Chapter 10

III.i.110 (52,8) [Through bog, through bush, through brake, through bryer] Here are two syllables wanting. Perhaps, it was written,

_Through bog_, through mire,-------

III.i.116 (52,9) [to make me afeard]

_Afeard_ is from _to fear_, by the old form of the language, as _an hungred_, from _to hunger_. So _adry_, for _thirsty_. (1773)

III.i.117 (52,1) [O Bottom! thou art chang'd! what do I see on thee?] It is plain by Bottom's answer, that Snout mentioned an _ass's head._ Therefore we should read,

Snout. _O Bottom, thou art changed! what do I see on thee_? An ass's head?

III.i.141 (53,3) [Mine ear is much enamour'd of thy note,]

So is mine eye enthralled to thy shape; And thy fair virtue's force

(perforce) [doth move me, On the first view to say, to swear I love thee]

These lines are in one quarto of 1600, the first folio of 1623, the second of 1632, and the third of 1664, &c. ranged in the following order:

_Mine ear is much enamour'd of thy note. On the first view to say, to swear, I love thee; So is mine eye enthralled to thy shape, And thy fair virtue's force (perforce) [doth move me._

This reading I have inserted, not that it can suggest any thing better than the order to which the lines have been restored by Mr. Theobald from another quarto, but to shew that some liberty of conjecture must be allowed in the revisal of works so inaccurately printed, and so long neglected.

III.i.173 (55,6) [the fiery glow-worm's eyes] I know not how Shakespeare,who commonly derived his knowledge of nature from his own observation, happened to place the glow-worm's light in his eyes, which is only in his tail.

III.ii.9 (56,l) [patches] _Patch_ was in old language used as a term of opprobry; perhaps with much the some import as we use _raggamuffin_, or _tatterdemalion_.

III.ii.17 (56,2) [nowl] A head. Saxon.

III.ii.19 (57,4) [minnock] This is the reading of the old quarto, and I believe right, _Minnekin_, now _minx_, is a nice trifling girl. _Minnock_ is apparently a word of contempt.

III.ii.21 (57,5) [sort] Company. So above,

--_that barren_ sort;

and in Waller,

_A_ sort _of lusty shepherds strive_.

III.ii.25 (57,6) [And, at our stamp] This seems to be a vicious reading. Fairies are never represented stamping, or of a size that should give force to a stamp, nor could they have distinguished the stamps of Puck from those of their own companions. I read,

_And at a_ stump _here o'er and o'er one falls_.

So Drayton,

_A pain he in his head-piece feels, Against a_ stubbed tree _he reels, And up went poor hobgoblin's heels; Alas, his brain was dizzy_.---- _At length upon his feet he gets, Hobgoblin fumes, Hobgoblin frets, And as again he forward sets, And through the bushes scrambles,_ A stump _doth_ trip him _in his pace, Down fell poor Hob upon his face, Among the briers and brambles._

III.ii.30 (58,7) [Some, sleeves; some, hats] There is the like image in Drayton of queen Mab and her fairies flying from Hobgoblin.

_Some tore a ruff, and some a gown, 'Gainat one another jostling; They flew about like chaff i' th' wind, For haste some left their masks behind, Some could not stay their gloves to find, There never was such bustling._

III.ii.48 (58,l) [Being o'er shoes in blood] An allusion to the proverb, _Over shoes, over boots._

III.ii.70 (59,3) [O brave touch!] _Touch_ in Shakespeare's time was the same with our _exploit_, or rather _stroke_. A brave touch, a noble stroke, _un grand coup_. _Mason was very merry, pleasantly playing both with the shrewd_ touches _of many curst boys, and the small discretion of many lewd schoolmasters._ Ascham.

III.ii.74 (60,4) [mispris'd] Mistaken; so below _misprision_ is mistake.

III.ii.141 (62,5) [Taurus' snow] Taurus is the name of a range of mountains in Asia.

III.ii.144 (62,7) [seal of bliss!] Be has elsewhere the same image,

_But my kisses bring again_ Seals of love, _but seal'd in vain_, (rev. 1778, III,74,4)

III.ii.150 (62,8) [join in souls] This is surely wrong. We may read, _Join in_ scorns, or _join in_ scoffs. [Tyrwhitt: join, ill souls] This is a very reasonable conjecture, though I think it is hardly right. (1773)

III.ii.160 (63,9) [extort A poor soul's patience] Harrass, torment.

III.ii.171 (63,1) [My heart with her] We should read,

_My heart_ with _her but as guest-wise sojourn'd_.

