Complete Works of Samuel Johnson

by Samuel Johnson

  More laud than to gilt o’er-dusted. (1773) (rev. 1778, IX, 93, 7)

  III.iii.189 (86,4) Made emulous missions] The meaning of mission seems to be dispatches of the gods from heaven about mortal business, such as often happened at the siege of Troy.

  III.iii.197 (86,5) Knows almost every grain of Pluto’s gold] For this elegant line the quarto has only,

  Knows almost every thing.

  III.iii.201 (86,7) (with which relation/Durst never meddle)] There is a secret administration of affairs, which no history was ever able to discover.

  III.iii.230 (87,9)

  Omission to do what is necessary

  Seals a commission to a blank of danger]

  By neglecting our duty we commission or enable that danger of dishonour, which could not reach us before, to lay hold upon us.

  III.iii.254 (88,1) with a politic regard] With a sly look.

  IV.i.11 (91,1) During all question of the gentle truce] I once thought to read,

  During all quiet of the gentle truce.

  But I think question means intercourse, interchange of conversation.

  IV.i.36 (92,4) His purpose meets you] I bring you his meaning and his orders.

  IV.i.65 (93,6)

  Both merits pois’d, each weighs no less nor more,

  But he as he, the heavier for a whore]

  I read,

  But he as he, each heavier for a whore.

  Heavy is taken both for weighty, and for sad or miserable. The quarto reads,

  But he as he, the heavier for a whore.

  I know not whether the thought is not that of a wager. It must then be read thus:

  But he as he. Which heavier for a whore?

  That is, for a whore staked down, which is the heavier.

  IV.i.78 (94,7) We’ll not commend what we intend to sell] I believe the meaning is only this: though you practise the buyer’s art, we will not practise the seller’s. We intend to sell Helen dear, yet will not commend her.

  IV.ii.62 (96,4) My matter is so rash] My business is so hasty and so abrupt.

  IV.ii.74 (97,6) the secrets of neighbour Pandar] [Pope had emended the Folio’s “secrets of nature” to the present reading] Mr. Pope’s reading is in the old quarto. So great is the necessity of collation.

  IV.iv.3 (99,1) The grief] The folio reads,

  The grief is fine, full perfect, that I taste,

  And no less in a sense as strong

  As that which causeth it. —

  The quarto otherwise,

  The grief is fine, full, perfect, that I taste,

  And violenteth in a sense as strong

  As that which causeth it. —

  Violenteth is a word with which I am not acquainted, yet perhaps it may be right. The reading of the text is without authority.

  IV.iv.65 (101,3) For I will throw my glove to death] That is, I will challenge death himself in defence of thy fidelity.

  IV.iv.105 (103,5)

  While others fish, with craft, for great opinion,

  I, with great truth, catch mere simplicity.]

  The meaning, I think, is, while others, by their art, gain high estimation, I, by honesty, obtain a plain simple approbation.

  IV.iv.109 (103,6) the moral of my wit/Is, plain and true] That is, the governing principle of my understanding; but I rather think we should read,

  — the motto of my wit

  Is, plain and true, —

  IV.iv.114 (103,7) possess thee what she is] I will make thee fully understand. This sense of the word possess is frequent in our author.

  IV.iv.134 (104,9) I’ll answer to my list] This, I think, is right, though both the old copies read lust.

  IV.v.8 (105,1) bias cheek] Swelling out like the bias of a bowl.

  IV.v.37 (106,3) I’ll make my match to live./The kiss you take is better than you give] I will make such bargains as I may live by, such as may bring me profit, therefore will not take a worse kiss than I give.

  IV.v.48 (107,4) Why, beg then] For the sake of rhime we should read,

  Why beg two.

  If you think kisses worth begging, beg more than one.

  IV.v.52 (107,5) Never’s my day, and then a kiss of you] I once gave both these lines to Cressida. She bids Ulysses beg a kiss; he asks that he may have it,

  When Helen is a maid again —

  She tells him that then he shall have it:

  When Helen is a maid again —

  Cre. I am your debtor, claim it when ’tis due;

  Never’s my day, and then a kiss for you.

  But I rather think that Ulysses means to slight her, and that the present reading is right.

