Another, smother'd, seems to pelt and swear"; It seem'd they would debate with angry swords. For much imaginary work was there; stances of similar temerity in the present edition of our author's works. Boll'n means swollen, and is used by Golding in his translation of Ovid's Metamorphosis, 1567: "Her leannesse made her joynts bolne big, and knee-pannes, for to swell." Auxerat articulos macies, genuumque rigebat Orbis-. Again, (as an anonymous writer has observed,) in Phaer's translation of the tenth book of Virgil's Æneid: 66 "with what bravery bolne in pride Gawin Douglas translating the same passage uses the words orpit and proudly." See p. 92 of this volume. Skinner supposes the word to be derived from bouillier, Fr. to bubble. But Mr. Tyrwhitt in his accurate Glossary to Chaucer, (as has likewise been observed by the same anonymous writer,) says, it is the part. pa. of bolge. v. Sax. MALONE. 7 Another, smother'd, seems to PELT and swear ;] To pelt meant, I think, to be clamorous, as men are in a passion. So, in an old collection of tales, entitled Wits, Fits, and Fancies, 1614: "The young man, all in a pelting chafe-." MALONE. DEBATE with angry swords.] i. e. fall to contention. Bate is an ancient word signifying strife. So, in the old play of Acolastus, 1540: 8 "We shall not fall to bate, or stryve for this matter." STEEVENS. Debate has here, I believe, its usual signification. They seemed ready to argue with their swords. So, in Julius Cæsar: "Speak hands for me." Again, in Hamlet: 66 I will speak daggers to her, but use none." Again, more appositely, in Troilus and Cressida: 66 Speaking in deeds, and deedless in his tongue." MALONE. Grip'd in an armed hand; himself, behind, And from the walls of strong-besieged Troy When their brave hope, bold Hector, march'd to field, Stood many Trojan mothers, sharing joy To see their youthful sons bright weapons wield; And to their hope they such odd action yield, That, through their light joy, seemed to appear (Like bright things stain'd) a kind of heavy fear. And, from the strond of Dardan where they fought, 9 Conceit deceitful, so compact, so KIND,] An artful delineation, so nicely and naturally executed. Kind and nature, in old language, were synonymous. MALONE. Was left unseen, save to THE EYE OF MIND:] We meet with the same expression in Hamlet, and in one of our author's Sonnets. Again, in King Richard II.: with the eyes of heavy mind "I see thy glory." MALONE. To break upon the galled shore, and THAN] Than for then. This licence of changing the termination of words is sometimes used by our ancient poets, in imitation of the Italian writers. Thus Daniel, in his Cleopatra, 1594: "And now wilt yield thy streames "A prey to other reames; i. e. realms. Again, in his Complaint of Rosamond, 1592: "When cleaner thoughts my weakness 'gan upbray, 66 Against myself, and shame did force me say-. Again, in Hall's Satires, 1599: "As frozen dunghills in a winter's morne, Retire again, till meeting greater ranks They join, and shoot their foam at Simois' banks. To this well-painted piece is Lucrece come, Staring on Priam's wounds with her old eyes, Again, ibid.: "His bonnet vail'd, or ever he could thinke, "The unruly winde blowes off his periwinke." Again, in Godrey of Bulloigne, translated by Fairfax, 1600: "Time was, (for each one hath his doting time, "These silver locks were golden tresses than,) "That countrie life I hated as a crime, "And from the forrests sweet contentment ran." Again, in Drayton's Mortemeriados, sign. Q 1. 4to. 1596: "Out of whose top the fresh springs trembling downe, Duly keep time with their harmonious sowne." Again, in Songes and Sonnetes by the earle of Surrey and others, edit. 1567, f. 81: 66 66 half the paine had never man "Which had this woful Troyan than." Many other instances of the same kind might be added. See the next note. MALONE. 1 Reames, in the first instance produced, is only the French royaumes affectedly anglicized. STEEVENS. In Daniel's time the French word was usually written royaulme. MALONE. 3 To find a face where all distress is STEL'D.] Thus the quarto, and all the subsequent copies.-In our author's twentyfourth Sonnet we find these lines: "Mine eye hath play'd the painter, and hath steel'd This therefore I suppose to have been the word intended here, which the poet altered for the sake of rhyme. So before-hild for held, and than for then. He might, however, have written : where all distress is spell'd." i. e. written. So, in The Comedy of Errors: "And careful hours with time's deformed hand "Have written strange defeatures in my face." MALONE. 4 WHICH bleeding under Pyrrhus' proud foot lies.] Dr. In her the painter had anatomiz'd Time's ruin, beauty's wreck, and grim care's reign; Show'd life imprison'd in a body dead. 5 On this sad shadow Lucrece spends her eyes Poor instrument, quoth she, without a sound, Show me the strumpet that began this stir, And here in Troy, for trespass of thine eye, Sewell unnecessarily reads-Who bleeding, &c. The neutral pronoun was anciently often used for the personal. It still remains in the Liturgy. Which, however, may refer to wounds, notwithstanding the false concord which such a construction produces. MALONE. 5 On this sad shadow Lucrece SPENDS earnestly; gives it her whole attention. their tongues, when they join in full cry. HER EYES,] Fixes them Why should the private pleasure of some one 8 Lo, here weeps Hecuba, here Priam dies, Here feelingly she weeps Troy's painted woes : 6 the plague of many мo?] Mo for more. The word is now obsolete. MALONE. 7 Here manly Hector faints, here TROILUS SWOUNDS ;] In the play of Troilus and Cressida, his name is frequently introduced in the same manner as here, as a dissyllable. The mere English reader still pronounces the word as, I believe, Shakspeare did. Swounds is swoons. Swoon is constantly written sound or swound in the old copies of our author's plays; and from this stanza it is probable that the word was anciently pronounced as it is here written. So also Drayton in his Mortimeriados, 4to. no date : "Thus with the pangs out of this traunce areysed, 8 And friend to friend gives UNADVISED WOUNDS,] Advice, it has been already observed, formerly meant knowledge. Friends wound friends, not knowing each other. It should be remembered that Troy was sacked in the night. MALONE. 9 confounds :] i. e. destroys. So, in Antony and Cleopatra: "What willingly he did confound, he wail'd.” See also p. 175, 1, 2. MALONE. |