Complete Works of Samuel Johnson

by Samuel Johnson

  — thou heapest many

  A year’s age on me.

  I read,

  — thou heap’st

  Years, ages on me.

  I.i.135 (160,5) a touch more rare/Subdues all pangs, all fears] Rare is used often for eminently good; but I do not remember any passage in which it stands for eminently bad. May we read,

  — a touch more near.

  Cura deam propior luctusque domesticus angit. Ovid.

  Shall we try again,

  — a touch more rear.

  Crudum vulnus. But of this I know not any example. There is yet another interpretation, which perhaps will remove the difficulty. A touch more rare, may mean a nobler passion.

  I.i.140 (161,6) a puttock] A kite.

  I.ii.31 (163,1) her beauty and her brain go not together] I believe the lord means to speak a sentence, “Sir, as I told you always, beauty and brain go not together.”

  I.ii.32 (164,2) She’s a good sign] [W: shine] There is acuteness enough in this note, yet I believe the poet meant nothing by sign, but fair outward shew.

  I.iii.8 (165,2)

  for so long

  As he could make me with this eye, or ear,

  Distinguish him from others]

  [W: this eye] Sir T. HANMER alters it thus:

  — for so long

  As he could mark me with his eye, or I

  Distinguish —

  The reason of Hanmer’s reading was, that Pisanio describes no address made to the ear.

  I.iii.18 (165,3) till the diminution/Of space had pointed him sharp as my needle] The diminution of space, is the diminution of which space is the cause. Trees are killed by a blast of lightning, that is, by blasting, not blasted lightning.

  I.iii.24 (166,4) next vantage] Next opportunity.

  I.iii.37 (166,6) Shakes all our buds from growing] A bud, without any distinct idea, whether of flower or fruit, is a natural representation of any thing incipient or immature; and the buds of flowers, if flowers are meant, grow to flowers, as the buds of fruits grow to fruits.

  I.iv.9 (167,1) makes him] In the sense in which we say, This will make or mar you.

  I.iv.16 (167,2) words him, I doubt not, a great deal from the matter] Makes the description of him very distant from the truth.

  I.iv.20 (167,3) under her colours] Under her banner; by her influence.

  I.iv.47 (168,6) I was then a young traveller; rather shunn’d to go even with what I heard, than in my every action to be guided by others’ experiences] This is expressed with a kind of fantastical perplexity. He means, I was then willing to take for my direction the experience of others, more than such intelligence as I had gathered myself.

  I.iv,58 (169,7) ’Twas a contention in publick, which may, without contradiction, suffer the report] Which, undoubtedly, may be publickly told.

  I.iv.73 (169,8) tho’ I profess myself her adorer, not her friend] Though I have not the common obligations of a lover to his mistress, and regard her not with the fondness of a friend, but the reverence of an adorer.

  I.iv.77 (169,9) If she went before others I have seen, as that diamond of yours out-lustres many I have beheld, I could not believe she excelled many] [W: could believe] I should explain the sentence thus: “Though your lady excelled, as much as your diamond, I could not believe she excelled many; that is, I too could yet believe that there are many whom she did not excel.” But I yet think Dr. Warburton right. (1773)

  I.iv.104 (171,l) to convince the honour of my mistress] [Convince, for overcome. WARBURTON.] So in Macbeth,

  — their malady convinces

  “The great essay of art.”

  I.iv.124 (171,2) abus’d] Deceiv’d.

  I.iv.134 (172,3) approbation] Proof.

  I.iv.148 (172,4) You are a friend, and therein the wiser. If you buy ladies’ flesh at a million a dram, you cannot preserve it from tainting. But, I see, you have some religion in you, that you fear] You are a friend to the lady, and therein the wiser, as you will not expose her to hazard; and that you fear, is a proof of your religious fidelity. (see 1765, VII, 276, 1)

  I.iv.l60 (173,5) Iach. If I bring you no sufficient testimony that I have enjoy’d the dearest bodily part of your mistress, my ten thousand ducats are yours, so is my diamond too: if I come off, and leave her in such honour as you have trust in, she your jewel, this your jewel, and my gold are yours —

  Post. I embrace these conditions]

  [W: bring you sufficient] I once thought this emendation right, but am now of opinion, that Shakespeare intended that Iachimo, having gained his purpose, should designedly drop the invidious and offensive part of the wager, and to flatter Posthumus, dwell long upon the more pleasing part of the representation. One condition of a wager implies the other, and there is no need to mention both.

