Chapter 13

I.i.86 (7,8) [If the living be enemy to the grief, the excess makes it soon mortal] [W: be not enemy] This emendation I had once admitted into the text, but restored the old reading, because I think it capable of an easy explication. _Lafeu_ says, _excessive grief is the enemy of the living_: the countess replies, _If the living be an enemy to grief, the excess soon makes it mortal_: that is, _if the living do not indulge grief, grief destroys itself by its own excess_. By the word _mortal_ I understand _that which dies_, and Dr. Warburton, _that which destroys_. I think that my interpretation gives a sentence more acute and more refined. Let the reader judge.

I.i.78 (8,9) [That thee may furnish] That may help thee with more and better qualifications.

I.i.84 (8,1) [The best wishes that can beforg'd in your thoughts, be servants to you!] That is, may you be mistress of your wishes, and have power to bring then to effect.

I.i.91 (8,2) [And these great tears grace his remembrance more] The tears which the king and countess shed for him.

I.i.99 (8,3) [In his bright radiance and collateral light Must I be comforted, not in his sphere] I cannot be united with him and move in the same _sphere_, but _must be comforted_ at a distance by the _radiance_ that shoots _on all sides_ from him.

I.i.107 (9,4) [Of every line and trick of his sweet favour!] So in King John; _he hath a_ trick _of Coeur de Lion's face. Trick_ seen to be some peculiarity of look or feature.

I.i.122 (9,6) [you have some stain of soldier in you] [W: _"Stain_ for colour."] _Stain_ rather for what we now say _tincture_, some qualities, at least superficial, of a soldier. (1773)

I.i.150 (10,8) [He, that hangs himself, is a virgin] [W: As he...so is] I believe most readers Will spare both the emendations, which I do not think much worth a claim or a contest. The old reading is more spritely and equally just.

I.i.165 (11,1) [Marry, ill, to like him that ne'er it likes] Parolles, in answer to the question, _how one shall lose virginity to her own liking?_ plays upon the word _liking_, and says, _she must do ill, for_ virginity, to be so lost, _must like him that likes not_ virginity.

I.i.178-191 (12,5) [Not my virginity yet] This whole speech is abrupt, unconnected, and obscure. Dr. Warburton thinks much of it suppofititious. I would be glad to think so of the whole, for a commentator naturally wishes to reject what he cannot understand. Something, which should connect Helena's words with those of Parolles, seems to be wanting. Hammer has made a fair attempt by reading,

_Not my virginity yet_--You're for the court, _There shall your master_, &c.

Some such clause has, I think, dropped out, but still the first words want connection. Perhaps Parolles, going away after his harangue, said, _will you any thing with me_? to which Helen may reply--I know not what to do with the passage.

I.i.184 (13,7) [a traitress] It seems that traitress was in that age a term of endearment, for when Lafeu introduces Helena to the king, he says, _You like a_ traytor, _but such_ traytors _his majesty does not much fear_.

I.i.199 (14,8) [And shew what we alone must think] And _shew_ by realities what we now _must only think_.

I.i.218 (14,9) [is a virtue of a good wing, and I like the wear well] [W: good ming] This conjecture I could wish to see better proved. This _common_ word _ming_ I have never found. The first edition of this play exhibits wing without a capital: yet, I confess, that a _virtue of good wing_ is an expression that I cannot understand, unless by a metaphor taken from falconry, it may mean, _a virtue that will fly high_, and in the stile of Hotspur, _Pluck honour from the moon_.

I.i.235 (15,1) [What power is it, which mounts my love so high; That makes me see, and cannot feed mine eye?]

She means, by what influence is my love directed to a person so much above me. [why am I made to discern excellence, sad left to long after it, without the food of hope.]

I.i.237 (15,2)

[The mightiest space in fortune, nature brings To join like likes, and kiss, like native things. Impossible be strange attempts, to those That weigh their pain in sense; and do suppose, What hath been]

All these four lines are obscure, and, I believe, corrupt. I shall propose an emendation, which those who can explain the present reading, are at liberty to reject.

Through _mightiest space in fortune nature brings_ Likes to join likes, _and kiss, like native things._

That is, _nature_ brings _like qualities_ and dispositions _to meet_ through any _distance_ that _fortune_ may have set between them; she _joins_ them and makes them _kiss like things born together._

The next lines I read with Hammer.

_Impossible be strange attempts to those That weigh their pains in sense, and do suppose What_ ha'n't _been, cannot be._

_New_ attempts seen impossible to those who estimate their _labour_ or _enterprises_ by sense, and believe that nothing can be but what they see before them.

