Imatges de pàgina
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If we obey them not, this will ensue,

They'll suck our breath, or pinch us black and blue.

rum Gentis Origine, p. 333: "Lares, Lemures, Stryges, Lamiæ, Manes (Gastæ dicti) et similes monstrorum Greges, Elvarum Chorea dicebatur." Much the same is said in Olaus Magnus de Gentibus Septentrionalibus, p. 112, 113. TOLLet.

Owls are also mentioned in Cornucopiæ, or Pasquil's Night-cap, or Antidote for the Headach, 1623, p. 38:

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Dreading no dangers of the darksome night,

"No oules, hobgoblins, ghosts, nor water-spright."

STEEVENS.

Owls was changed by Mr. Theobald into ouphes; and how, it is objected, should Shakspeare know that striges or screech-owls were considered by the Romans as witches? The notes of Mr. Tollet and Mr. Steevens, as well as the following passage in the London Prodigal, a comedy, 1605, afford the best answer to this question : "'Soul, I think, I am sure cross'd or witch'd with an owl."

Again, in A Fig for Fortune, by A. C. [i. e. Antony Copley] 4to. 1596, p. 63:

"There was no savage shape or larval hue,

"No bug, no bale, nor horrid owlerie,

"But all that there was, was sincere and true," &c.

MALONE.

The epithet elvish is not in the first folio, but the second haselves, which certainly was meant for elvish. STEEVENS.

All the emendations made in the second folio having been merely arbitrary, any other suitable epithet of two syllables may have been the poet's word, Mr. Rowe first introduced―elvish.

MALONE.

I am satisfied with the epithet-elvish. It was probably inserted in the second folio on some authority which cannot now be ascertained. It occurs again, in King Richard III. :

"Thou elvish-mark'd abortive, rooting hog."

Why should a book, which has often judiciously filled such vacuities, and rectified such errors, as disgrace the folio 1623, be so perpetually distrusted? STEEVENS.

This is certainly no proper place for discussing the demerits of that adulterate copy of our author's plays. I have elsewhere shewn that the person who revised it was equally unacquainted with Shakspeare's language and metre; and, in consequence of that ignorance, almost every page of that book abounds in the grossest corruptions. To talk of his having authority for his innovations. (I suppose we are to understand manuscript authority) is very idle. I have proved that he never looked into the printed

Luc. Why prat'st thou to thyself, and answer'st

not?

Dromio, thou drone 2, thou snail, thou slug, thou sot! DRO. S. I am transformed, master, am not I? ANT. S. I think, thou art, in mind, and so am I. DRO. S. Nay, master, both in mind, and in my shape.

ANT. S. Thou hast thine own form.

DRO. S. No, I am an ape.

Luc. If thou art chang'd to aught, 'tis to an ass. DRO. S. 'Tis true; she rides me, and I long for

grass.

'Tis so, I am an ass; else it could never be, But I should know her as well as she knows me.

ADR. Come, come, no longer will I be a fool, To put the finger in the eye and weep,

Whilst man, and master, laugh my woes to scorn.Come, sir, to dinner; Dromio, keep the gate :Husband, I'll dine above with you to-day,

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And shrive you of a thousand idle pranks:

quarto copies. Can it then be imagined that he would take the trouble of searching for manuscripts? and if he were so inclined, where would he find them? MALONE.

2 Dromio, thou DRONE, &c.] The old copy reads―

"Dromio, thou Dromio, thou snail, thou slug, thou sot!"

STEEVENS.

This verse is half a foot too long; my correction cures that fault: besides, drone corresponds with the other appellations of reproach. THeobald.

Drone is also a term of reproach, applied by Shylock to Launcelot, in the Merchant of Venice :

3

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he sleeps by day

"More than the wild cat; drones hive not with me."

STEEVENS.

am NOT I?] Old copy-am I not. Corrected by Mr. Theobald. MALONE.

4 And SHRIVE you—] That is, I will call you to confession, and make you tell your tricks. JOHNSON.

So, in Hamlet:

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no shriving time allow'd." STEEVENS.

Sirrah, if any ask you for your master,

Say, he dines forth, and let no creature enter.— Come, sister:-Dromio, play the porter well.

ANT. S. Am I in earth, in heaven, or in hell? Sleeping or waking? mad, or well-advis'd? Known unto these, and to myself disguis'd! I'll say as they say, and perséver so,

And in this mist at all adventures go.

