Complete Works of Samuel Johnson, page 590
Of this play the two plots are so well united, that they can hardly be called two without injury to the art with which they are interwoven. The attention is entertained with all the variety of a double plot, yet is not distracted by unconnected incidents.
The part between Catharine and Petruchio is eminently spritely and diverting. At the marriage of Bianca the arrival of the real father, perhaps, produces more perplexity than pleasure. The whole play is very popular and diverting, (see 1765, III,97,5)
Vol. IV
ALL’S WELL THAT ENDS WELL
I.i.1 (3,2) [In delivering my son from me] [W: dissevering] Of this change I see no need: the present reading is clear, and, perhaps, as proper as that which the great commentator would substitute; for the king dissevers her son from her, she only delivers him.
I.i.5 (4,3) [to whom I am now in ward] Under his particular care, as my guardian, till I come to age. It is now almost forgotten in England that the heirs of great fortunes were the king’s wards. Whether the same practice prevailed in France, it is of no great use to enquire, for Shakespeare gives to all nations the manners of England.
I. i.19 (4,5) [This young gentlewoman had a father, (O, that had! how sad a passage ’tis!)] [W: presage ’tis] This emendation is ingenious, perhaps preferable to the present reading, yet since passage may be fairly enough explained, I have left it in the text. Passage is anything that passes, so we now say, a passage of an authour. and we said about a century ago, the passages of a reign. When the countess mentions Helena’s loss of a father, she recollects her own loss of a husband, and stops to observe how heavily that word had passes through her mind.
I.i.48 (6,6) [for where an unclean mind carries virtuous qualities, there commendations go with pity, they are virtues and traitors too; in her they are the better for their simpleness; she derives her honesty, and atchieves her goodness] [W: her simpleness] This is likewise a plausible but unnecessary alteration. Her virtues are the better for their simpleness, that is, her excellencies are the better because they are artless and open, without fraud, without design. The learned commentator has well explained virtues. but has not, I think, reached the force of the word traitors, and therefore has not shown the full extent of Shakespeare’s masterly observation. Virtues in an unclean mind are virtues and traitors too. Estimable and useful qualities, joined with evil disposition, give that evil disposition power over others, who, by admiring the virtue, are betrayed to the malevolence. The Tatler mentioning the sharpers of his time, observes, that some of them are men of such elegance and knowledge, that a young man who falls into their way is betrayed as much by his judgment as his passions.
I.i.86 (7,8) [If the living be enemy to the grief, the excess makes it soon mortal] [W: be not enemy] This emendation I had once admitted into the text, but restored the old reading, because I think it capable of an easy explication. Lafeu says, excessive grief is the enemy of the living: the countess replies, If the living be an enemy to grief, the excess soon makes it mortal: that is, if the living do not indulge grief, grief destroys itself by its own excess. By the word mortal I understand that which dies, and Dr. Warburton, that which destroys. I think that my interpretation gives a sentence more acute and more refined. Let the reader judge.
I.i.78 (8,9) [That thee may furnish] That may help thee with more and better qualifications.
I.i.84 (8,1) [The best wishes that can beforg’d in your thoughts, be servants to you!] That is, may you be mistress of your wishes, and have power to bring then to effect.
I.i.91 (8,2) [And these great tears grace his remembrance more] The tears which the king and countess shed for him.
I.i.99 (8,3) [In his bright radiance and collateral light Must I be comforted, not in his sphere] I cannot be united with him and move in the same sphere, but must be comforted at a distance by the radiance that shoots on all sides from him.
I.i.107 (9,4) [Of every line and trick of his sweet favour!] So in King John; he hath a trick of Coeur de Lion’s face. Trick seen to be some peculiarity of look or feature.
I.i.122 (9,6) [you have some stain of soldier in you] [W: “Stain for colour.”] Stain rather for what we now say tincture, some qualities, at least superficial, of a soldier. (1773)
I.i.150 (10,8) [He, that hangs himself, is a virgin] [W: As he…so is] I believe most readers Will spare both the emendations, which I do not think much worth a claim or a contest. The old reading is more spritely and equally just.
