Chapter 11

IV.i.78 (94,7) We'll not commend what we intend to sell] I believe the meaning is only this: though you practise the buyer's art, we will not practise the seller's. We intend to sell Helen dear, yet will not commend her.

IV.ii.62 (96,4) My matter is so rash] My business is so _hasty_ and so abrupt.

IV.ii.74 (97,6) the secrets of neighbour Pandar] [Pope had emended the Folio's "secrets of nature" to the present reading] Mr. Pope's reading is in the old quarto. So great is the necessity of collation.

IV.iv.3 (99,1) The grief] The folio reads,

The grief is fine, full perfect, that I taste, And no less in a sense as strong As that which causeth it.--

The quarto otherwise,

The grief is fine, full, perfect, that I taste, And _violenteth_ in a sense as strong As that which causeth it.--

_Violenteth_ is a word with which I am not acquainted, yet perhaps it may be right. The reading of the text is without authority.

IV.iv.65 (101,3) For I will throw my glove to death] That is, I will _challenge_ death himself in defence of thy fidelity.

IV.iv.105 (103,5)

While others fish, with craft, for great opinion, I, with great truth, catch mere simplicity.]

The meaning, I think, is, _while others_, by their art, gain high estimation, I, by honesty, obtain a plain simple approbation.

IV.iv.109 (103,6) the moral of my wit/Is, _plain and true_] That is, the _governing principle of my understanding_; but I rather think we should read,

--the _motto_ of my wit Is, plain and true,--

IV.iv.114 (103,7) possess thee what she is] I will _make thee fully understand_. This sense of the word _possess_ is frequent in our author.

IV.iv.134 (104,9) I'll answer to my list] This, I think, is right, though both the old copies read _lust_.

IV.v.8 (105,1) bias cheek] Swelling out like the bias of a bowl.

IV.v.37 (106,3) I'll make my match to live./The kiss you take is better than you give] I will make such _bargains_ as I may live by, _such as may bring me profit_, therefore will not take a worse kiss than I give.

IV.v.48 (107,4) Why, beg then] For the sake of rhime we should read,

Why beg _two_.

If you think kisses worth begging, beg more than one.

IV.v.52 (107,5) Never's my day, and then a kiss of you] I once gave both these lines to Cressida. She bids Ulysses beg a kiss; he asks that he may have it,

When Helen is a maid again--

She tells him that then he shall have it:

When Helen is a maid again--

_Cre._ I am your debtor, claim it when 'tis due; Never's my day, and then a kiss _for_ you.

But I rather think that Ulysses means to slight her, and that the present reading is right.

IV.v.57 (107,6) motive of her body] _Motive_ for _part that contributes to motion_.

IV.v.59 (107,7) a coasting] An amorous address; courtship.

IV.v.62 (107,8) sluttish spoils of opportunity] Corrupt wenches, of whose chastity every opportunity may make a prey.

IV.v.73 (108,9) _Aga._ 'Tis done like Hector, but securely done] [Theobald gave the speech to Achilles] As the old copies agree, I have made no change.

IV.v.79 (108,1) Valour and pride excel themselves in Hector] Shakespeare's thought is not exactly deduced. Nicety of expression is not his character. The cleaning is plain, "Valour (says AEneas) is in Hector greater than valour in other men, and pride in Hector is less than pride in other men. So that Hector is distinguished by the excellence of having pride less than other pride, and valour more than other valour."

IV.v.103 (109,2) an impair thought] A thought suitable to the dignity of his character. This word I should have changed to _impure_, were I not over-powered by the unanimity of the editors, and concurrence of the old copies, (rev. 1778, IX, 120, 8)

IV.v.105 (109,3) Hector in his blaze of wrath subscribes/To tender objects] That is, _yields, gives_ way.

IV.v.112 (110,4) thus translate him to me] Thus _explain his character_.

IV.v.142 (111,5) _Hect._ Not Neoptolemus so mirable] [W: Neoptolemus's sire irascible] After all this contention it is difficult to imagine that the critic believes _mirable_ to have been changed to _irascible_. I should sooner read,

Not Neoptolemus th' admirable;

as I know not whether _mirable_ can be found in any other place. The correction which the learned commentator gave to Hanmer,

Not Neoptolemus' _sire_ so mirable,

as it was modester than this, was preferable to it. But nothing is more remote from justness of sentiment, than for Hector to characterise Achilles as the father of Neoptolemus, a youth that had not yet appeared in arms, and whose name was therefore much less knovn than his father's. My opinion is, that by Neoptolemus the author meant Achilles himself; and remembering that the son was Pyrrhus Neoptolemus, considered Neoptolemus as the nomen gentilitium, and thought the father was likewise Achilles Neoptolemus.

