Note return to page 1 1I'll pheese you, &lblank;] To pheeze or fease, is to separate a twist into single threads. In the figurative sense it may well enough be taken, like teaze or toze, for to harrass, to plague. Perhaps I'll pheeze you, may be equivalent to I'll comb your head, a phrase vulgarly used by persons of Sly's character on like occasions.

Note return to page 2 *&lblank; no rogues.] That is no vagrants, no mean fellows, but Gentlemen.

Note return to page 3 2&lblank; paucus pallabris;] Sly, as an ignorant Fellow, is purposely made to aim at Languages out of his Knowledge, and knock the words out of joint. The Spaniards say, pocas palabras, i. e. few words: as they do likewise, Cessa, i. e. be quiet. Theob.

Note return to page 4 3Go by S. Jeronimy, go to thy cold Bed, and warm thee.] All the Editions have coined a Saint here, for Sly to swear by. But the Poet had no such Intentions. The Passage has particular Humour in it, and must have been very pleasing at that time of day. But I must clear up a Piece of Stage history, to make it understood. There is a fustian old Play, call'd, Hieronymo; Or, The Spanish Tragedy: which, I find, was the common Butt of Rallery to all the Poets of Shakespeare's Time: and a Passage, that appear'd very ridiculous in that Play, is here humorously alluded to. Hieronymo, thinking himself injur'd, applies to the King for Justice; but the Courtiers, who did not desire his Wrongs should be set in a true Light, attempt to hinder him from an Audience. Hiero. Justice, oh! justice to Hieronymo. Lor. Back;—see'st thou not, the King is busy? Hiero. Oh, is he so? King. Who is He, that interrupts our Business? Hiero. Not I:—Hieronymo, beware; go by, go by. So Sly here, not caring to be dun'd by the Hostess, cries to her in Effect, “Don't be troublesom, don't interrupt me, go, by;” and, to fix the Satire in his Allusion, pleasantly calls her Jeronymo. Theobald.

Note return to page 5 4&lblank; I must go fetch the Headborough. Sly. Third, or fourth, or fifth Borough, &c.] This corrupt Reading had pass'd down through all the Copies, and none of the Editors pretended to guess at the Poet's Conceit. What an isipid, unmeaning Reply does Sly make to his Hostess? How do third, or fourth, or fifth Borough relate to Headborough? The Author intended but a poor Witticism, and even That is lost. The Hostess would say, that she'll fetch a Constable: and this Officer she calls by his other Name, a Thirdborough: and upon this Term Sly founds the Conundrum in his Answer to her. Who does not perceive, at a single glance, some Conceit started by this certain Correction? There is an Attempt at Wit, tolerable enough for a Tinker, and one drunk too. Third-borough is a Saxon-term sufficiently explain'd by the Glossaries: and in our Statute-books, no farther back than the 28th Year of Henry VIIIth, we find it used to signify a Constable. Theobald.

Note return to page 6 5Brach, Merriman,] Sir T. Hanmer reads, Leech Merriman, that is, apply some remedies to Merriman, the poor cur has his o[illeg.]nts swel'ed. Perhaps we might read, bathe Merriman, which is I believe the common practice of huntsmen, but the present reading may stand &lblank; tender well my hounds, Brach—Merriman—the poor cur is imbost.6Q0106

Note return to page 7 6&lblank; modesty.] By modesty is meant moderation, without suffering our merriment to break into any excess.

Note return to page 8 *It was in those times the custom of players to travel in companies, and offer their service at great houses.

Note return to page 9 7I think, 'twas Soto] I take our Author here to be paying a Compliment to Beaumont and Fletcher's Women pleas'd, in which Comedy there is the Character of Soto, who is a Farmer's Son, and a very facetious Serving-man. Mr. Rowe and Mr. Pope prefix the Name of Sim to the Line here spoken; but the first folio has it Sincklo; which, no doubt, was the Name of one of the Players here introduc'd, and who had play'd the Part of Soto with Applause. Theobald.

Note return to page 10 8Property, in the language of a play-house, is every implement necessary to the exhibition.

Note return to page 11 9a little Vinegar to make our devil roar.] When the acting the mysteries of the old and new testament was in vogue; at the representation of the mystery of the Passion, Judas and the Devil made a part. And the Devil, wherever he came, was always to suffer some disgrace, to make the people laugh: As here, the buffonery was to apply the gall and vinegar to make him roar. And the Passion being that, of all the mysteries, which was most frequently represented, vinegar became at length the standing implement to torment the Devil: And used for this purpose even after the mysteries ceased, and the moralities came in vogue; where the Devil continued to have a considerable part.— The mention of it here was to ridicule so absurd a circumstance in these old farces. Warburton.

Note return to page 12 1In former editions, Who for these seven Years hath esteem'd himself No better than a poor and loathsome Beggar.] I have ventur'd to alter a Word here, against the Authority of the printed Copies; and hope, I shall be justified in it by two subsequent Passages. That the Poet design'd, the Tinker's suppos'd Lunacy should be of fourteen Years standing at least, is evident upon two parallel Passages in the Play to that Purpose. Theobald.

Note return to page 13 *It is not unlikely that the onion was an expedient used by the actors of interludes.

Note return to page 14 *&lblank; Leet,] At the Court leet, or courts of the manor.

Note return to page 15 1&lblank; from fruitful Lombardy.] So Mr. Theobald. The former editions, instead of from, had for.6Q0107

Note return to page 16 *&lblank; ingenious] I rather think it was written ingenuous studies, but of this and a thousand such observations there is little certainty.

Note return to page 17 2 Sir Thomas Hanmer, and after him Dr. Warburton, read to virtue; but formerly ply and apply were indifferently used, as to ply or apply his studies.

Note return to page 18 3A pretty Peat.] Peat or Pet is a word of endearment from petit, little, as if it meant pretty little thing.

Note return to page 19 *So strange.] That is, so odd, so different from others in your conduct.

Note return to page 20 †Cunning men.] Cunning had not yet lost its original signification of knowing, learned, as may be observed in the translation of the Bible.

Note return to page 21 4If Love hath touch'd you, nought remains but so,] The next line from Terence, shews that we should read, If Love hath toyl'd you,— i. e. taken you in his toils, his nets. Alluding to the captus est, habet, of the same Author. Warburton.

Note return to page 22 *Our author had this line from Lilly, which I mention, that it may not be brought as an argument of his learning.

Note return to page 23 *Port, is figure, show, appearance.

Note return to page 24 5Where small experience grows but in a few.] This nonsense should be read, thus: Where small experience grows but in a mew, i. e. a confinement at home. And the meaning is that no improvement is to be expected of those who never look out of doors. Warburton. Why this should seem nonsense, I cannot perceive. In a few means the same as in short, in few words.

Note return to page 25 6The burthen of a dance is an expression which I have never heard; the burthen of his wooing song had been more proper.

Note return to page 26 7Be she as foul as was Florentius' love.] This I suppose relates to a circumstance in some Italian novel, and should be read, Frorentio's. Warburton.

Note return to page 27 8Affection's edge in me.] This man is a strange talker. He tells you he wants money only. And, as to affection, he thinks so little of the matter, that give him but a rich mistress, and he will take her though incrusted all over with the worst bad qualities of age, ugliness and ill-manners. Yet, after this, he talks of Affection's edge being so strong in him that nothing can abate it. Some of the old copies indeed, instead of me read time: this will direct us to the true reading, which I am persuaded is this, Affection sieg'd in coin, i. e. placed, seated, fixed. This makes him speak to the purpose, that his affection is all love of money. The expression too is proper, as the metaphor is intire —to remove affection sieg'd in coin. Warburton. Surely the sense of the present reading is too obvious to be missed or mistaken. Petruchio says, that, if a girl has money enough, no bad qualities of mind or body will remove affection's edge; that is, hinder him from liking her.

Note return to page 28 9aglet, the tag of a point. Pope.

Note return to page 29 1An' he begin once, he'll rail in his rope-tricks.] This is obscure. Sir Thomas Hanmer reads, he'll rail in his rhetorick; I'll tell you, &c. Rhetorick agrees very well with figure in the succeeding part of the speech, yet I am inclined to believe that Rope-tricks is the true word.

Note return to page 30 2It stood thus And her withholds he from me. Other more Suitors to her, and Rivals in my Love: &c.] The Regulation, which I have given to the Text, was dictated to me by the ingenious Dr. Thirlby. Theobald.

Note return to page 31 3That gives not half so great a blow to hear,] This aukward phrase could never come from Shakespeare. He wrote, without question, &lblank; so great a blow to th'ear. Warburton.

Note return to page 32 4Please ye, we may contrive this afternoon,] Mr. Theobald asks what they were to contrive? and then says, a foolish corruption possesses the place, and so alters it to convive; in which he is followed, as he pretty constantly is, when wrong; by the Oxford Editor. But the common reading is right, and the Critic was only ignorant of the meaning of it. Contrive does not signify here to project, but to spend and wear out. As in this passage of Spenser, Three ages such as mortal men contrive. Fairy Queen, B. xi. ch. 9. Warburton. The word is used in the same sense of spending or wearing out in the Palace of Pleasure.

Note return to page 33 5&lblank; but for these other Goods,] This is so trifling and unexpressive a Word, that, I am satisfied our Author wrote, Gawds, (i. e. Toys, trifling Ornaments;) a Term that he frequently uses and seems fond of. Theobald.

Note return to page 34 6&lblank; to keep you fair] I should wish to read, To keep you fine. But either word may serve.

Note return to page 35 7&lblank; hilding &lblank;] The word hilding or hinderling, is a low wretch: it is applied to Catharine for the coarseness of her behaviour.

Note return to page 36 8&lblank; Baccare, you are marvellous forward.] We must read, Baccalare; by which the Italians mean, thou arrogant, presumptuous man! the word is used scornfully, upon any one that would assume a port of grandeur. Warburton.

Note return to page 37 9I doubt it not, Sir, but you will curse your wooing neighbours. This is a gift] This nonsense may be rectified by only pointing it thus, I doubt it not, Sir, but you will curse your wooing. Neighbour, this is a gift,. &c. addressing himself to Baptista. Warburton.

Note return to page 38 *Ay, for a turtle, as he takes a buzzard.] Perhaps we may read better, Ay, for a turtle, and he takes a buzzard. That is, he may take me for a turtle, and he shall find me a hawk.

Note return to page 39 *&lblank; kiss on kiss She vy'd so fast, &lblank;] I know not that the word vie has any construction that will suit this place; we may easily read,   Kiss on kiss She ply'd so fast.

Note return to page 40 1Old Gremio's notions are confirmed by Shadwell. The fire of love in youthful blood, Like what is kindled in brushwood,   But for a moment burns— But when crept into aged veins, It slowly burns, and long remains,   It glows, and with a sullen heat, Like fire in logs, it burns, and warms us long;   And though the flame be not so great   Yet is the heat as strong.

Note return to page 41 2Gre. Two thousand ducats by the year of land! My land amounts not to so much in all: That she shall have, and &lblank;] Tho' all the copies concur in this reading, surely, if we examine the reasoning, something will be found wrong. Gremio is startled at the high settlement Tranio proposes; says, his whole estate in land can't match it, yet he'll settle so much a year upon her, &c. This is playing at cross-purposes. The change of the negative in the second line salves the absurdity, and sets the passage right. Gremio and Tranio are vyeing in their offers to carry Bianca: The latter boldly proposes to settle land to the amount of two thousand ducats per annum. My whole estate, says the other, in land, amounts but to that value; yet she shall have that: I'll endow her with the whole; and consign a rich vessel to her use, over and above. Thus all is intelligible, and he goes on to outbid his rival. Warburt.

Note return to page 42 3Yet I have fac'd it with a card of ten:] That is, with the highest card, in the old simple games of our ancestors. So that this became a proverbial expression. So Skelton, Fyrste pycke a quarrel, and fall out with him then, And so outface him with a card of ten. And Ben Johnson in his Sad Shepherd, &lblank; a Hart of ten I trow he be, &lblank; i. e. an extraordinary good one. Warburton. If the word hart be right, I do not see any use of the latter quotation.

Note return to page 43 *When will the fool come again?] The character of the fool has not been introduced in this drama, therefore I believe that the word again should be omitted, and that Sly asks, When will the fool come? the fool being the favourite of the vulgar, or, as we now phrase it, of the upper gallery, was naturally expected in every interlude.

Note return to page 44 4Pantaloon, the old cully in Italian farces.

Note return to page 45 5Pedascale, &lblank;] he would have said Didascale, but thinking this too honourable, he coins the word Pedascale in imitation of it, from Pedant. Warburton.

Note return to page 46 6In time I may believe, yet I mistrust.] This and the seven Verses, that follow, have in all the Editions been stupidly shuffled and misplac'd to wrong Speakers; so that every Word said was glaringly out of Character. Theobald.

Note return to page 47 7O'd fashions please me best: I'm not so nice To change true Rules for new Inventions.] This is Sense and he Meaning of the Passage; but the Reading of the Second Verse, for all that, is sophisticated. The genuine Copies all concur in Reading, To change true Rules for old Inventions. Theobald.

Note return to page 48 8Full of spleen.] That is, full of humour, caprice, and inconstancy.

Note return to page 49 9A pair of boots &lblank; one buckled, another laced; an old rusty sword ta'en out of the town-armory, with a broken hilt, and chapeless, with two broken points.] How a sword should have two broken points I cannot tell. There is, I think, a transposition caused by the seeming relation of point to sword. I read, a pair of boots, one buckled, another laced with two broken points; an old rusty sword—with a broken hilt, and chapeless.

Note return to page 50 1An old hat, and the humour of forty fancies prickt up in't for a feather:] This was some ballad or drollery of that time, which the Poet here ridicules, by making Petruchio prick it up in his foot-boy's old hat for a feather. His speakers are perpetually quoting scraps and stanzas of old Ballads, and often very obscurely; for, so well are they adapted to the occasion, that they seem of a piece with the rest. In Shakespear's time, the kingdom was over-run with these doggrel compositions. And he seems to have born them a very particular grudge. He frequently ridicules both them and their makers with exquisite humour. In Much ado about nothing, he makes Benedict say, Prove that ever I lose more blood with love than I get again with drinking, prick out my eyes with a ballad maker's pen. As the bluntness of it would make the execution of it extremely painful. And again in Troilus and Cressida, Pandarus in his distress having repeated a very stupid stanza from an old ballad, says, with the highest humour, There never was a truer rhyme; let us cast away nothing, for we may live to have need of such a verse. We see it, we see it. Warburton.

Note return to page 51 2To digress.] To deviate from any promise.

Note return to page 52 3Was ever man so ray'd.] That is, was ever man so mark'd with lashes.

Note return to page 53 4Gru. &lblank; winter tames man, woman and beast; for it hath tam'd my old master, and my new mistress, and my self, fellow Curtis. Curt. Away, you three-inch'd fool; I am no beast.] Why had Grumio called him one? to give his resentment any colour. We must read as, without question, Shakespear wrote, &lblank; and thy self, fellow Curtis. Why Grumio said that winter had tamed Curtis was for his slowness in shewing Grumio to a good fire. Besides, all the joke consists in the sense of this alteration. Warburton.

Note return to page 54 5Away, you three-inch'd fool;] i. e. with a scull three inches thick, a phrase taken from the thicker sort of planks. Warburton.

Note return to page 55 6Why thy born is a foot, and so long am I at least.] Tho' all the copies agree in this reading Mr. Theobald says, yet he cannot find what horn Curtis had; therefore he alters it to my horn. But the common reading is right, and the meaning is that he had made Curtis a cuckold. Warburton.

Note return to page 56 7Jack boy, &c.] fragment of some old ballad. Warb.

Note return to page 57 8Be the Jacks fair within, the Jills fair without?] i. e. Are the drinking vessels clean, and the maid servants dress'd? But the Oxford Editor alters it thus, Are the Jacks fair without, the Jills fair within? What his conceit is in this, I confess I know not. Warburton.6Q0112

Note return to page 58 9Garters of an indifferent knit.] What is the sense of this I know not, unless it means, that their Garters should be fellows; indifferent, or not different, one from the other.

Note return to page 59 1&lblank; no link to colour Peter's hat,] Link, I believe, is the same with what we now call lamp black.

Note return to page 60 2&lblank; Soud, soud, &c.] That is, sweet, sweet. Soot, good, and sometimes sooth, is sweet. So in Milton, to sing soothly, is, to sing sweetly.6Q0113

Note return to page 61 3&lblank; to man my haggard,] A haggard is a wild hawk; to man a hawk is to tame her.

Note return to page 62 4Is't possible, friend Licio, &c.] This Scene, Mr. Pope, upon what Authority I can't pretend to guess, has in his Editions made the First of the Fifth Act: in doing which, he has shewn the very Power and Force of Criticism. The Consequence of this judicious Regulation is, that two unpardonable Absurdities are fix'd upon the Author, which he could not possibly have committed. For, in the first Place, by this shuffling the Scenes out of their true Position, we find Hortensio, in the fourth Act, already gone from Baptista's to Petruchio's Country-house; and afterwards in the beginning of the fifth Act we find him first forming the Resolution of quitting Bianca; and Tranio immediately informs us, he is gone to the Taming-School to Petruchio. There is a Figure, indeed, in Rhetorick, call'd, &grura;&grs;&grt;&gre;&grr;&gro;&grn; &grp;&grr;&groa;&grt;&gre;&grr;&gro;&grn;: But this is an Abuse of it, which the Rhetoricians will never adopt upon Mr. Pope's Authority. Again; by this Misplacing, the Pedant makes his first Entrance, and quits the Stage with Tranio in order to go and dress himself like Vincentio, whom he was to personate: but his second Entrance is upon the very Heels of his Exit; and without any Interval of an Act, or one Word intervening, he comes out again equipp'd like Vincentio. If such a Critick be fit to publish a Stage-Writer, I shall not envy Mr. Pope's Admirers, if they should think fit to applaud his Sagacity. I have replac'd the Scenes in that Order, in which I found them in the old Books. Theobald.

Note return to page 63 5An acient Angel] For angel Mr. Theobald, and after him Sir T. Hanmer and Dr. Warburton read Engle.

Note return to page 64 6&lblank; Surely like a father.] I know not what he is, says the speaker, however this is certain, he has the gait and countenance of a fatherly man. Warburton.

Note return to page 65 7And all my pains is sorted to no proof.] And all my labour has ended in nothing, or proved nothing. We tried an experiment, but it sorted not. Bacon.

Note return to page 66 *&lblank; fardingals, and things:] Though things is a poor word, yet I have no better, and perhaps the authour had not another that would rhyme. I once thought to transpose the words rings and things, but it would make little improvement.

Note return to page 67 8Why, Sir, I trust, I may have leave to speak, &c.] Shakespear has here copied nature with great skill. Petruchio, by frightening, starving and overwatching his wife, had tamed her into gentleness and submission. And the audience expects to hear no more of the Shrew: When on her being crossed, in the article of fashion and finery, the most inveterate folly of the sex, she flies out again, though for the last time, into all the intemperate rage of her nature. Warburton.

Note return to page 68 *Censers, in barbers shops, are now disused, but they may easily be imagined to have been vessels which, for the emission of the smoke, were cut with great number and varieties of interstices.

Note return to page 69 †The taylor's trade having an appearance of effeminacy, has always been, among the rugged English, liable to sarcasms and contempt.

Note return to page 70 9I cannot but think, that the direction about the tinker, who is always introduced at the end of the acts, together with the change of the scene, and the proportion of each act to the rest, make it probable that the fifth act begins here.

Note return to page 71 1 Tra. Where we were Lodgers at the Pegasus.] This Line has in all the Editions hitherto been given to Tranio. But Tranio could with no Propriety speak this, either in his assum'd or real Character. Lucentio was too young to know any thing of lodging with his Father, twenty years before at Genoa: and Tranio must be as much too young, or very unfit to represent and personate Lucentio. I have ventured to place the Line to the Pedant, to whom it must certainly belong, and is a Sequel of what he was before saying. Theobald.

Note return to page 72 *&lblank; Where then do you know best Be we affied; &lblank;] This seems to be wrong. We may read more commodiously, &lblank; Where then you do know best, Be we affied; &lblank; Or thus, which I think is right. Where then do you trow best, We be affied; &lblank;

Note return to page 73 2In the first sketch of this play, printed in 1607, we find two speeches in this place worth preserving, and seeming to be of the hand of Shakespear, tho' the rest of that play is far inferior. Pope. Fair lovely maiden, young and affable, More clear of hue, and far more beautiful Than precious sardonyx, or purple rocks Of amethists, or glistering hyacinth— —Sweet Catharine, this lovely woman— PetruchioCath. Fair lovely lady, bright and chrystalline, Beauteous and stately as the eye-train'd bird; As glorious as the morning wash'd with dew, Within whose eyes she takes her dawning beams, And golden summer sleeps upon thy cheeks. Wrap up thy radiations in some cloud, Lest that thy beauty make this stately town Uninhabitable as the burning zone, With sweet reflections of thy lovely face.

Note return to page 74 3And then come back to my Mistress as soon as I can.] The Editions all agree in this reading; but what Mistress was Biondello to come back to? He must certainly mean; “Nay, faith, Sir, I must see you in the Church; and then for fear I should be wanted, I'll run back to wait on Tranio, who at present personates you, and whom therefore I at present acknowledge for my Master.” Theob.

Note return to page 75 4A copatain hat, is, I believe, a hat with a conical crown, such as was anciently worn by well dressed men.

Note return to page 76 5Swift, besides the original sense of speedy in motion, signified witty, quick-witted. So in As you like it, the Duke says of the clown, He is very swift and sententious. Quick is now used in almost the same sense, as nimble was in the age after that of our authour. Heylin says of Hales, that he had known Laud for a nimble disputant.

Note return to page 77 6Though you hit the white.] To hit the white is a phrase borrowed from archery: the mark was commonly white. Here it alludes to the name Bianca or white.

Note return to page 78 *From this play the Tatler formed a story, Vol. 4. No. 131. There are very many ill Habits that might with much Ease have been prevented, which, after we have indulged ourselves in them, become incorrigible. We have a Sort of Proverbial Expression, of taking a Woman down in her Wedding Shoes, if you would bring her to Reason. An early Behaviour of this Sort, had a very remarkable good Effect in a Family wherein I was several Years an intimate Acquaintance. A Gentleman in Lincolnshire had four Daughters, three of which were early married very happily; but the fourth, though no Way inferior to any of her Sisters, either in Person or Accomplishments, had from her Infancy discovered so imperious a Temper, (usually called a high Spirit) that it continually made great Uneasiness in the Family, became her known Character in the Neighbourhood, and deterred all her Lovers from declaring themselves. However, in Process of Time, a Gentleman of a plentiful Fortune and long Acquaintance, having observed that Quickness of Spirit to be her only Fault, made his Addresses, and obtained her Consent in due Form. The Lawyers finished the Writings, (in which, by the Way, there was no Pin-Money) and they were married. After a decent Time spent in the Father's House, the Bridegroom went to prepare his Seat for her Reception. During the whole Course of his Courtship, though a Man of the most equal Temper, he had artificially lamented to her, that he was the most passionate Creature breathing. By this one Intimation, he at once made her understand Warmth of Temper to be what he ought to pardon in her, as well as that he alarmed her against that Constitution in himself. She at the same Time thought herself highly obliged by the composed Behaviour which he maintained in her Presence. Thus sat he with great Success soothed her from being guilty of Violences, and still resolved to give her such a terrible Apprehension of his fiery Spirit, that she should never dream of giving Way to her own. He return'd on the day appointed for carrying her home; but instead of a Coach and six Horses, together with the gay Equipage suitable to the Occasion, he appeared without a Servant, mounted on the Skeleton of a Horse, which his Huntsman had the Day before brought in to feast his Dogs on the Arrival of his new Mistress, with a Pillion fixed behind, and a Case of Pistols before him, attended only by a favourite Hound. Thus equipped, he in a very obliging (but somewhat positive) Manner, desired his Lady to seat herself on the Cushion; which done, away they crawled. The Road being obstructed by a Gate, the Dog was commanded to open it: The poor Cur looked up and wagged his Tail; but the Master, to shew the Impatience of his Temper, drew a Pistol and shot him dead. He had no sooner done it, but he fell into a thousand Apologies for his unhappy Rashness, and begg'd as many Pardons for his Excesses before one for whom he had so profound a Respect. Soon after their Steed stumbled, but with some Difficulty recovered: However, the Bridegroom took Occasion to swear, if he frightened his Wife so again, he would run him through! And alas! the poor Animal being now almost tired, made a second Trip; immediately on which the careful Husband alights, and with great Ceremony, first takes off his Lady, then the Acoutrements, draws his Sword, and saves the Huntsman the Trouble of killing him: Then says to his Wife, Child, prithee take up the Saddle; which she readily did, and tugged it home, where they found all Things in the greatest Order suitable to their Fortune and the present Occasion. Some Time after, the Father of the Lady gave an Entertainment to all his Daughters and their Husbands, where, when the Wives were retired, and the Gentlemen passing a Toast about, our last married Man took Occasion to observe to the rest of his Brethren, how much, to his great Satisfaction, he found the World mistaken as to the Temper of his Lady, for that she was the most meek and humble Woman breathing. The Applause was received with a loud Laugh: But as a Trial which of them would appear the most Master at home, he proposed they should all by Turns send for their Wives down to them. A Servant was dispatched, and Answer was made by one, Tell him I will come by and by; and another, That she would come when the Cards were out of her Hand, and so on. But no sooner was her Husband's Desire whispered in the Ear of our last married Lady, but the Cards were clapp'd on the Table, and down she comes with, My Dear, would you speak with me? He received her in his Arms, and after repeated Caresses tells her the Experiment, confesses his Good Nature, and assures her, that since she could now command her Temper, he would no longer disguise his own. It cannot but seem strange that Shakespeare should be so little known to the authour of the Tatler, that he should suffer this Story to be obtruded upon him, or so little known to the Publick, that he could hope to make it pass upon his readers as a novel narrative of a transaction in Lincolnshire; yet it is apparent, that he was deceived, or intended to deceive, that he knew not himself whence the story was taken, or hoped that he might rob so obscure a writer without detection. Of this play the two plots are so well united, that they can hardly be called two without injury to the art with which they are interwoven. The attention is entertained with all the variety of a double plot, yet is not distracted by unconnected incidents. The part between Catharine and Petruchio is eminently spritely and diverting. At the marriage of Bianca the arrival of the real father, perhaps, produces more perplexity than pleasure. The whole play is very popular and diverting.6Q0114

Note return to page 79 This Play is taken from the Menætmi of Plautus.

