Complete Works of Samuel Johnson, page 591
With vilest torture let my life be ended.
That is, let me act under the greatest terrors possible.
But once again we will try to find the right way by the glimmer of Hanmer’s amendation, who reads thus,
— my maiden name
Sear’d; otherwise the worst of worst extended. etc.
Perhaps it were better thus,
— my maiden name Sear’d; otherwise the worst to worst extended;
With vilest torture let my life be ended.
II.i.182 (45,5) [Thy life is dear; for all, that life can rate Worth name of life, in thee hath estimate] May be counted among the gifts enjoyed by them.
II.i.185 (45,7) [prime] Youth; the spring or morning of life.
II.ii.40 (48,1) [To be young again] The lady censures her own levity in trifling with her jester, as a ridiculous attempt to return back to youth.
Il.iii.6 (49,3) [unknown fear] Fear is here the object of fear.
II.iii.11 (50,4)
[Par. So I say, both of Galen and Paracelsus. Laf. Of all the learned and authentic fellows]
As the whole merriment of this scene consists in the pretensions of Parollei to knowledge and sentiments which he has not, I believe here are two passages in which the words and sense are bestowed upon him by the copies, which the author gave to Lafen. I read this passage thus,
Laf. To be relinquished of the artists ——
Par. So I. say.
Laf. Both of Galen and Paracelsus, of all the
learned and authentick fellows ——
Par. Right, so I say.
II.iii.41 (51,7)
[which should, indeed, give us a farther use to be made, than alone the recovery of the King; as to be — Laf. Generally thankful]
I cannot see that there is any hiatus, or other irregularity of language than such as is very common in these plays. I believe Parolles has again usurped words and sense to which he has no right; and I read this passage thus,
Laf. In a most weak and debile minister, great power, great transcendence; which should, indeed, give us a farther use to be made than the mere recovery of the king. Par. As to be. Laf. Generally thankful.
II.iii.66 (52,9) [My mouth no more were broken than these boys’]
A broken mouth is a mouth which has lost part of its teeth.
II.iii.77 (53,1) [Let the white death sit on thy cheek for ever]
[W: dearth] The white death is the chlorosis.
II.iii.80 (53,2) [And to imperial Love] [W. The old editions read IMPARTIAL, which is right.] There is no edition of this play older than that of 1623, the next is that of 1632, of which both read imperials the second reads imperial Jove.
II.iii.92 (53,3) [Laf. Do they all deny her?] None of them have yet denied her, or deny her afterwards but Bertram. The scene must be so regulated that Lafeu and Parolles talk at a distance, where they nay see what passes between Helena and the lords, but not hear it, so that they know not by whom the refusal is made.
II.iii.105 (54,4) [There’s one grape yet, — I am sure, they father drunk wine. — But if thou be’st not an ass, I am a youth of fourteen. I have known thee already] This speech the three last editors have perplexed themselves by dividing between Lafeu and Parolles, without any authority of copies, or any improvement of sense. I have restored the old reading, and should have thought no explanation necessary, but that Mr. Theobald apparently misunderstood it.
Old Lafeu having, upon the supposition that the lady was refused, reproached the young lords as boys of ice, throwing his eyes on Bertram who remained, cries out, “There is one yet into whom his father put good blood, —— but I have known thee long enough to know thee for an ass.”
II.iii.135 (55,6) [good alone Is good, without a name, vileness is so] [W: good; and with a name,] The present reading is certainly wrong, and, to confess the truth, I do not think Dr. Warburton’s emendation right; yet I have nothing that I can propose with much confidence. Of all the conjectures that I can make, that which least displeases me is this:
— good alone. Is good without a name; Helen is so;
The rest follows easily by this change.
II.iii.138 (56,7)
[ — She is young, wise, fair;
In these, to nature she’s immediate heir;
And these breed honour]
Here is a long note [W’s] which I wish had been shorter. Good is better than young, as it refers to honour. But she is more the immediate heir of nature with respect to youth than goodness. To be immediate heir is to inherit without any intervening transmitter: thus she inherits beauty immediately from nature, but honour is transmitted by ancestors; youth is received immediately from nature. but goodness may be conceived in part the gift of parents, or the effect of education. The alteration therefore loses on one side what it gains on the other.
