Chapter 6

III.ii.51 (81,1) [what say'st thou to this tune, matter and method? Is't not drown'd i' the last rain?] [W: It's not down i' the last reign] Dr. Warburton's emendation is ingenious, but I know not whether the sense may not be restored with less change. Let us consider it. Lucio, a prating fop, meets his old friend going to prison, and pours out upon him his impertinent interrogatories, to which, when the poor fellow makes no answer, he adds, _What reply? ha? what say'st thou to this? tune, matter, and method,--is't not? drown'd i' th' last rain? ha? what say'st thou, trot_? &c. It is a common phrase used in low raillery of a man crest-fallen and dejected, that _he looks like a drown'd puppy_, Lucio, therefore, asks him, whether he was _drowned in the last rain_, and therefore cannot speak.

III.ii.52 (82,2) [what say'st thou, trot?] _Trot_, or as it is now often pronounced, honest _trout_, is a familiar address to a man among the provincial vulgar. (1773)

III.ii.54 (82,3) [Which is the way?] _What is the_ mode _now_?

III.ii.59 (82,4) [in the tub] The method of cure for veneral complaints is grosly celled the _powdering tub_.

III.ii.89 (83,6) [Go--to kennel, Pompey--go] It should be remembered, that Pompey is the common name of a dog, to which allusion is made in the mention of a _kennel_. (1773)

III.ii.135 (85,9) [clack-dish] The beggars, two or three centuries ago, used to proclaim their wont by a wooden dish with a moveable cover, which they clacked to shew that their vessel was empty. This appears in a passage quoted on another occasion by Dr. Gray, (see 1765, I,331,9 and the note in the 1765 Appendix)

III.ii.144 (86,1) [The greater file of the subject] The larger list, the greater number.

III.ii.193 (87,5) [He's now past it] Sir Thomas Hammer, _He is not past it yet_. This emendation was received in the former edition, but seems not necessary. It were to be wished, that we all explained more, and amended less. (see 1765, I,333,5)

III.ii.277 (90,9)

[Pattern in himself to know, Grace to stand, and virtue go]

These lines I cannot understand, but believe that they should be read thus:

Patterning _himself to know_, In _grace to stand_, in _virtue go_;

To _pattern_ is _to work after a pattern_, and, perhaps, in Shakespeare's licentious diction, simply to work. The sense is, _he that bears the sword of heaven should be holy as well as severe; one that after good examples labours to know himself, to live with innocence, and to act with virtue_.

III.ii.294 (91,5)

[So disguise shall, by the disguis'd Pay with falshood false exacting]

So _disguise_ shall by means of a person _disguised_, return an _injurious demand_ with a _counterfeit person_.

IY.i.13 (93,4) [My mirth it much displeas'd, but pleas'd my woe] Though the musick soothed my sorrows, it had no tendency to produce light merriment.

IV.i.21 (93,5) [constantly] Certainly; without fluctuation of mind.

IV.i.28 (93,6) [circummur'd with brick] _Circummured_, walled round. _He caused the doors to be_ mured _and cased up_.

Painter's Palace of Pleasure.

IV.i.40 (94,7) [In action all of precept] I rather think we should read,

_In precept all of action_,--

that is, _in direction given not by words, but by mute signs_.

IV.i.44 (94,8) [I have possess'd him] I have made him clearly and strongly comprehend.

IV.i.60 (95,9) [O place and greatness] [It plainly appears, that _this_ fine speech belongs to _that_ which concludes the preceding scene, between the Duke and Lucio.... But that some time might be given to the two women to confer together, the players, I suppose, took part of the speech, beginning at _No might nor greatness_, &c. and put it here, without troubling themselves about its pertinency. Warburton.] I cannot agree that these lines are placed here by the players. The sentiments are common, and such as a prince, given to reflection, must have often present. There was a necessity to fill up the time in which the ladies converse apart, and they must have quick tongues and ready apprehensions, if they understood each other while this speech was uttered.

IV.i.60 (95,1) [false eyes] That is, Eyes insidious and traiterous.

IV.i.62 (95,2) [contrarious quests] Different reports, _running counter_ to each other.

IV.i.76 (96,4) [for yet our tithe's to sow] [W: tilth] The reader is here attacked with a pretty sophism. We should read _tilth_, i.e. our _tillage is to make_. But in the text it is _to sow_; and who has ever said that his _tillage_ was to _sow_? I believe _tythe_ is right, and that the expression is proverbial, in which _tithe_ is taken, by an easy metonymy, for _harvest_.

