Would cast the gorge at, this embalms and spices by Mr. Steevens, as well as with Shakspeare. The wappen'd widow, is one who is no longer alive to those pleasures, the desire of which was her first inducement to marry. Henley. I suspect that there is another error in this passage, which has escaped the notice of the editors, and that we should read"woo'd again," instead of "wed again." That a woman should wed again, however wapper'd, [or wappen'd] is nothing extraordinary. The extraordinary circumstance is, that she should be woo'd again, and become an object of desire. M. Mason. She, whom the spital-house, and ulcerous sores Would cast the gorge at,] Surely we ought to read: Would cast the gorge at, Or, should the first line be thought deficient in harmony-- Would cast the gorge up, The old reading is nonsense. I must add, that Dr. Farmer joins with me in suspecting this passage to be corrupt, and is satisfied with the emendation Ï have proposed. Steevens. In Antony and Cleopatra, we have honour and death, for honourable death. "The spital-house and ulcerous sores," therefore may be used for the contaminated spital-house; the spital-house replete with ulcerous sores. If it be asked, how can the spital-house, or how can ulcerous sores, cast the gorge at the female here described, let the following passages answer the question: "Heaven stops the nose at it, and the moon winks." Othello: Again, in Hamlet: "Whose spirit, with divine ambition puff'd, "Makes mouths at the invisible event." Again, in The Merchant of Venice: when the bag-pipe sings i' the nose, Again, in the play before us: 66 when our vaults have wept "With drunken spilth of wine In the preceding page, all sores are said to lay siege to nature; which they can no more do, if the passage is to be understood literally, than they can cast the gorge at the sight of the person here described. In a word, the diction of the text is so very Shakspearian, that I cannot but wonder it should be suspected of corruption. The meaning is,-Her whom the spital-house, however polluted, would not admit, but reject with abhorrence, this embalms, &c. or, (in looser paraphrase) Her, at the sight of whom all the patients in the spital-house, however contaminated, would sicken and turn away with loathing and abhorrence, disgusted by the view of still greater pollution, than any they had yet experience of, this embalms and spices, &c. To" cast the gorge at," was Shakspeare's phraseology: So, in To the April day again.1 Come, damned earth, Do thy right nature.2-[ March afar off]-Ha! a drum? But yet I'll bury thee: Thou 'It go, strong thief 4 [Keeping some Gold. Enter ALCIBIADES, with Drum and Fife, in warlike manner; PHRYNIA, and TYMANDRA. Alcib. Speak. What art thou there? Tim. A beast, as thou art. The canker gnaw thy heart, For showing me again the eyes of man! Alcib. What is thy name? Is man so hateful to thee, That art thyself a man? Tim. I am misanthropos,5 and hate mankind. For thy part, I do wish thou wert a dog, That I might love thee something. Alcib. I know thee well; Hamlet, Act V, sc. i: "How abhorr'd in my imagination it is! my gorge rises at it." Malone. 1 To the April day again.] That is, to the wedding day, called by the poet, satirically, April day, or fool's day. Johnson. The April day does not relate to the widow, but to the other diseased female, who is represented as the outcast of an hospital. She it is whom gold embalms and spices to the April day again: i. e. gold restores her to all the freshness and sweetness of youth. Such is the power of gold, that it will 66 make black, white; foul, fair; "Wrong, right;" &c. Shakspeare's Sonnet entitled Love's Cruelty, has the same thought: "Thou art thy mother's glass, and she in thee 2 Do thy right nature.] Lie in the earth where nature laid thee. Johnson. 3 Thou 'rt quick,] Thou hast life and motion in thee. 4 Johnson. strong thief,] Thus Chaucer, in the Pardoner's Tale: "Men wodden say that we were theeves strong." Steevens. 5 I am misanthropos,] A marginal note in the old translation of Plutarch's Life of Antony, furnished our author with this epithet: "Antonius followeth the life and example of Timon Misanthropus, the Athenian." Malone. But in thy fortunes am unlearn'd and strange. Tim. I know thee too; and more, than that I know thee, I not desire to know. Follow thy drum; With man's blood paint the ground, gules, gules: Then what should war be? This fell whore of thine For all her cherubin look. Phry. Tim. I will not kiss thee; To thine own lips again. Thy lips rot off! then the rot returns Alcib. How came the noble Timon to this change? Tim. As the moon does, by wanting light to give: But then renew I could not, like the moon; There were no suns to borrow of. Tim. Promise me friendship, but perform none: If Thou wilt not promise, the gods plague thee, for Thou art a man! if thou dost perform, confound thee, For thou 'rt a man! Alcib. I have heard in some sort of thy miseries. gules, gules: Might we not repair the defective metre of this line, by adopting a Shakspearian epithet, and reading— -gules, total gules; as in the following passage in Hamlet: "Now is he total gules." Steevens. 