II.iii.170 (58,9) [Into the staggers] One species of the staggers, or the horses apoplexy, is a raging impatience which makes the animal dash himself with destructive violence against posts or walls. To this the allusion, I suppose, is made.
II.iii.185 (59,1)
[whose ceremony Shall seem expedient on the now-born brief, And be perform’d to-night]
This, if it be at all intelligible, is at least obscure and inaccurate.
Perhaps it was written thus,
— what ceremony Shall seem expedient on the now-born brief Shall be perform’d to-night; the solemn feast Shall more attend —
The brief is the contract of espousal, or the licence of the church. The King means, What ceremony is necessary to make this contract a marriage, shall be immediately performed; the rest may be delayed.
II.iii.211 (60,2) [I did think thee, for two ordinaries, to be a pretty wise fellow] While I sat twice with thee at table.
II.iii.217 (60,3) [yet art then good for nothing but taking up] To take up, is to contradict, to call to account, as well as to pick off the ground.
II.iii.242 (60,4) [in the default] That is, at a need.
II.iii.246 (61,5) [for doing, I am past; as I will by thee, in what motion age will give me leave] [Warburton suspected a line lost after “past”] This suspicion of chasm is groundless. The conceit which is so thin that it might well escape a hasty reader, is in the word past, I am past, as I will be past by thee.
II.iii.309 (63,9) [To the dark house] The dark house is a house made gloomy by discontent. Milton says of death and the king of hell preparing to combat,
So frown’d the mighty combatants, that hell Grew darker at their frown.
II.iv.45 (65,1) [Whose want, and whose delay, is strew’d with sweets] The sweets with which this want are strewed, I suppose, are compliments and professions of kindness.
II.iv.52 (65,2) [probable need] A specious appearance of necessity.
III.i.10 (70,5) [The reasons of our state I cannot yield] I cannot inform you of the reasons.
III.i.11 (70,6) [an outward man] [W: i.e. one not in the secret of affairs] So inward is familiar, admitted to secrets. I was an inward of his. Measure for Measure.
III.ii.59 (73,1) [When thou canst get the ring upon my finger] [W: When thou canst get the ring, which is on my finger, into thy possession] I think Dr. Warburton’s explanation sufficient, but I once read it thus, When thou canst get the ring upon thy finger, which newer shall come off mine.
III.ii.100 (74,3) [Not so, but as we change our courtesies] The gentlemen declare that they are servants to the Countess, she replies, No otherwise than as she returns the same offices of civility.
III.iv.4 (77,4) [St. Jaques’ pilgrim] I do not remember any place famous for pilgrimages consecrated in Italy to St. James, but it is common to visit St. James of Compostella, in Spain. Another saint might easily have been found, Florence being somewhat out of the road from Bonsillon to Compostella.
III.iv.13 (77,6) [Juno] Alluding to tho story of Hercules.
III.iv.19 (77,6) [Rinaldo, you did never lack advice so much] Advice, is discretion or thought.
III.v.21 (79,7) [are not the things they go under] [W: Mr. Theobald explains these words by, They are not really so true and sincere as in appearance they seem to be.] I think Theobald’s interpretation right; to go under the name of any thing is a known expression. The meaning is, they are not the things for which their names would make them pass.
III.v.66 (81,8) [examin’d] That is, question’d, doubted.
III.v.74 (81,9) [brokes] Deals as a broker.
III.vi.107 (86,6) [we have almost imboss’d him] To imboss a deer is to inclose him in a wood. Milton uses the same word:
Like that self-begotten bird In th’ Arabian woods embost. Which no second knows or third.
III.vi.III (87,7) [ere we case him] This is, before we strip him naked. (1773)
III.vii.9 (88,2) [to your sworn council] To your private knowledge, after having required from you an oath of secrecy.
III.vii.21 (88,9) [Now his important blood will nought deny] Important here, and elsewhere, is importunate.
IV.i.16 (90,2) [some band of strangers i’ the adversary’s entertainment]
That is, foreign troops in the enemy’s pay.
