Chapter 14

III.v.74 (81,9) [brokes] Deals as a _broker_.

III.vi.107 (86,6) [we have almost imboss'd him] To imboss a deer is to inclose him in a wood. Milton uses the same word:

_Like that self-begotten bird In th' Arabian woods embost. Which no second knows or third_.

III.vi.III (87,7) [ere we case him] This is, before we strip him naked. (1773)

III.vii.9 (88,2) [to your sworn council] To your private knowledge, after having required from you an oath of secrecy.

III.vii.21 (88,9) [Now his important blood will nought deny] _Important_ here, and elsewhere, is _importunate_.

IV.i.16 (90,2) [some band of strangers i' the adversary's entertainment] That is, _foreign troops in the enemy's pay_.

Iv.i.44 (91,3) [the instance] The _proof_.

IV.ii.13 (94,5)

[No more of that! I pr'ythee, do not strive against my vows: I was compell'd to her]

I know not well what Bertram can mean by entreating Diana _not to strive against his vows_. Diana has just mentioned his _wife_, so that the _vows_ seem to relate to his marriage. In this sense not Diana, but himself, _strives against his vows_. His _vows_ indeed may mean _vows_ made to Diana; but, in that case, to _strive against_ is not properly used for to reject, nor does this sense cohere well with his first exclamation of impatience at the mention of his wife. _No more of that_! Perhaps we might read,

_I Pr'ythee do not_ drive _against my vows.

Do not_ run _upon that topick; talk of any thing else that I can bear to hear_.

I have another conceit upon this passage, which I would be thought to offer without much confidence:

_No more of that_! _I pr'ythee do not_ strive--_against my_ voice _I was compell'd to her._

Diana tells him unexpectedly of his wife. He answers with perturbation, _No more of that! I pr'ythee do not_ play the confessor --_against my own_ consent _I was compelled to her_.

When a young profligate finds his courtship so gravely repressed by an admonition of his duty, he very naturally desires the girl not to take upon her the office of a confessor.

IV.ii.23 (95,6) [What is not holy, that we swear not 'bides] [W: not 'bides] This is an acute and excellent conjecture, and I have done it the due honour of exalting it to the text; yet, methinks, there is something yet wanting. The following words, _but take the High'st to witness_, even though it be understood as an anticipation or assumption in this sense,--_but_ now suppose that you _take the_ Highest _to witness_,--has not sufficient relation to the antecedent sentence. I will propose a reading nearer to the surface, and let it take its chance.

Ber. _How have I sworn_!

Diana. _'Tis not the many oaths, that make the truth, But the plain single vow, that is vow'd true_.

Ber. _What is not holy, that we swear not by. But take the High'st to witness_.

Diana. _Then, pray tell me. If I should swear_, &c.

Bertram means to enforce his suit, by telling her, that he has bound himself to her, not by the pretty protestations usual among lovers, but by vows of greater solemnity. She then makes a proper and rational reply.

IV.ii.25 (96,7) [If I should swear by Jove's great attributes] In the print of the old folio, it is doubtful whether it be _Jove's_ or _Love's_, the characters being not distinguishable. If it is read _Love's_, perhaps it may be something less difficult. I am still at a loss.

It may be read thus,

--"this has no holding, "To swear by him whom I _attest_ to love, "That I will work against him."

There is no consistence in expressing reverence for Jupiter by calling him to _attest_ my love, and shewing at the same time, by _working against him_ by a wicked passion, that I have no respect to the name which I invoke. (1773)

IV.ii.28 (96,8) [To swear by him whom I protest to love, That I will work against him] This passage likewise appears to me corrupt. She swears not _by_ him whom she _loves_, but by Jupiter. I believe we may read, _to swear_ to _him_. There is, says she, no _holding_, no consistency, in swearing to one that _I love him_, when I swear it only to _injure_ him.

IV.ii.73 (98,9) [Since Frenchmen are so braid, Marry that will, I'll live and die a maid] [W: Marry 'em] The passage is very unimportant, and the old reading reasonable enough. Nothing is more common than for girls, on such occasions, to say in a pet what they do not think, or to think for a time what they do not finally resolve.

IV.iii.7 (98,1) [I _Lord_] The later editors have with great liberality bestowed lordship upon these interlocutors, who, in the original edition, are called, with more propriety, _capt_. E. and _capt_. G. It is true that _captain_ E. is in a former scene called _lord_ E. but the subordination in which they seem to act, and the timorous manner in which they converse, determines them to be only captains. Yet as the later readers of Shakespeare have been used to find them lords, I have not thought it worth while to degrade them in the margin.

