. HANMER's reading is +better, but rather too far from the original copy: + + --thou heapest _many_ + A year's age on me. + +I read, + + --thou heap'st + _Years, ages_ on me. + +I.i.135 (160,5) a touch more rare/Subdues all pangs, all fears] _Rare_ +is used often for _eminently good_; but I do not remember any passage in +which it stands for _eminently bad_. May we read, + + --a touch more _near_. + +_Cura deam_ propior luctusque domesticus angit. _Ovid_. + +Shall we try again, + + --a touch more _rear_. + +_Crudum vulnus._ But of this I know not any example. There is yet +another interpretation, which perhaps will remove the difficulty. _A +touch more rare_, may mean _a nobler passion_. + +I.i.140 (161,6) a puttock] A _kite_. + +I.ii.31 (163,1) her beauty and her brain go not together] I believe the +lord means to speak a sentence, "Sir, as I told you always, beauty and +brain go not together." + +I.ii.32 (164,2) She's a good sign] [W: shine] There is acuteness enough +in this note, yet I believe the poet meant nothing by _sign_, but _fair +outward_ shew. + +I.iii.8 (165,2) + + for so long + As he could make me with this eye, or ear, + Distinguish him from others] + +[W: this eye] Sir T. HANMER alters it thus: + + --for so long + As he could _mark_ me with his eye, or _I_ + Distinguish-- + +The reason of Hanmer's reading was, that Pisanio describes no address +made to the _ear_. + +I.iii.18 (165,3) till the diminution/Of space had pointed him sharp as +my needle] _The diminution of space_, is _the diminution_ of which +_space_ is the cause. Trees are killed by a blast of lightning, that is, +by _blasting_, not _blasted_ lightning. + +I.iii.24 (166,4) next vantage] Next _opportunity_. + +I.iii.37 (166,6) Shakes all our buds from growing] A bud, without any +distinct idea, whether of flower or fruit, is a natural representation +of any thing incipient or immature; and the buds of flowers, if flowers +are meant, _grow_ to flowers, as the buds of fruits _grow_ to fruits. + +I.iv.9 (167,1) makes him] In the sense in which we say, This will _make_ +or _mar_ you. + +I.iv.16 (167,2) words him, I doubt not, a great deal from the matter] +Makes the description of him very distant from the truth. + +I.iv.20 (167,3) under her colours] Under her banner; by her influence. + +I.iv.47 (168,6) I was then a young traveller; rather shunn'd to go even +with what I heard, than in my every action to be guided by others' +experiences] This is expressed with a kind of fantastical perplexity. He +means, I was then willing to take for my direction the experience of +others, more than such intelligence as I had gathered myself. + +I.iv,58 (169,7) 'Twas a contention in publick, which may, without +contradiction, suffer the report] Which, undoubtedly, may be publickly +told. + +I.iv.73 (169,8) tho' I profess myself her adorer, not her friend] Though +I have not the common obligations of a lover to his mistress, and regard +her not with the fondness of a friend, but the reverence of an adorer. + +I.iv.77 (169,9) If she went before others I have seen, as that diamond +of yours out-lustres many I have beheld, I could not believe she +excelled many] [W: could believe] I should explain the sentence thus: +"Though your lady excelled, as much as your diamond, _I could not +believe she excelled many_; that is, I too _could_ yet _believe that +there are_ many _whom_ she did not excel." But I yet think Dr. Warburton +right. (1773) + +I.iv.104 (171,l) to convince the honour of my mistress] [_Convince_, for +overcome. WARBURTON.] So in _Macbeth_, + + --their malady _convinces_ + "The great essay of art." + +I.iv.124 (171,2) abus'd] _Deceiv'd._ + +I.iv.134 (172,3) approbation] Proof. + +I.iv.148 (172,4) You are a friend, and therein the wiser. If you buy +ladies' flesh at a million a dram, you cannot preserve it from tainting. +But, I see, you have some religion in you, that you fear] _You are a +friend_ to the lady, _and therein the wiser_, as you will not expose her +to hazard; and that you _fear_, is a proof of your _religious_ fidelity. +(see 1765, VII, 276, 1) + +I.iv.l60 (173,5) _Iach._ If I bring you no sufficient testimony that I +have enjoy'd the dearest bodily part of your mistress, my ten thousand +ducats are yours, so is my diamond too: if I come off, and leave her in +such honour as you have trust in, she your jewel, this your jewel, and +my gold are yours-- + + _Post._ I embrace these conditions] + +[W: bring you sufficient] I once thought this emendation right, but am +now of opinion, that Shakespeare intended that Iachimo, having gained +his purpose, should designedly drop the invidious and offensive part of +the wager, and to flatter Posthumus, dwell long upon the more pleasing +part of the representation. One condition of a wager implies the other, +and there is no need to mention both. + +I.v.18 (176,1) Other conclusions] Other _experiments_. _I commend_, says +WALTON, _an angler that tries_ conclusions, and improves his art. + +I.v.23 (175,2) Your highness/Shall from this practice but make hard your +heart] Thare is in this passage nothing that much requires a note, yet I +cannot forbear to push it forward into observation. The thought would +probably have been more amplified, had our author lived to be shocked +with such experiments as have been published in later times, by a race +of men that have practised tortures without pity, and related then +without shame, and are yet suffered to erect their heads among human +beings. + + "Cape saxa manu, cape robora, pastor." + +I.v.33-44 (175,3) I do not like her] This soliloquy is very +inartificial. The speaker is under no strong pressure of thought; he is +neither resolving, repenting, suspecting, nor deliberating, and yet +makes a long speech to tell himself what himself knows. + +I.v.54 (176,4) to shift his being] To change his abode. + +I.v.58 (118,5) What shalt thou expect,/To be depender on a thing that +leans?] That _inclines_ towards its fall. + +I.v.80 (177,7) Of leigers for her sweet] A _leiger_ ambassador, is one +that resides at a foreign court to promote his master's interest. + +I.vi.7 (178,9) + + Bless'd be those, + How mean soe'er, that have their honest wills, + Which seasons comfort] + +I am willing to comply with any meaning that can be extorted from the +present text, rather than change it, yet will propose, but with great +diffidence, a slight alteration: + + --Bless'd be those, + How mean soe'er, that have their honest wills, + _With reason's_comfort.-- + +Who gratify their innocent wishes with reasonable enjoyments. + +I.vi.35 (180,2) and the twinn'd stones/Upon the number'd beach?] I know +not well how to regulate this passage. _Number'd_ is perhaps _numerous_. +_Twinn'd stones_ I do not understand. _Twinn'd shells_, or _pairs of +shells_, are very common. For _twinn'd_, we might read _twin'd_; that +is, _twisted, convolved_; but this sense is more applicable to shells +than to stones. + +I.vi.44 (181,3) + + Sluttery, to such neat excellence oppos'd, + Should make desire vomit emptiness, + Not so allur'd to feed] + +[i.e. that appetite, which is not allured to feed on such excellence, +can have no stomach at all; but, though empty, must nauseate every +thing. WARB.] I explain this passage in a sense almost contrary. +Iachimo, in this counterfeited rapture, has shewn how the _eyes_ and the +_judgment_ would determine in favour of Imogen, comparing her with the +present mistress of Posthumus, and proceeds to say, that appetite too +would give the same suffrage. _Desire_, says he, when it approached +_sluttery_, and considered it in comparison with _such neat excellence_, +would not only be _not so allured to feed_, but, seized with a fit of +loathing, _would vomit emptiness_, would feel the convulsions of +disgust, though, being unfed, it had nothing to eject. [Tyrwhitt: vomit, +emptiness ... allure] This is not ill conceived; but I think my own +explanation right. _To vomit emptiness_ is, in the language of poetry, +to feel the convulsions of eructation without plenitude. (1773) + +I.vi.54 (182,4) He's strange, and peevish] He is a foreigner, easily +fretted. + +I.vi.97 (184,5) timely knowing] Rather timely _known_. + +I.vi.99 (184,6) What both you spur and stop] What it is that at once +incites you to speak, and restrains you from it. [I think Imogen means +to enquire what is that news, that intelligence, or information, you +profess to bring, and yet with-hold: at least, I think Dr. JOHNSON's +explanation a mistaken one, for Imogen's request supposes Iachimo an +agent, not a patient. HAWKINS.] I think my explanation true. (see 1765, +VII, 286, 7) + +I.vi.106 (184,7) + + join gripes with hands + Made hard with hourly falshood (falshood as + With labour) then lye peeping in an eye] + +The old edition reads, + + --join gripes with hands + Made hard with hourly falshood (_falshood _ as + With labour) then by peeping in an eye, &c. + +I read, + + --then _lye_ peeping-- + +The author of the present regulation of the text I do not know, but have +suffered it to stand, though not right. _Hard with falshood_ is, hard by +being often griped with frequent change of hands. + +I.vi.122 (185,8) With tomboys, hir'd with that self-exhibition/Which +your own coffers yield!] _Gross strumpets_, hired with the _very +pension_ which you allow your husband. + +I.vi.152 (186,9) As in a Romish stew] The stews of Rome are deservedly +censured by the reformed. This is one of many instances in which +Shakespeare has mingled in the manners of distant ages in this play. + +II.i.2 (188,1) kiss'd the jack upon an up-cast] He is describing his +fate at bowls. The _jack_ is the small bowl at which the others are +aimed. He who is nearest to it wins. _To kiss the jack_ is a state of +great advantage. (1773) + +II.i.15 (189,2) 2 _Lord_. No, my lord; nor crop the ears of them. +[_Aside_.] This, I believe, should stand thus: + + 1 _Lord_. No, my lord. + 2 _Lord_. Nor crop the ears of them, [_Aside_. + +II.i.26 (189,3) you crow, cock, with your comb on] The allusion is to a +fool's cap, which hath a _comb_ like a cock's. + +II.i.29 (189,4) every companion] The use of _companion_ was the same as +of _fellow_ now. It was a word of contempt. + +II.ii.12 (191,1) our Tarquin] The speaker is an Italian. + +II.ii.13 (191,2) Did softly press the rushes] It was the custom in the +time of our author to strew chambers with rushes, as we now cover them +with carpets. The practice is mentioned in _Caius de Ephemera +Britannica_. + +II.iii.24 (194,2) _His steeds to water at those springs On chalic'd +flowers that lies_] + +Hanmer reads, + + Each _chalic'd_ flower supplies; + +to escape a false concord: but correctness must not be obtained by such +licentious alterations. It may be noted, that the _cup_ of a flower is +called _calix_, whence _chalice_. + +II.iii.28 (195,3) _With, every thing that pretty bin_] is very properly +restored by Hanmer, for _pretty is_; but he too grammatically reads, + + With _all the things_ that pretty _bin_. + +II.iii.102 (197,5) one of your great knowing/Should learn, being taught, +forbearance] i.e. A man _who is taught forbearance should learn it_. + +II.iii.111 (198,7) so verbal] Is, so _verbose_, so full of talk. + +II.iii.118-129 (199,8) The contract you pretend with that base wretch] +Here Shakespeare has not preserved, with his common nicety, the +uniformity of character. The speech of Cloten is rough and harsh, but +certainly not the talk of one, + + Who can't take two from twenty, for his heart, + And leave eighteen.-- + +His argument is just and well enforced, and its prevalence is allowed +throughout all civil nations: as for rudeness, he seems not to be mach +undermatched. + +II.iii.124 (199,9) in self-figur'd knot] [This is nonsense. We should +read, + + --SELF-FINGER'D _knot_; + +WARBURTON.] But why nonsense? A _self-figured knot_ is a knot formed by +yourself. (see 1765, VII, 301, 8) + +II.iv.71 (204,4) And Cydnus swell'd above the banks, or for/The press of +boats, or pride] [This is an agreeable ridicule on poetical +exaggeration, which gives human passions to inanimate things: and +particularly, upon what he himself writes in the foregoing play on this +very subject: + + "--And made + The water, which they beat, to follow faster, + As amorous of their strokes." + +WARBURTON.] It is easy to sit down and give our author meanings which he +never had. Shakespeare has no great right to censure poetical +exaggeration, of which no poet is more frequently guilty. That he +intended to ridicule his own lines is very uncertain, when there are no +means of knowing which of the two plays was written first. The +commentator has contented himself to suppose, that the foregoing play in +his book was the play of earlier composition. Nor is the reasoning +better than the assertion. If the language of Iachimo be such as shews +him to be mocking the credibility of his hearer, his language is very +improper, when his business was to deceive. But the truth is, that his +language is such as a skilful villain would naturally use, a mixture of +airy triumph and serious deposition. His gaiety shews his seriousness to +be without anxiety, and his seriousness proves his gaiety to be without +art. + +II.iv.83 (205,5) never saw I figures/So likely to report themselves] So +near to speech. The Italians call a portrait, when the likeness is +remarkable, a _speaking picture_. + +II.iv.84 (205,6) the cutter/Was as another nature, dumb, out-went +her;/Motion and breath left out] [W: done; out-went her.] This +emendation I think needless. The meaning is this, The _sculptor_ was as +_nature_, but as _nature dumb_; he gave every thing that nature gives, +but _breath_ and _motion_. In _breath_ is included _speech_. + +II.iv.91 (205,7) _Post._ This is her honour!] [T: What's this t'her +honour?] This emendation has been followed by both the succeeding +editors, but I think it must be rejected. The expression is ironical. +Iachimo relates many particulars, to which Posthumus answers with +impatience, This is her honour! That is, And the attainment of this +knowledge is to pass for the corruption of her honour. + +II.iv.95 (206,8) if you can/Be pale] If you can forbear to flush your +cheek with rage. + +II.iv.110 (207,9) + + The vows of women + Of no more bondage be, to where they are made, + Than they are to their virtues] + +The love vowed by women no more abides with him to whom it is vowed, +than women adhere to their virtue. + +II.iv.127 (207,2) The cognizance] The badge; the token; the visible +proof. + +III.i.26 (211,2) and his shipping,/(Poor ignorant baubles!) on our +terrible seas] [_Ignorant_, for _of no use_. WARB.] Rather, +_unacquainted_ with the nature of our boisterous seas. + +III.i.51 (212,3) against all colour] Without any pretence of right. + +III.i.73 (213,5) keep at utterance] [i.e. At extreme distance. WARB.] +More properly, in a state of hostile defiance, and deadly opposition. + +III.i.73 (213,6) I am perfect] I am well informed. So, in Macbeth, "--in +your state of honour _I am perfect_." (see 1765, VII, 314,7) + +III.ii.4 (214,2) What false Italian (As poisonous tongu'd as handed)] +About Shakespeare's time the practice of poisoning was very common in +Italy, and the suspicion of Italian poisons yet more common. + +III.ii.9 (214,3) take in some virtue] To _take in_ a town, is to +_conquer_ it. + +III.ii.34 (215,6) For it doth physic love] That is, grief for absence, +keeps love in health and vigour. + +III.ii.47 (215,8) _loyal to his vow, and your increasing in love_] I +read, Loyal to his vow and _you_, increasing in love. + +III.ii.79 (216,1) A franklin's housewife] A _franklin_ is literally a +_freeholder_, with a small estate, neither _villain_ nor _vassal_. + +III.ii.80 (217,2) + + I see before me, man, nor here, nor here, + Nor what ensues; but have a fog in them, + That I cannot look thro'] + +This passage may, in my opinion, be very easily understood, without any +emendation. The lady says, "I can see neither one way nor other, before +me nor behind me, but all the ways are covered with an impenetrable +fog." There are objections insuperable to all that I can propose, and +since reason can give me no counsel, I will resolve at once to follow my +inclination. + +III.iii.5 (218,2) giants may jet through/And keep their impious turbans +on] The idea of a _giant_ was, among the readers of romances, who were +almost all the readers of those times, always confounded with that of a +Saracen. + +III.iii.16 (218,3) This service it not service, so being done,/But being +so allow'd] In war it is not sufficient to do duty well; the advantage +rises not from the act, but the acceptance of the act. + +III.iii.23 (219,5) Richer, than doing nothing for a babe] I have always +suspected that the right reading of this passage is what I had not in my +former edition the confidence to propose: Richer, than doing nothing for +a _brabe_. + +_Brabium_ is a badge of honour, or the ensign of an honour, or any thing +worn as a mask of dignity. The word was strange to the editors as it +will be to the reader: they therefore changed it to _babe_; and I am +forced to propose it without the support of any authority. _Brabium_ is +a word found in Holyoak's Dictionary, who terms it a _reward_. Cooper, +in his _Thesaurus_, defines it to be a _prize, or reward for any game_. +(1773) (rev. 1778, IX, 248, 8) + +III.iii.35 (219,6) To stride a limit] To overpass his bound. + +III.iii.35 (220,7) What should we speak of,/When we are as old as you?] +This dread of an old age, unsupplied with matter for discourse and +meditation, is a sentiment natural and noble. No state can be more +destitute than that of him who, when the delights of sense forsake him, +has no pleasures of the mind. + +III.iii.82 (221,9) + + tho' trained up thus meanly + I' the cave, wherein they bow, their thoughts do hit + The roof of palaces] + +[W: wherein they bow] HANMER reads, + + I' the cave, _here in this brow_.-- + I think the reading is this: + I' the cave, wherein the BOW, &c. + +That is, they are trained up in the _cave, where their thoughts_ in +hitting the _bow_, or arch of their habitation, _hit the roofs of +palaces_. In other words, though their condition is low, their thoughts +are high. The sentence is at last, as THEOBALD remarks, abrupt, but +perhaps no less suitable to Shakespeare. I know not whether Dr. +WARBURTON's conjecture be not better than mine. + +III.iii.101 (223,2) I stole these babes] Shakespeare seems to intend +Belarius for a good character, yet he makes him forget the injury which +he has done to the young princes, whom he has robbed of a kingdom only +to rob their father of heirs.--The latter part of this soliloquy is very +inartificial, there being no particular reason why Belarius should now +tell to himself what he could not know better by telling it. + +III.iv.15 (224,2) drug-damn'd Italy] This is another allusion to Italian +poisons. + +III.iv.39 (225,4) Kings, queens, and states] Persons of highest rank. + +III.iv.52 (225,6) Some jay of Italy,/Whose mother was her painting] +_Some jay of Italy_, made by art the creature, not of nature, but of +painting. In this sense _painting_ may be not improperly termed her +_mother_. (see 1765, VII, 325, 9) + +III.iv.63 (226,7) So thou, Posthumus,/Wilt lay the leaven on all proper +men] HANMER reads, + + --lay the _level_-- + +without any necessity. + +III.iv.97 (228,1) That now thou tir'st on] A hawk is said to _tire_ upon +that which he pecks; from _tirer_, French. + +III.iv.104 (228,2) + + I'll wake mine eye-balls blind first. + _Imo._ Wherefore then] + +This is the old reading. The modern editions for _wake_ read _break_, +and supply the deficient syllable by _ah_, wherefore. I read, I'll wake +mine eye-balls _out_ first, or, _blind_, first. + +III.iv.111 (228,3) To be unbent] To have thy bow unbent, alluding to a +hunter. + +III.iv.146 (229,4) + + Now, if you could wear a mind + Dark as your fortune is, and but disguise + That, which, to appear itself, must not yet be, + But by self-danger] + +To wear a dark mind, is to carry a mind impenetrable to the search of +others. _Darkness_ applied to the _mind_ is _secrecy_, applied to the +_fortune_ is _obscurity_. The next lines are obscure. _You must_, says +Pisanio, _disguise that_ greatness, _which, to appear_ hereafter _in its +proper form_, cannot yet appear without great _danger to itself_. (see +1765, VII, 329, 6) + +III.iv.149 (230,5) full of view] With opportunities of examining your +affairs with your own eyes. + +III.iv.155 (230,6) Though peril to my modesty, not death on't,/I would +adventure] I read, + + _Through_ peril-- + +_I would for such means adventure_ through _peril of my modesty_; I +would risque every thing but real dishonour. + +III.iv.162 (230,7) + + nay, you must + Forget that rarest treasure of your cheek; + Exposing it (but, oh, the harder heart! + Alack, no remedy)] + +I think it very natural to reflect in this distress on the cruelty of +Posthumus. Dr. WARBURTON proposes to read, + + --the harder _hap_!-- + +III.iv.177 (231,8) which you'll make him know] This is HANMER's reading. +The common books have it, + + --which _will_ make him know. + +Mr. THEOBALD, in one of bit long notes, endeavours to prove, that it +should be, + + --which will make him _so_. + +He is followed by Dr. WARBURTON. + +III.iv.184 (231,9) we'll even/All that good time will give us] We'll +make our work _even_ with our _time_; we'll do what time will allow. + +III.v.71 (235,2) + + And that she hath all courtly parts more exquisite + Than lady, ladies, woman; from every one + The best she hath] + +[The second line is intolerable nonsense. It should be read and pointed +thus, + + Than lady ladies; _winning_ from each one. + +WARBURTON.] + +I cannot perceive the second line to be intolerable, or to be nonsense. +The speaker only rises in his ideas. _She has all courtly parts_, says +he, _more exquisite than_ any _lady_, than all _ladies_, than all +_womankind_. Is this nonsense? + +III.v.101 (236,3) _Pia._ Or this, or perish] These words, I think, +belong to Cloten, who, requiring the paper, says, + + Let's see't: I will pursue her + Even to Augustus' throne. Or this, or perish. + +Then Pisanio giving the paper, says to himself, + + She's far enough, &c. + +III.vi.12 (239,1) To lapse in fullness/Is sorer, than to lye for need] +Is a _greater_, or _heavier_ crime. + +III.vi.23 (239,3) If any thing that's civil, speak; if savage,/Take, or +lend] [W: Take 'or 't end.] I suppose the emendation proposed will not +easily be received; it is strained and obscure, and the objection +against Hanmer's reading is likewise very strong. I question whether, +after the words, _if savage_, a line be not lost. I can offer nothing +better than to read, + + --Ho! who's here? + If any thing that's civil, _take or lend_, + If savage, _speak_. + +If you are _civilised_ and _peaceable, take_ a price for what I want, or +_lend_ it for a future recompence; if you are _rough inhospitable_ +inhabitants of the mountain, _speak_, that I may know my state. + +III.vi.77 (242,4) then had my prize/Been less; and so more equal +ballasting] HANMER reads plausibly, but without necessity, _price_, for +_prize_, and _balancing_, for _ballasting_. He is followed by Dr. +WARBURTON. The meaning is, Had I been a less prize, I should not have +been too heavy for Posthumus. + +III.vi.86 (243,5) That nothing-gift of differing multitudes] [T: +deferring] He is followed by Sir T. HANMER and Dr. WARBURTON; but I do +not see why _differing_ may not be a general epithet, and the expression +equivalent to the _many-headed_ rabble. + +III.vii.8 (244,2) + + and to you, the tribunes, + For this immediate levy, he commands + His absolute commission] + +The plain meaning is, he _commands_ the commission to be given to you. +So we say, I _ordered_ the materials to the workmen. + +IV.ii.10 (245,1) Stick to your journal course: the breach of custom/ Is +breach of all] Keep your _daily_ course uninterrupted; if the stated +plan of life is once broken, nothing follows but confusion. + +IV.ii.17 (246,2) How much the quantity] I read, _As_ much the +quantity.-- + +IV.ii.38 (247,3) I could not stir him] Not _move_ him to tell his story. + +IV.ii.39 (247,4) gentle, but unfortunate] _Gentle_, is _well born_, of +birth above the vulgar. + +IV.ii.59 (248,6) And let the stinking elder, Grief, untwine/ His +perishing root, with the encreasing vine!] Shakespeare had only seen +_English vines_ which grow against walls, and therefore may be sometimes +entangled with the _elder_. Perhaps we should read _untwine from the +vine_. + +IV.ii.105 (251,9) the snatches in his vice,/And burst of speaking] This +is one of our author's strokes of observation. An abrupt and tumultuous +utterance very frequently accompanies a confused and cloudy +understanding. + +IV.ii.111 (251,1) for the effect of judgment/Is oft the cause of fear] +HANMER reads, with equal justness of sentiment, + + --for defect of judgment + Is oft the _cure_ of fear.-- + +But, I think, the play of _effect_ and _cause_ more resembling the +manner of our author. + +IV.ii.118 (252,2) I am perfect, what] I am _well informed_, what. So in +this play, + + I'm _perfect_, the Pannonians are in arms. + +IV.ii.121 (252,3) take us in] To _take in_, was the phrase in use for to +_apprehend_ an out-law, or to make him amenable to public justice. + +IV.ii.148 (253,5) the boy Fidele's sickness/Did make my way long forth] +Fidele's sickness made my _walk forth_ from the cave _tedious_. + +IV.ii.159 (254,6) revenges/That possible strength might meet] Such +pursuit of vengeance as fell within any possibility of opposition. + +IV.ii.168 (254,7) I'd let a parish of such Clotens blood] [W: marish] +The learned commentator has dealt the raproach of nonsense very +liberally through this play. Why this is nonsense, I cannot discover. I +would, says the young prince, to recover Fidele, kill as many Clotens as +would fill a _parish_. + +IV.ii.246 (258,1) He was paid for that] HANMER reads, + + He _has_ paid for that:-- + +rather plausibly than rightly. _Paid_ is for _punished_. So JONSON, + + "Twenty things more, my friend, which you know due, + For which, or pay me quickly, or I'll _pay_ you." + +(see 1765, VII, 356, 3) + +IV.ii.247 (258,2) reverence,/(That angel of the world)] _Reverence_, or +due regard to subordination, is the power that keeps peace and order in +the world. + +IV.ii.268 (259,4) _The scepter, learning, physic, must/ All follow this, +and come to dust_] The poet's sentiment seems to have been this. All +human excellence is equally the subject to the stroke of death: neither +the power of kings, nor the science of scholars, nor the art of those +whose immediate study is the prolongation of life, can protect then from +the final destiny of man. (1773) + +IV.ii.272 (260,5) _Fear not slander, censure rash_] Perhaps, Fear not +_slander's_ censure rash. + +IV.ii.275 (260,6) Consign to thee] Perhaps, Consign to _this_. And in +the former stanza, for _all follow this_, we might read, _all follow_ +thee. + +IV.ii.280 (260,7) Both. _Quiet consummation have;/ And renowned be thy +grave!_] For the obsequies of Fidele, a song was written by my unhappy +friend, Mr. William Collins of Chichester, a man of uncommon learning +and abilities. I shall give it a place at the end in honour of his +memory. + +IV.ii.315 (262,1) Conspired with] The old copy reads thus, + + --thou + Conspir'd with that irregulous divel, Cloten. + +I suppose it should be, + + Conspir'd with _th' irreligious_ devil, Cloten. + +IV.ii.346 (263,2) Last night the very gods shew'd me a vision] [W: +warey] Of this meaning I know not any example, nor do I see any need of +alteration. It was no common dream, but sent from _the very gods_, or +the gods themselves. + +IV.ii.363 (264,3) + + who was he, + That, otherwise than noble nature did, + Hath alter'd that good figure?] + +Here are many words upon a very slight debate. The sense is not much +cleared by either critic [Theobald and Warburton]. The question is +asked, not about a _body_, but a _picture_, which is not very apt to +grow shorter or longer. To _do_ a picture, and a picture is well _done_, +are standing phrases; the question therefore is, Who has altered this +picture, so as to make it otherwise than nature _did_ it. + +IV.ii.389 (266,5) these poor pickaxes] Meaning her fingers. + +IV.iii (266,1) _Cymbeline's palace_] This scene is omitted against all +authority by Sir T. HANMER. It is indeed of no great use in the progress +of the fable, yet it makes a regular preparation for the next act. + +IV.iii.22 (267,3) our jealousy/Does yet depend] My suspicion is yet +undetermined; if I do not condemn you, I likewise have not acquitted +you. We now say, the _cause_ is _depending_. + +IV.iii.29 (267,4) Your preparation can affront no less/Than what you +hear of] Your forces are able to _face_ such an army as we hear the +enemy will bring against us. + +IV.iii.44 (268,6) to the note o' the king] I will so distinguish myself, +the king shall remark my valour. + +IV.iv.11 (269,1) a render/Where we have liv'd] An account of our place +of abode. This dialogue is a just representation of the superfluous +caution of an old man. + +IV.iv.13 (269,2) That which we have done, whose answer would be death] +The _retaliation_ of the death of Cloten would be _death_, &c. + +IV.iv.18 (269,3) their quarter'd fires] Their fires regularly disposed. + +V.i (271,1) _Enter Posthumus, with a bloody handkerchief_] The bloody +token of Imogen's death, which Pisanio in the foregoing act determined +to send. + +V.i.1-33 (271,2) Yea, bloody cloth, I'll keep thee] This is a soliloquy +of nature, uttered when the effervescence of a mind agitated and +perturbed spontaneously and inadvertently discharges itself in words. +The speech, throughout all its tenor, if the last conceit be excepted, +seems to issue warm from the heart. He first condemns his own violence; +then tries to disburden himself, by imputing part of the crime to +Pisanio; he next sooths his mind to an artificial and momentary +tranquility, by trying to think that he has been only an instrument of +the gods for the happiness of Imogen. He is now grown reasonable enough +to determine, that having done so much evil he will do no more; that he +will not fight against the country which he has already injured; but as +life is not longer supportable, he will die in a just cause, and die +with the obscurity of a man who does not think himself worthy to be +remembered. + +V.i.9 (271,3) to put on] Is to _incite_, to _instigate_. + +V.i.14 (272,4) To second ills with ills, each elder worse] For this +reading all the later editors have contentedly taken, + + --each worse than other, + +without enquiries whence they have received it. Yet they know, or might +know, that it has no authority. The original copy reads, + + --each elder worse, + +The last deed is certainly not the oldest, but Shakespeare calls the +_deed_ of an _elder_ man an _elder deed_. + +V.i.15 (272,5) And make them dread it, to the doers' thrift] [T: +dreaded, to] This emendation ia followed by HANMER. Dr. WARBURTON reads, +I know not whether by the printer's negligence, + + And make them _dread_, to the doers' thrift. + +There seems to be no very satisfactory sense yet offered. I read, but +with hesitation, + + And make them _deeded_, to the doers' thrift. + +The word _deeded_ I know not indeed where to find; but Shakespeare has, +in another sense _undeeded_, in _Macbeth_: + + "--my sword + "I sheath again _undeeded_."-- + +I will try again, and read thus, + + --others you permit + To second ills with ills, each other worse, + And make them _trade it_, to the doers' thrift. + +_Trade_ and _thrift_ correspond. Our author plays with _trade_, as it +signifies a lucrative vocation, or a frequent practice. So Isabella +says, + + "Thy sins, not accidental, but a _trade_." + +V.i.16 (273,9) Do your best wills,/And make me blest to obey!] So the +copies. It was more in the manner of our author to have written, + + --Do your blest wills, + And make me blest t' obey.-- + +V.iii.41 (276,3) A rout, confusion thick] [W: confusion-thick] I do not +see what great addition is made to _fine diction_ by this compound. Is +it not as natural to enforce the principal event in a story by +repetition, as to enlarge the principal figure in a figure? + +V.iii.51 (276,4) bugs] Terrors. + +V.iii.53 (277,5) Nay, do not wonder at it] [T: do but] There is no need +of alteration. Posthumus first bids him not wonder, then tells him in +another mode of reproach, that wonder is all that he was made for. + +V.iii.79 (278,8) great the answer be] _Answer_, as once in this play +before, is _retaliation_. + +V.iii.87 (278,9) That gave the affront with them] That is, that turned +their faces to the enemy. + +V.iv.1 (279,1) You shall not now be stolen, you have locks upon you;/So, +graze, as you find pasture] This wit of the gaoler alludes to the custom +of putting a lock on a horse's leg, when he is turned to pasture. + +V.iv.27 (280,3) If you will take this audit, take this life,/And cancel +those cold bonds] This equivocal use of _bonds_ is another instance of +our author's infelicity in pathetic speeches. + +V.iv.45 (281,5) That from me my Posthumus ript] The old copy reads, + + That from me _was_ Posthumus ript. + +Perhaps we should read, + + That from _my womb_ Posthumus ript, + Came crying 'mongst his foes. + +V.iv.146 (284,7) + + 'Tis still a dream; or else such stuff, as madmen + Tongue, and brain not: either both or nothing: + Or senseless speaking, or a speaking such + As sense cannot untie. Be what it is, + The action of my life is like it] + +The meaning, which is too thin to be easily caught, I take to be this: +_This is a dream or madness, or both--or nothing--but whether it be a +speech without consciousness_, as in a dream, _or a speech +unintelligible_, as in madness, be it as it is, _it is like my course of +life_. We might perhaps read, + + Whether _both, or nothing_-- + +V.iv,164 (285,8) sorry that you have paid too much, and sorry that you +are paid too much] _Tavern bills_, says the gaoler, _are the sadness of +parting, as the procuring of mirth--you depart reeling with too much +drink; sorry that you have paid too much, and_--what? _sorry that you +are paid too much_. Where is the opposition? I read, _And_ merry _that +you are paid_ so _much_. I take the second _paid_ to be _paid_, for +_appaid, filled, satiated_. + +V.iv.171 (286,9) debtor and creditor] For an _accounting book_. + +V.iv.188 (286,1) jump the after-enquiry] That is, _venture_ at it +without thought. So _Macbeth_, + + "We'd _jump_ the life to come." (see 1765, VII, 382, 7) + +V.v.9 (288,1) one that promis'd nought/But beggary and poor looks] To +promise _nothing but_ poor _looks_, may be, to give no promise of +courageous behaviour. + +V.v.88 (291,2) So feat] So ready; so dextrous in waiting. + +V.v.93 (291,3) His favour is familiar to me] I am acquainted with his +countenance. + +V.v.120 (292,4) One sand another/Not more resembles. That sweet rosy +lad] [W: resembles, than be th' sweet] There was no great difficulty in +the line, which, when properly pointed, needs no alteration. + +V.v.203 (296,8) averring notes/Of chamber-hanging, pictures] Such marks +of the chamber and pictures, as _averred_ or confirmed my report. + +V.v.220 (297,9) the temple/Of virtue was she; yea, and she herself] That +is, She was not only _the temple of virtue_, but _virtue herself_. + +V.v.233 (297,1) these staggers] This wild and delirious perturbation. +_Staggers_ is the horse's apoplexy. + +V.v.262 (298,2) Think, that you are upon a rock; and now/Throw me again] +In this speech, or in the answer, there is little meaning. I suppose, +she would say, Consider such another act as equally fatal to me with +precipitation from a rock, and now let me see whether you will repeat +it. + +V.v.308 (300,3) By tasting of our wrath] [W: hasting] There is no need +of change; the consequence is taken for the whole action; _by tasting_ +is _by forcing us to make thee taste_. + +V.v.334 (301,5) Your pleasure was my near offence, my punishment,/ +Itself, and all my treason] I think this passage may better be read +thus, + + Your pleasure was my _dear_ offence, my punishment + Itself _was_ all my treason; that I suffer'd, + Was all the harm I did.-- + +The offence which cost me so _dear_ was only your caprice. My sufferings +have been all my crime. + +V.v.352 (302,6) + + Thou weep'st, and speak'st. + The service that you three have done is more + Unlike than this thou tell'st] + +"Thy tears give testimony to the sincerity of thy relation; and I have +the less reason to be incredulous, because the actions which you have +done within my knowledge are more incredible than the story which you +relate." The king reasons very justly. + +V.v.378 (303,7) When ye were so, indeed] The folio gives, + + When _we_ were so, indeed. + +If this be right, we must read, + + _Imo._ I, you brothers. + _Arv._ When we were so, indeed. + +V.v.382 (303,8) fierce abridgment] _Fierce_, is _vehement, rapid_. + +V.v.459 (306,1) My peace we will begin] I think it better to read, + + _By_ peace we will begin.-- + +(307) General Observation. This play has many just sentiments, some +natural dialogues, and some pleasing scenes, but they are obtained at +the expence of much incongruity. To remark the folly of the fiction, the +absurdity of the conduct, the confusion of the names, and manners of +different times, and the impossibility of the events in any system of +life, were to waste criticism upon unresisting imbecility, upon faults +too evident for detection, and too gross for aggravation. + + + + +KING LEAR + + +I.i.4 (311,2) in the division of the kingdom] There is something of +obscurity or inaccuracy in this preparatory scene. The king has already +divided his kingdom, and yet when he enters he examines his daughters, +to discover in what proportions he should divide it. Perhaps Kent and +Gloucester only were privy to his design, which he still kept in his own +hands, to be changed or performed as subsequent reasons should determine +him. + +I.i.37 (313,7) express our darker purpose] [_Darker_, for more secret; +not for indirect, oblique. WARBURTON.] This word may admit a further +explication. _We shall express our darker purpose_: that is, we have +already made known in some measure our design of parting the kingdom; we +will now discover what has not been told before, the reasons by which we +shall regulate the partition. This interpretation will justify or +palliate the exordial dialogue. + +I.i.39 (313,8) and 'tis our fast intent] [This is an interpolation of +Mr. Lewis Theobald, for want of knowing the meaning of the old reading +in the quarto of 1608, and first folio of 1623; where we find it, + + --and 'tis our _first_ intent. + +WARBURTON.] + +_Fast_ is the reading of the first folio, and, I think, the true +reading. + +I.i.44 (314,9) We have this hour a constant will] _constant will_ seems +a confirmation of _fast_ intent. + +I.i.62 (314,2) Beyond all manner of so much I love you] Beyond all +assignable quantity. I love you beyond limits, and cannot say it is _so +much_, for how much soever I should name, it would yet be more. + +I.i.73 (315,4) + + I find, she names my very deed of love, + Only she comes too short; that I profess] + +_That_ seems to stand without relation, but is referred to _find_, the +first conjunction being inaccurately suppressed. I find _that_ she names +my deed, I find that I profess, &c. + +I.i.76 (315,5) Which the most precious square of sense possesses] +[Warburton explained "square" as the "four nobler senses"] This is +acute; but perhaps _square_ means only _compass, comprehension_. + +I.i.80 (315,6) More pond'rous than my tongue] [W: their tongue] I think +the present reading right. + +I.i.84 (316,8) Now our joy] Here the true reading is picked out of two +copies. Butter's quarto reads, + + --_But_ now our joy, + Although the last, not least in our dear love, + What can you say to win a third, &c. + +The folio, + + --Now our joy, + Although our last, _and_ least; to whose young love + The vines of France, and milk of Burgundy, + Strive to be int'ress'd. _What can you say?_ + +I.i.138 (318,5) The sway, revenue, execution of the rest] [W: of th' +hest] I do not see any great difficulty in the words, _execution of the +rest_, which are in both the old copies. The _execution of the rest_ is, +I suppose, _all the other business_. Dr. Warburton's own explanation of +his amendment confutes it; if _hest_ be a _regal comnand_, they were, by +the grant of Lear, to have rather the _hest_ than the execution. + +1.1.149 (319,6) + + Think'st thou, that duty shall have dread to speak, + When power to flattery bows? To plainness honour's bound, + When majesty stoops to folly. Reverse thy doom, + And in thy best consideration check + This hideous rashness: answer my life my judgment, + Thy youngest daughter does not love thee least] + +I have given this passage according to the old folio, from which the +modern editions have silently departed, for the sake of better numbers, +with a degree of insincerity, which, if not sometimes detected and +censured, must impair the credit of ancient books. One of the editors, +and perhaps only one, knew how much mischief may be done by such +clandestine alterations. The quarto agrees with the folio, except that +for _reserve thy state_, it gives, _reverse thy doom_, and has _stoops_ +instead of _falls to folly_. The meaning of _answer my life my +judgment_, is, _Let my life be answerable for my judgment_, or, _I will +stake my life on my opinion_.--The reading which, without any right, has +possessed all the modern copies is this; + + --to plainness honour + Is bound, when majesty to folly falls. + Reserve thy state; with better judgment check + This hideous rashness; with my life I answer, + Thy youngest daughter, &c. + +I am inclined to think that _reverse thy doom_ was Shakespeare's first +reading, as more apposite to the present occasion, and that he changed +it afterwards to _reserve thy state_, which conduces more to the +progress of the action. + +I.i.161 (320,9) The true blank of thine eye] The _blank_ is the _white_ +or exact mark at which the arrow is shot. _See better_, says Kent, _and +keep me always in your view_. + +I.i.172 (320,1) strain'd pride] The oldest copy reads _strayed pride_; +that is, _pride exorbitant_; pride passing due bounds. + +I.i.174 (320,3) Which nor our nature, nor our place, can bear;/ Our +potency made good] [T: (Which ... bear) ... made good] [Warburton +defended "make"] Theobald only inserted the parenthesis; he found _made +good_ in the best copy of 1623. Dr. Warburton has very acutely explained +and defended the reading that he has chosen, but I am not certain that +he has chosen right. If we take the reading of the folio, _our potency_ +made _good_, the sense will be less profound indeed, but less intricate, +and equally commodious. _As thou hast come with unreasonable pride +between the_ sentence _which I had passed, and the_ power _by which I +shall execute it_, take thy reward _in another sentence which shall_ +make good, _shall establish, shall maintain_, that power. If Dr. +Warburton's explanation be chosen, and every reader will wish to choose +it, we may better read, + + Which nor our nature, nor our state can bear, + _Or_ potency make good.-- + +Mr. Davies thinks, that _our potency made good_ relates only to _our +place_.--Which our nature cannot bear, nor our _place_, without +departure from the _potency_ of that place. This is easy and +clear.--Lear, who is characterized as hot, heady, and violent, is, with +very just observation of life, made to entangle himself with vows, upon +any sudden provocation to vow revenge, and then to plead the obligation +of a vow in defence of implacability. + +I.i.181 (322,4) By Jupiter] Shakespeare makes his Lear too much a +mythologist: he had Hecate and Apollo before. + +I.i.190 (322,6) He'll shape his old course] He will follow his old +maxims; he will continue to act upon the same principles. + +I.i.201 (323,7) If aught within that little, seeming, substance] +_Seeming_ is _beautiful_. + +I.i.209 (323,9) Election makes not up on such conditions] To _make up_ +signifies to complete, to conclude; as, _they made up the bargain_; but +in this sense it has, I think, always the subject noun after it. To +_make up_, in familiar language, is, neutrally, _to come forward_, to +_make advances_, which, I think, is meant here. + +I.i.221 (324,2) + + Sure her offence + Must be of such unnatural degree, + That monsters it: or your fore-vouch'd affection + Fall into taint] + +The common books read, + + --or your fore-vouch'd affection + Fall'n into taint:-- + +This line has no clear or strong sense, nor is this reading authorized +by any copy, though it has crept into all the late editions. The early +quarto reads, + + --or you for vouch'd affections + Fall'n into taint.-- + +The folio, + + --or your fore-vouch'd affection + Fall into taint.-- + +_Taint_ is used for _corruption_ and for _disgrace_. If therefore we +take the oldest reading it may be reformed thus: + + --sure her offence + Must be of such unnatural degree, + That monsters it; or you for vouch'd affection + Fall into taint. + +Her offence must be prodigious, or _you_ must _fal1 into reproach_ for +having _vouched affection_ which you did not feel. If the reading of the +folio be preferred, we may with a very slight change produce the same +sense: + + --sure her offence + Must be of such unnatural degree, + That monsters it, or your fore-vouch'd affection + _Falls_ into taint.-- + +That is, _falls into reproach_ or _censure_. But there is another +possible sense. _Or_ signifies _before_, and _or ever_ is _before ever_; +the meaning in the folio may therefore be, _Sure her crime must be +monstrous_ before _your affection can be affected with hatred_. Let the +reader determine.--As I am not much a friend to conjectural emendation, +I should prefer the latter sense, which requires no change of reading. + +I.i.243 (325,3) from the intire point] _Intire_, for right, true. WARB.] +Rather, single, unmixed with other considerations. + +I.i.264 (326,5) Thou losest here, better where to find] _Here_ and +_where_ have the power of nouns. Thou losest this residence to find a +better residence in another place. + +I.i.282 (326,6) And well are worth the want that you have wanted] [This +I take to be the poet's meaning, stript of the jingle which makes it +dark: "You well deserve to meet with that _want_ of love from your +husband, which you have professed to _want_ for our father." THEOBALD.] +[W: have vaunted] I think the common reading very suitable to the manner +of our author, and well enough explained by Theobald. + +I.i.283 (327,7) plaited cunning] i.e. _complicated, involved_ cunning. +(1773) + +I.ii.3 (328,2) Stand in the plague of custom] The word _plague_ is in +all the copies; I can scarcely think it right, nor can I yet reconcile +myself to the emendation proposed, though I have nothing better to offer +[Warburton had proposed _plage_]. + +I.ii.21 (330,7) Shall be the legitimate] [Hanmer: toe th'] Hanmer's +emendation will appear very plausible to him that shall consult the +original reading. Butter's quarto reads, + + --Edmund the base + Shall _tooth'_ legitimate.-- + +The folio, + + --Edmund the base + Shall _to th'_ legitimate.-- + +Hanmer, therefore, could hardly be charged with coining a word, though +his explanation may be doubted. To _toe_ him, is perhaps to _kick_ him +_out_, a phrase yet in vulgar use; or, to _toe_, may be literally to +_supplant_. The word _be_ has no authority. + +I.ii.24 (331,1) subscrib'd his power!] To subscribe, is, to transfer by +signing or _subscribing_ a writing of testimony. We now use the term, He +_subscribed_ forty pounds to the new building. + +I.ii.25 (331,2) Confin'd to exhibition!] Is _allowance_. The term is yet +used in the universities. + +I.ii.25 (331,3) All this done/Upon the gad!] So the old copies; the +later editions read, + + --All _is gone_ + Upon the gad!-- + +which, besides that it is unauthorized, is less proper. _To_ do upon the +_gad_, is, to act by the sudden stimulation of caprice, as cattle run +madding when they are stung by the gad fly. + +I.ii.47 (332,4) taste of my virtue] Though _taste_ may stand in this +place, yet I believe we should read, _assay_ or _test_ of my virtue: +they are both metallurgical terms, and properly joined. So in Hamlet, + + Bring me to the _test_. + +I.ii.51 (323,6) idle and fond] Weak and foolish. + +I.ii.95 (333,7) pretence] _Pretence_ is design, purpose. So afterwards +in this play, + + _Pretence_ and purpose of unkindness. + +I.ii.106 (333,8) wind me into him] I once thought it should be read, +_you_ into him; but, perhaps, it is a familiar phrase, like _do me +this_. + +I.ii.107 (333,9) I would unstate myself to be in a due resolution] [i.e. +I will throw aside all consideration of my relation to him, that I may +act as justice requires. WARBURTON.] Such is this learned man's +explanation. I take the meaning to be rather this, _Do you frame the +business_, who can act with less emotion; _I would unstate myself_; it +would in me be a departure from the paternal character, _to be in a due +resolution_, to be settled and composed on such an occasion. The words +_would_ and _should_ are in old language often confounded. + +I.ii.l09 (334,1) convey the business] [_Convey_, for introduce. WARB.] +To _convey_ is rather to _carry through_ than to introduce; in this +place it is to _manage artfully_: we say of a juggler, that he has a +clean _conveyance_. + +I.ii.112 (334,2) These late eclipses in the sun and moon portend no good +to us: tho' the wisdom of nature can reason it thus and thus, yet nature +finds itself scourg'd by the frequent effects] That is, though natural +philosophy can give account of eclipses, yet we feel their consequences. + +I.ii.156 (338,8) I promise you, the effects he writes of, succeed +unhappily] The folio edition commonly differs from the first quarto, by +augmentations or insertions, but in this place it varies by omission, +and by the omission of something which naturally introduces the +following dialogue. It is easy to remark, that in this speech, which +ought, I think, to be inserted as it now is in the text, Edmund, with +the common craft of fortune-tellers, mingles the past and future, and +tells of the future only what he already foreknows by confederacy, or +can attain by probable conjecture. (see 1765, VI, 27, 6) + +I.ii.178 (339,1) that with the mischief of your person it would scarcely +allay] This reading is in both copies; yet I believe the author gave it, +_that_ but _with the mischief_ of your person it would scarce allay. + +I.iii.19 (341,2) Old fools are babes again; and must be us'd/ With +checks, as flatteries when they are seen abus'd] These lines hardly +deserve a note, though Mr. Theobald thinks them _very fine_. Whether +_fools_ or _folks_ should be read is not worth enquiry. The controverted +line is yet in the old quarto, not as the editors represent it, but +thus: + + With checks as flatteries when they are seen abus'd. + +I am in doubt whether there is any error of transcription. The sense +seems to be this: _Old men must be treated with checks_, when as _they +are seen to be deceived with flatteries_: or, _when they are weak enough +to be_ seen abused by flatteries, they are then weak enough to be _used +with checks_. There is a play of the words _used_ and _abused_. To +_abuse_ is, in our author, very frequently the same as to _deceive_. +This construction is harsh and ungrammatical; Shakespeare perhaps +thought it vicious, and chose to throw away the lines rather than +correct them, nor would now thank the officiousness of his editors, who +restore what they do not understand. + +I.iv.118 (347,5) Would I had two coxcombs, and two daughters] Two fools +caps, intended, as it seems, to mark double folly in the man that gives +all to his daughters. + +I.iv.133 (347,7) Lend less than thou owest] That is, _do not lend all +that thou hast_. To _owe_, in old English, is _to possess_. If _owe_ be +taken for _to be in debt_, the more prudent precept would be, Lend +_more_ than thou owest. + +I.iv.153-170 (348,9) This dialogue, from _No, lad; teach me_, down to, +_Give me an egg_, was restored from the first edition by Mr. Theobald. +It is omitted in the folio, perhaps for political reasons, as it seemed +to censure monopolies. + +I.iv.181 (349,2) Fools ne'er had less grace in a year] There never was a +time when fools were less in favour; and the reason is, that they were +never so little wanted, for wise men now supply their place. Such I +think is the meaning. The old edition has _wit_ for _grace_. + +I.iv.219 (350,5) That's a sheal'd peascod] i.e. Now a mere husk, which +contains nothing. The outside of a king remains, but all the intrinsic +parts of royalty are gone: he has nothing to give. (1773) + +I.iv.245 (351,3) Whoop, Jug] There are in the fool's speeches several +passages which seem to be proverbial allusions, perhaps not now to be +understood. + +I.iv.256 (352,1) _Fool_. Which they will make an obedient father] [This +line I have restored from the quarto. STEEVENS] This note [Tyrwhitt's, +quoted by Steevens] is written with confidence disproportionate to the +conviction which it can bring. Lear might as well know by the marks and +tokens arising from sovereignty, knowledge, and reason, that he had or +had not daughters, as he could know by any thing else. But, says he, if +I judge by these tokens, I find the persuasion false by which I long +thought myself the father of daughters. (1773) + +I.iv.302 (355,7) from her derogate body] [_Derogate_ for _unnatural_. +WARB.] Rather, I think, _degraded; blasted_. + +I.iv.320 (356,9) + + That these hot tears, which break from me perforce, + Should make thee worth them.--Blasts and fogs upon thee! + The untented woundings of a father's curse + Pierce every sense about thee!--Old fond eyes, + Beweep this cause again] + +I will transcribe this passage from the first edition, that it may +appear to those who are unacquainted with old books, what is the +difficulty of revision, and what indulgence is due to those that +endeavour to restore corrupted passages.--_That these hot tears, that +breake from me perforce, should make the worst blasts and fogs upon the +untender woundings of a father's curse, peruse every sense about the old +fond eyes, beweep this cause again, &c._ + +I.iv.362 (358,3) compact it more] Unite one circumstance with another, +so as to make a consistent account. + +I.iv.366 (358,4) You are much more at task for want of wisdom] It is a +common phrase now with parents and governesses. _I'll take you to task_, +i.e. _I will reprehend and correct you. To be at task_, therefore, is to +be liable to _reprehension and correction_. (1773) + +I.v.5 (358,1) I shall be there afore you] He seems to intend to go to +his daughter, but it appears afterwards that he is going to the house of +Glo'ster. + +I.v.25 (359,2) I did her wrong] He is musing on Cordelia. + +I.v.42 (359,3) To take it again perforce!] He is meditating on the +resumption of his royalty. + +II.i.9 (360,1) ear-kissing arguments] Subjects of discourse; topics. + +II.i.19 (361,2) queazy question] Something of a _suspicious, +questionable, and uncertain nature_. This is, I think, the meaning. + +II.i.27 (361,4) have you nothing said/Upon his party 'gainst the duke of +Albany?] I cannot but think the line corrupted, and would read, + + _Against_ his party, _for_ the duke of Albany? + +II.i.57 (363,7) gasted] Frighted. + +II.i.59 (363,8) Not in this land shall he remain uncaught;/And +found--Dispatch] [Not in this land shall he remain uncaught; And found +dispatch--the noble duke, &c.] + +[W: found, dispatch'd.] I do not see how this change mends the sense: I +think it may be better regulated as in the page above. The sense is +interrupted. He shall be caught--and found, _he shall be punished_. +Dispatch. + +II.i.67 (363,2) And found him pight to do it, with curst speech] _Pight_ +is _pitched_, fixed, settled. _Curst_ is severe, harsh, vehemently +angry. + +II.i.122 (366,7) Occasions, noble Glo'ster, of some prize] [W: poize] +_Prize_, or _price_, for value. (1773) + +II.i.126 (366,8) from our home] Not at home, but at some other place. + +II.ii.9 (367,1) Lipsbury pinfold] The allusion which seems to be +contained in this line I do not understand. In the violent eruption of +reproaches which bursts from Kent in this dialogue, there are some +epithets which the commentators have left unexpounded, and which I am +not very able to make clear. Of a _three-suited knave_ I know not the +meaning, unless it be that he has different dresses for different +occupations. _Lilly-liver'd_ is _cowardly_; _white-blooded_ and +_white-liver'd_ are still in vulgar use. An _one-trunk-inheriting +slave_, I take to be a wearer of old cast-off cloaths, an inheritor of +torn breeches. + +II.ii.36 (368,4) barber-monger] Of this word I do not clearly see the +force. + +II.ii.39 (368,5) Vanity the puppet's] Alluding to the mysteries or +allegorical shews, in which vanity, iniquity, and other vices, were +personified. + +II.ii.45 (369,6) neat slave] You mere slave, you very slave. + +II.ii.69 (369,8) Thou whoreson zed; thou unnecessary letter!] I do not +well understand how a man is reproached by being called _zed_, nor how Z +is an _unnecessary letter_. Scarron compares his deformity to the shape +of Z, and it may be a proper word of insult to a crook-backed man; but +why should Gonerill's steward be crooked, unless the allusion be to his +bending or cringing posture in the presence of his superiors. Perhaps it +was written, _thou whoreson_ C (for cuckold) _thou unnecessary letter_. +C is a letter unnecessary in our alphabet, one of its two sounds being +represented by S, and one by K. But all the copies concur in the common +reading. + +II.ii.87 (371,3) epileptic visage!] The frighted countenance of a man +ready to fall in a fit. + +II.ii.103 (372,5) constrains the garb/Quite from his nature] Forces his +_outside_ or his _appearance_ to something totally _different from_ his +natural disposition. + +II.ii.109 (372,8) Than twenty silly ducking observants] [W: silky] The +alteration is more ingenious than the arguments by which it is +supported. + +II.ii.119 (373,8) though I should win your displeasure to intreat me +to't] Though I should win you, displeased as you now are, to like me so +well as to intreat me to be a knave. + +II.ii.167 (375,3) + + Good king, that must approve the common saw! + Thou out of heaven's benediction com'at + To the warm sun!] + +That art now to exemplify the common proverb, _That out of_, &c. That +changest better for worse. Hanmer observes, that it is a proverbial +saying, applied to those who are turned out of house and home to the +open weather. It was perhaps first used of men dismissed from an +hospital, or house of charity, such as was erected formerly in many +places for travellers. Those houses had names properly enough alluded to +by _heaven's benediction_. + +II.ii.173 (376,4) + + I know 'tis from Cordelia; + Who hath most fortunately been inform'd + Of my obscur'd coarse, and shall find time + From this enormous state, seeking to give + Losses their remedies] + +This passage, which some of the editors have degraded, as spurious, to +the margin, and others have silently altered, I have faithfully printed +according to the quarto, from which the folio differs only in +punctuation. The passage is very obscure, if not corrupt. Perhaps it may +be read thus: + + --Cordelia--has been--informed. + Of my obscur'd course, and shall find time + From this enormous state-seeking, to give + Losses their remedies.-- + +Cordelia is informed of our affairs, and when the _enormous_ care of +_seeking her fortune_ will allow her time, she will employ it in +remedying losses. This is harsh; perhaps something better may be found. +I have at least supplied the genuine reading of the old copies. +_Enormous_ is unwonted, out of rule, out of the ordinary course of +things. + +II.iii.18 (377,2) Poor pelting villages] _Pelting_ is, I believe, only +an accidental depravation of _petty_. Shakespeare uses it in the +_Midsummer-Night's Dream_ of _small brooks_. + +II.iii.20 (378,3) Poor Turlygood! poor Tom!] [W: Turlupin] Hanmer reads, +_poor_ Turlurd. It is probable the word _Turlygood_ was the common +corrupt pronunciation. + +II.iii.21 (378,4) Edgar I nothing am] As Edgar I am out-lawed, dead in +law; I have no longer any political existence. + +II.iv (378,1) _Changes again to the earl of Glo'ster's castle_] It is +not very clearly discovered why Lear comes hither. In the foregoing part +he sent a letter to Glo'ster; but no hint is given of its contents. He +seems to have gone to visit Glo'ster while Cornwall and Regan might +prepare to entertain him. + +II.iv.24 (380,4) To do upon respect such violent outrage] To violate the +public and venerable character of a messenger from the king. + +II.iv.46 (380,7) Winter's not gone yet, if the wild geese fly that way] +If this be their behaviour, the king's troubles are not yet at an end. + +II.iv.70 (381,9) All that follow their noses are led by their eyes, but +blind men; and there's not a nose among twenty, but can smell him that's +stinking] There is in this sentence no clear series of thought. If he +that follows his nose is led or guided by his eyes, he wants no +information from his nose. I persuade myself, but know not whether I can +persuade others, that our author wrote thus:--"All men are led by their +eyes, but blind men, and they follow their noses; and there's not a nose +among twenty but can smell him that's stinking."--Here is a succession +of reasoning. You ask, why the king has no more in his train? why, +because men who are led by their eyes see that he is ruined; and if +there were any blind among them, who, for want of eyes, followed their +noses, they might by their noses discover that it was no longer fit to +follow the king. + +II.iv.83 (382,2) + + But I will tarry; the fool will stay, + And let the wise man fly; + The knave turns fool, that runs away; + The fool no knave, perdy] + +I think this passage erroneous, though both the copies concur. The sense +mill be mended if we read, + + But I will tarry; the fool will stay, + And let the wise man fly; + The fool turns knave, that runs away; + The knave no fool,-- + +That I stay with the king is a proof that I am a fool, the wise men are +deserting him. There is knavery in this desertion, but there is no +folly. + +II.iv.116 (383,3) Is practice only] _Practice_ is in Shakespeare, and +other old writers, used commonly in an ill sense for _unlawful +artifice_. + +II.iv.122 (384,4) Cry to it, nuncle, as the cockney did to the eels, +when she put them i' the paste alive] Hinting that the eel and Lear are +in the same danger. + +II.iv.142 (384,7) Than she to scant her duty] The word _scant_ is +directly contrary to the sense intended. The quarto reads, + + --_slack_ her duty, + +which is no better. May we not change it thus: + + You less know bow to value her desert, + Than she to _scan_ her duty. + +To _scan_ may be to _measure_ or _proportion_. Yet our author uses his +negatives with such licentiousness, that it is hardly safe to make any +alteration.--_Scant_ may mean to _adapt_, to _fit_, to _proportion_; +which sense seems still to be retained in the mechanical term scantling. +(see 1765, VI, 67, 4) + +II.iv.155 (385,1) Do you but mark how this becomes the house?] [T: the +use?] [Warburton called "becomes the house" "a most expressive phrase"] +with this _most expressive phrase_ I believe no reader is satisfied. I +suspect that it has been written originally, + + Ask her forgiveness? + Do you but mark how this becometh--thus. + Dear daughter, I confess, &c. + +_Becomes the house_, and _becometh thus_, might be easily confounded by +readers so unskilful as the original printers. + +II.iv.157 (386,2) _Age is unnecessary_] i.e. Old age has few wants. + +II.iv.162 (386,3) Look'd black upon me] To _look black_, may easily be +explained to _look cloudy_ or _gloomy_. See Milton: + + "So frown'd the mighty combatants, that hell + Grew darker at their frown."-- + +II.iv.170 (386,4) To fall, and blast her pride!] Thus the quarto: the +folio reads not so well, _to fall and blister_. I think there is still a +fault, which may be easily mended by changing a letter: + + --Infect her beauty, + Ye fen-suck'd fogs, drawn by the powerful sun, + _Do_, fall, and blast her pride! + +II.iv.174 (387.6) Thy tender-hested nature shall not give/Thee o'er to +harshness] This word, though its general meaning be plain, I do not +critically understand. + +II.iv.178 (387,7) to scant my sizes] To contract my allowances or +proportions settled. + +II.iv.203 (388,9) much less advancement] The word _advancement_ is +ironically used here for _conspicuousness_ of punishment; as we now say, +_a man is advanced to the pillory_. We should read, + + --but his own disorders + Deserv'd much _more_ advancement. + +II.iv.204 (388,1) I pray you, father, being weak, seem so] [W: deem't +so] The meaning is, since _you are weak_, be content to think yourself +weak. No change is needed. + +II.iv.218 (389,3) base life] i.e. In a _servile_ state. + +II.iv.227 (390,5) embossed carbuncle] _Embossed_ is _swelling, +protuberant_. + +II.iv.259 (391,6) Those wicked creatures yet do look well-favour'd:/ +When others are more wicked] Dr. Warburton would exchange the repeated +epithet _wicked_ into _wrinkled_ in both places. The commentator's only +objection to the lines as they now stand, is the discrepancy of the +metaphor, the want of opposition between _wicked_ and _well-favoured_. +But he might have remembered what he says in his own preface concerning +_mixed modes_. Shakespeare, whose mind was more intent upon notions than +words, had in his thoughts the pulchritude of virtue, and the deformity +of wickedness; and though he had mentioned _wickedness_, made the +correlative answer to _deformity_. + +III.i.7 (394,1) That things might change, or cease: tears his white +hair] The first folio ends the speech at _change, or cease_, and begins +again with Kent's question, _But who is with him?_ The whole speech is +forcible, but too long for the occasion, and properly retrenched. + +III.i.18 (395,3) my note] My observation of your character. + +III.i.29 (395,6) _are but furnishings_] _Furnishings_ are what we now +call _colours, external pretences_. (1773) + +III.i.19 (395,8) + + There is division, + Although as yet the face of it is cover'd + with mutual cunning, 'twixt Albany and Cornwall; + _Who have (as who have not, whom their great stars + Throne and set high?) servants, who seem no less; + Which are to France the spies and speculations + Intelligent of our state. What hath been seen, + Either in snuffs and packings of the dukes; + Or the hard rein, which both of them have borne + Against the old kind king; or something deeper, + Whereof, perchance, these are but furnishings._ + [But, true it is, from France there comes a power + Into this scatter'd kingdom; who already, + Wise in our negligence, have secret fee + In some of our best ports, and are at point + To shew their open banner.--Now to you:]] + +The true state of this speech cannot from all these notes be discovered. +As it now stands it is collected from two editions: the lines which I +have distinguished by Italics are found in the folio, not in the quarto; +the following lines inclosed in crotchets are in the quarto, not in the +folio. So that if the speech be read with omissions of the Italics, it +will stand according to the first edition; and if the Italics are read, +and the lines that follow them omitted, it will then stand according to +the second. The speech is now tedious, because it is formed by a +coalition of both. The second edition is generally best, and was +probably nearest to Shakespeare's last copy, but in this passage the +first is preferable; for in the folio, the messenger is sent, he knows +not why, he knows not whither. I suppose Shakespeare thought his plot +opened rather too early, and made the alteration to veil the event from +the audience; but trusting too much to himself, and full of a single +purpose, he did not accommodate his new lines to the rest of the +scene.--The learned critic's [Warburton] emendations are now to be +examined. _Scattered_ he has changed to _scathed_; for _scattered_, he +says, gives _the idea of an anarchy, which was not the case_. It may be +replied that _scathed_ gives the idea of ruin, waste, and desolation, +_which was not the case_. It is unworthy a lover of truth, in questions +of great or little moment, to exaggerate or extenuate for mere +convenience, or for vanity yet less than convenience. _Scattered_ +naturally means _divided, unsettled, disunited_.--Next is offered with +great pomp a change of _sea_ to _seize_; but in the first edition the +word is _fee_, for _hire_, in the sense of having any one in _fee_, that +is, at _devotion for money_. _Fee_ is in the second quarto changed to +_see_, from which one made _sea_ and another _seize_. + +III.ii.4 (398,1) thought-executing] Doing execution with rapidity equal +to thought. + +III.ii.19 (399,4) Here I stand, your slave] [W: brave] The meaning is +plain enough, he was not their _slave_ by right or compact, but by +necessity and compulsion. Why should a passage be darkened for the sake +of changing it? Besides, of _brave_ in that sense I remember no example. + +III.ii.24 (399,5) 'tis foul] Shameful; dishonourable. + +III.ii.30 (399,6) So beggars marry many] i.e. A beggar marries a wife +and lice. + +III.ii.46 (400,1) Man's nature cannot carry/The affliction, nor the +fear] So the folio: the later editions read, with the quarto, _force_ +for _fear_, less elegantly. + +III.ii.56 (401,3) That under covert and convenient seeming] _Convenient_ +needs not be understood in any other than its usual and proper sense; +_accommodate_ to the present purpose; _suitable_ to a design. +_Convenient seeming_ is _appearance_ such as may promote his purpose to +destroy. + +III.ii.53 (401,4) concealing continents] _Continent_ stands for that +which _contains_ or _incloses_. + +III.ii.72 (401,(5) Poor fool and knave, I have one part in my heart,/ +That's sorry yet for thee] Some editions read, + + --_thing_ in my heart; + +from which Hanmer, and Dr. Warburton after him, have made _string_, very +unnecessarily; both the copies have _part_. + +III.ii.74 (402,7) + + _He that has a little tiny wit,-- + With heigh ho, the wind and the rain; + Must make content with his fortunes fit, + Though the rain it raineth every day_] + +I fancy that the second line of this stanza had once a termination that +rhymed with the fourth; but I can only fancy it; for both the copies +agree. It was once perhaps written, + + With heigh ho, the wind and the rain _in his way_. + +The meaning seems likewise to require this insertion. "He that has wit, +however small, and finds wind and rain in his way, must content himself +by thinking, that somewhere or other _it raineth every day_, and others +are therefore suffering like himself." Yet I am afraid that all this is +chimerical, for the burthen appears again in the song at the end of +_Twelfth Night_, and seems to have been an arbitrary supplement, without +any reference to the sense of the song. (see 1765, VI, 84, 6) + +III.ii.80 (402,8) I'll speak a prophecy ere I go] [W: or two ere] The +sagacity and acuteness of Dr. Warburton are very conspicuous in this +note. He has disentangled the confusion of the passage, and I have +inserted his emendation in the text. _Or e'er_ is proved by Mr. Upton to +be good English, but the controversy was not necessary, for _or_ is not +in the old copies. [Steevens retained "ere"] + +III.ii.84 (403,1) No heretics burnt, but wenches' suitors] The disease +to which _wenches' suitors_ are particularly exposed, was called in +Shakespeare's time the _brenning_ or _burning_. + +III.iv.26 (406,1) + + In, boy; go first. [_To the Fool._] You houseless poverty-- + Nay, get thee in. I'll pray, and then I'll sleep] + +These two lines were added in the author's revision, and are only in the +folio. They are very judiciously intended to represent that humility, or +tenderness, or neglect of forms, which affliction forces on the mind. + +III.iv.52 (407,3) led through fire and through flame] Alluding to the +_ignis fatuus_, supposed to be lights kindled by mischievous beings to +lead travellers into destruction. + +III.iv.54 (407,4) laid knives under his pillow] He recounts the +temptations by which he was prompted to suicide; the opportunities of +destroying himself, which often occurred to him in his melancholy moods. + +III.iv.60 (407,5) Bless thee from whirlwinds, star-blasting, and +taking!] To _take_ is to blast, or strike with malignant influence: + + --strike her young limbs, + Ye taking airs, with lameness. + +III.iv.77 (408,6) pelican daughters] The young pelican is fabled to suck +the mother's blood. + +III.iv.95 (408,8) light of ear] [i.e. Credulous. WARBURTON.] Not merely +_credulous_, but _credulous of evil_, ready to receive malicious +reports. (1773) + +III.iv.103 (409,1) says suum, mun, ha no nonny, dolphin my boy, boy, +Sessy: let him trot by] Of this passage I can make nothing. I believe it +corrupt: for wildness, not nonsense, is the effect of a disordered +imagination. The quarto reads, _hay no on ny, dolphins, my boy, cease, +let him trot by_. Of interpreting this there is not much hope or much +need. But any thing may be tried. The madman, now counterfeiting a proud +fit, supposes himself met on the road by some one that disputes the way, +and cries _Hey!--No--but altering his mind, condescends to let him pass, +and calls to his boy _Dolphin_ (Rodolph) not to contend with him. +_On--Dolphin, my boy, cease. Let him trot by_. + +III.iv.122 (410,3) web and the pin] Diseases of the eye. + +III.iv.125 (411,4) + + Saint Withold footed thrice the void; + He met the night-mare, and her nine-fold; + Bid her alight, and her troth plight, + And aroynt thee, witch, aroynt thee!] + +In the old quarto the corruption is such as may deserve to be noted. +"Swithold footed thrice the old another night moore and her nine fold +bid her, O light, and her troth plight, and arint thee, with arint +thee." + +III.iv.144 (412,6) _small deer_] Sir Thomas Hanmer reads _geer_, and is +followed by Dr. Warburton. But _deer_ in old language is a general word +for wild animals. + +III.iv.187 (414,8) _Child Rowland_] This word is in some of our ballads. +There is a song of _Child Walter, and a Lady_. + +III.v.21 (415,2) If I find him comforting the king] He uses the word in +the juridical sense for _supporting, helping_, according to its +derivation; _salvia_ comfortat _ne vos_.--_Schol. Sal._ (rev. 1778, IX, +477, 3) + +III.vi.20 (416,2) a horse's health] [W: heels] Shakespeare is here +speaking not of things maliciously treacherous, but of things uncertain +and not durable, A horse is above all other animals subject to diseases. + +III.vi.26 (416,3) Wantest thou eyes at trial, madam?] It may be observed +that Edgar, being supposed to be found by chance, and therefore to have +no knowledge of the rest, connects not his ideas with those of Lear, but +pursues his own train of delirious or fantastic thought. To these words, +_At trial, madam?_ I think therefore that the name of Lear should be +put. The process of the dialogue will support this conjecture. (1773) + +III.vi.27 (417,4) _Come oe'er the broom, Bessy, to me_] As there is no +relation between _broom_ and a _boat_, we may better read, + + Come o'er the _brook_, Bessy, to me. + +III.vi.43 (417,6) + + _Sleepest, or wakest thou, jolly shepherd? + Thy sheep be in the corn; + And for one blast of thy minikin mouth, + Thy sheep shall take no harm.] + +This seems to be a stanza of some pastoral song. A shepherd is desired +to pipe, and the request is enforced by a promise, that though his sheep +be in the corn, i.e. committing a trespass by his negligence, implied in +the question, _Sleepest thou or wakest?_ Yet a single tune upon his pipe +shall secure them from the pound. (1773) + +III.vi.77 (419,8) Sessy, come] Here is _sessey_ again, which I take to +be the French word _cessez_ pronounced _cessey_, which was, I suppose, +like some others in common use among us. It is an interjection enforcing +cessation of any action, like, _be quiet, have done_. It seems to have +been gradually corrupted into, _so, so_. + +III.vi.78 (419,9) thy horn is dry] Men that begged under pretence of +lunacy used formerly to carry a horn, and blow it through the streets. + +III.vi.103-121 (420,2) [_Kent._ Opprest nature sleeps] The lines +inserted from the quarto are in crotchets. The omission of them in the +folio is certainly faulty: yet I believe the folio is printed from +Shakespeare'a last revision, carelessly and hastily performed, with more +thought of shortening the scenes, than of continuing the action. + +III.vi.111 (421,4) free things] States clear from distress. + +III.vi. 117 (421,5) + + Mark the high noises! and thyself bewray, + When false opinion, whose wrong thought defiles thee, + In thy just proof, repeals, and reconciles thee] + +Attend to the great events that are approaching, and make thyself known. +Then that _false opinion_ now prevailing against thee shall, in +consequence of _just proof_ of thy integrity, revoke its erroneous +sentence, and recall thee to honour and reconciliation. + +III.vii.13 (421,6) ray lord of Glo'ster] Meaning Edmund, newly invested +with his father's titles. The steward, speaking immediately after, +mentions the old duke by the same title. + +III.vii.24 (422,3) + + Though well we may not pass upon his life + Without the form of justice; yet our power + Shall do a courtesy to our wrath] + +_To do a courtesy_ is to gratify, to comply with. _To pass_, is to pass +a judicial sentence. (1773) + +III.vii.29 (422,4) corky arms] Dry, wither'd, husky arms. + +III.vii.54 (424,9) I am ty'd to the stake, and I must stand the course] +The running of the dogs upon me. + +III.vii.65 (425,2) All cruels else subscrib'd] Yielded, submitted to the +necessity of the occasion. + +III.vii.99-107 (426,3) I'll never care what wickedness I do] [This short +dialogue I have inserted from the old quarto, because I think it full of +nature. Servants could hardly see such a barbarity committed on their +master, without pity; and the vengeance that they presume canst overtake +the actors of it is a sentiment and doctrine well worthy of the stage. +THEOBALD.] It is not necessary to suppose them the servants of Glo'ster; +for Cornwall was opposed to extremity by his own servant. + +IV.i.1 (427,1) Yet better thus, and known to be contemn'd] The meaning +is, _'Tis better_ to be _thus contemned, and_ known _to yourself_ to be +contemned. Or perhaps there is an error, which may be rectified thus: + + Yet better thus unknown to be contemn'd. + +When a man divests himself of his real character he feels no pain from +contempt, because he supposes it incurred only by a voluntary disguise +which he can throw off at pleasure. I do not think any correction +necessary. + +IV.i.20 (429,3) Our mean secures us] [i.e. Moderate, mediocre condition. +WARBURTON.] Banner writes, by an easy change, _meanness_ secures us. The +two original editions have, + + Our _meanes_ secures us.-- + +I do not remember that _mean_ is ever used aa a substantive for low +fortune, which is the sense here required, nor for mediocrity, except in +the phrase, the _golden mean_. I suspect the passage of corruption, and +would either read, + + Our means _seduce_ us:-- + +Our powers of body or fortune draw us into evils. Or, + + Our _maims_ secure us.-- + +That hurt or deprivation which makes us defenceless, proves our +safeguard. This is very proper in Glo'ster, newly maimed by the evulsion +of his eyes. + +IV.i.59-64 (431,8) [Five fiends have been in poor Tom at once; of lust, +as _Obidicut_; _Hobbididance_, prince of dumbness; _Mahu_, of stealing; +_Modo_, of murder; and _Flibbertigibbet_, of mopping and mowing; who +since possesses chamber-maids and waiting-women. So bless thee, +master!]] The passage in crotchets is omitted in the folio, because I +suppose as the story was forgotten, the jest was lost. + +IV.i.68 (432,1) Let the superfluous and lust-dieted man] Lear has before +uttered the same sentiment, which indeed cannot be too strongly +impressed, tho' it may be too often repeated. + +IV.i.69 (432,2) That slaves your ordinance] [W: braves] The emendation +is plausible, yet I doubt whether it be right. The language of +Shakespeare is very licentious, and his words have often meanings remote +from the proper and original use. To _slave_ or _beslave_ another is to +_treat_ him _with terms of indignity_; in a kindred sense, to _slave the +ordinance_, may be, to _slight_ or _ridicule_ it. + +IV.ii.1 (433,1) our mild husband] It must be remembered that Albany, the +husband of Gonerill, disliked, in the end of the first act, the scheme +of oppression and ingratitude. + +IV.ii.29 (434,5) I have been worth the whistle] This expression is a +reproach to Albany for having neglected her; _though you disregard me +thus_, I have been worth the whistle, _I have found one that thinks me +worth calling_. (1773) + +IV.ii.35 (435,9) From her maternal sap] [W: material] I suppose no +reader doubts but the word should be _maternal_. Dr. Warburton has taken +great pains without much success, and indeed without much exactness of +attention, to prove that _material_ has a more proper sense than +_maternal_, and yet seemed glad at last to infer from an apparent error +of another press that _material_ and _maternal_ meant the same. + +IV.ii.45 (436,2) A man, a prince by him so benefited?] [After this line +I suspect a line or two to be wanting, which upbraids her for her +sister's cruelty to Glo'ster. WARBURTON.] Here is a pompous note to +support a conjecture apparently erroneous, and confuted by the next +scene, in which the account is given for the first time to Albany of +Glo'ster's sufferings. + +IV.ii.50 (436,3) Like monsters of the deep] Fishes are the only animals +that are known to prey upon their own species. + +IV.ii.62 (437,5) Thou changed, and self-cover'd thing] Of these lines +there is but one copy, and the editors are forced open conjecture. They +have published this line thus; + + Thou chang'd, and _self-converted_ thing; + +but I cannot but think that by _self-cover'd_ the author meant, thou +that hast _disguised_ nature by wickedness; thou that hast _hid_ the +woman under the fiend. + +IV.ii.83 (438,6) One way, I like this well] Gonerill is well pleased +that Cornwall is destroyed, who was preparing war against her and her +husband, but is afraid of losing Edmund to the widow. + +IV.iii (439,1) _The French camp, near Dover. Enter Kent, and a +Gentleman_] This scene seems to have been left out only to shorten the +play, and is necessary to continue the action. It is extant only in the +quarto, being omitted in the first folio. I have therefore put it +between crotchets. + +IV.iii (439,2) _a Gentleman_] The gentleman whom he sent in the +foregoing act with letters to Cordelia. + +IV.iii.26 (440,4) Made she no verbal question?] I do not see the +impropriety of _verbal question_; such pleonasms are common. So we say, +_my ears have heard, my eyes have beheld_. Besides, where is the word +_quest_ [Warburton's emendation] to be found? + +IV.iii.33 (440,6) And clamour-moisten'd] _Clamour moisten'd her_; that +is, _her out-cries were accompanied with tears_. + +IV.iii.36 (441,7) one self-mate and mate] The same husband and the same +wife. + +IV.iii.51 (441,9) 'Tis so they are a-foot] Dr. Warburton thinks it +necessary to read, _'tis said_; but the sense is plain, _So it is_ that +_they are on foot_. + +IV.iv.4 (442,1) With bur-docks, hemlock] I do not remember any such +plant as a _hardock_, but one of the most common weeds is a _burdock_, +which I believe should be read here; and so Hanmer reads. + +IV.iv.20 (443,2) the means to lead it] The reason which should guide it. + +IV.iv.26 (443,3) My mourning and important tears hath pitied] In other +places of this author for _importunate_. + +IV.iv.27 (443,4) No blown embition] No inflated, no swelling pride. Beza +on the Spanish Armada: + + "Quem bene te ambitio mersit vanissima, ventus, + Et tumidos tumidae voa superastis aquae." + +IV.v.4 (444,1) _Reg._ Lord Edmund spake not with your lady at home?] The +folio reads, _your lord_; but lady is the first and better reading. + +IV.v.22 (444,3) Let me unseal the letter./_Stew._ Madam, I had rather] I +know not well why Shakespeare gives the steward, who is a mere factor of +wickedness, so much fidelity. He now refuses the letter; and afterwards, +when he is dying, thinks only how it may be safely delivered. + +IV.v.29 (445,5) I do advise you, take this note] _Note_ means in this +place not a _letter_ but a _remark_. Therefore _observe_ what I am +saying. + +IV.v.32 (446,6) You may gather more] You may infer more than I have +directly told you. + +IV.vi (446,1) _The country near Dover. Enter Glo'ster, and Edgar as a +peasant_] This scene, and the stratagem by which Glo'ster is cured of +his desperation, are wholly borrowed from Sidney's _Arcadia_. + +IV.vi.7 (447,2) thy voice is alter'd] Edgar alters his voice in order to +pass afterwards for a malignant spirit. + +IV.vi.11 (447,5) How fearful/And dizzy 'tis, to cast one's eyes so low!] +This description has been much admired since the time of Addison, who +has remarked, with a poor attempt at pleasantry, that "he who can read +it without being giddy, has a very good head, or a very bad one." The +description is certainly not mean, but I am far from thinking it wrought +to the utmost excellence of poetry. He that looks from a precipice finds +himself assailed by one great and dreadful image of irresistible +destruction. But this overwhelming idea is dissipated and enfeebled from +the instant that the mind can restore itself to the observation of +particulars, and diffuse its attention to distinct objects. The +enumeration of the choughs and crows, the samphire-man, and the fishers, +counteracts the great effect of the prospect, as it peoples the desert +of intermediate vacuity, and stops the mind in the rapidity of its +descent through emptiness and horror. + +IV.vi.19 (447,4) her cock] Her cock-boat. + +IV.vi.43 (448,6) when life itself/Yields to the theft] When life is +willing to be destroyed. + +IV.vi.47 (449,7) Thus might he pass, indeed] Thus he might _die_ in +reality. We still use the word _passing_ bell. + +IV.vi.53 (449,9) Ten masts at each make not the altitude] [Pope: +attacht] Mr. Pope's conjecture may stand if the word which he uses were +known in our author's time, but I think it is of later introduction. He +may say, + + Ten masts _on end_-- + +IV.vi.57 (449,1) chalky bourn] _Bourn_ seems here to signify a _hill_. +Its common signification is a _brook_. Milton in _Comus_ uses _bosky +bourn_ in the same sense perhaps with Shakespeare. But in both authors +it may mean only a _boundary_. + +IV.vi.73 (450,2) the clearest gods] The purest; the most free from evil. + +IV.vi.80 (450,3) Bear free and patient thoughts] To be melancholy is to +have the mind _chained down_ to one painful idea; there is therefore +great propriety in exhorting Glo'ster to _free thoughts_, to an +emancipation of his soul from grief and despair. + +IV.vi.81 (450,4) The safer sense will ne'er accommodate/His master thus] +[W: sober sense] I read rather, + + The _saner_ sense will ne'er accoomodate + His master thus. + +"Here is Lear, but he must be mad: his sound or _sane_ senses would +never suffer him to be thus disguised." + +IV.vi.87 (451,5) That fellow handles his bow like a crow-keeper] This +_crow-keeper_ was so common in the author's time, that it is one of the +few peculiarities mentioned by Ortelius in his account of our island. + +IV.vi.93 (451,8) Give the word] Lear supposes himself in a garrison, and +before he lets Edgar pass, requires the watch-word. + +IV.vi.97 (452,7) Ha! Gonerill!--with a white beard!] So reads the folio, +properly; the quarto, whom the later editors have followed, has, _Ha! +Gonerill, ha! Regan! they flattered me_, &c. which is not so forcible. + +IV.vi.98 (452,8) They flattered me like a dog] They played the spaniel +to me. + +IV.vi.121 (453,2) Whose face between her forks] I believe that the +_forks_ were two prominences of the ruff rising on each side of the +face. + +IV.vi.124 (453,4) nor the soyled horse] _Soiled_ horse is probably the +same as _pampered_ horse, _un cheval soûlé_. + +IV.vi.169 (454.5) Robes and furr'd gowns hide all] From _hide all_ to +_accuser's lips_, the whole passage is wanting in the first edition, +being added, I suppose, at his revisal. + +IV.vi.187 (455,8) This a good block!] I do not see how this _block_ +corresponds either with his foregoing or following train of thoughts. +Madmen think not wholly at random. I would read thus, _a good flock_. +_Flocks_ are wool moulded together. The sentence then follows properly: + + It were a delicate stratagem to shoe + A troop of horse with felt;-- + +i.e. with _flocks_ kneaded to a mass, a practice I believe sometimes +used in former ages, for it is mentioned in _Ariosto_: + + "--Fece nel cader strepito quanto + Avesse avuto sotto i piedi il _feltro_." + +It is very common for madmen to catch an accidental hint, and strain it +to the purpose predominant in their minds. Lear picks up a _flock_, and +immediately thinks to surprize his enemies by a troop of horse shod with +_flocks_ or _felt_. Yet _block_ may stand, if we suppose that the sight +of a block put him in mind of mounting his horse. + +IV.vi.199 (457,1) Why, this would make a man, a man of salt] Would make +a man melt away like salt in wet weather. + +IV.vi.206 (457,2) Then there's life in't] The case is not yet desperate. + +IV.vi.217 (457,3) the main descry/Stands on the hourly thought] The +_main_ body is _expected_ to be _descry'd_ every hour. The expression is +harsh. + +IV.vi.246 (459,7) che vor'ye] _I warn you_. Edgar counterfeits the +western dialect. + +IV.vi.281 (460,3) Thee I'll rake up] I'll _cover_ thee. In +Staffordshire, to _rake_ the fire, is to cover it with fuel for the +night. + +IV.vi.234 (460,4) the death-practis'd duke] The duke of Albany, whose +death is machinated by _practice_ or treason. + +IV.vii.3 (461,1) every measure fail me] All good which I shall allot +thee, or _measure out_ to thee, will be scanty. + +IV.vii.9 (461,4) shortens my made intent] [W: laid] An intent _made_, is +an intent _formed_. So we say in common language, to _make a design_, +and to _make a resolution_. + +IV.vii.41 (464,2) 'Tis wonder, that thy life and wits, at once,/Had not +concluded all] [W: concluded.--Ah!] The plain construction is this: _It +is wonder that the wits and life had not all ended_. + +IV.vii.85-97 (466,9) + + [_Gent_. Holds it true, Sir, + That the duke of Cornwall was so slain?] + +What is printed in crotchets is not in the folio. It is at least proper, +if not necessary; and was omitted by the author, I suppose, for no other +reason than to shorten the representation. + +V.i.4 (467,2) his constant pleasure] His settled resolution. + +V.i.54 (470,7) We will greet the time] We will be ready to meet the +occasion. + +V.i.61 (470,8) carry out my side] Bring my purpose to a successful +issue, to completion. _Side_ seems here to have the sense of the French +word _partie_, in _prendre partie, to take his resolution_. + +V.i.68 (471,9) for my state/Stands on me to defend, not to debate] I do +not think that _for_ stands in this place as a word of inference or +causality. The meaning is rather: _Such is my determination concerning +Lear_; _as_ for my state _it requires now, not_ deliberation, _but_ +defence _and support_. + +V.iii.16 (472,1) And take upon us the mystery of things,/As if we were +God's spies] As if we were angels commissioned to survey and report the +lives of men, and were consequently endowed with the power of prying +into the original motives of action and the mysteries of conduct. + +V.iii.18 (472,2) packs and sects] Packs is used for _combinations_ or +_collection_, as is a _pack of cards_. For _sects_ I think _sets_ might +be more commodiously read. So we say, _affairs are now managed by a new_ +set. _Sect_, however, may well stand. + +V.iii.24 (473,6) flesh and fell] Flesh and skin. + +V.iii.54 (475,1) + + [At this time + We sweat and bleed: the friend hath lost his friend; + And the best quarrels, in the heat, are curs'd + By those that feel their sharpness:-- + The question of Cordelia, and her father, + Requires a fitter place.]] + +This passage, well worthy of restoration, is omitted in the folio. + +V.iii.65 (475,4) The which immediacy] [_Immediacy_, for representation. +WARBURTON.] _Immediacy_ is rather _supremacy_ in opposition to +_subordination_, which has _quiddam medium_ between itself and power. + +V.iii.79 (476,7) The lett alone lies not in your good will] Whether he +shall not or shall depends not on your choice. + +V.iii.89 (476,8) An interlude!] This short exclamation of Gonerill is +added in the folio edition, I suppose, only to break the speech of +Albany, that the exhibition on the stage might be more distinct and +intelligible. + +V.iii.129 (478,1) Behold, it is the privilege of mine honours,/My oath, +and my profession] The _privilege_ of this _oath_ means the privilege +gained by taking the oath administered in the regular initiation of a +knight professed. + +V.iii.151 (479,3) + + _Alb._ Save him, save him! + _Gon._ This is mere practice, Glo'ster] + +He desired that Edmund's life might be spared at present, only to obtain +his confession, and to convict him openly by his own letter. + +V.iii.166 (480,6) Let us exchange charity] Our author by negligence +gives his heathens the sentiments and practices of Christianity. In +_Hamlet_ there is the same solemn act of final reconciliation, but with +exact propriety, for the personages are Christians. + +V.iii. 204-221 (481,2) [Edg;.--This would have seem'd a period] The +lines between crotchets are not in the folio. + +V.iii.229 (433,4) Here comes Kent, Sir] The manner in which Edgar here +mentions Kent, seems to require the lines which are inserted from the +first edition in the foregoing scene. + +V.iii.264 (485,7) + + _Edg._ Or image of that horror? + _Alb._ Fall, and cease!] + +These two exclamations are given to Edgar and Albany in the folio, to +animate the dialogue, and employ all the persons on the stage; but they +are very obscure. + +V.iii.301 (487,4) With boot] With advantage, with increase. + +(488) General Observation. The tragedy of Lear is deservedly celebrated +among the dramas of Shakespeare. There is perhaps no play which keeps +the attention so strongly fixed; which so much agitates our passions and +interests our curiosity. The artful involutions of distinct interests, +the striking opposition of contrary characters, the sudden changes of +fortune, and the quick succession of events, fill the mind with a +perpetual tumult of indignation, pity, and hope. There is no scene which +does not contribute to the aggravation of the distress or conduct of the +action, and scarce a line which does not conduce to the progress of the +scene. So powerful is the current of the poet's imagination, that the +mind, which once ventures within it, is hurried irresistibly along. + +On the seeming improbability of Lear's conduct it may be observed, that +he is represented according to histories at that time vulgarly received +as true. And, perhaps, if we turn our thoughts upon the barbarity and +ignorance of the age to which this story is referred, it will appear not +so unlikely as while we estimate Lear's manners by our own. Such +preference of one daughter to another, or resignation of dominion on +such conditions, would be yet credible, if told of a petty prince of +Guinea or Madagascar. Shakespeare, indeed, by the mention of his earls +and dukes, has given us the idea of times more civilized, and of life +regulated by softer manners; and the truth is, that though he so nicely +discriminates, and so minutely describes the characters of men, he +commonly neglects and confounds the characters of ages, by mingling +customs ancient and modern, English and foreign. + +My learned friend Mr. Warton, who has in the _Adventurer_ very minutely +criticised this play, remarks, that the instances of cruelty are too +savage and shocking, and that the intervention of Edmund destroys the +simplicity of the story. These objections may, I think, be answered, by +repeating, that the cruelty of the daughters is an historical fact, to +which the poet has added little, having only drawn it into a series by +dialogue and action. But I am not able to apologize with equal +plausibility for the extrusion of Glo'ster's eyes, which seems an act +too horrid to be endured in dramatic exhibition, and such as must always +compel the mind to relieve its distress by incredulity. Yet let it be +remembered that our author well knew what would please the audience for +which he wrote. + +The injury done by Edmund to the simplicity of the action is abundantly +recompensed by the addition of variety, by the art with which he is made +to co-operate with the chief design, and the opportunity which he gives +the poet of combining perfidy with perfidy, and connecting the wicked +son with the wicked daughters, to impress this important moral, that +villainy is never at a stop, that crimes lead to crimes, and at last +terminate in ruin. + +But though this moral be incidentally enforced, Shakespeare has suffered +the virtue of Cordelia to perish in a just cause, contrary to the +natural ideas of justice, to the hope of the reader, and, what is yet +more strange, to the faith of chronicles. Yet this conduct is justified +by _The Spectator_, who blames Tate for giving Cordelia success and +happiness in his alteration, and declares, that, in his opinion, _the +tragedy has lost half its beauty_. Dennis has remarked, whether justly +or not, that, to secure the favourable reception of _Cato, the town was +poisoned with much false and abominable criticism_, and that endeavours +had been used to discredit and decry poetical justice. A play in which +the wicked prosper, and the virtuous miscarry, may doubtless be good, +because it is a just representation of the common events of human life: +but since all reasonable beings naturally love justice, I cannot easily +be persuaded, that the observation of justice makes a play worse; or, +that if other excellencies are equal, the audience will not always rise +better pleased from the final triumph of persecuted virtue. + +In the present case the public has decided. Cordelia, from the time of +Tate, has always retired with victory and felicity. And, if my +sensations could add any thing to the general suffrage, I night relate, +I was many years ago so shocked by Cordelia's death, that I know not +whether I ever endured to read again the last scenes of the play till I +undertook to revise them as an editor. + +There is another controversy among the critics concerning this play. It +is disputed whether the predominant image in Lear's disordered mind be +the loss of his kingdom or the cruelty of his daughters. Mr. Murphy, a +very judicious critic, has evinced by induction of particular passages, +that the cruelty of his daughters is the primary source of his distress, +and that the loss of royalty affects him only as a secondary and +subordinate evil. He observes with great justness, that Lear would move +our compassion but little, did we not rather consider the injured father +than the degraded king. + +The story of this play, except the episode of Edmund, which is derived, +I think, from Sidney, is taken originally from Geoffry of Monmouth, whom +Hollinshed generally copied; but perhaps immediately from an old +historical ballad. My reason for believing that the play was posterior +to the ballad, rather than the ballad to the play, is, that the ballad +has nothing of Shakespeare's nocturnal tempest, which is too striking to +have been omitted, and that it follows the chronicle; it has the +rudiments of the play, but none of its amplifications: it first hinted +Lear's madness, but did not array it in circumstances. The writer of the +ballad added something to the history, which is a proof that he would +have added more, if more had occurred to his mind, and more must have +occurred if he had seen Shakespeare. [Johnson appends "A lamentable SONG +of the Death of King Leir and his Three Daughters"] + + + + +Vol. I + +ROMEO AND JULIET + + +I.i.82 (9,7) Give me my long sword] The _long sword_ was the sword used +in war, which was sometimes wielded with both hands. + +I.i.158 (11,2) + + As is the bud bit with an envious worm, + Ere he can spread his sweet leaves to the air, + Or dedicate his beauty to the same] + +I cannot but suspect that some lines are lost, which connected this +simile more closely with the foregoing speech; these lines, if such +there were, lamented the danger that Romeo will die of his melancholy, +before his virtues or abilities were known to the world. + +I.i.176 (12,3) + + Alas, that love, whose view is muffled still, + Should, without eyes, see path-ways to his will.] + +Sir T. Hanmer, and after him Dr. Warburton, read, to his _ill_. The +present reading has some obscurity; the meaning may be, that _love_ +finds out means to pursue his _desire_. That the _blind_ should _find +paths to ill_ is no great wonder. + +I.i.183 (13,4) O brawling love! O loving hate!] Of these lines neither +the sense nor occasion is very evident. He is not yet in love with an +eneny, and to love one and hate another is no such uncommon state, as +can deserve all this toil of antithesis. + +I.i.192 (14,5) Why, such is love's transgression] Such is the +consequence of unskilful and mistaken kindness. (see 1765, VIII, 12, 2) + +1.1.198 (14,6) Being purg'd, a fire sparkling in lovers' eyes] The +author may mean _being purged of smoke_, but it is perhaps a meaning +never given to the word in any other place. I would rather read, _Being_ +urged, _a fire sparkling_. Being excited and inforced. To _urge_ the +fire is the technical term. + +I.i.199 (14,7) Being vex'd, a sea nourish'd with lovers' tears] As this +line stands single, it is likely that the foregoing or following line +that rhym'd to it, is lost. + +I.i.206 (14,8) Tell me in sadness] That is, tell me _gravely_, tell me +in _seriousness_. + +I.i.217 (15,1) in strong proof] In chastity _of proof_, as we say in +armour _of proof_. + +I.i.222 (15,2) + + O, she is rich in beauty; only poor + That when she dies, with beauty dies her store] + +Mr. Theobald reads, "_With_ her dies beauties _store_;" and is followed +by the two succeeding editors. I have replaced the old reading, because +I think it at least as plausible as the correction. _She is rich_, says +he, _in beauty_, and _only poor_ in being subject to the lot of +humanity, that _her store_, or riches, _can be destroyed by death_, who +shall, by the same blow, put an end to beauty. + +I.ii.15 (17,2) She is the hopeful lady of my earth] _The lady of his +earth_ is an expression not very intelligible, unless he means that she +is heir to his estate, and I suppose no man ever called his lands his +earth. I will venture to propose a bold change: + + She is the hope _and stay_ of my _full years_. + +I.ii.25 (18,3) Earth-treading stars that make dark heaven light] [W: +dark even] But why nonsense [Warburton's comment]? Is any thing mere +commonly said, than that beauties eclipse the sun? Has not Pope the +thought and the word? + + "Sol through white curtains shot a tim'rous ray, + "And spe'd those eyes that must _eclipse the day_." + +Both the old and the new reading are philosophical nonsense, but they +are both, and both equally poetical sense. + +I.ii.26 (18,4) Such comfort as do lusty young men feel] To say, and to +say in pompous words, that a _young man shall feel_ as much in an +assembly of beauties, _as young men feel in the month of April_, is +surely to waste sound upon a very poor sentiment. I read, + + Such comfort as do lusty _yeomen_ feel. + +You shall feel from the sight and conversation of these ladies, such +hopes of happiness and such pleasure, as the farmer receives from the +spring, when the plenty of the year begins, and the prospect of the +harvest fills him with delight. + +I.ii.32 (18,5) + + Such, amongst view of many, mine, being one. + May stand in number, the' in reckoning none] + +The first of these lines I do not understand. The old folio gives no +help; the passage is there, _Which_ one _more view_. I can offer nothing +better than this: + + _Within your view_ of many, mine being one, + May stand in number, &c. + +I.iii.13 (22,1) to my teen] To my sorrow. + +I.iii.66 (24,4) It is an honour] The modern editors all read, _it is an +honour_. I have restored the genuine word ["hour"], which is more seemly +from a girl to her mother. _Your, fire_, and such words as are vulgarly +uttered in two syllables, are used as dissyllables by Shakespeare. [The +first quarto reads _honour_; the folio _hour_. I have chosen the reading +of the quarto. STEEVENS.] (rev. 1778, X, 28, 2) + +I.iii.92 (25,9) That in gold clasps locks in the golden story] The +_golden story_ is perhaps the _golden legend_, a book in the darker ages +of popery much read, and doubtless often exquisitely embellished, but of +which Canus, one of the popish doctors, proclaims the author to have +been _homo ferrei oris, plumbei cordis_. + +I.iv.6 (27,2) like a crow-keeper] The word _crow-keeper_ is explained in +Lear. + +I.iv.37 (28,8) for I am proverb'd with a grand-sire phrase] The +grandsire phrase is--_The black ox has trod upon my foot_. + +I.iv.42 (30,1) Or (save your reverence) love] The word _or_ obscures the +sentence; we ahould read _O_! for _or love_. Mercutio having called the +affection vith which Romeo was entangled by so disrespectful a word as +_mire_, cries out, + + O! save your reverence, love. + +I.iv.84 (34,7) Spanish blades] A sword is called a toledo, from the +excellence of the Toletan steel. So Gratius, + + "--Ensis Toletanus + "Unda Tagi non est alie celebranda metallo, + Utilis in cives est ibi lamna sues." + +I.iv.113 (35,9) Direct my sail:] [I have restored this reading from the +elder quarto, as being more congruous to the metaphor in the preceding +line. _Suit_ is the reading of the folio. STEEVENS.] + + _Direct my suit_! Guide the _sequel_ of the adventure. + +I.v.27 (37,4) + + You are welcome, gentlemen. Come musicians, play. + A ball! a ball! Give room. And foot it, girls] + +These two lines, omitted by the modern editors, I have replaced from the +folio. + +I.v.32 (37, 6) good cousin Capulet] This _cousin_ Capulet is _unkle_ in +the paper of invitation; but as Capulet is described as old, _cousin_ is +probably the right word in both places. I know not how Capulet and his +lady might agree, their ages were very disproportionate; he has been +past masking for thirty years, and her age, as she tells Juliet, is but +eight-and-twenty. + +II.Prologue (42,3) _Enter CHORUS_] The use of this chorus is not easily +discovered; it conduces nothing to the progress of the play, but relates +what is already known, or what the next scenes will shew; and relates it +without adding the improvement of any moral sentiment. + +II.ii.1 (45,1) He jests at scars] That is, Mercutio jests, whom he +overheard. + +II.ii.7 (45,2) Be not her maid] Be not a votary to the moon, to Diana. + +II.ii.10 (45,3) + + It is my lady; O! it is my love; + O, that she knew we were!] + +This line and half I have replaced. + +II.ii.39 (47,7) Thou art thyself, though not a Montague] I think the +true reading is, + + Thou art thyself, _then_ not a Montague. + +Thou art a being of peculiar excellence, and hast none of the malignity +of the family, from which thou hast thy name.--Hanmer reads, + + Thour't not _thyself_ so, _though_ a Montague. + +II.iii.15 (53,6) the powerful grace, that lies/In plants] Efficacious +virtue. + +II.iii.27 (53,7) Two such opposed foes encamp them still] [W: opposed +kin] _Foes_ may be the right reading, or _kings_, but I think _kin_ can +hardly be admitted. Two _kings_ are two opposite _powers_, two +contending _potentates_, in both the natural and moral world. The word +_encamp_ is proper to _commanders_. (see 1765, VIII, 46, 2) + +II.iv.20 (57,3) courageous captain of compliments] A complete master of +all the laws of ceremony, the principal man in the doctrine of +punctilio. + + "A man of compliments, whom right and wrong + "Have chose as umpire;" + +says our author of Don _Armado_, the Spaniard, in _Love's Labour Lost_. + +II.iv.27 (57,6) the hay!] All the terms of the modern fencing-school +were originally Italian; the rapier, or small thrusting sword, being +first used in Italy. The _hay_ is the word _hai_, you _have_ it, used +when a thrust reaches the antagonist, from which our fencers, on the +same occasion, without knowing, I suppose, any reason for it, cry out, +_ha_! + +II.iv.35 (58,9) these pardonnez-moy's] _Pardonnez-moi_ became the +language of doubt or hesitation among men of the sword, when the point +of honour was grown so delicate, that no other mode of contradiction +would be endured. + +II.iv.64 (59,3) then is my pump wall flower'd] Here is a vein of wit too +thin to be easily found. The fundamental idea is, that Romeo wore +_pinked_ pumps, that is, pumps punched with holes in figures. + +II.iv.87 (60,7) a wit of cheverel] _Cheverel_ is soft-leather for +gloves. + +II.iv.138 (62,8) No hare, Sir] Mercutio having roared out, _So ho_! the +cry of the sportsmen when they start a hare; Romeo asks _what he has +found_. And Mercutio answers, _No hare_, &c. The rest is a series of +quibbles unworthy of explanation, which he who does not understand, +needs not lament his ignorance. + +II.iv.162 (63,1) none of his skains-mates] The word _skains-mate_, I do +not understand, but suppose that _skains_ was some low play, and +_skains-mate_, a companion at such play. + +II.iv.200 (64,2) like a tackled stair] Like stairs of rope in the tackle +of a ship. + +II.iv.222 (65,4) Ah, mocker! that's the dog's name. R is for the nonce; +I know it begins with another letter] This passage is thus in the old +folio. _A mocker, that's the dog's name. R is for the_ no, _I know it +begins with some other letter._ In this copy the error is but small. I +read, _Ah, mocker. that's the dog's name. R is for the_ nonce, _I know +it begins with another letter._ For the _nonce_, is for some _design, +for a sly trick_. + +II.vi.15 (70,2) Too swift arrives as tardy as too slow] He that travels +too fast is as long before he comes to the end of his journey, as he +that travels slow. Precipitation produces mishap. + +III.i.2 (71,1) The day is hot] It is observed, that in Italy almost all +assassinations are committed during the heat of summer. + +III.i.124 (75,6) This day's black fate on more days does depend] This +day's unhappy destiny _hangs over_ the days yet to come. There will yet +be more mischief. + +III.i.141 (78,7) Oh! I am fortune's fool] I am always running in the way +of evil fortune, _like_ the fool in the play. _Thou art death's fool_, +in _Measure for Measure_. See Dr. Warburton's note. + +III.i.153 (77,8) as thou art true] As thou art _just_ and _upright_. + +III.i.159 (77,9) How nice the quarrel] How _slight_, how _unimportant_, +how _petty_. So in the last act, + + The letter was not _nice_, but full of charge + Of dear import. + +III.i.182 (78,2) Affection makes him false] The charge of falshood on +Bonvolio, though produced at hazard, is very just. The author, who seems +to intend the character of Bonvolio as good, meant perhaps to shew, how +the best minds, in a state of faction and discord, are detorted to +criminal partiality. + +III.i.193 (78,3) I have an interest in your hate's proceeding: Sir +Thomas Hanmer saw that this line gave no sense, and therefore put, by a +very easy change, + + I have an interest in your _heat's_ proceeding! + +which is undoubtedly better than the old reading which Dr. Warburton has +followed; but the sense yet seems to be weak, and perhaps a more +licentious correction is necessary. I read therefore, + + I _had no_ interest in your _heat's preceding_. + +This, says the prince, is no quarrel of mine, _I had no interest in your +former discord_; I suffer merely by your private animosity. + +III.ii.5 (79,3) Spread thy close curtain, love-performing night,/That +run-away's eyes may wink] [Warburton explained the "run-away" as the +"sun"] I am not satisfied with this explanation, yet have nothing better +to propose. + +III.ii.10 (80,4) Come, civil night] _Civil_ is _grave, decently solemn_. + +III.ii.14 (80,5) unmann'd blood] Blood yet unacquainted with man. + +III.ii.25 (81,6) the garish sun] Milton had this speech in his thoughts +when he wrote _Il Penseroso_. + + "--Civil night, + "Thou sober-suited matron."--_Shakespeare_. + "Till civil-suited morn appear."--_Milton_. + "Pay no worship to the gairish sun."--_Shakespeare_. + "Hide me from day's gairish eye."--_Milton_. + +III.ii.46 (82,7) the death-darting eye of cockatrice] [The strange lines +that follow here in the common books are not in the old edition. POPE.] +The strange lines are these: + + I am not I, if there be such an I, + Or these eyes shot, that makes thee answer I; + If he be slain, say I; or if not, no; + Brief sounds determine of my weal or woe. + +These lines hardly deserve emendatien; yet it may be proper to observe, +that their meanness has not placed them below the malice of fortune, the +two first of them being evidently transposed; we should read, + + --That one vowel _I_ shall poison more, + Than the death-darting eye of cockatrice, + Or these eyes shot, that make thee answer, I. + I am not I, &c. + +III.ii.114 (85,9) Hath slain ten thousand Tybalts] Hath put Tybalt out +of my mind, as if out of being. + +III.ii.120 (85,1) Which modern lamentation might have mov'd] This line +is left out of the later editions, I suppose because the editors did not +remember that Shakespeare uses _modern_ for _common_, or _slight_: I +believe it was in his time confounded in colloquial language with +_moderate_. + +III.iii.112 (89,4) + + Unseemly woman in a seeming man! + And ill-beseeming beast in seeming both!] + +[W: seeming groth] The old reading is probable. _Thou art a beast of ill +qualities, under the appearance both of a woman and a man_. + +III.iii.135 (90,5) And thou dismember'd with thine own defence] And thou +torn to pieces with thy own weapons. + +III.iii.166-168 (91,6) Go hence. Good night] These three lines are +omitted in all the modern editions. + +III.iii.166 (91,7) here stands all your state] The whole of your fortune +depends on this. + +III.iv.12 (92,9) Sir Paris, I will make a desperate tender/Of my child's +love] _Desperate_ means only _bold, advent'rous_, as if he had said in +the vulgar phrase, _I will speak a_ bold _word_, and venture _to promise +you my daughter_. + +III.v.20 (94,1) 'Tis but the pale reflex of Cynthia's brow] The +appearance of a cloud opposed to the moon. + +III.v.23 (94,2) I have more care to stay, than will to go] Would it be +better thus, _I have more will to stay, than care to go_? + +III.v.31 (94,3) Some say, the lark and loathed toad chang'd eyes] This +tradition of the toad and lark I hare heard expressed in a rustick +rhyme, + + --_to heav'n I'd fly, + But the toad beguil'd me of my eye._ + +III.v.33 (95,4) + + Since arm from arm that voice doth us affray, + Hunting thee hence with huntaup to the day] + +These two lines are omitted in the modern editions, and do not deserve +to be replaced, but as they may shew the danger of critical temerity. +Dr. Warburton's change of _I would_ to _I wot_ was specious enough, yet +it it is evidently erroneous. The sense is this, _The lark, they say, +has lost her eyes to the toad, and now_ I would _the toad had her voice +too, since she uses it to the disturbance of lovers_. + +III.v.86 (97,3) + + _Jul._ Ay, Madam, from the reach of these my hands: + 'Would, none but I might venge my cousin's death.!] + +Juliet's equivocations are rather too artful for a mind disturbed by the +loss of a new lover. + +III.v.91 (98,4) That shall bestow on hin so sure a draught] [Thus the +elder quarto, which I have followed in preference to the quarto 1609, +and the folio 1623, which read, less intelligibly, + + "Shall give him such an unaccustom'd dram." STEEVENS.] + +--_unaccustomed dram_.] In vulgar language, Shall give him a _dram_ +which he is _not used_ to. Though I have, if I mistake not, observed, +that in old books _unaccustomed_ signifies _wonderful, powerful, +efficacious_. + +III.v.112 (98,6) in happy time] _A la bonne heure_. This phrase was +interjected, when the hearer was not quite so well pleased as the +speaker. + +III.v.227 (103,3) As living here] Sir T. HANMER reads, _as living_ +hence; that is, at a dsitance, in banishment; but _here_ may signify, +_in this world_. + +IV.i.3 (104,1) And I am nothing alow to slack his haste] _His haste +shall not be abated by my slowness_. It might be read, + + And I an nothing slow to _back_ his haste: + +that is, I am diligent to _abet_ and _enforce_ his haste. + +IV.i.l8 (104,2) + + _Par._ Happily met, my lady and my wife! + _Jul._ That may be, Sir, when I may be a wife] + +As these four first lines seem intended to rhyme, perhaps the author wrote thus: + + --my lady and my _life_! + +IV.i.62 (106,3) this bloody knife/Shall play the umpire] That is, this +knife shall decide the struggle between me and my distress. + +IV.i.64 (106,4) commission of thy years and art] _Commission_ is for +_authority_ or _power_. + +IV.i.79 (106,5) + + Or chain me to some sleepy mountain's top, + Where rearing bears and savage lions roam; + Or shut me nightly in a charnel house] + [Or walk in thievish ways, or bid me lurk + Where serpents are; chain me with rearing bears, + Or hide me nightly, &c. + +It is thus the editions vary. POPE.] my edition has the words which Mr. +Pope has omitted; but the old copy seems in this place preferable; only +perhaps we might better read, + + Where _savage_ bears and _rearing_ lions roam. + +IV.i.119 (108,8) If no unconstant toy] If no _fickle freak_, no _light +caprice_, no _change of fancy_, hinder the performance. + +IV.ii.38 (110,2) We shall be short] That is, we shall be _defective_. + +IV.iii.3 (110,3) For I have need of many orisons] Juliet plays most of +her pranks under the appearance of religion: perhaps Shakespeare meant +to punish her hypocrisy. + +IV.iii.46 (112,6) Alas, alas! it is not like that I] This speech is +confused, and inconsequential, according to the disorder of Juliet's +mind. + +IV.iv.4 (113,1) The curfeu bell] I knew not that the morning-bell is +called the _curfeu_ in any other place. + +IV.iv.107 (119,9) O, play me some merry dump] This is not in the folio, +but the answer plainly requires it. + +V.i (121,1) ACT V. SCENE I. MANTUA] The acts are here properly enough +divided, nor did any better distribution than the editors have already +made, occur to me in the perusal of this play; yet it may not be +improper to remark, that in the first folio, and I suppose the foregoing +editions are in the same state, there is no division of the acts, and +therefore some future editor may try, whether any improvement can be +made, by reducing them to a length more equal, or interrupting the +action at more proper intervals. + +V.i.1 (121,2) If I may trust the flattering truth of sleep] The sense +is, _If I may only trust the_ honesty _of sleep_, which I know however +not to be so nice as not often to practise _flattery_. + +V.i.3 (121,3) + + My bosom's lord sits lightly on his throne; + And all this day an unaccustom'd spirit + Lifts me above the ground with chearful thoughts] + +These three lines are very gay and pleasing. But why does Shakespeare +give Romeo this involuntary cheerfulness just before the extremity of +unhappiness? Perhaps to shew the vanity of trusting to these uncertain +and casual exaltations or depressions, which many consider as certain +foretokens of good and evil. + +V.i.45 (123,6) A beggarly account of empty boxes] Dr. Warburton would +read, a _braggartly_ account; but _beggarly_ is probably right: if the +_boxes_ were _empty_, the _account_ was more _beggarly_, as it was more +pompous. + +V.iii.31 (127,1) a ring that I must use/In dear employment] That is, +_action of importance_. Gems were supposed to have great powers and +virtues. + +V.iii.86 (129,4) her beauty makes/This vault a feasting presence full of +light] A _presence_ is a _public room_. + +V.iii.90 (129,5) O, how may I/Call this a lightning?] I think we should +read, + + --_O_, now _may I + Call this a lightning_!-- + +V.iii.178 (135,1) + + Raise up the Montagues.--Some others; search:-- + We see the ground whereon these woes do lie; + But the true ground of all these piteous woes + We cannot without circumstance descry] + +Here seems to be a rhyme intended, which may be easily restored; + + "Raise up the Montagues. Some others, go. + "We see the ground whereon these woes do lie, + "But the true ground of all _this_ piteous _woe_ + "We cannot without circumstance descry." + +V.iii.194 (136,2) What fear is this, which startles in our ears?] +[Originally _your ears_] Read, + + "What fear is this, which startles in _our_ ears? + +V.iii.229 (138,6) _Fri._ I will be brief] It is much to be lamented, +that the poet did not conclude the dialogue with the action, and avoid a +narrative of events which the audience already knew. + +(141) General Observation. This play is one of the most pleasing of our +author's performances. The scenes are busy and various, the incidents +numerous and important, the catastrophe irresistibly affecting, and the +process of the action carried on with such probability, at least with +such congruity to popular opinions, as tragedy requires. + +Here is one of the few attempts of Shakespeare to exhibit the +conversation of gentlemen, to represent the airy sprightliness of +juvenile elegance. Mr. Dryden mentions a tradition, which might easily +reach his time, of a declaration made by Shakespeare, that _he was +obliged to kill Mercutio in the third act, lest he should have been +killed by him_. Yet he thinks him _no such formidable person, but that +he might have lived through the play, and died in his bed_, without +danger to a poet. Dryden well knew, had he been in quest of truth, that, +in a pointed sentence, more regard is commonly had to the words than the +thought, and that it is very seldom to be rigorously understood. +Mercutio's wit, gaiety, and courage, will always procure him friends +that wish him a longer life; but his death is not precipitated, he has +lived out the time allotted him in the construction of the play; nor do +I doubt the ability of Shakespeare to have continued his existence, +though some of his sallies are perhaps out of the reach of Dryden; whose +genius was not very fertile of merriment, nor ductile to humour, but +acute, argumentative, comprehensive, and sublime. + +The Nurse is one of the characters in which the author delighted: he +has, with great subtilty of distinction, drawn her at once loquacious +and secret, obsequious and insolent, trusty and dishonest. + +His comic scenes are happily wrought, but his pathetic strains are +always polluted with some unexpected depravations. His persons, however +distressed, _have a conceit left them in their misery, a miserable +conceit_. + + + + +HAMLET + + +(145,2) This play is printed both in the folio of 1623, and in the +quarto of 1637, more correctly, than almost any other of the works of +Shakespeare. + +I.i.29 (147,7) approve our eyes] Add a new testimony to that of our +eyes. + +I.i.33 (147,8) What we two nights have seen] This line is by Hanmer +given to Marcellus, but without necessity. + +I.i.63 (149,9) He smote the sledded Polack on the ice] Polack was, in +that age, the term for an inhabitant of Poland: Polaque, French. As in a +translation of Passeratius's epitaph on Henry III. of France, published +by Camden: + + "Whether thy chance or choice thee hither brings, + "Stay, passenger, and wail the best of kings. + "this little stone a great king's heart doth hold, + "Who rul'd the fickle French and Polacks bold: + "So frail are even the highest earthly things, + "Go, passenger, and wail the hap of kings." (rev. 1776, I, 174,3) + +I.i.65 (149,2) and just at this dead hour] The old reading is, _jump at +this same hour; same_ is a kind of correlative to _jump; just_ is in the +oldest folio. The correction was probably made by the author. + +I.i.68 (149,4) gross and scope] General thoughts, and tendency at large. +(1773) + +I.i.93 (151,7) And carriage of the articles design'd] _Carriage_, is +_import; design'd_, is _formed, drawn up between them_. + +I.i.96 (151,8) Of unimproved mettle hot and full] _Full of unimproved +mettle_, is full of spirit not regulated or guided by knowledge or +experience. + +I.i.100 (151,1) That hath a stomach in't] _Stomach_, in the time of our +author, was used for _constancy, resolution_. + +I.i.107 (152,3) romage] Tumultous hurry. (1773) + +I.i.108-125 (152,3) These, and all other lines confin'd within crotchets +throughout this play, are omitted in the folio edition of 1623. The +omissions leave the play sometimes better and sometimes worse, and seen +made only for the sake of abbreviation. + +I.i.109 (152,4) Well may it sort] The cause and the effect are +proportionate and suitable. (1773) + +I.i.121 (152,7) Was even the like precurse of fierce events] Not only +such prodigies have been seen in Rome, but the elements have shewn our +countrymen like forerunners and foretokens of violent events. (1773) + +I.i.128 (153,1) If thou hast any sound] The speech of Horatio to the +spectre is very elegant and noble, and congruous to the common +traditions of the causes of apparitions. + +I.i.153 (154,2) + + Whether in sea or fire, in earth or air, + The extravagant and erring spirit hies + To his confine] + +According to the pneumatology of that tine, every element was inhabited +by its peculiar order of spirits, who had dispositions different, +according to their various places of abode. The meaning therefore is, +that all _spirits extravagant_, wandering out of their element, whether +aerial spirits visiting earth, or earthly spirits ranging the air, +return to their station, to their proper limits in which they are +_confined_. We might read, + + "--And at his warning + "Th' extravagant and erring spirit hies + "To his confine, whether in sea or air, + "Or earth, or fire. And of, &c. + +But this change, tho' it would smooth the construction, is not +necessary, and being unnecessary, should not be made against authority. + +I.i.163 (154,5) No fairy takes] No fairy _strikes_, with lameness or +diseases. This sense of _take_ is frequent in this author. + +I.ii.37 (156,8) more than the scope/Of these dilated articles allows] +More than is comprised in the general design of these articles, which +you may explain in a more diffuse and dilated stile. (1773) + +I.ii.47 (157,9) + + The head is not more native to the heart, + The hand more instrumental to the mouth, + Than to the throne of Denmark is thy father] + +[W: The blood ... Than to the throne] Part of this emendation I have +received, but cannot discern why the _head_ is not as much _native to +the heart_, as the _blood_, that is, _natural_ and _congenial_ to it, +_born with it_, and co-operating with it. The relation is likewise by +this reading better preserved, the _counsellor_ being to the _king_ as +the _head_ to the _heart_. + +I.ii.62 (158,1) + + Take thy fair hour, Laertes; time be thine, + And thy best graces spend it at thy will] + +I rather think this line is in want of emendation. I read, + + --_Time is thine_, + _And_ my best _graces; spend it at thy will_. + +I.ii.65 (158,2) A little more than kin, and less than kind] _Kind_ is +the Teutonick word for _child_. Hamlet therefore answers with propriety, +to the titles of _cousin_ and _son_, which the king had given him, that +he was somewhat more than _cousin_, and less than _son_. + +I.ii.67 (159,3) too much i' the sun] He perhaps alludes to the proverb, +_Out of heaven's blessing into the warm sun_. + +I.ii.70 (159,4) veiled lids] With lowering eyes, cast down eyes. (1773) + +I.ii.89 (160,5) your father lost a father;/That father lost, lost his] I +do not admire the repetition of the word, but it has so much of our +author's manner, that I find no temptation to recede from the old +copies. + +I.ii.92 (160,6) obsequious sorrow] _Obsequious_ is here from +_obsequies_, or _funeral ceremonies_. + +I.ii.103 (161,9) To reason most absurd] Reason is here used in its +common sense, for the _faculty_ by which we form conclusions from +arguments. + +I.ii.110 (161,1) And with no less nobility of love] [_Nobility_, for +_magnitude_. WARBURTON.] _Nobility_ is rather _generosity_. + +I.ii.112 (161,2) Do I impart toward you] I believe _impart_ is, _impart +myself_, _communicate_ whatever I can bestow. + +I.ii.125 (162,4) No jocund health] The king's intemperance is very +strongly impressed; every thing that happens to him gives him occasion +to drink. + +I.ii.163 (164,9) I'll change that name] I'll be your servant, you shall +be my friend. (1773) + +I.ii.164 (164,1) what make you] A familiar phrase for _what are you +doing_. + +I.ii.167 (164,2) good Even, Sir] So the copies. Sir Th. Hanmer and Dr. +Warburton put it, _good morning_. The alteration is of no importance, +but all licence is dangerous. There is no need of any change. Between +the first and eighth scene of this act it is apparent, that a natural +day must pass, and how much of it is already over, there is nothing that +can determine. The king has held a council. It may now as well be +_evening_ as _morning_. + +I.ii.182 (165,3) 'Would I had met my dearest foe in heaven] _Dearest_, +for _direst_, most dreadful, most dangerous. + +I.ii.192 (165,5) Season your admiration] That is, _temper_ it. + +I.ii.204 (166,6) they, distill'd/Almost to jelly with the act of +fear,/Stand dumb] [W: th' effect of] Here is an affectation of subtilty +without accuracy. _Fear_ is every day considered as an _agent_. _Fear +laid hold on him; fear drove him away_. If it were proper to be rigorous +in examining trifles, it might be replied, that Shakespeare would write +more erroneously, if he wrote by the direction of this critick; they +were not _distilled_, whatever the word may mean, _by the effect of +fear_; for that _distillation_ was itself the _effect_; _fear_ was the +cause, the active cause, that _distilled_ them by that force of +operation which we strictly call _act_ involuntary, and _power_ in +involuntary agents, but popularly call _act_ in both. But of this too +much. + +I.iii.15 (169,9) The virtue of his will] _Virtue_ seems here to comprise +both _excellence_ and _power_, and may be explained the _pure effect_. + +I.iii.21 (169,1) The sanity and health of the whole state] [W: safety] +HANMER reads very rightly, _sanity_. _Sanctity_ is elsewhere printed for +_sanity_, in the old edition of this play. + +I.iii.32 (170,2) unmaster'd] i.e. _licentious_. (1773) + +I.iii.34 (170,3) keep you in the rear of your affection] That is, do not +advance so far as your affection would lead you. + +I.iii.49 (170,4) Whilst, like a puft and reckless libertine] [W: Whilest +he] The emendation is not amiss, but the reason for it is very +inconclusive; we use the same mode of speaking on many occasions. When I +say of one, _he squanders like a spendthrift_, of another, _he robbed me +like a thief_, the phrase produces no ambiguity; it is understood that +the one is a _spendthrift_, and the other a _thief_. + +I.iii.64 (172,7) But do not dull thy palm with entertainment/Of each +new-hatch'd, unfledg'd comrade] The literal sense is, _Do not make thy +palm callous by shaking every man by the hand_. The figurative meaning +may be, _Do not by promiscuous conversation make thy mind insensible to +the difference of characters_. + +I.iii.81 (173,1) my blessing season this in thee!] [_Season_, for +_infuse_. WARBURTON.] It is more than to _infuse_, it is to infix it in +such a manner as that it never may wear out. + +I.iii.83 (173,3) your servants tend] i.e. your servants are waiting for +you. (1773) + +I.iii.86 (173,4) 'Tis in my memory lock'd,/And you yourself shall keep +the key of it] That is, By thinking on you, I shall think on your +lessons. + +I.iii.107 (174,6) + + Tender yourself mere dearly; + Or (not to crack the wind of the poor phrase) + Wronging it thus, you'll tender me a fool] + +I believe the word _wronging_ has reference, not to the phrase, but to +Ophelia; if you go on _wronging it thus_, that is, _if you continue to +go on thus wrong_. This is a mode of speaking perhaps not very +grammatical, but very common, nor have the best writers refused it. + + _To sinner it or saint it_, + +is in Pope. And Rowe, + + --_Thus to_ coy it, + _To one who knows you too._ + +The folio has it, + + --_roaming it thus_,-- + +That is, _letting yourself loose to such improper liberty_. But +_wronging_ seems to be more proper. + +I.iii.112 (175,7) fashion you may call it] She uses _fashion_ for +_manner_, and he for a _transient practice_. + +I.iii.122 (175,8) Set your intreatments] _Intreatments_ here means +_company, conversation_, from the French _entrétien_. + +I.iii.125 (175,9) larger tether] _Tether_ is that string by which an +animal, set to graze in grounds uninclosed, is confined within the +proper limits. (1773) + +I.iii.132 (176,2) I would not, in plain terms, from this time forth,/ +Have you so slander any moment's leisure] [The humour of this is fine. +WARBURTON.] Here is another _fine_ passage, of which I take the beauty +to be only imaginary. Polonius says, _in plain terms_, that is, not in +language less elevated or embellished than before, but _in terms that +cannot be misunderstood_: _I would not have you so disgrace your most +idle moments, as not to find better employment for them than lord +Hamlet's conversation_. + +I.iv.9 (177,3) the swaggering up-spring] The blustering upstart. + +I.iv.17 (177,4) This heavy-headed revel, east and west] I should not +have suspected this passage of ambiguity or obscurity, had I not found +my opinion of it differing from that of the learned critic [Warburton]. +I construe it thus, _This heavy-headed revel makes us traduced east and +west, and taxed of other nations_. + +I.iv.22 (178,5) The pith and marrow of our attribute] The best and most +valuable part of the praise that would be otherwise attributed to us. + +I.iv.32 (178,7) fortune's scar] In the old quarto of 1637, it is + + --_fortune's_ star: + +But I think _scar_ is proper. + +I.iv.34 (178,8) As infinite as man may undergo] As large as can be +accumulated upon man. + +I.iv.39-57 (179,2) Angels and ministers of grace defend us!] Hamlet's +speech to the apparition of his father seems to me to consist of three +parts. When first he sees the spectre, he fortifies himself with an +invocation. + + _Angel and ministers of grace defend us!_ + +As the spectre approaches, he deliberates with himself, and determines, +that whatever it be he will venture to address it. + + _Be thou a spirit of health, or goblin damn'd, + Bring with thee airs from heaven, or blasts from hell, + Be thy intents wicked or charitable, + Thou com'st in such a questionable shape, + That I will speak to thee. I'll call thee_, &c. + +This he says while his father is advancing; he then, as he had +determined, _speaks to him_, and _calls him--Hamlet, King, Father, Royal +Dane: oh! answer me_. (1773) + +I.iv.43 (180,4) questionable shape] [By _questionable_ is meant +provoking question. HANMER.] So in _Macbeth_, + + _Live you, or are you aught + That man may_ question? + +I.iv.46 (180,5) tell,/Why thy canoniz'd bones, hearsed in death,/ Have +burst their cearments?] [W: in earth] It were too long to examine this +note period by period, though almost every period seems to me to contain +something reprehensible. The critic, in his zeal for change, writes with +so little consideration, as to say, that Hamlet cannot call his father +_canonized_, because _we are told he was murdered with all his sins +fresh upon him_. He was not then told it, and had so little the power of +knowing it, that he was to be told it by an apparition. The long +succession of reasons upon reasons prove nothing, but what every reader +discovers, that the king had been buried, which is implied by so many +adjuncts of burial, that the direct mention of _earth_ is not necessary. +Hamlet, amazed at an apparition, which, though in all ages credited, has +in all ages been considered as the most wonderful and most dreadful +operation of supernatural agency, enquires of the spectre, in the most +emphatic terms, why he breaks the order of nature, by returning from the +dead; this he asks in a very confused circumlocution, confounding in his +fright the soul and body. Why, says he, have _thy bones_, which with due +ceremonies have been intombed _in death_, in the common state of +departed mortals, _burst_ the folds in which they were embalmed? Why has +the tomb, in which we saw thee quietly laid, opened his mouth, that +mouth which, by its weight and stability, seemed closed for ever? The +whole sentence is this: _Why dost thou appear, whom we know to be dead?_ + +Had the change of the word removed any obscurity, or added any beauty, +it might have been worth a struggle; but either reading leaves the sense +the same. + +If there be any asperity in this controversial note, it must be imputed +to the contagion of peevishneas, or some resentment of the incivility +shewn to the Oxford editor, who is represented as supposing the ground +_canonized_ by a funeral, when he only meant to say, that the _body_ has +deposited in _holy ground_, in ground consecrated according to the +_canon_. + +I.iv.65 (183,9) I do not set my life at a pin's fee] The value of a pin. +(1773) + +I.iv.73 (183,1) deprive your sovereignty] I believe _deprive_ in this +place signifies simply to _take away_. + +I.iv.77 (184,4) confin'd to fast in fires] I am rather inclined to read, +_confin'd to_ lasting _fires_, to fires _unremitted_ and _unconsumed_. +The change is slight. + +I.v.30 (186,7) As meditation or the thoughts of love] The comment +[Warburton's] on the word _meditation_ is so ingenious, that I hope it +is just. + +I.v.77 (188,6) Unhonsel'd, disappointed, unaneal'd] This is a very +difficult line. I think Theobald's objection to the sense of +_unaneal'd_, for _notified by the bell_, must be owned to be very +strong. I have not yet by my enquiry satisfied myself. Hanmer's +explication of _unaneal'd_ by _unprepar'd_, because to _anneal_ metals, +is to _prepare_ them in manufacture, is too general and vague; there is +no resemblance between any funeral ceremony and the practice of +_annealing_ metals. + +_Disappointed_ is the same as _unappointed_, and may be properly +explained _unprepared_; a man well furnished with things necessary for +any enterprize, was said to be well _appointed_. + +I.v.80 (190,7) Oh, horrible! oh, horrible! most horrible!] It was +ingeniously hinted to me by a very learned lady, that this line seems to +belong to Hamlet, in whose mouth it is a proper and natural exclamation; +and who, according to the practice of the stage, may be supposed to +interrupt so long a speech. (1773) + +I.v.154 (193,5) Swear by my sword] [Here the poet has preserved the +manners of the ancient Danes, with whom it was _religion_ to swear upon +their swords. WARBURTON.] I was once inclinable to this opinion, which +is likewise well defended by Mr. Upton; but Mr. Garrick produced me a +passage, I think, in _Brantoms_, from which it appeared, that it was +common to swear upon the sword, that is, upon the cross which the old +swords always had upon the hilt. + +II.i.25 (197,8) drinking, fencing, swearing] I suppose, by _fencing_ is +meant a too diligent frequentation of the fencing-school, a resort of +violent and lawless young men. + +II.i.46 (197,4) _Good Sir_, or so, or _friend_, or _gentleman_] [W: +sire] I know not that _sire_ was ever a general word of compliment, as +distinct from _sir_; nor do I conceive why any alteration should be +made. It is a common mode of colloquial language to use, _or so_, as a +slight intimation of more of the same, or a like kind, that might be +mentioned. We might read, but we need not, + + _Good sir_, forsooth, _or friend, or gentleman_. + +_Forsooth_, a term of which I do not well know the original meaning, was +used to men as well as to women. + +II.i.71 (198,5) Observe his inclination in yourself] HANMER reads, +_e'en_ yourself, and is followed by Dr. Warburton; but perhaps _in_ +yourself means, _in your own person_, not by spies. + +II.i.112 (200,7) I had not quoted him] To _quote_ is, I believe, to +_reckon_, to take an account of, to take the _quotient_ or result of a +computation. + +II.i.114 (201,8) + + it as proper to our age + To cast beyond ourselves in our opinions, + As it is common for the younger sort + To lack discretion] + +This is not the remark of a weak man. The vice of age is too much +suspicion. Men long accustomed to the wiles of life _cast_ commonly +_beyond themselves_, let their cunning go further than reason can attend +it. This is always the fault of a little mind, made artful by long +commerce with the world. + +II.ii.24 (202,2) + + For the supply and profit of our hope, + Your visitation shall receive such thanks] + +That the hope which your arrival has raised may be completed by the +desired effect. + +II.ii.47 (203,4) the trail of policy] The _trail_ is the _course of an +animal pursued by the scent_. + +Il.ii.52 (203,5) My news shall be the fruit of that great feast] The +_desert_ after the meat. + +II.ii.84 (204,7) at night we'll feast] The king's intemperance is never +suffered to be forgotten. + +II.ii.86-167 (205,8) My liege, and Madam, to expostulate] This account +of the character of Polonius, though it sufficiently reconciles the +seeming inconsistency of so much wisdom with so much folly, does not +perhaps correspond exactly to the ideas of our author. The commentator +Warburton makes the character of Polonius, a character only of manners, +discriminated by properties superficial, accidental, and acquired. The +poet intended a nobler delineation of a mixed character of manners and +of nature. Polonius is a man bred in courts, exercised in business, +stored with observations, confident of his knowledge, proud of his +eloquence, and declining into dotage. His mode of oratory is truly +represented as designed to ridicule the practice of those times, of +prefaces that made no introduction, and of method that embarrassed +rather than explained. This part of his character is accidental, the +rest is natural. Such a man is positive and confident, because he knows +that his mind was once strong, and knows not that it is become weak. +Such a man excels in general principles, but fails in the particular +application. He is knowing in retrospect, and ignorant in foresight. +While he depends upon his memory, and can draw from his repositories of +knowledge, he utters weighty sentences, and gives useful counsel; but as +the mind in its enfeebled state cannot be kept long busy and intent, the +old man is subject to sudden dereliction of his faculties, he loses the +order of his ideas, and entangles himself in his own thoughts, till he +recovers the leading principle, and falls again into his former train. +This idea of dotage encroaching upon wisdom, will solve all the +phaenomena of the character of Polonius. + +II.ii.109 (207,1) _To the celestial, and my soul's idol, the most +beautified Ophelia_] [T: beatified] Both Sir Thomas Hanmer and Dr. +Warburton have followed Theobald, but I am in doubt whether +_beautified_, though, as Polonius calls it, a _vile phrase_, be not the +proper word. _Beautified_ seems to be a _vile phrase_, for the ambiguity +of its meaning, (rev. 1778, X, 241, 3) + +II.ii.126 (208,2) more above] is, _moreover, besides_. + +II.ii.145 (209,6) she took the fruits of my advice] She took the +_fruits_ of advice when she obeyed advice, the advice was then made +_fruitful_. + +II.ii.181 (211,9) For if the sun breed maggots in a dead dog,/Being a +god, kissing carrion] [This is Warburton's emendation for "a good +kissing"] This is a noble emendation, which almost sets the critic on a +level with the author. + +II.ii.265 (214,2) the shadow of a dream] Shakespeare has accidentally +inverted an expression of Pindar, that the state of humanity is the +_dream_ of a _shadow_. + +II.ii.269 (215,3) Then are our beggars, bodies] Shakespeare seems here +to design a ridicule of these declamations against wealth and greatness, +that seem to make happiness consist in poverty. + +II.ii.336 (217,7) shall end his part in peace] [After these words the +folio adds, _the clown shall make those laugh whose lungs are tickled o' +th' sere_. WARBURTON.] This passage I have omitted, for the same reason, +I suppose, as the other editors: I do not understand it. + +II.ii.338 (217,8) the lady shall say her mind freely, or the blank verse +shall halt for't] _The lady shall have no obstruction, unless from the +lameness of the verse._ + +II.ii.346 (217,9) I think, their inhibition comes by the means of the +late innovation] I fancy this is transposed: Hamlet enquires not about +an _inhibition_, but an _innovation_; the answer therefore probably was, +_I think, their_ innovation, _that is_, their new practice of strolling, +_comes by the means of the late_ inhibition. + +II.ii.352-379 (218,1) _Ham._ How comes it? do they grow rusty?] The +lines marked with commas are in the folio of 1623, but not in the quarto +of 1637, nor, I suppose, in any of the quartos. + +II.ii.355 (218,2) cry out on the top of question] The meaning seems to +be, they ask a common question in the highest notes of the voice. + +II.ii.362 (218,3) escoted] Paid. + +II.ii.362 (218,4) Will they pursue quality no longer than they can +_sing_?] Will they follow the _profession_ of players no longer than +they keep the voices of boys? So afterwards he says to the player, +_Come, give us a taste of your_ quality; come, _a passionate speech_. + +II.ii.370 (219,6) to tarre them on to controversy] To provoke any animal +to rage, is _to tarre him_. The word is said to come from the Greek. +(1773) + +II.ii.380 (219,8) It is not very strange, for mine uncle is king of +Denmark] I do not wonder that the new players have so suddenly risen to +reputation, my uncle supplies another example of the facility with which +honour is conferred upon new claimants. + +II.ii.412 (220,2) Buz, buz!] Mere idle talk, the _buz_ of the vulgar. + +II.ii.414 (220,3) _Then came each actor on his ass_] This seems to be a +line of a ballad. + +II.ii.420 (221,6) For the law of writ, and the liberty, these are the +only men] All the modern editions have, _the law of_ wit, _and the +liberty_; but both my old copies have, _the law of_ writ, I believe +rightly. _Writ_, for _writing, composition_. Wit_ was not, in our +author's time, taken either for _imagination_, or _acuteness_, or _both +together_, but for _understanding_, for the faculty by which we +_apprehend_ and _judge_. Those who wrote of the human mind distinguished +its primary powers into _wit_ and _will_. Ascham distinguishes _boys_ of +tardy and of active faculties into _quick wits_ and _slow wits_. + +II.ii.438 (221,8) the first row of the pious chanson] [It is _pons +chansons_ in the first folio edition. POPE.] It is _pons chansons_ in +the quarto too. I know not whence the _rubric_ has been brought, yet it +has not the appearance of an arbitrary addition. The titles of old +ballads were never printed red; but perhaps _rubric_ may stand for +_marginal explanation_. + +II.ii.439 (222,9) For, look, where my abridgment comes] He calls the +players afterwards, _the brief chronicles of the time_; but I think he +now means only _those who will shorten my talk_. + +II.ii.448 (223,2) be not crack'd within the ring] That is, _crack'd too +much for use_. This is said to a young player who acted the parts of +women. + +II.ii.450 (223,3) like French faulconers] HANMER, who has much +illustrated the allusions to falconry, reads, _like_ French _falconers. +[French falconers_ is not a correction by Hanmer, but the reading of the +first folio. STEEVENS.] (see 1765, VIII, 198, 1) + +II.ii.459 (223,5) (as I received it, and others whose judgment in such +matters cried in the top of mine)] [i.e. whose judgment I had the +highest opinion of. WARBURTON.] I think it means only that _were higher +than mine_. + +II.ii.466 (224,8) but called it, an honest method] Hamlet is telling how +much his judgment differed from that of others. _One said, there was no +salt in the lines_, &c. _but call'd it an honest method_. The author +probably gave it, _But I called it an honest method_, &c. + +II.ii.525 (226,9) _the mobled queen] Mobled signifies _huddled, grossly +covered_. + +II.ii.587 (228,5) the cue for passion] The _hint_, the _direction_. + +II.ii.589 (228,6) the general ear] The ears of all mankind. So before, +_Caviare to the_ general, that is, to the _multitude_. + +II.ii.595 (229,7) unpregnant of my cause] [_Unpregnant_, for _having no +due sense of_. WARBURTON.] Rather, _not quickened with a new desire of +vengeance; not teeming with revenge_. + +II.ii.598 (229,8) A damn'd defeat was made] [_Defeat_, for +_destruction_. WARBURTON.] Rather, _dispossession_. + +II.ii.608 (229,1) kindless] _Unnatural_. + +II.ii.616 (229,3) About, my brain!] _Wits, to your work_. _Brain_, go +_about_ the present business. + +II.ii.625 (230,5) tent him] Search his wounds. + +II.ii.632 (230,7) More relative than this] [_Relative_, for +_convictive_. WARB.] _Convictive_ is only the consequential sense. +_Relative_ is, _nearly related, closely connected_. + +III.i.17 (231,2) o'er-raught on the way] _Over-raught_ is +_over-reached_, that is, _over-took_. + +III.i.31 (232,4) Affront Ophelia.] To _affront_, is only _to meet +directly_. + +III.i.47 (233,5) 'Tis too much prov'd] It is found by too frequent +experience. + +III.i.52 (233,6) more ugly to the thing that helps it] That is, +_compared with_ the thing that helps it. + +III.i.56-88 (233,7) To be, or not to be?] Of this celebrated soliloquy, +which bursting from a man distracted with contrariety of desires, and +overwhelmed with the magnitude of his own purposes, is connected rather +in the speaker's mind, than on his tongue, I shall endeavour to discover +the train, and to shew how one sentiment produces another. Hamlet, +knowing himself injured in the most enormous and atrocious degree, and +seeing no means of redress, but such as must expose him to the extremity +of hazard, meditates on his situation in this manner: _Before I can form +any rational scheme of action under this pressure of distress_, it is +necessary to decide, whether, _after our present state, we are_ to be or +not to be. That is the question, which, as it shall be answered, will +determine, _whether 'tis nobler_, and more suitable to the dignity of +reason, _to suffer the outrages of fortune_ patiently, or to take arms +against _them_, and by opposing end them, _though perhaps_ with the loss +of life. If _to die_, were _to sleep_, no more, _and by a sleep to end_ +the miseries of our nature, such a sleep were _devoutly to be wished_; +but if _to sleep_ in death, be _to dream_, to retain our powers of +sensibility, we must _pause_ to consider, _in that sleep of death what +dreams may come_. This consideration _makes calamity_ so long endured; +for _who would bear_ the vexations of life, which might be ended _by a +bare bodkin_, but that he is afraid of something in unknown futurity? +This fear it is that gives efficacy to conscience, which, by turning the +mind upon _this regard_, chills the ardour of _resolution_, checks the +vigour of _enterprize_, and makes the _current_ of desire stagnate in +inactivity. We may suppose that he would have applied these general +observations to his own case, but that he discovered Ophelia. + +III.i.59 (234,8) Or to take arms against a sea of troubles] [W: against +assail] Mr. Pope proposed _siege_. I know not why there should be so +much solicitude about this metaphor. Shakespeare breaks his metaphors +often, and in this desultory speech there was less need of preserving +them. + +III.i.70 (235,2) the whips and scorns of time] [W: of th' time] I doubt +whether the corruption of this passage is not more than the editor has +suspected. _Whips_ and _scorns_ have no great connexion with one +another, or with _time: whips_ and _scorns_ are evils of very different +magnitude, and though at all _times scorn_ may be endured, yet the +_times_ that put men ordinarily in danger of _whips_, are rery rare. +Falstaff has said, that the _courtiers would_ whip _him with their quick +wits_; but I know not that _whip_ can be used for a _scoff_ or _insult_, +unless its meaning be fixed by the whole expression. + +I am afraid lest I should venture too far in correcting this passage. If +_whips_ be retained, we may read, + + _For who would bear the whips and scorns of_ tyrant. + +But I think that _quip_, a _sneer_, a _sarcasm_, a _contemptuous_ jest, +is the proper word, as suiting very exactly with _scorn_. What then must +be done with _time_? it suits no better with the new reading than with +the old, and _tyrant_ is an image too bulky and serious. I read, but not +confidently, + + _For who would bear the_ quips _and scorns of_ title. + +It say be remarked, that Hamlet, in his enumeration of miseries, +forgets, whether properly or not, that he is a prince, and mentions many +evils to which inferior stations only are exposed. + +III.i.77 (236,4) To groan and sweat] All the old copies have, _to_ grunt +_and sweat_. It is undoubtedly the true reading, but can scarcely be +borne by modern ears. + +III.i.89 (237,5) Nymph, in thy orisons] This is a touch of nature. +Hamlet, at the sight of Ophelia, does not immediately recollect, that he +is to personate madness, but makes her an address grave and solemn, such +as the foregoing meditation excited in his thoughts. + +III.i.107 (237,6) That if you be honest and fair, you should admit no +discourse to your beauty] This is the reading of all the modern +editions, and is copied from the quarto. The folio reads, your honesty +_should admit no discourse to your beauty_. The true reading seems to be +this, _If you be honest and fair, you should admit_ your honesty _to no +discourse with your beauty_. This is the sense evidently required by the +process of the conversation. + +III.i.127 (238,7) I have thoughts to put them in] _To put a thing into +thought_, is _to think on it_. + +III.i.148 (239,8) I have heard of your paintings too, well enough] This +is according to the quarto; the folio, for _painting_, has _prattlings_, +and for _face_, has _pace_, which agrees with what follows, _you jig, +you amble_. Probably the author wrote both. I think the common reading +best. + +III.i.152 (239,9) make your wantonness your ignorance] You mistake by +_wanton_ affectation, and pretend to mistake by _ignorance_. + +III.i.161 (239,2) the mould of form] The model by whom all endeavoured +to form themselves. + +III.ii.12 (241,3) the groundlings] The meaner people then seem to have +sat below, as they now sit in the upper gallery, who, not well +understanding poetical language, were sometimes gratified by a mimical +and mute representation of the drama, previous to the dialogue. + +III.ii.14 (242,4) inexplicable dumb shews] I believe the meaning is, +_shews, without words to explain them_. + +III.ii.26 (242,6) the very age and body of the time, his form and +pressure] The _age_ of the _time_ can hardly pass. May we not read, the +_face_ and _body_, or did the author write, the _page_? The _page_ suits +well with _form_ and _pressure_, but ill with _body_. + +III.ii.28 (242,7) pressure] Resemblance, as in a _print_. + +III.ii.34 (242,8) (not to speak it profanely)] _Profanely_ seems to +relate, not to the praise which he has mentioned, but to the censure +which he is about to utter. Any gross or indelicate language was called +_profane_. + +III.ii.66 (243,9) the pregnant hinges of the knee] I believe the sense +of _pregnant_ in this place is, _quick, ready, prompt_. + +III.ii.68 (244,1) my dear soul] Perhaps, my _clear_ soul. + +III.ii.74 (244,2) Whose blood and judgment] According to the doctrine of +the four humours, _desire_ and _confidence_ were seated in the blood, +and _judgment_ in the phlegm, and the due mixture of the humours made a +perfect character. + +III.ii.89 (244,3) Vulcan's stithy] _Stithy_ is a smith's _anvil_. + +III.ii.103 (245,4) nor mine now] A man's words, says the proverb, are +his own no longer than he keep them unspoken. + +III.ii.112 (245,5) they stay upon your patience] May it not be read more +intelligibly, _They stay upon your_ pleasure. In _Macbeth_ it is, "Noble +Macbeth, we stay upon your _leisure_." + +III.ii.123 (245,6) Do you think I meant country matters?] I think we +must read, _Do you think I meant country_ manners? Do you imagine that I +meant to sit in your lap, with such rough gallantry as clowns use to +their lasses? + +III.ii.137 (246,7) Nay, then, let the devil wear black, for I'll have a +suit of sables] I know not why our editors should, with such implacable +anger, persecute our predecessors. The dead, it is true, can make no +resistance, they may be attacked with great security; but since they can +neither feel nor mend, the safety of mauling them seems greater than the +pleasure; nor perhaps would it much misbeseem us to remember, amidst our +triumphs over the _nonsensical_ and the _senseless_, that we likewise +are men; that _debemur morti_, and, as Swift observed to Burnet, shall +soon be among the dead ourselves. + +I cannot find how the common reading is nonsense, nor why Hamlet, when +he laid aside his dress of mourning, in a country where it was _bitter +cold_, and the air was _nipping and eager_, should not have a _suit of +sables_. I suppose it is well enough known, that the fur of sables is +not black. + +III.ii.147 (249,1) Marry, this is miching maliche; it means mischief] +[W: malhechor] I think Hanmer's exposition most likely to be right. Dr. +Warburton, to justify his interpretation, must write, _miching_ for +_malechor_, and even then it will be harsh. + +III.ii.167 (250,3) sheen] Splendor, lustre. + +III.ii.177 (250,4) For women fear too much, even as they love] Here +seems to be a line lost, which should have rhymed to _love_. + +III.ii.192 (251,6) The instances, that second marriage move] The +_motives_. + +III.ii.202 (252,7) + + Most necessary 'tis, that we forget + To pay ourselves what to ourselves is debt] + +The performance of a resolution, in which only the _resolver_ is +interested, is a debt only to himself, which he may therefore remit at +pleasure. + +III.ii.206 (252,8) + + The violence of either grief or joy, + Their own enactures with themselves destroy] + +What grief or joy _enact_ or determine in their violence, is revealed in +their abatement. _Enactures_ is the word in the quarto; all the modern +editions have _enactors_. + +III.ii.229 (252,9) An anchor's cheer in prison be my scope] May my whole +liberty and enjoyment be to live on hermit's fare in a prison. _Anchor_ +is for _anchoret_. + +III.ii.250 (253,1) Baptista] _Baptista_ is, I think, in Italian, the +name always of a man. + +III.ii.262 (254,4) So you must take your husbands] Read, _So you_ must +take _your husbands_ [in place of "mistake"]; that is, _for better, for +worse_. + +III.ii.288 (255,5) with two provencial roses on my rayed shoes] When +shoe-strings were worn, they were covered, where they met in the middle, +by a ribband, gathered into the form of a rose. So in an old song, + + Gil-de-Roy _was a bonny boy_, + _Had_ roses _tull his_ shoen. + +_Rayed_ shoes, are shoes _braided_ in lines. + +III.ii.304 (256,1) For if the king like not the comedy/Why, then, +belike] Hamlet was going on to draw the consequence when the courtiers +entered. + +III.ii.314 (256,2) With drink, Sir?] Hamlet takes particular care that +his uncle's love of drink shall not be forgotten. + +III.ii.346 (257,3) further trade] Further business; further dealing. + +III.ii.348 (257,4) by these pickers] By these hands. + +III.ii.373 (258,6) ventages] The holes of a flute. + +III.ii.401 (259,9) they fool me to the top of my bent] They compel me to +play the fool, till I can endure to do it no longer. + +III.iii.7 (261,4) Out of his lunes] [The old quartos read, + + _Out of his_ brows. + +This was from the ignorance of the first editors; as is this unnecessary +Alexandrine, which we owe to the players. The poet, I am persuaded, +wrote, + + --_us doth hourly grow_ + _out of his_ lunes. + +i.e. his _madness, frenzy_. THEOBALD.] + +_Lunacies_ is the reading of the folio. + +I take _brows_ to be, properly read, _frows_, which, I think, is a +provincial word for _perverse humours_; which being, I suppose, not +understood, was changed to _lunacies_. But of this I an not confident. +[Steevens adopted Theobald's emendation] + +III.iii.33 (262,7) of vantage] By some opportunity of secret +observation. + +III.iii.56 (263,9) May one be pardon'd, and retain the offence?] He that +does not amend what can be amended, _retains_ his _offence_. The king +kept the crown from the right heir. + +III.iii.66 (263,1) Yet what can it, when one cannot repent?] What can +repentance _do for a man that cannot be penitent_, for a man who has +only part of penitence, distress of conscience, without the other part, +resolution of amendment. + +III.iii.77 (264,1) I, his sole son, do this same villain send] The folio +reads foule son, a reading apparently corrupted from the quarto. The +meaning is plain. _I, his_ only _son_, who am bound to punish his +murderer. + +III.iii.88 (264,2) Up, sword, and know thou a more horrid hent] [T: +bent] This reading is followed by Sir T. HANMER and Dr. WARBURTON; but +_hent_ is probably the right vord. To _hent_ is used by Shakespeare for, +to _seize_, to _catch_, to _lay hold on_. _Hent_ is, therefore, _hold_, +or _seizure_. _Lay hold_ on him, sword, at a more horrid time. + +III.iii.94 (265,3) his soul may be as damn'd and black/As hell, whereto +it goes] This speech, in which Hamlet, represented as a virtuous +character, is not content vith taking blood for blood, but contrives +damnation for the man that he would punish, is too horrible to be read +or to be uttered. + +III.iv.4 (266,4) I'll silence me e'en here:/Pray you, be round vith him] +Sir T. HANMER, who is folloved by Dr. WARBURTON, reads, + + --_I'll_ sconce _me here_. + +_Retire_ to a place of _security_. They forget that the contrivance of +Polonius to overhear the conference, was no more told to the queen than +to Hamlet.