Complete Works of Samuel Johnson, page 594
III.ii.82 (308,9) [My life stands in the level of your dreams] To be in the level is by a metaphor from archery to be within the reach.
III.ii.85 (308,1) [As you were past all shame, (Those of your fact are so) [so past all truth] I do not remember that fact is used any where absolutely for guilt, which must be its sense in this place. Perhaps we may read,
Those of your pack are so.
Pack is a low coarse word well suited to the rest of this royal invective.
III.ii.107 (309,3) [I have got strength of limit] I know not well how strength of limit can mean strength to pass the limits of the childbed chamber, which yet it must mean in this place, unless we read in a more easy phrase, strength of limb. And now, &c.
III.ii.123 (310,4) [The flatness of my misery] That is, how low, how flat I am laid by my calamity.
III.ii.146 (310,5) [Of the queen’s speed] Of the event of the queen’s trial: so we still say, he sped well or ill.
III.ii.173 (311,6) [Does my deeds make the blacker!] This vehement retraction of Leontes, accompanied with the confession of more crimes than he was suspected of, is agreeable to our daily experience of the vicissitudes of violent tempers, and the eruptions of minds oppressed with guilt.
III.ii.187 (312,7)
[That thou betray’dst Polixenes, ’twas nothing
That did but shew thee, of a fool, inconstant,
And damnable ungrateful]
[T: of a soul] [W: shew thee off, a fool] Poor Mr. Theobald’s courtly remark cannot be thought to deserve much notice. Or. Warburton too might have spared his sagacity if he had remembered, that the present reading, by a mode of speech anciently much used, means only, It shew’d thee first a fool, then inconstant and ungrateful.
III.ii.219 (314,9) [I am sorry for’t] This it another instance of the sudden changes incident to vehement and ungovernable minds.
III.iii.1 (315,1) [Thou art perfect then] Perfect is often used by
Shakeapeare for certain, well assured, or well informed.
III.iii.56 (317,2) [A savage clamour! — Well may I get aboard — This is the chace] This clamour was the cry of the dogs and hunters; then seeing the bear, he cries, this is the chace. or, the animal pursued.
IV.i.6 (321,9) [and leave the growth untry’d Of that wide gap] [W: gulf untry’d] This emendation is plausible, but the common reading is consistent enough with our author’s manner, who attends more to his ideas than to his words. The growth of the wide gap, is some-what irregular; but he means, the growth, or progression of the time which filled up the gap of the story between Perdita’s birth and her sixteenth year. To leave this growth untried, is to leave the passages of the intermediate years unnoted and unexamined. Untried is not, perhaps, the word which he would have chosen, but which his rhyme required.
IV.i.7 (321,1)
[since it is in my power
To o’erthrow law, and in one self-born hour
To plant and o’erwhelm custom. Let me pass
The same I am, ere ancient’st order was,
Or what is now receiv’d]
The reasoning of Time is not very clear! he seems to mean, that he who has broke so many laws may now break another; that he who introduced every thing, may introduce Perdita on her sixteenth year; and he intreats that he may pass as of old, before any order or succession of objects, ancient or modern, distinguished his periods.
IV.i.19 (322,2)
[Imagine me,
Gentle spectators, that I now may be
In fair Bohemia]
Time is every where alike. I know not whether both sense and grammar may not dictate,
— imagine we,
Gentle spectators, that you now may be, &c.
Let us imagine that you, who behold these scenes, are now in
Bohemia?
IV.i.29 (322,3) [Is the argument of time] Argument is the same with subject.
IV.i.32 (322,4) [He wishes earnestly you newer may] I believe this speech of time rather begins the fourth act than concludes the third.
IV.ii.21 (323,6) [and my profit therein, the heaping friendships] [W. reaping] I see not that the present reading is nonsense; the sense of heaping friendships is, though like many other of our author’s, unusual, at least unusual to modern ears, is not very obscure. To be more thankful shall be my study; and my profit therein the heaping friendships. That is, I will for the future be more liberal of recompence, from which I shall receive this advantage, that as I heap benefits I shall heap friendships, as I confer favours on thee I shall increase the friendship between us.
