Chapter 11

[Woollen bag pipe] As all the editors agree with complete uniformity in this reading, I can hardly forbear to imagine that they understood it. But I never saw a _woollen bag-pipe_, nor can well conceive it. I suppose the authour wrote _wooden_ bag-pipe, meaning that the bag was of leather, and the pipe of _wood_.

IV.i.90 (189,5) [many a purchas'd slave] This argument considered as used to the particular persons, seems conclusive. I see not how Venetians or Englishmen, while they practise the purchase and sale of slaves, can much enforce or demand the law of _doing to others as we would that they should do to us_.

IV.i.105 (189,6) [Bellario, a learned doctor, Whom I have sent for] The doctor and the court are here somewhat unskilfully brought together. That the duke would, on such an occasion, consult a doctor of great reputation, is not unlikely, but how should this be forknown by Portia?

IV.i.214 (193,8) [malice bears down truth] Malice oppresses honesty, a _true man_ in old language is an _honest man_. We now call the

jury _good men and true._

IV.i.382 (198,8) [I am content] The terms proposed have been misunderstood. Antonio declares, that as the duke quits one half of the forfeiture, he is likewise content to abate his claim, and desires not the property but the _use_ or produce only of the half, and that only for the Jew's life, unless we read, as perhaps is right, _upon_ my _death._

V.i.63 (204,3) [Such harmony is in immortal souls] [W: sounds] This passage is obscure. _Immortal sounds_ is a harsh combination of words, yet Milton uses a parallel expression:

_Spiritus & rapidos qui circinat igneus orbes, Nunc quoque sidereis intercinit ipse choreia_ Immortale melos, _& inenarrabile curmen._

It is proper to exhibit the lines as they stand in the copies of the first, second, third, and fourth editions, without any variation, for a change has been silently made, by Rowe, and adopted by all the succeeding editors.

_Such harmony is in immortal souls, But while this muddy vesture of decay Doth grosly close_ in it, _we cannot hear it._

That the third is corrupt must be allowed, but it gives reason to suspect that the original was,

_Doth grosly close_ it in.

Yet I know not whether from this any thing better can be produced than the received reading. Perhaps _harmony_ is _the power of perceiving harmony_, as afterwards, _Musick in the soul_ is the quality of being _moved with concord of sweet sounds_. This will somewhat explain the old copies, but the sentence is still imperfect; which might be completed by reading,

_Such harmony is in_ th' _immortal_ soul, _But while this muddy vesture of decay Doth grosly close_ it in, _we cannot hear it._ (1773)

V.i.66 (205,4) [wake Diana with a hymn] Diana is the moon, who is in the next scene represented as sleeping.

V.i.99 (207,6) [Nothing is good, I see, without respect] Not absolutely good, but relatively, good as it is modified by circumstances.

V.i.129 (208,7) [Let me give light] There is scarcely any word with which Shakespeare delights to trifle as with _light_, in its various significations.

V.i.203 (210,2)

[What man is there so much unreasonable, If you had pleas'd to have defended it With any terms of zeal, wanted the modesty To urge the thing held as a ceremony?]

This is a very licentious expression. The sense is, _What man could have so little modesty_ or _wanted modesty so much_, as to urge the demand of a thing kept on an account in some sort religious. (see 1785, 1,476,7)

V.i.249 (212,4) [I once did lend my body for his wealth] For his advantage; to obtain his happiness. _Wealth_ was, at that time, the term opposite to _adversity_, or _calamity_.

V.i.294 (213,5) [_Lor_. Fair ladies, you drop manna in the way Of starved people] [Shakespeare is not more exact in any thing, than in adapting his images with propriety to his speakers; of which he has here given an instance in making the young Jewess call good fortune, _manna_. Warburton.] The commentator should have remarked, that this speech is not, even in his own edition, the speech of the Jewess.

V.i.307 (214,6) [_Exeunt omnes_] It has been lately discovered, that this fable is taken from a story in the Pecorope of Ser Giovauni Fiorentino, a novellist, who wrote in 1378. The story has been published in English, and I have epitomised the translation. The translator is of opinion, that the choice of the caskets is borrowed from a tale of Boccace, which I have likewise abridged, though I believe that Shakespeare must have had some other novel in view.

(223) General Observation. Of The MERCHANT of VENICE the stile is even and easy, with few peculiarities of diction, or anomalies of construction. The comick part raises laughter, and the serious fixes expectation. The probability of either one or the other story cannot be maintained. The union of two actions in one event is in this drama eminently happy. Dryden was much pleased with his own address in connecting the two plots of his Spanish Friar, which yet, I believe, the critick will find excelled by this play.