I.i.165 (11,1) [Marry, ill, to like him that ne’er it likes] Parolles, in answer to the question, how one shall lose virginity to her own liking? plays upon the word liking, and says, she must do ill, for virginity, to be so lost, must like him that likes not virginity.
I.i.178-191 (12,5) [Not my virginity yet] This whole speech is abrupt, unconnected, and obscure. Dr. Warburton thinks much of it suppofititious. I would be glad to think so of the whole, for a commentator naturally wishes to reject what he cannot understand. Something, which should connect Helena’s words with those of Parolles, seems to be wanting. Hammer has made a fair attempt by reading,
Not my virginity yet — You’re for the court, There shall your master, &c.
Some such clause has, I think, dropped out, but still the first words want connection. Perhaps Parolles, going away after his harangue, said, will you any thing with me? to which Helen may reply — I know not what to do with the passage.
I.i.184 (13,7) [a traitress] It seems that traitress was in that age a term of endearment, for when Lafeu introduces Helena to the king, he says, You like a traytor, but such traytors his majesty does not much fear.
I.i.199 (14,8) [And shew what we alone must think] And shew by realities what we now must only think.
I.i.218 (14,9) [is a virtue of a good wing, and I like the wear well] [W: good ming] This conjecture I could wish to see better proved. This common word ming I have never found. The first edition of this play exhibits wing without a capital: yet, I confess, that a virtue of good wing is an expression that I cannot understand, unless by a metaphor taken from falconry, it may mean, a virtue that will fly high, and in the stile of Hotspur, Pluck honour from the moon.
I.i.235 (15,1) [What power is it, which mounts my love so high;
That makes me see, and cannot feed mine eye?]
She means, by what influence is my love directed to a person so much above me. [why am I made to discern excellence, sad left to long after it, without the food of hope.]
I.i.237 (15,2)
[The mightiest space in fortune, nature brings
To join like likes, and kiss, like native things.
Impossible be strange attempts, to those
That weigh their pain in sense; and do suppose,
What hath been]
All these four lines are obscure, and, I believe, corrupt. I shall propose an emendation, which those who can explain the present reading, are at liberty to reject.
Through mightiest space in fortune nature brings
Likes to join likes, and kiss, like native things.
That is, nature brings like qualities and dispositions to meet through any distance that fortune may have set between them; she joins them and makes them kiss like things born together.
The next lines I read with Hammer.
Impossible be strange attempts to those That weigh their pains in sense, and do suppose What ha’n’t been, cannot be.
New attempts seen impossible to those who estimate their labour or enterprises by sense, and believe that nothing can be but what they see before them.
I.ii.32 (17,3)
[He had the wit, which I can well observe
To-day in our young lords, but they may jest,
Till their own scorn return to them; unnoted,
Ere they can hide their levity in honour]
I believe honour is not dignity of birth or rank, but acquired reputation: Your father, says the king, had the same airy flights of satirical wit-with the young lords of the present time, but they do not what he did, hide their unnoted levity in honour, cover petty faults with great merit.
This is an excellent observation. Jocose follies, and slight offences, are only allowed by mankind in him that overpowers them by great qualities.
I.ii.36 (18,4)
[So like a courtier, contempt nor bitterness
Were in his pride or sharpness; if they were,
His equal had awak’d them]
[W: no contempt or] The original edition reads the first line thus,
So like a courtier, contempt nor bitterness.
The sense is the same. Nor was used without reduplication. So in Measure for Measure,
More nor less to others paying, Than by self-offences weighing.
The old text needs to be explained. He was so like a courtier, that there was in his dignity of manner nothing contemptuous, and
I.ii.41 (19, 5) [His tongue obey’d his hand] We should read,
His tongue obeyed the hand.
That is, the hand of his honour’s clock, shewing the true minute when exceptions bad him speak.
