MERRY WIVES OF WINDSOR.
Act I.
Sc. 1.
"The Council shall hear of it; it is a riot."
The metre requires of, which makes the expression more idiomatic. Sir Hugh naturally omits it.
"And I thank you always with my heart la!"
The folio reads 'love you'; the correction is Farmer's. So also in Shallow's next speech.
Sc. 3.
"The good humour is to steal at a minute's rest."
As "minim's rest" occurs in Rom. and Jul. ii. 1, Langton and Collier's folio would so read here; but it may be, and probably is, a mere blunder of Nym's.
"He hath studied her well, and translated her well."
The folio reads will; in both places the 4tos have 'well' in the first, and omit it in the last.
"Hold, sirrah, bear you these two letters tightly."
"For the revolt of mine is dangerous."
For 'the' we must, with Pope, read this. We have, "For this revolt of thine" (Hen. V. ii. 1). Theobald, whom some critics follow, read mien for 'mine,' which I utterly reject. (See on Two Gent. ii. 4.) I do not think 'revolt' occurs anywhere in the sense of mere change.
Act II.
Sc. 1.
"What! have I scaped love-letters in the holiday-time of my beauty?"
I is the insertion of the 2nd folio; and is perhaps not absolutely necessary, as we might put a (!) after 'beauty.'
"For though Love use Reason as his precision."
For 'precision,' which gives but poor sense, we should adopt, as I have done, Johnson's conjecture, physician:
"My reason the physician to my love." Son. cxlvii.
"I'll exhibit a bill in Parliament for the putting down of men."
Theobald's reading, 'fat men' has been generally and properly adopted. There is a similar omission of fat in 1 Hen. IV. ii. 2. In the 4to she says, "Well, I shall trust fat men the worse while I live for his sake."
"Will you go, An-heires?"
This is mere nonsense. Boaden's conjecture, Cavalieres, adopted by Singer and myself, seems to be very good; it might easily, with a little effacement, have been mistaken by the printer. We might also, and still better I think, read on heróes, as this last word was thus pronounced at times by Spenser, Chapman, and others; and we have, "Noble heróes, my sword and yours are kin" (All's Well, ii. 1). The metre excludes héroes. Theobald, followed by Dyce, read mynheers, not a Shakespearian term; Steevens on hearts; Malone and hear us. The reading of the 4tos is 'Bully Hector!'
"On his wife's frailty."
Theobald read fealty, Collier's folio has fidelity. I prefer the last; but I make no change.
Act III.
Sc. 2.
"Give fire, she is my prize."
Most certainly 'my' should be thy; the confusion is common.
Sc. 3.
"Cried Game? said I well?"
Mr. Douce, Mr. Dyce, and myself, all independently corrected 'Cried I aim?' and Warburton had proposed Cry aim. The correction might therefore appear to be certain; and yet I am dubious of it. 'Cried game' is the reading of the 4tos, as well as of the folio; and as the first 4to and the folio were printed from independent MSS., it is not at all likely that two transcribers or printers should have fallen into the same error. 'Cried Game? said I well?' would suit the abrupt tone of the Host, and signify, Did I intimate sport?
"Thou hast the right arched beauty of the brow."
The 4to reads bent for 'beauty'; so the right word may be bend. I have given 'bent'.
"By the Lord, thou art a tyrant to say so."
For 'tyrant' the 4tos read traitor. I have adopted this reading, though dubious of its being the best.
"What thou wert if Fortune thy foe were not, Nature is."
So also Capell.
"I love thee, and none but thee."
The metre proves this to be the right text.
"So, now uncape."
I think Hanmer was right in reading uncouple; for 'uncape,' as a term of the chase, is unknown. The final letters of uncouple had probably been effaced in the MS.
Sc. 4.
"Farewell, gentle Mistress Page. Färewell, Nan."
Both sense and metre gain, I think, by this addition. Policy, if nothing else, should make Fenton return the farewell of Mrs. Page. Capell read 'my gentle.'
"A fool and a physician."
We should certainly read with Hanmer or for 'and.'
Sc. 5.
"As they'd have drowned a bitch's blind puppies."
The original copies read 'a blind bitch's'; Hanmer made the obvious transposition.
Act IV.
Sc. 2.
"Your husband is in his old lunes again."
The folio has lines. Theobald made the correction. See W. T. ii. 2.
"Good gentlemen, let him not strike the old woman."
The negative was added in the 2nd folio.
Sc. 4.
"You say he has been thrown into the rivers."
It might be better to read see for 'say.'
"That silk will I go buy. And in that time."
With Mr. Dyce, I adopt Theobald's reading of tire for 'time,' as best suited to the context.
"And he my husband best of all affects."
If 'husband' be the subject to 'affects,' as I think he is, we should read him. See Introd. p. [52].
Sc. 5.
"Conceal them or thou diest."
Collier's folio for 'or' reads and; but the text is right. Simple had used 'conceal' in the sense of reveal, and the Host repeats his word.
Sc. 6.
"The mirth whereof's so larded with my matter."
Act V.
Sc. 2.
"Remember, son Slender, my daughter."
The word daughter, necessary both for sense and metre, was supplied by the 2nd folio.
Sc. 5.
