Chapter 16

You shall feel from the sight and conversation of these ladies, such hopes of happiness and such pleasure, as the farmer receives from the spring, when the plenty of the year begins, and the prospect of the harvest fills him with delight.

I.ii.32 (18,5)

Such, amongst view of many, mine, being one. May stand in number, the' in reckoning none]

The first of these lines I do not understand. The old folio gives no help; the passage is there, _Which_ one _more view_. I can offer nothing better than this:

_Within your view_ of many, mine being one, May stand in number, &c.

I.iii.13 (22,1) to my teen] To my sorrow.

I.iii.66 (24,4) It is an honour] The modern editors all read, _it is an honour_. I have restored the genuine word ["hour"], which is more seemly from a girl to her mother. _Your, fire_, and such words as are vulgarly uttered in two syllables, are used as dissyllables by Shakespeare. [The first quarto reads _honour_; the folio _hour_. I have chosen the reading of the quarto. STEEVENS.] (rev. 1778, X, 28, 2)

I.iii.92 (25,9) That in gold clasps locks in the golden story] The _golden story_ is perhaps the _golden legend_, a book in the darker ages of popery much read, and doubtless often exquisitely embellished, but of which Canus, one of the popish doctors, proclaims the author to have been _homo ferrei oris, plumbei cordis_.

I.iv.6 (27,2) like a crow-keeper] The word _crow-keeper_ is explained in Lear.

I.iv.37 (28,8) for I am proverb'd with a grand-sire phrase] The grandsire phrase is--_The black ox has trod upon my foot_.

I.iv.42 (30,1) Or (save your reverence) love] The word _or_ obscures the sentence; we ahould read _O_! for _or love_. Mercutio having called the affection vith which Romeo was entangled by so disrespectful a word as _mire_, cries out,

O! save your reverence, love.

I.iv.84 (34,7) Spanish blades] A sword is called a toledo, from the excellence of the Toletan steel. So Gratius,

"--Ensis Toletanus "Unda Tagi non est alie celebranda metallo, Utilis in cives est ibi lamna sues."

I.iv.113 (35,9) Direct my sail:] [I have restored this reading from the elder quarto, as being more congruous to the metaphor in the preceding line. _Suit_ is the reading of the folio. STEEVENS.]

_Direct my suit_! Guide the _sequel_ of the adventure.

I.v.27 (37,4)

You are welcome, gentlemen. Come musicians, play. A ball! a ball! Give room. And foot it, girls]

These two lines, omitted by the modern editors, I have replaced from the folio.

I.v.32 (37, 6) good cousin Capulet] This _cousin_ Capulet is _unkle_ in the paper of invitation; but as Capulet is described as old, _cousin_ is probably the right word in both places. I know not how Capulet and his lady might agree, their ages were very disproportionate; he has been past masking for thirty years, and her age, as she tells Juliet, is but eight-and-twenty.

II.Prologue (42,3) _Enter CHORUS_] The use of this chorus is not easily discovered; it conduces nothing to the progress of the play, but relates what is already known, or what the next scenes will shew; and relates it without adding the improvement of any moral sentiment.

II.ii.1 (45,1) He jests at scars] That is, Mercutio jests, whom he overheard.

II.ii.7 (45,2) Be not her maid] Be not a votary to the moon, to Diana.

II.ii.10 (45,3)

It is my lady; O! it is my love; O, that she knew we were!]

This line and half I have replaced.

II.ii.39 (47,7) Thou art thyself, though not a Montague] I think the true reading is,

Thou art thyself, _then_ not a Montague.

Thou art a being of peculiar excellence, and hast none of the malignity of the family, from which thou hast thy name.--Hanmer reads,

Thour't not _thyself_ so, _though_ a Montague.

II.iii.15 (53,6) the powerful grace, that lies/In plants] Efficacious virtue.

II.iii.27 (53,7) Two such opposed foes encamp them still] [W: opposed kin] _Foes_ may be the right reading, or _kings_, but I think _kin_ can hardly be admitted. Two _kings_ are two opposite _powers_, two contending _potentates_, in both the natural and moral world. The word _encamp_ is proper to _commanders_. (see 1765, VIII, 46, 2)

II.iv.20 (57,3) courageous captain of compliments] A complete master of all the laws of ceremony, the principal man in the doctrine of punctilio.

"A man of compliments, whom right and wrong "Have chose as umpire;"

says our author of Don _Armado_, the Spaniard, in _Love's Labour Lost_.

