I.i.27 (226,3) [no faces truer] That is, none _honester,_ none _more
sincere._
I.i.40 (227,7) [challenged Cupid at the flight] The disuse of the
bow makes this passage obscure. Benedick is represented as
challenging Cupid at archery. To challenge _at the flight is,_
I believe, to wager who shall shoot the arrow furthest without any
particular mark. To _challenge at the bird-bolt,_ seems to mean the
same as to challenge at children's archery, with snail arrows such
as are discharged at birds. In Twelfth Night Lady Olivia opposes
a _bird-bolt_ to a _cannon-bullet,_ the lightest to the heaviest of
missive weapons.
I.i.66 (228,9) [four of his five wits] In our author's time _wit_ was the
general term for intellectual powers. So Davies on the Soul.
Wit, _seeking truth from cause to cause ascends._
_And never rests till it the first attain;_
Will, _seeking good, finds many middle ends,
But never stays till it the last do gain._
And in another part,
_But if a phrenzy do possess the brain,
It so disturbs and blots the form of things,
As fantasy proves altogether vain,
And to the_ wit, _no true relation brings.
Then doth the_ wit, _admitting all for true,
Build fond conclusions on those idle grounds;_--
The _wits_ seem to have reckoned five, by analogy to the five
senses, or the five inlets of ideas.
I.i.79 (229,4) [the gentleman is not in your books] This is a phrase
used, I believe, by more than understand it. _To be in one's
books is to be in one's_ codicils _or_ will, _to be among friends set
down for legacies_.
I.i.82 (230,5) [young squarer] A _squarer_ I take to be a cholerick,
quarrelsome fellow, for in this sense Shakespeare uses the word
to _square_. So in Midsummer Night's Dream it is said of Oberon
and Titalia, that _they never meet but they_ square. So the sense
may be, _Is there no_ hot-blooded _youth that will keep him company
through all his mad pranks_?
I.i.103 (231,6) [You embrace your charge] That is your _burthen_, your
_incumbrunce_.
I.i.185 (233,7) [to tell us Cupid is a good hare-finder] I know not
whether I conceive the jest here intended. Claudio hints his
love of Hero. Benedick asks whether he is serious, or whether
he only means to jest, and tell them that _Cupid is a good
hare-finder, and Vulcan a rare carpenter_. A man praising a pretty
lady in jest, may shew the quick sight of Cupid, but what has it
to do with the _carpentry_ of Vulcan? Perhaps the thought lies no
deeper than this, _Do you mean to tell us as new what we all know
already?_
I.i.200 (234,8) [wear his cap with suspicion?] That is, subject his
head to the disquiet of jealousy.
I.i.217 (235,1) [_Claud_. If this were so, so were it uttered] This
and the three next speeches I do not well understand; there
seems something omitted relating to Hero's consent, or to Claudio's
marriage, else I know not what Claudio can wish _not to be
otherwise_. The copies all read alike. Perhaps it may be better
thus,
Claud. _If this were so, so were it_.
Bene. _Uttered like the old tale_, &c.
Claudio gives a sullen answer, _if it is so, so it is_. Still
there seems something omitted which Claudio and Pedro concur in
wishing.
I.i.243 (236,3) [but that I will have a recheate winded in my
forehead] That is, _I will wear a horn on my forehead which the
huntsman may blow_. A _recheate_ is the sound by which dogs are
called back. Shakespeare had no mercy upon the poor cuckold, his
_horn_ is an inexhaustible subject of merriment.
1.1.258 (236,4) [notable argument] An eminent subject for satire.
1.1.259 (237,5) [Adam] Adam Bell was a companion of Robin Hood, as
may be seen in Robin Hood's Garland; in which, if I do not mistake,
are these lines,
_For he brought Adam Bell, Clim of the Clough,
And William of Cloudeslea,
To shoot with this forester for forty marks,
And the forester beat them all three._
(see 1765, III,182,2)
I.i.290 (238,4) [ere you flout old ends any further, examine your
conscience] _Before you endeavour to distinguish yourself any more
by antiquated allusions, examine whether you can fairly claim
them for your own_. This, I think is the meaning; or it may be
understood in another sense, _examine, if your sarcasms do not
touch yourself._
I.iii.14 (241,6) [I cannot hide what I am] This is one of our
authour's natural touches. An envious and unsocial mind, too proud
to give pleasure, and too sullen to receive it, always endeavours
to hide its malignity from the world and from itself, under the
plainness of simple honesty, or the dignity of haughty independence.