Among the characters given in the heading of this scene, we meet Mrs. Quickly and Pistol; the 4tos have "Mrs. Quickly, like the Queen of Fairies," and prefix Quic. to the following speeches, and it is not said that Anne was to assume that character. The folio heads the speeches with Qui. and Qu. We may therefore say that the poet was oblivious when, in iv. 4. 6, he said that Anne should "present the Fairy Queen;" for throughout she only appears as an ordinary fairy, as is plain by the mistake made by Caius and Slender. The poet seems to have confined the speaking to the elder persons.
"You moonshine-revellers, and shades of night,
You orphan-heirs of fixed Destiny."
No one has been able to make any sense of 'orphan-heirs,' which may therefore be treated as a corruption. Warburton read 'ouphen-heirs,' which Singer adopts; but there is no such word as ouphen. My own opinion is that the poet wrote ouphes and heirs; and as in general the d in and is not pronounced, even before vowels, and the ou might easily be mistaken for or, the printer made orphan. The line, we may see, thus forms a parallel to the preceding line. The poet seems to have used 'heirs' in the sense of children. In Fletcher's Mad Lover we have,
"Coarse and base appetites, earth's mere inheritors,
And heirs of idleness and blood." (ii. 1.)
In favour of my reading, it may be observed that in iv. 4 and in the following speeches the Ouphes occur, as well as the Elves and Fairies, and nowhere else in Shakespeare.
"Elves list your names. Silence, you airy toyès.
Cricket to Windsor chimneys shalt thou leap;
What fires thou findest unraked and hearths unswept."
The rime shows that 'toyès' is a dissyllable. In 'unswept' the t should not be sounded, and, I think, not be printed. Unswep is merely the apocopated part, of which examples are so numerous in our language; it is like kep, crep, etc., which, though regarded now as vulgarisms, are grammatically correct. Collier's folio, followed by Mr. Collier and others, reads 'when thou'st leap'd,' a mere result of ignorance of grammar.
"And turn him to no pain."
From what precedes, we might conjecture burn.
"To repay that money will be a biting affliction."
I have, after Theobald, added here from the 4tos the following lines, of which, however, he did not give the last:—
"Mrs. Ford. Nay, husband, let that go to make amends,
Forgive that sum and so we'll all be friends.
Ford. Well, here's my hand; all is forgiven at last.
Fal. It hath cost me well. I've been well pinch'd and wash'd."
The play is thus made to end more agreeably, and Falstaff can accept the invitation to supper with a better grace. These lines, it is true, rime, and so are not quite in harmony with the other speeches, whence it seems to follow that the omission was made by the poet. But his judgement in this case must have fallen asleep; for Ford had no right to be so hard on the poor knight, as he had given him the money, or rather we might say forced it on him. As to the rime, we have two other couplets toward the end of the play.
TWELFTH NIGHT.
Act I.
Sc. 1.
"Oh! it came o'er my ear like the sweet sound
That breathes upon a bank of violets."
As a sound breathing is pure nonsense, Pope read south for 'sound'; and, with the exception of Mr. Knight and Mr. Staunton, all the editors, I believe, have followed him. Yet even this correction does not remove the difficulty, for south alone, no more than north, east, or west, is never used of the wind. It seems to me then that the poet wrote south wind, and as the th was usually suppressed in south, north, etc., as sou'-west, sou'-east, the printer pronounced sou wind or, it may be, sou 'ind, which easily became 'sound' in his mind, and so he printed it. (See Introd. p. [67].) It is rather remarkable that this very correction is made by an Anon. in the Cambridge Shakespeare. The same idea, I may observe, occurs in the Antonio and Mellida of Shakespeare's contemporary, Marston (Act I.):
"Smile heaven and softest southern wind
Kiss her cheek gently with perfumed breath."
Both were probably indebted to "Her breath is more sweet than a gentle south-west wind, that comes creeping over flowery fields and shadowed waters" in Sidney's Arcadia. For a similar omission of wind, see on Temp. i. 2.
"So please you, my lord, I might not be admitted."
"The element itself, till seven years heat 'em,
Shall not behold her face at ample view."
That is, not for seven summers, possibly with an allusion to racing, as in Win. Tale, i. 2. As the element is the sky, the heaven, we might also read it.
"Of her sweet perfections with one self-king."
That is with Love. We might also transpose, but, I think, with a loss of force. We have an instance of this prefixing of the genitive in Temp. iii. 3.
Sc. 2.
"They say she hath abjur'd the company
And sight of men."
This is the judicious transposition of Theobald. The folio has 'sight' in the first, 'company' in the second line, to the manifest injury of the metre.
Sc. 3.
"Castiliano vulgo! for here comes Sir Andrew Aguecheek."
Warburton's conjecture of volto for 'vulgo' is ingenious, and may be right, meaning putting on a grave countenance, like a Castilian.
"An thou let her part so sir Andrew."
It was left to the 3rd folio to supply the needful her.
"Thou seest it will not curl by nature."
Theobald's indubitable emendation of 'cool my nature' of the folio.
"In a flame-coloured stock."
This is Pope's correction of 'dam'd coloured' of the folio. Knight reads damask; Collier's folio dun, which is very bad indeed. We meet in other dramatists with straw-, peach-, carnation-colour'd stocks. It is perhaps impossible to recover the right word, yet I see little objection to flame-colour; for if we suppose flame pronounced as in Latin and French (see Introd. p. [74]), flame-coloured might easily become 'damn'd (pr. dam) coloured' in the printer's mind. In confirmation we have elsewhere in the folio 'scar-crow,' not 'scare-crow,' and other like words.
Sc. 4.
