——I do not think
So fair an outward and such stuff within
Endows a man but him—
Cymb. A. I. S. 1.
6. By converting Participles into Substantives.
He would have well become this place, and grac’d
The thankings of a King—
Cymb. A. V. S. 5.
The herbs, that have in them cold dew o’ th’ night,
Are strewings fitt’st for Graves—
A. IV. S. 5.
——“Then was I as a tree
Whose boughs did bend with fruit. But, in one night,
A storm, or robbery, call it what you will,
Shook down my mellow hangings——
Cymb. A. III. S. 3.
——Comes in my father,
And like the tyrannous breathing of the North
Shakes all our Buds from blowing——
Cymb. A. I. S. 5.
Which last instance I the rather give for the sake of proposing an emendation, which I think restores this fine passage to its Integrity. Before the late edition of Shakespear it stood thus,
And like the tyrannous breathing of the North
Shakes all our Buds from growing—
But the sagacious Editor saw that this reading was corrupt, and therefore altered the last word, growing, for unanswerable reasons, into blowing. See Mr. W’s note upon the place. This slight change gives propriety and beauty to the passage, which before had no sort of meaning. Yet still all is not quite right. For, as the great Critic himself observes, “Breathing is not a very proper word to express the rage and bluster of the north wind.” Besides, one does not see how the shaking of these Buds is properly assign’d as the cause of their not blowing. The wind might shake off the blossoms of a fruit tree, i. e. the Buds when they were full-blown; but so long as the blossom lies folded up in the Bud, it seems secure from shaking. At least the shaking is not the immediate cause of the effect, spoken of; it is simply the cold of the north-wind that closes the Bud and keeps it from blowing. I am therefore tempted to propose another alteration of the text, and to read thus,
And like the tyrannous Breathing of the North
Shuts all our Buds from blowing—