  IV.v.57 (107,6) motive of her body] Motive for part that contributes to motion.

  IV.v.59 (107,7) a coasting] An amorous address; courtship.

  IV.v.62 (107,8) sluttish spoils of opportunity] Corrupt wenches, of whose chastity every opportunity may make a prey.

  IV.v.73 (108,9) Aga. ’Tis done like Hector, but securely done] [Theobald gave the speech to Achilles] As the old copies agree, I have made no change.

  IV.v.79 (108,1) Valour and pride excel themselves in Hector] Shakespeare’s thought is not exactly deduced. Nicety of expression is not his character. The cleaning is plain, “Valour (says AEneas) is in Hector greater than valour in other men, and pride in Hector is less than pride in other men. So that Hector is distinguished by the excellence of having pride less than other pride, and valour more than other valour.”

  IV.v.103 (109,2) an impair thought] A thought suitable to the dignity of his character. This word I should have changed to impure, were I not over-powered by the unanimity of the editors, and concurrence of the old copies, (rev. 1778, IX, 120, 8)

  IV.v.105 (109,3) Hector in his blaze of wrath subscribes/To tender objects] That is, yields, gives way.

  IV.v.112 (110,4) thus translate him to me] Thus explain his character.

  IV.v.142 (111,5) Hect. Not Neoptolemus so mirable] [W: Neoptolemus’s sire irascible] After all this contention it is difficult to imagine that the critic believes mirable to have been changed to irascible. I should sooner read,

  Not Neoptolemus th’ admirable;

  as I know not whether mirable can be found in any other place. The correction which the learned commentator gave to Hanmer,

  Not Neoptolemus’ sire so mirable,

  as it was modester than this, was preferable to it. But nothing is more remote from justness of sentiment, than for Hector to characterise Achilles as the father of Neoptolemus, a youth that had not yet appeared in arms, and whose name was therefore much less knovn than his father’s. My opinion is, that by Neoptolemus the author meant Achilles himself; and remembering that the son was Pyrrhus Neoptolemus, considered Neoptolemus as the nomen gentilitium, and thought the father was likewise Achilles Neoptolemus.

  IV.v.147 (112,6) We’ll answer it] That is, answer the expectance.

  IV.v.275 (117,5) Beat loud the tabourines] For this the quarto and the latter editions have,

  To taste your bounties. —

  The reading which I have given from the folio seems chosen at the revision, to avoid the repetition of the word bounties.

  V.i.5 (118,1) Thou crusty batch of nature] Batch is changed by Theobald to botch, and the change is justified by a pompous note, which discovers that he did not know the word batch. What is more strange, Hanmer has followed him. Batch is any thing baked.

  V.i.19 (119,3) Male-varlet] HANMER reads male-harlot, plausibly enough, except that it seems too plain to require the explanation which Patroclus demands.

  V.i.23 (119,4) cold palsies] This catalogue of loathsome maladies ends in the folio at cold palsies. This passage, as it stands, is in the quarto: the retrenchment was in my opinion judicious. It may be remarked, though it proves nothing, that, of the few alterations made by Milton in the second edition of his wonderful poem, one was, an enlargement of the enumeration of diseases.

  V.i.32 (119,5) you ruinous butt; you whoreson indistinguishable cur] Patroclos re
proaches Thersites with deformity, with having one part crowded into another.

  V.i.35 (119,6) thou idle immaterial skeyn of sley’d silk] All the terms used by Thersites of Patroclus, are emblematically expressive of flexibility, compliance, and mean officiousness.

  V.i.40 (119,7) Out, gall!] HANMER reads nut-gall, which answers well enough to finch-egg; it has already appeared, that our author thought the nut-gall the bitter gall. He is called nut, from the conglobation of his form; but both the copies read, Out, gall!

  V.i.41 (120,8) Finch egg!] Of this reproach I do not know the exact meaning. I suppose he means to call him singing bird, as implying an useless favourite, and yet more, something more worthless, a singing bird in the egg, or generally, a slight thing easily crushed.

  V.i.64 (121,2) forced with wit] Stuffed with wit. A term of cookery. — In this speech I do not well understand what is meant by loving quails.

