Chapter 12

Clo. _I am not in the mind. but it were better for me to be married of him than of another, for he is not like to marry me well, and not being well married, it will be a good excuse for me hereafter to leave my wife--Come, sweet Audrey, we must be married, or we must live in bawdry._

Jaq. _Go then with me, and let me counsel thee._ [they whisper.]

Clo. _Farewel, good sir Oliver, not _O sweet Oliver, O brave Oliver, leave Be not behind thee,--_but_

_Wend away Begone, I say, I will not to wedding with thee to-day._

Of this conjecture the reader may take as much as shall appear necessary to the sense, or conducive to the humour. I have received all but the additional words. The song seems to be complete without them. (1773)

III.iv.11 (298, 5) [I' faith, his hair is of a good colour] There is much of nature in this petty perverseness of Rosalind; she finds faults in her lover, in hope to be contradicted, and when Celia in sportive malice too readily seconds her accusations, she contradicts herself rather than suffer her favourite to want a vindication.

III.v.5 (301, 1) [Will you sterner be Than he that dies and lives by bloody drops?] [W: deals and lives] [Hammer: lives and thrives] Either Dr. Warburton's emendation, except that the word _deals,_ wants its proper construction, or that of sir T. Hammer may serve the purpose; but I believe they have fixed corruption upon the wrong word, and should rather read,

_Than he that dies_ his lips by _bloody drops?_

Will you speak with more sternness than the executioner, whose _lips_ are used to be _sprinkled_ with blood? The mention of _drops_ implies some part that must be sprinkled rather than dipped.

III. v. 23 (303, 2) [The cicatrice and capable impressure] Cicatrice is here not very properly used; it is the scar of a wound. _Capable impressure arrows mark._

III. v. 29 (303, 3) [power of fancy] _Fancy_ is here used for _love,_ as before in Midsummer Night's Dream.

III. v. 35 (304, 4) [Who might be your mother] It is common for the poets to express cruelty by saying, of those who commit it, that they were born of rocks, or suckled by tigresses.

III. v. 48 (305, 8) [That can entame ay spirits to your worship] [W: entraine] The common reading seems unexceptionable.

III. v. 62 (305, 9) [Foal is most foul, being foul to be a scoffer] [W: being found] The sense of the received reading is not fairly represented; it is, _The ugly seem most ugly, when,_ though _ugly, they are scoffers._

III.v.78 (306,2) [Though all the world could see, None could be so abus'd in sight, as he] Though all mankind could look on you, none could be so _deceived_ as to think you beautiful but he.

IV.i.37 (309,3) [swam in a gondola] That is, _been at_ Venice, the sweat at that tine of all licentiousness, where the young English gentlemen waited their fortunes, debased their morals, and sometimes lost their religion.

The fashion of travelling, which prevailed very much in our author's time, was considered by the wiser men as one of the principal causes of corrupt manners. It was therefore gravely censored by Aschaa in his Schoolmaster, and by bishop Hall in his Quo Vadis; and is here, and in other passages, ridiculed by Shakespeare.

IV.i.157 (312,6) [and that when you are inclin'd to sleep] [W: to weep] I know not why we should read _to weep_. I believe most men would be more angry to have their _sleep_ hindered than their _grief_ interrupted.

IV.i.168 (313,8) [_Wit, whither wilt_?] This must be some allusion to a story well known at that time, though not perhaps irretrievable.

IV.i.177 (313,9) [make her fault her husband's occasion] That is, represent her fault as occasioned by her husband. Sir T. Banner reads, _her husband's_ accusation.

IV.i.195 (314,1) [I will think you the most pathetical break-promise] [W: atheistical] I do not see but that _pathetical_ may stand, which seems to afford as much sense and as much humour as _atheistical_.

IV.ii.14 (315,2) [_Take thou no scorn_] [T: In former editions: _Then sing him home, the rest shall bear his burden_. This is an admirable instance of the sagacity of our preceding editors, to say nothing worse. One should expect, when they were _poets_, they would at least have taken care of the _rhimes_, and not foisted in what has nothing to answer it. Now, where is the rhime to, _the rest shall bear this burden_? Or, to ask another question, where is the sense of it? Does the poet mean, that He, that kill'd the deer, shall be sung home, and the rest shall bear the deer on their backs? This is laying a burden on the poet, that we mist help him to throw off. In short, the mystery of the whole is, that a marginal note is wisely thrust into the text: the song being design'd to be sung by a single voice, and the stanzas to close with a burden to be sung by the whole company.] This note I have given as a specimen of Mr. Theobald's jocularity, and the eloquence with which he recommends his emendations.

