brance of a shrowd." 15:) That defunctive music can,] || Julius Cæsar we meet with a kindred thought: "- -mine That understands funereal music. To con in Saxon siguifies to know. The modern editions read: "That defunctive music ken." MALONE. 16:) That thy sable gender mak'st With the breath thou giv'st and tak'st,] suppose this uncouth expression means, that the crow, or raven, continues its race by the breath it gives to them as its parent, and by that which it takes from other animals: i. e. by first producing its young from itself, and then providing for their support by depredation. Thus, in King John: " and vast confusion waits || "(As_doth a_raven on a sickfallen beast) || "The imminent decay of wrested pomp." This is the best 1 can make of the passage. STEEVENS. = 17:) But in them it were a wonder.] So extraordinary a phænomenon as hearts remote, yet not asunder, &c. would have excited admiration, had it been found any where else except in these two birds. In them it was not wonderful. MALONE. 18:) That the turtle saw his right || Flaming in the phoenix' sight:] I suppose we should read light: 1. e. the turtle saw all the day he wanted, in the eyes of the phoenix. So, Antony speaking to Cleopatra: "--0 thou day o'the world, "Chain my arm'd neck!" Again, in The Merchant of Venice: "Bass. We should hold day with the Antipodes, "If you would walk in absence of the sun. || "Por. Let me give light, but let me not be light." STEEVENS. I do not perceive any need of change. The turtle saw those qualities which were his right, which were peculiarly appropriated to him, in the phoenix. - Light certainly corresponds better with the word flaming in the next line; but Shakspeare seldom puts his comparisons on four feet. MALONE.19:) Property was thus appall'd, || That the self was not the same;] This communication of appropriated qualities alarmed the power that presides over property. Finding that the self was not the same, he began to fear that nothing would remain distinct and individual; that all things would become common. MALONE. = 20:) To themselves yet either neither, &c.] So, in Drayton's Mortimeriados, 1596: “—— fire seem'd to be water, water flame, "Either or neither, and yet both the same." MALONE.= 21:) Love hath reason, reason none, || If what parts can so remain.] Love is reasonable, and reason is folly [has no reason], if two that are disunited from each other, can yet remain together and undivided. MALONE. = 22:) Whereupon it made this threne-] This funeral song. So, in Kendal's poems, 1577: "Of verses, threnes, and epitaphs, "Full fraught with tears of teene." A book entitled David's Threanes, by J. Heywood, was published in 1620. Two years afterwards it was reprinted under the title of David's Tears: the former title probably was discarded as obsolete. For this information I am indebted to Dr. Farmer. MALONE. By the kindness of my friend, Sir Mark Masterman Sykes, the possessor of this singularly rare volume, I was furnished with the opportunity of inspecting it, and ascertaining the accuracy with which these verses' had been reprinted. BoswELL. = = V. A LOVER'S COMPLAINT. 1:)-whose concave womb re-worded] Repeated; re-echoed. The same verb is found in Hamlet: 66 - Bring me to the test, || “And I the matter will re-word." MALONE. = 2:) Storming her world with sorrow's wind and rain.]|| So, in Julius Cæsar: "--and the state of a man, || "Like to a little kingdom, suffers then || "The nature of an insurrection." Again, in Hamlet: "- Remember thee?"Ay, thou poor ghost, while memory holds a seat || "In this distracted globe." Again, in King Lear: "Strives in his little world of man to out-scorn "The to-and-fro conflicting wind and rain." Sorrow's wind and rain are sighs and tears. Thus, in Antony and Cleopatra: "We cannot call her winds and waters, sighs and tears." The modern editions read corruptedly: "Storming her words with sorrows, wind," &c. MALONE.3:) Some beauty peep'd through lattice of sear'd age.] Thus, in the 3d Sonnet: "So thou through windows of thine age shalt see, "Despight of wrinkles, this thy golden time." Again, in Cymbeline: "-- or let her beauty "Look through a casement, to allure false hearts, || "And be false with them." In Macbeth we meet with the same epithet applied as here: " my way of life || "Is fallen into the sear, the yellow leaf." MALONE. Shakspeare has applied this image to a comic purpose in King Henry VI. Part II.: "He call'd me even now, my lord, through a red lattice, and I could discern no part of his face from the window at last I spied his eyes; and methought he had made two holes in the ale-wife's new-petticoat, and peep'd through." STEEVENS. = 4:) Which on it had conceited characters,] Fanciful images. Thus, in Tarquin and Lucrece : "Which the conceited painter drew so proud-." MALONE. 