II.iv.27 (57,6) the hay!] All the terms of the modern fencing-school were originally Italian; the rapier, or small thrusting sword, being first used in Italy. The _hay_ is the word _hai_, you _have_ it, used when a thrust reaches the antagonist, from which our fencers, on the same occasion, without knowing, I suppose, any reason for it, cry out, _ha_!

II.iv.35 (58,9) these pardonnez-moy's] _Pardonnez-moi_ became the language of doubt or hesitation among men of the sword, when the point of honour was grown so delicate, that no other mode of contradiction would be endured.

II.iv.64 (59,3) then is my pump wall flower'd] Here is a vein of wit too thin to be easily found. The fundamental idea is, that Romeo wore _pinked_ pumps, that is, pumps punched with holes in figures.

II.iv.87 (60,7) a wit of cheverel] _Cheverel_ is soft-leather for gloves.

II.iv.138 (62,8) No hare, Sir] Mercutio having roared out, _So ho_! the cry of the sportsmen when they start a hare; Romeo asks _what he has found_. And Mercutio answers, _No hare_, &c. The rest is a series of quibbles unworthy of explanation, which he who does not understand, needs not lament his ignorance.

II.iv.162 (63,1) none of his skains-mates] The word _skains-mate_, I do not understand, but suppose that _skains_ was some low play, and _skains-mate_, a companion at such play.

II.iv.200 (64,2) like a tackled stair] Like stairs of rope in the tackle of a ship.

II.iv.222 (65,4) Ah, mocker! that's the dog's name. R is for the nonce; I know it begins with another letter] This passage is thus in the old folio. _A mocker, that's the dog's name. R is for the_ no, _I know it begins with some other letter._ In this copy the error is but small. I read, _Ah, mocker. that's the dog's name. R is for the_ nonce, _I know it begins with another letter._ For the _nonce_, is for some _design, for a sly trick_.

II.vi.15 (70,2) Too swift arrives as tardy as too slow] He that travels too fast is as long before he comes to the end of his journey, as he that travels slow. Precipitation produces mishap.

III.i.2 (71,1) The day is hot] It is observed, that in Italy almost all assassinations are committed during the heat of summer.

III.i.124 (75,6) This day's black fate on more days does depend] This day's unhappy destiny _hangs over_ the days yet to come. There will yet be more mischief.

III.i.141 (78,7) Oh! I am fortune's fool] I am always running in the way of evil fortune, _like_ the fool in the play. _Thou art death's fool_, in _Measure for Measure_. See Dr. Warburton's note.

III.i.153 (77,8) as thou art true] As thou art _just_ and _upright_.

III.i.159 (77,9) How nice the quarrel] How _slight_, how _unimportant_, how _petty_. So in the last act,

The letter was not _nice_, but full of charge Of dear import.

III.i.182 (78,2) Affection makes him false] The charge of falshood on Bonvolio, though produced at hazard, is very just. The author, who seems to intend the character of Bonvolio as good, meant perhaps to shew, how the best minds, in a state of faction and discord, are detorted to criminal partiality.

III.i.193 (78,3) I have an interest in your hate's proceeding: Sir Thomas Hanmer saw that this line gave no sense, and therefore put, by a very easy change,

I have an interest in your _heat's_ proceeding!

which is undoubtedly better than the old reading which Dr. Warburton has followed; but the sense yet seems to be weak, and perhaps a more licentious correction is necessary. I read therefore,

I _had no_ interest in your _heat's preceding_.

This, says the prince, is no quarrel of mine, _I had no interest in your former discord_; I suffer merely by your private animosity.

III.ii.5 (79,3) Spread thy close curtain, love-performing night,/That run-away's eyes may wink] [Warburton explained the "run-away" as the "sun"] I am not satisfied with this explanation, yet have nothing better to propose.

III.ii.10 (80,4) Come, civil night] _Civil_ is _grave, decently solemn_.

III.ii.14 (80,5) unmann'd blood] Blood yet unacquainted with man.

III.ii.25 (81,6) the garish sun] Milton had this speech in his thoughts when he wrote _Il Penseroso_.

"--Civil night, "Thou sober-suited matron."--_Shakespeare_. "Till civil-suited morn appear."--_Milton_. "Pay no worship to the gairish sun."--_Shakespeare_. "Hide me from day's gairish eye."--_Milton_.

III.ii.46 (82,7) the death-darting eye of cockatrice] [The strange lines that follow here in the common books are not in the old edition. POPE.] The strange lines are these:

I am not I, if there be such an I, Or these eyes shot, that makes thee answer I; If he be slain, say I; or if not, no; Brief sounds determine of my weal or woe.