So Prior,

_No matter what beauties I saw in my way, They were but my visits, but then not my home._ (rev. 1778, III,76,9)

III.ii.188 (64,2) [all yon fiery O's] I would willingly believe that the poet wrote _fiery orbs_.

III.ii.194 (64,3) [in spight to me] I read, _in spite_ to _me_.

III.ii.242 (66,2) [such an argument] Such a _subject_ of light merriment.

III.ii.352 (71,1) [so sort] So happen in the issue.

III.ii.367 (71,2) [virtuous property] Salutiferous. So be calls, in the Tempest, _poisonous dew_, wicked _dew_.

III.ii.426 (74,5) [buy this dear] i.e. _thou shalt dearly pay for this._ Though this is sense, and may well enough stand, yet the poet perhaps wrote _thou shalt 'by it dear_. So in another place, _thou shalt_ aby it. So Milton, _How_ dearly I abide _that boust so vain._

IV.i (75,6) I see no reason why the fourth act should begin here, when there seems no interruption of the action. In the old quartos of 1600, there is no division of acts, which seems to have been afterwards arbitrarily made in the first folio, and may therefore be altered at pleasure, (see 1765, I,149,5)

IV.i.2 (75,7) [do coy] To _coy_ is to sooth. Skinner, (rev. 1778, III, 89,6)

IV.i.45 (77,2) [So doth the woodbine, the sweet honey-suckle, Gently entwist] Mr. Upton reads,

_So doth the_ woodrine _the sweet honey-suckle_,

for bark of the wood. Shakespeare perhaps only meant so, the leaves involve the flower, using _woodbine_ for the plant and _honeysuckle_ for the flower; or perhaps Shakespeare made a blunder, (rev. 1778, III,91,2)

IV.i.107 (81,9) [our observation is perform'd] The honours due to the morning of May. I know not why Shakespear calls this play a _Midsummer- Night's Dream_, when he so carefully informs us that it happened on the night preceding _May_ day.

IV.i.123 (81,4) [so sanded] So marked with small spots.

IV.i.166 (83,6) [Fair Helena in fancy following me] _Fancy_ is here taken for _love_ or _affection_, and is opposed to _fury_, as before.

_Sighs and tears poor_ Fancy's _follovers_.

Some now call that which a man takes particular delight in his _Fancy. Flower-fancier_, for a florist, and _bird-fancier_, for a lover and feeder of birds, are colloquial words.

IV.i.194 (84,6) [And I have found Demetrius like a jewel] [W: gewell] This emendation is ingenious enough to deserve to be true.

IV.i.213 (85,8) [patch'd fool] That is, a fool in a particolour'd coat.

IV.ii.14 (86,2) [a thing of nought] which Mr. Theobald changes with great pomp to _a thing of naught_, is, a _good for nothing thing_.

IV.ii.18 (86,3) [made men] In the same sense us in the _Tempest, any monster in England_ makes _a man_.

V.i.2-22 (88,4)

[More strange than true. I never may believe These antique fables, nor these fairy toys]

These beautiful lines are in all the old editions thrown out of metre. They are very well restored by the later editors.

V.i.26 (89,5) [constancy] Consistency; stability; certainty.

V.i.79 (92,4) [Unless you can find sport in their intents] Thus all the copies. But as I know not what it is to _stretch_ and _con_ an _intent_, I suspect a line to be lost.

V.i.91 (92,5)

[And what poor duty cannot do, Noble respect takes it in might, not merit.]

The sense of this passage, as it now stands, if it has any sense, is this: _What the inability of duty cannot perform, regardful generosity receives as an act of ability, though not of merit._ The contrary is rather true: _What dutifulness tries to perform without ability, regardful generosity receives as having the merit, though not the power, of complete performance._

We should therefore read,

_And what poor duty cannot do, Noble respect takes not in might, but merit._

V.i.147 (95,4) [Whereat, with blade, with bloody blameful blade] Mr. Upton rightly observes, that Shakespeare in this line ridicules the affectation of beginning many words with the same letter. He night have remarked the same of

_The raging rocks and shivering shocks._

Gascoigne, contemporary with our poet, remarks and blames the same affectation.

V.i.199 (97,6) [And like Limander am I trusty still] Limander and Helen, are spoken by the blundering player, for Leander and Hero. Shafalus and Procrus, for Cephalus and Procris.

V.i.254 (99,1) [in snuff] An equivocation. _Snuff_ signifies both the cinder of a caudle, and hasty anger.

V.i.379 (104,2) [And the wolf beholds the moon] [W: behowls] The alteration is better than the original reading; but perhaps the author meant only to say, that the wolf _gazes at_ the moon, (see 1765, I,173,2)

V.i.396 (105,4)

[I am sent, with broom, before, To sweep the dust behind the door]

Cleanliness is always necessary to invite the residence and the favour of Fairies.

