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THE WORKS
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WE
XOTE
THE 11ENUY HIVING SlIAKESl'EAllE.
THE WORKS
OF
WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE
EDITED BY
HENRY IRVING and FRANK A. MARSHALL.
WITH
NOTES AND INTRODUCTIONS TO EACH PLAY BY F. A. MARSHALL AND OTHER SHAKESPEARIAN SCHOLARS,
AND
Numerous Illustrations by GORDON BROWNE.
VOLUME v.
TORONTO:
J. E. BRYANT & CO.
LONDON, GLASGOW, EDINBURGH, AND DUBLIN:
BLACKIE & SON.
1889.
J 753
17 f . s
■3
PEEFATORY NOTE.
Three of the live plays contained in this volume are to be found among the Tragedies in the First Folio, although, perhaps, strictly speaking, only two — Julius Cassar and Macbeth — really belong to that category; Troilus and Cressida being a play of that nondescript class which is generally described as tragi-comedy. Of the two comedies which complete this volume, All's Well That Ends Well is one of the least popular of all Shakespeare's plays of that class; while Measure for Measure forms, as it were, a stepping-stone between the greatest of his comedies and the greatest of his tragedies. It is a play but seldom seen upon the stage; yet it is quite as dramatic as The Merchant of Venice, though the nature of the story, and the almost total absence of the element of high comedy, will prevent its ever attaining any great popularity.
The delay in the issue of this volume has been caused by more than one circumstance, chiefly by an unfortunate loss of nearly four acts of the text of Hamlet, which had been prepared for the printers. It was thought better, therefore, to include Macbeth in this volume; though it must be clearly understood that this play is entirely out of its chrono- logical order. In fact, according to the original plan, Hamlet should have preceded both Measure for Measure and Troilus and Cressida. I have to thank Mr. Arthur Symons for enabling us to get this play ready under very considerable pressure as to time.
As in the last volume, those notes added by me to plays edited by any of our collaborators, for the opinions expressed in which I am solely responsible, are distinguished by the addition of my initials. For the Stage Histories of all the plays in this volume I am also responsible.
I cannot help referring here to a loss which all lovers and students of
vi PREFATORY NOTE.
Shakespeare have recently sustained. As this volume was being pre- pare! 1 for publication, the news arrived of the death of Mr. Halliwell- Phillipps, whose long and loving devotion to the memory of Shakespeare has given to us work, the value of which it would be difficult to exaggerate. From the very commencement of this edition he took the warm est interest in it; and I owe much to the hearty encouragement which I always received from him. In spite of the fact that many of the con- clusions arrived at, and of the opinions expressed in my Introductions, were contrary to those which, guided by the experience of a lifetime, he himself held, his criticism of our work was as generous as his help, in every way and whenever we asked it, was ungrudgingly given. It is impossible not to feel that, not only I myself personally, but all con- cerned in the production of the Henry Irving Shakespeare, have lost a true friend. I had hoped to have had the benefit of his guidance in the preparation of the brief life of Shakespeare, which is to be given with the last volume of this edition; but that, alas, was not to be; and I can only hope that all of us, who are engaged in the study of Shakespeare, may try and imitate his untiring industry, his genuine modesty, his true kindness of heart, and his loyal enthusiasm in the work to which he devoted not only his time, but what is dearer to many men than their time — a great portion of his fortune.
F. A. MARSHALL.
London, January, 1889.
CONTENTS.
Page
ALL'S WELL THAT ENDS WELL, 1
JULIUS CJESAR, 77
MEASURE FOR MEASURE, 161
TROILUS AND CRESSIDA, 243
MACBETH, 343
PASSAGES AND SCENES ILLUSTEATED.
ALL'S WELL THAT ENDS WELL.
Vismette, . . . . .10
Act I. scene 1. lines 3, 4, . . 11
Ber. Aud I, in going, madam, weep o'er my father's death anew.
Act I. scene 2. line 19, . . .15
King. Youth, thou bear'st thy father's face.
Act II. scene 1. lines 117, 118, . . 21
King. We thank you, maiden;
But may not be so credulous of cure.
Act II. scene 3. 1. 109-111, (Etching) Frontis.
Hel. [To Bertram] I dare not say I take you; but I give Me aud my service, ever whilst I live, Into your guiding power.— This is the man.
Act II. scene 3. line 243, . . 27
Par. My lord, you do me most insupportable vexa- tion.
Act II. scene 4. lines 29-31, . . 29
Clo. You should have said, sir, before a knave thou'rt a knave; that's, before me thou'rt a knave: this had been truth, sir.
Act III. scene 2. line 117, . . 34
Hel. I am the caitiff that do hold him to't.
Act III. scene 4. line 4, .
(Stew. [Reads], I am Saint Jaques' pilgrim, thither gone.
Act III. scene 7. lines 1, 2,
Hel. If you misdoubt me that I am not she, I know not how I shall assure you further.
Act IV. scene 1. lines 27, 28,
Par. Within these three hours 't will be time enough to go home.
Act IV. scene 3. line 3, .
Sec. Lord. I have delivered it an hour since.
Act IV. scene 3. line 349,
Ber. Good morrow, noble captain.
Act IV. scene 5. lines 44, 45,
Clo. The black prince, sir; alias, the prince of dark- ness; alias, the devil.
Act V. scene 1. lines 18, 19,
Hel. That it will please you To give this poor petition to the king.
Act V. scene 2. lines 11, 12,
Par. J> spake bu
Vignette,
Par. Nay, you need not to stop your nose, sir; spake but by a metaphor.
35
39
41
43
47
49
51
52
76
Vlll
CONTENTS.
JULIUS C-ESAR.
Act I. scene 1. line 1, . .89
Flat: Heooel home, you idle creatures.
Act I. scene 2. lines 135, 136, . . 92
Cats. Why, man, he doth bestride the narrow world Like a Colossus.
Act I. scene 3. line 42, . . . 96
Co- . what night is this!
Act II. scene 1. line 278, . . 102
Bra. [Uniting her) Kueel not, gentle Portia.
Act II. scene 2. lines 25, 26, (Etching) 103
' lot O Coosar! these tilings are beyond all use, And 1 do 'ear them.
Act II. scene 3. line 11, . . . 105
Art. Hero will I stand till C&'sar pass along.
Act II. scene 4. line 31, . . . 107
For. Why, know'st thou any harm 's intended to- wards him?
Act III. scene 2. line 174, . .114
Ant. You all do know this mantle.
Act III. scene 3. line 40, . .116
Third Cit. Tear him, tear liim !
Act IV. scene 3. lines 100, 101, . . 121
Cass. There is my dagger.
Ami here my naked breast.
Act IV. scene 3. line 275, . . 124
J!iu. Ha! who comes here?
Act V. scene 1, . . .126
Octavius, Antony, and tlieirarmy.
Act V. scene 3. line 28, . . .129
Fin. Titiuius is enclosed round about,
Tailpiece, . . . . .132
Soldiers bearing the dead body of Brutus.
Vignette, . . . . .160
MEASUEE FOR MEASURE.
Act I. scene 1. lines 17, 18, . . 173
Dttfa . Kor you must know, we have with special soul Elei ted him our absence to supply.
Act I. scene 2. lines 119-121, . . 176
Claud. Fellow, why dost thou show me thus to the
world? Ban me to prison, where i am committed.
Act I. scene 4. lines 67-69, . .179
Lucia. All hope is gone,
Unless y.m have the grace by your fair prayer To soften Angelo.
Act II. scene 1. lines 159, 160, (Etching) 182 Pom. Doth your honour see any harm in his face?
V II. scene 2. line 83, . . . 185
To-morrow 1 0, that's sodden I Spare him, spare him !
Act II. scene 2. lines 162, 163,
Ang. What's this, what's this! Is this her fault or mini?
Tin- tempter or the tempted.
Act II. scene 4. line 151,
Iiab. I will proclaim thro. Angelo; look for't.
Aet III. scene 1. lines 137, 138, .
thliss iviwartl ! Odishi.nic.it wretch 1 Wilt thou be made a man out of my vico?
187
r
191 194
Act III. scene 2. lines 27, 28, . . 107
Duke. Canst thou believe thy living is a life, So stinkingly depending? t<o mend, go mend.
Act III. scene 2. lines 244, 245, . . 199
Duke. I pray you, sir, of what disposition was the duke?
Act IV. scene 1. lines 1, 2, . .201
Take, O, take those lips away, That so sweetly were forsworn.
Act IV. scene 2. lines 33-36, . . 203
Fom. 1'ray, sir, by your good favour,— for surely, sir, a good favour you have, but that you have a hanging look,— . . . your occupation a mystery ?
Act IV. scene 3. lines 62, 63, . . 207
Bar. I swear I will not die to-day for any man's
-loll.
Act IV. scene 3. lines 189, 190, . . 209
Liicio. Nay, friar, 1 am a kind of burr; I shall stick.
Act V. scene 1. line 361, . . 216
Duke. Thou art the first knave that e'er mad'st a duke.
Tailpiece, . Vignette, .
219
212
CONTENTS.
IX
TROILUS AND CEESSIDA.
Act I. scene 1. lines 15, 16, . . 255
Pan. He that will have a cake out of the wheat must needs tarry the grinding.
Act I. scene 2. lines 113-115, . . 259
Cres. I hail as lief Helen's golden tongue had com- mended Troilus for a copper nose.
Act I. scene 3. line 151, . . . 264
Ulyss. Sometime, great Agamemnon.
Act I. scene 3. lines 293-301, . . 267
Nest. But if there lie not in our Grecian host One noble man that hath one spark of fire, &c.
Act II. scene .1. line 57, . . . 269
Ajax. You cur !
Act II. scene 2. lines 101, 102,
. 272
Cas. Cry, Trojans, cry ! lend me ten thousand eyes, And I will till them with prophetic tears.
Act II. scene 3. lines 47, 48, . . 274
Ther. Then tell me, Patroclus, what's Achilles?
Act III. scene 2. lines 108, 109, . . 281
Pan. What, bluBhing still? have you not done talking yet?
Act III. scene 3. lines 60, 61,
284
Nest. Nothing, my lord. Agam. The better.
Act IV. scene 4. line 32, . . 291
Cres. And is it true that I must go from Troy?
Act IV. scene 5. lines 119, 120, . . 295
Ilect. Why, then will I no more :—
Thou art, great lord, my father's sister's son.
Act V. scene 2. line 19, . . . 301
Cres. Sweet honey Greek, tempt me no more to folly.
Act V. scene 3. lines 16-18, (Etching) 303
Cas. The gods are deaf to hot and peevish vows: They are polluted offerings, more abhorr'd Than spotted livers in the sacrifice.
Act V. scene 3. lines 107, 108,
. 305
Tro. Words, words, mere words, no matter from the heart; Th' effect doth operate another way.
Act V. scene 8. line 10, . . . 308
Achil. Strike, fellows, strike ; this is the man I seek.
Tailpiece, . . . . .310
Achilles dragging the dead body of Hector at his chariot wheels.
MACBETH.
Act I. scene 1. lines 1, 2,
361
First Witch. When shall we three meet again In thunder, lightning, or in rain?
Act I. scene 3. line 48,
(Etching) 363
First Witch. All hail, Macbeth ! hail to thee, thane of Glamis!
Act I. scene 5. lines 67, 68,
366
Lady M. He that 's coming
Must be provided for.
Act II. scene 2. line 19, . . .371
Macb. Hark!
Act II. scene 4. lines 14-18, . . 375
fioss. And Duncan's horses— a thing most strange and certain- Beauteous and swift, the minions of their rare, Turn'd wild in nature, broke their stalls, flung out, Contending 'gainst obedience, as they would make U';ir with mankind.
Act III. scene 1. lines 114, 115, . . 378
Much. Both of you
Know Banquo was your enemy.
Act III. scene 3. lines 16, 17, . . 381
Ban. O, treachery ! Fly, good Fleanee, fly, fly, fly! Thou mayst revenge. O slave !
Act IV. scene 1. lines 63-67, . . 385
Macb. Call "em, let me see 'em.
First Witch. Pour in sow's blood, that hath eaten Her nine farrow; grease that 's sweateu From the murderer's gibbet throw Into the flame.
Act IV. scene 2. lines 79, 80, . . 389
L. Macd. What are these faces?
First Mur. Where is your husband?
Act V. scene 1. lints 44, 45, . . 394
Lady M. Yet who would have thought the old man to have had so much blood in him?
Act V. scene 4, . . . .397
Act V. scene 8. line 3, . . . 399
Macd. Turn, hell-hound, turn !
Act V. scene 8, line 59, . . . 400
All. Hail, King of Scotland!
ALL'S WELL THAT ENDS WELL.
NOTES AND INTRODUCTION BY
H. A. EVANS.
VOL. V.
113
DliAMATIS PERSONS.
King or France.
I '; ki OF FLORENCE.
ruA.M, ( - .11 1 1 1 of Etousillon. L\n.i '. an oM Lord at the French .curt. PakollbSj a follower <>f Bertram.
Fust Lord,* ) { belonging to the French court, serving
, , } Two brothers < ... _ . ., „
Second Lord,8 J ( with Bertram in the Florentine war.
belonging to the French army.
Firsl < lentleman,1 } >nd < rentleman,2 ) A Gentleman, attached to the French army.
' i servants to the < 'ountess of Kousillon. down, )
First Soldier.2
Second Soldier.
Cot n i kss of Kousillon, mother to Bertram.
Helena,3 a gentlewoman protected by the Countess.
An old Widow of Florence.
Diana, daughter to the Widow.
VloLKNTA,4 ) . , , . . , _. ,
• neighbours and mends to the \\ idow. Mariana, \
SCENE — Partly in France and partly in Tuscany.
Historical Period : the 13th or 14th century.
TIME OF ACTION (according to Daniel). Eleven Days distributed over about three months.
J 1: Act I - 1.— Interval; Bertram's jour-
ney t" < < >urt. Day 2 Let] - ones 2, 8. — Interval; Helena's jour- ney to < krart. Day 8: A.c1 U 1,2, — Interval two days; cure
of the King's malady. Day 4: Act [I.Sc.3,4,6. -Interval; Helena's return toRou.sillon; Bertram's journey to Florence. oes 1. 2.
Day 6: Act III. Scenes 3, 4. — Interval "some two
months*' (iv. 3. 56). Day 7: Act Til. Scene 5.
Hay 8: Act III. Scenes 6, 7; Act IV. Seem- 1. 'J. Day 9: Act IV. Scenes 3, 4.— Interval; Bertram's
return to Kousillon: Helena's return to
Marseilles. Day 10: Act IV. Scene 5; Act V. Scene 1. Day 11: Act V. Scenes 2, 3.
' I. w i;t : Spell /."/■ u in the Polio.
note "ii I'lainaii- Pi i tone * IIklena: Sometimes spelt HelU n in the Folio.
s
* VlOLBHTA: A mute personage. Perhaps her part was omitted for practical reasons in the copy from which the Polio was printed.
ALL'S WELL THAT ENDS WELL.
INTRODUCTION.
LITERARY HISTORY.
All 's Well That Ends Well was fh-st printed in 1623 in the First Folio. In the entry of this volume in the Stationers' Kegis- ter, November 8th of that year, it is enumer- ated among such plays as had not been pre- viously entered to other men. This is the first time we hear of the play under its present name, and the period at which it was first produced is therefore purely a matter of con- jecture. The theories here put forward are substantially those received by most modern critics, but every reader is at liberty to form his own opinion.
Francis Meres, in the list of Shakespeare's plays which he gives in the well-known pas- sage of his Palladia Tamia (1598), mentions a comedy entitled Love labours wonne, and this immediately following Love labors lost. No other mention of this comedy has ever been found, and since Mere's testimony to its exis- tence is unimpeachable, we are left to make the best conjecture we can as to its fate. Has it been lost, or is it one of the plays which we now know by another name ? That Love's Labour 's Won, an undoubted work of so popular a dramatist as Shakespeare, should have utterly disappeared, while Love's Labour's Lost has survived, is very unlikely; and there is every probability that, if it had so far escaped the printer, there would have been an acting copy in existence which the editors of the First Folio would have secured. But they have printed no play under this name, and we must, there- fore, conclude that it is in some sense or other identical with one of the existing plays. Which play this was is a question which seems to have troubled nobody till Farmer in his Essay on the Learning of Shakespeare suggested that it was All 's Well That Ends Well, and al-
though two or three others have been put forward,1 no other has such strong claims.
There is, however, an insuperable difficulty in the way of the supposition that Love's Labour 's Won and All 's Well are absolutely identical. Considerations of style and metre forbid us to suppose that the latter in its present shape was written as early as 1598; if it was, we should have to put it earlier than such plays as Much Ado, As You Like It, and Twelfth Night, none of which are men- tioned by Meres, and which he could not fail to have pointed to, had he been acquainted with them, rather than to the " Gentlemen of Verona" and the "Errors" in order to prove Shakespeare's excellence "for the stage." But although the prevailing tone and style of All 's Well unquestionably indicate a later date than these three plays, there are good reasons for believing that it is an earlier play remodelled, and that this earlier play was the Love's Labour 's Won of Meres. Love's Labour 's Won was evidently considered by Meres to be a companion play to Love's Labour's Lost, and in All 's Well there are certain passages quite in the rhyming, balanced, somewhat artificial style of that play — passages which Mr. Fleay, who was the first to call attention to them, aptly terms "boulders from the old strata imbedded in the later deposits." The following is a list of them as picked out by Mr. Fleay, and among them, at the end of the play, may be noticed an expression of Helena suggestive of the old title:
This is done: Will you be mine, now you are doubly won?
—Act v. 3. 314, 315.
Act i. 1. 231-244. Speech of Helena, preserved for its poetic worth; it is also very appropriate to
i The Tempest, Hunter (impossible I); Much Ado, Brae; The Taming of the Shrew, Hertzbeig.
3
ALL'S WELL THAT ENDS WKLL.
the situation, empbasi ii does, Helena's self-
relianoe au>l strength of purp
\. • i. ::. l:;i 142 Nine lines spoken by the Coun-
the first four in alternate rhymes.
ii 1. 132-213. Dialogue between the King and Helena in continuous rhyme, quite different in
from the rest of the play, ami quite in shake- early style. tonal yielding of the sick king to Helena's persuasions is well depicted,
ami it probably struck the author as a hit worth
preserving.
Act ii. 8. 7y 111. Rhymed lines spoken by the fling, Helena, and the two lords, with prose com- ments by Lafeu inserted on the revision. Helena's choice of a husband, naturally a telling bit in the original play.
ii. •"'. 182 151. Speech of the King, of which the same may he Bald.
A. ■: iii. 1. 4 17. and iv. 3. 252-260. Two letters in the form of sonnets. "This sort of composition," y, " docs not quite die out till the end of Shakespeare's Second Period, but it is very rare in that period, and never appears in the Third." It is, however, conceivable that Shakespeare may have irred to this form for a letter by a poetical char-
• r like Helena, or a fantastic character like 1 'arolles, even in his Third Period.
e.8.60 72,291 J'.'4, 301-304,314-319, 325-340. Rhyming hits, chiefly from the speeches of the King and Helena, the last, which includes the epilogue, forming a suitable finish to the play.
The above > - \\ ill be seen to be quite
in Shakespeare's early style, as we rind it in Love's Labour's Lost, the title of which play probably BUggested that of Love's Labour's Won, ami we cannot be far wrong in sur- raising that both plays were written about tin- same time. /.,-. jn the period 1590-92.1
Tin- date at which tin- play was recast and
appeared in its presenl shape of All's Well That Ends Well vs. is probably the period 1601-
L604 We should thus put it, with Professor Dowden and others, later than the romantic comedies Much Ado. As Sou Like It, and Twelfth Night, and earlier than the three gri
1 >thello, Lear, and .Macbeth, while
we ahould bring it near to Measure for Mea- sure, to which the conjectural date L603 has been assigned, a play which, aparl from cer- tain resemblances of incident, it resembles
' In common « Ith Love's Labour 't i."-t may be noticed flic name I niinaiii. All's w.ii. iv. & 200, &c.; and perhapt
an allusion to the ■ aa/y Italian. Monarcho (see Love's I. ado';- • Introduction), All 's Well, i 1 11-
4
perhaps more closely than any other in "motif" and expression.
The source from which Shakespeare derived the story of All s Well is the story of Giletta of Narbona, which forms the Ninth Novel of the Third Day of the hecanicron. He pro- bably became acquainted with it through the translation in Painter's Palace of Pleasure, i 1566-67, but all that he derived from it was the outline of the plot. The name Giletta he changed to Helena, Beltramo he anglicized into Bertram; the other names, with the ex- ception of that of Helena's father, Gerard de Narbon, are his own. Lafeu, the ( 'oiintess, the Steward, the Clown, and Parolles, are , entirely his own creation, nor is there the slightest hint of the comic scenes in the origi- nal story, the extent of Shakespeare's obliga- tion to which will be evident from the follow- ing analysis of it.
( Siletta, the daughter of Gerado of Narbona, a physician, having been brought up in the family of the Count of Rossiglione with his only son Beltramo, fell in love with Beltramo "more than was meete for a maiden of her age." On bis father's death, Beltramo, as
the king's ward, was sent to Paris. " for whose departure the maiden was verie pensife." Accordingly she watched for an opportunity of going herself to Paris and joining Bel- tramo, and at last, hearing that the king "had a Bwellynge upon his breast, whiche by reason of ill cure, was growen to a Fistula," and had abandoned all hope of cure, she thought that "if the disease were auche (as she supposed,) easely to bryng to passe that she might have the Counte Beltramo to her hus-
bande.': So she "made a ponder of certain
herbes, which she thought meet.' for that dis-
, and rode to Paris"(act i. bc. 1 and 3). Here
she obtained an interview with the king, and
"putte hym in comforte, that Bhe was able to lie.de hym, saiyng: "Sire, if it --li.il 1 please your grace, I trust in God, without any paine or griefe unto your highnesse, within eighte
dales 1 will make you whole of this disease.'
The kyng hearyng bersaie bo, began to mocke her, saiyng: ' How i- it possible for thee, beyng
a yong woman, to doe that, whiche the best
renoumed Phisicions in theworlde can not?'
L\Ti;<>i>r<Ti<»\.
He thanked her, for her goodwill, and made her a directe anawere, thai he was determined
no more to followe the eounsaile of any l'hisi- cion. Whereuntothe maiden answered: 'Sire, yon dispise my knowledge, bicause I am yonge, and a woman, but 1 assure yon, that I due not minister Phisicke by profession, but by the aide and helpe of God: and with the cunnyng of maister Gerardo of Narbona, who was my father, and a Phisicion of greate fame, so longe as he lived.' The kyng hearyng those wordes, saied to hymself: 'This woman peradventure is sent unto me of God, and therfore, why should I disdain to prove her cunnyng? Sithens she promiseth to heale me within a litle space, without any offence or grief unto me.' And beyng determined to prove her, he said: 'Damosell, if thou doest not heale me, but make me to breake my determinacion, what wilt thou shall folowe thereof.' ' Sire,' saied the maiden: 'Let me be kept in what guarde and kepyng you list: and if I dooe not heale you within these eight daies, let me bee burnte: but if I do heale your grace, what re- compence shall I have then?' To whom the kyng answered : ' Bicause thou art a maiden, and unmaried, if thou heale me, accordyng to thy promisse, I will bestowe thee upon some gentleman, that shalbe of right good worship and estimacion:' To whom she answeared: ' Sire I am verie well content, that you bestowe me in mariage: But I will have suche a hus- bande, as I my self shall demaunde; without presumpcion to any of your children, or other of your bloudde'" (act ii. sc. 1). The king granted her request, and being cured by her even before the appointed time, told her to choose such a husband as she wished. Ac- cordingly she chose Beltramo. The king, how- ever, " was very lothe to graunte him unto her: But bicause he had made a promis, whiche he was lothe to breake, he caused him to be called forthe, and saied unto hym: 'Sir Counte, bicause you are a gentleman of greate honor, our pleasure is, that you retourne home to your owne house, to order your estate according to your degree: and that you take with you a Damosell which I have appoincted to be your wife.' To whom the Counte gave his humble thankes, and demaunded what she was? 'It
is she (quoth the kyng) that with her raede- cines, hath healed me.' The Counte knewe her
well, and had alredie seen her, although she
was faire, yet knowing her not to 1"' of a stocke, convenable to his uobilitie, disdainfullie said unto the king, ' Will you then (sir) give me, a Phisicion to wife? It is not the pleasure of
God, that ever I should in that wise bestowe my self.' To whom the kyng said: ' Wilt thou then, that we should breake our faithe, which we to recover healthe, have given to the damosell, who for a rewarde thereof, asked thee to husband?' 'Sire (quod Beltramo) you maie take from me al that I have, and give my persone to whom you please, bicause I am your subject: but I assure you, I sludl never bee contented with that mariage.' 'Well you shall have her (saied the Kyng), for the maiden is faire and wise, and loveth you moste intirely : thinkyng verelie you shall leade a more joyfull life with her, then with a ladie of a greater house.'" So Beltramo had to give way and was married to Giletta, but immediately after the marriage he begged leave to return home (act ii. sc. 3). " And when he was on horse- backe, he went not thither, but took his jour- ney into Thuscane, where understandyng that the Florentines, and Senois were at warres, he determined to take the Florentines parte, and was willingiie received, and honourablie inter- teigned, and made capitaine of a certaine nom- ber of men, continuyng in their service a longe tyme" (act iii. sc. 3). As for Giletta, she re- turned to Rousillon, and governed the country very wisely for some time, hoping thereby to induce her husband to return to her. At last she sent to the count offering to leave the country, if that would satisfy him. His reply was, "Lette her doe what she list. For I doe purpose to dwell with her, when she shall have this ryng, (meaning a ryng which he wore) upon her finger, and a soonne in her amies, begotten by me" (act iii. sc. 2). Giletta, how- ever, was not to be discouraged, and giving out that she intended to devote the rest of her days to a religious life, she left Rousillon, " tellyng no man whither shee went, and never rested, till she came to Florence (act iii. sc. 4): where by Fortune at a poore widowes house, she contented her self, with the state of a poore
5
ALLS WKLL THAT ENDS WKI.I..
pilgrime, desirous to here aewee of her lorde, w horn by fortune Bhe aawe the next dale, j«ss- ing by the house ( w here Bhe lay) on horsebacke with his companie. And although ahe knewe him well enough, yel she demaunded of the I wife of the house what he was: who answered that he was a straunge gentleman, called the Counte Beltramo of Rossiglione, a curteouB knighte, and welbeloved in the eitie, and tliat he was merveilously in love with a neighbor of her, thai was a gentlewoman, verie poore and of small substaunee, neverthelesse of right honest life and report, and by reason ■ if ht-r povertie, u,iv yel unmaried, and dwelte with Iht mother, that was a wise and honest I . ■ I n- " (act iii. bc •">). Giletta accordingly re- paired to tliis lady, and with her laid the plot by which she was to fulfil the two conditions which her husband had Laid down (act iii. sc. 7). 'I'll.' lady got the ring from Beltramo, "al- though it was with the Countes ill will," and having sent him word that her daughter was ready "t<. accomplishe his pleasure," she sub- stituted < ; i 1 » • 1 1 .- 1 in her place (act iv. sc. 2). By way of recompensing the service the lady bad done her, Giletta gave Iht five hundred pounds and many costly jewels "to marie her daughter" (art iv. bc 4), and Beltramo having returned to Rousillon, she remained at Florence till sin- was "brought a bedde of two., scones, whiche were verie like unto their father," and " w Inn sin- sawe tyme," she took her journey to Rousillon, ami appeared in her husband's hall with her two sons in her arms just as In- was ah.. ut in sit down to table with a large company. She then produced the ring, and called upon Beltramo to recognize liis children, and t.i receive Iht as his wife. This he could not refuse t.i do, but "abjected his obstinate rigour: causyng her to rise up, and
imbra 1 and kissed her, acknowledying her
his lawful] wife (act \. bc •'*)."
STAGE HISTORY. Nil record of the performance of All's Well That Ends Well in Shakespeare's time remains, ii-i r .In we find any mention of it among the plays performed on the reopening <>f the theatres at the Restoration, nor can any record
I"- found "f SUch a ]ilay a- I . o . . Lain. in • 's
6
Won having ever been acted, It was not till the middle of the eighteenth century that any manager thought it worth his while to bring this play forward on the stage, when it was produced for Mrs. Giffard's benefit at the theatre in Goodman's Fields (March 7, 1741), Mrs. Giffard taking the part of Eelena, and her husband that of Bertram. The Parolles of this revival was Joseph Peterson, an actor of some note, who played Buckingham to Garrick's Richard III. on the occasion of the hitter's first appearance at Goodman's Fields, October 26, 1741; Miss Hippesley was the Diana; she, as well as Mrs. Giffard, were in ilic cast in Richard III. at Garrick's debut, the former as Prince Edward, the latter as Queen Anne.
Davies, who does not seem to have known of the performance at Goodman's Fields, says that this play, "after having lain more than a hundred years undisturbed upon the promp- ter's shelf, was, in October, 1741, revived at the theatre in Drury Lane" (Dramatic Mis- cellanies, vol. ii. p. 7). It was really on the 22nd January, 1742, that this production took place; a production attended by so many calamities to the actors that the play was termed by them "the unfortunate comedy." On this first representation Mrs. Wbffington, who played Helena, was taken so ill that she fainted on the stage during the first act (Genest, vol. iii. p. 645), and the part had to be read. The play was advertised for the following Friday, but had to be deferred till February 16th in consequence of Milward's illness. This illness was said to have been caused by his wearing too thin clothes in the
part of the King which he played with great effect. He was seized with a shivering fit, and, when asked by one of his fellow-actors how he was, replied, "How is it possible for me t" be sick, when I have such a physician as Mis. Woffington?" (Davies, voL ii. p. 7). This illness soon terminated fatally, for on February 9th we find that there was a per- formance of All > "Well for the benefit of Milward's widow and children. Davies says that Mrs. Ridout, "a pretty woman and a pleasing actress," was taken ill and forbidden to act for a month, and that Mrs. Butler
INTRODUCTION.
" was likewise seized with a distemper in the progress of this play" (at supra, p. 9). Genest challenges the correctness of both these state- ments, on the ground that the names of these actresses appear in the hills for the remaining performances of this play; but, unless the habits of theatrical managers were different to what they arc now, such a fact as the ap- pearance of a name on the bills would not be a positive guarantee that the actor or actress so named did absolutely perform. Other troubles besides those occasioned by illness beset the production of this play. Fleet- wood, the manager, had promised the part of Parolles to Macklin, but "Theophilus (Jibber, by some sort of artifice, as common in theatres as in courts, snatched it from him to his great displeasure" (ut supra, p. 9). Macklin had to content himself with the part of the clown. In spite of these fatalities and these contretemps this revival certainly seems to have been successful ; for the comedy was repeated nine times; Delane taking the place of Milward. Berry's performance of Lafeu is much praised by Davies ; nor does Gibber seem to have made the ridiculous failure in the part that might have been expected. When the piece was revived at Covent Gar- den, April 1st, 1746, Chapman succeeded Macklin as the clown; this actor was admitted to be the best representative of Shakespeare's clowns and of some other comic characters, but was the victim of a delusion that he could play tragedy; and he indulged this delusion in the theatre at Richmond which belonged to him, playing such parts as Richard III. to the utter ruin of his own jjroperty. This revival at Covent Garden was notable for the fact that Woodward first played Parolles, a part in which he is said to have been un- equalled. Mrs. Pritchard was the Helena. The piece was produced again, under Gar- rick's management at Drury Lane, Feb- ruary 24, and March 2, 1756; probably owing to the instigation of Woodward, who was so fond of the part < ,f Parolles that he revived this comedy on several occasions, not only in London but under his own management in Dublin. Mrs. Pritchard now exchanged the part of Helena for that of the Countess. On
October 23rd, 1762, Woodward having left
Garrick's company, Cing took the part of Parolles, Bertram being played by Palmer. On July 26, 1785, All's Well was" produced at the Haymarket in three acts for tin- benefit of Bannister, jun.. who played Parolles; Mrs. Inchbald, the celebrated authoress, being the Countess, and Miss Farren, afterwards Coun- tess of Derby, Helena. On December 12, 1794, All 's Well was produced, as arranged for the stage by John Kemble at Drury Lane. The cast included himself as Bertram, with King as Parolles and Mrs. Jordan as Helena. It was only played for one night. This play would seem to have been cast in 1793, as the first edition bears that date and contains Mrs. Siddons' name as the representative of Helena On May 24, 1811, this version was again played under Charles Kemble's management; Fawcett playing Parolles and Munden Lafeu. The comedy seems, on the whole, to have been tolerably well received. It is said that Faw- cett1 was a comparative failure, and was even hissed on coming oft' the stage. So discouraged was he that he insisted on surrendering the part; but Kemble persuaded him not to do so, as if he did, he would "knock up the play." The piece was oidy played once more, on June 22nd. Kemble's alteration is a very good one. He has retained as much as possible of the original text, and has not introduced any embellishments of his own; but, by means of judicious excisions and a few ingenious trans- positions, he has made a very good acting ver- sion of the play. We do not find any further record of its performance except at Bath, May 23, 1820, when, according to Genest, "it was acted in a respectable manner" (vol. ix. p. 132). The last time that it was produced at a London theatre was in 1852, September 1st, when Phelps revived it at Sadlers Wells, Phelps himself taking the part of Parolles; but the revival was not very successful.
Although All 's Well That Ends Well from the nature of its main story can never be a
i Fawcett's copy of Kemble's edition of this play dated 1811 is in my possession. It is marked, for stage pin- poses, as far as his own part is concerned; but the altera- tions and cuts are very few.— f. a. m
7
ALLS \\ KLL THAI' KNDS WELL.
popular play, we may hope Borne day to Bee n- revival, it' onlj for a short period, when aii\ actor can be found of sufficient vivacity and impudence coupled with a thorough knowledge of his art to play the part of I' rollea At any rate the experiment of its i . \ iv.il might be worth tr\ mil: at some of those matinees, at which Buch dismal and depressing experiments are wont to be made on the pa- tienceof the audience, and on the Long-suffering endurance of the critics. — r. a. m.
CRITICAL REMARKS.
There Is no d'>ul>t that at a first reading All '.- Well That Ends Well is one of the least attractn e of Shakespeare's plays: it has ueither the freshness and sprightliness of the earlier comedies, uor the thrilling interest of the great tragedies which succeeded it. But on re-read- ing it it- beauties rise into relief before us; and although we should undoubtedly gain much from a careful representation of it upon the stage, we can more easily afford to dispense with the actor's aid than in most plays. There are uo telling situations, uo stirring incidents, the action moves calmly and soberly to its conclusion, but our interest in the heroine carries us through It is to Shakespeare's conception of her eii.-na.tei-, perhaps, that Ins choice of what might seem an unpromising subject is due; but every character in the play i- sk< tched with a master's hand, and if some scenes are dramatically irrelevant, as, for instance, those in which the clown is intro- duced, they fulfil their purpose in the fresh lights which they throw upon the principal pel . each of whom is a finished por-
t. Ther, • is n<> waste of words in this plav:
the whole is instinct with thought, and it is perhaps from the irrepressible reflective enei gj of the writer's mind that the number of obscurities of language arises.
Nothing can give a clearer notion of the genius of Shakespeare than a comparison be- tween the bald, wooden narrative in the P ■ Pleouun and the picture which he
has painted from it. The characters which he ha* adopted from his original are so trans- formed that th.y max be considered almost as much new creations as those which are wholly
B
of his own invention. ( lompare Helena with theGilettaof the story. ( tf Gilettaand her pro- ceed no we have an unimpassioned straight- forward narrative told in business-like fashion. We read of her love for Beltramo, and her desire to have him for a husband; of the con- ditions which he lays down, and of her fulfil- ment of them; we recognize in her a woman of a determined will, but we do not feel for her the love and admiration which we feel for Helena. Boccaccio retails the incidents, Shake- speare lets us into the secrets of the heart. Helena is his ideal of true womanhood, of true self-devotion, only equalled among all his heroines by Imogen and Hermione. The de- votion of Helena is the key to the play, and as if to exalt it still higher, as if to emphasize the boundless capabilities of a woman's love, when once it has fastened itself upon an object, he has given it an object so unworthy as Ber- tram. Brought up with the young ami hand- some noble, we cannot wonder, though we may regret, that she has fallen in love with him: but regrettable as the passion of such a woman for such a man may be, when once she has given herself to him —
'• f dare not say I take you; but I give M.' and my service, ever whilst 1 live, Into your guiding newer" —
she will shrink from nothing that may follow; she will save him even from himself.
It is but a superficial criticism that Bees any- thing immodest in the conduct of Helena. She is not afraid to choose her husband, but her courage is equalled by her humility. She can meet adversity with resignation. "When her
hopes ate i lashed by the seeming refusal of the kin- to accept her otlices she does not com- plain:
■• My duty, then, shall pay me for my pains: I will in. mere enforce mine office on you; Humbly entreating from your royal thoughts A modest one, to bear me bach again."
Ami when she i> Bcornfulbj rejected by Ber- tram, although her claims have all the advan- tage of the king's powerful advocacy, she
accepts tie- situation with a erigb which only
too plainly indicates the painfulness of the effort:
iXTiiohrrnoN.
" That you are well restor'd, my lord, I'm glad: Let the rest go."
The same spirit of self-sacrifice animates her subsequent conduct. For Bertram she is ready tu sutler anything. In obedience to his com- mands she returns home, but she will not stay there when she finds that her presence keeps him away:
" My being here it is that holds thee hence: Shall I stay here to do 't? no, no, although The air of paradise did fan the house, And angels offie'd all."
Yet she is not a woman who never tells her li ive, not one who sits like Patience on a monu- ment smiling at grief. She is a woman, who, with all her gentleness and tenderness, com- bines an indomitable resolution. Although she has abandoned her home for her husband's sake, so assured is she of her power to help and preserve him, that she goes straight to Florence in search of him, where she may at least watch over him in her disguise, and per- chance find some occasion of securing him. The occasion offers, and with the decision which is one of her characteristics, she seizes it at once, saves her husband from sin, and in the end, if she has not yet wTon his affection, is at any rate acknowledged by him as his lawful wife. The loveliness of Helena is felt by every personage in the drama except Bertram and Parolles. In this respect the latter is not worth consideration; but Bertram, the son of a noble father and a gentle mother, might have been ex- pected at least to recognize her worth. Every allowance must be made for his aristocratic prejudices, and above all, for the constraint put upon him in a matter in which no man brooks constraint — the choice of a wife; but we cannot but feel that he is throughout un- worthy of such a woman a 3 Helena, and, like Johnson, we cannot reconcile our hearts to him. Had he had the courage to brave the king's displeasure and refuse the wife proffered to him, we might have questioned his taste, but could not have condemned his conduct ; but after once accepting her his action is in- excusal ile. If in the end he finds salvation it is through no merit of his own; the victim of a delusion for a worthless led-captain, he is
cured by the device of his friends; false to his promises to the girl whose Beducerhe believed himself to be, he is rescued from meshes of his own deceit and from his sovereign's displeasure by the timely interposition of his wife. We are left to hope that under her guidance he will be led to better things.
Much of Bertram's shortcoming is attributed to Parolles, a snipt-taffeta fellow with "whosi inducement the young nobleman corrupts a well-derived nature; and Parolles is indeed a pitiful rascal. An abject sneak and coward, he is the only thorough specimen of his class that Shakespeare has depicted. He has been compared with Falstaff, but the very idea is sacrilege; he has not a spark of the wit and the geniality which always gives us a kindly feeling for honest Jack. When he is exposed he feels no shame; he hugs himself in his dis- grace :
"Captain I'll be no more; But I will eat and drink, and sleep as soft As captain shall: simply the thing I am Shall make me live."
Yet, like old Lafeu, who was the first that "found" him, we are content to dismiss this miserable creature, not without compassion, " Though you are a fool and a knave, you shall eat; go to."
A peculiar charm is lent to this play by the halo which it casts around old age. With this, as with all other phases of humanity, Shake- speare manifests his intense power of sym- pathy. The King, Lafeu, and the Countess are each delightful in their way. The King, who joins a benevolent regard for the rising gene- ration to his eulogy of the past; Lafeu with his dry genial humour; and above all, the aged Countess, the most admirable character of her class that Shakespeare lias drawn for us. The scene in which she elicits from Helena the confession of her love for Bertram sets before us at once her calm matronly dignity, her womanly insight, and her sympathy with the emotions of a girlish heart; unlike her son she could see that nobility does not depend upon birth alone, and in Helena she could recognize "a maid too virtuous for the contempt of em- pire."
9
•»'■
Btr. And I, in going, madam, weep o'er my father's death anew.— (Act i. 1. 3, 4.)
ALL'S WELL THAT ENDS WELL.
ACT I.
Scene I. Rousillon, in France. The hall of the Countess of Rousillon' s house.
Enter Bertram, the Countess of Rousillon, Helena, and Lafeu, all in black.
Count. In delivering my son from me, I bury a second husband.
Ber. And I, in going, madam, weep o'er my father's death anew: but I must attend his majesty's command, to whom I am now in ward, evermore in subjection.
\_Laf. You shall find of the king a husband, madam; — you, sir, a father: he that so gener- ally is at all times good, must of necessity hold1 his virtue to you; whose worthiness ^ would stir it up where it wanted, rather than lack it where there is such abundance.] 12
Count. What hope is there of his majesty's amendment 1
Laf. He hath abandoned his physicians, madam; under whose practices he hath per- secuted time with hope; and finds no other advantage in the process but oidy the losing of hope by time. is
1 Hold, continue.
Count. This young gentlewoman had a fa- ther,— O, that " had " ! how sad a passage2 't is ! — whose skill was almost as great as his hon- esty; Qiad it stretched so far, would have made nature immortal, and death should have play for lack of work.] Would, for the king's sake, he were living! I think it would be the death of the king's disease.
Laf. How called you the man you speak of, madam I
Count. He was famous, sir, in his profes- sion, and it was his great right to be so, — Gerard de Narbon. si
Laf. He was excellent indeed, madam: the king very lately spoke of him admiringly and mourningly : £ he was skilful enough to have lived still, if knowledge could be set up against mortality.
Ber. What is it, my good lord, the kin- languishes of ?
Laf. A fistula,3 my lord.
Her. I heard not of it before. 40
Laf. I would it were not notorious. — ] {
- Passage, something passed, an event. 3 Fistula, a sinuous ulcer. 11
A< 1 I Scoue 1.
ALL'S WELL THAT KNDS WELL.
A' I' I. 806116 1.