5:) Laund'ring the silken figures in the brine || That season'd woe had pelleted in tears,] So, in Tarquin and Lucrece: "Seasoning the earth with showers of silver brine." Laundering is wetting. The verb is now obsolete. To pellet is to form into pellets, to which, being round, Shakspeare, with his usual licence, compares falling tears. The word, I believe, is found no where but here and in Antony and Cleopatra: "My brave Egyptians all, || "By the discandying of this pelleted storm, "Lie graveless." In eyes, "Seeing those beads of sorrow stand in thine, “Be- in the public haunt of men." MALONE. 22:) And was my own fee-simple,] Had an absolute power over myself; as large as a tenant in fee has over his estate. MALONE. 23:) to our blood,] i. e. to our passions. MALONE. 24:) the patterns of his foul beguiling;] The examples of his seduction. MALONE. = 25:) in others' orchards grew,] Orchard and garden were, in ancient language, synonymous. Our author has a similar allusion in his 16th Sonnet: "many maiden gardens yet unset, “With virtuous wish would bear you living flowers, Much liker than your painted counterfeit." MALONE.=26:) Knew vows were ever brokers to defiling;] So, in Hamlet: "Do not believe his vows; for they are brokers, "Meer implorators of unholy suits." STEEVENS. A broker formerly signified a pandar. MALONE. 27:) Love made them not; with acture they may be, Where neither party is nor true nor kind:] Thus the old copy. I have not found the word acture in any other place, but suppose it to have been used as synonymous with action. We have, I think, enactures in Hamlet. His offences that might be seen abroad in the world, were the plants before mentioned, that he had set in others' gardens. The meaning of the passage then should seem to be My illicit amours were merely the effect of constitution, and not approved by my reason: Pure and genuine love bad no share in them or in their consequences; for the mere congress of the sexes may produce such fruits, without the affections of the parties being at all engaged. MALONE. 28:) And lo! behold these talents of their hair, &c.] These lockets, consisting of hair platted and set in gold. MALONE. = 29:) — amorously impleach'd] Impleach'd is interwoven; the same as pleached, a word which our author uses in Much Ado About Nothing, and in Antony and Cleopatra: "Steal into the pleached bower, "Where honey-suckles ripen'd by the sun "Forbid the sun to with pleach'd arms bending down "His corrigible neck." MALONE. 30:) Whereto his invis'd properties did tend;] Invis'd for invisible. This is, I believe, a word of Shakspeare's coining. His invised properties are the invisible qualities of his mind. So, in our author's Venus and Adonis: "Had I no eyes, but ears, my ears would love || "Thy inward beauty and invisible." MALONE.= 31:) O then advance of yours that phraseless hand, | Whose white weighs down the airy scale of praise ;] So, in Romeo and Juliet: "—— they may seize || "On the white wonder of dear Juliet's hand." The "airy scale of praise" is the scale filled with verbal eulogiums.' Air is often thus used by our author. So, in Much Ado About Nothing: "Charm ache with air, and agony with words." MALONE. 32:) Which late her noble suit in court did shun,] Who lately retired from the solicitation of her noble admirers. The word suit, in the sense of request or petition, was much used in Shakspeare's time. MALONE. 33:) Whose rarest bavings made the blossoms date:] Whose accomplishments were so extraordinary that the flower of the young nobility were passionately enamoured of her. MALONE. 