Chapter 3

General Observation (100) It is observed of _The Tempest_, that its plan is regular; this the author of _The Revisal_ thinks, what I think too, an accidental effect of the story, not intended or regarded by our author. But whatever might be Shakespeare's intention in forming or adopting the plot, he has made it instrumental to the production of many characters, diversified with boundless invention, and preserved with profound skill in nature, extensive knowledge of opinions, and accurate observation of life. In a single drama are here exhibited princes, courtiers, and sailors, all speaking in their real characters. There is the agency of airy spirits, and of an earthly goblin. The operation of magick, the tumults of a storm, the adventures of a desert island, the native effusion of untaught affection, the punishment of guilt, and the final happiness of the pair for whom our passions and reason are equally interested. (1773)

THE TWO GENTLEMEN OF VERONA

It is observable (I know not for what cause) that the stile of this comedy is less figurative, and more natural and unaffected than the greater part of this author's, though supposed to be one of the first he wrote. [Pope.] To this observation of Mr. Pope, which is very just, Mr. Theobald has added, that this is one of Shakespeare's _worst plays, and is less corrupted than any other_. Mr. Upton peremptorily determines, _that if any proof can be drawn from manner and stile, this play must be sent packing, and seek for its parent elsewhere. How otherwise_, says he, _do painters distinguish copies from originals, and have not authors their peculiar stile and manner from which a true critic can form as unerring judgment as a painter_? I am afraid this illustration of a critic's science will not prove what is desired. A painter knows a copy from an original by rules somewhat resembling these by which critics know a translation, which if it be literal, and literal it must be to resemble the copy of a picture, will be easily distinguished. Copies are known from originals, even when the painter copies his own picture; so if an author should literally translate his work, he would lose the manner of an original.

Mr. Upton confounds the copy of a picture with the imitation of a painter's manner. Copies are easily known, but good imitations are not detected with equal certainty, and are, by the best judges, often mistaken. Nor is it true that the writer has always peculiarities equally distinguishable with those of the painter. The peculiar manner of each arises from the desire, natural to every performer, of facilitating his subsequent works by recurrence to his former ideas; this recurrence produces that repetition which is called habit. The painter, whose work is partly intellectual and partly manual, has habits of the mind, the eye and the hand, the writer has only habits of the mind. Yet, some painters have differed as much from themselves as from any other; and I have been told, that there is little resemblance between the first works of Raphael and the last. The same variation may be expected in writers; and if it be true, as it seems, that they are less subject to habit, the difference between their works may be yet greater.

But by the internal marks of a composition we may discover the author with probability, though seldom with certainty. When I read this play, I cannot but think that I find, both in the serious and ludicrous scenes, the language and sentiments of Shakespeare. It is not indeed one of his most powerful effusions, it has neither many diversities of character, nor striking delineations of life, but it abounds in [Greek: gnomahi] beyond most of his plays, and few have more lines or passages, which, singly considered, are eminently beautiful. I am yet inclined to believe that it was not very successful, and suspect that it has escaped corruption, only because being seldom played, it was less exposed to the hazards of transcription.

I.i.34 (108,6)

[However, but a folly bought with wit; Or else a wit by folly vanquished]

This love will end in a _foolish action_, to produce which you are long to spend your _wit_, or it will end in the loss of your _wit_, which will be overpowered by the folly of love.

I.i.69 (109,7) [Made wit with musing weak] For _made_ read _make_. _Thou_, Julia, _hast_ made _me war with good counsel, and_ make _wit weak with muting_.

I.i.70 (109,8) [_Enter Speed_] [Pope found this scene low and full of "trifling conceits" and suggested it was possibly an interpolation by the actors.] That this, like many other scenes, is mean and vulgar, will be universally allowed; but that it was interpolated by the players seems advanced without any proof, only to give a greater licence to criticism.

I.i.153 (112,4) [you have testern'd me] You have gratified me with a _tester, testern_, or _testen_, that is, with a sixpence.

I.ii.41 (114,5) [a goodly broker!] A _broker_ was used for matchmaker, sometimes for a procuress.

I.ii.68 (115,6) [stomach on your meat] _Stomach_ was used for _passion_ or _obstinacy_.

I.ii.137 (117,8) [I see you have a month's mind to them] [_A month's mind_ was an _anniversary_ in times of popery. Gray.] A _month's mind_, in the ritual sense, signifies not desire or inclination, but remonstrance; yet I suppose this is the true original of the expression. (1773) I.iii.1 (118,9) [what sad talk] _Sad_ is the same as _grave_ or _serious_.