_These make our girls their slutt'ry rue, By pinching them both black and blue. And put a penny in their shoe The house for cleanly sweeping._ Drayton.

V.i.398 (105,5) [Through this house give glimmering light] Milton perhaps had this picture in his thought:

_Glowing cabers through the room Teach light to counterfeit a gloom._ Il Penseroso.

So Drayton:

_Hence shadows seeming idle shapes Of little frisking elves and apes, To earth do make their wanton 'scapes As hope of pastime hastes them._

I think it should be read,

_Through this house_ in _glimmering light_.

V.i.408 (106,6) [Now, until the break of day] This speech, which both the old quartos give to Oberon, is in the edition of 1623, and in all the following, printed as the song. I have restored it to Oberon, as it apparently contains not the blessing which he intends to bestow on the bed, but his declaration that he will bless it, and his orders to the fairies how to perform the necessary rites. But where then is the song?--I am afraid it is gone after many other things of greater value. The truth is that two songs are lost. The series of the scene is this; after the speech of Puck, Oberon enters, and calls his fairies to a song, which song is apparently wanting in all the copies. Next Titania leads another song, which is indeed lost like the former, tho' the editors have endeavoured to find it. Then Oberon dismisses his fairies to the dispatch of the ceremonies.

The songs, I suppose, were lost, because they were not inserted in the players parts, from which the drama was printed.

V.i.440 (107,8) [Now to 'scape the serpent's tongue] That is, If we be dismiss'd without hisses.

V.i.444 (107,9) [Give me your hands] That is, Clap your hands. Give us your applause.

(107,8) General Observation. Of this play there are two editions in quarto; one printed for Thomas Fisher, the other for James Roberts, both in 1600. I have used the copy of Roberts, very carefully collated, as it seems, with that of Fisher. Neither of the editions approach to exactness. Fisher is sometimes preferable, but Roberts was followed, though not without some variations, by Hemings and Condel, and they by all the folios that succeeded them.

Wild and fantastical as this play is, all the parts in their various modes are well written, and give the kind of pleasure which the author designed. Fairies in his time were much in fashion; common tradition had made them familiar, and Spenser's poem had made them great.

THE MERCHANT OF VENICE

I.i.9 (112,2) [Argosies] [a ship from Argo. Pope.] Whether it be derived from Argo I am in doubt. It was a name given in our author's time to ships of great burthen, probably galleons, such as the Spaniards now use in their East India trade. [An Argosie meant originally a ship from Ragusa, a city and territory on the gulph of Venice, tributary to the Porte. Steevens.]

I.i.18 (112,3) [Plucking the grass, to know where sits the wind] By holding up the grass, or any light body that will bend by a gentle blast, the direction of the wind is found.

_This way I used in shooting. Betwixt the markes was an open place, there I take a fethere, or a_ lytle grasse, _and so learned_

_how the wind stood_. Ascham.

I.i.27 (113,5) [And see my wealthy Andrew dock'd in sand] The name of the ship.

I.i.113 (116,3) [Is that any thing now?] All the old copies read, _is that any thing now_? I suppose we should read, _is that any thing_ new?

I.i.146 (117,4) [like a wilful youth] [W: witless] Dr. Warburton confounds the time past and present. He has formerly lost his money like a _wilful_ youth, he now borrows more in _pure innocence_, without disguising his former fault, or his present designs.

I.ii.44 (120,6) [Ay, that's a colt, indeed] _Colt_ is used for a witless, heady, gay youngster, whence the phrase used of an old man too juvenile, that he still retains his _colt's tooth_. See Hen. VIII.

I.ii.49 (120,7) [there is the Count Palatine] I am always inclined to believe, that Shakespeare has more allusions to particular facts and persons than his readers commonly suppose. The count here mentioned was, perhaps, Albertus a Lasco, a Polish Palatine, who visited England in our author's time, was eagerly caressed, and splendidly entertained; but running in debt, at last stole away, and endeavoured to repair his fortune by enchantment.

I.ii.90 (122,3) [How like you the young German] In Shakespeare's time the duke of Bavaria visited London, and was made knight of the garter.

Perhaps in this enumeration of Portia's suitors, there may be some covert allusion to those of Queen Elizabeth.

I.iii.47 (125,4) [catch him once upon the hip] A phrase taken from the practice of wrestlers.

I.iii.63 (126,5) [the ripe wants of my friend] _Ripe wants_ are wants _come to the height_, wants that can have no longer delay. Perhaps we might read, _rife wants_, wants that come thick upon him.

