Chapter 15

II.iv.35 (184,7) [lost and worn] Though _lost and worn_ may means _lost and worn out_, yet _lost and won_ being, I think, better, these two words coming usually and naturally together, and the alteration being very slight, I would so read in this place with Sir Tho. Hammer.

II.iv.46 (185,8) [free] is, perhaps, _vacant_, _unengaged_, _easy in mind_.

II.iv.47 (185,9) [silly sooth] It is plain, simple truth.

II.iv.49 (185,2) [old age] The _old age_ is the _ages past_, the times of simplicity.

II.iv.58 (185,3) [My part of death no one so true Did share it] Though _death_ is a _part_ in which every one acts his _share_, yet of all these actors no one is _so true_ as I.

II.iv.87 (187,6)

[But 'tis that miracle, and queen of gems, That nature pranks her in]

[W: pranks, her mind] The _miracle and queen of gems_ is her _beauty_, which the commentator might have found without so emphatical an enquiry. As to her mind, he that should be captious would say, that though it may be formed by nature it must be _pranked_ by education.

Shakespeare does not say that _nature pranks her in a miracle_, but _in the miracle of gems_, that is, _in a gem miraculously beautiful_.

II.v.43 (191,2) [the lady of the Strachy] [W: We should read _Trachy_. i.e. _Thrace_; for so the old English writers called it] What we should read is hard to say. Here it an allusion to some old story which I have not yet discovered.

II.v.51 (191,3) [stone-bow] That is, a cross-bow, a bow which shoots stones.

II.v.66 (192,4) [wind up my watch] In our author's time watches were very uncommon. When Guy Faux was taken, it was urged as a circumstance of suspicion that a watch was found upon him.

II.v.70 (192,5) [Tho' our silence be drawn from us with carts] I believe the true reading is, _Though our silence be drawn from us with_ carts, _yet peace_. In the _The Two Gentlemen of_ Verona, one of the Clowns says, _I have a mistress, but who that is_, a team of horses _shall not_ draw from me. So in this play, _Oxen and wainropes will not bring them together_.

II.v.97 (193,7) [her great _P_'s] [Steevens: In the direction of the letter which Malvolio reads, there is neither a C, nor a P, to be found] There may, however, be words in the direction which he does not read. To formal directions of two ages ago were often added these words, Humbly _Present_. (1773)

II.v.144 (195,2) [And _O_ shall end, I hope] By _O_ is here meant what we now call a _hempen collar_.

II.v.207 (197,6) [tray-trip] The word _tray-trip_ I do not understand.

II.v.215 (198,7) [aqua vitae] Is the old name of _strong waters_.

III.i.57 (200,9) [lord Pandarus] See our author's play of _Troilus and Cressida_.

III.i.71 (200,1) [And, like the haggard, check at every feather] The meaning may be, that he must catch every opportunity, as the wild hawk strikes every bird. But perhaps it might be read more properly,

Not _like the haggard_.

He must chuse persons and times, and observe tempers, he must fly at proper game, like the trained hawk, and not fly at large like the _haggard_, to seize all that comes in his way. (1773)

III.i.75 (201,2) [But wise-men's folly fall'n] Sir Thomas Hammer reads, _folly shewn_. [The sense is, _But wise men's folly, when it is once fallen into extravagance, overpowers their discretion_. Revisal.] I explain it thus. The folly which he shows with proper adaptation to persons and times, _is fit_, has its propriety, and therefore produces no censure; but the folly of wise men when it _falls_ or _happens_, taints their wit, destroys the reputation of their judgment. (see 1765, II,402,2)

III.i.86 (202,4) [she is the list of my voyage] Is the _bound, limit, farthest point_.

III.i.100 (202,5) [most pregnant and vouchsafed ear] _Pregnant_ is a word in this writer of very lax signification. It may here mean _liberal_. (1773)

III.i.123 (203,6) [After the last enchantment (you did hear)] [W: enchantment you did here] The present reading is no more nonsense than the emendation.

