Stood Dido with a willow in her hand 4 Upon the wild sea-banks, and wav'd her love JES. In such a night 3, Medea gather'd the enchanted herbs That did renew old son. LOR. In such a night, Did Jessica steal from the wealthy Jew: And with an unthrift love did run from Venice, 4 In such a night, Stood Dido with a willow in her hand-] This passage contains a small instance out of many that might be brought to prove that Shakspeare was no reader of the classicks. STEEVENS. For the willow the poet must answer; but I believe he here recollected Chaucer's description of Ariadne in a similar situation: "Alas (quod she) that ever I was wrought! "I am betrayed, and her heere to-rent, "And to the stronde barefote fast she went, "And cried; Theseus, mine-hert swete, "Where be ye, that I may nat with you mete; "And might thus with beestes bin yslaine. "The halow rockes answerde her againe. "No man she saw, and yet shone the moone. 66 66 She cried, O turne again, for routhe and sinne; Thy barge hath not all his meine in. "Her kerchefe on a pole sticked she, "Ascaunce he should it well ysee, “And him remember that she was behind, "And turne againe, and on the stronde her find." Legend of Good Women, p. 194, b. Mr. Warton suggests in his History of English Poetry, that Shakspeare might have taken this circumstance of the willow from some ballad on the subject. MALONE. 5 In such a night, &c.] So, Gower, speaking of Medea: "Thus it befell upon a night "Whann there was nought but sterre light, "She was vanished right as hir list, "That no wight but herself wist: "And that was at midnight tide, 66 'The world was still on every side," &c. Confessio Amantis, 1554. STEEVENS. JES. In such a night", Did young Lorenzo swear he lov'd her well; LOR. In such a night, Did pretty Jessica, like a little shrew, Slander her love, and he forgave it her. JES. I would out-night you, did no body come : But, hark, I hear the footing of a man. Enter STEPHANO. LOR. Who comes so fast in silence of the night? STEPH. A friend. LOR. A friend? what friend? your name, I pray you, friend? STEPH. Stephano is my name; and I bring word, My mistress will before the break of day Be here at Belmont: she doth stray about By holy crosses', where she kneels and prays For happy wedlock hours. I LOR. Who comes with her? STEPH. None, but a holy hermit, and her maid. pray you, is my master yet return'd? 6 AND in such a night,] The word—and was necessarily added by Mr. Pope, for the sake of metre, both in this and the following speech of Lorenzo. STEEVENS. No alteration is necessary: two hemistichs frequently occur at the end of one speech and the commencement of another. See the Essay on Shakspeare's Versification. It might as well be objected that the close and beginning of the preceding speeches are redundant. BOSWELL. By holy CROSSES,] So, in The Merry Devil of Edmonton : "But there are Crosses, wife; here's one in Waltham, "Another at the Abbey, and the third "At Ceston; and 'tis ominous to pass 66 'Any of these without a Pater-Noster." And this is a reason assigned for the delay of a wedding. STEEVENS LOR. He is not, nor we have not heard from him. But go we in, I pray thee, Jessica, And ceremoniously let us prepare Some welcome for the mistress of the house. Enter LAUNCELOT. LAUN. Sola, sola, wo ha, ho, sola, sola! LOR. Who calls? LAUN. Sola! did you see master Lorenzo, and mistress Lorenzo! sola, sola! LOR. Leave hollaing, man; here. LAUN. Sola! where? where ? LOR. Here. LAUN. Tell him, there's a post come from my master, with his horn full of good news; my master will be here ere morning. [Exit. LOR. Sweet soul, let's in, and there expect their coming. And yet no matter;-Why should we go in? [Exit STEPHANO. Sweet soul,] These words in the old copies are placed at the end of Launcelot's speech. Malone. These two words should certainly be placed at the beginning of the following speech of Lorenzo : "Sweet soul, let's in," &c. Mr. Pope, I see, has corrected this blunder of the old edition, but he has changed soule into love, without any necessity. TYRWHITT. Mr. Rowe first made the present regulation, which appears to me to be right. But instead of soul he reads-love, the latter word having been capriciously substituted in the place of the former by the editor of the second folio, who introduced a large portion of the corruptions, which for a long time disfigured the modern editions. MALONE. I rather suppose, that the printer of the second folio, judici How sweet the moon-light sleeps upon this bank! Sit, Jessica: Look, how the floor of heaven Still quiring to the young-ey'd cherubins: ously correcting some mistakes, through inattention committed others. STEEVENS. 9 and let the sOUNDS of MUSICK CREEP IN OUR EARS;] So, in Churchyard's Worthies of Wales, 1587: 66 66 A musick sweete, that through our eares shall creepe, Again, in The Tempest: 66 This musick crept by me upon the waters." REED. with PATINES of bright gold;] Dr. Warburton says we should read-patens; a round broad plate of gold borne in heraldry. STEEVENS. Pattens is the reading of the first folio, and pattents of the quarto. Patterns is printed first in the folio, 1632. JOHNSON. One of the quartos, 1600, reads-pattens, the other pattents. STEEVENS. A patine, from patina, Lat. A patine is the small flat dish. or plate used with the chalice, in the administration of the eucharist. In the time of popery, and probably in the following age, it was commonly made of gold. MALONE. 2 Such HARMONY is in immortal SOULS; &c.] It is proper to exhibit the lines as they stand in the copies of the first, second, third, and fourth editions, without any variation, for a change has been silently made by Rowe, and adopted by all the succeeding editors : 66 Such harmony is in immortal souls; "But while this muddy vesture of decay "Doth grossly close in it, we cannot hear it." That the third line is corrupt must be allowed, but it gives reason to suspect that the original was: Doth grossly close it in. Yet I know not whether from this any thing better can be produced than the received reading. Perhaps harmony is the power of perceiving harmony, as afterwards: Musick in the soul is the But, whilst this muddy vesture of decay Doth grossly close it in, we cannot hear it 3.— quality of being moved with concord of sweet sounds. This will somewhat explain the old copies, but the sentence is still imperfect; which might be completed by reading: 3 Such harmony is in th' immortal soul, JOHNSON. close IT in-] This idea might have been adopted from a passage in Phaer's translation of Virgil, b. vi. : "Nor closed so in darke can they regard their heavenly kinde, For carkasse foul of flesh, and dungeon vile of prison 66 blinde." STEEVENS. "Such harmony is in immortal souls; &c." This passage having been much misunderstood, it may be proper to add a short explanation of it. Such harmony, &c. is not an explanation arising from the foregoing line" So great is the harmony!" but an illustration: -"Of the same kind is the harmony."-The whole runs thus: "There is not one of the heavenly orbs but sings as it moves, still quiring to the cherubin. Similar to the harmony they make, is that of immortal souls; or," in other words, "each of us have as perfect harmony in our souls as the harmony of the spheres, inasmuch as we have the quality of being moved by sweet sounds (as he expresses it afterwards); but our gross terrestrial part, which environs us, deadens the sound, and prevents our hearing."-It, [Doth glossly close it in,] I apprehend, refers to harmony. This is the reading of the first quarto printed by Heyes; the quarto printed by Roberts, and the folio, read-close in it. It may be objected that this internal harmony is not an object of sense, cannot be heard ;-but Shakspeare is not always exact in his language: he confounds it with that external and artificial harmony which is capable of being heard.-Dr. Warburton (who appears to have entirely misunderstood this passage,) for souls reads sounds. This hath been imitated by Milton in his Arcades: "And keep unsteady nature in her law, "Of human mould, with gross unpurged ear." MAlone. Thus, in Comus : "Can any mortal mixture of earth's mold "Breathe such divine enchanting ravishment? |