I.iii.100 (127,6)

[ An evil soul, producing holy witness, Is like a villain with a smiling cheek; A goodly apple rotten at the heart. O, what a goodly outside falshood hath?]

I wish any copy would give the authority to range and read the lines thus:

_O, what a_ godly _outside falshood hath! An evil soul producing holy witness, Is like a villain with a sailing cheek; Or goodly apply rotten at the heart._

Yet there is no difficulty in the present reading. _Falsehood_, which as _truth_ means _honesty_, is taken here for _treachery_ and _knavery_, does not stand for _falshood_ in general, but for the dishonesty now operating. (1773)

I.iii.156 (129,8) [dwell in my necessity] To _dwell_ seems in this place to mean the same as to _continue_. To _abide_ has both the senses of _habitation_ and _continuance_.

I.iii.176 (130,9) [left in the fearful guard] [W: fearless] Dr. Warburton has forgotten that _fearful_ is not only that which fears, but that which is feared or causes fear. _Fearful guard_, is a guard that is not to be trusted, but gives cause of fear. To _fear_ was anciently to _give_ as well as _feel terrours_. (see 1765, I,402,4)

I.iii.180 (130,1) [I like not fair terms] Kind words, good language.

II.i.7 (131,2) [To prove whose blood is reddest, his or mine] To understand how the tawney prince, whose savage dignity is very well supported, means to recommend himself by this challenge, it must be remembered that _red_ blood is a traditionary sign of courage: Thus Macbeth calls one of his frighted soldiers, a _lilly liver'd_ Lown; again in this play, Cowards are said to _have livers as white as milk_; and an effeminate and timorous man is termed a _milksop._

II.i.18 (132,4) [And hedg'd me by his will] I suppose we may safely read, _and hedg'd me by his_ will. Confined me by his will.

II.i.25 (132,5) [That slew the Sophy] Shakespeare seldom escapes well when he is entangled with geography. The prince of Morocco must have travelled far to kill the Sophy of Persia.

II.i.42 (133,7) [Therefore be advis'd] Therefore be not precipitant; consider well what we are to do. _Advis'd_ is the word opposite to _rash_.

II.ii.38 (134,8) [try conclusions]--So the old quarto. The first folio, by a mere blunder, reads, try _confusions_, which, because it makes a kind of paltry jest, has been copied by all the editors.

II.ii.91 (136,1) [your child that shall be] The distinction between _boy_ and _son_ is obvious, but child seems to have some meaning, which is now lost.

II.ii.166 (138,3) [Well, if any man in Italy have a fairer table, which doth suffer to swear upon a book] Mr. Theobald's note is as obscure as the passage. It may be read more than once before the complication of ignorance can be completely disentangled. Table is the palm expanded. What Mr. Theobald conceives it to be cannot easily be discovered, but he thinks it somewhat that promises a full belly.

Dr. Warburton understood the word, but puzzles himself with no great success in the pursuit of the meaning. The whole matter is this: Launcelot congratulates himself upon his dexterity and good fortune, and, in the height of his rapture, inspects his hand, and congratulates himself upon the felicities in his table. The act of expounding his hand puts him in mind of the action in which the palm is shewn, by raising it to lay it on the book, in judicial attestations. _Well_, says he, _if any man in Italy have a fairer table, that doth offer to swear upon a book_----Here he stops with an abruptness very common, and proceeds to particulars.

II.ii.194 (140,5) [Something too liberal] Liberal I have already shewn to be mean, gross, coarse, licentious.

II.ii.205 (141,9) [sad ostent] Grave appearance; shew of staid and serious behaviour.

II.vi.5 (146,1) [O, ten times faster Venus' pigeons fly] [W: widgeons] I believe the poet wrote as the editors have printed. How it is so very _high humour_ to call lovers _widgeons_ rather than pigeons. I cannot find. Lovers have in poetry been alway called _Turtles_, or _Doves_, which in lower language may be pigeons.

II.vi.51 (148,3) [a Gentile, and no Jew] A jest rising from the ambiguity of _Gentile_, which signifies both a _Heathen_, and _one well born._

II.vii.8 (149,4) [This third, dull lead, with warning all as blunt] That is, as gross as the dull metal.

II.vii.69 (151,5) [_Gilded tombs do worms infold_] In all the old editions this line is written thus:

_Gilded timber do worms infold._

From which Mr. Rowe and all the following editors have made

_Gilded wood may worms infold._

A line not bad in itself, but not so applicable to the occasion as that which, I believe, Shakespeare wrote,

_Gilded_ tombs _do worms infold_.