--_I'll silence me even here_, is, _I'll use no more words_. + +III.iv.48 (268,8) + + Heaven's face doth glow; + Yea, this solidity and compound mass, + With tristful visage, as against the doom, + It thought-sick at the act] + +[W: O'er this ... visage, and, as 'gainst] The word _heated_ [from the +"old quarto"], though it agrees well enough with _glow_, is, I think, +not so striking as _tristful_, which was, I suppose, chosen at the +revisal. I believe the whole passage now stands as the author gave it. +Dr. WARBURTON's reading restores two improprieties, which Shakespeare, +by his alteration, had removed. In the first, and in the new reading: +_Heaven's_ face _glows with tristful_ visage; and, _Heaven's face is_ +thought-sick. To the common reading there is no just objection. + +III.iv.52 (268,9) what act,/That roars so loud, and thunders in the +index?] The meaning is, _What is_ this act, of which the _discovery_, or +_mention_, cannot be made, but with this violence of clamour? + +III.iv.82 (270,5) Rebellious hell,/If thou canst mutiny in a matron's +bones] I think the present reading right, but cannot admit that HANMER's +emendation ["Rebellious heat"] produces nonsense. May not what is said +of _heat_, be said of _hell_, that it will mutiny wherever it is +quartered? Though the emendation be elegant, it is not necessary. (1773) + +III.iv.88 (271,6) reason panders will] So the folio, I think rightly; +but the reading of the quarto is defensible; + + --_reason_ pardons _will_. + +III.iv.90 (271,7) grained] Dyed in grain. + +III.iv.92 (271,8) incestuous bed] The folio has _enseamed_, that is, +_greasy_ bed. + +III.iv.98 (271,9) vice of kings!] a low mimick of kings. The vice is the +fool of a farce; from whom the modern _punch_ is descended. + +III.iv.102 (272,2) A king of shreds and patches] This is said, pursuing +the idea of the _vice of kings_. The _vice_ was dressed as a fool, in a +coat of party-coloured patches. + +III.iv.107 (272,3) lap's in time and passion] That, having suffered +_time_ to _slip_, and _passion_ to _cool, lets go_, &c. + +III.iv.151 (274,6) And do not spread the compost on the weeds/To make +them ranker] Do not, by any new indulgence, heighten your former +offences. + +III.iv.155 (274,7) curb] That is, _bend_ and _truckle_. Fr. _courber_. + +III.iv.161 (274,8) That monster custom, who all sense doth eat/ Of +habits evil, is angel yet in this] [Thirlby: habits evil] I think +THIRLBY's conjecture wrong, though the succeeding editors have followed +it; _angel_ and _devil_ are evidently opposed. [Steevens accepted +"evil"] + +III.iv.203 (277,5) adders fang'd] That is, adders with their _fangs_, or +_poisonous teeth_, undrawn. It has been the practice of mountebanks to +boast the efficacy of their antidotes by playing with vipers, but they +first disabled their fangs. + +IV.i (278,l) _A royal apartment. Enter King, Queen, Rosencrantz, and +Guildenstern_] This play is printed in the old editions without any +separation of the acts. The division is modern and arbitrary; and is +here not very happy, for the pause is made at a time when there is more +continuity of action than in almost any other of the scenes. + +IV.i.18 (278,2) out of haunt] I would rather read, _out of_ harm. + +IV.i.25 (279,3) + + his very madness, like some ore + among a mineral of metals base, + Shews itself pure] + +Shakespeare seems to think _ore_ to be _or_, that is, gold. Base metals +have _ore_ no less than precious. + +IV.ii.19 (281,5) he keeps them, like an ape, in the corner of his jaw] +The quarto has _apple_, which is generally followed. The folio has +_ape_, which HANMER has received, and illustrated with the following +note. + +"It is the way of monkeys in eating, to throw that part of their food, +which they take up first, into a pouch they are provided with on the +side of their jaw, and then they keep it, till they have done with the +rest." + +IV.ii.28 (281,6) The body is with the king] This answer I do not +comprehend. Perhaps it should be, _The body is_ not _with the king_, for +_the king is not with the body_. + +IV.ii.32 (282,7) Of nothing] Should it not be read, _Or_ nothing? When +the courtiers remark, that Hamlet has contemptuously called the _king a +thing_, Hamlet defends himself by observing, that the king must be a +_thing_, or _nothing_. + +IV.ii.46 (283,9) the wind at help] I suppose it should be read, _The +bark is ready, and the wind at_ helm. + +IV.ii.68 (284,3) And thou must cure me: till I know 'tis done,/ Howe'er +my haps, my joys will ne'er begin] This being the termination of a +scene, should, according to our author's custom, be rhymed. Perhaps he +wrote, + + _Howe'er my_ hopes, _my joys_ are not begun. + +If _haps_ be retained, the meaning will be, _'till I know 'tis done, I +shall be miserable_, whatever befall me (see 1785, VIII, 257, 3) + +IV.iv.33 (286,4) + + What is a man, + If his chief good and market of his time + Be but to sleep and feed?] + +If his highest good, and _that for which he sells his time_, be to sleep +and feed. + +IV.iv.36 (286,5) large discourse] Such latitude of comprehension, such +power of reviewing the past, and anticipating the future. + +IV.iv.53 (286,6) Rightly to be great,/Is not to stir without great +argument] This passage I have printed according to the copy. Mr. +THEOBALD had regulated it thus: + + --_'Tis not to be great, + Never to stir without great argument; + But greatly_, &c. + +The sentiment of Shakespeare is partly just, and partly romantic. + + --_Rightly to be great, + Is not to stir without great argument_; + +is exactly philosophical. + + _But greatly to find quarrel in a straw, + When honour is at stake_, + +is the idea of a modern hero. _But then_, says he _honour is an +argument, or subject of debate_, sufficiently great, _and_ when honour +is at stake, we must _find cause of quarrel in a straw_. + +IV.iv.56 (287,7) Excitements of my reason and my blood] Provocations +which excite both my reason and my passions to vengeance. + +IV.v.37 (289,4) _Larded all with sweet flowers_] The expression is taken +from cookery. (1773) + +IV.v.53 (290,6) _And dupt the chamber-door_] To _dup_, is to _do up_; to +lift the latch. It were easy to write, + + _And_ op'd-- + +IV.v.58 (290,7) _By Gis_] I rather imagine it should be read, + + _By_ Cis,-- + +That is, by St. Cecily. + +IV.v.83 (291,8) but greenly] But _unskilfully_; with _greenness_; that +is, without_ maturity_ of judgment. + +IV.v.84 (291,9) In hugger-mugger to inter him] All the modern editions +that I have consulted give it, + + _In_ private _to inter him_;-- + +That the words now replaced are better, I do not undertake to prove; it +is sufficient that they are Shakespeare's: if phraseology is to be +changed as words grow uncouth by disuse, or gross by vulgarity, the +history of every language will be lost; we shall no longer have the +words of any author; and, as these alterations will be often unskilfully +made, we shall in time have very little of his meaning. + +IV.v.89 (292,1) Feeds on his wonder] The folio reads, + + Keeps _on his wonder_,-- + +The quarto, + + Feeds _on_ this _wonder_.-- + +Thus the true reading is picked out from between them. HANMER reads +unnecessarily, + + Feeds _on his_ anger.-- + +IV.v.92 (292,2) Wherein necessity, of matter beggar'd,/ Will nothing +stick our persons to arraign] HANMER reads, + + Whence animosity, _of matter beggar'd_. + +He seems not to have understood the connection. _Wherein_, that is, _in +which pestilent speeches, necessity_, or, _the obligation of an accuser +to support his charge, will nothing stick_, &c. + +IV.v.99 (293,4) The ocean, over-peering of his list] The lists are the +barriers which the spectators of a tournament must not pass. + +IV.v.105 (293,5) The ratifiers and props of every ward] [W: ward] With +this emendation, which was in Theobald's edition, Hanmer was not +satisfied. It is indeed harsh. HANMER transposes the lines, and reads, + + _They cry_, "Chuse we Laertes for our king;" + The ratifiers and props of every word, + _Caps, hands, and tongues, applaud it to the clouds_. + +I think the fault may be mended at less expence, by reading, + + _Antiquity forgot, custom not known, + The ratifiers and props of every_ weal. + +That is, of every _government_. + +IV.v.110 (294,6) Oh, this is counter, you false Danish dogs] Hounds run +_counter_ when they trace the trail backwards. + +IV.v.161 (296,9) + + Nature is fine in loves and, where 'tis fine, + It sends some precious instance of itself + After the thing it loves] + +These lines are not in the quarto, and might hare been omitted in the +folio without great loss, for they are obscure and affected; but, I +think, they require no emendation. _Love_ (says Laertes) is the passion +by which _nature is most_ exalted and _refined_; and as substances +_refined_ and subtilised, easily obey any impulse, or follow any +attraction, some part of nature, so purified and _refined_, flies off +after the attracting object, after the thing it loves. + + _As into air the purer spirits f1ow, + And separate from their kindred dregs below, + So flew her soul_.-- + +IV.v.171 (297,1) O how the wheel becomes it!] [W: weal] I do not see why +_weal_ is better than _wheel_. The story alluded to I do not know; but +perhaps the lady stolen by the steward was reduced to _spin_. + +IV.v.175 (297,2) There's rosemary, that'll far rememberance. Pray you, +love, remember. And there's pansies, that's for thoughts] There is +probably some mythology in the choice of these herbs, but I cannot +explain it. _Pansies_ is for _thoughts_, because of its name, _Pensées_; +but _rosemary_ indicates _remembrance_, except that it is an ever-green, +and carried at funerals, I have not discovered. + +IV.v.214 (300,7) No trophy, sword, nor batchment] It was the custom, in +the times of our author, to hang a sword over the grave of a knight. + +IV.v.218 (300,8) And where the offence is, let the great axe fall] [W: +tax] _Fall_ corresponds better to _axe_. + +IV.vi.26 (301,9) _for the bore of the matter_] The _bore_ is the +calibier of a gun, or the capacity of the barrel. _The matter_ (says +Hamlet) _would carry the heavier words_. + +IV.vii.18 (302,1) the general gender] The _common race_ of the people. + +IV.vii.19 (302,2) + + dipping all his faults in their affection, + Would, like the spring that turneth wood to stone, + Convert his gyves to graces] + +This simile is neither very seasonable in the deep interest of this +conversation, nor very accurately applied. If the _spring_ had changed +base metals to gold, the thought had been more proper. + +IV.vii.27 (302,3) if praises may go back again] If I may praise what has +been, but is now to be found no more. + +IV.vii.77 (304,5) Of the unworthiest siege] Of the lowest rank. _Siege_, +for _seat, place_. + +IV.vii.82 (304,6) Importing health and graveness] [W: wealth] +_Importing_ here may be, not _inferring_ by logical consequence, but +_producing_ by physical effect. A young man regards show in his dress, +an old man, _health_. + +IV.vii.90 (305,7) I, in forgery of shapes and tricks/Come short of what +he did] I could not contrive so many proofs of dexterity as he could +perform. + +IV.vii.98 (305,8) in your defence] That is, _in the science of_ defence. + +IV.vii.101 (305,9) The scrimers] The _fencers_. + +IV.vii.112 (305,1) love is begun by time] This is obscure. The meaning +may be, _love_ is not innate in us, and co-essential to our nature, but +begins at a certain time from some external cause, and being always +subject to the operations of time, suffers change and diminution. (1773) + +IV.vii.113 (300,2) in passages of proof] In transactions of daily +experience. + +IV.vii.123 (306,4) And then this _should_ is like a spendthrift sigh/ +That hurts by easing] [W: sign] This conjecture is so ingenious, that it +can hardly be opposed, but with the same reluctance as the bow is drawn +against a hero, whose virtues the archer holds in veneration. Here may +be applied what Voltaire writes to the empress: + + _Le genereux Francois-- + Te combat & t'admire._ + +Yet this emendation, however specious, is mistaken. The original reading +is, not a _spendthrift's_ sigh, but a _spendthrift_ sigh; a _sigh_ that +makes an unnecessary waste of the vital flame. It is a notion very +prevalent, that _sighs_ impair the strength, and wear out the animal +powers. + +IV.vii.135 (307,5) He being remiss] He being not vigilant or cautious. + +IV.vii.139 (307,7) a pass of practice] Practice is often by Shakespeare, +and other writers, taken for an _insidious stratagem_, or _privy_ +treason, a sense not incongruous to this passage, where yet I rather +believe, that nothing more is meant than a _thrust for exercise_. + +IV.vii.151 (308,8) May fit us to our shape] May _enable_ us to _assume +proper characters_, and to act our part. + +IV.vii.155 (308,9) blast in proof] This, I believe, is a metaphor taken +from a mine, which, in the proof or execution, sometimes breaks out with +an ineffectual _blast_. + +V.i.3 (310,1) make her grave straight] Make her grave from east to west +in a direct line parallel to the church; not from north to south, +athwart the regular line. This, I think, is meant. + +V.i.87 (313,1) which this ass now o'er-reaches] In the quarto, for +_over-offices_ is, _over-reaches_, which agrees better with the +sentence: it is a strong exaggeration to remark that an _ass_ can +_over-reach_ him who would once have tried to _circumvent_.--I believe +both the words were Shakespeare's. An author in revising his work, when +his original ideas have faded from his mind, and new observations have +produced new sentiments, easily introduces images which have been more +newly impressed upon him, without observing their want of congruity to +the general texture of his original design. + +V.i.96 (314,2) and now my lady Worm's] The scull that was _my lord Such +a one's_, is now my _lady Worm's_. + +V.i.100 (314,3) to play at loggats with 'em?] A play, in which pins are +set up to be beaten down with a bowl. + +V.i.149 (316,5) by the card] The _card_ is the paper on which the +different points of the compass were described. _To do any thing by the +card_, is, _to do it with nice observation_. + +V.i.151 (316,6) the age is grown so picked] So _smart_, so _sharp_, says +HANMER, very properly; but there was, I think, about that time, a +_picked_ shoe, that is, _a shoe with a long pointed toe_, in fashion, to +which the allusion seems likewise to be made. _Every man now is smart; +and every man now is a man of fashion_. + +V.i.239 (319,7) winter's flaw!] Winter's _blast_. + +V.i.242 (319,8) maimed rites!] Imperfect obsequies. + +V.i.244 (319,9) some estate] Some person of high rank. + +V.i.255 (319,2) Yet here she is allow'd her virgin crants] I have been +informed by an anonymous correspondent, that _crants_ is the German word +for _garlands_, and I suppose it was retained by us from the Saxons. To +carry _garlands_ before the bier of a maiden, and to hang them over her +grave, is still the practice in rural parishes. + +_Crants_ therefore was the original word, which the author, discovering +it to be provincial, and perhaps not understood, changed to a term more +intelligible, but less proper. _Maiden rites_ give no certain or +definite image. He might have put _maiden wreaths_, or _maiden +garlands_, but he perhaps bestowed no thought upon it, and neither +genius nor practice will always supply a hasty writer with the most +proper diction. + +V.i.310 (323,6) When that her golden couplets] [W: E'er that] Perhaps it +should be, + + _Ere yet_-- + +_Yet_ and _that_ are easily confounded. + +V.ii.6 (324,7) mutinies in the bilboes] _Mutinies_, the French word for +seditious or disobedient fellows in the army or fleet. _Bilboes_, the +_ship's prison_. + +V.ii.6 (324,8) Rashly,/And prais'd be rashness for it--Let us know] Both +my copies read, + + --Rashly, + _And prais'd be rashness for it_, let _us know_. + +Hamlet, delivering an account of his escape, begins with saying, that he +_rashly_--and then is carried into a reflection upon the weakness of +human wisdom. I rashly--praised be rashness for it--_Let us_ not think +these events casual, but _let us know_, that is, _take notice and +remember_, that we sometimes succeed by _indiscretion_, when we _fail_ +by _deep plots_, and infer the perpetual superintendance and _agency_ of +the _Divinity_. The observation is just, and will be allowed by every +human being who shall reflect on the course of his own life. + +V.ii.22 (325,9) With, ho! such bugs and goblins in my life] With _such +causes of terror_, arising from my character and designs. + +V.ii.29 (325,2) Being thus benetted round with villainies,/ Ere I could +make a prologue to my brains] [W: mark the prologue ... bane] In my +opinion no alteration is necessary. Hamlet is telling how luckily every +thing fell out; he groped out their commission in the dark without +waking them; he found himself doomed to immediate destruction. Something +was to be done for his preservation. An expedient occurred, not produced +by the comparison of one method with another, or by a regular deduction +of consequences, but before he _could make a prologue to his brains, +they had begun the play_. Before he could summon his faculties, and +propose to himself what should be done, a complete scheme of action +presented itself to him. His mind operated before he had excited it. +This appears to me to be the meaning. + +V.ii.41 (326,5) As peace should still her wheaten garland wear,/ And +stand a comma 'tween their amities] HANMER reads, + + _And stand a_ cement-- + +I am again inclined to vindicate the old reading. + +The expression of our author is, like many of his phrases, sufficiently +constrained and affected, but it is not incapable of explanation. The +_comma_ is the note of _connection_ and continuity of sentences; the +_period_ is the note of _abruption_ and disjunction. Shakespeare had it +perhaps in his mind to write, That unless England complied with the +mandate, _war should put a_ period _to their amity_; he altered his mode +of diction, and thought that, in an opposite sense, he might put, that +_Peace should stand a_ comma between their amities_. This is not an easy +stile; but is it not the stile of Shakespeare? + +V.ii.43 (327,6) as's of great charge] _Asses_ heavily _loaded_. A +quibble is intended between _as_ the conditional particle, and _ass_ the +beast of burthen. That _charg'd_ anciently signified _leaded_, may be +proved from the following passage in _The Widow's Tears_, by Chapman, +1612. + +"Thou must be the _ass charg'd with crowns_ to make way." (see 1765, +VIII, 294, 2) + +V.ii.53 (327,7) The changeling never known] A _changeling_ is a _child_ +which the fairies are supposed to leave in the room of that which they +steal. + +V.ii.68 (328,1) To quit him] To requite him; to pay him his due. + +V.ii.84 (329,2) Dost know this water-fly] A _water-fly_, skips up and +down upon the surface of the water, without any apparent purpose or +reason, and is thence the proper emblem of a busy trifler. + +V.ii.89 (329,3) It is a chough] A kind of jackdaw. + +V.ii.112 (330,5) full of most excellent differences] Full of +_distinguishing_ excellencies. + +V.ii.114 (330,6) the card or calendar of gentry] The general preceptor +of elegance; the _card_ by which a gentleman is to direct his course; +the _calendar_ by which he is to choose his time, that what he does may +be both excellent and seasonable. + +V.ii.115 (330,7) for you shall find in him the continent of what part a +gentleman would see] _You shall find him containing_ and comprising +every _quality_ which a _gentleman_ would desire to _contemplate_ for +imitation. I know not but it should be read, _You shall find him the +continent_ + +V.ii.119 (330,9) and yet but raw neither in respect of his quick sail] +[W: but slow] I believe _raw_ to be the right word; it is a word of +great latitude; _raw_ signifies _unripe, immature_, thence _unformed, +imperfect, unskilful_. The best account of him would be _imperfect_, in +respect of his quick sail. The phrase _quick sail_ was, I suppose, a +proverbial term for _activity of mind_. + +V.ii.122 (330,1) a soul of great article] This is obscure. I once +thought it might have been, _a soul of great altitude_; but, I suppose, +_a soul of great article_, means _a soul of_ large comprehension, of +many contents; the particulars of an inventory are called _articles_. + +V.ii.122 (331,2) his infusion of such dearth and rareness] _Dearth_ is +_dearness_, value, price. And his internal qualities of such value and +rarity. + +V.ii.131 (331,3) Is't not possible to understand in another tongue? you +will do't, Sir, really] Of this interrogatory remark the sense ie very +obscure. The question may mean, _Might not all this be understood in +plainer language_. But then, _you will do it, Sir, really_, seems to +have no use, for who could doubt but plain language would be +intelligible? I would therefore read, _Is't possible_ not to be +understood in a mother _tongue_. You will do it, Sir, really. + +V.ii.140 (331,4) if you did, it would not much approve me] If you knew I +was not ignorant, your esteem would not nuch advance my reputation. To +_approve_, is to _recommend to approbation_. + +V.ii.145 (331,5) I dare not confess that, lest I should compare with him +in excellence] I dare not pretend to know him, lest I should pretend to +an equality: no man can completely know another, but by knowing himself, +which is the utmost extent of human wisdom. + +V.ii.149 (332,6) in his meed] In his excellence. + +V.ii.156 (332,7) impon'd] Perhaps it should be, _depon'd_. So Hudibras, + + "I would upon this cause _depone_, + "As much as any I have known." + +But perhaps _imponed_ is pledged, _impawned_, so spelt to ridicule the +affectation of uttering English words with French pronunciation. + +V.ii.165 (332,9) more germane.] More_a-kin_. + +V.ii.172 (333,1) The king, Sir, hath laid, that in a dozen passes +between yourself and him, he shall not exceed you three hits; he hath +laid on twelve for nine] This wager I do not understand. In a dozen +passes one must exceed the other more or less than three hits. Nor can I +comprehend, how, in a dozen, there can be twelve to nine. The passage is +of no importance; it is sufficient that there was a wager. The quarto +has the passage as it stands. The folio, _He hath one twelve for mine_. + +V.ii.193 (333,2) This lapwing runs away with the shell on his head] I +see no particular propriety in the image of the lapwing. Osrick did not +run till he had done his business. We may read, _This lapwing_ ran +_away_--That is, _this fellow was full of unimportant bustle from his +birth_. + +V.ii.199 (334,4) a kind of yesty collection, which carries them through +and through the most fond and winnowed opinions] [W: most fann'd] This +is a very happy emendation; but I know not why the critic should suppose +that _fond_ was printed for _fann'd_ in consequence of any reason or +reflection. Such errors, to which there is no temptation but idleness, +and of which there was no cause but ignorance, are in every page of the +old editions. This passage in the quarto stands thus: "They have got out +of the habit of encounter, a kind of misty collection, which carries +them through and through the most profane and renowned opinions." If +this printer preserved any traces of the original, our author wrote, +"the most fane and renowned opinions," which is better than fann'd and +winnow'd. + +The meaning is, "these men have got the cant of the day, a superficial +readiness of slight and cursory conversation, a kind of frothy +collection of fashionable prattle, which yet carried them through the +most select and approved judgment. This airy facility of talk sometimes +imposes upon wise men." + +Who has not seen this observation verified? + +V.ii.201 (335,6) and do but blow them to their trials, the bubbles are +out] These men of show, without solidity, are like bubbles raised from +soap and water, which dance, and glitter, and please the eye, but if you +extend them, by blowing hard, separate into a mist; so if you oblige +these specious talkers to extend their compass of conversation, they at +once discover the tenuity of their intellects. + +V.ii.216 (335,7) gentle entertainment] Mild and temperate conversation. + +V.ii.234 (336,1) Since no man knows aught of what he leaves, what is't +to leave betimes?] The reading of the quarto was right, but in some +other copy the harshness of the transposition was softened, and the +passage stood thus: _Since no man knows aught of what he leaves_. For +_knows_ was printed in the later copies _has_, by a slight blunder in +such typographers. + +I do not think Dr. Warburton's interpretation of the passage the best +that it will admit. The meaning may be this, Since _no man knows aught +of_ the state of life which _he leaves_, since he cannot judge what +others years may produce, why should he be afraid of _leaving_ life +betimes? Why should he dread an early death, of which he cannot tell +whether it is an exclusion of happiness, or an interception of calamity. +I despise the superstition of augury and omens, which has no ground in +reason or piety; my comfort is, that I cannot fall but by the direction +of Providence. + +Hanmer has, _Since no man_ owes _aught_, a conjecture not very +reprehensible. Since _no man can call any possession certain_, what is +it to leave? + +V.ii.237 (337,2) Give me your pardon, Sir] I wish Hamlet had made some +other defence; it is unsuitable to the character of a good or a brave +man, to shelter himself in falsehood. + +V.ii.272 (338,5) Your grace hath laid upon the weaker side] Thus Hanmer. +All the others read, + + _Your grace hath laid the odds o' the weaker side._ + +When the odds were on the side of Laertes, who was to hit Hamlet twelve +times to nine, it was perhaps the author's slip. + +V.ii.310 (340,7) you make a wanton of me] A _wanton_ was, a man feeble +and effeminate. In _Cymbeline_, Imogen says, + + "I am not so citizen a _wanton_, + To die, ere I be sick." + +V.ii.346 (342,8) That are but mutes or audience to this act] That are +either mere _auditors_ of this _catastrophe_, or at most only _mute +performers_, that fill the stage without any part in the action. + +V.ii.375 (344,2) This quarry cries, on havock!] Hanmer reads, + + --_cries_ out, _havock!_ + +To _cry on_, was to _exclaim against_. I suppose, when unfair sportsmen +destroyed more _quarry_ or _game_ than was reasonable, the censure was +to cry, _Havock_. + +(346) General Observation. If the dramas of Shakespeare were to be +characterised, each by the particular excellence which distinguishes it +from the rest, we must allow to the tragedy of Hamlet the praise of +variety. The incidents are so numerous, that the argument of the play +would make a long tale. The scenes are interchangeably diversified with +merriment and solemnity; with merriment that includes judicious and +instructive observations, and solemnity, not strained by poetical +violence above the natural sentiments of man. New characters appear from +time to time in continual succession, exhibiting various forms of life +and particular modes of conversation. The pretended madness of Hamlet +causes much mirth, the mournful distraction of Ophelia fills the heart +with tenderness, and every personage produces the effect intended, from +the apparition that in the first act chills the blood with horror, to +the fop in the last, that exposes affectation to just contempt. The +conduct is perhaps not wholly secure against objections. The action is +indeed for the most part in continual progression, but there are some +scenes which neither forward nor retard it. Of the feigned madness of +Hamlet there appears no adequate cause, for he does nothing which he +might not have done with the reputation of sanity. He plays the madman +most, when he treats Ophelia with so much rudeness, which seems to be +useless and wanton cruelty. + +Hamlet is, through the whole play, rather an instrument than an agent. +After he has, by the stratagem of the play, convicted the king, he makes +no attempt to punish him, and his death is at last effected by an +incident which Hamlet had no part in producing. + +The catastrophe is not very happily produced; the exchange of weapons is +rather an expedient of necessity, than a stroke of art. A scheme might +easily have been formed to kill Hamlet with the dagger, and Laertes with +the bowl. + +The poet is accused of having shewn little regard to poetical justice, +and may be charged with equal neglect of poetical probability. The +apparition left the regions of the dead to little purpose; the revenge +which he demands is not obtained, but by the death of him that was +required to take it; and the gratification which would arise from the +destruction of an usurper and a murderer, is abated by the untimely +death of Ophelia, the young, the beautiful, the harmless, and the pious. + + + + +OTHELLO + + +I.i.20 (358,4) + + One Michael Cassio, a Florentine, + A fellow almost damn'd in a fair wife] + +This is one of the passages which must for the present be resigned to +corruption and obscurity. I have nothing that I can, with any approach +to confidence, propose. I cannot think it very plain from Act 3. Scene +1. that Cassio was or was not a Florentine. + +I.i.30 (361,6) must be belee'd and calm'd] [--_must be_ LED _and +calm'd_. So the old quarto. The first folio reads _belee'd_: but that +spoils the measure. I read LET, hindered. WARBURTON.] _Belee'd_ suits to +_calm'd_, and the measure is not less perfect than in many other places. + +I.i.36 (361,7) Preferment goes by letter] By _recommendation_ from +powerful friends. + +I.i.37 (361,8) And not by old gradation] [W: Not (as of old)] _Old +gradation_, is _gradation_ established by_ancient_ practice. Where is +the difficulty? + +I.i.39 (361,9) If I in any just term am affin'd] _Affine_ is the reading +of the third quarto and the first folio. The second quarto and all the +modern editions have _assign'd_. The meaning is, _Do I stand_ within +_any such_ terms _of propinquit_ or _relation to the Moor, as that it is +my duty to love him_? + +I.i.49 (362,1) honest knaves] _Knave_ is here for _servant_, but with a +mixture of sly contempt. + +I.i.63 (362,2) In compliment extern] In that which I do only for an +outward shew of civility. + +I.i.76 (363,3) As when, by night and negligence, the fire/Is spied in +populous cities] [Warburton, objecting to "by": Is spred] The particle +is used equivocally; the same liberty is taken by writers more correct. + + _The wonderful creature! a woman of reason! + Never grave_ out of _pride, never gay_ out of _season_. + +I.i.115 (364,4) What profane wretch art thou?] That is, _what wretch of +gross and licentious language?_ In that sense Shakespeare often uses the +word _profane_. + +I.i.124 (365,6) this odd even] The _even_ of _night_ is _midnight_, the +time when night is divided into _even_ parts. + +I.i.149 (366,7) some check] Some rebuke. + +I.i.150 (366,8) cast him] That is, _dismiss_ him; _reject_ him. We still +say, a _cast_ coat, and a _cast_ serving-man. + +I.i.162 (366,9) And what's to come of my despised time] [W: despited] +_Despised time_, is _time of no value_; time in which + + "There's nothing serious in mortality, + The wine of life is drawn, and the mere dregs + Are left, this vault to brag of." _Macbeth_. + +I.i.173 (367,2) By which the property of youth and maidhood/May be +abus'd?] By which the faculties of a young virgin may be infatuated, and +made subject to illusions and to false imagination. + + "Wicked dreams _abuse_ + The curtain'd sleep." _Macbeth._ + +I.ii.2 (368,3) stuff o' the conscience] This expression to common +readers appears harsh. _Stuff_ of the _conscience_ is, _substance_, or +_essence_ of the conscience. _Stuff_ is a word of great force in the +Teutonic languages. The elements are called in Dutch, _Hoefd stoffen_, +or _head stuffs_. + +I.ii.13 (368,4) And hath, in his effect, a voice potential/As double as +the duke's] [Warburton had given a source in Dioscorides and Theocritus +for "double"] This note has been much censured by Mr. Upton, who denies, +that the quotation is in Dioscorides, and disputes, not without reason, +the interpretation of Theocritus. + +All this learning, if it had even been what it endeavours to be thought, +is, in this place, superfluous. There is no ground of supposing, that +our author copied or knew the Greek phrase; nor does it follow, that, +because a word has two senses in one language, the word which in another +answers to one sense, should answer to both. _Manus_, in Latin, +signifies both a _hand_ and _troop of soldiers_, but we cannot say, that +_the captain marched at the_ head _of his_ hand; or, that _he laid his_ +troop _upon his sword_. It is not always in books that the meaning is to +be sought of this writer, who was much more acquainted with naked reason +and with living manners. + +_Double_ has here its natural sense. The president of every deliberative +assembly has a _double voice_. In our courts, the chief justice and one +of the inferior judges prevail over the other two, because the chief +justice has a _double_ voice. + +Brabantio had, _in his effect_, though not by law, yet by _weight_ and +_influence_, a voice not _actual_ and formal, but _potential_ and +operative, as _double_, that is, a voice that when a question was +suspended, would turn the balance as effectually _as the duke's_. +_Potential_ is used in the sense of science; a _caustic_ is called +_potential_ fire. + +I.ii.23 (370,7) speak, unbonnetted] [Pope: unbonnetting] I do not see +the propriety of Mr. Pope's emendation, though adopted by Dr. Warburton. +_Unbonnetting_ may as well be, _not putting on_, as _not putting off_, +the bonnet. Hamner reads _e'en_ bonnetted. + +I.ii.26 (370,8) unhoused] Free from _domestic_ cares. A thought natural +to an adventurer. + +I.ii.28 (370,9) For the sea's worth] I would not marry her, though she +were as rich as the Adriatic, which the Doge annually marries. + +I.ii.30 (371,2) a land-carrack] A _carrack_ is a ship of great bulk, and +commonly of great value; perhaps what we now call a _galleon_. + +I.ii.55 (372,3) be advis'd] That is, be _cool_; be _cautious_; be +_discreet_. + +I.ii.68 (372,4) The wealthy curled darlings of our nation] _Curled_ is +_elegantly and ostentatiously dressed_. He had not the hair particularly +in his thoughts. + +I.ii.74 (373,6) Abused her delicate youth with drugs, or minerals,/ That +weaken notion] [T: notion] Hanmer reads with equal probability, _That_ +waken motion. [Originally _motion_]. + +I.iii.6 (375,9) As in these cases where they aim reports] [W: the aim] +The folio has, + + --_the_ aim reports. + +But, _they aim reports_, has a sense sufficiently easy and commodious. +There men _report_ not by certain knowledge, but by _aim _and +conjecture. + +I.ii.18 (375,1) By no assay of reason] Bring it to the _test_, examine +it by reason as we examine metals by the _assay_, it will be found +counterfeit by all trials. + +I.iii.23 (376,2) facile question] _Question_ is for the _act of +seeking_. With more _easy endeavour_. + +I.iii.24 (376,4) warlike brace] State of defence. To arm was called to +_brace on_ the armour. + +I.iii.42 (376,5) And prays you to believe him] The late learned and +ingenious Mr. Thomas Clark, of Lincoln's Inn, read the passage thus: + + _And prays you to_ relieve _him_. + +But the present reading may stand. _He intreats you not to doubt the +truth of this intelligence_. + +I.iii.54 (377,6) Hath rais'd me from my bed; nor doth the general care] +The word _care_, which encumbers the verse, was probably added by the +players. Shakespeare uses _the general_ as a substantive, though, I +think, not in this sense. + +I.iii.69 (373,8) though our proper son/Stood in your action] Were the +man exposed to your _charge_ or _accusation_. + +I.iii.80 (378,9) The very head and front of my offending] The _main_, +the _whole_, unextenuated. + +I.iii.85 (379,2) Their dearest action] That is _dear_, for which much is +paid, whether money or labour; _dear action_, is action performed at +great expence, either of ease or safety. + +I.iii.107 (380,4) overt test] Open proofs, external evidence. + +I.iii.108 (380,5) thin habits and poor likelihoods/Of modern seeming] +Weak shew of slight appearance. + +I.iii.139 (381,6) And portance in my travel's history] [I have restored, + + _And with it all my travel's history_: + +From the old edition. It is in the rest, + + _And portance in my travel's history_. + +Rymer, in his criticism on this play, has changed it to _portents_, +instead of _portance_. POPE.] Mr. Pope has restored a line, to which +there is little objection, but which has no force. I believe _portance_ +was the author's word in some revised copy. I read thus, + + _Of being----sold + To slavery, of my redemption, thence, + And portance in't; my travel's history._ + My redemption from slavery, and behaviour in it. + +I.iii.140-170 (381,7) Wherein of antres vast, and desarts idle] Whoever +ridicules this account of the progress of love, shows his ignorance, not +only of history, but of nature and manners. It is no wonder that, in any +age, or in any nation, a lady, recluse, timorous, and delicate, should +desire to hear of events and scenes which she could never see, and +should admire the man who had endured dangers and performed actions, +which, however great, were yet magnified by her timidity. [Pope: deserts +wild] Every mind is liable to absence and inadvertency, else Pope could +never have rejected a word so poetically beautiful. Idle is an epithet +used to express the infertility of the chaotic state, in the Saxon +translation of the Pentateuch. (1773) + +I.iii.140 (382,8) antres] [French grottos. POPE.] Rather _caves_ and +_dens_. + +I.iii.142 (382,9) It was my hint to speak] [W: hent] _Hent_ is not used +in Shakespeare, nor, I believe, in any other author; _hint_, or _cue_, +is comnonly used for occasion of speech, which is explained by, _such +was the process_, that is, the course of the tale required it. If _hent_ +be restored, it may be explained by _handle_. I had a _handle_, or +_opportunity_, to speak of cannibals. + +I.iii.144 (382,1) men whose heads/Do grow beneath their shoulders] Of +these men there is an account in the interpolated travels of Mondeville, +a book of that time. + +I.iii.199 (384,4) Let me speak like yourself;] [W: our self] Hanmer +reads, + + _Let me_ now speak _more_ like your self. + +Dr. Warburton's emendation is specious; but I do not see how Hanmer's +makes any alteration. The duke seems to mean, when he says he will speak +like Brabantio, that he will speak sententiously. + +I.iii.213 (385,6) But the free comfort which from thence he hears] But +the moral precepts of consolation, which are liberally bestowed on +occasion of the sentence. + +I.iii.232 (386,8) thrice-driven bed of down] A _driven_ bed, is a bed +for which the feathers are selected, by _driving_ with a fan, which +separates the light from the heavy. + +I.iii.237 (337,9) + + I crave fit disposition for my wife; + Due reverence of place, and exhibition] + +I desire, that a proper _disposition_ be made for my wife, that she may +have _precedency_, and _revenue_, accommodation, and _company_, suitable +to her rank. + +For _reference_ of place, the old quartos have _reverence_, which Hanmer +has received. I should read, + + _Due_ preference _of place_.-- + +I.iii.246 (387,1) And let me find a charter in your voice] Let your +favour _privilege_ me. + +I.iii.250 (387,2) My down-right violence and storm of fortunes] [W: to +forms, my fortunes] There is no need of this emendation. _Violence_ is +not _violence suffered_, but _violence acted_. Breach of common rules +and obligations. The old quarto has, _scorn_ of fortune, which is +perhaps the true reading. + +I.iii.253 (388,3) I saw Othello's visage in his mind] It must raise no +wonder, that I loved a man of an appearance so little engaging; I saw +his face only in his mind; the greatness of his character reconciled me +to his form. + +I.iii.264 (386,4) + + Nor to comply with heat (the young affects, + In me defunct) and proper satisfaction] + +[T: me distinct, i.e. with that heat and new affections which the +indulgence of my appetite has raised and created. This is the meaning of +_defunct_, which has made all the difficulty of the passage. WARBURTON.] +I do not think that Mr. Theobald's emendation clears the text from +embarrassment, though it is with a little imaginary improvement received +by Hanmer, who reads thus: + + _Nor to comply with heat_, affects the young + _In my_ distinct _and proper satisfaction_. + +Dr. Warburton's explanation is not more satisfactory: what made the +difficulty, will continue to make it. I read, + + --_I beg it not, + To please the palate of my appetite, + Nor to comply with heat (the young affects + In me defunct) and proper satisfaction; + But to be free and bounteous to her mind._ + +_Affects_ stands here, not for _love_, but for _passions_, for that by +which any thing is affected. _I ask it not_, says he, _to please +appetite, or satisfy loose desires_, the passions of youth which I have +now outlived, or _for any particular gratification of myself, but merely +that I may indulge the wishes of my wife_. + +Mr. Upton had, before me, changed _my_ to _me_; but he has printed young +_effects_, not seeming to know that _affects_ could be a noun. (1773) + +I.iii.290 (391,6) If virtue no delighted beauty lack] [W: belighted] +Hanmer reads, more plausibly, _delighting_. I do not know that +_belighted_ has any authority. I should rather read, + + _If virtue no_ delight or _beauty lack_. + +_Delight_, for _delectation_, or _power of pleasing_, as it is +frequently used. + +I.iii.299 (391,8) best advantage] Fairest opportunity. + +I.iii.317 (392,9) a Guinea-hen] A showy bird with fine feathers. + +I.iii.346 (392,1) defeat thy favour with an usurped beard] [W: disseat] +It is more English, to _defeat_, than _disseat_. To _defeat_, is to +_undo_, to _change_. + +I.iii.350 (393,2) It was a violent commencement in her, and thou shalt +see an answerable sequestration] There seems to be an opposition of +terms here intended, which has been lost in transcription. We may read, +_It was a violent_ conjunction, _and thou shalt see an answerable +sequestration_; or, what seems to me preferable, _It was a violent +commencement, and thou shalt see an answerable sequel_. + +I.iii.363 (393,4) betwixt an erring Barbarian] [W: errant] Hanmer reads, +_errant_. _Erring_ is as well as either. + +II.i.15 (396,1) And quench the guards of the ever-fixed pole] Alluding +to the star _Arctophylax_. + +II.i.48 (397,3) + + His bark is stoutly timber'd, and his pilot + Of very expert and approv'd allowance; + Therefore my hopes, not surfeited to death, + Stand in bold cure] + +I do not understand these lines. I know not how _hope_ can be _surfeited +to death_, that is, _can be encreased, till it is destroyed_; nor what +it is _to stand in bold cure_; or why _hope_ should be considered as a +disease. In the copies there is no variation. Shall we read + + Therefore my fears, not surfeited to death, + Stand in bold cure? + +This is better, but it is not well. Shall we strike a bolder stroke, and +read thus? + + _Therefore my hopes, not_ forfeited _to death_, + _Stand_ bold, not sure. + +II.i.49 (398,4) Of very expert and approv'd allowance] I read, _Very +expert, and of approv'd allowance_. + +II.i.64 (308,5) And in the essential vesture of creation/Does bear all +excellency; We in terrestrial] I do not think the present reading +inexplicable. The author seems to use _essential_, for _existent, real_. +She excels the praises of invention, says he, and in _real qualities_, +with which _creation_ has _invested_ her, _bears all excellency_. + +_Does bear all excellency_----] Such is the reading of the quartos, for +which the folio has this, + + _And in the essential vesture of creation_ + Do's tyre the ingeniuer. + +Which I explain thus, + + _Does tire the_ ingenious verse. + +This is the best reading, and that which the author substituted in his +revisal. + +II.i.112 (401,9) Saints in your injuries] When you have a mind to do +injuries, you put on an air of sanctity. + +II.i.120 (402,1) I am nothing, if not critical] That is, _censorious_. + +II.i.137 (402,2) _She never yet was foolish_] We may read, + + She ne'er was yet so foolish that was fair, + But even her folly help'd her to an heir. + +Yet I believe the common reading to be right; the lay makes the power of +cohabitation a proof that a man is not a _natural_; therefore, since the +foolishest woman, if _pretty_, may have a child, no _pretty woman_ is +ever foolish. + +II.i.146 (403,3) put on the vouch of very malice itself] _To put on the +vouch of malice_, is to assume a character vouched by the testimony of +malice itself. + +II.i.165 (404,5) profane] Gross of language, of expression broad and +brutal. So Brabantio, in the first act, calls Iago _profane_ wretch. + +II.i.165 (404,6) liberal counsellor.] _Counsellor_ seems to mean, not so +much a man that _gives counsel_, us one that discourses fearlessly and +volubly. A talker. + +II.i.177 (405,8) well kiss'd! an excellent courtesy!] [--_well kissed_, +and _excellent courtesy_;--] This I think should be printed, _well +kiss'd_! an _excellent courtesy_! Spoken when Cassio kisses his hand, +and Desdemona courtesies. [The old quarto confirms Dr. Johnson's +emendation. STEEVENS.] + +II.i.208 (406,1) I prattle out of fashion] Out of method, without any +settled order of discourse. + +II.i.211 (406,2) the master] The pilot of the ship. + +II.i.223 (406,3) Lay thy finger thus] On thy mouth, to stop it while +thou art listening to a wiser man. + +II.i.252 (407,5) green minds] Minds unripe, minds not yet fully formed. + +II.i.254 (408,6) she is full of most bless'd condition] Qualities, +disposition of mind. + +II.i.274 (408,7) tainting his discipline] Throwing a slur upon hie +discipline. + +II.i.279 (408,8) sudden in choler] _Sudden_, is precipitately violent. + +II.i.283 (408,9) whose qualification shall come into no true taste +again] Whose resentment shall not be so _qualified_ or _tempered_, as to +be _well tasted_, as not to retain _some bitterness_. The phrase is +harsh, at least to our ears. + +II.i.306 (409,1) like a poisonous mineral] This is philosophical. +Mineral poisons kill by corrosion. + +II.i.314 (411,4) I'll have our Michael Cassio on the hip] A phrase from +the art of wrestling. + +II.i.321 (411,6) Knavery's plain face is never seen] An honest man acts +upon a plan, and forecasts his designs; but a knave depends upon +temporary and local opportunities, and never knows his own purpose, but +at the time of execution. + +II.iii.14 (413,8) Our general cast us] That is, _appointed us to our +stations_. To _cast the play_, is, in the stile of the theatres, to +assign to every actor his proper part. + +II.iii.26 (413,9) And when she speaks, is it not an alarum to love?] The +voice may _sound_ an _alarm_ more properly than the _eye_ can _sound_ a +_parley_. + +II.iii.46 (413,1) I have drunk but one cap to-night, and that was +carefully qualified too] Slily mixed with water. + +II.iii.59 (414,2) The very elements; As quarrelsome as the as the +_discordia semina rerum_; as quick in opposition as fire and water. + +II.iii.64 (414,3) If consequence do but approve my dream] [T: my deer] +This reading is followed by the succeeding editions. I rather read, + + _If consequence do but approve my scheme_. + +But why should _dream_ be rejected? Every scheme subsisting only in the +imagination may be termed a _dream_. + +II.iii.93-99 (416,6) _King Stephen was a worthy peer_] These stanzas are +taken from an old song, which the reader will find recovered and +preserved in a curious work lately printed, intitled, _Relicks of +Ancient Poetry_, consisting of old heroic ballands, songs, &c. 3 vols. +12. + +II.iii.95 (416,7) _lown_] Sorry fellow, paltry wretch. + +II.iii.135 (417,8) He'll watch the horologe a double set] If he have no +drink, he'll keep awake while the clock strikes two rounds, or four and +twenty hours. + +Chaucer uses the ward _horologe_ in more places than one. + + "Well skirer was his crowing in his loge + "Than is a clock or abbey _horologe_."] + +The bracketed part of Johnson's note is taken verbatim from Zacbary +Gray, _Critical ... Notes on Shakespeare_, 1754, II, 316.] (see 1765, +VIII, 374, 6) (rev. 1778, I, 503, 9) + +II.iii.145 (418,9) ingraft infirmity; An infirmity _rooted, settled_ in +his constitution. + +II.iii.175 (419,3) it frights the isle/From her propriety] From her +regular and _proper state_. + +II.iii.180 (419,4) In quarter] In their quarters; at their lodging. + +II.iii.194 (420,5) you unlace your reputation thus] Slacken, or +_loosen_. Put in danger of dropping; or perhaps strip of its ornaments. + +II.iii.195 (420,6) spend your rich opinion] Throw away and squander a +reputation as valuable as yours. + +II.iii.202 (420,7) self-charity] Care of one's self. + +II.iii.211 (421,9) he that is approv'd in this offence] He that is +convicted by proof, of having been engaged in this offence. + +II.iii.274 (423,1) cast in his mood] Ejected in his anger. + +II.iii.343 (425,4) this advice is free] This counsel has an appearance +of honest openness, of frank good-will. + +II.iii.348 (425,5) free elements] Liberal, bountiful, as the elements, +out of which all things are produced. + +II.iii.355 (425,6) to this parallel course] i.e. a course level, and +even with his design. + +II.iii.363 (425,8) That she repeals him] That is, recalls him. + +II.iii.382 (426,1) + + Though ether things grew fair against the sun, + Yet fruits, that blossom first, will first be ripe] + +Of many different things, all planned with the same art, and promoted +with the same diligence, some must succeed sooner than others, by the +order of nature. Every thing cannot be done at once; we must proceed by +the necessary gradation. We are not to _despair_ of slow events any +_more_ than of tardy fruits, while the causes are in regular progress, +and the fruits _grow fair against the sun_. Hanmer has not, I think, +rightly conceived the sentiment; for he reads, + + _Those fruits which blossom first_, are not first _ripe_. + +I have therefore drawn it out at length, for there are few to whom that +will be easy which was difficult to Hanmer. + +III.i.3 (427,2) Why, masters, have your instruments been in Naples, that +they speak i' the nose thus?] The venereal disease first appeared at the +siege of Naples. + +III.iii.14 (430,6) + + That policy may either last so long, + Or feed upon such nice and waterish diet, + Or breed itself so out of circumstance, + That I, being absent, and my place supplied, + My general will forget my love and service] + +He may either of himself think it politic to keep me out of office so +long, or he may be satisfied with such slight reasons, or so many +accidents may make him think my re-admission at that time improper, that +I may be quite forgotten. + +III.iii.23 (431,7) I'll watch him tame] It is said, that the ferocity of +beasts, insuperable and irreclaimable by any other means, is subdued by +keeping them from sleep. + +III.iii.47 (431,8) His present reconciliation take] [W: make] To _take +his reconciliation_, may be to accept the submission which he makes in +order to be reconciled. + +III.iii.65 (432,1) the wars must make examples/Out of their best] The +severity of military discipline must not spare the _best men_ of the +army, when their punishment nay afford a wholesome _example_. + +III.iii.90 (433,2) Excellent wretch!--Perdition catch my soul,/But I do +love thee!] The meaning of the word _wretch_, is not generally +understood. It is now, in some parts of England, a term of the softest +and fondest tenderness. It expresses the utmost degree of amiableness, +joined with an idea, which perhaps all tenderness includes, of +feebleness, softness, and want of protection. Othello, considering +Desdemona as excelling in beauty and virtue, soft and timorous by her +sex, and by her situation absolutely in his power, calls her _Excellent +wretch!_ It may be expressed, + + _Dear, harmless, helpless Excellence._ + +III.iii.91 (433,3) when I love thee not,/Chaos is come again] When my +love is for a moment suspended by suspicion, I have nothing in my mind +but discord, tumult, perturbation, and confusion. + +III.iii.123 (435,4) They are close delations working from the heart,/ +That passion cannot rule] _They are_ cold dilations _working from the +heart,/That passion cannot rule_.] I know not why the modern editors are +satisfied with this reading, which no explanation can clear. They might +easily have found, that it is introduced without authority. The old +copies uniformly give, _close dilations_, except that the earlier quarto +has _close denotements_; which was the author's first expression, +afterwards changed by him, not to _cold dilations_, for _cold_ is read +in no ancient copy; nor, I believe, to _close dilations_, but to _close +delations_; to _occult_ and _secret accusations, working_ involuntarily +_from the heart_, which, though resolved to conceal the fault, cannot +rule its _passion_ of resentment. + +III.iii.127 (435,5) Or, those that be not, 'would they might seem none!] +[W: seem knaves] I believe the meaning is, _would they might no longer +seem_, or bear the shape of _men_. + +III.iii.140 (436,6) Keep leets and law-days] [i.e. govern. WARBURTON.] +Rather _visit_ than _govern_, but visit with authoritative intrusion. + +III.iii.149 (437,8) From one that so improbably conceits]--imperfectly +_conceits_,] In the old quarto it is, + + --improbably _conceits_, + +Which I think preferable. + +III.iii.166 (437,9) the green-ey'd monster, which doth make/The meat it +feeds on] _which doth_ mock _The meat it feeds on_.] I have received +Hanmer's emendation ["make"]; because _to mock_, does not signify _to +loath_; and because, when Iago bids Othello _beware of jealousy, the +green-eyed monster_, it is natural to tell why he should beware, and for +caution he gives him two reasons, that jealousy _often_ creates its own +cause, and that, when the causes are real, jealousy is misery. + +III.iii.173 (438,1) But riches, fineless] Unbounded, endless, unnumbered +treasures. + +III.iii.180 (438,3) + + Exchange me for a goat, + When I shall turn the business of my soul + To such exsuffolate and blown surmises, + Matching thy inference] + +This odd and far-fetched word was made yet more uncouth in all the +editions before Hanmer's, by being printed, _exsufflicate_. The allusion +is to a bubble. Do not think, says the Moor, that I shall change the +noble designs that now employ my thoughts, to suspicions which, like +bubbles _blown_ into a wide extent, have only an empty shew without +solidity, or that in consequence of such empty fears, I will close with +thy inference against the virtue of my wife. + +III.iii.188 (439,4) Where virtue is, those are most virtuous] An action +in itself indifferent grows virtuous by its end and application. + +III.iii.201 (439,6) + + I know our country disposition well; + In Venice they do let heaven see the pranks] + +Here Iago seems to be a Venetian. + +III.iii.207 (440,7) And, when she seem'd to shake, and fear your +looks,/She lov'd them most] This and the following argument of Iago +ought to be deeply impressed on every reader. Deceit and falsehood, +whatever conveniencies they may for a time promise or produce, are, in +the sum of life, obstacles to happiness. Those, who profit by the cheat, +distruat the deceiver, and the act, by which kindness was sought, puts +an end to confidence. + +The same objection may be made with a lower degree of strength against +the imprudent generosity of disproportionate marriages. When the first +heat of passion is over, it is easily succeeded by suspicion, that the +same violence of inclination, which caused one irregularity, may +stimulate to another; and those who have shown, that their passions are +too powerful for their prudence, will, with very alight appearances +againat them, be censured, as not very likely to restrain them by their +virtue. (see 1765, VIII, 397, 1) + +III.iii.210 (440,8) To seel her father's eyes up, close as oak] There is +little relation between _eyes_ and _oak_. I would read, + + _She seel'd her father's eyes up close as_ owl's. + +_As blind as an owl_, is a proverb. + +III.iii.222 (441,1) My speech would fall into such vile success] +[_Success_, far succession, i.e. conclusion; not prosperous issue. +WARB.] I rather think there is a depravation, and would read, + + _My speech would fall into such vile_ excess. + +If _success_ be the right word, it seems to mean _consequence_ or +_event_, as _successo_ is used in Italian. + +III.iii.232 (441,2) will most rank] _Will_, is for wilfulness. It is so +used by Ascham. A _rank will_, is _self-will_ overgrown and exuberant. + +III.iii.249 (442,3) You shall by that perceive him, and his means] You +shall discover whether he thinks his best _means_, his most powerful +_interest_, is by the solicitation of your lady. + +III.iii.250 (442,4) strain his entertainnent] Press hard his +re-admission to his pay and office. _Entertainment_ was the military +term for admission of soldiers. + +III.iii.256 (442,5) Fear not my government] Do not distrust ay ability +to contain my passion. + +III.iii.259 (442,6) knows all qualities, with a learned spirit,/Of human +dealings] The construction is, He knows with a learned spirit all +qualities of human dealings. + +III.iii.260 (442,7) If I do prore her haggard] A _haggard_ hark, is a +_wild_ hawk, a _hawk unreclaimed_, or _irreclaimable_. + +III.iii.262 (443,8) I'd whistle her off, and let her down the wind,/ To +prey at fortune] The falconers always let fly the hawk against the wind; +if she flies with the wind behind her, she seldom returns. If therefore +a hawk was for any reason to be dismissed, she was _let down the wind_, +and from that time shifted far herself, and _preyed at fortune_. This +was told me by the late Mr. Clark. + +III.iii.276 (443,9) forked plague] In allusion to a _barbed_ or _forked_ +arrow, which, once infixed, cannot be extracted. + +III.iii.312 (445,2) And, to the advantage, I, being here, took it up] I +being _opportunely_ here, took it up. + +III.iii.319 (445,3) Be not you known on't] Should it not rather be read, + + _Be not you known_ in't? + +The folio reads, + + _Be not_ unknown _on't_. + +The sense is plain, but of the expression I cannot produce any example. + +III.iii.332 (446,5) that sweet sleep,/Which thou owedst yesterday] To +_owe_ is, in our author, oftener to _possess_, than _to be indebted_, +and such was its meaning here; but as that sense was growing less usual, +it was changed unnecessarily by the editors to _hadst_; to the sane +meaning, more intelligibly expressed. + +III.iii.351 (447,6) + + Farewell the neighing steed, and the shrill trump, + The spirit-stirring drum, the ear-piercing fife] + +Dr. Warburton has offered _fear-spersing_, for _fear-dispersing_. But +_ear-piercing_ is an epithet so eminently adapted to the _fife_, and so +distinct from the shrillness of the trumpet, that it certainly ought not +to be changed. Dr. Warburton has been censured for this proposed +emendation with more noise than honesty, for he did not himself put it +in the text. + +III.iii.369 (449,8) abandon all remorse] [_Remorse_, for repentance. +WARBURTON.] I rather think it is, Let go all scruples, throw aside all +restraints. + +III.iii.429 (451,4) _Oth._ 'tis a shrewd doubt] [The old quarto gives +this line, with the two following, to Iago; and rightly. WARB.] I think +it more naturally spoken by Othello, who, by dwelling so long upon the +proof, encouraged Iago to enforce it. + +III.iii.448 (452,8) hearted throne] [W: parted] _Hearted_ throne, is the +heart on which thou wast _enthroned_. _Parted_ throne has no meaning. + +III.iii.467 (453,3) + + Let him command, + And to obey, shall be in me remorse, + What bloody business ever] + +[Pope: Not to obey] [T: Nor, to obey.] [W: me. Remord] Of these two +emendations, I believe, Theobald's will have the greater number of +suffrages; it has at least mine. The objection against the propriety of +the declaration in Iago is a cavil; he does not say that he has no +principle of remorse, but that it shall not operate against Othello's +commands. _To obey shall be in me_, for _I will obey you_, is a mode of +expression not worth the pains here taken to introduce it; and the word +_remords_ has not in the quotation the meaning of _withhold_, or _make +reluctant_, but of _reprove_, or _censure_; nor do I know that it is +used by any of the contemporaries of Shakespeare. + +I will offer an interpretation, which, if it be received, will make +alteration unnecessary, but it is very harsh and violent. Iago devotes +himself to wronged Othello, and says, _Let him command whatever bloody +business_, and in me it shall be an act, not of cruelty, but _of +tenderness, to obey him_; not of malice to other, but of _tenderness_ +for him. If this sense be thought too violent, I see nothing better than +to follow Pope's reading, as it is improved by Theobald. + +III.iv.26 (457,5) cruzadoes] [A Portugueze coin, in value three +shillings sterling. Dr. GREY.] So called from the cross stamped upon it. + +III.iv.46 (458,6) The hearts, of old, gave hands] [Warburton explains +this is an allusion to James the First's practice of creating baronets +for money and emends to "The hands of old gave hearts"] The historical +observation is very judicious and acute, but of the emendation there is +no need. She says, that her hand gave away _her heart_. He goes on with +his suspicion, and the hand which he had before called _frank_, he now +terms _liberal_; then proceeds to remark, that _the hand was formerly +given by the heart_; but now it neither gives it, nor is given by it. + +III.iv.51 (459,7) salt and sullen rheum]--_salt and_ sorry rheum] The +old quarto has, + + --_salt and_ sullen _rheum_--- + +That is, a _rheum obstinately troublesome_. I think this better. + +III.iv.70 (459,8) + + A Sybil, that had numbred in the world + The sun to course two hundred compasses] + +The expression is not very infrequent; we say, _I counted the clock to +strike four_; so she _number'd_ the sun _to course_, to run _two hundred +compasses_, two hundred annual circuits. + +III.iv.79 (460,1) Why do you speak so startingly, and rash?] Is +_vehement, violent_. + +III.iv.103 (461,2) 'Tis not a year, or two, shews us a man] From this +line it may be conjectured, that the author intended the action of the +play to be considered as longer than is marked by any note of time. +Since their arrival at Cyprus, to which they were hurried on their +wedding-night, the fable seems to have been in one continual progress, +nor can I see any vacuity into which a _year or two_, or even a month or +two, could be put. On the night of Othello's arrival, a feast was +proclaimed; at that feast Cassio was degraded, and immediately applies +to Desdemona to get him restored. Iago indeed advises Othello to hold +him off a while, but there is no reason to think, that he has been held +off long. A little longer interval would increase the probability of the +story, though it might violate the rules of the drama. See Act. 5. Sc. +2. (see 1765, VIII, 416, 1) + +III.iv.113 (461,3) the duty of my heart] --_the office _of my heart_.] +The elder quarto reads, + + --_the_ duty _of my heart_. + +The author used the more proper word, and then changed it, I suppose, +for fashionable diction; but, as fashion is a very weak protectress, the +old word is now ready to resume its place. + +III.iv.119 (462,4) + + But to know so, must be my benefit] + + "Si nequeo placidas affari Caesaris aures, + "Saltem aliquis veniat, qui mihi dicat, abi." + +III.iv.125 (462,7) in favour] In _look_, in _countenance_. + +III.iv.128 (462,8) within the blank of his displeasure] Within the +_shot_ of his anger. + +III.iv.141 (463,9) some unhatch'd practice] Some treason that has not +taken effect. + +III.iv.146 (463,1) + + for let our finger ach, + And it endues our other healthful members + Even to that sense of pain] + +_Endue with a sense of pain_, is an expression, which, though it might +be endured, if it were genuine, cannot deserve to be introduced by +artifice. The copies, both quarto and folio, read, _Endue our other +healthful members even to a sense of pain_. I believe it should be +rather, SUBDUE _our other healthful members to a sense of pain_. + +III.iv.151 (463,2) (unhandsome warrior as I am)] [W: wrangler] +_Unhandsome warrior_, is evidently _unfair assailant_. + +III.iv.178 (464,3) a more continuate time]--_more_ convenient _time_] +The folio has, + + --_more_ continuate _time_; + +Time _less interrupted_, time which I can call more my own. It gives a +more distinct image than _convenient_. + +III.iv.180 (464,4) Take me this work out] The meaning is not, "Pick out +the work, and leave the ground plain;" but, "Copy this work in another +handkerchief." + +IV.i.5 (466,6) + + Naked in bed, Iago, and not mean harm? + It is hypocrisy against the devil] + +_Hypocrisy against the devil_, means hypocrisy to cheat the devil. As +common hypocrites cheat men, by seeming good, and yet living wickedly, +these men would cheat the devil, by giving him flattering hopes, and at +last avoiding the crime which he thinks them ready to commit. + +IV.i.22 (467,8) Boding to all] Thus all the old copies. The moderns, +less grammatically, + + _Boding to_ ill-- + +IV.i.42 (468,2) without sone instruction] [W: induction] This is a noble +conjecture, and whether right or wrong does honour to its author. Yet I +am in doubt whether there is any necessity of emendation. There has +always prevailed in the world an opinion, that when any great calamity +happens at a distance, notice is given of it to the sufferer by some +dejection or perturbation of mind, of which he discovers no external +cause. This is ascribed to that general communication of one part of the +universe with another, which is called sympathy and antipathy; or to the +secret monition, _instruction_, and influence of a superior Being, which +superintends the order of nature and of life. Othello says, _Nature +could not invest herself in such shadowing passion without_ instruction. +_It is not words that shake me thus._ This passion, which spreads its +clouds over me, is the effect of some agency more than the operation of +words; it is one of those notices which men have of unseen calamities. + +IV.i.76 (471,4) Confine yourself but in a patient list] For attention; +act of listening. + +IV.i.82 (471,5) encave yourself] Hide yourself in a private place. + +IV.i.89 (471,6) Or I shall say, you are all in all in spleen,/And +nothing of a man] I read, + + _Or shall I say, you're all in all a spleen_. + +I think our author uses this expression elsewhere. + +IV.i.121 (472,8) Do you triumph, Roman? do you triumph?] Othello calls +him _Roman_ ironically. _Triumph_, which was a Roman ceremony, brought +Roman into his thoughts. _What_ (says he) _you are now_ triumphing _as +great as a Roman_? + +IV.i.123 (472,9) a customer!] A common woman, one that invites custom. + +IV.i.130 (473,1) Have you scar'd me? Have you made my reckoning? have +you settled the term of my life? The old quarto reads, _stored_ me. Have +you disposed of me? have you laid me up? + +IV.i.150 (473,2) 'Tis such another fitchew! marry, a perfum'd one] +Shakespeare has in another place mentioned the lust of this animal. He +tells Iago, that she is as lewd as the _polecat_, but of better scent, +the polecat being a very stinking animal. + +IV.i.244 (476,4) atone them] Make them _one_; reconcile them. + +IV.i.256 (477,5) + + If that the earth could teem with woman's tears, + Each drop she falls would prove a crocodile] + +If womens tears could impregnate the earth. By the doctrine of equivocal +generation, new animals were supposed producible by new combinations of +matter. See Bacon. + +IV.i.277 (478,7) + + whose solid virtue + The shot of accident, nor dart of chance, + Could neither graze nor pierce] + +[T: of change] To _graze_ is not merely to touch superficially, but to +strike not directly, not so as to bury the body of the thing striking in +the matter struck. + +Theobald trifles, as is usual. _Accident_ and _chance_ may admit a +subtle distinction; _accident_ may be considered as the _act_, and +_chance_ as the _power_ or _agency_ of fortune; as, _It was_ by chance +_that this_ accident _befel me_. At least, if we suppose all corrupt +that is inaccurate, there will be no end of emendation. + +IV.ii.57 (482,1) garner'd up my heart] That is, _treasured_ up; the +_garner_ and the _fountain_ are improperly conjoined. + +IV.ii.62 (482,2) + + Turn thy complexion there! + Patience, thou young and rose-lipp'd cherubim; + Ay, there, look grim as hell] + +At such an object do thou, _patience_, thyself _change colour_; at this +do thou, even thou, _rosy cherub_ as thou art, _look grim as hell_. The +old editions and the new have it, + + _I here look grim as hell._ + +_I_ was written for _ay_, and not since corrected. + +IV.ii.109 (484,4) The small'st opinion on my great'st abuse] The old +quarto reads [for "least misuse"], + + _The small'st opinion on my_ great'st abuse. + +Which I think is better. + +IV.ii.140 (486,6) Some base notorious knave] For _gross_, not in its +proper meaning for _known_. + +IV.ii.144 (486,7) Speak within door] Do not clamour so as to be heard +beyond the house. + +IV.ii.146 (486,8) the seamy side without] That is, _inside out_. + +IV.iii.27 (490,2) and he, she lov'd, prov'd mad,/And did forsake her] I +believe that _mad_ only signifies _wild, frantick, uncertain_. + +IV.iii.31 (490,3) I have much to do,/But to go hang my head] I _have +much_ ado to do any thing _but hang my head_. We might read, + + Not _to go hang my head_. + +This is perhaps the only insertion made in the latter editions which has +improved the play. The rest seem to have been added for the sake of +amplification, or of ornament. When the imagination had subsided, and +the mind was no longer agitated by the horror of the action, it became +at leisure to look round for specious additians. This addition is +natural. Desdemona can at first hardly forbear to sing the song; she +endeavours to change her train of thoughts, but her imagination at last +prevails, and she sings it. + +IV.iii.41 (491,4) + + _Des._ "The poor soul sat singing by a sycamore-tree, + "Sing all a green willow] + +This song, in two parts, is printed in a late collection of old ballads; +the lines preserved here differ somewhat from the copy discovered by the +ingenious collector. + +IV.iii.55 (491,5) + + _Des._ "I call'd my love false love; but what said + "he then? + "Sing willow, &c.] + +This couplet is not in the ballad, which is the complaint, not of a +woman forsaken, but of a man rejected. These lines were probably added +when it was accommodated to a woman. + +IV.iii.94 (493,6) our former having] Our former allowance of experience. + +IV.iii.107 (493,7) heaven me such usage send] --_heaven me such_ uses +_send_,] Such is the reading of the folio, and of the subsequent +editions; but the old quarto has, + + --_such_ usage _send_.-- + +_Usage_ is an old word for _custom_, and, I think, better than _uses_. + +V.i.11 (494,1) I have rubb'd this young quat _almost to the sense_] In +some editions, + + _I've rubb'd this young_ gnat _almost to the sense, + And he grows angry_.] + +This is a passage much controverted among the editors. Sir T. Hanner +reads _quab_, a _gudgeon_; not that a gudgeon can be _rubbed_ to much +_sense_, but that a man grossly deceived is often called a _gudgeon_. +Mr. Upton reads _quail_, which he proves, by much learning, to be a very +choleric bird. Dr. Warburton retains _gnat_, which is found in the early +quarto. Theobald would introduce _knot_, a small bird of that name. I +have followed the text of the folio, and third and fourth quartos. + +A _quat_ in the midland counties is a _pimple_, which by rubbing is made +to smart, or is _rubbed to sense_. Roderigo is called a _quat_ by the +same mode of speech, as a low fellow is now termed in lay language a +_scab. To rub to the sense_, is _to rub to the quick_. + +V.i.37 (496,2) No passage?] No passengers? No body going by? + +V.i.42 (499,4) a heary night] A _thick cloudy_ night, in which an ambush +may be commodiously laid. + +V.ii.1 (499,4) It is the cause, it is the cause, my soul;--/Let me not +name it] The abruptness of this soliloquy makes it obscure. The meaning, +I think, is this: "I am here (says Othello in his mind) overwhelmed with +horror. What is the reason of this perturbation? Is it want of +resolution to do justice? Is it the dread of shedding blood? No; it is +not the action that shocks me, but _it is the cause, it is the cause, my +soul; let me not name it to you, ye chaste stars; it is the cause_." + +V.ii.20 (500,7) + + I must weep, + But they are cruel tears: this sorrel's heavenly; + It strikes, where it doth love.--She wakes--] + +This tenderness, with which I lament the punishment which justice +compels me to inflict, is a holy passion. + +I wish these two lines could be honestly ejected. It is the fate of +Shakespeare to counteract his own pathos. + +V.ii.65 (502,8) A murder, which I thought a sacrifice] This line is +difficult. _Thou hast hardened my heart, and makest me_ kill thee with +the rage of a _murderer_, when _I thought to have sacrificed_ thee to +justice with the calmness of a priest striking a victim. + +It must not be omitted, that one of the elder quartos reads, _thou dost +stone_ thy _heart_; which I suspect to be genuine. The meaning then will +be, _thou forcest me_ to dismiss thee from the world in the state of the +_murdered_ without preparation for death, _when I intended_ that thy +punishment should have been a _sacrifice_ atoning for thy crime. + +I am glad that I have ended my revisal of this dreadful scene. It is not +to be endured. + +V.ii.134 (505,3) false as water] As water that will support no weight, +nor keep any impression. + +V.ii.151 (506,4) villainy has made mocks with love] _Villainy_ has taken +advantage to _play upon_ the weakness of a violent passion. + +V.ii.162 (506,5) Thou hast not half that power to do me harm, /As I have +to be hurt] [Hamner: to bear hurt] The Oxford Editor saw well the +meaning of his author, but weakened his expression. She means to say, _I +have in this cause power to endure more than thou hast power to +inflict_. + +V.ii.183 (507, 6) charm your tongue] I know not whether I have read, or +whether my own thoughts hare suggested, an alteration of this passage. +It seems to me not improbable, that Shakespeare wrote _clam_ your +tongue; to _clam_ a bell, is to cover the clapper with felt, which +drowns the blow, and hinders the sound. + +V.ii.211 (509,7) she with Cassio had the act of shame/A thousand times +committed] This is another passage which seems to suppose a longer space +comprised in the action of this play than the scenes include. + +V.ii.253 (512,2) It was a sword of Spain, the ice-brook's temper] [In +the first edition it is, _Isebroke's temper_. Thence corrupted to +_Ice-brook's_.--_Ebro's temper_; the waters of that river of Spain are +particularly famous for tempering of steel. POPE.] I believe the old +reading changed to _ice-brook_ is right. Steel is hardened by being put +red hot into very cold water. + +V.ii.286 (513,3) + + I look down towards his feet; but that's a fable. + If that thou be'st a devil, I cannot kill thee] + +To see if, according to the common opinion, his feet be cloven. + +V.ii.292 (513,4) Fall'n in the practice of a cursed slave] In the +_snare_, by the _stratagem_. + +V.ii.317 (514,5) in the interim] The first copy has, _in the_ nick. It +was, I suppose, thought upon revisal, that _nick_ was too familiar. + +V.ii.342 (515,6) Speak of me as I am] The early copies read, _Speak of +them as they are_. The present reading has more force. (rev. 1778, X, +622, 6) + +(520,2) General Observation. The beauties of this play impress +themselves so strongly upon the attention of the reader, that they can +draw no aid from critical illustration. The fiery openness of Othello, +magnanimous, artless, and credulous, boundless in his confidence, ardent +in his affection, inflexible in his resolution, and obdurate in his +revenge; the cool malignity of Iago, silent in his resentment, subtle in +his designs, and studious at once of his interest and his vengeance; the +soft simplicity of Desdemona, confident of merit, and conscious of +innocence, her artless perseverance in her suit, and her slowness to +suspect that she can be suspected, are such proofs of Shakespeare's +skill in human nature, as, I suppose, it is vain to seek in any modern +writer. The gradual progress which Iago makes in the Moor's conviction, +and the circumstances which he employs to inflame him, are so artfully +natural, that, though it will perhaps not be said of him as he says of +himself, that he is _a man not easily jealous_, yet we cannot but pity +him, when at last we find him _perplexed in the extreme_. + +There is always danger, lest wickedness, conjoined with abilities, +should steal upon esteem, though it misses of approbation; but the +character of Iago is so conducted, that he is from the first scene to +the last hated and despised. + +Even the inferior characters of this play would be very conspicuous in +any other piece, not only for their justness, but their strength. Cassio +is brave, benevolent, and honest, ruined only by his want of +stubbornness to resist an insidious invitation. Roderigo's suspicious +credulity, and impatient submission to the cheats which he sees +practised upon him, and which by persuasion he suffers to be repeated, +exhibit a strong picture of a weak mind betrayed by unlawful desires to +a false friend; and the virtue of Aemilia is such as we often find, worn +loosely, but not cast off, easy to commit small crimes, but quickened +and alarmed at atrocious villainies. + +The scenes from the beginning to the end are busy, varied by happy +interchanges, and regularly promoting the progression of the story; and +the narrative in the end, though it tells but what is known already, yet +is necessary to produce the death of Othello. + +Had the scene opened in Cyprus, and the preceding incidents been +occasionally related, there had been little wanting to a drama of the +most exact and scrupulous regularity. + +(LI 2) Appendix. Some apology perhaps is necessary for the inconvenience +of an Appendix, which, however, we can justify by the strongest of all +pleas, the plea of necessity. The Notes which it contains, whether +communicated by correspondents, or collected from published volumes, +were not within our reach when the plays were printed, to which they +relate. Of that which chance has supplied, we could have no previous +knowledge; and he that waited till the river should run dry, did not act +with less reason than the Editor would do, who should suspend his +publication for possibilities of intelligence, or promises of +improvement. Had we foreseen the _Oxford_ edition, the assistance we +expected from it might have persuaded us to pause; but our volumes were +completely finished before its publication. [There are no notes by +Johnson in this Appendix; several are by Steevens.] + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Notes to Shakespeare, Volume III: The +Tragedies, by Samuel Johnson + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK NOTES TO SHAKESPEARE *** + +***** This file should be named 15566-8.txt or 15566-8.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + https://www.gutenberg.org/1/5/5/6/15566/ + +Produced by David Starner, David King, and the PG Online +Distributed Proofreading Team + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: Notes to Shakespeare, Volume III: The Tragedies + +Author: Samuel Johnson + +Editor: Arthur Sherbo + +Release Date: April 6, 2005 [EBook #15566] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK NOTES TO SHAKESPEARE *** + + + + +Produced by David Starner, David King, and the PG Online +Distributed Proofreading Team + + + + + + +</pre> + +<h2>THE AUGUSTAN REPRINT SOCIETY</h2> +<h1>SAMUEL JOHNSON</h1> +<h1>NOTES TO SHAKESPEARE</h1> +<h2>Vol. III</h2> +<h2>Tragedies</h2> +<h4>Edited, with an Introduction, by Arthur Sherbo</h4> +<center>Los Angeles<br /> +William Andrews Clark Memorial Library<br /> +University of California<br /> +1958</center> +<blockquote> +<p>GENERAL EDITORS</p> +<p>Richard C. Boys, <i>University of Michigan</i></p> +<p>Ralph Cohen, <i>University of California, Los Angeles</i></p> +<p>Vinton A. Dearing, <i>University of California, Los +Angeles</i></p> +<p>Lawrence Clark Powell, <i>Clark Memorial Library</i></p> +<p>ASSISTANT EDITOR</p> +<p>W. Earl Britton, <i>University of Michigan</i></p> +<p>ADVISORY EDITORS</p> +<p>Emmett L. Avery, <i>State College of Washington</i></p> +<p>Benjamin Boyce, <i>Duke University</i></p> +<p>Louis Bredvold, <i>University of Michigan</i></p> +<p>John Butt, <i>King's College, University of Durham</i></p> +<p>James L. Clifford, <i>Columbia University</i></p> +<p>Arthur Friedman, <i>University of Chicago</i></p> +<p>Louis A. Landa, <i>Princeton University</i></p> +<p>Samuel H. Monk, <i>University of Minnesota</i></p> +<p>Ernest C. Mossner, <i>University of Texas</i></p> +<p>James Sutherland, <i>University College, London</i></p> +<p>H. T. Swedenberg, Jr., <i>University of California, Los +Angeles</i></p> +<p>CORRESPONDING SECRETARY</p> +<p>Edna C. Davis, <i>Clark Memorial Library</i></p> +</blockquote> +<h2>Introduction on Tragedies</h2> +<p>Dr. Johnson's reaction to Shakespeare's tragedies is a curious +one, compounded as it is of deep emotional involvement in a few +scenes in some plays and a strange dispassionateness toward most of +the others. I suspect that his emotional involvement took root when +he read Shakespeare as a boy—one remembers the terror he +experienced in reading of the Ghost in <i>Hamlet</i>, and it was +probably also as a boy that he suffered that shock of horrified +outrage and grief at the death of Cordelia that prevented him from +rereading the scene until be came to edit the play. Johnson's +deepest feelings and convictions, Professor Clifford has recently +reminded us, can be traced back to his childhood and adolescence. +But it is surprising to learn, as one does from his commentary, +that other scenes in these very plays (<i>Hamlet</i> and <i>King +Lear</i>, and in <i>Macbeth</i>, too) leave him unmoved, if one can +so interpret the absence of any but an explanatory note on, say, +Lear's speech beginning "Pray, do not mock me;/I am a very foolish +fond old man." Besides this negative evidence there is also the +positive evidence of many notes which display the dispassionate +editorial mind at work where one might expect from Johnson an +outburst of personal feeling. There are enough of these outbursts +to warrant our expecting others, but we are too frequently +disappointed. Perhaps Johnson thought of most of Shakespeare's +tragedies as "imperial tragedies" and that is why he could maintain +a stance of aloofness; conversely, "the play of <i>Timon</i> is a +domestick Tragedy, and therefore strongly fastens on the attention +of the reader." But the "tragedy" of Timon does not capture the +attention of the modern reader, and perhaps all attempts to fix +Johnson's likes and dislikes, and the reasons for them, in the +canon of Shakespeare's plays must circle endlessly without ever +getting to their destination.</p> +<h2>TRAGEDIES</h2> +<h3>Vol. IV</h3> +<h2>MACBETH</h2> +<p>(392) Most of the notes which the present editor has subjoined +to this play were published by him in a small pamphlet in 1745.</p> +<p>I.i (393,*) <i>Enter three Witches</i>] In order to make a true +estimate of the abilities and merit of a writer, it it always +necessary to examine the genius of his age, and the opinions of his +contemporaries. A poet who should now make the whole action of his +tragedy depend upon enchantment, and produce the chief events by +the assistance of supernatural agents, would be censured as +transgressing the bounds of probability, be banished from the +theatre to the nursery, and condemned to write fairy tales instead +of tragedies; but a survey of the notions that prevailed at the +time when this play was written, will prove that Shakespeare was in +no danger of such censures, since he only turned the system that +was then universally admitted, to his advantage, and was far from +overburthening the credulity of his audience.</p> +<p>The reality of witchcraft or enchantment, which, though not +strictly the same, are confounded in this play, has in all ages and +countries been credited by the common people, and in most, by the +learned themselves. These phantoms have indeed appeared more +frequently, in proportion as the darkness of ignorance has been +more gross; but it cannot be shown, that the brightest gleams of +knowledge have at any time been sufficient to drive them out of the +world. The time in which this kind of credulity was at its height, +seems to have been that of the holy war, in which the Christians +imputed all their defeats to enchantments or diabolical opposition, +as they ascribed their success to the assistance of their military +saints; and the learned Dr. Warburton appears to believe (<i>Suppl. +to the Introduction to Don Quixote</i>) that the first accounts of +enchantments were brought into this part of the world by those +<i>who</i> returned from their eastern expeditions. But there is +always some distance between the birth and maturity of folly as of +wickedness: this opinion had long existed, though perhaps the +application of it had in no foregoing age been so frequent, nor the +reception so general. Olympiodorus, in Photius's extracts, tells us +of one Libanius, who practised this kind of military magic, and +having promised [Greek: choris opliton kata barbaron energein] to +perform great things against the Barbarians without soldiers, was, +at the instances of the empress Placidia, put to death, when he was +about to have given proofs of his abilities. The empress shewed +some kindness in her anger by cutting him off at a time so +convenient for his reputation.</p> +<p>But a more remarkable proof of the antiquity of this notion may +be found in St. Chrysostom's book <i>de Sacerdotia</i>, which +exhibits a scene of enchantments not exceeded by any romance of the +middle age: he supposes a spectator overlooking a field of battle +attended by one that points out all the various objects of horror, +the engines of destruction, and the arts of slaughter. [Greek: +Deichnuto de eti para tois enantiois kai petomenous hippous dia +tinos magganeias, kai oplitas di' aeros pheromenous, kai pasaen +goaeteias dunomin kai idean.] <i>Let him then proceed to shew him +in the opposite armies horses flying by enchantment, armed men +transported through the air, and every power and form of magic.</i> +Whether St. Chrysostom believed that such performances were really +to be seen in a day of battle, or only endeavoured to enliven his +description, by adopting the notions of the vulgar, it is equally +certain, that such nations were in his time received, and that +therefore they were not imported from the Saracens in a later age; +the wars with the Saracens however gave occasion to their +propagation, not only as bigotry naturally discovers prodigies, but +as the scene of action was removed to a great distance.</p> +<p>The Reformation did not immediately arrive at its meridian, and +though day was gradually encreasing upon us, the goblins of +witchcraft still continued to hover in the twilight. In the time of +queen Elizabeth was the remarkable trial of the witches of Warbois, +whose conviction is still commemorated in an annual sermon at +Huntingdon. But in the reign of king James, in which this tragedy +was written, many circumstances concurred to propagate and confirm +this opinion. The king, who was much celebrated for his knowledge, +had, before his arrival in England, not only examined in person a +woman accused of witchcraft, but had given a very formal account of +the practices and illusions of evil spirits, the compacts of +witches, the ceremonies used by them, the manner of detecting them, +and the justice of punishing them, in his dialogues of +<i>Daemonologie</i>, written in the Scottish dialect, and published +at Edinburgh. This book was, soon after his accession, reprinted at +London, and as the ready way to gain king James's favour was to +flatter his speculations, the system of <i>Daemonologie</i> was +immediately adopted by all who desired either to gain preferment or +not to lose it. Thus the doctrine of witchcraft was very powerfully +inculcated; and as the greatest part of mankind have no other +reason for their opinions than that they are in fashion, it cannot +be doubted but this persuasion made a rapid progress, since vanity +and credulity co-operated in its favour. The infection soon reached +the parliament, who, in the first year of king James, made a law, +by which it was enacted, chap. xii. "That if any person shall use +any invocation or conjuration of any evil or wicked spirit; 2. or +shall consult, covenant with, entertain, employ, feed or reward any +evil or cursed spirit to or for any intent or purpose; 3. or take +up any dead man, woman or child out of the grave,—or the +skin, bone, or any part of the dead person, to be employed or used +in any manner of witchcraft, sorcery, charm, or enchantment; 4. or +shall use, practise or exercise any sort of witchcraft, sorcery, +charm, or enchantment; 5. whereby any person shall be destroyed, +killed, wasted, consumed, pined, or lamed in any part of the body; +6. That every such person being convicted shall suffer death." This +law was repealed in our own time.</p> +<p>Thus, in the time of Shakespeare, was the doctrine of witchcraft +at once established by law and by the fashion, and it became not +only unpolite, but criminal, to doubt it; and as prodigies are +always seen in proportion as they are expected, witches were every +day discovered, and multiplied as fast in some places, that bishop +Hall mentions a village in Lancashire, where their number was +greater than that of the houses. The jesuits and sectaries took +advantage of this universal error, and endeavoured to promote the +interest of their parties by pretended cures of persons afflicted +by evil spirits; but they were detected and exposed by the clergy +of the established church.</p> +<p>Upon this general infatuation Shakespeare might be easily +allowed to found a play, especially since he has followed with +great exactness such histories as were then thought true; nor can +it be doubted that the scenes of enchantment, however they may now +be ridiculed, were both by himself and his audience thought awful +and affecting.</p> +<p>I.i.10 (396,5) Fair is foul, and foul is fair] I believe the +meaning is, that <i>to us</i>, perverse and malignant as we are, +<i>fair is foul, and foul is fair</i>.</p> +<p>I.ii.14 (398,9) And Fortune, on his damned quarry smiling] Thus +the old copy; but I am inclined to read <i>quarrel</i>. +<i>Quarrel</i> was formerly used for <i>cause</i>, or for <i>the +occasion of a quarrel</i>, and is to be found in that sense in +Hollingshed's account of the story of Macbeth, who, upon the +creation of the prince of Cumberland, thought, says the historian, +that he had <i>a just quarrel</i>, to endeavour after the crown. +The sense therefore is, <i>Fortune smiling on his excrable +cause</i>, &c. This is followed by Dr. Warburten. (see 1765, +VI, 373, 4).</p> +<p>I.ii.28 (400,4) Discomfort swells] <i>Discomfort</i> the natural +opposite to <i>comfort</i>. <i>Well'd</i>, for <i>flawed</i>, was +an emendation. The common copies have, <i>discomfort +swells</i>.</p> +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<p>I.ii.37 (400,5) As cannons overcharg'd with double cracks,</p> +<p>So they</p> +<p>Doubly redoubled strokes upon the foe]</p> +</div> +</div> +<p>Mr. Theobald has endeavoured to improve the sense of this +passage by altering the punctuation thus:</p> +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<p>—<i>they were</i></p> +<p><i>As cannons overcharg'd, with double cracks</i></p> +<p><i>So they redoubled strokes</i>—</p> +</div> +</div> +<p>He declares, with some degree of exultation, that he has no idea +of a <i>cannon charged with double cracks</i>; but surely the great +author will not gain much by an alteration which makes him say of a +hero, that he <i>redoubles strokes with double cracks</i>, an +expression not more loudly to be applauded, or more easily pardoned +than that which is rejected in its favour. That a cannon is charged +<i>with thunder</i>, or <i>with double thunders</i>, may be +written, not only without nonsense, but with elegance, and nothing +else is here meant by <i>cracks</i>, which in the time of this +writer was a word of such emphasis and dignity, that in this play +he terms the general dissolution of nature the <i>crack of +doom</i>.</p> +<p>The old copy reads,</p> +<p><i>They doubly redoubled strokes</i>.</p> +<p>I.ii.46 (401,8) So should he look, that seems to speak things +strange] The meaning of this passage, as it now stands, is, <i>so +should he look, that looks as if he told things strange</i>. But +Rosse neither yet told strange things, nor could look as if he told +them; Lenox only conjectured from his air that he had strange +things to tell, and therefore undoubtedly said,</p> +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<p><i>What haste looks thro' his eyes?</i></p> +<p><i>So should he look, that</i> teems <i>to speak thinks +strange</i>.</p> +</div> +</div> +<p>He looks like one that <i>is big with</i> something of +importance; a metaphor so natural that it is every day used in +common discourse.</p> +<p>I.ii.55 (402,1) Confronted him with self-comparisons] [Theobald +interpreted "him" as Cawdor; Johnson, in 1745, accused Shakespeare +of forgetfulness on the basis of Theobald's error; and Warburton +here speaks of "blunder upon blunder."] The second blunderer was +the present editor.</p> +<p>I.iii.6 (403,5) <i>Aroint thee, witch</i>!] In one of the folio +editions the reading is <i>Anoint thee</i>, in a sense very +consistent with the common accounts of witches, who are related to +perform many supernatural acts by the means of unguents, and +particularly to fly through the air to the places where they meet +at their hellish festivals. In this sense, <i>anoint thee, +Witch</i>, will mean, <i>Away, Witch, to your infernal +assembly</i>. This reading I was inclined to favour, because I had +met with the word <i>aroint</i> in no other authour till looking +into Hearne's Collections I found it in a very old drawing, that he +has published, in which St. Patrick is represented visiting hell, +and putting the devils into great confusion by his presence, of +whom one that is driving the damned before him with a prong, has a +label issuing out of his mouth with these words, OUT OUT ARONGT, of +which the last is evidently the same with <i>aroint</i>, and used +in the same sense as in this passage.</p> +<p>I.iii.15 (405,8) And the very points they blew] As the word +<i>very</i> is here of no other use than to fill up the verse, it +is likely that Shakespeare wrote <i>various</i>, which might be +easily mistaken for <i>very</i>, being either negligently read, +hastily pronounced, or imperfectly heard.</p> +<p>I.iii.21 (405,9) He shall live a man forbid] Mr. Theobald has +very justly explained <i>forbid</i> by <i>accursed</i>, but without +giving any reason of his interpretation.</p> +<p>As to <i>forbid</i> therefore implies to <i>prohibit</i>, in +opposition to the word <i>bid</i> in its present sense, it +signifies by the same kind of opposition to <i>curse</i>, when it +is derived from the same word in its primitive meaning.</p> +<p>I.iii.42 (409,3) are you aught/That man may question?] Are ye +any beings with which man is permitted to hold converse, or of +which it is lawful <i>to ask questions</i>?</p> +<p>I.iii.53 (410,5) Are ye fantastical] By <i>fantastical</i>, he +means creatures of fantasy or imagination; the question is, Are +these real beings before us, or are we deceived by illusions of +fancy?</p> +<p>I.iii.97 (412,8) As thick as tale] [As thick as hail] Was Mr. +Pope's correction. The old copy has,</p> +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<p>—<i>As thick</i> as tale</p> +<p><i>Can</i> post <i>with</i> post;—</p> +</div> +</div> +<p>which perhaps is not amiss, meaning that the news came as +<i>thick</i> as a <i>tale</i> can <i>travel</i> with the +<i>post</i>. Or we may read, perhaps yet better,</p> +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<p>—<i>As thick as tale</i></p> +<p>Came <i>post with post</i>;—</p> +</div> +</div> +<p>That is, posts arrived as fast as they could be counted.</p> +<p>I.iii.130 (414,4) This supernatural solliciting] +<i>Solliciting</i> is rather, in my opinion, <i>incitement</i> than +<i>information</i>.</p> +<p>I.iii.134 (414,5) why do I yield] To <i>yield</i> is, simply, to +<i>give way to</i>.</p> +<p>I.iii.137 (414,6) Present fears/Are less than horrible +imaginings] [W: feats] <i>Present fears</i> are <i>fears of things +present</i>, which Macbeth declares, and every man has found, to be +less than the <i>imagination</i> presents them while the objects +are yet distant. <i>Fears</i> is right.</p> +<p>I.iii.140 (415,7) single state of man] The <i>single state of +man</i> seems to be used by Shakespeare for an <i>individual</i>, +in opposition to a <i>commonwealth</i>, or <i>conjunct +body</i>.</p> +<p>I.iii.40 (415,8) function/Is smother'd in surmise; and nothing +is,/ But what is not] All powers of action are oppressed and +crushed by one overwhelming image in the mind, and nothing is +present to me, but that which is really future. Of things now about +me I have no perception, being intent wholly on that which has yet +no existence.</p> +<p>I.iii.147 (415,9) Time and the hour runs through the roughest +day] I suppose every reader is disgusted at the tautology in this +passage, <i>Time and the hour</i>, and will therefore willingly +believe that Shakespeare wrote it thus,</p> +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<p><i>Come what come may</i>,</p> +<p>Time! on!—<i>the hour runs thro' the roughest day</i>.</p> +</div> +</div> +<p>Macbeth is deliberating upon the events which are to befall him, +but finding no satisfaction from his own thoughts, he grows +impatient of reflection, and resolves to wait the close without +harrassing hinaelf with conjectures.</p> +<p><i>Come what come may</i>.</p> +<p>But to shorten the pain of suspense, he calls upon Time In the +usual stile of ardent desire, to quicken his motion,</p> +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<p><i>Time! on!</i> —</p> +</div> +</div> +<p>He then comforts himself with the reflection that all his +perplexity must have an end,</p> +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<p>—<i>the hour runs thro' the roughest day.</i></p> +</div> +</div> +<p>This conjecture is supported by the passage in the letter to his +lady, in which he says, <i>they referred me to the</i> coming on of +time, <i>with Hail, King that shalt be</i>.</p> +<p>I.iii.149 (416,1) My dull brain was wrought] My head was +<i>worked</i>, <i>agitated</i>, put into commotion.</p> +<p>I.iv.9 (417,3) studied in his death] Instructed in the art of +dying. It was usual to say <i>studied</i>, for <i>learned</i> in +science.</p> +<p>I.iv.12 (417,4) To find the mind's construction in the face] The +<i>construction of the mind</i> is, I believe, a phrase peculiar to +Shakespeare; it implies the <i>frame</i> or <i>disposition</i> of +the mind, by which it is determined to good or ill.</p> +<p>I.iv.26 (418,5) Which do but what they should, by doing +everything, Safe toward your love and honour] Of the last line of +this speech, which is certainly, as it is now read, unintelligible, +an emendation has been attempted, which Dr. Warburton and Dr. +Theobald once admitted as the true reading:</p> +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<p>—<i>our duties</i></p> +<p><i>Are to your throne and state, children and servants,</i></p> +<p><i>Which do but what they should, in doing every thing</i></p> +<p>Fiefs <i>to your love and honour.</i></p> +</div> +</div> +<p>My esteem for these critics inclines me to believe that they +cannot be much pleased with these expressions <i>fiefs to love</i>, +or <i>fiefs to honour</i>, and that they have proposed this +alteration rather because no other occured to them, than because +they approved of it. I shall therefore propose a bolder change, +perhaps with no better success, but <i>sua cuique placent</i>. I +read thus,</p> +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<p>—<i>our duties</i></p> +<p><i>Are to your throne and state, children and servants</i></p> +<p><i>Which do but what they should, in doing</i> nothing,</p> +<p>Save <i>toward</i> your love and honour.</p> +</div> +</div> +<p>We do but perform our duty when we contract all our views to +your service, when we act with <i>no other</i> principle than +regard to <i>your love and honour</i>.</p> +<p>It is probable that this passage was first corrupted by writing +<i>safe</i> for <i>save</i>, and the lines then stood thus:</p> +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<p>—<i>doing nothing</i></p> +<p><i>Safe toward your love and honour.</i></p> +</div> +</div> +<p>which the next transcriber observing to be wrong, and yet not +being able to discover the real fault, altered to the present +reading.</p> +<p>Dr. Warburton has since changed <i>fiefs</i> to <i>fief'd</i>, +and Hanmer has altered <i>safe</i> to <i>shap'd</i>. I am afraid +none of us have hit the right word.</p> +<p>I.v.2 (420, 6) <i>by the perfected report</i>] By the best +intelligence. Dr. Warburton would read, <i>perfected</i>, and +explains <i>report</i> by <i>prediction</i>. Little regard can be +paid to an emendation that instead of clearing the sense, makes it +more difficult.</p> +<p>I.v.23 (420, 7) thoud'st have, great Glamis,/That which cries, +<i>Thus thou must do, if thou have it</i>] As the object of +Macbeth's desire is here introduced speaking of itself, it is +necessary to read,</p> +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<p>—<i>thoud'st have, great Glamis,</i></p> +<p><i>That which cries</i>, thus thou must do, if thou have +<i>me</i>.</p> +</div> +</div> +<p>I.v.39 (422, 8) The raven himself is hoarse] Dr. Warburton +reads,</p> +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<p>—<i>The raven himself's</i> not <i>hoarse</i>.</p> +</div> +</div> +<p>Yet I think the present words may stand. The messenger, says the +servant, had hardly breath <i>to make up his message</i>; to which +the lady answers mentally, that he may well want breath, such a +message would add hoarseness to the raven. That even the bird, +whose harsh voice is accustomed to predict calamities, could not +<i>croak the entrance of</i> Duncan but in a note of unwonted +harshness.</p> +<p>I.v.42 (422, 2) mortal thoughts] This expression signifies not +<i>the thoughts of mortals</i>, but <i>murtherous, deadly</i>, or +<i>destructive designs</i>. So in act 5,</p> +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<p><i>Hold fast the</i> mortal <i>sword</i>.</p> +</div> +</div> +<p>And in another place,</p> +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<p><i>With twenty</i> mortal <i>murthers</i>.</p> +</div> +</div> +<p>I.v.47 (422, 3) nor keep peace between/The effect, and it!] The +intent of lady Macbeth evidently is to wish that no womanish +tenderness, or conscientious remorse, may hinder her purpose from +proceeding to effect; but neither this, nor indeed any other sense, +is expressed by the present reading, and therefore it cannot be +doubted that Shakespeare wrote differently, perhaps thus,</p> +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<p><i>That no compunctious visitings of nature</i></p> +<p><i>Shake my fell purpose, nor keep</i> pace <i>between</i></p> +<p><i>Th' effect, and it</i>.—</p> +</div> +</div> +<p>To <i>keep</i> pace <i>between</i> may signify <i>to pass +between</i>, to <i>intervene</i>. <i>Pace</i> is on many occasions +a favourite of Shakespeare's. This phrase is indeed not usual in +this sease, but was it not its novelty that gave occasion to the +present corruption? [The sense is, <i>that no compunctious +visitings of nature</i> may prevail upon her, to give place in her +mind to <i>peaceful</i> thoughts, or to rest one moment in quiet, +from the hour of her purpose to its full completion in the effect. +REVISAL.] This writer thought himself perhaps very sagacious that +be found a meaning which nobody missed, the difficulty still +remains how such a meaning is made by the words. (see 1765, VI, +394, 6)</p> +<p>I.v.49 (423, 5) take my milk for gall] <i>Take</i> away <i>my +milk</i>, and put <i>gall</i> into the place.</p> +<p>I.v.51 (423, 6) You wait on nature's mischief!] <i>Nature's +mischief</i> is mischief done to nature, violation of nature's +order committed by wickedness.</p> +<p>I.v.55 (423,8) To cry, _hold, hold_!] On this passage there is a +long criticism in the <i>Rambler</i>.</p> +<p>I.v.58 (424,1) This ignorant present time] <i>Ignorant</i> has +here the signification of <i>unknowing</i>; that it, I feel by +anticipation these future hours, of which, according to the process +of nature, the present time would be <i>ignorant</i>.</p> +<p>I.vi.3 (425,3) our gentle senses] <i>Senses</i> are nothing more +<i>than each man's sense</i>. <i>Gentle senses</i> is very elegant, +as it means <i>placid</i>, <i>calm</i>, <i>composed</i>, and +intimates the peaceable delight of a fine day. (see 1765, +VI,396,2)</p> +<p>I.vi.7 (426,5) coigne of 'vantage] Convenient corner.</p> +<p>I.vi.13 (426,7) How you should bid god-yield as for your pains] +I believe <i>yield</i>, or, as it is in the folio of 1623, +<i>eyld</i>, is a corrupted contraction of <i>shield</i>. The wish +implores not <i>reward</i> but <i>protection</i>.</p> +<p>I.vii.1 (428,1) If it were <i>done</i>] A man of learning +recommends another punctuation:</p> +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<p><i>If it were done, when 'tis done, then 'twere well.</i></p> +<p><i>It were done quickly, if, &c.</i></p> +</div> +</div> +<p>I.vii.2 (428,2) If the assassination/Could tramel up the +consequence] Of this soliloquy the meaning is not very clear; I +have never found the readers of Shakespeare agreeing about it. I +understand it thus,</p> +<p>"If that which I am about to do, when it is once <i>done</i> and +executed, were <i>done</i> and ended without any following effects, +it would then be best <i>to do it quickly</i>; if the murder could +terminate in itself, and restrain the regular course of +consequences, if <i>its success</i> could secure <i>its +surcease</i>, if being once done <i>successfully</i>, without +detection, it could <i>fix a period</i> to all vengeance and +enquiry, so that <i>this blow</i> might be all that I have to do, +and this anxiety all that I have to suffer; if this could be my +condition, even <i>here</i> in <i>this world</i>, in this +contracted period of temporal existence, on this narrow <i>bank</i> +in the ocean of eternity, <i>I would jump the life to come</i>, I +would venture upon the deed without care of any future state. But +this is one of <i>these cases</i> in which judgment is pronounced +and vengeance inflicted upon as <i>here</i> in our present life. We +teach others to do as we have done, and are punished by our own +example." (1773)</p> +<p>I.vii.4 (428,3) With his surcease, success] I think the +reasoning requires that we should read,</p> +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<p><i>With its</i> success surcease.</p> +</div> +</div> +<p>I.vii.6 (429,4) shoal of time] This is Theobald's emendation, +undoubtedly right. The old edition has <i>school</i>, and Dr. +Warburton <i>shelve</i>.</p> +<p>I.vii.22 (429,7) or heavens cherubin, hors'd/Upon the sightless +couriers of the air] [W: couriers] <i>Courier</i> is only +<i>runner</i>. <i>Couriers of air</i> are <i>winds</i>, air in +motion. <i>Sightless</i> is <i>invisible</i>.</p> +<p>I.vii.25 (430,8) That tears shall drown the wind] Alluding to +the remission of the wind in a shower.</p> +<p>I.vii.28 (430,9) <i>Enter Lady</i>] The arguments by which lady +Macbeth persuades her husband to commit the murder, afford a proof +of Shakespeare's knowledge of human nature. She urges the +excellence and dignity of courage, a glittering idea which has +dazzled mankind from age to age, and animated sometimes the +house-breaker, and sometimes the conqueror; but this sophism +Macbeth has for ever destroyed, by distinguishing true from false +fortitude, in a line and a half; of which it may almost be said, +that they ought to bestow immortality on the author, though all his +other productions had been lost:</p> +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<p><i>I dare do all that become a man,</i></p> +<p><i>Who dares do more, is none</i>.</p> +</div> +</div> +<p>This topic, which has been always employed with too much +success, is used in this scene with peculiar propriety, to a +soldier by a woman. Courage is the distinguishing virtue of a +soldier, and the reproach of cowardice cannot be borne by any man +from a woman, without great impatience.</p> +<p>She then urges the oaths by which he had bound himself to murder +Duncan, another art of sophistry by which men have sometimes +deluded their consciences, and persuaded themselves that what would +be criminal in others is virtuous in them; this argument +Shakespeare, whose plan obliged him to make Macbeth yield, has not +confuted, though he might easily have shewn that a former +obligation could not be vacated by a latter: that obligations laid +on us by a higher power, could not be over-ruled by obligations +which we lay upon ourselves.</p> +<p>I.vii.41 (431,1)</p> +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<p>—Whouldst thou have that,</p> +<p>Which then esteem'st the ornament of life,</p> +<p>And live a coward in thine own esteem?]</p> +</div> +</div> +<p>In this there seems to be no reasoning. I should read,</p> +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<p>Or <i>live a coward in thine own esteem</i>?</p> +</div> +</div> +<p>Unless we choose rather,</p> +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<p>—<i>Wouldst thou</i> leave <i>that</i>.</p> +</div> +</div> +<p>I.vii.45 (431,2) Like the poor cat i' the adage?] The adage +alluded to is, <i>The cat loves fish, but dares not wet her feet, +Catus amat pisces, sed men vult tingere plantas</i>.</p> +<p>I.vii.64 (432,5) Will I with wine and wassel so convince] To +<i>convince</i> is in Shakespeare to <i>overpower</i> or +<i>subdue</i>, as in this play,</p> +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<p>—<i>Their malady</i> convinces</p> +<p><i>The great assay of art</i>.</p> +</div> +</div> +<p>I.vii.67 (433,6) A limbeck only] That is, shall be only a vessel +to emit <i>fumes</i> or <i>vapours</i>.</p> +<p>I.vii.71 (433,7) our great quell] <i>Quell</i> is <i>murder</i>. +<i>manquellers</i> being in the old language the term for which +<i>murderers</i> is now used.</p> +<p>II.i (434,8) <i>Enter Banquo, and Fleance with a torch before +him</i>] The place is not mark'd in the old edition, nor is it easy +to say where this encounter can be. It is not in the <i>hall</i>, +as the editors have all supposed it, for Banquo sees the sky; it is +not far from the bedchamber, as the conversation shews: it must be +in the inner court of the castle, which Banquo might properly cross +in his way to bed.</p> +<p>II.i.25 (435,2) If you shall cleave to my consent, Then 'tis,/It +shall make honour for you] Macbeth expressed his thought with +affected obscurity; he does not mention the royalty, though he +apparently has it in his mind, <i>If you shall cleave to my +consent</i>, if you shall concur with me when I determine to accept +the crown, <i>when 'tis</i>, when that happens which the prediction +promises, <i>it shall make honour for you</i>.</p> +<p>II.i.49 (437,6) Now o'er the one half world/Nature seems dead] +That is, <i>over our hemisphere all action and motion seem to have +ceased</i>. This image, which is perhaps the most striking that +poetry can produce, has been adopted by Dryden in his <i>Conquest +of Mexico</i>:</p> +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<p><i>All things are hush'd as Nature's self lay dead,</i></p> +<p><i>The mountains seem to nod their drowsy head;</i></p> +<p><i>The little birds in dreams their song repeat,</i></p> +<p><i>And sleeping flow'rs beneath the night dews sweat.</i></p> +<p><i>Even lust and envy sleep!</i></p> +</div> +</div> +<p>These lines, though so well known, I have transcribed, that the +contrast between them and this passage of Shakespeare may be more +accurately observed.</p> +<p>Night is described by two great poets, but one describes a night +of quiet, the other of perturbation. In the night of Dryden, all +the disturbers of the world are laid asleep; in that of +Shakespeare, nothing but sorcery, lust, and murder, is awake. He +that reads Dryden, finds himself lull'd with serenity, and disposed +to solitude and contemplation. He that peruses Shakspeare looks +round alarmed, and starts to find himself alone. One is the night +of a lover, the other, of a murderer.</p> +<p>II.i.52 (438,8)</p> +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<p>—wither'd Murther,</p> +<p>—thus with hia stealthy pace,</p> +<p>With Tarquin's ravishing strides, tow'rds his design</p> +<p>moves like a ghost.—]</p> +</div> +</div> +<p>This was the reading of this passage [ravishing sides] in all +the editions before that of Mr. Pope, who for <i>sides</i>, +inserted in the text <i>strides</i>, which Mr. Theobald has tacitly +copied from him, though a more proper alteration might perhaps have +been made. A <i>ravishing stride</i> is an action of violence, +impetuosity, and tumult, like that of a savage rushing at his prey; +whereas the poet is here attempting to exhibit an image of secrecy +and caution, of anxious circumspection and guilty timidity, the +<i>stealthy pace</i> of a <i>ravisher</i> creeping into the chamber +of a virgin, and of an assassin approaching the bed of him whom he +proposes to murder, without awaking him; these he describes as +<i>moving like ghosts</i>, whose progression is so different from +<i>strides</i>, that it has been in all ages represented te be, as +Milton expresses it,</p> +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<p><i>Smooth sliding without step</i>.</p> +</div> +</div> +<p>This hemiatic will afford the true reading of this place, which +is, I think, to be corrected thus:</p> +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<p>—<i>and wither'd Murder</i>.</p> +<p>—<i>thus with his</i> stealthy <i>pace</i>.</p> +<p><i>With Tarquin ravishing</i>, slides <i>tow'rds his +design</i>,</p> +<p><i>Moves like a ghost</i>.—</p> +</div> +</div> +<p><i>Tarquin</i> is in this place the general name of a ravisher, +and the sense is, Now is the time in which every one is a-sleep, +but those who are employed in wickedness; the witch who is +sacrificing to Hecate, and the ravisher, and the murderer, who, +like me, are stealing upon their prey.</p> +<p>When the reading is thus adjusted, he wishes with great +propriety, in the following lines, that the <i>earth</i> may not +<i>hear his steps</i>.</p> +<p>II.i.59 (439,3) And take the present horrour from the +time,/Which now suits with it] Of this passage an alteration was +once proposed by me, of which I have now a less favourable opinion, +yet will insert it, as it may perhaps give some hint to other +critics:</p> +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<p><i>And take the present horrour from the time,</i></p> +<p><i>Which now suits with it</i>.—</p> +</div> +</div> +<p>I believe every one that has attentively read this dreadful +soliloquy is disappointed at the conclusion, which, if not wholly +unintelligible, is, at least, obscure, nor can be explained into +any sense worthy of the authour. I shall therefore propose a slight +alteration:</p> +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<p>—<i>Thou sound and firm-set earth,</i></p> +<p><i>Hear not my steps, which way they walk, for fear</i></p> +<p><i>Thy very stones prate of my where-about,</i></p> +<p><i>And talk—the present horrour of the time!</i></p> +<p><i>That now suits with it</i>.—</p> +</div> +</div> +<p>Macbeth has, in the foregoing lines, disturbed his imagination +by enumerating all the terrors of the night; at length he is +wrought up to a degree of frenzy, that makes him afraid of some +supernatural discovery of his design, and calls out to the stones +not to betray him, not to declare where he walks, nor <i>to +talk</i>.—As he is going to say of what, he discovers the +absurdity of his suspicion, and pauses, but is again overwhelmed by +his guilt, and concludes, that such are the horrors of the present +night, that the stones may be expected to cry out against him:</p> +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<p>That <i>now suits with it</i>.—</p> +</div> +</div> +<p>He observes in a subsequent passage, that on such occasions +<i>stones have been known to move</i>. It is now a very just and +strong picture of a man about to commit a deliberate murder under +the strongest conviction of the wickedness of his design. Of this +alteration, however, I do not now see much use, and certainly see +no necessity.</p> +<p>Whether to <i>take horrour from the time</i> means not rather to +<i>catch</i> <i>it</i> as communicated, than to <i>deprive the time +of horrour</i>, deserves te be considered.</p> +<p>II.ii.37 (443,6) sleave of care] A skein of silk is called a +<i>sleave</i> of silk, as I learned from Mr. Seward, the ingenious +editor of Beaumont and Fletcher.</p> +<p>II.ii.56 (444,8) gild the faces of the grooms withal,/For it +must seem their guilt] Could Shakespeare possibly mean to play upon +the similitude of <i>gild</i> and <i>guilt</i>.</p> +<p>II.iii.45 (447,5) I made a shift to cast him] To <i>cast him +up</i>, to ease my stomach of him. The equivocation is between +<i>cast</i> or <i>throw</i>, as a term of wrestling, and +<i>cast</i> or <i>cast up</i>.</p> +<p>II.iii.61 (448,7)</p> +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<p>—strange screams of death;</p> +<p>And prophesying, with accents terrible</p> +<p>Of dire combustions, and confus'd events,</p> +<p>New hatch'd to the woeful time: The obscure bird</p> +<p>Clamour'd the live-long night: some say the earth</p> +<p>Was feverous, and did shake]</p> +</div> +</div> +<p>Those lines I think should be rather regulated thus:</p> +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<p>—<i>prophecying with accents terrible,</i></p> +<p><i>Of dire combustions and cosfus'd events.</i></p> +<p><i>New-hatch'd to th' woful time, the obscure bird</i></p> +<p><i>Clamour'd the live-long night. Some say the earth</i></p> +<p><i>Was fev'rous and did shake.</i></p> +</div> +</div> +<p>A <i>prophecy</i> of an <i>event new hatch'd</i>, seems to be a +<i>prophecy</i> of an <i>event past</i>. And <i>a prophecy new +hatch'd</i> is a wry expression. The term <i>new hatch'd</i> is +properly applicable to a <i>bird</i>, and that birds of ill omen +should be <i>new-hatch'd to the woful time</i>, that is, should +appear in uncommon numbers, is very consistent with the rest of the +prodigies here mentioned, and with the universal disorder into +which nature is described as thrown, by the perpetration of this +horrid murder. (see 1765, VI, 413, 7)</p> +<p>II.iii.117 (452,3) Here, lay Duncan,/His silver skin lac'd with +his golden blood] Mr. Pope has endeavoured to improve one of these +lines by substituting <i>goary blood</i> for <i>golden blood</i>; +but it may easily be admitted that he who could on such an occasion +talk of <i>lacing the silyer skin</i>, would <i>lace it</i> with +<i>golden blood</i>. No amendment can be made to this line, of +which every word is equally faulty, but by a general blot.</p> +<p>It is not improbable, that Shakespeare put these forced and +unnatural metaphors into the mouth of Macbeth as a mark of artifice +and dissimulation, to shew the difference between the studied +language of hypocrisy, and the natural outcries of sudden passion. +This whole speech so considered, is a remarkable instance of +judgment, as it consists entirely of antithesis and metaphor.</p> +<p>II.iii.122 (432,5) Unmannerly breech'd with gore] An +<i>unmannerly dagger</i>, and a <i>dagger breech'd</i>, or as in +some editions <i>breech'd with</i>, gore, are expressions not +easily to be understood. There are undoubtedly two faults in this +passage, which I have endeavored to take away by reading,</p> +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<p>—<i>daggers</i></p> +<p>Unmanly drench'd <i>with gore</i>:—</p> +</div> +</div> +<p><i>I saw</i> drench'd <i>with the King's blood the fatal +daggers, not only instruments of murder but evidence of +cowardice</i>.</p> +<p>Each of these words might easily be confounded with that which I +have substituted for it, by a hand not exact, a casual blot, or a +negligent inspection, [W: Unmanly reech'd] Dr. Warburton has, +perhaps, rightly put <i>reach'd</i> for <i>breech'd</i>.</p> +<p>II.iii.138 (454,8)</p> +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<p>In the great hand of God I stand; and thence,</p> +<p>Against the undivulg'd pretence I fight</p> +<p>Of treasonous malice]</p> +</div> +</div> +<p><i>Pretence</i> is not act, but <i>simulation</i>, a +<i>pretence</i> of the traitor, whoever he might be, to suspect +some other of the murder. I here fly to the protector of innocence +from any charge which, yet <i>undivulg'd</i>, the traitor may +pretend to fix upon me.</p> +<p>II.iii.147 (454,7) This murtherous shaft that's shot,/Hath not +yet lighted] The design to fix the murder opon some innocent +person, has not yet taken effect.</p> +<p>II.iv.15 (456,9) minions of their race] Theobald reads,</p> +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<p>—<i>minions of</i> the <i>race</i>,</p> +</div> +</div> +<p>very probably, and very poetically.</p> +<p>II.iv.24 (456,1) What good could they pretend?] To +<i>pretend</i> is here to <i>propose to themselves</i>, to <i>set +before themselves</i> as a motive of action.</p> +<p>III.i.7 (457,2) As upon thee, Macbeth, their speeches shine] +<i>Shine</i>, for appear with all the <i>lustre</i> of +<i>conspicuous</i> truth.</p> +<p>III.i.56 (459,4) as, it is said,/Mark Anthony's was by Caesar] +Though I would not often assume the critic's privilege of being +confident where certainty cannot be obtained, nor indulge myself +too far in departing from the established reading; yet I cannot but +propose the rejection of this passage, which I believe was an +insertion of some player, that having so much learning as to +discover to what Shakespeare alluded, was not willing that his +audience should be less knowing than himself, and has therefore +weakened the authour's sense by the intrusion of a remote and +useless image into a speech bursting from a man wholly possess'd +with his own present condition, and therefore not at leisure to +explain his own allusions to himself. If these words are taken +away, by which not only the thought but the numbers are injured, +the lines of Shakespeare close together without any traces of a +breach.</p> +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<p><i>My genius is rebuk'd. He chid the sisters.</i></p> +</div> +</div> +<p>This note was written before I was fully acquainted with +Shakespeare's manner, and I do not now think it of much weight; for +though the words, which I was once willing to eject, seem +interpolated, I believe they may still be genuine, and added by the +authour in his revision. The authour of the <i>Revisal</i> cannot +admit the measure to be faulty. There is only one foot, he says, +put for another. This is one of the effects of literature in minds +not naturally perspicacious. Every boy or girl finds the metre +imperfect, but the pedant comes to its defence with a tribrachys or +an anapaest, and sets it right at once by applying to one language +the rules of another. If we may be allowed to change feet, like the +old comic writers, it will not be easy to write a line not +metrical. To hint this once, is sufficient. (see 1765, VI, 424, +2)</p> +<p>III.i.65 (460,5) For Banquo's issue have I fil'd my mind] [W: +'filed] This mark of contraction is not necessary. To <i>file</i> +is in the bishop's <i>Bible</i>.</p> +<p>III.i.69 (460,6) the common enemy of man] It is always an +entertainment to an inquisitive reader, to trace a sentiment to its +original source; and therefore, though the term <i>enemy of +man</i>, applied to the devil, is in itself natural and obvious, +yet some may be pleased with being informed, that Shakespeare +probably borrowed it from the first lines of the Destruction of +Troy, a book which he is known to have read. This expression, +however, he might have had in many other places. The word +<i>fiend</i> signifies enemy.</p> +<p>III.i.71 (461,7) come, Fate, into the list,/And champion me to +the utterance!] This passage will be best explained by translating +it into the language from whence the only word of difficulty in it +is borrowed, "<i>Que la destinée se rende en lice, et +qu'elle me donne un defi a l'outrance</i>." A challenge or a combat +<i>a l'outrance</i>, <i>to extremity</i>, was a fix'd term in the +law of arms, used when the combatants engaged with an <i>odium +internecinum, an intention to destroy each other</i>, in opposition +to trials of skill at festivals, or on other occasions, where the +contest was only for reputation or a prize. The sense therefore is, +<i>Let Fate, that has foredoom'd the exaltation of the sons of +Banquo, enter the lists against me, with the utmost animosity, in +defence of its own decrees, which I will endeavour to invalidate, +whatever be the danger</i>. [Johnson quotes Warburton's note] After +the former explication, Dr. Warburton was desirous to seem to do +something; and he has therefore made <i>Fate</i> the +<i>marshal</i>, whom I had made the <i>champion</i>, and has left +Macbeth to enter the lists without an opponent.</p> +<p>III.i.88 (462,9) Are you so gospell'd] Are you of that degree of +precise virtue? <i>Gospeller</i> was a name of contempt given by +the Papists to the Lollards, the puritans of early times, and the +precursors of <i>protestantism</i>.</p> +<p>III.i.94 (463,1) Showghes] <i>Showghes</i> are probably what we +now call <i>shocks</i>, demi-wolves, <i>lyciscae</i>; dogs bred +between wolves and dogs. (1773)</p> +<p>III.i.95 (463,2) the valued file] In this speech the word +<i>file</i> occurs twice, and seems in both places to have a +meaning different from its present use. The expression, <i>valued +file</i>, evidently means, a list or catalogue of value. A station +in the <i>file</i>, and not in the worst rank, may mean, a place in +the list of manhood, and not in the lowest place. But <i>file</i> +seems rather to mean in this place, a post of honour; the first +rank, in opposition to the last; a meaning which I have not +observed in any other place. (1773)</p> +<p>III.i.112 (465,2) So weary with disasters, tug'd with fortune] +<i>Tug'd with fortune</i> may be, <i>tug'd</i> or <i>worried</i> by +fortune.</p> +<p>III.i.130 (465,4) Acquaint you with the perfect spy o' the time] +What is meant by <i>the spy of the time</i>, it will be found +difficult to explain; and therefore sense will be cheaply gained by +a slight alteration.—Macbeth is assuring the assassins that +they shall not want directions to find Banquo, and therefore +says,</p> +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<p><i>I will</i>—</p> +<p><i>Acquaint you with</i> a perfect spy <i>o' the time</i>.</p> +</div> +</div> +<p>Accordingly a third murderer joins them afterwards at the place +of action.</p> +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<p><i>Perfect</i> is <i>well instructed</i>, or <i>well +informed</i>, as in this play,</p> +</div> +<div class="stanza"> +<p><i>Though in your state of honour I am</i> perfect.</p> +</div> +</div> +<p>though I am <i>well acquainted</i> with your quality and rank. +[Warburton explained this as "the critical juncture"] How the +<i>critical juncture</i> is the <i>spy o' the time</i> I know not, +but I think my own conjecture right.</p> +<p>III.ii.38 (467,1) nature's copy's not eternal] The <i>copy</i>, +the <i>lease</i>, by which they hold their lives from nature, has +its time of termination limited.</p> +<p>III.iii.1 (469,6) But who did bid thee join with us?] The +meaning of this abrupt dialogue is this. The <i>perfect spy</i>, +mentioned by Macbeth in the foregoing scene, has, before they enter +upon the stage, given them the directions which were promised at +the time of their agreement; yet one of the murderers suborned +suspects him of intending to betray them; the other observes, that, +by his exact knowledge of <i>what they were to do</i>, he appears +to be employed by Macbeth, and needs not be mistrusted.</p> +<p>III.iv.1 (470,9) You know your own degrees, sit down: at +first,/And last the hearty welcome] As this passage stands [sit +down:/At first and last], not only the numbers are very imperfect, +but the sense, if any can be found, weak and contemptible. The +numbers will be improved by reading,</p> +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<p>—<i>sit down at first,</i></p> +<p><i>And last a hearty welcome</i>.</p> +</div> +</div> +<p>But for <i>last</i> should then be written <i>next</i>. I +believe the true reading is,</p> +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<p><i>You know your own degrees, sit down</i>.—<i>To +first</i></p> +<p><i>And last the hearty welcome</i>.</p> +</div> +</div> +<p>All of whatever degree, from the highest to the lowest, may be +assured that their visit is well received.</p> +<p>III.iv.14 (471,1) 'Tis better thee without, than he within] The +sense requires that this passage should be read thus:</p> +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<p><i>'Tis better</i> thee <i>without, than</i> him +<i>within</i>.</p> +</div> +</div> +<p>That is, <i>I am better pleased that the blood of Banquo should +be on thy face than in his body</i>.</p> +<p>The authour might mean, <i>It is better that Banquo's blood were +on thy face, than</i> he <i>in this room</i>. Expressions thus +imperfect are common in his works.</p> +<p>III.iv.33 (472,2) the feast is sold] The meaning is,—That +which ia not <i>given cheerfully</i>, cannot be called a +<i>gift</i>, it is something that must be paid for. (1773)</p> +<p>III.iv.57 (473,3) extend his passion] Prolong his suffering; +make his fit longer.</p> +<p>III.iv.60 (473,4) O proper stuff!] This speech is rather too +long for the circumstances in which it is spoken. It had begun +better at, <i>Shame itself</i>!</p> +<p>III.iv.63 (473,5)</p> +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<p>Oh, these flaws, and starts,</p> +<p>(Impostors to true fear,) would well become</p> +<p>A woman's story at a winter's fire,</p> +<p>Authoriz'd by her grandam]</p> +</div> +</div> +<p><i>Flaws</i>, are <i>sudden gusts</i>. The authour perhaps +wrote,</p> +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<p>—<i>Those flaws and starts</i>,</p> +<p>Impostures true to fear <i>would well become</i>;</p> +<p><i>A woman's story</i>,—</p> +</div> +</div> +<p>These symptoms of terrour and amazement might better become +<i>impostures true</i> only <i>to fear, might become a coward at +the recital of such falsehoods as no man could credit, whose +understanding was not weaken'd by his terrours; tales told by a +woman over a fire on the authority of her grandam</i>.</p> +<p>III.iv.76 (474,6) Ere human statute purg'd the gentle weal] The +<i>gentle weal</i>, is, the <i>peaceable community</i>, the state +made quiet and safe by <i>human statutes</i>.</p> +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<p><i>Mollia securae peragebant otia gentes</i>.</p> +</div> +</div> +<p>III.iv.92 (475,7) And all to all] I once thought it should be +<i>hail</i> to all, but I now think that the present reading is +right.</p> +<p>III.iv.105 (475,8) If trembling I inhabit] This is the original +reading, which Mr. Pope changed to <i>inhibit</i>, which +<i>inhibit</i> Dr. Warburton interprets <i>refuse</i>. The old +reading may stand, at least as well as the emendation. Suppose we +read,</p> +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<p><i>If trembling I</i> evade <i>it</i>.</p> +</div> +</div> +<p>III.iv.110 (476,9) Can such things be,/And overcome us, like a +summer's cloud,/Without our special wonder?] [W: Can't] The +alteration is introduced by a misinterpretation. The meaning is not +that <i>these things are like a summer-cloud</i>, but can such +wonders as these pass over us without wonder, as a casual summer +cloud passes over us.</p> +<p>III.iv.112 (477,1) You make me strange/Even to the disposition +that I owe] You produce in me an <i>alienation of mind</i>, which +is probably the expression which our author intended to +paraphrase.</p> +<p>III.iv.124 (477,2) Augurs, and understood relations] By the word +<i>relation</i> is understood the <i>connection</i> of effects with +causes; to <i>understand relations</i> as <i>an angur</i>, is to +know how these things <i>relate</i> to each other, which have no +visible combination or dependence.</p> +<p>III.iv.141 (479,5) You lack the season of all natures, sleep] I +take the meaning to be, <i>you want sleep</i>, which +<i>seasons</i>, or gives the relish to <i>all nature</i>. +<i>Indiget somni vitae condimenti</i>.</p> +<p>III.v.24 (480,8) vaporous drop, profound] That is, a drop that +has <i>profound</i>, <i>deep</i>, or <i>hidden</i> qualities.</p> +<p>III.v.26 (480,9) slights] Arts; subtle practices.</p> +<p>III.vi (481,1) <i>Enter Lenox, and another Lord</i>] As this +tragedy, like the rest of Shakespeare's, is perhaps overstocked +with personages, it is not easy to assign a reason why a nameless +character should be introduced here, since nothing is said that +might not with equal propriety have been put into the mouth of any +other disaffected man. I believe therefore that in the original +copy it was written with a very common form of contraction Lenox +and An. for which the transcriber, instead of Lenox and Angus, set +down Lenox and <i>another Lord</i>. The author had indeed been more +indebted to the transcriber's fidelity and diligence had he +committed no errors of greater importance.</p> +<p>III.vi.36 (482,3) and receive free honours] [<i>Free</i> for +grateful. WARBURTON.] How can <i>free</i> be <i>grateful</i>? It +may be either honours <i>freely bestowed</i>, not purchased by +crimes; or honours <i>without slavery</i>, without dread of a +tyrant.</p> +<p>IV.i (484,5) As this is the chief scene of enchantment in the +play, it is proper in this place to observe, with how much judgment +Shakespeare has selected all the circumstances of his infernal +ceremonies, and how exactly he has conformed to common opinions and +traditions:</p> +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<p><i>Thrice the brinded cat hath mew'd</i>.</p> +</div> +</div> +<p>The usual form in which familiar spirits are reported to +converse with witches, is that of a cat. A witch, who was tried +about half a century before the time of Shakespeare, had a cat +named Rutterkin, as the spirit of one of these witches was +Grimalkin; and when any mischief was to be done she used to bid +Rutterkin <i>go and fly</i>, but once when she would have sent +Rutterkin to torment a daughter of the countess of Rutland, instead +of <i>going</i> or <i>flying</i>, he only cried <i>mew</i>, from +whence she discovered that the lady was out of his power, the power +of witches being not universal, but limited, as Shakespeare has +taken care to inculcate:</p> +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<p><i>Though his bark cannot be lost,</i></p> +<p><i>Yet it shall be tempest-tost.</i></p> +</div> +</div> +<p>The common afflictions which the malice of witches produced were +melancholy, fits, and loss of flesh, which are threatened by one of +Shakespeare's witches:</p> +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<p><i>Weary sev'n nights, nine times nine,</i></p> +<p><i>Shall he dwindle, peak, and pine.</i></p> +</div> +</div> +<p>It was likewise their practice to destroy the cattle of their +neighbours, and the farmers have to this day many ceremonies to +secure their cows and other cattle from witchcraft; but they seem +to have been most suspected of malice against swine. Shakespeare +has accordingly made one of his witches declare that she has been +<i>killing swine</i>, and Dr. Harsenet observes, that about that +time, <i>a sow could not be ill of the measles, nor a girl of the +sullens, but some old woman was charged with witchcraft</i>.</p> +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<p><i>Toad, that under the cold stone,</i></p> +<p><i>Days and night has, thirty-one,</i></p> +<p><i>Swelter'd venom sleeping got;</i></p> +<p><i>Boil thou first i'the charm'd pot</i>.</p> +</div> +</div> +<p>Toads have likewise long lain under the reproach of being by +some means accessory to witchcraft, for which reason Shakespeare, +in the first scene of this play, calls one of the spirits Padocke +or Toad, and now takes care to put a toad first into the pot. When +Vaninus was seized at Theleuse, there was found at his lodgings +<i>ingens Bufo Vitro inclusus, a great toad shut in a vial</i>, +upon which those that prosecuted him, <i>Veneficium exprebrabent, +charged him</i>, I suppose, <i>with witchcraft</i>.</p> +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<p><i>Fillet of fenny snake,</i></p> +<p><i>In the cauldron boil and bakae:</i></p> +<p><i>Eye of newt, and toe of frog;—</i></p> +<p><i>For a charm, &c</i>.</p> +</div> +</div> +<p>The propriety of these ingredients may be known by consulting +the books <i>de Viribus Animalium</i> and <i>de Mirabilibus +Mundi</i>, ascribed to Albertus Magnus, in which the reader, who +has time and credulity, may discover very wonderful secrets.</p> +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<p><i>Finger of birth-strangled babe,</i></p> +<p><i>Ditch deliver'd by a drab</i>;—</p> +</div> +</div> +<p>It has been already mentioned in the law against witches, that +they are supposed to take up dead bodies to use in enchantments, +which was confessed by the woman whom king James examined, and who +had of a dead body that was divided in one of their assemblies, two +fingers for her share. It is observable that Shakespeare, on this +great occasion, which involves the fate of a king, multiplies all +the circumstanaces of horror. The babe, whose finger is used, must +be strangled in its birth; the grease must not only be human, but +must have dropped from a gibbet, the gibbet of a murderer; and even +the sow, whose blood is used, must have offended nature by +devouring her own farrow. These are touches of judgment and +genius.</p> +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<p><i>And now about the cauldron sing—</i></p> +<p><i>Black spirits and white,</i></p> +<p class="i2"><i>Blue spirits and grey,</i></p> +<p><i>Mingle, mingle, mingle,</i></p> +<p><i>You that mingle say</i>.</p> +</div> +</div> +<p>And in a former part,</p> +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<p>—<i>weyward sisters, hand in hand,—</i></p> +<p><i>Thus do go about, about.</i></p> +<p><i>Thrice to thine, and thrice to mine.</i></p> +<p><i>And thrice again to make up nine!</i></p> +</div> +</div> +<p>These two passages I have brought together, because they both +seem subject to the objection of too much levity for the solemnity +of enchantment, and may both be shewn, by one quotation from +Camden's account of Ireland, to be founded upon a practice really +observed by the uncivilised natives of that country: "When any one +gets a fall, <i>says the informer of Camden</i>, he starts up, and, +<i>turning three times to the right</i>, digs a hole in the earth; +for they imagine that there is a spirit in the ground, and if he +falls sick in two or three days, they send one of their women that +is skilled in that way to the place, where she says, I call thee +from the east, west, north, and south, from the groves, the woods, +the rivers, and the fens, from the fairies <i>red, black, +white</i>." There was likewise a book written before the time of +Shakespeare, describing, amongst other properties, the +<i>colours</i> of spirits.</p> +<p>Many other circumstances might be particularised, in which +Shakespeare has shown his judgment and his knowledge.</p> +<p>IV.i.53 (489,6) yesty waves] That is, <i>foaming</i> or +<i>frothy waves</i>.</p> +<p>IV.i.88 (491,1) the round/And top of sovereignty?] This +<i>round</i> is that part of the crown that encircles the head. The +<i>top</i> is the ornament that rises above it.</p> +<p>IV.i.95 (492,3) Who can impress the forest] i.e. who can command +the forest to serve him like a soldier impress'd. (1773)</p> +<p>IV.i.97 (492,4) Rebellious head, rise never] Mr. Theobald, who +first proposed this change ["head" for "dead"] rightly observes, +that <i>head</i> means <i>host</i>, or power.</p> +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<p>—<i>Douglas and the rebels met,</i></p> +<p><i>A mighty and a fearful</i> head <i>they are</i>.</p> +</div> +</div> +<p>And again,</p> +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<p><i>His divisions—are in three heads</i>.</p> +</div> +</div> +<p>IV.i.113 (493,6) Thy crown does sear mine eye-balls] The +expression of Macbeth, that the <i>crown</i> sears <i>his</i> +eye-balls, is taken from the method formerly practised of +destroying the sight of captives or competitors, by holding a +burning bason before the eye, which dried up its humidity. Whence +the Italian, <i>abacinare</i>, to <i>blind</i>.</p> +<p>IV.i.113 (493,7) And thy air,/Thou other gold-bound brow, is +like the first:—/A third is like the former] In former +editions,</p> +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<p>—<i>and thy</i> hair,</p> +<p><i>Thou other gold-bound brow, is like the first</i>:—</p> +<p><i>A third is like the former</i>:—</p> +</div> +</div> +<p>As Macbeth expected to see a train of kings, and was only +enquiring from what race they would proceed, he could not be +surprised that the <i>hair</i> of the second was <i>bound with +gold</i> like that of the first; he was offended only that the +second resembled the first, as the first resembled Banquo, and +therefore said,</p> +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<p>—<i>and thy</i> air,</p> +<p><i>Thou other gold-bound brow, is like the first</i>.</p> +</div> +</div> +<p>This Dr. Warburton has followed.</p> +<p>IV.i.144 (495,2) Time, thou anticipat'st my dread exploits] To +<i>anticipate</i> is here to <i>prevent</i>, by taking away the +opportunity.</p> +<p>IV.ii.9 (496,3) He wants the natural touch] Natural sensibility. +He is not touched with natural affection.</p> +<p>IV.ii.71 (498,7) To do worse to you, were fell cruelty] To do +<i>worse</i> is, to let her and her children be destroyed without +warning.</p> +<p>IV.iii.2 (500,9) Let us rather/Hold fast the mortal sword; and, +like good men,/ Bestride our down-faln birthdom] In former +editions,</p> +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<p><i>Let us rather</i></p> +<p><i>Hold fast the mortal sword; and, like good men,</i></p> +<p><i>Bestride our</i> downfal birthdoom.—]</p> +</div> +</div> +<p>He who can discover what is meant by him that earnestly exhorts +him to <i>bestride</i> his <i>downfal birth-doom</i>, is at liberty +to adhere to the present text; but it is probable that Shakespeare +wrote,</p> +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<p>—<i>like good men,</i></p> +<p><i>Bestride our</i> downfaln birthdom—</p> +</div> +</div> +<p>The allusion is to a man from whom something valuable is about +to be taken by violence, and who, that he may defend it without +incombrance, lays it on the ground, and stands over it with his +weapon in his hand. Our birthdom, or birthright, says he, lies on +the ground, let us, like men who are to fight for what is dearest +to them, not abandon it, but stand over it and defend it. This is a +strong picture of obstinate resolution. So Falstaff says to +Hal.</p> +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<p><i>When I am down, if thou wilt</i> bestride me, <i>so</i>.</p> +</div> +</div> +<p><i>Birthdom</i> for <i>birthright</i> is formed by the same +analogy with <i>masterdom</i> in this play, signifying the +<i>privileges</i> or <i>rights</i> of a <i>master</i>.</p> +<p>Perhaps it might be <i>birth-dame</i> for <i>mother</i>; let us +stand over our <i>mother</i> that lies bleeding on the ground.</p> +<p>IV.iii.19 (501,4) A good and virtuous nature may recoil/In an +imperial charge] A good mind may <i>recede</i> from goodness in the +execution of a <i>royal commission</i>.</p> +<p>IV.iii.23 (501,5) Though all things foul would wear the brows of +grace,/Yet grace must look still so] This is not very clear. The +meaning perhaps is this:—<i>My suspicions cannot injure you, +if you be virtuous, by supposing that a traitor may put on your +virtuous appearance. I do not say that your virtuous appearance +proves you a traitor; for virtue must wear its proper form, though +that form be often counterfeited by villany</i>.</p> +<p>IV.iii.26 (502,6) Why in that rawness left you wife and +children] Without previous provision, without due preparation, +without <i>maturity</i> of counsel.</p> +<p>IV.iii.33 (502,7) Wear thou thy wrongs] That is, <i>Poor +country, wear thou thy wrongs</i>.</p> +<p>IV.iii.69 (503,1) Sudden, malicious] [<i>Sudden</i>, for +capricious. WARBUR.] Rather violent, passionate, hasty.</p> +<p>IV.iii.85 (504,2) Than summer seeming lust] When I was younger +and bolder I corrected it thus,</p> +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<p><i>Than fume, or seething lust</i>.</p> +</div> +</div> +<p>that is, Than angry passion, or boiling lust. (1773)</p> +<p>IV.iii.135 (506,4) All ready at a point] [W: at appoint] There +is no need of change.</p> +<p>IV.iii.136 (506,5) and the chance of goodness/Be like our +warranted quarrel!] The <i>chance of goodness</i>, as it is +commonly read, conveys no sense. If there be not some more +important errour in the passage, it should at least be pointed +thus:</p> +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<p>—<i>and the chance, of goodness,</i></p> +<p><i>Be like our warranted quarrel</i>!—</p> +</div> +</div> +<p>That is, may the event be, of the goodness of heaven, [<i>pro +justitia divina</i>] answerable to the cause.</p> +<p>The author of the <i>Revisal</i> conceives the sense of the +passage to be rather this: <i>And may the success of that goodness, +which is about to exert itself in my behalf, be such as may be +equal to the justice of my quarrel</i>.</p> +<p>But I am inclined to believe that Shakespeare wrote,</p> +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<p>—and the chance, O goodness,</p> +<p>Be like our warranted quarrel!—</p> +</div> +</div> +<p>This some of his transcribers wrote with a small <i>o</i>, which +another imagined to mean <i>of</i>. If we adopt this reading, the +sense will be, <i>and O thou sovereign Goodness, to whom we now +appeal, may our fortune answer to our cause</i>. (see 1765, VI, +462, 7)</p> +<p>IV.iii.170 (508,9) A modern ecstacy] I believe <i>modern</i> is +only <i>foolish</i> or <i>trifling</i>.</p> +<p>IV.iii.196 (509,2), fee-grief] A peculiar sorrow; a grief that +hath a single owner. The expression is, at least to our ears, very +harsh.</p> +<p>IV.iii.216 (511,4) He has no children] It has been observed by +an anonymous critic, that this is not said of Macbeth, who had +children, but of Malcolm, who having none, supposes a father.</p> +<p>V.i.86 (515,8) My mind she has mated] [Conquer'd or subdued. +POPE.] Rather astonished, confounded.</p> +<p>V.ii.24 (516,1) When all that is within him does condemn/Itself, +for being there?] That is, when all the faculties of the mind are +employed in self-condemnation.</p> +<p>V.iii.1 (516,2) Bring me no more reports] <i>Tell me not any +more of desertions—Let all ny subjects leave me—I am +safe till,</i> &c.</p> +<p>V.iii.8 (517,3) English Epicures] The reproach of Epicurism, on +which Mr. Theobald has bestowed a note, is nothing more than a +natural invective uttered by an inhabitant of a barren country, +against, those who have more opportunities of luxury.</p> +<p>V.iii.22 (518,6) my way of life/Is fall'n into the sear] As +there is no relation between the <i>way of life</i>, and <i>fallen +into the sear</i>, I am inclined to think that the W is only an M +inverted, and that it was originally written,</p> +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<p>—<i>my</i> May <i>of life</i>.</p> +</div> +</div> +<p><i>I am now passed from the spring to the autumn of my days, but +I am without those comforts that should succeed the spriteliness of +bloom, and support me in this melancholy season.</i></p> +<p>The authour has <i>May</i> in the same sense elsewhere.</p> +<p>V.iv.8 (521,1) the confident tyrant/Keeps still in Dunsinane, +and will endure/Our setting down before't] He was <i>confident</i> +of success; so <i>confident</i> that he would not fly, but endure +their <i>setting down</i> before his castle.</p> +<p>V.iv.11 (521,2) For where there is advantage to be given,/ Both +more and less have given him the revolt] The impropriety of the +expression, <i>advantage to be given</i>, and the disagreeable +repetition of the word <i>given</i> in the next line, incline me to +read,</p> +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<p>—<i>where there is</i> a 'vantage <i>to be</i> gone,</p> +<p><i>Both more and less have given him the revolt.</i></p> +</div> +</div> +<p><i>Advantage or 'vantage</i>, in the time of Shakespeare, +signified <i>opportunity</i>. <i>He shut up himself and his +soldiers</i>, (says Malcolm) <i>in the castle, because when there +is an opportunity to be gone they all desert him</i>.</p> +<p><i>More and less</i> is the same with <i>greater and less</i>. +So in the interpolated <i>Mandeville</i>, a book of that age, there +is a chapter of <i>India the More and the Less</i>.</p> +<p>V.iv.20 (522,4) arbitrate]—<i>arbitrate</i> is +<i>determine</i>.</p> +<p>V.v.11 (523,3) fell of hair] My hairy part, my +<i>capillitium</i>. <i>Fell</i> is <i>skin</i>.</p> +<p>V.v.17 (523,7) She should have dy'd hereafter;/ There would have +been a time for such a word] This passage has very justly been +suspected of being corrupt. It is not apparent for what <i>word</i> +there would have been a <i>time</i>, and that there would or would +not be a <i>time</i> for any <i>word</i> seems not a consideration +of importance sufficient to transport Macbeth into the following +exclamation. I read therefore,</p> +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<p><i>She should have dy'd hereafter.</i></p> +<p><i>There would have been a time for—such a</i> +world!—</p> +<p><i>Tomorrow</i>, &c.</p> +</div> +</div> +<p>It is a broken speech in which only part of the thought is +expressed, and may be paraphrased thus: <i>The queen is dead</i>. +Macbeth. <i>Her death should have been deferred to some more +peaceful hour; had she liv'd longer</i>, there would at length have +been a time for the <i>honours due to her as a queen, and that +respect which I owe her for her fidelity and love. Such is the</i> +world—such is the condition of human life, that we always +think to-morrow <i>will be happier than to-day, but to-morrow and +to-morrow steals over us unenjoyed and unregarded, and we still +linger in the same expectation to the moment appointed for our end. +All these days, which have thus passed away, have sent multitudes +of fools to the grave, who were engrossed by the same dream of +future felicity, and, when life was departing from them, were, like +me, reckoning on to-morrow</i>.</p> +<p>Such was once my conjecture, but I am now less confident. +Macbeth might mean, that there would have been a more convenient +<i>time</i> for such a <i>word</i>, for such <i>intelligence</i>, +and so fall into the following reflection. We say we send +<i>word</i> when we give intelligence.</p> +<p>V.v.21 (524,8) To the last syllable of recorded time] +<i>Recorded time</i> seems to signify the time fixed in the decrees +of Heaven for the period of life. The <i>record</i> of +<i>futurity</i> is indeed no accurate expression, but as we only +know transactions past or present, the language of men affords no +term for the volumes of prescience, in which future events may be +supposed to be written.</p> +<p>V.v.23 (524,9) The way to dusty death] <i>Dusty</i> is a very +natural epithet. The second folio has,</p> +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<p><i>The way to</i> study <i>death</i>.—</p> +</div> +</div> +<p>which Mr. Upton prefers, but it is only an errour by an +accidental transposition of the types.</p> +<p>V.v.42 (525,2) I pull in resolution, and begin/To doubt the +equivocation of the fiend,/ That lies like truth] Though this is +the reading of all the editions, yet, as it is a phrase without +either example, elegance or propriety, it is surely better to +read,</p> +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<p><i>I</i> pall <i>in resolution,—</i></p> +<p><i>I languish in my constancy, my confidence begins to forsake +as</i>.</p> +</div> +</div> +<p>It is scarcely necessary to observe how easily <i>pall</i> might +be changed into <i>pull</i> by a negligent writer, or mistaken for +it by an unskilful printer. With this emendation Dr. Warburton and +Mr. Heath concur. (see 1765, VI,478,8)</p> +<p>V.viii.9 (529,3) the intrenchant air] That is, air which cannot +be cut.</p> +<p>V.viii.20 (529,5) That palter with us in a double sense] That +<i>shuffle</i> with ambiguous expressions.</p> +<p>V.viii.48 (531,7) Had I as many sons as I have hairs, I would +not wish them to a fairer death]</p> +<p>This incident is thus related from Henry of Huntingdon by Camden +in his <i>Remains</i>, from which our authour probably copied +it.</p> +<p>When Seyward, the martial earl of Northumberland, understood +that his son, whom he had sent in service against the Scotchmen, +was slain, he demanded whether his wounds were in the fore part or +hinder part of his body. When it was answered, in the fore part, he +replied, "I am right glad; neither wish I any other death to me or +mine."</p> +<p>General Observation. This play is deservedly celebrated for the +propriety of its fictions, and solemnity, grandeur, and variety of +its action; but it has no nice discriminations of character, the +events are too great to admit the influence of particular +dispositions, and the course of the action necessarily determines +the conduct of the agents.</p> +<p>The danger of ambition is well described; and I know not whether +it may not be said in defence of some parts which now seem +improbable, that, in Shakespeare's time, it was necessary to warn +credulity against vain and illusive predictions.</p> +<p>The passions are directed to their true end. Lady Macbeth is +merely detested; and though the courage of Macbeth preserves some +esteem, yet every reader rejoices at his fall.</p> +<h3>Vol. VII</h3> +<h2>CORIOLANUS</h2> +<p>1.i.19 (292,1) but they think, we are too dear] They think that +the charge of maintaining us is more than we are worth.</p> +<p>I.i.23 (292,3) ere we become rakes] It is plain that, in our +authour's time, we had the proverb, <i>as lean as a rake</i>. Of +this proverb the original is obscure. <i>Rake</i> now signifies a +<i>dissolute man</i>, a man worn out with disease and debauchery. +But the signification is, I think, much more modern than the +proverb. <i>Raekel</i>, in Islandick, is said to mean a +<i>cur-dog</i>, and this was probably the first use among us of the +word <i>rake</i>; <i>as lean as a rake</i> is, therefore, as lean +as it dog too worthless to be fed.</p> +<p>1.i.94 (294,4) I will venture/To scale't a little more] +[Warburton had taken Theobald to task for emending to "stale't", +offering two quotations to prove that "scale" meant "apply."] +Neither of Dr. Warburton's examples afford a sense congruous to the +present occasion. In the passage quoted, to <i>scale</i> may be to +<i>weigh</i> and <i>compare</i>, but where do we find that +<i>scale</i> is to <i>apply</i>? If we <i>scale</i> the two +criticks, I think Theobald has the advantage.</p> +<p>I.i.97 (295,5) fob off our disgraces with a tale] +<i>Disgraces</i> are <i>hardships, injuries</i>.</p> +<p>I.i.104 (295,6) where the other instruments] <i>Where</i> for +<i>whereas</i>.</p> +<p>I.i.112 (296,7) Which ne'er came from the lungs] with a smile +not indicating pleasure, but contempt.</p> +<p>I.i.120 (296,9) The counsellor heart] The heart was anciently +esteemed the seat of prudence. <i>Homo cordatum</i> is a <i>prudent +man</i>.</p> +<p>I.i.163 (297,1) Thou rascal, that art worst in blood, to ruin,/ +Lead'st first, to win some 'vantage] I think, we may better read, +by an easy change, <i>Thou rascal that art worst, in blood, to</i> +ruin [to run] <i>Lead'st first, to win</i>, &c.</p> +<p>Thou that art the meanest by birth, art the foremost to lead thy +fellows <i>to ruin</i>, in hope of some advantage. The meaning, +however, is perhaps only this, Thou that art a hound, or running +dog of the lowest breed, lead'st the pack, when any thing is to be +gotten. (see 1765, VI, 493, 1)</p> +<p>I.i.172 (298,4) What would you have, ye curs,/ That like not +peace, nor war? The one affrights you,/ The other makes you proud] +[W: likes] That <i>to like</i> is <i>to please</i>, every one +knows, but in that sense it is as hard to say why peace should not +<i>like</i> the people, as, in the other sense, why the people +should not <i>like</i> peace. The truth is, that Coriolanus does +not use the two sentences consequentially, but reproaches them with +unsteadiness, then with their other occasional vices.</p> +<p>I.i.202 (300,6) I'd make a quarry/With thousands] Why a quarry? +I suppose, not because he would pile them square, but because he +would give them for carrion to the birds of prey.</p> +<p>I.i.215 (300,7) To break the heart of generosity] To give the +final blow to the <i>nobles</i>. <i>Generosity</i> is <i>high +birth</i>.</p> +<p>I.i.231 (301,8) 'tis true, that yon have lately told us./The +Volscians are in arms] Coriolanus had been but just told himself +that <i>the Volscians were in arms</i>. The meaning is, <i>The +intelligence which you gave us some little time ago of the designs +of the Volscians is now verified; they are in arms.</i></p> +<p>I.i.255 (302,8) Your valour puts well forth] That is, You have +in this mutiny shewn fair blossoms of valour.</p> +<p>I.i.260 (303,9) to gird. To <i>sneer</i>, to <i>gibe</i>. So +Falstaff uses the noun, when he says, <i>every man has a</i> gird +<i>at me</i>.</p> +<p>I.i.281 (304,3) in what fashion,/More than his singularity he +goes/ Upon this present action] We will learn what he is to do, +besides <i>going himself</i>; what are his powers, and what is his +appointment.</p> +<p>I.ii.28 (305,4) for the remove/Bring up your army] [W:'fore +they] I do not see the nonsense or impropriety of the old reading. +Says the senator to Aufidius, <i>Go to your troops, we will +garrison Corioli</i>. If the Romans besiege us, bring up your army +<i>to remove them</i>. If any change should be made, I would +read,</p> +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<p>—<i>for</i> their <i>remove</i>.</p> +</div> +</div> +<p>I.iii.16 (307,5) brows bound with oak] The crown given by the +Romans to him that saved the life of a citizen, which was accounted +more honourable than any other.</p> +<p>I.iv.14 (311,9) nor a man that fears you less than he,/That's +lesser than a little] The sense requires it to be read,</p> +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<p><i>nor a man that fears you</i> more <i>than he</i>,</p> +</div> +</div> +<p>Or more probably,</p> +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<p><i>nor a man</i> but <i>fears you less than he,</i></p> +<p><i>That's lesser than a little</i>.</p> +</div> +</div> +<p>I.v.5 (314,4) prize their hours] In the first edition it is, +<i>prize their</i> hours. I know not who corrected it [to <i>prize +their honours</i>]. A modern editor, who had made such an +improvement, would have spent half a page in ostentation of his +sagacity.</p> +<p>I.vi.36 (317,6) Ransoming him, or pitying] i.e. <i>remitting his +ransom</i>.</p> +<p>I.vi.61 (318,8) swords advanc'd] That is, swords lifted +high.</p> +<p>I.vi.83 (319,9) Please you to march,/And four shall quickly draw +out my command,/Which men are best inclin'd] I cannot but suspect +this passage of corruption. Why should they <i>march</i>, that +<i>four</i> might select those that were <i>best inclin'd</i>? How +would their inclinations be known? Who were the <i>four</i> that +should select them? Perhaps, we may read,</p> +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<p>—<i>Please you to march,</i></p> +<p><i>And</i> fear <i>shall quickly draw out</i> of <i>my +command,</i></p> +<p><i>Which men are</i> least <i>inclin'd</i>.</p> +</div> +</div> +<p>It is easy to conceive that, by a little negligence, <i>fear</i> +might be changed to <i>four</i>, and <i>least</i> to <i>best</i>. +Let us march, and that fear which incites desertion will free my +army from cowards. (see 1765, VI, 512, 1)</p> +<p>I.viii.11 (320,1) Wert thou the Hector,/That was the whip of +your bragg'd progeny] The Romans boasted themselves descended from +the Trojans, how then was Hector the <i>whip of their progeny</i>? +It must mean the whip with which the Trojans scourged the Greeks, +which cannot be but by a very unusual construction, or the authour +must have forgotten the original of the Romans; unless <i>whip</i> +has some meaning which includes <i>advantage</i> or +<i>superiority</i>, as we say, <i>he has the</i> whip-hand, for +<i>he has the</i> advantage.</p> +<p>I.viii.14 (321,2) you have sham'd me/In your condemned seconds] +For <i>condemned</i>, we may read <i>contemned</i>. You have, to my +shane, sent me help <i>which I despise</i>.</p> +<p>I.ix.12 (321,4) Here is the steed, we the caparisons!] This is +an odd encomium. The meaning is, <i>this man performed the action, +and we only filled up the show</i>.</p> +<p>I.ii.14 (322,5) a charter to extol] A privilege to praise her +own son.</p> +<p>I.ix.29 (322,6) Should they not] That is, <i>not be +remembered</i>.</p> +<p>I.ix.72 (325,9) To the fairness of any power] [<i>Fairness</i>, +for <i>utmost</i>. WARE.] I know not how <i>fairness</i> can mean +<i>utmost</i>. When two engage on <i>equal</i> terms, we say it is +<i>fair</i>; <i>fairness</i> may therefore be <i>equality; in +proportion equal to my power</i>.</p> +<p>I.ix.76 (325,1) The best] The <i>chief</i> men of Corioli.</p> +<p>I.x.5 (326,3) Being a Volsce, be that I am] It may be just +observed, that Shakespeare calls the <i>Volsci, Volsces</i>, which +the modern editors have changed to the modern termination +[Volscian]. I mention it here, because here the change has spoiled +the measure. <i>Being a</i> Volsce, <i>be that I am. Condition</i>. +[Steevans restored <i>Volsce</i> in the text.]</p> +<p>I.x.17 (326,2) My valour's poison'd,/With only suffering stain +by him, for him/ Shall flie out of itself] To mischief him, my +valour should <i>deviate from</i> its own native generosity.</p> +<p>I.x.25 (327,4) At home, upon my brother's guard] In my own +house, with my brother posted to protect him.</p> +<p>II.i.8 (328,5) Pray you, who does the wolf love?] When the +tribune, in reply to Menenius's remark, on the people's hate of +Coriolanus, had observed that even <i>beasts know their +friends</i>, Menenius asks, <i>whom does the wolf love</i>? +implying that there are beasts which love nobody, and that among +those beasts are the people.</p> +<p>II.i.43 (329,6) towards the napes of your necks] With allusion +to the fable, which says, that every man has a bag hanging before +him, in which he puts his neighbour's faults, and another behind +him, in which he stows his own.</p> +<p>II.i.56 (330,7) one that converses more with the buttock of the +night, than with the forehead of the morning] Rather a late lier +down than an early riser.</p> +<p>II.i.84 (330,1) set up the bloody flag against all patience] +That is, declare war against patience. There is not wit enough in +this satire to recompense its grossness.</p> +<p>II.i.105 (331,2) herdsmen of beastly Plebeians] As kings are +called [Greek: poimenes laon].</p> +<p>II.i.115 (331,3) Take my cap, Jupiter, and I thank thee] [W: +cup] Shakespeare so often mentions throwing up caps in this play, +that Menenius may be well enough supposed to throw up his cap in +thanks to Jupiter.</p> +<p>II.i.146 (333,4) possest of this?] <i>Possest</i>, in our +authour's language, is fully informed.</p> +<p>II.i.178 (334,6) Which being advanc'd, declines] Volumnia, in +her boasting strain, says, that her son to kill his enemy, has +nothing to do but to lift his hand up and let it fall.</p> +<p>II.i.232 (337,3) Commit the war of white and damask, in/Their +nicely gawded cheeks] [W: wars] Has the commentator never heard of +roses <i>contending</i> with lilies for the empire of a lady's +cheek? The <i>opposition</i> of colours, though not the +<i>commixture</i>, may be called a war.</p> +<p>II.i.235 (338,1) As if that whatsoever God] That is, <i>as if +that God who leads him, whatsoever</i> God he be.</p> +<p>II.i.241 (338,2) From where he should begin, and end] Perhaps it +should be read,</p> +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<p><i>From where he should begin</i> t'an <i>end</i>.—</p> +</div> +</div> +<p>II.i.247 (338,3) As he is proud to do't] [I should rather think +the author wrote <i>prone</i>: because the common reading is scarce +sense or English. WARBURTON.] <i>Proud to do</i>, is the same as, +<i>proud of doing</i>, very plain sense, and very common +English.</p> +<p>II.i.285 (340,4) carry with us ears and eyes] That is, let us +observe what passes, but keep our hearts fixed on our design of +crushing Coriolanus.</p> +<p>II.ii.19 (340,5) he wav'd indifferently] That is, <i>he would +wave indifferently</i>.</p> +<p>II.ii.29 (341,6) supple and courteous to the people; bonnetted] +The sense, I think, requires that we should read, +<i>unbonnetted</i>. Who have risen only by <i>pulling off their +hats</i> to the people. <i>Bonnetted</i> may relate to +<i>people</i>, but not without harshness.</p> +<p>II.ii.57 (342,7) Your loving motion toward the common body] Your +kind interposition with the common people.</p> +<p>II.ii.64 (342,9) That's off, that's off] That is, that is +nothing to the purpose.</p> +<p>II.ii.82 (343,1) how can he flatter] The reasoning of Menenius +is this: How can he be expected to practice flattery to others, who +abhors it so much, that he cannot bear it even when offered to +himself.</p> +<p>II.ii.92 (343,2) When Tarquin made a head for Rome] When +Tarquin, who had been expelled, <i>raised a power</i> to recover +Rome.</p> +<p>II.ii.113 (344,6) every motion/Was tim'd with dying cries] The +cries of the slaughter'd regularly followed his motions, as musick +and a dancer accompany each ether.</p> +<p>II.ii.115 (345,7) The mortal gate] The gate that was made the +scene of death.</p> +<p>II.ii.127 (345,8) He cannot but with measure fit the honours] +That is, no honour will be too great far him; he will show a mind +equal to any elevation.</p> +<p>II.ii.131 (345,1)</p> +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<p class="i4">rewards</p> +<p>His deeds with doing them; and is content</p> +<p>To spend his time, to end it]</p> +</div> +</div> +<p>I know not whether my conceit will be approved, but I cannot +forbear to think that our author wrote thus.</p> +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<p>—he <i>rewards</i></p> +<p><i>His deeds with doing them, and is content</i></p> +<p><i>To spend his time, to spend it.</i></p> +</div> +</div> +<p>To do great acts, for the sake of doing them; to spend his life, +for the sake of spending it.</p> +<p>II.iii.4 (348,2) We have power in ourselves to do it, but it is +a power that we have no power to do] [Warburton saw this as "a +ridicule on the Augustine manner of defining <i>free-will</i>."] A +ridicule may be intended, but the sense is clear enough. +<i>Power</i> first signifies <i>natural power</i> or <i>force</i>, +and then <i>moral power</i> or <i>right</i>. Davies has used the +same word with great variety of meaning.</p> +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<p><i>Use all thy</i> powers <i>that heavenly</i> power <i>to +praise,</i></p> +<p><i>That gave thee</i> power <i>to do</i>.—</p> +</div> +</div> +<p>II.iii.18 (348,3) many-headed multitude] Hanmer reads, +<i>many-headed</i> monster, but without necessity. To be +<i>many-headed</i> includes <i>monstrousness</i>.</p> +<p>II.iii.115 (352,7) I will not seal your knowledge] I will not +strengthen or compleat your knowledge. The seal is that which gives +authenticity to a writing.