7 I will not kiss thee;] This alludes to an opinion in former times, generally prevalent, that the venereal infection transmitted to another, left the infecter free. I will not, says Timon, take the rot from thy lips, by kissing thee. Johnson. Thus, The Humorous Lieutenant says: "He has some wench, or such a toy, to kiss over, See also the fourth Satire of Donne. Steevens. 8 If Thou wilt not promise, &c.] That is, however thou may'st act, since thou art a man, hated man, I wish thee evil. Johnson. Alcib. I see them now; then was a blessed time." Tim. As thine is now, held with a brace of harlots. Timan. Is this the Athenian minion, whom the world Voic'd so regardfully? Tim. Timan. Yes. Art thou Timandra? Tim. Be a whore still! they love thee not, that use thee; Give them diseases, leaving with thee their lust. For tubs, and baths; bring down rose-cheeked youth2 9 - then was a blessed time.] I suspect, from Timon's answer, that Shakspeare wrote-thine was a blessed time. Malone. I apprehend no corruption. Now, and then, were designedly opposed to each other. Steevens. 1 Be a whore still! they love thee not, that use thee; Give them diseases, leaving with thee their lust. Make use of thy salt hours: &c.] There is here a slight transposition. I would read: 2 they love thee not that use thee. Leaving with thee their lust; give them diseases, Make use of thy salt hours, season the slaves For tubs, and baths; Johnson. - bring down rose-cheeked youth-] This expressive epithet our author might have found in Marlowe's Hero and Leander: "Rose-cheek'd Adonis kept a solemn feast." Malone. 3 To the tub-fast, and the diet.] [Old copy-fub-fast] One might make a very long and vain search, yet not be able to meet with this preposterous word fub-fast, which has notwithstanding passed current with all the editors. We should read-tub-fast. The author is alluding to the lues venerea and its effects. At that time the cure of it was performed either by guaiacum, or mercurial unctions: and in both cases the patient was kept up very warm and close; that in the first application the sweat might be promoted; and lest, in the other, he should take cold, which was fatal. "The regimen for the course of guaiacum (says Dr. Friend, in his History of Physick, Vol. II, p. 380,) was at first strangely circumstantial; and so rigorous, that the patient was put into a dungeon in order to make him sweat; and in that manner, as Fallopius expresses it, the bones, and the very man himself was macerated." Wiseman says, in England they used a tub for this purpose, as abroad, a cave, or oven, or dungeon. And as for the unction, it was sometimes continued for thirty-seven days, (as he observes, p. 375,) and during this time there was necessarily an extraordinary abstinence required. Hence the term of the tub-fast. VOL. XV. Warburton, N n Timan. Hang thee, monster! Alcib. Pardon him, sweet Timandra; for his wits Are drown'd and lost in his calamities. I have but little gold of late, brave Timon, I had rather be alone. Alcib. Why, fare thee well: Here's some gold for thee. Tim. Keep 't, I cannot eat it. Alcib. When I have laid proud Athens on a heap, — Tim. Warr'st thou 'gainst Athens? Alcib. Ay, Timon, and have cause. Tim. The gods confound them all i' thy conquest; nd Thee after, when thou hast conquer'd! Alcib. Tim. That, Way me, Timon? By killing villains, thou wast born to conquer Put up thy gold; Go on,-here 's gold,-go on; In the Latin comedy of Cornelianum Dolium, which was probably written by T Randolph, there is a frontispiece representing the sweating-tub, which from the name of the unfortunate patient, was afterwards called Cornelius's tub, as appears from the Dictionaries of Cotgrave and Howel. Some account of the sweating-tub with a cut of it may be seen in Ambrose Paræus's Works, by Johnson, p. 48 Another very particular representation of it may be likewise found in the Recueil de Proverbes par Jacques Lagniet, with the following lines: "Pour un petit plaisir je soufre mille maux; "Je fais contre un hyver deux este ci me semble: For another print of this tub, see Holmes's Academy of Armory. 4 trod upon them,] Sir Thomas Hanmer reads-had trod up on them. Shakspeare was not thus minutely accurate. Malone. |