IV.v.147 (112,6) We'll answer it] That is, answer the _expectance_.

IV.v.275 (117,5) Beat loud the tabourines] For this the quarto and the latter editions have,

To taste your bounties.--

The reading which I have given from the folio seems chosen at the revision, to avoid the repetition of the word _bounties_ [273].

V.i.5 (118,1) Thou crusty batch of nature] _Batch_ is changed by Theobald to _botch_, and the change is justified by a pompous note, which discovers that he did not know the word _batch_. What is more strange, Hanmer has followed him. _Batch_ is any thing _baked_.

V.i.19 (119,3) Male-varlet] HANMER reads _male-harlot_, plausibly enough, except that it seems too plain to require the explanation which Patroclus demands.

V.i.23 (119,4) cold palsies] This catalogue of loathsome maladies ends in the folio at _cold palsies_. This passage, as it stands, is in the quarto: the retrenchment was in my opinion judicious. It may be remarked, though it proves nothing, that, of the few alterations made by Milton in the second edition of his wonderful poem, one was, an enlargement of the enumeration of diseases.

V.i.32 (119,5) you ruinous butt; you whoreson indistinguishable cur] Patroclos reproaches Thersites with deformity, with having one part crowded into another.

V.i.35 (119,6) thou idle immaterial skeyn of sley'd silk] All the terms used by Thersites of Patroclus, are emblematically expressive of flexibility, compliance, and mean officiousness.

V.i.40 (119,7) Out, gall!] HANMER reads _nut-gall_, which answers well enough to _finch-egg_; it has already appeared, that our author thought the _nut-gall_ the bitter gall. He is called _nut_, from the conglobation of his form; but both the copies read, _Out, gall_!

V.i.41 (120,8) Finch egg!] Of this reproach I do not know the exact meaning. I suppose he means to call him _singing bird_, as implying an useless favourite, and yet more, something more worthless, a singing bird in the egg, or generally, a slight thing easily crushed.

V.i.64 (121,2) forced with wit] Stuffed with wit. A term of cookery.--In this speech I do not well understand what is meant by _loving quails_.

V.i.73 (121,3) spirits and fires!] This Thersites speaks upon the first sight of the distant lights.

V.ii.11 (124,1) And any man may sing her, if he can take her cliff] That is, her _key_. _Clef_, French.

V.ii.41 (125,2) You flow to great distraction] So the moderns. The folio has,

You _flow_ to great _distraction_.--

The quarto,

You _flow_ to great _destruction_.--

I read,

You _show too_ great distraction.--

V.ii.108 (128,7) But with my heart the other eye doth see] I think it should be read thus,

But _my heart with_ the other eye doth see.

V.ii.113 (128,8) A proof of strength she could not publish more] She could not publish a stronger proof.

V.ii.125 (129,1) I cannot conjure, Trojan] That is, I cannot raise spirits in the form of Cressida.

V.ii.141 (129,2) If there be rule in unity itself] I do not well understand what is meant by _rule in unity_. By _rule_ our author, in this place as in others, intends _virtuous restraint, regularity of manners, command of passions and appetites_. In Macbeth,

He cannot buckle his distemper'd cause Within the belt of rule.--

But I know not how to apply the word in this sense to _unity_. I read,

If there be rule in _purity_ itself,

Or, If there be rule in _verity_ itself.

Such alterations would not offend the reader, who saw the state of the old editions, in which, for instance, a few lines lower, _the almighty sun_ is called _the almighty fenne_.--Yet the words may at last mean, If there be _certainty_ in _unity_, if it be a _rule_ that _one is one_.

V.ii.144 (130,3) Bi-fold authority!] This is the reading of the quarto. The folio gives us,

_By foul_ authority!--

There is _madness_ in that disquisition in which a man reasons at once _for_ and _against himself upon authority_ which he knows _not to be valid_. The quarto is right.

V.ii.144 (130,4)

where reason can revolt Without perdition, and loss assume all reason Without revolt]

The words _loss_ and _perdition_ are used in their common sense, but they mean the _loss_ or _perdition_ of _reason_.