I.ii.32 (17,3)

[He had the wit, which I can well observe To-day in our young lords, but they may jest, Till their own scorn return to them; unnoted, Ere they can hide their levity in honour]

I believe _honour_ is not _dignity of birth or rank,_ but _acquired reputation: Your father_, says the king, _had the same airy flights of satirical wit-with the young lords of the present time, but they do not what he did_, hide their unnoted _levity_ in honour, _cover petty faults with great merit._

This is an excellent observation. Jocose follies, and slight offences, are only allowed by mankind in him that overpowers them by great qualities.

I.ii.36 (18,4)

[So like a courtier, contempt nor bitterness Were in his pride or sharpness; if they were, His equal had awak'd them]

[W: no contempt or] The original edition reads the first line thus,

_So like a courtier, contempt_ nor _bitterness._

The sense is the same. _Nor_ was used without reduplication. So in _Measure for Measure,_

_More_ nor _less to others paying, Than by self-offences weighing._

The old text needs to be explained. He was so like a courtier, that there was in _his dignity of manner nothing contemptuous,_ and

I.ii.41 (19, 5) [His tongue obey'd his hand] We should read,

_His tongue obeyed_ the _hand._

That is, the _hand_ of _his honour's clock,_ shewing _the true minute when exceptions bad him speak._

I.ii.44 (19, 7) [Making then proud of his humility, In their poor praise he humbled] [W: proud; and his] Every man has seen the _mean_ too often _proud_ of the _humility_ of the great, and perhaps the great may sometimes be _humbled in the praises_ of the mean, of those who commend them without conviction or discernment: this, however is not so common; the _mean_ are found more frequently than the _great._

I.ii.50 (19, 8)

[So in approof lives not his epitaph, As in your royal speech]

[W: _Epitaph_ for character.] I should wish to read,

_Approof_ so lives not _in his_ epitaph, _As in your royal speech._

_Approof_ is _approbation._ If I should allow Dr. _Warburton's_ interpretation of _Epitaph,_ which is more than can be reasonably expected, I can yet find no sense in the present reading.

I.ii.61 (20, 9) [_whose judgments are meer fathers of their garments_] Who have no other use of their faculties, than to invent new modes of dress.

I.iii (21, 1) [_Enter Countess, Steward, and Clown_] A _Clown_ in Shakespeare is commonly taken for a _licensed jester,_ or domestick _fool._ We are not to wonder that we find this character often in his plays, since fools were, at that time, maintained in all great families, to keep up merriment in the house. In the picture of Sir Thomas More's family, by Hans Holbein, the only servant represented is Patison the _fool._ This is a proof of the familiarity to which they were admitted, not by the great only, but the wise.

In some plays, a servant, or a rustic, of remarkable petulance and freedom of speech, is likewise called a clown.

I.iii.3 (21, 2) [to even your content] To act up to your desires.

I.iii.45 (23, 4) [You are shallow, madam, in great friends; for the knaves come to do that for me, which I am a weary of] [Tyrwhitt: my great] The meaning seems to be, you are not deeply skilled in the character of offices of great friends. (1773)

I.iii.96 (26, 1) [Clo. That man should be at woman's command, and yet no hurt done!--Tho' honesty be no puritan, yet it will do no hurt; it will wear the surplice of humility over the black gown of a big heart] The clown's answer is obscure. His lady bids him do as he is _commanded._ He answers with the licentious petulance of his character, that _if a man does as a woman commands, it is likely he will do amiss;_ that he does not amiss, being at the command of a woman, he makes the effect, not of his lady's goodness, but of his own _honesty,_ which, though not very nice or _puritanical,_ will _do no hurt;_ and will not only do no hurt, but, unlike the _puritans_, will comply with the injunctions of superiors, and wear the _surplice of humility over the black gown of a big heart_; will obey commands, though not much pleased with a state of subjection.

Here is an allusion, violently enough forced in, to satirize the obstinacy with which the _puritans_ refused the use of the ecclesiastical habits, which was, at that time, one principal cause of the breach of union, and, perhaps, to insinuate, that the modest purity of the surplice was sometimes a cover for pride.

I.iii.140 (28,3) [By our remembrances] That is, _according to_ our recollection. So we say, he is old _by_ my reckoning.