IV.iii (316,4) [_Enter Rosalind and Celia_] The foregoing noisy scene was introduced only to fill up an interval, which is to represent two hours. This contraction of the time we might impute to poor Rosalind's impatience, but that a few minutes after we find Orlando sending his excuse. I do not see that by any probable division of the acts this absurdity can be obviated.

IV.iii.48 (318,3) [_That could do no vengeance to me] Vengeance_ is used for _mischief_.

IV.iii.59 (318,4) [youth and kind] _Kind_ is the old word for _nature_.

IV.iii.101 (319,5) [Within an hour] We must read, _within two hours_.

IV.iii.160 (321,6) [cousin--Ganymed!] Celia in her first fright forgets Rosalind's character and disguise, and calls out _cousin_, then recollects herself, and says Ganymed.

V.ii.21 (325,9) [And you, fair sister] I know not why Oliver should call Rosalind sister. He takes her yet to be a man. I suppose we should read, _and you_, and your _fair sister_.

V.ii.45 (326,1) [Clubs cannot part them] Alluding to the way of parting dogs in wrath.

V.ii.74 (327,2) [human as she is] That is, not a phantom, but the real Rosalind, without any of the danger generally conceived to attend the rites of incantation.

V.iii.17 (329,3) [_It was a lover and his lass_] The stanzas of this song are in all the editions evidently transposed: as I have regulated them, that which in the former copies was the second stanza is now the last.

The same transposition of these stanzas is made by Dr. Thirlby, in a copy containing some notes on the margin, which I have perused by the favour of Sir Edward Walpole. (see 1765, II,97,3)

V.iii.36 (330,4) [the note was very untuneable] [T: untimeable] This emendation is received. I think very undeservedly, by Dr. Warburton.

V.iv.4 (331,5) [As those that fear, they hope, and know they fear] [W: their hap, and know their] The deprivation 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_.

V.iv.36 (332,6) [Here comes a pair of very strange beasts] [W: unclean beasts] _Strange beasts_ are only what we call _odd_ animals. There is no need of any alteration.

V.iv.51 (333,7) [found the quarrel was upon the seventh cause] So all the copies; but it is apparent from the sequel that we must read, _the quarrel was_ not _upon the seventh cause_.

V.iv.56 (333,8) [I desire you of the like] [W: of you] I have not admitted the alteration, because there are other examples of this mode of expression. (1773)

V.iv.59 (333,9) [according as marraige binds, and blood breaks] I cannot discover what has here puzzled the commentator [W]: _to swear according as marriage binds_, ii to take the oath enjoin'd in the ceremonial of marriage.

V.iv.68 (334,1) [dulcet diseases] This I do not understand. For _diseases_ it is easy to read _discourses_: but, perhaps the fault may lie deeper.

V.iv.114 (336,4) [_Enter Hymen_] Rosalind is imagined by the rest of the company to be brought by enchantment, and is therefore introduced by a supposed aerial being in the character of Hymen.

V.iv.125 (336,5) [If there be truth in sight] The answer of Phebe makes it probable that Orlando says, _if there be truth in_ shape: that is, _if a form may be trusted_; if one cannot usurp the form of another.

V.iv.136 (337,6) [If truth holds true contents] That is, if there be _truth in truth_, unless truth fails of veracity.

V.iv.147 (337,7) [_Wedding is great Juno's crown_] Catullus, addressing himself to Hymen, has this stanza:

Quae tuis careat sacris, Non queat dare praesides Terra finibus: at queat Te volente. Quis huic deo Compararier ausit? (1773)

Epilogue.7 (340,5) [What a case am I in then] Here seems to be a chasm, or some other depravation, which destroys the sentiment here intended. The reasoning probably stood thus, _Good wine needs no bush, good plays need no epilogue_, but bad wine requires a good bush, and a bad play a good epilogue. _What case am I in then_? To restore the words is impossible; all that can be done without copies is, to note the fault.

Epilogue.10 (340,1) [furnish'd like a beggar] That is dressed: so before, he was _furnished_ like a huntsman.

