III.i.2 (71,1) The day is hot] It is observed, that in Italy almost all assassinations are committed during the heat of summer.
III.i.124 (75,6) This day’s black fate on more days does depend] This day’s unhappy destiny hangs over the days yet to come. There will yet be more mischief.
III.i.141 (78,7) Oh! I am fortune’s fool] I am always running in the way of evil fortune, like the fool in the play. Thou art death’s fool, in Measure for Measure. See Dr. Warburton’s note.
III.i.153 (77,8) as thou art true] As thou art just and upright.
III.i.159 (77,9) How nice the quarrel] How slight, how unimportant, how petty. So in the last act,
The letter was not nice, but full of charge
Of dear import.
III.i.182 (78,2) Affection makes him false] The charge of falshood on Bonvolio, though produced at hazard, is very just. The author, who seems to intend the character of Bonvolio as good, meant perhaps to shew, how the best minds, in a state of faction and discord, are detorted to criminal partiality.
III.i.193 (78,3) I have an interest in your hate’s proceeding: Sir Thomas Hanmer saw that this line gave no sense, and therefore put, by a very easy change,
I have an interest in your heat’s proceeding!
which is undoubtedly better than the old reading which Dr. Warburton has followed; but the sense yet seems to be weak, and perhaps a more licentious correction is necessary. I read therefore,
I had no interest in your heat’s preceding.
This, says the prince, is no quarrel of mine, I had no interest in your former discord; I suffer merely by your private animosity.
III.ii.5 (79,3) Spread thy close curtain, love-performing night,/That run-away’s eyes may wink] [Warburton explained the “run-away” as the “sun”] I am not satisfied with this explanation, yet have nothing better to propose.
III.ii.10 (80,4) Come, civil night] Civil is grave, decently solemn.
III.ii.14 (80,5) unmann’d blood] Blood yet unacquainted with man.
III.ii.25 (81,6) the garish sun] Milton had this speech in his thoughts when he wrote Il Penseroso.
“ — Civil night,
“Thou sober-suited matron.” — Shakespeare.
“Till civil-suited morn appear.” — Milton.
“Pay no worship to the gairish sun.” — Shakespeare.
“Hide me from day’s gairish eye.” — Milton.
III.ii.46 (82,7) the death-darting eye of cockatrice] [The strange lines that follow here in the common books are not in the old edition. POPE.] The strange lines are these:
I am not I, if there be such an I,
Or these eyes shot, that makes thee answer I;
If he be slain, say I; or if not, no;
Brief sounds determine of my weal or woe.
These lines hardly deserve emendatien; yet it may be proper to observe, that their meanness has not placed them below the malice of fortune, the two first of them being evidently transposed; we should read,
— That one vowel I shall poison more,
Than the death-darting eye of cockatrice,
Or these eyes shot, that make thee answer, I.
I am not I, &c.
III.ii.114 (85,9) Hath slain ten thousand Tybalts] Hath put Tybalt out of my mind, as if out of being.
III.ii.120 (85,1) Which modern lamentation might have mov’d] This line is left out of the later editions, I suppose because the editors did not remember that Shakespeare uses modern for common, or slight: I believe it was in his time confounded in colloquial language with moderate.
III.iii.112 (89,4)
Unseemly woman in a seeming man!
And ill-beseeming beast in seeming both!]
[W: seeming groth] The old reading is probable. Thou art a beast of ill qualities, under the appearance both of a woman and a man.
III.iii.135 (90,5) And thou dismember’d with thine own defence] And thou torn to pieces with thy own weapons.
III.iii.166-168 (91,6) Go hence. Good night] These three lines are omitted in all the modern editions.
III.iii.166 (91,7) here stands all your state] The whole of your fortune depends on this.
III.iv.12 (92,9) Sir Paris, I will make a desperate tender/Of my child’s love] Desperate means only bold, advent’rous, as if he had said in the vulgar phrase, I will speak a bold word, and venture to promise you my daughter.
III.v.20 (94,1) ’Tis but the pale reflex of Cynthia’s brow] The appearance of a cloud opposed to the moon.