"Is as the maiden's organ, shrill and sound;
And all is semblative a woman's part."
I have read 'in sound'; for and and in are perpetually confounded. I also read 'semblative to.'
Sc. 5.
"Of fools to be no better than the fools' zanies."
So also Capell.
"At your door like a sheriff's post, and be the supporter
Of a bench."
For 'and' I read or, and so did Hanmer.
"If you be not mad, begone; if you have reason, be brief."
Mason omitted the negative, but perhaps needlessly.
Oli. "Tell me your mind.—Vio. I am a messenger..."
This is Warburton's arrangement, the folio giving the whole to Viola. (See on Meas. for Meas. ii. 3.) I have added the sign of the break, which seems necessary.
"Look you, sir; such one I was, as this present.... Is it not well done?"
By reading and pointing thus we get most excellent sense, and increase the vivacity and humour of the passage. Mason, whom Singer follows, read "as this presents," which no doubt may be right, but is far less effective.
"With adorations, with fertile tears."
See Introd. p. [55].
"The countes man, he left this ring behind him."
Capell, who is invariably followed, made it county's. I, however, read, as in iii. 3, 'count his.' With one exception (Mer. of Ven. i. 2), County is peculiar to Romeo and Juliet; formosissima in Much Ado, ii. 1, we should, I think, read Count.
Act II.
Sc. 2.
"She took the ring of me; I'll none of it."
As it is evident from Malvolio's reply that this was not what Viola said, the negative may have been omitted here, as in so many other places; Malone read 'no ring.' Singer retains the reading of the folio, saying that Viola fibs to "avoid betraying the weakness of Olivia to her steward."
"That methought that her eyes had lost her tongue."
The 2nd folio read 'That sure methought.'
"Alas! our frailty is the cause, not we;
For such as we are made, if such we be."
For 'if,' which is undoubtedly wrong, Tyrwhitt, followed by Steevens and others, read of, which would seem to be confirmed by,
"For we are soft, as our complexions are."
M. for M. ii. 4.
"Such as our atoms were, even such are we."
Dryden, Wife of Bath's Tale.
I have printed my own conjecture e'en. Hanmer read ev'n, and yet Tyrrwhitt probably was right, frailty being meant.
"And I, poor monster, fond as much on him;
And she, mistaken, seems to doat on me."
I quite agree with Mr. Dyce in reading As for 'And' in the second line. These words are confounded even at the present day.
Sc. 3.
"I had such a leg; and so sweet a breath to sing."
I suspect 'leg'; for what has it to do here? and Sir Andrew had already praised his own leg.
Sc. 4.
"Go seek him out, and play the tune the while."
"More longing, wavering, sooner lost and worn."
In Mer. of Ven. i. 4, the folio reads 'well-worn thrift' for the 'well-won thrift' of the 4to. Hanmer was therefore right in reading here won, the usual concomitant of 'lost.'
"Give me now leave to leave thee."
As it is the Clown that goes away, we should perhaps transpose the pronouns, 'Give' being I give. Mr. Dyce, however, says the text is right, it being "a courteous form of dismissal," to which explanation I see no objection.
"It cannot be so answered.—Sooth, but you must."
The reply proves that 'It' should be I, as Hanmer corrected.
Sc. 5.
"Wind up my watch or play with my ... some rich jewel."
This punctuation of Mr. Collier's is excellent.
"Though our silence be drawn from us with cars."
For 'cars we might perhaps read 'car-' or 'cart-ropes.' In iii. 1. we have drawing with "oxen and wain-ropes." Hanmer read by the ears, S. Walker racks.
"Her Cs, Us, and her Ts, and Ps! Why that?"
"Souter will cry upon it, for all this, though it be as rank as a fox."
We should probably read 'be not.' Hanmer read ben't.
"I will not give my part of this sport," etc.
It might appear better to read would; but all is right.
"I will not lose the part I hope to share
In these his fortunes for my patrimony."
Jonson, Sejanus, v. 10.
Act III.
Sc. 1.
"And fools are as like to husbands as pilchards are to herrings."
It might be better to omit the second 'are.'
"And not like the haggard cheek at every feather."
The negative is absolutely necessary. Collier's folio, Johnson, and Dyce, read 'Not like'; but 'And' should be retained.
"But wise men's folly fallen quite taint their wit."
So the folio reads; Theobald and Tyrwhitt 'wise men folly-fallen.' I agree with them, and have so printed it. Some read 'taints.'
"I mean to go in, sir, to enter."
"Hideth my heart. So, let me hear you speak."
The usual reading is 'Hides my poor heart'; but this simple change, made also by Delius, fully restores the metre. The printer may, however, have substituted 'Hides' for conceals or covers.
"Do not extort thy reasons from this clause."
Perhaps for 'thy' we should read my.
Sc. 2.
"Did she see thee the while, old boy?"
The 3rd folio first added thee.
"Challenge me the Count's youth to fight with him."
I think 'him' should be thee. Ritson read you.
Sc. 3.
"And thanks, and ever thanks. Good turns oft."
Here we have an instance of the advantage of transposition, for the folio has "oft good turns." 'Turns' is a dissyllable. Theobald read 'thanks, and oft.'
"For which if I be lapsed in this place."
We should surely read latched, i.e. caught, taken. See on M. N. D. iii. 2. Mr. Hunter, I find, read as I do.
Sc. 4.
"He's coming, madam, but in a very strange manner."