III.i.132 (203,8) [a Cyprus] Is a transparent stuff.

III.i.135 (204,9) [a grice] Is a _step_, sometimes written _greese_ from _degres_, French.

III.i.170 (205,1) [I have one heart, one bosom, and one truth, And that no woman has] And that heart and boson I have never yielded to any woman.

III.ii.45 (207,5) [Go, write it in a martial hand; be curst and brief] _Martial hand_, seems to be a careless scrawl, such as shewed the writer to neglect ceremony. _Curst_, is petulant, crabbed--a curst cur, is a dog that with little provocation snarls and bites. (1773)

III.iv.61 (213,1) [midsummer madness] Hot weather often turns the brain, which is, I suppose, alluded to here.

III.iv.82 (214,3) [I have lim'd her] I have entangled or caught her, as a bird is caught with birdlime.

III.iv.85 (214,4) [Fellow:] This word which originally signified companion, was not yet totally degraded to its present meaning; and Malvolio takes it in the favourable sense.

III.iv.130 (215,6) [Hang him, foul collier] The devil is called _Collier_ for his blackness, _Like will to like, says the Devil to the Collier_. (1773)

III.iv.154 (216,7) [a finder of madmen] This is, I think, an allusion to the _witch-finders_, who were very busy.

III.iv.184 (217,8) [_God have mercy upon one of our souls! He may have mercy upon mine, but my hope is better_] We may read, _He may have mercy upon_ thine, _but my hope is better_. Yet the passage may well enough stand without alteration.

It were much to be wished, that Shakespeare in this and some other passages, had not ventured so near profaneness.

III.iv.228 (218,9) [wear this jewel for me] _Jewel_ does not properly signify a single gem, but any precious ornament or superfluity.

III.iv.257 (219,2) [Be is knight, dubb'd with unhack'd rapier, and on carpet consideration] That is, he is no soldier by profession, not a Knight Banneret, dubbed in the field of battle, but, _on carpet consideration_, at a festivity, or on sone peaceable occasion, when knights receive their dignity kneeling not on the ground, as in war, but on a _carpet_. This is, I believe, the original of the contemptuous term a carpet knight, who was naturally held in scorn by the men of war.

III.iv.301 (222,4) [I have not seen such a virago] _Virago_ cannot be properly used here, unless we suppose Sir Toby to mean, I never saw one that had so much the look of woman with the prowess of man.

III.iv.408 (225,7) [Methinks, his words do from such passion fly, That he believes himself;--so do not I]

This I believe, means, I do not yet believe myself, when, from this accident, I gather hope of my brother's life.

IV.i.14 (227,8) [I am afraid this great lubber the world will prove a cockney] That is, affectation and foppery will overspread the world.

IV.i.57 (228,2) [In this uncivil and unjust extent] _Extent_ is, in law, a writ of execution, whereby goods are seized for the king. It is therefore taken here for _violence_ in general.

IV.i.60 (228,3) [This ruffian hath botch'd up] I fancy it is only a coarse expression for _made up_, as a bad taylor is called a _botcher_. and to botch is to make clumsily.

IV.i.63 (229,4) [He started one poor heart of mine in thee] I know not whether here be not an ambiguity intended between _heart_ and _hart_. The sense however is easy enough. _He that offends thee attacks one of my hearts_; or, as the antients expressed it, _half my heart_.

IV.i.64 (229,5) [What relish is this?] How does it taste? What judgment am I to make of it?

IV.ii.53 (231,9) [constant question] A settled, a determinate, a regular question.

IV.ii.68 (232,1) [Nay, I am for all waters] I rather think this expression borrowed from sportsmen, and relating to the qualifications of a complete spaniel.

IV.ii.99 (233,2) [They have here property'd me] They have taken possession of me as of a man unable to look to himself.

