He was indeed the duke; out of the substitution *, MIRA. Your tale, sir, would cure deafness. PRO. To have no screen between this part he play'd And him he play'd it for, he needs will be Absolute Milan: Me, poor man !-my library 3 like one, Who having, UNTO truth, by telling of IT, Made such a sinner of his memory, To credit his own lie,] There is, perhaps, no correlative to which the word it can with grammatical propriety belong. Lie, however, seems to have been the correlative to which the poet meant to refer, however ungrammatically. The old copy reads-" into truth." The necessary correction was made by Dr. Warburton. STEEVENS. Mr. Steevens justly observes that there is no correlative, &c. This observation has induced me to mend the passage, and to read: "Who having unto truth, by telling oft"-instead of, of it. And I am confirmed in this conjecture, by the following passage quoted by Mr. Malone, &c. M. MASON. There is a very singular coincidence between this passage and one in Bacon's History of King Henry VII. [Perkin Warbeck] "did in all things notably acquit himself; insomuch as it was generally believed, that he was indeed Duke Richard. Nay, himself, with long and continual counterfeiting, and with OFT telling a lye, was turned by habit almost into the thing he seemed to be; and from a liar to be a believer." MALONE. Mr. Mason's emendation would not much help the passage. What would he be said to be telling? The sentence is involved, but not, I think, ungrammatical. "Who having made his memory such a sinner to truth as to credit his own lie by telling of it?" BOSWELL. He was the duke; out of the substitution,] The old copy reads- -" He was indeed the duke." I have omitted the word indeed, for the sake of metre. The reader should place his emphasis on-was. STEEVENS. Me, poor man!-my library Was dukedom large enough; i. e. large enough for. Of He thinks me now incapable: confederates (So dry he was for sway) with the king of Naples, To give him annual tribute, do him homage; Subject his coronet to his crown, and bend The dukedom, yet unbow'd, (alas, poor Milan !) To most ignoble stooping. MIRA. O the heavens ! PRO. Mark his condition, and the event; then tell me, If this might be a brother. MIRA. I should sin To think but nobly' of my grandmother: PRO. Now the condition. This king of Naples, being an enemy To me inveterate, hearkens my brother's suit ; Which was, that he in lieu o' the premises,Of homage, and I know not how much tribute,Should presently extirpate me and mine Out of the dukedom; and confer fair Milan, this kind of ellipsis see various examples in a note on Cymbeline, vol. xiii. p. 228, n. 2. MALONE. 6 (So DRY he was for sway)] i. e. So thirsty. The expression, I am told, is not uncommon in the midland counties. Thus, in Leicester's Commonwealth: "against the designments of the hasty Erle who thirsteth a kingdome with great intemperance." Again, in Troilus and Cressida: "His ambition is dry." STEEVENS. Our author has a similar expression in Love's Labour's Lost: My true love's fasting pain." So also, in King Henry IV. Part I. Act V. Sc. I.: 66 Moody beggars starving for a time "Of pell-mell havock and confusion." TALBOT. 7 To think BUT nobly-] But, in this place, signifies otherwise than. STEEVENS. 8 IN LIEU o' the premises, &c.] In lieu of, means here, in consideration of; an unusual acceptation of the word. So, in Fletcher's Prophetess, the chorus, speaking of Drusilla, says: "But takes their oaths, in lieu of her assistance, "That they shall not presume to touch their lives." ハ With all the honours, on my brother: Whereon, The gates of Milan; and, i̇' the dead of darkness, MIRA. Alack, for pity! I, not rememb'ring how I cried out then, That wrings mine eyes to't 2. Pro. Hear a little further, And then I'll bring thee to the present business Which now's upon us; without the which, this My tale provokes that question. Dear, they durst not; 9 cried oUT] Perhaps we should read-cried on't. STEEVENS. Ia HINT,] Hint is suggestion. So, in the beginning speech of the second act : 66 66 our hint of woe A similar thought occurs in Antony and Cleopatra, Act V. Sc. I.: 2 it is a tidings "To wash the eyes of kings." STEEVENS. That WRINGS mine eyes.] i. e. squeezes the water out of them. The old copy reads— "That wrings mine