Note return to page 80 1Was wrought by nature, not by vile offence,] All his hearers understood that the punishment he was about to undergo was in consequence of no private crime, but of the publick enmity between two states, to one of which he belonged: But it was a general superstition amongst the ancients, that every great and sudden misfortune was the vengeance of heaven pursuing men for their secret offences. Hence the sentiment here put into the mouth of the speaker was proper. By my past life, (says he) which I am going to relate, the world may understand that my present death is according to the ordinary course of providence, [wrought by nature] and not the effects of divine vengeance overtaking me for my crimes, [not by vile offence.] Warburton.

Note return to page 81 *That is, over-reached.

Note return to page 82 2They say, this town is full of couzenage;] This was the character the ancients give of it. Hence &grE;&grf;&gre;&grs;&gri;&gra; &grasa;&grl;&gre;&grc;&gri;&grf;&gra;&grr;&grm;&gra;&grk;&gra; was proverbial amongst them. Thus Menander uses it, & &GREs;&grf;&gre;&grs;&gri;&gra; &grg;&grr;&graa;&grm;&grm;&gra;&grt;&gra; in the same sense. Warburton.

Note return to page 83 3As, nimble Jugglers, that deceive the Eye; Dark-working Sorcerers, that change the Mind: Soul-killing Witches, that deform the Body;] Those, who attentively consider these three Lines, must confess, that the Poet intended, the Epithet given to each of these Miscreants, should declare the Power by which they perform their Feats, and which would therefore be a just Characteristick of each of them. Thus, by nimble Jugglers, we are taught that they perform their Tricks by Slight of Hand: and by Soul-killing Witches, we are informed, the Mischief they do is by the Assistance of the Devil, to whom they have given their Souls: But then, by dark working Sorcerers, we are not instructed in the Means by which they perform their Ends. Besides, this Epithet agrees as well to Witches, as to them; and therefore, certainly, our Author could not design This in their Characterick. We should read; Drug-working Sorcerers, that change the Mind; And we know by the History of ancient and modern Superstition, that these kind of Jugglers always pretended to work Changes of the Mind by these Applications. Warburton. The learned commentator has endeavoured with much earnestness to recommend his alteration; but, if I may judge of other apprehensions by my own, without great success. This interpretation of soul-killing, is forced and harsh. Sir T. Hanmer reads, Soul-selling, agreeably enough to the common opinion, but without such improvement as may justify the change. Perhaps the epithets have been only misplaced, and the lines should be read thus, Soul-killing sorcerers, that change the mind; Dark-working witches, that deform the body. This change seems to remove all difficulties. By soul-killing I understand destroying the rational faculties by such means as make men fancy themselves beasts.

Note return to page 84 4&lblank; liberties of sin:] Sir T. Hanmer reads, Libertines, which, as the author has been enumerating not acts but persons, seems right.

Note return to page 85 5&lblank; start some other where?] I cannot but think that our authour wrote, &lblank; start some other hare. So in Much ado about nothing, Cupid is said to be a good hare-finder.

Note return to page 86 6To pause is to rest, to be in quiet.

Note return to page 87 7&lblank; fool-begg'd] She seems to mean by fool begg'd, patience, that patience which is so near to idiotical simplicity, that your next relation would take advantage from it to represent you as a fool, and beg the guardianship of your fortune.

Note return to page 88 8Am I so round with you as you with me,] He plays upon the word round, which signified spherical applied to himself, and unrestrained, or free in speech or action, spoken of his mistress. So the king in Hamlet bids the queen be round with her son.

Note return to page 89 *The ambiguity of deer and dear is borrowed, poor as it is, by Waller in his poem on the Ladies Girdle. This was my heav'n's extremest sphere, The pale that held my lovely deer.

Note return to page 90 9&lblank; poor I am but his stale] The word stale, in our authour, used as a substantive, means, not something offered to allure or attract, but something vitiated with use, something of which the best part has been enjoyed and consumed.

Note return to page 91 1I see, the jewel, best enamelled, Will lose his beauty; yet the gold bides still, That others touch, and often touching will: Where gold and no man, that hath a name, By falshood and corruption doth it shame.] In this miserable condition is this passage given us. It should be read thus, I see, the jewel, best enamelled, Will lose his beauty; and the gold bides still, That others touch; yet often touching will Wear gold: and so no man, that hath a name, But falshood, and corruption, doth it shame. The sense is this, “Gold, indeed, will long bear the handling; however, often touching, will wear even gold; just so the greatest character, tho' as pure as gold itself, may, in time, be injured, by the repeated attacks of falshood and corruption.” Warburton.6Q0115

Note return to page 92 2In former Editions: Ant. Why is Time such a Niggard of Hair, being, as it is, so plentiful an Excrement? S. Dro. Because it is a Blessing that he bestows on Beasts, and what he hath scanted them in hair, he hath given them in Wit.] Surely, this is Mock-reasoning, and a Contradiction in Sense. Can Hair be suppos'd a Blessing, which Time bestows on Beasts peculiarly; and yet that he hath scanted them of it too? Men and Them, I observe, are very frequently mistaken vice versa for each other, in the old Impressions of our Author. Theobald.

Note return to page 93 3Not a man of those, but he hath the wit to lose his hair.] That is, Those who have more hair than wit, are easily entrapped by loose women, and suffer the consequences of lewdness, one of which, in the first appearance of the disease in Europe, was the loss of hair.

Note return to page 94 4I am possess'd with an adulterate blot; My blood is mingled with the crime of lust:] Both the integrity of the metaphor, and the word blot, in the preceding line, shew that we should read, &lblank; with the grime of lust: i. e. the stain, smut. So again in this play,—A man may go over shoes in the grime of it. Warburton.

Note return to page 95 5I live distain'd, thou undishonoured.] To distaine (from the French Word, destaindre) signifies, to stain, defile, pollute. But the Context requires a Sense quite opposite. We must either read, unstain'd; or, by adding an Hyphen, and giving the Preposition a privative Force, read dis-stain'd; and then it will mean, unstain'd, undefiled. Theobald.6Q0116

Note return to page 96 6&lblank; you are from me exempt.] Exempt, separated, parted. The sense is, If, I am doomed to suffer the wrong of separation, yet injure not with contempt me who am already injured.

Note return to page 97 7We talk with goblins, owls, and elvish sprights;] Here Mr. Theobald calls out in the name of Nonsense, the first time he had formally invoked her, to tell him how Owls could suck their breath, and pinch them black and blue. He, therefore, alters Owls to Ouphs, and dares say, that his readers will acquiesce in the justness of his emendation. But, for all this, we must not part with the old reading. He did not know it to be an old popular superstition, that the scretch-owl sucked out the breath and blood of infants in the cradle. On this account, the Italians called Witches, who were supposed to be in like manner mischievously bent against children, Strega, from Strix, the Scretch-owl. This superstition they had derived from their Pagan ancestors, as appears from this passage of Ovid, Sunt avidæ volucres; non quæ Phineïa mensis   Guttura fraudavant: sed genus inde trahunt. Grande caput: stantes oculi: rostra apta rapinæ:   Canities pennis, unguibus hamus inest. Nocte volant, puero que petunt nutricis egentes;   Et vitiant cunis corpora rapta suis. Carpere dicuntur lactantia viscera rostris;   Et plenum poto sanguine guttur habent. Est illis strigibus nomen:— Lib. 6. Fest. Warburton.

Note return to page 98 8Why prat'st thou to thyself? Dromio, thou Dromio, snail, thou slug, thou sot!] In the first of these Lines, Mr. Rowe and Mr. Pope have both, for what Reason I cannot tell, curtail'd the Measure, and dismounted the doggrel Rhyme, which I have replac'd from the first Folio. The second Verse is there likewise read; Dromio, thou Dromio, thou snail, thou slug, thou sot. The Verse is thus half a Foot too long; my Correction cures that Fault: besides Drone corresponds with the other Appellations of Reproach. Theobald.

Note return to page 99 9And shrive you &lblank;] That is, I will call you to confession, and make you tell your tricks.

Note return to page 100 1Carkanet seems to have been a necklace or rather chain, perhaps hanging down double from the neck. So Lovelace in his poem, The Empress spreads her carcanets.

Note return to page 101 2Marry, so it doth appear By the wrongs I suffer, and the Blows I bear;] Thus all the printed Copies; but, certainly, This is Cross-purposes in Reasoning. It appears, Dromio is an Ass by his making no Resistance: because an Ass, being kick'd, kicks again. Our Author never argues at this wild Rate, where his Text is genuine. Theobald. I do not think this emendation necessary. He first says, that his wrongs and blows prove him an ass; but immediately, with a correction of his former sentiment, such as may be hourly observed in conversation, he observes that, if he had been an ass, he should, when he was kicked, have kicked again.

Note return to page 102 3The reading was thus: &lblank; we shall part with neither.] Common sense requires us to read,—we shall have part with neither. Warburton.

Note return to page 103 *Supposed by the common rout.] For suppose I once thought it might be more commodious to substitute supported; but there is no need of change: supposed is, founded on supposition, made by conjecture.

Note return to page 104 *For slander lives upon succession] The line apparently wants two syllables: what they were cannot now be known. The line may be filled up according to the reader's fancy, as thus: For lashing6Q0117 slander lives upon succession.

Note return to page 105 4And, in despight of mirth, &lblank;] Mr. Theobald does not know what to make of this; and, therefore, has put wrath instead of mirth into the text, in which he is followed by the Oxford Editor. But the old reading is right; and the meaning is, I will be merry, even out of spite to mirth, which is, now, of all things, the most unpleasing to me. Warburt.

Note return to page 106 5In former copies And may it be, that you have quite forgot An Husband's Office? Shall, Antipholis, Ev'n in the Spring of Love, thy love-springs rot? Shall love in Buildings grow so ruinate?] This Passage has hitherto labour'd under a double Corruption. What Conceit could our Editors have of Love in Buildings growing ruinate? Our Poet meant no more than this. Shall thy Love-springs rot, even in the Spring of Love? and shall thy Love grow ruinous, ev'n while 'tis but building up? The next Corruption is by an accident at Press, as I take it; This Scene for Fifty two Lines successively is strictly in alternate Rhimes: and this Measure is never broken, but in the Second, and Fourth Lines of these two Couplets. 'Tis certain, I think, a Monosyllable dropt from the Tail of the Second Verse; and I have ventur'd to supply it by, I hope, a probable Conjecture. Theobald.

Note return to page 107 6Alas, poor Women! make us not believe, &c.] From the whole Tenour of the Context it is evident, that this Negative (not,) got Place in the first Copies instead of but And these two Monosyllables have by Mistake reciprocally dispossess'd one another in many other Passages of our Author's Works. Theo.

Note return to page 108 *Vain is light of tongue, not voracious.

Note return to page 109 *My sole earth's heav'n, and my heav'n's claim.] When he calls the girl his only heaven on earth, he utters the common cant of lovers. When he calls her his heaven's claim, I cannot understand him. Perhaps he means that which he asks of heaven.

Note return to page 110 7S. Ant. What's her name? S. Dro. Nell, Sir; but her Name is three Quarters; that is, an Ell and three Quarters, &c.] This Passage has hitherto lain as perplext and unintelligible, as it is now easy, and truly humorous. If a Conundrum be restor'd, in setting it right, who can help it? There are enough besides in our Author, and Ben Jonson to countenance that current Vice of the Times when this Play appear'd. Nor is Mr. Pope, in the Chastity of his Taste, to bristle up at me for the Revival of this Witticism, since I owe the Correction to the Sagacity of the ingenious Dr. Thirlby. Theobald.

Note return to page 111 8S. Ant. Where France? S. Dro. In her forehead: arm'd and reverted, making War against her Hair.] All the other Countries, mention'd in this Description, are in Dromio's Replies satirically characteris'd: but here, as the Editors have order'd it, no Remark is made upon France; nor any Reason given, why it should be in her Forehead: but only the Kitchen-wench's high Forehead is rallied, as pushing back her Hair. Thus all the modern Editions; but the first Folio reads—making War against her Heir—And I am very apt to think, this last is the true Reading; and that an Equivoque, as the French call it, a double Meaning, is design'd in the Poet's Allusion: and therefore I have replac'd it in the Text. In 1589, Henry III. of France being stabb'd, and dying of his Wound, was succeeded by Henry IV. of Navarre, whom he appointed his Successor; but whose Claim the States of France resisted, on account of his being a Protestant. This, I take it, is what he means, by France making War against her Heir. Now as, in 1591, Queen Elizabeth sent over 4000 Men, under the Conduct of the Earl of Essex, to the Assistance of this Henry of Navarre; it seems to me very probable, that during this Expedition being on foot, this Comedy made its Appearance. And it was the finest Address imaginable in the Poet to throw such an oblique Sneer at France, for opposing the Succession of that Heir, whose Claim his Royal Mistress, the Queen, had sent over a Force to establish, and oblige them to acknowledge. Theobald. With this correction and explication Dr. Warburton concurs, and Sir T. Hanmer thinks an equivocation intended, though he retains hair in the text. Yet surely they have all lost the sense by looking beyond it. Our authour, in my opinion, only sports with an allusion, in which he takes too much delight, and means that his mistress had the French disease. The ideas are rather too offensive to be dilated. By a forehead armed, he means covered with incrusted eruptions; by reverted, he means having the hair turning backward. An equivocal word must have senses applicable to both the subjects to which it is applied. Both Forehead and France might in some sort make war against their hair, but how did the forehead make war against its heir? The sense which I have given immediately occurred to me, and will, I believe, arise to every reader who is contented with the meaning that lies before him, without sending our conjecture in search of refinements.

Note return to page 112 9To conclude, this drudge, or diviner, laid claim to me,] A little lower, he calls her witch. A word is certainly dropt out of the Text. We should read, this drudge of the devil, this diviner, &lblank; Drudge of the Devil, is the right pariphrasis for a witch. Warburton.

Note return to page 113 1And, I think, if my breast had not been made of faith, &c.] Alluding to the superstition of the common people, that nothing could resist a witch's power, of transforming men into animals, but a great share of faith: however the Oxford Editor thinks a breast made of flint, better security, and has therefore put it in. Warburton.

Note return to page 114 2&lblank; meteors tilting in his face?] Alluding to those meteors in the sky which have the appearance of lines of armies meeting in the shock. To this appearance he compares civil wars in another place. Which, like the meteors of a troubled heav'n, All of one nature of one substance bred, Did lately meet in the intestine shock And furious close of civil butchery. Warburton.

Note return to page 115 *Sere, that is, dry, withered.

Note return to page 116 †Stigmatical in making &lblank;] That is, marked or stigmatized by nature with deformity, as a token of his vicious disposition.

Note return to page 117 3And Fiend, a Fairy, pitiless and rough] Dromio here bringing word in haste that his Master is arrested, describes the Bailiff by Names proper to raise Horror and Detestation of such a Creature, such as, a Devil, a Fiend, a Wolf, &c. But how does Fairy come up to these terrible Ideas? We should read— a Fiend, a Fury, &c. Theob. Mr. Theobald seems to have forgotten that there were fairies like hobgoblins, pitiless and rough, and described as malevolent and mischievous. His emendation is, however, plausible.

Note return to page 118 *A hound that runs counter, and yet draws dry-foot well;] To run counter is to run backward, by mistaking the course of the animal persued; to draw dry foot is, I believe, to persue by the track or prick of the foot; to run counter and draw dry foot well are, therefore, inconsistent. The jest consists in the ambiguity of the word counter, which means the wrong way in the chase, and a prison in London. The officer that arrested him was a serjeant of the counter. For the congruity of this jest with the Scene of action, let our authour answer.

Note return to page 119 4What, have you got the Picture of old Adam new apparell'd?] A short Word or two must have slipt out here, by some Accident in copying, or at Press; otherwise I have no Conception of the Meaning of the Passage. The Case is this. Dromio's Master had been arrested, and sent his Servant home for Mony to redeem him: He running back with the Mony meets the Twin Antipholis, whom he mistakes for his Master, and seeing him clear of the Officer before the Mony was come, he cries in a Surprize; What, have you got rid of the Picture of old Adam new apparell'd? For so I have ventur'd to supply, by Conjecture. But why is the Officer call'd old Adam new apparell'd? The Allusion is to Adam in his State of Innocence going naked; and immediately after the Fall, being cloath'd in a Frock of Skins. Thus he was new apparell'd: and, in like manner, the Sergeants of the Counter were formerly clad in Buff, or Calves-skin, as the Author humorously a little lower calls it. Theobald. The explanation is very good, but the text does not require to be amended.

Note return to page 120 5he, that sets up his rest to do more exploits with his mace, than a morris-pike.] Sets up his Rest, is a phrase taken from military exercise. When gunpowder was first invented, its force was very weak compared to that in present use. This necessarily required fire-arms to be of an extraordinary length. As the artists improved the strength of their powder, the soldiers proportionably shortned their arms and artillery; so that the cannon which Froissart tells us was once fifty foot long, was contracted to less than ten. This proportion likewise held in their muskets; so that, till the middle of the last century, the musketeers always supported their pieces when they gave fire, with a Rest stuck before them into the ground, which they called setting up their Rest, and is here alluded to. There is another quibbling allusion too to the serjeant's office of arresting. But what most wants animadversion is the morris-pike, which is without meaning, impertinent to the sense, and false in the allusion; no pike being used amongst the dancers so called, or at least not fam'd for much execution. In a word, Shakespeare wrote. a maurice-Pike, i. e. a Pikeman of Prince Maurice's army. He was the greatest general of that age, and the conductor of the Low-country wars against Spain, under whom all the English Gentry and Nobility were bred to the service. Being frequently overborn with numbers, he became famous for his fine Retreats, in which a stand of Pikes is of great service. Hence the Pikes of his army became famous for their military exploits. Warburton. This conjecture is very ingenious, yet the commentator talks unnecessarily of the rest of a musket, by which he makes the hero of the speech set up the rest of a musket, to do exploits with a pike. The rest of a pike was a common term, and signified, I believe, the manner in which it was fixed to receive the rush of the enemy. A morris pike was a pike used in a morris or a military dance, and with which great exploits were done, that is, great feats of dexterity were shewn. There is no need of change.

Note return to page 121 6Mistress, respice finem, respect your end; or rather the prophecie, like the parrot, beware the rope's-end.] These words seem to allude to a famous pamphlet of that time, wrote by Buchanan against the Lord of Liddington; which ends with these words, Respice finem, respice funem. But to what purpose, unless our Author would shew that he could quibble as well in English, as the other in Latin, I confess I know not. As for prophesying like the parrot, this alludes to people's teaching that bird unlucky words; with which, when any passenger was offended, it was the standing joke of the wise owner to say, Take heed, Sir, my parrot prophesies. To this, Butler hints, where, speaking of Ralpho's skill in augury, he says, Could tell what subtlest parrots mean, That speak and think contrary clean; What member 'tis of whom they talk, When they cry rope, and walk, knave, walk. Warburton.

Note return to page 122 7Kitchen-vestal] Her charge being like that of the vestal virgins, to keep the fire burning.

Note return to page 123 8Kinsman to grim and comfortless despair?] Shakespear could never make melancholy a male in this line, and a female in the next. This was the foolish insertion of the first Editors. I have therefore put it into hooks, as spurious. Warburton.

Note return to page 124 9And, with his mad attendant and himself,] We should read, &lblank; mad himself. Warburton.

Note return to page 125 1To scorch your face, &lblank;] We should read scotch, i. e. hack, cut. Warburton.

Note return to page 126 2Strange defeatures. Defeature is the privative of feature. The meaning is time hath cancelled my features.

Note return to page 127 3All these old witnesses, I cannot err,] I believe we should read. All these hold witnesses I cannot err, i. e. All these continue to testify that I cannot err, and tell me, &c. Warburton.

Note return to page 128 4In former Editions: Thirty-three years.] 'Tis impossible the Poet could be so forgetful, as to design this Number here: and therefore I have ventur'd to alter it to twenty-five, upon a Proof, that, I think, amounts to demonstration. The Number, I presume, was at first wrote in figures, and, perhaps, blindly; and thence the Mistake might arise. Ægeon, in the first Scene of the first Act, is precise as to the Time his Son left him, in Quest of his Brother: My youngest Boy, and yet my eldest Care, At eighteen years became inquisitive After his Brother, &c. And how long it was from the Son's thus parting from his Father, to their meeting again at Ephesus, where Ægeon, mistakenly, recognizes the Twin-brother for him; we as precisely learn from another Passage in the fifth Act. Æge. But seven years since, in Syracusa-bay, Thou know'st we parted; So that these two Numbers, put together, settle the Date of their Birth beyond Dispute. Theob.

Note return to page 129 5&lblank; and go with me:] We should read, &lblank; and gaude with me: i. e. Rejoice, from the French, Gaudir. Warburton.

Note return to page 130 6After so long grief such nativity.] We should surely read, After so long grief such festivity. Nativity lying so near, and the termination being the same of both word, the mistake was easy.

Note return to page 131 The Story is from Ariosto Orl. Fur. B. v. Pope.

Note return to page 132 1Much Ado about Nothing.] Innogen, (the Mother of Hero) in the oldest Quarto that I have seen of this Play, printed in 1600, is mention'd to enter in two several Scenes. The succeeding Editions have all continued her Name in the Dramatis Personæ. But I have ventur'd to expunge it; there being no mention of her through the Play, no one Speech address'd to her, nor one Syllable spoken by her. Neither is there any one Passage, from which we have any Reason to determine that Hero's Mother was living. It seems, as if the Poet had in his first Plan design'd such a Character; which, on a Survey of it, he found would be superfluous; and therefore he left it out. Theobald.

Note return to page 133 2&lblank; joy could not shew it self modest enough, without a badge of bitterness.] This is judiciously express'd. Of all the transports of Joy, that which is attended with tears is least offensive; because carrying with it this mark of pain, it allays the envy that usually attends another's happiness. This he finely calls a modest joy, such a one as did not insult the observer by an indication of happiness unmixed with pain. Warburton.

