Edmond Malone [1780], Supplement to the edition of Shakspeare's plays published in 1778 By Samuel Johnson and George Steevens. In two volumes. Containing additional observations by several of the former commentators: to which are subjoined the genuine poems of the same author, and seven plays that have been ascribed to him; with notes By the editor and others (Printed for C. Bathurst [and] W. Strahan [etc.], London) [word count] [S10911].
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APPENDIX TO VOL. II.
10912148(P. 11.) Add to note 8.] In Macbeth we meet with a similar
allusion:
“Thy face, my thane, is as a book, where men
“May read strange matters.”
Again, in the Rape of Lucrece:
“Poor women's faces are their own faults' books.”
Again, in Drayton's Matilda, 1594:
“My face, the sun adorning beauty's sky,
“The book where heaven her wonders did enroll.”
Malone.
10912149(P. 13) After note 7.] I would read—in death's net.
Percy.
10912150(P. 14.) Of all said yet may'st thou prove prosperous!] 'Said
is here apparently contracted for assay'd, i. e. tried, attempted.
Percy.
10912151(P. 15.) Sharp physick is the last:] i. e. the intimation in
the last line of the riddle that his life depends on resolving it;
which he properly enough calls sharp physick, or a bitter potion.
Percy.
10912152(P. 18.) Add to my note 2.] The following lines in K. Richard
III. likewise confirm the reading that has been chosen:
“Cancel his bond of life, dear God, I pray,
“That I may live to say the dog is dead.”
Malone.
10912153(P. 21. l. 4.) Stage Direction.] After Tyre, add A Room in
the Palace.
Malone.
10912154(P. 23.) At the end of note 5.] I would read,
Who am no more, &c.
Farmer.
10912155(P. 24.) Add at the end of line 9—Exeunt attendant Lords.
Malone.
10912156(P. 29.) After Scene III. add An Antichamber in the Palace
of Tyre.
Malone.
10912157(P. 30.) After note 3.] Perhaps we should read,
But since he's gone, the king it sure must please;
He scap'd the land to perish on the seas.
Percy.
-- 722 --
10912158(P. 31.) Stage Direction.] After Tharsus, add A Room in the
Governour's House.
Malone.
10912159(P. 32.) After note 8.] Shakspeare generally uses riches as
a singular noun. Thus in Othello:
“The riches of the ship is come ashore.”
Again, ibid:
“But riches fineless is as poor as winter”—.
Again, in his 87th Sonnet:
“And for that riches where is my deserving?”
Malone.
10912160(P. 36.) And make a conquest of unhappy me,] I believe a
letter was dropped at the press, and would read
And make a conquest of unhappy men,
Whereas no glory's got to overcome.
Malone.
(Ibid. l. 15.) After “Lord” add Exit.
Malone.
10912161(P. 37.) Are stor'd with corn to make your needy bread,]
i e. to make bread for your needy subjects.
Percy.
10912162(P. 41.) Ne aught escapen'd but himself;] It should be
printed either escapen or escaped.
Our ancestors had a plural number in their tenses which
is now lost out of the language; e. g. in the present tense,
| I escape | We escapen |
| Thou escapest | Ye escapen |
| He escapeth | They escapen. |
But it did not, I believe, extend to the preter-imperfects,
otherwise than thus: They didden [for did] escape.
Percy.
I do not believe the text to be corrupt. Our author seems
in this instance to have followed Gower:
“&lblank; and with himselfe were in debate,
“Thynkende what he had lore, &c.”
I think I have observed many other instances of the same
kind in the Confessio Amantis.
In the text, for ought read aught.
Malone.
(Ibid.) Threw him ashore to give him glad.] Should we not
read—to make him glad?
Percy.
(Ibid.) Stage Direction.] After Pentapolis, add An open place
by the sea-side.
Malone.
10912163(P. 45.) Honest, good fellow, what's that, if it be a day fits
you, &c.] May not here be an allusion to the dies honestissimus
of Cicero?—If you like the day, find it out in the Almanack,
and no body will take it from you.