III.v.23 (94,2) I have more care to stay, than will to go] Would it be better thus, I have more will to stay, than care to go?
III.v.31 (94,3) Some say, the lark and loathed toad chang’d eyes] This tradition of the toad and lark I hare heard expressed in a rustick rhyme,
— to heav’n I’d fly,
But the toad beguil’d me of my eye.
III.v.33 (95,4)
Since arm from arm that voice doth us affray,
Hunting thee hence with huntaup to the day]
These two lines are omitted in the modern editions, and do not deserve to be replaced, but as they may shew the danger of critical temerity. Dr. Warburton’s change of I would to I wot was specious enough, yet it it is evidently erroneous. The sense is this, The lark, they say, has lost her eyes to the toad, and now I would the toad had her voice too, since she uses it to the disturbance of lovers.
III.v.86 (97,3)
Jul. Ay, Madam, from the reach of these my hands:
‘Would, none but I might venge my cousin’s death.!]
Juliet’s equivocations are rather too artful for a mind disturbed by the loss of a new lover.
III.v.91 (98,4) That shall bestow on hin so sure a draught] [Thus the elder quarto, which I have followed in preference to the quarto 1609, and the folio 1623, which read, less intelligibly,
“Shall give him such an unaccustom’d dram.” STEEVENS.]
— unaccustomed dram.] In vulgar language, Shall give him a dram which he is not used to. Though I have, if I mistake not, observed, that in old books unaccustomed signifies wonderful, powerful, efficacious.
III.v.112 (98,6) in happy time] A la bonne heure. This phrase was interjected, when the hearer was not quite so well pleased as the speaker.
III.v.227 (103,3) As living here] Sir T. HANMER reads, as living hence; that is, at a dsitance, in banishment; but here may signify, in this world.
IV.i.3 (104,1) And I am nothing alow to slack his haste] His haste shall not be abated by my slowness. It might be read,
And I an nothing slow to back his haste:
that is, I am diligent to abet and enforce his haste.
IV.i.l8 (104,2)
Par. Happily met, my lady and my wife!
Jul. That may be, Sir, when I may be a wife]
As these four first lines seem intended to rhyme, perhaps the author wrote thus:
— my lady and my life!
IV.i.62 (106,3) this bloody knife/Shall play the umpire] That is, this knife shall decide the struggle between me and my distress.
IV.i.64 (106,4) commission of thy years and art] Commission is for authority or power.
IV.i.79 (106,5)
Or chain me to some sleepy mountain’s top,
Where rearing bears and savage lions roam;
Or shut me nightly in a charnel house]
[Or walk in thievish ways, or bid me lurk
Where serpents are; chain me with rearing bears,
Or hide me nightly, &c.
It is thus the editions vary. POPE.] my edition has the words which Mr. Pope has omitted; but the old copy seems in this place preferable; only perhaps we might better read,
Where savage bears and rearing lions roam.
IV.i.119 (108,8) If no unconstant toy] If no fickle freak, no light caprice, no change of fancy, hinder the performance.
IV.ii.38 (110,2) We shall be short] That is, we shall be defective.
IV.iii.3 (110,3) For I have need of many orisons] Juliet plays most of her pranks under
the appearance of religion: perhaps Shakespeare meant to punish her hypocrisy.
IV.iii.46 (112,6) Alas, alas! it is not like that I] This speech is confused, and inconsequential, according to the disorder of Juliet’s mind.
IV.iv.4 (113,1) The curfeu bell] I knew not that the morning-bell is called the curfeu in any other place.
IV.iv.107 (119,9) O, play me some merry dump] This is not in the folio, but the answer plainly requires it.
V.i (121,1) ACT V. SCENE I. MANTUA] The acts are here properly enough divided, nor did any better distribution than the editors have already made, occur to me in the perusal of this play; yet it may not be improper to remark, that in the first folio, and I suppose the foregoing editions are in the same state, there is no division of the acts, and therefore some future editor may try, whether any improvement can be made, by reducing them to a length more equal, or interrupting the action at more proper intervals.
