Imagini ale paginilor
PDF
ePub

would now be employed by such a character. As I hope to be saved, I was fast asleep. B.

Sil. O Eglamour, thou art a gentleman,
(Think not, I flatter, for, I swear, I do not)
Valiant, wise, remorseful, well accomplish'd.
Remorseful is pitiful. STEEV.

'Remorseful.' Rather say compassionate. It is true that 'pitiful' has sometimes the sense of compassionate. But why employ a term which may awaken ridicule? If Sir Eglamour be really a pitiful or paltry gentleman, Silvia certainly does not mean to call him so.

Pro Away, I say; Stay'st thou to vex me here?
A slave, that, still an end, turns me to shame.

B.

-an end,] i. e. in the end, at the conclusion of every business he undertakes. STEEV,

An end.'' Still an end,'- is very harsh and unmeaning. We should surely read, Anent, i. e. opposing, perverse. B.

Jul. It seems, you lov'd not her, to leave her token: She's dead, belike.

It seems, you lov'd not her, to leave her token:] Protheus does not properly leave his lady's token, he gives it away. The old edition has

it:

It seems you lov'd her not, not leave her token.

I should correct it thus:

It seems you lov'd her not, nor love her token. JOHN.

[ocr errors]

To leave her token.' We should read to leef her token.' To leef in Chaucer and other old writers is to resign, to give up, the sense required here. B.

Jul. But since she did neglect her looking-glass,
And threw her sun-expelling mask away,

The air hath starv'd the roses in her cheeks,
And pinch'd the lily-tincture of her face,
That now she is become as black as I.

But since she did neglect her looking glass, &c. To starve the roses is certainly a very proper expression: but what is pinching a tincture? However, starved, in the third line, made the blundering editors write pinch'd in the fourth though they might have seen that it was a tanning scorching, not a freezing air that was spoken of. For how could this latter quality in the air so affect the whiteness of the skin as to turn it black ? We should read:

:

And PITCH'D the lily-tincture of her face. i. e. turned the white tincture black, as the following That now she is become as black as I:

and we say, in common speech, as black as pitch. staro'd, is only meant their being withered, and WARB.

line has it:

By the roses being losing their color.

This is no emendation; none ever heard of a face being pitched by the weather. The color of a part pinched, is livid, as it is commonly termed, black and blue. The weather may therefore be justly said to pinch when it produces the same visible effect. I believe this is the reason why the coid is said to pinch. JOHN.

'Pinch'd,' should be pencte, i. e. painted. Since she threw her mask away, the air hath starved the roses in her cheeks, and so painted or changed her lily complexion, that she is now swarthy as I am.

The word is found in Chaucer, and other early writers. Or he. may have written pinc'd-i. e. penciled: a word formed on the French pinceau-Painter's pencil, or coloring brush. Pinch'd' is evidently wrong. B.

Jul. What should it be, that he respects in her,
But I can make respective in myself,

If this fond love were not a blinded god?

-respective] i. e. respectful, or respectable. STEEV.

'Respective. Mr. Steevens seems to think, that respectful and respectable have precisely the same meaning, and that respective will stand for both. But 'respective' in this place is neither respectful nor respectable. It means to have relation to: the like, the same. There is nothing,' says Julia, which he respects or admires in Silvia, but that I can make the same in myself: Do excellence which I cannot also claim or bear relation to.' B.

Val. And, that my love may appear plain and free,
All, that was mine in Silvia, I give thee.

All, that was mine in Silvia, I give thee.] It is (I think) very odd to give up his mistress thus at once, without any reason alledged. But our author probably followed the stories just as he found them in his novels as well as histories. POPE.

This passage either hath been much sophisticated, or is one great proof

that the main parts of this play did not proceed from Shakspeare: for it is impossible he could make Valentine act and speak so much out of character, or give to Silvia so unnatural a behaviour, as to take no notice of this strange concession, if it had been made. HAN.