These lines hardly deserve emendatien; yet it may be proper to observe, that their meanness has not placed them below the malice of fortune, the two first of them being evidently transposed; we should read,

--That one vowel _I_ shall poison more, Than the death-darting eye of cockatrice, Or these eyes shot, that make thee answer, I. I am not I, &c.

III.ii.114 (85,9) Hath slain ten thousand Tybalts] Hath put Tybalt out of my mind, as if out of being.

III.ii.120 (85,1) Which modern lamentation might have mov'd] This line is left out of the later editions, I suppose because the editors did not remember that Shakespeare uses _modern_ for _common_, or _slight_: I believe it was in his time confounded in colloquial language with _moderate_.

III.iii.112 (89,4)

Unseemly woman in a seeming man! And ill-beseeming beast in seeming both!]

[W: seeming groth] The old reading is probable. _Thou art a beast of ill qualities, under the appearance both of a woman and a man_.

III.iii.135 (90,5) And thou dismember'd with thine own defence] And thou torn to pieces with thy own weapons.

III.iii.166-168 (91,6) Go hence. Good night] These three lines are omitted in all the modern editions.

III.iii.166 (91,7) here stands all your state] The whole of your fortune depends on this.

III.iv.12 (92,9) Sir Paris, I will make a desperate tender/Of my child's love] _Desperate_ means only _bold, advent'rous_, as if he had said in the vulgar phrase, _I will speak a_ bold _word_, and venture _to promise you my daughter_.

III.v.20 (94,1) 'Tis but the pale reflex of Cynthia's brow] The appearance of a cloud opposed to the moon.

III.v.23 (94,2) I have more care to stay, than will to go] Would it be better thus, _I have more will to stay, than care to go_?

III.v.31 (94,3) Some say, the lark and loathed toad chang'd eyes] This tradition of the toad and lark I hare heard expressed in a rustick rhyme,

--_to heav'n I'd fly, But the toad beguil'd me of my eye._

III.v.33 (95,4)

Since arm from arm that voice doth us affray, Hunting thee hence with huntaup to the day]

These two lines are omitted in the modern editions, and do not deserve to be replaced, but as they may shew the danger of critical temerity. Dr. Warburton's change of _I would_ to _I wot_ was specious enough, yet it it is evidently erroneous. The sense is this, _The lark, they say, has lost her eyes to the toad, and now_ I would _the toad had her voice too, since she uses it to the disturbance of lovers_.

III.v.86 (97,3)

_Jul._ Ay, Madam, from the reach of these my hands: 'Would, none but I might venge my cousin's death.!]

Juliet's equivocations are rather too artful for a mind disturbed by the loss of a new lover.

III.v.91 (98,4) That shall bestow on hin so sure a draught] [Thus the elder quarto, which I have followed in preference to the quarto 1609, and the folio 1623, which read, less intelligibly,

"Shall give him such an unaccustom'd dram." STEEVENS.]

--_unaccustomed dram_.] In vulgar language, Shall give him a _dram_ which he is _not used_ to. Though I have, if I mistake not, observed, that in old books _unaccustomed_ signifies _wonderful, powerful, efficacious_.

III.v.112 (98,6) in happy time] _A la bonne heure_. This phrase was interjected, when the hearer was not quite so well pleased as the speaker.

III.v.227 (103,3) As living here] Sir T. HANMER reads, _as living_ hence; that is, at a dsitance, in banishment; but _here_ may signify, _in this world_.

IV.i.3 (104,1) And I am nothing alow to slack his haste] _His haste shall not be abated by my slowness_. It might be read,

And I an nothing slow to _back_ his haste:

that is, I am diligent to _abet_ and _enforce_ his haste.

IV.i.l8 (104,2)

_Par._ Happily met, my lady and my wife! _Jul._ That may be, Sir, when I may be a wife]

As these four first lines seem intended to rhyme, perhaps the author wrote thus:

--my lady and my _life_!

IV.i.62 (106,3) this bloody knife/Shall play the umpire] That is, this knife shall decide the struggle between me and my distress.

IV.i.64 (106,4) commission of thy years and art] _Commission_ is for _authority_ or _power_.

IV.i.79 (106,5)

Or chain me to some sleepy mountain's top, Where rearing bears and savage lions roam; Or shut me nightly in a charnel house] [Or walk in thievish ways, or bid me lurk Where serpents are; chain me with rearing bears, Or hide me nightly, &c.

It is thus the editions vary. POPE.] my edition has the words which Mr. Pope has omitted; but the old copy seems in this place preferable; only perhaps we might better read,

Where _savage_ bears and _rearing_ lions roam.

IV.i.119 (108,8) If no unconstant toy] If no _fickle freak_, no _light caprice_, no _change of fancy_, hinder the performance.

