V.ii.199 (334,4) a kind of yesty collection, which carries them through and through the most fond and winnowed opinions] [W: most fann’d] This is a very happy emendation; but I know not why the critic should suppose that fond was printed for fann’d in consequence of any reason or reflection. Such errors, to which there is no temptation but idleness, and of which there was no cause but ignorance, are in every page of the old editions. This passage in the quarto stands thus: “They have got out of the habit of encounter, a kind of misty collection, which carries them through and through the most profane and renowned opinions.” If this printer preserved any traces of the original, our author wrote, “the most fane and renowned opinions,” which is better than fann’d and winnow’d.
The meaning is, “these men have got the cant of the day, a superficial readiness of slight and cursory conversation, a kind of frothy collection of fashionable prattle, which yet carried them through the most select and approved judgment. This airy facility of talk sometimes imposes upon wise men.”
Who has not seen this observation verified?
V.ii.201 (335,6) and do but blow them to their trials, the bubbles are out] These men of show, without solidity, are like bubbles raised from soap and water, which dance, and glitter, and please the eye, but if you extend them, by blowing hard, separate into a mist; so if you oblige these specious talkers to extend their compass of conversation, they at once discover the tenuity of their intellects.
V.ii.216 (335,7) gentle entertainment] Mild and temperate conversation.
V.ii.234 (336,1) Since no man knows aught of what he leaves, what is’t to leave betimes?] The reading of the quarto was right, but in some other copy the harshness of the transposition was softened, and the passage stood thus: Since no man knows aught of what he leaves. For knows was printed in the later copies has, by a slight blunder in such typographers.
I do not think Dr. Warburton’s interpretation of the passage the best that it will admit. The meaning may be this, Since no man knows aught of the state of life which he leaves, since he cannot judge what others years may produce, why should he be afraid of leaving life betimes? Why should he dread an early death, of which he cannot tell whether it is an exclusion of happiness, or an interception of calamity. I despise the superstition of augury and omens, which has no ground in reason or piety; my comfort is, that I cannot fall but by the direction of Providence.
Hanmer has, Since no man owes aught, a conjecture not very reprehensible. Since no man can call any possession certain, what is it to leave?
V.ii.237 (337,2) Give me your pardon, Sir] I wish Hamlet had made some other defence; it is unsuitable to the character of a good or a brave man, to shelter himself in falsehood.
V.ii.272 (338,5) Your grace hath laid upon the weaker side] Thus Hanmer. All the others read,
Your grace hath laid the odds o’ the weaker side.
When the odds were on the side of Laertes, who was to hit Hamlet twelve times to nine, it was perhaps the author’s slip.
V.ii.310 (340,7) you make a wanton of me] A wanton was, a man feeble and effeminate. In Cymbeline, Imogen says,
“I am not so citizen a wanton,
To die, ere I be sick.”
V.ii.346 (342,8) That are but mutes or audience to this act] That are either mere auditors of this catastrophe, or at most only mute performers, that fill the stage without any part in the action.
V.ii.375 (344,2) This quarry cries, on havock!] Hanmer reads,
— cries out, havock!
To cry on, was to exclaim against. I suppose, when unfair sportsmen destroyed more quarry or game than was reasonable, the censure was to cry, Havock.
(346) General Observation. If the dramas of Shakespeare were to be characterised, each by the particular excellence which distinguishes it from the rest, we must allow to the tragedy of Hamlet the praise of variety. The incidents are so numerous, that the argument of the play would make a long tale. The scenes are interchangeably diversified with merriment and solemnity; with merriment that includes judicious and instructive observations, and solemnity, not strained by poetical violence above the natural sentiments of man. New characters appear from time to time in continual succession, exhibiting various forms of life and particular modes of conversation. The pretended madness of Hamlet causes much mirth, the mournful distraction of Ophelia fills the heart with tenderness, and every personage produces the effect intended, from the apparition that in the first act chills the blood with horror, to the fop in the last, that exposes affectation to just contempt. The conduct is perhaps not wholly secure against objections. The action is indeed for the most part in continual progression, but there are some scenes which neither forward nor retard it. Of the feigned madness of Hamlet there appears no adequate cause, for he does nothing which he might not have done with the reputation of sanity. He plays the madman most, when he treats Ophelia with so much rudeness, which seems to be useless and wanton cruelty.