I.iii.19 (241,7) [claw no man in his humour] To _claw_ is to flatter.
So _the pope's claw-backs_, in bishop Jewel, are the pope's _flatterers_.
The sense is the same in the proverb, _Mulus mulum scabit_.
I.iii.28 (242,8) [I had rather be a canker in a hedge, than a rose
in his grace] A _canker_ is the _canker_ rose, _dog-rose, cynosbatus,_
or _hip_. The sense is, I would rather live in obscurity the wild
life of nature, than owe dignity or estimation to my brother. He
still continues his wish of gloomy independence. But what is the
meaning of the expression, _a rose in his grace_? if he was a _rose_
of himself, his brother's _grace_ or _favour_ could not degrade him.
I once read thus, _I had rather be a canker in a hedge, than a
rose in his_ garden; that is, I had rather be what nature makes
me, however mean, than owe any exaltation or improvement to my
brother's kindness or cultivation. But a less change will be
sufficient: I think it should be read, _I had rather be a canker in a
hedge, than a rose by his grace_.
II.i.3 (244,1) [I never can see him, but I am heart-burn'd an hour
after] The pain commonly called the _heart-burn_, proceeds from an
_acid_ humour in the stomach, and is therefore properly enough
imputed to _tart_ looks.
II.i.53 (245,3) [Well then, go you into hell] Of the two next speeches
Mr. Warburton says, _All this impious nonsense thrown to the bottom
is the players, and foisted in without rhyme or reason_. He
therefore puts them in the margin. They do not deserve indeed so
honourable a place, yet I am afraid they are too much in the manner
of our authour, who is sometimes trying to purchase merriment
at too dear a rate. (see 1765, III,190,9)
II.i.73 (246,4) [if the prince be too important] _Important_ here, and
in many other places, is _importunate_.
II.i.99 (247,6) [My visor is Philemon's roof; within the house is
Jove] [T: house is love] This amendation, thus impressed with all
the power of his eloquence and reason, Theobald found in the
quarto edition of 1600, which he professes to have seen; and in
the first folio, the _l_ and the _I_ are so much alike, that the
printers, perhaps, used the same type for either letter. (1773)
II.i.143 (249,2) [his gift is in devising impossible slanders] [W:
impassible] _Impossible_ slanders are, I suppose, such slanders as,
from their absurdity and impossibility, bring their own confutation
with them.
II.i.195 (251,4) [usurer's chain] I know not whether the _chain_ was,
in our authour's time, the common ornament of wealthy citizens,
or whether he satirically uses _usurer_ and _alderman_ as synonymous
terms.
II.i.214 (252,5) [It is the base, the bitter disposition of Beatrice,
that puts the world into her person] That is, _It is the disposition
of Beatrice, who takes upon her to personate the world, and
therefore represents the world as saying what she only says herself_.
_Base, tho bitter_. I do not understand how _base_ and _bitter_ are
inconsistent, or why what is _bitter_ should not be _base_. I believe,
we may safely read, _It is the base_, the _bitter_ disposition.
II.i.253 (253,8) [such impossible conveyance] [W: impassible] I know
not what to propose. _Impossible_ seems to have no meaning here,
and for _impassible_ I have not found any authority. Spenser uses
the word _importable_ in a sense very congruous to this passage,
for _insupportable_, or _not to be sustained_.
_Both him charge on either side,
With hideous strokes and_ importable _power,
Which forced him his ground to traverse wide_.
It may be easily imagined, that the transcribers would change
a word so unusual, into that word most like it, which they could
readily find. It must be however confessed, that _importable_
appears harsh to our ears, and I wish a happier critick may find a
better word.
Sir Tho. Hammer reads _impetuous_, which will serve the purpose
well enough, but is not likely to have been changed to _impossible_.
