Puslapio vaizdai
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here means forces; and my answer to the question, To what? is, To crying. This, I admit, is not perfectly correct; but is not more licentious than multitudes of passages in Shakespeare.

P. 22.-17.-27.

Not a hair perish'd;

On their sustaining garments not a blemish,

But fresher than before:

I believe Mr. M. Mason's is the true interpretation of sustaining.

P. 28.-21.-33.

Pro. Go make thyself like a nymph o' the sea; be subject
To no sight but thine and mine; invisible

To every eye-ball else.

I know not whether we should not read thus:

Go make thyself like to a nymph o' th' sea:

Be subject to no sight but mine; invisible
To every eye-ball else.

I find that Mr. Steevens, in the edition of 1793, has printed it thus :-The words thine and may very easily have crept in by the error of the transcriber.

P. 31.-23.-36.

urchins

Shall, for that vast of night that they may work,

All exercise on thee:

I believe urchin is used as synonymous with elf. I remember having heard children small of their age called urchins. So Prior:

"Pleas'd Cupid heard, and check'd his mother's pride,
And, who's blind now, mamma? the urchin cry'd."

P. 31.-24.-38.

Cursed be I that did so !

I would read thus with the 2d folio,

P. 38.-27.43.

Ferd. The ditty does remember my drown'd father :—
This is no mortal business, nor no sound

That the earth owes :

So Acts xxi. 2. "So shall the Jews at Jerusalem bind the man that oweth this girdle." This, in the later impressions of the bible, is changed to owneth. The use of the verb to owe, in the sense of to own, is very common in Suffolk.

Ferd.

P. 39.-28.-45.

My prime request,

Which I do last pronounce, is, O you wonder!

If you be made, or no?

Mira.

But certainly a maid.

No wonder, sir;

Maid is surely the right word.

Mira.

P. 42.-31.-49.

O dear father,

Make not too rash a trial of him, for

He's gentle, and not fearful.

Malone's explanation of fearful is certainly right. I wonder that Mr. Steevens should think it may mean timorous in this passage.

P. 46.-34.53.

Ant. Which of them, he, or Adrian,

for a good wager, first begins to crow?

Seb. The old cock.

Ant. The cockrel.

Seb. Done: The wager?

Ant. A laughter.

Seb. A match.

Adr. Though this island seem to be desert,—
Seb. Ha, ha, ha!

Ant. So, you've pay'd.

Mr. Malone's note appears to me ingeniously absurd. If you're paid be the true reading, the words must be given to Sebastian. This I think not improbable.

P. 46.-35.-55.

The king's fair daughter, Claribel.

Of what consequence is it whence Shakespeare had the name?

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Although this lord of weak remembrance, this

(Who shall be of as little memory,

When he is earth'd,) hath here almost persuaded
(For he's a spirit of persuasion only,)

The king, his son's alive; 'tis as impossible

That he's undrown'd, as he that sleeps here, swims.

I conceive the meaning is simply, He professes nothing else but to persuade; that is his only profession. I see no difficulty, and wonder that Dr. Johnson and Steevens should puzzle so much about it. If the construction be harsh, it is a sort of construction common with Shakespeare and the writers of his time.

P. 59.-45.-71.

twenty consciences,

That stand 'twixt me and Milan, candy'd be they,
And melt, ere they molest!

I incline to think with Mr. Steevens that we should adopt the reading proposed in The Edinburgh Magazine,-Or melt.

Ibid.

Here lies your brother,

No better than the earth he lies upon,

If he were that which now he's like; whom I,
With this obedient steel, three inches of it,

Can lay to bed for ever:

I incline to think that Dr. Farmer is right, and that the words that's dead, are properly ejected from the text.

P. 60.-46.-73.

Ariel. My master through his art foresees the danger
That these, his friends, are in; and sends me forth,

(For else his project dies,) to keep them living.

I can by no means agree to Mr. Malone's explanation. The difficulty seems to me to arise from the change of person; but perhaps Dr. Johnson is right. Warburton has certainly mistaken Antonio for Gonzalo.

P. 71.-55.-87.

Ferd. There be some sports are painful; but their labour
Delight in them sets off.

I agree with Mr. Steevens.

P. 71,-55.-88.

This my mean task would be

As heavy to me, as 'tis odious; but

The mistress, &c. &c.

It seems as if Mr. Malone would not only read odious as a trissyllable, but would also make the penult long.

Ibid.
I forget:

But these sweet thoughts do even refresh my labours;
Most busy-less, when I do it.

I think Mr. Malone's first explanation is the right one. I cannot see that and or for would be more proper than but

P. 74. 57. (Vide Appendix, p. 549)-91.

Ferd.

I am, in my condition,

A prince, Miranda; I do think, a king;
(I would, not so!) and would no more endure
This wooden slavery, than I would suffer

The flesh-fly blow my mouth.

I do not think Mr. Malone has rightly explained the word blow. The passages which he cites do not appear to me to support the meaning which he attributes to it. Mr. M. does not seem to know what a fly-blow is. Every good housewife would wish herself equally ignorant of it.

P. 57. (vide App. p. 549)—91.

Than I would suffer.

The metre, no less than the grammar, is advantaged by what Mr. Malone calls his incaution.

Mira.

P. 75.-59.-93.

My husband then ?

Ferd. Ay, with a heart as willing

As bondage e'er of freedom: here's my hand.
Mira. And mine, with my heart in't :

I thought it had been a common custom to join hands on making a bargain. So in the Winter's Tale, "take hands, a bargain." By notes of this sort, a book may be swelled to any size that may suit the editor's purpose.

P. 78.-59.-93.

Pro. So glad of this as they, I cannot be,
Who are surpriz'd with all;

I by no means approve the transposition proposed by Mr. Steevens.

P. 79.-62.-97.

Cal. What a py'd ninny's this? Thou scurvy patch! Mr. Steevens is right. Mr. Malone's remark is true, but there is no occasion to have recourse to it in the present instance: it is going out of the way to fix an impropriety on the poet, who has improprieties enough to answer for, without being loaded with those which are made by the ingenuity of his commentators.

P. 82.-64.-101.

Trin. This is the tune of our catch, play'd by the picture of No-body.

Ste. If thou beest a man, shew thyself in thy likeness: if thou beest a devil, take't as thou list.

A ridiculous note of Mr. Malone's. He certainly means not by such a figure as is sometimes

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