Hamlet is, through the whole play, rather an instrument than an agent. After he has, by the stratagem of the play, convicted the king, he makes no attempt to punish him, and his death is at last effected by an incident which Hamlet had no part in producing.
The catastrophe is not very happily produced; the exchange of weapons is rather an expedient of necessity, than a stroke of art. A scheme might easily have been formed to kill Hamlet with the dagger, and Laertes with the bowl.
The poet is accused of having shewn little regard to poetical justice, and may be charged with equal neglect of poetical probability. The apparition left the regions of the dead to little purpose; the revenge which he demands is not obtained, but by the death of him that was required to take it; and the gratification which would arise from the destruction of an usurper and a murderer, is abated by the untimely death of Ophelia, the young, the beautiful, the harmless, and the pious.
OTHELLO
I.i.20 (358,4)
One Michael Cassio, a Florentine,
A fellow almost damn’d in a fair wife]
This is one of the passages which must for the present be resigned to corruption and obscurity. I have nothing that I can, with any approach to confidence, propose. I cannot think it very plain from Act 3. Scene 1. that Cassio was or was not a Florentine.
I.i.30 (361,6) must be belee’d and calm’d] [ — must be LED and calm’d. So the old quarto. The first folio reads belee’d: but that spoils the measure. I read LET, hindered. WARBURTON.] Belee’d suits to calm’d, and the measure is not less perfect than in many other places.
I.i.36 (361,7) Preferment goes by letter] By recommendation from powerful friends.
I.i.37 (361,8) And not by old gradation] [W: Not (as of old)] Old gradation, is gradation established byancient practice. Where is the difficulty?
I.i.39 (361,9) If I in any just term am affin’d] Affine is the reading of the third quarto and the first folio. The second quarto and all the modern editions have assign’d. The meaning is, Do I stand within any such terms of propinquit or relation to the Moor, as that it is my duty to love him?
I.i.49 (362,1) honest knaves] Knave is here for servant, but with a mixture of sly contempt.
I.i.63 (362,2) In compliment extern] In that which I do only for an outward shew of civility.
I.i.76 (363,3) As when, by night and negligence, the fire/Is spied in populous cities] [Warburton, objecting to “by”: Is spred] The particle is used equivocally; the same liberty is taken by writers more correct.
The wonderful creature! a woman of reason!
Never grave out of pride, never gay out of season.
I.i.115 (364,4) What profane wretch art thou?] That is, what wretch of gross and licentious language? In that sense Shakespeare often uses the word profane.
I.i.124 (365,6) this odd even] The even of night is midnight, the time when night is divided into even parts.
I.i.149 (366,7) some check] Some rebuke.
I.i.150 (366,8) cast him] That is, dismiss him; reject him. We still say, a cast coat, and a
cast serving-man.
I.i.162 (366,9) And what’s to come of my despised time] [W: despited] Despised time, is time of no value; time in which
“There’s nothing serious in mortality,
The wine of life is drawn, and the mere dregs
Are left, this vault to brag of.” Macbeth.
I.i.173 (367,2) By which the property of youth and maidhood/May be abus’d?] By which the faculties of a young virgin may be infatuated, and made subject to illusions and to false imagination.
“Wicked dreams abuse
The curtain’d sleep.” Macbeth.
I.ii.2 (368,3) stuff o’ the conscience] This expression to common readers appears harsh. Stuff of the conscience is, substance, or essence of the conscience. Stuff is a word of great force in the Teutonic languages. The elements are called in Dutch, Hoefd stoffen, or head stuffs.
I.ii.13 (368,4) And hath, in his effect, a voice potential/As double as the duke’s] [Warburton had given a source in Dioscorides and Theocritus for “double”] This note has been much censured by Mr. Upton, who denies, that the quotation is in Dioscorides, and disputes, not without reason, the interpretation of Theocritus.