V.ii.157 (131,6) And with another knot five-finger-tied] A knot tied by giving her hand to Diomed.

V.ii.160 (131,7) o'er-eaten faith] Vows which she has already swallowed _once over_. We still say of a faithless man, that he has _eaten his words_.

V.ii.161 (131,8)

_Ulyss._ May worthy Troilus be half attach'd With that which here his passion doth express!]

Can Troilus really feel on this occasion half of what he utters? A question suitable to the calm Ulysses.

V.iii.21 (133,2)

For us to count we give what's gain'd by thefts, And rob in the behalf of charity]

This is so oddly confused in the folio, that I transcribe it as a specimen of incorrectness:

--do not count it holy, To hurt by being just; it were as lawful _For we would count give much to as violent thefts_, And rob in the behalf of charity.

V.iii.23 (133,3)

_Cas._ It is the purpose that makes strong the vow; But vows to every purpose must not hold]

The mad prophetess speaks here with all the coolness and judgment of a skilful casuist. "The essence of a lawful vow, is a lawful purpose, and the vow of which the end is wrong must not be regarded as cogent."

V.iii.27 (134,4)

Life every man holds dear; but the dear man Holds honour far more precious dear than life]

_Valuable_ man. The modern editions read,

--_brave_ man.

The repetition of the word is in our author's manner.

V.iii.37 (134,5)

Brother, you have a vice of mercy in you, Which better fits a lion, than a man]

The traditions and stories of the darker ages abounded with examples of the lion's generosity. Upon the supposition that these acts of clemency were true, Troilus reasons not improperly, that to spare against reason, by mere instinct of pity, became rather a generous beast than a wise man.

V.x.33 (137,9) Hence, broker lacquey!] For _brothel_, the folio reads _brother_, erroneously for _broker_, as it stands at the end of the play where the lines are repeated. Of _brother_ the following editors made _brothel_.

V.iv.18 (138,2) the Grecians begin to proclaim barbarism, and policy grows into an ill opinion] To set up the authority of ignorance to declare that they will be governed by policy no longer.

V.vi.11 (142,1) you cogging Greeks] This epithet has no particular propriety in this place, but the author had heard of _Graecia Mendax_.

V.vi.29 (144,3) I'll frush it] The word _frush_ I never found elsewhere, nor understand it. HANMER explains it, to _break_ or _bruise_.

V.viii.7 (146,1) Even with the vail and darkening of the sun] The _vail_ is, I think, the _sinking_ of the sun; not _veil_ or _cover_.

(149) General Observation. This play is more correctly written than most of Shakespeare's compositions, but it is not one of those in which either the extent of his views or elevation of his fancy is fully displayed. As the story abounded with materials, he has exerted little invention; but he has diversified his characters with great variety, and preserved them with great exactness. His vicious characters sometimes disgust, but cannot corrupt, for both Cressida and Pandarus are detested and contemned. The comic characters seem to have been the favourites of the writer; they are of the superficial kind, and exhibit more of manners than nature; but they are copiously filled and powerfully impressed. Shakespeare has in his story followed, for the greater part, the old book of Caxton, which was then very popular; but the character of Thersites, of which it makes no mention, is a proof that this play was written after Chapman had published his version of _Homer_.

CYMBELINE

I.i.1 (153,2)

You do not meet a man, but frowns: our bloods No more obey the heavens, than our courtiers' Still seen, as does the king's]

[W: brows/No more] This passage is so difficult, that commentators may differ concerning it without animosity or shame. Of the two emendations proposed, Hanmer's is the more licentious; but he makes the sense clear, and leaves the reader an easy passage. Dr. Warburton has corrected with more caution, but less improvement: his reasoning upon his own reading is so obscure and perplexed, that I suspect some injury of the press.--I am now to tell my opinion, which is, that the lines stand as they were originally written, and that a paraphrase, such as the licentious and abrupt expressions of our author too frequently require, will make emendation unnecessary. _We do not meet a man but frowns; our bloods_--our countenances, which, in popular speech, are said to be regulated by the temper of the blood,--_no more obey_ the laws of _heaven_,--which direct us to appear what we really are,--_than our courtiers_;--that is, than the_ bloods of our courtiers_; but our bloods, like theirs,--_still seem, as doth the king's_.

I.i.25 (155,3) I do extend him, Sir, within himself] I extend him within himself: my praise, however _extensive_, is _within_ his merit.