  V.i.73 (121,3) spirits and fires!] This Thersites speaks upon the first sight of the distant lights.

  V.ii.11 (124,1) And any man may sing her, if he can take her cliff] That is, her key. Clef, French.

  V.ii.41 (125,2) You flow to great distraction] So the moderns. The folio has,

  You flow to great distraction. —

  The quarto,

  You flow to great destruction. —

  I read,

  You show too great distraction. —

  V.ii.108 (128,7) But with my heart the other eye doth see] I think it should be read thus,

  But my heart with the other eye doth see.

  V.ii.113 (128,8) A proof of strength she could not publish more] She could not publish a stronger proof.

  V.ii.125 (129,1) I cannot conjure, Trojan] That is, I cannot raise spirits in the form of Cressida.

  V.ii.141 (129,2) If there be rule in unity itself] I do not well understand what is meant by rule in unity. By rule our author, in this place as in others, intends virtuous restraint, regularity of manners, command of passions and appetites. In Macbeth,

  He cannot buckle his distemper’d cause

  Within the belt of rule. —

  But I know not how to apply the word in this sense to unity. I read,

  If there be rule in purity itself,

  Or, If there be rule in verity itself.

  Such alterations would not offend the reader, who saw the state of the old editions, in which, for instance, a few lines lower, the almighty sun is called the almighty fenne. — Yet the words may at last mean, If there be certainty in unity, if it be a rule that one is one.

  V.ii.144 (130,3) Bi-fold authority!] This is the reading of the quarto. The folio gives us,

  By foul authority! —

  There is madness in that disquisition in which a man reasons at once for and against himself upon authority which he knows not to be valid. The quarto is right.

  V.ii.144 (130,4)

  where reason can revolt

  Without perdition, and loss assume all reason

  Without revolt]

  The words loss and perdition are used in their common sense, but they mean the loss or perdition of reason.

  V.ii.157 (131,6) And with another knot five-finger-tied] A knot tied by giving her hand to Diomed.

  V.ii.160 (131,7) o’er-eaten faith] Vows which she has already swallowed once over. We still say of a faithless man, that he has eaten his words.

  V.ii.161 (131,8)

  Ulyss. May worthy Troilus be half attach’d

  With that which here his passion doth express!]

  Can Troilus really feel on this occasion half of what he utters? A question suitable to the calm Ulysses.

  V.iii.21 (133,2)

  For us to count we give what’s gain’d by thefts,

  And rob in the behalf of charity]

  This is so oddly confused in the folio, that I transcribe it as a specimen of incorrectness:

  — do not count it holy,

  To hurt by being just; it were as lawful

  For we would count give much to as violent thefts,

  And rob in the behalf of charity.

  V.iii.23 (133,3)

  Cas. It is the purpose that makes strong the vow;

  But vows to every purpose must not hold]

  The mad prophetess speaks here with all the coolness and judgment of a skilful casuist. “The essence of a lawful vow, is a lawful purpose, and the vow of which the end is wrong must not be regarded as cogent.”

  V.iii.27 (134,4)

  Life every man holds dear; but the dear man

  Holds honour far more precious dear than life]

  Valuable man. The modern editions read,

  — brave man.

  The repetition of the word is in our author’s manner.

  V.iii.37 (134,5)

  Brother, you have a vice of mercy in you,

  Which better fits a lion, than a man]

  The traditions and stories of the darker ages abounded with examples of the lion’s generosity. Upon the supposition that these acts of clemency were true, Troilus reasons not improperly, that to spare against reason, by mere instinct of pity, became rather a generous beast than a wise man.

  V.x.33 (137,9) Hence, broker lacquey!] For brothel, the folio reads brother, erroneously for broker, as it stands at the end of the play where the lines are repeated. Of brother the following editors made brothel.

  V.iv.18 (138,2) the Grecians begin to proclaim barbarism, and policy grows into an ill opinion] To set up the authority of ignorance to declare that they will be governed by policy no longer.

  V.vi.11 (142,1) you cogging Greeks] This epithet has no particular propriety in this place, but the author had heard of Graecia Mendax.