I.ii.44 (19, 7) [Making then proud of his humility, In their poor praise he humbled] [W: proud; and his] Every man has seen the mean too often proud of the humility of the great, and perhaps the great may sometimes be humbled in the praises of the mean, of those who commend them without conviction or discernment: this, however is not so common; the mean are found more frequently than the great.
I.ii.50 (19, 8)
[So in approof lives not his epitaph,
As in your royal speech]
[W: Epitaph for character.] I should wish to read,
Approof so lives not in his epitaph, As in your royal speech.
Approof is approbation. If I should allow Dr. Warburton’s interpretation of Epitaph, which is more than can be reasonably expected, I can yet find no sense in the present reading.
I.ii.61 (20, 9) [whose judgments are meer fathers of their garments] Who have no other use of their faculties, than to invent new modes of dress.
I.iii (21, 1) [Enter Countess, Steward, and Clown] A Clown in Shakespeare is commonly taken for a licensed jester, or domestick fool. We are not to wonder that we find this character often in his plays, since fools were, at that time, maintained in all great families, to keep up merriment in the house. In the picture of Sir Thomas More’s family, by Hans Holbein, the only servant represented is Patison the fool. This is a proof of the familiarity to which they were admitted, not by the great only, but the wise.
In some plays, a servant, or a rustic, of remarkable petulance and freedom of speech, is likewise called a clown.
I.iii.3 (21, 2) [to even your content] To act up to your desires.
I.iii.45 (23, 4) [You are shallow, madam, in great friends; for the knaves come to do that for me, which I am a weary of] [Tyrwhitt: my great] The meaning seems to be, you are not deeply skilled in the character of offices of great friends. (1773)
I.iii.96 (26, 1) [Clo. That man should be at woman’s command, and yet no hurt done! — Tho’ honesty be no puritan, yet it will do no hurt; it will wear the surplice of humility over the black gown of a big heart] The clown’s answer is obscure. His lady bids him do as he is commanded. He answers with the licentious petulance of his character, that if a man does as a woman commands, it is likely he will do amiss; that he does not amiss, being at the command of a woman, he makes the effect, not of his lady’s goodness, but of his own honesty, which, though not very nice or puritanical, will do no hurt; and will not only do no hurt, but, unlike the puritans, will comply with the injunctions of superiors, and wear the surplice of humility over the black gown of a big heart; will obey commands, though not much pleased with a state of subjection.
Here is an allusion, violently enough forced in, to satirize the obstinacy with which the puritans refused the use of the ecclesiastical habits, which was, at that time, one principal cause of the breach of union, and, perhaps, to insinuate, that the modest purity of the surplice was sometimes a cover for pride.
I.iii.140 (28,3) [By our remembrances] That is, according to our recollection. So we say, he is old by my reckoning.
I.iii.169 (29,5)
[ — or, were you both our mothers I care no more for, than I do for heaven. So I were not his sister]
[W: I can no more fear, than I do fear heav’n.] I do not much yield to this emendation; yet I have not been able to please myself with any thing to which even my own partiality can give the preference.
Sir Thomas Banner reads,
Or were you both our mothers. I cannot ask for more than that of heaven. So I were not his sister; can be no other Way I your daughter, but he must be my brother?
I.iii.171 (30,6) [can’t no other, But, I your daughter, he must be my brother?] The meaning is obscur’d by the elliptical diction. Can it be no other way, but if I be your daughter he must be my brother?
I.iii.178 (30,8) [Your salt tears’ head] The force, the fountain of your tears, the cause of your grief.
I.iii.208 (31,9) [captious and intenible sieve] The word captious I never found in this sense; yet I cannot tell what to substitute, unless carious, for rotten, which yet is a word more likely to have been mistaken by the copyers than used by the author.
I.iii.232 (32,2)
[As notes, whose faculties inclusive were
Receipts in which greater virtues were inclosed]
Do not throw from you; you, my lord,, farewell; Share the advice betwixt you; if both gain all, The gift doth stretch itself as ’tis receiv’d, And is enough for both.
The first edition, from which the passage is restored, was sufficiently clear; yet it is plain, that the latter editors preferred a reading which they did not understand.