</p> +<p>II.iii.122 (352,8)</p> +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<p>Why in this woolvish tongue should I stand here</p> +<p>To beg of Bob and Dick, that do appear,</p> +<p>Their needless vouches?]</p> +</div> +</div> +<p>Why stand I here in this ragged apparel to beg of Bob and Dick, +and such others as <i>make their appearance</i> here, their +<i>unnecessary votes</i>. I rather think we should read [instead of +<i>voucher</i>], <i>Their needless</i> vouches. But <i>voucher</i> +may serve, as it may perhaps signify either the act or the +agent.</p> +<p>II.iii.122 (352) this woolvish gown] Signifies this <i>rough +hirsute</i> gown.</p> +<p>II.iii.182 (355,1) ignorant to see't?] [W: "ignorant" means +"impotent"] That <i>ignorant</i> at any time has, otherwise than +consequentially, the same meaning with <i>impotent</i>, I do not +know. It has no such meaning in this place. <i>Were you</i> +ignorant <i>to see it</i>, is, did you want knowledge to discern +it.</p> +<p>II.iii.208 (356,2) free contempt] That is, with contempt open +and unrestrained.</p> +<p>II.iii.227 (357,4) Enforce his pride] Object his pride, and +enforce the objection.</p> +<p>II.iii.258 (358,7) Scaling his present bearing with his past] +That is, <i>weighing</i> his past and present behaviour.</p> +<p>II.iii.267 (359,8) observe and answer/The vantage of his anger] +Mark, catch, and improve the opportunity, which his hasty anger +will afford us.</p> +<p>III.i.23 (360,9) prank them in authority] <i>Plume, deck, +dignify</i> themselves.</p> +<p>III.i.58 (362,3) This paltring/Becomes not Rome] That is, this +trick of dissimulation, this shuffling.</p> +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<p><i>Let these be no more believ'd</i></p> +<p><i>That</i> palter <i>with us in a double sense</i>. +Macbeth.</p> +</div> +</div> +<p>III.i.60 (362,4) laid falsly] <i>Falsly</i> for +<i>treacherously</i>.</p> +<p>III.i.66 (362,5) Let them regard me, as I do not flatter, and/ +Therein behold themselves] Let them look in the mirror which I hold +up to them, a mirror which does not flatter, and see +themselves.</p> +<p>III.i.89 (363,6) minnows] a <i>minnow</i> is one of the smallest +river fish, called in some counties a <i>pink</i>.</p> +<p>III.i.90 (364,6) 'Twas from the canon] Was contrary to the +established role; it was a form of speech to which he has no +right.</p> +<p>III.i.98 (364,9) Then vail your ignorance] [W: "ignorance" means +"impotence."] Hanmer's transposition deserves notice</p> +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<p>—<i>If they have power,</i></p> +<p><i>Let them have cushions by you; if none, awake</i></p> +<p><i>Your dang'rous lenity; if you are learned,</i></p> +<p><i>Be not as commmon fools; if you are not,</i></p> +<p><i>Then vail your ignorance. You are Plebeians</i>, &c.</p> +</div> +</div> +<p>I neither think the transposition of one editor right, nor the +interpretation of the other. The sense is plain enough without +supposing <i>ignorance</i> to have any remote or consequential +sense. <i>If this man has power, let the</i> ignorance <i>that gave +it him</i> vail <i>or bow down before him.</i></p> +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<p>III.i.101 (365,1) You are Plebeians,</p> +<p>If they be Senators: and they are no less,</p> +<p>When, both your voices blended, the greatest taste</p> +<p>Most palates theirs]</p> +</div> +</div> +<p>These lines may, I think, be made more intelligible by a very +slight correction.</p> +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<p>—<i>they no less [than senators]</i></p> +<p><i>When, both your voices blended, the great'st taste</i></p> +<p>Must palate <i>theirs.</i></p> +</div> +</div> +<p>When the <i>taste</i> of the <i>great</i>, the patricians, must +<i>palate</i>, must <i>please</i> [or must <i>try</i>] that of the +plebeians.</p> +<p>III.i.124 (366,3) They would not thread the gates] That is, +<i>pass</i> them. We yet say, to <i>thread</i> an alley.</p> +<p>III.i.129 (366,4) could never be the native] [<i>Native</i> for +natural birth. WARBURTON.] <i>Native</i> is here not natural birth, +but <i>natural parent</i>, or <i>cause of birth</i>. But I would +read <i>motive</i>, which, without any distortion of its meaning, +suits the speaker's purpose.</p> +<p>III.i.151 (367,7) That love the fundamental part of state/More +than you doubt the change of't] To <i>doubt</i> is to <i>fear</i>. +The meaning is, You whose zeal predominates over your terrours; you +who do not so much fear the danger of violent measures, as wish the +good to which they are necessary, the preservation of the original +constitution of our government.</p> +<p>III.i.158 (368,2) Mangles true judgment] <i>Judgment</i> is +<i>judgment</i> in its common sense, or the faculty by which right +is distinguished from wrong.</p> +<p>III.i.159 (368,3) that integrity which should become it] +<i>Integrity</i> is in this place <i>soundness</i>, uniformity, +consistency, in the same sense as Dr. Warburton often uses it, when +he mentions the <i>integrity</i> of a metaphor. To <i>become</i>, +is to <i>suit</i>, to <i>befit</i>.</p> +<p>III.i.221 (370,5) are very poisonous] I read, <i>are very</i> +poisons.</p> +<p>III.i.242 (371,7) One time will owe another] I know not whether +to <i>owe</i> in this place means to <i>possess by right</i>, or to +<i>be indebted</i>. Either sense may be admitted. <i>One time</i>, +in which the people are seditious, will <i>give us power</i> in +some other time; or, <i>this time</i> of the people's predominance +will <i>run them in debt</i>; that is, will lay them open to the +law, and expose them hereafter to more servile subjection.</p> +<p>III.i.248 (372,8) Before the tag return] The lowest and most +despicable of the populace are still denominated by those a little +above them, <i>Tag, rag, and bobtail</i>. (1773)</p> +<p>III.ii.7 (376,4) I muse] That is, <i>I wonder. I am at a +loss</i>.</p> +<p>III.ii.12 (376,5) my ordinance] My <i>rank</i>.</p> +<p>III.ii.51 (378,8) Why force you] Why <i>urge</i> you.</p> +<p>III.ii.56 (378,9) bastards, and syllables/Of no allowance, to +your bosom's truth] I read,</p> +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<p><i>Of no</i> alliance,—</p> +</div> +</div> +<p>therefore <i>bastards</i>. Yet <i>allowance</i> may well enough +stand, as meaning <i>legal right, established rank</i>, or +<i>settled authority</i>. (see 1765, VI, 566, 7)</p> +<p>III.ii.64 (379,1) I am in this/Your wife, your son] I rather +think the meaning is, <i>I am in their</i> condition, I am <i>at +stake</i>, together with <i>your wife, your son</i>.</p> +<p>III.ii.66 (379,2) our general lowts] Our <i>common +clowns</i>.</p> +<p>III.ii.69 (379,3) that want] The <i>want</i> of their loves.</p> +<p>III.ii.71 (379,4) Not what] In this place <i>not</i> seems to +signify <i>not only</i>.</p> +<p>III.ii.77 (379,5) Waving thy head,/With often, thus, correcting +thy stout heart] [W: thy hand,/Which soften thus] The correction is +ingenious, yet I think it not right. <i>Head</i> or <i>hand</i> is +indifferent. The <i>hand</i> is <i>waved</i> to gain attention; the +<i>head</i> is shaken in token of sorrow. The word <i>wave</i> +suits better to the hand, but in considering the authour's +language, too much stress must not be laid on propriety against the +copies. I would read thus,</p> +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<p>—<i>waving thy head</i>,</p> +<p>With <i>often, thus, correcting thy stout heart</i>.</p> +</div> +</div> +<p>That is, <i>shaking thy head</i>, and <i>striking</i> thy +breast. The alteration is slight, and the gesture recommended not +improper.</p> +<p>III.ii.99 (381,6) my unbarb'd sconce?] The suppliants of the +people used to present themselves to them in sordid and neglected +dresses.</p> +<p>III.ii.113 (381,8) Which quired with my drum] Which played in +concert with my drum.</p> +<p>III.ii.116 (382,1) Tent in my cheeks] To <i>tent</i> is <i>to +take up residence</i>.</p> +<p>III.ii.121 (382,2) honour mine own truth] [Greek: Panton de +malis aischuneui sauton]. Pythagoras.</p> +<p>III.ii.125 (382,3) let/Thy mother rather feel thy pride, than +fear/ Thy dangerous stoutness] This is obscure. Perhaps, she means, +Go, <i>do thy worst; let me rather feel the</i> utmost <i>extremity +that thy pride can bring upon us, than live thus in fear of thy +dangerous obstinacy</i>.</p> +<p>III.iii.17 (384,3)</p> +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<p>Insisting on the old prerogative</p> +<p>And power in' the truth o' the cause]</p> +</div> +</div> +<p>This is not very easily understood. We might read,</p> +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<p>—o'er <i>the truth o' the cause</i>.</p> +</div> +</div> +<p>III.iii.26 (384,4) and to have his word/Of contradiction] <i>To +have his word of contradiction</i> is no more than, <i>he is used +to contradict</i>; and <i>to have his word</i>, that is, <i>not to +be opposed</i>. We still say of an obstinate disputant, <i>he will +have the last word</i>.</p> +<p>III.iii.29 (384,5) which looks/With us to break his neck] To +<i>look</i> is to <i>wait</i> or <i>expect</i>. The sense I believe +is, <i>What he has in his heart</i> is waiting there <i>to help us +to break his neck</i>.</p> +<p>III.iii.57 (386,8) Rather than envy you] <i>Envy</i> is here +taken at large for <i>malignity</i> or ill intention.</p> +<p>III.iii.64 (386,9) season'd office] All <i>office +established</i> and <i>settled</i> by time, and made familiar to +the people by long use.</p> +<p>III.iii.96 (387,1) has now at last] Read rather,</p> +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<p>—has <i>now at last</i> [instead of <i>as now at +last</i>].</p> +</div> +</div> +<p>III.iii.97 (387,2) not in the presence] <i>Not</i> stands again +for <i>not only</i>.</p> +<p>III.iii.114 (388,3) My dear wife's estimate] I love my country +beyond the rate at which I <i>value my dear wife</i>.</p> +<p>III.iii.127 (389,4)</p> +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<p class="i6">Have the power still</p> +<p>To banish your defenders'; till, at length,</p> +<p>Your ignorance, (which finds not, till it feels)]</p> +</div> +</div> +<p><i>Still retain the power of banishing your defenders, till your +undiscerning folly, which can foresee no consequences, leave none +in the city but yourselves, who are always labouring your own +destruction.</i></p> +<p>It is remarkable, that, among the political maxims of the +speculative Harrington, there is one which he might have borrowed +from this speech. <i>The people</i>, says he, <i>cannot see, but +they can feel</i>. It is not much to the honour of the people, that +they have the same character of stupidity from their enemy and +their friend. Such was the power of our authour's mind, that he +looked through life in all its relations private and civil.</p> +<p>IV.i.7 (390,1) Fortune's blows,/When most struck home, being +gentle wounded, craves/A noble cunning] This it the ancient and +authentick reading. The modern editors have, for <i>gentle +wounded</i>, silently substituted <i>gently warded</i>, and Dr. +Warburton has explained <i>gently</i> by <i>nobly</i>. It is good +to be sure of our authour's words before we go about to explain +their meaning.</p> +<p>The sense is, When Fortune strikes her hardest blows, to be +wounded, and yet continue calm, requires a generous policy. He +calls this calmness <i>cunning</i>, because it is the effect of +reflection and philosophy. Perhaps the first emotions of nature are +nearly uniform, and one man differs from another in the power of +endurance, as he is better regulated by precept and +instruction.</p> +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<p><i>They bore as heroes, but they felt as men</i>.</p> +</div> +</div> +<p>(see 1765, VI, 577, 9)</p> +<p>IV.i.33 (391,3) cautelous baits and practice] By artful and +false tricks, and treason.</p> +<p>IV.ii.15 (393,6)</p> +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<p><i>Sic.</i> Are you mankind?</p> +<p><i>Vol.</i> Ay, fool; Is that a shame? Note but this fool.</p> +<p>Was not a man my father?]</p> +</div> +</div> +<p>The word <i>mankind</i> is used maliciously by the first +speaker, and taken perversely by the second. A <i>mankind</i> woman +is a woman with the roughness of a man, and, in an aggravated +sense, a woman ferocious, violent, and eager to shed blood. In this +sense Sicinius asks Volumnia, if she be <i>mankind</i>. She takes +<i>mankind</i> for a <i>human creature</i>, and accordingly cries +out,</p> +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<p>—<i>Note but this, fool.</i></p> +<p><i>Was not a man my father?</i></p> +</div> +</div> +<p>IV.ii.18 (394,7) Hadst thou foxship] Hadst thou, fool as thou +art, mean cunning enough to banish Coriolanus?</p> +<p>IV.iii.9 (395,7) but your favour is well appear'd by your +tongue] [W: well appeal'd] I should read,</p> +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<p>—<i>is well</i> affear'd,</p> +</div> +</div> +<p>That is, <i>strengthened, attested,</i> a word used by our +authour.</p> +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<p><i>My title is</i> affear'd. Macbeth.</p> +</div> +</div> +<p>To <i>repeal</i> may be <i>to bring to remembrance</i>, but +<i>appeal</i> has another meaning.</p> +<p>IV.iii.48 (397,8) already in the entertainment] That is, tho' +not actually encamped, yet already in <i>pay</i>. To +<i>entertain</i> an army is to take them into pay.</p> +<p>IV.iv.22 (398,1)</p> +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<p class="i6">So, with me:—</p> +<p>My birth-place hate I, and my love's upon</p> +<p>This enemy's town:—I'll enter: if he slay me]</p> +</div> +</div> +<p>He who reads this [My country have I and my lovers left;/This +enemy's town I'll enter] would think that he was reading the lines +of Shakespeare: except that Coriolanus, being already in the town, +says, he <i>will enter it</i>. Yet the old edition exhibits it +thus</p> +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<p>—<i>So with me.</i></p> +<p><i>My birth-place have I; and my loves upon</i></p> +<p><i>This enemic towne; I'll enter if he slay me</i>, &c.</p> +</div> +</div> +<p>The intermediate line seems to be lost, in which, conformably to +his former observation, he says, that <i>he has</i> lost <i>his +birth-place, and his loves upon</i> a petty dispute, and is trying +his chance in <i>this enemy town</i>, he then cries, turning to the +house of Anfidius, <i>I'll enter if he slay me</i>.</p> +<p>I have preferred the common reading, because it is, though +faulty, yet intelligible, and the original passage, for want of +copies, cannot be restored.</p> +<p>IV.v.76 (403,3) a good memory] The Oxford editor, not knowing +that <i>memory</i> was used at that time for <i>memorial</i>, +alters it to <i>memorial</i>.</p> +<p>IV.v.90 (403,4) A heart of wreak in thee] A heart of +resentment.</p> +<p>IV.v.91 (403,5) maims/Of shame] That is, disgraceful diminutions +of territory.</p> +<p>IV.v.207 (406,5) sanctifies himself with's hands] Alluding, +improperly, to the act of <i>crossing</i> upon any strange +event.</p> +<p>IV.v.212 (407,6) He will go, he says, and sowle the porter of +Rome gates by the ears] That is, I suppose, drag him down by the +ears into the dirt. <i>Souiller</i>, Fr.</p> +<p>IV.v.214 (407,7) his passage poll'd] That is, <i>bared, +cleared</i>.</p> +<p>IV.v.238 (408,8) full of vent] Full of <i>rumour</i>, full of +materials for <i>discourse</i>.</p> +<p>IV.vi.2 (408,1) His remedies are tame i' the present peace] The +old reading is,</p> +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<p><i>His remedies are tame, the present peace</i>.</p> +</div> +</div> +<p>I do not understand either line, but fancy it should be read +thus,</p> +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<p>—<i>neither need we fear him;</i></p> +<p><i>His remedies are ta'en, the present peace,</i></p> +<p><i>And quietness o' the people</i>,—</p> +</div> +</div> +<p>The meaning, somewhat harshly expressed, according to our +authour's custom, is this: <i>We need not fear him</i>, the proper +<i>remedies</i> against him <i>are taken</i>, by restoring <i>peace +and quietness</i>.</p> +<p>IV.vi.32 (410,2) affecting one sole throne,/Without assistance] +That is, without <i>assessors</i>; without any other suffrage.</p> +<p>IV.vi.51 (411,3) reason with the fellow] That is, have some +<i>talk</i> with him. In this sense Shakespeare often uses the +word.</p> +<p>IV.vi.72 (412,4) can no more atone] To <i>atone</i>, in the +active sense, is to <i>reconcile</i>, and is so used by our +authour. To <i>atone</i> here, is, in the neutral sense, to <i>come +to reconciliation</i>. To <i>atone</i> is to <i>unite</i>.</p> +<p>IV.vi.85 (412,5) burned in their cement] [W: "cement" for +"cincture or inclosure"] <i>Cement</i> has here its common +signification.</p> +<p>IV.vi.98 (413,5) The breath of garlick-eaters!] To smell of +garlick was once such a brand of vulgarity, that garlick was a food +forbidden to an ancient order of Spanish knights, mentioned by +Guevara.</p> +<p>IV.vi.112 (414,7)</p> +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<p class="i6">they charge him even</p> +<p>As those should do that had deserv'd his hate,</p> +<p>And therein shew'd like enemies]</p> +</div> +</div> +<p>Their <i>charge</i> or injunction would shew them insensible of +his wrongs, and make them <i>shew like enemies</i>. I read +<i>shew</i>, not <i>shewed, like enemies</i>.</p> +<p>IV.vi.124 (414,8) They'll roar him in again] As they +<i>hooted</i> at his departure, they will <i>roar</i> at his +return; as he went out with scoffs, he will come back with +lamentations.</p> +<p>IV.vii.37 (417,1)</p> +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<p class="i6">whether pride,</p> +<p>Which out of daily fortune ever taints</p> +<p>The happy man; whether]</p> +</div> +</div> +<p>Ausidius assigns three probable reasons of the miscarriage of +Coriolanus; pride, which easily follows an uninterrupted train of +success; unskilfulness to regulate the consequences of his own +victories; a stubborn uniformity of nature, which could not make +the proper transition from the <i>casque</i> or <i>helmet</i> to +the <i>cushion</i> or <i>chair of civil authority</i>; but acted +with the same despotism in peace as in war.</p> +<p>IV.vii.48 (418,2) he has a merit,/To choak it in the utterance] +He has a merit, for no other purpose than to destroy it by boasting +it.</p> +<p>IV.vii.55 (418,4) Right's by right fouler] [W: fouled] I believe +<i>rights</i>, like <i>strengths</i>, is a plural noon. I read,</p> +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<p><i>Rights by rights</i> founder, <i>strengths by strengths do +fail</i>.</p> +</div> +</div> +<p>That is, by the exertion of one right another right is +lamed.</p> +<p>V.i.20 (420,2) It was a bare petition] [<i>Bare</i>, for mean, +beggarly. WARBURTON.] I believe rather, a petition unsupported, +unaided by names that might give it influence.</p> +<p>V.i.63 (422,4) I tell you, he does sit in gold] He is inthroned +in all the pomp and pride of imperial splendour.</p> +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<p>[Greek: Chruzothronos Aerae]—Hom.</p> +</div> +</div> +<p>V.i.69 (422,5) Bound with an oath to yield to his conditions] +This if apparently wrong. Sir T. Hanmer, and Dr. Warburton after +him, read,</p> +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<p><i>Bound with an oath</i> not to <i>yield to</i> new +<i>conditions</i>.</p> +</div> +</div> +<p>They might have read more smoothly,</p> +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<p>—<i>to yield no new conditions</i>.</p> +</div> +</div> +<p>But the whole speech is in confusion, and I suspect something +left out. I should read,</p> +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<p>—<i>What he would do,</i></p> +<p><i>He sent in writing after; what he would not,</i></p> +<p><i>Bound with an oath. To yield to his conditions</i>.</p> +</div> +</div> +<p>Here is, I think, a chasm. The speaker's purpose seems to be +this: <i>To yield to his conditions</i> is ruin, and better cannot +be obtained, <i>so that all hope is vain</i>.</p> +<p>V.ii.10 (424,7) it is lots to blanks] A <i>lot</i> here is a +<i>prize</i>.</p> +<p>V.ii.17 (424,8)</p> +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<p>For I have ever verify'd my friends,</p> +<p>(Of whom he's chief) with all the size that verity</p> +<p>Would without lapsing suffer]</p> +</div> +</div> +<p>[W: narrified] [Hanmer: magnified] If the commentator had given +any example of the word <i>narrify</i>, the correction would have +been not only received, but applauded. Now, since the new word +stands without authority, we must try what sense the old one will +afford. To <i>verify</i> is <i>to establish by testimony</i>. One +may say with propriety, he brought false witnesses to verify his +title. Shakespeare considered the word with his usual laxity, as +importing rather <i>testimony</i> than <i>truth</i>, and only meant +to say, <i>I</i> bore witness <i>to my friends with all the size +that verity would suffer</i>.</p> +<p>V.ii.45 (426,1) the virginal palms of your daughters] [W: +<i>pasmes</i> or <i>pames</i>, French for "swooning fits." +Warburton also quotes <i>Tarquin and Lucrece</i>, "To dry the old +oak's sap, and cherish springs" and emends to "tarnish," from the +French, meaning "to dry up," used of springs and rivers.] I have +inserted this note, because it contains an apology for many others. +It is not denied that many French words were mingled in the time of +Elizabeth with our language, which have since been ejected, and +that any which are known to have been then in use may be properly +recalled when they will help the sense. But when a word is to be +admitted, the first question should be, by whom was it ever +received? in what book can it be shown? If it cannot be proved to +have been in use, the reasons which can justify its reception must +be stronger than any critick will often have to bring. Even in this +certain emendation, the new word is very liable to contest. I +should read,</p> +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<p>—<i>and</i> perish <i>springs</i>.</p> +</div> +</div> +<p>The verb <i>perish</i> is commonly neutral, but in conversation +is often used actively, and why not in the works of a writer +negligent beyond all others of grammatical niceties?</p> +<p>V.ii.60 (427,2) Back, I say, go; lest I let forth your half pint +of blood;—back, that's the utmost of your having:—Back] +[Warburton emended the punctuation] I believe the meaning never was +mistaken, and therefore do not change the reading.</p> +<p>V.ii.69 (428,3) guess by my entertainment with him] I read, +<i>Guess</i> by <i>my entertainment with him, if thou standest not +i' the state of hanging</i> [in place of <i>guess</i> but <i>my +entertainment</i>].</p> +<p>V.ii.80 (428,4) Though I owe/My revenge properly] Though I have +a <i>peculiar right</i> in revenge, in the power of forgiveness the +Volacians are conjoined.</p> +<p>V.ii.104 (429,5) how we are shent] <i>Shent</i> is <i>brought to +destruction</i>.</p> +<p>V.iii.3 (430,6) how plainly/I have born this business] That is, +<i>how openly, how</i> remotely from artifice or concealment.</p> +<p>V.iii.39 (431,7) The sorrow, that delivers us thus +chang'd,/Makes you think so] Virgilia makes a voluntary +misinterpretation of her husband's words. He says, <i>These eyes +are not the same</i>, meaning, that he saw things with <i>other +eyes</i>, or other <i>dispositions</i>. She lays hold on the word +<i>eyes</i>, to turn his attention on their present appearance.</p> +<p>V.iii.46 (431,8) Now by the jealous queen of heaven] That is, +<i>by Juno</i>, the guardian of marriage, and consequently the +avenger of connubial perfidy.</p> +<p>V.iii.64 (432,1) The noble sister of Poplicola] Valeria, +methinks, should not have been brought only to fill up the +procession without speaking.</p> +<p>V.iii.68 (432,2) epitome of yours] I read,</p> +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<p>—<i>epitome of you</i>.</p> +</div> +</div> +<p><i>An epitome of you</i> which, <i>enlarged by the commentaries +of time</i>, may equal you in magnitude.</p> +<p>V.iii.74 (433,4) every flaw] That is, every <i>gust</i>, every +<i>storm</i>.</p> +<p>V.iii.100 (435,2) Constrains them weep, and shake] That is, +<i>constrain</i> the eye to <i>weep</i>, <i>and</i> the heart to +<i>shake</i>.</p> +<p>V.iii.149 (436,3) the fine strains] The niceties, the +refinements.</p> +<p>V.iii.159 (436,5) he lets me prate,/Like one i' the stocks] Keep +me in a state of ignominy talking to no purpose.</p> +<p>V.iii.176 (437,6) Does reason our petition] Does <i>argue +for</i> us and our petition.</p> +<p>V.iii.201 (438,7) I'll work/Myself a former fortune] I will take +advantage of this concession to restore myself to my former credit +and power.</p> +<p>V.iii.206 (438,8) Come, enter with us,—Ladies, you +deserve] [Warburton proposed to give the speech beginning "Ladies, +you deserve" to Aufidius] The speech suits Aufidius justly enough, +if it had been written for him; but it may, without impropriety, be +spoken by Coriolanus: and since the copies give it to him, why +should we dispossess him?</p> +<p>V.iv.22 (439,1) He sits in state as a thing made for Alexander] +In a foregoing note he was said to <i>sit in gold</i>. The phrase, +<i>as a thing made for Alexander</i>, means, <i>as one made to +resemble Alexander</i>.</p> +<p>V.vi.39 (443,2) He wag'd me with his countenance] This is +obscure. The meaning, I think, is, he <i>prescribed</i> to me vith +an air of authority, and gave me <i>his countenance</i> for <i>my +wages</i>; thought me sufficiently rewarded with good looks.</p> +<p>V.vi.44 (443,3) For which my sinews shall be stretch'd upon him] +This is the point on which I will attack him with my utmost +abilities.</p> +<p>V.vi.66 (444,4) answering us/With our own charge] That is, +<i>rewarding us with our own expences</i>; making the cost of the +war its recompence.</p> +<p>V.vi.125 (446,5) his fame folds in/This orbe o' th' earth] His +fame overspreads the world.</p> +<p>(447) General Observation. The tragedy of Coriolanus is one of +the most amusing of our author's performances. The old man's +merriment in Menenius; the lofty lady's dignity in Volumnia; the +bridal modesty in Virgilia; the patrician and military haughtiness +in Coriolanus; the plebeian malignity and tribunitian insolence in +Brutus and Sicinius, make a very pleasing and interesting variety: +and the various revolutions of the hero's fortune fill the mind +with anxious curiosity. There is, perhaps, too much bustle in the +first act, and too little in the last.</p> +<h3>Vol. VIII</h3> +<h2>JULIUS CAESAR</h2> +<p>I.i.20 (4,2) <i>Mar.</i> What meanest thou by that?] [Theobald +gave this speech to Flavius] I have replaced <i>Marullus</i>, who +might properly enough reply to a saucy sentence directed to his +colleague, and to whom the speech was probably given, that he might +not stand too long unemployed upon the stage.</p> +<p>I.ii.25 (7,5) [<i>Sennet. Exeunt Caesar and Train</i>] I have +here inserted the word <i>Sennet</i>, from the original edition, +that I may have an opportunity of retracting a hasty conjecture in +one of the marginal directions in <i>Henry</i> VIII. <i>Sennet</i> +appears to be a particular tune or mode of martial musick.</p> +<p>I.ii.35 (8,6) You bear too stubborn and too strange a hand] +<i>Strange</i>, is alien, unfamiliar, such as might become a +stranger.</p> +<p>I.ii.39 (8,7) Vexed I am,/Of late, with passions of some +difference] With a fluctation of discordant opinions and +desires.</p> +<p>I.ii.73 (9,9) To stale with ordinary oaths my love/To every new +protester] To invite <i>every new protestor</i> to my affection by +the <i>stale</i> or allurement of <i>customary</i> oaths.</p> +<p>I.ii.87 (10,1) And I will look on both indifferently] Dr. +Warburton has a long note on this occasion, which is very trifling. +When <i>Brutus</i> first names <i>honour</i> and <i>death</i>, he +calmly declares them indifferent; but as the image kindles in his +mind, he sets <i>honour</i> above <i>life</i>. Is not this +natural?</p> +<p>I.ii.160 (12,6) eternal devil] I should think that our author +wrote rather, <i>infernal devil</i>.</p> +<p>I.ii.171 (13,7) chew upon this] Consider this at leisure; +<i>ruminate</i> on this.</p> +<p>I.ii.186 (13,8) Looks with such ferret, and such fiery eyes] A +ferret has red eyes.</p> +<p>I.ii.268 (16,2) a man of any occupation] Had I been a mechanick, +one of the Plebeians to whom he offered his threat.</p> +<p>I.ii.313 (17,3) Thy honourable metal may be wrought/From what it +is dispos'd] The best <i>metal</i> or <i>temper</i> may be worked +into qualities contrary to its original constitution.</p> +<p>I.ii.318 (17,4) If I were Brutus now, and he were Cassius,/He +should not humour me] The meaning, I think, is this, <i>Caesar +loves Brutus, but if Brutus and I were to change places, his love +should not humour me</i>, should not take hold of my affection, so +as to make me forget my principles.</p> +<p>I.iii.1 (18,5) brought you Caesar home?] Did you attend Caesar +home?</p> +<p>I.iii.3 (18,6) sway of earth] The whole weight or +<i>momentum</i> of this globe.</p> +<p>I.iii.21 (19,7) Who glar'd upon me] The first edition reads,</p> +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<p><i>Who</i> glaz'd <i>upon me</i>,—</p> +</div> +</div> +<p>Perhaps, <i>Who</i> gaz'd <i>upon me</i>.</p> +<p>I.iii.64 (20,8) Why birds, and beasts, from quality and kind] +That is, Why they <i>deviate</i> from quality and nature. This line +might perhaps be more properly placed after the next line.</p> +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<p><i>Why birds, and beasts, from quality and kind;</i></p> +<p><i>Why all these things change from their ordinance.</i></p> +</div> +</div> +<p>I.iii.65 (20,9) and children calculate] [Shakespeare, with his +usual liberty, employs the <i>species</i> [calculate] for the +<i>genus</i> foretel]. WARB.] Shakespeare found the liberty +established. <i>To calculate a nativity</i>, is the technical +term.</p> +<p>I.iii.l14 (22,2) My answer must be made] I shall be called to +account, and must <i>answer</i> as for seditious words.</p> +<p>I.iii.117 (22,3) Hold my hand] Is the same as, <i>Here's my +hand</i>.</p> +<p>I.iii.118 (22,4) Be factious for redress] <i>Factious</i> seems +here to mean <i>active</i>.</p> +<p>I.iii.129 (23,5) It favours, like the work] The old edition +reads,</p> +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<p>It favours, <i>like the work</i>—</p> +</div> +</div> +<p>I think we should read,</p> +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<p>In favour's, <i>like the work we have in hand,</i></p> +<p><i>Most bloody, fiery, and most terrible.</i></p> +</div> +</div> +<p><i>Favour</i> is <i>look, countenance, appearance</i>. (rev. +1778, VIII, 25, 7)</p> +<p>II.i.19 (25,6) Remorse from power] [<i>Remorse</i>, for mercy. +WARB.] <i>Remorse</i> (says the Author of the <i>Ravisal</i>) +signifies the conscious uneasiness arising from a sense of having +done wrong; to extinguish which feeling, nothing hath so great a +tendency as absolute uncontrouled power.</p> +<p>I think Warbuton right. (1773)</p> +<p>II.i.21 (25,7) common proof] Common experiment.</p> +<p>II.i.26 (25,8) base degrees] Low steps.</p> +<p>II.i.33 (26,9) as his kind] According to his nature.</p> +<p>II.i.63 (27,3)</p> +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<p>Between the acting of a dreadful thing,</p> +<p>And the first motion, all the interim is</p> +<p>Like a phantasma, or a hideous dream:</p> +<p>The genius, and the mortal instruments</p> +<p>Are then in council; and the state of man,</p> +<p>Like to a little kingdom, suffers then</p> +<p>The nature of an insurrection]</p> +</div> +</div> +<p>The [Greek: deinon] of the Greek critics does not, I think, mean +sentiments which <i>raise fear</i>, more than <i>wonder</i>, or any +other of the tumultuous passions; [Greek: to deinon] is that which +<i>strikes</i>, which <i>astonishes</i>, with the idea either of +some great subject, or of the author's abilities.</p> +<p>Dr. Warburton'a pompous criticism might well have been +shortened. The <i>genius</i> is not the <i>genius</i> of a +<i>kingdom</i>, nor are the <i>instruments, conspirators</i>. +Shakespeare is describing what passes in a single bosom, the +<i>insurrection</i> which a conspirator feels agitating the +<i>little kingdom</i> of his own mind; when the <i>Genius</i>, or +power that watches for his protection, and the <i>mortal +instruments</i>, the passions, which excite him to a deed of honour +and danger, are in council and debate; when the desire of action +and the care of safety, keep the mind in continual fluctuation and +disturbance.</p> +<p>II.i.76 (29,5) any mark of favour] Any distinction of +countenance.</p> +<p>II.i.83 (30,6) For if thou path thy native semblance on] If thou +<i>walk</i> in thy true form.</p> +<p>II.i.114 (31,7) No, not an oath. If not the face of men] Dr. +Warburten would read <i>fate of men</i>; but his elaborate +emendation is, I think, erroneous. <i>The</i> face <i>of men</i> is +the <i>countenance</i>, the <i>regard</i>, the <i>esteem</i> of the +publick; in other terms, <i>honour</i> and <i>reputation</i>; or +<i>the face of men</i> may mean the dejected look of the +people.</p> +<p>He reads, with the other modern editions,</p> +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<p>—<i>If</i> that <i>the face of men</i>,</p> +</div> +</div> +<p>but the old reading is,</p> +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<p>—<i>if</i> not <i>the face</i>, &c.</p> +</div> +</div> +<p>II.i.129 (32,1) Swear priests, and cowards, and men cautelous] +This is imitated by Utway,</p> +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<p><i>When you would bind me, is there need of oaths?</i> +&c.</p> +<p>Venice preserved.</p> +</div> +</div> +<p>II.i.187 (34,2) take thought] That is, <i>turn</i> +melancholy.</p> +<p>II.i.196 (34,3) Quite from the main opinion he held once] +<i>Main opinion</i>, is nothing more than <i>leading, fixed, +predominant opinion</i>.</p> +<p>II.i.225 (36,6) Let not our looks put on our purposes] Let not +our faces <i>put on</i>, that is, <i>wear</i> or <i>show</i> our +designs.</p> +<p>II.ii.36 (42,3) death, a necessary end,/Will come, when it will +come] This is a sentence derived from the Stoical doctrine of +predestination, and is therefore improper in the mouth of +Caesar.</p> +<p>II.ii.41 (42,4) The Gods do this in shame of cowardice:/Caesar +should be a beast without a heart] The ancients did not place +courage but wisdom in the heart.</p> +<p>II.ii.88 (44,7) and that great men shall press/For tinctures, +stains, relicks, and cognisance] [Warburton conjectured some lines +lost] I am not of opinion that any thing is lost, and have +therefore marked no omission. This speech, which is intentionally +pompous, is somewhat confused. There are two allusions; one to +coats armorial, to which princes make additions, or give new +<i>tinctures</i>, and new marks of <i>cognisance</i>; the other to +martyrs, whose reliques are preserved with veneration. The Romans, +says Brutus, all come to you as to a saint, for reliques, as to a +prince, for honours.</p> +<p>II.ii.104 (45,8) And reason to my love is liable] And reason, or +propriety of conduct and language, is subordinate to my love.</p> +<p>II.iii.16 (47,9) the fates with traitors do contrive] The fates +join with traitors in contriving thy destruction.</p> +<p>III.i.38 (51,2) And turn pre-ordinance and first decree/Into the +lane of children] I do not veil understand what is meant by the +<i>lane</i> of children. I should read, the <i>law</i> of children. +It was, <i>change pre-ordinance and decree into the law of +children</i>; into such slight determinations as every start of +will would alter. <i>Lane</i> and <i>laws</i> in some manuscripts +are not easily distinguished.</p> +<p>III.i.67 (52,4) apprehensive] Susceptible of fear, or other +passions.</p> +<p>III.i.68 (52,5) but one] One, and only one.</p> +<p>III.i.69 (52,6) holds on his rank] Perhaps, <i>holds on his</i> +race; continues his course. We commonly say, To <i>hold a rank</i>, +and To <i>hold on</i> a <i>course</i> or <i>way</i>.</p> +<p>III.i.75 (52,7) Doth not Brutus bootless kneel?] I would read, +Do <i>not Brutus bootless kneel</i>!</p> +<p>III.i.152 (55,9) Who else must be let blood, who else is rank] +Who else may be supposed to have <i>overtopped</i> his equals, and +<i>grown too high</i> for the public safety.</p> +<p>III.i.257 (59,3) in the tide of times] That is, in the course of +times.</p> +<p>III.i.262 (60,4) A curse shall light upon the limbs of men] +Hanmer reads,</p> +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<p>—kind <i>of men</i>.</p> +</div> +</div> +<p>I rather think it should be,</p> +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<p>—<i>the</i> lives <i>of men</i>.</p> +</div> +</div> +<p>unless we read,</p> +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<p>—these lymms <i>of men</i>;</p> +</div> +</div> +<p>That is, <i>these bloodhounds</i> of men. The uncommonness of +the word <i>lymm</i> easily made the change.</p> +<p>III.i.273 (60,5) Cry <i>Havock</i>] A learned correspondent has +informed me, that, in the military operations of old times, +<i>havock</i> was the word by which declaration was made, that no +quarter should be given.</p> +<p>In a tract intitled, <i>The Office of the Conestable & +Mareschall in the Tyme of Werre</i>, contained in the Black Book of +the Admiralty, there is the following chapter:</p> +<p>"The peyne of hym that crieth <i>havock</i> and of them that +followeth hym. etit. v."</p> +<p>"Item Si quis inventus fuerit qui clamorem inceperit qui vecatur +<i>Havok</i>."</p> +<p>"Also that no man be so hardy to crye <i>Havok</i> upon peyne +that he that is begynner shal be deede therefore: & the +remanent that doo the same or folow shall lose their horse & +harneis: and the persones of such as foloweth & escrien shal be +under arrest of the Conestable & Mareschall warde unto tyme +that they have made fyn; & founde suretie no morr to offende; +& his body in prison at the Kyng wylle.—"</p> +<p>III.ii.116 (66,8) Caesar has had great wrong] [Pope has a rather +ridiculous note on this] I have inserted this note, because it is +Pope's, for it is otherwise of no value. It is strange that he +should so much forget the date of the copy before him, as to think +it not printed in Jonson's time. (see 1765, VII, 81, 1)</p> +<p>III.ii.126 (68,9) And none so poor] The meanest man is now too +high to do reverence to Caesar.</p> +<p>III.ii.192 (68,2)</p> +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<p>And, in his mantle muffling up his face,</p> +<p>Even at the base of Pompey's statue,</p> +<p>Which all the while ran blood, great Caesar fell.</p> +<p>O, what a fall was there, my countrymen!]</p> +</div> +</div> +<p>[Warburton suggested transposing the second and third of these +lines] The image seems to be, that the blood of Caesar flew upon +the statue, and trickled down it. And the exclamation,</p> +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<p><i>O what a fall was there—</i></p> +</div> +</div> +<p>follows better after</p> +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<p><i>-great Caesar fell,</i></p> +</div> +</div> +<p>than with a line interposed, (see 1765, VII, 64, 3)</p> +<p>III.ii.226 (70,4) For I have neither writ] The old copy reads +instead of <i>wit</i>,</p> +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<p><i>For I have neither</i> writ, <i>nor words,—</i></p> +</div> +</div> +<p>which may mean, I have no <i>penned</i> and premeditated +oration.</p> +<p>IV.ii.4 (77,1</p> +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<p>Your master, Pindarus,</p> +<p>In his own change, or by ill officers,</p> +<p>Hath given me some worthy cause to wish</p> +<p>Things done, undone]</p> +</div> +</div> +<p>[W: own charge] The arguments for the change proposed are +insufficient. Brutus could not but know whether the wrongs +committed were done by those who were immediately under the command +of Cassius, or those under his officers. The answer of Brutus to +the servant is only an act of artful civility; his question to +Lucilius proves, that his suspicion still continued. Yet I cannot +but suspect a corruption, and would read,</p> +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<p><i>In his own change, or by ill</i> offices.</p> +</div> +</div> +<p>That is, either <i>changing</i> his inclination <i>of +himself</i>, or <i>by</i> the <i>ill offices</i> and bad influences +of others. (see 1765, VII, 71, 8)</p> +<p>IV.iii.30 (80,4) To hedge me in] That is, to limit my authority +by your direction or censure.</p> +<p>IV.iii.32 (80,5) To make conditions] That is, to know on what +terms it is fit to confer the offices which are at my disposal.</p> +<p>IV.iii.86 (82,7)</p> +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<p>A friend should bear a friend's infirmities,</p> +<p>But Brutus makes mine greater than they are.</p> +<p><i>Bru.</i> I do not, till you practise them on me]</p> +</div> +</div> +<p>The meaning is this; I do not look for your faults, I only see +them, and mention them with vehemence, when you force them into my +notice, <i>by practising them on me.</i> (see 1765, VII, 77, 6)</p> +<p>IV.iii.100 (53,8)</p> +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<p>There is my dagger,</p> +<p>And here my naked breast; within, a heart</p> +<p>Dearer than Plutus' mine, richer than gold:</p> +<p>If that thou be'st a Roman, take it forth]</p> +</div> +</div> +<p>[W: thou needst a Roman's,] I am not satisfied with the change +proposed, yet cannot deny, that the words, as they now stand, +require some interpretation. I think he means only, that he is so +far from Avarice, when the cause of his country requires +liberality, that if any man should wish for his heart, he would not +need enforce his desire any otherwise, than by showing that he was +a Roman.</p> +<p>V.i.5 (92,5) They mean to warn as at Philippi here] To warn, +seems to mean here the same as to alarm. Hanmer reads,</p> +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<p><i>They mean to</i> wage <i>us</i>.</p> +</div> +</div> +<p>V.i.43 (93,6) While damned Casca, like a cur behind,/Struck +Caesar on the neck] Casca struck Caesar on the neck, coming +<i>like</i> a degenerate <i>cur behind him.</i></p> +<p>V.i.100 (96,2)</p> +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<p>Even by the rule of that philosophy,</p> +<p>By which I did blame Cato for the death</p> +<p>Which he did give himself; (I know not how,</p> +<p>But I do find it cowardly and vile,</p> +<p>For fear of what might fall, so to prevent</p> +<p>The time of life:) arming myself with patience]</p> +</div> +</div> +<p>Dr. Warburton thinks, that in this speech something is lost, but +there needed only a parenthesis to clear it. The construction is +this; I an determined to act according to that philosophy which +directed me to blame the suicide of Cato, arming myself with +patience.</p> +<p>V.iv.12 (102,6) <i>Luc.</i> Only I yield to die:/There is so +much, that then wilt kill me straight] Dr. Warburton has been much +inclined to find <i>lacunae</i>, or passages broken by omission, +throughout this play. I think he has been always mistaken. The +soldier here says, <i>Yield, or thou diest</i>. Lucilius replies, I +yield only on this condition, that I may die; here is so much gold +as thou seest in my hand, which I offer thee as a reward for speedy +death. What now is there wanting?</p> +<p>(106) General Observation. Of this tragedy many particular +passages deserve regard, and the contention and reconcilement of +Brutus and Cassius is universally celebrated; but I have never been +strongly agitated in perusing it, and think it somewhat cold and +unaffecting, compared with some other of Shakespeare's plays; his +adherence to the real story, and to Roman manners, seems to have +impeded the natural vigour of his genius.</p> +<h2>ANTONY AND CLEOPATRA</h2> +<p>I.i.9 (110,2) And is become the bellows, and the fan,/To cool a +gypsy's lust] In this passage something seems to be wanting. The +bellows and fan being commonly used for contrary purposes, were +probably opposed by the author, who might perhaps have written,</p> +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<p><i>—is become the bellows, and the fan</i>,</p> +<p>To kindle and <i>to cool a gypsy's lust</i>.</p> +</div> +</div> +<p>I.i.10 (110,3) gypsy's lust] Gypsy is here used both in the +original meaning for an <i>Egyptian</i>, and in its accidental +sense for a <i>bad woman</i>.</p> +<p>1.i.17 (110,6) Then must thou needs find out new heaven] Thou +must set the boundary of my love at a greater distance than the +present visible universe affords.</p> +<p>1.i.18 (110,7) The sum] Be brief, <i>sum</i> thy business in a +few words.</p> +<p>I.i.33 (111,8) and the wide arch/Of the rang'd empire fall!] +[Taken from the Roman custom of raising triumphal arches to +perpetuate their victories. Extremely noble. WARBURTON.] I am in +doubt whether Shakespeare had any idea but of a fabrick standing on +pillars. The later editions have all printed the <i>raised</i> +empire, for the <i>ranged</i> empire, as it was first given, (see +1765, VII, 107, 8)</p> +<p>I.i.42 (112,1)</p> +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<p>Antony</p> +<p>Will be himself.</p> +<p><i>Ant.</i> But stirr'd by Cleopatra]</p> +</div> +</div> +<p><i>But</i>, in this passage, seems to have the old Saxon +signification of <i>without, unless, except. Antony</i>, says the +queen, <i>will recollect his thoughts</i>. Unless <i>kept</i>, he +replies, <i>in commotion by Cleopatra</i>. (see 1765, VII, +108,1)</p> +<p>I.ii.5 (113,2) change his horns with garlands] [W: charge] Sir +Thomas Hanmer reads, not improbably, <i>change</i> for <i>horns</i> +his <i>garlands</i>. I am in doubt, whether to <i>change</i> is not +merely to <i>dress</i>, or <i>to dress with changes of</i> +garlands.</p> +<p>I.ii.23 (114,3) I had rather heat my liver] To know why the lady +is so averse from <i>heating</i> her <i>liver</i>, it must be +remembered, that a</p> +<p>heated liver is supposed to make a pimpled face.</p> +<p>I.ii.35 (114,5) Then, belike, my children shall have no names] +If I have already had the best of my fortune, then I suppose <i>I +shall never name children</i>, that is, I am never to be married. +However, tell me the truth, tell me, <i>how many boys and +wenches</i>?</p> +<p>1.ii.38 (114,6) If every of your wishes had a womb, and foretel +every wish, a million] [W: fertil ev'ry] For <i>foretel</i>, in +ancient editions, the latter copies have <i>foretold</i>. +<i>Foretel</i> favours the emendation, which is made with great +acuteness; yet the original reading may, I think, stand. <i>If you +had as many wombs as you will have wishes; and</i> I should +<i>foretel all those wishes, I should foretel a million of +children.</i> It is an ellipsis very frequent in conversation; <i>I +should shame you, and tell all</i>; that is, <i>and if I should</i> +tell all. <i>And</i> is for <i>and if</i>, which was anciently, and +is still provincially, used for <i>if</i>.</p> +<p>I.ii.105 (117,8) extended Asia] To <i>extend</i>, is a term used +for to <i>seize</i>; I know not whether that be not the sense +here.</p> +<p>I.ii.113 (118,9) Oh, when we bring forth weeds,/When our quick +winds lie still] The sense is, that man, not agitated by censure, +like soil not ventilated by <i>quick winds</i>, produces more evil +than good.</p> +<p>I.ii.128 (118,1)</p> +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<p>the present pleasure,</p> +<p>By revolution lowring, does become</p> +<p>The opposite of itself]</p> +</div> +</div> +<p>[The allusion is to the sun's diurnal course; which rising in +the <i>east</i>, and <i>by revolution lowering</i>, or setting in +the <i>west</i>, becomes <i>the opposite of itself</i>. WARB.] This +is an obscure passage. The explanation which Dr. Warburton has +offered is such, that I can add nothing to it; yet perhaps +Shakespeare, who was less learned than his commentator, meant only, +that our pleasures, as they are <i>revolved</i> in the mind, turn +to pain.</p> +<p>I.ii.146 (119,3) upon far poorer moment] For less reason; upon +meaner motives.</p> +<p>I.ii.169 (120,4) It shews to man the tailors of the earth; +comforting therein] I have printed this after the original, which, +though harsh and obscure, I know not how to amend. Sir Tho. Hanmer +reads, They shew <i>to man the tailors of the earth comforting</i> +him therein. I think the passage, with somewhat less alteration, +for alteration is always dangerous, may stand thus; <i>It shews +to</i> men <i>the tailors of the earth, comforting</i> them, +&c.</p> +<p>I.ii.187 (121,6) more urgent touches] Things that touch me more +sensibly, more pressing motives.</p> +<p>I.ii.190 (121,7) Petition us at home] Wish us at home; call for +us to reside at home.</p> +<p>I.ii.201 (121,9)</p> +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<p>Say, our pleasure</p> +<p>To such whose places under us, requires</p> +<p>Our quick remove from hence]</p> +</div> +</div> +<p>This is hardly sense. I believe we should read,</p> +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<p>Their <i>quick remove from hence</i>.</p> +</div> +</div> +<p>Tell our design of going away to those, who being by their +places obliged to attend us, must remove in haste.</p> +<p>I.iii.3 (122,1) I did not send you] You must go as if you came +without my order or knowledge.</p> +<p>I.iii.37 (123,2) a race of heaven] [i.e. had a smack or flavour +of heaven. WARB.] This word is well explained by Dr. Warburton; the +<i>race</i> of wine is the taste of the woil. Sir T. Hanmer, not +understanding the word, reads, <i>ray</i>.</p> +<p>I.iii.44 (124,3) Remains in use] The poet seems to allude to the +legal distinction between the <i>use</i> and <i>absolute +possession</i>.</p> +<p>I.iii.54 (124,4) should safe my going] [T: salve] Mr. Upton +reads, I think rightly,</p> +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<p>—<i>safe</i> my going.</p> +</div> +</div> +<p>I.iii.62 (125,5)</p> +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<p class="i2">O most false love!</p> +<p class="i2">Where be the sacred vials thou shouldst fill</p> +<p class="i2">With sorrowful water?]</p> +</div> +</div> +<p>Alluding to the lachrymatory vials, or bottles of tears, which +the Romans sometimes put into the urn of a friend.</p> +<p>I.iii.77 (125,6) the tears/Belong to Egypt] To me, the queen of +Egypt.</p> +<p>I.iii.90 (126,7) Oh, ny oblivion is a very Antony,/And I am all +forgotten] [The plain meaning is, <i>My forgetfulness makes me +forget myself</i>. WARBURTON.] [Hanmer explained "all forgotten" as +"apt to forget everything"] I cannot understand the learned +critic's explanation. It appears to me, that she should rather have +said,</p> +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<p><i>O my</i> remembrance <i>is a very</i> Antony,</p> +<p><i>And I am all forgotten.</i></p> +</div> +</div> +<p>It was her memory, not her oblivion, that, like Antony, vas +forgetting and deserting her. I think a slight change will restore +the passage. The queen, having something to say, which she is not +able, or would not seem able to recollect, cries out,</p> +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<p><i>O my oblivion</i>!—'Tis <i>a very Antony</i>.</p> +</div> +</div> +<p>The thought of which I was in quest is a very Antony, is +treacherous and fugitive, and has irrevocably left me,</p> +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<p><i>And I am all forgotten.</i></p> +</div> +</div> +<p>If this reading stand, I think the explanation of Hanmer must be +received, (see 1765, VII, 122, 6)</p> +<p>I.iv.3 (127,9) One great competitor] Perhaps, <i>Our</i> great +competitor.</p> +<p>I.iv.12 (128,1) as the spots of heaven,/More fiery by night's +blackness] If by spots are meant stars, as night has no other fiery +spots, the comparison is forced and harsh, stars having been always +supposed to beautify the night; nor do I comprehend what there is +in the counter-part of this simile, which answers to night's +blackness. Hanmer reads,</p> +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<p>—<i>spots</i> on ermine</p> +<p>Or fires, <i>by night's blackness</i>.</p> +</div> +</div> +<p>I.iv.14 (128,2) purchas'd] Procured by his own fault or +endeavour.</p> +<p>I.iv.21 (128,3) say, this becomes him, (As his composure must be +rare, indeed, Whom these things cannot blemish] This seems +inconsequent. I read</p> +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<p><i>And his composure</i>, &c.</p> +<p><i>Grant that this becomes him</i>, and <i>if it can become him, +he must</i></p> +<p><i>have in him something very uncommon</i>; yet, +<i>&c.</i></p> +</div> +</div> +<p>I.iv.25 (128,4) So great weight in his lightness] The word +<i>light</i> it one of Shakespeare's favourite play-things. The +sense is, His trifling levity throws so much burden upon us.</p> +<p>I.iv.25 (129,5)</p> +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<p>If he fill'd</p> +<p>His vacancy with his voluptuousness,</p> +<p>Full surfeits, and the dryness of his bones,</p> +<p>Call on him for't]</p> +</div> +</div> +<p><i>Call on him</i>, is, <i>visit him</i>. Says Caesar, <i>If +Antony followed his debaucheries at a time of leisure, I should +leave him to be punished by their natural consequences, by</i> +surfeits <i>and</i> dry bones.</p> +<p>I.iv.31 (129,6) boys; who being mature in knowledge] For this +Hanmer, who thought the <i>maturity</i> of a <i>boy</i> an +inconsistent idea, has put,</p> +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<p>—<i>who</i>, immature <i>in knowledge</i>,</p> +</div> +</div> +<p>but the words <i>experience</i> and <i>judgment</i> require that +we read <i>mature</i>; though Dr. Warburton has received the +emendation. By <i>boys mature in knowledge</i>, are meant, <i>boys +old enough to know their duty</i>.</p> +<p>I.iv.38 (129,7) he is belov'd of these/That only have fear'd +Caesar] Those whom not <i>love</i> but <i>fear</i> made adherents +to Caesar, now shew their affection for Pompey.</p> +<p>I.iv.49 (130,2) which they ear] To <i>ear</i>, is to +<i>plow</i>; a common metaphor.</p> +<p>I.iv.52 (130,3) Lack blood to think on't] Turn pale at the +thought of it.</p> +<p>I.v.4 (132,5) mandragora] A plant of which the infusion was +supposed to procure sleep. Shakespeare mentions it in +<i>Othello</i>:</p> +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<p><i>Not poppy, nor</i> mandragora,</p> +<p><i>Can ever med'cine thee to that sweet sleep</i>.</p> +</div> +</div> +<p>I.v.38 (133,8) that great medicine hath/With his tinct gilded +thee] Alluding to the philosopher's stone, which, by its touch, +converts base metal into gold. The alchemists call the matter, +whatever it be, by which they perform transmutation, a +<i>medicine</i>.</p> +<p>I.v.48 (134,9) arm-gaunt steed] [i.e. his steed worn lean and +thin by much service in war. So Fairfax, <i>His</i> stall-worn +<i>steed the champion stout bestrode</i>. WARB.] On this note Mr. +Edwards has been very lavish of his pleasantry, and indeed has +justly censured the misquotation of <i>stall-worn</i>, for +<i>stall-worth</i>, which means <i>strong</i>, but makes no attempt +to explain the word in the play. Mr. Seyward, in his preface to +Beaumont, has very elaborately endeavoured to prove, that an +<i>arm-gaunt</i> steed is a steed with <i>lean shoulders</i>. +<i>Arm</i> is the Teutonick word for <i>want</i>, or +<i>poverty</i>. <i>Arm-gaunt</i> may be therefore an old word, +signifying, <i>lean</i> for <i>want</i>, ill fed. Edwards's +observation, that a worn-out horse is not proper for Atlas to mount +in battle, is impertinent; the horse here mentioned seems to be a +post horse, rather than a war horse. Yet as <i>arm-gaunt</i> seems +not intended to imply any defect, it perhaps means, a horse so +slender that a man might clasp him, and therefore formed for +expedition. Hanmer reads,</p> +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<p>—<i>arm-girt steed</i>.</p> +</div> +</div> +<p>I.v.50 (134,1) Was beastly dumb by him] Mr. Theobald reads +<i>dumb'd</i>, put to silence. <i>Alexas means</i>, (says he) +<i>the horse made such a neighing, that if he had spoke he could +not have been heard</i>.</p> +<p>I.v.76 (136,3) Get me ink and paper: he shall have every day/ A +several greeting, or I'll unpeople Aegypt] By sending out +messengers.</p> +<p>II.i (136,4) <i>Enter Pompey</i>, <i>Menecrates</i>, <i>and +Menas</i>] The persons are so named in the first edition; but I +know not why Menecrates appears; Menas can do all without him.</p> +<p>II.i.4 (136,5) While we are suitors to their throne, decays/The +thing we sue for] [W: delays] It is not always prudent to be too +hasty in exclamation; the reading which Dr. Warburton rejects as +<i>nonsense</i>, is in my opinion right; if <i>delay</i> be what +they sue for, they have it, and the consolation offered becomes +superfluous. The meaning is, <i>While we are praying</i>, <i>the +thing for which we pray</i> is losing its value.</p> +<p>II.i.38 (138,8) The ne'er-lust-wearied Antony] [Theobald emended +"near lust-wearied" to "ne'er-lust-wearied"] Could it be imagined, +after this swelling exultation, that the first edition stands +literally thus,</p> +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<p><i>The</i> neere <i>lust wearied Antony</i>.</p> +</div> +</div> +<p>II.i.45 (139,9) square] That is, quarrel.</p> +<p>II.i.51 (139,1) Our lives upon] This play is not divided into +acts by the authour or first editors, and therefore the present +division may be altered at pleasure. I think the first act may be +commodiously continued to this place, and the second act opened +with the interview of the chief persons, and a change of the state +of action. Yet it must be confessed, that it is of small +importance, where these unconnected and desultory scenes are +interrupted.</p> +<p>II.ii.7 (140,2) Were I the wearer of Antonius' beard,/I would +not shav't to-day] I believe he means, <i>I would meet him +undressed</i>, <i>without shew of respect</i>.</p> +<p>II.ii.25 (141,3) Nor curstness grow to the matter] Let not +<i>ill-humour</i> be added to the real <i>subject</i> of our +difference.</p> +<p>II.ii.28 (141,4) <i>Caes</i>. Sit./<i>Ant</i>. Sit, sir!] +[Antony appears to be jealous of a circumstance which seemed to +indicate a consciousness of superiority in his too successful +partner in power; and accordingly resents the invitation of Caesar +to be seated: Caesar answers, <i>Nay then</i>—i.e. <i>if you +are so ready to resent what I meant an act of civility, there can +be no reason to suppose you have temper enough for the business on +which at present we are met</i>. STEEVENS.] The following +circumstance may serve to strengthen Mr. Steevens's opinion: When +the fictitious Sebastian made his appearance in Europe, he came to +a conference with the Conde de Lemos; to whom, after the firat +exchange of civilities, he said, <i>Conde de Lemos, be covered</i>. +And being asked by that nobleman, by what pretences he laid claim +to the superiority expressed by such permission, he replied, I do +it by right of my birth; I am Sebastian. (1773)</p> +<p>II.ii.43 (142,5) their contestation/Was theam for you, you were +the word of war] [W: theam'd] I am neither satisfied with the +reading nor the emendation; <i>theam'd</i> is, I think, a word +unauthorised, and very harsh. Perhaps we may read,</p> +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<p>—<i>their contestation</i></p> +</div> +</div> +<p>Had <i>theme</i> from <i>you</i>, <i>you were the word o' th' +war</i>. <i>The dispute derived its subject from you</i>. It may be +corrected by mere transposition,</p> +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<p>—<i>their contestation</i></p> +</div> +</div> +<p>You were theme for, <i>you were the word</i>.</p> +<p>II.ii.51 (143,8) Having alike your cause?] The meaning seems to +be, <i>having the same cause as you to be offended with me</i>. But +why, because he was offended with Antony, should he make war upon +Caesar? May it not be read thus,</p> +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<p>—<i>Did he not rather</i></p> +<p><i>Discredit my authority with yours,</i></p> +<p><i>And make the wars alike against my stomach</i>,</p> +<p>Hating <i>alike</i> our <i>cause</i>?</p> +</div> +</div> +<p>II.ii.53 (143,9) As matter whole you have not to make it with] +The original copy reads,</p> +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<p><i>As matter whole you</i> have <i>to make it with</i>.</p> +</div> +</div> +<p>Without doubt erroneously; I therefore only observe it, that the +reader may more readily admit the liberties which the editors of +this authour's works have necessarily taken.</p> +<p>II.ii.61 (144,1) fronted] i.e. <i>opposed</i>.</p> +<p>II.ii.85 (145,4) The honour's sacred which he talks on +now,/Supposing that I lack'd it] [<i>Sacred</i>, for unbroken, +unviolated. WARB.] Dr. Warburton seems to understand this passage +thus; <i>The honour which he</i> talks <i>of me as</i> lacking, +<i>is</i> unviolated, <i>I never lacked it</i>. This may perhaps be +the true meaning, but before I read the note, I understood it thus: +Lepidus interrupts Caesar, on the supposition that what he is about +to say will be too harsh to be endured by Antony; to which Antony +replies, <i>No, Lepidus, let him speak, the security of</i> honour +on which he now speaks, <i>on which this conference is held +now</i>, is sacred, <i>even</i> supposing that I lacked +<i>honour</i> before.</p> +<p>II.ii.112 (146,5) your considerate stone] This line is passed by +all the editors, as if they understood it, and believed it +universally, intelligible. I cannot find in it any very obvious, +and hardly any possible meaning. I would therefore read,</p> +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<p><i>Go to then</i>, you <i>considerate</i> ones.</p> +</div> +</div> +<p>You, who dislike my frankness and temerity of speech, and are so +<i>considerate</i> and discreet, <i>go to</i>, do your on +business.</p> +<p>II.ii.113 (146,6) I do not much dislike the matter, but/The +manner of his speech] I do not, says Caesar, think the man wrong, +but too free of him interposition; <i>for't cannot be, we shall +remain in friendship: yet if it were possible, I would endeavour +it</i>.</p> +<p>II.ii.123 (147,7) your reproof/Were well deserv'd] In the old +edition,</p> +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<p>—<i>your</i> proof</p> +<p><i>Were well deserv'd</i>—</p> +</div> +</div> +<p>Which Mr. Theobald, with his usual triumph, changes to +<i>approof</i>, which he explains, <i>allowance</i>. Dr. Warburton +inserted <i>reproof</i> very properly into Hanmer's edition, but +forgot it in his own.</p> +<p>II.ii.159 (148,8) Lest my remembrance suffer ill report] Lest I +be thought too willing to forget benefits, I must barely return him +thanks, and then I will defy him.</p> +<p>II.ii.210 (150,1) And what they undid, did] It might be read +less harshly,</p> +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<p><i>And what they did</i>, undid.</p> +</div> +</div> +<p>II.ii.212 (150,2) tended her i' the eyes] Perhaps <i>tended +her</i> by th' <i>eyes</i>, discovered her will by her eyes.</p> +<p>II.iii.21 (153,6) thy angel/Becomes a Fear] Mr.Uptan reads,</p> +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<p><i>Becomes</i> afear'd,—</p> +</div> +</div> +<p>The common reading is more poetical.</p> +<p>II.iii.37 (154,7) his quails ever/Beat mine] The ancients used +to match quails as we match cocks.</p> +<p>II.iii.38 (154,8) inhoop'd, at odds] Thus the old copy. +<i>Inhoop'd</i> is <i>inclosed, confined</i>, that they may fight. +The modern editions read,</p> +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<p><i>Beat mine</i>, in whoop'd-<i>at odds</i>.—</p> +</div> +</div> +<p>II.v.1 (155,9) musick, moody food] [The <i>mood</i> is the +<i>mind</i>, or <i>mental disposition</i>. Van Haaren's panegyrick +on the English begins, <i>Groot-moedig Volk, great-minded +nation</i>.] Perhaps here is a poor jest intended between +<i>mood</i> the <i>mind</i> and <i>moods</i> of musick.</p> +<p>II.v.41 (l57,4) Not like a formal man] [<i>Formal</i>, for +ordinary. WARB.] Rather decent, regular.</p> +<p>II.v.103 (161,8) Thou art not what thou'rt sure of!] For this, +which is not easily understood, Sir Thomas Hanmer has given,</p> +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<p><i>That</i> say'st but <i>what thou'rt sure of!</i></p> +</div> +</div> +<p>I am not satisfied with the change, which, though it affords +sense, exhibits little spirit. I fancy the line consists only of +abrupt starts.</p> +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<p><i>Oh that his fault should make a knave of thee</i>,</p> +<p>That art—not what?—Thou'rt sure on't.—Get +thee</p> +<p>hence.</p> +</div> +</div> +<p><i>That his fault should make a knave of thee that +art</i>—but what <i>shall I say thou art not</i>? Thou art +then sure of <i>this marriage.</i>—Get thee hence.</p> +<p>Dr. Warburton has received Sir T. Hanmer's emendation.</p> +<p>II.v.115 (161,9) Let him for ever go] She is now talking in +broken sentences, not of the messenger, but Antony.</p> +<p>II.vi.24 (163,2) Thou canst not fear us] Thou canst not affright +us with thy numerous navy.</p> +<p>II.vi.28 (163,3) But since the cuckow builds not for himself] +Since, like the cuckow, that seizes the nests of other birds, you +have invaded a house which you could not build, keep it while you +can.</p> +<p>II.vii.1 (167,6) some o' their plants] <i>Plants</i>, besides +its common meaning, is here used for the <i>foot</i>, from the +Latin.</p> +<p>II.vii.14 (167,9) a partizan] A pike.</p> +<p>II.vii.16 (167,1) To be call'd into a huge sphere, and not to be +seen to move in't, are the holes where eyes should be, which +pitifully disaster the cheeks] This speech seems to be mutilated; +to supply the deficiencies is impossible, but perhaps the sense was +originally approaching to this.</p> +<p><i>To be called into a huge sphere, and not to be seen to move +in it</i>, is a very ignominious state; great offices <i>are the +holes where eyes should be, which</i>, if eyes be wanting, +<i>pitifully disaster the cheeks</i>.</p> +<p>II.vii.88 (170,2) thy pall'd fortunes] <i>Palled</i>, is vapid, +past its time of excellence; <i>palled</i> wine, is wine that has +lost its original spriteliness.</p> +<p>II.vii.102 (171,3) Strike the vessels] Try whether the casks +sound as empty.</p> +<p>II.vii.116 (171,4) The holding every man shall bear] Every man +shall accompany the chorus by drumming on his sides, in token of +concurrence and applause. [Theobald had emended "beat" to "bear"] +(1773)</p> +<p>III.i.1 (173,6) Now, darting Parthia, art thou struck] +<i>Struck</i> alludes to darting. Thou whose darts have so often +struck others, art struck now thyself. (1773)</p> +<p>III.ii.12 (175,8) Arabian bird!] The phoenix.</p> +<p>III.ii.16 (176,9)</p> +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<p>Ho! hearts, tongues, figure, scribes, bards, poets, cannot</p> +<p>Think, speak, cast, write, sing, number, ho!]</p> +</div> +</div> +<p>Not only the tautology of <i>bards</i> and <i>poets</i>, but the +want of a correspondent action for the <i>poet</i>, whose business +in the next line is only to <i>number</i>, makes me suspect some +fault in this passage, which I know not how to mend.</p> +<p>III.ii.26 (176,1) as my furthest bond] As I will venture the +greatest pledge of security, on the trial of thy conduct.</p> +<p>III.ii.40 (177,1) The elements be kind to thee, and make/Thy +spirits all of comfort!] This is obscure. It seems to mean, <i>May +the different</i> elements <i>of the body, or principles of life, +maintain such proportion and harmony as may keep you +cheerful</i>.</p> +<p>III.iv.26 (182,7) I'll raise the preparation of a war/Shall +stain your brother] [T: strain] I do not see but <i>stain</i> may +be allowed to remain unaltered, meaning no more than <i>shame</i> +or <i>disgrace</i>.</p> +<p>III.iv.30 (182,8) Wars 'twixt you 'twain would be/As if the +world should cleave] The sense is, that war between Caesar and +Antony would engage the world between them, and that the slaughter +would be great in so extensive a commotion.</p> +<p>III.v.8 (183,9) rivality] Equal rank.</p> +<p>III.v.11 (183,1) Upon his own appeal] To <i>appeal</i>, in +Shakespeare, is to <i>accuse</i>; Caesar seized Lepidus without any +other proof than Caesar's accusation.</p> +<p>III.v.21 (184,3) More, Domitius] I have something <i>more</i> to +tell you, which I might have told at first, and delayed my news. +Antony requires your presence.</p> +<p>III.vi.9 (184,4) made her/Of Lower Syria, Cyprus, +Lydia./Absolute queen] For <i>Lydia</i>, Mr. Upton, from Plutarch, +has restored <i>Lybia</i>.</p> +<p>III.vi.68-75 (187,6) Mr. Upton remarks, that there are some +errours in this enumeration of the auxiliary kings; but it is +probable that the authour did not much wish to be accurate.</p> +<p>III.vi.95 (188,7) And gives his potent regiment to a trull] +<i>Regiment</i>, is <i>government, authority</i>; he puts his +<i>power</i> and his empire into the hands of a false woman.</p> +<p>It may be observed, that <i>trull</i> was not, in our author's +time, a term of mere infamy, but a word of slight contempt, as +<i>wench</i> is now.</p> +<p>III.vii.3 (188,8) forespoke my being] To <i>forespeak</i>, is to +<i>contradict</i>, to <i>speak against</i>, as <i>forbid</i> is to +order negatively.</p> +<p>III.vii.68 (191,1)</p> +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<p>By Hercules, I think, I am i' the right.</p> +<p>Can. Soldier, thou art: but his whole action grows</p> +<p>Not in the power on't]</p> +</div> +</div> +<p>That is, his whole conduct becomes, ungoverned by the right, or +by reason.</p> +<p>III.vii.77 (191,2) distractions] Detachments; separate +bodies.</p> +<p>III.x.6 (193,4) The greater cantle] [A piece or lump. POPE.] +<i>Cantle</i> is rather a <i>corner</i>. Caesar in this play +mentions the <i>three-nook'd world</i>. Of this triangular world +every triumvir had a corner. (see 1765, VII, 185, 6)</p> +<p>III.x.9 (193,5) token'd pestilence] Spotted.</p> +<p>III.x.10 (193,6) Yon' ribauld nag of Aegypt] The word is in the +old edition <i>ribaudred</i>, which I do not understand, but +mention it, in hopes others may raise some happy conjecture. +[Tyrwhitt: hag] The brieze, or oestrum, the fly that stings cattle, +proves that <i>nag</i> is the right word. (1773)</p> +<p>III.x.11 (193,7) Whom leprosy o'ertake!] <i>Leprosy</i>, an +epidemical distemper of the Aegyptians; to which Horace probably +alludes in the controverted line.</p> +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<p><i>Contaminato cum grege turpium</i></p> +<p><i>Morbo virorum.</i></p> +</div> +</div> +<p>III.x.36 (195,1) The wounded chance of Antony] I know not +whether the author, who loves to draw his images from the sports of +the field, might not have written,</p> +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<p><i>The wounded</i> chase <i>of Antony</i>,—</p> +</div> +</div> +<p>The allusion is to a deer wounded and chased, whom all other +deer avoid. <i>I will</i>, says Enobarbus, <i>follow Antony</i>, +though <i>chased</i> and <i>wounded</i>.</p> +<p>The common reading, however, may very well stand.</p> +<p>III.xi.3 (195,2) so lated in the world] Alluding to a benighted +traveller.</p> +<p>III.xi.23 (196,3) I have lost command] I am not master of my own +emotions.</p> +<p>III.xi.35 (196,4) He at Philippi kept/His sword e'en like a +dancer] In the Moriaco, and perhaps anciently in the Pyrrhick +dance, the dancers held swords in their hands with the points +upward.</p> +<p>III.xi.39 (196,6) he alone/Dealt on lieutenantry] I know not +whether the meaning is, that Caesar acted only as lieutenant at +Philippi, or that he made his attempts only on lieutenants, and +left the generals to Antony.</p> +<p>III.xi.47 (197,7) death will seize her; but/Your comfort] +<i>But</i> has here, as once before in this play, the force of +<i>except</i>, or <i>unless</i>.</p> +<p>III.ii.52 (197,8) How I convey my shame] How, by looking another +way, I withdraw my ignominy from your sight.</p> +<p>III.ii.57 (197,9) ty'd by the strings] That is by the <i>heart +string</i>.</p> +<p>III.xii.18 (199,1) The circle of the Ptolemies] The diadem; the +ensign of royalty.</p> +<p>III.xii.34 (199,2) how Antony becomes his flaw] That is, how +Antony conforms himself to this breach of his fortune.</p> +<p>III.xiii.1 (200,3) Think, and die] [Hanmer: Drink] This reading, +offered by sir T. Hanmer, is received by Dr. Warburton and Mr. +Upton, but I have not advanced it into the page, not being +convinced that it is necessary. <i>Think, and die</i>; that is, +<i>Reflect on your folly, and leave the world</i>, is a natural +answer.</p> +<p>III.xiii.9 (201,4) he being/The meered question] The +<i>meered</i> question is a term I do not understand. I know not +what to offer, except,</p> +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<p><i>The</i> mooted <i>question</i>.—</p> +</div> +</div> +<p>That is, the <i>disputed</i> point, the subject of debate. +<i>Mere</i> is indeed a <i>boundary</i>, and the <i>meered +question</i>, if it can mean any thing, may, with some violence of +language, mean, the <i>disputed boundary</i>.</p> +<p>III.xiii.25 (202, 5)</p> +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<p>I dare him therefore</p> +<p>To lay his gay comparisons apart</p> +<p>And answer me declin'd]</p> +</div> +</div> +<p>I require of Caesar not to depend on that superiority which the +<i>comparison</i> of our different fortunes may exhibit to him, but +to answer me man to man, in this decline of my age or power.</p> +<p>III.xiii.42 (202,6) The loyalty, well held to fools, does +make/Our faith meer folly] [T: Though loyalty, well held] I have +preserved the old reading: Enobarbus is deliberating upon +desertion, and finding it is more prudent to forsake a fool, and +more reputable to be faithful to him, makes no positive conclusion. +Sir T. Hanmer follows Theobald; Dr. Warburton retains the old +reading.</p> +<p>III.xiii.77 (204,9) Tell him, from his all-obeying breath I +hear/The doom of Aegypt] <i>Doom</i> is declared rather by an +<i>all-commanding</i>, than an <i>all-obeying breath</i>. I suppose +we ought to read,</p> +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<p>—<i>all</i>-obeyed breath.</p> +</div> +</div> +<p>III.xiii.81 (205,1) Give me grace] Grant me the favour.</p> +<p>III.xiii.109 (206,3) By one that looks on feeders?] One that +waits at the table while others are eating.</p> +<p>III.xiii.128 (207,4) The horned herd] It is not without pity and +indignation that the reader of this great poet meets so often with +this low jest, which is too much a favourite to be left out of +either mirth or fury.</p> +<p>III.xiii.151 (208,5) to quit me] To repay me this insult; to +<i>requite</i> me.</p> +<p>III.xiii.180 (209,9) Were nice and lucky] [<i>Nice</i>, for +delicate, courtly, flowing in peace. WARBURTON.] <i>Nice</i> rather +seems to be, <i>just fit for my purpose, agreeable to my wish</i>. +So we vulgarly say of any thing that is done better than was +expected, it is <i>nice</i>.</p> +<p>IV.i.5 (210,1) I have many other ways to die] [Upton: He +hath.../I laugh] I think this emendation deserves to be received. +It had, before Mr. Upton's book appeared, been made by sir T. +Hanmer.</p> +<p>IV.i.9 (211,2) Make boot of] Take advantage of.</p> +<p>IV.ii.8 (212,3) <i>take all</i>] Let the survivor take all. No +composition, victory or death.</p> +<p>IV.ii.14 (212,4) one of those odd tricks] I know not what +obscurity the editors find in this passage. <i>Trick</i> is here +used in the sense in which it is uttered every day by every mouth, +elegant and vulgar: yet sir T. Hanmer changes it to <i>freaks</i>, +and Dr. Warburton, in his rage of Gallicism, to <i>traits</i>.</p> +<p>IV.ii.26 (213,5) Haply, you shall not see me more; or if,/A +mangled shadow] <i>Or if</i> you see me more, you will see me <i>a +mangled shadow</i>, only the external form of what I was.</p> +<p>IV.ii.35 (213,6) onion-ey'd] I have my eyes as full of tears as +if they had been fretted by onions.</p> +<p>IV.iv.3 (215,8) Come, good fellow, put thine iron on] I think it +should be rather,</p> +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<p>—mine <i>iron</i>—</p> +</div> +</div> +<p>IV.iv.5 (215,9) Nay, I'll help too] These three little speeches, +which in the other editions are only one, and given to Cleopatra, +were happily disentangled by sir T. Hanmer.</p> +<p>IV.iv.10 (215,1) Briefly, sir] That is, <i>quickly</i>, sir.</p> +<p>IV.v.17 (218,3) Dispatch. Enobarbus!] Thus [<i>Dispatch, my +Eros</i>] the modern editors. The old edition reads,</p> +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<p>—<i>Dispatch Enobarbus</i>.</p> +</div> +</div> +<p>Perhaps, it should be,</p> +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<p>—<i>Dispatch! To Enobarbus!</i> (see 1765, VII, 208, +3)</p> +</div> +</div> +<p>IV.vi.12 (219,6) persuade] The old copy has <i>dissuade</i>, +perhaps rightly.</p> +<p>IV.vi.34 (219,7) This blows my heart] All the latter editions +have,</p> +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<p>—<i>This</i> bows <i>my heart</i>;</p> +</div> +</div> +<p>I have given the original word again the place from which I +think it unjustly excluded. <i>This generosity</i>, (says +Enobarbus) swells <i>my heart</i>, so that it will quickly break, +<i>if thought break it not, a swifter mean</i>.</p> +<p>IV.vii.2 (220,8) and our oppression] Sir T. Hanmer has received +<i>opposition</i>. Perhaps rightly.</p> +<p>IV.viii.1 (221,9) run one before,/And let the queen know of our +guests] [W: gests] This passage needs neither correction nor +explanation. Antony after his success intends to bring his officers +to sup with Cleopatra, and orders notice to be given her of their +<i>guests</i>.</p> +<p>IV.viii.12 (222,1) To this great fairy] Mr. Upton has well +observed, that <i>fairy</i>; which Dr. Warburton and sir T. Hanmer +explain by <i>Inchantress</i>, comprises the idea of power and +beauty.</p> +<p>IV.viii.22 (222,2) get goal for goal of youth] At all plays of +barriers, the boundary is called a <i>goal</i>; to <i>win a +goal</i>, is to be superiour in a contest of activity.</p> +<p>IV.viii.31 (223,4) Bear our hack'd targets like the men that owe +them] i.e. hack'd as much as the men are to whom they belong. +WARB.] Why not rather, <i>Bear our hack'd targets</i> with spirit +and exaltation, such as becomes the brave warriors <i>that own +them</i>?</p> +<p>IV.ix.15 (224,5)</p> +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<p>Throw my heart</p> +<p>Against the flint and hardness of my fault;</p> +<p>Which, being dried with grief, will break to powder,</p> +<p>And finish all foul thoughts]</p> +</div> +</div> +<p>The pathetick of Shakespeare too often ends in the ridiculous. +It is painful to find the gloomy dignity of this noble scene +destroyed by the intrusion of a conceit so far-fetched and +unaffecting.</p> +<p>IV.xii.13 (226,1) Triple turn'd whore!] She was first for +Antony, then was supposed by him to have <i>turned</i> to Caesar, +when he found his messenger kissing her hand, then she +<i>turned</i> again to Antony, and now has <i>turned</i> to Caesar. +Shall I mention what has dropped into my imagination, that our +author might perhaps have written <i>triple-tongued</i>? +<i>Double-tongued</i> is a common term of reproach, which rage +might improve to <i>triple-tongued</i>. But the present reading may +stand.</p> +<p>IV.xii.21 (227,2) That pannell'd me at heels] All the editions +read,</p> +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<p><i>That</i> pannell'd <i>me at heels</i>,—</p> +</div> +</div> +<p>Sir T. Hanmer substituted <i>spaniel'd</i> by an emendation, +with which it was reasonable to expect that even rival commentators +would be satisfied; yet Dr. Warburton proposes <i>pantler'd</i>, in +a note, of which he is not injur'd by the suppression; and Mr. +Upton having in his first edition proposed plausibly enough,</p> +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<p><i>That</i> paged <i>me at heels</i>,—</p> +</div> +</div> +<p>in the second edition retracts his alteration, and maintains +<i>pannell'd</i> to be the right reading, being a metaphor taken, +he says, from a <i>pannel</i> of wainscot.</p> +<p>IV.xii.25 (227,3) this grave charm] I know not by what +authority, nor for what reason, <i>this</i> grave <i>charm</i>, +which the first, the only original copy exhibits, has been through +all the modern editors changed to <i>this</i> gay <i>charm</i>. By +<i>this</i> grave <i>charm</i>, is meant, <i>this sublime, this +majestic beauty</i>.</p> +<p>IV.xii.29 (227,4) to the very heart of loss] To the utmost loss +possible.</p> +<p>IV.xii.45 (228,7) Let me lodge, Lichas] Sir T. Hanmer reads +thus,</p> +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<p>—thy <i>rage</i></p> +<p>Led thee <i>lodge Lichas</i>—and—</p> +<p><i>Subdue</i> thy <i>worthiest self</i>.—</p> +</div> +</div> +<p>This reading, harsh as it is, Dr. Warburton has received, after +having rejected many better. The meaning is, Let me do something in +my rage, becoming the successor of Hercules,</p> +<p>IV.xiv.19 (230,2) Pack'd cards with Caesar, and false play'd my +glory/Unto an enemy's triumph] [Warburton had explained and praised +Shakespeare's "metaphor"] This explanation is very just, the +thought did not deserve so good an annotation.</p> +<p>IV.xiv.39 (231,3) The battery from my heart] I would read,</p> +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<p>This <i>battery from my heart</i>.—</p> +</div> +</div> +<p>IV.xiv.49 (232,4) Seal then, and all is done] I believe the +reading is,</p> +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<p>—seel <i>then, and all is done</i>—</p> +</div> +</div> +<p>To <i>seel hawks</i>, is to close their eyes. The meaning will +be,</p> +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<p>—<i>since the torch is out,</i></p> +<p><i>Lie down, and stray no further. How all labour</i></p> +<p><i>Marrs what it does</i>.—Seel <i>then, and all is +done</i>.</p> +</div> +</div> +<p>Close thine eyes <i>for ever, and be quiet</i>.</p> +<p>IV.xiv.73 (233,5) pleach'd arms] Arms folded in each other.</p> +<p>IV.xiv.77 (233,6) His baseness that ensued?] The poor conquered +wretch that followed.</p> +<p>IV.xiv.86 (233,7) the worship of the whole world] The +<i>worship</i>, is the <i>dignity</i>, the <i>authority</i>.</p> +<p>IV.xv.9 (237,9)</p> +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<p>O sun,</p> +<p>Burn the great sphere thou mov'st in!—darkling stand</p> +<p>The varying shore o' the world]</p> +</div> +</div> +<p>She desires the sun, to <i>burn</i> his own <i>orb</i>, the +vehicle of light, and then the earth will be dark.</p> +<p>IV.xv.19-23 (237,1) I here importune death] [Theobald had +regularized the versification and had added two words] Mr. +Theobald's emendation is received by the succeeding editors; but it +seems not necessary that a dialogue so distressful should be nicely +regular. I have therefore preserved the original reading in the +text, and the emendation below.</p> +<p>IV.xv.28 (238,2) still conclusion] Sedate determination; silent +coolness of resolution.</p> +<p>IV.xv.32 (236,3) Here's sport, indeed!] I suppose the meaning of +these strange words is, <i>here's</i> trifling, <i>you</i> do not +work <i>in earnest</i>.</p> +<p>IV.xv.39 (239,4) Quicken with kissing] That is, <i>Revive by my +kiss</i>.</p> +<p>IV.xv.44 (239,6) That the false huswife Fortune break her wheel] +This despicable line has occurred before.</p> +<p>IV.xv.65 (240,8) The soldier's pole] He at whom the soldiers +pointed, as at a pageant held high for observation.</p> +<p>IV.xv.72 (240,9)</p> +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<p><i>Char</i>. Peace, peace, Iras.</p> +<p><i>Cleo</i>. No more—but e'en a woman]</p> +</div> +</div> +<p>[W: peace, Isis] Of this note it may be truly said, that it at +least deserves to be right, nor can he, that shall question the +justness of the emendation, refuse his esteem to the ingenuity and +learning with which it is proposed.</p> +<p>Hanmer had proposed another emendation, not injudiciously. He +reads thus,</p> +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<p>Iras. <i>Royal Aegypt! empress!</i></p> +<p>Cleo. <i>Peace, peace, Iras.</i></p> +<p><i>No more but a mere woman</i>, &c.</p> +</div> +</div> +<p>That is, <i>no more an empress, but a mere woman</i>.</p> +<p>It is somewhat unfortunate that the words, <i>mere woman</i>, +which so much strengthen the opposition to either <i>empress</i> or +<i>Isis</i>, are not in the original edition, which stands +thus,</p> +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<p><i>No more but</i> in a <i>woman</i>.</p> +</div> +</div> +<p><i>Mere woman</i> was probably the arbitrary reading of Rowe. I +suppose, however, that we muy justly change the ancient copy +thus,</p> +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<p><i>No more, but</i> e'en a <i>woman</i>.</p> +</div> +</div> +<p>which will enough accommodate either of the editors.</p> +<p>I am inclined to think that she speaks abruptly, not answering +her woman, but discoursing with her own thoughts,</p> +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<p><i>No more—but</i> e'en a <i>woman</i>.</p> +</div> +</div> +<p><i>I have</i> no more <i>of my wonted greatness</i>, but am even +a woman, <i>on the level with other women; were I what I once +was</i>.</p> +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<p>—It were for me</p> +<p>To throw my scepter, <i>&c</i>.</p> +</div> +</div> +<p>If this simple explanation be admitted, how much labour has been +thrown away. <i>Peace, peace, Iras</i>, is said by Charmian, when +she sees the queen recovering, and thinks speech troublesome.</p> +<p>V.i.15 (244,4) The round world/Should have shook lions into +civil streets] I think here is a line lost, after which it is in +vain to go in quest. The sense seems to have been this: <i>The +round world should have shook</i>, and this great alteration of the +system of things should send <i>lions into streets, and citizens +into dens</i>. There is sense still, but it is harsh and +violent.</p> +<p>V.i.27 (244,5) but it is tidings/To wash the eyes of kings!] +That is, May <i>the Gods rebuke me</i>, if this be not <i>tidings +to make kings weep</i>.</p> +<p><i>But</i>, again, for <i>if not</i>.</p> +<p>V.i.46 (245,7) that our stars,/Unreconciliable, should +divide/Our equalness to this] That is, <i>should have made us</i>, +in our equality of fortune, disagree <i>to</i> a pitch like this, +that one of us must die.</p> +<p>V.i.52 (246,8) A poor Aegyptian yet; the queen my mistress] If +this punctuation be right, the man means to say, that he is <i>yet +an Aegyptian</i>, that is, <i>yet a servant of the queen of +Aegypt</i>, though soon to become, a subject of Rome.</p> +<p>V.i.65 (246,9) her life in Rome/Would be eternal in our triumph] +Hanmer reads judiciously enough, but without necessity,</p> +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<p><i>Would be</i> eternalling <i>our triumph</i>.</p> +</div> +</div> +<p>The sense is, <i>If she dies here, she will be forgotten, but if +I send her</i> in triumph at Rome, <i>her memory and my glory</i> +will be eternal.</p> +<p>V.ii.3 (247,1) fortune's knave] The <i>servant</i> of +fortune.</p> +<p>V.ii.4 (247,2)</p> +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<p>it is great</p> +<p>To do that thing, that ends all other deeds;</p> +<p>Which shackles accidents, and bolts up change;</p> +<p>Which sleeps, and never palates more the dung,</p> +<p>The beggar's nurse, and Caesar's]</p> +</div> +</div> +<p>[Warburton added a whole line and emended "dung" to "dugg"] I +cannot perceive the loss of a line, or the need of an emendation. +The commentator seems to have entangled his own ideas; his +supposition that <i>suicide</i> is called <i>the beggar's nurse and +Caesar's</i>, and his concession that the position is +<i>intelligible</i>, show, I think, a mind not intent upon the +business before it. The difficulty of the passage, if any +difficulty there be, arises only from this, that the act of +suicide, and the state which is the effect of suicide are +confounded. Voluntary death, says she, is an act <i>which bolts up +change</i>; it produces a state,</p> +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<p><i>Which sleeps, and never palates more the dung,</i></p> +<p><i>The beggar's nurse, and Caesar's</i>.</p> +</div> +</div> +<p>Which has no longer need of the gross and terrene sustenance, in +the use of which Caesar and the beggar are on a level.</p> +<p>The speech is abrupt, but perturbation in such a state is surely +natural.</p> +<p>V.ii.29 (249,4) I am his fortune's vassal, and I send him/The +greatness he has got] I allow him to be my conqueror; I own his +superiority with complete submission.</p> +<p>V.ii.34 (249,5) You see how easily she may be surpriz'd] This +line in the first edition is given not to Charuian, but to +Proculeius; and to him it certainly belongs, though perhaps +misplaced. I would put it at the end of his foregoing speech,</p> +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<p><i>Where he for grace is kneel'd to.</i></p> +<p>[Aside to Gallus.] <i>You see, how easily she may be +surpriz'd.</i></p> +</div> +</div> +<p>Then while Cleopatra makes a formal answer, Gallus, upon the +hint given, seizes her, and Proculeius, interrupting the civility +of his answer,</p> +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<p><i>—your plight is pity'd</i></p> +<p><i>Of him that caus'd it.</i></p> +</div> +</div> +<p>Cries out,</p> +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<p><i>Guard her till, Caesar come.</i></p> +</div> +</div> +<p>V.ii.40 (250,6) who are in this/Reliev'd, but not betray'd] [W: +Bereav'd, but] I do not think the emendation necessary, since the +sense is not made better by it, and the abruptness in Cleopatra's +answer is more forcible in the old reading.</p> +<p>V.ii.42 (250,7) rids our dogs of languish] For <i>languish</i>, +I think we may read, <i>anguish</i>.</p> +<p>V.ii.48 (251,8) Worth many babes and beggars] Why, death, wilt +thou not rather seize a queen, than employ thy force upon +<i>babes</i> and <i>beggars</i>. (see 1765, VII, 238, 9)</p> +<p>V.ii.50 (251,9) If idle talk will once be necessary] [This +nonsense should be reformed thus,</p> +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<p><i>If idle</i> TIME <i>whill once be necessary.</i></p> +</div> +</div> +<p>i.e. if <i>repose</i> be necessary to cherish life, I will not +sleep. WARBURTON.] I do not see that the nonsense is made sense by +the change. Sir T. Hanmer reads,</p> +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<p><i>If idle talk will once be</i> accessary;</p> +</div> +</div> +<p>Neither is this better. I know not what to offer better than an +easy explanation. That is, <i>I will not eat</i>, and <i>if it will +be necessary now for once</i> to waste a moment in <i>idle talk</i> +of my purpose, <i>I will not sleep neither</i>. In common +conversation we often use <i>will be</i>, with as little relation +to futurity. As, Now I am going, it <i>will be</i> fit for me to +dine first.</p> +<p>V.ii.98 (254,2)</p> +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<p class="i10">yet to imagine</p> +<p>An Antony, were Nature's piece 'gainst Fancy,</p> +<p>Condemning shadows quite]</p> +</div> +</div> +<p>[W: Nature's prize] In this passage I cannot discover any +temptation to critical experiments. The word <i>piece</i>, is a +term appropriated to works of art. Here Nature and Fancy produce +each their <i>piece</i>, and the <i>piece</i> done by Nature had +the preference. Antony was in reality <i>past the size of +dreaming</i>; he was more by <i>Nature</i> than <i>Fancy</i> could +present in sleep.</p> +<p>V.ii.121 (255,3) I cannot project mine own cause so well] [W: +procter] Sir T. Hanmer reads,</p> +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<p><i>I cannot</i> parget <i>my own cause—-</i></p> +</div> +</div> +<p>meaning, I cannot <i>whitewash, varnish</i>, or <i>gloss</i> my +cause. I believe the present reading to be right. To <i>project a +cause</i> is to <i>represent</i> a cause; to <i>project</i> it +<i>well</i>, is to <i>plan</i> or <i>contrive</i> a scheme of +defense.</p> +<p>V.ii.139 (256,4) "tis exactly valued, /Not petty things +admitted] [T: omitted] Notwithstanding the wrath of Mr. Theobald, I +have restored the old reading. She is angry afterwards, that she is +accused of having reserved more than petty things. Dr. Warburton +and sir T. Hanmer follow Theobald.</p> +<p>V.ii.146 (257,5) seel my lips] Sew up my mouth.</p> +<p>V.ii.163 (258,7) Parcel the sum of my disgraces by] <i>To parcel +her disgraces</i>, might be expressed in vulgar language, <i>to +bundle up her calamaties</i>. (see 1765, VII, 244, 8)</p> +<p>V.ii.176 (259,8)</p> +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<p><i>Cleo.</i> Be't known, that we, the greatest, are +misthought</p> +<p>for things that others do; and, when we fall,</p> +<p>We answer others merits in our names;</p> +<p>Are therefore to be pitied]</p> +</div> +</div> +<p>I do not think that either of the criticks [Warburton and +Hanmer] have reached the sense of the author, which may be very +commodiously explained thus;</p> +<p>We suffer at our highest state of elevation in the <i>thoughts +of mankind for that which others do, and when we fall</i>, those +that contented themselves only to think ill before, call us to +<i>answer in our own names for the merits of others. We are +therefore to be pitied. Merits</i> is in this place taken in an ill +sense, for actions <i>meriting</i> censure.</p> +<p>If any alteration be necessary, I should only propose, <i>Be 't +known, that we</i> at <i>greatest</i>, &c.</p> +<p>V.ii.185 (259,1) Make not your thoughts your prisons] I once +wished to read,</p> +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<p><i>make not your thoughts your</i> poison:—</p> +</div> +</div> +<p>Do not destroy yourself by musing on your misfortune. Yet I +would change nothing, as the old reading presents a very proper +sense. <i>Be not a prisoner in imagination, when in reality you are +free.</i></p> +<p>V.ii.215 (261,2) scald rhimers] Sir T. Hanmer reads,</p> +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<p>—stall 'd <i>rhimers.</i></p> +</div> +</div> +<p><i>Scald</i> was a word of contempt, implying poverty, disease, +and filth.</p> +<p>V.ii.216 (261,3) quick comedians] The gay inventive players.</p> +<p>V.ii.226 (261,5) Their most absurd intents] [T: assured] I have +preserved the old reading. The design certainly appeared +<i>absurd</i> enough to Cleopatra, both as she thought it +unreasonable in itself, and as she knew it would fail.</p> +<p>V.ii.243 (263,7) the pretty worm of Nilus] <i>Worm</i> is the +Teutonick word for <i>serpent</i>; we have the <i>blind-worm</i> +and <i>slow-worm</i> still in our language, and the Norwegians call +an enormous monster, seen sometimes in the northern ocean, the +<i>sea-worm</i>.</p> +<p>V.ii.264 (263,9) the worm will do him kind] The serpent will act +according to his nature.</p> +<p>V.ii.305 (205,2) He'll make demand of her, and spend that kiss,/ +Which is my heaven to have] He will enquire of her concerning me, +and kiss her for giving him intelligence.</p> +<p>V.ii.352 (267,5) something blown] The flesh is somewhat +<i>puffed</i> or <i>swoln</i>.</p> +<p>(268) General Observation. This play keeps curiosity always +busy, and the passions always interested. The continual hurry of +the action, the variety of incidents, and the quick succession of +one personage to another, call the mind forward without +intermission from the first act to the last. But the power of +delighting is derived principally from the frequent changes of the +scene; for, except the feminine arts, some of which are too low, +which distinguish Cleopatra, no character is very strongly +discriminated. Upton, who did not easily miss what he desired to +find, has discovered that the language of Antony is, with great +skill and learning, made pompous and superb, according to his real +practice. But I think his diction not distinguishable from that of +others: the most tumid speech in the play is that which Caesar +makes to Octavia.</p> +<p>The events, of which the principal are described according to +history, are produced without any art of connexion or care of +disposition.</p> +<h2>TIMON OF ATHENS</h2> +<p>I.i.3 (271,3)</p> +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<p><i>Poet</i>. Ay, that's well known:</p> +<p>But what particular rarity! what strange,</p> +<p>Which manifold record not matches? See,</p> +<p>Magick of bounty!]</p> +</div> +</div> +<p>The learned commentator's [Warburton's] note must shift for +itself. I cannot but think that this passage is at present in +confusion. The poet asks a question, and stays not for an answer, +nor has his question any apparent drift or consequence. I would +range the passage thus:</p> +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<p>Poet. <i>Ay, that's well known.</i></p> +<p><i>Bat what particular rarity? what so strange,</i></p> +<p><i>That manifold record not matches?</i></p> +</div> +<div class="stanza"> +<p>Pain. <i>See!</i></p> +</div> +<div class="stanza"> +<p>Poet. <i>Magick of—bounty, &c.</i></p> +</div> +</div> +<p>It may not be improperly observed here, that as there is only +one copy of this play, no help can be had from collation, and more +liberty must be allowed to conjecture.</p> +<p>I.i.10 (272,4) breath'd as it were/To an untirable and +continuate goodness] <i>Breathed</i> is <i>inured by constant +practice</i>; so trained as not to be wearied. To <i>breathe</i> a +horse, is to exercise him for the course.</p> +<p>I.i.20 (273,8) <i>Poet</i>.</p> +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<p>A thing slipt idly from me.</p> +<p>Our poesy is as a gum, which oozes</p> +<p>From whence 'tis nourished. The fire i' the flint</p> +<p>Shews not, 'till it be struck: our gentle flame</p> +<p>Provokes itself, and, like the current flies</p> +<p>Each bound it chafes. What have you there!]</p> +</div> +</div> +<p>This speech of the poet is very obscure. He seems to boast the +copiousness and facility of his vein, by declaring that verses drop +from a poet as gums from odoriferous trees, and that his flame +kindles itself without the violence necessary to elicit sparkles +from the flint. What follows next? that it, <i>like a current, +flies each bound it chafes</i>. This may mean, that it expands +itself notwithstanding all obstructions: but the images in the +comparison are so ill-sorted, and the effect so obscurely +expressed, that I cannot but think something omitted that connected +the last sentence with the former. It is well knovn that the +players often shorten speeches to quicken the representation; and +it may be suspected, that they sometimes performed their +amputations with more haste than judgment, (see 1765, VI, 169, +6)</p> +<p>I.i.27 (274,9) <i>Poet</i>. Upon the heels of my presentment, +sir.] As soon as my book has been presented to lord Timon.</p> +<p>I.i.29 (274,1) This comes off weil and excellent] [By this we +are to understand what the painters call the <i>goings off</i> of a +picture, which requires the nicest execution. WARBURTON.] The note +I understand less than the text. The meaning is, This figure rises +weil from the canvas. <i>C'est bien relevè.</i></p> +<p>I.i.37 (275,3) artificial strife] <i>Strife</i> is either the +contest or act with nature.</p> +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<p><i>Hic ille est</i> Raphael, <i>timuit, quo aospite +vinci</i></p> +<p><i>Rerum magna parens, & moriente, mori</i>.</p> +</div> +</div> +<p>Or it is the contrast of forms or opposition of colours.</p> +<p>I.i.43 (275,4) this confluence, this great flood of visitors] +<i>Mane salutantúm totis vomit aedibus undam</i>.</p> +<p>I.1.46 (275,5) Halts not particularly] My design does not stop +at any single characters.</p> +<p>I.1.47 (276,7)</p> +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<p>no levell'd malice</p> +<p>Infects one comma in the course I hold;</p> +<p>But flies an eagle-flight, bold, and forth on,</p> +<p>Leaving no tract behind]</p> +</div> +</div> +<p>To <i>level</i> is to <i>aim</i>, to point the shot at a mark. +Shakespeare's meaning is, my poem is not a satire written with any +particular view, or <i>levelled</i> at any single person; I fly +like an eagle into the general expanse of life, and leave not, by +any private mischief, the trace of my passage.</p> +<p>I.i.51 (276,8) I'll unbolt] I'll open, I'll explain.</p> +<p>I.i.53 (276,9) glib and slippery creatures] Hanmer, and +Warburton after him, read, <i>natures</i>. <i>Slippery</i> is +<i>smooth</i>, unresisting.</p> +<p>I.i.58 (276,1) glass-fac'd flatterer] That shows in his own +look, as by reflection, the looks of his patron.</p> +<p>I.i.65 (277,3) rank'd with all deserts] <i>Cover'd with +ranks</i> of all kinds of men.</p> +<p>I.i.67 (277,4) To propagate their states] To advance or improve +their various conditions of life.</p> +<p>I.i.72 (277,5) conceiv'd to scope] Properly imagined, +appositely, to the purpose.</p> +<p>I.i.82 (278,8) through him/Drink the free air] That is, catch +his breath in affected fondness.</p> +<p>I.i.90 (278,9) A thousand moral paintings I can shew] +Shakespeare seems to intend in this dialogue to express some +competition between the two great arts of imitation. Whatever the +poet declares himself to have shewn, the painter thinks he could +have shewn better. (1773)</p> +<p>I.i.107 (279,1) 'Tis not enough to help the feeble up,/But to +support him after] This thought is better expressed by Dr. Madden +in his elegy on archbishop Boulter.</p> +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<p>—<i>He thought it mean</i></p> +<p><i>Only to help the poor to beg again.</i></p> +</div> +</div> +<p>I.i.129 (280,2) Therefore he will be, Timon] I rather think an +emendation necessary, and read,</p> +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<p><i>Therefore</i> well be him, <i>Timon.</i></p> +<p><i>His honesty rewards him in itself.</i></p> +</div> +</div> +<p>That is, <i>If he in honest</i>, bene fit illi, <i>I wish him +the proper happiness of an honest man, but his honesty gives him no +claim to my daughter</i>.</p> +<p>The first transcriber probably wrote <i>will be him</i>, which +the next, not understanding, changed to, <i>he will be</i>. +(1773)</p> +<p>I.i.149 (281,3)</p> +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<p>never may</p> +<p>That state, or fortune, fall into my keeping,</p> +<p>Which is not ow'd to you!]</p> +</div> +</div> +<p>The meaning is, let me never henceforth consider any thing that +I possess, but as <i>owed</i> or <i>due</i> to you; held for your +service, and at your disposal.</p> +<p>I.i.159 (281,4) pencil'd figures are/Even such as they give out] +Pictures have no hypocrisy; they are what they profess to be.</p> +<p>I.i.165 (282,5) unclew me quite] To <i>unclew</i>, is to +<i>unwind</i> a ball of thread. To <i>unclew</i> a man, is to draw +out the whole mass of his fortunes.</p> +<p>I.i.171 (282,5) Are prized by their masters] Are rated according +to the, esteem in which their possessor is held.</p> +<p>I.i.178 (282,8)</p> +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<p><i>Tim.</i> Good-morrow to thee, gentle Apemantua!</p> +<p><i>Apam.</i> 'Till I be gentle, stay for thy good-morrow.</p> +<p>When thou art Timon's dog, and these knaves honest,—]</p> +</div> +</div> +<p>[Warburton conjectured a line lost and added one of his own +making] I think my punctuation may clear the passage without any +greater effort.</p> +<p>I.i.180 (283,9) Then thou art Timon's dog] When thou hast gotten +a better character, and instead of being Timon, as thou art, shalt +be changed to Timon's dog, and become more worth; of kindness and +salutation. (1773)</p> +<p>I.i.241 (284,9) That I had no angry wit to be a lord] [W: so +hungry a wit] The meaning may be, I should hate myself for +<i>patiently enduring to be a lord</i>. This is ill enough +expressed. Perhaps some happy change may set it right. I have +tried, and can do nothing, yet I cannot heartily concur with Dr. +Warburton.</p> +<p>I.i.259 (286,2) The strain of man's bred out/Into baboon and +monkey] Man is exhausted and degenerated; his <i>strain</i> or +lineage is worn down into monkey.</p> +<p>I.ii.12 (288,5)</p> +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<p>If our betters play at that game, we must not dare</p> +<p>To imitate them. Faults that are rich, are fair]</p> +</div> +</div> +<p>[Warburton gave the second line to Apemantus] I cannot see that +these lines are more proper in any other mouth than Timon's, to +whose character of generosity and condescension they are very +suitable. To suppose that by <i>our betters</i> are meant the Gods, +is very harsh, because to imitate the Gods has been hitherto +reckoned the highest pitch of human virtue. The whole is a trite +and obvious thought, uttered by Timon with a kind of affected +modesty. If I would make any alteration, it should be only to +reform the numbers thus:</p> +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<p><i>Our betters play that game; we must not dare</i></p> +<p><i>T' imitate then; faults that are rich are fair.</i></p> +</div> +</div> +<p>I.ii.34 (289,6) thou art an Athenian,/Therefore welcome: I +myself would have no power] If this be the true reading, the sense +is, <i>all Athenians are welcome to share my fortune</i>; I would +myself have no <i>exclusive right or power in this house</i>. +Perhaps we might read, <i>I myself would have no</i> poor. I would +have every Athenian consider himself as joint possessor of my +fortune.</p> +<p>I.ii.38 (289,7) I scorn thy meat, 'twould choke me, for I +should/ Ne'er flatter thee] [W: 'fore/I should e'er] Of this +emendation there is little need. The meaning is, I could not +swallow thy meat, for I could not pay for it with flattery; and +what was given me with an ill will would stick in my throat.</p> +<p>I.ii.41 (290,8) so many dip their meat/In one man's blood] The +allusion is to a pack of hounds trained to pursuit by being +gratified with the blood of the animal which they kill, and the +wonder is that the animal on which they are feeding <i>cheers +them</i> to the chase.</p> +<p>I.ii.52 (290,9) wind-pipe's dangerous notes] The notes of the +windpipe seem to be the only indications which shew where the +windpipe is. (see 1765, VI, 184, 4)</p> +<p>I.ii.54 (290,1) My lord, in heart] That is, <i>my lord's health +with sincerity</i>. An emendation hat been proposed thus:</p> +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<p><i>My</i> love <i>in heart</i>;—</p> +</div> +</div> +<p>but it is not necessary.</p> +<p>I.ii.89 (292,2) we should think ourselves for ever perfect] That +is, arrived at the perfection of happiness.</p> +<p>I.ii.94 (292,4) did not you chiefly belong to my heart?] I think +it should be inverted thus: <i>did I not chiefly belong to</i> your +hearts. Lacius wishes that Timon would give him and the rest an +opportunity <i>of expressing some part of their zeals</i>. Timon +answers that, <i>doubtless the Gods have provided that I should +have help from you; how else are you my friends</i>? why are you +stiled my friends, if—what? <i>if I do not love you</i>. Such +is the present reading; but the consequence is not very clear; the +proper close must be, <i>if you do not love me</i>, and to this my +alteration restores it. But, perhaps, the old reading may stand. +[The <i>Revisal</i>'s note on this line is quoted.] The meaning is +probably this. Why are you distinguished from thousands by that +title of endearment, was there not a particular connection and +intercourse of tenderness between you and me. (see 1765, VI, 185, +8)</p> +<p>I.ii.97 (293,5) I confirm you] I fix your characters firmly in +my own mind.</p> +<p>I.ii.99 (293,7) O joy, e'en made away, ere it can be born!] For +this Hanmer writes, <i>O joy, e'en made a joy ere't can be +born</i>; and is followed by Dr. Warburton. I am always inclinable +to think well of that which is approved by so much learning and +sagacity, yet cannot receive this alteration. Tears being the +effect both of joy and grief, supplied our author with an +opportunity of conceit, which he seldom fails to indulge. Timon, +weeping with a kind of tender pleasure, cries out, <i>O joy, e'en +made away</i>, destroyed, turned to tears, before <i>it can be +born</i>, before it can be fully possessed.</p> +<p>I.ii.110 (293,8) Mine eyes cannot hold water, methinks: to +forget their faults, I drink to you] In the original edition the +words stand thus: <i>mine eyes cannot hold out water, methinks. To +forget their faults, I drink to you</i>. Perhaps the true reading +is this, <i>Mine eyes cannot hold out</i>; they <i>water. Methinks, +to forget their faults, I will drink to you</i>. Or it may be +explained without any change. <i>Mine eyes cannot hold out +water</i>, that is, cannot keep water from breaking in upon them, +(see 1765, VI, 186, 2)</p> +<p>I.ii.113 (294,9) <i>Apem</i>. Thou weep'st to make them drink] +Hanmer reads,</p> +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<p>—<i>to make then drink</i> thee,</p> +</div> +</div> +<p>and is again followed by Dr. Warburton, I think without +sufficient reason. The covert sense of Apemantus is, <i>what thou +losest, they get</i>.</p> +<p>I.ii.118 (294,1) like a babe] That is a <i>weeping babe</i>.</p> +<p>I.ii.138 (295,3)</p> +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<p>They dance! They are mad women.</p> +<p>Like madness is the glory of this life,</p> +<p>As this pomp shews to a little oil and root]</p> +</div> +</div> +<p>[Warburton conjectured some lines lost after the second verse] +When I read this passage, I was at first of the same opinion with +this learned man; but, upon longer consideration, I grew less +confident, because I think the present reading susceptible of +explanation, with no more violence to language than is frequently +found in our author. <i>The glory of this life is very near to +madness</i>, as may be made appear from <i>this pomp</i>, exhibited +in a place where a philosopher is feeding on <i>oil and roots</i>. +When we see by example how few are the necessaries of life, we +learn what madness there is in so much superfluity.</p> +<p>I.ii.146 (296,5) who dies, that bears/Not one spurn to their +graves, of their friends gift?] That is, given them by their +friends.(1773)</p> +<p>I.ii.155 (297,6) mine own device] The mask appears to have been +design'd by Timon to surprise his guests.</p> +<p>I.ii.157 (297,7) <i>L Lady</i>. My lord, you take us even at the +best] This answer seems rather to belong to one of the ladies. It +was probably only mark'd <i>L</i> in the copy.</p> +<p>I.ii.169 (298,1) 'Tis pity, bounty has not eyes behind] To see +the miseries that are following her.</p> +<p>I.ii.170 (298,2) That man might ne'er be wretched for his mind] +For nobleness of soul.</p> +<p>I.ii.176 (298,3) to/Advance this jewel] To prefer it; to raise +it to honour by wearing it.</p> +<p>I.ii.230 (300,6)</p> +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<p>all the lands thou hast</p> +<p>Lie in a pitch'd field.</p> +<p><i>Alc.</i> I' defiled land, my lord]</p> +</div> +</div> +<p>This is the old reading, which apparently depends on a very low +quibble. Alcibiades is told, that <i>his estate lies in a</i> +pitch'd <i>field</i>. Now <i>pitch</i>, as Falstaff says, <i>doth +defile</i>. Alcibiades therefore replies, that his estate lies +<i>in defiled land</i>. This, as it happened, was not understood, +and all the editors published,</p> +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<p><i>I defy land</i>,—</p> +</div> +</div> +<p>I.ii.237 (301,8) Serving of becks] [W: serring] The commentator +conceives <i>beck</i> to mean the <i>mouth</i> or the <i>head</i>, +after the French, <i>bec</i>, whereas it means a salutation made +with the head. So Milton,</p> +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<p>"Nods and <i>becks</i>, and wreathed smiles."</p> +</div> +</div> +<p>To <i>serve a beck</i>, is to offer a salutation.</p> +<p>I.ii.238 (301,9) I doubt, whether their legs] He plays upon the +word <i>leg</i>, as it signifies a <i>limb</i> and a <i>bow</i> or +<i>act of obeisance</i>.</p> +<p>I.ii.247 (302,1) I fear me, thou/Wilt give away thyself in paper +shortly] [W: in proper] Hanmer reads very plausibly,</p> +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<p>—<i>thou</i></p> +<p><i>Wilt give away thyself</i> in perpetuum.</p> +</div> +</div> +<p>I.ii.235 (302,2) I'll lock/Thy heaven from thee] The pleasure of +being flattered.</p> +<p>II.i.10 (304,5) No porter at his gate;/But rather one that +smiles, and still invites] I imagine that a line is lost here, in +which the behaviour of a surly porter was described.</p> +<p>II.i.12 (304,6) no reason/Can found his state in safety] The +supposed meaning of this [Can sound his state] must be, <i>No +reason</i>, by <i>sounding</i>, fathoming, or trying, <i>his +state</i>, can find it <i>safe</i>. But as the words stand, they +imply, that <i>no reason can</i> safely <i>sound his state</i>. I +read thus,</p> +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<p>—<i>no reason</i></p> +<p><i>Can</i> found <i>his state in safety</i>.—</p> +</div> +</div> +<p><i>Reason</i> cannot find his fortune to have any <i>safe</i> or +solid <i>foundation</i>.</p> +<p>The types of the first printer of this play were so worn and +defaced, that <i>f</i> and <i>s</i> are not always to be +distinguished.</p> +<p>II.ii.5 (305,9) Never mind/Was to be so unwise, to be so kind] +Of this mode of expression conversation affords many examples: "I +was always to be blamed, whatever happened." "I am in the lottery, +but I was always to draw blanks." (1773)</p> +<p>II.ii.9 (306,1) Good even, Varro] It is observable, that this +<i>good evening</i> is before dinner; for Timon tells Alcibiades, +that they will <i>go forth again as soon as dinner's done</i>, +which may prove that by <i>dinner</i> our author meant not the +<i>coena</i> of ancient times, but the mid-day's repast. I do not +suppose the passage corrupt: such inadvertencies neither author nor +editor can escape.</p> +<p>There is another remark to be made. Varro and Isidore sink a few +lines afterwards into the servants of Varro and Isidore. Whether +servants, in our author's time, took the names of their masters, I +know not. Perhaps it is a slip of negligence.</p> +<p>II.ii.47 (308,4) <i>Enter Apemantus and a Fool</i>] I suspect +some scene to be lost, in which the entrance of the fool, and the +page that follows him, was prepared by some introductory dialogue, +in which the audience was informed that they were the fool and page +of Phrynia, Timandra, or some other courtesan, upon the knowledge +of which depends the greater part of the ensuing jocularity.</p> +<p>II.ii.60-66 (309,4) Poor rogues] This is said so abruptly, that +I am inclined to think it misplaced, and would regulate the passage +thus:</p> +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<p>Caph. <i>Where's the fool now?</i></p> +<p>Apem. <i>He last ask'd the question.</i></p> +<p>All. <i>What are we, Apemantus?</i></p> +<p>Apem. <i>Asses.</i></p> +<p>All. <i>Why?</i></p> +<p>Apem. <i>That you ask me what you are, and do not know +yourselves. Poor rogues', and usurers' men! bawds between</i></p> +<p><i>gold and want! Speak</i>, &c.</p> +</div> +</div> +<p>Thus every word will have its proper place. It is likely that +the passage transposed was forgot in the copy, and inserted in the +margin, perhaps a little beside the proper place, which the +transcriber wanting either skill or care to observe, wrote it where +it now stands.</p> +<p>II.ii.71 (309,5) She's e'en setting on water to scald] The old +name for the disease got at Corinth was the <i>brenning</i>, and a +sense of <i>scalding</i> is one of its first symptoms.</p> +<p>II.ii.117 (311,7) with two stones more than's artificial one] +Meaning the celebrated philosopher's stone, which was in those +times much talked of. Sir Thomas Smith was one of those who lost +considerable sums in seeking of it.</p> +<p>II.ii.152 (312,9) Though you hear now, yet now's too late a +time] [Warburton objected to this, an emendation by Hanmer] I think +Hanmer right, and have received his emendation.</p> +<p>Il.ii.155 (313,1) and at length/How goes our reckoning?] [W: +Hold good our] It is common enough, and the commentator knows it is +common to propose interrogatively, that of which neither the +speaker nor the hearer has any doubt. The present reading may +therefore stand.</p> +<p>II.ii.171 (314,2) a wasteful cock] [i.e. a <i>cockloft</i>, a +garret. And a <i>wasteful cock</i>, signifies a garret lying in +waste, neglected, put to no use. HANMER.] Hanmer's explanation is +received by Dr. Warburton, yet I think them both apparently +mistaken. A <i>wasteful cock</i> is a <i>cock</i> or pipe with a +turning stopple <i>running</i> to <i>waste</i>. In this sense, both +the terms have their usual meaning; but I know not that <i>cock</i> +is ever used for <i>cockloft</i>, or <i>wasteful</i> for <i>lying +in waste</i>, or that lying in waste is at all a phrase.</p> +<p>Il.ii.187 (314,4) And try the arguments] [<i>Arguments</i> for +natures. <i>WARB</i>.] How <i>arguments</i> should stand for +natures I do not see. But the licentiousness of our author forces +us often upon far fetched expositions. <i>Arguments</i> may mean +<i>contents</i>, as the <i>arguments</i> of a book; or for +<i>evidences</i> and <i>proofs</i>.</p> +<p>II.ii.209 (315,5) I knew it the most general way] <i>General</i> +is not speedy, but <i>compendious</i>, the way to try many at a +time.</p> +<p>II.ii.219 (316,6) And so, intending other serious matters] +<i>Intending</i> is <i>regarding, turning their notice</i> to other +things.</p> +<p>II.ii.220 (316,7) these hard fractions] [Warburton saw an +allusion to fractions in mathematics] This is, I think, no conceit +in the head of Flavius, who, by <i>fractions</i>, means +<i>broken</i> hints, <i>interrupted</i> sentences, <i>abrupt</i> +remarks.</p> +<p>II.ii.221 (316,8) half-caps] A <i>half cap</i> is a <i>cap</i> +slightly moved, not put off.</p> +<p>II.ii.241 (317,3) I would, I could not] The original edition +has, <i>I would, I could not think it, that thought</i>, &c. It +has been changed ['Would], to mend the numbers, without +authority.</p> +<p>II.ii.242 (317,4)</p> +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<p>That thought is bounty's foe;</p> +<p>Being free itself, it thinks all other so]</p> +</div> +</div> +<p><i>Free</i>, is <i>liberal</i>, not parsimonious.</p> +<p>III.i.57 (319,6) Has friendship such a faint and milky heart, It +turns in less than two nights?] Alluding to the <i>turning</i> or +acescence of milk.</p> +<p>III.ii.3 (320,3) We know him for no less] That is, <i>we know +him</i> by report to be <i>no less</i> than you represent him, +though we are strangers to his person.</p> +<p>III.ii.24 (321,5) yet had he mistook him, and sent him to me] +[W: mislook'd] I rather read, <i>yet had he</i> not <i>mistook him, +and sent to me</i>.</p> +<p>III.ii.45 (322,7) If his occasion were not virtuous] +[<i>Virtuous</i>, for strong, forcible, pressing. +<i>WARBURTON</i>.] The meaning may more naturally be;—If he +did not want it for a good use. (1773)</p> +<p>III.ii.51 (322,9) that I should purchase the day before for a +little part, and undo a great deal of honour?] [T: a little dirt] +This emendation is received, like all others, by sir T. Hanmer, but +neglected by Dr. Warburton. I think Theobald right in suspecting a +corruption; nor is his emendation injudicious, though perhaps we +may better read, <i>purchase the day before for a little +park</i>.</p> +<p>III.ii.71 (323,1) And just of the same piece is every +flatterer's soul] This is Dr. Warburton's emendation. The other +editions read,</p> +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<p><i>Why this is the world's soul;</i></p> +<p><i>Of the same piece is every flatterer's</i> sport.</p> +</div> +</div> +<p>Mr. Upton has not unluckily transposed the two final words, +thus,</p> +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<p><i>Why, this is the world's</i> sport:</p> +<p><i>Of the same piece is ev'ry flatterer's</i> soul.</p> +</div> +</div> +<p>The passage is not so obscure as to provoke so much enquiry. +<i>This</i>, says he, <i>is the soul</i> or spirit <i>of the world: +every flatterer</i> plays the same game, makes <i>sport</i> with +the confidence of his friend. (see 1765, VI, 211, 4)</p> +<p>III.ii.81 (324,2) He does deny him, in respect of his, What +charitable men afford to beggars] That is, <i>in respect of his</i> +fortune, what Lucius denies to Timon is in proportion to what +Lucius possesses, less than the ususal alms given by good men to +beggars.</p> +<p>III.ii.90 (324,3) I would have put my wealth into donation, And +the best half should ha' return'd to him] Hanmer reads,</p> +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<p><i>I would have put my wealth into</i> partition,</p> +<p><i>And the best half should have</i> attorn'd <i>to him</i>.</p> +</div> +</div> +<p>Dr. Warbarton receives <i>attorn'd</i>. The only difficulty is +in the word <i>return'd</i>, which, since he had received nothing +from him, cannot be used but in a very low and licentious meaning, +(see 1765, VI, 212, 6)</p> +<p>III.iii.5 (325,4) They have all been touch'd] That is, +<i>tried</i>, alluding to the <i>touchstone</i>.</p> +<p>III.iii.11 (325,5) His friends, like physicians,/Thrive, give +him over?] The original reading is,</p> +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<p>—his friends, (<i>like physicians</i>)</p> +<p>Thrive, give him over?</p> +</div> +</div> +<p>which Theobald has misrepresented. Hanmer reads, <i>try'd</i>, +plausibly enough. Instead of <i>three</i> proposed by Mr. Pope, I +should read <i>thrice</i>. But perhaps the old reading is the +true.</p> +<p>III.iii.24 (326,6) I had such a courage] Such an ardour, such an +eager desire.</p> +<p>III.iii.28 (326,8) The devil knew not what he did] I cannot but +think that, the negative <i>not</i> has intruded into this passage, +and the reader will think so too, when he reads Dr. Warburton's +explanation of the next words.</p> +<p>III.iii.28 (326,9) The devil knew not what he did, when he made +men politick; he cross'd himself by't: and I cannot think, but in +the end the villainies of man will set him clear] [<i>Set him +clear</i> does not mean acquit him before heaven; for then <i>the +devil</i> must be supposed <i>to know what</i> he did: but it +signifies puzzle him, outdo him at his own weapons. WARBURTON.] How +the devil, or any other being, should be <i>set clear</i> by being +<i>puzzled</i> and <i>outdone</i>, the commentator has not +explained. When in a crowd we would have an opening made, we say, +<i>Stand clear</i>, that is, <i>out of the way of danger</i>. With +some affinity to this use, though not without great harshness, to +<i>set clear</i>, may be to <i>set aside</i>. But I believe the +original corruption is the insertion of the negative, which was +obtruded by some transcriber, who supposed <i>crossed</i> to mean +<i>thwarted</i>, when it meant, <i>exempted from evil</i>. The use +of <i>crossing</i>, by way of protection or purification, was +probably not worn out in Shakespeare's time. The sense of <i>set +clear</i> is now easy; he has no longer the guilt of tempting man. +To cross himself may mean, in a very familiar sense, <i>to clear +his score, to get out of debt, to quit his reckoning</i>. He knew +not <i>what he did</i>, may mean, he knew not how much good he was +doing himself. There is then no need of emendation. (1773)</p> +<p>III.iii.42 (327,2) keep his house] i.e. keep within doors for +fear of duns.</p> +<p>III.iv (328,3) <i>Enter Varro, Titus, Hortense, Lucius</i>] +Lucius is here again for the servant of Lucius.</p> +<p>III.iv.12 (328,4) a prodigal's course/Is like the sun's] That +is, like him in blaze and splendour.</p> +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<p><i>Soles occidere et redire possunt.</i> Catul.</p> +</div> +</div> +<p>III.iv.25 (329,5) I am weary of this charge] That is, of this +<i>commission</i>, of this <i>employment</i>.</p> +<p>III.iv.32 (329,6) Else, surely, his had equall'd] Should it not +be, <i>else, surely, mine had equall'd</i>.</p> +<p>III.iv.67 (330,7) <i>Enter Servilius</i>] It may be observed +that Shakespeare has unskilfully filled his Greek story with Roman +names.</p> +<p>III.v.14 (333,6)</p> +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<p>He is a man, setting his fate aside,</p> +<p>Of comely virtues:</p> +<p>Nor did he soil the fact with cowardise;</p> +<p>(An honour in him which buys out his fault)]</p> +</div> +</div> +<p>I have printed these lines after the original copy, except that, +for <i>an honour</i>, it is there, <i>and honour</i>. All the +latter editions deviate unwarrantably from the original, and give +the lines thus:</p> +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<p><i>He is a man, setting his fault aside,</i></p> +<p><i>Of virtuous honour, which buys out his fault;</i></p> +<p><i>Nor did he soil</i>, &c.</p> +</div> +</div> +<p>III.v.22 (333,3)</p> +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<p>He did behave, his anger ere 'twas spent,</p> +<p>As if he had but prov'd an argument]</p> +</div> +</div> +<p>The original copy reads not <i>behave</i> but <i>behoove</i>. I +do not well understand the passage in either reading. Shall we try +a daring conjecture?</p> +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<p>—<i>with such sober and unnoted passion</i></p> +<p><i>He did behold his adversary shent,</i></p> +<p><i>As if he had but prov'd an argument</i>.</p> +</div> +</div> +<p>He looked with such calmness on his slain adversary. I do not +suppose that this is right, but put it down for want of better. +(1773)</p> +<p>III.v.24 (334,4) You undergo too strict a paradox] You undertake +a paradox too <i>hard</i>.</p> +<p>III.v.32 (334,5) and make his wrongs His outsides: to wear them +like an argument, carelessly. We outside wear; hang like his] The +present reading is better.</p> +<p>III.v.46 (335,6) What make we/Abroad?] <i>What do we</i>, or +<i>what have we to do in the field</i>.</p> +<p>III.v.46 (335,7)</p> +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<p class="i10">what make we</p> +<p>Abroad? why then, women are more valiant,</p> +<p>That stay at home, if bearing carry it;</p> +<p>The ass, more than the lion; and the fellow,</p> +<p>Loaden with irons, wiser than the judge,</p> +<p>If wisdom be in suffering]</p> +</div> +</div> +<p>Here is another arbitrary regulation, the original reads +thus,</p> +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<p class="i10"><i>what make we</i></p> +<p><i>Abroad, why then women are more valiant</i></p> +<p><i>That stay at home, if bearing carry it:</i></p> +<p><i>And the ass more captain than the lion,</i></p> +<p><i>The fellow, loaden with irons, wiser than the judge,</i></p> +<p><i>If wisdom</i>, &c.</p> +</div> +</div> +<p>I think it may be better adjusted thus:</p> +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<p class="i10"><i>what make we</i></p> +<p><i>Abroad, why then the women are more valiant</i></p> +<p><i>That stay at home;</i></p> +<p><i>If bearing carry it, than is the ass</i></p> +<p><i>More captain than the lion, and the</i> felon</p> +<p><i>Loaden with irons, wiser than the judge,</i></p> +<p><i>If wisdom</i>, &c.</p> +</div> +</div> +<p>III.v.54 (336,8) sin's extreamest gust] <i>Gust</i> is here in +its common sense; the utmost degree of <i>appetite</i> for sin.</p> +<p>III.v.55 (336,9) by mercy, 'tis most just] [By <i>mercy</i> is +meant <i>equity</i>. WARBURTON] <i>Mercy</i> is not put for equity. +If such explanation be allowed, what can be difficult? The meaning +is, <i>I call</i> mercy <i>herself</i> to witness, that defensive +violence is just.</p> +<p>III.v.68 (338,2) a sworn rioter] A <i>sworn rioter</i> is a man +who practises riot, as if he had by an oath made it his duty.</p> +<p>III.v.80 (337,3) your reverend ages love/Security] He charges +them obliquely with being usurers.</p> +<p>III.v.96 (337,5) Do you dare our anger?/'Tis in few words, but +spacious in effect] This reading may pass, but perhaps the author +wrote,</p> +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<p class="i10"><i>our anger</i>?</p> +<p><i>'Tis few in words, but spacious in effect.</i></p> +</div> +</div> +<p>III.v.114 (338,7)</p> +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<p class="i8">I'll cheer up</p> +<p>My discontented troops, and play for hearts.</p> +<p>'Tis honour with most hands to be at odds]</p> +</div> +</div> +<p>[Warburton had substituted "hands" for "lands"] I think +<i>hands</i> is very properly substituted for <i>lands</i>. In the +foregoing line, for, <i>lay for hearts</i>, I would read, +<i>play</i> for <i>hearts</i>.</p> +<p>III.vi.4 (339,7) Upon that were my thoughts tiring] A hawk, I +think, is said to <i>tire</i>, when she amuses herself with pecking +a pheasant's wing, or any thing that puts her in mind of prey. To +<i>tire</i> upon a thing, is therefore, to be <i>idly employed upon +it</i>.</p> +<p>III.vi.100 (342,9) Is your perfection] Your <i>perfection</i>, +is <i>the highest of your excellence</i>.</p> +<p>III.vi.101 (342,1) and spangled you with flatteries] [W: with +your] The present reading is right.</p> +<p>III.vi.106 (342,2) time-flies] Flies of a season.</p> +<p>III.vi. 107 (342,5) minute-jacks!] Hanmer thinks it means +<i>Jack-a-lantern</i>, which shines and disappears in an instant. +What it was I know not; but it was something of quick motion, +mentioned in Richard III.</p> +<p>III.vi.108 (342,4) the infinite malady] Every kind of disease +incident to man and beast.</p> +<p>IV.i.19 (344,6)</p> +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<p>Degrees, observances, customs and laws,</p> +<p>Decline to your confounding contraries,</p> +<p>And yet confusion live!]</p> +</div> +</div> +<p>Hanmer reads, <i>let</i> confusion; but the meaning may be, +<i>though by such confusion all things seem to hasten to +dissolution</i>, yet <i>let not dissolution come, but the miseries +of</i> confusion <i>continue.</i></p> +<p>IV.ii (345,1) Enter Flavius] Nothing contributes more to the +exaltation of Timon's character than the zeal and fidelity of his +servants. Nothing but real virtue can be honoured by domesticks; +nothing but impartial kindness can gain affection from +dependants.</p> +<p>IV.ii.10 (345,2) So his familiars from his buried fortunes/Slink +all away] The old copies have <i>to</i> instead of <i>from</i>. The +correction is Hanmer's; but the old reading might stand (see 1765, +VI, 231, 2)</p> +<p>IV.ii.38 (346,4) strange unusual blood] Of this passage, I +suppose, every reader would wish for a correction; but the word, +harsh as it is, stands fortified by the rhyme, to which, perhaps, +it owes its introduction. I know not what to propose. Perhaps,</p> +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<p>—<i>strange unusual</i> mood,</p> +</div> +</div> +<p>may, by some, be thought better, and by others worse.</p> +<p>IV.iii.1 (347,5) O blessed, breeding sun] [W: blessing breeding] +I do not see that this emendation much strengthens the sense.</p> +<p>IV.iii.2 (347,6) thy sister's orb] That is, the moon's, this +<i>sublunary</i> world.</p> +<p>IV.iii.6 (348,7) Not nature,/To whom all sores lay siege] I have +preserved this note rather for the sake of the commentator +[Warburton] than of the author. How <i>nature, to whom all sores +lay siege</i>, can so emphatically express <i>nature in its +greatest perfection</i>, I shall not endeavour to explain. The +meaning I take to be this: <i>Brother, when his fortune is +inlarged, will scorn brother</i>; for this is the general depravity +of human nature, which, <i>besieged as it is by misery</i>, +admonished as it is of want and imperfection, when <i>elevated by +fortune, will despise</i> beings of <i>nature like its own</i>.</p> +<p>IV.iii.12 (349,9) It is the pastor lards the brother's +sides,/The want that makes him leave] [W: weather's sides] This +passage is very obscure, nor do I discover any clear sense, even +though we should admit the emendation. Let us inspect the text as I +have given it from the original edition,</p> +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<p><i>It is the</i> pastour <i>lards the</i> brother's +<i>sides,</i></p> +<p><i>The want that makes him</i> leave.</p> +</div> +</div> +<p>Dr. Warburton found the passage already changed thus,</p> +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<p><i>It is the</i> pasture <i>lards the</i> beggar's +<i>sides,</i></p> +<p><i>The want that makes him</i> lean.</p> +</div> +</div> +<p>And upon this reading of no authority, raised another equally +uncertain.</p> +<p>Alterations are never to be made without necessity. Let us see +what sense the genuine reading will afford. Poverty, says the poet, +<i>bears contempt hereditary</i>, and <i>wealth native honour</i>. +To illustrate this position, having already mentioned the case of a +poor and rich brother, he remarks, that this preference is given to +wealth by those whom it least becomes; <i>it is the</i> pastour +<i>that greases or</i> flatters <i>the rich</i> brother, and will +grease him on till <i>want makes him leave</i>. The poet then goes +on to ask, <i>Who dares to say this man</i>, this pastour, <i>is a +flatterer</i>; the crime is universal; through all the world <i>the +learned pate</i>, with allusion to the pastour, <i>ducks to the +golden fool</i>. If it be objected, as it may justly be, that the +mention of pastour is unsuitable, we must remember the mention of +<i>grace</i> and <i>cherubims</i> in this play, and many such +anachronisms in many others. I would therefore read thus:</p> +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<p><i>It is the pastour lards the brother's sides</i>,</p> +<p>'Tis <i>want that makes him leave</i>.</p> +</div> +</div> +<p>The obscurity is still great. Perhaps a line is lost. I have at +least given the original reading.</p> +<p>IV.iii.27 (350,2) no idle votarist] No insincere or inconstant +supplicant. <i>Gold</i> will not serve me instead of +<i>roots</i>.</p> +<p>IV.iii.38 (351,5) That makes the wappen'd widow wed again] Of +<i>wappened</i> I have found no example, nor know any meaning. To +<i>awhape</i> is used by Spenser in his <i>Hubberd's Tale</i>, but +I think not in either of the senses mentioned. I would read +<i>wained</i>, for <i>decayed by time</i>. So our author in +<i>Richard the Third</i>, <i>A beauty</i>-waining <i>and distressed +widow</i>.</p> +<p>IV.iii.41 (352,6) To the April day again] That is, <i>to the +wedding day</i>, called by the poet, satirically, <i>April day</i>, +or <i>fool's day</i>.</p> +<p>IV.iii.44 (352,7) Do thy right nature] Lie in the earth where +nature laid thee.</p> +<p>IV.iii.44 (352,8) Thou'rt quick] Thou hast life and motion in +thee.</p> +<p>IV.iii.64 (353,9) I will not kiss thee] This alludes to an +opinion in former times, generally prevalent, that the venereal +infection transmitted to another, left the infecter free. I will +not, says Timon, take the rot from thy lips by kissing thee.</p> +<p>IV.iii.72 (353,1)</p> +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<p><i>Tim.</i> Promise me friendship, but perform none. If</p> +<p>Thou wilt not promise, the Gods plague thee, for</p> +<p>Thou art a man; if thou dost perform, confound thee,</p> +<p>For thou art a man!]</p> +</div> +</div> +<p>That is, however thou may'st act, since thou art man, hated man, +I wish thee evil.</p> +<p>IV.iii.82 (354,2)</p> +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<p>Be a whore still! They love thee not that use thee;</p> +<p>Give them diseases, leaving with thee their lust:</p> +<p>Make use of thy salt hours]</p> +</div> +</div> +<p>There is here a slight transposition. I would read,</p> +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<p>—<i>They love thee not that use thee,</i></p> +<p><i>Leaving with thee their lust; give them diseases;</i></p> +<p><i>Make use of thy salt hours; season the slaves</i></p> +<p><i>For tubs and baths</i>;—</p> +</div> +</div> +<p>IV.iii.115 (356,6) milk-paps,/That through the window-bars bore +at mens' eyes] [W: window-lawn] The reading is more probably,</p> +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<p>—<i>window-bar</i>,—</p> +</div> +</div> +<p>The virgin that shews her bosom through the lattice of her +chamber.</p> +<p>IV.iii.119 (356,8) exhaust their mercy] For <i>exhaust</i>, sir +T. Hanmer, and after him Dr. Warburton, read <i>extort</i>; but +<i>exhaust</i> here signifies literally to <i>draw forth</i>.</p> +<p>IV.iii.120 (356,7)</p> +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<p>Think it a bastard, whom the oracle</p> +<p>Hath doubtfully prunounc'd thy throat shall cut]</p> +</div> +</div> +<p>An allusion to the tale of OEdipus.</p> +<p>IV.iii.134 (357,8) And to make whores a bawd] [W: make whole] +The old edition reads,</p> +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<p><i>And to make whores a bawd.</i></p> +</div> +</div> +<p>That is, <i>enough to make a whore leave whoring, and a bawd +leave making whores</i>.</p> +<p>IV.iii.139 (357,9) I'll trust to your conditions] You need not +swear to continue whores, I will trust to your inclinations.</p> +<p>IV.iii.140 (358,1) Yet may your pains, six months,/Be quite +contrary] The explanation [Warburton's] is ingenious, but I think +it very remote, and would willingly bring the author and his +readers to meet on easier terms. We may read,</p> +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<p>—<i>Yet may your pains six months</i></p> +<p><i>Be quite</i> contraried.—</p> +</div> +</div> +<p>Timon is wishing ill to mankind, but is afraid lest the whores +should imagine that he wishes well to them; to obviate which he +lets them know, that he imprecates upon them influence enough to +plague others, and disappointments enough to plague themselves. He +wishes that they may do all possible mischief, and yet take +<i>pains six months</i> of the year in vain.</p> +<p>In this sense there is a connection of this line with the next. +Finding <i>your pains contraried</i>, try new expedients, <i>thatch +your thin roofs</i>, and <i>paint</i>.</p> +<p>To <i>contrary</i> is on old verb. Latymer relates, that when he +went to court, he was advised not to <i>contrary</i> the king.</p> +<p>IV.iii.153 (359,3) mens' spurring] Hanmer reads <i>sparring</i>, +properly enough, if there be any ancient example of the word.</p> +<p>IV.iii.158 (359,5)</p> +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<p>take the bridge quite away</p> +<p>Of him, that his particular to foresee</p> +<p>Smells from the general weal]</p> +</div> +</div> +<p>[W: to forefend] The metaphor is apparently incongruous, but the +sense is good. To <i>foresee his particular</i>, is <i>to provide +for his private advantage</i>, for which <i>he leaves the right +scent of publick good</i>. In hunting, when hares have cross'd one +another, it is common for some of the hounds <i>to smell from the +general weal, and foresee their own particular</i>. Shakespeare, +who seems to have been a skilful sportsman, and has alluded often +to falconry, perhaps, alludes here to hunting.</p> +<p>To the commentator's emendation it may be objected, that he used +<i>forefend</i> in the wrong meaning. To <i>forefend</i>, is, I +think, never to <i>provide for</i>, but to <i>provide against</i>. +The verbs compounded with <i>for</i> or <i>fore</i> have commonly +either an evil or negative sense.</p> +<p>IV.iii.182 (361,8) eyeless venom'd worm] The serpent, which we, +from the smallness of his eyes, call the <i>blind worm</i>, and the +Latins, <i>caecilia</i>.</p> +<p>IV.iii.183 (361,9) below crisp heaven] [W: cript] Mr. Upton +declares for <i>crisp</i>, curled, bent, hollow.</p> +<p>IV.iii.188 (361,1) Let it no more bring out ingrateful man!] [W: +out to ungrateful] It is plain that <i>bring out</i> is <i>bring +forth</i>, with which the following lines correspond so plainly, +that the commentator might be suspected of writing his note without +reading the whole passage.</p> +<p>IV.iii.193 (362,2) Dry up thy marrows, vines, and plough torn +leas] I cannot concur to censure Theobald [as Warburton did] as a +<i>critic</i> very <i>unhappy</i>. He was weak, but he was +cautious: finding but little power in his mind, he rarely ventured +far under its conduct. This timidity hindered him from daring +conjectures, and sometimes hindered him happily.</p> +<p>This passage, among many others, may pass without change. The +genuine reading is not <i>marrows, veins</i>, but <i>marrows</i>, +vines: the sense is this; <i>O nature! cease</i> to <i>produce men, +ensear thy womb</i>; but if thou wilt continue to produce them, at +least cease to pamper them; <i>dry up thy marrows</i>, on which +they fatten with <i>unctuous morsels</i>, thy <i>vines</i>, which +give them <i>liquorish draughts</i>, and thy <i>plow-torn leas</i>. +Here are effects corresponding with causes, <i>liquorish +draughts</i> with <i>vines</i>, and <i>unctuous morsels</i> with +<i>marrows</i>, and the old reading literally preserved.</p> +<p>IV.iii.209 (363,3) the cunning of a carper] <i>Cunning</i> here +seems to signify <i>counterfeit appearance</i>.</p> +<p>IV.ii.223 (364,4) moist trees] Hanmer reads very elegantly,</p> +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<p>—moss'd <i>trees</i>.</p> +</div> +</div> +<p>IV.iii.37 (364,5)</p> +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<p><i>Tim.</i> Always a villain's office, or a fool's.</p> +<p>Dost please thyself in't?</p> +</div> +<div class="stanza"> +<p><i>Apem.</i> Ay.</p> +</div> +<div class="stanza"> +<p><i>Tim.</i> What! a knave too?]</p> +</div> +</div> +<p>Such was Dr. Warburton's first conjecture ["and know't too"], +but afterwards he adopted Sir T. Hanmer's conjecture,</p> +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<p><i>What a knave</i> thou!</p> +</div> +</div> +<p>but there is no need of alteration. Timon had just called +Apemantus <i>fool</i>, in consequence of what he had known of him +by former acquaintance; but when Apemantus tells him, that he comes +<i>to vex him</i>, Timon determines that to <i>vex</i> is either +<i>the office of a villain or a fool</i>; that <i>to vex by +design</i> is <i>villainy, to vex without design</i> is +<i>folly</i>. He then properly asks Apemantus whether he takes +delight in <i>vexing</i>, and when he answers, <i>yes</i>, Timon +replies, <i>What! and knave too?</i> I before only knew thee to be +a <i>fool</i>, but I now find thee likewise a <i>knave</i>. This +seems to be so clear as not to stand in need of a comment.</p> +<p>IV.iii.242 (365,6) Willing misery/Out-lives incertain pomp; is +crown'd before] Arrives sooner at <i>high wish</i>; that is, at the +<i>completion of its wishes</i>.</p> +<p>IV.iii.247 (365,7) Worse than the worst, content] Best states +contentless have a wretched being, a being worse than that of the +worst states that are content. This one would think too plain to +have been mistaken. (1773)</p> +<p>IV.iii.249 (365,8) by his breath] It means, I believe, by his +<i>counsel</i>, by his <i>direction</i>.</p> +<p>IV. iii. 252 (366,l) Hadst thou, like us] There is in this +speech a sullen haughtiness, and malignant dignity, suitable at +once to the lord and the man-hater. The impatience with which he +bears to have his luxury reproached by one that never had luxury +within his reach, is natural and graceful.</p> +<p>There is in a letter, written by the earl of Essex, just before +his execution, to another nobleman, a passage somewhat resembling +this, with which, I believe every reader will be pleased, though it +is so serious and solemn that it can scarcely be inserted without +irreverence.</p> +<p>"God grant your lordship may quickly feel the comfort I now +enjoy in my unfettered conversion, but that you may never feel the +torments I have suffered for my long delaying it. <i>I had none but +deceivers to call upon me, to whom I said, if my ambition could +have entered into their narrow breasts, they would not have been so +precise. But your lordship hath one to call upon you, that knoweth +what it is you now enjoy; and what the greatest fruit and end is of +all contentment that this world can afford.</i> Think, therefore, +dear earl, that I have staked and buoyed all the ways of pleasure +unto you, and left them as sea-marks for you to keep the channel of +religious virtue. For shut your eyes never so long, they must be +open at the last, and then you must say with me, <i>there is no +peace to the ungodly</i>."</p> +<p>IV.iii.252 (366,2) from our first swath] From infancy. +<i>Swath</i> is the dress of a new-born child.</p> +<p>IV.iii.258 (366,3) precepts of respect] Of obedience to +laws.</p> +<p>IV.iii.259 (366,4) But myself] The connection here requires some +attention. <i>But</i> is here used to denote opposition; but what +immediately precedes is not opposed to that which follows. The +adversative particle refers to the two first lines.</p> +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<p><i>Thou art a slave, whom fortune's tender arm</i></p> +<p><i>With favour never claspt; but bred a dog.</i></p> +<p><i>—But myself,</i></p> +<p><i>Who had the world as my confectionary,</i> &c.</p> +</div> +</div> +<p>The intermediate lines are to be considered as a parenthesis of +passion.</p> +<p>IV.iii.271 (367,5) If thou wilt curse, thy father, that poor +rag,/ Must be thy subject] If we read <i>poor rogue</i>, it will +correspond rather better to what follows.</p> +<p>IV.iii.276 (367,6) Thou hadst been knave and flatterer] Dryden +has quoted two verses of Virgil to shew how well he could have +written satires. Shakespeare has here given a specimen of the same +power by a line bitter beyond all bitterness, in which Timon tells +Apemantus, that he had not virtue enough for the vices which he +condemns.</p> +<p>Dr. Warburton explains <i>worst</i> by <i>lowest</i>, which +somewhat weakens the sense, and yet leaves it sufficiently +vigorous.</p> +<p>I have heard Mr. Bourke commend the subtilty of discrimination +with which Shakespeare distinguishes the present character of Timon +from that of Apemantus, whom to vulgar eyes he would now resemble. +(see 1763, VI, 249, 6) (rev. 1778, VIII, 424, 4)</p> +<p>IV.iii.308 (369,8) Ay, though it look like thee] Timon here +supposes that an objection against hatred, which through the whole +tenor of the conversation appears an argument for it. One would +have expected him to have answered,</p> +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<p>Yes, <i>for it looks like thee</i>.</p> +</div> +</div> +<p>The old edition, which always gives the pronoun instead of the +affirmative particle, has it,</p> +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<p><i>I, though it look like thee</i>.</p> +</div> +</div> +<p>Perhaps we should read,</p> +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<p><i>I</i> thought <i>it</i> look'd <i>like thee</i>.</p> +</div> +</div> +<p>IV,iii.363 (371,2) Thou art the cap] i.e. the property, the +bubble. WARBURTON.] I rather think, the <i>top</i>, the +<i>principal</i>.</p> +<p>The remaining dialogue has more malignity than wit.</p> +<p>IV.iii.383 (372,4) 'Twixt natural, son and sire!']</p> +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<p>[Greek: dia touton ouk adelphoi</p> +<p>dia touton ou toxaeas. ANAC.]</p> +</div> +</div> +<p>IV.iii.398 (373,6) More things like men?] This line, in the old +edition, is given to Aremantus, but it apparently belongs to Timon. +Hanmer has transposed the foregoing dialogue according to his own +mind, not unskilfully, but with unwarrantable licence.</p> +<p>IV.iii.419 (373,7) you want much of meat] [T: of meet] Such is +Mr. Theobald's emendation, in which he is followed by Dr. +Warburton. Sir T. Hanmer reads,</p> +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<p>—<i>you want much of</i> men.</p> +</div> +</div> +<p>They have been all busy without necessity. Observe the series of +the conversation. The thieves tell him, that they are <i>men that +much do want</i>. Here is an ambiguity between <i>much want</i> and +<i>want</i> of <i>much</i>. Timon takes it on the wrong side, and +tells them that their <i>greatest want is</i>, that, like other +men, <i>they want much of meat</i>; then telling them where meat +may be had, he asks, <i>Want? why want?</i> (see 1765, VI, 254, +5)</p> +<p>IV.iii.420 (374,8) the earth hath roots;/Within this mile break +forth an hundred springs]</p> +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<p><i>Vile plus, et duris haerentia mora rubetis</i></p> +<p><i>Pugnantis stomachi composuere famen:</i></p> +<p><i>Flumine vicino stultus sitit.</i></p> +</div> +</div> +<p>I do not suppose these to be imitations, but only to be similar +thoughts on similar occasions.</p> +<p>IV.iii.442 (375,2) The sea's a thief, whose liquid surge +resolves/The moon into salt tears] [W: The mounds] I am not willing +to receive <i>mounds</i>, which would not be understood but by him +that suggested it. The <i>moon</i> is supposed to be humid, and +perhaps a source of humidity, but cannot be <i>resolved</i> by the +<i>surges</i> of the sea. Yet I think <i>moon</i> is the true +reading. Here is a circulation of thievary described: The sun, +moon, and sea all rob, and are robbed.</p> +<p>IV.iii.456 (376,3) 'Tis in the malice of mankind, that he thus +advises us; not to have us thrive in our mystery] [Hanmer: his +malice to] Hanmer's emendation, though not necessary, is very +probable, and very unjustly charged with nonsense [by Warburton]. +The reason of his advice, says the thief, is <i>malice to +mankind</i>, not any kindness to us, or desire <i>to have us thrive +in our mystery</i>.</p> +<p>IV.iii.468 (378,5) What an alteration of honour has/Desperate +want made!] [W: of humour] The original copy has,</p> +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<p><i>What an alteration of honour has desperate want made!</i></p> +</div> +</div> +<p>The present reading is certainly better, but it has no +authority. To change <i>honour</i> to <i>humour</i> is not +necessary. <i>An alteration of honour</i>, is an <i>alteration</i> +of an <i>honourable state</i> to a state of disgrace.</p> +<p>IV.iii.474 (378,8)</p> +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<p>Grant, I may ever love, and rather woe</p> +<p>Those that would mischief me, than those that do!]</p> +</div> +</div> +<p>[W: rather too/...that woo] In defiance of this criticism, I +have ventured to replace the former reading, as more suitable to +the general spirit of these scenes, and as free from the +absurdities charged upon it. It is plain, that in this whole speech +<i>friends</i> and <i>enemies</i> are taken only for those who +<i>profess friendship</i> and <i>profess enmity</i>; for the +<i>friend</i> is supposed not to be more kind, but more dangerous +than the <i>enemy</i>. In the amendation, <i>those that would +mischief</i> are placed in opposition to <i>those that woo</i>, but +in the speaker's intention <i>those that woo</i> are <i>those that +mischief</i> most. The sense is, <i>Let me rather woo or caress +those that</i> would <i>mischief, that</i> profess to mean me +mischief, <i>than those</i> that really <i>do</i> me <i>mischief +under false professions of kindness</i>. The Spaniards, I think, +have this proverb; <i>Defend me from my friends, and from my +enemies I will defend myself</i>. This proverb is a sufficient +comment on the passage.</p> +<p>IV.iii.484 (379,9) all/I kept were knaves, to serve in meat to +villains] <i>Knave</i> is here in the compounded sense of a +<i>servant</i> and a <i>rascal</i>.</p> +<p>IV.iii.492 (379,1) Pity's sleeping] I do not know that any +correction is necessary, but I think we might read,</p> +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<p>—<i>eyes do never give</i></p> +<p><i>But thorough lust and laughter, pity sleeping</i>.</p> +</div> +</div> +<p><i>Eyes never flow</i> (to <i>give</i> is to dissolve as saline +bodies in moist weather) <i>but by lust</i> or <i>laughter</i>, +undisturbed <i>by</i> emotions of <i>pity</i>.</p> +<p>IV.iii.499 (380,2) It almost turns my dangerous nature wild] [W: +mild] This emendation is specious, but even this may be +controverted. To <i>turn wild</i> is <i>to distract</i>. An +appearance so unexpected, says Timon, <i>almost turns my +savageness</i> to distraction. Accordingly he examines with nicety +lest his phrenzy, should deceive him,</p> +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<p><i>Let me behold thy face. Surely this man</i></p> +<p><i>Was born of woman</i>.</p> +</div> +</div> +<p>And to this suspected disorder of mind he alludes,</p> +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<p><i>Perpetual, sober, Gods</i>!—</p> +<p>Ye powers whose intellects are out of the reach of +perturbation.</p> +</div> +</div> +<p>IV.iii.533 (381,3) thou shalt build from men] Away from human +habitations.</p> +<p>V.i (382,5) <i>Enter Poet and Painter</i>] The poet and the +painter were within view when Apemantus parted from Timon, and +might then have seen Timon, since Apemantus, standing by him could +not see them: But the scenes of the thieves and steward have passed +before their arrival, and yet passed, as the drama is now conducted +within their view. It might be suspected that some scenes are +transposed, for all these difficulties would be removed by +introducing the poet and painter first, and the thieves in this +place. Yet I am afraid the scenes must keep their present order; +for the painter alludes to the thieves when he says, <i>he likewise +enriched poor straggling soldiers with great quantity</i>. This +impropriety is now heightened by placing the thieves in one act, +and the poet and painter in another: but it must be remembered, +that in the original edition this play is not divided into separate +acts, so that the present distribution is arbitrary, and may be +changed if any convenience can be gained, or impropriety obviated +by alteration.</p> +<p>V.i.47 (384,6) While the day serves, before black-corner'd +night] [W: black-cornette] <i>Black-corner'd night</i> is probably +corrupt, but <i>black-cornette</i> can hardly be right, for it +should be <i>black-cornetted night</i>. I cannot propose any thing, +but must leave the place in its present state. (1773)</p> +<p>V.i.101 (386,8) a made-up villain] That is a villain that adopts +qualities and characters not properly belonging to him; a +hypocrite.</p> +<p>V.i.105 (386,9) drown them in a draught] That is, <i>in the</i> +jakes.</p> +<p>V.i.109 (388,1)</p> +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<p>But two in company—</p> +<p>Each man apart, all single and alone,</p> +<p>Yet an arch villain keeps him company]</p> +</div> +</div> +<p>This passage is obscure. I think the meaning is this: <i>but two +in company</i>, that is, stand apart, <i>let only two be +together</i>; for even when each stands single there are two, he +himself and a villain.</p> +<p>V.i.151 (388,3) Of its own fall] [The Oxford editor alters +<i>fall</i> to <i>fault</i>, not knowing that Shakespeare uses +<i>fall</i> to signify dishonour, not destruction. So in +<i>Hamlet</i>,</p> +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<p><i>What a</i> falling <i>off was there</i>! WARBURTON.]</p> +</div> +</div> +<p>The truth is, that neither <i>fall</i> means <i>disgrace</i>, +nor is <i>fault</i> a necessary emendation. <i>Falling off</i> in +the quotation is not <i>disgrace</i> but <i>defection</i>. The +Athenians <i>had sense</i>, that is, felt the danger <i>of their +own fall</i>, by the arms of Alcibiades.</p> +<p>V.i.151 (388,4) restraining aid to Timon] I think it should be +<i>refraining aid</i>, that is, with-holding aid that should have +been given <i>to</i> Timon.</p> +<p>V.i.154 (389,5) Than their offence can weigh down by the dram] +This which was in the former editions can scarcely be right, and +yet I know not whether my reading will be thought to rectify it. I +take the meaning to be, We will give thee a recompence that our +offences cannot outweigh, <i>heaps of wealth down by the dram</i>, +or delivered according to the exactest measure. A little disorder +may perhaps have happened in transcribing, which may be reformed by +reading,</p> +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<p>—<i>Ay, ev'n such heaps</i></p> +<p><i>And sums of love and wealth, down by the dram,</i></p> +<p><i>As shall to thee</i>—</p> +</div> +</div> +<p>V.i.165 (389,6) Allow'd with absolute power] <i>Allowed</i> is +<i>licensed</i>, <i>privileged</i>, <i>uncontrolled</i>. So of a +buffoon, in <i>Love's Labour lost</i>, it is said, that he is +<i>allowed</i>, that is, at liberty to say what he will, a +privileged scoffer.</p> +<p>V.i.139 (390,7) My long sickness/Of health and living now begins +to mend] The disease of life begins to promise me a period.</p> +<p>V.i.211 (391,8) in the sequence of degree] Methodically, from +highest to lowest.</p> +<p>V.iii.4 (393,2) Some beast read this; here does not live a man] +[W: rear'd] Notwithstanding this remark, I believe the old reading +to be the right. <i>The soldier had only seen the rude heap of +earth.</i> He had evidently seen something that told him <i>Timon +was dead</i>; and what could tell that but his tomb? The tomb he +sees, and the inscription upon it, which not being able to read, +and finding none to read it for him, he exclaims peevishly, <i>some +beast read this</i>, for it must be read, and in this place it +cannot be read by man.</p> +<p>There is something elaborately unskilful in the contrivance of +sending a soldier, who cannot read, to take the epitaph in wax, +only that it may close the play by being read with more solemnity +in the last scene.</p> +<p>V.iv.7 (394, 3) traverst arms] Arms across.</p> +<p>V.iv.8 (394,4) the time is flush] A bird is <i>flush</i> when +his feathers are grown, and he can leave the nest. <i>Flush</i> is +<i>mature</i>.</p> +<p>V.iv.18 (395,7)</p> +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<p class="i10">So did we woo</p> +<p>Transformed Timon to our city's love,</p> +<p>By humble message, and by promis'd means]</p> +</div> +</div> +<p>[T: promis'd mends] Dr. Warburton agrees with Mr. Theobald, but +the old reading may well stand.</p> +<p>V.iv.28 (395,8) Shame, that they wanted cunning, in excess/Hath +broke their hearts] [Theobald had emended the punctuation] I have +no wish to disturb the means of Theobald, yet think some emendation +nay be offered that will make the construction less harsh, and the +sentence more serious. I read,</p> +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<p><i>Shape that they wanted, coming in excess,</i></p> +<p><i>Hath broke their hearts.</i></p> +</div> +</div> +<p><i>Shame which they</i> had so long <i>wanted at last</i> coming +in <i>its utmost</i> excess.</p> +<p>V.iv.36 (396,8) not square] Not regular, not equitable.</p> +<p>V.iv.35 (397,9) uncharged ports] That is, <i>unguarded +gates</i>.</p> +<p>V.iv.59 (397,1) not a man/Shall pass his quarter] Not a soldier +shall quit his station, or be let loose upon you; and, if any +commits violence, he shall answer it regularly to the law.</p> +<p>V.iv.76 (308.,3) our brain's flow; Hanmer and Dr. Warburton +read,</p> +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<p>—brine's flow,—</p> +</div> +</div> +<p>Our brain's flow is our tears; but we any read our brine's flow, +our salt tears. Either will serve. (see 1765, VI, 276, 6)</p> +<p>(399) General Observation. The play of <i>Timon</i> is a +domestic tragedy, and therefore strongly fastens on the attention +of the reader. In the plan there is not much art, but the incidents +are natural, and the characters various and exact. The catastrophe +affords a very powerful warning against that ostentations +liberality, which scatters bounty, but confers no benefits, and +buys flattery, but not friendship.</p> +<p>In this tragedy are many passages perplexed, obscure, and +probably corrupt, which I have endeavoured to rectify, or explain, +with due diligence; but having only one copy, cannot promise myself +that my endeavours shall be much applauded.</p> +<h2>TITUS ANDRONICUS</h2> +<p>(403,1) It is observable, that this play is printed in the +quarto of 1611, with exactness equal to that of the other books of +those times. The first edition was probably corrected by the +author, so that here is very little room for conjecture or +emendation; and accordingly none of the editors have much molested +this piece with officious criticism.</p> +<p>I.i.70 (406,2) Hail, Rome, victorious in thy mourning weeds!] +[W: my] <i>Thy</i> is as well as <i>my</i>. We may suppose the +Romans in a grateful ceremony, meeting the dead sons of Andronicus +with mourning habits.</p> +<p>I.i.77 (407,3) Thou great defender of this Capitol] Jupiter, to +whom the Capitol was sacred.</p> +<p>I.i.168 (410,5) And fame's eternal date for virtue's praise!] +[W: In] To <i>live in fame's date</i> is, if an allowable, yet a +harsh expression. To <i>outlive</i> an <i>eternal date</i>, is, +though not philosophical, yet poetical sense. He wishes that her +life may be longer than his, and her praise longer than fame.</p> +<p>I.i.309 (414,6) changing piece] Spoken of Lavinia. <i>Piece</i> +was then, as it is now, used personally as a word of contempt.</p> +<p>II.i (421,8) In the quarto, the direction is, <i>Manet +Aaron</i>, and he is before made to enter with Tamora, though he +says nothing. This scene ought to continue the first act.</p> +<p>II.i.9 (421,9) So Tamora—/Upon her wit doth earthly honour +wait] [W: her will] I think <i>wit</i>, for which she is eminent in +the drama, is right.</p> +<p>II.i.116 (425,2) by kind] That is, by <i>nature</i>, which is +the old signification of <i>kind</i>.</p> +<p>II.ii (425,3) <i>Changes to a Forest</i>] The division of this +play into acts, which was first made by the editors in 1623, is +improper. There is here an interval of action, and here the second +act ought to have begun.</p> +<p>II.iii.8 (427,6)</p> +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<p>And so repose, sweet gold, for their unrest,</p> +<p>That have their alms out of the empress' chest]</p> +</div> +</div> +<p>This is obscure. It seems to mean only, that they who are to +come at this gold of the empress are to suffer by it.</p> +<p>II.iii.72 (430,9) swarth Cimmerian] <i>Swarth</i> is +<i>black</i>. The Moor is called Cimmerien, from the affinity of +blackness to darkness.</p> +<p>II.iii.85 (430,1)</p> +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<p><i>Bas.</i> The king, my brother, shall have note of this.</p> +<p><i>Lav.</i> Ay, for these slips have made him noted long]</p> +</div> +</div> +<p>He had yet been married but one night.</p> +<p>II.iii.104 (431,2) Should straight fall mad, or else die +suddenly] This is said in fabulous physiology, of those that hear +the groan of the mandrake torn up.</p> +<p>II.iii.126 (432,3) And with that painted hope she braves your +mightiness] [W: cope] <i>Painted hope</i> is only <i>specious</i> +hope, or ground of confidence more plausible than solid.</p> +<p>II.iii.227 (435,4) A precious ring, that lightens all the hole] +There is supposed to be a gem called a carbuncle, which emits not +reflected but native light. Mr. Boyle believes the reality of its +existence.</p> +<p>II.iv.13 (438,5) If I do dream, 'would all my wealth would wake +me'] If this be a dream, I would give all my possessions to be +delivered from it by waking.</p> +<p>III.i.91 (443,8) It was my deer] The play upon <i>deer</i> and +<i>dear</i> has been used by Waller, who calls a lady's girdle, +<i>The pale that held my lovely</i> deer.</p> +<p>III.i.216 (447,1) And do not break into these deep extremes] [We +should read, instead of this nonsense,</p> +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<p>—woe-<i>extremes</i>.</p> +</div> +</div> +<p>i.e. extremes caused by excessive sorrow. But Mr. Theobald, on +his own authority, alters it to <i>deep</i>, without notice given. +WARB.] It is <i>deep</i> in the old quarto of 1611, (rev. 1778, +VIII, 510, 8)</p> +<p>III.ii (450,2) <i>An apartment in Titus's house</i>] This scene, +which does not contribute any thing to the action, yet seems to +have the same author with the rest, is omitted in the quarto of +1611, but found in the folio of 1623.</p> +<p>III.ii.45 (452,3) by still practice] By <i>constant</i> or +<i>continual</i> practice.</p> +<p>IV.i.129 (458,6) Revenge the heavens] It should be,</p> +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<p><i>Revenge</i>, ye <i>Heavens</i>!—</p> +</div> +</div> +<p><i>Ye</i> was by the transcriber taken for <i>y'e</i>, the.</p> +<p>IV.ii.85 (461,7) I'll broach the tadpole] A <i>broach</i> is a +<i>spit</i>. I'll <i>spit</i> the tadpole.</p> +<p>IV.ii.99 (462,8) Coal-black is better than another hue,/ In that +it seems to bear another hue] We may better read, <i>In that it</i> +scorns <i>to bear another hue</i>.</p> +<p>IV.iii.88 (466,1) Yet wrung with wrongs] To <i>wring</i> a horse +is to press or strain his back.</p> +<p>IV.iv.90 (472,4) With words more sweet, and yet more dangerous,/ +Than baits to fish, or honey-stalks to sheep] <i>Honey-stalks</i> +are clover-flowers, which contain a sweet juice. It is common for +cattle to over-charge themselves with clover, and die.