Imatges de pàgina
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Hie therefore, Robin, overcaft the night,
The starry welkin cover thou anon
With drooping fog, as black as Acheron.

Midfummer Night's Dream, A. 3, S. 2.

Dark night, that from the eye his function takes,
The ear more quick of apprehension makes;
Wherein it doth impair the feçing fenfe,
It pays the hearing double recompenfe.

Midfummer Night's Dream, A. 3, S. 2.
I have intreated him along
With us to watch the minutes of this night:
That, if again this apparition come,

He may approve our eyes, and fpeak to it.

Hamlet, A. 1, S. 1.

Are you not he,

That fright the maidens of the villag'ry;

And fometimes make the drink to bear no barm;
Mislead night-wanderers, laughing at their harm?
Midfummer Night's Dream, A. 2, S. 1.

I know a bank whereon the wild thyme blows,
Where ox-lips and the nodding violet grows;
Quite over-canopy'd with lufcious woodbine,
With fweet mufk-rofes, and with eglantine:
There fleeps Titania, fome time of the night,
Lull'd in thefe flowers with dances and delight.
Midfummer Night's Dream, A. 2,

S. 2.

True;
When the day ferves, before black-corner'd night,
Find what thou want'ft by free and offer'd light.
Timon of Athens, A. 5, S. 1.

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approve our eyes.] Add a new teftimony to that of our

JOHNSON. Approve our eyes." Have proof that we were no way miftaken, that we have not been fanciful. He had faid in the first line of the fpeech,-Horatio fays, 'tis but our phantafy. A. B. 2 When the day ferves, before black-corner'd night.] We should

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The moon shines bright:-In fuch a night as this, When the sweet wind did gently kiss the trees, And they did make no noise; in such a night, Troilus, methinks, mounted the Trojan wall, And figh'd his foul toward the Grecian tents, Where Creffid lay that night.

Merchant of Venice, A. 5, S. 1.

Urchins

Shall, for that vaft of night that they may work,

All exercise on thee.

Tempeft, A. 1, S. 2.

————————— This fearful night,
There is no ftir or walking in the streets ;
And the complexion of the element,
It favours like the work we have in hand,
Moft bloody, fiery, and most terrible.

Julius Cæfar, A. 1,

black cornette night."

S. 3.

A cornette is a woman's head-drefs for the night. So in another place he calls her-black brow'd night. WARBURTON.

Black-corner'd night is probably corrupt, but black-cornette can hardly be right, for it fhould be black-cornetted night. I canhot propofe any thing, but muft leave the place in its present state. JOHNSON. I believe that Shakespeare, by this expreffion, meant only night, which is as obfcure as a dark corner. STEEVENS. "Black-corner'd night" is a very unmeaning expreffion. I

would read,

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black, coaled night."

I know not if the reading may be admitted, but I think it has much of Shakespeare's manner. Or he may have written collied.

A. B.

— for that vaft of night that they may work.] The vaft of night means the night which is naturally empty and deferted, without action; or when all things lying in fleep and filence, makes the world appear one great uninhabited waste.

STEEVENS.

I understand vast, in this place, to mean length of time-for, is during. Fairies (fays he) Jhall, during the whole extent, or space of night, and in which they are allowed to work, all exercife on thee. Our author, it may be remembered, ufes vafty for extent of place.

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A. B.

From

From camp to camp, through the foul womb of night,
The hum of either army ftilly founds,
That the fix'd centinels almost receive
The fecret whispers of each other's watch :
Fire anfwers fire; and through their paly flames
Each battle fees the other's umber'd face.

Henry V. A. 4, Chorus.

The confident, and over-lufty French
Do the low-rated English play at dice;
And chide the cripple tardy-gaited night,
Who like a foul and ugly witch, doth limp
So tedioufly away.

Henry V. A. 4, Chorus.

Steed threatens fteed, in high and boaftful neighs, Piercing the night's dull ear; and from the tents, The armourers, accomplishing the knights,

With busy hammers clofing rivets up,

Give dreadful note of preparation.

Henry V. A. 4, Chorus.