Note return to page 134 3&lblank; no faces truer] That is, none honester, none more sincere.

Note return to page 135 4&lblank; is Signior Montanto return'd] Montante, in Spanish, is a huge two-handed sword, given, with much humour, to one, the speaker would represent as a Boaster or Bravado. Warburt.

Note return to page 136 5&lblank; there was none such in the army of any sort.] Not meaning there was none such of any order or degree whatever, but that there was none such of any quality above the common. Warburton.

Note return to page 137 6&lblank; challeng'd Cupid at the flight;] The disuse of the bow makes this passage obscure. Benedick is represented as challenging Cupid at archery. To challenge at the flight is, I believe, to wager who shall shoot the arrow furthest without any particular mark. To challenge at the bird-bolt, seems to mean the same as to challenge at children's archery, with small arrows such as are discharged at birds. In Twelfth Night Lady Olivia opposes a bird-bolt to a cannon bullet, the lightest to the heaviest of missive weapons.6Q0120

Note return to page 138 7&lblank; four of his five wits] In our authour's time wit was the general term for intellectual powers. So Davies on the Soul, Wit, seeking truth from cause to cause ascends,   And never rests till it the first attain; Will, seeking good, finds many middle ends,   But never stays till it the last do gain. And in another part,   But if a phrenzy do possess the brain, It so disturbs and blots the form of things,   As fantasy proves altogether vain, And to the wit no true relation brings.   Then doth the wit, admitting all for true, Build fond conclusions those idle grounds; &lblank; The wits seem to have reckoned five, by analogy to the five senses, or the five inlets of ideas.

Note return to page 139 8wit enough to keep himself warm,] But how would that make a difference between him and his horse? We should read, Wit enough to keep himself from harm. This suits the satirical turn of her speech, in the character she would give of Benedick; and this would make the difference spoken of. For 'tis the nature of horses, when wounded, to run upon the point of the weapon. Warburton.

Note return to page 140 9&lblank; he wears his faith] Not religious Profession, but Profession of friendship; for the speaker gives it as the reason of her asking, who was now his Companion? that he had every month a new sworn brother. Warburton.

Note return to page 141 1&lblank; the gentleman is not in your books.] This is a phrase used, I believe, by more than understand it. To be in one's books is to be in one's codicils or will, to be among friends set down for legacies.

Note return to page 142 2young squarer &lblank;] A squarer I take to be a cholerick, quarrelsome fellow, for in this sense Shakespeare uses the word to square. So in Midsummer Night's Dream it is said of Oberon and Titania, that they never meet but they square. So the sense may be, Is there no hot-blooded youth that will keep him company through all his mad pranks?

Note return to page 143 3You embrace your charge &lblank;] That is, your burthen, your encumbrance.

Note return to page 144 4to tell us Cupid is a rare hare-finder, &c.] I know not whether I conceive the jest here intended. Claudio hints his love of Hero. Benedick asks whether he is serious, or whether he only means to jest, and tell them that Cupid is a good hare-finder, and Vulcan a rare carpenter. A man praising a pretty lady in jest, may shew the quick sight of Cupid, but what has it to do with the carpentry of Vulcan? Perhaps the thought lies no deeper than this, Do you mean to tell us as new what we all know already?

Note return to page 145 5&lblank; wear his cap with suspicion?] That is, subject his head to the disquiet of jealousy.

Note return to page 146 6&lblank; sigh away Sundays:] A proverbial expression to signify that a man has no rest at all; when Sunday, a day formerly of ease and diversion, was passed so uncomfortably. Warburton.

Note return to page 147 7Claud. If this were so, so were it uttered.] This and the three next speeches I do not well understand, there seems something omitted relating to Hero's consent, or to Claudio's marriage, else I know not what Claudio can wish not to be otherwise. The Copies all read alike. Perhaps it may be better thus, Claud. It this were so, so were it. Bene. Uttered like the old tale, &c. Claudio gives a sullen answer, if it is so, so it is. Still there seems something omitted which Claudio and Pedro concur in wishing.

Note return to page 148 8&lblank; but in the force of his will.] Alluding to the definition of a Heretick in the Schools. Warburton.

Note return to page 149 9&lblank; but that I will have a recheate winded in my forehead,] That is, I will wear a horn on my forehead which the huntsman may blow. A recheate is the sound by which dogs are called back. Shakespeare had no mercy upon the poor cuckold, his horn is an inexhaustible subject of merriment.

Note return to page 150 1&lblank; notable argument.] An eminent subject for satire.

Note return to page 151 2&lblank; and he that hits me, let him be clap'd on the Shoulder, and call'd Adam.] But why should he therefore be called Adam? Perhaps, by a Quotation or two we may be able to trace the Poet's Allusion here. In Law-Tricks, or, Who would have thought it, (a Comedy written by John Day, and printed in 1608) I find this Speech. Adam Bell, a substantial Outlaw, and a passing good Archer, yet no Tobaconist. —By this it appears, that Adam Bell at that time of day was of Reputation for his Skill at the Bow. I find him again mentioned in a Burlesque Poem of Sir William Davenant's, called, The long Vacation in London. Theobald. Adam Bell was a companion of Robin Hood, as may be seen in Robin Hood's Garland; in which, if I do not mistake, are these lines, For he brought Adam Bell, Chim of the Clough, And William of Cloudeslea, To shoot with this forester for forty marks, And the forester beat them all three.

Note return to page 152 3&lblank; if Cupid hath not spent all his quiver in Venice,] All modern Writers agree in representing Venice in the same light that the Ancients did Cyprus. And 'tis this Character of the People that is here alluded to. Warburton.

Note return to page 153 4&lblank; ere you flout old ends, &c.] Before you endeavour to distinguish your self any more by antiquated allusions, examine whether you can fairly claim them for your own. This I think is the meaning; or it may be understood in another sense, examine, if your sarcasms do not touch yourself.

Note return to page 154 5The fairest grant is the necessity;] i. e. no one can have a better reason for granting a request than the necessity of its being granted. Warburton.

Note return to page 155 *&lblank; I cannot hide what I am:] This is one of our authour's natural touches. An envious and unsocial mind, too proud to give pleasure, and too sullen to receive it, always endeavours to hide its malignity from the world and from itself, under the plainness of simple honesty, or the dignity of haughty independence.

Note return to page 156 6&lblank; claw no man in his humour.] To claw is to flatter, so the pope's claw backs, in bishop Jewel, are the pope's flatterers. The sense is the same in the proverb, Mulus mulum scabit.

Note return to page 157 7I had rather be a canker in a hedge, than a rose in his grace;] A canker is the canker rose, dogrose, cynosbatus, or hip. The sense is, I would rather live in obscurity the wild life of nature, than owe dignity or estimation to my brother. He still continues his wish of gloomy independence. But what is the meaning of the expression, a rose in his grace? if he was a rose of himself, his brother's grace or favour could not degrade him. I once read thus, I had rather be a canker in a hedge, than a rose in his garden; that is, I had rather be what nature makes me, however mean, than owe any exaltation or improvement to my brother's kindness or cultivation. But a less change will be sufficient: I think it should be read, I had rather be a canker in a hedge than a rose by his grace.

Note return to page 158 8&lblank; heart-burn'd an hour after.] The pain commonly called the heart-burn, proceeds from an acid humour in the stomach, and is therefore properly enough imputed to tart looks.

Note return to page 159 9Well then, &c. &lblank;] Of the two next speeches Mr. Warburton says, All this impious nonsense thrown to the bottom is the players, and foisted in without rhyme or reason. He therefore puts them in the margin. They do not deserve indeed so honourable a place, yet I am afraid they are too much in the manner of our author, who is sometimes trifling to purchase merriment at too dear a rate.6Q0121

Note return to page 160 *Important here and in many other places, is importunate.

Note return to page 161 1My Visor is Philemon's Roof, within the House is Love.] Thus the whole Stream of the Copies, from the first downwards. Hero says to Don Pedro. God forbid, the Lute should be like the Case! i. e. that your Face should be as homely and as coarse as your Mask. Upon this, Don Pedro compares his Visor to Philemon's Roof. 'Tis plain, the Poet alludes to the Story of Baucis and Philemon from Ovid: And this old Couple, as the Roman Poet describes it, liv'd in a thatch'd Cottage; &lblank; Stipulis & canna tecta palustri. But why, Within the House is Love? Though this old Pair lived in a Cottage, this Cottage received two straggling Gods, (Jupiter and Mercury,) under its Roof. So, Don Pedro is a Prince; and though his Visor is but ordinary, he would insinuate to Hero, that he has something godlike within: alluding either to his Dignity, or the Qualities of his Person and Mind. By these Circumstances, I am sure, the Thought is mended: as, I think verily, the Text is too by the Change of a single Letter. &lblank; within the House is Jove. Nor is this Emendation a little confirmed by another Passage in our Author, in which he plainly alludes to the same Story. As you like it. Clown. I am here with thee and thy Goats, as the most capricious Poet, honest Ovid, was amongst the Goths. Jaq. O Knowledge ill inhabited, worse than Jove in a thatch'd House! Theobald. This emendation, thus impressed with all the power of his eloquence and reason, Theobald had in the 4to edition of 1600, which he professes to have seen.

Note return to page 162 2Balth. Well; I would you did like me.] This and the two following little Speeches, which I have placed to Balthazar, are in all the printed Copies given to Benedick. But, 'tis clear, the Dialogue here ought to be betwixt Balthazar, and Margaret: Benedick, a little lower, converses with Beatrice: and so every Man talks with his Woman once round. Theobald.

Note return to page 163 3&lblank; Hundred merry Tales;] A book, I suppose, like the Oxford Jests.

Note return to page 164 4&lblank; his gift is in devising IMPOSSIBLE slanders:] We should read Impassible, i. e. slanders so ill invented that they will pass upon no body. Warb. Impossible is better.

Note return to page 165 5&lblank; his villany;] By which, she means his malice and impiety. By his impious jests, she insinuates he pleased libertines; and by his devising slanders of them, he angered them. Warburton.

Note return to page 166 6&lblank; Usurer's chain?] I know not whether the chain was, in our authour's time, the common ornament of wealthy citizens, or whether he satirically uses usurer and alderman as synonymous terms.

Note return to page 167 7It is the base, tho' bitter, disposition of Beatrice, who puts the world into her person.] That is, it is the disposition of Beatrice, who takes upon her to personate the world, and therefore represents the world as saying what she only says herself. Base tho' bitter. I do not understand how base and bitter are inconsistent, or why what is bitter should not be base. I believe we may safely read, it is the base, the bitter disposition.

Note return to page 168 8such IMPOSSIBLE conveyance] We should read impassable. A term taken from fencing, when the strokes are so swift and repeated as not to be parried or passed off. Warb. I know not what to propose. Impossible seems to have no meaning here, and for impassable I have not found any authority. Spenser uses the word importable in a sense very congruous to this passage, for insupportable, or not to be sustained.   Both him charge on either side With hideous strokes and importable pow'r,   Which forced him his ground to traverse wide. It may be easily imagined, that the transcribers would change a word so unusual, into that word most like it which they could readily find. It must be however confessed, that importable appears harsh to our ears, and I wish a happier Critick may find a better word. Sir Thomas Hanmer reads impetuous, which will serve the purpose well enough, but is not likely to have been changed to impossible.

Note return to page 169 9the infernal Até in good apparel.] This is a pleasant allusion to the custom of ancient poets and painters, who represent the furies in raggs. Warb.

Note return to page 170 1Thus goes every one to the world but I, and I am sunburnt.] What is it, to go to the world? perhaps, to enter by marriage into a settled state: but why is the unmarried Lady sunburnt? I believe we should read, thus goes every one to the wood but I, and I am sunburnt. Thus does every one but I find a shelter, and I am left exposed to wind and sun. The nearest way to the wood, is a phrase for the readiest means to any end. It is said of a woman, who accepts a worse match than those which she had refused, that she has passed through the wood, and at last taken a crooked stick. But conjectural criticism has always something to abate its confidence. Shakespeare, in All's well that ends well, uses the phrase, to go to the world, for marriage. So that my emendation depends only on the opposition of wood to sun-burnt.

Note return to page 171 2she hath often dream'd of unhappiness,] So all the editions; but Mr. Theobald's alters it to, an happiness, having no conception that unhappiness meant any thing but misfortune, and that he thinks she could not laugh at. He had never heard that it signified a wild, wanton, unlucky trick. Thus Beaumont and Fletcher in their comedy of the Maid of the Mill. &lblank; My dreams are like my thoughts honest and innocent: Yours are unhappy. Warburton.

Note return to page 172 3To bring Benedick and Beatrice into a mountain of affection the one with the other] A mountain of affection with one another is a strange expression, yet I know not well how to change it. Perhaps it was originally written, to bring Benedick and Beatrice into a mooting of affection; to bring them, not to any more mootings of contention, but to a mooting or conversation of love. This reading is confirmed by the proposition with; a mountain with each other, or affection with each other, cannot be used, but a mooting with each other is proper and regular.

Note return to page 173 4Bora. Go then, find me a meet hour to draw on Pedro and the Count Claudio, alone; tell them that you know Hero loves me; &lblank; Offer them Instances, which shall bear no less Likelihood than to see me at her Chamber-window; hear me call Margaret, Hero; hear Margaret term me Claudio; and bring them to see this the very night before the intended Wedding.] Thus the whole Stream of the Editions from the first Quarto downwards. I am obliged here to give a short Account of the Plot depending, that the Emendation I have made may appear the more clear and unquestionable. The Business stands thus: Claudio, a Favourite of the Arragon Prince, is, by his Intercessions with her Father, to be married to fair Hero; Don John, Natural Brother of the Prince, and a Hater of Claudio, is in his Spleen zealous to disappoint the Match. Borachio, a rascally Dependant on Don John, offers his Assistance, and engages to break off the Marriage by this Stratagem. “Tell the Prince and Claudio (says He) that Hero is in Love with Me; they won't believe it; offer them Proofs, as that they shall see me converse with her in her Chamber-window. I am in the good Graces of her Waiting-woman Margaret; and I'll prevail with Margaret at a dead Hour of Night to personate her Mistress Hero; do you then bring the Prince and Claudio to overhear our Discourse; and They shall have the Torment to hear me address Margaret by the Name of Hero, and her say sweet things to me by the Name of Claudio.”—This is the Substance of Borachio's Device to make Hero suspected of Disloyalty, and to break off her Match with Claudio. But in the name of common Sense, could it displease Claudio to hear his Mistress making Use of his Name tenderly? If he saw another Man with her, and heard her call him Claudio, he might reasonably think her betrayed, but not have the same Reason to accuse her of Disloyalty. Besides, how could her naming Claudio make the Prince and Claudio believe that She lov'd Borachio, as he desires Don John to insinuate to them that She did? The Circumstances weigh'd, there is no Doubt but the Passage ought to be reformed, as I have settled in the Text. &lblank; hear me call Margaret, Hero; hear Margaret term me Borachio. Theobald.

Note return to page 174 5but that she loves him with an inraged affection, it is past the Infinite of thought.] It is impossible to make Sense and Grammar of this speech. And the reason is, that the two beginnings of two different sentences are jumbled together and made one. For—but that she loves him with an inraged affection,— is only part of a sentence which should conclude thus,—is most certain. But a new idea striking the speaker, he leaves this sentence unfinished, and turns to another,—It is past the infinite of thought—which is likewise left unfinished; for it should conclude thus—to say how great that affection is. These broken disjointed sentences are usual in conversation. However there is one word wrong, which yet perplexes the sense, and that is Infinite. Human thought cannot surely be called infinite with any kind of figurative propriety. I suppose the true reading was Definite. This makes the passage intelligible. It is past the Definite of thought—i. e. it cannot be defined or conceived how great that affection is. Shakespear uses the word again in the same sense in Cymbeline. For Idiots, in this case of favour, would Be wisely Definite.— i. e. could tell how to pronounce or determine in the case. Warb. Here are difficulties raised only to shew how easily they can be removed. The plain sense is, I know not what to think otherwise, but that she loves him with an enraged affection: It (this affection) is past the infinite of thought. Here are no abrupt stops, or imperfect sentences. Infinite may well enough stand; it is used by more careful writers for indefinite: And the speaker only means, that thought, though in itself unbounded, cannot reach or estimate the degree of her passion.

Note return to page 175 6O, she tore the Letter into a thousand half-pence;] i. e. into a thousand Pieces of the same bigness. This is farther explained by a Passage in As you like it. —There were none principal; they were all like one another as, half-pence are. In both places the Poet alludes to the old silver Penny which had a Crease running Cross-wise over it, so that it might be broke into two or four equal pieces, half-pence, or farthings. Theobald. How the quotation explains the passage, to which it is applied, I cannot discover.

Note return to page 176 7Contemptible spirit.] That is, a temper inclined to scorn and contempt. It has been before remarked, that our authour uses his verbal adjectives with great licence. There is therefore no need of changing the word with Sir T. Hanmer to contemptuous.

Note return to page 177 8Misprising.] Despising; contemning.

Note return to page 178 9If black, why, Nature, drawing of an antick, Made a foul blot:] The antick was a buffoon character in the old English farces, with a blacked face, and a patch-work habit. What I would observe from hence is, that the name of antick or antique, given to this character, shews that the people had some traditional ideas of its being borrowed from the ancient mimes, who are thus described by Apuleius, mimi centunculo, fuligine faciem obducti. Warburton.

Note return to page 179 1If low, an Agat very vilely cut;] But why an agat, if low? For what likeness between a little man and an agat? The ancients, indeed, used this stone to cut upon; but very exquisitely. I make no question but the poet wrote; &lblank; an Aglet very vilely cut; An aglet was the tagg of those points, formerly so much in fashion. These taggs were either of gold, silver, or brass, according to the quality of the wearer; and were commonly in the shape of little images; or at least had a head cut at the extremity. The French call them aiguillettes. Mazeray, speaking of Henry IIId's sorrow for the death of the princess of Conti, says,—portant meme sur les aiguillettes de petites tetes de Mort. And as a tall man is before compar'd to a Launce ill-headed; so, by the same figure, a little Man is very aptly liken'd to an Aglet ill-cut. Warburton.

Note return to page 180 2Argument.] This word seems here to signify discourse, or, the powers of reasoning.

Note return to page 181 3She's lim'd] She is ensnared and entangled as a sparrow with birdlime.

Note return to page 182 4What fire is in my ears? &lblank;] Alluding to a proverbial saying of the common people, that their ears burn when others are talking of them. Warburton.

Note return to page 183 5Taming my wild heart to the loving hand] This image is taken from falconry. She had been charged with being as wild as Haggards of the rock; she therefore says, that wild as her heart is, she will tame it to the hand.

Note return to page 184 6There is no appearance of fancy, &c.] Here is a play upon the word fancy, which Shakespeare uses for love as well as for humour, caprice, or affectation.

Note return to page 185 7She shall be buried with her Face upwards.] Thus the whole Set of Editions: But what is there any ways particular in This? Are not all Men and Women buried so? Sure, the Poet means, in Opposition to the general Rule, and by way of Distinction, with her heels upwards, or face downwards. I have chosen the first Reading, because I find it the Expression in Vogue in our Author's time. Theobald. This emendation, which appears to me very specious, is rejected by Dr. Warburton. The meaning seems to be, that she who acted upon principles contrary to others, should be buried with the same contrariety.

Note return to page 186 8no need of such vanity:] Dogberry is only absurd, not absolutely out of his senses. We should read therefore, More need Warburton.

Note return to page 187 9Bills be not stolen.] A bill is still carried by the watchmen at Lichfield. It was the old weapon of the English infantry, which, says Temple, gave the most ghostly and deplorable wounds. It may be called securis falcata.

Note return to page 188 1any villany should be so rich?] The sense absolutely requires us, to read villain. Warburton.

Note return to page 189 2thou art unconfirmed;] i. e. unpractised in the ways of the World. Warburton.

Note return to page 190 3sometimes, like the shaven Hercules, &c.] By the shaven Hercules is meant Samson, the usual subject of old tapestry. In this ridicule on the fashion, the poet has not unartfully given a stroke at the barbarous workmanship of the common Tapestry hangings, then so much in use. The same kind of raillery Cervantes has employed on the like occasion, when he brings his knight and squire to an inn, where they found the story of Dido and Æneas represented in bad tapestry. On Sanco's seeing the tears fall from the eyes of the forsaken queen as big as walnuts, he hopes that when their atchievements became the general subject for these sort of works, that fortune will send them a better artist.—What authorized the poet to give this name to Samson was the folly of certain christian mythologists, who pretend that the Grecian Hercules was the Jewish Samson. The retenue of our author is to be commended: The sober audience of that time would have been offended with the mention of a venerable name on so light an occasion. Shakespear is indeed sometimes licentious in these matters: But to do him justice, he generally seems to have a sense of religion, and to be under its influence. What Pedro says of Benedick, in this comedy, may be well enough applied to him. The man doth fear God, however it seems not to be in him by some large jests he will make. Warburton.

Note return to page 191 4In former copies: Conr. Masters, Masters,— 2 Watch. You'll be made bring Deformed forth, I warrant you, Conr. Masters, never speak, we charge you, let us obey you to go with us.] The Regulation which I have made in this last Speech, tho' against the Authority of all the printed Copies, I flatter myself, carries its Proof with it. Conrade and Borachio are not designed to talk absurd Nonsense. It is evident therefore, that Conrade is attempting his own Justification; but is interrupted in it by the Impertinence of the Men in Office. Theobald.

Note return to page 192 5Rabato.] A Neckband; a Ruff. Rabat. French. Hanmer.

Note return to page 193 6Light o'love.] A tune so called; which has been already mentioned by our authour.

Note return to page 194 7No barns.] A quibble between barns, repositories of corn, and bairns, the old word for children.

Note return to page 195 8For the letter that begins them all, H.] This is a poor jest, somewhat obscured, and not worth the trouble of elucidation. Margaret asks Beatrice for what she cries, hey ho; Beatrice answers, for an H, that is, for an ache or pain.

Note return to page 196 9turn'd Turk] i. e. taken captive by Love, and turn'd a Renegado to his religion. Warburton. This interpretation is somewhat far-fetched, yet, perhaps, it is right.

Note return to page 197 1Some moral.] That is, some secret meaning, like the moral of a fable.

Note return to page 198 2He eats his meat without grudging] I do not see how this is a proof of Benedick's change of mind. It would afford more proof of amorousness to say, he eats not his meat without grudging; but it is impossible to fix the meaning of proverbial expressions: perhaps, to eat meat without grudging, was the same as to do as others do, and the meaning is, he is content to live by eating like other mortals, and will be content, notwithstanding his boasts, like other mortals, to have a wife.

Note return to page 199 3I am as honest as any man living, that is an old man, and no honester than I.] There is much humour, and extreme good sense under the covering of this blundering expression. It is a sly insinuation that length of years, and the being much hacknied in the ways of men, as Shakespear expresses it, take off the gloss of virtue, and bring much defilement of the manners. For as a great Wit says, Youth is the season of Virtue: corruptions grow with years, and I believe the oldest rogue in England is the greatest. Warburton. Much of this is true, but I believe Shakespeare did not intend to bestow all this reflection on the speaker.

Note return to page 200 4If two men ride, &c.] This is not out of place, or without meaning. Dogberry, in his vanity of superiour parts, apologizing for his neighbour, observes, that, of two men on a horse, one must ride behind. The first place or rank, or understanding, can belong but to one, and that happy one ought not to despise his inferiour.

Note return to page 201 5Some be of laughing.] This is a quotation from the Accidence.

Note return to page 202 6&lblank; luxurious bed;] That is, lascivious. Luxury is the confessor's term for unlawful pleasures of the sex.

Note return to page 203 7Dear my Lord, if you in your own Proof.] I am surpriz'd, the Poetical Editors did not observe the Lameness of this Verse. It evidently wants a Syllable in the last Foot, which I have restor'd by a Word, which, I presume, the first Editors might hesitate at; tho' it is a very proper one, and a Word elsewhere used by our Author. Besides, in the Passage under Examination, this Word comes in almost necessarily, as Claudio had said in the Line immediately preceding; Not knit my Soul to an approved Wanton. Theobald.

Note return to page 204 8&lblank; word too large;] So he uses large jests in this play, for licentious, not restrained within due bounds.