IV.iii.29 (99,2) [he, that in this action contrives against his own nobility, in his proper stream o'erflows himself] That is, _betrays his own secrets in his own talk_. The reply shows that this is the meaning.

IV.iii.38 (100,3) [he might take a measure of his own judgment] This is a very just and moral reason. Bertram, by finding how erroneously he has judged, will be less confident, and more easily moved by admonition.

IV.iii.113 (102,4) [bring forth this counterfeit module] [W: medal] _Module_ being the _pattern_ of any thing, may be here used in that sense. Bring forth this fellow, who, by _counterfeit_ virtue pretended to make himself a _pattern_.

IV.iii.237 (106,8) [Dian. _the Count's a fool, and full of gold_] After this line there is apparently a line lost, there being no rhime that corresponds to gold.

IV.iii.254 (106,9) [Half won, is match well made; match, and well make it] This line has no meaning that I can find. I read, with a very slight alteration, _Half won is match well made_; watch, _and well make it_. That is, _a match well made is half won; watch, and make it well_.

This is, in my opinion, not all the error. The lines are misplaced, and should be read thus:

_Half won is match well made; watch, and well make it; when he swears oaths, bid him drop gold, and take it. After he scores, he never pays the score: He never pays after-debts, take it before. And say----_

That is, take his money and leave him to himself. When the players had lost the second line, they tried to make a connection out of the rest. Part is apparently in couplets, and the note was probably uniform.

IV.iii.280 (107,1) [He will steal, sir, an egg out of a cloister] I know not that _cloister_, though it may etymologically signify _any_ _thing shut_ is used by our author, otherwise than for a _monastery_, and therefore I cannot guess whence this hyperbole could take its original: perhaps it means only this: _He will steal any thing, however trifling, from any place, however holy_.

IV.iii.307 (108,2) [he's a cat still] That is, throw him how you will, he lights upon his legs. [Steevens offered another explanation] I an still of my former opinion. The same speech was applied by king James to Coke, with respect to his subtilties of law, that throw him which way we would, he could still like a cat light upon his legs. (see 1765, III,372,1)

IV.iii.317 (109,3) [Why does he ask him of me?] This is nature. Every man is on such occasions more willing to hear his neighbour's character than his own.

IV.iii.332 (109,4) [Only to seem to deserve well, and to beguile the supposition of that lascivious young boy the Count, have I run into this danger] That is, _to deceive the opinion_, to make the count think me a man that _deserves well_.

IV.iv.23 (III,6) [When saucy trusting of the cozen'd thoughts Defiles the pitchy night!] [W: When Fancy,] This conjecture is truly ingenious, but, I believe, the author of it will himself think it unnecessary, when he recollects that _saucy_ may very properly signify _luxurious_, and by consequence _lascivious_.

IV.iv.31 (112,7)

[But with the word, the time will bring on summer, When briars shall have leaves as well as thorns, And be as sweet as sharp]

The meaning of this observation is, that _as briars_ have _sweetness_ with their _prickles_, so shall these _troubles_ be recompensed with _joy_.

IV.iv.34 (112,8) [Our waggon is prepar'd, and time revives us] [W: revyes] The present reading is corrupt, and I am afraid the emendation none of the soundest. I never remember to have seen the word _revye_. One may as well leave blunders as make them. Why may we not read for a shift, without much effort, _the time_ invites _us_?

IV.v.8 (114,1) [I would, I had not known him!] This dialogue serves to connect the incidents of Parolles with the main plan of the play.

IV.v.66 (116,4) [_Laf_. A shrewd knave, and an unhappy] That is, _mischievously waggish; unlucky_. (see 1765, III,379,3)

IV.v.70 (116,5) [he has no pace, but runs where he will] [Tyrrwhit: place] A _pace_ is a certain or prescribed walk, so we say of a man meanly obsequious, that he has learned his _paces_. (1773) [(rev. 1778, IV,126,3]

V.i.35 (120,8)

[I will come after you, with what good speed Our means will make us means]

Shakespeare delights much in this kind of reduplication, sometimes so as to obscure his meaning. Helena says, _they will follow with such speed as the means which they have will give them ability to exert_.

