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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/7780.txt b/7780.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..ad57e8c --- /dev/null +++ b/7780.txt @@ -0,0 +1,9131 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of Johnson's Notes to Shakespeare Vol. I +Comedies, by Samuel Johnson +#9 in our series by Samuel Johnson + +Copyright laws are changing all over the world. Be sure to check the +copyright laws for your country before downloading or redistributing +this or any other Project Gutenberg eBook. + +This header should be the first thing seen when viewing this Project +Gutenberg file. Please do not remove it. Do not change or edit the +header without written permission. + +Please read the "legal small print," and other information about the +eBook and Project Gutenberg at the bottom of this file. Included is +important information about your specific rights and restrictions in +how the file may be used. You can also find out about how to make a +donation to Project Gutenberg, and how to get involved. + + +**Welcome To The World of Free Plain Vanilla Electronic Texts** + +**eBooks Readable By Both Humans and By Computers, Since 1971** + +*****These eBooks Were Prepared By Thousands of Volunteers!***** + + +Title: Johnson's Notes to Shakespeare Vol. I Comedies + +Author: Samuel Johnson + +Release Date: March 2005 [EBook #7780] +[Yes, we are more than one year ahead of schedule] +[This file was first posted on May 16, 2003] + +Edition: 10 + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK NOTES TO SHAKESPEARE VOL. I *** + + + + +Produced by Distributed Proofreaders + + + + +THE AUGUSTAN REPRINT SOCIETY + + +SAMUEL JOHNSON + +_Notes to Shakespeare_ + +Vol. I + +Comedies + +Edited, with an Introduction, by Arthur Sherbo + + +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_ +EDWARD NILES HOOKER, _University of California, Los Angeles_ +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_ + + + +GENERAL INTRODUCTION + +Dr. Johnson's Preface to Shakespeare is one of the most famous critical +essays of the eighteenth century, and yet too many students have +forgotten that it is, precisely, a preface to the plays of Shakespeare, +edited by Dr. Johnson himself. That is to say, the edition itself has +been obscured or overshadowed by its preface, and the sustained effort +of that essay has virtually monopolized scholarly attention--much of +which should be directed to the commentary. Johnson's love for +Shakespeare's plays is well known; nowhere is this more manifest than in +his notes on them. And it is on the notes that his claim to remembrance +as a critic of Shakespeare must rest, for the famous Preface is, after +all, only rarely an original and personal statement. + +The idea of editing Shakespeare's plays had attracted Johnson early, and +in 1745 he issued proposals for an edition. Forced to give up the +project because of copyright difficulties, he returned to it again in +1756 with another, much fuller set of proposals. Between 1745 and 1756 +he had completed the great _Dictionary_ and could advance his +lexicographical labors as an invaluable aid in the explication of +Shakespeare. Although he had promised speedy publication, "on or before +Christmas 1757," Johnson's public had to wait until Oct. 10, 1765 for +the Shakespeare edition to appear. The first edition, largely subscribed +for, was soon exhausted, and a second edition was ready the very next +month. A third edition was published in 1768, but there were no +revisions in the notes in either of these editions. At some time after +February 1, 1766, the date of George Steevens' own proposals for an +edition of Shakespeare, and before March 21, 1770 when Johnson wrote to +Richard Farmer for some assistance in the edition (_Life_, II, 114), +Johnson decided to join forces with Steevens. The result was, of course, +the so-called 1773 Johnson-Steevens variorum from which the notes in +this reprint are taken. A second Johnson-Steevens variorum appeared in +1778, but Johnson's part in this was negligible, and I have been able to +find only fifty-one revisions (one, a definition, is a new note) which I +feel reasonably certain are his. The third variorum, edited by Isaac +Reed in 1785, contains one revision in Johnson's notes. + +"Dr. Johnson has displayed, in this revisal, such ingenuity, and +accuracy of just conception, as render the present annotations a +valuable addition to his former remarks on the subject." The writer is a +reviewer for the _Critical Review_ (Dee., 1773, p. 416); the work in +question is the 1773 Johnson-Steevens edition of Shakespeare's plays. +The remark quoted is from the last paragraph of a long review beginning +in November and seems almost an afterthought, for the same reviewer had +said that the edition "deserves to be considered as almost entirely the +production of Mr. Steevens" (p. 346). In a sense this is true, but the +basis for the commentary in the 1773 edition was still the approximately +5600 notes, both his own and those of previous editors and critics, that +had appeared in Dr. Johnson's 1765 edition. The actual text of the plays +is another matter; a combination of collation and judicious borrowing, +it was provided by George Steevens. Steevens' contributions to the text +and annotation of Shakespeare's plays concern students of the dramatist; +That Johnson had to say about the plays concerns Johnsonians as veil as +Shakespeareans. And it is unfortunately true that too little attention +has been paid to what is after all Johnson's final and reconsidered +judgment on a number of passages in the plays. + +The decision to reprint the commentary in the 1773 edition may be +questioned. Should not the 1765 text of the notes be reprinted, since +it, after all, is nearest to the author's manuscript? Will not errors +from the second and third editions have been perpetuated and new ones +committed in 1773, an inevitable result of reprinting any large body of +material? Ideally, the 1765 edition should be the copy-text. But +Johnson made about 500 revisions in his commentary, adding eighty-four +new notes and omitting thirty-four of his original notes in the first +edition. Obviously, Johnson cannot, or should not, be condemned for a +note in the 1765 edition which he omitted in 1773. Yet in selections +from Johnson's notes to Shakespeare that appear in anthologies some of +these offending notes have been reprinted without any indication that +the editors knew of their later retraction. In seventy-three notes +Johnson adds comments to his original note; in eighty-eight, to the +notes of other editors and critics. He revises seventy-five of his +original notes and he omits ten comments on the notes of others. And +there are many other changes. Some of the revisions come from the +Appendix to the 1765 edition. I have collated the notes in the 1765 and +1773 editions for evidence of revision; changes in punctuation were +passed over, and I must admit that I do not think them important. In +the light of my collation and because of the greater clumsiness of an +apparatus to indicate revisions in the 1765 notes I have elected to use +the 1773 text of Johnson's commentary, trusting that I have not +overlooked any significant changes. The reader has, then, for the first +time, outside the covers of the ten volumes of the 1773 edition, an +almost complete text of Johnson's notes on Shakespeare. The only +omission in this reprint is of those notes which merely list variant +readings, either from one of the folios or quartos or from a previous +editor. Johnson's reputation as an editor of Shakespeare rests, after +all, on his commentary, not on his textual labors. Up to now Johnson's +notes have been available only in such books as Walter Raleigh's +_Johnson on Shakespeare_ and Mona Wilson's _Johnson; Prose and Poetry_, +and here one gets merely a selection. For example: Miss Wilson reprints +only two notes from _The Tempest_, one from _Julius Caesar_, three from +_Antony and Cleopatra_, and one from _Titus Andronicus_. One rarely gets +the chance to read the more than 2000 notes in the edition given over to +definitions or paraphrases and explanations. Yet it must be remembered +that Johnson has been most often praised for these notes by scholars +whose primary interest was Shakespeare's meaning, not Johnson's +personality. And, what bears constant repetition, the anthologies draw +their notes from the 1765 edition, neglecting altogether Johnson's +revisions. It is only very recently that these revisions have been +studied at all--and then but partially. + +The present division of the commentary into three parts--the notes on +the comedies, those on the tragedies, and those on the history plays--is +arbitrary and mostly a matter of convenience. Some division was +necessary, and it seemed advantageous to present introductions which +could use Johnson's reaction to comedy, tragedy, and history plays--and +Shakespeare's comedies, tragedies, and histories--as a point of +departure. Were the notes reprinted in the order of appearance of the +plays one would find _Macbeth_, coming after _The Winter's Tale_ (the +last of the comedies), introducing the history plays. Since Johnson had +written _Miscellaneous Observations on the Tragedy of Macbeth_ in 1745 +and had included the play among the tragedies in the 1765 edition it +seems reasonable to assume that he regarded it as a tragedy and possibly +bowed to Steevens' wishes in allowing it to appear where it does in +1773. Hence, the notes on _Macbeth_ occur with those on the other +tragedies in this reprint. + +One of the reasons for a full reprinting of Johnson's commentary has +already been discussed: a complete and accurate knowledge of his +thoughts on each of the plays of the then accepted canon is thus gained. +(I might add here that some notes by other editors, inadvertently +unattributed in the 1765 edition--some of them still unattributed in +1773--have been erroneously reprinted as Johnson's by both Walter +Raleigh and Mona Wilson.) Another reason is, of course, the relative +difficulty of getting at the volumes of the 1773 edition. Although not a +particularly scarce item, the edition can usually be consulted only in +Rare Book rooms (there are exceptions), where the working scholar is +hampered by the inaccessibility of many other books, not "rare," which +he needs at his elbow. Then again, the present reprint gives only +Johnson's notes, except for necessary explanations of, or quotations +from, the notes of previous editors and critics. But far transcending +these reasons, although deriving from them, is the enormous value to the +student of Johnson the man and the critic of a now easily accessible +body of literary criticism and personal comment that is second in +importance only to the _Lives of the Poets_. + +Johnson's notes to the plays of Shakespeare are an invaluable source of +information of many kinds. I can only suggest here, and give a few +examples of, the wealth of material that awaits further, detailed +examination by other scholars. One demonstration, however, of the use to +which the notes can be put is provided by Professor E. L. McAdam's _Dr. +Johnson and the English Law_ (1951) in which are recorded notes showing +Johnson's familiarity with various legal terms. Further insight into +Johnson's knowledge of books of _esoterica_, histories, ballads, etc., +can be gleaned from the comments on Shakespeare. A subject in which I +must confess an interest possibly out of proportion to its worth is that +of Johnson's reading. Some day we will have a list, probably never +complete, of the books we can be sure Johnson knew. Not only will the +notes to Shakespeare supply the names of works that Johnson knew, quoted +from, or alluded to only in these notes, but they will also help to +establish more firmly certain fields or subjects that fascinated him. +Thus, one note is evidence for Johnson's knowledge of Guevara's _Dial of +Princes_; another for his familiarity with Ficino's _De Vita Libri +Tres_; and nowhere else in Johnson's works, letters, or conversation are +these works so much as alluded, to. Other notes show us that Johnson +remembered now a poem, now an essay, from the _Gentleman's Magazine_. In +still other notes one encounters or is able to identify the names of +John Caius, John Trevisa, Dr. William Alabaster, Paul Scarron, Abraham +Ortelius, Meric Casaubon, and many others. Plays, sermons, travel books, +ballads, romances, proverbs, poems, histories, biographies, essays, +letters, documents--all have their place in the notes to Shakespeare. + +No discussion of Johnson's knowledge of books can ignore the importance +of his reading for the _Dictionary_. Nor can this same preparatory +reading be overlooked in a consideration of the Shakespeare edition. +Between one-fifth and one-fourth of the notes to Shakespeare can be +traced back to the _Dictionary_. What is more, the revision of the 1765 +_Shakespeare_ was undertaken at the same time that Johnson was revising +his _Dictionary_; both revisions appeared in the same year. And so one +is not surprised to find that these two labors are of reciprocal +assistance. One illustration will have to do duty for several: in a note +Johnson observes of the verb "to roam" that it is "supposed to be +derived from the cant of vagabonds, who often pretended a pilgrimage to +Rome;" this etymology is absent from the 1755 _Dictionary_; in the +revised _Dictionary_ the verb "is imagined to come from the pretenses of +vagrants, who always said they were going to Rome." A number of the new +notes and comments in the 1773 Shakespeare are clearly derived, directly +or indirectly, from the _Dictionary_. + +I have already mentioned the _Lives of the Poets_ as the only critical +work by Johnson which takes precedence over the commentary (and Preface, +also) to the plays of Shakespeare. And yet this statement needs +modification. In one important respect the notes to Shakespeare are of +greater significance than the much more famous _Lives_ for an +investigation of Johnson the critic at work. Why, for example, is the +_Life of Cowley_ one of the most valuable of the _Lives_? For two +reasons: Johnson is discussing a school of poetry which has provoked +much comment, _and_ that particular _ Life_ abounds in quotations upon +which Johnson exercises his critical abilities. But there are not many +of the _Lives_ which reveal Johnson at work on particular passages, +where the passage in question is quoted and critical comment is made on +a particular line or a particular image, rhyme, word, etc. In short, as +so often in Johnson, we are confronted with the large general statement +in so much of the criticism in the _Lives_. The "diction" of _Lycidas_ +is "harsh." "Some philosophical notions [in _Paradise_ _Lost_], +especially when the philosophy is false, might have been better +omitted." The plays of Nicholas Rowe are marked by "elegance of +diction." Dryden is not often "pathetick." Some of Swift's poetry is +"gross" and some is "trifling." The diction of Shenstone's _Elegies_ is +"often harsh, improper, and affected." + +Johnson has not made his meaning entirely clear in these statements +because he has not illustrated his remarks with quotations from the +works or authors under examination. The famous--or notorious-- +condemnation of _Lycidas_ as "harsh" in diction continues to give +scholars pause. Most often Johnson has been accused of a poor--or no-- +ear for poetry, since the only definition of "harsh" in his _Dictionary_ +which is applicable here is "rough to the ear." As no specific lines +from the poem are labelled "harsh," one is forced to conclude that the +whole poem is unmusical to Johnson's ears--if "harsh" means only "rough +to the ear." But the notes to Shakespeare make it perfectly clear that +"harsh" often means something other than that. Sometimes a line is +stigmatised as "harsh" because it contains what Johnson in _Rambler_ No. +88 called the "collision of consonants." An image offends his sense of +propriety and is therefore "harsh." Some words are "harsh" because they +are "appropriated to particular arts" (the phrase comes from his _Life +of Dryden_). Thus, in _Measure for Measure_, a "leaven'd choice" is +"one of Shakespeare's harsh metaphors" because it conjures up images of +a baker at his trade. Johnson also uses "harsh" to describe a word used +in a sense not familiar to him. And "harsh" is sometimes used +synonymously with "forced and far-fetched." "Is't not a kind of incest, +to take life From thine own sister's shame?" asks Isabella of her +brother in _Measure for Measure_, provoking from Johnson the remark that +in her "declamation there is something harsh, and something forced and +far-fetched." Only now, with the varying uses of "harsh" as exemplified +in the notes to Shakespeare as guides, can one hope better to understand +the bare statement that the diction of _Lycidas_ is "harsh." Similar +investigation of other important words in Johnson's critical vocabulary +is possible through a close study of his commentary on Shakespeare's +plays. Words such as "elegant," "inartificial," "just," "low," +"pathetic," "proper," "vicious," and others used in criticism of +specific lines and passages help one to pin down Johnson's meaning when +he uses the same words in general contexts elsewhere. + +Johnson stands clearly revealed as a critic in his notes to Shakespeare; +if there is any doubt of this, it can only center about the comparative +importance we may wish to attach to the commentary in relation to the +rest of Johnson's criticism. But there is another aspect of Johnson of +which one gets but half-glimpses in the notes; and here I may be accused +or romanticizing or of reading too much significance into remarks whose +purpose was to illuminate Shakespeare's art and not, decidedly, to +reveal the editor's character. To put it baldly, I believe that in some +notes Johnson has given us clues to his own feelings under circumstances +similar to those in which Shakespeare's characters find themselves. Let +me illustrate. In the concluding line of Act II of _2 Henry VI_, +Eleanor, wife to the Duke of Gloucester, is on her way to prison. She +says, "Go, lead the way. I long to see my prison." Johnson comments: +"This impatience of a high spirit is very natural. It is not so dreadful +to be imprisoned, as it is desirable in a state of disgrace to be +sheltered from the scorn of gazers." This note may be innocuous enough, +but it is worth recalling that Johnson was arrested for debt in +February, 1758, when he was engaged in the edition of Shakespeare. And +two years earlier, in March of 1756, he had also been arrested for debt. +Friends came to his rescue both times. Curiously, there is no mention of +the arrests in Boswell's _Life_. Did Boswell know and deliberately omit +these facts, or did Johnson prefer to keep silent about them? Anecdote +after anecdote shows Johnson to have been an extremely proud man, one +who would feel keenly a public disgrace. Was he exposed to "the scorn of +gazers" on one or both of these occasions? It is tempting, and +admittedly dangerous, to read autobiographical significance in the note +on Eleanor's words. But another question intrudes itself in this +connection: Is there a link between the two arrests and _Idler_ No. 22, +"Imprisonment of Debtors," which Johnson substituted for the original +essay when the periodical was republished in 1761? I am not prepared to +answer these questions; I can only raise them. + +I cannot forbear another excursion into the region of Johnsonian +autobiography (or pseudo-autobiography) even at the increased risk of +committing a scholarly sin against which I have myself protested. In my +own defense I can say that I know the highly conjectural nature of what +I am doing. Johnson's pride may have suffered when he was arrested for +debt in the presence of unsympathetic onlookers. This is sheer +hypothesizing. But when, in _Henry IV_, Worcester speaks the following +words: + +For, bear ourselves as even as we can, The King will always think him in +our debt; And think, we deem ourselves unsatisfy'd, Till he hath found a +time to pay us home. (I.iii.285-8) and Johnson comments: "This is a +natural description of the state of mind between those who have +conferred, and those that have received, obligations too great to be +satisfied," we may protest that such a reaction is by no means +universal. The suspicion that Johnson is speaking for himself is +strengthened by an observation made by Sir Joshua Reynolds and recorded +by his biographer, Junes Northcote. Reynolds remarks "that if any drew +[Johnson] into a state of obligation without his own consent, that man +was the first he would affront, by way of clearing off the account" +(see Boswell's _Life_, III, 345, n.l). Johnson's note may nov be looked +upon as a possible personal confession. Other conjectures are justified, +I believe, by still other notes, but it may be preferable to list, +without comment, some of the topics upon which Johnson has his say in +the notes to Shakespeare. He comments on melancholy, falsehood, the +lightness with which vows are made, cruelty to animals, "the pain of +deformity," the horrors of solitude, kindness to dependents, friendship, +slavery, guilt, the "unsocial mind," the "mean" and the "great"--and a +host of others. It is not difficult, therefore, to understand why the +editor of _The Beauties of Johnson_ quoted so often from the notes to +Shakespeare. + +The University of Illinois copy of the 1773 Shakespeare has been used. +It is unique, I believe, in that the last volume contains a list of +"Cancels In Shakespeare. This List not to be bound up with the Book, +being only to direct the Binder," one of the earliest of these forgotten +directions to the binder to be recorded. There is another point of +bibliographical interest in the edition. L. F. Powell states that there +are three Appendices in the last volume of the edition (_Life_. II, +490), as does T. J. Monaghan (_RES_, 1953, p. 238). Yet the Illinois +copy has only two appendices, and a check of copies in some six large +American libraries reveals the same number. The copy with the three +Appendices would seem quite rare. + +One or two symbols and abbreviations have been used for the sake of +economy. A new note or comment by Johnson, one added in 1773, is +indicated by (1773) at the end of the note. "W" is Warburton; "T" is +Theobald. The notation "W: winter" points to an easily recognizable +emendation by Warburton in a line quoted before the note in question. +Easily identifiable references to revisions of notes in the 1765 +edition, or to revisions later made in the 1778 edition, are placed in +parentheses at the end of the notes. Scholars interested in these +revisions must check them for themselves. Act, scene, and line +references to Shakespeare are from Kittredge's edition of the works +(Boston, 1936). The numbers in parentheses after the reference in +Kittredge are to page and note number (the volume being given only once) +in the 1773 edition. The page reference is to the page upon which the +note, Johnson's or another editor's, starts; sometimes the notes extend +to three or more pages. The text of Shakespeare quoted is that of the +1773 edition; this is the text that Johnson's contemporaries saw, and it +would be a distortion to reprint Johnson's notes after a modern text. + +The following list is of notes Johnson omitted in 1773; the references +are, of course, to the 1765 edition: I, 64, 0; 94,0 106 ; 113, 0; 133,0; +151,0 ; 153,0 ; 233, 8; 469, 1; II, 217, 2; 295, 8; 326, 8; 396, 8; +464, 6; III, 193, 3; IV, 149, 2; 201, 5; 347, 4; 372, 5; 398, 7; 404, 3; +V, 61, 5; 107, 9; VI, 17, 3; 80, 5; [166]; 415, 9; 440, 9; VII, 316, 3; +VIII, 121, 9; 198, 2; 272, 6; 281, 9; 362, 7. Fourteen notes in the 1765 +edition, there inadvertently unattributed, are taken verbatim from other +editors and critics; five of these are correctly attributed in 1773 (see +1765, V, 182, 1; VI, 24, 3 and 177, 3; and Appendix, notes on V, 253 and +VII, 444). Four notes are entirely omitted: 1773, II, 50, 4; 138, 5; V, +297, 6; and VII, 317, 6. In four others (1773, I, 249, 5; II, 466, 7; +VI, 72, 4; and X, 417, 8) the part of the note that is not Johnson's is +set off by brackets and properly attributed. Finally, the note on II, +452 in the 1765 Appendix, taken partly from "Mr. Smith," appears in 1773 +(I, 195, 5) as part of Steevens' comment. _Introduction on Comedies_. + +If I were to select the one passage in Dr. Johnson's Preface to +Shakespeare which occasioned the greatest immediate protest and which +has continued to be held up to critical scorn, I should have to pitch +upon this: "In tragedy he is always struggling after some occasion to be +comick; but in comedy he seems to repose, or to luxuriate, as in a mode +of thinking congenial to his nature. In his tragick scenes there is +always something wanting, but his comedy often surpasses expectation or +desire. His comedy pleases by the thoughts and the language, and his +tragedy for the greater part by incident and action. His tragedy seems +to be skill, his comedy to be instinct." As a theatre-goer, Johnson +could also say in the Preface that "familiar comedy is often more +powerful on the theatre, than in the page; imperial tragedy is always +less." One might logically assume, then, that Johnson's greater +enjoyment of Shakespeare's comedies would be easily remarked in his +commentary--and even, possibly, that they would be singled out for more +annotation and comment than the tragedies or the histories. The most +heavily annotated plays are, however, the tragedies, and it is curious +to observe that the sombre "problem comedy," _Measure for Measure_, +commands more notes than any other comedy. Further, Johnson's moral and +religious sensibilities were offended by profanity and obscenity in the +drama, and Shakespeare's comedies, far more than his tragedies and +histories, transgress in this direction. One recollects, finally, that +the dramatic genre favored most by Johnson was the "she-tragedy." Was +Johnson lauding Shakespeare's comedies because the tragedies had been +excessively praised? I do not know. + +I an most grateful to the Research Board of the University of Illinois +for a grant which greatly expedited my work. + + + + +COMEDIES + + +Vol. I + +THE TEMPEST + +I.i (4,2) [_Enter a Ship-master and a Boatswain_] In this naval +dialogue, perhaps the first example of sailor's language exhibited on +the stage, there are, as I have been told by a skilful narrator, some +inaccuracies and contradictory orders. + +I.i.8 (4,4) [blow, till thou burst thy wind, if room enough] Perhaps it +might be read,--_blow till thou burst, wind, if room enough_. + +I.i.30 (5,5) It may be observed of Gonzalo, that, being the only good +man that appears with the king, he is the only man that preserves his +cheerfulness in the wreck, and his hope on the island. + +I.i.52 (6,7) [set her two courses; off to sea again] The courses are the +main-sail and fore-sail. This term is used by Raleigh, in his +_Discourse on Shipping_. + +I.i.63 (6,9) + +[He'll be hang'd yet; +Though every drop of water swear against it, +And gape at wid'st to glut him.] + +Shakespeare probably wrote, _t'englut him, to swallow him_; for which I +know not that _glut_ is ever used by him. In this signification +_englut_, from _engloutir_, French, occurs frequently, as in _Henry VI_. + + "--Thou art so near the gulf + Thou needs must be _englutted_." + +And again in _Timon_ and _Othello_. Yet Milton writes _glutted offal_ for +_swallowed_, and therefore perhaps the present text may stand. + +I.i.65 (7,1) [Farewell, brother!] All these lines have been hitherto +given to Gonzalo, who has no brother in the ship. It is probable +that the lines succeeding the _confused noise within_ should be +considered as spoken by no determinate characters, but should be +printed thus. + +1 _Sailor_. Mercy on us! +We split, we split! + +2 _Sailor_. Farewell, my, &c. + +3 _Sailor_. Brother, farewell, &c. (see 1765, I,6,6) + +I.ii.15 (8,3) [_Mira_. O, woe the day! _Pro_. No harm, I have done nothing +but in care of thee] I know not whether Shakespeare did not make Miranda +speak thus: + +_O, woe the day! no harm?_ + +To which Prospero properly answers: + +_I have done nothing but in care of thee_. +Miranda, when he speaks the words, _O, woe the day_! supposes, not +that the crew had escaped, but that her father thought differently +from her, and counted their destruction _no harm_. + +I.ii.27 (8,4) [virtue of compassion] Virtue; the most efficacious +part, the energetic quality; in a like sense we say, _The virtue +of a plant is in the extract_. + +I.ii.29 (8,5) + + [I have with such provision in mine art + So safely order'd, that there is no soul-- + No, not so much perdition as an hair, + Betid to any creature in the vessel] + +Thus the old editions read, but this is apparently defective. +Mr. Rowe, and after him Dr. Warburton, read _that there is no +soul lost_, without any notice of the variation. Mr. Theobald +substitutes _no foil_, and Mr. Pope follows him. To come so near +the right, and yet to miss it, is unlucky: the author probably +wrote _no soil_, no stain, no spot: for so Ariel tells, + + _Not a hair perish'd; + On their sustaining garments not a blemish, + But fresher than before._ + +And Gonzalo, _The rarity of it is, that our garments being +drench'd in the sea, keep notwithstanding their freshness and +glosses_. Of this emendation I find that the author of notes +on _The Tempest_ had a glimpse, but could not keep it. + +I.ii.58 (10,7) [and thy father Was duke of Milan, thou his only +heir] Perhaps--_and_ thou _his only heir_. + +I.ii.83 (11,1) + + [having both the key + Of officer and office, set all hearts i' the state + To what tune pleas'd his ear] + +_Key_ in this place seems to signify the key of a musical instrument, +by which he set _Hearts to tune_. + +I.ii.93 (11,2) [and my trust,_Like a good parent, did beget of him_ +A falshood] Alluding to the observation, that a father above the +common rate of men has commonly a son below it. _Heroum filii +noxae_. + +I.ii.155 (14,6) [deck'd the sea] _To deck the sea_, if explained, to +honour, adorn, or dignify, is indeed ridiculous, but the original +import of the verb _deck_ is, _to cover_; so in some parts they +yet say _deck the table_. This sense nay be borne, but perhaps +the poet wrote _fleck'd_, which I think is still used in rustic +language of drops falling upon water. Dr. Warburton reads +_mock'd_, the Oxford edition _brack'd_. (see 1765, I,13,5) + +I.ii.185 (15,8) [Thou art inclin'd to sleep: 'tis a good dulness] +Dr. Warburton rightly observes, that this sleepiness, which +Prospero by his art had brought upon Miranda, and of which he +knew not how soon the effect would begin, makes him question +her so often whether she is attentive to his story. + +I.ii.196 (16,1) [I boarded the king's ship: now on the beak] The +beak was a strong pointed body at the head of the ancient gallies; +it is used here for the forecastle, or the bolt-sprit. + +I.ii.197 (16,2) [Now in the waste] The part between the quarter-deck +and the forecastle. + +I.ii.209 (16,3) [Not a soul _But felt a fever of the mad_] In all the +later editions this is changed to a _fever of the mind_, without +reason or authority, nor is any notice given of an alteration. + +I.ii.218 (17,4) [_On their sustaining garments not a blemish_ Thomas +Edwards' MSS: sea-stained] This note of Mr. Edwards, with which +I suppose no reader is satisfied, shews with how much greater +ease critical emendations are destroyed than made, and how +willingly every man would be changing the text, if his imagination +would furnish alterations. (1773) + +I.ii.239 (19,7) [What is the time o' the day?] This passage needs +not be disturbed, it being common to ask a question, which the +next moment enables us to answer; he that thinks it faulty may +easily adjust it thus: + + Pro. _What is the time o' the day? Past the mid season._ + Ari. _At least two glasses._ + Pro. _The time 'twixt six and now_-- + +I.ii.250 (19,8) [_Pro._ Dost thou forget _From what a torment I did +free thee?_] That the character and conduct of Prospero may be +understood, something must be known of the system of enchantment, +which supplied all the marvellous found in the romances +of the middle ages. This system seems to be founded on the +opinion that the fallen spirits, having different degrees of +guilt, had different habitations allotted them at their expulsion, +some being confined in hell, _some_ (as Hooker, who delivers +the opinion of our poet's age, expresses it) _dispersed in air, +some on earth, some in water, others in caves, dens, or minerals +under the earth_. Of these, some were more malignant and +mischievous than others. The earthy spirits seem to have been +thought the most depraved, and the aerial the least vitiated. +Thus Prospero observes of Ariel: + + --_Thou wast a spirit too delicate + To act her_ earthy _and abhorr'd commands._ + +Over these spirits a power might be obtained by certain rites +performed or charms learned. This power was called _The Black +Art_, or _Knowledge of Enchantment_. The enchanter being (as king +James observes in his _Demonology_) one _who commands the devil, +whereas the witch serves him_. Those who thought best of this +art, the existence of which was, I am afraid, believed very +seriously, held, that certain sounds and characters had a physical +power over spirits, and compelled their agency; others who +condemned the practice, which in reality was surely never +practised, were of opinion, with more reason, that the power of +charms arose _only_ from compact, and was no more than the spirits +voluntary allowed them for the seduction of man. The art was +held by all, though not equally criminal, yet unlawful, and +therefore Causabon, speaking of one who had commerce with +spirits, blames him, though he imagines him _one of the best kind +who dealt with them by way of command_. Thus Prospero repents of +his art in the last scene. The spirits were always considered +as in some measure enslaved to the enchanter, at least for a +time, and as serving with unwillingness, therefore Ariel so often +begs for liberty; and Caliban observes, that the spirits serve +Prospero with no good will, but _hate him rootedly_.--Of these +trifles enough. + +I.ii.306 (22,1) [_Mira._ The strangeness of your story put _Heaviness +in me_.] Why should a wonderful story produce sleep? I believe +experience will prove, that any violent agitation of the mind +easily subsides in slumber, especially when, as in Prospero's +relation, the last images are pleasing. + +I.ii.321 (23,2) + + [As wicked dew, as e'er my mother brush'd + With raven's feather from unwholsome fen, + Drop on you both!] + +[Some critics, Bentley among them, had spoken of Caliban's new +language.] Whence these critics derived the notion of a new +language appropriated to Caliban, I cannot find: they certainly +mistook brutality of sentiment for uncouthness of words. Caliban +had learned to speak of Prospero and his daughter, he had no +names for the sun and moon before their arrival, and could not +have invented a language of his own without more understanding +than Shakespeare has thought it proper to bestow upon him. His +diction is indeed somewhat clouded by the gloominess of his temper, +and the malignity of his purposes; but let any other being +entertain the same thoughts, and he will find them easily issue +in the same expressions. + +[_As wicked dew_,]--_Wicked_; having baneful qualities. So +Spenser says, _wicked weed_; so, in opposition, we say herbs or +medicines have _virtues_. Bacon mentions _virtuous Bezoar_, and +Dryden _virtuous herbs_. + +I.ii.351 (25,4) [Abhorred slave] This speech, which the old copy +gives to Miranda, is very judiciously bestowed by Mr. Theobald +on Prospero. + +I.ii.364 (27,7) [the red plague] I suppose from the redness of the +body universally inflamed. + +I.ii.396 (28,9) [Full fathom five thy father lies] [Charles Gildon +had criticized the song as trifling, and Warburton had defended +its dramatic propriety.] I know not whether Dr. Warburton has +very successfully defended these songs from Gildon's accusation. +Ariel's lays, however seasonable and efficacious, must be +allowed to be of no supernatural dignity or elegance, they express +nothing great, nor reveal any thing above mortal discovery. + +The reason for which Ariel is introduced thus trifling is, +that he and his companions are evidently of the fairy kind, an +order of beings to which tradition has always ascribed a sort of +diminutive agency, powerful but ludicrous, a humorous and frolick +controlment of nature, well expressed by the songs of Ariel. + +I.ii.425 (31,3) + + [Fer. my prime request, + Which I do last pronounce, is, O you wonder! + If you be maid, or no? + Mira. No wonder, Sir; + But, certainly, a maid.] + +[Nothing could be more prettily imagined to illustrate the +singularity of her character, than this pleasant mistake. W.] Dr. +Warburton has here found a beauty, which I think the author never +intended. Ferdinand asks her not whether she was a _created being_, +a question which, if he meant it, he has ill expressed, but whether +she was unmarried; for after the dialogue which Prospero's +interruption produces, he goes on pursuing his former question. + + _O, if a virgin, + I'll make you queen of Naples_. + +I.ii.439 (32,5) [controul thee] Confute thee, unanswerably contradict thee. + +I.ii.471 (33,7) [come from thy ward] Desist from any hope of awing +me by that posture of defence. + +II.i.3 (36,1) [our hint of woe] _Hint_ is that which recals to the +memory. The cause that fills our minds with grief is common. +Dr. Warburton reads _stint_ of woe. + +II.i.11 (36,3) [_Ant._ The visitor will not give him o'er so] Why Dr. +Warburton should change _visitor_ to _'vizer_ for _adviser_, I cannot +discover. Gonzalo gives not only advice, but comfort, and is +therefore properly called _The Visitor_, like others who visit the +sick or distressed to give them consolation. In some of the +Protestant churches there is a kind of officers termed consolators +for the sick. + +II.i.78 (38,6) [Widow Dido!] The name of a widow brings to their +minds their own shipwreck, which they consider as having made +many widows in Naples. + +II.i.132 (39,7) + + [Milan and Naples have + More widows in them of this business' making, + Than we bring men to comfort them] + +It does not clearly appear whether the king and these lords +thought the ship lost. This passage seems to imply, that they +were themselves confident of returning, but imagined part of +the fleet destroyed. Why, indeed, should Sebastian plot against +his brother in the following scene, unless he knew how to find +the kingdom which be was to inherit? + +II.i.232 (43,1) [this lord of weak remembrance] This lord, who, +being now in his dotage, has outlived his faculty of remembering; +and who, once laid in the ground, shall be as little remembered +himself, as he can now remember other things. + +II.i.235 (43,2) + + [For he's a spirit of persuasion, only + Professes to persuade the king his son's alive] + +Of this entangled sentence I can draw no sense from the present +reading, and therefore imagine that the author gave it thus: + + _For_ he, _a spirit of persuasion, only + Professes to persuade_. + +Of which the meaning may be either, that _he alone, who is a +spirit of persuasion, professes to persuade the king_; or that, +_He only professes to persuade_, that is, _without being so +persuaded himself, he makes a show of persuading the king_. + +II.i.242 (44,3) [Ambition cannot pierce a wink beyond] That this is +the utmost extent of the prospect of ambition, the point where +the eye can pass no further, and where objects lose their +distinctness, so that what is there discovered, is faint, obscure, +and doubtful. (rev. 1778, I,50,4) + +II.i.251 (44,5) + + [though some cast again; + And, by that destiny, to perform an act, + Whereof what's past is prologue; what to come, + In yours, and my discharge.] + +These lines stand in the old edition thus: + + --_though some cast again; + And, by that destiny, to perform an act, + Whereof what's past, is prologue; what to come, + In your and my discharge_. + +The reading in the later editions is without authority. The +old text may very well stand, except that in the last line _in_ +should be _is_. and perhaps we might better say--_and that by +destiny_. It being a common plea of wickedness to call temptation +destiny. + +II.i.259 (45,6) [Keep in Tunis] There is in this passage a propriety +lost, which a slight alteration will restore: + + --Sleep _in Tunis, + And let Sebastian wake_! + +II.i.278 (45,7) [Twenty consciences, That stand 'twixt me and +Milan, candy'd be they, Or melt e'er they molest] I had rather +read, + + Would _melt e'er they molest_. + +i.e. _Twenty consciences, such as stand between me and my hopes, +though they were congealed, would melt before they could molest +one_, or prevent the execution of my purposes. (see 1765, I,40,7) + +II.i.286 (46,8) [This ancient morsel] For _morsel_ Dr. Warburton +reads _ancient moral_, very elegantly and judiciously, yet I know +not whether the author might not write _morsel_, as we say a _piece +of a man_. + +II.i.288 (46,9) [take suggestion] i.e. Receive any hint of villainy, +(1773) + +II.i.297 (46,1) + + [_Ari._ My master through his art foresees the danger, + That you, his friend, are in; and sends me forth + (For else his project dies) to keep them living] + +[i.e. Alonzo and Antonio; for it was on their lives that his project +depended. Yet the Oxford Editor alters _them_ to _you_, because +in the verse before, it is said--_you his friend_; as if, because +Ariel was _sent forth_ to _save his friend_, he could not have another +purpose in sending him, _viz_. to _save his project_ too. W.] + +I think Dr. Warburton and the Oxford Editor both mistaken. +The sense of the passage, as it now stands, is this: He sees +_your_ danger, and will therefore save _them_. Dr. Warburton has +mistaken Antonio for Gonzalo. Ariel would certainly not tell +Gonzalo, that his master saved him only for his project. He +speaks to himself as he approaches, + + _My master through his art foresees the danger + That_ these _his friends are in_. + +_These_ written with a _y_, according to the old practice, did not +much differ from _you_. + +II.i.308 (47,2) [Why are you drawn?] Having your swords drawn. So +in _Romeo and Juliet_: + + "What art thou _drawn_ among these heartless hinds?" + +II.ii.12 (48,3) [sometime am I All wound with adders] Enwrapped by +adders _wound_ or twisted about me. + +II.ii.32 (49,5) [make a man] That is, make a man's fortune. So in +_Midsummer Night's Dream_--"we are all _made men_." + +II.ii.176 (54,5) [I'll get thee Young scamels from the rock] This +word has puzzled the commentators: Dr. Warburton reads _shamois_. +Mr. Theobald would read any thing rather than _scamels_. Mr. +Holt, who wrote notes upon this play, observes, that limpets are +in some places called _scams_, therefore I have suffered _scamels_ +to stand. + +III.i.48 (58,8) [Of every creature's best] Alluding to the picture +of Venus by Apelles. + +III.ii.71 (62,5) [What a py'd ninny's this?] This line should certainly +be given to Stephano. _Py'd ninny_ alludes to the striped +coat worn by fools, of which Caliban could have no knowledge. +Trinculo had before been reprimanded and threatened by Stephano +for giving Caliban the lie, he is now supposed to repeat his +offence. Upon which Stephano cries out, + + _What a py'd ninny's this? Thou scurvy patch_!-- + +Caliban, now seeing his master in the mood that he wished, instigates +him to vengeance: + + _I do beseech thy greatness, give him blows_. + +III.iii.48 (67,2) [Each putter out on five for one] This passage +alluding to a forgotten custom is very obscure: the _putter out_ +must be a traveller, else how could he give this account? the +_five for one_ is money to be received by him at his return, Mr. +Theobald has well illustrated this passage by a quotation from +Jonson. + +III.iii.82 (69,3) [clear life] Pure, blameless, innocent. + +III.iii.86 (69,4) + + [so with good life, + And observation strange, my meaner ministers + Their several kinds have done] + +This seems a corruption. I know not in what sense _life_ can here +be used, unless for alacrity, liveliness, vigour, and in this +sense the expression is harsh. Perhaps we may read,--_with good_ +lift, with good will, with sincere zeal for my service. I should +have proposed,--_with good_ lief, in the same sense, but that I +cannot find _lief_ to be a substantive. _With good life_ may however +mean, with _exact presentation of their several characters, with +observation strange_ of their particular and distinct parts. So +we say, he acted to the _life_. (see 1765, I,60,4) + +III.iii.99 (70,5) [bass my trespass] The deep pipe told it me in a +rough bass sound. + +IV.i.2 (71,7) [for I Have given you here a third of mine own life] +[Theobald had argued that Miranda was at least half of Prospero's +life and had emended.] In consequence of this ratiocination Mr. +Theobald printed the text, _a_ thread _of my own life_. I have +restored the ancient reading. Prospero, in his reason subjoined +why he calls her the _third_ of his life, seems to allude to some +logical distinction of causes, making her the final cause. + +IV.i.7 (71,8) [strangely stood the test] Strangely is used by way +of commendation, _merveilleusement, to a wonder_; the sense is the +same in the foregoing scene, with _observation strange_. + +IV.i.37 (72,1) [the rabble] The crew of meaner spirits. + +IV.i.59 (73,4) [No tongue] Those who are present at incantations +are obliged to be strictly silent, "else," as we are afterwards +told, "the spell is marred." + +IV.i.166 (80,4) [We must prepare to meet with Caliban] _To meet with_ +is to counteract; to play stratagem against stratagem.