\\ .i- this gentlewoman the daughter of ( rerard
de Narbon I *'■*
Etta Bole child, my lord; and be-
queatbed t<> mj overlooking. I have those
hopes of her g 1 that her education promises :
her dispositions Bhe inherits, which makes fair
■ - fairer; por where an unclean mind carries virtuous quahtieSj there commendations go with pity, they are virtues and traitors too: in her thej are tin- better for their simple- ness;] Bhe derives her honesty,1 and achieves liri' goodness.
Your commendations, madam, get from her teara
Count. "I' is tlir best brine a maiden can Beason her praise in. The remembrance of her father nei er approaches her heart but the tyranny of her sorrows takes all livelihood from her cheek.- No more of this, Helena,
to, no more; lest it be rather thought you affect a Borrow than t" have it. 61
// '. 1 do affect a Borrow, indeed; hut 1 have it t", ,.
\_I.if. Moderate lamentation is the right of the dead; excessive grief the enemy to the living.
''""/-/. If the living 1 HelllV to the "fief,
the ev. ■" makes it Boon mortal.]
Ber. Madam, 1 desire your holy wishes.
\_l.if. How understand we thai ']
''...',,-. |;.- thou blest, Bertram! ami succeed
thy hither 70
In manners, a- in shape! thy blood and virtue ( lontend for empire in thee, and thy goodness Share1 with thy birthright! Love all, trust
a few, I >" wrong t" uone; \»- able for thine enemy
her in power than use, ami keep thy friend Under thy own life's key; he check'd3 for
Bilence, But never tax'd fur Bpeech. What heaven
more will. That thee 1 1 1 ; i \ furnish, and my prayers pluck
down, Fall nil thy head! Farewell, my lord: I s an unseason'd courtier; good my lord, so Advise him.
i Bom tty, honourable position, claims to respect, en with, b rebuked
12
Laf. He cannot want the best
That shall attend his love.
Count. Heaven bless him; — Farewell, Ber- tram. [Exit. Ber. The best wishes that can he forged in your thoughts he servants to you! [To Ifi'h'itii] lie comfortable4 to my mother, your mistress, and make much of her.
Laf. Farewell, pretty lady: you must hold the credit of your father.
[ /.' tint Bertram and Lafeu. Ih I. ( ), were that all! — I think not on my father; And these great tears grace his remembrance
more Than those I shed for him. "What was he
like? I have forgot him: my imagination ( iarries no favour'' in t but Bertram's. I am undone: there is no living, none, If Bertram he away. It were all one, That I should love a bright particular star. And think to wed it, lie is bo above me: rjln his bright radiance and collateral light Must I be comforted, not in his sphere. mo Th' ambition in my love thus plagues itself:] The hind that would be mated by the lion .Must die fur love. Twas pretty, though a
plague, To see him every hour; to sit ami draw His arched brows, his hawking8 eye, his curls.
In our heart's table, heart too capable" Of every line and trick" of his sweet favour: But qow he's gone, and my idolatrous fancy Must sanctify his relics.- Who comes here.' One that goes with him: I love him for his sake: 110
Ami yet I know him a notorious liar, Think him a great way fool, solely" a CO ward; QYet these tix'd evils sit so tit in him.
That thej take place,10 when virtue's steely
holies
1 k bleak i' tin cold wind: withal, full oft
\\ e see
Cold wisdom waiting on superfluous11 folly.] <
* ComfortabU . sen tceable. •'• Favour, features.
■ Hawking, hawk-like. r Capable, susceptible
i culiarity. Solely, without an equal
i" fin,-. . preo dence. ii Sup, rjluous, having more than enough
ACT I. Scene 1.
ALL'S WELL THAT ENDS W'KLL.
a< I I. Scene I.
Enter Parolles.
Par. Save you, fair queen '. Hel. And you, monarch !
\_l'ar. No.
Hel. And no. 120
Par. Ave you meditating on virginity1?
Ilrl. Ay. You have some stain1 of soldier in you: let me ask you a question. Man is enemy to virginity; how may we barricado it against him I
Par. Keep him out.
Hel. But lie assails; and our virginity, though valiant in the defence, yet is weak: unfold to us some warlike resistance. 128
Par. There is none: man, sitting down be- fore you, will undermine you, and blow you up.
Hel. Bless our poor virginity from under- miners and blowers-up ! — Is there no military policy, how virgins might blow up men %
Par. Virginity being blown down, man will quicklier be blown up: marry, in blowing him down again, with the breach yourselves made, you lose your city. It is not politic in the commonwealth of nature to preserve virginity. Loss of virginity is rational increase ; and there was never virgin got till virginity was first lost. That you were made of, is metal to make virgins. Virginity, by being once lost, may be ten times found; by being ever kept, it is ever lost: 'tis too cold a companion; away with 't !
Hel. I will stand for 't a little, though there- fore I die a virgin. 146
Par. There 's little can be said in 't ; 't is against the rule of nature. To speak on the part of virginity, is to accuse your mothers ; which is most infallible disobedience. He that hangs himself is a virgin : virginity mur- ders itself; and should be buried in highways, out of all sanctified limit, as a desperate offen- dress against nature. Virginity breeds mites, much like a cheese ; consumes itself to the very paring, and so dies with feeding his own stomach. Besides, virginity is peevish, proud, idle, made of self-love, which is the most in- hibited sin in the canon. Keep it not; you cannot choose but lose by 5t : out with 't ! within ten year it will make itself ten, which
1 Stain, tinge.
is a. goodly increase; and the principal itself not much the worse: away with 't! 162
Hel. How might one do, sir, to lose it to her own liking I
Par. Let me see: marry, ill, to like him that ne'er it likes. T is a commodity will lose the gloss with lying; the longer kept, the less worth: <>ti' with :t while 'tis vendible; answer the time of request. Virginity, like an old courtier, wears her cap out of fashion ; richly suited, but unsuitable: just like the brooch and the toothpick, which wear not now.'- Vali- date is better in your pie and your porridge than in your cheek: and your virginity, your old virginity, is like one of our French wi- thered pears, — it looks ill, it eats dryly; marry, 'tis a withered pear; it was formerly better: marry, yet, 'tis a withered pear: will you any thing with it?
Hel. Not my virginity yet. There shall your master have a thousand loves, A mother, and a mistress, and a friend, isi A phoenix, captain, and an enemy, A guide, a goddess, and a sovereign, A counsellor, a traitress, and a dear; His humble ambition, proud humility, His jarring concord, and his discord dulcet, His faith, his sweet disaster; with a world Of pretty, fond, adoptious Christendoms,3 That blinking Cupid gossips.4 Now shall he— I know not what he shall: — God send him well ! — 190
The court 's a learning-place ; — and he is one —
Par. What one, i' faith >.
Hel. That I wish well.— T is pity—
Par. What's pity?
I/el. That wishingwell had not a body in t. Which might be felt; that we, the poorer born. Whose baser stars do shut us up in wishes, Might with effects of them follow our friends. And show what we alone must think; which
never Beturns us thanks. 200
Enter a /'",</''.
Page. Monsieur Parolles, my lord tails for you. [/:'.<•<>.]'
- Wear not now, are not in fashion. 3 Adoptious Christendoms, assumed Christian names or appellations. ' Gossips, gives as a sponsor.
13
A' 1 1 81 HOC 1
ALL'S WELL THAT ENDS WELL.
ACT I. Scene 2.
Par. Little Belen, farewell: if 1 can re- member tli.c. I will think of thee at court
//. /. Monsieur Parolles, you were born un- der a charitable star.
I'm-. Under Mars, I.
[//,/. | especially think, under .Mars.
par. Why under Mars?
//./. The wars have bo kept you under, that you must needs be born under Mars. 210
Par."] When he was predominant
//. /. When he was retrograde,1 I think, ratlhi.
f.ir. Why think you so?
//./. You go so much backward when you
fight
Par. That 's for advantage.
//./. So is running away, when fear pro- I .uses the safety: hut the . omposition, that
your valour and fear make iii you, is a virtue
of a g 1 Wing, and 1 like the wear- well. 219
Par. I am so full of businesses, 1 cannot answer thee acutely. [I will return perfect courtier; in the which, my instruction shall sri v.- to naturalize thee, so thou wilt be ca- pable of a courtier's counsel, and understand what advice shall thrust upon thee; else thou diest in thine unthaiikfulness, and thine ig- QOrance makes thee away:] farewell. When
thou bast leisure, say thy prayers; when thou li.i-t none, remember thy friends: get thee a good husband, and use him as he uses thee: bo, farewell [Exit. 230
//.■/. ( >ur remedies oft in ourselves do lie. Which we ascribe to heaven: the fated3 sky Gives us free scope; only doth backward pull Our slow designs when we ourselves are dull. fJWhat power is it which mounts my love so
high; That makes me see, and cannot feed mine eye ; The mightiest Bpace in fortune nature brings To join like likes, and kiss like uative* things. Impossible be strange attempts to those Thai weigh their pains in sense;6 and do sup- po 240
What hath been cannot be:] who ever strove
In sstronomy, means, seeming to more contrary to the succession "f the signs.
Pat tod with the power ol destiny.
• UTol ■ Dial, kili'loM. ■'• / 1:1 ti:
1 I
To show her merit, that did miss her love? The kings disease,— my project may. Leceive me, But my intents are tix'd, and will not have me.
[Exit.
r Scene II. Paris. The King's palace.
Flourish of cornets. Enter the King of France with letters, and divers Attendants.
Ki,i>/. The Florentines and Senoys are by i th' ears; Have fought with equal fortune, and continue A braving8 war.
First Lord. So 'tis reported, sir.
King. Nay, 'tis most credible; weherere-s ceive it A certainty, vouch'd from our cousin Austria. With caution, that the Florentine will move us] For speedy aid; wherein our dearest friend7 Preiudicates the business, and would seem
To have us make denial.
First Lord.
His love and wisdom.
10
,
Appiov'd so to your majesty, may plead For amplest credence.
King. He hath arm'd our answer.
And Florence is denied before he comes: Yet, for our gentlemen that mean to see The Tuscan service, freely have they leave To stand on either part.
Sec. L<>rd. It well may serve
A nursery to our gentry, who are sick For8 breathing and exploit
King. What's he comes here?
Enter Bertram, Lafeu, and 1'akolles.
First Lord. It is the Count Rousillon, my good lord, Young Bertram.
King. Youth, thou bear'st
thy father's face; 1»<
Frank''1 nature, rather curious10 than in haste. Eatb well compos'd thee. Thy father's moral
parts
Maysl thou inherit too! Welcome to Paris. Ber. My thanks and duty are your majest/a King. 1 would 1 had that corporal sound- ness now
■ Braving, defiant
t Our dearest friend, Le, our cousin Austria
for, pining for. " Frank, bountiful
i" Curious, careful
ACT I. Scene 2.
ALL'S WELL THAT ENDS WELL.
ACT l. Scene 2.
('As when thy father and myself in friendship ( First tried our soldiership ! He did look far Into the service of the time, and was '. Discipled of the bravest: he lasted long; 'But on us both did haggish age steal on, | And wore us out of act. It much repairs me (To talk of your good father. In his youth 31 (He had the wit, which I can well observe
To-day in our young lords; but they may jest,? Till their own scorn return to them unnoted 1 Ere they can hide their levity in honour: So like a courtier, contempt nor bitterness Were in his pride or sharpness; if they were, < His equal had awak'd them; and his honour, Clock to itself, knew the true minute when \ Exception1 bid him speak, and at this time 40
Kinij. Youth, thou hear'st thy father's face.— (Act i. 2. 19.)
His tongue obey'd his2 hand: who were below him 41
He us'd as creatures of another place; And bow'd his eminent top to their low ranks, Making them proud of his humility, In their poor praise he humbled.3 Such a man Might be a copy to these younger times; Which, follow'd well, would demonstrate them
now But goers backward. Ber. His good remembrance, sir,
1 Exception, disapprobation.
- His, its.
3 He humbled, he made himself humble.
Lies richer in your thoughts than on his tomb; So in approof lives not his epitaph 50
As in your royal speech.
King. Would I were with him ! He would
always say — Methinks I hear him now; hisplausive4 words He scatter'd not in ears, but grafted them, To grow there, and to bear, — " Let me not
live,"— This his good melancholy oft began, On the catastrophe and heel of pastime, When it5 was out, — "Let me not live," quoth he,
■» Plausive, pleasing.
5 It, i.e. the pastime.
15
A< I I -
ALLS WELL THAT ENDS WELL.
\< IT I. Scene 3.
•• \ t't . r my Same lacks oil, to be the snuff 59 ( >f younger spirits, whose apprehensh <■' Benses Ail but newthfrgsdisdam; whose judgmentsare Mere fathers of their garments; whose con- stancies Expire before their fashions:" — this he wish'd: I. after him, do after him wish too, sine.' I Dor wax nor honey ran bring home, I quickly were dissolved from my hive, To give some labourers room.
5 . Lord. You 're loved, sir;
They that least lend it2 you shall lack3 you first.
King. 1 till a place, I know 't — How long is i. count,
Since the physician at your father's died 1 to II.- was much fam'd.
/;. •. Some tax months since, my lord.
King. It he were living, 1 would try him yet;—
Lk ad me an arm; — the rest have worn me out With several applications:4 — nature and siek-
n< I debate it at their leisure.
Mv si .11 s no dearer.
Welcome, count;
/;• r.
Thank your majesty. [Exeunt. Flourish. ]
Scene III. The Countess of Rousillon's gardi n.
Ent< r < Iountbss, Steward, and < Ilown.
Count. I will now hear: what say you of this gentlewoman '.
. Madam, the care I have had to even
your content, I wish might be found in the calendar of my past endeavours; Qforthen we wound our modesty, and make foul the clear- ness of our deserving, when of ourselves we publish them. ] 7
Count. What does this knave here? Get you ne, sirrah: £the complaints I have heard of you I do not all believe: 'tis my slowness that I do not; for I know you lack not folly to commit them, and have ability enough to make such kn.-r. urs.1
do. 'Tis not unknown to you, madam, I am a poor fellow.
• Well, sir.
• . fantastic, finical. ■ /• love La* ' . n
1 .1 tempta at healing
16
Clo. No, madam, t is not so well that 1 am poor; though many of the rich are damned: but, if I may have your ladyship's good-will to go to the world, Isbel the woman and I will do as we may. 21
Count. Wilt thou needs lie a beggar?
Clo. I do Leg your good-will in this ease.
( bunt. In what case j
< to. In Isbel's case and mine own. Service is no heritage: and I think I shall never have the blessing of God till 1 have issue o' my body; for they say barns are blessings.
\_Count. Tell me thy reason why thou wilt^ marry. 29
Clo. My pool- body, madam, requires it: I am driven on by the flesh; and he must needs go that the devil drives.
Count. Is this all your worship's reason?
Clo. Faith, madam, I have other holy rea- sons, such as they are.
Count. May the world know them?
('In. I have been, madam, a wicked creature,
as you and all flesh and blood are; and, in- deed, I do many that I may repent.
Con at. Thy marriage, — sooner than thy wickedness. -it
( 'l<>. I am out o' friends, madam; and I hope to have friends for my wife's sake.
('mint. Such friends are thine enemies, knave.
( 'In. You 're shallow, madam, ingreat friends; for the knaves come to do that for me, which I am a-weary of. He that ears'1 my land spares my team, and gives me leave to in the .lop; if I be his cuckold, he's my drudge: he that comforts my wife is the cherisher of my
flesh and blood; he that cherishes my thsh
and blood loves my flesh and blood; he that loves my flesh and blood is my friend: ergo, he that kisses my wife is my friend. If men could be contented to be what they are, there were no fear in marriage; for young Charbon tin- puritan and old Poysam the papist, how-> Bome'er their hearts are Bevered in religion,
their heads are Loth one. they may joul8 horns together, like any deer i' the herd.
Count. Wilt thou ever be and calumnious knave I
foul-mouthed
ploughs.
'/, thrust.
ACT I. Scene 3.
ALL'S WELL THAT ENDS WELL.
ACT I. Boene 8.
('h>. A prophet I, madam; and I speak the truth the next1 way: 63
For I the ballad will repeat,
Which men full true shall find;
Your marriage comes by destiny,
Your cuckoo sings by kind. ~J
Count. Get you gone, sir; I '11 talk with you more anon. 09
Stew. May it please you, madam, that he bid Helen come to you: of her I am to speak.
( bunt. Sirrah, tell my gentlewoman I would speak with her; Helen I mean.
i. 'lo. Was this fair face the cause, quoth she,
Why the Grecians sacked Troy { Fond- done, done fond,
Was this King Priam's joy ? With that she sighed as she stood, With that she sighed as she stood,
And gave this sentence then ; 80
Among nine bad if one be good, Among nine bad if one be good,
There's yet one good in ten.
Count. What, one good in ten? You cor- rupt the song, sirrah.
Clo. One good woman in ten, madam ; which is a purifying o'the song: would God would serve the world so all the year! we'd find no fault with the tithe- woman, if I were the par- son : one in ten, quoth a' ! an we might have a good woman born but one every blazing star, or at an earthquake, 't would mend the lottery well: a man may draw his heart out, ere 'a pluck one. 93
Count. You '11 be gone, sir knave, and do as I command you ?
( 'lo. That man should be at woman's com-
< mand, and yet no hurt done! — [Though honesty
be no puritan, yet it will do no hurt; it will
s wear the surplice of humility over the black
'gown of a big heart. — ~J I am going, forsooth:
the business is for Helen to come hither.
[Exit.
Count. Well, now. 102
Stew. I know, madam, you love your gen- tlewoman entirely.
Count. Faith, I do: her father bequeathed her to me; and she hei-self, without other ad- vantage, may lawfully make title to as much love as she finds: there is more owino; her
1 Next, nearest. VOL. V.
- Fond, foolishly.
than is paid; and more shall be paid her than she '11 demand. 109
Stew. Madam, i was very late more near her than I think she wished me: alone she was, and did communicate to herself her own words to her own ears; she thought, 1 dare vow for her, t hey touched not any stranger sense. Her matter was, she loved your son: Fortune, she said, was no goddess, that had put such difference betwixt their two estatt Love no god, that would not extend his might, only where qualities were level; QDian no queen of virgins, that would suffer her poor knight surprised, without rescue in the first assault, or ransom afterward. ~J This she de- < livered in the most bitter touch3 of sorrow that e'er I heard virgin exclaim in: which I held my duty speedily to acquaint you withal; sithence,4 in the loss6 that may happen, it con- cerns you something to know it. 126
Count. You have discharged this honestly; Qkeep it to yourself: many likelihoods informed > me of this before, which hung so tottering in the balance, that I could neither believe nor misdoubt.6] Pray you, leave me: stall this in your bosom ; and I thank you for your honest care: I will speak with you further anon.
[Exit Steward.
Enter Helena.
£Even so it was with me when I was young: >
If ever we are nature's, these7 are ours; this ;
thorn
Doth to our rose of youth rightly belong; Our blood to us, this to our blood is born ;
It is the show and seal of nature's truth,
Where love's strong passion is inipress'd in youth :
By our remembrances of days foregone, ho
Such were our faults, or then we thought them none.
Her eye is sick on 't : I observe her now. ~J IIcl. What is your pleasure, madam I Count. You know, Helen,
I am a mother to you.
Hel. Mine honourable mistress.
Count. Nay, a mother:
8 Touch, sensation. 4 Sithence, since.
5 Loss, misfortune. 6 Misdoubt, mistrust, disbelieve.
* These, these faults, line 141.
17 114
ACT] -
ALLS WELL THAT ENDS WELL.
ACT I. Scene 3.
\\ liy not a mother? QWhen I said a mother, M. ithought you saw a serpent: what's in
"mother," Thai you start at it 1 I say, L am your mother; Ami put you iii the catalogue of those That were enwombed mine: t is often seen Adoption strives with nature; and choice
breeds 151
A native1 slip to us from foreign seeds: 5Tou ne'er oppress'd me with a mother's groan, \ ■ ! I express to you a mother's care: —
t lod's mercy, maiden '. ] does it curd thy Mood, To Bay, 1 am thy mother.' What's the matter, Thai this distemper'd messenger of wet, The many-colour'd Iris, rounds thine eye? Why, thai you are my daughter?
//• /. That I am not.
< int. 1 say, 1 am your mother.
/A/. I 'anion, madam, 160
The Counl Etousillon cannot be my brother: I am from humble, lie from honour'd name; No note upon my parents, his all noble: .My master, my dear lord he is; and 1
Hi- Bervant live, and will bis vassal die: I [e must not be my brother.
' int. Nor I your mother?
//</. Sou are my mother, madam; would
you were —
Bo that my lord yburson were not mybrother —
Indeed my mother! — or were you both our
mothei .
I care no more for3 than I do for heaven, 170
- I were not his sister. Can't no other,4 Bui 1 your daughter, he musl be mybrother?
' • Kes, Helen, you mi^ht be my daugh- ter-in-law: rj<io,| shield, you mean it not! "daughter" and "mother"
- strive upon yourpulse.] What, pah- again '. My fear hath catch'd your fondness: now I see EThe mystery of your loneliness, and find
Four -alt tears1 head: now to all sense 'tis
-, m J
5ToU love my son; invention isasham'd,
linst the proclamation of thy passion, 180
1 Hative, kindred, ;i- in i ]. Bot ■ . the mother "f i •• >tli of us.
i i care ai much for, wish it equally.
I ni it not be otherwise, but that if I am your daughter, S
18
To say thou dost not: therefore tell me true; pint tell me then, t is so; — for, look, thycheeks Confess it, th'one to th' other; and thine eyes See it so grossly6 shown in thy behaviours, That in their kind0 they speak it: only sin And hellish obstinacy tie thy tongue, That truthshould be suspected. Speak, is 't so }] If it be so, you've wound a goodly clew; If it be not, forswear 't: howe'er, 1 charge thee, As heaven shall work in me for thine avail," To tell me truly.
lid. Good madam, pardon me ! 101
Count. Do you love my son I
lid. Your pardon, noble mistress!
Count. Love you my son I
lid. Do not you love him, madam I
Count. Go not about; my love hath int a bond,8 Whereof the world takes note: come, come,
disclose The state of your affection; for your passions Have to the full appeach d."
lid. Then, I confess,
Here on my knee, before high heaven and you, That before you, and next unto high heaven, I love your son: — 200
My friends were poor, but honest; so 's my love : Be not offended; for it hurts not him, That he is lov'd of me: I follow him not By any token of presumptuous suit; Nor would I have him till I do deserve him; Yet never know how thai desert should be \_\ know I love in vain, strive against hope; Vet in this captious and mtenible10 sieve I still pour in the waters of m\ love, And lack not to lose still: thus, Indian-like, Religious in mine error, I adore 211
The sun, that looks uj his worshipper,
But knows of him no more. My dearest ma- dam. Let not your hate encounter with my love, For loving where you do: but, if yourst If, Whose aged honour cites a virtuous youth,11 I (id ever, in so true a flame of liking,
tsly, palpably. /<■ their kind, in their way.
I Avail, interest; compare ill 1 82 >ltond, obligation. ■ App* ach'd, informed against vou.
10 Captious iimi intenible, capacious, and incapable of retaining.
II Cites a virtuous youth, proves that you were no less virtuous when young.
ACT I. Scene 3.
ALLS WEI A j THAT ENDS WELL.
ACT II. Scene 1.
Wish chastely, and love dearly, that your Dian AY as both herself and love; ( ), then, give pity To her, whose state is such, that cannot choose But lend and give, where she is sure to lose; That seeks not to find that her search implies, But, riddle-like, lives sweetly where she dies ! ]
Count. Had you not lately an intent, — speak truly,— 224
To go to Paris?
Hd. Madam, I had.
Count. "Wherefore? tell true.
Hel. I will tell truth; by grace itself, I swear. You know my father left me some prescriptions Of rare and prov'd effects, such as his reading And manifest experience had collected 229 -Forgeneralsovereignty;1 Qand thathewill'dme In heedfull'st reservation to bestow them, /As notes, whose faculties inclusive2 were More than they were in note :] amongst the rest, There is a remedy, approv'd, set down, To cure the desperate languishings whereof The king is render'd"* lost.
Count. This was your motive
For Paris, was it? speak.
Hel. My lord your son made me to think of this; 238
Else Paris, and the medicine, and the king, Had from the conversation4 of my thoughts Haply been absent then.
Count. But think you, Helen,
If you should tender your supposed aid, 242 He would receive it? he and his physicians
Are of a mind; In-, that they cannot help him;
They, that they cannot help: how shall they credit
A poor unlearned virginQ, when the schools,
Lniliowell'd of their doctrine, 5 have left off
The danger to itself] ?
Hd. There 's something in 't,
More than my fathers skill, which was the greatest
Of his profession, that his good receipt 250
Shall, for my legacy, be sanctified
By the luckiest stars in heaven: and, would your honour
But give me leave to try success,0 I 'd venture
The well-lost life of mine on 's grace's cure
By such a day and hour.
Count. Dost thou believe 't?
Hel. Ay, madam, knowingly. Count. Why, Helen, thou shaft have my leave, and love,
Means, and attendants, and my loving greet- ings - 258
To those of mine in court: I '11 stay at home,
And pray God's blessing into thy attempt:
Be gone to-morrow; and be sure of this,
What I can help thee to, thou shalt not miss.
[Kveunt.
ACT II.
Q Scene I. Paris. The King's palace.
Flourish of cornets. Enter King, attended with divers young Lords taking leave for the Flor- entine war; Bertram, Parolles.
King. Farewell, young lords; these warlike principles Do not throw from you: — and you, my lords,
farewell : — ; Share the advice betwixt you; if both gain,7 all The gift doth stretch itself as 't is receiv'd, -And is enouo-h for both.
o
1 Sovereignty, efficacy. - Inclusive, comprehensive.
3 Render'd, said to be. •* Conversation, intercourse.
5 Doctrine, learning. c Success, fortune.
First Lord. It is our hope, sir,
After well enter'd soldiers, to return And find your grace in health.
King. No, no, it cannot be; and yet my; heart Will not confess he owes 8 the malady That doth my life besiege. Farewell, young lords ; 10
Whether I live or die, be you the sons Of worthy Frenchmen: let high Italy — Those bated9 that inherit but the fall Of the last monarchy — see that you come Not to woo honour, but to wed it; when
" Gain, profit. 8 Owes, owns.
9 Bated, beaten down, subdued. 19
A' I II. -^cene 1.
U.L'S WELL THAT ENDS WELL.
ACT II. Scene 1.
The bravest questant1 shrinks, find what you
ek, That fame may cry you loud: I aay, farewell Lord. Health, at your bidding, serve your majesty ! King. Those girla of Italy, take heed of them: 19
They Bay, our French lark language to deny, If tiny demand: beware <>f being captives, ■ you serve. Both Lords. Our hearts receive your warn-
in_ A /. I- .11. w. 11. — Come hither to me.
[Exit, attended. First Lni-'l. <> in v sweet lord, that you will
stay behind us ] /' v. T is imt his fault, the spark.
Lord. 0, 't is brave wars !
Par. Most admirable: I have seen those
wai a. /.'• v I am commanded here,2 and kept a coil \\ ith,8 — "Too young." ami "the next year," and "'tis tOO early."
Par. Aii thy mind stand tot, boy, steal
away bravely.
lier. I shall stay here the forehorse to a
smock,4 so
iking in v shoes on the plain masonry,
Till honour be bought up,6 and no sword worn
But one to dance with ! By heaven, I'll steal
away. First Lord. There 's honour in the theft. Par. ( iommit it, count.
Lord. I am your accessary; and so, fare- well. 8 • I grow to you, and our parting is a
tortured body. /' -st /.'.n/. Farewell, captain.
Lord Sweel Monsieur Parolles! 39
Par. Noble heroes, my sword and yours are
kin. Good sparks and lustrous, a word, good
metals: you shall find in the regiment of the
Spinii one Captain Spurio, with his cicatrice,
1 Quatamt, leaker, aspirant
- / urn oomnutndod h» r$, i ». to remain here.
3 Kfpi a ri.it witk, made a fuss about 1 .1 *mock. U8i-<i cootemptaooily f"r :i woman. 1 Till honour '»• bought up. and therefore there is no more left to lie gained.
20
an emblem of war, here OD his sinister cheek; it was this very sword entrenched it: say to him, 1 live; ami observe his reports for me.0 '
Sec Lord We shall, noble captain.
[Exeunt Lords.
Par. Mars dote on you for his novices! what will ye do I
11 r. Stay; the king ! 00
Re-enter Kixg.
Bertram and Parolles retire.
Par. [To B>r.] Use a more spacious cere- mony to the noble lords; you have restrained yourself within the list7 of too cold an adieu: be more expressive to them: for they wear themselves in the cap of the time, there do muster true gait, eat, speak, and move under the influence of the most received star; and though the devil lead the measure, such are to be followed: after them, and take a more dilated farewell.
Ber. And I will do so.
Par. Worthy fellows: and like to prove most sinewy sword-men.
[Exeunt Bertram and Parolles.
60
Enter Lafei\
Laf. [Kneeling] Pardon, my lord, for me and
for my tidings. King. I '11 fee thee to stand up. Laf. [/Using] Then here :s a man stands that has brought his pardon. I would you had kneel'd, my lord, to ask mej mercy; I
And that, at my bidding, you could so stands up. King. 1 would I had; so I had broke th\ ] iate, And ask'd thee mercy for't.
Laf. Good faith, across: but, my g 1 lord.
't is thus; 70
Will you be curd of your infirmity I King. No.
Laf. O, will you eat no grapes, my royal fox? Yes, but you will my uoble grapes, an if My royal fox could reach them: I've seen a
medicine8
* For me, concerning me. ' Litt, boundary, limit. ■ M.itiriitc, physician.
ACT II. Scene 1.
ALLS WKLL THAT LNDS WLLI,
ACT II. a
i That 's able to breathe life into a stone, Quicken a rock, and make you dance canary1 , With sprightly tire and motion; whose simple
touch Is powerful to araise King Pepin, nay, To give great Charlemain a i>en in 'a hand, so And write to her a love-line.
King. What "her" is this?
Laf. Why, Doctor She: my lord, there 's one
82
arri\ il, If you will see her: — now, by my faith and
honour, If seriously I may convey my thoughts
In this my light deliverance,3 1 nave spoke Withone that, in her sex, her years, profession, Wisdom, and constancy, hath amaz'd me more
King. We thank you, maiden;
But may not be so credulous of cure.— (Act ii. 1. 117, 118.]
Than I dare blame my weakness: will you see
her, — For that is her demand, — and know her busi- ness? S9 That done, laugh well at me.
King. Now, good Lafeu,
Bring in the admiration; that we with thee
May spend our wonder too, or take off thine
', By wondering how thou took'st it.
j Laf. Nay, I'll fit you,
>And not be all day neither. [Exit.
1 Canary, a lively dance.
-Deliverance, utterance.
King. Thus he his special nothing ever pro- logues.
Re-enter Lafeu, with Helena.
Laf Nay, come your ways.
King. This haste hath wings indeed.
Laf. Nay, come your ways; This is his majesty, say your mind to him: 98 < A traitor you do look like; but such traitors His majesty seldom fears: I 'in Cressid's uncle, That dare leave two together; fare you well.
[Exit. \
3 Profession, what she professes to be able to do. 21
act i: a
ALL'S WELL THAT ENDS WELL.
ACT II. Scene 1.
A •/. Now, fair one, does your business
follow 08? 102
//. /. Ay. my good lord. ,i,i de Narbon was my father; In what In' did profess, well found.
King. I knew him.
Hd. The rather will I spare my praises to- wards him; Knowing him is enough. On 's bed of death Many receipts he gave me; chiefly one, Which, as the dearest issue of his practice, And of his old experience th' only darling, no Be bade me store up, as a triple eye, Safer than mine own two, more dear: I have so: And, hearing your hiidi majesty is touch'd With that malignant cause, wherein the honour < if my dear father's gift stands chief in power, /I come to tender it. and my appliance, With all bound humblenesa
King. We thank you, maiden;
But may not be so credulous of cure, When our most learned doctors leave us, and The COn<Te<rated college have concluded 120 That labouring art can never ransom nature in her inaidible estate, — I say we must not iiu our judgment, or corrupt our hope, To prostitute our past-cure malady To Empirics; or to dissever so « lur givat self and our credit, to esteem ^.senseless help, when help past sense we deem.
Hd. My duty, then, shall pay me for my pains: I will no more enforce mine office on you; Eumbly entreating from your royal thoughts A modesl one, to bear me back again 131
King. I cannot give thee less, to be call d grateful: Thou thought'st to help me; and such thanks
I give Lb one Dear death to those that wish him live: Hut, wli.it at full I know, thou know'st no part; I knowing all my peril, thou no art.
/A/. What I can do can do no hurt to try, Since you sel ap your rest1 'gains! remedy. II. tliat ..f greatest works is finisher < 'ft does them by the weakest minister: 140 - holy writ- in babes hath judgment shown,
i >. i i/;. your n it, are n wlw
- Hoi ' M.ittlew \i 86, or Daniel I 17 and II IS, 19.
When judges have been babes; great floods
have flown US
From simple sources;3 and gnat seas have
dried, When miracles have by the greatest been
denied:4 Oft expectation fails, and most oft there Where most it promises; and oft it hits When- hope is coldest, and despair most tits. !
King. I must not hear thee; fare thee well, kind maid; 14s
Thy pains, not us'd, must by thyself be paid: Proffers not took reap thanks for their reward.
Hd. Inspired merit so by breath is band: ' It is not so with Him that all things know-. As t is with us that square i »ur guess by show a ; But most it is presumption in us when The help of heaven we count the act of men. Dear sir, to my endeavours give consent ; Of heaven, not me, make an experiment. I am not an impostor, that proclaim Myself against the level of mine aim; 159
But know I think, and think I know most sure, I My art is not past power, nor you past cure.
King. Art thou so confident? within what space Hop'st thou my cure?
II' I. The great'st grace lending grace.
Ere twice the horses of the sun shall bring Their fiery torcher8 his diurnal ring; Ere twice in murk and occidental damp Moist Hesperus hath quench'd his sleepy lamp;; Or four and twenty times the pilot's glass Hath told the thievish minutes how they pass; What is infirm from your sound parts shall ny, Health shall live free, and sickness freely die.
Kiinj. I'pon thy certainty and confidence What ilar'st thou venture?
Hd. Tax7 of impudence, — 178
A -trumpets boldness, a divulged shame, — TiaducM by odious ballads; my maiden's name Se.-n'd otherwise; nay, worse — if worse— ex- tended With vilest torture let my life be ended.
King. Rethinks in thee some Messed spirit doth speak
fin at ri In. .v.- . Kxod. xvii. 6.
' Qreai skis. A.- , Bxod. xiv. 21. Barr'd, prevented, pat at a disadvantage Torcher, light-giver. ' Tax, reproach.
22
ACT II. Scene 1.
ALL'S WELL THAT ENDS WELL.
ACT II. Scene 2.
His powerful sound within an organ weak: And what impossibility would slay iso
In common sense, sense saves another way. Thy life is dear; for all, that life can rate Worth name of life, in thee hath estimate, — Youth, beauty, wisdom, courage, all That happiness and prime1 can happy call: Thou this to hazard, needs must intimate2 Skill infinite or monstrous desperate. Sweet practiser, thy physic I will try, That ministers thine own death, if I die.
III. If I break time, or flinch in property3 Of what I spoke, unpitied let me die; 191
And well deserv'd : 4 not helping, death 's my
fee; But, if I help, what do you promise me? King. Make thy demand. lid. But will you make it even1?
King. Ay, by my sceptre and my hopes of
heaven. lid. Then shalt thou give me with thy kingly hand What husband in thy power I will command: Exempted be from me the arrogance To choose from forth the royal blood of
Fiance, My low and humble name to propagate 200 With any branch or image of thy state; But such a one, thy vassal, whom I know Is free for me to ask, thee to bestow.
King. Here is my hand ; the premises ob- served, Thy will by my performance shall be serv'd: So make the choice of thy own time; for I, I Thy resolv'd patient, on thee still rely. ' More should I question thee, and more I
must, — Though more to know could not be more to
trust, —
From whence thou cam'st, how tended on :
but rest 210
Unquestion'd welcome, and undoubted blest. —
I Give me some help here, ho ! — If thou proceed
As high as word, my deed shall match thy
deed. [Flourish. Exeunt.
1 Prime, flower of life.
2 Intimate, suggest the idea of.
3 Property, the particular quality, that which is proper to it.
4 Well deserv'd, having deserved well to die.
Scene II. Roueillon. The hall of the ( 'ountesis house.
Enter Countess with a letter, and Clown.
Count. Come on, sir; I shall now put you to' the height of your breeding.
Clo. I will show myself highly fed and lowly taught: I know my business is but to the court.
( 'ount. To the court ! why, what place make you special, when you put off that with such contempt 1 But to the court ! 7
Clo. Truly, madam, if God have lent a man any manners, he may easily put it off at com I : he that cannot make a leg, put off's cap, kiss his hand, and say nothing, has neither leg, hands, lip, nor cap; and, indeed, such a fellow, to say precisely, were not for the court : but, for me, I have an answer will serve all men.
Count. Marry, that's a bountiful answer, that fits all questions.
Clo. It is like a barber's chair, that fits all^ buttocks, — the pin-buttock,5 the quatch-but- tock,c the brawn-buttock, or any buttock.
Count. Will your answer serve fit to all; questions ? 21 >
Clo. As fit as ten m-oats is for the hand of? an attorney, as your French crown for youiv taffeta7 punk, as Tib's rush for Tom's iore-( finger, as a pancake for Shrove -Tuesday, a^ morris8 for May-day, as the nail to his holt', the cuckold to his horn, as a scolding quean9 to a wrangling knave, as the nun's lip to the friar's mouth, nay, as the pudding to his skin.
Count. Have you, I say, an answer of such fitness for all questions? 31 ,
Clo. From below your duke to beneath your constable, it will fit any question.
Count. It must be an answer <>f most mon-> strous size that must fit all demands.
Clo. But a trifle neither, in good faith, if; the learned should speak truth of it: here it is, and all that belongs to't. Ask me if I am a) courtier: it shall do you no harm to learn.
Count. To be young again, if we could: — 1}
5 Pin-buttock, i.e. thin and pointed like a pin.
" Qitatch-buttock, a squat or flat buttock.
1 Taffeta, a thin, soft, silk stuff.
s A morris, a morris (Moorish) dance.
9 Quean, a hussy.
23
A' I II -
ALL'S WELL THAT ENDS WELL.
ACT II. Scene :!.
will be a fool in question, hoping to be the wiser by your answer. I pray you, sir. air you a nun tier? 42
CU>. "() Lunl, sir :"- there 's a simple put- ting off.— More, more, a hundred <>f them.
.t. Sir. I am a poor friend of yours that loves you.
do. "() Lord, adrl"— Thick, thick, spare not in.'.
< bunt. I think, sir, you ran eat none of this homely meat.
Clo. "0 Lord, sir! "—Nay, put me to 't, I
warrant you, 5t
<'••",<(. Vi.u were lately whipped, sir, as I think.
t'/n. "(> Li ml, sir!" — Spare not nie.
('•.'int. I »n ymi cry, "O Lord, sir!" at your whipping, and "Spare not me"? Indeed, your •'() Lord, sir!" is very sequent to your whip- ping : ymi would answer very well to a whip- pin-, if you were but bound to't.1
Clo. 1 ne'er had worse luck in my life in my
' •« > Lord, sir!" I see things may serve long,
but not Berve <\ er. 6]
■ >i. I play the noble housewife with the
time,
To entertain t so merrily with a fool.
Clo. "0 Lord, sir!'— why, there 't serves well again.
' int. An end. an : to your business. Give
Helen this,
A inl orge her to a present answer Lack: ' iommend me to my kinsmen and my son: This is not much.
<1<>. Not much commendation to them, vu
Count. Not much employment for you: you understand me i
Clo. Most fruitfully: I am there before my lt-
( 'otmt. Easte you again. [Exeunt st verally.l
Si knk III. Paris. A room of state in the pal
Enter Bertram, Lafru, and Parollrs.
/.■if. They Bay miracles are past; and we have our philosophieal persons, to make mo-
i Boundto't, destined to undergo it 24
dern- and familiar, things supernatural and causeless.3 Hence is it that we make trifles of terrors; ensconcing ourselves into seeming knowledge, when we should submit ourselves to an unknown fear.4
Par, "Why, 't is the rarest argument of wonder that hath shot out in our latter times.
Ber. And bo t is.
/.■if. To be relinquished of the artists, — to
Par. So I say.
Laf. Both of Galen and Paracelsus.
Par. So I say.
Laf. Of all the learned and authentic fel- lows,—
Par. Right; so I say.
Laf That gave him out incurable, —
Par. Why, there 'tis; so say I too.
Laf. Not to be helped, —
Par. Right; as 't were a man assured of a —
Laf. Uncertain life, and sure death. 20
Par. Just, you say well; so would I have said.
Laf. I may truly say. it is a novelty to the wi irld.
Par. It is, indeed: if you will have it in showing, you shall read it in — what do ye call there '.
Laf. A showing of a heavenly effect in an earthly actor.
Par. That's it; I would have said the very same. 30
Laf. Why, your dolphin IS not lustier: 'fore me, I speak in respect —
Par. Nay, 'tis strange, 'tis very strange, that is the brief and the tedious of it; and he's of a most facinerious spirit that will not acknowledge it to be the —
Laf. Very hand of heaven —
/'"/■. Ay, so l say.
\_l. if. In a most weak — [pausing] and debile minister great power, great transcendence:6 which should, indeed, give us a further use to be made than alone the recover} of the king, as t" be — [pausing] generally0 thankful
Par. I would have said it:] you Bay well. — , Here comes the king.
- Minleru, commonplace. * Caxueleu, for which do cause can be assigned. •»/•'<«/•, object of fear. 5 Trantcendenee, superiority. i Generally, not tor one person only, lmt universally.
ACT II. Scene 3.
ALL'S WKLL THAT KNDS WKLL.
\< I II -rent- 8.
jStoer King, Helena, and Attendants. Lafeu and Parolles retire.
Laf. Lustig,1 as the Dutchman says: I'll like a maid the better, whilst I have a tooth in my head : why, he 'a able to lead her a coranto.2
Par. Mart du vinaigre! is not this Helen?
Laf. 'Fore God, I think so. 51
King. Go, call before me all the lords in court. — [Exit an Attendant.
Sit, my preserver, by thy patient's side; And with this healthful hand, whose banish'd
sense Thou hast repeal'd, a second time receive The confirmation of my promis'd gift, Which but attends thy naming.
Enter three or four Lords.