  I.v.18 (176,1) Other conclusions] Other experiments. I commend, says WALTON, an angler that tries conclusions, and improves his art.

  I.v.23 (175,2) Your highness/Shall from this practice but make hard your heart] Thare is in this passage nothing that much requires a note, yet I cannot forbear to push it forward into observation. The thought would probably have been more amplified, had our author lived to be shocked with such experiments as have been published in later times, by a race of men that have practised tortures without pity, and related then without shame, and are yet suffered to erect their heads among human beings.

  “Cape saxa manu, cape robora, pastor.”

  I.v.33-44 (175,3) I do not like her] This soliloquy is very inartificial. The speaker is under no strong pressure of thought; he is neither resolving, repenting, suspecting, nor deliberating, and yet makes a long speech to tell himself what himself knows.

  I.v.54 (176,4) to shift his being] To change his abode.

  I.v.58 (118,5) What shalt thou expect,/To be depender on a thing that leans?] That inclines towards its fall.

  I.v.80 (177,7) Of leigers for her sweet] A leiger ambassador, is one that resides at a foreign court to promote his master’s interest.

  I.vi.7 (178,9)

  Bless’d be those,

  How mean soe’er, that have their honest wills,

  Which seasons comfort]

  I am willing to comply with any meaning that can be extorted from the present text, rather than change it, yet will propose, but with great diffidence, a slight alteration:

  — Bless’d be those,

  How mean soe’er, that have their honest wills,

  With reason’scomfort. —

  Who gratify their innocent wishes with reasonable enjoyments.

  I.vi.35 (180,2) and the twinn’d stones/Upon the number’d beach?] I know not well how to regulate this passage. Number’d is perhaps numerous. Twinn’d stones I do not understand. Twinn’d shells, or pairs of shells, are very common. For twinn’d, we might read twin’d; that is, twisted, convolved; but this sense is more applicable to shells than to stones.

  I.vi.44 (181,3)

  Sluttery, to such neat excellence oppos’d,

  Should make desire vomit emptiness,

  Not so allur’d to feed]

  [i.e. that appetite, which is not allured to feed on such excellence, can have no stomach at all; but, though empty, must nauseate every thing. WARB.] I explain this passage in a sense almost contrary. Iachimo, in this counterfeited rapture, has shewn how the eyes and the judgment would determine in favour of Imogen, comparing her with the present mistress of Posthumus, and proceeds to say, that appetite too would give the same suffrage. Desire, says he, when it approached sluttery, and considered it in comparison with such neat excellence, would not only be not so allured to feed, but, seized with a fit of loathing, would vomit emptiness, would feel the convulsions of disgust, though, being unfed, it had nothing to eject. [Tyrwhitt: vomit, emptiness ... allure] This is not ill conceived; but I think my own explanation right. To vomit emptiness is, in the language of poetry, to feel the convulsions of eructation without plenitude. (1773)

  I.vi.54 (182,4) He’s strange, and peevish] He is a foreigner, ea
sily fretted.

  I.vi.97 (184,5) timely knowing] Rather timely known.

  I.vi.99 (184,6) What both you spur and stop] What it is that at once incites you to speak, and restrains you from it. [I think Imogen means to enquire what is that news, that intelligence, or information, you profess to bring, and yet with-hold: at least, I think Dr. JOHNSON’s explanation a mistaken one, for Imogen’s request supposes Iachimo an agent, not a patient. HAWKINS.] I think my explanation true. (see 1765, VII, 286, 7)

  I.vi.106 (184,7)

  join gripes with hands

  Made hard with hourly falshood (falshood as

  With labour) then lye peeping in an eye]

  The old edition reads,

  — join gripes with hands

  Made hard with hourly falshood (falshood as

  With labour) then by peeping in an eye, &c.

  I read,

  — then lye peeping —

  The author of the present regulation of the text I do not know, but have suffered it to stand, though not right. Hard with falshood is, hard by being often griped with frequent change of hands.

  I.vi.122 (185,8) With tomboys, hir’d with that self-exhibition/Which your own coffers yield!] Gross strumpets, hired with the very pension which you allow your husband.