eyes to't." To what? every reader will ask. I have, therefore, by the advice of Dr. Farmer, omitted these words, which are unnecessary to the metre; hear, at the beginning of the next speech, being used as a dissyllable. To wring, in the sense I contend for, occurs in the Merry Wives of Windsor, Act I. Sc. II. : "his cook, or his laundry, or his washer, and his wringer." STEEvens. (So dear the love my people bore me) nor set Bore us some leagues to sea; where they prepar'd A rotten carcass of a boat, not rigg'd, Nor tackle, sail, nor mast; the very rats 3 Instinctively had quit it3: there they hoist us, 2 of a BOAT.] The old copy reads- of a butt. HENLEY. It was corrected by Mr. Rowe. "In few, they hurried us aboard a bark ; "Bore us some leagues to sea; where they prepar'd "A rotten carcass of a boat, not rigg'd, "Nor tackle, sail, nor mast; the very rats "Instinctively had quit it: there they hoist us," &c. When Shakspeare attributed to the usurper of Prospero's dukedom this cruel treatment of his brother, had he not in his thoughts the atrocious conduct of Athelstane, the natural son of Edward the elder, and the twenty-fifth king of the West-Saxons, who on the death of his father was wrongfully seated on the throne; and a few years afterwards (anno 934) on the pretended ground of a conspiracy against him by his brother Edwin, according to Bromton the eldest legitimate son of Edward, consigned him to destruction in the manner here described? The fact was originally told by William of Malmesbury, and is thus related by Holinshed in his Chronicle, in 1586, vol. i. p. 155: "After this was Edwin, the kings brother, accused of some conspiracie by him begun against the king: wherupon he was banished the land; and sent out in an old rotten vessel, without rowers or mariner; onelie accompanied with one esquier: so that being lanched foorth from the shore, through despaire Edwin leapt into the sea, and drowned him selfe." Speed, in his Chronicle, which was published in 1611, and might have appeared early enough in that year to have fallen into our author's hands while he was writing this play, relates the same fact thus: "A deepe jealousie possessing the king that his [Edwin's] title was too neere the crowne, he caused him to be put into a little pinnace, without either tackle or oars, one only page accompanying him, that his death might be imputed to the waves," &c. MALONE. 3 HAD quit it:] Old copy-have quit it. Corrected by Mr. Rowe. MALONE. To cry to the sea that roar'd to us; to sigh MIRA. Was I then to you! PRO. Alack! what trouble O! a cherubim Thou wast, that did preserve me! Thou didst smile, Infused with a fortitude from heaven, 5 When I have deck'd the sea with drops full salt; Quit was used by Shakspeare and his contemporaries for quitted. So, in King Lear: 66 'Twas he inform'd against him, "And quit the house on purpose, that their punishment Might have the freer course." 66 So, in King Henry VI. Part I. lift for lifted: 66 "He ne'er lift up his hand, but conquered." MALONE. 4 TO CRY to the sea that ROAR'D to us ;] This conceit occurs again in The Winter's Tale :-" How the poor souls roar'd, and the sea mock'd them," &c. STEEVENS. 5 · DECK'D the sea-] "To deck the sea," if explained, 'to honour, adorn, or dignify,' is indeed ridiculous, but the original import of the verb deck, is to cover; so in some parts they yet say deck the table. This sense may be borne, but perhaps the poet wrote fleck'd, which I think is still used in rustic language of drops falling upon water. Dr. Warburton reads mock'd; the Oxford edition brack'd. JOHNSON. Vestegan, p. 61, speaking of beer, says "So the overdecking or covering of beer came to be called berham, and afterwards barme." This very well supports Dr. Johnson's explanation. The following passage in Antony and Cleopatra may countenance the verb deck in its common acceptation : 66 66 do not please sharp fate To grace it with your sorrows." What is this but decking it with tears? Again, our author's Caliban says, Act III. Sc. II. : 66 66 He has brave utensils, Which, when he has a house, he'll deck withal." To deck, I am told, signifies in the North, to sprinkle. See Ray's Dict. of North Country Words, in verb. to deg, and to deck; and his Dict. of South Country Words, in verb. dag. The latter |