  V.vi.29 (144,3) I’ll frush it] The word frush I never found elsewhere, nor understand it. HANMER explains it, to break or bruise.

  V.viii.7 (146,1) Even with the vail and darkening of the sun] The vail is, I think, the sinking of the sun; not veil or cover.

  (149) General Observation. This play is more correctly written than most of Shakespeare’s compositions, but it is not one of those in which either the extent of his views or elevation of his fancy is fully displayed. As the story abounded with materials, he has exerted little invention; but he has diversified his characters with great variety, and preserved them with great exactness. His vicious characters sometimes disgust, but cannot corrupt, for both Cressida and Pandarus are detested and contemned. The comic characters seem to have been the favourites of the writer; they are of the superficial kind, and exhibit more of manners than nature; but they are copiously filled and powerfully impressed. Shakespeare has in his story followed, for the greater part, the old book of Caxton, which was then very popular; but the character of Thersites, of which it makes no mention, is a proof that this play was written after Chapman had published his version of Homer.

  CYMBELINE

  I.i.1 (153,2)

  You do not meet a man, but frowns: our bloods

  No more obey the heavens, than our courtiers’

  Still seen, as does the king’s]

  [W: brows/No more] This passage is so difficult, that commentators may differ concerning it without animosity or shame. Of the two emendations proposed, Hanmer’s is the more licentious; but he makes the sense clear, and leaves the reader an easy passage. Dr. Warburton has corrected with more caution, but less improvement: his reasoning upon his own reading is so obscure and perplexed, that I suspect some injury of the press. — I am now to tell my opinion, which is, that the lines stand as they were originally written, and that a paraphrase, such as the licentious and abrupt expressions of our author too frequently require, will make emendation unnecessary. We do not meet a man but frowns; our bloods — our countenances, which, in popular speech, are said to be regulated by the temper of the blood, — no more obey the laws of heaven, — which direct us to appear what we really are, — than our courtiers; — that is, than the bloods of our courtiers; but our bloods, like theirs, — still seem, as doth the king’s.

  I.i.25 (155,3
) I do extend him, Sir, within himself] I extend him within himself: my praise, however extensive, is within his merit.

  I.i.46 (156,4) liv’d in court,/(Which rare it is to do) most prais’d, most lov’d] This encomium is high and artful. To be at once in any great degree loved and praised is truly rare.

  I.i.49 (156,5) A glass that feated them] A glass that featur’d them] Such is the reading in all the modern editions, I know not by whom first substituted, for

  A glass that feared them; —

  I have displaced featur’d, though it can plead long prescription, because I am inclined to think that feared has the better title. Mirrour was a favourite word in that age for an example, or a pattern, by noting which the manners were to be formed, as dress is regulated by looking in a glass. When Don Bellianis is stiled The Mirrour of Knighthood, the idea given is not that of a glass in which every knight may behold his own resemblance, but an example to be viewed by knights as often as a glass is looked upon by girls, to be viewed, that they may know, not what they are, but what they ought to be. Such a glass may fear the more mature, as displaying excellencies which they have arrived at maturity without attaining. To fear is here, as in other places, to fright. [I believe Dr. Johnson is mistaken as to the reading of the folio, which is feated. The page of the copy which he consulted is very faintly printed; but I have seen another since, which plainly gives this reading. STEEVENS.] If feated be the right word, it must, I think, be explained thus; a glass that formed them; a model, by the contemplation and inspection of which they formed their manners. (see 1765, VII, 260, 4)

  I.i.86 (158,1)

  I something fear my father’s wrath; but nothing

  (Always reserv’d my holy duty) what

  His rage can do on me]

  I say I do not fear my father, so far as I may say it without breach of duty.

  I.i.101 (158,2) Though ink be made of gall] Shakespeare, even in this poor conceit, has confounded the vegetable galls used in ink, with the animal gall, supposed to be bitter.

  I.i.132 (160,4) then heapest/A year’s age on me] Dr. WARBURTON reads,

  A yare age on me.

  It seems to me, even from SKINNER, whom he cites, that yare is used only as a personal quality. Nor is the authority of Skinner sufficient, without some example, to justify the alteration. HANMER’s reading is better, but rather too far from the original copy: