(142) The persons of the drama were first enumerated, with all the
cant of the modern stage, by Mr. Rowe.
I.i.2 (143,2) [that, surfeiting, The appetite may sicken, and so die]
[W: app'tite, Love] It is true, we do not talk of the _death of
appetite_, because we do not ordinarily speak in the figurative
language of poetry; but that _appetite sickens by a surfeit_ is true,
and therefore proper.
I.i.21 (145,6) [That instant was I turn'd into a hart] This image
evidently alludes to the story of Acteon, by which Shakespeare
seems to think men cautioned against too great familiarity with
forbidden beauty. Acteon, who saw Diana naked, and was torn in
pieces by his hounds, represents a man, who indulging his eyes,
or his imagination, with the view of a woman that he cannot gain,
has his heart torn with incessant longing. An interpretation far
more elegant and natural than that of Sir Francis Bacon, who, in
his _Wisdom of the Antients_, supposes this story to warn us against
enquiring into the secrets of princes, by shewing, that those who
knew that which for reasons of state is to be concealed, will be
detected and destroyed by their own servants.
I.ii.25 (147,9) [A noble Duke in nature, as in name] I know not whether
the nobility of the name is comprised in _Duke_, or in _Orsino_,
which is, I think, the name of a great Italian family.