--_The parson +knows the temper of every one in his house, and accordingly +either_ meets with their vices, _or advances their virtues_. + +HERBERT's _Country Parson_. + +IV.i.178 (80,5) + + [so I charm'd their ears, + That, calf-like, they my loving follow'd through + Tooth'd briars, sharp furzes, pricking goss, and thorns, + Which enter'd their frail shins] + +Thus Drayton, in his _Court of Fairie of Hobgoblin caught in a +Spell:_ + + "But once the circle got within, + "The charms to work do straight begin, + "And he was caught as in a gin: + "For as be thus was busy, + "A pain he in his head-piece feels, + "Against a stubbed tree he reels, + "And up went poor Hobgoblin's heels: + "Alas, his brain was dizzy. + "At length upon his feet he gets, + "Hobgoblin fumes, Hobgoblin frets; + "And as again he forward sets, + "And through the bushes scrambles, + "A stump doth hit him in his pace, + "Down comes poor Hob upon his face, + "And lamentably tore his case + "Among the briers and brambles." + +IV.i.196 (81,7) [your fairy ... has done little better than play'd the +Jack with us] Has led us about like an _iguis fatuus_, by which +travellers are decoyed into the mire. + +IV.i.246 (83,3) [put some lime] That is, _birdlime_. + +V.i.102 (90,7) [_Ari_. I drink the air before me] Is an expression of +swiftness of the same kind as _to devour the way_ in _Henry IV_. + +V.i.144 (92,1) + + [_Alon_. You the like loss? + _Pro_. As great to me, as late;] + +My loss is as great as yours, and has as lately happened to me. + +V.i.174 (93,2) [Yes, for a score of kingdoms] I take the sense to be +only this: Ferdinand would not, he says, play her false for the +_world_; yes, answers she, I would allow you to do it for something +less than the world, for _twenty kingdoms_, and I wish you well +enough to allow you, after a little _wrangle_, that your play was +fair. So likewise Dr. Gray. + +V.i.213 (94,3) [When no man was his own] For _when_ perhaps should be +read _where_. + +V.i.247 (96,4) + + [at pick'd leisure + (Which shall be shortly) single I'll resolve you, + (Which to you shall seem probable) of every + These happen'd accidents] + +These words seem, at the first view, to have no use; some lines +are perhaps lost with which they were connected. Or we may explain +them thus: I will resolve you, by yourself, which method, +when you hear the story [of Anthonio's and Sebastian's plot] +_shall seem probable_, that is, _shall deserve your approbation_. + +V.i.267 (97,5) + + [Mark but the badges of these men, my lords, + Then say, if they be true] + +That is, _honest_. _A true man_ is, in the language of that time, +opposed to a thief. The sense is, _Mark what these men wear, and +say if they are honest_. + +Epilogue.10 (100,7) With the help of your good hands] By your +applause, by clapping hands. (1773) + +General Observation (100) It is observed of _The Tempest_, that its +plan is regular; this the author of _The Revisal_ thinks, what I +think too, an accidental effect of the story, not intended or +regarded by our author. But whatever might be Shakespeare's intention +in forming or adopting the plot, he has made it instrumental +to the production of many characters, diversified with +boundless invention, and preserved with profound skill in nature, +extensive knowledge of opinions, and accurate observation of +life. In a single drama are here exhibited princes, courtiers, +and sailors, all speaking in their real characters. There is +the agency of airy spirits, and of an earthly goblin. The +operation of magick, the tumults of a storm, the adventures of +a desert island, the native effusion of untaught affection, the +punishment of guilt, and the final happiness of the pair for +whom our passions and reason are equally interested. (1773) + + + + + +THE TWO GENTLEMEN OF VERONA + +It is observable (I know not for what cause) that the stile of this +comedy is less figurative, and more natural and unaffected than the +greater part of this author's, though supposed to be one of the first +he wrote. [Pope.] To this observation of Mr. Pope, which is very just, +Mr. Theobald has added, that this is one of Shakespeare's _worst +plays, and is less corrupted than any other_. Mr. Upton peremptorily +determines, _that if any proof can be drawn from manner and stile, +this play must be sent packing, and seek for its parent elsewhere. How +otherwise_, says he, _do painters distinguish copies from originals, +and have not authors their peculiar stile and manner from which a true +critic can form as unerring judgment as a painter_? I am afraid this +illustration of a critic's science will not prove what is desired. A +painter knows a copy from an original by rules somewhat resembling +these by which critics know a translation, which if it be literal, and +literal it must be to resemble the copy of a picture, will be easily +distinguished. Copies are known from originals, even when the painter +copies his own picture; so if an author should literally translate his +work, he would lose the manner of an original. + +Mr. Upton confounds the copy of a picture with the imitation +of a painter's manner. Copies are easily known, but good imitations +are not detected with equal certainty, and are, by the +best judges, often mistaken. Nor is it true that the writer has +always peculiarities equally distinguishable with those of the +painter. The peculiar manner of each arises from the desire, +natural to every performer, of facilitating his subsequent works +by recurrence to his former ideas; this recurrence produces that +repetition which is called habit. The painter, whose work is +partly intellectual and partly manual, has habits of the mind, +the eye and the hand, the writer has only habits of the mind. +Yet, some painters have differed as much from themselves as from +any other; and I have been told, that there is little resemblance +between the first works of Raphael and the last. The same variation +may be expected in writers; and if it be true, as it seems, +that they are less subject to habit, the difference between their +works may be yet greater. + +But by the internal marks of a composition we may discover +the author with probability, though seldom with certainty. When +I read this play, I cannot but think that I find, both in the +serious and ludicrous scenes, the language and sentiments of +Shakespeare. It is not indeed one of his most powerful effusions, +it has neither many diversities of character, nor striking +delineations of life, but it abounds in [Greek: gnomahi] beyond most of +his plays, and few have more lines or passages, which, singly +considered, are eminently beautiful. I am yet inclined to believe +that it was not very successful, and suspect that it has escaped +corruption, only because being seldom played, it was less exposed +to the hazards of transcription. + +I.i.34 (108,6) + + [However, but a folly bought with wit; + Or else a wit by folly vanquished] + +This love will end in a _foolish action_, to produce which you are +long to spend your _wit_, or it will end in the loss of your _wit_, +which will be overpowered by the folly of love. + +I.i.69 (109,7) [Made wit with musing weak] For _made_ read _make_. +_Thou_, Julia, _hast_ made _me war with good counsel, and_ make _wit +weak with muting_. + +I.i.70 (109,8) [_Enter Speed_] [Pope found this scene low and full of +"trifling conceits" and suggested it was possibly an interpolation +by the actors.] That this, like many other scenes, is mean and +vulgar, will be universally allowed; but that it was interpolated +by the players seems advanced without any proof, only to give a +greater licence to criticism. + +I.i.153 (112,4) [you have testern'd me] You have gratified me with +a _tester, testern_, or _testen_, that is, with a sixpence. + +I.ii.41 (114,5) [a goodly broker!] A _broker_ was used for matchmaker, +sometimes for a procuress. + +I.ii.68 (115,6) [stomach on your meat] _Stomach_ was used for _passion_ +or _obstinacy_. + +I.ii.137 (117,8) [I see you have a month's mind to them] [_A month's +mind_ was an _anniversary_ in times of popery. Gray.] A _month's +mind_, in the ritual sense, signifies not desire or inclination, +but remonstrance; yet I suppose this is the true original of the +expression. (1773) +I.iii.1 (118,9) [what sad talk] _Sad_ is the same as _grave_ or _serious_. + +I.iii.26 (119,2) [Valentine, Attends the emperor in his royal court] +[Theobald had tried to straighten out an historical error.] Mr. +Theobald discovers not any great skill in history. Vienna is +not the court of the emperor as emperor, nor has Milan been +always without its princes since the days of Charlemaigne; but +the note has its use. + +I.iii.44 (120,3) [in good time] _In good time_ was the old expression +when something happened which suited the thing in hand, as the +French say, _a propos_. + +I.iii.84 (121,4) [Oh, how this spring of love resembleth] At the +end of this verse there is wanting a syllable, for the speech +apparently ends in a quatrain. I find nothing that will rhyme +to _sun_, and therefore shall leave it to some happier critic. +But I suspect that the author might write thus: + + _Oh, how this spring of love resembleth_ right, + _The uncertain glory of an April day_; + _Which now shews all the glory of the_ light, + _And, by and by, a cloud takes all away_. + +_Light_ was either by negligence or affectation changed to _sun_, +which, considered without the rhyme, is indeed better. The next +transcriber, finding that the word _right_ did not rhyme to _sun_, +supposed it erroneously written, and left it out. + +II.i.27 (123,1) [Hallowmas] That is, about the feast of All-Saints, +when winter begins, and the life of a vagrant becomes less comfortable. + +II.i.39 (123,2) [without you were so simple, none else would] None +else would _be so simple_. + +II.i.148 (127,5) [reasoning with yourself?] That is, _discoursing, +talking_. An Italianism. + +II.iii.22 (129,2) [I am the dog] This passage is much confused, and +of confusion the present reading makes no end. Sir T. Hammer +reads, _I am the dog, no, the dog is himself and I am_ me, _the dog +is_ the dog, _and I am myself_. This certainly is more reasonable, +but I know not how much reason the author intended to bestow on +Launce's soliloquy. + +II.iv.57 (133,1) [not without desert] And not dignified with so +much reputation without proportionate merit. + +II.iv.115 (134,2) [No: that you are worthless] I have inserted the +particle _no_ to fill up the measure. + +II.iv.129 (135,4) + + [I have done penance for contemning love; + Whose high imperious thoughts have punish'd me + With bitter fasts, with penitential groans] + +For _whose_ I read _those_. I have contemned love and am punished. +_Those_ high thoughts by which I exalted myself above human passions +or frailties have brought upon me fasts and groans. + +II.iv.138 (136,5) [no woe to his correction] No misery that _can be +compared to_ the punishment inflicted by love. Herbert called +for the prayers of the liturgy a little before his death, saying, +_None_ to _them_, _none_ to _them_. + +II.iv.152 (136,6) [a principality] The first or _principal_ of women. +So the old writers use _state_. _She is a lady, a great_ state. +Latymer. _This look is called in_ states _warlie, in others +otherwise_. Sir T. More. + +II.iv.167 (137,8) [She is alone] She stands by herself. There is +none to be compared to her. + +II.iv.207 (138,1) [with more advice] With more prudence, with more +discretion. + +II.iv.209 (138,2) ['Tis but her picture I have yet beheld] This is +evidently a slip of attention, for he had seen her in the last +scene, and in high terms offered her his service. + +II.v.28 (139,4) [My staff understands me] This equivocation, miserable +as it is, has been admitted by Milton in his great poem. +B. VI. + + "----The terms we sent were terms of weight, + "Such as we may perceive, amaz'd them all, + "And stagger'd many who receives them right, + "Had need from head to foot well _understand_, + "Not _understood_, this gift they have besides, + "To shew us when our foes stand not upright." + +II.vi (141,5) [Enter Protheus] It is to be observed, that in the +first folio edition, the only edition of authority, there are no +directions concerning the scenes; they have been added by the +later editors, and may therefore be changed by any reader that +can give more consistency or regularity to the drama by such +alterations. I make this remark in this place, because I know +not whether the following soliloquy of Protheus is so proper in +the street. + +II.vi.7 (141,6) [O sweet-suggesting love] To _suggest_ is to _tempt_ in +our author's language. So again: + + "Knowing that tender youth is soon _suggested_." + +The sense is, _O_ tempting love, _if thou hast_ influenced me to +sin, _teach me to excuse it_. Dr. Warburton reads, _if I have +sinn'd_; but, I think, not only without necessity, but with less +elegance. + +II.vi.35 (142,7) [Myself in counsel, his competitor] _Myself, who +am his_ competitor _or_ rival, being admitted to his counsel. + +II.vi.37 (142,8) [pretended flight] We may read _intended flight_. + +II.vi.43 (142,9) [Love, lend me wings to make my purpose swift, +As thou hast lent me wit to plot this drift!] +I suspect that the author concluded the act with this couplet, +and that the next scene should begin the third act; but the +change, as it will add nothing to the probability of the action, +is of no great importance. + +III.i.45 (146,1) [be not aimed at] Be not _guessed_. + +III.i.47 (147,2) [of this pretence] Of this _claim_ made to your +daughter. + +III.i.86 (148,4) [the fashion of the time] The modes of courtship, +the acts by which men recommended themselves to ladies. + +III.i.148 (150,5) [for they are sent by me] _For_ is the same +as _for that, since_. + +III.i.153 (150,6) [why, Phaeton (for thou art Merops' son)] Thou +art Phaeton in thy rashness, but without his pretensions; thou +art not the son of a divinity, but a _terrae filius_, a low born +wretch; Merops is thy true father, with whom Phaeton was +falsely reproached. + +III.i.185 (151,7) [I fly not death, to fly his deadly doom] _To fly +his doom_, used for _by flying_, or _in flying_, is a gallicism. The +sense is, By avoiding the execution of his sentence I shall not +escape death. If I stay here, I suffer myself to be destroyed; +if I go away, I destroy myself. + +III.i.261 (153,8) [_Laun_. I am but a fool, look you; and yet I have +the wit to think my master is a kind of a knave: but that's all +one, if he be but one knave] [W: but one kind] This alteration +is acute and specious, yet I know not whether, in Shakespeare's +language, _one knave_ may not signify a _knave on only one occasion_, +a _single knave_. We still use a _double villain_ for a +villain beyond the common rate of guilt. + +III.i.265 (154,9) [a team of horse shall not pluck] I see how +Valentine suffers for telling his love-secrets, therefore I will keep +mine close. + +III.i.330 (156,4) [_Speed. Item, she hath a. sweet mouth_] This I take +to be the same with what is now vulgarly called a _sweet tooth_, +a luxurious desire of dainties and sweetmeats. + +III.i.351 (157,5) [_Speed. Item, she will often praise her liquor_] +That is, shew how well she likes it by drinking often. + +III.i.355 (157,6) [_Speed. Item, she is too liberal_] _Liberal_, is +licentious and gross in language. So in _Othello_, "Is he not a +profane and very _liberal_ counsellor." + +III.ii.7 (158,8) [Trenched in ice] Cut, carved in ice. _Trencher_, +to cut, French. + +III.ii.36 (159,9) [with circumstance] With the addition of such +incidental particulars as may induce belief. + +III.ii.51 (160,1) + + [Therefore as you unwind her love from him, + Lest it should ravel, and be good to none, + You must provide to bottom it on me] + +As you wind off her love from him, make me the _bottom_ on which +you wind it. The housewife's term for a ball of thread wound +upon a central body, is a _bottom of thread_. + +III.ii.68 (160,2) [lime] That is, _birdlime_. + +III.ii.98 (161,4) [_Duke_. Even now about it. I will pardon you] +I will excuse you from waiting. + +IV.i.36 (163,2) [By the bare scalp of Robin Hood's fat friar] +_Robin Hood_ was captain of a band of robbers, and was much +inclined to rob churchmen. + +IV.i.46 (163,3) [awful men] Reverend, worshipful, such as magistrates, +and other principal members of civil communities. + +IV.ii.12 (165,1) [sudden quips] That is, hasty passionate reproaches +and scoffs. So Macbeth is in a kindred sense said to be _sudden_; +that is, irascible and impetuous. + +IV.ii.45 (166,2) [_For beauty lives with kindness_] Beauty without +kindness _dies_ unenjoyed, and undelighting. + +IV.ii.93 (168,4) [You have your wish; my will is even this] The word +_will_ is here ambiguous. He wishes to _gain_ her _will_; she tells +him, if he wants her _will_ he has it. + +IV.ii.130 (169,5) [But, since your falsehood shall become you well] +This is hardly sense. We may read, with very little alteration, +But since _you're false_, it shall become you well. + +IV.iii.37 (171,2) [Madam, I pity much your grievances] Sorrows, +sorrowful affections. + +IV.iv.13 (172,1) [I would have, as one should say, one that takes +upon him to be a dog indeed, to be, as it were, a dog at all +things] I believe we should read, _I would have_. &c. _one that +takes upon him to be a dog_, to be a dog _indeed, to be_, &c. + +IV.iv.79 (174,3) [It seems, you lov'd not her, to leave her token] +Protheus does not properly leave his lady's token, he gives it +away. The old edition has it, + + It seems you lov'd her not, _not_ leave her token. + +I should correct it thus, + + It seems you lov'd her not, _nor love_ her token. + +IV.iv.106 (175,4) [To carry that which I would have refus'd] The +sense is, To go and present that which I wish to be not accepted, +to praise him whom I wish to be dispraised. + +IV.iv.159 (176,5) + + [The air hath starv'd the roses in her cheeks, + And pinch'd the lily-tincture of her face. + That now she is become as black as I] + +[W: And pitch'd] This is no emendation; none ever heard of a face +being _pitched_ by the weather. The colour of a part _pinched_, is +livid, as it is commonly termed, _black and blue_. The weather may +therefore be justly said to _pinch_ when it produces the same +visible effect. I believe this is the reason why the cold is +said to _pinch_. + +IV.iv.198 (179,2) [her forehead's low] A high forehead was in our +author's time accounted a feature eminently beautiful. So in +_The History of Guy of Warwick_, Felice his lady is said to have +_the same high forehead as Venus_. + +IV.iv.206 (179,3) [My substance should be statue in thy stead] [W: +statued] _Statued_ is, I am afraid, a new word, and that it should +be received, is not quite evident. + +V.i.12 (180,4) [sure enough] _Sure_ is safe, out of danger. + +V.iv.71 (185,1) [The private wound is deepest. Oh time, most curst!] +I have a little mended the measure. The old edition, and all but +Sir T. Hammer, read, + + _The private wound is deepest_, _oh time most_ accurst. + +V.iv.106 (187,4) [if shame live In a disguise of love] That is, _if +it be any shame to wear a disguise for the purposes of love_. + +V.iv.126 (187,5) [Come not within the measure of my wrath] The +length of my sword, the reach of my anger. + +General Observation (189,8) In this play there is a strange mixture +of knowledge and ignorance, of care and negligence. The versification +is often excellent, the allusions are learned and just; +but the author conveys his heroes by sea from one inland town to +another in the same country; he places the emperor at Milan, and +sends his young men to attend him, but never mentions him more; +he makes Protheus, after an interview with Silvia, say he has +only seen her picture; and, if we may credit the old copies, he +has, by mistaking places, left his scenery inextricable. The +reason of all this confusion seems to be, that he took his story +from a novel, which he sometimes followed, and sometimes forsook, +sometimes remembered, and sometimes forgot. + +That this play is rightly attributed to Shakespeare, I have +little doubt. If it be taken from him, to whom shall it be +given? This question may be asked of all the disputed plays, +except _Titus Andronicus_; and it will be found more credible, that +Shakespeare might sometimes sink below his highest flights, than +that any other should rise up to his lowest. (see 1765, I,259,5) + + + + + +THE MERRY WIVES OF WINDSOR + +I.i.7 (194,4) [_Custalorum_] This it, I suppose, intended for a +corruption of _Custos Rotulorum_. The mistake was hardly designed by +the author, who, though he gives Shallow folly enough, makes him +rather pedantic than illiterate. If we read: + + Shal. _Ay, cousin Slender, and_ Custos Rotulorum. + +It follows naturally: + + Slen. _Ay, and_ Ratalorum _too_. + +I.i.22 (194,5) [The luce is the fresh fish; the salt fish is an old +coat] I see no consequence in this answer. Perhaps we may read, +_the salt fish is_ not _an old coat_. That is, the _fresh fish_ is the +coat of an ancient family, and the _salt fish_ is the coat of a +merchant grown rich by trading over the sea. + +I.i.115 (198,1) [and broke open my lodge] This probably alludes to +some real incident, at that time well known. + +I.i.121 (198,2) ['Twere better for you, if 'twere not known in council; +you'll be laugh'd at] The old copies read, '_Twere better for +you, if 'twere known in council_. Perhaps it is an abrupt speech, +and must be read thus: '_Twere better for you--if 'twere known in +council, you'll be laugh'd at. 'Twere better for you_, is, I believe, +a menace.(1773) + +I.i.127 (199,3) [coney-catching rascals] A _coney-catcher_ was, in +the time of Elizabeth, a common name for a cheat or sharper. +Green, one of the first among us who made a trade of writing +pamphlets, published _A Detection of the Frauds and Tricks of +Coney-catchers and Couzeners_. + +I.i.159 (200,6) [Edward shovel-boards] By this term, I believe, are +meant brass castors, such as are shoveled on a board, with king +Edward's face stamped upon them. + +I.i.166 (201,8) [Word of denial in thy Labra's here] I suppose it +should rather be read, + + _Word of denial in_ my _Labra's_ hear; + +that is, _hear_ the word of denial in my _lips. Thou ly'st_. + +I.i.170 (201,9) [_marry trap_] When a man was caught in his own +stratagem, I suppose the exclamation of insult was _marry, trap_! + +I.i.184 (202,3) [and so conclusions pass'd the careires] I believe +this strange word is nothing but the French _cariere_; and the +expression means, that _the common bounds of good behaviour were +overpassed_. + +I.i.211 (203,4) [upon Allhallowmas last, a fortnight afore Michaelmas?] +[Theobald suspected that Shakespeare had written "Martlemas."] +This correction, thus seriously and wisely enforced, is +received by Sir Tho. Hammer; but probably Shakespeare intended a +blunder. + +I.iii.56 (210,7) [The anchor is deep: will that humour pass?] I see +not what relation _the anchor_ has to _translation_. Perhaps we may +read, _the_ author _is deep_; or perhaps the line is out of its place, +and should be inserted lower after Falstaff has said, + + Sail like my pinnace to those golden shores. + +It may be observed, that in the tracts of that time _anchor_ and +_author_ could hardly be distinguished. (see 1765, II,464,7) + +I.iii.110 (213,6) [I will possess him with yellowness] _Yellowness_ is +jealousy. (1773) + +I.iii.III (213,7) [for the revolt of mine is dangerous] I suppose we +may read, _the revolt_ of men. Sir T. Hammer reads, _this_ revolt of +_mine_. Either may serve, for of the present text I can find no +meaning. + +I.iv.9 (213,8) [at the latter end of a sea-coal fire] That is, when +my master is in bed. + +II.i.5 (219,1) [though love use reason for his precisian, he admits +him not for his counsellor] Of this word I do not see any meaning +that is very apposite to the present intention. Perhaps Falstaff +said, _Though love use reason as his_ physician, _he admits him not +for his counsellor_. This will be plain sense. Ask not the _reason_ +of my love; the business of _reason_ is not to assist love, but +to _cure_ it. There may however be this meaning in the present +reading. _Though love_, when he would submit to regulation, may +_use reason as his precisian_, or director in nice cases, yet when +he is only eager to attain his end, he takes not reason for _his +counsellor_. (1773) + +II.i.27 (220,2) [I was then frugal of my mirth] By breaking this +speech into exclamations, the text may stand; but I once thought +it must be read, If _I was_ not _then frugal of my mirth_. + +II.i.29 (220,3) [Why, I'll exhibit a bill in the parliament for the +putting down of men] [T: of fat men] [W: of mum] I do not see that +any alteration is necessary; if it were, either of the foregoing +conjectures might serve the turn. But surely Mrs. Ford may +naturally enough, in the first heat of her anger, rail at the +sex for the fault of one. + +II.i.52 (222,4) [These knights will hack, and so thou shouldst not +alter the article of thy gentry] [W: lack] Upon this passage the +learned editor has tried his strength, in my opinion, with more +spirit than success. + +I read thus--_These knights_ we'll _hack, and so thou shouldest +not alter the article of thy gentry_. The punishment of a recreant +or undeserving knight, was to _hack_ off his spurs: the meaning +therefore is; it is not worth the while of a gentlewoman to +be made a knight, for we'll degrade all these knights in a little +time, by the usual form of _hacking_ off their spurs, and thou, if +thou art knighted, shalt be hacked with the rest. + +II.i.79 (223,5) [for he cares not what he puts into the press] +Press is used ambiguously, for a _press_ to print, and a _press_ to +squeeze. + +II.i.114 (224,7) [curtail-dog] That is, a dog that misses hie game. +The tail is counted necessary to the agility of a greyhound; and +one method of disqualifying a dog, according to the forest laws, +is to cut his tail, or make him a _curtail_. (see 1765, II,477,+) + +II.i.128 (225,9) [Away, Sir corporal Nym.--Believe it, Page, he speaks +sense] Nym, I believe, is out of place, and we should read thus: + + _Away, Sir corporal._ + Nym. _Believe it. Page, he speaks sense._ + +II.i.135 (225,1) [I have a sword, and it shall bite upon my necessity.--He +loves your wife] [V: bite--upon my necessity, he] I do +not see the difficulty of this passage: no phrase is more common +than--_you may_, upon a need, _thus_. Nym, to gain credit, says, +that he is above the mean office of carrying love-letters; he +has nobler means of living; _he has a sword, and upon his necessity_, +that is, _when his need drives him to unlawful expedients_, +his sword _shall bite_. + +II.i.148 (226,3) [I will not believe such a Cataian] [Theobald and +Warburton had both explained "Cataian" as a liar.] Mr. Theobald +and Dr. Warburton have both told their stories with confidence, +I am afraid, very disproportionate to any evidence that can be +produced. That _Cataian_ was a word of hatred or contempt is +plain, but that it signified a _boaster_ or a _liar_ has not been +proved. Sir Toby, in _Twelfth Night_, says of the Lady Olivia to +her maid, "thy Lady's a _Cataian_;" but there is no reason to +think he means to call her _liar_. Besides, Page intends to give +Ford a reason why Pistol should not be credited. He therefore +does not say, _I would not believe such a_ liar: for that he is a +liar is yet to be made probable: but he says, _I would not believe +such a Cataian on any testimony of his veracity_. That is, "This +fellow has such an odd appearance; is so unlike a man civilized, +and taught the duties of life, that I cannot credit him." To be +a foreigner was always in England, and I suppose everywhere else, +a reason of dislike. So Pistol calls Slender in the first act, +a _mountain foreigner_; that is, a fellow uneducated, and of gross +behaviour; and again in his anger calls Bardolph, _Hungarian wight_. + +II.i.182 (228,4) [very rogues] A _rogue_ is a _wanderer_ or _vagabond_, +and, in its consequential signification, _a cheat_. + +II.i.236 (230,7) [my long sword] Not long before the introduction +of rapiers, the swords in use were of an enormous length, and +sometimes raised with both hands. Shallow, with an old man's +vanity, censures the innovation by which lighter weapons were +introduced, tells what he could once have done with his _long +sword_, and ridicules the terms and rules of the rapier. + +II.ii.28 (234,6) [red lattice phrases] Your ale-house conversation. + +II.ii.28 (234,7) [your bold-beating oaths] [W: bold-bearing] A +_beating oath_ is, I think, right; so we now say, in low language, a +_thwacking_ or _swinging_ thing. + +II.ii.61 (235,8) [canaries] This is the name of a brisk light +dance, and is therefore properly enough used in low language +for any hurry or perturbation. + +II.ii.94 (236,1) [frampold] This word I have never seen elsewhere, +except in Dr. Hacket's _Life of Archbishop Williams_, where a +_frampul_ man signifies a peevish troublesome fellow. + +II.ii.142 (238,3) [Clap on more sails; pursue; up with your fights] +[Warburton had quoted a passage from Dryden'a _Amboyna_ for "fights," +explaining them as "small arms."] The quotation from Dryden might at +least have raised a suspicion that _fights_ were neither _small_ arms, +nor cannon. _Fights_ and _nettings_ are properly joined. _Fights_, I +find, are _cloaths_ hung round the ship to conceal the men from the +enemy, and _close-fights_ are _bulkheads_, or any other shelter that the +fabrick of a ship affords. + +II.ii.170 (240,5) [not to charge you] That is, not with a purpose +of putting you to expence, or _being burthensome_. + +II.ii.256 (242,6) [instance and argument] _Instance_ is _example_. + +II.ii.324 (244,8) [Eleven o'clock] Ford should rather have said _ten +o'clock_: the time was between ten and eleven; and his impatient +suspicion was not likely to stay beyond the time. + +II.iii.60 (246,2) [mock-water] The host means, I believe, to reflect +on the inspection of urine, which made a considerable part of +practical physick in that time; yet I do not well see the meaning +of _mock-water_. + +III.i.17 (249,5) [By shallow rivers, to whose falls] [Warburton had +introduced _The Passionate Shepherd to his Love_ and _The Nymph's +_Reply_ at this point in his text, attributing both to Shakespeare.] +These two poems, which Dr. Warburton gives to Shakespeare, are, by +writers nearer that time, disposed of, one to Marlow, the other to +Raleigh. These poems are read in different copies with great +variations. + +III.i.123 (253,6) [scald, scurvy] _Scall_ was an old word of reproach, +as _scab_ was afterwards. + + Chaucer imprecates on his _scrivener_; + + "Under thy longe lockes mayest thou have the _scalle_." + +III.ii.58 (255,7) [We have linger'd about a match between Anne Page +and my cousin Slender, and this day we shall have our answer] +They have not linger'd very long. The match was proposed by Sir +Hugh but the day before. + +III.ii.73 (256,1) [The gentleman is of no having] _Having_ is the same as +_estate_ or _fortune_. + +III.ii.90 (257,2) [I think, I shall drink in pipe-wine first with +him] [Tyrwhitt: horn-pipe wine] _Pipe_ is known to be a vessel of +wine, now containing two hogsheads. _Pipe_ wine is therefore wine, not +from the _bottle_, but the _pipe_; and the text consists in the ambiguity +of the word, which signifies both a cask of wine, and a musical instrument. +_Horn-pipe wine_ has no meaning. (1773) + +III.iii.60 (260,4) [that becomes the ship-tire, the tire-valiant, +or any tire of Venetian admittance] [Warburton had explained the +two tents as head-dresses, and "of Venetian admittance" as "which +will admit to be adorned."] This note is plausible, except in +the explanation of _Venetian admittance_: but I am afraid this +whole system of dress is unsupported by evidence. + +III.iv.13 (267,7) [father's wealth] Some light may be given to those +who shall endear one to calculate the increase of English wealth, +by observing, that Latymer, in the time of Edward VI. mentions +it as proof of his father's prosperity, _That though but a yeoman. +he gave his daughters five pounds each for her portion_. At the +latter end of Elizabeth, seven hundred pounds were such a temptation +to courtship, as made all other motives suspected. Congreve +makes twelve thousand pounds more than a counterbalance to the +affectation of Belinda. Ho poet would now fly his favourite +character at less than fifty thousand. + +III.iv.100 (270,1) [will you cast away your child on a fool and a +physician?] I should read _fool_ or a _physician_, meaning Slender and +Caius. + +III.v.113 (274,4) [bilbo] A _bilbo_ is a Spanish blade, of which the +excellence is flexibleness and elasticity. + +III.v.117 (274,5) [kidney] _Kidney_ in this phrase now signifies _kind_ or +_qualities_, but Falstaff means a man whose _kidnies_ are as _fat_ as mine. + +III.v.155 (275,6) [I'll be horn-mad] There is no image which our +author appears so fond of, as that of cuckold's horns. Scarcely +a light character is introduced that does not endearor to produce +merriment by some allusion to horned husbands. As he wrote +his plays for the stage rather than the press, he perhaps reviewed +them seldom, and did not observe this repetition, or +finding the jest, however, frequent, still successful, did not +think correction necessary. + +IV.i (276,7) [_Page's house_. _Enter Mrs. Page. Mrs. Quickly, and William_] +This is a very trifling scene, of no use to the plot, and I should think +of no great delight to the audience; but Shakespeare best knew what would +please. + +IV.ii.22 (879,8) [he so takes on] _To take on_, which is now used for +_to, grieve_, seems to be used by our author for _to, rage_. Perhaps it was +applied to any passion. + +IV.ii.26 (279,9) [buffets himself on the forehead, crying, _peer- +out, peer-out_!] That is, appear horns. Shakespeare is at his +old lunes. (see 1765, II, 526,+) + +IV.ii.161 (283,1) [this wrongs you] This is below your character, +unworthy of your understanding, injurious to your honour. So +in _The Taming of the Shrew_, Bianca, being ill treated by her +rugged sister, says: + "You _wrong_ me much, indeed you _wrong_ yourself." + +IV.ii.195 (284,2) [ronyon!] _Ronyon_, applied to a woman, means, as far as +can be traced, much the same with _scall_ or _scab_ spoken of a man. + +IV.ii.204 (284,3) [I spy a great peard under his muffler] As the +second stratagem, by which Falstaff escapes, is much the grosser +of the two, I wish it had been practiced first. It is very unlikely that +Ford, baring been so deceived before, and knowing that he had been +deceived, would suffer him to escape in so slight a disguise. + +IV.ii.208 (284,4) [cry out upon no trail] The expression is taken from +the hunters. _Trail_ is the scent left by the passage of the game. _To +cry out_, is to _open_ or _bark_. + +IV.iii.13 (285,5) [they must come off] _To come off_, signifies in our +author, sometimes _to be uttered with spirit and volubility_. In this +place it seems to mean what is in our time expressed by _to come down_, +to pay liberally and readily. These accidental and colloquial senses are +the disgrace of language, and the plague of commentators. + +IV.iv.32 (287,7) [And there he blasts the tree, and takes the cattle] +To _take_, in Shakespeare, signifies to seize or strike with a +disease, to blast. So in _Hamlet_; + + "No planet _takes_." + +So in _Lear_; + + "-----Strike her young bones, + "Ye taking airs, with lameness." (rev. 1778,I,341,4) + +IV.v.7 (290,3) [standing-bed, and truckle-bed] The usual furniture of +chambers in that time was a standing-bed, under which was a _trochle, +truckle_, or _running_ bed. In the standing-bed lay the master, and in +the truckle-bed the servant. So in Hall's _Account of a Servile Tutor_: + + "He lieth in the _truckle-bed_. + "While his young master lieth o'er his head." + +IV.v.21 (291,4) [Bohemian-Tartar] The French call a _Bohemian_ what we +call a _Gypsey_; but I believe the Host means nothing more than, by a wild +appellation, to insinuate that Simple makes a strange appearance. + +IV. v. 29 (291, 5) [mussel-shell] He calls poor Simple mussel-shell, +because he stands with his mouth open. + +IV. v. 104 (293, 6) [_Primero_] A game at cards. + +IV. v. 122 (294, 7) [counterfeiting the action of an old woman] [T: a wood +woman] This emendation is received by Sir Thomas Hammer, +but rejected by Dr. Warburton. To me it appears reasonable +enough. + +IV. v. 130 (294, 8) [sure, one of you does not serve heaven well, that +you are so cross'd] The great fault of this play, is the frequency of +expressions so profane, that no necessity of preserving +character can justify them. There are laws of higher authority +than those of criticism. + +V. v. 28 (300, 3) [my shoulders for the fellow of this walk] Who the +_fellow_ is, or why he keeps his shoulders for bin, I do not understand. + +V. v. 77 (304, 9) [Fairies use flowers for their charactery] For the +matter with which they make letters. + +V. v. 84 (304, 1) [I smell a man of middle earth] Spirits are supposed +to inhabit the ethereal regions, and fairies to dwell under +ground, men therefore are in a middle station. + +V. v. 99 (305, 4) [_Lust is but a bloody fire_] So the old copies. I once +thought it should be read, + + _Lust is but a_ cloudy _fire_, + +but Sir T. Hammer reads with less violence, + + _Lust is but_ i' the blood a _fire_. + +V. v. 172 (308, 8) [ignorance itself is a plummet o'er me] Though this +be perhaps not unintelligible, yet it is an odd way of confessing +his dejection. I should wish to read: + + --_ignorance itself_ has a plume o' me; + +That is, I am so depressed, that ignorance itself plucks me, and +decks itself with the spoils of my weakness. Of the present +reading, which is probably right, the meaning may be, I am so enfeebled, +that _ignorance itself_ weighs me down and oppresses me. (see 1765, II, +554, 1) + +V. v. 181 (309, 1) [laugh at my wife] The two plots are excellently +connected, and the transition very artfully made in this speech. + +V. v. 249 (311, 2) [_Page_. Tell, what remedy?] In the first sketch of +this play, which, as Mr. Pope observes, is much inferior to the latter +performance, the only sentiment of which I regret the omission, occurs +at this critical time, when Fenton brings in his wife, there is this +dialogue. + + Mrs. Ford. _Come, mistress Page. I must be bold with you. + 'Tis pity to part love that is so true._ + +Mrs. Page. [Aside] _Although that I have miss'd in my intent, +Yet I am glad my husband's match is cross'd. +--Here Fenton. take her.--_ + +Eva. _Come, master Page, you must needs agree._ + +Ford. _I' faith, Sir, come, you see your wife is pleas'd._ + +Page. _I cannot tell, and yet my heart is eas'd; +And yet it doth me good the Doctor miss'd. +Come hither, Fenton, and come hither, daughter._ (1773) + +General Observation. Of this play there is a tradition preserved +by Mr. Rowe, that it was written at the command of queen Elizabeth, +who was so delighted with the character of Falstaff, that +she wished it to be diffused through more plays; but suspecting +that it might pall by continued uniformity, directed the poet to +diversify his manner, by shewing him in love. No task is harder +than that of writing to the ideas of another. Shakespeare knew +what the queen, if the story be true, seems not to have known, +that by any real passion of tenderness, the selfish craft, the +careless jollity, and the lazy luxury of Falstaff must have suffered +so much abatement, that little of his former cast would +have remained. Falstaff could not love, but by ceasing to be +Falstaff. He could only counterfeit love, and his professions +could be prompted, not by the hope of pleasure, but of money. +Thus the poet approached as near as he could to the work enjoined him; +yet having perhaps in the former plays completed his +own idea, seems not to have been able to give Falstaff all his +former power of entertainment. + +This comedy is remarkable for the variety and number of the +personages, who exhibit more characters appropriated and discriminated, +than perhaps can be found in any other play. + +Whether Shakespeare was the first that produced upon the English +stage the effect of language distorted and depraved by provincial +or foreign pronunciations, I cannot certainly decide. +This mode of forming ridiculous characters can confer praise +only on him, who originally discovered it, for it requires not +much of either wit or judgment: its success must be derived almost +wholly from the player, but its power in a skilful month, +even he that despises it, is unable to resist. + +The conduct of this drama is deficient; the action begins and +ends often before the conclusion, and the different parts might +change places without inconvenience; but its general power, that +power by which all works of genius shall finally be tried, is +such, that perhaps it never yet had reader or spectator, who did +not think it too soon at an end. + + + + + +Vol. II + + +MEASURE FOR MEASURE + +Persons Represented: Varrius might be omitted, for he is only +once spoken to, and says nothing. + +There it perhaps not one of Shakespeare's plays more darkened +than this by the peculiarities of its authour, and the +unskilfulness of its editors, by distortions of phrase, or +negligence of transcription. + +I.i.6 (4,4) [lists] Bounds, limits. + +I.i.7 (4,5) [Then no more remains, + But that your sufficiency, as your worth is able, + And let them work] + +This is a passage which has exercised the sagacity of the +editors, and is now to employ mine. [Johnson adds T's and W's +notes] Sir Tho. Hammer, having caught from Mr. Theobald a +hint that a line was lost, endeavours to supply it thus. + + --_Then no more remains, + But that to your sufficiency_ you join + A will to serve us, _as your worth is able_. + +He has by this bold conjecture undoubtedly obtained a meaning, +but, perhaps not, even in his own opinion, the meaning of +Shakespeare. + +That the passage is more or less corrupt, I believe every reader will +agree with the editors. I am not convinced that a line is lost, as Mr. +Theobald conjectures, nor that the change of _but_ to _put_, which Dr. +Warburton has admitted after some other editor, will amend the fault. +There was probably some original obscurity in the expression, which gave +occasion to mistake in repetition or transcription. I therefore suspect +that the authour wrote thus, + + --_Then no more remains. + But that to your_ sufficiencies _your worth is_ abled, + _And let them work. + +Then nothing remains more than to tell you, that your virtue is now +invested with power equal to your knowledge and wisdom. Let +therefore your knowledge and your virtue now work together._ It may +easily be conceived how _sufficiencies_ was, by an inarticulate +speaker, or inattentive hearer, confounded with _sufficiency as_, +and how _abled_, a word very unusual, was changed into _able_. For +_abled_, however, an authority is not wanting. Lear uses it in the +same sense, or nearly the same, with the Duke. As for +_sufficiencies_, D. Hamilton, in his dying speech, prays that +Charles II. _may exceed both the_ virtues _and_ sufficiencies _of +his father_. + +I.i.11 (6,6) [the terms For common justice, you are as pregnant in] +The later editions all give it, without authority, + + --_the terms_ + Of _justice_,-- + +and Dr. Warburton makes _terms_ signify _bounds_ or _limits_. I +rather think the Duke meant to say, that Escalus was _pregnant_, +that is, _ready_ and knowing in all the forms of law, and, among +other things, in the _terms_ or _times set apart_ for its +administration. + +I.i.18 (7,7) [we have with special soul Elected him our absence to +supply] [W: roll] This editor is, I think, right in supposing a +corruption, but less happy in his emendation. I read, + + --_we have with special_ seal + _Elected him our absence to supply_. + +A special _seal_ is a very natural metonymy for a special _commission_. + +I.i.28 (8,8) + + [There is a kind of character in thy life, + That to the observer doth thy history + Fully unfold] + +Either this introduction has more solemnity than meaning, or it +has a meaning which I cannot discover. What is there peculiar +in this, that a man's _life_ informs the observer of his _history_? +Might it be supposed that Shakespeare wrote this? + + _There is a kind of character in thy_ look. + +_History_ may be taken in a more diffuse and licentious meaning, +for _future occurrences_, or the part of life yet to come. +If this sense be received, the passage is clear and proper. + +I.i.37 (8,1) [to fine issues] To great consequences. For high purposes. + +I.i.41 (9,2) [But I do bend my speech To one that can my part in +him advertise] I know not whether we may not better read, + + _One that can my part_ to _him advertise_, + +One that can _inform himself_ of that which it would be otherwise +_my part_ to tell him. + +I.i.43 (9,3) [Hold therefore, Angelo] That is, continue to be +Angelo; _hold_ as thou art. + +I.i.47 (9,4) [first in question] That is, first called for; first +appointed. + +I.i.52 (9,5) [We have with a leaven'd and prepared choice Proceeded +to you] [W: a levell'd] No emendation is necessary. _Leaven'd_ +choice is one of Shakespeare's harsh metaphors. His train of +ideas seems to be this. _I have proceeded to you with choice_ +mature, concocted, fermented, _leavened_. When bread is _leavened_ +it is left to ferment: a _leavened_ choice is therefore a choice +not hasty, but considerate, not declared as soon as it fell +into the imagination, but suffered to work long in the mind. +Thus explained, it suits better with _prepared_ than _levelled_. + +I.i.65 (10,6) [your scope is as mine own] That is, Your amplitude +of power. + +I.ii.22 (12,7) [in metre?] In the primers, there are metrical graces, +such as, I suppose, were used in Shakespeare's time. + +I.ii.25 (12,9) [Grace is grace, despight of all controversy] [Warbarton +had suspected an allusion to ecclesiastical disputes.] I +am in doubt whether Shakespeare's thoughts reached so far into +ecclesiastical disputes. Every commentator is warped a little +by the tract of his own profession. The question is, whether the +second gentleman has ever heard grace. The first gentleman limits +the question to _grace in metre_. Lucio enlarges it to _grace +in any_ form _or language_. The first gentleman, to go beyond him, +says, or _in any religion_, which Lucio allows, because the nature +of things is unalterable; grace is as immutably grace, as his +merry antagonist is a _wicked villain_. Difference in religion +cannot make a _grace_ not to be _grace_, a _prayer_ not to be _holy_; as +nothing can make a _villain_ not to be a _villain_. This seems to +be the meaning, such as it is. + +I.ii.28 (12,1) [there went but a pair of sheers between us] We are +both of the same piece. + +I.ii.35 (13,2) [be pil'd, as thou art pil'd, for a French velvet?] +The jest about the pile of a French velvet alludes to the loss of +hair in the French disease, a very frequent topick of our authour's +jocularity. Lucio finding that the gentleman understands the distemper +so well, and mentions it so _feelingly_, promises to remember +to drink his _health_, but to forget _to drink after him_. It was the +opinion of Shakespeare's time, that the cup of an infected person +was contagious. + +I.ii.50 (13,3) [To three thousand dollars a year] [A quibble intended +between _dollars_ and _dolours_. Hammer.] The same jest occured before +in the _Tempest_. + +I.ii.83 (15,5) [what with the sweat] This nay allude to the _sweating +sickness_, of which the memory was very fresh in the time of +Shakespeare: but more probably to the method of cure then used +for the diseases contracted in brothels. + +I.ii.124 (16,6) + + [Thus can the demi-god, Authority, + Make us pay down, for our offence, by weight.