V.ii.57 (123,3) [tho' you are a fool and a knave, you shall eat] Parolles has many of the lineaments of Falstaff, and seems to be the character which Shakespeare delighted to draw, a fellow that had more wit than virtue. Though justice required that he should be detected and exposed, yet his _vices sit so fit in him_ that he is not at last suffered to starve.

V.iii.1 (123,4) [We lost a jewel of her, and our esteem Was made much poorer by it] Dr. Warburton, in Theobald's edition, altered this word to _estate_, in his own he lets it stand and explains it by worth or estate. But _esteem_ is here _reckoning_ or _estimate_. Since the loss of _Helen_ with her _virtues_ and _qualifications_, our _account_ is _sunk_; what we have to _reckon_ ourselves king of, is much _poorer_ than before.

V.iii.4 (123,5) [home] That is, _completely_, _in its full extent_.

V.iii.6 (123,6) [done i' the blade of youth] In the _spring_ of _early life_, when the man is yet _green_, _oil_ and _fire_ suit but ill with _blade_, and therefore Dr. Warburton reads, _blaze_ of youth.

V.iii.21 (124,7) [the first view shall kill All repetition] _The first interview shall put an end to all recollection of the past_. Shakespeare is now hastening to the end of the play, finds his matter sufficient to fill up his remaining scenes, and therefore, as on other such occasions, contracts his dialogue and precipitates his action. Decency required that Bertram's double crime of cruelty and disobedience, joined likewise with some hypocrisy, should raise more resentment; and that though his mother might easily forgive him, his king should more pertinaciously vindicate his own authority and Helen's merit: of all this Shakespeare could not be ignorant, but Shakespeare wanted to conclude his play.

V.iii.50 (125,9) [My high repented blames] [A long note by Warburton] It was but just to insert this note, long as it is, because the commentator seems to think it of importance. Let the reader judge.

V.iii.65 (127,1)

[Our own love, waking, cries to see what's done, While shameful hate sleeps out the afternoon]

These two lines I should be glad to call _an interpolation of a player_. They are ill connected with the former, and not very clear or proper in themselves. I believe the author made two couplets to the same purpose, wrote them both down that he might take his choice, and so they happened to be both preserved.

For _sleep_ I think we should read _slept_. _Love cries_ to see what was done while hatred _slept_, and suffered mischief to be done. Or the meaning may be, that _hatred_ still _continues_ to _sleep_ at ease, while _love_ is weeping; and so the present reading may stand.

V.iii.93 (128,3) [In Florence was it from a casement thrown me] Bertram still continues to have too little virtue to deserve Helen. He did not know indeed that it was Helen's ring, but he knew that he had it not from a window.

V.iii.95 (128,4) [Noble she was, and thought I stood engag'd] [T: I don't understand this reading; if we are to understand, that she thought Bertram engag'd to her in affection, insnared by her charms, this meaning is too obscurely express'd.] The context rather makes me believe, that the poet wrote,

_noble she was, and thought I stood_ ungag'd;-----

i.e. unengag'd: neither my heart, nor person, dispos'd of.--The plain meaning is, when she saw me receive the ring, she thought me _engaged_ to her.

V.iii.101 (129,5) [_King_ Plutus himself , That knows the tinct and multiplying medicine] Plutus the grand alchemist, who knows the _tincture_ which confers the properties of gold upon base metals, and the _matter_ by which _gold_ is _multiplied_, by which a small quantity of gold is made to communicate its qualities to a large mass of metal.

In the reign of Henry the fourth a law was made to forbid _all men thenceforth to_ multiply _gold, or use any craft of_ multiplication. Of which law Mr. Boyle, when he was warm with the hope of transmutation, procured a repeal.

V.iii.105 (129,6) [Then if you know, That you are well acquainted with yourself] The true meaning of this _strange_ [Warburton's word] expression is, _If you know that_ your faculties are so found, as _that you have the proper consciousness of your own actions_, and are able to recollect and relate what you have done, _tell me_. &c.

V.iii.121 (130,7)

[My fore-past proofs, howe'er the matter fall, Shall tax my fears of little vanity, Having vainly fear'd too little]

The _proofs which I have already had_, are sufficient to show that my _fears_ were not _vain_ and irrational. I have rather been hither-to more easy than I ought, and have _unreasonably_ had _too little fear_.

V.iii.131 (130,8) [Who hath, some four or five removes, come short] _Removes_ are _journies_ or _post-stages_.

V.iii.191 (133,1) [O, behold this ring. Whose high respect and rich validity] _Validity is a very bad word for _value_, which yet I think is its meaning, unless it be considered as making a contract _valid_.