"No dram of a scruple, no scruple of a scruple."
Surely the poet's word must have been ounce for the last 'scruple.'
"He is a knight, dubbed with unhatched rapier."
Malone proposed 'an hatched,' and he was probably right.
"Ay, is it, I warrant him. Do but read it."
"That, honour sav'd, I may upon asking give."
Act IV.
Sc. 3.
"Yet there he was, and there I found this credited."
So it is in the folio, with the omission of the last letter, which had either been effaced in the MS. or was left out by the printer. Mason seems also to have seen the truth: yet no one followed him!
"That my most jealous and too doubtful soul
May live at peace. He shall conceal it,
Whiles you are willing it shall come to note."
The second line is imperfect. In my Edition I added still (printed, or perhaps written, till), and we might also read closely or truly, i.e. faithfully. 'Whiles' is to be understood as till whiles. (See [Index] s. v.) We might also end the line with it, and begin the next with That; as while and whiles that occur in Chaucer, Golding, and others.
Act V.
Sc. 1.
"A bawbling vessel was he captain of."
We should perhaps read 'bauble-vessel,' as in Tr. and Cr. i. 3.
"Then he's a rogue and a passy-measures panyn."
The 2nd folio, which is generally followed, reads pavin, which is a dance, and so could hardly be used of a man.
"First told me thou wast mad. Then cam'st in smiling,
And in such forms which here were presuppos'd
Upon thee in the letter."
For 'Then' I read 'Thou.' (Introd. p. [68].) Theobald read 'cam'st thou.' In the next line we should probably read as for 'which.'
"Of our dear souls. Meantime, sweet sister."
We might read 'In the meantime,' but there is no necessity whatever for change.
MEASURE FOR MEASURE.
Act I.
Sc. 1.
"Since I am put to know that your own science
Exceeds in that the lists of all advice
My strength can give you."
I know of no meaning 'put' has in English that will make any sense here. We must, then, regard it as a misprint; and as a negative is plainly wanting, I read not yet, the negative being, as so frequently, omitted, and 'put' printed for yet. "Why, brother Rivers, are you yet to learn?" (3 H. VI. iv. 4.) Pope read not for 'put.'
"But that to your sufficiency as
Your worth is able * * *"
It is quite evident that part of a line has been lost. The numerous corrections attempted here may be seen in the Cambridge Edition. I supply you add diligence.
"Hold therefore, Angelo, thy deputation."
Something was surely lost here; and as Angelo is constantly called the Deputy, deputation (which occurs a few lines higher) seems to be the missing word.
Sc. 2.
"I grant as there may between the list and the velvet."
"And which is more, within these three days his head's to be chopped off."
Sc. 3.
"Only for propagation of a dower
Remaining in the coffer of her friends."
For 'propagation' Malone would read prorogation; but the text seems to be right, as 'propagation' was used in the sense of extension, increase.
"All kinds of natures
That labour on the bosom of this sphere
To propagate their states."—Timon, i. 1.
"Griefs of my own lie heavy in my breast,
Which thou wilt propagate, to have it press'd,
With more of thine."—Rom. and Jul. i. 1.
"To give thanks to the gods of Rome,
That for the propagation of the empire
Vouchsafe us one to govern it like themselves."
Massinger, Rom. Actor. i. 3.
And portions—as we learn by Sir Moth Interest in Jonson's Magnetic Lady—used to double in seven years. The same play would also justify Malone's reading, as guardians were not always willing to part with dowers in their hands. Perhaps for 'of a dower' we should read 'of her dower,' for the h in her not being pronounced, and the r but slightly, the printer might easily make the mistake; so also 'coffer' should probably be 'coffers.'
Sc. 4.
"For terror not to use, in time the rod
More mock'd than fear'd, so our decrees
Dead to infliction, to themselves are dead."
In the second line Becomes was added by Pope, or rather by Davenant, and it has been adopted by subsequent editors. Yet the poet may have written, and I think did write, 'the rod is' and 'More mocked at.'
"And yet my nature never in the fight have
To do in slander."
"How I may formally in person bear me."
"Only this one now: Lord Angelo is precise."
Sc. 5.
"Sir, make me not your story."
For 'story' Singer would read sport; but 'me' may be 'to me,' and her meaning be, seek not to impose on me.
"As those that feed grow full; as blossoming time
That from the seedness the bare fallow brings
To teeming foison ... even so her plenteous womb," etc.
"The Duke, who is very strangely gone from hence,
Bore many gentlemen, myself being one,
In hand and hope of action."
As in and and are so frequently confounded (see on iii. 2 ad fin.) I would read in for 'and' in the last line.
Act II.
Sc. 1.
"Err'd in this point which now you censure him for."
"What's open made
To justice, that justice seizes. What know the laws?"
"Some run from brakes of ice and answer none,
And some are condemn'd for a fault alone."
We have a similar sentiment in Cymb. v. 1. As of ice and of vice are pronounced exactly alike, we may safely assume the latter to be the true reading. The whole difficulty then lies in 'brakes.' A brake was certainly, as we are told, a frame to confine restless or vicious horses in when shoeing; but when it is added that it is also an instrument of torture, I become somewhat dubious. At any rate no one would say a rack or a gibbet of vice; so why a brake of vice? I incline then, but with hesitation, to think that we should read wreaks o' vice. We have "wreak the love" (R. and J. iii. 5); "wreak our wrongs." (Tit. And. iv. 3.) I put the ambiguous o', because wreak takes on rather than of after it.
