Sidebilder
PDF
ePub

1

ΑΝΝΟΤΑTIONS ON

[ACT I.

peare's masterly observation. Virtues in an unclean mind are virtues and traitors too. Estimable and useful qualities, joined with evil disposition, give that evil disposition power over others, who, by admiring the virtue, are betrayed to the malevolence. The Tatler, mentioning the sharpers of his time, observes, that some of them are men of such elegance and knowledge, that a young man who falls into their way is betrayed as much by his judgment as his passions. JOHNSON.

Line 117. And you, monarch.] Probably monarcho, then a popular and ridiculous character of the age. Line 121.

stain of soldier - Stain for colour. Parolles was in red, as appears from his being afterwards called red-tail'd humble-bee. WARBURTON.

It does not appear from either of these expressions, that Parolles was entirely drest in red. Shakspeare writes only some stain of soldier, meaning only he had red breeches on, which is sufficiently evident from calling him afterwards red-tail'd humble-bee. STEEVENS.

Stain rather for what we now say tincture, some qualities, at least superficial, of a soldier. JOHNSON.

Line 170. your date is better - Here is a quibble on the word date, which means both age, and a particular kind of fruit much used in our author's time-Romeo and Juliet :

"They call for dates and quinces in the pastry."

STEEVENS.

Line 177. Not my virginity yet.] Perhaps Parolles, going away after his harangue, said, will you any thing with me? to which Helen may reply.

JOHNSON.

Parolles has been laughing at the unprofitableness of virginity, especially when it grows ancient, and compares it to withered fruit. Helena, properly enough replies, that hers is not yet in that state, but that in the enjoyment of her, his master should find the gratification of all his most romantic wishes. STEEVENS.

ACT 11.] ALL'S WELL THAT ENDS WELL.

Line 216.

3

is a virtue of a good wing,] I confess, that a virtue of a good wing is an expression that I cannot understand, unless by a metaphor taken from falconry, it may mean, a virtue that will fly high, and, in the stile of Hotspur, Pluck honour from the moon. JOHNSON.

Mr. Edwards is of opinion, that a virtue of a good wing refers to his nimbleness or fleetness in running away

STEEVENS.

Line 298. He us'd as creatures of another place.] i. e. He made allowances for their conduct, and bore from them what he would not from one of his own rank. WARBURTON Line 300. Making them proud of his humility,

In their poor praise he humbled:] Every man has seen the mean too often proud of the humility of the great, and perhaps the great may sometimes be humbled in the praises of the mean, of those who commend them without conviction or discernment: this, however is not so common; the mean are found more frequently than the great. JOHNSON.

Line 339.

Steward and Clown.] A Clown in Shakspeare is commonly taken for a licensed jester, or domestick fool. We are not to wonder that we find this character often in his plays, since fools were, at that time, maintained in all great families, to keep up merriment in the house. In the picture of Sir Thomas More's family, by Hans Holbein, the only servant represented is Patison the fool. This is a proof of the familiarity to which they were admitted, not by the great only, but the wise.

In some plays, a servant, or a rustic, of remarkable petulance and freedom of speech, is likewise called a clown.

JOHNSON.

Line 410. Was this fair face the cause, &c.] This is a stanza of an old ballad, out of which a word or two are dropt, equally necessary to make the sense and the alternate rhime. For it was not Helen who was king Priam's joy, but Paris.

WARBURTON.

1

ΑΝΝΟΤΑΤIONS ON

[ACT II

ACT II.

Line 46. I grow to you, and our parting is a tortur'd body.] I read thus: Our parting is the parting of a tortur'd body. Our parting is as the disruption of limbs torn from each other. Repetition of a word is often the cause of mistakes, the eye glances on the wrong word, and the intermediate part of the sentence is omitted. JOHNSON.

Line 168. When miracles have by the greatest been denied.] I do not see the import or connection of this line. As the next line stands without a correspondent rhyme, I suspect that something has been lost.

[blocks in formation]

JOHNSON.

