Complete Works of Samuel Johnson

by Samuel Johnson

  V.iii.4 (123,5) [home] That is, completely, in its full extent.

  V.iii.6 (123,6) [done i’ the blade of youth] In the spring of early life, when the man is yet green, oil and fire suit but ill with blade, and therefore Dr. Warburton reads, blaze of youth.

  V.iii.21 (124,7) [the first view shall kill All repetition] The first interview shall put an end to all recollection of the past. Shakespeare is now hastening to the end of the play, finds his matter sufficient to fill up his remaining scenes, and therefore, as on other such occasions, contracts his dialogue and precipitates his action. Decency required that Bertram’s double crime of cruelty and disobedience, joined likewise with some hypocrisy, should raise more resentment; and that though his mother might easily forgive him, his king should more pertinaciously vindicate his own authority and Helen’s merit: of all this Shakespeare could not be ignorant, but Shakespeare wanted to conclude his play.

  V.iii.50 (125,9) [My high repented blames] [A long note by Warburton] It was but just to insert this note, long as it is, because the commentator seems to think it of importance. Let the reader judge.

  V.iii.65 (127,1)

  [Our own love, waking, cries to see what’s done,

  While shameful hate sleeps out the afternoon]

  These two lines I should be glad to call an interpolation of a player. They are ill connected with the former, and not very clear or proper in themselves. I believe the author made two couplets to the same purpose, wrote them both down that he might take his choice, and so they happened to be both preserved.

  For sleep I think we should read slept. Love cries to see what was done while hatred slept, and suffered mischief to be done. Or the meaning may be, that hatred still continues to sleep at ease, while love is weeping; and so the present reading may stand.

  V.iii.93 (128,3) [In Florence was it from a casement thrown me]

  Bertram still continues to have too little virtue to deserve Helen.

  He did not know indeed that it was Helen’s ring, but he knew that

  he had it not from a window.

  V.iii.95 (128,4) [Noble she was, and thought I stood engag’d] [T: I don’t understand this reading; if we are to understand, that she thought Bertram engag’d to her in affection, insnared by her charms, this meaning is too obscurely express’d.] The context rather makes me believe, that the poet wrote,

  noble she was, and thought I stood ungag’d; ——

  i.e. unengag’d: neither my heart, nor person, dispos’d of. — The plain meaning is, when she saw me receive the ring, she thought me engaged to her.

  V.iii.101 (129,5) [King Plutus himself , That knows the tinct and multiplying medicine] Plutus the grand alchemist, who knows the tincture which confers the properties of gold upon base metals, and the matter by which gold is multiplied, by which a small quantity of gold is made to communicate its qualities to a large mass of metal.

  In the reign of Henry the fourth a law was made to forbid all men thenceforth to multiply gold, or use any craft of multiplication. Of which law Mr. Boyle, when he was warm with the hope of transmutation, procured a repeal.

  V.iii.105 (129,6) [Then if you know, That you are well acquainted with yourself] The true meaning of this strange [Warburton’s word] expression is, If you know that your faculties are so found, as that you have the proper consciousness of your own actions, and are able to recollect and relate what you have done, tell me. &c.

  V.iii.121 (130,7)

  [My fore-past proofs, howe’er the matter fall,

  Shall tax my fears of little vanity,

  Having vainly fear’d too little]

  The proofs which I have already had, are sufficient to show that my fears were not vain and irrational. I have rather been hither-to more easy than I ought, and have unreasonably had too little fear.

  V.iii.131 (130,8) [Who hath, some four or five removes, come short] Removes are journies or post-stages.

  V.iii.191 (133,1) [O, behold this ring. Whose high respect and rich validity] Validity is a very bad word for value, which yet I think is its meaning, unless it be considered as making a contract valid.

  V.iii.214 (133,2)

  [As all impediments in fancy’s course,

  Are motives of more fancy: and in fine,

  Her insult coming with her modern grace,

  Subdu’d me to her rate: she got the ring]

  Every thing that obstructs love is an occasion by which love is heightened. And, to conclude, her solicitation concurring with her fashionable appearance, she got the ring.

  I an not certain that I have attained the true meaning of the word modern, which, perhaps, signifies rather meanly pretty.