"I thought by the readiness in the office, you had," etc.
For 'by the,' the usual correction (which I have followed) is 'by your.' Mr. Collier thinks 'by this' might be better; for this and your were used promiscuously. Either might easily be confounded with the. (See Introd. p. [68].)
Sc. 2.
"But you might do it, and do the world no wrong."
This apparently necessary transposition was made by S. Walker. The folio reads "But might you."
"May call it back again. Well, believe this."
Here back is the proper addition made in the 2nd folio.
"Becomes them not with half so fair a grace
As mercy does. If he had been as you,
And you as he, you would have slipped like him,
But he, like you, would not have been so stern."
"Why, all the souls that were were forfeit once."
As the first 'were' may have been caused by the second, I would, like Warburton, read for it are. In "We cannot cross the cause why we were born" (L. L. L. iv. 3), the folio reads 'are born.'
"If the first that did th' edict infringe."
So it stands in the folio, and Pope was, it may be, right in reading 'If the first man,' but we might also read, and perhaps better, as I have done, 'the edict did.'
"Either now, or by remissness new-conceiv'd."
For 'now' I felt inclined to read new, with Pope, but I prefer 'now born,' and so I have printed it. (See on All's Well, ii. 3.)
"Are now to have no successive degrees
But here they live to end."
We should for 'here' either read where, or better, with Hanmer, ere.
"Would use his heaven for thunder; nothing but thunder!
Merciful Heaven!"
"Than the soft yielding myrtle; but man, proud man!"
"That soft and yielding mind should not be in him."
Lyly, Campaspe, ii. 2.
"Most ignorant of what he's most assured of."
"Not with fond sickles of the tested gold."
In all the English versions of the Scriptures anterior to the Authorized one, sicle is the word, from siclus of the Vulgate, by which the Hebrew shekel is rendered. Shakespeare therefore knew nothing of this last, and must of course have written sickle. Yet all editors, the Cambridge and myself included, have adopted Pope's correction, shekel, for which all are highly to blame. The word 'tested' proves that Gen. xxiii. 16 was in the poet's mind.
"Would all themselves laugh mortal."
It would be simpler and better to read: "Would laugh themselves all mortal."
"For I am that way going to temptation,
Where prayers cross.—At what hour to-morrow shall I
Attend your lordship?—At any time fore noon."
"Heaven save your honour!—From thee, even from thy virtue."
Sc. 3.
"Who, falling in the flaws of her own youth,
Hath blister'd her report."
Editors follow Warburton in reading flames for 'flaws'; but as flaw is defect, weakness, the text may be right. Flaw is also gust, blast of wind, which also might make some sense here. We should, then, perhaps read 'flaw.'
"Showing we would not spare Heaven, as we love it,
But as we stand in fear...."
For 'spare' Collier's folio reads serve.
"Jul. May grace go with you! Duke. Benedicite!"
So Ritson properly arranges. It is evident that the names and May, which I and Steevens have added, were effaced in the MS. In Twelfth Night (i. 5) we have a similar effacement of names of speakers. In the following line 'love' should be law, a change made by Hanmer.
Sc. 4.
"Is like a good thing, being often read,
Grown sear'd and tedious."
The folio has 'fear'd'; the correction is Warburton's. It is a most unusual use of 'sear'd' in the sense of dry; sear would seem less strange. So Heath also thought.
"To thy false seeming.—Blood thou art blood still!—
Let us write 'Good Angel' on the Devil's horn,
'Tis not the Devil's crest.... How now! Who's there?"
Pope read 'but blood'; Malone 'still blood.'
"As to put metal in restricted means."
It might be better to read, with Malone, moulds instead of 'means.'
"Ha! say you so, then I shall pose you quickly."
"Now took your brother's life or to redeem him."
Here 'or' is a correction by Davenant and Rowe of and of the folio.
"'Twere equal poise of sin and charity."
"If that be sin I'll make it my morn-prayer."
As Shakespeare has used 'morn' elsewhere but once in a compound, it were better, as the metre requires, to read 'morning', as Hanmer also read.
"Or seem so, crafty; and that is not good."
Editors read 'craftily'; we might also read 'seeming.' "Or seeming so in skill" (Winter's Tale, ii. 1); but no change is necessary. The folio has 'that's'; hence the reading of the editors, the Cambridge included.
"Proclaim an enshield beauty."
The word 'enshield' occurs nowhere else. It is of course, as Steevens says, enshielded, covered with a shield. To this there is no very great objection; but as elsewhere (Cor. iv. 6) the poet has 'inshell'd,' i.e. covered with a shell, it might be better to read so here also, as I find Tyrwhitt has done.
"Than beauty could display'd.—But mark me now."
So I think we should read, and not 'displayed' and with the metric accent on 'me.' Perhaps also for 'beauty' we should read itself.
"But in the loss of question."
There is no need, with Johnson and others, to change 'loss'; it is quite correct. (See Index s. v. '[Lose].')
"No. Ignomy in ransom and free pardon
Are of two houses. Lawful mercy is
Nothing akin to foul redemption."
Sense and metre alike demand the negative, which had evidently been effaced. Steevens also read 'akin.'
"Else let my brother die.—
If not a fedary but only he,
Owe and succeed thy weakness."
