Complete Works of Samuel Johnson

by Samuel Johnson

The ass, more than the lion; and the fellow,

  Loaden with irons, wiser than the judge,

  If wisdom be in suffering]

  Here is another arbitrary regulation, the original reads thus,

  what make we

  Abroad, why then women are more valiant

  That stay at home, if bearing carry it:

  And the ass more captain than the lion,

  The fellow, loaden with irons, wiser than the judge,

  If wisdom, &c.

  I think it may be better adjusted thus:

  what make we

  Abroad, why then the women are more valiant

  That stay at home;

  If bearing carry it, than is the ass

  More captain than the lion, and the felon

  Loaden with irons, wiser than the judge,

  If wisdom, &c.

  III.v.54 (336,8) sin’s extreamest gust] Gust is here in its common sense; the utmost degree of appetite for sin.

  III.v.55 (336,9) by mercy, ’tis most just] [By mercy is meant equity. WARBURTON] Mercy is not put for equity. If such explanation be allowed, what can be difficult? The meaning is, I call mercy herself to witness, that defensive violence is just.

  III.v.68 (338,2) a sworn rioter] A sworn rioter is a man who practises riot, as if he had by an oath made it his duty.

  III.v.80 (337,3) your reverend ages love/Security] He charges them obliquely with being usurers.

  III.v.96 (337,5) Do you dare our anger?/’Tis in few words, but spacious in effect] This reading may pass, but perhaps the author wrote,

  our anger?

  ’Tis few in words, but spacious in effect.

  III.v.114 (338,7)

  I’ll cheer up

  My discontented troops, and play for hearts.

  ’Tis honour with most hands to be at odds]

  [Warburton had substituted “hands” for “lands”] I think hands is very properly substituted for lands. In the foregoing line, for, lay for hearts, I would read, play for hearts.

  III.vi.4 (339,7) Upon that were my thoughts tiring] A hawk, I think, is said to tire, when she amuses herself with pecking a pheasant’s wing, or any thing that puts her in mind of prey. To tire upon a thing, is therefore, to be idly employed upon it.

  III.vi.100 (342,9) Is your perfection] Your perfection, is the highest of your excellence.

  III.vi.101 (342,1) and spangled you with flatteries] [W: with your] The present reading is right.

  III.vi.106 (342,2) time-flies] Flies of a season.

  III.vi. 107 (342,5) minute-jacks!] Hanmer thinks it means Jack-a-lantern, which shines and disappears in an instant. What it was I know not; but it was something of quick motion, mentioned in Richard III.

  III.vi.108 (342,4) the infinite malady] Every kind of disease incident to man and beast.

  IV.i.19 (344,6)

  Degrees, observances, customs and laws,

  Decline to your confounding contraries,

  And yet confusion live!]

  Hanmer reads, let confusion; but the meaning may be, though by such confusion all things seem to hasten to dissolution, yet let not dissolution come, but the miseries of confusion continue.

  IV.ii (345,1) Enter Flavius] Nothing contributes more to the exaltation of Timon’s character than the zeal and fidelity of his servants. Nothing but real virtue can be honoured by domesticks; nothing but impartial kindness can gain affection from dependants.

  IV.ii.10 (345,2) So his familiars from his buried fortunes/Slink all away] The old copies have to instead of from. The correction is Hanmer’s; but the old reading might stand (see 1765, VI, 231, 2)

  IV.ii.38 (346,4) strange unusual blood] Of this passage, I suppose, every reader would wish for a correction; but the word, harsh as it is, stands fortified by the rhyme, to which, perhaps, it owes its introduction. I know not what to propose. Perhaps,

  — strange unusual mood,

  may, by some, be thought better, and by others worse.

  IV.iii.1 (347,5) O blessed, breeding sun] [W: blessing breeding] I do not see that this emendation much strengthens the sense.

  IV.iii.2 (347,6) thy sister’s orb] That is, the moon’s, this sublunary world.

  IV.iii.6 (348,7) Not nature,/To whom all sores lay siege] I have preserved this note rather for the sake of the commentator [Warburton] than of the author. How nature, to whom all sores lay siege, can so emphatically express nature in its greatest perfection, I shall not endeavour to explain. The meaning I take to be this: Brother, when his fortune is inlarged, will scorn brother; for this is the general depravity of human nature, which, besieged as it is by misery, admonished as it is of want and imperfection, when elevated by fortune, will despise beings of nature like its own.

