V.ii.281 (442,7) [better wits have worn plain statute-caps] This line is not universally understood, because every reader does not know that a statute cap is part of the academical habit. Lady Rosaline declares that her expectation was disappointed by these courtly students, and that better wits might be found in the common places of education. [Gray had offered a different explanation] I think my own interpretation of this passage right. (see 1765, II,197,3)

  V.ii.295 (443,8)

  [Fair ladies, mask’d, are roses in their bud;

  Dismask’d, their damask sweet commixture shewn,

  Are angels vailing clouds, or roses blown]

  [Hammer: angels vailing clouds] [Warburton exercised his sarcasm on this] I know not why Sir T. Hanmer’s explanation should be treated with so much contempt, or why vailing clouds should be capping the sun. Ladies unmask’d, says Boyet, are like angels vailing clouds, or letting those clouds which obscured their brightness, sink from before them. What is there in this absurd or contemptible?

  V.ii.309 (444,1) [Exeunt ladies] Mr. Theobald ends the fourth act here.

  V.ii.337 (447,4) [ — behaviour, what wert thou, ‘Till this mad man shew’d thee? and what art thou now?] [These are two wonderfully fine lines, intimating that what courts call manners, and value themselves so much upon teaching, as a thing no where else to be learnt, is a modest silent accomplishment under the direction of nature and common sense, which does its office in promoting social life without being taken notice of. But that when it degerates into shew and parade, it becomes an unmanly contemptible quality. Warburton.] What is told in this note is undoubtedly true, but is not comprised in the quotation.

  V.ii.348 (448,5) [The virtue of your eye must break my oath] I believe the author means that the virtue, in which word goodness and power are both comprised, must dissolve the obligation of the oath. The Princess, in her answer, takes the most invidious part of the ambiguity.

  V.ii.374 (449,6)

  [when we greet

  With eyes best seeing, heaven’s fiery eye,

  By light we lose light: your capacity

  Is of that nature, as to your huge store

  Wise things seem foolish, and rich things but poor]

  This is a very lofty and elegant compliment.

  V.ii.419 (450,7) [Write, Lord have mercy on us, on those three] This was the inscription put upon the door of the houses infected with the plague, to which Biron compares the love of himself and his companions; and pursuing the metaphor finds the tokens likewise on the ladies. The tokens of the plague are the first spots or discolorations, by which the infection is known to be received.

  V.ii.426 (451,8) [how can this be true, That you stand forfeit, being those that sue?] That is, how can those be liable to forfeiture that begin the process. The jest lies in the ambiguity of sue, which signifies to prosecute by law, or to offer a petition.

  V.ii.440 (451,9) [you force not to forswear] You force not is the same with you make no difficulty. This is a very just observation. The crime which has been once committed, is committed again with less reluctance.

  V.ii.471 (452,2) [in will and error. Much upon this it is: — And might not you] I, believe this passage should be read thus,

  — in will and error. Boyet. Much upon this it is. Biron. And might not you, &c.

  V.ii.490 (453,5) [You cannot beg us] That is, we are not fools, our next relations cannot beg the wardship of our persons and fortunes. One of the legal tests of a natural is to try whether he can number.

  V.ii.517 (454,6)

  [That sport best pleases, that doth least know how.

  Where zeal strives to content, and the contents

  Dies in the zeal of that which it presents]

  The third line may be read better thus,

  — the contents Die in the zeal of him which them presents.

  This sentiment of the Princess is very natural, but less generous than that of the Amazonian Queen, who says, on a like occasion, in Midsummer-Night’s Dream,

  I love not to see wretchedness o’ercharg’d, Nor duty in his service perishing.

  V.ii.547 (455,8) [A bare throw at novum] This passage I do not understand. I fancy that novum should be novem, and that some allusion is intended between the play of nine pins and the play of the nine worthies, but it lies too deep for my investigation.

  V.ii.581 (457,2) [A-jax] There is a conceit of Ajax and a jakes.

  V.ii.694 (461,4) [more Ates] That is, more instigation. Ate was the mischievous goddess that incited bloodshed.

  V.ii.702 (461,5) [my arms] The weapons and armour which he wore in the character of Pompey.

  V.ii.744 (463,8) [In the converse of breath] Perhaps converse may, in this line, mean interchange.

  V.ii.755 (464,2) [which fain it would convince] We must read,

  — which fain would it convince;

  that is, the entreaties of love which would fain over-power grief. So Lady Macbeth declares, That she will convince the chamberlain with wine.