  I.vi.152 (186,9) As in a Romish stew] The stews of Rome are deservedly censured by the reformed. This is one of many instances in which Shakespeare has mingled in the manners of distant ages in this play.

  II.i.2 (188,1) kiss’d the jack upon an up-cast] He is describing his fate at bowls. The jack is the small bowl at which the others are aimed. He who is nearest to it wins. To kiss the jack is a state of great advantage. (1773)

  II.i.15 (189,2) 2 Lord. No, my lord; nor crop the ears of them. [Aside.] This, I believe, should stand thus:

  1 Lord. No, my lord.

  2 Lord. Nor crop the ears of them, [Aside.

  II.i.26 (189,3) you crow, cock, with your comb on] The allusion is to a fool’s cap, which hath a comb like a cock’s.

  II.i.29 (189,4) every companion] The use of companion was the same as of fellow now. It was a word of contempt.

  II.ii.12 (191,1) our Tarquin] The speaker is an Italian.

  II.ii.13 (191,2) Did softly press the rushes] It was the custom in the time of our author to strew chambers with rushes, as we now cover them with carpets. The practice is mentioned in Caius de Ephemera Britannica.

  II.iii.24 (194,2) His steeds to water at those springs On chalic’d flowers that lies]

  Hanmer reads,

  Each chalic’d flower supplies;

  to escape a false concord: but correctness must not be obtained by such licentious alterations. It may be noted, that the cup of a flower is called calix, whence chalice.

  II.iii.28 (195,3) With, every thing that pretty bin] is very properly restored by Hanmer, for pretty is; but he too grammatically reads,

  With all the things that pretty bin.

  II.iii.102 (197,5) one of your great knowing/Should learn, being taught, forbearance] i.e. A man who is taught forbearance should learn it.

  II.iii.111 (198,7) so verbal] Is, so verbose, so full of talk.

  II.iii.118-129 (199,8) The contract you pretend with that base wretch] Here Shakespeare has not preserved, with his common nicety, the uniformity of character. The speech of Cloten is rough and harsh, but certainly not the talk of one,

  Who can’t take two from twenty, for his heart,

  And leave eighteen. —

  His argument is just and well enforced, and its prevalence is allowed throughout all civil nations: as for rudeness, he seems not to be mach undermatched.

  II.iii.124 (199,9) in self-figur’d knot] [This is nonsense. We should read,

  — SELF-FINGER’D knot;

  WARBURTON.] But why nonsense? A self-figured knot is a knot formed by yourself. (see 1765, VII, 301, 8)

  II.iv.71 (204,4) And Cydnus swell’d above the banks, or for/The press of boats, or pride] [This is an agreeable ridicule on poetical exaggeration, which gives human passions to inanimate things: and particularly, upon what he himself writes in the foregoing play on this very subject:

  “ — And made

  The water, which they beat, to follow faster,

  As amorous of their strokes.”

  WARBURTON.] It is easy to sit down and give our author meanings which he never had. Shakespeare has no great right to censure poetical exaggeration, of which no poet is more frequently guilty. That he intended to ridicule his own lines is very uncertain, when there are no means of knowing which of the two plays was written first. The commentator has contented himself to suppose, that the foregoing play in his book was the play of earlier composition. Nor is the reasoning better than the assertion. If the language of Iachimo be such as shews him to be mocking the credibility of his hearer, his language is very improper, when his business was to deceive. But the truth is, that his language is such as a skilful villain would naturally use, a mixture of airy triumph and serious deposition. His gaiety shews his seriousness to be without anxiety, and his seriousness proves his gaiety to be without art.

  II.iv.83 (205,5) never saw I figures/So likely to report themselves] So near to speech. The Italians call a portrait, when the likeness is remarkable, a speaking picture.

  II.iv.84 (205,6) the cutter/Was as another nature, dumb, out-went her;/Motion and breath left out] [W: done; out-went her.] This emendation I think needless. The meaning is this, The sculptor was as nature, but as nature dumb; he gave every thing that nature gives, but breath and motion. In breath is included speech.