IV.ii.38 (110,2) We shall be short] That is, we shall be _defective_.

IV.iii.3 (110,3) For I have need of many orisons] Juliet plays most of her pranks under the appearance of religion: perhaps Shakespeare meant to punish her hypocrisy.

IV.iii.46 (112,6) Alas, alas! it is not like that I] This speech is confused, and inconsequential, according to the disorder of Juliet's mind.

IV.iv.4 (113,1) The curfeu bell] I knew not that the morning-bell is called the _curfeu_ in any other place.

IV.iv.107 (119,9) O, play me some merry dump] This is not in the folio, but the answer plainly requires it.

V.i (121,1) ACT V. SCENE I. MANTUA] The acts are here properly enough divided, nor did any better distribution than the editors have already made, occur to me in the perusal of this play; yet it may not be improper to remark, that in the first folio, and I suppose the foregoing editions are in the same state, there is no division of the acts, and therefore some future editor may try, whether any improvement can be made, by reducing them to a length more equal, or interrupting the action at more proper intervals.

V.i.1 (121,2) If I may trust the flattering truth of sleep] The sense is, _If I may only trust the_ honesty _of sleep_, which I know however not to be so nice as not often to practise _flattery_.

V.i.3 (121,3)

My bosom's lord sits lightly on his throne; And all this day an unaccustom'd spirit Lifts me above the ground with chearful thoughts]

These three lines are very gay and pleasing. But why does Shakespeare give Romeo this involuntary cheerfulness just before the extremity of unhappiness? Perhaps to shew the vanity of trusting to these uncertain and casual exaltations or depressions, which many consider as certain foretokens of good and evil.

V.i.45 (123,6) A beggarly account of empty boxes] Dr. Warburton would read, a _braggartly_ account; but _beggarly_ is probably right: if the _boxes_ were _empty_, the _account_ was more _beggarly_, as it was more pompous.

V.iii.31 (127,1) a ring that I must use/In dear employment] That is, _action of importance_. Gems were supposed to have great powers and virtues.

V.iii.86 (129,4) her beauty makes/This vault a feasting presence full of light] A _presence_ is a _public room_.

V.iii.90 (129,5) O, how may I/Call this a lightning?] I think we should read,

--_O_, now _may I Call this a lightning_!--

V.iii.178 (135,1)

Raise up the Montagues.--Some others; search:-- We see the ground whereon these woes do lie; But the true ground of all these piteous woes We cannot without circumstance descry]

Here seems to be a rhyme intended, which may be easily restored;

"Raise up the Montagues. Some others, go. "We see the ground whereon these woes do lie, "But the true ground of all _this_ piteous _woe_ "We cannot without circumstance descry."

V.iii.194 (136,2) What fear is this, which startles in our ears?] [Originally _your ears_] Read,

"What fear is this, which startles in _our_ ears?

V.iii.229 (138,6) _Fri._ I will be brief] It is much to be lamented, that the poet did not conclude the dialogue with the action, and avoid a narrative of events which the audience already knew.

(141) General Observation. This play is one of the most pleasing of our author's performances. The scenes are busy and various, the incidents numerous and important, the catastrophe irresistibly affecting, and the process of the action carried on with such probability, at least with such congruity to popular opinions, as tragedy requires.

Here is one of the few attempts of Shakespeare to exhibit the conversation of gentlemen, to represent the airy sprightliness of juvenile elegance. Mr. Dryden mentions a tradition, which might easily reach his time, of a declaration made by Shakespeare, that _he was obliged to kill Mercutio in the third act, lest he should have been killed by him_. Yet he thinks him _no such formidable person, but that he might have lived through the play, and died in his bed_, without danger to a poet. Dryden well knew, had he been in quest of truth, that, in a pointed sentence, more regard is commonly had to the words than the thought, and that it is very seldom to be rigorously understood. Mercutio's wit, gaiety, and courage, will always procure him friends that wish him a longer life; but his death is not precipitated, he has lived out the time allotted him in the construction of the play; nor do I doubt the ability of Shakespeare to have continued his existence, though some of his sallies are perhaps out of the reach of Dryden; whose genius was not very fertile of merriment, nor ductile to humour, but acute, argumentative, comprehensive, and sublime.

The Nurse is one of the characters in which the author delighted: he has, with great subtilty of distinction, drawn her at once loquacious and secret, obsequious and insolent, trusty and dishonest.

His comic scenes are happily wrought, but his pathetic strains are always polluted with some unexpected depravations. His persons, however distressed, _have a conceit left them in their misery, a miserable conceit_.