All this learning, if it had even been what it endeavours to be thought, is, in this place, superfluous. There is no ground of supposing, that our author copied or knew the Greek phrase; nor does it follow, that, because a word has two senses in one language, the word which in another answers to one sense, should answer to both. Manus, in Latin, signifies both a hand and troop of soldiers, but we cannot say, that the captain marched at the head of his hand; or, that he laid his troop upon his sword. It is not always in books that the meaning is to be sought of this writer, who was much more acquainted with naked reason and with living manners.
Double has here its natural sense. The president of every deliberative assembly has a double voice. In our courts, the chief justice and one of the inferior judges prevail over the other two, because the chief justice has a double voice.
Brabantio had, in his effect, though not by law, yet by weight and influence, a voice not actual and formal, but potential and operative, as double, that is, a voice that when a question was suspended, would turn the balance as effectually as the duke’s. Potential is used in the sense of science; a caustic is called potential fire.
I.ii.23 (370,7) speak, unbonnetted] [Pope: unbonnetting] I do not see the propriety of Mr. Pope’s emendation, though adopted by Dr. Warburton. Unbonnetting may as well be, not putting on, as not putting off, the bonnet. Hamner reads e’en bonnetted.
I.ii.26 (370,8) unhoused] Free from domestic cares. A thought natural to an adventurer.
I.ii.28 (370,9) For the sea’s worth] I would not marry her, though she were as rich as the Adriatic, which the Doge annually marries.
I.ii.30 (371,2) a land-carrack] A carrack is a ship of great bulk, and commonly of great value; perhaps what we now call a galleon.
I.ii.55 (372,3) be advis’d] That is, be cool; be cautious; be discreet.
I.ii.68 (372,4) The wealthy curled darlings of our nation] Curled is elegantly and ostentatiously dressed. He had not the hair particularly in his thoughts.
I.ii.74 (373,6) Abused her delicate youth with drugs, or minerals,/ That weaken notion] [T: notion] Hanmer reads with equal probability, That waken motion. [Originally motion].
I.iii.6 (375,9) As in these cases where they aim reports] [W: the aim] The folio has,
— the aim reports.
But, they aim reports, has a sense sufficiently easy and commodious. There men report not by certain knowledge, but by aim and conjecture.
I.ii.18 (375,1) By no assay of reason] Bring it to the test, examine it by reason as we examine metals by the assay, it will be found counterfeit by all trials.
I.iii.23 (376,2) facile question] Question is for the act of seeking. With more easy endeavour.
I.iii.24 (376,4) warlike brace] State of defence. To arm was called to brace on the armour.
I.iii.42 (376,5) And prays you to believe him] The late learned and ingenious Mr. Thomas Clark, of Lincoln’s Inn, read the passage thus:
And prays you to relieve him.
But the present reading may stand. He intreats you not to doubt the truth of this intelligence.
I.iii.54 (377,6) Hath rais’d me from my bed; nor doth the general care] The word care, which encumbers the verse, was probably added by the players. Shakespeare uses the general as a substantive, though, I think, not in this sense.
I.iii.69 (373,8) though our proper son/Stood in your action] Were the man exposed to your charge or accusation.
I.iii.80 (378,9) The very head and front of my offending] The main, the whole, unextenuated.
I.iii.85 (379,2) Their dearest action] That is dear, for which much is paid, whether money or labour; dear action, is action performed at great expence, either of ease or safety.
I.iii.107 (380,4) overt test] Open proofs, external evidence.
I.iii.108 (380,5) thin habits and poor likelihoods/Of modern seeming] Weak shew of slight appearance.
I.iii.139 (381,6) And portance in my travel’s history] [I have restored,
And with it all my travel’s history:
From the old edition. It is in the rest,
And portance in my travel’s history.
Rymer, in his criticism on this play, has changed it to portents, instead of portance. POPE.] Mr. Pope has restored a line, to which there is little objection, but which has no force. I believe portance was the author’s word in some revised copy. I read thus,
Of being —— sold
To slavery, of my redemption, thence,
And portance in’t; my travel’s history.