IV.ii.69 (100,7) [ As fast lock'd up in sleep, as guiltless labour When it lies starkly in the traveller's bones ] Stiffly. These two lines afford a very pleasing image.

IV.ii.83 (101,1) [Even with the stroke] _Stroke_ is here put for the _stroke_ of a pen or a line.

IV.ii.86 (101,2) [To qualify] To temper, to moderate, as we say wine is _qualified_ with water.

IV.ii.86 (101,3) [Were he meal'd] Were he sprinkled; were he defiled, A figure of the same kind our authour uses in _Macbeth_, _The_ blood-bolter'd _Banquo._

IV.ii.91 (101,4) [that spirit's possess'd with haste, That wounds the unresisting postern with these strokes] The line is irregular, and the _unresisting postern_ so strange an expression, that want of measure, and want of sense, might justly raise suspicion of an errour, yet none of the later editors seem to have supposed the place faulty, except sir Tho. Hammer, who reads,

_the_ unresting _postern_.

The three folio's have it,

_unsisting postern_,

out of which Mr. Rowe made _unresisting_, and the rest followed him. Sir Thomas Hammer seems to have supposed _unresisting_ the word in the copies, from which he plausibly enough extracted _unresting_, but be grounded his emendation on the very syllable that wants authority. What can be made of _unsisting_ I know not; the best that occurs to me is _unfeeling_.

IV.ii.103 (103,6) [_Duke_. This is his lordship's man. _Prov_. And here comes Claudio's pardon]

[Tyrwhitt suggested that the names of the speakers were misplaced] When, immediately after the Duke had hinted his expectation of a pardon, the Provost sees the Messenger, he supposes the Duke to to have _known something_, and changes his mind. Either reading may serve equally well. (1773)

IV.ii.153 (104,7) [desperately mortal] This expression is obscure. Sir Thomas Hammer reads, _mortally desperate_. _Mortally_ is in low conversation used in this sense, but I know not whether it was ever written. I am inclined to believe, that _desperately mortal_ means _desperately mischievous_. Or _desperately mortal_ may mean a man likely to die in a _desperate_ state, without reflection or repentance. (see 1765, I,348,7)

IV.ii.187 (106,8) [and tie the beard] A beard tied would give a very new air to that face, which had never been seen but with the beard loose, long, and squalid. (1773)

IV.iii.4 (107,2) [First, here's young master Rash] This enumeration of the inhabitants of the prison affords a very striking view of the practices predominant in Shakespeare's age. Besides those whose follies are common to all times, we have four fighting men and a traveller. It is not unlikely that the originals of the pictures were then known.

IV.iii.17 (108,4) [master Forthlight] Should not _Forthlight_ be _Forthright_, alluding to the line in which the thrust is made? (1773)

IV.iii.21 (108,6) [in for the Lord's sake] [i.e. to beg for the rest of their lives. Warburton.] I rather think this expression intended to ridicule the puritans, whose turbulence and indecency often brought them to prison, and who considered themselves as suffering for religion.

It is not unlikely that men imprisoned for other crimes, might represent themselves to casual enquirers, as suffering for puritanism, and that this might be the common cant of the prisons. In Donne's time, every prisoner was brought to jail by suretiship.

IV.iii.68 (110,7) [After him, fellows] Here was a line given to the Duke, which belongs to the Provost. The Provost, while the Duke is lamenting the obduracy of the prisoner, cries out,

_After him, fellows_, &c.

and, when they are gone out, turns again to the Duke.

IV.iii.72 (110,8) [to transport him] To remove him from one world to another. The French _trepas_ affords a kindred sense.

IV.iii.115 (112,1) [I will keep her ignorant of her good, To make her heavenly comforts of despair, When least it is expected.]

A better reason might have been given. It was necessary to keep Isabella in ignorance, that she might with more keenness accuse the deputy.

IV.iii.139 (113,2) [your bosom] Your wish; your heart's desire.

IV.iii.149 (113,3) [I am combined by a sacred vow] I once thought this should be _confined_, but Shakespeare uses _combine_ for to _bind by a pact or agreement_, so he calls Angelo the _combinate_ husband of Mariana.

IV.iii.163 (113,4) [if the old fantastical duke] Sir Thomas Hammer reads, _the_ odd _fantastical duke_, but _old_ is a common word of aggravation in ludicrous language, as, _there was_ old _revelling_.

IV.iii.170 (114,5) [woodman] That is, _huntsman_, here taken for a _hunter of girls_.