Fair maid, send forth thine eye: this youth- ful parcel Of noble bachelors stand at my bestowing, O'er whom both sovereign power and father's voice 60
I have to use: thy frank election make; Thou'st power to choose, and they none to forsake. Hel. To each of you one fair and virtuous mistress Fall, when Love please ! — marry, to each, but one ! Laf. I 'd give bay Curtal3 and his furniture, My mouth no more were broken than these
boys', And writ as little beard.
King. Peruse them well:
Not one of those but had a noble father.
Hel. Gentlemen, Heaven hath, through me, restor'd the king to health. 70
All. We understand it, and thank heaven
for you. Hel. I am a simple maid ; and therein wealthiest, That I protest I simply am a maid. — Please it your majesty, I 've done already : The blushes in my cheeks thus whisper me,
i Lustig, cheerful.
- Coranto, a quick lively dance.
3 Curtal, a horse with a docked tail.
"We blush that thou shouldst choose; but, be
refus'd,4 Let the white death sil on thy cheek for ever; We'll ne'er come there again."
King. Make choice; and, see,
Who shuns thy love shuns all his love in me.
Hel. Now, Dian, from thy altar do I fly; And to imperial Love, that god most high, -i Do my sighs stream. — \_['T<> First Lord] Sir, will you hear my suit '.
First Lord. And grant it.
Hel. Thanks, sir; all the rest is mute.5
Laf. I had rather be in this choice than throw ames-ace for my life.
Hel. [To Sec. Lord] The honour, sir, that flames in your fair eyes, Before I speak, too threateningly replies: Love make your fortunes twenty times above Her that so wishes and her humble love!
Sec. Lord. No better, if you please.
Hel. My wish receive, -
Which great Love grant! and so, I take my leave. 91
Laf. Do all they deny her? An they were sons of mine, I'd have them whipped; or I would send them to the Turk, to make eunuchs of.
Hel. [To Third Lord] Be not afraid that I your hand should take; I '11 never do you wrong for your own sake : Blessing upon your vows ! and in your bed Find fairer fortune, if you ever wed !
Laf. These boys are boys of ice, they'll none have her: sure, they are bastards to the Eng- lish; the French ne'er got 'em. 101
Hel. [To Fourth Lord] You are too young, too happy, and too good, To make yourself a son out of my blood.
Fourth Lord. Fair one, I think not so.
Laf. There 's one grape yet, — I am sure thy father drunk wine: — but if thou be'st not an ass, I am a youth of fourteen; I have known thee already.
Hel."] [To Bertram] I dare not say I take, you; but I give Me and my service, ever whilst I live, no
Into your guiding power. — This is the man.
* Be refus'd, it thou art refused. 5 The rest is mute, I have no more to say to you. 25
ACT II. Scene 3.
ALL'S WELL THAT ENDS WELL.
ACT II. Scene 8.
King. Why, then, young Bertram, take her; she 'a thy wife 112
A'./-. My wife, my liege! I shall beseech your highni as, In such a business give me leave to use The help of mine own eyes.
King. Know'st thou not, Bertram,
Wli.it she has (lone for me?
/; >. Yes, my good lord:
But never hope to know why 1 should marry her. King. Thou know'st she has raisM me from
my sickly bed. /; •. Bui follows it, my lord, to bring me down lis
Musi answer for your raising? I know her well: She had her breeding at my father's charge. A | r physician's daughter my wife! — Dis- dain1 Rather corrupt* me ever '. King. "V is only title thou disdain'st in her, the which I can build up Strange is it that our bloods, Of colour, weight, and heat, pour/d all to-
■ her, Would quite confound distinction, yet stand off3 In differences so mighty. If she be All thai is virtuous, save what thou dislik'st, A poor physician's daughter, thou dislik'st Of virtue for the name: but do not so: isi [ From lowest place when virtuous things
proceed, The place is dignified by the doer's deed: Where great additions swell's,4 and virtue
cone, It is a dropaied honour: good alone
I- g ' \vitlmut a name Yileuess is so:
The property by what it is should go, \"t by th«' title.] she is young, wise, fair; In these to nature she's immediate heir; And thi I honour: that is honour's scorn,
Which challenges itself as honour's born, i-ji And is not like the Bire: honours thrive, When rather from our acts we them derive Than our foregoers: the mere word 's a slave, Debosh'd' on every tomb, on every grave
i Disdain, orerweenlng pride "f my own.
<■»/''. deprave
md of, keep .-it a distance fr.'in etch other. • S,r. II '«, swell us. s Debonh'd, debased.
2<\
A lying trophy; and as oft is dumb
Where dust and damn'd oblivion is the tomb
Of honour'd bones indeed. What should be
said i
If thou canst like this creature as a maid,
I can create the rest: virtue and she iso
Is her own dower; honour and wealth from me.
Ber. 1 cannot love her, nor will strive to do :t
King. Thou wrong'st thyself, if thou shouldst
strive to choose. //</. That you are well restor'd, my lord, I'm glad: Let the rest go.
King. My honour's at the stake; which to defeat, I must produce my power. Here, take her
hand. Proud scornful boy, unworthy this good gift; That dost in vile misprision8 shackle up My love and her desert; [that canst not dream, We, poising us in her defective scale, 161
Shall weigh thee to the beam; that wilt not
know, It is in us to plant thine honour where We please to have it grow.] ( heck thy con- tempt: Obey our will, which travails in thy good: Q Believe not thy disdain, but presently Do thine own fortunes that obedient right Which both thy duty owes and our power
claims; ] Or I will throw thee from my care for ever Into the staggers" and the careless lapse8 iro < >f youth and ignorance; both my revenge and
hate Loosing upon thee, in the name of justice, Without all terms of pity. Speak; thine an- swer. Ber. Pardon, my gracious lord; for I submit My fancy to your eyes: when I consider What great creation and what dole of honour Flies where you bid it, I find that she, which
late
W.i> iii my nobler thoughts most base, is now The praised of the king; who, so ennobled. Is, as t were, born BO.
King. Take her by the hand, isO
Vuprition, contempt. 1 Staggen, perplexity, bewilderment 8 Careleu lapte, uncared-for falling away from right
ACT II. Scene 3.
ALL'S WELL THAT ENDS WELL.
A i T II. Scene 3.
Ami tell her she is thine: to whom I promise A counterpoise, if not to thy estate 182
A balance more replete.
Ber. I take her hand.
King. Good fortune and the favour of the king Smile upon this contract; whose ceremony Shall seem expedient on the now-born brief,
And be perform'd to-night: [the solemn feast
Shall more attend upon the coming space, 188' Expecting absent friends.] Asthoulov'sl her. Thy love's to me religious;1 else, does err. [Exeunt King, Bertram, Helena, Lords, and
Attendants. Laf. [To Parolles, who is strutting by hint] 1 )o you hear, monsieur ? a word with you.
Par. My lord, you do me most insupportable vexation.— (Act ii. 3. 243.)
Par. Your pleasure, sir? 192
Laf. Your lord and master did well to make his recantation.
Par. Recantation! — My lord! my master!
Laf. Ay; is it not a language I speak?
Par. A most harsh one, and not to be un- stood without bloody succeeding. My master!
Laf. Are you companion to the Count Eou- sillon ? 201
Par. To any count, — to all counts, — to what is man.
1 Thy love's to me religions, thy love to me is con- scientiously fulfilled.
Laf. To what is count's man: count's mas- ter is of another style.
Par. You are too old, sir; let it satisfy you, you are too old. [ Walks insolently by him.
Laf. I must tell thee, sirrah, I write man; to which title age cannot bring thee. 209
Par. What I dare too well do, I dare not do.
Laf. I did think thee, for two ordinaries,2 to be a pretty wise fellow; thou didst make tolerable vent of thy travel; it might pass: yet the scarfs and the bannerets about thee did manifoldly dissuade me from believing
2 Ordinarv s, meals. 27
A« ■ 1 II -
ALLS WELL THAT ENDS WELL
ACT II. Scene 3.
thee a vessel of too great a burden. Ihavenow found thee; when 1 lose thee again, I car.' not:
\, t art thou g 1 for nothing but taking up;1
ami thai thou it Bcarce worth.
Par. Hadst thou uot the privilege of anti- quity 1 1 1 >• > 1 1 thee, — 221
/. %f Do not plunge thyself too far in anger, lest thou hasten thy trial; which if Lord have nn ivy mi thee fora ben! So, my good win. low of lattice, fare thee well: thy case- ment I need not open, fori look through thee. » live me thy band.
Pa : My lord, you give me most egregious indignity.
Laf. Ay, with all my heart; and thou art worthy of it. 231
Par. 1 have not, my lord, deserved it.
/. • . Yes, good faith, evei\ dram of it; and 1 will not bate thee a scruple.
Par. Well, J shall be wiser —
Luf. L'en as soon as thou canst, for thou hast to pull at a smack o' the contrary. Q If ever thou Lest bound in thy scarf and beaten, thou ahalt find what it is to be proud of thy bondage.] 1 have a desire to hold my acquaint- ance with thee, or rather my knowledge, that I may say, in the default,2 he is a man I know. 242
Par. My lord. you do me most insupportable \ exation.
Laf. 1 would it were hell-pains for thy sake,
and my p .loin- eternal: Q for doing 1 am
past; as I will by thee,3 in what motion age will give me leave. ] [ Exit.
Par. Well, thou hast a son shall take this
disgrace off me; scurvy, old, filthy, scurvy lord! Well, J must be patient; there is no fettering of authority. I'll heat him, by my life, if I can meet him with any convenience, an he were double and double ;i lord. I'll have no more pity of his age than J would have of 1 11 heat him, an if I could but meet him again.
/.'• -< nti r Lapeu.
Laf. Sirrah, your lord and master's married;
there a news for you: you have a new mis- tret 2&S
' Taking up, rebuking, contradicting. ■ / , the default, :it ■ need
/ uriil by thee, i t a-, l «ill pan bj thee 28
Par. I most unfeiguedly heseecb your lord- ship to make some reservation of your wrongs: Qhe is my good lord; whom I serve above is) my master.
Laf Who/ Godl
Par. Ay, sir.
Laf. The devil it is that's thy master. Why dost thxm garter up thy arms o' this fashion1? dost make hose of thy sleeves? do other ser- vants so? Thou wert hest set thy lower part where thy nose stands.] By mine honour, if I , were but two hours younger, I'd heat thee: methinks 't, thou art a general offence, and every man should beat thee: I think thou wast created for men to breathe themselves upon thee. -'7-'
Par. This is hard and undeserved measure, my lord.
Laf. Go to, sir; you were beaten in Italy for picking a kernel out of a pomegranate; you are a vagabond, and no true traveller: you
are more saucy with lords and honourable per- sonages than the commission of your birth and virtue gives you heraldry. You are not worth another word, else I'd call you knave. I leave you. [Exit.
Par. Good, very good; it is so then: — gx » id, very good; let it he concealed awhile. 283
Re-enter Bertram.
Ber. Undone, and forfeited4 to cares for
ever! Par. What's the matter, sweet-heart I Ber. Although before the solemn priest I've sworn, I will not Led h.r.
Par. What, what, sweet-heart? Ber. 0, my Parolles, they have married me ! — I'll to the Tuscan wars, and never Led her. Pm\ France is a dog-hole, and it no more merits 291
The tread of ;i man's foot: to the wars!
/;< •. There's letters from my mother: what
the import is, 1 know not yet Par. Ay, That would be8 known. To the wars, my boy, to the wars I
4 Forfeited, (broken, abandoned. Would be = requires to be.
ACT II. Scene 8.
ALL'S WELL THAT ENDS WELL.
\t ■ i II Scene i.
THe wears lii.s honour in a box unseen, That hugs his kicky-wicky1 here at home, Spending his manly marrow in her arms, •Which should sustain the bound and high
curvet ( )f Mars's fiery steed. ] To other regions ! 300 France is a stable! we that dwell in't jades; Therefore, to the war !
Ber. Et shall be bo: I '11 send her to my house, Acquaint my mother with my hate to her, sm
And wherefore 1 am fled; write to the king
That which 1 durst not speak: Qliis present gift'
Shall furnish me to those Italian fields, Where noble fellows strike:] war is no strife To the dark house and the detested wife. Par. Will thiscapriccio2 hold in thee, art sure?
_.._■
Clo. You should have said, sir, before a thou'rt a knave: this had been truth, sir.-
Ber. Go with me to my chamber, and ad- vise nie. 311 I'll send her straight away: to-morrow I '11 to the wars, she to her single sorrow. Par. Why, these balls bound; there's noise in it. — 'T is hard : A young man married is a man that 's marr'd : 5 Q Therefore, away, and leave her; bravely go: ;The king has done you wrong; but, hush, 'tis ] so. ] [Exeunt.
i Kicky-wicky, a playful term for a wife.
knave thou'rt a knave; that's, before me -(Act ii. 4. 29-31.)
Scene IV. Paris. An antechamber in the palace.
Enter Helena with a letter, and Clown.
Hd. My mother greets me kindly: is she well?
\_ Clo. She is not well; but yet she has her health: she 's very merry; butyetsheisnotwell : but thanks be given, she 's very well, and wants nothing i' the world; but yet she is not well.
Hel. If she be very well, what does she ail, that she 's not very well Q
- Capriccio, properly an Italian word = fancy. 29
Ail II Scene I
LLJ/S WKLL THAT ENDS WELL.
ACT II. Xceue 5.
do. Truly, Bhe'a very well indeed, but for
two lin
//./. What two thin 10
do. One, thai sin'.- not in heaven, whither
i send herquickly! the other, that she sin
.•an 1 1. t'r whence ( rod send her quickly !
i'.n t. r PaROLLES.
Pa ■. Bless you, nrj fortunate lady)
ll< I. 1 hope, sir, 1 have your good will to have mine own good fortunes.
/'.>/-. You hail my prayers to lead them on; ami to keep them on, have them still. — O, my knave, how does my old ladj i
('In. So thai you had her wrinkles, and I her money, I would she did as you say. ui
Par. Why, I say nothing.
( In. Many, you are the wiser man; for many a man's tongue shakes out his master's undoing: to sa\ nothing, to d,. nothing, to know nothing, ami to have nothing, is to be a great part of your title; which is within a very little of nothing.
/'.//•. Away! thoii'it a knave. 28
( 'In. Y,,u should have said, sir, before a knave thou rt a knave; that's, before me thou it a knave: this had been truth, sir.
/'"/•. Go to. thou art a witty fool; 1 have
found th<
('In. Did you find me in yourself, sir? or Were you taughl to find me? The search, sir,
was profitable; and much fool may you find in you, even to the world's pleasure, and the in- crease of laughter.
Par. A g 1 knave, i' faith, and well fed. —
Madam, my lord will goawaj to night; 40 \ \ • ■ ■■ sei ious business calls on him. QThe great prerogative and rite of love, Whnh. a- your due, time claims, he does
acknovi Ledj Bui puts it off to a compell'd restraint;1 Whose want, and w hose delay, is strew'd with
BW(
Which they distil now in the curbed time,1 To make tin- coming hour o'erflow with joy, And pleasure drown the brim.] II- 1. What s bis will I
lToa I bj referring to a compulsory
al>-tllH I;
• /'•' • . Hit time of restraint.
Par. That you will take your instant leave
O' till' kill-.
And make this h.-iste as your own good pro-
ceeding,
50
Strengthen'd with what apology you think .May make it probable need.3
//• /. What more commands he]
I'm-. That, having this obtain'd, you pre- sently Attend his further pleasure.
I hi. In everything I wait upon his Mill.
Par. 1 shall report it so.
lid. 1 pray you. [Exit Par.] Come, sirrah]
[Exeunt,
Scene V. Paris. Another apartment in tin' palace.
Enter Lafeu and Bertram.
Laf. But I hope your lordship thinks not
him a soldier. Ber. Yes, my lord, and of very valiant ap-
proof. Laf. You have it from his own deliverance. Ber. And by other warranted testimony. Laf. Then my dial4 goes not true: I took this lark for a bunting. V
[Ber. I do assure you, my lord, he is very
great in knowledge, and accordingly valiant.
Laf. I have, then, sinned against his expe- rience, and transgressed against his valour; and my state that way is dangerous, since I cannot yet find in my heart to repent.] Here he comes: 1 pray you, make us friends; I will pursue the amity.
Enter Parolles.
Par. [To Bertram] These things shall be done, sir.
[Laf. I 'jay you, sir, who's his tailor?
Par. Sir?
Laf. O, I know him well, I, sir; he, sir, s a good workman, a very g 1 tailor.] 21
/;< r. [Aside to Par.] Is she gone to the king?
/'"/•. [Aside to Ber.] She is.
Ber. [Aside to Par.'] Will she away to-night?
Par. [Aside '<< Ber.] As you'll have her.
Ber. [Aside to Par.] I've writ my letters, casketed my treasure,
s Probable need, a specious appearance of necessity. —Johnson. 4 Dial, watch.
ACT II. Scoue 5.
ALL'S WELL THAT ENDS W KLL.
A.CT II Bi
Given order for our horses; and to-night, When I should take possession of the bride, End ere I do begin. 29
Laf. Q A g< m m 1 traveller is something at the latter end of a dinner;1 but one that lies three- / thirds, and uses a known truth to pass a thou- sand nothings with, should be once heard, and 'thrice beaten. — 1 God save you, captain.
Ber. Is there any unkindness between my lord and you, monsieur?
Par. I know not how I have deserved to run into my lord's displeasure. 3S
Laf. You have made shift to run into't, boots and spurs and all, like him that leaped into the custard; and out of it you '11 run again, rather than suffer question for your residence.
Ber. It may be you have mistaken him, my lord.
Laf. And shall do so ever, though I took him at's prayers. Fare you well, my lord; and believe this of me, there can be no kernel in this light nut ; the soul of this man is his clothes: Q trust him not in matter of heavy con- sequence; I have kept of them tame, and know /their natures. — Farewell, monsieur: I have ;• spoken better of you than you have or will /to deserve at my hand; but we must do good against evil. ] [Ex-it.
Par. An idle lord, I swear.
Ber. I think so.
Par. Why, do you not know him 1
Ber. Yes, I do know him well; and common speech Gives him a worthy pass. — Here comes my clog.
Enter Helena.
Hel. I have, sir, as I was commanded from
you,
Spoke with the king, and have procur'd his leave 60
For present parting;2 only he desires Some private speech with you.
Ber. I shall obey his will.
You must not marvel, Helen, at my course, ('[Which holds not colour with the time, nor does (The ministration and required office <iOn my particular. Prepar'd I was not
1 Something at the latter end of a dinner, i.e. for the sake of his traveller's tales. - Parting, departing.
For such a business; therefore am I found
So much unsettled: this drives me t" entreat you, 08
That presently you take your way for home, And rather muse8 than ask why I entreal you;] For my respects4 are better than they seem, And my appointments5 have in them a need Greater than shows itself, at the first view, To you that know them not. This to my mother: [Giving >> fetter.
'Twill be two days ere I shall see you; so, I leave you to your wisdom.
Jlil. Sir, I can nothing say,
But that I am your most obedient servant.
Ber. Come, come, no more of that.
Hel. And ever shall
With true observance seek to eke out that Wherein toward me my homely stars have fail'd so
To equal my great fortune.
Ber. Let that go:
My haste is very great: farewell; hie home.
Hel. Pray, sir, your pardon.
Ber. Well, what would you say ?
Hel. I am not worthy of the wealth I owe; Nor dare I say 'tis mine, — and yet it is; But, like a timorous thief, most fain would steal What law does vouch mine own.
Ber. What would you have?
Hel. Something; and scarce so much: — no- thing, indeed. — I would not tell you what I would, my lord : — Faith, yes; — 90
Strangers and foes do sunder, and not kiss.
Ber. I pray you, stay not, but in haste to horse.
Hel. I shall not break your bidding, good my lord.
Ber. Where are my other men, monsieur? —
Farewell. [Exit Helena.
Go thou toward home; where I will never come,
Whilst I can shake my sword, or hear the
drum. — Away, and for our flight.
Par. Bravely, coragio !
[Exeunt.
3 Muse, wonder.
* Respects, motives; that to which I have respect, or regard, in acting as I do. 5 Appointments, engagements. 31
A' I [II. 8
ALL'S WELL THAT ENDS WELL.
ACT III. Scene 2.
ACT III.
r Scene I- Flon nee. -I room in the Duke's palace.
, Flourish. Enter the I >uke of Florence, attended; the two Frenchmen with a troop of Soldiers.
Duke. So that, from point to point, now have you heard ' The fundamental reasons of this war; Whosegreatdecision hath much blood let forth,
And more thirsts after.
First Lord. Holy seems the quarrel
Upon your grace's part; Mack and fearful
( »n the opposer.
Duke. Therefore we marvel much our con- sin France Would, in so just a business, shut his bosom ins! our borrow ing prayers.
S . /."/••/. < i 1 my lord,
The reasons of our state 1 cannot yield, 10 But like a common and an outward man, Thai the great figure of a council frames By Belf unable motion;1 therefore dare not Say what ! think of it, since I have found Myself in in)' uncertain grounds to fail
A- often as 1 -lless'd.
Duke. Be it bis pleasure.
/■' 'st Lord. But I am sure the younger of our nature, Tli.it surfeit on their ease, will day by day < Some here for physic.
Duke. Welcome shall they he;
And all the honours that can fly from us 20 Shall on them settle. You know your places
well; When better fall, for your avails- they fell; To-morrow to the field. [Flourish. Exeunt."]
m; II. Rousillon. The hall of the
■it'-.^s house.
Enter < Iountess with letter, and < !lown.
Count. [Having read Selena's letter] It hath happened all as I would have had it, save that he cornea nol along with her.
1 Motion, perception, Intuition. ?,-2
- Avails, profit
do. By my troth, I take my young lord to be a very melancholy man.
('mud. By what observance, I pray you?
Clo. Why, he will look upon his hoot, and sing; mend the raff, and sing; ask questions, and sing; pick his teeth, and sing. I know a man that had this trick of melancholy sold a goodly manor for a song. 10
( bunt. Let me see what he writes, and when he means to come. [Opening a letter.
Clo. I have no mind to Ishel, since I was at court: Qour old ling3 and our labels o' the coun- try are nothing like your old ling and your Ishels o' the court:] the brains of my Cupid's 5 knocked out; and I begin to love, as an old man loves money, with no stomach.
Count. What have we here? 19
Clo. E'en that you have there. [Exit.
Count. [Reads] •! have sent you a daughter-in- law; she hath recovered the king, and undone me. I have wedded her, not bedded her; and sworn to make the not eternal. You shall hear I am run away: know- it hefore the report come. 1 f there he 1 ireadth enough in the world, I will hold a long distance. My duty to you. Your unfortunate son, Bertram."
This is not well, rash and unbridled boy, 30 To fly the favours of so good a king; To pluck his indignation on thy head By the misprizing of a maid too virtuous For the contempt of empire.
Re-enter Clown.
Clo. O madam, yonder is heavy news within between two soldiers and my young lady!
( bunt. What is the matter?
<1<>. Nay, there is some comfort in the news, some comfort; your son will not be killed so soon as I thought he would. 40
Count. Why should he be killed
Clo. So say I, madam, if he run away, as I hear he does: Q the danger is in standing to ^;
I
that "s the loss of men, though it be the getting] of children.] Eere they come will tell you; more: for my part, I only hear your son was inn away. [Exit.
' Ling, a fish (Gadus vwlva).
ACT III. Scene 2.
ALL'S WELL THAT ENDS WELL.
ACT III. Scene 2.
Enter Helena with a letter, and two Gentlemen.
First (/ent. Save you, good madam. I/el. Madam, my Lord is gone, for ever gone. Sec. Gent. Do not say so. Count. Think upon patience. — Pray you, gentlemen, — 50
I've felt so many quirks1 of joy and grief, That the first face of neither, on the start, Can woman me unto't: — where is my son, I pray you? Sec. Gent. Madam, he's gone to serve the Duke of Florence: JQWemet him thitherward; for thence we came, >And, after some dispatch in hand at court, ) Thither we bend again.]
If el. Look on his letter, madam; here's my
passport.
[Reads] "When thou canst get the ring upon my
'finger which never shall come off, f_and show me a
• child begotten of thy body that I am father to,]
then call me husband: but in such a then I write a
never."
This is a dreadful sentence.
Count. Brought you this letter, gentlemen ?
First Gent. Ay, madam;
And, for the contents' sake, are sorry for our pains.
( 'mint. I prithee, lady, have a better cheer; If thou engrossest all the griefs are thine, Thou robb'st me of a moiety : he was my son ; But I do wash his name out of my blood, TO And thou art all my child. — Towards Florence is he?
Sec. Gent. Ay, madam.
Count. And to be a soldier?
Sec. Gent. Such is his noble purpose: and, believe 't, The duke will lay upon him all the honour That good convenience2 claims.
Count. Return you thither?
First Gent. Ay, madam, with the swiftest wing of speed.
Hel. [Reads] " Till I have no wife, I have nothing in France."
'T is bitter.
Count. Find you that there?
Hel. Ay, madam.
i Quirks, humours. VOL. V.
'■ Convenience, propriety.
^First Gent. Tis but tin- boldness of his
hand, haply, which his heart was not consent- ing to.] 80^
Count. Nothing in France, until he have no wife ! There 's nothing here that is too good for him, But only she; and she deserves a lord, That twenty such rude boys might tend
upon, And call her hourly mistress. — Who was with him? First Gent. A servant only, and a gentleman Which I have some time known.
Count. Parolles, was't not?
First Gent. Ay, my good lady, he. Count. A very tainted fellow, and full of wickedness. My son corrupts a well-derived nature 90
With his inducement.3
[First Gent. Indeed, good lady,
The fellow has a deal of that too much, Which holds4 him much to have.
Count. "2 Y' are welcome, gentlemen. I will entreat you, when you see my son, To tell him that his sword can never win The honour that he loses: more I '11 entreat you Written to bear along.
Sec. Gent. We serve you, madam,
In that and all your worthiest affairs.
Count. Not so, but as we change our cour- tesies. 100 Will you draw near?
[Exeunt Countess and Gentlemen. Hel. " Till I have no wife, I have nothing in France." Nothing in France, until he has no wife! Thou shalt have none, Rousillon, none in
France; Then hast thou all again. Poor lord ! is 't I That chase thee from thy country, and expose Those tender limbs of thine to the event Of the none-sparing war? and is it I That drive thee from the sportive court, where thou 100
Wast shot at with fair eyes, to be the mark Of smoky muskets? QO you leaden messengers, That ride upon the violent speed of fire,
3 With hi* inducement, owing to his instigation.
4 Holds, considers, judges.
33 115
ACT III. Scene
ALL'S WELL THAT ENDS WELL.
ACT III. Scene 4.
Fly with false aim; move the still-piecing1 air, That sings with piercing; do not touch my lord!] in
Whoever shoots at him, I Bet him there; Whoever charges on his forward breast, I am the caitiff thai do hold him to 't; And, though 1 kill him not, 1 am the cause
. ■
IJd. I am the caitiff that do hold him to 't.— (Act iii. 2. 117.)
Hi- death was so effected: better 'twere I hi. t the ravin1 lion when he roar'd 120
With sharp constrainl of hunger; better 'twere That all the miseries which nature owes Were mine al once. No, come thou home,
Etcnafllon, Whence8 honour but of danger wins a scar,
> Still],;, ting, 1 losing again Immediately. - Ravin, ravenou.
Whence, from there where. 34
As oft it loses all: I will be gone; 125
My being here it is that holds thee hence: Shall 1 stay here to do t i no, no, although The air of paradise did fan the house, And angels officii all: I will be gone, That pitiful rumour may report my flight, 130 To consolate thine ear. Come, night; end, day! For with the dark, poor thief, I '"11 steal away.
[Exit,
Q Scene III. Florence. Before the Duke's palace.
Flourish. Enter the Duke of Florence, Ber- tram, Parolles, and Soldiers. Drum, and trumpets.
Duke. The general of our horse thou art;/ and we, Great in our hope, lay our best love and cre- dence Upon thy promising fortune.
Ber. Sir, it is
A charge too heavy for my strength; but yet We 41 strive to bear it, for your worthy sake, To th' extreme edge of hazard.
Dull'. Then go thou forth ; ,
And Fortune play upon thy prosperous helm, As thy auspicious mistress !
Ber. This very day,
(Jreat Mars, I put myself into thy file: Make me but like my thoughts, and I shall prove 10
A lover of thy drum, hater of love. [Exeunt.
Scene IV. Rousillon. Hall in the Countess's'.
house.
Fnter Countess and Steward.
Count. Alas! and would you take the letter <
of her?
Mighl yon not know she'd do as she has done,,
By sending me a letter? Read it again. Stew. [Reads]
"I am Saint Jaques1 pilgrim, thither gone:
Ambitious lore hath so in me offended, That barefoot plod I the oold ground upon,
With sainted TOW my faults to have amended. > Write, write, that from the Moody course of war J
My dearest master, your dear bod, may hie: J Bless him at home in peace, whilst I from far
His name with zealous fervour smetify:
10 1 )
ACT III. Scene 4.
ALL'S WELL THAT ENDS WELL.
ACT III. Bo
His taken labours bid him me forgive; 12
I, his despiteful Juno, sent him forth
From courtly friends, with camping foes to live, Where death and danger dogs the heels of worth :
He is too good and fair for death and me;
Whom1 I myself embrace, to set him free."
Count. Ah, what sharp stings are in her mildest words ! — Rinaldo, you did never lack advice2 so much, As letting her pass so: had I spoke with her, I could have well diverted her intents, 21
Which thus she hath prevented.
Stew. Pardon me, madam:
If I had given you this at over-night, She might have been o'erta'en ; and yet she
writes, ' Pursuit would be but vain.
Count. What angel shall
' Bless this unworthy husband1? he cannot thrive, ^ Unless her prayers, whom heaven delights to
hear, And loves to grant, reprieve him from the i wrath
sOf greatest justice. — Write, write, Rinaldo, 'To this unworthy husband of his wife; 30
' Let every word weigh heavy of her worth, SThat he does weigh too light: my greatest
grief, ' Though little he do feel it, set down sharply. Dispatch the most convenient messenger: — ', When haply he shall hear that she is gone, He will return; and hope I may that she, Hearing so much, will speed her foot again, Led hither by pure love: which of them both Is dearest to me, I 've no skill in sense To make distinction: — provide this messen- ger:— 40 . My heart is heavy and mine age is weak: 'Grief would have tears, and sorrow bids me speak. \Exmnt.~\
Scene V. Florence. Before the gates. A distant march.
Enter an old Widow of Florence, Diana, Vio- lenta, and Mariana, with other Citizens.
Wid. Nay, come ; for if they do approach the city, we shall lose all the sight.
1 Whom, i.e. death. 2 Advice, consideration, discretion.
Via. They say the French count has done
most honourable service.
Wid. It is reported that he has taken their
greatest commander; and that with his own hand he slew the duke's brother. [Distant march.] We have lost our labour; they are gone a contrary way: hark! you may know by their trumpets. 9
Mar. Come, let's return again, and suffice
Steiv. [Reads], I am Saint Jaques" pilgrim, thither gone.
—(Act iii. 4. 4.)
ourselves with the report of it. Well, Diana, take heed of this French earl: the honour of a maid is her name ; and no legacy is so rich as honesty.
Wid. I have told my neighbour how you have been solicited by a gentleman his com- panion. Hi Mar. I know that knave ; hang him ! one Parolles: a filthy officer he is in those sugges- tions3 for the young earl.— Beware of them, Diana; [their promises, enticements, oaths,
a Suggestions, incitements, temptations. 35
ACT HI B
ALLS WELL THAT KNDS WKLL.
A i I 111. sc-nu 5.
ink. 'lis, and all these engines of lust, are not the things they go under: many a maid hath been Beduced by them; and the misery is, ex- ample, that mp terrible shows in the wreck i>f maidenhood, cannot for all that dissuade suc-
fflion,1 but that they air limed with the twigs that threaten them. ] I hope I ueed not to advise you further; but I hope your own
ice will keep you where you are, though there were do further danger known but the modesty which is bo lost. 30
Dia. Y"U shall 1 1 < • t ueed to fear mc
H'/./. I hope so. — Look. Inn' comes a pil- grim: I km. w she will lie at in\ house; thither th.'\ Bend one another: I '11 question her.
Enter Selena, disguised lih a pilgrim.
God Baveyou, pilgrim! whither are you bound i
//■ /. To Saint Jaques le Grand. Where do the palmers lodge, I do beseech you?
II '/>/. At the Saint Francis here, beside the port
III. Is this the way 1 40
117./. Ay, marry, is 't -Hark yon! they come this way.— [A march afar.
[f \<>u will tarry, holy pilgrim, But till the troops come by, I will conduct you where you shall be lodVd: The rather, for I think I know your hostess
As ample- as myself.
//-/. Is it yourself?
I!'/-/, [f you shall please so, pilgrim.
//■/. I thank you, and will stay upon your
leisure. 117/. y(,ii came, I think, from France? //'/• 1 .lid so.
117/. Here you shall see a countryman <>f yours 50
Thai has done worthy Bervice.
BeL I lis nam.'. I pray you.
Dia. The Count Rousillon: know you such
a one I //•/. But by the ear, that hears most uobly
of him: Jli~ face I know not Dia. Whatsoe'er he is,
■ Sucoettitm, i ■ ttaeii following the example of others who hare been wrecked before them. - AmpU, fully.
36
He's bravely taken here. He stole from
France, 55
As 't is reported, for the king had married
him Against his liking: think you it is bo?
//</. Ay, surely, mere the truth: I know his lady.
Dia. There is a gentleman that serves the count v.
Reports but coarsely of her.
lid. What 's Ins name \
Dia. Monsieur Parolles.
Hel. (J, I believe with him,
In argument of praise,"' or to4 the worth Of the great count himself, she is too mean To have her name repeated: all her deserving Is a reserved honesty, and that 1 have not heard examind. i
Dia. Alas, poor lady !
Tis a hard bondage to become the wife Of a detesting lord.
11"/. I war'nt, good creature, wheresoe'er she is, Her heart weighs sadly: this young maid might do her 70
A shrewd turn, if she pleas'd.
//. /. How do you mean !
May be the amorous count solicits her In the unlawful purpose.
Will. He does indeed;
And brokes with all that can in such a suit Corrupt the tender honour of a maid: But she is ann'd for him, and keeps her
guard
In honest, st defence.
J/.'/-. The gods foil .id els
M7/. So, now they come: —
FlowrUh oftrumpt ts.
Enter Bertram, Parolles, and the v:hole army.
fJThat is Ant. mi. 1, the duke's eldest son; s
That, Escalus. ]
Hel. Which is the Frenchman I
Dia. He;
That with the plume: 'tis a most gallant fellowi si
/ argument of prate*, as for praise. * T», in comparison with. 4 Bxamin'd, called in question.
ACT III. Scene 5.
ALL'S WELL THAT ENDS WELL.
ACT III 8
I would he lov'd his wife: if he were honester, He were much goodlier: is't not a handsome gentleman ? 83
Hel. I like him well.
Dia. 'T is pity he 's not honest: yond 's that same knave [pointing at Parolles] That leads him to these passes:1 were I his lady, I 'd poison that vile rascal.
Hel, Which is he?
Dia. That jack-an-apes with scarfs: why is he melancholy?
lid. Perchance he 's hurt i' the battle. 90 Par. Lose our drum ! well. Mar. He's shrewdly vex'd at something: look, he has spied us. Wid. Marry, hang you ! Mar. And your courtesy, for a ring-carrier! {Exeunt Bertram, Parolles, and army. Wid. The troop is past. Come, pilgrim, I will bring you Where you shall host:2 of enjoin'd penitents There's four or five, to Great Saint Jaques3
bound, Already at my house.
Hel. I humbly thank you :
Please it this matron and this gentle maid To eat with us to-night, the charge and thanking 101
Shall be for me; and, to requite you further, I will bestow some precepts of this virgin Worthy the note.
Both. We '11 take your offer kindly.
[Exeunt.
Scene VI. A room in Bertram's lodgings.
Enter Bertram and the two French Lords.
Sec. Lord. Nay, good my lord, put him to 't; let him have his way.
First Lord. If your lordship find him not a hilding,4 hold me no more in your respect.
Sec. Lord. On my life, my lord, a bubble.
Ber. Do you think I am so far deceived in him?
Sec. Lord. Believe it, my lord, in mine own direct knowledge, without any malice, but to speak of him as my kinsman, he's a most
1 Passes, courses. - Host, lodge.
3 Jaques, dissyllable here, as in iii. 4. 4, and elsewhere.
1 Hilding, a base fellow.
notable coward, an infinite and endless liar, an hourly promise-breaker, the owner of no one good quality worthy your lordship's enter- tainment.6 18
[First Lord. It were tit you knew him; lest,] reposing too far in his virtue, which he hath not, he might at some great and trusty busi- ness, in a main danger, fail you.]
Ber. I would I knew in what particular ac- tion to try him. 19
First Lord. None better than to let him fetch off his drum, which you hear him so con- fidently undertake to do.
Sec. Lord, I, with a troop of Florentines, will suddenly surprise him; such I will have, whom, I am sure, he knows not from the enemy: we will bind and hoodwink him so, that he shall suppose no other but that he is carried into the leaguer of the adversaries, when we bring him to our own tents. Be but your lordship present at his examination: if he do not, for the promise of his life, and in the highest compulsion of base fear, offer to betray you, and deliver all the intelligence in his power against you, and that with the di- vine forfeit of his soul upon oath, never trust my judgment in any thing.
[First Lord. O, for the love of laughter, let ; him fetch his drum; he says he has a strata- gem for 't: when your lordship sees the bottom of his success in 't, and to what metal this ( counterfeit lump of ore will be melted, if you give him not John Drum's entertainment, your inclining cannot be removed.] — Here he conies.
Sec. Lord, O, for the love of laughter, hinder not the honour of his design: let him fetch off his drum in any hand.0
Enter Parolles.
Ber. How now, monsieur! this drum sticks sorely in your disposition.
First Lord. A pox on 't, let it go; 't is but a drum. 40
Par. But a drum! is't but a drum? A drum so lost! — There was excellent command, — to charge in with our horse upon our own wings, and to rend our own soldiers !
5 Entertainment, service, as in iv. i. 17.
6 In any hand, in any case.
37
ACT in Bcene ft,
ALLS WKLL THAT ENDS WELL.
ACT III. Scene
[First Lord. That was not to be blamed in the command of the service: it was a disaster of war that < tesar himself could not have pre- vented, if he had 1 a there to command-]
/; •. well, we cannot greatly condemn our success: some dishonour wo had in tin- loss of tli.it drum; but it is not to be recovered. 60
/'•'/•. It might have been recovered.
//' -. It might; but it is not now.
Par. It is to be recovered: but that the merit of service is seldom attributed to the true and exact performer, I would have that drum or another, or hicjacet.1
Ber. Why, if you have a stomach2 to 't, mon- sieur: if you think your mystery in stratagem can bring this instrument of honour again into his native quarter, be magnanimous in the en- terprise, and go on; I will grace the attempt for a worthy exploit: if you speed well in it, the duke shall Loth speak of it, and extend to you what further becomes his greatness, even to the utmost syllable of your worthiness,
Par. By the hand of a soldier, 1 will under- take it. 73
Ber. But you must not now slumber in it.
Par. I 11 about it this evening: [[and I will presently pen down my dilemmas, encourage myself in my certainty, put myself into my mortal preparation;3] and, by midnight, look to hear further from me.
Ber. May I be bold to acquaint his grace you are gone about it?
Par. I know not what the success will be, my lord; but the attempt I vow.
Ber. 1 know thou it valiant; and, to the possibility of thy soldiership,4 will subscribe for thee. Farewell 90
Par. I love not many words. [Exit.
Lord No more than a fish loves water.
Is not this a strange fellow, my lord, that so confidently seems to undertake this business, which he I nows is not to be done; damns himself to do, and dares better be damned
than tO do'1 I
[ First Lord. You do not know him, my lord,
1 Hicjacet, here lies. * Stomach, inclination
"'■•"•' my preparation for death.
* T" tht pottQriUty <■( thy tcidiership, as far as the mat- ter depends on what thy iolfli<-rshii> may possibly accom-
jili-li
as we do: certain it is, that he will steal him- self into a man's favour, and for a week escape a great deal of discoveries; but when you find him out, you have him ever after.] 101
Ber. Why, do you think he will make no deed at all of this, that so seriously he does address himself unto?
Sec. Lord. None in the world; but return with an invention, and clap upon you two or three probable lies: Qbut we have almost em- bossed him,5 — you shall see his fall to-night; for indeed he is not for your lordship's respect.]
First Lord. We'll make you some sport with the fox, ere we case8 him. He was tirst smoked7 by the old Lord Lafeu: when his dis- guise and he is parted, tell me what a sprat you shall find him; which you shall see this very night.
Sec. Lord. I must go look my twigs: he shall be caught.
Ber. Your brother, he shall go along with me.
Sec. Lord. As't please your lordship: I'll leave you. [Exit.
Ber. Now will I lead you to the house, and show you The lass I spoke of.
First L<>rd. But you say she 's honest.
Ber. That's all the fault: I spoke with her
but once, 120
And found herwondrous cold; but I sentto her,
By this same coxcomb that we have i' the
wind,8 Tokens and letters which she did re-send; And this is all I've done. She'sa faircreature: Will you go see her?
First Lord. With all my heart, my lord.
[Exeunt.
Scene VII. Flon nee. A room in the Widovfs house.
Enter Helena and Widow.
Wei. If you misdoubt me that I am not she, I know not how 1 shall assure you further, But I shall lose the grounds8 I work upon.
s Bmbossril In hi. inclosed him like game.
< Clowe, Bay, strip
" Smoked, unelled out. tonnd cut
« II'. havt C tl" wind, «■■ have scent of.
9 Grounds, foundations.
ACT III. Scene
ALL'S WELL THAT ENDS WELL.
ACT III. Scene 7.
Wid. Though my estate be falFn, I was well born, Nothing acquainted with these businesses; And would not put my reputation now In any staining act.
Hd. Nor would I wish you.
First, give me trust, the count he is my hus- band,
And what to your sworn counsel I have spoken Is so from word to word; and then you cannot, By the good aid that I of you shall borrow,
Err in bestowing it.
Wid. I should believe you;
For you have show'd me that which well ap- proves You 're great in fortune.
Hel. If you misdoubt me that I am not she, I know not how 1 shall assure you further.— (Act iii. 7. 1, 2.)
Hel. Take this purse of gold,
And let me buy your friendly help thus far, Which I will over-pay and pay again, When I have found it. The count he woos your daughter, 17
Lays down his wanton siege before her beauty, Resolv'd to carry her : let her, in fine, con- sent, As we '11 dix-ect her how 't is best to bear1 it; Now his important2 blood will naught deny That she'll demand: a ring the county wears, That downward hath succeeded in his house
i Bear, manage, execute.
