III. v. 48 (305, 8) [That can entame ay spirits to your worship]
[W: entraine] The common reading seems unexceptionable.
III. v. 62 (305, 9) [Foal is most foul, being foul to be a scoffer] [W: being found] The sense of the received reading is not fairly represented; it is, The ugly seem most ugly, when, though ugly, they are scoffers.
III.v.78 (306,2) [Though all the world could see, None could be so abus’d in sight, as he] Though all mankind could look on you, none could be so deceived as to think you beautiful but he.
IV.i.37 (309,3) [swam in a gondola] That is, been at Venice, the sweat at that tine of all licentiousness, where the young English gentlemen waited their fortunes, debased their morals, and sometimes lost their religion.
The fashion of travelling, which prevailed very much in our author’s time, was considered by the wiser men as one of the principal causes of corrupt manners. It was therefore gravely censored by Aschaa in his Schoolmaster, and by bishop Hall in his Quo Vadis; and is here, and in other passages, ridiculed by Shakespeare.
IV.i.157 (312,6) [and that when you are inclin’d to sleep] [W: to weep] I know not why we should read to weep. I believe most men would be more angry to have their sleep hindered than their grief interrupted.
IV.i.168 (313,8) [Wit, whither wilt?] This must be some allusion to a story well known at that time, though not perhaps irretrievable.
IV.i.177 (313,9) [make her fault her husband’s occasion] That is, represent her fault as occasioned by her husband. Sir T. Banner reads, her husband’s accusation.
IV.i.195 (314,1) [I will think you the most pathetical break-promise] [W: atheistical] I do not see but that pathetical may stand, which seems to afford as much sense and as much humour as atheistical.
IV.ii.14 (315,2) [Take thou no scorn] [T: In former editions: Then sing him home, the rest shall bear his burden. This is an admirable instance of the sagacity of our preceding editors, to say nothing worse. One should expect, when they were poets, they would at least have taken care of the rhimes, and not foisted in what has nothing to answer it. Now, where is the rhime to, the rest shall bear this burden? Or, to ask another question, where is the sense of it? Does the poet mean, that He, that kill’d the deer, shall be sung home, and the rest shall bear the deer on their backs? This is laying a burden on the poet, that we mist help him to throw off. In short, the mystery of the whole is, that a marginal note is wisely thrust into the text: the song being design’d to be sung by a single voice, and the stanzas to close with a burden to be sung by the whole company.] This note I have given as a specimen of Mr. Theobald’s jocularity, and the eloquence with which he recommends his emendations.
IV.iii (316,4) [Enter Rosalind and Celia] The foregoing noisy scene was introduced only to fill up an interval, which is to represent two hours. This contraction of the time we might impute to poor Rosalind’s impatience, but that a few minutes after we find Orlando sending his excuse. I do not see that by any probable division of the acts this absurdity can be obviated.
IV.iii.48 (318,3) [That could do no vengeance to me] Vengeance is used for mischief.
IV.iii.59 (318,4) [youth and kind] Kind is the old word for nature.
IV.iii.101 (319,5) [Within an hour] We must read, within two hours.
IV.iii.160 (321,6) [cousin — Ganymed!] Celia in her first fright forgets Rosalind’s character and disguise, and calls out cousin, then recollects herself, and says Ganymed.
V.ii.21 (325,9) [And you, fair sister] I know not why Oliver should call Rosalind sister. He takes her yet to be a man. I suppose we should read, and you, and your fair sister.
V.ii.45 (326,1) [Clubs cannot part them] Alluding to the way of parting dogs in wrath.
V.ii.74 (327,2) [human as she is] That is, not a phantom, but the real Rosalind, without any of the danger generally conceived to attend the rites of incantation.
V.iii.17 (329,3) [It was a lover and his lass] The stanzas of this song are in all the editions evidently transposed: as I have regulated them, that which in the former copies was the second stanza is now the last.
The same transposition of these stanzas is made by Dr. Thirlby, in a copy containing some notes on the margin, which I have perused by the favour of Sir Edward Walpole. (see 1765, II,97,3)
V.iii.36 (330,4) [the note was very untuneable] [T: untimeable] This emendation is received. I think very undeservedly, by Dr. Warburton.