AS YOU LIKE IT

I.i.3 (229,2) [As I remember, Adam, it was upon this fashion bequeathed me. By will, but a poor thousand crowns] There is, in my opinion, nothing but a point misplaced, and an omission of a word which every hearer can supply, and which therefore an abrupt and eager dialogue naturally excludes.

I read thus: _As I remember, Adam, it was on this fashion bequeathed me. By will but a poor thousand crowns; and, as thou sayest, charged my brother on his blessing to breed me well._ What is there in this difficult or obscure? The nominative _my father_ is certainly left out, but so left out that the auditor inserts it, in spite of himself.

I.i.9 (230,3) [stays me here at home, unkept] [W: Stys] _Sties_ is better than _stays_, and more likely to be Shakespeare's.

I.i.19 (230,4) [his countenance seems to take from me] [W: discountenance] There is no need of change, a countenance is either good or bad.

I.i.33 (231,5) [be better employ'd, and be nought a while] Warburton explained ["be nought a while" as "a mischief on you"] If _be nought a while_ has the signification here given it, the reading may certainly stand; but till I learned its meaning from this note, I read,

_Be better employed, and be_ naught a while.

In the same sense as we say, _it is better to do mischief, than to do nothing_.

I.i.59 (233,7) [I am no villain] The word _villain_ is used by the elder brother, in its present meaning, for a _worthless, wicked_, or _bloody man_; by Orlando in its original signification, for a _fellow of base extraction_.

I.ii.34 (237,9) [mock the good housewife Fortune from her wheel] The wheel of Fortune is not the _wheel_ of a _housewife_. Shakespeare has confounded Fortune, whose wheel only figures uncertainty and vicissitude, with the Destiny that spins the thread of life, though indeed not with a wheel.

I.ii.87 (239,1)

[_Clo_. One, that old Frederick your father loves. _Cel_. My father's love is enough to honour him]

[T. invoking the Dramatis Personae: Celia] Mr. Theobald seems not to know that the Dramatis Personae were first enumerated by Rowe.

I.ii.95 (239,2) [since the little wit that fools have, was silenc'd] Shakespeare probably alludes to the use of _fools_ or _jesters_, who for some ages had been allowed in all courts an unbridled liberty of censure and mockery, and about this time began to be less tolerated.

I.ii.112 (240,3) [laid on with a trowel] I suppose the meaning is, that there is too heavy a mass of big words laid upon a slight subject.

I.ii.115 (240,4) [You amaze me, ladies] To _amaze_, here, is not to astonish or strike with wonder, but to perplex; to confuse; as, to put out of the intended narrative.

I.ii.131 (241,5) [With bills on their necks: _Be it known unto all men by these presents_] This conjecture is ingenious. Where meaning is so very thin, as in this vein of jocularity, it is hard to catch, and therefore I know not well what to determine; but I cannot see why Rosalind should suppose, that the competitors in a wrestling match carried _bills_ on their shoulders, and I believe the whole conceit is in the poor resemblance of _presence_ and _presents_.

I.ii.149 (241,6) [is there any else longs to see this broken musick in his sides?] [W: set] If any change were necessary, I should write, _feel this broken musick_, for _see_. But _see_ is the colloquial term for perception or experiment. So we say every day, _see_ if the water be hot; I will _see_ which is the best time; she has tried, and _sees_ that she cannot lift it. In this sense _see_ may be here used. The sufferer can, with no propriety, be said to _set_ the musick; neither is the allusion to the act of tuning an instrument, or pricking a tune, one of which must be meant by _setting_ musick. Rosalind hints at a whimsical similitude between the series of ribs gradually shortening, and some musical instruments, and therefore calls _broken ribs, broken musick_.

I.ii.185 (243,8) [If you saw yourself with your eyes, or knew yourself with your judgment] [W: our eyes, and our judgment] I cannot find the absurdity of the present reading. _If you were not blinded and intoxicated_, says the princess, _with the spirit of enterprise, if you could use_ your own eyes to _see_, or your own judgment to know _yourself, the fear of your adventure would counsel you_.

I.ii.195 (243,9) [I beseech you, punish me not with your hard thoughts, wherein I confess me much guilty] I should wish to read, _I beseech you, punish me not with your hard thoughts_. Therein _I confess myself much guilty to deny so fair and excellent ladies any thing._

I.ii.257 (246,1) [one out of suits with Fortune] This seems an allusion to cards, where he that has no more cards to play of any particular sort is _out of suit_.