I.i.46 (156,4) liv'd in court,/(Which rare it is to do) most prais'd, most lov'd] This encomium is high and artful. To be at once in any great degree _loved_ and _praised_ is truly _rare_.

I.i.49 (156,5) A glass that feated them] _A glass that featur'd them_] Such is the reading in all the modern editions, I know not by whom first substituted, for

A glass that _feared_ them;--

I have displaced _featur'd_, though it can plead long prescription, because I am inclined to think that _feared_ has the better title. _Mirrour_ was a favourite word in that age for an _example_, or a _pattern_, by noting which the manners were to be formed, as dress is regulated by looking in a glass. When Don Bellianis is stiled _The Mirrour of Knighthood_, the idea given is not that of a glass in which every knight may behold his own resemblance, but an example to be viewed by knights as often as a glass is looked upon by girls, to be viewed, that they may know, not what they are, but what they ought to be. Such a glass may _fear the more mature_, as displaying excellencies which they have arrived at maturity without attaining. To _fear_ is here, as in other places, to _fright_. [I believe Dr. Johnson is mistaken as to the reading of the folio, which is _feated_. The page of the copy which he consulted is very faintly printed; but I have seen another since, which plainly gives this reading. STEEVENS.] If _feated_ be the right word, it must, I think, be explained thus; _a glass that_ formed _them_; a model, by the contemplation and inspection of which they formed their manners. (see 1765, VII, 260, 4)

I.i.86 (158,1)

I something fear my father's wrath; but nothing (Always reserv'd my holy duty) what His rage can do on me]

I say I do not fear my father, so far as I may say it without breach of duty.

I.i.101 (158,2) Though ink be made of gall] Shakespeare, even in this poor conceit, has confounded the vegetable _galls_ used in ink, with the animal _gall_, supposed to be bitter.

I.i.132 (160,4) then heapest/A year's age on me] Dr. WARBURTON reads,

A _yare_ age on me.

It seems to me, even from SKINNER, whom he cites, that _yare_ is used only as a personal quality. Nor is the authority of Skinner sufficient, without some example, to justify the alteration. HANMER's reading is better, but rather too far from the original copy:

--thou heapest _many_ A year's age on me.

I read,

--thou heap'st _Years, ages_ on me.

I.i.135 (160,5) a touch more rare/Subdues all pangs, all fears] _Rare_ is used often for _eminently good_; but I do not remember any passage in which it stands for _eminently bad_. May we read,

--a touch more _near_.

_Cura deam_ propior luctusque domesticus angit. _Ovid_.

Shall we try again,

--a touch more _rear_.

_Crudum vulnus._ But of this I know not any example. There is yet another interpretation, which perhaps will remove the difficulty. _A touch more rare_, may mean _a nobler passion_.

I.i.140 (161,6) a puttock] A _kite_.

I.ii.31 (163,1) her beauty and her brain go not together] I believe the lord means to speak a sentence, "Sir, as I told you always, beauty and brain go not together."

I.ii.32 (164,2) She's a good sign] [W: shine] There is acuteness enough in this note, yet I believe the poet meant nothing by _sign_, but _fair outward_ shew.

I.iii.8 (165,2)

for so long As he could make me with this eye, or ear, Distinguish him from others]

[W: this eye] Sir T. HANMER alters it thus:

--for so long As he could _mark_ me with his eye, or _I_ Distinguish--

The reason of Hanmer's reading was, that Pisanio describes no address made to the _ear_.

I.iii.18 (165,3) till the diminution/Of space had pointed him sharp as my needle] _The diminution of space_, is _the diminution_ of which _space_ is the cause. Trees are killed by a blast of lightning, that is, by _blasting_, not _blasted_ lightning.

I.iii.24 (166,4) next vantage] Next _opportunity_.

I.iii.37 (166,6) Shakes all our buds from growing] A bud, without any distinct idea, whether of flower or fruit, is a natural representation of any thing incipient or immature; and the buds of flowers, if flowers are meant, _grow_ to flowers, as the buds of fruits _grow_ to fruits.

I.iv.9 (167,1) makes him] In the sense in which we say, This will _make_ or _mar_ you.

I.iv.16 (167,2) words him, I doubt not, a great deal from the matter] Makes the description of him very distant from the truth.

I.iv.20 (167,3) under her colours] Under her banner; by her influence.

