Imagini ale paginilor
PDF
ePub

lover, and the most unworthy of her you call Rosalind, that may be chosen out of the gross band of the unfaithful.

I will think you the most pathetical break-promise.] The same epithet occurs again in Love's Labor Lost, and with as little apparent meaning: "Most pathetical nit." STEEV.

"The most pathetical break promise." The meaning is sufficiently clear. A pathetical break-promise is a deceiver, with every appearance of feeling the passion he wishes to inspire. B.

Ros. Well, go your way to her, (for I see love hath made thee a tame snake) and say this to her.

I see that love has made thee a tame snake.] This term was in our author's time frequently used to express a poor contemptible fellow. So, in Lord Cromwell, 1002 :

66

-the poorest snake

"That feeds on lemons, pilchards," &c.

Snake." From the way in which this term is spoken of, it would seem as if the Commentators understood by it a serpent. It is, however, nothing more than a sneak, or sneaksby, as we now say for one who is of a mean and dastardly spirit. B.

2 Page. In the spring time, the pretty rank time, When birds do sing, hey ding a ding, ding;

Sweet lovers love the spring.

The pretty rank time.] Thus the modern editors. The old copy reads: In the spring time, the onely pretty rung time.

I think we should read:

In the spring time, the only pretty ring time.

i. e. the aptest season for marriage; or, the word only, for the sake of equality of metre, may be omitted. STEEV.

The true reading, perhaps, will be,

-the pretty range time." i. e. the proper time for wandering about. B.

Orl. I sometimes do believe, and sometimes do not, As those that fear they hope, and know they fear.

As those that fear they hope, and know they fear.] This strange nonsense should be read thus:

"As those that fear their hap, and know their fear."

i. e. As those that fear the issue of a thing when they know their fear to be well grounded. WARB.

The depravation of this line is evident, but I do not think the learned commentator's emendation very happy. I read thus :

"As those that fear with hope, and hope with fear."

Or thus, with less alteration:

"As those that fear, they hope, and now they fear." JOHN. I read :

"As those that hope they fear, then know they fear."

I am puzzled, or perplexed like to those persons, who at one time

form to themselves imaginary notions or fears; who then hope those fears are groundless, and who afterwards are convinced that they are so. B.

Clo. According to the fool's bolt, sir, and such dulcet diseases.

Dulcet diseases.] This I do not understand. For diseases it is easy to read discourses: but, perhaps the fault may lie deeper. JoHN.

Perhaps he calls a proverb a disease. Proverbial sayings may appear to him as the surfeiting discases of conversation. They are often the plague of commentators.

Dr. Farmer would read-in such dulcet diseases-i. e. in the sweet uneasinesses of love, a time when people usually talk nonsense. STEEV. "Dulcet diseases." Why a proverb is to be considered as a surfeiting disease, I am yet to learn. It has always been set down in the books as meaning a "pithy [strong, energetic] saying;" and sometimes it is held as a principle or general rule. These, according to my ideas, are very different from diseases. That the expression would apply to Mr. Steevens's notes, (if such expression may be admitted: for what we are rightly to understand by a surfeiting disease is not very easy to tell) no one, I believe, will dispute, they are surfeiting diseases, indeed! But Shakspeare has here, I think, coined a word from the French participle disant, which signifies saying. This, though used only adjectively by a Frenchman, the poet has converted to a substantive: and of it he has made disances, i. e. sayings, “Such dulcet disances "—" such sweet or charming sayings." The word disances with the English a will have nearly the sound of diseases: or supposing that the n had been inadvertently omitted in the MS. (disaces) the Compositor might easily mistake it for diseases. B.

All's Well that Ends Well.

ACT I. SCENE 1.

Count. In delivering my son from me, I bury a

second husband..

