So is mine eye enthralled to thy shape;
And thy fair virtue's force
(perforce) [doth move me, On the first view to say, to swear
I love thee]
These lines are in one quarto of 1600, the first folio of 1623,
the second of 1632, and the third of 1664, &c. ranged in the following
order:
_Mine ear is much enamour'd of thy note.
On the first view to say, to swear, I love thee;
So is mine eye enthralled to thy shape,
And thy fair virtue's force (perforce) [doth move me._
This reading I have inserted, not that it can suggest any thing
better than the order to which the lines have been restored by
Mr. Theobald from another quarto, but to shew that some liberty
of conjecture must be allowed in the revisal of works so inaccurately
printed, and so long neglected.
III.i.173 (55,6) [the fiery glow-worm's eyes] I know not how
Shakespeare,who commonly derived his knowledge of nature from his own
observation, happened to place the glow-worm's light in his eyes,
which is only in his tail.
III.ii.9 (56,l) [patches] _Patch_ was in old language used as a term
of opprobry; perhaps with much the some import as we use _raggamuffin_,
or _tatterdemalion_.
III.ii.17 (56,2) [nowl] A head. Saxon.
III.ii.19 (57,4) [minnock] This is the reading of the old quarto, and
I believe right, _Minnekin_, now _minx_, is a nice trifling girl.
_Minnock_ is apparently a word of contempt.
III.ii.21 (57,5) [sort] Company. So above,
--_that barren_ sort;
and in Waller,
_A_ sort _of lusty shepherds strive_.
III.ii.25 (57,6) [And, at our stamp] This seems to be a vicious reading.
Fairies are never represented stamping, or of a size that should give
force to a stamp, nor could they have distinguished the stamps of Puck
from those of their own companions. I read,
_And at a_ stump _here o'er and o'er one falls_.
So Drayton,
_A pain he in his head-piece feels,
Against a_ stubbed tree _he reels,
And up went poor hobgoblin's heels;
Alas, his brain was dizzy_.----
_At length upon his feet he gets,
Hobgoblin fumes, Hobgoblin frets,
And as again he forward sets,
And through the bushes scrambles,_
A stump _doth_ trip him _in his pace,
Down fell poor Hob upon his face,
Among the briers and brambles._
III.ii.30 (58,7) [Some, sleeves; some, hats] There is the like image
in Drayton of queen Mab and her fairies flying from Hobgoblin.
_Some tore a ruff, and some a gown,
'Gainat one another jostling;
They flew about like chaff i' th' wind,
For haste some left their masks behind,
Some could not stay their gloves to find,
There never was such bustling._
III.ii.48 (58,l) [Being o'er shoes in blood] An allusion to the proverb,
_Over shoes, over boots._
III.ii.70 (59,3) [O brave touch!] _Touch_ in Shakespeare's time was the
same with our _exploit_, or rather _stroke_. A brave touch, a noble
stroke, _un grand coup_. _Mason was very merry, pleasantly playing
both with the shrewd_ touches _of many curst boys, and the small discretion
of many lewd schoolmasters._ Ascham.
III.ii.74 (60,4) [mispris'd] Mistaken; so below _misprision_ is mistake.
III.ii.141 (62,5) [Taurus' snow] Taurus is the name of a range of
mountains in Asia.
III.ii.144 (62,7) [seal of bliss!] Be has elsewhere the same image,
_But my kisses bring again_
Seals of love, _but seal'd in vain_, (rev. 1778, III,74,4)
III.ii.150 (62,8) [join in souls] This is surely wrong. We may read,
_Join in_ scorns, or _join in_ scoffs. [Tyrwhitt: join, ill souls] This
is a very reasonable conjecture, though I think it is hardly right.
(1773)
III.ii.160 (63,9) [extort A poor soul's patience] Harrass, torment.
III.ii.171 (63,1) [My heart with her] We should read,
_My heart_ with _her but as guest-wise sojourn'd_.
So Prior,
_No matter what beauties I saw in my way,
They were but my visits, but then not my home._ (rev. 1778, III,76,9)
III.ii.188 (64,2) [all yon fiery O's] I would willingly believe that
the poet wrote _fiery orbs_.
III.ii.194 (64,3) [in spight to me] I read, _in spite_ to _me_.
III.ii.242 (66,2) [such an argument] Such a _subject_ of light merriment.
III.ii.352 (71,1) [so sort] So happen in the issue.
III.ii.367 (71,2) [virtuous property] Salutiferous. So be calls, in
the Tempest, _poisonous dew_, wicked _dew_.
III.ii.426 (74,5) [buy this dear] i.e. _thou shalt dearly pay for this._
Though this is sense, and may well enough stand, yet the poet
perhaps wrote _thou shalt 'by it dear_. So in another place, _thou
shalt_ aby it. So Milton, _How_ dearly I abide _that boust so vain._
IV.i (75,6) I see no reason why the fourth act should begin here,
when there seems no interruption of the action. In the old quartos
of 1600, there is no division of acts, which seems to have
been afterwards arbitrarily made in the first folio, and may
therefore be altered at pleasure, (see 1765, I,149,5)
IV.i.2 (75,7) [do coy] To _coy_ is to sooth. Skinner, (rev. 1778, III,
89,6)
IV.i.45 (77,2) [So doth the woodbine, the sweet honey-suckle, Gently
entwist] Mr. Upton reads,
_So doth the_ woodrine _the sweet honey-suckle_,
for bark of the wood. Shakespeare perhaps only meant so, the
leaves involve the flower, using _woodbine_ for the plant and _honeysuckle_
for the flower; or perhaps Shakespeare made a blunder, (rev.
1778, III,91,2)
IV.i.107 (81,9) [our observation is perform'd] The honours due to the
morning of May. I know not why Shakespear calls this play a _Midsummer-
Night's Dream_, when he so carefully informs us that it happened
on the night preceding _May_ day.
IV.i.123 (81,4) [so sanded] So marked with small spots.
IV.i.166 (83,6) [Fair Helena in fancy following me] _Fancy_ is here taken
for _love_ or _affection_, and is opposed to _fury_, as before.
_Sighs and tears poor_ Fancy's _follovers_.
Some now call that which a man takes particular delight in his _Fancy.
Flower-fancier_, for a florist, and _bird-fancier_, for a lover
and feeder of birds, are colloquial words.
IV.i.194 (84,6) [And I have found Demetrius like a jewel] [W: gewell]
This emendation is ingenious enough to deserve to be true.
IV.i.213 (85,8) [patch'd fool] That is, a fool in a particolour'd coat.
IV.ii.14 (86,2) [a thing of nought] which Mr. Theobald changes with
great pomp to _a thing of naught_, is, a _good for nothing thing_.
IV.ii.18 (86,3) [made men] In the same sense us in the _Tempest, any
monster in England_ makes _a man_.