Note return to page 205 9&lblank; I will write against it;] What? a libel? nonsense. We should read, I will rate against it, i. e. rail or revile. Warburton. As to subscribe to any thing is to allow it, so to write against is to disallow or deny.

Note return to page 206 1&lblank; chaste as is the bud] Before the air has tasted its sweetness.

Note return to page 207 2&lblank; kindly power] That is, natural power. Kind is nature.

Note return to page 208 3&lblank; liberal villain,] Liberal here, as in many places of these plays, means, frank beyond honesty or decency. Free of tongue. Dr. Warburton unnecessarily reads illiberal.

Note return to page 209 4I am afraid here is intended a poor conceit upon the word Hero.

Note return to page 210 5The story that is printed in her blood?] That is, the story which her blushes discover to be true.

Note return to page 211 6&lblank; Griev'd I, I had but one? Chid I for That at frugal nature's frame? I've one too much by thee. &lblank;] The meaning of the second line according to the present reading, is this, Chid I at frugal nature that she sent me a girl and not a boy? But this is not what he chid nature for; if he himself may be believed, it was because she had given him but one: and in that he owns he did foolishly, for he now finds he had one too much. He called her frugal, therefore, in giving him but one child. (For to call her so because she chose to send a girl, rather than a boy, would be ridiculous) So that we must certainly read, Chid I for this at frugal nature's 'fraine, i. e. refraine, or keeping back her further favours, stopping her hand, as we say, when she had given him one. But the Oxford Editor has, in his usual way, improved this amendment, by substituting hand for 'fraine. Warburton. Though frame be not the word which appears to a reader of the present time most proper to exhibit the poet's sentiment, yet it may as well be used to shew that he had one child, and no more, as that he had a girl, not a boy, and as it may easily signify the system of things, or universal scheme, the whole order of beings is comprehended, there arises no difficulty from it which requires to be removed by so violent an effort as the introduction of a new word offensively mutilated.

Note return to page 212 7But mine, and mine I lov'd, and mine I prais'd, And mine that I was proud on, &lblank;] The sense requires that we should read, as in these three places The reasoning of the speaker stands thus,—Had this been my adopted child, this shame would not have rebounded on me. But this child was mine, as mine I loved her, praised her, was proud of her: consequently, as I claimed the glory I must needs be subjected to the shame, &c. Warburton. Even of this small alteration there is no need. The speaker utters his emotion abruptly. But mine, and mine that I loved, &c. by an ellipsis frequent, perhaps too frequent, both in verse and prose.

Note return to page 213 8Friar. Lady, what man is he you are accus'd of?] The friar had just before boasted his great skill in fishing out the truth. And indeed, he appears, by this question, to be no fool. He was by, all the while at the accusation, and heard no names mentioned. Why then should he ask her what man she was accused of? But in this lay the subtilty of his examination. For had Hero been guilty, it was very probable that, in that hurry and confusion of spirits, into which the terrible insult of her lover had thrown her, she would never have observed that the man's name was not mentioned; and so, on this question, have betrayed herself by naming the person she was conscious of an affair with. The friar observed this, and so concluded, that were she guilty she would probably fall into the trap he laid for her. —I only take notice of this to shew how admirably well Shakespeare knew how to sustain his characters. Warburton.

Note return to page 214 9&lblank; bent of honour,] Bent is used by our authour for the utmost degree of any passion or mental quality. In this play before, Benedick says of Beatrice, her affection has its full bent. The expression is derived from archery; the bow has its bent when it is drawn as far as it can be.

Note return to page 215 1In former copies, Your Daughter here the Princess (left for dead;] But how comes Hero to start up a Princess here? We have no Intimation of her Father being a Prince; and this is the first and only Time that She is complimented with this Dignity. The Remotion of a single Letter, and of the Parenthesis, will bring her to her own Rank, and the Place to its true Meaning. Your Daughter here the Princes left for dead; i. e. Don Pedro, Prince of Arragon; and his Bastard Brother who is likewise called a Prince. Theobald.

Note return to page 216 2&lblank; ostentation,] Show; appearance.

Note return to page 217 3The smallest twine may lead me.] This is one of our authour's observations upon life. Men over-powered with distress eagerly listen to the first offers of relief, close with every scheme, and believe every promise. He that has no longer any confidence in himself, is glad to repose his trust in any other that will undertake to guide him.

Note return to page 218 4SCENE III.] The poet, in my opinion, has shewn a great deal of address in this scene. Beatrice here engages her lover to revenge the injury done her cousin Hero: And without this very natural incident, considering the character of Beatrice, and that the story of her Passion for Benedick was all a fable, she could never have been easily or naturally brought to confess she loved him, notwithstanding all the foregoing preparation. And yet, on this confession, in this very place, depended the whole success of the plot upon her and Benedick. For had she not owned her love here, they must have soon found out the trick, and then the design of bringing them together had been defeated; and she would never have owned a passion she had been only tricked into, had not her desire of revenging her cousin's wrong made her drop her capricious humour at once. Warburton.

Note return to page 219 5Both. Yea, Sir, we hope. To Cl. Write down that they hope they serve God: and write God first; for God defend, but God should go before such Villains; &lblank;] This short Passage, which is truly humorous and in character, I have added from the old Quarto. Besides, it supplies a Defect: for, without it, the Town Clerk asks a Question of the Prisoners, and goes on without staying for any Answer to it. Theobald.

Note return to page 220 6To. Cl. Yea, marry, that's the easiest Way, let the Watch come forth.] This, easiest, is a Sophistication of our modern Editors, who were at a Loss to make out the corrupted Reading of the old Copies. The Quarto, in 1600, and the first and second Editions in Folio all concur in reading; Yea, marry, that's the eftest way, &c. A Letter happen'd to slip out at Press in the first Edition; and 'twas too hard a Task for the subsequent Editors to put it in, or guess at the Word under this accidental Depravation. There is no doubt, but the Author wrote, as I have restor'd the Text; Yea, marry, that's the deftest way, &c. i. e. the readiest, most commodious Way. The Word is pure Saxon. Dearlice, debite, congrue, duely, fitly. Ledæftlice, opportune, commode, sitly, conveniently, seasonably, in good time, commodiously. Vid. Spelman's Saxon Gloss. Theobald.

Note return to page 221 7Sexton. Let them be in the hands of Coxcomb.] So the Editions. Mr. Theobald gives the words to Conrade, and says, But why the Sexton should be so pert upon his Brother Officers, there seems no reason from any superior qualifications in him; or any suspicion he shews of knowing their ignorance. This is strange. The Sexton throughout shews as good sense in their Examination as any Judge upon the bench could do. And as to his suspicion of their ignorance, he tells the Town-clerk That he goes not the way to examine. The meanness of his name hindered our Editor from seeing the Goodness of his Sense. But this Sexton was an Ecclesiastic of one of the inferior Orders called the Sacristan, and not a Brother Officer, as the Editor calls him. I suppose the book from whence the Poet took his subject was some old English novel translated from the Italian, where the word Sagristano was rendered Sexton. As in Fairfax's Godfrey of Boulogne; When Phœbus next unclos'd his wakeful eye, Up rose the Sexton of that place prophane. The passage then in question is to be read thus, Sexton. Let them be in hand. [Exit. Conr. Off, Coxcomb! Dogberry would have them pinion'd. The Sexton says, it was sufficient if they were kept in safe custody, and then goes out. When one of the watchmen comes up to bind them, Conrade says, Off, Coxcomb! as he says afterwards to the Constable, Away! you are an ass.—But the Editor adds, The old Quarto gave me the first umbrage for placing it to Conrade. What these words mean I don't know: But I suspect the old Quarto divides the passage as I have done. Warb. There is nothing in the old quarto different in this scene from the common copies, except that the names of two actors, Kempe and Cooley, are placed at the beginning of the speeches, instead of the proper words.

Note return to page 222 8If such a one will smile, and stroke his Beard, And hallow, wag, cry hem, when he should groan,] Mr. Rowe is the first Authority that I can find for this Reading. But what is the Intention, or how are we to expound it? “If a Man will halloo, and whoop, and fidget, and wriggle about, to shew a Pleasure when He should groan,” &c. This does not give much Decorum to the Sentiment. The old Quarto, and the 1st and 2d Folio Editions all read, And sorrow, wagge, cry hem, &c. We don't, indeed, get much by this Reading; tho', I flatter myself, by a slight Alteration it has led me to the true one, And Sorrow wage; cry, hem! when he should groan; i. e. If such a one will combat with, strive against Sorrow, &c. Nor is this Word infrequent with our Author in these Significations. Theobald. Sir Thomas Hanmer; and after him Dr. Warburton, for wag read waive, which is, I suppose, the same as, put aside, or shift off. None of these conjectures satisfy me, nor perhaps any other reader. I cannot but think the true reading nearer than it is imagined. I point thus, If such an one will smile, and stroke his beard, And, sorrow wag! cry; hem, when he should groan; That is, If he will smile, and cry sorrow be gone, and hem instead of groaning. The order in which and and cry are placed is harsh, and this harshness made the sense mistaken. Range the words in the common order, and my reading will be free from all difficulty. If such an one will smile, and stroke his beard, Cry, sorrow, wag! and hem when he should groan.

Note return to page 223 9&lblank; than advertisement.] That is, than admonition, than moral instruction.

Note return to page 224 1However they have writ the style of Gods.] This alludes to the extravagant titles the Stoics gave their wise men. Sapiens ille cum Diis, ex pari, vivit. Senec. Ep. 59. Jupiter quo antecedit virum bonum? diutius bonus est. Sapiens nihilo se minoris æstimat.—Deus non vincit Sapientem felicitate. Ep. 73. Warburton.

Note return to page 225 2And made a pish at chance and sufference.] Alludes to their famous Apathy. Warburton.

Note return to page 226 3Canst Thou so daffe me? &lblank;] This is a Country Word, Mr. Pope tells us, signifying, daunt. It may be so; but that is not the Exposition here: To daffe, and doffe are synonymous Terms, that mean, to put off: which is the very Sense requir'd here, and what Leonato would reply, upon Claudio's saying. He would have nothing to do with him. Theobald.

Note return to page 227 4Ant. He shall kill two of us, &c.] This Brother Anthony is the truest picture imaginable of human nature. He had assumed the Character of a Sage to comfort his Brother, o'erwhelm'd with grief for his only daughter's affront and dishonour; and had severely reproved him for not commanding his passion better on so trying an occasion. Yet, immediately after this, no sooner does he begin to suspect that his Age and Valour are slighted, but he falls into the most intemperate fit of rage himself: and all his Brother can do or say is not of power to pacify him. This is copying nature with a penetration and exactness of Judgment peculiar to Shakespeare. As to the expression, too, of his passion, nothing can be more highly painted. Warb.

Note return to page 228 5&lblank; we will not wake your patience.] This conveys a sentiment that the speaker would by no means have implied. That the patience of the two Old men was not exercised, but asleep, which upbraids them for insensibility under their wrong. Shakespeare must have wrote—We will not wrack, i. e. destroy your patience by tantalizing you. Warburton. This emendation is very specious, and perhaps is right; yet the present reading may admit a congruous meaning with less difficulty than many other of Shakespeare's expressions. The old men have been both very augry and outrageous; the Prince tells them that he and Claudio will not wake their patience; will not any longer force them to endure the presence of those whom, though they look on them as enemies, they cannot resist.

Note return to page 229 6Nay, then give him another staff; &c.] Allusion to Tilting. See note, As you like it. Act 3. Scene 10. Warburton.

Note return to page 230 7&lblank; to turn his girdle.] We have a proverbial speech, If he be angry, let him turn his girdle. But I do not know its original or meaning.

Note return to page 231 8&lblank; a wise gentleman;] This jest depending on the colloquial use of words is now obscure; perhaps we should read, a wise gentle man, or a man wise enough to be a coward. Perhaps wise gentleman was in that age used ironically, and always stood for silly fellow.

Note return to page 232 9What a pretty thing man is, when he goes in his doublet and hose, and leaves off his wit!] It was esteemed a mark of levity and want of becoming gravity, at that time, to go in the doublet and hose, and leave off the cloak, to which this well turn'd expression alludes. The thought is, that love makes a man as ridiculous, and exposes him as naked as being in the doublet and hose without a cloak. Warburton.

Note return to page 233 1&lblank; one meaning well suited.] That is, one meaning is put into many different dresses; the Prince having asked the same question in four modes of speech.

Note return to page 234 2&lblank; he wears a key in his ear, and a lock hanging by it; and borrows money in God's name,] There could not be a pleasanter ridicule on the fashion, than the constable's descant on his own blunder. They heard the conspirators satyrize the fashion; whom they took to be a man, sirnamed, Deformed. This the constable applies with exquisite humour to the courtiers, in a description of one of the most fantastical fashions of that time, the men's wearing rings in their ears, and indulging a favourite lock of hair which was brought before, and tied with ribbons, and called a Love-lock. Against this fashion William Prinn wrote his treatise, called, The unlovelyness of Love-locks. To this fantastick mode Fletcher alludes in his Cupid's Revenge—This morning I brought him a new periwig with a lock at it—And yonder's a fellow come has bored a hole in his ear. And again in his Woman-hater—If I could endure an ear with a hole in it, or a platted lock, &c. Warburton.

Note return to page 235 3To have no Man come over me? why, shall I always keep below Stairs?] Thus all the printed Copies, but, sure, erroneously: for all the Jest, that can lie in the Passage, is destroy'd by it. Any Man might come over her, literally speaking, if she always kept below Stairs. By the Correction I have ventur'd to make, Margaret, as I presume, must mean, What! shall I always keep above Stairs? i. e. Shall I for ever continue a Chambermaid? Theobald. I suppose every reader will find the meaning of the old copies.

Note return to page 236 4&lblank; I give thee the bucklers.] I suppose that to give the bucklers is, to yield, or to lay by all thoughts of defence, so clipeum abjicere. The rest deserves no comment.

Note return to page 237 5in the time of good neighbours;] i. e. When men were not envious, but every one gave another his due. The reply is extremely humourous. Warburton.

Note return to page 238 6Question? Why, an hour, &c.] i. e. What a question's there, or what a foolish question do you ask. But the Oxford Editor not understanding this phrase, contracted into a single word, (of which we have many instances in English) has fairly struck it out. Warburton.

Note return to page 239 7Those that slew thy virgin Knight.] Knight, in its original signification, means Follower or Pupil, and in this sense may be feminine. Helena, in All's well, that ends well, uses knight in the same signification.6Q0124

Note return to page 240 8And Hymen now with luckier Issue speeds, Than this, for whom we render'd up this Woe.] Claudio could not know, without being a Prophet, that this new-propos'd Match should have any luckier Event than That design'd with Hero. Certainly, therefore, this should be a Wish in Claudio; and, to this end, the Poet might have wrote, speed's; i. e. speed us: and so it becomes a Prayer to Hymen. Thirlby.

Note return to page 241 9I would not deny you, &c.] Mr. Theobald says, is not this mock-reasoning? She would not deny him, but that she yields upon great persuasion. In changing the Negative I make no doubt but I have retriev'd the poet's humour: and so changes not into yet. But is not this a Mock Critic? who could not see that the plain obvious sense of the common reading was this, I cannot find in my heart to deny you, but for all that I yield, after having stood out great persuasions to submission. He had said, I take thee for pity, she replies, I would not deny thee. i. e. I take thee for pity too: but as I live I am won to this compliance by importunity of friends. Mr. Theobald by altering not to yet makes it supposed, that he had been importunate, and that she had often denied; which was not the case. Warburton.

Note return to page 242 1In former copies: Leon. Peace, I will stop your Mouth.] What can Leonato mean by This? “Nay, pray, peace, Niece; don't keep up this Obstinacy of Professions, for I have Proofs to stop your Mouth.” The ingenious Dr. Thirlby agreed with me, that this ought to be given to Benedick, who, upon saying it, kisses Beatrice: and this being done before the whole Company, how natural is the Reply which the Prince makes upon it? How dost thou, Benedick, the married Man? Besides, this Mode of Speech, preparatory to a Salute, is familiar to our Poet in common with other Stage Writers. Theobald.

Note return to page 243 *The Persons were first enumerated by Rowe.

Note return to page 244 The first Edition of this Play is in the Folio of 1623.

Note return to page 245 1In delivering my son from me &lblank;] To deliver from, in the sense of giving up, is not English. Shakespear wrote, in dissevering my son from me— The following Words, too,— I bury a second husband—demand this reading. For to dissever implies a violent divorce; and therefore might be compared to the burying a husband; which delivering does not. Warb. Of this change I see no need: the present reading is clear, and, perhaps, as proper as that which the great commentator would substitute; for the King dissevers her son from her, she only delivers him.

Note return to page 246 2In ward.] Under his particular care, as my guardian 'till I come to age. It is now almost forgotten in England that the heirs of great fortunes were the king's wards. Whether the same practice prevailed in France, it is of no great use to enquire, for Shakespeare gives to all nations the manners of England.

Note return to page 247 3whose worthiness would stir it up where it wanted, rather than lack it where there is such abundance.] An Opposition of Terms is visibly design'd in this sentence; tho' the Opposition is not so visible, as the Terms now stand. Wanted and Abundance are the Opposites to one another; but how is lack a Contrast to stir up? The Addition of a single Letter gives it, and the very Sense requires it. Read slack it. Warburton.

Note return to page 248 4This young gentlewoman had a father (O, that had! how sad a passage 'tis!] Lafeu was speaking of the King's desperate Condition: which makes the Countess recall to mind the deceased Gerard de Narbon, who, she thinks, could have cured him. But in using the word had, which implied his death, she stops in the middle of her sentence, and makes a reflection upon it, which, according to the present reading, is unintelligible. We must therefore believe Shakespear wrote (O that had! how sad a presage 'tis) i. e. a Presage that the King must now expect no cure, since so skilful a Person was himself forced to submit to a malignant distemper. Warburton. This emendation is ingenious, perhaps preferable to the present reading, yet since passage may be fairly enough explained, I have left it in the text. Passage is any thing that passes, so we now say, a passage of an authour, and we said about a century ago, the passages of a reign. When the Countess mentions Helena's loss of a father, she recollects her own loss of a husband, and stops to observe how heavily that word had passes through her mind.

Note return to page 249 5where an unclean mind carries virtuous qualities, there, commendations go with pity; they are Virtues and Traitors too: in her they are the better for their simpleness; she derives her honesty, and atchieves her goodness.] This obscure encomium is made still more obscure by a slight corruption of the text. Let us explain the passage as it lies. By virtuous qualities are meant qualities of good breeding and erudition; in the same sense that the Italians say, qualità virtuosa; and not moral ones. On this account it is, she says, that, in an ill mind, these virtuous qualities are virtues and traitors too: i. e. the advantages of education enable an ill mind to go further in wickedness than it could have done without them: But, says the Countess, in her they are the better for their simpleness. But simpleness is the same with what is called honesty, immediately after; which cannot be predicated of the qualities of education. We must certainly read her simpleness, And then the sentence is properly concluded. The Countess had said, that virtuous qualities are the worse for an unclean mind, but concludes that Helen's are the better for her simpleness. i. e. her clean, pure mind. She then sums up the Character, she had before given in detail, in these words, she derives her honesty, and atchieves her goodness, i. e. She derives her honesty, her simpleness, her moral Character, from her Father and Ancestors: But she atchieves or wins her goodness, her virtue, or her qualities of good breeding and erudition, by her own pains and labour. Warburton. This is likewise a plausible but unnecessary alteration. Her virtues are the better for their simpleness, that is, her excellencies are the better because they are artless and open, without fraud, without design. The learned commentator has well explained virtues, but has not, I think, reached the force of the word traitors, and therefore has not shewn the full extent of Shakespeare's masterly observation. Virtues in an unclean mind are virtues and traitors too. Estimable and useful qualities, joined with evil disposition, give that evil disposition power over others, who, by admiring the virtue, are betrayed to the malevolence. The Tatler, mentioning the sharpers of his time, observes, that some of them are men of such elegance and knowledge, that a young man who falls into their way is betrayed as much by his judgment as his passions.

Note return to page 250 6If the living be enemy to the grief, the excess makes it soon mortal.] This seems very obscure; but the addition of a Negative perfectly dispels all the mist. If the living be not enemy, &c. excessive grief is an enemy to the living, says Lafeu: Yes, replies the Countess; and if the living be not enemy to the grief, [i. e. strive to conquer it,] the excess makes it soon mortal. Warburton. This emendation I had once admitted into the text, but re-admitted the old reading, because I think it capable of an easy explication. Lafeu says, excessive grief is the enemy of the living: the Countess replies, If the living be an enemy to grief, the excess soon makes it mortal: that is, if the living do not indulge grief, grief destroys itself by its own excess. By the word mortal I understand that which dies, and Dr. Warburton, that which destroys. I think that my interpretation gives a sentence more acute and more refined. Let the reader judge.

Note return to page 251 7That thee may furnish.] That may help thee with more and better qualifications.

Note return to page 252 8The best wishes, &c.] That is, may you be mistress of your wishes, and have power to bring them to effect.

Note return to page 253 9These great tears.] The tears which the King and Countess shed for him.

Note return to page 254 1In his bright radiance, &c.] I cannot be united with him and move in the same sphere, but must be comforted at a distance by the radiance that shoots on all sides from him.

Note return to page 255 2Trick of his sweet favour.] So in King John; he hath a trick of Cœur de Lion's face. Trick seems to be some peculiarity of look or feature.

Note return to page 256 3Cold wisdom waiting on superfluous folly.] Cold for naked; as superfluous for over-cloath'd. This makes the propriety of the Antithesis. Warburton.

Note return to page 257 4Stain of soldier.] Stain for colour. Parolles was in red, as appears from his being afterwards called red-tail'd humble bee. Warburton.6Q0125

Note return to page 258 5He, that hangs himself, is a Virgin:] But why is he that hangs himself a Virgin? Surely, not for the reason that follows. Virginity murders itself. For tho' every Virgin be a Suicide, yet every Suicide is not a Virgin. A word or two are dropt, which introduced a comparison in this place; and Shakespear wrote it thus, as he, that hangs himself, so is a Virgin. And then it follows naturally, Virginity murders itself. By this emendation, the Oxford Editor was enabled to alter the text thus, He that hangs himself is like a Virgin. And this is his usual way of becoming a Critick at a cheap expence. Warburton. I believe most readers will spare both the emendations, which I do not think much worth a claim or a contest. The old reading is more spritely and equally just.

Note return to page 259 6Marry, ill, to like him that ne'er it likes, &c.] Parolles, in answer to the question, how one shall lose virginity to her own liking, plays upon the word liking, and says, she must do ill, for virginity, to be so lost, must like him that likes not virginity.

Note return to page 260 7For yet, as it stood before, Sir T. Hanmer reads yes.

Note return to page 261 8Not my virginity yet.] This whole speech is abrupt, unconnected and obscure. Dr. Warburton thinks much of it supposititious. I would be too glad to think so of the whole, for a commentator naturally wishes to reject what he cannot understand. Something which should connect Helena's words with those of Parolles, seems to be wanting. Hanmer has made a fair attempt by reading, Not my virginity yet—You're for the court, There shall your master, &c. Some such clause has, I think, dropped out, but still the first words want connection. Perhaps Parolles, going away after his harangue, said, will you any thing with me? to which Helen may reply.—I know not what to do with the passage.

Note return to page 262 9A Phœnix, Captain, &c.] The eight lines following friend, I am persuaded is the nonsense of some foolish conceited player. What put it into his head was Helen's saying, as it should be read for the future. There shall your Master have a thousand loves; A Mother, and a Mistress, and a Friend. I know not, what he shall—God send him well. Where the Fellow finding a thousand loves spoken of, and only three reckoned up, namely, a Mother's, a Mistress's, and a Friend's, (which, by the way, were all a judicious Writer could mention; for there are but these three species of love in Nature) he would help out the number, by the intermediate nonsense: and, because they were yet too few, he pieces out his loves with enmities, and makes of the whole such finished nonsense as is never heard out of Bedlam. Warburton.

Note return to page 263 *&lblank;a traitress,] It seems that traitress was in that age a term of endearment, for when Lafeu introduces Helena to the king, he says You look like a traytor, but such traytors his majesty does not much fear.