IV.ii.107 (233,3) [Maintain no words with him] Here the Clown in the dark acts two persons, and counterfeits, by variation of voice, a dialogue between himself and Sir Topas.--_I Will, sir, I Will_. is spoken after a pause, as if, in the mean time, Sir Topas had whispered.

IV.ii.121 (234,4) [tell me true, are you not mad, indeed, or do you but counterfeit?] If he was not mad, what did be counterfeit by declaring that he was not mad? The fool, who meant to insult him, I think, asks, _are you mad, or do you but counterfeit_? That is, _you look like a madman, you talk like a madman_: _Is your madness real, or have you any secret design in it_? This, to a man in poor Malvolio's state, was a severe taunt.

IV.ii.134 (234,5) [like to the old vice] _Vice_ was the fool of the old moralities. Some traces of this character are still preserved in puppet-shows, and by country mummers.

IV.ii.141 (235.6)_'Adieu, goodman devil_] This last line has neither rhime nor meaning. I cannot but suspect that the fool translates Malvolio's name, and says,

_Adieu, goodman mean-evil_. (1773)

IV.iii.12 (236,8) [all instance, all discourse] _Instance_ is _example_. (see 1765, II,433,9)

IV.iii.15 (236,9) [To any other trust] To any other belief, or confidence, to any other fixed opinion.

IV.iii.29 (236,1) [Whiles] Is _until_. This word is still so used in the northern counties. It is, I think, used in this sense in the preface to the Accidence.

IV.iii.33 (237,2) [And, having sworn truth, ever will be true] _Truth_ is _fidelity_.

V.i.23 (238,3) [so that, conclusions to be as kisses, if your four negatives make your two affirmatives, why, then the worse for my friends, and the better for my foes] Though I do not discover much ratiocination in the Clown's discourse, yet, methinks, I can find some glimpse of a meaning in his observation, that _the conclusion is as kisses_. For, says he, _if four negatives make two affirmatives, the conclusion is as kisses_; that is, the conclusion follows by the conjunction of two negatives, which, by _kissing_ and embracing, coalesce into one, and make an affirmative. What the _four_ negatives are I do not know. I read, _So that conclusions be as kisses_.

V.i.42 (239,4) [bells of St. Bennet] When in this play he mentioned the _bed of_ Ware, he recollected that the scene was in Illyria, and added _in England_; but his sense of the same impropriety could not restrain him from the bells of St. Bennet.

V.i.67 (240,5) [desperate of shame, and state] Unattentive to his character or his condition, like a desperate man.

V.i.112 (241,5) [as fat and fulsome] [W: flat] _Fat_ means _dull_; so we say a _fatheaded_ fellow; _fat_ likewise means _gross_, and is sometimes used for _obscene_; and _fat_ is more congruent to _fulsome_ than _flat_.

V.i.168 (244,7) [case] _Case_ is a word used contemptuously for _skin_. We yet talk of a _fox case_, meaning the stuffed skin of a fox.

V.i.204 (246,9) [A natural perspective] A _perspective_ seems to be taken for shows exhibited through a glass with such lights as make the pictures appear really protruberant. The Duke therefore says, that nature has here exhibited such a show, where shadows seem realities; where that which is _not_ appears like that which is.

V.i.306 (249,3) [but to read his right wits, is to read thus] Perhaps so,--_but to read his_ wits right _is to read thus_. To represent his present state of mind, is to read a madman's letter, as I now do, like a madman. (1773)

V.i.326 (249,4) [One day shall crown the alliance on't, so please you] [Revisal: an't so] This is well conjectured; but _on't_ may relate to the double character of sister and wife. (1773)

V.i.347 (250,5) [to frown Upon sir Toby, and the lighter people] People of less dignity or importance.

V.i.351 (250,6) [geck] A fool.