Epilogue.13 (340,2) [I charge you, O women, for the love you bear to men, to like as much of this Play as pleases them: and I charge you, O men, for the love you bear to women----that between you and the women] [W: pleases them...pleases them] The words _you_ and _of_ written as was the custom in that time, were in manuscript scarcely distinguishable. The emendation is very judicious and probable.

(341,4) General Observation. Of this play the fable is wild and pleasing. I know not how the ladies will approve the facility with which both Rosalind and Celia give away their hearts. To Celia much may be forgiven for the heroism of her friendship. The character of Jaqaes is natural and well preferred. The comick dialogue is very sprightly, with less mixture of low buffoonery than in some other plays; and the graver part is elegant and harmonious. By hastening to the end of his work, Shakespeare suppressed the dialogue between the usurper and the hermit, and lost an opportunity of exhibiting a moral lesson in which he might have found matter worthy of his highest powers.

THE TAMING OF THE SHREW

Induction.i.l (346,1) [I'll pheeze you] To _pheeze_ or _fease_. is to separate a twist into single threads. In the figurative sense it may well enough be taken, like _teaze_ or _toze_, for to _harrass_. to _plague_. Perhaps _I'll pheeze you_, may be equivalent to _I'll comb your head_, a phrase vulgarly used by persons of Sly's character on like occasions. The following explanation of the word is given by Sir Tho. Sayth in his book de Sermone Anglico, printed by Robert Stephens, 4vo. To _feize_. means _in fila diducere_. (see 1765, III,[3],1)

Induction.i.3 (347,2) [no rogues] That is _vagrants_, no mean fellows, but gentlemen.

Induction.i.17 (348,7) [Brach Merriman, the poor cur is imboat] Sir T. Banner reads, Leech _Merriman_. that is, apply some remedies to Merriman, the poor cur has his _joints swelled_. Perhaps we might read, _bathe_ Merriman, which is I believe the common practice of huntsmen, but the present reading may stand:

--_tender well my hounds_: Brach--Merriman--_the poor cur is imboat._

Induction.i.64 (351,8) [And when he says he is,--say that he dreams] [steevens:he's poor,--say] If any thing should be inserted, it may be done thus,

"And when he says he's _Sly_, say that he dreams."

The likeness in writing of _Sly_ and _say_ produced the omission.(1773)

Induction.i.67 (352,9)

[It will be pastime excellent, If it be husbanded with modesty]

By _modesty_ is meant _moderation_, without suffering our merriment to break into an excess.

Induction.i.82 (352,1) [to accept our duty] It was in those times the custom of players to travel in companies, and offer their service at great houses.

Induction.i.101 (353,4) [property] in the language of a playhouse, is every implement necessary to the exhibition.

Induction.i.125 (355,7) [To rain a shower of commanded toars, An onion will do well for such a shift]

It is not unlikely that the _onion_ was an expedient used by the actors of interludes.

Induction.ii.89 (359,8) [Leet] As the _Court leet_. or courts of the manor.

I.i.9 (362,2) [ingenious studies] I rather think it was written ingenuous studies, but of this and a thousand such observations there is little certainty.

I.i.18 (363,4) [Virtue, and that part of philosophy Will I apply] Sir Thomas Hammer, and after him Dr. Warburton, read to virtues but formerly ply and apply were indifferently used, as to ply or apply his studies.

I.i.78 (365,7) [A pretty peat!] Peat or pet is a word of endearment from petit, little, as if it meant pretty little thing.

I.i.85 (365,8) [will you be so strange?] That is, so odd, so different from others in your conduct.

I.i.97 (366,9) [cunning men] Cunning had not yet lost its original signification of knowing, learned, as nay be observed in the translations of the Bible.

I.i.167 (368,2) [Redime te captum quasi queas minimi] Our author had this line from Lilly, which I mention, that it may not be brought as an argument of his learning.

I.i.208 (369,3) [port] Pert, is figure, show, appearance.

I.ii.52 (372,5) [Where small experience grows. But, in a few] Why this should seem nonsense, I cannot perceive. In few words it means the same as in short.

I.ii.68 (373,6) [As wealth is burthen of my wooing dance] The burthen of a dance is an expression which I have never heard; the burthen of his wooing song had been more proper.