_Importable_ was a word not peculiar to Spenser, but used by the
last translators of the Apocrypha, and therefore such a word as
Shakespeare may be supposed to have written. (1773)
II.i.330 (256,2) [Thus goes every one to the world but I, and I am
sun-burn'd] What is it, _to go the world_? perhaps, to enter by
marriage into a settled state: but why is the unmarry'd lady
_sun-burnt_? I believe we should read, _Thus goes every one to the wood_
but I, and I am sun-burnt_. Thus does every one but I find a shelter,
and I am left exposed to wind and _sun. The nearest way to
the_ wood, is a phrase for the readiest means to any end. It is
said of a woman, who accepts a worse match than those which she
had refused, that she has passed through the _wood_, and at last
taken a crooked stick. But conjectural criticism has always
something to abate its confidence. Shakespeare, in All's well that
Ends well, uses the phrase, _to go to the world_, for _marriage_. So
that my emendation depends only on the opposition of _wood_ to
_sun-burnt_.
II.i.380 (258,4) [to bring signior Benedick, and the lady Beatrice
into a mountain of affection, the one with another] _A mountain of
affection with one another_ is a strange expression, yet I know not
well how to change it. Perhaps it was originally written, _to
bring Benedick into a mooting of affection_; to bring them not to
any more _mootings_ of contention, but to a _mooting_ or conversation
of love. This reading is confirmed by the preposition _with; a
mountain with each other,_ or _affection with each other,_ cannot be
used, but _a mooting with each other_ is proper and regular.
II.iii.104 (265,7) [but, that she loves him, with an enraged
affection, it is past the infinite of thought] [W: the definite of]
Here are difficulties raised only to shew how easily they can be
removed. The plain sense is, _I know not what to think_ otherwise,
_but that she loves him with_ an enraged _affection: It_ (this
affection) [is past the infinite of thought. Here are no abrupt stops,
or imperfect sentences. _Infinite_ may well enough stand; it is
used by more careful writers for _indefinite_; and the speaker only
means, that _thought_, though in itself _unbounded_, cannot reach or
estimate the degree of her passion.
II.iii.146 (267,8) [O, she tore the letter into a thousand half-pence]
[i.e. into a thousand pieces of the same bigness.] This is
farther explained by a passage in As you Like it.
--_There were none principal; they were all like one
another as_ half-pence _are_. [Theobald.] How the quotation explains
the passage, to which it is applied, I cannot discover.
II.iii.188 (268,9) [contemptible spirit] That is, a temper inclined
to scorn and contempt. It has been before remarked, that our authour
uses his verbal adjectives with great licence. There is
therefore no need of changing the word with sir T. Hammer to
_contemptuous_.
III.i.52 (273,3) [Misprising] Despising, contemning.
III.i.96 (275,8) [argument] This word seems here to signify _discourse_,
or, the _powers_ of reasoning.
III.i.104 (275,7) [She's lim'd] She is ensnared and entangled as a
sparrow with _birdlime_.
III.i.107 (275,9) [Taming my wild heart to thy loving hand] This
image is taken from falconry. She had been charged with being
as wild as _haggards of the rock_; she therefore says, that _wild_
as her _heart_ is, she will tame it _to the hand_.
III.ii.31 (277,2) [There is no appearance of fancy in him, unless
it be a fancy that he hath to strange disguises] Here is a play
upon the word _fancy_, which Shakespeare uses for _love_ as well as
for _humour, caprice_, or _affectation_.
III.ii.71 (278,3) [She shall be buried with her face upwards] [T:
heels upwards] This emendation, which appears to me very specious,
is rejected by Dr. Warburton. The meaning seems to be,
that she who acted upon principles contrary to others, should
be buried with the same contrariety.
III.iii.43 (282,5) [only have a care that your bills be not stolen]
A _bill_ is still carried by the watchmen at Litchfield. It was
the old weapon of the English infantry, which, says Temple, _gave
the most ghastly and deplorable wounds_. It may be called _securis
falcata_.
III.iv.44 (289,3) [Light o' love] A tune so called, which has been
already mentioned by our authour.
III.iv.49 (290,4) [you'll look he shall lack no burns] A quibble
between _barns_, repositories of corn, and _bairns_, the old word
for children.
III.iv.56 (290,5) [For the letter that begins them all, H] This is
a poor jest, somewhat obscured, and not worth the trouble of
elucidation.
Margaret asks Beatrice for what she cries, _hey ho_; Beatrice
answers, for an _H_, that is, for an _ache_ or _pain_.
III.iv.57 (290,6) [turn'd Turk] [i.e. taken captive by love, and
turned a renegade to his religion. Warburton.] This interpretation
is somewhat far-fetched, yet, perhaps, it is right.
III.iv.78 (291,7) [some morel] That is, some secret meaning, like
the _moral_ of a fable.