(253) General Observation. This play is in the graver part elegant and easy, and in some of the lighter scenes exquisitely humorous. Ague--cheek is drawn with great propriety, but his character is, in a great measure, that of natural fatuity, and is therefore not the proper prey of a satirist. The soliloquy of Malvolio is truly comic; he is betrayed to ridicule merely by his pride. The marriage of Olivia, and the succeeding perplexity, though well enough contrived to divert on the stage, wants credibility, and fails to produce the proper instruction required in the drama, as it exhibits no just picture of life.

THE WINTER'S TALE

(257,1) The story of this play is taken from the _Pleasaunt History of Dorastus and Fawnia_, written by Robert Greene. (1773)

I.i.9 (258,2) [Wherein our entertainment shall shame us, we will be justified in our loves] Though we cannot give you equal entertainment, yet the consciousness of our good-will shall justify us.

I.i.30 (258,3) [royally attornied] Nobly supplied by substitution of embassies, &c.

l.i.43 (259,4) [physicks the subject] Affords a cordial to the state; has the power of assuaging the sense of misery.

I.ii.13 (259,5) [that may blow No sneaping rinds] _That may blow_ is a Gallicism, for _may there blow_. (1773)

I.ii.31 (261,6) [All in Bohemia's well: this satisfaction The bygone day proclaim'd] We had satisfactory accounts yesterday of the state of Bohemia. (1773)

I.ii.123 (266,6) [We must be neat] Leontes, seeing his son's nose smutched, cries, _We must be neat_, then recollecting that _neat_ is the term for _horned_ cattle, he says, _not neat, but cleanly_.

I.ii.125 (266,7) [Still virginalling] Still playing with her fingers, as a girl playing on the _virginals_.

I.ii.132 (266,8) [As o'er-dy'd blacks] Sir T. Hammer understands, blacks died too much, and therefore rotten.

I.ii.136 (267,9) [welkin-eye] Blue eye; an eye of the same colour with the _welkin_, or sky.

I.ii.139 (267,2) [Thou dost make possible things not so held] i.e. thou dost make those things possible, which are conceived to be impossible. (1773)

I.ii.161,3 (268,3) [will you take eggs for mony?] This seems to be a proverbial expression, used when a man sees himself wronged and makes no resistance. Its original, or precise meaning, I cannot find, but I believe it means, will you be a _cuckold_ for hire. The cuckow is reported to lay her eggs in another bird's nest; he therefore that has eggs laid in his nest, is said to be _cocullatus_, _cuckow'd_, or _cuckold_.

I.ii.163 (268,4) [happy man be his dole!] May his _dole_ or _share_ in life be to be a _happy man_.

I.ii.176 (269,5) [he's Appareat to my heart] That is, _heir apparent_.or the next claimant.

I.ii.186 (269,6) [a fork'd one] That is, a _horned_ one; a _cuckold_.

I.ii.217 (270,9) [whispering, rounding] _To round in the ear_, is to _whisper_, or _to tell secretly_. The expression is very copiously explained by H. Casaubon, in his book _de Ling. Sax_.

I.ii.227 (271,1) [lower messes] _Mess_ is a contraction of _Master_, as _Mess_ John. Master John; an appellation used by the Scots, to those who have taken their academical degree. _Lower Messes_, therefore are graduates of a lower form.

The speaker is now mentioning gradations of understanding, and not of rank, (see 1765, II,244,9)

I.ii.260 (372,2) [Whereof the execution did cry out Against the nonperformance] This is one of the expressions by which Shakespeare too frequently clouds his meaning. This sounding phrase means, I think, no more than _a thing necessary to be done_. [_Revisal_; the now-performance] I do not see that this attempt does any thing more, than produce a harsher word without on easier sense, (see 1765, II,245,1)

I.ii.320 (275,5) [But with a ling'ring dram, that should not work, Maliciously, like poison] [Hammer: Like a malicious poison] _Rash_ is _hasty_, as in another place, _rash gunpowder. Maliciously_ is _malignantly_, with effects _openly hurtful_. Shakespeare had no thought of _betraying the user_. The Oxford emendation is harmless and useless.