34:) For she was sought by spirits of richest coat,] By nobles; whose high descent is marked by the number of quarters in their coats of arms. So in our author's Tarquin and Lucrece: "Yea, though I die, the scandal will survive, || "And be an eye-sore in my golden coat. MALONE. =35;) But 0, my sweet, what labour ist to leave || The thing we have not, mastering what not strives? || Paling the place which did no form receive;] The old copy reads: "Playing the place which did no form receive, "Playing patient sports in uncon enter" 1 strained gyves." It does not require a long note to prove that this is a gross corruption. How to amend it is the only question. Playing in the first line, 1 apprehend, was a misprint for paling; the compositor's eye I suppose glanced upon the second line, and caught the first word of it instead of the first word of the line he was then composing. The lover is speaking of a nun who had voluntarily retired from the world. But what merit (he adds,) could she boast, or what was the difficulty of such an action? What labour is there in leaving what we have not, i. e. what we do not enjoy, or in restraining desires that do not agitate our breast? "Paling the place," &c. securing within the pale of a cloister that heart which had never received the impression of love, When fetters are put upon as by our consent, they do not appear irksome, &c. Such is the meaning of the text as now regulated. In Antony and Cleopatra the verb to pale is used in the sense of to hem in: "Whate'er the ocean pales, or sky inclips, "Is thine, if thou wilt have it." The word form, which I once suspected to be corrupt, is undoubtedly right. The same phraseology is found in Tarquin and Lucrece: "--the impression of strange kinds "Is form'd in them, [women,] by force, by fraud, or skill." It is also still more strongly supported by the passage quoted by Mr. Steevens from Twelfth Night. MALONE. I do not believe there is any corruption in the words "did no form receive," as the same expression occurs again in the last stanza bút three: "— — a plenitude of subtle matter, "Applied to cautels, all strange forms receives." Again, in 'Twelfth Night: "How easy is it for the proper false "In women's waxen hearts to set their forms? STEEVENS. 36:) My parts had power to charm a sacred sun,] Perhaps the poet wrote: a sacred nun.' If sun be right, it must mean, the brightest luminary of the cloister. So, in King Henry VIII.: "- When these suns "For so they phrase them) by their heralds challeng'd "The noble spirits to arms, they did perform || "Beyond thought's compass." MALONE. In Coriolanus, the chaste Valeria is called "the moon of Rome." STEEVENS. = 87:) Love's arms are peace, 'gainst rule, &c.] I suspect our author wrote: "Love's arms are proof 'gainst rule, &c. The meaning, however, of the text as it stands, may be The warfare that love carries on against rule, sense, &c. produces to the parties engaged a peaceful enjoyment, and sweetens, &c. The construction in the next line is perhaps irregular. Love's arms are peace, &c. and love sweetens -. MALONE. Perhaps we should read: “Love aims at peace "Yet sweetens," &c. STEEVENS. 38:)-gate the glowing roses || That flame-] That is, procured for the glowing roses in his cheeks that flame, &c. Gate is the ancient perfect tense of the verb to get. MALONE. = 39:) 0 cleft effect!] O divided and discordant effect! O cleft, &c. is the modern correction. The old copy has- Or cleft effect, from which it is difficult to draw any meaning. MALONE. =40:) and civil fears;] Civil formerly signified grave, decorous. So, in Romeo and Juliet: Come, civil night, "Thou sober-suited matron all in black." MALONE. =41:) Applied to cautels,] Applied to insidious purposes, with subtilty and cunning. So, in Hamlet: "Perhaps he loves you now; "And now no soil of cautel doth besmirch "The virtue of his will." MALONE. = 42:) that borrow'd motion, seeming ow'd,] That passion which he copied from others so naturally that it seemed real and his own. Ow'd has here, as in any other places in our author's works, the signification of owned. MALONE. = A. ABATE: to depress, sink, subdue. Abused: deceived. Abysm: abyss. Accuse: accusation. Achieve: to obtain. Acquittance: requital. charge or accusation. Ames-ace: the lowest chance of || Astringer: a falconer. the dice. Amort: sunk and dispirited. An: as if. Anchor: anchoret. Antres: caves and dens. Action: direction by mute signs, Appeared: rendered apparent. Action-taking: litigious. Additions: titles or descriptions. Adversity: contrariety. Advise: to consider, recollect. Apply: to attend to, consider. Approof: proof, approbation. Approved: felt, experienced, con- Ates: instigation, from Ate, the mischievous goddess that incites bloodshed. Atomies: minute particles discernible in a stream of sunshine that breaks