Complete Works of Samuel Johnson

by Samuel Johnson

  And human mortals want their wonted year,

  yet will not this licence of alteration much mend the narrative;

  the cause and the effect are still confounded. Let us carry critical temerity a little further. Scaliger transposed the lines of Virgil’s Gallus. Why may not the same experiment be ventured upon Shakespeare.

  The human mortals want their wonted year,

  The seasons alter; hoary-headed frosts

  Fall in the fresh lap of the crimson rose;

  And on old Hyems’ chin, and icy crown,

  An od’rous chaplet of sweet summer buds

  Is, as in mock’ry set. The spring, the summer,

  The chiding autumn, angry winter, change

  Their wonted liveries; and the ‘mazed world,

  By their increase, now knows not which is which.

  No night is now with hymn or carol blest;

  Therefore the moon, the governess of floods,

  Pale in her anger, washes all the air;

  And thorough this distemperature, we see

  That rheumatick diseases do abound.

  And this same progeny of evil comes

  From our debate, from our dissension.

  I know not what credit the reader will give to this emendation, which I do not much credit myself.

  II.i.114 (31,4) [By their increase] That is, By their produce.

  II.i.130 (32,6) [Which she, with pretty and with swimming gate, Following] [cf: follying] The foregoing note is very ingenious, but since follying is a word of which I know not any example, and the Fairy’s favourite might, without much licentiousness of language, be said to follow a ship that sailed in the direction of the coast; I think there is no sufficient reason for adopting it. The coinage of new words is a violent remedy, not to be used but in the last necessity.

  II.i.157 (35,8) [Cupid all-arm’d] All-armed, does not signify dressed in panoply, but only enforces the word armed, as we might say all-booted. I am afraid that the general sense of alarmed, by which it is used for put into fear or care by whatever cause, is later than our authour.

  II.i.220 (38,4) [For that It is not night when I do see your face]

  This passage is paraphrased from two lines of an ancient poet,

  — Tu nocte vel atra

  Lumen, et in solis tu mihi turba locis.

  (see 1765, I,118,6)

  II.i.251 (39,5) [over-canopy’d with the luscious woodbine] All the old editions have,

  Quite over-canopied with luscious woodbine.

  On the margin of one of my folio’s an unknown hand has written lush woodbine, which, I think, is right.

  This hand I have since discovered to be Theobald’s, (see 1765,

  I,119,4)

  II.ii. (41,9) [quaint spirits] For this Dr. Warburton reads against all authority,

  —— quaint sports. ——

  But Prospero, in The Tempest, applies quaint to Ariel.

  II.ii.30 (42.2) [Be it ounce]

  The ounce is a snail tiger, or tiger-cat. (1773)

  II.ii.45 (43,3)

  [O take the sense, sweet, of my innocence;

  Love takes the meaning in love’s conference]

  [Warburton wished to transpose “innocence” and “conference”] I am by no means convinced of the necessity of this alteration. Lysander in the language of love professes, that as they have one heart, they shall have one bed; this Hernia thinks rather too much, and intreats him to lye further off. Lysander answers,

  O take the sense, sweet, of my innocence.

  understand the meaning of my innocence, or my innocent meaning. Let no suspicion of ill enter thy mind.

  Love takes the meaning, in love’s conference.

  In the conversation of those who are assured of each other’s kindness, not suspicion, but love takes the meaning. No malevolent interpretation is to be made, but all is to be received in the sense which love can find, and which love can dictate.

  II.ii.89 (45,6) [my grace] My acceptableness, the favour that I can gain. (1773)

  II.ii.120 (46,7) [Reason becomes the marshal to my will] That is,

  My will now follows reason.

  III.i (48,3) In the time of Shakespeare, there were many companies of players, sometimes five at the same time, contending for the favour of the publick. Of these some were undoubtedly very unskilful and very poor, and it is probable that the design of this scene was to ridicule their ignorance, and the odd expedients to which they might be driven by the want of proper decorations. Bottom was perhaps the head of a rival house, and is therefore honoured with an ass’s head.

