Obrázky na stránke
PDF
ePub

without suffering our merriment to break into an excess. JOHNSON.

P. 6, 1. 12. 2 Play. So please your Lordship to accept our duty.] It was in those times the custom of players to travel in companies, and offer their service at great houses. JOHNSON.

P. 6, last 1. but one. Go, sirrah, take them to the buttery,] Mr. Pope had [probably these words in his thoughts, when he wrote the following passage of his preface:

the top of the profession were then mere players, not gentlemen of the stage; they were led into the buttery by the steward, not placed at the lord's table, or the lady's toilette." But he seems not to have observed, that the players here introduced are strollers; and there is no reason to suppose that our author, Heminge, Burbage, Condell, etc. who were licensed by King James, were treated in this manner. MALONE.

P. 7, 1. 25. It is not unlikely that the onion was an expedient used by the actors of interludes.

JOHNSON.

P. 3, 1. 5. From the original stage-direction in the first folio it appears that Sly and the other persons mentioned in the Induction, were intended to be exhibited here, and during the representation of the comedy, in a balcony above the stage. The direction here is Enter aloft the drunkard with attendants, etc." So afterwards at the end of this scene The Presenters above speak." MALONE.

[ocr errors]
[ocr errors]

P. 8, 1. 10. - a pot of small ale.] This beverage is mentioned in the accounts of the Stationer's Company in the year 1558: For a stande of small ale;" I suppose it was what we now call small beer, no mention of that liquor being made on the same books,

though duble bere, and duble duble ale, are frequently recorded. STEEVENS.

P. 8, last lines; and P. 9, l. 1–5. Am not I Christopher Sly, old Sly's son of Burton-heath; etc. etc.] I suspect we should read · Barton-heath. Barton and Woodmancot, or, as it is vulgarly pronounced, Woncot, are both of them in Gloucestershire, near the residence of Shakspeare's old enemy, Justice Shallow. Very probably too, this fat ale-wife might be a real character. STEEVENS.

Wilnecotte is a village in Warwickshire, with which Shakspeare was well acquainted, near Stratford. The house kept by our genial hostess, still remains, but is at present a mill. The meanest hovel to which Shakspeare has an allusion, interests curiosity, and acquires an importance: at least, it becomes the object of a poetical antiquarian's inquiries.

T. WARTON.

Burton Dorset is a village in Warwickshire.

RITSON.

There is likewise a village in Warwickshire called Burton Hastings.

Among Sir A. Cockayn's poems (as Dr. Farmer and Mr. Steevens have observed) there is an epigram on Sly and his ale, addressed to Mr. Clement Fisher of Wincot.

The text is undoubtedly right.

There is a village in Warwickshire called Barton en the Heath, where Mr. Dover, the founder of the Cotswold games lived. MALONE.

P. 9, 1. 6. Bestraught seems to have been synonymous to distraught or distracted. See Minsheu's DICT. 1617: Bestract, a Lat. distractus mente. Vi. Mad and Bedlam." MALONE.

"

P. 11, 1. 4. The leet is the Court-leet, or View of frank pledge, held anciently once a year, within

a particular hundred, manor, or lordship, before the steward of the leet. MALONE.

P. 11, 1. 11. - and old John Naps of Greece,] A hart of Greece, was a fat hart. Graisse, Fr.

Perhaps this expression was used to imply that John Naps (who might haven been a real character) was a fat man: or as Poins calls the associates of Falstaff Trojans, John Naps might be called a Grecian for such another reason. STEEVENS.

For old John Naps of Greece, read old John Naps o' th' Green. BLACKSTONE.

P. 12, 1. 31. Is not a commonty etc.] Thus the old copies; the modern ones read It is not a commodity, etc. Commonty for comedy, etc.

[ocr errors]

STEEVENS. In the old play the players themselves use the word commodity corruptly for a comedy.

P. 13, 1. 16. it was written

BLACKSTONE.

ingenious studies,] I rather think ingenuous studies, but of this and

a thousand such observations there is little certainty.

JOHNSON.

It

P. 13, 1. 21. Vincentio his son, is the same as Vincentio's son, which Mr. Heath not apprehending, has proposed to alter Vincentio into Lucentio. may be added, that Shakspeare in other places ex ́presses the genitive case in the same improper manner. TYRWHITT.

P. 13, 1. 22. — to serve all hopes conceiv'd,] To fulfil the expectations of his friends. MALONE. P. 13, 1.25. 26. Virtue, and that part of philosophy Will I apply,] Sir Thomas Hanmer, and after him Dr. Warburton, read to virtue; but formerly ply and apply were indiffercntly used, as to ply or apply his studies. JOHNSON.

The word ply is afterwards used in this scene, and in the same manner, by Tranio. M. MASON.

P. 14, 1. 6. Or so devote to Aristotle's checks,] The harsh rules of Aristotle. STEEVENS.

Such as tend to check and restrain the indulgence of the passions. MALONE.

Tranio is here descanting on academical learning, and mentions by name six of the seven liberal sciences. I suspect this to be a mis-print, made by some copyist or compositor, for ethicks. The sense confirms it. BLACKSTONE.

P. 14, l. 10- quicken i. e. animate.

STEEVENS.

P. 15, 1. 22. Peat or pet is a word of endearment from petit, little, as if it meant pretty little thing. JOHNSON.

P. 15, 1. 30. will you be so strange?] That is, so odd, so different from others in your conduct.

JOHNSON.

P. 16, 1. g. Cunning had not yet lost its original signification of knowing, learned, as may be ob served in the translation of the Bible. JOHNSON. P. 16, 1. 19. Gifts for endowments. MALONE. P. 16, 1. 19 ---- 21. I cannot conceive whose love Gremio can mean by the words their love, as they had been talking of no love but that which they themselves felt for Bianca. We must therefore read, our love, instead of their. M. MASON.

Perhaps we should read Your love. In the old manner of writing yr stool for either their or your. The editor of the third folio and some modern editors, with, I think, less probability, read our. If their love be right, it must mean the good will of Baptista and Bianca towards us.

MALONE.

[blocks in formation]

I will wish him to her father.] I

will recommend him. REED.

P. 16, 1. 28. upon advice, i. e. on consideration, or reflection. STEEVENS.

P. 17, 1. 17. Happy man be his dole!] A proverbial expression. Dole is any thing dealt out or distributed, though its original meaning was the provision given away at the doors of great men's houses. STEEVENS.

P. 17, 1. 17. He that runs fastest, gets the ring.] An allusion to the sport of running at the ring.

DOUCE. P. 18, 1. 3. Affection is not rated] Is not driven out by chiding. STEEVENS.

P. 18, 1. 4. If love have touch'd you,] The next line from Terence shows that we should read:

If Love hath toyl'd you,

i. e. taken you in his toils, his nets. Alluding to the captus est, habet, of the same author.

WARBURTON.

It is a common expression at this day to say, when a bailiff has arrested a man, that he has touched him on the shoulder. Therefore touch'd is as good a translation of captus, as toy'ld would be. M. MASON.

P. 18, 1. 5. Redime te captum quam queas mi nimo.] Our author had this line from Lilly, which I mention, that it may not be brought as an argument for his learning. JOHNSON.

Dr. Farmer's pamphlet affords an additional proof that this line was taken from Lilly, and not from Terence; because it is quoted, as it appears in the grammarian, and not as it appears in the poet.

STEEVENS.

« PredošláPokračovať »