  II.iv.91 (205,7) Post. This is her honour!] [T: What’s this t’her honour?] This emendation has been followed by both the succeeding editors, but I think it must be rejected. The expression is ironical. Iachimo relates many particulars, to which Posthumus answers with impatience, This is her honour! That is, And the attainment of this knowledge is to pass for the corruption of her honour.

  II.iv.95 (206,8) if you can/Be pale] If you can forbear to flush your cheek with rage.

  II.iv.110 (207,9)

  The vows of women

  Of no more bondage be, to where they are made,

  Than they are to their virtues]

  The love vowed by women no more abides with him to whom it is vowed, than women adhere to their virtue.

  II.iv.127 (207,2) The cognizance] The badge; the token; the visible proof.

  III.i.26 (211,2) and his shipping,/(Poor ignorant baubles!) on our terrible seas] [Ignorant, for of no use. WARB.] Rather, unacquainted with the nature of our boisterous seas.

  III.i.51 (212,3) against all colour] Without any pretence of right.

  III.i.73 (213,5) keep at utterance] [i.e. At extreme distance. WARB.] More properly, in a state of hostile defiance, and deadly opposition.

  III.i.73 (213,6) I am perfect] I am well informed. So, in Macbeth, “ — in your state of honour I am perfect.” (see 1765, VII, 314,7)

  III.ii.4 (214,2) What false Italian (As poisonous tongu’d as handed)] About Shakespeare’s time the practice of poisoning was very common in Italy, and the suspicion of Italian poisons yet more common.

  III.ii.9 (214,3) take in some virtue] To take in a town, is to conquer it.

  III.ii.34 (215,6) For it doth physic love] That is, grief for absence, keeps love in health and vigour.

  III.ii.47 (215,8) loyal to his vow, and your increasing in love] I read, Loyal to his vow and you, increasing in love.

  III.ii.79 (216,1) A franklin’s housewife] A franklin is literally a freeholder, with a small estate, neither villain nor vassal.

  III.ii.80 (217,2)

  I see before me, man, nor here, nor here,

  Nor what ensues; but have a fog in them,

  That I cannot look thro’]

  This passage may, in my opinion, be very easily understood, without any emendation. The lady says, “I can see neither one way nor other, before me nor behind me, but all the ways are covered with an impenetrable fog.” There are objections insuperab
le to all that I can propose, and since reason can give me no counsel, I will resolve at once to follow my inclination.

  III.iii.5 (218,2) giants may jet through/And keep their impious turbans on] The idea of a giant was, among the readers of romances, who were almost all the readers of those times, always confounded with that of a Saracen.

  III.iii.16 (218,3) This service it not service, so being done,/But being so allow’d] In war it is not sufficient to do duty well; the advantage rises not from the act, but the acceptance of the act.

  III.iii.23 (219,5) Richer, than doing nothing for a babe] I have always suspected that the right reading of this passage is what I had not in my former edition the confidence to propose: Richer, than doing nothing for a brabe.

  Brabium is a badge of honour, or the ensign of an honour, or any thing worn as a mask of dignity. The word was strange to the editors as it will be to the reader: they therefore changed it to babe; and I am forced to propose it without the support of any authority. Brabium is a word found in Holyoak’s Dictionary, who terms it a reward. Cooper, in his Thesaurus, defines it to be a prize, or reward for any game. (1773) (rev. 1778, IX, 248, 8)

  III.iii.35 (219,6) To stride a limit] To overpass his bound.

  III.iii.35 (220,7) What should we speak of,/When we are as old as you?] This dread of an old age, unsupplied with matter for discourse and meditation, is a sentiment natural and noble. No state can be more destitute than that of him who, when the delights of sense forsake him, has no pleasures of the mind.

  III.iii.82 (221,9)

  tho’ trained up thus meanly

  I’ the cave, wherein they bow, their thoughts do hit

  The roof of palaces]

  [W: wherein they bow] HANMER reads,

  I’ the cave, here in this brow. —

  I think the reading is this:

  I’ the cave, wherein the BOW, &c.

  That is, they are trained up in the cave, where their thoughts in hitting the bow, or arch of their habitation, hit the roofs of palaces. In other words, though their condition is low, their thoughts are high. The sentence is at last, as THEOBALD remarks, abrupt, but perhaps no less suitable to Shakespeare. I know not whether Dr. WARBURTON’s conjecture be not better than mine.