- Important, importunate.
From son to son, some four or five descents Since the first father wore it: this ring he
holds In most rich choice; yet, in his idle fire, To buy his will, it would not seem too dear, Howe'er repented after.
Wid. Now I see
The bottom of your purpose. 29
Hel. You see it lawful, then: it is no more, But that your daughter, ere she seems as
won, Desires this ring; appoints him an encounter; In fine, delivers me to fill the time, Herself most chastely absent: after this, 39
ACT III. Scene 7.
ALL'S WKLL THAT KNDS WELL.
ACT IV. Scene 1.
To many her, I 11 add three thousand crowns To what is past already.
11','./. I have yielded:
[nstrucl my daughter how she shall persever, That time and place with this deceit so lawful Ma\ prove coherent. Every night lie comes With musics1 of all sorts, and songs compose! To her unworthiness: it nothing steads2 us 41
To chide him from our eaves; for he persists, As if his life lay oii't.
//■/. Why, then, to-niglit
Let us assay our plot; which, if it speed, Is wicked meaning in a lawful deed, And lawful meaning in a lawful act; Where both not sin, and yet a sinful fact:3 But let 's about it. [ Exeunt.
ACT IV.
Scene I. The French camp hefore Florence.
Enter Second French Lord, with five or six other Soldiers in ambush.
Lord. He can come no other way hut hv this hedge-corner. When you sally upon him, speak what terrible language you will, — though you understand it not yourselves, no matter; for we must not seem to understand him, unless some one among us, whom we must produee for an interpreter.
Ft rut Sold. (Jood captain, let me be the in- terpreter.
Lord. Art not acquainted with him? knows he not thy voice? n
First Sold. Nb, sir, I warrant: you.
y . Lord. But what linsey-woolsey hast thou to speak to us again '.
First Sold. Ken such as you speak to me.
>•'. Lord. He must think us some Land of strangers i' the adversary's entertainment. Now, he hath a smack of all neighbouring languages; therefore we must every one l>e a
man of his own fancy, not to know what we speak one to another; so we seem to know, is to know straight our purpose: choughs' lan- guage, gabble enough, and good enough. As for you, interpreter, you must seem very poli- tic But couch, ho! here he comes, — to be- guile two hours in a sleep, and then to return and swear the lies he foi 26
Enti r Parolles.
Par. Ten o'clock: within these three hours 't will he time enough to go home. What shall
i Mutiet, binds "f musii
- /' ' '■ It la of no use.
I say I have done ? It must be a very plau- sive invention that carries it: they begin to smoke me; and disgraces have of late knocked too often at my door. I find my tongue is too foolhardy; but my heart hath the fear of Mars before it and of his creatures, not daring the reports of my tongue.
Ace. Lord. [Aside] This is the first truth that e'er thine own tongue was guilty of.
Par. What the devil should move me to undertake the recovery of this drum, being not ignorant of the impossibility, and knowing I had no such purpose? I must give myself some hurts, and say I got them in exploit: yet -light ones will not carry it; they will say, "Came you off with so little?" and great ones I dare not give. Wherefore, what's the in- stance?4 Tongue, I must put you into a but- ter-woman's mouth, and buy myself another of Bajazet's mule, if you prattle me into these perils.
Sec. Lord. [Aside] Is it possible he should know what lie is, and be that he is? 4ft
Par. I would the cutting of my garments would serve the turn, or the breaking of my Spanish sword.
Sec. Lord. [Aside] We cannot afford you so.
Par. Or the baring5 of my heard: and to say it was in stratagem.
Sec. Lord. [Aside] Twould not do.
Par. Or to drown my clothes, and say I was stripped —
Sec. Lord. [Aside] Hardly serve.
Par. Though I swore I leaped from the window of the citadel — n
'. crime. * Instance, proof.
Baring, shaving.
ACT IV. Scene 1.
ALL'S WELL THAT ENDS WELL.
ACT IV Bi
62
Sec. Lord. [Aside] How deep 1 Par. Thirty fathom.
Sec. Lord. [Aside] Three great oaths would scarce make that be believed.
Par. I would I had any drum of the enemy's: I would swear I recovered it.
Sec. Lord. [Aside] You shall hear one anon.
[Drum beats without.
Par. A drum now of the enemy's!
Sec. Lord. Throca movousus, cargo, cargo,
cargo. 71
A U. ( '"rgo, cargo, cargo, villianda par corbo,
cargo. Par. O, ransom, ransom ! — do not hide mine
eyes. [They seize and blindfold him.
First Sold. Boskos thromiddo boskos.
Par. Within those three hours 'twill be time enough to go home.— (Act iv. 1. 27, 28.)
Par. I know you are the Muskos' regiment; And I shall lose my life for want of lan- guage: If there be here German, or Dane, low Dutch, Italian, or French, let him speak to me; I will discover that which shall undo The Florentine.
First Sold. Boskos raucado: — 80
I understand thee, and can speak thy tongue : — Kerelybonto: — sir,
Betake thee to thy faith, for seventeen poniards Are at thy bosom.
Par. O !
First Sold. O, pray, pray, pray ! —
Manka revania dulc/ie.
Sec. Lord. OscorbidvZchoa volivorco.
First Sold. The general is content to spare
thee yet; 89
And, hoodwink'd as thou art, will lead thee on
To gather from thee: haply thou mayst inform
Something to save thy life.
Par. < K lft me live!
And all the secrets of our camp I '11 show, Their force, their purposes; nay, I'll speak that Which you will wonder at.
First' Sold. But wilt thou faithfully?
41
ACT IV. >ivn.- 1
ALL'S WELL THAT ENDS WELL.
ACT IV. Scene 2.
/'■ir. If I do not, damn me. First Sold. Acordo linta: —
Gome on; thou art granted space.
[Exit, with ParoUes guarded by four Soldiers. Drum beats without. Sec. Lord. Go, tell the ( fount Rousfllon, and in v brother, We Ve caught the woodcock, and will keep him muffled1 ioo
Till we do hear from them.
& . Sold. Captain, I will.
/."/■</. A will betray us all unto our- selves : — [nform ou that. Sec Sold. So I will, sir.
First Lord. Till then I '11 keep him dark and safely lock'd. [Exeunt.
Scene II. Florenr>-. A room in the Widow's house.
Enter Bertram and Diana.
Ber. They told me that your name was Fontibell.
I'i't. No, my good lord, Diana.
/>'* r. Titled goddess;
And worth it, with addition ! But, fair soul, In your fine frame bath love no quality? If the quick tire of youth light not your mind, You are no maiden, but a monument: Win n you are dead, you should be such a one As y hi are now, for you are cold and stern; Ami now you should be as your mother was Q When your sweet self was got. 10
Dia. She then was honest.
Ber. So should you be. ]
Dia. No:
My mother did but duty; such, my lord, As you owe to your wife.
!>■ r. No more o' that, —
I pi nine, do not strive against my vows: I was compell'd to her; but 1 love thee By Love's own sweet constraint, and will for
ever I >" thee all rights of service.
Dia. Ay, so you serve us
Till we >'ive you; but when you have our roa
i Muffled, blindfolded.
4-2
You barely leave2 our thorns to prick ourselves, And mock us with our bareness.
Ber. How have I sworn !
Dia. Tis not the many oaths that make the
truth, 21
But the plain single vow that is vow'd true. [[What is not holy, that we swear not by, But take the High'st to witness: then, pray you, '
tell me, ] i
If I should swear by God's great attributes, I lov'd you dearly, would you believe my oaths, When I did love you ill ] This has no holding,3 To swear by him whom I protest to love, That I will work against him. Therefore your
oaths 29
Are words and poor conditions, but unseal'd, At least in my opinion.
Ber. Change it, change it;
Be not so holy-cruel: love is holy; And my integrity ne'er knew the crafts That you do charge men with. Stand no more
off, But give thyself unto my sick desires, Who then recover: say thou 'rt mine, and ever My love as it begins shall so persever.
Dia. I see that men make ropes in such a
scarre, That we'll forsake ourselves. Give me that
ring. Ber. I '11 lend it thee, my dear; but have no
power 40
To give it from me.
Dia. Will you not, my lord ?
Ber. It is an honour longing to our house, Bequeathed down from many ancestors; Which were the greatest obloquy i'the world In me to lose.
Dia. Mine honour's such a ring:
My chastity's the jewel of our house, Bequeathed down from many ancestors; Which were the greatest obloquy i'the world In me to lose: thus your own proper wisdom Brings in the champion honour on my part, 50 Against your vain assault.
/;. r. Here, take my ring:
My house, mine honour, yea, my life, be thine, And I'll be bid by thee.
2 Barely Inn;-, leave bare, naked.
3 Holding, binding force, validity.
ACT IV. Scene 2.
ALL'S WELL THAT ENDS WELL.
A< I IV Scene 3.
Diet. When midnight comes, knock at my chamber-window: M
I '11 order take my mother shall not hear. Now will I charge you in the band of truth, When you have conquered my yet-maiden bed, Remain there but an hour, nor speak to me: My reasons are most strong; and you shall
know them When back again this ring shall be deliver'd: And on your finger, in the night, I '11 put 61 Another ring, that what in time proceeds May token to the future our past deeds. Adieu, till then; then fail not. You have won A wife of me, though there my hope be done. Ber. A heaven on earth I Ve won by wooing thee. [Exit.
Dia. For which live long to thank both heaven and me ! You may so in the end. — My mother told me just how he would woo, As if she sat in 's heart; she says all men 70 '/Have the like oaths : Q he had sworn to marry me 'When his wife's dead; therefore I'll lie with
him -When I am buried.] Since Frenchmen are so
braid,1 Marry that will, I live and die a maid: Only, in this disguise, I think 't no sin To cozen him that would unjustly win. [Exit.
Scene III. The Florentine camp. Enter the two French Lords.
First Lord. You have not given him his mother's letter?
Sec. Lord. I have delivered it an hour since : there is something in 't that stings his nature ; for, on the reading it, he changed almost into another man.
First Lord. He has much worthy blame laid upon him for shaking off so good a wife and so sweet a lady. 9
Sec. Lord. Especially he hath incurred the everlasting displeasure of the king, who had even tuned his bounty2 to sing happiness to him. I will tell you a thing, but you shall let it dwell darkly with you.
1 Braid, deceitful.
'- Bounty, benevolence.
First Lord. When you have spoken it, 't is dead, and 1 am the grave of it.
Sec. Lord. He hath perverted a young gentle- woman here in Florence, of a most chaste re- nown; Quid this night he fleshes his will in tin- spoil of her honour:] he hath given her his monumental3 ring, and thinks himself made in the unchaste composition, 22
Sec. Lord. I have delivered it an hour since.— (Act iv. 3. 3.)
First Lord. Q Now, God delay our rebellion ! as we are ourselves, what things are we !
Sec. Lord. Merely our own traitors. And as in the common course of all treasons, we still see them reveal themselves, till they attain to their abhorred ends, so he that in this action contrives against his own nobility, in his proper? stream o'erflows himself. 30 <
First L^ord. Is it not meant damnable in us, c to be trumpeters of our unlawful intents?],
8 Monumental, memorial. 4.3
ACT IV. Boene S.
ALL'S WELL THAT ENDS WELL.
ACT IV. Scene 3.
We shall in n, then, have his company to- lit I
/.<</. Not till after midnight; Qfor he is dieted to his hour.
First Lord. That approaches apace: I would gladly have him see his company1 anatomized, that he might take a measure of his own judg- ments, wherein so curiously- he had set this counterfeit.9 40
v . Lord. We will not meddle with him till become; for his presence must be the whip of the other. ~\
First Lord. In the mean time, what hear you of these wars/
Sec. Lord. I hear there is an overture of peace.
First Lord. Nay, I assure ymi, a peace con- cluded.
v . Lord. "What will Count Rousillon do then? will he travel higher, or return again into France I si
First Lord. I perceive, by this demand, you
are not altogether of his council.
v . Lord. Let it be forbid, sir! so should I be a great deal of his act
First Lord. Sir, his wife, some two months since, Bed from bis house; her pretence is a pilgrimage to Saint Jaques le Grand; which holy undertaking, with most austere sancti- mony, she accomplished; and, there residing, the tenderness of her nature became as a prey
in h.-r grief; in tine, made a groan of her last
breath; and now she sings in heaven. x . Lord. How is this justified?4 First Lord. The stronger5 part of it by her OWII letters, which make her story true, even to the point of her death: her death itself,
which could no1 be her office to say is come, was faithfully confirmed by the rector of the
pla SS
Lord Hath the count all this intelli- gence I
/ '• ■<> Lord. Ay. and the particular continua- tions, point from point, to the full arming of the verity.
L iSfea Lord I am heartily sorry that he'll
be glad of this.
First Lord. How mightily sometimes we make us comforts of our losses!
Sec Lord And how mightily some other times we drown our gain in tears! The great' dignity that his valour hath here acquired for him shall at home be encountered with a shame as ample. gs
First Lord. The web of our life is of a mingled yam, good and ill together: our vir- tues would be proud, if our faults whipped them not; and our crimes would despair, if they were not cherished by our virtues.
Eater a Messenger.
How now ! where 's your master? so
Si re. He met the duke in the street, sir, of whom he hath taken a solemn leave: his lord- ship will next morning for France. The duke hath offered him letters of commendations to the king. [Exit.
See. Lord. They shall be no more than need- ful there, if they were more than they can commend.
First Lord. They cannot be too sweet for the king's tartness. Here's his lordship now.]
' Company, companion. *Curiou»ly, carefully.
"in. Le I'arolles. * Justified, proved. 5 Stromjer, more certain.
11
Enter Bertram.
How now, my lord ! is't not after midnight?
Ber. I have to-night dispatched sixteen businesses, a month's length a-piece, by an abstract of success:11 1 have congied;7 with the duke, done my adieu with his nearest; buried a wife, mourned for her; writ to my lad\ mother I am returning; entertained8 my con- voy; and between these main parcels of dis- patch, effected many nicer needs: the last was the greatest, but that I have not ended yet.
Sec. Lord. If the business be of any diffi- culty, and this morning your departure hence, it requires haste of your lordship. iod
Ber. I mean, the business is not ended,as fear- ing to hear of it hereafter. But sliall we have
this dialogue between the fool and the soldier? < 'nine, bring forth this counterfeit module,9 has
d( Lved me, like a double-meaning prophesier.
Sec. Lord. QBring him forth: has sat i' the/ stocks all night. ] r gallant knave. )
• .i// abstract of success, a few lnief successful strokes. t Congied, taken leave ~ Entertained, engaged.
* Counterfeit module, delusive image.
ACT IV. .Scene S.
ALL'S WELL THAT ENDS VVKLL.
ACT IV. Scene 8
Ber. No matter; his heels have deserved it, - in usurping his spurs so long. How does he (carry himself? i-o
I Sec. Lord. I have told your lordship already, < — the stocks carry him. But, to answer you as you would be understood; he wee] is like a wench that had shed1 her milk:] he hath con- fessed himself to Morgan, whom he supposes to be a friar, from the time of his remembrance to this very instant disaster of his setting i' the stocks: and what think you he hath confessed? Ber. Nothing of me, has a' \ 129
Sec. Lor J. His confession is taken, and it shall be read to his face: if your lordship be in 't, as I believe you are, you must have the patience to hear it.
Ber. A plague upon him! {looking oft]. Muf- fled! he can say nothing of me. — Hush, hush!
Enter the six Soldiers, bringing in Parolles blindfolded.
First Lord. Hoodman2 comes! — Portotar- tarossa.
First Sold. He calls for the tortures: what will you say without 'em?
Par. I will confess what I know without constraint: if ye pinch me like a pasty, I can say no more. 141
First Sold. Bosko chimurcho.
First Lord. Boblibindo chicurmurco.
First Sold. You are a merciful general. — Our general bids you answer to what I shall ask you out of a note.
Par. And truly, as I hope to live.
First Sold. [Reads] "First demand of him how- many horse the duke is strong." What say you to that 1 150
Par. Five or six thousand; but very weak and unserviceable: the troops are all scattered, and the commanders very poor rogues, upon my reputation and credit, and as I hope to live.
First Sold. Shall I set down your answer so?
Par. Do: I'll take the sacrament on't, how and which way you will.
Ber. All 's one to him. What a past-saving
slave is this ! 150
^ ^_First L,ord. You 're deceived, my lord: this
£is Monsieur Parolles, the gallant militarist, —
1Shed, upset.
2 Hoodman, Parolles blindfolded.
that was his own phrase,— that had tin- whole
tli IC of war in the knot of his scarf, and the
practice in the chape3 of Ids dagger.
Sec. Lord. I will never trust a man again for keeping his sword clean; nor believe he can
have everything in him by wearing bis apparel
neatly.]
First Sold. Well, that's set down. L6S
I'ar. Five or six thousand horse, I said, — I will say true, — or thereabouts, set down, — for I '11 speak truth.
First Lord. He 's very near the truth in this.
\_Ber. But I con him no thanks for 't, in the ' nature he delivers it. ]
Par. Poor rogues, I pray you, say.
First Sold. Well, that 's set down.
Par. I humbly thank you, sir: a truth's a truth, the rogues are marvellous poor. 179
First Sold. [Beads] " Demand of him, of what strength they are a-foot."4 What say you to that?
Par. By my troth, sir, if I were to live this present hour, I will tell true. Let me see: QSpurio, a hundred and fifty; Sebastian, so' many; Corambus, so many; Jaques, so many; Guiltian, Cosmo, Lodowick, and Gratii, two hundred fifty each; mine own company, ( Ihito- pher, Vaumond, Bentii, two hundred fifty each : so that] the muster-file, rotten and sound, upon my life, amounts not to fifteen thousand poll; half of the which dare not shake the snow from oft' their cassocks, lest they shake them- selves to pieces.
Ber. What shall be done to him?
First Lord. Nothing, but let him have thanks. — Demand of him my condition,5 and what credit I have with the duke.
First Sold. Well, that's set down. [Beads] "You shall demand of him, whether one Captain Dumain be i' the camp, a Frenchman: what his repu- tation is with the duke; what his valour, honesty, and expertness in wars; or whether he thinks it were not possible, with well-weighing sums of gold, to cor- rupt him to a revolt." What say you to this? what do you know of it?
Par. I beseech you, let me answer to the particular of the inter'gatories : demand them singly. 200
First Sold. Do you know this Captain Dumain?
s Chape, the metal tip at the end of the scabbard. * A-foot, i.e. in infantry. 5 Condition, character. 4.")
A' I [V. Boone 3.
ALLS WELL THAT ENDS WELL.
ACT IV. Scene 3.
Par. I know him: a' was a botcher's 'pren- tice in Paris, from wlnine he was whipped for getting the shrieve's fool with child, — a dumb innocent^ thai could nol say him nay. 214
[First Lord | Dwmairi) lift* hu hand as if to strike Parolles.
Ber. Nay. by your leave, hold your hands; Q though 1 know his brains are forfeit to the next tile that falls.
First Sold. Well, is this captain in the Duke of Florence's camp I 219
Par. Upon my knowledge, he is, and lousy.
First L< >/•</. Nay, look not so upon me; we shall hear of your lordship anon.]
First Sold. What is his reputation with the
duke I
I'm-. The duke knows him for no other but a poor officer of mine; and writ to me this other day to turn him out o' the band: I think I have his letter in my pocket.
First Sold. Marry, well search. 229
Par. In good sadness, I do not know; either it is there, or it is upon a file, with the duke's otlnr letters, in my tent.
First Sold. Here 't is; here's a paper: shall 1 read it to you?
Par. 1 '1" not know if it be it or no.
Ber. Our interpreter does it well.
First Lord, Excellently.
First Sold. [Reads'] 238
" Dian, the count 's a fool, and full of gold,"—
Par. That is not the duke's letter, sir; that is an advertisement to a proper maid in Flor- ence, one Diana, to take heed of the allurement of one Counl Etoosillon, a foolish idle boy, but, for all that, very ruttish: I pray you, sir, put it up again. [Bertram lifts hit hand as if
to strike Parolles.
First Sold. Nay, I '11 read it first, by your favour.
Par. My meaning in t, I protest, was very honest in the behalf of the maid; Qforlknew the young count to be a dangerous and Lasci- vious boy, \\ln> is a w hale to virginity, and de- \ b up all the fry it finds.] 250
Ber. Damnable, both-sides rogue I
First Sold. [Reads] "When he swears oaths, bid him drop gold, and take it: Aft- r b t pays the score:
46
Half won is match well made; match, and well make it : He ne'er pays after-dents, take it before; And say a soldier, Dian, told thee this, Men are to niell1 with, boys are not to kiss: For count of this,- the count's a fool, I know it, Who pays before, but not when he does owe it.
Thine, as he vowed to thee in thine ear, 260
Parolles."
Ber. He shall be whipped through the army, with this rhyme in 's forehead.
Sec. Lord. This is your devoted friend, sir, the manifold linguist, and the armipotent soldier.
Ber. I could endure any thing before but a cat, and now he 's a cat to me.
First Sold. I perceive, sir, by the general's
looks, we shall be fain to hang you. 369
[First Lord ic/d.yiers to the Soldirr.
Par. [/''"/As- 'in his knees'] My life, sir, in any case: not that I am afraid to die; but that, my offences being many, I would repent out the remainder of nature: let me live, sir, in a dun- geon, i' the stocks, or any where, so I may live.
First Sold. We '11 see what may be done, so you confess freely ; therefore, once more to this Captain Dumain: you have answered to his reputation with the duke, and to his val- our: what is his honesty? 279
Par. He will steal, sir, an egg out of a clois- ter: for rapes and ravishments he parallels Nessus: he professes not keeping of oaths; in breaking 'em he is stronger than Hercules: he will lie, sir, with such volubility, that you would think truth were a fool : |~ drunkenness J is His best virtue, for he will be swine-drunk;! and in his sleep he does little harm, save to his bed-clothes about him; but they know his! conditions, and lay him in straw.] 1 have but< little more to say, sir, of his honesty: he has every thing that an honest man should not have; what an honest man should have, he has nothing. 292
First Lord. I begin to love him for this.
{_/'>' r. For this description of thine honesty?!- A pox upon him for me, he's more and niore^ a eat.] i
1 Mi u, meddla
at 1,/ this, take notice of til is.
ACT IV. Scene 8.
ALL'S WELL THAT ENDS WELL.
A< I IV. Scene 3.
First Sold. What say you to his expertness in war? 298
Par. Faith, sir, has led1 the drum before the English tragedians, — to belie him, I will not, — and more of his soldiership I know not; [[except, in that country he had the honour to be the officer at a place there called Mile-end, fto instruct for the doubling of files:] I would
do tin- man what honour I can, but of this I am not certain.
[First Lord. He hath out-villained villany so far, that the rarity redeems him. Ber. \ ]><>x on him, he's a cat still.] First Sold. His qualities being at tin's poor price, I need not to ask you if gold will cor- rupt him to revolt. 310
Ber. Oootl morrow, noble captain.— (Act iv. 3. 349.)
Par. Sir, for a cardecue2 he will sell the fee- > simple of his salvation, Q the inheritance of it ; ? and cut the entail from all remainders, and a ( perpetual succession for it perpetually. ]
First Sold. What 's his brother, the other Captain Durnain?
Sec. Lord. Why does he ask him of me?
/Vr^Md What'she? 319
Par. E'en a crow o' the same nest ; not al- together so great as the first in goodness, but
1 Led, carried.
2 Cardecue, quart d'dcu, a quarter of a French crown = fifteen pence.
greater a great deal in evil: he excels his bro- ther for a coward, yet his brother is reputed one of the best that is : in a retreat he outruns any lackey ; marry, in coming on he has the cramp.
First Sold. If your life be saved, will you undertake to betray the Florentine?
Par. Ay, and the captain of his horse, Count Rousillon.
First Sold. I '11 whisper with the general, and know his pleasure. 330
Par. [Aside\ I '11 no more drumming ; a plague of all drums ! Only to seem to deserve 47
a i i iv. Boene S.
ALL'S WELL THAT ENDS WELL.
ACT IV. Scene 4.
well, and to beguile the supposition of thai lascivious young boy the count, have I run into tins danger: yet who would have sus- pected an ambush where I was taken?
First Sold. There is uo remedy, sir, but you must die [J'nrol/es ;/ roans]: the general says, you that have so traitorously discovered the Becrets of your army, and made such pestifer- ous reports of men very nobly held, can serve the world for no honest use; therefore you must die. ( !ome, headsman, off with his head. 842
Par. O Lord, sir, let me live, or let me see my death !
First Sold. That shall you, and take your leave of all your friends. [Unmuffiing him. So, look about you: know you any here? [All laugh, and bow mockingly to J'arolles.
Ber. Good morrow, noble captain. 349
Srr. Lni-il. (iod bless you, Captain Parolles.
First Lord. God save you, noble captain. Lord. Captain, what greeting will you to my Lord Lafeu? I am for France.
First, Lord. Good captain, will you give me a copy of the sonnet you writ to Diana in be- half of the ( 'mint Rousillon '. an I were not a very © iward, I "d compel it of you: but fare you well. [Exeunt Bertram and Lords, laughing.
First Snhl. Von are undone, captain; all but your scarf, that has a knot on 't yet. 359
Par. [Rising] "Who cannot be crushed with a plot I
• First Sold. {_ If you could find out a country where but women were that had received so much shame, you might begin an impudent na- ti'i..] Fare ye well, sir; l am for France too: we shall speak of you there. [Exit with Sol, Hers.
l'iir. Vet am I thankful: if my heart were eat, 'T would burst at this. Captain 111 be no
more; I '.111 I will eat and drink, and sleep as soft \ aptain shall: simply the thing 1 am Shall make me live. Who knows himself a braggart, 370
I 1 I him fear this; for ii will come to pass, Thai ever) braggart shall be found an ass. Rust, sword I cool, blushes ! and, Parolles, live Safest iii shame! being fool'd,by foolery thrive! There's place and means for every man alive. 1 11 after them. [Exit.
18
Q Scene IV. Florence. Room in the Widovt&
house.
1 Enter Helena, Widow, and Diana.
Hel. That you may well perceive I have not
wrong'd you, One of the greatest in the Christian world Shall be my surety; 'fore whose throne 't is
needful, Ere I can perfect mine intents, to kneel: Time was, I did him a desired office, I )car almost as his life; which gratitude Through flinty Tartar's bosom would peep forth, And answer, thanks: I duly am inform'd His grace is at Marseilles; to which place We have convenient convoy. You must know, I am supposed dead: the army breaking,1 11 My husband hies him home ; where, heaven
aiding, And by the leave of my good lord the king, We '11 be before our welcome.
Wid Gentile madam,
You never had a servant to whose trust Your business was more welcome.
Hel. Nor you, mistress, s
Ever a friend wdiose thoughts more truly lab< »ur To recompense your love : doubt not but heaven Hath brought me up to be your daughters
dower, As it hath fated her to be my motive2 20
And helper to a husband. But, O strange men ! That can such sweet use make of what they hate. When saucy trusting of the cozen'd thoughts Defiles the pitchy night! so lust doth play With what it loathes, for that which is away: But more of this hereafter. — You, Diana, Under my poor instructions yet must suffer Something in my behalf.
Dm. Let death and honesty
Go with your impositions,9 1 am yours Upon your will to suffer.
//-/. Yet, I pray you: so
But, with the word, the time will bring on^
summer, K
When briers shall have leaves as well as thorns. And be as sweet as sharp. We must away; S < >ur wagOD is prepar'd, and time revives us: )
' Breaking, disbanding.
1 Motive, instrument 3 Impositions, injunctions.
ACT IV. Scene 4.
ALL'S WELL THAT ENDS WELL.
ACT IV. Scene 0.
.'All's well that ends well: still the fine's the crown; 35
Whate'er the course, the end is the renown.
[Exeunt."^
Scene V. Rousillon. J /all of the Countess's house.
Enter Countess, Lafeu, and Clown. Laf. No, no, no, your son was misled with
a snipt- taffeta fellow1 there, [whose villanous saffron would have made all the unbaked ami doughy youth of a nation in his colour:] your daughter-in-law had been alive at this hour, and your son here at home, more advanced by the king than by that red-tailed humble-bee I speak of. 7
Count. I would I had not known him! it was the death of the most virtuous gentle- woman that ever nature had praise for creat-
Clo. The black prince, sir; alias, the prince of darkness; alias, the devil.— (Act iv. 5. 41, 45.!
ing: if she had partaken of my flesh, and cost me the dearest groans of a mother, I could not have owed her a more rooted love. 13
Laf. 'Twas a good lady, 'twas a good lady: we may pick a thousand salads ere we light on such another herb.
Clo. Indeed, sir, she was the sweet-marjoram of the salad, or rather, the herb of grace.2
1 A snipt-taffeta felloiv. a fellow who wore ribbons or snippings of taffeta — Lafeu's contemptuous allusion to Parolles' fine clothes. Compare ii. 5. 18-21.
- Herb of grace, rue. VOL. V.
Laf. They are not herbs, you knave ; they are nose-herbs. 20
Clo. I am no great Nebuchadnezzar, sir ; I have not much skill in grass.
\_Laf. Whether dost thou profess thyself, — \ a knave or a fool?
< 'In. A fool, sir, at a woman's service, and a knave at a man's.
Laf. Your distinction?
Clo. I would cozen the man of his wife, and do his service. Laf. Soyouwereaknaveathisservice,indeed. 49 116
ACT IV. Scene 5.
ALLS WELL THAT ENDS WELL.
ACT IV. Scene 5.
Clo. And 1 would give his wife my bauble, sir, u> do her service.
/. if I will .subscribe fur thee, thou art both knave and fool.
Clo. At your service.
Laf. No, ii", no.
Clo. Why, sir, if I cannot serve you, I can serve as great a prince as you are.
Laf Who's that? a Frenchman? 40
Clo. Faith, sir, a' has an English name; but his flsnomy is more hotter in France than there.
/.'if. What prince is that '.
CI". The black prince, sir; alias, the prince <>f darkness; alias, the devil.
Laf. Hold thee, there's my purse: I give thee not this to suggest1 thee from thy master thou talkest of; serve him still. 48
t 'In. I am a woodland fellow, sir, that always loved a great tire; ami the master I speak of !ever keeps a good fire. But, sure, he is the prince of the world, let his nobility remain in s court. I am for the house with the nar- row gate, which I take to be too little for pomp to enter: some that humble themselves may; but the many will be too chill and ten- der, and they'll be for the flowery way that leads to the broad gate and the great fire. 58
Laf. Go thy ways, I begin to be a- weary of thee; ami I tell thee so before, because I would not fall out with thee.] Go thy ways: let my horses be well looked to, without any tricks
Clo. If I put any tricks upon 'em, sir, they shall be jades' tricks; which are their own right by the law of nature. [Exit.
Laf. A shrewd knave ami an unhappy.9
Count, So he is. My lord that's gone made himself much sport out of him: by his au- thority he remains here, which he thinks is a pat. nt for his sauciness; and, indeed, he has no pace,1 but runs where he will. n
Laf. I like him well; 't is not amiss. And I was a 1 lout to tell you, since I heard of the good lady's death, and that my lord your son
1 Suggest, seduce. I r, , happy, roguish.
» -Vo pace, no settled, orderly habits. 50
was upon his return home, I moved the king my master to speak in the behalf of my daughter; which, in the minority of them both, his majesty, out of a self -gracious re- membrance, did first propose : his highness hath promised me to do it: and, to stop up the displeasure he hath conceived against your son, there is no titter matter. How does your ladyship like it I 82
Count. With very much content, my lord; and I wish it happily effected.
Laf. His highness comes post from Mar- seilles, of as able body as when he numbered thirty: he will be here to-morrow, or I am de- ceived by him that in such intelligence hath seldom failed. SS
Count. It rejoices me that I hope I shall see him ere I die. I have letters that my son will be here to-night: I shall beseech your lord- ship to remain with me till they meet to- gether.
[_Laf. Madam, I was thinking with what manners I might safely be admitted.
Count. You need but plead your honourable privilege.
Laf. Lady, of that I have made a bold charter; but, I thank my God, it holds yet.]
Re-enter Clown.
Clo. O madam, yonder 's my lord your son with a patch of velvet on 's face : whether there be a scar under 't or no, the velvet knows; but 't is a goodly patch of velvet: Qhis^ left cheek is a cheek of two pile and a half, but his right cheek is worn bare.
Laf. A scar nobly got, or a noble scar, is a \ good livery of honour; so belike is that.
Clo. But it is your carbonadoed4 face.]
Laf. Let us go see your son, I pray you: I
long to talk with the young noble soldier. 109
[Exeunt Countes* and Laf> u.
Clo. Faith, there 's a dozen of 'em, with de- licate fine hats, and most courteous feathers, which bow the head and nod at every man.
[E
* Carbonadoed, disfigured with cuts.
ACT V. Scene 1.
ALL'S WELL THAT ENDS WELL.
ACT V. Scene 2.
ACT V.
Scene I. The coast of France, near Marseilles.
Enter Helena, Widow, and Diana, with two Attendants.
Hel. But this exceeding posting day and
niglit Must wear your spirits low; we cannot help it: But, since you 've made the days and nights
as one, To wear your gentle limbs in my affairs, Be bold you do so grow in my requital As nothing can unroot you. — In happy time; —
Enter a Gentleman.
This man may help me to his majesty's ear, If he would spend his power. — God save you, sir.
Gent. And you.
Hel. Sir, I have seen you in the court of France. 10
Gent. I have been sometimes there.
Hel. I do presume, sir, that you are not fall'n From the report that goes upon your goodness; And therefore, goaded with most sharp occa- sions, Which lay nice manners by, I put you to The use of your own virtues; for the which I shall continue thankful.
Gent. What 's your will ?
Hel. That it will please you To give this poor petition to the king; And aid me with that store of power you have To come into his presence. 21
Gent. The king 's not here.
Hel. Not here, sir !
Gent. Not, indeed:
He hence remov'd last night, and with more
haste Than is his use.
Wid. Lord, how we lose our pains !
Hel. All's well that ends well yet, Though time seem so adverse and means un- fit.— I do beseech you, whither is he gone?
Gent. Marry, as I take it, to Bousillon; Whither I am going.
Hel. I do beseech you, sir,
Since you are like to see the king before me, Commend the paper to his gracious hand; .;i Which, I presume, shall render you no blame, But rather make you thank your pains for it. 1 will come after you witli what good speed Our means will make us means.
Hel. That it will please you To give this poor petition to the king —(Act v. 1. 18, 19.)
Gent. This I '11 do for you.
Hel. And you shall find yourself to be well thank'd, Whate'er falls more. —We must to horse
Go, go, provide.
[Exeunt.
Scene II. Rousillon. The court-yard of the Countess's house.
Enter Clown, meeting Parolles in tattered apparel.
Par. Good Monsieur Earache, give my Lord Lafeu this letter : I have ere now, sir, 51
A ( i v Boone •-'.
ALL'S WKLL THAT ENDS WELL.
ACT V. Scene 2.
been better known to you, when I have held familiarity with fresher clothes; but I am now. sir. muddied in Fortune's mood, and smell somewhat strong of her .strong dis- pleasure.
do. Truly. Fortune's displeasure is but sluttish, if it smell s<> strongly as thou speak- est of: Ql will henceforth eat no fish of For- tune's buttering. Prithee, allow the wind.1 10
Par. Nay, you need not to stop your nose, sir; I spake but by a metaphor.
do. Indeed, sir, if your metaphor stink, I will stop my nose; or against any man's meta- phor. Prithee, get thee further.
Par. Tray you, sir, deliver me this paper.
Clo. Foh, prithee, stand away: a paper from Fortune's close-stool to give to a nobleman !] Look, here he comes himself. 10
N ;iy. you need not to stop your nose, sir ; I spake but by a metaphor.— (Act v. I. 11, 12.)
Enter Lafetj.
£ Here is a pur of Fortune's, sir, or of Fortune's cat)— but not a musk-cat,— that has fallen into the unclean fishpond of her displeasure, and, as he muddied withal : pray you, sir,
the carp as you may; for he looks like
a | decayed, ingenious,1 foolish, rascally
knave. 1 il<. pity his distn-ss in my similes of comfort^ and leave him to your lordship.]
[Exit.
1 All rut, don t stop it. stand to the leeward
nf me - Ingenious, consci"ii> how contemptible he is. fifi
Par. My lord, I am a man wdiom Fortune hath cruelly scratched. 29
Laf. And what would you have me to do, :t is too late to pare her nails now. QWherein have you played the knave with Fortune, that
she should scratch you, who of herself is a
good lady, and would 1 n >t have knaves thrive
long under her?] There 's a cardecue for you: let the just ires make you and Fortune friends; I am for other business.
Par. I beseech your honour to hear me one single word.
QZ<<7. You beg a single penny more: come?; vim shall hat; save your word. 40$
ACT V. Scene 2.
ALL'S AVELL THAT ENDS WELL.
ACT V. Scene 3
P«/\] My name, my good lord, is Parolles.
Li if. QYou beg more than ''word," then. — ] Cox1 my passion! give me your hand: — how does your drum \
Par. O my good lord, you were the first that found me !
Laf. Was I, in sooth? and I was the first that lost thee.
Par. It lies in you, my lord, to bring me in some grace, for you did bring me out. so
Laf. Out upon thee, knave! Qdost thou put upon me at once both the office of God and the devil? one brino-s thee in "'race, and the (. other brings thee out.] [Trumpets sound.] The king's coming; I know by his trumpets. — Sirrah, inquire further after me ; I had talk of yon last night : though you are a fool and a knave, you shall eat; go to, follow.
l'<tr. I praise God for you. [Exeunt.
Scene III. Rousillon. A room in the Countess's house.
Flourish. Enter King, Countess, Lafeu, the two French Lords, with Attendants.
King. We lost a jewel of her; and our esteem Was made much poorer by it: but your son, As mad in folly, lack'd the sense to know Her estimation home.
Count. 'Tis past, my liege;
And I beseech your majesty to make it Natural rebellion, done i' the blaze of youth; When oil and fire, too strong for reason's force, O'erbears it, and burns on.
King. My honour'd lady,
I have forgiven and forgotten all; Though my revenges were high2 bent upon
hi
in,
10
And watch'd the time to shoot.
Laf. This I must say, — ■
But first I beg my pardon, — the young lord Did to his majesty, his mother, and his lady, Offence of mighty note; but to himself The greatest wrong of all: he lost a wife, AVhose beauty did astonish the survey Of richest eyes; whose words all ears took captive;
1 Cox, God's (disguised form of the word). - High, violently.
Whose dear perfection hearts that scorn'd to
M-rve Humbly call'd mistress.
A '",'/. Praising what is lost
Makes the remembrance dear. — Well, call him hither; — 20
We're reconcile, and the first view shall kill All repetition: — let him not ask our pardon; The nature of his great offence is dead, And deeper than oblivion we do bury Th' incensing relics of it: let him approach, A stranger, no offender; and inform him So 'tis our will he should.
First Gent. I shall, my liege. [Exit.
King. What says he to your daughter?
have you spoke ? Laf. All that he is hath reference to your
highness. King. Then shall we have a match. I've letters sent me 30
That set him high in fame.
Re-enter First Lord, ushering in Bertram.
Laf. He looks well on :t.
King. I am not a day of season,3 For thou mayst see a sunshine and a hail In me at once: but to the brightest beams Distracted clouds give way; so stand thou forth, The time is fair again.
Ber. [Kneeling] My high-repented blames, Dear sovereign, pardon to me.
King. All is whole;
[Bertram rises. Not one word more of the consumed time. Let's take the instant by the forward top; For we are old, and on our quick'st decrees Th' inaudible and noiseless foot of Time 41 Steals ere we can effect them. You remember The daughter of this lord?
Ber. Admiringly, my liege: at first I stuck my choice upon her, ere my heart Durst make too bold a herald of my tongue: QWhere the impression of mine eye infixing, Contempt his scornful perspective4 did lend me, ' Which warp'd the line of every other favour;5; Scorn'd a fair colour, or express'd it stol'n; 50< Extended or contracted all proportions
s A day of season, a seasonable day.
* Perspective, an optical glass. s Favour, features.
53
.V 1 V S<
ALLS WKLL THAT KNDS WELL.
ACT V. Scene 3.
To .1 mosl hideous object:] thence it came Thatahewhomallmenpraia,d,andwhommyself, Since 1 have lost, have lovtt, was in mine eye The dust that did offend it.
A", Well excus'd:
That thou didst love her, strikes some scores
away From the great compt: but love that comes
too late, Like a remorseful pardon slowly carried, To the -ii at sender turns a sour offence,
< Irying, " That 's good that 's gone." QOur rash
faults CO
Make trivial price of serious things we have, \<>t knowing them until we know their grave: I >t't our displeasures,1 to ourselves unjust, I destroy our friends, and after weep their dust:
< Kir own love waking cries to see what's done, While shameful hate sleeps out the afternoon.] Be this sweet Helen's knell, and now forget
her. Send forth your amorous token for fair
Maudlin: The main consents are had ; and here we '11 stay To see our widower's second marriage-day. To ('■•'int. Which Letter than the first, O dear heaven, bless ! Or, ere they meet, in me, O nature, cesse!2 Laf. Come on, my son, in whom my house's name Musi be digested," give a favour from you, To sparkle in the spirits of my daughter, That she may quickly come. —
[/!■ rtram gives Lafeu a ring. By my old beard, And every hair that's on't, Helen, that 's dead, Was a sweet creature: such a ring as this, The last that e'er I took her leave at court, I saw upon her fing
/!■ r. Hers it was not. 80
King. Now, pray you, let me see it; for
mine eye,
While I was speaking, oft was fasten'd to't. —
This ring was mine; and, when 1 gave it
I [el< n. I bade her, it' her fortunes ever stood v tied to lelp, that by this token
!>leaturen, dislikes. <e, cease. /'•'•jetted, i.e. and so reduced to nothing, and lost. 54
I would relieve her. Had you that craft, to
reave4 her Of what should stead her most?
Ber. My gracious sovereign,
Howe'er it pleases you to take it so, The ring was never hers.
Count. Son, on my life,
I've seen her wear it; and she reckon'd it 90 At her life's rate.
Laf. I 'm sure I saw her wear it.
B( r. You are deceiv'd, my lord ; she never saw it: In Florence was it from a casement thrown
me, Wrapp'd in a paper, which contain'd the name Of her that threw it: noble she was, ami thought I stood engag'd: but when I had subscrib'd To mine own fortune,5 and inform'd her fully I could not answer in that course of honour As she had made the overture, she ceas'd In heavy satisfaction,0 and would never loo Receive the ring again.