</p> +<p>V.i.102 (476,7) As true a dog, as ever fought at head] An +allusion to bull-dogs, whose generosity and courage are always +shown by meeting the bull in front, and seizing his nose.</p> +<p>V.ii.189 (484,1) And of the paste a coffin will I rear] A +<i>coffin</i> is the term of art for the cavity of a raised +pye.</p> +<p>V.iii.19 (486,2) break the parley] That is, <i>begin</i> the +parley. We yet say, he <i>breaks</i> his mind.</p> +<p>(492) General Observation. All the editors and critics agree +with Mr. Theobald in supposing this play spurious. I see no reason +for differing from them; for the colour of the stile is wholly +different from that of the other plays, and there is an attempt at +regular versification, and artificial closes, not always inelegant, +yet seldom pleasing. The barbarity of the spectacles, and the +general massacre, which are here exhibited, can scarcely be +conceived tolerable to any audience; yet we are told by Jonson, +that they were not only borne, but praised. That Shakespeare wrote +any part, though Theobald declares it <i>incontestible</i>, I see +no reason for believing.</p> +<p>The testimony produced at the beginning of this play, by which +it is ascribed to Shakespeare, is by no means equal to the argument +against its authenticity, arising from the total difference of +conduct, language, and sentiments, by which it stands apart from +all the rest. Meeres had probably no other evidence than that of a +title-page, which, though in our time it be sufficient, was then of +no great authority; for all the plays which were rejected by the +first collectors of Shakespeare's works, and admitted in later +editions, and again rejected by the critical editors, had +Shakespeare's name on the title, as we must suppose, by the +fraudulence of the printers, who, while there were yet no gazettes, +nor advertisements, nor any means of circulating literary +intelligence, could usurp at pleasure any celebrated name. Nor had +Shakespeare any interest in detecting the imposture, as none of his +fame or profit was produced by the press.</p> +<p>The chronology of this play does not prove it not to be +Shakespeare's. If it had been written twenty-five years, in 1614, +it might have been written when Shakespeare was twenty-five years +old. When he left Warwickshire I know not, but at the age of +twenty-five it was rather too late to fly for deer-stealing.</p> +<p>Ravenscroft, who in the reign of Charles II, revised this play, +and restored it to the stage, tells us, in his preface, from a +theatrical tradition, I suppose, which in his time might be of +sufficient authority, that this play was touched in different parts +by Shakespeare, but written by some other poet. I do not find +Shakespeare's touches very discernible, (see 1765, VI, 364) (rev. +1778, VIII, 559)</p> +<h3>Vol. IX.</h3> +<h2>TROILUS AND CRESSIDA</h2> +<p>Prologue. (4,2)</p> +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<p><i>And hither am I come</i></p> +<p><i>A prologue arm'd; but not in confidence</i></p> +<p><i>Of author's pen, or actor's voice; but suited</i></p> +<p><i>In like conditions as our argument</i>]</p> +</div> +</div> +<p>I come here to speak the prologue, and come in armour; not +defying the audience, in confidence of either the author's or +actor's abilities, but merely in a character suited to the subject, +in a dress of war, before a warlike play.</p> +<p>I.i.12 (8,3) And skill-less as unpractis'd infancy] Mr. Dryden, +in his alteration of this play, has taken this speech as it stands, +except that he has changed <i>skill-less</i> to <i>artless</i>, not +for the better, because <i>skill-less</i> refers to <i>skill</i> +and <i>skilful</i>.</p> +<p>I.i.58 (10,4) The cignet's down is harsh, and spirit of +sense/Hard as the palm of ploughman!] <i>In comparison with</i> +Cressid's <i>hand</i>, says he, <i>the spirit of sense</i>, the +utmost degree, the most exquisite power of sensibility, which +implies a soft hand, since the sense of touching, as Scaliger says +in his <i>Exercitations</i>, resides chiefly in the fingers, is +hard as the callous and insensible palm of the ploughman. WARBURTON +reads,</p> +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<p>—SPITE <i>of sense</i>:</p> +</div> +</div> +<p>HANMER,</p> +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<p>—to th' <i>spirit of sense</i>.</p> +</div> +</div> +<p>It is not proper to make a lover profess to praise his mistress +in <i>spite of sense</i>; for though he often does it in <i>spite +of the sense</i> of others, his own senses are subdued to his +desires.</p> +<p>I.i.66 (10,5) if she be fair, 'tis the better for her; an she be +not, she has the mends in her own hands] She may mend her +complexion by the assistance of cosmeticks.</p> +<p>I.ii.4 (12,1) Hector, whose patience/Is, as a virtue, fix'd] [W: +Is as the] I think the present text may stand. Hector's patience +was as a virtue, not variable and accidental, but fixed and +constant. If I would alter it, it should be thus:</p> +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<p>—Hector, whose patience</p> +<p>Is ALL a virtue fix'd,—</p> +</div> +</div> +<p><i>All</i>, in old English, is the <i>intensive</i> or enforcing +particle.</p> +<p>I.ii.8 (13,2) Before the sun rose, he was harness'd light] +[Warburton stated that "harnessed light" meant Hector was to fight +on foot] How does it appear that Hector was to fight on foot rather +to-day than on any other day? It is to be remembered, that the +ancient heroes never fought on horseback; nor does their manner of +fighting in chariots seem to require less activity than on +foot.</p> +<p>I.ii.23 (14,4) his valour is crushed into folly] To be +<i>crushed into folly</i>, is to be <i>confused</i> and mingled +with <i>folly</i>, so as that they make one mass together.</p> +<p>I.ii.46 (15,6) Ilium] Was the palace of Troy.</p> +<p>I.ii.120 (17,7) compass-window] The <i>compass-window</i> is the +same as the <i>bow-window</i>. (1773)</p> +<p>I.ii.212 (20,2)</p> +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<p><i>Cre.</i> Will he give you the nod?</p> +<p><i>Pan.</i> You shall see.</p> +<p><i>Cre.</i> If he do, the rich shall have more]</p> +</div> +</div> +<p>[W: rich] I wonder why the commentator should think any +emendation necessary, since his own sense is fully expressed by the +present reading. Hanmer appears not to have understood the passage. +That to <i>give the nod</i> signifies to <i>set a mark of +folly</i>, I do not know; the allusion is to the word <i>noddy</i>, +which, as now, did, in our author's time, and long before, signify, +<i>a silly fellow</i>, and may, by its etymology, signify likewise +<i>full of nods</i>. Cressid means, that <i>a</i> noddy <i>shall +have more</i> nods. Of such remarks as these is a comment to +consist?</p> +<p>I.ii.260 (22,3) money to boot] So the folio. The old quarto, +with more force, Give <i>an eye</i> to boot. (rev. 1778, IX, 25, +1)</p> +<p>I.ii.285 (22,4) upon my wit to defend my wiles] So read both the +copies) yet perhaps the author wrote,</p> +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<p>Upon my wit to defend my will.</p> +</div> +</div> +<p>The terms <i>wit</i> and <i>will</i> were, in the language of +that time, put often in opposition.</p> +<p>I.ii.300 (23,5) At your own house; there he unarms him] [These +necessary words added from the quarto edition. POPE.] The words +added are only, <i>there he unarms him</i>.</p> +<p>I.ii.313 (23,6) joy's soul lies in the doing] So read both the +old editions, for which the later editions have poorly given,</p> +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<p>—the <i>soul's joy</i> lies in doing.</p> +</div> +</div> +<p>I.ii.316 (23,7) That she] Means, that woman.</p> +<p>I.iii.31 (25,2) With due observance of thy godlike seat] [T: +godlike seat] This emendation [for goodly seat] Theobald might have +found in the quarto, which has,</p> +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<p>—the <i>godlike</i> seat.</p> +</div> +</div> +<p>I.iii.32 (25,3) Nestor shall apply/Thy latest words] Nestor +<i>applies</i> the words to another instance.</p> +<p>I.iii.54 (26,7) Returns to chiding fortune] For <i>returns</i>, +Hanmer reads <i>replies</i>, unnecessarily, the sense being the +same. The folio and quarto have <i>retires</i>, corruptly.</p> +<p>I.iii.62 (27,8)</p> +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<p>both your speeches; which are such,</p> +<p>As Agamemnon and the hand of Greece</p> +<p>Should hold up high in brass; and such again,</p> +<p>As venerable Nestor, hatch'd in silver,</p> +<p>Should with a bond of air (strong as the axle-tree</p> +<p>On which heaven rides) knit all the Greekish ears</p> +<p>To his experienc'd tongue]</p> +</div> +</div> +<p>Ulysses begins his oration with praising those who had spoken +before him, and marks the characteristick excellencies of their +different eloquence, strength, and sweetness, which he expresses by +the different metals on which he recommends them to be engraven for +the instruction of posterity. The speech of Agamemnon is such that +it ought to be engraven in brass, and the tablet held up by him on +the one side, and Greece on the other, to shew the union of their +opinion. And Nestor ought to be exhibited in silver, uniting all +his audience in one mind by his soft and gentle elocution. Brass is +the common emblem of strength, and silver of gentleness. We call a +soft voice a <i>silver</i> voice, and a persuasive tongue a +<i>silver</i> tongue.—I once read for <i>hand</i>, the +<i>band</i> of Greece, but I think the text right.—To +<i>hatch</i> is a term of art for a particular method of +<i>engraving</i>. <i>Hatcher</i>, to cut, Fr.</p> +<p>I.iii.78 (28,1) The specialty of rule] The particular rights of +supreme authority.</p> +<p>I.iii.81 (29,2) When that the general is not like the hive] The +meaning is, <i>When the general is not</i> to the army <i>like the +hive</i> to the bees, the repository of the stock of every +individual, that to which each particular resorts with whatever be +has collected for the good of the whole, <i>what honey is +expected</i>? what hope of advantage? The sense is clear, the +expression is confused.</p> +<p>I.iii.101 (30,5) Oh, when degree is shak'd] I would read,</p> +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<p>—So when degree is shak'd. (see 1765, VII, 431, 5)</p> +</div> +</div> +<p>I.iii.103 (30,6) The enterprize] Perhaps we should read,</p> +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<p><i>Then</i> enterprize is sick!—</p> +</div> +</div> +<p>I.iii.104 (30,7) brotherhoods in cities] Corporations, +companies, <i>confraternities</i>.</p> +<p>I.iii.128 (31,8) That by a pace goes backward] That goes +backward <i>step by step</i>.</p> +<p>I.iii.128 (31,9) with a purpose/It hath to climb] With a design +in each man to aggrandize himself, by slighting his immediate +superior.</p> +<p>I.iii.134 (31,1) bloodless emulation] An emulation not vigorous +and active, but malignant and sluggish.</p> +<p>I.iii.152 (31,2) Thy topless deputation] <i>Topless</i> is that +has nothing <i>topping</i> or <i>overtopping</i> it; supreme; +sovereign.</p> +<p>I.iii.167 (32,3) as near as the extremest ends/Of parallels] The +parallels to which the allusion seems to be made are the parallels +on a map. As like as East to West.</p> +<p>I.iii.179 (32,4)</p> +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<p>All our abilities, gifts, natures, shapes,</p> +<p>Severals and generals of grace exact,</p> +<p>Atchievements, plots]</p> +</div> +</div> +<p>The meaning is this, All our good <i>grace exact</i>, means of +<i>excellence irreprehensible</i>.</p> +<p>I.iii.184 (32,5) to make paradoxes] <i>Paradoxes</i> may have a +meaning, but it is not clear and distinct. I wish the copies had +given,</p> +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<p>—to make <i>parodies</i>.</p> +</div> +</div> +<p>I.iii.188 (33,6) bears his head/In such a rein] That is, holds +up his head as haughtily. We still say of a girl, <i>she +bridles</i>.</p> +<p>I.iii.196 (33,7) How rank soever rounded in with danger] A +<i>rank weed</i> is a <i>high weed</i>. The modern editions +silently read,</p> +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<p>How <i>hard</i> soever—</p> +</div> +</div> +<p>I.iii.202 (33,8) and know by measure/Of their observant toil the +enemies' weight] I think it were better to read,</p> +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<p>—and know <i>the</i> measure,</p> +<p><i>By</i> their observant toil, <i>of</i> th' enemies' +weight.</p> +</div> +</div> +<p>I.iii.220 (34,1) Achilles' arm] So the copies. Perhaps the +author wrote,</p> +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<p>—<i>Alcides'</i> arm.</p> +</div> +</div> +<p>I.iii.262 (35,4) long continu'd truce] Of this long <i>truce</i> +there has been no notice taken; in this very act it is said, that +<i>Ajax coped Hector yesterday in the battle</i>.</p> +<p>I.iii.270 (36,7) (With truant vows to her own lips he loves)] +That is, <i>confession made with idle vows to the lips of her whom +he loves</i>.</p> +<p>I.iii.319 (37,1) nursery] Alluding to a plantation called a +nursery.</p> +<p>I.iii.341 (38,4) scantling] That is, a <i>measure</i>, +<i>proportion</i>. The carpenter cuts his wood to a certain +<i>scantling</i>.</p> +<p>I.iii.343 (38,5) small pricks] Small <i>points compared</i> with +the volumes.</p> +<p>II.i (40,1) <i>The Grecian camp. Enter Ajax and Thorsites</i>] +ACT II.] This play is not divided into acts in any of the original +editions.</p> +<p>II.i.13 (41,2) The plague of Greece] Alluding perhaps to the +plague sent by Apollo on the Grecian army.</p> +<p>II.i.15 (41,3) Speak then, thou unsalted leaven, speak] [T: +unwinnow'dst] [W: windyest] Hanmer preserves <i>whinid'st</i>, the +reading of the folio; but does not explain it, nor do I understand +it. If the folio be followed, I read, <i>vinew'd</i>, that is +<i>mouldy leven</i>. Thou composition of <i>mustiness</i> and +<i>sourness</i>.—Theobald's assertion, however confident, is +false. <i>Unsalted</i> leaven is in the old quarto. It means +<i>sour</i> without <i>salt</i>, malignity without wit. Shakespeare +wrote first <i>unsalted</i>; but recollecting that want of +<i>salt</i> was no fault in leaven, changed it to +<i>vinew'd</i>.</p> +<p>II.i.38 (42,5) aye that thou bark'st at him] I read, <i>O</i> +that thou <i>bark'dst</i> at him.</p> +<p>II.i.42 (42,6) pun thee into shivers] <i>Pun</i> is in the +midland counties the vulgar and colloquial word for <i>pound</i>. +(1773)</p> +<p>II.i.125 (45,1) when Achilles' brach bids me] The folio and +quarto read, <i>Achilles'</i> brooch. <i>Brooch</i> is an appendant +ornament. The meaning may be, equivalent to one of <i>Achilles' +hangers on</i>.</p> +<p>II.ii.29 (47,2) The past-proportion of his infinite?] Thus read +both the copies. The meaning is, <i>that greatness, to which no +measure bears any proportion</i>. The modern editors silently +give,</p> +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<p>The <i>vast</i> proportion—</p> +</div> +</div> +<p>II.ii.58 (48,4) And the will dotes that is inclinable] [Old +edition, not so well, has it, <i>attributive</i>. POPE.] By the old +edition Mr. Pope means the old quarto. The folio has, as it stands, +<i>inclinable</i>.—I think the first reading better; <i>the +will dotes that attributes</i> or gives <i>the qualities which it +affects</i>; that first causes excellence, and then admires it.</p> +<p>II.ii.60 (48,5) Without some image of the affected merit] The +present reading is right. The will <i>affects</i> an object for +some supposed <i>merit</i>, which Hector says, is uncensurable, +unless the <i>merit</i> so <i>affected</i> be really there.</p> +<p>II.ii.71 (48,7) unrespective sieve] That is, into a <i>common +voider</i>. <i>Sieve</i> is in the quarto. The folio reads,</p> +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<p>—unrespective <i>fame</i>;</p> +</div> +</div> +<p>for which the modern editions have silently printed,</p> +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<p>—unrespective <i>place</i>.</p> +</div> +</div> +<p>II.ii.88 (49,9)</p> +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<p class="i6">why do you now</p> +<p>The issue of your proper wisdoms rate;</p> +<p>And do a deed that fortune never did,</p> +<p>Beggar that estimation which you priz'd</p> +<p>Richer than sea and land?]</p> +</div> +</div> +<p>If I understand this passage, the meaning is, "Why do you, by +censuring the determination of your own wisdoms, degrade Helen, +whom fortune has not yet deprived of her value, or against whom, as +the wife of Paris, fortune has not in this war so declared, as to +make us value her less?" This is very harsh, and much strained.</p> +<p>II.ii.122 (50,2) her brain-sick raptures/Cannot distaste the +goodness of a quarrel] Corrupt; change to a worse state.</p> +<p>II.ii.179 (52,3) benummed wills] That is, inflexible, +inmoveable, no longer obedient to superior direction.</p> +<p>II.ii.180 (52,4) There is a law in each well-ordered nation] +What the law does in every nation between individuals, justice +ought to do between nations.</p> +<p>II.ii.188 (52,5) Hector's opinion/Is this in way of truth] +Though considering <i>truth</i> and <i>justice</i> in this +question, this is my opinion; yet as a question of honour, I think +on it as you.</p> +<p>II.ii.196 (53,6) the performance of our heaving spleens] The +execution of spite and resentment.</p> +<p>II.ii.212 (53,7) emulation] That is, envy, factious +contention.</p> +<p>II.iii.18 (54,8) without drawing the massy iron and cutting the +web] That is, <i>without drawing their swords to cut the web</i>. +They use no means but those of violence.</p> +<p>II.iii.55 (55,1) decline the whole question] Deduce the question +from the first case to the last.</p> +<p>II.iii.108 (57,6) but it was a strong composure, a fool could +disunite] So reads the quarto very properly; but the folio, which +the moderns have followed, has, <i>it was a strong</i> COUNSEL.</p> +<p>II.iii.118 (57,7) noble state] Person of high dignity; spoken of +Agamemnon.</p> +<p>II.iii.137 (58,8) under-write] To <i>subscribe</i>, in +Shakespeare, is to <i>obey</i>.</p> +<p>II.iii.215 (60,2) pheese his pride] To <i>pheese</i> is to +<i>comb</i> or <i>curry</i>.</p> +<p>II.iii.217 (60,3) Not for the worth that hangs upon our quarrel] +Not for the value of all for which we are fighting.</p> +<p>II.iii.267 (62,6)</p> +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<p><i>Ajax.</i> Shall I call you father?</p> +<p><i>Nest.</i> Ay, my good son]</p> +</div> +</div> +<p>In the folio and in the nodern editions Ajax desires to give the +title of <i>father</i> to Ulysses; in the quarto, more naturally, +to Nestor.</p> +<p>III.i.35 (64,1) love's invisible soul] <i>love's</i> visible +<i>soul</i>.] So HANMER. The other editions have <i>invisible</i>, +which perhaps may be right, and may mean the <i>soul of love</i> +invisible every where else.</p> +<p>III.i.83 (65,3) And, my lord, he desires you] Here I think the +speech of Pandarus should begin, and the rest of it should be added +to that of Helen, but I have followed the copies.</p> +<p>III.i.96 (65,4) with my disposer Cressida] [W: dispouser] I do +not understand the word <i>disposer</i>, nor know what to +substitute in its place. There is no variation in the copies.</p> +<p>III.i.132 (67,6) <i>Yet that which seems the wound to kill</i>] +<i>To kill the wound</i> is no very intelligible expression, nor is +the measure preserved. We might read,</p> +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<p class="i2"><i>These lovers cry,</i></p> +<p class="i2"><i>Oh! oh! they die!</i></p> +<p>But <i>that which seems to kill,</i></p> +<p class="i2"><i>Doth turn</i>, &c.</p> +<p><i>So dying love lives still</i>.</p> +</div> +</div> +<p>Yet as <i>the wound to kill</i> may mean <i>the wound that seems +mortal</i>, I alter nothing.</p> +<p>III.ii.25 (69,1) tun'd too sharp in sweetness]—and <i>too +sharp in sweetness</i>,] So the folio and all modern editions; but +the quarto more accurately,</p> +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<p>—<i>tun'd</i> too sharp in sweetness.</p> +</div> +</div> +<p>III.ii.99 (71,4) our head shall go bare, 'till merit crown it] I +cannot forbear to observe, that the quarto reads thus: <i>Our head +shall go bare, 'till merit</i> lower part no affection, <i>in +reversion</i>, &c. Had there been no other copy, hov could this +have been corrected? The true reading is in the folio.</p> +<p>III.ii.102 (72,5) his addition shall be humble] We will give him +no high or pompous titles.</p> +<p>III.ii.162 (74,6)</p> +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<p class="i6">but you are wise,</p> +<p>Or else you love not; to be wise and love,</p> +<p>Exceeds man's might]</p> +</div> +</div> +<p>I read,</p> +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<p>—but <i>we're not</i> wise,</p> +<p>Or else <i>we</i> love not; to be wise and love,</p> +<p>Exceeds man's might;—</p> +</div> +</div> +<p>Cressida, in return to the praise given by Troilus to her +wisdom, replies, "That lovers are never wise; that it is beyond the +power of man to bring love and wisdom to an union."</p> +<p>III.ii.173 (74,8) Might be affronted with the match] I wish "my +integrity might be met and matched with such equality and force of +pure unmingled love."</p> +<p>III.ii.184 (75,2) As true as steel, as plantage to the moon] +<i>Plantage</i> is not, I believe, a general term, but the herb +which we now call <i>plantain</i>, in Latin, <i>plantago</i>, which +was, I suppose, imagined to be under the peculiar influence of the +moon.</p> +<p>III.ii.187 (76,3)</p> +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<p>Yet after all comparisons of truth,</p> +<p>As truth's authentic author to be cited</p> +<p><i>As true as Troilus</i>, shall crown up the verse]</p> +</div> +</div> +<p>Troilus shall <i>crown the verse</i>, as a man <i>to be cited as +the authentic author of truth</i>; as one whose protestations were +true to a proverb.</p> +<p>III.iii.1-16 (77,5) Now, princes, for the service I have done +you] I am afraid, that after all the learned commentator's +[Warburton's] efforts to clear the argument of Calchas, it will +still appear liable to objection; nor do I discover more to be +urged in his defence, than that though his skill in divination +determined him to leave Troy, jet that he joined himself to +Agamemnon and his army by unconstrained good-will; and though he +came as a fugitive escaping from destruction, yet his services +after his reception, being voluntary and important, deserved +reward. This argument is not regularly and distinctly deduced, but +this is, I think, the best explication that it will yet admit.</p> +<p>III.iii.4 (78,6) through the sight I bear in things, to Jove] +This passage in all the modern editions is silently depraved, and +printed thus:</p> +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<p>—through the sight I bear in things to come.</p> +</div> +</div> +<p>The word is so printed that nothing but the sense can determine +whether it be <i>love</i> or <i>Jove</i>. I believe that the +editors read it as <i>love</i>, and therefore made the alteration +to obtain some meaning.</p> +<p>III.iii.28 (79,7)</p> +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<p>he shall buy my daughter; and her presence</p> +<p>Shall quite strike off all service I have done,</p> +<p>In most accepted pain]</p> +</div> +</div> +<p>Sir T. HANMER, and Dr. WARBURTON after him, read,</p> +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<p>In most accepted <i>pay</i>.</p> +</div> +</div> +<p>They do not seem to understand the construction of the passage. +<i>Her presence</i>, says Calchas, shall strike off, or recompence +<i>the service I have done</i>, even in these <i>labours</i> which +were <i>most accepted</i>.</p> +<p>III.iii.44 (80,8) derision med'cinable] All the modern editions +have <i>decision</i>. The old copies are apparently right. The +folio in this place agrees with the quarto, so that the corruption +was at first merely accidental.</p> +<p>III.iii.96 (82,9) how dearly ever parted] I do not think that in +the word <i>parted</i> is included any idea of <i>division</i>; it +means, <i>however excellently endowed</i>, with however <i>dear</i> +or precious <i>parts</i> enriched or adorned.</p> +<p>III.iii.113 (82,2) but the author's drift:/Who, in his +circumstance] In the detail or circumduction of his argument.</p> +<p>III.iii.125 (83,3) The unknovn Ajax] Ajax, who has abilities +which were never brought into view or use.</p> +<p>III.iii.134 (83,4)</p> +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<p>How some men creep in skittish Fortune's hall,</p> +<p>While others play the idiots in her eyes!]</p> +</div> +</div> +<p>To <i>creep</i> is to <i>keep out of sight</i> from whatever +motive. Some men <i>keep out of notice in the hall of Fortune</i>, +while others, though they but <i>play the idiot</i>, are always +<i>in her eye</i>, in the way of distinction.</p> +<p>III.iii.137 (83,5) feasting] Folio. The quarto has +<i>fasting</i>. Either word may bear a good sense.</p> +<p>III.iii.145 (84,6) Time hath, my lord, a wallet at his back] +This speech is printed in all the modern editions with such +deviations from the old copy, as exceed the lawful power of an +editor.</p> +<p>III.iii.171 (85,2) for beauty, wit,/High birth, vigour of bone, +desert in service] The modern editors read,</p> +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<p>For beauty, wit, high birth, desert in service, &c.</p> +</div> +</div> +<p>I do not deny but the changes produce a more easy lapse of +numbers, but they do not exhibit the work of Shakespeare, (see +1765, VII, 435, 2)</p> +<p>III.iii.178 (85,3)</p> +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<p>And shew to dust, that is a little gilt,</p> +<p>More laud than gilt o'er-dusted]</p> +</div> +</div> +<p>[T: give to ... laud than they will give to gold] This +emendation has been received by the succeeding editors, but recedes +too far from the copy. There is no other corruption than such as +Shakespeare's incorrectness often resembles. He has omitted the +article <i>to</i> in the second line: he should have written,</p> +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<p><i>More laud than</i> to <i>gilt o'er-dusted</i>. (1773) (rev. +1778, IX, 93, 7)</p> +</div> +</div> +<p>III.iii.189 (86,4) Made emulous missions] The meaning of +<i>mission</i> seems to be <i>dispatches</i> of the gods <i>from +heaven</i> about mortal business, such as often happened at the +siege of Troy.</p> +<p>III.iii.197 (86,5) Knows almost every grain of Pluto's gold] For +this elegant line the quarto has only,</p> +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<p>Knows almost every <i>thing</i>.</p> +</div> +</div> +<p>III.iii.201 (86,7) (with which relation/Durst never meddle)] +There is a secret administration of affairs, which no +<i>history</i> was ever able to discover.</p> +<p>III.iii.230 (87,9)</p> +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<p>Omission to do what is necessary</p> +<p>Seals a commission to a blank of danger]</p> +</div> +</div> +<p>By <i>neglecting</i> our duty we <i>commission</i> or enable +that <i>danger</i> of dishonour, which could not reach us before, +to lay hold upon us.</p> +<p>III.iii.254 (88,1) with a politic regard] With a <i>sly +look</i>.</p> +<p>IV.i.11 (91,1) During all question of the gentle truce] I once +thought to read,</p> +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<p>During all <i>quiet</i> of the gentle truce.</p> +</div> +</div> +<p>But I think <i>question</i> means intercourse, interchange of +conversation.</p> +<p>IV.i.36 (92,4) His purpose meets you] I bring you his meaning +and his orders.</p> +<p>IV.i.65 (93,6)</p> +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<p>Both merits pois'd, each weighs no less nor more,</p> +<p>But he as he, the heavier for a whore]</p> +</div> +</div> +<p>I read,</p> +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<p>But he as he, <i>each</i> heavier for a whore.</p> +</div> +</div> +<p><i>Heavy</i> is taken both for <i>weighty</i>, and for +<i>sad</i> or <i>miserable</i>. The quarto reads,</p> +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<p>But he as he, <i>the</i> heavier for a whore.</p> +</div> +</div> +<p>I know not whether the thought is not that of a wager. It must +then be read thus:</p> +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<p>But he as he. Which heavier for a whore?</p> +</div> +</div> +<p>That is, <i>for a whore</i> staked down, <i>which is the +heavier</i>.</p> +<p>IV.i.78 (94,7) We'll not commend what we intend to sell] I +believe the meaning is only this: though you practise the buyer's +art, we will not practise the seller's. We intend to sell Helen +dear, yet will not commend her.</p> +<p>IV.ii.62 (96,4) My matter is so rash] My business is so +<i>hasty</i> and so abrupt.</p> +<p>IV.ii.74 (97,6) the secrets of neighbour Pandar] [Pope had +emended the Folio's "secrets of nature" to the present reading] Mr. +Pope's reading is in the old quarto. So great is the necessity of +collation.</p> +<p>IV.iv.3 (99,1) The grief] The folio reads,</p> +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<p>The grief is fine, full perfect, that I taste,</p> +<p>And no less in a sense as strong</p> +<p>As that which causeth it.—</p> +</div> +</div> +<p>The quarto otherwise,</p> +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<p>The grief is fine, full, perfect, that I taste,</p> +<p>And <i>violenteth</i> in a sense as strong</p> +<p>As that which causeth it.—</p> +</div> +</div> +<p><i>Violenteth</i> is a word with which I am not acquainted, yet +perhaps it may be right. The reading of the text is without +authority.</p> +<p>IV.iv.65 (101,3) For I will throw my glove to death] That is, I +will <i>challenge</i> death himself in defence of thy fidelity.</p> +<p>IV.iv.105 (103,5)</p> +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<p>While others fish, with craft, for great opinion,</p> +<p>I, with great truth, catch mere simplicity.]</p> +</div> +</div> +<p>The meaning, I think, is, <i>while others</i>, by their art, +gain high estimation, I, by honesty, obtain a plain simple +approbation.</p> +<p>IV.iv.109 (103,6) the moral of my wit/Is, <i>plain and true</i>] +That is, the <i>governing principle of my understanding</i>; but I +rather think we should read,</p> +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<p>—the <i>motto</i> of my wit</p> +<p>Is, plain and true,—</p> +</div> +</div> +<p>IV.iv.114 (103,7) possess thee what she is] I will <i>make thee +fully understand</i>. This sense of the word <i>possess</i> is +frequent in our author.</p> +<p>IV.iv.134 (104,9) I'll answer to my list] This, I think, is +right, though both the old copies read <i>lust</i>.</p> +<p>IV.v.8 (105,1) bias cheek] Swelling out like the bias of a +bowl.</p> +<p>IV.v.37 (106,3) I'll make my match to live./The kiss you take is +better than you give] I will make such <i>bargains</i> as I may +live by, <i>such as may bring me profit</i>, therefore will not +take a worse kiss than I give.</p> +<p>IV.v.48 (107,4) Why, beg then] For the sake of rhime we should +read,</p> +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<p>Why beg <i>two</i>.</p> +</div> +</div> +<p>If you think kisses worth begging, beg more than one.</p> +<p>IV.v.52 (107,5) Never's my day, and then a kiss of you] I once +gave both these lines to Cressida. She bids Ulysses beg a kiss; he +asks that he may have it,</p> +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<p>When Helen is a maid again—</p> +</div> +</div> +<p>She tells him that then he shall have it:</p> +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<p>When Helen is a maid again—</p> +</div> +<div class="stanza"> +<p><i>Cre.</i> I am your debtor, claim it when 'tis due;</p> +<p>Never's my day, and then a kiss <i>for</i> you.</p> +</div> +</div> +<p>But I rather think that Ulysses means to slight her, and that +the present reading is right.</p> +<p>IV.v.57 (107,6) motive of her body] <i>Motive</i> for <i>part +that contributes to motion</i>.</p> +<p>IV.v.59 (107,7) a coasting] An amorous address; courtship.</p> +<p>IV.v.62 (107,8) sluttish spoils of opportunity] Corrupt wenches, +of whose chastity every opportunity may make a prey.</p> +<p>IV.v.73 (108,9) <i>Aga.</i> 'Tis done like Hector, but securely +done] [Theobald gave the speech to Achilles] As the old copies +agree, I have made no change.</p> +<p>IV.v.79 (108,1) Valour and pride excel themselves in Hector] +Shakespeare's thought is not exactly deduced. Nicety of expression +is not his character. The cleaning is plain, "Valour (says AEneas) +is in Hector greater than valour in other men, and pride in Hector +is less than pride in other men. So that Hector is distinguished by +the excellence of having pride less than other pride, and valour +more than other valour."</p> +<p>IV.v.103 (109,2) an impair thought] A thought suitable to the +dignity of his character. This word I should have changed to +<i>impure</i>, were I not over-powered by the unanimity of the +editors, and concurrence of the old copies, (rev. 1778, IX, 120, +8)</p> +<p>IV.v.105 (109,3) Hector in his blaze of wrath subscribes/To +tender objects] That is, <i>yields, gives</i> way.</p> +<p>IV.v.112 (110,4) thus translate him to me] Thus <i>explain his +character</i>.</p> +<p>IV.v.142 (111,5) <i>Hect.</i> Not Neoptolemus so mirable] [W: +Neoptolemus's sire irascible] After all this contention it is +difficult to imagine that the critic believes <i>mirable</i> to +have been changed to <i>irascible</i>. I should sooner read,</p> +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<p>Not Neoptolemus th' admirable;</p> +</div> +</div> +<p>as I know not whether <i>mirable</i> can be found in any other +place. The correction which the learned commentator gave to +Hanmer,</p> +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<p>Not Neoptolemus' <i>sire</i> so mirable,</p> +</div> +</div> +<p>as it was modester than this, was preferable to it. But nothing +is more remote from justness of sentiment, than for Hector to +characterise Achilles as the father of Neoptolemus, a youth that +had not yet appeared in arms, and whose name was therefore much +less knovn than his father's. My opinion is, that by Neoptolemus +the author meant Achilles himself; and remembering that the son was +Pyrrhus Neoptolemus, considered Neoptolemus as the nomen +gentilitium, and thought the father was likewise Achilles +Neoptolemus.</p> +<p>IV.v.147 (112,6) We'll answer it] That is, answer the +<i>expectance</i>.</p> +<p>IV.v.275 (117,5) Beat loud the tabourines] For this the quarto +and the latter editions have,</p> +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<p>To taste your bounties.—</p> +</div> +</div> +<p>The reading which I have given from the folio seems chosen at +the revision, to avoid the repetition of the word +<i>bounties</i>.</p> +<p>V.i.5 (118,1) Thou crusty batch of nature] <i>Batch</i> is +changed by Theobald to <i>botch</i>, and the change is justified by +a pompous note, which discovers that he did not know the word +<i>batch</i>. What is more strange, Hanmer has followed him. +<i>Batch</i> is any thing <i>baked</i>.</p> +<p>V.i.19 (119,3) Male-varlet] HANMER reads <i>male-harlot</i>, +plausibly enough, except that it seems too plain to require the +explanation which Patroclus demands.</p> +<p>V.i.23 (119,4) cold palsies] This catalogue of loathsome +maladies ends in the folio at <i>cold palsies</i>. This passage, as +it stands, is in the quarto: the retrenchment was in my opinion +judicious. It may be remarked, though it proves nothing, that, of +the few alterations made by Milton in the second edition of his +wonderful poem, one was, an enlargement of the enumeration of +diseases.</p> +<p>V.i.32 (119,5) you ruinous butt; you whoreson indistinguishable +cur] Patroclos reproaches Thersites with deformity, with having one +part crowded into another.</p> +<p>V.i.35 (119,6) thou idle immaterial skeyn of sley'd silk] All +the terms used by Thersites of Patroclus, are emblematically +expressive of flexibility, compliance, and mean officiousness.</p> +<p>V.i.40 (119,7) Out, gall!] HANMER reads <i>nut-gall</i>, which +answers well enough to <i>finch-egg</i>; it has already appeared, +that our author thought the <i>nut-gall</i> the bitter gall. He is +called <i>nut</i>, from the conglobation of his form; but both the +copies read, <i>Out, gall</i>!</p> +<p>V.i.41 (120,8) Finch egg!] Of this reproach I do not know the +exact meaning. I suppose he means to call him <i>singing bird</i>, +as implying an useless favourite, and yet more, something more +worthless, a singing bird in the egg, or generally, a slight thing +easily crushed.</p> +<p>V.i.64 (121,2) forced with wit] Stuffed with wit. A term of +cookery.—In this speech I do not well understand what is +meant by <i>loving quails</i>.</p> +<p>V.i.73 (121,3) spirits and fires!] This Thersites speaks upon +the first sight of the distant lights.</p> +<p>V.ii.11 (124,1) And any man may sing her, if he can take her +cliff] That is, her <i>key</i>. <i>Clef</i>, French.</p> +<p>V.ii.41 (125,2) You flow to great distraction] So the moderns. +The folio has,</p> +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<p>You <i>flow</i> to great <i>distraction</i>.—</p> +</div> +</div> +<p>The quarto,</p> +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<p>You <i>flow</i> to great <i>destruction</i>.—</p> +</div> +</div> +<p>I read,</p> +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<p>You <i>show too</i> great distraction.—</p> +</div> +</div> +<p>V.ii.108 (128,7) But with my heart the other eye doth see] I +think it should be read thus,</p> +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<p>But <i>my heart with</i> the other eye doth see.</p> +</div> +</div> +<p>V.ii.113 (128,8) A proof of strength she could not publish more] +She could not publish a stronger proof.</p> +<p>V.ii.125 (129,1) I cannot conjure, Trojan] That is, I cannot +raise spirits in the form of Cressida.</p> +<p>V.ii.141 (129,2) If there be rule in unity itself] I do not well +understand what is meant by <i>rule in unity</i>. By <i>rule</i> +our author, in this place as in others, intends <i>virtuous +restraint, regularity of manners, command of passions and +appetites</i>. In Macbeth,</p> +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<p>He cannot buckle his distemper'd cause</p> +<p>Within the belt of rule.—</p> +</div> +</div> +<p>But I know not how to apply the word in this sense to +<i>unity</i>. I read,</p> +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<p>If there be rule in <i>purity</i> itself,</p> +</div> +</div> +<p>Or, If there be rule in <i>verity</i> itself.</p> +<p>Such alterations would not offend the reader, who saw the state +of the old editions, in which, for instance, a few lines lower, +<i>the almighty sun</i> is called <i>the almighty +fenne</i>.—Yet the words may at last mean, If there be +<i>certainty</i> in <i>unity</i>, if it be a <i>rule</i> that +<i>one is one</i>.</p> +<p>V.ii.144 (130,3) Bi-fold authority!] This is the reading of the +quarto. The folio gives us,</p> +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<p><i>By foul</i> authority!—</p> +</div> +</div> +<p>There is <i>madness</i> in that disquisition in which a man +reasons at once <i>for</i> and <i>against himself upon +authority</i> which he knows <i>not to be valid</i>. The quarto is +right.</p> +<p>V.ii.144 (130,4)</p> +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<p class="i6">where reason can revolt</p> +<p>Without perdition, and loss assume all reason</p> +<p>Without revolt]</p> +</div> +</div> +<p>The words <i>loss</i> and <i>perdition</i> are used in their +common sense, but they mean the <i>loss</i> or <i>perdition</i> of +<i>reason</i>.</p> +<p>V.ii.157 (131,6) And with another knot five-finger-tied] A knot +tied by giving her hand to Diomed.</p> +<p>V.ii.160 (131,7) o'er-eaten faith] Vows which she has already +swallowed <i>once over</i>. We still say of a faithless man, that +he has <i>eaten his words</i>.</p> +<p>V.ii.161 (131,8)</p> +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<p><i>Ulyss.</i> May worthy Troilus be half attach'd</p> +<p>With that which here his passion doth express!]</p> +</div> +</div> +<p>Can Troilus really feel on this occasion half of what he utters? +A question suitable to the calm Ulysses.</p> +<p>V.iii.21 (133,2)</p> +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<p>For us to count we give what's gain'd by thefts,</p> +<p>And rob in the behalf of charity]</p> +</div> +</div> +<p>This is so oddly confused in the folio, that I transcribe it as +a specimen of incorrectness:</p> +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<p>—do not count it holy,</p> +<p>To hurt by being just; it were as lawful</p> +<p><i>For we would count give much to as violent thefts</i>,</p> +<p>And rob in the behalf of charity.</p> +</div> +</div> +<p>V.iii.23 (133,3)</p> +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<p><i>Cas.</i> It is the purpose that makes strong the vow;</p> +<p>But vows to every purpose must not hold]</p> +</div> +</div> +<p>The mad prophetess speaks here with all the coolness and +judgment of a skilful casuist. "The essence of a lawful vow, is a +lawful purpose, and the vow of which the end is wrong must not be +regarded as cogent."</p> +<p>V.iii.27 (134,4)</p> +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<p>Life every man holds dear; but the dear man</p> +<p>Holds honour far more precious dear than life]</p> +</div> +</div> +<p><i>Valuable</i> man. The modern editions read,</p> +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<p>—<i>brave</i> man.</p> +</div> +</div> +<p>The repetition of the word is in our author's manner.</p> +<p>V.iii.37 (134,5)</p> +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<p>Brother, you have a vice of mercy in you,</p> +<p>Which better fits a lion, than a man]</p> +</div> +</div> +<p>The traditions and stories of the darker ages abounded with +examples of the lion's generosity. Upon the supposition that these +acts of clemency were true, Troilus reasons not improperly, that to +spare against reason, by mere instinct of pity, became rather a +generous beast than a wise man.</p> +<p>V.x.33 (137,9) Hence, broker lacquey!] For <i>brothel</i>, the +folio reads <i>brother</i>, erroneously for <i>broker</i>, as it +stands at the end of the play where the lines are repeated. Of +<i>brother</i> the following editors made <i>brothel</i>.</p> +<p>V.iv.18 (138,2) the Grecians begin to proclaim barbarism, and +policy grows into an ill opinion] To set up the authority of +ignorance to declare that they will be governed by policy no +longer.</p> +<p>V.vi.11 (142,1) you cogging Greeks] This epithet has no +particular propriety in this place, but the author had heard of +<i>Graecia Mendax</i>.</p> +<p>V.vi.29 (144,3) I'll frush it] The word <i>frush</i> I never +found elsewhere, nor understand it. HANMER explains it, to +<i>break</i> or <i>bruise</i>.</p> +<p>V.viii.7 (146,1) Even with the vail and darkening of the sun] +The <i>vail</i> is, I think, the <i>sinking</i> of the sun; not +<i>veil</i> or <i>cover</i>.</p> +<p>(149) General Observation. This play is more correctly written +than most of Shakespeare's compositions, but it is not one of those +in which either the extent of his views or elevation of his fancy +is fully displayed. As the story abounded with materials, he has +exerted little invention; but he has diversified his characters +with great variety, and preserved them with great exactness. His +vicious characters sometimes disgust, but cannot corrupt, for both +Cressida and Pandarus are detested and contemned. The comic +characters seem to have been the favourites of the writer; they are +of the superficial kind, and exhibit more of manners than nature; +but they are copiously filled and powerfully impressed. Shakespeare +has in his story followed, for the greater part, the old book of +Caxton, which was then very popular; but the character of +Thersites, of which it makes no mention, is a proof that this play +was written after Chapman had published his version of +<i>Homer</i>.</p> +<h2>CYMBELINE</h2> +<p>I.i.1 (153,2)</p> +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<p>You do not meet a man, but frowns: our bloods</p> +<p>No more obey the heavens, than our courtiers'</p> +<p>Still seen, as does the king's]</p> +</div> +</div> +<p>[W: brows/No more] This passage is so difficult, that +commentators may differ concerning it without animosity or shame. +Of the two emendations proposed, Hanmer's is the more licentious; +but he makes the sense clear, and leaves the reader an easy +passage. Dr. Warburton has corrected with more caution, but less +improvement: his reasoning upon his own reading is so obscure and +perplexed, that I suspect some injury of the press.—I am now +to tell my opinion, which is, that the lines stand as they were +originally written, and that a paraphrase, such as the licentious +and abrupt expressions of our author too frequently require, will +make emendation unnecessary. <i>We do not meet a man but frowns; +our bloods</i>—our countenances, which, in popular speech, +are said to be regulated by the temper of the blood,—<i>no +more obey</i> the laws of <i>heaven</i>,—which direct us to +appear what we really are,—<i>than our +courtiers</i>;—that is, than the <i>bloods of our +courtiers</i>; but our bloods, like theirs,—<i>still seem, as +doth the king's</i>.</p> +<p>I.i.25 (155,3) I do extend him, Sir, within himself] I extend +him within himself: my praise, however <i>extensive</i>, is +<i>within</i> his merit.</p> +<p>I.i.46 (156,4) liv'd in court,/(Which rare it is to do) most +prais'd, most lov'd] This encomium is high and artful. To be at +once in any great degree <i>loved</i> and <i>praised</i> is truly +<i>rare</i>.</p> +<p>I.i.49 (156,5) A glass that feated them] <i>A glass that +featur'd them</i>] Such is the reading in all the modern editions, +I know not by whom first substituted, for</p> +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<p>A glass that <i>feared</i> them;—</p> +</div> +</div> +<p>I have displaced <i>featur'd</i>, though it can plead long +prescription, because I am inclined to think that <i>feared</i> has +the better title. <i>Mirrour</i> was a favourite word in that age +for an <i>example</i>, or a <i>pattern</i>, by noting which the +manners were to be formed, as dress is regulated by looking in a +glass. When Don Bellianis is stiled <i>The Mirrour of +Knighthood</i>, the idea given is not that of a glass in which +every knight may behold his own resemblance, but an example to be +viewed by knights as often as a glass is looked upon by girls, to +be viewed, that they may know, not what they are, but what they +ought to be. Such a glass may <i>fear the more mature</i>, as +displaying excellencies which they have arrived at maturity without +attaining. To <i>fear</i> is here, as in other places, to +<i>fright</i>. [I believe Dr. Johnson is mistaken as to the reading +of the folio, which is <i>feated</i>. The page of the copy which he +consulted is very faintly printed; but I have seen another since, +which plainly gives this reading. STEEVENS.] If <i>feated</i> be +the right word, it must, I think, be explained thus; <i>a glass +that</i> formed <i>them</i>; a model, by the contemplation and +inspection of which they formed their manners. (see 1765, VII, 260, +4)</p> +<p>I.i.86 (158,1)</p> +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<p>I something fear my father's wrath; but nothing</p> +<p>(Always reserv'd my holy duty) what</p> +<p>His rage can do on me]</p> +</div> +</div> +<p>I say I do not fear my father, so far as I may say it without +breach of duty.</p> +<p>I.i.101 (158,2) Though ink be made of gall] Shakespeare, even in +this poor conceit, has confounded the vegetable <i>galls</i> used +in ink, with the animal <i>gall</i>, supposed to be bitter.</p> +<p>I.i.132 (160,4) then heapest/A year's age on me] Dr. WARBURTON +reads,</p> +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<p>A <i>yare</i> age on me.</p> +</div> +</div> +<p>It seems to me, even from SKINNER, whom he cites, that +<i>yare</i> is used only as a personal quality. Nor is the +authority of Skinner sufficient, without some example, to justify +the alteration. HANMER's reading is better, but rather too far from +the original copy:</p> +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<p>—thou heapest <i>many</i></p> +<p>A year's age on me.</p> +</div> +</div> +<p>I read,</p> +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<p>—thou heap'st</p> +<p><i>Years, ages</i> on me.</p> +</div> +</div> +<p>I.i.135 (160,5) a touch more rare/Subdues all pangs, all fears] +<i>Rare</i> is used often for <i>eminently good</i>; but I do not +remember any passage in which it stands for <i>eminently bad</i>. +May we read,</p> +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<p>—a touch more <i>near</i>.</p> +</div> +</div> +<p><i>Cura deam</i> propior luctusque domesticus angit. +<i>Ovid</i>.</p> +<p>Shall we try again,</p> +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<p>—a touch more <i>rear</i>.</p> +</div> +</div> +<p><i>Crudum vulnus.</i> But of this I know not any example. There +is yet another interpretation, which perhaps will remove the +difficulty. <i>A touch more rare</i>, may mean <i>a nobler +passion</i>.</p> +<p>I.i.140 (161,6) a puttock] A <i>kite</i>.</p> +<p>I.ii.31 (163,1) her beauty and her brain go not together] I +believe the lord means to speak a sentence, "Sir, as I told you +always, beauty and brain go not together."</p> +<p>I.ii.32 (164,2) She's a good sign] [W: shine] There is acuteness +enough in this note, yet I believe the poet meant nothing by +<i>sign</i>, but <i>fair outward</i> shew.</p> +<p>I.iii.8 (165,2)</p> +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<p class="i10">for so long</p> +<p>As he could make me with this eye, or ear,</p> +<p>Distinguish him from others]</p> +</div> +</div> +<p>[W: this eye] Sir T. HANMER alters it thus:</p> +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<p>—for so long</p> +<p>As he could <i>mark</i> me with his eye, or <i>I</i></p> +<p>Distinguish—</p> +</div> +</div> +<p>The reason of Hanmer's reading was, that Pisanio describes no +address made to the <i>ear</i>.</p> +<p>I.iii.18 (165,3) till the diminution/Of space had pointed him +sharp as my needle] <i>The diminution of space</i>, is <i>the +diminution</i> of which <i>space</i> is the cause. Trees are killed +by a blast of lightning, that is, by <i>blasting</i>, not +<i>blasted</i> lightning.</p> +<p>I.iii.24 (166,4) next vantage] Next <i>opportunity</i>.</p> +<p>I.iii.37 (166,6) Shakes all our buds from growing] A bud, +without any distinct idea, whether of flower or fruit, is a natural +representation of any thing incipient or immature; and the buds of +flowers, if flowers are meant, <i>grow</i> to flowers, as the buds +of fruits <i>grow</i> to fruits.</p> +<p>I.iv.9 (167,1) makes him] In the sense in which we say, This +will <i>make</i> or <i>mar</i> you.</p> +<p>I.iv.16 (167,2) words him, I doubt not, a great deal from the +matter] Makes the description of him very distant from the +truth.</p> +<p>I.iv.20 (167,3) under her colours] Under her banner; by her +influence.</p> +<p>I.iv.47 (168,6) I was then a young traveller; rather shunn'd to +go even with what I heard, than in my every action to be guided by +others' experiences] This is expressed with a kind of fantastical +perplexity. He means, I was then willing to take for my direction +the experience of others, more than such intelligence as I had +gathered myself.</p> +<p>I.iv,58 (169,7) 'Twas a contention in publick, which may, +without contradiction, suffer the report] Which, undoubtedly, may +be publickly told.</p> +<p>I.iv.73 (169,8) tho' I profess myself her adorer, not her +friend] Though I have not the common obligations of a lover to his +mistress, and regard her not with the fondness of a friend, but the +reverence of an adorer.</p> +<p>I.iv.77 (169,9) If she went before others I have seen, as that +diamond of yours out-lustres many I have beheld, I could not +believe she excelled many] [W: could believe] I should explain the +sentence thus: "Though your lady excelled, as much as your diamond, +<i>I could not believe she excelled many</i>; that is, I too +<i>could</i> yet <i>believe that there are</i> many <i>whom</i> she +did not excel." But I yet think Dr. Warburton right. (1773)</p> +<p>I.iv.104 (171,l) to convince the honour of my mistress] +[<i>Convince</i>, for overcome. WARBURTON.] So in +<i>Macbeth</i>,</p> +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<p>—their malady <i>convinces</i></p> +<p>"The great essay of art."</p> +</div> +</div> +<p>I.iv.124 (171,2) abus'd] <i>Deceiv'd.</i></p> +<p>I.iv.134 (172,3) approbation] Proof.</p> +<p>I.iv.148 (172,4) You are a friend, and therein the wiser. If you +buy ladies' flesh at a million a dram, you cannot preserve it from +tainting. But, I see, you have some religion in you, that you fear] +<i>You are a friend</i> to the lady, <i>and therein the wiser</i>, +as you will not expose her to hazard; and that you <i>fear</i>, is +a proof of your <i>religious</i> fidelity. (see 1765, VII, 276, +1)</p> +<p>I.iv.l60 (173,5) <i>Iach.</i> If I bring you no sufficient +testimony that I have enjoy'd the dearest bodily part of your +mistress, my ten thousand ducats are yours, so is my diamond too: +if I come off, and leave her in such honour as you have trust in, +she your jewel, this your jewel, and my gold are yours—</p> +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<p><i>Post.</i> I embrace these conditions]</p> +</div> +</div> +<p>[W: bring you sufficient] I once thought this emendation right, +but am now of opinion, that Shakespeare intended that Iachimo, +having gained his purpose, should designedly drop the invidious and +offensive part of the wager, and to flatter Posthumus, dwell long +upon the more pleasing part of the representation. One condition of +a wager implies the other, and there is no need to mention +both.</p> +<p>I.v.18 (176,1) Other conclusions] Other <i>experiments</i>. <i>I +commend</i>, says WALTON, <i>an angler that tries</i> conclusions, +and improves his art.</p> +<p>I.v.23 (175,2) Your highness/Shall from this practice but make +hard your heart] Thare is in this passage nothing that much +requires a note, yet I cannot forbear to push it forward into +observation. The thought would probably have been more amplified, +had our author lived to be shocked with such experiments as have +been published in later times, by a race of men that have practised +tortures without pity, and related then without shame, and are yet +suffered to erect their heads among human beings.</p> +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<p>"Cape saxa manu, cape robora, pastor."</p> +</div> +</div> +<p>I.v.33-44 (175,3) I do not like her] This soliloquy is very +inartificial. The speaker is under no strong pressure of thought; +he is neither resolving, repenting, suspecting, nor deliberating, +and yet makes a long speech to tell himself what himself knows.</p> +<p>I.v.54 (176,4) to shift his being] To change his abode.</p> +<p>I.v.58 (118,5) What shalt thou expect,/To be depender on a thing +that leans?] That <i>inclines</i> towards its fall.</p> +<p>I.v.80 (177,7) Of leigers for her sweet] A <i>leiger</i> +ambassador, is one that resides at a foreign court to promote his +master's interest.</p> +<p>I.vi.7 (178,9)</p> +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<p class="i10">Bless'd be those,</p> +<p>How mean soe'er, that have their honest wills,</p> +<p>Which seasons comfort]</p> +</div> +</div> +<p>I am willing to comply with any meaning that can be extorted +from the present text, rather than change it, yet will propose, but +with great diffidence, a slight alteration:</p> +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<p>—Bless'd be those,</p> +<p>How mean soe'er, that have their honest wills,</p> +<p><i>With reason's</i>comfort.—</p> +</div> +</div> +<p>Who gratify their innocent wishes with reasonable +enjoyments.</p> +<p>I.vi.35 (180,2) and the twinn'd stones/Upon the number'd beach?] +I know not well how to regulate this passage. <i>Number'd</i> is +perhaps <i>numerous</i>. <i>Twinn'd stones</i> I do not understand. +<i>Twinn'd shells</i>, or <i>pairs of shells</i>, are very common. +For <i>twinn'd</i>, we might read <i>twin'd</i>; that is, +<i>twisted, convolved</i>; but this sense is more applicable to +shells than to stones.</p> +<p>I.vi.44 (181,3)</p> +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<p>Sluttery, to such neat excellence oppos'd,</p> +<p>Should make desire vomit emptiness,</p> +<p>Not so allur'd to feed]</p> +</div> +</div> +<p>[i.e. that appetite, which is not allured to feed on such +excellence, can have no stomach at all; but, though empty, must +nauseate every thing. WARB.] I explain this passage in a sense +almost contrary. Iachimo, in this counterfeited rapture, has shewn +how the <i>eyes</i> and the <i>judgment</i> would determine in +favour of Imogen, comparing her with the present mistress of +Posthumus, and proceeds to say, that appetite too would give the +same suffrage. <i>Desire</i>, says he, when it approached +<i>sluttery</i>, and considered it in comparison with <i>such neat +excellence</i>, would not only be <i>not so allured to feed</i>, +but, seized with a fit of loathing, <i>would vomit emptiness</i>, +would feel the convulsions of disgust, though, being unfed, it had +nothing to eject. [Tyrwhitt: vomit, emptiness ... allure] This is +not ill conceived; but I think my own explanation right. <i>To +vomit emptiness</i> is, in the language of poetry, to feel the +convulsions of eructation without plenitude. (1773)</p> +<p>I.vi.54 (182,4) He's strange, and peevish] He is a foreigner, +easily fretted.</p> +<p>I.vi.97 (184,5) timely knowing] Rather timely <i>known</i>.</p> +<p>I.vi.99 (184,6) What both you spur and stop] What it is that at +once incites you to speak, and restrains you from it. [I think +Imogen means to enquire what is that news, that intelligence, or +information, you profess to bring, and yet with-hold: at least, I +think Dr. JOHNSON's explanation a mistaken one, for Imogen's +request supposes Iachimo an agent, not a patient. HAWKINS.] I think +my explanation true. (see 1765, VII, 286, 7)</p> +<p>I.vi.106 (184,7)</p> +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<p>join gripes with hands</p> +<p>Made hard with hourly falshood (falshood as</p> +<p>With labour) then lye peeping in an eye]</p> +</div> +</div> +<p>The old edition reads,</p> +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<p>—join gripes with hands</p> +<p>Made hard with hourly falshood (<i>falshood</i> as</p> +<p>With labour) then by peeping in an eye, &c.</p> +</div> +</div> +<p>I read,</p> +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<p>—then <i>lye</i> peeping—</p> +</div> +</div> +<p>The author of the present regulation of the text I do not know, +but have suffered it to stand, though not right. <i>Hard with +falshood</i> is, hard by being often griped with frequent change of +hands.</p> +<p>I.vi.122 (185,8) With tomboys, hir'd with that +self-exhibition/Which your own coffers yield!] <i>Gross +strumpets</i>, hired with the <i>very pension</i> which you allow +your husband.</p> +<p>I.vi.152 (186,9) As in a Romish stew] The stews of Rome are +deservedly censured by the reformed. This is one of many instances +in which Shakespeare has mingled in the manners of distant ages in +this play.</p> +<p>II.i.2 (188,1) kiss'd the jack upon an up-cast] He is describing +his fate at bowls. The <i>jack</i> is the small bowl at which the +others are aimed. He who is nearest to it wins. <i>To kiss the +jack</i> is a state of great advantage. (1773)</p> +<p>II.i.15 (189,2) 2 <i>Lord</i>. No, my lord; nor crop the ears of +them. [<i>Aside</i>.] This, I believe, should stand thus:</p> +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<p>1 <i>Lord</i>. No, my lord.</p> +<p>2 <i>Lord</i>. Nor crop the ears of them, [<i>Aside</i>.</p> +</div> +</div> +<p>II.i.26 (189,3) you crow, cock, with your comb on] The allusion +is to a fool's cap, which hath a <i>comb</i> like a cock's.</p> +<p>II.i.29 (189,4) every companion] The use of <i>companion</i> was +the same as of <i>fellow</i> now. It was a word of contempt.</p> +<p>II.ii.12 (191,1) our Tarquin] The speaker is an Italian.</p> +<p>II.ii.13 (191,2) Did softly press the rushes] It was the custom +in the time of our author to strew chambers with rushes, as we now +cover them with carpets. The practice is mentioned in <i>Caius de +Ephemera Britannica</i>.</p> +<p>II.iii.24 (194,2) <i>His steeds to water at those springs On +chalic'd flowers that lies</i>]</p> +<p>Hanmer reads,</p> +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<p>Each <i>chalic'd</i> flower supplies;</p> +</div> +</div> +<p>to escape a false concord: but correctness must not be obtained +by such licentious alterations. It may be noted, that the +<i>cup</i> of a flower is called <i>calix</i>, whence +<i>chalice</i>.</p> +<p>II.iii.28 (195,3) <i>With, every thing that pretty bin</i>] is +very properly restored by Hanmer, for <i>pretty is</i>; but he too +grammatically reads,</p> +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<p>With <i>all the things</i> that pretty <i>bin</i>.</p> +</div> +</div> +<p>II.iii.102 (197,5) one of your great knowing/Should learn, being +taught, forbearance] i.e. A man <i>who is taught forbearance should +learn it</i>.</p> +<p>II.iii.111 (198,7) so verbal] Is, so <i>verbose</i>, so full of +talk.</p> +<p>II.iii.118-129 (199,8) The contract you pretend with that base +wretch] Here Shakespeare has not preserved, with his common nicety, +the uniformity of character. The speech of Cloten is rough and +harsh, but certainly not the talk of one,</p> +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<p>Who can't take two from twenty, for his heart,</p> +<p>And leave eighteen.—</p> +</div> +</div> +<p>His argument is just and well enforced, and its prevalence is +allowed throughout all civil nations: as for rudeness, he seems not +to be mach undermatched.</p> +<p>II.iii.124 (199,9) in self-figur'd knot] [This is nonsense. We +should read,</p> +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<p>—SELF-FINGER'D <i>knot</i>;</p> +</div> +</div> +<p>WARBURTON.] But why nonsense? A <i>self-figured knot</i> is a +knot formed by yourself. (see 1765, VII, 301, 8)</p> +<p>II.iv.71 (204,4) And Cydnus swell'd above the banks, or for/The +press of boats, or pride] [This is an agreeable ridicule on +poetical exaggeration, which gives human passions to inanimate +things: and particularly, upon what he himself writes in the +foregoing play on this very subject:</p> +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<p>"—And made</p> +<p>The water, which they beat, to follow faster,</p> +<p>As amorous of their strokes."</p> +</div> +</div> +<p>WARBURTON.] It is easy to sit down and give our author meanings +which he never had. Shakespeare has no great right to censure +poetical exaggeration, of which no poet is more frequently guilty. +That he intended to ridicule his own lines is very uncertain, when +there are no means of knowing which of the two plays was written +first. The commentator has contented himself to suppose, that the +foregoing play in his book was the play of earlier composition. Nor +is the reasoning better than the assertion. If the language of +Iachimo be such as shews him to be mocking the credibility of his +hearer, his language is very improper, when his business was to +deceive. But the truth is, that his language is such as a skilful +villain would naturally use, a mixture of airy triumph and serious +deposition. His gaiety shews his seriousness to be without anxiety, +and his seriousness proves his gaiety to be without art.</p> +<p>II.iv.83 (205,5) never saw I figures/So likely to report +themselves] So near to speech. The Italians call a portrait, when +the likeness is remarkable, a <i>speaking picture</i>.</p> +<p>II.iv.84 (205,6) the cutter/Was as another nature, dumb, +out-went her;/Motion and breath left out] [W: done; out-went her.] +This emendation I think needless. The meaning is this, The +<i>sculptor</i> was as <i>nature</i>, but as <i>nature dumb</i>; he +gave every thing that nature gives, but <i>breath</i> and +<i>motion</i>. In <i>breath</i> is included <i>speech</i>.</p> +<p>II.iv.91 (205,7) <i>Post.</i> This is her honour!] [T: What's +this t'her honour?] This emendation has been followed by both the +succeeding editors, but I think it must be rejected. The expression +is ironical. Iachimo relates many particulars, to which Posthumus +answers with impatience, This is her honour! That is, And the +attainment of this knowledge is to pass for the corruption of her +honour.</p> +<p>II.iv.95 (206,8) if you can/Be pale] If you can forbear to flush +your cheek with rage.</p> +<p>II.iv.110 (207,9)</p> +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<p>The vows of women</p> +<p>Of no more bondage be, to where they are made,</p> +<p>Than they are to their virtues]</p> +</div> +</div> +<p>The love vowed by women no more abides with him to whom it is +vowed, than women adhere to their virtue.</p> +<p>II.iv.127 (207,2) The cognizance] The badge; the token; the +visible proof.</p> +<p>III.i.26 (211,2) and his shipping,/(Poor ignorant baubles!) on +our terrible seas] [<i>Ignorant</i>, for <i>of no use</i>. WARB.] +Rather, <i>unacquainted</i> with the nature of our boisterous +seas.</p> +<p>III.i.51 (212,3) against all colour] Without any pretence of +right.</p> +<p>III.i.73 (213,5) keep at utterance] [i.e. At extreme distance. +WARB.] More properly, in a state of hostile defiance, and deadly +opposition.</p> +<p>III.i.73 (213,6) I am perfect] I am well informed. So, in +Macbeth, "—in your state of honour <i>I am perfect</i>." (see +1765, VII, 314,7)</p> +<p>III.ii.4 (214,2) What false Italian (As poisonous tongu'd as +handed)] About Shakespeare's time the practice of poisoning was +very common in Italy, and the suspicion of Italian poisons yet more +common.</p> +<p>III.ii.9 (214,3) take in some virtue] To <i>take in</i> a town, +is to <i>conquer</i> it.</p> +<p>III.ii.34 (215,6) For it doth physic love] That is, grief for +absence, keeps love in health and vigour.</p> +<p>III.ii.47 (215,8) <i>loyal to his vow, and your increasing in +love</i>] I read, Loyal to his vow and <i>you</i>, increasing in +love.</p> +<p>III.ii.79 (216,1) A franklin's housewife] A <i>franklin</i> is +literally a <i>freeholder</i>, with a small estate, neither +<i>villain</i> nor <i>vassal</i>.</p> +<p>III.ii.80 (217,2)</p> +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<p>I see before me, man, nor here, nor here,</p> +<p>Nor what ensues; but have a fog in them,</p> +<p>That I cannot look thro']</p> +</div> +</div> +<p>This passage may, in my opinion, be very easily understood, +without any emendation. The lady says, "I can see neither one way +nor other, before me nor behind me, but all the ways are covered +with an impenetrable fog." There are objections insuperable to all +that I can propose, and since reason can give me no counsel, I will +resolve at once to follow my inclination.</p> +<p>III.iii.5 (218,2) giants may jet through/And keep their impious +turbans on] The idea of a <i>giant</i> was, among the readers of +romances, who were almost all the readers of those times, always +confounded with that of a Saracen.</p> +<p>III.iii.16 (218,3) This service it not service, so being +done,/But being so allow'd] In war it is not sufficient to do duty +well; the advantage rises not from the act, but the acceptance of +the act.</p> +<p>III.iii.23 (219,5) Richer, than doing nothing for a babe] I have +always suspected that the right reading of this passage is what I +had not in my former edition the confidence to propose: Richer, +than doing nothing for a <i>brabe</i>.</p> +<p><i>Brabium</i> is a badge of honour, or the ensign of an honour, +or any thing worn as a mask of dignity. The word was strange to the +editors as it will be to the reader: they therefore changed it to +<i>babe</i>; and I am forced to propose it without the support of +any authority. <i>Brabium</i> is a word found in Holyoak's +Dictionary, who terms it a <i>reward</i>. Cooper, in his +<i>Thesaurus</i>, defines it to be a <i>prize, or reward for any +game</i>. (1773) (rev. 1778, IX, 248, 8)</p> +<p>III.iii.35 (219,6) To stride a limit] To overpass his bound.</p> +<p>III.iii.35 (220,7) What should we speak of,/When we are as old +as you?] This dread of an old age, unsupplied with matter for +discourse and meditation, is a sentiment natural and noble. No +state can be more destitute than that of him who, when the delights +of sense forsake him, has no pleasures of the mind.</p> +<p>III.iii.82 (221,9)</p> +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<p>tho' trained up thus meanly</p> +<p>I' the cave, wherein they bow, their thoughts do hit</p> +<p>The roof of palaces]</p> +</div> +</div> +<p>[W: wherein they bow] HANMER reads,</p> +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<p>I' the cave, <i>here in this brow</i>.—</p> +<p>I think the reading is this:</p> +<p>I' the cave, wherein the BOW, &c.</p> +</div> +</div> +<p>That is, they are trained up in the <i>cave, where their +thoughts</i> in hitting the <i>bow</i>, or arch of their +habitation, <i>hit the roofs of palaces</i>. In other words, though +their condition is low, their thoughts are high. The sentence is at +last, as THEOBALD remarks, abrupt, but perhaps no less suitable to +Shakespeare. I know not whether Dr. WARBURTON's conjecture be not +better than mine.</p> +<p>III.iii.101 (223,2) I stole these babes] Shakespeare seems to +intend Belarius for a good character, yet he makes him forget the +injury which he has done to the young princes, whom he has robbed +of a kingdom only to rob their father of heirs.—The latter +part of this soliloquy is very inartificial, there being no +particular reason why Belarius should now tell to himself what he +could not know better by telling it.</p> +<p>III.iv.15 (224,2) drug-damn'd Italy] This is another allusion to +Italian poisons.</p> +<p>III.iv.39 (225,4) Kings, queens, and states] Persons of highest +rank.</p> +<p>III.iv.52 (225,6) Some jay of Italy,/Whose mother was her +painting] <i>Some jay of Italy</i>, made by art the creature, not +of nature, but of painting. In this sense <i>painting</i> may be +not improperly termed her <i>mother</i>. (see 1765, VII, 325, +9)</p> +<p>III.iv.63 (226,7) So thou, Posthumus,/Wilt lay the leaven on all +proper men] HANMER reads,</p> +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<p>—lay the <i>level</i>—</p> +</div> +</div> +<p>without any necessity.</p> +<p>III.iv.97 (228,1) That now thou tir'st on] A hawk is said to +<i>tire</i> upon that which he pecks; from <i>tirer</i>, +French.</p> +<p>III.iv.104 (228,2)</p> +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<p>I'll wake mine eye-balls blind first.</p> +<p><i>Imo.</i> Wherefore then]</p> +</div> +</div> +<p>This is the old reading. The modern editions for <i>wake</i> +read <i>break</i>, and supply the deficient syllable by <i>ah</i>, +wherefore. I read, I'll wake mine eye-balls <i>out</i> first, or, +<i>blind</i>, first.</p> +<p>III.iv.111 (228,3) To be unbent] To have thy bow unbent, +alluding to a hunter.</p> +<p>III.iv.146 (229,4)</p> +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<p>Now, if you could wear a mind</p> +<p>Dark as your fortune is, and but disguise</p> +<p>That, which, to appear itself, must not yet be,</p> +<p>But by self-danger]</p> +</div> +</div> +<p>To wear a dark mind, is to carry a mind impenetrable to the +search of others. <i>Darkness</i> applied to the <i>mind</i> is +<i>secrecy</i>, applied to the <i>fortune</i> is <i>obscurity</i>. +The next lines are obscure. <i>You must</i>, says Pisanio, +<i>disguise that</i> greatness, <i>which, to appear</i> hereafter +<i>in its proper form</i>, cannot yet appear without great +<i>danger to itself</i>. (see 1765, VII, 329, 6)</p> +<p>III.iv.149 (230,5) full of view] With opportunities of examining +your affairs with your own eyes.</p> +<p>III.iv.155 (230,6) Though peril to my modesty, not death on't,/I +would adventure] I read,</p> +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<p><i>Through</i> peril—</p> +</div> +</div> +<p><i>I would for such means adventure</i> through <i>peril of my +modesty</i>; I would risque every thing but real dishonour.</p> +<p>III.iv.162 (230,7)</p> +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<p>nay, you must</p> +<p>Forget that rarest treasure of your cheek;</p> +<p>Exposing it (but, oh, the harder heart!</p> +<p>Alack, no remedy)]</p> +</div> +</div> +<p>I think it very natural to reflect in this distress on the +cruelty of Posthumus. Dr. WARBURTON proposes to read,</p> +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<p>—the harder <i>hap</i>!—</p> +</div> +</div> +<p>III.iv.177 (231,8) which you'll make him know] This is HANMER's +reading. The common books have it,</p> +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<p>—which <i>will</i> make him know.</p> +</div> +</div> +<p>Mr. THEOBALD, in one of bit long notes, endeavours to prove, +that it should be,</p> +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<p>—which will make him <i>so</i>.</p> +</div> +</div> +<p>He is followed by Dr. WARBURTON.</p> +<p>III.iv.184 (231,9) we'll even/All that good time will give us] +We'll make our work <i>even</i> with our <i>time</i>; we'll do what +time will allow.</p> +<p>III.v.71 (235,2)</p> +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<p>And that she hath all courtly parts more exquisite</p> +<p>Than lady, ladies, woman; from every one</p> +<p>The best she hath]</p> +</div> +</div> +<p>[The second line is intolerable nonsense. It should be read and +pointed thus,</p> +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<p>Than lady ladies; <i>winning</i> from each one.</p> +</div> +</div> +<p>WARBURTON.]</p> +<p>I cannot perceive the second line to be intolerable, or to be +nonsense. The speaker only rises in his ideas. <i>She has all +courtly parts</i>, says he, <i>more exquisite than</i> any +<i>lady</i>, than all <i>ladies</i>, than all <i>womankind</i>. Is +this nonsense?</p> +<p>III.v.101 (236,3) <i>Pia.</i> Or this, or perish] These words, I +think, belong to Cloten, who, requiring the paper, says,</p> +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<p>Let's see't: I will pursue her</p> +<p>Even to Augustus' throne. Or this, or perish.</p> +</div> +</div> +<p>Then Pisanio giving the paper, says to himself,</p> +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<p>She's far enough, &c.</p> +</div> +</div> +<p>III.vi.12 (239,1) To lapse in fullness/Is sorer, than to lye for +need] Is a <i>greater</i>, or <i>heavier</i> crime.</p> +<p>III.vi.23 (239,3) If any thing that's civil, speak; if +savage,/Take, or lend] [W: Take 'or 't end.] I suppose the +emendation proposed will not easily be received; it is strained and +obscure, and the objection against Hanmer's reading is likewise +very strong. I question whether, after the words, <i>if savage</i>, +a line be not lost. I can offer nothing better than to read,</p> +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<p>—Ho! who's here?</p> +<p>If any thing that's civil, <i>take or lend</i>,</p> +<p>If savage, <i>speak</i>.</p> +</div> +</div> +<p>If you are <i>civilised</i> and <i>peaceable, take</i> a price +for what I want, or <i>lend</i> it for a future recompence; if you +are <i>rough inhospitable</i> inhabitants of the mountain, +<i>speak</i>, that I may know my state.</p> +<p>III.vi.77 (242,4) then had my prize/Been less; and so more equal +ballasting] HANMER reads plausibly, but without necessity, +<i>price</i>, for <i>prize</i>, and <i>balancing</i>, for +<i>ballasting</i>. He is followed by Dr. WARBURTON. The meaning is, +Had I been a less prize, I should not have been too heavy for +Posthumus.</p> +<p>III.vi.86 (243,5) That nothing-gift of differing multitudes] [T: +deferring] He is followed by Sir T. HANMER and Dr. WARBURTON; but I +do not see why <i>differing</i> may not be a general epithet, and +the expression equivalent to the <i>many-headed</i> rabble.</p> +<p>III.vii.8 (244,2)</p> +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<p>and to you, the tribunes,</p> +<p>For this immediate levy, he commands</p> +<p>His absolute commission]</p> +</div> +</div> +<p>The plain meaning is, he <i>commands</i> the commission to be +given to you. So we say, I <i>ordered</i> the materials to the +workmen.</p> +<p>IV.ii.10 (245,1) Stick to your journal course: the breach of +custom/ Is breach of all] Keep your <i>daily</i> course +uninterrupted; if the stated plan of life is once broken, nothing +follows but confusion.</p> +<p>IV.ii.17 (246,2) How much the quantity] I read, <i>As</i> much +the quantity.—</p> +<p>IV.ii.38 (247,3) I could not stir him] Not <i>move</i> him to +tell his story.</p> +<p>IV.ii.39 (247,4) gentle, but unfortunate] <i>Gentle</i>, is +<i>well born</i>, of birth above the vulgar.</p> +<p>IV.ii.59 (248,6) And let the stinking elder, Grief, untwine/ His +perishing root, with the encreasing vine!] Shakespeare had only +seen <i>English vines</i> which grow against walls, and therefore +may be sometimes entangled with the <i>elder</i>. Perhaps we should +read <i>untwine from the vine</i>.</p> +<p>IV.ii.105 (251,9) the snatches in his vice,/And burst of +speaking] This is one of our author's strokes of observation. An +abrupt and tumultuous utterance very frequently accompanies a +confused and cloudy understanding.</p> +<p>IV.ii.111 (251,1) for the effect of judgment/Is oft the cause of +fear] HANMER reads, with equal justness of sentiment,</p> +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<p>—for defect of judgment</p> +<p>Is oft the <i>cure</i> of fear.—</p> +</div> +</div> +<p>But, I think, the play of <i>effect</i> and <i>cause</i> more +resembling the manner of our author.</p> +<p>IV.ii.118 (252,2) I am perfect, what] I am <i>well informed</i>, +what. So in this play,</p> +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<p>I'm <i>perfect</i>, the Pannonians are in arms.</p> +</div> +</div> +<p>IV.ii.121 (252,3) take us in] To <i>take in</i>, was the phrase +in use for to <i>apprehend</i> an out-law, or to make him amenable +to public justice.</p> +<p>IV.ii.148 (253,5) the boy Fidele's sickness/Did make my way long +forth] Fidele's sickness made my <i>walk forth</i> from the cave +<i>tedious</i>.</p> +<p>IV.ii.159 (254,6) revenges/That possible strength might meet] +Such pursuit of vengeance as fell within any possibility of +opposition.</p> +<p>IV.ii.168 (254,7) I'd let a parish of such Clotens blood] [W: +marish] The learned commentator has dealt the raproach of nonsense +very liberally through this play. Why this is nonsense, I cannot +discover. I would, says the young prince, to recover Fidele, kill +as many Clotens as would fill a <i>parish</i>.</p> +<p>IV.ii.246 (258,1) He was paid for that] HANMER reads,</p> +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<p>He <i>has</i> paid for that:—</p> +</div> +</div> +<p>rather plausibly than rightly. <i>Paid</i> is for +<i>punished</i>. So JONSON,</p> +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<p>"Twenty things more, my friend, which you know due,</p> +<p>For which, or pay me quickly, or I'll <i>pay</i> you."</p> +</div> +</div> +<p>(see 1765, VII, 356, 3)</p> +<p>IV.ii.247 (258,2) reverence,/(That angel of the world)] +<i>Reverence</i>, or due regard to subordination, is the power that +keeps peace and order in the world.</p> +<p>IV.ii.268 (259,4) <i>The scepter, learning, physic, must/ All +follow this, and come to dust</i>] The poet's sentiment seems to +have been this. All human excellence is equally the subject to the +stroke of death: neither the power of kings, nor the science of +scholars, nor the art of those whose immediate study is the +prolongation of life, can protect then from the final destiny of +man. (1773)</p> +<p>IV.ii.272 (260,5) <i>Fear not slander, censure rash</i>] +Perhaps, Fear not <i>slander's</i> censure rash.</p> +<p>IV.ii.275 (260,6) Consign to thee] Perhaps, Consign to +<i>this</i>. And in the former stanza, for <i>all follow this</i>, +we might read, <i>all follow</i> thee.</p> +<p>IV.ii.280 (260,7) Both. <i>Quiet consummation have;/ And +renowned be thy grave!</i>] For the obsequies of Fidele, a song was +written by my unhappy friend, Mr. William Collins of Chichester, a +man of uncommon learning and abilities. I shall give it a place at +the end in honour of his memory.</p> +<p>IV.ii.315 (262,1) Conspired with] The old copy reads thus,</p> +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<p>—thou</p> +<p>Conspir'd with that irregulous divel, Cloten.</p> +</div> +</div> +<p>I suppose it should be,</p> +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<p>Conspir'd with <i>th' irreligious</i> devil, Cloten.</p> +</div> +</div> +<p>IV.ii.346 (263,2) Last night the very gods shew'd me a vision] +[W: warey] Of this meaning I know not any example, nor do I see any +need of alteration. It was no common dream, but sent from <i>the +very gods</i>, or the gods themselves.</p> +<p>IV.ii.363 (264,3)</p> +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<p>who was he,</p> +<p>That, otherwise than noble nature did,</p> +<p>Hath alter'd that good figure?]</p> +</div> +</div> +<p>Here are many words upon a very slight debate. The sense is not +much cleared by either critic [Theobald and Warburton]. The +question is asked, not about a <i>body</i>, but a <i>picture</i>, +which is not very apt to grow shorter or longer. To <i>do</i> a +picture, and a picture is well <i>done</i>, are standing phrases; +the question therefore is, Who has altered this picture, so as to +make it otherwise than nature <i>did</i> it.</p> +<p>IV.ii.389 (266,5) these poor pickaxes] Meaning her fingers.</p> +<p>IV.iii (266,1) <i>Cymbeline's palace</i>] This scene is omitted +against all authority by Sir T. HANMER. It is indeed of no great +use in the progress of the fable, yet it makes a regular +preparation for the next act.</p> +<p>IV.iii.22 (267,3) our jealousy/Does yet depend] My suspicion is +yet undetermined; if I do not condemn you, I likewise have not +acquitted you. We now say, the <i>cause</i> is +<i>depending</i>.</p> +<p>IV.iii.29 (267,4) Your preparation can affront no less/Than what +you hear of] Your forces are able to <i>face</i> such an army as we +hear the enemy will bring against us.</p> +<p>IV.iii.44 (268,6) to the note o' the king] I will so distinguish +myself, the king shall remark my valour.</p> +<p>IV.iv.11 (269,1) a render/Where we have liv'd] An account of our +place of abode. This dialogue is a just representation of the +superfluous caution of an old man.</p> +<p>IV.iv.13 (269,2) That which we have done, whose answer would be +death] The <i>retaliation</i> of the death of Cloten would be +<i>death</i>, &c.</p> +<p>IV.iv.18 (269,3) their quarter'd fires] Their fires regularly +disposed.</p> +<p>V.i (271,1) <i>Enter Posthumus, with a bloody handkerchief</i>] +The bloody token of Imogen's death, which Pisanio in the foregoing +act determined to send.</p> +<p>V.i.1-33 (271,2) Yea, bloody cloth, I'll keep thee] This is a +soliloquy of nature, uttered when the effervescence of a mind +agitated and perturbed spontaneously and inadvertently discharges +itself in words. The speech, throughout all its tenor, if the last +conceit be excepted, seems to issue warm from the heart. He first +condemns his own violence; then tries to disburden himself, by +imputing part of the crime to Pisanio; he next sooths his mind to +an artificial and momentary tranquility, by trying to think that he +has been only an instrument of the gods for the happiness of +Imogen. He is now grown reasonable enough to determine, that having +done so much evil he will do no more; that he will not fight +against the country which he has already injured; but as life is +not longer supportable, he will die in a just cause, and die with +the obscurity of a man who does not think himself worthy to be +remembered.</p> +<p>V.i.9 (271,3) to put on] Is to <i>incite</i>, to +<i>instigate</i>.</p> +<p>V.i.14 (272,4) To second ills with ills, each elder worse] For +this reading all the later editors have contentedly taken,</p> +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<p>—each worse than other,</p> +</div> +</div> +<p>without enquiries whence they have received it. Yet they know, +or might know, that it has no authority. The original copy +reads,</p> +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<p>—each elder worse,</p> +</div> +</div> +<p>The last deed is certainly not the oldest, but Shakespeare calls +the <i>deed</i> of an <i>elder</i> man an <i>elder deed</i>.</p> +<p>V.i.15 (272,5) And make them dread it, to the doers' thrift] [T: +dreaded, to] This emendation ia followed by HANMER. Dr. WARBURTON +reads, I know not whether by the printer's negligence,</p> +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<p>And make them <i>dread</i>, to the doers' thrift.</p> +</div> +</div> +<p>There seems to be no very satisfactory sense yet offered. I +read, but with hesitation,</p> +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<p>And make them <i>deeded</i>, to the doers' thrift.</p> +</div> +</div> +<p>The word <i>deeded</i> I know not indeed where to find; but +Shakespeare has, in another sense <i>undeeded</i>, in +<i>Macbeth</i>:</p> +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<p>"—my sword</p> +<p>"I sheath again <i>undeeded</i>."—</p> +</div> +</div> +<p>I will try again, and read thus,</p> +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<p>—others you permit</p> +<p>To second ills with ills, each other worse,</p> +<p>And make them <i>trade it</i>, to the doers' thrift.</p> +</div> +</div> +<p><i>Trade</i> and <i>thrift</i> correspond. Our author plays with +<i>trade</i>, as it signifies a lucrative vocation, or a frequent +practice. So Isabella says,</p> +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<p>"Thy sins, not accidental, but a <i>trade</i>."</p> +</div> +</div> +<p>V.i.16 (273,9) Do your best wills,/And make me blest to obey!] +So the copies. It was more in the manner of our author to have +written,</p> +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<p>—Do your blest wills,</p> +<p>And make me blest t' obey.—</p> +</div> +</div> +<p>V.iii.41 (276,3) A rout, confusion thick] [W: confusion-thick] I +do not see what great addition is made to <i>fine diction</i> by +this compound. Is it not as natural to enforce the principal event +in a story by repetition, as to enlarge the principal figure in a +figure?</p> +<p>V.iii.51 (276,4) bugs] Terrors.</p> +<p>V.iii.53 (277,5) Nay, do not wonder at it] [T: do but] There is +no need of alteration. Posthumus first bids him not wonder, then +tells him in another mode of reproach, that wonder is all that he +was made for.</p> +<p>V.iii.79 (278,8) great the answer be] <i>Answer</i>, as once in +this play before, is <i>retaliation</i>.</p> +<p>V.iii.87 (278,9) That gave the affront with them] That is, that +turned their faces to the enemy.</p> +<p>V.iv.1 (279,1) You shall not now be stolen, you have locks upon +you;/So, graze, as you find pasture] This wit of the gaoler alludes +to the custom of putting a lock on a horse's leg, when he is turned +to pasture.</p> +<p>V.iv.27 (280,3) If you will take this audit, take this life,/And +cancel those cold bonds] This equivocal use of <i>bonds</i> is +another instance of our author's infelicity in pathetic +speeches.</p> +<p>V.iv.45 (281,5) That from me my Posthumus ript] The old copy +reads,</p> +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<p>That from me <i>was</i> Posthumus ript.</p> +</div> +</div> +<p>Perhaps we should read,</p> +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<p>That from <i>my womb</i> Posthumus ript,</p> +<p class="i4">Came crying 'mongst his foes.</p> +</div> +</div> +<p>V.iv.146 (284,7)</p> +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<p>'Tis still a dream; or else such stuff, as madmen</p> +<p>Tongue, and brain not: either both or nothing:</p> +<p>Or senseless speaking, or a speaking such</p> +<p>As sense cannot untie. Be what it is,</p> +<p>The action of my life is like it]</p> +</div> +</div> +<p>The meaning, which is too thin to be easily caught, I take to be +this: <i>This is a dream or madness, or both—or +nothing—but whether it be a speech without consciousness</i>, +as in a dream, <i>or a speech unintelligible</i>, as in madness, be +it as it is, <i>it is like my course of life</i>. We might perhaps +read,</p> +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<p>Whether <i>both, or nothing</i>—</p> +</div> +</div> +<p>V.iv,164 (285,8) sorry that you have paid too much, and sorry +that you are paid too much] <i>Tavern bills</i>, says the gaoler, +<i>are the sadness of parting, as the procuring of mirth—you +depart reeling with too much drink; sorry that you have paid too +much, and</i>—what? <i>sorry that you are paid too much</i>. +Where is the opposition? I read, <i>And</i> merry <i>that you are +paid</i> so <i>much</i>. I take the second <i>paid</i> to be +<i>paid</i>, for <i>appaid, filled, satiated</i>.</p> +<p>V.iv.171 (286,9) debtor and creditor] For an <i>accounting +book</i>.</p> +<p>V.iv.188 (286,1) jump the after-enquiry] That is, <i>venture</i> +at it without thought. So <i>Macbeth</i>,</p> +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<p>"We'd <i>jump</i> the life to come." (see 1765, VII, 382, 7)</p> +</div> +</div> +<p>V.v.9 (288,1) one that promis'd nought/But beggary and poor +looks] To promise <i>nothing but</i> poor <i>looks</i>, may be, to +give no promise of courageous behaviour.</p> +<p>V.v.88 (291,2) So feat] So ready; so dextrous in waiting.</p> +<p>V.v.93 (291,3) His favour is familiar to me] I am acquainted +with his countenance.</p> +<p>V.v.120 (292,4) One sand another/Not more resembles. That sweet +rosy lad] [W: resembles, than be th' sweet] There was no great +difficulty in the line, which, when properly pointed, needs no +alteration.</p> +<p>V.v.203 (296,8) averring notes/Of chamber-hanging, pictures] +Such marks of the chamber and pictures, as <i>averred</i> or +confirmed my report.</p> +<p>V.v.220 (297,9) the temple/Of virtue was she; yea, and she +herself] That is, She was not only <i>the temple of virtue</i>, but +<i>virtue herself</i>.</p> +<p>V.v.233 (297,1) these staggers] This wild and delirious +perturbation. <i>Staggers</i> is the horse's apoplexy.</p> +<p>V.v.262 (298,2) Think, that you are upon a rock; and now/Throw +me again] In this speech, or in the answer, there is little +meaning. I suppose, she would say, Consider such another act as +equally fatal to me with precipitation from a rock, and now let me +see whether you will repeat it.</p> +<p>V.v.308 (300,3) By tasting of our wrath] [W: hasting] There is +no need of change; the consequence is taken for the whole action; +<i>by tasting</i> is <i>by forcing us to make thee taste</i>.</p> +<p>V.v.334 (301,5) Your pleasure was my near offence, my +punishment,/ Itself, and all my treason] I think this passage may +better be read thus,</p> +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<p>Your pleasure was my <i>dear</i> offence, my punishment</p> +<p>Itself <i>was</i> all my treason; that I suffer'd,</p> +<p>Was all the harm I did.—</p> +</div> +</div> +<p>The offence which cost me so <i>dear</i> was only your caprice. +My sufferings have been all my crime.</p> +<p>V.v.352 (302,6)</p> +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<p>Thou weep'st, and speak'st.</p> +<p>The service that you three have done is more</p> +<p>Unlike than this thou tell'st]</p> +</div> +</div> +<p>"Thy tears give testimony to the sincerity of thy relation; and +I have the less reason to be incredulous, because the actions which +you have done within my knowledge are more incredible than the +story which you relate." The king reasons very justly.</p> +<p>V.v.378 (303,7) When ye were so, indeed] The folio gives,</p> +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<p>When <i>we</i> were so, indeed.</p> +</div> +</div> +<p>If this be right, we must read,</p> +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<p><i>Imo.</i> I, you brothers.</p> +<p><i>Arv.</i> When we were so, indeed.</p> +</div> +</div> +<p>V.v.382 (303,8) fierce abridgment] <i>Fierce</i>, is +<i>vehement, rapid</i>.</p> +<p>V.v.459 (306,1) My peace we will begin] I think it better to +read,</p> +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<p><i>By</i> peace we will begin.—</p> +</div> +</div> +<p>(307) General Observation. This play has many just sentiments, +some natural dialogues, and some pleasing scenes, but they are +obtained at the expence of much incongruity. To remark the folly of +the fiction, the absurdity of the conduct, the confusion of the +names, and manners of different times, and the impossibility of the +events in any system of life, were to waste criticism upon +unresisting imbecility, upon faults too evident for detection, and +too gross for aggravation.</p> +<h2>KING LEAR</h2> +<p>I.i.4 (311,2) in the division of the kingdom] There is something +of obscurity or inaccuracy in this preparatory scene. The king has +already divided his kingdom, and yet when he enters he examines his +daughters, to discover in what proportions he should divide it. +Perhaps Kent and Gloucester only were privy to his design, which he +still kept in his own hands, to be changed or performed as +subsequent reasons should determine him.</p> +<p>I.i.37 (313,7) express our darker purpose] [<i>Darker</i>, for +more secret; not for indirect, oblique. WARBURTON.] This word may +admit a further explication. <i>We shall express our darker +purpose</i>: that is, we have already made known in some measure +our design of parting the kingdom; we will now discover what has +not been told before, the reasons by which we shall regulate the +partition. This interpretation will justify or palliate the +exordial dialogue.</p> +<p>I.i.39 (313,8) and 'tis our fast intent] [This is an +interpolation of Mr. Lewis Theobald, for want of knowing the +meaning of the old reading in the quarto of 1608, and first folio +of 1623; where we find it,</p> +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<p>—and 'tis our <i>first</i> intent.</p> +</div> +</div> +<p>WARBURTON.]</p> +<p><i>Fast</i> is the reading of the first folio, and, I think, the +true reading.</p> +<p>I.i.44 (314,9) We have this hour a constant will] <i>constant +will</i> seems a confirmation of <i>fast</i> intent.</p> +<p>I.i.62 (314,2) Beyond all manner of so much I love you] Beyond +all assignable quantity. I love you beyond limits, and cannot say +it is <i>so much</i>, for how much soever I should name, it would +yet be more.</p> +<p>I.i.73 (315,4)</p> +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<p>I find, she names my very deed of love,</p> +<p>Only she comes too short; that I profess]</p> +</div> +</div> +<p><i>That</i> seems to stand without relation, but is referred to +<i>find</i>, the first conjunction being inaccurately suppressed. I +find <i>that</i> she names my deed, I find that I profess, +&c.</p> +<p>I.i.76 (315,5) Which the most precious square of sense +possesses] [Warburton explained "square" as the "four nobler +senses"] This is acute; but perhaps <i>square</i> means only +<i>compass, comprehension</i>.</p> +<p>I.i.80 (315,6) More pond'rous than my tongue] [W: their tongue] +I think the present reading right.</p> +<p>I.i.84 (316,8) Now our joy] Here the true reading is picked out +of two copies. Butter's quarto reads,</p> +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<p>—<i>But</i> now our joy,</p> +<p>Although the last, not least in our dear love,</p> +<p>What can you say to win a third, &c.</p> +</div> +</div> +<p>The folio,</p> +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<p>—Now our joy,</p> +<p>Although our last, <i>and</i> least; to whose young love</p> +<p>The vines of France, and milk of Burgundy,</p> +<p>Strive to be int'ress'd. <i>What can you say?</i></p> +</div> +</div> +<p>I.i.138 (318,5) The sway, revenue, execution of the rest] [W: of +th' hest] I do not see any great difficulty in the words, +<i>execution of the rest</i>, which are in both the old copies. The +<i>execution of the rest</i> is, I suppose, <i>all the other +business</i>. Dr. Warburton's own explanation of his amendment +confutes it; if <i>hest</i> be a <i>regal comnand</i>, they were, +by the grant of Lear, to have rather the <i>hest</i> than the +execution.</p> +<p>1.1.149 (319,6)</p> +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<p>Think'st thou, that duty shall have dread to speak,</p> +<p>When power to flattery bows? To plainness honour's bound,</p> +<p>When majesty stoops to folly. Reverse thy doom,</p> +<p>And in thy best consideration check</p> +<p>This hideous rashness: answer my life my judgment,</p> +<p>Thy youngest daughter does not love thee least]</p> +</div> +</div> +<p>I have given this passage according to the old folio, from which +the modern editions have silently departed, for the sake of better +numbers, with a degree of insincerity, which, if not sometimes +detected and censured, must impair the credit of ancient books. One +of the editors, and perhaps only one, knew how much mischief may be +done by such clandestine alterations. The quarto agrees with the +folio, except that for <i>reserve thy state</i>, it gives, +<i>reverse thy doom</i>, and has <i>stoops</i> instead of <i>falls +to folly</i>. The meaning of <i>answer my life my judgment</i>, is, +<i>Let my life be answerable for my judgment</i>, or, <i>I will +stake my life on my opinion</i>.—The reading which, without +any right, has possessed all the modern copies is this;</p> +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<p>—to plainness honour</p> +<p>Is bound, when majesty to folly falls.</p> +<p>Reserve thy state; with better judgment check</p> +<p>This hideous rashness; with my life I answer,</p> +<p>Thy youngest daughter, &c.</p> +</div> +</div> +<p>I am inclined to think that <i>reverse thy doom</i> was +Shakespeare's first reading, as more apposite to the present +occasion, and that he changed it afterwards to <i>reserve thy +state</i>, which conduces more to the progress of the action.</p> +<p>I.i.161 (320,9) The true blank of thine eye] The <i>blank</i> is +the <i>white</i> or exact mark at which the arrow is shot. <i>See +better</i>, says Kent, <i>and keep me always in your view</i>.</p> +<p>I.i.172 (320,1) strain'd pride] The oldest copy reads <i>strayed +pride</i>; that is, <i>pride exorbitant</i>; pride passing due +bounds.</p> +<p>I.i.174 (320,3) Which nor our nature, nor our place, can bear;/ +Our potency made good] [T: (Which ... bear) ... made good] +[Warburton defended "make"] Theobald only inserted the parenthesis; +he found <i>made good</i> in the best copy of 1623. Dr. Warburton +has very acutely explained and defended the reading that he has +chosen, but I am not certain that he has chosen right. If we take +the reading of the folio, <i>our potency</i> made <i>good</i>, the +sense will be less profound indeed, but less intricate, and equally +commodious. <i>As thou hast come with unreasonable pride between +the</i> sentence <i>which I had passed, and the</i> power <i>by +which I shall execute it</i>, take thy reward <i>in another +sentence which shall</i> make good, <i>shall establish, shall +maintain</i>, that power. If Dr. Warburton's explanation be chosen, +and every reader will wish to choose it, we may better read,</p> +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<p>Which nor our nature, nor our state can bear,</p> +<p><i>Or</i> potency make good.—</p> +</div> +</div> +<p>Mr. Davies thinks, that <i>our potency made good</i> relates +only to <i>our place</i>.—Which our nature cannot bear, nor +our <i>place</i>, without departure from the <i>potency</i> of that +place. This is easy and clear.—Lear, who is characterized as +hot, heady, and violent, is, with very just observation of life, +made to entangle himself with vows, upon any sudden provocation to +vow revenge, and then to plead the obligation of a vow in defence +of implacability.</p> +<p>I.i.181 (322,4) By Jupiter] Shakespeare makes his Lear too much +a mythologist: he had Hecate and Apollo before.</p> +<p>I.i.190 (322,6) He'll shape his old course] He will follow his +old maxims; he will continue to act upon the same principles.</p> +<p>I.i.201 (323,7) If aught within that little, seeming, substance] +<i>Seeming</i> is <i>beautiful</i>.</p> +<p>I.i.209 (323,9) Election makes not up on such conditions] To +<i>make up</i> signifies to complete, to conclude; as, <i>they made +up the bargain</i>; but in this sense it has, I think, always the +subject noun after it. To <i>make up</i>, in familiar language, is, +neutrally, <i>to come forward</i>, to <i>make advances</i>, which, +I think, is meant here.</p> +<p>I.i.221 (324,2)</p> +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<p>Sure her offence</p> +<p>Must be of such unnatural degree,</p> +<p>That monsters it: or your fore-vouch'd affection</p> +<p>Fall into taint]</p> +</div> +</div> +<p>The common books read,</p> +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<p>—or your fore-vouch'd affection</p> +<p>Fall'n into taint:—</p> +</div> +</div> +<p>This line has no clear or strong sense, nor is this reading +authorized by any copy, though it has crept into all the late +editions. The early quarto reads,</p> +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<p>—or you for vouch'd affections</p> +<p>Fall'n into taint.—</p> +</div> +</div> +<p>The folio,</p> +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<p>—or your fore-vouch'd affection</p> +<p>Fall into taint.—</p> +</div> +</div> +<p><i>Taint</i> is used for <i>corruption</i> and for +<i>disgrace</i>. If therefore we take the oldest reading it may be +reformed thus:</p> +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<p>—sure her offence</p> +<p>Must be of such unnatural degree,</p> +<p>That monsters it; or you for vouch'd affection</p> +<p>Fall into taint.</p> +</div> +</div> +<p>Her offence must be prodigious, or <i>you</i> must <i>fal1 into +reproach</i> for having <i>vouched affection</i> which you did not +feel. If the reading of the folio be preferred, we may with a very +slight change produce the same sense:</p> +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<p>—sure her offence</p> +<p>Must be of such unnatural degree,</p> +<p>That monsters it, or your fore-vouch'd affection</p> +<p><i>Falls</i> into taint.—</p> +</div> +</div> +<p>That is, <i>falls into reproach</i> or <i>censure</i>. But there +is another possible sense. <i>Or</i> signifies <i>before</i>, and +<i>or ever</i> is <i>before ever</i>; the meaning in the folio may +therefore be, <i>Sure her crime must be monstrous</i> before +<i>your affection can be affected with hatred</i>. Let the reader +determine.—As I am not much a friend to conjectural +emendation, I should prefer the latter sense, which requires no +change of reading.</p> +<p>I.i.243 (325,3) from the intire point] <i>Intire</i>, for right, +true. WARB.] Rather, single, unmixed with other considerations.</p> +<p>I.i.264 (326,5) Thou losest here, better where to find] +<i>Here</i> and <i>where</i> have the power of nouns. Thou losest +this residence to find a better residence in another place.</p> +<p>I.i.282 (326,6) And well are worth the want that you have +wanted] [This I take to be the poet's meaning, stript of the jingle +which makes it dark: "You well deserve to meet with that +<i>want</i> of love from your husband, which you have professed to +<i>want</i> for our father." THEOBALD.] [W: have vaunted] I think +the common reading very suitable to the manner of our author, and +well enough explained by Theobald.</p> +<p>I.i.283 (327,7) plaited cunning] i.e. <i>complicated, +involved</i> cunning. (1773)</p> +<p>I.ii.3 (328,2) Stand in the plague of custom] The word +<i>plague</i> is in all the copies; I can scarcely think it right, +nor can I yet reconcile myself to the emendation proposed, though I +have nothing better to offer [Warburton had proposed +<i>plage</i>].</p> +<p>I.ii.21 (330,7) Shall be the legitimate] [Hanmer: toe th'] +Hanmer's emendation will appear very plausible to him that shall +consult the original reading. Butter's quarto reads,</p> +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<p>—Edmund the base</p> +<p>Shall <i>tooth'</i> legitimate.—</p> +</div> +</div> +<p>The folio,</p> +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<p>—Edmund the base</p> +<p>Shall <i>to th'</i> legitimate.—</p> +</div> +</div> +<p>Hanmer, therefore, could hardly be charged with coining a word, +though his explanation may be doubted. To <i>toe</i> him, is +perhaps to <i>kick</i> him <i>out</i>, a phrase yet in vulgar use; +or, to <i>toe</i>, may be literally to <i>supplant</i>. The word +<i>be</i> has no authority.</p> +<p>I.ii.24 (331,1) subscrib'd his power!] To subscribe, is, to +transfer by signing or <i>subscribing</i> a writing of testimony. +We now use the term, He <i>subscribed</i> forty pounds to the new +building.</p> +<p>I.ii.25 (331,2) Confin'd to exhibition!] Is <i>allowance</i>. +The term is yet used in the universities.</p> +<p>I.ii.25 (331,3) All this done/Upon the gad!] So the old copies; +the later editions read,</p> +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<p>—All <i>is gone</i></p> +<p>Upon the gad!—</p> +</div> +</div> +<p>which, besides that it is unauthorized, is less proper. +<i>To</i> do upon the <i>gad</i>, is, to act by the sudden +stimulation of caprice, as cattle run madding when they are stung +by the gad fly.</p> +<p>I.ii.47 (332,4) taste of my virtue] Though <i>taste</i> may +stand in this place, yet I believe we should read, <i>assay</i> or +<i>test</i> of my virtue: they are both metallurgical terms, and +properly joined. So in Hamlet,</p> +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<p>Bring me to the <i>test</i>.</p> +</div> +</div> +<p>I.ii.51 (323,6) idle and fond] Weak and foolish.</p> +<p>I.ii.95 (333,7) pretence] <i>Pretence</i> is design, purpose. So +afterwards in this play,</p> +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<p><i>Pretence</i> and purpose of unkindness.</p> +</div> +</div> +<p>I.ii.106 (333,8) wind me into him] I once thought it should be +read, <i>you</i> into him; but, perhaps, it is a familiar phrase, +like <i>do me this</i>.</p> +<p>I.ii.107 (333,9) I would unstate myself to be in a due +resolution] [i.e. I will throw aside all consideration of my +relation to him, that I may act as justice requires. WARBURTON.] +Such is this learned man's explanation. I take the meaning to be +rather this, <i>Do you frame the business</i>, who can act with +less emotion; <i>I would unstate myself</i>; it would in me be a +departure from the paternal character, <i>to be in a due +resolution</i>, to be settled and composed on such an occasion. The +words <i>would</i> and <i>should</i> are in old language often +confounded.</p> +<p>I.ii.l09 (334,1) convey the business] [<i>Convey</i>, for +introduce. WARB.] To <i>convey</i> is rather to <i>carry +through</i> than to introduce; in this place it is to <i>manage +artfully</i>: we say of a juggler, that he has a clean +<i>conveyance</i>.</p> +<p>I.ii.112 (334,2) These late eclipses in the sun and moon portend +no good to us: tho' the wisdom of nature can reason it thus and +thus, yet nature finds itself scourg'd by the frequent effects] +That is, though natural philosophy can give account of eclipses, +yet we feel their consequences.</p> +<p>I.ii.156 (338,8) I promise you, the effects he writes of, +succeed unhappily] The folio edition commonly differs from the +first quarto, by augmentations or insertions, but in this place it +varies by omission, and by the omission of something which +naturally introduces the following dialogue. It is easy to remark, +that in this speech, which ought, I think, to be inserted as it now +is in the text, Edmund, with the common craft of fortune-tellers, +mingles the past and future, and tells of the future only what he +already foreknows by confederacy, or can attain by probable +conjecture. (see 1765, VI, 27, 6)</p> +<p>I.ii.178 (339,1) that with the mischief of your person it would +scarcely allay] This reading is in both copies; yet I believe the +author gave it, <i>that</i> but <i>with the mischief</i> of your +person it would scarce allay.</p> +<p>I.iii.19 (341,2) Old fools are babes again; and must be us'd/ +With checks, as flatteries when they are seen abus'd] These lines +hardly deserve a note, though Mr. Theobald thinks them <i>very +fine</i>. Whether <i>fools</i> or <i>folks</i> should be read is +not worth enquiry. The controverted line is yet in the old quarto, +not as the editors represent it, but thus:</p> +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<p>With checks as flatteries when they are seen abus'd.</p> +</div> +</div> +<p>I am in doubt whether there is any error of transcription. The +sense seems to be this: <i>Old men must be treated with checks</i>, +when as <i>they are seen to be deceived with flatteries</i>: or, +<i>when they are weak enough to be</i> seen abused by flatteries, +they are then weak enough to be <i>used with checks</i>. There is a +play of the words <i>used</i> and <i>abused</i>. To <i>abuse</i> +is, in our author, very frequently the same as to <i>deceive</i>. +This construction is harsh and ungrammatical; Shakespeare perhaps +thought it vicious, and chose to throw away the lines rather than +correct them, nor would now thank the officiousness of his editors, +who restore what they do not understand.</p> +<p>I.iv.118 (347,5) Would I had two coxcombs, and two daughters] +Two fools caps, intended, as it seems, to mark double folly in the +man that gives all to his daughters.</p> +<p>I.iv.133 (347,7) Lend less than thou owest] That is, <i>do not +lend all that thou hast</i>. To <i>owe</i>, in old English, is +<i>to possess</i>. If <i>owe</i> be taken for <i>to be in debt</i>, +the more prudent precept would be, Lend <i>more</i> than thou +owest.</p> +<p>I.iv.153-170 (348,9) This dialogue, from <i>No, lad; teach +me</i>, down to, <i>Give me an egg</i>, was restored from the first +edition by Mr. Theobald. It is omitted in the folio, perhaps for +political reasons, as it seemed to censure monopolies.</p> +<p>I.iv.181 (349,2) Fools ne'er had less grace in a year] There +never was a time when fools were less in favour; and the reason is, +that they were never so little wanted, for wise men now supply +their place. Such I think is the meaning. The old edition has +<i>wit</i> for <i>grace</i>.</p> +<p>I.iv.219 (350,5) That's a sheal'd peascod] i.e. Now a mere husk, +which contains nothing. The outside of a king remains, but all the +intrinsic parts of royalty are gone: he has nothing to give. +(1773)</p> +<p>I.iv.245 (351,3) Whoop, Jug] There are in the fool's speeches +several passages which seem to be proverbial allusions, perhaps not +now to be understood.</p> +<p>I.iv.256 (352,1) <i>Fool</i>. Which they will make an obedient +father] [This line I have restored from the quarto. STEEVENS] This +note [Tyrwhitt's, quoted by Steevens] is written with confidence +disproportionate to the conviction which it can bring. Lear might +as well know by the marks and tokens arising from sovereignty, +knowledge, and reason, that he had or had not daughters, as he +could know by any thing else. But, says he, if I judge by these +tokens, I find the persuasion false by which I long thought myself +the father of daughters. (1773)</p> +<p>I.iv.302 (355,7) from her derogate body] [<i>Derogate</i> for +<i>unnatural</i>. WARB.] Rather, I think, <i>degraded; +blasted</i>.</p> +<p>I.iv.320 (356,9)</p> +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<p>That these hot tears, which break from me perforce,</p> +<p>Should make thee worth them.—Blasts and fogs upon +thee!</p> +<p>The untented woundings of a father's curse</p> +<p>Pierce every sense about thee!—Old fond eyes,</p> +<p>Beweep this cause again]</p> +</div> +</div> +<p>I will transcribe this passage from the first edition, that it +may appear to those who are unacquainted with old books, what is +the difficulty of revision, and what indulgence is due to those +that endeavour to restore corrupted passages.—<i>That these +hot tears, that breake from me perforce, should make the worst +blasts and fogs upon the untender woundings of a father's curse, +peruse every sense about the old fond eyes, beweep this cause +again, &c.</i></p> +<p>I.iv.362 (358,3) compact it more] Unite one circumstance with +another, so as to make a consistent account.</p> +<p>I.iv.366 (358,4) You are much more at task for want of wisdom] +It is a common phrase now with parents and governesses. <i>I'll +take you to task</i>, i.e. <i>I will reprehend and correct you. To +be at task</i>, therefore, is to be liable to <i>reprehension and +correction</i>. (1773)</p> +<p>I.v.5 (358,1) I shall be there afore you] He seems to intend to +go to his daughter, but it appears afterwards that he is going to +the house of Glo'ster.</p> +<p>I.v.25 (359,2) I did her wrong] He is musing on Cordelia.</p> +<p>I.v.42 (359,3) To take it again perforce!] He is meditating on +the resumption of his royalty.</p> +<p>II.i.9 (360,1) ear-kissing arguments] Subjects of discourse; +topics.</p> +<p>II.i.19 (361,2) queazy question] Something of a <i>suspicious, +questionable, and uncertain nature</i>. This is, I think, the +meaning.</p> +<p>II.i.27 (361,4) have you nothing said/Upon his party 'gainst the +duke of Albany?] I cannot but think the line corrupted, and would +read,</p> +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<p><i>Against</i> his party, <i>for</i> the duke of Albany?</p> +</div> +</div> +<p>II.i.57 (363,7) gasted] Frighted.</p> +<p>II.i.59 (363,8) Not in this land shall he remain uncaught;/And +found—Dispatch] [Not in this land shall he remain uncaught; +And found dispatch—the noble duke, &c.]</p> +<p>[W: found, dispatch'd.] I do not see how this change mends the +sense: I think it may be better regulated as in the page above. The +sense is interrupted. He shall be caught—and found, <i>he +shall be punished</i>. Dispatch.</p> +<p>II.i.67 (363,2) And found him pight to do it, with curst speech] +<i>Pight</i> is <i>pitched</i>, fixed, settled. <i>Curst</i> is +severe, harsh, vehemently angry.</p> +<p>II.i.122 (366,7) Occasions, noble Glo'ster, of some prize] [W: +poize] <i>Prize</i>, or <i>price</i>, for value. (1773)</p> +<p>II.i.126 (366,8) from our home] Not at home, but at some other +place.</p> +<p>II.ii.9 (367,1) Lipsbury pinfold] The allusion which seems to be +contained in this line I do not understand. In the violent eruption +of reproaches which bursts from Kent in this dialogue, there are +some epithets which the commentators have left unexpounded, and +which I am not very able to make clear. Of a <i>three-suited +knave</i> I know not the meaning, unless it be that he has +different dresses for different occupations. <i>Lilly-liver'd</i> +is <i>cowardly</i>; <i>white-blooded</i> and <i>white-liver'd</i> +are still in vulgar use. An <i>one-trunk-inheriting slave</i>, I +take to be a wearer of old cast-off cloaths, an inheritor of torn +breeches.</p> +<p>II.ii.36 (368,4) barber-monger] Of this word I do not clearly +see the force.</p> +<p>II.ii.39 (368,5) Vanity the puppet's] Alluding to the mysteries +or allegorical shews, in which vanity, iniquity, and other vices, +were personified.</p> +<p>II.ii.45 (369,6) neat slave] You mere slave, you very slave.</p> +<p>II.ii.69 (369,8) Thou whoreson zed; thou unnecessary letter!] I +do not well understand how a man is reproached by being called +<i>zed</i>, nor how Z is an <i>unnecessary letter</i>. Scarron +compares his deformity to the shape of Z, and it may be a proper +word of insult to a crook-backed man; but why should Gonerill's +steward be crooked, unless the allusion be to his bending or +cringing posture in the presence of his superiors. Perhaps it was +written, <i>thou whoreson</i> C (for cuckold) <i>thou unnecessary +letter</i>. C is a letter unnecessary in our alphabet, one of its +two sounds being represented by S, and one by K. But all the copies +concur in the common reading.</p> +<p>II.ii.87 (371,3) epileptic visage!] The frighted countenance of +a man ready to fall in a fit.</p> +<p>II.ii.103 (372,5) constrains the garb/Quite from his nature] +Forces his <i>outside</i> or his <i>appearance</i> to something +totally <i>different from</i> his natural disposition.</p> +<p>II.ii.109 (372,8) Than twenty silly ducking observants] [W: +silky] The alteration is more ingenious than the arguments by which +it is supported.</p> +<p>II.ii.119 (373,8) though I should win your displeasure to +intreat me to't] Though I should win you, displeased as you now +are, to like me so well as to intreat me to be a knave.</p> +<p>II.ii.167 (375,3)</p> +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<p>Good king, that must approve the common saw!</p> +<p>Thou out of heaven's benediction com'at</p> +<p>To the warm sun!]</p> +</div> +</div> +<p>That art now to exemplify the common proverb, <i>That out +of</i>, &c. That changest better for worse. Hanmer observes, +that it is a proverbial saying, applied to those who are turned out +of house and home to the open weather. It was perhaps first used of +men dismissed from an hospital, or house of charity, such as was +erected formerly in many places for travellers. Those houses had +names properly enough alluded to by <i>heaven's +benediction</i>.</p> +<p>II.ii.173 (376,4)</p> +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<p>I know 'tis from Cordelia;</p> +<p>Who hath most fortunately been inform'd</p> +<p>Of my obscur'd coarse, and shall find time</p> +<p>From this enormous state, seeking to give</p> +<p>Losses their remedies]</p> +</div> +</div> +<p>This passage, which some of the editors have degraded, as +spurious, to the margin, and others have silently altered, I have +faithfully printed according to the quarto, from which the folio +differs only in punctuation. The passage is very obscure, if not +corrupt. Perhaps it may be read thus:</p> +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<p>—Cordelia—has been—informed.</p> +<p>Of my obscur'd course, and shall find time</p> +<p>From this enormous state-seeking, to give</p> +<p>Losses their remedies.—</p> +</div> +</div> +<p>Cordelia is informed of our affairs, and when the +<i>enormous</i> care of <i>seeking her fortune</i> will allow her +time, she will employ it in remedying losses. This is harsh; +perhaps something better may be found. I have at least supplied the +genuine reading of the old copies. <i>Enormous</i> is unwonted, out +of rule, out of the ordinary course of things.</p> +<p>II.iii.18 (377,2) Poor pelting villages] <i>Pelting</i> is, I +believe, only an accidental depravation of <i>petty</i>. +Shakespeare uses it in the <i>Midsummer-Night's Dream</i> of +<i>small brooks</i>.</p> +<p>II.iii.20 (378,3) Poor Turlygood! poor Tom!] [W: Turlupin] +Hanmer reads, <i>poor</i> Turlurd. It is probable the word +<i>Turlygood</i> was the common corrupt pronunciation.</p> +<p>II.iii.21 (378,4) Edgar I nothing am] As Edgar I am out-lawed, +dead in law; I have no longer any political existence.</p> +<p>II.iv (378,1) <i>Changes again to the earl of Glo'ster's +castle</i>] It is not very clearly discovered why Lear comes +hither. In the foregoing part he sent a letter to Glo'ster; but no +hint is given of its contents. He seems to have gone to visit +Glo'ster while Cornwall and Regan might prepare to entertain +him.</p> +<p>II.iv.24 (380,4) To do upon respect such violent outrage] To +violate the public and venerable character of a messenger from the +king.</p> +<p>II.iv.46 (380,7) Winter's not gone yet, if the wild geese fly +that way] If this be their behaviour, the king's troubles are not +yet at an end.</p> +<p>II.iv.70 (381,9) All that follow their noses are led by their +eyes, but blind men; and there's not a nose among twenty, but can +smell him that's stinking] There is in this sentence no clear +series of thought. If he that follows his nose is led or guided by +his eyes, he wants no information from his nose. I persuade myself, +but know not whether I can persuade others, that our author wrote +thus:—"All men are led by their eyes, but blind men, and they +follow their noses; and there's not a nose among twenty but can +smell him that's stinking."—Here is a succession of +reasoning. You ask, why the king has no more in his train? why, +because men who are led by their eyes see that he is ruined; and if +there were any blind among them, who, for want of eyes, followed +their noses, they might by their noses discover that it was no +longer fit to follow the king.</p> +<p>II.iv.83 (382,2)</p> +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<p>But I will tarry; the fool will stay,</p> +<p>And let the wise man fly;</p> +<p>The knave turns fool, that runs away;</p> +<p>The fool no knave, perdy]</p> +</div> +</div> +<p>I think this passage erroneous, though both the copies concur. +The sense mill be mended if we read,</p> +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<p>But I will tarry; the fool will stay,</p> +<p>And let the wise man fly;</p> +<p>The fool turns knave, that runs away;</p> +<p>The knave no fool,—</p> +</div> +</div> +<p>That I stay with the king is a proof that I am a fool, the wise +men are deserting him. There is knavery in this desertion, but +there is no folly.</p> +<p>II.iv.116 (383,3) Is practice only] <i>Practice</i> is in +Shakespeare, and other old writers, used commonly in an ill sense +for <i>unlawful artifice</i>.</p> +<p>II.iv.122 (384,4) Cry to it, nuncle, as the cockney did to the +eels, when she put them i' the paste alive] Hinting that the eel +and Lear are in the same danger.</p> +<p>II.iv.142 (384,7) Than she to scant her duty] The word +<i>scant</i> is directly contrary to the sense intended. The quarto +reads,</p> +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<p>—<i>slack</i> her duty,</p> +</div> +</div> +<p>which is no better. May we not change it thus:</p> +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<p>You less know bow to value her desert,</p> +<p>Than she to <i>scan</i> her duty.</p> +</div> +</div> +<p>To <i>scan</i> may be to <i>measure</i> or <i>proportion</i>. +Yet our author uses his negatives with such licentiousness, that it +is hardly safe to make any alteration.—<i>Scant</i> may mean +to <i>adapt</i>, to <i>fit</i>, to <i>proportion</i>; which sense +seems still to be retained in the mechanical term scantling. (see +1765, VI, 67, 4)</p> +<p>II.iv.155 (385,1) Do you but mark how this becomes the house?] +[T: the use?] [Warburton called "becomes the house" "a most +expressive phrase"] with this <i>most expressive phrase</i> I +believe no reader is satisfied. I suspect that it has been written +originally,</p> +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<p>Ask her forgiveness?</p> +<p>Do you but mark how this becometh—thus.</p> +<p>Dear daughter, I confess, &c.</p> +</div> +</div> +<p><i>Becomes the house</i>, and <i>becometh thus</i>, might be +easily confounded by readers so unskilful as the original +printers.</p> +<p>II.iv.157 (386,2) <i>Age is unnecessary</i>] i.e. Old age has +few wants.</p> +<p>II.iv.162 (386,3) Look'd black upon me] To <i>look black</i>, +may easily be explained to <i>look cloudy</i> or <i>gloomy</i>. See +Milton:</p> +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<p>"So frown'd the mighty combatants, that hell</p> +<p>Grew darker at their frown."—</p> +</div> +</div> +<p>II.iv.170 (386,4) To fall, and blast her pride!] Thus the +quarto: the folio reads not so well, <i>to fall and blister</i>. I +think there is still a fault, which may be easily mended by +changing a letter:</p> +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<p>—Infect her beauty,</p> +<p>Ye fen-suck'd fogs, drawn by the powerful sun,</p> +<p><i>Do</i>, fall, and blast her pride!</p> +</div> +</div> +<p>II.iv.174 (387.6) Thy tender-hested nature shall not give/Thee +o'er to harshness] This word, though its general meaning be plain, +I do not critically understand.</p> +<p>II.iv.178 (387,7) to scant my sizes] To contract my allowances +or proportions settled.</p> +<p>II.iv.203 (388,9) much less advancement] The word +<i>advancement</i> is ironically used here for +<i>conspicuousness</i> of punishment; as we now say, <i>a man is +advanced to the pillory</i>. We should read,</p> +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<p>—but his own disorders</p> +<p>Deserv'd much <i>more</i> advancement.</p> +</div> +</div> +<p>II.iv.204 (388,1) I pray you, father, being weak, seem so] [W: +deem't so] The meaning is, since <i>you are weak</i>, be content to +think yourself weak. No change is needed.</p> +<p>II.iv.218 (389,3) base life] i.e. In a <i>servile</i> state.</p> +<p>II.iv.227 (390,5) embossed carbuncle] <i>Embossed</i> is +<i>swelling, protuberant</i>.</p> +<p>II.iv.259 (391,6) Those wicked creatures yet do look +well-favour'd:/ When others are more wicked] Dr. Warburton would +exchange the repeated epithet <i>wicked</i> into <i>wrinkled</i> in +both places. The commentator's only objection to the lines as they +now stand, is the discrepancy of the metaphor, the want of +opposition between <i>wicked</i> and <i>well-favoured</i>. But he +might have remembered what he says in his own preface concerning +<i>mixed modes</i>. Shakespeare, whose mind was more intent upon +notions than words, had in his thoughts the pulchritude of virtue, +and the deformity of wickedness; and though he had mentioned +<i>wickedness</i>, made the correlative answer to +<i>deformity</i>.</p> +<p>III.i.7 (394,1) That things might change, or cease: tears his +white hair] The first folio ends the speech at <i>change, or +cease</i>, and begins again with Kent's question, <i>But who is +with him?</i> The whole speech is forcible, but too long for the +occasion, and properly retrenched.</p> +<p>III.i.18 (395,3) my note] My observation of your character.</p> +<p>III.i.29 (395,6) <i>are but furnishings</i>] <i>Furnishings</i> +are what we now call <i>colours, external pretences</i>. (1773)</p> +<p>III.i.19 (395,8)</p> +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<p>There is division,</p> +<p>Although as yet the face of it is cover'd</p> +<p>with mutual cunning, 'twixt Albany and Cornwall;</p> +<p><i>Who have (as who have not, whom their great stars</i></p> +<p><i>Throne and set high?) servants, who seem no less;</i></p> +<p><i>Which are to France the spies and speculations</i></p> +<p><i>Intelligent of our state. What hath been seen,</i></p> +<p><i>Either in snuffs and packings of the dukes;</i></p> +<p><i>Or the hard rein, which both of them have borne</i></p> +<p><i>Against the old kind king; or something deeper,</i></p> +<p><i>Whereof, perchance, these are but furnishings.</i></p> +<p>[But, true it is, from France there comes a power</p> +<p>Into this scatter'd kingdom; who already,</p> +<p>Wise in our negligence, have secret fee</p> +<p>In some of our best ports, and are at point</p> +<p>To shew their open banner.—Now to you:]]</p> +</div> +</div> +<p>The true state of this speech cannot from all these notes be +discovered. As it now stands it is collected from two editions: the +lines which I have distinguished by Italics are found in the folio, +not in the quarto; the following lines inclosed in crotchets are in +the quarto, not in the folio. So that if the speech be read with +omissions of the Italics, it will stand according to the first +edition; and if the Italics are read, and the lines that follow +them omitted, it will then stand according to the second. The +speech is now tedious, because it is formed by a coalition of both. +The second edition is generally best, and was probably nearest to +Shakespeare's last copy, but in this passage the first is +preferable; for in the folio, the messenger is sent, he knows not +why, he knows not whither. I suppose Shakespeare thought his plot +opened rather too early, and made the alteration to veil the event +from the audience; but trusting too much to himself, and full of a +single purpose, he did not accommodate his new lines to the rest of +the scene.—The learned critic's [Warburton] emendations are +now to be examined. <i>Scattered</i> he has changed to +<i>scathed</i>; for <i>scattered</i>, he says, gives <i>the idea of +an anarchy, which was not the case</i>. It may be replied that +<i>scathed</i> gives the idea of ruin, waste, and desolation, +<i>which was not the case</i>. It is unworthy a lover of truth, in +questions of great or little moment, to exaggerate or extenuate for +mere convenience, or for vanity yet less than convenience. +<i>Scattered</i> naturally means <i>divided, unsettled, +disunited</i>.—Next is offered with great pomp a change of +<i>sea</i> to <i>seize</i>; but in the first edition the word is +<i>fee</i>, for <i>hire</i>, in the sense of having any one in +<i>fee</i>, that is, at <i>devotion for money</i>. <i>Fee</i> is in +the second quarto changed to <i>see</i>, from which one made +<i>sea</i> and another <i>seize</i>.</p> +<p>III.ii.4 (398,1) thought-executing] Doing execution with +rapidity equal to thought.</p> +<p>III.ii.19 (399,4) Here I stand, your slave] [W: brave] The +meaning is plain enough, he was not their <i>slave</i> by right or +compact, but by necessity and compulsion. Why should a passage be +darkened for the sake of changing it? Besides, of <i>brave</i> in +that sense I remember no example.</p> +<p>III.ii.24 (399,5) 'tis foul] Shameful; dishonourable.</p> +<p>III.ii.30 (399,6) So beggars marry many] i.e. A beggar marries a +wife and lice.</p> +<p>III.ii.46 (400,1) Man's nature cannot carry/The affliction, nor +the fear] So the folio: the later editions read, with the quarto, +<i>force</i> for <i>fear</i>, less elegantly.</p> +<p>III.ii.56 (401,3) That under covert and convenient seeming] +<i>Convenient</i> needs not be understood in any other than its +usual and proper sense; <i>accommodate</i> to the present purpose; +<i>suitable</i> to a design. <i>Convenient seeming</i> is +<i>appearance</i> such as may promote his purpose to destroy.</p> +<p>III.ii.53 (401,4) concealing continents] <i>Continent</i> stands +for that which <i>contains</i> or <i>incloses</i>.</p> +<p>III.ii.72 (401,(5) Poor fool and knave, I have one part in my +heart,/ That's sorry yet for thee] Some editions read,</p> +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<p>—<i>thing</i> in my heart;</p> +</div> +</div> +<p>from which Hanmer, and Dr. Warburton after him, have made +<i>string</i>, very unnecessarily; both the copies have +<i>part</i>.</p> +<p>III.ii.74 (402,7)</p> +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<p><i>He that has a little tiny wit,—</i></p> +<p><i>With heigh ho, the wind and the rain;</i></p> +<p><i>Must make content with his fortunes fit,</i></p> +<p><i>Though the rain it raineth every day</i>]</p> +</div> +</div> +<p>I fancy that the second line of this stanza had once a +termination that rhymed with the fourth; but I can only fancy it; +for both the copies agree. It was once perhaps written,</p> +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<p>With heigh ho, the wind and the rain <i>in his way</i>.</p> +</div> +</div> +<p>The meaning seems likewise to require this insertion. "He that +has wit, however small, and finds wind and rain in his way, must +content himself by thinking, that somewhere or other <i>it raineth +every day</i>, and others are therefore suffering like himself." +Yet I am afraid that all this is chimerical, for the burthen +appears again in the song at the end of <i>Twelfth Night</i>, and +seems to have been an arbitrary supplement, without any reference +to the sense of the song. (see 1765, VI, 84, 6)</p> +<p>III.ii.80 (402,8) I'll speak a prophecy ere I go] [W: or two +ere] The sagacity and acuteness of Dr. Warburton are very +conspicuous in this note. He has disentangled the confusion of the +passage, and I have inserted his emendation in the text. <i>Or +e'er</i> is proved by Mr. Upton to be good English, but the +controversy was not necessary, for <i>or</i> is not in the old +copies. [Steevens retained "ere"]</p> +<p>III.ii.84 (403,1) No heretics burnt, but wenches' suitors] The +disease to which <i>wenches' suitors</i> are particularly exposed, +was called in Shakespeare's time the <i>brenning</i> or +<i>burning</i>.</p> +<p>III.iv.26 (406,1)</p> +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<p>In, boy; go first. [<i>To the Fool.</i>] You houseless +poverty—</p> +<p>Nay, get thee in. I'll pray, and then I'll sleep]</p> +</div> +<div class="stanza"></div> +</div> +<p>These two lines were added in the author's revision, and are +only in the folio. They are very judiciously intended to represent +that humility, or tenderness, or neglect of forms, which affliction +forces on the mind.</p> +<p>III.iv.52 (407,3) led through fire and through flame] Alluding +to the <i>ignis fatuus</i>, supposed to be lights kindled by +mischievous beings to lead travellers into destruction.</p> +<p>III.iv.54 (407,4) laid knives under his pillow] He recounts the +temptations by which he was prompted to suicide; the opportunities +of destroying himself, which often occurred to him in his +melancholy moods.</p> +<p>III.iv.60 (407,5) Bless thee from whirlwinds, star-blasting, and +taking!] To <i>take</i> is to blast, or strike with malignant +influence:</p> +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<p>—strike her young limbs,</p> +<p>Ye taking airs, with lameness.</p> +</div> +</div> +<p>III.iv.77 (408,6) pelican daughters] The young pelican is fabled +to suck the mother's blood.</p> +<p>III.iv.95 (408,8) light of ear] [i.e. Credulous. WARBURTON.] Not +merely <i>credulous</i>, but <i>credulous of evil</i>, ready to +receive malicious reports. (1773)</p> +<p>III.iv.103 (409,1) says suum, mun, ha no nonny, dolphin my boy, +boy, Sessy: let him trot by] Of this passage I can make nothing. I +believe it corrupt: for wildness, not nonsense, is the effect of a +disordered imagination. The quarto reads, <i>hay no on ny, +dolphins, my boy, cease, let him trot by</i>. Of interpreting this +there is not much hope or much need. But any thing may be tried. +The madman, now counterfeiting a proud fit, supposes himself met on +the road by some one that disputes the way, and cries +<i>Hey!—No</i>—but altering his mind, condescends to +let him pass, and calls to his boy <i>Dolphin</i> (Rodolph) not to +contend with him. <i>On—Dolphin, my boy, cease. Let him trot +by</i>.</p> +<p>III.iv.122 (410,3) web and the pin] Diseases of the eye.</p> +<p>III.iv.125 (411,4)</p> +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<p>Saint Withold footed thrice the void;</p> +<p>He met the night-mare, and her nine-fold;</p> +<p>Bid her alight, and her troth plight,</p> +<p>And aroynt thee, witch, aroynt thee!]</p> +</div> +</div> +<p>In the old quarto the corruption is such as may deserve to be +noted. "Swithold footed thrice the old another night moore and her +nine fold bid her, O light, and her troth plight, and arint thee, +with arint thee."</p> +<p>III.iv.144 (412,6) <i>small deer</i>] Sir Thomas Hanmer reads +<i>geer</i>, and is followed by Dr. Warburton. But <i>deer</i> in +old language is a general word for wild animals.</p> +<p>III.iv.187 (414,8) <i>Child Rowland</i>] This word is in some of +our ballads. There is a song of <i>Child Walter, and a +Lady</i>.</p> +<p>III.v.21 (415,2) If I find him comforting the king] He uses the +word in the juridical sense for <i>supporting, helping</i>, +according to its derivation; <i>salvia</i> comfortat <i>ne +vos</i>.—<i>Schol. Sal.</i> (rev. 1778, IX, 477, 3)</p> +<p>III.vi.20 (416,2) a horse's health] [W: heels] Shakespeare is +here speaking not of things maliciously treacherous, but of things +uncertain and not durable, A horse is above all other animals +subject to diseases.</p> +<p>III.vi.26 (416,3) Wantest thou eyes at trial, madam?] It may be +observed that Edgar, being supposed to be found by chance, and +therefore to have no knowledge of the rest, connects not his ideas +with those of Lear, but pursues his own train of delirious or +fantastic thought. To these words, <i>At trial, madam?</i> I think +therefore that the name of Lear should be put. The process of the +dialogue will support this conjecture. (1773)</p> +<p>III.vi.27 (417,4) <i>Come oe'er the broom, Bessy, to me</i>] As +there is no relation between <i>broom</i> and a <i>boat</i>, we may +better read,</p> +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<p>Come o'er the <i>brook</i>, Bessy, to me.</p> +</div> +</div> +<p>III.vi.43 (417,6)</p> +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<p><i>Sleepest, or wakest thou, jolly shepherd?</i></p> +<p><i>Thy sheep be in the corn;</i></p> +<p>And for one blast of thy minikin mouth,</p> +<p>Thy sheep shall take no harm.]</p> +</div> +</div> +<p>This seems to be a stanza of some pastoral song. A shepherd is +desired to pipe, and the request is enforced by a promise, that +though his sheep be in the corn, i.e. committing a trespass by his +negligence, implied in the question, <i>Sleepest thou or +wakest?</i> Yet a single tune upon his pipe shall secure them from +the pound. (1773)</p> +<p>III.vi.77 (419,8) Sessy, come] Here is <i>sessey</i> again, +which I take to be the French word <i>cessez</i> pronounced +<i>cessey</i>, which was, I suppose, like some others in common use +among us. It is an interjection enforcing cessation of any action, +like, <i>be quiet, have done</i>. It seems to have been gradually +corrupted into, <i>so, so</i>.</p> +<p>III.vi.78 (419,9) thy horn is dry] Men that begged under +pretence of lunacy used formerly to carry a horn, and blow it +through the streets.</p> +<p>III.vi.103-121 (420,2) [<i>Kent.</i> Opprest nature sleeps] The +lines inserted from the quarto are in crotchets. The omission of +them in the folio is certainly faulty: yet I believe the folio is +printed from Shakespeare'a last revision, carelessly and hastily +performed, with more thought of shortening the scenes, than of +continuing the action.</p> +<p>III.vi.111 (421,4) free things] States clear from distress.</p> +<p>III.vi. 117 (421,5)</p> +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<p>Mark the high noises! and thyself bewray,</p> +<p>When false opinion, whose wrong thought defiles thee,</p> +<p>In thy just proof, repeals, and reconciles thee]</p> +</div> +</div> +<p>Attend to the great events that are approaching, and make +thyself known. Then that <i>false opinion</i> now prevailing +against thee shall, in consequence of <i>just proof</i> of thy +integrity, revoke its erroneous sentence, and recall thee to honour +and reconciliation.</p> +<p>III.vii.13 (421,6) ray lord of Glo'ster] Meaning Edmund, newly +invested with his father's titles. The steward, speaking +immediately after, mentions the old duke by the same title.</p> +<p>III.vii.24 (422,3)</p> +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<p>Though well we may not pass upon his life</p> +<p>Without the form of justice; yet our power</p> +<p>Shall do a courtesy to our wrath]</p> +</div> +</div> +<p><i>To do a courtesy</i> is to gratify, to comply with. <i>To +pass</i>, is to pass a judicial sentence. (1773)</p> +<p>III.vii.29 (422,4) corky arms] Dry, wither'd, husky arms.</p> +<p>III.vii.54 (424,9) I am ty'd to the stake, and I must stand the +course] The running of the dogs upon me.</p> +<p>III.vii.65 (425,2) All cruels else subscrib'd] Yielded, +submitted to the necessity of the occasion.</p> +<p>III.vii.99-107 (426,3) I'll never care what wickedness I do] +[This short dialogue I have inserted from the old quarto, because I +think it full of nature. Servants could hardly see such a barbarity +committed on their master, without pity; and the vengeance that +they presume canst overtake the actors of it is a sentiment and +doctrine well worthy of the stage. THEOBALD.] It is not necessary +to suppose them the servants of Glo'ster; for Cornwall was opposed +to extremity by his own servant.</p> +<p>IV.i.1 (427,1) Yet better thus, and known to be contemn'd] The +meaning is, <i>'Tis better</i> to be <i>thus contemned, and</i> +known <i>to yourself</i> to be contemned. Or perhaps there is an +error, which may be rectified thus:</p> +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<p>Yet better thus unknown to be contemn'd.</p> +</div> +</div> +<p>When a man divests himself of his real character he feels no +pain from contempt, because he supposes it incurred only by a +voluntary disguise which he can throw off at pleasure. I do not +think any correction necessary.</p> +<p>IV.i.20 (429,3) Our mean secures us] [i.e. Moderate, mediocre +condition. WARBURTON.] Banner writes, by an easy change, +<i>meanness</i> secures us. The two original editions have,</p> +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<p>Our <i>meanes</i> secures us.—</p> +</div> +</div> +<p>I do not remember that <i>mean</i> is ever used aa a substantive +for low fortune, which is the sense here required, nor for +mediocrity, except in the phrase, the <i>golden mean</i>. I suspect +the passage of corruption, and would either read,</p> +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<p>Our means <i>seduce</i> us:—</p> +</div> +</div> +<p>Our powers of body or fortune draw us into evils. Or,</p> +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<p>Our <i>maims</i> secure us.—</p> +</div> +</div> +<p>That hurt or deprivation which makes us defenceless, proves our +safeguard. This is very proper in Glo'ster, newly maimed by the +evulsion of his eyes.</p> +<p>IV.i.59-64 (431,8) [Five fiends have been in poor Tom at once; +of lust, as <i>Obidicut</i>; <i>Hobbididance</i>, prince of +dumbness; <i>Mahu</i>, of stealing; <i>Modo</i>, of murder; and +<i>Flibbertigibbet</i>, of mopping and mowing; who since possesses +chamber-maids and waiting-women. So bless thee, master!]] The +passage in crotchets is omitted in the folio, because I suppose as +the story was forgotten, the jest was lost.</p> +<p>IV.i.68 (432,1) Let the superfluous and lust-dieted man] Lear +has before uttered the same sentiment, which indeed cannot be too +strongly impressed, tho' it may be too often repeated.</p> +<p>IV.i.69 (432,2) That slaves your ordinance] [W: braves] The +emendation is plausible, yet I doubt whether it be right. The +language of Shakespeare is very licentious, and his words have +often meanings remote from the proper and original use. To +<i>slave</i> or <i>beslave</i> another is to <i>treat</i> him +<i>with terms of indignity</i>; in a kindred sense, to <i>slave the +ordinance</i>, may be, to <i>slight</i> or <i>ridicule</i> it.</p> +<p>IV.ii.1 (433,1) our mild husband] It must be remembered that +Albany, the husband of Gonerill, disliked, in the end of the first +act, the scheme of oppression and ingratitude.</p> +<p>IV.ii.29 (434,5) I have been worth the whistle] This expression +is a reproach to Albany for having neglected her; <i>though you +disregard me thus</i>, I have been worth the whistle, <i>I have +found one that thinks me worth calling</i>. (1773)</p> +<p>IV.ii.35 (435,9) From her maternal sap] [W: material] I suppose +no reader doubts but the word should be <i>maternal</i>. Dr. +Warburton has taken great pains without much success, and indeed +without much exactness of attention, to prove that <i>material</i> +has a more proper sense than <i>maternal</i>, and yet seemed glad +at last to infer from an apparent error of another press that +<i>material</i> and <i>maternal</i> meant the same.</p> +<p>IV.ii.45 (436,2) A man, a prince by him so benefited?] [After +this line I suspect a line or two to be wanting, which upbraids her +for her sister's cruelty to Glo'ster. WARBURTON.] Here is a pompous +note to support a conjecture apparently erroneous, and confuted by +the next scene, in which the account is given for the first time to +Albany of Glo'ster's sufferings.</p> +<p>IV.ii.50 (436,3) Like monsters of the deep] Fishes are the only +animals that are known to prey upon their own species.</p> +<p>IV.ii.62 (437,5) Thou changed, and self-cover'd thing] Of these +lines there is but one copy, and the editors are forced open +conjecture. They have published this line thus;</p> +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<p>Thou chang'd, and <i>self-converted</i> thing;</p> +</div> +</div> +<p>but I cannot but think that by <i>self-cover'd</i> the author +meant, thou that hast <i>disguised</i> nature by wickedness; thou +that hast <i>hid</i> the woman under the fiend.</p> +<p>IV.ii.83 (438,6) One way, I like this well] Gonerill is well +pleased that Cornwall is destroyed, who was preparing war against +her and her husband, but is afraid of losing Edmund to the +widow.</p> +<p>IV.iii (439,1) <i>The French camp, near Dover. Enter Kent, and a +Gentleman</i>] This scene seems to have been left out only to +shorten the play, and is necessary to continue the action. It is +extant only in the quarto, being omitted in the first folio. I have +therefore put it between crotchets.</p> +<p>IV.iii (439,2) <i>a Gentleman</i>] The gentleman whom he sent in +the foregoing act with letters to Cordelia.</p> +<p>IV.iii.26 (440,4) Made she no verbal question?] I do not see the +impropriety of <i>verbal question</i>; such pleonasms are common. +So we say, <i>my ears have heard, my eyes have beheld</i>. Besides, +where is the word <i>quest</i> [Warburton's emendation] to be +found?</p> +<p>IV.iii.33 (440,6) And clamour-moisten'd] <i>Clamour moisten'd +her</i>; that is, <i>her out-cries were accompanied with +tears</i>.</p> +<p>IV.iii.36 (441,7) one self-mate and mate] The same husband and +the same wife.</p> +<p>IV.iii.51 (441,9) 'Tis so they are a-foot] Dr. Warburton thinks +it necessary to read, <i>'tis said</i>; but the sense is plain, +<i>So it is</i> that <i>they are on foot</i>.</p> +<p>IV.iv.4 (442,1) With bur-docks, hemlock] I do not remember any +such plant as a <i>hardock</i>, but one of the most common weeds is +a <i>burdock</i>, which I believe should be read here; and so +Hanmer reads.</p> +<p>IV.iv.20 (443,2) the means to lead it] The reason which should +guide it.</p> +<p>IV.iv.26 (443,3) My mourning and important tears hath pitied] In +other places of this author for <i>importunate</i>.</p> +<p>IV.iv.27 (443,4) No blown embition] No inflated, no swelling +pride. Beza on the Spanish Armada:</p> +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<p>"Quem bene te ambitio mersit vanissima, ventus,</p> +<p>Et tumidos tumidae voa superastis aquae."</p> +</div> +</div> +<p>IV.v.4 (444,1) <i>Reg.</i> Lord Edmund spake not with your lady +at home?] The folio reads, <i>your lord</i>; but lady is the first +and better reading.</p> +<p>IV.v.22 (444,3) Let me unseal the letter./<i>Stew.</i> Madam, I +had rather] I know not well why Shakespeare gives the steward, who +is a mere factor of wickedness, so much fidelity. He now refuses +the letter; and afterwards, when he is dying, thinks only how it +may be safely delivered.</p> +<p>IV.v.29 (445,5) I do advise you, take this note] <i>Note</i> +means in this place not a <i>letter</i> but a <i>remark</i>. +Therefore <i>observe</i> what I am saying.</p> +<p>IV.v.32 (446,6) You may gather more] You may infer more than I +have directly told you.</p> +<p>IV.vi (446,1) <i>The country near Dover. Enter Glo'ster, and +Edgar as a peasant</i>] This scene, and the stratagem by which +Glo'ster is cured of his desperation, are wholly borrowed from +Sidney's <i>Arcadia</i>.</p> +<p>IV.vi.7 (447,2) thy voice is alter'd] Edgar alters his voice in +order to pass afterwards for a malignant spirit.</p> +<p>IV.vi.11 (447,5) How fearful/And dizzy 'tis, to cast one's eyes +so low!] This description has been much admired since the time of +Addison, who has remarked, with a poor attempt at pleasantry, that +"he who can read it without being giddy, has a very good head, or a +very bad one." The description is certainly not mean, but I am far +from thinking it wrought to the utmost excellence of poetry. He +that looks from a precipice finds himself assailed by one great and +dreadful image of irresistible destruction. But this overwhelming +idea is dissipated and enfeebled from the instant that the mind can +restore itself to the observation of particulars, and diffuse its +attention to distinct objects. The enumeration of the choughs and +crows, the samphire-man, and the fishers, counteracts the great +effect of the prospect, as it peoples the desert of intermediate +vacuity, and stops the mind in the rapidity of its descent through +emptiness and horror.</p> +<p>IV.vi.19 (447,4) her cock] Her cock-boat.</p> +<p>IV.vi.43 (448,6) when life itself/Yields to the theft] When life +is willing to be destroyed.</p> +<p>IV.vi.47 (449,7) Thus might he pass, indeed] Thus he might +<i>die</i> in reality. We still use the word <i>passing</i> +bell.</p> +<p>IV.vi.53 (449,9) Ten masts at each make not the altitude] [Pope: +attacht] Mr. Pope's conjecture may stand if the word which he uses +were known in our author's time, but I think it is of later +introduction. He may say,</p> +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<p>Ten masts <i>on end</i>—</p> +</div> +</div> +<p>IV.vi.57 (449,1) chalky bourn] <i>Bourn</i> seems here to +signify a <i>hill</i>. Its common signification is a <i>brook</i>. +Milton in <i>Comus</i> uses <i>bosky bourn</i> in the same sense +perhaps with Shakespeare. But in both authors it may mean only a +<i>boundary</i>.</p> +<p>IV.vi.73 (450,2) the clearest gods] The purest; the most free +from evil.</p> +<p>IV.vi.80 (450,3) Bear free and patient thoughts] To be +melancholy is to have the mind <i>chained down</i> to one painful +idea; there is therefore great propriety in exhorting Glo'ster to +<i>free thoughts</i>, to an emancipation of his soul from grief and +despair.</p> +<p>IV.vi.81 (450,4) The safer sense will ne'er accommodate/His +master thus] [W: sober sense] I read rather,</p> +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<p>The <i>saner</i> sense will ne'er accoomodate</p> +<p>His master thus.</p> +</div> +</div> +<p>"Here is Lear, but he must be mad: his sound or <i>sane</i> +senses would never suffer him to be thus disguised."</p> +<p>IV.vi.87 (451,5) That fellow handles his bow like a crow-keeper] +This <i>crow-keeper</i> was so common in the author's time, that it +is one of the few peculiarities mentioned by Ortelius in his +account of our island.</p> +<p>IV.vi.93 (451,8) Give the word] Lear supposes himself in a +garrison, and before he lets Edgar pass, requires the +watch-word.</p> +<p>IV.vi.97 (452,7) Ha! Gonerill!—with a white beard!] So +reads the folio, properly; the quarto, whom the later editors have +followed, has, <i>Ha! Gonerill, ha! Regan! they flattered me</i>, +&c. which is not so forcible.</p> +<p>IV.vi.98 (452,8) They flattered me like a dog] They played the +spaniel to me.</p> +<p>IV.vi.121 (453,2) Whose face between her forks] I believe that +the <i>forks</i> were two prominences of the ruff rising on each +side of the face.</p> +<p>IV.vi.124 (453,4) nor the soyled horse] <i>Soiled</i> horse is +probably the same as <i>pampered</i> horse, <i>un cheval +soûlé</i>.</p> +<p>IV.vi.169 (454.5) Robes and furr'd gowns hide all] From <i>hide +all</i> to <i>accuser's lips</i>, the whole passage is wanting in +the first edition, being added, I suppose, at his revisal.</p> +<p>IV.vi.187 (455,8) This a good block!] I do not see how this +<i>block</i> corresponds either with his foregoing or following +train of thoughts. Madmen think not wholly at random. I would read +thus, <i>a good flock</i>. <i>Flocks</i> are wool moulded together. +The sentence then follows properly:</p> +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<p>It were a delicate stratagem to shoe</p> +<p>A troop of horse with felt;—</p> +</div> +</div> +<p>i.e. with <i>flocks</i> kneaded to a mass, a practice I believe +sometimes used in former ages, for it is mentioned in +<i>Ariosto</i>:</p> +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<p>"—Fece nel cader strepito quanto</p> +<p>Avesse avuto sotto i piedi il <i>feltro</i>."</p> +</div> +</div> +<p>It is very common for madmen to catch an accidental hint, and +strain it to the purpose predominant in their minds. Lear picks up +a <i>flock</i>, and immediately thinks to surprize his enemies by a +troop of horse shod with <i>flocks</i> or <i>felt</i>. Yet +<i>block</i> may stand, if we suppose that the sight of a block put +him in mind of mounting his horse.</p> +<p>IV.vi.199 (457,1) Why, this would make a man, a man of salt] +Would make a man melt away like salt in wet weather.</p> +<p>IV.vi.206 (457,2) Then there's life in't] The case is not yet +desperate.</p> +<p>IV.vi.217 (457,3) the main descry/Stands on the hourly thought] +The <i>main</i> body is <i>expected</i> to be <i>descry'd</i> every +hour. The expression is harsh.</p> +<p>IV.vi.246 (459,7) che vor'ye] <i>I warn you</i>. Edgar +counterfeits the western dialect.</p> +<p>IV.vi.281 (460,3) Thee I'll rake up] I'll <i>cover</i> thee. In +Staffordshire, to <i>rake</i> the fire, is to cover it with fuel +for the night.</p> +<p>IV.vi.234 (460,4) the death-practis'd duke] The duke of Albany, +whose death is machinated by <i>practice</i> or treason.</p> +<p>IV.vii.3 (461,1) every measure fail me] All good which I shall +allot thee, or <i>measure out</i> to thee, will be scanty.</p> +<p>IV.vii.9 (461,4) shortens my made intent] [W: laid] An intent +<i>made</i>, is an intent <i>formed</i>. So we say in common +language, to <i>make a design</i>, and to <i>make a +resolution</i>.</p> +<p>IV.vii.41 (464,2) 'Tis wonder, that thy life and wits, at +once,/Had not concluded all] [W: concluded.—Ah!] The plain +construction is this: <i>It is wonder that the wits and life had +not all ended</i>.</p> +<p>IV.vii.85-97 (466,9)</p> +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<p>[<i>Gent</i>. Holds it true, Sir,</p> +<p>That the duke of Cornwall was so slain?]</p> +</div> +</div> +<p>What is printed in crotchets is not in the folio. It is at least +proper, if not necessary; and was omitted by the author, I suppose, +for no other reason than to shorten the representation.</p> +<p>V.i.4 (467,2) his constant pleasure] His settled resolution.</p> +<p>V.i.54 (470,7) We will greet the time] We will be ready to meet +the occasion.</p> +<p>V.i.61 (470,8) carry out my side] Bring my purpose to a +successful issue, to completion. <i>Side</i> seems here to have the +sense of the French word <i>partie</i>, in <i>prendre partie, to +take his resolution</i>.</p> +<p>V.i.68 (471,9) for my state/Stands on me to defend, not to +debate] I do not think that <i>for</i> stands in this place as a +word of inference or causality. The meaning is rather: <i>Such is +my determination concerning Lear</i>; <i>as</i> for my state <i>it +requires now, not</i> deliberation, <i>but</i> defence <i>and +support</i>.</p> +<p>V.iii.16 (472,1) And take upon us the mystery of things,/As if +we were God's spies] As if we were angels commissioned to survey +and report the lives of men, and were consequently endowed with the +power of prying into the original motives of action and the +mysteries of conduct.</p> +<p>V.iii.18 (472,2) packs and sects] Packs is used for +<i>combinations</i> or <i>collection</i>, as is a <i>pack of +cards</i>. For <i>sects</i> I think <i>sets</i> might be more +commodiously read. So we say, <i>affairs are now managed by a +new</i> set. <i>Sect</i>, however, may well stand.</p> +<p>V.iii.24 (473,6) flesh and fell] Flesh and skin.</p> +<p>V.iii.54 (475,1)</p> +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<p class="i6">[At this time</p> +<p>We sweat and bleed: the friend hath lost his friend;</p> +<p>And the best quarrels, in the heat, are curs'd</p> +<p>By those that feel their sharpness:—</p> +<p>The question of Cordelia, and her father,</p> +<p>Requires a fitter place.]]</p> +</div> +</div> +<p>This passage, well worthy of restoration, is omitted in the +folio.</p> +<p>V.iii.65 (475,4) The which immediacy] [<i>Immediacy</i>, for +representation. WARBURTON.] <i>Immediacy</i> is rather +<i>supremacy</i> in opposition to <i>subordination</i>, which has +<i>quiddam medium</i> between itself and power.</p> +<p>V.iii.79 (476,7) The lett alone lies not in your good will] +Whether he shall not or shall depends not on your choice.</p> +<p>V.iii.89 (476,8) An interlude!] This short exclamation of +Gonerill is added in the folio edition, I suppose, only to break +the speech of Albany, that the exhibition on the stage might be +more distinct and intelligible.</p> +<p>V.iii.129 (478,1) Behold, it is the privilege of mine +honours,/My oath, and my profession] The <i>privilege</i> of this +<i>oath</i> means the privilege gained by taking the oath +administered in the regular initiation of a knight professed.</p> +<p>V.iii.151 (479,3)</p> +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<p><i>Alb.</i> Save him, save him!</p> +<p><i>Gon.</i> This is mere practice, Glo'ster]</p> +</div> +</div> +<p>He desired that Edmund's life might be spared at present, only +to obtain his confession, and to convict him openly by his own +letter.</p> +<p>V.iii.166 (480,6) Let us exchange charity] Our author by +negligence gives his heathens the sentiments and practices of +Christianity. In <i>Hamlet</i> there is the same solemn act of +final reconciliation, but with exact propriety, for the personages +are Christians.</p> +<p>V.iii. 204-221 (481,2) [Edg;.—This would have seem'd a +period] The lines between crotchets are not in the folio.</p> +<p>V.iii.229 (433,4) Here comes Kent, Sir] The manner in which +Edgar here mentions Kent, seems to require the lines which are +inserted from the first edition in the foregoing scene.</p> +<p>V.iii.264 (485,7)</p> +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<p><i>Edg.</i> Or image of that horror?</p> +<p><i>Alb.</i> Fall, and cease!]</p> +</div> +</div> +<p>These two exclamations are given to Edgar and Albany in the +folio, to animate the dialogue, and employ all the persons on the +stage; but they are very obscure.</p> +<p>V.iii.301 (487,4) With boot] With advantage, with increase.</p> +<p>(488) General Observation. The tragedy of Lear is deservedly +celebrated among the dramas of Shakespeare. There is perhaps no +play which keeps the attention so strongly fixed; which so much +agitates our passions and interests our curiosity. The artful +involutions of distinct interests, the striking opposition of +contrary characters, the sudden changes of fortune, and the quick +succession of events, fill the mind with a perpetual tumult of +indignation, pity, and hope. There is no scene which does not +contribute to the aggravation of the distress or conduct of the +action, and scarce a line which does not conduce to the progress of +the scene. So powerful is the current of the poet's imagination, +that the mind, which once ventures within it, is hurried +irresistibly along.</p> +<p>On the seeming improbability of Lear's conduct it may be +observed, that he is represented according to histories at that +time vulgarly received as true. And, perhaps, if we turn our +thoughts upon the barbarity and ignorance of the age to which this +story is referred, it will appear not so unlikely as while we +estimate Lear's manners by our own. Such preference of one daughter +to another, or resignation of dominion on such conditions, would be +yet credible, if told of a petty prince of Guinea or Madagascar. +Shakespeare, indeed, by the mention of his earls and dukes, has +given us the idea of times more civilized, and of life regulated by +softer manners; and the truth is, that though he so nicely +discriminates, and so minutely describes the characters of men, he +commonly neglects and confounds the characters of ages, by mingling +customs ancient and modern, English and foreign.</p> +<p>My learned friend Mr. Warton, who has in the <i>Adventurer</i> +very minutely criticised this play, remarks, that the instances of +cruelty are too savage and shocking, and that the intervention of +Edmund destroys the simplicity of the story. These objections may, +I think, be answered, by repeating, that the cruelty of the +daughters is an historical fact, to which the poet has added +little, having only drawn it into a series by dialogue and action. +But I am not able to apologize with equal plausibility for the +extrusion of Glo'ster's eyes, which seems an act too horrid to be +endured in dramatic exhibition, and such as must always compel the +mind to relieve its distress by incredulity. Yet let it be +remembered that our author well knew what would please the audience +for which he wrote.</p> +<p>The injury done by Edmund to the simplicity of the action is +abundantly recompensed by the addition of variety, by the art with +which he is made to co-operate with the chief design, and the +opportunity which he gives the poet of combining perfidy with +perfidy, and connecting the wicked son with the wicked daughters, +to impress this important moral, that villainy is never at a stop, +that crimes lead to crimes, and at last terminate in ruin.</p> +<p>But though this moral be incidentally enforced, Shakespeare has +suffered the virtue of Cordelia to perish in a just cause, contrary +to the natural ideas of justice, to the hope of the reader, and, +what is yet more strange, to the faith of chronicles. Yet this +conduct is justified by <i>The Spectator</i>, who blames Tate for +giving Cordelia success and happiness in his alteration, and +declares, that, in his opinion, <i>the tragedy has lost half its +beauty</i>. Dennis has remarked, whether justly or not, that, to +secure the favourable reception of <i>Cato, the town was poisoned +with much false and abominable criticism</i>, and that endeavours +had been used to discredit and decry poetical justice. A play in +which the wicked prosper, and the virtuous miscarry, may doubtless +be good, because it is a just representation of the common events +of human life: but since all reasonable beings naturally love +justice, I cannot easily be persuaded, that the observation of +justice makes a play worse; or, that if other excellencies are +equal, the audience will not always rise better pleased from the +final triumph of persecuted virtue.</p> +<p>In the present case the public has decided. Cordelia, from the +time of Tate, has always retired with victory and felicity. And, if +my sensations could add any thing to the general suffrage, I night +relate, I was many years ago so shocked by Cordelia's death, that I +know not whether I ever endured to read again the last scenes of +the play till I undertook to revise them as an editor.</p> +<p>There is another controversy among the critics concerning this +play. It is disputed whether the predominant image in Lear's +disordered mind be the loss of his kingdom or the cruelty of his +daughters. Mr. Murphy, a very judicious critic, has evinced by +induction of particular passages, that the cruelty of his daughters +is the primary source of his distress, and that the loss of royalty +affects him only as a secondary and subordinate evil. He observes +with great justness, that Lear would move our compassion but +little, did we not rather consider the injured father than the +degraded king.</p> +<p>The story of this play, except the episode of Edmund, which is +derived, I think, from Sidney, is taken originally from Geoffry of +Monmouth, whom Hollinshed generally copied; but perhaps immediately +from an old historical ballad. My reason for believing that the +play was posterior to the ballad, rather than the ballad to the +play, is, that the ballad has nothing of Shakespeare's nocturnal +tempest, which is too striking to have been omitted, and that it +follows the chronicle; it has the rudiments of the play, but none +of its amplifications: it first hinted Lear's madness, but did not +array it in circumstances. The writer of the ballad added something +to the history, which is a proof that he would have added more, if +more had occurred to his mind, and more must have occurred if he +had seen Shakespeare. [Johnson appends "A lamentable SONG of the +Death of King Leir and his Three Daughters"]</p> +<h3>Vol. I</h3> +<h2>ROMEO AND JULIET</h2> +<p>I.i.82 (9,7) Give me my long sword] The <i>long sword</i> was +the sword used in war, which was sometimes wielded with both +hands.</p> +<p>I.i.158 (11,2)</p> +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<p>As is the bud bit with an envious worm,</p> +<p>Ere he can spread his sweet leaves to the air,</p> +<p>Or dedicate his beauty to the same]</p> +</div> +</div> +<p>I cannot but suspect that some lines are lost, which connected +this simile more closely with the foregoing speech; these lines, if +such there were, lamented the danger that Romeo will die of his +melancholy, before his virtues or abilities were known to the +world.</p> +<p>I.i.176 (12,3)</p> +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<p>Alas, that love, whose view is muffled still,</p> +<p>Should, without eyes, see path-ways to his will.]</p> +</div> +</div> +<p>Sir T. Hanmer, and after him Dr. Warburton, read, to his +<i>ill</i>. The present reading has some obscurity; the meaning may +be, that <i>love</i> finds out means to pursue his <i>desire</i>. +That the <i>blind</i> should <i>find paths to ill</i> is no great +wonder.