"I

Traduc'd by odious ballads; my maiden's name Sear'd otherwise; no worse of worst extended, With vilest torture let my life be ended.] "would bear (says she) the tax of impudence, which is the " denotement of a strumpet; would endure a shame result"ing from my failure in what I have undertaken, and " thence become the subject of odious ballads; let my " maiden reputation be otherwise branded; and, no worse of "worse extended, i. e. provided nothing worse is offered to " me (meaning violation) let my life be ended with the "worst of tortures." The poet, for the sake of rhyme has obscured the sense of the passage. The worst that can befal a woman being extended to me, seems to be the meaning of the last line. STEVEENS.

Line 284. To be young again,] The lady censures her own levity in trifling with her jester, as a ridiculous attempt to return back to youth. JOHNSON.

Line 346. Why, your dolphin is not lustier ;] By dolphin is meant the dauphin, the heir apparent, and the hope of the ACT II.] ALL'S WELL THAT ENDS WELL.

5

crown of France. His title is so spelt in all the old copies. We should therefore read your Dauphin, &c.

STEEVENS.

Mr. Malone differs as to the meaning of Dolphin, and supposes it to mean a fish of that name.

Line 416. Laf. Do all they deny her?] None of them have yet denied her, or deny her afterwards but Bertram. The scene must be so regulated that Lafeu and Parolles talk at a distance, where they may see what passes between Helena and the lords, but not hear it, so that they know not by whom the refusal is made. JOHNSON,

Line 430. There's one grape yet,] Old Lafeu having, upon the supposition that the lady was refused, reproached the young lords as boys of ice, throwing his eyes on Bertram who remained, cries out, There is yet one into whom his father put good blood, but I have known thee long enough to know thee JOHNSON.

for an ass.

Line 578. Well, thou hast a son shall take this disgrace off me;] This the poet makes Parolles speak alone; and this is nature. A coward should try to hide his paltroonry even from himself. An ordinary writer would have been glad of such an opportunity to bring him to confession.

WARBURTON.

Line 629. That hugs his kicksy-wicksy, &c.] Sir T. Hanmer in his Glossary, observes that kicksy-wicksy is a made word, in ridicule and disdain of a wife. Taylor, the waterpoet, has a poem in disdain of his debtors, intitled, a Kicksywinsy, or a Lerry come-twang. DR. GREY. Line 747. You have made shift to run into't boots and spurs and all, like him that leaped into the custard ;) This odd allusion is not introduc'd without a view to satire. It was a foolery practised at city entertainments, whilst the jester or zany was in vogue, for him to jump into a large deep custard: set for the purpose, to set on a quantity of barren spectators to laugh, as our poet says in his Hamlet. THEOBALD.

6

ΑΝΝΟΤΑTIONS ON

[АСТ ГІІ.

ACT III.

Line 22.

the younger of our nature,] i. e. As we say at present, our young fellows. The modern editors read nation. I have restored the old reading. Line 36.

STEVEENS

mend the ruff, and sing ;] The ruff was the top of the boot, which formerly hung loosely over the leg. Line 196. St. Jaques's pilgrim,] I do not remember any place famous for pilgrimages consecrated in Italy to St. James, but it is common to visit St. James of Compostella, in Spain. Another saint might easily have been found, Florence being somewhat out of the road from Rousillon to Compostella. JOHNSON.

Line 272.

palmers] i. e. Pilgrims who re

turning from the holy land carried branches of palm.

Line 320.

Line 262.

Line 385.

Line 435.

brokes] Deals as a broker. JOHNSON. a hilding,] A hilding is a cowardly fellow. leaguer-] i. e. An entrenched camp.

I will presently pen down my dilemmas,] By this word, Parolles is made to insinuate that he had several ways, all equally certain, of recovering his drum. For a dilemma is an argument that concludes both ways.

WARBURTON.

Line 539. Is wicked meaning in a lawful deed,
And lawful meaning in a lawful act;]

The sense of the two lines is this, It is a wicked meaning because the woman's intent is to deceive; but a lawful deed, because the man enjoys his own wife. Again, it is a lawful meaning because done by her to gain her husband's estranged affection, but it is a wicked act bacause he goes intentionally to commit adultery, WARBURTON.

« ForrigeFortsett »