  V.iii.296-305 (137,3) This dialogue is too long, since the audience already knew the whole transaction; nor is there any reason for puzzling the king and playing with his passions; but it was much easier than to make a pathetical interview between Helen and her husband, her mother, and the king.

  V.iii.305 (137,4) [exorcist] This word is used not very properly for enchanter.

  V.iii.339 (139,2) [Ours be your patience then, and yours our parts] The meaning is: Grant us then your patience; hear us without interruption. And take our parts; that is, support and defend us. (see 1765, III,399)

  (139) General Observation. This play has many delightful scenes, though not sufficiently probable, and some happy characters, though not new, nor produced by any deep knowledge of human nature. Parolles is a boaster and a coward, such as has always been the sport of the stage, but perhaps never raised more laughter or contempt than in the hands of Shakespeare.

  I cannot reconcile my heart to Bertram; a man noble without generosity, and young without truth; who marries Helen as a coward, and leaves her as a profligate: when she is dead by his unkindness, sneaks home to a second marriage, is accused by a woman whom he has wronged, defends himself by falsehood, and is dismissed to happiness.

  The story of Bertram and Diana hod been told before of Mariana and Angelo, and, to confess the truth, scarcely merited to be heard a second time.

  TWELFTH-NIGHT

  (142) The persons of the drama were first enumerated, with all the cant of the modern stage, by Mr. Rowe.

  I.i.2 (143,2) [that, surfeiting, The appetite may sicken, and so die] [W: app’tite, Love] It is true, we do not talk of the death of appetite, because we do not ordinarily speak in the figurative language of poetry; but that appetite sickens by a surfeit is true, and therefore proper.

  I.i.21 (145,6) [That instant was I turn’d into a hart] This image evidently alludes to the story of Acteon, by which Shakespeare seems to think men cautioned against too great familiarity with forbidden beauty. Acteon, who saw Diana naked, and was torn in pieces by his hounds, represents a man, who indulging his eyes, or his imagination, with the view of a woman that he cannot gain, has his heart torn with incessant longing. An interpretation far more elegant and natural than that of Sir Francis Bacon, who, in his Wisdom of the Antients, supposes this story to warn us against enquiring into the secrets of princes, by shewing, that those who knew that which for reasons of state is to be concealed, will be detected and destroyed by their own servants.

  I.ii.25 (147,9) [A noble Duke in nature, as in name] I know not whether the nobility of the name is comprised in Duke, or in Orsino, which is, I think, the name of a great Italian family.

  I.ii.42 (148,1)

  [Vio. O, that I serv’d that lady;

  And might not be deliver’d to the world,

  ‘Till I had made mine own occasion mellow

  What my estate is!]

  I wish I might not be made public to the world, with regard to the state of my birth and fortune, till I have gained a ripe opportunity for my design.

  Viola seems to have formed a very deep design with very little premeditation: she is thrown by shipwreck on an unknown coast, hears that the prince is a batchelor, and resolves to supplant the lady whom he courts.

  I.ii.55 (149,2) [I’ll serve this Duke] Viola is an excellent schemer, never at a l
oss; if she cannot serve the lady, she will serve the Duke.

  I.iii.77 (152,5) [It’s dry, sir] What is the jest of dry hand, I know not any better than Sir Andrew. It may possibly mean, a hand with no money in it; or, according to the rules of physiognomy, she may intend to insinuate, that it is not a lover’s hand, a moist hand being vulgarly accounted a sign of an amorous constitution.

  I.iii.148 (154,9) [Taurus? that’s sides and heart] Alluding to the medical astrology still preserved in almanacks, which refers the affections or particular parts of the body, to the predominance of particular constellations.

  I.iv.34 (155,1) [And all is semblative — a woman’s part] That is, thy proper part in a play would be a woman’s. Women were then personated by boys.

  I.v.9 (156,2) [lenten answer] A lean, or as we now call it, a dry answer.

  I.v.39 (157,4) [Better be a witty fool, than a foolish wit] Hall, in his Chronicle, speaking of the death of Sir Thomas More, says, that he knows not whether to call him a foolish wise man, or a wise foolish man.

  I.v.105 (159,5) [Now Mercury indue thee with leasing, for thou speak’st well of fools!] [W: pleasing] I think the present reading more humourous. May Mercury teach thee to lie, since thou liest in favour of fools.