V.iv.4 (331,5) [As those that fear, they hope, and know they fear] [W: their hap, and know their] The deprivation of this line is evident, but I do not think the learned commentator’s emendation very happy. I read thus,
As those that fear with hope, and hope with fear.
Or thus, with less alteration,
As those that fear, they hope, and now they fear.
V.iv.36 (332,6) [Here comes a pair of very strange beasts] [W: unclean beasts] Strange beasts are only what we call odd animals. There is no need of any alteration.
V.iv.51 (333,7) [found the quarrel was upon the seventh cause] So all the copies; but it is apparent from the sequel that we must read, the quarrel was not upon the seventh cause.
V.iv.56 (333,8) [I desire you of the like] [W: of you] I have not admitted the alteration, because there are other examples of this mode of expression. (1773)
V.iv.59 (333,9) [according as marraige binds, and blood breaks] I cannot discover what has here puzzled the commentator [W]: to swear according as marriage binds, ii to take the oath enjoin’d in the ceremonial of marriage.
V.iv.68 (334,1) [dulcet diseases] This I do not understand. For diseases it is easy to read discourses: but, perhaps the fault may lie deeper.
V.iv.114 (336,4) [Enter Hymen] Rosalind is imagined by the rest of the company to be brought by enchantment, and is therefore introduced by a supposed aerial being in the character of Hymen.
V.iv.125 (336,5) [If there be truth in sight] The answer of Phebe makes it probable that Orlando says, if there be truth in shape: that is, if a form may be trusted; if one cannot usurp the form of another.
V.iv.136 (337,6) [If truth holds true contents] That is, if there be truth in truth, unless truth fails of veracity.
V.iv.147 (337,7) [Wedding is great Juno’s crown] Catullus, addressing himself to Hymen, has this stanza:
Quae tuis careat sacris,
Non queat dare praesides
Terra finibus: at queat
Te volente. Quis huic deo
Compararier ausit? (1773)
Epilogue.7 (340,5) [What a case am I in then] Here seems to be a chasm, or some other depravation, which destroys the sentiment here intended. The reasoning probably stood thus, Good wine needs no bush, good plays need no epilogue, but bad wine requires a good bush, and a bad play a good epilogue. What case am I in then? To restore the words is impossible; all that can be done without copies is, to note the fault.
Epilogue.10 (340,1) [furnish’d like a beggar] That is dressed: so before, he was furnished like a huntsman.
Epilogue.13 (340,2) [I charge you, O women, for the love you bear to men, to like as much of this Play as pleases them: and I charge you, O men, for the love you bear to women —— that between you and the women] [W: pleases them…pleases them] The words you and of written as was the custom in that time, were in manuscript scarcely distinguishable. The emendation is very judicious and probable.
(341,4) General Observation. Of this play the fable is wild and pleasing. I know not how the ladies will approve the facility with which both Rosalind and Celia give away their hearts. To Celia much may be forgiven for the heroism of her friendship. The character of Jaqaes is natural and well preferred. The comick dialogue is very sprightly, with less mixture of low buffoonery than in some other plays; and the graver part is elegant and harmonious. By hastening to the end of his work, Shakespeare suppressed the dialogue between the usurper and the hermit, and lost an opportunity of exhibiting a moral lesson in which he might have found matter worthy of his highest powers.
THE TAMING OF THE SH
REW
Induction.i.l (346,1) [I’ll pheeze you] To pheeze or fease. is to separate a twist into single threads. In the figurative sense it may well enough be taken, like teaze or toze, for to harrass. to plague. Perhaps I’ll pheeze you, may be equivalent to I’ll comb your head, a phrase vulgarly used by persons of Sly’s character on like occasions. The following explanation of the word is given by Sir Tho. Sayth in his book de Sermone Anglico, printed by Robert Stephens, 4vo. To feize. means in fila diducere. (see 1765, III,,1)
Induction.i.3 (347,2) [no rogues] That is vagrants, no mean fellows, but gentlemen.
Induction.i.17 (348,7) [Brach Merriman, the poor cur is imboat] Sir T. Banner reads, Leech Merriman. that is, apply some remedies to Merriman, the poor cur has his joints swelled. Perhaps we might read, bathe Merriman, which is I believe the common practice of huntsmen, but the present reading may stand:
— tender well my hounds: Brach — Merriman — the poor cur is imboat.