Iv.i.44 (91,3) [the instance] The proof.
IV.ii.13 (94,5)
[No more of that!
I pr’ythee, do not strive against my vows:
I was compell’d to her]
I know not well what Bertram can mean by entreating Diana not to strive against his vows. Diana has just mentioned his wife, so that the vows seem to relate to his marriage. In this sense not Diana, but himself, strives against his vows. His vows indeed may mean vows made to Diana; but, in that case, to strive against is not properly used for to reject, nor does this sense cohere well with his first exclamation of impatience at the mention of his wife. No more of that! Perhaps we might read,
I Pr’ythee do not drive against my vows.
Do not run upon that topick; talk of any thing else that I can bear to hear.
I have another conceit upon this passage, which I would be thought to offer without much confidence:
No more of that! I pr’ythee do not strive — against my voice I was compell’d to her.
Diana tells him unexpectedly of his wife. He answers with perturbation, No more of that! I pr’ythee do not play the confessor — against my own consent I was compelled to her.
When a young profligate finds his courtship so gravely repressed by an admonition of his duty, he very naturally desires the girl not to take upon her the office of a confessor.
IV.ii.23 (95,6) [What is not holy, that we swear not ‘bides] [W: not ‘bides] This is an acute and excellent conjecture, and I have done it the due honour of exalting it to the text; yet, methinks, there is something yet wanting. The following words, but take the High’st to witness, even though it be understood as an anticipation or assumption in this sense, — but now suppose that you take the Highest to witness, — has not sufficient relation to the antecedent sentence. I will propose a reading nearer to the surface, and let it take its chance.
Ber. How have I sworn!
Diana. ’Tis not the many oaths, that make the truth,
But the plain single vow, that is vow’d true.
Ber. What is not holy, that we swear not by.
But take the High’st to witness.
Diana. Then, pray tell me.
If I should swear, &c.
Bertram means to enforce his suit, by telling her, that he has bound himself to her, not by the pretty protestations usual among lovers, but by vows of greater solemnity. She then makes a proper and rational reply.
IV.ii.25 (96,7) [If I should swear by Jove’s great attributes] In the print of the old folio, it is doubtful whether it be Jove’s or Love’s, the characters being not distinguishable. If it is read Love’s, perhaps it may be something less difficult. I am still at a loss.
It may be read thus,
— “this has no holding, “To swear by him whom I attest to love, “That I will work against him.”
There is no consistence in expressing reverence for Jupiter by calling him to attest my love, and shewing at the same time, by working against him by a wicked passion, that I have no respect to the name which I invoke. (1773)
IV.ii.28 (96,8) [To swear by him whom I protest to love, That I will work against him] This passage likewise appears to me corrupt. She swears not by him whom she loves, but by Jupiter. I believe we may read, to swear to him. There is, says she, no holding, no consistency, in swearing to one that I love him, when I swear it only to injure him.
IV.ii.73 (98,9) [Since Frenchmen are so braid, Marry that will, I’ll live and die a maid] [W: Marry ‘em] The passage is very unimportant, and the old reading reasonable enough. Nothing is more common than for girls, on such occasions, to say in a pet what they do not think, or to think for a time what they do not finally resolve.
IV.iii.7 (98,1) [I Lord] The later editors have with great liberality bestowed lordship upon these interlocutors, who, in the original edition, are called, with more propriety, capt. E. and capt. G. It is true that captain E. is in a former scene called lord E. but the subordination in which they seem to act, and the timorous manner in which they converse, determines them to be only captains. Yet as the later readers of Shakespeare have been used to find them lords, I have not thought it worth while to degrade them in the margin.
IV.iii.29 (99,2) [he, that in this action contrives against his own nobility, in his proper stream o’erflows himself] That is, betrays his own secrets in his own talk. The reply shows that this is the meaning.
IV.iii.38 (100,3) [he might take a measure of his own judgment] This is a very just and moral reason. Bertram, by finding how erroneously he has judged, will be less confident, and more easily moved by admonition.
IV.iii.113 (102,4) [bring forth this counterfeit module] [W: medal] Module being the pattern of any thing, may be here used in that sense. Bring forth this fellow, who, by counterfeit virtue pretended to make himself a pattern.
