of a part pinched is livid, as it is commonly termed, black and blue. The weather may therefore be justly said to pinch when it produces the same visible effect. I believe this is the reason why the cold is said to pinch. JOHNSON. Cleopatra says of herself, " I that am with Phœbus' pinches black." Line 456. weep a-good,] Means, weeping in earnest. STEEVENS. 458.twas Ariadne, passioning For Theseus' perjury and unjust flight;] The history of this twice-deserted lady is too well known to need any illu stration. To passion is used as a verb by writers contemporary with Shakspeare. In The Blind Beggar of Alexandria, printed 1598, we meet with the same expression : "what are thou passioning over the picture of Cleanthes?" STEEVENS. Line 483. I'll get me such a colour'd periwig.] About the year 1610, wigs of various coloured hair became fashionable. Line 485. her forehead's low, -) A high forehead was in our author's time accounted a feature eminently beautiful. So in The History of Guy of Warwick, Felice his lady is said to have the same high forehead as Venus. JOHNSON. Line 493. My substance should be STATUE in thy stead.] It is evident this noun should be a participle statued, i. e. placed on a pedestal, or fixed in a shrine to be adored. WARBURTON. Statued is, I am afraid, a new word, and that it should be received is not quite evident. JOHNSON. It appears to me that Warburton and Johnson's explanations are quite sufficient, and instead of quoting or abridging the remarks of many commentators upon a single word like " statue," how it should be read, pronounced, and measured, I have here, as in many other places, adopted every possible opportunity of omitting such prolix and tiresome criticism; which, so far from assisting the purposes of elegant learning, by colloquial analogies weaken and destroy the argument; and answer, in my opinion, no one purpose, but that of augmenting the edition, by a display of old reading. Line 12. ACT V. SCENE I. -sure enough.] Sure is safe, out of danger. JOHNSON. 24. Black men are pearls, in beauteous ladies' eyes.] This is an old proverb. See RAY. ACT V. SCENE II. Line 25. Jul. 'Tis true, &c.) This speech, which certainly belongs to Julia, is given, in the old copy, to Thurio. Mr. Rowe Line 93. -record] Mr. Steevens, I think, erroneously supposes record to mean, sing: it is much more probable, that the signification is to indite a sonnet. Line 94. O thou, that dost inhabit in my breast, And leave no memory of what it was!) It is hardly possible to point out four lines, in any of the plays of Shakspeare, more remarkable for ease and elegance than these. STEEVENS. measure. meed, ] i. e. Reward. approv'd,] i. e. Experienced. 165. The private wound, &c.] I have a little mended the The old edition, and all but Sir T. Hanmer, read, The private wound is deepest, oh time most accurst. JOHNSON. Line 178. All, that was mine in Silvia, I give thee. It is (I think) very odd to give up his mistress thus at once, without any reason alledged. But our author probably followed the stories just as he found them in his novels as well as histories. POPE. This passage either hath been much sophisticated, or is one great proof that the main parts of this play did not proceed from Shakspeare; for it is impossible he could make Valentine act and speak so much out of character, or give to Silvia so unnatural a behaviour, as to take no notice of this strange concession, if it had been made. HANMER. Line 201. How oft hast thou with perjury cleft the root?] Sir T. Hanmer reads, cleft the root on't. JOHNSON. if shame live] That is, if it be any shame to JOHNSON. wear a disguise for the purposes of love. Line 227. reach of my anger. the measure) The length of my sword, the JOHNSON. Line 229. Milan shall not behold thee. ) All the editions, Verona shall not hold thee. But, whether through the mistake of the first editors, or the poet's own carelessness, this reading is absurdly faulty. For the threat here is to Thurio, who is a Milanese; and has no concern, as it appears, with Verona. Besides, the scene is betwixt the confines of Milan and Mantua, to which Silvia follows Valentine, having heard that he had retreated thither. And, upon these circumstances, I ventured to adjust the text, as I imagine the poet must have intended; i. e. Milan, thy country shall never see thee again: thou shalt never live to go back thither. THEOBALD. -262. clude. Line 242. all former griefs,] i. e. All former grievances. include all jars ) Sir T. Hanmer reads conJOHNSON. Line 263. With triumphs,] i. e. With shows. See Henry VI. Part 3. "With stately triumphs, mirthful comic shows." END OF THE ANNOTATIONS ON THE TWO GENTLEMEN OF VERONA. ΑΝΝΟΤΑTIONS ON THE MERRY WIVES OF WINDSOR. ACT I. SCENE I. LINE 1. Sir Hugh,] This was a title given to the inferior clergy. Line 2. -a Star-chamber matter of it :) Ben Jonson intimates, that the Star-chamber had a right to take cognizance of such matters. See The Magnetick Lady, Act 3. Sc. 4. "There is a court above, of the Star-chamber, "To punish routs and riots." STEEVENS. Line 7. Custalorum.] This is, I suppose, intended for a corruption of Custos Rotulorum. The mistake was hardly designed by the author, who, though he gives Shallow folly enough, makes him rather pedantic than illiterate. If we read : Shal. Ay, cousin Slender, and Custos Rotulorum, It follows naturally : Slen. Ay, and Ratalorum too. JOHNSON. Mr. Malone's opinion of this passage is, that Shakspeare here intended to ridicule the legal abbreviations of the times. Line 22. The luce, &c.] I see no consequence in this answer. Perhaps we may read, the salt fish is not an old coat. That is, the fresh fish is the coat of an ancient family, and the salt fish is the coat of a merchant grown rich by trading over the sea. The luce is a pike or jack. JOHNSON. "Many a fair partriche had he in mewe, Chaucer's Prol. of the Cant. Tales, 351, 352. It appears from the extended comments on this obscure, and probably corrupted passage, that our author aimed a satire on Sir Thomas Lucy, by whom he had been prosecuted in the younger part of his life for a misdemeanor, under the character of Justice Shallow. Line 35. The council shall hear it; it is a riot.] He alludes to the statute of K. Henry IV. (13. chap. 7.) concerning riots cognizable by the court of Star-chamber. Line 39. 45. vizaments] i. e. Deliberation. which is daughter to master George Page,] The whole set of editions have negligently blundered one after another in Page's Christian name in this place; though Mrs. Page calls him George afterwards in at least six several passages. THEOBALD. Line 48. speaks small like a woman.] This is from the folio of 1623, and is the true reading. He admires her for the sweetness of her voice. But the expression is highly humourous, as making her speaking small like a woman one of her marks of distinction; and the ambiguity of small, which signifies little as well as low, makes the expression still more pleasant. WARBURTON. Line 89. How does your fallow greyhound? &c.] Cotswold, a village in Worcestershire or Warwickshire, was famous for rural exercises, and sports of all sorts. Shallow, in another place, talks of a stout fellow, a Cotswold man, i. e. "one who was a native of this very place, so famous for trials of strength, " activity, &c. and consequently a robust athletic person." I have seen a poem, or rather a collection of poems, which I think is called The Cotswold Muse, containing a description of these games. WARTON. |