</p> +<p>I.i.183 (13,4) O brawling love! O loving hate!] Of these lines +neither the sense nor occasion is very evident. He is not yet in +love with an eneny, and to love one and hate another is no such +uncommon state, as can deserve all this toil of antithesis.</p> +<p>I.i.192 (14,5) Why, such is love's transgression] Such is the +consequence of unskilful and mistaken kindness. (see 1765, VIII, +12, 2)</p> +<p>1.1.198 (14,6) Being purg'd, a fire sparkling in lovers' eyes] +The author may mean <i>being purged of smoke</i>, but it is perhaps +a meaning never given to the word in any other place. I would +rather read, <i>Being</i> urged, <i>a fire sparkling</i>. Being +excited and inforced. To <i>urge</i> the fire is the technical +term.</p> +<p>I.i.199 (14,7) Being vex'd, a sea nourish'd with lovers' tears] +As this line stands single, it is likely that the foregoing or +following line that rhym'd to it, is lost.</p> +<p>I.i.206 (14,8) Tell me in sadness] That is, tell me +<i>gravely</i>, tell me in <i>seriousness</i>.</p> +<p>I.i.217 (15,1) in strong proof] In chastity <i>of proof</i>, as +we say in armour <i>of proof</i>.</p> +<p>I.i.222 (15,2)</p> +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<p>O, she is rich in beauty; only poor</p> +<p>That when she dies, with beauty dies her store]</p> +</div> +</div> +<p>Mr. Theobald reads, "<i>With</i> her dies beauties +<i>store</i>;" and is followed by the two succeeding editors. I +have replaced the old reading, because I think it at least as +plausible as the correction. <i>She is rich</i>, says he, <i>in +beauty</i>, and <i>only poor</i> in being subject to the lot of +humanity, that <i>her store</i>, or riches, <i>can be destroyed by +death</i>, who shall, by the same blow, put an end to beauty.</p> +<p>I.ii.15 (17,2) She is the hopeful lady of my earth] <i>The lady +of his earth</i> is an expression not very intelligible, unless he +means that she is heir to his estate, and I suppose no man ever +called his lands his earth. I will venture to propose a bold +change:</p> +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<p>She is the hope <i>and stay</i> of my <i>full years</i>.</p> +</div> +</div> +<p>I.ii.25 (18,3) Earth-treading stars that make dark heaven light] +[W: dark even] But why nonsense [Warburton's comment]? Is any thing +mere commonly said, than that beauties eclipse the sun? Has not +Pope the thought and the word?</p> +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<p>"Sol through white curtains shot a tim'rous ray,</p> +<p>"And spe'd those eyes that must <i>eclipse the day</i>."</p> +</div> +</div> +<p>Both the old and the new reading are philosophical nonsense, but +they are both, and both equally poetical sense.</p> +<p>I.ii.26 (18,4) Such comfort as do lusty young men feel] To say, +and to say in pompous words, that a <i>young man shall feel</i> as +much in an assembly of beauties, <i>as young men feel in the month +of April</i>, is surely to waste sound upon a very poor sentiment. +I read,</p> +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<p>Such comfort as do lusty <i>yeomen</i> feel.</p> +</div> +</div> +<p>You shall feel from the sight and conversation of these ladies, +such hopes of happiness and such pleasure, as the farmer receives +from the spring, when the plenty of the year begins, and the +prospect of the harvest fills him with delight.</p> +<p>I.ii.32 (18,5)</p> +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<p>Such, amongst view of many, mine, being one.</p> +<p>May stand in number, the' in reckoning none]</p> +</div> +</div> +<p>The first of these lines I do not understand. The old folio +gives no help; the passage is there, <i>Which</i> one <i>more +view</i>. I can offer nothing better than this:</p> +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<p><i>Within your view</i> of many, mine being one,</p> +<p>May stand in number, &c.</p> +</div> +</div> +<p>I.iii.13 (22,1) to my teen] To my sorrow.</p> +<p>I.iii.66 (24,4) It is an honour] The modern editors all read, +<i>it is an honour</i>. I have restored the genuine word ["hour"], +which is more seemly from a girl to her mother. <i>Your, fire</i>, +and such words as are vulgarly uttered in two syllables, are used +as dissyllables by Shakespeare. [The first quarto reads +<i>honour</i>; the folio <i>hour</i>. I have chosen the reading of +the quarto. STEEVENS.] (rev. 1778, X, 28, 2)</p> +<p>I.iii.92 (25,9) That in gold clasps locks in the golden story] +The <i>golden story</i> is perhaps the <i>golden legend</i>, a book +in the darker ages of popery much read, and doubtless often +exquisitely embellished, but of which Canus, one of the popish +doctors, proclaims the author to have been <i>homo ferrei oris, +plumbei cordis</i>.</p> +<p>I.iv.6 (27,2) like a crow-keeper] The word <i>crow-keeper</i> is +explained in Lear.</p> +<p>I.iv.37 (28,8) for I am proverb'd with a grand-sire phrase] The +grandsire phrase is—<i>The black ox has trod upon my +foot</i>.</p> +<p>I.iv.42 (30,1) Or (save your reverence) love] The word <i>or</i> +obscures the sentence; we ahould read <i>O</i>! for <i>or love</i>. +Mercutio having called the affection vith which Romeo was entangled +by so disrespectful a word as <i>mire</i>, cries out,</p> +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<p>O! save your reverence, love.</p> +</div> +</div> +<p>I.iv.84 (34,7) Spanish blades] A sword is called a toledo, from +the excellence of the Toletan steel. So Gratius,</p> +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<p>"—Ensis Toletanus</p> +<p>"Unda Tagi non est alie celebranda metallo,</p> +<p>Utilis in cives est ibi lamna sues."</p> +</div> +</div> +<p>I.iv.113 (35,9) Direct my sail:] [I have restored this reading +from the elder quarto, as being more congruous to the metaphor in +the preceding line. <i>Suit</i> is the reading of the folio. +STEEVENS.]</p> +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<p><i>Direct my suit</i>! Guide the <i>sequel</i> of the +adventure.</p> +</div> +</div> +<p>I.v.27 (37,4)</p> +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<p>You are welcome, gentlemen. Come musicians, play.</p> +<p>A ball! a ball! Give room. And foot it, girls]</p> +</div> +</div> +<p>These two lines, omitted by the modern editors, I have replaced +from the folio.</p> +<p>I.v.32 (37, 6) good cousin Capulet] This <i>cousin</i> Capulet +is <i>unkle</i> in the paper of invitation; but as Capulet is +described as old, <i>cousin</i> is probably the right word in both +places. I know not how Capulet and his lady might agree, their ages +were very disproportionate; he has been past masking for thirty +years, and her age, as she tells Juliet, is but +eight-and-twenty.</p> +<p>II.Prologue (42,3) <i>Enter CHORUS</i>] The use of this chorus +is not easily discovered; it conduces nothing to the progress of +the play, but relates what is already known, or what the next +scenes will shew; and relates it without adding the improvement of +any moral sentiment.</p> +<p>II.ii.1 (45,1) He jests at scars] That is, Mercutio jests, whom +he overheard.</p> +<p>II.ii.7 (45,2) Be not her maid] Be not a votary to the moon, to +Diana.</p> +<p>II.ii.10 (45,3)</p> +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<p>It is my lady; O! it is my love;</p> +<p>O, that she knew we were!]</p> +</div> +</div> +<p>This line and half I have replaced.</p> +<p>II.ii.39 (47,7) Thou art thyself, though not a Montague] I think +the true reading is,</p> +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<p>Thou art thyself, <i>then</i> not a Montague.</p> +</div> +</div> +<p>Thou art a being of peculiar excellence, and hast none of the +malignity of the family, from which thou hast thy +name.—Hanmer reads,</p> +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<p>Thour't not <i>thyself</i> so, <i>though</i> a Montague.</p> +</div> +</div> +<p>II.iii.15 (53,6) the powerful grace, that lies/In plants] +Efficacious virtue.</p> +<p>II.iii.27 (53,7) Two such opposed foes encamp them still] [W: +opposed kin] <i>Foes</i> may be the right reading, or <i>kings</i>, +but I think <i>kin</i> can hardly be admitted. Two <i>kings</i> are +two opposite <i>powers</i>, two contending <i>potentates</i>, in +both the natural and moral world. The word <i>encamp</i> is proper +to <i>commanders</i>. (see 1765, VIII, 46, 2)</p> +<p>II.iv.20 (57,3) courageous captain of compliments] A complete +master of all the laws of ceremony, the principal man in the +doctrine of punctilio.</p> +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<p>"A man of compliments, whom right and wrong</p> +<p>"Have chose as umpire;"</p> +</div> +</div> +<p>says our author of Don <i>Armado</i>, the Spaniard, in <i>Love's +Labour Lost</i>.</p> +<p>II.iv.27 (57,6) the hay!] All the terms of the modern +fencing-school were originally Italian; the rapier, or small +thrusting sword, being first used in Italy. The <i>hay</i> is the +word <i>hai</i>, you <i>have</i> it, used when a thrust reaches the +antagonist, from which our fencers, on the same occasion, without +knowing, I suppose, any reason for it, cry out, <i>ha</i>!</p> +<p>II.iv.35 (58,9) these pardonnez-moy's] <i>Pardonnez-moi</i> +became the language of doubt or hesitation among men of the sword, +when the point of honour was grown so delicate, that no other mode +of contradiction would be endured.</p> +<p>II.iv.64 (59,3) then is my pump wall flower'd] Here is a vein of +wit too thin to be easily found. The fundamental idea is, that +Romeo wore <i>pinked</i> pumps, that is, pumps punched with holes +in figures.</p> +<p>II.iv.87 (60,7) a wit of cheverel] <i>Cheverel</i> is +soft-leather for gloves.</p> +<p>II.iv.138 (62,8) No hare, Sir] Mercutio having roared out, <i>So +ho</i>! the cry of the sportsmen when they start a hare; Romeo asks +<i>what he has found</i>. And Mercutio answers, <i>No hare</i>, +&c. The rest is a series of quibbles unworthy of explanation, +which he who does not understand, needs not lament his +ignorance.</p> +<p>II.iv.162 (63,1) none of his skains-mates] The word +<i>skains-mate</i>, I do not understand, but suppose that +<i>skains</i> was some low play, and <i>skains-mate</i>, a +companion at such play.</p> +<p>II.iv.200 (64,2) like a tackled stair] Like stairs of rope in +the tackle of a ship.</p> +<p>II.iv.222 (65,4) Ah, mocker! that's the dog's name. R is for the +nonce; I know it begins with another letter] This passage is thus +in the old folio. <i>A mocker, that's the dog's name. R is for +the</i> no, <i>I know it begins with some other letter.</i> In this +copy the error is but small. I read, <i>Ah, mocker. that's the +dog's name. R is for the</i> nonce, <i>I know it begins with +another letter.</i> For the <i>nonce</i>, is for some <i>design, +for a sly trick</i>.</p> +<p>II.vi.15 (70,2) Too swift arrives as tardy as too slow] He that +travels too fast is as long before he comes to the end of his +journey, as he that travels slow. Precipitation produces +mishap.</p> +<p>III.i.2 (71,1) The day is hot] It is observed, that in Italy +almost all assassinations are committed during the heat of +summer.</p> +<p>III.i.124 (75,6) This day's black fate on more days does depend] +This day's unhappy destiny <i>hangs over</i> the days yet to come. +There will yet be more mischief.</p> +<p>III.i.141 (78,7) Oh! I am fortune's fool] I am always running in +the way of evil fortune, <i>like</i> the fool in the play. <i>Thou +art death's fool</i>, in <i>Measure for Measure</i>. See Dr. +Warburton's note.</p> +<p>III.i.153 (77,8) as thou art true] As thou art <i>just</i> and +<i>upright</i>.</p> +<p>III.i.159 (77,9) How nice the quarrel] How <i>slight</i>, how +<i>unimportant</i>, how <i>petty</i>. So in the last act,</p> +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<p>The letter was not <i>nice</i>, but full of charge</p> +<p>Of dear import.</p> +</div> +</div> +<p>III.i.182 (78,2) Affection makes him false] The charge of +falshood on Bonvolio, though produced at hazard, is very just. The +author, who seems to intend the character of Bonvolio as good, +meant perhaps to shew, how the best minds, in a state of faction +and discord, are detorted to criminal partiality.</p> +<p>III.i.193 (78,3) I have an interest in your hate's proceeding: +Sir Thomas Hanmer saw that this line gave no sense, and therefore +put, by a very easy change,</p> +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<p>I have an interest in your <i>heat's</i> proceeding!</p> +</div> +</div> +<p>which is undoubtedly better than the old reading which Dr. +Warburton has followed; but the sense yet seems to be weak, and +perhaps a more licentious correction is necessary. I read +therefore,</p> +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<p>I <i>had no</i> interest in your <i>heat's preceding</i>.</p> +</div> +</div> +<p>This, says the prince, is no quarrel of mine, <i>I had no +interest in your former discord</i>; I suffer merely by your +private animosity.</p> +<p>III.ii.5 (79,3) Spread thy close curtain, love-performing +night,/That run-away's eyes may wink] [Warburton explained the +"run-away" as the "sun"] I am not satisfied with this explanation, +yet have nothing better to propose.</p> +<p>III.ii.10 (80,4) Come, civil night] <i>Civil</i> is <i>grave, +decently solemn</i>.</p> +<p>III.ii.14 (80,5) unmann'd blood] Blood yet unacquainted with +man.</p> +<p>III.ii.25 (81,6) the garish sun] Milton had this speech in his +thoughts when he wrote <i>Il Penseroso</i>.</p> +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<p>"—Civil night,</p> +<p>"Thou sober-suited matron."—<i>Shakespeare</i>.</p> +<p>"Till civil-suited morn appear."—<i>Milton</i>.</p> +<p>"Pay no worship to the gairish +sun."—<i>Shakespeare</i>.</p> +<p>"Hide me from day's gairish eye."—<i>Milton</i>.</p> +</div> +</div> +<p>III.ii.46 (82,7) the death-darting eye of cockatrice] [The +strange lines that follow here in the common books are not in the +old edition. POPE.] The strange lines are these:</p> +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<p>I am not I, if there be such an I,</p> +<p>Or these eyes shot, that makes thee answer I;</p> +<p>If he be slain, say I; or if not, no;</p> +<p>Brief sounds determine of my weal or woe.</p> +</div> +</div> +<p>These lines hardly deserve emendatien; yet it may be proper to +observe, that their meanness has not placed them below the malice +of fortune, the two first of them being evidently transposed; we +should read,</p> +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<p>—That one vowel <i>I</i> shall poison more,</p> +<p>Than the death-darting eye of cockatrice,</p> +<p>Or these eyes shot, that make thee answer, I.</p> +<p>I am not I, &c.</p> +</div> +</div> +<p>III.ii.114 (85,9) Hath slain ten thousand Tybalts] Hath put +Tybalt out of my mind, as if out of being.</p> +<p>III.ii.120 (85,1) Which modern lamentation might have mov'd] +This line is left out of the later editions, I suppose because the +editors did not remember that Shakespeare uses <i>modern</i> for +<i>common</i>, or <i>slight</i>: I believe it was in his time +confounded in colloquial language with <i>moderate</i>.</p> +<p>III.iii.112 (89,4)</p> +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<p>Unseemly woman in a seeming man!</p> +<p>And ill-beseeming beast in seeming both!]</p> +</div> +</div> +<p>[W: seeming groth] The old reading is probable. <i>Thou art a +beast of ill qualities, under the appearance both of a woman and a +man</i>.</p> +<p>III.iii.135 (90,5) And thou dismember'd with thine own defence] +And thou torn to pieces with thy own weapons.</p> +<p>III.iii.166-168 (91,6) Go hence. Good night] These three lines +are omitted in all the modern editions.</p> +<p>III.iii.166 (91,7) here stands all your state] The whole of your +fortune depends on this.</p> +<p>III.iv.12 (92,9) Sir Paris, I will make a desperate tender/Of my +child's love] <i>Desperate</i> means only <i>bold, advent'rous</i>, +as if he had said in the vulgar phrase, <i>I will speak a</i> bold +<i>word</i>, and venture <i>to promise you my daughter</i>.</p> +<p>III.v.20 (94,1) 'Tis but the pale reflex of Cynthia's brow] The +appearance of a cloud opposed to the moon.</p> +<p>III.v.23 (94,2) I have more care to stay, than will to go] Would +it be better thus, <i>I have more will to stay, than care to +go</i>?</p> +<p>III.v.31 (94,3) Some say, the lark and loathed toad chang'd +eyes] This tradition of the toad and lark I hare heard expressed in +a rustick rhyme,</p> +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<p>—<i>to heav'n I'd fly,</i></p> +<p><i>But the toad beguil'd me of my eye.</i></p> +</div> +</div> +<p>III.v.33 (95,4)</p> +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<p>Since arm from arm that voice doth us affray,</p> +<p>Hunting thee hence with huntaup to the day]</p> +</div> +</div> +<p>These two lines are omitted in the modern editions, and do not +deserve to be replaced, but as they may shew the danger of critical +temerity. Dr. Warburton's change of <i>I would</i> to <i>I wot</i> +was specious enough, yet it it is evidently erroneous. The sense is +this, <i>The lark, they say, has lost her eyes to the toad, and +now</i> I would <i>the toad had her voice too, since she uses it to +the disturbance of lovers</i>.</p> +<p>III.v.86 (97,3)</p> +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<p><i>Jul.</i> Ay, Madam, from the reach of these my hands:</p> +<p>'Would, none but I might venge my cousin's death.!]</p> +</div> +</div> +<p>Juliet's equivocations are rather too artful for a mind +disturbed by the loss of a new lover.</p> +<p>III.v.91 (98,4) That shall bestow on hin so sure a draught] +[Thus the elder quarto, which I have followed in preference to the +quarto 1609, and the folio 1623, which read, less intelligibly,</p> +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<p>"Shall give him such an unaccustom'd dram." STEEVENS.]</p> +</div> +</div> +<p>—<i>unaccustomed dram</i>.] In vulgar language, Shall give +him a <i>dram</i> which he is <i>not used</i> to. Though I have, if +I mistake not, observed, that in old books <i>unaccustomed</i> +signifies <i>wonderful, powerful, efficacious</i>.</p> +<p>III.v.112 (98,6) in happy time] <i>A la bonne heure</i>. This +phrase was interjected, when the hearer was not quite so well +pleased as the speaker.</p> +<p>III.v.227 (103,3) As living here] Sir T. HANMER reads, <i>as +living</i> hence; that is, at a dsitance, in banishment; but +<i>here</i> may signify, <i>in this world</i>.</p> +<p>IV.i.3 (104,1) And I am nothing alow to slack his haste] <i>His +haste shall not be abated by my slowness</i>. It might be read,</p> +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<p>And I an nothing slow to <i>back</i> his haste:</p> +</div> +</div> +<p>that is, I am diligent to <i>abet</i> and <i>enforce</i> his +haste.</p> +<p>IV.i.l8 (104,2)</p> +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<p><i>Par.</i> Happily met, my lady and my wife!</p> +<p><i>Jul.</i> That may be, Sir, when I may be a wife]</p> +</div> +</div> +<p>As these four first lines seem intended to rhyme, perhaps the +author wrote thus:</p> +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<p>—my lady and my <i>life</i>!</p> +</div> +</div> +<p>IV.i.62 (106,3) this bloody knife/Shall play the umpire] That +is, this knife shall decide the struggle between me and my +distress.</p> +<p>IV.i.64 (106,4) commission of thy years and art] +<i>Commission</i> is for <i>authority</i> or <i>power</i>.</p> +<p>IV.i.79 (106,5)</p> +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<p>Or chain me to some sleepy mountain's top,</p> +<p>Where rearing bears and savage lions roam;</p> +<p>Or shut me nightly in a charnel house]</p> +<p>[Or walk in thievish ways, or bid me lurk</p> +<p>Where serpents are; chain me with rearing bears,</p> +<p>Or hide me nightly, &c.</p> +</div> +</div> +<p>It is thus the editions vary. POPE.] my edition has the words +which Mr. Pope has omitted; but the old copy seems in this place +preferable; only perhaps we might better read,</p> +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<p>Where <i>savage</i> bears and <i>rearing</i> lions roam.</p> +</div> +</div> +<p>IV.i.119 (108,8) If no unconstant toy] If no <i>fickle +freak</i>, no <i>light caprice</i>, no <i>change of fancy</i>, +hinder the performance.</p> +<p>IV.ii.38 (110,2) We shall be short] That is, we shall be +<i>defective</i>.</p> +<p>IV.iii.3 (110,3) For I have need of many orisons] Juliet plays +most of her pranks under the appearance of religion: perhaps +Shakespeare meant to punish her hypocrisy.</p> +<p>IV.iii.46 (112,6) Alas, alas! it is not like that I] This speech +is confused, and inconsequential, according to the disorder of +Juliet's mind.</p> +<p>IV.iv.4 (113,1) The curfeu bell] I knew not that the +morning-bell is called the <i>curfeu</i> in any other place.</p> +<p>IV.iv.107 (119,9) O, play me some merry dump] This is not in the +folio, but the answer plainly requires it.</p> +<p>V.i (121,1) ACT V. SCENE I. MANTUA] The acts are here properly +enough divided, nor did any better distribution than the editors +have already made, occur to me in the perusal of this play; yet it +may not be improper to remark, that in the first folio, and I +suppose the foregoing editions are in the same state, there is no +division of the acts, and therefore some future editor may try, +whether any improvement can be made, by reducing them to a length +more equal, or interrupting the action at more proper +intervals.</p> +<p>V.i.1 (121,2) If I may trust the flattering truth of sleep] The +sense is, <i>If I may only trust the</i> honesty <i>of sleep</i>, +which I know however not to be so nice as not often to practise +<i>flattery</i>.</p> +<p>V.i.3 (121,3)</p> +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<p>My bosom's lord sits lightly on his throne;</p> +<p>And all this day an unaccustom'd spirit</p> +<p>Lifts me above the ground with chearful thoughts]</p> +</div> +</div> +<p>These three lines are very gay and pleasing. But why does +Shakespeare give Romeo this involuntary cheerfulness just before +the extremity of unhappiness? Perhaps to shew the vanity of +trusting to these uncertain and casual exaltations or depressions, +which many consider as certain foretokens of good and evil.</p> +<p>V.i.45 (123,6) A beggarly account of empty boxes] Dr. Warburton +would read, a <i>braggartly</i> account; but <i>beggarly</i> is +probably right: if the <i>boxes</i> were <i>empty</i>, the +<i>account</i> was more <i>beggarly</i>, as it was more +pompous.</p> +<p>V.iii.31 (127,1) a ring that I must use/In dear employment] That +is, <i>action of importance</i>. Gems were supposed to have great +powers and virtues.</p> +<p>V.iii.86 (129,4) her beauty makes/This vault a feasting presence +full of light] A <i>presence</i> is a <i>public room</i>.</p> +<p>V.iii.90 (129,5) O, how may I/Call this a lightning?] I think we +should read,</p> +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<p>—<i>O</i>, now <i>may I</i></p> +<p><i>Call this a lightning</i>!—</p> +</div> +</div> +<p>V.iii.178 (135,1)</p> +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<p>Raise up the Montagues.—Some others; search:—</p> +<p>We see the ground whereon these woes do lie;</p> +<p>But the true ground of all these piteous woes</p> +<p>We cannot without circumstance descry]</p> +</div> +</div> +<p>Here seems to be a rhyme intended, which may be easily +restored;</p> +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<p>"Raise up the Montagues. Some others, go.</p> +<p>"We see the ground whereon these woes do lie,</p> +<p>"But the true ground of all <i>this</i> piteous <i>woe</i></p> +<p>"We cannot without circumstance descry."</p> +</div> +</div> +<p>V.iii.194 (136,2) What fear is this, which startles in our +ears?] [Originally <i>your ears</i>] Read,</p> +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<p>"What fear is this, which startles in <i>our</i> ears?</p> +</div> +</div> +<p>V.iii.229 (138,6) <i>Fri.</i> I will be brief] It is much to be +lamented, that the poet did not conclude the dialogue with the +action, and avoid a narrative of events which the audience already +knew.</p> +<p>(141) General Observation. This play is one of the most pleasing +of our author's performances. The scenes are busy and various, the +incidents numerous and important, the catastrophe irresistibly +affecting, and the process of the action carried on with such +probability, at least with such congruity to popular opinions, as +tragedy requires.</p> +<p>Here is one of the few attempts of Shakespeare to exhibit the +conversation of gentlemen, to represent the airy sprightliness of +juvenile elegance. Mr. Dryden mentions a tradition, which might +easily reach his time, of a declaration made by Shakespeare, that +<i>he was obliged to kill Mercutio in the third act, lest he should +have been killed by him</i>. Yet he thinks him <i>no such +formidable person, but that he might have lived through the play, +and died in his bed</i>, without danger to a poet. Dryden well +knew, had he been in quest of truth, that, in a pointed sentence, +more regard is commonly had to the words than the thought, and that +it is very seldom to be rigorously understood. Mercutio's wit, +gaiety, and courage, will always procure him friends that wish him +a longer life; but his death is not precipitated, he has lived out +the time allotted him in the construction of the play; nor do I +doubt the ability of Shakespeare to have continued his existence, +though some of his sallies are perhaps out of the reach of Dryden; +whose genius was not very fertile of merriment, nor ductile to +humour, but acute, argumentative, comprehensive, and sublime.</p> +<p>The Nurse is one of the characters in which the author +delighted: he has, with great subtilty of distinction, drawn her at +once loquacious and secret, obsequious and insolent, trusty and +dishonest.</p> +<p>His comic scenes are happily wrought, but his pathetic strains +are always polluted with some unexpected depravations. His persons, +however distressed, <i>have a conceit left them in their misery, a +miserable conceit</i>.</p> +<h2>HAMLET</h2> +<p>(145,2) This play is printed both in the folio of 1623, and in +the quarto of 1637, more correctly, than almost any other of the +works of Shakespeare.</p> +<p>I.i.29 (147,7) approve our eyes] Add a new testimony to that of +our eyes.</p> +<p>I.i.33 (147,8) What we two nights have seen] This line is by +Hanmer given to Marcellus, but without necessity.</p> +<p>I.i.63 (149,9) He smote the sledded Polack on the ice] Polack +was, in that age, the term for an inhabitant of Poland: Polaque, +French. As in a translation of Passeratius's epitaph on Henry III. +of France, published by Camden:</p> +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<p>"Whether thy chance or choice thee hither brings,</p> +<p>"Stay, passenger, and wail the best of kings.</p> +<p>"this little stone a great king's heart doth hold,</p> +<p>"Who rul'd the fickle French and Polacks bold:</p> +<p>"So frail are even the highest earthly things,</p> +<p>"Go, passenger, and wail the hap of kings." (rev. 1776, I, +174,3)</p> +</div> +</div> +<p>I.i.65 (149,2) and just at this dead hour] The old reading is, +<i>jump at this same hour; same</i> is a kind of correlative to +<i>jump; just</i> is in the oldest folio. The correction was +probably made by the author.</p> +<p>I.i.68 (149,4) gross and scope] General thoughts, and tendency +at large. (1773)</p> +<p>I.i.93 (151,7) And carriage of the articles design'd] +<i>Carriage</i>, is <i>import; design'd</i>, is <i>formed, drawn up +between them</i>.</p> +<p>I.i.96 (151,8) Of unimproved mettle hot and full] <i>Full of +unimproved mettle</i>, is full of spirit not regulated or guided by +knowledge or experience.</p> +<p>I.i.100 (151,1) That hath a stomach in't] <i>Stomach</i>, in the +time of our author, was used for <i>constancy, resolution</i>.</p> +<p>I.i.107 (152,3) romage] Tumultous hurry. (1773)</p> +<p>I.i.108-125 (152,3) These, and all other lines confin'd within +crotchets throughout this play, are omitted in the folio edition of +1623. The omissions leave the play sometimes better and sometimes +worse, and seen made only for the sake of abbreviation.</p> +<p>I.i.109 (152,4) Well may it sort] The cause and the effect are +proportionate and suitable. (1773)</p> +<p>I.i.121 (152,7) Was even the like precurse of fierce events] Not +only such prodigies have been seen in Rome, but the elements have +shewn our countrymen like forerunners and foretokens of violent +events. (1773)</p> +<p>I.i.128 (153,1) If thou hast any sound] The speech of Horatio to +the spectre is very elegant and noble, and congruous to the common +traditions of the causes of apparitions.</p> +<p>I.i.153 (154,2)</p> +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<p>Whether in sea or fire, in earth or air,</p> +<p>The extravagant and erring spirit hies</p> +<p>To his confine]</p> +</div> +</div> +<p>According to the pneumatology of that tine, every element was +inhabited by its peculiar order of spirits, who had dispositions +different, according to their various places of abode. The meaning +therefore is, that all <i>spirits extravagant</i>, wandering out of +their element, whether aerial spirits visiting earth, or earthly +spirits ranging the air, return to their station, to their proper +limits in which they are <i>confined</i>. We might read,</p> +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<p>"—And at his warning</p> +<p>"Th' extravagant and erring spirit hies</p> +<p>"To his confine, whether in sea or air,</p> +<p>"Or earth, or fire. And of, &c.</p> +</div> +</div> +<p>But this change, tho' it would smooth the construction, is not +necessary, and being unnecessary, should not be made against +authority.</p> +<p>I.i.163 (154,5) No fairy takes] No fairy <i>strikes</i>, with +lameness or diseases. This sense of <i>take</i> is frequent in this +author.</p> +<p>I.ii.37 (156,8) more than the scope/Of these dilated articles +allows] More than is comprised in the general design of these +articles, which you may explain in a more diffuse and dilated +stile. (1773)</p> +<p>I.ii.47 (157,9)</p> +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<p>The head is not more native to the heart,</p> +<p>The hand more instrumental to the mouth,</p> +<p>Than to the throne of Denmark is thy father]</p> +</div> +</div> +<p>[W: The blood ... Than to the throne] Part of this emendation I +have received, but cannot discern why the <i>head</i> is not as +much <i>native to the heart</i>, as the <i>blood</i>, that is, +<i>natural</i> and <i>congenial</i> to it, <i>born with it</i>, and +co-operating with it. The relation is likewise by this reading +better preserved, the <i>counsellor</i> being to the <i>king</i> as +the <i>head</i> to the <i>heart</i>.</p> +<p>I.ii.62 (158,1)</p> +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<p>Take thy fair hour, Laertes; time be thine,</p> +<p>And thy best graces spend it at thy will]</p> +</div> +</div> +<p>I rather think this line is in want of emendation. I read,</p> +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<p>—<i>Time is thine</i>,</p> +<p><i>And</i> my best <i>graces; spend it at thy will</i>.</p> +</div> +</div> +<p>I.ii.65 (158,2) A little more than kin, and less than kind] +<i>Kind</i> is the Teutonick word for <i>child</i>. Hamlet +therefore answers with propriety, to the titles of <i>cousin</i> +and <i>son</i>, which the king had given him, that he was somewhat +more than <i>cousin</i>, and less than <i>son</i>.</p> +<p>I.ii.67 (159,3) too much i' the sun] He perhaps alludes to the +proverb, <i>Out of heaven's blessing into the warm sun</i>.</p> +<p>I.ii.70 (159,4) veiled lids] With lowering eyes, cast down eyes. +(1773)</p> +<p>I.ii.89 (160,5) your father lost a father;/That father lost, +lost his] I do not admire the repetition of the word, but it has so +much of our author's manner, that I find no temptation to recede +from the old copies.</p> +<p>I.ii.92 (160,6) obsequious sorrow] <i>Obsequious</i> is here +from <i>obsequies</i>, or <i>funeral ceremonies</i>.</p> +<p>I.ii.103 (161,9) To reason most absurd] Reason is here used in +its common sense, for the <i>faculty</i> by which we form +conclusions from arguments.</p> +<p>I.ii.110 (161,1) And with no less nobility of love] +[<i>Nobility</i>, for <i>magnitude</i>. WARBURTON.] <i>Nobility</i> +is rather <i>generosity</i>.</p> +<p>I.ii.112 (161,2) Do I impart toward you] I believe <i>impart</i> +is, <i>impart myself</i>, <i>communicate</i> whatever I can +bestow.</p> +<p>I.ii.125 (162,4) No jocund health] The king's intemperance is +very strongly impressed; every thing that happens to him gives him +occasion to drink.</p> +<p>I.ii.163 (164,9) I'll change that name] I'll be your servant, +you shall be my friend. (1773)</p> +<p>I.ii.164 (164,1) what make you] A familiar phrase for <i>what +are you doing</i>.</p> +<p>I.ii.167 (164,2) good Even, Sir] So the copies. Sir Th. Hanmer +and Dr. Warburton put it, <i>good morning</i>. The alteration is of +no importance, but all licence is dangerous. There is no need of +any change. Between the first and eighth scene of this act it is +apparent, that a natural day must pass, and how much of it is +already over, there is nothing that can determine. The king has +held a council. It may now as well be <i>evening</i> as +<i>morning</i>.</p> +<p>I.ii.182 (165,3) 'Would I had met my dearest foe in heaven] +<i>Dearest</i>, for <i>direst</i>, most dreadful, most +dangerous.</p> +<p>I.ii.192 (165,5) Season your admiration] That is, <i>temper</i> +it.</p> +<p>I.ii.204 (166,6) they, distill'd/Almost to jelly with the act of +fear,/Stand dumb] [W: th' effect of] Here is an affectation of +subtilty without accuracy. <i>Fear</i> is every day considered as +an <i>agent</i>. <i>Fear laid hold on him; fear drove him away</i>. +If it were proper to be rigorous in examining trifles, it might be +replied, that Shakespeare would write more erroneously, if he wrote +by the direction of this critick; they were not <i>distilled</i>, +whatever the word may mean, <i>by the effect of fear</i>; for that +<i>distillation</i> was itself the <i>effect</i>; <i>fear</i> was +the cause, the active cause, that <i>distilled</i> them by that +force of operation which we strictly call <i>act</i> involuntary, +and <i>power</i> in involuntary agents, but popularly call +<i>act</i> in both. But of this too much.</p> +<p>I.iii.15 (169,9) The virtue of his will] <i>Virtue</i> seems +here to comprise both <i>excellence</i> and <i>power</i>, and may +be explained the <i>pure effect</i>.</p> +<p>I.iii.21 (169,1) The sanity and health of the whole state] [W: +safety] HANMER reads very rightly, <i>sanity</i>. <i>Sanctity</i> +is elsewhere printed for <i>sanity</i>, in the old edition of this +play.</p> +<p>I.iii.32 (170,2) unmaster'd] i.e. <i>licentious</i>. (1773)</p> +<p>I.iii.34 (170,3) keep you in the rear of your affection] That +is, do not advance so far as your affection would lead you.</p> +<p>I.iii.49 (170,4) Whilst, like a puft and reckless libertine] [W: +Whilest he] The emendation is not amiss, but the reason for it is +very inconclusive; we use the same mode of speaking on many +occasions. When I say of one, <i>he squanders like a +spendthrift</i>, of another, <i>he robbed me like a thief</i>, the +phrase produces no ambiguity; it is understood that the one is a +<i>spendthrift</i>, and the other a <i>thief</i>.</p> +<p>I.iii.64 (172,7) But do not dull thy palm with entertainment/Of +each new-hatch'd, unfledg'd comrade] The literal sense is, <i>Do +not make thy palm callous by shaking every man by the hand</i>. The +figurative meaning may be, <i>Do not by promiscuous conversation +make thy mind insensible to the difference of characters</i>.</p> +<p>I.iii.81 (173,1) my blessing season this in thee!] +[<i>Season</i>, for <i>infuse</i>. WARBURTON.] It is more than to +<i>infuse</i>, it is to infix it in such a manner as that it never +may wear out.</p> +<p>I.iii.83 (173,3) your servants tend] i.e. your servants are +waiting for you. (1773)</p> +<p>I.iii.86 (173,4) 'Tis in my memory lock'd,/And you yourself +shall keep the key of it] That is, By thinking on you, I shall +think on your lessons.</p> +<p>I.iii.107 (174,6)</p> +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<p>Tender yourself mere dearly;</p> +<p>Or (not to crack the wind of the poor phrase)</p> +<p>Wronging it thus, you'll tender me a fool]</p> +</div> +</div> +<p>I believe the word <i>wronging</i> has reference, not to the +phrase, but to Ophelia; if you go on <i>wronging it thus</i>, that +is, <i>if you continue to go on thus wrong</i>. This is a mode of +speaking perhaps not very grammatical, but very common, nor have +the best writers refused it.</p> +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<p><i>To sinner it or saint it</i>,</p> +</div> +</div> +<p>is in Pope. And Rowe,</p> +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<p>—<i>Thus to</i> coy it,</p> +<p><i>To one who knows you too.</i></p> +</div> +</div> +<p>The folio has it,</p> +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<p>—<i>roaming it thus</i>,—</p> +</div> +</div> +<p>That is, <i>letting yourself loose to such improper liberty</i>. +But <i>wronging</i> seems to be more proper.</p> +<p>I.iii.112 (175,7) fashion you may call it] She uses +<i>fashion</i> for <i>manner</i>, and he for a <i>transient +practice</i>.</p> +<p>I.iii.122 (175,8) Set your intreatments] <i>Intreatments</i> +here means <i>company, conversation</i>, from the French +<i>entrétien</i>.</p> +<p>I.iii.125 (175,9) larger tether] <i>Tether</i> is that string by +which an animal, set to graze in grounds uninclosed, is confined +within the proper limits. (1773)</p> +<p>I.iii.132 (176,2) I would not, in plain terms, from this time +forth,/ Have you so slander any moment's leisure] [The humour of +this is fine. WARBURTON.] Here is another <i>fine</i> passage, of +which I take the beauty to be only imaginary. Polonius says, <i>in +plain terms</i>, that is, not in language less elevated or +embellished than before, but <i>in terms that cannot be +misunderstood</i>: <i>I would not have you so disgrace your most +idle moments, as not to find better employment for them than lord +Hamlet's conversation</i>.</p> +<p>I.iv.9 (177,3) the swaggering up-spring] The blustering +upstart.</p> +<p>I.iv.17 (177,4) This heavy-headed revel, east and west] I should +not have suspected this passage of ambiguity or obscurity, had I +not found my opinion of it differing from that of the learned +critic [Warburton]. I construe it thus, <i>This heavy-headed revel +makes us traduced east and west, and taxed of other +nations</i>.</p> +<p>I.iv.22 (178,5) The pith and marrow of our attribute] The best +and most valuable part of the praise that would be otherwise +attributed to us.</p> +<p>I.iv.32 (178,7) fortune's scar] In the old quarto of 1637, it +is</p> +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<p>—<i>fortune's</i> star:</p> +</div> +</div> +<p>But I think <i>scar</i> is proper.</p> +<p>I.iv.34 (178,8) As infinite as man may undergo] As large as can +be accumulated upon man.</p> +<p>I.iv.39-57 (179,2) Angels and ministers of grace defend us!] +Hamlet's speech to the apparition of his father seems to me to +consist of three parts. When first he sees the spectre, he +fortifies himself with an invocation.</p> +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<p><i>Angel and ministers of grace defend us!</i></p> +</div> +</div> +<p>As the spectre approaches, he deliberates with himself, and +determines, that whatever it be he will venture to address it.</p> +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<p><i>Be thou a spirit of health, or goblin damn'd,</i></p> +<p><i>Bring with thee airs from heaven, or blasts from +hell,</i></p> +<p><i>Be thy intents wicked or charitable,</i></p> +<p><i>Thou com'st in such a questionable shape,</i></p> +<p><i>That I will speak to thee. I'll call thee</i>, &c.</p> +</div> +</div> +<p>This he says while his father is advancing; he then, as he had +determined, <i>speaks to him</i>, and <i>calls him—Hamlet, +King, Father, Royal Dane: oh! answer me</i>. (1773)</p> +<p>I.iv.43 (180,4) questionable shape] [By <i>questionable</i> is +meant provoking question. HANMER.] So in <i>Macbeth</i>,</p> +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<p><i>Live you, or are you aught</i></p> +<p><i>That man may</i> question?</p> +</div> +</div> +<p>I.iv.46 (180,5) tell,/Why thy canoniz'd bones, hearsed in +death,/ Have burst their cearments?] [W: in earth] It were too long +to examine this note period by period, though almost every period +seems to me to contain something reprehensible. The critic, in his +zeal for change, writes with so little consideration, as to say, +that Hamlet cannot call his father <i>canonized</i>, because <i>we +are told he was murdered with all his sins fresh upon him</i>. He +was not then told it, and had so little the power of knowing it, +that he was to be told it by an apparition. The long succession of +reasons upon reasons prove nothing, but what every reader +discovers, that the king had been buried, which is implied by so +many adjuncts of burial, that the direct mention of <i>earth</i> is +not necessary. Hamlet, amazed at an apparition, which, though in +all ages credited, has in all ages been considered as the most +wonderful and most dreadful operation of supernatural agency, +enquires of the spectre, in the most emphatic terms, why he breaks +the order of nature, by returning from the dead; this he asks in a +very confused circumlocution, confounding in his fright the soul +and body. Why, says he, have <i>thy bones</i>, which with due +ceremonies have been intombed <i>in death</i>, in the common state +of departed mortals, <i>burst</i> the folds in which they were +embalmed? Why has the tomb, in which we saw thee quietly laid, +opened his mouth, that mouth which, by its weight and stability, +seemed closed for ever? The whole sentence is this: <i>Why dost +thou appear, whom we know to be dead?</i></p> +<p>Had the change of the word removed any obscurity, or added any +beauty, it might have been worth a struggle; but either reading +leaves the sense the same.</p> +<p>If there be any asperity in this controversial note, it must be +imputed to the contagion of peevishneas, or some resentment of the +incivility shewn to the Oxford editor, who is represented as +supposing the ground <i>canonized</i> by a funeral, when he only +meant to say, that the <i>body</i> has deposited in <i>holy +ground</i>, in ground consecrated according to the +<i>canon</i>.</p> +<p>I.iv.65 (183,9) I do not set my life at a pin's fee] The value +of a pin. (1773)</p> +<p>I.iv.73 (183,1) deprive your sovereignty] I believe +<i>deprive</i> in this place signifies simply to <i>take +away</i>.</p> +<p>I.iv.77 (184,4) confin'd to fast in fires] I am rather inclined +to read, <i>confin'd to</i> lasting <i>fires</i>, to fires +<i>unremitted</i> and <i>unconsumed</i>. The change is slight.</p> +<p>I.v.30 (186,7) As meditation or the thoughts of love] The +comment [Warburton's] on the word <i>meditation</i> is so +ingenious, that I hope it is just.</p> +<p>I.v.77 (188,6) Unhonsel'd, disappointed, unaneal'd] This is a +very difficult line. I think Theobald's objection to the sense of +<i>unaneal'd</i>, for <i>notified by the bell</i>, must be owned to +be very strong. I have not yet by my enquiry satisfied myself. +Hanmer's explication of <i>unaneal'd</i> by <i>unprepar'd</i>, +because to <i>anneal</i> metals, is to <i>prepare</i> them in +manufacture, is too general and vague; there is no resemblance +between any funeral ceremony and the practice of <i>annealing</i> +metals.</p> +<p><i>Disappointed</i> is the same as <i>unappointed</i>, and may +be properly explained <i>unprepared</i>; a man well furnished with +things necessary for any enterprize, was said to be well +<i>appointed</i>.</p> +<p>I.v.80 (190,7) Oh, horrible! oh, horrible! most horrible!] It +was ingeniously hinted to me by a very learned lady, that this line +seems to belong to Hamlet, in whose mouth it is a proper and +natural exclamation; and who, according to the practice of the +stage, may be supposed to interrupt so long a speech. (1773)</p> +<p>I.v.154 (193,5) Swear by my sword] [Here the poet has preserved +the manners of the ancient Danes, with whom it was <i>religion</i> +to swear upon their swords. WARBURTON.] I was once inclinable to +this opinion, which is likewise well defended by Mr. Upton; but Mr. +Garrick produced me a passage, I think, in <i>Brantoms</i>, from +which it appeared, that it was common to swear upon the sword, that +is, upon the cross which the old swords always had upon the +hilt.</p> +<p>II.i.25 (197,8) drinking, fencing, swearing] I suppose, by +<i>fencing</i> is meant a too diligent frequentation of the +fencing-school, a resort of violent and lawless young men.</p> +<p>II.i.46 (197,4) <i>Good Sir</i>, or so, or <i>friend</i>, or +<i>gentleman</i>] [W: sire] I know not that <i>sire</i> was ever a +general word of compliment, as distinct from <i>sir</i>; nor do I +conceive why any alteration should be made. It is a common mode of +colloquial language to use, <i>or so</i>, as a slight intimation of +more of the same, or a like kind, that might be mentioned. We might +read, but we need not,</p> +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<p><i>Good sir</i>, forsooth, <i>or friend, or gentleman</i>.</p> +</div> +</div> +<p><i>Forsooth</i>, a term of which I do not well know the original +meaning, was used to men as well as to women.</p> +<p>II.i.71 (198,5) Observe his inclination in yourself] HANMER +reads, <i>e'en</i> yourself, and is followed by Dr. Warburton; but +perhaps <i>in</i> yourself means, <i>in your own person</i>, not by +spies.</p> +<p>II.i.112 (200,7) I had not quoted him] To <i>quote</i> is, I +believe, to <i>reckon</i>, to take an account of, to take the +<i>quotient</i> or result of a computation.</p> +<p>II.i.114 (201,8)</p> +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<p class="i10">it as proper to our age</p> +<p>To cast beyond ourselves in our opinions,</p> +<p>As it is common for the younger sort</p> +<p>To lack discretion]</p> +</div> +</div> +<p>This is not the remark of a weak man. The vice of age is too +much suspicion. Men long accustomed to the wiles of life +<i>cast</i> commonly <i>beyond themselves</i>, let their cunning go +further than reason can attend it. This is always the fault of a +little mind, made artful by long commerce with the world.</p> +<p>II.ii.24 (202,2)</p> +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<p>For the supply and profit of our hope,</p> +<p>Your visitation shall receive such thanks]</p> +</div> +</div> +<p>That the hope which your arrival has raised may be completed by +the desired effect.</p> +<p>II.ii.47 (203,4) the trail of policy] The <i>trail</i> is the +<i>course of an animal pursued by the scent</i>.</p> +<p>Il.ii.52 (203,5) My news shall be the fruit of that great feast] +The <i>desert</i> after the meat.</p> +<p>II.ii.84 (204,7) at night we'll feast] The king's intemperance +is never suffered to be forgotten.</p> +<p>II.ii.86-167 (205,8) My liege, and Madam, to expostulate] This +account of the character of Polonius, though it sufficiently +reconciles the seeming inconsistency of so much wisdom with so much +folly, does not perhaps correspond exactly to the ideas of our +author. The commentator Warburton makes the character of Polonius, +a character only of manners, discriminated by properties +superficial, accidental, and acquired. The poet intended a nobler +delineation of a mixed character of manners and of nature. Polonius +is a man bred in courts, exercised in business, stored with +observations, confident of his knowledge, proud of his eloquence, +and declining into dotage. His mode of oratory is truly represented +as designed to ridicule the practice of those times, of prefaces +that made no introduction, and of method that embarrassed rather +than explained. This part of his character is accidental, the rest +is natural. Such a man is positive and confident, because he knows +that his mind was once strong, and knows not that it is become +weak. Such a man excels in general principles, but fails in the +particular application. He is knowing in retrospect, and ignorant +in foresight. While he depends upon his memory, and can draw from +his repositories of knowledge, he utters weighty sentences, and +gives useful counsel; but as the mind in its enfeebled state cannot +be kept long busy and intent, the old man is subject to sudden +dereliction of his faculties, he loses the order of his ideas, and +entangles himself in his own thoughts, till he recovers the leading +principle, and falls again into his former train. This idea of +dotage encroaching upon wisdom, will solve all the phaenomena of +the character of Polonius.</p> +<p>II.ii.109 (207,1) <i>To the celestial, and my soul's idol, the +most beautified Ophelia</i>] [T: beatified] Both Sir Thomas Hanmer +and Dr. Warburton have followed Theobald, but I am in doubt whether +<i>beautified</i>, though, as Polonius calls it, a <i>vile +phrase</i>, be not the proper word. <i>Beautified</i> seems to be a +<i>vile phrase</i>, for the ambiguity of its meaning, (rev. 1778, +X, 241, 3)</p> +<p>II.ii.126 (208,2) more above] is, <i>moreover, besides</i>.</p> +<p>II.ii.145 (209,6) she took the fruits of my advice] She took the +<i>fruits</i> of advice when she obeyed advice, the advice was then +made <i>fruitful</i>.</p> +<p>II.ii.181 (211,9) For if the sun breed maggots in a dead +dog,/Being a god, kissing carrion] [This is Warburton's emendation +for "a good kissing"] This is a noble emendation, which almost sets +the critic on a level with the author.</p> +<p>II.ii.265 (214,2) the shadow of a dream] Shakespeare has +accidentally inverted an expression of Pindar, that the state of +humanity is the <i>dream</i> of a <i>shadow</i>.</p> +<p>II.ii.269 (215,3) Then are our beggars, bodies] Shakespeare +seems here to design a ridicule of these declamations against +wealth and greatness, that seem to make happiness consist in +poverty.</p> +<p>II.ii.336 (217,7) shall end his part in peace] [After these +words the folio adds, <i>the clown shall make those laugh whose +lungs are tickled o' th' sere</i>. WARBURTON.] This passage I have +omitted, for the same reason, I suppose, as the other editors: I do +not understand it.</p> +<p>II.ii.338 (217,8) the lady shall say her mind freely, or the +blank verse shall halt for't] <i>The lady shall have no +obstruction, unless from the lameness of the verse.</i></p> +<p>II.ii.346 (217,9) I think, their inhibition comes by the means +of the late innovation] I fancy this is transposed: Hamlet enquires +not about an <i>inhibition</i>, but an <i>innovation</i>; the +answer therefore probably was, <i>I think, their</i> innovation, +<i>that is</i>, their new practice of strolling, <i>comes by the +means of the late</i> inhibition.</p> +<p>II.ii.352-379 (218,1) <i>Ham.</i> How comes it? do they grow +rusty?] The lines marked with commas are in the folio of 1623, but +not in the quarto of 1637, nor, I suppose, in any of the +quartos.</p> +<p>II.ii.355 (218,2) cry out on the top of question] The meaning +seems to be, they ask a common question in the highest notes of the +voice.</p> +<p>II.ii.362 (218,3) escoted] Paid.</p> +<p>II.ii.362 (218,4) Will they pursue quality no longer than they +can <i>sing</i>?] Will they follow the <i>profession</i> of players +no longer than they keep the voices of boys? So afterwards he says +to the player, <i>Come, give us a taste of your</i> quality; come, +<i>a passionate speech</i>.</p> +<p>II.ii.370 (219,6) to tarre them on to controversy] To provoke +any animal to rage, is <i>to tarre him</i>. The word is said to +come from the Greek. (1773)</p> +<p>II.ii.380 (219,8) It is not very strange, for mine uncle is king +of Denmark] I do not wonder that the new players have so suddenly +risen to reputation, my uncle supplies another example of the +facility with which honour is conferred upon new claimants.</p> +<p>II.ii.412 (220,2) Buz, buz!] Mere idle talk, the <i>buz</i> of +the vulgar.</p> +<p>II.ii.414 (220,3) <i>Then came each actor on his ass</i>] This +seems to be a line of a ballad.</p> +<p>II.ii.420 (221,6) For the law of writ, and the liberty, these +are the only men] All the modern editions have, <i>the law of</i> +wit, <i>and the liberty</i>; but both my old copies have, <i>the +law of</i> writ, I believe rightly. <i>Writ</i>, for <i>writing, +composition</i>. <i>Wit</i> was not, in our author's time, taken +either for <i>imagination</i>, or <i>acuteness</i>, or <i>both +together</i>, but for <i>understanding</i>, for the faculty by +which we <i>apprehend</i> and <i>judge</i>. Those who wrote of the +human mind distinguished its primary powers into <i>wit</i> and +<i>will</i>. Ascham distinguishes <i>boys</i> of tardy and of +active faculties into <i>quick wits</i> and <i>slow wits</i>.</p> +<p>II.ii.438 (221,8) the first row of the pious chanson] [It is +<i>pons chansons</i> in the first folio edition. POPE.] It is +<i>pons chansons</i> in the quarto too. I know not whence the +<i>rubric</i> has been brought, yet it has not the appearance of an +arbitrary addition. The titles of old ballads were never printed +red; but perhaps <i>rubric</i> may stand for <i>marginal +explanation</i>.</p> +<p>II.ii.439 (222,9) For, look, where my abridgment comes] He calls +the players afterwards, <i>the brief chronicles of the time</i>; +but I think he now means only <i>those who will shorten my +talk</i>.</p> +<p>II.ii.448 (223,2) be not crack'd within the ring] That is, +<i>crack'd too much for use</i>. This is said to a young player who +acted the parts of women.</p> +<p>II.ii.450 (223,3) like French faulconers] HANMER, who has much +illustrated the allusions to falconry, reads, <i>like</i> French +<i>falconers. [French falconers</i> is not a correction by Hanmer, +but the reading of the first folio. STEEVENS.] (see 1765, VIII, +198, 1)</p> +<p>II.ii.459 (223,5) (as I received it, and others whose judgment +in such matters cried in the top of mine)] [i.e. whose judgment I +had the highest opinion of. WARBURTON.] I think it means only that +<i>were higher than mine</i>.</p> +<p>II.ii.466 (224,8) but called it, an honest method] Hamlet is +telling how much his judgment differed from that of others. <i>One +said, there was no salt in the lines</i>, &c. <i>but call'd it +an honest method</i>. The author probably gave it, <i>But I called +it an honest method</i>, &c.</p> +<p>II.ii.525 (226,9) <i>the mobled queen</i>] Mobled signifies +<i>huddled, grossly covered</i>.</p> +<p>II.ii.587 (228,5) the cue for passion] The <i>hint</i>, the +<i>direction</i>.</p> +<p>II.ii.589 (228,6) the general ear] The ears of all mankind. So +before, <i>Caviare to the</i> general, that is, to the +<i>multitude</i>.</p> +<p>II.ii.595 (229,7) unpregnant of my cause] [<i>Unpregnant</i>, +for <i>having no due sense of</i>. WARBURTON.] Rather, <i>not +quickened with a new desire of vengeance; not teeming with +revenge</i>.</p> +<p>II.ii.598 (229,8) A damn'd defeat was made] [<i>Defeat</i>, for +<i>destruction</i>. WARBURTON.] Rather, <i>dispossession</i>.</p> +<p>II.ii.608 (229,1) kindless] <i>Unnatural</i>.</p> +<p>II.ii.616 (229,3) About, my brain!] <i>Wits, to your work</i>. +<i>Brain</i>, go <i>about</i> the present business.</p> +<p>II.ii.625 (230,5) tent him] Search his wounds.</p> +<p>II.ii.632 (230,7) More relative than this] [<i>Relative</i>, for +<i>convictive</i>. WARB.] <i>Convictive</i> is only the +consequential sense. <i>Relative</i> is, <i>nearly related, closely +connected</i>.</p> +<p>III.i.17 (231,2) o'er-raught on the way] <i>Over-raught</i> is +<i>over-reached</i>, that is, <i>over-took</i>.</p> +<p>III.i.31 (232,4) Affront Ophelia.] To <i>affront</i>, is only +<i>to meet directly</i>.</p> +<p>III.i.47 (233,5) 'Tis too much prov'd] It is found by too +frequent experience.</p> +<p>III.i.52 (233,6) more ugly to the thing that helps it] That is, +<i>compared with</i> the thing that helps it.</p> +<p>III.i.56-88 (233,7) To be, or not to be?] Of this celebrated +soliloquy, which bursting from a man distracted with contrariety of +desires, and overwhelmed with the magnitude of his own purposes, is +connected rather in the speaker's mind, than on his tongue, I shall +endeavour to discover the train, and to shew how one sentiment +produces another. Hamlet, knowing himself injured in the most +enormous and atrocious degree, and seeing no means of redress, but +such as must expose him to the extremity of hazard, meditates on +his situation in this manner: <i>Before I can form any rational +scheme of action under this pressure of distress</i>, it is +necessary to decide, whether, <i>after our present state, we +are</i> to be or not to be. That is the question, which, as it +shall be answered, will determine, <i>whether 'tis nobler</i>, and +more suitable to the dignity of reason, <i>to suffer the outrages +of fortune</i> patiently, or to take arms against <i>them</i>, and +by opposing end them, <i>though perhaps</i> with the loss of life. +If <i>to die</i>, were <i>to sleep</i>, no more, <i>and by a sleep +to end</i> the miseries of our nature, such a sleep were +<i>devoutly to be wished</i>; but if <i>to sleep</i> in death, be +<i>to dream</i>, to retain our powers of sensibility, we must +<i>pause</i> to consider, <i>in that sleep of death what dreams may +come</i>. This consideration <i>makes calamity</i> so long endured; +for <i>who would bear</i> the vexations of life, which might be +ended <i>by a bare bodkin</i>, but that he is afraid of something +in unknown futurity? This fear it is that gives efficacy to +conscience, which, by turning the mind upon <i>this regard</i>, +chills the ardour of <i>resolution</i>, checks the vigour of +<i>enterprize</i>, and makes the <i>current</i> of desire stagnate +in inactivity. We may suppose that he would have applied these +general observations to his own case, but that he discovered +Ophelia.</p> +<p>III.i.59 (234,8) Or to take arms against a sea of troubles] [W: +against assail] Mr. Pope proposed <i>siege</i>. I know not why +there should be so much solicitude about this metaphor. Shakespeare +breaks his metaphors often, and in this desultory speech there was +less need of preserving them.</p> +<p>III.i.70 (235,2) the whips and scorns of time] [W: of th' time] +I doubt whether the corruption of this passage is not more than the +editor has suspected. <i>Whips</i> and <i>scorns</i> have no great +connexion with one another, or with <i>time: whips</i> and +<i>scorns</i> are evils of very different magnitude, and though at +all <i>times scorn</i> may be endured, yet the <i>times</i> that +put men ordinarily in danger of <i>whips</i>, are rery rare. +Falstaff has said, that the <i>courtiers would</i> whip <i>him with +their quick wits</i>; but I know not that <i>whip</i> can be used +for a <i>scoff</i> or <i>insult</i>, unless its meaning be fixed by +the whole expression.</p> +<p>I am afraid lest I should venture too far in correcting this +passage. If <i>whips</i> be retained, we may read,</p> +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<p><i>For who would bear the whips and scorns of</i> tyrant.</p> +</div> +</div> +<p>But I think that <i>quip</i>, a <i>sneer</i>, a <i>sarcasm</i>, +a <i>contemptuous</i> jest, is the proper word, as suiting very +exactly with <i>scorn</i>. What then must be done with <i>time</i>? +it suits no better with the new reading than with the old, and +<i>tyrant</i> is an image too bulky and serious. I read, but not +confidently,</p> +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<p><i>For who would bear the</i> quips <i>and scorns of</i> +title.</p> +</div> +</div> +<p>It say be remarked, that Hamlet, in his enumeration of miseries, +forgets, whether properly or not, that he is a prince, and mentions +many evils to which inferior stations only are exposed.</p> +<p>III.i.77 (236,4) To groan and sweat] All the old copies have, +<i>to</i> grunt <i>and sweat</i>. It is undoubtedly the true +reading, but can scarcely be borne by modern ears.</p> +<p>III.i.89 (237,5) Nymph, in thy orisons] This is a touch of +nature. Hamlet, at the sight of Ophelia, does not immediately +recollect, that he is to personate madness, but makes her an +address grave and solemn, such as the foregoing meditation excited +in his thoughts.</p> +<p>III.i.107 (237,6) That if you be honest and fair, you should +admit no discourse to your beauty] This is the reading of all the +modern editions, and is copied from the quarto. The folio reads, +your honesty <i>should admit no discourse to your beauty</i>. The +true reading seems to be this, <i>If you be honest and fair, you +should admit</i> your honesty <i>to no discourse with your +beauty</i>. This is the sense evidently required by the process of +the conversation.</p> +<p>III.i.127 (238,7) I have thoughts to put them in] <i>To put a +thing into thought</i>, is <i>to think on it</i>.</p> +<p>III.i.148 (239,8) I have heard of your paintings too, well +enough] This is according to the quarto; the folio, for +<i>painting</i>, has <i>prattlings</i>, and for <i>face</i>, has +<i>pace</i>, which agrees with what follows, <i>you jig, you +amble</i>. Probably the author wrote both. I think the common +reading best.</p> +<p>III.i.152 (239,9) make your wantonness your ignorance] You +mistake by <i>wanton</i> affectation, and pretend to mistake by +<i>ignorance</i>.</p> +<p>III.i.161 (239,2) the mould of form] The model by whom all +endeavoured to form themselves.</p> +<p>III.ii.12 (241,3) the groundlings] The meaner people then seem +to have sat below, as they now sit in the upper gallery, who, not +well understanding poetical language, were sometimes gratified by a +mimical and mute representation of the drama, previous to the +dialogue.</p> +<p>III.ii.14 (242,4) inexplicable dumb shews] I believe the meaning +is, <i>shews, without words to explain them</i>.</p> +<p>III.ii.26 (242,6) the very age and body of the time, his form +and pressure] The <i>age</i> of the <i>time</i> can hardly pass. +May we not read, the <i>face</i> and <i>body</i>, or did the author +write, the <i>page</i>? The <i>page</i> suits well with <i>form</i> +and <i>pressure</i>, but ill with <i>body</i>.</p> +<p>III.ii.28 (242,7) pressure] Resemblance, as in a +<i>print</i>.</p> +<p>III.ii.34 (242,8) (not to speak it profanely)] <i>Profanely</i> +seems to relate, not to the praise which he has mentioned, but to +the censure which he is about to utter. Any gross or indelicate +language was called <i>profane</i>.</p> +<p>III.ii.66 (243,9) the pregnant hinges of the knee] I believe the +sense of <i>pregnant</i> in this place is, <i>quick, ready, +prompt</i>.</p> +<p>III.ii.68 (244,1) my dear soul] Perhaps, my <i>clear</i> +soul.</p> +<p>III.ii.74 (244,2) Whose blood and judgment] According to the +doctrine of the four humours, <i>desire</i> and <i>confidence</i> +were seated in the blood, and <i>judgment</i> in the phlegm, and +the due mixture of the humours made a perfect character.</p> +<p>III.ii.89 (244,3) Vulcan's stithy] <i>Stithy</i> is a smith's +<i>anvil</i>.</p> +<p>III.ii.103 (245,4) nor mine now] A man's words, says the +proverb, are his own no longer than he keep them unspoken.</p> +<p>III.ii.112 (245,5) they stay upon your patience] May it not be +read more intelligibly, <i>They stay upon your</i> pleasure. In +<i>Macbeth</i> it is, "Noble Macbeth, we stay upon your +<i>leisure</i>."</p> +<p>III.ii.123 (245,6) Do you think I meant country matters?] I +think we must read, <i>Do you think I meant country</i> manners? Do +you imagine that I meant to sit in your lap, with such rough +gallantry as clowns use to their lasses?</p> +<p>III.ii.137 (246,7) Nay, then, let the devil wear black, for I'll +have a suit of sables] I know not why our editors should, with such +implacable anger, persecute our predecessors. The dead, it is true, +can make no resistance, they may be attacked with great security; +but since they can neither feel nor mend, the safety of mauling +them seems greater than the pleasure; nor perhaps would it much +misbeseem us to remember, amidst our triumphs over the +<i>nonsensical</i> and the <i>senseless</i>, that we likewise are +men; that <i>debemur morti</i>, and, as Swift observed to Burnet, +shall soon be among the dead ourselves.</p> +<p>I cannot find how the common reading is nonsense, nor why +Hamlet, when he laid aside his dress of mourning, in a country +where it was <i>bitter cold</i>, and the air was <i>nipping and +eager</i>, should not have a <i>suit of sables</i>. I suppose it is +well enough known, that the fur of sables is not black.</p> +<p>III.ii.147 (249,1) Marry, this is miching maliche; it means +mischief] [W: malhechor] I think Hanmer's exposition most likely to +be right. Dr. Warburton, to justify his interpretation, must write, +<i>miching</i> for <i>malechor</i>, and even then it will be +harsh.</p> +<p>III.ii.167 (250,3) sheen] Splendor, lustre.</p> +<p>III.ii.177 (250,4) For women fear too much, even as they love] +Here seems to be a line lost, which should have rhymed to +<i>love</i>.</p> +<p>III.ii.192 (251,6) The instances, that second marriage move] The +<i>motives</i>.</p> +<p>III.ii.202 (252,7)</p> +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<p>Most necessary 'tis, that we forget</p> +<p>To pay ourselves what to ourselves is debt]</p> +</div> +</div> +<p>The performance of a resolution, in which only the +<i>resolver</i> is interested, is a debt only to himself, which he +may therefore remit at pleasure.</p> +<p>III.ii.206 (252,8)</p> +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<p>The violence of either grief or joy,</p> +<p>Their own enactures with themselves destroy]</p> +</div> +</div> +<p>What grief or joy <i>enact</i> or determine in their violence, +is revealed in their abatement. <i>Enactures</i> is the word in the +quarto; all the modern editions have <i>enactors</i>.</p> +<p>III.ii.229 (252,9) An anchor's cheer in prison be my scope] May +my whole liberty and enjoyment be to live on hermit's fare in a +prison. <i>Anchor</i> is for <i>anchoret</i>.</p> +<p>III.ii.250 (253,1) Baptista] <i>Baptista</i> is, I think, in +Italian, the name always of a man.</p> +<p>III.ii.262 (254,4) So you must take your husbands] Read, <i>So +you</i> must take <i>your husbands</i> [in place of "mistake"]; +that is, <i>for better, for worse</i>.</p> +<p>III.ii.288 (255,5) with two provencial roses on my rayed shoes] +When shoe-strings were worn, they were covered, where they met in +the middle, by a ribband, gathered into the form of a rose. So in +an old song,</p> +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<p>Gil-de-Roy <i>was a bonny boy</i>,</p> +<p><i>Had</i> roses <i>tull his</i> shoen.</p> +</div> +</div> +<p><i>Rayed</i> shoes, are shoes <i>braided</i> in lines.</p> +<p>III.ii.304 (256,1) For if the king like not the comedy/Why, +then, belike] Hamlet was going on to draw the consequence when the +courtiers entered.</p> +<p>III.ii.314 (256,2) With drink, Sir?] Hamlet takes particular +care that his uncle's love of drink shall not be forgotten.</p> +<p>III.ii.346 (257,3) further trade] Further business; further +dealing.</p> +<p>III.ii.348 (257,4) by these pickers] By these hands.</p> +<p>III.ii.373 (258,6) ventages] The holes of a flute.</p> +<p>III.ii.401 (259,9) they fool me to the top of my bent] They +compel me to play the fool, till I can endure to do it no +longer.</p> +<p>III.iii.7 (261,4) Out of his lunes] [The old quartos read,</p> +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<p><i>Out of his</i> brows.</p> +</div> +</div> +<p>This was from the ignorance of the first editors; as is this +unnecessary Alexandrine, which we owe to the players. The poet, I +am persuaded, wrote,</p> +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<p>—<i>us doth hourly grow</i></p> +<p><i>out of his</i> lunes.</p> +</div> +</div> +<p>i.e. his <i>madness, frenzy</i>. THEOBALD.]</p> +<p><i>Lunacies</i> is the reading of the folio.</p> +<p>I take <i>brows</i> to be, properly read, <i>frows</i>, which, I +think, is a provincial word for <i>perverse humours</i>; which +being, I suppose, not understood, was changed to <i>lunacies</i>. +But of this I an not confident. [Steevens adopted Theobald's +emendation]</p> +<p>III.iii.33 (262,7) of vantage] By some opportunity of secret +observation.</p> +<p>III.iii.56 (263,9) May one be pardon'd, and retain the offence?] +He that does not amend what can be amended, <i>retains</i> his +<i>offence</i>. The king kept the crown from the right heir.</p> +<p>III.iii.66 (263,1) Yet what can it, when one cannot repent?] +What can repentance <i>do for a man that cannot be penitent</i>, +for a man who has only part of penitence, distress of conscience, +without the other part, resolution of amendment.</p> +<p>III.iii.77 (264,1) I, his sole son, do this same villain send] +The folio reads foule son, a reading apparently corrupted from the +quarto. The meaning is plain. <i>I, his</i> only <i>son</i>, who am +bound to punish his murderer.</p> +<p>III.iii.88 (264,2) Up, sword, and know thou a more horrid hent] +[T: bent] This reading is followed by Sir T. HANMER and Dr. +WARBURTON; but <i>hent</i> is probably the right vord. To +<i>hent</i> is used by Shakespeare for, to <i>seize</i>, to +<i>catch</i>, to <i>lay hold on</i>. <i>Hent</i> is, therefore, +<i>hold</i>, or <i>seizure</i>. <i>Lay hold</i> on him, sword, at a +more horrid time.</p> +<p>III.iii.94 (265,3) his soul may be as damn'd and black/As hell, +whereto it goes] This speech, in which Hamlet, represented as a +virtuous character, is not content vith taking blood for blood, but +contrives damnation for the man that he would punish, is too +horrible to be read or to be uttered.</p> +<p>III.iv.4 (266,4) I'll silence me e'en here:/Pray you, be round +vith him] Sir T. HANMER, who is folloved by Dr. WARBURTON, +reads,</p> +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<p>—<i>I'll</i> sconce <i>me here</i>.</p> +</div> +</div> +<p><i>Retire</i> to a place of <i>security</i>. They forget that +the contrivance of Polonius to overhear the conference, was no more +told to the queen than to Hamlet.—<i>I'll silence me even +here</i>, is, <i>I'll use no more words</i>.</p> +<p>III.iv.48 (268,8)</p> +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<p>Heaven's face doth glow;</p> +<p>Yea, this solidity and compound mass,</p> +<p>With tristful visage, as against the doom,</p> +<p>It thought-sick at the act]</p> +</div> +</div> +<p>[W: O'er this ... visage, and, as 'gainst] The word +<i>heated</i> [from the "old quarto"], though it agrees well enough +with <i>glow</i>, is, I think, not so striking as <i>tristful</i>, +which was, I suppose, chosen at the revisal. I believe the whole +passage now stands as the author gave it. Dr. WARBURTON's reading +restores two improprieties, which Shakespeare, by his alteration, +had removed. In the first, and in the new reading: <i>Heaven's</i> +face <i>glows with tristful</i> visage; and, <i>Heaven's face +is</i> thought-sick. To the common reading there is no just +objection.</p> +<p>III.iv.52 (268,9) what act,/That roars so loud, and thunders in +the index?] The meaning is, <i>What is</i> this act, of which the +<i>discovery</i>, or <i>mention</i>, cannot be made, but with this +violence of clamour?</p> +<p>III.iv.82 (270,5) Rebellious hell,/If thou canst mutiny in a +matron's bones] I think the present reading right, but cannot admit +that HANMER's emendation ["Rebellious heat"] produces nonsense. May +not what is said of <i>heat</i>, be said of <i>hell</i>, that it +will mutiny wherever it is quartered? Though the emendation be +elegant, it is not necessary. (1773)</p> +<p>III.iv.88 (271,6) reason panders will] So the folio, I think +rightly; but the reading of the quarto is defensible;</p> +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<p>—<i>reason</i> pardons <i>will</i>.</p> +</div> +</div> +<p>III.iv.90 (271,7) grained] Dyed in grain.</p> +<p>III.iv.92 (271,8) incestuous bed] The folio has <i>enseamed</i>, +that is, <i>greasy</i> bed.</p> +<p>III.iv.98 (271,9) vice of kings!] a low mimick of kings. The +vice is the fool of a farce; from whom the modern <i>punch</i> is +descended.</p> +<p>III.iv.102 (272,2) A king of shreds and patches] This is said, +pursuing the idea of the <i>vice of kings</i>. The <i>vice</i> was +dressed as a fool, in a coat of party-coloured patches.</p> +<p>III.iv.107 (272,3) lap's in time and passion] That, having +suffered <i>time</i> to <i>slip</i>, and <i>passion</i> to <i>cool, +lets go</i>, &c.</p> +<p>III.iv.151 (274,6) And do not spread the compost on the weeds/To +make them ranker] Do not, by any new indulgence, heighten your +former offences.</p> +<p>III.iv.155 (274,7) curb] That is, <i>bend</i> and +<i>truckle</i>. Fr. <i>courber</i>.</p> +<p>III.iv.161 (274,8) That monster custom, who all sense doth eat/ +Of habits evil, is angel yet in this] [Thirlby: habits evil] I +think THIRLBY's conjecture wrong, though the succeeding editors +have followed it; <i>angel</i> and <i>devil</i> are evidently +opposed. [Steevens accepted "evil"]</p> +<p>III.iv.203 (277,5) adders fang'd] That is, adders with their +<i>fangs</i>, or <i>poisonous teeth</i>, undrawn. It has been the +practice of mountebanks to boast the efficacy of their antidotes by +playing with vipers, but they first disabled their fangs.</p> +<p>IV.i (278,l) <i>A royal apartment. Enter King, Queen, +Rosencrantz, and Guildenstern</i>] This play is printed in the old +editions without any separation of the acts. The division is modern +and arbitrary; and is here not very happy, for the pause is made at +a time when there is more continuity of action than in almost any +other of the scenes.</p> +<p>IV.i.18 (278,2) out of haunt] I would rather read, <i>out of</i> +harm.</p> +<p>IV.i.25 (279,3)</p> +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<p>his very madness, like some ore</p> +<p>among a mineral of metals base,</p> +<p>Shews itself pure]</p> +</div> +</div> +<p>Shakespeare seems to think <i>ore</i> to be <i>or</i>, that is, +gold. Base metals have <i>ore</i> no less than precious.</p> +<p>IV.ii.19 (281,5) he keeps them, like an ape, in the corner of +his jaw] The quarto has <i>apple</i>, which is generally followed. +The folio has <i>ape</i>, which HANMER has received, and +illustrated with the following note.</p> +<p>"It is the way of monkeys in eating, to throw that part of their +food, which they take up first, into a pouch they are provided with +on the side of their jaw, and then they keep it, till they have +done with the rest."</p> +<p>IV.ii.28 (281,6) The body is with the king] This answer I do not +comprehend. Perhaps it should be, <i>The body is</i> not <i>with +the king</i>, for <i>the king is not with the body</i>.</p> +<p>IV.ii.32 (282,7) Of nothing] Should it not be read, <i>Or</i> +nothing? When the courtiers remark, that Hamlet has contemptuously +called the <i>king a thing</i>, Hamlet defends himself by +observing, that the king must be a <i>thing</i>, or +<i>nothing</i>.</p> +<p>IV.ii.46 (283,9) the wind at help] I suppose it should be read, +<i>The bark is ready, and the wind at</i> helm.</p> +<p>IV.ii.68 (284,3) And thou must cure me: till I know 'tis done,/ +Howe'er my haps, my joys will ne'er begin] This being the +termination of a scene, should, according to our author's custom, +be rhymed. Perhaps he wrote,</p> +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<p><i>Howe'er my</i> hopes, <i>my joys</i> are not begun.</p> +</div> +</div> +<p>If <i>haps</i> be retained, the meaning will be, <i>'till I know +'tis done, I shall be miserable</i>, whatever befall me (see 1785, +VIII, 257, 3)</p> +<p>IV.iv.33 (286,4)</p> +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<p>What is a man,</p> +<p>If his chief good and market of his time</p> +<p>Be but to sleep and feed?]</p> +</div> +</div> +<p>If his highest good, and <i>that for which he sells his +time</i>, be to sleep and feed.</p> +<p>IV.iv.36 (286,5) large discourse] Such latitude of +comprehension, such power of reviewing the past, and anticipating +the future.</p> +<p>IV.iv.53 (286,6) Rightly to be great,/Is not to stir without +great argument] This passage I have printed according to the copy. +Mr. THEOBALD had regulated it thus:</p> +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<p>—<i>'Tis not to be great,</i></p> +<p><i>Never to stir without great argument;</i></p> +<p><i>But greatly</i>, &c.</p> +</div> +</div> +<p>The sentiment of Shakespeare is partly just, and partly +romantic.</p> +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<p>—<i>Rightly to be great,</i></p> +<p><i>Is not to stir without great argument</i>;</p> +</div> +</div> +<p>is exactly philosophical.</p> +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<p><i>But greatly to find quarrel in a straw,</i></p> +<p><i>When honour is at stake</i>,</p> +</div> +</div> +<p>is the idea of a modern hero. <i>But then</i>, says he <i>honour +is an argument, or subject of debate</i>, sufficiently great, +<i>and</i> when honour is at stake, we must <i>find cause of +quarrel in a straw</i>.</p> +<p>IV.iv.56 (287,7) Excitements of my reason and my blood] +Provocations which excite both my reason and my passions to +vengeance.</p> +<p>IV.v.37 (289,4) <i>Larded all with sweet flowers</i>] The +expression is taken from cookery. (1773)</p> +<p>IV.v.53 (290,6) <i>And dupt the chamber-door</i>] To <i>dup</i>, +is to <i>do up</i>; to lift the latch. It were easy to write,</p> +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<p><i>And</i> op'd—</p> +</div> +</div> +<p>IV.v.58 (290,7) <i>By Gis</i>] I rather imagine it should be +read,</p> +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<p><i>By</i> Cis,—</p> +</div> +</div> +<p>That is, by St. Cecily.</p> +<p>IV.v.83 (291,8) but greenly] But <i>unskilfully</i>; with +<i>greenness</i>; that is, without <i>maturity</i> of judgment.</p> +<p>IV.v.84 (291,9) In hugger-mugger to inter him] All the modern +editions that I have consulted give it,</p> +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<p><i>In</i> private <i>to inter him</i>;—</p> +</div> +</div> +<p>That the words now replaced are better, I do not undertake to +prove; it is sufficient that they are Shakespeare's: if phraseology +is to be changed as words grow uncouth by disuse, or gross by +vulgarity, the history of every language will be lost; we shall no +longer have the words of any author; and, as these alterations will +be often unskilfully made, we shall in time have very little of his +meaning.</p> +<p>IV.v.89 (292,1) Feeds on his wonder] The folio reads,</p> +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<p>Keeps <i>on his wonder</i>,—</p> +</div> +</div> +<p>The quarto,</p> +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<p>Feeds <i>on</i> this <i>wonder</i>.—</p> +</div> +</div> +<p>Thus the true reading is picked out from between them. HANMER +reads unnecessarily,</p> +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<p>Feeds <i>on his</i> anger.—</p> +</div> +</div> +<p>IV.v.92 (292,2) Wherein necessity, of matter beggar'd,/ Will +nothing stick our persons to arraign] HANMER reads,</p> +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<p>Whence animosity, <i>of matter beggar'd</i>.</p> +</div> +</div> +<p>He seems not to have understood the connection. <i>Wherein</i>, +that is, <i>in which pestilent speeches, necessity</i>, or, <i>the +obligation of an accuser to support his charge, will nothing +stick</i>, &c.</p> +<p>IV.v.99 (293,4) The ocean, over-peering of his list] The lists +are the barriers which the spectators of a tournament must not +pass.</p> +<p>IV.v.105 (293,5) The ratifiers and props of every ward] [W: +ward] With this emendation, which was in Theobald's edition, Hanmer +was not satisfied. It is indeed harsh. HANMER transposes the lines, +and reads,</p> +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<p><i>They cry</i>, "Chuse we Laertes for our king;"</p> +<p>The ratifiers and props of every word,</p> +<p><i>Caps, hands, and tongues, applaud it to the clouds</i>.</p> +</div> +</div> +<p>I think the fault may be mended at less expence, by reading,</p> +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<p><i>Antiquity forgot, custom not known,</i></p> +<p><i>The ratifiers and props of every</i> weal.</p> +</div> +</div> +<p>That is, of every <i>government</i>.</p> +<p>IV.v.110 (294,6) Oh, this is counter, you false Danish dogs] +Hounds run <i>counter</i> when they trace the trail backwards.</p> +<p>IV.v.161 (296,9)</p> +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<p>Nature is fine in loves and, where 'tis fine,</p> +<p>It sends some precious instance of itself</p> +<p>After the thing it loves]</p> +</div> +</div> +<p>These lines are not in the quarto, and might hare been omitted +in the folio without great loss, for they are obscure and affected; +but, I think, they require no emendation. <i>Love</i> (says +Laertes) is the passion by which <i>nature is most</i> exalted and +<i>refined</i>; and as substances <i>refined</i> and subtilised, +easily obey any impulse, or follow any attraction, some part of +nature, so purified and <i>refined</i>, flies off after the +attracting object, after the thing it loves.</p> +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<p><i>As into air the purer spirits f1ow,</i></p> +<p><i>And separate from their kindred dregs below,</i></p> +<p><i>So flew her soul</i>.—</p> +</div> +</div> +<p>IV.v.171 (297,1) O how the wheel becomes it!] [W: weal] I do not +see why <i>weal</i> is better than <i>wheel</i>. The story alluded +to I do not know; but perhaps the lady stolen by the steward was +reduced to <i>spin</i>.</p> +<p>IV.v.175 (297,2) There's rosemary, that'll far rememberance. +Pray you, love, remember. And there's pansies, that's for thoughts] +There is probably some mythology in the choice of these herbs, but +I cannot explain it. <i>Pansies</i> is for <i>thoughts</i>, because +of its name, <i>Pensées</i>; but <i>rosemary</i> indicates +<i>remembrance</i>, except that it is an ever-green, and carried at +funerals, I have not discovered.</p> +<p>IV.v.214 (300,7) No trophy, sword, nor batchment] It was the +custom, in the times of our author, to hang a sword over the grave +of a knight.</p> +<p>IV.v.218 (300,8) And where the offence is, let the great axe +fall] [W: tax] <i>Fall</i> corresponds better to <i>axe</i>.</p> +<p>IV.vi.26 (301,9) <i>for the bore of the matter</i>] The +<i>bore</i> is the calibier of a gun, or the capacity of the +barrel. <i>The matter</i> (says Hamlet) <i>would carry the heavier +words</i>.</p> +<p>IV.vii.18 (302,1) the general gender] The <i>common race</i> of +the people.</p> +<p>IV.vii.19 (302,2)</p> +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<p>dipping all his faults in their affection,</p> +<p>Would, like the spring that turneth wood to stone,</p> +<p>Convert his gyves to graces]</p> +</div> +</div> +<p>This simile is neither very seasonable in the deep interest of +this conversation, nor very accurately applied. If the +<i>spring</i> had changed base metals to gold, the thought had been +more proper.</p> +<p>IV.vii.27 (302,3) if praises may go back again] If I may praise +what has been, but is now to be found no more.</p> +<p>IV.vii.77 (304,5) Of the unworthiest siege] Of the lowest rank. +<i>Siege</i>, for <i>seat, place</i>.</p> +<p>IV.vii.82 (304,6) Importing health and graveness] [W: wealth] +<i>Importing</i> here may be, not <i>inferring</i> by logical +consequence, but <i>producing</i> by physical effect. A young man +regards show in his dress, an old man, <i>health</i>.</p> +<p>IV.vii.90 (305,7) I, in forgery of shapes and tricks/Come short +of what he did] I could not contrive so many proofs of dexterity as +he could perform.</p> +<p>IV.vii.98 (305,8) in your defence] That is, <i>in the science +of</i> defence.</p> +<p>IV.vii.101 (305,9) The scrimers] The <i>fencers</i>.</p> +<p>IV.vii.112 (305,1) love is begun by time] This is obscure. The +meaning may be, <i>love</i> is not innate in us, and co-essential +to our nature, but begins at a certain time from some external +cause, and being always subject to the operations of time, suffers +change and diminution. (1773)</p> +<p>IV.vii.113 (300,2) in passages of proof] In transactions of +daily experience.</p> +<p>IV.vii.123 (306,4) And then this <i>should</i> is like a +spendthrift sigh/ That hurts by easing] [W: sign] This conjecture +is so ingenious, that it can hardly be opposed, but with the same +reluctance as the bow is drawn against a hero, whose virtues the +archer holds in veneration. Here may be applied what Voltaire +writes to the empress:</p> +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<p><i>Le genereux Francois—</i></p> +<p><i>Te combat & t'admire.</i></p> +</div> +</div> +<p>Yet this emendation, however specious, is mistaken. The original +reading is, not a <i>spendthrift's</i> sigh, but a +<i>spendthrift</i> sigh; a <i>sigh</i> that makes an unnecessary +waste of the vital flame. It is a notion very prevalent, that +<i>sighs</i> impair the strength, and wear out the animal +powers.</p> +<p>IV.vii.135 (307,5) He being remiss] He being not vigilant or +cautious.</p> +<p>IV.vii.139 (307,7) a pass of practice] Practice is often by +Shakespeare, and other writers, taken for an <i>insidious +stratagem</i>, or <i>privy</i> treason, a sense not incongruous to +this passage, where yet I rather believe, that nothing more is +meant than a <i>thrust for exercise</i>.</p> +<p>IV.vii.151 (308,8) May fit us to our shape] May <i>enable</i> us +to <i>assume proper characters</i>, and to act our part.</p> +<p>IV.vii.155 (308,9) blast in proof] This, I believe, is a +metaphor taken from a mine, which, in the proof or execution, +sometimes breaks out with an ineffectual <i>blast</i>.</p> +<p>V.i.3 (310,1) make her grave straight] Make her grave from east +to west in a direct line parallel to the church; not from north to +south, athwart the regular line. This, I think, is meant.</p> +<p>V.i.87 (313,1) which this ass now o'er-reaches] In the quarto, +for <i>over-offices</i> is, <i>over-reaches</i>, which agrees +better with the sentence: it is a strong exaggeration to remark +that an <i>ass</i> can <i>over-reach</i> him who would once have +tried to <i>circumvent</i>.—I believe both the words were +Shakespeare's. An author in revising his work, when his original +ideas have faded from his mind, and new observations have produced +new sentiments, easily introduces images which have been more newly +impressed upon him, without observing their want of congruity to +the general texture of his original design.</p> +<p>V.i.96 (314,2) and now my lady Worm's] The scull that was <i>my +lord Such a one's</i>, is now my <i>lady Worm's</i>.</p> +<p>V.i.100 (314,3) to play at loggats with 'em?] A play, in which +pins are set up to be beaten down with a bowl.</p> +<p>V.i.149 (316,5) by the card] The <i>card</i> is the paper on +which the different points of the compass were described. <i>To do +any thing by the card</i>, is, <i>to do it with nice +observation</i>.</p> +<p>V.i.151 (316,6) the age is grown so picked] So <i>smart</i>, so +<i>sharp</i>, says HANMER, very properly; but there was, I think, +about that time, a <i>picked</i> shoe, that is, <i>a shoe with a +long pointed toe</i>, in fashion, to which the allusion seems +likewise to be made. <i>Every man now is smart; and every man now +is a man of fashion</i>.</p> +<p>V.i.239 (319,7) winter's flaw!] Winter's <i>blast</i>.</p> +<p>V.i.242 (319,8) maimed rites!] Imperfect obsequies.</p> +<p>V.i.244 (319,9) some estate] Some person of high rank.</p> +<p>V.i.255 (319,2) Yet here she is allow'd her virgin crants] I +have been informed by an anonymous correspondent, that +<i>crants</i> is the German word for <i>garlands</i>, and I suppose +it was retained by us from the Saxons. To carry <i>garlands</i> +before the bier of a maiden, and to hang them over her grave, is +still the practice in rural parishes.</p> +<p><i>Crants</i> therefore was the original word, which the author, +discovering it to be provincial, and perhaps not understood, +changed to a term more intelligible, but less proper. <i>Maiden +rites</i> give no certain or definite image. He might have put +<i>maiden wreaths</i>, or <i>maiden garlands</i>, but he perhaps +bestowed no thought upon it, and neither genius nor practice will +always supply a hasty writer with the most proper diction.</p> +<p>V.i.310 (323,6) When that her golden couplets] [W: E'er that] +Perhaps it should be,</p> +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<p><i>Ere yet</i>—</p> +</div> +</div> +<p><i>Yet</i> and <i>that</i> are easily confounded.</p> +<p>V.ii.6 (324,7) mutinies in the bilboes] <i>Mutinies</i>, the +French word for seditious or disobedient fellows in the army or +fleet. <i>Bilboes</i>, the <i>ship's prison</i>.</p> +<p>V.ii.6 (324,8) Rashly,/And prais'd be rashness for it—Let +us know] Both my copies read,</p> +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<p>—Rashly,</p> +<p><i>And prais'd be rashness for it</i>, let <i>us know</i>.</p> +</div> +</div> +<p>Hamlet, delivering an account of his escape, begins with saying, +that he <i>rashly</i>—and then is carried into a reflection +upon the weakness of human wisdom. I rashly—praised be +rashness for it—<i>Let us</i> not think these events casual, +but <i>let us know</i>, that is, <i>take notice and remember</i>, +that we sometimes succeed by <i>indiscretion</i>, when we +<i>fail</i> by <i>deep plots</i>, and infer the perpetual +superintendance and <i>agency</i> of the <i>Divinity</i>. The +observation is just, and will be allowed by every human being who +shall reflect on the course of his own life.</p> +<p>V.ii.22 (325,9) With, ho! such bugs and goblins in my life] With +<i>such causes of terror</i>, arising from my character and +designs.</p> +<p>V.ii.29 (325,2) Being thus benetted round with villainies,/ Ere +I could make a prologue to my brains] [W: mark the prologue ... +bane] In my opinion no alteration is necessary. Hamlet is telling +how luckily every thing fell out; he groped out their commission in +the dark without waking them; he found himself doomed to immediate +destruction. Something was to be done for his preservation. An +expedient occurred, not produced by the comparison of one method +with another, or by a regular deduction of consequences, but before +he <i>could make a prologue to his brains, they had begun the +play</i>. Before he could summon his faculties, and propose to +himself what should be done, a complete scheme of action presented +itself to him. His mind operated before he had excited it. This +appears to me to be the meaning.</p> +<p>V.ii.41 (326,5) As peace should still her wheaten garland wear,/ +And stand a comma 'tween their amities] HANMER reads,</p> +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<p><i>And stand a</i> cement—</p> +</div> +</div> +<p>I am again inclined to vindicate the old reading.</p> +<p>The expression of our author is, like many of his phrases, +sufficiently constrained and affected, but it is not incapable of +explanation. The <i>comma</i> is the note of <i>connection</i> and +continuity of sentences; the <i>period</i> is the note of +<i>abruption</i> and disjunction. Shakespeare had it perhaps in his +mind to write, That unless England complied with the mandate, +<i>war should put a</i> period <i>to their amity</i>; he altered +his mode of diction, and thought that, in an opposite sense, he +might put, that <i>Peace should stand a</i> comma between their +amities. This is not an easy stile; but is it not the stile of +Shakespeare?</p> +<p>V.ii.43 (327,6) as's of great charge] <i>Asses</i> heavily +<i>loaded</i>. A quibble is intended between <i>as</i> the +conditional particle, and <i>ass</i> the beast of burthen. That +<i>charg'd</i> anciently signified <i>leaded</i>, may be proved +from the following passage in <i>The Widow's Tears</i>, by Chapman, +1612.</p> +<p>"Thou must be the <i>ass charg'd with crowns</i> to make way." +(see 1765, VIII, 294, 2)</p> +<p>V.ii.53 (327,7) The changeling never known] A <i>changeling</i> +is a <i>child</i> which the fairies are supposed to leave in the +room of that which they steal.</p> +<p>V.ii.68 (328,1) To quit him] To requite him; to pay him his +due.</p> +<p>V.ii.84 (329,2) Dost know this water-fly] A <i>water-fly</i>, +skips up and down upon the surface of the water, without any +apparent purpose or reason, and is thence the proper emblem of a +busy trifler.</p> +<p>V.ii.89 (329,3) It is a chough] A kind of jackdaw.</p> +<p>V.ii.112 (330,5) full of most excellent differences] Full of +<i>distinguishing</i> excellencies.</p> +<p>V.ii.114 (330,6) the card or calendar of gentry] The general +preceptor of elegance; the <i>card</i> by which a gentleman is to +direct his course; the <i>calendar</i> by which he is to choose his +time, that what he does may be both excellent and seasonable.</p> +<p>V.ii.115 (330,7) for you shall find in him the continent of what +part a gentleman would see] <i>You shall find him containing</i> +and comprising every <i>quality</i> which a <i>gentleman</i> would +desire to <i>contemplate</i> for imitation. I know not but it +should be read, <i>You shall find him the continent</i></p> +<p>V.ii.119 (330,9) and yet but raw neither in respect of his quick +sail] [W: but slow] I believe <i>raw</i> to be the right word; it +is a word of great latitude; <i>raw</i> signifies <i>unripe, +immature</i>, thence <i>unformed, imperfect, unskilful</i>. The +best account of him would be <i>imperfect</i>, in respect of his +quick sail. The phrase <i>quick sail</i> was, I suppose, a +proverbial term for <i>activity of mind</i>.</p> +<p>V.ii.122 (330,1) a soul of great article] This is obscure. I +once thought it might have been, <i>a soul of great altitude</i>; +but, I suppose, <i>a soul of great article</i>, means <i>a soul +of</i> large comprehension, of many contents; the particulars of an +inventory are called <i>articles</i>.</p> +<p>V.ii.122 (331,2) his infusion of such dearth and rareness] +<i>Dearth</i> is <i>dearness</i>, value, price. And his internal +qualities of such value and rarity.</p> +<p>V.ii.131 (331,3) Is't not possible to understand in another +tongue? you will do't, Sir, really] Of this interrogatory remark +the sense ie very obscure. The question may mean, <i>Might not all +this be understood in plainer language</i>. But then, <i>you will +do it, Sir, really</i>, seems to have no use, for who could doubt +but plain language would be intelligible? I would therefore read, +<i>Is't possible</i> not to be understood in a mother +<i>tongue</i>. You will do it, Sir, really.</p> +<p>V.ii.140 (331,4) if you did, it would not much approve me] If +you knew I was not ignorant, your esteem would not nuch advance my +reputation. To <i>approve</i>, is to <i>recommend to +approbation</i>.</p> +<p>V.ii.145 (331,5) I dare not confess that, lest I should compare +with him in excellence] I dare not pretend to know him, lest I +should pretend to an equality: no man can completely know another, +but by knowing himself, which is the utmost extent of human +wisdom.</p> +<p>V.ii.149 (332,6) in his meed] In his excellence.</p> +<p>V.ii.156 (332,7) impon'd] Perhaps it should be, <i>depon'd</i>. +So Hudibras,</p> +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<p>"I would upon this cause <i>depone</i>,</p> +<p>"As much as any I have known."</p> +</div> +</div> +<p>But perhaps <i>imponed</i> is pledged, <i>impawned</i>, so spelt +to ridicule the affectation of uttering English words with French +pronunciation.</p> +<p>V.ii.165 (332,9) more germane.] More<i>a-kin</i>.</p> +<p>V.ii.172 (333,1) The king, Sir, hath laid, that in a dozen +passes between yourself and him, he shall not exceed you three +hits; he hath laid on twelve for nine] This wager I do not +understand. In a dozen passes one must exceed the other more or +less than three hits. Nor can I comprehend, how, in a dozen, there +can be twelve to nine. The passage is of no importance; it is +sufficient that there was a wager. The quarto has the passage as it +stands. The folio, <i>He hath one twelve for mine</i>.</p> +<p>V.ii.193 (333,2) This lapwing runs away with the shell on his +head] I see no particular propriety in the image of the lapwing. +Osrick did not run till he had done his business. We may read, +<i>This lapwing</i> ran <i>away</i>—That is, <i>this fellow +was full of unimportant bustle from his birth</i>.</p> +<p>V.ii.199 (334,4) a kind of yesty collection, which carries them +through and through the most fond and winnowed opinions] [W: most +fann'd] This is a very happy emendation; but I know not why the +critic should suppose that <i>fond</i> was printed for +<i>fann'd</i> in consequence of any reason or reflection. Such +errors, to which there is no temptation but idleness, and of which +there was no cause but ignorance, are in every page of the old +editions. This passage in the quarto stands thus: "They have got +out of the habit of encounter, a kind of misty collection, which +carries them through and through the most profane and renowned +opinions." If this printer preserved any traces of the original, +our author wrote, "the most fane and renowned opinions," which is +better than fann'd and winnow'd.</p> +<p>The meaning is, "these men have got the cant of the day, a +superficial readiness of slight and cursory conversation, a kind of +frothy collection of fashionable prattle, which yet carried them +through the most select and approved judgment. This airy facility +of talk sometimes imposes upon wise men."</p> +<p>Who has not seen this observation verified?</p> +<p>V.ii.201 (335,6) and do but blow them to their trials, the +bubbles are out] These men of show, without solidity, are like +bubbles raised from soap and water, which dance, and glitter, and +please the eye, but if you extend them, by blowing hard, separate +into a mist; so if you oblige these specious talkers to extend +their compass of conversation, they at once discover the tenuity of +their intellects.</p> +<p>V.ii.216 (335,7) gentle entertainment] Mild and temperate +conversation.</p> +<p>V.ii.234 (336,1) Since no man knows aught of what he leaves, +what is't to leave betimes?] The reading of the quarto was right, +but in some other copy the harshness of the transposition was +softened, and the passage stood thus: <i>Since no man knows aught +of what he leaves</i>. For <i>knows</i> was printed in the later +copies <i>has</i>, by a slight blunder in such typographers.</p> +<p>I do not think Dr. Warburton's interpretation of the passage the +best that it will admit. The meaning may be this, Since <i>no man +knows aught of</i> the state of life which <i>he leaves</i>, since +he cannot judge what others years may produce, why should he be +afraid of <i>leaving</i> life betimes? Why should he dread an early +death, of which he cannot tell whether it is an exclusion of +happiness, or an interception of calamity. I despise the +superstition of augury and omens, which has no ground in reason or +piety; my comfort is, that I cannot fall but by the direction of +Providence.</p> +<p>Hanmer has, <i>Since no man</i> owes <i>aught</i>, a conjecture +not very reprehensible. Since <i>no man can call any possession +certain</i>, what is it to leave?</p> +<p>V.ii.237 (337,2) Give me your pardon, Sir] I wish Hamlet had +made some other defence; it is unsuitable to the character of a +good or a brave man, to shelter himself in falsehood.</p> +<p>V.ii.272 (338,5) Your grace hath laid upon the weaker side] Thus +Hanmer. All the others read,</p> +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<p><i>Your grace hath laid the odds o' the weaker side.</i></p> +</div> +</div> +<p>When the odds were on the side of Laertes, who was to hit Hamlet +twelve times to nine, it was perhaps the author's slip.</p> +<p>V.ii.310 (340,7) you make a wanton of me] A <i>wanton</i> was, a +man feeble and effeminate. In <i>Cymbeline</i>, Imogen says,</p> +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<p>"I am not so citizen a <i>wanton</i>,</p> +<p>To die, ere I be sick."</p> +</div> +</div> +<p>V.ii.346 (342,8) That are but mutes or audience to this act] +That are either mere <i>auditors</i> of this <i>catastrophe</i>, or +at most only <i>mute performers</i>, that fill the stage without +any part in the action.</p> +<p>V.ii.375 (344,2) This quarry cries, on havock!] Hanmer +reads,</p> +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<p>—<i>cries</i> out, <i>havock!</i></p> +</div> +</div> +<p>To <i>cry on</i>, was to <i>exclaim against</i>. I suppose, when +unfair sportsmen destroyed more <i>quarry</i> or <i>game</i> than +was reasonable, the censure was to cry, <i>Havock</i>.</p> +<p>(346) General Observation. If the dramas of Shakespeare were to +be characterised, each by the particular excellence which +distinguishes it from the rest, we must allow to the tragedy of +Hamlet the praise of variety. The incidents are so numerous, that +the argument of the play would make a long tale. The scenes are +interchangeably diversified with merriment and solemnity; with +merriment that includes judicious and instructive observations, and +solemnity, not strained by poetical violence above the natural +sentiments of man. New characters appear from time to time in +continual succession, exhibiting various forms of life and +particular modes of conversation. The pretended madness of Hamlet +causes much mirth, the mournful distraction of Ophelia fills the +heart with tenderness, and every personage produces the effect +intended, from the apparition that in the first act chills the +blood with horror, to the fop in the last, that exposes affectation +to just contempt. The conduct is perhaps not wholly secure against +objections. The action is indeed for the most part in continual +progression, but there are some scenes which neither forward nor +retard it. Of the feigned madness of Hamlet there appears no +adequate cause, for he does nothing which he might not have done +with the reputation of sanity. He plays the madman most, when he +treats Ophelia with so much rudeness, which seems to be useless and +wanton cruelty.</p> +<p>Hamlet is, through the whole play, rather an instrument than an +agent. After he has, by the stratagem of the play, convicted the +king, he makes no attempt to punish him, and his death is at last +effected by an incident which Hamlet had no part in producing.</p> +<p>The catastrophe is not very happily produced; the exchange of +weapons is rather an expedient of necessity, than a stroke of art. +A scheme might easily have been formed to kill Hamlet with the +dagger, and Laertes with the bowl.</p> +<p>The poet is accused of having shewn little regard to poetical +justice, and may be charged with equal neglect of poetical +probability. The apparition left the regions of the dead to little +purpose; the revenge which he demands is not obtained, but by the +death of him that was required to take it; and the gratification +which would arise from the destruction of an usurper and a +murderer, is abated by the untimely death of Ophelia, the young, +the beautiful, the harmless, and the pious.</p> +<h2>OTHELLO</h2> +<p>I.i.20 (358,4)</p> +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<p>One Michael Cassio, a Florentine,</p> +<p>A fellow almost damn'd in a fair wife]</p> +</div> +</div> +<p>This is one of the passages which must for the present be +resigned to corruption and obscurity. I have nothing that I can, +with any approach to confidence, propose. I cannot think it very +plain from Act 3. Scene 1. that Cassio was or was not a +Florentine.</p> +<p>I.i.30 (361,6) must be belee'd and calm'd] [—<i>must +be</i> LED <i>and calm'd</i>. So the old quarto. The first folio +reads <i>belee'd</i>: but that spoils the measure. I read LET, +hindered. WARBURTON.] <i>Belee'd</i> suits to <i>calm'd</i>, and +the measure is not less perfect than in many other places.</p> +<p>I.i.36 (361,7) Preferment goes by letter] By +<i>recommendation</i> from powerful friends.</p> +<p>I.i.37 (361,8) And not by old gradation] [W: Not (as of old)] +<i>Old gradation</i>, is <i>gradation</i> established +by<i>ancient</i> practice. Where is the difficulty?</p> +<p>I.i.39 (361,9) If I in any just term am affin'd] <i>Affine</i> +is the reading of the third quarto and the first folio. The second +quarto and all the modern editions have <i>assign'd</i>. The +meaning is, <i>Do I stand</i> within <i>any such</i> terms <i>of +propinquit</i> or <i>relation to the Moor, as that it is my duty to +love him</i>?</p> +<p>I.i.49 (362,1) honest knaves] <i>Knave</i> is here for +<i>servant</i>, but with a mixture of sly contempt.</p> +<p>I.i.63 (362,2) In compliment extern] In that which I do only for +an outward shew of civility.</p> +<p>I.i.76 (363,3) As when, by night and negligence, the fire/Is +spied in populous cities] [Warburton, objecting to "by": Is spred] +The particle is used equivocally; the same liberty is taken by +writers more correct.</p> +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<p><i>The wonderful creature! a woman of reason!</i></p> +<p><i>Never grave</i> out of <i>pride, never gay</i> out of +<i>season</i>.</p> +</div> +</div> +<p>I.i.115 (364,4) What profane wretch art thou?] That is, <i>what +wretch of gross and licentious language?</i> In that sense +Shakespeare often uses the word <i>profane</i>.</p> +<p>I.i.124 (365,6) this odd even] The <i>even</i> of <i>night</i> +is <i>midnight</i>, the time when night is divided into <i>even</i> +parts.</p> +<p>I.i.149 (366,7) some check] Some rebuke.</p> +<p>I.i.150 (366,8) cast him] That is, <i>dismiss</i> him; +<i>reject</i> him. We still say, a <i>cast</i> coat, and a +<i>cast</i> serving-man.</p> +<p>I.i.162 (366,9) And what's to come of my despised time] [W: +despited] <i>Despised time</i>, is <i>time of no value</i>; time in +which</p> +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<p>"There's nothing serious in mortality,</p> +<p>The wine of life is drawn, and the mere dregs</p> +<p>Are left, this vault to brag of." <i>Macbeth</i>.</p> +</div> +</div> +<p>I.i.173 (367,2) By which the property of youth and maidhood/May +be abus'd?] By which the faculties of a young virgin may be +infatuated, and made subject to illusions and to false +imagination.</p> +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<p>"Wicked dreams <i>abuse</i></p> +<p>The curtain'd sleep." <i>Macbeth.</i></p> +</div> +</div> +<p>I.ii.2 (368,3) stuff o' the conscience] This expression to +common readers appears harsh. <i>Stuff</i> of the <i>conscience</i> +is, <i>substance</i>, or <i>essence</i> of the conscience. +<i>Stuff</i> is a word of great force in the Teutonic languages. +The elements are called in Dutch, <i>Hoefd stoffen</i>, or <i>head +stuffs</i>.</p> +<p>I.ii.13 (368,4) And hath, in his effect, a voice potential/As +double as the duke's] [Warburton had given a source in Dioscorides +and Theocritus for "double"] This note has been much censured by +Mr. Upton, who denies, that the quotation is in Dioscorides, and +disputes, not without reason, the interpretation of Theocritus.</p> +<p>All this learning, if it had even been what it endeavours to be +thought, is, in this place, superfluous. There is no ground of +supposing, that our author copied or knew the Greek phrase; nor +does it follow, that, because a word has two senses in one +language, the word which in another answers to one sense, should +answer to both. <i>Manus</i>, in Latin, signifies both a +<i>hand</i> and <i>troop of soldiers</i>, but we cannot say, that +<i>the captain marched at the</i> head <i>of his</i> hand; or, that +<i>he laid his</i> troop <i>upon his sword</i>. It is not always in +books that the meaning is to be sought of this writer, who was much +more acquainted with naked reason and with living manners.</p> +<p><i>Double</i> has here its natural sense. The president of every +deliberative assembly has a <i>double voice</i>. In our courts, the +chief justice and one of the inferior judges prevail over the other +two, because the chief justice has a <i>double</i> voice.</p> +<p>Brabantio had, <i>in his effect</i>, though not by law, yet by +<i>weight</i> and <i>influence</i>, a voice not <i>actual</i> and +formal, but <i>potential</i> and operative, as <i>double</i>, that +is, a voice that when a question was suspended, would turn the +balance as effectually <i>as the duke's</i>. <i>Potential</i> is +used in the sense of science; a <i>caustic</i> is called +<i>potential</i> fire.</p> +<p>I.ii.23 (370,7) speak, unbonnetted] [Pope: unbonnetting] I do +not see the propriety of Mr. Pope's emendation, though adopted by +Dr. Warburton. <i>Unbonnetting</i> may as well be, <i>not putting +on</i>, as <i>not putting off</i>, the bonnet. Hamner reads +<i>e'en</i> bonnetted.</p> +<p>I.ii.26 (370,8) unhoused] Free from <i>domestic</i> cares. A +thought natural to an adventurer.</p> +<p>I.ii.28 (370,9) For the sea's worth] I would not marry her, +though she were as rich as the Adriatic, which the Doge annually +marries.</p> +<p>I.ii.30 (371,2) a land-carrack] A <i>carrack</i> is a ship of +great bulk, and commonly of great value; perhaps what we now call a +<i>galleon</i>.</p> +<p>I.ii.55 (372,3) be advis'd] That is, be <i>cool</i>; be +<i>cautious</i>; be <i>discreet</i>.</p> +<p>I.ii.68 (372,4) The wealthy curled darlings of our nation] +<i>Curled</i> is <i>elegantly and ostentatiously dressed</i>. He +had not the hair particularly in his thoughts.</p> +<p>I.ii.74 (373,6) Abused her delicate youth with drugs, or +minerals,/ That weaken notion] [T: notion] Hanmer reads with equal +probability, <i>That</i> waken motion. [Originally +<i>motion</i>].</p> +<p>I.iii.6 (375,9) As in these cases where they aim reports] [W: +the aim] The folio has,</p> +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<p>—<i>the</i> aim reports.</p> +</div> +</div> +<p>But, <i>they aim reports</i>, has a sense sufficiently easy and +commodious. There men <i>report</i> not by certain knowledge, but +by <i>aim</i> and conjecture.</p> +<p>I.ii.18 (375,1) By no assay of reason] Bring it to the +<i>test</i>, examine it by reason as we examine metals by the +<i>assay</i>, it will be found counterfeit by all trials.</p> +<p>I.iii.23 (376,2) facile question] <i>Question</i> is for the +<i>act of seeking</i>. With more <i>easy endeavour</i>.</p> +<p>I.iii.24 (376,4) warlike brace] State of defence. To arm was +called to <i>brace on</i> the armour.</p> +<p>I.iii.42 (376,5) And prays you to believe him] The late learned +and ingenious Mr. Thomas Clark, of Lincoln's Inn, read the passage +thus:</p> +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<p><i>And prays you to</i> relieve <i>him</i>.</p> +</div> +</div> +<p>But the present reading may stand. <i>He intreats you not to +doubt the truth of this intelligence</i>.</p> +<p>I.iii.54 (377,6) Hath rais'd me from my bed; nor doth the +general care] The word <i>care</i>, which encumbers the verse, was +probably added by the players. Shakespeare uses <i>the general</i> +as a substantive, though, I think, not in this sense.</p> +<p>I.iii.69 (373,8) though our proper son/Stood in your action] +Were the man exposed to your <i>charge</i> or +<i>accusation</i>.</p> +<p>I.iii.80 (378,9) The very head and front of my offending] The +<i>main</i>, the <i>whole</i>, unextenuated.</p> +<p>I.iii.85 (379,2) Their dearest action] That is <i>dear</i>, for +which much is paid, whether money or labour; <i>dear action</i>, is +action performed at great expence, either of ease or safety.</p> +<p>I.iii.107 (380,4) overt test] Open proofs, external +evidence.</p> +<p>I.iii.108 (380,5) thin habits and poor likelihoods/Of modern +seeming] Weak shew of slight appearance.</p> +<p>I.iii.139 (381,6) And portance in my travel's history] [I have +restored,</p> +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<p><i>And with it all my travel's history</i>:</p> +</div> +</div> +<p>From the old edition. It is in the rest,</p> +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<p><i>And portance in my travel's history</i>.</p> +</div> +</div> +<p>Rymer, in his criticism on this play, has changed it to +<i>portents</i>, instead of <i>portance</i>. POPE.] Mr. Pope has +restored a line, to which there is little objection, but which has +no force. I believe <i>portance</i> was the author's word in some +revised copy. I read thus,</p> +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<p><i>Of being——sold</i></p> +<p><i>To slavery, of my redemption, thence,</i></p> +<p><i>And portance in't; my travel's history.</i></p> +<p>My redemption from slavery, and behaviour in it.</p> +</div> +</div> +<p>I.iii.140-170 (381,7) Wherein of antres vast, and desarts idle] +Whoever ridicules this account of the progress of love, shows his +ignorance, not only of history, but of nature and manners. It is no +wonder that, in any age, or in any nation, a lady, recluse, +timorous, and delicate, should desire to hear of events and scenes +which she could never see, and should admire the man who had +endured dangers and performed actions, which, however great, were +yet magnified by her timidity. [Pope: deserts wild] Every mind is +liable to absence and inadvertency, else Pope could never have +rejected a word so poetically beautiful. Idle is an epithet used to +express the infertility of the chaotic state, in the Saxon +translation of the Pentateuch. (1773)</p> +<p>I.iii.140 (382,8) antres] [French grottos. POPE.] Rather +<i>caves</i> and <i>dens</i>.</p> +<p>I.iii.142 (382,9) It was my hint to speak] [W: hent] <i>Hent</i> +is not used in Shakespeare, nor, I believe, in any other author; +<i>hint</i>, or <i>cue</i>, is comnonly used for occasion of +speech, which is explained by, <i>such was the process</i>, that +is, the course of the tale required it. If <i>hent</i> be restored, +it may be explained by <i>handle</i>. I had a <i>handle</i>, or +<i>opportunity</i>, to speak of cannibals.</p> +<p>I.iii.144 (382,1) men whose heads/Do grow beneath their +shoulders] Of these men there is an account in the interpolated +travels of Mondeville, a book of that time.</p> +<p>I.iii.199 (384,4) Let me speak like yourself;] [W: our self] +Hanmer reads,</p> +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<p><i>Let me</i> now speak <i>more</i> like your self.</p> +</div> +</div> +<p>Dr. Warburton's emendation is specious; but I do not see how +Hanmer's makes any alteration. The duke seems to mean, when he says +he will speak like Brabantio, that he will speak sententiously.</p> +<p>I.iii.213 (385,6) But the free comfort which from thence he +hears] But the moral precepts of consolation, which are liberally +bestowed on occasion of the sentence.</p> +<p>I.iii.232 (386,8) thrice-driven bed of down] A <i>driven</i> +bed, is a bed for which the feathers are selected, by +<i>driving</i> with a fan, which separates the light from the +heavy.</p> +<p>I.iii.237 (337,9)</p> +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<p>I crave fit disposition for my wife;</p> +<p>Due reverence of place, and exhibition]</p> +</div> +</div> +<p>I desire, that a proper <i>disposition</i> be made for my wife, +that she may have <i>precedency</i>, and <i>revenue</i>, +accommodation, and <i>company</i>, suitable to her rank.</p> +<p>For <i>reference</i> of place, the old quartos have +<i>reverence</i>, which Hanmer has received. I should read,</p> +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<p><i>Due</i> preference <i>of place</i>.—</p> +</div> +</div> +<p>I.iii.246 (387,1) And let me find a charter in your voice] Let +your favour <i>privilege</i> me.</p> +<p>I.iii.250 (387,2) My down-right violence and storm of fortunes] +[W: to forms, my fortunes] There is no need of this emendation. +<i>Violence</i> is not <i>violence suffered</i>, but <i>violence +acted</i>. Breach of common rules and obligations. The old quarto +has, <i>scorn</i> of fortune, which is perhaps the true +reading.</p> +<p>I.iii.253 (388,3) I saw Othello's visage in his mind] It must +raise no wonder, that I loved a man of an appearance so little +engaging; I saw his face only in his mind; the greatness of his +character reconciled me to his form.</p> +<p>I.iii.264 (386,4)</p> +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<p>Nor to comply with heat (the young affects,</p> +<p>In me defunct) and proper satisfaction]</p> +</div> +</div> +<p>[T: me distinct, i.e. with that heat and new affections which +the indulgence of my appetite has raised and created. This is the +meaning of <i>defunct</i>, which has made all the difficulty of the +passage. WARBURTON.] I do not think that Mr. Theobald's emendation +clears the text from embarrassment, though it is with a little +imaginary improvement received by Hanmer, who reads thus:</p> +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<p><i>Nor to comply with heat</i>, affects the young</p> +<p><i>In my</i> distinct <i>and proper satisfaction</i>.</p> +</div> +</div> +<p>Dr. Warburton's explanation is not more satisfactory: what made +the difficulty, will continue to make it. I read,</p> +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<p>—<i>I beg it not,</i></p> +<p><i>To please the palate of my appetite,</i></p> +<p><i>Nor to comply with heat (the young affects</i></p> +<p><i>In me defunct) and proper satisfaction;</i></p> +<p><i>But to be free and bounteous to her mind.</i></p> +</div> +</div> +<p><i>Affects</i> stands here, not for <i>love</i>, but for +<i>passions</i>, for that by which any thing is affected. <i>I ask +it not</i>, says he, <i>to please appetite, or satisfy loose +desires</i>, the passions of youth which I have now outlived, or +<i>for any particular gratification of myself, but merely that I +may indulge the wishes of my wife</i>.</p> +<p>Mr. Upton had, before me, changed <i>my</i> to <i>me</i>; but he +has printed young <i>effects</i>, not seeming to know that +<i>affects</i> could be a noun. (1773)</p> +<p>I.iii.290 (391,6) If virtue no delighted beauty lack] [W: +belighted] Hanmer reads, more plausibly, <i>delighting</i>. I do +not know that <i>belighted</i> has any authority. I should rather +read,</p> +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<p><i>If virtue no</i> delight or <i>beauty lack</i>.</p> +</div> +</div> +<p><i>Delight</i>, for <i>delectation</i>, or <i>power of +pleasing</i>, as it is frequently used.</p> +<p>I.iii.299 (391,8) best advantage] Fairest opportunity.</p> +<p>I.iii.317 (392,9) a Guinea-hen] A showy bird with fine +feathers.</p> +<p>I.iii.346 (392,1) defeat thy favour with an usurped beard] [W: +disseat] It is more English, to <i>defeat</i>, than <i>disseat</i>. +To <i>defeat</i>, is to <i>undo</i>, to <i>change</i>.</p> +<p>I.iii.350 (393,2) It was a violent commencement in her, and thou +shalt see an answerable sequestration] There seems to be an +opposition of terms here intended, which has been lost in +transcription. We may read, <i>It was a violent</i> conjunction, +<i>and thou shalt see an answerable sequestration</i>; or, what +seems to me preferable, <i>It was a violent commencement, and thou +shalt see an answerable sequel</i>.</p> +<p>I.iii.363 (393,4) betwixt an erring Barbarian] [W: errant] +Hanmer reads, <i>errant</i>. <i>Erring</i> is as well as +either.</p> +<p>II.i.15 (396,1) And quench the guards of the ever-fixed pole] +Alluding to the star <i>Arctophylax</i>.</p> +<p>II.i.48 (397,3)</p> +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<p>His bark is stoutly timber'd, and his pilot</p> +<p>Of very expert and approv'd allowance;</p> +<p>Therefore my hopes, not surfeited to death,</p> +<p>Stand in bold cure]</p> +</div> +</div> +<p>I do not understand these lines. I know not how <i>hope</i> can +be <i>surfeited to death</i>, that is, <i>can be encreased, till it +is destroyed</i>; nor what it is <i>to stand in bold cure</i>; or +why <i>hope</i> should be considered as a disease. In the copies +there is no variation. Shall we read</p> +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<p>Therefore my fears, not surfeited to death,</p> +<p>Stand in bold cure?</p> +</div> +</div> +<p>This is better, but it is not well. Shall we strike a bolder +stroke, and read thus?</p> +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<p><i>Therefore my hopes, not</i> forfeited <i>to death</i>,</p> +<p><i>Stand</i> bold, not sure.</p> +</div> +</div> +<p>II.i.49 (398,4) Of very expert and approv'd allowance] I read, +<i>Very expert, and of approv'd allowance</i>.</p> +<p>II.i.64 (308,5) And in the essential vesture of creation/Does +bear all excellency; We in terrestrial] I do not think the present +reading inexplicable. The author seems to use <i>essential</i>, for +<i>existent, real</i>. She excels the praises of invention, says +he, and in <i>real qualities</i>, with which <i>creation</i> has +<i>invested</i> her, <i>bears all excellency</i>.</p> +<p><i>Does bear all excellency</i>——] Such is the +reading of the quartos, for which the folio has this,</p> +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<p><i>And in the essential vesture of creation</i></p> +<p>Do's tyre the ingeniuer.</p> +</div> +</div> +<p>Which I explain thus,</p> +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<p><i>Does tire the</i> ingenious verse.</p> +</div> +</div> +<p>This is the best reading, and that which the author substituted +in his revisal.</p> +<p>II.i.112 (401,9) Saints in your injuries] When you have a mind +to do injuries, you put on an air of sanctity.</p> +<p>II.i.120 (402,1) I am nothing, if not critical] That is, +<i>censorious</i>.</p> +<p>II.i.137 (402,2) <i>She never yet was foolish</i>] We may +read,</p> +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<p>She ne'er was yet so foolish that was fair,</p> +<p>But even her folly help'd her to an heir.</p> +</div> +</div> +<p>Yet I believe the common reading to be right; the lay makes the +power of cohabitation a proof that a man is not a <i>natural</i>; +therefore, since the foolishest woman, if <i>pretty</i>, may have a +child, no <i>pretty woman</i> is ever foolish.</p> +<p>II.i.146 (403,3) put on the vouch of very malice itself] <i>To +put on the vouch of malice</i>, is to assume a character vouched by +the testimony of malice itself.</p> +<p>II.i.165 (404,5) profane] Gross of language, of expression broad +and brutal. So Brabantio, in the first act, calls Iago +<i>profane</i> wretch.</p> +<p>II.i.165 (404,6) liberal counsellor.] <i>Counsellor</i> seems to +mean, not so much a man that <i>gives counsel</i>, us one that +discourses fearlessly and volubly. A talker.</p> +<p>II.i.177 (405,8) well kiss'd! an excellent courtesy!] +[—<i>well kissed</i>, and <i>excellent courtesy</i>;—] +This I think should be printed, <i>well kiss'd</i>! an <i>excellent +courtesy</i>! Spoken when Cassio kisses his hand, and Desdemona +courtesies. [The old quarto confirms Dr. Johnson's emendation. +STEEVENS.]</p> +<p>II.i.208 (406,1) I prattle out of fashion] Out of method, +without any settled order of discourse.</p> +<p>II.i.211 (406,2) the master] The pilot of the ship.</p> +<p>II.i.223 (406,3) Lay thy finger thus] On thy mouth, to stop it +while thou art listening to a wiser man.</p> +<p>II.i.252 (407,5) green minds] Minds unripe, minds not yet fully +formed.</p> +<p>II.i.254 (408,6) she is full of most bless'd condition] +Qualities, disposition of mind.</p> +<p>II.i.274 (408,7) tainting his discipline] Throwing a slur upon +hie discipline.</p> +<p>II.i.279 (408,8) sudden in choler] <i>Sudden</i>, is +precipitately violent.</p> +<p>II.i.283 (408,9) whose qualification shall come into no true +taste again] Whose resentment shall not be so <i>qualified</i> or +<i>tempered</i>, as to be <i>well tasted</i>, as not to retain +<i>some bitterness</i>. The phrase is harsh, at least to our +ears.</p> +<p>II.i.306 (409,1) like a poisonous mineral] This is +philosophical. Mineral poisons kill by corrosion.</p> +<p>II.i.314 (411,4) I'll have our Michael Cassio on the hip] A +phrase from the art of wrestling.</p> +<p>II.i.321 (411,6) Knavery's plain face is never seen] An honest +man acts upon a plan, and forecasts his designs; but a knave +depends upon temporary and local opportunities, and never knows his +own purpose, but at the time of execution.</p> +<p>II.iii.14 (413,8) Our general cast us] That is, <i>appointed us +to our stations</i>. To <i>cast the play</i>, is, in the stile of +the theatres, to assign to every actor his proper part.</p> +<p>II.iii.26 (413,9) And when she speaks, is it not an alarum to +love?] The voice may <i>sound</i> an <i>alarm</i> more properly +than the <i>eye</i> can <i>sound</i> a <i>parley</i>.</p> +<p>II.iii.46 (413,1) I have drunk but one cap to-night, and that +was carefully qualified too] Slily mixed with water.</p> +<p>II.iii.59 (414,2) The very elements; As quarrelsome as the as +the <i>discordia semina rerum</i>; as quick in opposition as fire +and water.</p> +<p>II.iii.64 (414,3) If consequence do but approve my dream] [T: my +deer] This reading is followed by the succeeding editions. I rather +read,</p> +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<p><i>If consequence do but approve my scheme</i>.</p> +</div> +</div> +<p>But why should <i>dream</i> be rejected? Every scheme subsisting +only in the imagination may be termed a <i>dream</i>.</p> +<p>II.iii.93-99 (416,6) <i>King Stephen was a worthy peer</i>] +These stanzas are taken from an old song, which the reader will +find recovered and preserved in a curious work lately printed, +intitled, <i>Relicks of Ancient Poetry</i>, consisting of old +heroic ballands, songs, &c. 3 vols. 12.</p> +<p>II.iii.95 (416,7) <i>lown</i>] Sorry fellow, paltry wretch.</p> +<p>II.iii.135 (417,8) He'll watch the horologe a double set] If he +have no drink, he'll keep awake while the clock strikes two rounds, +or four and twenty hours.</p> +<p>Chaucer uses the ward <i>horologe</i> in more places than +one.</p> +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<p>"Well skirer was his crowing in his loge</p> +<p>"Than is a clock or abbey <i>horologe</i>."]</p> +</div> +</div> +<p>The bracketed part of Johnson's note is taken verbatim from +Zacbary Gray, <i>Critical ... Notes on Shakespeare</i>, 1754, II, +316.] (see 1765, VIII, 374, 6) (rev. 1778, I, 503, 9)</p> +<p>II.iii.145 (418,9) ingraft infirmity; An infirmity <i>rooted, +settled</i> in his constitution.</p> +<p>II.iii.175 (419,3) it frights the isle/From her propriety] From +her regular and <i>proper state</i>.</p> +<p>II.iii.180 (419,4) In quarter] In their quarters; at their +lodging.</p> +<p>II.iii.194 (420,5) you unlace your reputation thus] Slacken, or +<i>loosen</i>. Put in danger of dropping; or perhaps strip of its +ornaments.</p> +<p>II.iii.195 (420,6) spend your rich opinion] Throw away and +squander a reputation as valuable as yours.</p> +<p>II.iii.202 (420,7) self-charity] Care of one's self.</p> +<p>II.iii.211 (421,9) he that is approv'd in this offence] He that +is convicted by proof, of having been engaged in this offence.</p> +<p>II.iii.274 (423,1) cast in his mood] Ejected in his anger.</p> +<p>II.iii.343 (425,4) this advice is free] This counsel has an +appearance of honest openness, of frank good-will.</p> +<p>II.iii.348 (425,5) free elements] Liberal, bountiful, as the +elements, out of which all things are produced.</p> +<p>II.iii.355 (425,6) to this parallel course] i.e. a course level, +and even with his design.</p> +<p>II.iii.363 (425,8) That she repeals him] That is, recalls +him.</p> +<p>II.iii.382 (426,1)</p> +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<p>Though ether things grew fair against the sun,</p> +<p>Yet fruits, that blossom first, will first be ripe]</p> +</div> +</div> +<p>Of many different things, all planned with the same art, and +promoted with the same diligence, some must succeed sooner than +others, by the order of nature. Every thing cannot be done at once; +we must proceed by the necessary gradation. We are not to +<i>despair</i> of slow events any <i>more</i> than of tardy fruits, +while the causes are in regular progress, and the fruits <i>grow +fair against the sun</i>. Hanmer has not, I think, rightly +conceived the sentiment; for he reads,</p> +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<p><i>Those fruits which blossom first</i>, are not first +<i>ripe</i>.</p> +</div> +</div> +<p>I have therefore drawn it out at length, for there are few to +whom that will be easy which was difficult to Hanmer.</p> +<p>III.i.3 (427,2) Why, masters, have your instruments been in +Naples, that they speak i' the nose thus?] The venereal disease +first appeared at the siege of Naples.</p> +<p>III.iii.14 (430,6)</p> +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<p>That policy may either last so long,</p> +<p>Or feed upon such nice and waterish diet,</p> +<p>Or breed itself so out of circumstance,</p> +<p>That I, being absent, and my place supplied,</p> +<p>My general will forget my love and service]</p> +</div> +</div> +<p>He may either of himself think it politic to keep me out of +office so long, or he may be satisfied with such slight reasons, or +so many accidents may make him think my re-admission at that time +improper, that I may be quite forgotten.</p> +<p>III.iii.23 (431,7) I'll watch him tame] It is said, that the +ferocity of beasts, insuperable and irreclaimable by any other +means, is subdued by keeping them from sleep.</p> +<p>III.iii.47 (431,8) His present reconciliation take] [W: make] To +<i>take his reconciliation</i>, may be to accept the submission +which he makes in order to be reconciled.</p> +<p>III.iii.65 (432,1) the wars must make examples/Out of their +best] The severity of military discipline must not spare the +<i>best men</i> of the army, when their punishment nay afford a +wholesome <i>example</i>.</p> +<p>III.iii.90 (433,2) Excellent wretch!—Perdition catch my +soul,/But I do love thee!] The meaning of the word <i>wretch</i>, +is not generally understood. It is now, in some parts of England, a +term of the softest and fondest tenderness. It expresses the utmost +degree of amiableness, joined with an idea, which perhaps all +tenderness includes, of feebleness, softness, and want of +protection. Othello, considering Desdemona as excelling in beauty +and virtue, soft and timorous by her sex, and by her situation +absolutely in his power, calls her <i>Excellent wretch!</i> It may +be expressed,</p> +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<p><i>Dear, harmless, helpless Excellence.</i></p> +</div> +</div> +<p>III.iii.91 (433,3) when I love thee not,/Chaos is come again] +When my love is for a moment suspended by suspicion, I have nothing +in my mind but discord, tumult, perturbation, and confusion.</p> +<p>III.iii.123 (435,4) They are close delations working from the +heart,/ That passion cannot rule] <i>They are</i> cold dilations +<i>working from the heart,/That passion cannot rule</i>.] I know +not why the modern editors are satisfied with this reading, which +no explanation can clear. They might easily have found, that it is +introduced without authority. The old copies uniformly give, +<i>close dilations</i>, except that the earlier quarto has <i>close +denotements</i>; which was the author's first expression, +afterwards changed by him, not to <i>cold dilations</i>, for +<i>cold</i> is read in no ancient copy; nor, I believe, to <i>close +dilations</i>, but to <i>close delations</i>; to <i>occult</i> and +<i>secret accusations, working</i> involuntarily <i>from the +heart</i>, which, though resolved to conceal the fault, cannot rule +its <i>passion</i> of resentment.</p> +<p>III.iii.127 (435,5) Or, those that be not, 'would they might +seem none!] [W: seem knaves] I believe the meaning is, <i>would +they might no longer seem</i>, or bear the shape of <i>men</i>.</p> +<p>III.iii.140 (436,6) Keep leets and law-days] [i.e. govern. +WARBURTON.] Rather <i>visit</i> than <i>govern</i>, but visit with +authoritative intrusion.</p> +<p>III.iii.149 (437,8) From one that so improbably +conceits]—imperfectly <i>conceits</i>,] In the old quarto it +is,</p> +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<p>—improbably <i>conceits</i>,</p> +</div> +</div> +<p>Which I think preferable.</p> +<p>III.iii.166 (437,9) the green-ey'd monster, which doth make/The +meat it feeds on] <i>which doth</i> mock <i>The meat it feeds +on</i>.] I have received Hanmer's emendation ["make"]; because +<i>to mock</i>, does not signify <i>to loath</i>; and because, when +Iago bids Othello <i>beware of jealousy, the green-eyed +monster</i>, it is natural to tell why he should beware, and for +caution he gives him two reasons, that jealousy <i>often</i> +creates its own cause, and that, when the causes are real, jealousy +is misery.</p> +<p>III.iii.173 (438,1) But riches, fineless] Unbounded, endless, +unnumbered treasures.</p> +<p>III.iii.180 (438,3)</p> +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<p>Exchange me for a goat,</p> +<p>When I shall turn the business of my soul</p> +<p>To such exsuffolate and blown surmises,</p> +<p>Matching thy inference]</p> +</div> +</div> +<p>This odd and far-fetched word was made yet more uncouth in all +the editions before Hanmer's, by being printed, +<i>exsufflicate</i>. The allusion is to a bubble. Do not think, +says the Moor, that I shall change the noble designs that now +employ my thoughts, to suspicions which, like bubbles <i>blown</i> +into a wide extent, have only an empty shew without solidity, or +that in consequence of such empty fears, I will close with thy +inference against the virtue of my wife.</p> +<p>III.iii.188 (439,4) Where virtue is, those are most virtuous] An +action in itself indifferent grows virtuous by its end and +application.</p> +<p>III.iii.201 (439,6)</p> +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<p>I know our country disposition well;</p> +<p>In Venice they do let heaven see the pranks]</p> +</div> +</div> +<p>Here Iago seems to be a Venetian.</p> +<p>III.iii.207 (440,7) And, when she seem'd to shake, and fear your +looks,/She lov'd them most] This and the following argument of Iago +ought to be deeply impressed on every reader. Deceit and falsehood, +whatever conveniencies they may for a time promise or produce, are, +in the sum of life, obstacles to happiness. Those, who profit by +the cheat, distruat the deceiver, and the act, by which kindness +was sought, puts an end to confidence.</p> +<p>The same objection may be made with a lower degree of strength +against the imprudent generosity of disproportionate marriages. +When the first heat of passion is over, it is easily succeeded by +suspicion, that the same violence of inclination, which caused one +irregularity, may stimulate to another; and those who have shown, +that their passions are too powerful for their prudence, will, with +very alight appearances againat them, be censured, as not very +likely to restrain them by their virtue. (see 1765, VIII, 397, +1)</p> +<p>III.iii.210 (440,8) To seel her father's eyes up, close as oak] +There is little relation between <i>eyes</i> and <i>oak</i>. I +would read,</p> +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<p><i>She seel'd her father's eyes up close as</i> owl's.</p> +</div> +</div> +<p><i>As blind as an owl</i>, is a proverb.</p> +<p>III.iii.222 (441,1) My speech would fall into such vile success] +[<i>Success</i>, far succession, i.e. conclusion; not prosperous +issue. WARB.] I rather think there is a depravation, and would +read,</p> +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<p><i>My speech would fall into such vile</i> excess.</p> +</div> +</div> +<p>If <i>success</i> be the right word, it seems to mean +<i>consequence</i> or <i>event</i>, as <i>successo</i> is used in +Italian.</p> +<p>III.iii.232 (441,2) will most rank] <i>Will</i>, is for +wilfulness. It is so used by Ascham. A <i>rank will</i>, is +<i>self-will</i> overgrown and exuberant.</p> +<p>III.iii.249 (442,3) You shall by that perceive him, and his +means] You shall discover whether he thinks his best <i>means</i>, +his most powerful <i>interest</i>, is by the solicitation of your +lady.</p> +<p>III.iii.250 (442,4) strain his entertainnent] Press hard his +re-admission to his pay and office. <i>Entertainment</i> was the +military term for admission of soldiers.</p> +<p>III.iii.256 (442,5) Fear not my government] Do not distrust ay +ability to contain my passion.</p> +<p>III.iii.259 (442,6) knows all qualities, with a learned +spirit,/Of human dealings] The construction is, He knows with a +learned spirit all qualities of human dealings.</p> +<p>III.iii.260 (442,7) If I do prore her haggard] A <i>haggard</i> +hark, is a <i>wild</i> hawk, a <i>hawk unreclaimed</i>, or +<i>irreclaimable</i>.</p> +<p>III.iii.262 (443,8) I'd whistle her off, and let her down the +wind,/ To prey at fortune] The falconers always let fly the hawk +against the wind; if she flies with the wind behind her, she seldom +returns. If therefore a hawk was for any reason to be dismissed, +she was <i>let down the wind</i>, and from that time shifted far +herself, and <i>preyed at fortune</i>. This was told me by the late +Mr. Clark.</p> +<p>III.iii.276 (443,9) forked plague] In allusion to a +<i>barbed</i> or <i>forked</i> arrow, which, once infixed, cannot +be extracted.</p> +<p>III.iii.312 (445,2) And, to the advantage, I, being here, took +it up] I being <i>opportunely</i> here, took it up.</p> +<p>III.iii.319 (445,3) Be not you known on't] Should it not rather +be read,</p> +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<p><i>Be not you known</i> in't?</p> +</div> +</div> +<p>The folio reads,</p> +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<p><i>Be not</i> unknown <i>on't</i>.</p> +</div> +</div> +<p>The sense is plain, but of the expression I cannot produce any +example.</p> +<p>III.iii.332 (446,5) that sweet sleep,/Which thou owedst +yesterday] To <i>owe</i> is, in our author, oftener to +<i>possess</i>, than <i>to be indebted</i>, and such was its +meaning here; but as that sense was growing less usual, it was +changed unnecessarily by the editors to <i>hadst</i>; to the sane +meaning, more intelligibly expressed.</p> +<p>III.iii.351 (447,6)</p> +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<p>Farewell the neighing steed, and the shrill trump,</p> +<p>The spirit-stirring drum, the ear-piercing fife]</p> +</div> +</div> +<p>Dr. Warburton has offered <i>fear-spersing</i>, for +<i>fear-dispersing</i>. But <i>ear-piercing</i> is an epithet so +eminently adapted to the <i>fife</i>, and so distinct from the +shrillness of the trumpet, that it certainly ought not to be +changed. Dr. Warburton has been censured for this proposed +emendation with more noise than honesty, for he did not himself put +it in the text.</p> +<p>III.iii.369 (449,8) abandon all remorse] [<i>Remorse</i>, for +repentance. WARBURTON.] I rather think it is, Let go all scruples, +throw aside all restraints.</p> +<p>III.iii.429 (451,4) <i>Oth.</i> 'tis a shrewd doubt] [The old +quarto gives this line, with the two following, to Iago; and +rightly. WARB.] I think it more naturally spoken by Othello, who, +by dwelling so long upon the proof, encouraged Iago to enforce +it.</p> +<p>III.iii.448 (452,8) hearted throne] [W: parted] <i>Hearted</i> +throne, is the heart on which thou wast <i>enthroned</i>. +<i>Parted</i> throne has no meaning.</p> +<p>III.iii.467 (453,3)</p> +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<p class="i6">Let him command,</p> +<p>And to obey, shall be in me remorse,</p> +<p>What bloody business ever]</p> +</div> +</div> +<p>[Pope: Not to obey] [T: Nor, to obey.] [W: me. Remord] Of these +two emendations, I believe, Theobald's will have the greater number +of suffrages; it has at least mine. The objection against the +propriety of the declaration in Iago is a cavil; he does not say +that he has no principle of remorse, but that it shall not operate +against Othello's commands. <i>To obey shall be in me</i>, for <i>I +will obey you</i>, is a mode of expression not worth the pains here +taken to introduce it; and the word <i>remords</i> has not in the +quotation the meaning of <i>withhold</i>, or <i>make reluctant</i>, +but of <i>reprove</i>, or <i>censure</i>; nor do I know that it is +used by any of the contemporaries of Shakespeare.</p> +<p>I will offer an interpretation, which, if it be received, will +make alteration unnecessary, but it is very harsh and violent. Iago +devotes himself to wronged Othello, and says, <i>Let him command +whatever bloody business</i>, and in me it shall be an act, not of +cruelty, but <i>of tenderness, to obey him</i>; not of malice to +other, but of <i>tenderness</i> for him. If this sense be thought +too violent, I see nothing better than to follow Pope's reading, as +it is improved by Theobald.</p> +<p>III.iv.26 (457,5) cruzadoes] [A Portugueze coin, in value three +shillings sterling. Dr. GREY.] So called from the cross stamped +upon it.</p> +<p>III.iv.46 (458,6) The hearts, of old, gave hands] [Warburton +explains this is an allusion to James the First's practice of +creating baronets for money and emends to "The hands of old gave +hearts"] The historical observation is very judicious and acute, +but of the emendation there is no need. She says, that her hand +gave away <i>her heart</i>. He goes on with his suspicion, and the +hand which he had before called <i>frank</i>, he now terms +<i>liberal</i>; then proceeds to remark, that <i>the hand was +formerly given by the heart</i>; but now it neither gives it, nor +is given by it.</p> +<p>III.iv.51 (459,7) salt and sullen rheum]—<i>salt and</i> +sorry rheum] The old quarto has,</p> +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<p>—<i>salt and</i> sullen <i>rheum</i>—-</p> +</div> +</div> +<p>That is, a <i>rheum obstinately troublesome</i>. I think this +better.</p> +<p>III.iv.70 (459,8)</p> +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<p>A Sybil, that had numbred in the world</p> +<p>The sun to course two hundred compasses]</p> +</div> +</div> +<p>The expression is not very infrequent; we say, <i>I counted the +clock to strike four</i>; so she <i>number'd</i> the sun <i>to +course</i>, to run <i>two hundred compasses</i>, two hundred annual +circuits.</p> +<p>III.iv.79 (460,1) Why do you speak so startingly, and rash?] Is +<i>vehement, violent</i>.</p> +<p>III.iv.103 (461,2) 'Tis not a year, or two, shews us a man] From +this line it may be conjectured, that the author intended the +action of the play to be considered as longer than is marked by any +note of time. Since their arrival at Cyprus, to which they were +hurried on their wedding-night, the fable seems to have been in one +continual progress, nor can I see any vacuity into which a <i>year +or two</i>, or even a month or two, could be put. On the night of +Othello's arrival, a feast was proclaimed; at that feast Cassio was +degraded, and immediately applies to Desdemona to get him restored. +Iago indeed advises Othello to hold him off a while, but there is +no reason to think, that he has been held off long. A little longer +interval would increase the probability of the story, though it +might violate the rules of the drama. See Act. 5. Sc. 2. (see 1765, +VIII, 416, 1)</p> +<p>III.iv.113 (461,3) the duty of my heart] —the office <i>of +my heart</i>.] The elder quarto reads,</p> +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<p>—<i>the</i> duty <i>of my heart</i>.</p> +</div> +</div> +<p>The author used the more proper word, and then changed it, I +suppose, for fashionable diction; but, as fashion is a very weak +protectress, the old word is now ready to resume its place.</p> +<p>III.iv.119 (462,4)</p> +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<p>But to know so, must be my benefit]</p> +</div> +<div class="stanza"> +<p>"Si nequeo placidas affari Caesaris aures,</p> +<p>"Saltem aliquis veniat, qui mihi dicat, abi."</p> +</div> +</div> +<p>III.iv.125 (462,7) in favour] In <i>look</i>, in +<i>countenance</i>.</p> +<p>III.iv.128 (462,8) within the blank of his displeasure] Within +the <i>shot</i> of his anger.</p> +<p>III.iv.141 (463,9) some unhatch'd practice] Some treason that +has not taken effect.</p> +<p>III.iv.146 (463,1)</p> +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<p>for let our finger ach,</p> +<p>And it endues our other healthful members</p> +<p>Even to that sense of pain]</p> +</div> +</div> +<p><i>Endue with a sense of pain</i>, is an expression, which, +though it might be endured, if it were genuine, cannot deserve to +be introduced by artifice. The copies, both quarto and folio, read, +<i>Endue our other healthful members even to a sense of pain</i>. I +believe it should be rather, SUBDUE <i>our other healthful members +to a sense of pain</i>.</p> +<p>III.iv.151 (463,2) (unhandsome warrior as I am)] [W: wrangler] +<i>Unhandsome warrior</i>, is evidently <i>unfair +assailant</i>.</p> +<p>III.iv.178 (464,3) a more continuate time]—<i>more</i> +convenient <i>time</i>] The folio has,</p> +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<p>—<i>more</i> continuate <i>time</i>;</p> +</div> +</div> +<p>Time <i>less interrupted</i>, time which I can call more my own. +It gives a more distinct image than <i>convenient</i>.</p> +<p>III.iv.180 (464,4) Take me this work out] The meaning is not, +"Pick out the work, and leave the ground plain;" but, "Copy this +work in another handkerchief."</p> +<p>IV.i.5 (466,6)</p> +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<p>Naked in bed, Iago, and not mean harm?</p> +<p>It is hypocrisy against the devil]</p> +</div> +</div> +<p><i>Hypocrisy against the devil</i>, means hypocrisy to cheat the +devil. As common hypocrites cheat men, by seeming good, and yet +living wickedly, these men would cheat the devil, by giving him +flattering hopes, and at last avoiding the crime which he thinks +them ready to commit.</p> +<p>IV.i.22 (467,8) Boding to all] Thus all the old copies. The +moderns, less grammatically,</p> +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<p><i>Boding to</i> ill—</p> +</div> +</div> +<p>IV.i.42 (468,2) without sone instruction] [W: induction] This is +a noble conjecture, and whether right or wrong does honour to its +author. Yet I am in doubt whether there is any necessity of +emendation. There has always prevailed in the world an opinion, +that when any great calamity happens at a distance, notice is given +of it to the sufferer by some dejection or perturbation of mind, of +which he discovers no external cause. This is ascribed to that +general communication of one part of the universe with another, +which is called sympathy and antipathy; or to the secret monition, +<i>instruction</i>, and influence of a superior Being, which +superintends the order of nature and of life. Othello says, +<i>Nature could not invest herself in such shadowing passion +without</i> instruction. <i>It is not words that shake me thus.</i> +This passion, which spreads its clouds over me, is the effect of +some agency more than the operation of words; it is one of those +notices which men have of unseen calamities.</p> +<p>IV.i.76 (471,4) Confine yourself but in a patient list] For +attention; act of listening.</p> +<p>IV.i.82 (471,5) encave yourself] Hide yourself in a private +place.</p> +<p>IV.i.89 (471,6) Or I shall say, you are all in all in +spleen,/And nothing of a man] I read,</p> +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<p><i>Or shall I say, you're all in all a spleen</i>.</p> +</div> +</div> +<p>I think our author uses this expression elsewhere.</p> +<p>IV.i.121 (472,8) Do you triumph, Roman? do you triumph?] Othello +calls him <i>Roman</i> ironically. <i>Triumph</i>, which was a +Roman ceremony, brought Roman into his thoughts. <i>What</i> (says +he) <i>you are now</i> triumphing <i>as great as a Roman</i>?</p> +<p>IV.i.123 (472,9) a customer!] A common woman, one that invites +custom.</p> +<p>IV.i.130 (473,1) Have you scar'd me? Have you made my reckoning? +have you settled the term of my life? The old quarto reads, +<i>stored</i> me. Have you disposed of me? have you laid me up?</p> +<p>IV.i.150 (473,2) 'Tis such another fitchew! marry, a perfum'd +one] Shakespeare has in another place mentioned the lust of this +animal. He tells Iago, that she is as lewd as the <i>polecat</i>, +but of better scent, the polecat being a very stinking animal.</p> +<p>IV.i.244 (476,4) atone them] Make them <i>one</i>; reconcile +them.</p> +<p>IV.i.256 (477,5)</p> +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<p>If that the earth could teem with woman's tears,</p> +<p>Each drop she falls would prove a crocodile]</p> +</div> +</div> +<p>If womens tears could impregnate the earth. By the doctrine of +equivocal generation, new animals were supposed producible by new +combinations of matter. See Bacon.</p> +<p>IV.i.277 (478,7)</p> +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<p class="i6">whose solid virtue</p> +<p>The shot of accident, nor dart of chance,</p> +<p>Could neither graze nor pierce]</p> +</div> +</div> +<p>[T: of change] To <i>graze</i> is not merely to touch +superficially, but to strike not directly, not so as to bury the +body of the thing striking in the matter struck.</p> +<p>Theobald trifles, as is usual. <i>Accident</i> and <i>chance</i> +may admit a subtle distinction; <i>accident</i> may be considered +as the <i>act</i>, and <i>chance</i> as the <i>power</i> or +<i>agency</i> of fortune; as, <i>It was</i> by chance <i>that +this</i> accident <i>befel me</i>. At least, if we suppose all +corrupt that is inaccurate, there will be no end of emendation.</p> +<p>IV.ii.57 (482,1) garner'd up my heart] That is, <i>treasured</i> +up; the <i>garner</i> and the <i>fountain</i> are improperly +conjoined.</p> +<p>IV.ii.62 (482,2)</p> +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<p>Turn thy complexion there!</p> +<p>Patience, thou young and rose-lipp'd cherubim;</p> +<p>Ay, there, look grim as hell]</p> +</div> +</div> +<p>At such an object do thou, <i>patience</i>, thyself <i>change +colour</i>; at this do thou, even thou, <i>rosy cherub</i> as thou +art, <i>look grim as hell</i>. The old editions and the new have +it,</p> +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<p><i>I here look grim as hell.</i></p> +</div> +</div> +<p><i>I</i> was written for <i>ay</i>, and not since corrected.</p> +<p>IV.ii.109 (484,4) The small'st opinion on my great'st abuse] The +old quarto reads [for "least misuse"],</p> +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<p><i>The small'st opinion on my</i> great'st abuse.</p> +</div> +</div> +<p>Which I think is better.</p> +<p>IV.ii.140 (486,6) Some base notorious knave] For <i>gross</i>, +not in its proper meaning for <i>known</i>.</p> +<p>IV.ii.144 (486,7) Speak within door] Do not clamour so as to be +heard beyond the house.</p> +<p>IV.ii.146 (486,8) the seamy side without] That is, <i>inside +out</i>.</p> +<p>IV.iii.27 (490,2) and he, she lov'd, prov'd mad,/And did forsake +her] I believe that <i>mad</i> only signifies <i>wild, frantick, +uncertain</i>.</p> +<p>IV.iii.31 (490,3) I have much to do,/But to go hang my head] I +<i>have much</i> ado to do any thing <i>but hang my head</i>. We +might read,</p> +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<p>Not <i>to go hang my head</i>.</p> +</div> +</div> +<p>This is perhaps the only insertion made in the latter editions +which has improved the play. The rest seem to have been added for +the sake of amplification, or of ornament. When the imagination had +subsided, and the mind was no longer agitated by the horror of the +action, it became at leisure to look round for specious additians. +This addition is natural. Desdemona can at first hardly forbear to +sing the song; she endeavours to change her train of thoughts, but +her imagination at last prevails, and she sings it.</p> +<p>IV.iii.41 (491,4)</p> +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<p><i>Des.</i> "The poor soul sat singing by a sycamore-tree,</p> +<p>"Sing all a green willow]</p> +</div> +</div> +<p>This song, in two parts, is printed in a late collection of old +ballads; the lines preserved here differ somewhat from the copy +discovered by the ingenious collector.</p> +<p>IV.iii.55 (491,5)</p> +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<p><i>Des.</i> "I call'd my love false love; but what said</p> +<p>"he then?</p> +<p>"Sing willow, &c.]</p> +</div> +</div> +<p>This couplet is not in the ballad, which is the complaint, not +of a woman forsaken, but of a man rejected. These lines were +probably added when it was accommodated to a woman.</p> +<p>IV.iii.94 (493,6) our former having] Our former allowance of +experience.</p> +<p>IV.iii.107 (493,7) heaven me such usage send] —<i>heaven +me such</i> uses <i>send</i>,] Such is the reading of the folio, +and of the subsequent editions; but the old quarto has,</p> +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<p>—<i>such</i> usage <i>send</i>.—</p> +</div> +</div> +<p><i>Usage</i> is an old word for <i>custom</i>, and, I think, +better than <i>uses</i>.</p> +<p>V.i.11 (494,1) I have rubb'd this young quat <i>almost to the +sense</i>] In some editions,</p> +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<p><i>I've rubb'd this young</i> gnat <i>almost to the +sense,</i></p> +<p><i>And he grows angry</i>.]</p> +</div> +</div> +<p>This is a passage much controverted among the editors. Sir T. +Hanner reads <i>quab</i>, a <i>gudgeon</i>; not that a gudgeon can +be <i>rubbed</i> to much <i>sense</i>, but that a man grossly +deceived is often called a <i>gudgeon</i>. Mr. Upton reads +<i>quail</i>, which he proves, by much learning, to be a very +choleric bird. Dr. Warburton retains <i>gnat</i>, which is found in +the early quarto. Theobald would introduce <i>knot</i>, a small +bird of that name. I have followed the text of the folio, and third +and fourth quartos.</p> +<p>A <i>quat</i> in the midland counties is a <i>pimple</i>, which +by rubbing is made to smart, or is <i>rubbed to sense</i>. Roderigo +is called a <i>quat</i> by the same mode of speech, as a low fellow +is now termed in lay language a <i>scab. To rub to the sense</i>, +is <i>to rub to the quick</i>.</p> +<p>V.i.37 (496,2) No passage?] No passengers? No body going by?</p> +<p>V.i.42 (499,4) a heary night] A <i>thick cloudy</i> night, in +which an ambush may be commodiously laid.</p> +<p>V.ii.1 (499,4) It is the cause, it is the cause, my +soul;—/Let me not name it] The abruptness of this soliloquy +makes it obscure. The meaning, I think, is this: "I am here (says +Othello in his mind) overwhelmed with horror. What is the reason of +this perturbation? Is it want of resolution to do justice? Is it +the dread of shedding blood? No; it is not the action that shocks +me, but <i>it is the cause, it is the cause, my soul; let me not +name it to you, ye chaste stars; it is the cause</i>."</p> +<p>V.ii.20 (500,7)</p> +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<p class="i6">I must weep,</p> +<p>But they are cruel tears: this sorrel's heavenly;</p> +<p>It strikes, where it doth love.—She wakes—]</p> +</div> +</div> +<p>This tenderness, with which I lament the punishment which +justice compels me to inflict, is a holy passion.</p> +<p>I wish these two lines could be honestly ejected. It is the fate +of Shakespeare to counteract his own pathos.</p> +<p>V.ii.65 (502,8) A murder, which I thought a sacrifice] This line +is difficult. <i>Thou hast hardened my heart, and makest me</i> +kill thee with the rage of a <i>murderer</i>, when <i>I thought to +have sacrificed</i> thee to justice with the calmness of a priest +striking a victim.</p> +<p>It must not be omitted, that one of the elder quartos reads, +<i>thou dost stone</i> thy <i>heart</i>; which I suspect to be +genuine. The meaning then will be, <i>thou forcest me</i> to +dismiss thee from the world in the state of the <i>murdered</i> +without preparation for death, <i>when I intended</i> that thy +punishment should have been a <i>sacrifice</i> atoning for thy +crime.</p> +<p>I am glad that I have ended my revisal of this dreadful scene. +It is not to be endured.</p> +<p>V.ii.134 (505,3) false as water] As water that will support no +weight, nor keep any impression.</p> +<p>V.ii.151 (506,4) villainy has made mocks with love] +<i>Villainy</i> has taken advantage to <i>play upon</i> the +weakness of a violent passion.</p> +<p>V.ii.162 (506,5) Thou hast not half that power to do me harm, +/As I have to be hurt] [Hamner: to bear hurt] The Oxford Editor saw +well the meaning of his author, but weakened his expression. She +means to say, <i>I have in this cause power to endure more than +thou hast power to inflict</i>.</p> +<p>V.ii.183 (507, 6) charm your tongue] I know not whether I have +read, or whether my own thoughts hare suggested, an alteration of +this passage. It seems to me not improbable, that Shakespeare wrote +<i>clam</i> your tongue; to <i>clam</i> a bell, is to cover the +clapper with felt, which drowns the blow, and hinders the +sound.</p> +<p>V.ii.211 (509,7) she with Cassio had the act of shame/A thousand +times committed] This is another passage which seems to suppose a +longer space comprised in the action of this play than the scenes +include.</p> +<p>V.ii.253 (512,2) It was a sword of Spain, the ice-brook's +temper] [In the first edition it is, <i>Isebroke's temper</i>. +Thence corrupted to <i>Ice-brook's</i>.—<i>Ebro's temper</i>; +the waters of that river of Spain are particularly famous for +tempering of steel. POPE.] I believe the old reading changed to +<i>ice-brook</i> is right. Steel is hardened by being put red hot +into very cold water.</p> +<p>V.ii.286 (513,3)</p> +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<p>I look down towards his feet; but that's a fable.</p> +<p>If that thou be'st a devil, I cannot kill thee]</p> +</div> +</div> +<p>To see if, according to the common opinion, his feet be +cloven.</p> +<p>V.ii.292 (513,4) Fall'n in the practice of a cursed slave] In +the <i>snare</i>, by the <i>stratagem</i>.</p> +<p>V.ii.317 (514,5) in the interim] The first copy has, <i>in +the</i> nick. It was, I suppose, thought upon revisal, that +<i>nick</i> was too familiar.</p> +<p>V.ii.342 (515,6) Speak of me as I am] The early copies read, +<i>Speak of them as they are</i>. The present reading has more +force. (rev. 1778, X, 622, 6)</p> +<p>(520,2) General Observation. The beauties of this play impress +themselves so strongly upon the attention of the reader, that they +can draw no aid from critical illustration. The fiery openness of +Othello, magnanimous, artless, and credulous, boundless in his +confidence, ardent in his affection, inflexible in his resolution, +and obdurate in his revenge; the cool malignity of Iago, silent in +his resentment, subtle in his designs, and studious at once of his +interest and his vengeance; the soft simplicity of Desdemona, +confident of merit, and conscious of innocence, her artless +perseverance in her suit, and her slowness to suspect that she can +be suspected, are such proofs of Shakespeare's skill in human +nature, as, I suppose, it is vain to seek in any modern writer. The +gradual progress which Iago makes in the Moor's conviction, and the +circumstances which he employs to inflame him, are so artfully +natural, that, though it will perhaps not be said of him as he says +of himself, that he is <i>a man not easily jealous</i>, yet we +cannot but pity him, when at last we find him <i>perplexed in the +extreme</i>.</p> +<p>There is always danger, lest wickedness, conjoined with +abilities, should steal upon esteem, though it misses of +approbation; but the character of Iago is so conducted, that he is +from the first scene to the last hated and despised.</p> +<p>Even the inferior characters of this play would be very +conspicuous in any other piece, not only for their justness, but +their strength. Cassio is brave, benevolent, and honest, ruined +only by his want of stubbornness to resist an insidious invitation. +Roderigo's suspicious credulity, and impatient submission to the +cheats which he sees practised upon him, and which by persuasion he +suffers to be repeated, exhibit a strong picture of a weak mind +betrayed by unlawful desires to a false friend; and the virtue of +Aemilia is such as we often find, worn loosely, but not cast off, +easy to commit small crimes, but quickened and alarmed at atrocious +villainies.</p> +<p>The scenes from the beginning to the end are busy, varied by +happy interchanges, and regularly promoting the progression of the +story; and the narrative in the end, though it tells but what is +known already, yet is necessary to produce the death of +Othello.</p> +<p>Had the scene opened in Cyprus, and the preceding incidents been +occasionally related, there had been little wanting to a drama of +the most exact and scrupulous regularity.</p> +<p>(LI 2) Appendix. Some apology perhaps is necessary for the +inconvenience of an Appendix, which, however, we can justify by the +strongest of all pleas, the plea of necessity. The Notes which it +contains, whether communicated by correspondents, or collected from +published volumes, were not within our reach when the plays were +printed, to which they relate. Of that which chance has supplied, +we could have no previous knowledge; and he that waited till the +river should run dry, did not act with less reason than the Editor +would do, who should suspend his publication for possibilities of +intelligence, or promises of improvement. Had we foreseen the +<i>Oxford</i> edition, the assistance we expected from it might +have persuaded us to pause; but our volumes were completely +finished before its publication. [There are no notes by Johnson in +this Appendix; several are by Steevens.]</p> +<hr class="full" /> + + + + + + + +<pre> + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Notes to Shakespeare, Volume III: The +Tragedies, by Samuel Johnson + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK NOTES TO SHAKESPEARE *** + +***** This file should be named 15566-h.htm or 15566-h.