  III.i.110 (52,8) [Through bog, through bush, through brake, through bryer] Here are two syllables wanting. Perhaps, it was written,

  Through bog, through mire, —— —

  III.i.116 (52,9) [to make me afeard]

  Afeard is from to fear, by the old form of the language, as an hungred, from to hunger. So adry, for thirsty. (1773)

  III.i.117 (52,1) [O Bottom! thou art chang’d! what do I see on thee?] It is plain by Bottom’s answer, that Snout mentioned an ass’s head. Therefore we should read,

  Snout. O Bottom, thou art changed! what do I see on thee? An ass’s head?

  III.i.141 (53,3) [Mine ear is much enamour’d of thy note,]

  So is mine eye enthralled to thy shape;

  And thy fair virtue’s force

  (perforce) [doth move me, On the first view to say, to swear I love thee]

  These lines are in one quarto of 1600, the first folio of 1623, the second of 1632, and the third of 1664, &c. ranged in the following order:

  Mine ear is much enamour’d of thy note.

  On the first view to say, to swear, I love thee;

  So is mine eye enthralled to thy shape,

  And thy fair virtue’s force (perforce) [doth move me.

  This reading I have inserted, not that it can suggest any thing better than the order to which the lines have been restored by Mr. Theobald from another quarto, but to shew that some liberty of conjecture must be allowed in the revisal of works so inaccurately printed, and so long neglected.

  III.i.173 (55,6) [the fiery glow-worm’s eyes] I know not how Shakespeare,who commonly derived his knowledge of nature from his own observation, happened to place the glow-worm’s light in his eyes, which is only in his tail.

  III.ii.9 (56,l) [patches] Patch was in old language used as a term of opprobry; perhaps with much the some import as we use raggamuffin, or tatterdemalion.

  III.ii.17 (56,2) [nowl] A head. Saxon.

  III.ii.19 (57,4) [minnock] This is the reading of the old quarto, and I believe right, Minnekin, now minx, is a nice trifling girl. Minnock is apparently a word of contempt.

  III.ii.21 (57,5) [sort] Company. So above,

  — that barren sort;

  and in Waller,

  A sort of lusty shepherds strive.

  III.ii.25 (57,6) [And, at our stamp] This seems to be a vicious reading. Fairies are never represented stamping, or of a size that should give force to a stamp, nor could they have distinguished the stamps of Puck from those of their own companions. I read,

  And at a stump here o’er and o’er one falls.

  So Drayton,

  A pain he in his head-piece feels,

  Against a stubbed tree he reels,

  And up went poor hobgoblin’s heels;

  Alas, his brain was dizzy. ——

  At length upon his feet he gets,

  Hobgoblin fumes, Hobgoblin frets,

  And as again he forward sets,

  And through the bushes scrambles,

  A stump doth trip him in his pace,

  Down fell poor Hob upon his face,

  Among the briers and brambles.

  III.ii.30 (58,7) [Some, sleeves; some, hats] There is the like image in Drayton of queen Mab and her fairies flying from Hobgoblin.

  Some tore a ruff, and some a gown,

  ’Gainat one another jostling;

  They flew about like chaff i’ th’ wind,
<
br />   For haste some left their masks behind,

  Some could not stay their gloves to find,

  There never was such bustling.

  III.ii.48 (58,l) [Being o’er shoes in blood] An allusion to the proverb, Over shoes, over boots.

  III.ii.70 (59,3) [O brave touch!] Touch in Shakespeare’s time was the same with our exploit, or rather stroke. A brave touch, a noble stroke, un grand coup. Mason was very merry, pleasantly playing both with the shrewd touches of many curst boys, and the small discretion of many lewd schoolmasters. Ascham.

  III.ii.74 (60,4) [mispris’d] Mistaken; so below misprision is mistake.

  III.ii.141 (62,5) [Taurus’ snow] Taurus is the name of a range of mountains in Asia.

  III.ii.144 (62,7) [seal of bliss!] Be has elsewhere the same image,

  But my kisses bring again Seals of love, but seal’d in vain, (rev. 1778, III,74,4)

  III.ii.150 (62,8) [join in souls] This is surely wrong. We may read, Join in scorns, or join in scoffs. [Tyrwhitt: join, ill souls] This is a very reasonable conjecture, though I think it is hardly right. (1773)

  III.ii.160 (63,9) [extort A poor soul’s patience] Harrass, torment.