"A very obscure passage," says Mr. Dyce, "in which Rowe printed 'by weakness,' and Malone proposes 'this weakness.' (On 'fedary' see Richardson's Dictionary, sub Federal.)" And this is all this noted critic has to say! For my part I do not regard this passage as by any means past cure, and I think that Warburton came very near the true sense. The main point is to ascertain the exact meaning of fedary. "Federy and federary," says Richardson, "in Shakespeare are the same word differently written (having no connexion whatever with Feud or Feudatory), and signify a colleague, associate, or confederate;" and he refers to Minshew, s. v. Feodarie. Now Minshew's words are "Feodarie alias Feudaris alias Feudatrie, Feudelarius, is an office authorized by the Master of the Court of Wards and Liveries by letters patent, and under the seal of that office," etc. Cotgrave has "A feodarie, feudal, feodal, feudataire;" in both of which places I think the "connexion with Feud and feudatory" is very apparent; and the last convinces me that a fedary or feodary was a vassal, a liegeman; and that, I have no doubt, is its sense in this place? and in Cymb. iii. 2, where it again occurs, as I shall there show. I do not think Richardson was at all justified in making, as he seems to do, fedary a different word from feodary. There was also feodar a vassal, "For seventeen kings were Carthage feodars." (Marston. Sophon. Prol.) It must strike every one of taste with surprise that Shakespeare should have written such a leonine verse as
"If not a fedary, but only he."
And further, whether 'fedary' be vassal or confederate, the person should be mentioned to whom he stood in that relation. In the former sense—the only true one—that person must be either Heaven or the Duke, which was omitted by the printer. I am in favour of the former, both for metre-sake and because we have elsewhere, "The rest of your fees, O Gods! the senators of Athens" (Tim. iii. 5); and "God's vassals drop and die" (Hen. V. iii. 2). I read thus:—
"We are all frail.—Isab. Else let my brother die.—
If not a fedary of Heaven, but only he,
Owe and succeed this weakness.... Ang. Nay, women are frail too."
Isabella replies at once, fully assenting to Angelo's observation. After a brief pause, she is proceeding to reason on the subject, when he interrupts her. We may observe that 'owe' and 'succeed' are legal terms, which here form a hysteron-proteron, like some other common phrases. Perhaps, indeed, we might transpose them; for Isabella is speaking quite calmly and composedly. The change of 'thy' to this is perfectly legitimate; and to may have been omitted or effaced after 'succeed.'
"Who would believe me? Oh! these perilous mouths!"
The same addition was proposed by Mr. Seymour.
"To such abhorr'd pollution as this."
Though this addition is not absolutely necessary, it gives such force to the sentiment that I willingly believe it may have come from the poet's pen.
Act III.
Sc. 1.
"Servile to all the skyey influences
That dost this habitation, where thou keepest,
Hourly afflict."
No doubt 'dost' may make some sense here, but do, or rather, as more Shakesperian, doth, makes far better sense. In Son. xxxix. there is the very same confusion of dost and doth.
"For thy complexion shifts to strange effects."
Johnson read affects, which seems to be better.
"And Death unloads thee.—Friend hast thou none."
There might seem to be no need of adding anything here. But we may see that there is not an end of a paragraph. (See Introd. p. [82].) I therefore read, 'And Death in fine.'
"For all thy blessed youth
Becomes as aged, and doth beg the alms
Of palsied Eld."
No sense has been made of 'as aged,' which may therefore be regarded as corrupt. As in Tr. and Cr. v. 3, as lawful should be unlawful, I have here read in my Edition engaged (also the reading of Mr. Staunton) in the sense of dependent, in subjection, the ordinary state of youth under the authority of parents and elders, depending on them for money, etc. We might perhaps read as gaged in the same sense, if we had examples. The Cambridge editors propose abased, which is good, and might easily have become 'as aged.' Possibly the poet wrote an abject, as we have, "We are the Queen's abjects" (Rich. III. i. 1), and "I will make thee stoop, thou abject" (Jonson, Ev. Man Out, etc., v. 3), "That thou wilt never let me live to be An abject" (Chapman, Hymn to Venus, v. 312), "Yea, the very abjects" (Ps. xxxv. 15).
"What is yet in this
That bears the name of life? Yet in this life
Lie hid moe thousand deaths; yet death we fear."
For 'Yet,' caused by the other two, I read Yea; for 'moe' some, not more, as is usual, and which makes no sense.
"Dear sir, ere long I'll visit thee again."
For 'sir' Mason, with whom I agree, reads son. Further on in the scene the Duke calls him 'son.' (See on Cor. iii. 2.) It was perhaps the following line that suggested 'sir' to the printer.
"Bring me to hear them speak."
So Steevens read, transposing the 'them' and 'me' of the folio; and later editors have properly followed him.
"Now, sister, what's the comfort?—
Why, as all comforts are, most good, most good indeed."
This is the proper arrangement. Editors usually omit the first 'most good,' to get their favourite decasyllabic verse, heedless of the loss of force.
"Think you I can a resolution fetch
From flowery tenderness?"
It appears to me that a negative is required to make the passage more correct and natural; and we know how frequently it is omitted in these plays. Here, however, I think, 'a' has been printed in its place (see on Twelfth Night, ii. 2), for the compositor probably did not pronounce the t in 'cannot,' and so made it 'can a.' I therefore read, 'I cannot resolution fetch.' Heath takes 'Think you' as imperative, not interrogative, like Bethink you.
"Thou art too noble to preserve a life
In base appliances."