IV.iv.19 (115,6) [sort and suit] Figure and rank.

IV.iv.27 (115,7) [Yet reason dares her No] Mr. Theobald reads,

--_Yet reason dares her_ note.

Sir Thomas Hammer,

--_Yet reason dares her: No._

Mr. Upton,

--_Yet reason dares her--No_,

which he explains thus: _Yet_, says Angelo, _reason will give her courage_--_No_, that is, _it will not_. I am afraid _dare_ has no such signification. I have nothing to offer worth insertion.

IV.iv.28 (116,8)

[For my authority bears a credent bulk; That no particular scandal once can touch]

_Credent_ is _creditable, inforcing credit, not questionable_. The old English writers often confound the active and passive adjectives. So Shakespeare, and Milton after him, use _inexpressive_ from inexpressible.

_Particular_ is _private_, a French sense. No scandal from any _private_ mouth can reach a man in my authority.

IV.iv.36 (116,9) [Nothing goes right; we would, and we would not] Here undoubtedly the act should end, and was ended by the poet; for here is properly a cessation of action, and a night intervenes, and the place is changed, between the passages of this scene, and those of the next. The next act beginning with the following scene, proceeds without any interruption of time or change of place.

IV.v.1 (117,1) [_Duke_. These letters at fit time deliver me] Peter never delivers the letters, but tells his story without any credentials. The poet forgot the plot which he had formed.

IV.vi.4 (118,2) [He says, to vail full purpose] [T: t'availful] [Warburton had explained "full" as "beneficial."] _To vail full_ purpose, may, with very little force on the words, mean, _to hide_ _the whole extent of our design_, and therefore the reading may stand; yet I cannot but think Mr. Theobald's alteration either lucky or ingenious. To interpret words with such laxity, as to make _full_ the sane with _beneficial_, is to put an end, at once, to all necessity of emendation, for any word may then stand in the place of another.

IV.vi.9 (118,3) [_Enter Peter_] This play has two Friars, either of whom might singly have served. I should therefore imagine, that Friar Thomas, in the first act, might be changed, without any harm, to Friar Peter; for why should the Duke unnecessarily trust two in an affair which required only one. The none of Friar Thomas is never mentioned in the dialogue, and therefore seems arbitrarily placed at the head of the scene.

IV.vi.14 (119,4) [Have bent the gates] Have taken possession of the gates, (rev. 1778, II,134,4)

V.i.20 (120,5) [vail your regard] That is, withdraw your thoughts from higher things, let your notice descend upon a wronged woman. To _vail_, is to lower.

V.i.45 (121,6) [truth is truth To the end of reckoning] That is, truth has no gradations; nothing which admits of encrease can be so much what it is, as _truth_ is _truth_. There may be a _strange_ thing, and a thing _more strange_, but if a proposition be _true_, there can be none _more true_.

V.i.54 (121,7) [as shy, as grave, as just, as absolute] _As shy_; as reserved, as abstracted: _as just_; as nice, as exact: _as absolute_; as complete in all the round of duty.

V.i.56 (121,8) [In all his dressings] In all his semblance of virtue, in all his habiliments of office.

V.i.64 (122,1) [do not banish reason For inequality] Let not the high quality of my adversary prejudice you against me.

V.i.104 (124,4) [Oh, that it were as like, as it is true!] [Warburton had explained "like" as "seemly."] _Like_ I have never found for _seemly_.

V.i.107 (124,8) [In hateful practice] _Practice_ was used by the old writers for any unlawful or insidious stratagem. So again,

_This must needs be_ practice:

and again,

_Let me have way to find this_ practice _out_.

V.i.145 (125,6) [nor a temporary medler] It is hard to know what is meant by a _temporary_ medler. In its usual sense, as opposed to _perpetual_, it cannot be used here. It may stand for _temporal_: the sense will then be, _I know him for a holy man, one that meddles not with_ secular _affairs_. It may mean _temporising_: I know him to be a holy man, one who would not_ temporise, _or take the opportunity of your absence to defame you_. Or we may read,

_Not scurvy, nor a_ tamperer and _medler_:

not one who would bare _tampered_ with this woman to make her a false evidence against your deputy.

V.i.160 (126,8) [So vulgarly and personally accus'd] Meaning either so _grosly_, with such _indecency_ of invective, or by so _mean_ and inadequate witnesses.

V.i.205 (128,2) [This is a strange abuse] _Abuse_ stands in this place for _deception_, or _puzzle_. So in _Macbeth_,

_This strange and self_ abuse,

means, _this strange_ deception _of himself_.