I.iii.169 (29,5)

[--or, were you both our mothers I care no more for, than I do for heaven. So I were not his sister]

[W: I can no more fear, than I do fear heav'n.] I do not much yield to this emendation; yet I have not been able to please myself with any thing to which even my own partiality can give the preference.

Sir Thomas Banner reads,

_Or were you both our mothers_. I cannot ask for more than that of heaven. _So I were not his sister_; can be no other Way _I your daughter_, but _he must be my brother_?

I.iii.171 (30,6) [can't no other, But, I your daughter, he must be my brother?] The meaning is obscur'd by the elliptical diction. Can _it_ be _no other_ way, but if _I_ be _your daughter he must be my brother_?

I.iii.178 (30,8) [Your salt tears' head] The force, the fountain of your tears, the cause of your grief.

I.iii.208 (31,9) [captious and intenible sieve] The word _captious_ I never found in this sense; yet I cannot tell what to substitute, unless _carious,_ for _rotten_, which yet is a word more likely to have been mistaken by the copyers than used by the author.

I.iii.232 (32,2)

[As notes, whose faculties inclusive were Receipts in which greater _virtues_ were _inclosed]

_Do not throw from you; you, my lord,, farewell; Share the advice betwixt you; if both_ gain all, _The gift doth stretch itself as 'tis receiv'd, And is enough for both._

The first edition, from which the passage is restored, was sufficiently clear; yet it is plain, that the latter editors preferred a reading which they did not understand.

II.i.12 (35,8)

[let higher Italy (Those 'hated, that inherit but the fall Of the last monarchy) [see, that you come Not to woo honour, but to wed it]

[Hammer: Those bastards that inherit] Dr. Warburton's observation is learned, but rather too subtle; Sir Tho. Hanmer's alteration is merely arbitrary. The passage is confessedly obscure, and there-fore I may offer another explanation. I am of opinion that the epithet _higher_ is to be understood of situation rather than of dignity. The sense may then be this,_Let upper Italy,_ where you are to exercise your valour, _see that you come to gain honour, to the_ abatement, _that is, to the disgrace and depression of those_ that have now lost their ancient military fame, and _inherit but the fall of the last monarchy_. To _abate_ is used by Shakespeare in the original sense of _abatre_, to _depress_, to _sink_, to _deject_, to _subdue_. So in Coriolanus,

--_'till ignorance deliver you. As moat_ abated _captives to some nation That won you without blows_. And bated is used in a kindred sense in the Jew of Venice.

--_in a bondman's key With _bated_ breath and whisp'ring humbleness_.

The word has still the same meaning in the language of the law.

II.i.21 (37,9) [Beware of being captives, Before you serve] The word _serve_ is equivocal; the sense is, _Be not captives before _ you serve in the war. _Be not captives before you are soldiers._

II.i.36 (37,1) [I grow to you, and our parting is a tortur'd body] I read thus, _Our parting is_ the parting of _a tortured body._ Our parting is as the disruption of limbs torn from each other. Repetition of a word is often the cause of mistakes, the eye glances on the wrong word, and the intermediate part of the sentence is omitted.

II.i.54 (38,3) [they wear themselves in the cap of the time, there, do muster true gait] [W: to muster] I think this amendation cannot be said to give much light to the obscurity of the passage. Perhaps it might be read thus, They do _muster_ with the _true gaite._ that is, they have the true military step. Every man has observed something peculiar in the strut of a soldier, (rev. 1778, IV,35,8)

II.i.70 (39,4) [across] This word, as has been already observed, is used when any pass of wit miscarries.

II.i.74 (39,5) [Yes, but you will, my noble grapes, as if] These words,_my noble grapes_, seem to Dr. Warburton and Sir T. Hammer, to stand so much in the way, that they have silently omitted them. They may be indeed rejected without great loss, but I believe they are Shakespeare's words. _You will eat_, says Lafen, _no grapes. Yes, but you will eat such noble grapes_ as I bring you, _if you could reach them._

II.i. 100 (41,8) [I am Cressid's uncle] I am like Pandarus. See Troilus and Cressida. (see 1765, III,310,2)

II.i.114 (41,9) [wherein the honour Of my dear father's gift stands chief in power] Perhaps we may better read,--_ wherein the power Of my dear father's gift stands chief in_ honour,

II.i.144 (42,1) [When miracles have by the greatest been deny'd] I do not see the import or connection of this line. As the next line stands without a correspondent rhyme, I suspect that something has been lost.

II.i.159 (43,2) [Myself against the level of mine aim] I rather think that she means to say, _I am not an impostor that proclaim_ one thing and design another, _that proclaim_ a cure and aim at a fraud: I think what I speak.