In delivering my son from me.] To deliver from, in the sense of giving · up, is not English. Shakspeare 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. JOHN,

"In delivering my son from me." Warburton is right in his objection. "Delivering my son from me" is certainly not English, and it is strange that Johnson, a professed humanist, should attempt to justify the expression. "Dissevering from," is, however, little better. I would take the comma from me, and place it at son. "From me," I think, should be for me. The whole will run thus: "In delivering [giving up] my son, for me I bury a second husband." For me is common with our earlier writers, whose language is far less correct in point of grammar, far less studied, indeed, than that which is found in those of the present day. The words may be called emphatical, or they are used to give strength to an assertion. In the present instance the sense would be complete without them. "In delivering my son, I bury a second husband." This, however, is only a simple declaration, while by adding for me it seems to acquire force, to have more of what may be termed

passion in it. We should now say, "for my part I," which though not very elegant, is forcible and frequently employed. Or we may read "fore me." I declare solemnly." B.

Count. This young gentlewoman had a father (O, that had! how sad a passage 'tis!) whose skill was almost as great as his honesty.

This young gentlewoman had a futher (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 Shakspeare wrote (0 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. WARB.

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 author, 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 through her mind. JouN.

passes

Dr. Warburton's reasoning is false and inconclusive. The death of Gerard de Narbon could never be considered as a presage that the king must now expect no cure, unless, indeed, the physician had died of the same malady as that which the king is said to languish under. I think we should read,—

"O that had! how sad a pesage 'tis."

Pesage, i. e. weight. "How grievous a weight it is,"-meaning on the mind.

Hel.

'Twas pretty, though a plague,
To see him every hour; to sit and draw
His arched brows, his hawking eye, his curls,
In our heart's table; heart, too capable
Of every line and trick of his sweet favour:
But now he's gone, and my idolatrous fancy
Must sanctify his relicks.

In our heart's table.] A table was in our author's time a term for a picture, in which sense it is used here. Tableau. Fr. MAL.

"In our heart's table." "Table" must here mean book, register. "My tables." See Hamlet, Act I. Sc. 111.

B.

Trick of his sweet favor.] So, in King John: "he hath a trick of Cœur de Lion's face." Trick seems to be some peculiarity of feature. JOHN.

Trick is an expression taken from drawing, and is so explained in

another place. STEEV.

"Trick," trait, Fr. B.

Hel. Not my virginity yet.

There shall your master have a thousand loves,
A mother and a mistress, and a friend,
A phoenix, captain, and an enemy,
A guide, a goddess, and a sovereign,
A counsellor, a traitress, and a dear;
His humble ambition, proud humility,
His jarring concord, and his discord dulcet,
His faith, his sweet disaster; with a world
Of pretty, fond, adoptious christendoms,
That blinking Cupid gossips. Now shall he-
I know not what he shall :-God send him well!-
The court's a learning place ;-and he is one-

Par. What one, i'faith?

Hel. That I wish well.

Not my virginity yet.] This whole speech is abrupt, unconnected, and obscure. Dr. Warburton thinks much of it supposititious. 1 would be glad to think so of the whole, for a commentator naturally wishes to reject what he cannot understand. Something which should connect Helena's words with those of Parolles, seems to be wanting. 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. know not what to do with the passage. JOHN.

I do not perceive so great a want of connection as my predecessors have apprehended; nor is that connection always to be sought for, in so careless a writer as ours, from the thought immediately preceding the reply of the speaker. Parolles has been laughing at the unprofitableness of virginity, especially when it grows ancient, and compares it to withered fruit. Helena properly enough replies, that hers is not yet in that state; but that in the enjoyment of her, his master should find the gratification of all his most romantic wishes. What Dr. Warburton says afterwards is said at random, as all positive declarations of the same kind must of necessity be. Were I to propose any change, I would read should instead of shull. It does not however appear that this rapturous effusion of Helena was designed to be intelligible to Parolles. Its obscurity, therefore, may be its merit. It sufficiently explains what is passing in the mind of the speaker, to every one but him to whom she does not mean to explain it. STEEV.

I think the latter part of Parolles' speech, "Will you any thing with it?" should be given to Helena. He says, "Virginity is a withered pear." Helena replies, "Not my virginity yet." She

SHAK.

I.

U

« ÎnapoiContinuă »