King. Plutus himself,
That knows the tinct7 and multiplying me- dicine, Hath not in nature's mystery more science Than I have in this ring: 'twas mine, 'twas
Helen's, Whoever gave it you. Then, if you know That you are well acquainted with yourself, Confess 'twas hers, and by what rough en- forcement You got it from her: she call'd the saints to
surety That she would never put it from her finger, Unless she gave it to yourself in bed, — no Where you have never come, — or sent it us Upon her great disaster.
Ber. She never saw it.
King. Thou speak'st it falsely, as I love mine honour; And mak'st conjectural fears to come into me, Which I would fain shut out. If it should prove That thou art so inhuman, — 'twill not prove so; —
* Heave, bereave, deprive.
s Subscrib'd t» mint own fortune, acknowledged how matters stood with me. I // ,ii ;i satisfaction, sorrowful acquiescence. 1 Tinct, tincture.
ACT V. Scene 3.
ALL'S WELL THAT ENDS WELL.
ACT V. Scene 3.
And yet I know not: — thou didst hate her
deadly, And she is dead; which nothing, but to close Her eyes myself, could win me to believe, More than to see this ring. — Take him away. — [Guards seize Bertram.
£ My fore-past proofs, howe'er the matter fall, \ Shall tax my fears of little vanity, 122
s Having vainly fear'd too little. — Away with
him !— ] We '11 sift this matter further.
Ber. If you shall prove
This ring was ever hers, you shall as easy Prove that I husbanded her bed in Florence, Where yet she never was. [Exit, guarded. King. I am wrapp'd in dismal thinkings.
Enter a Gentleman. Gent. Gracious sovereign,
Whether I've been to blame or no, I know not: [Presenting a letter to the King. Here 's a petition from a Florentine, 130
Who hath for four or five removes1 come short To tender it herself. I undertook it, Vanquish'd thereto by the fair grace and speech Of the poor suppliant, who by this, I know, Is here attending: [[her business looks in her , With an importing2 visage; and she told me, i In a sweet verbal brief, it did concern ' Your highness with herself. ~J 13S
King. [Beads] "Upon his many protestations to marry me when his wife was dead, I blush to say it, he won me. Now is the Count Rousillon a widower : his vows are forfeited to me, and my hon- our's paid to him. He stole from Florence, taking no leave, and I follow him to his country for justice: grant it me, 0 king! in you it best lies; otherwise a seducer flourishes, and a poor maid is undone.
Diana Capulet."
Laf. I will buy me a son-in-law in a fair, and toll3 for this: I '11 none of him.
King. The heavens have thought well on
thee, Lafeu, 150
To bring forth this discovery. — Seek these
suitors : — Go speedily and bring again the count.
[Exeunt Gentleman and some Attendants.
1 Removes, stages of her journey; for she failed to over- take the king. '- Importing, significant. s Toll, pay toll.
I am afeard the life of Helen, lady, 153
Was foully snatch'd.
Count. Now, justice on the doers!
Be-enter Bertram, guarded.
King. I wonder, sir, sith wives are mon- sters to you,
And that you fly them as you swear them lordship,
Yet you desire to marry.
Be-enter Gentleman, with Widow and Diana.
What woman's that1? Dia. I am, my lord, a wretched Florentine, Derived from the ancient Capulet: My suit, as I do understand, you know, 160 And therefore know how far I may be pitied. Wid. I am her mother, sir, whose age and honour Both suffer under this complaint we bring; And both shall cease,4 without your remedy. King. Come hither, count: do you know
these women? Ber. My lord, I neither can nor will deny But that I know them : do they charge me further'? Dia. Why do you look so strange upon your
wife? Ber. She 's none of mine, my lord. Dia. If you shall marry,
You give away this hand, and that is mine; You give away heaven's vows, and those are mine; 171
You give away myself, which is known mine; For I by vow am so embodied yours, That she which marries you must marry me, — Either both or none.
Laf. [To Bertram^ Your reputation comes too short for my daughter ; you are no hus- band for her.
Ber. My lord, this is a fond and desperate
creature,
Whom sometime I have laugh'd with : let your
highness 179
Lay a more noble thought upon mine honour
Than for to think that I would sink it here.
4 Cease, come to an end, perish. 55
ALLS WELL THAT ENDS WELL.
ACT V. Scene 3.
King, Sir, for my thoughts, you have them ill to friend is2
Till your deeds gain them: fairer prove your honour
Than in my thought it lies I
Dia. Q Good my lord,
A-k him upon his oath, if he does think He had not my virginity. King."] What say'st thou to her? /;. r. She 's impudent, my lord,
And was a common gamester to the camp.
Pin. He does me wnnig, my lord; if I were so, He might have bought me at a common price: Do not believe him: O, behold this ring, 191 [Showing it to the King and Countess. Whose high respect and rich validity1 Did lack a parallel; yet, for all that, He gave it to a commoner o' the camp, If I be one.
' ,<t. He blushes, and 't is it: Of six preceding ancestors, that gem, Conferr'd by testament to the sequent issue, Hath it been ow'd and worn. Tins is his wife; That ring's a thousand proofs.
King. Methought yon said
Y< 'it saw one here in court could witness it. 200 Dia. I did, my lord, but loth am to produce So hail an instrument: his name's Parolles. Laf. I saw the man to-day, if man he be. King. Find him, and bring him hither.
[Exit Lafeu. Ber. What of him?
He 's quoted for a most perfidious slave, With all the spots o' the world tax'd and
debosh'd," Whose nature sickens but to speak a truth. Am I <>r that or this for what he'll utter, That will speak any thing i
A ing. She hath that ring of yours.
A' •. I think she has: certain it is I lik'd her, And boarded her i: the wanton way of youth: She kn.w her distance, and did angle for me, Madding my eagerness with her restraint. As all impediments in fancy's 'nurse 214
Are motives of more fancj ; and, in tine, Her own suit, coming with In 1 modern -_t. ice, Suhdu'd me to her rati-: she got the ring;
1 Validity, value.
s Deboeh'd, debased.
56
[And I had that which any inferior might ? At market-price have bought.]
I) in. I must be patient:
You, that have turn'd off a first so noble wife, May justly diet me.4 I pray you yet, — 221 Since you lack virtue, I will lose a husband, — Send for your ring, I will return it home, And give me mine again.
Ber. I have it not
King. What ring was yours, I pray you?
I)ia. Sir, much like
The same upon your finger.
King. Know you this ring? this ring was his of late.
Dia. And this was it I gave him, being a-bed.
King. The story, then, goes false, you threw it him 329
Out of a casement.
Dia. I have spoke the truth.
Ber. My lord, I do confess the ring was hera
King. You boggle5 shrewdly, every feather starts you. —
Re-enter Lafeu with Parolles.
Is this the man you speak of?
Dia. Ay, my lord.
King. Tell me, sirrah, — but tell me true, I charge you, Not fearing the displeasui'e of your master, Which, on your just proceeding, I'll keep off,— By him and by this woman here what know you?
Par. So please your majesty, my master hath been an honourable gentleman : tricks he hath had in him, which gentlemen have.
King. Come, come, to the purpose : did he love this woman I 243
Par. Faith, sir, he did love her; but how?
King. How, I pray you?
Par. He did love her, sir, as a gentleman loves a woman.
King. I [ow is that?
Par. He loved her, sir, and loved her not.
King. As thou art a knave, and no knave. — What an equivocal companion8 is this! 2.r.o
Par. I am a poor man, and at your ma- jesty's command.
* Dirt me, put me under strict treatment. Boggle, start aside, swerve.
tip union, contemptuously, as we \1sefcll0w.
ACT V. Scene 3.
ALL'S WELL THAT ENDS W'KLL.
A'T V. Scene 8.
Laf. He 's a good drum, my lord, but a naughty1 orator. Dia. Do you know he promised me mar-
riage \
Par. Faith, I know more than I '11 speak.
King. But wilt thou not speak all thou knowest? 257
Par. Yes, so please your majesty. I did go between them, as I said; but more than that, he loved her, — for, indeed, he was mad for her, and talked of Satan, and of Limbo, and of Furies, and I know not what: yet I was in that credit with them at that time, that I knew f_of their going to bed; and of other mo- tions, as promising her marriage, and] things which would derive me ill will to speak of; therefore I will not speak what I know.
King. Thou hast spoken all already, unless thou canst say they are married : but thou art too fine2 in thy evidence ; therefore stand aside. — 270
This ring, you say, was yours?
Dia. Ay, my good lord.
King. "Where did you buy it? or who gave it you?
Dia. It was not given me, nor I did not buy it.
King. Who lent it you ?
Dia. It was not lent me neither.
King. Where did you find it, then?
Dia. I found it not.
King. If it were yours by none of all these ways, How could you give it him 1
Dia. I never gave 't him.
Laf This woman's an easy glove, my lord; she goes off and on at pleasure.
King. This ring was mine; I gave it his first wife. 280
Dia. It might be yours or hers, for aught I know.
King. Take her away; I do not like her now; To prison with her: and away with him. — Unless thou tell'st me where thou hadst this
ring, Thou diest within this hour.
Dia. I '11 never tell you.
King. Take her away.
1 Naughty, good-for-nothing. - Fine, subtle.
Dia. I'll put in bail, my liege.
King. I think thee now some common cus- tomer. \_Dia. By Jove, if ever I knew man, 'twas' you. /
King. Wherefore hast thou accus'd him all )
this while? Dia. Because he's guilty, and he is not' guilty : 290
He knows I am no maid, and he '11 swear to 't; \ I'll swear I am a maid, and he knows not. Great king, I am no strumpet, by my life; I'm either maid, or else this old mans wife.]< King. She does abuse our ears: to prison
with her. Dia. Good mother, fetch my bail. [She gives Widotv the ring.] — Stay, royal sir:
[Exit Widoiv. The jeweller that owes the ring is sent for, And he shall surety me. But for this lord, Who hath abus'd me, as he knows himself, Though yet he never harm'd me, here I quit him : 300
QHe knows himself my bed he hath defil'd; $ And at that time he got his wife with child: £ Dead though she be, she feels her young one )
kick:] So there 's my riddle, — One that 's dead is
And now behold the meaning.
Re-enter Widow, with Helena.
King. Is there no exorcist
Beguiles the truer office of mine eyes? Is 't real that I see ?
Hel. No, my good lord ;
'T is but the shadow of a wife you see, The name, and not the thing.
Ber. Both, both: — O, pardon!
H< I. £0 my good lord, when I was like this maid, 3io I
I found you wondrous kind.] There is your;'
ring; And, look you, here 's your letter; this it says: "When from my finger you ran get this ring, And are by me with child, &c." This is done: Will you be mine, now you are doubly won? Ber. If she, my liege, can make me know this clearly, I'll love her dearly, ever, ever dearly. 57
ACT V. Scene 3.
ALLS WELL THAT ENDS WELL.
ACT V. Scene 3.
Il-L If it appear not plain, and prove
untrue, 1 1. ullv divorce step between me and you! — [ To i 'ountess] O my dear mother, do I see you
living? 320
L< if. Mine eyes smell onions; I shall weep
anon: — [To Parolles] Good Tom Drum, lend me a handkercher : so, I thank thee: wait on me Iniine, I 11 make sport with thee: let thy cour- tesies alone, they are scurvy ones.
King. Let us from point to point this story
know. To make the even truth in pleasure flow. — [To Diana] If thou be'st yet a fresh uncropped
flower, Choose thou thy husband, and I'll pay thy
dower; 32S
For I can guess that, by thy honest aid, 58
Thou kept'st a wife herself, thyself a maid. — Of that, and all the progress, more and less, Resolvedly1 more leisure shall express: 332 All yet seems well; and if it end so meet, The bitter past, more welcome is the sweet.
[Flourish.
Epilogue.
QThe king's a beggar, now the play is done: < All is well ended, if this suit be won, That you express content; which we will pay, With strife to please you, day exceeding day:? Ours be your patience then, and yours our-J
parts; 339 <
Your gentle hands lend us, and take our<
hearts. [Exeunt. ]^
Resolvedly, clearly.
MAP TO ILLUSTRATE THE PLAY
ALL'SWELL"
(XVI. Century)
English Miles
190
NOTES TO ALL'S WELL THAT ENDS WELL.
1. Dramatis Persons. The Dramatis Persona? of this play have been left, either through oversight or through the haste with which the play was written, in a very confused and unsatisfactory condition as far as the nam- ing of them goes. AVe have at least four important speak- ing characters who have no names at all, viz. the First and Second Lord, the First Soldier, and the Gentleman attached to the French court who aids Helena in her suit to the king (v. 1); besides these we have Two Gentlemen belonging to the French army (iii. 2 .), and the usual quan- tity of nameless lords and gentlemen. In the case of the French lords who accompany Bertram to the war, the omission seems the more singular, because from iv. 3.
199-32-1 we learn that they were two brothers, and that their names were Dumain. In the edition which Kemble prepared for the stage we find no less than Ave additional Dramatis Persona? named: Dumain, Lews = First and Second Lords, who take an important part in act iv. scene 3; Jaques and Biron, belonging to the French army, and friends, apparently, of Bertram; and Tourville, a gentleman belonging to the French court, who appears in act v. It would certainly be far more convenient to adopt some names for the First and Second Lord, if not for all these characters ; but there is no internal evidence in the play on which we can assign to any of these nameless characters any name except Dumain to the First Lord,
59
,\i I I scene l.
NOTES To ALL'S WELL THAT ENDS WELL.
M T I. Scene 1.
and Dumain, Jan., to his brother; the latter's christian name not being mentioned. The First Soldier, who plays the part of the Interpreter, is generally known by that title, as appears from the notices of the performance cif this play. We have therefore given a somewhat fuller description of the Dramatis Persona; than that usually given; ami though we have nut ventured to go so far as to adapt into the list of Dramatis Persona the names to be found in Cemble'a acting edition, yet it would lie a very great convenience if, as far as concerns the First and Second Lord, editors were to agree to adopt the names of /' niniii and Lewis, for the first of which, as we have already said, there is a justification in the text— F. A. M.
ACT I. Scene 1.
2. Line 5: to whom I am now in want. — Wardship was one of the feudal incidents. In virtue of it the lord had the care of his tenant's person during his minority, ami enjoyed the profits of his estate. By another " incident," that of marriage, the lord had the right of tendering a husband to his female wards, or a wife to his male wards; a refusal Involving the forfeit of the value of the mar- riage, that is, the sum that any one would give the lord for such an alliance. These customs prevailed in England and in some parts of Germany, but in no province of France with the exception of Normandy. Shakespeare, however, is not responsible for whatever error there may he in making the French king impose a wife upon Ber- tram, as he only followed the original story, SeeHallam, Middle Ages, vol. i. p. 177, ed. 1S53.
3. Lines 10-12: whose worthiness would stir it up where it
wanted, rather thaaLXCK.it when' there issuchabundance. —So worthy a gentleman as Bertram would be more likely to arouse kindly feelings in a man of defective Sympathies, than fail to win them from so ucnen>us a heart as that of the King of France. Warburton altered lack to slack, which, says Capell, "is the very term the place calls for; and so natural a correction, that he who does not embrace it, must be under the influence of some great prepossession,"
4. Lines 47-49: where an unclean mind carries virtuous qualities, there commendations y with pity,— they are virtues and tniit<,,:< too.— While we commend his virtues we naturally feel pity for the man in whom they are but bright spots in a nature otherwise vicious; but why are these virtues called traitors? surely not, as Johnson
thought, because they betray his too , tilling friends
into evil courses, but because they are false to, inconsis- tent with, the rest of his char:;
5. Line :,-: livelihood.— Liveliness; not used by Shake- Bpeare in its modern sense. Compare:
With this she seizeth on his sweating palm, The precedent of pith and livelihood.
— Venus and Ad. 25, :6.
6. Line 61: than to have ft.— F. 1 reads "then tohaue— ." The reading in the text is due to Dyce, For the insertion of to in the second member of the comparison Abbott (Shakespearian Oram mar, ; »i<'.>'|Uotes Bacon (Essays,103): "In a word, a man were better relate himself to a Statue
60
or Picture, than to surfer his thoughts to pass in smother."
Capell printed: "than have it."
7. Lines 65, 66: If the living be enemy to the grief, the excels //Kf/rc.s it noon mortal.— If grief in any shape is the enemy of the living, excessive indulgence in it must soon make of it a fatal or deadly enemy. It is to this sentiment that Lafeu refers fl. 68): " How understand we that.'"
8. Line 86: The best wishes, Ac. — Since Howe the whole
of this speech has been given as spoken to Helena, (in the suggestion of Dr. Brinsley Nicholson (Shakespeariana, vo], i. p. 54) I have assumed the tirst part of it: "The best wishes that can he forged in your thoughts he ser- vants to you"— to be addressed to the countess.
9. Lines 91, 92:
these great tears grace his remembrance more Than those I shed for him.
Not, as Johnson supposed, the tears shed by great people, the King and Countess, but, as Monck Mason Bays, "the big and copious tears she then shed herself, which were caused in reality by Bertram's departure, though attri- buted by Lafeu and the Countess to the loss of her father; and from this misapprehension of theirs graced his re- membrance more than those she actually shed for him."
10. Line 100: sphere. — The sphere of a star is the orbit in which it moves; ami this is generally tile sense in which Shakespeare uses the word; he rarely applies it to the star itself, as in the following: —
all kind of natures That labour on the bosom of this sphere. — Timon, i. 1. 65, 66.
11. Line 106: In our heart's TABLE.— The table is the material on which the picture is drawn; compare:
Mine eye hath play'd the painter and hath stell'd Thy beauty's form in table of my heart. — Sonn. xxiv.
12. Lines 114-116:]
That they take place, when virtue's steely bones Look bleak i the cold wind: withal, fuU oft we see Cold wisdom waiting on SUPERFLUOUS /oMy. The vices of Parolles suit him so well that they enable him to take precedence over men of unattractive, un- yielding virtue; he is received into good society when they are left out in the cold, and wisdom starves while folly has more than enough. For this use of "superfluous" compare:
Let the superfluous and /;/j/-dieted man, That slaves your ordinance, that will not see Because he doth not feel, feel your power quickly.
— Lear, iv. 1. 70-71.
13. Line 150: II< that hangs himself, &c, He that hangs himself and a virgin are. in this circumstance, alike; they are both setf-destroyt rs. MaXone,
14. Line 160: within TKH year it n-ill moke itself TBS. —
F. 1 reads "within /■ n ycare it will make it selfe two;" which is clearly wrong. The correction is due to Sir Thomas Banmer.
15. Line 171: which wear not now.—'F. 1 reads "which not now." The correction is Etowe's.
16. Line 179: Not my virginity yet.— This speech has
ACT I. Scene 1.
NOTES TO ALL'S WELL THAT ENDS WELL. act I. Scene 2.
caused much perplexity to the commentators. Johnson says: "The whole speech is abrupt, unconnected and obscure;" and Warburton is persuaded that "the eight lines following friend (1. 181) is the nonsense of some foolish conceited player," who, finding a thousand loves mentioned and only three enumerated, added a few more of his own. The obscurity, however, is not bo great as appears at first sight. The chief difficulty is the occur- rence of the word there, without anything being mentioned to which it could refer: 'THERE shall your master have a thousand loves' (I. 180). From 1. i;»i: ' The court's a learn- ing-place,' it is clear that, with possibly a secret undercur- rent of reference to herself (Rolfe), the place in Helena's mind is the court, where Bertram would be entangled in all these thousand love affairs. Nevertheless the transi- tion from the short line 'not my virginity yet' is abrupt, and perhaps intentionally so. Sir Philip Perring (Hard Knots in Shakespeare, 1886, p. 151) says: "A short line here is surely not out of place, where the subject is cut short- where there is a break, a pause— perhaps a silent wish, a secret sigh; where at any rate there is a marked crisis in the conversation, and Helena has to extemporize another more appropriate but not less engaging topic." If this explanation does not satisfy us, we must take refuge in the supposition that some words have been lost, the re- covery of which will complete the sense; and accordingly Hannier reads:
Not my virginity yet.— You're for the court: There shall your master, &c.
This reading was adopted by Capell, while ilalone sug- gested that the omission is in Parolles's speech, and that after the words "'tis a withered pear" we should read, "I am now bound for the court; will you anything with it? [i.e. the court]." It may be noticed that the Folio has only a colon at yet, a fact which, so far as it is of any value at all, tends to show that the line is incomplete. As they stand the words "Not my virginity yet" are a reply to Parolles's question, " Will you anything with it?" and mean "I will nothing with my virginity yet."
17. Line 181: A mother, ana" a mistress, &c. — These are
the names Helena applies to the various mistresses who will captivate Bertram at court ; for instance, a rare and matchless dame would be a phoenix, ami one who com- mands him and his affections, a captain.
18. Line 188: Christendoms. — Christian names— the only time Shakespeare uses the word in this sense. Malone quotes Nash, Four Letters Confuted (1593): "But for an author to renounce his Christendoms to write in his owne commendation, to refuse the name which his Godfathers and Godmothers gave him in his baptisme," &c.
19. Line 218: a virtue of a good icing. — The meaning of this passage appears to be this: "If your valour will suffer you to go backward for advantage, and your fear for the same reason will make you run away, the com- position that your valour and fear make in you, must be a virtue that will fly far and swiftly." A bird of a good icing is a bird of swift and strong flight.— Monck Mason.
20. Line 227: when thou hast none, remember thy friends.— Dyce quotes W. YV. Williams (The Parthenon,
.Nov. 1, 1862, p. 848), who proposed to read: '•when thou hast money, remember thy friends."
21. Lines 237, 288:
The mightii st space infortutu nature briti To join like Wees, and hiss like NATIVE things. Malone correctly gives the meaning: '-The affections given us by nature often unite persona between whom for- tune or accident has placed the greatest distance or dis- parity; and cause them to join like likes (instar pari like persons in the same situation or rank of life." .v will then be put for spaces, according to the metrical usage, by which "the plural and possessive cases of nouns in which the singular ends in S, se, ss, ce and ge are fre- quently written . . . without the additional syllable" (Abbott, Sh. Gram. § 471). Sec also W. S. Walker, Shakespeare's Versification, art li. p. -4:;, where a 1 number of examples are quoted. For "native" in the sense of congenial, kindred compare: t is often seen Adoption strives with nature ; and choice breeds A native slip to us from foreign seeds. — Act i. 3. 150-152.
and
The head is not more native to the heart. — Hamlet, i. 2. 47.
22. Line 241: What HATH been cannot be.— Hannier suggested: " What hath not been can't be;" and so Dyce; but I agree with Sir Philip Perring (Hard Knots, p. 153) in thinking the change unnecessary. These timid ven- turers regard as impossible what, in spite of their ob- stinate refusal to believe it, has actually taken place.
ACT I. Scene 2.
23. Line 1: Senoys.— The Sanesi, as they are termed by Boccace. Painter, who translates him, calls them Senois They were the people of a small republic, of which the capital was Sienna. The Florentines were at perpetual variance with them. — Stcecens.
24. Line 11: He hath arm'd our answer. — He hath fur- nished us with a ready and fit answer.
25. Line IS: Count Koisillon.— The Folio, which here has Count Rosignoll, usually spells the word RossiUUm. Painter has Rossiglione.
26. Lines 33-3C:
but they may jest, Till their oicn scorn return to them vmnoU d Ere they can hide their levity in honour: So like a courtier, Ac.
The punctuation is that of the Folio. Sir William Black- stone (approved by Capell, Steevens, and Dyce) proposed to punctuate:
Ere they can hide their levity in honour, So like a courtier.
But the original punctuation gives the better sense: "The young lords of the present day," says the king, " may go on with their mockeries till no one pays any attention to them, and without that power of keeping their folly within the bounds required by self-respect which Ber- tram's father had. II, was so much all that a courteous gentleman ought to be that his pride was without con- tempt, and his sharpness without bitterness, unless in-
61
ACT I. Scene 2.
NOTES TO ALL'S WELL THAT ENDS WELL.
ACT I. Scene 3.
i it was bis equal who had roused him: his sense of bonour \* .»- a perfectly regulated clock, of which liis tongue was the hammer, and everatruck the note of dis- approbation when the hand pointed to the right moment, and then only." The Globe editors mark Une86ascor- nipt.
27. Line 45: In their poor praise he humbled. — Sir Philip Perring seems to me very happy in his interpreta- tion of these words: "in the sentence 'he humbled' I catch the ipsissima verba of the humble poor— their own poor way of expressing their appreciation of the great man's condescension" (Hard Knots, p. 155). He humbled, then, is in the phrase of "creatures of another place," "he made himself humble." Malone explains it, "he being humbled in their poor praise," i.e. humbling himself by accepting their praises. The Globe editors mark the line as corrupt.
28. Lines 50, 51:
So in approof lives not his epitaph At in your royal speech.
Approof, as in ii. 5. 3: "of very valiant approof," is the state of being approved; and the lines mean, as Dr. Schmidt explains, after Heath and Malone, "His epitaph receives by nothing such confirmation and living truth as by your speech. "
29. Lines 59, 60:
After my flame lacks oil, to be the snuff
Of young* r spirits. Snuff is the burnt wick, and used metaphorically for a ile and expiring old age, and the words mean "to be called a snuff by younger spirits." Compare:
My siiujfand loathed part of nature should
Burn itself out. —Lear, iv. 6. 39, 40.
30. Lines 01, G2:
whose judgments are M- re fathers of their garments. Johnson explains this: "Who have no other use of their faculties than to invent new modes of dress."
ACT I. Scene 3.
31.— Steevens calls attention to some verses by William Cartwright prefixed to the folio Beaumont ,v Fletcher, lt)47. which may have reference to this dialogue between the Countess and the Clown, or to that between Olivia and tin- Clown in Twelfth >*ight, act i. sc. 5.:
Shakespeare to thee was dull, whose best jest lyes r th' Ladies questions, and the Fooles replycs ; Old fashion'd wit, which walkt from town to town In turn'd Hose, which our fathers call'd the Clown; Whose wit our nice times would obsceannesse call. And which made Bawdry passe for Comicall.
— Hd. 1647, sig. d 2 b.
32. Line 3: Madam, th* tart I have had to even your ■ ut.\c— "It ill becomes me to publish my deserts myself; r would have you look in the record of mj d< to discover the trouble I have taken to act up to your satisfaction." p©r the v. rh 1 pen In this sense compare:
There 's more to tie considered : but we 'II even
All that good time will give us [and so make the most of it].
— Cymbeline, iii. 4. 184, 185.
62
33. Line 20: to go to the world. — To be married. Com- pare: "Thus goes every one to the world but I, and 1 am sunburnt; I may sit in a corner and cry heigh-ho for a husband!' (Much Ado, ii. 1. 331). And "a woman of the world." is a married woman. "I hope it is no dishonest desire to desire to be a woman of the world" (As Sou Like It, v. 3. 3).
34. Line 20: Isuel the woman and I.—Y. 1 has "Isbell the woman and w '; the correction was made in V. 2.
35. Line 25: Service is no he ritage.— According to Rit- son a proverbial expression. The connection seems to be, "if service is no blessing, children are." The Rev. John Hunter (ed. 1873) quotes Psalm exxvii. 3, "Lo, children are an heritage of the Lord."
36. Line 46: You're .•'hallow, madam, in great friends. — " You don't understand fully what a great friend is." Hanmer altered to "you'r shallow, madam; e'en great friends;" and the change was adopted by Capell, Malone, and Dyce.
37. Line 41): to in the crop, spelt lane in the Folio, is to get it in, harvest it.
38. Lines 55, 56: young Charbon the puritan and old Paysam the papist.— Malone suggested that Poysam was a misprint for Poisson, alluding to the custom of eating tish on fast-days; and that Charbon, "Firebrand," was an al- lusion to the fiery zeal.of the Puritans. Dyce quotes a writer in Notes and Queries, Aug. 8, 1S63, p. 106. After dismissing the latter part of Malone's conjectures as un- satisfactory this writer continues: "As however Poisson is significant of the fasting and self-denying Papist, so I think Charbon, Chairbon, or Chairbounne was given au- thentically to the fast-denying or sleek Puritan as derivable from chair bonne, or botme chair. The antithesis and the appropriateness of the allusions prove the truth of these emendations and interpretations; and if other proof were wanting, it is to be found in this, that Shakespeare has clearly appropriated to his own purposes the old French proverb, 'Jeune chair, et viel poisson'— you ng flesh and old fish (are the daintiest). Hence also, the full meaning intended to be conveyed is not that some, but that the best men, whatever their age or whatever may be their own or their wives' religious opinions, all share the com- mon fate. "
39. Line 58: they may J0U1 horns together.— For jovl (i.e. dash, thrust), compare: "That skull had a tongue in it, and could sing once: how the knave jowls it to the ground, as if it were Cain's jawbone" (Hamlet, v. 1. 83).
40. Line 64: the ballad. — Steevens quotes John Grange, The Golden Aphroditis, whereunto be annexed his Gar- den, l."i77:
Content yourself as well as I, let reason rule your mind, As cuckoldes come by destinic, so cuckowes sinjj by kind.
41. Line 90: but OCT every blazing star.— Y.1 has "ore every; " the emendation is due to the Collier MS. Staun- ton printed " '!"•
42. Line 96: That man should be at woman's command, a.-.— "Tie a wonder if a man should execute a woman's commands, and yet no mischief be done! But then
ACT I. Scene 3.
NOTES TO ALL'S WELL THAT ENDS WELL.
ACT I. Scene 3.
honesty like mine, though not very precise or puritanical, will do no mischief; it will bear itself humbly, ami do my lady's bidding, though all the while secretly priding itself on its own excellence." The Puritans, as everybody knows, took violent offence at the surplice, and their "big hearts" would brook nothing more ornamental than the black gown. The surplice might be styled a surplice of humility when worn in humble submission to the orders of the church. Steevens quotes A Match at .Midnight, 1G33 (Dodsley, ed. Hazlitt, vol. xiii. p. 14): "H* has turned his stomach for all the world like a Puritan's at the sight of a surplice;" and The Hollander, 1640: "A puritan who, because he saw a surplice in the church would needs hang himself in the bell-ropes."
For ' ' no puritan " Tyrwhitt proposed a puritan; "though honesty be a puritan, i.e. strictly moral, it will not stand out obstinately against the injunctions of the chnrch, but will humbly submit itself to them." This conjecture had the approval of Malone, but the original reading gives sufficiently good sense.
43. Line 118 : Love no god that would not extend his might, only where qualities were level. — Only, as Schmidt points out, is used as if the sentence were not negative, but affirmative = " that would extend it only where, &c."
44. Line 119: Dian NO queen of virgins.— The words Dian no were inserted by Theobald. The Folio has "leuell, Queene of Virgins, that," <&c. For the word knight, applied to a female, compare:
Pardon, goddess of the night, Those that slew thy virgin knight.
— Much Ado, v. 3. 12, 13.
Thy virgin knight is Hero, who, like Helena, belonged to Diana's order of chastity. See Much Ado, note 386.
45. Line 120: that would suffer her poor knight sur- prised.—Rowe unnecessarily inserted "tobe"before "sur- prised." Dyce quotes:
And suffer not their mouthes shut up, oh Lord, Which still thy name with praises doo record.
— Drayton's Harmonie of the Church, 1591, sig. F 2.
46. Lines 157, 158:
That this distemper'd messenger of wet, The many-colour 'd Iris, rounds thine eye}
Referring, says Henley, to " that suffusion of colours which glimmers around the sight when the eye-lashes are wet with tears," he compares:
And round about her tear-distained eye
Blue circles stream'd like rainbows in the sky.
— Rape of Lucrece, 1586, 1587.
47. Line 177: The mystery of your loneliness.— Theo- bald's correction for the louelinesse of the Folios.
48. Line 183: th' one to th' other. F. 1 has " 'ton tooth to th' other," a manifest printer's error.
49. Line 1S4.— The plural behaviours is here, as often elsewhere, used in the sense of "gestures," "manners;" e.g. "oneman, seeing how much another man is a fool when he dedicates his behaviours to love " (Much Ado, ii. 3. 7).
50. Line 194 : bond. — For this word in the sense of obligation, compare "you make my bonds still greater,"
i.e. my obligations to you (Measure for Measure, v. 1. 8); and :
To build his fortune I will strain a little
For 't is a bond in men.
— Tiinon of Athens, i. 1. 143, 144.
51. Line 197: appeach'd.—Yor this sense of appeach'd = informed against, compare:
were he twenty times my son, I would appeaclt him. —Rich. II. v. 2. 101, 102.
52. Line 208: this CAPTIOUS and intenible sieve.— Farmer supposed captious to be a contraction of capa- cious; Malone thought it only signified "capable of receiving what was put into it." No other instance of the word is known. Intenible is the reading of F. 2; F. 1 has intemible.
53. Line 210: And lack not to lose still.— If, like the daughters of Dauaus, she still kept on pouring water into a sieve, though the supply never failed, she lost it all. Her love failed not, but since it never was rewarded it was thrown away.
54. Lines 218, 219:
Wish chastely, and love dearly, that your Dian
Was both herself and love. Malone proposed to read:
Love dearly, and wish chastely, that, &c, but the separation of the dependent clause from "wish" by another verb is but the result of rapid composition. The words of course mean: "If you ever entertained an honest passion which implies the union of chastity and desire, of Diana and Venus, then pity me."
55. Line 226: / will tell truth.— So F. 1; F. 2 has "I will tell true."
56. Line 229: manifest experience = experience mani- fested to the world. W. S. Walker (Critical Examination of the Text of Shakespeare, 1860, vol. ii. p. 245) proposed manifold, and so Dyce.
57. Lines 232, 233:
As notes, ivhose faculties inclusive were More than they were in note.
" As prescriptions which were really more powerful than they were reputed to be." They were in note = so far as note has been taken of them. [Schmidt explains in- clusive: "full of force and import;" but does not more inclusive mean "including more qualities," i.e. "more comprehensive"? F. A. M.]
58. Lines 24S-251:
There 's something IN 'T
THAT his good receipt
Shall for my legacy, be sanctified.
For in' t Hanmer unnecessarily substituted hints, which, besides, is not used elsewhere by Shakespeare as a verb. That is, as very often, used to introduce a fact supposed to be in connection with what precedes = " it being the case that." The following passages will well illustrate this use: —
What foul play had we, that we came from thence?
— Tempest, i. 2. 60. I doubt he be not well, that he comes not home.
— Merry Wives, i. 4. 43.
63
ACT II. Scene 1.
N(»TES TO ALL'S WELL THAT ENDS WELL.
ACT II. Scene 1.
59. Line 260: into thy attempt— Into is frequently equivalent to unto; compare:—
f. >r his sake Did 1 expose myself, pure for his love, Into the danger of this adverse town.
—Twelfth Night, v. i. 85.
A.CT 11. Booth 1.
GO. Lines 1. J:
Farewell, young lords; then warlikt principles Do not throw from you:— and you, my lords, farewell. it appears from act i. -2. 13-15 —
Yet. for cur gentlemen tliat mean to see The i i .ice, freely have they leave
l ither part;
that tlu- young lords had leave from the king to espouse either aide in the Tuscan quarrel. Eence we may con- clude, with tin Cambridge editors, that there are two parties of lords taking have oi the king here, — the party who were going to Join the Florentines, and the party who were going to Join the Senoys, and the king turns liret t» the one and then to the other.
61. Lilies 3-5:
Share the advia bt twixt inm; if both 'join, all The gift doth stretch it» if as i u rect ir'rf, .1 nd it , nough for both.
if both parties of young lords endeavour to profit by it, an. I make it their own, the good advice the king has given them \siii be a gifl ample enough (or both.
62 Line 6: Aft ■■■'■ fd soldiers.— The meaning of
this passage is: "After our being well entered, initiated, as soldiers"— a Latinism; compare Bucha phrase as post urban conditam. Latinismsin construction, though com- mon in learned writers such as Bacon ami Ben Jonson, are very rare in Shakespeare. U iltou uses the one in question :—
Nor delay'd The winged saint after his charge received.
-P. L. V. !
and
He. after Eve seduced unminded slunk
Into the wood fast by. lb. 332.
—Quoted by Abbott. Sh. Gr. § 418.
63. Lines 12-14:
let HIGH Italy— ThOU BATED th"t tntn rU but the fall
Of the la.' monarchy— tee that you come, &c. The Folios read higher Italy. I have ventured to print Schmidt's conjecture high (/.-. "great," "exalted") Italy; the passage thi a becomes fairly Intelligible.
If we take bated to mean "beaten down," "subdued,'1 a- in —
These griefs and losses have so tinted me. 'I'h it I shall hardly 'pare a pound of flesh To-morrow to my bloody creditor.
— Merch. of Ven. iii. 3
Ehe sense wfl] i.. "Let great Italy witness your valour, exhibited, as it will be, in subduing those upstart states which have been formed out of the ruins of the Soman empire, the lastof the four great monarchies of the world."
""•' "f "" -•■ rtates would !"■ Bienna, with wl the
Florentines were no* "bythi ears." It Is very impro- bable that Shakespeare was thinking of any particular 6 I
quarrel between these two states— such as that of 1496 mentioned by Staunton. For the framework of the play he was simply following Painter's story, without any his- torical specifications whatever. Thus the King of France is simply King of France, and not Charles VIII., who in- vaded Italy in 14'J4 and made an alliance with the Floren- tine, 01 any other individual king. Of those who retain the original reading, "higher Italy," some give it a geo- graphical signification: "the side next to the Adriatic," Bays Ilaniucr. "was denominated the higher Italy, and the other side the lower;" but both Florence and Sienna are on the lower side, and Capell accordingly says that "the poet has made a little mistake, using 'higher' win re he should have said 'lower;' but this is of no moment: while JohnBOn explains it to mean mere]} njiper Italy. Warburton, on the other hand, thought it had a moral sense and meant higher in rank and dignity than France— a most forced interpretation. For bated Hanmer printed bOStarde, the bastards of Italy being opposed to the soils of Fiance. The Globe marks the line as corrupt.
64. Line 30: J shall stay here the forkhoksk toa smock. — The forehorse of a team was gaily ornamented with
tufts, and ribbons, and bells. Bertram c plains that,
bedizened like one of these animals, he will have to squire ladies at the court instead of achieving honour in the wars. — Staunton.
65. Lines 32, 33:
and no sword icorn But one to dance with. Light swords were worn for dancing. Douce (Illustra- tions, ed. 1839, p. 104) quotes: " I thinke wee were as much dread or more of our enemies, when our Gentlemen went simply, and our Seruingmen plainely, without cuts or gards, bearing their heauy Swordes and Buckelerson their thighes, in sted of cuts and Gardes and light damm- ing Swordes; and when they rode carving g 1 Spearcs in
theyr hands, in stole of white rods, which they cary now, more like ladies or gentlewenien then men; all which delicacyes maketh our men eleane effeminate and without strength" (W. Stafford. A Compendious or briefe exa- mination of certayne ordinary complaints, 1681, p. 65, of the New Shakspere Society's reprint). Compare also he I1 'ctavius] at Philippi kept His sword e'en like a dancer ; while I struck The lean and wrinkled Cassius.
— Ant. and Clcop. iii. 11. 35.
i.e. Octavius did not draw his sword.
66. Line :;7: / grow to you, and our parting is n tor- tured body.— As they grow together, the tearing them asunder was torturing a body.- Monck Mason,
67. Line 4:i: one Captain Spuria, with his cicatrice. — Theobald's correction for "one Captaine Spurio his Bica- trice, with" of the Folios.
68. Line 64: they wear themselves in the cap of the time, a e. The language of Parolles is affected and sententious
throughout, like that of lion Annado in l.ovi ',- Labour's Lost, Hence Its occasional obscurity, "'rinse young men," he says, "are the ornaments in the cap of fashion, and there they muster, or arrange, the correct modes of
ACT II. Scene 1.
NOTES TO ALL'S WELL THAT ENDS WELL.
ACT II. Scene 3.
walking, eating, and speaking, all under the influence of the most popular leader of fashion."
69. Line 04: I'll FEE thee to stand up. — Fee is Theo- bald's correction for see of the Folios. Staunton (com- paring Richard II. v. 3. 129, 130:
Doling. Good aunt, stand up.
Ditch. I do not sue to stand;
Pardon is all the suit I have in hand.)
reads sue. " The afflicted king mindful of his own debil- ity remarks, ' Instead of your begging permission of me to rise I '11 sue thee for the same grace.' "
70. Line 70: Good faith, across; i.e. "I would you had broken it across;" for in tilting it was thought awkward and disgraceful to break the spear across the body of the adversary, instead of by a direct thrust. Staunton thinks the allusion is "to some game where certain successes entitle the achiever to mark a cross."
71. Line 75: I've seen a medicine.— For medicine in this sense (French, medecin), compare:
Camillo,
Preserver of my father, now of me,
The medicine of our house, how shall we do?
— Wint. Tale, iv. 4. 596-598.
and
Meet we the medicine of the sickly weal,
And with him pour we in our country's purge
Each drop of us. — Macbeth, v. 2. 27-29.
72. Line 77: dance canary. — A lively dance. See note 54 to Love's Labour's Lost, and Douce, Illustrations of Shakespeare, p. 136.
73. Line SO: To give great Charlemain a pen in's hand. — Charlemain late in life vainly attempted to learn to write. — Dyce.
74. Lines 87, 88:
hath amaz'dme more
Than I dare blame my weakness. i.e. more than I like to confess, the confession involving a confession of weakness.
75. Line 138: Since you set up your rest 'gainst remedy. — In the game of primero "to set up one's rest" was to stand upon the cards you have in your hand in the hope that they may prove better than those of your adversary; hence its very common figurative use, "to take a resolu- tion.'' Compare Romeo and Juliet, note 18.
76. Line 147 : despair most FITS. — Fits, according to Dyce, who quotes Nichols's Illustrations, &c, vol. ii. p. 343, is Theobald's correction for shifts of the Folios. Theobald, however, printed sits, which is Pope's emendation.
77. Lines 158, 159 :
/ am not an impostor, that proclaim Myself against the level of mine aim.
I am not an impostor, pretending to have another object in view from that which I am really aiming at.
78. Lines 104, 165:
Ere twice the horses of the sun shall bring Their fiery torcher his diurnal ring.
"Ere they shall conduct him round his daily orbit." The pilot's glass in line 1GS must be a two-hour glass. VOL. V.
79. Line 167: HIS sleepy lamp.— The Folios have "her sleepy lamp:" corrected by Rowe.
80. Lines 175-177:
my maiden's name Sear'd otherwise; nay, xvorse — if worse— extended With vilest torture let my life be ended.
" May my name be otherwise branded, stigmatized as be- longing to anything rather than a maiden." What follows is the reading of the Cilobe Shakespeare, and explains itself. The passage as it stands in the Folios is very diffl cult. F. 1 has
my maiden's name Seard otherwise, >ie worse ofiuorst extended With vildest torture, let my life be ended.
