THE SEA VOYAGE. Page 85: ALBERT........ For you I put to sea to seek your brother. There does not appear to me to be any inconsistency in the passage. The object of this present voyage was to seek her brother, though Albert's original destination was different. Page 86. MASTER........ Fling o'er the lading there, and let us lighten her, The cakes on board could be no great weight: we must surely read, and the casks. Page 90. NICUSA........ The boat, it seems, turned over, So forced to their shifts. Read, as in Seward's edition So forced them to their shifts. Page 91. TIBALT........ Art thou not purl'd with scabs? A purl means a rough kind of edging, which women sew on ruffles and handkerchiefs, &c. Page 98. TIBALT........ Then there wants mustard, But the fearful surgeon will supply you. Sympson proposes to read careful surgeon; but there is much more humour in the present reading, though not of a very delicate nature. The mustard that Tibalt alludes to, is frequently supposed to be produced by fear. Sympson is sometimes too innocent for his authors. Page 103. CROCALE........ This place yields But to suck out the humorous parts. By all means The should be a comma, not a full point, after the word parts. Page 122. ROSALIA........As I love goodness, It makes me smile in the height of all my fears. This speech should be restored to Aminta, to whom it belongs, in all the old editions, though given by the Editors to Rosalia, and very injudiously. Aminta was in the height of fear at this time; but what fears had Rosalia ? Page 123. ROSALIA........ Since I knew what wonder and amazement was, I ne'er was so transported. Seward gives these lines to Clarinda, but unnecessarily. Rosalia was not transported with delight, but surprize. Page 151. SEBASTIAN......... These cheeks and fronts, tho' wrinkled now by time, We should read These cheeks and front, In the singular. P Page 152. SEBASTIAN........Sir, in your looks I read This speech is evidently addressed to Raymond; and Aminta had prepared us for this event, by telling Clarinda, in a former scene, that she had another brother That far excels this, Both in the ornaments of man and making. The old withered Nicusa would have been a wretched husband for the lovely Clarinda; nor could Sebastian have addressed in such a formal manner his nephew, and only companion for a course of years. VOL. IX. THE COXCOMB. Seward, in his note on the Prologue of this Play, recites the Stationer's Preface to it, in the edition of 1647; and asserts, that what he says is a glaring contradiction to the following passage in the Prologue The ignorant multitude, &c. But Seward is wrong; he forgets that this Prologue was the Prologue to the Play, as acted on its revival, and not a Prologue to it, as published in that edition: it was curtailed in the representation, but is now given to us as originally written. Page 161. UBERTO....We'll crown your liberal feast With some delightful strain, fitting your love And this good company. MARIA.... Since you enforce it, I will not plead the excuse of want of skill, Seward is equally unfortunate in his censure of this passage. A masque means, not only a species. of dramatick performance, but a festive entertainment, a ball, at which it was usual for the company to wear masks. This was the mask here intended, and accordingly we find that the ball takes place; and we cannot suppose that it was without music, as in this very scene a servant enters with musicians. But, before the ball began, Uberto wishes that Maria would entertain them with some delightful strain, which she is about to do, when the servant announces the two gentlemen. The Editors conclude that the dance must have been without music; for that otherwise the dialogue between the Servant, Antonio, and Mercury, could not be heard; but we know, that music does not prevent conversation between persons not engaged in the dance. Page 173. UBERTO........Fye, Mr. Constable, Golls was a cant expression for hands. Page 175. MERCURY........ The only plague Of this house, is the unhandsome love of servants; And sweep the table with a wooden dagger; And then they're troublesome, too, to all men's shoulders. There seems to me to be no difficulty in this passage. Mercury says, that servants never do their duty properly, except when they muster before dinner, and when they clean the table after dinner of the scraps left on it; which was done with a piece of wood in the shape of a dagger, and even then they were troublesome to the shoulders of the guests. It was, probably, the fashion in former times, as it is now in this and other countries, to leave the cloth on the table after dinner; in which case it became necessary to clear it of the fragments, which was done, it seems, with a wooden dagger. Page 178. MERCURY........For wronging you. That is, least I should wrong you. Page 180. MERCURY........Must it begin so, needs, sir. That is Must it necessarily begin so, sir. |