V.i.1 (121,2) If I may trust the flattering truth of sleep] The sense is, If I may only trust the honesty of sleep, which I know however not to be so nice as not often to practise flattery.
V.i.3 (121,3)
My bosom’s lord sits lightly on his throne;
And all this day an unaccustom’d spirit
Lifts me above the ground with chearful thoughts]
These three lines are very gay and pleasing. But why does Shakespeare give Romeo this involuntary cheerfulness just before the extremity of unhappiness? Perhaps to shew the vanity of trusting to these uncertain and casual exaltations or depressions, which many consider as certain foretokens of good and evil.
V.i.45 (123,6) A beggarly account of empty boxes] Dr. Warburton would read, a braggartly account; but beggarly is probably right: if the boxes were empty, the account was more beggarly, as it was more pompous.
V.iii.31 (127,1) a ring that I must use/In dear employment] That is, action of importance. Gems were supposed to have great powers and virtues.
V.iii.86 (129,4) her beauty makes/This vault a feasting presence full of light] A presence is a public room.
V.iii.90 (129,5) O, how may I/Call this a lightning?] I think we should read,
— O, now may I
Call this a lightning! —
V.iii.178 (135,1)
Raise up the Montagues. — Some others; search: —
We see the ground whereon these woes do lie;
But the true ground of all these piteous woes
We cannot without circumstance descry]
Here seems to be a rhyme intended, which may be easily restored;
“Raise up the Montagues. Some others, go.
“We see the ground whereon these woes do lie,
“But the true ground of all this piteous woe
“We cannot without circumstance descry.”
V.iii.194 (136,2) What fear is this, which startles in our ears?] [Originally your ears] Read,
“What fear is this, which startles in our ears?
V.iii.229 (138,6) Fri. I will be brief] It is much to be lamented, that the poet did not conclude the dialogue with the action, and avoid a narrative of events which the audience already knew.
(141) General Observation. This play is one of the most pleasing of our author’s performances. The scenes are busy and various, the incidents numerous and important, the catastrophe irresistibly affecting, and the process of the action carried on with such probability, at least with such congruity to popular opinions, as tragedy requires.
Here is one of the few attempts of Shakespeare to exhibit the conversation of gentlemen, to represent the airy sprightliness of juvenile elegance. Mr. Dryden mentions a tradition, which might easily reach his time, of a declaration made by Shakespeare, that he was obliged to kill Mercutio in the third act, lest he should have been killed by him. Yet he thinks him no such formidable person, but that he might have lived through the play, and died in his bed, without danger to a poet. Dryden well knew, had he been in quest of truth, that, in a pointed sentence, more regard is commonly had to the words than the thought, and that it is very seldom to be rigorously understood. Mercutio’s wit, gaiety, and courage, will always procure him friends that wish him a longer life; but his death is not precipitated, he has lived out the time allotted him in the construction of the play; nor do I doubt the ability of Shakespeare to have continued his existence, though some of his sallies are perhaps out of the reach of Dryden; whose genius was not very fertile of merriment, nor ductile to humour, but acute, argumentative, comprehensive, and sublime.
The Nurse is one of the characters in which the author delighted: he has, with great subtilty of distinction, drawn her at once loquacious and secret, obsequious and insolent, trusty and dishonest.
His comic scenes are happily wrought, but his pathetic strains are always polluted with some unexpected depravations. His persons, however distressed, have a conceit left them in their misery, a miserable conceit.
HAMLET
(145,2) This play is printed both in the folio of 1623, and in the quarto of 1637, more correctly, than almost any other of the works of Shakespeare.
I.i.29 (147,7) approve our eyes] Add a new testimony to that of our eyes.
I.i.33 (147,8) What we two nights have seen] This line is by Hanmer given to Marcellus, but without necessity.
I.i.63 (149,9) He smote the sledded Polack on the ice] Polack was, in that age, the term for an inhabitant of Poland: Polaque, French. As in a translation of Passeratius’s epitaph on Henry III. of France, published by Camden:
“Whether thy chance or choice thee hither brings,
“Stay, passenger, and wail the best of kings.