Farmer.
Some difficulty however will remain, unless with Mr.
Steevens we suppose a preceding line to have been lost; for
Pericles (as the text stands) has said nothing about the day.
Malone.
-- 723 --
10912164(P. 49. After note 4.] See the Reliques of Anc. Poetry, in
the old song of the Millar of Mansfield, Part II. line 65:
“Quoth Dick, a bots on you.”
Percy.
10912165(P. 52) Return them we are ready;] i. e. return them this
notice—that we are ready, &c.
Percy.
(Ibid.) Which to preserve mine honour, I'll perform.] Perhaps
we should read—to prefer, i. e. advance.
Percy.
10912166(P. 54.) At the end of note 2.] In my copy this line is
quoted in an old hand as Mr. Steevens reads.
Farmer.
10912167(P. 58.) As you do love, fill to your mistress' lips.] Read—
fill to your mistresses.
Farmer.
10912168(P. 59.) &lblank; and princes, not doing so,
Are like to gnats which make a sound, but kill'd
Are wondered at.] i. e. when they are found to
be such small insignificant animals, after making so great a
noise.
Percy.
10912169(P. 61.) Scene IV. Stage Direction.] After Tyre, add A
room in the Governour's house.
Malone.
10912170(P. 64.) Take I your wish, I leap into the seas,
Where's hourly trouble for a minute's ease.] A contested
line in Hamlet
“Or to take arms against a sea of troubles,”
as well as the rhime, it must be acknowledged, support this
reading, in which all the copies agree. Yet I am inclined to
believe that the poet wrote
I leap into the seat &lblank;.
So in Macbeth:
“&lblank; I have no spur
“To prick the sides of mine intent, but only
“Vaulting ambition, which o'erleaps itself, &c.”
On ship-board the pain and pleasure may be in the proportion
here stated; but the troubles of him who leaps
into the sea (unless he happens to be an expert swimmer) are
seldom of an hour's duration. In the seat of royalty, on the
other hand, I believe it may truly be said, that there is
“hourly trouble for a minute's ease.”
Malone.
10912171(P. 79) At the end of note 6.] Again in Shakspeare's
Lover's Complaint:
“Of folded schedules had she many a one,
“Which she perus'd, sigh'd, tore, and gave the flood,—
“Bidding them find their sepulchres in mud.”
Malone.
10912172(P. 82. l. 2.) Add Exit Philemon.
Malone.
(Ibid.) This is the cause we trouble you so early;
'Tis not our husbandry.] Husbandry is generally used
by Shakspeare for economical prudence. So in Hamlet:
-- 724 --
“And borrowing dulls the edge of husbandry.”
Again, more appositely in King Henry V:
“For our bad neighbours make us early stirrers,
“Which is both healthful and good husbandry.”
Malone.
10912173(P. 89.) That she may be manner'd as she is born.] So in
Cymbeline:
“&lblank; and he is one
“The truest manner'd, such a holy witch,
“That he enchants societies to him.”
Malone.
10912174(P. 92.) Add to note 3.] Again more appositely in the
Rape of Lucrece:
“An expir'd date, cancel'd ere well begun.”
Malone.
10912175(P. 93.) Add to note 8.] Again in Antony and Cleopatra:
“&lblank; the very heart of loss.”
Again, in the Rape of Lucrece:
“On her bare breast, the heart of all her land.”
Place here signifies residence: so in Shakspeare's Lover's
Complaint:
“Love lack'd a dwelling, and made him her place.”
Malone.
10912176(P. 93.) At the end of note 2.] I would read,
Even ripe for marriage rites.
Percy.
10912177(P. 95.) After note 3.] Sleded silk, is untwisted silk, prepared
to be used in the weaver's sley or slay. See a description
of the use of this instrument in any of the Dictionaries of Arts
and Sciences.
Percy.
10912178(P. 99.) After note 6.] As Marina had been trained in
musick, letters, &c. and had gained all the graces of education,
Lychorida could not have been her only mistress. I
would therefore read,
Here she comes weeping for her old nurse's death.
Percy.
This emendation, I am persuaded, is right. He who
could print night-bed for night bird,—within one for with mone,
—my wife for midwife, &c. might easily have made the mistake
which is supposed to have happened in the line before
us. The passage ought to be thus regulated:
The fitter then the gods should have her.—Here
She comes weeping for her old nurse's death.—
Thou art resolv'd?”
The word above, I find, is not in the old copies, which
confirms Dr. Percy's emendation.
Malone.
10912179(P. 100.) &lblank; like a lasting storm &lblank;] Dele the note on these
words, which I am now satisfied, is wrong.
Malone.
10912180(P. 101.) &lblank; that excellent complexion, which did steal
The eyes of young and old.] So in our author's
20th Sonnet:
“A man in hue, all hues in his controlling,
“Which steals men's eyes, and women's souls amazeth.”
Malone.
10912181(P. 111.) Note 6.] Instead of “which is her way to go
means only” &c. read “which is her way to go with warrant,
means only” &c.
Malone.
10912182(P. 112.) Untied I still my virgin knot will keep..] So in the
Tempest:
“If thou dost break her virgin knot”—.
Malone.
10912183(P. 114.) The pretty wrens of Tharsus will fly hence,] Perhaps
the author wrote—petty.
Percy.
10912184(P. 124.) Pray you, without any more virginal fencing, &c.]
So in Coriolanus:
“&lblank; the virginal palms of your daughters.”
Malone.
10912185(P. 139.) If that thy prosperous and artificial fate
Can draw him but to answer thee in aught,] I would read—artificial feat.
Percy.
The learned commentator's observations not having reached
my hands till this play was printed off, I had it not in my
power to avail myself of this almost certain emendation,
which is in my opinion well entitled to a place in the text.
The transcriber, who, it should seem, trusted to his ear, another
person reciting what he wrote, was probably deceived,
in this as in many other instances in our author's plays, by
similarity of sounds; feat and fate having been, I imagine,
formerly undistinguished in pronunciation. [See Venus and
Adonis, vol. I. p. 411. note 1, and p. 456. note 5.] These words
are still pronounced alike in Warwickshire, and in Ireland,
where, I believe, much of the pronunciation of the age of
queen Elizabeth is yet retained among the middle class of
people.
Malone.
10912186(P. 140.) &lblank; I am a maid,
My lord, that ne'er before invited eyes,
But have been gaz'd on like a comet:] So in King
Henry IV. P. I:
“By being seldom seen, I could not stir,
“But like a comet I was wonder'd at.”
Malone.
-- 726 --
10912187(P. 146) She never would tell
Her parentage; being demanded that
She would sit still and weep.] Thus also Viola in
Twelfth Night:
“She never told her love,
“But let concealment, like a worm i' the bud,
“Feed on her damask cheek.”
Malone.
10912188(P. 150.) Add to note 1.] So in the Rape of Lucrece:
“Were Tarquin night, as he is but night's child,
“The silver-shining queen he would distain.”
Malone.
10912189(P. 153.) &lblank; who, O goddess,
Wears yet thy silver livery.] i. e. her white robe
of innocence, as being yet under the protection of the goddess
of chastity.
Percy.
So in our author's Lover's Complaint:
“There my white stole of chastity I daft.”
We had the same expression before:
“One twelve moons more she'll wear Diana's livery.”
Malone.
10912190(P. 156.) &lblank; And now
This ornament that makes me look so dismal,
Will I, my lov'd Marina, clip to form;
And what this fourteen years no razor touch'd,
To grace thy marriage day I'll beautify.] Instead of
ornament I would read excrement; i. e. his beard. So Autolycus
in the Winter's Tale calls the false beard which he wore
as a pedlar, “his pedlar's excrement.”
Percy.