  IV.iii.12 (349,9) It is the pastor lards the brother’s sides,/The want that makes him leave] [W: weather’s sides] This passage is very obscure, nor do I discover any clear sense, even though we should admit the emendation. Let us inspect the text as I have given it from the original edition,

  It is the pastour lards the brother’s sides,

  The want that makes him leave.

  Dr. Warburton found the passage already changed thus,

  It is the pasture lards the beggar’s sides,

  The want that makes him lean.

  And upon this reading of no authority, raised another equally uncertain.

  Alterations are never to be made without necessity. Let us see what sense the genuine reading will afford. Poverty, says the poet, bears contempt hereditary, and wealth native honour. To illustrate this position, having already mentioned the case of a poor and rich brother, he remarks, that this preference is given to wealth by those whom it least becomes; it is the pastour that greases or flatters the rich brother, and will grease him on till want makes him leave. The poet then goes on to ask, Who dares to say this man, this pastour, is a flatterer; the crime is universal; through all the world the learned pate, with allusion to the pastour, ducks to the golden fool. If it be objected, as it may justly be, that the mention of pastour is unsuitable, we must remember the mention of grace and cherubims in this play, and many such anachronisms in many others. I would therefore read thus:

  It is the pastour lards the brother’s sides,

  ’Tis want that makes him leave.

  The obscurity is still great. Perhaps a line is lost. I have at least given the original reading.

  IV.iii.27 (350,2) no idle votarist] No insincere or inconstant supplicant. Gold will not serve me instead of roots.

  IV.iii.38 (351,5) That makes the wappen’d widow wed again] Of wappened I have found no example, nor know any meaning. To awhape is used by Spenser in his Hubberd’s Tale, but I think not in either of the senses mentioned. I would read wained, for decayed by time. So our author in Richard the Third, A beauty-waining and distressed widow.

  IV.iii.41 (352,6) To the April day again] That is, to the wedding day, called by the poet, satirically, April day, or fool’s day.

  IV.iii.44 (352,7) Do thy right nature] Lie in the earth where nature laid thee.

  IV.iii.44 (352,8) Thou’rt quick] Thou hast life and motion in thee.

  IV.iii.64 (353,9) I will not kiss thee] This alludes to an opinion in former times, generally prevalent, that the venereal infection transmitted to another, left the infecter free. I will not, says Timon, take the rot from thy lips by kissing thee.

  IV.iii.72 (353,1)

  Tim. Promise me friendship, but perform none. If

  Thou wilt not promise, the Gods plague thee, for

  Thou art a man; if thou dost perform, confound thee,

  For thou art a man!]

  That is, however thou may’st act, since thou art man, hated man, I wish thee evil.

  IV.iii.82 (354,2)

  Be a whore still! They love thee not that use thee;

  Give them diseases, leaving with thee their lust:

  Make use of thy salt hours]

  There is here a slight transposition. I would read,

  — They love thee n
ot that use thee,

  Leaving with thee their lust; give them diseases;

  Make use of thy salt hours; season the slaves

  For tubs and baths; —

  IV.iii.115 (356,6) milk-paps,/That through the window-bars bore at mens’ eyes] [W: window-lawn] The reading is more probably,

  — window-bar, —

  The virgin that shews her bosom through the lattice of her chamber.

  IV.iii.119 (356,8) exhaust their mercy] For exhaust, sir T. Hanmer, and after him Dr. Warburton, read extort; but exhaust here signifies literally to draw forth.

  IV.iii.120 (356,7)

  Think it a bastard, whom the oracle

  Hath doubtfully prunounc’d thy throat shall cut]

  An allusion to the tale of OEdipus.

  IV.iii.134 (357,8) And to make whores a bawd] [W: make whole] The old edition reads,

  And to make whores a bawd.

  That is, enough to make a whore leave whoring, and a bawd leave making whores.

  IV.iii.139 (357,9) I’ll trust to your conditions] You need not swear to continue whores, I will trust to your inclinations.

