Is apoplex'd: for madness would not err; Sense is sometimes used by Shakspeare for sensation or sensual appetite; as motion is the effect produced by the impulse of nature. Such, I think, is the signification of these words here. So, in Measure for Measure: she speaks, and 'tis “ Such sense, that my sense breeds with it.” Again, more appositely in the same play, where both the words occur : 3 4 One who never feels “ The wanton stings and motions of the sense." So, in Braithwaite's Survey of Histories, 1614: “ These continent relations will reduce the straggling motions to a more settled and retired harbour." Sense has already been used in this scene, for sensation : “ That it be proof and bulwark against sense.' Malone. at hoodman-blind?] This is, I suppose, the same as blindman's-buff. So, in The Wise Woman of Hogsden, 1638: “Why should I play at hood-man blind Ž» Again, in Two Lamentable Tragedies in One, the One a Murder of Master Beech, &c. 1601 : “ Pick out men's eyes, and tell them that's the sport Of hood-man blind.” Steevens. Eyes without feeling, &c.] This and the three following lines are omitted in the folio. Steevens. 5:Could not-so mope.] i. e. could not exhibit such marks of stupidity. The same word is used in The Tempest, sc. ult: “ And were brought moping hither.” Steevens. Rebellious hell, If thou canst mutine in a matron's bones, &c.] Thus the old copies. Shakspeare calls mutineers, mutines, in a subsequent Steevens. this hand of yours requires 9 : 6 1 scene. T To flaming youth let virtue be as wax, O Hamlet, speak no more: Nay, but to live In the rank sweat of an enseamed bed;1 7 To mutine, for which the modern editors have substituted mutiny, was the ancient term, signifying to rise in mutiny. So, in Knolles's History of the Turks, 1603: “ The Janisaries-became wonderfully discontented, and began to mutine in diverse places of the citie.” Malone. - reason panders will.] So the folio, I think, rightly; but the reading of the quarto is defensible : reason pardons will. Fohnson. Panders was certainly Shakspeare's word. So, in Venus and Adonis : “ When reason is the bawd to lust's abuse." Malone. -grained -] Died in grain. Fohnson. I am not quite certain that the epithet-grained, is justly in. terpreted. Our author employs the same adjective in The Comedy of Errors: Though now this grained face of mine be hid,” &c. and in this instance the allusion is most certainly to the furrows in the grain of wood. Shakspeare might therefore design the Queen to say, that her spots of guilt were not merely superficial, but indented. A pas. sage, however, in Twelfth Night, will sufficiently authorize Dr. Johnson's explanation: “ 'Tis in grain, sir, 'twill endure wind and weather.” Steevens. 9 As will not leave their tinct.] To leave is to part with, give up, resign. So, in The Two Gentlemen of Verona: “ It seems, you lov'd her not, to leave her token." The quartos read: As will leave there their tinct. Steevens. Fohnson.. Thus also the quarto, 1604. Beaumont and Fletcher use the word inseamed in the same sense, in the third of their Four Plays in One : “ His leachery inseam'd upon him." In The Book of Haukyng, &c. bl. l. no date, we are told that Ensayme of a hauke is the grece." 1 2 Stew'd ín corruptions; honeying, and making love O, speak to me no more; A murderer, and a villain:- No more. Enter Ghost. Ham. A king Of shreds and patches:4 Save me, and hover o'er me with your wings, You heavenly guards. What would your gracious figure? Queen. Alas, he's mad. Ham. Do you not come your tardy son to chide, In Randle Holme's Academy of Armory and Blazon, B. II, ch. ii, p. 238, we are told that “ Enseame is the purging of a hawk from her glut and grease.” From the next page in the same work, we learn that the glut is “ a slimy substance in the belly, of the hawk.” In some places it means hogs' lard, in others, the grease or oil with which clothiers besmear their wool to make it draw out in spinning Incestuous is the reading of the quarto, 1611. Steevers. In the West of England, the inside fat of a goose, when dissolved by heat, is called its seam; and Shakspeare has used the word in the same sense in his Troilus and Cressida: shall the proud lord, vice of kings :] A low mimick of kings. The vice is the fool of a farce; from whence the modern punch is descended. Fohnson. 3 That from a shelf &c.] This is said not unmeaningly, but to show, that the usurper came not to the crown by any glorious villany, that carried danger with it, but by the low cowardly theft of a common pilferer. Warburton. .” Henley. 2 4. A king Of shreds and patches:] This is said, pursuing the idea of the : sice of kings. The vice was dressed as a fool, in a coat of party. coloured patches. Fohnson. That, lap'sd in time and passion, lets go by Ghost. Do not forget: This visitation How is it with you, lady? 5 7 laps'd in time and passion, ] That, having suffered time to slip, and passion to cool, lets go &c. Johnson. 6 Conceit in weakest bodies strongest works;] Conceit for imagination. So, in The Rape of Lucrece : “ And the conceited painter was so nice. Malone. See Romeo and Juliet, Act II, sc. vi. Steevens. like life in excrements,] The hairs are excrementitious, that is, without life or sensation ; yet those very hairs, as if they had life, start up, &c. Pope. So, in Macbeth: " The time has been my fell of hair, “ As life were in ’t.” Malone. Not only the hair of animals having neither life nor sensation was called an excrement, but the feathers of birds had the same appellation. Thus, in Izaac Walton's Complete Angler, P. I, c. i, p. 9, edit. 1766: “I will not undertake to mention the several kinds of fowl by which this is done, and his curious palate pleased by day; and which, with their very excrements, afford him a soft lodging at night.” Whalley. Upon the heat and flame of thy distemper Sprinkle cool patience.) This metaphor seems to have been suggested by an old black letter novel, (already quoted in a note on The Merchant of Venice, Act III, sc. ii,) Green's History of the fair Bellora: "Therefore slake the burning heate of thy flamitig affections, with some drops of cooling moderation.” Steevens: 8 Ham. On him! on him!Look you, how pale he glares ! Queen. To whom do you speak this? Do you see nothing there? No, nothing, but ourselves. Ham. Why, look you there! look, how it steals away! My father, in his habit as he liv'd !3 Look, where he goes, even now, out at the portal! [Exit Ghost. Queen. This is the very coinage of your brain : This bodiless creation ecstasy Is very cunning in.4 9 preaching to stones – ] Thus, in Sidney's Arcadia, Lib. V: “ Their passions then so swelling in them, they would have made auditors of stones, rather than” &c. Steevens. * His form and cause conjoin'd, preaching to stones, Would make them capable. ] Cupable here signifies intelligents endued with understanding. So, in Xing Richard III: O, 'tis a parlous boy, “ Bold, quick, ingenious, forward, capable.” We yet use capacity in this sense. See also Vol. XI, p. 334, n. 9. Malone. My stern effects : ] Effects for actions ; deeds effected. Malone. 3 My father, in his habit as he liv'd!] If the poet means by this expression, that his father appeared in his own familiar habit, he has either forgot that he had originally introduced him in armour, or must have meant to vary his dress at this his last appearance. Shakspeare's difficulty might perhaps be a little obviated by pointing the line thus : My father-in his habit-as he liv'd! Steevens. A man's armour, who is used to wear it, may be called his habit, as well as any other kind of clothing. As he lived, probably means- as if he were alive-as if he lived." M. Mason. As if is frequently so used in these plays; but this interpretation does not entirely remove the difficulty which has been stated. Malone. 4 This is the very coinage of your brain : This bodiless creation ecstacy "Such shadows are the weak brain's forgeries." Malane, |
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