V.i.219 (129,3) [her promised proportions Came short of composition] Her fortune, which was promised _proportionate_ to mine, fell short of the _composition_, that is, contract or bargain.

V.i.236 (129,4) [These poor informal women] I once believed _informal_ had no other or deeper signification than _informing, accusing_. The _scope_ of justice, is the full extent; but think, upon farther enquiry, that _informal_ signifies _incompetent, not qualified to give testimony_. Of this use there are precedents to be found, though I cannot now recover them.

V.i.245 (130,5) [That's seal'd in approbation?] Then any thing subject to counterfeits is tried by the proper officers and approved, a stamp or _seal_ is put upon it, as among us on plate, weights, and measures. So the Duke says, that Angela's faith has been tried, _approved_, and _seal'd_ in testimony of that _approbation_, and, like other things so _sealed_, is no more to be called in question.

V.i.255 (131,6) [to hear this matter forth] To hear it to the end; to search it to the bottom.

V.i.303 (132,4) [to retort your manifest appeal] To _refer back_ to Angelo and the cause in which you _appealed_ from Angelo to the Duke.

V.i.317 (133,5) [his subject I am not, Nor here provincial] Nor here _accountable_. The meaning seems to be, I am not one of his natural subjects, nor of any dependent province.

V.i.323 (133,6) [the forfeits in a barber's shop] [Warburton had explained that a list of forfeitures were posted in barber shops to warn patrons to keep their hands off the barber's surgical instruments.] This explanation may serve till a better is discovered. But whoever has seen the instruments of a chirurgeon, knows that they may be very easily kept out of improper hands in a very small box, or in his pocket.

V.i.336 (134,7) [And was the duke a fleshmonger, a fool, and a coward, as you then reported him to be?] So again afterwards,

_You, sirrah, that know me for a fool, a_ coward, _One of all luxury_--

But Lucio had not, in the former conversation, mentioned _cowardice_ among the faults of the duke.--Such failures of memory are incident to writers more diligent than this poet.

V.i.359 (135,8) [show your sheep-biting face, and be hang'd an hour' Will't not off?] This is intended to be the common language of vulgar indignation. Our phrase on such occasions is simply; _show your sheep-biting face, and be hanged_. The words _an hour_ have no particular use here, nor are authorised by custom. I suppose it was written thus, _show your sheep-biting face, and be hanged--an' how? wilt not off_? In the midland counties, upon any unexpected obstruction or resistance, it is common to exclaim _an' how_?

V.i.388 (136,9) [Advertising, and holy] Attentive and faithful.

V.i.393 (136,l) [be you as free to us] Be as _generous_ to us, pardon us as we have pardoned you.

V.i.401 (136,2) [That brain'd my purpose] We now use in conversation a like phrase. _This it was that knocked my design on the head_. Dr. Warburton reads,

--baned _my purpose_.

V.i.413 (137,3) [even from his proper tongue] Even from Angelo's _own tongue_. So above.

_In the witness of his_ proper _ear To call him villain._

V.i.438 (138,5) [Against all sense you do importune her] The meaning required is, against all reason and natural affection; Shakespeare, therefore, judiciously uses a single word that implies both; _sense_ signifying both reason and affection.

V.i.452 (139,6) ['Till he did look on me] The duke has justly observed that Isabel is _importuned against all sense_ to solicit for Angelo, yet here _against all sense_ she solicits for him. Her argument is extraordinary.

_A due sincerity govern'd his deeds, 'Till he did look on me; since it is so. Let him not die._

That Angelo had committed all the crimes charged against him, as far as he could commit them, is evident. The only _intent_ which _his_ act did not overtake, was the defilement of Isabel. Of this Angelo was only intentionally guilty.

Angela's crimes were such, as must sufficiently justify punishment, whether its end be to secure the innocent from wrong, or to deter guilt by example; and I believe every reader feels some indignation when he finds him spared. From what extenuation of his crime, can Isabel, who yet supposes her brother dead, form any plea in his favour. _Since he was good 'till he looked on me, let him not die_. I am afraid our varlet poet intended to inculcate, that women think ill of nothing that raises the credit of their beauty, and are ready, however virtuous, to pardon any act which they think incited by their own charms.

V.i.488 (140,7) [But, for those earthly faults, I quit them all] Thy faults, so far as they are punishable on earth, so far as they are cognisable by temporal power, I forgive.

V.i.499 (141,8) [By this, lord Angelo perceives he's safe] It is somewhat strange, that Isabel is not made to express either gratitude, wonder or joy at the sight of her brother.

