[However, but a folly bought with wit;
Or else a wit by folly vanquished]
This love will end in a _foolish action_, to produce which you are
long to spend your _wit_, or it will end in the loss of your _wit_,
which will be overpowered by the folly of love.
I.i.69 (109,7) [Made wit with musing weak] For _made_ read _make_.
_Thou_, Julia, _hast_ made _me war with good counsel, and_ make _wit
weak with muting_.
I.i.70 (109,8) [_Enter Speed_] [Pope found this scene low and full of
"trifling conceits" and suggested it was possibly an interpolation
by the actors.] That this, like many other scenes, is mean and
vulgar, will be universally allowed; but that it was interpolated
by the players seems advanced without any proof, only to give a
greater licence to criticism.
I.i.153 (112,4) [you have testern'd me] You have gratified me with
a _tester, testern_, or _testen_, that is, with a sixpence.
I.ii.41 (114,5) [a goodly broker!] A _broker_ was used for matchmaker,
sometimes for a procuress.
I.ii.68 (115,6) [stomach on your meat] _Stomach_ was used for _passion_
or _obstinacy_.
I.ii.137 (117,8) [I see you have a month's mind to them] [_A month's
mind_ was an _anniversary_ in times of popery. Gray.] A _month's
mind_, in the ritual sense, signifies not desire or inclination,
but remonstrance; yet I suppose this is the true original of the
expression. (1773)
I.iii.1 (118,9) [what sad talk] _Sad_ is the same as _grave_ or _serious_.
I.iii.26 (119,2) [Valentine, Attends the emperor in his royal court]
[Theobald had tried to straighten out an historical error.] Mr.
Theobald discovers not any great skill in history. Vienna is
not the court of the emperor as emperor, nor has Milan been
always without its princes since the days of Charlemaigne; but
the note has its use.
I.iii.44 (120,3) [in good time] _In good time_ was the old expression
when something happened which suited the thing in hand, as the
French say, _a propos_.
I.iii.84 (121,4) [Oh, how this spring of love resembleth] At the
end of this verse there is wanting a syllable, for the speech
apparently ends in a quatrain. I find nothing that will rhyme
to _sun_, and therefore shall leave it to some happier critic.
But I suspect that the author might write thus:
_Oh, how this spring of love resembleth_ right,
_The uncertain glory of an April day_;
_Which now shews all the glory of the_ light,
_And, by and by, a cloud takes all away_.
_Light_ was either by negligence or affectation changed to _sun_,
which, considered without the rhyme, is indeed better. The next
transcriber, finding that the word _right_ did not rhyme to _sun_,
supposed it erroneously written, and left it out.
II.i.27 (123,1) [Hallowmas] That is, about the feast of All-Saints,
when winter begins, and the life of a vagrant becomes less comfortable.
II.i.39 (123,2) [without you were so simple, none else would] None
else would _be so simple_.
II.i.148 (127,5) [reasoning with yourself?] That is, _discoursing,
talking_. An Italianism.
II.iii.22 (129,2) [I am the dog] This passage is much confused, and
of confusion the present reading makes no end. Sir T. Hammer
reads, _I am the dog, no, the dog is himself and I am_ me, _the dog
is_ the dog, _and I am myself_. This certainly is more reasonable,
but I know not how much reason the author intended to bestow on
Launce's soliloquy.
II.iv.57 (133,1) [not without desert] And not dignified with so
much reputation without proportionate merit.
II.iv.115 (134,2) [No: that you are worthless] I have inserted the
particle _no_ to fill up the measure.