-- + The words of heaven;--on whom it will, it will; + On whom it will not, so; yet still 'tis just] + +[Warburton had emended the punctuation of the second line] I +suspect that a line is lost. + +I.ii.162 (18,8) [the fault, and glimpse, of newness] _Fault_ and +_glimpse_ have so little relation to each other, that both can +scarcely be right: we may read _flash_ for _fault_ or, perhaps we +may read, + + _Whether it be the fault_ or _glimpse_-- + +That is, whether it be the seeming enormity of the action, or +the glare of new authority. Yet the sane sense follows in the +next lines, (see 1765, I, 275, 4) + +I.ii.188 (19,2) [There is a prone and speechless dialect] I can +scarcely tell what signification to give to the word _prone_. Its +primitive and translated senses are well known. The authour +may, by a _prone_ dialect, mean a dialect which men are _prone_ to +regard, or a dialect natural and unforced, as those actions seem +to which we are _prone_. Either of these interpretations are +sufficiently strained; but such distortion of words is not uncommon +in our authour. For the sake of an easier sense, we may read, + + --_In her youth + There is a_ pow'r, _and speechless dialect, + Such as moves men._ + +Or thus, + + _There is a_ prompt _and speechless dialect._ + +I.ii.194 (20,3) [under grievous imposition] I once thought it +should be _inquisition_, but the present reading is probably +right. _The crime would be under grievous_ penalties imposed. + +I.iii.2 (20,4) [Believe not, that the dribbling dart of love Can +pierce a compleat bosom] Think not that a breast _compleatly +armed_ can be pierced by the dart of love that comes _fluttering +without force_. + +I.iii.12 (21,5) [(A man of stricture and firm abstinence)] [W: strict ure] +_Stricture_ may easily be used for _strictness_; _ure_ is indeed +an old word, but, I think, always applied to things, never to +persons. + +I.iii.43 (22,9) [To do it slander] The text stood, + + _So do in slander_.-- + +Sir Thomas Hammer has very well corrected it thus, + + To _do_ it _slander_.-- + +Yet perhaps less alteration might have produced the true reading, + + _And yet my nature never, in the fight,_ + So _do_ing _slander_ed.-- + +And yet my nature never suffer slander by doing any open acts of +severity. (see 1765, I,279,3) + +I.iii.51 (23,2) [Stands at a guard] Stands on terms of defiance. + +I.iv.30 (24,3) [make me not your story] Do not, by deceiving me, +make me a subject for a tale. + +I.iv.41 (26,5) + + [as blossoming time + That from the seedness the bare fallow brings + To teeming foyson, so her plenteous womb + Expresseth his full tilth and husbandry] + +As the sentence now stands, it is apparently ungrammatical. I +read, + + At _blossoming time_, &c. + +That is, _As they that feed grow full, so her womb now_ at blossoming +time, _at that time through which the feed time proceeds to +the harvest_, her womb shows what has been doing. Lucio ludicrously +calls pregnancy _blossoming time_, the time when fruit is promised, +though not yet ripe. + +I.iv.51 (26,6) [Bore many gentlemen, myself being one, In hand, and +hope of action] _To bear in hand_ is a common phrase for _to keep +in expectation and dependance_, but we should read, + + --with _hope of action_. + +I.iv.56 (26,7) [with full line] With full extent, with the whole +length. + +I.iv.62 (27,8) [give fear to use] To intimidate _use_, that is, practices +long countenanced by _custom_. + +I.iv.69 (27,9) [Unless you have the grace] That is, the acceptableness, +the power of gaining favour. So when she makes her suit, +the provost says, + + _Heaven give thee moving_ graces. (1765, I,282,1) + +I.iv.70 (27,1) [pith Of business] The inmost part, the main of my +message. + +I.iv.86 (28,4) [the mother] The abbess, or prioress. + +II.i.8 (29,7) [Let but your honour know] To _know_ is here to _examine_, +to _take cognisance_. So in _Midsummer-Night's Dream_, + + _Therefore, fair Hermia, question your desires_; + Know of _your truth, examine well your blood_. + +II.i.23 (29,8) + + ['Tis very pregnant, + The jewel that we find, we stoop and take it, + Because we see it; but what we do not see, + We tread upon, and never think of it] + +'Tis _plain_ that we must act with bad as with good; we punish the +faults, as we take the advantages, that lie in our way, and what +we do not see we cannot note. + +II.i.28 (30,8) [For I have had such faults] That is, _because, by +reason that I_ have had faults. + +II.i.57 (31,9) [This comes off well] This is nimbly spoken; this is +volubly uttered. + +II.i.63 (32,1) [a tapster, sir; parcel-bawd] This we should now express +by saying, _he is_ half-tapster, half-bawd. (1773) + +II.i.66 (32,2) [she professes a hot-house] A _hot-house_ is an English +name for a _bagnio_. + + _Where lately harbour'd many a famous whore, + A purging-bill now fix'd upon the door, + Tells you it it a_ hot-house, _so it may. + And still be a whore-house_. Ben. Jonson. + +II.i.85 (32,3) [Ay, sir, by mistress Over-done's means] Here seems +to have been some mention made of Froth, who was to be accused, +and some words therefore may have been lost, unless the irregularity +of the narrative may be better imputed to the ignorance +of the constable. + +II.i.180 (35,4) [Justice or Iniquity?] These were, I suppose, two +personages well known to the audience by their frequent appearance +in the old moralities. The words, therefore, at that time, +produced a combination of ideas, which they have now lost. + +II.i.183 (35,5) [Hannibal] Mistaken by the constable for _Cannibal_. + +II.i.215 (36,6) [they will draw you] _Draw_ has here a cluster of +senses. As it refers to the tapster, it signifies _to drain, to +empty_; as it is related to hang, it means _to be conveyed to execution +on a hurdle_. In Froth's answer, it is the same as _to +bring along by some motive or power_. + +II.i.254 (37,7) [I'll rent the fairest house in it, after three +pence a bay] A _bay_ of building is, in many parts of England, a +common term, of which the best conception that I could ever attain, +is, that it is the space between the main beams of the +roof; so that a barn crossed twice with beams is a barn of three +_bays_. + +II.ii.26 (40,8) [Stay yet a while] It is not clear why the provost +is bidden to stay, nor when he goes out. + +II.ii.32 (40,9) [For which I must not plead but that I am +at war, 'twixt will, and will not] +This is obscure; perhaps it may be mended by reading, + + _For which I must_ now _plead; but_ yet _I am + At war, 'twixt will, and will not._ + +_Yet_ and _yt_ are almost indistinguishable in a manuscript. Yet no +alteration is necessary, since the speech is not unintelligible +as it now stands, (see 1765, 9I,294,5) + +II.ii.78 (42,2) [And mercy then will breathe within your lips, Like +man new made] I rather think the meaning is, _You would then +change the severity of your present character_. In familiar +speech, _You would be quite another man_. (see 1765, 1,296,7) + +II.ii.99 (43,6) + +[_Isab_. Yet shew some pity. +_Ang_. I shew it most of all, when I shew justice; +For then I pity those I do not know] + +This was one of Bale's memorials. _When I find myself swayed to +mercy, let me remember, that there is a mercy likewise due to +the country_. + +II.ii.126 (45,2) [We cannot weigh our brother with ourself] [W: yourself] +The old reading is right. _We_ mortals proud and foolish cannot +prevail on our passions to _weigh_ or compare _our brother_, a +being of like nature and frailty, with _ourself_. We have different +names and different judgments for the same faults committed by +persons of different condition. (1773) + +II.ii.141 (46,3) [She speaks, and 'tis Such sense, that my sense +breeds with it] Thus all the folios. Some later editor has +changed _breeds_ to _bleeds_, and Dr. Warburton blames poor Mr. Theobald +for recalling the old word, which yet is certainly right. +_My sense_ breeds _with her sense_, that is, new thoughts are stirring +in my mind, new conceptions are _hatched_ in my imagination. + +So we say to _brood_ over thought. + +II.ii.149 (46,4) [tested gold] Rather cupelled, brought to the _test_, +refined, (see 1765,I,299,6) + +II.ii.157 (47,6) [For I am that way going to temptation, Where +prayers cross] Which way Angelo is going to temptation, we begin +to perceive; but how _prayers cross_ that way, or cross each other, +at that way, more than any other, I do not understand. + +Isabella prays that his _honour_ may be safe, meaning only to +give him his title: his imagination is caught by the word _honour_; +he feels that his _honour_ is in danger, and therefore, I believe, +answers thus: + +_I am that way going to temptation_, +Which your _prayers cross_. + +That is, I am tempted to lose that honour of which thou implorest +the preservation. The temptation under which I labour is that +which thou hast unknowingly _thwarted_ with thy prayer. He uses the +same mode language a few lines lower. Isabella, parting, says, +Save your _honour_! +Angelo catches the word--_Save it_! _From what_? +_From thee; even from thy virtue_!--(rev. 1778,II,52,3) + +II.ii.165 (47,7) + + [But it is I, +That lying, by the violet, in the sun, +Do, as the carrion does, not as the flower, +Corrupt with virtuous season.] + +I am not corrupted by her, but by my own heart, which excites +foul desires under the same benign influences that exalt her +purity, as the carrion grows putrid by those beams which encrease +the fragrance of the violet. + +II.ii.186 (48,8) [Ever, till now, When men were fond, I smil'd, +and wonder'd how] As a day must now intervene between this conference +of Isabella with Angelo, and the next, the act might +more properly end here; and here, in my opinion, it was ended by +the poet. + +II.iii.11 (49,1) [Who falling in the flaws of her own youth, Hath +blister'd her report] Who doth not see that the integrity of the +metaphor requires we should read, --_flames of her own youth_? +Warburton.] + +Who does not see that, upon such principles, there is no end of +correction? + +II.iii.36 (50,3) [There rest] Keep yourself in this temper. + +II.iii.40 (50,4) [Oh, injurious love] Her execution was respited on +account of her pregnancy, the effects of her love: therefore she +calls it _injurious_; not that it brought her to shame, but that +it hindered her freeing herself from it. Is not this all very +natural? yet the Oxford editor changes it to _injurious law_. + +II.iv.9 (51,6) [Grown fear'd and tedious] [W: sear'd] I think _fear'd_ + +may stand. What we go to with reluctance may be said to be +_fear'd_. + +II.iv.13 (51,7) [case] For outside; garb; external shew. + +II.iv.14 (51,8) [Wrench awe from fools, and tie the wiser souls To +thy false seeming?] Here Shakespeare judiciously distinguishes +the different operations of high place upon different minds. +Fools are frighted, and wise men are allured. Those who cannot +judge but by the eye, are easily awed by splendour; those who +consider men as well as conditions, are easily persuaded to love +the appearance of virtue dignified with power. + +II.iv.16 (51,9) [Let's write good angel on the devil's horn; 'Tis +not the devil's crest] [Hammer: Is't not the devil's crest] I am +still inclined to the opinion of the Oxford editor. Angelo, +reflecting on the difference between his seeming character, and +his real disposition, observes, that he _could change his gravity +for a plume_. He then digresses into an apostrophe, _O dignity, +how dost thou impose upon the world_! then returning to himself, +_Blood_, says he, _thou art but blood_, however concealed with +appearances and decorations. Title and character do not alter +nature, which is still corrupt, however dignified. + + _Let's write good angel on the devil's horn_; + _Is't not_?--or rather--_'Tis yet the devil's crest_. + +It may however be understood, according to Dr. Warburton's +explanation. O place, how dost thou impose upon the world by +false appearances! so much, that if we _write good angel on the +devil's horn, 'tis not_ taken any longer to be _the devil's crest_. +In this sense, + + _Blood, thou art but blood._! + +is an interjected exclamation. (1773) + +II.iv.27 (53,1) [The gen'ral subjects to a well-wish'd king] So the +later editions: but the old copies read, + + _The_ general subject _to a well-wish'd king_. + +The _general subject_ seems a harsh expression, but _general +subjects_ has no sense at all; and _general_ was, in our authour's +time, a word for _people_, so that the _general_ is the _people_, or +_multitude, subject_ to a king. So in _Hamlet_: _The play pleased +not the_ million; _'twas caviare to the_ general. + +II.iv.47 (54,3) [Falsely to take away a life true made] _Falsely_ is +the same with _dishonestly, illegally_: so _false_, in the next +lines, is _illegal, illegitimate_. + +II.iv.48 (54,4) [As to put metal in restrained means] In forbidden +moulds. I suspect _means_ not to be the right word, but I cannot +find another. + +II.iv.50 (55,5) ['Tis set down so in heaven, but not in earth] I +would have it considered, whether the train of the discourse +does not rather require Isabel to say, + + _'Tis so set down in_ earth, _but not in_ heaven. + +When she has said this, _Then_, says Angelo, _I shall poze you +quickly_. Would you, who, for the present purpose, declare your +brother's crime to be less in the sight of heaven, than the law +has made it; would you commit that crime, light as it is, to +save your brother's life? To this she answers, not very plainly +in either reading, but more appositely to that which I +propose: + + _I had rather give my body, than my soul_. (1773) + +II.iv.67 (56,6) + + [Pleas'd you to do't at peril of your soul, + Were equal poize of sin and charity] + +The reasoning is thus: Angelo asks, whether there might _not be +a charity in sin to save this brother_. Isabella answers, that +_if Angelo will save him, she will stake her soul that it were +charity, not sin_. Angelo replies, that if Isabella would _save +him at the hazard of her soul, it would be not indeed no sin, +but a sin to which the charity would be equivalent_. + +II.iv.73 (56,7) [And nothing of your answer] I think it should be +read, + + _And nothing of_ yours _answer_. + +You, and whatever is _yours_, be exempt from penalty. + +II.iv.86 (56,9) [Accountant to the law upon that pain] _Pain_ is here +for _penalty, punishment_. + +II.iv.90 (57,2) [But in the loss of question,] The _loss_ of +question I do not well understand, and should rather read, + + _But in the_ toss _of question_. + +In the _agitation_, in the _discussion_ of the question. To _toss_ +an argument is a common phrase. + +II.iv.106 (57,4) [a brother dy'd at once] Perhaps we should read, + + _Better it were, a brother died_ for _once, + Than that a sister, by redeeming him. + Should die_ for _ever_. + +II.iv.123 (58,6) [Owe, and succeed by weakness] To _owe_ is, in this +place, to _own_, to _hold_, to have possession. + +II.iv.125 (59,7) [the glasses where they view themselves; Which are +as easily broke, as they make forms] Would it not be better to +read, + ----take _forms_. + +II.iv.128 (59,8) [In profiting by them] In imitating them, in taking +them for examples. + +II.iv.139 (59,1) + + [I have no tongue but one. Gentle my lord, + Let me intreat you, speak the former language] + +Isabella answers to his circumlocutory courtship, that she has +but _one tongue_, she does not understand this new phrase, and +desires him to talk his _former language_, that is, to talk as he +talked before. + +II.iv.150 (60,3) [Seeming, seeming!] Hypocrisy, hypocrisy; counterfeit +virtue. + +II.iv.156 (60,4) [My Touch against you] [The calling his denial of +her charge _his vouch_, has something fine. _Vouch_ is the testimony +one man bears for another. So that, by this, he insinuates +his authority was so great, that his _denial_ would have the same +credit that a _vouch_ or testimony has in ordinary cases. Warburton.] +I believe this beauty is merely imaginary, and that _vouch +against_ means no more than denial. + +II.iv.165 (60,5) [die the death] This seems to be a solemn phrase +for death inflicted by law. So in _Midsummer Night's Dream_. + + _Prepare_ to die the death. + +II.iv.178 (61,6) [prompture] Suggestion, temptation, instigation. + +III.i.5 (62,8) [Be absolute for death] Be determined to die, without +any hope of life. _Horace_,-- + + --_The hour, which exceeds expectation will be welcome._ + +III.i.7 (62,9) [I do lose a thing, That none but fools would keep] +[W: would reck] The meaning seems plainly this, that _none but +fools would_ wish _to keep life_; or, _none but fools would keep_ it, +if choice were allowed. A sense, which whether true or not, is +certainly innocent. + +III.i.14 (63,3) [For all the accommodations, that thou bear'st Are +nurs'd by baseness] Dr. Warburton is undoubtedly mistaken in +supposing that by _baseness_ is meant _self-love_ here assigned as +the motive of all human actions. Shakespeare only meant to +observe, that a minute analysis of life at once destroys that +splendour which dazzles the imagination. Whatever grandeur can +display, or luxury enjoy, is procured by _baseness_, by offices of +which the mind shrinks from the contemplation. All the delicacies +of the table may be traced back to the shambles and the +dunghill, all magnificence of building was hewn from the quarry, +and all the pomp of ornaments dug from among the damps and +darkness of the mine. + +III.i.16 (64,4) [the soft and tender fork Of a poor worm] _Worm_ is +put for any creeping thing or _serpent_. Shakespeare supposes +falsely, but according to the vulgar notion, that a serpent +wounds with his tongue, and that his tongue is _forked_. He +confounds reality and fiction, a serpent's tongue is _soft_ but not +_forked_ nor hurtful. If it could hurt, it could not be soft. In +_Midsummer Night's Dream_ he has the same notion. + + --_With_ doubler _tongue + Than thine, O serpent, never adder_ stung. + +III.i.17 (64,5) + + [Thy best of rest is sleep, + And that thou oft provok'st; yet grosly fear'st + Thy death which is no more] + +Here Dr. Warburton might have found a sentiment worthy of his + +animadversion. I cannot without indignation find Shakespeare +saying, that _death is only sleep_, lengthening out his exhortation +by a sentence which in the friar is impious, in the reasoner +is foolish, and in the poet trite and vulgar. + +III.i.19 (64,6) + + [Thou art not thyself, + For thou exist'st on many thousand grains, + That issue out of dust] + +Thou art perpetually repaired and renovated by external assistance, +thou subsistest upon foreign matter, and hast no power of +producing or continuing thy own being. + +III.i.24 (64,7) [strange effects] For _effects_ read _affects_; that is, +_affections_, _passions_ of mind, or disorders of body variously +_affected_. So in _Othello_, _The young_ affects. + +III.i.32 (65,9) + + [Thou hast nor youth, nor age; + But, as it were, an after-dinner's sleep, + Dreaming on both] + +This is exquisitely imagined. When we are young, we busy +ourselves in forming schemes for succeeding time, and miss the +gratifications that are before us; when we are old, we amuse the +languor of age with the recollection of youthful pleasures or +performances; so that our life, of which no part is filled with +the business of the present time, resembles our dreams after +dinner, when the events of the morning are mingled with the +designs of the evening. + +III.i.34 (65,1) + + [for all thy blessed youth + Becomes as aged, and doth beg the alms + Of palsied eld] + +[W: for pall'd, thy blazed youth Becomes assuaged] Here again I +think Dr. Warburton totally mistaken. Shakespeare declares that +man has _neither youth nor age_; for in _youth_, which is the +_happiest_ time, or which might be the happiest, he commonly wants +means to obtain what he could enjoy; he is dependent on _palsied +eld_; _must beg alms_ from the coffers of hoary avarice: and being +very niggardly supplied, _becomes as aged_, looks, like an old man, +on happiness which is beyond his reach. And when _he is old and +rich_, when he has wealth enough for the purchase of all that +formerly excited his desires, he has no longer the powers of enjoyment, + + --_has neither heat, affection, limb, nor beauty, + To make _his _riches pleasant_.-- + +I have explained this passage according to the present reading, +which may stand without much inconvenience; yet I am willing to +persuade my reader, because I have almost persuaded myself, that +our authour wrote, + + --_for all thy_ blasted _youth + Becomes as aged_-- + + +III.i.37 (66,2) [Thou has neither heat, affection, limb, nor beauty +To make thy riches pleasant] [W: nor bounty] I am inclined to +believe, that neither man nor woman will have much difficulty to +tell how _beauty makes riches pleasant_. Surely this emendation, +though it it elegant and ingenious, is not such as that an opportunity of +inserting it should be purchased by declaring ignorance +of what every one knows, by confessing insensibility to what +every one feels. + +III.i.40 (66,3) [more thousand deaths] For this sir T. Hammer reads, +----_ a thousand deaths_:---- +The meaning is not only _a thousand deaths_, but _a thousand deaths_ +besides what have been mentioned. + +III.i.55 (67,5) [Why, as all comforts are; most good in Deed] If this +reading be right, Isabella must mean that she brings something +better than _words_ of comfort, she brings an assurance of _deeds_. +This is harsh and constrained, but I know not what better to offer. Sir +Thomas Hammer reads,--_in_ speed. + +III.i.59 (68,6) [an everlasting leiger. Therefore your best appointment] +_Leiger_ is the same with resident. _Appointment_; preparation; +act of fitting, or state of being fitted for any thing. So +in old books, we have a knight well _appointed_; that is, well +armed and mounted or fitted at all points. + +III.i.68 (68,8) + + [Tho' all the world's vastidity you had, + To a determin'd scope] + +A confinement of your mind to one painful idea; to ignominy, of +which the remembrance can neither be suppressed nor escaped. + +III.i.79 (69,9) + + [And the poor beetle, that we tread upon, + In corporal sufferance finds a pang as great, + As when a giant dies] + +The reasoning is, _that death is no more than every being must +suffer, though the dread of it is peculiar to man_; or perhaps, +that_ we are inconsistent with ourselves, when we so much dread +that which we carelessly inflict on other creatures, that feel +the pain as acutely as we. + +III.i.91 (69,1) [follies doth emmew] Forces follies to lie in cover +without daring to show themselves. + +III.1.93 (69,3) [His filth within being cast] To _cast_ a pond is +to empty it of mud. + +Mr. Upton reads, + _His_ pond _within being cast, he would appear + A_ filth _as deep as hell_. + +III.1.94 (70,4) + [_Claud_. The princely Angelo? + _Isab_. Oh, 'tis the cunning livery of hell, + The damned'st body to invest and cover + In princely guards!] + +[W: priestly guards] The first folio has, in both places, _prenzie_, + +from which the other folios made _princely_, and every editor may +make what he can. + +III.i.113 (71,7) + + [If it were damnable, he being so wise, + Why would he for the momentary trick + Be perdurably fin'd?] + +Shakespeare shows his knowledge of human nature in the conduct of +Claudio. When Isabella first tells him of Angelo's proposal, he +answers, with honest indignation, agreeably to his settled principles, + + _Thou shalt not do't._ + +But the love of life being permitted to operate, soon furnishes +him with sophistical arguments, he believes it cannot be very +dangerous to the soul, since Angelo, who is so wise, will venture +it. + +III.i.121 (71,8) [delighted spirit] This reading may perhaps stand, +but many attempts have been made to correct it. The most plausible +is that which substitutes, + + --_the_ benighted _spirit_, + +alluding to the darkness always supposed in the place of future +punishment. + +Perhaps we may read, + + --_the_ delinquent _spirit_, + +a word easily changed to _delighted_ by a bad copier, or unskilful +reader. _Delinquent_ is proposed by Thirlby in his manuscript.(1773) + +III.i.127 (72,9) [lawless and incertain thoughts] Conjecture sent +out to wander without any certain direction, and ranging through +all possibilities of pain. + +III.i.139 (73,2) [Is't not a kind of incest, to take life From thine +own sister's shame?] In Isabella's declamation there is something +harsh, and something forced and far-fetched. But her indignation +cannot be thought violent, when we consider her not only as a virgin, +but as a nun. + +III.i.149 (74,4) [but a trade] A custom; a practice, an established +habit. So we say of a man much addicted to any thing, _he makes_ +a trade _of it_. + +III.i.176 (75,6) [Hold you there] Continue in that resolution. + +III.i.255 (77,l) [only refer yourself to this advantage] This is +scarcely to be reconciled to any established mode of speech. We +may read, _only_ reserve yourself to, or _only_ reserve to _yourself +this advantage_. + +III.i.266 (77,2) [the corrupt deputy scaled] _To scale the deputy_ may +_be, to reach him, notwithstanding the elevation of his place_; or +it may be, _to strip him and discover his nakedness, though armed +and concealed by the investments of authority_. + +III.ii.6 (78,4) [since, of two usuries] Sir Thomas Hammer corrected +this with less pomp [than Warburton], then _since of two_ usurers +_the merriest was put down, and the worser allowed, by order of +law, a furr'd gown_, &c. His punctuation is right, but the alteration, +small as it is, appears more than was wanted. Usury may +be need by an easy licence for the _professors of usury_. + +III.ii.14 (79,5) [father] This word should be expunged. + +III.ii.40 (80,7) [That we were all, as some would seem to be, +Free from all faults, as faults from seeming free!] + +Sir T. Hammer reads, + + _Free from all faults, as from faults seeming free_. + +In the interpretation of Dr. Warburton, the sense is trifling, +and the expression harsh. To wish _that men were as free from +faults, as faults are free from comeliness_ [instead of _void of +comeliness_] is a very poor conceit. I once thought it should be +read, + + _O that all were, as all would seem to be. + Free from all faults_, or _from_ false seeming _free_. + +So in this play, + + _O place, 0 power--how dost thou + Wrench awe from fools, and tie the wiser souls + To thy_ false seeming. + +But now I believe that a less alteration will serve the turn. + + _Free from all faults_, or _faults from seeming free; + +that men were really good, or that their faults were known_, that +men were free from faults, _or_ faults from _hypocrisy_. So Isabella +calls Angelo's hypocrisy, _seeming, seeming_. + +III.ii.42 (81,8) [His neck will come to your waist] That is, his +neck will be tied, like your waist, with a rope. The friars of +the Franciscan order, perhaps of all others, wear a hempen cord +for a girdle. Thus Buchanan, + + _Fac gemant suis, + Variata terga funibus_. + +III.ii.51 (81,1) [what say'st thou to this tune, matter and method? +Is't not drown'd i' the last rain?] [W: It's not down i' the +last reign] Dr. Warburton's emendation is ingenious, but I know +not whether the sense may not be restored with less change. Let +us consider it. Lucio, a prating fop, meets his old friend +going to prison, and pours out upon him his impertinent interrogatories, +to which, when the poor fellow makes no answer, he +adds, _What reply? ha? what say'st thou to this? tune, matter, +and method,--is't not? drown'd i' th' last rain? ha? what say'st +thou, trot_? &c. It is a common phrase used in low raillery of a +man crest-fallen and dejected, that _he looks like a drown'd +puppy_, Lucio, therefore, asks him, whether he was _drowned in +the last rain_, and therefore cannot speak. + +III.ii.52 (82,2) [what say'st thou, trot?] _Trot_, or as it is now +often pronounced, honest _trout_, is a familiar address to a man +among the provincial vulgar. (1773) + +III.ii.54 (82,3) [Which is the way?] _What is the_ mode _now_? + +III.ii.59 (82,4) [in the tub] The method of cure for veneral complaints +is grosly celled the _powdering tub_. + +III.ii.89 (83,6) [Go--to kennel, Pompey--go] It should be remembered, +that Pompey is the common name of a dog, to which allusion +is made in the mention of a _kennel_. (1773) + +III.ii.135 (85,9) [clack-dish] The beggars, two or three centuries +ago, used to proclaim their wont by a wooden dish with a moveable +cover, which they clacked to shew that their vessel was empty. +This appears in a passage quoted on another occasion by Dr. Gray, +(see 1765, I,331,9 and the note in the 1765 Appendix) + +III.ii.144 (86,1) [The greater file of the subject] The larger list, +the greater number. + +III.ii.193 (87,5) [He's now past it] Sir Thomas Hammer, _He is not +past it yet_. This emendation was received in the former edition, +but seems not necessary. It were to be wished, that we all explained +more, and amended less. (see 1765, I,333,5) + +III.ii.277 (90,9) + + [Pattern in himself to know, + Grace to stand, and virtue go] + +These lines I cannot understand, but believe that they should be +read thus: + + Patterning _himself to know_, + In _grace to stand_, in _virtue go_; + +To _pattern_ is _to work after a pattern_, and, perhaps, in +Shakespeare's licentious diction, simply to work. The sense is, _he +that bears the sword of heaven should be holy as well as severe; +one that after good examples labours to know himself, to live +with innocence, and to act with virtue_. + +III.ii.294 (91,5) + + [So disguise shall, by the disguis'd + Pay with falshood false exacting] + +So _disguise_ shall by means of a person _disguised_, return an +_injurious demand_ with a _counterfeit person_. + +IY.i.13 (93,4) [My mirth it much displeas'd, but pleas'd my woe] +Though the musick soothed my sorrows, it had no tendency to produce +light merriment. + +IV.i.21 (93,5) [constantly] Certainly; without fluctuation of mind. + +IV.i.28 (93,6) [circummur'd with brick] _Circummured_, walled round. +_He caused the doors to be_ mured _and cased up_. + + Painter's Palace of Pleasure. + +IV.i.40 (94,7) [In action all of precept] I rather think we should +read, + + _In precept all of action_,-- + +that is, _in direction given not by words, but by mute signs_. + +IV.i.44 (94,8) [I have possess'd him] I have made him clearly and +strongly comprehend. + +IV.i.60 (95,9) [O place and greatness] [It plainly appears, that +_this_ fine speech belongs to _that_ which concludes the preceding +scene, between the Duke and Lucio.... But that some time might be +given to the two women to confer together, the players, I suppose, +took part of the speech, beginning at _No might nor greatness_, +&c. and put it here, without troubling themselves about +its pertinency. Warburton.] I cannot agree that these lines are +placed here by the players. The sentiments are common, and such +as a prince, given to reflection, must have often present. +There was a necessity to fill up the time in which the ladies +converse apart, and they must have quick tongues and ready +apprehensions, if they understood each other while this speech was +uttered. + +IV.i.60 (95,1) [false eyes] That is, Eyes insidious and traiterous. + +IV.i.62 (95,2) [contrarious quests] Different reports, _running +counter_ to each other. + +IV.i.76 (96,4) [for yet our tithe's to sow] [W: tilth] The reader +is here attacked with a pretty sophism. We should read _tilth_, +i.e. our _tillage is to make_. But in the text it is _to sow_; and +who has ever said that his _tillage_ was to _sow_? I believe _tythe_ +is right, and that the expression is proverbial, in which _tithe_ +is taken, by an easy metonymy, for _harvest_. + +IV.ii.69 (100,7) [ As fast lock'd up in sleep, as guiltless labour + When it lies starkly in the traveller's bones ] +Stiffly. These two lines afford a very pleasing image. + +IV.ii.83 (101,1) [Even with the stroke] _Stroke_ is here put for the +_stroke_ of a pen or a line. + +IV.ii.86 (101,2) [To qualify] To temper, to moderate, as we say +wine is _qualified_ with water. + +IV.ii.86 (101,3) [Were he meal'd] Were he sprinkled; were he defiled, +A figure of the same kind our authour uses in _Macbeth_, + _The_ blood-bolter'd _Banquo._ + +IV.ii.91 (101,4) [that spirit's possess'd with haste, That wounds +the unresisting postern with these strokes] The line is irregular, +and the _unresisting postern_ so strange an expression, that +want of measure, and want of sense, might justly raise suspicion +of an errour, yet none of the later editors seem to have supposed +the place faulty, except sir Tho. Hammer, who reads, + + _the_ unresting _postern_. + +The three folio's have it, + + _unsisting postern_, + +out of which Mr. Rowe made _unresisting_, and the rest followed +him. Sir Thomas Hammer seems to have supposed _unresisting_ the +word in the copies, from which he plausibly enough extracted +_unresting_, but be grounded his emendation on the very syllable that +wants authority. What can be made of _unsisting_ I know not; the +best that occurs to me is _unfeeling_. + +IV.ii.103 (103,6) [_Duke_. This is his lordship's man. + _Prov_. And here comes Claudio's pardon] + +[Tyrwhitt suggested that the names of the speakers were misplaced] +When, immediately after the Duke had hinted his expectation of a +pardon, the Provost sees the Messenger, he supposes the Duke to +to have _known something_, and changes his mind. Either reading +may serve equally well. (1773) + +IV.ii.153 (104,7) [desperately mortal] This expression is obscure. +Sir Thomas Hammer reads, _mortally desperate_. _Mortally_ is in low +conversation used in this sense, but I know not whether it was +ever written. I am inclined to believe, that _desperately mortal_ +means _desperately mischievous_. Or _desperately mortal_ may mean a +man likely to die in a _desperate_ state, without reflection or +repentance. (see 1765, I,348,7) + +IV.ii.187 (106,8) [and tie the beard] A beard tied would give a very +new air to that face, which had never been seen but with the +beard loose, long, and squalid. (1773) + +IV.iii.4 (107,2) [First, here's young master Rash] This enumeration +of the inhabitants of the prison affords a very striking view of +the practices predominant in Shakespeare's age. Besides those +whose follies are common to all times, we have four fighting men +and a traveller. It is not unlikely that the originals of the +pictures were then known. + +IV.iii.17 (108,4) [master Forthlight] Should not _Forthlight_ be +_Forthright_, alluding to the line in which the thrust is made? (1773) + +IV.iii.21 (108,6) [in for the Lord's sake] [i.e. to beg for the rest +of their lives. Warburton.] I rather think this expression intended +to ridicule the puritans, whose turbulence and indecency often +brought them to prison, and who considered themselves as suffering +for religion. + +It is not unlikely that men imprisoned for other crimes, might +represent themselves to casual enquirers, as suffering for +puritanism, and that this might be the common cant of the prisons. +In Donne's time, every prisoner was brought to jail by suretiship. + +IV.iii.68 (110,7) [After him, fellows] Here was a line given to the +Duke, which belongs to the Provost. The Provost, while the Duke +is lamenting the obduracy of the prisoner, cries out, + + _After him, fellows_, &c. + +and, when they are gone out, turns again to the Duke. + +IV.iii.72 (110,8) [to transport him] To remove him from one world +to another. The French _trepas_ affords a kindred sense. + +IV.iii.115 (112,1) + [I will keep her ignorant of her good, + To make her heavenly comforts of despair, + When least it is expected.] + +A better reason might have been given. It was necessary to keep +Isabella in ignorance, that she might with more keenness accuse +the deputy. + +IV.iii.139 (113,2) [your bosom] Your wish; your heart's desire. + +IV.iii.149 (113,3) [I am combined by a sacred vow] I once thought +this should be _confined_, but Shakespeare uses _combine_ for to +_bind by a pact or agreement_, so he calls Angelo the _combinate_ +husband of Mariana. + +IV.iii.163 (113,4) [if the old fantastical duke] Sir Thomas Hammer +reads, _the_ odd _fantastical duke_, but _old_ is a common word of +aggravation in ludicrous language, as, _there was_ old _revelling_. + +IV.iii.170 (114,5) [woodman] That is, _huntsman_, here taken for a +_hunter of girls_. + +IV.iv.19 (115,6) [sort and suit] Figure and rank. + +IV.iv.27 (115,7) [Yet reason dares her No] Mr. Theobald reads, + + --_Yet reason dares her_ note. + +Sir Thomas Hammer, + + --_Yet reason dares her: No._ + +Mr. Upton, + + --_Yet reason dares her--No_, + +which he explains thus: _Yet_, says Angelo, _reason will give her +courage_--_No_, that is, _it will not_. I am afraid _dare_ has no such +signification. I have nothing to offer worth insertion. + +IV.iv.28 (116,8) + + [For my authority bears a credent bulk; + That no particular scandal once can touch] + +_Credent_ is _creditable, inforcing credit, not questionable_. The +old English writers often confound the active and passive adjectives. +So Shakespeare, and Milton after him, use _inexpressive_ +from inexpressible. + +_Particular_ is _private_, a French sense. No scandal from any +_private_ mouth can reach a man in my authority. + +IV.iv.36 (116,9) [Nothing goes right; we would, and we would not] +Here undoubtedly the act should end, and was ended by the poet; +for here is properly a cessation of action, and a night intervenes, +and the place is changed, between the passages of this +scene, and those of the next. The next act beginning with the +following scene, proceeds without any interruption of time or +change of place. + +IV.v.1 (117,1) [_Duke_. These letters at fit time deliver me] +Peter never delivers the letters, but tells his story without any +credentials. The poet forgot the plot which he had formed. + +IV.vi.4 (118,2) [He says, to vail full purpose] [T: t'availful] +[Warburton had explained "full" as "beneficial."] _To vail full_ +purpose, may, with very little force on the words, mean, _to hide_ +_the whole extent of our design_, and therefore the reading may +stand; yet I cannot but think Mr. Theobald's alteration either +lucky or ingenious. To interpret words with such laxity, as to +make _full_ the sane with _beneficial_, is to put an end, at once, +to all necessity of emendation, for any word may then stand in +the place of another. + +IV.vi.9 (118,3) [_Enter Peter_] This play has two Friars, either of +whom might singly have served. I should therefore imagine, that +Friar Thomas, in the first act, might be changed, without any +harm, to Friar Peter; for why should the Duke unnecessarily +trust two in an affair which required only one. The none of +Friar Thomas is never mentioned in the dialogue, and therefore +seems arbitrarily placed at the head of the scene. + +IV.vi.14 (119,4) [Have bent the gates] Have taken possession of the +gates, (rev. 1778, II,134,4) + +V.i.20 (120,5) [vail your regard] That is, withdraw your thoughts +from higher things, let your notice descend upon a wronged +woman. To _vail_, is to lower. + +V.i.45 (121,6) [truth is truth To the end of reckoning] That is, +truth has no gradations; nothing which admits of encrease can be +so much what it is, as _truth_ is _truth_. There may be a _strange_ +thing, and a thing _more strange_, but if a proposition be _true_, +there can be none _more true_. + +V.i.54 (121,7) [as shy, as grave, as just, as absolute] _As shy_; as +reserved, as abstracted: _as just_; as nice, as exact: _as absolute_; +as complete in all the round of duty. + +V.i.56 (121,8) [In all his dressings] In all his semblance of virtue, +in all his habiliments of office. + +V.i.64 (122,1) [do not banish reason For inequality] Let not the +high quality of my adversary prejudice you against me. + +V.i.104 (124,4) [Oh, that it were as like, as it is true!] [Warburton had +explained "like" as "seemly."] _Like_ I have never found +for _seemly_. + +V.i.107 (124,8) [In hateful practice] _Practice_ was used by the old +writers for any unlawful or insidious stratagem. So again, + + _This must needs be_ practice: + +and again, + + _Let me have way to find this_ practice _out_. + +V.i.145 (125,6) [nor a temporary medler] It is hard to know what +is meant by a _temporary_ medler. In its usual sense, as opposed +to _perpetual_, it cannot be used here. It may stand for _temporal_: +the sense will then be, _I know him for a holy man, one that meddles not +with_ secular _affairs_. It may mean _temporising_: I know +him to be a holy man, one who would not_ temporise, _or take the +opportunity of your absence to defame you_. Or we may read, + + _Not scurvy, nor a_ tamperer and _medler_: + +not one who would bare _tampered_ with this woman to make her a +false evidence against your deputy. + +V.i.160 (126,8) [So vulgarly and personally accus'd] Meaning either +so _grosly_, with such _indecency_ of invective, or by so _mean_ and +inadequate witnesses. + +V.i.205 (128,2) [This is a strange abuse] _Abuse_ stands in this place +for _deception_, or _puzzle_. So in _Macbeth_, + + _This strange and self_ abuse, + +means, _this strange_ deception _of himself_. + +V.i.219 (129,3) [her promised proportions Came short of composition] +Her fortune, which was promised _proportionate_ to mine, fell short +of the _composition_, that is, contract or bargain. + +V.i.236 (129,4) [These poor informal women] I once believed _informal_ +had no other or deeper signification than _informing, accusing_. +The _scope_ of justice, is the full extent; but think, upon farther +enquiry, that _informal_ signifies _incompetent, not qualified to +give testimony_. Of this use there are precedents to be found, +though I cannot now recover them. + +V.i.245 (130,5) [That's seal'd in approbation?] Then any thing subject +to counterfeits is tried by the proper officers and approved, +a stamp or _seal_ is put upon it, as among us on plate, weights, +and measures. So the Duke says, that Angela's faith has been +tried, _approved_, and _seal'd_ in testimony of that _approbation_, and, +like other things so _sealed_, is no more to be called in question. + +V.i.255 (131,6) [to hear this matter forth] To hear it to the end; +to search it to the bottom. + +V.i.303 (132,4) [to retort your manifest appeal] To _refer back_ to +Angelo and the cause in which you _appealed_ from Angelo to the +Duke. + +V.i.317 (133,5) [his subject I am not, Nor here provincial] Nor here +_accountable_. The meaning seems to be, I am not one of his natural +subjects, nor of any dependent province. + +V.i.323 (133,6) [the forfeits in a barber's shop] [Warburton had explained +that a list of forfeitures were posted in barber shops to +warn patrons to keep their hands off the barber's surgical instruments.] +This explanation may serve till a better is discovered. +But whoever has seen the instruments of a chirurgeon, knows that +they may be very easily kept out of improper hands in a very +small box, or in his pocket. + +V.i.336 (134,7) [And was the duke a fleshmonger, a fool, and a +coward, as you then reported him to be?] So again afterwards, + + _You, sirrah, that know me for a fool, a_ coward, + _One of all luxury_-- + +But Lucio had not, in the former conversation, mentioned _cowardice_ +among the faults of the duke.