Schmidt (Sh. Lex. s. v. extend) attempts to explain this as follows: "nor would that be an increase of ill; it would not be the worst mended by what is still worse. " But ne = nor occurs nowhere else in any work attributed to Shakespeare except in the doubtful Prologue to Pericles (ii. 36), and none but the most servile worshipper of the Folio will be content with this explanation. The other three Folios alter ne to no'^no worse of worst extended"), which Steevens interprets, "provided nothing worse is offered to me (meaning violation), let my life be ended with the worst of tortures." Of the various emendations suggested, the reading given in the text seems decidedly the best. Malone first suggested nay for ne.
81. Line 1S4: Youth, beauty, wisdom, courage, all. — To mend the metre Theobald printed: " Youth, beauty, wis- dom, courage, virtue, all." But see Abbott, Sh. Gr. § 509: "Lines with four accents are found when a number of short clauses or epithets are connected together in one line, and must be pronounced slowly."
82. Line 195: Ay, by my sceptre and my hopes of hea- ven.— The Folios have "hopes of helpe" — perhaps from the verb occurring twice two lines above. The correction is Thirlby's, and is one required by the rhyme.
83. Line 213: my deed shall match thy DEED. — So the Folios. The Globe reads "my deed shall match thy meed."
ACT II. Scene 2.
84. Line 24: as Tib's rush for Tom's forefinger. — "Tib and Tom," says Douce (Illustrations, p. 196), " were nanus for any low and vulgar persons, and they are usually men- tioned together in the same manner as .lark and Gill." Rush rings were sometimes used in the marriage cere- mony, especially where the parties had cohabited pre- viously. They were also employed as rustic gifts em- blematic of marriage. Boswell quotes:
O thou create shepheard, Lobbin, how great is thy gricfe! "Where bene the nosegayes that she dight for thee? The coloured chaplets wrought with a chiefe, Tiie knotted rus/i-rin^es,mu\ gilte Rosemareer
— Spenser, Shepherds Calendar, November.
ACT II. Scene 3.
85. Lines 1-46: They say . . . Here comes flu- king.— I have printed this passage as it stands in the Globe ed. Johnson, who saw that "the whole merriment of the
65 117
ACT II Scene S.
NOTES TO ALL'S WELL THAT ENDS WELL.
ACT II. Scene 3.
seem- consists in the pretensions of Parolles to knowledge :li ill sentiments which he has not, " was the first to make any change in the distribution of the dialogue. The
Folio distributes it us follows:
Line n: Par. So I say boih of Gale n and Paracelsus.
•/. i if all the learned and authenticke fellowes. Par. Right so I say. Line 40: (V La/. In a most weake—
Par. And debile minister great power, grear transcendence, which should indecde ffiue vs a further vse to be made, then alone the recou'ry of the king, as to bee Old La/. Generally thankful],
/infer King, Hellcn, and attendants. Par. 1 would have said it, &c
The rest is as it appears in the text.
86 Line '20: A showing of a heavenly effect in an earthly
actor. — The title of some pamphlet is here ridiculed. — Warburton
87. Line 31: Why, your WLYimnisnot lustier.— Steevens thought the Dauphin was intended; hut Malone, fol- lowed by Dyce, rightly interpreted it of the dolphin, which is "a sportive lively fish." Compare:
his delights Were dolphin-like; they show'd his back above The element they lived in. — Ant. & Cleop. v. 2. 88-90.
88. Line 64: marry, to each, but one!— Monck Mason says: "To each, except Bertram, whose mistress she hoped t< 1 be herself." But it is much more natural to understand it, as Rolfe does, to mean "but one mistress."
89. Line 60: My mouth no more were broken. — A broken mouth is a mouth which has lost part of its teeth.— Johnson.
90 Line 67: .1"'/ whit as little beard. —Prom meaning " to subscribe " ("a gentleman born . . . who writes himself Armigero," Merry Wives, i. l. 9), to write came to mean "to claim a title," "lay claim to." Compare, "I must tell thee, sirrah, I write man" (line 208 of this scene): "and yet he 11 be crowing as if he had writ man ever since his father was a bachelor "(II. Hen. IV. i. 2. 30).
91. Line 68: a noble father.— The Folio here has the stage-direction: She addresses her to a Lord.
92. Lines 84, 85: I had rather be in this choice than throw UCB8-A0B /or my tin. -It is very difficult to see what Lafeu means here. A formed from the old French ambes as, and now called ambs-ace, is the two
Now if this were the highest throw, the ace counting highest as in whist, the meaning would be clear; Lafeu would Bay that he would rather have a good chance of winning such a prize as Helena, than have the tx -t possible luck at gaming. But unfortunately there is no proof forthcoming thai ames-ace was ever counted as the highest throw; on the contrary, except in games in which all doublets counted double, and in which ames-ace was
stfll the lowest doublet, as seizes was the highest,— it was always the lowesl throw. Even in the expression of Thomas Nashe, "as you loveg I fellowship and ames- ace" ("The Induction to the happcr Mounsier Pages Of the coiut, prefixed to the Unfortunate Traveller. 1694; Works, ed. Grosart, v. 9), the reference is probably to the custom of throwing for wine, the lowest thrower having 66
to pay for it; and the meaning will be, " as you love good fellowship and would rather throw for wine even if you were the loser, than spoil the sport of the company." The next point to be settled is the meaning of " for my life:" does it mean " in exchange for, as the price of, my life," or "during my whole life?" If the former, we must suppose the preservation of Lafeu's life to depend upon the remote chance of his throwing ames-ace, ami the expression will not amount to more than, "I had rather be in this choice than just escape with my life." But if this is so, why should he have mentioned ames-ace rather than any other throw? The latter alternative is the more probable, that is, that the case suggested by Lafeu is his throwing ames-ace, or having bad luck dur- ing the remainder of his life. But how is this to the point, and what is the drift of the speech? Dr. Brinsley Nicholson, who was kind enough to send me a very full discussion of ames-ace, answers the question as follows: — "The humorous old man [Lafeu] uses a humorous comparison, one not unknown then or now. We may call it, for want of a better term, a comparison by con- traries, or if you will, an ironical comparison; but an- other example will best explain it. One lauding a sweet- songed prima donna says, ' I'd rather hear her than walk an hundred miles with peas in my boots.' Literally taken this is nonsense, but taken in the spirit in which such a saying is uttered, it is seen that the greatness of his desire is to be measured by the difficulty, toil, pain, and resolution required to complete the task with which he associates that desire." And Mr. P. A. Daniel, who ac- cepts Dr. Nicholson's interpretation, gives another know q example of this mode of expression; to the effect, "I would rather have it, than a poke in the eye « ith a birch rod." Kolfe takes the same view: as he concisely puts it, "He ironically contrasts this ill luck[ames-ace for life] with the good luck of having a chance in the present choice."
93. Line 90: Xo better, if you please; i.e. I wish no better wife than you.
94. Line 105: There's one grape yet, &c. — Old Lafeu, having, upon the supposition that the lady was refused, reproached the young lords as boys of ice, throwing his eyes on Bertram, who remained, cries out, "There is one yet into whom his father put good blood — but I have known thee long enough to know thee tor an ass." — J nil nson.
95. Line 132: From lowest place \wirs virtuous things proceed. — When is Thirlby's correction tor whence of the
Folios.
96. Lines 156, 157:
My honour's at the strike; wmoB to DXFIAT / must produce mypou
Which often stands tor which thing (Abbott. Sh. Gr. §271). So here it is "which danger to defeat. " Theo- bald changed defeat to defend, nrnl so Dyce reads,
97. Line 170: Into the staggers. Some Bpecies of the staggers, or the horse's apoplexy, is a raging Impatience,
which makes the animal dash himself with a destructive violence against posts or walls. To this the allusion, I
suppose, is made. John
ACT II. Scene 3.
NOTES TO ALL'S WELL THAT ENDS WELL. act ill. Scene 1.
98. Lilies 185, 186:
i r hi is-- ceremony
Shall seem expedient on the now-born brief. The brief may be, as Johnson suggests, the marriage con- tract; but Malone compares:
she told me, In a sweet verbal brie/, it did concern Your highness with herself. —Act v. 3. 136-138.
And —
To stop which scruple, let this brief suffice, It is no pamper'd glutton we present, Nor aged counsellor to youthful sin.
— The History of Sir John Oldcastle, Prologue 5-7. which passages prove that brief need not always imply a written document; it may therefore mean the brief troth plight which has just taken place, and upon which the king says, it is convenient that the marriage ceremony shall forthwith follow.
99. Line 190: else, does err.— The Folio here inserts: Parolles and Lafew stay behind, commenting of this wed- ding.
100. Line 210: What I dare too well do, I dare not do. — " I am only too ready to chastise you, but I must not. I am quite man enough to do so, but it is not expedient. You are a lord, and there is no fettering of authority" (see below, line 252).
101. Line 269: HETHINKS 'T. — The Folios have mee- thuik'st.
102. Lines 276-279: you are more saucy with lords and honourable personages than the commission of your birth and virtue gives you heraldry; i.e. more than the war- rant of your birth and virtue gives you title to be. Han- mer, with some plausibility, altered to "more than the heraldry of your birth and virtue gives you commission."
103. Line 297: That hugs his kicky-wicky here at home. —So F. 1. The later Folios have kicksy-wicksy: probably a colloquial term formed from kick, and implying restive- ness; here applied in an intelligible, though not very complimentary sense to a wife. Nares quotes:
Perhaps an ignis fatuus now and then Starts up in holes, stinks, and goes out agen; Such kicksee-iuicksee flames shew but how dear Thy great light's resurrection would be here.
Poems subj. to R. Fletcher"s Eplg. [1656], p. 168.
and one of Taylor the water-poet's books is entitled, A Kicksey-Winsey, or a lerry-come-twang: wherein John Taylor hath satyrically suted 750 bad Debtors, that will not pay him for his E,eturn of his Journey from Scotland.
104. Lines 308, 309:
•war in no strife To the dark house and the detested wife. The "dark house," says Johnson, "is a house made gloomy by discontent." "Detested" is Eowe's correc- tion for "detected" of the Folios.
105. Line 310: capriccio.— F. 1 has caprichio. This Italian word was adopted as an English one. Cotgrave gives under Caprice, "a humour, caprichio, &c."
ACT II. Scene 4.
106. Line 16: FORTUNES.— Capell's correction tar for- tune of the Folios.
107. Line 35: The search, sir, was profitable. — Before these words, as at the commencement of the speed), " Did you find me," the Folios have the prefix Clo. Per- haps a short speech of l'arolles— for instance, "In my- self," as Dr. Briusky N icholson suggests (Shakespeariana, vol. i. p. 55) — has fallen out here.
108. Line 44: puts it off to a compell'd restraint.— Defers it by referring to a compulsory abstinence. So:
Please it your lordship, he hath put me off [for payment) To the succession of new days this month.
— Tim. of Ath. ii. 2. 19, 20.
109. Lines 45, 46:
Whose want, and whose delay, isstrew'd with sweets, Which they distil now in the curbed time.
The want and delay of " the great prerogative and rite of love" is strewed with the sweets (of expectation), which they (the want and delay) distil now in the time of re- straint and abstinence.
ACT II. Scene 5.
110. Line 29: End ere I do begin.— The Folios have: " And ere I doe begin." The emendation, [to whomsoever it may be due,] was found in the margin of Lord Elles- mere's copy of the First Folio, and is supported by a pas- sage in The Two Gentlemen of Verona, act ii. sc. 4. 31:
I know it well, sir ; you always end ere you begin.
— Staunton.
111. Line 40: like him that leaped into the custard. — It was customary at City banquets for the City fool to leap into a large bowl of custard set for the purpose. Theobald quotes:
He may perchance, in tail of a sheriffs dinner, Skip with a rhyme on the table, from New-nothing, And take his Ahnain-leap into a custard. Shall make my lady mayoress and her sisters Laugh all their hoods over their shoulders. —Ben Jonson, The Devil is an Ass, i. 1. (p. 97, ed. 1631 '.
112. Lines 51-53: / have spoken better of you than you have or will to deserve at my hand.— So F. 1. Probably some word has fallen out after have; Malone suggested qualities. F. 2 reads: "than you have or will deserve."
113. Lines 94, 95:
Ber. Where are my other men, monsieur? — Farewell. The Folios assign these words to Helena:—
Hel. I shall not breake your bidding, good my Lord : Where are my other men? Monsieur, farwell.
The change in distribution and punctuation is due to Theobald, who observes that "neither the Clown, nor any of her retinue are now upon the stage: Bertram observing Helen to linger fondly, and wanting to shift her off, puts on a show of haste, asks Parolles for his servants, and then gives his wife an abrupt dismission."
ACT III. Scene 1.
114. (Stage-direction) The two Frenchmen.— These are distinguished in the Folio as "French E" and "French G," and in i. 2 as "1 Lo. G" and "2 Lo. E." I have followed the Globe editors in styling uniformly G First
<;:
ACT III. Scene 1. NOTES TO ALLS WELL THAT ENDS WELL. ACT HI. Scene 5.
/. rd| E Second Lord, except in the last nine lines of iii. 6, where 0 once is evidently (and so the Globe) Second Lord, ami S twice First Lord. The Folio sometimes calls them "Cap. O" and "Cap. E," and in iv. 1 £ is "1 Lord E. Capell and Maloue sip.".'. stcd that the initial* l and G stand for the names of the actors who played the parts, and in the list of actors prefixed to V. l we find the names William Eccleatone, Samuel GUburne, and Robert Gonghe. The same actors, as Capell points out. also took the parts of the two Gentlemen in act iii. •J., who are styled in the Folio "French E" and "French
g:
115. Lines 11-13:
But like a common and an outward man, That the great figure of a council frames Bytelf unable motion.
"I cannot explain state secrets, except as an ordinary out- sider who frames 6 ir himself a tolerable idea of the nature of a great council, though unable to form any judgment on the weighty points there discussed." This seems to
be the general sense of this somewhat obscure passage. A "self unable motion" is a "motion" which is itself un- able to do something or other; and here apparently to discharge the functions of s counsellor. For motion in the sense of "mental sight, "intuition." compare this sensible warm motion to become A kneaded clod. — Meas. for Meas. iii. i. 120, in,
116. Line ti: When better fall, for your avails they FELL. —The past tense is required by the rhyme; otherwise our would be tempted to read "they/oB;" "when better men (/ ,< . men iii higher posts) are slain, you will step into the places they have left vacant."
ACT III. SC'KXK •_'.
117. Lines 7, 8: he will look upon his boot, and sing; mendtht 1:1 tv, and sing. The ruff is probably, as most of the commentators take it to be, the top of the boot which turned over with a fringed and scalloped edfte and hung loosely over the leg: this was usually called a ruffle: "not having leisure to put off my silver spurs, one of the rowels catch'd hold of the ruffle of my boot, and being Spanish leather, and subject to tear, overthrows me" (Ben Jon. son, Every Man out of his Humour, iv. 4, p. 149, ed. II
118. Line 9: bold a goodly manor for a song So F. 3;
Ff. 1 ami 2 have "hold a goodly," &C
119. Line M: our old una and our Isbels o'the country —So F.J; F. 1 has "our old Lings."
120. Line 20: K'kn that.— Theobald's correction for " In that" of the Folios.
121. Line 21.— F. 1 inserts the heading A Letter, and omit
122. Lini nam me mto't— "Can make me weak enough to give way to it as a woman usually does."
123. Line iiv // a .,/ ,,11 tht pi / w:i; thine; ie- n" ,l" bich an' thine the relative, as often in Shakespeare, being omitted. Bowe altered it to "all
•'* thine, unnecessarily weakening the past 68
124. Line 71: And thou art ALL my child; i.e. my only child. For all in this sense of alone, only, compare:
To this well-painted piece is Lucrece come, To find a face where all distress is stelled. Many she sees where cares have carved some, But none where all distress and dolour dwcll'd.
— Rape of Lucrece, 1443-46. Why have my sisters husbands, if they say They love you all [i.e. only you]. —Lear, i. :. 101, ioi.
The word all of course agrees with thou, not with child
125. Lines 92, 93:
The fellow has a deal of that too much, Which holds him much to have. "He has a deal of that too-much (excess), which considers him to have much," i.e. excess of vanity, which makes him fancy he has many good qualities. Rolfe, whose vie" of the passage this is, compares:
For goodness, growing to a pltirisy, Dies in his own loo much.
—Hamlet, iv. 7. 118, 119.
126. Lines 113, 114:
move the srt'M-PlECING air That rings with piercing.
F. 1 has "the sti\\-peering aire;" F. 2 the "still piercing.-' "Still-piecing air," i.e. the air which closes again imme- diately, is due to Malone. "Peece" is an Elizabethan spelling of piece ("Now good Com;.,, but that peece of song," T\v. Night, ii. 4. 2, F. 1); so that if we accept this reading we have only to alter one letter.
127. Lines 123-125:
Xo, come thou home. liousillon, Whence honour but of danger icins a scar, As oft it loses all.
"Come home from that place, where all that honour gets from the danger it encounters, if it gets anything, is a scar, while it often loses everything."
ACT III. Scene 4.
128. Lines 24, 25:
and yet she writes, Pursuit would be but ruin.
This must be supposed to be in a part of the letter not read aloud by the steward.
A IT III. BCBHB 5.
129. Line 21: arc not the things they go under— Are not the things for which their names would make them pass.
— Join
130. Line 23: example . . . cannot for all that dissuade ttion, but that they are limed, Ac— All these terrible
examples of ruin before their eyes cannot prevent maids
from doing as others have don,- before them. " But that they are limed "= "to prevent their being limed." For this use of "but," signifying "prevention," compare:
Have you no countermand for Claudio yet, Put he must die to-morrow?
— Meas. for Meas. iv. 2. 95, 96.
And see Abbott. Bh. Gr. | T22.
act m. scene 5. NOTES TO ALL'S WELL THAT ENDS WELL. act in. Scene 7.
131. Line 36: To Saint Jaques le Grand.— By St. James the Great, Shakespeare no doubt signified the apostle so called, whose celebrated shrine was at Conipostella, in Spain; and Dr. Johnson rightly observes that Florence was somewhat out of the road in going thither from Rousillon. There was, however, subsequently, another .lames, of La Marca of Ancona, a Franciscan confessor of the highest eminence for sanctity, who died at the con- vent of the Holy Trinity near Naples, in A.b. 147G. He was not beatified until the seventeenth century, nor canonized until 1726; but it is quite possible that his re- putation was very great in connection with Italy, even at the period of this play; and that Shakespeare adopted the name without considering any other distinction.— Staun- ton.
132. Line 55: He's bravely taken here.— According to
Schmidt, the verb ' ' to take " is here intransitive = " to have the intended effect" (German, sich machen). Compare:
yet I know A way, if it take right, in spite of fortune Will bring me off again. —Hen. VIII. iii. 2. 218-220.
i.e. if it have the right effect. So here the meaning is "he has done well here," " has behaved bravely." Com- pare also:
[pageants and shows] Never greater Nor, I '11 assure you, better taken, sir.
Hen. VIII. iv. 1. n, 12.
i.e. better executed. If this is not the meaning we must interpret, "he is bravely taken here," i.e. "he is received as a brave fellow here."
133. Lines 69, 70:
/ war'nt, good creature, wheresoe'er she is, Her heart weighs sadly. For war'nt I am indebted to Mr. B. G-. Kinnear (who writes it warnt), Cruces Shakespeariana, 1883, p. 146. In Hamlet, i. 2. 243:
Main. Perchance 'twill walk again. Hor. I -warrant it will.
Q.2has "I loam't it will. F. 1 has "I write good crea- ture, wheresoere she is," <fec, which Malone and Schmidt defend. F. 2 has "I right good creature;" Rowe, "Ah! right good creature ; " Capell, ' ' Ay, right .—Good creature ! " The Globe, "I warrant, good creature;" Dyce, after Williams, "I tvot, good creature."
134. Line 86: That leads him to these PASSES.— The Folios have places. Theobald conjectured paces; passes, which Dyce prints, was suggested by Mr. W. N. Lettsom (Walker's Crit. Exam. vol. ii. p. 240), who compares:
your grace, like power divine, Hath looked upon my fosses.
— Meas. for Meas. v. 1. 374, 375.
i e. courses, proceedings.
135. Line 97: Where you shall HOST.— For host in this sense compare:
Go bear it to the Centaur, where we host.
— Com. of Err. i. 2. 9.
ACT III. Scene 6.
136. Lines 37-41: let him fetch his drum; . . . when your lordship sees the bottom of HIS success in 't, and to what metal this counterfeit lump of oke will be melted.
—The Folios have "thix success," corrected by Rowe. Lump of ore is Theobald's correction for lump of ours of the Folios. But why was so much Importance attached to a drum? Fairholt, quoted by Rolfe, informs us that the drums of the regiments in those days were decorated with the colours of the battalion: to lose a drum was therefore to lose the colours of the regiment.
137. Lines 41-43: if you give him not John Drum's en- tertainment, your inclining cannot be removed. — To give a person John or Tom Drum's entertainment is to turn him forcibly out of your company. The origin of the ex- pression is doubtful. Douce suggested that it was a meta- phor borrowed from the beating of a drum, or else alluded to the drumming a man out of a regiment; while Rolfe has "no doubt that originally John Drum was merely a sportive personification of the drum, and that the enter- tainment was a beating, such as the drum gets;" after- wards "the expression came to mean other kinds of abus- ive treatment than beating." Theobald quotes Holinshed's Description of Ireland:— "no guest had ever a cold or for- bidding look from any part of his [the mayor of Dublin 1551] family: so that his porter, or any other officer, durst not, for both his eares, give the simplest man that resorted to his house, Tom Drum his entertaynement, which is, to hale a man in by the heade, and thrust him out by both the shoulders."
138. Line 107: iva have almost embossed him.— Emboss was a hunting term, old French embosquer, and meant to inclose (game) in a wood. So here the Second Lord means that they have almost got Parolles in their toils. There is another hunting term embossed, meaning "foaming at the mouth from fatigue, " with which the above must not be confounded. "When he [the hart] is foaming at the mouth, we saye that he is embost" (Gascoigne, Book of Hunting, 1575, p. 242, quoted in Hazlitt's Dodsley, vol. xi. p. 406). In this sense the word does not come from embosquer, but is merely a technical application of the or- dinary verb emboss, "to cover with bosses." Shakespeare twice uses it in this sense:
the poor cur is emboss'd.
—Taming of the Shrew, Ind. 17.
and
O, he is more mad Than Telamon for his shield ; the boar of Thessaly Was never so emboss'd. —Ant. and Cleop. iv. 13. 1-3
139. Line 110: We '11 make you some sport ivith the fox. ere we case Aim.— Another hunting term signifying to skin the animal. Compare:
Some of 'em knew me. Els they had cased me like a cony too, As they have done the rest, and I think rosted me, For they began to baste me soundly. —Beaumont and Fletcher, Love's Pilgrimage, ii. 2 (ed. 1647. P- 9>-
ACT III. Scene 7.
140. Line 19: Resolv'd to carry her. —So Dyce and Globe. P. 1 has Resolue. F. 2 and most editors Resolves.
141. Line 21: his important blood.— Compare:
Therefore great France
My mourning and impoi tant tears hath pitied.
— I.ear, iv. 4. 25. 26.
69
ACT III. Scene
NOTES TO ALL 'S WELL THAT ENDS WELL. act iv. Scene 2.
142. Line 34: after THIS.— This la omitted in F. 1, added
in r. •.'.
143. Lines 44-47: .,»'««
irlnch. ij it speed,
Is wicked meaning in a lawful deed, Ami lawful meaning in a LAWFUL act; Where both not sin, and yet a sinful fact.
For lawful act in line 46 Warburton substituted "wicked :md so Dyce; but .Male me satisfactorily explains the original reading: "The first line relates to Bertram. The nil, as being the duty of marriage . . . but his meaning was wicked, because he Intended to commit adultery. The second line relates to Helena, "hose meaning was lawful, in as much as she intended to re- claim her husband. . . . The act or deed was lawful, for the reason already given. The subsequent line relates to them both. The fact was sinful, as far as Ber- tram was concerned, because he intended to commit adultery; yet neither he nor Helena actually sinned; not the wife, because both her intention and action were Innocent; not the husband, because he did not accomplish his intention; he did not commit adultery."
ACT IV. Scene 1.
144. Lines 19-22: therefore we must every one be a man of hit own fancy, not to know ichat we speak one to another; to wc Stem to know, is to know Straight our pur- pose.— " We must each fancy a jargon fi >r himself, without aiming to be understood by one another, tor provided we appear to understand, that will be sufficient for the suc- cess of our project."— Henley. Sir Philip Perring, with great plausibility, proposes to shift the semicolon from another to fancy.
145. Line 22: Choughs' language.— Cam-pare:
lords that can prate As amply and unnecessarily As this Gonzalo : I myself could make A chough of as deep chat. — Tempest, ii. i. 263-266.
146. Line 43: Wherefore, what's the INSTANCE?— Ac- cording to Schmidt, instance is " motive," "that which set him on." So:
The instances that second marriage move Are base respects of thrift, but none of love.
— Hamlet, lii. 2. 192, 193.
But .Tohnson, followed by Rolfe, with greater probability explains it as proof: Parolles is seeking for some proof of In- exploit So: "They will scarcely believe this without trial: offer them instances" (Much Ado, ii. 2. 42).
147. Line 45: and buy myself another of BAJA7.ETS mi lb. Tvarbnrton conjectured mute, and so Dyce. A mule is doubtless used as typical of a dumb creature. Reed quotes a story of a "Philosopher" who "for th' emperor's pleasure took upon him to make a Muyle [mule] speak;" but what the allusion is in Bajazet's mule has not yet been explained
ACT IV. s 1 en J.
148. Lines 21-31: 'Tis not the many oaths that make the truth, Ac— This speech is at a first reading very perplex-
70
tag, but its meaning becomes clearer on reperusal. Diana's meaning is, I think, as follows: "A mere multi- tude of oaths is no evidence of integrity of purpose; a single vow made conscientiously is enough, and such a vow a man takes by what he reverences must, namely, by God's great attributes; but even were I to swear by such an awful oath as this that I loved you well, when I loved you so ill that I was trying to induce you to commit a sin, you would not believe me: in fact, an oath taken in the name of a pure and holy Being to commit an impure and unholy sin against him has no validity at all: there- fore— your oaths, sworn as they are in God's name to do him a wrong, are so many empty words and worthless stipulations, but in my opinion are unsealed, that is, are unratified, and have no binding force whatever."
149. Line 25: If I should swear by Gov's great attributes. — So the Globe editors; the Folio has Joues, probably in accordance with the statute to restrain the abuse of the divine name (3 James I. chap. 21).
150. Lines 38, 39:
I see that men MAKE ROPES IN SUCH A SCARRE, That we '11 forsake ourselves.
This is the great crux of the play. None of the many emendations which have been proposed being really satisfactory, I have printed the words just as they stand in the Folio, except that the latter prints rope's instead of ropes. That there is an error somewhere few will doubt, although there have been several ingenious but far-fetched attempts at explanation. All that can be affirmed with any confidence is that the words, "That we'll forsake ourselves," are intended to convey Diana's pretended surrender to the proposals of Bertram, "we will prove unfaithful to our principles, we will give in;" and that the previous line must have given some sort of reason or excuse for such apparent weakness. "Diana ought, in all propriety," says Mr. Halliwell [PbJllippe] in his folio Shakespeare, " to make some excuse to Bertram (and to the audience) for the abrupt change in her feel- ings and conduct,— some acknowledgment of his powers of persuasion, or some confession of her own impressi- bility. Diana then abruptly demands the ring, and Ber- tram fancies his triumph is complete. A scarre is a broken precipice, or, according to others, a ravine, or merely a scare (fright).
I subjoin some of the principal emendations which have been suggested:
Rowe: "make hopes in such affu
Maloue: " make hopes, in such a teens."
Mitford, printed by Dyce: " make hopes, in such a case."
Halliwell [Phillipps]: "may cope's in such a sorte."
Staunton: " make hopes, Inaachama
Kimiear: "have/iopcs, in such a cause. "
151. Line 73: Since Frenchmen are so BRAID.— Steevens quotes Greene's Never too Late, 161G (ed. Dyce, p. 302):
Dian rose with all her D Blushing thus at love's braids.
i.e. crafts, deceits. The word, which is, however, here an adjective, comes from braid, to twist; what is deceitful being, metaphorically speaking, twisted and tortuous.
ACT IV. Scene 3.
NOTES TO ALL'S WELL THAT ENDS WELL.
ACT IV. Scene 4.
ACT IV. Scene 3.
152. Line 23-: Now, God delay our rebellion !—" May God put off the day when our flesh shall rebel;" so where the Countess begs the King to forgive her son, in act v. 3. 4-8:
'Tis past, my lietfc ; And I beseech your majesty to make it Natural rebellion, done i' the blaze of youth ; When oil and fire, too strong for reason's force, O'erbears it, and burns on.
Hanmer conjectured allay.
153: Lines 26-28 : we still see them reveal themselves, till they attain to their abhorred ends. — They betray them- selves before they attain to their abhorred ends, i.e. de- testable purposes.
154. Line 29: in his proper stream, o'erflows himself. — That is, "betrays his own secrets in his own talk." — Johnson. He no longer confines his unlawful intents within the hounds of secrecy.
155. Line 34: for he is dieted to his hour. — See above:
Did. When midnight comes, knock at my chamber-window:'
When you have conquer d my yet-maiden bed.
Remain there but an hour. — iv. 2. 54-58.
The meaning then is, "the hour of his appointment is fixed, as well as the duration of his stay." Such is the regimen to which lie has to submit. This will help to explain v. 3. 219-221:
Dia. I must be patient :
You, that have turn'd off a first so noble wife,
May justly diet me.
i.e. "you may prescribe rules for me, and give me just as much or as little as you please."
156. Line 36: I ivould gladly have him see his company anatomized. — For company in the sense of companion compare:
To seek new friends and stranger companies.
— Mids. Night's Dream, i. 1. 219.
157. Line 103: ENTERTAINED my convoy. — Taken into service guides, &c. For entertain compare:
Being entertained for a perfumer, as I was smoking a musty room.
— Much Ado, i. 3. 60.
158. Line 113: this counterfeit MODULE. — Module is a variant of model. Model comes througli the Italian and French from the Latin modulus, a measure; module ap- parently comes direct from the Latin. Parolles is a counterfeit module, because he pretended to he a soldier and was really a fool.
159. Line 135: Stage-direction: the Folio has, Enter Parolles with his Interpreter, and Inter. Int. or Interp. is prefixed to the speeches of the First Soldier.
160. Line 158: All's one to him.— In the Folios this con- cludes the preceding speech. Capell made the change. Rowe printed "All's one to me."
161. Line 182: if 1 were to live this present hour; i. e. and die at the end of it. Hanmer printed " live but this presenthour." Dyce, following W. S. Walker, boldly prints "if I were to die." Toilet suggests that Parolles meant to say die, but fear occasioned the mistake.
162. Line 213: getting the shrieve's fool with child. "Female idiots were retained in families for diversion as well as male, though not so commonly" (Douce, Illus- trations, p. 198).
163. Line 222: your LORDSHIP.— The Folios have Lord, without the period, but the abbreviation was no doubt intended: corrected by Pope.
164. Line 268: by THE general's looks.— So F. 3; F. 1 and F. 2 have your, a mistake arising from the abbreviation y in the MS.
165. Line 280: He will steal, sir, an egg out of a cloister. —He will steal anything, however trilling, from any place, however holy.— Johnson.
166. Line 303: a place there called Mile-end.— Mile-end Green was the usual drilling ground for the London train- bands. See II. Henry IV. iii. 2. 298.
167. Lines 313, 314: and cut the entail from all re- mainders, and a perpetual succession FOR it perpetually; i.e. and set free the estate from payment of all remainders, and (grant or sell) a perpetual succession for it. Dyce suspects some error. Hanmer altered for it to " in it."
ACT IV. Scene 4.
168. Line 9: Marseilles.— P. 1 spells the name of this town here Marcellce, and in iv. 5. So, Marcellus.
169. Line 16: Nor YOU, mistress. — So F. 4. F. 1, F. 2, and F. 3 have: " Nor your Mistress."
170. Lines 20, 21:
As it hath fated her to be my motive
And helper to a husband. A motive is that which moves anything, so, means, instru- ment. Compare:
my teeth shall tear The slavish motive of recanting fear [i.e. the tongue].
— Rich. 11. i. 1. 192, 193.
171. Lines 30-33:
Yet, 1 pray you:
But, with the xvord, the time will bring on summer, When briers shall have leaves as well as thorns. And be as sweet as sharp.
Perhaps the passage admits of this explanation. Helena
has just before said:
You, Diana, Under my poor instructions yet must suffer Something in my behalf:
To which Diana has replied:
Let death and honesty Go with your impositions, / am yours Upon your will to suffer:
And nelena now continues: " Yet, I pray you," i.e. for a while I pray you be mine to suffer: "but. iritli the word, the time will bring on summer," &c; i.e. but so quickly that it may even be considered as here while we speak, the time will, &c.—Dyce. Rolfe, with greater probability, thinks that the words Yet, I pray you, merely serve to resume the thread of Helena's discourse, after Diana's impulsive interruption.
71
- cue j.
NOTES TO ALL'S WELL THAT ENDS WELL.
ACT V. Scene 3.
ACT IV. Sunk 5.
172. Lines fc-4: whose illiniums saffron would have made nil the unbaked and doughy youth of a nation in
olc w \n a 1 1 u - i < ■ 1 1 to the fashion of wearing yellow. Warburton points out that the mention of saffron sug-
l the epithets unbaked and doughy, saffron being commonly used to colour pastry. Bo in the Winter's
the shepherd's son says: "I must have saffron to colour the warden pies " O^ Inter's Tale, iv. S. 48).
Yellow starch was much used (or bands and ruffs, and i- said to have been invented by Mrs. Turner, an infa- mous woman, who was concerned in the murder of Sir Thomas Overbury, and was executed at Tyburn (1616) in a lawn ruff Of her favourite colour (see Hazlitt's Dods- ley, vol. \i. i>. 328). Reed quotes Heywood, If you Know- not me, yon Know Nobody: "many of our young married men have tane an order to weare yellow garters, points, and shootyings; and tis thought y, How will grow a cus- tom" (Hey w 1. Dramatic Works, vol. i. p. 259, ed. 1874).
173. Line 19: They are not heiibs.— So the Folios. Etowe printed Sallet-hi rbs.
174. Line 22: grass— So Rowe: the Folios have grace.
175. Line :;_': my bauble.— The fool's bauble was a kind of baton; Bgures of its various shapes will be found in
I Illustrations, Plates II. and III.).
176. Line 41: mi English NAME. —So Rowe; F. 1 has ne.
177. Line 67: A shrewd knave and an unhappy. — Com- pare:
Ay, and a shrewd unhappy gallows too [speaking of Cupid]. — Love's Labour's Lost, v. 2. 12.
Here the meaning is simply "roguish" or "mischievous;" but it often has a stronger sense, as: "O most unhappy strumpet!" [pernicious] (Com. of Err. iv. 4. 127). And:
unhappy was the clock That struck the hour! — Cynib.v. 5. 153, 154.
178. Line 70: he has no pace, but runs where he will. Be '•"-■ rves no rule, has no settled habits, is not broken in. Hanmer unnecessarily altered pace to place; and so even Dyce.
ACT V. Scene 1.
179. Line 6: (stage-direction) Enter a GENTLEMAN.— So Etowe, followed by most editors. F. l has: Enter a gentle Astringer; F. •_': Entry a gentle Astranger; F. 3: Enter a
■■mnn <t stranger. An astringer or ostringer is, as
rem discovered before the appearance of his second
edition, ■ keeper of goshawks. There is, however, no ap-
Ol reason why the personage accosted by Helena
should be ■ keeper of goshawks or of anything else, and
throughout this scene the Folio prefixes "Gent "to his
in-, while in scene 8 it Introduces him simply as " a
in,"
ACT V. BCEBTB 2.
180. Line l i, ■■ ./ MfoNSTETJB Lavache.— So Dyce. F. 1 has "0 l M* Lauateh."
72
181. Line 26: / do pity his distress in my SIMILES of comfort. — Warlmrton.s certain emendation for " smiles Ot comfort'' of the Folios.
182. Line 35: under her.— Uer was added in F. 2.
183. Lines 41, 42:
Par. My name, my good lord, is Parolles. Laf. Fou beg more than " word," then.
A quibble: Parolles (paroles) in French is not "word but " words." F. 3 has " more than one word."
184. Line 43: Cox my passion!— Cox or cock, as in the oath " by cock and pie," w as a disguise or corruption of
ACT V. Scene IS.
185. Lines 1, 2:
We lost a jewel of her; and our esteem
Was made much poorer by it. Does our esteem mean "the esteem in which we are lull by others," or "the esteem in which we In, I, I others?" Schmidt, who explains the phrase by " we are less worth by her loss," seems to take the former view; but surely the King is contrasting his own power of estimating and appreciating true worth with that of Bertram, for he goes on to say that Bertram "lack'd the sense to know her estimation home." Now the King's esteem in which he held others was all the poorer, inasmuch as one esti- mable person so esteemed was lost; and this is much what Staunton means when he interprets our esteem by "the sum of all we hold estimable."
186. Line 6: Natural rebellion, done i the BLAZE of youth. — The Folios have blade; blaze was proposed by- Theobald, who, however, did not venture to admit it into his text. It was adopted by Warburton and Capell, and is rendered extremely probable by whai follows:
When oil and fire, too strong for reason's force, O'erbears it, and burns on.
Theobald quotes, in support of his conjecture:
I do know. When the blood burns, how prodigal the soul Lends the tongue vi iws : these blazes, daughter. &c.
— Hamlet, i. 3. 115-117. and
For Hector in his blaze of wrath subscribes
To tender objects. — Troilus and Cr. iv. 5. 105, 106.
Sir Philip Perring (Hani Knots, p. 163) with great pro- bability suggests blood, comparing:
the strongest oaths are straw To the fire i' the blood. —Tempest, iv. 1. 5s, 53.
The blood of youth burns not with such excess.
— Love's Labour's Lost, v. 2. 73.
and
It hath the excuse of 5'outh and heat of blood.
— I. Henry IV. v. :. 17.
187. Lines 16, 17:
Whose beauty did astonish the survey Of richest im
Richest eyes are eyes that have seen most beauty. Com- pare: "to bave seen much and to have nothing, is to have rich eyes and poor hands" (As You Like It, iv. 1. 23).
188. Line 48: Contempt his scornful perspective did
ACT V. Scenes. NOTES TO ALL'S WELL THAT ENDS WELL. ACT V. Scene 8.
lend me. — For p&rspective compare:
For sorrow's eye, glazed with blinding tears,
Divides one thing entire to many objects ;
Like per spectives, which rightly gaz'd upon
Show nothing but confusion,— ey'il awry
Distinguish form. —Rich. II. ii. 2. 16-20.
See note 150 of that play.
189. Lines 65, 66:
Our own love leaking cries to see what 's done, Wit He shameful HATE sleeps out the afternoon.
The Globe editors read "while shame full late," &c, but change Beems objectionable, because it destroys the anti- thesis between "love" which wakes, and "hate" which continues to sleep; I have therefore retained the original reading, which Sir Philip Perring explains as follows: hate, the "displeasures" of line 68, having destroyed our friends and done its work, enjoys its afternoon slum- ber, while love awakes, though too late, and weeps to see the havoc hate had made. This is fairly satisfactory; but I would add that "after weep their dust" seems to be connected by a kind of zeugma with the preceding verb "destroy," for it is we who weep, not our "displeasures;" and that the main point of the antithesis is, that hate con- tinues to sleep unconcerned, while love awakes to weep. The Globe marks line 65 "our own love," &c, as corrupt.
190. Lines 71, 72: Count. Which better than the first, &c. —These two lines were first given to the Countess by Theobald: in the Folios they are part of the preceding speech.
191. Line 79: The last that e'er / took her leave at court. — The last time that I ever bade her farewell at court. So the Folio, but with e'er spelt ere. Rowe printed: "The last that e'er she took her leave;" Hammer: "The last time e'er she took her leave;" Dyce: "The last time, ere she took her leave."
192. Lines 95, 96:
noble she ivas, and thought
I Stood ENGAG'D.
The plain meaning is: When she saw me receive the ring she thought I stood engaged to her. — Johnson. This is the most natural interpretation; but the Folio happens to spell the word ingag'd, which Tyrwhitt, Malone, Staun- ton, and Schmidt (who even calls the reading cm/aged preposterous) explain to mean "not engaged." En and in are, however, sometimes interchangeable even in modern spelling.
193. Line 102: the tinct and multiplying medicine.— The tincture, by which alchemists professed to turn baser metals into gold, and the philosopher's stone, which had the power of making a piece of gold larger.
194. Line 114: conjectural.— So F. 2; misspelt in F. 1 conneclurall.
195. Lines 121-123:
My fore-past proofs, howe'er the matter fall,
Shall tax my fears of little vanity,
Having vainly fear d too little. "However the matter turns out, with the proofs I have already, I shall not be accused ol harbouring mere ground' less suspicions; hitherto I have erred in not being sus- picious enough." Tax is spelt taze in F. 1.
196. Lines 148-150:
/ will buy me a son-in-law in a fair, and TOLL for this:
I'll none of him. This is the reading of F. 1 (toll spelt toule), and probably means, "I will buy a new son-in-law in a fair, and pay toll for the liberty of selling this one;" F. 2 has: "and toule him for this," &c, which Percy takes to mean: "I '11 buy me a son-in-law as they buy a horse in a fair; toid him, i.e. enter him on the toid or toll-book, to prove I came honestly by him, and ascertain my title to him." Those editors who have adopted this reading of course put a colon at "toll him:"— "and toll him: for this I 11 none of him."
197. Line 155: / ivonder, sir, SITH icives are MONSTERS to you.— So Dyce. F. 1 has: "I wonder, sir, sir, wiues are monsters to you." F. 2 has: "I wonder, sir, wives suoh monsters to you."
198. Line 195: He blushes, and 'tis IT.— So Capell; F. 1 has: "and 'tis hit" Pope reads, "and 'tis his;" and so Dyce.
199. Lines 215-217:
and, in fine,
Her own suit, coming with her modern grace,
Subdu'd me to her rate. For this reading, Her own suit, coming, I am indebted to Sir Philip Perring (Hard Knots, p. 166). F. 1 has Her insuite camming. Dyce, Staunton, and the Globe editors print W. S. Walker's conjecture: "Her infinite cunning;" perhaps we might read: "her onset, coming." Modem here seems to be used rather in the sense of modish, than in its ordinary Shakspearean sense of trite, common- place. Johnson thinks it may mean meanly pretty, but he gives no other instances of the usage. Mr. W. W. Williams (The Parthenon, Xov. 1, 1S62, p. 849) suggested modest, and Mr. B. G. Kinnear (duces Shakespeariame, p. 160) native.