So also, in Hamlet:
“Your bedded hair, like life in excrements,
“Starts up and stands on end.”
The following passage, however, in Much Ado about Nothing,
seems to support the old reading: “No, but the barber's
man hath already been with him; and the old ornament
of his cheek hath already stuff'd tennis balls.”
Pericles, I believe, means to say—This ornament of the
face [my beard], which, having been so long neglected, gives me
a dismal appearance, I will now clip into form and beautify.”
That the beard, when clip'd into form, was considered in our
author's time as ornamental, appears clearly from the various
shapes in which it was cut and dressed.
The author has here followed Gower, or Gesta Romanorum:
-- 727 --
“&lblank; this a vowe to God I make,
“That I shall never for hir sake
“My berde for no likynge shave,
“Till it befalle that I have
“In convenable tyme of age
“Besette hir unto mariage.
Conf. Amant.
Malone.
10912191(P. 158.) After note 5.] This play is so uncommonly corrupted
by the printers, &c. that it does not so much seem
to want illustration as emendation: and the errata are so numerous
and gross, that one is tempted to suspect almost every
line where there is the least deviation in the language from
what is either usual or proper. Many of the corruptions
appear to have arisen from an illiterate transcriber having
written the speeches by ear from an inaccurate reciter; who
between them both have rendered the text (in the verbs particularly) very ungrammatical.
More of the phraseology used in the genuine dramas of
Shakspeare prevails in Pericles, than in any of the other six
doubted plays.
Percy.
10912192(P. 199.) Add to note *.] Again in the Tragicall Hystory of
Romeus and Juliet, 1562:
“I graunt that I envy the blisse they lived in.”
Malone.
10912193(P. 204.) Add to note 1.] The text however is not corrupt.
I have since observed the same phrase in Tarleton's News
out of Purgatorie, bl. let. no date.
Malone.
10912194(P. 206.) Stay us from cutting over to this isle.] We vulgarly
talk of a short cut to a place, &c. but, I believe, here
we should read
&lblank; from putting over to this isle.
Percy.
10912195(P. 212) After note 9.] It is also used by Gascoigne in
his Complaint of Philomene:
“And as I stood, I heard her make great moan,
“Waymenting much.”
Malone.
10912196(P. 226.) Add to note 5] Again more appositely in the Palsgrave or Hector of Germany, by William Smith, 1614:
“Spears flew in splinters half the way to heaven.”
Malone.
-- 728 --
10912197(P. 255.) The watry ladies, &lblank;] So our ancient English poets
style the Naiads. See on this subject the Reliques of Anc. Eng.
Poetry, vol. III. p. 36. (note.)
Percy.
10912198(P. 164) After note 2.] This tragedy is in the old turgid
pedantick style of the academick pieces of that time, which
were composed by the students to be acted in their colleges,
on solemn occasions. It has not the most remote resemblance
to Shakspeare's manner.
Percy.
10912199(P. 274.) Enter the Duke of Suffolk, &c. and Sir John of
Wrotham.] Almost all the divines that appear in our old comedies
are thus denominated, Sir being the academical distinction
of those who have taken their first degree. Thus
Sir Hugh Evans, in the Merry Wives of Windsor; Sir Oliver
Martext in As You Like It; Sir Topaz in Twelfth Night, &c.
In the University of Dublin this title is still bestowed on
Bachelors of Arts, but is always annexed to the sirname of
the graduate.
Malone.
10912200(P. 277.) Either of you or you &lblank;] Read,
Either of you or yours.
Percy.
10912201(P. 278.) I took it always that ourself stood on't &lblank;] Read,
&lblank; that ourself stood out &lblank;.
Percy.
10912202(P. 290.) &lblank; thou shalt have a piece of beef to thy breakfast.]
See the account of the breakfasts in the Northumberland
Houshold Book, 8vo. p. 75. “The ordre of all such braikfasts
that shal be lowable dayly in my lordis hous.”
Percy.
