Part 28
In the old copy _sleep_. The alteration is by Mr. Steevens, and, as he says, for the sake of _measure_; but that was already complete. The _harmony_ is certainly improved, as the accent is to be laid on _to_ in the ensuing line.
SCENE 12. Page 624.
ANT. My good _knave_, Eros, now thy captain is Even such a body: here I am Antony; Yet cannot hold this visible shape, my _knave_. I made these wars for Egypt; and the _queen_,-- Whose _heart_, I thought, I had, for she had mine; ... she, Eros, has _Pack'd cards_ with Cæsar, and _false play'd_ my glory Unto an enemy's _triumph_.
One should really suppose that Shakspeare had written this speech just after having lost a game at cards, and before the manner in which it had been played was out of his mind. Dr. Warburton's explanation is too superficial to merit the commendation which Dr. Johnson has bestowed on it. That of Mr. Malone is much more judicious and satisfactory; but it has not been perceived that a marked and particular allusion is intended. This is to the old card game of _trump_, which bore a very strong resemblance to our modern whist. It was played by two against two, and sometimes by three against three. It is thus mentioned in _Gammer Gurton's needle_, Act II. Scene 2: "We be fast set at _trump_ man, hard by the fire;" and like wise in Dekkar's _Belman of London_, among other card games. In Eliot's _Fruits for the French_, 1593, p. 53, it is called "a verie common alehouse game in England;" and Rice, in his _Invective against vices_, 12mo, b. l. n. d. but printed before 1600, speaking of sharpers' tricks at cards, mentions "renouncyng the _trompe_ and comming in againe." The Italians call it _triomphetto_; see Florio's dictionary. In Capitolo's poem on Primero, another card game, 1526, 8vo, it is called _trionfi_, and consigned to the peasants. Minsheu, in his _Spanish dialogues_, p. 25, makes it a game for old men. We, in all probability, received it from the French _triomphe_, which occurs in Rabelais as one of Gargantua's games. The term indicates a winning or _triumphant_ card; and therefore there can be no pretence for deriving it from _tromper_, whatever Ben Jonson might have thought to the contrary, who, in reality, seems only to indulge in a pun upon the word.
SCENE 12. Page 627.
ANT. I will o'ertake thee, Cleopatra, and Weep for my pardon. So it must be, for now All _length_ is torture.
Mr. Steevens suspects that the author wrote _life_; surely without reason. Length is _extension_ or _protraction of life_.
THE CLOWN.
He is a mere country fellow; but Shakspeare, in compliance with the usual expectations of the audience, has bestowed on him a due portion of wit and satire.
CYMBELINE.
ACT I.
SCENE 2. Page 18.
IMO. ... he is A man worth any woman; overbuys me Almost the sum he pays.
This has already been so ingeniously interpreted, that there is considerable hazard in the offer of any other conjecture on the subject; yet, may not Imogen mean, "the possession of me is much too dearly bought by the _banishment_ to which you sentence him; he has almost nothing for so large a price."
SCENE 5. Page 27.
Enter PHILARIO, IACHIMO, &c.
Mr. Malone having shown that this name is borrowed from the Italian _Giacomo_, it should be printed _Jachimo_, in order to prevent any mistake in the pronunciation.
ACT II.
SCENE 2. Page 65.
IMO. From fairies and the tempters of the night, Guard me, beseech ye!
See p. 128.
SCENE 3. Page 72.
Hark, hark, the lark at heaven's gate sings.
The frequent mention of the lark, especially among our older poets, has been already exemplified in a variety of corresponding passages with the above, which either Shakspeare might have imitated, or which are imitations from him. To these the following may be added:--
"On morowe tho the dai sprong And the larke bigan her song."
Romance of _Sir Oluel_. MS.
"Even at the twelyght in the dawnynge Whan the larke of custome gynneth synge For to salue in her heavenly laye The lusty goddesse of the morowe graye."
Lydgate's _Sege of Troye_, B. i.
"Whan the larke messager of day Of custome aye Aurora doth salue, With sondry notes hir sorowe to transmue, Or Phebus ryse to joye and gladnesse."
Lydgate's _Sege of Troye_, B. iii.
"Upsprang the golden candle matutyne, With cleir depurit bemys chrystallyne, Glading the mirry fowlis in thair nest: Or Phebus was in purpour kaip revest Upsprang the lark, the hevene's mynstral syne In may intill a morrow mirth fullest."
Dunbar's _Golden terge_.