  V.ii.762 (464,3) [Honest plain words best pierce the ear of grief] As it seems not very proper for Biron to court the princess for the king in the king’s presence, at this critical moment, I believe the speech is given to a wrong person. I read thus,

  Prin. I understand you not, my griefs are double:

  Honest plain words best pierce the ear of grief.

  King. And by these badges, &c.

  V.ii.779 (465,4) [Suggested us] That is, tempted us.

  V.ii.790 (465,5) [As bombast, and as lining to the time] This line is obscure. Bombast was a kind of loose texture not unlike what is now called wadding, used to give the dresses of that time bulk and protruberance, without much increase of weight; whence the same name is given a tumour of words unsupported by solid sentiment. The Princess, therefore, says, that they considered this courtship as but bombast, as something to fill out life, which not being closely united with it, might be thrown away at pleasure.

  V.ii.795 (466,7) [We did not quote them so] [We should read, quote, esteem, reckon. Warburton] though our old writers spelling by the ear, probably wrote cote, as it was pronounced. (see 1765, II,218,5)

  V.ii.823 (467,8) [To flatter up these powers of mine with rest] Dr. Warburton would read fetter, but flatter or sooth is, in my opinion, more apposite to the king’s purpose than fetter. Perhaps we may read,

  To flatter on these hours of time with rest;

  That is, I would not deny to live in the hermitage, to make the year of delay pass in quiet.

  V.ii.873 (469,2) [dear groans] Dear should here, as in many other places, be dere, sad, odious.

  V.ii.904 (470,3) [When daisies pied, and violets blue] The first lines of this song that were transposed, have been replaced by Mr. Theobald.

  V.ii.907 (470,5) [Do paint the meadows with delight] [W: much bedight] Much less elegant than the present reading.

  (472,7) General Observation. In this play, which all the editors have concurred to censure, and some have rejected as unworthy of him.

  Vol. III

  A MIDSUMMER-NIGHT’S DREAM

  I.i.6 (4,2) [Long withering out a young man’s revenue] [W: wintering] That the common reading is not good English, I cannot perceive, and therefore find in myself no temptation to change it.

  I.i.47 (5,6) [To leave the figure, or disfigure it] [W: ‘leve] I know not why so harsh a word should be admitted with so little need, a word that, spoken, could not be understood, and of which no example can be shown. The sense is plain, you owe to your father a being which he may at pleasure continue or destroy.

  I.i.68 (6,8) [Know of your youth] Bring your youth to the question.

  Consider your youth. (1773)

  I.i.76 (7,9) [But earthlier happy is the rose distill’d] Thus all the copies, yet earthlier is so harsh a word, and earthlier happy for happier earthly, a mode of speech so unusual, that I wonder none of the editors have proposed earlier happy.

  I.i.110 (8,2) [spotted] As spotless is innocent, so spotted is wicked. (1773)

  I.i.131 (9,3) [Beteem them] give them, bestow upon then. The word is used by Spenser.

  I.i.157 (10,8) [I have a widow aunt, a dowager] These lines perhaps might more properly be regulated thus:

  I have a widow aunt, a dowager

  Of great revenue, and she hath no child,

  And she respects me as her only son;

  Her house from Athens is remov’d seven leagues,

  There, gentle Hermia, may I marry thee,

  And to that place —

  I.i.169-178 (11,1) [Warburton had reassigned speeches here] This emendation is judicious, but not necessary. I have therefore given the note without altering the text. The censure of men, as oftner perjured than women, seems to make that line more proper for the lady.

  I.i.183 (12,3) [Your eyes are lode-stars] This was a complement not unfrequent among the old poets. The lode star is the leading or guiding star, that is, the pole-star. The magnet is, for the same reason, called the lode-stone, either became it leads iron, or because it guides the sailor. Milton has the same thought in L’Allegro:

  Tow’rs and battlements he sees

  Bosom’d high in tufted trees,

  Where perhaps some beauty lies,

  The Cynosure of neighb’ring eyes.

  Davies calls Elizabeth, lode-stone to hearts, and lode-stone to all eyes, (see 1765, 1,97,9)

  I.i.204 (13,6)

  [Before the time I did Lysander see,

  Seem’d Athens like a paradise to me]

  Perhaps every reader may not discover the propriety of these lines. Hermia is willing to comfort Helena, and to avoid all appearance of triumph over her. She therefore bids her not to consider the power of pleasing, as an advantage to be much envied or much desired, since Hermia, whom she considers as possessing it in the supreme degree, has found no other effect of it than the loss of happiness.