Note return to page 264 1And shew what we alone must think] And shew by realities what we now must only think.

Note return to page 265 2is a virtue of a good wing, and I like the wear well.] The integrity of the metaphor directs us to Shakespear's true reading; which, doubtless, was— a good ming, i. e. mixture, composition, a word common to Shakespear and the writers of this age; and taken from the texture of cloth. The M. was turn'd the wrong way at press, and from thence came the blunder. Warburton. This conjecture I could wish to see better proved. This common word ming I have never found. The first edition of this play exhibits wing without a capital: yet, I confess, that a virtue of a good wing is an expression that I cannot understand, unless by a metaphor taken from falconry, it may mean, a virtue that will fly high, and in the style of Hotspur, Pluck honour from the moon.

Note return to page 266 3What power is it, that mounts my love so high, That makes me see, and cannot feed mine eye?] She means, by what influence is my love directed to a person so much above me, why am I made to discern excellence, and left to long after it, without the food of hope.

Note return to page 267 4The mightiest space in fortune nature brings To join like likes; and kiss, like native things. Impossible be strange attempts, to those That weigh their pain in sense; and do suppose, What hath been, &lblank;] All these four lines are obscure, and, I believe, corrupt. I shall propose an emendation, which those who can explain the present reading, are at liberty to reject. Through mightiest space in fortune nature brings Likes to join likes, and kiss, like native things. That is, Nature brings like qualities and dispositions to meet through any distance that fortune may have set between them; she joins them, and makes them iss like things born together, The next lines I read with Hanmer. Impossible be strange attempts to those That weigh their pain in sense, and do suppose What ha'nt been, cannot be. New attempts seem impossible to those, who estimate their labour or enterprises by sense, and believe that nothing can be but what they see before them.

Note return to page 268 5He had the wit, which I can well observe To day in our young Lords: but they may jest, Till their own scorn return to them; unnoted Ere they can hide their levity in honour.] i. e. Ere their titles can cover the levity of their behaviour, and make it pass for desert. The Oxford Editor, not understanding this, alters the line to Ere they can vye their levity with his honour. Warburton. I believe honour is not dignity of birth or rank, but acquired reputation: Your father, says the King, had the same airy flights of satirical wit with the young lords of the present time, but they do not what he did, hide their unnoted levity in honour, cover petty faults with great merit. This is an excellent observation. Jocose follies, and slight offences, are only allowed by mankind in him that overpowers them by great qualities.

Note return to page 269 6So like a Courtier, no Contempt or Bitterness, Were in his Pride or Sharpness; if they were, His Equal had awak'd them. &lblank;] This passage is so very incorrectly pointed, that the Author's Meaning is lost. As the Text and Stops are reform'd, these are most beautiful Lines, and the Sense is this—“He had no Contempt or Bitterness; if he had any thing that look'd like Pride or Sharpness, (of which Qualities Contempt and Bitterness are the Excesses,) his Equal had awak'd them, not his Inferior: to whom he scorn'd to discover any thing that bore the Shadow of Pride or Sharpness.” Warburton. The original edition reads the first line thus, So like a courtier, contempt nor bitterness. The sense is the same. Nor was used without reduplication. So in Measure for Measure, More nor less to others paying, Than by self-offences weighing. The old text needs to be explained. He was so like a courtier, that there was in his dignity of manner nothing contemptuous, and in his keenness of wit nothing bitter. If bitterness or contemptuousness ever appeared, they had been awakened by some injury, not of a man below him, but of his Equal. This is the complete image of a well bred man, and somewhat like this Voltaire has exhibited his hero Lewis XIV.

Note return to page 270 7His tongue obeyed his hand.] We should read, His tongue obeyed the band. That is, the hand of his honour's clock, shewing the true minute when exceptions bad him speak.

Note return to page 271 8He us'd as creatures of another place.] i. e. He made allowances for their conduct, and bore from them what he would not from one of his own rank. The Oxford Editor, not understanding the Sense, has altered another place, to a Brother-race. Warburton.

Note return to page 272 9Making them proud of his humility, In their poor praise, he humbled &lblank;] But why were they proud of his Humility? It should be read and pointed thus. &lblank; Making them proud; and his Humility, In their poor praise, he humbled— i. e. by condescending to stoop to his Inferiors, he exalted them and made them proud; and, in the gracious receiving their poor praise, he humbled even his humility. The Sentiment is fine. Warburton. Every man has seen the mean too often proud of the humility of the great, and perhaps the great may sometimes be humbled in the praises of the mean, of those who commend them without conviction or discernment: this, however is not so common; the mean are found more frequently than the great.

Note return to page 273 1So in approof lives not his Epitaph, As in your royal speech.] Epitaph for character. Warb. I should wish to read, Approof so lives not in his Epitaph, As in royal speech. Approof is approbation. If I should allow Dr. Warburton's interpretation of Epitaph, which is more than can be reasonably expected, I can yet find no sense in the present reading.

Note return to page 274 2&lblank; Whose judgments are Mere fathers of their garments.] Who have no other use of their faculties, than to invent new modes of dress.

Note return to page 275 3Steward and Clown.] A Clown in Shakespeare is commonly taken for a licensed jester, or domestick fool. We are not to wonder that we find this character often in his plays, since fools were, at that time, maintained in all great families, to keep up merriment in the house. In the picture of Sir Thomas Moore's family, by Hans Holbein, the only servant represented is Patison the fool. This is a proof of the familiarity to which they were admitted, not by the great only, but the wise. In some plays, a servant, or rustic, of remarkable petulance and freedom of speech, is likewise called a Clown.

Note return to page 276 4To even your content.] To act up to your desires.

Note return to page 277 5you lack not folly to commit them, and have ability enough to make such knaveries yours.] Well, but if he had folly to commit them, he neither wanted knavery, nor any thing else, sure, to make them his own. This nonsense should be read, To make such knaveries yare; nimble, dextrous, i. e. Tho' you be fool enough to commit knaveries, yet you have quickness enough to commit them dextrously: for this observation was to let us into his character. But now, tho' this be set right, and, I dare say, in Shakespear's own words, yet the former part of the sentence will still be inaccurate —you lack not folly to commit them. Them, what? the sense requires knaveries, but the antecedent referr'd to, is complaints. But this was certainly a negligence of Shakespear's, and therefore to be left as we find it. And the reader, who cannot see that this is an inaccuracy which the Author might well commit, and the other what he never could, has either read Shakespear very little, or greatly mispent his pains. The principal office of a critick is to distinguish between these two things. But 'tis that branch of criticism which no precepts can teach the writer to discharge, or the reader to judge of. Warburton.

Note return to page 278 6A prophet, I, Madam; and I speak the truth the next way.] It is a superstition, which has run through all ages and people, that natural fools have something in them of divinity. On which account they were esteemed sacred: Travellers tell us in what esteem the Turks now hold them; nor had they less honour paid them heretofore in France, as appears from the old word Benét, for a natural fool. Hence it was that Pantagruel, in Rablais, advised Panurge to go and consult the fool Triboulet as an oracle; which gives occasion to a satirical Stroke upon the privy council of Francis the First—Par l'avis, conseil, prediction des fols vos sçavez quants princes, &c. ont esté conservez, &c.—The phrase—speak the truth the next way, means directly; as they do who are only the instruments or canals of others; such as inspired persons were supposed to be. Warburton.

Note return to page 279 7Was this fair face the cause, quoth she, Why the Grecians sacked Troy? Fond done, fond done; Was this King Priam's joy.] This is a Stanza of an old ballad, out of which a word or two are dropt, equally necessary to make the sense and the alternate rhime. For it was not Helen, who was King Priam's joy, but Paris. The third line therefore should be read thus, Fond done, fond done, for Paris, he. Warb.

Note return to page 280 8Among nine bad if one be good, There's yet one good in ten.] This second stanza of the ballad is turned to a joke upon the women: a confession, that there was one good in ten. Whereon the Countess observed, that he corrupted the song; which shews the song said, Nine good in ten. If one be bad amongst nine good, There's but one bad in ten. This relates to the ten sons of Priam, who all behaved themselves well but Paris. For, tho' he once had fifty, yet at this unfortunate period of his reign he had but ten; Agathon, Antiphon, Deiphobus, Dius, Hector, Helenus, Hippothous, Pemmon, Paris, and Polites. Warburton.

Note return to page 281 9Clo. That man, &c.] The clown's answer is obscure. His lady bids him do as he is commanded. He answers with the licentious petulance of his character, that if a man does as a woman commands, it is likely he will do amiss; that he does not amiss, being at the command of a woman, he makes the effect, not of his Lady's goodness, but of his own honesty, which, though not very nice or puritanical, will do no hurt; and will not only do no hurt, but, unlike the Puritans, will comply with the injunctions of superiours, and wear the surplice of humility over the black gown of a big heart; will obey commands, though not much pleased with a state of subjection. Here is an allusion, violently enough forced in, to satirise the obstinacy with which the Puritans refused the use of the ecclesiastical habits, which was, at that time, one principal cause of the breach of union, and, perhaps, to insinuate, that the modest purity of the surplice was sometimes a cover for pride.

Note return to page 282 1Fortune, she said, was no Goddess, &c. Love, no God, &c. complained against the Queen of Virgins, &c.] This passage stands thus in the old Copies: Love, no God, that would not extend his Might only where Qualities were level, Queen of Virgins, that would suffer her poor Knight, &c. 'Tis evident to every sensible Reader that something must have slipt out here, by which the Meaning of the Context is rendered defective. The Steward is speaking in the very words he overheard of the young Lady; Fortune was no Goddess, she said, for one Reason; Love, no God, for another;—what could she then more naturally subjoin, than as I have amended in the Text? Diana, no Queen of Virgins, that would suffer her poor Knight to be surprized without Rescue, &c. For in Poetical History Diana was as well known to preside over Chastity, as Cupid over Love, or Fortune over the Change or Regulation of our Circumstances. Theobald.

Note return to page 283 2By our remembrances] That is, according to our recollection. So we say, he is old by my reckoning.

Note return to page 284 3Such were our faults, or then we thought them none.] We should read, &lblank; O! then we thought them none. A motive for pity and pardon; agreeable to fact, and the indulgent character of the speaker. This was sent to the Oxford Editor, and he altered O, to tho'. Warburton.

Note return to page 285 4&lblank; or were you both our mothers I care no more for, than I do for heav'n, So I were not his sister:] The second line has not the least glimmering of sense. Helen, by the indulgence and invitation of her mistress, is encouraged to discover the hidden cause of her grief; which is the love of her mistress's son; and taking hold of her mistress's words, where she bids her call her mother, she unfolds the mystery: and, as she is discovering it, emboldens herself by this reflexion, in the line in question, as it ought to be read in a parenthesis. (I can no more fear, than I do fear heav'n,) i. e. I can no more fear to trust so indulgent a mistress with the secret than I can fear heav'n who has my vows for its happy issue. This break, in her discovery, is exceeding pertinent and fine, Here again the Oxford Editor does his part. Warburton. I do not much yield to this emendation; yet I have not been able to please myself with any thing to which even my own partiality can give the preference. Sir Thomas Hanmer reads, Or were you both our mothers, I cannot ask for more than that of heaven. So I were not his sister; can be no other Way I your daughter, but he must be my brother?

Note return to page 286 5Can't no other, But, I your daughter, he must be my brother.] The meaning is obscur'd by the elliptical diction. Can it be no other way, but if I be your daughter he must be my brother?

Note return to page 287 6&lblank; Now I see The myst'ry of your loveliness, and find Your salt tears' head: &lblank;] The Mystery of her Loveliness is beyond my comprehension: The old Countess is saying nothing ironical, nothing taunting, or in Reproach, that this Word should find a place here; which it could not, unless sarcastically employed, and with some spleen. I dare warrant, the Poet meant, his old Lady should say no more than this: “I now find the Mystery of your creeping into Corners, and weeping, and pining in secret.” For this Reason I have amended the Text, Loneliness. The Steward, in the foregoing Scene, where he gives the Countess Intelligence of Helen's Behaviour, says; Alone she was, and did communicate to herself her own Words to her own Ears. Theobald.

Note return to page 288 7Your salt tears' head] The source, the fountain of your tears, the cause of your grief.

Note return to page 289 8Captious and intenible sieve.] The word captious I never found in this sense; yet I cannot tell what to substitute, unless carious for rotten, which yet is a word more likely to have been mistaken by the copyers than used by the authour.

Note return to page 290 9Notes, whose faculties inclusive.] Receipts in which greater virtues were inclosed than appeared to observation.

Note return to page 291 1There's something in't More than my father's skill, &lblank; &lblank; that his good receipt, &c.] Here is an inference, [that] without any thing preceding, to which it refers, which makes the sentence vicious, and shews that we should read, There's something hints More than my father's skill, &lblank; &lblank; that his good receipt &lblank; i. e. I have a secret premonition or presage. Warburton.

Note return to page 292 2In all the latter copies these lines stood thus: Farewel, young Lords, these warlike principles Do not throw from you. You, my Lords, farewel; Share the advice betwixt you; if both again, The gift doth stretch itself as 'tis receiv'd.] The third line in that state was unintelligible. Sir Thomas Hanmer reads thus: Farewell young Lord, these warlike principles Do not throw from you; you, my Lord, farewel; Share the advice betwixt you; if both gain all, The gift doth stretch itself as 'tis receiv'd, And is enough for both.] The first edition, from which the passage is restored, was sufficiently clear; yet it is plain, that the latter Editors preferred a reading which they did not understand.

Note return to page 293 3&lblank; let higher Italy (Those 'bated, that inherit but the Fall Of the last Monarchy;) see, &c.] This is obscure. Italy, at the time of this scene, was under three very different tenures. The emperor, as successor of the Roman emperors, had one part; the pope, by a pretended donation from Constantine, another; and the third was compos'd of free states. Now by the last monarchy is meant the Roman, the last of the four general monarchies. Upon the fall of this monarchy, in the scramble, several cities set up for themselves, and became free states: now these might be said properly to inherit the fall of the monarchy. This being premised, let us now consider sense. The King says, higher Italy;—giving it the rank of preference to France; but he corrects himself and says, I except those from that precedency, who only inherit the fall of the last monarchy; as all the little petty states; for instance, Florence to whom these voluntiers were going. As if he had said, I give the place of honour to the emperor and the pope, but not to the free states. Warburton. The ancient geographers have divided Italy into the higher and the lower, the Apennine Hills being a kind of natural line of partition; the side next the Adriatick was denominated the higher Italy, and the other side the lower: and the two Seas followed the same terms of distinction, the Adriatick being called the upper Sea, and the Tyrrhene or Tuscan the lower. Now the Sennones or Senois with whom the Florentines are here supposed to be at war inhabited the higher Italy, their chief town being Ariminum now called Rimini upon the Adriatick. Hanmer. Sir T. Hanmer reads, Those bastards that inherit, &c. with this note. Reflecting upon the abject and degenerate condition of the Cities and States which arose out of the ruins of the Roman Empire, the last of the four great Monarchies of the World. Hanmer. Dr. Warburton's observation is learned, but rather too subtle; Sir Tho. Hanmer's alteration is merely arbitrary. The passage is confessedly obscure, and therefore I may offer another explanation. I am of opinion that the epithet higher is to be understood of situation rather than of dignity. The sense may then be this, Let upper Italy, where you are to exercise your valour, see that you come to gain honour, to the abatement, that is, to the disgrace and depression of those that have now lost their ancient military fame, and inherit but the fall of the last monarchy. To abate is used by Shakespeare in the original sense of abatre, to depress, to sink, to deject, to subdue. So in Coriolanus, &lblank; 'till ignorance deliver you, As most abated captives to some nation That won you without blows. And bated is used in a kindred sense in the Jew of Venice. &lblank; a bondman's key With bated breath and whisp'ring humbleness. The word has still the same meaning in the language of the law.

Note return to page 294 4&lblank; Beware of being captives, Before you serve.] The word serve is equivocal; the sense is, Be not captives before you serve in the war. Be not captives before you are soldiers.

Note return to page 295 5I grow to you, and our parting is a tortured body.] I read thus, Our parting is the parting of a tortured body. Our parting is as the disruption of limbs torn from each other. Repetition of a word is often the cause of mistakes, the eye glances on the wrong word, and the intermediate part of the sentence is omitted.

Note return to page 296 6You shall find in the Regiment of the Spinii, one Captain Spurio, his Cicatrice, with an Emblem of War here on his sinister Cheek;] It is surprising, none of the Editors could see that a slight Transposition was absolutely necessary here, when there is not common Sense in the Passage, as it stands without such Transposition. Parolles only means, “You shall find one Captain Spurio in the Camp with a Scar on his left Cheek, a Mark of War that my Sword gave him.” Theobald.

Note return to page 297 7they wear themselves in the cap of the time, there, do muster true gait, &c.] The main obscurity of this passage arises from the mistake of a single letter. We should read, instead of, do muster, to muster.—To wear themselves in the cap of the time, signifies to be the foremost in the fashion: the figurative allusion is to the gallantry then in vogue, of wearing jewels, flowers, and their mistress's favours in their caps. &lblank; there to muster true gait, signifies to assemble together in the high road of the fashion. All the rest is intelligible and easy. Warburton. I think this emendation cannot be said to give much light to the obscurity of the passage. Perhaps it might be read thus, They do muster with the true gaite, that is, they have the true military step. Every man has observed something peculiar in the strut of a soldier.

Note return to page 298 8&lblank; across: &lblank;] This word, as has been already observed, is used when any pass of wit miscarries.

Note return to page 299 9Yes, but you will, my noble grapes; an' if] These words, my noble grapes, seem to Dr. Warburton and Sir T. Hanmer, to stand so much in the way, that they have silently omitted them. They may be indeed rejected without great loss, but I believe they are Shakespeare's words. You will eat, says Lafeu, no grapes. Yes, but you will eat such noble grapes as I bring you, if you could reach them.

Note return to page 300 1&lblank; her years, profession,] By profession is meant her declaration of the end and purpose of her coming. Warburton.

Note return to page 301 2&lblank; Cressid's uncle,] See Troilus and Cressida.

Note return to page 302 3&lblank; wherein the honour Of my dear father's gift stands chief in power,] Perhaps we may better read, &lblank; wherein the power Of my dear father's gift stands chief in honour.

Note return to page 303 4When miracles have by th' greatest been deny'd.] I do not see the import or connection of this line. As the next line stands without a correspondent rhyme, I suspect that something has been lost.

Note return to page 304 5Myself against the level of mine aim;] i. e. pretend to greater things than befits the mediocrity of my condition. Warburton. I rather think that she means to say, I am not an impostor that proclaim one thing and design another, that proclaim a cure and aim at a fraud; I think what I speak.

Note return to page 305 6&lblank; a divulged shame Traduc'd by odious ballads: my maiden's name Sear'd otherwise, no worse of worst extended; With vilest torture let my life be ended.] This passage is apparently corrupt, and how shall it be rectified? I have no great hope of success, but something must be tried. I read the whole thus, King. What darest thou venture? Hel. Tax of impudence, A strumpet's boldness; a divulged shame, Traduc'd by odious ballads my maiden name; Sear'd otherwise, to worst of worst extended; With vilest torture let my life be ended. When this alteration first came into my mind, I supposed Helen to mean thus, First, I venture what is dearest to me, my maiden reputation; but if your distrust extends my character to the worst of the worst, and supposes me seared against the sense of infamy, I will add to the stake of reputation, the stake of life. This certainly is sense, and the language as grammatical as many other passages of Shakespeare. Yet we may try another experiment. Fear otherwise to worst of worst extended; With vilest torture let my life be ended. That is, let me act under the greatest terrors possible. Yet once again we will try to find the right way by the glimmer of Hanmer's emendation, who reads thus, &lblank; my maiden name Sear'd; otherwise the worst of worst extended, &c. Perhaps it were better thus, &lblank; my maiden name Sear'd; otherwise the worst to worst extended; With vilest torture let my life be ended.

Note return to page 306 7Methinks, in thee some blessed spirit doth speak His powerful sound, within an organ weak;] To speak a sound is a barbarism: For to speak signifies to utter an articulate sound, i. e. a voice. So Shakespeare, in Love's Labour Lost, says with propriety, And when love speaks the voice of all the Gods. To speak a sound therefore is improper, tho' to utter a sound is not; because the word utter may be applied either to an articulate or inarticulate. Besides, the construction is vicious with the two ablatives, in thee, and, within an organ weak. The lines therefore should be thus read and pointed, Methinks, in thee some blessed spirit doth speak: His power full sounds within an organ weak. But the Oxford Editor would be only so far beholden to this emendation, as to enable him to make sense of the lines another way, whatever become of the rules of criticism or ingenuous dealing. It powerful sounds within an organ weak. Warburt.

Note return to page 307 8&lblank; in thee hath estimate:] May be counted among the gifts enjoyed by thee.

Note return to page 308 9Youth, Beauty, wisdom, courage, all] The verse wants a foot. Virtue, by mischance, has dropt out of the line. Warburton.

Note return to page 309 1&lblank; prime] Youth; the spring or morning of life.

Note return to page 310 2King. Make thy Demand. Hel. But will you make it even? King. Ay, by Scepter and my hopes of help.] The King could have but a very slight Hope of Help from her, scarce enough to swear by: and therefore Helen might suspect he meant to equivocate with her. Besides, observe, the greatest Part of the Scene is strictly in Rhime: and there is no Shadow of Reason why it should be interrupted here. I rather imagine the Poet wrote, Ay, by my Scepter, and my Hopes of Heaven. Thirlby.

Note return to page 311 *With any branch or image of thy state:] Shakespeare unquestionably wrote impage, grafting. Impe a graff, or slip, or sucker: by which she means one of the sons of France. So Caxton calls our Prince Arthur, that noble impe of fame. Warb.

Note return to page 312 3To be young again, &lblank;] The lady censures her own levity in trifling with her jester, as a ridiculous attempt to return back to youth.

Note return to page 313 4O Lord, Sir, &lblank;] A ridicule on that foolish expletive of speech then in vogue at court. Warburton.

Note return to page 314 5&lblank; unknown fear.] Fear is here the object of fear.

Note return to page 315 6Par. So I say, both of Galen and Paracelsus. Laf. Of all the learned and authentick fellows &lblank;] Shakespeare, as I have often observed, never throws out his words at random. Paracelsus, tho' no better than an ignorant and knavish enthusiast was at this time in such vogue, even amongst the learned, that he had almost justled Galen and the ancients out of credit. On this account learned is applied to Galen; and authentick or fashionable to Paracelsus. Sancy, in his Confession Catholique, p. 301. Ed. Col. 1720, is made to say, Je trouve la Riviere premier Medecin, de meilleure humeur que ces gens la. Il est bon Galeniste, & tres bon Paracelsiste. Il dit que la doctrine de Galien est honorable, & non mesprisable pour la pathologie, & profitable pour les Boutiques. L'autre, pourveu que ce soit de vrais preceptes de Paracelse, est bonne à suivre pour la verité, pour la subtilité, pour l'espargne; en somme pour la Therapeutique. Warburton. As the whole merriment of this scene consists in the pretensions of Parolles to knowledge and sentiments which he has not, I believe here are two passages in which the words and sense are bestowed upon him by the copies, which the authour gave to Lafeu. I read this passage thus, Laf. To be relinquished of the artists &lblank; Par. So I say. Laf. Both of Galen and Paracelsus, of all the learned and authentick fellow &lblank; Par. Right, so I say.

Note return to page 316 7A shewing of a heav'nly effect, &c.] The title of some pamphlet here ridiculed. Warburton.

Note return to page 317 8&lblank; which should, indeed, give us a farther use to be made, &c.] Between the words us and a farther, there seems to have been two or three words dropt, which appear to have been to this purpose—should, indeed, give us [notice, that there is of this,] a farther use to be made—so that the passage should be read with asterisks for the future. Warburton. I cannot see that there is any hiatus, or other irregularity of language than such as is very common in these plays. I believe Parolles has again usurped words and sense to which he has no right; and I read this passage thus, Laf. In a most weak and debile minister, great power, great transcendence; which should, indeed, give us a farther use to be made than the mere recovery of the king. Par. As to be. Laf. Generally thankful.

Note return to page 318 9A broken mouth is a mouth which has lost part of its teeth.