"With merry note her loud salutes the mounting lark."
Spenser's _Fairy queen_, B. I. Canto xi. st. 51.
"Early, cheerful, mounting lark, Light's gentle usher, morning's clerk, In merry notes delighting; Stint awhile thy song, and hark, And learn my new inditing.
"Bear up this hymn, to heav'n it bear E'en up to heav'n, and sing it there," &c.
Davies's _Acrostick hymns_, 1599.
"... and then my state, (Like to the lark, at break of day arising From sullen earth) sings hymns at heaven's gate."
Shakspeare's 29th _Sonnet_.
"The larke that left her food, her nest, her yong, And early mounting, first with her sweet song Saluted heaven."
Niccolls's _London Artillery_, 1616, 4to.
"And the lark from out the furrow, Soars upright on matin wings, And at the gate of heaven sings."
_Penshurst._ In Dodsley's collection, vol. iv.
SCENE 4. Page 88.
IACH. The roof o' the chamber With _golden cherubims_ is fretted; her andirons (I had forgot them) were two winking Cupids Of silver, each on one foot standing, nicely Depending on their brands.
Mr. Steevens calls the _golden cherubims_ a tawdry image, and proceeds, justly enough, to ridicule an idle representation of the heavenly choirs; but the poet must be cleared from any imputation of blame. He is not accountable for the fashions or follies of his age, and has, in this instance, given a faithful description of the mode in which the rooms in great houses were sometimes ornamented. That _brands_ were those parts of the andirons which supported the wood, according to Mr. Whalley, remains to be proved. The Cupids would not lean or hang over these bars, but rather stand with their faces turned from them, and opposite to the spectator. The brands are more likely to have been the inverted torches mentioned by Mr. Steevens.
SCENE 5. Page 94.
POST. Me of my lawful pleasure she restrain'd, And pray'd me, oft, forbearance: did it With a pudency so rosy, &c.
A useless note on this speech, which would make our poet equally vulgar and obscene, when he was expressing a sentiment of the most refined delicacy, may be well dispensed with in any future edition.
ACT III.
SCENE 1. Page 99.
CYM. Our ancestor was that Mulmutius, which Ordain'd our laws ... ... Mulmutius, Who was the first of Britain, &c.
The judicious and necessary omission of the words "made our laws," after the second Mulmutius, originally belongs to Sir Thomas Hanmer, who would have deserved more thanks from his readers for his regulations of Shakspeare's metre, if they had not been too frequently made without a proper regard to the accuracy of the text.
SCENE 1. Page 100.
CYM. Thy Cæsar _knighted_ me.
Although our old writers frequently make mention of _Roman knights_, that is, military chieftains, it is very much to be apprehended that the present expression must be regarded as a downright anachronism, as well as another similar passage, in p. 213, where Cymbeline addresses Belarius and his sons: "Bow your knees; arise my _knights_ of the battle, &c." The word _knight_ was formerly used with great latitude. Dr. Bullein calls Dioscorides "that olde famous Egyptian _knyghte_."
SCENE 2. Page 105.
IMO. (Some griefs are med'cinable;) that is one of them, For it doth physick love;----
The _whole_ of this should be included in the parenthesis, as in Mr. Malone's edition. No reason has been assigned by Mr. Steevens for the variation, which may be an error of the press.
SCENE 3. Page 117.
BEL. ... _Euriphile_, Thou wast their nurse----
The above name might have been borrowed from the story of Amphiaraus and _Eriphile_, in Pettie's _Petite palace_, 1598, 4to.
SCENE 4. Page 120.
PIS. ... whose tongue Outvenoms all the worms of Nile.
So in the anonymous play of _Wily beguilde_,
"Whose tongue more venom than the serpent's sting."
It is difficult to say which is the imitation.
ACT IV.
SCENE 2. Page 154.
GUI. But his neat _cookery_.
This speech has exercised the talents of a certain ingenious female _illustrator_ of Shakspeare, who has endeavoured to ridicule the character of Imogen, and indeed the whole of the play. She degrades our heroine into a mere kitchen wench, and adverts to what she calls her _œconomical education_. Now what is this but to expose her own ignorance of ancient manners? If she had missed the advantage of qualifying herself as a commentator on Shakspeare's plots by a perusal of our old romances, she ought at least to have remembered, what every well informed woman of the present age is acquainted with, the education of the princesses in Homer's _Odyssey_. It is idle to attempt to judge of ancient simplicity by a mere knowledge of modern manners; and such fastidious critics had better close the book of Shakspeare for ever. In another part of her critique on this play, she condemns the giving of the drug to Imogen which Pisanio had received from the queen, from an idea that he was sufficiently warned of its soporific quality; and she positively states that the physician had, by a whisper, informed Pisanio of its property; not one word of which is to be found in Shakspeare. So much for the criticism and accuracy of a work to which Dr. Johnson condescended to write a dedication. He has likewise too often confided in its opinions in the course of several of his remarks on Shakspeare's plays.