1.ii.321 (275,6)

[But I cannot Believe this crack to be in my dread mistress, So sovereignly being honourable. _Leo_. I have lov'd thee--Make that thy question, and go rot!]

[Theobald had emended the text to give the words "I have lov'd thee" to Leontes] I have admitted this alteration, as Dr. Warburton has done, but am not convinced that it is necessary. Camillo, desirous to defend the queen, and willing to secure credit to his apology, begins, by telling the king that he _has loved him_, is about to give instances of his love, and to infer from them his present zeal, when he is interrupted.

I.ii.394 (278,7) [In whose success we are gentle] I know not whether _success_ here does not mean _succession_.

I.ii.424 (279,1) [_Cam_. Swear this thought over By each particular star in heaven] [T: this though] _Swear his thought over_

May however perhaps mean, _overswear his present persuasion_, that is, endeavour to _overcome his opinion_, by swearing oaths numerous as the stars. (1773)

I.ii.458 (281,3) [Good expedition be my friend, and comfort The gracious queen] [W: queen's] Dr. Warburton's conjecture is, I think, just; but what shall be done with the following words, of which I can make nothing? Perhaps the line which connected them to the rest, is lost.

--_and comfort The gracious queen, part of his theme, but nothing Of his ill-ta'en suspicion!_

Jealousy is a passion compounded of love and suspicion, this passion is the theme or subject of the king's thoughts.--Polixenes, perhaps, wishes the queen, for her comfort, so much of that _theme_ or subject as is good, but deprecates that which causes misery. May part of the king's present sentiments comfort the queen, but away with his suspicion. This is such meaning as can be picked out. (1773)

II.i.38 (283,4) [Alack, for lesser knowledge!] That is, _O that my knowledge were less_.

II.i.50 (284,5) [He hath discover'd my design, and I Remain a pinch'd thing] [_Revisal_: The sense, I think, is, He hath now discovered my design, and I am treated as a mere child's baby, a thing pinched out of clouts, a puppet for them to move and actuate as they please.] This sense is possible, but many other meanings might serve as well. (1773)

II.i.100 (286,7)

[No, if I mistake In these foundations which I build upon, The center is not big enough to bear A school-boy's top]

That is, if the proofs which I can offer will not support the opinion I have formed, no foundation can be trusted.

II.i.104 (286,8) [He, who shall speak for her, is far off guilty, But that he speaks] [T: far of] It is strange that Mr. Theobald could not find out that _far_ off _guilty_, signifies, _guilty in a remote degree_.

II.i.121 (287,9) [this action] The word _action_ is here taken in the lawyer's sense, for _indictment, charge_, or _accusation_.

II.i.143 (288,2) [land-damn him] Sir T. Hammer interprets, _stop his urine_. _Land_ or _lant_ being the old word for _urine_.

_Land-damn_ is probably one of those words which caprice brought into fashion, and which, after a short time, reason and grammar drove irrecoverably away. It perhaps meant no more than I will _rid the country_ of him; _condemn_ him to quit the _land_, (see 1765, II,259,2)

II.i.177 (290,5) [nought for approbation, But only seeing] _Approbation_, in this place, is put for _proof_.

II.i.185 (290,6) [stuff'd sufficiency] That is, of abilities more than enough.

II.i.195 (291,7) [Left that the treachery of the two, fled hence, Be left her to perform] He has before declared, that there is a _plot against his life and crown_, and that Hermione is _federary_ with Polixenes and Camillo.

II.iii.5 (294,9) [out of the blank And level of my brain] Beyond the _aim_ of any attempt that I can make against him. _Blank_ and _level_ are terms of archery.

II.iii.60 (296,1) [And would by combat make her good, so were I A man, the worst about you] The _worst_ means only the _lowest_. Were I the meanest of your servants, I would yet claim the combat against any accuser.