into a darkened room, atoms. Atone: to reconcile. Attasked: reprehended, corrected. Attorney: deputation. Avaunt: contemptuous dismission Audacious: spirited, animated. dreda. Augurs: auguries or prognostica Art: practice as distinguished from Assinego: a he-ass. Assurance: conveyance or deed. Bar: barrier. Barbed: caparisoned in a warlike manner. Barful: full of impediments. Barn or bairn: a child. Base: a rustic game called pri- Bases: a kind of dress used by Patten: to grow fat. beams of a roof. Beak: the forecastle, or the boltsprit. Beard: to oppose in a hostile manner, to set at defiance. Bearing: carriage, demeanour. Bearing-cloth: a mantle used at christenings. Beat: in falconry, to flutter. upon. hammering, dwelling Beaver: helmet in general. Beck: a salutation made with the bead. Becomed: becoming. Beetle to hang over the base. Belongings: endowments. Brush: detrition, decay. Buckle: to bend, to yield to pres sure. Bugs: bugbears, terrors. Bumbard. See Bombard. Burgonet: a kind of helmet. Bury: to conceal, to keep secret. Buxom: obedient, under good By: according to, by means of. By'rlakin: by our ladykin or little lady. C. Caddis: : a narrow worsted galloon. Bore: the caliber of a gun, the Cade: a barrel. capacity of the barrel. Bores: stabs or wounds. Bosky: woody. Bosom: wish, heart's desire. Cage: a prison. Cadent: falling. Cain-coloured: yellow. Calculate: to foretell or prophesy. Bots: worms in the stomach of a Caliver: a species of musket. horse. Bourn: boundary, rivulet. Brace: armour for the arm, state Braid: crafty or deceitful. : a thicket, furze-bush. Benumbed: inflexible, immoveable. Breast: voice, surface. Bestowed: left, stowed or lodged. Beteem: to give, to pour out, to Bilboes: a species of fetters. Blank: the white mark at which an arrow is shot. Blast: burst. Blear: to deceive. Blench: to start off. Blent: blended, mixed. Blind-worm: the slow-worm. Breath: breathing, voice. Call: to visit. Callet: a lewd woman. Canary: a sprightly nimble dance. Canstick: Cantel or Cantle: a corner or piece Canvas-climber: a sailor who Breathed: inured by constant Cap: the top. the principal. Breathing: complimentary. Bridal: the nuptial feast. Blistered: puffed out like blisters. || Bruited: reported with clamour. Cap: to salute by taking off the cap. Capable: perceptible, intelligent, Capon: metaphor for a letter. Captious: capacious or recipient. Card: perhaps a sea-chart. care, Care: inclination. Careires: the motion of a horse. Carkanet: necklace or chain. Carl: clown or husbandman. Carper: a critic. Carriage: import. Carried: conducted or managed. Case: contemptuously for skin, out- || Childing: unseasonably pregnant. || Commanty: a comedy. side-garb. Case: to strip naked. Cassock: a horseman's great-coat. Cataian: some kind of sharper. Catling: a small lute-string made of catgut. Cavaleroes: airy, gay fellows. Caviare: a delicacy made of the roe of sturgeon. Cautelous: insidious, cautious. Cease: to decease, die, stop. Censure: judgment, opinion. Censure: to judge. Censured: sentenced, estimated. Ceturies: companies of an hun dred men each. Ceremonies: honorary ornaments, tokens of respect. Ceremonious: superstitious. Certes: certainly, in truth. Cess: measure. Chace: a term at tennis. Chamber: ancient name for London. Charactery: the matter with which Clack-dish: a beggar's-dish. Clear: pure, blameless, innocent, Clown: a licensed jester in families. a confederate. Collection: corollary, consequence. Cheater: escheatour, an officer in Collied: black, smutted with coal. the exchequer, a gamester. Check: command, controul. Check: to object to, to rebuke. Checks: probably for ethicks. Cheer: countenance. Cherry-pit: a play with cherry stones. Cheveril: soft or kid leather. Chew: to ruminate, consider. Chewet: a noisy chattering bird. Chide: to resound, to echo, to scold, to be clamorous. Chiding: sound. Child: a female infant. Collier: formerly a term of the Combined: bound by agreement. Compassed: round. Complements: accomplishments. Composition: contract or bargain fanciful conception, Conclusion: determination, resslution. Conclusions: experiments. Concupy: concupiscence. Condition: temper, character, qu lities, art, vocations or icinations. Condolement: sorrow. to consume. Confounded: worn or wasted. Consigned: sealed. Consort: company. Continents: banks of rivers. Convey: to perform slight of hand, to manage artfully. |