HAMLET

(145,2) This play is printed both in the folio of 1623, and in the quarto of 1637, more correctly, than almost any other of the works of Shakespeare.

I.i.29 (147,7) approve our eyes] Add a new testimony to that of our eyes.

I.i.33 (147,8) What we two nights have seen] This line is by Hanmer given to Marcellus, but without necessity.

I.i.63 (149,9) He smote the sledded Polack on the ice] Polack was, in that age, the term for an inhabitant of Poland: Polaque, French. As in a translation of Passeratius's epitaph on Henry III. of France, published by Camden:

"Whether thy chance or choice thee hither brings, "Stay, passenger, and wail the best of kings. "this little stone a great king's heart doth hold, "Who rul'd the fickle French and Polacks bold: "So frail are even the highest earthly things, "Go, passenger, and wail the hap of kings." (rev. 1776, I, 174,3)

I.i.65 (149,2) and just at this dead hour] The old reading is, _jump at this same hour; same_ is a kind of correlative to _jump; just_ is in the oldest folio. The correction was probably made by the author.

I.i.68 (149,4) gross and scope] General thoughts, and tendency at large. (1773)

I.i.93 (151,7) And carriage of the articles design'd] _Carriage_, is _import; design'd_, is _formed, drawn up between them_.

I.i.96 (151,8) Of unimproved mettle hot and full] _Full of unimproved mettle_, is full of spirit not regulated or guided by knowledge or experience.

I.i.100 (151,1) That hath a stomach in't] _Stomach_, in the time of our author, was used for _constancy, resolution_.

I.i.107 (152,3) romage] Tumultous hurry. (1773)

I.i.108-125 (152,3) These, and all other lines confin'd within crotchets throughout this play, are omitted in the folio edition of 1623. The omissions leave the play sometimes better and sometimes worse, and seen made only for the sake of abbreviation.

I.i.109 (152,4) Well may it sort] The cause and the effect are proportionate and suitable. (1773)

I.i.121 (152,7) Was even the like precurse of fierce events] Not only such prodigies have been seen in Rome, but the elements have shewn our countrymen like forerunners and foretokens of violent events. (1773)

I.i.128 (153,1) If thou hast any sound] The speech of Horatio to the spectre is very elegant and noble, and congruous to the common traditions of the causes of apparitions.

I.i.153 (154,2)

Whether in sea or fire, in earth or air, The extravagant and erring spirit hies To his confine]

According to the pneumatology of that tine, every element was inhabited by its peculiar order of spirits, who had dispositions different, according to their various places of abode. The meaning therefore is, that all _spirits extravagant_, wandering out of their element, whether aerial spirits visiting earth, or earthly spirits ranging the air, return to their station, to their proper limits in which they are _confined_. We might read,

"--And at his warning "Th' extravagant and erring spirit hies "To his confine, whether in sea or air, "Or earth, or fire. And of, &c.

But this change, tho' it would smooth the construction, is not necessary, and being unnecessary, should not be made against authority.

I.i.163 (154,5) No fairy takes] No fairy _strikes_, with lameness or diseases. This sense of _take_ is frequent in this author.

I.ii.37 (156,8) more than the scope/Of these dilated articles allows] More than is comprised in the general design of these articles, which you may explain in a more diffuse and dilated stile. (1773)

I.ii.47 (157,9)

The head is not more native to the heart, The hand more instrumental to the mouth, Than to the throne of Denmark is thy father]

[W: The blood ... Than to the throne] Part of this emendation I have received, but cannot discern why the _head_ is not as much _native to the heart_, as the _blood_, that is, _natural_ and _congenial_ to it, _born with it_, and co-operating with it. The relation is likewise by this reading better preserved, the _counsellor_ being to the _king_ as the _head_ to the _heart_.

I.ii.62 (158,1)

Take thy fair hour, Laertes; time be thine, And thy best graces spend it at thy will]

I rather think this line is in want of emendation. I read,

--_Time is thine_, _And_ my best _graces; spend it at thy will_.

I.ii.65 (158,2) A little more than kin, and less than kind] _Kind_ is the Teutonick word for _child_. Hamlet therefore answers with propriety, to the titles of _cousin_ and _son_, which the king had given him, that he was somewhat more than _cousin_, and less than _son_.

I.ii.67 (159,3) too much i' the sun] He perhaps alludes to the proverb, _Out of heaven's blessing into the warm sun_.

I.ii.70 (159,4) veiled lids] With lowering eyes, cast down eyes. (1773)

I.ii.89 (160,5) your father lost a father;/That father lost, lost his] I do not admire the repetition of the word, but it has so much of our author's manner, that I find no temptation to recede from the old copies.