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + https://www.gutenberg.org/1/5/5/6/15566/ + +Produced by David Starner, David King, and the PG Online +Distributed Proofreading Team + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: Notes to Shakespeare, Volume III: The Tragedies + +Author: Samuel Johnson + +Editor: Arthur Sherbo + +Release Date: April 6, 2005 [EBook #15566] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK NOTES TO SHAKESPEARE *** + + + + +Produced by David Starner, David King, and the PG Online +Distributed Proofreading Team + + + + + +THE AUGUSTAN REPRINT SOCIETY + +SAMUEL JOHNSON + +NOTES TO SHAKESPEARE + + +Vol. III + +Tragedies + +Edited, with an Introduction, by +Arthur Sherbo + +Los Angeles +William Andrews Clark Memorial Library +University of California +1958 + +GENERAL EDITORS + +Richard C. Boys, _University of Michigan_ + +Ralph Cohen, _University of California, Los Angeles_ + +Vinton A. Dearing, _University of California, Los Angeles_ + +Lawrence Clark Powell, _Clark Memorial Library_ + + +ASSISTANT EDITOR + +W. Earl Britton, _University of Michigan_ + + +ADVISORY EDITORS + +Emmett L. Avery, _State College of Washington_ + +Benjamin Boyce, _Duke University_ + +Louis Bredvold, _University of Michigan_ + +John Butt, _King's College, University of Durham_ + +James L. Clifford, _Columbia University_ + +Arthur Friedman, _University of Chicago_ + +Louis A. Landa, _Princeton University_ + +Samuel H. Monk, _University of Minnesota_ + +Ernest C. Mossner, _University of Texas_ + +James Sutherland, _University College, London_ + +H. T. Swedenberg, Jr., _University of California, Los Angeles_ + + +CORRESPONDING SECRETARY + +Edna C. Davis, _Clark Memorial Library_ + + + + +Introduction on Tragedies + +Dr. Johnson's reaction to Shakespeare's tragedies is a curious one, +compounded as it is of deep emotional involvement in a few scenes in +some plays and a strange dispassionateness toward most of the others. I +suspect that his emotional involvement took root when he read +Shakespeare as a boy--one remembers the terror he experienced in reading +of the Ghost in _Hamlet_, and it was probably also as a boy that he +suffered that shock of horrified outrage and grief at the death of +Cordelia that prevented him from rereading the scene until be came to +edit the play. Johnson's deepest feelings and convictions, Professor +Clifford has recently reminded us, can be traced back to his childhood +and adolescence. But it is surprising to learn, as one does from his +commentary, that other scenes in these very plays (_Hamlet_ and _King +Lear_, and in _Macbeth_, too) leave him unmoved, if one can so interpret +the absence of any but an explanatory note on, say, Lear's speech +beginning "Pray, do not mock me;/I am a very foolish fond old man." +Besides this negative evidence there is also the positive evidence of +many notes which display the dispassionate editorial mind at work where +one might expect from Johnson an outburst of personal feeling. There are +enough of these outbursts to warrant our expecting others, but we are +too frequently disappointed. Perhaps Johnson thought of most of +Shakespeare's tragedies as "imperial tragedies" and that is why he could +maintain a stance of aloofness; conversely, "the play of _Timon_ is a +domestick Tragedy, and therefore strongly fastens on the attention of +the reader." But the "tragedy" of Timon does not capture the attention +of the modern reader, and perhaps all attempts to fix Johnson's likes +and dislikes, and the reasons for them, in the canon of Shakespeare's +plays must circle endlessly without ever getting to their destination. + + + + +TRAGEDIES + + +Vol. IV + + +MACBETH + + +(392) Most of the notes which the present editor has subjoined to this +play were published by him in a small pamphlet in 1745. + +I.i (393,*) _Enter three Witches_] In order to make a true estimate of +the abilities and merit of a writer, it it always necessary to examine +the genius of his age, and the opinions of his contemporaries. A poet +who should now make the whole action of his tragedy depend upon +enchantment, and produce the chief events by the assistance of +supernatural agents, would be censured as transgressing the bounds of +probability, be banished from the theatre to the nursery, and condemned +to write fairy tales instead of tragedies; but a survey of the notions +that prevailed at the time when this play was written, will prove that +Shakespeare was in no danger of such censures, since he only turned the +system that was then universally admitted, to his advantage, and was far +from overburthening the credulity of his audience. + +The reality of witchcraft or enchantment, which, though not strictly the +same, are confounded in this play, has in all ages and countries been +credited by the common people, and in most, by the learned themselves. +These phantoms have indeed appeared more frequently, in proportion as +the darkness of ignorance has been more gross; but it cannot be shown, +that the brightest gleams of knowledge have at any time been sufficient +to drive them out of the world. The time in which this kind of credulity +was at its height, seems to have been that of the holy war, in which the +Christians imputed all their defeats to enchantments or diabolical +opposition, as they ascribed their success to the assistance of their +military saints; and the learned Dr. Warburton appears to believe +(_Suppl. to the Introduction to Don Quixote_) that the first accounts of +enchantments were brought into this part of the world by those _who_ +returned from their eastern expeditions. But there is always some +distance between the birth and maturity of folly as of wickedness: this +opinion had long existed, though perhaps the application of it had in no +foregoing age been so frequent, nor the reception so general. +Olympiodorus, in Photius's extracts, tells us of one Libanius, who +practised this kind of military magic, and having promised [Greek: +choris opliton kata barbaron energein] to perform great things against +the Barbarians without soldiers, was, at the instances of the empress +Placidia, put to death, when he was about to have given proofs of his +abilities. The empress shewed some kindness in her anger by cutting him +off at a time so convenient for his reputation. + +But a more remarkable proof of the antiquity of this notion may be found +in St. Chrysostom's book _de Sacerdotia_, which exhibits a scene of +enchantments not exceeded by any romance of the middle age: he supposes +a spectator overlooking a field of battle attended by one that points +out all the various objects of horror, the engines of destruction, and +the arts of slaughter. [Greek: Deichnuto de eti para tois enantiois kai +petomenous hippous dia tinos magganeias, kai oplitas di' aeros +pheromenous, kai pasaen goaeteias dunomin kai idean.] _Let him then +proceed to shew him in the opposite armies horses flying by enchantment, +armed men transported through the air, and every power and form of +magic._ Whether St. Chrysostom believed that such performances were +really to be seen in a day of battle, or only endeavoured to enliven his +description, by adopting the notions of the vulgar, it is equally +certain, that such nations were in his time received, and that therefore +they were not imported from the Saracens in a later age; the wars with +the Saracens however gave occasion to their propagation, not only as +bigotry naturally discovers prodigies, but as the scene of action was +removed to a great distance. + +The Reformation did not immediately arrive at its meridian, and though +day was gradually encreasing upon us, the goblins of witchcraft still +continued to hover in the twilight. In the time of queen Elizabeth was +the remarkable trial of the witches of Warbois, whose conviction is +still commemorated in an annual sermon at Huntingdon. But in the reign +of king James, in which this tragedy was written, many circumstances +concurred to propagate and confirm this opinion. The king, who was much +celebrated for his knowledge, had, before his arrival in England, not +only examined in person a woman accused of witchcraft, but had given a +very formal account of the practices and illusions of evil spirits, the +compacts of witches, the ceremonies used by them, the manner of +detecting them, and the justice of punishing them, in his dialogues of +_Daemonologie_, written in the Scottish dialect, and published at +Edinburgh. This book was, soon after his accession, reprinted at London, +and as the ready way to gain king James's favour was to flatter his +speculations, the system of _Daemonologie_ was immediately adopted by +all who desired either to gain preferment or not to lose it. Thus the +doctrine of witchcraft was very powerfully inculcated; and as the +greatest part of mankind have no other reason for their opinions than +that they are in fashion, it cannot be doubted but this persuasion made +a rapid progress, since vanity and credulity co-operated in its favour. +The infection soon reached the parliament, who, in the first year of +king James, made a law, by which it was enacted, chap. xii. "That if any +person shall use any invocation or conjuration of any evil or wicked +spirit; 2. or shall consult, covenant with, entertain, employ, feed or +reward any evil or cursed spirit to or for any intent or purpose; 3. or +take up any dead man, woman or child out of the grave,--or the skin, +bone, or any part of the dead person, to be employed or used in any +manner of witchcraft, sorcery, charm, or enchantment; 4. or shall use, +practise or exercise any sort of witchcraft, sorcery, charm, or +enchantment; 5. whereby any person shall be destroyed, killed, wasted, +consumed, pined, or lamed in any part of the body; 6. That every such +person being convicted shall suffer death." This law was repealed in our +own time. + +Thus, in the time of Shakespeare, was the doctrine of witchcraft at once +established by law and by the fashion, and it became not only unpolite, +but criminal, to doubt it; and as prodigies are always seen in +proportion as they are expected, witches were every day discovered, and +multiplied as fast in some places, that bishop Hall mentions a village +in Lancashire, where their number was greater than that of the houses. +The jesuits and sectaries took advantage of this universal error, and +endeavoured to promote the interest of their parties by pretended cures +of persons afflicted by evil spirits; but they were detected and exposed +by the clergy of the established church. + +Upon this general infatuation Shakespeare might be easily allowed to +found a play, especially since he has followed with great exactness such +histories as were then thought true; nor can it be doubted that the +scenes of enchantment, however they may now be ridiculed, were both by +himself and his audience thought awful and affecting. + +I.i.10 (396,5) Fair is foul, and foul is fair] I believe the meaning is, +that _to us_, perverse and malignant as we are, _fair is foul, and foul +is fair_. + +I.ii.14 (398,9) And Fortune, on his damned quarry smiling] Thus the old +copy; but I am inclined to read _quarrel_. _Quarrel_ was formerly used +for _cause_, or for _the occasion of a quarrel_, and is to be found in +that sense in Hollingshed's account of the story of Macbeth, who, upon +the creation of the prince of Cumberland, thought, says the historian, +that he had _a just quarrel_, to endeavour after the crown. The sense +therefore is, _Fortune smiling on his excrable cause_, &c. This is +followed by Dr. Warburten. (see 1765, VI, 373, 4). + +I.ii.28 (400,4) Discomfort swells] _Discomfort_ the natural opposite to +_comfort_. _Well'd_, for _flawed_, was an emendation. The common copies +have, _discomfort swells_. + + I.ii.37 (400,5) As cannons overcharg'd with double cracks, + So they + Doubly redoubled strokes upon the foe] + +Mr. Theobald has endeavoured to improve the sense of this passage by +altering the punctuation thus: + + --_they were + As cannons overcharg'd, with double cracks + So they redoubled strokes_-- + +He declares, with some degree of exultation, that he has no idea of a +_cannon charged with double cracks_; but surely the great author will +not gain much by an alteration which makes him say of a hero, that he +_redoubles strokes with double cracks_, an expression not more loudly to +be applauded, or more easily pardoned than that which is rejected in its +favour. That a cannon is charged _with thunder_, or _with double +thunders_, may be written, not only without nonsense, but with elegance, +and nothing else is here meant by _cracks_, which in the time of this +writer was a word of such emphasis and dignity, that in this play he +terms the general dissolution of nature the _crack of doom_. + +The old copy reads, + +_They doubly redoubled strokes_. + +I.ii.46 (401,8) So should he look, that seems to speak things strange] +The meaning of this passage, as it now stands, is, _so should he look, +that looks as if he told things strange_. But Rosse neither yet told +strange things, nor could look as if he told them; Lenox only +conjectured from his air that he had strange things to tell, and +therefore undoubtedly said, + + _What haste looks thro' his eyes? + So should he look, that_ teems _to speak thinks strange_. + +He looks like one that _is big with_ something of importance; a metaphor +so natural that it is every day used in common discourse. + +I.ii.55 (402,1) Confronted him with self-comparisons] [Theobald +interpreted "him" as Cawdor; Johnson, in 1745, accused Shakespeare of +forgetfulness on the basis of Theobald's error; and Warburton here +speaks of "blunder upon blunder."] The second blunderer was the present +editor. + +I.iii.6 (403,5) _Aroint thee, witch_!] In one of the folio editions the +reading is _Anoint thee_, in a sense very consistent with the common +accounts of witches, who are related to perform many supernatural acts +by the means of unguents, and particularly to fly through the air to the +places where they meet at their hellish festivals. In this sense, +_anoint thee, Witch_, will mean, _Away, Witch, to your infernal +assembly_. This reading I was inclined to favour, because I had met with +the word _aroint_ in no other authour till looking into Hearne's +Collections I found it in a very old drawing, that he has published, in +which St. Patrick is represented visiting hell, and putting the devils +into great confusion by his presence, of whom one that is driving the +damned before him with a prong, has a label issuing out of his mouth +with these words, OUT OUT ARONGT, of which the last is evidently the +same with _aroint_, and used in the same sense as in this passage. + +I.iii.15 (405,8) And the very points they blew] As the word _very_ is +here of no other use than to fill up the verse, it is likely that +Shakespeare wrote _various_, which might be easily mistaken for _very_, +being either negligently read, hastily pronounced, or imperfectly heard. + +I.iii.21 (405,9) He shall live a man forbid] Mr. Theobald has very +justly explained _forbid_ by _accursed_, but without giving any reason +of his interpretation. To _bid_ is originally _to pray_, as in this +Saxon fragment, + + Ethe iy þiy þ bit y bote + _He is wise that_ prays and makes amends. + +As to forbid_ therefore implies to _prohibit_, in opposition to the word +_bid_ in its present sense, it signifies by the same kind of opposition +to _curse_, when it is derived from the same word in its primitive +meaning. + +I.iii.42 (409,3) are you aught/That man may question?] Are ye any beings +with which man is permitted to hold converse, or of which it is lawful +_to ask questions_? + +I.iii.53 (410,5) Are ye fantastical] By _fantastical_, he means +creatures of fantasy or imagination; the question is, Are these real +beings before us, or are we deceived by illusions of fancy? + +I.iii.97 (412,8) As thick as tale] [As thick as hail] Was Mr. Pope's +correction. The old copy has, + + --_As thick_ as tale + _Can_ post _with_ post;-- + +which perhaps is not amiss, meaning that the news came as _thick_ as a +_tale_ can _travel_ with the _post_. Or we may read, perhaps yet better, + + --_As thick as tale_ + Came _post with post_;-- + +That is, posts arrived as fast as they could be counted. + +I.iii.130 (414,4) This supernatural solliciting] _Solliciting_ is +rather, in my opinion, _incitement_ than _information_. + +I.iii.134 (414,5) why do I yield] To _yield_ is, simply, to _give way +to_. + +I.iii.137 (414,6) Present fears/Are less than horrible imaginings] [W: +feats] _Present fears_ are _fears of things present_, which Macbeth +declares, and every man has found, to be less than the _imagination_ +presents them while the objects are yet distant. _Fears_ is right. + +I.iii.140 (415,7) single state of man] The _single state of man_ seems +to be used by Shakespeare for an _individual_, in opposition to a +_commonwealth_, or _conjunct body_. + +I.iii.40 (415,8) function/Is smother'd in surmise; and nothing is,/ But +what is not] All powers of action are oppressed and crushed by one +overwhelming image in the mind, and nothing is present to me, but that +which is really future. Of things now about me I have no perception, +being intent wholly on that which has yet no existence. + +I.iii.147 (415,9) Time and the hour runs through the roughest day] I +suppose every reader is disgusted at the tautology in this passage, +_Time and the hour_, and will therefore willingly believe that +Shakespeare wrote it thus, + + _Come what come may_, + Time! on!--_the hour runs thro' the roughest day_. + +Macbeth is deliberating upon the events which are to befall him, but +finding no satisfaction from his own thoughts, he grows impatient of +reflection, and resolves to wait the close without harrassing hinaelf +with conjectures. + + _Come what come may_. + +But to shorten the pain of suspense, he calls upon Time In the usual +stile of ardent desire, to quicken his motion, + + _Time! on!_ -- + +He then comforts himself with the reflection that all his perplexity +must have an end, + + --_the hour runs thro' the roughest day._ + +This conjecture is supported by the passage in the letter to his lady, +in which he says, _they referred me to the_ coming on of time, _with +Hail, King that shalt be_. + +I.iii.149 (416,1) My dull brain was wrought] My head was _worked_, +_agitated_, put into commotion. + +I.iv.9 (417,3) studied in his death] Instructed in the art of dying. It +was usual to say _studied_, for _learned_ in science. + +I.iv.12 (417,4) To find the mind's construction in the face] The +_construction of the mind_ is, I believe, a phrase peculiar to +Shakespeare; it implies the _frame_ or _disposition_ of the mind, by +which it is determined to good or ill. + +I.iv.26 (418,5) Which do but what they should, by doing everything, Safe +toward your love and honour] Of the last line of this speech, which is +certainly, as it is now read, unintelligible, an emendation has been +attempted, which Dr. Warburton and Dr. Theobald once admitted as the +true reading: + + --_our duties + Are to your throne and state, children and servants, + Which do but what they should, in doing every thing_ + Fiefs _to your love and honour._ + +My esteem for these critics inclines me to believe that they cannot be +much pleased with these expressions _fiefs to love_, or _fiefs to +honour_, and that they have proposed this alteration rather because no +other occured to them, than because they approved of it. I shall +therefore propose a bolder change, perhaps with no better success, but +_sua cuique placent_. I read thus, + + --_our duties + Are to your throne and state, children and servants + Which do but what they should, in doing_ nothing, + Save _toward_ your love and honour. + +We do but perform our duty when we contract all our views to your +service, when we act with _no other_ principle than regard to _your love +and honour_. + +It is probable that this passage was first corrupted by writing _safe_ +for _save_, and the lines then stood thus: + + --_doing nothing + Safe toward your love and honour._ + +which the next transcriber observing to be wrong, and yet not being able +to discover the real fault, altered to the present reading. + +Dr. Warburton has since changed _fiefs_ to _fief'd_, and Hanmer has +altered _safe_ to _shap'd_. I am afraid none of us have hit the right +word. + +I.v.2 (420, 6) _by the perfected report_] By the best intelligence. Dr. +Warburton would read, _perfected_, and explains _report_ by +_prediction_. Little regard can be paid to an emendation that instead of +clearing the sense, makes it more difficult. + +I.v.23 (420, 7) thoud'st have, great Glamis,/That which cries, _Thus +thou must do, if thou have it_] As the object of Macbeth's desire is +here introduced speaking of itself, it is necessary to read, + + --_thoud'st have, great Glamis, + That which cries_, thus thou must do, if thou have _me_. + +I.v.39 (422, 8) The raven himself is hoarse] Dr. Warburton reads, + + --_The raven himself's_ not _hoarse_. + +Yet I think the present words may stand. The messenger, says the +servant, had hardly breath _to make up his message_; to which the lady +answers mentally, that he may well want breath, such a message would add +hoarseness to the raven. That even the bird, whose harsh voice is +accustomed to predict calamities, could not _croak the entrance of_ +Duncan but in a note of unwonted harshness. + +I.v.42 (422, 2) mortal thoughts] This expression signifies not _the +thoughts of mortals_, but _murtherous, deadly_, or _destructive +designs_. So in act 5, + + _Hold fast the_ mortal _sword_. + +And in another place, + + _With twenty_ mortal _murthers_. + +I.v.47 (422, 3) nor keep peace between/The effect, and it!] The intent +of lady Macbeth evidently is to wish that no womanish tenderness, or +conscientious remorse, may hinder her purpose from proceeding to effect; +but neither this, nor indeed any other sense, is expressed by the +present reading, and therefore it cannot be doubted that Shakespeare +wrote differently, perhaps thus, + + _That no compunctious visitings of nature + Shake my fell purpose, nor keep_ pace _between + Th' effect, and it_.-- + +To _keep_ pace _between_ may signify _to pass between_, to _intervene_. +_Pace_ is on many occasions a favourite of Shakespeare's. This phrase is +indeed not usual in this sease, but was it not its novelty that gave +occasion to the present corruption? [The sense is, _that no compunctious +visitings of nature_ may prevail upon her, to give place in her mind to +_peaceful_ thoughts, or to rest one moment in quiet, from the hour of +her purpose to its full completion in the effect. REVISAL.] This writer +thought himself perhaps very sagacious that be found a meaning which +nobody missed, the difficulty still remains how such a meaning is made +by the words. (see 1765, VI, 394, 6) + +I.v.49 (423, 5) take my milk for gall] _Take_ away _my milk_, and put +_gall_ into the place. + +I.v.51 (423, 6) You wait on nature's mischief!] _Nature's mischief_ is +mischief done to nature, violation of nature's order committed by +wickedness. + +I.v.55 (423,8) To cry, _hold, hold_!] On this passage there is a long +criticism in the _Rambler_. + +I.v.58 (424,1) This ignorant present time] _Ignorant_ has here the +signification of _unknowing_; that it, I feel by anticipation these +future hours, of which, according to the process of nature, the present +time would be _ignorant_. + +I.vi.3 (425,3) our gentle senses] _Senses_ are nothing more _than each +man's sense_. _Gentle senses_ is very elegant, as it means _placid_, +_calm_, _composed_, and intimates the peaceable delight of a fine day. +(see 1765, VI,396,2) + +I.vi.7 (426,5) coigne of 'vantage] Convenient corner. + +I.vi.13 (426,7) How you should bid god-yield as for your pains] I +believe _yield_, or, as it is in the folio of 1623, _eyld_, is a +corrupted contraction of _shield_. The wish implores not _reward_ but +_protection_. + +I.vii.1 (428,1) If it were _done_] A man of learning recommends another +punctuation: + + _If it were done, when 'tis done, then 'twere well. + It were done quickly, if, &c._ + +I.vii.2 (428,2) If the assassination/Could tramel up the consequence] Of +this soliloquy the meaning is not very clear; I have never found the +readers of Shakespeare agreeing about it. I understand it thus, + +"If that which I am about to do, when it is once _done_ and executed, +were _done_ and ended without any following effects, it would then be +best _to do it quickly_; if the murder could terminate in itself, and +restrain the regular course of consequences, if _its success_ could +secure _its surcease_, if being once done _successfully_, without +detection, it could _fix a period_ to all vengeance and enquiry, so that +_this blow_ might be all that I have to do, and this anxiety all that I +have to suffer; if this could be my condition, even _here_ in _this +world_, in this contracted period of temporal existence, on this narrow +_bank_ in the ocean of eternity, _I would jump the life to come_, I +would venture upon the deed without care of any future state. But this +is one of _these cases_ in which judgment is pronounced and vengeance +inflicted upon as _here_ in our present life. We teach others to do as +we have done, and are punished by our own example." (1773) + +I.vii.4 (428,3) With his surcease, success] I think the reasoning +requires that we should read, + + _With its_ success surcease. + +I.vii.6 (429,4) shoal of time] This is Theobald's emendation, +undoubtedly right. The old edition has _school_, and Dr. Warburton +_shelve_. + +I.vii.22 (429,7) or heavens cherubin, hors'd/Upon the sightless couriers +of the air] [W: couriers] _Courier_ is only _runner_. _Couriers of air_ +are _winds_, air in motion. _Sightless_ is _invisible_. + +I.vii.25 (430,8) That tears shall drown the wind] Alluding to the +remission of the wind in a shower. + +I.vii.28 (430,9) _Enter Lady_] The arguments by which lady Macbeth +persuades her husband to commit the murder, afford a proof of +Shakespeare's knowledge of human nature. She urges the excellence and +dignity of courage, a glittering idea which has dazzled mankind from age +to age, and animated sometimes the house-breaker, and sometimes the +conqueror; but this sophism Macbeth has for ever destroyed, by +distinguishing true from false fortitude, in a line and a half; of which +it may almost be said, that they ought to bestow immortality on the +author, though all his other productions had been lost: + + _I dare do all that become a man, + Who dares do more, is none_. + +This topic, which has been always employed with too much success, is +used in this scene with peculiar propriety, to a soldier by a woman. +Courage is the distinguishing virtue of a soldier, and the reproach of +cowardice cannot be borne by any man from a woman, without great +impatience. + +She then urges the oaths by which he had bound himself to murder Duncan, +another art of sophistry by which men have sometimes deluded their +consciences, and persuaded themselves that what would be criminal in +others is virtuous in them; this argument Shakespeare, whose plan +obliged him to make Macbeth yield, has not confuted, though he might +easily have shewn that a former obligation could not be vacated by a +latter: that obligations laid on us by a higher power, could not be +over-ruled by obligations which we lay upon ourselves. + +I.vii.41 (431,1) + + --Whouldst thou have that, + Which then esteem'st the ornament of life, + And live a coward in thine own esteem?] + +In this there seems to be no reasoning. I should read, + + Or _live a coward in thine own esteem_? + +Unless we choose rather, + + --_Wouldst thou_ leave _that_. + +I.vii.45 (431,2) Like the poor cat i' the adage?] The adage alluded to +is, _The cat loves fish, but dares not wet her feet, Catus amat pisces, +sed men vult tingere plantas_. + +I.vii.64 (432,5) Will I with wine and wassel so convince] To _convince_ +is in Shakespeare to _overpower_ or _subdue_, as in this play, + + --_Their malady_ convinces + _The great assay of art_. + +I.vii.67 (433,6) A limbeck only] That is, shall be only a vessel to emit +_fumes_ or _vapours_. + +I.vii.71 (433,7) our great quell] _Quell_ is _murder_. _manquellers_ +being in the old language the term for which _murderers_ is now used. + +II.i (434,8) _Enter Banquo, and Fleance with a torch before him_] The +place is not mark'd in the old edition, nor is it easy to say where this +encounter can be. It is not in the _hall_, as the editors have all +supposed it, for Banquo sees the sky; it is not far from the bedchamber, +as the conversation shews: it must be in the inner court of the castle, +which Banquo might properly cross in his way to bed. + +II.i.25 (435,2) If you shall cleave to my consent, Then 'tis,/It shall +make honour for you] Macbeth expressed his thought with affected +obscurity; he does not mention the royalty, though he apparently has it +in his mind, _If you shall cleave to my consent_, if you shall concur +with me when I determine to accept the crown, _when 'tis_, when that +happens which the prediction promises, _it shall make honour for you_. + +II.i.49 (437,6) Now o'er the one half world/Nature seems dead] That is, +_over our hemisphere all action and motion seem to have ceased_. This +image, which is perhaps the most striking that poetry can produce, has +been adopted by Dryden in his _Conquest of Mexico_: + + _All things are hush'd as Nature's self lay dead, + The mountains seem to nod their drowsy head; + The little birds in dreams their song repeat, + And sleeping flow'rs beneath the night dews sweat. + Even lust and envy sleep!_ + +These lines, though so well known, I have transcribed, that the contrast +between them and this passage of Shakespeare may be more accurately +observed. + +Night is described by two great poets, but one describes a night of +quiet, the other of perturbation. In the night of Dryden, all the +disturbers of the world are laid asleep; in that of Shakespeare, nothing +but sorcery, lust, and murder, is awake. He that reads Dryden, finds +himself lull'd with serenity, and disposed to solitude and +contemplation. He that peruses Shakspeare looks round alarmed, and +starts to find himself alone. One is the night of a lover, the other, of +a murderer. + +II.i.52 (438,8) + + --wither'd Murther, + --thus with hia stealthy pace, + With Tarquin's ravishing strides, tow'rds his design + moves like a ghost.--] + +This was the reading of this passage [ravishing sides] in all the +editions before that of Mr. Pope, who for _sides_, inserted in the text +_strides_, which Mr. Theobald has tacitly copied from him, though a more +proper alteration might perhaps have been made. A _ravishing stride_ is +an action of violence, impetuosity, and tumult, like that of a savage +rushing at his prey; whereas the poet is here attempting to exhibit an +image of secrecy and caution, of anxious circumspection and guilty +timidity, the _stealthy pace_ of a _ravisher_ creeping into the chamber +of a virgin, and of an assassin approaching the bed of him whom he +proposes to murder, without awaking him; these he describes as _moving +like ghosts_, whose progression is so different from _strides_, that it +has been in all ages represented te be, as Milton expresses it, + + _Smooth sliding without step_. + +This hemiatic will afford the true reading of this place, which is, I +think, to be corrected thus: + + --_and wither'd Murder_. + --_thus with his_ stealthy _pace_. + _With Tarquin ravishing_, slides _tow'rds his design_, + _Moves like a ghost_.-- + +_Tarquin_ is in this place the general name of a ravisher, and the sense +is, Now is the time in which every one is a-sleep, but those who are +employed in wickedness; the witch who is sacrificing to Hecate, and the +ravisher, and the murderer, who, like me, are stealing upon their prey. + +When the reading is thus adjusted, he wishes with great propriety, in +the following lines, that the _earth_ may not _hear his steps_. + +II.i.59 (439,3) And take the present horrour from the time,/Which now +suits with it] Of this passage an alteration was once proposed by me, of +which I have now a less favourable opinion, yet will insert it, as it +may perhaps give some hint to other critics: + + _And take the present horrour from the time, + Which now suits with it_.-- + +I believe every one that has attentively read this dreadful soliloquy is +disappointed at the conclusion, which, if not wholly unintelligible, is, +at least, obscure, nor can be explained into any sense worthy of the +authour. I shall therefore propose a slight alteration: + + --_Thou sound and firm-set earth, + Hear not my steps, which way they walk, for fear + Thy very stones prate of my where-about, + And talk--the present horrour of the time! + That now suits with it_.-- + +Macbeth has, in the foregoing lines, disturbed his imagination by +enumerating all the terrors of the night; at length he is wrought up to +a degree of frenzy, that makes him afraid of some supernatural discovery +of his design, and calls out to the stones not to betray him, not to +declare where he walks, nor _to talk_.--As he is going to say of what, +he discovers the absurdity of his suspicion, and pauses, but is again +overwhelmed by his guilt, and concludes, that such are the horrors of +the present night, that the stones may be expected to cry out against +him: + + That _now suits with it_.-- + +He observes in a subsequent passage, that on such occasions _stones have +been known to move_. It is now a very just and strong picture of a man +about to commit a deliberate murder under the strongest conviction of +the wickedness of his design. Of this alteration, however, I do not now +see much use, and certainly see no necessity. + +Whether to _take horrour from the time_ means not rather to _catch_ _it_ +as communicated, than to _deprive the time of horrour_, deserves te be +considered. + +II.ii.37 (443,6) sleave of care] A skein of silk is called a _sleave_ of +silk, as I learned from Mr. Seward, the ingenious editor of Beaumont and +Fletcher. + +II.ii.56 (444,8) gild the faces of the grooms withal,/For it must seem +their guilt] Could Shakespeare possibly mean to play upon the similitude +of _gild_ and _guilt_. + +II.iii.45 (447,5) I made a shift to cast him] To _cast him up_, to ease +my stomach of him. The equivocation is between _cast_ or _throw_, as a +term of wrestling, and _cast_ or _cast up_. + +II.iii.61 (448,7) + + --strange screams of death; + And prophesying, with accents terrible + Of dire combustions, and confus'd events, + New hatch'd to the woeful time: The obscure bird + Clamour'd the live-long night: some say the earth + Was feverous, and did shake] + +Those lines I think should be rather regulated thus: + + --_prophecying with accents terrible, + Of dire combustions and cosfus'd events. + New-hatch'd to th' woful time, the obscure bird + Clamour'd the live-long night. Some say the earth + Was fev'rous and did shake._ + +A _prophecy_ of an _event new hatch'd_, seems to be a _prophecy_ of an +_event past_. And _a prophecy new hatch'd_ is a wry expression. The term +_new hatch'd_ is properly applicable to a _bird_, and that birds of ill +omen should be _new-hatch'd to the woful time_, that is, should appear +in uncommon numbers, is very consistent with the rest of the prodigies +here mentioned, and with the universal disorder into which nature is +described as thrown, by the perpetration of this horrid murder. (see +1765, VI, 413, 7) + +II.iii.117 (452,3) Here, lay Duncan,/His silver skin lac'd with his +golden blood] Mr. Pope has endeavoured to improve one of these lines by +substituting _goary blood_ for _golden blood_; but it may easily be +admitted that he who could on such an occasion talk of _lacing the +silyer skin_, would _lace it_ with _golden blood_. No amendment can be +made to this line, of which every word is equally faulty, but by a +general blot. + +It is not improbable, that Shakespeare put these forced and unnatural +metaphors into the mouth of Macbeth as a mark of artifice and +dissimulation, to shew the difference between the studied language of +hypocrisy, and the natural outcries of sudden passion. This whole speech +so considered, is a remarkable instance of judgment, as it consists +entirely of antithesis and metaphor. + +II.iii.122 (432,5) Unmannerly breech'd with gore] An _unmannerly +dagger_, and a _dagger breech'd_, or as in some editions _breech'd +with_, gore, are expressions not easily to be understood. There are +undoubtedly two faults in this passage, which I have endeavored to take +away by reading, + + --_daggers_ + Unmanly drench'd _with gore_:-- + +_I saw_ drench'd _with the King's blood the fatal daggers, not only +instruments of murder but evidence of cowardice_. + +Each of these words might easily be confounded with that which I have +substituted for it, by a hand not exact, a casual blot, or a negligent +inspection, [W: Unmanly reech'd] Dr. Warburton has, perhaps, rightly put +_reach'd_ for _breech'd_. + +II.iii.138 (454,8) + + In the great hand of God I stand; and thence, + Against the undivulg'd pretence I fight + Of treasonous malice] + +_Pretence_ is not act, but _simulation_, a _pretence_ of the traitor, +whoever he might be, to suspect some other of the murder. I here fly to +the protector of innocence from any charge which, yet _undivulg'd_, the +traitor may pretend to fix upon me. + +II.iii.147 (454,7) This murtherous shaft that's shot,/Hath not yet +lighted] The design to fix the murder opon some innocent person, has not +yet taken effect. + +II.iv.15 (456,9) minions of their race] Theobald reads, + + --_minions of_ the _race_, + +very probably, and very poetically. + +II.iv.24 (456,1) What good could they pretend?] To _pretend_ is here to +_propose to themselves_, to _set before themselves_ as a motive of +action. + +III.i.7 (457,2) As upon thee, Macbeth, their speeches shine] _Shine_, +for appear with all the _lustre_ of _conspicuous_ truth. + +III.i.56 (459,4) as, it is said,/Mark Anthony's was by Caesar] Though I +would not often assume the critic's privilege of being confident where +certainty cannot be obtained, nor indulge myself too far in departing +from the established reading; yet I cannot but propose the rejection of +this passage, which I believe was an insertion of some player, that +having so much learning as to discover to what Shakespeare alluded, was +not willing that his audience should be less knowing than himself, and +has therefore weakened the authour's sense by the intrusion of a remote +and useless image into a speech bursting from a man wholly possess'd +with his own present condition, and therefore not at leisure to explain +his own allusions to himself. If these words are taken away, by which +not only the thought but the numbers are injured, the lines of +Shakespeare close together without any traces of a breach. + + _My genius is rebuk'd. He chid the sisters._ + +This note was written before I was fully acquainted with Shakespeare's +manner, and I do not now think it of much weight; for though the words, +which I was once willing to eject, seem interpolated, I believe they may +still be genuine, and added by the authour in his revision. The authour +of the _Revisal_ cannot admit the measure to be faulty. There is only +one foot, he says, put for another. This is one of the effects of +literature in minds not naturally perspicacious. Every boy or girl finds +the metre imperfect, but the pedant comes to its defence with a +tribrachys or an anapaest, and sets it right at once by applying to one +language the rules of another. If we may be allowed to change feet, like +the old comic writers, it will not be easy to write a line not metrical. +To hint this once, is sufficient. (see 1765, VI, 424, 2) + +III.i.65 (460,5) For Banquo's issue have I fil'd my mind] [W: 'filed] +This mark of contraction is not necessary. To _file_ is in the bishop's +_Bible_. + +III.i.69 (460,6) the common enemy of man] It is always an entertainment +to an inquisitive reader, to trace a sentiment to its original source; +and therefore, though the term _enemy of man_, applied to the devil, is +in itself natural and obvious, yet some may be pleased with being +informed, that Shakespeare probably borrowed it from the first lines of +the Destruction of Troy, a book which he is known to have read. This +expression, however, he might have had in many other places. The word +_fiend_ signifies enemy. + +III.i.71 (461,7) come, Fate, into the list,/And champion me to the +utterance!] This passage will be best explained by translating it into +the language from whence the only word of difficulty in it is borrowed, +"_Que la destinee se rende en lice, et qu'elle me donne un defi a +l'outrance_." A challenge or a combat _a l'outrance_, _to extremity_, +was a fix'd term in the law of arms, used when the combatants engaged +with an _odium internecinum, an intention to destroy each other_, in +opposition to trials of skill at festivals, or on other occasions, where +the contest was only for reputation or a prize. The sense therefore is, +_Let Fate, that has foredoom'd the exaltation of the sons of Banquo, +enter the lists against me, with the utmost animosity, in defence of its +own decrees, which I will endeavour to invalidate, whatever be the +danger_. [Johnson quotes Warburton's note] After the former explication, +Dr. Warburton was desirous to seem to do something; and he has therefore +made _Fate_ the _marshal_, whom I had made the _champion_, and has left +Macbeth to enter the lists without an opponent. + +III.i.88 (462,9) Are you so gospell'd] Are you of that degree of precise +virtue? _Gospeller_ was a name of contempt given by the Papists to the +Lollards, the puritans of early times, and the precursors of +_protestantism_. + +III.i.94 (463,1) Showghes] _Showghes_ are probably what we now call +_shocks_, demi-wolves, _lyciscae_; dogs bred between wolves and dogs. +(1773) + +III.i.95 (463,2) the valued file] In this speech the word _file_ occurs +twice, and seems in both places to have a meaning different from its +present use. The expression, _valued file_, evidently means, a list or +catalogue of value. A station in the _file_, and not in the worst rank, +may mean, a place in the list of manhood, and not in the lowest place. +But _file_ seems rather to mean in this place, a post of honour; the +first rank, in opposition to the last; a meaning which I have not +observed in any other place. (1773) + +III.i.112 (465,2) So weary with disasters, tug'd with fortune] _Tug'd +with fortune_ may be, _tug'd_ or _worried_ by fortune. + +III.i.130 (465,4) Acquaint you with the perfect spy o' the time] What is +meant by _the spy of the time_, it will be found difficult to explain; +and therefore sense will be cheaply gained by a slight +alteration.--Macbeth is assuring the assassins that they shall not want +directions to find Banquo, and therefore says, + + _I will_-- + _Acquaint you with_ a perfect spy _o' the time_. + +Accordingly a third murderer joins them afterwards at the place of +action. + +_Perfect_ is _well instructed_, or _well informed_, as in this play, + + _Though in your state of honour I am_ perfect. + +though I am _well acquainted_ with your quality and rank. [Warburton +explained this as "the critical juncture"] How the _critical juncture_ +is the _spy o' the time_ I know not, but I think my own conjecture +right. + +III.ii.38 (467,1) nature's copy's not eternal] The _copy_, the _lease_, +by which they hold their lives from nature, has its time of termination +limited. + +III.iii.1 (469,6) But who did bid thee join with us?] The meaning of +this abrupt dialogue is this. The _perfect spy_, mentioned by Macbeth in +the foregoing scene, has, before they enter upon the stage, given them +the directions which were promised at the time of their agreement; yet +one of the murderers suborned suspects him of intending to betray them; +the other observes, that, by his exact knowledge of _what they were to +do_, he appears to be employed by Macbeth, and needs not be mistrusted. + +III.iv.1 (470,9) You know your own degrees, sit down: at first,/And last +the hearty welcome] As this passage stands [sit down:/At first and +last], not only the numbers are very imperfect, but the sense, if any +can be found, weak and contemptible. The numbers will be improved by +reading, + + --_sit down at first, + And last a hearty welcome_. + +But for _last_ should then be written _next_. I believe the true reading +is, + + _You know your own degrees, sit down_.--_To first + And last the hearty welcome_. + +All of whatever degree, from the highest to the lowest, may be assured +that their visit is well received. + +III.iv.14 (471,1) 'Tis better thee without, than he within] The sense +requires that this passage should be read thus: + + _'Tis better_ thee _without, than_ him _within_. + +That is, _I am better pleased that the blood of Banquo should be on thy +face than in his body_. + +The authour might mean, _It is better that Banquo's blood were on thy +face, than_ he _in this room_. Expressions thus imperfect are common in +his works. + +III.iv.33 (472,2) the feast is sold] The meaning is,--That which ia not +_given cheerfully_, cannot be called a _gift_, it is something that must +be paid for. (1773) + +III.iv.57 (473,3) extend his passion] Prolong his suffering; make his +fit longer. + +III.iv.60 (473,4) O proper stuff!] This speech is rather too long for +the circumstances in which it is spoken. It had begun better at, _Shame +itself_! + +III.iv.63 (473,5) + + Oh, these flaws, and starts, + (Impostors to true fear,) would well become + A woman's story at a winter's fire, + Authoriz'd by her grandam] + +_Flaws_, are _sudden gusts_. The authour perhaps wrote, + + --_Those flaws and starts_, + Impostures true to fear _would well become_; + _A woman's story_,-- + +These symptoms of terrour and amazement might better become _impostures +true_ only _to fear, might become a coward at the recital of such +falsehoods as no man could credit, whose understanding was not weaken'd +by his terrours; tales told by a woman over a fire on the authority of +her grandam_. + +III.iv.76 (474,6) Ere human statute purg'd the gentle weal] The _gentle +weal_, is, the _peaceable community_, the state made quiet and safe by +_human statutes_. + + _Mollia securae peragebant otia gentes_. + +III.iv.92 (475,7) And all to all] I once thought it should be _hail_ to +all, but I now think that the present reading is right. + +III.iv.105 (475,8) If trembling I inhabit] This is the original reading, +which Mr. Pope changed to _inhibit_, which _inhibit_ Dr. Warburton +interprets _refuse_. The old reading may stand, at least as well as the +emendation. Suppose we read, + + _If trembling I_ evade _it_. + +III.iv.110 (476,9) Can such things be,/And overcome us, like a summer's +cloud,/Without our special wonder?] [W: Can't] The alteration is +introduced by a misinterpretation. The meaning is not that _these things +are like a summer-cloud_, but can such wonders as these pass over us +without wonder, as a casual summer cloud passes over us. + +III.iv.112 (477,1) You make me strange/Even to the disposition that I +owe] You produce in me an _alienation of mind_, which is probably the +expression which our author intended to paraphrase. + +III.iv.124 (477,2) Augurs, and understood relations] By the word +_relation_ is understood the _connection_ of effects with causes; to +_understand relations_ as _an angur_, is to know how these things +_relate_ to each other, which have no visible combination or dependence. + +III.iv.141 (479,5) You lack the season of all natures, sleep] I take the +meaning to be, _you want sleep_, which _seasons_, or gives the relish to +_all nature_. _Indiget somni vitae condimenti_. + +III.v.24 (480,8) vaporous drop, profound] That is, a drop that has +_profound_, _deep_, or _hidden_ qualities. + +III.v.26 (480,9) slights] Arts; subtle practices. + +III.vi (481,1) _Enter Lenox, and another Lord_] As this tragedy, like +the rest of Shakespeare's, is perhaps overstocked with personages, it is +not easy to assign a reason why a nameless character should be +introduced here, since nothing is said that might not with equal +propriety have been put into the mouth of any other disaffected man. I +believe therefore that in the original copy it was written with a very +common form of contraction Lenox and An. for which the transcriber, +instead of Lenox and Angus, set down Lenox and _another Lord_. The +author had indeed been more indebted to the transcriber's fidelity and +diligence had he committed no errors of greater importance. + +III.vi.36 (482,3) and receive free honours] [_Free_ for grateful. +WARBURTON.] How can _free_ be _grateful_? It may be either honours +_freely bestowed_, not purchased by crimes; or honours _without +slavery_, without dread of a tyrant. + +IV.i (484,5) As this is the chief scene of enchantment in the play, it +is proper in this place to observe, with how much judgment Shakespeare +has selected all the circumstances of his infernal ceremonies, and how +exactly he has conformed to common opinions and traditions: + + _Thrice the brinded cat hath mew'd_. + +The usual form in which familiar spirits are reported to converse with +witches, is that of a cat. A witch, who was tried about half a century +before the time of Shakespeare, had a cat named Rutterkin, as the spirit +of one of these witches was Grimalkin; and when any mischief was to be +done she used to bid Rutterkin _go and fly_, but once when she would +have sent Rutterkin to torment a daughter of the countess of Rutland, +instead of _going_ or _flying_, he only cried _mew_, from whence she +discovered that the lady was out of his power, the power of witches +being not universal, but limited, as Shakespeare has taken care to +inculcate: + + _Though his bark cannot be lost, + Yet it shall be tempest-tost._ + +The common afflictions which the malice of witches produced were +melancholy, fits, and loss of flesh, which are threatened by one of +Shakespeare's witches: + + _Weary sev'n nights, nine times nine, + Shall he dwindle, peak, and pine._ + +It was likewise their practice to destroy the cattle of their +neighbours, and the farmers have to this day many ceremonies to secure +their cows and other cattle from witchcraft; but they seem to have been +most suspected of malice against swine. Shakespeare has accordingly made +one of his witches declare that she has been _killing swine_, and Dr. +Harsenet observes, that about that time, _a sow could not be ill of the +measles, nor a girl of the sullens, but some old woman was charged with +witchcraft_. + + _Toad, that under the cold stone, + Days and night has, thirty-one, + Swelter'd venom sleeping got; + Boil thou first i'the charm'd pot_. + +Toads have likewise long lain under the reproach of being by some means +accessory to witchcraft, for which reason Shakespeare, in the first +scene of this play, calls one of the spirits Padocke or Toad, and now +takes care to put a toad first into the pot. When Vaninus was seized at +Theleuse, there was found at his lodgings _ingens Bufo Vitro inclusus, a +great toad shut in a vial_, upon which those that prosecuted him, +_Veneficium exprebrabent, charged him_, I suppose, _with witchcraft_. + + _Fillet of fenny snake, + In the cauldron boil and bakae: + Eye of newt, and toe of frog;-- + For a charm, &c_. + +The propriety of these ingredients may be known by consulting the books +_de Viribus Animalium_ and _de Mirabilibus Mundi_, ascribed to Albertus +Magnus, in which the reader, who has time and credulity, may discover +very wonderful secrets. + + _Finger of birth-strangled babe, + Ditch deliver'd by a drab_;-- + +It has been already mentioned in the law against witches, that they are +supposed to take up dead bodies to use in enchantments, which was +confessed by the woman whom king James examined, and who had of a dead +body that was divided in one of their assemblies, two fingers for her +share. It is observable that Shakespeare, on this great occasion, which +involves the fate of a king, multiplies all the circumstanaces of +horror. The babe, whose finger is used, must be strangled in its birth; +the grease must not only be human, but must have dropped from a gibbet, +the gibbet of a murderer; and even the sow, whose blood is used, must +have offended nature by devouring her own farrow. These are touches of +judgment and genius. + + _And now about the cauldron sing-- + Black spirits and white, + Blue spirits and grey, + Mingle, mingle, mingle, + You that mingle say_. + +And in a former part, + + --_weyward sisters, hand in hand,-- + Thus do go about, about. + Thrice to thine, and thrice to mine. + And thrice again to make up nine!_ + +These two passages I have brought together, because they both seem +subject to the objection of too much levity for the solemnity of +enchantment, and may both be shewn, by one quotation from Camden's +account of Ireland, to be founded upon a practice really observed by the +uncivilised natives of that country: "When any one gets a fall, _says +the informer of Camden_, he starts up, and, _turning three times to the +right_, digs a hole in the earth; for they imagine that there is a +spirit in the ground, and if he falls sick in two or three days, they +send one of their women that is skilled in that way to the place, where +she says, I call thee from the east, west, north, and south, from the +groves, the woods, the rivers, and the fens, from the fairies _red, +black, white_." There was likewise a book written before the time of +Shakespeare, describing, amongst other properties, the _colours_ of +spirits. + +Many other circumstances might be particularised, in which Shakespeare +has shown his judgment and his knowledge. + +IV.i.53 (489,6) yesty waves] That is, _foaming_ or _frothy waves_. + +IV.i.88 (491,1) the round/And top of sovereignty?] This _round_ is that +part of the crown that encircles the head. The _top_ is the ornament +that rises above it. + +IV.i.95 (492,3) Who can impress the forest] i.e. who can command the +forest to serve him like a soldier impress'd. (1773) + +IV.i.97 (492,4) Rebellious head, rise never] Mr. Theobald, who first +proposed this change ["head" for "dead"] rightly observes, that _head_ +means _host_, or power. + + --_Douglas and the rebels met, + A mighty and a fearful_ head _they are_. + +And again, + + _His divisions--are in three heads_. + +IV.i.113 (493,6) Thy crown does sear mine eye-balls] The expression of +Macbeth, that the _crown_ sears _his_ eye-balls, is taken from the +method formerly practised of destroying the sight of captives or +competitors, by holding a burning bason before the eye, which dried up +its humidity. Whence the Italian, _abacinare_, to _blind_. + +IV.i.113 (493,7) And thy air,/Thou other gold-bound brow, is like the +first:--/A third is like the former] In former editions, + + --_and thy_ hair, + _Thou other gold-bound brow, is like the first_:-- + _A third is like the former_:-- + +As Macbeth expected to see a train of kings, and was only enquiring from +what race they would proceed, he could not be surprised that the _hair_ +of the second was _bound with gold_ like that of the first; he was +offended only that the second resembled the first, as the first +resembled Banquo, and therefore said, + + --_and thy_ air, + _Thou other gold-bound brow, is like the first_. + +This Dr. Warburton has followed. + +IV.i.144 (495,2) Time, thou anticipat'st my dread exploits] To +_anticipate_ is here to _prevent_, by taking away the opportunity. + +IV.ii.9 (496,3) He wants the natural touch] Natural sensibility. He is +not touched with natural affection. + +IV.ii.71 (498,7) To do worse to you, were fell cruelty] To do _worse_ +is, to let her and her children be destroyed without warning. + +IV.iii.2 (500,9) Let us rather/Hold fast the mortal sword; and, like +good men,/ Bestride our down-faln birthdom] In former editions, + + _Let us rather + Hold fast the mortal sword; and, like good men, + Bestride our_ downfal birthdoom.--] + +He who can discover what is meant by him that earnestly exhorts him to +_bestride_ his _downfal birth-doom_, is at liberty to adhere to the +present text; but it is probable that Shakespeare wrote, + + --_like good men, + Bestride our_ downfaln birthdom-- + +The allusion is to a man from whom something valuable is about to be +taken by violence, and who, that he may defend it without incombrance, +lays it on the ground, and stands over it with his weapon in his hand. +Our birthdom, or birthright, says he, lies on the ground, let us, like +men who are to fight for what is dearest to them, not abandon it, but +stand over it and defend it. This is a strong picture of obstinate +resolution. So Falstaff says to Hal. + + _When I am down, if thou wilt_ bestride me, _so_. + +_Birthdom_ for _birthright_ is formed by the same analogy with +_masterdom_ in this play, signifying the _privileges_ or _rights_ of a +_master_. + +Perhaps it might be _birth-dame_ for _mother_; let us stand over our +_mother_ that lies bleeding on the ground. + +IV.iii.19 (501,4) A good and virtuous nature may recoil/In an imperial +charge] A good mind may _recede_ from goodness in the execution of a +_royal commission_. + +IV.iii.23 (501,5) Though all things foul would wear the brows of +grace,/Yet grace must look still so] This is not very clear. The meaning +perhaps is this:--_My suspicions cannot injure you, if you be virtuous, +by supposing that a traitor may put on your virtuous appearance. I do +not say that your virtuous appearance_. + +_proves you a traitor; for virtue must wear its proper form, though that +form be often counterfeited by villany_. + +IV.iii.26 (502,6) Why in that rawness left you wife and children] +Without previous provision, without due preparation, without _maturity_ +of counsel. + +IV.iii.33 (502,7) Wear thou thy wrongs] That is, _Poor country, wear +thou thy wrongs_. + +IV.iii.69 (503,1) Sudden, malicious] [_Sudden_, for capricious. WARBUR.] +Rather violent, passionate, hasty. + +IV.iii.85 (504,2) Than summer seeming lust] When I was younger and +bolder I corrected it thus, + + _Than fume, or seething lust_. + +that is, Than angry passion, or boiling lust. (1773) + +IV.iii.135 (506,4) All ready at a point] [W: at appoint] There is no +need of change. + +IV.iii.136 (506,5) and the chance of goodness/Be like our warranted +quarrel!] The _chance of goodness_, as it is commonly read, conveys no +sense. If there be not some more important errour in the passage, it +should at least be pointed thus: + + --_and the chance, of goodness, + Be like our warranted quarrel_!-- + +That is, may the event be, of the goodness of heaven, [_pro justitia +divina_] answerable to the cause. + +The author of the _Revisal_ conceives the sense of the passage to be +rather this: _And may the success of that goodness, which is about to +exert itself in my behalf, be such as may be equal to the justice of my +quarrel_. + +But I am inclined to believe that Shakespeare wrote, + + --and the chance, O goodness, + Be like our warranted quarrel!-- + +This some of his transcribers wrote with a small _o_, which another +imagined to mean _of_. If we adopt this reading, the sense will be, _and +O thou sovereign Goodness, to whom we now appeal, may our fortune answer +to our cause_. (see 1765, VI, 462, 7) + +IV.iii.170 (508,9) A modern ecstacy] I believe _modern_ is only +_foolish_ or _trifling_. + +IV.iii.196 (509,2), fee-grief] A peculiar sorrow; a grief that hath a +single owner. The expression is, at least to our ears, very harsh. + +IV.iii.216 (511,4) He has no children] It has been observed by an +anonymous critic, that this is not said of Macbeth, who had children, +but of Malcolm, who having none, supposes a father. + +V.i.86 (515,8) My mind she has mated] [Conquer'd or subdued. POPE.] +Rather astonished, confounded. + +V.ii.24 (516,1) When all that is within him does condemn/Itself, for +being there?] That is, when all the faculties of the mind are employed +in self-condemnation. + +V.iii.1 (516,2) Bring me no more reports] _Tell me not any more of +desertions--Let all ny subjects leave me--I am safe till,_ &c. + +V.iii.8 (517,3) English Epicures] The reproach of Epicurism, on which +Mr. Theobald has bestowed a note, is nothing more than a natural +invective uttered by an inhabitant of a barren country, against, those +who have more opportunities of luxury. + +V.iii.22 (518,6) my way of life/Is fall'n into the sear] As there is no +relation between the _way of life_, and _fallen into the sear_, I am +inclined to think that the W is only an M inverted, and that it was +originally written, + + --_my_ May _of life_. + +_I am now passed from the spring to the autumn of my days, but I am +without those comforts that should succeed the spriteliness of bloom, +and support me in this melancholy season._ + +The authour has _May_ in the same sense elsewhere. + +V.iv.8 (521,1) the confident tyrant/Keeps still in Dunsinane, and will +endure/Our setting down before't] He was _confident_ of success; so +_confident_ that he would not fly, but endure their _setting down_ +before his castle. + +V.iv.11 (521,2) For where there is advantage to be given,/ Both more and +less have given him the revolt] The impropriety of the expression, +_advantage to be given_, and the disagreeable repetition of the word +_given_ in the next line, incline me to read, + + --_where there is_ a 'vantage _to be_ gone, + _Both more and less have given him the revolt._ + +_Advantage or 'vantage_, in the time of Shakespeare, signified +_opportunity_. _He shut up himself and his soldiers_, (says Malcolm) _in +the castle, because when there is an opportunity to be gone they all +desert him_. + +_More and less_ is the same with _greater and less_. So in the +interpolated _Mandeville_, a book of that age, there is a chapter of +_India the More and the Less_. + +V.iv.20 (522,4) arbitrate]--_arbitrate_ is _determine_. + +V.v.11 (523,3) fell of hair] My hairy part, my _capillitium_. _Fell_ is +_skin_. + +V.v.17 (523,7) She should have dy'd hereafter;/ There would have been a +time for such a word] This passage has very justly been suspected of +being corrupt. It is not apparent for what _word_ there would have been +a _time_, and that there would or would not be a _time_ for any _word_ +seems not a consideration of importance sufficient to transport Macbeth +into the following exclamation. I read therefore, + + _She should have dy'd hereafter. + There would have been a time for--such a_ world!-- + _Tomorrow_, &c. + +It is a broken speech in which only part of the thought is expressed, +and may be paraphrased thus: _The queen is dead_. Macbeth. _Her death +should have been deferred to some more peaceful hour; had she liv'd +longer_, there would at length have been a time for the _honours due to +her as a queen, and that respect which I owe her for her fidelity and +love. Such is the_ world--such is the condition of human life, that we +always think_ to-morrow _will be happier than to-day, but to-morrow and +to-morrow steals over us unenjoyed and unregarded, and we still linger +in the same expectation to the moment appointed for our end. All these +days, which have thus passed away, have sent multitudes of fools to the +grave, who were engrossed by the same dream of future felicity, and, +when life was departing from them, were, like me, reckoning on +to-morrow_. + +Such was once my conjecture, but I am now less confident. Macbeth might +mean, that there would have been a more convenient _time_ for such a +_word_, for such _intelligence_, and so fall into the following +reflection. We say we send _word_ when we give intelligence. + +V.v.21 (524,8) To the last syllable of recorded time] _Recorded time_ +seems to signify the time fixed in the decrees of Heaven for the period +of life. The _record_ of _futurity_ is indeed no accurate expression, +but as we only know transactions past or present, the language of men +affords no term for the volumes of prescience, in which future events +may be supposed to be written. + +V.v.23 (524,9) The way to dusty death] _Dusty_ is a very natural +epithet. The second folio has, + + _The way to_ study _death_.-- + +which Mr. Upton prefers, but it is only an errour by an accidental +transposition of the types. + +V.v.42 (525,2) I pull in resolution, and begin/To doubt the equivocation +of the fiend,/ That lies like truth] Though this is the reading of all +the editions, yet, as it is a phrase without either example, elegance or +propriety, it is surely better to read, + + _I_ pall _in resolution,-- + I languish in my constancy, my confidence begins to forsake as_. + +It is scarcely necessary to observe how easily _pall_ might be changed +into _pull_ by a negligent writer, or mistaken for it by an unskilful +printer. With this emendation Dr. Warburton and Mr. Heath concur. (see +1765, VI,478,8) + +V.viii.9 (529,3) the intrenchant air] That is, air which cannot be cut. + +V.viii.20 (529,5) That palter with us in a double sense] That _shuffle_ +with ambiguous expressions. + +V.viii.48 (531,7) Had I as many sons as I have hairs, I would not wish +them to a fairer death] + +This incident is thus related from Henry of Huntingdon by Camden in his +_Remains_, from which our authour probably copied it. + +When Seyward, the martial earl of Northumberland, understood that his +son, whom he had sent in service against the Scotchmen, was slain, he +demanded whether his wounds were in the fore part or hinder part of his +body. When it was answered, in the fore part, he replied, "I am right +glad; neither wish I any other death to me or mine." + +General Observation. This play is deservedly celebrated for the +propriety of its fictions, and solemnity, grandeur, and variety of its +action; but it has no nice discriminations of character, the events are +too great to admit the influence of particular dispositions, and the +course of the action necessarily determines the conduct of the agents. + +The danger of ambition is well described; and I know not whether it may +not be said in defence of some parts which now seem improbable, that, in +Shakespeare's time, it was necessary to warn credulity against vain and +illusive predictions. + +The passions are directed to their true end. Lady Macbeth is merely +detested; and though the courage of Macbeth preserves some esteem, yet +every reader rejoices at his fall. + + + + +Vol. VII + +CORIOLANUS + + +1.i.19 (292,1) but they think, we are too dear] They think that the +charge of maintaining us is more than we are worth. + +I.i.23 (292,3) ere we become rakes] It is plain that, in our authour's +time, we had the proverb, _as lean as a rake_. Of this proverb the +original is obscure. _Rake_ now signifies a _dissolute man_, a man worn +out with disease and debauchery. But the signification is, I think, much +more modern than the proverb. _Raekel_, in Islandick, is said to mean a +_cur-dog_, and this was probably the first use among us of the word +_rake_; _as lean as a rake_ is, therefore, as lean as it dog too +worthless to be fed. + +1.i.94 (294,4) I will venture/To scale't a little more] [Warburton had +taken Theobald to task for emending to "stale't", offering two +quotations to prove that "scale" meant "apply."] Neither of Dr. +Warburton's examples afford a sense congruous to the present occasion. +In the passage quoted, to _scale_ may be to _weigh_ and _compare_, but +where do we find that _scale_ is to _apply_? If we _scale_ the two +criticks, I think Theobald has the advantage. + +I.i.97 (295,5) fob off our disgraces with a tale] _Disgraces_ are +_hardships, injuries_. + +I.i.104 (295,6) where the other instruments] _Where_ for _whereas_. + +I.i.112 (296,7) Which ne'er came from the lungs] with a smile not +indicating pleasure, but contempt. + +I.i.120 (296,9) The counsellor heart] The heart was anciently esteemed +the seat of prudence. _Homo cordatum_ is a _prudent man_. + +I.i.163 (297,1) Thou rascal, that art worst in blood, to ruin,/ Lead'st +first, to win some 'vantage] I think, we may better read, by an easy +change, _Thou rascal that art worst, in blood, to_ ruin [to run] +_Lead'st first, to win_, &c. + +Thou that art the meanest by birth, art the foremost to lead thy fellows +_to ruin_, in hope of some advantage. The meaning, however, is perhaps +only this, Thou that art a hound, or running dog of the lowest breed, +lead'st the pack, when any thing is to be gotten. (see 1765, VI, 493, 1) + +I.i.172 (298,4) What would you have, ye curs,/ That like not peace, nor +war? The one affrights you,/ The other makes you proud] [W: likes] That +_to like_ is _to please_, every one knows, but in that sense it is as +hard to say why peace should not _like_ the people, as, in the other +sense, why the people should not _like_ peace. The truth is, that +Coriolanus does not use the two sentences consequentially, but +reproaches them with unsteadiness, then with their other occasional +vices. + +I.i.202 (300,6) I'd make a quarry/With thousands] Why a quarry? I +suppose, not because he would pile them square, but because he would +give them for carrion to the birds of prey. + +I.i.215 (300,7) To break the heart of generosity] To give the final blow +to the _nobles_. _Generosity_ is _high birth_. + +I.i.231 (301,8) 'tis true, that yon have lately told us./The Volscians +are in arms] Coriolanus had been but just told himself that _the +Volscians were in arms_. The meaning is, _The intelligence which you +gave us some little time ago of the designs of the Volscians is now +verified; they are in arms._ + +I.i.255 (302,8) Your valour puts well forth] That is, You have in this +mutiny shewn fair blossoms of valour. + +I.i.260 (303,9) to gird. To _sneer_, to _gibe_. So Falstaff uses the +noun, when he says, _every man has a _gird _at me_. + +I.i.281 (304,3) in what fashion,/More than his singularity he goes/ Upon +this present action] We will learn what he is to do, besides _going +himself_; what are his powers, and what is his appointment. + +I.ii.28 (305,4) for the remove/Bring up your army] [W:'fore they] I do +not see the nonsense or impropriety of the old reading. Says the senator +to Aufidius, _Go to your troops, we will garrison Corioli_. If the +Romans besiege us, bring up your army _to remove them_. If any change +should be made, I would read, + + --_for_ their _remove_. + +I.iii.16 (307,5) brows bound with oak] The crown given by the Romans to +him that saved the life of a citizen, which was accounted more +honourable than any other. + +I.iv.14 (311,9) nor a man that fears you less than he,/That's lesser +than a little] The sense requires it to be read, + + _nor a man that fears you_ more _than he_, + +Or more probably, + + _nor a man_ but _fears you less than he, + That's lesser than a little_. + +I.v.5 (314,4) prize their hours] In the first edition it is, _prize +their_ hours. I know not who corrected it [to _prize their honours_]. A +modern editor, who had made such an improvement, would have spent half a +page in ostentation of his sagacity. + +I.vi.36 (317,6) Ransoming him, or pitying] i.e. _remitting his ransom_. + +I.vi.61 (318,8) swords advanc'd] That is, swords lifted high. + +I.vi.83 (319,9) Please you to march,/And four shall quickly draw out my +command,/Which men are best inclin'd] I cannot but suspect this passage +of corruption. Why should they _march_, that _four_ might select those +that were _best inclin'd_? How would their inclinations be known? Who +were the _four_ that should select them? Perhaps, we may read, + + --_Please you to march, + And_ fear _shall quickly draw out_ of _my command, + Which men are_ least _inclin'd_. + +It is easy to conceive that, by a little negligence, _fear_ might be +changed to _four_, and _least_ to _best_. Let us march, and that fear +which incites desertion will free my army from cowards. (see 1765, VI, +512, 1) + +I.viii.11 (320,1) Wert thou the Hector,/That was the whip of your +bragg'd progeny] The Romans boasted themselves descended from the +Trojans, how then was Hector the _whip of their progeny_? It must mean +the whip with which the Trojans scourged the Greeks, which cannot be but +by a very unusual construction, or the authour must have forgotten the +original of the Romans; unless _whip_ has some meaning which includes +_advantage_ or _superiority_, as we say, _he has the_ whip-hand, for _he +has the_ advantage. + +I.viii.14 (321,2) you have sham'd me/In your condemned seconds] For +_condemned_, we may read _contemned_. You have, to my shane, sent me +help _which I despise_. + +I.ix.12 (321,4) Here is the steed, we the caparisons!] This is an odd +encomium. The meaning is, _this man performed the action, and we only +filled up the show_. + +I.ii.14 (322,5) a charter to extol] A privilege to praise her own son. + +I.ix.29 (322,6) Should they not] That is, _not be remembered_. + +I.ix.72 (325,9) To the fairness of any power] [_Fairness_, for _utmost_. +WARE.] I know not how _fairness_ can mean _utmost_. When two engage on +_equal_ terms, we say it is _fair_; _fairness_ may therefore be +_equality; in proportion equal to my power_. + +I.ix.76 (325,1) The best] The _chief_ men of Corioli. + +I.x.5 (326,3) Being a Volsce, be that I am] It may be just observed, +that Shakespeare calls the _Volsci, Volsces_, which the modern editors +have changed to the modern termination [Volscian]. I mention it here, +because here the change has spoiled the measure. _Being a_ Volsce, _be +that I am. Condition_. [Steevans restored _Volsce_ in the text.] + +I.x.17 (326,2) My valour's poison'd,/With only suffering stain by him, +for him/ Shall flie out of itself] To mischief him, my valour should +_deviate from_ its own native generosity. + +I.x.25 (327,4) At home, upon my brother's guard] In my own house, with +my brother posted to protect him. + +II.i.8 (328,5) Pray you, who does the wolf love?] When the tribune, in +reply to Menenius's remark, on the people's hate of Coriolanus, had +observed that even _beasts know their friends_, Menenius asks, _whom +does the wolf love_? implying that there are beasts which love nobody, +and that among those beasts are the people. + +II.i.43 (329,6) towards the napes of your necks] With allusion to the +fable, which says, that every man has a bag hanging before him, in which +he puts his neighbour's faults, and another behind him, in which he +stows his own. + +II.i.56 (330,7) one that converses more with the buttock of the night, +than with the forehead of the morning] Rather a late lier down than an +early riser. + +II.i.84 (330,1) set up the bloody flag against all patience] That is, +declare war against patience. There is not wit enough in this satire to +recompense its grossness. + +II.i.105 (331,2) herdsmen of beastly Plebeians] As kings are called +[Greek: poimenes laon]. + +II.i.115 (331,3) Take my cap, Jupiter, and I thank thee] [W: cup] +Shakespeare so often mentions throwing up caps in this play, that +Menenius may be well enough supposed to throw up his cap in thanks to +Jupiter. + +II.i.146 (333,4) possest of this?] _Possest_, in our authour's language, +is fully informed. + +II.i.178 (334,6) Which being advanc'd, declines] Volumnia, in her +boasting strain, says, that her son to kill his enemy, has nothing to do +but to lift his hand up and let it fall. + +II.i.232 (337,3) Commit the war of white and damask, in/Their nicely +gawded cheeks] [W: wars] Has the commentator never heard of roses +_contending_ with lilies for the empire of a lady's cheek? The +_opposition_ of colours, though not the _commixture_, may be called a +war. + +II.i.235 (338,1) As if that whatsoever God] That is, _as if that God who +leads him, whatsoever_ God he be. + +II.i.241 (338,2) From where he should begin, and end] Perhaps it should +be read, + + _From where he should begin_ t'an _end_.-- + +II.i.247 (338,3) As he is proud to do't] [I should rather think the +author wrote _prone_: because the common reading is scarce sense or +English. WARBURTON.] _Proud to do_, is the same as, _proud of doing_, +very plain sense, and very common English. + +II.i.285 (340,4) carry with us ears and eyes] That is, let us observe +what passes, but keep our hearts fixed on our design of crushing +Coriolanus. + +II.ii.19 (340,5) he wav'd indifferently] That is, _he would wave +indifferently_. + +II.ii.29 (341,6) supple and courteous to the people; bonnetted] The +sense, I think, requires that we should read, _unbonnetted_. Who have +risen only by _pulling off their hats_ to the people. _Bonnetted_ may +relate to _people_, but not without harshness. + +II.ii.57 (342,7) Your loving motion toward the common body] Your kind +interposition with the common people. + +II.ii.64 (342,9) That's off, that's off] That is, that is nothing to the +purpose. + +II.ii.82 (343,1) how can he flatter] The reasoning of Menenius is this: +How can he be expected to practice flattery to others, who abhors it so +much, that he cannot bear it even when offered to himself. + +II.ii.92 (343,2) When Tarquin made a head for Rome] When Tarquin, who +had been expelled, _raised a power_ to recover Rome. + +II.ii.113 (344,6) every motion/Was tim'd with dying cries] The cries of +the slaughter'd regularly followed his motions, as musick and a dancer +accompany each ether. + +II.ii.115 (345,7) The mortal gate] The gate that was made the scene of +death. + +II.ii.127 (345,8) He cannot but with measure fit the honours] That is, +no honour will be too great far him; he will show a mind equal to any +elevation. + +II.ii.131 (345,1) + + rewards + His deeds with doing them; and is content + To spend his time, to end it] + +I know not whether my conceit will be approved, but I cannot forbear to +think that our author wrote thus. + + --he _rewards + His deeds with doing them, and is content + To spend his time, to spend it. + +To do great acts, for the sake of doing them; to spend his life, for the +sake of spending it. + +II.iii.4 (348,2) We have power in ourselves to do it, but it is a power +that we have no power to do] [Warburton saw this as "a ridicule on the +Augustine manner of defining _free-will_."] A ridicule may be intended, +but the sense is clear enough. _Power_ first signifies _natural power_ +or _force_, and then _moral power_ or _right_. Davies has used the same +word with great variety of meaning. + + _Use all thy_ powers _that heavenly_ power _to praise, + That gave thee_ power _to do_.-- + +II.iii.18 (348,3) many-headed multitude] Hanmer reads, _many-headed_ +monster, but without necessity. To be _many-headed_ includes +_monstrousness_. + +II.iii.115 (352,7) I will not seal your knowledge] I will not strengthen +or compleat your knowledge. The seal is that which gives authenticity to +a writing. + +II.iii.122 (352,8) + + Why in this woolvish tongue should I stand here + To beg of Bob and Dick, that do appear, + Their needless vouches?] + +Why stand I here in this ragged apparel to beg of Bob and Dick, and such +others as _make their appearance_ here, their _unnecessary votes_. I +rather think we should read [instead of _voucher_], _Their needless_ +vouches. But _voucher_ may serve, as it may perhaps signify either the +act or the agent. + +II.iii.122 (352) this woolvish gown] Signifies this _rough hirsute_ +gown. + +II.iii.182 (355,1) ignorant to see't?] [W: "ignorant" means "impotent"] +That _ignorant_ at any time has, otherwise than consequentially, the +same meaning with _impotent_, I do not know. It has no such meaning in +this place. _Were you_ ignorant _to see it_, is, did you want knowledge +to discern it. + +II.iii.208 (356,2) free contempt] That is, with contempt open and +unrestrained. + +II.iii.227 (357,4) Enforce his pride] Object his pride, and enforce the +objection. + +II.iii.258 (358,7) Scaling his present bearing with his past] That is, +_weighing_ his past and present behaviour. + +II.iii.267 (359,8) observe and answer/The vantage of his anger] Mark, +catch, and improve the opportunity, which his hasty anger will afford +us. + +III.i.23 (360,9) prank them in authority] _Plume, deck, dignify_ +themselves. + +III.i.58 (362,3) This paltring/Becomes not Rome] That is, this trick of +dissimulation, this shuffling. + + _Let these be no more believ'd + That_ palter _with us in a double sense_. Macbeth. + +III.i.60 (362,4) laid falsly] _Falsly_ for _treacherously_. + +III.i.66 (362,5) Let them regard me, as I do not flatter, and/ Therein +behold themselves] Let them look in the mirror which I hold up to them, +a mirror which does not flatter, and see themselves. + +III.i.89 (363,6) minnows] a _minnow_ is one of the smallest river fish, +called in some counties a _pink_. + +III.i.90 (364,6) 'Twas from the canon] Was contrary to the established +role; it was a form of speech to which he has no right. + +III.i.98 (364,9) Then vail your ignorance] [W: "ignorance" means +"impotence."] Hanmer's transposition deserves notice + + --_If they have power, + Let them have cushions by you; if none, awake + Your dang'rous lenity; if you are learned, + Be not as commmon fools; if you are not, + Then vail your ignorance. You are Plebeians_, &c. + +I neither think the transposition of one editor right, nor the +interpretation of the other. The sense is plain enough without supposing +_ignorance_ to have any remote or consequential sense. _If this man has +power, let the_ ignorance _that gave it him_ vail _or bow down before +him._ + + III.i.101 (365,1) You are Plebeians, + If they be Senators: and they are no less, + When, both your voices blended, the greatest taste + Most palates theirs] + +These lines may, I think, be made more intelligible by a very slight +correction. + + --_they no less [than senators] + When, both your voices blended, the great'st taste_ + Must palate _theirs._ + +When the _taste_ of the _great_, the patricians, must _palate_, must +_please_ [or must _try_] that of the plebeians. + +III.i.124 (366,3) They would not thread the gates] That is, _pass_ them. +We yet say, to _thread_ an alley. + +III.i.129 (366,4) could never be the native] [_Native_ for natural +birth. WARBURTON.] _Native_ is here not natural birth, but _natural +parent_, or _cause of birth_. But I would read _motive_, which, without +any distortion of its meaning, suits the speaker's purpose. + +III.i.151 (367,7) That love the fundamental part of state/More than you +doubt the change of't] To _doubt_ is to _fear_. The meaning is, You +whose zeal predominates over your terrours; you who do not so much fear +the danger of violent measures, as wish the good to which they are +necessary, the preservation of the original constitution of our +government. + +III.i.158 (368,2) Mangles true judgment] _Judgment_ is _judgment_ in its +common sense, or the faculty by which right is distinguished from wrong. + +III.i.159 (368,3) that integrity which should become it] _Integrity_ is +in this place _soundness_, uniformity, consistency, in the same sense as +Dr. Warburton often uses it, when he mentions the _integrity_ of a +metaphor. To _become_, is to _suit_, to _befit_. + +III.i.221 (370,5) are very poisonous] I read, _are very_ poisons. + +III.i.242 (371,7) One time will owe another] I know not whether to _owe_ +in this place means to _possess by right_, or to _be indebted_. Either +sense may be admitted. _One time_, in which the people are seditious, +will _give us power_ in some other time; or, _this time_ of the people's +predominance will _run them in debt_; that is, will lay them open to the +law, and expose them hereafter to more servile subjection. + +III.i.248 (372,8) Before the tag return] The lowest and most despicable +of the populace are still denominated by those a little above them, +_Tag, rag, and bobtail_. (1773) + +III.ii.7 (376,4) I muse] That is, _I wonder. I am at a loss_. + +III.ii.12 (376,5) my ordinance] My _rank_. + +III.ii.51 (378,8) Why force you] Why _urge_ you. + +III.ii.56 (378,9) bastards, and syllables/Of no allowance, to your +bosom's truth] I read, + + _Of no_ alliance,-- + +therefore _bastards_. Yet _allowance_ may well enough stand, as meaning +_legal right, established rank_, or _settled authority_. (see 1765, VI, +566, 7) + +III.ii.64 (379,1) I am in this/Your wife, your son] I rather think the +meaning is, _I am in their_ condition, I am _at stake_, together with +_your wife, your son_. + +III.ii.66 (379,2) our general lowts] Our _common clowns_. + +III.ii.69 (379,3) that want] The _want_ of their loves. + +III.ii.71 (379,4) Not what] In this place _not_ seems to signify _not +only_. + +III.ii.77 (379,5) Waving thy head,/With often, thus, correcting thy +stout heart] [W: thy hand,/Which soften thus] The correction is +ingenious, yet I think it not right. _Head_ or _hand_ is indifferent. +The _hand_ is _waved_ to gain attention; the _head_ is shaken in token +of sorrow. The word _wave_ suits better to the hand, but in considering +the authour's language, too much stress must not be laid on propriety +against the copies. I would read thus, + + --_waving thy head_, + With _often, thus, correcting thy stout heart_. + +That is, _shaking thy head_, and _striking_ thy breast. The alteration +is slight, and the gesture recommended not improper. + +III.ii.99 (381,6) my unbarb'd sconce?] The suppliants of the people used +to present themselves to them in sordid and neglected dresses. + +III.ii.113 (381,8) Which quired with my drum] Which played in concert +with my drum. + +III.ii.116 (382,1) Tent in my cheeks] To _tent_ is _to take up +residence_. + +III.ii.121 (382,2) honour mine own truth] [Greek: Panton de malis +aischuneui sauton]. Pythagoras. + +III.ii.125 (382,3) let/Thy mother rather feel thy pride, than fear/ Thy +dangerous stoutness] This is obscure. Perhaps, she means, Go, _do thy +worst; let me rather feel the_ utmost _extremity that thy pride can +bring upon us, than live thus in fear of thy dangerous obstinacy_. + +III.iii.17 (384,3) + + Insisting on the old prerogative + And power in' the truth o' the cause] + +This is not very easily understood. We might read, + + --o'er _the truth o' the cause_. + +III.iii.26 (384,4) and to have his word/Of contradiction] _To have his +word of contradiction_ is no more than, _he is used to contradict_; and +_to have his word_, that is, _not to be opposed_. We still say of an +obstinate disputant, _he will have the last word_. + +III.iii.29 (384,5) which looks/With us to break his neck] To _look_ is +to _wait_ or _expect_. The sense I believe is, _What he has in his +heart_ is waiting there _to help us to break his neck_. + +III.iii.57 (386,8) Rather than envy you] _Envy_ is here taken at large +for _malignity_ or ill intention. + +III.iii.64 (386,9) season'd office] All _office established_ and +_settled_ by time, and made familiar to the people by long use. + +III.iii.96 (387,1) has now at last] Read rather, + + --has _now at last_ [instead of _as now at last_]. + +III.iii.97 (387,2) not in the presence] _Not_ stands again for _not +only_. + +III.iii.114 (388,3) My dear wife's estimate] I love my country beyond +the rate at which I _value my dear wife_. + +III.iii.127 (389,4) + + Have the power still + To banish your defenders'; till, at length, + Your ignorance, (which finds not, till it feels)] + +_Still retain the power of banishing your defenders, till your +undiscerning folly, which can foresee no consequences, leave none in the +city but yourselves, who are always labouring your own destruction._ + +It is remarkable, that, among the political maxims of the speculative +Harrington, there is one which he might have borrowed from this speech. +_The people_, says he, _cannot see, but they can feel_. It is not much +to the honour of the people, that they have the same character of +stupidity from their enemy and their friend. Such was the power of our +authour's mind, that he looked through life in all its relations private +and civil. + +IV.i.7 (390,1) Fortune's blows,/When most struck home, being gentle +wounded, craves/A noble cunning] This it the ancient and authentick +reading. The modern editors have, for _gentle wounded_, silently +substituted _gently warded_, and Dr. Warburton has explained _gently_ by +_nobly_. It is good to be sure of our authour's words before we go about +to explain their meaning. + +The sense is, When Fortune strikes her hardest blows, to be wounded, and +yet continue calm, requires a generous policy. He calls this calmness +_cunning_, because it is the effect of reflection and philosophy. +Perhaps the first emotions of nature are nearly uniform, and one man +differs from another in the power of endurance, as he is better +regulated by precept and instruction. + + _They bore as heroes, but they felt as men_. + +(see 1765, VI, 577, 9) + +IV.i.33 (391,3) cautelous baits and practice] By artful and false +tricks, and treason. + +IV.ii.15 (393,6) + + _Sic._ Are you mankind? + _Vol._ Ay, fool; Is that a shame? Note but this fool. + Was not a man my father?] + +The word _mankind_ is used maliciously by the first speaker, and taken +perversely by the second. A _mankind_ woman is a woman with the +roughness of a man, and, in an aggravated sense, a woman ferocious, +violent, and eager to shed blood. In this sense Sicinius asks Volumnia, +if she be _mankind_. She takes _mankind_ for a _human creature_, and +accordingly cries out, + + --_Note but this, fool. + Was not a man my father?_ + +IV.ii.18 (394,7) Hadst thou foxship] Hadst thou, fool as thou art, mean +cunning enough to banish Coriolanus? + +IV.iii.9 (395,7) but your favour is well appear'd by your tongue] [W: +well appeal'd] I should read, + + --_is well_ affear'd, + +That is, _strengthened, attested,_ a word used by our authour. + + _My title is_ affear'd. Macbeth. + +To _repeal_ may be _to bring to remembrance_, but _appeal_ has another +meaning. + +IV.iii.48 (397,8) already in the entertainment] That is, tho' not +actually encamped, yet already in _pay_. To _entertain_ an army is to +take them into pay. + +IV.iv.22 (398,1) + + So, with me:-- + My birth-place hate I, and my love's upon + This enemy's town:--I'll enter: if he slay me] + +He who reads this [My country have I and my lovers left;/This enemy's +town I'll enter] would think that he was reading the lines of +Shakespeare: except that Coriolanus, being already in the town, says, he +_will enter it_. Yet the old edition exhibits it thus + + --_So with me. + My birth-place have I; and my loves upon + This enemic towne; I'll enter if he slay me_, &c. + +The intermediate line seems to be lost, in which, conformably to his +former observation, he says, that _he has_ lost _his birth-place, and +his loves upon_ a petty dispute, and is trying his chance in _this enemy +town_, he then cries, turning to the house of Anfidius, _I'll enter if +he slay me_. + +I have preferred the common reading, because it is, though faulty, yet +intelligible, and the original passage, for want of copies, cannot be +restored. + +IV.v.76 (403,3) a good memory] The Oxford editor, not knowing that +_memory_ was used at that time for _memorial_, alters it to _memorial_. + +IV.v.90 (403,4) A heart of wreak in thee] A heart of resentment. + +IV.v.91 (403,5) maims/Of shame] That is, disgraceful diminutions of +territory. + +IV.v.207 (406,5) sanctifies himself with's hands] Alluding, improperly, +to the act of _crossing_ upon any strange event. + +IV.v.212 (407,6) He will go, he says, and sowle the porter of Rome gates +by the ears] That is, I suppose, drag him down by the ears into the +dirt. _Souiller_, Fr. + +IV.v.214 (407,7) his passage poll'd] That is, _bared, cleared_. + +IV.v.238 (408,8) full of vent] Full of _rumour_, full of materials for +_discourse_. + +IV.vi.2 (408,1) His remedies are tame i' the present peace] The old +reading is, + + _His remedies are tame, the present peace_. + +I do not understand either line, but fancy it should be read thus, + + --_neither need we fear him; + His remedies are ta'en, the present peace, + And quietness o' the people_,-- + +The meaning, somewhat harshly expressed, according to our authour's +custom, is this: _We need not fear him_, the proper _remedies_ against +him _are taken_, by restoring _peace and quietness_. + +IV.vi.32 (410,2) affecting one sole throne,/Without assistance] That is, +without _assessors_; without any other suffrage. + +IV.vi.51 (411,3) reason with the fellow] That is, have some _talk_ with +him. In this sense Shakespeare often uses the word. + +IV.vi.72 (412,4) can no more atone] To _atone_, in the active sense, is +to _reconcile_, and is so used by our authour. To _atone_ here, is, in +the neutral sense, to _come to reconciliation_. To _atone_ is to +_unite_. + +IV.vi.85 (412,5) burned in their cement] [W: "cement" for "cincture or +inclosure"] _Cement_ has here its common signification. + +IV.vi.98 (413,5) The breath of garlick-eaters!] To smell of garlick was +once such a brand of vulgarity, that garlick was a food forbidden to an +ancient order of Spanish knights, mentioned by Guevara. + +IV.vi.112 (414,7) + + they charge him even + As those should do that had deserv'd his hate, + And therein shew'd like enemies] + +Their _charge_ or injunction would shew them insensible of his wrongs, +and make them _shew like enemies_. I read _shew_, not _shewed, like +enemies_. + +IV.vi.124 (414,8) They'll roar him in again] As they _hooted_ at his +departure, they will _roar_ at his return; as he went out with scoffs, +he will come back with lamentations. + +IV.vii.37 (417,1) + + whether pride, + Which out of daily fortune ever taints + The happy man; whether] + +Ausidius assigns three probable reasons of the miscarriage of +Coriolanus; pride, which easily follows an uninterrupted train of +success; unskilfulness to regulate the consequences of his own +victories; a stubborn uniformity of nature, which could not make the +proper transition from the _casque_ or _helmet_ to the _cushion_ or +_chair of civil authority_; but acted with the same despotism in peace +as in war. + +IV.vii.48 (418,2) he has a merit,/To choak it in the utterance] He has a +merit, for no other purpose than to destroy it by boasting it. + +IV.vii.55 (418,4) Right's by right fouler] [W: fouled] I believe +_rights_, like _strengths_, is a plural noon. I read, + + _Rights by rights_ founder, _strengths by strengths do fail_. + +That is, by the exertion of one right another right is lamed. + +V.i.20 (420,2) It was a bare petition] [_Bare_, for mean, beggarly. +WARBURTON.] I believe rather, a petition unsupported, unaided by names +that might give it influence. + +V.i.63 (422,4) I tell you, he does sit in gold] He is inthroned in all +the pomp and pride of imperial splendour. + + [Greek: Chruzothronos Aerae]--Hom. + +V.i.69 (422,5) Bound with an oath to yield to his conditions] This if +apparently wrong. Sir T. Hanmer, and Dr. Warburton after him, read, + + _Bound with an oath_ not to _yield to_ new _conditions_. + +They might have read more smoothly, + + --_to yield no new conditions_. + +But the whole speech is in confusion, and I suspect something left out. +I should read, + + --_What he would do, + He sent in writing after; what he would not, + Bound with an oath. To yield to his conditions_. + +Here is, I think, a chasm. The speaker's purpose seems to be this: _To +yield to his conditions_ is ruin, and better cannot be obtained, _so +that all hope is vain_. + +V.ii.10 (424,7) it is lots to blanks] A _lot_ here is a _prize_. + +V.ii.17 (424,8) + + For I have ever verify'd my friends, + (Of whom he's chief) with all the size that verity + Would without lapsing suffer] + +[W: narrified] [Hanmer: magnified] If the commentator had given any +example of the word _narrify_, the correction would have been not only +received, but applauded. Now, since the new word stands without +authority, we must try what sense the old one will afford. To _verify_ +is _to establish by testimony_. One may say with propriety, he brought +false witnesses to verify his title. Shakespeare considered the word +with his usual laxity, as importing rather _testimony_ than _truth_, and +only meant to say, _I_ bore witness _to my friends with all the size +that verity would suffer_. + +V.ii.45 (426,1) the virginal palms of your daughters] [W: _pasmes_ or +_pames_, French for "swooning fits." Warburton also quotes _Tarquin and +Lucrece_, "To dry the old oak's sap, and cherish springs" and emends to +"tarnish," from the French, meaning "to dry up," used of springs and +rivers.] I have inserted this note, because it contains an apology for +many others. It is not denied that many French words were mingled in the +time of Elizabeth with our language, which have since been ejected, and +that any which are known to have been then in use may be properly +recalled when they will help the sense. But when a word is to be +admitted, the first question should be, by whom was it ever received? in +what book can it be shown? If it cannot be proved to have been in use, +the reasons which can justify its reception must be stronger than any +critick will often have to bring. Even in this certain emendation, the +new word is very liable to contest. I should read, + + --_and_ perish _springs_. + +The verb _perish_ is commonly neutral, but in conversation is often used +actively, and why not in the works of a writer negligent beyond all +others of grammatical niceties? + +V.ii.60 (427,2) Back, I say, go; lest I let forth your half pint of +blood;--back, that's the utmost of your having:--Back] [Warburton +emended the punctuation] I believe the meaning never was mistaken, and +therefore do not change the reading. + +V.ii.69 (428,3) guess by my entertainment with him] I read, _Guess_ by +_my entertainment with him, if thou standest not i' the state of +hanging_ [in place of _guess_ but _my entertainment_]. + +V.ii.80 (428,4) Though I owe/My revenge properly] Though I have a +_peculiar right_ in revenge, in the power of forgiveness the Volacians +are conjoined. + +V.ii.104 (429,5) how we are shent] _Shent_ is _brought to destruction_. + +V.iii.3 (430,6) how plainly/I have born this business] That is, _how +openly, how_ remotely from artifice or concealment. + +V.iii.39 (431,7) The sorrow, that delivers us thus chang'd,/Makes you +think so] Virgilia makes a voluntary misinterpretation of her husband's +words. He says, _These eyes are not the same_, meaning, that he saw +things with _other eyes_, or other _dispositions_. She lays hold on the +word _eyes_, to turn his attention on their present appearance. + +V.iii.46 (431,8) Now by the jealous queen of heaven] That is, _by Juno_, +the guardian of marriage, and consequently the avenger of connubial +perfidy. + +V.iii.64 (432,1) The noble sister of Poplicola] Valeria, methinks, +should not have been brought only to fill up the procession without +speaking. + +V.iii.68 (432,2) epitome of yours] I read, + + --_epitome of you_. + +_An epitome of you_ which, _enlarged by the commentaries of time_, may +equal you in magnitude. + +V.iii.74 (433,4) every flaw] That is, every _gust_, every _storm_. + +V.iii.100 (435,2) Constrains them weep, and shake] That is, _constrain_ +the eye to _weep_, _and_ the heart to _shake_. + +V.iii.149 (436,3) the fine strains] The niceties, the refinements. + +V.iii.159 (436,5) he lets me prate,/Like one i' the stocks] Keep me in a +state of ignominy talking to no purpose. + +V.iii.176 (437,6) Does reason our petition] Does _argue for_ us and our +petition. + +V.iii.201 (438,7) I'll work/Myself a former fortune] I will take +advantage of this concession to restore myself to my former credit and +power. + +V.iii.206 (438,8) Come, enter with us,--Ladies, you deserve] [Warburton +proposed to give the speech beginning "Ladies, you deserve" to Aufidius] +The speech suits Aufidius justly enough, if it had been written for him; +but it may, without impropriety, be spoken by Coriolanus: and since the +copies give it to him, why should we dispossess him? + +V.iv.22 (439,1) He sits in state as a thing made for Alexander] In a +foregoing note he was said to _sit in gold_. The phrase, _as a thing +made for Alexander_, means, _as one made to resemble Alexander_. + +V.vi.39 (443,2) He wag'd me with his countenance] This is obscure. The +meaning, I think, is, he _prescribed_ to me vith an air of authority, +and gave me _his countenance_ for _my wages_; thought me sufficiently +rewarded with good looks. + +V.vi.44 (443,3) For which my sinews shall be stretch'd upon him] This is +the point on which I will attack him with my utmost abilities. + +V.vi.66 (444,4) answering us/With our own charge] That is, _rewarding us +with our own expences_; making the cost of the war its recompence. + +V.vi.125 (446,5) his fame folds in/This orbe o' th' earth] His fame +overspreads the world. + +(447) General Observation. The tragedy of Coriolanus is one of the most +amusing of our author's performances. The old man's merriment in +Menenius; the lofty lady's dignity in Volumnia; the bridal modesty in +Virgilia; the patrician and military haughtiness in Coriolanus; the +plebeian malignity and tribunitian insolence in Brutus and Sicinius, +make a very pleasing and interesting variety: and the various +revolutions of the hero's fortune fill the mind with anxious curiosity. +There is, perhaps, too much bustle in the first act, and too little in +the last. + + + + +Vol. VIII + +JULIUS CAESAR + + +I.i.20 (4,2) _Mar._ What meanest thou by that?] [Theobald gave this +speech to Flavius] I have replaced _Marullus_, who might properly enough +reply to a saucy sentence directed to his colleague, and to whom the +speech was probably given, that he might not stand too long unemployed +upon the stage. + +I.ii.25 (7,5) [_Sennet. Exeunt Caesar and Train_] I have here inserted +the word _Sennet_, from the original edition, that I may have an +opportunity of retracting a hasty conjecture in one of the marginal +directions in _Henry_ VIII. _Sennet_ appears to be a particular tune or +mode of martial musick. + +I.ii.35 (8,6) You bear too stubborn and too strange a hand] _Strange_, +is alien, unfamiliar, such as might become a stranger. + +I.ii.39 (8,7) Vexed I am,/Of late, with passions of some difference] +With a fluctation of discordant opinions and desires. + +I.ii.73 (9,9) To stale with ordinary oaths my love/To every new +protester] To invite _every new protestor_ to my affection by the +_stale_ or allurement of _customary_ oaths. + +I.ii.87 (10,1) And I will look on both indifferently] Dr. Warburton has +a long note on this occasion, which is very trifling. When _Brutus_ +first names _honour_ and _death_, he calmly declares them indifferent; +but as the image kindles in his mind, he sets _honour_ above _life_. Is +not this natural? + +I.ii.160 (12,6) eternal devil] I should think that our author wrote +rather, _infernal devil_. + +I.ii.171 (13,7) chew upon this] Consider this at leisure; _ruminate_ on +this. + +I.ii.186 (13,8) Looks with such ferret, and such fiery eyes] A ferret +has red eyes. + +I.ii.268 (16,2) a man of any occupation] Had I been a mechanick, one of +the Plebeians to whom he offered his threat. + +I.ii.313 (17,3) Thy honourable metal may be wrought/From what it is +dispos'd] The best _metal_ or _temper_ may be worked into qualities +contrary to its original constitution. + +I.ii.318 (17,4) If I were Brutus now, and he were Cassius,/He should not +humour me] The meaning, I think, is this, _Caesar loves Brutus, but if +Brutus and I were to change places, his love should not humour me_, +should not take hold of my affection, so as to make me forget my +principles. + +I.iii.1 (18,5) brought you Caesar home?] Did you attend Caesar home? + +I.iii.3 (18,6) sway of earth] The whole weight or _momentum_ of this +globe. + +I.iii.21 (19,7) Who glar'd upon me] The first edition reads, + + _Who_ glaz'd _upon me_,-- + +Perhaps, _Who_ gaz'd _upon me_. + +I.iii.64 (20,8) Why birds, and beasts, from quality and kind] That is, +Why they _deviate_ from quality and nature. This line might perhaps be +more properly placed after the next line. + + _Why birds, and beasts, from quality and kind; + Why all these things change from their ordinance._ + +I.iii.65 (20,9) and children calculate] [Shakespeare, with his usual +liberty, employs the _species_ [calculate] for the _genus_ foretel]. +WARB.] Shakespeare found the liberty established. _To calculate a +nativity_, is the technical term. + +I.iii.l14 (22,2) My answer must be made] I shall be called to account, +and must _answer_ as for seditious words. + +I.iii.117 (22,3) Hold my hand] Is the same as, _Here's my hand_. + +I.iii.118 (22,4) Be factious for redress] _Factious_ seems here to mean +_active_. + +I.iii.129 (23,5) It favours, like the work] The old edition reads, + + It favours, _like the work_-- + +I think we should read, + + In favour's, _like the work we have in hand, + Most bloody, fiery, and most terrible._ + +_Favour_ is _look, countenance, appearance_. (rev. 1778, VIII, 25, 7) + +II.i.19 (25,6) Remorse from power] [_Remorse_, for mercy. WARB.] +_Remorse_ (says the Author of the _Ravisal_) signifies the conscious +uneasiness arising from a sense of having done wrong; to extinguish +which feeling, nothing hath so great a tendency as absolute uncontrouled +power. + +I think Warbuton right. (1773) + +II.i.21 (25,7) common proof] Common experiment. + +II.i.26 (25,8) base degrees] Low steps. + +II.i.33 (26,9) as his kind] According to his nature. + +II.i.63 (27,3) + + Between the acting of a dreadful thing, + And the first motion, all the interim is + Like a phantasma, or a hideous dream: + The genius, and the mortal instruments + Are then in council; and the state of man, + Like to a little kingdom, suffers then + The nature of an insurrection] + +The [Greek: deinon] of the Greek critics does not, I think, mean +sentiments which _raise fear_, more than _wonder_, or any other of the +tumultuous passions; [Greek: to deinon] is that which _strikes_, which +_astonishes_, with the idea either of some great subject, or of the +author's abilities. + +Dr. Warburton'a pompous criticism might well have been shortened. The +_genius_ is not the _genius_ of a _kingdom_, nor are the _instruments, +conspirators_. Shakespeare is describing what passes in a single bosom, +the _insurrection_ which a conspirator feels agitating the _little +kingdom_ of his own mind; when the _Genius_, or power that watches for +his protection, and the _mortal instruments_, the passions, which excite +him to a deed of honour and danger, are in council and debate; when the +desire of action and the care of safety, keep the mind in continual +fluctuation and disturbance. + +II.i.76 (29,5) any mark of favour] Any distinction of countenance. + +II.i.83 (30,6) For if thou path thy native semblance on] If thou _walk_ +in thy true form. + +II.i.114 (31,7) No, not an oath. If not the face of men] Dr. Warburten +would read _fate of men_; but his elaborate emendation is, I think, +erroneous. _The_ face _of men_ is the _countenance_, the _regard_, the +_esteem_ of the publick; in other terms, _honour_ and _reputation_; or +_the face of men_ may mean the dejected look of the people. + +He reads, with the other modern editions, + + --_If_ that _the face of men_, + +but the old reading is, + + --_if_ not _the face_, &c. + +II.i.129 (32,1) Swear priests, and cowards, and men cautelous] This is +imitated by Utway, + + _When you would bind me, is there need of oaths?_ &c. + Venice preserved. + +II.i.187 (34,2) take thought] That is, _turn_ melancholy. + +II.i.196 (34,3) Quite from the main opinion he held once] _Main +opinion_, is nothing more than _leading, fixed, predominant opinion_. + +II.i.225 (36,6) Let not our looks put on our purposes] Let not our faces +_put on_, that is, _wear_ or _show_ our designs. + +II.ii.36 (42,3) death, a necessary end,/Will come, when it will come] +This is a sentence derived from the Stoical doctrine of predestination, +and is therefore improper in the mouth of Caesar. + +II.ii.41 (42,4) The Gods do this in shame of cowardice:/Caesar should be +a beast without a heart] The ancients did not place courage but wisdom +in the heart. + +II.ii.88 (44,7) and that great men shall press/For tinctures, stains, +relicks, and cognisance] [Warburton conjectured some lines lost] I am +not of opinion that any thing is lost, and have therefore marked no +omission. This speech, which is intentionally pompous, is somewhat +confused. There are two allusions; one to coats armorial, to which +princes make additions, or give new _tinctures_, and new marks of +_cognisance_; the other to martyrs, whose reliques are preserved with +veneration. The Romans, says Brutus, all come to you as to a saint, for +reliques, as to a prince, for honours. + +II.ii.104 (45,8) And reason to my love is liable] And reason, or +propriety of conduct and language, is subordinate to my love. + +II.iii.16 (47,9) the fates with traitors do contrive] The fates join +with traitors in contriving thy destruction. + +III.i.38 (51,2) And turn pre-ordinance and first decree/Into the lane of +children] I do not veil understand what is meant by the _lane_ of +children. I should read, the _law_ of children. It was, _change +pre-ordinance and decree into the law of children_; into such slight +determinations as every start of will would alter. _Lane_ and _laws_ in +some manuscripts are not easily distinguished. + +III.i.67 (52,4) apprehensive] Susceptible of fear, or other passions. + +III.i.68 (52,5) but one] One, and only one. + +III.i.69 (52,6) holds on his rank] Perhaps, _holds on his_ race; +continues his course. We commonly say, To _hold a rank_, and To _hold +on_ a _course_ or _way_. + +III.i.75 (52,7) Doth not Brutus bootless kneel?] I would read, Do _not +Brutus bootless kneel_! + +III.i.152 (55,9) Who else must be let blood, who else is rank] Who else +may be supposed to have _overtopped_ his equals, and _grown too high_ +for the public safety. + +III.i.257 (59,3) in the tide of times] That is, in the course of times. + +III.i.262 (60,4) A curse shall light upon the limbs of men] Hanmer +reads, + + --kind _of men_. + +I rather think it should be, + + --_the_ lives _of men_. + +unless we read, + + --these lymms _of men_; + +That is, _these bloodhounds_ of men. The uncommonness of the word _lymm_ +easily made the change. + +III.i.273 (60,5) Cry _Havock_] A learned correspondent has informed me, +that, in the military operations of old times, _havock_ was the word by +which declaration was made, that no quarter should be given. + +In a tract intitled, _The Office of the Conestable & Mareschall in the +Tyme of Werre_, contained in the Black Book of the Admiralty, there is +the following chapter: + +"The peyne of hym that crieth _havock_ and of them that followeth hym. +etit. v." + +"Item Si quis inventus fuerit qui clamorem inceperit qui vecatur +_Havok_." + +"Also that no man be so hardy to crye _Havok_ upon peyne that he that is +begynner shal be deede therefore: & the remanent that doo the same or +folow shall lose their horse & harneis: and the persones of such as +foloweth & escrien shal be under arrest of the Conestable & Mareschall +warde unto tyme that they have made fyn; & founde suretie no morr to +offende; & his body in prison at the Kyng wylle.--" + +III.ii.116 (66,8) Caesar has had great wrong] [Pope has a rather +ridiculous note on this] I have inserted this note, because it is +Pope's, for it is otherwise of no value. It is strange that he should so +much forget the date of the copy before him, as to think it not printed +in Jonson's time. (see 1765, VII, 81, 1) + +III.ii.126 (68,9) And none so poor] The meanest man is now too high to +do reverence to Caesar. + +III.ii.192 (68,2) + + And, in his mantle muffling up his face, + Even at the base of Pompey's statue, + Which all the while ran blood, great Caesar fell. + O, what a fall was there, my countrymen!] + +[Warburton suggested transposing the second and third of these lines] +The image seems to be, that the blood of Caesar flew upon the statue, +and trickled down it. And the exclamation, + + _O what a fall was there--_ + +follows better after + + _-great Caesar fell,_ + +than with a line interposed, (see 1765, VII, 64, 3) + +III.ii.226 (70,4) For I have neither writ] The old copy reads instead of +_wit_, + + _For I have neither_ writ, _nor words,--_ + +which may mean, I have no _penned_ and premeditated oration. + +IV.ii.4 (77,1 + + Your master, Pindarus, + In his own change, or by ill officers, + Hath given me some worthy cause to wish + Things done, undone] + +[W: own charge] The arguments for the change proposed are insufficient. +Brutus could not but know whether the wrongs committed were done by +those who were immediately under the command of Cassius, or those under +his officers. The answer of Brutus to the servant is only an act of +artful civility; his question to Lucilius proves, that his suspicion +still continued. Yet I cannot but suspect a corruption, and would read, + + _In his own change, or by ill_ offices. + +That is, either _changing_ his inclination _of himself_, or _by_ the +_ill offices_ and bad influences of others. (see 1765, VII, 71, 8) + +IV.iii.30 (80,4) To hedge me in] That is, to limit my authority by your +direction or censure. + +IV.iii.32 (80,5) To make conditions] That is, to know on what terms it +is fit to confer the offices which are at my disposal. + +IV.iii.86 (82,7) + + A friend should bear a friend's infirmities, + But Brutus makes mine greater than they are. + _Bru._ I do not, till you practise them on me] + +The meaning is this; I do not look for your faults, I only see them, and +mention them with vehemence, when you force them into my notice, _by +practising them on me._ (see 1765, VII, 77, 6) + +IV.iii.100 (53,8) + + There is my dagger, + And here my naked breast; within, a heart + Dearer than Plutus' mine, richer than gold: + If that thou be'st a Roman, take it forth] + +[W: thou needst a Roman's,] I am not satisfied with the change proposed, +yet cannot deny, that the words, as they now stand, require some +interpretation. I think he means only, that he is so far from Avarice, +when the cause of his country requires liberality, that if any man +should wish for his heart, he would not need enforce his desire any +otherwise, than by showing that he was a Roman. + +V.i.5 (92,5) They mean to warn as at Philippi here] To warn, seems to +mean here the same as to alarm. Hanmer reads, + + _They mean to_ wage _us_. + +V.i.43 (93,6) While damned Casca, like a cur behind,/Struck Caesar on +the neck] Casca struck Caesar on the neck, coming _like_ a degenerate +_cur behind him._ + +V.i.100 (96,2) + + Even by the rule of that philosophy, + By which I did blame Cato for the death + Which he did give himself; (I know not how, + But I do find it cowardly and vile, + For fear of what might fall, so to prevent + The time of life:) arming myself with patience] + +Dr. Warburton thinks, that in this speech something is lost, but there +needed only a parenthesis to clear it. The construction is this; I an +determined to act according to that philosophy which directed me to +blame the suicide of Cato, arming myself with patience. + +V.iv.12 (102,6) _Luc._ Only I yield to die:/There is so much, that then +wilt kill me straight] Dr. Warburton has been much inclined to find +_lacunae_, or passages broken by omission, throughout this play. I think +he has been always mistaken. The soldier here says, _Yield, or thou +diest_. Lucilius replies, I yield only on this condition, that I may +die; here is so much gold as thou seest in my hand, which I offer thee +as a reward for speedy death. What now is there wanting? + +(106) General Observation. Of this tragedy many particular passages +deserve regard, and the contention and reconcilement of Brutus and +Cassius is universally celebrated; but I have never been strongly +agitated in perusing it, and think it somewhat cold and unaffecting, +compared with some other of Shakespeare's plays; his adherence to the +real story, and to Roman manners, seems to have impeded the natural +vigour of his genius. + + + + +ANTONY AND CLEOPATRA + + +I.i.9 (110,2) And is become the bellows, and the fan,/To cool a gypsy's +lust] In this passage something seems to be wanting. The bellows and fan +being commonly used for contrary purposes, were probably opposed by the +author, who might perhaps have written, + + _--is become the bellows, and the fan_, + To kindle and _to cool a gypsy's lust_. + +I.i.10 (110,3) gypsy's lust] Gypsy is here used both in the original +meaning for an _Egyptian_, and in its accidental sense for a _bad +woman_. + +1.i.17 (110,6) Then must thou needs find out new heaven] Thou must set +the boundary of my love at a greater distance than the present visible +universe affords. + +1.i.18 (110,7) The sum] Be brief, _sum_ thy business in a few words. + +I.i.33 (111,8) and the wide arch/Of the rang'd empire fall!] [Taken from +the Roman custom of raising triumphal arches to perpetuate their +victories. Extremely noble. WARBURTON.] I am in doubt whether +Shakespeare had any idea but of a fabrick standing on pillars. The later +editions have all printed the _raised_ empire, for the _ranged_ empire, +as it was first given, (see 1765, VII, 107, 8) + +I.i.42 (112,1) + + Antony + Will be himself. + _Ant._ But stirr'd by Cleopatra] + +_But_, in this passage, seems to have the old Saxon signification of +_without, unless, except. Antony_, says the queen, _will recollect his +thoughts_. Unless _kept_, he replies, _in commotion by Cleopatra_. (see +1765, VII, 108,1) + +I.ii.5 (113,2) change his horns with garlands] [W: charge] Sir Thomas +Hanmer reads, not improbably, _change_ for _horns_ his _garlands_. I am +in doubt, whether to _change_ is not merely to _dress_, or _to dress +with changes of_ garlands. + +I.ii.23 (114,3) I had rather heat my liver] To know why the lady is so +averse from _heating_ her _liver_, it must be remembered, that a heated +liver is supposed to make a pimpled face. + +I.ii.35 (114,5) Then, belike, my children shall have no names] If I have +already had the best of my fortune, then I suppose _I shall never name +children_, that is, I am never to be married. However, tell me the +truth, tell me, _how many boys and wenches_? + +1.ii.38 (114,6) If every of your wishes had a womb, and foretel every +wish, a million] [W: fertil ev'ry] For _foretel_, in ancient editions, +the latter copies have _foretold_. _Foretel_ favours the emendation, +which is made with great acuteness; yet the original reading may, I +think, stand. _If you had as many wombs as you will have wishes; and_ I +should _foretel all those wishes, I should foretel a million of +children._ It is an ellipsis very frequent in conversation; _I should +shame you, and tell all_; that is, _and if I should_ tell all. _And_ is +for _and if_, which was anciently, and is still provincially, used for +_if_. + +I.ii.105 (117,8) extended Asia] To _extend_, is a term used for to +_seize_; I know not whether that be not the sense here. + +I.ii.113 (118,9) Oh, when we bring forth weeds,/When our quick winds lie +still] The sense is, that man, not agitated by censure, like soil not +ventilated by _quick winds_, produces more evil than good. + +I.ii.128 (118,1) + + the present pleasure, + By revolution lowring, does become + The opposite of itself] + +[The allusion is to the sun's diurnal course; which rising in the +_east_, and _by revolution lowering_, or setting in the _west_, becomes +_the opposite of itself_. WARB.] This is an obscure passage. The +explanation which Dr. Warburton has offered is such, that I can add +nothing to it; yet perhaps Shakespeare, who was less learned than his +commentator, meant only, that our pleasures, as they are _revolved_ in +the mind, turn to pain. + +I.ii.146 (119,3) upon far poorer moment] For less reason; upon meaner +motives. + +I.ii.169 (120,4) It shews to man the tailors of the earth; comforting +therein] I have printed this after the original, which, though harsh and +obscure, I know not how to amend. Sir Tho. Hanmer reads, They shew _to +man the tailors of the earth comforting_ him therein. I think the +passage, with somewhat less alteration, for alteration is always +dangerous, may stand thus; _It shews to_ men _the tailors of the earth, +comforting_ them, &c. + +I.ii.187 (121,6) more urgent touches] Things that touch me more +sensibly, more pressing motives. + +I.ii.190 (121,7) Petition us at home] Wish us at home; call for us to +reside at home. + +I.ii.201 (121,9) + + Say, our pleasure + To such whose places under us, requires + Our quick remove from hence] + +This is hardly sense. I believe we should read, + + Their _quick remove from hence_. + +Tell our design of going away to those, who being by their places +obliged to attend us, must remove in haste. + +I.iii.3 (122,1) I did not send you] You must go as if you came without +my order or knowledge. + +I.iii.37 (123,2) a race of heaven] [i.e. had a smack or flavour of +heaven. WARB.] This word is well explained by Dr. Warburton; the _race_ +of wine is the taste of the woil. Sir T. Hanmer, not understanding the +word, reads, _ray_. + +I.iii.44 (124,3) Remains in use] The poet seems to allude to the legal +distinction between the _use_ and _absolute possession_. + +I.iii.54 (124,4) should safe my going] [T: salve] Mr. Upton reads, I +think rightly, + + --_safe_ my going. + +I.iii.62 (125,5) + + O most false love! + Where be the sacred vials thou shouldst fill + With sorrowful water?] + +Alluding to the lachrymatory vials, or bottles of tears, which the +Romans sometimes put into the urn of a friend. + +I.iii.77 (125,6) the tears/Belong to Egypt] To me, the queen of Egypt. + +I.iii.90 (126,7) Oh, ny oblivion is a very Antony,/And I am all +forgotten] [The plain meaning is, _My forgetfulness makes me forget +myself_. WARBURTON.] [Hanmer explained "all forgotten" as "apt to forget +everything"] I cannot understand the learned critic's explanation. It +appears to me, that she should rather have said, + + _O my_ remembrance _is a very_ Antony, + _And I am all forgotten._ + +It was her memory, not her oblivion, that, like Antony, vas forgetting +and deserting her. I think a slight change will restore the passage. The +queen, having something to say, which she is not able, or would not seem +able to recollect, cries out, + + _O my oblivion_!--'Tis _a very Antony_. + +The thought of which I was in quest is a very Antony, is treacherous and +fugitive, and has irrevocably left me, + + _And I am all forgotten._ + +If this reading stand, I think the explanation of Hanmer must be +received, (see 1765, VII, 122, 6) + +I.iv.3 (127,9) One great competitor] Perhaps, _Our_ great competitor. + +I.iv.12 (128,1) as the spots of heaven,/More fiery by night's blackness] +If by spots are meant stars, as night has no other fiery spots, the +comparison is forced and harsh, stars having been always supposed to +beautify the night; nor do I comprehend what there is in the +counter-part of this simile, which answers to night's blackness. Hanmer +reads, + + --_spots_ on ermine + Or fires, _by night's blackness_. + +I.iv.14 (128,2) purchas'd] Procured by his own fault or endeavour. + +I.iv.21 (128,3) say, this becomes him, (As his composure must be rare, +indeed, Whom these things cannot blemish] This seems inconsequent. I +read + + _And his composure_, &c. + _Grant that this becomes him_, and _if it can become him, he must + have in him something very uncommon_; yet, _&c._ + +I.iv.25 (128,4) So great weight in his lightness] The word _light_ it +one of Shakespeare's favourite play-things. The sense is, His trifling +levity throws so much burden upon us. + +I.iv.25 (129,5) + + If he fill'd + His vacancy with his voluptuousness, + Full surfeits, and the dryness of his bones, + Call on him for't] + +_Call on him_, is, _visit him_. Says Caesar, _If Antony followed his +debaucheries at a time of leisure, I should leave him to be punished by +their natural consequences, by_ surfeits _and_ dry bones. + +I.iv.31 (129,6) boys; who being mature in knowledge] For this Hanmer, +who thought the _maturity_ of a _boy_ an inconsistent idea, has put, + + --_who_, immature _in knowledge_, + +but the words _experience_ and _judgment_ require that we read _mature_; +though Dr. Warburton has received the emendation. By _boys mature in +knowledge_, are meant, _boys old enough to know their duty_. + +I.iv.38 (129,7) he is belov'd of these/That only have fear'd Caesar] +Those whom not _love_ but _fear_ made adherents to Caesar, now shew +their affection for Pompey. + +I.iv.49 (130,2) which they ear] To _ear_, is to _plow_; a common +metaphor. + +I.iv.52 (130,3) Lack blood to think on't] Turn pale at the thought of +it. + +I.v.4 (132,5) mandragora] A plant of which the infusion was supposed to +procure sleep. Shakespeare mentions it in _Othello_: + + _Not poppy, nor_ mandragora, + _Can ever med'cine thee to that sweet sleep_. + +I.v.38 (133,8) that great medicine hath/With his tinct gilded thee] +Alluding to the philosopher's stone, which, by its touch, converts base +metal into gold. The alchemists call the matter, whatever it be, by +which they perform transmutation, a _medicine_. + +I.v.48 (134,9) arm-gaunt steed] [i.e. his steed worn lean and thin by +much service in war. So Fairfax, _His_ stall-worn _steed the champion +stout bestrode_. WARB.] On this note Mr. Edwards has been very lavish of +his pleasantry, and indeed has justly censured the misquotation of +_stall-worn_, for _stall-worth_, which means _strong_, but makes no +attempt to explain the word in the play. Mr. Seyward, in his preface to +Beaumont, has very elaborately endeavoured to prove, that an _arm-gaunt_ +steed is a steed with _lean shoulders_. _Arm_ is the Teutonick word for +_want_, or _poverty_. _Arm-gaunt_ may be therefore an old word, +signifying, _lean_ for _want_, ill fed. Edwards's observation, that a +worn-out horse is not proper for Atlas to mount in battle, is +impertinent; the horse here mentioned seems to be a post horse, rather +than a war horse. Yet as _arm-gaunt_ seems not intended to imply any +defect, it perhaps means, a horse so slender that a man might clasp him, +and therefore formed for expedition. Hanmer reads, + + --_arm-girt steed_. + +I.v.50 (134,1) Was beastly dumb by him] Mr. Theobald reads _dumb'd_, put +to silence. _Alexas means_, (says he) _the horse made such a neighing, +that if he had spoke he could not have been heard_. + +I.v.76 (136,3) Get me ink and paper: he shall have every day/ A several +greeting, or I'll unpeople Aegypt] By sending out messengers. + +II.i (136,4) _Enter Pompey_, _Menecrates_, _and Menas_] The persons are +so named in the first edition; but I know not why Menecrates appears; +Menas can do all without him. + +II.i.4 (136,5) While we are suitors to their throne, decays/The thing we +sue for] [W: delays] It is not always prudent to be too hasty in +exclamation; the reading which Dr. Warburton rejects as _nonsense_, is +in my opinion right; if _delay_ be what they sue for, they have it, and +the consolation offered becomes superfluous. The meaning is, _While we +are praying_, _the thing for which we pray_ is losing its value. + +II.i.38 (138,8) The ne'er-lust-wearied Antony] [Theobald emended "near +lust-wearied" to "ne'er-lust-wearied"] Could it be imagined, after this +swelling exultation, that the first edition stands literally thus, + + _The_ neere _lust wearied Antony_. + +II.i.45 (139,9) square] That is, quarrel. + +II.i.51 (139,1) Our lives upon] This play is not divided into acts by +the authour or first editors, and therefore the present division may be +altered at pleasure. I think the first act may be commodiously continued +to this place, and the second act opened with the interview of the chief +persons, and a change of the state of action. Yet it must be confessed, +that it is of small importance, where these unconnected and desultory +scenes are interrupted. + +II.ii.7 (140,2) Were I the wearer of Antonius' beard,/I would not shav't +to-day] I believe he means, _I would meet him undressed_, _without shew +of respect_. + +II.ii.25 (141,3) Nor curstness grow to the matter] Let not _ill-humour_ +be added to the real _subject_ of our difference. + +II.ii.28 (141,4) _Caes_. Sit./_Ant_. Sit, sir!] [Antony appears to be +jealous of a circumstance which seemed to indicate a consciousness of +superiority in his too successful partner in power; and accordingly +resents the invitation of Caesar to be seated: Caesar answers, _Nay +then_--i.e. _if you are so ready to resent what I meant an act of +civility, there can be no reason to suppose you have temper enough for +the business on which at present we are met_. STEEVENS.] The following +circumstance may serve to strengthen Mr. Steevens's opinion: When the +fictitious Sebastian made his appearance in Europe, he came to a +conference with the Conde de Lemos; to whom, after the firat exchange of +civilities, he said, _Conde de Lemos, be covered_. And being asked by +that nobleman, by what pretences he laid claim to the superiority +expressed by such permission, he replied, I do it by right of my birth; +I am Sebastian. (1773) + +II.ii.43 (142,5) their contestation/Was theam for you, you were the word +of war] [W: theam'd] I am neither satisfied with the reading nor the +emendation; _theam'd_ is, I think, a word unauthorised, and very harsh. +Perhaps we may read, + + --_their contestation_ + +Had _theme_ from _you_, _you were the word o' th' war_. _The dispute +derived its subject from you_. It may be corrected by mere +transposition, + + --_their contestation_ + +You were theme for, _you were the word_. + +II.ii.51 (143,8) Having alike your cause?] The meaning seems to be, +_having the same cause as you to be offended with me_. But why, because +he was offended with Antony, should he make war upon Caesar? May it not +be read thus, + + --_Did he not rather + Discredit my authority with yours, + And make the wars alike against my stomach_, + Hating _alike_ our _cause_? + +II.ii.53 (143,9) As matter whole you have not to make it with] The +original copy reads, + + _As matter whole you_ have _to make it with_. + +Without doubt erroneously; I therefore only observe it, that the reader +may more readily admit the liberties which the editors of this authour's +works have necessarily taken. + +II.ii.61 (144,1) fronted] i.e. _opposed_. + +II.ii.85 (145,4) The honour's sacred which he talks on now,/Supposing +that I lack'd it] [_Sacred_, for unbroken, unviolated. WARB.] Dr. +Warburton seems to understand this passage thus; _The honour which he_ +talks _of me as_ lacking, _is_ unviolated, _I never lacked it_. This may +perhaps be the true meaning, but before I read the note, I understood it +thus: Lepidus interrupts Caesar, on the supposition that what he is +about to say will be too harsh to be endured by Antony; to which Antony +replies, _No, Lepidus, let him speak, the security of_ honour on which +he now speaks, _on which this conference is held now_, is sacred, _even_ +supposing that I lacked _honour_ before. + +II.ii.112 (146,5) your considerate stone] This line is passed by all the +editors, as if they understood it, and believed it universally, +intelligible. I cannot find in it any very obvious, and hardly any +possible meaning. I would therefore read, + + _Go to then_, you _considerate_ ones. + +You, who dislike my frankness and temerity of speech, and are so +_considerate_ and discreet, _go to_, do your on business. + +II.ii.113 (146,6) I do not much dislike the matter, but/The manner of +his speech] I do not, says Caesar, think the man wrong, but too free of +him interposition; _for't cannot be, we shall remain in friendship: yet +if it were possible, I would endeavour it_. + +II.ii.123 (147,7) your reproof/Were well deserv'd] In the old edition, + + --_your_ proof + _Were well deserv'd_-- + +Which Mr. Theobald, with his usual triumph, changes to _approof_, which +he explains, _allowance_. Dr. Warburton inserted _reproof_ very properly +into Hanmer's edition, but forgot it in his own. + +II.ii.159 (148,8) Lest my remembrance suffer ill report] Lest I be +thought too willing to forget benefits, I must barely return him thanks, +and then I will defy him. + +II.ii.210 (150,1) And what they undid, did] It might be read less +harshly, + + _And what they did_, undid. + +II.ii.212 (150,2) tended her i' the eyes] Perhaps _tended her_ by th' +_eyes_, discovered her will by her eyes. + +II.iii.21 (153,6) thy angel/Becomes a Fear] Mr.Uptan reads, + + _Becomes_ afear'd,-- + +The common reading is more poetical. + +II.iii.37 (154,7) his quails ever/Beat mine] The ancients used to match +quails as we match cocks. + +II.iii.38 (154,8) inhoop'd, at odds] Thus the old copy. _Inhoop'd_ is +_inclosed, confined_, that they may fight. The modern editions read, + + _Beat mine_, in whoop'd-_at odds_.-- + +II.v.1 (155,9) musick, moody food] [The _mood_ is the _mind_, or _mental +disposition_. Van Haaren's panegyrick on the English begins, +_Groot-moedig Volk, great-minded nation_.] Perhaps here is a poor jest +intended between _mood_ the _mind_ and _moods_ of musick. + +II.v.41 (l57,4) Not like a formal man] [_Formal_, for ordinary. WARB.] +Rather decent, regular. + +II.v.103 (161,8) Thou art not what thou'rt sure of!] For this, which is +not easily understood, Sir Thomas Hanmer has given, + + _That_ say'st but _what thou'rt sure of!_ + +I am not satisfied with the change, which, though it affords sense, +exhibits little spirit. I fancy the line consists only of abrupt starts. + + _Oh that his fault should make a knave of thee_, + That art--not what?--Thou'rt sure on't.--Get thee + hence. + +_That his fault should make a knave of thee that art_--but what _shall I +say thou art not_? Thou art then sure of _this marriage._--Get thee +hence. + +Dr. Warburton has received Sir T. Hanmer's emendation. + +II.v.115 (161,9) Let him for ever go] She is now talking in broken +sentences, not of the messenger, but Antony. + +II.vi.24 (163,2) Thou canst not fear us] Thou canst not affright us with +thy numerous navy. + +II.vi.28 (163,3) But since the cuckow builds not for himself] Since, +like the cuckow, that seizes the nests of other birds, you have invaded +a house which you could not build, keep it while you can. + +II.vii.1 (167,6) some o' their plants] _Plants_, besides its common +meaning, is here used for the _foot_, from the Latin. + +II.vii.14 (167,9) a partizan] A pike. + +II.vii.16 (167,1) To be call'd into a huge sphere, and not to be seen to +move in't, are the holes where eyes should be, which pitifully disaster +the cheeks] This speech seems to be mutilated; to supply the +deficiencies is impossible, but perhaps the sense was originally +approaching to this. + +_To be called into a huge sphere, and not to be seen to move in it_, is +a very ignominious state; great offices _are the holes where eyes should +be, which_, if eyes be wanting, _pitifully disaster the cheeks_. + +II.vii.88 (170,2) thy pall'd fortunes] _Palled_, is vapid, past its time +of excellence; _palled_ wine, is wine that has lost its original +spriteliness. + +II.vii.102 (171,3) Strike the vessels] Try whether the casks sound as +empty. + +II.vii.116 (171,4) The holding every man shall bear] Every man shall +accompany the chorus by drumming on his sides, in token of concurrence +and applause. [Theobald had emended "beat" to "bear"] (1773) + +III.i.1 (173,6) Now, darting Parthia, art thou struck] _Struck_ alludes +to darting. Thou whose darts have so often struck others, art struck now +thyself. (1773) + +III.ii.12 (175,8) Arabian bird!] The phoenix. + +III.ii.16 (176,9) + + Ho! hearts, tongues, figure, scribes, bards, poets, cannot + Think, speak, cast, write, sing, number, ho!] + +Not only the tautology of _bards_ and _poets_, but the want of a +correspondent action for the _poet_, whose business in the next line is +only to _number_, makes me suspect some fault in this passage, which I +know not how to mend. + +III.ii.26 (176,1) as my furthest bond] As I will venture the greatest +pledge of security, on the trial of thy conduct. + +III.ii.40 (177,1) The elements be kind to thee, and make/Thy spirits all +of comfort!] This is obscure. It seems to mean, _May the different_ +elements _of the body, or principles of life, maintain such proportion +and harmony as may keep you cheerful_. + +III.iv.26 (182,7) I'll raise the preparation of a war/Shall stain your +brother] [T: strain] I do not see but _stain_ may be allowed to remain +unaltered, meaning no more than _shame_ or _disgrace_. + +III.iv.30 (182,8) Wars 'twixt you 'twain would be/As if the world should +cleave] The sense is, that war between Caesar and Antony would engage +the world between them, and that the slaughter would be great in so +extensive a commotion. + +III.v.8 (183,9) rivality] Equal rank. + +III.v.11 (183,1) Upon his own appeal] To _appeal_, in Shakespeare, is to +_accuse_; Caesar seized Lepidus without any other proof than Caesar's +accusation. + +III.v.21 (184,3) More, Domitius] I have something _more_ to tell you, +which I might have told at first, and delayed my news. Antony requires +your presence. + +III.vi.9 (184,4) made her/Of Lower Syria, Cyprus, Lydia./Absolute queen] +For _Lydia_, Mr. Upton, from Plutarch, has restored _Lybia_. + +III.vi.68-75 (187,6) Mr. Upton remarks, that there are some errours in +this enumeration of the auxiliary kings; but it is probable that the +authour did not much wish to be accurate. + +III.vi.95 (188,7) And gives his potent regiment to a trull] _Regiment_, +is _government, authority_; he puts his _power_ and his empire into the +hands of a false woman. + +It may be observed, that _trull_ was not, in our author's time, a term +of mere infamy, but a word of slight contempt, as _wench_ is now. + +III.vii.3 (188,8) forespoke my being] To _forespeak_, is to +_contradict_, to _speak against_, as _forbid_ is to order negatively. + +III.vii.68 (191,1) + + By Hercules, I think, I am i' the right. + Can. Soldier, thou art: but his whole action grows + Not in the power on't] + +That is, his whole conduct becomes, ungoverned by the right, or by +reason. + +III.vii.77 (191,2) distractions] Detachments; separate bodies. + +III.x.6 (193,4) The greater cantle] [A piece or lump. POPE.] _Cantle_ is +rather a _corner_. Caesar in this play mentions the _three-nook'd +world_. Of this triangular world every triumvir had a corner. (see 1765, +VII, 185, 6) + +III.x.9 (193,5) token'd pestilence] Spotted. + +III.x.10 (193,6) Yon' ribauld nag of Aegypt] The word is in the old +edition _ribaudred_, which I do not understand, but mention it, in hopes +others may raise some happy conjecture. [Tyrwhitt: hag] The brieze, or +oestrum, the fly that stings cattle, proves that _nag_ is the right +word. (1773) + +III.x.11 (193,7) Whom leprosy o'ertake!] _Leprosy_, an epidemical +distemper of the Aegyptians; to which Horace probably alludes in the +controverted line. + + _Contaminato cum grege turpium + Morbo virorum._ + +III.x.36 (195,1) The wounded chance of Antony] I know not whether the +author, who loves to draw his images from the sports of the field, might +not have written, + + _The wounded_ chase _of Antony_,-- + +The allusion is to a deer wounded and chased, whom all other deer avoid. +_I will_, says Enobarbus, _follow Antony_, though _chased_ and +_wounded_. + +The common reading, however, may very well stand. + +III.xi.3 (195,2) so lated in the world] Alluding to a benighted +traveller. + +III.xi.23 (196,3) I have lost command] I am not master of my own +emotions. + +III.xi.35 (196,4) He at Philippi kept/His sword e'en like a dancer] In +the Moriaco, and perhaps anciently in the Pyrrhick dance, the dancers +held swords in their hands with the points upward. + +III.xi.39 (196,6) he alone/Dealt on lieutenantry] I know not whether the +meaning is, that Caesar acted only as lieutenant at Philippi, or that he +made his attempts only on lieutenants, and left the generals to Antony. + +III.xi.47 (197,7) death will seize her; but/Your comfort] _But_ has +here, as once before in this play, the force of _except_, or _unless_. + +III.ii.52 (197,8) How I convey my shame] How, by looking another way, I +withdraw my ignominy from your sight. + +III.ii.57 (197,9) ty'd by the strings] That is by the _heart string_. + +III.xii.18 (199,1) The circle of the Ptolemies] The diadem; the ensign +of royalty. + +III.xii.34 (199,2) how Antony becomes his flaw] That is, how Antony +conforms himself to this breach of his fortune. + +III.xiii.1 (200,3) Think, and die] [Hanmer: Drink] This reading, offered +by sir T. Hanmer, is received by Dr. Warburton and Mr. Upton, but I have +not advanced it into the page, not being convinced that it is necessary. +_Think, and die_; that is, _Reflect on your folly, and leave the world_, +is a natural answer. + +III.xiii.9 (201,4) he being/The meered question] The _meered_ question +is a term I do not understand. I know not what to offer, except, + + _The_ mooted _question_.-- + +That is, the _disputed_ point, the subject of debate. _Mere_ is indeed a +_boundary_, and the _meered question_, if it can mean any thing, may, +with some violence of language, mean, the _disputed boundary_. + +III.xiii.25 (202, 5) + + I dare him therefore + To lay his gay comparisons apart + And answer me declin'd] + +I require of Caesar not to depend on that superiority which the +_comparison_ of our different fortunes may exhibit to him, but to answer +me man to man, in this decline of my age or power. + +III.xiii.42 (202,6) The loyalty, well held to fools, does make/Our faith +meer folly] [T: Though loyalty, well held] I have preserved the old +reading: Enobarbus is deliberating upon desertion, and finding it is +more prudent to forsake a fool, and more reputable to be faithful to +him, makes no positive conclusion. Sir T. Hanmer follows Theobald; Dr. +Warburton retains the old reading. + +III.xiii.77 (204,9) Tell him, from his all-obeying breath I hear/The +doom of Aegypt] _Doom_ is declared rather by an _all-commanding_, than +an _all-obeying breath_. I suppose we ought to read, + + --_all_-obeyed breath. + +III.xiii.81 (205,1) Give me grace] Grant me the favour. + +III.xiii.109 (206,3) By one that looks on feeders?] One that waits at +the table while others are eating. + +III.xiii.128 (207,4) The horned herd] It is not without pity and +indignation that the reader of this great poet meets so often with this +low jest, which is too much a favourite to be left out of either mirth +or fury. + +III.xiii.151 (208,5) to quit me] To repay me this insult; to _requite_ +me. + +III.xiii.180 (209,9) Were nice and lucky] [_Nice_, for delicate, +courtly, flowing in peace. WARBURTON.] _Nice_ rather seems to be, _just +fit for my purpose, agreeable to my wish_. So we vulgarly say of any +thing that is done better than was expected, it is _nice_. + +IV.i.5 (210,1) I have many other ways to die] [Upton: He hath.../I +laugh] I think this emendation deserves to be received. It had, before +Mr. Upton's book appeared, been made by sir T. Hanmer. + +IV.i.9 (211,2) Make boot of] Take advantage of. + +IV.ii.8 (212,3) _take all_] Let the survivor take all. No composition, +victory or death. + +IV.ii.14 (212,4) one of those odd tricks] I know not what obscurity the +editors find in this passage. _Trick_ is here used in the sense in which +it is uttered every day by every mouth, elegant and vulgar: yet sir T. +Hanmer changes it to _freaks_, and Dr. Warburton, in his rage of +Gallicism, to _traits_. + +IV.ii.26 (213,5) Haply, you shall not see me more; or if,/A mangled +shadow] _Or if_ you see me more, you will see me _a mangled shadow_, +only the external form of what I was. + +IV.ii.35 (213,6) onion-ey'd] I have my eyes as full of tears as if they +had been fretted by onions. + +IV.iv.3 (215,8) Come, good fellow, put thine iron on] I think it should +be rather, + + --mine _iron_-- + +IV.iv.5 (215,9) Nay, I'll help too] These three little speeches, which +in the other editions are only one, and given to Cleopatra, were happily +disentangled by sir T. Hanmer. + +IV.iv.10 (215,1) Briefly, sir] That is, _quickly_, sir. + +IV.v.17 (218,3) Dispatch. Enobarbus!] Thus [_Dispatch, my Eros_] the +modern editors. The old edition reads, + + --_Dispatch Enobarbus_. + +Perhaps, it should be, + + --_Dispatch! To Enobarbus!_ (see 1765, VII, 208, 3) + +IV.vi.12 (219,6) persuade] The old copy has _dissuade_, perhaps rightly. + +IV.vi.34 (219,7) This blows my heart] All the latter editions have, + + --_This_ bows _my heart_; + +I have given the original word again the place from which I think it +unjustly excluded. _This generosity_, (says Enobarbus) swells _my +heart_, so that it will quickly break, _if thought break it not, a +swifter mean_. + +IV.vii.2 (220,8) and our oppression] Sir T. Hanmer has received +_opposition_. Perhaps rightly. + +IV.viii.1 (221,9) run one before,/And let the queen know of our guests] +[W: gests] This passage needs neither correction nor explanation. Antony +after his success intends to bring his officers to sup with Cleopatra, +and orders notice to be given her of their _guests_. + +IV.viii.12 (222,1) To this great fairy] Mr. Upton has well observed, +that _fairy_; which Dr. Warburton and sir T. Hanmer explain by +_Inchantress_, comprises the idea of power and beauty. + +IV.viii.22 (222,2) get goal for goal of youth] At all plays of barriers, +the boundary is called a _goal_; to _win a goal_, is to be superiour in +a contest of activity. + +IV.viii.31 (223,4) Bear our hack'd targets like the men that owe them] +i.e. hack'd as much as the men are to whom they belong. WARB.] Why not +rather, _Bear our hack'd targets_ with spirit and exaltation, such as +becomes the brave warriors _that own them_? + +IV.ix.15 (224,5) + + Throw my heart + Against the flint and hardness of my fault; + Which, being dried with grief, will break to powder, + And finish all foul thoughts] + +The pathetick of Shakespeare too often ends in the ridiculous. It is +painful to find the gloomy dignity of this noble scene destroyed by the +intrusion of a conceit so far-fetched and unaffecting. + +IV.xii.13 (226,1) Triple turn'd whore!] She was first for Antony, then +was supposed by him to have _turned_ to Caesar, when he found his +messenger kissing her hand, then she _turned_ again to Antony, and now +has _turned_ to Caesar. Shall I mention what has dropped into my +imagination, that our author might perhaps have written +_triple-tongued_? _Double-tongued_ is a common term of reproach, which +rage might improve to _triple-tongued_. But the present reading may +stand. + +IV.xii.21 (227,2) That pannell'd me at heels] All the editions read, + + _That_ pannell'd _me at heels_,-- + +Sir T. Hanmer substituted _spaniel'd_ by an emendation, with which it +was reasonable to expect that even rival commentators would be +satisfied; yet Dr. Warburton proposes _pantler'd_, in a note, of which +he is not injur'd by the suppression; and Mr. Upton having in his first +edition proposed plausibly enough, + + _That_ paged _me at heels_,-- + +in the second edition retracts his alteration, and maintains _pannell'd_ +to be the right reading, being a metaphor taken, he says, from a +_pannel_ of wainscot. + +IV.xii.25 (227,3) this grave charm] I know not by what authority, nor +for what reason, _this_ grave _charm_, which the first, the only +original copy exhibits, has been through all the modern editors changed +to _this_ gay _charm_. By _this_ grave _charm_, is meant, _this sublime, +this majestic beauty_. + +IV.xii.29 (227,4) to the very heart of loss] To the utmost loss +possible. + +IV.xii.45 (228,7) Let me lodge, Lichas] Sir T. Hanmer reads thus, + + --thy _rage_ + Led thee _lodge Lichas_--and-- + _Subdue_ thy _worthiest self_.-- + +This reading, harsh as it is, Dr. Warburton has received, after having +rejected many better. The meaning is, Let me do something in my rage, +becoming the successor of Hercules, + +IV.xiv.19 (230,2) Pack'd cards with Caesar, and false play'd my +glory/Unto an enemy's triumph] [Warburton had explained and praised +Shakespeare's "metaphor"] This explanation is very just, the thought did +not deserve so good an annotation. + +IV.xiv.39 (231,3) The battery from my heart] I would read, + + This _battery from my heart_.-- + + +IV.xiv.49 (232,4) Seal then, and all is done] I believe the reading is, + + --seel _then, and all is done_-- + +To _seel hawks_, is to close their eyes. The meaning will be, + + --_since the torch is out, + Lie down, and stray no further. How all labour + Marrs what it does_.--Seel _then, and all is done_. + +Close thine eyes _for ever, and be quiet_. + +IV.xiv.73 (233,5) pleach'd arms] Arms folded in each other. + +IV.xiv.77 (233,6) His baseness that ensued?] The poor conquered wretch +that followed. + +IV.xiv.86 (233,7) the worship of the whole world] The _worship_, is the +_dignity_, the _authority_. + +IV.xv.9 (237,9) + + O sun, + Burn the great sphere thou mov'st in!--darkling stand + The varying shore o' the world] + +She desires the sun, to _burn_ his own _orb_, the vehicle of light, and +then the earth will be dark. + +IV.xv.19-23 (237,1) I here importune death] [Theobald had regularized +the versification and had added two words] Mr. Theobald's emendation is +received by the succeeding editors; but it seems not necessary that a +dialogue so distressful should be nicely regular. I have therefore +preserved the original reading in the text, and the emendation below. + +IV.xv.28 (238,2) still conclusion] Sedate determination; silent coolness +of resolution. + +IV.xv.32 (236,3) Here's sport, indeed!] I suppose the meaning of these +strange words is, _here's_ trifling, _you_ do not work _in earnest_. + +IV.xv.39 (239,4) Quicken with kissing] That is, _Revive by my kiss_. + +IV.xv.44 (239,6) That the false huswife Fortune break her wheel] This +despicable line has occurred before. + +IV.xv.65 (240,8) The soldier's pole] He at whom the soldiers pointed, as +at a pageant held high for observation. + +IV.xv.72 (240,9) + + _Char_. Peace, peace, Iras. + _Cleo_. No more--but e'en a woman] + +[W: peace, Isis] Of this note it may be truly said, that it at least +deserves to be right, nor can he, that shall question the justness of +the emendation, refuse his esteem to the ingenuity and learning with +which it is proposed. + +Hanmer had proposed another emendation, not injudiciously. He reads +thus, + + Iras. _Royal Aegypt! empress!_ + Cleo. _Peace, peace, Iras. + No more but a mere woman_, &c. + +That is, _no more an empress, but a mere woman_. + +It is somewhat unfortunate that the words, _mere woman_, which so much +strengthen the opposition to either _empress_ or _Isis_, are not in the +original edition, which stands thus, + + _No more but_ in a _woman_. + +_Mere woman_ was probably the arbitrary reading of Rowe. I suppose, +however, that we muy justly change the ancient copy thus, + + _No more, but_ e'en a _woman_. + +which will enough accommodate either of the editors. + +I am inclined to think that she speaks abruptly, not answering her +woman, but discoursing with her own thoughts, + + _No more--but_ e'en a _woman_. + +_I have_ no more _of my wonted greatness_, but am even a woman, _on the +level with other women; were I what I once was_. + + --It were for me + To throw my scepter, _&c_. + +If this simple explanation be admitted, how much labour has been thrown +away. _Peace, peace, Iras_, is said by Charmian, when she sees the queen +recovering, and thinks speech troublesome. + +V.i.15 (244,4) The round world/Should have shook lions into civil +streets] I think here is a line lost, after which it is in vain to go in +quest. The sense seems to have been this: _The round world should have +shook_, and this great alteration of the system of things should send +_lions into streets, and citizens into dens_. There is sense still, but +it is harsh and violent. + +V.i.27 (244,5) but it is tidings/To wash the eyes of kings!] That is, +May _the Gods rebuke me_, if this be not _tidings to make kings weep_. + +_But_, again, for _if not_. + +V.i.46 (245,7) that our stars,/Unreconciliable, should divide/Our +equalness to this] That is, _should have made us_, in our equality of +fortune, disagree _to_ a pitch like this, that one of us must die. + +V.i.52 (246,8) A poor Aegyptian yet; the queen my mistress] If this +punctuation be right, the man means to say, that he is _yet an +Aegyptian_, that is, _yet a servant of the queen of Aegypt_, though soon +to become, a subject of Rome. + +V.i.65 (246,9) her life in Rome/Would be eternal in our triumph] Hanmer +reads judiciously enough, but without necessity, + + _Would be_ eternalling _our triumph_. + +The sense is, _If she dies here, she will be forgotten, but if I send +her_ in triumph at Rome, _her memory and my glory_ will be eternal. + +V.ii.3 (247,1) fortune's knave] The _servant_ of fortune. + +V.ii.4 (247,2) + + it is great + To do that thing, that ends all other deeds; + Which shackles accidents, and bolts up change; + Which sleeps, and never palates more the dung, + The beggar's nurse, and Caesar's] + +[Warburton added a whole line and emended "dung" to "dugg"] I cannot +perceive the loss of a line, or the need of an emendation. The +commentator seems to have entangled his own ideas; his supposition that +_suicide_ is called _the beggar's nurse and Caesar's_, and his +concession that the position is _intelligible_, show, I think, a mind +not intent upon the business before it. The difficulty of the passage, +if any difficulty there be, arises only from this, that the act of +suicide, and the state which is the effect of suicide are confounded. +Voluntary death, says she, is an act _which bolts up change_; it +produces a state, + + _Which sleeps, and never palates more the dung, + The beggar's nurse, and Caesar's_. + +Which has no longer need of the gross and terrene sustenance, in the use +of which Caesar and the beggar are on a level. + +The speech is abrupt, but perturbation in such a state is surely +natural. + +V.ii.29 (249,4) I am his fortune's vassal, and I send him/The greatness +he has got] I allow him to be my conqueror; I own his superiority with +complete submission. + +V.ii.34 (249,5) You see how easily she may be surpriz'd] This line in +the first edition is given not to Charuian, but to Proculeius; and to +him it certainly belongs, though perhaps misplaced. I would put it at +the end of his foregoing speech, + + _Where he for grace is kneel'd to._ + [Aside to Gallus.] _You see, how easily she may be surpriz'd._ + +Then while Cleopatra makes a formal answer, Gallus, upon the hint given, +seizes her, and Proculeius, interrupting the civility of his answer, + + _--your plight is pity'd + Of him that caus'd it._ + +Cries out, + + _Guard her till, Caesar come._ + +V.ii.40 (250,6) who are in this/Reliev'd, but not betray'd] [W: +Bereav'd, but] I do not think the emendation necessary, since the sense +is not made better by it, and the abruptness in Cleopatra's answer is +more forcible in the old reading. + +V.ii.42 (250,7) rids our dogs of languish] For _languish_, I think we +may read, _anguish_. + +V.ii.48 (251,8) Worth many babes and beggars] Why, death, wilt thou not +rather seize a queen, than employ thy force upon _babes_ and _beggars_. +(see 1765, VII, 238, 9) + +V.ii.50 (251,9) If idle talk will once be necessary] [This nonsense +should be reformed thus, + + _If idle_ TIME _whill once be necessary._ + +i.e. if _repose_ be necessary to cherish life, I will not sleep. +WARBURTON.] I do not see that the nonsense is made sense by the change. +Sir T. Hanmer reads, + + _If idle talk will once be_ accessary; + +Neither is this better. I know not what to offer better than an easy +explanation. That is, _I will not eat_, and _if it will be necessary now +for once_ to waste a moment in _idle talk_ of my purpose, _I will not +sleep neither_. In common conversation we often use _will be_, with as +little relation to futurity. As, Now I am going, it _will be_ fit for me +to dine first. + +V.ii.98 (254,2) + + yet to imagine + An Antony, were Nature's piece 'gainst Fancy, + Condemning shadows quite] + +[W: Nature's prize] In this passage I cannot discover any temptation to +critical experiments. The word _piece_, is a term appropriated to works +of art. Here Nature and Fancy produce each their _piece_, and the +_piece_ done by Nature had the preference. Antony was in reality _past +the size of dreaming_; he was more by _Nature_ than _Fancy_ could +present in sleep. + +V.ii.121 (255,3) I cannot project mine own cause so well] [W: procter] +Sir T. Hanmer reads, + + _I cannot_ parget _my own cause---_ + +meaning, I cannot _whitewash, varnish_, or _gloss_ my cause. I believe +the present reading to be right. To _project a cause_ is to _represent_ +a cause; to _project_ it _well_, is to _plan_ or _contrive_ a scheme of +defense. + +V.ii.139 (256,4) "tis exactly valued, /Not petty things admitted] [T: +omitted] Notwithstanding the wrath of Mr. Theobald, I have restored the +old reading. She is angry afterwards, that she is accused of having +reserved more than petty things. Dr. Warburton and sir T. Hanmer follow +Theobald. + +V.ii.146 (257,5) seel my lips] Sew up my mouth. + +V.ii.163 (258,7) Parcel the sum of my disgraces by] _To parcel her +disgraces_, might be expressed in vulgar language, _to bundle up her +calamaties_. (see 1765, VII, 244, 8) + +V.ii.176 (259,8) + + _Cleo._ Be't known, that we, the greatest, are misthought + for things that others do; and, when we fall, + We answer others merits in our names; + Are therefore to be pitied] + +I do not think that either of the criticks [Warburton and Hanmer] have +reached the sense of the author, which may be very commodiously +explained thus; + +We suffer at our highest state of elevation in the _thoughts of mankind +for that which others do, and when we fall_, those that contented +themselves only to think ill before, call us to _answer in our own names +for the merits of others. We are therefore to be pitied. Merits_ is in +this place taken in an ill sense, for actions _meriting_ censure. + +If any alteration be necessary, I should only propose, _Be 't known, +that we_ at _greatest_, &c. + +V.ii.185 (259,1) Make not your thoughts your prisons] I once wished to +read, + + _make not your thoughts your_ poison:-- + +Do not destroy yourself by musing on your misfortune. Yet I would change +nothing, as the old reading presents a very proper sense. _Be not a +prisoner in imagination, when in reality you are free._ + +V.ii.215 (261,2) scald rhimers] Sir T. Hanmer reads, + + --stall 'd _rhimers. + +Scald_ was a word of contempt, implying poverty, disease, and filth. + +V.ii.216 (261,3) quick comedians] The gay inventive players. + +V.ii.226 (261,5) Their most absurd intents] [T: assured] I have +preserved the old reading. The design certainly appeared _absurd_ enough +to Cleopatra, both as she thought it unreasonable in itself, and as she +knew it would fail. + +V.ii.243 (263,7) the pretty worm of Nilus] _Worm_ is the Teutonick word +for _serpent_; we have the _blind-worm_ and _slow-worm_ still in our +language, and the Norwegians call an enormous monster, seen sometimes in +the northern ocean, the _sea-worm_. + +V.ii.264 (263,9) the worm will do him kind] The serpent will act +according to his nature. + +V.ii.305 (205,2) He'll make demand of her, and spend that kiss,/ Which +is my heaven to have] He will enquire of her concerning me, and kiss her +for giving him intelligence. + +V.ii.352 (267,5) something blown] The flesh is somewhat _puffed_ or +_swoln_. + +(268) General Observation. This play keeps curiosity always busy, and +the passions always interested. The continual hurry of the action, the +variety of incidents, and the quick succession of one personage to +another, call the mind forward without intermission from the first act +to the last. But the power of delighting is derived principally from the +frequent changes of the scene; for, except the feminine arts, some of +which are too low, which distinguish Cleopatra, no character is very +strongly discriminated. Upton, who did not easily miss what he desired +to find, has discovered that the language of Antony is, with great skill +and learning, made pompous and superb, according to his real practice. +But I think his diction not distinguishable from that of others: the +most tumid speech in the play is that which Caesar makes to Octavia. + +The events, of which the principal are described according to history, +are produced without any art of connexion or care of disposition. + + + + +TIMON OF ATHENS + + +I.i.3 (271,3) + + _Poet_. Ay, that's well known: + But what particular rarity! what strange, + Which manifold record not matches? See, + Magick of bounty!] + +The learned commentator's [Warburton's] note must shift for itself. I +cannot but think that this passage is at present in confusion. The poet +asks a question, and stays not for an answer, nor has his question any +apparent drift or consequence. I would range the passage thus: + + Poet. _Ay, that's well known. + Bat what particular rarity? what so strange, + That manifold record not matches?_ + + Pain. _See!_ + + Poet. _Magick of--bounty, &c._ + +It may not be improperly observed here, that as there is only one copy +of this play, no help can be had from collation, and more liberty must +be allowed to conjecture. + +I.i.10 (272,4) breath'd as it were/To an untirable and continuate +goodness] _Breathed_ is _inured by constant practice; so trained as not +to be wearied. To _breathe_ a horse, is to exercise him for the course. + +I.i.20 (273,8) _Poet_. + + A thing slipt idly from me. + Our poesy is as a gum, which oozes + From whence 'tis nourished. The fire i' the flint + Shews not, 'till it be struck: our gentle flame + Provokes itself, and, like the current flies + Each bound it chafes. What have you there!] + +This speech of the poet is very obscure. He seems to boast the +copiousness and facility of his vein, by declaring that verses drop from +a poet as gums from odoriferous trees, and that his flame kindles itself +without the violence necessary to elicit sparkles from the flint. What +follows next? that it, _like a current, flies each bound it chafes_. +This may mean, that it expands itself notwithstanding all obstructions: +but the images in the comparison are so ill-sorted, and the effect so +obscurely expressed, that I cannot but think something omitted that +connected the last sentence with the former. It is well knovn that the +players often shorten speeches to quicken the representation; and it may +be suspected, that they sometimes performed their amputations with more +haste than judgment, (see 1765, VI, 169, 6) + +I.i.27 (274,9) _Poet_. Upon the heels of my presentment, sir.] As soon +as my book has been presented to lord Timon. + +I.i.29 (274,1) This comes off weil and excellent] [By this we are to +understand what the painters call the _goings off_ of a picture, which +requires the nicest execution. WARBURTON.] The note I understand less +than the text. The meaning is, This figure rises weil from the canvas. +_C'est bien releve._ + +I.i.37 (275,3) artificial strife] _Strife_ is either the contest or act +with nature. + + _Hic ille est_ Raphael, _timuit, quo aospite vinci + Rerum magna parens, & moriente, mori_. + +Or it is the contrast of forms or opposition of colours. + +I.i.43 (275,4) this confluence, this great flood of visitors] _Mane +salutantum totis vomit aedibus undam_. + +I.1.46 (275,5) Halts not particularly] My design does not stop at any +single characters. + +I.1.47 (276,7) + + no levell'd malice + Infects one comma in the course I hold; + But flies an eagle-flight, bold, and forth on, + Leaving no tract behind] + +To _level_ is to _aim_, to point the shot at a mark. Shakespeare's +meaning is, my poem is not a satire written with any particular view, or +_levelled_ at any single person; I fly like an eagle into the general +expanse of life, and leave not, by any private mischief, the trace of my +passage. + +I.i.51 (276,8) I'll unbolt] I'll open, I'll explain. + +I.i.53 (276,9) glib and slippery creatures] Hanmer, and Warburton after +him, read, _natures_. _Slippery_ is _smooth_, unresisting. + +I.i.58 (276,1) glass-fac'd flatterer] That shows in his own look, as by +reflection, the looks of his patron. + +I.i.65 (277,3) rank'd with all deserts] _Cover'd with ranks_ of all +kinds of men. + +I.i.67 (277,4) To propagate their states] To advance or improve their +various conditions of life. + +I.i.72 (277,5) conceiv'd to scope] Properly imagined, appositely, to the +purpose. + +I.i.82 (278,8) through him/Drink the free air] That is, catch his breath +in affected fondness. + +I.i.90 (278,9) A thousand moral paintings I can shew] Shakespeare seems +to intend in this dialogue to express some competition between the two +great arts of imitation. Whatever the poet declares himself to have +shewn, the painter thinks he could have shewn better. (1773) + +I.i.107 (279,1) 'Tis not enough to help the feeble up,/But to support +him after] This thought is better expressed by Dr. Madden in his elegy +on archbishop Boulter. + + --_He thought it mean + Only to help the poor to beg again._ + +I.i.129 (280,2) Therefore he will be, Timon] I rather think an +emendation necessary, and read, + + _Therefore_ well be him, _Timon. + His honesty rewards him in itself._ + +That is, _If he in honest_, bene fit illi, _I wish him the proper +happiness of an honest man, but his honesty gives him no claim to my +daughter_. + +The first transcriber probably wrote _will be him_, which the next, not +understanding, changed to, _he will be_. (1773) + +I.i.149 (281,3) + + never may + That state, or fortune, fall into my keeping, + Which is not ow'd to you!] + +The meaning is, let me never henceforth consider any thing that I +possess, but as _owed_ or _due_ to you; held for your service, and at +your disposal. + +I.i.159 (281,4) pencil'd figures are/Even such as they give out] +Pictures have no hypocrisy; they are what they profess to be. + +I.i.165 (282,5) unclew me quite] To _unclew_, is to _unwind_ a ball of +thread. To _unclew_ a man, is to draw out the whole mass of his +fortunes. + +I.i.171 (282,5) Are prized by their masters] Are rated according to the, +esteem in which their possessor is held. + +I.i.178 (282,8) + + _Tim._ Good-morrow to thee, gentle Apemantua! + _Apam._ 'Till I be gentle, stay for thy good-morrow. + When thou art Timon's dog, and these knaves honest,--] + +[Warburton conjectured a line lost and added one of his own making] I +think my punctuation may clear the passage without any greater effort. + +I.i.180 (283,9) Then thou art Timon's dog] When thou hast gotten a +better character, and instead of being Timon, as thou art, shalt be +changed to Timon's dog, and become more worth; of kindness and +salutation. (1773) + +I.i.241 (284,9) That I had no angry wit to be a lord] [W: so hungry a +wit] The meaning may be, I should hate myself for _patiently enduring to +be a lord_. This is ill enough expressed. Perhaps some happy change may +set it right. I have tried, and can do nothing, yet I cannot heartily +concur with Dr. Warburton. + +I.i.259 (286,2) The strain of man's bred out/Into baboon and monkey] Man +is exhausted and degenerated; his _strain_ or lineage is worn down into +monkey. + +I.ii.12 (288,5) + + If our betters play at that game, we must not dare + To imitate them. Faults that are rich, are fair] + +[Warburton gave the second line to Apemantus] I cannot see that these +lines are more proper in any other mouth than Timon's, to whose +character of generosity and condescension they are very suitable. To +suppose that by _our betters_ are meant the Gods, is very harsh, because +to imitate the Gods has been hitherto reckoned the highest pitch of +human virtue. The whole is a trite and obvious thought, uttered by Timon +with a kind of affected modesty. If I would make any alteration, it +should be only to reform the numbers thus: + + _Our betters play that game; we must not dare + T' imitate then; faults that are rich are fair._ + +I.ii.34 (289,6) thou art an Athenian,/Therefore welcome: I myself would +have no power] If this be the true reading, the sense is, _all Athenians +are welcome to share my fortune_; I would myself have no _exclusive +right or power in this house_. Perhaps we might read, _I myself would +have no_ poor. I would have every Athenian consider himself as joint +possessor of my fortune. + +I.ii.38 (289,7) I scorn thy meat, 'twould choke me, for I should/ Ne'er +flatter thee] [W: 'fore/I should e'er] Of this emendation there is +little need. The meaning is, I could not swallow thy meat, for I could +not pay for it with flattery; and what was given me with an ill will +would stick in my throat. + +I.ii.41 (290,8) so many dip their meat/In one man's blood] The allusion +is to a pack of hounds trained to pursuit by being gratified with the +blood of the animal which they kill, and the wonder is that the animal +on which they are feeding _cheers them_ to the chase. + +I.ii.52 (290,9) wind-pipe's dangerous notes] The notes of the windpipe +seem to be the only indications which shew where the windpipe is. (see +1765, VI, 184, 4) + +I.ii.54 (290,1) My lord, in heart] That is, _my lord's health with +sincerity_. An emendation hat been proposed thus: + + _My_ love _in heart_;-- + +but it is not necessary. + +I.ii.89 (292,2) we should think ourselves for ever perfect] That is, +arrived at the perfection of happiness. + +I.ii.94 (292,4) did not you chiefly belong to my heart?] I think it +should be inverted thus: _did I not chiefly belong to_ your hearts. +Lacius wishes that Timon would give him and the rest an opportunity _of +expressing some part of their zeals_. Timon answers that, _doubtless the +Gods have provided that I should have help from you; how else are you my +friends_? why are you stiled my friends, if--what? _if I do not love +you_. Such is the present reading; but the consequence is not very +clear; the proper close must be, _if you do not love me_, and to this my +alteration restores it. But, perhaps, the old reading may stand. [The +_Revisal_'s note on this line is quoted.] The meaning is probably this. +Why are you distinguished from thousands by that title of endearment, +was there not a particular connection and intercourse of tenderness +between you and me. (see 1765, VI, 185, 8) + +I.ii.97 (293,5) I confirm you] I fix your characters firmly in my own +mind. + +I.ii.99 (293,7) O joy, e'en made away, ere it can be born!] For this +Hanmer writes, _O joy, e'en made a joy ere't can be born_; and is +followed by Dr. Warburton. I am always inclinable to think well of that +which is approved by so much learning and sagacity, yet cannot receive +this alteration. Tears being the effect both of joy and grief, supplied +our author with an opportunity of conceit, which he seldom fails to +indulge. Timon, weeping with a kind of tender pleasure, cries out, _O +joy, e'en made away_, destroyed, turned to tears, before _it can be +born_, before it can be fully possessed. + +I.ii.110 (293,8) Mine eyes cannot hold water, methinks: to forget their +faults, I drink to you] In the original edition the words stand thus: +_mine eyes cannot hold out water, methinks. To forget their faults, I +drink to you_. Perhaps the true reading is this, _Mine eyes cannot hold +out_; they _water. Methinks, to forget their faults, I will drink to +you_. Or it may be explained without any change. _Mine eyes cannot hold +out water_, that is, cannot keep water from breaking in upon them, (see +1765, VI, 186, 2) + +I.ii.113 (294,9) _Apem_. Thou weep'st to make them drink] Hanmer reads, + + --_to make then drink_ thee, + +and is again followed by Dr. Warburton, I think without sufficient +reason. The covert sense of Apemantus is, _what thou losest, they get_. + +I.ii.118 (294,1) like a babe] That is a _weeping babe_. + +I.ii.138 (295,3) + + They dance! They are mad women. + Like madness is the glory of this life, + As this pomp shews to a little oil and root] + +[Warburton conjectured some lines lost after the second verse] When I +read this passage, I was at first of the same opinion with this learned +man; but, upon longer consideration, I grew less confident, because I +think the present reading susceptible of explanation, with no more +violence to language than is frequently found in our author. _The glory +of this life is very near to madness_, as may be made appear from _this +pomp_, exhibited in a place where a philosopher is feeding on _oil and +roots_. When we see by example how few are the necessaries of life, we +learn what madness there is in so much superfluity. + +I.ii.146 (296,5) who dies, that bears/Not one spurn to their graves, of +their friends gift?] That is, given them by their friends.