Complete Works of Samuel Johnson

by Samuel Johnson

  III.iv.85 (214,4) [Fellow:] This word which originally signified companion, was not yet totally degraded to its present meaning; and Malvolio takes it in the favourable sense.

  III.iv.130 (215,6) [Hang him, foul collier] The devil is called Collier for his blackness, Like will to like, says the Devil to the Collier. (1773)

  III.iv.154 (216,7) [a finder of madmen] This is, I think, an allusion to the witch-finders, who were very busy.

  III.iv.184 (217,8) [God have mercy upon one of our souls! He may have mercy upon mine, but my hope is better] We may read, He may have mercy upon thine, but my hope is better. Yet the passage may well enough stand without alteration.

  It were much to be wished, that Shakespeare in this and some other passages, had not ventured so near profaneness.

  III.iv.228 (218,9) [wear this jewel for me] Jewel does not properly signify a single gem, but any precious ornament or superfluity.

  III.iv.257 (219,2) [Be is knight, dubb’d with unhack’d rapier, and on carpet consideration] That is, he is no soldier by profession, not a Knight Banneret, dubbed in the field of battle, but, on carpet consideration, at a festivity, or on sone peaceable occasion, when knights receive their dignity kneeling not on the ground, as in war, but on a carpet. This is, I believe, the original of the contemptuous term a carpet knight, who was naturally held in scorn by the men of war.

  III.iv.301 (222,4) [I have not seen such a virago] Virago cannot be properly used here, unless we suppose Sir Toby to mean, I never saw one that had so much the look of woman with the prowess of man.

  III.iv.408 (225,7) [Methinks, his words do from such passion fly,

  That he believes himself; — so do not I]

  This I believe, means, I do not yet believe myself, when, from this accident, I gather hope of my brother’s life.

  IV.i.14 (227,8) [I am afraid this great lubber the world will prove a cockney] That is, affectation and foppery will overspread the world.

  IV.i.57 (228,2) [In this uncivil and unjust extent] Extent is, in law, a writ of execution, whereby goods are seized for the king. It is therefore taken here for violence in general.

  IV.i.60 (228,3) [This ruffian hath botch’d up] I fancy it is only a coarse expression for made up, as a bad taylor is called a botcher. and to botch is to make clumsily.

  IV.i.63 (229,4) [He started one poor heart of mine in thee] I know not whether here be not an ambiguity intended between heart and hart. The sense however is easy enough. He that offends thee attacks one of my hearts; or, as the antients expressed it, half my heart.

  IV.i.64 (229,5) [What relish is this?] How does it taste? What judgment am I to make of it?

  IV.ii.53 (231,9) [constant question] A settled, a determinate, a regular question.

  IV.ii.68 (232,1) [Nay, I am for all waters] I rather think this expression borrowed from sportsmen, and relating to the qualifications of a complete spaniel.

  IV.ii.99 (233,2) [They have here property’d me] They have taken possession of me as of a man unable to look to himself.

  IV.ii.107 (233,3) [Maintain no words with him] Here the Clown in the dark acts two persons, and counterfeits, by variation of voice, a dialogue between himself and Sir Topas. — I Will, sir, I Will. is spoken after a pause, as if, in the mean time, Sir Topas had whispered.

  IV.ii.121 (234,4) [tell me true, are you not mad, indeed, or do you but counterfeit?] If he was not mad, what did be counterfeit by declaring that he was not mad? The fool, who meant to insult him, I think, asks, are you mad, or do you but counterfeit? That is, you look like a madman, you talk like a madman: Is your madness real, or have you any secret design in it? This, to a man in poor Malvolio’s state, was a severe taunt.

  IV.ii.134 (234,5) [like to the old vice] Vice was the fool of the old moralities. Some traces of this character are still preserved in puppet-shows, and by country mummers.

  IV.ii.141 (235.6)’Adieu, goodman devil] This last line has neither rhime nor meaning. I cannot but suspect that the fool translates Malvolio’s name, and says,

  Adieu, goodman mean-evil. (1773)

  IV.iii.12 (236,8) [all instance, all discourse] Instance is example. (see 1765, II,433,9)

  IV.iii.15 (236,9) [To any other trust] To any other belief, or confidence, to any other fixed opinion.

  IV.iii.29 (236,1) [Whiles] Is until. This word is still so used in the northern counties. It is, I think, used in this sense in the preface to the Accidence.