II.iii.67 (297,2) [A mankind witch:] A _mankind_ woman, is yet used in the midland counties, for a woman violent, ferocious, and mischievous. It has the same sense in this passage. Witches are supposed to be _mankind_, to put off the softness and delicacy of women, therefore Sir Hugh, in the _Merry Wives of Windsor,_ says, of a woman inspected to be a witch, _that he does not like when a woman has a beard._ Of this meaning Mr. Theobald has given examples.

II.iii.77 (298, 5)

[Unvenerable be thy hands, if thou Tak'st up the princess, by that forced baseness]

Leontes had ordered Antigonus to _take up the bastard,_ Paulina forbids him to touch the princess under that appellation. _Forced_ is false, uttered with violence to truth.

II.iii.106 (299, 6) [No yellow in't] _Yellow_ is the colour of jealousy.

II.iii.181 (301, 8) [commend it strangely to some place] Commit to some place, _as a stranger,_ without more provision.

III.i.2 (302, 9) [Fertile the isle] [Warburton objected to "isle" as impossible geographically and offered "soil"] Shakespeare is little careful of geography. There is no need of this emendation in a play of which the whole plot depends upon a geographical error, by which Bohemia is supposed to be a maritime country.

III.i.3 (303, 1) [I shall report, For most it caught me] [W: It shames report, Foremost] Of this emendation I see no reason; the utmost that can be necessary is, to change, _it caught me,_ to _they caught me;_ but even this may well enough be omitted. _It_ may relate to the whole spectacle.

III.i.14 (304, 2) [The time is worth the use on't] [W: The use is worth the time on't] Either reading may serve, but neither is very elegant. _The time is worth the use on't,_ means, the time which we have spent in visiting Delos, has recompensed us for the trouble of so spending it.

III.ii.18 (305, 4) [pretence] Is, in this place, taken for a _scheme laid,_ a _design formed;_ to _pretend_ means to _design,_ in the _Gent. of Verona._

III.ii.27 (305, 5) [mine integrity, Being counted falsehood, shall, as I express it, Be so receiv'd] That is, my _virtue_ being accounted _wickedness,_ my assertion of it will pass but for a _lie. Falsehood_ means both _treachery_ and _lie._

III.ii.43 (306, 6) [For life I prize it As I weigh grief which I would spare] _Life_ is to me now only _grief,_ and as such only is considered by me, I would therefore willingly dismiss it.

III.ii.44 (306, 5) [I would spare] To _spare_ any thing is to _let it go. to quit the possession of it._ (1773)

III.ii.49 (306, 7)

[Since he came, With what encounter so uncurrent I Have strain'd, to appear thus?]

These lines I do not understand; with the license of all editors, what I cannot understand I suppose unintelligible, and therefore propose that they may be altered thus,

_Since he came, With what encounter so uncurrent_ have I _Been_ stain'd _to appear thus_.

At least I think it might be read,

_With what encounter so uncurrent have I Strain'd to appear thus? If one Jet beyond_. (see 1765, II,276,5)

III.ii.55 (307,8)

[I ne'er heard yet, That any of those bolder vices wanted Less impudence to gain--say what they did, Than to perform it first]

It is apparent that according to the proper, at least according to the present, use of words, _less_ should be _more_, or _wanted_ should be _had_. But Shakespeare is very uncertain in his use of negatives. It nay be necessary once to observe, that in our language two negatives did not originally affirm, but strengthen the negation. This mode of speech was in time changed, but as the change was made in opposition to long custom, it proceeded gradually, and uniformity was not obtained but through an intermediate confusion.

III.ii.82 (308,9) [My life stands in the level of your dreams] To be _in the level_ is by a metaphor from archery _to be within the reach_.

III.ii.85 (308,1) [As you were past all shame, (Those of your fact are so) [so past all truth] I do not remember that _fact_ is used any where absolutely for _guilt_, which must be its sense in this place. Perhaps we may read,

_Those of your_ pack _are so_.

_Pack_ is a low coarse word well suited to the rest of this royal invective.