PAGE. Ay, and the time feems thirty unto me; Being all this time abandon'd from your bed. SLY. "Tis much ; alone. -Servants, leave me and her Madam, undress you, and come now to bed,5 PAGE. Thrice noble lord, let me entreat of you, To pardon me yet for a night or two; Or, if not fo, until the fun be fet: For your phyficians have exprefsly charg'd, In peril to incur your former malady, That I fhould yet abfent me from your bed; I hope, this reason ftands for my excufe. SLY. Ay, it ftands fo, that I may hardly tarry fo long. But I would be loath to fall into my dreams again; I will therefore tarry, in despite of the flesh and the blood, Enter a Servant. SERV. Your honour's players, hearing your amendment, Are come to play a pleasant comedy, Seeing too much fadness hath congeal'd your blood, Therefore, they thought it good you hear a play, And frame your mind to mirth and merriment, Which bars a thousand harms, and lengthens life, SLY. Marry, I will; let them play it: Is not a commonty a Chriftmas gambol, or a tumblingtrick 6 come now to bed.] Here Mr. Pope adds again,-Sim, drink to her. STEEVENS. • Is not a commonty a Christmas gambol, or a tumbling PAGE. No, my good lord; it is more pleafing ftuff. SLF. What, houfhold ftuff? PAGE. It is a kind of history. SLY. Well, we'll fee't: Come, madam wife, fit by my fide, and let the world flip; we fhall ne'er be younger. [They fit down, trick?] Thus the old copies; the modern ones read—It is not a commodity, &c. Commonty for comedy, &c. STEEVENS. In the old play the players themselves ufe the word commodity corruptly for a comedy. BLACKSTONĘ. ACT I. SCENE I. Padua. A public Place, Enter LUCENTIO and TRANIO. Luc. Tranio, fince--for the great defire I had To fee fair Padua, nursery of arts,I am arriv'd for fruitful Lombardy,7 The pleasant garden of great Italy; And, by my father's love and leave, am arm'd With his good will, and thy good company, Moft trufty fervant, well approv'd in all; Here let us breathe, and happily inftitute A course of learning, and ingenious ftudies. Pifa, renowned for grave citizens, Gave me my being, and my father firft, A merchant of great traffick through the world, 7 for fruitful Lombardy,] Mr. Theobald reads from. The former editions, instead of from had for. JOHNSON. Padua is a city of Lombardy, therefore Mr. Theobald's emendation is unneceffary. STEEVENS. 8 ingenious-] I rather think it was written ingenuous ftudies, but of this and a thousand such obfervations there is little certainty. JOHNSON. In Cole's Dictionary, 1677, it is remarked-" ingenuous and ingenious are too often confounded." Thus, in The Match at Midnight, by Rowley, 1633"Methinks he dwells in my opinion: a right ingenious fpirit, weil'd merely with the variety of youth, and wildness." Again, in The Bird in a Cage, 1633: deal ingeniously, fweet lady." Again, fo late as the time of the Spectator, No. 437, 1st. edit. "A parent who forces a child of a liberal and ingenious spirit," &c. REED. Vincentio, come of the Bentivolii.9 9 Pifa, renowned for grave citizens, &c.] This paffage, I think, fhould be read and pointed thus: Pifa, renowned for grave citizens, Gave me my being, and my father first, A merchant of great traffick through the world, In the next line, which fhould begin a new sentence, Vincentio his fon, is the fame as Vincentio's fon, which Mr. Heath not apprehending, has propofed to alter Vincentio into Lucentio. It may be added, that Shakspeare in other places expreffes the genitive cafe in the fame improper manner. See Troilus and Creffida, A&t II. fc. i: "Mars his ideot." And Twelfth-Night, Act III. fc. iii: "The Count his gallies." TYRWHITT. Vincentio, come of the Bentivolii.] The old copy reads-Vincentio's. The emendation was made by Sir T. Hanmer. I am not fure that it is right. Our author might have written: Vincentio's fon, come of the Bentivolii. If that be the true reading, this line should be connected with the following, and a colon placed after world in the preceding line; as is the cafe in the original copy, which adds some support to the emendation now proposed: Vincentio's fon, come of the Bentivolii, 1 Vincentio his fon,] The old copy reads-Vincentio's. STEEVENS. Vincentio's is here used as a quadrifyllable. Mr. Pope, I fuppofe, not perceiving this, unneceffarily reads-Vincentio his fon, which has been too haftily adopted by the fubfequent editors. MALONE. Could I have read the line, as a verfe, without Mr. Pope's emendation, I would not have admitted it. STEEVENS. 2 to serve all hopes conceiv'd,] To fulfil the expectations of his friends. MALONE. 3 Virtue, and that part of philosophy -] Sir Thomas Han Will I apply, that treats of happiness TRA. Mi perdonate,4 gentle mafter mine, Glad that you thus continue your refolve, mer, and after him Dr. Warburton, read-to virtue; but formerly ply and apply were indifferently used, as to ply or apply his ftudies. JOHNSON. The word ply is afterwards used in this scene, and in the same manner, by Tranio : "For who fhall bear your part, &c. 66 Keep house and ply his book?" M. MASON. So, in The Nice Wanton, an ancient interlude, 1560: Again, in Gascoigne's Supposes, 1566: "I feare he applyes his study fo, that he will not leave the minute of an houre from his booke." MALONE. 4 Mi perdonate,] Old copy-Me pardonato. The emendation was fuggefted by Mr. Steevens. MALONE. 5- Ariftotle's checks,] Are, I fuppofe, the harsh rules of Aristotle. STEEVENS. Such as tend to check and reftrain the indulgence of the paffions. MALONE. Tranio is here defcanting on academical learning, and mentions by name fix of the seven liberal sciences. I suspect this to be a mif-print, made by fome copyift or compofitor, for ethicks. The fenfe confirms it. BLACKSTONE. So, in Ben Jonson's Silent Woman, Act IV. fc. iv : " I, in some cases: but in these they are best, and Aristotle's ethicks." |