I met with a similar expression in one of the old comedies, but forgot to note the name of the piece: 66 parcel of conceited feather-caps, whose fathers were their garments." STEEVENS. 36 That now thou tir'st on,] A hawk is said to tire upon that which he pecks; from tirer, French. 37 full of view:] With opportunities of examining your affairs with your own eyes. 98 Though peril to my modesty,] I read, Through peril. I would for such means adventure through peril of modesty; I would risque every thing but real dishonour. 39 JOHNSON. -she hath all courtly parts more exquisite Than lady, ladies, woman; from every one The best she hath,] The speaker here rises in his ideas. She has all courtly parts, says he, more exquisite than any lady, than all ladies, than all womankind. JOHNSON. 40 If any thing that's civil, speak; if savage, Take, or lend.] I question whether, after the words, if savage, a line be not lost. I can offer nothing better than to read, -Ho! who's here? If any thing that's civil, take or lend, If you are civilised and peaceable, take a price for what rough inhospitable inhabitants of the mountain speak, may know my state. that I JOHNSON. Been less; and so more equal ballasting-] Hanmer reads plausibly, but without necessity, price, for prize, and balancing, for ballasting. He is followed by Dr. Warburton. The meaning is, Had I been a less prize, I should not have been too heavy for Posthumus. JOHNSON. 42 That nothing gift of differing multitudes,] The poet must mean, that court, that obsequious adoration, which the shifting vulgar pay to the great, is a tribute of no price or value. I am persuaded therefore our poet coined this participle from the French verb, and wrote, That nothing gift of defering multitudes, i. e. obsequious, paying deference.-Deferer, Ceder par respect à quelqu'un, obeir, condescendre, &c.-Deferent, civil, respectueux, &c. Richelet. THEOBALD. He is followed by sir T. Hanmer and Dr. Warburton; but I do not see why differing may not be a general epithet, and the expression equivalent to the many-headed rabble. 43 JOHNSON. -before thy face:] Posthumus was to have his head struck off, and then his garments cut to pieces before his face; we should read, her face; i, e. Imogen's, done to despite her, who had said, she esteemed Posthumus's garment above the person of Cloten. WARBURTON. 44 Stick to your journal course: the breach of custom Is breach of all. Keep your daily course unin terrupted; if the stated plan of life is once broken, nothing follows but confusion. JOHNSON. 45 Mingle their spurs together.] Spurs, an old word for the fibres of a tree. POPE. 46 And let the stinking elder, grief, untwine His perishing root, with the increasing vine!] Shakspeare had only seen English vines which grow against walls, and therefore may be sometimes entangled with the elder. Perhaps we should readuntwine-from the vine. JOHNSON. 47 It is great morning.] A Gallicism. Grand jour. 43 I am perfect, what :] I very well know what I have done. 49 -take us in,] To take in, was the phrase in use for to apprehend an out-law, or to make him amenable to public justice. 50 JOHNSON. sluggish crare] A crare, says the author of The Revisal, is a small trading vessel, called in the Latin of the middle ages cayera. With charitable bill,bring thee all this; Yea, and furr'd moss besides, when flowers are none, To winter-ground thy corse.] Here again, the metaphor is strangely mangled. What sense is there in winter-grounding a corse with moss? A corse might indeed be said to be winter-grounded in good thick clay. But the epithet furr'd to moss directs us plainly to another reading, To winter-gown thy corse: i. e. the summer habit shall be a light gown of flowers, thy winter habit a good warm furr'd gown of moss. WARBURTON. I have no doubt but that the rejected word was Shakspeare's, since the protection of the dead, and not their ornament, was what he meant to express. To winter-ground a plant, is to protect it from the inclemency of the winter-season, by straw, dung, &c. laid over it. This precaution is commonly taken in respect of tender trees or flowers, such as Arviragus, who loved Fidele, represents her to be. The ruddock is the red-breast, and is so called by Chaucer and Spenser: "The tame ruddock, and the coward kite." 52 Consign to thee,] Perhaps, Consign to this, STEEVENS. And in the former stanza, for-All follow this, we might read, All follow thee. JOHNSON. 53his Jovial face-] Jovial face signifies in this place, such a face as belongs to Jove. That, otherwise than noble nature did, Hath alter'd that good picture?] The editor, Mr. Theobald, cavils at this passage. He says, it is far from being strictly grammatical; and yet, what is strange, he subjoins a paraphrase of his own, which shews it to be strictly grammatical. "For," says he," the construction of these words is this: Who hath alter'd that good picture otherwise than nature alter'd it?" I suppose then this editor's meaning was, that the grammatical construction would not conform to the sense; for a bad writer, like a bad man, generally says one thing and means another. He subjoining, Shakspeare designed to say (if the text be genuine), Who hath alter'd that good picture from what noble nature at first made it." Here again he is mistaken; Shakspeare meant, like a plain man, just as he spoke; and as our editor first paraphrased him, Who hath alter'd that good picture otherwise than nature alter'd it? And the solution of the difficulty in this sentiment, which so much perplexed him, is this: the speaker sees a young man without a head, and consequently much shorten'd in stature; on which he breaks out into this exclamation: Who hath alter'd this good form, by making it shorter; so contrary to the practice of nature, which by yearly accession of growth alters it by making it taller. No occasion then for the editor to change did into bid, with an allusion to the command against murder; which then should have been forbid instead of bid. WARB. Here are many words upon a very slight debate. The sense is not much cleared by either critic. The question is asked, not about a body, but a picture, which is not very apt to grow shorter or longer. To do a picture, and a picture is well done, are standing phrases; the question therefore is, Who has altered this picture, so as to make it otherwise than nature did it. 55 Your preparation &c.] Your forces are able to JOHNSON. |