  I.v.213 (164,1) [to make one in so skipping a dialogue] Wild, frolick, mad.

  I.v.218 (164,2) [Some mollification for your giant] Ladies, in romance, are guarded by giants, who repel all improper or troublesome advances. Viola seeing the waiting-maid so eager to oppose her message, intreats Olivia to pacify her giant.

  I.v.328 (168,8)

  [Oli. I do, I know not what; and fear to find Mine eye too great a flatterer for my mind]

  I believe the meaning is; I am not mistress of my own actions, I am afraid that my eyes betray me, and flatter the youth without my consent, with discoveries of love.

  II.i.15 (169,9) [to express myself] That is, to reveal myself.

  II.i.28 (169,1) [with such estimable wonder] These words Dr. Warburton calls an interpolation of the players, but what did the players gain by it? they may be sometimes guilty of a joke without the concurrence of the poet, but they never lengthen a speech only to make it longer. Shakespeare often confounds the active and passive adjectives. Estimable wonder is esteeming wonder, or wonder and esteem. The meaning is, that he could not venture to think so highly as others of his sister.

  II.ii.21 (171,2) [her eyes had lost her tongue] [W: crost] That the fascination of the eyes was called crossing ought to have been proved. But however that be, the present reading has not only sense but beauty. We say a man loses his company when they go one way and he goes another. So Olivia’s tongue lost her eyes; her tongue was talking of the Duke and her eyes gazing on his messenger.

  II.ii.29 (171,3) [the pregnant enemy] is, I believe, the dexterous fiend, or enemy of mankind. (1773)

  II.ii.30 (171,4)

  [How easy is it, for the proper false

  In women’s waxen hearts to set their forms]

  This is obscure. The meaning is, how easy is disguise to women; how easily does their own falsehood, contained in their waxen changeable hearts, enable them to assume deceitful appearances. The two next lines are perhaps transposed, and should be read thus,

  For such as we are made, if such we be, Alas, our frailty is the cause, not we.

  II.iii.27 (175,9) [I did impeticoat thy gratility] This, Sir T. Hammer tells us, is the same with impocket thy gratuity. He is undoubtedly right; but we must read, I did impeticoat thy gratuity. The fools were kept in long coats, to which the allusion is made. There is yet much in this dialogue which I do not understand.

  II.iii.51 (176,1) [In delay there lies no plenty] [W: decay] I believe delay is right.

  II.iii.52 (176,2) [Then come kiss me, sweet, and twenty] This line is obscure; we might read,

  Come, a kiss then, sweet, and twenty.

  Yet I know not whether the present reading be not right, for in some counties sweet and twenty, whatever be the meaning, is a phrase of endearment.

  II.iii.59 (176,3) [make the welkin dance] That is, drink till the sky seems to turn round.

  II.iii.75 (177,5) [They sing a catch] This catch is lost.

  II.iii.81 (177,6) [Peg-a-Ramsey] Peg-a-Ramsey I do not understand. Tilly vally was an interjection of contempt, which Sir Thomas More a lady is recorded to have had very often in her mouth.

  II.iii.97 (178,7) [ye squeak out your coziers catches] A Cozier is a taylor, from coudre to sew, part, consu, French, (see 1765, 11,383,2)

  II.iii.128 (180,l) [rub your chain with crums] I suppose it should be read, rub your chin with crums, alluding to what had been said before that. Malvolio was only a steward, and consequently dined after his lady.

  II.iii.131 (180,2) [you would not give means for this uncivil rule] Rule is, method of life, so misrule is tumult and riot.

  II.iii.149 (181,3) [Possess us] That is, inform us, tell us, make us masters of the matter.

  II.iv.5 (183,5) [light airs, and recollected terms] I rather think that recollected signifies, more nearly to its primitive sense, recalled, repeated, and alludes to the practice of composers, who often prolong the song by repetitions.

  II.iv.26 (184,6) [favour] The word favour ambiguously used.

  II.iv.35 (184,7) [lost and worn] Though lost and worn may means lost and worn out, yet lost and won being, I think, better, these two words coming usually and naturally together, and the alteration being very slight, I would so read in this place with Sir Tho. Hammer.

  II.iv.46 (185,8) [free] is, perhaps, vacant, unengaged, easy in mind.