II.i.174 (43,3)

[a divulged shame Traduc'd by odious ballds; my maiden's name Sear'd otherwise; no worse of worst extended, With vilest torture let my life be ended]

This passage is apparently corrupt, and how shall it be rectified? I have no great hope of success, but something must be tried. I read the whole thus,

King. _What darest thou venture?_ Hal. _Tax of impudence. A strumpet's boldness; a divulged shame, Traduc'd by odious ballads my maiden name; Sear'd otherwise,_ to worst _of worst extended; With vilest torture let my life be ended._

When this alteration first came into my mind, I supposed Helen to mean thus, _First,_ I venture what is dearest to me, my maiden reputation; but if your distrust _extends_ my character _to the worst of_ the _worst, and supposes me _seared_ against the sense of infamy, I will add to the stake of reputation, the stake of life. This certainly is sense, and the language as grammatical as many other passages of Shakespeare. Yet we may try another experiment.

Fear _otherwise_ to worst of _worst extended; With vilest torture let my life be ended._ That is, let me act under the greatest terrors possible.

But once again we will try to find the right way by the glimmer of Hanmer's amendation, who reads thus,

--_my maiden name Sear'd; otherwise_ the worst of _worst extended._ etc.

Perhaps it were better thus,

--_ my maiden name Sear'd; otherwise_ the worst to _worst extended; _

_With vilest torture let my life be ended._

II.i.182 (45,5) [Thy life is dear; for all, that life can rate Worth name of life, in thee hath estimate] May be _counted_ among the gifts enjoyed by them.

II.i.185 (45,7) [prime] Youth; the spring or morning of life.

II.ii.40 (48,1) [To be young again] The lady censures her own levity in trifling with her jester, as a ridiculous attempt to return back to youth.

Il.iii.6 (49,3) [unknown fear] _Fear_ is here the object of fear.

II.iii.11 (50,4)

[_Par._ So I say, both of Galen and Paracelsus. _Laf._ Of all the learned and authentic fellows]

As the whole merriment of this scene consists in the pretensions of Parollei to knowledge and sentiments which he has not, I believe here are two passages in which the words and sense are bestowed upon him by the copies, which the author gave to Lafen. I read this passage thus,

Laf. _To be relinquished of the artists----_ Par. _So I. say._ Laf. _Both of Galen and Paracelsus, of all the learned and authentick fellows----_ Par. _Right, so I say.__

II.iii.41 (51,7)

[which should, indeed, give us a farther use to be made, than alone the recovery of the King; as to be-- _Laf._ Generally thankful]

I cannot see that there is any _hiatus_, or other irregularity of language than such as is very common in these plays. I believe Parolles has again usurped words and sense to which he has no right; and I read this passage thus,

Laf. _In a most weak and debile minister, great power, great transcendence; which should, indeed, give us a farther use to be made than the mere recovery of the king._ Par. _As to be._ Laf. _Generally thankful._

II.iii.66 (52,9) [My mouth no more were broken than these boys'] A broken mouth is a mouth which has lost part of its teeth.

II.iii.77 (53,1) [Let the white death sit on thy cheek for ever] [W: dearth] The white death is the chlorosis.

II.iii.80 (53,2) [And to imperial Love] [W. The old editions read IMPARTIAL, which is right.] There is no edition of this play older than that of 1623, the next is that of 1632, of which both read imperials the second reads imperial Jove.

II.iii.92 (53,3) [Laf. Do they all deny her?] None of them have yet denied her, or deny her afterwards but Bertram. The scene must be so regulated that Lafeu and Parolles talk at a distance, where they nay see what passes between Helena and the lords, but not hear it, so that they know not by whom the refusal is made.

II.iii.105 (54,4) [There's one grape yet,--I am sure, they father drunk wine.--But if thou be'st not an ass, I am a youth of fourteen. I have known thee already] This speech the three last editors have perplexed themselves by dividing between Lafeu and Parolles, without any authority of copies, or any improvement of sense. I have restored the old reading, and should have thought no explanation necessary, but that Mr. Theobald apparently misunderstood it.

Old Lafeu having, upon the supposition that the lady was refused, reproached the young lords as _boys of ice_, throwing his eyes on Bertram who remained, cries out, "_There is one yet into whom his father put good blood,----but I have known thee long enough to know thee for an ass_."