IV.ii.35 (324,7) [but I have, missingly, noted] [W. missing him]
[Hammer; musingly noted] I see not how the sense is mended by Sir
T. Hammer’s alteration, nor how is it at all changed by Dr. Warburton’s.
IV.iii.3 (325,9)
[Why, then comes in the sweet o’ the year; For the red blood reigns in the winter pale]
Dr. Thirlby reads, perhaps rightly, certainly with much more probability, and easiness of construction;
For the red blood runs in the winter pale. That is, for the red blood runs pale in the winter. Sir T. Banner reads,
For the red blood reigns o’er the winter’s pale.
IV.iii.7 (326,1) [pugging tooth] Sir T. Hammer, and after his, Dr. Warburton, read, progging tooth. It is certain that pugging is not now understood. But Dr. Thirlby observes, that this is the cant of gypsies.
IV.iii.28 (327,7) [Gallows, and knock, are too powerful on the highway; beating and hanging are terrors to me] The resistance which a highwayman encounters in the fact, and the punishment which he suffers on detection, withold me from daring robbery, and determine me to the silly cheat and petty theft. (1773)
IV.iii.99 (330,4) [abide] To abide, here, must signify, to sojourn, to live for a time without a settled habitation.
IV.iv.6 (331,7) [To chide at your extremes, it not becomes me] That is, your excesses, the extravagance of your praises.
IV.iv.8 (331,8) [The gracious mark o’ the land] The object of all men’s notice and expectation.
IV.iv.13 (332,9) [sworn, 1 think, To shew myself a glass] [Banner: swoon] Dr. Thirlby inclines rather to Sir T. Hanmer’s emendation, which certainly makes an easy sense, and is, in my opinion, preferable to the present reading. But concerning this passage I know not what to decide.
IV.ii.21 (333,1) [How would he look, to see his work, so noble, Vilely bound up!] It is impossible for any man to rid his mind of his profession. The authorship of Shakespeare has supplied him with a metaphor, which rather than he would lose it, he has put with no great propriety into the month of a country maid. Thinking of his own works, his mind passed naturally to the binder. I am glad that he has no hint at an editor.
IV.ii.76 (335,2) [Grace and remembrance] Rue was called herb of grace. Rosemary was the emblem of remembrance; I know not why, unless because it was carried at funerals. (see 1765, II,300,5)
IV.iv.143 (338,6)
[Each your doing,
So singular in each particular,
Crowns what you’re doing in the present deeds]
That is, your manner in each act crowns the act.
IV.iv.155 (338,8) [Per. I’ll swear for ‘em] I fancy this half line is placed to a wrong person. And that the king begins his speech aside
Pol. I’ll swear for ‘em
This is the prettiest. &c.
IV.iv.164 (339,1) [we stand upon our manners] That is, we are now on our behaviour.
IV.iv.169 (339,2) [a worthy feeding] I conceive feeding to be a pasture, and a worthy feeding to be a tract of pasturage not inconsiderable, not unworthy of my daughter’s fortune.
IV.iv.204 (340,3) [unbraided wares?] Surely we must read braided, for such are all the wares mentioned in the answer.
IV.iv.212 (341,5) [sleeve-band] Is put very properly by Sir T. Hammer, it was before sleeve — hand.
IV.iv.316 (346,9) [sad] For serious. (1773)
IV.iv.330 (346,1) [That doth utter all mens’ wear-a] To utter. To bring out, or produce. (1773)
IV.iv.333 (347,3) [all men of hair] [W: i.e. nimble, that leap as if they rebounded] This is a strange interpretation. Errors, says Dryden, flow upon the surface, but there are men who will fetch them from the bottom. Men of hair, are hairy men, or satyrs. A dance of satyrs was no unusual entertainment in the middle ages. At a great festival celebrated in France, the king and some of the nobles personated satyrs dressed in close habits, tufted or shagged all over, to imitate hair. They began a wild dance, and in the tumult of their merriment one of them went too near a candle and set fire to his satyr’s garb, the flame ran instantly over the loose tufts, and spread itself to the dress of those that were next him; a great number of the dancers were cruelly scorched, being neither able to throw off their coats nor extinguish them. The king had set himself in the lap of the dutchess of Burgundy, who threw her robe over him and saved him.
