Imatges de pàgina
PDF
EPUB
[blocks in formation]

P. 198. Here Silvia calls her lover fervant.-And again, below, the calls him gentle fervant; this was the language of ladies to their lovers, at the time when Shakespeare wrote, and as the word is no longer ufed in that fenfe, would it not be proper to fix it by a note on this paffage? Mr. HAWKINS. P. 227. St. Nicholas be thy -St. Speed.] That this Saint prefided over young fcholars, may be gathered from Knight's life of Dean Colet, p. 362. For by the ftatutes of Paul's fchool, there inferted, the children are required to attend divine fervice, at the cathedral, on his anniversary. The reafon I take to be, that the legend of this faint makes him to have been a bishop, while he was a boy, At Salisbury cathedral is a monument of a boy bishop, and it is faid, that a custom formerly prevailed there, of chufing, from among the choristers, a bishop, who actually performed the paftoral functions, and difpofed of fuch prebends as became vacant during his epifcopacy, which

lafted but a few days: it is thought the monument abovementioned was for fome boy that died in office.-See the poffhumous works of Mr. John Gre gory, 4to. Oxon.

Mr. HAWKINS.

P. 234.-awful men.] This, I think, fhould be lawful, in oppofition to lawless men. In judicial proceedings the word has this fenfe. Mr. HAWKINS. P. 276. For zenith, in the note, read youth.

P. 281. Lucio.-'tis my fa miliar fin,

With maids to feem the lapwing, and to jeft.

Tongue far from beart-] The modern editors have not taken in the whole fimilitude here: they have taken notice of the lightness of a fpark's behaviour to his mistress, and compared it to the lapwing's hovering and fluttering flying. But the chief, of which no notice is taken, is,

and to jeft. (See Ray's Proverbs.) The lapwing cries, "Tongue far from heart," moft, farthest from the nest, i. e. She is, as Shakespeare has it here,

Tongue far from heart.

"The farther fhe is from her "neft, where her heart is with "her young ones, fhe is the ❝louder, or, perhaps, all "tongue."

Mr. SMITH.

Shakespeare has an expreffion of the like kind, Comedy of Errors, act iv. fc. iii. p. 246.

Adr. Far from her neft, the
lapwing cries away,
My heart prays for him, tho

my tongue do curse. We meet with the fame thought in John Lilly's comedy, intitled,

Cam

[merged small][ocr errors][merged small]

As faulcon doth the fowl.] Qu. faulconer. Dr. GRAY. P. 328. Lucio. -ba? what Jay ft thou trot?] It should be read, I think, what fay'ft thou to't? the word trot being feldom (if ever) used to a man.

Old trot or trat, fignifies a decrepit old woman, or an old drab. In which fenfe it is ufed by Gawin Douglas, Virgil's Enead, book iv.

"Out on the old trat, agit wyffe, or dame."

Dr. GRAY. Trot, or as it is now often pronounced honest trout, is a familiar addrefs to a man among the provincial vulgar.

P. 331. Clackdib.] The beggars, two or three centuries ago, ufed to proclaim their want by a wooden difh, with a moveable cover, which they clacked, to fhew that their veffel was empty. This appears in a paffage quoted on another occafion by Dr. Gray.

P. 336. The Revifal reads

[blocks in formation]

To draw with idle Spider's frings

Moft pondrous and fubftantial things;

meaning by ponderous and fubftantial things, pleasure and wealth.

P. 342. Clown. Sir it is a mistery, &c.] If Mr. Warburton had attended to the argument by which Bawd proves his own profeffion to be a mistery, he would not have been driven to take refuge in the groundless fuppofition, "that part of the dialogue "had been loft or dropped."

The argument of the Hangman is exactly fimilar to that of the Bawd. As the latter puts in his claim to the whores, as members of his occupation, and, in virtue of their painting, would enroll his own fraternity in the miftery of painters; fo the former equally lays claim to the thieves, as members of his occupation, and, in their right, endeavours to rank his brethren, the hangmen, under the mistery of fitters of apparel, or taylors. The reading of the old editions is therefore undoubtedly right; except that the last speech, which makes part of the Hangman's argument, is by mistake, as the reader's own fagacity will readily perceive, given to the Cloren, or Bawd. I fuppofe, therefore, the poet gave us the whole thus:

[ocr errors]

"Whor. Sir, it is a mißlery.
"Clown. Proof-

"Whor. Every true man's "apparel fits your thief: If it be too little for your thief, your true man thinks it big enough. If it be too big for your thief, "your

[ocr errors]
[ocr errors]

'' your thief thinks it little enough,
Jo every true man's apparel fits
your thief."

ઠંડ

I must do Mr. Warburton the juftice to acknowledge, that he hath rightly apprehended, and explained the force of the Hangman's argument. REVISAL.

P. 345-that Spirit's poffeft with hafte, That wounds the unfifting portal with thefe ftrokes.] Such is the reading of the original copy, from which later editors have coined unrefifting, and unrefling. I believe that the true word is unliftening, the deaf portal.

P. 349. Tie the beard] The Revifal recommends Mr. Simpfon's emendation, die the beard; the prefent reading may well ftand.

P. 369. Informal women.] I think, upon further enquiry, that informal fignifies incompetent, not qualified to give teftimony.

Of this ufe I think there are precedents to be found, though I cannot now recover them.

P. 323. there is the Count Palatine.] I make no doubt but the Count Palatine was fome character notorious in Shakefpeare's time. When Sir Epi. cure Mammon, in the Alchemist, is promifing Face what great things he will do for him, he fays, he shall be a Count, and adds flily, ay, a Count Palatine. The editor of Johnson has taken no notice at all of the paffage, nor obfervés that the latter part of the line fhould be fpoken afide, which the character of Sir Epicure would have juftified him in doing. Mr. STEEVENS. VOL. VIII,

of the quarto's read confufions, P. 406.-Try conclufions.] Two the first thing Launce does, is to which is certainly right, because confufe his father by the directions he gives him.