I.iii.26 (119,2) [Valentine, Attends the emperor in his royal court] [Theobald had tried to straighten out an historical error.] Mr. Theobald discovers not any great skill in history. Vienna is not the court of the emperor as emperor, nor has Milan been always without its princes since the days of Charlemaigne; but the note has its use.

I.iii.44 (120,3) [in good time] _In good time_ was the old expression when something happened which suited the thing in hand, as the French say, _a propos_.

I.iii.84 (121,4) [Oh, how this spring of love resembleth] At the end of this verse there is wanting a syllable, for the speech apparently ends in a quatrain. I find nothing that will rhyme to _sun_, and therefore shall leave it to some happier critic. But I suspect that the author might write thus:

_Oh, how this spring of love resembleth_ right, _The uncertain glory of an April day_; _Which now shews all the glory of the_ light, _And, by and by, a cloud takes all away_.

_Light_ was either by negligence or affectation changed to _sun_, which, considered without the rhyme, is indeed better. The next transcriber, finding that the word _right_ did not rhyme to _sun_, supposed it erroneously written, and left it out.

II.i.27 (123,1) [Hallowmas] That is, about the feast of All-Saints, when winter begins, and the life of a vagrant becomes less comfortable.

II.i.39 (123,2) [without you were so simple, none else would] None else would _be so simple_.

II.i.148 (127,5) [reasoning with yourself?] That is, _discoursing, talking_. An Italianism.

II.iii.22 (129,2) [I am the dog] This passage is much confused, and of confusion the present reading makes no end. Sir T. Hammer reads, _I am the dog, no, the dog is himself and I am_ me, _the dog is_ the dog, _and I am myself_. This certainly is more reasonable, but I know not how much reason the author intended to bestow on Launce's soliloquy.

II.iv.57 (133,1) [not without desert] And not dignified with so much reputation without proportionate merit.

II.iv.115 (134,2) [No: that you are worthless] I have inserted the particle _no_ to fill up the measure.

II.iv.129 (135,4)

[I have done penance for contemning love; Whose high imperious thoughts have punish'd me With bitter fasts, with penitential groans]

For _whose_ I read _those_. I have contemned love and am punished. _Those_ high thoughts by which I exalted myself above human passions or frailties have brought upon me fasts and groans.

II.iv.138 (136,5) [no woe to his correction] No misery that _can be compared to_ the punishment inflicted by love. Herbert called for the prayers of the liturgy a little before his death, saying, _None_ to _them_, _none_ to _them_.

II.iv.152 (136,6) [a principality] The first or _principal_ of women. So the old writers use _state_. _She is a lady, a great_ state. Latymer. _This look is called in_ states _warlie, in others otherwise_. Sir T. More.

II.iv.167 (137,8) [She is alone] She stands by herself. There is none to be compared to her.

II.iv.207 (138,1) [with more advice] With more prudence, with more discretion.

II.iv.209 (138,2) ['Tis but her picture I have yet beheld] This is evidently a slip of attention, for he had seen her in the last scene, and in high terms offered her his service.

II.v.28 (139,4) [My staff understands me] This equivocation, miserable as it is, has been admitted by Milton in his great poem. B. VI.

"----The terms we sent were terms of weight, "Such as we may perceive, amaz'd them all, "And stagger'd many who receives them right, "Had need from head to foot well _understand_, "Not _understood_, this gift they have besides, "To shew us when our foes stand not upright."

II.vi (141,5) [Enter Protheus] It is to be observed, that in the first folio edition, the only edition of authority, there are no directions concerning the scenes; they have been added by the later editors, and may therefore be changed by any reader that can give more consistency or regularity to the drama by such alterations. I make this remark in this place, because I know not whether the following soliloquy of Protheus is so proper in the street.

II.vi.7 (141,6) [O sweet-suggesting love] To _suggest_ is to _tempt_ in our author's language. So again:

"Knowing that tender youth is soon _suggested_."

The sense is, _O_ tempting love, _if thou hast_ influenced me to sin, _teach me to excuse it_. Dr. Warburton reads, _if I have sinn'd_; but, I think, not only without necessity, but with less elegance.

II.vi.35 (142,7) [Myself in counsel, his competitor] _Myself, who am his_ competitor _or_ rival, being admitted to his counsel.

