Page images
PDF
EPUB

us with thy prefence, and whose unkindness is therefore not aggravated by infult. CAN. REV. & JOHNS. P. 465. 1. 3. An abfent argument.] An argument is ufed for the contents of a book, thence Shakespeare confidered it as meaning the subject, and then used it for fubject in yet another fenfe. JOHNS.

L. 18. Expediently.] That is, expeditiously. JOHNS. L. 20. Thrice crowned queen of night.] Alluding to the triple character of Proferpine, Cynthia, and Diana, given by fome Mythologists to the fame Goddefs, and comprised in thefe memorial lines:

Terret, luftrat, agit, Proferpina, Luna, Diana, Ima, fuperna, feras, fceptro, fulgore, fagittis. JoHN. P. 466. 1. 4. Unexpreffive, for inexpreffible.

JOHNS. L. 21. He that bath learned no suit by nature or art, may complain of good breeding, or comes of very dull kindred.] Common fenfe requires us to read,

may complain of grofs breeding.

'The Oxford editor has greatly improved this emendation by reading,

bad breeding:

WARB.

Ibid.] I am in doubt whether the custom of the language in Shakespeare's time did not authorise this mode of fpeech, and make complain of good breeding the fame with complain of the want of good breeding. In the last line of the Merchant of Venice we find that to fear the keeping is to fear the not keeping. JOHNS.

L. 24. Such a one is a natural philofopher.] The shepherd had faid all the Philofophy he knew was the property of things, that rain wetted, fire burnt, &c. And the Clown's reply, in a fatire on Phyficks or Natural Philofophy, though introduced with a quibble, is extremely juft. For the Natural Philofopher is indeed as ignorant (notwithstanding all his parade of knowledge) of the efficient cause of things as the ruftic. It appears, from a thousand instances, that our poet was well acquainted with the Phyfics of his time: and his great penetration enabled him to fee this remediless defect of it.

WARB.

P. 467. 1. 1. Like an ill-roafted egg.] Of this jeft I do not ifully comprehend the meaning. JOHNS. L. 4. Why, if thou never waft at Court, thou never faso

good manners; if thou never, &c] This reafoning is drawn up in imitation of Friar John's to Panurge in Rabelais. "Si tu es Coquu, ergo ta femme fera belle; ergo tu feras bien traité d'elle; ergo tu auras des Amis beaucoup; ergo tu feras sauvé.” The laft inference is pleasantly drawn from the popish doctrine of the interceffion of Saints. And I fuppofe, our jocular English proverb, concerning this matter, was founded in Friar John's logic. WARB.

L. 32. Make incifion in thee.] To make incifion was a proverbial expreffion then in vogue for, to make to understand. So in Beaumont and Fletcher's Humourous Lieutenant.

O excellent King,

Thus he begins, thou life and light of creatures
Angel-ey'd King, vouchsafe at length thy favour;
And fo proceeds to incifion.-

i. e. to make him understand what he would be at, WAR B. Ibid.] I apprehend the meaning is, God give thee a better understanding, thou art very raw and fimple as yet. The expreffion probably alludes to the common proverbial faying, concerning a very filly fellow, that he ought to be cut for the fimples. Mr. Warburton's quotation from Fletcher's Humourous Lieutenant, is most probably corrupt, at least he hath not certainly been fo lucky as to hit upon the fense of it, and therefore it proves nothing. REVIS.* P. 468. 1. 8. Bard to a Belwether.] Wether and Ram had anciently the fame meaning.

JOHNS. L. 25. Rate to market.] So Sir T. Hanmer. In the former Editions (and in Capell's) rank to market.

JOHNS. L. 28. If a bart doth lack a bind, &c.] The poet, in arraigning this species of verfification, feems not only to fatirize the mode, that fo much prevail'd in his time, of writing fonnets and madrigals; but tacitly to fneer at the levity of Dr. Thomas Lodge, a grave phyfician in Queen Elizabeth's reign, who was very fertile of paftoral fongs: and whe wrote a whole book of poems in the praife of his mistress, whom he calls Rofalind. THEOB.*

*

P. 469. 1. 20. Let the Forest judge.] We should read Forrefter, i. e. the fhepherd who was there prefent. WARB. Ibid. It would have been kind in Mr. Warburton to tell us, why we should read forefter; when the other word is

better. Nothing is more ufual than to fay, the town talks, the whole kingdom knows of fuch a thing; and one would imagine, Mr. Warburton could not have had a relation to one of the Inns of Court fo long; and not hear of a Man's being tried by his Country. CANONS.

L. 25. That fhall civil fayings fhew.] Civil is here ufed in the fame fenfe as when we fay civil wifdom or civil life, in oppofition to a folitary ftate, or to the ftate of nature. This defart fhall not appear unpeopled, for every tree fhall teach the maxims or incidents of focial life.

JOHNS. P. 470. 1. 9. Therefore beaven nature charg'd.] From the picture of Apelles, or the accomplishments of Pandora. Πανδώρην, ὅτι πάλει ὀλύμπια δώματ ̓ ἔχοντες Δῶρον ἐδώρησαν.

So before,

But thou

So perfect, and fo peerless art counted
Of ev'ry creature's best.

