Chapter VII: Part 7

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.