200. Line 221: May justly diet inc.— See note 155.
201. Lines 305, 306:
Is there no EXORCIST
Beguiles the truer office of mine eyes? An exorcist in Shakespeare is a person who can raise spirits, not one who can lay them. So:
Thou, like an exorcist, hast conjured up
My mortified spirit. —Julius Ca:sar, ii. 1. 323, 324.
202. Line 314: And aue.— So Rowe; the Folios have, "And is."
73
Wi»UDS PECULIAR TO ALL'S WELL THAT ENDS WELL.
WORDS OCCURRING ONLY IN ALL'S WELL THAT ENDS WELL.
>\iTE.— The addition of sub., adj., verb, adv. in brackets immediately after a word indicates that the word is
used as a substantive, adjective, verb, or adverb only in the passage or passages cited.
Those compound words marked with an asterisk are printed as two separate words in P. 1.
3c. Line
Accessary i (sub.) ii. 1 36
Acutely i. 1 220
Admiringly.... {£ j
Adoptions i. 1 188
A foot 2 iv. 3 181
After-debts.... iv. 3 255
Allurement... iv. 3 241
Ames-ace ii. 3 85
Applications . . i. 2 71
Anise ii. l 79
Attribute* iii. C 64
Avail (sub.).... J !■ 3 1!)0
v ' (iii. 1 22
Bannerets ii. 3 214
Barely ^ iv. 2 19
Bareness1 iv. 2 19
B urticado* (verb) i. l 124
Bed-clothes ... iv. 3 287
Blade? v. 3 6
*Blowers-up .. i. 1 132
Boggle v. 3 232
Both-sidess.... iv. 3 251
Braid (adj.).... iv. 2 73
'Brawn-buttock ii. 2 19
Babble* iii. C 5
Bunting ii. 5 7
ping' '(intrans.) iii. 4 14
Canary " (sub.) ii. l 77
Capriccio1*.... ii. 3 310
Captious i. 3 208
i l.u. n ' . MS; Bonn. iuv. IS. 1 in Infant??; used frequently in the ordinary sense, s As a sub. used repeatedly. < = in a ban or naked condi- tion; it Mean three times' only, nakedness here and in Bonn, v. 8; v mi. i. In I. Henry IV. ll 2. 77 the word occurs in the sense of "leanness."
i else* here as a sub. " Of com. The reading of Ff. (in a flgni - D0je
US
Ijectively. 'Used figuratively — a cheat; occurs frequently in ordinary
loUseil transitively in Ant and Cle.. i
ii —a dance; and to <■ verb in Lorei Labonr'i Lost, ill '■ U three times — the
wine of that name.
angllntsed it. iii. i-i word — fancy, humour. Bee not* 105.
Act Cardecue -I lv"
Case is (verb) . . iii.
i lasketed ii.
Cassocks iv.
Causeless" (adj.) ii.
( 'esse (verb) v.
Chape iv.
Cherisher i.
Christendoms" i.
Clew i.
Coarsely iii.
Coherent iii.
Confidently iii.
Congied iv.
Consolate (verb) iii.
Cox is v.
Credible i.
Curvet (sub.)., ii.
Custard ii.
Default i" ii.
Discipled i.
Diurnal ii.
Doctrine is i.
Dog-hole ii.
I ii ml ile-meaning
(adj.) iv.
Doughy iv.
Dropsied ii.
Dryly i.
Eagerness v.
Eats 19 (intrans.) i.
Embodied v.
Embossed*0 iii.
Embowelled*!. i.
|
Sc. |
Line |
|
3 |
311 |
|
2 |
35 |
|
0 |
111 |
|
5 |
26 |
|
3 |
192 |
|
3 |
4 |
|
3 |
72 |
|
3 |
164 |
|
3 |
50 |
|
1 |
188 |
|
3 |
188 |
|
5 |
60 |
|
7 |
39 |
|
6 21,94 |
|
|
3 |
100 |
|
2 |
131 |
|
2 |
43 |
|
2 |
4 |
|
3 |
299 |
|
5 |
41 |
|
3 |
241 |
|
2 |
28 |
|
1 |
165 |
|
3 |
247 |
|
3 |
291 |
|
3 |
114 |
|
5 |
4 |
|
3 |
135 |
|
1 |
175 |
|
3 |
213 |
|
1 |
175 |
|
3 |
173 |
|
6 |
107 |
|
3 |
247 |
l|! = to flay; used frequently elsewhere in various senses.
1' \ '. mis and Adonis, 897.
IS — Christian names; the word ocean frequently in its ordinary sense.
l° In expression "cox my pas- sion!"
II In the phrase "in the de- fault"—:\t a need; occurs three
times In its ordinary m i
I" —learning; used elsewhere In ii- ordinary sense.
l» Useil in expression "it eats dryly."
inclosed ; us.-d elsewhl re
In other lenses.
2i —exhausted, emptied, In figurative sense; it occurs in literal si use In I. Henry iv v. -i.
i; Rich. Ill v -.'. 10.
71
Act Sc. Line
Empirics ii. l 125
Entail (sub.)... iv. 3 313
Enticements. . . iii. 5 20
Entrenched ... ii. 1 45
Enwombed.. .. i. 3 150
Examined2'- iii. 5 60
Excessive23 i. 1 05
Expertness iv. 3 203,297
Exploit" i L 2 17
I iv. 1 40
Expressive ii. 1 54
Facinerious25.. ii. 3 35
Fated** i. l 232
File'-" (sub.).... iv. 3 231
Finisher ii. 1 139
Fishpond v. 2 22
Fisnomy** iv. 5 42
Fistula i. 1 39
Foregoers ii. 3 144
Forehorse ii. l 30
Fore-past v. 3 121
Gabble (sub.)., iv. 1 22
Gossips29 i. 1 1S9
Haggish i. 2 29
Hawking so i. i io5
Headsman iv. 3 342
'High-repented v. 3 3G
"Holy-cruel ... iv. 2 32
Hoodman iv. 3 130
Idolatrous i. 1 108
In (verb) i. 3 48
Inaidible ii. 1 122
Inaudible v. 3 41
Inclusive3! i. 3 232
"Indian-like . . . i. 3 210
Intenible i. 3 208
22 = doubted. Occurs frequently in other senses.
23 Lucrece, Arg. 1.
2< Used — warlike adventure.
'-■'■ Parolles* equivalent for fa- dnorout, which latter word does not occur in Shakespeare.
2<> — having the power of fate; ii- i-l cl-ew her, destined.
-' i.e. f. ir papers; used elsewhere in various other senses,
*> The Clown's form of pApsi- ogntmy.
1 ' i hrM.ns, or gives as a spon- sor: used elsewherelntransitively in its ordinary sense.
3" -hawk-like.
Hilar sense- cm prehensile;.., curs In Richard III. iv. 1. 59 = inclosing.
Act Sc. Line
*Kicky-wicky.. ii. 3 297
Languishings. . i. 3 235
Lapse (sub.) ii. 3 170
Leaguer iii. 6 28
Ling iii. 2 14,15
"Linsey-woolsey iv. 1 13
Love-line ii. 1 81
Manifoldly.... ii. 3 215
•Market-price., v. 3 219
Mell iv. 3 257
Mere 32 iii. 5 58
Militarist iv. 3 161
Ministration... ii. 5 65
Misprision33... ii. 3 159
Mites3* i. 1 154
Morris3* ii. 2 26
Mourningly i. l 34
Muddied 3« v. 2 5,23
Murk ii. 1 166
.Musk-cat v. 2 21
Muskets iii. 2 111
Muster-file.... iv. 3 189
Mystery3? iii. C 68
Naturalize i. l 223
Neatly iv. 3 168
Xecessitied v. 3 85
None-sparing., iii. 2 108
Xose-herbs .... iv. 5 20
*>"ow-born ii. 3 186
Occidental ii. 1 100
Offendress i. 1 168
Out- villained . . iv. 3 305
Overlooking (sub.) i. 1 45
Over-night iii. 4 28
Over-pay iii. 7 16
Papist i. 8 56
Pass se ii. 5 58
32 — merely.
33 = contempt; it occurs several times — mistake.
34 Here — cheese -mites; it is used once again in Pericles, ii. Prol. 8— anything small.
35 — morris-dance, ilorrit (— a :.- ime) occurs in Mids Night's I'leani.ii. 1. AS; and umrris-iUmce in Henry V. ii. 4. 25.
36— soiled; used, figuratively, in Hamlet, Iv. 5. 81.
3" Used with in — professional experience; ocean frequently in its more usual senses.
38 I'seil figuratively — estima- tion; ...curs frequently elsewhere in various other senses.
WORDS PECULIAR TO ALL 'S WELL THAT ENDS WELL.
Act Sc. Line
Past-cure (adj.) ii. 1 124
Past-saving (adj.) iv. 3 158
Persecuted i. 1 16
Personages i . . ii. 3 278
Philosophical., ii. 3 2
Piles iv. 5 103
*Pin-buttock . . ii. 2 IS
Prejudicates. . . i. 2 8
Prologues (verb) ii. 1 95
Prophesier iv. 3 114
Quatch-buttock ii. 2 18
Questant ii. 1 16
Rational s i. 1 139
Ravin (adj.). .. iii. 2 120
Ravishments* iv. 3 2S1
Recantation . . ii. 3 194, 195
Rector iv. 3 68
Red-tailed iv. 5 6
Relinquished . . ii. 3 10
i = persons; personage =" per- sonal appearance" occurs in Midsummer Night's Dream, iii. 2. 292, and Twelfth Night, i. 5. 164.
- i.e. the pile of cloth ; used in ordinary sense = heap, in five pas- sages.
3 Here = reasonable ; it occurs once again in Love's Labour's Lost (i. 2. 124) = "endowed with reason."
4 Lucrece, 430, 1128.
Act Be Line
Remainders5... iv. 3 313
Removes0 v. 3 131
Re-send iii. 6 123
Resolvedly v. 3 332
•Riddle-like... i. 3 223
Ring-carrier... iii. 5 95
Ruttish iv. 3 243
Sally (verb).... iv. 1 2
Scarce' iv. 2 38
Schools s (sub.) i. 3 246
Seducer v. 3 146
Self-gracious . . iv. 5 77
Shot 9 (verb intr.) ii. 3 8
Shrieve iv. 3 213
Shrove-Tuesday ii. 2 25
Sithence (conj.) i. 3 125
Smack io iv. 1 IS
5 Used here in legal sense; the word occurs elsewhere frequently in the ordinary sense.
K = stages of journey; used elsewhere in various senses.
1 Occurs in a corrupt passage. See note 150.
8 Used in its academical sense = schools of art or science ; it occurs frequently in the ordinary sense.
9 In the phrase "shot out" = sprouted; occurs frequently in other senses.
10 = a smattering ; occurs in this play ii. 3. 237 and II. Henry IV. i. 2. 111 = taste.
Act Sc. Line
Smoke n itil 6 112
i iv. 1 31
"Snipt-taff eta . . iv. 5 2
Soundness .... i. 2 24
Spark" ii. l 25,41
Sprat iii. 0 112
B taggers13 ii. 3 170
Steely » i. 1 114
Still-piecing... iii. 2 113
Succession15... iii. 5 24
Surplice is i. 3 99
Swine-drunk . . iv. 3 286
Sword-men.... ii. 1 G2
Tax i? (sub.).... ii. 1 173
Thievish is ii. 1 169
H =to find out; the verb occurs frequently elsewhere with varied meanings.
12 A young man.
13 Used figuratively = be wilder- ment; =vertigo, Cymbeline, v. 5. 234; = a disease in horses, Taming of Shrew, iii. 2. 56.
14 Used figuratively = unbend- ing; occurs III. Henry VI. ii. 3. 16 = made of steel.
15 =the act of following an- other's example. It occurs fre- quently in other senses.
M The Phoenix and Turtle, 13.
l" Here = a charge, accusation; taxes (in fiscal sense) occurs Rich. II. ii. 1. 246.
is Here and in Sonn. lxxvii. 8 used figuratively; elsewhere used in its literal sense.
Act -' I
Thitherward . . iii. 2 65
Threateningly . ii. 3 87
Tile iv. 3 217
•Tithe-woman. i. 3 89
Token (verb) . . iv. 2 63
Tolerable".... ii. 3 213
Toll 2" v. 3 148
Torcher ii. 1 165
Traitress i. 1 1S4
Transcendence ii. 3 41
Tnbaked iv. 5 3
Uncropped v. 3 327
Underminers . . i. 1 131
Unroot v. 1 6
Unsealed2! iv. 2 30
Unserviceable . iv. 3 152
Vent 22 (sub.)., ii. 3 213
Vileness ii. 3 136
Wear23(intr.).. i. 1 171
•Well-derived . iii. 2 90
*Well-lost i. 3 254
Woman (verb), iii. 2 53
Woodland iv. 5 49
19 Used blunderingly by Dog- bery for intolerable. Much Ado, iii. 3. 37.
20 _ to pay toll.
21 The verb to unseal = to break the seal of, occurs four times.
22 = utterance; Venus and Adonis, 334.
23 = to be the fashion.
ORIGINAL EMENDATIONS ADOPTED.
None
ORIGINAL EMENDATION SUGGESTED.
Note
199. v. 3. 216: Her ONSET, coming.
75
JULIUS CiESAE.
NOTES AND INTRODUCTION BY
OSCAR FAY ADAMS and F. A. MARSHALL.
DRAMATIS PERSONS
Julius Cesar.
WIUS C.tSAK.
Marcus Antonius, M. .Emilils Lepidus Cicero, \
Publius, hSenators.
I'.uiLius Lena, I
Marcus Brutus,
Cassius,
< 'asca,
Tkkbumus,
Ligakii s.
Dboiub Brutus,
Metki.lus Cimber,
Cinna,
Flavtus,
Maiui.us. |
Abtemidorus, a Sophist of Cnidos
| Triumvirs, after the death I of Julius Caesar.
s,;
Conspirators against Julius Caesar.
-Tribunes.
A Soothsayer.
Cinna, a Poet.
Another Poet.
Lucilius,
Titinius,
Messala,
Young Cato,
volumnius,
Varro,
Clitus,
Claudius,
Strato,
Lucius,
Dardanius,^
Pindarus, Servant to Cassius
Calpurnia, Wife to Caesar. Portia, Wife to Brutus.
Friends to Brutus and Cassius.
►Servants to Brutus.
Senators, Citizens, Guards, Attendants, &c.
Scene, during a great part of the Play, at Rome; afterwards at Sardis,
and near Philippi.
Historic Period: From March 15th, b.c. 44, to November 27th, B.C. 43.
TIME OF ACTION.
Six days represented on the stage, with intervals: —
I1 iv ] : Let I. Scenes 1 and 2.— Interval, one mouth. Day '2: Act I. Bcene 3.
Lcta II .iii.l III -Interval.
i Rowe was the first to give the list of Dramatis Per-
■ii:r Imperfectly Theobald supplied some of the omis-
I'.rutus should be Decimua Brutus, strictly
speakim.'. but this mistake came from North's I'lutarch,
and Indeed i> found both in the early French translation
and in the Greek text of the original (edn. 1678).
The name Marvttut is throughout spelt Murellus in Ff ,
78
Day 4: Act IV. Scene 1.— Interval.
Day 5 : Act IV. Scenes 2 and 3.— Interval, one day at least.
Day 6 : Act V.
except in i. 2. 28S, where it is spelt Murrellus. Theobald corrected this name to the form given in North's Plu- tarch, Manilla*.
Cul/'V mia .wife toCsesar, is uniformly called Calphurnia in the Folio; and so she is called in North's Plutarch, at any rate in the early editions of that work. Many editors retain the spelling Calphurnia.
JULIUS C^ESAE.
INTRODUCTION.
LITERARY HISTORY.
This play was first published, so far as we know, in the Folio of 1623, where it occupies pages 109-130 in the division of "Tragedies." At the beginning of the play, and at the head of each page, it is entitled "The Tragedie of Julius Caesar;" but in the Table of Contents (or, as it is called, " A Catalogve of the seuerall Comedies, Histories, and Tragedies contained in this Volume") it is set down as "The Life and Death of Julius Caesar." No play in the Folio is printed with greater ac- curacy, and none presents fewer textual diffi- culties for the editor or critic.
The date of composition has been the sub- ject of considerable discussion. Malone be- lieved that the play " could not have appeared before 1607;" and Chalmers, Drake, and the earlier commentators generally, were unani- mous in accepting his conclusions. There was a natural disposition at first to associate it chronologically with the other Roman plays, neither of which can be placed earlier than 1607; but, though Knight considers it "one of the latest works of Shakespeare," the great majority of recent editors are inclined to put it five years or more earlier than Antony and Cleopatra. Collier argues that it must have been performed before 1603 ; and Gervinus also decides that it "was composed before 1603, about the same time as Hamlet." He adds that this is "confirmed not only by the frequent external references to Caesar which we find in Hamlet, but still more by the inner relations of the two plays." Halliwell, in his folio edition, 1865, takes the ground that it was written "in or before the year 1601." This is evident, he says, "from the following lines in Weever's Mirror of Martyrs, printed in that year — lines which unquestion- ably are to be traced to a recollection of Shake-
speare's drama, not to that of the history as given by Plutarch:
The many-headed multitude were dravvne By Brutus' speech, that Ctesar was ambitious; When eloquent Mark Antonie had showne His virtues, who but Brutus then was vicious ? "
I am inclined to believe that this is a reference to Shakespeare's play, though Halliwell ap- pears to have modified his own opinion since the above was written. In his Outlines of the Life of Shakespeare (6th ed. 1886, vol. ii. p. 257) he says: "There is supposed to be a pos- sibility, derived from an apparent reference to it in Weever's Mirror of Martyrs, that the tragedy of Julius Caasar was in existence as early as 1599; for although the former work was not published till 1601, the author dis- tinctly tells his dedicatee that 'this poem, which I present to your learned view, some two yeares agoe was made fit for print.' The subject was then, however, a favourite one for dramatic composition, and inferences from such premises must be cautiously received. Shakespeare's was not, perhaps, the only drama of the time to which the lines of Weever were applicable; and the more this species of evi- dence is studied, the more is one inclined to question its efficacy. Plays on the history of Julius Caesar are mentioned inGosson's Schoole of Abuse, 1579; the Third Blast of Eetraite from Plaies, 1580; Henslowe's Diary, 1594, 1602; Mirrour of Policie, 1598; Hamlet, 1603; Hey wood's Apology for Actors, 1612. There was a French tragedy on the subject pub- lished at Paris in 1578, and a Latin one was performed at Christ Church, Oxford, in 1582. Tarlton, who died in 1588, had appeared as Caesar, perhaps on some unauthorized occasion, a circumstance alluded to in the Ourania, 1606." The allusion in Weever's book does not fit 79
JUL US CJESAR
any of the other plays on the story of Cesar that have come down t<» our day; and it does
tit Shakespeare's play bo exactly that, since it was first pointed out, the editors have unani- mously accepted Halliwell's original view of it. It- does not follow necessarily that Julius I sar must have been written as early as L599. Even if the Mirror of Martyrs was written then, an allusion like this may have been inserted just before it went to press two years later. The date 1599, however, may not lie too early. The internal evidence of metre and style is not inconsistent with that date. Fleay (Chronicle History of Shake- speare, 1886, p. 214) makes it 1600; "at any rate Ceesar must be anterior to the Quarto Hamlet which was produced in 1601." Stokes (Chronological Order of Shakespeare's Plays, ]s;s, ],. 88), after a careful discussion of all the evidence, sums up the matter thus: "The great similarity of style between this play and Hamlet and Henry V. has been pointed out by Cervinus, Speckling, Dowden, Hales, and others, and, I suppose, must have been felt by nearly every reader. It is not only shown by the many allusions to Ciesar in these plays [allusions, by the by, which show a co-ordinate estimation of his character], but by the •minor relations' of these plays. This point is so strong that, taking into considera- tion some of the references mentioned above, there can scarcely be any doubt that the ori- jiii.'tl production of this play must be placed in 1599-1600. It may have been revised after- wards, and the appearance of several works bearing similar titles in 1607 suggests, as Mr. Fleay says, its reproduction at that date."
It is not necessary, however, to suppose, as
Fleay docs, that the play was revised by Ben
Jonson. He lays considerable stress on "the
spelling of Antony without an h: this name
occurs in eiirht of Shakespeare's plays, and in
rj instance but this invariably is spelled
Anthony." But if the scholarly Hen had
made this orthographical correction, is it likely
that he would have permitted the impossible
Latin form Calphurnia to stand? Or would
he have retained the Decius Brutus for Deci-
mus Brutus, or such palpable anachronisms
striking clocks and the like? It is as absurd
80
to suppose that Jonson could have overlook ed these things as that Bacon could have origi- nated them. To the latter, as to the former, Decius Brutus for Decimus Brutus would have been like Sly's "Richard Conqueror" for the well-known William.
It may be mentioned here, as a curious in- stanceof judicial blindness, that Judge Holmes, by far the ablest of the advocates of the Ba- conian lunacy, in his Authorship of Shake- speare (3rd ed. 1886, vol. i. p. 289), quotes Bacon's Essay on Friendship as a parallel to the second act of the play (and one by which, "if there be a lingering doubt in any mind" as to Bacon's authorship of the latter, that doubt "must be removed"); and yet in the very passage quoted Bacon has "Decimus Brutus" and "Calpurnia," instead of the "De- cius Brutus" and "Calphurnia " of the drama. The judge does not see that he is himself fur- nishing indisputable evidence that the philos- opher was perfectly familiar with what the dramatist was palpably ignorant of.
We have no reason to suppose that Shake- speare was indebted to any of the earlier plays on the same subject. The only source from which he appears to have drawn his material was Sir Thomas North's version of Plutarch's Lives, translated from the French of Bishop Amyot, and first published in 1579. He has followed North closely, almost sla- vishly, as the illustrative extracts given in the notes will show. As Gervinus says: "The component parts of the drama are borrowed from the biographies of Brutus and Caesar in such a manner that not only the historical action in its ordinary course, but also tin- single characteristic traits in incidents and speeches, nay, even single expressions and words, are taken from Plutarch; even such as are not anecdotal or of an epigrammatic na- ture, even such as one unacquainted with Plu- tarch would consider in form and manner to be quite Shakespearian, and which have not ^infrequently been quoted as his peculiar pro- pert} , testifying to the poet's dee]) know ledge of human nature. From the triumph over Pompey (or rather over his sons), the silenc- ing of the two tribunes, and, the crown offered at the Lupercalian feast, until Caesar's murder,
INTRODUCTION.
and from thence to the battle of Philippi and the closing words of Antony, which are in part exactly as they were delivered, all in this play is essentially Plutarch. The omens of < laesar's death, the warnings of the augur and of Artemidorns, the absence of the heart in the animal sacrificed, < 'alphnrnia's dream; the peculiar traits of ( Vesar's character, his super- stition regarding the touch of barren women in the course, his remarks about thin people like Cassias; all the circumstances about the conspiracy where no oath was taken, the character of Ligarius, the withdrawal of Cicero ; the whole relation of Portia to Brutus, her words, his reply, her subsequent anxiety and death; the circumstances of Caesar's death, the very arts and means of Decius Brutus to in- duce him to leave home, all the minutest particulars of his murder, the behaviour of Antony and its result, the murder of the poet China; further on, the contention between the republican friends respecting Lucius Pella and the refusal of the money, the dissension of the two concerning the decisive battle, their conversation about suicide, the appear- ance of Brutus's evil genius, the mistakes in the battle, its double issue, its repetition, the suicide of botli friends, and Cassius's death by the same sword with which he killed Caesar — all is taken from Plutarch's narrative, from which the poet had only to omit whatever destroyed the unity of the action."
Archbishop Trench, in his Lectures on Plutarch, in referring to North's translation of the Lives, remarks :
" But the highest title to honour which this version possesses has not hitherto been mentioned, namely, the use which Shake- speare was content to make of it. Whatever Latin Shakespeare may have had, he certainly knew no Greek, and thus it was only through Sir Thomas North's translation that the rich treasure-house of Plutarch's Lives was acces- sible to him. . . . It is hardly an exag- geration to say that the whole play— and the same stands good of Coriolanus no less— is to be found in Plutarch. Shakespeare indeed has thrown a rich mantle of poetry over all, which is often wholly his own; but of the incident there is almost nothing which he vol. v.
does nol owe to Plutarch, even as continually he owes the very wording to Sir Thomas North."
STAGE HISTORY.
Julius Cesar always seems to have been one of the most popular of Shakespeari -
plays on the stage, in spite <>f its want of any female interest, and of the fact that < tesar, who is virtually the hero, is killed in the middle of the play. We find that on the 20th May, 1613, Lord Treasurer Stanhope paid .John Heminges "for presentinge before tin- Princes Highnes the Lady Elizabeth and the Prince Pallatyne Elector fowerteene several plays," of which "Caesar's Tragedye" was one. When Thomas Killigrew, after the Restoration, established the King's Company, and opened a new theatre at Drury Lane, 1665, Julius Caesar was one of the stock pieces of the com- pany. Downes gives us the cast as follows : "Julius Caesar, Mr. Bell, Cassius Major Mo- hun, Brutus, Mr. Hart, Anthony Mr. Kynas- ton, Calphurnia,1 Mrs. Marshal, Portia, Mrs. Corbet." The only other plays of Shakespeare, which were included in the fifteen stock plays of which Downes gives the casts, are "The Moor of Venice" (Othello), and King Henry the Fourth; while amongst the other plays, of which he gives merely the names, are in- cluded The Merry Wives of Windsor ami Titus Andronicus; so that however much we may decry Julius Caesar as an acting play, it had the honour of being one of the four — for we cannot include Titus Andronicus — which helped to keep alive Shakespeare's fame at a time when his rivals, Beaumont and Fletcher and Ben Jonson, were held to be his superiors by the general public. During the reigns of Charles II. and James II. Julius Csesar seems to have been frequently played. In 1682, at tlieTheatreRoyal, it was again acted with iden- tically the same casl as in the above-mentioned performance. In 1684 Killigrew's and Dave- nant's companies coalesced, and, under the title of the King's Company, removed to the Theatre
i This name is spelt Calphurnia, as in F. 1. lioth in Downes and Genest throughout, and I have not thought it necessary to alter the spelling, though Calpurnia is the correct form.
81 H8
J CLIPS CESAR
Royal, Drury Lane; some time in that year1
they presented this play, I'.etterton appearing
for the firsl time apparently — as Brutus,
supported by William Smith as < lassius, ( rood-
inali as Julius < 'a--.ar, Mrs. Cooke as Portia,
and Lady Slingsby2asGalphurnia. Langbaine
(p. I'M) says thai this play was printed in Quarto, London, 1684; and he adds: "There is an Excellent Prologue to it, printed in Covent Garden Drollery, p. 9." Genest says this edition "differs very little from the origi- nal play, except that the part of Marullus is given to Casca, and that of Cicero to Tre- bonius" (vol. i. p. 423). Lowndes mentions a Quarto of Julius Csesar with the title-page •• a Tragedy, as it is now acted at the Theatre Ijnyal, Loud, n. d. (1680) 4to. On the reverse of the title is a List of Actors, in which Bet- terton is set down for acting Brutus." He also mentions two Quartos printed in 1684 and L696 respectively, and another n. d. (1696); so that evidently, during this period, the play was popular among readers as well as among playgoers.
It would appear that Julius ( Isesar was not again represented till February 14th, 1704, when it was played at Lincoln's Inn Fields. The cast is not given. This, as will be seen, is nearly twenty years from the last recorded performance. It is most probable that it was represented in the interval more than once, though there is no record of its revival. Bet- terton was still acting, so he probably played his old part of Brutus. On October 30th, 1705, the company removed to the I [aymarket Theatre from Lincoln's Inn Fields, and Julius ar wis revived on .March 14th, 1706. No
i Dowries does not mention tins performance, and Genest does not give the day or the month on which it took place,
- Tic appears t" have acted many principal
l .;i tt ^ ; among others, Queen Margaret In Crowne's Henry VI . Began in Tate's mutilation of Lear, and Cressida in Dryden'i Troilus and Cressida She affords the only • mce "f any titled actress to be found in the playbillB of this period; though many of them had a sort of left- handed claim tc such a distinction, Dovnes mentions her among the persons who joined the Duke's Company in 1870 as Mr-. Udridge and Mrs. Lee, afterwards Lady Slingsby She la generally spoken of as Mis Mary Lee, and appears to have been no relation to poor mad Nit Lee according to Genest "Dame Mary Slingsby was buried at Pana V (Genest, vol. i p
82
particulars are given, but the cast must have been a strong one; for Betterton, Booth, Ver- bruggen, Bowman, as well as Mrs. Barry and Mrs. Bracegirdle, were included iii the com- pany. The next performance was on January 14th, 17()7, at the Haymarket Theatre, when Genest says it was performed "For the encouragement of the Comedians acting in the Haymarket, and to enable them to keep the diversion of plays under a separate interest from Operas — By Subscription "(voLii.p.363).
The cast was, Brutus = Betterton : < iassius = Verbruggen: Antony = Wilks: Julius Ctesar = Booth : Octavius = Mills : Cas/a = Keen : ( !alphurnia= Mrs. Barry: Portia .Mrs. Brace- girdle. The minor parts were also played by well-known actors, viz. " Plebeians" = John- son, Bullock, Norris and Cross. It would appear that " Lord Halifax proposed a sub- scription for reviving 3 plays of the best authors with the full strength of the com- pany" (at supra). The next play of this series, King and no King, was given on January 21st; and on February 4th the third, Marriage a la Mode, or the Comical Lovers; a com- pound manufactured by Cibber out of two of Dryden's plays, Marriage a la Mode and Secret Love. Cibber in his Apology (edn. 1740) says: " not only the Actors, (several of which were handsomely advane'd, in their Sallaries) were duly paid, but the Manager himself too, at the Foot of his Account stood a considerable Gainer" (p. 1!).")).
On April 1st of the same year Julius ( Isesar was revived for the benefit of Keen, probably with much the same cast. On December 22nd, 1709, at Drury Lane, Booth appeared as Brutus, Powell as Oassius, with ]\Irs. Knight as Calphurnia. A new prologue and epilogue were spoken by Keen and Mrs. Bradshaw, who represented respectively Ju- lius Csesar and Portia. On .March L6th, 1713, at Drury Lane, Mills played the part of Julius Csesar for his benefit, Brutus being played by Booth, Antony by "Wilks, Cassdus by Powell. Cas/a h\ Keen. It may be noted thai on this, as on many other occasions, such actors as Johnson, Pinkethman, Bullock, Nor- n's, Cross, and Leigh took the parts of the "Plebeians," that is, of the Citizens; the play
INTl;o|»l< Tln\.
was repeated on the 6th of April. By tin's time it seems to have become an established favourite. Booth chose it for his benefit March 22nd, 1716. It seems to have been acted at least two or three times every season at Drury Lane up to 1727-28; then it seems to have been put on the shelf as far as that theatre was concerned.
During the period from 1720-28 inclusive, Julius Caesar was played at the Lincoln's Inn Fields Theatre about half a dozen times. ( hi October 18th, 1722, we find in the cast that Quin played Brutus, Boheme Cassius, Walker Antony, Leigh Julius Caesar. It would ap- pear, according to Genest, that the "comic characters" were played by Bullock and others (vol. iii. p. 116). These were the Citizens, whom, as has been pointed out, actors of con- siderable importance were content to repre- sent. At Goodman's Fields, December 1st, 1732, Julius Caesar was produced and played for twelve consecutive nights. On September 19th, 1736, there was a performance of this play at Drury Lane, with the following cast: Brutus, Quin ; Cassius, Milward ; Wright, Antony; W.Mills, Julius Caesar; Cas£a, Cib- ber, jun.; "Citizens," Johnson, Miller, Harper, and Griffin, with Portia, Mrs. Furnival, and Calphurnia, Mrs. Butler. Da vies says that the part of Casca was "enlarged" by " adding to it what belongs to Titinius;" and he observes, "if I remember right, was acted by a principal comedian. Above five and forty years since, Winstone was selected for that character, when Quin acted Brutus, and the elder Mills Cassius, Milward M. Antony, and W. Mills Julius Caesar." He praises Winstone very much, of whom he says: "The assumed doggedness and sourness of Casca sat well upon Winstone ; " and adds: "The four principal parts have not since that time been equally presented " (Dramatic Miscellanies, vol. ii. p. 212). Davies praises Milward very much in Antony, al- though it would appear that this actor played Cassius far more frequently, and compares him in this character with Wilks and Barry: he also says that William Mills succeeded better in Caesar than in any other part. But the most interesting thing that the gossiping biographer of Garrick tells us about this play
is, that the great "little Davy" once had a mind to have tried his skill in the part of
Cassius; but cither from a fear that Quin in Brutus would completely outshine him, or for some other reason, he gave up tin- idea; ami this play was never revived during his man- agement. On April 28th, 1738, there was a performance at Drury Lane for the fund for erecting a monument to thememor\ of Shake- speare, when Julius Csesar was played; .Mis. Porter being the Portia. In the season 1742,
1743, Quin was engaged at Covent Garden, where he was playing as a counter-attraction to Garrick at Drury Lane; and, as might be expected, we find Julius ( Vsar revived at that theatre and strongly cast, with Hale as Antony, Ryan as Cassius, Bridgewater as Caesar, and with such actors as Hippisley, Chapman, and Woodward in the small parts of the " Plebeians." This was on Novem- ber 20th, 1742. On March 18th, 1744, Sheri- dan took his benefit at Covent < rarden in the part of Brutus. At this theatre Mrs. Prit- chaid appeared as Portia on October 31st,
1744. On March 28th, 1747, we find a soli- tary performance of Julius Csesar for Sparks's benefit, who played Cassius to the Brutus of Delane and the Antony of Barry. The play was repeated on April 30th, when Gifford was Antony; Barry only appears to have played the part twice that season. On November 24th, 1748, Quin had rather a remarkable cast to support him in his favourite part. It in- cluded Delane as Antony, Ryan as Cassius, Sparks as Casca, Mrs. Horton as Calphurnia, and Mrs. Woffington as Portia. Three repre- sentations of this play were given in Novem- ber, ]"")(), at which Barry was the Antony to Quin's Brutus; and so successful was he in the part that he played it seven times during this season.
On January 31st, 1766, Genest records a performance of this play at Covent Garden "not acted eight years,'' the cast of which was not very remarkable, except for the fait that Mrs. Bellamy played Portia. Apropos of this performance ( lenest notices that an edition of Julius Csesar was printed in 1719, "as altered by Davenant and Dryden." This must have been a mistake, however, because Julius 83
JULIUS CvESAR
I - ,ir was one of the plays assigned to Killi- u : and therefore Davenant could not play it at his theatre. Walker, who played Brutus on tins and subsequenl occasions at Covent Garden, used to speak the following lines at tin- end of ili»- fourth act: —
- re they have rais'd some devil to their aid, And think to frighten Brutus with a shade: But ere the night closes this fatal day, I '11 send more ghosts this visit to repay.
These lines are not found in the edition printed
in 1082 "as acted at the Theatre Royal;" but they are given in Bell's edition printed from the Prompter's Book at Covent Garden, 1773. The author of these touching and poetical verses is apparently unknown ; but, as Genest points out, it is clear that they must have been received into what he calls "that Sink of cor- ruption—the Prompt Book" after 1082.
We pass over some performances of no par- ticular interest till we come to the first appear- ance of John Kemble in the character of Brutus. Boaden says: "On the 29th of February, 1812, Mr. Kemble revived the tragedy of Julius Caesar; he had, as usual, made some very judicious alterations and ar- rangements in the piece, and in his own per- formance of Brutus exhibited all that purity of patriotism and philosophy, which has been, not without some hesitation, attributed to that illustrious name" (Life of Kemble, vol. ii. p. !~>4'-i). There can be little doubt that this performance of the play, with Young as Cassius and Charles Kemble as Antony, must have Keen most effective, as Brutus was one of the characters in which tin- elder Kemble was Bupremi . Macready played both Cassius and Brutus, but in his own opinion he chiefly excelled in the latter. It is a pity that this greal actor did not adopt the plan which, ac- cording to Mrs. < rarrick, her husband followed, of writing his own criticisms, or rather of pub- lishing them; for he did write them appa- rently in his own diary. Perhaps, if he could have Been such criticisms as the following in print during his lifetime, it might have recon- ciled him tn thai profession by means of which he gained a position, which he could scarcely have achieved even in the pulpit, after which he appears sometimes to have hankered, but
M
which profession, nevertheless, he would seem always to have been abusing, and to have re- garded as a degradation while he remained in it. In his diary, under date January 24th, 1851, he says: "Acted Brutus as I never — no, never — acted it before, in regard to dignified fami- liarity of dialogue, or enthusiastic inspiration of lofty purpose. The distance, the reluctance to deeds of violence, the instinctive abhorrence of tyranny, the open simplicity of heart, and natural grandeur of soul I never so perfectly, so consciously portrayed before. I think the audience felt it" (vol. ii. p. 305). Let us hope that the audience did feel all this, or, at any- rate, some of it. It is, however, satisfactory to know that among the many mortifications which this great artist had to endure, self- depreciation was not one. In another part of his diary Macready says, with indisputable good sense, that Brutus "is one of those char- acters that requires peculiar care, which only repetition can give, but it never can be a part that can inspire a person with an eager desire to go to a theatre to see represented." It was in the season 1818-19 that he first played Cassius to Young's Brutus at Covent Garden, apparently on the occasion of the tatter's benefit. According to his own account Mac- ready played this part to oblige Young; but he seems to have taken great pleasure in it, and to have repeated it again in 1822, at Covent Garden, to Young's Brutus; Marc Antony being then Charles Kemble and ( 'asca Fawcett. This revival was very successful, there being as much as £000(0 taken at the first performance.1
Edmund Kean, apparently, never played in Julius ( tesar at all. Phelps closed his second season on May 5th, 1846, with this play, which, however, never seems to have been a great favourite with him. In our own time this play has never been represented with greater effect than it was bv the celebrated German company of the Theatre BoyaL Mein- ingen, at Drury Lane Theatre, in 1881. The completeness in every detail, and the admir-
\l:i'ii .uly's Reminiscences, vol. i. p. 235. I have ventured to query the sum mentioned, as I do not believe Covent Garden Theatre could have held so much money at that time, and at the then existing prices.
INTRODUCTION.
able stage -management, especially in the arrangement of the crowds, rendered these
performances some of the most successful ever given by a foreign company in tliis country.
— F. A. M.
CRITICAL REMARKS.
Julius Caesar has been condemned, from a dramatic point of view, for its lack of unity. It is like two plays in one, the former being concerned with the death of Caesar, the latter with the revenge of that deed. The nominal hero disappears at the end of the third act, and only his ghost is seen thereafter. But tin- fdiost is a connecting link between the two parts of the drama. "0 Julius Caesar, thou art mighty yet !" exclaims Brutus, when he comes upon the dead bodies of Cassius and Titinius; and Cassius, as he killed himself,
had cried:
Caesar, thou art reveng'd, Even with the sword that kill'd thee.
(v. 3. 45, 46.)
It is not without purpose that the dramatist introduces these significant utterances. Caesar is dead, indeed, but we must not forget that
his
spirit ranging for revenge, With Ate by his side come hot from hell,
(hi. 1. 271, 272.)
has "let slip the dogs of war" against his butchers. The eloquent prophecy of Antony over his bleeding corpse is fulfilled.
The treatment of the living Caesar by the poet, however, has been a puzzle to many of the critics. It is evident from the many allusions to the great Roman in the other plays, that his character and history had made a deep impression on Shakespeare. Craik, after quoting the references to Caesar in As You Like It, II. Henry IV., Henry V., the three parts of Henry VI., Richard III., Hamlet, Antony and Cleopatra, and Cymbe- line, remarks that these passages "will pro- bably be thought to afford a considerably more comprehensive representation of the mighty Julius than the play which bears his name." "We have," he adds, " a distinct ex- hibition of little else beyond his vanity and arrogance, relieved and set off by his good-
nature or affability. . . . [t might almost be suspected thai the complete and full-length ( isesar had been carefully reserved for another drama." Eazlitt remarks tliat the hero of the play "makes several vapouring and rather pedantic speeches, and does nothing; indeed, he has nothing to do." Hudson says: "Caesar is far from being himself in these scenes; hardly one of the speeches put into his mouth can be regarded as historically characteristic; taken all together they are little short of a downright caricature.'' Ee is in doubt whether to explain this by supposing that < laesar was too great for the hero of a drama, "since his greatness, if brought forward in full measure, would leave no room for anything else," or whether it was not the poet's plan "to repre- sent Caesar, not as he was indeed, but as he must have appeared to the conspirators; to make us see him as they saw him; in order that they too might have fair and equal judgment at our hands." He is disposed to rest on the latter explanation, but to me it seems very clearly a wrong one. What the conspirators thought of Caesar is evident enough from what they themselves say of him. It was not necessary to distort or belittle the character to make us see how they saw him; and to have done it to make us see him <(s they saw him would have been a gross injustice to the foremost man of all this world of which we cannot imagine Shakespeare guilty. As to its being necessary in order that we may do justice to the conspirators, if it leads us to justify their course in killing him, does it not make the fate that afterwards befalls them appear most undeserved '. Does it not enlist our sympathies too exclusively < m their side ?
On the whole I am disposed to think that the poet meant to represent < 'a-sar as Plu- tarch represents him — as having become am- bitious for kingly power, somewhat spoiled by victory, jealous and fearful of his enemies in the state, and superstitious withal, yet hiding his fears and misgivings under an arrogant and haughty demeanour. He is shown, moreover, by the dramatist at a criti- cal point in his career, hesital ing between his ambition for the crown (which we need not 85
.ULIUS CESAR.
suppose to have been of a men-ly selfish sort, for he maj well have believed that as king he could do more for his country's good than in any other capacity) and his doubt whether th^ time lii' I come for him to accept the crown. It may be a question whether even jarcould be truly himself just then; whether even he might not, at Buch a crisis in Ins for- tunes, show something of the weakness of inferior natures.
It must be remembered, too, that, as Haz- litt has said, ( Yesar does nothing in the play, has nothing to do, except to play the part of the victim in the assassination. So far as any opportunities of showing what he really is are concerned, he is at much the same disadvan- ■ as "the man in the coffin" at a funeral — a very essential character in the perfor- mance, though in no sense an actor in it. If he is to impress us as verily "great Caesar," it must be by what he says, not by what he does, and by what he says when there is no occasion for grand and heroic utterance. Under the circumstances a little boasting and bravado appear to be necessary to his being recognized as the Roman Dictator.