  I.i.232 (15,8) [Things base and vile, holding no quantity] quality seems a word more suitable to the sense than quantity, but either may serve. (1773)

  I.i.240 (15,9) [in game] Game here signifies not contentious play, but sport, jest. So Spenser,

  ‘Twixt earnest and ‘twixt game.

  I.ii (16,2) [Enter Quince the carpenter, Snug the joiner. Bottom the weaver. Flute the bellows-mender. Snout the tinker, and Starveling the taylor] In this scene Shakespeare takes advantage of his knowledge of the theatre, to ridicule the prejudices and competitions of the players. Bottom, who is generally acknowledged the principal actor, declares his inclination to be for a tyrant, for a part of fury, tumult, and noise, such as every young man pants to perform when he first steps upon the stage. The same Bottom, who seems bred in a tiring-room, has another histrionical passion. He is for engrossing every part, and would exclude his inferiors from all possibility of distinction. He is therefore desirous to play Pyramus, Thisbe, and the Lyon at the same time.

  I.ii.10 (17,4) [grow on to a point] Dr. Warburton read go on; but grow is used, in allusion to his name, Quince. (see 1765, I,100,8)

  I.ii.52 (18,6)

  [Flu. Nay, faith, let me not play a woman; I have a beard coming. Quin. That’s all one, you shall play it in a masque; and you may speak as small as you will]

  This passage shews how the want of women on the old stage was supplied. If they had not a young man who could perform the part with a face that might pass for feminine, the character was acted in a mask, which was at that time part of a lady’s dress so much in use that it did not give any unusual appearance to the scene: and he that could modulate his voice in a female tone might play the women very successfully. It is observed in Downes’s Memoirs of the Playhouse, that one of these counterfeit heroines moved the passions more strongly than the women that have since been brought upon the stage. Some of the catastrophes of the old comedies, which make lovers marry the wrong women, are, by recollection of the common use of masks, brought nearer to probability.

  I.ii.98 (20,8) [Bot. I will discharge it in either your straw-coloured beard, your orange tawny beard, your purple-in grain beard, or your French crown-coloured beard; your perfect yellow] Here Bottom again discovers a true genius for the stage by his solicitude for propriety of dress, and his deliberation which beard to chuse among many beards, all unnatural.

  II.i.2 (21,3) [Over hill, over dale] So Drayton in his Court of Fairy,

  Thorough brake, thorough brier. Thorough muck, thorough mire. Thorough water, thorough fire.

  II.i.9 (22,4) [To dew her orbs upon the green] For orbs Dr. Gray is inclined to substitute herbs. The orbs here mentioned are the circles supposed to be made by the Fairies on the ground, whose verdure proceeds from the fairy’s care to water them.

  They in their courses make that round, In meadows and in marshes found, Of then so called the fairy ground. Drayton.

  II.i.10 (22,5) [The cowslips tall her pensioners be] The cowslip was a favourite among the fairies. There is a hint in Drayton of their attention to May morning.

  — for the queen a fitting tow’r, Quoth he, is that fair cowslip flow’r. — In all your train there’s not a fay That ever went to gather May, But she hath made it in her way, The tallest there that groweth.

  II.i.16 (22,7) [lob of spirits] Lob, lubber, looby, lobcock, all denote both inactivity of body and dulness of mind.

  II.i.23 (23,8) [changeling] Changeling is commonly used for the child supposed to be left by the fairies, but here for the child taken away.

  II.i.29 (23,9) [sheen] Shining, bright, gay.

  II.i.30 (23,1) [But they do square] [To square here is to quarrel. And now you are such fools to square for this? Gray.]

  The French word contrecarrer has the same import.

  II.i.36 (24,4)

  [Skim milk; and sometimes labour in the quern,

  And bootless make the breathless huswife churn]

  The sense of these lines is confused. Are not you he, says the fairy, that fright the country girls. that skim milk, work in the hand-mill, and make the tired dairy-woman churn without effect? The mention of the mill seem out of place, for she is not now telling the good but the evil that he does. I would regulate the lines thus:

  And sometimes make the breathless housewife churn Skim milk, and bootless labour in the quern.

  Or by a simple transposition of the lines;

  And bootless, make the breathless housewife churn Skim milk, and sometimes labour in the quern.