IV.iii.237 (106,8) [Dian. the Count’s a fool, and full of gold] After this line there is apparently a line lost, there being no rhime that corresponds to gold.
IV.iii.254 (106,9) [Half won, is match well made; match, and well make it] This line has no meaning that I can find. I read, with a very slight alteration, Half won is match well made; watch, and well make it. That is, a match well made is half won; watch, and make it well.
This is, in my opinion, not all the error. The lines are misplaced, and should be read thus:
Half won is match well made; watch, and well make it;
when he swears oaths, bid him drop gold, and take it.
After he scores, he never pays the score:
He never pays after-debts, take it before.
And say ——
That is, take his money and leave him to himself. When the players had lost the second line, they tried to make a connection out of the rest. Part is apparently in couplets, and the note was probably uniform.
IV.iii.280 (107,1) [He will steal, sir, an egg out of a cloister] I know not that cloister, though it may etymologically signify any thing shut is used by our author, otherwise than for a monastery, and therefore I cannot guess whence this hyperbole could take its original: perhaps it means only this: He will steal any thing, however trifling, from any place, however holy.
IV.iii.307 (108,2) [he’s a cat still] That is, throw him how you will, he lights upon his legs. [Steevens offered another explanation] I an still of my former opinion. The same speech was applied by king James to Coke, with respect to his subtilties of law, that throw him which way we would, he could still like a cat light upon his legs. (see 1765, III,372,1)
IV.iii.317 (109,3) [Why does he ask him of me?] This is nature. Every man is on such occasions more willing to hear his neighbour’s character than his own.
IV.iii.332 (109,4) [Only to seem to deserve well, and to beguile the supposition of that lascivious young boy the Count, have I run into this danger] That is, to deceive the opinion, to make the count think me a man that deserves well.
IV.iv.23 (III,6) [When saucy trusting of the cozen’d thoughts Defiles the pitchy night!] [W: When Fancy,] This conjecture is truly ingenious, but, I believe, the author of it will himself think it unnecessary, when he recollects that saucy may very properly signify luxurious, and by consequence lascivious.
IV.iv.31 (112,7)
[But with the word, the time will bring on summer,
When briars shall have leaves as well as thorns,
And be as sweet as sharp]
The meaning of this observation is, that as briars have sweetness with their prickles, so shall these troubles be recompensed with joy.
IV.iv.34 (112,8) [Our waggon is prepar’d, and time revives us] [W: revyes] The present reading is corrupt, and I am afraid the emendation none of the soundest. I never remember to have seen the word revye. One may as well leave blunders as make them. Why may we not read for a shift, without much effort, the time invites us?
IV.v.8 (114,1) [I would, I had not known him!] This dialogue serves to connect the incidents of Parolles with the main plan of the play.
IV.v.66 (116,4) [Laf. A shrewd knave, and an unhappy] That is, mischievously waggish; unlucky. (see 1765, III,379,3)
IV.v.70 (116,5) [he has no pace, but runs where he will] [Tyrrwhit: place] A pace is a certain or prescribed walk, so we say of a man meanly obsequious, that he has learned his paces. (1773) [(rev. 1778, IV,126,3]
V.i.35 (120,8)
[I will come after you, with what good speed
Our means will make us means]
Shakespeare delights much in this kind of reduplication, sometimes so as to obscure his meaning. Helena says, they will follow with such speed as the means which they have will give them ability to exert.
V.ii.57 (123,3) [tho’ you are a fool and a knave, you shall eat] Parolles has many of the lineaments of Falstaff, and seems to be the character which Shakespeare delighted to draw, a fellow that had more wit than virtue. Though justice required that he should be detected and exposed, yet his vices sit so fit in him that he is not at last suffered to starve.
V.iii.1 (123,4) [We lost a jewel of her, and our esteem Was made much poorer by it] Dr. Warburton, in Theobald’s edition, altered this word to estate, in his own he lets it stand and explains it by worth or estate. But esteem is here reckoning or estimate. Since the loss of Helen with her virtues and qualifications, our account is sunk; what we have to reckon ourselves king of, is much poorer than before.
