Chapter II: Part 2

_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.