--Such failures of memory are +incident to writers more diligent than this poet. + +V.i.359 (135,8) [show your sheep-biting face, and be hang'd an +hour' Will't not off?] This is intended to be the common language +of vulgar indignation. Our phrase on such occasions is +simply; _show your sheep-biting face, and be hanged_. The words +_an hour_ have no particular use here, nor are authorised by custom. +I suppose it was written thus, _show your sheep-biting face, +and be hanged--an' how? wilt not off_? In the midland counties, +upon any unexpected obstruction or resistance, it is common to +exclaim _an' how_? + +V.i.388 (136,9) [Advertising, and holy] Attentive and faithful. + +V.i.393 (136,l) [be you as free to us] Be as _generous_ to us, pardon +us as we have pardoned you. + +V.i.401 (136,2) [That brain'd my purpose] We now use in conversation +a like phrase. _This it was that knocked my design on the head_. +Dr. Warburton reads, + + --baned _my purpose_. + +V.i.413 (137,3) [even from his proper tongue] Even from Angelo's +_own tongue_. So above. + + _In the witness of his_ proper _ear + To call him villain._ + +V.i.438 (138,5) [Against all sense you do importune her] The meaning +required is, against all reason and natural affection; Shakespeare, +therefore, judiciously uses a single word that implies both; +_sense_ signifying both reason and affection. + +V.i.452 (139,6) ['Till he did look on me] The duke has justly observed +that Isabel is _importuned against all sense_ to solicit for +Angelo, yet here _against all sense_ she solicits for him. Her +argument is extraordinary. + + _A due sincerity govern'd his deeds, + 'Till he did look on me; since it is so. + Let him not die._ + +That Angelo had committed all the crimes charged against him, +as far as he could commit them, is evident. The only _intent_ +which _his_ act did not overtake, was the defilement of Isabel. Of +this Angelo was only intentionally guilty. + +Angela's crimes were such, as must sufficiently justify punishment, +whether its end be to secure the innocent from wrong, or +to deter guilt by example; and I believe every reader feels some +indignation when he finds him spared. From what extenuation of +his crime, can Isabel, who yet supposes her brother dead, form +any plea in his favour. _Since he was good 'till he looked on me, +let him not die_. I am afraid our varlet poet intended to inculcate, +that women think ill of nothing that raises the credit of +their beauty, and are ready, however virtuous, to pardon any act +which they think incited by their own charms. + +V.i.488 (140,7) [But, for those earthly faults, I quit them all] +Thy faults, so far as they are punishable on earth, so far as +they are cognisable by temporal power, I forgive. + +V.i.499 (141,8) [By this, lord Angelo perceives he's safe] It is +somewhat strange, that Isabel is not made to express either +gratitude, wonder or joy at the sight of her brother. + +V.i.501 (141,9) [your evil quits you well] _Quits you_, recompenses, +requites you. + +V.i.502 (141,1) [Look, that you love your wife; her worth, worth +yours] Sir T. Hammer reads, + + _Her worth_ works _yours_. + +This reading is adopted by Dr. Warburton, but for what reason? +How does her _worth work Angelo's worth_? it has only contributed +to _work_ his pardon. The words are, as they are too frequently, +an affected gingle, but the sense is plain. _Her worth, worth +yours_; that is, her value is equal to your value, the match is +not unworthy of you. + +V.i.504 (141,2) [And yet here's one in place I cannot pardon] After +the pardon of two murderers, Lucio might be treated by the good +duke with less harshness; but perhaps the poet intended to show, +what is too often seen, _that men easily forgive wrongs which are +not committed against themselves_. + +V.i.509 (142,3) [according to the trick] To my custom, my habitual +practice. + +V.i.526 (142,4) [thy other forfeits] Thy other punishments. + +V.i.534 (142,5) [Thanks, good friend Escalus, for thy much goodness] +I have always thought that there is great confusion in this concluding +speech. If my criticism would not be censured as too +licentious, I should regulate it thus, + + _Thanks, good friend Escalus, for thy much goodness. + Thanks. Provost, for thy care and secrecy; + We shall employ thee in a worthier place. + Forgive him, Angelo, that brought you home + The head of Ragozine for Claudio's. + _Ang_. _Th' offence pardons itself_. + _Duke_, _There's more behind + That is more gratulate. Dear Isabel, + I have a motion_,&c, + +V.i.545 (143,6) General Observation The novel of Cynthio Giraldi, +from which Shakespeare is supposed to have borrowed this fable, +may be read in _Shakespeare illustrated_, elegantly translated, +with remarks which will assist the enquirer to discover how much +absurdity Shakespeare has admitted or avoided. +I cannot but suspect that some other had new-modelled the +novel of Cynthio, or written a story which in some particulars +resembled it, and that Cynthio was not the authour whom Shakespeare +immediately followed. The emperour in Cynthio is named +Maximine; the duke, in Shakespeare's enumeration of the persons +of the drama, is called Vincentio. This appears a very slight +remark; but since the duke has no name in the play, nor is ever +mentioned but by his title, why should he be called Vincentio +among the _persons_, but because the name was copied from the +story, and placed superfluously at the head of the list by the +mere habit of transcription? It is therefore likely that there +was then a story of Vincentio duke of Vienna, different from +that of Maximine emperour of the Romans. + +Of this play the light or comick part is very natural and +pleasing, but the grave scenes, if a few passages be excepted, +have more labour than elegance. The plot is rather intricate +than artful. The time of the action is indefinite; some time, +we know not how much, must have elapsed between the recess of +the duke and the imprisonment of Claudio; for he must have +learned the story of Mariana in his disguise, or he delegated +his power to a man already known to be corrupted. The unities +of action and place are sufficiently preserved. + + + + +THE COMEDY OF ERRORS + +I.ii.96 (155,3) [o'er-raught] That is, _over-reached_. + +I.ii.98 (156,5) + + [As, nimble jugglers, that deceive the eye, +Dark-working sorcerers, that change the mind, +Soul-killing witches, that deform the body] + +[W: Drug-working] The learned commentator has endeavoured with +much earnestness to recommend his alteration; but, if I may +judge of other apprehensions by my own, without great success. +This interpretation of _soul-killing_ is forced and harsh. Sir T. +Hammer reads _soul-selling_, agreeable enough to the common opinion, +but without such improvement as may justify the change. Perhaps +the epithets have only been misplaced, and the lines should be +read thus, + + Soul-killing _sorcerers, that change the mind_; + Dark-working _witches that deform the body_. + +This change seems to remove all difficulties. + +By _soul-killing_ I understand destroying the rational faculties +by such means as make men fancy themselves beasts. + +I.ii.102 (157,6) [liberties of sin] Sir T. Hammer reads, _libertines_, +which, as the author has been enumerating not acts but persons, +seems right. + +II.i.30 (158,8) [How if your husband start some other where?] I +cannot but think, that our authour wrote, + + --_start some other_ hare? + +So in _Much ado about Nothing_, Cupid is said to be _a good hare-finder_. +II.i.32 (159,9) [tho' she pause] To _pause_ is to rest, to be in +quiet. + +II.i.41 (159,1) [fool-begg'd] She seems to mean, by _fool-begg'd +patience_, that patience which is so near to _idiotical simplicity_, +that your next relation would take advantage from it to represent +you as a _fool_, and _beg_ the guardianship of your fortune. + +II.i.82 (161,3) [Am I so round with you, as you with me] He plays +upon the word _round_, which signified _spherical_ applied to +himself, and _unrestrained_, or _free in speech_ or _action_, spoken +of his mistress. So the king, in _Hamlet_, bids the queen be _round_ +with her son. + +II.i.100 (161,5) [too unruly deer] The ambiguity of _deer_ and _dear_ +is borrowed, poor as it is, by Waller, in his poem on the _Ladies +Girdle_. + + "This was my heav'n's extremest sphere, + "This pale that held my lovely deer." + +II.i.101 (161,6) [poor I am but his stale] The word _stale_, in our +authour, used as a substantive, means, not something offered to +_allure_ or _attract_, but something _vitiated_ with _use_, something of +which the best part has been enjoyed and consumed. + +II.ii.86 (166,4) [Not a man of those, but he hath the wit to lose his +hair] That is, _Those who have more hair than wit_, are easily +entrapped by loose women, and suffer the consequences of lewdness, +one of which, in the first appearance of the disease in Europe, +was the loss of hair. + +II.ii.173 (169,6) [Be it my wrong, you are from me exempt] Exempt, +separated, parted. The sense is, _If I am doomed to suffer the +wrong of separation, yet injure not with contempt me who am already +injured_. + +II.ii.210 (171,1) [And shrive you] That is, I will _call you to +confession_, and make you tell your tricks. + +III.i.4 (172,2) [carkanet] seems to have been a necklace or rather +chain, perhaps hanging down double from the neck. So Lovelace +in his poem, + + _The empress spreads her_ carcanets. + +III.i.15 (173,3) [Marry, so it doth appear By the wrongs I suffer, +and the blows I bear] [T: don't appear] I do not think this emendation +necessary. He first says, that his _wrongs_ and _blows_ prove +him an _ass_; but immediately, with a correction of his former sentiment, +such as may be hourly observed in conversation, he observes +that, if he had been an ass, he should, when he was _kicked_, have +_kicked_ again. + +III.i.101 (177,7) [supposed by the common rout] For _suppose_ I once +thought it might be more commodious to substitute _supported_; but +there is no need of change: _supposed_ is _founded on supposition_, +made by conjecture. + +III.i.105 (178,8) [For slander lives upon succession] The line apparently +wants two syllables: what they were, cannot now be known. +The line may be filled up according to the reader's fancy, as thus: + +_For_ lasting _slander lives upon succession_. + +III.ii.27 (180,3) ['Tis holy sport to be a little vain] is _light of +tongue, not veracious_. + +III.ii.64 (181,2) [My sole earth's heaven, and my heaven's claim] +When be calls the girl his _only heaven on the earth_, he utters +the common cant of lovers. When he calls her _his heaven's claim_, +I cannot understand him. Perhaps he means that which he asks of +heaven. + +III.ii.125 (184,5) + +[_S. Ant._ Where France? + _S. Dro._ In her forehead; arm'd and reverted, + making war against her hair] + +[T, from the first Folio: heir] With this correction and explication +Dr. Warburton concurs, and sir T. Hammer thinks an equivocation +intended, though he retains _hair_ in the text. Yet surely +they have all lost the sense by looking beyond it. Our authour, +in my opinion, only sports with an allusion, in which he takes +too much delight, and means that his mistress had the French +disease. The ideas are rather too offensive to be dilated. By +a forehead _armed_, he means covered with incrusted eruptions: by +reverted, he means having the hair turning backwards. An equivocal +word must have senses applicable to both the subjects to +which it is applied. Both _forehead_ and _France_ might in some sort +make war against their _hair_, but how did the _forehead_ make war +against its _heir_? The sense which I have given immediately occurred +to me, and will, I believe, arise to every reader who is +contented with the meaning that lies before him, without sending +out conjecture in search of refinements. + +IV.ii.19 (192,9) [sere] that is, _dry_, withered. + +IV.ii.22 (192,1) [Stigmatical in making] This is, _marked_ or _stigmatized_ +by nature with deformity, as a token of his vicious disposition. + +IV.ii.35 (193,3) [A fiend, a fairy, pitiless and rough] [T: A fiend, +a fury] There were fairies like _hobgoblins_, pitiless and rough, +and described as malevolent and mischievous, (see 1765, III,143,3) + +IV.ii.39 (193,5) [A hound that runs counter, and yet draws dry-foot +well] To _run counter_ is to _run backward_, by mistaking the course +of the animal pursued; to _draw dry-foot_ is, I believe, to pursue +by the _track_ or _prick of the foot_; to _run counter_ and _draw dry-foot +well are_, therefore, inconsistent. The jest consists in +the ambiguity of the word _counter_, which means the _wrong way in_* +_the chase._ and a _prison_ in London. The officer that arrested him was +a serjeant of the counter. For the congruity of this jest with the scene of +action, let our authour answer. + +IV.iii.13 (196,9) [what, have you got the picture of old Adam new +apparel'd] [T: got rid of the picture] The explanation is very +good, but the text does not require to be amended. + +IV.iii.27 (`is rest to do more exploits with his mace than a morris +pike] [W: a Maurice-pike] This conjecture is very ingenious, yet the +commentator talks unnecessarily of the _rest of a musket._ by which +he makes the hero of the speech set up the _rest_ of a _musket,_ to +do exploits with a _pike._ The rest of a _pike_ was a common term, +and signified, I believe, the manner in which it was fixed to +receive the rush of the enemy. A _morris-pike_ was a pike used in a +morris or a military dance, and with which great _exploits_ were +_done,_ that is, great feats of dexterity were shewn. There is no +need of change. + +IV.iv.78 (202,3) [kitchen-vestal] Her charge being like that of the +vestal virgins, to keep the fire burning. + +V.1.137 (210,6) [important letters]_Important_ seems to be for +_importunate._ (1773) + +V.i.298 (216,2) [time's deformed hand Have written strange defeatures +in my face] _Defeature_ is the privative of _feature._ The meaning is, +time hath cancelled my features. + +V.i.406 (220,7) [After so long grief such nativity!] We should surely +read. + _After so long grief, such_ festivity. + +_Nativity_ lying so near, and the termination being the same of both words, +the mistake was easy. + + + + + +MUCH ADO ABOUT NOTHING + +I.i.27 (226,3) [no faces truer] That is, none _honester,_ none _more +sincere._ + +I.i.40 (227,7) [challenged Cupid at the flight] The disuse of the +bow makes this passage obscure. Benedick is represented as +challenging Cupid at archery. To challenge _at the flight is,_ +I believe, to wager who shall shoot the arrow furthest without any +particular mark. To _challenge at the bird-bolt,_ seems to mean the +same as to challenge at children's archery, with snail arrows such +as are discharged at birds. In Twelfth Night Lady Olivia opposes +a _bird-bolt_ to a _cannon-bullet,_ the lightest to the heaviest of +missive weapons. + +I.i.66 (228,9) [four of his five wits] In our author's time _wit_ was the +general term for intellectual powers. So Davies on the Soul. + + Wit, _seeking truth from cause to cause ascends._ + _And never rests till it the first attain;_ + Will, _seeking good, finds many middle ends, + But never stays till it the last do gain._ + +And in another part, + + _But if a phrenzy do possess the brain, + It so disturbs and blots the form of things, + As fantasy proves altogether vain, + And to the_ wit, _no true relation brings. + Then doth the_ wit, _admitting all for true, + Build fond conclusions on those idle grounds;_-- + +The _wits_ seem to have reckoned five, by analogy to the five +senses, or the five inlets of ideas. + +I.i.79 (229,4) [the gentleman is not in your books] This is a phrase +used, I believe, by more than understand it. _To be in one's +books is to be in one's_ codicils _or_ will, _to be among friends set +down for legacies_. + +I.i.82 (230,5) [young squarer] A _squarer_ I take to be a cholerick, +quarrelsome fellow, for in this sense Shakespeare uses the word +to _square_. So in Midsummer Night's Dream it is said of Oberon +and Titalia, that _they never meet but they_ square. So the sense +may be, _Is there no_ hot-blooded _youth that will keep him company +through all his mad pranks_? + +I.i.103 (231,6) [You embrace your charge] That is your _burthen_, your +_incumbrunce_. + +I.i.185 (233,7) [to tell us Cupid is a good hare-finder] I know not +whether I conceive the jest here intended. Claudio hints his +love of Hero. Benedick asks whether he is serious, or whether +he only means to jest, and tell them that _Cupid is a good +hare-finder, and Vulcan a rare carpenter_. A man praising a pretty +lady in jest, may shew the quick sight of Cupid, but what has it +to do with the _carpentry_ of Vulcan? Perhaps the thought lies no +deeper than this, _Do you mean to tell us as new what we all know +already?_ + +I.i.200 (234,8) [wear his cap with suspicion?] That is, subject his +head to the disquiet of jealousy. + +I.i.217 (235,1) [_Claud_. If this were so, so were it uttered] This +and the three next speeches I do not well understand; there +seems something omitted relating to Hero's consent, or to Claudio's +marriage, else I know not what Claudio can wish _not to be +otherwise_. The copies all read alike. Perhaps it may be better +thus, + + Claud. _If this were so, so were it_. + Bene. _Uttered like the old tale_, &c. + +Claudio gives a sullen answer, _if it is so, so it is_. Still +there seems something omitted which Claudio and Pedro concur in +wishing. + +I.i.243 (236,3) [but that I will have a recheate winded in my +forehead] That is, _I will wear a horn on my forehead which the +huntsman may blow_. A _recheate_ is the sound by which dogs are +called back. Shakespeare had no mercy upon the poor cuckold, his +_horn_ is an inexhaustible subject of merriment. + +1.1.258 (236,4) [notable argument] An eminent subject for satire. + +1.1.259 (237,5) [Adam] Adam Bell was a companion of Robin Hood, as +may be seen in Robin Hood's Garland; in which, if I do not mistake, +are these lines, + + _For he brought Adam Bell, Clim of the Clough, + And William of Cloudeslea, + To shoot with this forester for forty marks, + And the forester beat them all three._ + +(see 1765, III,182,2) + +I.i.290 (238,4) [ere you flout old ends any further, examine your +conscience] _Before you endeavour to distinguish yourself any more +by antiquated allusions, examine whether you can fairly claim +them for your own_. This, I think is the meaning; or it may be +understood in another sense, _examine, if your sarcasms do not +touch yourself._ + +I.iii.14 (241,6) [I cannot hide what I am] This is one of our +authour's natural touches. An envious and unsocial mind, too proud +to give pleasure, and too sullen to receive it, always endeavours +to hide its malignity from the world and from itself, under the +plainness of simple honesty, or the dignity of haughty independence. + +I.iii.19 (241,7) [claw no man in his humour] To _claw_ is to flatter. +So _the pope's claw-backs_, in bishop Jewel, are the pope's _flatterers_. +The sense is the same in the proverb, _Mulus mulum scabit_. + +I.iii.28 (242,8) [I had rather be a canker in a hedge, than a rose +in his grace] A _canker_ is the _canker_ rose, _dog-rose, cynosbatus,_ +or _hip_. The sense is, I would rather live in obscurity the wild +life of nature, than owe dignity or estimation to my brother. He +still continues his wish of gloomy independence. But what is the +meaning of the expression, _a rose in his grace_? if he was a _rose_ +of himself, his brother's _grace_ or _favour_ could not degrade him. +I once read thus, _I had rather be a canker in a hedge, than a +rose in his_ garden; that is, I had rather be what nature makes +me, however mean, than owe any exaltation or improvement to my +brother's kindness or cultivation. But a less change will be +sufficient: I think it should be read, _I had rather be a canker in a +hedge, than a rose by his grace_. + +II.i.3 (244,1) [I never can see him, but I am heart-burn'd an hour +after] The pain commonly called the _heart-burn_, proceeds from an +_acid_ humour in the stomach, and is therefore properly enough +imputed to _tart_ looks. + +II.i.53 (245,3) [Well then, go you into hell] Of the two next speeches +Mr. Warburton says, _All this impious nonsense thrown to the bottom +is the players, and foisted in without rhyme or reason_. He +therefore puts them in the margin. They do not deserve indeed so +honourable a place, yet I am afraid they are too much in the manner +of our authour, who is sometimes trying to purchase merriment +at too dear a rate. (see 1765, III,190,9) + +II.i.73 (246,4) [if the prince be too important] _Important_ here, and +in many other places, is _importunate_. + +II.i.99 (247,6) [My visor is Philemon's roof; within the house is +Jove] [T: house is love] This amendation, thus impressed with all +the power of his eloquence and reason, Theobald found in the +quarto edition of 1600, which he professes to have seen; and in +the first folio, the _l_ and the _I_ are so much alike, that the +printers, perhaps, used the same type for either letter. (1773) + +II.i.143 (249,2) [his gift is in devising impossible slanders] [W: +impassible] _Impossible_ slanders are, I suppose, such slanders as, +from their absurdity and impossibility, bring their own confutation +with them. + +II.i.195 (251,4) [usurer's chain] I know not whether the _chain_ was, +in our authour's time, the common ornament of wealthy citizens, +or whether he satirically uses _usurer_ and _alderman_ as synonymous +terms. + +II.i.214 (252,5) [It is the base, the bitter disposition of Beatrice, +that puts the world into her person] That is, _It is the disposition +of Beatrice, who takes upon her to personate the world, and +therefore represents the world as saying what she only says herself_. + +_Base, tho bitter_. I do not understand how _base_ and _bitter_ are +inconsistent, or why what is _bitter_ should not be _base_. I believe, +we may safely read, _It is the base_, the _bitter_ disposition. + +II.i.253 (253,8) [such impossible conveyance] [W: impassible] I know +not what to propose. _Impossible_ seems to have no meaning here, +and for _impassible_ I have not found any authority. Spenser uses +the word _importable_ in a sense very congruous to this passage, +for _insupportable_, or _not to be sustained_. + + _Both him charge on either side, + With hideous strokes and_ importable _power, + Which forced him his ground to traverse wide_. + +It may be easily imagined, that the transcribers would change +a word so unusual, into that word most like it, which they could +readily find. It must be however confessed, that _importable_ +appears harsh to our ears, and I wish a happier critick may find a +better word. + +Sir Tho. Hammer reads _impetuous_, which will serve the purpose +well enough, but is not likely to have been changed to _impossible_. + +_Importable_ was a word not peculiar to Spenser, but used by the +last translators of the Apocrypha, and therefore such a word as +Shakespeare may be supposed to have written. (1773) +II.i.330 (256,2) [Thus goes every one to the world but I, and I am +sun-burn'd] What is it, _to go the world_? perhaps, to enter by +marriage into a settled state: but why is the unmarry'd lady +_sun-burnt_? I believe we should read, _Thus goes every one to the wood_ +but I, and I am sun-burnt_. Thus does every one but I find a shelter, +and I am left exposed to wind and _sun. The nearest way to +the_ wood, is a phrase for the readiest means to any end. It is +said of a woman, who accepts a worse match than those which she +had refused, that she has passed through the _wood_, and at last +taken a crooked stick. But conjectural criticism has always +something to abate its confidence. Shakespeare, in All's well that +Ends well, uses the phrase, _to go to the world_, for _marriage_. So +that my emendation depends only on the opposition of _wood_ to +_sun-burnt_. + +II.i.380 (258,4) [to bring signior Benedick, and the lady Beatrice +into a mountain of affection, the one with another] _A mountain of +affection with one another_ is a strange expression, yet I know not +well how to change it. Perhaps it was originally written, _to +bring Benedick into a mooting of affection_; to bring them not to +any more _mootings_ of contention, but to a _mooting_ or conversation +of love. This reading is confirmed by the preposition _with; a +mountain with each other,_ or _affection with each other,_ cannot be +used, but _a mooting with each other_ is proper and regular. + +II.iii.104 (265,7) [but, that she loves him, with an enraged +affection, it is past the infinite of thought] [W: the definite of] +Here are difficulties raised only to shew how easily they can be +removed. The plain sense is, _I know not what to think_ otherwise, +_but that she loves him with_ an enraged _affection: It_ (this +affection) [is past the infinite of thought. Here are no abrupt stops, +or imperfect sentences. _Infinite_ may well enough stand; it is +used by more careful writers for _indefinite_; and the speaker only +means, that _thought_, though in itself _unbounded_, cannot reach or +estimate the degree of her passion. + +II.iii.146 (267,8) [O, she tore the letter into a thousand half-pence] +[i.e. into a thousand pieces of the same bigness.] This is +farther explained by a passage in As you Like it. + + --_There were none principal; they were all like one + +another as_ half-pence _are_. [Theobald.] How the quotation explains +the passage, to which it is applied, I cannot discover. + +II.iii.188 (268,9) [contemptible spirit] That is, a temper inclined +to scorn and contempt. It has been before remarked, that our authour +uses his verbal adjectives with great licence. There is +therefore no need of changing the word with sir T. Hammer to +_contemptuous_. + +III.i.52 (273,3) [Misprising] Despising, contemning. + +III.i.96 (275,8) [argument] This word seems here to signify _discourse_, +or, the _powers_ of reasoning. +III.i.104 (275,7) [She's lim'd] She is ensnared and entangled as a +sparrow with _birdlime_. + +III.i.107 (275,9) [Taming my wild heart to thy loving hand] This +image is taken from falconry. She had been charged with being +as wild as _haggards of the rock_; she therefore says, that _wild_ +as her _heart_ is, she will tame it _to the hand_. + +III.ii.31 (277,2) [There is no appearance of fancy in him, unless +it be a fancy that he hath to strange disguises] Here is a play +upon the word _fancy_, which Shakespeare uses for _love_ as well as +for _humour, caprice_, or _affectation_. + +III.ii.71 (278,3) [She shall be buried with her face upwards] [T: +heels upwards] This emendation, which appears to me very specious, +is rejected by Dr. Warburton. The meaning seems to be, +that she who acted upon principles contrary to others, should +be buried with the same contrariety. + +III.iii.43 (282,5) [only have a care that your bills be not stolen] +A _bill_ is still carried by the watchmen at Litchfield. It was +the old weapon of the English infantry, which, says Temple, _gave +the most ghastly and deplorable wounds_. It may be called _securis +falcata_. + +III.iv.44 (289,3) [Light o' love] A tune so called, which has been +already mentioned by our authour. + +III.iv.49 (290,4) [you'll look he shall lack no burns] A quibble +between _barns_, repositories of corn, and _bairns_, the old word +for children. + +III.iv.56 (290,5) [For the letter that begins them all, H] This is +a poor jest, somewhat obscured, and not worth the trouble of +elucidation. + +Margaret asks Beatrice for what she cries, _hey ho_; Beatrice +answers, for an _H_, that is, for an _ache_ or _pain_. + +III.iv.57 (290,6) [turn'd Turk] [i.e. taken captive by love, and +turned a renegade to his religion. Warburton.] This interpretation +is somewhat far-fetched, yet, perhaps, it is right. + +III.iv.78 (291,7) [some morel] That is, some secret meaning, like +the _moral_ of a fable. + +III.iv.89 (291,8) [he eats his meat without grudging] I do not see +how this is a proof of Benedick's change of mind. It would afford +more proof of amourosness to say, _he eats_ not _his meat +without grudging_; but it is impossible to fix the meaning of +proverbial expressions: perhaps, _to eat meat without grudging_, +was the same as, _to do as others do_, and the meaning is, _he is +content to live by eating like other mortals and will be content, +notwithstanding his boasts, like other mortals, to have a wife_. + +III.v.15 (293,9) [I am as honest as any man living, that is an old +man, and no honester than I] [There is much humour, and extreme +good sense under the covering of this blundering expression. It +is a sly insinuation that length of years, and the being much _hacknied +in the ways of men_, as Shakespeare expresses it, take off the +gloss of virtue, and bring much defilement on the manners. Warburton.] +Much of this is true, but I believe Shakespeare did not intend +to bestow all this reflection on the speaker. + +III.v.40 (294,1) [an two men ride of a horse, one must ride behind] +This is not out of place, or without meaning. Dogberry, in his +vanity of superiour parts, apologizing for his neighbour, observes, +that _of two men on an horse, one must ride behind_. The _first_ +place of rank or understanding can belong but to _one_, and that +happy _one_ ought not to despise his inferiour. + +IV.i.22 (296,2) [Interjections? Why, then some be of laughing] This +is a quotation from the Accidence. + +IV.i.42 (296,3) [luxurious bed] That is, _lascivious_. _Luxury_ is the +confessor's term for unlawful pleasures of the sex. + +IV.i.53 (297,5) [word too large] So he uses _large jests_ in this play, +for _licentious, not restrained within due bounds_. + +IV.i.57 (297,6) [I will write against it] [W: rate against] As to +_subscribe to_ any thing is to _allow_ it, so to _write against_ is to +_disallow_ or _deny_. + +IV.i.59 (297,7) [chaste as is the bud] Before the air has tasted its +sweetness. + +IV.i.75 (298,8) [kindly power] That is, _natural power_. _Kind_ is +_nature_. + +IV.i.93 (298,9) [liberal villain] _Liberal_ here, as in many places of +these plays, means, _frank beyond honesty_ or _decency_. _Free of +tongue_. Dr. Warburton unnecessarily reads, _illiberal_. + +IV.i. 101 (299,1) [O Hero! What a Hero hadst thou been] I am afraid +here is intended a poor conceit upon the word _Hero_. + +IV.i.123 (300,2) [The story that is printed in her blood?] That is, +_the story which her blushes discover to be true_. + +IV.i.128 (300,3) [Griev'd I, I had but one? Chid I for that at frugal +nature's frame?] [W: nature's 'fraine] Though _frame_ be not the word +which appears to a reader of the present time most proper to exhibit +the poet's sentiment, yet it may as well be used to shew that +he had _one child_, and _no more_, as that he had a _girl_, not a _boy_, +and as it may easily signify _the system of things_, or _universal +scheme_, the whole order of beings is comprehended, there arises +no difficulty from it which requires to be removed by so violent +an effort as the introduction of a new word offensively mutilated. + +IV.i.137 (301,4) [But mine, and mine I lov'd, and mine I prais'd, +And mine that I was proud on] [W: "as mine" in three places] Even +of this small alteration there is no need. The speaker utters +his emotion abruptly, But _mine_, _and mine_ that _I loved_, &c. by an +ellipsis frequent, perhaps too frequent, both in verse and prose. + +IV.i.187 (303,6) [bent of honour] _Bent_ is used by our authour for the +utmost degree of any passion, or mental quality. In this play +before Benedick says of Beatrice, _her affection has its full bent_. +The expression is derived from archery; the bow has its _bent_, when +it is drawn as far as it can be. + +IV.i.206 (304,8) [ostentation] Show; appearance. + +IV.i.251 (305,1) [The smallest twine nay lead me] This is one of our +author's observations upon life. Men overpowered with distress, +eagerly listen to the first offers of relief, close with every +scheme, and believe every promise. He that has no longer any +confidence in himself, is glad to repose his trust in any other that +will undertake to guide him. + +IV.ii.70 (311,6) [_Sexton_. Let them be in hand] There is nothing in +the old quarto different in this scene from the common copies, +except that the names of two actors, Kempe and Cowley, are placed at +the beginning of the speeches, instead of the proper words, (see +1765, III,249,7) + +V.i.15 (313,7) + + [If such a one will smile and stroke his beard; + And, sorrow wag! cry; hem, when he should groan] + +Sir Thomas Hammer, and after him Dr. Warburton, for _wag_ read +_waive_, which is, I suppose, the same as, _put aside_ or _shift off_. +None of these conjectures satisfy me, nor perhaps any other reader. +I cannot but think the true meaning nearer than it is imagined. +I point thus, + + _If such an one will smile, and stroke his beard, + And, sorrow wag! cry; hem, when he should groan;_ + +That is, _If he will smile, and cry_ sorrow be gone, _and hem instead_ +of groaning. The order in which _and_ and _cry_ are placed is harsh, +and this harshness made the sense mistaken. Range the words in +the common order, and my reading will be free from all difficulty. + + _If such an one will smile, and stroke his beard, + Cry, sorrow, wag! and hem when he should groan._ + + +V.i.32 (314,8) [My griefs cry louder than advertisement] That is, +than _admonition_, than _moral instruction_. + +V.i.102 (318,4) [we will not wake your patience] [W: wrack] This +emendation is very specious, and perhaps is right; yet the present +reading may admit a congruous meaning with less difficulty than +many other of Shakespeare's expressions. + +The old men have been both very angry and outrageous; the +prince tells them that he and Claudio _will not_ wake _their patience_; +will not any longer force them to _endure_ the presence of those +whom, though they look on them as enemies, they cannot resist. + +V.i.138 (319,6) [to turn his girdle] We have a proverbial speech, +_If he be angry, let him turn the buckle of his girdle_. But I do +not know its original or meaning. + +V.i.166 (320,7) [a wise gentleman] This jest depending on the colloquial +use of words is now obscure; perhaps we should read, _a wise +gentle man_, or _a man wise enough to be a coward_. Perhaps _wise +gentleman_ was in that age used ironically, and always stood for +_silly fellow_. + +V.i.231 (322,9) [one meaning well suited] That is, _one meaning is +put into many different dresses_; the prince having asked the same +question in four modes of speech. + +V.ii.9 (326,3) [To have no man come over me? why, shall I always +keep below stairs?] [T: above] I suppose every reader will find +the meaning of the old copies. + +V.ii.l7 (327,4) [I give thee the bucklers] I suppose that _to give +the bucklers_ is, _to yield_, or _to lay by all thoughts of defence_, +so _clipeum abjicere_. The rest deserves no comment. + +V.iii.13 (330,7) [_Those that slew thy virgin knight_] _Knight_, in its +original signification, means _follower_ or _pupil_, and in this +sense may be feminine. Helena, in All's well that Ends well, +uses _knight_ in the same signification. + + + + +LOVE'S LABOUR'S LOST + +I.i.31 (342,2) + +[To love, to wealth, to pomp, I pine and die; +With all these, living in philosophy] + +The stile of the rhyming scenes in this play is often entangled +and obscure. I know not certainly to what _all these_ is to be +referred; I suppose he means, that he finds _love_, _pomp_, and +_wealth_ in _philosophy_. + +I.i.75 (344,4) [while truth the while Doth falsly blind] _Falsly_ is +here, and in many other places, the same as _dishonestly_ or +_treacherously_. The whole sense of this gingling declamation is only +this, that _a man by too close study may read himself blind_, which +might have been told with less obscurity in fewer words. + +I.i.82 (344,5) + +[Who dazzling so, that eye shall be his heed, +And give him light, that it was blinded by] + +This is another passage unnecessarily obscure: the meaning is, +that when he _dazzles_, that is, has his eye made weak, _by fixing +his eye upon a fairer eye, that_ fairer _eye shall be his heed_, his +_direction_ or _lode-star_,(See Midsummer-Night's Dream) [_and give him +light that was blinded by it_. + +I.i.92 (345,6) + +[Too much to know, is, to know nought but fame; +And every godfather can give a name] + +[W: "shame" or "feign"] That there are _two ways of setting_ a passage +_right_ gives reason to suspect that there may be a third way +better than either. The first of these emendations _makes a fine +sense_, but will not unite with the next line; the other makes a +sense less fine, and yet will not rhyme to the correspondent word. +I cannot see why the passage may not stand without disturbance. +_The consequence_, says Biron, _of too much knowledge_, is not any +real solution of doubts, but mere empty _reputation_. That is, _too +much knowledge gives only fame, a name which every godfather can +give likewise_. (1773) + +I.i.95 (345,7) [Proceeded well to stop all good proceeding] To _proceed_ +is an academical term, meaning, _to take a degree_, as _he_ proceeded +_bachelor in physick_. The sense is, _he has taken his degrees +on the art of hindering the degrees of others_. + +I.i.153 (348,1) [Not by might master'd, but by especial grace] Biron, +amidst his extravagancies, speaks with great justness against the +folly of vows. They are made without sufficient regard to the +variations of life, and are therefore broken by some unforeseen +necessity. They proceed commonly from a presumptuous confidence, +and a false estimate of human power. + +I.i.159 (349,2) [Suggestions] Temptations. + +I.i.162 (349,3) [quick recreation] Lively sport, spritely diversion. + +I.i.169 (349,4) + +[A man of complements, whom right and wrong +Have chose as umpire of their mutiny] + +This passage, I believe, means no more than that Don Armado was a +man nicely versed in ceremonial distinctions, one who could distinguish +in the most delicate questions of honour the exact boundaries +of right and wrong. _Compliment_, in Shakespeare's time, did +not signify, at least did not only signify verbal civility, or +phrases of courtesy, but according to its original meaning, the +trapping, or ornamental appendages of a character, in the same +manner, and on the same principles of speech with _accomplishment. +Compliment_ is, as Arwado well expresses it, _the varnish of a +complete man_. + +I.i.174 (350,6) [in the world's debate] The _world_ seems to be used in +a monastick sense by the king, now devoted for a time to a monastic +life. _In the world, in seculo_, in the bustle of human affairs, +from which we are now happily sequestred, _in the world_, to which +the votaries of solitude have no relation. + +I.i.252 (353,1) [_base minow of thy mirth_] A _minnow_ is a little fish +which cannot be intended here. We may read, _the base_ minion _of +thy mirth_. + +I.ii.5 (355,2) [dear imp] _Imp_ was anciently a term of dignity. Lord +Cromwell in his last letter to Henry VIII. prays for _the_ imp _his +son_. It is now used only in contempt or abhorrence; perhaps in +our authour's time it was ambiguous, in which state it suits well +with this dialogue. + +I.ii.36 (356,3) [crosses love not him] By _crosses_ he means money. So +in As you like it, the Clown says to Celia, _if I should bear you, +I should bear no cross_. + + +I.ii.150 (360,7) [_Jaq_. Fair weather after you! + _Dull_. Come, Jaquenetta, away] + +[Theobald had reassigned two speeches] Mr. Theobald has endeavoured +here to dignify his own industry by a very slight performance. +The folios all read as he reads, except that instead of +naming the persons they give their characters, enter _Clown, +Constable, and Wench_. + +I.ii.168 (361,8) [It is not for prisoners to be silent in their words] +I suppose we should read, it is not for prisoners to be silent in +their _wards_, that is, in _custody_, in the _holds_. + +I.ii.183 (361,9) [The first and second cause will not serve my turn] +See the last act of As you like it, with the notes. + +II.i.15 (362,1) + +[Beauty is bought by judgment of the eye, +Not utter'd by base sale of chapmen's tongues] + +Chapman here seems to signify the _seller_, not, as now commonly, +the _buyer_. _Cheap_ or _cheping_ was anciently the _market_, _chapman_ +therefore is _marketman_. The meaning is, that _that the estimation +of beauty depends not on the_ uttering or _proclamation of the +seller, but on the eye of the buyer_. + +II.i.45 (363,2) [Well fitted] is _well qualified_. + +II.i.49 (363,3) [match'd with] is _combined_ or _joined_ with. + +II.i.105 (365,4) ['Tis deadly sin to keep that oath, my lord; And +sin to break it] Sir T. Hammer reads, + + Not _sin to break it_. + +I believe erroneously. The Princess shews an inconvenience very +frequently attending rash oaths, which, whether kept or broken, +produce guilt. + +II.i.203 (369,6) [God's blessing on your beard!] That is, mayst thou +have sense and seriousness more proportionate to thy beard, the +length of which suits ill with such idle catches of wit. + +II.i.223 (370,7) [My lips are no common, though several they be] +_Several_, is an inclosed field of a private proprietor, so Maria +says, _her lips_ are _private property_. Of a lord that was newly +married one observed that he grew fat; Yes, said sir Walter +Raleigh, any beast will grow fat, if you take him from the +_common_ and graze him in the _several_. + +II.i.238 (370,8) [His tongue, all impatient to speak and not see] +That is, _his tongue being impatiently desirous to see as well as_ +_speak_. + +II. i. 241 (370,9) [To feel only looking] Perhaps we may better read, +_To_ feed _only_ by _looking_. + +II. i. 262 (371,1) [_Boyet_. You are too hard for me] [Theobald did not +end Act II here] Mr. Theobald has reason enough to propose this +alteration, but he should not have made it in his book without +better authority or more need. I have therefore preserved his +observation, but continued the former division. + +III.i (372,2) [_Enter Armado, and Moth._] In the folios the direction +is, _enter Braggart and Moth_, and at the beginning of every speech +of Armado stands _Brag_, both in this and the foregoing scene between +him and his boy. The other personages of this play are +likewise noted by their characters as often as by their names. +All this confusion has been well regulated by the later editors. + +III.i.3 (372,3) [Concolinel] Here is apparently a song lost. + +III. i. 22 (373,5) [These are complements] Dr. Warburton has here +changed _complements_ to _'complishments_, for accomplishments, but +unnecessarily. + +III. i. 32 (374,8) [but a colt] _Colt_ is a hot, mad-brained, unbroken +young fellow; or sometimes an old fellow with youthful desires. + +III. i. 62 (375,9) [You are too swift, Sir, to say so] How is he too +swift for saying that lead is slow? I fancy we should read, as +well to supply the rhyme as the sense, + + _You are too swift, sir, to say so, so soon + Is that lead slow, sir, which is fir'd from a gun?_ + +III. i. 68 (375,1) [By thy favour, sweet welkin] Welkin is the sky, to +which Armado, with the false dignity of a Spaniard, makes an apology for +sighing in its face. + +III. i. 73 (376,3) [no salve in the male, Sir] The old folio reads, _no +salve in_ thee _male, sir_, which, in another folio, is, _no salve, +in the male, sir_. What it can mean is not easily discovered: if +_mail_ for a _packet_ or _bag_ was a word then in use, _no salve in the +mail_ may mean, no salve in the mountebank's budget. Or shall we +read, _no enigma, no riddle, no l'envoy--in the_ vale, _sir--O, sir. +plantain_. The matter is not great, but one would wish for some +meaning or other. + +III. i.112 (377,5) [how was there a Costard broken in a shin?] _Costard_ +is the name of a species of apple. + +III. i.136 (378,7) [my in-cony Jew] [W. jewel] I know not whether it +be fit, however specious, to change _Jew_ to _jewel_. _Jew_, in our +author's time, was, for whatever reason, apparently a word of endearment. +So in Midsummer-Night's Dream, + +_Most tender Juvenile, and eke most lovely_ Jew. (see 1765, II,144,9) + +III.i.182 (381,2) [This signior Junto's giant-dwarf. Don Cupid] Mr. +Upton has made a very ingenious conjecture on this passage. He +reads, + +_This signior_ Julio's _giant-dwarf_-- + +Shakespeare, says he, intended to compliment Julio Romano, who +drew Cupid in the character of a giant-dwarf. Dr. Warburton +thinks, that by Junio is meant youth in general. + +III.i.188 (382,3) [Of trotting paritors] An _apparitor_, or _paritor_. +is an officer of the bishop's court who carries out citations; +as citations are most frequently issued for fornication, the +_paritor_ is put under Cupid's government. + +III.i.189 (382,4) + +[And I to be a corporal of his field, +And wear his colours! like a tumbler's hoop!] + +The conceit seems to be very forced and remote, however it be +understood. The notion is not that the _hoop wears colours_, but +that the colours are worn as a _tumbler_ carries his _hoop_, hanging +on one shoulder and falling under the opposite arm. + +III.i.207 (383,5) [Some men must love my lady, and some Joan] To this +line Mr. Theobald extends his second act, not injudiciously, but, +as was before observed, without sufficient authority. + +IV.i.19 (384,6) [Here,--good my glass] To understand how the princess +has her glass so ready at hand in a casual conversation, it +must be remembered that in those days it was the fashion among +the French ladies to wear a looking-glass,' as Mr. Bayle coarsely +represents it, _on their bellies_; that is, to have a small mirrour +set in gold hanging at the girdle, by which they occasionally +viewed their faces or adjusted their hair. + +IV.i.35 (385,8) [that my heart means no ill] [W: tho'] _That my heart +means no ill_, is the same with _to whom my heart means no ill_; the +common phrase suppresses the particle, as _I mean him_ [not _to_ him] +_no harm_. + +IV.i.41 (386,9) [a member of the commonwealth] Here, I believe, is a +kind of jest intended; a member of the _common_-wealth is put for +one of the _common_ people, one of the meanest. + +IV.i.49 (386,1) + +[An' your waist, mistress, were as slender as my wit, +One o' these maids girdles for your waist should be fit] + +[W: my waste ... your wit ... my waste] This conjecture is ingenious +enough, but not well considered. It is plain that the ladies girdles +would not fit the princess. For when she has referred the +clown to _the thickest and the tallest_, he turns immediately to +her with the blunt apology, _truth is truth_; and again tells her, +_you are the thickest here_. If any alteration is to be made, I +should propose, + +_An' your waist, mistress, were as slender as_ your _wit_. + +This would point the reply; but perhaps he mentions the slenderness +of his own wit to excuse his bluntness. + +IV.i.59 (387,3) [Break the neck of the wax] Still alluding to the +capon. + +IV.i.65 (388,5) [_king_ Cophetua] This story is again alluded to in +Henry IV. + +_Let king Cophetua know the truth thereof._ + +But of this king and beggar, the story, then doubtless well +known, is, I am afraid, lost. Zenelophon has not appearance of +a female name, but since I know not the true none, it is idle to +guess. + +IV.i.99 (389,7) [ere while] Just now; a little while ago. So +Raleigh, + +_Here lies Hobbinol our shepherd_, while e'er. + +IV.i.108 (390,9) [Come, lords, away] Perhaps the Princess said rather, + + --_Come_, ladies, _away_. + +The rest of the scene deserves no care. + +IV.ii (392,2) [_Enter Dull, Holofernes, and Sir Nathaniel_] I am not +of the learned commentator's [Wurburton] opinion, that the satire +of Shakespeare is so seldom personal. It is of the nature of +personal invectives to be soon unintelligible; and the authour +that gratifies private malice, _aniuam in vulnere ponit_, destroys +the future efficacy of his own writings, and sacrifices the esteem +of succeeding times to the laughter of a day. It is no +wonder, therefore, that the sarcasms, which, perhaps, in the +authour's time, _set the_ playhouse _in a roar_, are now lost among +general reflections. Yet whether the character of Holofernes +was pointed at any particular man, I am, notwithstanding the +plausibility of Dr. Warburton's conjecture, inclined to doubt. +Every man adheres as long as he can to his own pre-conceptions. +Before I read this note I considered the character of Holofernes +as borrowed from the Rhombus of sir Philip Sidney, who, in a kind +of pastoral entertainment, exhibited to queen Elizabeth, has +introduced a school-master so called, speaking _a leash of languages +at once_, and puzzling himself and his auditors with a jargon like +that of Holofernes in the present play. Sidney himself might +bring the character from Italy; for, as Peacham observes, the +school-master has long been one of the ridiculous personages in +the farces of that country. + +IV.ii.29 (395,4) + +[And such barren plants are set before us, that we + thankful should be, +Which we taste and feeling are for those parts that do fructify + in us, more than he] + +Sir T. Hammer reads thus, + +_And such barren plants are set before us, that we + thankful should be, +For those parts which we taste and feel do fructify + in us more than he._ + +And Mr. Edwards, in his animadversions on Dr. Warburton's notes, +applauds the emendation. I think both the editors mistaken, +except that sir T. Hammer found the metre, though he missed the +sense. I read, with a slight change, + + _And such barren plants are set before us, that we + thankful should be_, + When _we taste and feeling are for those parts that + do fructify in us more than he_. + +That is, _such barren plants_ are exhibited in the creation, to +make us _thankful when we have more taste and feeling than he, of +those parts_ or qualities _which_ produce fruit _in us_, and preserve +as from being likewise _barren plants_. Such is the sense, just +in itself and pious, but a little clouded by the diction of sir +Nathaniel. The length of these lines was no novelty on the +English stage. The moralities afford scenes of the like measure. +(1773) + +IV.ii.32 (396,5) + + [For as it would ill become me to be vain, indiscreet, + or a fool; + So were there a patch set on learning, to see + him in a school] + +The meaning is, to be in a school would as ill become a _patch_, +or low fellow, as folly would become me. + +IV.ii.99 (399,2) [_Vinegia. Vinegia, Chi non te vedi, ei non te +pregia_] [This reading is an emendation by Theobald] The proverb, +as I am informed, is this; _He that sees Venice little, values it +much; he that sees it much, values it little_. But I suppose Mr. +Theobald is right, for the true proverb would hot serve the +speaker's purpose. + +IV.ii.156 (403,6) [colourable colours] That is specious, or fair +seeming appearances. + +IV.iii.3 (403,7) [I am toiling in a pitch] Alluding to lady Rosaline's +complexion, who is through the whole play represented +as a black beauty. + +IV.iii.29 (404,8) [The night of dew, that on my cheeks down flows] +I cannot think the _night of dew_ the true reading, but know not +what to offer. + +IV.iii.47 (405,9) [he comes in like a perjure, wearing papers] The +punishment of perjury is to wear on the breast a paper expressing +the crime. + +IV.iii.74 (406,2) [the liver-vein] The liver was anciently supposed +to be the seat of love. + +IV.iii.110 (408,5) [_Air, would I might triumph so_!] Perhaps we may +better read, + + Ah! _would I might triumph so!