I will make you a participle, and decline you. To decline means, in a grammatical sense, to modify by various terminations: it also means to degrade. Wittypate uses it in both these senses. Page 257. PRISCIAN........ In ore fames sitisque; ignis in vultu, pudor et impudentia. This passage should probably run thus-- In ore Fames sitisque; ingeus, invulta, pudor et impotentia. Priscian, in his studied lines, could not mean to boast of his modesty and his impudence in the same breath. Page 263. WITTYPATE........ Good! then you, Sir Bacchus Apollo, shall be Dispatch'd with her share, and some contents to meet us To-morrow. What can be the meaning of some contents? We should read And some counters; Of which, according to the plan, she was to be robbed. Page 267. CUNNINGHAM........ 'Less in the coupling season; else they desire Else means here, at other times. Page 269. POMPEY....I think he had Two conceits in it, forsooth-to high, to low. The old reading is too high, too low, which is equally inexplicable with the present text, which I cannot understand; and should therefore be inclined to read, One high, one low. Sympson proposes to add the article to the word one, which is very awkward and unnecessary. Page 274. POMPEY....-If there be Any need, you may think of things when I am gone; It is absolutely necessary, for the sense, to include in a parenthesis the words (You may think of me when I am gone) As in Seward's edition. Page 274. NIECE........ And justly served; Erring is the right reading, and means wondering, capricious, and uncertain; the other readings are flat, and unpoetical. Erratius, in Latin, has the same meaning. Iago calls Othello an erring barbarian.. Page 274. POMPEY........Hum, hum, hum. In the second folio, both these lines are given to Pompey, which must have been wrong. If the second line is to be spoken by any person, it would come better from the Niece than from him; but I suspect that the words, He bums, loth to depart, is merely a marginal direction, pointing out the tune which Pompey was supposed to hum, which was that of an old ballad, which began with the words, Loth to depart. That there was such a ballad, appears from a passage in Massinger's Old Laws, where the Clown says of his wife The old woman is loth to depart: She never sung any other tune in her life. Page 275. NIECE......... I'll hurry all awry, and tread my path Over unbeaten grounds; go level to the mark, I have no doubt but Seward is right in reading, but by circular bouts: if she did not go by circular bouts, but directly to her work, she could not hurry all awry, or tread her path over unbeaten ground. By saying that she would go level to the mark, she means, that she would have her object always in her aim, Page 281. WITTYPATE........ I will not miss a cause, a quantity, a dram. Seward proposes a strange and very learned amendment, where none is wanting. A cause and quantity, are surely more chymical terms than quart and quint. Page 288. OLDCRAFT........ We'll take the air to-day, Niece. NIECE.... There stands the heir behind you, I must take, (Which I'd as lieve take, as take him; I swear.) The Niece quibbles on the words air and heir, connected with the word behind. She meant to say, she would prefer the air behind him, to the beir behind him. Page 286. NIECE........ Get thee a fresh mistress, thou't make work enough. I cannot guess what the Editors mean to imply by the contraction thou't. Seward reads thoud'st, which is intelligible. Page 300. CREDULOUS........ Faith, leave it cousin, because my rascals use it. Read Because rascals use it. Without the word my, as in Seward's edition. Page 314. RUINOUS........ Bring all the fops you can, the more the better fare. The proverb alluded to is-The more the merrier, the fewer the better fare. Page 323. CUNNINGHAM........'Sfoot, all this is wrong; This wings his pursuit, and will be before me. We should read And he'll be before me. Page 335. POMPEY......... Now would'st thou spare thy husband's head, And break thy own heart, if thou had'st any wit. A note of interrogation is necessary at the end of this passage, which is nonsense without it, THE FAIR MAID OF THE INN. Page 347. ALBERTO........And dispute with heaven, If the least puff of the rough north wind Blast our vines burden. The old reading is Blast our time's burden. The amendment is Seward's, and well imagined, though I do not think it necessary; for time does not mean age, as he supposes, but season. Page 351. BAPTISTA........We were married closely. Closely here means, privately. Page 357. MENTIVALE........ And if some respects, Familiar to myself, chain'd not my tongue, I should say, no more, I should; but I'll sit down, &c. I have no doubt but Seward is right in reading I should say more, I should, &c. The punctuation of the Editors does not make so good sense of the passage, which will remain exceedingly embarrassed; but the omission of the word no, makes the expression easy and natural. นน |