V.i.501 (141,9) [your evil quits you well] _Quits you_, recompenses, requites you.

V.i.502 (141,1) [Look, that you love your wife; her worth, worth yours] Sir T. Hammer reads,

_Her worth_ works _yours_.

This reading is adopted by Dr. Warburton, but for what reason? How does her _worth work Angelo's worth_? it has only contributed to _work_ his pardon. The words are, as they are too frequently, an affected gingle, but the sense is plain. _Her worth, worth yours_; that is, her value is equal to your value, the match is not unworthy of you.

V.i.504 (141,2) [And yet here's one in place I cannot pardon] After the pardon of two murderers, Lucio might be treated by the good duke with less harshness; but perhaps the poet intended to show, what is too often seen, _that men easily forgive wrongs which are not committed against themselves_.

V.i.509 (142,3) [according to the trick] To my custom, my habitual practice.

V.i.526 (142,4) [thy other forfeits] Thy other punishments.

V.i.534 (142,5) [Thanks, good friend Escalus, for thy much goodness] I have always thought that there is great confusion in this concluding speech. If my criticism would not be censured as too licentious, I should regulate it thus,

_Thanks, good friend Escalus, for thy much goodness. Thanks. Provost, for thy care and secrecy; We shall employ thee in a worthier place. Forgive him, Angelo, that brought you home The head of Ragozine for Claudio's. _Ang_. _Th' offence pardons itself_. _Duke_, _There's more behind That is more gratulate. Dear Isabel, I have a motion_,&c,

V.i.545 (143,6) General Observation The novel of Cynthio Giraldi, from which Shakespeare is supposed to have borrowed this fable, may be read in _Shakespeare illustrated_, elegantly translated, with remarks which will assist the enquirer to discover how much absurdity Shakespeare has admitted or avoided. I cannot but suspect that some other had new-modelled the novel of Cynthio, or written a story which in some particulars resembled it, and that Cynthio was not the authour whom Shakespeare immediately followed. The emperour in Cynthio is named Maximine; the duke, in Shakespeare's enumeration of the persons of the drama, is called Vincentio. This appears a very slight remark; but since the duke has no name in the play, nor is ever mentioned but by his title, why should he be called Vincentio among the _persons_, but because the name was copied from the story, and placed superfluously at the head of the list by the mere habit of transcription? It is therefore likely that there was then a story of Vincentio duke of Vienna, different from that of Maximine emperour of the Romans.

Of this play the light or comick part is very natural and pleasing, but the grave scenes, if a few passages be excepted, have more labour than elegance. The plot is rather intricate than artful. The time of the action is indefinite; some time, we know not how much, must have elapsed between the recess of the duke and the imprisonment of Claudio; for he must have learned the story of Mariana in his disguise, or he delegated his power to a man already known to be corrupted. The unities of action and place are sufficiently preserved.

THE COMEDY OF ERRORS

I.ii.96 (155,3) [o'er-raught] That is, _over-reached_.

I.ii.98 (156,5)

[As, nimble jugglers, that deceive the eye, Dark-working sorcerers, that change the mind, Soul-killing witches, that deform the body]

[W: Drug-working] The learned commentator has endeavoured with much earnestness to recommend his alteration; but, if I may judge of other apprehensions by my own, without great success. This interpretation of _soul-killing_ is forced and harsh. Sir T. Hammer reads _soul-selling_, agreeable enough to the common opinion, but without such improvement as may justify the change. Perhaps the epithets have only been misplaced, and the lines should be read thus,

Soul-killing _sorcerers, that change the mind_; Dark-working _witches that deform the body_.

This change seems to remove all difficulties.

By _soul-killing_ I understand destroying the rational faculties by such means as make men fancy themselves beasts.

I.ii.102 (157,6) [liberties of sin] Sir T. Hammer reads, _libertines_, which, as the author has been enumerating not acts but persons, seems right.

II.i.30 (158,8) [How if your husband start some other where?] I cannot but think, that our authour wrote,

--_start some other_ hare?

So in _Much ado about Nothing_, Cupid is said to be _a good hare-finder_. II.i.32 (159,9) [tho' she pause] To _pause_ is to rest, to be in quiet.

II.i.41 (159,1) [fool-begg'd] She seems to mean, by _fool-begg'd patience_, that patience which is so near to _idiotical simplicity_, that your next relation would take advantage from it to represent you as a _fool_, and _beg_ the guardianship of your fortune.