III.iv.89 (291,8) [he eats his meat without grudging] I do not see
how this is a proof of Benedick's change of mind. It would afford
more proof of amourosness to say, _he eats_ not _his meat
without grudging_; but it is impossible to fix the meaning of
proverbial expressions: perhaps, _to eat meat without grudging_,
was the same as, _to do as others do_, and the meaning is, _he is
content to live by eating like other mortals and will be content,
notwithstanding his boasts, like other mortals, to have a wife_.
III.v.15 (293,9) [I am as honest as any man living, that is an old
man, and no honester than I] [There is much humour, and extreme
good sense under the covering of this blundering expression. It
is a sly insinuation that length of years, and the being much _hacknied
in the ways of men_, as Shakespeare expresses it, take off the
gloss of virtue, and bring much defilement on the manners. Warburton.]
Much of this is true, but I believe Shakespeare did not intend
to bestow all this reflection on the speaker.
III.v.40 (294,1) [an two men ride of a horse, one must ride behind]
This is not out of place, or without meaning. Dogberry, in his
vanity of superiour parts, apologizing for his neighbour, observes,
that _of two men on an horse, one must ride behind_. The _first_
place of rank or understanding can belong but to _one_, and that
happy _one_ ought not to despise his inferiour.
IV.i.22 (296,2) [Interjections? Why, then some be of laughing] This
is a quotation from the Accidence.
IV.i.42 (296,3) [luxurious bed] That is, _lascivious_. _Luxury_ is the
confessor's term for unlawful pleasures of the sex.
IV.i.53 (297,5) [word too large] So he uses _large jests_ in this play,
for _licentious, not restrained within due bounds_.
IV.i.57 (297,6) [I will write against it] [W: rate against] As to
_subscribe to_ any thing is to _allow_ it, so to _write against_ is to
_disallow_ or _deny_.
IV.i.59 (297,7) [chaste as is the bud] Before the air has tasted its
sweetness.
IV.i.75 (298,8) [kindly power] That is, _natural power_. _Kind_ is
_nature_.
IV.i.93 (298,9) [liberal villain] _Liberal_ here, as in many places of
these plays, means, _frank beyond honesty_ or _decency_. _Free of
tongue_. Dr. Warburton unnecessarily reads, _illiberal_.
IV.i. 101 (299,1) [O Hero! What a Hero hadst thou been] I am afraid
here is intended a poor conceit upon the word _Hero_.
IV.i.123 (300,2) [The story that is printed in her blood?] That is,
_the story which her blushes discover to be true_.
IV.i.128 (300,3) [Griev'd I, I had but one? Chid I for that at frugal
nature's frame?] [W: nature's 'fraine] Though _frame_ be not the word
which appears to a reader of the present time most proper to exhibit
the poet's sentiment, yet it may as well be used to shew that
he had _one child_, and _no more_, as that he had a _girl_, not a _boy_,
and as it may easily signify _the system of things_, or _universal
scheme_, the whole order of beings is comprehended, there arises
no difficulty from it which requires to be removed by so violent
an effort as the introduction of a new word offensively mutilated.
IV.i.137 (301,4) [But mine, and mine I lov'd, and mine I prais'd,
And mine that I was proud on] [W: "as mine" in three places] Even
of this small alteration there is no need. The speaker utters
his emotion abruptly, But _mine_, _and mine_ that _I loved_, &c. by an
ellipsis frequent, perhaps too frequent, both in verse and prose.
IV.i.187 (303,6) [bent of honour] _Bent_ is used by our authour for the
utmost degree of any passion, or mental quality. In this play
before Benedick says of Beatrice, _her affection has its full bent_.
The expression is derived from archery; the bow has its _bent_, when
it is drawn as far as it can be.
IV.i.206 (304,8) [ostentation] Show; appearance.
IV.i.251 (305,1) [The smallest twine nay lead me] This is one of our
author's observations upon life. Men overpowered with distress,
eagerly listen to the first offers of relief, close with every
scheme, and believe every promise. He that has no longer any
confidence in himself, is glad to repose his trust in any other that
will undertake to guide him.
IV.ii.70 (311,6) [_Sexton_. Let them be in hand] There is nothing in
the old quarto different in this scene from the common copies,
except that the names of two actors, Kempe and Cowley, are placed at
the beginning of the speeches, instead of the proper words, (see
1765, III,249,7)