Cromwell, I did not think to shed a tear In all my miseries; but thou hast forc'd me 40 Out of thy honest truth to play the woman. Let's dry our eyes: and thus far hear me, Cromwell; And sleep in dull cold marble, where no mention Of me more must be heard of,--say, I taught thee; 45 Say, Wolsey,-that once trod the ways of glory, And sounded all the depths and shoals of honour,- Love thyself last cherish those hearts that hate thee; 55 Still in thy right hand carry gentle peace, To silence envious tongues. Be just, and fear not : Thy God's, and truth's; then if thou fall'st, O Cromwell, 60 And,--Prithee, lead me in: There take an inventory of all I have, To the last penny; 't is the king's: my robe, And my integrity to heaven, is all I dare now call my own. O Cromwell, Cromwell, 67. Naked, defenceless, like Lat. nudus. C.-TRAGEDIES. From HAMLET. 59. Hamlet's Soliloquy on Death.-Act III. Sc. 1. Ham. To be, or not to be, that is the question: The slings and arrows of outrageous fortune, 5 And by opposing end them?-To die,-to sleep,- 10 To sleep! perchance to dream;-ay, there's the rub; 15 For who would bear the whips and scorns of time, And makes us rather bear those ills we have, 3. Outrageous, violent. Outrage is merely the Fr. outre (Lat. ultra) with termination appended. 4. This line has been subjected to much hostile criticism, on the ground that it contains a rather absurd mixed metaphor. If, however, the word sea be taken in the sense simply of a vast host, the metaphor having come practically to be lost sight of, there is nothing objectionable in the passage. 12. Coil, generally meant tumult, noise, in Shakespeare. Here, however, there seems to be added a notion of impediment, obstruction-something that wraps round. 13. Respect, consideration, the way of looking at a thing; fr. Lat. respicio. 18. Spurns. The literal meaning of spurn, O. E. spurnan, was to kick. 20. Quietus; a legal term meaning the official discharge of an account in the Court of Exchequer. 21. Bodkin, a small dagger. Fardels, bundles, burdens, Sp. fardillo Fr. fardeau. 24. Bourn, boundary, Fr. borne, a corrupt form of bonne, which is the same word as Eng. bound. 28. Cowards. A coward (Fr. couard, It. codardo) is a man who turns tail (Lat. cauda, It. coda) (Diez). "A And thus the native hue of resolution 30 Is sicklied o'er with the pale cast of thought; metaphor from the proverbial timidity 30. Cast, "A shade or tendency to any colour." (Dr. Johnson). From KING LEAR. 60. Why the Shakespeare Cliff at Dover is so called.-Act IV. Sc. 6. Enter GLOSTER, and EDGAR dressed like a Peasant. Glo. When shall I come to the top of that same hill? Edg. Hark! do you hear the sea? Glo. 5 Horrible steep. No, truly. Edg. Why, then your other senses grow imperfect By your eyes' anguish. Glo. So may it be, indeed. Methinks thy voice is alter'd; and thou speak'st In better phrase, and matter, than thou did'st. Edg. Y' are much deceiv'd: in nothing am I chang'd, 10 But in my garments. Glo. Methinks y' are better spoken. Edg. Come on, sir; here's the place: stand still:-how fearful, The crows and choughs, that wing the midway air, 14. Gross, large, Fr. gros: thus to engross is to write out in a large, fair hand; engrossers of grain are men who accumulate grain in order that they may increase the price; a grocer, Fr. marchand grossier, is properly one who sells goods in large quantities. 15. Samphire, Fr. Herbe de Sainte Pierre, a marine plant (Wedgwood). The fishermen, that walk upon the beach, Appear like mice; and yond' tall anchoring bark, 20 Almost too small for sight. The murmuring surge, 25 Glo. Set me where you stand. Edg. Give me your hand; you are now within a foot Of th' extreme verge: for all beneath the moon Would I not leap upright. Glo. Let go my hand. Here, friend, is another purse; in it a jewel Well worth a poor man's taking: fairies, and gods, 30 Prosper it with thee! Go thou farther off; Bid me farewell, and let me hear thee going. Glo. With all my heart. Edg. Why I do trifle thus with his despair, Is done to cure it. Glo. Oh, you mighty gods! 35 This world I do renounce, and in your sights 18. Anchoring, lying at anchor. Another illustration of the facility with which English verbs pass from a transitive to an intransitive signification. 19. Cock: the word cockboat is one of those double forms so common in our language, whose vocabulary is made up of so many varying elements, the Celtic cwch, which supplies the first syllable, itself meaning boat. It is also found in this sense in cockswain. Compare reindeer (rein, N. hreinn, Lappish hran, and E. deer, both meaning simply animal), Hampton, Downhill, Daily journal, &c. 21. Unnumber'd, innumerable: the suffix ed gives a variety of significations to the words to which it is attached. Thus delighted in Othello ("delighted beauty") means delightful; in Measure for Measure (" delighted spirit"), ac customed to delights; starred in Milton is equivalent to "turned into a star;" dogged in King John is "dog-like;" and unremoved in "Paradise Lost" is irremovable. Many other instances might be adduced. 27. Upright, straight up, vertically, lest I might not light on exactly the same spot. Or perhaps, as upright once was used in the sense of supine, it might here mean horizontally. 29. Fairies: a fairy is a being who fixes the destinies (Lat. fata) of men, L. L. fataria. So prairie comes from prataria. 31. Farewell: O. E. faran, to go, is the source of fare (a payment for going), ford, fare, to prosper, fyrd, O. E. national muster, &c. Shake patiently my great affliction off: Edg. Gone, sir: farewell.[GLOSTER leaps and falls headlong. 39. Snuff was a term of contempt, the most worthless part of anything. From TROILUS AND CRESSIDA. 61. Ulysses and Achilles.-Act III. Sc. 3. Ulyss. Time hath, my lord, a wallet at his back, A great-sized monster of ingratitudes : Those scraps are good deeds past; which are devoured 5 As fast as they are made, forgot as soon As done. Perseverance, dear my lord, Keeps honour bright: to have done, is to hang In monumental mockery. Take the instant way; 10 For honour travels in a strait so narrow, Where one but goes abreast; keep, then, the path, That one by one pursue: if you give way, Or, like a gallant horse fallen in first rank, 6. Dear my lord. In early times a tendency had set in to make the pronoun my an inseparable prefix of lord (milord), as has actually become the case with Fr. monsieur, madame, &c. See First Book of Kings, xviii. 7. "Art thou that my lord Elijah ?" 9. Instant, immediate, used both of space and time. 12. Emulation. This word often means malicious rivalry in Shakespeare. Compare line 44, "emulous missions." 14. Forthright, straight path, Gk. ȧτрamós. In The Tempest "forthrights" are contrasted with "meanders." 15. Tide, O. E. tid, hour, time, Ger. zeit, got its modern meaning from the regularity of the ebb and flow of the sea. |