V.iii.214 (133,2)

[As all impediments in fancy's course, Are motives of more fancy: and in fine, Her insult coming with her modern grace, Subdu'd me to her rate: she got the ring]

_Every thing that obstructs love is an occasion by which love is heightened. And, to conclude, her solicitation concurring with her fashionable appearance_, she got the ring.

I an not certain that I have attained the true meaning of the word _modern_, which, perhaps, signifies rather _meanly pretty_.

V.iii.296-305 (137,3) This dialogue is too long, since the audience already knew the whole transaction; nor is there any reason for puzzling the king and playing with his passions; but it was much easier than to make a pathetical interview between Helen and her husband, her mother, and the king.

V.iii.305 (137,4) [exorcist] This word is used not very properly for _enchanter_.

V.iii.339 (139,2) [Ours be your patience then, and yours our parts] The meaning is: _Grant us then your patience_; hear us without interruption. _And_ take _our parts_; that is, support and defend us. (see 1765, III,399)

(139) General Observation. This play has many delightful scenes, though not sufficiently probable, and some happy characters, though not new, nor produced by any deep knowledge of human nature. Parolles is a boaster and a coward, such as has always been the sport of the stage, but perhaps never raised more laughter or contempt than in the hands of Shakespeare.

I cannot reconcile my heart to Bertram; a man noble without generosity, and young without truth; who marries Helen as a coward, and leaves her as a profligate: when she is dead by his unkindness, sneaks home to a second marriage, is accused by a woman whom he has wronged, defends himself by falsehood, and is dismissed to happiness.

The story of Bertram and Diana hod been told before of Mariana and Angelo, and, to confess the truth, scarcely merited to be heard a second time.

TWELFTH-NIGHT

(142) The persons of the drama were first enumerated, with all the cant of the modern stage, by Mr. Rowe.

I.i.2 (143,2) [that, surfeiting, The appetite may sicken, and so die] [W: app'tite, Love] It is true, we do not talk of the _death of appetite_, because we do not ordinarily speak in the figurative language of poetry; but that _appetite sickens by a surfeit_ is true, and therefore proper.

I.i.21 (145,6) [That instant was I turn'd into a hart] This image evidently alludes to the story of Acteon, by which Shakespeare seems to think men cautioned against too great familiarity with forbidden beauty. Acteon, who saw Diana naked, and was torn in pieces by his hounds, represents a man, who indulging his eyes, or his imagination, with the view of a woman that he cannot gain, has his heart torn with incessant longing. An interpretation far more elegant and natural than that of Sir Francis Bacon, who, in his _Wisdom of the Antients_, supposes this story to warn us against enquiring into the secrets of princes, by shewing, that those who knew that which for reasons of state is to be concealed, will be detected and destroyed by their own servants.

I.ii.25 (147,9) [A noble Duke in nature, as in name] I know not whether the nobility of the name is comprised in _Duke_, or in _Orsino_, which is, I think, the name of a great Italian family.

I.ii.42 (148,1)

[_Vio_. O, that I serv'd that lady; And might not be deliver'd to the world, 'Till I had made mine own occasion mellow What my estate is!]

I wish I might not be _made public_ to the world, with regard to the _state_ of my birth and fortune, till I have gained a _ripe opportunity_ for my design.

Viola seems to have formed a very deep design with very little premeditation: she is thrown by shipwreck on an unknown coast, hears that the prince is a batchelor, and resolves to supplant the lady whom he courts.

I.ii.55 (149,2) [I'll serve this Duke] Viola is an excellent schemer, never at a loss; if she cannot serve the lady, she will serve the Duke.

I.iii.77 (152,5) [It's dry, sir] What is the jest of _dry hand_, I know not any better than Sir Andrew. It may possibly mean, a hand with no money in it; or, according to the rules of physiognomy, she may intend to insinuate, that it is not a lover's hand, a moist hand being vulgarly accounted a sign of an amorous constitution.

I.iii.148 (154,9) [Taurus? that's sides and heart] Alluding to the medical astrology still preserved in almanacks, which refers the affections or particular parts of the body, to the predominance of particular constellations.

I.iv.34 (155,1) [And all is semblative--a woman's part] That is, thy proper part in a play would be a woman's. Women were then personated by boys.

I.v.9 (156,2) [lenten answer] A _lean_, or as we now call it, a _dry_ answer.