  IV.iii.33 (237,2) [And, having sworn truth, ever will be true] Truth is fidelity.

  V.i.23 (238,3) [so that, conclusions to be as kisses, if your four negatives make your two affirmatives, why, then the worse for my friends, and the better for my foes] Though I do not discover much ratiocination in the Clown’s discourse, yet, methinks, I can find some glimpse of a meaning in his observation, that the conclusion is as kisses. For, says he, if four negatives make two affirmatives, the conclusion is as kisses; that is, the conclusion follows by the conjunction of two negatives, which, by kissing and embracing, coalesce into one, and make an affirmative. What the four negatives are I do not know. I read, So that conclusions be as kisses.

  V.i.42 (239,4) [bells of St. Bennet] When in this play he mentioned the bed of Ware, he recollected that the scene was in Illyria, and added in England; but his sense of the same impropriety could not restrain him from the bells of St. Bennet.

  V.i.67 (240,5) [desperate of shame, and state] Unattentive to his character or his condition, like a desperate man.

  V.i.112 (241,5) [as fat and fulsome] [W: flat] Fat means dull; so we say a fatheaded fellow; fat likewise means gross, and is sometimes used for obscene; and fat is more congruent to fulsome than flat.

  V.i.168 (244,7) [case] Case is a word used contemptuously for skin.

  We yet talk of a fox case, meaning the stuffed skin of a fox.

  V.i.204 (246,9) [A natural perspective] A perspective seems to be taken for shows exhibited through a glass with such lights as make the pictures appear really protruberant. The Duke therefore says, that nature has here exhibited such a show, where shadows seem realities; where that which is not appears like that which is.

  V.i.306 (249,3) [but to read his right wits, is to read thus] Perhaps so, — but to read his wits right is to read thus. To represent his present state of mind, is to read a madman’s letter, as I now do, like a madman. (1773)

  V.i.326 (249,4) [One day shall crown the alliance on’t, so please you] [Revisal: an’t so] This is well conjectured; but on’t may relate to the double character of sister and wife. (1773)

  V.i.347 (250,5) [to frown Upon sir Toby, and the lighter people] People of less dignity or importance.

  V.i.351 (250,6) [geck] A fool.

  (253) General Observation. This play is in the graver part elegant and easy, and in some of the lighter scenes exquisitely humorous. Ague — cheek is drawn with great propriety, but his character is, in a great measure, that of natural fatuity, and is therefore not the proper prey of a satirist. The soliloquy of Malvolio is truly comic; he is betrayed to ridicule merely by his pride. The marriage of Olivia, and the succeeding perplexity, though well enough contrived to divert on the stage, wants credibility, and fails to produce the proper instruction required in the drama, as it exhibits no just picture of life.

  THE WINTER’S TALE

  (257,1) The story of this play is taken from the Pleasaunt History of Dorastus and Fawnia, written by Robert Greene. (1773)

  I.i.9 (258,2) [Wherein our entertainment shall shame us, we will be justified in our loves] Though we cannot give you equal entertainment, yet the consciousness of our good-will shall justify us.

  I.i.30 (258,3) [royally attornied] Nobly supplied by substitution of embassies, &c.

  l.i.43 (259,4) [physicks the subject] Affords a cordial to the state; has the power of assuaging the sense of misery.

  I.ii.13 (259,5) [that may blow No sneaping rinds] That may blow is a

  Gallicism, for may there blow. (1773)

  I.ii.31 (261,6) [All in Bohem
ia’s well: this satisfaction The bygone day proclaim’d] We had satisfactory accounts yesterday of the state of Bohemia. (1773)

  I.ii.123 (266,6) [We must be neat] Leontes, seeing his son’s nose smutched, cries, We must be neat, then recollecting that neat is the term for horned cattle, he says, not neat, but cleanly.

  I.ii.125 (266,7) [Still virginalling] Still playing with her fingers, as a girl playing on the virginals.

  I.ii.132 (266,8) [As o’er-dy’d blacks] Sir T. Hammer understands, blacks died too much, and therefore rotten.

  I.ii.136 (267,9) [welkin-eye] Blue eye; an eye of the same colour with the welkin, or sky.

  I.ii.139 (267,2) [Thou dost make possible things not so held] i.e. thou dost make those things possible, which are conceived to be impossible. (1773)

  I.ii.161,3 (268,3) [will you take eggs for mony?] This seems to be a proverbial expression, used when a man sees himself wronged and makes no resistance. Its original, or precise meaning, I cannot find, but I believe it means, will you be a cuckold for hire. The cuckow is reported to lay her eggs in another bird’s nest; he therefore that has eggs laid in his nest, is said to be cocullatus, cuckow’d, or cuckold.