I.iv.47 (168,6) I was then a young traveller; rather shunn'd to go even with what I heard, than in my every action to be guided by others' experiences] This is expressed with a kind of fantastical perplexity. He means, I was then willing to take for my direction the experience of others, more than such intelligence as I had gathered myself.

I.iv,58 (169,7) 'Twas a contention in publick, which may, without contradiction, suffer the report] Which, undoubtedly, may be publickly told.

I.iv.73 (169,8) tho' I profess myself her adorer, not her friend] Though I have not the common obligations of a lover to his mistress, and regard her not with the fondness of a friend, but the reverence of an adorer.

I.iv.77 (169,9) If she went before others I have seen, as that diamond of yours out-lustres many I have beheld, I could not believe she excelled many] [W: could believe] I should explain the sentence thus: "Though your lady excelled, as much as your diamond, _I could not believe she excelled many_; that is, I too _could_ yet _believe that there are_ many _whom_ she did not excel." But I yet think Dr. Warburton right. (1773)

I.iv.104 (171,l) to convince the honour of my mistress] [_Convince_, for overcome. WARBURTON.] So in _Macbeth_,

--their malady _convinces_ "The great essay of art."

I.iv.124 (171,2) abus'd] _Deceiv'd._

I.iv.134 (172,3) approbation] Proof.

I.iv.148 (172,4) You are a friend, and therein the wiser. If you buy ladies' flesh at a million a dram, you cannot preserve it from tainting. But, I see, you have some religion in you, that you fear] _You are a friend_ to the lady, _and therein the wiser_, as you will not expose her to hazard; and that you _fear_, is a proof of your _religious_ fidelity. (see 1765, VII, 276, 1)

I.iv.l60 (173,5) _Iach._ If I bring you no sufficient testimony that I have enjoy'd the dearest bodily part of your mistress, my ten thousand ducats are yours, so is my diamond too: if I come off, and leave her in such honour as you have trust in, she your jewel, this your jewel, and my gold are yours--

_Post._ I embrace these conditions]

[W: bring you sufficient] I once thought this emendation right, but am now of opinion, that Shakespeare intended that Iachimo, having gained his purpose, should designedly drop the invidious and offensive part of the wager, and to flatter Posthumus, dwell long upon the more pleasing part of the representation. One condition of a wager implies the other, and there is no need to mention both.

I.v.18 (176,1) Other conclusions] Other _experiments_. _I commend_, says WALTON, _an angler that tries_ conclusions, and improves his art.

I.v.23 (175,2) Your highness/Shall from this practice but make hard your heart] Thare is in this passage nothing that much requires a note, yet I cannot forbear to push it forward into observation. The thought would probably have been more amplified, had our author lived to be shocked with such experiments as have been published in later times, by a race of men that have practised tortures without pity, and related then without shame, and are yet suffered to erect their heads among human beings.

"Cape saxa manu, cape robora, pastor."

I.v.33-44 (175,3) I do not like her] This soliloquy is very inartificial. The speaker is under no strong pressure of thought; he is neither resolving, repenting, suspecting, nor deliberating, and yet makes a long speech to tell himself what himself knows.

I.v.54 (176,4) to shift his being] To change his abode.

I.v.58 (118,5) What shalt thou expect,/To be depender on a thing that leans?] That _inclines_ towards its fall.

I.v.80 (177,7) Of leigers for her sweet] A _leiger_ ambassador, is one that resides at a foreign court to promote his master's interest.

I.vi.7 (178,9)

Bless'd be those, How mean soe'er, that have their honest wills, Which seasons comfort]

I am willing to comply with any meaning that can be extorted from the present text, rather than change it, yet will propose, but with great diffidence, a slight alteration:

--Bless'd be those, How mean soe'er, that have their honest wills, _With reason's_comfort.--

Who gratify their innocent wishes with reasonable enjoyments.

I.vi.35 (180,2) and the twinn'd stones/Upon the number'd beach?] I know not well how to regulate this passage. _Number'd_ is perhaps _numerous_. _Twinn'd stones_ I do not understand. _Twinn'd shells_, or _pairs of shells_, are very common. For _twinn'd_, we might read _twin'd_; that is, _twisted, convolved_; but this sense is more applicable to shells than to stones.

I.vi.44 (181,3)

Sluttery, to such neat excellence oppos'd, Should make desire vomit emptiness, Not so allur'd to feed]