_ + +IV.iii.117 (409,7) [ay true love's fasting pain] [W: festring] +There is no need of any alteration. _Fasting_ is _longing, hungry, +wanting_. + +IV.iii.148 (410,8) [How will he triumph, leap, and laugh at it?] +[W: geap] To _leap_ is to _exult_, to skip for joy. It must stand. + +IV.iii.166 (410,9) [To see a king transformed to a knot!] _Knot_ has +no sense that can suit this place. We may read _sot_. The rhimes +in this play are such, as that _sat_ and _sot_ may be well enough +admitted. + +IV.iii.180 (412,2) [With men like men] [W: vane-like] This is well +imagined, but perhaps the poet may mean, with _men like_ common +_men_. + +IV.iii.231 (414,3) [She (an attending star)] Something like this is +a stanza of sir Henry Wotton, of which the poetical reader will +forgive the insertion. + + _--Ye stars, the train of night, + That poorly satisfy our eyes + More by your number than your light: + Ye common people of the skies, + What are ye when the sun shall rise_. + +IV.iii.256 (415,6) [And beauty's crest becomes the heavens well] +[W: crete] This emendation cannot be received till its authour +can prove that _crete_ is an English word. Besides, _crest_ is +here properly opposed to _badge_. _Black_, says the King, is the +_badge of hell_, but that which graces the heaven is _the crest of_ +beauty. _Black_ darkens hell, and is therefore hateful; _white_ +adorns heaven, and is therefore lovely. + +IV.iii.290 (417,8) [affection's men at arms] _A man at arms_, is a +soldier armed at all points both offensively and defensively. +It is no more than, _Ye soldiers of affection_. + +IV.iii.313 (418,2) [Teaches such beauty as a woman's eye] i.e. a +lady's eyes gives a fuller notion of beauty than any authour. + +IV.iii.321 (418.3) [In leaden contemplation have found out Such +fiery numbers] _Numbers_ are, in this passage, nothing more than +_poetical measures_. _Could you_, says Biron, _by solitary contemplation, +have attained such poetical_ fire, _such spritely numbers, +as have been prompted by the eyes of beauty_? The astronomer, +by looking too much aloft, falls into a ditch. + +IV.iii.358 (422,9) + + [Or for love's sake, a word, that loves all men; + Or for men's sake, the author of these women; + Or women's sake, by whom we men are men] + +Perhaps we might read thus, transposing the lines, + + _Or for love's sake, a word that loves all men; + For women's sake, by whom we men are men; + Or for men's sake, the authours of these women_. + +The antithesis of _a word that all men love_, and _a word which +loves all men_, though in itself worth little, has much of the +spirit of this play. + +IV.iii.386 (423,2) [If so, our copper buys no better treasure] Here +Mr. Theobald ends the third act. + +V.i.3 (423,3) [your reasons at dinner have been sharp and sententious] +I know not well what degree of respect Shakespeare intends +to obtain for this vicar, but he has here put into his mouth a +finished representation of colloquial excellence. It is very +difficult to add any thing to this character of the school-master's +table-talk, and perhaps all the precepts of Castiglione +will scarcely be found to comprehend a rule for conversation so +justly delineated, so widely dilated, and so nicely limited. + +It may be proper just to note, that _reason_ here, and in many +other places, signifies _discourse_; and that _audacious_ is used in +a good sense for _spirited, animated, confident_. _Opinion_ is the +same with _obstinacy_ or _opinionated_. + +V.i.14 (424,4) [He is too picked] To have the beard _piqued_ or shorn +so as to end in a point, was, in our authour's time, a mark of a +traveller affecting foreign fashions: so says the Bastard in K. +John, + --_I catechise + _My_ piqued _man of countries_. + +V.i.29 (425,6) [(_Ne intelligis, Domine._) to make frantick, lunatick?] +There seems yet something wanting to the integrity of this passage, +which Mr. Theobald has in the most corrupt and difficult +places very happily restored. For _ne intelligis domine, to make +frantick, lunatick_, I read, (nonne _intelligis, domine?_) to _be_ +mad, frantick, lunatick. + +V.i.44 (427,6) [_honorificabilitudinitatibus_] This word, whencesoever +it comes, is often mentioned as the longest word known. +(1773) + +V.i.110 (429,6) [dally with my excrement] The authour has before +called the beard _valour's excrement_ in the Merchant of Venice. + +V.ii.43 (432,5) ['Ware pencils!] The former editions read, + + Were _pencils_---- + +Sir T. Hammer here rightly restored, + + 'Ware _pencils_----- + +Rosaline, a black beauty, reproaches the fair Catherine for +painting. + +V.ii.69 (434,9) [None are so surely caught when they are catch'd, +As wit turn'd fool] These are observation worthy of a man who +has surveyed human nature with the closest attention. + +V.ii.87 (434,1) [Saint Dennis to St. Cupid!] The Princess of France +invokes, with too much levity, the patron of her country, to oppose +his power to that of Cupid. + +V.ii.117 (435,2) [spleen ridiculous] is, a ridiculous _fit_. + +V.ii.205 (439,5) [Vouchsafe, bright moon, and these thy stars] When +queen Elizabeth asked an ambassadour how he liked her ladies, _It +is hard,_ said he, _to judge of stars in the presence of the sun._ + +V.ii.235 (440,6) [Since you can cog] To _cog_ signifies _to falsify the +dice,_ and _to falsify a narrative,_ or _to lye._ + +V.ii.281 (442,7) [better wits have worn plain statute-caps] This +line is not universally understood, because every reader does +not know that a statute cap is part of the academical habit. +Lady Rosaline declares that her expectation was disappointed by +these courtly students, and that _better wits_ might be found in the +common places of education. [Gray had offered a different explanation] +I think my own interpretation of this passage right. (see +1765, II,197,3) + +V.ii.295 (443,8) + + [Fair ladies, mask'd, are roses in their bud; + Dismask'd, their damask sweet commixture shewn, + Are angels vailing clouds, or roses blown] + +[Hammer: angels vailing clouds] [Warburton exercised his sarcasm +on this] I know not why Sir T. Hanmer's explanation should be +treated with so much contempt, or why _vailing clouds_ should be +_capping the sun. Ladies unmask'd,_ says Boyet, _are_ like _angels +vailing clouds,_ or letting those clouds which obscured their +brightness, sink from before them. What is there in this absurd +or contemptible? + +V.ii.309 (444,1) [_Exeunt ladies_] Mr. Theobald ends the fourth act +here. + +V.ii.337 (447,4) [--behaviour, what wert thou, 'Till this +mad man shew'd thee? and what art thou now?] [These are two +wonderfully fine lines, intimating that what courts call _manners,_ +and value themselves so much upon teaching, as a thing no where +else to be learnt, is a modest silent accomplishment under the +direction of nature and common sense, which does its office in +promoting social life without being taken notice of. But that +when it degerates into shew and parade, it becomes an unmanly +contemptible quality. Warburton.] What is told in this note is +undoubtedly true, but is not comprised in the quotation. + +V.ii.348 (448,5) [The virtue of your eye must break my oath] I believe +the author means that the _virtue,_ in which word _goodness_ +and _power_ are both comprised, _must dissolve_ the obligation of the +oath. The Princess, in her answer, takes the most invidious part +of the ambiguity. + +V.ii.374 (449,6) + + [when we greet + With eyes best seeing, heaven's fiery eye, + By light we lose light: your capacity + Is of that nature, as to your huge store + Wise things seem foolish, and rich things but poor] + + +This is a very lofty and elegant compliment. + +V.ii.419 (450,7) [Write, _Lord have mercy on us_, on those three] This +was the inscription put upon the door of the houses infected with +the plague, to which Biron compares the love of himself and his +companions; and pursuing the metaphor finds the _tokens_ likewise +on the ladies. The _tokens_ of the plague are the first spots or +discolorations, by which the infection is known to be received. + +V.ii.426 (451,8) [how can this be true, That you stand forfeit, +being those that sue?] That is, how can those be liable to forfeiture +that begin the process. The jest lies in the ambiguity of _sue_, +which signifies _to prosecute by law_, or to _offer a petition_. + +V.ii.440 (451,9) [you force not to forswear] _You force not_ is the +same with _you make no difficulty_. This is a very just +observation. The crime which has been once committed, is committed +again with less reluctance. + +V.ii.471 (452,2) [in will and error. Much upon this it is:--And +might not you] I, believe this passage should be read thus, + + --_in will and error_. + Boyet. _Much upon this it is_. + Biron. _And might not you_, &c. + + +V.ii.490 (453,5) [You cannot beg us] That is, we are not fools, our +next relations cannot _beg_ the wardship of our persons and +fortunes. One of the legal tests of a _natural_ is to try whether he +can number. + +V.ii.517 (454,6) + + [That sport best pleases, that doth least know how. + Where zeal strives to content, and the contents + Dies in the zeal of that which it presents] + +The third line may be read better thus, + + --_the contents_ + _Die in the zeal of_ him _which_ them _presents_. + +This sentiment of the Princess is very natural, but less generous +than that of the Amazonian Queen, who says, on a like occasion, +in Midsummer-Night's Dream, + + _I love not to see wretchedness o'ercharg'd_, + _Nor duty in his service perishing_. + + +V.ii.547 (455,8) [A bare throw at novum] This passage I do not understand. +I fancy that _novum_ should be _novem_, and that some allusion +is intended between the play of _nine pins_ and the play of the _nine_ +worthies, but it lies too deep for my investigation. + +V.ii.581 (457,2) [A-jax] There is a conceit of _Ajax_ and _a jakes_. + +V.ii.694 (461,4) [more Ates] That is, more instigation. Ate was +the mischievous goddess that incited bloodshed. + +V.ii.702 (461,5) [my arms] The weapons and armour which he wore in +the character of Pompey. + +V.ii.744 (463,8) [In the converse of breath] Perhaps _converse_ may, +in this line, mean _interchange_. + +V.ii.755 (464,2) [which fain it would convince] We must read, + + --_which fain_ would it _convince_; + +that is, the entreaties of love which would fain _over-power_ grief. +So Lady Macbeth declares, _That she will_ convince _the chamberlain +with wine_. + +V.ii.762 (464,3) [Honest plain words best pierce the ear of grief] +As it seems not very proper for Biron to court the princess for +the king in the king's presence, at this critical moment, I +believe the speech is given to a wrong person. I read thus, + + Prin. _I understand you not, my griefs are double: + Honest plain words best pierce the ear of grief._ + King. _And by these badges_, &c. + + +V.ii.779 (465,4) [Suggested us] That is, _tempted_ us. + +V.ii.790 (465,5) [As bombast, and as lining to the time] This line +is obscure. _Bombast_ was a kind of loose texture not unlike what +is now called wadding, used to give the dresses of that time bulk +and protruberance, without much increase of weight; whence the +same name is given a tumour of words unsupported by solid +sentiment. The Princess, therefore, says, that they considered this +courtship as but _bombast_, as something to fill out life, which +not being closely united with it, might be thrown away at pleasure. + +V.ii.795 (466,7) [We did not quote them so] [We should read, _quote_, +esteem, reckon. Warburton] though our old writers spelling by +the ear, probably wrote _cote_, as it was pronounced. (see 1765, +II,218,5) + +V.ii.823 (467,8) [To flatter up these powers of mine with rest] Dr. +Warburton would read _fetter_, but _flatter_ or _sooth_ is, in my +opinion, more apposite to the king's purpose than _fetter_. Perhaps we +may read, + + _To flatter_ on _these_ hours of time _with rest_; + +That is, I would not deny to live in the hermitage, to make the +year of delay pass in quiet. + +V.ii.873 (469,2) [dear groans] _Dear_ should here, as in many other +places, be _dere_, sad, odious. + +V.ii.904 (470,3) [_When daisies pied, and violets blue_] The first +lines of this song that were transposed, have been replaced by +Mr. Theobald. + +V.ii.907 (470,5) [_Do paint the meadows with delight_] [W: much +bedight] Much less elegant than the present reading. + +(472,7) General Observation. In this play, which all the editors +have concurred to censure, and some have rejected as unworthy of him. + + + + +Vol. III + + +A MIDSUMMER-NIGHT'S DREAM + +I.i.6 (4,2) [Long withering out a young man's revenue] [W: wintering] +That the common reading is not good English, I cannot perceive, +and therefore find in myself no temptation to change it. + +I.i.47 (5,6) [To leave the figure, or disfigure it] [W: 'leve] I know +not why so harsh a word should be admitted with so little need, a +word that, spoken, could not be understood, and of which no example +can be shown. The sense is plain, _you owe to your father a being +which he may at pleasure continue or destroy_. + +I.i.68 (6,8) [Know of your youth] Bring your youth to the question. +Consider your youth. (1773) + +I.i.76 (7,9) [But earthlier happy is the rose distill'd] Thus all the +copies, yet _earthlier_ is so harsh a word, and _earthlier happy_ for +_happier earthly_, a mode of speech so unusual, that I wonder none +of the editors have proposed _earlier happy_. + +I.i.110 (8,2) [spotted] As _spotless_ is innocent, so _spotted_ is wicked. +(1773) + +I.i.131 (9,3) [Beteem them] give them, bestow upon then. The word is +used by Spenser. + +I.i.157 (10,8) [I have a widow aunt, a dowager] These lines perhaps +might more properly be regulated thus: + + _I have a widow aunt, a dowager + Of great revenue, and she hath no child, + And she respects me as her only son; + Her house from Athens is remov'd seven leagues, + There, gentle Hermia, may I marry thee, + And to that place--_ + +I.i.169-178 (11,1) [Warburton had reassigned speeches here] This +emendation is judicious, but not necessary. I have therefore +given the note without altering the text. The censure of men, +as oftner perjured than women, seems to make that line more +proper for the lady. + +I.i.183 (12,3) [Your eyes are lode-stars] This was a complement not +unfrequent among the old poets. The lode star is the _leading_ or +guiding star, that is, the pole-star. The magnet is, for the +same reason, called the _lode-stone_, either became it leads iron, +or because it guides the sailor. Milton has the same thought in +L'Allegro: + + _Tow'rs and battlements he sees + Bosom'd high in tufted trees, + Where perhaps some beauty lies, + The_ Cynosure _of neighb'ring eyes._ + +Davies calls Elizabeth, _lode-stone_ to hearts, and _lode-stone_ +to all eyes, (see 1765, 1,97,9) + +I.i.204 (13,6) + + [Before the time I did Lysander see, + Seem'd Athens like a paradise to me] + +Perhaps every reader may not discover the propriety of these +lines. Hermia is willing to comfort Helena, and to avoid all +appearance of triumph over her. She therefore bids her not to +consider the power of pleasing, as an advantage to be much envied +or much desired, since Hermia, whom she considers as possessing +it in the supreme degree, has found no other effect of it than +the loss of happiness. + +I.i.232 (15,8) [Things base and vile, holding no quantity] _quality_ +seems a word more suitable to the sense than quantity, but either +may serve. (1773) + +I.i.240 (15,9) [in game] _Game_ here signifies not contentious play, +but _sport, jest_. So Spenser, + + _'Twixt earnest and 'twixt_ game. + +I.ii (16,2) [_Enter Quince the carpenter, Snug the joiner. Bottom the +weaver. Flute the bellows-mender. Snout the tinker, and Starveling +the taylor_] In this scene Shakespeare takes advantage of his +knowledge of the theatre, to ridicule the prejudices and competitions +of the players. Bottom, who is generally acknowledged the +principal actor, declares his inclination to be for a tyrant, for +a part of fury, tumult, and noise, such as every young man pants +to perform when he first steps upon the stage. The same Bottom, +who seems bred in a tiring-room, has another histrionical passion. +He is for engrossing every part, and would exclude his inferiors +from all possibility of distinction. He is therefore desirous to +play Pyramus, Thisbe, and the Lyon at the same time. + +I.ii.10 (17,4) [grow on to a point] Dr. Warburton read _go on_; but +_grow_ is used, in allusion to his name, Quince. (see 1765, I,100,8) + +I.ii.52 (18,6) + +[_Flu._ Nay, faith, let me not play a woman; I have a beard coming. +_Quin._ That's all one, you shall play it in a masque; and you may +speak as small as you will] + +This passage shews how the want of women on the old stage was +supplied. If they had not a young man who could perform the part with +a face that might pass for feminine, the character was acted in a +mask, which was at that time part of a lady's dress so much in use +that it did not give any unusual appearance to the scene: and he that +could modulate his voice in a female tone might play the women very +successfully. It is observed in Downes's Memoirs of the Playhouse, +that one of these counterfeit heroines moved the passions more +strongly than the women that have since been brought upon the stage. +Some of the catastrophes of the old comedies, which make lovers marry +the wrong women, are, by recollection of the common use of masks, +brought nearer to probability. + +I.ii.98 (20,8) [_Bot_. I will discharge it in either your straw-coloured +beard, your orange tawny beard, your purple-in grain beard, or your +French crown-coloured beard; your perfect yellow] Here Bottom +again discovers a true genius for the stage by his solicitude for +propriety of dress, and his deliberation which beard to chuse among +many beards, all unnatural. + +II.i.2 (21,3) [Over hill, over dale] So Drayton in his Court of Fairy, + + _Thorough brake_, _thorough brier_. + _Thorough muck_, _thorough mire_. + _Thorough water_, _thorough fire_. + + +II.i.9 (22,4) [To dew her orbs upon the green] For _orbs_ Dr. Gray is +inclined to substitute _herbs_. The orbs here mentioned are the +circles supposed to be made by the Fairies on the ground, whose +verdure proceeds from the fairy's care to water them. + + _They in their courses make that_ round, + _In meadows and in marshes found_, + _Of then so called the fairy ground_. Drayton. + +II.i.10 (22,5) [The cowslips tall her pensioners be] The cowslip was +a favourite among the fairies. There is a hint in Drayton of +their attention to May morning. + + --_for the queen a fitting tow'r_, + _Quoth he, is that fair_ cowslip flow'r.-- + _In all your train there's not a fay_ + _That ever went_ to gather May, + _But she hath made it in her way_, + _The_ tallest _there that groweth_. + + +II.i.16 (22,7) [lob of spirits] _Lob_, _lubber_, _looby_, _lobcock_, +all denote both inactivity of body and dulness of mind. + +II.i.23 (23,8) [changeling] _Changeling_ is commonly used for the +child supposed to be left by the fairies, but here for the child +taken away. + +II.i.29 (23,9) [sheen] Shining, bright, gay. + +II.i.30 (23,1) [But they do square] [To _square_ here is to quarrel. +_And now you are such fools to_ square _for this_? Gray.] + +The French word _contrecarrer_ has the same import. + +II.i.36 (24,4) + + [Skim milk; and sometimes labour in the quern, + And bootless make the breathless huswife churn] + +The sense of these lines is confused. _Are not you he_, says the +fairy, _that fright the country girls_. _that skim milk_, _work in +the hand-mill_, _and make the tired dairy-woman churn without +effect_? The mention of the mill seem out of place, for she is +not now telling the good but the evil that he does. I would +regulate the lines thus: + + _And sometimes make the breathless housewife churn + Skim milk, and bootless labour in the quern._ + +Or by a simple transposition of the lines; + + _And bootless, make the breathless housewife churn + Skim milk, and sometimes labour in the quern._ + +Yet there is no necessity of alteration. (see 1765, I,106,1) + +II.i.40 (24,6) [Those that Hobgoblin call you, and sweet Puck, You +do their work] To those traditionary opinions Milton has reference +in L'Allegro, + + _Then to the spicy nut-brown ale, + With stories told of many a feat. + How Fairy Mab the junkets eat; + She was pinch'd and pull'd she said. + And he by Frier's lapthorp led; + Tells how the drudging goblin sweat + To earn his cream-bowl duly set, + When in one night ere glimpse of morn + His shadowy flail had thresh'd the corn + Which ten day-labourers could not end. + Then lies him down the_ lubber _fiend_. + +A like account of Puck is given by Drayton, + + _He meeteth Puck, which most men call + Hobgoblin, and on him doth fall.-- + This Puck seems but a dreaming dolt, + Still walking like a ragged colt, + And oft out of a bed doth bolt, + Of purpose to deceive us; + And leading us makes us to stray. + Long winter's nights out of the way. + And when we stick in mire and clay. + He doth with laughter leave us._ + +It will be apparent to him that shall compare Drayton's poem with +this play, that either one of the poets copied the other, or, as +I rather believe, that there was then some system of the fairy +empire generally received, which they both represented as accurately +as they could. Whether Drayton or Shakespeare wrote first, +I cannot discover. + +II.i.42 (25,7) [_Puck_. Thou speak'st aright] I have filled up the +verse which I suppose the author left complete, + +It seems that in the Fairy mythology Puck, or Hobgoblin, was +the trusty servant of Oberon, and always employed to watch or detect +the intrigues of Queen Mab, called by Shakespeare Titania. +For in Drayton's Nynphidia, the same fairies are engaged in the +sane business. Mab has an amour with Pigwiggen; Oberon being +jealous, sends Hobgoblin to catch them, and one of Mab's nymphs +opposes him by a spell. + +II.i.54 (26,8) [And _tailor_ cries] The custom of crying _tailor_ at a +sudden fall backwards, I think I remember to have observed. He + +that slips beside his chair falls as a taylor squats upon his +board. The Oxford editor and Dr. Warburton after him, read _and +rails or cries_, plausibly, but I believe not rightly. Besides, +the trick of the fairy is represented as producing rather merriment +than anger. + +II.i.56 (26,9) [And waxen] And _encrease_, as the _moon waxes_. + +II.i.58 (26,1) [But room, Faery] All the old copies read--_But room +Fairy_. The word Fairy or Faery, was sometimes of three syllables, +as often in Spenser. + +II.i.84 (28,5) [paved fountain] A fountain laid round the edge with +stone. + +II.i.88 (28,6) [the winds, piping] So Milton, + + _While rocking winds are piping loud._ + +II.i.91 (28,7) [pelting river] Thus the quarto's: the folio reads +_petty_. + +Shakespeare has in Lear the same word, _low pelting farms_. The +meaning is plainly, _despicable, mean, sorry, wretched_; but as it +is a word without any reasonable etymology, I should be glad to +dismiss it for _petty_, yet it is undoubtedly right. We have _petty +pelting officer_ in Measure for Measure. + +II.i.92 (28,8) [over-born their continents] Born down the banks +that contained then. So in Lear, + + _Close pent guilts + Rive their concealing_ continents. + +II.i.98 (29,1) [The nine-men's morris] This was some kind of rural +game played in a marked ground. But what it was more I have not +found. + +II.i.100 (29,2) [The human mortals want their winter here] After all +the endeavours of the editors, this passage still remains to me +unintelligible. I cannot see why winter is, in the general confusion +of the year now described, more wanted than any other season. +Dr. Warburton observes that he alludes to our practice of +singing carols in December; but though Shakespeare is no great +chronologer in his dramas, I think he has never so mingled true +and false religion, as to give us reason for believing that he +would make the moon incensed for the omission of our carols. I +therefore imagine him to have meant heathen rites of adoration. +This is not all the difficulty. Titania's account of this calamity +is not sufficiently consequential. _Men find no winter_, therefore +they sing no hymns; the moon provoked by this omission, alters the +seasons: that is, the alteration of the seasons produces the alteration +of the seasons. I am far from supposing that Shakespeare +might not sometimes think confusedly, and therefore am not sure +that the passage is corrupted. If we should read, + + _And human mortals want their_ wonted year, + +yet will not this licence of alteration much mend the narrative; + +the cause and the effect are still confounded. Let us carry +critical temerity a little further. Scaliger transposed the +lines of Virgil's Gallus. Why may not the same experiment be +ventured upon Shakespeare. + + _The human mortals want_ their wonted year, + _The seasons alter; hoary-headed frosts + Fall in the fresh lap of the crimson rose; + And on old_ Hyems' _chin, and icy crown, + An od'rous chaplet of sweet summer buds + Is, as in mock'ry set. The spring, the summer, + The chiding autumn, angry winter, change + Their wonted liveries; and the 'mazed world, + By their increase, now knows not which is which. + No night is now with hymn or carol blest; + Therefore the moon, the governess of floods, + Pale in her anger, washes all the air; + And thorough this distemperature, we see + That rheumatick diseases do abound. + And this same progeny of evil comes + From our debate, from our dissension._ + +I know not what credit the reader will give to this emendation, +which I do not much credit myself. + +II.i.114 (31,4) [By their increase] That is, _By their produce._ + +II.i.130 (32,6) [Which she, with pretty and with swimming gate, Following] +[cf: follying] The foregoing note is very ingenious, but +since _follying_ is a word of which I know not any example, and the +Fairy's favourite might, without much licentiousness of language, +be said to _follow_ a ship that sailed in the direction of the +coast; I think there is no sufficient reason for adopting it. +The coinage of new words is a violent remedy, not to be used but +in the last necessity. + +II.i.157 (35,8) [Cupid all-arm'd] _All-armed_, does not signify +_dressed in panoply_, but only enforces the word _armed_, as we might +say _all-booted_. I am afraid that the general sense of _alarmed_, +by which it is used for _put into fear or care by whatever cause_, +is later than our authour. + +II.i.220 (38,4) [For that It is not night when I do see your face] +This passage is paraphrased from two lines of an ancient poet, + + --_Tu nocte vel atra +Lumen, et in solis tu mihi turba locis_. + +(see 1765, I,118,6) + +II.i.251 (39,5) [over-canopy'd with the luscious woodbine] All the +old editions have, + + Quite _over-canopied with luscious woodbine_. + +On the margin of one of my folio's an unknown hand has written +_lush_ woodbine, which, I think, is right. + +This hand I have since discovered to be Theobald's, (see 1765, +I,119,4) + +II.ii. (41,9) [quaint spirits] For this Dr. Warburton reads against +all authority, + + ----_quaint_ sports.---- + +But Prospero, in _The Tempest,_ applies _quaint_ to Ariel. + +II.ii.30 (42.2) [Be it ounce] +The ounce is a snail tiger, or tiger-cat. (1773) + +II.ii.45 (43,3) + + [O take the sense, sweet, of my innocence; + Love takes the meaning in love's conference] + +[Warburton wished to transpose "innocence" and "conference"] I am +by no means convinced of the necessity of this alteration. Lysander +in the language of love professes, that as they have one +heart, they shall have one bed; this Hernia thinks rather too +much, and intreats him to _lye further off_. Lysander answers, + + _O take the sense, sweet, of my_ innocence. + +understand _the meaning of my innocence_, or _my innocent meaning._ +Let no suspicion of ill enter thy mind. + + _Love takes the meaning, in love's_ conference. + +In the conversation of those who are assured of each other's kindness, +not _suspicion_, but _love takes the meaning_. No malevolent +interpretation is to be made, but all is to be received in the sense +which _love_ can find, and which _love_ can dictate. + +II.ii.89 (45,6) [my grace] My acceptableness, the favour that I can +gain. (1773) + +II.ii.120 (46,7) [Reason becomes the marshal to my will] That is, +My will now follows reason. + +III.i (48,3) In the time of Shakespeare, there were many companies +of players, sometimes five at the same time, contending for the +favour of the publick. Of these some were undoubtedly very unskilful +and very poor, and it is probable that the design of this +scene was to ridicule their ignorance, and the odd expedients to +which they might be driven by the want of proper decorations. +Bottom was perhaps the head of a rival house, and is therefore +honoured with an ass's head. + +III.i.110 (52,8) [Through bog, through bush, through brake, through +bryer] Here are two syllables wanting. Perhaps, it was written, + + _Through bog_, through mire,------- + +III.i.116 (52,9) [to make me afeard] + +_Afeard_ is from _to fear_, by the +old form of the language, as _an hungred_, from _to hunger_. So _adry_, +for _thirsty_. (1773) + +III.i.117 (52,1) [O Bottom! thou art chang'd! what do I see on thee?] +It is plain by Bottom's answer, that Snout mentioned an _ass's +head._ Therefore we should read, + + Snout. _O Bottom, thou art changed! what do I see on + thee_? An ass's head? + +III.i.141 (53,3) [Mine ear is much enamour'd of thy note,] + + So is mine eye enthralled to thy shape; + And thy fair virtue's force + +(perforce) [doth move me, On the first view to say, to swear +I love thee] + +These lines are in one quarto of 1600, the first folio of 1623, +the second of 1632, and the third of 1664, &c. ranged in the following +order: + + _Mine ear is much enamour'd of thy note. + On the first view to say, to swear, I love thee; + So is mine eye enthralled to thy shape, + And thy fair virtue's force (perforce) [doth move me._ + +This reading I have inserted, not that it can suggest any thing +better than the order to which the lines have been restored by +Mr. Theobald from another quarto, but to shew that some liberty +of conjecture must be allowed in the revisal of works so inaccurately +printed, and so long neglected. + +III.i.173 (55,6) [the fiery glow-worm's eyes] I know not how +Shakespeare,who commonly derived his knowledge of nature from his own +observation, happened to place the glow-worm's light in his eyes, +which is only in his tail. + +III.ii.9 (56,l) [patches] _Patch_ was in old language used as a term +of opprobry; perhaps with much the some import as we use _raggamuffin_, +or _tatterdemalion_. + +III.ii.17 (56,2) [nowl] A head. Saxon. + +III.ii.19 (57,4) [minnock] This is the reading of the old quarto, and +I believe right, _Minnekin_, now _minx_, is a nice trifling girl. +_Minnock_ is apparently a word of contempt. + +III.ii.21 (57,5) [sort] Company. So above, + + --_that barren_ sort; + +and in Waller, + + _A_ sort _of lusty shepherds strive_. + +III.ii.25 (57,6) [And, at our stamp] This seems to be a vicious reading. +Fairies are never represented stamping, or of a size that should give +force to a stamp, nor could they have distinguished the stamps of Puck +from those of their own companions. I read, + + _And at a_ stump _here o'er and o'er one falls_. + +So Drayton, + + _A pain he in his head-piece feels, + Against a_ stubbed tree _he reels, + And up went poor hobgoblin's heels; + Alas, his brain was dizzy_.---- + _At length upon his feet he gets, + Hobgoblin fumes, Hobgoblin frets, + And as again he forward sets, + And through the bushes scrambles,_ + A stump _doth_ trip him _in his pace, + Down fell poor Hob upon his face, + Among the briers and brambles._ + +III.ii.30 (58,7) [Some, sleeves; some, hats] There is the like image +in Drayton of queen Mab and her fairies flying from Hobgoblin. + + _Some tore a ruff, and some a gown, + 'Gainat one another jostling; + They flew about like chaff i' th' wind, + For haste some left their masks behind, + Some could not stay their gloves to find, + There never was such bustling._ + +III.ii.48 (58,l) [Being o'er shoes in blood] An allusion to the proverb, +_Over shoes, over boots._ + +III.ii.70 (59,3) [O brave touch!] _Touch_ in Shakespeare's time was the +same with our _exploit_, or rather _stroke_. A brave touch, a noble +stroke, _un grand coup_. _Mason was very merry, pleasantly playing +both with the shrewd_ touches _of many curst boys, and the small discretion +of many lewd schoolmasters._ Ascham. + +III.ii.74 (60,4) [mispris'd] Mistaken; so below _misprision_ is mistake. + +III.ii.141 (62,5) [Taurus' snow] Taurus is the name of a range of +mountains in Asia. + +III.ii.144 (62,7) [seal of bliss!] Be has elsewhere the same image, + + _But my kisses bring again_ + Seals of love, _but seal'd in vain_, (rev. 1778, III,74,4) + +III.ii.150 (62,8) [join in souls] This is surely wrong. We may read, +_Join in_ scorns, or _join in_ scoffs. [Tyrwhitt: join, ill souls] This +is a very reasonable conjecture, though I think it is hardly right. +(1773) + +III.ii.160 (63,9) [extort A poor soul's patience] Harrass, torment. + +III.ii.171 (63,1) [My heart with her] We should read, + + _My heart_ with _her but as guest-wise sojourn'd_. + +So Prior, + + _No matter what beauties I saw in my way, + They were but my visits, but then not my home._ (rev. 1778, III,76,9) + + +III.ii.188 (64,2) [all yon fiery O's] I would willingly believe that +the poet wrote _fiery orbs_. + +III.ii.194 (64,3) [in spight to me] I read, _in spite_ to _me_. + +III.ii.242 (66,2) [such an argument] Such a _subject_ of light merriment. + +III.ii.352 (71,1) [so sort] So happen in the issue. + +III.ii.367 (71,2) [virtuous property] Salutiferous. So be calls, in +the Tempest, _poisonous dew_, wicked _dew_. + +III.ii.426 (74,5) [buy this dear] i.e. _thou shalt dearly pay for this._ +Though this is sense, and may well enough stand, yet the poet +perhaps wrote _thou shalt 'by it dear_. So in another place, _thou +shalt_ aby it. So Milton, _How_ dearly I abide _that boust so vain._ + +IV.i (75,6) I see no reason why the fourth act should begin here, +when there seems no interruption of the action. In the old quartos +of 1600, there is no division of acts, which seems to have +been afterwards arbitrarily made in the first folio, and may +therefore be altered at pleasure, (see 1765, I,149,5) + +IV.i.2 (75,7) [do coy] To _coy_ is to sooth. Skinner, (rev. 1778, III, +89,6) + +IV.i.45 (77,2) [So doth the woodbine, the sweet honey-suckle, Gently +entwist] Mr. Upton reads, + + _So doth the_ woodrine _the sweet honey-suckle_, + +for bark of the wood. Shakespeare perhaps only meant so, the +leaves involve the flower, using _woodbine_ for the plant and _honeysuckle_ +for the flower; or perhaps Shakespeare made a blunder, (rev. +1778, III,91,2) + +IV.i.107 (81,9) [our observation is perform'd] The honours due to the +morning of May. I know not why Shakespear calls this play a _Midsummer- +Night's Dream_, when he so carefully informs us that it happened +on the night preceding _May_ day. + +IV.i.123 (81,4) [so sanded] So marked with small spots. + +IV.i.166 (83,6) [Fair Helena in fancy following me] _Fancy_ is here taken +for _love_ or _affection_, and is opposed to _fury_, as before. + + _Sighs and tears poor_ Fancy's _follovers_. + +Some now call that which a man takes particular delight in his _Fancy. +Flower-fancier_, for a florist, and _bird-fancier_, for a lover +and feeder of birds, are colloquial words. + +IV.i.194 (84,6) [And I have found Demetrius like a jewel] [W: gewell] +This emendation is ingenious enough to deserve to be true. + +IV.i.213 (85,8) [patch'd fool] That is, a fool in a particolour'd coat. + +IV.ii.14 (86,2) [a thing of nought] which Mr. Theobald changes with +great pomp to _a thing of naught_, is, a _good for nothing thing_. + +IV.ii.18 (86,3) [made men] In the same sense us in the _Tempest, any +monster in England_ makes _a man_. + +V.i.2-22 (88,4) + +[More strange than true. I never may believe +These antique fables, nor these fairy toys] + +These beautiful lines are in all the old editions thrown out of +metre. They are very well restored by the later editors. + +V.i.26 (89,5) [constancy] Consistency; stability; certainty. + +V.i.79 (92,4) [Unless you can find sport in their intents] Thus all the +copies. But as I know not what it is to _stretch_ and _con_ an _intent_, +I suspect a line to be lost. + +V.i.91 (92,5) + +[And what poor duty cannot do, +Noble respect takes it in might, not merit.] + +The sense of this passage, as it now stands, if it has any sense, +is this: _What the inability of duty cannot perform, regardful +generosity receives as an act of ability, though not of merit._ +The contrary is rather true: _What dutifulness tries to perform +without ability, regardful generosity receives as having the merit, +though not the power, of complete performance._ + +We should therefore read, + +_And what poor duty cannot do, +Noble respect takes not in might, but merit._ + + +V.i.147 (95,4) [Whereat, with blade, with bloody blameful blade] Mr. +Upton rightly observes, that Shakespeare in this line ridicules +the affectation of beginning many words with the same letter. He +night have remarked the same of + +_The raging rocks +and shivering shocks._ + +Gascoigne, contemporary with our poet, remarks and blames the +same affectation. + +V.i.199 (97,6) [And like Limander am I trusty still] Limander and +Helen, are spoken by the blundering player, for Leander and Hero. +Shafalus and Procrus, for Cephalus and Procris. + +V.i.254 (99,1) [in snuff] An equivocation. _Snuff_ signifies both the +cinder of a caudle, and hasty anger. + +V.i.379 (104,2) [And the wolf beholds the moon] [W: behowls] The +alteration is better than the original reading; but perhaps the +author meant only to say, that the wolf _gazes at_ the moon, (see 1765, +I,173,2) + +V.i.396 (105,4) + +[I am sent, with broom, before, +To sweep the dust behind the door] + +Cleanliness is always necessary to invite the residence and the +favour of Fairies. + +_These make our girls their slutt'ry rue, +By pinching them both black and blue. +And put a penny in their shoe +The house for cleanly sweeping._ Drayton. + +V.i.398 (105,5) [Through this house give glimmering light] Milton +perhaps had this picture in his thought: + +_Glowing cabers through the room +Teach light to counterfeit a gloom._ Il Penseroso. + +So Drayton: + +_Hence shadows seeming idle shapes +Of little frisking elves and apes, +To earth do make their wanton 'scapes +As hope of pastime hastes them._ + +I think it should be read, + +_Through this house_ in _glimmering light_. + +V.i.408 (106,6) [Now, until the break of day] This speech, which +both the old quartos give to Oberon, is in the edition of 1623, +and in all the following, printed as the song. I have restored +it to Oberon, as it apparently contains not the blessing which +he intends to bestow on the bed, but his declaration that he +will bless it, and his orders to the fairies how to perform the +necessary rites. But where then is the song?--I am afraid it is +gone after many other things of greater value. The truth is that +two songs are lost. The series of the scene is this; after the +speech of Puck, Oberon enters, and calls his fairies to a song, +which song is apparently wanting in all the copies. Next Titania +leads another song, which is indeed lost like the former, tho' +the editors have endeavoured to find it. Then Oberon dismisses +his fairies to the dispatch of the ceremonies. + +The songs, I suppose, were lost, because they were not inserted +in the players parts, from which the drama was printed. + +V.i.440 (107,8) [Now to 'scape the serpent's tongue] That is, If we +be dismiss'd without hisses. + +V.i.444 (107,9) [Give me your hands] That is, Clap your hands. Give +us your applause. + +(107,8) General Observation. Of this play there are two editions in +quarto; one printed for Thomas Fisher, the other for James Roberts, +both in 1600. I have used the copy of Roberts, very carefully collated, +as it seems, with that of Fisher. Neither of the editions +approach to exactness. Fisher is sometimes preferable, but Roberts +was followed, though not without some variations, by Hemings and +Condel, and they by all the folios that succeeded them. + +Wild and fantastical as this play is, all the parts in their +various modes are well written, and give the kind of pleasure which +the author designed. Fairies in his time were much in fashion; +common tradition had made them familiar, and Spenser's poem had +made them great. + + + + +THE MERCHANT OF VENICE + +I.i.9 (112,2) [Argosies] [a ship from Argo. Pope.] Whether it be derived +from Argo I am in doubt. It was a name given in our author's +time to ships of great burthen, probably galleons, such as the +Spaniards now use in their East India trade. [An Argosie meant originally +a ship from Ragusa, a city and territory on the gulph of +Venice, tributary to the Porte. Steevens.] + +I.i.18 (112,3) [Plucking the grass, to know where sits the wind] By +holding up the grass, or any light body that will bend by a gentle +blast, the direction of the wind is found. + +_This way I used in shooting. Betwixt the markes was an open +place, there I take a fethere, or a_ lytle grasse, _and so learned_ + +_how the wind stood_. Ascham. + +I.i.27 (113,5) [And see my wealthy Andrew dock'd in sand] The name of +the ship. + +I.i.113 (116,3) [Is that any thing now?] All the old copies read, _is +that any thing now_? I suppose we should read, _is that any thing_ +new? + +I.i.146 (117,4) [like a wilful youth] [W: witless] Dr. Warburton confounds +the time past and present. He has formerly lost his money +like a _wilful_ youth, he now borrows more in _pure innocence_, without +disguising his former fault, or his present designs. + +I.ii.44 (120,6) [Ay, that's a colt, indeed] _Colt_ is used for a witless, +heady, gay youngster, whence the phrase used of an old man +too juvenile, that he still retains his _colt's tooth_. See Hen. VIII. + +I.ii.49 (120,7) [there is the Count Palatine] I am always inclined to +believe, that Shakespeare has more allusions to particular facts +and persons than his readers commonly suppose. The count here mentioned +was, perhaps, Albertus a Lasco, a Polish Palatine, who visited +England in our author's time, was eagerly caressed, and splendidly +entertained; but running in debt, at last stole away, and endeavoured to +repair his fortune by enchantment. + +I.ii.90 (122,3) [How like you the young German] In Shakespeare's time +the duke of Bavaria visited London, and was made knight of the garter. + +Perhaps in this enumeration of Portia's suitors, there may be +some covert allusion to those of Queen Elizabeth. + +I.iii.47 (125,4) [catch him once upon the hip] A phrase taken from the +practice of wrestlers. + +I.iii.63 (126,5) [the ripe wants of my friend] _Ripe wants_ are wants +_come to the height_, wants that can have no longer delay. Perhaps +we might read, _rife wants_, wants that come thick upon him. + +I.iii.100 (127,6) + + [ An evil soul, producing holy witness, + Is like a villain with a smiling cheek; + A goodly apple rotten at the heart. + O, what a goodly outside falshood hath?] + +I wish any copy would give the authority to range and read the +lines thus: + + _O, what a_ godly _outside falshood hath! + An evil soul producing holy witness, + Is like a villain with a sailing cheek; + Or goodly apply rotten at the heart._ + +Yet there is no difficulty in the present reading. _Falsehood_, +which as _truth_ means _honesty_, is taken here for _treachery_ and +_knavery_, does not stand for _falshood_ in general, but for the dishonesty +now operating. (1773) + +I.iii.156 (129,8) [dwell in my necessity] To _dwell_ seems in this +place to mean the same as to _continue_. To _abide_ has both the +senses of _habitation_ and _continuance_. + +I.iii.176 (130,9) [left in the fearful guard] [W: fearless] Dr. Warburton +has forgotten that _fearful_ is not only that which fears, +but that which is feared or causes fear. _Fearful guard_, is a +guard that is not to be trusted, but gives cause of fear. To _fear_ +was anciently to _give_ as well as _feel terrours_. (see 1765, I,402,4) + +I.iii.180 (130,1) [I like not fair terms] Kind words, good language. + +II.i.7 (131,2) [To prove whose blood is reddest, his or mine] To +understand how the tawney prince, whose savage dignity is very well +supported, means to recommend himself by this challenge, it must +be remembered that _red_ blood is a traditionary sign of courage: +Thus Macbeth calls one of his frighted soldiers, a _lilly liver'd_ +Lown; again in this play, Cowards are said to _have livers as white +as milk_; and an effeminate and timorous man is termed a _milksop._ + +II.i.18 (132,4) [And hedg'd me by his will] I suppose we may safely +read, _and hedg'd me by his_ will. Confined me by his will. + +II.i.25 (132,5) [That slew the Sophy] Shakespeare seldom escapes well +when he is entangled with geography. The prince of Morocco must +have travelled far to kill the Sophy of Persia. + +II.i.42 (133,7) [Therefore be advis'd] Therefore be not precipitant; +consider well what we are to do. _Advis'd_ is the word opposite to +_rash_. + +II.ii.38 (134,8) [try conclusions]--So the old quarto. The first +folio, by a mere blunder, reads, try _confusions_, which, because it +makes a kind of paltry jest, has been copied by all the editors. + +II.ii.91 (136,1) [your child that shall be] The distinction between +_boy_ and _son_ is obvious, but child seems to have some meaning, +which is now lost. + +II.ii.166 (138,3) [Well, if any man in Italy have a fairer table, +which doth suffer to swear upon a book] Mr. Theobald's note is as +obscure as the passage. It may be read more than once before the +complication of ignorance can be completely disentangled. Table +is the palm expanded. What Mr. Theobald conceives it to be cannot +easily be discovered, but he thinks it somewhat that promises +a full belly. + +Dr. Warburton understood the word, but puzzles himself with no +great success in the pursuit of the meaning. The whole matter is +this: Launcelot congratulates himself upon his dexterity and good +fortune, and, in the height of his rapture, inspects his hand, and +congratulates himself upon the felicities in his table. The act +of expounding his hand puts him in mind of the action in which the +palm is shewn, by raising it to lay it on the book, in judicial +attestations. _Well_, says he, _if any man in Italy have a fairer +table, that doth offer to swear upon a book_----Here he stops with +an abruptness very common, and proceeds to particulars. + +II.ii.194 (140,5) [Something too liberal] Liberal I have already +shewn to be mean, gross, coarse, licentious. + +II.ii.205 (141,9) [sad ostent] Grave appearance; shew of staid and +serious behaviour. + +II.vi.5 (146,1) [O, ten times faster Venus' pigeons fly] [W: widgeons] +I believe the poet wrote as the editors have printed. How it is +so very _high humour_ to call lovers _widgeons_ rather than pigeons. I +cannot find. Lovers have in poetry been alway called _Turtles_, or +_Doves_, which in lower language may be pigeons. + +II.vi.51 (148,3) [a Gentile, and no Jew] A jest rising from the +ambiguity of _Gentile_, which signifies both a _Heathen_, and _one well +born._ + +II.vii.8 (149,4) [This third, dull lead, with warning all as blunt] +That is, as gross as the dull metal. + +II.vii.69 (151,5) [_Gilded tombs do worms infold_] In all the old +editions this line is written thus: + +_Gilded timber do worms infold._ + +From which Mr. Rowe and all the following editors have made + +_Gilded wood may worms infold._ + +A line not bad in itself, but not so applicable to the occasion as +that which, I believe, Shakespeare wrote, + +_Gilded_ tombs _do worms infold_. + +A tomb is the proper repository of a _death's-head_. + +II.vii.72 (151,6) [Your answer had not been inscrol'd] Since there is +an answer inscrol'd or written in every casket, I believe for _your_ +we should read _this_. When the words were written y'r and y's, the +mistake was easy. + +II.vii.79 (151,7) [chuse ce so] The old quarto edition of 1600 has no +distribution of acts, but proceeds from the beginning to the end +in an unbroken tenour. This play therefore having been probably +divided without authority by the publishers of the first folio, +lies open to a new regulation, if any more commodious division can +be proposed. The story is itself so wildly incredible, and the +changes of the scene so frequent and capricious, that the probability +of action does not deserve much care; yet it may be proper to +observe, that, by concluding the second act here, time is given for +Bassanio's passage to Belmont. + +II.viii.42 (153,8) [_Let it not enter in your mind of love_] So all the +copies, but I suspect some corruption. + +II.viii.52 (153,9) [embraced heaviness] [W: enraced] Of Dr. Warburton's +correction it is only necessary to observe, that it has produced +a new word, which cannot be received without necessity. + +When I thought the passage corrupted, it seemed to me not improbable that +Shakespeare had written _entranced heaviness_, musing, abstracted, +moping melancholy. But I know not why any great efforts +should be made to change a word which has no uncommodious or unusual +sense. We say of a man now, _that he_ hugs _his sorrows_, and +why might not Anthonio _embrace heaviness_. + +II.ix.46 (155,2) [How much low peasantry would then be gleaned From +the true seed of honour?] The meaning is, _How much meanness would +be found among the great, and how much greatness among the mean_. +But since men are always said to _glean_ corn though they may _pick_ +chaff, the sentence had been more agreeable to the common manner +of speech if it had been written thus, + + _How much low peasantry would then be pick'd + From the true seed of_honour? how much honour + Glean'd from the chaff?