Note return to page 319 1Let the white death sit on thy cheek for ever,] Shakespeare, I think, wrote dearth; i. e. want of blood, or more figuratively barrenness, want of fruit or issue. Warburton. The white death is the chlorosis.

Note return to page 320 2And to imperial Love, &lblank;] The old editions read impartial, which is right. Love who has no regard to difference of condition, but yokes together high and low, which was her case. Warburton. There is no edition of this play older than that of 1623, the next is that of 1632, of which both read imperial: the second reads imperial Jove.

Note return to page 321 3Laf. Do they all deny her?] None of them have yet denied her, or deny her afterwards but Bertram. The scene must be so regulated that Lafeu and Parolles talk at a distance, where they may see what passes between Helena and the lords, but not hear it, so that they know not by whom the refusal is made.

Note return to page 322 4There's one grape yet, &lblank;] This speech the three last editors have perplexed themselves by dividing between Lafeu and Parolles, without any authority of copies, or any improvement of sense. I have restored the old reading, and should have thought no explanation necessary, but that Mr. Theobald apparently misunderstood it. Old Lafeu having, upon the supposition that the lady was refused, reproached the young lords as boys of ice, throwing his eyes on Bertram who remained, cries out, There is one yet into whom his father put good blood,—but I have known thee long enough to know thee for an ass.

Note return to page 323 5Whence from lowest place virtuous things proceed,] This easy Correction was prescribed by Dr. Thirlby. Theobald.

Note return to page 324 6&lblank; good alone, Is good without a name. Vileness is so:] The text is here corrupted into nonsense. We should read, &lblank; good alone Is good; and, with a name, vileness is so. i. e. good is good, tho' there be no addition of title; and vileness is vileness, tho' there be. The Oxford Editor, understanding nothing of this, strikes out vileness and puts in its place, in't self. Warburton. The present reading is certainly wrong, and, to confess the truth, I do not think Dr. Warburton's emendation right; yet I have nothing that I can propose with much confidence. Of all the conjectures that I can make, that which least displeases me is this: &lblank; virtue alone, Is good without a name; Helen is so; The rest follows easily by this change.

Note return to page 325 7&lblank; She is young, wise, fair; In these, to nature she's immediate heir; And these breed honour; &lblank;] The objection was, that Helen had neither riches nor title: To this the King replies, she's the immediate heir of nature, from whom she inherits youth, wisdom, and beauty. The thought is fine. For by the immediate heir to nature, we must understand one who inherits wisdom and beauty in a supreme degree. From hence it appears that young is a faulty reading, for that does not, like wisdom and beauty, admit of different degrees of excellence; therefore she could not, with regard to that, be said to be the immediate heir of nature; for in that she was only joint-heir with all the rest of her species. Besides, tho' wisdom and beauty may breed honour, yet youth cannot be said to do so. On the contrary, it is age which has this advantage. It seems probable that some foolish player when he transcribed this part, not apprehending the thought, and wondring to find youth not reckoned amongst the good qualities of a woman when she was proposed to a lord, and not considering that it was comprised in the word fair, foisted in young, to the exclusion of a word much more to the purpose. For I make no question but Shakespeare wrote, &lblank; She is good, wise, fair. For the greatest part of her encomium turned upon her virtue. To omit this therefore in the recapitulation of her qualities, had been against all the rules of good speaking. Nor let it be objected that this is requiring an exactness in our author which we should not expect. For he who could reason with the force our author doth here, (and we ought always to distinguish between Shakespeare on his guard and in his rambles) and illustrate that reasoning with such beauty of thought and propriety of expression, could never make use of a word which quite destroyed the exactness of his reasoning, the propriety of his thought, and the elegance of his expression. Warburton. Here is a long note which I wish had been shorter. Good is better than young, as it refers to honour. But she is more the immediate heir of nature with respect to youth than goodness. To be immediate heir is to inherit without any intervening transmitter: thus she inherits beauty immediately from nature, but honour is transmitted by ancestors; youth is received immediately from nature, but goodness may be conceived in part the gift of parents, or the effect of education. The alteration therefore loses on one side what it gains on the other.

Note return to page 326 9My honour's at the Stake; which to defeat I must produce my Power. &lblank;] The poor King of France is again made a Man of Gotham, by our unmerciful Editors. For he is not to make use of his Authority to defeat, but to defend, his Honour. Theobald.

Note return to page 327 1Into the staggers, &lblank;] One species of the staggers, or the horses apoplexy, is a raging impatience which makes the animal dash himself with destructive violence against posts or walls. To this the allusion, I suppose, is made.

Note return to page 328 2&lblank; whose ceremony Shall seem expedient on the newborn brief, And be perform'd to night; &lblank;] This, if it be at all intelligible, is at least obscure and inaccurate. Perhaps it was written thus, &lblank; what ceremony Shall seem expedient on the newborn brief, Shall be perform'd to night; the solemn feast Shall more attend &lblank;] The brief is the contract of espousal, or the licence of the church. The king means, What ceremony is necessary to make this contract a marriage, shall be immediately performed; the rest may be delayed.

Note return to page 329 3&lblank; for two ordinaries,] While I sat twice with thee at table.

Note return to page 330 4&lblank; taking up,] To take up, is to contradict, to call to account, as well as to pick off the ground.

Note return to page 331 5&lblank; in the default,] That is, at a need.

Note return to page 332 6for doing I am past; as I will by thee, in what motion age will give me leave.] Here is a line lost after past; so that it should be distinguished by a break with asterisks. The very words of the lost line it is impossible to retrieve; but the sense is obvious enough. For doing I am past; age has deprived me of much of my force and vigour, yet I have still enough to shew the world I can do myself right, as I will by thee, in what motion [or in the best manner] age will give me leave. Warburton. This suspicion of a chasm is groundless. The conceit which is so thin that it might well escape a hasty reader, is in the word past, I am past, as I will be past by thee.

Note return to page 333 7Well, thou hast a son shall take this disgrace off me;] This the poet makes Parolles speak alone; and this is nature. A coward would try to hide his poltroonry even from himself.— An ordinary writer would have been glad of such an opportunity to bring him to confession. Warburton.

Note return to page 334 8In former copies: &lblank; than the commission of your birth and virtue gives you heraldry.] Sir Tho. Hanmer restored it.

Note return to page 335 9To the dark house, &lblank;] The dark house is a house made gloomy by discontent. Milton says of death and the king of Hell preparing to combat, So frown'd the mighty combatants, that Hell Grew darker at their frown.

Note return to page 336 1Whose want, and whose delay, &c.] The sweets with which this want are strewed, I suppose, are compliments and professions of kindness.

Note return to page 337 2&lblank; probable need.] A specious appearance of necessity.

Note return to page 338 3You have made shift to run into't, Boots and Spurs and all, like him that leapt into the Custard;] This odd Allusion is not introduc'd without a View to Satire. It was a Foolery practis'd at City-Entertainments, whilst the Jester or Zany was in Vogue, for him to jump into a large deep Custard: set for the Purpose, to set on a Quantity of barren Spectators to laugh; as our Poet says in his Hamlet. Theobald.

Note return to page 339 4In former copies: Hel. I shall not break your Bidding, good my Lord: Where are my other Men? Monsieur, farewel. Ber. Go thou toward home, where I will never come.] What other Men is Helen here enquiring after? Or who is she suppos'd to ask for them? The old Countess, 'tis certain, did not send her to the Court without some Attendants: but neither the Clown, nor any of her Retinue, are now upon the Stage: Bertram, observing Helen to linger fondly, and wanting to shift her off, puts on a Shew of Haste, asks Parolles for his Servants, and then gives his Wife an abrupt Dismission. Theobald.

Note return to page 340 5&lblank; I cannot yield,] I cannot inform you of the reasons.

Note return to page 341 6&lblank; an outward man,] i. e. one not in the secret of affairs. Warburton. So inward is familiar, admitted to secrets. I was an inward of his. Measure for Measure.

Note return to page 342 7By self-unable motion; &lblank;] We should read notion. Warburton.

Note return to page 343 8When thou can'st get the ring, upon my finger,] i. e. When thou canst get the ring, which is on my finger, into thy possession. The Oxford Editor, who took it the other way, to signify, when thou canst get it on upon my finger, very sagaciously alters it to, When thou canst get the ring from my finger. Warburton. I think Dr. Warburton's explanation sufficient, but I once read it thus, When thou canst get the ring upon thy finger, whith never shall come off mine.

Note return to page 344 9&lblank; a deal of that too much, which holds him much to have.] That is, his vices stand him in stead. Helen had before deliver'd this thought in all the beauty of expression. &lblank; I know him a notorious lyar; Think him a great way fool, solely a coward; Yet these fixt evils sit so fit in him, That they take place, while virtue's steely bones Look bleak in the cold wind &lblank; But the Oxford Editor reads, Which 'hoves him not much to have. Warburton.

Note return to page 345 1The gentlemen declare that they are servants to the Countess, she replies, No otherwise than as she returns the same offices of civility.

Note return to page 346 2&lblank; move the still-piercing air, That sings with piercing, &lblank;] The words are here odly shuffled into nonsense. We should read, &lblank; pierce the still-moving air, That sings with piercing, &lblank; i. e. pierce the air, which is in perpetual motion, and suffers no injury by piercing. Warb.6Q0129

Note return to page 347 *&lblank; St. Jaques' pilgrim, &lblank;] I do not remember any place famous for pilgrimages consecrated in Italy to St. James, but it is common to visit St. James of Compostella, in Spain. Another saint might easily have been found, Florence being somewhat out of the road from Rousillon to Compostella.

Note return to page 348 †Juno,] Alluding to the story of Hercules.

Note return to page 349 3Advice, is discretion or thought.

Note return to page 350 4are not the things they go under;] Mr. Theobald explains these words by, They are not really so true and sincere as in appearance they seem to be. He found something like this sense would fit the passage, but whether the words would fit the sense he seems not to have considered. The truth is, the negative particle should be struck out, and the words read thus, are the things they go under; i. e. they make use of oaths, promises, &c. to facilitate their design upon us. The allusion is to the military use of cover'd-ways, to facilitate an approach or attack; and the Scene, which is a besieged city, and the persons spoken of who are soldiers, make the phrase very proper and natural. The Oxford Editor has adopted this correction, tho' in his usual way, with a but; and reads, are but the things they go under. Warburton. I think Theobald's interpretation right; to go under the name of any thing is a known expression. The meaning is, they are not the things for which their names would make them pass.

Note return to page 351 5&lblank; examined.] That is, question'd, doubted.

Note return to page 352 6&lblank; brokes &lblank;] Deals as a broker.

Note return to page 353 7&lblank; yond's that same knave, That leads him to these Places;] What Places? Have they been talking of Brothels; or, indeed, any particular Locality? I make no Question but our Author wrote, That leads him to these Paces. i. e. such irregular Steps, to Courses of Debauchery, to not loving his Wife. Theobald.

Note return to page 354 8When your Lordship sees the bottom of his Success in't, and to what Metal this counterfeit Lump of Ours will be melted, if you give him not John Drum's Entertainment, your Inclining cannot be remov'd.] Lump of Ours has been the Reading of all the Editions. Ore, according to my Emendation, bears a Consonancy with the other Terms accompanying, (viz. Metal, Lump and melted) and helps the Propriety of the Poet's Thought: For so one Metaphor is kept up, and all the Words are proper and suitable to it. But, what is the Meaning of John Drum's Entertainment? Lafeu several times afterwards calls Parolles, Tom Drum. But the Difference of the Christian Name will make none in the Explanation. There is an old motly Interlude, (printed in 1601) call'd Jack Drum's Entertainment: Or, the Comedy of Pasquil and Katharine. In This, Jack Drum is a Servant of Intrigue, who is ever aiming at Projects, and always foil'd, and given the Drop. And there is another old Piece (publish'd in 1627) call'd, Apollo shroving, in which I find these Expressions. Thuriger. Thou Lozel, hath Slug infected you? Why do you give such kind Entertainment to that Cobweb? Scopas. It shall have Tom Drum's Entertainment; a Flap with a Fox-tail. But both these Pieces are, perhaps, too late in Time, to come to the Assistance of our Author: so we must look a little higher. What is said here to Bertram is to this Effect. “My Lord, as you have taken this fellow [Parolles] into so near a Confidence, if, upon his being found a Counterfeit, you don't casheer him from your Favour, then your Attachment is not to be remov'd”—I'll now subjoin a Quotation from Holingshed, (of whose Books Shakespeare was a most diligent Reader) which will pretty well ascertain Drum's History. This Chronologer, in his Description of Ireland, speaking of Patrick Scarsefield, (Mayor of Dublin in the Year 1551) and of his extravagant Hospitality, subjoins, that no Guest had ever a cold or forbidding Look from any Part of his Family: so that his Porter, or any other Officer, durst not, for both his Ears, give the simplest Man, that resorted to his House, Tom Drum's Entertainment, which is, to hale a Man in by the Head, and thrust him out by both the Shoulders. Theobald.

Note return to page 355 9I will presently pen down my Dilemmas,] By this word, Parolles is made to insinuate that he had several ways, all equally certain, of recovering this Drum. For a Dilemma is an argument that concludes both ways. Warb.

Note return to page 356 1Possibility of thy soldiership,] dele thy: the sense requires it. Warburton.

Note return to page 357 2We have almost imbossed him.] To imboss a deer, is to inclose him in a wood. Milton uses the same word. Like that self-begotten bird In th' Arabian woods embost, Which no second knows or third.

Note return to page 358 3But I shall lose the grounds, I work upon.] i. e. By discovering herself to the Count. Warburton.

Note return to page 359 *To your sworn counsel.] To your private knowledge, after having required from you an oath of secrecy.

Note return to page 360 4Important here, and elsewhere, is importunate.

Note return to page 361 5Is wicked meaning in a lawful deed; And lawful meaning in a lawful act;] To make this gingling riddle complete in all its parts, we should read the second line thus, And lawful meaning in a wicked act; The sense of the two lines is this, It is a wicked meaning because the woman's intent is to deceive; but a lawful deed, because the man enjoys his own wife. Again, it is a lawful meaning because done by her to gain her husband's estranged affection, but it is a wicked act because he goes intentionally to commit adultery. The riddle concludes thus, Where both not sin and yet a sinful fact. i. e. Where neither of them sin, and yet it is a sinful fact on both sides; which conclusion, we see, requires the emendation here made. Warburton. Sir Thomas Hanmer reads in the same sense, Unlawful meaning in a lawful act.

Note return to page 362 6Some band of strangers in the adversaries entertainment.] That is, foreign troops in the enemy's pay.

Note return to page 363 7The Instance.] The proof.

Note return to page 364 8and buy myself another of Bajazet's mule.] We should read, Bajazet's mute, i. e. a Turkish mute. So in Henry V. Either our history shall with full mouth Speak freely of our acts; or else our grave, Like turkish mute, shall have a tongueless mouth. Warburton.

Note return to page 365 9No more o' that! I pr'ythee do not strive against my vows: I was compell'd to her.] I know not well what Bertram can mean by entreating Diana not to strive against his vows. Diana has just mentioned his wife, so that the vows seem to relate to his marriage. In this sense not Diana, but Himself, strives against his vows. His vows indeed may mean vows made to Diana; but, in that case, to strive against is not properly used for to reject, nor does this sense cohere well with his first exclamation of impatience at the mention of his wife. No more of that! Perhaps we might read, I pr'ythee do not drive against my vows. Do not run upon that topick; talk of any thing else that I can bear to hear. I have another conceit upon this passage, which I would be thought to offer without much confidence. No more of that! I pr'ythee do not shrive—against my voice I was compell'd to her. Diana tells him unexpectedly of his wife. He answers with perturbation. No more of that! I pr'ythee do not play the confessor for—against my own consent I was compelled to her. When a young profligate finds his courtship so gravely repressed by an admonition of his duty, he very naturally desires the girl not to take upon her the office of a confessor.

Note return to page 366 1What is not holy, that we swear not by,] Yes, nothing is more common than such kind of oaths. But Diana is not here accusing Bertram for swearing by a Being not holy, but for swearing to an unholy purpose; as is evident from the preceding lines, 'Tis not the many oaths, that make the Truth: But the plain simple vow, that is vow'd true. The line in question, therefore, is evidently corrupt, and should be read thus, What is not holy, that we swear, not 'bides, i. e. If we swear to an unholy purpose the oath abides not, but is dissolved in the making. This is an answer to the purpose. She subjoins the reason two or three lines after, &lblank; this has no holding, To swear by him, whom I protest to love, That I will work against him.— i. e. That oath can never hold, whose subject is to offend and displease that Being, whom, I profess, in the act of swearing by him, to love and reverence. —What may have misled the editors into the common reading was, perhaps, mistaking Bertram's words above, By love's own sweet constraint, to be an oath; whereas it only signifies, being constrained by love. Warburton. This is an acute and excellent conjecture, and I have done it the due honour of exalting it to the text; yet, methinks, there is something yet wanting. The following words, but take the High'st to witness, even though it be understood as an anticipation or assumption in this sense,—but now suppose that you take the Highest to witness,—has not sufficient retion to the antecedent sentence. I will propose a reading nearer to the surface, and let it take its chance. Bert. How have I sworn! Diana. 'Tis not the many oaths, that make the truth; But the plain single vow, that is vow'd true. Bert. What is not holy, that we swear not by, But take the High'st to witness. Diana. Then, pray tell me, If I should swear, &c. Bertram means to enforce his suit, by telling her, that he has bound himself to her, not by the petty protestations usual among lovers, but by vows of greater solemnity. She then makes a proper and rational reply.

Note return to page 367 *To swear by him whom I protest to love, That I will work against him.] This passage likewise appears to me corrupt. She swears not by him whom she loves, but by Jupiter. I believe we may read, to swear to him. There is, says she, no holding, no consistency, in swearing to one that I love him, when I swear it only to injure him.

Note return to page 368 2&lblank; Since Frenchmen are so braid, Marry that will, I'll live and die a Maid;] What! because Frenchmen were false, she, that was an Italian, would marry nobody. The text is corrupted; and we should read, &lblank; Since Frenchmen are so braid, Marry 'em that will, I'll live and die a maid. i. e. since Frenchmen prove so crooked and perverse in their manners, let who will marry them, I had rather live and die a maid, than venture upon them. This she says with a view to Helen, who appeared so fond of her husband, and went thro' so many difficulties to obtain him. Warburton. The passage is very unimportant, and the old reading reasonable enough. Nothing is more common than for girls, on such occasions, to say in a pett what they do not think, or to think for a time what they do not finally resolve.

Note return to page 369 31 Lord.] The later Editors have with great liberality bestowed lordship upon these interlocutors, who, in the original edition, are called, with more propriety, capt. E. capt. G. It is true that captain E. is in a former scene called Lord E. but the subordination in which they seem to act, and the timorous manner in which they converse, determines them to be only captains. Yet as the later readers of Shakespeare have been used to find them lords, I have not thought it worth while to degrade them in the margin.

Note return to page 370 4In his proper stream o'erflows himself.] That is, betrays his own secrets in his own talk. The reply shews that this is the meaning.

Note return to page 371 5He might take a measure of his own judgment.] This is a very just and moral reason. Bertram, by finding how erroneously he has judged, will be less confident, and more easily moved by admonition.

Note return to page 372 6bring forth this counterfeit module;] This epithet is improper to a module, which professes to be the counterfeit of another thing. We should read medal. And this the Oxford Editor follows. Warburton. Module being the patern of any thing, may be here used in that sense. Bring forth this fellow, who, by counterfeit virtue pretended to make himself a patern.

Note return to page 373 7Dian. the Count's a fool, and full of gold.] After this line there is apparently a line lost, there being no rhyme that corresponds to gold.

Note return to page 374 8Half won is match well made; match, and well make it.] This line has no meaning that I can find. I read, with a very slight alteration, Half won is match well made; watch, and well make it. That is, a match well made is half won; watch, and make it well. This is, in my opinion, not all the errour. The lines are misplaced, and should be read thus: Half won is match well made; watch, and well make it; When he swears oaths, bid him drop gold, and take it. After he scores, he never pays the score: He never pays after-debts, take it before, And say &lblank; That is, take his money and leave him to himself. When the players had lost the second line, they tried to make a connexion out of the rest. Part is apparently in couplets, and the note was probably uniform.

Note return to page 375 *Men are to mell with, boys are not to kiss.] All the Editors have obtruded a new Maxim upon us here, that Boys are not to kiss.—Livia, in Beaumont and Fletcher's Tamer tam'd, is of a quite opposite Opinion. For Boys were made for Nothing but dry Kisses. And our Poet's Thought, I am persuaded, went to the same Tune. To mell, is derived from the French word, meler; to mingle. Theobald.

Note return to page 376 9An egg out of a cloister.] I know not that cloister, though it may etymologically signify any thing shut is used by our authour, otherwise than for a monastery, and therefore I cannot guess whence this hyperbole could take its original: perhaps it means only this: He will steal any thing, however trifling, from any place, however holy.

Note return to page 377 1He's a cat still.] That is, throw him how you will, he lights upon his legs.6Q0131

Note return to page 378 2Why does he ask him of me?] This is nature. Every man is on such occasions more willing to hear his neighbour's character than his own.

Note return to page 379 3To beguile the supposition.] That is, to deceive the opinion, to make the Count think me a man that deserves well.

Note return to page 380 4my motive] motive for assistant. Warburton.

Note return to page 381 5When saucy trusting of the cozen'd thoughts Defiles the pitchy night;] i. e. makes the person guilty of intentional adultery. But trusting a mistake cannot make any one guilty. We should read, and point, the lines thus, When fancy, trusting of the cozen'd thoughts, Defiles the pitchy night. i. e. the fancy, or imagination, that he lay with his mistress, tho' it was, indeed, his Wife, made him incur the guilt of adultery. Night, by the ancients, was reckoned odious, obscene, and abominable. The Poet, alluding to this, says, with great beauty, Defiles the pitchy night, i. e. makes the night, more than ordinary, abominable. Warburton. This conjecture is truly ingenious, but, I believe, the authour of it will himself think it unnecessary, when he recollects that saucy may very properly signify luxurious, and by consequence lascivious.

Note return to page 382 6But with the word, the time will bring on summer,] With the word, i. e. in an instant of time. The Oxford Editor reads (but what he means by it I know not) Bear with the word. Warburton. The meaning of this observation is, that as briars have sweetness with their prickles, so shall these troubles be recompensed with joy.

Note return to page 383 7Our waggon is prepar'd, and time revives us;] The word Revives conveys so little sense, that it seems very liable to suspicion. &lblank; and time revyes us; i. e. looks us in the face, calls upon us to hasten. Warb. 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?

Note return to page 384 8whose villainous saffron would have made all the unbak'd and dowy youth of a nation in his colour.] Parolles is represented as an affected follower of the fashion, and an encourager of his master to run into all the follies of it; where he says, Use a more spacious ceremony to the noble Lords— they wear themselves in the cap of time—and tho' the Devil lead the measure, such are to be followed. Here some particularities of fashionable dress are ridiculed. Snipt-taffata needs no explanation; but villainous saffron is more obscure. This alludes to a fantastic fashion, then much followed, of using yellow starch for their bands and ruffs. So Fletcher, in his Queen of Corinth, &lblank; Has he familiarly Dislik'd your yellow starch; or said your doblet Was not exactly frenchified— And Johnson's Devil's an Ass. Carmen and chimny-weepers are got into the yellow starch. This was invented by one Turner, a tire-woman, a court-bawd; and, in all respects, of so infamous a character, that her invention deserved the name of villainous saffron. This woman was, afterwards, amongst the miscreants concerned in the murder of Sir Thomas Overbury, for which she was hanged at Tyburn, and would die in a yellow ruff of her own invention: which made yellow starch so odious, that it immediately went out of fashion. 'Tis this, then, to which Shakespear alludes: but using the word saffron for yellow, a new idea presented itself, and he pursues his thought under a quite different allusion—Whose villainous saffron would have made all the unbaked and dowy youths of a nation in his colour, i. e. of his temper and disposition. Here the general custom of that time, of colouring paste with saffron, is alluded to. So in the Winter's Tale: I must have saffron to colour the warden pyes. Warburton.

Note return to page 385 9I would, I had not known him.] This dialogue serves to connect the incidents of Parolles with the main plan of the play.