  I.ii.163 (268,4) [happy man be his dole!] May his dole or share in life be to be a happy man.

  I.ii.176 (269,5) [he’s Appareat to my heart] That is, heir apparent.or the next claimant.

  I.ii.186 (269,6) [a fork’d one] That is, a horned one; a cuckold.

  I.ii.217 (270,9) [whispering, rounding] To round in the ear, is to whisper, or to tell secretly. The expression is very copiously explained by H. Casaubon, in his book de Ling. Sax.

  I.ii.227 (271,1) [lower messes] Mess is a contraction of Master, as Mess John. Master John; an appellation used by the Scots, to those who have taken their academical degree. Lower Messes, therefore are graduates of a lower form.

  The speaker is now mentioning gradations of understanding, and not of rank, (see 1765, II,244,9)

  I.ii.260 (372,2) [Whereof the execution did cry out Against the nonperformance] This is one of the expressions by which Shakespeare too frequently clouds his meaning. This sounding phrase means, I think, no more than a thing necessary to be done. [Revisal; the now-performance] I do not see that this attempt does any thing more, than produce a harsher word without on easier sense, (see 1765, II,245,1)

  I.ii.320 (275,5) [But with a ling’ring dram, that should not work, Maliciously, like poison] [Hammer: Like a malicious poison] Rash is hasty, as in another place, rash gunpowder. Maliciously is malignantly, with effects openly hurtful. Shakespeare had no thought of betraying the user. The Oxford emendation is harmless and useless.

  1.ii.321 (275,6)

  [But I cannot Believe this crack to be in my dread mistress, So sovereignly being honourable. Leo. I have lov’d thee — Make that thy question, and go rot!]

  [Theobald had emended the text to give the words “I have lov’d thee” to Leontes] I have admitted this alteration, as Dr. Warburton has done, but am not convinced that it is necessary. Camillo, desirous to defend the queen, and willing to secure credit to his apology, begins, by telling the king that he has loved him, is about to give instances of his love, and to infer from them his present zeal, when he is interrupted.

  I.ii.394 (278,7) [In whose success we are gentle] I know not whether success here does not mean succession.

  I.ii.424 (279,1) [Cam. Swear this thought over By each particular star in heaven] [T: this though] Swear his thought over

  May however perhaps mean, overswear his present persuasion, that is, endeavour to overcome his opinion, by swearing oaths numerous as the stars. (1773)

  I.ii.458 (281,3) [Good expedition be my friend, and comfort The gracious queen] [W: queen’s] Dr. Warburton’s conjecture is, I think, just; but what shall be done with the following words, of which I can make nothing? Perhaps the line which connected them to the rest, is lost.

  — and comfort

  The gracious queen, part of his theme, but nothing

  Of his ill-ta’en suspicion!

  Jealousy is a passion compounded of love and suspicion, this passion is the theme or subject of the king’s thoughts. — Polixenes, perhaps, wishes the queen, for her comfort, so much of that theme or subject as is good, but deprecates that which causes misery. May part of the king’s present sentiments comfort the queen, but away with his suspicion. This is such meaning as can be picked out. (1773)

  II.i.38 (283,4) [Alack, for lesser knowledge!] That is, O that my knowledge were less.

  II.i.50 (284,5) [He hath discover’d my design, and I Remain a pinch’d thing] [Revisal: The sense, I think, is, He hath now discovered my design, and I am treated as a mere child’s baby, a thing pinched out of clouts, a puppet for them to move and actuate as they please.] This sense is possible, but many other meanings might serve as well. (1773)

  II.i.100 (286,7)

  [No, if I mistake

  In these foundations which I build upon,

  The center is not big enough to bear

  A school-boy’s top]

  That is, if the proofs which I can offer will not support the opinion

  I have formed, no foundation can be trusted.

  II.i.104 (286,8) [He, who shall speak for her, is far off guilty, But that he speaks] [T: far of] It is strange that Mr. Theobald could not find out that far off guilty, signifies, guilty in a remote degree.

  II.i.121 (287,9) [this action] The word action is here taken in the lawyer’s sense, for indictment, charge, or accusation.

  II.i.143 (288,2) [land-damn him] Sir T. Hammer interprets, stop his urine. Land or lant being the old word for urine.

