[ An evil soul, producing holy witness,
Is like a villain with a smiling cheek;
A goodly apple rotten at the heart.
O, what a goodly outside falshood hath?]
I wish any copy would give the authority to range and read the
lines thus:
_O, what a_ godly _outside falshood hath!
An evil soul producing holy witness,
Is like a villain with a sailing cheek;
Or goodly apply rotten at the heart._
Yet there is no difficulty in the present reading. _Falsehood_,
which as _truth_ means _honesty_, is taken here for _treachery_ and
_knavery_, does not stand for _falshood_ in general, but for the dishonesty
now operating. (1773)
I.iii.156 (129,8) [dwell in my necessity] To _dwell_ seems in this
place to mean the same as to _continue_. To _abide_ has both the
senses of _habitation_ and _continuance_.
I.iii.176 (130,9) [left in the fearful guard] [W: fearless] Dr. Warburton
has forgotten that _fearful_ is not only that which fears,
but that which is feared or causes fear. _Fearful guard_, is a
guard that is not to be trusted, but gives cause of fear. To _fear_
was anciently to _give_ as well as _feel terrours_. (see 1765, I,402,4)
I.iii.180 (130,1) [I like not fair terms] Kind words, good language.
II.i.7 (131,2) [To prove whose blood is reddest, his or mine] To
understand how the tawney prince, whose savage dignity is very well
supported, means to recommend himself by this challenge, it must
be remembered that _red_ blood is a traditionary sign of courage:
Thus Macbeth calls one of his frighted soldiers, a _lilly liver'd_
Lown; again in this play, Cowards are said to _have livers as white
as milk_; and an effeminate and timorous man is termed a _milksop._
II.i.18 (132,4) [And hedg'd me by his will] I suppose we may safely
read, _and hedg'd me by his_ will. Confined me by his will.
II.i.25 (132,5) [That slew the Sophy] Shakespeare seldom escapes well
when he is entangled with geography. The prince of Morocco must
have travelled far to kill the Sophy of Persia.
II.i.42 (133,7) [Therefore be advis'd] Therefore be not precipitant;
consider well what we are to do. _Advis'd_ is the word opposite to
_rash_.
II.ii.38 (134,8) [try conclusions]--So the old quarto. The first
folio, by a mere blunder, reads, try _confusions_, which, because it
makes a kind of paltry jest, has been copied by all the editors.
II.ii.91 (136,1) [your child that shall be] The distinction between
_boy_ and _son_ is obvious, but child seems to have some meaning,
which is now lost.
II.ii.166 (138,3) [Well, if any man in Italy have a fairer table,
which doth suffer to swear upon a book] Mr. Theobald's note is as
obscure as the passage. It may be read more than once before the
complication of ignorance can be completely disentangled. Table
is the palm expanded. What Mr. Theobald conceives it to be cannot
easily be discovered, but he thinks it somewhat that promises
a full belly.
Dr. Warburton understood the word, but puzzles himself with no
great success in the pursuit of the meaning. The whole matter is
this: Launcelot congratulates himself upon his dexterity and good
fortune, and, in the height of his rapture, inspects his hand, and
congratulates himself upon the felicities in his table. The act
of expounding his hand puts him in mind of the action in which the
palm is shewn, by raising it to lay it on the book, in judicial
attestations. _Well_, says he, _if any man in Italy have a fairer
table, that doth offer to swear upon a book_----Here he stops with
an abruptness very common, and proceeds to particulars.
II.ii.194 (140,5) [Something too liberal] Liberal I have already
shewn to be mean, gross, coarse, licentious.
II.ii.205 (141,9) [sad ostent] Grave appearance; shew of staid and
serious behaviour.
II.vi.5 (146,1) [O, ten times faster Venus' pigeons fly] [W: widgeons]
I believe the poet wrote as the editors have printed. How it is
so very _high humour_ to call lovers _widgeons_ rather than pigeons. I
cannot find. Lovers have in poetry been alway called _Turtles_, or
_Doves_, which in lower language may be pigeons.
II.vi.51 (148,3) [a Gentile, and no Jew] A jest rising from the
ambiguity of _Gentile_, which signifies both a _Heathen_, and _one well
born._
II.vii.8 (149,4) [This third, dull lead, with warning all as blunt]
That is, as gross as the dull metal.
II.vii.69 (151,5) [_Gilded tombs do worms infold_] In all the old
editions this line is written thus:
_Gilded timber do worms infold._