II.vi.37 (142,8) [pretended flight] We may read _intended flight_.

II.vi.43 (142,9) [Love, lend me wings to make my purpose swift, As thou hast lent me wit to plot this drift!] I suspect that the author concluded the act with this couplet, and that the next scene should begin the third act; but the change, as it will add nothing to the probability of the action, is of no great importance.

III.i.45 (146,1) [be not aimed at] Be not _guessed_.

III.i.47 (147,2) [of this pretence] Of this _claim_ made to your daughter.

III.i.86 (148,4) [the fashion of the time] The modes of courtship, the acts by which men recommended themselves to ladies.

III.i.148 (150,5) [for they are sent by me] _For_ is the same as _for that, since_.

III.i.153 (150,6) [why, Phaeton (for thou art Merops' son)] Thou art Phaeton in thy rashness, but without his pretensions; thou art not the son of a divinity, but a _terrae filius_, a low born wretch; Merops is thy true father, with whom Phaeton was falsely reproached.

III.i.185 (151,7) [I fly not death, to fly his deadly doom] _To fly his doom_, used for _by flying_, or _in flying_, is a gallicism. The sense is, By avoiding the execution of his sentence I shall not escape death. If I stay here, I suffer myself to be destroyed; if I go away, I destroy myself.

III.i.261 (153,8) [_Laun_. I am but a fool, look you; and yet I have the wit to think my master is a kind of a knave: but that's all one, if he be but one knave] [W: but one kind] This alteration is acute and specious, yet I know not whether, in Shakespeare's language, _one knave_ may not signify a _knave on only one occasion_, a _single knave_. We still use a _double villain_ for a villain beyond the common rate of guilt.

III.i.265 (154,9) [a team of horse shall not pluck] I see how Valentine suffers for telling his love-secrets, therefore I will keep mine close.

III.i.330 (156,4) [_Speed. Item, she hath a. sweet mouth_] This I take to be the same with what is now vulgarly called a _sweet tooth_, a luxurious desire of dainties and sweetmeats.

III.i.351 (157,5) [_Speed. Item, she will often praise her liquor_] That is, shew how well she likes it by drinking often.

III.i.355 (157,6) [_Speed. Item, she is too liberal_] _Liberal_, is licentious and gross in language. So in _Othello_, "Is he not a profane and very _liberal_ counsellor."

III.ii.7 (158,8) [Trenched in ice] Cut, carved in ice. _Trencher_, to cut, French.

III.ii.36 (159,9) [with circumstance] With the addition of such incidental particulars as may induce belief.

III.ii.51 (160,1)

[Therefore as you unwind her love from him, Lest it should ravel, and be good to none, You must provide to bottom it on me]

As you wind off her love from him, make me the _bottom_ on which you wind it. The housewife's term for a ball of thread wound upon a central body, is a _bottom of thread_.

III.ii.68 (160,2) [lime] That is, _birdlime_.

III.ii.98 (161,4) [_Duke_. Even now about it. I will pardon you] I will excuse you from waiting.

IV.i.36 (163,2) [By the bare scalp of Robin Hood's fat friar] _Robin Hood_ was captain of a band of robbers, and was much inclined to rob churchmen.

IV.i.46 (163,3) [awful men] Reverend, worshipful, such as magistrates, and other principal members of civil communities.

IV.ii.12 (165,1) [sudden quips] That is, hasty passionate reproaches and scoffs. So Macbeth is in a kindred sense said to be _sudden_; that is, irascible and impetuous.

IV.ii.45 (166,2) [_For beauty lives with kindness_] Beauty without kindness _dies_ unenjoyed, and undelighting.

IV.ii.93 (168,4) [You have your wish; my will is even this] The word _will_ is here ambiguous. He wishes to _gain_ her _will_; she tells him, if he wants her _will_ he has it.

IV.ii.130 (169,5) [But, since your falsehood shall become you well] This is hardly sense. We may read, with very little alteration, But since _you're false_, it shall become you well.

IV.iii.37 (171,2) [Madam, I pity much your grievances] Sorrows, sorrowful affections.

IV.iv.13 (172,1) [I would have, as one should say, one that takes upon him to be a dog indeed, to be, as it were, a dog at all things] I believe we should read, _I would have_. &c. _one that takes upon him to be a dog_, to be a dog _indeed, to be_, &c.