It might seem better to read By than 'In'; but it is not safe to meddle with prepositions. See on iv. 4.
"Nips youth in the head, and follies doth enmew
As falcon doth the fowl."
It is the falcon, not the fowl, that is enmewed. Would that every correction were as certain as that which I have made here! I read, with the fullest confidence, enew. (See [Index] s. v.) It is a most curious circumstance that in this place of the MS. I unconsciously wrote bud for 'head,' a correction which was afterwards given in Notes and Queries (3rd S. v. 229), and had, I believe, been previously proposed by Grey. If 'head' be the right reading, it may signify the state of bloom. "That unmatch'd form and feature of blown youth" (Ham. iii. 1).
"The prenzie Angelo!—
Oh! 'tis the cunning livery of Hell
The damnedst bodie to invest and cover
In prenzie gardes."
So the passage stands in the folio. As there is no such word known in English as 'prenzie,' the 2nd folio read princely, Hanmer priestly, which Mr. Dyce adopts. I think, however, that the German Tieck hit on the right word, precise, and I have so printed it without hesitation. We have had already, "Lord Angelo is precise" (i. 4), "is severe" (ii. 1), and "well-seeming" (iii. 1); but it is nowhere said that he was princely or priestly, and surely the guards or bindings of a dress could hardly be so termed. As to the change of accent, which Mr. Dyce makes an objection, a reader of our old poets should be ashamed to urge it, it is of such frequent occurrence, and it occurs more than once in this very play. In i. 2 we actually have "précise villains," and "A sort of sober, scurvy, precise neighbours" (Jonson, Alch. i. 1). (See Introd. p. [80].) I further think we should read 'bodies,' and with Collier's folio garbs, which being spelt garbes differs only in one letter from 'gardes.' As the latter were mere bindings, edgings, facings, they could hardly be said to cover a body. The infinitives 'invest' and 'cover' are used (as so frequently) where we now use a participle with an article. See Introd. p. [70].
"Yes.—Has he affections in him?"
For 'Yes' the metre demands I will, as I have printed it. See Introd. p. [68].
"That age, ache, penury, or imprisonment."
The folio reads perjury; 'penury' is the correction of the 2nd folio.
"Stead up your appointment, and go in your place."
Sc. 2.
"I drink, I eat, array myself, and live."
The folio reads away. Theobald's correction, 'array,' is self-evident.
"You will not bail me then, sir? Neither then, Pompey, nor now."
Both metre and sense require Neither.
"Ha, what sayest thou, trot?"
I adopt Grey's reading, to't for 'trot.' He has just asked a question, and he is repeating it.
"I know of none. Can you tell me of any?"
"And that he is a motion generative."
With Theobald I read 'ungenerative.'
"Yes, with your beggar of fifty, and his use was."
"And knowledge with dearer love."
The folio has deare; the obvious correction is Hanmer's.
"He's now past it, yet."
With Hanmer I read not for 'now.'
"My lord, so please you, this friar hath been with him."
The metre requires this addition, which also relieves the Provost's speech from abruptness.
"Of gracious order, late come from the See."
The folio reads Sea. This wrong spelling was not unusual. In King John (iii. 1) we have 'holy Sea' used of Canterbury. As 'See' never occurs thus alone, we might read 'the Holy See,' or rather, as I have done, "the See of Rome;" "I Pandulph ... Legate from the See of Rome." (Old Play of King John.) For a similar effacement see Ant. and Cleop. ii. 4.
"He who the sword of Heaven will bear
Must be as holy as severe;
Pattern in himself to know,
Grace to stand and virtue go."
The last line is evidently corrupt. I would read,
"In grace to stand, in virtue go,"
in which I had been anticipated by Johnson. We have more than one instance of in being effaced in the beginning of a line; and such having been the case here, the printer, to get some appearance of sense, converted the remaining 'in' to and—also a usual change. 'To know,' 'to stand,' 'to go,' are equivalent to knowing, etc. (See Introd. p. [70].) For 'know,' I, as well as Mr. Staunton, had conjectured show; but no change is needed.
"How may likeness made in crimes,
Making practice on the times,
To draw with idle spider's strings
Most ponderous and substantial things!"
"A passage," says Mr. Dyce, "in which it seems hopeless to ascertain what the poet really wrote." At all events, by omitting 'To' in the third line we get excellent sense, and what more need we require? After I had made this simple emendation, I learned, to my great surprise—for the editors gave no heed to it—that I had been anticipated in it by Theobald. 'Draw' in the third line connects with 'may' in the first; but the printer, taking 'practice' for a verb, added 'To' to try to make sense. For 'making practice,' see on All's Well, iv. 2. 'Likeness' is simulation: "Do not assume my likeness," i.e. pretend to be like me. (Tim. iv. 3.) "Thou simular of virtue." (Lear iii. 2.) The poet probably wrote 'crime' and 'time.'
Act IV.
Sc. 1.
"There have I made my promise upon the
Heavy middle of the night to call upon him."
Capell, I think rightly, arranges thus:
"There have I made my promise to call upon him
Upon the heavy middle of the night."
Transpositions of this kind, made by the printers, are not uncommon. (See on Tr. and Cr. v. 2.) Capell read 'on him.'
"Good Friar, I know you do, and I have found it."
So Pope also conjectured.
"Run with these false and most contrarious quest."
I incline to read their. The 2nd folio added s to 'quest.'
