Pagina-afbeeldingen
PDF
ePub

make itself ten,' which is a goodly increafe; and the principal itself not much the worfe: Away with't.

3 within ten years, it will make itself ten,] The old copy reads" within ten years it will make itself two." The emendation was made by Sir T. Hanmer. It was alfo fuggested by Mr. Steevens, who likewife proposed to read-" within two years it will make itself two." Mr. Tollet would read-" within ten years it will make itself twelve."

I formerly propofed to read-" Out with it: within ten months it will make itself two." Part with it, and within ten months' time it will double itself; i. e. it will produce a child.

I now mention this conjecture (in which I once had some confidence) only for the purpose of acknowledging my error. I had not fufficiently attended to a former paffage in this fcene,"Virginity, by being once loft, may be ten times found," i. e. may produce ten virgins. Thofe words likewife are spoken by Parolles, and add fuch decisive support to Sir Thomas Hanmer's emendation, that I have not hesitated to adopt it. The text, as exhibited in the old copy, is undoubtedly corrupt. It has already been obferved, that many paffages in thefe plays, in which numbers are introduced, are printed incorrectly. Our author's fixth Sonnet fully fupports the emendation here made:

"That ufe is not forbidden ufury,

"Which happies thofe that pay the willing loan;
"That's for thyfelf, to breed another thee,
"Or ten times happier, be it ten for one.

"Ten times thyfelf were happier than thou art,

"If ten of thine ten times refigur'd thee."

"Out with it," is ufed equivocally.-Applied to virginity, it means, give it away; part with it: confidered in another light, it fignifies, put it out to intereft. In The Tempeft we have-" Each putter out on five for one," &c. MALONE.

There is no reafon for altering the text. A well-known obfervation of the noble earl, to whom the horfes of the present generation owe the length of their tails, contains the true explanation of this paffage. HENLEY.

I cannot help repeating on this occafion, Juftice Shallow's remark: "Give me pardon, fir:-if you come with news, I take it there is but two ways; either to utter them, or to conceal them." With this noble earl's notorious remark, I am quite unacquainted. But perhaps the critick (with a flippancy in which he has fometimes indulged himself at my expence) will reply, like Piftol, "Why then lament therefore;" or obferve, like Hamlet, that " a knavish fpeech fleeps in a foolish ear." STEEVENS.

HEL. How might one do, fir, to lose it to her own liking?

PAR. Let me fee: Marry, ill, to like him that ne'er it likes.* 'Tis a commodity will lofe the gloss with lying; the longer kept, the lefs worth: off with't, while 'tis vendible: answer the time of requeft. Virginity, like an old courtier, wears her cap out of fashion; richly fuited, but unfuitable: just like the brooch and tooth-pick, which wear not now: Your date is better in your pye and your porridge, than in your cheek: And your virginity, your old virginity, is like one of our French wither'd pears; it looks ill, it eats dryly; marry, 'tis a wither'd pear; it was formerly better; marry, yet, 'tis a wither'd pear: Will you any thing with it?

HEL. Not my virginity yet.

Marry, ill, to like him that ne'er it likes.] Parolles, in anfwer to the question, "How one fhall lofe virginity to her own liking?" plays upon the word liking, and fays, he must do ill, for virginity, to be fo loft, muft like him that likes not virginity.

JOHNSON.

- which wear not now:] Thus the old copy, and rightly. Shakspeare often uses the active for the paffive. The modern editors read, "which we wear not now." TYRWHITT,

The old copy has were. Mr. Rowe corrected it.

MALONE.

6 Your date is better-] Here is a quibble on the word date, which means both age, and a candied fruit much used in our author's time. So, in Romeo and Juliet:

"They call for dates and quinces in the pastry." The fame quibble occurs in Troilus and Crefida: "—and then to be bak'd with no date in the pye, for then the man's date is out." STEEVENS.

[ocr errors]

8 Not my virginity yet.] This whole fpeech is abrupt, unconnected, and obfcure. Dr. Warburton thinks much of it fuppofititious. I would be glad to think fo of the whole, for a commentator naturally wishes to reject what he cannot understand. Something, which should connect Helena's words with those of

There fhall your master have a thousand loves,
A mother, and a mistress, and a friend,

Parolles, feems to be wanting. Hanmer has made a fair attempt by reading:

Not my virginity yet.-You're for the court,

There fhall your master, &c.

Some fuch claufe has, I think, dropped out, but still the first words want connection. Perhaps Parolles, going away after his harangue, faid, will you any thing with me? to which Helen may reply. I know not what to do with the paffage.

JOHNSON.

I do not perceive fo great a want of connection as my predeceffors have apprehended; nor is that connection always to be fought for, in fo careless a writer as ours, from the thought immediately preceding the reply of the fpeaker. Parolles has been laughing at the unprofitablenefs of virginity, efpecially when it grows ancient, and compares it to withered fruit. Helena properly enough replies, that hers is not yet in that ftate; but that in the enjoyment of her, his mafter should find the gratification of all his moft romantic wishes. What Dr. Warburton fays afterwards is faid at random, as all pofitive declarations of the fame kind must of neceffity be. Were I to propofe any change, I would read Should instead of fhall, It does not however appear that this rapturous effufion of Helena was defigned to be intelligible to Parolles. Its obfcurity, therefore, may be its merit. It fufficiently explains what is paffing in the mind of the speaker, to every one but him to whom the does not mean to explain it. STEEVENS.