(1773) + +I.ii.155 (297,6) mine own device] The mask appears to have been design'd +by Timon to surprise his guests. + +I.ii.157 (297,7) _L Lady_. My lord, you take us even at the best] This +answer seems rather to belong to one of the ladies. It was probably only +mark'd _L_ in the copy. + +I.ii.169 (298,1) 'Tis pity, bounty has not eyes behind] To see the +miseries that are following her. + +I.ii.170 (298,2) That man might ne'er be wretched for his mind] For +nobleness of soul. + +I.ii.176 (298,3) to/Advance this jewel] To prefer it; to raise it to +honour by wearing it. + +I.ii.230 (300,6) + + all the lands thou hast + Lie in a pitch'd field. + _Alc._ I' defiled land, my lord] + +This is the old reading, which apparently depends on a very low quibble. +Alcibiades is told, that _his estate lies in a_ pitch'd _field_. Now +_pitch_, as Falstaff says, _doth defile_. Alcibiades therefore replies, +that his estate lies _in defiled land_. This, as it happened, was not +understood, and all the editors published, + + _I defy land_,-- + +I.ii.237 (301,8) Serving of becks] [W: serring] The commentator +conceives _beck_ to mean the _mouth_ or the _head_, after the French, +_bec_, whereas it means a salutation made with the head. So Milton, + + "Nods and _becks_, and wreathed smiles." + +To _serve a beck_, is to offer a salutation. + +I.ii.238 (301,9) I doubt, whether their legs] He plays upon the word +_leg_, as it signifies a _limb_ and a _bow_ or _act of obeisance_. + +I.ii.247 (302,1) I fear me, thou/Wilt give away thyself in paper +shortly] [W: in proper] Hanmer reads very plausibly, + + --_thou + Wilt give away thyself_ in perpetuum. + +I.ii.235 (302,2) I'll lock/Thy heaven from thee] The pleasure of being +flattered. + +II.i.10 (304,5) No porter at his gate;/But rather one that smiles, and +still invites] I imagine that a line is lost here, in which the +behaviour of a surly porter was described. + +II.i.12 (304,6) no reason/Can found his state in safety] The supposed +meaning of this [Can sound his state] must be, _No reason_, by +_sounding_, fathoming, or trying, _his state_, can find it _safe_. But +as the words stand, they imply, that _no reason can_ safely _sound his +state_. I read thus, + + --_no reason + Can_ found _his state in safety_.-- + +_Reason_ cannot find his fortune to have any _safe_ or solid +_foundation_. + +The types of the first printer of this play were so worn and defaced, +that _f_ and _s_ are not always to be distinguished. + +II.ii.5 (305,9) Never mind/Was to be so unwise, to be so kind] Of this +mode of expression conversation affords many examples: "I was always to +be blamed, whatever happened." "I am in the lottery, but I was always to +draw blanks." (1773) + +II.ii.9 (306,1) Good even, Varro] It is observable, that this _good +evening_ is before dinner; for Timon tells Alcibiades, that they will +_go forth again as soon as dinner's done_, which may prove that by +_dinner_ our author meant not the _coena_ of ancient times, but the +mid-day's repast. I do not suppose the passage corrupt: such +inadvertencies neither author nor editor can escape. + +There is another remark to be made. Varro and Isidore sink a few lines +afterwards into the servants of Varro and Isidore. Whether servants, in +our author's time, took the names of their masters, I know not. Perhaps +it is a slip of negligence. + +II.ii.47 (308,4) _Enter Apemantus and a Fool_] I suspect some scene to +be lost, in which the entrance of the fool, and the page that follows +him, was prepared by some introductory dialogue, in which the audience +was informed that they were the fool and page of Phrynia, Timandra, or +some other courtesan, upon the knowledge of which depends the greater +part of the ensuing jocularity. + +II.ii.60-66 (309,4) Poor rogues] This is said so abruptly, that I am +inclined to think it misplaced, and would regulate the passage thus: + + Caph. _Where's the fool now?_ + Apem. _He last ask'd the question._ + All. _What are we, Apemantus?_ + Apem. _Asses._ + All. _Why?_ + Apem. _That you ask me what you are, and do not know yourselves. Poor rogues', and usurers' men! bawds between + gold and want! Speak_, &c. + +Thus every word will have its proper place. It is likely that the +passage transposed was forgot in the copy, and inserted in the margin, +perhaps a little beside the proper place, which the transcriber wanting +either skill or care to observe, wrote it where it now stands. + +II.ii.71 (309,5) She's e'en setting on water to scald] The old name for +the disease got at Corinth was the _brenning_, and a sense of _scalding_ +is one of its first symptoms. + +II.ii.117 (311,7) with two stones more than's artificial one] Meaning +the celebrated philosopher's stone, which was in those times much talked +of. Sir Thomas Smith was one of those who lost considerable sums in +seeking of it. + +II.ii.152 (312,9) Though you hear now, yet now's too late a time] +[Warburton objected to this, an emendation by Hanmer] I think Hanmer +right, and have received his emendation. + +Il.ii.155 (313,1) and at length/How goes our reckoning?] [W: Hold good +our] It is common enough, and the commentator knows it is common to +propose interrogatively, that of which neither the speaker nor the +hearer has any doubt. The present reading may therefore stand. + +II.ii.171 (314,2) a wasteful cock] [i.e. a _cockloft_, a garret. And a +_wasteful cock_, signifies a garret lying in waste, neglected, put to no +use. HANMER.] Hanmer's explanation is received by Dr. Warburton, yet I +think them both apparently mistaken. A _wasteful cock_ is a _cock_ or +pipe with a turning stopple _running_ to _waste_. In this sense, both +the terms have their usual meaning; but I know not that _cock_ is ever +used for _cockloft_, or _wasteful_ for _lying in waste_, or that lying +in waste is at all a phrase. + +Il.ii.187 (314,4) And try the arguments] [_Arguments_ for natures. +_WARB_.] How _arguments_ should stand for natures I do not see. But the +licentiousness of our author forces us often upon far fetched +expositions. _Arguments_ may mean _contents_, as the _arguments_ of a +book; or for _evidences_ and _proofs_. + +II.ii.209 (315,5) I knew it the most general way] _General_ is not +speedy, but _compendious_, the way to try many at a time. + +II.ii.219 (316,6) And so, intending other serious matters] _Intending_ +is _regarding, turning their notice_ to other things. + +II.ii.220 (316,7) these hard fractions] [Warburton saw an allusion to +fractions in mathematics] This is, I think, no conceit in the head of +Flavius, who, by _fractions_, means _broken_ hints, _interrupted_ +sentences, _abrupt_ remarks. + +II.ii.221 (316,8) half-caps] A _half cap_ is a _cap_ slightly moved, not +put off. + +II.ii.241 (317,3) I would, I could not] The original edition has, _I +would, I could not think it, that thought_, &c. It has been changed +['Would], to mend the numbers, without authority. + +II.ii.242 (317,4) + + That thought is bounty's foe; + Being free itself, it thinks all other so] + +_Free_, is _liberal_, not parsimonious. + +III.i.57 (319,6) Has friendship such a faint and milky heart, It turns +in less than two nights?] Alluding to the _turning_ or acescence of +milk. + +III.ii.3 (320,3) We know him for no less] That is, _we know him_ by +report to be _no less_ than you represent him, though we are strangers +to his person. + +III.ii.24 (321,5) yet had he mistook him, and sent him to me] [W: +mislook'd] I rather read, _yet had he_ not _mistook him, and sent to +me_. + +III.ii.45 (322,7) If his occasion were not virtuous] [_Virtuous_, for +strong, forcible, pressing. _WARBURTON_.] The meaning may more naturally +be;--If he did not want it for a good use. (1773) + +III.ii.51 (322,9) that I should purchase the day before for a little +part, and undo a great deal of honour?] [T: a little dirt] This +emendation is received, like all others, by sir T. Hanmer, but neglected +by Dr. Warburton. I think Theobald right in suspecting a corruption; nor +is his emendation injudicious, though perhaps we may better read, +_purchase the day before for a little park_. + +III.ii.71 (323,1) And just of the same piece is every flatterer's soul] +This is Dr. Warburton's emendation. The other editions read, + + _Why this is the world's soul; + Of the same piece is every flatterer's_ sport. + +Mr. Upton has not unluckily transposed the two final words, thus, + + _Why, this is the world's_ sport: + _Of the same piece is ev'ry flatterer's_ soul. + +The passage is not so obscure as to provoke so much enquiry. _This_, +says he, _is the soul_ or spirit _of the world: every flatterer_ plays +the same game, makes _sport_ with the confidence of his friend. (see +1765, VI, 211, 4) + +III.ii.81 (324,2) He does deny him, in respect of his, What charitable +men afford to beggars] That is, _in respect of his_ fortune, what Lucius +denies to Timon is in proportion to what Lucius possesses, less than the +ususal alms given by good men to beggars. + +III.ii.90 (324,3) I would have put my wealth into donation, And the best +half should ha' return'd to him] Hanmer reads, + + _I would have put my wealth into_ partition, + _And the best half should have_ attorn'd _to him_. + +Dr. Warbarton receives _attorn'd_. The only difficulty is in the word +_return'd_, which, since he had received nothing from him, cannot be +used but in a very low and licentious meaning, (see 1765, VI, 212, 6) + +III.iii.5 (325,4) They have all been touch'd] That is, _tried_, alluding +to the _touchstone_. + +III.iii.11 (325,5) His friends, like physicians,/Thrive, give him over?] +The original reading is, + + --his friends, (_like physicians_) + Thrive, give him over? + +which Theobald has misrepresented. Hanmer reads, _try'd_, plausibly +enough. Instead of _three_ proposed by Mr. Pope, I should read _thrice_. +But perhaps the old reading is the true. + +III.iii.24 (326,6) I had such a courage] Such an ardour, such an eager +desire. + +III.iii.28 (326,8) The devil knew not what he did] I cannot but think +that, the negative _not_ has intruded into this passage, and the reader +will think so too, when he reads Dr. Warburton's explanation of the next +words. + +III.iii.28 (326,9) The devil knew not what he did, when he made men +politick; he cross'd himself by't: and I cannot think, but in the end +the villainies of man will set him clear] [_Set him clear_ does not mean +acquit him before heaven; for then _the devil_ must be supposed _to know +what_ he did: but it signifies puzzle him, outdo him at his own weapons. +WARBURTON.] How the devil, or any other being, should be _set clear_ by +being _puzzled_ and _outdone_, the commentator has not explained. When +in a crowd we would have an opening made, we say, _Stand clear_, that +is, _out of the way of danger_. With some affinity to this use, though +not without great harshness, to _set clear_, may be to _set aside_. But +I believe the original corruption is the insertion of the negative, +which was obtruded by some transcriber, who supposed _crossed_ to mean +_thwarted_, when it meant, _exempted from evil_. The use of _crossing_, +by way of protection or purification, was probably not worn out in +Shakespeare's time. The sense of _set clear_ is now easy; he has no +longer the guilt of tempting man. To cross himself may mean, in a very +familiar sense, _to clear his score, to get out of debt, to quit his +reckoning_. He knew not _what he did_, may mean, he knew not how much +good he was doing himself. There is then no need of emendation. (1773) + +III.iii.42 (327,2) keep his house] i.e. keep within doors for fear of +duns. + +III.iv (328,3) _Enter Varro, Titus, Hortense, Lucius_] Lucius is here +again for the servant of Lucius. + +III.iv.12 (328,4) a prodigal's course/Is like the sun's] That is, like +him in blaze and splendour. + + _Soles occidere et redire possunt._ Catul. + +III.iv.25 (329,5) I am weary of this charge] That is, of this +_commission_, of this _employment_. + +III.iv.32 (329,6) Else, surely, his had equall'd] Should it not be, +_else, surely, mine had equall'd_. + +III.iv.67 (330,7) _Enter Servilius_] It may be observed that Shakespeare +has unskilfully filled his Greek story with Roman names. + +III.v.14 (333,6) + + He is a man, setting his fate aside, + Of comely virtues: + Nor did he soil the fact with cowardise; + (An honour in him which buys out his fault)] + +I have printed these lines after the original copy, except that, for _an +honour_, it is there, _and honour_. All the latter editions deviate +unwarrantably from the original, and give the lines thus: + + _He is a man, setting his fault aside, + Of virtuous honour, which buys out his fault; + Nor did he soil_, &c. + +III.v.22 (333,3) + + He did behave, his anger ere 'twas spent, + As if he had but prov'd an argument] + +The original copy reads not _behave_ but _behoove_. I do not well +understand the passage in either reading. Shall we try a daring +conjecture? + + --_with such sober and unnoted passion + He did behold his adversary shent, + As if he had but prov'd an argument_. + +He looked with such calmness on his slain adversary. I do not suppose +that this is right, but put it down for want of better. (1773) + +III.v.24 (334,4) You undergo too strict a paradox] You undertake a +paradox too _hard_. + +III.v.32 (334,5) and make his wrongs His outsides: to wear them like an +argument, carelessly. We outside wear; hang like his] The present +reading is better. + +III.v.46 (335,6) What make we/Abroad?] _What do we_, or _what have we to +do in the field_. + +III.v.46 (335,7) + + what make we + Abroad? why then, women are more valiant, + That stay at home, if bearing carry it; + The ass, more than the lion; and the fellow, + Loaden with irons, wiser than the judge, + If wisdom be in suffering] + +Here is another arbitrary regulation, the original reads thus, + + _what make we + Abroad, why then women are more valiant + That stay at home, if bearing carry it: + And the ass more captain than the lion, + The fellow, loaden with irons, wiser than the judge, + If wisdom_, &c. + +I think it may be better adjusted thus: + + _what make we + Abroad, why then the women are more valiant + That stay at home; + If bearing carry it, than is the ass + More captain than the lion, and the_ felon + _Loaden with irons, wiser than the judge, + If wisdom_, &c. + +III.v.54 (336,8) sin's extreamest gust] _Gust_ is here in its common +sense; the utmost degree of _appetite_ for sin. + +III.v.55 (336,9) by mercy, 'tis most just] [By _mercy_ is meant +_equity_. WARBURTON] _Mercy_ is not put for equity. If such explanation +be allowed, what can be difficult? The meaning is, _I call_ mercy +_herself_ to witness, that defensive violence is just. + +III.v.68 (338,2) a sworn rioter] A _sworn rioter_ is a man who practises +riot, as if he had by an oath made it his duty. + +III.v.80 (337,3) your reverend ages love/Security] He charges them +obliquely with being usurers. + +III.v.96 (337,5) Do you dare our anger?/'Tis in few words, but spacious +in effect] This reading may pass, but perhaps the author wrote, + + _our anger_? + _'Tis few in words, but spacious in effect._ + +III.v.114 (338,7) + + I'll cheer up + My discontented troops, and play for hearts. + 'Tis honour with most hands to be at odds] + +[Warburton had substituted "hands" for "lands"] I think _hands_ is very +properly substituted for _lands_. In the foregoing line, for, _lay for +hearts_, I would read, _play_ for _hearts_. + +III.vi.4 (339,7) Upon that were my thoughts tiring] A hawk, I think, is +said to _tire_, when she amuses herself with pecking a pheasant's wing, +or any thing that puts her in mind of prey. To _tire_ upon a thing, is +therefore, to be _idly employed upon it_. + +III.vi.100 (342,9) Is your perfection] Your _perfection_, is _the +highest of your excellence_. + +III.vi.101 (342,1) and spangled you with flatteries] [W: with your] The +present reading is right. + +III.vi.106 (342,2) time-flies] Flies of a season. + +III.vi. 107 (342,5) minute-jacks!] Hanmer thinks it means +_Jack-a-lantern_, which shines and disappears in an instant. What it was +I know not; but it was something of quick motion, mentioned in Richard +III. + +III.vi.108 (342,4) the infinite malady] Every kind of disease incident +to man and beast. + +IV.i.19 (344,6) + + Degrees, observances, customs and laws, + Decline to your confounding contraries, + And yet confusion live!] + +Hanmer reads, _let_ confusion; but the meaning may be, _though by such +confusion all things seem to hasten to dissolution_, yet _let not +dissolution come, but the miseries of_ confusion _continue._ + +IV.ii (345,1) Enter Flavius] Nothing contributes more to the exaltation +of Timon's character than the zeal and fidelity of his servants. Nothing +but real virtue can be honoured by domesticks; nothing but impartial +kindness can gain affection from dependants. + +IV.ii.10 (345,2) So his familiars from his buried fortunes/Slink all +away] The old copies have _to_ instead of _from_. The correction is +Hanmer's; but the old reading might stand (see 1765, VI, 231, 2) + +IV.ii.38 (346,4) strange unusual blood] Of this passage, I suppose, +every reader would wish for a correction; but the word, harsh as it is, +stands fortified by the rhyme, to which, perhaps, it owes its +introduction. I know not what to propose. Perhaps, + + --_strange unusual_ mood, + +may, by some, be thought better, and by others worse. + +IV.iii.1 (347,5) O blessed, breeding sun] [W: blessing breeding] I do +not see that this emendation much strengthens the sense. + +IV.iii.2 (347,6) thy sister's orb] That is, the moon's, this _sublunary_ +world. + +IV.iii.6 (348,7) Not nature,/To whom all sores lay siege] I have +preserved this note rather for the sake of the commentator [Warburton] +than of the author. How _nature, to whom all sores lay siege_, can so +emphatically express _nature in its greatest perfection_, I shall not +endeavour to explain. The meaning I take to be this: _Brother, when his +fortune is inlarged, will scorn brother_; for this is the general +depravity of human nature, which, _besieged as it is by misery_, +admonished as it is of want and imperfection, when _elevated by fortune, +will despise_ beings of _nature like its own_. + +IV.iii.12 (349,9) It is the pastor lards the brother's sides,/The want +that makes him leave] [W: weather's sides] This passage is very obscure, +nor do I discover any clear sense, even though we should admit the +emendation. Let us inspect the text as I have given it from the original +edition, + + _It is the_ pastour _lards the_ brother's _sides, + The want that makes him_ leave. + +Dr. Warburton found the passage already changed thus, + + _It is the_ pasture _lards the_ beggar's _sides, + The want that makes him_ lean. + +And upon this reading of no authority, raised another equally uncertain. + +Alterations are never to be made without necessity. Let us see what +sense the genuine reading will afford. Poverty, says the poet, _bears +contempt hereditary_, and _wealth native honour_. To illustrate this +position, having already mentioned the case of a poor and rich brother, +he remarks, that this preference is given to wealth by those whom it +least becomes; _it is the_ pastour _that greases or_ flatters _the rich_ +brother, and will grease him on till _want makes him leave_. The poet +then goes on to ask, _Who dares to say this man_, this pastour, _is a +flatterer_; the crime is universal; through all the world _the learned +pate_, with allusion to the pastour, _ducks to the golden fool_. If it +be objected, as it may justly be, that the mention of pastour is +unsuitable, we must remember the mention of _grace_ and _cherubims_ in +this play, and many such anachronisms in many others. I would therefore +read thus: + + _It is the pastour lards the brother's sides_, + 'Tis _want that makes him leave_. + +The obscurity is still great. Perhaps a line is lost. I have at least +given the original reading. + +IV.iii.27 (350,2) no idle votarist] No insincere or inconstant +supplicant. _Gold_ will not serve me instead of _roots_. + +IV.iii.38 (351,5) That makes the wappen'd widow wed again] Of _wappened_ +I have found no example, nor know any meaning. To _awhape_ is used by +Spenser in his _Hubberd's Tale_, but I think not in either of the senses +mentioned. I would read _wained_, for _decayed by time_. So our author +in _Richard the Third_, _A beauty_-waining _and distressed widow_. + +IV.iii.41 (352,6) To the April day again] That is, _to the wedding day_, +called by the poet, satirically, _April day_, or _fool's day_. + +IV.iii.44 (352,7) Do thy right nature] Lie in the earth where nature +laid thee. + +IV.iii.44 (352,8) Thou'rt quick] Thou hast life and motion in thee. + +IV.iii.64 (353,9) I will not kiss thee] This alludes to an opinion in +former times, generally prevalent, that the venereal infection +transmitted to another, left the infecter free. I will not, says Timon, +take the rot from thy lips by kissing thee. + +IV.iii.72 (353,1) + + _Tim._ Promise me friendship, but perform none. If + Thou wilt not promise, the Gods plague thee, for + Thou art a man; if thou dost perform, confound thee, + For thou art a man!] + +That is, however thou may'st act, since thou art man, hated man, I wish +thee evil. + +IV.iii.82 (354,2) + + Be a whore still! They love thee not that use thee; + Give them diseases, leaving with thee their lust: + Make use of thy salt hours] + +There is here a slight transposition. I would read, + + --_They love thee not that use thee, + Leaving with thee their lust; give them diseases; + Make use of thy salt hours; season the slaves + For tubs and baths_;-- + +IV.iii.115 (356,6) milk-paps,/That through the window-bars bore at mens' +eyes] [W: window-lawn] The reading is more probably, + + --_window-bar_,-- + +The virgin that shews her bosom through the lattice of her chamber. + +IV.iii.119 (356,8) exhaust their mercy] For _exhaust_, sir T. Hanmer, +and after him Dr. Warburton, read _extort_; but _exhaust_ here signifies +literally to _draw forth_. + +IV.iii.120 (356,7) + + Think it a bastard, whom the oracle + Hath doubtfully prunounc'd thy throat shall cut] + +An allusion to the tale of OEdipus. + +IV.iii.134 (357,8) And to make whores a bawd] [W: make whole] The old +edition reads, + + _And to make whores a bawd._ + +That is, _enough to make a whore leave whoring, and a bawd leave making +whores_. + +IV.iii.139 (357,9) I'll trust to your conditions] You need not swear to +continue whores, I will trust to your inclinations. + +IV.iii.140 (358,1) Yet may your pains, six months,/Be quite contrary] +The explanation [Warburton's] is ingenious, but I think it very remote, +and would willingly bring the author and his readers to meet on easier +terms. We may read, + + --_Yet may your pains six months + Be quite_ contraried.-- + +Timon is wishing ill to mankind, but is afraid lest the whores should +imagine that he wishes well to them; to obviate which he lets them know, +that he imprecates upon them influence enough to plague others, and +disappointments enough to plague themselves. He wishes that they may do +all possible mischief, and yet take _pains six months_ of the year in +vain. + +In this sense there is a connection of this line with the next. Finding +_your pains contraried_, try new expedients, _thatch your thin roofs_, +and _paint_. + +To _contrary_ is on old verb. Latymer relates, that when he went to +court, he was advised not to _contrary_ the king. + +IV.iii.153 (359,3) mens' spurring] Hanmer reads _sparring_, properly +enough, if there be any ancient example of the word. + +IV.iii.158 (359,5) + + take the bridge quite away + Of him, that his particular to foresee + Smells from the general weal] + +[W: to forefend] The metaphor is apparently incongruous, but the sense +is good. To _foresee his particular_, is _to provide for his private +advantage_, for which _he leaves the right scent of publick good_. In +hunting, when hares have cross'd one another, it is common for some of +the hounds _to smell from the general weal, and foresee their own +particular_. Shakespeare, who seems to have been a skilful sportsman, +and has alluded often to falconry, perhaps, alludes here to hunting. + +To the commentator's emendation it may be objected, that he used +_forefend_ in the wrong meaning. To _forefend_, is, I think, never to +_provide for_, but to _provide against_. The verbs compounded with _for_ +or _fore_ have commonly either an evil or negative sense. + +IV.iii.182 (361,8) eyeless venom'd worm] The serpent, which we, from the +smallness of his eyes, call the _blind worm_, and the Latins, +_caecilia_. + +IV.iii.183 (361,9) below crisp heaven] [W: cript] Mr. Upton declares for +_crisp_, curled, bent, hollow. + +IV.iii.188 (361,1) Let it no more bring out ingrateful man!] [W: out to +ungrateful] It is plain that _bring out_ is _bring forth_, with which +the following lines correspond so plainly, that the commentator might be +suspected of writing his note without reading the whole passage. + +IV.iii.193 (362,2) Dry up thy marrows, vines, and plough torn leas] I +cannot concur to censure Theobald [as Warburton did] as a _critic_ very +_unhappy_. He was weak, but he was cautious: finding but little power in +his mind, he rarely ventured far under its conduct. This timidity +hindered him from daring conjectures, and sometimes hindered him +happily. + +This passage, among many others, may pass without change. The genuine +reading is not _marrows, veins_, but _marrows_, vines: the sense is +this; _O nature! cease_ to _produce men, ensear thy womb_; but if thou +wilt continue to produce them, at least cease to pamper them; _dry up +thy marrows_, on which they fatten with _unctuous morsels_, thy _vines_, +which give them _liquorish draughts_, and thy _plow-torn leas_. Here are +effects corresponding with causes, _liquorish draughts_ with _vines_, +and _unctuous morsels_ with _marrows_, and the old reading literally +preserved. + +IV.iii.209 (363,3) the cunning of a carper] _Cunning_ here seems to +signify _counterfeit appearance_. + +IV.ii.223 (364,4) moist trees] Hanmer reads very elegantly, + + --moss'd _trees_. + +IV.iii.37 (364,5) + + _Tim._ Always a villain's office, or a fool's. + Dost please thyself in't? + + _Apem._ Ay. + + _Tim._ What! a knave too?] + +Such was Dr. Warburton's first conjecture ["and know't too"], but +afterwards he adopted Sir T. Hanmer's conjecture, + + _What a knave_ thou! + +but there is no need of alteration. Timon had just called Apemantus +_fool_, in consequence of what he had known of him by former +acquaintance; but when Apemantus tells him, that he comes _to vex him_, +Timon determines that to _vex_ is either _the office of a villain or a +fool_; that _to vex by design_ is _villainy, to vex without design_ is +_folly_. He then properly asks Apemantus whether he takes delight in +_vexing_, and when he answers, _yes_, Timon replies, _What! and knave +too?_ I before only knew thee to be a _fool_, but I now find thee +likewise a _knave_. This seems to be so clear as not to stand in need of +a comment. + +IV.iii.242 (365,6) Willing misery/Out-lives incertain pomp; is crown'd +before] Arrives sooner at _high wish_; that is, at the _completion of +its wishes_. + +IV.iii.247 (365,7) Worse than the worst, content] Best states +contentless have a wretched being, a being worse than that of the worst +states that are content. This one would think too plain to have been +mistaken. (1773) + +IV.iii.249 (365,8) by his breath] It means, I believe, by his _counsel_, +by his _direction_. + +IV. iii. 252 (366,l) Hadst thou, like us] There is in this speech a +sullen haughtiness, and malignant dignity, suitable at once to the lord +and the man-hater. The impatience with which he bears to have his luxury +reproached by one that never had luxury within his reach, is natural and +graceful. + +There is in a letter, written by the earl of Essex, just before his +execution, to another nobleman, a passage somewhat resembling this, with +which, I believe every reader will be pleased, though it is so serious +and solemn that it can scarcely be inserted without irreverence. + +"God grant your lordship may quickly feel the comfort I now enjoy in my +unfettered conversion, but that you may never feel the torments I have +suffered for my long delaying it. _I had none but deceivers to call upon +me, to whom I said, if my ambition could have entered into their narrow +breasts, they would not have been so precise. But your lordship hath one +to call upon you, that knoweth what it is you now enjoy; and what the +greatest fruit and end is of all contentment that this world can +afford._ Think, therefore, dear earl, that I have staked and buoyed all +the ways of pleasure unto you, and left them as sea-marks for you to +keep the channel of religious virtue. For shut your eyes never so long, +they must be open at the last, and then you must say with me, _there is +no peace to the ungodly_." + +IV.iii.252 (366,2) from our first swath] From infancy. _Swath_ is the +dress of a new-born child. + +IV.iii.258 (366,3) precepts of respect] Of obedience to laws. + +IV.iii.259 (366,4) But myself] The connection here requires some +attention. _But_ is here used to denote opposition; but what immediately +precedes is not opposed to that which follows. The adversative particle +refers to the two first lines. + + _Thou art a slave, whom fortune's tender arm + With favour never claspt; but bred a dog. + --But myself, + Who had the world as my confectionary,_ &c. + +The intermediate lines are to be considered as a parenthesis of passion. + +IV.iii.271 (367,5) If thou wilt curse, thy father, that poor rag,/ Must +be thy subject] If we read _poor rogue_, it will correspond rather +better to what follows. + +IV.iii.276 (367,6) Thou hadst been knave and flatterer] Dryden has +quoted two verses of Virgil to shew how well he could have written +satires. Shakespeare has here given a specimen of the same power by a +line bitter beyond all bitterness, in which Timon tells Apemantus, that +he had not virtue enough for the vices which he condemns. + +Dr. Warburton explains _worst_ by _lowest_, which somewhat weakens the +sense, and yet leaves it sufficiently vigorous. + +I have heard Mr. Bourke commend the subtilty of discrimination with +which Shakespeare distinguishes the present character of Timon from that +of Apemantus, whom to vulgar eyes he would now resemble. (see 1763, VI, +249, 6) (rev. 1778, VIII, 424, 4) + +IV.iii.308 (369,8) Ay, though it look like thee] Timon here supposes +that an objection against hatred, which through the whole tenor of the +conversation appears an argument for it. One would have expected him to +have answered, + + Yes, _for it looks like thee_. + +The old edition, which always gives the pronoun instead of the +affirmative particle, has it, + + _I, though it look like thee_. + +Perhaps we should read, + + _I_ thought _it_ look'd _like thee_. + +IV,iii.363 (371,2) Thou art the cap] i.e. the property, the bubble. +WARBURTON.] I rather think, the _top_, the _principal_. + +The remaining dialogue has more malignity than wit. + +IV.iii.383 (372,4) 'Twixt natural, son and sire!'] + + [Greek: dia touton ouk adelphoi + dia touton ou toxaeas. ANAC.] + +IV.iii.398 (373,6) More things like men?] This line, in the old edition, +is given to Aremantus, but it apparently belongs to Timon. Hanmer has +transposed the foregoing dialogue according to his own mind, not +unskilfully, but with unwarrantable licence. + +IV.iii.419 (373,7) you want much of meat] [T: of meet] Such is Mr. +Theobald's emendation, in which he is followed by Dr. Warburton. Sir T. +Hanmer reads, + + --_you want much of_ men. + +They have been all busy without necessity. Observe the series of the +conversation. The thieves tell him, that they are _men that much do +want_. Here is an ambiguity between _much want_ and _want_ of _much_. +Timon takes it on the wrong side, and tells them that their _greatest +want is_, that, like other men, _they want much of meat_; then telling +them where meat may be had, he asks, _Want? why want?_ (see 1765, VI, +254, 5) + +IV.iii.420 (374,8) the earth hath roots;/Within this mile break forth an +hundred springs] + + _Vile plus, et duris haerentia mora rubetis + Pugnantis stomachi composuere famen: + Flumine vicino stultus sitit._ + +I do not suppose these to be imitations, but only to be similar thoughts +on similar occasions. + +IV.iii.442 (375,2) The sea's a thief, whose liquid surge resolves/The +moon into salt tears] [W: The mounds] I am not willing to receive +_mounds_, which would not be understood but by him that suggested it. +The _moon_ is supposed to be humid, and perhaps a source of humidity, +but cannot be _resolved_ by the _surges_ of the sea. Yet I think _moon_ +is the true reading. Here is a circulation of thievary described: The +sun, moon, and sea all rob, and are robbed. + +IV.iii.456 (376,3) 'Tis in the malice of mankind, that he thus advises +us; not to have us thrive in our mystery] [Hanmer: his malice to] +Hanmer's emendation, though not necessary, is very probable, and very +unjustly charged with nonsense [by Warburton]. The reason of his advice, +says the thief, is _malice to mankind_, not any kindness to us, or +desire _to have us thrive in our mystery_. + +IV.iii.468 (378,5) What an alteration of honour has/Desperate want +made!] [W: of humour] The original copy has, + + _What an alteration of honour has desperate want made!_ + +The present reading is certainly better, but it has no authority. To +change _honour_ to _humour_ is not necessary. _An alteration of honour_, +is an _alteration_ of an _honourable state_ to a state of disgrace. + +IV.iii.474 (378,8) + + Grant, I may ever love, and rather woe + Those that would mischief me, than those that do!] + +[W: rather too/...that woo] In defiance of this criticism, I have +ventured to replace the former reading, as more suitable to the general +spirit of these scenes, and as free from the absurdities charged upon +it. It is plain, that in this whole speech _friends_ and _enemies_ are +taken only for those who _profess friendship_ and _profess enmity_; for +the _friend_ is supposed not to be more kind, but more dangerous than +the _enemy_. In the amendation, _those that would mischief_ are placed +in opposition to _those that woo_, but in the speaker's intention _those +that woo_ are _those that mischief_ most. The sense is, _Let me rather +woo or caress those that_ would _mischief, that_ profess to mean me +mischief, _than those_ that really _do_ me _mischief under false +professions of kindness_. The Spaniards, I think, have this proverb; +_Defend me from my friends, and from my enemies I will defend myself_. +This proverb is a sufficient comment on the passage. + +IV.iii.484 (379,9) all/I kept were knaves, to serve in meat to villains] +_Knave_ is here in the compounded sense of a _servant_ and a _rascal_. + +IV.iii.492 (379,1) Pity's sleeping] I do not know that any correction is +necessary, but I think we might read, + + --_eyes do never give + But thorough lust and laughter, pity sleeping_. + +_Eyes never flow_ (to _give_ is to dissolve as saline bodies in moist +weather) _but by lust_ or _laughter_, undisturbed _by_ emotions of +_pity_. + +IV.iii.499 (380,2) It almost turns my dangerous nature wild] [W: mild] +This emendation is specious, but even this may be controverted. To _turn +wild_ is _to distract_. An appearance so unexpected, says Timon, _almost +turns my savageness_ to distraction. Accordingly he examines with nicety +lest his phrenzy, should deceive him, + + _Let me behold thy face. Surely this man + Was born of woman_. + +And to this suspected disorder of mind he alludes, + + _Perpetual, sober, Gods_!-- + Ye powers whose intellects are out of the reach of perturbation. + +IV.iii.533 (381,3) thou shalt build from men] Away from human +habitations. + +V.i (382,5) _Enter Poet and Painter_] The poet and the painter were +within view when Apemantus parted from Timon, and might then have seen +Timon, since Apemantus, standing by him could not see them: But the +scenes of the thieves and steward have passed before their arrival, and +yet passed, as the drama is now conducted within their view. It might be +suspected that some scenes are transposed, for all these difficulties +would be removed by introducing the poet and painter first, and the +thieves in this place. Yet I am afraid the scenes must keep their +present order; for the painter alludes to the thieves when he says, _he +likewise enriched poor straggling soldiers with great quantity_. This +impropriety is now heightened by placing the thieves in one act, and the +poet and painter in another: but it must be remembered, that in the +original edition this play is not divided into separate acts, so that +the present distribution is arbitrary, and may be changed if any +convenience can be gained, or impropriety obviated by alteration. + +V.i.47 (384,6) While the day serves, before black-corner'd night] [W: +black-cornette] _Black-corner'd night_ is probably corrupt, but +_black-cornette_ can hardly be right, for it should be _black-cornetted +night_. I cannot propose any thing, but must leave the place in its +present state. (1773) + +V.i.101 (386,8) a made-up villain] That is a villain that adopts +qualities and characters not properly belonging to him; a hypocrite. + +V.i.105 (386,9) drown them in a draught] That is, _in the_ jakes. + +V.i.109 (388,1) + + But two in company-- + Each man apart, all single and alone, + Yet an arch villain keeps him company] + +This passage is obscure. I think the meaning is this: _but two in +company_, that is, stand apart, _let only two be together_; for even +when each stands single there are two, he himself and a villain. + +V.i.151 (388,3) Of its own fall] [The Oxford editor alters _fall_ to +_fault_, not knowing that Shakespeare uses _fall_ to signify dishonour, +not destruction. So in _Hamlet_, + + _What a_ falling_ off was there_! WARBURTON.] + +The truth is, that neither _fall_ means _disgrace_, nor is _fault_ a +necessary emendation. _Falling off_ in the quotation is not _disgrace_ +but _defection_. The Athenians _had sense_, that is, felt the danger _of +their own fall_, by the arms of Alcibiades. + +V.i.151 (388,4) restraining aid to Timon] I think it should be +_refraining aid_, that is, with-holding aid that should have been given +_to_ Timon. + +V.i.154 (389,5) Than their offence can weigh down by the dram] This +which was in the former editions can scarcely be right, and yet I know +not whether my reading will be thought to rectify it. I take the meaning +to be, We will give thee a recompence that our offences cannot outweigh, +_heaps of wealth down by the dram_, or delivered according to the +exactest measure. A little disorder may perhaps have happened in +transcribing, which may be reformed by reading, + + --_Ay, ev'n such heaps + And sums of love and wealth, down by the dram, + As shall to thee_-- + +V.i.165 (389,6) Allow'd with absolute power] _Allowed_ is _licensed_, +_privileged_, _uncontrolled_. So of a buffoon, in _Love's Labour lost_, +it is said, that he is _allowed_, that is, at liberty to say what he +will, a privileged scoffer. + +V.i.139 (390,7) My long sickness/Of health and living now begins to +mend] The disease of life begins to promise me a period. + +V.i.211 (391,8) in the sequence of degree] Methodically, from highest to +lowest. + +V.iii.4 (393,2) Some beast read this; here does not live a man] [W: +rear'd] Notwithstanding this remark, I believe the old reading to be the +right. _The soldier had only seen the rude heap of earth._ He had +evidently seen something that told him _Timon was dead_; and what could +tell that but his tomb? The tomb he sees, and the inscription upon it, +which not being able to read, and finding none to read it for him, he +exclaims peevishly, _some beast read this_, for it must be read, and in +this place it cannot be read by man. + +There is something elaborately unskilful in the contrivance of sending a +soldier, who cannot read, to take the epitaph in wax, only that it may +close the play by being read with more solemnity in the last scene. + +V.iv.7 (394, 3) traverst arms] Arms across. + +V.iv.8 (394,4) the time is flush] A bird is _flush_ when his feathers +are grown, and he can leave the nest. _Flush_ is _mature_. + +V.iv.18 (395,7) + + So did we woo + Transformed Timon to our city's love, + By humble message, and by promis'd means] + +[T: promis'd mends] Dr. Warburton agrees with Mr. Theobald, but the old +reading may well stand. + +V.iv.28 (395,8) Shame, that they wanted cunning, in excess/Hath broke +their hearts] [Theobald had emended the punctuation] I have no wish to +disturb the means of Theobald, yet think some emendation nay be offered +that will make the construction less harsh, and the sentence more +serious. I read, + + _Shape that they wanted, coming in excess, + Hath broke their hearts._ + +_Shame which they_ had so long _wanted at last_ coming in _its utmost_ +excess. + +V.iv.36 (396,8) not square] Not regular, not equitable. + +V.iv.35 (397,9) uncharged ports] That is, _unguarded gates_. + +V.iv.59 (397,1) not a man/Shall pass his quarter] Not a soldier shall +quit his station, or be let loose upon you; and, if any commits +violence, he shall answer it regularly to the law. + +V.iv.76 (308.,3) our brain's flow; Hanmer and Dr. Warburton read, + + --brine's flow,-- + +Our brain's flow is our tears; but we any read our brine's flow, our +salt tears. Either will serve. (see 1765, VI, 276, 6) + +(399) General Observation. The play of _Timon_ is a domestic tragedy, +and therefore strongly fastens on the attention of the reader. In the +plan there is not much art, but the incidents are natural, and the +characters various and exact. The catastrophe affords a very powerful +warning against that ostentations liberality, which scatters bounty, but +confers no benefits, and buys flattery, but not friendship. + +In this tragedy are many passages perplexed, obscure, and probably +corrupt, which I have endeavoured to rectify, or explain, with due +diligence; but having only one copy, cannot promise myself that my +endeavours shall be much applauded. + + + + +TITUS ANDRONICUS + + +(403,1) It is observable, that this play is printed in the quarto of +1611, with exactness equal to that of the other books of those times. +The first edition was probably corrected by the author, so that here is +very little room for conjecture or emendation; and accordingly none of +the editors have much molested this piece with officious criticism. + +I.i.70 (406,2) Hail, Rome, victorious in thy mourning weeds!] [W: my] +_Thy_ is as well as _my_. We may suppose the Romans in a grateful +ceremony, meeting the dead sons of Andronicus with mourning habits. + +I.i.77 (407,3) Thou great defender of this Capitol] Jupiter, to whom the +Capitol was sacred. + +I.i.168 (410,5) And fame's eternal date for virtue's praise!] [W: In] To +_live in fame's date_ is, if an allowable, yet a harsh expression. To +_outlive_ an _eternal date_, is, though not philosophical, yet poetical +sense. He wishes that her life may be longer than his, and her praise +longer than fame. + +I.i.309 (414,6) changing piece] Spoken of Lavinia. _Piece_ was then, as +it is now, used personally as a word of contempt. + +II.i (421,8) In the quarto, the direction is, _Manet Aaron_, and he is +before made to enter with Tamora, though he says nothing. This scene +ought to continue the first act. + +II.i.9 (421,9) So Tamora--/Upon her wit doth earthly honour wait] [W: +her will] I think _wit_, for which she is eminent in the drama, is +right. + +II.i.116 (425,2) by kind] That is, by _nature_, which is the old +signification of _kind_. + +II.ii (425,3) _Changes to a Forest_] The division of this play into +acts, which was first made by the editors in 1623, is improper. There is +here an interval of action, and here the second act ought to have begun. + +II.iii.8 (427,6) + + And so repose, sweet gold, for their unrest, + That have their alms out of the empress' chest] + +This is obscure. It seems to mean only, that they who are to come at +this gold of the empress are to suffer by it. + +II.iii.72 (430,9) swarth Cimmerian] _Swarth_ is _black_. The Moor is +called Cimmerien, from the affinity of blackness to darkness. + +II.iii.85 (430,1) + + _Bas._ The king, my brother, shall have note of this. + _Lav._ Ay, for these slips have made him noted long] + +He had yet been married but one night. + +II.iii.104 (431,2) Should straight fall mad, or else die suddenly] This +is said in fabulous physiology, of those that hear the groan of the +mandrake torn up. + +II.iii.126 (432,3) And with that painted hope she braves your +mightiness] [W: cope] _Painted hope_ is only _specious_ hope, or ground +of confidence more plausible than solid. + +II.iii.227 (435,4) A precious ring, that lightens all the hole] There is +supposed to be a gem called a carbuncle, which emits not reflected but +native light. Mr. Boyle believes the reality of its existence. + +II.iv.13 (438,5) If I do dream, 'would all my wealth would wake me'] If +this be a dream, I would give all my possessions to be delivered from it +by waking. + +III.i.91 (443,8) It was my deer] The play upon _deer_ and _dear_ has +been used by Waller, who calls a lady's girdle, _The pale that held my +lovely_ deer. + +III.i.216 (447,1) And do not break into these deep extremes] [We should +read, instead of this nonsense, + + --woe-_extremes_. + +i.e. extremes caused by excessive sorrow. But Mr. Theobald, on his own +authority, alters it to _deep_, without notice given. WARB.] It is +_deep_ in the old quarto of 1611, (rev. 1778, VIII, 510, 8) + +III.ii (450,2) _An apartment in Titus's house_] This scene, which does +not contribute any thing to the action, yet seems to have the same +author with the rest, is omitted in the quarto of 1611, but found in the +folio of 1623. + +III.ii.45 (452,3) by still practice] By _constant_ or _continual_ +practice. + +IV.i.129 (458,6) Revenge the heavens] It should be, + + _Revenge_, ye _Heavens_!-- + +_Ye_ was by the transcriber taken for _y'e_, the. + +IV.ii.85 (461,7) I'll broach the tadpole] A _broach_ is a _spit_. I'll +_spit_ the tadpole. + +IV.ii.99 (462,8) Coal-black is better than another hue,/ In that it +seems to bear another hue] We may better read, _In that it_ scorns _to +bear another hue_. + +IV.iii.88 (466,1) Yet wrung with wrongs] To _wring_ a horse is to press +or strain his back. + +IV.iv.90 (472,4) With words more sweet, and yet more dangerous,/ Than +baits to fish, or honey-stalks to sheep] _Honey-stalks_ are +clover-flowers, which contain a sweet juice. It is common for cattle to +over-charge themselves with clover, and die. + +V.i.102 (476,7) As true a dog, as ever fought at head] An allusion to +bull-dogs, whose generosity and courage are always shown by meeting the +bull in front, and seizing his nose. + +V.ii.189 (484,1) And of the paste a coffin will I rear] A _coffin_ is +the term of art for the cavity of a raised pye. + +V.iii.19 (486,2) break the parley] That is, _begin_ the parley. We yet +say, he _breaks_ his mind. + +(492) General Observation. All the editors and critics agree with Mr. +Theobald in supposing this play spurious. I see no reason for differing +from them; for the colour of the stile is wholly different from that of +the other plays, and there is an attempt at regular versification, and +artificial closes, not always inelegant, yet seldom pleasing. The +barbarity of the spectacles, and the general massacre, which are here +exhibited, can scarcely be conceived tolerable to any audience; yet we +are told by Jonson, that they were not only borne, but praised. That +Shakespeare wrote any part, though Theobald declares it _incontestible_, +I see no reason for believing. + +The testimony produced at the beginning of this play, by which it is +ascribed to Shakespeare, is by no means equal to the argument against +its authenticity, arising from the total difference of conduct, +language, and sentiments, by which it stands apart from all the rest. +Meeres had probably no other evidence than that of a title-page, which, +though in our time it be sufficient, was then of no great authority; for +all the plays which were rejected by the first collectors of +Shakespeare's works, and admitted in later editions, and again rejected +by the critical editors, had Shakespeare's name on the title, as we must +suppose, by the fraudulence of the printers, who, while there were yet +no gazettes, nor advertisements, nor any means of circulating literary +intelligence, could usurp at pleasure any celebrated name. Nor had +Shakespeare any interest in detecting the imposture, as none of his fame +or profit was produced by the press. + +The chronology of this play does not prove it not to be Shakespeare's. +If it had been written twenty-five years, in 1614, it might have been +written when Shakespeare was twenty-five years old. When he left +Warwickshire I know not, but at the age of twenty-five it was rather too +late to fly for deer-stealing. + +Ravenscroft, who in the reign of Charles II, revised this play, and +restored it to the stage, tells us, in his preface, from a theatrical +tradition, I suppose, which in his time might be of sufficient +authority, that this play was touched in different parts by Shakespeare, +but written by some other poet. I do not find Shakespeare's touches very +discernible, (see 1765, VI, 364) (rev. 1778, VIII, 559) + + + + +Vol. IX. + +TROILUS AND CRESSIDA + + +Prologue. (4,2) + + _And hither am I come + A prologue arm'd; but not in confidence + Of author's pen, or actor's voice; but suited + In like conditions as our argument_] + +I come here to speak the prologue, and come in armour; not defying the +audience, in confidence of either the author's or actor's abilities, but +merely in a character suited to the subject, in a dress of war, before a +warlike play. + +I.i.12 (8,3) And skill-less as unpractis'd infancy] Mr. Dryden, in his +alteration of this play, has taken this speech as it stands, except that +he has changed _skill-less_ to _artless_, not for the better, because +_skill-less_ refers to _skill_ and _skilful_. + +I.i.58 (10,4) The cignet's down is harsh, and spirit of sense/Hard as +the palm of ploughman!] _In comparison with_ Cressid's _hand_, says he, +_the spirit of sense_, the utmost degree, the most exquisite power of +sensibility, which implies a soft hand, since the sense of touching, as +Scaliger says in his _Exercitations_, resides chiefly in the fingers, is +hard as the callous and insensible palm of the ploughman. WARBURTON +reads, + + --SPITE _of sense_: + +HANMER, + + --to th' _spirit of sense_. + +It is not proper to make a lover profess to praise his mistress in +_spite of sense_; for though he often does it in _spite of the sense_ of +others, his own senses are subdued to his desires. + +I.i.66 (10,5) if she be fair, 'tis the better for her; an she be not, +she has the mends in her own hands] She may mend her complexion by the +assistance of cosmeticks. + +I.ii.4 (12,1) Hector, whose patience/Is, as a virtue, fix'd] [W: Is as +the] I think the present text may stand. Hector's patience was as a +virtue, not variable and accidental, but fixed and constant. If I would +alter it, it should be thus: + + --Hector, whose patience + Is ALL a virtue fix'd,-- + +_All_, in old English, is the _intensive_ or enforcing particle. + +I.ii.8 (13,2) Before the sun rose, he was harness'd light] [Warburton +stated that "harnessed light" meant Hector was to fight on foot] How +does it appear that Hector was to fight on foot rather to-day than on +any other day? It is to be remembered, that the ancient heroes never +fought on horseback; nor does their manner of fighting in chariots seem +to require less activity than on foot. + +I.ii.23 (14,4) his valour is crushed into folly] To be _crushed into +folly_, is to be _confused_ and mingled with _folly_, so as that they +make one mass together. + +I.ii.46 (15,6) Ilium] Was the palace of Troy. + +I.ii.120 (17,7) compass-window] The _compass-window_ is the same as the +_bow-window_. (1773) + +I.ii.212 (20,2) + + _Cre._ Will he give you the nod? + _Pan._ You shall see. + _Cre._ If he do, the rich shall have more] + +[W: rich] I wonder why the commentator should think any emendation +necessary, since his own sense is fully expressed by the present +reading. Hanmer appears not to have understood the passage. That to +_give the nod_ signifies to _set a mark of folly_, I do not know; the +allusion is to the word _noddy_, which, as now, did, in our author's +time, and long before, signify, _a silly fellow_, and may, by its +etymology, signify likewise _full of nods_. Cressid means, that _a_ +noddy _shall have more_ nods. Of such remarks as these is a comment to +consist? + +I.ii.260 (22,3) money to boot] So the folio. The old quarto, with more +force, Give _an eye_ to boot. (rev. 1778, IX, 25, 1) + +I.ii.285 (22,4) upon my wit to defend my wiles] So read both the copies) +yet perhaps the author wrote, + + Upon my wit to defend my will. + +The terms _wit_ and _will_ were, in the language of that time, put often +in opposition. + +I.ii.300 (23,5) At your own house; there he unarms him] [These necessary +words added from the quarto edition. POPE.] The words added are only, +_there he unarms him_. + +I.ii.313 (23,6) joy's soul lies in the doing] So read both the old +editions, for which the later editions have poorly given, + + --the _soul's joy_ lies in doing. + +I.ii.316 (23,7) That she] Means, that woman. + +I.iii.31 (25,2) With due observance of thy godlike seat] [T: godlike +seat] This emendation [for goodly seat] Theobald might have found in the +quarto, which has, + + --the _godlike_ seat. + +I.iii.32 (25,3) Nestor shall apply/Thy latest words] Nestor _applies_ +the words to another instance. + +I.iii.54 (26,7) Returns to chiding fortune] For _returns_, Hanmer reads +_replies_, unnecessarily, the sense being the same. The folio and quarto +have _retires_, corruptly. + +I.iii.62 (27,8) + + both your speeches; which are such, + As Agamemnon and the hand of Greece + Should hold up high in brass; and such again, + As venerable Nestor, hatch'd in silver, + Should with a bond of air (strong as the axle-tree + On which heaven rides) knit all the Greekish ears + To his experienc'd tongue] + +Ulysses begins his oration with praising those who had spoken before +him, and marks the characteristick excellencies of their different +eloquence, strength, and sweetness, which he expresses by the different +metals on which he recommends them to be engraven for the instruction of +posterity. The speech of Agamemnon is such that it ought to be engraven +in brass, and the tablet held up by him on the one side, and Greece on +the other, to shew the union of their opinion. And Nestor ought to be +exhibited in silver, uniting all his audience in one mind by his soft +and gentle elocution. Brass is the common emblem of strength, and silver +of gentleness. We call a soft voice a _silver_ voice, and a persuasive +tongue a _silver_ tongue.--I once read for _hand_, the _band_ of Greece, +but I think the text right.--To _hatch_ is a term of art for a +particular method of _engraving_. _Hatcher_, to cut, Fr. + +I.iii.78 (28,1) The specialty of rule] The particular rights of supreme +authority. + +I.iii.81 (29,2) When that the general is not like the hive] The meaning +is, _When the general is not_ to the army _like the hive_ to the bees, +the repository of the stock of every individual, that to which each +particular resorts with whatever be has collected for the good of the +whole, _what honey is expected_? what hope of advantage? The sense is +clear, the expression is confused. + +I.iii.101 (30,5) Oh, when degree is shak'd] I would read, + + --So when degree is shak'd. (see 1765, VII, 431, 5) + +I.iii.103 (30,6) The enterprize] Perhaps we should read, + + _Then_ enterprize is sick!-- + +I.iii.104 (30,7) brotherhoods in cities] Corporations, companies, +_confraternities_. + +I.iii.128 (31,8) That by a pace goes backward] That goes backward _step +by step_. + +I.iii.128 (31,9) with a purpose/It hath to climb] With a design in each +man to aggrandize himself, by slighting his immediate superior. + +I.iii.134 (31,1) bloodless emulation] An emulation not vigorous and +active, but malignant and sluggish. + +I.iii.152 (31,2) Thy topless deputation] _Topless_ is that has nothing +_topping_ or _overtopping_ it; supreme; sovereign. + +I.iii.167 (32,3) as near as the extremest ends/Of parallels] The +parallels to which the allusion seems to be made are the parallels on a +map. As like as East to West. + +I.iii.179 (32,4) + + All our abilities, gifts, natures, shapes, + Severals and generals of grace exact, + Atchievements, plots] + +The meaning is this, All our good _grace exact_, means of _excellence +irreprehensible_. + +I.iii.184 (32,5) to make paradoxes] _Paradoxes_ may have a meaning, but +it is not clear and distinct. I wish the copies had given, + + --to make _parodies_. + +I.iii.188 (33,6) bears his head/In such a rein] That is, holds up his +head as haughtily. We still say of a girl, _she bridles_. + +I.iii.196 (33,7) How rank soever rounded in with danger] A _rank weed_ +is a _high weed_. The modern editions silently read, + + How _hard_ soever-- + +I.iii.202 (33,8) and know by measure/Of their observant toil the +enemies' weight] I think it were better to read, + + --and know _the_ measure, + _By_ their observant toil, _of_ th' enemies' weight. + +I.iii.220 (34,1) Achilles' arm] So the copies. Perhaps the author wrote, + + --_Alcides'_ arm. + +I.iii.262 (35,4) long continu'd truce] Of this long _truce_ there has +been no notice taken; in this very act it is said, that _Ajax coped +Hector yesterday in the battle_. + +I.iii.270 (36,7) (With truant vows to her own lips he loves)] That is, +_confession made with idle vows to the lips of her whom he loves_. + +I.iii.319 (37,1) nursery] Alluding to a plantation called a nursery. + +I.iii.341 (38,4) scantling] That is, a _measure_, _proportion_. The +carpenter cuts his wood to a certain _scantling_. + +I.iii.343 (38,5) small pricks] Small _points compared_ with the volumes. + +II.i (40,1) _The Grecian camp. Enter Ajax and Thorsites_] ACT II.] This +play is not divided into acts in any of the original editions. + +II.i.13 (41,2) The plague of Greece] Alluding perhaps to the plague sent +by Apollo on the Grecian army. + +II.i.15 (41,3) Speak then, thou unsalted leaven, speak] [T: +unwinnow'dst] [W: windyest] Hanmer preserves _whinid'st_, the reading of +the folio; but does not explain it, nor do I understand it. If the folio +be followed, I read, _vinew'd_, that is _mouldy leven_. Thou composition +of _mustiness_ and _sourness_.--Theobald's assertion, however confident, +is false. _Unsalted_ leaven is in the old quarto. It means _sour_ +without _salt_, malignity without wit. Shakespeare wrote first +_unsalted_; but recollecting that want of _salt_ was no fault in leaven, +changed it to _vinew'd_. + +II.i.38 (42,5) aye that thou bark'st at him] I read, _O_ that thou +_bark'dst_ at him. + +II.i.42 (42,6) pun thee into shivers] _Pun_ is in the midland counties +the vulgar and colloquial word for _pound_. (1773) + +II.i.125 (45,1) when Achilles' brach bids me] The folio and quarto read, +_Achilles'_ brooch. _Brooch_ is an appendant ornament. The meaning may +be, equivalent to one of _Achilles' hangers on_. + +II.ii.29 (47,2) The past-proportion of his infinite?] Thus read both the +copies. The meaning is, _that greatness, to which no measure bears any +proportion_. The modern editors silently give, + + The _vast_ proportion-- + +II.ii.58 (48,4) And the will dotes that is inclinable] [Old edition, not +so well, has it, _attributive_. POPE.] By the old edition Mr. Pope means +the old quarto. The folio has, as it stands, _inclinable_.--I think the +first reading better; _the will dotes that attributes_ or gives _the +qualities which it affects_; that first causes excellence, and then +admires it. + +II.ii.60 (48,5) Without some image of the affected merit] The present +reading is right. The will _affects_ an object for some supposed +_merit_, which Hector says, is uncensurable, unless the _merit_ so +_affected_ be really there. + +II.ii.71 (48,7) unrespective sieve] That is, into a _common voider_. +_Sieve_ is in the quarto. The folio reads, + + --unrespective _fame_; + +for which the modern editions have silently printed, + + --unrespective _place_. + +II.ii.88 (49,9) + + why do you now + The issue of your proper wisdoms rate; + And do a deed that fortune never did, + Beggar that estimation which you priz'd + Richer than sea and land?] + +If I understand this passage, the meaning is, "Why do you, by censuring +the determination of your own wisdoms, degrade Helen, whom fortune has +not yet deprived of her value, or against whom, as the wife of Paris, +fortune has not in this war so declared, as to make us value her less?" +This is very harsh, and much strained. + +II.ii.122 (50,2) her brain-sick raptures/Cannot distaste the goodness of +a quarrel] Corrupt; change to a worse state. + +II.ii.179 (52,3) benummed wills] That is, inflexible, inmoveable, no +longer obedient to superior direction. + +II.ii.180 (52,4) There is a law in each well-ordered nation] What the +law does in every nation between individuals, justice ought to do +between nations. + +II.ii.188 (52,5) Hector's opinion/Is this in way of truth] Though +considering _truth_ and _justice_ in this question, this is my opinion; +yet as a question of honour, I think on it as you. + +II.ii.196 (53,6) the performance of our heaving spleens] The execution +of spite and resentment. + +II.ii.212 (53,7) emulation] That is, envy, factious contention. + +II.iii.18 (54,8) without drawing the massy iron and cutting the web] +That is, _without drawing their swords to cut the web_. They use no +means but those of violence. + +II.iii.55 (55,1) decline the whole question] Deduce the question from +the first case to the last. + +II.iii.108 (57,6) but it was a strong composure, a fool could disunite] +So reads the quarto very properly; but the folio, which the moderns have +followed, has, _it was a strong_ COUNSEL. + +II.iii.118 (57,7) noble state] Person of high dignity; spoken of +Agamemnon. + +II.iii.137 (58,8) under-write] To _subscribe_, in Shakespeare, is to +_obey_. + +II.iii.215 (60,2) pheese his pride] To _pheese_ is to _comb_ or _curry_. + +II.iii.217 (60,3) Not for the worth that hangs upon our quarrel] Not for +the value of all for which we are fighting. + +II.iii.267 (62,6) + + _Ajax._ Shall I call you father? + _Nest._ Ay, my good son] + +In the folio and in the nodern editions Ajax desires to give the title +of _father_ to Ulysses; in the quarto, more naturally, to Nestor. + +III.i.35 (64,1) love's invisible soul] _love's_ visible _soul_.] So +HANMER. The other editions have _invisible_, which perhaps may be right, +and may mean the _soul of love_ invisible every where else. + +III.i.83 (65,3) And, my lord, he desires you] Here I think the speech of +Pandarus should begin, and the rest of it should be added to that of +Helen, but I have followed the copies. + +III.i.96 (65,4) with my disposer Cressida] [W: dispouser] I do not +understand the word _disposer_, nor know what to substitute in its +place. There is no variation in the copies. + +III.i.132 (67,6) _Yet that which seems the wound to kill_] _To kill the +wound_ is no very intelligible expression, nor is the measure preserved. +We might read, + + _These lovers cry, + Oh! oh! they die!_ + But _that which seems to kill, + Doth turn_, &c. + _So dying love lives still_. + +Yet as _the wound to kill_ may mean _the wound that seems mortal_, I +alter nothing. + +III.ii.25 (69,1) tun'd too sharp in sweetness]--and _too sharp in +sweetness_,] So the folio and all modern editions; but the quarto more +accurately, + + --_tun'd_ too sharp in sweetness. + +III.ii.99 (71,4) our head shall go bare, 'till merit crown it] I cannot +forbear to observe, that the quarto reads thus: _Our head shall go bare, +'till merit_ lower part no affection, _in reversion_, &c. Had there been +no other copy, hov could this have been corrected? The true reading is +in the folio. + +III.ii.102 (72,5) his addition shall be humble] We will give him no high +or pompous titles. + +III.ii.162 (74,6) + + but you are wise, + Or else you love not; to be wise and love, + Exceeds man's might] + +I read, + + --but _we're not_ wise, + Or else _we_ love not; to be wise and love, + Exceeds man's might;-- + +Cressida, in return to the praise given by Troilus to her wisdom, +replies, "That lovers are never wise; that it is beyond the power of man +to bring love and wisdom to an union." + +III.ii.173 (74,8) Might be affronted with the match] I wish "my +integrity might be met and matched with such equality and force of pure +unmingled love." + +III.ii.184 (75,2) As true as steel, as plantage to the moon] _Plantage_ +is not, I believe, a general term, but the herb which we now call +_plantain_, in Latin, _plantago_, which was, I suppose, imagined to be +under the peculiar influence of the moon. + +III.ii.187 (76,3) + + Yet after all comparisons of truth, + As truth's authentic author to be cited + _As true as Troilus_, shall crown up the verse] + +Troilus shall _crown the verse_, as a man _to be cited as the authentic +author of truth_; as one whose protestations were true to a proverb. + +III.iii.1-16 (77,5) Now, princes, for the service I have done you] I am +afraid, that after all the learned commentator's [Warburton's] efforts +to clear the argument of Calchas, it will still appear liable to +objection; nor do I discover more to be urged in his defence, than that +though his skill in divination determined him to leave Troy, jet that he +joined himself to Agamemnon and his army by unconstrained good-will; and +though he came as a fugitive escaping from destruction, yet his services +after his reception, being voluntary and important, deserved reward. +This argument is not regularly and distinctly deduced, but this is, I +think, the best explication that it will yet admit. + +III.iii.4 (78,6) through the sight I bear in things, to Jove] This +passage in all the modern editions is silently depraved, and printed +thus: + + --through the sight I bear in things to come. + +The word is so printed that nothing but the sense can determine whether +it be _love_ or _Jove_. I believe that the editors read it as _love_, +and therefore made the alteration to obtain some meaning. + +III.iii.28 (79,7) + + he shall buy my daughter; and her presence + Shall quite strike off all service I have done, + In most accepted pain] + +Sir T. HANMER, and Dr. WARBURTON after him, read, + + In most accepted _pay_. + +They do not seem to understand the construction of the passage. _Her +presence_, says Calchas, shall strike off, or recompence _the service I +have done_, even in these _labours_ which were _most accepted_. + +III.iii.44 (80,8) derision med'cinable] All the modern editions have +_decision_. The old copies are apparently right. The folio in this place +agrees with the quarto, so that the corruption was at first merely +accidental. + +III.iii.96 (82,9) how dearly ever parted] I do not think that in the +word _parted_ is included any idea of _division_; it means, _however +excellently endowed_, with however _dear_ or precious _parts_ enriched +or adorned. + +III.iii.113 (82,2) but the author's drift:/Who, in his circumstance] In +the detail or circumduction of his argument. + +III.iii.125 (83,3) The unknovn Ajax] Ajax, who has abilities which were +never brought into view or use. + +III.iii.134 (83,4) + + How some men creep in skittish Fortune's hall, + While others play the idiots in her eyes!] + +To _creep_ is to _keep out of sight_ from whatever motive. Some men +_keep out of notice in the hall of Fortune_, while others, though they +but _play the idiot_, are always _in her eye_, in the way of +distinction. + +III.iii.137 (83,5) feasting] Folio. The quarto has _fasting_. Either +word may bear a good sense. + +III.iii.145 (84,6) Time hath, my lord, a wallet at his back] This speech +is printed in all the modern editions with such deviations from the old +copy, as exceed the lawful power of an editor. + +III.iii.171 (85,2) for beauty, wit,/High birth, vigour of bone, desert +in service] The modern editors read, + + For beauty, wit, high birth, desert in service, &c. + +I do not deny but the changes produce a more easy lapse of numbers, but +they do not exhibit the work of Shakespeare, (see 1765, VII, 435, 2) + +III.iii.178 (85,3) + + And shew to dust, that is a little gilt, + More laud than gilt o'er-dusted] + +[T: give to ... laud than they will give to gold] This emendation has +been received by the succeeding editors, but recedes too far from the +copy. There is no other corruption than such as Shakespeare's +incorrectness often resembles. He has omitted the article _to_ in the +second line: he should have written, + + _More laud than_ to _gilt o'er-dusted_. (1773) (rev. 1778, IX, 93, 7) + +III.iii.189 (86,4) Made emulous missions] The meaning of _mission_ seems +to be _dispatches_ of the gods _from heaven_ about mortal business, such +as often happened at the siege of Troy. + +III.iii.197 (86,5) Knows almost every grain of Pluto's gold] For this +elegant line the quarto has only, + + Knows almost every _thing_. + +III.iii.201 (86,7) (with which relation/Durst never meddle)] There is a +secret administration of affairs, which no _history_ was ever able to +discover. + +III.iii.230 (87,9) + + Omission to do what is necessary + Seals a commission to a blank of danger] + +By _neglecting_ our duty we _commission_ or enable that _danger_ of +dishonour, which could not reach us before, to lay hold upon us. + +III.iii.254 (88,1) with a politic regard] With a _sly look_. + +IV.i.11 (91,1) During all question of the gentle truce] I once thought +to read, + + During all _quiet_ of the gentle truce. + +But I think _question_ means intercourse, interchange of conversation. + +IV.i.36 (92,4) His purpose meets you] I bring you his meaning and his +orders. + +IV.i.65 (93,6) + + Both merits pois'd, each weighs no less nor more, + But he as he, the heavier for a whore] + +I read, + + But he as he, _each_ heavier for a whore. + +_Heavy_ is taken both for _weighty_, and for _sad_ or _miserable_. The +quarto reads, + + But he as he, _the_ heavier for a whore. + +I know not whether the thought is not that of a wager. It must then be +read thus: + + But he as he. Which heavier for a whore? + +That is, _for a whore_ staked down, _which is the heavier_. + +IV.i.78 (94,7) We'll not commend what we intend to sell] I believe the +meaning is only this: though you practise the buyer's art, we will not +practise the seller's. We intend to sell Helen dear, yet will not +commend her. + +IV.ii.62 (96,4) My matter is so rash] My business is so _hasty_ and so +abrupt. + +IV.ii.74 (97,6) the secrets of neighbour Pandar] [Pope had emended the +Folio's "secrets of nature" to the present reading] Mr. Pope's reading +is in the old quarto. So great is the necessity of collation. + +IV.iv.3 (99,1) The grief] The folio reads, + + The grief is fine, full perfect, that I taste, + And no less in a sense as strong + As that which causeth it.-- + +The quarto otherwise, + + The grief is fine, full, perfect, that I taste, + And _violenteth_ in a sense as strong + As that which causeth it.-- + +_Violenteth_ is a word with which I am not acquainted, yet perhaps it +may be right. The reading of the text is without authority. + +IV.iv.65 (101,3) For I will throw my glove to death] That is, I will +_challenge_ death himself in defence of thy fidelity. + +IV.iv.105 (103,5) + + While others fish, with craft, for great opinion, + I, with great truth, catch mere simplicity.] + +The meaning, I think, is, _while others_, by their art, gain high +estimation, I, by honesty, obtain a plain simple approbation. + +IV.iv.109 (103,6) the moral of my wit/Is, _plain and true_] That is, the +_governing principle of my understanding_; but I rather think we should +read, + + --the _motto_ of my wit + Is, plain and true,-- + +IV.iv.114 (103,7) possess thee what she is] I will _make thee fully +understand_. This sense of the word _possess_ is frequent in our author. + +IV.iv.134 (104,9) I'll answer to my list] This, I think, is right, +though both the old copies read _lust_. + +IV.v.8 (105,1) bias cheek] Swelling out like the bias of a bowl. + +IV.v.37 (106,3) I'll make my match to live./The kiss you take is better +than you give] I will make such _bargains_ as I may live by, _such as +may bring me profit_, therefore will not take a worse kiss than I give. + +IV.v.48 (107,4) Why, beg then] For the sake of rhime we should read, + + Why beg _two_. + +If you think kisses worth begging, beg more than one. + +IV.v.52 (107,5) Never's my day, and then a kiss of you] I once gave both +these lines to Cressida. She bids Ulysses beg a kiss; he asks that he +may have it, + + When Helen is a maid again-- + +She tells him that then he shall have it: + + When Helen is a maid again-- + + _Cre._ I am your debtor, claim it when 'tis due; + Never's my day, and then a kiss _for_ you. + +But I rather think that Ulysses means to slight her, and that the +present reading is right. + +IV.v.57 (107,6) motive of her body] _Motive_ for _part that contributes +to motion_. + +IV.v.59 (107,7) a coasting] An amorous address; courtship. + +IV.v.62 (107,8) sluttish spoils of opportunity] Corrupt wenches, of +whose chastity every opportunity may make a prey. + +IV.v.73 (108,9) _Aga._ 'Tis done like Hector, but securely done] +[Theobald gave the speech to Achilles] As the old copies agree, I have +made no change. + +IV.v.79 (108,1) Valour and pride excel themselves in Hector] +Shakespeare's thought is not exactly deduced. Nicety of expression is +not his character. The cleaning is plain, "Valour (says AEneas) is in +Hector greater than valour in other men, and pride in Hector is less +than pride in other men. So that Hector is distinguished by the +excellence of having pride less than other pride, and valour more than +other valour." + +IV.v.103 (109,2) an impair thought] A thought suitable to the dignity of +his character. This word I should have changed to _impure_, were I not +over-powered by the unanimity of the editors, and concurrence of the old +copies, (rev. 1778, IX, 120, 8) + +IV.v.105 (109,3) Hector in his blaze of wrath subscribes/To tender +objects] That is, _yields, gives_ way. + +IV.v.112 (110,4) thus translate him to me] Thus _explain his character_. + +IV.v.142 (111,5) _Hect._ Not Neoptolemus so mirable] [W: Neoptolemus's +sire irascible] After all this contention it is difficult to imagine +that the critic believes _mirable_ to have been changed to _irascible_. +I should sooner read, + + Not Neoptolemus th' admirable; + +as I know not whether _mirable_ can be found in any other place. The +correction which the learned commentator gave to Hanmer, + + Not Neoptolemus' _sire_ so mirable, + +as it was modester than this, was preferable to it. But nothing is more +remote from justness of sentiment, than for Hector to characterise +Achilles as the father of Neoptolemus, a youth that had not yet appeared +in arms, and whose name was therefore much less knovn than his father's. +My opinion is, that by Neoptolemus the author meant Achilles himself; +and remembering that the son was Pyrrhus Neoptolemus, considered +Neoptolemus as the nomen gentilitium, and thought the father was +likewise Achilles Neoptolemus. + +IV.v.147 (112,6) We'll answer it] That is, answer the _expectance_. + +IV.v.275 (117,5) Beat loud the tabourines] For this the quarto and the +latter editions have, + + To taste your bounties.-- + +The reading which I have given from the folio seems chosen at the +revision, to avoid the repetition of the word _bounties_ [273]. + +V.i.5 (118,1) Thou crusty batch of nature] _Batch_ is changed by +Theobald to _botch_, and the change is justified by a pompous note, +which discovers that he did not know the word _batch_. What is more +strange, Hanmer has followed him. _Batch_ is any thing _baked_. + +V.i.19 (119,3) Male-varlet] HANMER reads _male-harlot_, plausibly +enough, except that it seems too plain to require the explanation which +Patroclus demands. + +V.i.23 (119,4) cold palsies] This catalogue of loathsome maladies ends +in the folio at _cold palsies_. This passage, as it stands, is in the +quarto: the retrenchment was in my opinion judicious. It may be +remarked, though it proves nothing, that, of the few alterations made by +Milton in the second edition of his wonderful poem, one was, an +enlargement of the enumeration of diseases. + +V.i.32 (119,5) you ruinous butt; you whoreson indistinguishable cur] +Patroclos reproaches Thersites with deformity, with having one part +crowded into another. + +V.i.35 (119,6) thou idle immaterial skeyn of sley'd silk] All the terms +used by Thersites of Patroclus, are emblematically expressive of +flexibility, compliance, and mean officiousness. + +V.i.40 (119,7) Out, gall!] HANMER reads _nut-gall_, which answers well +enough to _finch-egg_; it has already appeared, that our author thought +the _nut-gall_ the bitter gall. He is called _nut_, from the +conglobation of his form; but both the copies read, _Out, gall_! + +V.i.41 (120,8) Finch egg!] Of this reproach I do not know the exact +meaning. I suppose he means to call him _singing bird_, as implying an +useless favourite, and yet more, something more worthless, a singing +bird in the egg, or generally, a slight thing easily crushed. + +V.i.64 (121,2) forced with wit] Stuffed with wit. A term of cookery.--In +this speech I do not well understand what is meant by _loving quails_. + +V.i.73 (121,3) spirits and fires!] This Thersites speaks upon the first +sight of the distant lights. + +V.ii.11 (124,1) And any man may sing her, if he can take her cliff] That +is, her _key_. _Clef_, French. + +V.ii.41 (125,2) You flow to great distraction] So the moderns. The folio +has, + + You _flow_ to great _distraction_.-- + +The quarto, + + You _flow_ to great _destruction_.-- + +I read, + + You _show too_ great distraction.-- + +V.ii.108 (128,7) But with my heart the other eye doth see] I think it +should be read thus, + + But _my heart with_ the other eye doth see. + +V.ii.113 (128,8) A proof of strength she could not publish more] She +could not publish a stronger proof. + +V.ii.125 (129,1) I cannot conjure, Trojan] That is, I cannot raise +spirits in the form of Cressida. + +V.ii.141 (129,2) If there be rule in unity itself] I do not well +understand what is meant by _rule in unity_. By _rule_ our author, in +this place as in others, intends _virtuous restraint, regularity of +manners, command of passions and appetites_. In Macbeth, + + He cannot buckle his distemper'd cause + Within the belt of rule.-- + +But I know not how to apply the word in this sense to _unity_. I read, + + If there be rule in _purity_ itself, + +Or, If there be rule in _verity_ itself. + +Such alterations would not offend the reader, who saw the state of the +old editions, in which, for instance, a few lines lower, _the almighty +sun_ is called _the almighty fenne_.--Yet the words may at last mean, If +there be _certainty_ in _unity_, if it be a _rule_ that _one is one_. + +V.ii.144 (130,3) Bi-fold authority!] This is the reading of the quarto. +The folio gives us, + + _By foul_ authority!-- + +There is _madness_ in that disquisition in which a man reasons at once +_for_ and _against himself upon authority_ which he knows _not to be +valid_. The quarto is right. + +V.ii.144 (130,4) + + where reason can revolt + Without perdition, and loss assume all reason + Without revolt] + +The words _loss_ and _perdition_ are used in their common sense, but +they mean the _loss_ or _perdition_ of _reason_. + +V.ii.157 (131,6) And with another knot five-finger-tied] A knot tied by +giving her hand to Diomed. + +V.ii.160 (131,7) o'er-eaten faith] Vows which she has already swallowed +_once over_. We still say of a faithless man, that he has _eaten his +words_. + +V.ii.161 (131,8) + + _Ulyss._ May worthy Troilus be half attach'd + With that which here his passion doth express!] + +Can Troilus really feel on this occasion half of what he utters? A +question suitable to the calm Ulysses. + +V.iii.21 (133,2) + + For us to count we give what's gain'd by thefts, + And rob in the behalf of charity] + +This is so oddly confused in the folio, that I transcribe it as a +specimen of incorrectness: + + --do not count it holy, + To hurt by being just; it were as lawful + _For we would count give much to as violent thefts_, + And rob in the behalf of charity. + +V.iii.23 (133,3) + + _Cas._ It is the purpose that makes strong the vow; + But vows to every purpose must not hold] + +The mad prophetess speaks here with all the coolness and judgment of a +skilful casuist. "The essence of a lawful vow, is a lawful purpose, and +the vow of which the end is wrong must not be regarded as cogent." + +V.iii.27 (134,4) + + Life every man holds dear; but the dear man + Holds honour far more precious dear than life] + +_Valuable_ man. The modern editions read, + + --_brave_ man. + +The repetition of the word is in our author's manner. + +V.iii.37 (134,5) + + Brother, you have a vice of mercy in you, + Which better fits a lion, than a man] + +The traditions and stories of the darker ages abounded with examples of +the lion's generosity. Upon the supposition that these acts of clemency +were true, Troilus reasons not improperly, that to spare against reason, +by mere instinct of pity, became rather a generous beast than a wise +man. + +V.x.33 (137,9) Hence, broker lacquey!] For _brothel_, the folio reads +_brother_, erroneously for _broker_, as it stands at the end of the play +where the lines are repeated. Of _brother_ the following editors made +_brothel_. + +V.iv.18 (138,2) the Grecians begin to proclaim barbarism, and policy +grows into an ill opinion] To set up the authority of ignorance to +declare that they will be governed by policy no longer. + +V.vi.11 (142,1) you cogging Greeks] This epithet has no particular +propriety in this place, but the author had heard of _Graecia Mendax_. + +V.vi.29 (144,3) I'll frush it] The word _frush_ I never found elsewhere, +nor understand it. HANMER explains it, to _break_ or _bruise_. + +V.viii.7 (146,1) Even with the vail and darkening of the sun] The _vail_ +is, I think, the _sinking_ of the sun; not _veil_ or _cover_. + +(149) General Observation. This play is more correctly written than most +of Shakespeare's compositions, but it is not one of those in which +either the extent of his views or elevation of his fancy is fully +displayed. As the story abounded with materials, he has exerted little +invention; but he has diversified his characters with great variety, and +preserved them with great exactness. His vicious characters sometimes +disgust, but cannot corrupt, for both Cressida and Pandarus are detested +and contemned. The comic characters seem to have been the favourites of +the writer; they are of the superficial kind, and exhibit more of +manners than nature; but they are copiously filled and powerfully +impressed. Shakespeare has in his story followed, for the greater part, +the old book of Caxton, which was then very popular; but the character +of Thersites, of which it makes no mention, is a proof that this play +was written after Chapman had published his version of _Homer_. + + + + +CYMBELINE + + +I.i.1 (153,2) + + You do not meet a man, but frowns: our bloods + No more obey the heavens, than our courtiers' + Still seen, as does the king's] + +[W: brows/No more] This passage is so difficult, that commentators may +differ concerning it without animosity or shame. Of the two emendations +proposed, Hanmer's is the more licentious; but he makes the sense clear, +and leaves the reader an easy passage. Dr. Warburton has corrected with +more caution, but less improvement: his reasoning upon his own reading +is so obscure and perplexed, that I suspect some injury of the press.--I +am now to tell my opinion, which is, that the lines stand as they were +originally written, and that a paraphrase, such as the licentious and +abrupt expressions of our author too frequently require, will make +emendation unnecessary. _We do not meet a man but frowns; our +bloods_--our countenances, which, in popular speech, are said to be +regulated by the temper of the blood,--_no more obey_ the laws of +_heaven_,--which direct us to appear what we really are,--_than our +courtiers_;--that is, than the_ bloods of our courtiers_; but our +bloods, like theirs,--_still seem, as doth the king's_. + +I.i.25 (155,3) I do extend him, Sir, within himself] I extend him within +himself: my praise, however _extensive_, is _within_ his merit. + +I.i.46 (156,4) liv'd in court,/(Which rare it is to do) most prais'd, +most lov'd] This encomium is high and artful. To be at once in any great +degree _loved_ and _praised_ is truly _rare_. + +I.i.49 (156,5) A glass that feated them] _A glass that featur'd them_] +Such is the reading in all the modern editions, I know not by whom first +substituted, for + + A glass that _feared_ them;-- + +I have displaced _featur'd_, though it can plead long prescription, +because I am inclined to think that _feared_ has the better title. +_Mirrour_ was a favourite word in that age for an _example_, or a +_pattern_, by noting which the manners were to be formed, as dress is +regulated by looking in a glass. When Don Bellianis is stiled _The +Mirrour of Knighthood_, the idea given is not that of a glass in which +every knight may behold his own resemblance, but an example to be viewed +by knights as often as a glass is looked upon by girls, to be viewed, +that they may know, not what they are, but what they ought to be. Such a +glass may _fear the more mature_, as displaying excellencies which they +have arrived at maturity without attaining. To _fear_ is here, as in +other places, to _fright_. [I believe Dr. Johnson is mistaken as to the +reading of the folio, which is _feated_. The page of the copy which he +consulted is very faintly printed; but I have seen another since, which +plainly gives this reading. STEEVENS.] If _feated_ be the right word, it +must, I think, be explained thus; _a glass that_ formed _them_; a model, +by the contemplation and inspection of which they formed their manners. +(see 1765, VII, 260, 4) + +I.i.86 (158,1) + + I something fear my father's wrath; but nothing + (Always reserv'd my holy duty) what + His rage can do on me] + +I say I do not fear my father, so far as I may say it without breach of +duty. + +I.i.101 (158,2) Though ink be made of gall] Shakespeare, even in this +poor conceit, has confounded the vegetable _galls_ used in ink, with the +animal _gall_, supposed to be bitter. + +I.i.132 (160,4) then heapest/A year's age on me] Dr. WARBURTON reads, + + A _yare_ age on me. + +It seems to me, even from SKINNER, whom he cites, that _yare_ is used +only as a personal quality. Nor is the authority of Skinner sufficient, +without some example, to justify the alteration. HANMER's reading is +better, but rather too far from the original copy: + + --thou heapest _many_ + A year's age on me. + +I read, + + --thou heap'st + _Years, ages_ on me. + +I.i.135 (160,5) a touch more rare/Subdues all pangs, all fears] _Rare_ +is used often for _eminently good_; but I do not remember any passage in +which it stands for _eminently bad_. May we read, + + --a touch more _near_. + +_Cura deam_ propior luctusque domesticus angit. _Ovid_. + +Shall we try again, + + --a touch more _rear_. + +_Crudum vulnus._ But of this I know not any example. There is yet +another interpretation, which perhaps will remove the difficulty. _A +touch more rare_, may mean _a nobler passion_. + +I.i.140 (161,6) a puttock] A _kite_. + +I.ii.31 (163,1) her beauty and her brain go not together] I believe the +lord means to speak a sentence, "Sir, as I told you always, beauty and +brain go not together." + +I.ii.32 (164,2) She's a good sign] [W: shine] There is acuteness enough +in this note, yet I believe the poet meant nothing by _sign_, but _fair +outward_ shew. + +I.iii.8 (165,2) + + for so long + As he could make me with this eye, or ear, + Distinguish him from others] + +[W: this eye] Sir T. HANMER alters it thus: + + --for so long + As he could _mark_ me with his eye, or _I_ + Distinguish-- + +The reason of Hanmer's reading was, that Pisanio describes no address +made to the _ear_. + +I.iii.18 (165,3) till the diminution/Of space had pointed him sharp as +my needle] _The diminution of space_, is _the diminution_ of which +_space_ is the cause. Trees are killed by a blast of lightning, that is, +by _blasting_, not _blasted_ lightning. + +I.iii.24 (166,4) next vantage] Next _opportunity_. + +I.iii.37 (166,6) Shakes all our buds from growing] A bud, without any +distinct idea, whether of flower or fruit, is a natural representation +of any thing incipient or immature; and the buds of flowers, if flowers +are meant, _grow_ to flowers, as the buds of fruits _grow_ to fruits. + +I.iv.9 (167,1) makes him] In the sense in which we say, This will _make_ +or _mar_ you. + +I.iv.16 (167,2) words him, I doubt not, a great deal from the matter] +Makes the description of him very distant from the truth. + +I.iv.20 (167,3) under her colours] Under her banner; by her influence. + +I.iv.47 (168,6) I was then a young traveller; rather shunn'd to go even +with what I heard, than in my every action to be guided by others' +experiences] This is expressed with a kind of fantastical perplexity. He +means, I was then willing to take for my direction the experience of +others, more than such intelligence as I had gathered myself. + +I.iv,58 (169,7) 'Twas a contention in publick, which may, without +contradiction, suffer the report] Which, undoubtedly, may be publickly +told. + +I.iv.73 (169,8) tho' I profess myself her adorer, not her friend] Though +I have not the common obligations of a lover to his mistress, and regard +her not with the fondness of a friend, but the reverence of an adorer. + +I.iv.77 (169,9) If she went before others I have seen, as that diamond +of yours out-lustres many I have beheld, I could not believe she +excelled many] [W: could believe] I should explain the sentence thus: +"Though your lady excelled, as much as your diamond, _I could not +believe she excelled many_; that is, I too _could_ yet _believe that +there are_ many _whom_ she did not excel." But I yet think Dr. Warburton +right. (1773) + +I.iv.104 (171,l) to convince the honour of my mistress] [_Convince_, for +overcome. WARBURTON.] So in _Macbeth_, + + --their malady _convinces_ + "The great essay of art." + +I.iv.124 (171,2) abus'd] _Deceiv'd._ + +I.iv.134 (172,3) approbation] Proof. + +I.iv.148 (172,4) You are a friend, and therein the wiser. If you buy +ladies' flesh at a million a dram, you cannot preserve it from tainting. +But, I see, you have some religion in you, that you fear] _You are a +friend_ to the lady, _and therein the wiser_, as you will not expose her +to hazard; and that you _fear_, is a proof of your _religious_ fidelity. +(see 1765, VII, 276, 1) + +I.iv.l60 (173,5) _Iach._ If I bring you no sufficient testimony that I +have enjoy'd the dearest bodily part of your mistress, my ten thousand +ducats are yours, so is my diamond too: if I come off, and leave her in +such honour as you have trust in, she your jewel, this your jewel, and +my gold are yours-- + + _Post._ I embrace these conditions] + +[W: bring you sufficient] I once thought this emendation right, but am +now of opinion, that Shakespeare intended that Iachimo, having gained +his purpose, should designedly drop the invidious and offensive part of +the wager, and to flatter Posthumus, dwell long upon the more pleasing +part of the representation. One condition of a wager implies the other, +and there is no need to mention both. + +I.v.18 (176,1) Other conclusions] Other _experiments_. _I commend_, says +WALTON, _an angler that tries_ conclusions, and improves his art. + +I.v.23 (175,2) Your highness/Shall from this practice but make hard your +heart] Thare is in this passage nothing that much requires a note, yet I +cannot forbear to push it forward into observation. The thought would +probably have been more amplified, had our author lived to be shocked +with such experiments as have been published in later times, by a race +of men that have practised tortures without pity, and related then +without shame, and are yet suffered to erect their heads among human +beings. + + "Cape saxa manu, cape robora, pastor." + +I.v.33-44 (175,3) I do not like her] This soliloquy is very +inartificial. The speaker is under no strong pressure of thought; he is +neither resolving, repenting, suspecting, nor deliberating, and yet +makes a long speech to tell himself what himself knows. + +I.v.54 (176,4) to shift his being] To change his abode. + +I.v.58 (118,5) What shalt thou expect,/To be depender on a thing that +leans?] That _inclines_ towards its fall. + +I.v.80 (177,7) Of leigers for her sweet] A _leiger_ ambassador, is one +that resides at a foreign court to promote his master's interest. + +I.vi.7 (178,9) + + Bless'd be those, + How mean soe'er, that have their honest wills, + Which seasons comfort] + +I am willing to comply with any meaning that can be extorted from the +present text, rather than change it, yet will propose, but with great +diffidence, a slight alteration: + + --Bless'd be those, + How mean soe'er, that have their honest wills, + _With reason's_comfort.-- + +Who gratify their innocent wishes with reasonable enjoyments. + +I.vi.35 (180,2) and the twinn'd stones/Upon the number'd beach?] I know +not well how to regulate this passage. _Number'd_ is perhaps _numerous_. +_Twinn'd stones_ I do not understand. _Twinn'd shells_, or _pairs of +shells_, are very common. For _twinn'd_, we might read _twin'd_; that +is, _twisted, convolved_; but this sense is more applicable to shells +than to stones. + +I.vi.44 (181,3) + + Sluttery, to such neat excellence oppos'd, + Should make desire vomit emptiness, + Not so allur'd to feed] + +[i.e. that appetite, which is not allured to feed on such excellence, +can have no stomach at all; but, though empty, must nauseate every +thing. WARB.] I explain this passage in a sense almost contrary. +Iachimo, in this counterfeited rapture, has shewn how the _eyes_ and the +_judgment_ would determine in favour of Imogen, comparing her with the +present mistress of Posthumus, and proceeds to say, that appetite too +would give the same suffrage. _Desire_, says he, when it approached +_sluttery_, and considered it in comparison with _such neat excellence_, +would not only be _not so allured to feed_, but, seized with a fit of +loathing, _would vomit emptiness_, would feel the convulsions of +disgust, though, being unfed, it had nothing to eject. [Tyrwhitt: vomit, +emptiness ... allure] This is not ill conceived; but I think my own +explanation right. _To vomit emptiness_ is, in the language of poetry, +to feel the convulsions of eructation without plenitude. (1773) + +I.vi.54 (182,4) He's strange, and peevish] He is a foreigner, easily +fretted. + +I.vi.97 (184,5) timely knowing] Rather timely _known_. + +I.vi.99 (184,6) What both you spur and stop] What it is that at once +incites you to speak, and restrains you from it. [I think Imogen means +to enquire what is that news, that intelligence, or information, you +profess to bring, and yet with-hold: at least, I think Dr. JOHNSON's +explanation a mistaken one, for Imogen's request supposes Iachimo an +agent, not a patient. HAWKINS.] I think my explanation true. (see 1765, +VII, 286, 7) + +I.vi.106 (184,7) + + join gripes with hands + Made hard with hourly falshood (falshood as + With labour) then lye peeping in an eye] + +The old edition reads, + + --join gripes with hands + Made hard with hourly falshood (_falshood _ as + With labour) then by peeping in an eye, &c. + +I read, + + --then _lye_ peeping-- + +The author of the present regulation of the text I do not know, but have +suffered it to stand, though not right. _Hard with falshood_ is, hard by +being often griped with frequent change of hands. + +I.vi.122 (185,8) With tomboys, hir'd with that self-exhibition/Which +your own coffers yield!] _Gross strumpets_, hired with the _very +pension_ which you allow your husband. + +I.vi.152 (186,9) As in a Romish stew] The stews of Rome are deservedly +censured by the reformed. This is one of many instances in which +Shakespeare has mingled in the manners of distant ages in this play. + +II.i.2 (188,1) kiss'd the jack upon an up-cast] He is describing his +fate at bowls. The _jack_ is the small bowl at which the others are +aimed. He who is nearest to it wins. _To kiss the jack_ is a state of +great advantage. (1773) + +II.i.15 (189,2) 2 _Lord_. No, my lord; nor crop the ears of them. +[_Aside_.] This, I believe, should stand thus: + + 1 _Lord_. No, my lord. + 2 _Lord_. Nor crop the ears of them, [_Aside_. + +II.i.26 (189,3) you crow, cock, with your comb on] The allusion is to a +fool's cap, which hath a _comb_ like a cock's. + +II.i.29 (189,4) every companion] The use of _companion_ was the same as +of _fellow_ now. It was a word of contempt. + +II.ii.12 (191,1) our Tarquin] The speaker is an Italian. + +II.ii.13 (191,2) Did softly press the rushes] It was the custom in the +time of our author to strew chambers with rushes, as we now cover them +with carpets. The practice is mentioned in _Caius de Ephemera +Britannica_. + +II.iii.24 (194,2) _His steeds to water at those springs On chalic'd +flowers that lies_] + +Hanmer reads, + + Each _chalic'd_ flower supplies; + +to escape a false concord: but correctness must not be obtained by such +licentious alterations. It may be noted, that the _cup_ of a flower is +called _calix_, whence _chalice_. + +II.iii.28 (195,3) _With, every thing that pretty bin_] is very properly +restored by Hanmer, for _pretty is_; but he too grammatically reads, + + With _all the things_ that pretty _bin_. + +II.iii.102 (197,5) one of your great knowing/Should learn, being taught, +forbearance] i.e. A man _who is taught forbearance should learn it_. + +II.iii.111 (198,7) so verbal] Is, so _verbose_, so full of talk. + +II.iii.118-129 (199,8) The contract you pretend with that base wretch] +Here Shakespeare has not preserved, with his common nicety, the +uniformity of character. The speech of Cloten is rough and harsh, but +certainly not the talk of one, + + Who can't take two from twenty, for his heart, + And leave eighteen.-- + +His argument is just and well enforced, and its prevalence is allowed +throughout all civil nations: as for rudeness, he seems not to be mach +undermatched. + +II.iii.124 (199,9) in self-figur'd knot] [This is nonsense. We should +read, + + --SELF-FINGER'D _knot_; + +WARBURTON.] But why nonsense? A _self-figured knot_ is a knot formed by +yourself. (see 1765, VII, 301, 8) + +II.iv.71 (204,4) And Cydnus swell'd above the banks, or for/The press of +boats, or pride] [This is an agreeable ridicule on poetical +exaggeration, which gives human passions to inanimate things: and +particularly, upon what he himself writes in the foregoing play on this +very subject: + + "--And made + The water, which they beat, to follow faster, + As amorous of their strokes." + +WARBURTON.] It is easy to sit down and give our author meanings which he +never had. Shakespeare has no great right to censure poetical +exaggeration, of which no poet is more frequently guilty. That he +intended to ridicule his own lines is very uncertain, when there are no +means of knowing which of the two plays was written first. The +commentator has contented himself to suppose, that the foregoing play in +his book was the play of earlier composition. Nor is the reasoning +better than the assertion. If the language of Iachimo be such as shews +him to be mocking the credibility of his hearer, his language is very +improper, when his business was to deceive. But the truth is, that his +language is such as a skilful villain would naturally use, a mixture of +airy triumph and serious deposition. His gaiety shews his seriousness to +be without anxiety, and his seriousness proves his gaiety to be without +art. + +II.iv.83 (205,5) never saw I figures/So likely to report themselves] So +near to speech. The Italians call a portrait, when the likeness is +remarkable, a _speaking picture_. + +II.iv.84 (205,6) the cutter/Was as another nature, dumb, out-went +her;/Motion and breath left out] [W: done; out-went her.] This +emendation I think needless. The meaning is this, The _sculptor_ was as +_nature_, but as _nature dumb_; he gave every thing that nature gives, +but _breath_ and _motion_. In _breath_ is included _speech_. + +II.iv.91 (205,7) _Post._ This is her honour!] [T: What's this t'her +honour?] This emendation has been followed by both the succeeding +editors, but I think it must be rejected. The expression is ironical. +Iachimo relates many particulars, to which Posthumus answers with +impatience, This is her honour! That is, And the attainment of this +knowledge is to pass for the corruption of her honour. + +II.iv.95 (206,8) if you can/Be pale] If you can forbear to flush your +cheek with rage. + +II.iv.110 (207,9) + + The vows of women + Of no more bondage be, to where they are made, + Than they are to their virtues] + +The love vowed by women no more abides with him to whom it is vowed, +than women adhere to their virtue. + +II.iv.127 (207,2) The cognizance] The badge; the token; the visible +proof. + +III.i.26 (211,2) and his shipping,/(Poor ignorant baubles!) on our +terrible seas] [_Ignorant_, for _of no use_. WARB.] Rather, +_unacquainted_ with the nature of our boisterous seas. + +III.i.51 (212,3) against all colour] Without any pretence of right. + +III.i.73 (213,5) keep at utterance] [i.e. At extreme distance. WARB.] +More properly, in a state of hostile defiance, and deadly opposition. + +III.i.73 (213,6) I am perfect] I am well informed. So, in Macbeth, "--in +your state of honour _I am perfect_." (see 1765, VII, 314,7) + +III.ii.4 (214,2) What false Italian (As poisonous tongu'd as handed)] +About Shakespeare's time the practice of poisoning was very common in +Italy, and the suspicion of Italian poisons yet more common. + +III.ii.9 (214,3) take in some virtue] To _take in_ a town, is to +_conquer_ it. + +III.ii.34 (215,6) For it doth physic love] That is, grief for absence, +keeps love in health and vigour. + +III.ii.47 (215,8) _loyal to his vow, and your increasing in love_] I +read, Loyal to his vow and _you_, increasing in love. + +III.ii.79 (216,1) A franklin's housewife] A _franklin_ is literally a +_freeholder_, with a small estate, neither _villain_ nor _vassal_. + +III.ii.80 (217,2) + + I see before me, man, nor here, nor here, + Nor what ensues; but have a fog in them, + That I cannot look thro'] + +This passage may, in my opinion, be very easily understood, without any +emendation. The lady says, "I can see neither one way nor other, before +me nor behind me, but all the ways are covered with an impenetrable +fog." There are objections insuperable to all that I can propose, and +since reason can give me no counsel, I will resolve at once to follow my +inclination. + +III.iii.5 (218,2) giants may jet through/And keep their impious turbans +on] The idea of a _giant_ was, among the readers of romances, who were +almost all the readers of those times, always confounded with that of a +Saracen. + +III.iii.16 (218,3) This service it not service, so being done,/But being +so allow'd] In war it is not sufficient to do duty well; the advantage +rises not from the act, but the acceptance of the act. + +III.iii.23 (219,5) Richer, than doing nothing for a babe] I have always +suspected that the right reading of this passage is what I had not in my +former edition the confidence to propose: Richer, than doing nothing for +a _brabe_. + +_Brabium_ is a badge of honour, or the ensign of an honour, or any thing +worn as a mask of dignity. The word was strange to the editors as it +will be to the reader: they therefore changed it to _babe_; and I am +forced to propose it without the support of any authority. _Brabium_ is +a word found in Holyoak's Dictionary, who terms it a _reward_. Cooper, +in his _Thesaurus_, defines it to be a _prize, or reward for any game_. +(1773) (rev. 1778, IX, 248, 8) + +III.iii.35 (219,6) To stride a limit] To overpass his bound. + +III.iii.35 (220,7) What should we speak of,/When we are as old as you?] +This dread of an old age, unsupplied with matter for discourse and +meditation, is a sentiment natural and noble. No state can be more +destitute than that of him who, when the delights of sense forsake him, +has no pleasures of the mind. + +III.iii.82 (221,9) + + tho' trained up thus meanly + I' the cave, wherein they bow, their thoughts do hit + The roof of palaces] + +[W: wherein they bow] HANMER reads, + + I' the cave, _here in this brow_.-- + I think the reading is this: + I' the cave, wherein the BOW, &c. + +That is, they are trained up in the _cave, where their thoughts_ in +hitting the _bow_, or arch of their habitation, _hit the roofs of +palaces_. In other words, though their condition is low, their thoughts +are high. The sentence is at last, as THEOBALD remarks, abrupt, but +perhaps no less suitable to Shakespeare. I know not whether Dr. +WARBURTON's conjecture be not better than mine. + +III.iii.101 (223,2) I stole these babes] Shakespeare seems to intend +Belarius for a good character, yet he makes him forget the injury which +he has done to the young princes, whom he has robbed of a kingdom only +to rob their father of heirs.--The latter part of this soliloquy is very +inartificial, there being no particular reason why Belarius should now +tell to himself what he could not know better by telling it. + +III.iv.15 (224,2) drug-damn'd Italy] This is another allusion to Italian +poisons. + +III.iv.39 (225,4) Kings, queens, and states] Persons of highest rank. + +III.iv.52 (225,6) Some jay of Italy,/Whose mother was her painting] +_Some jay of Italy_, made by art the creature, not of nature, but of +painting. In this sense _painting_ may be not improperly termed her +_mother_. (see 1765, VII, 325, 9) + +III.iv.63 (226,7) So thou, Posthumus,/Wilt lay the leaven on all proper +men] HANMER reads, + + --lay the _level_-- + +without any necessity. + +III.iv.97 (228,1) That now thou tir'st on] A hawk is said to _tire_ upon +that which he pecks; from _tirer_, French. + +III.iv.104 (228,2) + + I'll wake mine eye-balls blind first. + _Imo._ Wherefore then] + +This is the old reading. The modern editions for _wake_ read _break_, +and supply the deficient syllable by _ah_, wherefore. I read, I'll wake +mine eye-balls _out_ first, or, _blind_, first. + +III.iv.111 (228,3) To be unbent] To have thy bow unbent, alluding to a +hunter. + +III.iv.146 (229,4) + + Now, if you could wear a mind + Dark as your fortune is, and but disguise + That, which, to appear itself, must not yet be, + But by self-danger] + +To wear a dark mind, is to carry a mind impenetrable to the search of +others. _Darkness_ applied to the _mind_ is _secrecy_, applied to the +_fortune_ is _obscurity_. The next lines are obscure. _You must_, says +Pisanio, _disguise that_ greatness, _which, to appear_ hereafter _in its +proper form_, cannot yet appear without great _danger to itself_. (see +1765, VII, 329, 6) + +III.iv.149 (230,5) full of view] With opportunities of examining your +affairs with your own eyes. + +III.iv.155 (230,6) Though peril to my modesty, not death on't,/I would +adventure] I read, + + _Through_ peril-- + +_I would for such means adventure_ through _peril of my modesty_; I +would risque every thing but real dishonour. + +III.iv.162 (230,7) + + nay, you must + Forget that rarest treasure of your cheek; + Exposing it (but, oh, the harder heart! + Alack, no remedy)] + +I think it very natural to reflect in this distress on the cruelty of +Posthumus. Dr. WARBURTON proposes to read, + + --the harder _hap_!-- + +III.iv.177 (231,8) which you'll make him know] This is HANMER's reading. +The common books have it, + + --which _will_ make him know. + +Mr. THEOBALD, in one of bit long notes, endeavours to prove, that it +should be, + + --which will make him _so_. + +He is followed by Dr. WARBURTON. + +III.iv.184 (231,9) we'll even/All that good time will give us] We'll +make our work _even_ with our _time_; we'll do what time will allow. + +III.v.71 (235,2) + + And that she hath all courtly parts more exquisite + Than lady, ladies, woman; from every one + The best she hath] + +[The second line is intolerable nonsense. It should be read and pointed +thus, + + Than lady ladies; _winning_ from each one. + +WARBURTON.] + +I cannot perceive the second line to be intolerable, or to be nonsense. +The speaker only rises in his ideas. _She has all courtly parts_, says +he, _more exquisite than_ any _lady_, than all _ladies_, than all +_womankind_. Is this nonsense? + +III.v.101 (236,3) _Pia._ Or this, or perish] These words, I think, +belong to Cloten, who, requiring the paper, says, + + Let's see't: I will pursue her + Even to Augustus' throne. Or this, or perish. + +Then Pisanio giving the paper, says to himself, + + She's far enough, &c. + +III.vi.12 (239,1) To lapse in fullness/Is sorer, than to lye for need] +Is a _greater_, or _heavier_ crime. + +III.vi.23 (239,3) If any thing that's civil, speak; if savage,/Take, or +lend] [W: Take 'or 't end.] I suppose the emendation proposed will not +easily be received; it is strained and obscure, and the objection +against Hanmer's reading is likewise very strong. I question whether, +after the words, _if savage_, a line be not lost. I can offer nothing +better than to read, + + --Ho! who's here? + If any thing that's civil, _take or lend_, + If savage, _speak_. + +If you are _civilised_ and _peaceable, take_ a price for what I want, or +_lend_ it for a future recompence; if you are _rough inhospitable_ +inhabitants of the mountain, _speak_, that I may know my state. + +III.vi.77 (242,4) then had my prize/Been less; and so more equal +ballasting] HANMER reads plausibly, but without necessity, _price_, for +_prize_, and _balancing_, for _ballasting_. He is followed by Dr. +WARBURTON. The meaning is, Had I been a less prize, I should not have +been too heavy for Posthumus. + +III.vi.86 (243,5) That nothing-gift of differing multitudes] [T: +deferring] He is followed by Sir T. HANMER and Dr. WARBURTON; but I do +not see why _differing_ may not be a general epithet, and the expression +equivalent to the _many-headed_ rabble. + +III.vii.8 (244,2) + + and to you, the tribunes, + For this immediate levy, he commands + His absolute commission] + +The plain meaning is, he _commands_ the commission to be given to you. +So we say, I _ordered_ the materials to the workmen. + +IV.ii.10 (245,1) Stick to your journal course: the breach of custom/ Is +breach of all] Keep your _daily_ course uninterrupted; if the stated +plan of life is once broken, nothing follows but confusion. + +IV.ii.17 (246,2) How much the quantity] I read, _As_ much the +quantity.-- + +IV.ii.38 (247,3) I could not stir him] Not _move_ him to tell his story. + +IV.ii.39 (247,4) gentle, but unfortunate] _Gentle_, is _well born_, of +birth above the vulgar. + +IV.ii.59 (248,6) And let the stinking elder, Grief, untwine/ His +perishing root, with the encreasing vine!] Shakespeare had only seen +_English vines_ which grow against walls, and therefore may be sometimes +entangled with the _elder_. Perhaps we should read _untwine from the +vine_. + +IV.ii.105 (251,9) the snatches in his vice,/And burst of speaking] This +is one of our author's strokes of observation. An abrupt and tumultuous +utterance very frequently accompanies a confused and cloudy +understanding. + +IV.ii.111 (251,1) for the effect of judgment/Is oft the cause of fear] +HANMER reads, with equal justness of sentiment, + + --for defect of judgment + Is oft the _cure_ of fear.-- + +But, I think, the play of _effect_ and _cause_ more resembling the +manner of our author. + +IV.ii.118 (252,2) I am perfect, what] I am _well informed_, what. So in +this play, + + I'm _perfect_, the Pannonians are in arms. + +IV.ii.121 (252,3) take us in] To _take in_, was the phrase in use for to +_apprehend_ an out-law, or to make him amenable to public justice. + +IV.ii.148 (253,5) the boy Fidele's sickness/Did make my way long forth] +Fidele's sickness made my _walk forth_ from the cave _tedious_. + +IV.ii.159 (254,6) revenges/That possible strength might meet] Such +pursuit of vengeance as fell within any possibility of opposition. + +IV.ii.168 (254,7) I'd let a parish of such Clotens blood] [W: marish] +The learned commentator has dealt the raproach of nonsense very +liberally through this play. Why this is nonsense, I cannot discover. I +would, says the young prince, to recover Fidele, kill as many Clotens as +would fill a _parish_. + +IV.ii.246 (258,1) He was paid for that] HANMER reads, + + He _has_ paid for that:-- + +rather plausibly than rightly. _Paid_ is for _punished_. So JONSON, + + "Twenty things more, my friend, which you know due, + For which, or pay me quickly, or I'll _pay_ you." + +(see 1765, VII, 356, 3) + +IV.ii.247 (258,2) reverence,/(That angel of the world)] _Reverence_, or +due regard to subordination, is the power that keeps peace and order in +the world. + +IV.ii.268 (259,4) _The scepter, learning, physic, must/ All follow this, +and come to dust_] The poet's sentiment seems to have been this. All +human excellence is equally the subject to the stroke of death: neither +the power of kings, nor the science of scholars, nor the art of those +whose immediate study is the prolongation of life, can protect then from +the final destiny of man. (1773) + +IV.ii.272 (260,5) _Fear not slander, censure rash_] Perhaps, Fear not +_slander's_ censure rash. + +IV.ii.275 (260,6) Consign to thee] Perhaps, Consign to _this_. And in +the former stanza, for _all follow this_, we might read, _all follow_ +thee. + +IV.ii.280 (260,7) Both. _Quiet consummation have;/ And renowned be thy +grave!_] For the obsequies of Fidele, a song was written by my unhappy +friend, Mr. William Collins of Chichester, a man of uncommon learning +and abilities. I shall give it a place at the end in honour of his +memory. + +IV.ii.315 (262,1) Conspired with] The old copy reads thus, + + --thou + Conspir'd with that irregulous divel, Cloten. + +I suppose it should be, + + Conspir'd with _th' irreligious_ devil, Cloten. + +IV.ii.346 (263,2) Last night the very gods shew'd me a vision] [W: +warey] Of this meaning I know not any example, nor do I see any need of +alteration. It was no common dream, but sent from _the very gods_, or +the gods themselves. + +IV.ii.363 (264,3) + + who was he, + That, otherwise than noble nature did, + Hath alter'd that good figure?] + +Here are many words upon a very slight debate. The sense is not much +cleared by either critic [Theobald and Warburton]. The question is +asked, not about a _body_, but a _picture_, which is not very apt to +grow shorter or longer. To _do_ a picture, and a picture is well _done_, +are standing phrases; the question therefore is, Who has altered this +picture, so as to make it otherwise than nature _did_ it. + +IV.ii.389 (266,5) these poor pickaxes] Meaning her fingers. + +IV.iii (266,1) _Cymbeline's palace_] This scene is omitted against all +authority by Sir T. HANMER. It is indeed of no great use in the progress +of the fable, yet it makes a regular preparation for the next act. + +IV.iii.22 (267,3) our jealousy/Does yet depend] My suspicion is yet +undetermined; if I do not condemn you, I likewise have not acquitted +you. We now say, the _cause_ is _depending_. + +IV.iii.29 (267,4) Your preparation can affront no less/Than what you +hear of] Your forces are able to _face_ such an army as we hear the +enemy will bring against us. + +IV.iii.44 (268,6) to the note o' the king] I will so distinguish myself, +the king shall remark my valour. + +IV.iv.11 (269,1) a render/Where we have liv'd] An account of our place +of abode. This dialogue is a just representation of the superfluous +caution of an old man. + +IV.iv.13 (269,2) That which we have done, whose answer would be death] +The _retaliation_ of the death of Cloten would be _death_, &c. + +IV.iv.18 (269,3) their quarter'd fires] Their fires regularly disposed. + +V.i (271,1) _Enter Posthumus, with a bloody handkerchief_] The bloody +token of Imogen's death, which Pisanio in the foregoing act determined +to send. + +V.i.1-33 (271,2) Yea, bloody cloth, I'll keep thee] This is a soliloquy +of nature, uttered when the effervescence of a mind agitated and +perturbed spontaneously and inadvertently discharges itself in words. +The speech, throughout all its tenor, if the last conceit be excepted, +seems to issue warm from the heart. He first condemns his own violence; +then tries to disburden himself, by imputing part of the crime to +Pisanio; he next sooths his mind to an artificial and momentary +tranquility, by trying to think that he has been only an instrument of +the gods for the happiness of Imogen. He is now grown reasonable enough +to determine, that having done so much evil he will do no more; that he +will not fight against the country which he has already injured; but as +life is not longer supportable, he will die in a just cause, and die +with the obscurity of a man who does not think himself worthy to be +remembered. + +V.i.9 (271,3) to put on] Is to _incite_, to _instigate_. + +V.i.14 (272,4) To second ills with ills, each elder worse] For this +reading all the later editors have contentedly taken, + + --each worse than other, + +without enquiries whence they have received it. Yet they know, or might +know, that it has no authority. The original copy reads, + + --each elder worse, + +The last deed is certainly not the oldest, but Shakespeare calls the +_deed_ of an _elder_ man an _elder deed_. + +V.i.15 (272,5) And make them dread it, to the doers' thrift] [T: +dreaded, to] This emendation ia followed by HANMER. Dr. WARBURTON reads, +I know not whether by the printer's negligence, + + And make them _dread_, to the doers' thrift. + +There seems to be no very satisfactory sense yet offered. I read, but +with hesitation, + + And make them _deeded_, to the doers' thrift. + +The word _deeded_ I know not indeed where to find; but Shakespeare has, +in another sense _undeeded_, in _Macbeth_: + + "--my sword + "I sheath again _undeeded_."-- + +I will try again, and read thus, + + --others you permit + To second ills with ills, each other worse, + And make them _trade it_, to the doers' thrift. + +_Trade_ and _thrift_ correspond. Our author plays with _trade_, as it +signifies a lucrative vocation, or a frequent practice. So Isabella +says, + + "Thy sins, not accidental, but a _trade_." + +V.i.16 (273,9) Do your best wills,/And make me blest to obey!] So the +copies. It was more in the manner of our author to have written, + + --Do your blest wills, + And make me blest t' obey.-- + +V.iii.41 (276,3) A rout, confusion thick] [W: confusion-thick] I do not +see what great addition is made to _fine diction_ by this compound. Is +it not as natural to enforce the principal event in a story by +repetition, as to enlarge the principal figure in a figure? + +V.iii.51 (276,4) bugs] Terrors. + +V.iii.53 (277,5) Nay, do not wonder at it] [T: do but] There is no need +of alteration. Posthumus first bids him not wonder, then tells him in +another mode of reproach, that wonder is all that he was made for. + +V.iii.79 (278,8) great the answer be] _Answer_, as once in this play +before, is _retaliation_. + +V.iii.87 (278,9) That gave the affront with them] That is, that turned +their faces to the enemy. + +V.iv.1 (279,1) You shall not now be stolen, you have locks upon you;/So, +graze, as you find pasture] This wit of the gaoler alludes to the custom +of putting a lock on a horse's leg, when he is turned to pasture. + +V.iv.27 (280,3) If you will take this audit, take this life,/And cancel +those cold bonds] This equivocal use of _bonds_ is another instance of +our author's infelicity in pathetic speeches. + +V.iv.45 (281,5) That from me my Posthumus ript] The old copy reads, + + That from me _was_ Posthumus ript. + +Perhaps we should read, + + That from _my womb_ Posthumus ript, + Came crying 'mongst his foes. + +V.iv.146 (284,7) + + 'Tis still a dream; or else such stuff, as madmen + Tongue, and brain not: either both or nothing: + Or senseless speaking, or a speaking such + As sense cannot untie. Be what it is, + The action of my life is like it] + +The meaning, which is too thin to be easily caught, I take to be this: +_This is a dream or madness, or both--or nothing--but whether it be a +speech without consciousness_, as in a dream, _or a speech +unintelligible_, as in madness, be it as it is, _it is like my course of +life_. We might perhaps read, + + Whether _both, or nothing_-- + +V.iv,164 (285,8) sorry that you have paid too much, and sorry that you +are paid too much] _Tavern bills_, says the gaoler, _are the sadness of +parting, as the procuring of mirth--you depart reeling with too much +drink; sorry that you have paid too much, and_--what? _sorry that you +are paid too much_. Where is the opposition? I read, _And_ merry _that +you are paid_ so _much_. I take the second _paid_ to be _paid_, for +_appaid, filled, satiated_. + +V.iv.171 (286,9) debtor and creditor] For an _accounting book_. + +V.iv.188 (286,1) jump the after-enquiry] That is, _venture_ at it +without thought. So _Macbeth_, + + "We'd _jump_ the life to come." (see 1765, VII, 382, 7) + +V.v.9 (288,1) one that promis'd nought/But beggary and poor looks] To +promise _nothing but_ poor _looks_, may be, to give no promise of +courageous behaviour. + +V.v.88 (291,2) So feat] So ready; so dextrous in waiting. + +V.v.93 (291,3) His favour is familiar to me] I am acquainted with his +countenance. + +V.v.120 (292,4) One sand another/Not more resembles. That sweet rosy +lad] [W: resembles, than be th' sweet] There was no great difficulty in +the line, which, when properly pointed, needs no alteration. + +V.v.203 (296,8) averring notes/Of chamber-hanging, pictures] Such marks +of the chamber and pictures, as _averred_ or confirmed my report. + +V.v.220 (297,9) the temple/Of virtue was she; yea, and she herself] That +is, She was not only _the temple of virtue_, but _virtue herself_. + +V.v.233 (297,1) these staggers] This wild and delirious perturbation. +_Staggers_ is the horse's apoplexy. + +V.v.262 (298,2) Think, that you are upon a rock; and now/Throw me again] +In this speech, or in the answer, there is little meaning. I suppose, +she would say, Consider such another act as equally fatal to me with +precipitation from a rock, and now let me see whether you will repeat +it. + +V.v.308 (300,3) By tasting of our wrath] [W: hasting] There is no need +of change; the consequence is taken for the whole action; _by tasting_ +is _by forcing us to make thee taste_. + +V.v.334 (301,5) Your pleasure was my near offence, my punishment,/ +Itself, and all my treason] I think this passage may better be read +thus, + + Your pleasure was my _dear_ offence, my punishment + Itself _was_ all my treason; that I suffer'd, + Was all the harm I did.-- + +The offence which cost me so _dear_ was only your caprice. My sufferings +have been all my crime. + +V.v.352 (302,6) + + Thou weep'st, and speak'st. + The service that you three have done is more + Unlike than this thou tell'st] + +"Thy tears give testimony to the sincerity of thy relation; and I have +the less reason to be incredulous, because the actions which you have +done within my knowledge are more incredible than the story which you +relate." The king reasons very justly. + +V.v.378 (303,7) When ye were so, indeed] The folio gives, + + When _we_ were so, indeed. + +If this be right, we must read, + + _Imo._ I, you brothers. + _Arv._ When we were so, indeed. + +V.v.382 (303,8) fierce abridgment] _Fierce_, is _vehement, rapid_. + +V.v.459 (306,1) My peace we will begin] I think it better to read, + + _By_ peace we will begin.-- + +(307) General Observation. This play has many just sentiments, some +natural dialogues, and some pleasing scenes, but they are obtained at +the expence of much incongruity. To remark the folly of the fiction, the +absurdity of the conduct, the confusion of the names, and manners of +different times, and the impossibility of the events in any system of +life, were to waste criticism upon unresisting imbecility, upon faults +too evident for detection, and too gross for aggravation. + + + + +KING LEAR + + +I.i.4 (311,2) in the division of the kingdom] There is something of +obscurity or inaccuracy in this preparatory scene. The king has already +divided his kingdom, and yet when he enters he examines his daughters, +to discover in what proportions he should divide it. Perhaps Kent and +Gloucester only were privy to his design, which he still kept in his own +hands, to be changed or performed as subsequent reasons should determine +him. + +I.i.37 (313,7) express our darker purpose] [_Darker_, for more secret; +not for indirect, oblique. WARBURTON.] This word may admit a further +explication. _We shall express our darker purpose_: that is, we have +already made known in some measure our design of parting the kingdom; we +will now discover what has not been told before, the reasons by which we +shall regulate the partition. This interpretation will justify or +palliate the exordial dialogue. + +I.i.39 (313,8) and 'tis our fast intent] [This is an interpolation of +Mr. Lewis Theobald, for want of knowing the meaning of the old reading +in the quarto of 1608, and first folio of 1623; where we find it, + + --and 'tis our _first_ intent. + +WARBURTON.] + +_Fast_ is the reading of the first folio, and, I think, the true +reading. + +I.i.44 (314,9) We have this hour a constant will] _constant will_ seems +a confirmation of _fast_ intent. + +I.i.62 (314,2) Beyond all manner of so much I love you] Beyond all +assignable quantity. I love you beyond limits, and cannot say it is _so +much_, for how much soever I should name, it would yet be more. + +I.i.73 (315,4) + + I find, she names my very deed of love, + Only she comes too short; that I profess] + +_That_ seems to stand without relation, but is referred to _find_, the +first conjunction being inaccurately suppressed. I find _that_ she names +my deed, I find that I profess, &c. + +I.i.76 (315,5) Which the most precious square of sense possesses] +[Warburton explained "square" as the "four nobler senses"] This is +acute; but perhaps _square_ means only _compass, comprehension_. + +I.i.80 (315,6) More pond'rous than my tongue] [W: their tongue] I think +the present reading right. + +I.i.84 (316,8) Now our joy] Here the true reading is picked out of two +copies. Butter's quarto reads, + + --_But_ now our joy, + Although the last, not least in our dear love, + What can you say to win a third, &c. + +The folio, + + --Now our joy, + Although our last, _and_ least; to whose young love + The vines of France, and milk of Burgundy, + Strive to be int'ress'd. _What can you say?_ + +I.i.138 (318,5) The sway, revenue, execution of the rest] [W: of th' +hest] I do not see any great difficulty in the words, _execution of the +rest_, which are in both the old copies. The _execution of the rest_ is, +I suppose, _all the other business_. Dr. Warburton's own explanation of +his amendment confutes it; if _hest_ be a _regal comnand_, they were, by +the grant of Lear, to have rather the _hest_ than the execution. + +1.1.149 (319,6) + + Think'st thou, that duty shall have dread to speak, + When power to flattery bows? To plainness honour's bound, + When majesty stoops to folly. Reverse thy doom, + And in thy best consideration check + This hideous rashness: answer my life my judgment, + Thy youngest daughter does not love thee least] + +I have given this passage according to the old folio, from which the +modern editions have silently departed, for the sake of better numbers, +with a degree of insincerity, which, if not sometimes detected and +censured, must impair the credit of ancient books. One of the editors, +and perhaps only one, knew how much mischief may be done by such +clandestine alterations. The quarto agrees with the folio, except that +for _reserve thy state_, it gives, _reverse thy doom_, and has _stoops_ +instead of _falls to folly_. The meaning of _answer my life my +judgment_, is, _Let my life be answerable for my judgment_, or, _I will +stake my life on my opinion_.--The reading which, without any right, has +possessed all the modern copies is this; + + --to plainness honour + Is bound, when majesty to folly falls. + Reserve thy state; with better judgment check + This hideous rashness; with my life I answer, + Thy youngest daughter, &c. + +I am inclined to think that _reverse thy doom_ was Shakespeare's first +reading, as more apposite to the present occasion, and that he changed +it afterwards to _reserve thy state_, which conduces more to the +progress of the action. + +I.i.161 (320,9) The true blank of thine eye] The _blank_ is the _white_ +or exact mark at which the arrow is shot. _See better_, says Kent, _and +keep me always in your view_. + +I.i.172 (320,1) strain'd pride] The oldest copy reads _strayed pride_; +that is, _pride exorbitant_; pride passing due bounds. + +I.i.174 (320,3) Which nor our nature, nor our place, can bear;/ Our +potency made good] [T: (Which ... bear) ... made good] [Warburton +defended "make"] Theobald only inserted the parenthesis; he found _made +good_ in the best copy of 1623. Dr. Warburton has very acutely explained +and defended the reading that he has chosen, but I am not certain that +he has chosen right. If we take the reading of the folio, _our potency_ +made _good_, the sense will be less profound indeed, but less intricate, +and equally commodious. _As thou hast come with unreasonable pride +between the_ sentence _which I had passed, and the_ power _by which I +shall execute it_, take thy reward _in another sentence which shall_ +make good, _shall establish, shall maintain_, that power. If Dr. +Warburton's explanation be chosen, and every reader will wish to choose +it, we may better read, + + Which nor our nature, nor our state can bear, + _Or_ potency make good.-- + +Mr. Davies thinks, that _our potency made good_ relates only to _our +place_.--Which our nature cannot bear, nor our _place_, without +departure from the _potency_ of that place. This is easy and +clear.--Lear, who is characterized as hot, heady, and violent, is, with +very just observation of life, made to entangle himself with vows, upon +any sudden provocation to vow revenge, and then to plead the obligation +of a vow in defence of implacability. + +I.i.181 (322,4) By Jupiter] Shakespeare makes his Lear too much a +mythologist: he had Hecate and Apollo before. + +I.i.190 (322,6) He'll shape his old course] He will follow his old +maxims; he will continue to act upon the same principles. + +I.i.201 (323,7) If aught within that little, seeming, substance] +_Seeming_ is _beautiful_. + +I.i.209 (323,9) Election makes not up on such conditions] To _make up_ +signifies to complete, to conclude; as, _they made up the bargain_; but +in this sense it has, I think, always the subject noun after it. To +_make up_, in familiar language, is, neutrally, _to come forward_, to +_make advances_, which, I think, is meant here. + +I.i.221 (324,2) + + Sure her offence + Must be of such unnatural degree, + That monsters it: or your fore-vouch'd affection + Fall into taint] + +The common books read, + + --or your fore-vouch'd affection + Fall'n into taint:-- + +This line has no clear or strong sense, nor is this reading authorized +by any copy, though it has crept into all the late editions. The early +quarto reads, + + --or you for vouch'd affections + Fall'n into taint.-- + +The folio, + + --or your fore-vouch'd affection + Fall into taint.-- + +_Taint_ is used for _corruption_ and for _disgrace_. If therefore we +take the oldest reading it may be reformed thus: + + --sure her offence + Must be of such unnatural degree, + That monsters it; or you for vouch'd affection + Fall into taint. + +Her offence must be prodigious, or _you_ must _fal1 into reproach_ for +having _vouched affection_ which you did not feel. If the reading of the +folio be preferred, we may with a very slight change produce the same +sense: + + --sure her offence + Must be of such unnatural degree, + That monsters it, or your fore-vouch'd affection + _Falls_ into taint.-- + +That is, _falls into reproach_ or _censure_. But there is another +possible sense. _Or_ signifies _before_, and _or ever_ is _before ever_; +the meaning in the folio may therefore be, _Sure her crime must be +monstrous_ before _your affection can be affected with hatred_. Let the +reader determine.--As I am not much a friend to conjectural emendation, +I should prefer the latter sense, which requires no change of reading. + +I.i.243 (325,3) from the intire point] _Intire_, for right, true. WARB.] +Rather, single, unmixed with other considerations. + +I.i.264 (326,5) Thou losest here, better where to find] _Here_ and +_where_ have the power of nouns. Thou losest this residence to find a +better residence in another place. + +I.i.282 (326,6) And well are worth the want that you have wanted] [This +I take to be the poet's meaning, stript of the jingle which makes it +dark: "You well deserve to meet with that _want_ of love from your +husband, which you have professed to _want_ for our father." THEOBALD.] +[W: have vaunted] I think the common reading very suitable to the manner +of our author, and well enough explained by Theobald. + +I.i.283 (327,7) plaited cunning] i.e. _complicated, involved_ cunning. +(1773) + +I.ii.3 (328,2) Stand in the plague of custom] The word _plague_ is in +all the copies; I can scarcely think it right, nor can I yet reconcile +myself to the emendation proposed, though I have nothing better to offer +[Warburton had proposed _plage_]. + +I.ii.21 (330,7) Shall be the legitimate] [Hanmer: toe th'] Hanmer's +emendation will appear very plausible to him that shall consult the +original reading. Butter's quarto reads, + + --Edmund the base + Shall _tooth'_ legitimate.-- + +The folio, + + --Edmund the base + Shall _to th'_ legitimate.-- + +Hanmer, therefore, could hardly be charged with coining a word, though +his explanation may be doubted. To _toe_ him, is perhaps to _kick_ him +_out_, a phrase yet in vulgar use; or, to _toe_, may be literally to +_supplant_. The word _be_ has no authority. + +I.ii.24 (331,1) subscrib'd his power!] To subscribe, is, to transfer by +signing or _subscribing_ a writing of testimony. We now use the term, He +_subscribed_ forty pounds to the new building. + +I.ii.25 (331,2) Confin'd to exhibition!] Is _allowance_. The term is yet +used in the universities. + +I.ii.25 (331,3) All this done/Upon the gad!] So the old copies; the +later editions read, + + --All _is gone_ + Upon the gad!-- + +which, besides that it is unauthorized, is less proper. _To_ do upon the +_gad_, is, to act by the sudden stimulation of caprice, as cattle run +madding when they are stung by the gad fly. + +I.ii.47 (332,4) taste of my virtue] Though _taste_ may stand in this +place, yet I believe we should read, _assay_ or _test_ of my virtue: +they are both metallurgical terms, and properly joined. So in Hamlet, + + Bring me to the _test_. + +I.ii.51 (323,6) idle and fond] Weak and foolish. + +I.ii.95 (333,7) pretence] _Pretence_ is design, purpose. So afterwards +in this play, + + _Pretence_ and purpose of unkindness. + +I.ii.106 (333,8) wind me into him] I once thought it should be read, +_you_ into him; but, perhaps, it is a familiar phrase, like _do me +this_. + +I.ii.107 (333,9) I would unstate myself to be in a due resolution] [i.e. +I will throw aside all consideration of my relation to him, that I may +act as justice requires. WARBURTON.] Such is this learned man's +explanation. I take the meaning to be rather this, _Do you frame the +business_, who can act with less emotion; _I would unstate myself_; it +would in me be a departure from the paternal character, _to be in a due +resolution_, to be settled and composed on such an occasion. The words +_would_ and _should_ are in old language often confounded. + +I.ii.l09 (334,1) convey the business] [_Convey_, for introduce. WARB.] +To _convey_ is rather to _carry through_ than to introduce; in this +place it is to _manage artfully_: we say of a juggler, that he has a +clean _conveyance_. + +I.ii.112 (334,2) These late eclipses in the sun and moon portend no good +to us: tho' the wisdom of nature can reason it thus and thus, yet nature +finds itself scourg'd by the frequent effects] That is, though natural +philosophy can give account of eclipses, yet we feel their consequences. + +I.ii.156 (338,8) I promise you, the effects he writes of, succeed +unhappily] The folio edition commonly differs from the first quarto, by +augmentations or insertions, but in this place it varies by omission, +and by the omission of something which naturally introduces the +following dialogue. It is easy to remark, that in this speech, which +ought, I think, to be inserted as it now is in the text, Edmund, with +the common craft of fortune-tellers, mingles the past and future, and +tells of the future only what he already foreknows by confederacy, or +can attain by probable conjecture. (see 1765, VI, 27, 6) + +I.ii.178 (339,1) that with the mischief of your person it would scarcely +allay] This reading is in both copies; yet I believe the author gave it, +_that_ but _with the mischief_ of your person it would scarce allay. + +I.iii.19 (341,2) Old fools are babes again; and must be us'd/ With +checks, as flatteries when they are seen abus'd] These lines hardly +deserve a note, though Mr. Theobald thinks them _very fine_. Whether +_fools_ or _folks_ should be read is not worth enquiry. The controverted +line is yet in the old quarto, not as the editors represent it, but +thus: + + With checks as flatteries when they are seen abus'd. + +I am in doubt whether there is any error of transcription. The sense +seems to be this: _Old men must be treated with checks_, when as _they +are seen to be deceived with flatteries_: or, _when they are weak enough +to be_ seen abused by flatteries, they are then weak enough to be _used +with checks_. There is a play of the words _used_ and _abused_. To +_abuse_ is, in our author, very frequently the same as to _deceive_. +This construction is harsh and ungrammatical; Shakespeare perhaps +thought it vicious, and chose to throw away the lines rather than +correct them, nor would now thank the officiousness of his editors, who +restore what they do not understand. + +I.iv.118 (347,5) Would I had two coxcombs, and two daughters] Two fools +caps, intended, as it seems, to mark double folly in the man that gives +all to his daughters. + +I.iv.133 (347,7) Lend less than thou owest] That is, _do not lend all +that thou hast_. To _owe_, in old English, is _to possess_. If _owe_ be +taken for _to be in debt_, the more prudent precept would be, Lend +_more_ than thou owest. + +I.iv.153-170 (348,9) This dialogue, from _No, lad; teach me_, down to, +_Give me an egg_, was restored from the first edition by Mr. Theobald. +It is omitted in the folio, perhaps for political reasons, as it seemed +to censure monopolies. + +I.iv.181 (349,2) Fools ne'er had less grace in a year] There never was a +time when fools were less in favour; and the reason is, that they were +never so little wanted, for wise men now supply their place. Such I +think is the meaning. The old edition has _wit_ for _grace_. + +I.iv.219 (350,5) That's a sheal'd peascod] i.e. Now a mere husk, which +contains nothing. The outside of a king remains, but all the intrinsic +parts of royalty are gone: he has nothing to give. (1773) + +I.iv.245 (351,3) Whoop, Jug] There are in the fool's speeches several +passages which seem to be proverbial allusions, perhaps not now to be +understood. + +I.iv.256 (352,1) _Fool_. Which they will make an obedient father] [This +line I have restored from the quarto. STEEVENS] This note [Tyrwhitt's, +quoted by Steevens] is written with confidence disproportionate to the +conviction which it can bring. Lear might as well know by the marks and +tokens arising from sovereignty, knowledge, and reason, that he had or +had not daughters, as he could know by any thing else. But, says he, if +I judge by these tokens, I find the persuasion false by which I long +thought myself the father of daughters. (1773) + +I.iv.302 (355,7) from her derogate body] [_Derogate_ for _unnatural_. +WARB.] Rather, I think, _degraded; blasted_. + +I.iv.320 (356,9) + + That these hot tears, which break from me perforce, + Should make thee worth them.--Blasts and fogs upon thee! + The untented woundings of a father's curse + Pierce every sense about thee!--Old fond eyes, + Beweep this cause again] + +I will transcribe this passage from the first edition, that it may +appear to those who are unacquainted with old books, what is the +difficulty of revision, and what indulgence is due to those that +endeavour to restore corrupted passages.--_That these hot tears, that +breake from me perforce, should make the worst blasts and fogs upon the +untender woundings of a father's curse, peruse every sense about the old +fond eyes, beweep this cause again, &c._ + +I.iv.362 (358,3) compact it more] Unite one circumstance with another, +so as to make a consistent account. + +I.iv.366 (358,4) You are much more at task for want of wisdom] It is a +common phrase now with parents and governesses. _I'll take you to task_, +i.e. _I will reprehend and correct you. To be at task_, therefore, is to +be liable to _reprehension and correction_. (1773) + +I.v.5 (358,1) I shall be there afore you] He seems to intend to go to +his daughter, but it appears afterwards that he is going to the house of +Glo'ster. + +I.v.25 (359,2) I did her wrong] He is musing on Cordelia. + +I.v.42 (359,3) To take it again perforce!] He is meditating on the +resumption of his royalty. + +II.i.9 (360,1) ear-kissing arguments] Subjects of discourse; topics. + +II.i.19 (361,2) queazy question] Something of a _suspicious, +questionable, and uncertain nature_. This is, I think, the meaning. + +II.i.27 (361,4) have you nothing said/Upon his party 'gainst the duke of +Albany?] I cannot but think the line corrupted, and would read, + + _Against_ his party, _for_ the duke of Albany? + +II.i.57 (363,7) gasted] Frighted. + +II.i.59 (363,8) Not in this land shall he remain uncaught;/And +found--Dispatch] [Not in this land shall he remain uncaught; And found +dispatch--the noble duke, &c.] + +[W: found, dispatch'd.] I do not see how this change mends the sense: I +think it may be better regulated as in the page above. The sense is +interrupted. He shall be caught--and found, _he shall be punished_. +Dispatch. + +II.i.67 (363,2) And found him pight to do it, with curst speech] _Pight_ +is _pitched_, fixed, settled. _Curst_ is severe, harsh, vehemently +angry. + +II.i.122 (366,7) Occasions, noble Glo'ster, of some prize] [W: poize] +_Prize_, or _price_, for value. (1773) + +II.i.126 (366,8) from our home] Not at home, but at some other place. + +II.ii.9 (367,1) Lipsbury pinfold] The allusion which seems to be +contained in this line I do not understand. In the violent eruption of +reproaches which bursts from Kent in this dialogue, there are some +epithets which the commentators have left unexpounded, and which I am +not very able to make clear. Of a _three-suited knave_ I know not the +meaning, unless it be that he has different dresses for different +occupations. _Lilly-liver'd_ is _cowardly_; _white-blooded_ and +_white-liver'd_ are still in vulgar use. An _one-trunk-inheriting +slave_, I take to be a wearer of old cast-off cloaths, an inheritor of +torn breeches. + +II.ii.36 (368,4) barber-monger] Of this word I do not clearly see the +force. + +II.ii.39 (368,5) Vanity the puppet's] Alluding to the mysteries or +allegorical shews, in which vanity, iniquity, and other vices, were +personified. + +II.ii.45 (369,6) neat slave] You mere slave, you very slave. + +II.ii.69 (369,8) Thou whoreson zed; thou unnecessary letter!] I do not +well understand how a man is reproached by being called _zed_, nor how Z +is an _unnecessary letter_. Scarron compares his deformity to the shape +of Z, and it may be a proper word of insult to a crook-backed man; but +why should Gonerill's steward be crooked, unless the allusion be to his +bending or cringing posture in the presence of his superiors. Perhaps it +was written, _thou whoreson_ C (for cuckold) _thou unnecessary letter_. +C is a letter unnecessary in our alphabet, one of its two sounds being +represented by S, and one by K. But all the copies concur in the common +reading. + +II.ii.87 (371,3) epileptic visage!] The frighted countenance of a man +ready to fall in a fit. + +II.ii.103 (372,5) constrains the garb/Quite from his nature] Forces his +_outside_ or his _appearance_ to something totally _different from_ his +natural disposition. + +II.ii.109 (372,8) Than twenty silly ducking observants] [W: silky] The +alteration is more ingenious than the arguments by which it is +supported. + +II.ii.119 (373,8) though I should win your displeasure to intreat me +to't] Though I should win you, displeased as you now are, to like me so +well as to intreat me to be a knave. + +II.ii.167 (375,3) + + Good king, that must approve the common saw! + Thou out of heaven's benediction com'at + To the warm sun!] + +That art now to exemplify the common proverb, _That out of_, &c. That +changest better for worse. Hanmer observes, that it is a proverbial +saying, applied to those who are turned out of house and home to the +open weather. It was perhaps first used of men dismissed from an +hospital, or house of charity, such as was erected formerly in many +places for travellers. Those houses had names properly enough alluded to +by _heaven's benediction_. + +II.ii.173 (376,4) + + I know 'tis from Cordelia; + Who hath most fortunately been inform'd + Of my obscur'd coarse, and shall find time + From this enormous state, seeking to give + Losses their remedies] + +This passage, which some of the editors have degraded, as spurious, to +the margin, and others have silently altered, I have faithfully printed +according to the quarto, from which the folio differs only in +punctuation. The passage is very obscure, if not corrupt. Perhaps it may +be read thus: + + --Cordelia--has been--informed. + Of my obscur'd course, and shall find time + From this enormous state-seeking, to give + Losses their remedies.-- + +Cordelia is informed of our affairs, and when the _enormous_ care of +_seeking her fortune_ will allow her time, she will employ it in +remedying losses. This is harsh; perhaps something better may be found. +I have at least supplied the genuine reading of the old copies. +_Enormous_ is unwonted, out of rule, out of the ordinary course of +things. + +II.iii.18 (377,2) Poor pelting villages] _Pelting_ is, I believe, only +an accidental depravation of _petty_. Shakespeare uses it in the +_Midsummer-Night's Dream_ of _small brooks_. + +II.iii.20 (378,3) Poor Turlygood! poor Tom!] [W: Turlupin] Hanmer reads, +_poor_ Turlurd. It is probable the word _Turlygood_ was the common +corrupt pronunciation. + +II.iii.21 (378,4) Edgar I nothing am] As Edgar I am out-lawed, dead in +law; I have no longer any political existence. + +II.iv (378,1) _Changes again to the earl of Glo'ster's castle_] It is +not very clearly discovered why Lear comes hither. In the foregoing part +he sent a letter to Glo'ster; but no hint is given of its contents. He +seems to have gone to visit Glo'ster while Cornwall and Regan might +prepare to entertain him. + +II.iv.24 (380,4) To do upon respect such violent outrage] To violate the +public and venerable character of a messenger from the king. + +II.iv.46 (380,7) Winter's not gone yet, if the wild geese fly that way] +If this be their behaviour, the king's troubles are not yet at an end. + +II.iv.70 (381,9) All that follow their noses are led by their eyes, but +blind men; and there's not a nose among twenty, but can smell him that's +stinking] There is in this sentence no clear series of thought. If he +that follows his nose is led or guided by his eyes, he wants no +information from his nose. I persuade myself, but know not whether I can +persuade others, that our author wrote thus:--"All men are led by their +eyes, but blind men, and they follow their noses; and there's not a nose +among twenty but can smell him that's stinking."--Here is a succession +of reasoning. You ask, why the king has no more in his train? why, +because men who are led by their eyes see that he is ruined; and if +there were any blind among them, who, for want of eyes, followed their +noses, they might by their noses discover that it was no longer fit to +follow the king. + +II.iv.83 (382,2) + + But I will tarry; the fool will stay, + And let the wise man fly; + The knave turns fool, that runs away; + The fool no knave, perdy] + +I think this passage erroneous, though both the copies concur. The sense +mill be mended if we read, + + But I will tarry; the fool will stay, + And let the wise man fly; + The fool turns knave, that runs away; + The knave no fool,-- + +That I stay with the king is a proof that I am a fool, the wise men are +deserting him. There is knavery in this desertion, but there is no +folly. + +II.iv.116 (383,3) Is practice only] _Practice_ is in Shakespeare, and +other old writers, used commonly in an ill sense for _unlawful +artifice_. + +II.iv.122 (384,4) Cry to it, nuncle, as the cockney did to the eels, +when she put them i' the paste alive] Hinting that the eel and Lear are +in the same danger. + +II.iv.142 (384,7) Than she to scant her duty] The word _scant_ is +directly contrary to the sense intended. The quarto reads, + + --_slack_ her duty, + +which is no better. May we not change it thus: + + You less know bow to value her desert, + Than she to _scan_ her duty. + +To _scan_ may be to _measure_ or _proportion_. Yet our author uses his +negatives with such licentiousness, that it is hardly safe to make any +alteration.--_Scant_ may mean to _adapt_, to _fit_, to _proportion_; +which sense seems still to be retained in the mechanical term scantling. +(see 1765, VI, 67, 4) + +II.iv.155 (385,1) Do you but mark how this becomes the house?] [T: the +use?] [Warburton called "becomes the house" "a most expressive phrase"] +with this _most expressive phrase_ I believe no reader is satisfied. I +suspect that it has been written originally, + + Ask her forgiveness? + Do you but mark how this becometh--thus. + Dear daughter, I confess, &c. + +_Becomes the house_, and _becometh thus_, might be easily confounded by +readers so unskilful as the original printers. + +II.iv.157 (386,2) _Age is unnecessary_] i.e. Old age has few wants. + +II.iv.162 (386,3) Look'd black upon me] To _look black_, may easily be +explained to _look cloudy_ or _gloomy_. See Milton: + + "So frown'd the mighty combatants, that hell + Grew darker at their frown."-- + +II.iv.170 (386,4) To fall, and blast her pride!] Thus the quarto: the +folio reads not so well, _to fall and blister_. I think there is still a +fault, which may be easily mended by changing a letter: + + --Infect her beauty, + Ye fen-suck'd fogs, drawn by the powerful sun, + _Do_, fall, and blast her pride! + +II.iv.174 (387.6) Thy tender-hested nature shall not give/Thee o'er to +harshness] This word, though its general meaning be plain, I do not +critically understand. + +II.iv.178 (387,7) to scant my sizes] To contract my allowances or +proportions settled. + +II.iv.203 (388,9) much less advancement] The word _advancement_ is +ironically used here for _conspicuousness_ of punishment; as we now say, +_a man is advanced to the pillory_. We should read, + + --but his own disorders + Deserv'd much _more_ advancement. + +II.iv.204 (388,1) I pray you, father, being weak, seem so] [W: deem't +so] The meaning is, since _you are weak_, be content to think yourself +weak. No change is needed. + +II.iv.218 (389,3) base life] i.e. In a _servile_ state. + +II.iv.227 (390,5) embossed carbuncle] _Embossed_ is _swelling, +protuberant_. + +II.iv.259 (391,6) Those wicked creatures yet do look well-favour'd:/ +When others are more wicked] Dr. Warburton would exchange the repeated +epithet _wicked_ into _wrinkled_ in both places. The commentator's only +objection to the lines as they now stand, is the discrepancy of the +metaphor, the want of opposition between _wicked_ and _well-favoured_. +But he might have remembered what he says in his own preface concerning +_mixed modes_. Shakespeare, whose mind was more intent upon notions than +words, had in his thoughts the pulchritude of virtue, and the deformity +of wickedness; and though he had mentioned _wickedness_, made the +correlative answer to _deformity_. + +III.i.7 (394,1) That things might change, or cease: tears his white +hair] The first folio ends the speech at _change, or cease_, and begins +again with Kent's question, _But who is with him?_ The whole speech is +forcible, but too long for the occasion, and properly retrenched. + +III.i.18 (395,3) my note] My observation of your character. + +III.i.29 (395,6) _are but furnishings_] _Furnishings_ are what we now +call _colours, external pretences_. (1773) + +III.i.19 (395,8) + + There is division, + Although as yet the face of it is cover'd + with mutual cunning, 'twixt Albany and Cornwall; + _Who have (as who have not, whom their great stars + Throne and set high?) servants, who seem no less; + Which are to France the spies and speculations + Intelligent of our state. What hath been seen, + Either in snuffs and packings of the dukes; + Or the hard rein, which both of them have borne + Against the old kind king; or something deeper, + Whereof, perchance, these are but furnishings._ + [But, true it is, from France there comes a power + Into this scatter'd kingdom; who already, + Wise in our negligence, have secret fee + In some of our best ports, and are at point + To shew their open banner.--Now to you:]] + +The true state of this speech cannot from all these notes be discovered. +As it now stands it is collected from two editions: the lines which I +have distinguished by Italics are found in the folio, not in the quarto; +the following lines inclosed in crotchets are in the quarto, not in the +folio. So that if the speech be read with omissions of the Italics, it +will stand according to the first edition; and if the Italics are read, +and the lines that follow them omitted, it will then stand according to +the second. The speech is now tedious, because it is formed by a +coalition of both. The second edition is generally best, and was +probably nearest to Shakespeare's last copy, but in this passage the +first is preferable; for in the folio, the messenger is sent, he knows +not why, he knows not whither. I suppose Shakespeare thought his plot +opened rather too early, and made the alteration to veil the event from +the audience; but trusting too much to himself, and full of a single +purpose, he did not accommodate his new lines to the rest of the +scene.--The learned critic's [Warburton] emendations are now to be +examined. _Scattered_ he has changed to _scathed_; for _scattered_, he +says, gives _the idea of an anarchy, which was not the case_. It may be +replied that _scathed_ gives the idea of ruin, waste, and desolation, +_which was not the case_. It is unworthy a lover of truth, in questions +of great or little moment, to exaggerate or extenuate for mere +convenience, or for vanity yet less than convenience. _Scattered_ +naturally means _divided, unsettled, disunited_.--Next is offered with +great pomp a change of _sea_ to _seize_; but in the first edition the +word is _fee_, for _hire_, in the sense of having any one in _fee_, that +is, at _devotion for money_. _Fee_ is in the second quarto changed to +_see_, from which one made _sea_ and another _seize_. + +III.ii.4 (398,1) thought-executing] Doing execution with rapidity equal +to thought. + +III.ii.19 (399,4) Here I stand, your slave] [W: brave] The meaning is +plain enough, he was not their _slave_ by right or compact, but by +necessity and compulsion. Why should a passage be darkened for the sake +of changing it? Besides, of _brave_ in that sense I remember no example. + +III.ii.24 (399,5) 'tis foul] Shameful; dishonourable. + +III.ii.30 (399,6) So beggars marry many] i.e. A beggar marries a wife +and lice. + +III.ii.46 (400,1) Man's nature cannot carry/The affliction, nor the +fear] So the folio: the later editions read, with the quarto, _force_ +for _fear_, less elegantly. + +III.ii.56 (401,3) That under covert and convenient seeming] _Convenient_ +needs not be understood in any other than its usual and proper sense; +_accommodate_ to the present purpose; _suitable_ to a design. +_Convenient seeming_ is _appearance_ such as may promote his purpose to +destroy. + +III.ii.53 (401,4) concealing continents] _Continent_ stands for that +which _contains_ or _incloses_. + +III.ii.72 (401,(5) Poor fool and knave, I have one part in my heart,/ +That's sorry yet for thee] Some editions read, + + --_thing_ in my heart; + +from which Hanmer, and Dr. Warburton after him, have made _string_, very +unnecessarily; both the copies have _part_. + +III.ii.74 (402,7) + + _He that has a little tiny wit,-- + With heigh ho, the wind and the rain; + Must make content with his fortunes fit, + Though the rain it raineth every day_] + +I fancy that the second line of this stanza had once a termination that +rhymed with the fourth; but I can only fancy it; for both the copies +agree. It was once perhaps written, + + With heigh ho, the wind and the rain _in his way_. + +The meaning seems likewise to require this insertion. "He that has wit, +however small, and finds wind and rain in his way, must content himself +by thinking, that somewhere or other _it raineth every day_, and others +are therefore suffering like himself." Yet I am afraid that all this is +chimerical, for the burthen appears again in the song at the end of +_Twelfth Night_, and seems to have been an arbitrary supplement, without +any reference to the sense of the song. (see 1765, VI, 84, 6) + +III.ii.80 (402,8) I'll speak a prophecy ere I go] [W: or two ere] The +sagacity and acuteness of Dr. Warburton are very conspicuous in this +note. He has disentangled the confusion of the passage, and I have +inserted his emendation in the text. _Or e'er_ is proved by Mr. Upton to +be good English, but the controversy was not necessary, for _or_ is not +in the old copies. [Steevens retained "ere"] + +III.ii.84 (403,1) No heretics burnt, but wenches' suitors] The disease +to which _wenches' suitors_ are particularly exposed, was called in +Shakespeare's time the _brenning_ or _burning_. + +III.iv.26 (406,1) + + In, boy; go first. [_To the Fool._] You houseless poverty-- + Nay, get thee in. I'll pray, and then I'll sleep] + +These two lines were added in the author's revision, and are only in the +folio. They are very judiciously intended to represent that humility, or +tenderness, or neglect of forms, which affliction forces on the mind. + +III.iv.52 (407,3) led through fire and through flame] Alluding to the +_ignis fatuus_, supposed to be lights kindled by mischievous beings to +lead travellers into destruction. + +III.iv.54 (407,4) laid knives under his pillow] He recounts the +temptations by which he was prompted to suicide; the opportunities of +destroying himself, which often occurred to him in his melancholy moods. + +III.iv.60 (407,5) Bless thee from whirlwinds, star-blasting, and +taking!] To _take_ is to blast, or strike with malignant influence: + + --strike her young limbs, + Ye taking airs, with lameness. + +III.iv.77 (408,6) pelican daughters] The young pelican is fabled to suck +the mother's blood. + +III.iv.95 (408,8) light of ear] [i.e. Credulous. WARBURTON.] Not merely +_credulous_, but _credulous of evil_, ready to receive malicious +reports. (1773) + +III.iv.103 (409,1) says suum, mun, ha no nonny, dolphin my boy, boy, +Sessy: let him trot by] Of this passage I can make nothing. I believe it +corrupt: for wildness, not nonsense, is the effect of a disordered +imagination. The quarto reads, _hay no on ny, dolphins, my boy, cease, +let him trot by_. Of interpreting this there is not much hope or much +need. But any thing may be tried. The madman, now counterfeiting a proud +fit, supposes himself met on the road by some one that disputes the way, +and cries _Hey!--No--but altering his mind, condescends to let him pass, +and calls to his boy _Dolphin_ (Rodolph) not to contend with him. +_On--Dolphin, my boy, cease. Let him trot by_. + +III.iv.122 (410,3) web and the pin] Diseases of the eye. + +III.iv.125 (411,4) + + Saint Withold footed thrice the void; + He met the night-mare, and her nine-fold; + Bid her alight, and her troth plight, + And aroynt thee, witch, aroynt thee!] + +In the old quarto the corruption is such as may deserve to be noted. +"Swithold footed thrice the old another night moore and her nine fold +bid her, O light, and her troth plight, and arint thee, with arint +thee." + +III.iv.144 (412,6) _small deer_] Sir Thomas Hanmer reads _geer_, and is +followed by Dr. Warburton. But _deer_ in old language is a general word +for wild animals. + +III.iv.187 (414,8) _Child Rowland_] This word is in some of our ballads. +There is a song of _Child Walter, and a Lady_. + +III.v.21 (415,2) If I find him comforting the king] He uses the word in +the juridical sense for _supporting, helping_, according to its +derivation; _salvia_ comfortat _ne vos_.--_Schol. Sal._ (rev. 1778, IX, +477, 3) + +III.vi.20 (416,2) a horse's health] [W: heels] Shakespeare is here +speaking not of things maliciously treacherous, but of things uncertain +and not durable, A horse is above all other animals subject to diseases. + +III.vi.26 (416,3) Wantest thou eyes at trial, madam?] It may be observed +that Edgar, being supposed to be found by chance, and therefore to have +no knowledge of the rest, connects not his ideas with those of Lear, but +pursues his own train of delirious or fantastic thought. To these words, +_At trial, madam?_ I think therefore that the name of Lear should be +put. The process of the dialogue will support this conjecture. (1773) + +III.vi.27 (417,4) _Come oe'er the broom, Bessy, to me_] As there is no +relation between _broom_ and a _boat_, we may better read, + + Come o'er the _brook_, Bessy, to me. + +III.vi.43 (417,6) + + _Sleepest, or wakest thou, jolly shepherd? + Thy sheep be in the corn; + And for one blast of thy minikin mouth, + Thy sheep shall take no harm.] + +This seems to be a stanza of some pastoral song. A shepherd is desired +to pipe, and the request is enforced by a promise, that though his sheep +be in the corn, i.e. committing a trespass by his negligence, implied in +the question, _Sleepest thou or wakest?