All, that was mine in Silvia, I give thee.' The editors are puzzled; they are unable to account for Valentine's disloyalty in saying, All, that is mine in Silvia, I give thee.' Now, as Mr. Theobald would have expressed it, I am bold to say,' that I can set the matter right. It is evident, then, from all that has gone before and from all that follows this speech, that Valentine had no intention whatever of giving up his mistress to Protheus. I readAll that was thine in Silvia, I give thee.' The meaning (the change being made in the text) is somewhat concealed, but will be as follows. Thou hast pretended unto Silvia; but it is not by pretending alone that you can have a claim to her. Silvia, if she be now claimed by thee, must have accepted thy proffered love, and in that case I willingly resign her (all that was thine in Silvia, I give thee,') for it is her heart I wish to gain. In fine, I will be no bar to thy happiness, if she prefer thy love to mine.' Julia, struck by the words of Valentine and not perceiving the drift of them, faints. Thus all, I believe, is cleared up, and all will be in character. B.

Duke. Come, let us go; we will include all jars
With triumphs, mirth, and rare solemnity.

[ocr errors]

-include all jars.] Sir Tho. Hanmer reads conclude. Jous.

We will include all jars with triumphs, nity. Include' will not have the sense of word appears to be interclude (intercludo.) jars by the intervention,' &c. B.

mirth, and rare solemconclude. The proper We will put a stop to

Comedy of Errors.

ACT I. SCENE II.

S. Ant. Disguised cheaters, prating mountebanks,
And many such like liberties of sin.

If it prove so, I will be gone the sooner.

Liberties of sin.] Sir T. Hanmer reads, libertines, which, as the author has been enumerating not acts but persons, seems right. JOHN.

'Liberties of sin.' I think, with Hanmer, that libertines will be the proper word. The construction, however, is not libertines of sin. I would alter the passage as follows.

'Of' is by.

prating mountebanks And many such like libertines. Of sin! If it prove so, &c.'

If it prove so,

'By sin!
&c.'

He swears by the distinguishing quality of the persons spoken of; which is sufficiently apt. B.

Adr. There's none but asses will be bridled so.
Luc. Why, head-strong liberty is lash'd with woe.
There's nothing, situate under heaven's eye,
But hath his bound, in earth, in sea, in sky:

[blocks in formation]

Luc. Why head-strong liberty is lash'd with woe.]

The meaning of this passage may be, that those who refuse the bridle must bear the lush, and that woe is the punishment of head-strong liberty. It may be observed, however, that the seamen still use lash in the same sense as leash; as does Greene in his Mamillia, 1593: "Thou didst counsel me to beware of love, and I was before in the lash." STEEV.

Lash'd with woe.' Lash'd is not in this place whipped, as Mr. Steevens seems to think it means bound in, checked. It should be written lach'd or lac'd. But it may perhaps be asked-How can liberty be called headstrong if it is under any restraint? The meaning, however, will be, not liberty which is headstrong, but which would be such were it not checked or restrained by woe. (The grammar being faulty from want of the conditional form, the passage is rather obscure). That I have rightly interpreted the sentence, will be evident from the exemplification, as it may be called, which immediately follows;

There's nothing situate under heaven's eye,

But bath his bound, &c.

"Lash,' in Greene's Mamillia should be lach (subst.) from enlacé Fr. to insnare, to entrap-and the same in other places. B.

Ant. Your sawciness will jest upon my love,
And make a common of my serious hours.

And make a common of my serious hours.] i. e. intrude on them when you please. The allusion is to those tracts of ground destined to common use, which are thence called commons. STEEV.

And make a common of my serious hours.' This has no allusion to tracts of ground, as the context sufficiently shews. Antipholis would say, that Dromio is for entering into commons or association with him, on all occasions. The reference is to the like usage in colleges and religious houses. B.

Ant. Plead you to me, fair dame? I know you not:
In Ephesus I am but two hours old,

As strange unto your town, as to your talk;

Who, every word by all my wit being scann'd,

Want wit in all one word to understand.

Plead you to me, fair dame? &c.' The last two lines are not grammar. We must either read :

"Whose every word by all my wit being scann'd,

Want wit, &c.'-or

« ÎnapoiContinuă »