“this little stone a great king’s heart doth hold,
“Who rul’d the fickle French and Polacks bold:
“So frail are even the highest earthly things,
“Go, passenger, and wail the hap of kings.” (rev. 1776, I, 174,3)
I.i.65 (149,2) and just at this dead hour] The old reading is, jump at this same hour; same is a kind of correlative to jump; just is in the oldest folio. The correction was probably made by the author.
I.i.68 (149,4) gross and scope] General thoughts, and tendency at large. (1773)
I.i.93 (151,7) And carriage of the articles design’d] Carriage, is import; design’d, is formed, drawn up between them.
I.i.96 (151,8) Of unimproved mettle hot and full] Full of unimproved mettle, is full of spirit not regulated or guided by knowledge or experience.
I.i.100 (151,1) That hath a stomach in’t] Stomach, in the time of our author, was used for constancy, resolution.
I.i.107 (152,3) romage] Tumultous hurry. (1773)
I.i.108-125 (152,3) These, and all other lines confin’d within crotchets throughout this play, are omitted in the folio edition of 1623. The omissions leave the play sometimes better and sometimes worse, and seen made only for the sake of abbreviation.
I.i.109 (152,4) Well may it sort] The cause and the effect are proportionate and suitable. (1773)
I.i.121 (152,7) Was even the like precurse of fierce events] Not only such prodigies have been seen in Rome, but the elements have shewn our countrymen like forerunners and foretokens of violent events. (1773)
I.i.128 (153,1) If thou hast any sound] The speech of Horatio to the spectre is very elegant and noble, and congruous to the common traditions of the causes of apparitions.
I.i.153 (154,2)
Whether in sea or fire, in earth or air,
The extravagant and erring spirit hies
To his confine]
According to the pneumatology of that tine, every element was inhabited by its peculiar order of spirits, who had dispositions different, according to their various places of abode. The meaning therefore is, that all spirits extravagant, wandering out of their element, whether aerial spirits visiting earth, or earthly spirits ranging the air, return to their station, to their proper limits in which they are confined. We might read,
“ — And at his warning
“Th’ extravagant and er
ring spirit hies
“To his confine, whether in sea or air,
“Or earth, or fire. And of, &c.
But this change, tho’ it would smooth the construction, is not necessary, and being unnecessary, should not be made against authority.
I.i.163 (154,5) No fairy takes] No fairy strikes, with lameness or diseases. This sense of take is frequent in this author.
I.ii.37 (156,8) more than the scope/Of these dilated articles allows] More than is comprised in the general design of these articles, which you may explain in a more diffuse and dilated stile. (1773)
I.ii.47 (157,9)
The head is not more native to the heart,
The hand more instrumental to the mouth,
Than to the throne of Denmark is thy father]
[W: The blood ... Than to the throne] Part of this emendation I have received, but cannot discern why the head is not as much native to the heart, as the blood, that is, natural and congenial to it, born with it, and co-operating with it. The relation is likewise by this reading better preserved, the counsellor being to the king as the head to the heart.
I.ii.62 (158,1)
Take thy fair hour, Laertes; time be thine,
And thy best graces spend it at thy will]
I rather think this line is in want of emendation. I read,
— Time is thine,
And my best graces; spend it at thy will.
I.ii.65 (158,2) A little more than kin, and less than kind] Kind is the Teutonick word for child. Hamlet therefore answers with propriety, to the titles of cousin and son, which the king had given him, that he was somewhat more than cousin, and less than son.
I.ii.67 (159,3) too much i’ the sun] He perhaps alludes to the proverb, Out of heaven’s blessing into the warm sun.
I.ii.70 (159,4) veiled lids] With lowering eyes, cast down eyes. (1773)
I.ii.89 (160,5) your father lost a father;/That father lost, lost his] I do not admire the repetition of the word, but it has so much of our author’s manner, that I find no temptation to recede from the old copies.
I.ii.92 (160,6) obsequious sorrow] Obsequious is here from obsequies, or funeral ceremonies.
I.ii.103 (161,9) To reason most absurd] Reason is here used in its common sense, for the faculty by which we form conclusions from arguments.
Complete Works of Samuel Johnson Page 569