_ Yet a single tune upon his pipe +shall secure them from the pound. (1773) + +III.vi.77 (419,8) Sessy, come] Here is _sessey_ again, which I take to +be the French word _cessez_ pronounced _cessey_, which was, I suppose, +like some others in common use among us. It is an interjection enforcing +cessation of any action, like, _be quiet, have done_. It seems to have +been gradually corrupted into, _so, so_. + +III.vi.78 (419,9) thy horn is dry] Men that begged under pretence of +lunacy used formerly to carry a horn, and blow it through the streets. + +III.vi.103-121 (420,2) [_Kent._ Opprest nature sleeps] The lines +inserted from the quarto are in crotchets. The omission of them in the +folio is certainly faulty: yet I believe the folio is printed from +Shakespeare'a last revision, carelessly and hastily performed, with more +thought of shortening the scenes, than of continuing the action. + +III.vi.111 (421,4) free things] States clear from distress. + +III.vi. 117 (421,5) + + Mark the high noises! and thyself bewray, + When false opinion, whose wrong thought defiles thee, + In thy just proof, repeals, and reconciles thee] + +Attend to the great events that are approaching, and make thyself known. +Then that _false opinion_ now prevailing against thee shall, in +consequence of _just proof_ of thy integrity, revoke its erroneous +sentence, and recall thee to honour and reconciliation. + +III.vii.13 (421,6) ray lord of Glo'ster] Meaning Edmund, newly invested +with his father's titles. The steward, speaking immediately after, +mentions the old duke by the same title. + +III.vii.24 (422,3) + + Though well we may not pass upon his life + Without the form of justice; yet our power + Shall do a courtesy to our wrath] + +_To do a courtesy_ is to gratify, to comply with. _To pass_, is to pass +a judicial sentence. (1773) + +III.vii.29 (422,4) corky arms] Dry, wither'd, husky arms. + +III.vii.54 (424,9) I am ty'd to the stake, and I must stand the course] +The running of the dogs upon me. + +III.vii.65 (425,2) All cruels else subscrib'd] Yielded, submitted to the +necessity of the occasion. + +III.vii.99-107 (426,3) I'll never care what wickedness I do] [This short +dialogue I have inserted from the old quarto, because I think it full of +nature. Servants could hardly see such a barbarity committed on their +master, without pity; and the vengeance that they presume canst overtake +the actors of it is a sentiment and doctrine well worthy of the stage. +THEOBALD.] It is not necessary to suppose them the servants of Glo'ster; +for Cornwall was opposed to extremity by his own servant. + +IV.i.1 (427,1) Yet better thus, and known to be contemn'd] The meaning +is, _'Tis better_ to be _thus contemned, and_ known _to yourself_ to be +contemned. Or perhaps there is an error, which may be rectified thus: + + Yet better thus unknown to be contemn'd. + +When a man divests himself of his real character he feels no pain from +contempt, because he supposes it incurred only by a voluntary disguise +which he can throw off at pleasure. I do not think any correction +necessary. + +IV.i.20 (429,3) Our mean secures us] [i.e. Moderate, mediocre condition. +WARBURTON.] Banner writes, by an easy change, _meanness_ secures us. The +two original editions have, + + Our _meanes_ secures us.-- + +I do not remember that _mean_ is ever used aa a substantive for low +fortune, which is the sense here required, nor for mediocrity, except in +the phrase, the _golden mean_. I suspect the passage of corruption, and +would either read, + + Our means _seduce_ us:-- + +Our powers of body or fortune draw us into evils. Or, + + Our _maims_ secure us.-- + +That hurt or deprivation which makes us defenceless, proves our +safeguard. This is very proper in Glo'ster, newly maimed by the evulsion +of his eyes. + +IV.i.59-64 (431,8) [Five fiends have been in poor Tom at once; of lust, +as _Obidicut_; _Hobbididance_, prince of dumbness; _Mahu_, of stealing; +_Modo_, of murder; and _Flibbertigibbet_, of mopping and mowing; who +since possesses chamber-maids and waiting-women. So bless thee, +master!]] The passage in crotchets is omitted in the folio, because I +suppose as the story was forgotten, the jest was lost. + +IV.i.68 (432,1) Let the superfluous and lust-dieted man] Lear has before +uttered the same sentiment, which indeed cannot be too strongly +impressed, tho' it may be too often repeated. + +IV.i.69 (432,2) That slaves your ordinance] [W: braves] The emendation +is plausible, yet I doubt whether it be right. The language of +Shakespeare is very licentious, and his words have often meanings remote +from the proper and original use. To _slave_ or _beslave_ another is to +_treat_ him _with terms of indignity_; in a kindred sense, to _slave the +ordinance_, may be, to _slight_ or _ridicule_ it. + +IV.ii.1 (433,1) our mild husband] It must be remembered that Albany, the +husband of Gonerill, disliked, in the end of the first act, the scheme +of oppression and ingratitude. + +IV.ii.29 (434,5) I have been worth the whistle] This expression is a +reproach to Albany for having neglected her; _though you disregard me +thus_, I have been worth the whistle, _I have found one that thinks me +worth calling_. (1773) + +IV.ii.35 (435,9) From her maternal sap] [W: material] I suppose no +reader doubts but the word should be _maternal_. Dr. Warburton has taken +great pains without much success, and indeed without much exactness of +attention, to prove that _material_ has a more proper sense than +_maternal_, and yet seemed glad at last to infer from an apparent error +of another press that _material_ and _maternal_ meant the same. + +IV.ii.45 (436,2) A man, a prince by him so benefited?] [After this line +I suspect a line or two to be wanting, which upbraids her for her +sister's cruelty to Glo'ster. WARBURTON.] Here is a pompous note to +support a conjecture apparently erroneous, and confuted by the next +scene, in which the account is given for the first time to Albany of +Glo'ster's sufferings. + +IV.ii.50 (436,3) Like monsters of the deep] Fishes are the only animals +that are known to prey upon their own species. + +IV.ii.62 (437,5) Thou changed, and self-cover'd thing] Of these lines +there is but one copy, and the editors are forced open conjecture. They +have published this line thus; + + Thou chang'd, and _self-converted_ thing; + +but I cannot but think that by _self-cover'd_ the author meant, thou +that hast _disguised_ nature by wickedness; thou that hast _hid_ the +woman under the fiend. + +IV.ii.83 (438,6) One way, I like this well] Gonerill is well pleased +that Cornwall is destroyed, who was preparing war against her and her +husband, but is afraid of losing Edmund to the widow. + +IV.iii (439,1) _The French camp, near Dover. Enter Kent, and a +Gentleman_] This scene seems to have been left out only to shorten the +play, and is necessary to continue the action. It is extant only in the +quarto, being omitted in the first folio. I have therefore put it +between crotchets. + +IV.iii (439,2) _a Gentleman_] The gentleman whom he sent in the +foregoing act with letters to Cordelia. + +IV.iii.26 (440,4) Made she no verbal question?] I do not see the +impropriety of _verbal question_; such pleonasms are common. So we say, +_my ears have heard, my eyes have beheld_. Besides, where is the word +_quest_ [Warburton's emendation] to be found? + +IV.iii.33 (440,6) And clamour-moisten'd] _Clamour moisten'd her_; that +is, _her out-cries were accompanied with tears_. + +IV.iii.36 (441,7) one self-mate and mate] The same husband and the same +wife. + +IV.iii.51 (441,9) 'Tis so they are a-foot] Dr. Warburton thinks it +necessary to read, _'tis said_; but the sense is plain, _So it is_ that +_they are on foot_. + +IV.iv.4 (442,1) With bur-docks, hemlock] I do not remember any such +plant as a _hardock_, but one of the most common weeds is a _burdock_, +which I believe should be read here; and so Hanmer reads. + +IV.iv.20 (443,2) the means to lead it] The reason which should guide it. + +IV.iv.26 (443,3) My mourning and important tears hath pitied] In other +places of this author for _importunate_. + +IV.iv.27 (443,4) No blown embition] No inflated, no swelling pride. Beza +on the Spanish Armada: + + "Quem bene te ambitio mersit vanissima, ventus, + Et tumidos tumidae voa superastis aquae." + +IV.v.4 (444,1) _Reg._ Lord Edmund spake not with your lady at home?] The +folio reads, _your lord_; but lady is the first and better reading. + +IV.v.22 (444,3) Let me unseal the letter./_Stew._ Madam, I had rather] I +know not well why Shakespeare gives the steward, who is a mere factor of +wickedness, so much fidelity. He now refuses the letter; and afterwards, +when he is dying, thinks only how it may be safely delivered. + +IV.v.29 (445,5) I do advise you, take this note] _Note_ means in this +place not a _letter_ but a _remark_. Therefore _observe_ what I am +saying. + +IV.v.32 (446,6) You may gather more] You may infer more than I have +directly told you. + +IV.vi (446,1) _The country near Dover. Enter Glo'ster, and Edgar as a +peasant_] This scene, and the stratagem by which Glo'ster is cured of +his desperation, are wholly borrowed from Sidney's _Arcadia_. + +IV.vi.7 (447,2) thy voice is alter'd] Edgar alters his voice in order to +pass afterwards for a malignant spirit. + +IV.vi.11 (447,5) How fearful/And dizzy 'tis, to cast one's eyes so low!] +This description has been much admired since the time of Addison, who +has remarked, with a poor attempt at pleasantry, that "he who can read +it without being giddy, has a very good head, or a very bad one." The +description is certainly not mean, but I am far from thinking it wrought +to the utmost excellence of poetry. He that looks from a precipice finds +himself assailed by one great and dreadful image of irresistible +destruction. But this overwhelming idea is dissipated and enfeebled from +the instant that the mind can restore itself to the observation of +particulars, and diffuse its attention to distinct objects. The +enumeration of the choughs and crows, the samphire-man, and the fishers, +counteracts the great effect of the prospect, as it peoples the desert +of intermediate vacuity, and stops the mind in the rapidity of its +descent through emptiness and horror. + +IV.vi.19 (447,4) her cock] Her cock-boat. + +IV.vi.43 (448,6) when life itself/Yields to the theft] When life is +willing to be destroyed. + +IV.vi.47 (449,7) Thus might he pass, indeed] Thus he might _die_ in +reality. We still use the word _passing_ bell. + +IV.vi.53 (449,9) Ten masts at each make not the altitude] [Pope: +attacht] Mr. Pope's conjecture may stand if the word which he uses were +known in our author's time, but I think it is of later introduction. He +may say, + + Ten masts _on end_-- + +IV.vi.57 (449,1) chalky bourn] _Bourn_ seems here to signify a _hill_. +Its common signification is a _brook_. Milton in _Comus_ uses _bosky +bourn_ in the same sense perhaps with Shakespeare. But in both authors +it may mean only a _boundary_. + +IV.vi.73 (450,2) the clearest gods] The purest; the most free from evil. + +IV.vi.80 (450,3) Bear free and patient thoughts] To be melancholy is to +have the mind _chained down_ to one painful idea; there is therefore +great propriety in exhorting Glo'ster to _free thoughts_, to an +emancipation of his soul from grief and despair. + +IV.vi.81 (450,4) The safer sense will ne'er accommodate/His master thus] +[W: sober sense] I read rather, + + The _saner_ sense will ne'er accoomodate + His master thus. + +"Here is Lear, but he must be mad: his sound or _sane_ senses would +never suffer him to be thus disguised." + +IV.vi.87 (451,5) That fellow handles his bow like a crow-keeper] This +_crow-keeper_ was so common in the author's time, that it is one of the +few peculiarities mentioned by Ortelius in his account of our island. + +IV.vi.93 (451,8) Give the word] Lear supposes himself in a garrison, and +before he lets Edgar pass, requires the watch-word. + +IV.vi.97 (452,7) Ha! Gonerill!--with a white beard!] So reads the folio, +properly; the quarto, whom the later editors have followed, has, _Ha! +Gonerill, ha! Regan! they flattered me_, &c. which is not so forcible. + +IV.vi.98 (452,8) They flattered me like a dog] They played the spaniel +to me. + +IV.vi.121 (453,2) Whose face between her forks] I believe that the +_forks_ were two prominences of the ruff rising on each side of the +face. + +IV.vi.124 (453,4) nor the soyled horse] _Soiled_ horse is probably the +same as _pampered_ horse, _un cheval soule_. + +IV.vi.169 (454.5) Robes and furr'd gowns hide all] From _hide all_ to +_accuser's lips_, the whole passage is wanting in the first edition, +being added, I suppose, at his revisal. + +IV.vi.187 (455,8) This a good block!] I do not see how this _block_ +corresponds either with his foregoing or following train of thoughts. +Madmen think not wholly at random. I would read thus, _a good flock_. +_Flocks_ are wool moulded together. The sentence then follows properly: + + It were a delicate stratagem to shoe + A troop of horse with felt;-- + +i.e. with _flocks_ kneaded to a mass, a practice I believe sometimes +used in former ages, for it is mentioned in _Ariosto_: + + "--Fece nel cader strepito quanto + Avesse avuto sotto i piedi il _feltro_." + +It is very common for madmen to catch an accidental hint, and strain it +to the purpose predominant in their minds. Lear picks up a _flock_, and +immediately thinks to surprize his enemies by a troop of horse shod with +_flocks_ or _felt_. Yet _block_ may stand, if we suppose that the sight +of a block put him in mind of mounting his horse. + +IV.vi.199 (457,1) Why, this would make a man, a man of salt] Would make +a man melt away like salt in wet weather. + +IV.vi.206 (457,2) Then there's life in't] The case is not yet desperate. + +IV.vi.217 (457,3) the main descry/Stands on the hourly thought] The +_main_ body is _expected_ to be _descry'd_ every hour. The expression is +harsh. + +IV.vi.246 (459,7) che vor'ye] _I warn you_. Edgar counterfeits the +western dialect. + +IV.vi.281 (460,3) Thee I'll rake up] I'll _cover_ thee. In +Staffordshire, to _rake_ the fire, is to cover it with fuel for the +night. + +IV.vi.234 (460,4) the death-practis'd duke] The duke of Albany, whose +death is machinated by _practice_ or treason. + +IV.vii.3 (461,1) every measure fail me] All good which I shall allot +thee, or _measure out_ to thee, will be scanty. + +IV.vii.9 (461,4) shortens my made intent] [W: laid] An intent _made_, is +an intent _formed_. So we say in common language, to _make a design_, +and to _make a resolution_. + +IV.vii.41 (464,2) 'Tis wonder, that thy life and wits, at once,/Had not +concluded all] [W: concluded.--Ah!] The plain construction is this: _It +is wonder that the wits and life had not all ended_. + +IV.vii.85-97 (466,9) + + [_Gent_. Holds it true, Sir, + That the duke of Cornwall was so slain?] + +What is printed in crotchets is not in the folio. It is at least proper, +if not necessary; and was omitted by the author, I suppose, for no other +reason than to shorten the representation. + +V.i.4 (467,2) his constant pleasure] His settled resolution. + +V.i.54 (470,7) We will greet the time] We will be ready to meet the +occasion. + +V.i.61 (470,8) carry out my side] Bring my purpose to a successful +issue, to completion. _Side_ seems here to have the sense of the French +word _partie_, in _prendre partie, to take his resolution_. + +V.i.68 (471,9) for my state/Stands on me to defend, not to debate] I do +not think that _for_ stands in this place as a word of inference or +causality. The meaning is rather: _Such is my determination concerning +Lear_; _as_ for my state _it requires now, not_ deliberation, _but_ +defence _and support_. + +V.iii.16 (472,1) And take upon us the mystery of things,/As if we were +God's spies] As if we were angels commissioned to survey and report the +lives of men, and were consequently endowed with the power of prying +into the original motives of action and the mysteries of conduct. + +V.iii.18 (472,2) packs and sects] Packs is used for _combinations_ or +_collection_, as is a _pack of cards_. For _sects_ I think _sets_ might +be more commodiously read. So we say, _affairs are now managed by a new_ +set. _Sect_, however, may well stand. + +V.iii.24 (473,6) flesh and fell] Flesh and skin. + +V.iii.54 (475,1) + + [At this time + We sweat and bleed: the friend hath lost his friend; + And the best quarrels, in the heat, are curs'd + By those that feel their sharpness:-- + The question of Cordelia, and her father, + Requires a fitter place.]] + +This passage, well worthy of restoration, is omitted in the folio. + +V.iii.65 (475,4) The which immediacy] [_Immediacy_, for representation. +WARBURTON.] _Immediacy_ is rather _supremacy_ in opposition to +_subordination_, which has _quiddam medium_ between itself and power. + +V.iii.79 (476,7) The lett alone lies not in your good will] Whether he +shall not or shall depends not on your choice. + +V.iii.89 (476,8) An interlude!] This short exclamation of Gonerill is +added in the folio edition, I suppose, only to break the speech of +Albany, that the exhibition on the stage might be more distinct and +intelligible. + +V.iii.129 (478,1) Behold, it is the privilege of mine honours,/My oath, +and my profession] The _privilege_ of this _oath_ means the privilege +gained by taking the oath administered in the regular initiation of a +knight professed. + +V.iii.151 (479,3) + + _Alb._ Save him, save him! + _Gon._ This is mere practice, Glo'ster] + +He desired that Edmund's life might be spared at present, only to obtain +his confession, and to convict him openly by his own letter. + +V.iii.166 (480,6) Let us exchange charity] Our author by negligence +gives his heathens the sentiments and practices of Christianity. In +_Hamlet_ there is the same solemn act of final reconciliation, but with +exact propriety, for the personages are Christians. + +V.iii. 204-221 (481,2) [Edg;.--This would have seem'd a period] The +lines between crotchets are not in the folio. + +V.iii.229 (433,4) Here comes Kent, Sir] The manner in which Edgar here +mentions Kent, seems to require the lines which are inserted from the +first edition in the foregoing scene. + +V.iii.264 (485,7) + + _Edg._ Or image of that horror? + _Alb._ Fall, and cease!] + +These two exclamations are given to Edgar and Albany in the folio, to +animate the dialogue, and employ all the persons on the stage; but they +are very obscure. + +V.iii.301 (487,4) With boot] With advantage, with increase. + +(488) General Observation. The tragedy of Lear is deservedly celebrated +among the dramas of Shakespeare. There is perhaps no play which keeps +the attention so strongly fixed; which so much agitates our passions and +interests our curiosity. The artful involutions of distinct interests, +the striking opposition of contrary characters, the sudden changes of +fortune, and the quick succession of events, fill the mind with a +perpetual tumult of indignation, pity, and hope. There is no scene which +does not contribute to the aggravation of the distress or conduct of the +action, and scarce a line which does not conduce to the progress of the +scene. So powerful is the current of the poet's imagination, that the +mind, which once ventures within it, is hurried irresistibly along. + +On the seeming improbability of Lear's conduct it may be observed, that +he is represented according to histories at that time vulgarly received +as true. And, perhaps, if we turn our thoughts upon the barbarity and +ignorance of the age to which this story is referred, it will appear not +so unlikely as while we estimate Lear's manners by our own. Such +preference of one daughter to another, or resignation of dominion on +such conditions, would be yet credible, if told of a petty prince of +Guinea or Madagascar. Shakespeare, indeed, by the mention of his earls +and dukes, has given us the idea of times more civilized, and of life +regulated by softer manners; and the truth is, that though he so nicely +discriminates, and so minutely describes the characters of men, he +commonly neglects and confounds the characters of ages, by mingling +customs ancient and modern, English and foreign. + +My learned friend Mr. Warton, who has in the _Adventurer_ very minutely +criticised this play, remarks, that the instances of cruelty are too +savage and shocking, and that the intervention of Edmund destroys the +simplicity of the story. These objections may, I think, be answered, by +repeating, that the cruelty of the daughters is an historical fact, to +which the poet has added little, having only drawn it into a series by +dialogue and action. But I am not able to apologize with equal +plausibility for the extrusion of Glo'ster's eyes, which seems an act +too horrid to be endured in dramatic exhibition, and such as must always +compel the mind to relieve its distress by incredulity. Yet let it be +remembered that our author well knew what would please the audience for +which he wrote. + +The injury done by Edmund to the simplicity of the action is abundantly +recompensed by the addition of variety, by the art with which he is made +to co-operate with the chief design, and the opportunity which he gives +the poet of combining perfidy with perfidy, and connecting the wicked +son with the wicked daughters, to impress this important moral, that +villainy is never at a stop, that crimes lead to crimes, and at last +terminate in ruin. + +But though this moral be incidentally enforced, Shakespeare has suffered +the virtue of Cordelia to perish in a just cause, contrary to the +natural ideas of justice, to the hope of the reader, and, what is yet +more strange, to the faith of chronicles. Yet this conduct is justified +by _The Spectator_, who blames Tate for giving Cordelia success and +happiness in his alteration, and declares, that, in his opinion, _the +tragedy has lost half its beauty_. Dennis has remarked, whether justly +or not, that, to secure the favourable reception of _Cato, the town was +poisoned with much false and abominable criticism_, and that endeavours +had been used to discredit and decry poetical justice. A play in which +the wicked prosper, and the virtuous miscarry, may doubtless be good, +because it is a just representation of the common events of human life: +but since all reasonable beings naturally love justice, I cannot easily +be persuaded, that the observation of justice makes a play worse; or, +that if other excellencies are equal, the audience will not always rise +better pleased from the final triumph of persecuted virtue. + +In the present case the public has decided. Cordelia, from the time of +Tate, has always retired with victory and felicity. And, if my +sensations could add any thing to the general suffrage, I night relate, +I was many years ago so shocked by Cordelia's death, that I know not +whether I ever endured to read again the last scenes of the play till I +undertook to revise them as an editor. + +There is another controversy among the critics concerning this play. It +is disputed whether the predominant image in Lear's disordered mind be +the loss of his kingdom or the cruelty of his daughters. Mr. Murphy, a +very judicious critic, has evinced by induction of particular passages, +that the cruelty of his daughters is the primary source of his distress, +and that the loss of royalty affects him only as a secondary and +subordinate evil. He observes with great justness, that Lear would move +our compassion but little, did we not rather consider the injured father +than the degraded king. + +The story of this play, except the episode of Edmund, which is derived, +I think, from Sidney, is taken originally from Geoffry of Monmouth, whom +Hollinshed generally copied; but perhaps immediately from an old +historical ballad. My reason for believing that the play was posterior +to the ballad, rather than the ballad to the play, is, that the ballad +has nothing of Shakespeare's nocturnal tempest, which is too striking to +have been omitted, and that it follows the chronicle; it has the +rudiments of the play, but none of its amplifications: it first hinted +Lear's madness, but did not array it in circumstances. The writer of the +ballad added something to the history, which is a proof that he would +have added more, if more had occurred to his mind, and more must have +occurred if he had seen Shakespeare. [Johnson appends "A lamentable SONG +of the Death of King Leir and his Three Daughters"] + + + + +Vol. I + +ROMEO AND JULIET + + +I.i.82 (9,7) Give me my long sword] The _long sword_ was the sword used +in war, which was sometimes wielded with both hands. + +I.i.158 (11,2) + + As is the bud bit with an envious worm, + Ere he can spread his sweet leaves to the air, + Or dedicate his beauty to the same] + +I cannot but suspect that some lines are lost, which connected this +simile more closely with the foregoing speech; these lines, if such +there were, lamented the danger that Romeo will die of his melancholy, +before his virtues or abilities were known to the world. + +I.i.176 (12,3) + + Alas, that love, whose view is muffled still, + Should, without eyes, see path-ways to his will.] + +Sir T. Hanmer, and after him Dr. Warburton, read, to his _ill_. The +present reading has some obscurity; the meaning may be, that _love_ +finds out means to pursue his _desire_. That the _blind_ should _find +paths to ill_ is no great wonder. + +I.i.183 (13,4) O brawling love! O loving hate!] Of these lines neither +the sense nor occasion is very evident. He is not yet in love with an +eneny, and to love one and hate another is no such uncommon state, as +can deserve all this toil of antithesis. + +I.i.192 (14,5) Why, such is love's transgression] Such is the +consequence of unskilful and mistaken kindness. (see 1765, VIII, 12, 2) + +1.1.198 (14,6) Being purg'd, a fire sparkling in lovers' eyes] The +author may mean _being purged of smoke_, but it is perhaps a meaning +never given to the word in any other place. I would rather read, _Being_ +urged, _a fire sparkling_. Being excited and inforced. To _urge_ the +fire is the technical term. + +I.i.199 (14,7) Being vex'd, a sea nourish'd with lovers' tears] As this +line stands single, it is likely that the foregoing or following line +that rhym'd to it, is lost. + +I.i.206 (14,8) Tell me in sadness] That is, tell me _gravely_, tell me +in _seriousness_. + +I.i.217 (15,1) in strong proof] In chastity _of proof_, as we say in +armour _of proof_. + +I.i.222 (15,2) + + O, she is rich in beauty; only poor + That when she dies, with beauty dies her store] + +Mr. Theobald reads, "_With_ her dies beauties _store_;" and is followed +by the two succeeding editors. I have replaced the old reading, because +I think it at least as plausible as the correction. _She is rich_, says +he, _in beauty_, and _only poor_ in being subject to the lot of +humanity, that _her store_, or riches, _can be destroyed by death_, who +shall, by the same blow, put an end to beauty. + +I.ii.15 (17,2) She is the hopeful lady of my earth] _The lady of his +earth_ is an expression not very intelligible, unless he means that she +is heir to his estate, and I suppose no man ever called his lands his +earth. I will venture to propose a bold change: + + She is the hope _and stay_ of my _full years_. + +I.ii.25 (18,3) Earth-treading stars that make dark heaven light] [W: +dark even] But why nonsense [Warburton's comment]? Is any thing mere +commonly said, than that beauties eclipse the sun? Has not Pope the +thought and the word? + + "Sol through white curtains shot a tim'rous ray, + "And spe'd those eyes that must _eclipse the day_." + +Both the old and the new reading are philosophical nonsense, but they +are both, and both equally poetical sense. + +I.ii.26 (18,4) Such comfort as do lusty young men feel] To say, and to +say in pompous words, that a _young man shall feel_ as much in an +assembly of beauties, _as young men feel in the month of April_, is +surely to waste sound upon a very poor sentiment. I read, + + Such comfort as do lusty _yeomen_ feel. + +You shall feel from the sight and conversation of these ladies, such +hopes of happiness and such pleasure, as the farmer receives from the +spring, when the plenty of the year begins, and the prospect of the +harvest fills him with delight. + +I.ii.32 (18,5) + + Such, amongst view of many, mine, being one. + May stand in number, the' in reckoning none] + +The first of these lines I do not understand. The old folio gives no +help; the passage is there, _Which_ one _more view_. I can offer nothing +better than this: + + _Within your view_ of many, mine being one, + May stand in number, &c. + +I.iii.13 (22,1) to my teen] To my sorrow. + +I.iii.66 (24,4) It is an honour] The modern editors all read, _it is an +honour_. I have restored the genuine word ["hour"], which is more seemly +from a girl to her mother. _Your, fire_, and such words as are vulgarly +uttered in two syllables, are used as dissyllables by Shakespeare. [The +first quarto reads _honour_; the folio _hour_. I have chosen the reading +of the quarto. STEEVENS.] (rev. 1778, X, 28, 2) + +I.iii.92 (25,9) That in gold clasps locks in the golden story] The +_golden story_ is perhaps the _golden legend_, a book in the darker ages +of popery much read, and doubtless often exquisitely embellished, but of +which Canus, one of the popish doctors, proclaims the author to have +been _homo ferrei oris, plumbei cordis_. + +I.iv.6 (27,2) like a crow-keeper] The word _crow-keeper_ is explained in +Lear. + +I.iv.37 (28,8) for I am proverb'd with a grand-sire phrase] The +grandsire phrase is--_The black ox has trod upon my foot_. + +I.iv.42 (30,1) Or (save your reverence) love] The word _or_ obscures the +sentence; we ahould read _O_! for _or love_. Mercutio having called the +affection vith which Romeo was entangled by so disrespectful a word as +_mire_, cries out, + + O! save your reverence, love. + +I.iv.84 (34,7) Spanish blades] A sword is called a toledo, from the +excellence of the Toletan steel. So Gratius, + + "--Ensis Toletanus + "Unda Tagi non est alie celebranda metallo, + Utilis in cives est ibi lamna sues." + +I.iv.113 (35,9) Direct my sail:] [I have restored this reading from the +elder quarto, as being more congruous to the metaphor in the preceding +line. _Suit_ is the reading of the folio. STEEVENS.] + + _Direct my suit_! Guide the _sequel_ of the adventure. + +I.v.27 (37,4) + + You are welcome, gentlemen. Come musicians, play. + A ball! a ball! Give room. And foot it, girls] + +These two lines, omitted by the modern editors, I have replaced from the +folio. + +I.v.32 (37, 6) good cousin Capulet] This _cousin_ Capulet is _unkle_ in +the paper of invitation; but as Capulet is described as old, _cousin_ is +probably the right word in both places. I know not how Capulet and his +lady might agree, their ages were very disproportionate; he has been +past masking for thirty years, and her age, as she tells Juliet, is but +eight-and-twenty. + +II.Prologue (42,3) _Enter CHORUS_] The use of this chorus is not easily +discovered; it conduces nothing to the progress of the play, but relates +what is already known, or what the next scenes will shew; and relates it +without adding the improvement of any moral sentiment. + +II.ii.1 (45,1) He jests at scars] That is, Mercutio jests, whom he +overheard. + +II.ii.7 (45,2) Be not her maid] Be not a votary to the moon, to Diana. + +II.ii.10 (45,3) + + It is my lady; O! it is my love; + O, that she knew we were!] + +This line and half I have replaced. + +II.ii.39 (47,7) Thou art thyself, though not a Montague] I think the +true reading is, + + Thou art thyself, _then_ not a Montague. + +Thou art a being of peculiar excellence, and hast none of the malignity +of the family, from which thou hast thy name.--Hanmer reads, + + Thour't not _thyself_ so, _though_ a Montague. + +II.iii.15 (53,6) the powerful grace, that lies/In plants] Efficacious +virtue. + +II.iii.27 (53,7) Two such opposed foes encamp them still] [W: opposed +kin] _Foes_ may be the right reading, or _kings_, but I think _kin_ can +hardly be admitted. Two _kings_ are two opposite _powers_, two +contending _potentates_, in both the natural and moral world. The word +_encamp_ is proper to _commanders_. (see 1765, VIII, 46, 2) + +II.iv.20 (57,3) courageous captain of compliments] A complete master of +all the laws of ceremony, the principal man in the doctrine of +punctilio. + + "A man of compliments, whom right and wrong + "Have chose as umpire;" + +says our author of Don _Armado_, the Spaniard, in _Love's Labour Lost_. + +II.iv.27 (57,6) the hay!] All the terms of the modern fencing-school +were originally Italian; the rapier, or small thrusting sword, being +first used in Italy. The _hay_ is the word _hai_, you _have_ it, used +when a thrust reaches the antagonist, from which our fencers, on the +same occasion, without knowing, I suppose, any reason for it, cry out, +_ha_! + +II.iv.35 (58,9) these pardonnez-moy's] _Pardonnez-moi_ became the +language of doubt or hesitation among men of the sword, when the point +of honour was grown so delicate, that no other mode of contradiction +would be endured. + +II.iv.64 (59,3) then is my pump wall flower'd] Here is a vein of wit too +thin to be easily found. The fundamental idea is, that Romeo wore +_pinked_ pumps, that is, pumps punched with holes in figures. + +II.iv.87 (60,7) a wit of cheverel] _Cheverel_ is soft-leather for +gloves. + +II.iv.138 (62,8) No hare, Sir] Mercutio having roared out, _So ho_! the +cry of the sportsmen when they start a hare; Romeo asks _what he has +found_. And Mercutio answers, _No hare_, &c. The rest is a series of +quibbles unworthy of explanation, which he who does not understand, +needs not lament his ignorance. + +II.iv.162 (63,1) none of his skains-mates] The word _skains-mate_, I do +not understand, but suppose that _skains_ was some low play, and +_skains-mate_, a companion at such play. + +II.iv.200 (64,2) like a tackled stair] Like stairs of rope in the tackle +of a ship. + +II.iv.222 (65,4) Ah, mocker! that's the dog's name. R is for the nonce; +I know it begins with another letter] This passage is thus in the old +folio. _A mocker, that's the dog's name. R is for the_ no, _I know it +begins with some other letter._ In this copy the error is but small. I +read, _Ah, mocker. that's the dog's name. R is for the_ nonce, _I know +it begins with another letter._ For the _nonce_, is for some _design, +for a sly trick_. + +II.vi.15 (70,2) Too swift arrives as tardy as too slow] He that travels +too fast is as long before he comes to the end of his journey, as he +that travels slow. Precipitation produces mishap. + +III.i.2 (71,1) The day is hot] It is observed, that in Italy almost all +assassinations are committed during the heat of summer. + +III.i.124 (75,6) This day's black fate on more days does depend] This +day's unhappy destiny _hangs over_ the days yet to come. There will yet +be more mischief. + +III.i.141 (78,7) Oh! I am fortune's fool] I am always running in the way +of evil fortune, _like_ the fool in the play. _Thou art death's fool_, +in _Measure for Measure_. See Dr. Warburton's note. + +III.i.153 (77,8) as thou art true] As thou art _just_ and _upright_. + +III.i.159 (77,9) How nice the quarrel] How _slight_, how _unimportant_, +how _petty_. So in the last act, + + The letter was not _nice_, but full of charge + Of dear import. + +III.i.182 (78,2) Affection makes him false] The charge of falshood on +Bonvolio, though produced at hazard, is very just. The author, who seems +to intend the character of Bonvolio as good, meant perhaps to shew, how +the best minds, in a state of faction and discord, are detorted to +criminal partiality. + +III.i.193 (78,3) I have an interest in your hate's proceeding: Sir +Thomas Hanmer saw that this line gave no sense, and therefore put, by a +very easy change, + + I have an interest in your _heat's_ proceeding! + +which is undoubtedly better than the old reading which Dr. Warburton has +followed; but the sense yet seems to be weak, and perhaps a more +licentious correction is necessary. I read therefore, + + I _had no_ interest in your _heat's preceding_. + +This, says the prince, is no quarrel of mine, _I had no interest in your +former discord_; I suffer merely by your private animosity. + +III.ii.5 (79,3) Spread thy close curtain, love-performing night,/That +run-away's eyes may wink] [Warburton explained the "run-away" as the +"sun"] I am not satisfied with this explanation, yet have nothing better +to propose. + +III.ii.10 (80,4) Come, civil night] _Civil_ is _grave, decently solemn_. + +III.ii.14 (80,5) unmann'd blood] Blood yet unacquainted with man. + +III.ii.25 (81,6) the garish sun] Milton had this speech in his thoughts +when he wrote _Il Penseroso_. + + "--Civil night, + "Thou sober-suited matron."--_Shakespeare_. + "Till civil-suited morn appear."--_Milton_. + "Pay no worship to the gairish sun."--_Shakespeare_. + "Hide me from day's gairish eye."--_Milton_. + +III.ii.46 (82,7) the death-darting eye of cockatrice] [The strange lines +that follow here in the common books are not in the old edition. POPE.] +The strange lines are these: + + I am not I, if there be such an I, + Or these eyes shot, that makes thee answer I; + If he be slain, say I; or if not, no; + Brief sounds determine of my weal or woe. + +These lines hardly deserve emendatien; yet it may be proper to observe, +that their meanness has not placed them below the malice of fortune, the +two first of them being evidently transposed; we should read, + + --That one vowel _I_ shall poison more, + Than the death-darting eye of cockatrice, + Or these eyes shot, that make thee answer, I. + I am not I, &c. + +III.ii.114 (85,9) Hath slain ten thousand Tybalts] Hath put Tybalt out +of my mind, as if out of being. + +III.ii.120 (85,1) Which modern lamentation might have mov'd] This line +is left out of the later editions, I suppose because the editors did not +remember that Shakespeare uses _modern_ for _common_, or _slight_: I +believe it was in his time confounded in colloquial language with +_moderate_. + +III.iii.112 (89,4) + + Unseemly woman in a seeming man! + And ill-beseeming beast in seeming both!] + +[W: seeming groth] The old reading is probable. _Thou art a beast of ill +qualities, under the appearance both of a woman and a man_. + +III.iii.135 (90,5) And thou dismember'd with thine own defence] And thou +torn to pieces with thy own weapons. + +III.iii.166-168 (91,6) Go hence. Good night] These three lines are +omitted in all the modern editions. + +III.iii.166 (91,7) here stands all your state] The whole of your fortune +depends on this. + +III.iv.12 (92,9) Sir Paris, I will make a desperate tender/Of my child's +love] _Desperate_ means only _bold, advent'rous_, as if he had said in +the vulgar phrase, _I will speak a_ bold _word_, and venture _to promise +you my daughter_. + +III.v.20 (94,1) 'Tis but the pale reflex of Cynthia's brow] The +appearance of a cloud opposed to the moon. + +III.v.23 (94,2) I have more care to stay, than will to go] Would it be +better thus, _I have more will to stay, than care to go_? + +III.v.31 (94,3) Some say, the lark and loathed toad chang'd eyes] This +tradition of the toad and lark I hare heard expressed in a rustick +rhyme, + + --_to heav'n I'd fly, + But the toad beguil'd me of my eye._ + +III.v.33 (95,4) + + Since arm from arm that voice doth us affray, + Hunting thee hence with huntaup to the day] + +These two lines are omitted in the modern editions, and do not deserve +to be replaced, but as they may shew the danger of critical temerity. +Dr. Warburton's change of _I would_ to _I wot_ was specious enough, yet +it it is evidently erroneous. The sense is this, _The lark, they say, +has lost her eyes to the toad, and now_ I would _the toad had her voice +too, since she uses it to the disturbance of lovers_. + +III.v.86 (97,3) + + _Jul._ Ay, Madam, from the reach of these my hands: + 'Would, none but I might venge my cousin's death.!] + +Juliet's equivocations are rather too artful for a mind disturbed by the +loss of a new lover. + +III.v.91 (98,4) That shall bestow on hin so sure a draught] [Thus the +elder quarto, which I have followed in preference to the quarto 1609, +and the folio 1623, which read, less intelligibly, + + "Shall give him such an unaccustom'd dram." STEEVENS.] + +--_unaccustomed dram_.] In vulgar language, Shall give him a _dram_ +which he is _not used_ to. Though I have, if I mistake not, observed, +that in old books _unaccustomed_ signifies _wonderful, powerful, +efficacious_. + +III.v.112 (98,6) in happy time] _A la bonne heure_. This phrase was +interjected, when the hearer was not quite so well pleased as the +speaker. + +III.v.227 (103,3) As living here] Sir T. HANMER reads, _as living_ +hence; that is, at a dsitance, in banishment; but _here_ may signify, +_in this world_. + +IV.i.3 (104,1) And I am nothing alow to slack his haste] _His haste +shall not be abated by my slowness_. It might be read, + + And I an nothing slow to _back_ his haste: + +that is, I am diligent to _abet_ and _enforce_ his haste. + +IV.i.l8 (104,2) + + _Par._ Happily met, my lady and my wife! + _Jul._ That may be, Sir, when I may be a wife] + +As these four first lines seem intended to rhyme, perhaps the author wrote thus: + + --my lady and my _life_! + +IV.i.62 (106,3) this bloody knife/Shall play the umpire] That is, this +knife shall decide the struggle between me and my distress. + +IV.i.64 (106,4) commission of thy years and art] _Commission_ is for +_authority_ or _power_. + +IV.i.79 (106,5) + + Or chain me to some sleepy mountain's top, + Where rearing bears and savage lions roam; + Or shut me nightly in a charnel house] + [Or walk in thievish ways, or bid me lurk + Where serpents are; chain me with rearing bears, + Or hide me nightly, &c. + +It is thus the editions vary. POPE.] my edition has the words which Mr. +Pope has omitted; but the old copy seems in this place preferable; only +perhaps we might better read, + + Where _savage_ bears and _rearing_ lions roam. + +IV.i.119 (108,8) If no unconstant toy] If no _fickle freak_, no _light +caprice_, no _change of fancy_, hinder the performance. + +IV.ii.38 (110,2) We shall be short] That is, we shall be _defective_. + +IV.iii.3 (110,3) For I have need of many orisons] Juliet plays most of +her pranks under the appearance of religion: perhaps Shakespeare meant +to punish her hypocrisy. + +IV.iii.46 (112,6) Alas, alas! it is not like that I] This speech is +confused, and inconsequential, according to the disorder of Juliet's +mind. + +IV.iv.4 (113,1) The curfeu bell] I knew not that the morning-bell is +called the _curfeu_ in any other place. + +IV.iv.107 (119,9) O, play me some merry dump] This is not in the folio, +but the answer plainly requires it. + +V.i (121,1) ACT V. SCENE I. MANTUA] The acts are here properly enough +divided, nor did any better distribution than the editors have already +made, occur to me in the perusal of this play; yet it may not be +improper to remark, that in the first folio, and I suppose the foregoing +editions are in the same state, there is no division of the acts, and +therefore some future editor may try, whether any improvement can be +made, by reducing them to a length more equal, or interrupting the +action at more proper intervals. + +V.i.1 (121,2) If I may trust the flattering truth of sleep] The sense +is, _If I may only trust the_ honesty _of sleep_, which I know however +not to be so nice as not often to practise _flattery_. + +V.i.3 (121,3) + + My bosom's lord sits lightly on his throne; + And all this day an unaccustom'd spirit + Lifts me above the ground with chearful thoughts] + +These three lines are very gay and pleasing. But why does Shakespeare +give Romeo this involuntary cheerfulness just before the extremity of +unhappiness? Perhaps to shew the vanity of trusting to these uncertain +and casual exaltations or depressions, which many consider as certain +foretokens of good and evil. + +V.i.45 (123,6) A beggarly account of empty boxes] Dr. Warburton would +read, a _braggartly_ account; but _beggarly_ is probably right: if the +_boxes_ were _empty_, the _account_ was more _beggarly_, as it was more +pompous. + +V.iii.31 (127,1) a ring that I must use/In dear employment] That is, +_action of importance_. Gems were supposed to have great powers and +virtues. + +V.iii.86 (129,4) her beauty makes/This vault a feasting presence full of +light] A _presence_ is a _public room_. + +V.iii.90 (129,5) O, how may I/Call this a lightning?] I think we should +read, + + --_O_, now _may I + Call this a lightning_!-- + +V.iii.178 (135,1) + + Raise up the Montagues.--Some others; search:-- + We see the ground whereon these woes do lie; + But the true ground of all these piteous woes + We cannot without circumstance descry] + +Here seems to be a rhyme intended, which may be easily restored; + + "Raise up the Montagues. Some others, go. + "We see the ground whereon these woes do lie, + "But the true ground of all _this_ piteous _woe_ + "We cannot without circumstance descry." + +V.iii.194 (136,2) What fear is this, which startles in our ears?] +[Originally _your ears_] Read, + + "What fear is this, which startles in _our_ ears? + +V.iii.229 (138,6) _Fri._ I will be brief] It is much to be lamented, +that the poet did not conclude the dialogue with the action, and avoid a +narrative of events which the audience already knew. + +(141) General Observation. This play is one of the most pleasing of our +author's performances. The scenes are busy and various, the incidents +numerous and important, the catastrophe irresistibly affecting, and the +process of the action carried on with such probability, at least with +such congruity to popular opinions, as tragedy requires. + +Here is one of the few attempts of Shakespeare to exhibit the +conversation of gentlemen, to represent the airy sprightliness of +juvenile elegance. Mr. Dryden mentions a tradition, which might easily +reach his time, of a declaration made by Shakespeare, that _he was +obliged to kill Mercutio in the third act, lest he should have been +killed by him_. Yet he thinks him _no such formidable person, but that +he might have lived through the play, and died in his bed_, without +danger to a poet. Dryden well knew, had he been in quest of truth, that, +in a pointed sentence, more regard is commonly had to the words than the +thought, and that it is very seldom to be rigorously understood. +Mercutio's wit, gaiety, and courage, will always procure him friends +that wish him a longer life; but his death is not precipitated, he has +lived out the time allotted him in the construction of the play; nor do +I doubt the ability of Shakespeare to have continued his existence, +though some of his sallies are perhaps out of the reach of Dryden; whose +genius was not very fertile of merriment, nor ductile to humour, but +acute, argumentative, comprehensive, and sublime. + +The Nurse is one of the characters in which the author delighted: he +has, with great subtilty of distinction, drawn her at once loquacious +and secret, obsequious and insolent, trusty and dishonest. + +His comic scenes are happily wrought, but his pathetic strains are +always polluted with some unexpected depravations. His persons, however +distressed, _have a conceit left them in their misery, a miserable +conceit_. + + + + +HAMLET + + +(145,2) This play is printed both in the folio of 1623, and in the +quarto of 1637, more correctly, than almost any other of the works of +Shakespeare. + +I.i.29 (147,7) approve our eyes] Add a new testimony to that of our +eyes. + +I.i.33 (147,8) What we two nights have seen] This line is by Hanmer +given to Marcellus, but without necessity. + +I.i.63 (149,9) He smote the sledded Polack on the ice] Polack was, in +that age, the term for an inhabitant of Poland: Polaque, French. As in a +translation of Passeratius's epitaph on Henry III. of France, published +by Camden: + + "Whether thy chance or choice thee hither brings, + "Stay, passenger, and wail the best of kings. + "this little stone a great king's heart doth hold, + "Who rul'd the fickle French and Polacks bold: + "So frail are even the highest earthly things, + "Go, passenger, and wail the hap of kings." (rev. 1776, I, 174,3) + +I.i.65 (149,2) and just at this dead hour] The old reading is, _jump at +this same hour; same_ is a kind of correlative to _jump; just_ is in the +oldest folio. The correction was probably made by the author. + +I.i.68 (149,4) gross and scope] General thoughts, and tendency at large. +(1773) + +I.i.93 (151,7) And carriage of the articles design'd] _Carriage_, is +_import; design'd_, is _formed, drawn up between them_. + +I.i.96 (151,8) Of unimproved mettle hot and full] _Full of unimproved +mettle_, is full of spirit not regulated or guided by knowledge or +experience. + +I.i.100 (151,1) That hath a stomach in't] _Stomach_, in the time of our +author, was used for _constancy, resolution_. + +I.i.107 (152,3) romage] Tumultous hurry. (1773) + +I.i.108-125 (152,3) These, and all other lines confin'd within crotchets +throughout this play, are omitted in the folio edition of 1623. The +omissions leave the play sometimes better and sometimes worse, and seen +made only for the sake of abbreviation. + +I.i.109 (152,4) Well may it sort] The cause and the effect are +proportionate and suitable. (1773) + +I.i.121 (152,7) Was even the like precurse of fierce events] Not only +such prodigies have been seen in Rome, but the elements have shewn our +countrymen like forerunners and foretokens of violent events. (1773) + +I.i.128 (153,1) If thou hast any sound] The speech of Horatio to the +spectre is very elegant and noble, and congruous to the common +traditions of the causes of apparitions. + +I.i.153 (154,2) + + Whether in sea or fire, in earth or air, + The extravagant and erring spirit hies + To his confine] + +According to the pneumatology of that tine, every element was inhabited +by its peculiar order of spirits, who had dispositions different, +according to their various places of abode. The meaning therefore is, +that all _spirits extravagant_, wandering out of their element, whether +aerial spirits visiting earth, or earthly spirits ranging the air, +return to their station, to their proper limits in which they are +_confined_. We might read, + + "--And at his warning + "Th' extravagant and erring spirit hies + "To his confine, whether in sea or air, + "Or earth, or fire. And of, &c. + +But this change, tho' it would smooth the construction, is not +necessary, and being unnecessary, should not be made against authority. + +I.i.163 (154,5) No fairy takes] No fairy _strikes_, with lameness or +diseases. This sense of _take_ is frequent in this author. + +I.ii.37 (156,8) more than the scope/Of these dilated articles allows] +More than is comprised in the general design of these articles, which +you may explain in a more diffuse and dilated stile. (1773) + +I.ii.47 (157,9) + + The head is not more native to the heart, + The hand more instrumental to the mouth, + Than to the throne of Denmark is thy father] + +[W: The blood ... Than to the throne] Part of this emendation I have +received, but cannot discern why the _head_ is not as much _native to +the heart_, as the _blood_, that is, _natural_ and _congenial_ to it, +_born with it_, and co-operating with it. The relation is likewise by +this reading better preserved, the _counsellor_ being to the _king_ as +the _head_ to the _heart_. + +I.ii.62 (158,1) + + Take thy fair hour, Laertes; time be thine, + And thy best graces spend it at thy will] + +I rather think this line is in want of emendation. I read, + + --_Time is thine_, + _And_ my best _graces; spend it at thy will_. + +I.ii.65 (158,2) A little more than kin, and less than kind] _Kind_ is +the Teutonick word for _child_. Hamlet therefore answers with propriety, +to the titles of _cousin_ and _son_, which the king had given him, that +he was somewhat more than _cousin_, and less than _son_. + +I.ii.67 (159,3) too much i' the sun] He perhaps alludes to the proverb, +_Out of heaven's blessing into the warm sun_. + +I.ii.70 (159,4) veiled lids] With lowering eyes, cast down eyes. (1773) + +I.ii.89 (160,5) your father lost a father;/That father lost, lost his] I +do not admire the repetition of the word, but it has so much of our +author's manner, that I find no temptation to recede from the old +copies. + +I.ii.92 (160,6) obsequious sorrow] _Obsequious_ is here from +_obsequies_, or _funeral ceremonies_. + +I.ii.103 (161,9) To reason most absurd] Reason is here used in its +common sense, for the _faculty_ by which we form conclusions from +arguments. + +I.ii.110 (161,1) And with no less nobility of love] [_Nobility_, for +_magnitude_. WARBURTON.] _Nobility_ is rather _generosity_. + +I.ii.112 (161,2) Do I impart toward you] I believe _impart_ is, _impart +myself_, _communicate_ whatever I can bestow. + +I.ii.125 (162,4) No jocund health] The king's intemperance is very +strongly impressed; every thing that happens to him gives him occasion +to drink. + +I.ii.163 (164,9) I'll change that name] I'll be your servant, you shall +be my friend. (1773) + +I.ii.164 (164,1) what make you] A familiar phrase for _what are you +doing_. + +I.ii.167 (164,2) good Even, Sir] So the copies. Sir Th. Hanmer and Dr. +Warburton put it, _good morning_. The alteration is of no importance, +but all licence is dangerous. There is no need of any change. Between +the first and eighth scene of this act it is apparent, that a natural +day must pass, and how much of it is already over, there is nothing that +can determine. The king has held a council. It may now as well be +_evening_ as _morning_. + +I.ii.182 (165,3) 'Would I had met my dearest foe in heaven] _Dearest_, +for _direst_, most dreadful, most dangerous. + +I.ii.192 (165,5) Season your admiration] That is, _temper_ it. + +I.ii.204 (166,6) they, distill'd/Almost to jelly with the act of +fear,/Stand dumb] [W: th' effect of] Here is an affectation of subtilty +without accuracy. _Fear_ is every day considered as an _agent_. _Fear +laid hold on him; fear drove him away_. If it were proper to be rigorous +in examining trifles, it might be replied, that Shakespeare would write +more erroneously, if he wrote by the direction of this critick; they +were not _distilled_, whatever the word may mean, _by the effect of +fear_; for that _distillation_ was itself the _effect_; _fear_ was the +cause, the active cause, that _distilled_ them by that force of +operation which we strictly call _act_ involuntary, and _power_ in +involuntary agents, but popularly call _act_ in both. But of this too +much. + +I.iii.15 (169,9) The virtue of his will] _Virtue_ seems here to comprise +both _excellence_ and _power_, and may be explained the _pure effect_. + +I.iii.21 (169,1) The sanity and health of the whole state] [W: safety] +HANMER reads very rightly, _sanity_. _Sanctity_ is elsewhere printed for +_sanity_, in the old edition of this play. + +I.iii.32 (170,2) unmaster'd] i.e. _licentious_. (1773) + +I.iii.34 (170,3) keep you in the rear of your affection] That is, do not +advance so far as your affection would lead you. + +I.iii.49 (170,4) Whilst, like a puft and reckless libertine] [W: Whilest +he] The emendation is not amiss, but the reason for it is very +inconclusive; we use the same mode of speaking on many occasions. When I +say of one, _he squanders like a spendthrift_, of another, _he robbed me +like a thief_, the phrase produces no ambiguity; it is understood that +the one is a _spendthrift_, and the other a _thief_. + +I.iii.64 (172,7) But do not dull thy palm with entertainment/Of each +new-hatch'd, unfledg'd comrade] The literal sense is, _Do not make thy +palm callous by shaking every man by the hand_. The figurative meaning +may be, _Do not by promiscuous conversation make thy mind insensible to +the difference of characters_. + +I.iii.81 (173,1) my blessing season this in thee!] [_Season_, for +_infuse_. WARBURTON.] It is more than to _infuse_, it is to infix it in +such a manner as that it never may wear out. + +I.iii.83 (173,3) your servants tend] i.e. your servants are waiting for +you. (1773) + +I.iii.86 (173,4) 'Tis in my memory lock'd,/And you yourself shall keep +the key of it] That is, By thinking on you, I shall think on your +lessons. + +I.iii.107 (174,6) + + Tender yourself mere dearly; + Or (not to crack the wind of the poor phrase) + Wronging it thus, you'll tender me a fool] + +I believe the word _wronging_ has reference, not to the phrase, but to +Ophelia; if you go on _wronging it thus_, that is, _if you continue to +go on thus wrong_. This is a mode of speaking perhaps not very +grammatical, but very common, nor have the best writers refused it. + + _To sinner it or saint it_, + +is in Pope. And Rowe, + + --_Thus to_ coy it, + _To one who knows you too._ + +The folio has it, + + --_roaming it thus_,-- + +That is, _letting yourself loose to such improper liberty_. But +_wronging_ seems to be more proper. + +I.iii.112 (175,7) fashion you may call it] She uses _fashion_ for +_manner_, and he for a _transient practice_. + +I.iii.122 (175,8) Set your intreatments] _Intreatments_ here means +_company, conversation_, from the French _entretien_. + +I.iii.125 (175,9) larger tether] _Tether_ is that string by which an +animal, set to graze in grounds uninclosed, is confined within the +proper limits. (1773) + +I.iii.132 (176,2) I would not, in plain terms, from this time forth,/ +Have you so slander any moment's leisure] [The humour of this is fine. +WARBURTON.] Here is another _fine_ passage, of which I take the beauty +to be only imaginary. Polonius says, _in plain terms_, that is, not in +language less elevated or embellished than before, but _in terms that +cannot be misunderstood_: _I would not have you so disgrace your most +idle moments, as not to find better employment for them than lord +Hamlet's conversation_. + +I.iv.9 (177,3) the swaggering up-spring] The blustering upstart. + +I.iv.17 (177,4) This heavy-headed revel, east and west] I should not +have suspected this passage of ambiguity or obscurity, had I not found +my opinion of it differing from that of the learned critic [Warburton]. +I construe it thus, _This heavy-headed revel makes us traduced east and +west, and taxed of other nations_. + +I.iv.22 (178,5) The pith and marrow of our attribute] The best and most +valuable part of the praise that would be otherwise attributed to us. + +I.iv.32 (178,7) fortune's scar] In the old quarto of 1637, it is + + --_fortune's_ star: + +But I think _scar_ is proper. + +I.iv.34 (178,8) As infinite as man may undergo] As large as can be +accumulated upon man. + +I.iv.39-57 (179,2) Angels and ministers of grace defend us!] Hamlet's +speech to the apparition of his father seems to me to consist of three +parts. When first he sees the spectre, he fortifies himself with an +invocation. + + _Angel and ministers of grace defend us!_ + +As the spectre approaches, he deliberates with himself, and determines, +that whatever it be he will venture to address it. + + _Be thou a spirit of health, or goblin damn'd, + Bring with thee airs from heaven, or blasts from hell, + Be thy intents wicked or charitable, + Thou com'st in such a questionable shape, + That I will speak to thee. I'll call thee_, &c. + +This he says while his father is advancing; he then, as he had +determined, _speaks to him_, and _calls him--Hamlet, King, Father, Royal +Dane: oh! answer me_. (1773) + +I.iv.43 (180,4) questionable shape] [By _questionable_ is meant +provoking question. HANMER.] So in _Macbeth_, + + _Live you, or are you aught + That man may_ question? + +I.iv.46 (180,5) tell,/Why thy canoniz'd bones, hearsed in death,/ Have +burst their cearments?] [W: in earth] It were too long to examine this +note period by period, though almost every period seems to me to contain +something reprehensible. The critic, in his zeal for change, writes with +so little consideration, as to say, that Hamlet cannot call his father +_canonized_, because _we are told he was murdered with all his sins +fresh upon him_. He was not then told it, and had so little the power of +knowing it, that he was to be told it by an apparition. The long +succession of reasons upon reasons prove nothing, but what every reader +discovers, that the king had been buried, which is implied by so many +adjuncts of burial, that the direct mention of _earth_ is not necessary. +Hamlet, amazed at an apparition, which, though in all ages credited, has +in all ages been considered as the most wonderful and most dreadful +operation of supernatural agency, enquires of the spectre, in the most +emphatic terms, why he breaks the order of nature, by returning from the +dead; this he asks in a very confused circumlocution, confounding in his +fright the soul and body. Why, says he, have _thy bones_, which with due +ceremonies have been intombed _in death_, in the common state of +departed mortals, _burst_ the folds in which they were embalmed? Why has +the tomb, in which we saw thee quietly laid, opened his mouth, that +mouth which, by its weight and stability, seemed closed for ever? The +whole sentence is this: _Why dost thou appear, whom we know to be dead?_ + +Had the change of the word removed any obscurity, or added any beauty, +it might have been worth a struggle; but either reading leaves the sense +the same. + +If there be any asperity in this controversial note, it must be imputed +to the contagion of peevishneas, or some resentment of the incivility +shewn to the Oxford editor, who is represented as supposing the ground +_canonized_ by a funeral, when he only meant to say, that the _body_ has +deposited in _holy ground_, in ground consecrated according to the +_canon_. + +I.iv.65 (183,9) I do not set my life at a pin's fee] The value of a pin. +(1773) + +I.iv.73 (183,1) deprive your sovereignty] I believe _deprive_ in this +place signifies simply to _take away_. + +I.iv.77 (184,4) confin'd to fast in fires] I am rather inclined to read, +_confin'd to_ lasting _fires_, to fires _unremitted_ and _unconsumed_. +The change is slight. + +I.v.30 (186,7) As meditation or the thoughts of love] The comment +[Warburton's] on the word _meditation_ is so ingenious, that I hope it +is just. + +I.v.77 (188,6) Unhonsel'd, disappointed, unaneal'd] This is a very +difficult line. I think Theobald's objection to the sense of +_unaneal'd_, for _notified by the bell_, must be owned to be very +strong. I have not yet by my enquiry satisfied myself. Hanmer's +explication of _unaneal'd_ by _unprepar'd_, because to _anneal_ metals, +is to _prepare_ them in manufacture, is too general and vague; there is +no resemblance between any funeral ceremony and the practice of +_annealing_ metals. + +_Disappointed_ is the same as _unappointed_, and may be properly +explained _unprepared_; a man well furnished with things necessary for +any enterprize, was said to be well _appointed_. + +I.v.80 (190,7) Oh, horrible! oh, horrible! most horrible!] It was +ingeniously hinted to me by a very learned lady, that this line seems to +belong to Hamlet, in whose mouth it is a proper and natural exclamation; +and who, according to the practice of the stage, may be supposed to +interrupt so long a speech. (1773) + +I.v.154 (193,5) Swear by my sword] [Here the poet has preserved the +manners of the ancient Danes, with whom it was _religion_ to swear upon +their swords. WARBURTON.] I was once inclinable to this opinion, which +is likewise well defended by Mr. Upton; but Mr. Garrick produced me a +passage, I think, in _Brantoms_, from which it appeared, that it was +common to swear upon the sword, that is, upon the cross which the old +swords always had upon the hilt. + +II.i.25 (197,8) drinking, fencing, swearing] I suppose, by _fencing_ is +meant a too diligent frequentation of the fencing-school, a resort of +violent and lawless young men. + +II.i.46 (197,4) _Good Sir_, or so, or _friend_, or _gentleman_] [W: +sire] I know not that _sire_ was ever a general word of compliment, as +distinct from _sir_; nor do I conceive why any alteration should be +made. It is a common mode of colloquial language to use, _or so_, as a +slight intimation of more of the same, or a like kind, that might be +mentioned. We might read, but we need not, + + _Good sir_, forsooth, _or friend, or gentleman_. + +_Forsooth_, a term of which I do not well know the original meaning, was +used to men as well as to women. + +II.i.71 (198,5) Observe his inclination in yourself] HANMER reads, +_e'en_ yourself, and is followed by Dr. Warburton; but perhaps _in_ +yourself means, _in your own person_, not by spies. + +II.i.112 (200,7) I had not quoted him] To _quote_ is, I believe, to +_reckon_, to take an account of, to take the _quotient_ or result of a +computation. + +II.i.114 (201,8) + + it as proper to our age + To cast beyond ourselves in our opinions, + As it is common for the younger sort + To lack discretion] + +This is not the remark of a weak man. The vice of age is too much +suspicion. Men long accustomed to the wiles of life _cast_ commonly +_beyond themselves_, let their cunning go further than reason can attend +it. This is always the fault of a little mind, made artful by long +commerce with the world. + +II.ii.24 (202,2) + + For the supply and profit of our hope, + Your visitation shall receive such thanks] + +That the hope which your arrival has raised may be completed by the +desired effect. + +II.ii.47 (203,4) the trail of policy] The _trail_ is the _course of an +animal pursued by the scent_. + +Il.ii.52 (203,5) My news shall be the fruit of that great feast] The +_desert_ after the meat. + +II.ii.84 (204,7) at night we'll feast] The king's intemperance is never +suffered to be forgotten. + +II.ii.86-167 (205,8) My liege, and Madam, to expostulate] This account +of the character of Polonius, though it sufficiently reconciles the +seeming inconsistency of so much wisdom with so much folly, does not +perhaps correspond exactly to the ideas of our author. The commentator +Warburton makes the character of Polonius, a character only of manners, +discriminated by properties superficial, accidental, and acquired. The +poet intended a nobler delineation of a mixed character of manners and +of nature. Polonius is a man bred in courts, exercised in business, +stored with observations, confident of his knowledge, proud of his +eloquence, and declining into dotage. His mode of oratory is truly +represented as designed to ridicule the practice of those times, of +prefaces that made no introduction, and of method that embarrassed +rather than explained. This part of his character is accidental, the +rest is natural. Such a man is positive and confident, because he knows +that his mind was once strong, and knows not that it is become weak. +Such a man excels in general principles, but fails in the particular +application. He is knowing in retrospect, and ignorant in foresight. +While he depends upon his memory, and can draw from his repositories of +knowledge, he utters weighty sentences, and gives useful counsel; but as +the mind in its enfeebled state cannot be kept long busy and intent, the +old man is subject to sudden dereliction of his faculties, he loses the +order of his ideas, and entangles himself in his own thoughts, till he +recovers the leading principle, and falls again into his former train. +This idea of dotage encroaching upon wisdom, will solve all the +phaenomena of the character of Polonius. + +II.ii.109 (207,1) _To the celestial, and my soul's idol, the most +beautified Ophelia_] [T: beatified] Both Sir Thomas Hanmer and Dr. +Warburton have followed Theobald, but I am in doubt whether +_beautified_, though, as Polonius calls it, a _vile phrase_, be not the +proper word. _Beautified_ seems to be a _vile phrase_, for the ambiguity +of its meaning, (rev. 1778, X, 241, 3) + +II.ii.126 (208,2) more above] is, _moreover, besides_. + +II.ii.145 (209,6) she took the fruits of my advice] She took the +_fruits_ of advice when she obeyed advice, the advice was then made +_fruitful_. + +II.ii.181 (211,9) For if the sun breed maggots in a dead dog,/Being a +god, kissing carrion] [This is Warburton's emendation for "a good +kissing"] This is a noble emendation, which almost sets the critic on a +level with the author. + +II.ii.265 (214,2) the shadow of a dream] Shakespeare has accidentally +inverted an expression of Pindar, that the state of humanity is the +_dream_ of a _shadow_. + +II.ii.269 (215,3) Then are our beggars, bodies] Shakespeare seems here +to design a ridicule of these declamations against wealth and greatness, +that seem to make happiness consist in poverty. + +II.ii.336 (217,7) shall end his part in peace] [After these words the +folio adds, _the clown shall make those laugh whose lungs are tickled o' +th' sere_. WARBURTON.] This passage I have omitted, for the same reason, +I suppose, as the other editors: I do not understand it. + +II.ii.338 (217,8) the lady shall say her mind freely, or the blank verse +shall halt for't] _The lady shall have no obstruction, unless from the +lameness of the verse._ + +II.ii.346 (217,9) I think, their inhibition comes by the means of the +late innovation] I fancy this is transposed: Hamlet enquires not about +an _inhibition_, but an _innovation_; the answer therefore probably was, +_I think, their_ innovation, _that is_, their new practice of strolling, +_comes by the means of the late_ inhibition. + +II.ii.352-379 (218,1) _Ham._ How comes it? do they grow rusty?] The +lines marked with commas are in the folio of 1623, but not in the quarto +of 1637, nor, I suppose, in any of the quartos. + +II.ii.355 (218,2) cry out on the top of question] The meaning seems to +be, they ask a common question in the highest notes of the voice. + +II.ii.362 (218,3) escoted] Paid. + +II.ii.362 (218,4) Will they pursue quality no longer than they can +_sing_?] Will they follow the _profession_ of players no longer than +they keep the voices of boys? So afterwards he says to the player, +_Come, give us a taste of your_ quality; come, _a passionate speech_. + +II.ii.370 (219,6) to tarre them on to controversy] To provoke any animal +to rage, is _to tarre him_. The word is said to come from the Greek. +(1773) + +II.ii.380 (219,8) It is not very strange, for mine uncle is king of +Denmark] I do not wonder that the new players have so suddenly risen to +reputation, my uncle supplies another example of the facility with which +honour is conferred upon new claimants. + +II.ii.412 (220,2) Buz, buz!] Mere idle talk, the _buz_ of the vulgar. + +II.ii.414 (220,3) _Then came each actor on his ass_] This seems to be a +line of a ballad. + +II.ii.420 (221,6) For the law of writ, and the liberty, these are the +only men] All the modern editions have, _the law of_ wit, _and the +liberty_; but both my old copies have, _the law of_ writ, I believe +rightly. _Writ_, for _writing, composition_. Wit_ was not, in our +author's time, taken either for _imagination_, or _acuteness_, or _both +together_, but for _understanding_, for the faculty by which we +_apprehend_ and _judge_. Those who wrote of the human mind distinguished +its primary powers into _wit_ and _will_. Ascham distinguishes _boys_ of +tardy and of active faculties into _quick wits_ and _slow wits_. + +II.ii.438 (221,8) the first row of the pious chanson] [It is _pons +chansons_ in the first folio edition. POPE.] It is _pons chansons_ in +the quarto too. I know not whence the _rubric_ has been brought, yet it +has not the appearance of an arbitrary addition. The titles of old +ballads were never printed red; but perhaps _rubric_ may stand for +_marginal explanation_. + +II.ii.439 (222,9) For, look, where my abridgment comes] He calls the +players afterwards, _the brief chronicles of the time_; but I think he +now means only _those who will shorten my talk_. + +II.ii.448 (223,2) be not crack'd within the ring] That is, _crack'd too +much for use_. This is said to a young player who acted the parts of +women. + +II.ii.450 (223,3) like French faulconers] HANMER, who has much +illustrated the allusions to falconry, reads, _like_ French _falconers. +[French falconers_ is not a correction by Hanmer, but the reading of the +first folio. STEEVENS.] (see 1765, VIII, 198, 1) + +II.ii.459 (223,5) (as I received it, and others whose judgment in such +matters cried in the top of mine)] [i.e. whose judgment I had the +highest opinion of. WARBURTON.] I think it means only that _were higher +than mine_. + +II.ii.466 (224,8) but called it, an honest method] Hamlet is telling how +much his judgment differed from that of others. _One said, there was no +salt in the lines_, &c. _but call'd it an honest method_. The author +probably gave it, _But I called it an honest method_, &c. + +II.ii.525 (226,9) _the mobled queen] Mobled signifies _huddled, grossly +covered_. + +II.ii.587 (228,5) the cue for passion] The _hint_, the _direction_. + +II.ii.589 (228,6) the general ear] The ears of all mankind. So before, +_Caviare to the_ general, that is, to the _multitude_. + +II.ii.595 (229,7) unpregnant of my cause] [_Unpregnant_, for _having no +due sense of_. WARBURTON.] Rather, _not quickened with a new desire of +vengeance; not teeming with revenge_. + +II.ii.598 (229,8) A damn'd defeat was made] [_Defeat_, for +_destruction_. WARBURTON.] Rather, _dispossession_. + +II.ii.608 (229,1) kindless] _Unnatural_. + +II.ii.616 (229,3) About, my brain!] _Wits, to your work_. _Brain_, go +_about_ the present business. + +II.ii.625 (230,5) tent him] Search his wounds. + +II.ii.632 (230,7) More relative than this] [_Relative_, for +_convictive_. WARB.] _Convictive_ is only the consequential sense. +_Relative_ is, _nearly related, closely connected_. + +III.i.17 (231,2) o'er-raught on the way] _Over-raught_ is +_over-reached_, that is, _over-took_. + +III.i.31 (232,4) Affront Ophelia.] To _affront_, is only _to meet +directly_. + +III.i.47 (233,5) 'Tis too much prov'd] It is found by too frequent +experience. + +III.i.52 (233,6) more ugly to the thing that helps it] That is, +_compared with_ the thing that helps it. + +III.i.56-88 (233,7) To be, or not to be?] Of this celebrated soliloquy, +which bursting from a man distracted with contrariety of desires, and +overwhelmed with the magnitude of his own purposes, is connected rather +in the speaker's mind, than on his tongue, I shall endeavour to discover +the train, and to shew how one sentiment produces another. Hamlet, +knowing himself injured in the most enormous and atrocious degree, and +seeing no means of redress, but such as must expose him to the extremity +of hazard, meditates on his situation in this manner: _Before I can form +any rational scheme of action under this pressure of distress_, it is +necessary to decide, whether, _after our present state, we are_ to be or +not to be. That is the question, which, as it shall be answered, will +determine, _whether 'tis nobler_, and more suitable to the dignity of +reason, _to suffer the outrages of fortune_ patiently, or to take arms +against _them_, and by opposing end them, _though perhaps_ with the loss +of life. If _to die_, were _to sleep_, no more, _and by a sleep to end_ +the miseries of our nature, such a sleep were _devoutly to be wished_; +but if _to sleep_ in death, be _to dream_, to retain our powers of +sensibility, we must _pause_ to consider, _in that sleep of death what +dreams may come_. This consideration _makes calamity_ so long endured; +for _who would bear_ the vexations of life, which might be ended _by a +bare bodkin_, but that he is afraid of something in unknown futurity? +This fear it is that gives efficacy to conscience, which, by turning the +mind upon _this regard_, chills the ardour of _resolution_, checks the +vigour of _enterprize_, and makes the _current_ of desire stagnate in +inactivity. We may suppose that he would have applied these general +observations to his own case, but that he discovered Ophelia. + +III.i.59 (234,8) Or to take arms against a sea of troubles] [W: against +assail] Mr. Pope proposed _siege_. I know not why there should be so +much solicitude about this metaphor. Shakespeare breaks his metaphors +often, and in this desultory speech there was less need of preserving +them. + +III.i.70 (235,2) the whips and scorns of time] [W: of th' time] I doubt +whether the corruption of this passage is not more than the editor has +suspected. _Whips_ and _scorns_ have no great connexion with one +another, or with _time: whips_ and _scorns_ are evils of very different +magnitude, and though at all _times scorn_ may be endured, yet the +_times_ that put men ordinarily in danger of _whips_, are rery rare. +Falstaff has said, that the _courtiers would_ whip _him with their quick +wits_; but I know not that _whip_ can be used for a _scoff_ or _insult_, +unless its meaning be fixed by the whole expression. + +I am afraid lest I should venture too far in correcting this passage. If +_whips_ be retained, we may read, + + _For who would bear the whips and scorns of_ tyrant. + +But I think that _quip_, a _sneer_, a _sarcasm_, a _contemptuous_ jest, +is the proper word, as suiting very exactly with _scorn_. What then must +be done with _time_? it suits no better with the new reading than with +the old, and _tyrant_ is an image too bulky and serious. I read, but not +confidently, + + _For who would bear the_ quips _and scorns of_ title. + +It say be remarked, that Hamlet, in his enumeration of miseries, +forgets, whether properly or not, that he is a prince, and mentions many +evils to which inferior stations only are exposed. + +III.i.77 (236,4) To groan and sweat] All the old copies have, _to_ grunt +_and sweat_. It is undoubtedly the true reading, but can scarcely be +borne by modern ears. + +III.i.89 (237,5) Nymph, in thy orisons] This is a touch of nature. +Hamlet, at the sight of Ophelia, does not immediately recollect, that he +is to personate madness, but makes her an address grave and solemn, such +as the foregoing meditation excited in his thoughts. + +III.i.107 (237,6) That if you be honest and fair, you should admit no +discourse to your beauty] This is the reading of all the modern +editions, and is copied from the quarto. The folio reads, your honesty +_should admit no discourse to your beauty_. The true reading seems to be +this, _If you be honest and fair, you should admit_ your honesty _to no +discourse with your beauty_. This is the sense evidently required by the +process of the conversation. + +III.i.127 (238,7) I have thoughts to put them in] _To put a thing into +thought_, is _to think on it_. + +III.i.148 (239,8) I have heard of your paintings too, well enough] This +is according to the quarto; the folio, for _painting_, has _prattlings_, +and for _face_, has _pace_, which agrees with what follows, _you jig, +you amble_. Probably the author wrote both. I think the common reading +best. + +III.i.152 (239,9) make your wantonness your ignorance] You mistake by +_wanton_ affectation, and pretend to mistake by _ignorance_. + +III.i.161 (239,2) the mould of form] The model by whom all endeavoured +to form themselves. + +III.ii.12 (241,3) the groundlings] The meaner people then seem to have +sat below, as they now sit in the upper gallery, who, not well +understanding poetical language, were sometimes gratified by a mimical +and mute representation of the drama, previous to the dialogue. + +III.ii.14 (242,4) inexplicable dumb shews] I believe the meaning is, +_shews, without words to explain them_. + +III.ii.26 (242,6) the very age and body of the time, his form and +pressure] The _age_ of the _time_ can hardly pass. May we not read, the +_face_ and _body_, or did the author write, the _page_? The _page_ suits +well with _form_ and _pressure_, but ill with _body_. + +III.ii.28 (242,7) pressure] Resemblance, as in a _print_. + +III.ii.34 (242,8) (not to speak it profanely)] _Profanely_ seems to +relate, not to the praise which he has mentioned, but to the censure +which he is about to utter. Any gross or indelicate language was called +_profane_. + +III.ii.66 (243,9) the pregnant hinges of the knee] I believe the sense +of _pregnant_ in this place is, _quick, ready, prompt_. + +III.ii.68 (244,1) my dear soul] Perhaps, my _clear_ soul. + +III.ii.74 (244,2) Whose blood and judgment] According to the doctrine of +the four humours, _desire_ and _confidence_ were seated in the blood, +and _judgment_ in the phlegm, and the due mixture of the humours made a +perfect character. + +III.ii.89 (244,3) Vulcan's stithy] _Stithy_ is a smith's _anvil_. + +III.ii.103 (245,4) nor mine now] A man's words, says the proverb, are +his own no longer than he keep them unspoken. + +III.ii.112 (245,5) they stay upon your patience] May it not be read more +intelligibly, _They stay upon your_ pleasure. In _Macbeth_ it is, "Noble +Macbeth, we stay upon your _leisure_." + +III.ii.123 (245,6) Do you think I meant country matters?] I think we +must read, _Do you think I meant country_ manners? Do you imagine that I +meant to sit in your lap, with such rough gallantry as clowns use to +their lasses? + +III.ii.137 (246,7) Nay, then, let the devil wear black, for I'll have a +suit of sables] I know not why our editors should, with such implacable +anger, persecute our predecessors. The dead, it is true, can make no +resistance, they may be attacked with great security; but since they can +neither feel nor mend, the safety of mauling them seems greater than the +pleasure; nor perhaps would it much misbeseem us to remember, amidst our +triumphs over the _nonsensical_ and the _senseless_, that we likewise +are men; that _debemur morti_, and, as Swift observed to Burnet, shall +soon be among the dead ourselves. + +I cannot find how the common reading is nonsense, nor why Hamlet, when +he laid aside his dress of mourning, in a country where it was _bitter +cold_, and the air was _nipping and eager_, should not have a _suit of +sables_. I suppose it is well enough known, that the fur of sables is +not black. + +III.ii.147 (249,1) Marry, this is miching maliche; it means mischief] +[W: malhechor] I think Hanmer's exposition most likely to be right. Dr. +Warburton, to justify his interpretation, must write, _miching_ for +_malechor_, and even then it will be harsh. + +III.ii.167 (250,3) sheen] Splendor, lustre. + +III.ii.177 (250,4) For women fear too much, even as they love] Here +seems to be a line lost, which should have rhymed to _love_. + +III.ii.192 (251,6) The instances, that second marriage move] The +_motives_. + +III.ii.202 (252,7) + + Most necessary 'tis, that we forget + To pay ourselves what to ourselves is debt] + +The performance of a resolution, in which only the _resolver_ is +interested, is a debt only to himself, which he may therefore remit at +pleasure. + +III.ii.206 (252,8) + + The violence of either grief or joy, + Their own enactures with themselves destroy] + +What grief or joy _enact_ or determine in their violence, is revealed in +their abatement. _Enactures_ is the word in the quarto; all the modern +editions have _enactors_. + +III.ii.229 (252,9) An anchor's cheer in prison be my scope] May my whole +liberty and enjoyment be to live on hermit's fare in a prison. _Anchor_ +is for _anchoret_. + +III.ii.250 (253,1) Baptista] _Baptista_ is, I think, in Italian, the +name always of a man. + +III.ii.262 (254,4) So you must take your husbands] Read, _So you_ must +take _your husbands_ [in place of "mistake"]; that is, _for better, for +worse_. + +III.ii.288 (255,5) with two provencial roses on my rayed shoes] When +shoe-strings were worn, they were covered, where they met in the middle, +by a ribband, gathered into the form of a rose. So in an old song, + + Gil-de-Roy _was a bonny boy_, + _Had_ roses _tull his_ shoen. + +_Rayed_ shoes, are shoes _braided_ in lines. + +III.ii.304 (256,1) For if the king like not the comedy/Why, then, +belike] Hamlet was going on to draw the consequence when the courtiers +entered. + +III.ii.314 (256,2) With drink, Sir?] Hamlet takes particular care that +his uncle's love of drink shall not be forgotten. + +III.ii.346 (257,3) further trade] Further business; further dealing. + +III.ii.348 (257,4) by these pickers] By these hands. + +III.ii.373 (258,6) ventages] The holes of a flute. + +III.ii.401 (259,9) they fool me to the top of my bent] They compel me to +play the fool, till I can endure to do it no longer. + +III.iii.7 (261,4) Out of his lunes] [The old quartos read, + + _Out of his_ brows. + +This was from the ignorance of the first editors; as is this unnecessary +Alexandrine, which we owe to the players. The poet, I am persuaded, +wrote, + + --_us doth hourly grow_ + _out of his_ lunes. + +i.e. his _madness, frenzy_. THEOBALD.] + +_Lunacies_ is the reading of the folio. + +I take _brows_ to be, properly read, _frows_, which, I think, is a +provincial word for _perverse humours_; which being, I suppose, not +understood, was changed to _lunacies_. But of this I an not confident. +[Steevens adopted Theobald's emendation] + +III.iii.33 (262,7) of vantage] By some opportunity of secret +observation. + +III.iii.56 (263,9) May one be pardon'd, and retain the offence?] He that +does not amend what can be amended, _retains_ his _offence_. The king +kept the crown from the right heir. + +III.iii.66 (263,1) Yet what can it, when one cannot repent?] What can +repentance _do for a man that cannot be penitent_, for a man who has +only part of penitence, distress of conscience, without the other part, +resolution of amendment. + +III.iii.77 (264,1) I, his sole son, do this same villain send] The folio +reads foule son, a reading apparently corrupted from the quarto. The +meaning is plain. _I, his_ only _son_, who am bound to punish his +murderer. + +III.iii.88 (264,2) Up, sword, and know thou a more horrid hent] [T: +bent] This reading is followed by Sir T. HANMER and Dr. WARBURTON; but +_hent_ is probably the right vord. To _hent_ is used by Shakespeare for, +to _seize_, to _catch_, to _lay hold on_. _Hent_ is, therefore, _hold_, +or _seizure_. _Lay hold_ on him, sword, at a more horrid time. + +III.iii.94 (265,3) his soul may be as damn'd and black/As hell, whereto +it goes] This speech, in which Hamlet, represented as a virtuous +character, is not content vith taking blood for blood, but contrives +damnation for the man that he would punish, is too horrible to be read +or to be uttered. + +III.iv.4 (266,4) I'll silence me e'en here:/Pray you, be round vith him] +Sir T. HANMER, who is folloved by Dr. WARBURTON, reads, + + --_I'll_ sconce _me here_. + +_Retire_ to a place of _security_. They forget that the contrivance of +Polonius to overhear the conference, was no more told to the queen than +to Hamlet.--_I'll silence me even here_, is, _I'll use no more words_. + +III.iv.48 (268,8) + + Heaven's face doth glow; + Yea, this solidity and compound mass, + With tristful visage, as against the doom, + It thought-sick at the act] + +[W: O'er this ... visage, and, as 'gainst] The word _heated_ [from the +"old quarto"], though it agrees well enough with _glow_, is, I think, +not so striking as _tristful_, which was, I suppose, chosen at the +revisal. I believe the whole passage now stands as the author gave it. +Dr. WARBURTON's reading restores two improprieties, which Shakespeare, +by his alteration, had removed. In the first, and in the new reading: +_Heaven's_ face _glows with tristful_ visage; and, _Heaven's face is_ +thought-sick. To the common reading there is no just objection. + +III.iv.52 (268,9) what act,/That roars so loud, and thunders in the +index?] The meaning is, _What is_ this act, of which the _discovery_, or +_mention_, cannot be made, but with this violence of clamour? + +III.iv.82 (270,5) Rebellious hell,/If thou canst mutiny in a matron's +bones] I think the present reading right, but cannot admit that HANMER's +emendation ["Rebellious heat"] produces nonsense. May not what is said +of _heat_, be said of _hell_, that it will mutiny wherever it is +quartered? Though the emendation be elegant, it is not necessary. (1773) + +III.iv.88 (271,6) reason panders will] So the folio, I think rightly; +but the reading of the quarto is defensible; + + --_reason_ pardons _will_. + +III.iv.90 (271,7) grained] Dyed in grain. + +III.iv.92 (271,8) incestuous bed] The folio has _enseamed_, that is, +_greasy_ bed. + +III.iv.98 (271,9) vice of kings!] a low mimick of kings. The vice is the +fool of a farce; from whom the modern _punch_ is descended. + +III.iv.102 (272,2) A king of shreds and patches] This is said, pursuing +the idea of the _vice of kings_. The _vice_ was dressed as a fool, in a +coat of party-coloured patches. + +III.iv.107 (272,3) lap's in time and passion] That, having suffered +_time_ to _slip_, and _passion_ to _cool, lets go_, &c. + +III.iv.151 (274,6) And do not spread the compost on the weeds/To make +them ranker] Do not, by any new indulgence, heighten your former +offences. + +III.iv.155 (274,7) curb] That is, _bend_ and _truckle_. Fr. _courber_. + +III.iv.161 (274,8) That monster custom, who all sense doth eat/ Of +habits evil, is angel yet in this] [Thirlby: habits evil] I think +THIRLBY's conjecture wrong, though the succeeding editors have followed +it; _angel_ and _devil_ are evidently opposed. [Steevens accepted +"evil"] + +III.iv.203 (277,5) adders fang'd] That is, adders with their _fangs_, or +_poisonous teeth_, undrawn. It has been the practice of mountebanks to +boast the efficacy of their antidotes by playing with vipers, but they +first disabled their fangs. + +IV.i (278,l) _A royal apartment. Enter King, Queen, Rosencrantz, and +Guildenstern_] This play is printed in the old editions without any +separation of the acts. The division is modern and arbitrary; and is +here not very happy, for the pause is made at a time when there is more +continuity of action than in almost any other of the scenes. + +IV.i.18 (278,2) out of haunt] I would rather read, _out of_ harm. + +IV.i.25 (279,3) + + his very madness, like some ore + among a mineral of metals base, + Shews itself pure] + +Shakespeare seems to think _ore_ to be _or_, that is, gold. Base metals +have _ore_ no less than precious. + +IV.ii.19 (281,5) he keeps them, like an ape, in the corner of his jaw] +The quarto has _apple_, which is generally followed. The folio has +_ape_, which HANMER has received, and illustrated with the following +note. + +"It is the way of monkeys in eating, to throw that part of their food, +which they take up first, into a pouch they are provided with on the +side of their jaw, and then they keep it, till they have done with the +rest." + +IV.ii.28 (281,6) The body is with the king] This answer I do not +comprehend. Perhaps it should be, _The body is_ not _with the king_, for +_the king is not with the body_. + +IV.ii.32 (282,7) Of nothing] Should it not be read, _Or_ nothing? When +the courtiers remark, that Hamlet has contemptuously called the _king a +thing_, Hamlet defends himself by observing, that the king must be a +_thing_, or _nothing_. + +IV.ii.46 (283,9) the wind at help] I suppose it should be read, _The +bark is ready, and the wind at_ helm. + +IV.ii.68 (284,3) And thou must cure me: till I know 'tis done,/ Howe'er +my haps, my joys will ne'er begin] This being the termination of a +scene, should, according to our author's custom, be rhymed. Perhaps he +wrote, + + _Howe'er my_ hopes, _my joys_ are not begun. + +If _haps_ be retained, the meaning will be, _'till I know 'tis done, I +shall be miserable_, whatever befall me (see 1785, VIII, 257, 3) + +IV.iv.33 (286,4) + + What is a man, + If his chief good and market of his time + Be but to sleep and feed?] + +If his highest good, and _that for which he sells his time_, be to sleep +and feed. + +IV.iv.36 (286,5) large discourse] Such latitude of comprehension, such +power of reviewing the past, and anticipating the future. + +IV.iv.53 (286,6) Rightly to be great,/Is not to stir without great +argument] This passage I have printed according to the copy. Mr. +THEOBALD had regulated it thus: + + --_'Tis not to be great, + Never to stir without great argument; + But greatly_, &c. + +The sentiment of Shakespeare is partly just, and partly romantic. + + --_Rightly to be great, + Is not to stir without great argument_; + +is exactly philosophical. + + _But greatly to find quarrel in a straw, + When honour is at stake_, + +is the idea of a modern hero. _But then_, says he _honour is an +argument, or subject of debate_, sufficiently great, _and_ when honour +is at stake, we must _find cause of quarrel in a straw_. + +IV.iv.56 (287,7) Excitements of my reason and my blood] Provocations +which excite both my reason and my passions to vengeance. + +IV.v.37 (289,4) _Larded all with sweet flowers_] The expression is taken +from cookery. (1773) + +IV.v.53 (290,6) _And dupt the chamber-door_] To _dup_, is to _do up_; to +lift the latch. It were easy to write, + + _And_ op'd-- + +IV.v.58 (290,7) _By Gis_] I rather imagine it should be read, + + _By_ Cis,-- + +That is, by St. Cecily. + +IV.v.83 (291,8) but greenly] But _unskilfully_; with _greenness_; that +is, without_ maturity_ of judgment. + +IV.v.84 (291,9) In hugger-mugger to inter him] All the modern editions +that I have consulted give it, + + _In_ private _to inter him_;-- + +That the words now replaced are better, I do not undertake to prove; it +is sufficient that they are Shakespeare's: if phraseology is to be +changed as words grow uncouth by disuse, or gross by vulgarity, the +history of every language will be lost; we shall no longer have the +words of any author; and, as these alterations will be often unskilfully +made, we shall in time have very little of his meaning. + +IV.v.89 (292,1) Feeds on his wonder] The folio reads, + + Keeps _on his wonder_,-- + +The quarto, + + Feeds _on_ this _wonder_.-- + +Thus the true reading is picked out from between them. HANMER reads +unnecessarily, + + Feeds _on his_ anger.-- + +IV.v.92 (292,2) Wherein necessity, of matter beggar'd,/ Will nothing +stick our persons to arraign] HANMER reads, + + Whence animosity, _of matter beggar'd_. + +He seems not to have understood the connection. _Wherein_, that is, _in +which pestilent speeches, necessity_, or, _the obligation of an accuser +to support his charge, will nothing stick_, &c. + +IV.v.99 (293,4) The ocean, over-peering of his list] The lists are the +barriers which the spectators of a tournament must not pass. + +IV.v.105 (293,5) The ratifiers and props of every ward] [W: ward] With +this emendation, which was in Theobald's edition, Hanmer was not +satisfied. It is indeed harsh. HANMER transposes the lines, and reads, + + _They cry_, "Chuse we Laertes for our king;" + The ratifiers and props of every word, + _Caps, hands, and tongues, applaud it to the clouds_. + +I think the fault may be mended at less expence, by reading, + + _Antiquity forgot, custom not known, + The ratifiers and props of every_ weal. + +That is, of every _government_. + +IV.v.110 (294,6) Oh, this is counter, you false Danish dogs] Hounds run +_counter_ when they trace the trail backwards. + +IV.v.161 (296,9) + + Nature is fine in loves and, where 'tis fine, + It sends some precious instance of itself + After the thing it loves] + +These lines are not in the quarto, and might hare been omitted in the +folio without great loss, for they are obscure and affected; but, I +think, they require no emendation. _Love_ (says Laertes) is the passion +by which _nature is most_ exalted and _refined_; and as substances +_refined_ and subtilised, easily obey any impulse, or follow any +attraction, some part of nature, so purified and _refined_, flies off +after the attracting object, after the thing it loves. + + _As into air the purer spirits f1ow, + And separate from their kindred dregs below, + So flew her soul_.-- + +IV.v.171 (297,1) O how the wheel becomes it!] [W: weal] I do not see why +_weal_ is better than _wheel_. The story alluded to I do not know; but +perhaps the lady stolen by the steward was reduced to _spin_. + +IV.v.175 (297,2) There's rosemary, that'll far rememberance. Pray you, +love, remember. And there's pansies, that's for thoughts] There is +probably some mythology in the choice of these herbs, but I cannot +explain it. _Pansies_ is for _thoughts_, because of its name, _Pensees_; +but _rosemary_ indicates _remembrance_, except that it is an ever-green, +and carried at funerals, I have not discovered. + +IV.v.214 (300,7) No trophy, sword, nor batchment] It was the custom, in +the times of our author, to hang a sword over the grave of a knight. + +IV.v.218 (300,8) And where the offence is, let the great axe fall] [W: +tax] _Fall_ corresponds better to _axe_. + +IV.vi.26 (301,9) _for the bore of the matter_] The _bore_ is the +calibier of a gun, or the capacity of the barrel. _The matter_ (says +Hamlet) _would carry the heavier words_. + +IV.vii.18 (302,1) the general gender] The _common race_ of the people. + +IV.vii.19 (302,2) + + dipping all his faults in their affection, + Would, like the spring that turneth wood to stone, + Convert his gyves to graces] + +This simile is neither very seasonable in the deep interest of this +conversation, nor very accurately applied. If the _spring_ had changed +base metals to gold, the thought had been more proper. + +IV.vii.27 (302,3) if praises may go back again] If I may praise what has +been, but is now to be found no more. + +IV.vii.77 (304,5) Of the unworthiest siege] Of the lowest rank. _Siege_, +for _seat, place_. + +IV.vii.82 (304,6) Importing health and graveness] [W: wealth] +_Importing_ here may be, not _inferring_ by logical consequence, but +_producing_ by physical effect. A young man regards show in his dress, +an old man, _health_. + +IV.vii.90 (305,7) I, in forgery of shapes and tricks/Come short of what +he did] I could not contrive so many proofs of dexterity as he could +perform. + +IV.vii.98 (305,8) in your defence] That is, _in the science of_ defence. + +IV.vii.101 (305,9) The scrimers] The _fencers_. + +IV.vii.112 (305,1) love is begun by time] This is obscure. The meaning +may be, _love_ is not innate in us, and co-essential to our nature, but +begins at a certain time from some external cause, and being always +subject to the operations of time, suffers change and diminution. (1773) + +IV.vii.113 (300,2) in passages of proof] In transactions of daily +experience. + +IV.vii.123 (306,4) And then this _should_ is like a spendthrift sigh/ +That hurts by easing] [W: sign] This conjecture is so ingenious, that it +can hardly be opposed, but with the same reluctance as the bow is drawn +against a hero, whose virtues the archer holds in veneration. Here may +be applied what Voltaire writes to the empress: + + _Le genereux Francois-- + Te combat & t'admire._ + +Yet this emendation, however specious, is mistaken. The original reading +is, not a _spendthrift's_ sigh, but a _spendthrift_ sigh; a _sigh_ that +makes an unnecessary waste of the vital flame. It is a notion very +prevalent, that _sighs_ impair the strength, and wear out the animal +powers. + +IV.vii.135 (307,5) He being remiss] He being not vigilant or cautious. + +IV.vii.139 (307,7) a pass of practice] Practice is often by Shakespeare, +and other writers, taken for an _insidious stratagem_, or _privy_ +treason, a sense not incongruous to this passage, where yet I rather +believe, that nothing more is meant than a _thrust for exercise_. + +IV.vii.151 (308,8) May fit us to our shape] May _enable_ us to _assume +proper characters_, and to act our part. + +IV.vii.155 (308,9) blast in proof] This, I believe, is a metaphor taken +from a mine, which, in the proof or execution, sometimes breaks out with +an ineffectual _blast_. + +V.i.3 (310,1) make her grave straight] Make her grave from east to west +in a direct line parallel to the church; not from north to south, +athwart the regular line. This, I think, is meant. + +V.i.87 (313,1) which this ass now o'er-reaches] In the quarto, for +_over-offices_ is, _over-reaches_, which agrees better with the +sentence: it is a strong exaggeration to remark that an _ass_ can +_over-reach_ him who would once have tried to _circumvent_.--I believe +both the words were Shakespeare's. An author in revising his work, when +his original ideas have faded from his mind, and new observations have +produced new sentiments, easily introduces images which have been more +newly impressed upon him, without observing their want of congruity to +the general texture of his original design. + +V.i.96 (314,2) and now my lady Worm's] The scull that was _my lord Such +a one's_, is now my _lady Worm's_. + +V.i.100 (314,3) to play at loggats with 'em?] A play, in which pins are +set up to be beaten down with a bowl. + +V.i.149 (316,5) by the card] The _card_ is the paper on which the +different points of the compass were described. _To do any thing by the +card_, is, _to do it with nice observation_. + +V.i.151 (316,6) the age is grown so picked] So _smart_, so _sharp_, says +HANMER, very properly; but there was, I think, about that time, a +_picked_ shoe, that is, _a shoe with a long pointed toe_, in fashion, to +which the allusion seems likewise to be made. _Every man now is smart; +and every man now is a man of fashion_. + +V.i.239 (319,7) winter's flaw!] Winter's _blast_. + +V.i.242 (319,8) maimed rites!] Imperfect obsequies. + +V.i.244 (319,9) some estate] Some person of high rank. + +V.i.255 (319,2) Yet here she is allow'd her virgin crants] I have been +informed by an anonymous correspondent, that _crants_ is the German word +for _garlands_, and I suppose it was retained by us from the Saxons. To +carry _garlands_ before the bier of a maiden, and to hang them over her +grave, is still the practice in rural parishes. + +_Crants_ therefore was the original word, which the author, discovering +it to be provincial, and perhaps not understood, changed to a term more +intelligible, but less proper. _Maiden rites_ give no certain or +definite image. He might have put _maiden wreaths_, or _maiden +garlands_, but he perhaps bestowed no thought upon it, and neither +genius nor practice will always supply a hasty writer with the most +proper diction. + +V.i.310 (323,6) When that her golden couplets] [W: E'er that] Perhaps it +should be, + + _Ere yet_-- + +_Yet_ and _that_ are easily confounded. + +V.ii.6 (324,7) mutinies in the bilboes] _Mutinies_, the French word for +seditious or disobedient fellows in the army or fleet. _Bilboes_, the +_ship's prison_. + +V.ii.6 (324,8) Rashly,/And prais'd be rashness for it--Let us know] Both +my copies read, + + --Rashly, + _And prais'd be rashness for it_, let _us know_. + +Hamlet, delivering an account of his escape, begins with saying, that he +_rashly_--and then is carried into a reflection upon the weakness of +human wisdom. I rashly--praised be rashness for it--_Let us_ not think +these events casual, but _let us know_, that is, _take notice and +remember_, that we sometimes succeed by _indiscretion_, when we _fail_ +by _deep plots_, and infer the perpetual superintendance and _agency_ of +the _Divinity_. The observation is just, and will be allowed by every +human being who shall reflect on the course of his own life. + +V.ii.22 (325,9) With, ho! such bugs and goblins in my life] With _such +causes of terror_, arising from my character and designs. + +V.ii.29 (325,2) Being thus benetted round with villainies,/ Ere I could +make a prologue to my brains] [W: mark the prologue ... bane] In my +opinion no alteration is necessary. Hamlet is telling how luckily every +thing fell out; he groped out their commission in the dark without +waking them; he found himself doomed to immediate destruction. Something +was to be done for his preservation. An expedient occurred, not produced +by the comparison of one method with another, or by a regular deduction +of consequences, but before he _could make a prologue to his brains, +they had begun the play_. Before he could summon his faculties, and +propose to himself what should be done, a complete scheme of action +presented itself to him. His mind operated before he had excited it. +This appears to me to be the meaning. + +V.ii.41 (326,5) As peace should still her wheaten garland wear,/ And +stand a comma 'tween their amities] HANMER reads, + + _And stand a_ cement-- + +I am again inclined to vindicate the old reading. + +The expression of our author is, like many of his phrases, sufficiently +constrained and affected, but it is not incapable of explanation. The +_comma_ is the note of _connection_ and continuity of sentences; the +_period_ is the note of _abruption_ and disjunction. Shakespeare had it +perhaps in his mind to write, That unless England complied with the +mandate, _war should put a_ period _to their amity_; he altered his mode +of diction, and thought that, in an opposite sense, he might put, that +_Peace should stand a_ comma between their amities_. This is not an easy +stile; but is it not the stile of Shakespeare? + +V.ii.43 (327,6) as's of great charge] _Asses_ heavily _loaded_. A +quibble is intended between _as_ the conditional particle, and _ass_ the +beast of burthen. That _charg'd_ anciently signified _leaded_, may be +proved from the following passage in _The Widow's Tears_, by Chapman, +1612. + +"Thou must be the _ass charg'd with crowns_ to make way." (see 1765, +VIII, 294, 2) + +V.ii.53 (327,7) The changeling never known] A _changeling_ is a _child_ +which the fairies are supposed to leave in the room of that which they +steal. + +V.ii.68 (328,1) To quit him] To requite him; to pay him his due. + +V.ii.84 (329,2) Dost know this water-fly] A _water-fly_, skips up and +down upon the surface of the water, without any apparent purpose or +reason, and is thence the proper emblem of a busy trifler. + +V.ii.89 (329,3) It is a chough] A kind of jackdaw. + +V.ii.112 (330,5) full of most excellent differences] Full of +_distinguishing_ excellencies. + +V.ii.114 (330,6) the card or calendar of gentry] The general preceptor +of elegance; the _card_ by which a gentleman is to direct his course; +the _calendar_ by which he is to choose his time, that what he does may +be both excellent and seasonable. + +V.ii.115 (330,7) for you shall find in him the continent of what part a +gentleman would see] _You shall find him containing_ and comprising +every _quality_ which a _gentleman_ would desire to _contemplate_ for +imitation. I know not but it should be read, _You shall find him the +continent_ + +V.ii.119 (330,9) and yet but raw neither in respect of his quick sail] +[W: but slow] I believe _raw_ to be the right word; it is a word of +great latitude; _raw_ signifies _unripe, immature_, thence _unformed, +imperfect, unskilful_. The best account of him would be _imperfect_, in +respect of his quick sail. The phrase _quick sail_ was, I suppose, a +proverbial term for _activity of mind_. + +V.ii.122 (330,1) a soul of great article] This is obscure. I once +thought it might have been, _a soul of great altitude_; but, I suppose, +_a soul of great article_, means _a soul of_ large comprehension, of +many contents; the particulars of an inventory are called _articles_. + +V.ii.122 (331,2) his infusion of such dearth and rareness] _Dearth_ is +_dearness_, value, price. And his internal qualities of such value and +rarity. + +V.ii.131 (331,3) Is't not possible to understand in another tongue? you +will do't, Sir, really] Of this interrogatory remark the sense ie very +obscure. The question may mean, _Might not all this be understood in +plainer language_. But then, _you will do it, Sir, really_, seems to +have no use, for who could doubt but plain language would be +intelligible? I would therefore read, _Is't possible_ not to be +understood in a mother _tongue_. You will do it, Sir, really. + +V.ii.140 (331,4) if you did, it would not much approve me] If you knew I +was not ignorant, your esteem would not nuch advance my reputation. To +_approve_, is to _recommend to approbation_. + +V.ii.145 (331,5) I dare not confess that, lest I should compare with him +in excellence] I dare not pretend to know him, lest I should pretend to +an equality: no man can completely know another, but by knowing himself, +which is the utmost extent of human wisdom. + +V.ii.149 (332,6) in his meed] In his excellence. + +V.ii.156 (332,7) impon'd] Perhaps it should be, _depon'd_. So Hudibras, + + "I would upon this cause _depone_, + "As much as any I have known." + +But perhaps _imponed_ is pledged, _impawned_, so spelt to ridicule the +affectation of uttering English words with French pronunciation. + +V.ii.165 (332,9) more germane.] More_a-kin_. + +V.ii.172 (333,1) The king, Sir, hath laid, that in a dozen passes +between yourself and him, he shall not exceed you three hits; he hath +laid on twelve for nine] This wager I do not understand. In a dozen +passes one must exceed the other more or less than three hits. Nor can I +comprehend, how, in a dozen, there can be twelve to nine. The passage is +of no importance; it is sufficient that there was a wager. The quarto +has the passage as it stands. The folio, _He hath one twelve for mine_. + +V.ii.193 (333,2) This lapwing runs away with the shell on his head] I +see no particular propriety in the image of the lapwing. Osrick did not +run till he had done his business. We may read, _This lapwing_ ran +_away_--That is, _this fellow was full of unimportant bustle from his +birth_. + +V.ii.199 (334,4) a kind of yesty collection, which carries them through +and through the most fond and winnowed opinions] [W: most fann'd] This +is a very happy emendation; but I know not why the critic should suppose +that _fond_ was printed for _fann'd_ in consequence of any reason or +reflection. Such errors, to which there is no temptation but idleness, +and of which there was no cause but ignorance, are in every page of the +old editions. This passage in the quarto stands thus: "They have got out +of the habit of encounter, a kind of misty collection, which carries +them through and through the most profane and renowned opinions." If +this printer preserved any traces of the original, our author wrote, +"the most fane and renowned opinions," which is better than fann'd and +winnow'd. + +The meaning is, "these men have got the cant of the day, a superficial +readiness of slight and cursory conversation, a kind of frothy +collection of fashionable prattle, which yet carried them through the +most select and approved judgment. This airy facility of talk sometimes +imposes upon wise men." + +Who has not seen this observation verified? + +V.ii.201 (335,6) and do but blow them to their trials, the bubbles are +out] These men of show, without solidity, are like bubbles raised from +soap and water, which dance, and glitter, and please the eye, but if you +extend them, by blowing hard, separate into a mist; so if you oblige +these specious talkers to extend their compass of conversation, they at +once discover the tenuity of their intellects. + +V.ii.216 (335,7) gentle entertainment] Mild and temperate conversation. + +V.ii.234 (336,1) Since no man knows aught of what he leaves, what is't +to leave betimes?] The reading of the quarto was right, but in some +other copy the harshness of the transposition was softened, and the +passage stood thus: _Since no man knows aught of what he leaves_. For +_knows_ was printed in the later copies _has_, by a slight blunder in +such typographers. + +I do not think Dr. Warburton's interpretation of the passage the best +that it will admit. The meaning may be this, Since _no man knows aught +of_ the state of life which _he leaves_, since he cannot judge what +others years may produce, why should he be afraid of _leaving_ life +betimes? Why should he dread an early death, of which he cannot tell +whether it is an exclusion of happiness, or an interception of calamity. +I despise the superstition of augury and omens, which has no ground in +reason or piety; my comfort is, that I cannot fall but by the direction +of Providence. + +Hanmer has, _Since no man_ owes _aught_, a conjecture not very +reprehensible. Since _no man can call any possession certain_, what is +it to leave? + +V.ii.237 (337,2) Give me your pardon, Sir] I wish Hamlet had made some +other defence; it is unsuitable to the character of a good or a brave +man, to shelter himself in falsehood. + +V.ii.272 (338,5) Your grace hath laid upon the weaker side] Thus Hanmer. +All the others read, + + _Your grace hath laid the odds o' the weaker side._ + +When the odds were on the side of Laertes, who was to hit Hamlet twelve +times to nine, it was perhaps the author's slip. + +V.ii.310 (340,7) you make a wanton of me] A _wanton_ was, a man feeble +and effeminate. In _Cymbeline_, Imogen says, + + "I am not so citizen a _wanton_, + To die, ere I be sick." + +V.ii.346 (342,8) That are but mutes or audience to this act] That are +either mere _auditors_ of this _catastrophe_, or at most only _mute +performers_, that fill the stage without any part in the action. + +V.ii.375 (344,2) This quarry cries, on havock!] Hanmer reads, + + --_cries_ out, _havock!_ + +To _cry on_, was to _exclaim against_. I suppose, when unfair sportsmen +destroyed more _quarry_ or _game_ than was reasonable, the censure was +to cry, _Havock_. + +(346) General Observation. If the dramas of Shakespeare were to be +characterised, each by the particular excellence which distinguishes it +from the rest, we must allow to the tragedy of Hamlet the praise of +variety. The incidents are so numerous, that the argument of the play +would make a long tale. The scenes are interchangeably diversified with +merriment and solemnity; with merriment that includes judicious and +instructive observations, and solemnity, not strained by poetical +violence above the natural sentiments of man. New characters appear from +time to time in continual succession, exhibiting various forms of life +and particular modes of conversation. The pretended madness of Hamlet +causes much mirth, the mournful distraction of Ophelia fills the heart +with tenderness, and every personage produces the effect intended, from +the apparition that in the first act chills the blood with horror, to +the fop in the last, that exposes affectation to just contempt. The +conduct is perhaps not wholly secure against objections. The action is +indeed for the most part in continual progression, but there are some +scenes which neither forward nor retard it. Of the feigned madness of +Hamlet there appears no adequate cause, for he does nothing which he +might not have done with the reputation of sanity. He plays the madman +most, when he treats Ophelia with so much rudeness, which seems to be +useless and wanton cruelty. + +Hamlet is, through the whole play, rather an instrument than an agent. +After he has, by the stratagem of the play, convicted the king, he makes +no attempt to punish him, and his death is at last effected by an +incident which Hamlet had no part in producing. + +The catastrophe is not very happily produced; the exchange of weapons is +rather an expedient of necessity, than a stroke of art. A scheme might +easily have been formed to kill Hamlet with the dagger, and Laertes with +the bowl. + +The poet is accused of having shewn little regard to poetical justice, +and may be charged with equal neglect of poetical probability. The +apparition left the regions of the dead to little purpose; the revenge +which he demands is not obtained, but by the death of him that was +required to take it; and the gratification which would arise from the +destruction of an usurper and a murderer, is abated by the untimely +death of Ophelia, the young, the beautiful, the harmless, and the pious. + + + + +OTHELLO + + +I.i.20 (358,4) + + One Michael Cassio, a Florentine, + A fellow almost damn'd in a fair wife] + +This is one of the passages which must for the present be resigned to +corruption and obscurity. I have nothing that I can, with any approach +to confidence, propose. I cannot think it very plain from Act 3. Scene +1. that Cassio was or was not a Florentine. + +I.i.30 (361,6) must be belee'd and calm'd] [--_must be_ LED _and +calm'd_. So the old quarto. The first folio reads _belee'd_: but that +spoils the measure. I read LET, hindered. WARBURTON.] _Belee'd_ suits to +_calm'd_, and the measure is not less perfect than in many other places. + +I.i.36 (361,7) Preferment goes by letter] By _recommendation_ from +powerful friends. + +I.i.37 (361,8) And not by old gradation] [W: Not (as of old)] _Old +gradation_, is _gradation_ established by_ancient_ practice. Where is +the difficulty? + +I.i.39 (361,9) If I in any just term am affin'd] _Affine_ is the reading +of the third quarto and the first folio. The second quarto and all the +modern editions have _assign'd_. The meaning is, _Do I stand_ within +_any such_ terms _of propinquit_ or _relation to the Moor, as that it is +my duty to love him_? + +I.i.49 (362,1) honest knaves] _Knave_ is here for _servant_, but with a +mixture of sly contempt. + +I.i.63 (362,2) In compliment extern] In that which I do only for an +outward shew of civility. + +I.i.76 (363,3) As when, by night and negligence, the fire/Is spied in +populous cities] [Warburton, objecting to "by": Is spred] The particle +is used equivocally; the same liberty is taken by writers more correct. + + _The wonderful creature! a woman of reason! + Never grave_ out of _pride, never gay_ out of _season_. + +I.i.115 (364,4) What profane wretch art thou?] That is, _what wretch of +gross and licentious language?_ In that sense Shakespeare often uses the +word _profane_. + +I.i.124 (365,6) this odd even] The _even_ of _night_ is _midnight_, the +time when night is divided into _even_ parts. + +I.i.149 (366,7) some check] Some rebuke. + +I.i.150 (366,8) cast him] That is, _dismiss_ him; _reject_ him. We still +say, a _cast_ coat, and a _cast_ serving-man. + +I.i.162 (366,9) And what's to come of my despised time] [W: despited] +_Despised time_, is _time of no value_; time in which + + "There's nothing serious in mortality, + The wine of life is drawn, and the mere dregs + Are left, this vault to brag of." _Macbeth_. + +I.i.173 (367,2) By which the property of youth and maidhood/May be +abus'd?] By which the faculties of a young virgin may be infatuated, and +made subject to illusions and to false imagination. + + "Wicked dreams _abuse_ + The curtain'd sleep." _Macbeth._ + +I.ii.2 (368,3) stuff o' the conscience] This expression to common +readers appears harsh. _Stuff_ of the _conscience_ is, _substance_, or +_essence_ of the conscience. _Stuff_ is a word of great force in the +Teutonic languages. The elements are called in Dutch, _Hoefd stoffen_, +or _head stuffs_. + +I.ii.13 (368,4) And hath, in his effect, a voice potential/As double as +the duke's] [Warburton had given a source in Dioscorides and Theocritus +for "double"] This note has been much censured by Mr. Upton, who denies, +that the quotation is in Dioscorides, and disputes, not without reason, +the interpretation of Theocritus. + +All this learning, if it had even been what it endeavours to be thought, +is, in this place, superfluous. There is no ground of supposing, that +our author copied or knew the Greek phrase; nor does it follow, that, +because a word has two senses in one language, the word which in another +answers to one sense, should answer to both. _Manus_, in Latin, +signifies both a _hand_ and _troop of soldiers_, but we cannot say, that +_the captain marched at the_ head _of his_ hand; or, that _he laid his_ +troop _upon his sword_. It is not always in books that the meaning is to +be sought of this writer, who was much more acquainted with naked reason +and with living manners. + +_Double_ has here its natural sense. The president of every deliberative +assembly has a _double voice_. In our courts, the chief justice and one +of the inferior judges prevail over the other two, because the chief +justice has a _double_ voice. + +Brabantio had, _in his effect_, though not by law, yet by _weight_ and +_influence_, a voice not _actual_ and formal, but _potential_ and +operative, as _double_, that is, a voice that when a question was +suspended, would turn the balance as effectually _as the duke's_. +_Potential_ is used in the sense of science; a _caustic_ is called +_potential_ fire. + +I.ii.23 (370,7) speak, unbonnetted] [Pope: unbonnetting] I do not see +the propriety of Mr. Pope's emendation, though adopted by Dr. Warburton. +_Unbonnetting_ may as well be, _not putting on_, as _not putting off_, +the bonnet. Hamner reads _e'en_ bonnetted. + +I.ii.26 (370,8) unhoused] Free from _domestic_ cares. A thought natural +to an adventurer. + +I.ii.28 (370,9) For the sea's worth] I would not marry her, though she +were as rich as the Adriatic, which the Doge annually marries. + +I.ii.30 (371,2) a land-carrack] A _carrack_ is a ship of great bulk, and +commonly of great value; perhaps what we now call a _galleon_. + +I.ii.55 (372,3) be advis'd] That is, be _cool_; be _cautious_; be +_discreet_. + +I.ii.68 (372,4) The wealthy curled darlings of our nation] _Curled_ is +_elegantly and ostentatiously dressed_. He had not the hair particularly +in his thoughts. + +I.ii.74 (373,6) Abused her delicate youth with drugs, or minerals,/ That +weaken notion] [T: notion] Hanmer reads with equal probability, _That_ +waken motion. [Originally _motion_]. + +I.iii.6 (375,9) As in these cases where they aim reports] [W: the aim] +The folio has, + + --_the_ aim reports. + +But, _they aim reports_, has a sense sufficiently easy and commodious. +There men _report_ not by certain knowledge, but by _aim _and +conjecture. + +I.ii.18 (375,1) By no assay of reason] Bring it to the _test_, examine +it by reason as we examine metals by the _assay_, it will be found +counterfeit by all trials. + +I.iii.23 (376,2) facile question] _Question_ is for the _act of +seeking_. With more _easy endeavour_. + +I.iii.24 (376,4) warlike brace] State of defence. To arm was called to +_brace on_ the armour. + +I.iii.42 (376,5) And prays you to believe him] The late learned and +ingenious Mr. Thomas Clark, of Lincoln's Inn, read the passage thus: + + _And prays you to_ relieve _him_. + +But the present reading may stand. _He intreats you not to doubt the +truth of this intelligence_. + +I.iii.54 (377,6) Hath rais'd me from my bed; nor doth the general care] +The word _care_, which encumbers the verse, was probably added by the +players. Shakespeare uses _the general_ as a substantive, though, I +think, not in this sense. + +I.iii.69 (373,8) though our proper son/Stood in your action] Were the +man exposed to your _charge_ or _accusation_. + +I.iii.80 (378,9) The very head and front of my offending] The _main_, +the _whole_, unextenuated. + +I.iii.85 (379,2) Their dearest action] That is _dear_, for which much is +paid, whether money or labour; _dear action_, is action performed at +great expence, either of ease or safety. + +I.iii.107 (380,4) overt test] Open proofs, external evidence. + +I.iii.108 (380,5) thin habits and poor likelihoods/Of modern seeming] +Weak shew of slight appearance. + +I.iii.139 (381,6) And portance in my travel's history] [I have restored, + + _And with it all my travel's history_: + +From the old edition. It is in the rest, + + _And portance in my travel's history_. + +Rymer, in his criticism on this play, has changed it to _portents_, +instead of _portance_. POPE.] Mr. Pope has restored a line, to which +there is little objection, but which has no force. I believe _portance_ +was the author's word in some revised copy. I read thus, + + _Of being----sold + To slavery, of my redemption, thence, + And portance in't; my travel's history._ + My redemption from slavery, and behaviour in it. + +I.iii.140-170 (381,7) Wherein of antres vast, and desarts idle] Whoever +ridicules this account of the progress of love, shows his ignorance, not +only of history, but of nature and manners. It is no wonder that, in any +age, or in any nation, a lady, recluse, timorous, and delicate, should +desire to hear of events and scenes which she could never see, and +should admire the man who had endured dangers and performed actions, +which, however great, were yet magnified by her timidity. [Pope: deserts +wild] Every mind is liable to absence and inadvertency, else Pope could +never have rejected a word so poetically beautiful. Idle is an epithet +used to express the infertility of the chaotic state, in the Saxon +translation of the Pentateuch. (1773) + +I.iii.140 (382,8) antres] [French grottos. POPE.] Rather _caves_ and +_dens_. + +I.iii.142 (382,9) It was my hint to speak] [W: hent] _Hent_ is not used +in Shakespeare, nor, I believe, in any other author; _hint_, or _cue_, +is comnonly used for occasion of speech, which is explained by, _such +was the process_, that is, the course of the tale required it. If _hent_ +be restored, it may be explained by _handle_. I had a _handle_, or +_opportunity_, to speak of cannibals. + +I.iii.144 (382,1) men whose heads/Do grow beneath their shoulders] Of +these men there is an account in the interpolated travels of Mondeville, +a book of that time. + +I.iii.199 (384,4) Let me speak like yourself;] [W: our self] Hanmer +reads, + + _Let me_ now speak _more_ like your self. + +Dr. Warburton's emendation is specious; but I do not see how Hanmer's +makes any alteration. The duke seems to mean, when he says he will speak +like Brabantio, that he will speak sententiously. + +I.iii.213 (385,6) But the free comfort which from thence he hears] But +the moral precepts of consolation, which are liberally bestowed on +occasion of the sentence. + +I.iii.232 (386,8) thrice-driven bed of down] A _driven_ bed, is a bed +for which the feathers are selected, by _driving_ with a fan, which +separates the light from the heavy. + +I.iii.237 (337,9) + + I crave fit disposition for my wife; + Due reverence of place, and exhibition] + +I desire, that a proper _disposition_ be made for my wife, that she may +have _precedency_, and _revenue_, accommodation, and _company_, suitable +to her rank. + +For _reference_ of place, the old quartos have _reverence_, which Hanmer +has received. I should read, + + _Due_ preference _of place_.-- + +I.iii.246 (387,1) And let me find a charter in your voice] Let your +favour _privilege_ me. + +I.iii.250 (387,2) My down-right violence and storm of fortunes] [W: to +forms, my fortunes] There is no need of this emendation. _Violence_ is +not _violence suffered_, but _violence acted_. Breach of common rules +and obligations. The old quarto has, _scorn_ of fortune, which is +perhaps the true reading. + +I.iii.253 (388,3) I saw Othello's visage in his mind] It must raise no +wonder, that I loved a man of an appearance so little engaging; I saw +his face only in his mind; the greatness of his character reconciled me +to his form. + +I.iii.264 (386,4) + + Nor to comply with heat (the young affects, + In me defunct) and proper satisfaction] + +[T: me distinct, i.e. with that heat and new affections which the +indulgence of my appetite has raised and created. This is the meaning of +_defunct_, which has made all the difficulty of the passage. WARBURTON.] +I do not think that Mr. Theobald's emendation clears the text from +embarrassment, though it is with a little imaginary improvement received +by Hanmer, who reads thus: + + _Nor to comply with heat_, affects the young + _In my_ distinct _and proper satisfaction_. + +Dr. Warburton's explanation is not more satisfactory: what made the +difficulty, will continue to make it. I read, + + --_I beg it not, + To please the palate of my appetite, + Nor to comply with heat (the young affects + In me defunct) and proper satisfaction; + But to be free and bounteous to her mind._ + +_Affects_ stands here, not for _love_, but for _passions_, for that by +which any thing is affected. _I ask it not_, says he, _to please +appetite, or satisfy loose desires_, the passions of youth which I have +now outlived, or _for any particular gratification of myself, but merely +that I may indulge the wishes of my wife_. + +Mr. Upton had, before me, changed _my_ to _me_; but he has printed young +_effects_, not seeming to know that _affects_ could be a noun. (1773) + +I.iii.290 (391,6) If virtue no delighted beauty lack] [W: belighted] +Hanmer reads, more plausibly, _delighting_. I do not know that +_belighted_ has any authority. I should rather read, + + _If virtue no_ delight or _beauty lack_. + +_Delight_, for _delectation_, or _power of pleasing_, as it is +frequently used. + +I.iii.299 (391,8) best advantage] Fairest opportunity. + +I.iii.317 (392,9) a Guinea-hen] A showy bird with fine feathers. + +I.iii.346 (392,1) defeat thy favour with an usurped beard] [W: disseat] +It is more English, to _defeat_, than _disseat_. To _defeat_, is to +_undo_, to _change_. + +I.iii.350 (393,2) It was a violent commencement in her, and thou shalt +see an answerable sequestration] There seems to be an opposition of +terms here intended, which has been lost in transcription. We may read, +_It was a violent_ conjunction, _and thou shalt see an answerable +sequestration_; or, what seems to me preferable, _It was a violent +commencement, and thou shalt see an answerable sequel_. + +I.iii.363 (393,4) betwixt an erring Barbarian] [W: errant] Hanmer reads, +_errant_. _Erring_ is as well as either. + +II.i.15 (396,1) And quench the guards of the ever-fixed pole] Alluding +to the star _Arctophylax_. + +II.i.48 (397,3) + + His bark is stoutly timber'd, and his pilot + Of very expert and approv'd allowance; + Therefore my hopes, not surfeited to death, + Stand in bold cure] + +I do not understand these lines. I know not how _hope_ can be _surfeited +to death_, that is, _can be encreased, till it is destroyed_; nor what +it is _to stand in bold cure_; or why _hope_ should be considered as a +disease. In the copies there is no variation. Shall we read + + Therefore my fears, not surfeited to death, + Stand in bold cure? + +This is better, but it is not well. Shall we strike a bolder stroke, and +read thus? + + _Therefore my hopes, not_ forfeited _to death_, + _Stand_ bold, not sure. + +II.i.49 (398,4) Of very expert and approv'd allowance] I read, _Very +expert, and of approv'd allowance_. + +II.i.64 (308,5) And in the essential vesture of creation/Does bear all +excellency; We in terrestrial] I do not think the present reading +inexplicable. The author seems to use _essential_, for _existent, real_. +She excels the praises of invention, says he, and in _real qualities_, +with which _creation_ has _invested_ her, _bears all excellency_. + +_Does bear all excellency_----] Such is the reading of the quartos, for +which the folio has this, + + _And in the essential vesture of creation_ + Do's tyre the ingeniuer. + +Which I explain thus, + + _Does tire the_ ingenious verse. + +This is the best reading, and that which the author substituted in his +revisal. + +II.i.112 (401,9) Saints in your injuries] When you have a mind to do +injuries, you put on an air of sanctity. + +II.i.120 (402,1) I am nothing, if not critical] That is, _censorious_. + +II.i.137 (402,2) _She never yet was foolish_] We may read, + + She ne'er was yet so foolish that was fair, + But even her folly help'd her to an heir. + +Yet I believe the common reading to be right; the lay makes the power of +cohabitation a proof that a man is not a _natural_; therefore, since the +foolishest woman, if _pretty_, may have a child, no _pretty woman_ is +ever foolish. + +II.i.146 (403,3) put on the vouch of very malice itself] _To put on the +vouch of malice_, is to assume a character vouched by the testimony of +malice itself. + +II.i.165 (404,5) profane] Gross of language, of expression broad and +brutal. So Brabantio, in the first act, calls Iago _profane_ wretch. + +II.i.165 (404,6) liberal counsellor.] _Counsellor_ seems to mean, not so +much a man that _gives counsel_, us one that discourses fearlessly and +volubly. A talker. + +II.i.177 (405,8) well kiss'd! an excellent courtesy!] [--_well kissed_, +and _excellent courtesy_;--] This I think should be printed, _well +kiss'd_! an _excellent courtesy_! Spoken when Cassio kisses his hand, +and Desdemona courtesies. [The old quarto confirms Dr. Johnson's +emendation. STEEVENS.] + +II.i.208 (406,1) I prattle out of fashion] Out of method, without any +settled order of discourse. + +II.i.211 (406,2) the master] The pilot of the ship. + +II.i.223 (406,3) Lay thy finger thus] On thy mouth, to stop it while +thou art listening to a wiser man. + +II.i.252 (407,5) green minds] Minds unripe, minds not yet fully formed. + +II.i.254 (408,6) she is full of most bless'd condition] Qualities, +disposition of mind. + +II.i.274 (408,7) tainting his discipline] Throwing a slur upon hie +discipline. + +II.i.279 (408,8) sudden in choler] _Sudden_, is precipitately violent. + +II.i.283 (408,9) whose qualification shall come into no true taste +again] Whose resentment shall not be so _qualified_ or _tempered_, as to +be _well tasted_, as not to retain _some bitterness_. The phrase is +harsh, at least to our ears. + +II.i.306 (409,1) like a poisonous mineral] This is philosophical. +Mineral poisons kill by corrosion. + +II.i.314 (411,4) I'll have our Michael Cassio on the hip] A phrase from +the art of wrestling. + +II.i.321 (411,6) Knavery's plain face is never seen] An honest man acts +upon a plan, and forecasts his designs; but a knave depends upon +temporary and local opportunities, and never knows his own purpose, but +at the time of execution. + +II.iii.14 (413,8) Our general cast us] That is, _appointed us to our +stations_. To _cast the play_, is, in the stile of the theatres, to +assign to every actor his proper part. + +II.iii.26 (413,9) And when she speaks, is it not an alarum to love?] The +voice may _sound_ an _alarm_ more properly than the _eye_ can _sound_ a +_parley_. + +II.iii.46 (413,1) I have drunk but one cap to-night, and that was +carefully qualified too] Slily mixed with water. + +II.iii.59 (414,2) The very elements; As quarrelsome as the as the +_discordia semina rerum_; as quick in opposition as fire and water. + +II.iii.64 (414,3) If consequence do but approve my dream] [T: my deer] +This reading is followed by the succeeding editions. I rather read, + + _If consequence do but approve my scheme_. + +But why should _dream_ be rejected? Every scheme subsisting only in the +imagination may be termed a _dream_. + +II.iii.93-99 (416,6) _King Stephen was a worthy peer_] These stanzas are +taken from an old song, which the reader will find recovered and +preserved in a curious work lately printed, intitled, _Relicks of +Ancient Poetry_, consisting of old heroic ballands, songs, &c. 3 vols. +12. + +II.iii.95 (416,7) _lown_] Sorry fellow, paltry wretch. + +II.iii.135 (417,8) He'll watch the horologe a double set] If he have no +drink, he'll keep awake while the clock strikes two rounds, or four and +twenty hours. + +Chaucer uses the ward _horologe_ in more places than one. + + "Well skirer was his crowing in his loge + "Than is a clock or abbey _horologe_."] + +The bracketed part of Johnson's note is taken verbatim from Zacbary +Gray, _Critical ... Notes on Shakespeare_, 1754, II, 316.] (see 1765, +VIII, 374, 6) (rev. 1778, I, 503, 9) + +II.iii.145 (418,9) ingraft infirmity; An infirmity _rooted, settled_ in +his constitution. + +II.iii.175 (419,3) it frights the isle/From her propriety] From her +regular and _proper state_. + +II.iii.180 (419,4) In quarter] In their quarters; at their lodging. + +II.iii.194 (420,5) you unlace your reputation thus] Slacken, or +_loosen_. Put in danger of dropping; or perhaps strip of its ornaments. + +II.iii.195 (420,6) spend your rich opinion] Throw away and squander a +reputation as valuable as yours. + +II.iii.202 (420,7) self-charity] Care of one's self. + +II.iii.211 (421,9) he that is approv'd in this offence] He that is +convicted by proof, of having been engaged in this offence. + +II.iii.274 (423,1) cast in his mood] Ejected in his anger. + +II.iii.343 (425,4) this advice is free] This counsel has an appearance +of honest openness, of frank good-will. + +II.iii.348 (425,5) free elements] Liberal, bountiful, as the elements, +out of which all things are produced. + +II.iii.355 (425,6) to this parallel course] i.e. a course level, and +even with his design. + +II.iii.363 (425,8) That she repeals him] That is, recalls him. + +II.iii.382 (426,1) + + Though ether things grew fair against the sun, + Yet fruits, that blossom first, will first be ripe] + +Of many different things, all planned with the same art, and promoted +with the same diligence, some must succeed sooner than others, by the +order of nature. Every thing cannot be done at once; we must proceed by +the necessary gradation. We are not to _despair_ of slow events any +_more_ than of tardy fruits, while the causes are in regular progress, +and the fruits _grow fair against the sun_. Hanmer has not, I think, +rightly conceived the sentiment; for he reads, + + _Those fruits which blossom first_, are not first _ripe_. + +I have therefore drawn it out at length, for there are few to whom that +will be easy which was difficult to Hanmer. + +III.i.3 (427,2) Why, masters, have your instruments been in Naples, that +they speak i' the nose thus?] The venereal disease first appeared at the +siege of Naples. + +III.iii.14 (430,6) + + That policy may either last so long, + Or feed upon such nice and waterish diet, + Or breed itself so out of circumstance, + That I, being absent, and my place supplied, + My general will forget my love and service] + +He may either of himself think it politic to keep me out of office so +long, or he may be satisfied with such slight reasons, or so many +accidents may make him think my re-admission at that time improper, that +I may be quite forgotten. + +III.iii.23 (431,7) I'll watch him tame] It is said, that the ferocity of +beasts, insuperable and irreclaimable by any other means, is subdued by +keeping them from sleep. + +III.iii.47 (431,8) His present reconciliation take] [W: make] To _take +his reconciliation_, may be to accept the submission which he makes in +order to be reconciled. + +III.iii.65 (432,1) the wars must make examples/Out of their best] The +severity of military discipline must not spare the _best men_ of the +army, when their punishment nay afford a wholesome _example_. + +III.iii.90 (433,2) Excellent wretch!--Perdition catch my soul,/But I do +love thee!] The meaning of the word _wretch_, is not generally +understood. It is now, in some parts of England, a term of the softest +and fondest tenderness. It expresses the utmost degree of amiableness, +joined with an idea, which perhaps all tenderness includes, of +feebleness, softness, and want of protection. Othello, considering +Desdemona as excelling in beauty and virtue, soft and timorous by her +sex, and by her situation absolutely in his power, calls her _Excellent +wretch!_ It may be expressed, + + _Dear, harmless, helpless Excellence._ + +III.iii.91 (433,3) when I love thee not,/Chaos is come again] When my +love is for a moment suspended by suspicion, I have nothing in my mind +but discord, tumult, perturbation, and confusion. + +III.iii.123 (435,4) They are close delations working from the heart,/ +That passion cannot rule] _They are_ cold dilations _working from the +heart,/That passion cannot rule_.] I know not why the modern editors are +satisfied with this reading, which no explanation can clear. They might +easily have found, that it is introduced without authority. The old +copies uniformly give, _close dilations_, except that the earlier quarto +has _close denotements_; which was the author's first expression, +afterwards changed by him, not to _cold dilations_, for _cold_ is read +in no ancient copy; nor, I believe, to _close dilations_, but to _close +delations_; to _occult_ and _secret accusations, working_ involuntarily +_from the heart_, which, though resolved to conceal the fault, cannot +rule its _passion_ of resentment. + +III.iii.127 (435,5) Or, those that be not, 'would they might seem none!] +[W: seem knaves] I believe the meaning is, _would they might no longer +seem_, or bear the shape of _men_. + +III.iii.140 (436,6) Keep leets and law-days] [i.e. govern. WARBURTON.] +Rather _visit_ than _govern_, but visit with authoritative intrusion. + +III.iii.149 (437,8) From one that so improbably conceits]--imperfectly +_conceits_,] In the old quarto it is, + + --improbably _conceits_, + +Which I think preferable. + +III.iii.166 (437,9) the green-ey'd monster, which doth make/The meat it +feeds on] _which doth_ mock _The meat it feeds on_.] I have received +Hanmer's emendation ["make"]; because _to mock_, does not signify _to +loath_; and because, when Iago bids Othello _beware of jealousy, the +green-eyed monster_, it is natural to tell why he should beware, and for +caution he gives him two reasons, that jealousy _often_ creates its own +cause, and that, when the causes are real, jealousy is misery. + +III.iii.173 (438,1) But riches, fineless] Unbounded, endless, unnumbered +treasures. + +III.iii.180 (438,3) + + Exchange me for a goat, + When I shall turn the business of my soul + To such exsuffolate and blown surmises, + Matching thy inference] + +This odd and far-fetched word was made yet more uncouth in all the +editions before Hanmer's, by being printed, _exsufflicate_. The allusion +is to a bubble. Do not think, says the Moor, that I shall change the +noble designs that now employ my thoughts, to suspicions which, like +bubbles _blown_ into a wide extent, have only an empty shew without +solidity, or that in consequence of such empty fears, I will close with +thy inference against the virtue of my wife. + +III.iii.188 (439,4) Where virtue is, those are most virtuous] An action +in itself indifferent grows virtuous by its end and application. + +III.iii.201 (439,6) + + I know our country disposition well; + In Venice they do let heaven see the pranks] + +Here Iago seems to be a Venetian. + +III.iii.207 (440,7) And, when she seem'd to shake, and fear your +looks,/She lov'd them most] This and the following argument of Iago +ought to be deeply impressed on every reader. Deceit and falsehood, +whatever conveniencies they may for a time promise or produce, are, in +the sum of life, obstacles to happiness. Those, who profit by the cheat, +distruat the deceiver, and the act, by which kindness was sought, puts +an end to confidence. + +The same objection may be made with a lower degree of strength against +the imprudent generosity of disproportionate marriages. When the first +heat of passion is over, it is easily succeeded by suspicion, that the +same violence of inclination, which caused one irregularity, may +stimulate to another; and those who have shown, that their passions are +too powerful for their prudence, will, with very alight appearances +againat them, be censured, as not very likely to restrain them by their +virtue. (see 1765, VIII, 397, 1) + +III.iii.210 (440,8) To seel her father's eyes up, close as oak] There is +little relation between _eyes_ and _oak_. I would read, + + _She seel'd her father's eyes up close as_ owl's. + +_As blind as an owl_, is a proverb. + +III.iii.222 (441,1) My speech would fall into such vile success] +[_Success_, far succession, i.e. conclusion; not prosperous issue. +WARB.] I rather think there is a depravation, and would read, + + _My speech would fall into such vile_ excess. + +If _success_ be the right word, it seems to mean _consequence_ or +_event_, as _successo_ is used in Italian. + +III.iii.232 (441,2) will most rank] _Will_, is for wilfulness. It is so +used by Ascham. A _rank will_, is _self-will_ overgrown and exuberant. + +III.iii.249 (442,3) You shall by that perceive him, and his means] You +shall discover whether he thinks his best _means_, his most powerful +_interest_, is by the solicitation of your lady. + +III.iii.250 (442,4) strain his entertainnent] Press hard his +re-admission to his pay and office. _Entertainment_ was the military +term for admission of soldiers. + +III.iii.256 (442,5) Fear not my government] Do not distrust ay ability +to contain my passion. + +III.iii.259 (442,6) knows all qualities, with a learned spirit,/Of human +dealings] The construction is, He knows with a learned spirit all +qualities of human dealings. + +III.iii.260 (442,7) If I do prore her haggard] A _haggard_ hark, is a +_wild_ hawk, a _hawk unreclaimed_, or _irreclaimable_. + +III.iii.262 (443,8) I'd whistle her off, and let her down the wind,/ To +prey at fortune] The falconers always let fly the hawk against the wind; +if she flies with the wind behind her, she seldom returns. If therefore +a hawk was for any reason to be dismissed, she was _let down the wind_, +and from that time shifted far herself, and _preyed at fortune_. This +was told me by the late Mr. Clark. + +III.iii.276 (443,9) forked plague] In allusion to a _barbed_ or _forked_ +arrow, which, once infixed, cannot be extracted. + +III.iii.312 (445,2) And, to the advantage, I, being here, took it up] I +being _opportunely_ here, took it up. + +III.iii.319 (445,3) Be not you known on't] Should it not rather be read, + + _Be not you known_ in't? + +The folio reads, + + _Be not_ unknown _on't_. + +The sense is plain, but of the expression I cannot produce any example. + +III.iii.332 (446,5) that sweet sleep,/Which thou owedst yesterday] To +_owe_ is, in our author, oftener to _possess_, than _to be indebted_, +and such was its meaning here; but as that sense was growing less usual, +it was changed unnecessarily by the editors to _hadst_; to the sane +meaning, more intelligibly expressed. + +III.iii.351 (447,6) + + Farewell the neighing steed, and the shrill trump, + The spirit-stirring drum, the ear-piercing fife] + +Dr. Warburton has offered _fear-spersing_, for _fear-dispersing_. But +_ear-piercing_ is an epithet so eminently adapted to the _fife_, and so +distinct from the shrillness of the trumpet, that it certainly ought not +to be changed. Dr. Warburton has been censured for this proposed +emendation with more noise than honesty, for he did not himself put it +in the text. + +III.iii.369 (449,8) abandon all remorse] [_Remorse_, for repentance. +WARBURTON.] I rather think it is, Let go all scruples, throw aside all +restraints. + +III.iii.429 (451,4) _Oth._ 'tis a shrewd doubt] [The old quarto gives +this line, with the two following, to Iago; and rightly. WARB.] I think +it more naturally spoken by Othello, who, by dwelling so long upon the +proof, encouraged Iago to enforce it. + +III.iii.448 (452,8) hearted throne] [W: parted] _Hearted_ throne, is the +heart on which thou wast _enthroned_. _Parted_ throne has no meaning. + +III.iii.467 (453,3) + + Let him command, + And to obey, shall be in me remorse, + What bloody business ever] + +[Pope: Not to obey] [T: Nor, to obey.] [W: me. Remord] Of these two +emendations, I believe, Theobald's will have the greater number of +suffrages; it has at least mine. The objection against the propriety of +the declaration in Iago is a cavil; he does not say that he has no +principle of remorse, but that it shall not operate against Othello's +commands. _To obey shall be in me_, for _I will obey you_, is a mode of +expression not worth the pains here taken to introduce it; and the word +_remords_ has not in the quotation the meaning of _withhold_, or _make +reluctant_, but of _reprove_, or _censure_; nor do I know that it is +used by any of the contemporaries of Shakespeare. + +I will offer an interpretation, which, if it be received, will make +alteration unnecessary, but it is very harsh and violent. Iago devotes +himself to wronged Othello, and says, _Let him command whatever bloody +business_, and in me it shall be an act, not of cruelty, but _of +tenderness, to obey him_; not of malice to other, but of _tenderness_ +for him. If this sense be thought too violent, I see nothing better than +to follow Pope's reading, as it is improved by Theobald. + +III.iv.26 (457,5) cruzadoes] [A Portugueze coin, in value three +shillings sterling. Dr. GREY.] So called from the cross stamped upon it. + +III.iv.46 (458,6) The hearts, of old, gave hands] [Warburton explains +this is an allusion to James the First's practice of creating baronets +for money and emends to "The hands of old gave hearts"] The historical +observation is very judicious and acute, but of the emendation there is +no need. She says, that her hand gave away _her heart_. He goes on with +his suspicion, and the hand which he had before called _frank_, he now +terms _liberal_; then proceeds to remark, that _the hand was formerly +given by the heart_; but now it neither gives it, nor is given by it. + +III.iv.51 (459,7) salt and sullen rheum]--_salt and_ sorry rheum] The +old quarto has, + + --_salt and_ sullen _rheum_--- + +That is, a _rheum obstinately troublesome_. I think this better. + +III.iv.70 (459,8) + + A Sybil, that had numbred in the world + The sun to course two hundred compasses] + +The expression is not very infrequent; we say, _I counted the clock to +strike four_; so she _number'd_ the sun _to course_, to run _two hundred +compasses_, two hundred annual circuits. + +III.iv.79 (460,1) Why do you speak so startingly, and rash?] Is +_vehement, violent_. + +III.iv.103 (461,2) 'Tis not a year, or two, shews us a man] From this +line it may be conjectured, that the author intended the action of the +play to be considered as longer than is marked by any note of time. +Since their arrival at Cyprus, to which they were hurried on their +wedding-night, the fable seems to have been in one continual progress, +nor can I see any vacuity into which a _year or two_, or even a month or +two, could be put. On the night of Othello's arrival, a feast was +proclaimed; at that feast Cassio was degraded, and immediately applies +to Desdemona to get him restored. Iago indeed advises Othello to hold +him off a while, but there is no reason to think, that he has been held +off long. A little longer interval would increase the probability of the +story, though it might violate the rules of the drama. See Act. 5. Sc. +2. (see 1765, VIII, 416, 1) + +III.iv.113 (461,3) the duty of my heart] --_the office _of my heart_.] +The elder quarto reads, + + --_the_ duty _of my heart_. + +The author used the more proper word, and then changed it, I suppose, +for fashionable diction; but, as fashion is a very weak protectress, the +old word is now ready to resume its place. + +III.iv.119 (462,4) + + But to know so, must be my benefit] + + "Si nequeo placidas affari Caesaris aures, + "Saltem aliquis veniat, qui mihi dicat, abi." + +III.iv.125 (462,7) in favour] In _look_, in _countenance_. + +III.iv.128 (462,8) within the blank of his displeasure] Within the +_shot_ of his anger. + +III.iv.141 (463,9) some unhatch'd practice] Some treason that has not +taken effect. + +III.iv.146 (463,1) + + for let our finger ach, + And it endues our other healthful members + Even to that sense of pain] + +_Endue with a sense of pain_, is an expression, which, though it might +be endured, if it were genuine, cannot deserve to be introduced by +artifice. The copies, both quarto and folio, read, _Endue our other +healthful members even to a sense of pain_. I believe it should be +rather, SUBDUE _our other healthful members to a sense of pain_. + +III.iv.151 (463,2) (unhandsome warrior as I am)] [W: wrangler] +_Unhandsome warrior_, is evidently _unfair assailant_. + +III.iv.178 (464,3) a more continuate time]--_more_ convenient _time_] +The folio has, + + --_more_ continuate _time_; + +Time _less interrupted_, time which I can call more my own. It gives a +more distinct image than _convenient_. + +III.iv.180 (464,4) Take me this work out] The meaning is not, "Pick out +the work, and leave the ground plain;" but, "Copy this work in another +handkerchief." + +IV.i.5 (466,6) + + Naked in bed, Iago, and not mean harm? + It is hypocrisy against the devil] + +_Hypocrisy against the devil_, means hypocrisy to cheat the devil. As +common hypocrites cheat men, by seeming good, and yet living wickedly, +these men would cheat the devil, by giving him flattering hopes, and at +last avoiding the crime which he thinks them ready to commit. + +IV.i.22 (467,8) Boding to all] Thus all the old copies. The moderns, +less grammatically, + + _Boding to_ ill-- + +IV.i.42 (468,2) without sone instruction] [W: induction] This is a noble +conjecture, and whether right or wrong does honour to its author. Yet I +am in doubt whether there is any necessity of emendation. There has +always prevailed in the world an opinion, that when any great calamity +happens at a distance, notice is given of it to the sufferer by some +dejection or perturbation of mind, of which he discovers no external +cause. This is ascribed to that general communication of one part of the +universe with another, which is called sympathy and antipathy; or to the +secret monition, _instruction_, and influence of a superior Being, which +superintends the order of nature and of life. Othello says, _Nature +could not invest herself in such shadowing passion without_ instruction. +_It is not words that shake me thus._ This passion, which spreads its +clouds over me, is the effect of some agency more than the operation of +words; it is one of those notices which men have of unseen calamities. + +IV.i.76 (471,4) Confine yourself but in a patient list] For attention; +act of listening. + +IV.i.82 (471,5) encave yourself] Hide yourself in a private place. + +IV.i.89 (471,6) Or I shall say, you are all in all in spleen,/And +nothing of a man] I read, + + _Or shall I say, you're all in all a spleen_. + +I think our author uses this expression elsewhere. + +IV.i.121 (472,8) Do you triumph, Roman? do you triumph?] Othello calls +him _Roman_ ironically. _Triumph_, which was a Roman ceremony, brought +Roman into his thoughts. _What_ (says he) _you are now_ triumphing _as +great as a Roman_? + +IV.i.123 (472,9) a customer!] A common woman, one that invites custom. + +IV.i.130 (473,1) Have you scar'd me? Have you made my reckoning? have +you settled the term of my life? The old quarto reads, _stored_ me. Have +you disposed of me? have you laid me up? + +IV.i.150 (473,2) 'Tis such another fitchew! marry, a perfum'd one] +Shakespeare has in another place mentioned the lust of this animal. He +tells Iago, that she is as lewd as the _polecat_, but of better scent, +the polecat being a very stinking animal. + +IV.i.244 (476,4) atone them] Make them _one_; reconcile them. + +IV.i.256 (477,5) + + If that the earth could teem with woman's tears, + Each drop she falls would prove a crocodile] + +If womens tears could impregnate the earth. By the doctrine of equivocal +generation, new animals were supposed producible by new combinations of +matter. See Bacon. + +IV.i.277 (478,7) + + whose solid virtue + The shot of accident, nor dart of chance, + Could neither graze nor pierce] + +[T: of change] To _graze_ is not merely to touch superficially, but to +strike not directly, not so as to bury the body of the thing striking in +the matter struck. + +Theobald trifles, as is usual. _Accident_ and _chance_ may admit a +subtle distinction; _accident_ may be considered as the _act_, and +_chance_ as the _power_ or _agency_ of fortune; as, _It was_ by chance +_that this_ accident _befel me_. At least, if we suppose all corrupt +that is inaccurate, there will be no end of emendation. + +IV.ii.57 (482,1) garner'd up my heart] That is, _treasured_ up; the +_garner_ and the _fountain_ are improperly conjoined. + +IV.ii.62 (482,2) + + Turn thy complexion there! + Patience, thou young and rose-lipp'd cherubim; + Ay, there, look grim as hell] + +At such an object do thou, _patience_, thyself _change colour_; at this +do thou, even thou, _rosy cherub_ as thou art, _look grim as hell_. The +old editions and the new have it, + + _I here look grim as hell._ + +_I_ was written for _ay_, and not since corrected. + +IV.ii.109 (484,4) The small'st opinion on my great'st abuse] The old +quarto reads [for "least misuse"], + + _The small'st opinion on my_ great'st abuse. + +Which I think is better. + +IV.ii.140 (486,6) Some base notorious knave] For _gross_, not in its +proper meaning for _known_. + +IV.ii.144 (486,7) Speak within door] Do not clamour so as to be heard +beyond the house. + +IV.ii.146 (486,8) the seamy side without] That is, _inside out_. + +IV.iii.27 (490,2) and he, she lov'd, prov'd mad,/And did forsake her] I +believe that _mad_ only signifies _wild, frantick, uncertain_. + +IV.iii.31 (490,3) I have much to do,/But to go hang my head] I _have +much_ ado to do any thing _but hang my head_. We might read, + + Not _to go hang my head_. + +This is perhaps the only insertion made in the latter editions which has +improved the play. The rest seem to have been added for the sake of +amplification, or of ornament. When the imagination had subsided, and +the mind was no longer agitated by the horror of the action, it became +at leisure to look round for specious additians. This addition is +natural. Desdemona can at first hardly forbear to sing the song; she +endeavours to change her train of thoughts, but her imagination at last +prevails, and she sings it. + +IV.iii.41 (491,4) + + _Des._ "The poor soul sat singing by a sycamore-tree, + "Sing all a green willow] + +This song, in two parts, is printed in a late collection of old ballads; +the lines preserved here differ somewhat from the copy discovered by the +ingenious collector. + +IV.iii.55 (491,5) + + _Des._ "I call'd my love false love; but what said + "he then? + "Sing willow, &c.] + +This couplet is not in the ballad, which is the complaint, not of a +woman forsaken, but of a man rejected. These lines were probably added +when it was accommodated to a woman. + +IV.iii.94 (493,6) our former having] Our former allowance of experience. + +IV.iii.107 (493,7) heaven me such usage send] --_heaven me such_ uses +_send_,] Such is the reading of the folio, and of the subsequent +editions; but the old quarto has, + + --_such_ usage _send_.-- + +_Usage_ is an old word for _custom_, and, I think, better than _uses_. + +V.i.11 (494,1) I have rubb'd this young quat _almost to the sense_] In +some editions, + + _I've rubb'd this young_ gnat _almost to the sense, + And he grows angry_.] + +This is a passage much controverted among the editors. Sir T. Hanner +reads _quab_, a _gudgeon_; not that a gudgeon can be _rubbed_ to much +_sense_, but that a man grossly deceived is often called a _gudgeon_. +Mr. Upton reads _quail_, which he proves, by much learning, to be a very +choleric bird. Dr. Warburton retains _gnat_, which is found in the early +quarto. Theobald would introduce _knot_, a small bird of that name. I +have followed the text of the folio, and third and fourth quartos. + +A _quat_ in the midland counties is a _pimple_, which by rubbing is made +to smart, or is _rubbed to sense_. Roderigo is called a _quat_ by the +same mode of speech, as a low fellow is now termed in lay language a +_scab. To rub to the sense_, is _to rub to the quick_. + +V.i.37 (496,2) No passage?] No passengers? No body going by? + +V.i.42 (499,4) a heary night] A _thick cloudy_ night, in which an ambush +may be commodiously laid. + +V.ii.1 (499,4) It is the cause, it is the cause, my soul;--/Let me not +name it] The abruptness of this soliloquy makes it obscure. The meaning, +I think, is this: "I am here (says Othello in his mind) overwhelmed with +horror. What is the reason of this perturbation? Is it want of +resolution to do justice? Is it the dread of shedding blood? No; it is +not the action that shocks me, but _it is the cause, it is the cause, my +soul; let me not name it to you, ye chaste stars; it is the cause_." + +V.ii.20 (500,7) + + I must weep, + But they are cruel tears: this sorrel's heavenly; + It strikes, where it doth love.--She wakes--] + +This tenderness, with which I lament the punishment which justice +compels me to inflict, is a holy passion. + +I wish these two lines could be honestly ejected. It is the fate of +Shakespeare to counteract his own pathos. + +V.ii.65 (502,8) A murder, which I thought a sacrifice] This line is +difficult. _Thou hast hardened my heart, and makest me_ kill thee with +the rage of a _murderer_, when _I thought to have sacrificed_ thee to +justice with the calmness of a priest striking a victim. + +It must not be omitted, that one of the elder quartos reads, _thou dost +stone_ thy _heart_; which I suspect to be genuine. The meaning then will +be, _thou forcest me_ to dismiss thee from the world in the state of the +_murdered_ without preparation for death, _when I intended_ that thy +punishment should have been a _sacrifice_ atoning for thy crime. + +I am glad that I have ended my revisal of this dreadful scene. It is not +to be endured. + +V.ii.134 (505,3) false as water] As water that will support no weight, +nor keep any impression. + +V.ii.151 (506,4) villainy has made mocks with love] _Villainy_ has taken +advantage to _play upon_ the weakness of a violent passion. + +V.ii.162 (506,5) Thou hast not half that power to do me harm, /As I have +to be hurt] [Hamner: to bear hurt] The Oxford Editor saw well the +meaning of his author, but weakened his expression. She means to say, _I +have in this cause power to endure more than thou hast power to +inflict_. + +V.ii.183 (507, 6) charm your tongue] I know not whether I have read, or +whether my own thoughts hare suggested, an alteration of this passage. +It seems to me not improbable, that Shakespeare wrote _clam_ your +tongue; to _clam_ a bell, is to cover the clapper with felt, which +drowns the blow, and hinders the sound. + +V.ii.211 (509,7) she with Cassio had the act of shame/A thousand times +committed] This is another passage which seems to suppose a longer space +comprised in the action of this play than the scenes include. + +V.ii.253 (512,2) It was a sword of Spain, the ice-brook's temper] [In +the first edition it is, _Isebroke's temper_. Thence corrupted to +_Ice-brook's_.--_Ebro's temper_; the waters of that river of Spain are +particularly famous for tempering of steel. POPE.] I believe the old +reading changed to _ice-brook_ is right. Steel is hardened by being put +red hot into very cold water. + +V.ii.286 (513,3) + + I look down towards his feet; but that's a fable. + If that thou be'st a devil, I cannot kill thee] + +To see if, according to the common opinion, his feet be cloven. + +V.ii.292 (513,4) Fall'n in the practice of a cursed slave] In the +_snare_, by the _stratagem_. + +V.ii.317 (514,5) in the interim] The first copy has, _in the_ nick. It +was, I suppose, thought upon revisal, that _nick_ was too familiar. + +V.ii.342 (515,6) Speak of me as I am] The early copies read, _Speak of +them as they are_. The present reading has more force. (rev. 1778, X, +622, 6) + +(520,2) General Observation. The beauties of this play impress +themselves so strongly upon the attention of the reader, that they can +draw no aid from critical illustration. The fiery openness of Othello, +magnanimous, artless, and credulous, boundless in his confidence, ardent +in his affection, inflexible in his resolution, and obdurate in his +revenge; the cool malignity of Iago, silent in his resentment, subtle in +his designs, and studious at once of his interest and his vengeance; the +soft simplicity of Desdemona, confident of merit, and conscious of +innocence, her artless perseverance in her suit, and her slowness to +suspect that she can be suspected, are such proofs of Shakespeare's +skill in human nature, as, I suppose, it is vain to seek in any modern +writer. The gradual progress which Iago makes in the Moor's conviction, +and the circumstances which he employs to inflame him, are so artfully +natural, that, though it will perhaps not be said of him as he says of +himself, that he is _a man not easily jealous_, yet we cannot but pity +him, when at last we find him _perplexed in the extreme_. + +There is always danger, lest wickedness, conjoined with abilities, +should steal upon esteem, though it misses of approbation; but the +character of Iago is so conducted, that he is from the first scene to +the last hated and despised. + +Even the inferior characters of this play would be very conspicuous in +any other piece, not only for their justness, but their strength. Cassio +is brave, benevolent, and honest, ruined only by his want of +stubbornness to resist an insidious invitation. Roderigo's suspicious +credulity, and impatient submission to the cheats which he sees +practised upon him, and which by persuasion he suffers to be repeated, +exhibit a strong picture of a weak mind betrayed by unlawful desires to +a false friend; and the virtue of Aemilia is such as we often find, worn +loosely, but not cast off, easy to commit small crimes, but quickened +and alarmed at atrocious villainies. + +The scenes from the beginning to the end are busy, varied by happy +interchanges, and regularly promoting the progression of the story; and +the narrative in the end, though it tells but what is known already, yet +is necessary to produce the death of Othello. + +Had the scene opened in Cyprus, and the preceding incidents been +occasionally related, there had been little wanting to a drama of the +most exact and scrupulous regularity. + +(LI 2) Appendix. Some apology perhaps is necessary for the inconvenience +of an Appendix, which, however, we can justify by the strongest of all +pleas, the plea of necessity. The Notes which it contains, whether +communicated by correspondents, or collected from published volumes, +were not within our reach when the plays were printed, to which they +relate. Of that which chance has supplied, we could have no previous +knowledge; and he that waited till the river should run dry, did not act +with less reason than the Editor would do, who should suspend his +publication for possibilities of intelligence, or promises of +improvement. Had we foreseen the _Oxford_ edition, the assistance we +expected from it might have persuaded us to pause; but our volumes were +completely finished before its publication. [There are no notes by +Johnson in this Appendix; several are by Steevens.] + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Notes to Shakespeare, Volume III: The +Tragedies, by Samuel Johnson + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK NOTES TO SHAKESPEARE *** + +***** This file should be named 15566.txt or 15566.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + https://www.gutenberg.org/1/5/5/6/15566/ + +Produced by David Starner, David King, and the PG Online +Distributed Proofreading Team + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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