  IV.iii.140 (358,1) Yet may your pains, six months,/Be quite contrary] The explanation [Warburton’s] is ingenious, but I think it very remote, and would willingly bring the author and his readers to meet on easier terms. We may read,

  — Yet may your pains six months

  Be quite contraried. —

  Timon is wishing ill to mankind, but is afraid lest the whores should imagine that he wishes well to them; to obviate which he lets them know, that he imprecates upon them influence enough to plague others, and disappointments enough to plague themselves. He wishes that they may do all possible mischief, and yet take pains six months of the year in vain.

  In this sense there is a connection of this line with the next. Finding your pains contraried, try new expedients, thatch your thin roofs, and paint.

  To contrary is on old verb. Latymer relates, that when he went to court, he was advised not to contrary the king.

  IV.iii.153 (359,3) mens’ spurring] Hanmer reads sparring, properly enough, if there be any ancient example of the word.

  IV.iii.158 (359,5)

  take the bridge quite away

  Of him, that his particular to foresee

  Smells from the general weal]

  [W: to forefend] The metaphor is apparently incongruous, but the sense is good. To foresee his particular, is to provide for his private advantage, for which he leaves the right scent of publick good. In hunting, when hares have cross’d one another, it is common for some of the hounds to smell from the general weal, and foresee their own particular. Shakespeare, who seems to have been a skilful sportsman, and has alluded often to falconry, perhaps, alludes here to hunting.

  To the commentator’s emendation it may be objected, that he used forefend in the wrong meaning. To forefend, is, I think, never to provide for, but to provide against. The verbs compounded with for or fore have commonly either an evil or negative sense.

  IV.iii.182 (361,8) eyeless venom’d worm] The serpent, which we, from the smallness of his eyes, call the blind worm, and the Latins, caecilia.

  IV.iii.183 (361,9) below crisp heaven] [W: cript] Mr. Upton declares for crisp, curled, bent, hollow.

  IV.iii.188 (361,1) Let it no more bring out ingrateful man!] [W: out to ungrateful] It is plain that bring out is bring forth, with which the following lines correspond so plainly, that the commentator might be suspected of writing his note without reading the whole passage.

  IV.iii.193 (362,2) Dry up thy marrows, vines, and plough torn leas] I cannot concur to censure Theobald [as Warburton did] as a critic very unhappy. He was weak, but he was cautious: finding but little power in his mind, he rarely ventured far under its conduct. This timidity hindered him from daring conjectures, and sometimes hindered him happily.

  This passage, among many others, may pass without change. The genuine reading is not marrows, veins, but marrows, vines: the sense is this; O nature! cease to produce men, ensear thy womb; but if thou wilt continue to produce them, at least cease to pamper them; dry up thy marrows, on which they fatten with unctuous morsels, thy vines, which give them liquorish draughts, and thy plow-torn leas. Here are effects corresponding with causes, liquorish draughts with vines, and unctuous morsels with marrows, and the old reading literally preserved.

  IV.iii.209 (363,3) the cunning of a carper] Cunning here seems to signify counterfeit appearance.

  IV.ii.223 (364,4) moist trees] Hanmer reads very elegantly,

  — moss’d trees.

  IV.iii.37 (364,5)

  Tim. Always a villain’s office, or a fool’s.

  Dost please thyself in’t?

  Apem. Ay.

  Tim. What! a knave too?]

  Such was Dr. Warburton’s first conjecture [“and know’t too”], but afterwards he adopted Sir T. Hanmer’s conjecture,

  What a knave thou!

  but there is no need of alteration. Timon had just called Apemantus fool, in consequence of what he had known of him by former acquaintance; but when Apemantus tells him, that he comes to vex him, Timon determines that to vex is either the office of a villain or a fool; that to vex by design is villainy, to vex without design is folly. He then properly asks Apemantus whether he takes delight in vexing, and when he answers, yes, Timon replies, What! and knave too? I before only knew thee to be a fool, but I now find thee likewise a knave. This seems to be so clear as not to stand in need of a comment.

  IV.iii.242 (365,6) Willing misery/Out-lives incertain pomp; is crown’d before] Arrives sooner at high wish; that is, at the completion of its wishes.

  IV.iii.247 (365,7) Worse than the worst, content] Best states contentless have a wretched being, a being worse than that of the worst states that are content. This one would think too plain to have been mistaken. (1773)

  IV.iii.249 (365,8) by his breath] It means, I believe, by his counsel, by his direction.