I.ii.72 (373,8) [Affection's edge in me] Surely the sense of the present reading is too obvious to be missed or mistaken. Petruchio says, that, if a girl has money enough, no bad qualities of mind or body will remove affection's edge; i.e. hinder him from liking her.

I.ii.112 (375,1) [an' he begin once, he'll rail--In his rope-tricks] This is obscure. Sir Thomas Hammer reads, he'll rail in his rhetorick; I'll tell you, &c. Rhetorick agrees very well with figure in the succeeding part of the speech, yet I am inclined to believe that rope-tricks is the true word.

I.ii.115 (375,2) [that she shall have no more eyes to see withal than a cat] It may mean, that he shall swell up her eyes with blows, till she shall seem to peep with a contracted pupil like a cat in the light. (1773)

I.ii.276 (381,9) [Please ye, we may contrive this afternoon] The word is used in the same sense of spending or wearing out in the Palace of Pleasure.

II.1.17 (382,2) [You will have Gremio, to keep you fair] I wish to read, To keep you fine. But either word may serve.

II.i.26 (388,3) [hilding] The word hildlng or hinderling--a low wretch; it is applied to Catharine for the coarseness of her behaviour.

II.i.209 (389,7) [Ay, for a turtle; as he takes a buzzard] Perhaps we may read better, Ay, for a turtle, and he take a buzzard. That is, he may take me for a turtle, and he shall find me a hawk.

II.i.310 (393,9) [kill on kiss She vy's so fast] I know not that the word vie has any construction that will suit this place; we may easily read,

--kiss on kiss She ply'd so fast.

II.i.340 (394,1)

[Tra. Grey-beard! thy love doth freeze. Ore. But thine doth fry]

Old Gremio's notions are confirmed by Shadwell:

The fire of love in youthful blood. Like what is kindled in brush-wood. But for a moment burns-- But when crept into aged reins, It slowly burns, and long remains, It glows, and with a sullen heat. Like fire in logs, it burns, and warms us long; And though the flame be not so great, Yet is the heat as strong.

II.1.407 (397,4) [Yet have I fac'd it with a card of ten] [W. quoted Jonson for "a hart of ten"] If the word hart be right, I do not see any use of the latter quotation.

II.1.413 (398,5)[Here the former editors add, Sly. Sim, when will the fool come again? Steevens.] The character of the fool has not been introduced in this drama, therefore I believe that the word again should be omitted, and that Sly asks, When will the fool come? the fool being the favourite of the vulgar, or, as we now phrase it, of the upper gallery, was naturally expected in every interlude.

III.1.37 (400,6) [pantaloon] the old cully in Italian farces.

III.ii.10 (403,1) [full of spleen] That is, full of humour, caprice; and inconstancy.

III.ii.45 (404,3) [a pair of boots that have been candle--eases; one buckled, another lac'd; an old rusty sword ta'en out of the town armory, with a broken hilt, and chapeless, with two broken points] Bow a sword should have two broken points, I cannot tell. There is, I think, a transposition caused by the seeming relation of point to sword. I read, a pair of boots, one buckled, another

_laced_ with two broken points; _an old rusty sword_--_with a broken hilt, and chapeless_.

III.ii.109 (406,7) [to digress] to deviate from any promise.

IV.i.3 (412,9) [was ever man so ray'd?] That is, was ever man so mark'd with lashes.

IV.i.93 (416,7) [garters of an indifferent knit] What is the sense of this I know not, unless it means, that their _garters_ should be _fellows_; _indifferent_, or _not different_, one from the other.

IV.i.139 (417,8) [no link, to colour Peter's hat] _Link_, I believe, is the name with what we now call _lamp-black_.

IV.i.145 (418,9) [Soud, soud] That is, _sweet, sweet_. _Soot_, and sometimes _sooth_, is _sweet_. So in Milton, _to sing soothly_, is, to sing sweetly.

IV.i.196 (420,3) [to man my haggard] A _haggard_ is a _wild hawk_; to _man_ a hawk is to _tame_ her.

IV.iii.43 (428,8) [And all my pains is sorted to no proof] And all _my_ labour has ended in nothing, or _proved_ nothing. _We tried an experiment, but it_ sorted _not. Bacon_.