SCENE 2. Page 156.
CLO. Know'st me not by my clothes?
GUI. _No_, nor thy tailor, rascal.
Mr. Steevens's correct ear has on this, perhaps single, occasion been deceived. He objects to the negation _no_, as "at once superfluous and injurious to the metre;" yet it is impossible to read the line harmoniously without it. Nor does it constitute the superfluity of the metre, which has, exclusively, two redundant syllables. If any alteration were allowable, it might be the following:--
"Know'st not my clothes? No, nor thy tailor, rascal."
SCENE 2. Page 164.
BEL. O thou goddess, Thou divine nature, _how_ thyself thou blazon'st----
This judicious emendation from _thou_ thyself, &c., claimed by one learned gentleman and adopted by another, is the original property of Sir Thomas Hanmer.
SCENE 2. Page 168.
GUI. With _female_ fairies will his tomb be haunted.
i. e. harmless and protecting spirits, not fairies of a mischievous nature.
SCENE 2. Page 169.
GUI. And worms will not come to _thee_.
Mr. Steevens imputes _great violence_ to this change of person, and would read "come to _him_;" but there is no impropriety in Guiderius's sudden address to the _body itself_. It might indeed be ascribed to our author's careless manner, of which an instance like the present occurs at the beginning of the next act, where Posthumus says,
"... _you_ married ones, If each of _you_ would take this course, how many Must murder wives much better than _themselves_."
SCENE 2. Page 169.
ARV. ... the ruddock would, With charitable bill,--bring thee all this; Yea and furr'd moss besides, when flowers are none To _winter-ground_ thy corse.
The question made by Dr. Percy, whether the notion of the redbreast covering dead bodies be older than the celebrated ballad of the babes of the wood, has been satisfactorily answered in the affirmative by Mr. Reed's note. In Dekker's _Villanies discovered by lanthorn and candle light_, 1616, 4to, it is said, "They that cheere up a prisoner but with their sight, are Robin red breasts that bring strawes in their bils to cover a dead man in extremitie." See chap. xv.
With respect to _winter-ground_; until some other example of the use of this word be produced, there will be no impropriety in offering a substitute in _winter-green_, that is, "to preserve thy tomb green with moss in the winter season, when there will be no flowers wherewith to deck it." Such a verb might have been suggested to Shakspeare, who often coins in this way, by the plant _winter-green_, the _pyrola_.
_Ruddock_ was the Saxon name ꞃuꝺꝺuc, for the redbreast, and long continued to be so. In Bullokar's _Æsop_, 1585, 12mo, there is a fable "Of a fowlor and the bird cale'd Robin-red-brest," which concludes in these words: "Then the fowlor, hop of-taking many being lost, when it waz now tym too-rest, drawing the netz, he cauht only on _Robin-ruddok_, which being unhappy [unlucky] had abydd stil in the shrap."
SCENE 2. Page 175.
IMO. 'Od's pittikins!
Mr. Steevens's derivation from God's _my_ pity, is not quite correct. It is rather from _God's pity_, diminutively used by the addition of _kin_. In this manner we have _'od's bodikins_.
ON THE STORY OF THIS PLAY.
For the plot of Cymbeline, Shakspeare has been almost exclusively indebted to Boccaccio's novel of Bernabo Lomellin, Day 2, novel 9, as Mr. Malone has proved beyond the possibility of doubt. Unless we suppose, what is not probable, that Shakspeare was acquainted with the Italian language, or that he had heard the above novel read by some person in English, a difficulty arises in accounting for the manner in which he got access to it. The earliest English translation of the _whole of the Decameron_ was first printed in 1620, by Isaac Jaggard, in folio, and in two parts, the first of which was republished under the title of _The modell of wit, mirth, eloquence, and conversation, framed in ten days of an hundred curious pieces, by seven honourable ladies, and three noble gentlemen, preserved to posterity by the renowned John Boccacio, the first refiner of Italian prose, and now translated into English_, 1625, in folio. See more on this subject in a preceding note, p. 102. Had Shakspeare been intimately acquainted with Boccaccio's _Decameron_, one should have expected that he would have made considerable use of that work; but this is the only play in which the most material part of the plot has been extracted from it. There are indeed one or two instances in which a very slight use has been made of it, but then evidently through the medium of an English translation. Is it not possible that our author might have known French enough to have occasionally read the Decameron in that language?