Note return to page 386 1his phis'nomy is more hotter in France than there.] This is intolerable, nonsense. The stupid Editors, because the Devil was talked of, thought no quality would suit him but hotter. We should read,—more honour'd. A joke upon the French people, as if they held a dark complexion, which is natural to them, in more estimation than the English do, who are generally white and fair. Warburton.

Note return to page 387 2I'm a woodland fellow, Sir, &c.] Shakespear is but rarely guilty of such impious trash. And it is observable, that then he always puts that into the mouth of his fools, which is now grown the characteristic of the fine-gentleman. Warburton.

Note return to page 388 3Unhappy.] That is, mischievously haggish; unlucky.6Q0132

Note return to page 389 4But it is your carbonado'd face.] Mr. Pope reads it carbinado'd, which is right. The joke, such as it is, consists in the allusion to a wound made with a carabine; arms, which Henry IV. had made famous, by bringing into use amongst his horse. Warburton.

Note return to page 390 5Our 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.

Note return to page 391 6In former editions, &lblank; but I am now, Sir, muddied in fortune's Mood, and smell somewhat strong of her strong displeasure.] I believe the poet wrote, in fortune's moat; because the Clown in the very next speech replies, I will henceforth eat no fish of fortune's butt'ring; and again, when he comes to repeat Parolles's petition to Lafeu, that hath fall'n into the unclean fishpond of her displeasure, and, as he says, is muddied withal. And again, Pray you, Sir, use the carp as you may, &c. In all which places, 'tis obvious a moat or pond is the allusion. Besides, Parolles smelling strong, as he says, of fortune's strong displeasure, carries on the same image; for as the moats round old seats were always replenish'd with fish, so the Clown's joke of holding his nose, we may presume, proceeded from this, that the privy was always over the moat; and therefore the Clown humourously says, when Parolles is pressing him to deliver his letter to Lord Lafeu, Foh! pr'ythee, stand away; a paper from fortune's closestool, to give to a Nobleman! Warb.

Note return to page 392 7Indeed, Sir, if your metaphor stink, I will stop my nose against any man's metaphor.] Nothing could be conceived with greater humour, or justness of satire, than this speech. The use of the stinking metaphor is an odious fault, which grave writers often commit. It is not uncommon to see moral declaimers against vice, describe her as Hesiod did the Fury Tristitia: &grT;&grhc;&grst; &gres;&grk; &grrr;&gria;&grn;&grw;&grn; &grm;&grua;&grc;&gra;&gri; &grrr;&grea;&gro;&grn;. Upon which Longinus justly observes, that, instead of giving a terrible image, he has given a very nasty one. Cicero cautions well against it, in his book de Orat. Quoniam hæc, says he, vel summa laus est in verbis transferendis ut sensum feriat id, quod translatum sit, fugienda est omnis turpitudo earum rerum, ad quas eorum animos qui audiunt trahet similitudo. Nolo morte dici Africani castratam esse rempublicam. Nolo stercus curiæ dici Glauciam. Our poet himself is extremely delicate in this respect; who, throughout his large writings, if you except a passage in Hamlet, has scarce a metaphor that can offend the most squeamish reader Warburton.

Note return to page 393 8I pity his distress in my smiles of comfort,] We should read, similies of comfort, such as the calling him fortune's cat, carp, &c. Warburton.

Note return to page 394 9&lblank; 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.

Note return to page 395 1&lblank; esteem] 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.

Note return to page 396 2&lblank; home.] That is, completely, in its full extent.

Note return to page 397 3&lblank; 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.

Note return to page 398 4&lblank; the first view shall kill All repetition: &lblank;] 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.

Note return to page 399 5Scorn'd a fair colour, or express'd it stoll'n;] First, it is to be observed, that this young man's case was not indifference to the sex in general, but a very strong attachment to one; therefore he could not scorn a fair colour, for it was that which had captivated him. But he might very naturally be said to do what men, strongly attach'd to one, commonly do, not allow beauty in any face but his mistress's. And that this was the thought here, is evident, 1. From the latter part of the verse, &lblank; or express'd it stoll'n; 2. From the preceding verse, Which warp'd the line of every other favour; 3. From the following verses, Extended or contracted all proportions To a most hideous object: &lblank; Secondly, It is to be observed, that he describes his indifference for others in highly figurative expressions. Contempt is brought in lending him her perspective-glass, which does its office properly by warping the lines of all other faces; by extending or contracting into a hideous object; or by expressing or shewing native red and white as paint. But with what propriety of speech can this glass be said to scorn, which is an affection of the mind? Here then the metaphor becomes miserably mangled; but the foregoing observation will lead us to the genuine reading, which is, Scorch'd a fair colour, or express'd it stoll'n; i. e. this glass represented the owner as brown or tanned; or, if not so, caused the native colour to appear artificial. Thus he speaks in character, and consistently with the rest of his speech. The emendation restores integrity to the figure, and, by a beautiful thought, makes the scornful perspective of contempt do the office of a burning-glass. 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.

Note return to page 400 6Our own love, waking, &c.] 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 authour 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.

Note return to page 401 7Which better than the first, O dear Heav'n, bless, Or, e'er they meet, in me, O Nature, cease!] I have ventured, against the Authority of the printed Copies, to prefix the Countess's Name to these two Lines. The King appears, indeed, to be a Favourer of Bertram: but if Bertram should make a bad Husband the second Time, why should it give the King such mortal Pangs? A fond and disappointed Mother might reasonably not desire to live to see such a Day: and from her the Wish of dying, rather than to behold it, comes with Propriety. Theobald.

Note return to page 402 8In Florence was it from a casement &lblank;] 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.

Note return to page 403 9&lblank; Noble she was, and thought I stood engag'd; &lblank;] I don't understand this Reading; if we are to understand, that she thought Bertram engaged 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, &lblank; noble she was, and thought I stood ungag'd; &lblank; i. e. unengag'd: neither my Heart, nor Person, dispos'd of. Theobald. The plain meaning is, when she saw me receive the ring, she thought me engaged to her.

Note return to page 404 1King. Plutus himself, That knows the tinct and multiplying medicine,] Plutus the grand alchimist, 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.

Note return to page 405 2&lblank; then if you know, That you are well acquainted with yourself,] i. e. then if you be wise. A strange way of expressing so trivial a thought! Warburton. The true meaning of this strange expression is, If you know that your faculties are so sound, 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.

Note return to page 406 3My fore-past proofs, howe'er the matter fall, Shall tax my fears of little vanity, Having vainly feared 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 hitherto more easy than I ought, and have unreasonably had too little fear.

Note return to page 407 4Who hath for four or five removes come short] We should read, Who hath some four or five removes come short. So in King Lear, For that I am some twelve or fourteen moonshines Lag of a brother, &lblank; Warburton. Removes are journies or postages.

Note return to page 408 5Validity is a very bad word for value, which yet I think is its meaning, unless it be considered as making a contract valid.

Note return to page 409 6&lblank; all impediments in fancy's course, Are motives of more fancy: &lblank;] 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 am not certain that I have attained the true meaning of the word modern, which, perhaps, signifies rather meanly pretty.

Note return to page 410 7He knows himself, &c. &lblank;] 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.

Note return to page 411 8&lblank; Exorcist] This word is used not very properly for enchanter.

Note return to page 412 *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.

Note return to page 413 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 falshood, and is dismissed to happiness. The story of Bertram and Diana had been told before of Mariana and Angelo, and, to confess the truth, scarcely merited to be heard a second time. The story is copied from a novel of Boccace, which may be read in Shakespear Illustrated, with remarks not more favourable to Bertram than my own.

Note return to page 414 Of this Play there are three editions in 4to preceding the first folio. I. 1591, for Sampson Clarke. II. 1611, Valentine Simmer for John Helme. III. 1622, Aug. Mathews for Thomas Dewe.

Note return to page 415 1The troublesome Reign of King John was written in two parts, by W. Shakespeare and W. Rowley, and printed 1611. But the present Play is intirely different, and infinitely superior to it. Pope. The edition of 1611 has no mention of Rowley, nor in the account of Rowley's works is any mention made of his conjunction with Shakespeare in any play. King John was reprinted in two parts in 1622. The first edition that I have found of this play in its present form, is that of 1623 in fol. The edition of 1591 I have not seen. The Life and Death &lblank;] Though this Play have this Title, yet the Action of it begins at the thirty-fourth Year of his Life; and takes in only some Transactions of his Reign to the Time of his Demise, being an Interval of about seventeen Years. Theobald.

Note return to page 416 2In my behaviour, &lblank;] The word behaviour seems here to have a signification that I have never found in any other authour. The king of France, says the Envoy, thus speaks in my behaviour to the Majesty of England: That is, the king of France speaks in the character which I here assume. I once thought that these two lines, in my behaviour, &c. had been uttered by the ambassador as part of his master's message, and that behaviour had meant the conduct of the king of France towards the king of England, but the ambassador's speech, as continued after the interruption, will not admit this meaning.

Note return to page 417 3Controul.] Opposition from contrelier.

Note return to page 418 4Be thou as lightning.] The simile does not suit well: the lightning indeed appears before the thunder is heard, but the lightning is destructive, and the thunder innocent.

Note return to page 419 5Sullen presage.] By the epithet sullen, which cannot be applied to a trumpet, it is plain, that our authour's imagination had now suggested a new idea. It is as if he had said, be a trumpet to alarm with our invasion, be a bird of ill omen to croak out the prognostick of your own ruin.

Note return to page 420 6With half that Face.] But why with half that Face? There is no Question but the Poet wrote, as I have restored the Text, With that half-face—Mr. Pope, perhaps, will be angry with me for discovering an Anachronism of our Poet's, in the next Line; where he alludes to a Coin not struck till the Year 1504, in the Reign of King Henry VII. viz. a Groat, which, as well as the half Groat, bare but half Faces impress'd. Vide Stow's Survey of London, p. 47. Hollingshed, Cambden's Remains, &c. The Poet sneers at the meagre sharp Visage of the elder Brother, by comparing him to a Silver Groat, that bore the King's Face in Profile, so shew'd but half the Face: The Groats of all our Kings of England, and, indeed, all their other Coins of Silver, one or two only excepted, had a full Face crown'd; till Henry VII at the Time above-mentioned, coined Groats and half Groats, as also some Shillings, with half Faces, that is, Faces in Profile, as all our Coin has now. The first Groats of king Henry VIII, were like these of his Father; though afterwards he returned to the broad Faces again. These Groats, with the Impression in Profile, are undoubtedly here alluded to: though, as I said, the Poet is knowingly guilty of an Anachronism in it: for, in the Time of King John there were no Groats at all: they being first, as far as appears, coined in the Reign of King Edward III. Theobald.

Note return to page 421 7This concludes.] This is a decisive argument. As your father, if he liked him, could not have been forced to resign him, so, not liking him, he is not at liberty to reject him.

Note return to page 422 8Lord of thy presence, and no land beside?] Lord of thy presence can signify only, Master of thyself; and it is a strange expression to signify even that. However that he might be, without parting with his land. We should read, Lord of the presence, &lblank; i. e. Prince of the Blood. Warburton. Lord of thy presence may signify something more distinct than master of thyself. It means master of that dignity, and grandeur of appearance, that may sufficiently distinguish thee from the vulgar without the help of fortune. Lord of his presence apparently signifies, great in his own person, and is used in this sense by King John in one of the following scenes.

Note return to page 423 9And I had his, Sir Robert his, like him.] This is obscure and ill expressed. The meaning is: If I had his shape—Sir Robert's—as he has. Sir Robert his, for Sir Robert's is agreeable to the practice of that time, when the 's added to the nominative was believed, I think erroneously, to be a contraction of his. So Donne, &lblank; Who now lives to age. Fit to be call'd Methusalem his page?

Note return to page 424 1&lblank; my Face so thin, That in mine Ear I durst not stick a Rose, Lest Men should say, Look, where three-farthings goes!] In this very obscure passage our Poet is anticipating the Date of another Coin; humorously to rally a thin face, eclipsed, as it were, by a full-blown Rose. We must observe, to explain this Allusion, that Queen Elizabeth was the first, and indeed the only, Prince, who coined in England three-half-pence, and three-farthing Pieces. She at one and the same Time, coined Shillings, Six-pences, Groats, Three-pences, Two-pences, Three-half-pence, Pence, Three-farthings, and Half-pence. And these Pieces all had her Head, and were alternately with the Rose behind, and without the Rose. The Shilling, Groat, Two-pence, Penny, and Half penny had it not: The other intermediate Coins, viz. the Six-pence, Three-pence, Three-half-pence, and Three-farthings had the Rose. Theobald.

Note return to page 425 *That in mine ear I durst not stick a rose.] The sticking Roses about them was then all the court-fashion, as appears from this passage of the Confession Catholique du S. de Sancy, l. 2. c. I. Je luy ay appris à mettre des Roses par tous les coins, i. e. in every place about him, says the Speaker, of one to whom he had taught all the court-fashions. Warburton.

Note return to page 426 2Madam, by chance, but not by truth; what tho'? I am your grandson, Madam, by chance, but not by honesty—what then? Something about, a little from, &c] This speech composed of allusive and proverbial sentences, is obscure. I am, says the spritely knight, your grandson, a little irregularly, but every man cannot get what he wishes the legal way. He that dares not go about his designs by day must make his motions in the night; he, to whom the door is shut, must climb the window, or leap the hatch. This, however, shall not depress me; for the world never enquires how any man got what he is known to possess, but allows that to have is to have, however it was caught, and that he who wins shot well, whatever was his skill, whether the arrow fell near the mark, or far off it.

Note return to page 427 3A foot of honour.] A step, un pas.

Note return to page 428 4Now your traveller.] It is said in All's well, that ends well, that a traveller is a good thing after dinner. In that age of newly excited curiosity, one of the entertainments at great tables seems to have been the discourse of a traveller.

Note return to page 429 5He and his tooth-pick.] It has been already remarked, that to pick the tooth, and wear a piqued beard, were, in that time, marks of a man affecting foreign fashions.

Note return to page 430 6Like an a, b, c book.] An a, b, c book, or, as they spoke and wrote it, an absey book, is a catechism.

Note return to page 431 7And so e'er answer knows what question would, Saving in dialogue, of compliment.] In this fine speech, Faulconbridge would shew the advantages and prerogatives of men of worship. He observes, particularly, that he has the traveller at command; (people at that time, when a new world was discovering, in the highest estimation.) At the first intimation of his desire, to hear strange stories, the traveller complies, and will scarce give him leave to make his question, but e'er answer knows what question would —What then, why, according to the present reading, it grows towards supper-time: And is not this worshipful society? To spend all the time between dinner and supper before either of them knwos what the other would be at. Read serving instead of saving, and all this nonsense is avoided; and the account stands thus, “E'er answer knows what question would be at, my traveller serves in his dialogue of compliment, which is his standing dish at all tables; then he comes to talk of the Alps and Apenines, &c. and, by the time this discourse concludes, it draws towards supper.” All this is sensible and humorous; and the phrase of serving in is a very pleasant one to denote that this was his worship's second course. What follows shews the romantic turn of the voyagers of that time; how greedily their relations were swallowed, which he calls sweet poison for the age's tooth; and how acceptable it made men at court—For it shall strew the footsteps of my rising. And yet the Oxford Editor says, by this sweet poison is meant flattery. Warburton. This passage is obscure; but such an irregularity, and perplexity runs thro' the whole speech, that I think this emendation not necessary.

Note return to page 432 8Which though, &c.] The construction will be mended; if instead of which though, we read, this though.

Note return to page 433 9But who comes here.] Milton, in his tragedy, introduces Dallilah with such an interrogatory exclamation.

Note return to page 434 1To blow a horn.] He means, that a woman who travelled about like a post was likely to horn her husband.

Note return to page 435 2Colbrand was a Danish giant, whom Guy of Warwick discomfited in the presence of king Athelstan. The combat is very pompously described by Drayton in his Polyolbion.

Note return to page 436 3Philip, sparrow, James.] I think the Poet wrote, Philip! spare me, James. i. e. don't affront me with an appellation that comes from a Family which I disclaim. Warb. The old reading is far more aggreable to the character of the speaker. Dr. Gray observes, that Skelton has a poem to the memory of Philip Sparrow; and Mr. Pope in a short note remarks, that a Sparrow is called Philip.

Note return to page 437 4Knight, Knight,—good Mother, Basilisco like.] Thus must this Passage be pointed; and, to come at the Humour of it, I must clear up an old Circumstance of Stage-History. Faulconbridge's Words here carry a concealed Piece of Satire on a stupid Drama of that Age, printed in 1599, and called Soliman and Perseda. In this Piece there is the Character of a bragging cowardly Knight, called Basilisco. His Pretension to Valour is so blown and seen through, that Piston, a Buffoon-servant in the Play, jumps upon his Back, and will not disengage him, till he makes Basilisco swear upon his dudgeon dagger to the Contents, and in the Terms, he dictates to him: as, for Instance, Bas. O, I swear, I swear. Pist. By the Contents of this Blade, Bas. By the Contents of this Blade, Pist. I, the aforesaid Basilisco, Bas. I, the aforesaid Basilisco, Knight, good fellow, knight, knight, &lblank; Pist. Knave, good fellow, knave, knave, &lblank; So that 'tis clear, our Poet is sneering at this Play; and makes Philip, when his Mother calls him Knave, throw off that Reproach by humorously laying claim to his new Dignity of Knighthood; as Basilisco arrogantly insists on his Title of Knight in the Passage above quoted. The old Play is an execrable bad one; and, I suppose, was sufficiently exploded in the Representation: which might make this Circumstance so well known, as to become the Butt for a Stage-sarcasm. Theobald. Knight, Knight, good mother—Basilisco like] The words allude to an expression in an old foolish play, then the common butt of ridicule, but the beauty of the passage consists in his alluding, at the same time, to his high original. His father, Richard the first, was surnamed Cœur-de-lion. And the Cor Leonis, a fixed star of the first magnitude, in the sign Leo, is called Basilisco. Warburton. Could one have thought it!

Note return to page 438 5Some sins.] There are sins, that whatever be determined of them above, are not much censured on earth.

Note return to page 439 6Richard, that robb'd, &c.] So Rastal in his Chronicle. It is sayd that a Lyon was put to kynge Richard, beynge in prison, to have devoured him, and when the lyon was gapynge he put his arme in his mouth, and pulled the lyon by the harte so hard that he slewe the lyon, and therefore some say he is called Rycharde Cure de lyon, but some say he is called Cure de lyon, because of his boldeness and hardy stomake. Dr. Gray.

Note return to page 440 7By this brave Duke, &c.] This is not true. Richard was made prisoner by the Duke of Austria, but was released for an exorbitant ransome, and was afterwards killed with a cross-bow, before the castle of Chalons. Dr. Gray.

Note return to page 441 8At my importance.] At my importunity.

Note return to page 442 9That pale, that white-fac'd shore.] England is supposed to be called Albion from the white rocks facing France.

Note return to page 443 *A wonder, lady.] The wonder is only that Chatillon happened to arrive at the moment when Constance mentioned him, which the French king, according to a superstition which prevails more or less in every mind agitated by great affairs, turns into a miraculous interposition, or omen of good.

Note return to page 444 1Expedient.] Immediate, expeditious.

Note return to page 445 2Bearing their birth-rights, &c.] So in Henry VIII. Many broke their backs With bearing manors on them.

Note return to page 446 3Scathe.] Destruction; waste.

Note return to page 447 4To look into the blots and stains of right.] Mr. Theobald reads, with the first folio, blots, which being so early authorised, and so much better understood, needed not to have been changed by Dr. Warburton to bolts, tho' bolts might be used in that time for spots: so Shakespeare calls Banquo spotted with blood, the blood-bolter'd Banquo. The verb to blot is used figuratively for to disgrace a few lines lower. And, perhaps, after all, bolts was only a typographical mistake.

Note return to page 448 5It lies as lightly on the back of him, As great Alcides' Shoes upon an Ass.] But why his Shoes, in the Name of Propriety? For let Hercules and his Shoes have been really as big as they were ever supposed to be, yet they (I mean the Shoes) would not have been an Overload for an Ass. I am persuaded, I have retrieved the true Reading; and let us observe the Justness of the Comparison now. Faulconbridge in his Resentment would say this to Austria, “That Lion's Skin, which my great Father King Richard once wore, looks as uncoothly on thy Back, as that other noble Hide, which was borne by Hercules, would look on the Back of an Ass.” A double Allusion was intended; first, to the Fable of the Ass in the Lion's Skin; then Richard I. is finely set in Competition with Alcides; as Austria is satirically coupled with the Ass. Theobald. Mr. Theobald had the art of making the most of his discoveries.

Note return to page 449 6I have but this to say, That he's not only plagued for her sin, But, &c. &lblank;] This passage appears to me very obscure. The chief difficulty arises from this, that Constance having told Elinor of her sin-conceiving womb, persues the thought, and uses sin through the next lines in an ambiguous sense, sometimes for crime, and sometimes for offspring. He's not only plagued for her sin, &c. He is not only made miserable by vengeance for her sin or crime, but her sin, her offspring, and she, are made the instruments of that vengeance, on this descendant, who, though of the second generation, is plagued for her and with her; to whom she is not only the cause but the instrument of evil. The next clause is more perplexed. All the editions read, &lblank; Plagu'd for her, And with her plague her sin; his injury, Her injury, the beadle to her sin, All punish'd in the person of this child. I point thus: &lblank; Plagu'd for her And with her.—Plague her sin!6Q0135 his injury Her injury, the beadle to her sin. That is; instead of inflicting vengeance on this innocent and remote descendant, punish her sin, her immediate offspring: then the affliction will fall where it is deserved; his injury will be her injury, and the misery of her sin; her son will be a beadle, or chastiser, to her crimes, which are now all punished in the person of this child.

Note return to page 450 7It ill beseems this presence to cry Aim To these ill tuned repetitions,] Dr. Warburton has well observed on one of the former plays, that to cry aim is to encourage. I once thought it was borrowed from archery; and that aim! having been the word of command, as we now say present! to cry aim had been to incite notice, or raise attention. But I rather think, that the old word of applause was J'aime, love it, and that to applaud was to cry J'aime, which the English, not easily pronouncing Je, sunk into aime or aim. Our exclamations of applause are still borrowed, as bravo, and encore.

Note return to page 451 8Ye men of Angiers, &c. &lblank;] This speech is very poetical and smooth, and except the conceit of the widow's husband embracing the earth, is just and beautiful.

Note return to page 452 9Rejoice, ye men of Angiers, &c.] The English herald falls somewhat below his antagonist. Silver armour gilt with blood, is a poor image. Yet our authour has it again in Macbeth.   Here lay Duncan, His silver skin lac'd with his golden blood.

Note return to page 453 1And, like a jolly troop of huntsmen,] It was, I think, one of the savage practices of the chase, for all to stain their hands in the blood of the deer, as a trophy.

Note return to page 454 2Heralds, from off, &c. &lblank;] These three speeches seem to have been laboured. The citizen's is the best; yet both alike we like, is a poor gingle.

Note return to page 455 3Cry havock! Kings; &lblank;] That is, command slaughter to proceed; so in another place. He with Ate by his side, Cries, havock!

Note return to page 456 4In former copies: A greater pow'r, than we, denies all this; Kings of our fears, &lblank;] We should read, than ye. What power was this? their fears. It is plain therefore we should read, Kings are our fears, &lblank; i. e. our fears are the Kings which at present rule us. Warb.

Note return to page 457 *Zealous seems here to signify pious, or influenced by motives of religion.

Note return to page 458 5If not complete of, say, &c.] Sir T. Hanmer reads, O! say.

Note return to page 459 6He is the half Part of a blessed Man, Left to be finished by such as She:] Dr. Thirlby prescrib'd that Reading, which I have here restor'd to the Text. Theobald.

Note return to page 460 7&lblank; at this match, With swifter spleen, &c.] Our authour uses spleen for any violent hurry, or tumultuous speed. So in Midsummer Night's Dream he applies spleen to the lightning. I am loath to think that Shakespeare meant to play with the double of match for nuptial, and the match of a gun.