A tomb is the proper repository of a _death's-head_.

II.vii.72 (151,6) [Your answer had not been inscrol'd] Since there is an answer inscrol'd or written in every casket, I believe for _your_ we should read _this_. When the words were written y'r and y's, the mistake was easy.

II.vii.79 (151,7) [chuse ce so] The old quarto edition of 1600 has no distribution of acts, but proceeds from the beginning to the end in an unbroken tenour. This play therefore having been probably divided without authority by the publishers of the first folio, lies open to a new regulation, if any more commodious division can be proposed. The story is itself so wildly incredible, and the changes of the scene so frequent and capricious, that the probability of action does not deserve much care; yet it may be proper to observe, that, by concluding the second act here, time is given for Bassanio's passage to Belmont.

II.viii.42 (153,8) [_Let it not enter in your mind of love_] So all the copies, but I suspect some corruption.

II.viii.52 (153,9) [embraced heaviness] [W: enraced] Of Dr. Warburton's correction it is only necessary to observe, that it has produced a new word, which cannot be received without necessity.

When I thought the passage corrupted, it seemed to me not improbable that Shakespeare had written _entranced heaviness_, musing, abstracted, moping melancholy. But I know not why any great efforts should be made to change a word which has no uncommodious or unusual sense. We say of a man now, _that he_ hugs _his sorrows_, and why might not Anthonio _embrace heaviness_.

II.ix.46 (155,2) [How much low peasantry would then be gleaned From the true seed of honour?] The meaning is, _How much meanness would be found among the great, and how much greatness among the mean_. But since men are always said to _glean_ corn though they may _pick_ chaff, the sentence had been more agreeable to the common manner of speech if it had been written thus,

_How much low peasantry would then be pick'd From the true seed of_honour? how much honour Glean'd from the chaff?_

II.ix.70 (157,4) [_Take what wife you will to-bed_] Perhaps the poet had forgotten that he who missed Portia was never to marry any woman.

III.i.47 (160,7) [a bankrupt, a prodigal] There is no need of alteration. There could be, in Shylock's opinion, no prodigality more culpable than such liberality as that by which a man exposes himself to ruin for his friend.

III.ii.21 (163,9) [And so though yours, not yours.--Prove it so] It may be more grammatically read,

_And so though yours_ I'm _not yours._

III.ii.54 (165,2) [With no less presence] With the same _dignity of mien_.

III.ii.73 (166,5) [So may the outward shows] He begins abruptly, the first part of the argument has passed in his mind.

III.ii.76 (166,6) [gracious voice] Pleasing; winning favour.

III.ii.112 (167,9) [In measure rain thy joy] The first quarto edition reads,

_In measure_ range _thy joy_.

The folio and one of the quartos,

_In measure_ raine _thy joy_.

I once believ'd Shakespeare meant,

_In measure_ rein _thy joy_.

The words _rain_ and _rein_ were not in these times distinguished by regular orthography. There is no difficulty in the present reading, only where the copies vary some suspicion of error is always raised, (see 1765, I,437,1)

III.ii.125 (168,1) [Methinks, it should have power to steal both his, And leave itself unfurnish'd] I know not how _unfinish'd_ has intruded without notice into the later editions, as the quartos and folio have _unfurnished_, which Sir Tho. Banner has received. Perhaps it

might be

_And leave_ himself _unfurnish'd_.

III.ii.191 (170,4) [you can wish none from me] That is, none _away from_ me; none that I shall lose, if you gain it.

III.v.70 (182,5) [how his words are suited!] I believe the meaning is: What a _series_ or _suite_ of _words_ he has independent of meaning; how one word draws on another without relation to the matter.

IV,i.21 (184,6) [apparent] That is, _seeming_; not real.

IV.i.22 (184,7) [_where_] for _whereas_.

IV.i.29 (184,8) [Enough to press a royal merchant down] This epithet was in our poet's time more striking and better understood, because Gresham was then commonly dignified with the title of the _royal merchant_.

IV.i.42 (185,1) [I'll not answer that; But, say, it is my humour] [Cf: By saying] Dr. Warburton has mistaken the sense. The Jew being asked a question which the law does not require him to answer, stands upon his right, and refuses; but afterwards gratifies his own malignity by such answers as he knows will aggravate the pain of the enquirer. I will not answer, says he, as to a legal or serious question, but since you want an answer, will this serve you?

IV.i.56 (187,4) [For affection, Masters of passion, sway it to the mood Of what it likes, or loaths]

As for _affection_, those that know how to operate upon the passions of men, rule it by making it operate in obedience to the notes which please or disgust it. (1773)