IV.iv.338 (347,4) [bowling] Bowling, I believe, is here a term for a dance of smooth motion with great exertion of agility.
IV.iv.411 (350,6) [dispute his own estate?] Perhaps for dispute we might read compute; but dispute his estate may be the same with talk over his affairs.
IV.iv.441 (351,7) [Not hold thee of our blood, no, not our kin, Far than Deucalion off] I think for far than we should read far as. We will not hold thee of our kin even so far off as Deucalion the common ancestor of all.
IV.iv.493 (354,2) [and by my fancy] It must be remembered that fancy in this author very often, as in this place, means love.
IV.iv.551 (356,3) [Ourselves to be the slaves of chance, and flies] As chance has driven me to these extremities, so I commit myself to chance to be conducted through them.
IV.iv.613 (359,6) [as if my trinkets had been hallowed] This alludes to beads often sold by the Romanists, as made particularly efficacious by the touch of some relick.
IV.iv.651 (360,7) [boot] that is, something over and above, or, as we now say, something to boot.
IV.iv.734 (362,9) [pedler’s excrement] Is pedler’s beard, (see 1765,
II,323,2)
IV.iv.748 (363,1) [therefore they do not give us the lye] [W: do give] The meaning is, they are paid for lying, therefore they do not give us the lye, they sell it us. (1773)
IV.iv.768 (363,2) [Advocate’s the court-word for a pheasant] This satire, or this pleasantry, I confess myself not well to understand.
IV.iv.779 (364,3) [A great man, I’ll warrant; I know, by the picking on’s teeth] It seems, that to pick the teeth was, at this time, a mark of some pretension to greatness or elegance. So the Bastard in King John, speaking of the traveller, says,
He and his pick-tooth at my worship’s mess.
IV.iv.816 (365,4) [the hottest day prognostication proclaims] That is, the hottest day foretold in the almanack.
V.i.14 (368,7) [Or, from the All that are, took something good] This is a favourite thought; it was bestowed on Miranda and Rosalind before.
V.i,19 (368,8) [What were more holy, Than to rejoice, the former queen is well] [W: rejoice the…queen? This will.] This emendation is one of those of which many may be made; It is such as we may wish the authour had chosen, but which we cannot prove that he did chuse; the reasons for it are plausible, but not cogent.
V.i.58 (370,9) [on this stage, (Where we offend her now)] [The offenders now appear] The Revisal reads,
Were we offenders now ——
very reasonably. (1773)
V.i.74 (371,1) [Affront his eye] To affront, is to meet.
V.i.98 (372,2) [Sir, you yourself Have said, and writ so] The reader must observe, that so relates not to what precedes, but to what follows that, she had not been’ —— equall’d.
V.i.159 (374, 3) [whose daughter His tears proclaim’d his, parting with her] This is very ungrammatical and obscure. We aay better read,
—— whose daughter His tears proclaim’d her parting with her.
The prince first tells that the lady came from Lybia. the king interrupting him, says, from Smalus; from him, says the prince, whose tears, at parting, shewed her to be his daughter.
V.i.214 (376, 4) [Your choice is not so rich in worth as beauty] [W. in birth] Worth is as proper as birth. Worth signifies any kind of worthiness, and among others that of high descent. The King means that he is sorry the prince’s choice is not in other respects as worthy of him as in beauty.
V.ii.105 (380, 5) [that rare Italian meter, Jolio Romano] [Theobald praised the passage but called it an anachronism] Poor Theobald’s eucomium of this passage is not very happily conceired or expressed, nor is the passage of any eminent excellence; yet a little candour will clear Shakespeare from part of the impropriety imputed to him. By eternity he means only immortality, or that part of eternity which is to come; so we talk of eternal renown and eternal infamy. Immortality may subsist without divinity, and therefore the meaning only is, that if Julio could always continue his labours, he would mimick nature.
V.ii.107 (381, 6) [would beguile nature of her custom] That is, of her trade, — would draw her customers from her.
V.ii.118 (381, 7) [Who would be thence, that has the benefit of access?] It was, I suppose, only to spare his own labour that the poet put this whole scene into narrative, for though part of the transaction was already known to the audience, and therefore could not properly be shewn again, yet the two kings might have met upon the stage, and after the examination of the old shepherd, the young lady might have been recognised in sight of the spectators.