  III.ii.171 (63,1) [My heart with her] We should read,

  My heart with her but as guest-wise sojourn’d.

  So Prior,

  No matter what beauties I saw in my way,

  They were but my visits, but then not my home. (rev. 1778, III,76,9)

  III.ii.188 (64,2) [all yon fiery O’s] I would willingly believe that the poet wrote fiery orbs.

  III.ii.194 (64,3) [in spight to me] I read, in spite to me.

  III.ii.242 (66,2) [such an argument] Such a subject of light merriment.

  III.ii.352 (71,1) [so sort] So happen in the issue.

  III.ii.367 (71,2) [virtuous property] Salutiferous. So be calls, in the Tempest, poisonous dew, wicked dew.

  III.ii.426 (74,5) [buy this dear] i.e. thou shalt dearly pay for this. Though this is sense, and may well enough stand, yet the poet perhaps wrote thou shalt ‘by it dear. So in another place, thou shalt aby it. So Milton, How dearly I abide that boust so vain.

  IV.i (75,6) I see no reason why the fourth act should begin here, when there seems no interruption of the action. In the old quartos of 1600, there is no division of acts, which seems to have been afterwards arbitrarily made in the first folio, and may therefore be altered at pleasure, (see 1765, I,149,5)

  IV.i.2 (75,7) [do coy] To coy is to sooth. Skinner, (rev. 1778, III, 89,6)

  IV.i.45 (77,2) [So doth the woodbine, the sweet honey-suckle, Gently entwist] Mr. Upton reads,

  So doth the woodrine the sweet honey-suckle,

  for bark of the wood. Shakespeare perhaps only meant so, the leaves involve the flower, using woodbine for the plant and honeysuckle for the flower; or perhaps Shakespeare made a blunder, (rev. 1778, III,91,2)

  IV.i.107 (81,9) [our observation is perform’d] The honours due to the morning of May. I know not why Shakespear calls this play a Midsummer- Night’s Dream, when he so carefully informs us that it happened on the night preceding May day.

  IV.i.123 (81,4) [so sanded] So marked with small spots.

  IV.i.166 (83,6) [Fair Helena in fancy following me] Fancy is here taken for love or affection, and is opposed to fury, as before.

  Sighs and tears poor Fancy’s follovers.

  Some now call that which a man takes particular delight in his Fancy. Flower-fancier, for a florist, and bird-fancier, for a lover and feeder of birds, are colloquial words.

  IV.i.194 (84,6) [And I have found Demetrius like a jewel] [W: gewell]

  This emendation is ingenious enough to deserve to be true.

  IV.i.213 (85,8) [patch’d fool] That is, a fool in a particolour’d coat.

  IV.ii.14 (86,2) [a thing of nought] which Mr. Theobald changes with great pomp to a thing of naught, is, a good for nothing thing.

  IV.ii.18 (86,3) [made men] In the same sense us in the Tempest, any monster in England makes a man.

  V.i.2-22 (88,4)

  [More strange than true. I never may believe

  These antique fables, nor these fairy toys]

  These beautiful lines are in all the old editions thrown out of metre. They are very well restored by the later editors.

  V.i.26 (89,5) [constancy] Consistency; stability; certainty.

  V.i.79 (92,4) [Unless you can find sport in their intents] Thus all the copies. But as I know not what it is to stretch and con an intent, I suspect a line to be lost.

  V.i.91 (92,5)

  [And what poor duty cannot do,

  Noble respect takes it in might, not merit.]

  The sense of this passage, as it now stands, if it has any sense, is this: What the inability of duty cannot perform, regardful generosity receives as an act of ability, though not of merit. The contrary is rather true: What dutifulness tries to perform without ability, regardful generosity receives as having the merit, though not the power, of complete performance.

  We should therefore read,

  And what poor duty cannot do, Noble respect takes not in might, but merit.