I.ii.275 (247,3) [the Duke's condition] The word _condition_ means character, temper, disposition. So Anthonio the merchant of Venice, is called by his friend the _best conditioned man_.

I.iii.33 (249,5) [you should love his son dearly? By this kind of chase, I should hate him, for my father hated his father dearly] That is, by this way of _following_ the argument. _Dear_ is used by Shakespeare in a double sense, for _beloved_, and for _hurtful_, _hated_, _baleful_. Both senses are authorised, and both drawn from etymology, but properly _beloved_ is _dear_, and _hateful_ is _dere._ Rosalind uses _dearly_ in the good, and Celia in the bad sense.

I.iii.83 (251,6) [And thou wilt show more bright, and seem more virtuous] [W: shine] The plain meaning of the old and true reading is, that when she was seen alone, she would be more noted.

I.iii.98 (251,7) [Rosalind lacks then the love Which teacheth thee that thou and I am one][W: which teacheth me] Either reading may stand. The sense of the established text is not remote or obscure. Where would be the absurdity of saying, _You know not the law which teaches you to do right_.

I.iii.119 (252,9) [curtle-ax]--_curtle-axe_. or _cutlace_. a broad sword.

II.i.13 (254,3)

[Which, like the toad, ugly and venomous Wears yet a precious jewel in his head]

It was the current opinion in Shakespeare's time, that in the head of an old toad was to be found a stone, or pearl, to which great virtues were ascribed. This stone has been often sought, but nothing has been found more than accidental or perhaps morbid indurations of the skull.

II.i.18 (254,4) [I would not change it] Mr. Upton, not without probability, gives these words to the Duke, and makes Amiens begin, _Happy is your grace_.

II.i.67 (256,6) [to cope him] To encounter him; to engage with him.

II.iii.8 (257,8) [The bony priser] So Milton, _Giants of mighty_ bone.

II.iii.37 (258,9) [diverted blood] Blood turned out of the course of nature.

II.iii.60 (259,1)

[promotion; And, having that, do choak their service up Even with the having]

Even with the _promotion_ gained by service is service extinguished.

II.iv.33 (261,4) [If thou remember'st not the slightest folly] I am inclined to believe that from this passage Suckling took the hint of his song.

_Honest lover, whosoever, If in all thy love there ever Were one wav'ring thought, thy flame Were not even, still the same. Know this Thou lov'st amiss, And to love true Thou must begin again and love anew_, &c. (rev. 1778, III,297,4)

II.iv.48 (262,5) [batlet] The instrument with which washers beat their coarse cloaths.

II.iv.51 (262,6) [two cods] For _cods_ it would be more like sense to read _peas_, which having the shape of pearls, resembled the common presents of lovers.

II.iv.55 (262,7) [so is all nature in love, mortal in folly] This expression I do not well understand. In the middle counties, _mortal_, from _mort_, a great quantity, is used as a particle of amplification; as _mortal tall, mortal little_. Of this sense I believe Shakespeare takes advantage to produce one of his darling equivocations. Thus the meaning will be, _so is all nature in love_ abounding _in folly_.

II.iv.87 (263,8) [And in my voice most welcome shall ye be] _In my voice_, as far as I have a voice or vote, as far as I have power to bid you welcome.

II.v.56 (265,2) [Duc ad me] For _ducdame_ sir T. Hammer, very acutely and judiciously, reads _duc ad me_. That is, _bring him to me_.

II.v.63 (266,3) [the first-born of Egypt] A proverbial expression for high-born persons. (1773)

II.vii.13 (267,4) [A motley fool!--a miserable world.'] [W: miserable varlet] I see no need of changing _fool_ to _varlet_, nor, if a change were necessary, can I guess how it should certainly be known that _varlet_ is the true word. _A miserable world_ is a parenthetical exclamation, frequent among melancholy men, and natural to Jaques at the sight of a fool, or at the hearing of reflections on the fragility of life.

II.vii.44 (268,5) [only suit] _Suit_ means _petition_. I believe, not _dress_.

II.vii.55 (269,7)

[If not, The wise man's folly is anatomiz'd Even by the squandring glances of the fool]

Unless men have the prudence not to appear touched with the sarcasm of a jester, they subject themselves to his power, and the wise man will have his folly _anatomised_, that is _dissected_ and _laid open_ by the _squandring glances_ or _random shots_ of a fool.