Induction.i.64 (351,8) [And when he says he is, — say that he dreams] [steevens:he’s poor, — say] If any thing should be inserted, it may be done thus,
“And when he says he’s Sly, say that he dreams.”
The likeness in writing of Sly and say produced the omission.(1773)
Induction.i.67 (352,9)
[It will be pastime excellent,
If it be husbanded with modesty]
By modesty is meant moderation, without suffering our merriment to break into an excess.
Induction.i.82 (352,1) [to accept our duty] It was in those times the custom of players to travel in companies, and offer their service at great houses.
Induction.i.101 (353,4) [property] in the language of a playhouse, is every implement necessary to the exhibition.
Induction.i.125 (355,7) [To rain a shower of commanded toars,
An onion will do well for such a shift]
It is not unlikely that the onion was an expedient used by the actors of interludes.
Induction.ii.89 (359,8) [Leet] As the Court leet. or courts of the manor.
I.i.9 (362,2) [ingenious studies] I rather think it was written ingenuous studies, but of this and a thousand such observations there is little certainty.
I.i.18 (363,4) [Virtue, and that part of philosophy Will I apply] Sir Thomas Hammer, and after him Dr. Warburton, read to virtues but formerly ply and apply were indifferently used, as to ply or apply his studies.
I.i.78 (365,7) [A pretty peat!] Peat or pet is a word of endearment from petit, little, as if it meant pretty little thing.
I.i.85 (365,8) [will you be so strange?] That is, so odd, so different from others in your conduct.
I.i.97 (366,9) [cunning men] Cunning had not yet lost its original signification of knowing, learned, as nay be observed in the translations of the Bible.
I.i.167 (368,2) [Redime te captum quasi queas minimi] Our author had this line from Lilly, which I mention, that it may not be brought as an argument of his learning.
I.i.208 (369,3) [port] Pert, is figure, show, appearance.
I.ii.52 (372,5) [Where small experience grows. But, in a few] Why this should seem nonsense, I cannot perceive. In few words it means the same as in short.
I.ii.68 (373,6) [As wealth is burthen of my wooing dance] The burthen of a dance is an expression which I have never heard; the burthen of his wooing song had been more proper.
I.ii.72 (373,8) [Affection’s edge in me] Surely the sense of the present reading is too obvious to be missed or mistaken. Petruchio says, that, if a girl has money enough, no bad qualities of mind or body will remove affection’s edge; i.e. hinder him from liking her.
I.ii.112 (375,1) [an’ he begin once, he’ll rail — In his rope-tricks] This is obscure. Sir Thomas Hammer reads, he’ll rail in his rhetorick; I’ll tell you, &c. Rhetorick agrees very well with figure in the succeeding part of the speech, yet I am inclined to believe that rope-tricks is the true word.
I.ii.115 (375,2) [that she shall have no more eyes to see withal than a cat] It may mean, that he shall swell up her eyes with blows, till she shall seem to peep with a contracted pupil like a cat in the light. (1773)
I.ii.276 (381,9) [Please ye, we may contrive this afternoon] The word is used in the same sense of spending or wearing out in the Palace of Pleasure.
II.1.17 (382,2) [You will have Gremio, to keep you fair] I wish to read, To keep you fine. But either word may serve.
II.i.26 (388,3) [hilding] The word hildlng or hinderling — a low wretch; it is applied to Catharine for the coarseness of her behaviour.
II.i.209 (389,7) [Ay, for a turtle; as he takes a buzzard] Perhaps we may read better, Ay, for a turtle, and he take a buzzard. That is, he may take me for a turtle, and he shall find me a hawk.
II.i.310 (393,9) [kill on kiss She vy’s so fast] I know not that the word vie has any construction that will suit this place; we may easily read,
— kiss on kiss She ply’d so fast.
II.i.340 (394,1)
[Tra. Grey-beard! thy love doth freeze.
Ore. But thine doth fry]
Old Gremio’s notions are confirmed by Shadwell:
The fire of love in youthful blood.
Like what is kindled in brush-wood.
But for a moment burns —
But when crept into aged reins,
It slowly burns, and long remains,
It glows, and with a sullen heat.
Like fire in logs, it burns, and warms us long;
And though the flame be not so great,
Yet is the heat as strong.
II.1.407 (397,4) [Yet have I fac’d it with a card of ten] [W. quoted Jonson for “a hart of ten”] If the word hart be right, I do not see any use of the latter quotation.