Mr. STEEVENS. P. 408. -Your child that fhall be.] Launce, by your child that fball be, means, that his duty to his father fhall, for the future, fhew him to be his child. for him to fay fomething of that It was rather become neceffary fort, after all the tricks he had been playing him.

Mr. STEEVENS. P. 416. Laun. Then it was not for nothing that my nofe fell a Black Monday" is a moveable bleeding on Black Monday laft.] "day, it is Eafter Monday, and

ડેર

was fo called on this occafion. "In the 34th of Edward III.

"

(1360) the 14th of April, " and the morrow after Eafter

[ocr errors]

day, king Edward, with his "hoft, lay before the city of "Paris; which day was full "dark of mift and hail, and fo "bitter cold, that many men "died on their horfes backs "with the cold. Wherefore, "called the Blacke-Monday.' "unto this day, it hath been Stowe, p. 264-6. Dr. GRAY.

This imaginary corruption is reP. 424-Your mind of love.] moved by only putting a comma after mind. Mr. LANGTON. P. 446. Whofe fouls do bear

[ocr errors]

an equal yoke of love.]" An
1632. Egal, I believe, in Shake-
egal yoke of love."
Fol.
Speare's time, was commonly used
for equal.

So it was in Chaucer's.
I i

[ocr errors]

Aye to compare unto thyne

[ocr errors]

excellence,

"I will prefume hym fo to dignifie,

66

"Yet be not egal'." Picloque to the Remedy of Love. So in Gorbodac. "Sith all as one do bear you

[ocr errors]

egall faith." Dr. GRAY.

P. 454. Read thus;

and Juliet, which, by the date appears to be much older than Shakespeare's time. It is remarkable, that all the particulars in which that play differs from the ftory in Bansello, are found in this ballad. But it may be faid, that he copied this flory as it ftands in Paynter's Pallace of Ple fure, 1567, where

-cannot contain their urine. there is the fame variation of cir

For afections,

the mood

[blocks in formation]

Mafiers of paffion, Sway it to fhews us that Shakespeare did not firft alter the original ftory for the worse, and is at least a prefumptive proof that he never faw the Italian.

Of what it likes or loaths. As for affection, thofe that know to operate upon the paffions of men, rule it by making it operate in obedience to the notes which please or difguft it. P. 454 Woolen bagpipe.] This pallage is clear from all difficulty, if we read foln bagpipe; which, that we fhould, I have not the least doubt.

Mr. HAWKINS. P. 488. The Merchant of Venice.] The antient ballad, on which the g e greater part of this play is probably founded, has been mentioned in Olfervations on the Fairy Queen, 1. 129. Shake Speare's track of reading may be traced in the common books and popular stories of the times, from which he manifeftly derived most of his plots. Hiftorical fongs, then very fashionable, often fuggefted and recommended a fubject. Many of his incidental allufions alfo relate to pieces of this kind; which are now grown valuable on this account only, and would otherwife have been defervedly forgotten. A ballad is ftill remaining on the fubject of Rimeo

Shakespeare alludes to the tale of king Cophetua and the beggar, more than once. This was a ballad; the oldeft copy of which, that I have feen, is in A crown "garland of golden rofes gathered

[ocr errors]

out of England's royall gar"den, 1612." The collector of this mifcellany was Richard Johnfun, who compiled, from various romances, THE SEVEN CHAMPIONS. This story of Cophetua was in high vogue, as appears from our author's manner of introducing it in Love's Labour loft, A&t iv. fc. i. As likewife from John Marfton's Satires, called the Scourge of Villanie, printed 1598, viz.

Go buy fome ballad of the fairy king,

And of the BEGGAR WENCH
Jome rogie thing. Sign. B. 2.
The firft ftanza of the ballad be-
gins thus,

I read, that once in Africa
A prince that there did
raine,
Who had to name Cophetua,
As poets they do faine, &c.

The

The prince, or king, falls in love with a female beggar, whom he fees accidentally from the windows of his palace, and afterwards marries her. [Sign. D. 4] The fong, cited at length by the learned Dr. Gray, on this fubject, is evidently fpurious, and much more modern than Shakespeare's time. The name Cophetua is not once mentioned in it. Notes on Shak. vol. ii. p. 267.

. However, I fufpect, there is fome more genuine copy than that of 1612, which I before mentioned. But this point may be, perhaps, adjusted by an ingenious enquirer into our old English literature, who is now publishing a curious collection of antient ballads, which will illuftrate many paffages in ShakeSpeare.

I doubt not but he received the hint of writing on king Lear from a Ballad of that fubject. But in most of his historical plays he copies from Hall, Hollin fhead, and Stowe, the reigning historians of that age. And although thefe chronicles were then then univerfally known and read, he did not fcruple to tranfcribe their materials with the moft circumftantial minuteness. For this he

[ocr errors][merged small][ocr errors][merged small][merged small][merged small][ocr errors][merged small][ocr errors][merged small][merged small][merged small]

NOTES to the P. 62. Unquestionable Spirit.] May it not mean unwilling to be converfed with ?

Mr. CHAMIER. P. 72. In the note, for arrow's mark, read hollow mark.

SECOND VOLUME.

P. 92. The Revifal justly obferves, that the affair of peifoning Overbury did not break out till 1615, long after Shakespeare had left the Stage.

P. 93. And you fair fifler.]
Oliver

Ii 2

« AnteriorContinua »