Tempeft. Perhaps from this paffage Swift had his hint of Biddy Floyd.

JOHNS.

L. 15. Atalanta's better part.] I know not well what could be the better part of Atalanta here afcribed to Rofalind. Of the Atalanta moft celebrated, and who therefore must be intended here where fhe has no epithet of difcrimination, the better part feems to have been her heels, and the worfe part was fo bad that Rofalind would not thank her lover for the comparifon. There is a more obfure Atalanta, a huntress and a heroine, but of her nothing bad is recorded, and therefore I know not which was the better part. Shakefpeare was no defpicable Mythologift, yet he feems here to have miftaken fome other character for that of Atalanta.

JOHNS. JOHNS.

L. 16.] Sad, is grave, fober, not light. L. 20. The Touches.] The features; les traits. JOHNS. L. 23. O most gentle Jupiter!] We should read, Juniper, as the following words fhew, alluding to the proverbial term of a Juniper lecture: A fharp or unpleafing one! Juniper being a rough prickly plant.

WARB.

Ibid.] Not to ake notice of this gentle, rough, prickly plant, which Mr. Warburton has found out; I believe no

[ocr errors]

body but he would have dreamed of a Juniper lecture here, any more than above; where the fame Rofalind fays,

"O Jupiter! how weary are my fpirits!"

CANONS*

P. 471. 1. 12. I was never fo be-rhymed fince Pythagoras's time, that I was an Irish rat.] Rofalind is a very learned lady. She alludes to the Pythagorean doctrine which teaches that fouls tranfmigrate from one animal to another, and relates that in his time fhe was an Irish rat, and by fome metrical charm was rhymed to death. The power of killing rats with rhymes Donne mentions in his fatires, and Temple in his treatises. Dr. Gray has produced a fimilar pasfage from Randolph.

My Poets

Shall with a faytire fteeped in vinegar

Rhyme them to death, as they do rats in Ireland. JOHN. L. 29. Good complexion !] "This is a mode of expreffion, Mr. Theobald fays, which he cannot reconcile to common fense; and therefore alters to, Odd's my complexion. So too the Oxford Editor (and Capell). But the meaning is, Hold good my complexion, i. e. let me not blush. WARB.

Ibid.] Mr. Warburton tells us the meaning is, Hold good my complexion! that is, let me not blufh. Not to infift upon the impropriety of putting good, for hold out, or hold good, the prefent occafion afforded nothing which might provoke the lady's blushes, unless it were the fuddennefs of the news that Orlando was fo near her, and that had already produced its effect: This appears from the question afked her by Celia fome short time before, "Change you colour? " She had alfo long before made Celia her confidante, and owned her paffion to her, fo as to have got the better of her bashfulness in that respect too; and now nothing remained but thofe agitations which were excited in her by Celia's tantalizing her curiofity. I am, therefore, inclined to concur in opinion with Mr. Theobald and Sir Thomas Hanmer. I imagine however, that the poet may poffibly have written, Good my coz perplexer, that is, I pr'ythee my perplexing coz ; and that the laft word, perplexer, was in the copy fent to the prefs written with the common abbreviation, thus,

plexer, which might easily mislead the printer to takę the whole coz plexer, for complexion, and to infert that

word in the text accordingly. Cox, for coufin, occurs frequently throughout this play. REVIS.*

L. 31. One inch of delay more ts a South-fea of difcovery.] This is ftark nonfenfe: we must read-off difcovery, i. e. from difcovery. "If you delay me one inch of time longer, I fhall think this fecret as far from discovery as the South fea is." WARB.

Ibid.] This fentence is rightly noted by the Commentator as nonfenfe, but not fo happily restored to sense. I read thus:

One Inch of delay more is a South fea. Discover, I pr'ythee; tell me who it is quickly!-When the transcriber had once made difcovery from difcover, I, he easily put an article after South fea. But it may be read with still lefs change, and with equal probability. Every inch of delay more is a South-fea difcovery: Every delay, however fhort, is to me tedious and irk fome as the longest voyage, as a voyage of difcovery on the South fea. How much voyages to the Southfea, on which the English had then firft ventured, engaged the oonverfation of that time, may be eafily imagined. JoHN.

P. 472. I. 27. Garagantua's mouth.] Rofalind requires nine queftions to be answered in one word, Celia tells her that a word of fuch magnitude is too big for any mouth but that of Garagantua the giant of Rabelais. JOHNS. F. 473. I. 5. I found him under a tree like a dropp'd acorn.] We fhould read,

Under an oak tree. This appears from what follows -like a dropp'd acorn. For how did he look like a dropp'd acorn unless he was found under an oak-tree. And from Rofalind's reply, that it might well be called Jove's tree: for the Oak was facred to Jove.

WARB.

Ibid.] Dr. Warburton, in this very reasoning, proves the contrary of what it is intended to prove; for if the kind of tree is fo certainly determined by the comparison of the dropped acorn, what occafion is there for the exprefs mention of it. REVIS.*

P. 474 1. 3. I pray you, marrno more of my verses by reading them ill-favouredly.] The poet feems to have had in. eye this diftich of Martial; Lib. I. Epigr. 39.

his

[ocr errors]
« PreviousContinue »