II.1.413 (398,5)[Here the former editors add, Sly. Sim, when will the fool come again? Steevens.] The character of the fool has not been introduced in this drama, therefore I believe that the word again should be omitted, and that Sly asks, When will the fool come? the fool being the favourite of the vulgar, or, as we now phrase it, of the upper gallery, was naturally expected in every interlude.
III.1.37 (400,6) [pantaloon] the old cully in Italian farces.
III.ii.10 (403,1) [full of spleen] That is, full of humour, caprice; and inconstancy.
III.ii.45 (404,3) [a pair of boots that have been candle — eases; one buckled, another lac’d; an old rusty sword ta’en out of the town armory, with a broken hilt, and chapeless, with two broken points] Bow a sword should have two broken points, I cannot tell. There is, I think, a transposition caused by the seeming relation of point to sword. I read, a pair of boots, one buckled, another
laced with two broken points; an old rusty sword — with a broken hilt, and chapeless.
III.ii.109 (406,7) [to digress] to deviate from any promise.
IV.i.3 (412,9) [was ever man so ray’d?] That is, was ever man so mark’d with lashes.
IV.i.93 (416,7) [garters of an indifferent knit] What is the sense of this I know not, unless it means, that their garters should be fellows; indifferent, or not different, one from the other.
IV.i.139 (417,8) [no link, to colour Peter’s hat] Link, I believe, is the name with what we now call lamp-black.
IV.i.145 (418,9) [Soud, soud] That is, sweet, sweet. Soot, and sometimes sooth, is sweet. So in Milton, to sing soothly, is, to sing sweetly.
IV.i.196 (420,3) [to man my haggard] A haggard is a wild hawk; to man a hawk is to tame her.
IV.iii.43 (428,8) [And all my pains is sorted to no proof] And all my labour has ended in nothing, or proved nothing. We tried an experiment, but it sorted not. Bacon.
IV.iii.56 (428,9) [With silken coats, and caps, and golden rings, With ruffs, and cuffs, and fardingals, and things] Though things is a poor word, yet I have no better, and perhaps the authour had not another that would rhyme. I once thought to transpose the words rings and things, but it would make little improvement.
IV.iii.91 (430,2) [censer] in barber’s shops, are now disused, but they may easily
be imagined to have been vessels which, for the emission of the smoke, were cut with great number and varieties of interstices.
IV.iii.107 (430,3) [thou thimble] The taylor’s trade having an appearance of effeminacy, has always been, among the rugged English, liable to sarcasms and contempt.
IV.iii.140 (431,3) [a small compass’d cape] A compass’d cape is a round cape. To compass is to come round. (1773)
IV.iv (434,5) I cannot but think that the direction about the Tinker, who is always introduced at the end of the acts, together with the change of the scone, and the proportion of each act to the rest, make it probable that the fifth act begins here.
IV.iv.48 (436,7) [Where then do you know best, Be we affied] This seems to be wrong. We may read more commodiously, —— Where then you do know best Be we affied; ——
Or thus, which I think is right, Where then do you trow best, We be affied; —— —
V.i.70 (443,2) [a copatain hat!] is, I believe, a hat with a conical crown, such as was anciently worn by well-dressed men.
V.ii.54 (448,5) [A good swift simile] besides the original sense of speedy in motion, signified witty, quick-witted. So in As You Like It, the Duke says of the Clown, He is very swift and sententious. Quick is now used in almost the same sense as nimble was in the age after that of our author. Heylin says of Hales, that he had known Laud for a nimble, disputant.
V.ii.186 (453,7) [tho’ you hit the white] To hit the white is a phrase borrowed from archery: the mark was commonly white. Here it alludes to the name Bianca, or white.
(454) General Observation. From this play the Tatler formed a story, [Johnson here copies out the Tatler story.] It cannot but seen strange that Shakespeare should be so little known to the author of the Tatler, that he should suffer this story to be obtruded upon him; or so little known to the publick, that he could hope to make it pass upon his readers as a real narrative of a transaction in Lincolnshire; yet it is apparent, that he was deceived, or intended to deceive, that he knew not himself whence the story was taken, or hoped that he might rob so obscure a writer without detection.
Complete Works of Samuel Johnson Page 589