II.vii.66 (269,8) [As sensual as the brutish sting] Though the _brutish sting_ is capable of a sense not inconvenient in this passage, yet as it is a harsh and unusual mode of speech, I should read the _brutish sty_.

II.vii.04 (270,9)

[The thorny point Of bare distress hath ta'en from me the shew Of smooth civility]

We might read _torn_ with more elegance, but elegance alone will not justify alteration.

II.vii.125 (271,1) [And take upon command what help we have] It seems necessary to read, _then take upon_ demand _what help_, &c. that is, _ask_ for what we can supply, and have it.

II.vii.156 (272,3) [Full of wise saws and modern instances] I am in doubt whether _modern_ is in this place used for absurd; the meaning seems to be, that the justice is full of _old_ sayings and _late_ examples.

II.vii.167 (273,5) [Set down your venerable burden] Is it not likely that Shakespeare had in his mind this line of the Metamorphoses?

--_Patremque Fert humeris_, venerabile onus _Cythereius heros_.

II.vii.177 (274,5)

[Thy tooth is not so keen, Because thou art not seen]

[W: art not sheen] I am afraid that no reader is satisfied with Dr. Warburton's emendation, however vigorously enforced; and it is indeed enforced with more art than truth. _Sheen_, i.e. _smiling, shining_. That _sheen_ signifies _shining_, is easily proved, but when or where did it signify _smiling_? yet _smiling_ gives the sense necessary in this place. Sir T. Banner's change is less uncouth, but too remote from the present text. For my part, I question whether the original line is not lost, and this substituted merely to fill up the measures and the rhyme. Yet even out of this line, by strong agitation may sense be elicited, and sense not unsuitable to the occasion. _Thou winter wind_, says the Duke, _thy rudeness gives the less pain_, as thou art not seen, _as thou art an enemy that dost not brave us with thy presence, and whose unkindness is therefore not aggravated by insult_.

II.vii.187 (275,6) [Tho' thou the waters warp] To _warp_ was probably, in Shakespeare's time, a colloquial word, which conveyed no distant allusion to any thing else, physical or medicinal. To warp is to _turn_, and to _turn_ is to _change_; when milk is _changed_ by curdling, we now say, it is _turned_; when water is _changed_ or _turned_ by frost, Shakespeare says, it is _curdled_. To be _warp'd_ is only to be changed from its natural state. (1773)

III.i.3 (276,7) [an absent argument] An _argument_ is used for the _contents_ of a book, thence Shakespeare considered it as meaning the _subject_, and then used it for _subject_ in yet another sense.

III.i.18 (277,8) [Do this expediently] That is, _expeditiously_.

III.ii.2 (277,9) [thrice-crowned queen of night] Alluding to the triple character of Proserpine, Cynthia, and Diana, given by some mythologists to the same Goddess, and comprised in these memorial lines:

_Terret, lustrat, agit, Proserpina, Luna, Diana, Ima, superna, feras, sceptro, fuljore, sagittis._

III.ii.10 (277,1) [unexpressive] for _inexpressible_.

III.ii.31 (278,2) [complain of good breeding] I am in doubt whether the custom of the language in Shakespeare's time did not authorise this mode of speech, and make _complain of good breeding_ the same with _complain_ of the want of _good_ breeding. In the last line of the Merchant of Venice we find that to _fear the keeping_ is to _fear the_ not _keeping_.

III.ii.39 (279,5) [Truly, then art damn'd, like an ill-roasted egg, all on one side] Of this jest I do not fully comprehend the meaning.

III.ii.85 (281,1) [bawd to a bell-wether] _Wether_ and _ram_ had anciently the same meaning.

III.ii.135 (282,1)

[Tongues I'll hang on every tree, That shall civil sayings show]

_Civil_ is here used in the same sense as when we say _civil_ wisdom or _civil life_, in opposition to a solitary state, or to the state of nature. This desert shall not appear _unpeopled_, for every tree shall teach the maxims or incidents of social life.

III.ii.149 (283,2) [Therefore heaven nature charg'd] From the picture of Apelles, or the accomplishments of Pandora.

[Greek: Aeanertu, oti pautei dlumpia Dorou xdorau.-----------]

So before, -------------------_But thou So perfect, and no peerless art created Of ev'ry creature's beat._ Tempest.

Perhaps from this passage Swift had his hint of Biddy Floyd.