IV.iii.56 (428,9) [With silken coats, and caps, and golden rings, With ruffs, and cuffs, and fardingals, and things] Though _things_ is a poor word, yet I have no better, and perhaps the authour had not another that would rhyme. I once thought to transpose the words _rings_ and _things_, but it would make little improvement.

IV.iii.91 (430,2) [censer] in barber's shops, are now disused, but they may easily be imagined to have been vessels which, for the emission of the smoke, were cut with great number and varieties of interstices.

IV.iii.107 (430,3) [thou thimble] The taylor's trade having an appearance of effeminacy, has always been, among the rugged English, liable to sarcasms and contempt.

IV.iii.140 (431,3) [a small compass'd cape] A _compass'd cape_ is a round cape. To _compass_ is _to come round_. (1773)

IV.iv (434,5) I cannot but think that the direction about the Tinker, who is always introduced at the end of the acts, together with the change of the scone, and the proportion of each act to the rest, make it probable that the fifth act begins here.

IV.iv.48 (436,7) [Where then do you know best, Be we affied] This seems to be wrong. We may read more commodiously, ----_Where then_ you do _know best_ _Be we affied_;-----

Or thus, which I think is right, _Where then do you_ trow _best_, _We be affied_;------

V.i.70 (443,2) [a copatain hat!] is, I believe, a hat with a conical crown, such as was anciently worn by well-dressed men.

V.ii.54 (448,5) [A good swift simile] besides the original sense of _speedy in motion_, signified _witty, quick-witted_. So in As You Like It, the Duke says of the Clown, _He is very_ swift _and sententious. Quick_ is now used in almost the same sense as _nimble_ was in the age after that of our author. Heylin says of Hales, that _he had known Laud for a_ nimble, _disputant_.

V.ii.186 (453,7) [tho' you hit the white] To hit the _white_ is a phrase borrowed from archery: the mark was commonly white. Here it alludes to the name _Bianca_, or _white_.

(454) General Observation. From this play the Tatler formed a story, [Johnson here copies out the _Tatler_ story.] It cannot but seen strange that Shakespeare should be so little known to the author of the Tatler, that he should suffer this story to be obtruded upon him; or so little known to the publick, that he could hope to make it pass upon his readers as a real narrative of a transaction in Lincolnshire; yet it is apparent, that he was deceived, or intended to deceive, that he knew not himself whence the story was taken, or hoped that he might rob so obscure a writer without detection.

Of this play the two plots are so well united, that they can hardly be called two without injury to the art with which they are interwoven. The attention is entertained with all the variety of a double plot, yet is not distracted by unconnected incidents.

The part between Catharine and Petruchio is eminently spritely and diverting. At the marriage of Bianca the arrival of the real father, perhaps, produces more perplexity than pleasure. The whole play is very popular and diverting, (see 1765, III,97,5)

Vol. IV

ALL'S WELL THAT ENDS WELL

I.i.1 (3,2) [In delivering my son from me] [W: dissevering] 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.

I.i.5 (4,3) [to whom I am now in ward] Under his particular care, as my guardian, till I come to age. It is now almost forgotten in England that the heirs of great fortunes were the king's _wards_. Whether the same practice prevailed in France, it is of no great use to enquire, for Shakespeare gives to all nations the manners of England.

I. i.19 (4,5) [This young gentlewoman had a father, (O, that _had_! how sad a passage 'tis!)] [W: presage 'tis] 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 _anything that passes_, so we now say, a _passage_ of an _authour_. 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_ passes through her mind.

I.i.48 (6,6) [for where an unclean mind carries virtuous qualities, there commendations go with pity, they are virtues and traitors too; in her they are the better for their simpleness; she derives her honesty, and atchieves her goodness] [W: her simpleness] This is likewise a plausible but unnecessary alteration. _Her virtues are the better for their simpleness_, that is, her excellencies are the better because they are artless and open, without fraud, without design. The learned commentator has well explained _virtues_. but has not, I think, reached the force of the word _traitors_, and therefore has not shown the full extent of Shakespeare's masterly observation. _Virtues in an unclean mind are virtues and traitors too_. Estimable and useful qualities, joined with evil disposition, give that evil disposition power over others, who, by admiring the virtue, are betrayed to the malevolence. The _Tatler_ mentioning the sharpers of his time, observes, that some of them are men of such elegance and knowledge, that _a young man who falls into their way is_ betrayed _as much by his judgment as his passions_.