10912203(P. 296.) Dainty my dear, they'll do a dog of wax, &c.]
The same cant phrase occurs in Ben Jonson's Tale of a Tub:
“I'll clap you both by the heels ankle to ankle.
“Hill.
You'll clap a dog of wax as soon, old Blunt,”
Malone.
10912204(P. 299.) &lblank; nor shall his shaveling priests &lblank;] A vulgar term
of contempt or reproach, in allusion to the tonsure of the
Romish priests.
Percy.
10912205(P. 307.) Of late he's broke into a several,] A term used in
the ancient forest laws. Land common and several was the distinction
between open fields and inclosures. The deer had
broke out of the chase or park into private inclosure.
Percy.
-- 729 --
10912206(P. 309.) Especially lord Scroope, whom oftentimes
He maketh choice of for his bedfellow.] This circumstance
is particularly remarked by Holinshed in his account
of this conspiracy: “The lord Scrope was in such favour
with the king, that he admitted him sometimes to be
his bedfellow: in whose fidelity the king reposed trust, &c.
Vol. III. (sub. ann. 1415.)
This was so much the practice in ancient times, that the
sixth earl of Northumberland in the reigh of king Henry VIII.
circ. 1527, writing “To his beloved cousyn Thomas Arundel,
one of the gentlemen of my lord legates [Cardinal Wolsey's]
prevey chambre,” addresses him with the familiar appellation
of bedfellow, as a term of the most friendly endearment:
This earl of Northumberland had been educated in
the family of cardinal Wolsey, when he had probably been
chamber-fellow with this Thomas Arundel, esq. who was
ancestor of the lord Arundels of Wardour. The letter is
printed in the notes to the Earl of Northumberland's Houshold
Book, p. 429.
It is well known what advantage Oliver Cromwell made
of this (even in his time not obsolete) practice, by making
himself bedfellow to the Agitators, whom he wanted to mould
to his purposes: which were only agents or soldiers chosen
out of the common soldiers.
Percy.
10912207(P. 312. &lblank; a man has no heart to fight till he be brave.] Here
is an intended equivoque; brave, which also signifies “valiant”,
being likewise used by the vulgar in the sense of
“finely dressed.”
Percy.
So in the Taming of the Shrew, Petruchio says to the tailor:
“&lblank; thou hast brav'd many men; brave not me.”
Malone.
10912208(P. 320.) Add after note 4] In the year 1644 was published
“A Petition and Remonstrance of the Grievances about
Farthing Tokens. t’
Again, in an ancient ballad entitled “Faire fall all good
Tokens, or
“A pleasant new song not common to be had,
“Which will teach you how to know good tokens from bad.”
“But first I'll have you understand
“Before that I doe passe,
“That there are many tokens
“Which are not made of brasse.”
-- 730 --
The stamp'd pieces of coin delivered at the doors of our
theatres, as marks of such people as have paid and are to
be admitted, continue, I think, to be called tokens. What
was the use of them in our ancient taverns, is not so easy to
be ascertained. Perhaps they were given only to those who
had deposited money for their share of liquor, that the confusion
of reckonings, incident to many companies in a publick
drinking-room, might be avoided. Tokens were also
coined by tradesmen for the convenience of change. Of these
I have seen many. Vide Mr. Reed's note on the Honest
Whore, in the new edition of Dodsley's Old Plays, Vol. III.
p. 267.
The token, however, mentioned by Sir John the priest, is
only a memorial of friendship, an evidence of remembrance.
So in Othello, Bianca, speaking of the handkerchief, says,
“This is a token of some newer friend.”
Steevens.
10912209(P. 376.) No hammers walking, and my work to do!] I
have since met with the following instances of this obsolete
expression, which fully support the old reading: “And so
finding my hand unable to walk any farther, I take my leave
of your good lordship.” Letter from lord Burghley to lord
Essex—Birch's Memoirs of Queen Elizabeth, Vol. II. p. 148.
