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MIRA.

O, my heart bleeds To think o' the teen3 that I have turn'd you to, Which is from my remembrance! Please you,

further.

PRO. My brother, and thy uncle, call'd Antonio,

I pray thee, mark me,—that a brother should
Be so perfidious!-he whom, next thyself,
Of all the world I lov'd, and to him put
The manage of my state; as, at that time,
Through all the signiories it was the first,
And Prospero the prime duke; being so reputed
In dignity, and, for the liberal arts,

Without a parallel; those being all my study,
The government I cast upon my brother,

And to my state grew stranger, being transported,
And rapt in secret studies. Thy false uncle-
Dost thou attend me?

MIRA.

Sir, most heedfully.

4

PRO. Being once perfected how to grant suits, How to deny them; whom to advance, and whom * To trash for over-topping; new created

3

- teen] Is sorrow, grief, trouble. So, in Romeo and Juliet:

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to my teen be it spoken." STEEVENS.

-

4 WHOM to advance, and wнOм-] The old copy has who in both places. Corrected by the editor of the second folio. MALONE.

5 To trash for over-topping;] To trash, as Dr. Warburton observes, is to cut away the superfluities. This word I have met with in books containing directions for gardeners, published in the time of Queen Elizabeth.

The present explanation may be countenanced by the following passage in Warner's Albion's England, 1602, b. x. ch. 57:

"Who suffreth none by might, by wealth or blood to

overtopp,

"Himself gives all preferment, and whom listeth him doth

lop."

Again, in our author's K. Richard II. :

The creatures that were mine; I say, or chang'd

them,

Or else new form'd them: having both the key"
Of officer and office, set all hearts' i' th' state,

"Go thou, and, like an executioner,

"Cut off the heads of too-fast-growing sprays
"That look too lofty in our commonwealth."

Mr. Warton's note, however, on "trash for his quick hunting," in the second act of Othello, leaves my interpretation of this passage somewhat disputable.

Mr. M. Mason observes, that "to trash for overtopping,' may mean to lop them, because they did overtop, or in order to prevent them from overtopping." So Lucetta, in the second scene of the Two Gentlemen of Verona, says:

"I was taken up for laying them down,

"Yet here they shall not lie, for catching cold." That is, lest they should catch cold. See the notes on this passage. In another place (a note on Othello) Mr. M. Mason observes, that Shakspeare had probably in view, when he wrote the passage before us, "the manner in which Tarquin conveyed to Sextus his advice to destroy the principal citizens of Gabii, by striking off, in the presence of his messengers, the heads of all the tallest poppies, as he walked with them in his garden. STEEVENS.

I think this phrase means "to correct for too much haughtiness or overbearing." It is used by sportsmen in the North when they correct a dog for misbehaviour in pursuing the game. This explanation is warranted by the following passage in Othello, Act II. Sc. I.:

"If this poor trash of Venice, whom I trash
"For his quick hunting."

It was not till after I had made this remark, that I saw Mr. Warton's note on the above lines in Othello, which corroborates it. DOUCE.

A trash is a term still in use among hunters, to denote a piece of leather, couples, or any other weight fastened round the neck of a dog, when his speed is superior to the rest of the pack; i. e. when he over-tops them, when he hunts too quick. C.

See Othello, vol. ix. p. 315, n. 9. STEEVENS.

6

- both the KEY] This is meant of a key for tuning the harpsichord, spinnet, or virginal; we call it now a tuning hammer. SIR J. HAWKINS.

7 Of officer and office, set all hearts-] The old copy reads— “all hearts i' th' state," but redundantly in regard to metre, and unnecessarily respecting sense; for what hearts, except such as were i' th' state, could Alonso incline to his purposes?

To what tune pleas'd his ear; that now he was
The ivy, which had hid my princely trunk,
And suck'd my verdure out on't .-Thou attend'st

not.

MIRA. O good sir, I do.

I

8

PRO.
pray thee, mark meo.
I thus neglecting worldly ends, all dedicated 1
To closeness, and the bettering of my mind.
With that, which, but by being so retir'd,
O'er-priz'd all popular rate, in my false brother
Awak'd an evil nature and my trust,
Like a good parent 2, did beget of him
A falsehood, in its contrary as great

As my trust was; which had, indeed, no limit,
A confidence sans bound. He being thus lorded,
Not only with what my revenue yielded,
But what my power might else exact,-like one,
Who having, unto truth, by telling of it,
Made such a sinner of his memory,

To credit his own lie 3,-he did believe

I have followed the advice of Mr. Ritson, who judiciously proposes to omit the words now ejected from the text.