  V.i.147 (95,4) [Whereat, with blade, with bloody blameful blade] Mr. Upton rightly observes, that Shakespeare in this line ridicules the affectation of beginning many words with the same letter. He night have remarked the same of

  The raging rocks and shivering shocks.

  Gascoigne, contemporary with our poet, remarks and blames the same affectation.

  V.i.199 (97,6) [And like Limander am I trusty still] Limander and

  Helen, are spoken by the blundering player, for Leander and Hero.

  Shafalus and Procrus, for Cephalus and Procris.

  V.i.254 (99,1) [in snuff] An equivocation. Snuff signifies both the cinder of a caudle, and hasty anger.

  V.i.379 (104,2) [And the wolf beholds the moon] [W: behowls] The alteration is better than the original reading; but perhaps the author meant only to say, that the wolf gazes at the moon, (see 1765, I,173,2)

  V.i.396 (105,4)

  [I am sent, with broom, before,

  To sweep the dust behind the door]

  Cleanliness is always necessary to invite the residence and the favour of Fairies.

  These make our girls their slutt’ry rue,

  By pinching them both black and blue.

  And put a penny in their shoe

  The house for cleanly sweeping. Drayton.

  V.i.398 (105,5) [Through this house give glimmering light] Milton perhaps had this picture in his thought:

  Glowing cabers through the room Teach light to counterfeit a gloom. Il Penseroso.

  So Drayton:

  Hence shadows seeming idle shapes

  Of little frisking elves and apes,

  To earth do make their wanton ‘scapes

  As hope of pastime hastes them.

  I think it should be read,

  Through this house in glimmering light.

  V.i.408 (106,6) [Now, until the break of day] This speech, which both the old quartos give to Oberon, is in the edition of 1623, and in all the following, printed as the song. I have restored it to Oberon, as it apparently contains not the blessing which he intends to bestow on the bed, but his declaration that he will bless it, and his orders to the fairies how to perform the necessary rites. But where then is the song? — I am afraid it is gone after many other things of greater value. The truth is that two songs are lost. The series of the scene is this; after the speech of Puck, Oberon enters, and calls his fairies to a song, which song is apparently wanting in all the copies. Next Titania leads another song, which is indeed lost like the former, tho’ the editors have endeavoured to find it. Then Oberon dismisses his fairies to the dispatch of the ceremonies.

  The songs, I suppose, were lost, because they were not inserted in the players parts, from which the drama was printed.

  V.i.440 (107,8) [Now to ‘scape the serpent’s tongue] That is, If we be dismiss’d without hisses.

  V.i.444 (107,9) [Give me your hand
s] That is, Clap your hands. Give us your applause.

  (107,8) General Observation. Of this play there are two editions in quarto; one printed for Thomas Fisher, the other for James Roberts, both in 1600. I have used the copy of Roberts, very carefully collated, as it seems, with that of Fisher. Neither of the editions approach to exactness. Fisher is sometimes preferable, but Roberts was followed, though not without some variations, by Hemings and Condel, and they by all the folios that succeeded them.

  Wild and fantastical as this play is, all the parts in their various modes are well written, and give the kind of pleasure which the author designed. Fairies in his time were much in fashion; common tradition had made them familiar, and Spenser’s poem had made them great.

  THE MERCHANT OF VENICE

  I.i.9 (112,2) [Argosies] [a ship from Argo. Pope.] Whether it be derived from Argo I am in doubt. It was a name given in our author’s time to ships of great burthen, probably galleons, such as the Spaniards now use in their East India trade. [An Argosie meant originally a ship from Ragusa, a city and territory on the gulph of Venice, tributary to the Porte. Steevens.]

  I.i.18 (112,3) [Plucking the grass, to know where sits the wind] By holding up the grass, or any light body that will bend by a gentle blast, the direction of the wind is found.

  This way I used in shooting. Betwixt the markes was an open place, there I take a fethere, or a lytle grasse, and so learned

  how the wind stood. Ascham.

  I.i.27 (113,5) [And see my wealthy Andrew dock’d in sand] The name of the ship.

  I.i.113 (116,3) [Is that any thing now?] All the old copies read, is that any thing now? I suppose we should read, is that any thing new?