DRO. S. Master, shall I be porter at the gate? ADR. Ay, and let none enter, lest I break your

pate.

Luc. Come, come, Antipholus, we dine too late.

[Exeunt.

ACT III. SCENE I.

The Same.

Enter ANTIPHOLUS of Ephesus, DROMIO of Ephesus, ANGELO, and BALTHAZAR.

ANT. E. Good signior Angelo, you must excuse

us all 5;

My wife is shrewish, when I keep not hours:
Say, that I linger'd with you at your shop,
To see the making of her carkanet",

5 Good signior Angelo, you must excuse us ALL ;] I suppose, the word-all, which overloads the measure, without improvement of the sense, might be safely omitted, as an interpolation. STEEVENS.

The line which Steevens objects to is an alexandrine. See Essay on Shakspeare's Metre. BOSWELL.

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carkanet,] Seems to have been a necklace, or rather chain, perhaps hanging down double from the neck. So, Lovelace, in his poem:

"The empress spreads her carkanets." JOHNSON.

And that to-morrow you will bring it home.
But here's a villain, that would face me down
He met me on the mart; and that I beat him,
And charg'd him with a thousand marks in gold;
And that I did deny my wife and house :-
Thou drunkard, thou, what did'st thou mean by this?
DRO. E. Say what you will, sir, but I know what
I know:

That you beat me at the mart, I have your hand to show:

If the skin were parchment, and the blows you gave were ink,

Your own hand-writing would tell you what I think.
ANT. E. I think, thou art an ass.
DRO. E. Marry, so it doth appear

By the wrongs I suffer, and the blows I bear".

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Quarquan, ornement d'or qu'on mit au col des damoiselles." Le Grand Dict. de Nicot. A carkanet seems to have been a necklace set with stones, or strung with pearls. Thus, in Partheneia Sacra, &c. 1633:

"Seeke not vermillion or ceruse in the face, bracelets of oriental pearls on the wrist, rubie carkanets on the neck, and a most exquisite fan of feathers in the hand."

Again, in Histriomastix, or the Player Whipt, 1610:

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Nay, I'll be matchless for a carkanet,

"Whose pearls and diamonds plac'd with ruby rocks
"Shall circle this fair neck to set it forth."

Again, in Sir W. D'Avenant's comedy of The Witts, 1636: she sat on a rich Persian quilt

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"Threading a carkanet of pure round pearl

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Bigger than pigeons eggs.

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Again, in The Changes, or Love in a Maze, 1632:

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the drops

"Shew like a carkanet of pearl upon it."

In the play of Soliman and Perseda, 1599, the word carkanet occurs eight or nine times. STEEVENS.

See Cotgrave's Dict. 1611, in v. carcan:

"A carkanet or collar

of gold, &c. worne about the neck." So, also Coles, who in his Latin Dictionary, 1679, renders carkanet by monile. MALONE. Angelo, in a subsequent scene, expressly calls it a chain. 7 Marry, so it DOTH appear

By the wrongs I suffer, and the blows I bear.] Thus all the

I should kick, being kick'd; and being at that

pass,

You would keep from my heels, and beware of an ass. ANT. E. You are sad, signior Balthazar: Pray god, our cheer

May answer my good-will, and your good welcome here.

BAL. I hold your dainties cheap, sir, and your welcome dear.

ANT. E. O, signior Balthazar, either at flesh or

fish,

A table-full of welcome makes scarce one dainty dish. BAL. Good meat, sir, is common; that every churl affords.

ANT. E. And welcome more common; for that's nothing but words.

BAL. Small cheer, and great welcome, makes a merry feast.

ANT. E. Ay, to a niggardly host, and more sparing guest:

But though my cates be mean, take them in good

part;

Better cheer may you have, but not with better

heart.

But soft; my door is lock'd: Go bid them let us in. DRO. E. Maud, Bridget, Marian, Cicely, Gillian,

Jen'!

printed copies; but, certainly, this is cross-purposes in reasoning. It appears, Dromio is an ass by his making no resistance; because an ass, being kicked, kicks again. Our author never argues at this wild rate, where his text is genuine. THEObald.

Mr. Theobald, instead of doth, reads-don't. MALONE.

I do not think this emendation necessary. He first says, that his wrongs and blows prove him an ass; but immediately, with a correction of his former sentiment, such as may be hourly observed in conversation, he observes that, if he had been an ass, he should, when he was kicked, have kicked again. JOHNSON.

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