_ + +II.ix.70 (157,4) [_Take what wife you will to-bed_] Perhaps the poet +had forgotten that he who missed Portia was never to marry any +woman. + +III.i.47 (160,7) [a bankrupt, a prodigal] There is no need of +alteration. There could be, in Shylock's opinion, no prodigality +more culpable than such liberality as that by which a man exposes +himself to ruin for his friend. + +III.ii.21 (163,9) [And so though yours, not yours.--Prove it so] It +may be more grammatically read, + + _And so though yours_ I'm _not yours._ + +III.ii.54 (165,2) [With no less presence] With the same _dignity of +mien_. + +III.ii.73 (166,5) [So may the outward shows] He begins abruptly, the +first part of the argument has passed in his mind. + +III.ii.76 (166,6) [gracious voice] Pleasing; winning favour. + +III.ii.112 (167,9) [In measure rain thy joy] The first quarto edition +reads, + + _In measure_ range _thy joy_. + +The folio and one of the quartos, + + _In measure_ raine _thy joy_. + +I once believ'd Shakespeare meant, + +_In measure_ rein _thy joy_. + +The words _rain_ and _rein_ were not in these times distinguished by +regular orthography. There is no difficulty in the present reading, +only where the copies vary some suspicion of error is always +raised, (see 1765, I,437,1) + +III.ii.125 (168,1) [Methinks, it should have power to steal both his, +And leave itself unfurnish'd] I know not how _unfinish'd_ has intruded +without notice into the later editions, as the quartos and folio +have _unfurnished_, which Sir Tho. Banner has received. Perhaps it + +might be + + _And leave_ himself _unfurnish'd_. + +III.ii.191 (170,4) [you can wish none from me] That is, none _away +from_ me; none that I shall lose, if you gain it. + +III.v.70 (182,5) [how his words are suited!] I believe the meaning +is: What a _series_ or _suite_ of _words_ he has independent of meaning; +how one word draws on another without relation to the matter. + +IV,i.21 (184,6) [apparent] That is, _seeming_; not real. + +IV.i.22 (184,7) [_where_] for _whereas_. + +IV.i.29 (184,8) [Enough to press a royal merchant down] This epithet +was in our poet's time more striking and better understood, because +Gresham was then commonly dignified with the title of the +_royal merchant_. + +IV.i.42 (185,1) [I'll not answer that; But, say, it is my humour] +[Cf: By saying] Dr. Warburton has mistaken the sense. The Jew being +asked a question which the law does not require him to answer, +stands upon his right, and refuses; but afterwards gratifies his +own malignity by such answers as he knows will aggravate the pain +of the enquirer. I will not answer, says he, as to a legal or +serious question, but since you want an answer, will this serve +you? + +IV.i.56 (187,4) + [For affection, + Masters of passion, sway it to the mood + Of what it likes, or loaths] + +As for _affection_, those that know how to operate upon the passions +of men, rule it by making it operate in obedience to the notes +which please or disgust it. (1773) + +[Woollen bag pipe] As all the editors agree with complete uniformity +in this reading, I can hardly forbear to imagine that they +understood it. But I never saw a _woollen bag-pipe_, nor can well +conceive it. I suppose the authour wrote _wooden_ bag-pipe, meaning +that the bag was of leather, and the pipe of _wood_. + +IV.i.90 (189,5) [many a purchas'd slave] This argument considered as +used to the particular persons, seems conclusive. I see not how +Venetians or Englishmen, while they practise the purchase and +sale of slaves, can much enforce or demand the law of _doing to +others as we would that they should do to us_. + +IV.i.105 (189,6) [Bellario, a learned doctor, Whom I have sent for] +The doctor and the court are here somewhat unskilfully brought +together. That the duke would, on such an occasion, consult a +doctor of great reputation, is not unlikely, but how should this +be forknown by Portia? + +IV.i.214 (193,8) [malice bears down truth] Malice oppresses honesty, +a _true man_ in old language is an _honest man_. We now call the + +jury _good men and true._ + +IV.i.382 (198,8) [I am content] The terms proposed have been misunderstood. +Antonio declares, that as the duke quits one half of +the forfeiture, he is likewise content to abate his claim, and +desires not the property but the _use_ or produce only of the +half, and that only for the Jew's life, unless we read, as perhaps +is right, _upon_ my _death._ + +V.i.63 (204,3) [Such harmony is in immortal souls] [W: sounds] This +passage is obscure. _Immortal sounds_ is a harsh combination of +words, yet Milton uses a parallel expression: + + _Spiritus & rapidos qui circinat igneus orbes, + Nunc quoque sidereis intercinit ipse choreia_ + Immortale melos, _& inenarrabile curmen._ + +It is proper to exhibit the lines as they stand in the copies +of the first, second, third, and fourth editions, without any +variation, for a change has been silently made, by Rowe, and +adopted by all the succeeding editors. + + _Such harmony is in immortal souls, + But while this muddy vesture of decay + Doth grosly close_ in it, _we cannot hear it._ + +That the third is corrupt must be allowed, but it gives reason +to suspect that the original was, + + _Doth grosly close_ it in. + +Yet I know not whether from this any thing better can be produced +than the received reading. Perhaps _harmony_ is _the power +of perceiving harmony_, as afterwards, _Musick in the soul_ is the +quality of being _moved with concord of sweet sounds_. This will +somewhat explain the old copies, but the sentence is still imperfect; +which might be completed by reading, + + _Such harmony is in_ th' _immortal_ soul, + _But while this muddy vesture of decay + Doth grosly close_ it in, _we cannot hear it._ (1773) + +V.i.66 (205,4) [wake Diana with a hymn] Diana is the moon, who is +in the next scene represented as sleeping. + +V.i.99 (207,6) [Nothing is good, I see, without respect] Not absolutely +good, but relatively, good as it is modified by circumstances. + +V.i.129 (208,7) [Let me give light] There is scarcely any word with +which Shakespeare delights to trifle as with _light_, in its various +significations. + +V.i.203 (210,2) + + [What man is there so much unreasonable, + If you had pleas'd to have defended it + With any terms of zeal, wanted the modesty + To urge the thing held as a ceremony?] + +This is a very licentious expression. The sense is, _What man +could have so little modesty_ or _wanted modesty so much_, as to +urge the demand of a thing kept on an account in some sort +religious. (see 1785, 1,476,7) + +V.i.249 (212,4) [I once did lend my body for his wealth] +For his advantage; to obtain his happiness. _Wealth_ was, +at that time, the term opposite to _adversity_, or _calamity_. + +V.i.294 (213,5) [_Lor_. Fair ladies, you drop manna in the way Of +starved people] [Shakespeare is not more exact in any thing, than +in adapting his images with propriety to his speakers; of which +he has here given an instance in making the young Jewess call +good fortune, _manna_. Warburton.] The commentator should have remarked, +that this speech is not, even in his own edition, the +speech of the Jewess. + +V.i.307 (214,6) [_Exeunt omnes_] It has been lately discovered, that +this fable is taken from a story in the Pecorope of Ser Giovauni +Fiorentino, a novellist, who wrote in 1378. The story has been +published in English, and I have epitomised the translation. +The translator is of opinion, that the choice of the caskets is +borrowed from a tale of Boccace, which I have likewise abridged, +though I believe that Shakespeare must have had some other novel +in view. + +(223) General Observation. Of The MERCHANT of VENICE the stile is +even and easy, with few peculiarities of diction, or anomalies +of construction. The comick part raises laughter, and the serious +fixes expectation. The probability of either one or the other +story cannot be maintained. The union of two actions in one +event is in this drama eminently happy. Dryden was much pleased +with his own address in connecting the two plots of his Spanish +Friar, which yet, I believe, the critick will find excelled by +this play. + + + + +AS YOU LIKE IT + +I.i.3 (229,2) [As I remember, Adam, it was upon this fashion +bequeathed me. By will, but a poor thousand crowns] There is, in my +opinion, nothing but a point misplaced, and an omission of a word +which every hearer can supply, and which therefore an abrupt and eager +dialogue naturally excludes. + +I read thus: _As I remember, Adam, it was on this fashion bequeathed +me. By will but a poor thousand crowns; and, as thou +sayest, charged my brother on his blessing to breed me well._ +What is there in this difficult or obscure? The nominative _my +father_ is certainly left out, but so left out that the auditor +inserts it, in spite of himself. + +I.i.9 (230,3) [stays me here at home, unkept] [W: Stys] _Sties_ is +better than _stays_, and more likely to be Shakespeare's. + +I.i.19 (230,4) [his countenance seems to take from me] +[W: discountenance] There is no need of change, a countenance is +either good or bad. + +I.i.33 (231,5) [be better employ'd, and be nought a while] Warburton +explained ["be nought a while" as "a mischief on you"] If _be +nought a while_ has the signification here given it, the reading +may certainly stand; but till I learned its meaning from this +note, I read, + + _Be better employed, and be_ naught a while. + +In the same sense as we say, _it is better to do mischief, than to +do nothing_. + +I.i.59 (233,7) [I am no villain] The word _villain_ is used by the +elder brother, in its present meaning, for a _worthless, wicked_, +or _bloody man_; by Orlando in its original signification, for a +_fellow of base extraction_. + + +I.ii.34 (237,9) [mock the good housewife Fortune from her wheel] +The wheel of Fortune is not the _wheel_ of a _housewife_. Shakespeare +has confounded Fortune, whose wheel only figures uncertainty and +vicissitude, with the Destiny that spins the thread of life, +though indeed not with a wheel. + +I.ii.87 (239,1) + + [_Clo_. One, that old Frederick your father loves. + _Cel_. My father's love is enough to honour him] + +[T. invoking the Dramatis Personae: Celia] Mr. Theobald seems not +to know that the Dramatis Personae were first enumerated by Rowe. + +I.ii.95 (239,2) [since the little wit that fools have, was silenc'd] +Shakespeare probably alludes to the use of _fools_ or _jesters_, who +for some ages had been allowed in all courts an unbridled liberty +of censure and mockery, and about this time began to be less +tolerated. + +I.ii.112 (240,3) [laid on with a trowel] I suppose the meaning is, +that there is too heavy a mass of big words laid upon a slight subject. + +I.ii.115 (240,4) [You amaze me, ladies] To _amaze_, here, is not to +astonish or strike with wonder, but to perplex; to confuse; as, +to put out of the intended narrative. + +I.ii.131 (241,5) [With bills on their necks: _Be it known unto all +men by these presents_] This conjecture is ingenious. Where meaning +is so very thin, as in this vein of jocularity, it is hard to +catch, and therefore I know not well what to determine; but I cannot +see why Rosalind should suppose, that the competitors in a +wrestling match carried _bills_ on their shoulders, and I believe +the whole conceit is in the poor resemblance of _presence_ and _presents_. + +I.ii.149 (241,6) [is there any else longs to see this broken musick +in his sides?] [W: set] If any change were necessary, I should +write, _feel this broken musick_, for _see_. But _see_ is the colloquial +term for perception or experiment. So we say every day, +_see_ if the water be hot; I will _see_ which is the best time; she +has tried, and _sees_ that she cannot lift it. In this sense _see_ +may be here used. The sufferer can, with no propriety, be said +to _set_ the musick; neither is the allusion to the act of tuning +an instrument, or pricking a tune, one of which must be meant by +_setting_ musick. Rosalind hints at a whimsical similitude between +the series of ribs gradually shortening, and some musical instruments, +and therefore calls _broken ribs, broken musick_. + +I.ii.185 (243,8) [If you saw yourself with your eyes, or knew yourself +with your judgment] [W: our eyes, and our judgment] I cannot +find the absurdity of the present reading. _If you were not +blinded and intoxicated_, says the princess, _with the spirit of +enterprise, if you could use_ your own eyes to _see_, or your own +judgment to know _yourself, the fear of your adventure would counsel +you_. + +I.ii.195 (243,9) [I beseech you, punish me not with your hard thoughts, +wherein I confess me much guilty] I should wish to read, _I beseech +you, punish me not with your hard thoughts_. Therein _I confess myself +much guilty to deny so fair and excellent ladies any thing._ + +I.ii.257 (246,1) [one out of suits with Fortune] This seems an allusion +to cards, where he that has no more cards to play of any +particular sort is _out of suit_. + +I.ii.275 (247,3) [the Duke's condition] The word _condition_ means +character, temper, disposition. So Anthonio the merchant of +Venice, is called by his friend the _best conditioned man_. + +I.iii.33 (249,5) [you should love his son dearly? By this kind of +chase, I should hate him, for my father hated his father dearly] +That is, by this way of _following_ the argument. _Dear_ is used by +Shakespeare in a double sense, for _beloved_, and for _hurtful_, +_hated_, _baleful_. Both senses are authorised, and both drawn from +etymology, but properly _beloved_ is _dear_, and _hateful_ is _dere._ +Rosalind uses _dearly_ in the good, and Celia in the bad sense. + +I.iii.83 (251,6) [And thou wilt show more bright, and seem more virtuous] +[W: shine] The plain meaning of the old and true reading is, that when +she was seen alone, she would be more noted. + +I.iii.98 (251,7) [Rosalind lacks then the love Which teacheth thee +that thou and I am one][W: which teacheth me] Either reading may +stand. The sense of the established text is not remote or obscure. +Where would be the absurdity of saying, _You know not the law which +teaches you to do right_. + +I.iii.119 (252,9) [curtle-ax]--_curtle-axe_. or _cutlace_. a broad +sword. + +II.i.13 (254,3) + + [Which, like the toad, ugly and venomous + Wears yet a precious jewel in his head] + +It was the current opinion in Shakespeare's time, that in the +head of an old toad was to be found a stone, or pearl, to which +great virtues were ascribed. This stone has been often sought, +but nothing has been found more than accidental or perhaps morbid +indurations of the skull. + +II.i.18 (254,4) [I would not change it] Mr. Upton, not without +probability, gives these words to the Duke, and makes Amiens begin, +_Happy is your grace_. + +II.i.67 (256,6) [to cope him] To encounter him; to engage with him. + +II.iii.8 (257,8) [The bony priser] So Milton, _Giants of mighty_ bone. + +II.iii.37 (258,9) [diverted blood] Blood turned out of the course of +nature. + +II.iii.60 (259,1) + + [promotion; + And, having that, do choak their service up + Even with the having] + +Even with the _promotion_ gained by service is service extinguished. + +II.iv.33 (261,4) [If thou remember'st not the slightest folly] I am +inclined to believe that from this passage Suckling took the hint +of his song. + + _Honest lover, whosoever, + If in all thy love there ever + Were one wav'ring thought, thy flame + Were not even, still the same. + Know this + Thou lov'st amiss, + And to love true + Thou must begin again and love anew_, &c. (rev. 1778, III,297,4) + + +II.iv.48 (262,5) [batlet] The instrument with which washers beat +their coarse cloaths. + +II.iv.51 (262,6) [two cods] For _cods_ it would be more like sense to +read _peas_, which having the shape of pearls, resembled the common +presents of lovers. + +II.iv.55 (262,7) [so is all nature in love, mortal in folly] This +expression I do not well understand. In the middle counties, +_mortal_, from _mort_, a great quantity, is used as a particle of +amplification; as _mortal tall, mortal little_. Of this sense I +believe Shakespeare takes advantage to produce one of his darling +equivocations. Thus the meaning will be, _so is all nature in +love_ abounding _in folly_. + +II.iv.87 (263,8) [And in my voice most welcome shall ye be] _In my +voice_, as far as I have a voice or vote, as far as I have power +to bid you welcome. + +II.v.56 (265,2) [Duc ad me] For _ducdame_ sir T. Hammer, very acutely +and judiciously, reads _duc ad me_. That is, _bring him to me_. + +II.v.63 (266,3) [the first-born of Egypt] A proverbial expression +for high-born persons. (1773) + +II.vii.13 (267,4) [A motley fool!--a miserable world.'] [W: miserable +varlet] I see no need of changing _fool_ to _varlet_, nor, if a change +were necessary, can I guess how it should certainly be known that +_varlet_ is the true word. _A miserable world_ is a parenthetical +exclamation, frequent among melancholy men, and natural to Jaques at the +sight of a fool, or at the hearing of reflections on the fragility of +life. + +II.vii.44 (268,5) [only suit] _Suit_ means _petition_. I believe, not +_dress_. + +II.vii.55 (269,7) + + [If not, + The wise man's folly is anatomiz'd + Even by the squandring glances of the fool] + +Unless men have the prudence not to appear touched with the sarcasm +of a jester, they subject themselves to his power, and the +wise man will have his folly _anatomised_, that is _dissected_ and +_laid open_ by the _squandring glances_ or _random shots_ of a fool. + +II.vii.66 (269,8) [As sensual as the brutish sting] Though the _brutish +sting_ is capable of a sense not inconvenient in this passage, yet +as it is a harsh and unusual mode of speech, I should read the +_brutish sty_. + +II.vii.04 (270,9) + + [The thorny point + Of bare distress hath ta'en from me the shew + Of smooth civility] + +We might read _torn_ with more elegance, but elegance alone will +not justify alteration. + +II.vii.125 (271,1) [And take upon command what help we have] It seems +necessary to read, _then take upon_ demand _what help_, &c. that is, +_ask_ for what we can supply, and have it. + +II.vii.156 (272,3) [Full of wise saws and modern instances] I am in +doubt whether _modern_ is in this place used for absurd; the meaning +seems to be, that the justice is full of _old_ sayings and _late_ +examples. + +II.vii.167 (273,5) [Set down your venerable burden] Is it not likely +that Shakespeare had in his mind this line of the Metamorphoses? + + --_Patremque + Fert humeris_, venerabile onus _Cythereius heros_. + + +II.vii.177 (274,5) + + [Thy tooth is not so keen, + Because thou art not seen] + +[W: art not sheen] I am afraid that no reader is satisfied with +Dr. Warburton's emendation, however vigorously enforced; and it +is indeed enforced with more art than truth. _Sheen_, i.e. _smiling, +shining_. That _sheen_ signifies _shining_, is easily proved, but when +or where did it signify _smiling_? yet _smiling_ gives the sense +necessary in this place. Sir T. Banner's change is less uncouth, +but too remote from the present text. For my part, I question +whether the original line is not lost, and this substituted merely +to fill up the measures and the rhyme. Yet even out of this +line, by strong agitation may sense be elicited, and sense not +unsuitable to the occasion. _Thou winter wind_, says the Duke, _thy +rudeness gives the less pain_, as thou art not seen, _as thou art +an enemy that dost not brave us with thy presence, and whose unkindness +is therefore not aggravated by insult_. + +II.vii.187 (275,6) [Tho' thou the waters warp] To _warp_ was probably, +in Shakespeare's time, a colloquial word, which conveyed no distant +allusion to any thing else, physical or medicinal. To warp +is to _turn_, and to _turn_ is to _change_; when milk is _changed_ by +curdling, we now say, it is _turned_; when water is _changed_ or +_turned_ by frost, Shakespeare says, it is _curdled_. To be _warp'd_ +is only to be changed from its natural state. (1773) + +III.i.3 (276,7) [an absent argument] An _argument_ is used for the +_contents_ of a book, thence Shakespeare considered it as meaning +the _subject_, and then used it for _subject_ in yet another sense. + +III.i.18 (277,8) [Do this expediently] That is, _expeditiously_. + +III.ii.2 (277,9) [thrice-crowned queen of night] Alluding to the triple +character of Proserpine, Cynthia, and Diana, given by some +mythologists to the same Goddess, and comprised in these memorial +lines: + +_Terret, lustrat, agit, Proserpina, Luna, Diana, +Ima, superna, feras, sceptro, fuljore, sagittis._ + +III.ii.10 (277,1) [unexpressive] for _inexpressible_. + +III.ii.31 (278,2) [complain of good breeding] I am in doubt whether +the custom of the language in Shakespeare's time did not authorise +this mode of speech, and make _complain of good breeding_ the same +with _complain_ of the want of _good_ breeding. In the last line of +the Merchant of Venice we find that to _fear the keeping_ is to _fear +the_ not _keeping_. + +III.ii.39 (279,5) [Truly, then art damn'd, like an ill-roasted egg, +all on one side] Of this jest I do not fully comprehend the meaning. + +III.ii.85 (281,1) [bawd to a bell-wether] _Wether_ and _ram_ had anciently +the same meaning. + +III.ii.135 (282,1) + + [Tongues I'll hang on every tree, + That shall civil sayings show] + +_Civil_ is here used in the same sense as when we say _civil_ wisdom +or _civil life_, in opposition to a solitary state, or to the state +of nature. This desert shall not appear _unpeopled_, for every tree +shall teach the maxims or incidents of social life. + +III.ii.149 (283,2) [Therefore heaven nature charg'd] From the picture +of Apelles, or the accomplishments of Pandora. + + [Greek: Aeanertu, oti pautei dlumpia + Dorou xdorau.-----------] + +So before, + -------------------_But thou + So perfect, and no peerless art created + Of ev'ry creature's beat._ Tempest. + +Perhaps from this passage Swift had his hint of Biddy Floyd. + +III.ii.155 (283,3) [Atalanta's better part] I know not well what +could be the better part of Atalanta here ascribed to Rosalind. +Of the Atalanta most celebrated, and who therefore must be intended +here where she has no epithet of discrimination, the better +part seems to have been her heels, and the worse part was so bad +that Rosalind would not thank her lover for the comparison. There +is a more obscure Atalanta, a huntress and a heroine, but of her +nothing bad is recorded, and therefore I know not which was the +better part. Shakespeare was no despicable mythologist, yet he +seems here to have mistaken some other character for that of Atalanta. + +III.ii.156 (283,4) [Sad] is _grave, sober_, not _light_. + +III.ii.160 (284,5) [the touches] The features; _les traits._ + +III.ii.186 (284,6) [I was never so be-rhimed since Pythagoras's time, +that I was an Irish rat] Rosalind is a very learned lady. She +alludes to the Pythagorean doctrine, which teaches that souls +transmigrate from one animal to another, and relates that in his +time she was an Irish _rat_, and by some metrical charm was rhymed +to death. The power of killing rats with rhymes Donne mentions in +his Satires, and Temple in his Treatises. Dr. Gray has produced a +similar passage from Randolph. + + --_My poets + Shall with a saytire steeped in vinegar + Rhyme then to death as they do rats in Ireland._ + +III.ii.206 (285,8) [One inch of delay more is a South-sea of discovery] +This sentence is rightly noted by the commentator [W] as nonsense, +but not so happily restored to sense. I read thus: + +_One inch of delay more is a South-sea_. Discover, _I pr'ythee; +tell me who is it quickly;_--When the transcriber had once made +_discovery_ from _discover, I_, he easily put an article after +South-sea. + +But it may be read with still less change, and with equal +probability. _Every inch of delay more is a_ South-sea discovery: +_Every delay_, however short, is to me tedious and irksome as the +longest voyage, as a voyage of _discovery_ on the _South-sea_. How +such voyages to the South-sea, on which the English had then first +ventured, engaged the conversation of that time, may be easily +imagined. + +III.ii.238 (287,9) [Garagantna's mouth] Rosalind requires nine questions +to be answered in _one word_. Celia tells her that a word of +such magnitude is too big for any mouth but that of Garagantua the +giant of Rabelais. + +III.ii.290 (288,2) [but I answer you right painted cloth] Sir T. +Hammer reads, _I answer you right_, in the stile of the _painted +cloth. Something seems wanting, and I know not what can be proposed +better. _I answer you right painted cloth_, may mean, I +give you a true painted cloth answer; as we say, she talks _right +Billingsgate_; that is, exactly such language as is used at +Billingsgate. (1773) + +III.ii.363 (291,3) [in-land man] Is used in this play for one +_civilised_, in opposition to the _rustick_ of the priest. So Orlando +before--_Yet am I_ in-land _bred_, _and know some nurture._ + +III.ii.393 (291,4) [an unquestionable spirit] That is, a spirit not +_inquisitive_, a mind indifferent to common objects, and negligent +of common occurrences. Here Shakespeare has used a passive for +an active mode of speech; so in a former scene, _The Duke is too_ +disputable _for me_, that is, too _disputatious_. + +III.ii.439 (293,5) [to a living humour of madness] If this be the +true reading we must by _living_ understand _lasting_, or _permanent_, +but I cannot forbear to think that some antithesis was intended +which is now lost; perhaps the passage stood thus, _I drove my +suitor from a_ dying _humour of love to a living humour of madness_. +Or rather thus, _from a mad humour of love to a_ loving _humour of +madness_, that is, from a _madness_ that was _love_, to a _love_ that +was _madness_. This seems somewhat harsh and strained, but such +modes of speech are not unusual in our poet; and this harshness +was probably the cause of the corruption. + +III.iii.21 (294,7) [and what they swear in poetry, may be said, as +lovers, they do feign] This sentence seems perplexed and inconsequent, +perhaps it were better read thus, _What they swear as +lovers they may be said to feign as poets_. + +III.iii.32 (295,8) [A material fool!] A fool with _matter_ in bin; a +fool stocked with notions. + +III.iii.51 (295,1) [what tho?] What then. + +III.iii.65 (296,2) [Sir Oliver] He that has taken his first degree +at the university, is in the academical style called _Dominus_, +and in common language was heretofore termed _Sir_. This was not +always a word of contempt; the graduates assumed it in their +own writings; so Trevisa the historian writes himself _Syr_ John +de Trevisa. + +III.iii.101 (297,4) [Not, O sweet Oliver] Of this speech, as it +now appears, I can make nothing, and think nothing can be made. +In the same breath he calls his mistress to be married, and +sends away the man that should marry them. Dr. Warburton has +very happily observed, that _O sweet Oliver_ is a quotation from +an old song; I believe there are two quotations put in opposition +to each other. For _wind_ I read _wend,_ the old word for _go._ Perhaps +the whole passage may be regulated thus, + +Clo. _I am not in the mind. but it were better for me to be +married of him than of another, for he is not like to marry me +well, and not being well married, it will be a good excuse for +me hereafter to leave my wife--Come, sweet Audrey, we must be +married, or we must live in bawdry._ + +Jaq. _Go then with me, and let me counsel thee._ [they whisper.] + +Clo. _Farewel, good sir Oliver, not _O sweet Oliver, O brave +Oliver, leave Be not behind thee,--_but_ + + _Wend away + Begone, I say, + I will not to wedding with thee to-day._ + +Of this conjecture the reader may take as much as shall appear +necessary to the sense, or conducive to the humour. I have received +all but the additional words. The song seems to be complete +without them. (1773) + +III.iv.11 (298, 5) [I' faith, his hair is of a good colour] There is +much of nature in this petty perverseness of Rosalind; she finds +faults in her lover, in hope to be contradicted, and when Celia +in sportive malice too readily seconds her accusations, she contradicts +herself rather than suffer her favourite to want a vindication. + +III.v.5 (301, 1) [Will you sterner be Than he that dies and lives by +bloody drops?] [W: deals and lives] [Hammer: lives and thrives] +Either Dr. Warburton's emendation, except that the word _deals,_ +wants its proper construction, or that of sir T. Hammer may serve +the purpose; but I believe they have fixed corruption upon the +wrong word, and should rather read, + + _Than he that dies_ his lips by _bloody drops?_ + +Will you speak with more sternness than the executioner, whose +_lips_ are used to be _sprinkled_ with blood? The mention of _drops_ +implies some part that must be sprinkled rather than dipped. + +III. v. 23 (303, 2) [The cicatrice and capable impressure] Cicatrice +is here not very properly used; it is the scar of a wound. +_Capable impressure arrows mark._ + +III. v. 29 (303, 3) [power of fancy] _Fancy_ is here used for _love,_ as +before in Midsummer Night's Dream. + +III. v. 35 (304, 4) [Who might be your mother] It is common for the +poets to express cruelty by saying, of those who commit it, that +they were born of rocks, or suckled by tigresses. + +III. v. 48 (305, 8) [That can entame ay spirits to your worship] +[W: entraine] The common reading seems unexceptionable. + +III. v. 62 (305, 9) [Foal is most foul, being foul to be a scoffer] +[W: being found] The sense of the received reading is not fairly +represented; it is, _The ugly seem most ugly, when,_ though _ugly, +they are scoffers._ + +III.v.78 (306,2) [Though all the world could see, None could be so +abus'd in sight, as he] Though all mankind could look on you, +none could be so _deceived_ as to think you beautiful but he. + +IV.i.37 (309,3) [swam in a gondola] That is, _been at_ Venice, the +sweat at that tine of all licentiousness, where the young English +gentlemen waited their fortunes, debased their morals, and sometimes +lost their religion. + +The fashion of travelling, which prevailed very much in our author's +time, was considered by the wiser men as one of the principal +causes of corrupt manners. It was therefore gravely censored +by Aschaa in his Schoolmaster, and by bishop Hall in his Quo Vadis; +and is here, and in other passages, ridiculed by Shakespeare. + +IV.i.157 (312,6) [and that when you are inclin'd to sleep] [W: to +weep] I know not why we should read _to weep_. I believe most men +would be more angry to have their _sleep_ hindered than their _grief_ +interrupted. + +IV.i.168 (313,8) [_Wit, whither wilt_?] This must be some allusion to a +story well known at that time, though not perhaps irretrievable. + +IV.i.177 (313,9) [make her fault her husband's occasion] That is, +represent her fault as occasioned by her husband. Sir T. Banner +reads, _her husband's_ accusation. + +IV.i.195 (314,1) [I will think you the most pathetical break-promise] +[W: atheistical] I do not see but that _pathetical_ may stand, which +seems to afford as much sense and as much humour as _atheistical_. + +IV.ii.14 (315,2) [_Take thou no scorn_] [T: In former editions: _Then +sing him home, the rest shall bear his burden_. This is an admirable +instance of the sagacity of our preceding editors, to say nothing +worse. One should expect, when they were _poets_, they would at +least have taken care of the _rhimes_, and not foisted in what has +nothing to answer it. Now, where is the rhime to, _the rest shall +bear this burden_? Or, to ask another question, where is the sense +of it? Does the poet mean, that He, that kill'd the deer, shall +be sung home, and the rest shall bear the deer on their backs? +This is laying a burden on the poet, that we mist help him to throw +off. In short, the mystery of the whole is, that a marginal note +is wisely thrust into the text: the song being design'd to be sung +by a single voice, and the stanzas to close with a burden to be +sung by the whole company.] This note I have given as a specimen +of Mr. Theobald's jocularity, and the eloquence with which he +recommends his emendations. + +IV.iii (316,4) [_Enter Rosalind and Celia_] The foregoing noisy scene +was introduced only to fill up an interval, which is to represent +two hours. This contraction of the time we might impute to poor +Rosalind's impatience, but that a few minutes after we find Orlando +sending his excuse. I do not see that by any probable division of +the acts this absurdity can be obviated. + +IV.iii.48 (318,3) [_That could do no vengeance to me] Vengeance_ is +used for _mischief_. + +IV.iii.59 (318,4) [youth and kind] _Kind_ is the old word for _nature_. + +IV.iii.101 (319,5) [Within an hour] We must read, _within two hours_. + +IV.iii.160 (321,6) [cousin--Ganymed!] Celia in her first fright forgets +Rosalind's character and disguise, and calls out _cousin_, then +recollects herself, and says Ganymed. + +V.ii.21 (325,9) [And you, fair sister] I know not why Oliver should +call Rosalind sister. He takes her yet to be a man. I suppose +we should read, _and you_, and your _fair sister_. + +V.ii.45 (326,1) [Clubs cannot part them] Alluding to the way of +parting dogs in wrath. + +V.ii.74 (327,2) [human as she is] That is, not a phantom, but the +real Rosalind, without any of the danger generally conceived to +attend the rites of incantation. + +V.iii.17 (329,3) [_It was a lover and his lass_] The stanzas of this +song are in all the editions evidently transposed: as I have regulated +them, that which in the former copies was the second stanza +is now the last. + +The same transposition of these stanzas is made by Dr. Thirlby, +in a copy containing some notes on the margin, which I have perused +by the favour of Sir Edward Walpole. (see 1765, II,97,3) + +V.iii.36 (330,4) [the note was very untuneable] [T: untimeable] This +emendation is received. I think very undeservedly, by Dr. Warburton. + +V.iv.4 (331,5) [As those that fear, they hope, and know they fear] +[W: their hap, and know their] The deprivation of this line is +evident, but I do not think the learned commentator's emendation +very happy. I read thus, + +_As those that fear_ with _hope, and hope_ with _fear_. + +Or thus, with less alteration, + +_As those that fear_, they _hope, and_ now _they fear_. + +V.iv.36 (332,6) [Here comes a pair of very strange beasts] [W: unclean +beasts] _Strange beasts_ are only what we call _odd_ animals. There is +no need of any alteration. + +V.iv.51 (333,7) [found the quarrel was upon the seventh cause] So +all the copies; but it is apparent from the sequel that we must +read, _the quarrel was_ not _upon the seventh cause_. + +V.iv.56 (333,8) [I desire you of the like] [W: of you] I have not +admitted the alteration, because there are other examples of +this mode of expression. (1773) + +V.iv.59 (333,9) [according as marraige binds, and blood breaks] I +cannot discover what has here puzzled the commentator [W]: _to +swear according as marriage binds_, ii to take the oath enjoin'd +in the ceremonial of marriage. + +V.iv.68 (334,1) [dulcet diseases] This I do not understand. For +_diseases_ it is easy to read _discourses_: but, perhaps the fault +may lie deeper. + +V.iv.114 (336,4) [_Enter Hymen_] Rosalind is imagined by the rest of +the company to be brought by enchantment, and is therefore introduced +by a supposed aerial being in the character of Hymen. + +V.iv.125 (336,5) [If there be truth in sight] The answer of Phebe +makes it probable that Orlando says, _if there be truth in_ shape: +that is, _if a form may be trusted_; if one cannot usurp the form +of another. + +V.iv.136 (337,6) [If truth holds true contents] That is, if there be +_truth in truth_, unless truth fails of veracity. + +V.iv.147 (337,7) [_Wedding is great Juno's crown_] Catullus, addressing +himself to Hymen, has this stanza: + +Quae tuis careat sacris, +Non queat dare praesides +Terra finibus: at queat +Te volente. Quis huic deo +Compararier ausit? (1773) + +Epilogue.7 (340,5) [What a case am I in then] Here seems to be a chasm, +or some other depravation, which destroys the sentiment here intended. +The reasoning probably stood thus, _Good wine needs no +bush, good plays need no epilogue_, but bad wine requires a good +bush, and a bad play a good epilogue. _What case am I in then_? +To restore the words is impossible; all that can be done without +copies is, to note the fault. + +Epilogue.10 (340,1) [furnish'd like a beggar] That is dressed: so +before, he was _furnished_ like a huntsman. + +Epilogue.13 (340,2) [I charge you, O women, for the love you bear to +men, to like as much of this Play as pleases them: and I charge +you, O men, for the love you bear to women----that between you +and the women] [W: pleases them...pleases them] The words _you_ and +_of_ written as was the custom in that time, were in manuscript +scarcely distinguishable. The emendation is very judicious and +probable. + +(341,4) General Observation. Of this play the fable is wild and +pleasing. I know not how the ladies will approve the facility +with which both Rosalind and Celia give away their hearts. To +Celia much may be forgiven for the heroism of her friendship. +The character of Jaqaes is natural and well preferred. The +comick dialogue is very sprightly, with less mixture of low +buffoonery than in some other plays; and the graver part is elegant +and harmonious. By hastening to the end of his work, +Shakespeare suppressed the dialogue between the usurper and the +hermit, and lost an opportunity of exhibiting a moral lesson in +which he might have found matter worthy of his highest powers. + + + + +THE TAMING OF THE SHREW + +Induction.i.l (346,1) [I'll pheeze you] To _pheeze_ or _fease_. is to +separate a twist into single threads. In the figurative sense it +may well enough be taken, like _teaze_ or _toze_, for to _harrass_. to +_plague_. Perhaps _I'll pheeze you_, may be equivalent to _I'll comb +your head_, a phrase vulgarly used by persons of Sly's character +on like occasions. The following explanation of the word is +given by Sir Tho. Sayth in his book de Sermone Anglico, printed +by Robert Stephens, 4vo. To _feize_. means _in fila diducere_. (see +1765, III,[3],1) + +Induction.i.3 (347,2) [no rogues] That is _vagrants_, no mean fellows, +but gentlemen. + +Induction.i.17 (348,7) [Brach Merriman, the poor cur is imboat] Sir +T. Banner reads, Leech _Merriman_. that is, apply some remedies to +Merriman, the poor cur has his _joints swelled_. Perhaps we might +read, _bathe_ Merriman, which is I believe the common practice of +huntsmen, but the present reading may stand: + + --_tender well my hounds_: + Brach--Merriman--_the poor cur is imboat._ + +Induction.i.64 (351,8) [And when he says he is,--say that he dreams] +[steevens:he's poor,--say] If any thing should be inserted, it may +be done thus, + +"And when he says he's _Sly_, say that he dreams." + +The likeness in writing of _Sly_ and _say_ produced the omission.