  IV. iii. 252 (366,l) Hadst thou, like us] There is in this speech a sullen haughtiness, and malignant dignity, suitable at once to the lord and the man-hater. The impatience with which he bears to have his luxury reproached by one that never had luxury within his reach, is natural and graceful.

  There is in a letter, written by the earl of Essex, just before his execution, to another nobleman, a passage somewhat resembling this, with which, I believe every reader will be pleased, though it is so serious and solemn that it can scarcely be inserted without irreverence.

  “God grant your lordship may quickly feel the comfort I now enjoy in my unfettered conversion, but that you may never feel the torments I have suffered for my long delaying it. I had none but deceivers to call upon me, to whom I said, if my ambition could have entered into their narrow breasts, they would not have been so precise. But your lordship hath one to call upon you, that knoweth what it is you now enjoy; and what the greatest fruit and end is of all contentment that this world can afford. Think, therefore, dear earl, that I have staked and buoyed all the ways of pleasure unto you, and left them as sea-marks for you to keep the channel of religious virtue. For shut your eyes never so long, they must be open at the last, and then you must say with me, there is no peace to the ungodly.”

  IV.iii.252 (366,2) from our first swath] From infancy. Swath is the dress of a new-born child.

  IV.iii.258 (366,3) precepts of respect] Of obedience to laws.

  IV.iii.259 (366,4) But myself] The connection here requires some attention. But is here used to denote opposition; but what immediately precedes is not opposed to that which follows. The adversative particle refers to the two first lines.

  Thou art a slave, whom fortune’s tender arm

  With favour never claspt; but bred a dog.

  — But myself,

  Who had the world as my confectionary, &c.

  The intermediate lines are to be considered as a parenthesis of passion.

  IV.iii.271 (367,5) If thou wilt curse, thy father, that poor rag,/ Must be
thy subject] If we read poor rogue, it will correspond rather better to what follows.

  IV.iii.276 (367,6) Thou hadst been knave and flatterer] Dryden has quoted two verses of Virgil to shew how well he could have written satires. Shakespeare has here given a specimen of the same power by a line bitter beyond all bitterness, in which Timon tells Apemantus, that he had not virtue enough for the vices which he condemns.

  Dr. Warburton explains worst by lowest, which somewhat weakens the sense, and yet leaves it sufficiently vigorous.

  I have heard Mr. Bourke commend the subtilty of discrimination with which Shakespeare distinguishes the present character of Timon from that of Apemantus, whom to vulgar eyes he would now resemble. (see 1763, VI, 249, 6) (rev. 1778, VIII, 424, 4)

  IV.iii.308 (369,8) Ay, though it look like thee] Timon here supposes that an objection against hatred, which through the whole tenor of the conversation appears an argument for it. One would have expected him to have answered,

  Yes, for it looks like thee.

  The old edition, which always gives the pronoun instead of the affirmative particle, has it,

  I, though it look like thee.

  Perhaps we should read,

  I thought it look’d like thee.

  IV,iii.363 (371,2) Thou art the cap] i.e. the property, the bubble. WARBURTON.] I rather think, the top, the principal.

  The remaining dialogue has more malignity than wit.

  IV.iii.383 (372,4) ‘Twixt natural, son and sire!’]

  [Greek: dia touton ouk adelphoi

  dia touton ou toxaeas. ANAC.]

  IV.iii.398 (373,6) More things like men?] This line, in the old edition, is given to Aremantus, but it apparently belongs to Timon. Hanmer has transposed the foregoing dialogue according to his own mind, not unskilfully, but with unwarrantable licence.

  IV.iii.419 (373,7) you want much of meat] [T: of meet] Such is Mr. Theobald’s emendation, in which he is followed by Dr. Warburton. Sir T. Hanmer reads,

  — you want much of men.

  They have been all busy without necessity. Observe the series of the conversation. The thieves tell him, that they are men that much do want. Here is an ambiguity between much want and want of much. Timon takes it on the wrong side, and tells them that their greatest want is, that, like other men, they want much of meat; then telling them where meat may be had, he asks, Want? why want? (see 1765, VI, 254, 5)