Again, in Fennor's Compter's Commonwealth, 1618: “The
keeper admiring he could not hear his prisoner's tongue walk
all this while, &c.”
Malone.
10912210(P. 411.) Their dinner is our banquet after dinner.] i. e.
They make their dinner on fruits, &c. which are not laid on
our tables till we have dined. So afterwards:
&lblank; by their sparing meat, &c.
A banquet in the language of former times seems to have
meant what is now called a desert, consisting of fruits, wines,
biscuits, &c. Thus in Fennor's Compter's Commonwealth,
1618: “Having finished our feast [their dinner] and waiting
for no banquets, we rose, every man disposing of himself
as he pleased.”
Malone.
-- 731 --
10912211(P. 455.) Add after note 3.] This abbreviation of some
name (I know not what, for Christopher has been always contracted
into Kitt,) occurs in an ancient ballad entitled A new
Medley, or a Messe of All-together, to the Tune of Tarlton's Medley:
“Come drinke a cup, and end all strife,
Sweet Kester.”
Steevens.
In the play before us it certainly was meant as an abbreviation
of Christopher: “I am a sailor (says old Flowerdale)
come from Venice, and my name is Christopher.”
Malone.
10912212(P. 461.) Add to note 4.] Mention of this hero is made
in an ancient ballad called “Wat William's Will, the second
Part.”
“Would drunkards leave such drinking,
“And gallants leave their roaring,
“Would desperate Dick forbeare to stab,
“And leachers leave their whoring.”
Steevens.
10912213(P. 464.) Add to note 6.] In the Merry Wives of Windsor,
Ford, by way of introduction to Falstaff, with whom he was
unacquainted, sends him a morning's draught of sack, by the
host of the Garter Inn.
Malone.
10912214(P. 489.) Add to note 3.] Canton is not a misprint in
the old copy, being likewise used by Heywood in the preface
to Britaine's Troy, 1609: “I have taskt myselfe to
such succinctnesse and brevity, that in the judicial perusal
of these few cantons as little time shall be hazarded as prosite
from them be any way expected.”
Malone.
10912215(P. 557.) Add to note 5.] So in Fennor's Compter's Commonwealth,
1618: “&lblank; the prisoner being abroad, and seeing
his time and opportunity, most nimbly, and like an Irish Footman,
betook himself to his heeles.”
Malone.
10912216(P. 559.) Ay, by yon Bear at Bridge-foot in heaven shalt
thou.] “Upon the ruines of the Hamiltons (says Mr. Drummond
of Hawthornden) they thought to raise their fortunes,
working on the credulity of the prince; yet was not this
Bear Bridge-foot tragedy artificially enough contrived.” Works,
-- 732 --
p. 240. edit. 1711. From the foregoing passage it should
seem that this house had been rendered notorious by some
murder that had been committed in it.
Malone.
10912217(P. 583.) An excellent scholar i'faith; he has proceeded well
of late.] Here we have another proof that this play was written
by an academick, He has put the language of the university
into the mouth of a bailiff.
Malone.
10912218(P. 588.) Out of all cry.] The following whimsical title of
an old book, bl. let. no date, shows that the text is here
not corrupt: Hay any Work for a Cooper, by Martin, in the
modest defence of his selfe and his learned pistles, and makes the
cooper's hoopes to fly of, and the bishops tubbes to leak out of all
crye; printed in Europe, not far from some of the bouncing
priestes.
Malone.
10912219(P. 590.) Add to note 6.] Bishop Fleetwood in his Chronicon
Pretiosum, mentions among the gold coins struck
by king James, double and single British crowns.
Malone.
THE END.
Edmond Malone [1780], Supplement to the edition of Shakspeare's plays published in 1778 By Samuel Johnson and George Steevens. In two volumes. Containing additional observations by several of the former commentators: to which are subjoined the genuine poems of the same author, and seven plays that have been ascribed to him; with notes By the editor and others (Printed for C. Bathurst [and] W. Strahan [etc.], London) [word count] [S10911].
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