IV.iv.79 (174,3) [It seems, you lov'd not her, to leave her token] Protheus does not properly leave his lady's token, he gives it away. The old edition has it,

It seems you lov'd her not, _not_ leave her token.

I should correct it thus,

It seems you lov'd her not, _nor love_ her token.

IV.iv.106 (175,4) [To carry that which I would have refus'd] The sense is, To go and present that which I wish to be not accepted, to praise him whom I wish to be dispraised.

IV.iv.159 (176,5)

[The air hath starv'd the roses in her cheeks, And pinch'd the lily-tincture of her face. That now she is become as black as I]

[W: And pitch'd] This is no emendation; none ever heard of a face being _pitched_ by the weather. The colour of a part _pinched_, is livid, as it is commonly termed, _black and blue_. The weather may therefore be justly said to _pinch_ when it produces the same visible effect. I believe this is the reason why the cold is said to _pinch_.

IV.iv.198 (179,2) [her forehead's low] A high forehead was in our author's time accounted a feature eminently beautiful. So in _The History of Guy of Warwick_, Felice his lady is said to have _the same high forehead as Venus_.

IV.iv.206 (179,3) [My substance should be statue in thy stead] [W: statued] _Statued_ is, I am afraid, a new word, and that it should be received, is not quite evident.

V.i.12 (180,4) [sure enough] _Sure_ is safe, out of danger.

V.iv.71 (185,1) [The private wound is deepest. Oh time, most curst!] I have a little mended the measure. The old edition, and all but Sir T. Hammer, read,

_The private wound is deepest_, _oh time most_ accurst.

V.iv.106 (187,4) [if shame live In a disguise of love] That is, _if it be any shame to wear a disguise for the purposes of love_.

V.iv.126 (187,5) [Come not within the measure of my wrath] The length of my sword, the reach of my anger.

General Observation (189,8) In this play there is a strange mixture of knowledge and ignorance, of care and negligence. The versification is often excellent, the allusions are learned and just; but the author conveys his heroes by sea from one inland town to another in the same country; he places the emperor at Milan, and sends his young men to attend him, but never mentions him more; he makes Protheus, after an interview with Silvia, say he has only seen her picture; and, if we may credit the old copies, he has, by mistaking places, left his scenery inextricable. The reason of all this confusion seems to be, that he took his story from a novel, which he sometimes followed, and sometimes forsook, sometimes remembered, and sometimes forgot.

That this play is rightly attributed to Shakespeare, I have little doubt. If it be taken from him, to whom shall it be given? This question may be asked of all the disputed plays, except _Titus Andronicus_; and it will be found more credible, that Shakespeare might sometimes sink below his highest flights, than that any other should rise up to his lowest. (see 1765, I,259,5)

THE MERRY WIVES OF WINDSOR

I.i.7 (194,4) [_Custalorum_] This it, I suppose, intended for a corruption of _Custos Rotulorum_. The mistake was hardly designed by the author, who, though he gives Shallow folly enough, makes him rather pedantic than illiterate. If we read:

Shal. _Ay, cousin Slender, and_ Custos Rotulorum.

It follows naturally:

Slen. _Ay, and_ Ratalorum _too_.

I.i.22 (194,5) [The luce is the fresh fish; the salt fish is an old coat] I see no consequence in this answer. Perhaps we may read, _the salt fish is_ not _an old coat_. That is, the _fresh fish_ is the coat of an ancient family, and the _salt fish_ is the coat of a merchant grown rich by trading over the sea.

I.i.115 (198,1) [and broke open my lodge] This probably alludes to some real incident, at that time well known.

I.i.121 (198,2) ['Twere better for you, if 'twere not known in council; you'll be laugh'd at] The old copies read, '_Twere better for you, if 'twere known in council_. Perhaps it is an abrupt speech, and must be read thus: '_Twere better for you--if 'twere known in council, you'll be laugh'd at. 'Twere better for you_, is, I believe, a menace.(1773)

I.i.127 (199,3) [coney-catching rascals] A _coney-catcher_ was, in the time of Elizabeth, a common name for a cheat or sharper. Green, one of the first among us who made a trade of writing pamphlets, published _A Detection of the Frauds and Tricks of Coney-catchers and Couzeners_.

I.i.159 (200,6) [Edward shovel-boards] By this term, I believe, are meant brass castors, such as are shoveled on a board, with king Edward's face stamped upon them.