I.v.39 (157,4) [Better be a witty fool, than a foolish wit] Hall, in his _Chronicle_, speaking of the death of Sir Thomas More, says, that he knows not whether to call him _a foolish wise man, or a wise foolish man_.

I.v.105 (159,5) [Now Mercury indue thee with leasing, for thou speak'st well of fools!] [W: pleasing] I think the present reading more humourous. _May Mercury teach thee to lie, since thou liest in favour of fools_.

I.v.213 (164,1) [to make one in so skipping a dialogue] Wild, frolick, mad.

I.v.218 (164,2) [Some mollification for your giant] Ladies, in romance, are guarded by giants, who repel all improper or troublesome advances. Viola seeing the waiting-maid so eager to oppose her message, intreats Olivia to pacify her giant.

I.v.328 (168,8)

[_Oli_. I do, I know not what; and fear to find Mine eye too great a flatterer for my mind]

I believe the meaning is; I am not mistress of my own actions, I am afraid that my eyes betray me, and flatter the youth without my consent, with discoveries of love.

II.i.15 (169,9) [to express myself] That is, _to reveal myself_.

II.i.28 (169,1) [with such estimable wonder] These words Dr. Warburton calls _an interpolation of the players_, but what did the players gain by it? they may be sometimes guilty of a joke without the concurrence of the poet, but they never lengthen a speech only to make it longer. Shakespeare often confounds the active and passive adjectives. _Estimable wonder_ is _esteeming wonder_, or _wonder and esteem_. The meaning is, that he could not venture to think so highly as others of his sister.

II.ii.21 (171,2) [her eyes had lost her tongue] [W: crost] That the fascination of the eyes was called _crossing_ ought to have been proved. But however that be, the present reading has not only sense but beauty. We say a man _loses_ his company when they go one way and he goes another. So Olivia's tongue _lost_ her eyes; her tongue was talking of the Duke and her eyes gazing on his messenger.

II.ii.29 (171,3) [the pregnant enemy] is, I believe, the dexterous fiend, or enemy of mankind. (1773)

II.ii.30 (171,4)

[How easy is it, for the proper false In women's waxen hearts to set their forms]

This is obscure. The meaning is, _how easy is disguise to women_; how easily does _their own falsehood_, contained in their _waxen changeable _hearts_, enable them to assume deceitful appearances. The two next lines are perhaps transposed, and should be read thus,

_For such as we are made, if such we be, Alas, our frailty is the cause, not we_.

II.iii.27 (175,9) [I did impeticoat thy gratility] This, Sir T. Hammer tells us, is the same with _impocket thy gratuity_. He is undoubtedly right; but we must read, _I did_ impeticoat _thy_ gratuity. The fools were kept in long coats, to which the allusion is made. There is yet much in this dialogue which I do not understand.

II.iii.51 (176,1) [In delay there lies no plenty] [W: decay] I believe _delay_ is right.

II.iii.52 (176,2) [Then come kiss me, sweet, and twenty] This line is obscure; we might read,

_Come, a kiss then, sweet, and twenty._

Yet I know not whether the present reading be not right, for in some counties _sweet and twenty_, whatever be the meaning, is a phrase of endearment.

II.iii.59 (176,3) [make the welkin dance] That is, drink till the sky seems to turn round.

II.iii.75 (177,5) [They sing a catch] This catch is lost.

II.iii.81 (177,6) [Peg-a-Ramsey] _Peg-a-Ramsey_ I do not understand. _Tilly vally_ was an interjection of contempt, which Sir Thomas More a lady is recorded to have had very often in her mouth.

II.iii.97 (178,7) [ye squeak out your coziers catches] A _Cozier_ is a taylor, from _coudre_ to sew, part, _consu_, French, (see 1765, 11,383,2)

II.iii.128 (180,l) [rub your chain with crums] I suppose it should be read, _rub your_ chin _with crums_, alluding to what had been said before that. Malvolio was only a steward, and consequently dined after his lady.

II.iii.131 (180,2) [you would not give means for this uncivil rule] _Rule_ is, method of life, so _misrule_ is tumult and riot.

II.iii.149 (181,3) [Possess us] That is, _inform us_, _tell us_, make us masters of the matter.

II.iv.5 (183,5) [light airs, and recollected terms] I rather think that _recollected_ signifies, more nearly to its primitive sense, _recalled_, _repeated_, and alludes to the practice of composers, who often prolong the song by repetitions.

II.iv.26 (184,6) [favour] The word _favour_ ambiguously used.