Here nothing breeds,

Unless the nightly owl, or fatal raven.
They told me, here, at dead time of the night,
A thousand fiends, a thousand hiffing fnakes,
Ten thousand fwelling toads, as many urchins,
Would make fuch fearful and confused cries,
As any mortal body, hearing it,
Should ftraight fall mad, or elfe die fuddenly.
Titus Andronicus, A. 2, S. 3.

Gallop apace you fiery-footed steeds,

Towards Phoebus' manfion; fuch a waggoner
As Phaeton would whip you to the west,
And bring in cloudy night immediately.

Romeo and Juliet, A. 3, S. 2.

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If the midnight bell

Did, with his iron tongue and brazen mouth,
Sound on unto the drowsy race of night.

S.3

King John, A. 3, S. 3.

The time of night when Troy was set on fire;
The time when fcritch-owls cry, and ban-dogs howl.
Henry VI. P. 2, A. 1, S. 4.

3 Brief as the lightning in the colly'd night,
That, in a fpleen, unfolds both heaven and earth,
And

Sound on unto the drowy race of night.] Some of the commentators have taken infinite pains to prove that the prefent reading, found on, is faulty, and that we ought to read, found one," &c. while the others have as ftoutly maintained that the text fhould undoubtedly remain unchanged. I am of opinion, however, that both thefe readings are wrong, and have therefore ventured to alter the paffage thus:

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If the midnight bell

"Had, with his iron tongue and brazen mouth,
"Sounden unto the drowfy race of night."

To fuppofe that the king was unable to communicate his thoughts to Hubert, at any other time than when the bell was founding on, is truly ridiculous and abfurd. But that he should confider midnight as the proper feafon for converfing with him on the dreadful bufinefs in hand, is highly beautiful and juft. He therefore fays, if the bell bad founded, or founden, then,

&c.

In old language, the participle is frequently formed by the termination én, as it is now by ed. A. B.

2

ban-dogs bowl.] The etymology of the word bandogs is unfettled. They feem, however, to have been defigned by poets to fignify fome terrific beings, whofe office it was to make night hideous, like thofe mentioned in the first book of Horace :

"Serpentes, atque videres Infernos errare canes."

STEEVENS.

"Ban-dog," or band-dog, is a dog kept in bands, or tied up.

A maftiff.

A. B.

3 Brief as the lightning in the collied night,
That, in a spleen, unfolds both heaven and earth,
And ere a man bath power to fay,-behold!
The jaws of darkness do devour it up.] Though the

word Spleen be here employed oddly enough, yet I believe it

right.

And ere a man hath power to fay,-behold!
The jaws of darknefs do devour it up.

Midfummer Night's Dream, A. 1, S. 1.

NOBLENESS, NOBILITY.
When did he regard

The stamp of nobleness in any perfon,
Out of himself?

Henry VIII. A. 3, S. 2.

I am join'd with no foot but with nobility, and tranquillity; burgomafters and great moneyers; fuch as can hold in; fuch as will strike fooner than speak,

and

right. Shakespeare, hurried on by the grandeur and multitude of his ideas, affumes every now and then an uncommon licence in the use of his words. Here he uses the word Spleen for a fudden, hafty fit. WARBURTON.

It is fcarcely poffible that spleen fhould be right. I read bene, i. e. Thining, Chauc. Spenf. Shakespeare ufes it as a substantive, flafb, fudden blaze.

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The ftamp of nobleness in any perfon,

A. B.

Out of himself?] The expreffion is bad, and the thought falfe. It fuppofes Wolfey to be noble, which was not fo. We hould read,

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When did he regard

"The ftamp of noblenefs in any perfon;

"Out of't himself?"

i. e. When did he regard nobleness of blood in another; having none of his own to value himself upon ? WARBURTON.

I do not think this correction proper. The meaning of the prefent reading is eafy. When did be, however careful to carry bis own dignity to the utmost height, regard any dignity of another? JOHNSON.

I conceive the meaning to be-that from his pride he never paid a proper respect to nobleness, but when he was abfolutely obliged to it. "Out of himfelf" is, of himself, of his own accord. That this is the fenfe is evident. It is impoffible, as Warburton rightly obferves (though he has printed and pointed the paffage wrong), that the Chamberlain fhould be talking of Wolfey's being noble. A. B.

• Such as will frike fooner than speak; and speak sooner than

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