Perhaps we fhould read: "Will you any thing with us?" i. e. will you fend any thing with us to court? to which Helena's answer would be proper enough

"Not my virginity yet."

A fimilar phrase occurs in Twelfth Night, Act III. sc. i:

"You'll nothing, madam, to my lord by me?"

TYRWHITT. Perhaps fomething has been omitted in Parolles's fpeech. "I am now bound for the court; will you any thing with it [i. e. with the court]?" So, in The Winter's Tale:

[ocr errors]

"Tell me what you have to the king."

I do not agree with Mr. Steevens in the latter part of his note; that in the enjoyment of her," &c. MALONE.

I am fatisfied the paffage is as Shakspeare left it. Parolles, after having cried down with all his eloquence, old virginity, in reference to what he had before said," That virginity is a commodity the

A phoenix, captain, and an enemy,
A guide, a goddefs, and a fovereign,
A counsellor, a traitress,' and a dear;

longer kept, the 1:fs worth: off with't, while 'tis vendible. ANSWER THE TIME of Requeft." afks Helena,—“ Will you any thing with IT?"-to which the replies-" NOT MY virginity YET." HENLEY.

9 A phoenix, &c.] The eight lines following friend, I am perfuaded, is the nonsense of some foolish conceited player. What put it into his head was Helen's faying, as it should be read for the future:

There fhall your mafter have a thousand loves;
"A mother, and a mistress, and a friend,

I know not what he shall—God fend him well. Where the fellow, finding a thousand loves fpoken of, and only three reckoned up, namely, a mother's, a miftrefs's, and a friend's, (which, by the way, were all a judicious writer could mention; for there are but thefe three fpecies of love in nature) he would help out the number, by the intermediate nonfense: and, because they were yet too few, he pieces out his loves with enmities, and makes of the whole fuch finished nonsense, as is never heard out of Bedlam. WARBURTON.

captain,] Our author often uses this word for a head or chief. So, in one of his Sonnets:

"Or captain jewels in the carkanet."

Again, in Timon of Athens: "the afs more captain than the lion." Again more appofitely, in Othello, where it is applied to Def

[merged small][ocr errors]

our great captain's captain."

We find fome of these terms of endearment again used in The Winter's Tale. Leontes fays to the young Mamillius,

"Come, captain, we must be neat," &c.

Again, in the fame fcene, Polixenes, fpeaking of his fon, fays,
"He's all my exercise, my mirth, my matter;
"Now my fworn friend, and then mine enemy;

66

My parafite, my foldier, ftatefman, all." MALONE.

3 -a traitress,] It feems that traitress was in that age a term of endearment, for when Lafeu introduces Helena to the king, he fays," You are like a traytor, but such traytors his majesty does not much fear." JOHNSON.

I cannot conceive that traitress (fpoken feriously) was in any age a term of endearment. From the prefent paffage, we might as well fuppofe enemy (in the laft line but one) to be a term of en

His humble ambition, proud humility,
His jarring concord, and his difcord dulcet,
His faith, his fweet difafter; with a world
Of pretty, fond, adoptious christendoms,*

dearment. In the other paffage quoted, Lafeu is plainly speaking ironically. TYRWHITT.

Traditora, a traitrefs, in the Italian language, is generally used as a term of endearment. The meaning of Helen is, that she shall prove every thing to Bertram. Our ancient writers delighted in catalogues, and always characterize love by contrarieties.

STEEVENS.

Falftaff, in The Merry Wives of Windfor, fays to Mrs. Ford: "Thou art a traitor to fay fo." In his interview with her, he certainly meant to use the language of love.

Helena however, I think, does not mean to fay that she shall prove every thing to Bertram, but to exprefs her apprehenfion that he will find at the court fome lady or ladies who fhall prove every thing to him; (" a phoenix, captain, counsellor, traitrefs; &c.") to whom he will give all the fond names that "blinking Cupid goffips." MALONE.

I believe it would not be difficult to find in the love poetry of thofe times an authority for moft, if not for every one, of these whimsical titles. At least I can affirm it from knowledge, that far the greater part of them are to be found in the Italian lyrick poetry, which was the model from which our poets chiefly copied. HEATH.

4-chriftendoms,] This word, which fignifies the collective body of chriftianity, every place where the chriftian religion is embraced, is furely ufed with much licence on the prefent occafion. STEEVENS,

It is used by another ancient writer in the fame fenfe; fo that the word probably bore, in our author's time, the fignification which he has affixed to it. So, in A Royal Arbor of Loyal Poefie, by Thomas Jordan, no date, but printed about 1661:

"She is baptiz'd in Chriftendom,

[i. e. by a chriftian name,]

"The Jew cries out he's undone.”

Thefe lines are found in a ballad formed on part of the story of The Merchant of Venice, in which it is remarkable that it is the Jew's daughter, and not Portia, that faves the Merchant's life by pleading his caufe. There fhould feem therefore to have been fome novel on this fubject that has hitherto escaped the researches of the commentators. In the fame book are ballads founded on the fables of Much ado about Nothing, and The Winter's Tale. MALONE.

« VorigeDoorgaan »