  Land-damn is probably one of those words which caprice brought into fashion, and which, after a short time, reason and grammar drove irrecoverably away. It perhaps meant no more than I will rid the country of him; condemn him to quit the land, (see 1765, II,259,2)

  II.i.177 (290,5) [nought for approbation, But only seeing] Approbation, in this place, is put for proof.

  II.i.185 (290,6) [stuff’d sufficiency] That is, of abilities more than enough.

  II.i.195 (291,7) [Left that the treachery of the two, fled hence, Be left her to perform] He has before declared, that there is a plot against his life and crown, and that Hermione is federary with Polixenes and Camillo.

  II.iii.5 (294,9) [out of the blank And level of my brain] Beyond the aim of any attempt that I can make against him. Blank and level are terms of archery.

  II.iii.60 (296,1) [And would by combat make her good, so were I A man, the worst about you] The worst means only the lowest. Were I the meanest of your servants, I would yet claim the combat against any accuser.

  II.iii.67 (297,2) [A mankind witch:] A mankind woman, is yet used in the midland counties, for a woman violent, ferocious, and mischievous. It has the same sense in this passage. Witches are supposed to be mankind, to put off the softness and delicacy of women, therefore Sir Hugh, in the Merry Wives of Windsor, says, of a woman inspected to be a witch, that he does not like when a woman has a beard. Of this meaning Mr. Theobald has given examples.

  II.iii.77 (298, 5)

  [Unvenerable be thy hands, if thou

  Tak’st up the princess, by that forced baseness]

  Leontes had ordered Antigonus to take up the bastard, Paulina forbids him to touch the princess under that appellation. Forced is false, uttered with violence to truth.

  II.iii.106 (299, 6) [No yellow in’t] Yellow is the colour of jealousy.

  II.iii.181 (301, 8) [commend it strangely to some place] Commit to some place, as a stranger, without more provision.

  III.i.2 (302, 9) [Fertile the isle] [Warburton objected to “isle” as impossible geographically and offered “soil”] Shakespeare is little careful of geography. There is no need of this emendation in a play of which the whole plot depends upon a geographical error, by which Bohemia is supposed to be a maritime country.

  III.i.3 (303, 1) [I shall report, For most it caught me] [W: It shames report, Foremost] Of this emendation
I see no reason; the utmost that can be necessary is, to change, it caught me, to they caught me; but even this may well enough be omitted. It may relate to the whole spectacle.

  III.i.14 (304, 2) [The time is worth the use on’t] [W: The use is worth the time on’t] Either reading may serve, but neither is very elegant. The time is worth the use on’t, means, the time which we have spent in visiting Delos, has recompensed us for the trouble of so spending it.

  III.ii.18 (305, 4) [pretence] Is, in this place, taken for a scheme laid, a design formed; to pretend means to design, in the Gent. of Verona.

  III.ii.27 (305, 5) [mine integrity, Being counted falsehood, shall, as I express it, Be so receiv’d] That is, my virtue being accounted wickedness, my assertion of it will pass but for a lie. Falsehood means both treachery and lie.

  III.ii.43 (306, 6) [For life I prize it As I weigh grief which I would spare] Life is to me now only grief, and as such only is considered by me, I would therefore willingly dismiss it.

  III.ii.44 (306, 5) [I would spare] To spare any thing is to let it go. to quit the possession of it. (1773)

  III.ii.49 (306, 7)

  [Since he came,

  With what encounter so uncurrent I

  Have strain’d, to appear thus?]

  These lines I do not understand; with the license of all editors, what I cannot understand I suppose unintelligible, and therefore propose that they may be altered thus,

  —— —— Since he came, With what encounter so uncurrent have I Been stain’d to appear thus.

  At least I think it might be read,

  With what encounter so uncurrent have I Strain’d to appear thus? If one Jet beyond. (see 1765, II,276,5)

  III.ii.55 (307,8)

  [I ne’er heard yet,

  That any of those bolder vices wanted

  Less impudence to gain — say what they did,

  Than to perform it first]

  It is apparent that according to the proper, at least according to the present, use of words, less should be more, or wanted should be had. But Shakespeare is very uncertain in his use of negatives. It nay be necessary once to observe, that in our language two negatives did not originally affirm, but strengthen the negation. This mode of speech was in time changed, but as the change was made in opposition to long custom, it proceeded gradually, and uniformity was not obtained but through an intermediate confusion.