II.iii.135 (55,6) [good alone Is good, without a name, vileness is so] [W: good; and with a name,] The present reading is certainly wrong, and, to confess the truth, I do not think Dr. Warburton's emendation right; yet I have nothing that I can propose with much confidence. Of all the conjectures that I can make, that which least displeases me is this:

--_good alone. Is good without a name_; Helen _is so_;

The rest follows easily by this change.

II.iii.138 (56,7)

[--She is young, wise, fair; In these, to nature she's immediate heir; And these breed honour]

Here is a long note [W's] which I wish had been shorter. _Good_ is better than _young_, as it refers to _honour_. But she is more the _immediate heir_ of _nature_ with respect to _youth_ than _goodness_. To be _immediate heir_ is to inherit without any intervening transmitter: thus she inherits beauty _immediately_ from _nature_, but honour is transmitted by ancestors; youth is received _immediately_ from _nature_. but _goodness_ may be conceived in part the gift of parents, or the effect of education. The alteration therefore loses on one side what it gains on the other.

II.iii.170 (58,9) [Into the staggers] One species of the _staggers_, or the _horses apoplexy_, is a raging impatience which makes the animal dash himself with destructive violence against posts or walls. To this the allusion, I suppose, is made.

II.iii.185 (59,1)

[whose ceremony Shall seem expedient on the now-born brief, And be perform'd to-night]

This, if it be at all intelligible, is at least obscure and inaccurate. Perhaps it was written thus,

--what _ceremony Shall seem expedient on the now-born brief_ Shall _be perform'd to-night; the solemn feast_ _Shall more attend_--

The _brief_ is the _contract of espousal_, or the _licence_ of the church. The King means, What _ceremony_ is necessary to make this _contract a marriage_, shall be immediately _performed_; the rest may be delayed.

II.iii.211 (60,2) [I did think thee, for two ordinaries, to be a pretty wise fellow] While I sat twice with thee at table.

II.iii.217 (60,3) [yet art then good for nothing but taking up] To take up, is to _contradict_, to _call to account_, as well as to _pick off the ground_.

II.iii.242 (60,4) [in the default] That is, _at a need_.

II.iii.246 (61,5) [for doing, I am past; as I will by thee, in what motion age will give me leave] [Warburton suspected a line lost after "past"] This suspicion of chasm is groundless. The conceit which is so thin that it might well escape a hasty reader, is in the word _past, I am past, as I will be_ past _by thee_.

II.iii.309 (63,9) [To the dark house] The _dark house_ is a house made gloomy by discontent. Milton says of _death_ and the _king_ of hell preparing to combat,

_So frown'd the mighty combatants, that hell Grew_ darker _at their frown_.

II.iv.45 (65,1) [Whose want, and whose delay, is strew'd with sweets] The _sweets_ with which this _want_ are _strewed_, I suppose, are compliments and professions of kindness.

II.iv.52 (65,2) [probable need] A specious appearance of necessity.

III.i.10 (70,5) [The reasons of our state I cannot yield] I cannot inform you of the reasons.

III.i.11 (70,6) [an outward man] [W: i.e. one not in the secret of affairs] So _inward_ is familiar, admitted to secrets. _I was an_ inward _of his_. Measure for Measure.

III.ii.59 (73,1) [_When thou canst get the ring upon my finger_] [W: When thou canst get the ring, which is on my finger, into thy possession] I think Dr. Warburton's explanation sufficient, but I once read it thus, _When thou canst get the ring upon_ thy _finger, which newer shall come off_ mine.

III.ii.100 (74,3) [Not so, but as we change our courtesies] The gentlemen declare that they are servants to the Countess, she replies, No otherwise than as she returns the same offices of civility.

III.iv.4 (77,4) [St. Jaques' pilgrim] I do not remember any place famous for pilgrimages consecrated in Italy to St. James, but it is common to visit St. James of Compostella, in Spain. Another saint might easily have been found, Florence being somewhat out of the road from Bonsillon to Compostella.

III.iv.13 (77,6) [Juno] Alluding to tho story of Hercules.

III.iv.19 (77,6) [Rinaldo, you did never lack advice so much] _Advice_, is _discretion_ or _thought_.

III.v.21 (79,7) [are not the things they go under] [W: Mr. Theobald explains these words by, _They are not really so true and sincere as in appearance they seem to be_.] I think Theobald's interpretation right; _to go under_ the name of any thing is a known expression. The meaning is, they are not the things for which their names would make them pass.

III.v.66 (81,8) [examin'd] That is, _question'd, doubted_.