My redemption from slavery, and behaviour in it.
I.iii.140-170 (381,7) Wherein of antres vast, and desarts idle] Whoever ridicules this account of the progress of love, shows his ignorance, not only of history, but of nature and manners. It is no wonder that, in any age, or in any nation, a lady, recluse, timorous, and delicate, should desire to hear of events and scenes which she could never see, and should admire the man who had endured dangers and performed actions, which, however great, were yet magnified by her timidity. [Pope: deserts wild] Every mind is liable to absence and inadvertency, else Pope could never have rejected a word so poetically beautiful. Idle is an epithet used to express the infertility of the chaotic state, in the Saxon translation of the Pentateuch. (1773)
I.iii.140 (382,8) antres] [French grottos. POPE.] Rather caves and dens.
I.iii.142 (382,9) It was my hint to speak] [W: hent] Hent is not used in Shakespeare, nor, I believe, in any other author; hint, or cue, is comnonly used for occasion of speech, which is explained by, such was the process, that is, the course of the tale required it. If hent be restored, it may be explained by handle. I had a handle, or opportunity, to speak of cannibals.
I.iii.144 (382,1) men whose heads/Do grow beneath their shoulders] Of these men there is an account in the interpolated travels of Mondeville, a book of that time.
I.iii.199 (384,4) Let me speak like yourself;] [W: our self] Hanmer reads,
Let me now speak more like your self.
Dr. Warburton’s emendation is specious; but I do not see how Hanmer’s makes any alteration. The duke seems to mean, when he says he will speak like Brabantio, that he will speak sententiously.
I.iii.213 (385,6) But the free comfort which from thence he hears] But the moral precepts of consolation, which are liberally bestowed on occasion of the sentence.
I.iii.232 (386,8) thrice-driven bed of down] A driven bed, is a bed for which the feathers are selected, by driving with a fan, which separates the light from the heavy.
I.iii.237 (337,9)
I crave fit disposition for my wife;
Due reverence of place, and exhibition]
I desire, that a proper disposition be made for my wife, that she may have precedency, and revenue, accommodation, and company, suitable to her rank.
For reference of place, the old quartos
have reverence, which Hanmer has received. I should read,
Due preference of place. —
I.iii.246 (387,1) And let me find a charter in your voice] Let your favour privilege me.
I.iii.250 (387,2) My down-right violence and storm of fortunes] [W: to forms, my fortunes] There is no need of this emendation. Violence is not violence suffered, but violence acted. Breach of common rules and obligations. The old quarto has, scorn of fortune, which is perhaps the true reading.
I.iii.253 (388,3) I saw Othello’s visage in his mind] It must raise no wonder, that I loved a man of an appearance so little engaging; I saw his face only in his mind; the greatness of his character reconciled me to his form.
I.iii.264 (386,4)
Nor to comply with heat (the young affects,
In me defunct) and proper satisfaction]
[T: me distinct, i.e. with that heat and new affections which the indulgence of my appetite has raised and created. This is the meaning of defunct, which has made all the difficulty of the passage. WARBURTON.] I do not think that Mr. Theobald’s emendation clears the text from embarrassment, though it is with a little imaginary improvement received by Hanmer, who reads thus:
Nor to comply with heat, affects the young
In my distinct and proper satisfaction.
Dr. Warburton’s explanation is not more satisfactory: what made the difficulty, will continue to make it. I read,
— I beg it not,
To please the palate of my appetite,
Nor to comply with heat (the young affects
In me defunct) and proper satisfaction;
But to be free and bounteous to her mind.
Affects stands here, not for love, but for passions, for that by which any thing is affected. I ask it not, says he, to please appetite, or satisfy loose desires, the passions of youth which I have now outlived, or for any particular gratification of myself, but merely that I may indulge the wishes of my wife.
Mr. Upton had, before me, changed my to me; but he has printed young effects, not seeming to know that affects could be a noun. (1773)
Complete Works of Samuel Johnson Page 573