V.ii.173 (383, 8) [franklins say it] Franklin is a freeholder, or yeoman, a man above a Villain, but not a gentleman.
V.ii.179 (383 ,9) [tall fellow] Tall, in that time, was the word used for stout.
V.iii.17 (384,1) [therefore I keep it Lonely, apart] [Hammer: lovely] I am yet inclined to lonely, which in the old angular writing cannot be distinguished from lovely. To say, that I keep it alone, separate from the rest, is a pleonasm which scarcely any nicety declines.
V.iii.46 (385,2) [Oh, patience] That is, Stay a while, be not go eager.
V.iii.56 (386,3)
[Indeed, my lord,
If I had thought, the sight of my poor image
Would thus have wrought you, (for the stone is mine)
I’d not have shew’d it]
[Tyrwhitt: for the stone i’ th’ mine] To change an accurate expression for an expression confessedly not accurate, has somewhat of retrogradation. (1773)
V.iii.131 (389,6) [You precious winners all] You who by this discovery have gained what you desired may join in festivity, in which I, who have lost what never can be recovered, can have no part.
(300) General Observation, Of this play no edition is known published before the folio of 1623.
This play, as Dr. Warburton justly observes, is, with all its absurdities, very entertaining. The character of Antolycus is very naturally conceived, and strongly represented, (see 1765, II, 349)
GENERAL OBSERVATIONS ON THE PLAYS OF SHAKESPEARE
CONTENTS
THE TEMPEST.
TWO GENTLEMEN OF VERONA.
MERRY WIVES OF WINDSOR.
MEASURE FOR MEASURE.
LOVE’S LABOUR’S LOST.
MIDSUMMER-NIGHT’S DREAM.
MERCHANT OF VENICE.
AS YOU LIKE IT.
TAMING OF THE SHREW.
ALL’S WELL THAT ENDS WELL.
TWELFTH NIGHT.
WINTER’S TALE.
MACBETH.
KING JOHN.
KING RICHARD II.
KING HENRY IV. PART II.
KING HENRY V.
KING HENRY VI. PART I.
KING HENRY VI. PART III.
KING RICHARD III.
KING HENRY VIII.
CORIOLANUS.
JULIUS CAESAR.
ANTONY AND CLEOPATRA.
TIMON OF ATHENS.
TITUS ANDRONICUS.
TROILUS AND CRESSIDA.
CYMBELINE.
KING LEAR.
ROMEO AND JULIET.
HAMLET.
OTHELLO.
THE TEMPEST.
It is observed of The Tempest, that its plan is regular; this the author of The Revisal thinks, what I think too, an accidental effect of the story, not intended or regarded by our author. But whatever might be Shakespeare’s intention in forming or adopting the plot, he has made it instrumental to the production of many characters, diversified with boundless invention, and preserved with profound skill in nature, extensive knowledge of opinions, and accurate observation of life. In a single drama are here exhibited princes, courtiers, and sailors, all speaking in their real characters. There is the agency of airy spirits, and of an earthly goblin; the operations of magick, the tumults of a storm, the adventures of a desert island, the native effusion of untaught affection, the punishment of guilt, and the final happiness of the pair for whom our passions and reason are equally interested.
TWO GENTLEMEN OF VERONA.
In this play there is a strange mixture of knowledge and ignorance, of care and negligence. The versification is often excellent, the allusions are learned and just; but the author conveys his heroes by sea from one inland town to another in the same country; he places the emperour at Milan, and sends his young men to attend him, but never mentions him more; he makes Protheus, after an interview with Silvia, say he has only seen her picture; and, if we may credit the old copies, he has, by mistaking places, left his scenery inextricable. The reason of all this confusion seems to be, that he took his story from a novel, which he sometimes followed, and sometimes forsook, sometimes remembered, and sometimes forgot.
That this play is rightly attributed to Shakespeare, I have little doubt. If it be taken from him, to whom shall it be given? This question may be asked of all the disputed plays, except Titus Andronicus; and it will be found more credible that Shakespeare might sometimes sink below his highest flights, than that any other should rise up to his lowest.
MERRY WIVES OF WINDSOR.