III.ii.155 (283,3) [Atalanta's better part] I know not well what could be the better part of Atalanta here ascribed to Rosalind. Of the Atalanta most celebrated, and who therefore must be intended here where she has no epithet of discrimination, the better part seems to have been her heels, and the worse part was so bad that Rosalind would not thank her lover for the comparison. There is a more obscure Atalanta, a huntress and a heroine, but of her nothing bad is recorded, and therefore I know not which was the better part. Shakespeare was no despicable mythologist, yet he seems here to have mistaken some other character for that of Atalanta.

III.ii.156 (283,4) [Sad] is _grave, sober_, not _light_.

III.ii.160 (284,5) [the touches] The features; _les traits._

III.ii.186 (284,6) [I was never so be-rhimed since Pythagoras's time, that I was an Irish rat] Rosalind is a very learned lady. She alludes to the Pythagorean doctrine, which teaches that souls transmigrate from one animal to another, and relates that in his time she was an Irish _rat_, and by some metrical charm was rhymed to death. The power of killing rats with rhymes Donne mentions in his Satires, and Temple in his Treatises. Dr. Gray has produced a similar passage from Randolph.

--_My poets Shall with a saytire steeped in vinegar Rhyme then to death as they do rats in Ireland._

III.ii.206 (285,8) [One inch of delay more is a South-sea of discovery] This sentence is rightly noted by the commentator [W] as nonsense, but not so happily restored to sense. I read thus:

_One inch of delay more is a South-sea_. Discover, _I pr'ythee; tell me who is it quickly;_--When the transcriber had once made _discovery_ from _discover, I_, he easily put an article after South-sea.

But it may be read with still less change, and with equal probability. _Every inch of delay more is a_ South-sea discovery: _Every delay_, however short, is to me tedious and irksome as the longest voyage, as a voyage of _discovery_ on the _South-sea_. How such voyages to the South-sea, on which the English had then first ventured, engaged the conversation of that time, may be easily imagined.

III.ii.238 (287,9) [Garagantna's mouth] Rosalind requires nine questions to be answered in _one word_. Celia tells her that a word of such magnitude is too big for any mouth but that of Garagantua the giant of Rabelais.

III.ii.290 (288,2) [but I answer you right painted cloth] Sir T. Hammer reads, _I answer you right_, in the stile of the _painted cloth. Something seems wanting, and I know not what can be proposed better. _I answer you right painted cloth_, may mean, I give you a true painted cloth answer; as we say, she talks _right Billingsgate_; that is, exactly such language as is used at Billingsgate. (1773)

III.ii.363 (291,3) [in-land man] Is used in this play for one _civilised_, in opposition to the _rustick_ of the priest. So Orlando before--_Yet am I_ in-land _bred_, _and know some nurture._

III.ii.393 (291,4) [an unquestionable spirit] That is, a spirit not _inquisitive_, a mind indifferent to common objects, and negligent of common occurrences. Here Shakespeare has used a passive for an active mode of speech; so in a former scene, _The Duke is too_ disputable _for me_, that is, too _disputatious_.

III.ii.439 (293,5) [to a living humour of madness] If this be the true reading we must by _living_ understand _lasting_, or _permanent_, but I cannot forbear to think that some antithesis was intended which is now lost; perhaps the passage stood thus, _I drove my suitor from a_ dying _humour of love to a living humour of madness_. Or rather thus, _from a mad humour of love to a_ loving _humour of madness_, that is, from a _madness_ that was _love_, to a _love_ that was _madness_. This seems somewhat harsh and strained, but such modes of speech are not unusual in our poet; and this harshness was probably the cause of the corruption.

III.iii.21 (294,7) [and what they swear in poetry, may be said, as lovers, they do feign] This sentence seems perplexed and inconsequent, perhaps it were better read thus, _What they swear as lovers they may be said to feign as poets_.

III.iii.32 (295,8) [A material fool!] A fool with _matter_ in bin; a fool stocked with notions.

III.iii.51 (295,1) [what tho?] What then.

III.iii.65 (296,2) [Sir Oliver] He that has taken his first degree at the university, is in the academical style called _Dominus_, and in common language was heretofore termed _Sir_. This was not always a word of contempt; the graduates assumed it in their own writings; so Trevisa the historian writes himself _Syr_ John de Trevisa.

III.iii.101 (297,4) [Not, O sweet Oliver] Of this speech, as it now appears, I can make nothing, and think nothing can be made. In the same breath he calls his mistress to be married, and sends away the man that should marry them. Dr. Warburton has very happily observed, that _O sweet Oliver_ is a quotation from an old song; I believe there are two quotations put in opposition to each other. For _wind_ I read _wend,_ the old word for _go._ Perhaps the whole passage may be regulated thus,