(1773) + +Induction.i.67 (352,9) + +[It will be pastime excellent, +If it be husbanded with modesty] + +By _modesty_ is meant _moderation_, without suffering our merriment to +break into an excess. + +Induction.i.82 (352,1) [to accept our duty] It was in those times +the custom of players to travel in companies, and offer their service at +great houses. + +Induction.i.101 (353,4) [property] in the language of a playhouse, +is every implement necessary to the exhibition. + +Induction.i.125 (355,7) [To rain a shower of commanded toars, +An onion will do well for such a shift] + +It is not unlikely that the _onion_ was an expedient used by the +actors of interludes. + +Induction.ii.89 (359,8) [Leet] As the _Court leet_. or courts of the +manor. + +I.i.9 (362,2) [ingenious studies] I rather think it was written +ingenuous studies, but of this and a thousand such observations +there is little certainty. + +I.i.18 (363,4) [Virtue, and that part of philosophy Will I apply] +Sir Thomas Hammer, and after him Dr. Warburton, read to virtues +but formerly ply and apply were indifferently used, as to ply or +apply his studies. + +I.i.78 (365,7) [A pretty peat!] Peat or pet is a word of endearment +from petit, little, as if it meant pretty little thing. + +I.i.85 (365,8) [will you be so strange?] That is, so odd, so different +from others in your conduct. + +I.i.97 (366,9) [cunning men] Cunning had not yet lost its original +signification of knowing, learned, as nay be observed in the +translations of the Bible. + +I.i.167 (368,2) [Redime te captum quasi queas minimi] Our author had +this line from Lilly, which I mention, that it may not be brought +as an argument of his learning. + +I.i.208 (369,3) [port] Pert, is figure, show, appearance. + +I.ii.52 (372,5) [Where small experience grows. But, in a few] +Why this should seem nonsense, I cannot perceive. In few words +it means the same as in short. + +I.ii.68 (373,6) [As wealth is burthen of my wooing dance] The burthen +of a dance is an expression which I have never heard; the burthen +of his wooing song had been more proper. + +I.ii.72 (373,8) [Affection's edge in me] Surely the sense of the +present reading is too obvious to be missed or mistaken. Petruchio +says, that, if a girl has money enough, no bad qualities of mind +or body will remove affection's edge; i.e. hinder him from liking +her. + +I.ii.112 (375,1) [an' he begin once, he'll rail--In his rope-tricks] +This is obscure. Sir Thomas Hammer reads, he'll rail in his +rhetorick; I'll tell you, &c. Rhetorick agrees very well with +figure in the succeeding part of the speech, yet I am inclined to +believe that rope-tricks is the true word. + +I.ii.115 (375,2) [that she shall have no more eyes to see withal +than a cat] It may mean, that he shall swell up her eyes with +blows, till she shall seem to peep with a contracted pupil like +a cat in the light. (1773) + +I.ii.276 (381,9) [Please ye, we may contrive this afternoon] The +word is used in the same sense of spending or wearing out in the +Palace of Pleasure. + +II.1.17 (382,2) [You will have Gremio, to keep you fair] I wish to +read, To keep you fine. But either word may serve. + +II.i.26 (388,3) [hilding] The word hildlng or hinderling--a low +wretch; it is applied to Catharine for the coarseness of her +behaviour. + +II.i.209 (389,7) [Ay, for a turtle; as he takes a buzzard] Perhaps +we may read better, Ay, for a turtle, and he take a buzzard. +That is, he may take me for a turtle, and he shall find me a hawk. + +II.i.310 (393,9) [kill on kiss She vy's so fast] I know not that the +word vie has any construction that will suit this place; we may +easily read, + +--kiss on kiss +She ply'd so fast. + +II.i.340 (394,1) + +[Tra. Grey-beard! thy love doth freeze. + Ore. But thine doth fry] + +Old Gremio's notions are confirmed by Shadwell: + +The fire of love in youthful blood. +Like what is kindled in brush-wood. +But for a moment burns-- +But when crept into aged reins, +It slowly burns, and long remains, +It glows, and with a sullen heat. +Like fire in logs, it burns, and warms us long; +And though the flame be not so great, +Yet is the heat as strong. + +II.1.407 (397,4) [Yet have I fac'd it with a card of ten] [W. quoted +Jonson for "a hart of ten"] If the word hart be right, I do not +see any use of the latter quotation. + +II.1.413 (398,5)[Here the former editors add, Sly. Sim, when will +the fool come again? Steevens.] The character of the fool has not +been introduced in this drama, therefore I believe that the word +again should be omitted, and that Sly asks, When will the fool +come? the fool being the favourite of the vulgar, or, as we now +phrase it, of the upper gallery, was naturally expected in every +interlude. + +III.1.37 (400,6) [pantaloon] the old cully in Italian farces. + +III.ii.10 (403,1) [full of spleen] That is, full of humour, caprice; +and inconstancy. + +III.ii.45 (404,3) [a pair of boots that have been candle--eases; one +buckled, another lac'd; an old rusty sword ta'en out of the +town armory, with a broken hilt, and chapeless, with two broken points] +Bow a sword should have two broken points, I cannot tell. There +is, I think, a transposition caused by the seeming relation of +point to sword. I read, a pair of boots, one buckled, another + +_laced_ with two broken points; _an old rusty sword_--_with a broken +hilt, and chapeless_. + +III.ii.109 (406,7) [to digress] to deviate from any promise. + +IV.i.3 (412,9) [was ever man so ray'd?] That is, was ever man so +mark'd with lashes. + +IV.i.93 (416,7) [garters of an indifferent knit] What is the sense +of this I know not, unless it means, that their _garters_ should +be _fellows_; _indifferent_, or _not different_, one from the other. + +IV.i.139 (417,8) [no link, to colour Peter's hat] _Link_, I believe, +is the name with what we now call _lamp-black_. + +IV.i.145 (418,9) [Soud, soud] That is, _sweet, sweet_. _Soot_, and +sometimes _sooth_, is _sweet_. So in Milton, _to sing soothly_, is, +to sing sweetly. + +IV.i.196 (420,3) [to man my haggard] A _haggard_ is a _wild hawk_; +to _man_ a hawk is to _tame_ her. + +IV.iii.43 (428,8) [And all my pains is sorted to no proof] And all _my_ +labour has ended in nothing, or _proved_ nothing. _We tried an experiment, +but it_ sorted _not. Bacon_. + +IV.iii.56 (428,9) [With silken coats, and caps, and golden rings, +With ruffs, and cuffs, and fardingals, and things] +Though _things_ is a poor word, yet I have no better, and perhaps +the authour had not another that would rhyme. I once thought to +transpose the words _rings_ and _things_, but it would make little +improvement. + +IV.iii.91 (430,2) [censer] in barber's shops, are now disused, but +they may easily be imagined to have been vessels which, for the +emission of the smoke, were cut with great number and varieties +of interstices. + +IV.iii.107 (430,3) [thou thimble] The taylor's trade having an appearance +of effeminacy, has always been, among the rugged English, +liable to sarcasms and contempt. + +IV.iii.140 (431,3) [a small compass'd cape] A _compass'd cape_ is a +round cape. To _compass_ is _to come round_. (1773) + +IV.iv (434,5) I cannot but think that the direction about the Tinker, +who is always introduced at the end of the acts, together with the +change of the scone, and the proportion of each act to the rest, +make it probable that the fifth act begins here. + +IV.iv.48 (436,7) [Where then do you know best, Be we affied] This +seems to be wrong. We may read more commodiously, +----_Where then_ you do _know best_ +_Be we affied_;----- + +Or thus, which I think is right, +_Where then do you_ trow _best_, +_We be affied_;------ + +V.i.70 (443,2) [a copatain hat!] is, I believe, a hat with a conical +crown, such as was anciently worn by well-dressed men. + +V.ii.54 (448,5) [A good swift simile] besides the original sense of +_speedy in motion_, signified _witty, quick-witted_. So in As You +Like It, the Duke says of the Clown, _He is very_ swift _and sententious. +Quick_ is now used in almost the same sense as _nimble_ was +in the age after that of our author. Heylin says of Hales, that +_he had known Laud for a_ nimble, _disputant_. + +V.ii.186 (453,7) [tho' you hit the white] To hit the _white_ is a +phrase borrowed from archery: the mark was commonly white. Here +it alludes to the name _Bianca_, or _white_. + +(454) General Observation. From this play the Tatler formed a story, +[Johnson here copies out the _Tatler_ story.] It cannot but seen +strange that Shakespeare should be so little known to the author of +the Tatler, that he should suffer this story to be obtruded upon him; +or so little known to the publick, that he could hope to make it pass +upon his readers as a real narrative of a transaction in Lincolnshire; +yet it is apparent, that he was deceived, or intended to deceive, that +he knew not himself whence the story was taken, or hoped that he might +rob so obscure a writer without detection. + +Of this play the two plots are so well united, that they can hardly be +called two without injury to the art with which they are interwoven. +The attention is entertained with all the variety of a double plot, +yet is not distracted by unconnected incidents. + +The part between Catharine and Petruchio is eminently spritely and +diverting. At the marriage of Bianca the arrival of the real father, +perhaps, produces more perplexity than pleasure. The whole play is +very popular and diverting, (see 1765, III,97,5) + + + + +Vol. IV + + +ALL'S WELL THAT ENDS WELL + +I.i.1 (3,2) [In delivering my son from me] [W: dissevering] Of this +change I see no need: the present reading is clear, and, perhaps, +as proper as that which the great commentator would substitute; +for the king _dissevers_ her son from her, she only _delivers_ him. + +I.i.5 (4,3) [to whom I am now in ward] Under his particular care, as +my guardian, till I come to age. It is now almost forgotten in +England that the heirs of great fortunes were the king's _wards_. +Whether the same practice prevailed in France, it is of no great +use to enquire, for Shakespeare gives to all nations the manners +of England. + +I. i.19 (4,5) [This young gentlewoman had a father, (O, that _had_! +how sad a passage 'tis!)] [W: presage 'tis] This emendation is +ingenious, perhaps preferable to the present reading, yet since +_passage_ may be fairly enough explained, I have left it in the +text. _Passage_ is _anything that passes_, so we now say, a _passage_ +of an _authour_. and we said about a century ago, the _passages_ of a +_reign_. When the _countess_ mentions Helena's loss of a father, she +recollects her own loss of a husband, and stops to observe how +heavily that word _had_ passes through her mind. + +I.i.48 (6,6) [for where an unclean mind carries virtuous qualities, +there commendations go with pity, they are virtues and traitors +too; in her they are the better for their simpleness; she derives +her honesty, and atchieves her goodness] [W: her simpleness] This +is likewise a plausible but unnecessary alteration. _Her virtues +are the better for their simpleness_, that is, her excellencies are +the better because they are artless and open, without fraud, without +design. The learned commentator has well explained _virtues_. +but has not, I think, reached the force of the word _traitors_, and +therefore has not shown the full extent of Shakespeare's masterly +observation. _Virtues in an unclean mind are virtues and traitors +too_. Estimable and useful qualities, joined with evil disposition, +give that evil disposition power over others, who, by admiring the +virtue, are betrayed to the malevolence. The _Tatler_ mentioning +the sharpers of his time, observes, that some of them are men of +such elegance and knowledge, that _a young man who falls into their +way is_ betrayed _as much by his judgment as his passions_. + +I.i.86 (7,8) [If the living be enemy to the grief, the excess makes +it soon mortal] [W: be not enemy] This emendation I had once admitted +into the text, but restored the old reading, because I +think it capable of an easy explication. _Lafeu_ says, _excessive +grief is the enemy of the living_: the countess replies, _If the +living be an enemy to grief, the excess soon makes it mortal_: +that is, _if the living do not indulge grief, grief destroys itself +by its own excess_. By the word _mortal_ I understand _that which +dies_, and Dr. Warburton, _that which destroys_. I think that my +interpretation gives a sentence more acute and more refined. Let +the reader judge. + +I.i.78 (8,9) [That thee may furnish] That may help thee with more +and better qualifications. + +I.i.84 (8,1) [The best wishes that can beforg'd in your thoughts, be +servants to you!] That is, may you be mistress of your wishes, and +have power to bring then to effect. + +I.i.91 (8,2) [And these great tears grace his remembrance more] The +tears which the king and countess shed for him. + +I.i.99 (8,3) [In his bright radiance and collateral light +Must I be comforted, not in his sphere] I cannot be united with him +and move in the same _sphere_, but _must be comforted_ at a distance +by the _radiance_ that shoots _on all sides_ from him. + +I.i.107 (9,4) [Of every line and trick of his sweet favour!] So in +King John; _he hath a_ trick _of Coeur de Lion's face. Trick_ seen +to be some peculiarity of look or feature. + +I.i.122 (9,6) [you have some stain of soldier in you] [W: _"Stain_ for +colour."] _Stain_ rather for what we now say _tincture_, some +qualities, at least superficial, of a soldier. (1773) + +I.i.150 (10,8) [He, that hangs himself, is a virgin] [W: As he...so +is] I believe most readers Will spare both the emendations, which +I do not think much worth a claim or a contest. The old reading +is more spritely and equally just. + +I.i.165 (11,1) [Marry, ill, to like him that ne'er it likes] Parolles, +in answer to the question, _how one shall lose virginity to her own +liking?_ plays upon the word _liking_, and says, _she must do ill, for_ +virginity, to be so lost, _must like him that likes not_ virginity. + +I.i.178-191 (12,5) [Not my virginity yet] This whole speech is abrupt, +unconnected, and obscure. Dr. Warburton thinks much of it suppofititious. +I would be glad to think so of the whole, for a commentator +naturally wishes to reject what he cannot understand. Something, +which should connect Helena's words with those of Parolles, +seems to be wanting. Hammer has made a fair attempt by reading, + + _Not my virginity yet_--You're for the court, + _There shall your master_, &c. + +Some such clause has, I think, dropped out, but still the first +words want connection. Perhaps Parolles, going away after his +harangue, said, _will you any thing with me_? to which Helen may +reply--I know not what to do with the passage. + +I.i.184 (13,7) [a traitress] It seems that traitress was in that age +a term of endearment, for when Lafeu introduces Helena to the king, +he says, _You like a_ traytor, _but such_ traytors _his majesty does +not much fear_. + +I.i.199 (14,8) [And shew what we alone must think] And _shew_ by realities +what we now _must only think_. + +I.i.218 (14,9) [is a virtue of a good wing, and I like the wear well] +[W: good ming] This conjecture I could wish to see better proved. +This _common_ word _ming_ I have never found. The first edition of +this play exhibits wing without a capital: yet, I confess, that +a _virtue of good wing_ is an expression that I cannot understand, +unless by a metaphor taken from falconry, it may mean, _a virtue +that will fly high_, and in the stile of Hotspur, _Pluck honour from +the moon_. + +I.i.235 (15,1) [What power is it, which mounts my love so high; +That makes me see, and cannot feed mine eye?] + +She means, by what influence is my love directed to a person so +much above me. [why am I made to discern excellence, sad left to +long after it, without the food of hope.] + +I.i.237 (15,2) + +[The mightiest space in fortune, nature brings +To join like likes, and kiss, like native things. +Impossible be strange attempts, to those +That weigh their pain in sense; and do suppose, +What hath been] + +All these four lines are obscure, and, I believe, corrupt. I shall +propose an emendation, which those who can explain the present +reading, are at liberty to reject. + +Through _mightiest space in fortune nature brings_ +Likes to join likes, _and kiss, like native things._ + +That is, _nature_ brings _like qualities_ and dispositions _to meet_ +through any _distance_ that _fortune_ may have set between them; she +_joins_ them and makes them _kiss like things born together._ + +The next lines I read with Hammer. + +_Impossible be strange attempts to those +That weigh their pains in sense, and do suppose +What_ ha'n't _been, cannot be._ + +_New_ attempts seen impossible to those who estimate their _labour_ or +_enterprises_ by sense, and believe that nothing can be but what they +see before them. + +I.ii.32 (17,3) + +[He had the wit, which I can well observe +To-day in our young lords, but they may jest, +Till their own scorn return to them; unnoted, +Ere they can hide their levity in honour] + + +I believe _honour_ is not _dignity of birth or rank,_ but _acquired +reputation: Your father_, says the king, _had the same airy flights +of satirical wit-with the young lords of the present time, but they +do not what he did_, hide their unnoted _levity_ in honour, _cover petty +faults with great merit._ + +This is an excellent observation. Jocose follies, and slight offences, +are only allowed by mankind in him that overpowers them by +great qualities. + +I.ii.36 (18,4) + +[So like a courtier, contempt nor bitterness +Were in his pride or sharpness; if they were, +His equal had awak'd them] + +[W: no contempt or] The original edition reads the first line thus, + +_So like a courtier, contempt_ nor _bitterness._ + +The sense is the same. _Nor_ was used without reduplication. So +in _Measure for Measure,_ + +_More_ nor _less to others paying, +Than by self-offences weighing._ + +The old text needs to be explained. He was so like a courtier, +that there was in _his dignity of manner nothing contemptuous,_ and + +I.ii.41 (19, 5) [His tongue obey'd his hand] We should read, + + _His tongue obeyed_ the _hand._ + +That is, the _hand_ of _his honour's clock,_ shewing _the true minute +when exceptions bad him speak._ + +I.ii.44 (19, 7) [Making then proud of his humility, In their poor +praise he humbled] [W: proud; and his] Every man has seen the +_mean_ too often _proud_ of the _humility_ of the great, and perhaps +the great may sometimes be _humbled in the praises_ of the mean, +of those who commend them without conviction or discernment: +this, however is not so common; the _mean_ are found more frequently +than the _great._ + +I.ii.50 (19, 8) + +[So in approof lives not his epitaph, +As in your royal speech] + +[W: _Epitaph_ for character.] I should wish to read, + + _Approof_ so lives not _in his_ epitaph, + _As in your royal speech._ + +_Approof_ is _approbation._ If I should allow Dr. _Warburton's_ +interpretation of _Epitaph,_ which is more than can be reasonably +expected, I can yet find no sense in the present reading. + +I.ii.61 (20, 9) [_whose judgments are meer fathers of their garments_] +Who have no other use of their faculties, than to invent new modes +of dress. + +I.iii (21, 1) [_Enter Countess, Steward, and Clown_] A _Clown_ in +Shakespeare is commonly taken for a _licensed jester,_ or domestick +_fool._ We are not to wonder that we find this character often in his +plays, since fools were, at that time, maintained in all great families, +to keep up merriment in the house. In the picture of Sir Thomas More's +family, by Hans Holbein, the only servant represented is Patison the +_fool._ This is a proof of the familiarity to which they were admitted, +not by the great only, but the wise. + +In some plays, a servant, or a rustic, of remarkable petulance +and freedom of speech, is likewise called a clown. + +I.iii.3 (21, 2) [to even your content] To act up to your desires. + +I.iii.45 (23, 4) [You are shallow, madam, in great friends; for the +knaves come to do that for me, which I am a weary of] [Tyrwhitt: +my great] The meaning seems to be, you are not deeply skilled in +the character of offices of great friends. (1773) + +I.iii.96 (26, 1) [Clo. That man should be at woman's command, and yet +no hurt done!--Tho' honesty be no puritan, yet it will do no hurt; +it will wear the surplice of humility over the black gown of a +big heart] The clown's answer is obscure. His lady bids him do +as he is _commanded._ He answers with the licentious petulance of +his character, that _if a man does as a woman commands, it is +likely he will do amiss;_ that he does not amiss, being at the +command of a woman, he makes the effect, not of his lady's goodness, +but of his own _honesty,_ which, though not very nice or +_puritanical,_ will _do no hurt;_ and will not only do no hurt, but, +unlike the _puritans_, will comply with the injunctions of superiors, +and wear the _surplice of humility over the black gown of a big +heart_; will obey commands, though not much pleased with a state of +subjection. + +Here is an allusion, violently enough forced in, to satirize the +obstinacy with which the _puritans_ refused the use of the ecclesiastical +habits, which was, at that time, one principal cause of the +breach of union, and, perhaps, to insinuate, that the modest purity +of the surplice was sometimes a cover for pride. + +I.iii.140 (28,3) [By our remembrances] That is, _according to_ our +recollection. So we say, he is old _by_ my reckoning. + +I.iii.169 (29,5) + +[--or, were you both our mothers +I care no more for, than I do for heaven. +So I were not his sister] + +[W: I can no more fear, than I do fear heav'n.] I do not much yield +to this emendation; yet I have not been able to please myself with +any thing to which even my own partiality can give the preference. + +Sir Thomas Banner reads, + + _Or were you both our mothers_. + I cannot ask for more than that of heaven. + _So I were not his sister_; can be no other + Way _I your daughter_, but _he must be my brother_? + +I.iii.171 (30,6) [can't no other, But, I your daughter, he must be my +brother?] The meaning is obscur'd by the elliptical diction. Can +_it_ be _no other_ way, but if _I_ be _your daughter he must be my +brother_? + +I.iii.178 (30,8) [Your salt tears' head] The force, the fountain of +your tears, the cause of your grief. + +I.iii.208 (31,9) [captious and intenible sieve] The word _captious_ I +never found in this sense; yet I cannot tell what to substitute, +unless _carious,_ for _rotten_, which yet is a word more likely to have +been mistaken by the copyers than used by the author. + +I.iii.232 (32,2) + +[As notes, whose faculties inclusive were +Receipts in which greater _virtues_ were _inclosed] + +_Do not throw from you; you, my lord,, farewell; +Share the advice betwixt you; if both_ gain all, +_The gift doth stretch itself as 'tis receiv'd, +And is enough for both._ + +The first edition, from which the passage is restored, was +sufficiently clear; yet it is plain, that the latter editors preferred +a reading which they did not understand. + +II.i.12 (35,8) + + [let higher Italy +(Those 'hated, that inherit but the fall +Of the last monarchy) [see, that you come +Not to woo honour, but to wed it] + +[Hammer: Those bastards that inherit] Dr. Warburton's observation is +learned, but rather too subtle; Sir Tho. Hanmer's alteration is merely +arbitrary. The passage is confessedly obscure, and there-fore I may +offer another explanation. I am of opinion that the epithet _higher_ is +to be understood of situation rather than of dignity. The sense may then +be this,_Let upper Italy,_ where you are to exercise your valour, _see +that you come to gain honour, to the_ abatement, _that is, to the +disgrace and depression of those_ that have now lost their ancient +military fame, and _inherit but the fall of the last monarchy_. To +_abate_ is used by Shakespeare in the original sense of _abatre_, to +_depress_, to _sink_, to _deject_, to _subdue_. So in Coriolanus, + +--_'till ignorance deliver you. +As moat_ abated _captives to some nation +That won you without blows_. +And bated is used in a kindred sense in the Jew of Venice. + +--_in a bondman's key +With _bated_ breath and whisp'ring humbleness_. + +The word has still the same meaning in the language of the law. + +II.i.21 (37,9) [Beware of being captives, Before you serve] The word +_serve_ is equivocal; the sense is, _Be not captives before _ you serve +in the war. _Be not captives before you are soldiers._ + +II.i.36 (37,1) [I grow to you, and our parting is a tortur'd body] I +read thus, _Our parting is_ the parting of _a tortured body._ Our parting +is as the disruption of limbs torn from each other. Repetition +of a word is often the cause of mistakes, the eye glances on the +wrong word, and the intermediate part of the sentence is omitted. + +II.i.54 (38,3) [they wear themselves in the cap of the time, there, +do muster true gait] [W: to muster] I think this amendation cannot +be said to give much light to the obscurity of the passage. Perhaps it +might be read thus, They do _muster_ with the _true gaite._ +that is, they have the true military step. Every man has observed +something peculiar in the strut of a soldier, (rev. 1778, IV,35,8) + +II.i.70 (39,4) [across] This word, as has been already observed, is +used when any pass of wit miscarries. + +II.i.74 (39,5) [Yes, but you will, my noble grapes, as if] These +words,_my noble grapes_, seem to Dr. Warburton and Sir T. Hammer, +to stand so much in the way, that they have silently omitted them. +They may be indeed rejected without great loss, but I believe they +are Shakespeare's words. _You will eat_, says Lafen, _no grapes. +Yes, but you will eat such noble grapes_ as I bring you, _if you +could reach them._ + +II.i. 100 (41,8) [I am Cressid's uncle] I am like Pandarus. See Troilus +and Cressida. (see 1765, III,310,2) + +II.i.114 (41,9) [wherein the honour Of my dear father's gift stands +chief in power] Perhaps we may better read,--_ wherein the power +Of my dear father's gift stands chief in_ honour, + +II.i.144 (42,1) [When miracles have by the greatest been deny'd] I do +not see the import or connection of this line. As the next line +stands without a correspondent rhyme, I suspect that something has +been lost. + +II.i.159 (43,2) [Myself against the level of mine aim] I rather think +that she means to say, _I am not an impostor that proclaim_ one thing +and design another, _that proclaim_ a cure and aim at a fraud: I +think what I speak. + +II.i.174 (43,3) + + [a divulged shame +Traduc'd by odious ballds; my maiden's name +Sear'd otherwise; no worse of worst extended, +With vilest torture let my life be ended] + +This passage is apparently corrupt, and how shall it be rectified? +I have no great hope of success, but something must be tried. I +read the whole thus, + +King. _What darest thou venture?_ +Hal. _Tax of impudence. +A strumpet's boldness; a divulged shame, +Traduc'd by odious ballads my maiden name; +Sear'd otherwise,_ to worst _of worst extended; +With vilest torture let my life be ended._ + +When this alteration first came into my mind, I supposed Helen to +mean thus, _First,_ I venture what is dearest to me, my maiden reputation; +but if your distrust _extends_ my character _to the worst of_ +the _worst, and supposes me _seared_ against the sense of infamy, I +will add to the stake of reputation, the stake of life. This certainly +is sense, and the language as grammatical as many other passages +of Shakespeare. Yet we may try another experiment. + +Fear _otherwise_ to worst of _worst extended; +With vilest torture let my life be ended._ +That is, let me act under the greatest terrors possible. + +But once again we will try to find the right way by the glimmer +of Hanmer's amendation, who reads thus, + + --_my maiden name +Sear'd; otherwise_ the worst of _worst extended._ etc. + +Perhaps it were better thus, + + --_ my maiden name +Sear'd; otherwise_ the worst to _worst extended; _ + +_With vilest torture let my life be ended._ + +II.i.182 (45,5) [Thy life is dear; for all, that life can rate Worth name +of life, in thee hath estimate] May be _counted_ among the gifts enjoyed +by them. + +II.i.185 (45,7) [prime] Youth; the spring or morning of life. + +II.ii.40 (48,1) [To be young again] The lady censures her own levity +in trifling with her jester, as a ridiculous attempt to return +back to youth. + +Il.iii.6 (49,3) [unknown fear] _Fear_ is here the object of fear. + +II.iii.11 (50,4) + +[_Par._ So I say, both of Galen and Paracelsus. +_Laf._ Of all the learned and authentic fellows] + +As the whole merriment of this scene consists in the pretensions +of Parollei to knowledge and sentiments which he has not, I believe +here are two passages in which the words and sense are bestowed +upon him by the copies, which the author gave to Lafen. +I read this passage thus, + +Laf. _To be relinquished of the artists----_ +Par. _So I. say._ +Laf. _Both of Galen and Paracelsus, of all the +learned and authentick fellows----_ +Par. _Right, so I say.__ + +II.iii.41 (51,7) + +[which should, indeed, give us a farther use to be +made, than alone the recovery of the King; as to be-- +_Laf._ Generally thankful] + +I cannot see that there is any _hiatus_, or other irregularity of +language than such as is very common in these plays. I believe +Parolles has again usurped words and sense to which he has no +right; and I read this passage thus, + +Laf. _In a most weak and debile minister, great +power, great transcendence; which should, indeed, +give us a farther use to be made than the mere +recovery of the king._ +Par. _As to be._ +Laf. _Generally thankful._ + +II.iii.66 (52,9) [My mouth no more were broken than these boys'] +A broken mouth is a mouth which has lost part of its teeth. + +II.iii.77 (53,1) [Let the white death sit on thy cheek for ever] +[W: dearth] The white death is the chlorosis. + +II.iii.80 (53,2) [And to imperial Love] [W. The old editions read +IMPARTIAL, which is right.] There is no edition of this play older +than that of 1623, the next is that of 1632, of which both read +imperials the second reads imperial Jove. + +II.iii.92 (53,3) [Laf. Do they all deny her?] None of them have yet +denied her, or deny her afterwards but Bertram. The scene must be +so regulated that Lafeu and Parolles talk at a distance, where they +nay see what passes between Helena and the lords, but not hear it, +so that they know not by whom the refusal is made. + +II.iii.105 (54,4) [There's one grape yet,--I am sure, they father +drunk wine.--But if thou be'st not an ass, I am a youth of fourteen. +I have known thee already] This speech the three last editors +have perplexed themselves by dividing between Lafeu and Parolles, +without any authority of copies, or any improvement of sense. +I have restored the old reading, and should have thought no explanation +necessary, but that Mr. Theobald apparently misunderstood it. + +Old Lafeu having, upon the supposition that the lady was refused, +reproached the young lords as _boys of ice_, throwing his eyes +on Bertram who remained, cries out, "_There is one yet into whom his +father put good blood,----but I have known thee long enough to know +thee for an ass_." + +II.iii.135 (55,6) [good alone Is good, without a name, vileness is so] +[W: good; and with a name,] The present reading is certainly wrong, +and, to confess the truth, I do not think Dr. Warburton's emendation +right; yet I have nothing that I can propose with much confidence. +Of all the conjectures that I can make, that which least +displeases me is this: + + --_good alone. +Is good without a name_; Helen _is so_; + +The rest follows easily by this change. + +II.iii.138 (56,7) + +[--She is young, wise, fair; +In these, to nature she's immediate heir; +And these breed honour] + +Here is a long note [W's] which I wish had been shorter. _Good_ is +better than _young_, as it refers to _honour_. But she is more the +_immediate heir_ of _nature_ with respect to _youth_ than _goodness_. To +be _immediate heir_ is to inherit without any intervening transmitter: +thus she inherits beauty _immediately_ from _nature_, but honour is +transmitted by ancestors; youth is received _immediately_ from _nature_. +but _goodness_ may be conceived in part the gift of parents, or the +effect of education. The alteration therefore loses on one side +what it gains on the other. + +II.iii.170 (58,9) [Into the staggers] One species of the _staggers_, or +the _horses apoplexy_, is a raging impatience which makes the animal +dash himself with destructive violence against posts or walls. To +this the allusion, I suppose, is made. + +II.iii.185 (59,1) + + [whose ceremony +Shall seem expedient on the now-born brief, +And be perform'd to-night] + +This, if it be at all intelligible, is at least obscure and inaccurate. +Perhaps it was written thus, + + --what _ceremony +Shall seem expedient on the now-born brief_ +Shall _be perform'd to-night; the solemn feast_ +_Shall more attend_-- + +The _brief_ is the _contract of espousal_, or the _licence_ +of the church. The King means, What _ceremony_ is necessary to make +this _contract a marriage_, shall be immediately +_performed_; the rest may be delayed. + +II.iii.211 (60,2) [I did think thee, for two ordinaries, to be a +pretty wise fellow] While I sat twice with thee at table. + +II.iii.217 (60,3) [yet art then good for nothing but taking up] To +take up, is to _contradict_, to _call to account_, as well as to _pick +off the ground_. + +II.iii.242 (60,4) [in the default] That is, _at a need_. + +II.iii.246 (61,5) [for doing, I am past; as I will by thee, in what +motion age will give me leave] [Warburton suspected a line lost +after "past"] This suspicion of chasm is groundless. The conceit +which is so thin that it might well escape a hasty reader, is in +the word _past, I am past, as I will be_ past _by thee_. + +II.iii.309 (63,9) [To the dark house] The _dark house_ is a house made +gloomy by discontent. Milton says of _death_ and the _king_ of hell +preparing to combat, + + _So frown'd the mighty combatants, that hell + Grew_ darker _at their frown_. + +II.iv.45 (65,1) [Whose want, and whose delay, is strew'd with sweets] +The _sweets_ with which this _want_ are _strewed_, I suppose, are +compliments and professions of kindness. + +II.iv.52 (65,2) [probable need] A specious appearance of necessity. + +III.i.10 (70,5) [The reasons of our state I cannot yield] I cannot inform +you of the reasons. + +III.i.11 (70,6) [an outward man] [W: i.e. one not in the secret of +affairs] So _inward_ is familiar, admitted to secrets. _I was an_ +inward _of his_. Measure for Measure. + +III.ii.59 (73,1) [_When thou canst get the ring upon my finger_] [W: When +thou canst get the ring, which is on my finger, into thy possession] +I think Dr. Warburton's explanation sufficient, but I once read it +thus, _When thou canst get the ring upon_ thy _finger, which newer +shall come off_ mine. + +III.ii.100 (74,3) [Not so, but as we change our courtesies] The gentlemen +declare that they are servants to the Countess, she replies, +No otherwise than as she returns the same offices of civility. + +III.iv.4 (77,4) [St. Jaques' pilgrim] I do not remember any place +famous for pilgrimages consecrated in Italy to St. James, but it +is common to visit St. James of Compostella, in Spain. Another +saint might easily have been found, Florence being somewhat out +of the road from Bonsillon to Compostella. + +III.iv.13 (77,6) [Juno] Alluding to tho story of Hercules. + +III.iv.19 (77,6) [Rinaldo, you did never lack advice so much] _Advice_, +is _discretion_ or _thought_. + +III.v.21 (79,7) [are not the things they go under] [W: Mr. Theobald +explains these words by, _They are not really so true and sincere +as in appearance they seem to be_.] I think Theobald's interpretation +right; _to go under_ the name of any thing is a known expression. +The meaning is, they are not the things for which their +names would make them pass. + +III.v.66 (81,8) [examin'd] That is, _question'd, doubted_. + +III.v.74 (81,9) [brokes] Deals as a _broker_. + +III.vi.107 (86,6) [we have almost imboss'd him] To imboss a deer is +to inclose him in a wood. Milton uses the same word: + + _Like that self-begotten bird + In th' Arabian woods embost. + Which no second knows or third_. + +III.vi.III (87,7) [ere we case him] This is, before we strip him +naked. (1773) + +III.vii.9 (88,2) [to your sworn council] To your private knowledge, +after having required from you an oath of secrecy. + +III.vii.21 (88,9) [Now his important blood will nought deny] _Important_ +here, and elsewhere, is _importunate_. + +IV.i.16 (90,2) [some band of strangers i' the adversary's entertainment] +That is, _foreign troops in the enemy's pay_. + +Iv.i.44 (91,3) [the instance] The _proof_. + +IV.ii.13 (94,5) + + [No more of that! + I pr'ythee, do not strive against my vows: + I was compell'd to her] + +I know not well what Bertram can mean by entreating Diana _not to +strive against his vows_. Diana has just mentioned his _wife_, so +that the _vows_ seem to relate to his marriage. In this sense not +Diana, but himself, _strives against his vows_. His _vows_ indeed may +mean _vows_ made to Diana; but, in that case, to _strive against_ is +not properly used for to reject, nor does this sense cohere well +with his first exclamation of impatience at the mention of his +wife. _No more of that_! Perhaps we might read, + + _I Pr'ythee do not_ drive _against my vows. + +Do not_ run _upon that topick; talk of any thing else that I can +bear to hear_. + +I have another conceit upon this passage, which I would be +thought to offer without much confidence: + + _No more of that_! + _I pr'ythee do not_ strive--_against my_ voice + _I was compell'd to her._ + +Diana tells him unexpectedly of his wife. He answers with perturbation, +_No more of that! I pr'ythee do not_ play the confessor +--_against my own_ consent _I was compelled to her_. + +When a young profligate finds his courtship so gravely repressed +by an admonition of his duty, he very naturally desires the girl +not to take upon her the office of a confessor. + +IV.ii.23 (95,6) [What is not holy, that we swear not 'bides] [W: not +'bides] This is an acute and excellent conjecture, and I have done +it the due honour of exalting it to the text; yet, methinks, there +is something yet wanting. The following words, _but take the +High'st to witness_, even though it be understood as an anticipation +or assumption in this sense,--_but_ now suppose that you _take the_ +Highest _to witness_,--has not sufficient relation to the antecedent +sentence. I will propose a reading nearer to the surface, and let +it take its chance. + + Ber. _How have I sworn_! + + Diana. _'Tis not the many oaths, that make the truth, + But the plain single vow, that is vow'd true_. + + Ber. _What is not holy, that we swear not by. + But take the High'st to witness_. + + Diana. _Then, pray tell me. + If I should swear_, &c. + +Bertram means to enforce his suit, by telling her, that he has +bound himself to her, not by the pretty protestations usual among +lovers, but by vows of greater solemnity. She then makes a proper +and rational reply. + +IV.ii.25 (96,7) [If I should swear by Jove's great attributes] In the +print of the old folio, it is doubtful whether it be _Jove's_ or +_Love's_, the characters being not distinguishable. If it is read +_Love's_, perhaps it may be something less difficult. I am still at +a loss. + +It may be read thus, + + --"this has no holding, + "To swear by him whom I _attest_ to love, + "That I will work against him." + +There is no consistence in expressing reverence for Jupiter by +calling him to _attest_ my love, and shewing at the same time, by +_working against him_ by a wicked passion, that I have no respect to +the name which I invoke. (1773) + +IV.ii.28 (96,8) [To swear by him whom I protest to love, That I will +work against him] This passage likewise appears to me corrupt. She +swears not _by_ him whom she _loves_, but by Jupiter. I believe we may +read, _to swear_ to _him_. There is, says she, no _holding_, no +consistency, in swearing to one that _I love him_, when I swear it +only to _injure_ him. + +IV.ii.73 (98,9) [Since Frenchmen are so braid, Marry that will, I'll +live and die a maid] [W: Marry 'em] The passage is very unimportant, +and the old reading reasonable enough. Nothing is more common than +for girls, on such occasions, to say in a pet what they do not +think, or to think for a time what they do not finally resolve. + +IV.iii.7 (98,1) [I _Lord_] The later editors have with great liberality +bestowed lordship upon these interlocutors, who, in the original +edition, are called, with more propriety, _capt_. E. and _capt_. G. +It is true that _captain_ E. is in a former scene called _lord_ E. but +the subordination in which they seem to act, and the timorous manner +in which they converse, determines them to be only captains. +Yet as the later readers of Shakespeare have been used to find +them lords, I have not thought it worth while to degrade them in +the margin. + +IV.iii.29 (99,2) [he, that in this action contrives against his own +nobility, in his proper stream o'erflows himself] That is, _betrays +his own secrets in his own talk_. The reply shows that this is the +meaning. + +IV.iii.38 (100,3) [he might take a measure of his own judgment] This +is a very just and moral reason. Bertram, by finding how erroneously +he has judged, will be less confident, and more easily moved by +admonition. + +IV.iii.113 (102,4) [bring forth this counterfeit module] [W: medal] +_Module_ being the _pattern_ of any thing, may be here used in that +sense. Bring forth this fellow, who, by _counterfeit_ virtue pretended +to make himself a _pattern_. + +IV.iii.237 (106,8) [Dian. _the Count's a fool, and full of gold_] After +this line there is apparently a line lost, there being no rhime +that corresponds to gold. + +IV.iii.254 (106,9) [Half won, is match well made; match, and well +make it] This line has no meaning that I can find. I read, with +a very slight alteration, _Half won is match well made_; watch, _and +well make it_. That is, _a match well made is half won; watch, and +make it well_. + +This is, in my opinion, not all the error. The lines are misplaced, +and should be read thus: + + _Half won is match well made; watch, and well make it; + when he swears oaths, bid him drop gold, and take it. + After he scores, he never pays the score: + He never pays after-debts, take it before. + And say----_ + +That is, take his money and leave him to himself. When the players +had lost the second line, they tried to make a connection out +of the rest. Part is apparently in couplets, and the note was +probably uniform. + +IV.iii.280 (107,1) [He will steal, sir, an egg out of a cloister] I +know not that _cloister_, though it may etymologically signify _any_ +_thing shut_ is used by our author, otherwise than for a _monastery_, +and therefore I cannot guess whence this hyperbole could take its +original: perhaps it means only this: _He will steal any thing, +however trifling, from any place, however holy_. + +IV.iii.307 (108,2) [he's a cat still] That is, throw him how you will, +he lights upon his legs. [Steevens offered another explanation] I +an still of my former opinion. The same speech was applied by king +James to Coke, with respect to his subtilties of law, that throw +him which way we would, he could still like a cat light upon his +legs. (see 1765, III,372,1) + +IV.iii.317 (109,3) [Why does he ask him of me?] This is nature. Every +man is on such occasions more willing to hear his neighbour's +character than his own. + +IV.iii.332 (109,4) [Only to seem to deserve well, and to beguile the +supposition of that lascivious young boy the Count, have I run into +this danger] That is, _to deceive the opinion_, to make the count +think me a man that _deserves well_. + +IV.iv.23 (III,6) [When saucy trusting of the cozen'd thoughts Defiles +the pitchy night!] [W: When Fancy,] This conjecture is truly ingenious, +but, I believe, the author of it will himself think it unnecessary, +when he recollects that _saucy_ may very properly signify +_luxurious_, and by consequence _lascivious_. + +IV.iv.31 (112,7) + + [But with the word, the time will bring on summer, + When briars shall have leaves as well as thorns, + And be as sweet as sharp] + +The meaning of this observation is, that _as briars_ have _sweetness_ +with their _prickles_, so shall these _troubles_ be recompensed with +_joy_. + +IV.iv.34 (112,8) [Our waggon is prepar'd, and time revives us] [W: revyes] +The present reading is corrupt, and I am afraid the emendation +none of the soundest. I never remember to have seen the word +_revye_. One may as well leave blunders as make them. Why may we +not read for a shift, without much effort, _the time_ invites _us_? + +IV.v.8 (114,1) [I would, I had not known him!] This dialogue serves +to connect the incidents of Parolles with the main plan of the +play. + +IV.v.66 (116,4) [_Laf_. A shrewd knave, and an unhappy] That is, +_mischievously waggish; unlucky_. (see 1765, III,379,3) + +IV.v.70 (116,5) [he has no pace, but runs where he will] [Tyrrwhit: +place] A _pace_ is a certain or prescribed walk, so we say of a man +meanly obsequious, that he has learned his _paces_. (1773) [(rev. +1778, IV,126,3] + +V.i.35 (120,8) + +[I will come after you, with what good speed +Our means will make us means] + +Shakespeare delights much in this kind of reduplication, sometimes +so as to obscure his meaning. Helena says, _they will follow with +such speed as the means which they have will give them ability to +exert_. + +V.ii.57 (123,3) [tho' you are a fool and a knave, you shall eat] +Parolles has many of the lineaments of Falstaff, and seems to be +the character which Shakespeare delighted to draw, a fellow that +had more wit than virtue. Though justice required that he should +be detected and exposed, yet his _vices sit so fit in him_ that he +is not at last suffered to starve. + +V.iii.1 (123,4) [We lost a jewel of her, and our esteem Was made much +poorer by it] Dr. Warburton, in Theobald's edition, altered this +word to _estate_, in his own he lets it stand and explains it by +worth or estate. But _esteem_ is here _reckoning_ or _estimate_. Since +the loss of _Helen_ with her _virtues_ and _qualifications_, our _account_ +is _sunk_; what we have to _reckon_ ourselves king of, is much _poorer_ +than before. + +V.iii.4 (123,5) [home] That is, _completely_, _in its full extent_. + +V.iii.6 (123,6) [done i' the blade of youth] In the _spring_ of _early +life_, when the man is yet _green_, _oil_ and _fire_ suit but ill with +_blade_, and therefore Dr. Warburton reads, _blaze_ of youth. + +V.iii.21 (124,7) [the first view shall kill All repetition] _The first +interview shall put an end to all recollection of the past_. +Shakespeare is now hastening to the end of the play, finds his matter +sufficient to fill up his remaining scenes, and therefore, as +on other such occasions, contracts his dialogue and precipitates +his action. Decency required that Bertram's double crime of cruelty +and disobedience, joined likewise with some hypocrisy, should raise +more resentment; and that though his mother might easily forgive +him, his king should more pertinaciously vindicate his own authority +and Helen's merit: of all this Shakespeare could not be ignorant, +but Shakespeare wanted to conclude his play. + +V.iii.50 (125,9) [My high repented blames] [A long note by Warburton] +It was but just to insert this note, long as it is, because the +commentator seems to think it of importance. Let the reader judge. + +V.iii.65 (127,1) + + [Our own love, waking, cries to see what's done, + While shameful hate sleeps out the afternoon] + +These two lines I should be glad to call _an interpolation of a +player_. They are ill connected with the former, and not very +clear or proper in themselves. I believe the author made two +couplets to the same purpose, wrote them both down that he might +take his choice, and so they happened to be both preserved. + +For _sleep_ I think we should read _slept_. _Love cries_ to see what +was done while hatred _slept_, and suffered mischief to be done. Or +the meaning may be, that _hatred_ still _continues_ to _sleep_ at ease, +while _love_ is weeping; and so the present reading may stand. + +V.iii.93 (128,3) [In Florence was it from a casement thrown me] +Bertram still continues to have too little virtue to deserve Helen. +He did not know indeed that it was Helen's ring, but he knew that +he had it not from a window. + +V.iii.95 (128,4) [Noble she was, and thought I stood engag'd] +[T: I don't understand this reading; if we are to understand, that she +thought Bertram engag'd to her in affection, insnared by her +charms, this meaning is too obscurely express'd.] The context rather +makes me believe, that the poet wrote, + +_noble she was, and thought +I stood_ ungag'd;----- + +i.e. unengag'd: neither my heart, nor person, dispos'd of.