  Yet there is no necessity of alteration. (see 1765, I,106,1)

  II.i.40 (24,6) [Those that Hobgoblin call you, and sweet Puck, You do their work] To those traditionary opinions Milton has reference in L’Allegro,

  Then to the spicy nut-brown ale,

  With stories told of many a feat.

  How Fairy Mab the junkets eat;

  She was pinch’d and pull’d she said.

  And he by Frier’s lapthorp led;

  Tells how the drudging goblin sweat

  To earn his cream-bowl duly set,

  When in one night ere glimpse of morn

  His shadowy flail had thresh’d the corn

  Which ten day-labourers could not end.

  Then lies him down the lubber fiend.

  A like account of Puck is given by Drayton,

  He meeteth Puck, which most men call

  Hobgoblin, and on him doth fall. —

  This Puck seems but a dreaming dolt,

  Still walking like a ragged colt,

  And oft out of a bed doth bolt,

  Of purpose to deceive us;

  And leading us makes us to stray.

  Long winter’s nights out of the way.

  And when we stick in mire and clay.

  He doth with laughter leave us.

  It will be apparent to him that shall compare Drayton’s poem with this play, that either one of the poets copied the other, or, as I rather believe, that there was then some system of the fairy empire generally received, which they both represented as accurately as they could. Whether Drayton or Shakespeare wrote first, I cannot discover.

  II.i.42 (25,7) [Puck. Thou speak’st aright] I have filled up the verse which I suppose the author left complete,

  It seems that in the Fairy mythology Puck, or Hobgoblin, was the trusty servant of Oberon, and always employed to watch or detect the intrigues of Queen Mab, called by Shakespeare Titania. For in Drayton’s Nynphidia, the same fairies are engaged in the sane business. Mab has an amour with Pigwiggen; Oberon being jealous, sends Hobgoblin to catch them, and one of Mab’s nymphs opposes him by a spell.

  II.i.54 (26,8) [And tailor cries] The custom of crying tailor at a sudden fall backwards, I think I remember to have observed. He

  that slips beside his chair falls as a taylor squats upon his board. The Oxford editor and Dr. Warburton after him, read and rails or cries, plausibly, but I believe not rightly. Besides, the trick of the fairy is represented as producing rather merriment than anger.

  II.i.56 (26,9) [And waxen] And encrease, as the moon waxes.

  II.i.58 (26,1) [But room, Faery] All the old copies read — But room Fairy. The word Fairy or Faery, was sometimes of three syllables, as often in Spenser.

  II.i.84 (28,5) [paved fountain] A fountain laid round the edge with stone.

  II.i.88 (28,6) [the winds, piping] So Milton,

  While rocking winds are piping loud.

  II.i.91 (28,7) [pelting river] Thus the quarto’s: the folio reads petty.

  Shakespeare has in Lear the same word, low pelting farms. The meaning is plainly, despicable, mean, sorry, wretched; but as it is a word without any reasonable etymology, I should be glad to dismiss it for petty, yet it is undoubtedly right. We have petty pelting officer in Measure for Measure.

  II.i.92 (28,8) [over-born their continents] Born down the banks that contained then. So in Lear,

  Close pent guilts

  Rive their concealing continents.

  II.i.98 (29,1) [The nine-men’s morris] This was some kind of rural game played in a marked ground. But what it was more I have not found.

  II.i.100 (29,2) [The human mortals want their winter here] After all the endeavours of the editors, this passage still remains to me unintelligible. I cannot see why winter is, in the general confusion of the year now described, more wanted than any other season. Dr. Warburton observes that he alludes to our practice of singing carols in December; but though Shakespeare is no great chronologer in his dramas, I think he has never so mingled true and false religion, as to give us reason for believing that he would make the moon incensed for the omission of our carols. I therefore imagine him to have meant heathen rites of adoration. This is not all the difficulty. Titania’s account of this calamity is not sufficiently consequential. Men find no winter, therefore they sing no hymns; the moon provoked by this omission, alters the seasons: that is, the alteration of the seasons produces the alteration of the seasons. I am far from supposing that Shakespeare might not sometimes think confusedly, and therefore am not sure that the passage is corrupted. If we should read,

 