II.i.12 (35,8)
[let higher Italy
(Those ‘hated, that inherit but the fall
Of the last monarchy) [see, that you come
Not to woo honour, but to wed it]
[Hammer: Those bastards that inherit] Dr. Warburton’s observation is learned, but rather too subtle; Sir Tho. Hanmer’s alteration is merely arbitrary. The passage is confessedly obscure, and there-fore I may offer another explanation. I am of opinion that the epithet higher is to be understood of situation rather than of dignity. The sense may then be this,Let upper Italy, where you are to exercise your valour, see that you come to gain honour, to the abatement, that is, to the disgrace and depression of those that have now lost their ancient military fame, and inherit but the fall of the last monarchy. To abate is used by Shakespeare in the original sense of abatre, to depress, to sink, to deject, to subdue. So in Coriolanus,
— ‘till ignorance deliver you.
As moat abated captives to some nation
That won you without blows.
And bated is used in a kindred sense in the Jew of Venice.
— in a bondman’s key With bated breath and whisp’ring humbleness.
The word has still the same meaning in the language of the law.
II.i.21 (37,9) [Beware of being captives, Before you serve] The word serve is equivocal; the sense is, Be not captives before you serve in the war. Be not captives before you are soldiers.
II.i.36 (37,1) [I grow to you, and our parting is a tortur’d body] I read thus, Our parting is the parting of a tortured body. Our parting is as the disruption of limbs torn from each other. Repetition of a word is often the cause of mistakes, the eye glances on the wrong word, and the intermediate part of the sentence is omitted.
II.i.54 (38,3) [they wear themselves in the cap of the time, there, do muster true gait] [W: to muster] I think this amendation cannot be said to give much light to the obscurity of the passage. Perhaps it might be read thus, They do muster with the true gaite. that is, they have the true military step. Every man has observed something peculiar in the strut of a soldier, (rev. 1778, IV,35,8)
II.i.70 (39,4) [across] This word, as has been already observed, is used when any pass of wit miscarries.
II.i.74 (39,5) [Yes, but you will, my noble grapes, as if] These words,my noble grapes, seem to Dr. Warburton and Sir T. Hammer, to stand so much in the way, that they have silently omitted them. They may be indeed rejected without great loss, but I believe they are Shakespeare’s words. You will eat, says Lafen, no grapes. Yes, but you will eat such noble grapes as I bring you, if you could reach them.
II.i. 100 (41,8) [I am Cressid’s uncle] I am like Pandarus. See Troilus and Cressida. (see 1765, III,310,2)
II.i.114 (41,9) [wherein the honour Of my dear father’s gift stands chief in power] Perhaps we may better read, — wherein the power Of my dear father’s gift stands chief in honour,
II.i.144 (42,1) [When miracles have by the greatest been deny’d] I do not see the import or connection of this line. As the next line stands without a correspondent rhyme, I suspect that something has been lost.
II.i.159 (43,2) [Myself against the level of mine aim] I rather think that she means to say, I am not an impostor that proclaim one thing and design another, that proclaim a cure and aim at a fraud: I think what I speak.
II.i.174 (43,3)
[a divulged shame
Traduc’d by odious ballds; my maiden’s name
Sear’d otherwise; no worse of worst extended,
With vilest torture let my life be ended]
This passage is apparently corrupt, and how shall it be rectified? I have no great hope of success, but something must be tried. I read the whole thus,
King. What darest thou venture?
Hal. Tax of impudence.
A strumpet’s boldness; a divulged shame,
Traduc’d by odious ballads my maiden name;
Sear’d otherwise, to worst of worst extended;
With vilest torture let my life be ended.
When this alteration first came into my mind, I supposed Helen to mean thus, First, I venture what is dearest to me, my maiden reputation; but if your distrust extends my character to the worst of the worst, and supposes me seared against the sense of infamy, I will add to the stake of reputation, the stake of life. This certainly is sense, and the language as grammatical as many other passages of Shakespeare. Yet we may try another experiment.
Fear otherwise to worst of worst extended;