  II.iv.47 (185,9) [silly sooth] It is plain, simple truth.

  II.iv.49 (185,2) [old age] The old age is the ages past, the times of simplicity.

  II.iv.58 (185,3) [My part of death no one so true Did share it] Though death is a part in which every one acts his share, yet of all these actors no one is so true as I.

  II.iv.87 (187,6)

  [But ’tis that miracle, and queen of gems,

  That nature pranks her in]

  [W: pranks, her mind] The miracle and queen of gems is her beauty, which the commentator might have found without so emphatical an enquiry. As to her mind, he that should be captious would say, that though it may be formed by nature it must be pranked by education.

  Shakespeare does not say that nature pranks her in a miracle, but in the miracle of gems, that is, in a gem miraculously beautiful.

  II.v.43 (191,2) [the lady of the Strachy] [W: We should read Trachy. i.e. Thrace; for so the old English writers called it] What we should read is hard to say. Here it an allusion to some old story which I have not yet discovered.

  II.v.51 (191,3) [stone-bow] That is, a cross-bow, a bow which shoots stones.

  II.v.66 (192,4) [wind up my watch] In our author’s time watches were very uncommon. When Guy Faux was taken, it was urged as a circumstance of suspicion that a watch was found upon him.

  II.v.70 (192,5) [Tho’ our silence be drawn from us with carts] I believe the true reading is, Though our silence be drawn from us with carts, yet peace. In the The Two Gentlemen of Verona, one of the Clowns says, I have a mistress, but who that is, a team of horses shall not draw from me. So in this play, Oxen and wainropes will not bring them together.

  II.v.97 (193,7) [her great P’s] [Steevens: In the direction of the letter which Malvolio reads, there is neither a C, nor a P, to be found] There may, however, be words in the direction which he does not read. To formal directions of two ages ago were often added these words, Humbly Present. (1773)

  II.v.144 (195,2) [And O shall end, I hope] By O is here meant what we now call a hempen collar.

  II.v.207 (197,6) [tray-trip] The word tray-trip I do not understand.

  II.v.215 (198,7) [aqua vitae] Is the old name of strong waters.

  III.i.57 (200,9) [lord Pandarus] See our author’s play of Troilus and Cressida.

  III.i.71 (200,1) [And, like the haggard, check at every feather] The meaning may be, that he must catch every opportunity,
as the wild hawk strikes every bird. But perhaps it might be read more properly,

  Not like the haggard.

  He must chuse persons and times, and observe tempers, he must fly at proper game, like the trained hawk, and not fly at large like the haggard, to seize all that comes in his way. (1773)

  III.i.75 (201,2) [But wise-men’s folly fall’n] Sir Thomas Hammer reads, folly shewn. [The sense is, But wise men’s folly, when it is once fallen into extravagance, overpowers their discretion. Revisal.] I explain it thus. The folly which he shows with proper adaptation to persons and times, is fit, has its propriety, and therefore produces no censure; but the folly of wise men when it falls or happens, taints their wit, destroys the reputation of their judgment. (see 1765, II,402,2)

  III.i.86 (202,4) [she is the list of my voyage] Is the bound, limit, farthest point.

  III.i.100 (202,5) [most pregnant and vouchsafed ear] Pregnant is a word in this writer of very lax signification. It may here mean liberal. (1773)

  III.i.123 (203,6) [After the last enchantment (you did hear)] [W: enchantment you did here] The present reading is no more nonsense than the emendation.

  III.i.132 (203,8) [a Cyprus] Is a transparent stuff.

  III.i.135 (204,9) [a grice] Is a step, sometimes written greese from degres, French.

  III.i.170 (205,1) [I have one heart, one bosom, and one truth, And that no woman has] And that heart and boson I have never yielded to any woman.

  III.ii.45 (207,5) [Go, write it in a martial hand; be curst and brief] Martial hand, seems to be a careless scrawl, such as shewed the writer to neglect ceremony. Curst, is petulant, crabbed — a curst cur, is a dog that with little provocation snarls and bites. (1773)

  III.iv.61 (213,1) [midsummer madness] Hot weather often turns the brain, which is, I suppose, alluded to here.

  III.iv.82 (214,3) [I have lim’d her] I have entangled or caught her, as a bird is caught with birdlime.