TITUS ANDRONICUS.
ACT II.
SCENE 1. Page 276.
AAR. And faster bound to Aaron's _charming_ eyes.
He is not here commending the _beauty_ of his eyes, but adverting to their power of _fascination_. This was anciently supposed a peculiar quality of the eye, and many remedies or amulets were used to charm away its power.
SCENE 3. Page 287.
TAM. While hounds, and horns, and sweet melodious birds, Be unto us, as is a nurse's song Of _lullaby_, to bring her babe asleep.
We have here a curious lullaby note, which, as well as the present, may possibly have a drowsy effect on all readers but staunch antiquaries and etymologists. For the benefit therefore of the latter it may be observed, that Dr. Johnson is probably mistaken in supposing that the nurse's word _by_ signifies sleep, otherwise than as a contraction of _lullaby_. It is to be wished that Mr. Holt White had favoured us with some proof that to _lull_ originally signified to _sleep_, and that its present sense, _to compose to sleep by a pleasing sound_, is but a secondary one, retained after the primitive import had become obsolete. The same ingenious critic proceeds to state that _by_ means _house_, and therefore _lullaby_ is to _go to house or cradle_. There is so much plausibility in this conjecture that it is almost a pity to be obliged to dissent from it. Though it cannot be disputed that _by_ signifies a _dwelling_, it is presumed that this sense is as unconnected with the word in question as Dr. Johnson's _sleep_. It would be a hopeless task to trace the origin of the northern verb _to lull_, which means _to sing gently_; but it is evidently connected with the Greek λαλεω, loquor, or λαλλη, the sound made by the beach at sea. Thus much is certain, that the Roman nurses used the word _lalla_ to quiet their children, and that they feigned a deity called _Lallus_, whom they invoked on that occasion; the lullaby or tune itself was called by the same name. As _lallare_ meant to _sing lalla_, to _lull_ might in like manner denote the singing of the nurse's lullaby to induce the child to sleep. Thus in an ancient carol composed in the fifteenth century, and preserved among the Sloane MSS. No. 2593:
"che song a slepe wᵗ. her _lullynge_ here dere sone our savyoure."
In another old ballad printed by Mr. Ritson in his _Ancient songs_, p. 198, the burden is "lully, lully, lullaby, lullyby, sweete baby, &c.;" from which it seems probable that _lullaby_ is only a comparatively modern contraction of _lully baby_, the first word being the legitimate offspring of the Roman _lalla_. In another of these pieces still more ancient, and printed in the same collection, we have, "lullay, lullow, lully, _bewy_, lulla baw baw." The welsh appear to have been famous for their lullaby songs. Jones, in his _Arte and science of preserving bodie and soule_, 1579, 4to, says, "The best nurses, but especially the trim and skilfull Welch women, doe use to sing some preaty sonets, wherwith their copious tong is plentifully stoared of divers pretie tunes and pleasaunt ditties, that the children disquieted might be brought to reste: but translated never so well, they want their grace in Englishe, for lacke of proper words: so that I will omit them, as I wishe they would theyr lascivious _Dymes_, wanton _Lullies_, and amorous _Englins_."
Mr. White, in reviewing his opinion of the etymology of _good-by_, will perhaps incline to think it a contraction, when properly written _good b'ye_, of _God be with you_, and not "may your _house_ prosper!"
To add to the stock of our old lullaby songs, two are here subjoined. The first is from a pageant of _The slaughter of the innocents_, acted at Coventry in the reign of Henry the Eighth, by the taylors and shearers of that city, and most obligingly communicated by Mr. Sharpe. The other is from the curious volume of songs mentioned before in p. 262. Both exhibit the simplicity of ancient manners.
"Lully, lulla, thou littell tine childe, By by lully lullay, Lully lullay thou littell tyne child, By by lully lullay.
O sisters too, how may we do, For to preserve this day This pore yongling, for whom we do singe By by lully lullay.
Herod the king, in his raging, Chargid he hath this day; His men of might, in his owne sight, All yonge children to slay.
That wo is me, pore child for thee, And ever morne and say; For thi parting, nether say nor sing, By by lully lullay."