"Our corn's to reap, for yet our tithe's to sow."
Warburton properly read tilth.
Sc. 2.
"If it be too little for your thief," etc.
I quite agree with those who make this part of Abhorson's speech.
"This is a gentle Provost. Seldom when."
Mr. Singer reads 'seldom-when' as one word, and quotes in defence of it seldom-time, any-when, seldom-what; and he might have added seld-when, from Gower's Conf. Amantis. In any case, 'Tis seems wanting before it, as in "'Tis seldom when the bee doth leave her comb" (2 Hen. IV. iv. 4).
"That wounds the unsisting postern with those strokes."
The printer, by a most common error, omitted re in unresisting. Surely the critics in general should have seen this, as Rowe did.
"This is his lordship's man."
The folio reads 'lord's man'; but both sense and metre require the correction adopted by the editors, after Pope.
"Is it now apparent?"
So Pope. The folio transposes 'Is' and 'It.' (See on Two Gent. ii. 4.)
"As a man that apprehends death no more."
So I should have printed it, but did not.
"Perchance of the Duke's death, perchance his entering
into some monastery, but, by chance, nothing
of what's here writ."
Hanmer also added here.
Sc. 3.
"And to transport him in the mind he is in."
"And how shall we continue, Claudio."
Persons are not continued. Perhaps we should read 'continue to keep.'
"Ere twice the sun hath made his journal greeting
To the under generation, you shall find
Your safety manifested."
I adopt Hanmer's emendation, 'under' for 'yond' of the folio. "The under-generation," says Mr. Dyce, "is the human race that dwells under heaven." In Timon (i. 1) we have "this beneath-world," i.e. this world under heaven.
"Quick, quick, despatch, and send the head to Angelo."
"By cold gradation and weal-balanc'd form."
Surely the correct reading is well. So also Rowe.
"Mark what I say, which you shall find to be
By every syllable a faithful verity."
"There to give up their power. If you can, pace your wisdom
In that good path, that I would wish it go in
And you shall have your bosom on the wretch."
The punctuation of the first line, which is that given by the editors, while aiming at sense, makes it unreadable. We should read "Pace, if you can, your wisdom." Or, retaining this line unaltered, we might in the third line read Then for 'And.' (See on M. N. D. ii. 1.)
"I am combined by a sacred vow."
As 'combined' makes no good sense, we might read constrained. "But other vows constrain another course" (Marston Ant. and Mel. II. v. 6). Perhaps the word was confined, in the sense of limited, held in.
Sc. 4.
"How might she tongue me! Yet reason dares her no;
For my authority bears of a credent bulk,
That no particular scandal once can touch,
But it confounds the breather."
There is evidently something wrong here. What is the meaning of 'dares?' Mr. Singer says overawes (as larks?), and in proof of 'no' being crying No, he quotes: "I wear a sword to satisfy the world no" (Fletch. Chances, iii. 4). "I am sure he did it for I charged him no" (Id. Wife for Month, iv. 3). In the next line Mr. Dyce reads so, others such, for 'of.' My own decided opinion is, that in the first line the poet wrote saies (says), which of course, being written with a long s in the beginning, might easily be taken for 'dares.' 'Says her no,' then, is forbids her, as in "Who shall say me Nay?" (1 H. IV. iii. 1); "God defend his Grace should say us Nay" (Rich. III. iii. 7); and in this play (ii. 2), "Did I not tell thee Yea?" In the second line I would omit 'of.' See on Rich. II. v. 1; Cymb. iii. 5.
"Might in the time to come have ta'en revenge
By so receiving," etc.
For 'By' we should apparently read For; yet in Jeronimo (ii. 1) we have:—
"Kneel by thy father's loins, and thank my liege
By honouring me, thy mother, and thyself,
With this high staff of office."
Either, then, the printers made the same confusion in both places, or by was used in the sense of for.
Sc. 5.
"To Valentius, to Rowland, and to Crassus."
In 'Valentius' an n may have been omitted.
Sc. 6.
"He says to veil his full purpose."
"The generous and gravest citizens
Have hent the gate; and very near upon this time
The Duke is entering. Therefore, hence away."
Something had evidently been lost at the end of the second line. Perhaps also we should read 'The most generous.'
Act V.
Sc. 1.
"Or wring redress from you. Hear me, O hear me here!"
For 'here' we might read hear; but no change is needed.
"Nay it is ten times true."
Perhaps it should be 'truer.'
"As ne'er I heard in madness."
"He did, my lord, most villainously. Believe it."
"First let her show her face."
It is your in the 1st folio; the correction was made in the 2nd.
"No, my lord.—Are you a maid then?—No, my lord."
"Not that I know of.—No! you say your husband."
"And punish them, unto your height of pleasure."
"We'll touze you
Joint by joint, but we'll know his purpose. What!
Unjust!—Be not so hot, sir; the Duke dare," etc.
For his in the second line we should certainly read your.
"Your well-defended honour, you must pardon him."
"A due sincerity govern'd his deeds, till he
Did look on me. Since it is so, let him not die.—
My brother had but justice, in that he did
The thing for which he died. For Angelo."
"Which is that Barnardine?—This is, my lord."
"Look that you love your wife; her worth's worth yours."
"Wherein have I deserved so of you?"
In the folio 'so deserv'd.'
"There's more behind that is more gratulate."
The poet may have written 'gratulating,' and the final letters have been effaced. The meaning, however, is the same.