Note return to page 461 8Here's a stay, That shakes the rotten carcass of old death Out of his rags. &lblank;] I cannot but think that every reader wishes for some other word in the place of stay, which though it may signify an hindrance, or man that hinders, is yet very improper to introduce the next line. I read, Here's a flaw, That shakes the rotten carcass of old Death. That is, here is a gust of bravery, a blast of menace. This suits well with the spirit of the speech. Stay and flaw, in a careless hand, are not easily distinguished, and if the writing was obscure, flaw being a word less usual was easily missed.

Note return to page 462 9Lest zeal now melted &lblank;] We have here a very unusual, and, I think, not very just image of zeal, which in its highest degree is represented by others as a flame, but by Shakespeare as a frost. To retress zeal, in the language of others, is to cool, in Shakespeare's to melt it; when it exerts its utmost power it is commonly said to flame, but by Shakespeare to be congealed.

Note return to page 463 1In old editions, For Angiers and fair Touraine, Maine, Poictiers, And all that We upon this Side the Sea, Except this City now by us besieg'd, Find liable, &c. &lblank;] What was the City besieged, but Angiers? King John agrees to give up all he held in France, except the City of Angiers which he now besieg'd and laid Claim to. But could he give up all except Angiers, and give up That too? Anjou was one of the Provinces which the English held in France. Theobald.

Note return to page 464 2&lblank; sightless] The poet uses sightless for that which we now express by unsightly, disagreeable to the eyes.

Note return to page 465 3Prodigious; that is, portentous, so deformed as to be taken for a foretoken of evil.

Note return to page 466 4&lblank; makes its owner stout.] The old editions have, makes its owner stoop; the emendation is Hanmer's.

Note return to page 467 5To me, and to the State of my great Grief, Let Kings assemble: &lblank;] In Much ado about nothing, the father of Hero, depressed by her disgrace, declares himself so subdued by grief that a thread may lead him. How is it that grief in Leonato and lady Constance, produces effects directly opposite, and yet both agreeable to nature. Sorrow softens the mind while it is yet warmed by hope, but hardens it when it is congealed by despair. Distress, while there remains any prospect of relief, is weak and flexible, but when no succour remains, is fearless and stubborn; angry alike at those that injure, and at those that do not help; careless to please where nothing can be gained, and fearless to offend when there is nothing further to be dreaded. Such was this writer's knowledge of the passions.

Note return to page 468 6&lblank; bid Kings come bow to it.] I must here account for the Liberty I have taken to make a Change in the Division of the 2d and 3d Acts. In the old Editions, the 2d Act was made to end here; though 'tis evident, Lady Constance here, in her Despair, seats herself on the Floor: and she must be supposed, as I formerly observed, immediately to rise again, only to go off and end the Act decently; or the fiat Scene must shut her in from the Sight of the Audience, an Absurdity I cannot wish to accuse Shakespeare of. Mr. Gildon and some other Criticks fancied, that a considerable Part of the 2d Act was lost; and that the Chasm began here. I had joined in this Suspicion of a Scene or two being lost; and unwittingly drew Mr. Pope into this Error. “It seems to be so, says he, and it were to be wish'd the Restorer (meaning Me,) could supply it.” To deserve this Great Man's Thanks, I'll venture at the Task; and hope to convince my Readers, that nothing is lost; but that I have supplied the suspected Chasm, only by rectifying the Division of the Acts. Upon looking a little more narrowly into the Constitution of the Play, I am satisfied that the 3d Act ought to begin with that Scene, which has hitherto been accounted the Last of the 2d Act: and my Reasons for it are these. The Match being concluded, in the Scene before that, betwixt the Dauphin and Blanch, a Messenger is sent for Lady Constance to K. Philip's Tent, for her to come to St. Mary's Church to the Solemnity. The Princes all go out, as to the Marriage; and the Bastard staying a little behind, to descant on Interest and Commodity, very properly ends the Act. The next Scene then, in the French King's Tent, brings us Salisbury delivering his Message to Constance, who, refusing to go to the Solemnity, sets herself down on the Floor. The whole Train returning from the Church to the French King's Pavilion, Philip expresses such Satisfaction on Occasion of the happy Solemnity of that Day, that Constance rises from the Floor, and joins in the Scene by entring her Protest against their Joy, and cursing the Business of the Day. Thus, I conceive, the Scenes are fairly continued; and there is no Chasm in the Action: but a proper Interval made both for Salisbury's coming to Lady Constance, and for the Solemnization of the Marriage. Besides, as Faulconbridge is evidently the Poet's favourite Character, 'twas very well judg'd to close the Act with his Soliloquy. Theobald. This whole note seems judicious enough; but Mr. Theobald forgets that there were, in Shakespeare's time, no moveable scenes.

Note return to page 469 7From this passage Rowe seems to have borrowed the first lines of his Fair Penitent.

Note return to page 470 8But on this day, &lblank;] That is, except on this day.

Note return to page 471 9You came in arms to spill my enemies blood, But now in arms, you strengthen it with yours.] I am afraid here is a clinch intended; You came in war to destroy my enemies, but now you strengthen them in embraces.

Note return to page 472 1Shakespeare makes this bitter curse effectual.

Note return to page 473 2Methinks, that Richard's pride, &c.] What was the ground of this quarrel of the Bastard to Austria is no where specify'd in the present play: nor is there in this place, or the scene where it is first hinted at (namely the second of Act 2.) the least mention of any reason for it. But the story is, that Austria, who kill'd King Richard Cœur-de-lion, wore as the spoil of that Prince, a lion's hide which had belong'd to him. This circumstance renders the anger of the Bastard very natural, and ought not to have been omitted. In the first sketch of this play (which Shakespeare is said to have had a hand in, jointly with William Rowley) we accordingly find this insisted upon, and I have ventured to place a few of those verses here. Pope. To the insertion of these lines I have nothing to object. There are many other passages in the old play, of great value. The omission of this incident, in the second draught, was natural. Shakespeare, having familiarised the story to his own imagination, forgot that it was obscure to his audience; or, what is equally probable, the story was then so popular that a hint was sufficient at that time to bring it to mind, and these plays were written with very little care for the approbation of posterity.

Note return to page 474 3This must have been at the time when it was written, in our struggles with popery, a very captivating scene. So many passages remain in which Shakespeare evidently takes his advantage of the facts then recent, and of the passions then in motion, that I cannot but suspect that time has obscured much of his art, and that many allusions yet remain undiscovered which perhaps may be gradually retrieved by succeeding commentators.

Note return to page 475 4This may allude to the bull published against Queen Elizabeth. Or we may suppose, since we have no proof that this play appeared in its present state, before the reign of King James, that it was exhibited soon after the popish plot. I have seen a Spanish book in which Garnet, Faux, and their accomplices are registred as saints.

Note return to page 476 5It is a political maxim, that kingdoms are never married. Lewis upon the wedding is for making war upon his new relations.

Note return to page 477 6&lblank; the Devil tempts thee here In Likeness of a new untrimmed Bride.] Tho' all the Copies concur in this Reading, yet as untrimmed cannot bear any Signification to square with the Sense required, I cannot help thinking it a corrupted Reading. I have ventur'd to throw out the Negative, and read; In Likeness of a new and trimmed Bride. i. e. of a new Bride, and one deck'd and adorn'd as well by Art as Nature. Theobald. &lblank; a new untrimmed bride.] Mr. Theobald says, that as untrimmed cannot bear any signification to square with the sense required, it must be corrupt; therefore he will cashier it, and read, and trimmed; in which he is followed by the Oxford Editor; but they are both too hasty. It squares very well with the sense, and signifies unsteady. The term is taken from Navigation. We say too, in a similar way of speaking, not well manned. Warb. I think Mr. Theobald's correction more plausible than Dr. Warburton's explanation. A commentator should be grave, and therefore I can read these notes with the proper severity of attention, but the idea of trimming a lady to keep her steady, would be too risible for any common power of face.

Note return to page 478 7So strong in both.] I believe the meaning is, were so strong in both parties.

Note return to page 479 8Is not amiss, when it is truly done:] This is a conclusion de travers. We should read, Is yet amiss, &lblank; The Oxford Editor, according to his usual custom, will improve it further, and reads, most amiss. Warburton. I rather read, Is't not amiss, when it is truly done? as the alteration is less, and the sense which Dr. Warburton first discovered is preserved.

Note return to page 480 9But thou hast sworn against religion, &c.] In this long speech, the Legate is made to shew his skill in casuistry; and the strange heap of quibble and nonsense of which it consists, was intended to ridicule that of the schools. For when he assumes the politician, at the conclusion of the third act, the author makes him talk at another rate. I mean in that beautiful passage where he speaks of the mischiefs following the King's loss of his subjects hearts. This conduct is remarkable, and was intended, I suppose, to shew us how much better politicians the Roman courtiers are, than divines. Warburton. I am not able to discover here any thing inconsequent or ridiculously subtle. The propositions, that the voice of the church is the voice of heaven, and that the Pope utters the voice of the church, neither of which Pandulph's auditors would deny, being once granted, the argument here used is irresistible; nor is it easy, notwithstanding the gingle, to enforce it with greater brevity or propriety. But thou hast sworn against religion: By what thou swear'st, against the thing thou swear'st: And mak'st an oath the surety for thy truth, Against an oath the truth thou art unsure To swear, swear only not to be forsworn.] By what. Sir T. Hanmer reads, by that. I think it should be rather by which. That is, thou swear'st against the thing, by which thou swear'st; that is, against religion. The most formidable difficulty is in these lines. And mak'st an oath the surety for thy truth, Against an oath the truth thou art unsure To swear, &c. This Sir T. Hanmer reforms thus, And mak'st an oath the surety for thy truth, Against an oath; this truth thou art unsure To swear, &c. Dr. Warburton writes it thus, Against an oath the truth thou art unsure &lblank; which leaves the passage to me as obscure as before. I know not whether there is any corruption beyond the omission of a point. The sense, after I had considered it, appeared to me only this: In swearing by religion against religion, to which thou hast already sworn, thou makest an oath the security for thy faith against an oath already taken. I will give, says he, a rule for conscience in these cases. Thou mayst be in doubt about the matter of an oath; when thou swearest thou mayst not be always sure to swear rightly, but let this be thy settled principle, swear only not to be forsworn; let not thy latter oaths be at variance with thy former. Truth, through this whole speech, means rectitude of conduct.

Note return to page 481 1Some airy devil &lblank;] We must read, Some fiery devil, if we will have the cause equal to the effect. Warburton. There is no end of such alterations; every page of a vehement and negligent writer will afford opportunities for changes of terms, if mere propriety will justify them. Not that of this change the propriety is out of controversy. Dr. Warburton will have the devil fiery, because he makes the day hot; the authour makes him airy, because he hovers in the sky, and the heat and mischief are natural consequences of his malignity.

Note return to page 482 2&lblank; the fat ribs of Peace Must by the hungry now be fed upon.] This word now seems a very idle term here, and conveys no satisfactory idea. An antithesis, and opposition of terms, so perpetual with our author, requires; Must by the hungry War be fed upon. War, demanding a large expence, is very poetically said to be hungry, and to prey on the wealth and fat of peace. Warburton. This emendation is better than the former, but yet not necessary. Sir T. Hanmer reads, hungry maw with less deviation from the common reading, but with not so much force or elegance as war.

Note return to page 483 3Bell, book, and candle, &c.] In an account of the Romish curse given by Dr. Gray, it appears that three candles were extinguished, one by one, in different parts of the execration.

Note return to page 484 4Sound on unto the drowsie race of night;] We should read, Sound one &lblank; Warburton.6Q0137

Note return to page 485 5A whole Armado, &c.] This similitude, as little as it makes for the purpose in hand, was, I do not question, a very taking one when the play was first represented; which was a winter or two at most, after the Spanish invasion in 1588. It was in reference likewise to that glorious period that Shakespear concludes his play in that triumphant manner, Thus England never did, nor never shall Lye at the proud foot of a conqueror, &c. But the whole play abounds with touches relative to the then posture of affairs. Warburton. This play, so far as I can discover, was not played till a long time after the defeat of the Armada. The old play, I think, wants this simile. The commentator should not have affirmed what he could only guess.

Note return to page 486 6&lblank; in so fierce a cause,] We should read course, i. e. march. The Oxford Editor condescends to this emendation. Warburton.

Note return to page 487 7Modern invocation.] It is hard, to say what Shakespeare means by modern: it is not opposed to ancient. In All's well, that ends well, speaking of a girl in contempt, he uses this word, her modern grace. It apparently means something slight and inconsiderable.6Q0138

Note return to page 488 8It was necessary that Constance should be interrupted, because a passion so violent cannot be born long. I wish the following speeches had been equally happy; but they only serve to shew, how difficult it is to maintain the pathetick long.

Note return to page 489 9&lblank; had you such a loss as I, I could give better comfort &lblank;] This is a sentiment which great sorrow always dictates. Whoever cannot help himself casts his eyes on others for assistance, and often mistakes their inability for coldness.

Note return to page 490 1There's nothing in this, &c.] The young Prince feels his defeat with more sensibility than his father. Shame operates most strongly in the earlier years, and when can disgrace be less welcome than when a man is going to his bride?

Note return to page 491 2True blood.] The blood of him that has the just claim.

Note return to page 492 3No 'scape of nature, &lblank;] The author very finely calls a monstrous birth, an escape of nature. As if it were produced while she was busy elsewhere, or intent on some other thing. But the Oxford Editor will have it, that Shakespeare wrote, No shape of nature. Warburton.

Note return to page 493 4Or, as a little snow.] Bacon, in his history of Henry VII. speaking of Perkin's march, observes, that their snow-ball did not gather as it rolled.

Note return to page 494 5Turning dispiteous torture out of door!] For torture Sir T. Hanmer reads nature, and is followed, I think, without necessity, by Dr. Warburton.

Note return to page 495 6I would not have believed a tongue but Hubert's.] Thus Mr. Pope found the line in the old editions. According to this reading it is supposed that Hubert had told him, he would not put out his eyes; for the angel who says he would, is brought in as contradicting Hubert. Mr. Theobald, by what authority I don't know, reads. I would not have believ'd him: no tongue, but Hubert's. which is spoiling the measure, without much mending the sense. Shakespeare, I am persuaded, wrote, I would not have believ'd a tongue 'bate Hubert; i. e. abate, disparage. The blunder seems to have arisen thus, bate signifies except, saving; so the transcribers, taking it in this sense, substituted the more usual word but in its place. My alteration greatly improves the sense, as implying a tenderness of affection for Hubert; the common reading, only an opinion of Hubert's veracity; whereas the point here was to win upon Hubert's passions which could not be better done than by shewing affection towards him. Warburton. I do not see why the old reading may not stand. Mr. Theobald's alteration, as we find, injures the measure, and Dr. Warburton's corrupts the language, and neither can be said much to mend the sense.

Note return to page 496 7This is according to nature. We imagine no evil so great as that which is near us.

Note return to page 497 8No, in good sooth, &c.] The sense is: The fire, being created not to hurt but to comfort, is dead with grief for finding itself used in acts of cruelty, which, being innocent, I have not deserved.6Q0139

Note return to page 498 9This once again &lblank; was once superfluous.] This one time more was one time more than enough.

Note return to page 499 1To guard a title that was rich before.] To guard, is to fringe.

Note return to page 500 2They do confound their Skill in Covetousness.] i. e. Not by their Avarice, but in an eager Emulation, an intense Desire of excelling; as in Henry V. But if it be a Sin to covet Honour, I am the most offending Soul alive. Theobald.

Note return to page 501 3&lblank; in hiding of the fault, Than did the fault &lblank;] We should read flaw in both place. Warburton.

Note return to page 502 4Some reasons of this double coronation I have possest you with, and think them strong. And more, more strong, the lesser is my fear, I shall endue you with.] I have told you some reasons, in my opinion strong, and shall tell more yet stronger; for the stronger my reasons are, the less is my fear of your disapprobation. This seems to be the meaning.

Note return to page 503 5To sound the purposes.] To declare, to publish the desires of all those.

Note return to page 504 6Between his purpose and his conscience,] Between his consciousness of guilt, and his design to conceal it by fair professions.

Note return to page 505 7Like Heralds, 'twixt two dreadful Battles set;] But Heralds are not planted, I presume, in the midst betwixt two Lines of Battle; tho' they, and Trumpets, are often sent over from Party to Party, to propose Terms, demand a Parley, &c. I have therefore ventur'd to read, sent. Theobald. This Dr. Warburton has followed without much advantage; set is not fixed, but only placed; heralds must be set between battles in order to be sent between them.

Note return to page 506 8And when it breaks, &lblank; This is but an indelicate metaphor, taken from an impostumated tumour.

Note return to page 507 9From France to England. &lblank;] The kings asks how all goes in France, the messenger catches the word goes, and answers, that whatever is in France goes now into England.

Note return to page 508 1Deliver him to safety, &lblank;] That is, Give him into safe custody.

Note return to page 509 2&lblank; slippers, which his nimble haste Had falsely thrust upon contrary feet,] I know not how the commentators understand this important passage, which, in Dr. Warburton's edition, is marked as eminently beautiful, and, in the whole, not without justice. But Shakespeare seems to have confounded a man's shoes with his gloves. He that is frighted or hurried may put his hand into the wrong glove, but either shoe will equally admit either foot. The authour seems to be disturbed by the disorder which he describes.

Note return to page 510 3It is the curse of Kings, &c.] This plainly hints at Davison's case, in the affair of Mary Queen of Scots, and so must have been inserted long after the first representation. Warburton.

Note return to page 511 4Hadst thou but shook thy head, &c.] There are many touches of nature in this conference of John with Hubert. A man engaged in wickedness would keep the profit to himself, and transfer the guilt to his accomplice. These reproaches vented against Hubert are not the words of art or policy, but the eruptions of a mind swelling with consciousness of a crime, and desirous of discharging its misery on another. This account of the timidity of guilt is drawn ab ipsis reresibus mentis, from an intimate knowledge of mankind, particularly that line in which he says, that to have bid him tell his tale in express words, would have struck him dumb; nothing is more certain, than that bad men use all the arts of fallacy upon themselves, palliate their actions to their own minds by gentle terms, and hide themselves from their own detection in ambiguities and subterfuges.6Q0141

Note return to page 512 5The dreadful motion of a murd'rous thought,] Nothing can be falser than what Hubert here says in his own vindication; (yet it was the poet's purpose that he should speak truth) for we find, from a preceding scene, the motion of a murd'rous thought had entred into him, and that, very deeply: and it was with difficulty that the tears, the intreaties, and the innocence of Arthur had diverted and suppressed it. Nor is the expression, in this reading, at all exact, it not being the necessary quality of a murd'rous thought to be dreadful, affrighting or terrible: For it being commonly excited by the flattering views of interest, pleasure, or revenge, the mind is often too much taken up with those ideas to attend, steadily, to the consequences. We must conclude therefore that Shakespeare wrote, &lblank; a murderer's thought. And this makes Hubert speak truth, as the poet intended he should. He had not committed the murder, and consequently the motion of a murderer's thought had never enter'd his bosom. And in this reading, the epithet dreadful is admirably just, and in nature. For after the perpetration of the fact, the appetites, that hurried their owner to it, lose their force; and nothing succeeds to take possession of the mind, but a dreadful consciousness, that torments the murderer without respite or intermission. Warburton. I do not see any thing in this change worth the vehemence with which it is recommended. Read the line either way, the sense is nearly the same, nor does Hubert tell truth in either reading when he charges John with slandering his form. He that could once intend to burn out the eyes of a captive prince, had a mind not too fair for the rudest form.

Note return to page 513 6Whose private, &c. &lblank;] i. e. whose private account, of the Dauphin's affection to our cause, is much more ample than the letters. Pope.

Note return to page 514 7To reason, in Shakespeare, is not so often to argue, as to talk.

Note return to page 515 8&lblank; a vow, &lblank; Never to taste the pleasure of the world,] This is a copy of the vows made in the ages of superstition and chivalry.

Note return to page 516 9&lblank; the worship of revenge.] The worship is the dignity, the honour. We still say worshipful of magistrates.

Note return to page 517 1&lblank; true defence;] Honest defence; defence in a good cause.

Note return to page 518 2Do not prove me so; Yet, I am none. &lblank;] Do not make me a murderer by compelling me to kill you; I am hitherto not a murderer.

Note return to page 519 3The imminent decay of wrested pomp.] Wrested pomp is greatness obtained by violence.

Note return to page 520 4&lblank; Forage, and run] To forage is here used in its original sense, for to range abroad.

Note return to page 521 5Mocking the air with colours] He has the same image in Macbeth. Where the Norwegian colours flout the sky, And fan our people cold.

Note return to page 522 6Away then, with good courage; yet, I know, Our party may well meet a prouder foe.] Let us then away with courage; yet I so well know the faintness of our party, that I think it may easily happen that they shall encounter enemies who have more spirit than themselves.

Note return to page 523 7&lblank; at St. Edmondsbury.] I have ventur'd to fix the Place of the Scene here, which is specified by none of the Editors, on the following Authorities. In the preceding Act, where Salisbury has fixed to go over to the Dauphin, he says; Lords, I will meet him at St. Edmonsbury. And Count Melun, in this last Act, says; &lblank; and many more with me, Upon the Altar at St. Edmonsbury; Even on that Altar, where we swore to you Dear Amity, and everlasting Love. And it appears likewise from the Troublesom Reign of King John, in two Parts, (the first rough Model of this Play) that the Interchange of Vows betwixt the Dauphin and the English Barons was at St. Edmondsbury. Theobald.

Note return to page 524 8Between compulsion, and a brave respect!] This compulsion was the necessity of a reformation in the state; which, according to Salisbury's opinion, (who, in his speech preceding, calls it an enforced cause) could only be procured by foreign arms: And the brave respect was the love of his country. Yet the Oxford Editor, for compulsion, reads compassion. Warburton.

Note return to page 525 9&lblank; an angel spake!] Sir T. Hanmer, and after him Dr. Warburton read here, an angel speeds. I think unnecessarily. The Dauphin does not yet hear the legate indeed, nor pretend to hear him, but seeing him advance and concluding that he comes to animate and authorise him with the power of the church, he cries out, at the sight of this holy man, I am encouraged as by the voice of an angel.

Note return to page 526 1This unheard Sawciness and boyish Troops,] Thus the printed Copies in general; but unheard is an Epithet of very little Force, or Meaning here; besides, let us observe how 'tis coupled. Faulconbridge is sneering at the Dauphin's Invasion, as an unadvis'd Enterprize, favouring of Youth and Indiscretion; the Result of Childishness, and unthinking Rashness: and he seems altogether to dwell on this Character of it, by calling his Preparation boyish Troops, dwarfish War, pigmy Arms, &c. which, according to my Emendation, sort very well with unhair'd, i. e. unhearded Sawciness. Theobald.

Note return to page 527 2Unthread the rude Eye of Rebellion.] Tho' all the Copies concur in this Reading, how poor is the Metaphor of unthreading the Eye of a Needle? And, besides, as there is no Mention made of a Needle, how remote and obscure is the Allusion without it? The Text, as I have restor'd it, is easy and natural; and it is the Mode of Expression, which our Author is every where fond of, to tread and untread, the Way, Path, Steps, &c. Theobald. The metaphor is certainly harsh, but I do not think the passage corrupted.

Note return to page 528 3Rated treachery.] It were easy to change rated to hated for an easier meaning, but rated suits better with fine. The Dauphin has rated your treachery, and set upon it a fine which your lives must pay.

Note return to page 529 1&lblank; happy newness, &c.] Happy innovation, that purposed the restoration of the ancient rightful government.

Note return to page 530 2For tatter'd, the folio reads tottering.

Note return to page 531 3&lblank; thou and endless night] We should read, eyeless. So Pindar calls the Moon, the eye of night. Warburton.

Note return to page 532 4&lblank; in their throng and press &lblank;] In their tumult and hurry of resorting to the last tenable part.

Note return to page 533 THE tragedy of King John, though not written with the utmost power of Shakespeare, is varied with a very pleasing interchange of incidents and characters. The Lady's grief is very affecting, and the character of the Bastard contains that mixture of greatness and lenity which this authour delighted to exhibit. There is extant another play of King John, published with Shakespeare's name, so different from this, and I think from all his other works, that there is reason to think his name was prefixed only to recommend it to sale. No man writes upon the same subject twice, without concurring in many places with himself.

Previous section