I.i.166 (201,8) [Word of denial in thy Labra's here] I suppose it should rather be read,

_Word of denial in_ my _Labra's_ hear;

that is, _hear_ the word of denial in my _lips. Thou ly'st_.

I.i.170 (201,9) [_marry trap_] When a man was caught in his own stratagem, I suppose the exclamation of insult was _marry, trap_!

I.i.184 (202,3) [and so conclusions pass'd the careires] I believe this strange word is nothing but the French _cariere_; and the expression means, that _the common bounds of good behaviour were overpassed_.

I.i.211 (203,4) [upon Allhallowmas last, a fortnight afore Michaelmas?] [Theobald suspected that Shakespeare had written "Martlemas."] This correction, thus seriously and wisely enforced, is received by Sir Tho. Hammer; but probably Shakespeare intended a blunder.

I.iii.56 (210,7) [The anchor is deep: will that humour pass?] I see not what relation _the anchor_ has to _translation_. Perhaps we may read, _the_ author _is deep_; or perhaps the line is out of its place, and should be inserted lower after Falstaff has said,

Sail like my pinnace to those golden shores.

It may be observed, that in the tracts of that time _anchor_ and _author_ could hardly be distinguished. (see 1765, II,464,7)

I.iii.110 (213,6) [I will possess him with yellowness] _Yellowness_ is jealousy. (1773)

I.iii.III (213,7) [for the revolt of mine is dangerous] I suppose we may read, _the revolt_ of men. Sir T. Hammer reads, _this_ revolt of _mine_. Either may serve, for of the present text I can find no meaning.

I.iv.9 (213,8) [at the latter end of a sea-coal fire] That is, when my master is in bed.

II.i.5 (219,1) [though love use reason for his precisian, he admits him not for his counsellor] Of this word I do not see any meaning that is very apposite to the present intention. Perhaps Falstaff said, _Though love use reason as his_ physician, _he admits him not for his counsellor_. This will be plain sense. Ask not the _reason_ of my love; the business of _reason_ is not to assist love, but to _cure_ it. There may however be this meaning in the present reading. _Though love_, when he would submit to regulation, may _use reason as his precisian_, or director in nice cases, yet when he is only eager to attain his end, he takes not reason for _his counsellor_. (1773)

II.i.27 (220,2) [I was then frugal of my mirth] By breaking this speech into exclamations, the text may stand; but I once thought it must be read, If _I was_ not _then frugal of my mirth_.

II.i.29 (220,3) [Why, I'll exhibit a bill in the parliament for the putting down of men] [T: of fat men] [W: of mum] I do not see that any alteration is necessary; if it were, either of the foregoing conjectures might serve the turn. But surely Mrs. Ford may naturally enough, in the first heat of her anger, rail at the sex for the fault of one.

II.i.52 (222,4) [These knights will hack, and so thou shouldst not alter the article of thy gentry] [W: lack] Upon this passage the learned editor has tried his strength, in my opinion, with more spirit than success.

I read thus--_These knights_ we'll _hack, and so thou shouldest not alter the article of thy gentry_. The punishment of a recreant or undeserving knight, was to _hack_ off his spurs: the meaning therefore is; it is not worth the while of a gentlewoman to be made a knight, for we'll degrade all these knights in a little time, by the usual form of _hacking_ off their spurs, and thou, if thou art knighted, shalt be hacked with the rest.

II.i.79 (223,5) [for he cares not what he puts into the press] Press is used ambiguously, for a _press_ to print, and a _press_ to squeeze.

II.i.114 (224,7) [curtail-dog] That is, a dog that misses hie game. The tail is counted necessary to the agility of a greyhound; and one method of disqualifying a dog, according to the forest laws, is to cut his tail, or make him a _curtail_. (see 1765, II,477,+)

II.i.128 (225,9) [Away, Sir corporal Nym.--Believe it, Page, he speaks sense] Nym, I believe, is out of place, and we should read thus:

_Away, Sir corporal._ Nym. _Believe it. Page, he speaks sense._

II.i.135 (225,1) [I have a sword, and it shall bite upon my necessity.--He loves your wife] [V: bite--upon my necessity, he] I do not see the difficulty of this passage: no phrase is more common than--_you may_, upon a need, _thus_. Nym, to gain credit, says, that he is above the mean office of carrying love-letters; he has nobler means of living; _he has a sword, and upon his necessity_, that is, _when his need drives him to unlawful expedients_, his sword _shall bite_.