--The +plain meaning is, when she saw me receive the ring, she thought me +_engaged_ to her. + +V.iii.101 (129,5) [_King_ Plutus himself , That knows the tinct and +multiplying medicine] Plutus the grand alchemist, who knows the +_tincture_ which confers the properties of gold upon base metals, and +the _matter_ by which _gold_ is _multiplied_, by which a small quantity +of gold is made to communicate its qualities to a large mass of metal. + +In the reign of Henry the fourth a law was made to forbid _all +men thenceforth to_ multiply _gold, or use any craft of_ multiplication. +Of which law Mr. Boyle, when he was warm with the hope of +transmutation, procured a repeal. + +V.iii.105 (129,6) [Then if you know, That you are well acquainted +with yourself] The true meaning of this _strange_ [Warburton's word] +expression is, _If you know that_ your faculties are so found, as +_that you have the proper consciousness of your own actions_, and +are able to recollect and relate what you have done, _tell me_. &c. + +V.iii.121 (130,7) + +[My fore-past proofs, howe'er the matter fall, +Shall tax my fears of little vanity, +Having vainly fear'd too little] + +The _proofs which I have already had_, are sufficient to show that my +_fears_ were not _vain_ and irrational. I have rather been hither-to +more easy than I ought, and have _unreasonably_ had _too little fear_. + +V.iii.131 (130,8) [Who hath, some four or five removes, come short] +_Removes_ are _journies_ or _post-stages_. + +V.iii.191 (133,1) [O, behold this ring. Whose high respect and rich +validity] _Validity is a very bad word for _value_, which yet I think +is its meaning, unless it be considered as making a contract _valid_. + +V.iii.214 (133,2) + +[As all impediments in fancy's course, +Are motives of more fancy: and in fine, +Her insult coming with her modern grace, +Subdu'd me to her rate: she got the ring] + +_Every thing that obstructs love is an occasion by which love is +heightened. And, to conclude, her solicitation concurring with her +fashionable appearance_, she got the ring. + +I an not certain that I have attained the true meaning of the +word _modern_, which, perhaps, signifies rather _meanly pretty_. + +V.iii.296-305 (137,3) This dialogue is too long, since the audience +already knew the whole transaction; nor is there any reason for +puzzling the king and playing with his passions; but it was much +easier than to make a pathetical interview between Helen and her +husband, her mother, and the king. + +V.iii.305 (137,4) [exorcist] This word is used not very properly for +_enchanter_. + +V.iii.339 (139,2) [Ours be your patience then, and yours our parts] +The meaning is: _Grant us then your patience_; hear us without +interruption. _And_ take _our parts_; that is, support and defend us. +(see 1765, III,399) + +(139) General Observation. This play has many delightful scenes, +though not sufficiently probable, and some happy characters, though +not new, nor produced by any deep knowledge of human nature. +Parolles is a boaster and a coward, such as has always been the +sport of the stage, but perhaps never raised more laughter or contempt +than in the hands of Shakespeare. + +I cannot reconcile my heart to Bertram; a man noble without +generosity, and young without truth; who marries Helen as a coward, +and leaves her as a profligate: when she is dead by his unkindness, +sneaks home to a second marriage, is accused by a woman whom +he has wronged, defends himself by falsehood, and is dismissed to +happiness. + +The story of Bertram and Diana hod been told before of Mariana +and Angelo, and, to confess the truth, scarcely merited to be +heard a second time. + + + + +TWELFTH-NIGHT + +(142) The persons of the drama were first enumerated, with all the +cant of the modern stage, by Mr. Rowe. + +I.i.2 (143,2) [that, surfeiting, The appetite may sicken, and so die] +[W: app'tite, Love] It is true, we do not talk of the _death of +appetite_, because we do not ordinarily speak in the figurative +language of poetry; but that _appetite sickens by a surfeit_ is true, +and therefore proper. + +I.i.21 (145,6) [That instant was I turn'd into a hart] This image +evidently alludes to the story of Acteon, by which Shakespeare +seems to think men cautioned against too great familiarity with +forbidden beauty. Acteon, who saw Diana naked, and was torn in +pieces by his hounds, represents a man, who indulging his eyes, +or his imagination, with the view of a woman that he cannot gain, +has his heart torn with incessant longing. An interpretation far +more elegant and natural than that of Sir Francis Bacon, who, in +his _Wisdom of the Antients_, supposes this story to warn us against +enquiring into the secrets of princes, by shewing, that those who +knew that which for reasons of state is to be concealed, will be +detected and destroyed by their own servants. + +I.ii.25 (147,9) [A noble Duke in nature, as in name] I know not whether +the nobility of the name is comprised in _Duke_, or in _Orsino_, +which is, I think, the name of a great Italian family. + +I.ii.42 (148,1) + +[_Vio_. O, that I serv'd that lady; +And might not be deliver'd to the world, +'Till I had made mine own occasion mellow +What my estate is!] + +I wish I might not be _made public_ to the world, with regard to the +_state_ of my birth and fortune, till I have gained a _ripe opportunity_ +for my design. + +Viola seems to have formed a very deep design with very little +premeditation: she is thrown by shipwreck on an unknown coast, +hears that the prince is a batchelor, and resolves to supplant the +lady whom he courts. + +I.ii.55 (149,2) [I'll serve this Duke] Viola is an excellent schemer, +never at a loss; if she cannot serve the lady, she will serve the +Duke. + +I.iii.77 (152,5) [It's dry, sir] What is the jest of _dry hand_, I know +not any better than Sir Andrew. It may possibly mean, a hand with +no money in it; or, according to the rules of physiognomy, she may +intend to insinuate, that it is not a lover's hand, a moist hand +being vulgarly accounted a sign of an amorous constitution. + +I.iii.148 (154,9) [Taurus? that's sides and heart] Alluding to the +medical astrology still preserved in almanacks, which refers the +affections or particular parts of the body, to the predominance of +particular constellations. + +I.iv.34 (155,1) [And all is semblative--a woman's part] That is, thy +proper part in a play would be a woman's. Women were then personated +by boys. + +I.v.9 (156,2) [lenten answer] A _lean_, or as we now call it, a _dry_ +answer. + +I.v.39 (157,4) [Better be a witty fool, than a foolish wit] Hall, in +his _Chronicle_, speaking of the death of Sir Thomas More, says, that +he knows not whether to call him _a foolish wise man, or a wise +foolish man_. + +I.v.105 (159,5) [Now Mercury indue thee with leasing, for thou +speak'st well of fools!] [W: pleasing] I think the present reading +more humourous. _May Mercury teach thee to lie, since thou liest +in favour of fools_. + +I.v.213 (164,1) [to make one in so skipping a dialogue] Wild, frolick, +mad. + +I.v.218 (164,2) [Some mollification for your giant] Ladies, in romance, +are guarded by giants, who repel all improper or troublesome +advances. Viola seeing the waiting-maid so eager to oppose +her message, intreats Olivia to pacify her giant. + +I.v.328 (168,8) + +[_Oli_. I do, I know not what; and fear to find +Mine eye too great a flatterer for my mind] + +I believe the meaning is; I am not mistress of my own actions, I +am afraid that my eyes betray me, and flatter the youth without +my consent, with discoveries of love. + +II.i.15 (169,9) [to express myself] That is, _to reveal myself_. + +II.i.28 (169,1) [with such estimable wonder] These words Dr. Warburton +calls _an interpolation of the players_, but what did the players +gain by it? they may be sometimes guilty of a joke without the +concurrence of the poet, but they never lengthen a speech only to +make it longer. Shakespeare often confounds the active and +passive adjectives. _Estimable wonder_ is _esteeming wonder_, or +_wonder and esteem_. The meaning is, that he could not venture to think +so highly as others of his sister. + +II.ii.21 (171,2) [her eyes had lost her tongue] [W: crost] That the +fascination of the eyes was called _crossing_ ought to have been +proved. But however that be, the present reading has not only +sense but beauty. We say a man _loses_ his company when they go +one way and he goes another. So Olivia's tongue _lost_ her eyes; +her tongue was talking of the Duke and her eyes gazing on his +messenger. + +II.ii.29 (171,3) [the pregnant enemy] is, I believe, the dexterous +fiend, or enemy of mankind. (1773) + +II.ii.30 (171,4) + +[How easy is it, for the proper false +In women's waxen hearts to set their forms] + +This is obscure. The meaning is, _how easy is disguise to women_; +how easily does _their own falsehood_, contained in their _waxen +changeable _hearts_, enable them to assume deceitful appearances. +The two next lines are perhaps transposed, and should be read +thus, + +_For such as we are made, if such we be, +Alas, our frailty is the cause, not we_. + +II.iii.27 (175,9) [I did impeticoat thy gratility] This, Sir T. Hammer +tells us, is the same with _impocket thy gratuity_. He is undoubtedly +right; but we must read, _I did_ impeticoat _thy_ gratuity. +The fools were kept in long coats, to which the allusion is made. +There is yet much in this dialogue which I do not understand. + +II.iii.51 (176,1) [In delay there lies no plenty] [W: decay] I believe +_delay_ is right. + +II.iii.52 (176,2) [Then come kiss me, sweet, and twenty] This line is +obscure; we might read, + + _Come, a kiss then, sweet, and twenty._ + +Yet I know not whether the present reading be not right, for in +some counties _sweet and twenty_, whatever be the meaning, is a +phrase of endearment. + +II.iii.59 (176,3) [make the welkin dance] That is, drink till the +sky seems to turn round. + +II.iii.75 (177,5) [They sing a catch] This catch is lost. + +II.iii.81 (177,6) [Peg-a-Ramsey] _Peg-a-Ramsey_ I do not understand. +_Tilly vally_ was an interjection of contempt, which Sir Thomas +More a lady is recorded to have had very often in her mouth. + +II.iii.97 (178,7) [ye squeak out your coziers catches] A _Cozier_ is a +taylor, from _coudre_ to sew, part, _consu_, French, (see 1765, 11,383,2) + +II.iii.128 (180,l) [rub your chain with crums] I suppose it should be +read, _rub your_ chin _with crums_, alluding to what had been said before +that. Malvolio was only a steward, and consequently dined +after his lady. + +II.iii.131 (180,2) [you would not give means for this uncivil rule] +_Rule_ is, method of life, so _misrule_ is tumult and riot. + +II.iii.149 (181,3) [Possess us] That is, _inform us_, _tell us_, make us +masters of the matter. + +II.iv.5 (183,5) [light airs, and recollected terms] I rather think +that _recollected_ signifies, more nearly to its primitive sense, +_recalled_, _repeated_, and alludes to the practice of composers, who +often prolong the song by repetitions. + +II.iv.26 (184,6) [favour] The word _favour_ ambiguously used. + +II.iv.35 (184,7) [lost and worn] Though _lost and worn_ may means _lost +and worn out_, yet _lost and won_ being, I think, better, these two +words coming usually and naturally together, and the alteration +being very slight, I would so read in this place with Sir Tho. +Hammer. + +II.iv.46 (185,8) [free] is, perhaps, _vacant_, _unengaged_, _easy in mind_. + +II.iv.47 (185,9) [silly sooth] It is plain, simple truth. + +II.iv.49 (185,2) [old age] The _old age_ is the _ages past_, the times of +simplicity. + +II.iv.58 (185,3) [My part of death no one so true Did share it] +Though _death_ is a _part_ in which every one acts his _share_, yet of +all these actors no one is _so true_ as I. + +II.iv.87 (187,6) + +[But 'tis that miracle, and queen of gems, +That nature pranks her in] + +[W: pranks, her mind] The _miracle and queen of gems_ is her _beauty_, +which the commentator might have found without so emphatical an +enquiry. As to her mind, he that should be captious would say, +that though it may be formed by nature it must be _pranked_ by education. + +Shakespeare does not say that _nature pranks her in a miracle_, +but _in the miracle of gems_, that is, _in a gem miraculously beautiful_. + +II.v.43 (191,2) [the lady of the Strachy] [W: We should read _Trachy_. +i.e. _Thrace_; for so the old English writers called it] What we +should read is hard to say. Here it an allusion to some old +story which I have not yet discovered. + +II.v.51 (191,3) [stone-bow] That is, a cross-bow, a bow which shoots +stones. + +II.v.66 (192,4) [wind up my watch] In our author's time watches were +very uncommon. When Guy Faux was taken, it was urged as a +circumstance of suspicion that a watch was found upon him. + +II.v.70 (192,5) [Tho' our silence be drawn from us with carts] I believe +the true reading is, _Though our silence be drawn from us +with_ carts, _yet peace_. In the _The Two Gentlemen of_ Verona, one of +the Clowns says, _I have a mistress, but who that is_, a team of +horses _shall not_ draw from me. So in this play, _Oxen and wainropes +will not bring them together_. + +II.v.97 (193,7) [her great _P_'s] [Steevens: In the direction of the +letter which Malvolio reads, there is neither a C, nor a P, to be +found] There may, however, be words in the direction which he does +not read. To formal directions of two ages ago were often added +these words, Humbly _Present_. (1773) + +II.v.144 (195,2) [And _O_ shall end, I hope] By _O_ is here meant what +we now call a _hempen collar_. + +II.v.207 (197,6) [tray-trip] The word _tray-trip_ I do not understand. + +II.v.215 (198,7) [aqua vitae] Is the old name of _strong waters_. + +III.i.57 (200,9) [lord Pandarus] See our author's play of _Troilus +and Cressida_. + +III.i.71 (200,1) [And, like the haggard, check at every feather] The +meaning may be, that he must catch every opportunity, as the wild +hawk strikes every bird. But perhaps it might be read more properly, + + Not _like the haggard_. + +He must chuse persons and times, and observe tempers, he must fly +at proper game, like the trained hawk, and not fly at large like +the _haggard_, to seize all that comes in his way. (1773) + +III.i.75 (201,2) [But wise-men's folly fall'n] Sir Thomas Hammer +reads, _folly shewn_. [The sense is, _But wise men's folly, when it +is once fallen into extravagance, overpowers their discretion_. +Revisal.] I explain it thus. The folly which he shows with proper +adaptation to persons and times, _is fit_, has its propriety, +and therefore produces no censure; but the folly of wise men when +it _falls_ or _happens_, taints their wit, destroys the reputation of +their judgment. (see 1765, II,402,2) + +III.i.86 (202,4) [she is the list of my voyage] Is the _bound, limit, +farthest point_. + +III.i.100 (202,5) [most pregnant and vouchsafed ear] _Pregnant_ is a +word in this writer of very lax signification. It may here mean +_liberal_. (1773) + +III.i.123 (203,6) [After the last enchantment (you did hear)] +[W: enchantment you did here] The present reading is no more nonsense +than the emendation. + +III.i.132 (203,8) [a Cyprus] Is a transparent stuff. + +III.i.135 (204,9) [a grice] Is a _step_, sometimes written _greese_ from +_degres_, French. + +III.i.170 (205,1) [I have one heart, one bosom, and one truth, And +that no woman has] And that heart and boson I have never yielded +to any woman. + +III.ii.45 (207,5) [Go, write it in a martial hand; be curst and brief] +_Martial hand_, seems to be a careless scrawl, such as shewed the +writer to neglect ceremony. _Curst_, is petulant, crabbed--a curst +cur, is a dog that with little provocation snarls and bites. (1773) + +III.iv.61 (213,1) [midsummer madness] Hot weather often turns the +brain, which is, I suppose, alluded to here. + +III.iv.82 (214,3) [I have lim'd her] I have entangled or caught her, +as a bird is caught with birdlime. + +III.iv.85 (214,4) [Fellow:] This word which originally signified companion, +was not yet totally degraded to its present meaning; and +Malvolio takes it in the favourable sense. + +III.iv.130 (215,6) [Hang him, foul collier] The devil is called _Collier_ +for his blackness, _Like will to like, says the Devil to the +Collier_. (1773) + +III.iv.154 (216,7) [a finder of madmen] This is, I think, an allusion +to the _witch-finders_, who were very busy. + +III.iv.184 (217,8) [_God have mercy upon one of our souls! He may +have mercy upon mine, but my hope is better_] We may read, _He may +have mercy upon_ thine, _but my hope is better_. Yet the passage +may well enough stand without alteration. + +It were much to be wished, that Shakespeare in this and some +other passages, had not ventured so near profaneness. + +III.iv.228 (218,9) [wear this jewel for me] _Jewel_ does not properly +signify a single gem, but any precious ornament or superfluity. + +III.iv.257 (219,2) [Be is knight, dubb'd with unhack'd rapier, and on +carpet consideration] That is, he is no soldier by profession, not +a Knight Banneret, dubbed in the field of battle, but, _on carpet +consideration_, at a festivity, or on sone peaceable occasion, when +knights receive their dignity kneeling not on the ground, as in +war, but on a _carpet_. This is, I believe, the original of the +contemptuous term a carpet knight, who was naturally held in scorn by +the men of war. + +III.iv.301 (222,4) [I have not seen such a virago] _Virago_ cannot be +properly used here, unless we suppose Sir Toby to mean, I never +saw one that had so much the look of woman with the prowess of man. + +III.iv.408 (225,7) [Methinks, his words do from such passion fly, + That he believes himself;--so do not I] + +This I believe, means, I do not yet believe myself, when, from this +accident, I gather hope of my brother's life. + +IV.i.14 (227,8) [I am afraid this great lubber the world will prove a +cockney] That is, affectation and foppery will overspread the world. + +IV.i.57 (228,2) [In this uncivil and unjust extent] _Extent_ is, in law, +a writ of execution, whereby goods are seized for the king. It is +therefore taken here for _violence_ in general. + +IV.i.60 (228,3) [This ruffian hath botch'd up] I fancy it is only a +coarse expression for _made up_, as a bad taylor is called a _botcher_. +and to botch is to make clumsily. + +IV.i.63 (229,4) [He started one poor heart of mine in thee] I know +not whether here be not an ambiguity intended between _heart_ and +_hart_. The sense however is easy enough. _He that offends thee attacks +one of my hearts_; or, as the antients expressed it, _half my +heart_. + +IV.i.64 (229,5) [What relish is this?] How does it taste? What judgment +am I to make of it? + +IV.ii.53 (231,9) [constant question] A settled, a determinate, a regular +question. + +IV.ii.68 (232,1) [Nay, I am for all waters] I rather think this expression +borrowed from sportsmen, and relating to the qualifications +of a complete spaniel. + +IV.ii.99 (233,2) [They have here property'd me] They have taken possession +of me as of a man unable to look to himself. + +IV.ii.107 (233,3) [Maintain no words with him] Here the Clown in the +dark acts two persons, and counterfeits, by variation of voice, a +dialogue between himself and Sir Topas.--_I Will, sir, I Will_. is +spoken after a pause, as if, in the mean time, Sir Topas had whispered. + +IV.ii.121 (234,4) [tell me true, are you not mad, indeed, or do you +but counterfeit?] If he was not mad, what did be counterfeit by +declaring that he was not mad? The fool, who meant to insult him, +I think, asks, _are you mad, or do you but counterfeit_? That is, +_you look like a madman, you talk like a madman_: _Is your madness +real, or have you any secret design in it_? This, to a man in poor +Malvolio's state, was a severe taunt. + +IV.ii.134 (234,5) [like to the old vice] _Vice_ was the fool of the old +moralities. Some traces of this character are still preserved in +puppet-shows, and by country mummers. + +IV.ii.141 (235.6)_'Adieu, goodman devil_] This last line has neither +rhime nor meaning. I cannot but suspect that the fool translates +Malvolio's name, and says, + +_Adieu, goodman mean-evil_. (1773) + +IV.iii.12 (236,8) [all instance, all discourse] _Instance_ is _example_. +(see 1765, II,433,9) + +IV.iii.15 (236,9) [To any other trust] To any other belief, or confidence, +to any other fixed opinion. + +IV.iii.29 (236,1) [Whiles] Is _until_. This word is still so used in +the northern counties. It is, I think, used in this sense in the +preface to the Accidence. + +IV.iii.33 (237,2) [And, having sworn truth, ever will be true] +_Truth_ is _fidelity_. + +V.i.23 (238,3) [so that, conclusions to be as kisses, if your four +negatives make your two affirmatives, why, then the worse for my +friends, and the better for my foes] Though I do not discover much +ratiocination in the Clown's discourse, yet, methinks, I can find +some glimpse of a meaning in his observation, that _the conclusion +is as kisses_. For, says he, _if four negatives make two affirmatives, +the conclusion is as kisses_; that is, the conclusion follows +by the conjunction of two negatives, which, by _kissing_ and +embracing, coalesce into one, and make an affirmative. What the +_four_ negatives are I do not know. I read, _So that conclusions be +as kisses_. + +V.i.42 (239,4) [bells of St. Bennet] When in this play he mentioned +the _bed of_ Ware, he recollected that the scene was in Illyria, +and added _in England_; but his sense of the same impropriety +could not restrain him from the bells of St. Bennet. + +V.i.67 (240,5) [desperate of shame, and state] Unattentive to his +character or his condition, like a desperate man. + +V.i.112 (241,5) [as fat and fulsome] [W: flat] _Fat_ means _dull_; so +we say a _fatheaded_ fellow; _fat_ likewise means _gross_, and is +sometimes used for _obscene_; and _fat_ is more congruent to _fulsome_ +than _flat_. + +V.i.168 (244,7) [case] _Case_ is a word used contemptuously for _skin_. +We yet talk of a _fox case_, meaning the stuffed skin of a fox. + +V.i.204 (246,9) [A natural perspective] A _perspective_ seems to be +taken for shows exhibited through a glass with such lights as +make the pictures appear really protruberant. The Duke therefore +says, that nature has here exhibited such a show, where shadows +seem realities; where that which is _not_ appears like that which is. + +V.i.306 (249,3) [but to read his right wits, is to read thus] Perhaps +so,--_but to read his_ wits right _is to read thus_. To represent his +present state of mind, is to read a madman's letter, as I now do, +like a madman. (1773) + +V.i.326 (249,4) [One day shall crown the alliance on't, so please +you] [Revisal: an't so] This is well conjectured; but _on't_ may relate +to the double character of sister and wife. (1773) + +V.i.347 (250,5) [to frown Upon sir Toby, and the lighter people] People +of less dignity or importance. + +V.i.351 (250,6) [geck] A fool. + +(253) General Observation. This play is in the graver part elegant +and easy, and in some of the lighter scenes exquisitely humorous. +Ague--cheek is drawn with great propriety, but his character is, in +a great measure, that of natural fatuity, and is therefore not the +proper prey of a satirist. The soliloquy of Malvolio is truly +comic; he is betrayed to ridicule merely by his pride. The marriage +of Olivia, and the succeeding perplexity, though well enough +contrived to divert on the stage, wants credibility, and fails to +produce the proper instruction required in the drama, as it exhibits +no just picture of life. + + + + +THE WINTER'S TALE + +(257,1) The story of this play is taken from the _Pleasaunt History +of Dorastus and Fawnia_, written by Robert Greene. (1773) + +I.i.9 (258,2) [Wherein our entertainment shall shame us, we will be +justified in our loves] Though we cannot give you equal entertainment, +yet the consciousness of our good-will shall justify us. + +I.i.30 (258,3) [royally attornied] Nobly supplied by substitution +of embassies, &c. + +l.i.43 (259,4) [physicks the subject] Affords a cordial to the state; +has the power of assuaging the sense of misery. + +I.ii.13 (259,5) [that may blow No sneaping rinds] _That may blow_ is a +Gallicism, for _may there blow_. (1773) + +I.ii.31 (261,6) [All in Bohemia's well: this satisfaction The bygone day +proclaim'd] We had satisfactory accounts yesterday of the +state of Bohemia. (1773) + +I.ii.123 (266,6) [We must be neat] Leontes, seeing his son's nose +smutched, cries, _We must be neat_, then recollecting that _neat_ is the +term for _horned_ cattle, he says, _not neat, but cleanly_. + +I.ii.125 (266,7) [Still virginalling] Still playing with her fingers, +as a girl playing on the _virginals_. + +I.ii.132 (266,8) [As o'er-dy'd blacks] Sir T. Hammer understands, +blacks died too much, and therefore rotten. + +I.ii.136 (267,9) [welkin-eye] Blue eye; an eye of the same colour +with the _welkin_, or sky. + +I.ii.139 (267,2) [Thou dost make possible things not so held] i.e. +thou dost make those things possible, which are conceived to be +impossible. (1773) + +I.ii.161,3 (268,3) [will you take eggs for mony?] This seems to be a +proverbial expression, used when a man sees himself wronged and +makes no resistance. Its original, or precise meaning, I cannot +find, but I believe it means, will you be a _cuckold_ for hire. The +cuckow is reported to lay her eggs in another bird's nest; he +therefore that has eggs laid in his nest, is said to be _cocullatus_, +_cuckow'd_, or _cuckold_. + +I.ii.163 (268,4) [happy man be his dole!] May his _dole_ or _share_ in life +be to be a _happy man_. + +I.ii.176 (269,5) [he's Appareat to my heart] That is, _heir apparent_.or +the next claimant. + +I.ii.186 (269,6) [a fork'd one] That is, a _horned_ one; a _cuckold_. + +I.ii.217 (270,9) [whispering, rounding] _To round in the ear_, is to +_whisper_, or _to tell secretly_. The expression is very copiously +explained by H. Casaubon, in his book _de Ling. Sax_. + +I.ii.227 (271,1) [lower messes] _Mess_ is a contraction of _Master_, as +_Mess_ John. Master John; an appellation used by the Scots, to those +who have taken their academical degree. _Lower Messes_, therefore are +graduates of a lower form. + +The speaker is now mentioning gradations of understanding, and +not of rank, (see 1765, II,244,9) + +I.ii.260 (372,2) [Whereof the execution did cry out Against the +nonperformance] This is one of the expressions by which Shakespeare +too frequently clouds his meaning. This sounding phrase means, I +think, no more than _a thing necessary to be done_. [_Revisal_; the +now-performance] I do not see that this attempt does any thing +more, than produce a harsher word without on easier sense, (see +1765, II,245,1) + +I.ii.320 (275,5) [But with a ling'ring dram, that should not work, +Maliciously, like poison] [Hammer: Like a malicious poison] _Rash_ +is _hasty_, as in another place, _rash gunpowder. Maliciously_ is +_malignantly_, with effects _openly hurtful_. Shakespeare had no +thought of _betraying the user_. The Oxford emendation is harmless and +useless. + +1.ii.321 (275,6) + + [But I cannot +Believe this crack to be in my dread mistress, +So sovereignly being honourable. +_Leo_. I have lov'd thee--Make that thy question, +and go rot!] + +[Theobald had emended the text to give the words "I have lov'd +thee" to Leontes] I have admitted this alteration, as Dr. Warburton +has done, but am not convinced that it is necessary. Camillo, +desirous to defend the queen, and willing to secure credit to his +apology, begins, by telling the king that he _has loved him_, is +about to give instances of his love, and to infer from them his +present zeal, when he is interrupted. + +I.ii.394 (278,7) [In whose success we are gentle] I know not whether +_success_ here does not mean _succession_. + +I.ii.424 (279,1) [_Cam_. Swear this thought over By each particular star +in heaven] [T: this though] _Swear his thought over_ + +May however perhaps mean, _overswear his present persuasion_, +that is, endeavour to _overcome his opinion_, by swearing oaths numerous +as the stars. (1773) + +I.ii.458 (281,3) [Good expedition be my friend, and comfort The gracious +queen] [W: queen's] Dr. Warburton's conjecture is, I think, +just; but what shall be done with the following words, of which I +can make nothing? Perhaps the line which connected them to the +rest, is lost. + +--_and comfort +The gracious queen, part of his theme, but nothing +Of his ill-ta'en suspicion!_ + +Jealousy is a passion compounded of love and suspicion, this passion +is the theme or subject of the king's thoughts.--Polixenes, +perhaps, wishes the queen, for her comfort, so much of that _theme_ +or subject as is good, but deprecates that which causes misery. +May part of the king's present sentiments comfort the queen, but +away with his suspicion. This is such meaning as can be picked +out. (1773) + +II.i.38 (283,4) [Alack, for lesser knowledge!] That is, _O that my +knowledge were less_. + +II.i.50 (284,5) [He hath discover'd my design, and I Remain a pinch'd +thing] [_Revisal_: The sense, I think, is, He hath now discovered +my design, and I am treated as a mere child's baby, a thing +pinched out of clouts, a puppet for them to move and actuate as +they please.] This sense is possible, but many other meanings +might serve as well. (1773) + +II.i.100 (286,7) + +[No, if I mistake +In these foundations which I build upon, +The center is not big enough to bear +A school-boy's top] + +That is, if the proofs which I can offer will not support the opinion +I have formed, no foundation can be trusted. + +II.i.104 (286,8) [He, who shall speak for her, is far off guilty, But +that he speaks] [T: far of] It is strange that Mr. Theobald could +not find out that _far_ off _guilty_, signifies, _guilty in a remote +degree_. + +II.i.121 (287,9) [this action] The word _action_ is here taken in the +lawyer's sense, for _indictment, charge_, or _accusation_. + +II.i.143 (288,2) [land-damn him] Sir T. Hammer interprets, _stop his +urine_. _Land_ or _lant_ being the old word for _urine_. + +_Land-damn_ is probably one of those words which caprice brought +into fashion, and which, after a short time, reason and grammar +drove irrecoverably away. It perhaps meant no more than I will +_rid the country_ of him; _condemn_ him to quit the _land_, (see +1765, II,259,2) + +II.i.177 (290,5) [nought for approbation, But only seeing] _Approbation_, +in this place, is put for _proof_. + +II.i.185 (290,6) [stuff'd sufficiency] That is, of abilities more +than enough. + +II.i.195 (291,7) [Left that the treachery of the two, fled hence, Be +left her to perform] He has before declared, that there is a _plot +against his life and crown_, and that Hermione is _federary_ with +Polixenes and Camillo. + +II.iii.5 (294,9) [out of the blank And level of my brain] Beyond the +_aim_ of any attempt that I can make against him. _Blank_ and _level_ +are terms of archery. + +II.iii.60 (296,1) [And would by combat make her good, so were I A +man, the worst about you] The _worst_ means only the _lowest_. Were +I the meanest of your servants, I would yet claim the combat +against any accuser. + +II.iii.67 (297,2) [A mankind witch:] A _mankind_ woman, is yet used in +the midland counties, for a woman violent, ferocious, and mischievous. +It has the same sense in this passage. Witches are supposed +to be _mankind_, to put off the softness and delicacy of +women, therefore Sir Hugh, in the _Merry Wives of Windsor,_ says, of +a woman inspected to be a witch, _that he does not like when a +woman has a beard._ Of this meaning Mr. Theobald has given examples. + +II.iii.77 (298, 5) + +[Unvenerable be thy hands, if thou +Tak'st up the princess, by that forced baseness] + +Leontes had ordered Antigonus to _take up the bastard,_ Paulina forbids +him to touch the princess under that appellation. _Forced_ is +false, uttered with violence to truth. + +II.iii.106 (299, 6) [No yellow in't] _Yellow_ is the colour of jealousy. + +II.iii.181 (301, 8) [commend it strangely to some place] Commit to +some place, _as a stranger,_ without more provision. + +III.i.2 (302, 9) [Fertile the isle] [Warburton objected to "isle" as +impossible geographically and offered "soil"] Shakespeare is little +careful of geography. There is no need of this emendation in a +play of which the whole plot depends upon a geographical error, by +which Bohemia is supposed to be a maritime country. + +III.i.3 (303, 1) [I shall report, For most it caught me] [W: It shames +report, Foremost] Of this emendation I see no reason; the utmost +that can be necessary is, to change, _it caught me,_ to _they caught +me;_ but even this may well enough be omitted. _It_ may relate to +the whole spectacle. + +III.i.14 (304, 2) [The time is worth the use on't] [W: The use is +worth the time on't] Either reading may serve, but neither is very +elegant. _The time is worth the use on't,_ means, the time which we +have spent in visiting Delos, has recompensed us for the trouble +of so spending it. + +III.ii.18 (305, 4) [pretence] Is, in this place, taken for a _scheme +laid,_ a _design formed;_ to _pretend_ means to _design,_ in the _Gent. +of Verona._ + +III.ii.27 (305, 5) [mine integrity, Being counted falsehood, shall, as +I express it, Be so receiv'd] That is, my _virtue_ being accounted +_wickedness,_ my assertion of it will pass but for a _lie. Falsehood_ +means both _treachery_ and _lie._ + +III.ii.43 (306, 6) [For life I prize it As I weigh grief which I +would spare] _Life_ is to me now only _grief,_ and as such only is +considered by me, I would therefore willingly dismiss it. + +III.ii.44 (306, 5) [I would spare] To _spare_ any thing is to _let it go. +to quit the possession of it._ (1773) + +III.ii.49 (306, 7) + + [Since he came, +With what encounter so uncurrent I +Have strain'd, to appear thus?] + +These lines I do not understand; with the license of all editors, +what I cannot understand I suppose unintelligible, and therefore +propose that they may be altered thus, + +--------_Since he came, +With what encounter so uncurrent_ have I +_Been_ stain'd _to appear thus_. + +At least I think it might be read, + +_With what encounter so uncurrent have I +Strain'd to appear thus? If one Jet beyond_. (see 1765, +II,276,5) + +III.ii.55 (307,8) + + [I ne'er heard yet, +That any of those bolder vices wanted +Less impudence to gain--say what they did, +Than to perform it first] + +It is apparent that according to the proper, at least according to +the present, use of words, _less_ should be _more_, or _wanted_ should +be _had_. But Shakespeare is very uncertain in his use of negatives. +It nay be necessary once to observe, that in our language two negatives +did not originally affirm, but strengthen the negation. +This mode of speech was in time changed, but as the change was +made in opposition to long custom, it proceeded gradually, and +uniformity was not obtained but through an intermediate confusion. + +III.ii.82 (308,9) [My life stands in the level of your dreams] To be +_in the level_ is by a metaphor from archery _to be within the reach_. + +III.ii.85 (308,1) [As you were past all shame, (Those of your fact +are so) [so past all truth] I do not remember that _fact_ is used any +where absolutely for _guilt_, which must be its sense in this place. +Perhaps we may read, + +_Those of your_ pack _are so_. + +_Pack_ is a low coarse word well suited to the rest of this royal +invective. + +III.ii.107 (309,3) [I have got strength of limit] I know not well how +_strength_ of _limit_ can mean _strength to pass the limits_ of the +childbed chamber, which yet it must mean in this place, unless we read +in a more easy phrase, _strength of_ limb. _And_ now, &c. + +III.ii.123 (310,4) [The flatness of my misery] That is, how low, how +_flat_ I am laid by my calamity. + +III.ii.146 (310,5) [Of the queen's speed] Of the _event_ of the queen's +trial: so we still say, he _sped_ well or ill. + +III.ii.173 (311,6) [Does my deeds make the blacker!] This vehement +retraction of Leontes, accompanied with the confession of more +crimes than he was suspected of, is agreeable to our daily experience +of the vicissitudes of violent tempers, and the eruptions +of minds oppressed with guilt. + +III.ii.187 (312,7) + +[That thou betray'dst Polixenes, 'twas nothing +That did but shew thee, of a fool, inconstant, +And damnable ungrateful] + +[T: of a soul] [W: shew thee off, a fool] Poor Mr. Theobald's +courtly remark cannot be thought to deserve much notice. Or. +Warburton too might have spared his sagacity if he had remembered, +that the present reading, by a mode of speech anciently +much used, means only, _It shew'd thee_ first _a fool_, then _inconstant +and ungrateful_. + +III.ii.219 (314,9) [I am sorry for't] This it another instance of +the sudden changes incident to vehement and ungovernable minds. + +III.iii.1 (315,1) [Thou art perfect then] _Perfect_ is often used by +Shakeapeare for _certain, well assured_, or _well informed_. + +III.iii.56 (317,2) [A savage clamour!--Well may I get aboard--This +is the chace] This clamour was the cry of the dogs and hunters; +then seeing the bear, he cries, _this is the chace_. or, the +_animal pursued_. + +IV.i.6 (321,9) [and leave the growth untry'd Of that wide gap] [W: +gulf untry'd] This emendation is plausible, but the common reading +is consistent enough with our author's manner, who attends more to +his ideas than to his words. _The growth of the wide gap_, is some-what +irregular; but he means, the _growth_, or progression of the +time which filled up the _gap_ of the story between Perdita's birth +and her sixteenth year. _To leave this growth untried_, is _to leave +the passages of the intermediate years unnoted and unexamined. Untried_ +is not, perhaps, the word which he would have chosen, but +which his rhyme required. + +IV.i.7 (321,1) + + [since it is in my power +To o'erthrow law, and in one self-born hour +To plant and o'erwhelm custom. Let me pass +The same I am, ere ancient'st order was, +Or what is now receiv'd] + +The reasoning of _Time_ is not very clear! he seems to mean, that +he who has broke so many laws may now break another; that he who +introduced every thing, may introduce Perdita on her sixteenth +year; and he intreats that he may pass as of old, before any +_order_ or succession of objects, ancient or modern, distinguished +his periods. + +IV.i.19 (322,2) + + [Imagine me, +Gentle spectators, that I now may be +In fair Bohemia] + +_Time_ is every where alike. I know not whether both sense and +grammar may not dictate, + +--_imagine_ we, +Gentle spectators, that_ you _now may be_, &c. +Let _us_ imagine that _you_, who behold these scenes, are now in +Bohemia? + +IV.i.29 (322,3) [Is the argument of time] _Argument_ is the same with +_subject_. + +IV.i.32 (322,4) [He wishes earnestly you newer may] I believe this +speech of _time_ rather begins the fourth act than concludes the +third. + +IV.ii.21 (323,6) [and my profit therein, the heaping friendships] +[W. reaping] I see not that the present reading is nonsense; the +sense of _heaping friendships_ is, though like many other of our +author's, unusual, at least unusual to modern ears, is not very +obscure. _To be more thankful shall be my study; and my profit +therein the heaping friendships._ That is, _I will for the future +be more liberal of recompence, from which I shall receive this +advantage, that as I heap benefits I shall heap friendships, as +I confer favours on thee I shall increase the friendship between us._ + +IV.ii.35 (324,7) [but I have, missingly, noted] [W. missing him] +[Hammer; musingly noted] I see not how the sense is mended by Sir +T. Hammer's alteration, nor how is it at all changed by Dr. Warburton's. + +IV.iii.3 (325,9) + +[_Why, then comes in the sweet o' the year; +For the red blood reigns in the winter pale_] + +Dr. Thirlby reads, perhaps rightly, certainly with much more +probability, and easiness of construction; + +_For the red blood_ runs _in the_ winter _pale._ +That is, _for the red blood runs pale in the winter._ +Sir T. Banner reads, + +_For the red blood reigns_ o'er _the winter's pale._ + +IV.iii.7 (326,1) [pugging tooth] Sir T. Hammer, and after his, +Dr. Warburton, read, _progging tooth_. It is certain that _pugging_ +is not now understood. But Dr. Thirlby observes, that this is the cant +of gypsies. + +IV.iii.28 (327,7) [Gallows, and knock, are too powerful on the highway; +beating and hanging are terrors to me] The resistance which +a highwayman encounters in the fact, and the punishment which he +suffers on detection, withold me from daring robbery, and determine me +to the silly cheat and petty theft. (1773) + +IV.iii.99 (330,4) [abide] To _abide_, here, must signify, to _sojourn_, +to live for a time without a settled habitation. + +IV.iv.6 (331,7) [To chide at your extremes, it not becomes me] That +is, your _excesses_, the _extravagance_ of your praises. + +IV.iv.8 (331,8) [The gracious mark o' the land] The _object_ of all men's +_notice_ and expectation. + +IV.iv.13 (332,9) [sworn, 1 think, To shew myself a glass] [Banner: +swoon] Dr. Thirlby inclines rather to Sir T. Hanmer's emendation, +which certainly makes an easy sense, and is, in my opinion, preferable to +the present reading. But concerning this passage I +know not what to decide. + +IV.ii.21 (333,1) [How would he look, to see his work, so noble, Vilely +bound up!] It is impossible for any man to rid his mind of his profession. +The authorship of Shakespeare has supplied him with a metaphor, +which rather than he would lose it, he has put with no great +propriety into the month of a country maid. Thinking of his own +works, his mind passed naturally to the binder. I am glad that he +has no hint at an editor. + +IV.ii.76 (335,2) [Grace and remembrance] _Rue_ was called _herb of grace. +Rosemary_ was the emblem of remembrance; I know not why, +unless because it was carried at funerals. (see 1765, II,300,5) + +IV.iv.143 (338,6) + + [Each your doing, +So singular in each particular, +Crowns what you're doing in the present deeds] +That is, your manner in each act crowns the act. + +IV.iv.155 (338,8) [_Per_. I'll swear for 'em] I fancy this half line is +placed to a wrong person. And that the king begins his speech aside + +Pol. _I'll swear for 'em +This is the prettiest_. &c. + +IV.iv.164 (339,1) [we stand upon our manners] That is, we are now on +our behaviour. + +IV.iv.169 (339,2) [a worthy feeding] I conceive _feeding_ to be a +_pasture_, and a _worthy feeding_ to be a tract of pasturage not +inconsiderable, not unworthy of my daughter's fortune. + +IV.iv.204 (340,3) [unbraided wares?] Surely we must read _braided_, for +such are all the _wares_ mentioned in the answer. + +IV.iv.212 (341,5) [sleeve-band] Is put very properly by Sir T. Hammer, +it was before _sleeve--hand_. + +IV.iv.316 (346,9) [sad] For _serious_. (1773) + +IV.iv.330 (346,1) [_That doth utter all mens' wear-a_] To _utter_. To +_bring out_, or _produce_. (1773) + +IV.iv.333 (347,3) [all men of hair] [W: i.e. nimble, that leap as if +they rebounded] This is a strange interpretation. _Errors_, says +Dryden, _flow upon the surface_, but there are men who will fetch +them from the bottom. _Men of hair_, are _hairy men_, or _satyrs_. A +dance of satyrs was no unusual entertainment in the middle ages. +At a great festival celebrated in France, the king and some of the +nobles personated satyrs dressed in close habits, tufted or +shagged all over, to imitate hair. They began a wild dance, and +in the tumult of their merriment one of them went too near a candle +and set fire to his satyr's garb, the flame ran instantly +over the loose tufts, and spread itself to the dress of those +that were next him; a great number of the dancers were cruelly +scorched, being neither able to throw off their coats nor extinguish +them. The king had set himself in the lap of the dutchess +of Burgundy, who threw her robe over him and saved him. + +IV.iv.338 (347,4) [bowling] _Bowling_, I believe, is here a term for a +dance of smooth motion with great exertion of agility. + +IV.iv.411 (350,6) [dispute his own estate?] Perhaps for _dispute_ we +might read _compute_; but _dispute his estate_ may be the same with +_talk over his affairs_. + +IV.iv.441 (351,7) [Not hold thee of our blood, no, not our kin, Far +than Deucalion off] I think for _far than_ we should read _far as_. +We will not hold thee of our kin even so far off as Deucalion the +common ancestor of all. + +IV.iv.493 (354,2) [and by my fancy] It must be remembered that _fancy_ +in this author very often, as in this place, means _love_. + +IV.iv.551 (356,3) [Ourselves to be the slaves of chance, and flies] +As _chance_ has driven me to these extremities, so I commit myself +to _chance_ to be conducted through them. + +IV.iv.613 (359,6) [as if my trinkets had been hallowed] This alludes +to beads often sold by the Romanists, as made particularly efficacious +by the touch of some relick. + +IV.iv.651 (360,7) [boot] that is, _something over and above_, or, as +we now say, _something to boot_. + +IV.iv.734 (362,9) [pedler's excrement] Is pedler's beard, (see 1765, +II,323,2) + +IV.iv.748 (363,1) [therefore they do not give us the lye] [W: do give] +The meaning is, they are _paid_ for lying, therefore they do not give +us the lye, they _sell_ it us. (1773) + +IV.iv.768 (363,2) [Advocate's the court-word for a pheasant] This satire, +or this pleasantry, I confess myself not well to understand. + +IV.iv.779 (364,3) [A great man, I'll warrant; I know, by the picking +on's teeth] It seems, that to pick the teeth was, at this time, a +mark of some pretension to greatness or elegance. So the Bastard +in _King John_, speaking of the traveller, says, + +_He and_ his pick-tooth _at my worship's mess_. + +IV.iv.816 (365,4) [the hottest day prognostication proclaims] That is, +_the hottest day foretold in the almanack_. + +V.i.14 (368,7) [Or, from the All that are, took something good] This +is a favourite thought; it was bestowed on Miranda and Rosalind +before. + +V.i,19 (368,8) [What were more holy, Than to rejoice, the former +queen is well] [W: rejoice the...queen? This will.] This emendation +is one of those of which many may be made; It is such as we +may wish the authour had chosen, but which we cannot prove that +he did chuse; the reasons for it are plausible, but not cogent. + +V.i.58 (370,9) [on this stage, (Where we offend her now)] [The +offenders now appear] The Revisal reads, + +_Were we offenders_ now---- + +very reasonably. (1773) + +V.i.74 (371,1) [Affront his eye] _To affront_, is _to meet_. + +V.i.98 (372,2) [Sir, you yourself Have said, and writ so] The reader +must observe, that _so_ relates not to what precedes, but +to what follows that, _she had not been'_----_equall'd_. + +V.i.159 (374, 3) [whose daughter His tears proclaim'd his, parting with +her] This is very ungrammatical and obscure. We aay better read, + +----_whose daughter +His tears proclaim'd_ her _parting with her_. + +The prince first tells that the lady came _from Lybia_. the king +interrupting him, says, _from Smalus; from him_, says the prince, +_whose tears, at parting, shewed her to be his daughter_. + +V.i.214 (376, 4) [Your choice is not so rich in worth as beauty] +[W. in birth] _Worth_ is as proper as _birth. Worth_ signifies any kind +of _worthiness_, and among others that of high descent. The King +means that he is sorry the prince's choice is not in other respects +as worthy of him as in beauty. + +V.ii.105 (380, 5) [that rare Italian meter, Jolio Romano] [Theobald +praised the passage but called it an anachronism] Poor Theobald's +eucomium of this passage is not very happily conceired or expressed, nor +is the passage of any eminent excellence; yet a little candour will +clear Shakespeare from part of the impropriety imputed to him. By +_eternity_ he means only i_mmortality_, or that part of eternity which +is to come; so we talk of _eternal_ renown and _eternal_ infamy. +_Immortality_ may subsist without _divinity_, and therefore the meaning +only is, that if Julio could always continue his labours, he would +mimick nature. + +V.ii.107 (381, 6) [would beguile nature of her custom] That is, _of her +trade,_--would draw her customers from her. + +V.ii.118 (381, 7) [Who would be thence, that has the benefit of access?] +It was, I suppose, only to spare his own labour that the poet put +this whole scene into narrative, for though part of the transaction +was already known to the audience, and therefore could not properly +be shewn again, yet the two kings might have met upon the stage, +and after the examination of the old shepherd, the young lady might +have been recognised in sight of the spectators. + +V.ii.173 (383, 8) [franklins say it] _Franklin_ is a _freeholder_, +or _yeoman_, a man above a _Villain_, but not a _gentleman_. + +V.ii.179 (383 ,9) [tall fellow] _Tall_, in that time, was the word used +for _stout_. + +V.iii.17 (384,1) [therefore I keep it Lonely, apart] [Hammer: lovely] +I am yet inclined to _lonely_, which in the old angular writing cannot +be distinguished from lovely. To say, that _I keep it alone, +separate from the rest_, is a pleonasm which scarcely any nicety +declines. + +V.iii.46 (385,2) [Oh, patience] That is, _Stay a while, be not go eager_. + +V.iii.56 (386,3) + + [Indeed, my lord, +If I had thought, the sight of my poor image +Would thus have wrought you, (for the stone is mine) +I'd not have shew'd it] + +[Tyrwhitt: for the stone i' th' mine] To change an accurate expression +for an expression confessedly not accurate, has somewhat +of retrogradation. (1773) + +V.iii.131 (389,6) [You precious winners all] You who by this discovery +have _gained_ what you desired may join in festivity, in which I, +who have lost what never can be recovered, can have no part. + +(300) General Observation, Of this play no edition is known published +before the folio of 1623. + +This play, as Dr. Warburton justly observes, is, with all its +absurdities, very entertaining. The character of Antolycus is +very naturally conceived, and strongly represented, (see 1765, II, 349) + + + + + +TABLE OF CONTENTS + +General Introduction +Introduction on Comedies +Notes to _The Tempest +The Two Gentlemen of Verona +The Merry Wives of Windsor +Measure for Measure +The Comedy of Errors +Much Ado About Nothing +Love's Labour's Lost +A Midsummer-Night's Dream +The Merchant of Venice +As You Like It +The Taming of the Shrew +All's Well that Ends Well +Twelfth-Night +The Winter's Tale + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Johnson's Notes to Shakespeare Vol. I +Comedies, by Samuel Johnson + +*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK NOTES TO SHAKESPEARE VOL. I *** + +This file should be named 7780.txt or 7780.zip + +Produced by Distributed Proofreaders + +Project Gutenberg eBooks are often created from several printed +editions, all of which are confirmed as Public Domain in the US +unless a copyright notice is included. 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