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 51 52 53 54 55 56 57 58 59 60 61 62 63 64 65 66 67 68 69 70 71 72 73 74 75 76 77 78 79 80 81 82 83 84 85 86 87 88 89 90 91 92 93 94 95 96 97 98 99 100 101 102 103 104 105 106 107 108 109 110 111 112 113 114 115 116 117 118 119 120 121 122 123 124 125 126 127 128 129 130 131 132 133 134 135 136 137 138 139 140 141 142 143 144 145 146 147 148 149 150 151 152 153 154 155 156 157 158 159 160 161 162 163 164 165 166 167 168 169 170 171 172 173 174 175 176 177 178 179 180 181 182 183 184 185 186 187 188 189 190 191 192 193 194 195 196 197 198 199 200 201 202 203 204 205 206 207 208 209 210 211 212 213 214 215 216 217 218 219 220 221 222 223 224 225 226 227 228 229 230 231 232 233 234 235 236 237 238 239 240 241 242 243 244 245 246 247 248 249 250 251 252 253 254 255 256 257 258 259 260 261 262 263 264 265 266 267 268 269 270 271 272 273 274 275 276 277 278 279 280 281 282 283 284 285 286 287 288 289 290 291 292 293 294 295 296 297 298 299 300 301 302 303 304 305 306 307 308 309 310 311 312 313 314 315 316 317 318 319 320 321 322 323 324 325 326 327 328 329 330 331 332 333 334 335 336 337 338 339 340 341 342 343 344 345 346 347 348 349 350 351 352 353 354 355 356 357 358 359 360 361 362 363 364 365 366 367 368 369 370 371 372 373 374 375 376 377 378 379 380 381 382 383 384 385 386 387 388 389 390 391 392 393 394 395 396 397 398 399 400 401 402 403 404 405 406 407 408 409 410 411 412 413 414 415 416 417 418 419 420 421 422 423 424 425 426 427 428 429 430 431 432 433 434 435 436 437 438 439 440 441 442 443 444 445 446 447 448 449 450 451 452 453 454 455 456 457 458 459 460 461 462 463 464 465 466 467 468 469 470 471 472 473 474 475 476 477 478 479 480 481 482 483 484 485 486 487 488 489 490 491 492 493 494 495 496 497 498 499 500 501 502 503 504 505 506 507 508 509 510 511 512 513 514 515 516 517 518 519 520 521 522 523 524 525 526 527 528 529 530 531 532 533 534 535 536 537 538 539 540 541 542 543 544 545 546 547 548 549 550 551 552 553 554 555 556 557 558 559 560 561 562 563 564 565 566 567 568 569 570 571 572 573 574 575 576 577 578 579 580 581 582 583 584 585 586 587 588 589 590 591 592 593 594 595 596 597 598 599 600 601 602 603 604 605 606 607 608 609 610 611 612 613 614 615 616 617 618 619 620 621 622 623 624 625 626 627 628 629 630 631 632 633 634 635 636 637 638 639 640 641 642 643 644 645 646 647 648 649 650 651 652 653 654 655 656 657 658 659 660 661 662 663 664 665 666 667 668 669 670 671 672 673 674 675 676 677 678 679 680 681 682 683 684 685 686 687 688 689 690 691 692 693 694 695 696 697 698 699 700 701 702 703 704 705 706 707 708 709 710 711 712 713 714 715 716 717 718 719 720 721 722 723 724 725 726 727 728 729 730 731 732 733 734 735 736 737 738 739 740 741 742 743 744 745 746 747 748 749 750 751 752 753 754 755 756 757 758 759 760 761 762 763 764 765 766 767 768 769 770 771 772 773 774 775 776 777 778 779 780 781 782 783 784 785 786 787 788 789 790 791 792 793 794 795 796 797 798 799 800 801 802 803 804 805 806 807 808 809 810 811 812 813 814 815 816 817 818 819 820 821 822 823 824 825 826 827 828 829 830 831 832 833 834 835 836 837 838 839 840 841 842 843 844 845 846 847 848 849 850 851 852 853 854 855 856 857 858 859 860 861 862 863 864 865 866 867 868 869 870 871 872 873 874 875 876 877 878 879 880 881 882 883 884 885 886 887 888 889 890 891 892 893 894 895 896 897 898 899 900 901 902 903 904 905 906 907 908 909 910 911 912 913 914 915 916 917 918 919 920 921 922 923 924 925 926 927 928 929 930 931 932 933 934 935 936 937 938 939 940 941 942 943 944 945 946 947 948 949 950 951 952 953 954 955 956 957 958 959 960 961 962 963 964 965 966 967 968 969 970 971 972 973 974 975 976 977 978 979 980 981 982