STEEVENS. And suck'd my VERDURE out on't.] So, in Arthur Hall's translation of the first book of Homer, 1581, where Achilles swears by his sceptre :

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"Who having lost the sapp of wood, eft greenenesse cannot drawe." STEEVENS.

9 I pray thee, mark me.] In the old copy, these words are the beginning of Prospero's next speech; but, for the restoration of metre, I have changed their place. STEEVENS.

Mr. Steevens placed these words at the close of Prospero's preceding speech. BosWELL.

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I thus neglecting worldly ends, all DEDICATE ] The old copy has-dedicated; but we should read, as in Mr. Steevens's text, dedicate. Thus, in Measure for Measure :

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Prayers from fasting maids, whose minds are dedicate "To nothing temporal." RITSON.

2 Like a good PARENT, &c.] Alluding to the observation, that a father above the common rate of men has commonly a son below it. Heroum filii noxæ. JOHNSON.

He was indeed the duke; out of the substitution *,
And executing the outward face of royalty,
With all prerogative :-Hence his ambition
Growing,-Dost hear?

MIRA.

Your tale, sir, would cure deafness. PRO. To have no screen between this part he play'd

And him he play'd it for, he needs will be

Absolute Milan: Me, poor man !—my library
Was dukedom large enough; of temporal royalties

3

like one,

Who having, UNTO truth, by telling of IT,

Made such a sinner of his memory,

To credit his own lie,] There is, perhaps, no correlative to which the word it can with grammatical propriety belong. Lie, however, seems to have been the correlative to which the poet meant to refer, however ungrammatically.

The old copy reads-" into truth." The necessary correction was made by Dr. Warburton. STEEVENS.

Mr. Steevens justly observes that there is no correlative, &c. This observation has induced me to mend the passage, and to read :

"Who having unto truth, by telling oft"-instead of, of it. And I am confirmed in this conjecture, by the following passage quoted by Mr. Malone, &c. M. MASON.

There is a very singular coincidence between this passage and one in Bacon's History of King Henry VII. [Perkin Warbeck] "did in all things notably acquit himself; insomuch as it was generally believed, that he was indeed Duke Richard. Nay, himself, with long and continual counterfeiting, and with OFT telling a lye, was turned by habit almost into the thing he seemed to be; and from a liar to be a believer." MALONE.

Mr. Mason's emendation would not much help the passage. What would he be said to be telling? The sentence is involved, but not, I think, ungrammatical. "Who having made his memory such a sinner to truth as to credit his own lie by telling of it?"

BOSWELL.

4 He was the duke; out of the substitution,] The old copy reads-" He was indeed the duke." I have omitted the word indeed, for the sake of metre. The reader should place his emphasis on-was. STEEVENS.

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Me, poor man!-my library

Was dukedom large enough ; i. e. large enough for. Of

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He thinks me now incapable: confederates
(So dry he was for sway) with the king of Naples,
To give him annual tribute, do him homage;
Subject his coronet to his crown, and bend

The dukedom, yet unbow'd, (alas, poor Milan !)
To most ignoble stooping.

MIRA.

O the heavens !

PRO. Mark his condition, and the event; then

tell me,

If this might be a brother.

MIRA.

I should sin

To think but nobly' of my grandmother :
Good wombs have borne bad sons.

PRO.

Now the condition.

This king of Naples, being an enemy

To me inveterate, hearkens my brother's suit; Which was, that he in lieu o' the premises,Of homage, and I know not how much tribute,— Should presently extirpate me and mine

Out of the dukedom; and confer fair Milan,

this kind of ellipsis see various examples in a note on Cymbeline, vol. xiii. p. 228, n. 2. MALONE.

6 (SO DRY he was for sway)] i. e. So thirsty. The expression, I am told, is not uncommon in the midland counties. Thus, in Leicester's Commonwealth: "against the designments of the hasty Erle who thirsteth a kingdome with great intemperance.' Again, in Troilus and Cressida: "His ambition is dry."

STEEVENS.

Our author has a similar expression in Love's Labour's Lost: "My true love's fasting pain."

So also, in King Henry IV. Part I. Act V. Sc. I. :

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Moody beggars starving for a time

"Of pell-mell havock and confusion." TALBOT.

7 To think BUT nobly-] But, in this place, signifies otherwise than. STEEVENS.

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IN LIEU O' the premises, &c.] In lieu of, means here, in consideration of; an unusual acceptation of the word. So, in Fletcher's Prophetess, the chorus, speaking of Drusilla, says: "But takes their oaths, in lieu of her assistance, "That they shall not presume to touch their lives."

M. MASON.

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