III.ii.186 (284,6) [I was never so be-rhimed since Pythagoras's time,
that I was an Irish rat] Rosalind is a very learned lady. She
alludes to the Pythagorean doctrine, which teaches that souls
transmigrate from one animal to another, and relates that in his
time she was an Irish _rat_, and by some metrical charm was rhymed
to death. The power of killing rats with rhymes Donne mentions in
his Satires, and Temple in his Treatises. Dr. Gray has produced a
similar passage from Randolph.
--_My poets
Shall with a saytire steeped in vinegar
Rhyme then to death as they do rats in Ireland._
III.ii.206 (285,8) [One inch of delay more is a South-sea of discovery]
This sentence is rightly noted by the commentator [W] as nonsense,
but not so happily restored to sense. I read thus:
_One inch of delay more is a South-sea_. Discover, _I pr'ythee;
tell me who is it quickly;_--When the transcriber had once made
_discovery_ from _discover, I_, he easily put an article after
South-sea.
But it may be read with still less change, and with equal
probability. _Every inch of delay more is a_ South-sea discovery:
_Every delay_, however short, is to me tedious and irksome as the
longest voyage, as a voyage of _discovery_ on the _South-sea_. How
such voyages to the South-sea, on which the English had then first
ventured, engaged the conversation of that time, may be easily
imagined.
III.ii.238 (287,9) [Garagantna's mouth] Rosalind requires nine questions
to be answered in _one word_. Celia tells her that a word of
such magnitude is too big for any mouth but that of Garagantua the
giant of Rabelais.
III.ii.290 (288,2) [but I answer you right painted cloth] Sir T.
Hammer reads, _I answer you right_, in the stile of the _painted
cloth. Something seems wanting, and I know not what can be proposed
better. _I answer you right painted cloth_, may mean, I
give you a true painted cloth answer; as we say, she talks _right
Billingsgate_; that is, exactly such language as is used at
Billingsgate. (1773)
III.ii.363 (291,3) [in-land man] Is used in this play for one
_civilised_, in opposition to the _rustick_ of the priest. So Orlando
before--_Yet am I_ in-land _bred_, _and know some nurture._
III.ii.393 (291,4) [an unquestionable spirit] That is, a spirit not
_inquisitive_, a mind indifferent to common objects, and negligent
of common occurrences. Here Shakespeare has used a passive for
an active mode of speech; so in a former scene, _The Duke is too_
disputable _for me_, that is, too _disputatious_.
III.ii.439 (293,5) [to a living humour of madness] If this be the
true reading we must by _living_ understand _lasting_, or _permanent_,
but I cannot forbear to think that some antithesis was intended
which is now lost; perhaps the passage stood thus, _I drove my
suitor from a_ dying _humour of love to a living humour of madness_.
Or rather thus, _from a mad humour of love to a_ loving _humour of
madness_, that is, from a _madness_ that was _love_, to a _love_ that
was _madness_. This seems somewhat harsh and strained, but such
modes of speech are not unusual in our poet; and this harshness
was probably the cause of the corruption.
III.iii.21 (294,7) [and what they swear in poetry, may be said, as
lovers, they do feign] This sentence seems perplexed and inconsequent,
perhaps it were better read thus, _What they swear as
lovers they may be said to feign as poets_.
III.iii.32 (295,8) [A material fool!] A fool with _matter_ in bin; a
fool stocked with notions.
III.iii.51 (295,1) [what tho?] What then.
III.iii.65 (296,2) [Sir Oliver] He that has taken his first degree
at the university, is in the academical style called _Dominus_,
and in common language was heretofore termed _Sir_. This was not
always a word of contempt; the graduates assumed it in their
own writings; so Trevisa the historian writes himself _Syr_ John
de Trevisa.
III.iii.101 (297,4) [Not, O sweet Oliver] Of this speech, as it
now appears, I can make nothing, and think nothing can be made.
In the same breath he calls his mistress to be married, and
sends away the man that should marry them. Dr. Warburton has
very happily observed, that _O sweet Oliver_ is a quotation from
an old song; I believe there are two quotations put in opposition
to each other. For _wind_ I read _wend,_ the old word for _go._ Perhaps
the whole passage may be regulated thus,
Clo. _I am not in the mind. but it were better for me to be
married of him than of another, for he is not like to marry me
well, and not being well married, it will be a good excuse for
me hereafter to leave my wife--Come, sweet Audrey, we must be
married, or we must live in bawdry._