* * * * *
"By by lullaby Rockyd I my chyld In a drē late as I lay Me thought I hard a maydyn say And spak thes wordys mylde, My lytil sone with the I play And ever she song by lullay. Thus rockyd she hyr chyld By by lullabi, Rockid I my child by by. Then merveld I ryght sore of thys A mayde to have a chyld I wys, By by lullay. Thus rockyd she her chyld By by lullaby, rockyd I my chyld."
Finis.
SCENE 3. Page 290.
TAM. O'ercome with moss and _baleful_ misletoe.
This epithet is extremely appropriate either conformably to an ancient, but erroneous, opinion, that the berries of the misletoe were poisonous; or on account of the use made of this plant by the Druids during their detestable human sacrifices.
ACT III.
SCENE 1. Page 305.
TIT. Speak my Lavinia, what accursed hand Hath made thee handless in thy father's _sight_?
Dr. Warburton says, "we should read _spight_;" but there is no reason for a change for the worse. Titus had made no attempt to _prevent_ the mutilation of his unhappy daughter, nor had it taken place in _despite_, i. e. contempt or hatred of him.
ACT IV.
SCENE 3. Page 338.
TIT. And sith there is no justice in earth nor hell, We will solicit heaven, and move the Gods.
Notwithstanding the difference in arrangement, it will hardly be questioned that the author is here indebted to Virgil's
"Flectere si nequeo superos, Acheronta movebo."
This may be added to the list of classical allusions at the end of the play.
ACT V.
SCENE 1. Page 351.
AAR. An idiot holds his _bauble_ for a God, And keeps the oath which by that God he swears.
Even though the bauble here mentioned had been actually of that kind which is alluded to in the course of a note in _All's well that ends well_, Act IV., his imagination would be deemed not a little fanciful, who would connect it with the object of the singular oath in _Genesis_ xxiv. 9. There cannot however be a doubt that Aaron refers to that sort of bauble or sceptre which was usually carried in the hand by natural idiots and allowed jesters, and by which, it may be supposed, they would sometimes swear. The resemblance which it bore to an image or idol suggested the poet's comparison.
SCENE 2. Page 363.
TIT. So, now bring them in, for I will play the cook.
This redundant line ought to be thus arranged and printed:
So, Now bring them in, for I will play the cook.
SCENE 3. Page 364.
MAR. Rome's emperor, and nephew, _break_ the parle.
Dr. Johnson makes the sense "_begin_ the parley." Is it not rather "_break off_ this sort of discourse!"? for Lucius and Saturninus had already _begun_ the parley by sparring language: to prevent the continuance of it Marcus interferes, by declaring that their quarrels must be adjusted by gentle _words_.
Throughout this play the name _Andrŏnĭcus_ is improperly accented. It should have been _Andronīcus_.
THE CLOWN.
He is nothing more than a shrewd rustic, performing the office of a messenger.
PERICLES.
Page 388.
_Pentapolis._]
"This," says Mr. Steevens, "is an imaginary _city_, and its name might have been borrowed from some romance. We meet, indeed, in history with _Pentapolitana regio_, a country in Africa, and from thence perhaps some novelist furnished the sounding title of _Pentapolis_," &c. But there was no absolute reason for supposing it a _city_ in this play, as Gower in the _Confessio amantis_ had done, a circumstance which had probably misled Mr. Steevens. In the original Latin romance of Apollonius Tyrius, it is most accurately called _Pentapolis Cyrenorum_, and was, as both Strabo and Ptolemy inform us, a _district_ of Cyrenaica in Africa, comprising _five cities_, of which Cyrene was one.
ACT I.
GOWER. To sing a song _of old_ was sung.
The editor, having very properly adopted Mr. Malone's amendment in the text, has forgotten to mention that the former reading was _that old_, and the note is consequently rendered obscure.
SCENE 1. Page 397.
PER. See where she comes, apparell'd like the spring, Graces her subjects, and her thoughts the king Of every virtue----
A transposition of _spring_ and _king_ has been suggested, but on no solid foundation; nor, it is presumed, is the passage _incurably depraved_, or even any change necessary. Mr. Steevens asks, "With what propriety can a lady's thoughts be styled the king of every virtue?" For this the poet must answer, who evidently designed an antithesis in _king_ and _subjects_.
SCENE 1. Page 402.
ANT. Read the _conclusion_ then; Which read and not expounded, 'tis decreed, As these before thee, thou thyself shalt bleed.