After all. there is not so very much of this boastful Language put into the mouth of ( • -u': and, as Knight reminds us, some of it is evidently uttered to disguise his fear. When he saj s:
The gods do this in shame of cowardice ; I esar should be a beast without a heart, If he should stay at home to-day for fear,
<ii. 2. 41-43.)
he is speaking to the servant who has brought the message from the augurers. "Before him he could show do fear;" but, the moment the
servant has -one (he is doubtless intended to
leave the stage), he tells Calpurnia that"for her humour he will stay al home," proving plainly enough that he does fear. His reply
ward- t«. I )eeius beginning
i i- die many times before their deal
(ii. 2. 82.)
i- directly suggested by Plutarch, who says that when his friends "did counsel him to have a guard for the safety of his person," he would not consenl to it, "but said it was 86
better to die once than always to be afraid of death." His last speech —
I do know but one That unassailable holds on his rank, Unshak'd of motion: and that I am he, Let me a little show it, (iii. 1. 6S-71. )
though boastful, is not unnatural in the con- nection, being drawn from him by the persis- tent importunities of the friends of Cimber. The fact that C;esar has so little to say has, 1 think, led the critics to exaggerate this char- art eristic of the speeches.
With regard to Brutus also the critics have had their doubts. Coleridge asks, "What character did Shakespeare mean his Brutus to be?" He is perplexed that Brutus, the stern Roman republican, should say that he would have no objection to a king, or to Csesar as king, if he would onlv be as good a monarch as he now seems disposed to be; and also that, in view of all Caesar had done — crossing the Rubicon, entering Rome as a conqueror, placing Gauls in the senate, && — he finds no personal cause to complain of him. He resolves to kill his friend and bene- factor, not for what he has been or what he is, b\it for what he may become. He is no serpent, but a serpent's egg; therefore crush him in the shell.
It is curious that Coleridge should not have seen that by "personal cause," so distinctly opposed to " the general," Brutus refers to his private relations with Cesar as a man and as a friend, not to public acts or those affecting the common weal. All those enumerated by Coleridge belong to the latter class.
That Brutus should be influenced by his speculations as to what Cesar might become, is in thorough keeping with the character. Brutus is a scholar, a philosopher, and a pa- triot; but he is not a statesman. He is an idealist, and strangely wanting in practical wisdom. It is significant that Shakespeare represents him again and again with a book in his hand. He is a man of books rather than a man of the world. ITis theories are of the noblest, his intentions of the most patriotic and philanthropic, but tiny are visionary and impracticable There are such men in every age — reformers who accomplish
INTRODUCTION.
no reform, because their lofty dreams are incapable of being made realities in this
workaday world. Such men are easily mis- led and made tools of by those move unscru- pulous than themselves; as Brutus was by ( assius and the rest. They are often incon- sistent in argument, as Brutus in the speech that puzzled Coleridge. They are influenced by one-sided views of an important question, deciding it hastily, without looking at it from all sides, as they ought, and as those who are less rash aud impulsive see that they ought. So Brutus sends to Cassius for money to pay his legions, because he cannot raise money by vile means ; but he knows how Cassius raises the money, and has no scruples about sharing in the fruits of the " indirection." He is thinking only of paying the soldiers, and does not see that he is an accomplice after the act in what he so sharply rebukes in Cassius. He is inconsistent here as in many other cases ; but the inconsistency is perfectly consistent with the character.
Cassius is a worse man, but a better states- man, or rather politician. He is shrewd and fertile in expedients, but not overburdened with principle or conscience. He is tricky, and believes that the end justifies the means. He can write anonymous letters to Brutus, " in several hands, as if they came from several citizens," and can put placards in the same vein " on old Brutus' statue." He is none too honest himself, but he understands the value of a good name to " the cause," and therefore wishes to secure the endorsement of one whose "countenance, likerichestalchemy, will change to virtue and to worthiness" what, he says, "would appear offence in us" — the less scru- pulous politicians.
We must not, however, take Cassius to be worse than he really is. As a politician he is a believer in expediency — whatever is likely to secure the end in view is right ; but as a man he has many admirable traits of charac- ter. If it were not so, Brutus could not love him as he does. He has a high sense of per- sonal honour withal. He is indignant when Brutus tells him he has "an itching palm;" but he has just told Brutus that bribery is not to be judged severely when it is necessary
for political purposes. "At such a time as
this it is not meet" t" I vercritical of
" every nice offence." There -pake tin' poli- tician; in the other case, the man. Wemnst not be too hard upon him. Sundry good friends of ours in public life are his modern counterparts.
Except in the great scene in the forum, where his speech to the people is perhaps the finest piece of oratory to be found in all Shake- speare— and entirely his own, be it noted, no hint of it being given by Plutarch — Antony plays no very striking part in the drama. We see him roused by a sudden ambition from his early career of dissipation, and taking a place in the Triumvirate; and it reminds us of Prince Hal's coming to himself, like the re- pentant prodigal, when he comes to the throne. But Antony is, morally at least, a slighter man than Henry. His reform lacks the sin- cerity and depth of the hitter's, and he cannot hold the higher plane to which he has tem- porarily risen. His fall is to be depicted in a later and greater drama, of which he is the hero and not a subordinate actor as here.
Portia is one of the noblest of Shakespeare's women. As Mrs. Jameson has said, her character " is but a softened reflection of that of her husband Brutus : in him we see an excess of natural sensibility, an almost woman- ish tenderness of heart, repressed by the tenets of his austere philosophy: a stoic by profes- sion, and in reality the reverse — acting deeds against his nature by the strong force of prin- ciple and will. In Portia there is the same profound and passionate feeling, and all her sex's softness and timidity held in check by that self-discipline, that stately dignity, which she thought became a woman 'so fathered and so husbanded.' The fact of her inflicting on herself a voluntary wound to try her own fortitude is perhaps the strongest proof of this disposition. Plutarch relates that on the day on which Cresar was assassinated, Portia ap- peared overcome with terror, and even swooned away, but did not in her emotion utter a word which could affect the conspirators. Shakespeare has rendered this circumstance literally [in ii. 4. 1-20].
"There is another beautiful incident re- lated by Plutarch which coidd not well be 87
JULIUS C.KSAi;.
dramatized. When Brutus and Portia parted for the last time in the island of Niaida, she restrained all expression <>f grief that she mighl not shake his fortitude; but after- wards, in passing through a chamber in which there hung a picture of Eector and Andro- mache, she stopped, gazed upon it for a time with a settled Borrow, and at length burst into a passion of tears.''
No critic or commentator, I believe, lias thought Calpurnia worthy of notice, but the reader may be reminded to compare carefully the scene between her and (Aesar with that between Portia and Brutus. The difference in the two women is not more remarkable than that in their husbands' bearing and tone towards them. Portia with mingled pride and affection takes her stand upon her rights as a wife---'" a woman that Lord Brutus took to wife" — ami he feels the appeal as a man of his noble and tender nature must:
0 ye gods, Render mc worthy of this noble wife!
Calpurnia is a poor creature in comparison witli this true daughter of Cato, as her first words to ( Igesar sufficiently prove:
What mean yon. Caesar? Think you to walk forth? Y<>u shall not stir out of your house to-. lay.
(ii. 2. 8, 9.)
When a wife takes that tone, we know what tie- reply will be: "Caesar shall forth." Later,
of course, she comes down to entreaty:
I (o not go forth to-day. Call it my fear That keeps you in the house, and not your own.
(ii. 2.50, 51.)
\ti.] Ceesar, with contemptuous acquiescence in the sii'_r'_:oNtioii to let Antony say he is "not well to-day," yields to lur weak importuni- ties. When hecius comes in and urges Csesar ■. the Btory of her dream and her forebod- ings is told him with a sneer (can we imagine Brutus speaking of Portia in that manner?), and her husband, falling a victim to the shrewd flattery of I lecius, departs to his death with a parting fling at her foolish fears, which
he is ashamed at having for the moment yielded to. Calpurnia was Ca-sar's fourth wife, and the marriage was one of convenience rather than of affection.
There are no portions of Roman history that seem so real to us as those which Shake- speare has made the subjects of his plays. History merely calls up the ghost of the dead past, and the impression it makes upon us is shadowy and unsubstantial; poetry make.- it li\c again before our eyes, and we feel that we are looking upon men and women like ourselves, not their misty semblances. It might seem at first that the poet, by giving us fancies instead of facts, or fancies mingled with facts, only distorts and confuses our con- ceptions of historical verities; but, if he be a true poet, he sees the past with a clearer vision than other men, and reproduces it more truthfully as well as more vividly. He sees it indeed with the eye of imagination, not as it actually was; but there are truths of the imagination no less than of the senses and the reason. Two descriptions may be alike imaginative, but one may be tine and the other false. The one, though not a statement of facts, is consistent with the facts and im- presses us as the reality would impress us; the other is neither true nor in keeping with the truth, and can only deceive and mislead us. Ben Jonson wrote Roman plays which, in minute attention to the details of the man- ners and customs of the time, are far more scholarly and accurate than Shakespeare's. He accompanies them with hundreds of notes giving classical quotations to illustrate the action and the language, anil showing how painstaking he has been in this respect. The work evinces genuine poetic power as well as laborious research, and yel the effect is far inferior to that of Shakespeare's Less pedantic treatment of Roman subjects. The latter knows much less of classical history and anti- quities, but has a deeper insight into human nature, which is the same in all ages. Jonson has given us skilfully-modelled andadinirably- Bculptured statues, but Shakespeare living men and women.
Flav. Hence! home, you idle creatures.— (Act i. 1. 1.)
JULIUS C^SAR.
ACT I.
Scene I. Rome. A street.
Enter Flavius, Marullus, meeting a rabble of Citizens.
Flav. Hence! home, you idle creatures, get you home. Is this a holiday1? What ! know you not, Being mechanical,1 you ought not walk Upon a labouring day without the sign Of your profession? — Speak, what trade art thou ?
First Cit. Why, sir, a carpenter.
Mar. Where is thy leather apron, and thy rule? What dost thou with thy best apparel on ? — You, sir; what trade are you?
Sec. Cit. Truly, sir, in respect of a fine work- man, I am but, as you would say, a cobbler. 11
Mar. But what trade art thou? Answer me directly.
Sec. Cit. A trade, sir, that I hope I may use with a safe conscience; which is, indeed, sir, a mender of bad soles.
1 Mechanical, i.e. belonging to the class of mechanics, artisans.
Mar. What trade, thou knave? thou naughty knave, what trade ]
Sec. Cit. Nay, I beseech you, sir, be not out with me; yet if you be out, sir, I can mend you.
Mar. What mean'st thou by that? Mend me, thou saucy fellow ? 21
Sec. Cit. Why, sir, cobble you.
Flav. Thou art a cobbler, art thou ?
Sec. Cit. Truly, sir, all that I live by is with the awl.2 I meddle with no tradesman's mat- ters, nor women's matters, but witli all. I am, indeed, sir, a surgeon to old shoes; when they are in great danger, I recover3 them. As proper4 men as ever trod upon neat's leather have gone upon my handiwork. 30
Flav. But wherefore art not in thy shop to-day ? Why dost thou lead these men about the streets ?
Sec. Cit. Truly, sir, to wear out their shoes, to get myself into more work. But, indeed, sir,
- Awl, an obvious pun on awl and all. s Recover, a quibble on re-cover. * Proper, handsome, well-made. 89
ACT l Soene I.
JULIUS CAESAR
A.I 1 I. Scene 2.
we make holiday t<> see < toesar, and to rejoice in 1 » I — i triumph.
Mar. Wherefore rejoicel What conquest brings he home i What ti ibutaries follow him to Rome, 'I'n grace in captive bonds his chariot wheels? Ymi blocks, vim stones, you worse than sense- less things ! 40 ( ). ymi hard hearts, you cruel men of Rome, Knew you no1 Pompey? .Many a time and oft I Live ymi climb'd iiji tu walls and battlements, To towel's and windows, yea, tu chimney-tops, Xour infants in your arms, and there have sat The livelong day, with patient expectation, Tosee great Pompey pass the streets of Rome; And. when you saw his chariot but appear, Save you not made an universal shout, That1 Tiher trembled underneath her banks, To hear the replication of your sounds 51 Made in her concave shores? And do you now put on your best attire? And do ymi now cull out a holiday '. And do you now strew flowers in his way That comes in triumph over Pompey's blood.' Be gon<
Run to your houses, fall upon your knees, Pray to the gods to intermit the plague That needs must light on this ingratitude. 60
l-'lur. Go, go, good countrymen, and, for this fault, Assemble all the poor men of your sort; Draw them to Tiber banks, and weep your
tears Into the channel, till the lowest stream Do kis> tin- most exalted shores of all. — -
[Exeunt Citizens with <> downcast air. See whether their basest metal lie notmov'd! Tiny vanish tongue-tied in their guiltiness. ( k) you down that way towards the Capitol; This way will I. Disrobe the images, If you do find them deck'd with ceremonies.3
M"i: May we do SO .' 71
Y"ou know it i> the feast of LupercaL
I'l'ir. It i> no matter: let no ima Be bung with Caesar's trophies. I '11 about, Ami drive away the vulgar from tie- streets; - do you to,,, where you perceive them thick.
i Tl..i' M that.
- (' trophies, honorary ornaments.
90
These growing feathers pluck'd from Caesar's
win- Will make him fly an ordinary pitch,3 Who else would soar above the view of men, And keep us all in servile fearfulness. so
[Exeunt.
Scene II. J public place.
An Altar vnthfire on it, by which the Soothsayer is standing; on either side a mob of citiz' ns. Enter, in procession fit I, music, C^csar; Antoxy, for the course; Calpurxia, Por- tia, Decius, Cicero, Brutus, Cassius, and Casca, 1'ricsts, Senators, Standard-hearers, Lictors, Guards, &c.
C&s. Calpurnia !
Casca. Peace, ho ! Caesar speaks.
[Music ceases.
C&s. Calpurnia !
Cal. Here, my lord.
C\es. Stand you directly in Antonius' way, When he doth run his course. — Antonius —
Ant. Cajsar, my lord !
Cats. Forget not, in your speed, Antonius. To touch Calpurnia; for our elders say. The barren, touched in this holy chase, Shake off their sterile curse.
Ant. I shall remember;
When Gesar says "Do this," it is perform'd.
Ca?s. Set on, and leave no ceremony out.
[Music
Sooth. Csesar ! 12
t '.s. Ha! who calls?
Casca. Bid every noise be still. — Peace yet again! [Music ceases; the crowd opens and discovers Soothsayer.
Can*. Who is it in the \ tress4 that calls on me ? I hear a tongue, shriller than all the music, Cry, "< Ssesar." Speak; < a-ar is turn'd to hear.
S 'th. Beware the ides of March.
Cats. What man is that?
Urn. A soothsayer bids you beware the ides of March. 10
C0E8. Set him before me; let me see his face.
' ». Fellow, come from the throng; look upon ( 'a-sar. [The Soothsayer advances.
: Pitch, the height to which a falcon soars; a technical term. * Press, crowd.
ACT I. Scene 2
JULIUS c.KSAR.
ACT I. Be
C<rs. What say'st thou to me now? Speak
once again. Sooth. Beware the ides of March. Cass. He is a dreamer; let us leave him: [Exit Soothsayer, Antony, and the rest.] — pass. [Sennet.1 Exeunt all but Brutus and Cassius in procession. Cass. Will you go see the order of the course ? Bru. Not I. ( 'ass. I pray you, do.
Bru. I am not gamesome; I do lack some part ( >f that quick spirit that is in Antony. Let me not hinder, Cassius, your desires; 30 I '11 leave you. [Going — Cassiics stops him.
Cass. Brutus, I do observe you now of late : I have not from your eyes that gentleness And show of love as I was wont to have; You bear too stubborn and too strange a hand Over your friend that loves you.
Bru. Cassius,
Be not deceiv'd; if I have veil'd my look, I turn the trouble of my countenance Merely- upon myself. Vexed I am Of late with passions of some difference,3 40 Conceptions only proper to myself, Which give some soil, perhaps, to my be- haviours ; But let not therefore my good friends be
griev'd, — Among which number, Cassius, be you one, — Nor construe any further my neglect, Than that poor Brutus, with himself at war, Forgets the shows of love to other men. Cass. Then, Brutus, I have much mistook your passion; By means whereof this breast of mine hath buried 49
Thoughts of great value, worthy cogitations. Tell me, good Brutus, can you see your face ? Bru. No, Cassius; for the eye sees not itself, But by reflection by some other things.
Cass. JTis just; And it is very much lamented, Brutus, That you have no such mirrors as will turn Your hidden worthiness into your eye, That you might see your shadow. I have heard,
1 Sennet, "a kind of flourish on the trumpet.
- Merelv. altogether, entirely.
5 Passions of some difference, conflicting emotions.
Where many of the besl respect4 in Borne, Except immortal Csesar, speaking of Brutus, And groaning underneath this age's yoke, 61 Have wish'd that noble Brutus bad bis eyes. Bru. Into what dangers would you lead me, Cassius, That you would have me seek into myself For that which is not in me I
Cass. Therefore, good Brutus, be prepaid to hear; And, since you know you cannot see yourself So well as by reflection, I, your glass, Will modestly discover to yourself 69
That of yourself which you yet know not of. And be not jealous on8 me, gentle Brutus: Were I a common laugher, or did use To stale6 with ordinary oaths my love To every new protester; if you know That I do fawn on men, and hug them hard, And after scandal7 them; or if you know That I profess myself in banqueting To all the rout, then hold me dangerous.
[Flourish and shout.
Bru. What means this shouting? I do fear, the peojjle Choose Csesar for their king.
Cass. Ay, do you fear it ?
Then must I think you would not have it so.
Bru. I would not, Cassius; yet I love him well. — S2
But wherefore do you hold me here so long? What is it that you would impart to me? If it be aught toward the general good, Set honour in one eye, and death i' the other, And I will look on both indifferently; For let the gods so speed8 me as I love The name of honour more than I fear death.
t 'ass. I know that virtue to be in you, Brutus, As well as I do know your outward favour.9 Well, honour is the subject of my story. — 92 I cannot tell what you and other men Think of this life; but, for my single self, I had as lief not be as live to be In awe of such a thing as I myself.
* Of the best respect, i.e. best worthy of respect.
5 Jealous on, suspicious or distrustful of.
6 Stale, make stale, or common. " Scandal, defame, slander.
8 Speed, favour, prosper. '•' Favour, face, personal appearance. 91
ACT I. Scene 2.
JULIUS OESAR.
ACT I. Scene 2.
I was born five as Caesar; so were you; W We liuth have fed as well; and we ean both Endure the winter's cold as well as be: For once, upon a raw ami gusty day, The troubled Tiber dialing with her shores, i -ar said to me, "Dar'st thou, Cassius, now Leap in with me into this angry flood, Ami swim to yonder point?" Upon the word,
Accoutred as I was, I plunged in, And bade him follow; so, indeed, he did. The torrent roar'd; and we did buffet it With lusty sinews, throwing it aside, 108
And stemming it with hearts of controversy: But ere we could arrive the point proposed, Caesar cried, "Help me, Cassius, or I sink!'' I, as ^Eneas, our great ancestor,
Cass. Why, man, he doth bestride the narrow world Like a Colossus.— {Act i. -j. 135, 13S.)
I "id fr< im the flames of Troy upon his shoulder The old Ancbises bear, so from the waves of
Tiber Did I the tired Cresar;— and this man Is now become a god; and Cassius is A wretched creature, and must bend his body If ( tesar carelessly hut nod on him. He had a fever when he was in Spain, And when the fit was on him I did mark 120 How lit- did shake: 't is true, this god did
shake; His coward lips did from their colour fly: Ami that same eye whose bend1 doth awe the
world Did lose his- lustre: 1 did hear him groan; Ay, ami that tongue of his, that bade the
Roma 1 1 s
i Deii'l
- His, its.
Mark him and write his speeches in their
books, Alas ! it cried, "Give me some drink, Titinius,'' As a sick girL Ye gods, it doth amaze me, A man of such a feeble temper should So get the start of the majestic world, 130
And bear the palm alone. [Shout. Flourish.
Ilrii. A not her general shout! I do believe that these applauses are For some new honours that are heap'd on
( tesar. ( 'ass. Why, man, he doth bestride the narrow
world Like a < iolossus; and we petty men Walk under his huge legs and peep about To find ourselves dishonourable graves. Men at some time are masters of their fates; The fault, dear l'rutus, is not in OUT stars, lint in ourselves, that we are underlings. 141
92
ACT I. Scene 2.
JULIUS (J.ESAU.
A i I I Scene 2.
Brutus and Caesar: what should be in thai
Caesar? U2
Why should that name be sounded more than
yours ! Write them together, yours is as fair a name; Sound them, it doth become the mouth as well; Weigh them, it is as heavy; conjure with 'em, Brutus will start a spirit as soon as Caesar.
[Shout. Now, in the names of all the gods at once, Upon what meat doth this our Caesar feed, That he is grown so great? Age, thou art
sham'd ! loo
Rome, thou hast lost the breed of noble bloods ! When went there by an age, since the great
flood,1 But it was fam'd with more than with one
man ? When could they say till now that talk'd of
Rome That her wide walls encompass'd but one
man '? Now is it Rome indeed, and room enough, When there is in it but one only man. O, you and I have heard our fathers say, There was a Brutus2 once that would have
brook'd 159
The eternal devil to keep his state in Rome As easily as a king !
Bru. That you do love me, I am nothing
jealous; What you would work me to, I have some aim ; 3 How I have thought of this, and of these
times, I shall recount hereafter; [Cassius is going to
speak; checking hvm\ for this present, I would not, so with love I might entreat you, Be any further mov'd. What you have said, I will consider; what you have to say, I will with patience hear; and find a time 169 Both meet to hear and answer such high things.
[Shouts heard nearer. QTill then, my noble friend, chew ujjou this: Brutus had rather be a villager ( Than to repute himself a son of Rome I Under these hard conditions as4 this time <Is like to lay upon us.
i Flood, the deluge of Deucalion.
- Brutus, Lucius Junius Brutus, who expelled the Tarquins. 3 Aim, conjecture. *^4s=suchas.
( '<X88. I am glad ttfi
That my weak words have struck but thus
much show Of fire from Brutus. [Music.
Bru."2 The games arc done, and Caesar is:
returning. Cass. As they pass by, pluck < !asca by the sleeve; 179
And he will, after his sour fashion, tell you What hath proceeded worthy note to-day.
Bru. I will do so. — But, look you, ( iassius, The angry spot doth glow on Caesar's brow, And all the rest look like a chidden train; QCalpumia's cheek is pale, and Cicero Looks with such ferret and such fiery eve-. As we have seen him in the Capitol, Being cross'd in conference5 by some senators. ] Cass. Casca will tell us what the matter is. [Music. Re-enter Ccesar, Antony, and the rest as before in procession. Cats. Antonius! 190
Ant. Caesar?
Go's. Let me have men about me that are fat, Sleek-headed men, and such as sleep o' nights: Yond Cassius has a lean and hungry look; He thinks too much: such men are dangerous. Ant. Fear him not, Caesar; he's not dan- gerous. He is a noble Roman and well given.6
Cces. Would he were fatter! — but I fear him not: Yet if my name were liable to fear, I do not know the man I should avoid 200 So soon as that spare Cassius. He reads
much ; He is a great observer, and he looks Quite through the deeds of men : he loves no
plays, As thou dost, Antony; he hears no music: Seldom he smiles; and smiles in such a sort, As if he mock'd himself, and scorn'd his
spirit That could be mov'd to smile at any thing. Such men as he be never at heart's ease Whiles they behold a greater than themselves; And therefore are they very dangerous. 210 I rather tell thee what is to be fear'd Than what 1 fear, — for always I am Caesar.
5 Conference, debata
6 Given, disposed.
93
A.CT I. Scene
-If ui s c.ksai;.
ACT I. Scene 2.
Come "ii my right hand, for this ear is deaf,
And t<ll me truly what thou think'st of him.
[Antony goes to Caesar's side; Brutus
crosses to Casca a* he is going, and
pulls his clonk. Music. Exeunt
nil in procession, except Casca,
Brutus, 'i, nl < 'assius.
Casca. You pull'd me by the cloak; would
you speak with me? Ilr". Ay, ( asca; tell us what hath chanc'd to-day, That Csesar looks so sad.
( 'asca. Why, you were with him, were you
not?
Bru. I should not then ask Casca what had
chanc'd. 219
' '. Why, there was a crown offer'd him ;
ami, being offer'd him, he put it by with the
back of his hand, thus; and then the people
fell a-8houting.
Bru. What was the second noise for? < 'asca. Why, for that too. Cass. They shouted thrice; what was the last cry for?
Casca. Why, for that too. Bru. Was tlif crown offer'd him thrice? Cn.iiu. Ay, marry, was "t, and he put it by thrice, every time gentler than other; and at every putting-by mine honest neighbours shouted.
Cass. Who offer'd him the crown? ( 'asca. Why, Antony. Bru. Tell us the manner of it, gentle Casca. Casca. L can as well be hang'd as tell the manner of it; it was mere foolery, I did not mark it. I saw Mark Antony offer him a crown; — yet 'twas not a crown neither, 't waa one of these coronets; — and, as I told you, he put it by once; but, for all that, to my think- ing, he would fain have had it. Then he offer'd it to him again; then he put it by lin; but, to my thinking, In- was yery loath
to lay his fingers off it. And thru I Herd
it the third time; he put it the third time by; anil still as he refus'd it, the rabblement shouted, andclapp'd their chopp'd hands, and threw up their Bweaty nightcaps, and utter'd such a deal of stinking breath because Csesar refus'd the crown, that it had almost chok'd ii : for he swooned, and fell down at it. 94
And. i"i mine own part, [durst not laugh, for fear of opening my lips and receiving the bad air.
Cass. But, soft, I pray you: what, did Cses i
swoon I
Casca. He fell down in the market-place, and foam'd at mouth, and was speechless,
Bru. T is vt-rv like; — he hath the falling- sickness.1
( '"ss. No, ( a'sar hath it not; but you and 1, And honest < 'asca, we have the falling sick- aess.
Casca. I know not what you mean by that; but I am sure Caesar fell down. If the tag- rag people did not clap him and hiss him, according as he pleas'd and displeas'd them, as tiny use to do the players in the theatre, I am no true2 man.
Urn. What said he when he came unto himself?
Casca. .Marry, before he fell down, when he perceiv'd the common herd was glad he re- fused the crown, he pluck'd me ope his doub- let and offer'd them his throat to cut: — an I had been a man of any occupation,3 if I would not have taken him at a word, I would I mi<dit <a> to hell amony the rogues: — and so he fell. When he came to himself again, he said, If he had done or said any thing amiss, he desir'd their worships to think it was his infirmity. Three or four wenches, where I
st 1, cried, "Alas, good soul!" — and forgave
him with all their hearts: — but there's no heed to be taken of them; if Csesar had stabb'd their mothers, they would have done no less.
Bru. And after that, he came, thus sad, away?
Casca. Ay. 280
Cass. Did Cicero say any thin
Casca. Ay, he spoke Greek.
Cass. To what effect .'
Casca. Nay, an I tell yon that, I'll ne'er look you i'- the face again: -but those that
understood him smiled at one another and shook their heads; but, for mine own part, it was Greek to mc. {_ I could tell yon more news too: Marullus and Flavins, for pulling scarf s off Caesar's images, are put to silence.] Fare
i Falling-sickness, epilepsy, - True, honest.
* Of any occupation, a mechanic, like the plebeians about
him.
ACT I. Scene 2.
JULIUS CiESAR.
ACT [. scene :',.
you well. Tliere was more foolery yet, if I could remember it. 29]
Cass. Will you sup with me to-night, Casca?
Casca. No, I am promis'd forth.1
Cass. Will you dine with me to-morrow?
Casca. Ay, if I be alive, and your mind hold, and your dinner worth the eating.
Cass. Good; I will expect you.
Casca. Do so. Farewell both. [Exit Casca.
Bra. What a blunt fellow is this grown to be! He was quick mettle2 when he went to school. 300
Cass. So is he now, in execution3 Of any bold or noble enterprise, However he puts on this tardy form. This rudeness is a sauce to his good wit, Which gives men stomach to digest his words With better appetite.
Brit. And so it is. For this time I will leave you: To-morrow if you please to speak with me, I will come home to you; or, if you will, 309 Come home to me, and I will wait for you.
Cass. I will do so: — till then, think of the world. — [Exit Brutus.
Well, Brutus, thou art noble; yet, I see, Thy honourable metal may be wrought From that4 it is dispos'd: therefore it is meet That noble minds keep ever with their likes; For who so firm that cannot be seduc'd ? Caesar doth bear me hard,5 but he loves
Brutus ; If I were Brutus now, and he were Cassius, He should not humour me. I will this night, In several hands,0 in at his windows throw, As if they came from several citizens, 321
Writings, all tending to the great opinion That Rome holds of his name; wherein ob- scurely Caesar's ambition shall be glanced at; And after this let Caesar seat him sure; For we will shake him, or worse days endure.
[Exit.
1 1 am promised forth, i.e. I have promised to go out (to supper). - Quick mettle, of a lively spirit.
3 Execution, metrically five syllables.
4 From that, from that to which.
5 Doth bear me hard, has a grudge against me. G Hands, handwritings.
Scene III. A street.
Thunder it in/ lightning. Enter^from opposite sides, Casca, with Ida sword dravmy and Cicero.
\Cic. Good even, Casca: brought7 you < '■■• home? Why are you breathless? and why stare you so?<
Casca. Are not you mov'd, when all the sway8 of earth Shakes like a thing infirm? 0 Cicero, I have seen tempests, when the scoli ling winds Have riv'd the knotty oaks; and I have seen The ambitious ocean swell and rage and foam, To be exalted with the threatening cloiuls: But never till to-night, never till now, Did I go through a tempest dropping fire. L0 Either there is a civil strife in heaven, Or else the world, too saucy with the gods, Incenses them to send destruction.
Cic. Why, saw you any thing more wonderful ?
Casca. A common slave — you know him well by sight- Held up his left hand, which did flame and burn Like twenty torches join'd; and yet his hand, Not sensible of fire, remain'd unscorch'd. Besides, — I have not since put up my sword, —
20'
Against9 the Capitol I met a lion, Who glar'd upon me, and went surly by Without annoying me; and there were drawn Upon a heap10 a hundred ghastly women Transformed with their fear; who swore they
saw Men, all in fire, walk up and down the streets. And yesterday the bird of night did sit Even at noonday upon the market-place, Hooting and shrieking. When these prodi^ ies Do so conjointly meet, let not men say, "These11 are their reasons, — they are natural:" For, I believe, they are portentous things 31 Unto the climate12 that they point upon.
Cic. Indeed, it is a strange-disposed time; But men may construe things after their I
fashion,1"'
? Brought, escorted. * Sway, balance, equilibrium.
9 Against, opposite.
io Brawn upon a heap, crowded close together. ii These, such and such. '- Climate, country.
18 After their fashion, in their own way. 95
ACT I. Scene 3.
• MLIUS CESAR.
ACT I. Scene 3.
Cl. '.in from1 the purpose of the things them- selves. 35 Comes Caesar to the Capitol to-morrow?
Hi' doth* for he did bid Antonius Send word to you lie would be there to-morrow.
Casca. C'assius, what night is this !— (Act i. 3. 42.)
Good night, then, Casca; this disturbed sky 39
[a not to walk in. Cat Farewell, Cicero.
[ Exit Ciccro7\
En!* r ( 'assius.
' t. Who's therel
' tea. A Roman.
1 CI quite away from, or contrary to.
96
Cass, I lasca, by your voice.
Casca. Your ear is good. [Thunder and lightning.] Cassias, what night2 is this! Cass. A very pleasing night to honest nun. Casca. Who ever knew the heavens menace
SI , I
Cass. Those that have known the earth so
full of faults. For my part, I have walk'd about the streets, Submitting me unto the perilous night; And thus unbraced,3 Casca, as you see, Have bar'd my bosom to the thunder-stone:4 And when the cross5 blue lightning seem'd to
open oo
The breast of heaven, T did present myself Even in the aim and very flash of it.
Casca. But wherefore did you so much tempt
the heavens? It is the part of men to fear and tremble When the most mighty gods, by tokens, send Such dreadful heralds to astonish us.
Cass. You are dull, Casca, and those sparks
of life That should be in a Roman you do want, Or else you use not. You look pale, and gaze, And put on fear, and case yourself in wonder, To see the strange impatience of the heavens; But if you would consider the true cause 62 Why all these fires, why all these gliding
ghosts, Why birds, and beasts from quality and kind;0 Why old men fool,7 and children calcxdate; Why all these things change from their ordi- nance,8 Their natures and pre-formed faculties, To monstrous quality, — why, you shall find That heaven hath infus'd them with these
spirits, 69
Tomake them instruments of fear and warning Unto some monstrous state. Now could I, Casca, name to thee a man Most like this dreadful night, That thunders, lightens, opens graves, and
roars
- What night, what a night.
•" I'nbraced, ungirt; explained by the next line.
* Thunder-stone, thunderbolt. ■ Cross, zigzag.
* From quality and kind, i.e. deviate /«wi or change their natures. 7 Fool, become fools.
8 Their ordinance, what they were ordained to be.
A( T I. Scene .'!.
JULIUS C.KSAK.
A' I I -
As doth the lion in the Capitol, —
A man no mightier than thyself or me
In personal action; yet prodigious1 grown,
And fearful, as these strange eruptions are. ( 'asca. "V is ( Isesar that you mean; is it not,
Cassius? Cass. Let it be who it is: for Romans now Have thews and limbs like to their ancestors, But, woe the while!2 our fathers' minds are dead, 82
And we are govern'd with our mothers' spirits; Our yoke and sufferance show us womanish. Casca. Indeed, they say, the senators to- morrow Mean to establish Caesar as a king; And he shall wear his crown by sea and land, In every place, save here in Italy.
Cass. I know where I will wear this dagger, then ; Cassius from bondage will deliver Cassius. 90 Therein, ye gods, you make the weak most
strong; Therein, ye gods, you tyrants do defeat. Nor stony tower, nor walls of beaten brass, Nor airless dungeon, nor strong links of iron, Can be retentive to the strength of spirit; But life, being weary of these worldly bars, Never lacks power to dismiss itself. If I know this, know all the world besides, That part of tyranny that I do bear I can shake off at pleasure. [Thunder.
Casca. So can I; 100
So every bondman in his own hand bears The power to cancel his captivity.
Cass. And why should Csesar be a tyrant, then? Poor man ! I know he would not be a wolf, But that he sees the Romans are but sheep; He were no lion, were not Romans hinds. Those that with haste will make a mighty fire Begin it with weak straws: what trash is Rome, What rubbish, and what offal, when it serves For the base matter to illuminate no
So vile a thing as Caesar ! But, O, grief, Where hast thou led me ? I perhaps speak this Before a willing bondman; then I know My answer must be made; but I am arm'd,
i Prodigious, portentous. 3 Woe the while ! alas for the times ! VOL. V.
And dangers are t<> me indifferent. 115
< 'asca. V< hi speak to ( 'asca; and to such a man
That. isn<i fleering3 tell-tale. Eold, my hand;4
Be factious5 for redress of all these griefs;0 And I will set this fool of mine as far As who goes farthest.
Cass. There's a bargain made.
[Qrasping Casca's hand. Now know you, Casca, I have mov'd already Some certain of the noblest-minded Romans To undergo with me an enterprise Of honourable-dangerous consequence; And I do know, by this, they stay for me In Pompey's porch: [Thunder and lightning]
for now, this fearful night, There is no stir or walking in the streets, And the complexion of the element7 In favour's8 like the work we have in hand, Most bloody, fiery, and most terrible. 130
Casca. Stand close awhile, for here comes
one in haste. Cass. 'T is China; I do know him by his gait: He is a friend. — [Enter Cinna.] China, where haste you so? China. To find out you. Who 's that \
Metellus Cimber? Cass. No, it is Casca; one incorporate To our attempt. Am I not stay'd for, China ? Cinna. I am glad on 't.9 [Thunder.'] What a fearful night is this ! There 's two or three of us have seen strange sights. Cass. Am I not stay'd for? Tell me. Cinna. Yes, you are. —
O Cassius, if you could no
But win the noble Brutus to our party — Cass. Be you content: — good Cinna, take this paper, And look you lay it in the prtetor's chair, Where Brutus may but find it; and throw this In at his window; set this up with wax Upon old Brutus' statue: all this done, Repair to Pompey's porch, where you shall
find us. Is Decius Brutus and Trebonius there ?
s Fleering, sneering.
* Hold, mi/ hand, Here, take my hand.
s Factious, active. 6 Griefs, grievances.
1 Element, sky. s Favour, aspect, appearance.
9 On 't, of it; i.e. that he has joined us.
97 H9
ALT I. Soene S.
JULIUS c.KSAR.
ACT II. Scene 1
Cinna. All lmt Metellus Cimberj and he's
1 19
To seek Mm ;it vmir liouse. "Well, I will hit,1 Ami bo bestow these papers as you bade me. ( 'as&That done, repair to Pompey's theatre. —
| Exit Cinna. Come, < asca, you and 1 will yet ere day Bee Hiatus at his house; three parts of him [s OUTS ahead)-, and the man entire, Upon the next encounter, yields him ours.
Casca. < >, he sits high in all the people's
hearts; And that which would appear offence in us His countenance, like richest alchemy, Will change to virtue and to worthiness. 160 Com. Him and his worth and our great
need of him Yon have right well conceited.2 Let us go, For it is after midnight] and ere day Wewillawakehimandbesureof hiin. [Exeunt.
ACT II.
3 n'k I. Rome. Brutus 's garden. Thunder and lightning.
Enter Brutus.
Bru. What, Lucius! ho! — I cannot, by the progress of the stars, ( Jive guess how near to day. — Lucius, I say ! — I would it were my fault to sleep so soundly. — When,3 Lucius, when? awake, I say! What, Lucius !
Enter Lucius.
Luc. Call'd you, my lord? Urn. ( Jet me a taper in my study, Lucius; When it is lighted, come and call me here. I.iir. I will, my lord. [Exit. Lightning. Bru. It must be by his death; and, for my part, 10
I know no personal cause to spurn at4 him, I '.ut fi >r the general.5 He would be crown'd; — How that might change his nature, there's
the question: It is the bright day that brings forth the adder, A nd licit craves wary walking. Crown him?
— that;0— Ami then, I grant; we put a ating in him, Th.it at his will lie may do danger with. The abuse of gp is when it disjoins
Remorse' from power; and, to speak truth of -ar,
i ll • , hasten. = Ctma ited, conceived, judged.
' When! an exclamation "f Impatience.
* Spurn "i. strike at, attack
* Tht gt <<■ nil, the people, the community. '■ That. be that so, suppose that done.
i /;. mora , mercy, "i pit) its
I have not known when his affections sway'd More than his reason. But 't is a common proof8 2i
That lowliness is young ambition's ladder, Whereto the climber-upward turns his face; But when he once attains the upmost round He then unto the ladder turns his back, Looks in the clouds, scorning the base degrees9 By which he did ascend : so Ca?sar may. Then, lest he may, prevent. And, since the
quarrel Will bear no colour for the thing he is, 29 Fashion it thus: that what he is, augmented, Would run to these and these extremities; And therefore think him as a serpent's egg, Which hatch 'd would, as his kind,10 grow mis- chievous, And kill him in the shell.
En ter Lucius.
Luc. The taper burnetii in your closet, sir. Searching the window for a flint, I found This paper thus seal'd up; and I am sure It did not lie there when I went to bed.
[Gives him a letter.
Bru. < let you to bed again; it is not day. Is not to-morrow, boy, the ides of March i
L»c. I know not, sir. 41
Bru. Look in the calendar, and bring me word.
Luc. I will, sir. [Lightning. Exit.
Urn. The exhalations,11 whizzing in the air,
8 Proof, experience. 9 Base degrees, lower steps.
io As Ins kind, like the rest of his species, n Exhalations, meteors.
ACT II. Scene 1.
JULIUS OESAR
A' I [LB
Give so much light that 1 may read by them. [Opens the letter, kolds it up, and reads. "Brutus, thou sleep'st; awake, and see thyself. Shall Rome, etc. Speak, strike, redress!" "Brutus, thou sleep'st; awake!" Such instigations have been often dropp'd Where I have took them up. 50
"Shall Koine, etc." Thus must I piece it out: Shall Borne stand under one man's awe?
What! Rome? My ancestors did from the streets of Bome The Tarquin drive, when he was call'd a king. " Speak, strike, redress ! " — Am I entreated To speak and strike? O Bome, I make thee
promise, If the redress will follow, thou receivest Thy full petition at the hand of Brutus !
Enter Lucius.
Luc. Sir, March is wasted fifteen days.
[Knocking within.
Bru. 'Tis good. Go to the gate; somebody knocks. — [Exit Lucius.
Since Cassius first did whet me against Csesar I have not slept. 62
Between the acting of a dreadful thing And the first motion, all the interim is Like a phantasina1 or a hideous dream: The Genius2 and the mortal instruments3 Are then in council; and the state of man, Like to a little kingdom, suffers then The nature of an insurrection.
Enter Lucius.
Luc. Sir, 'tis your brother Cassius at the door, 70
Who doth desire to see you.
Bru. Is he alone?
Luc. No, sir; there are moe4 with him. Bru. Do you know them?
Luc. No, sir; their hats are pluck'd about their ears, And half their faces buried in their cloaks, That5 by no means I may discover them By any mark of favour.6 Bru. Let 'em enter.
[Exit Litems.
1 Pkantasma, vision. 2 Genius, spirit, soul.
' Mortal instruments, bodily powers.
4 Moe, more. 5 That, so that. ' Favour, face, feature.
They are the Faction, o conspiracy, Sham'st thou to show thy dangerous brow by night,
When evils are most free? O, then, by day Where wilt thou find a cavern dark enough To mask thy monstrous visage? Seek none. conspiracy; si
Hide it in smiles and affability; For, if thou path," thy native semblance on, Not Erebus itself were dim enough To hide thee from prevention."
Enter Cassius, followed by Casca, Decius, Cinna, Meteli.us Cimber, and Trebomus, with their faces muffled in their togas.
Cass. I think we are too bold upon your rest: Good morrow, Brutus; do we trouble you?
Brit. I have been up this hour,awakeall night. Know I these men that come along with you? Cass. Yes, every man of them; and no man here 90
But honours you; and every one doth wish You had but that opinion of yourself Which every noble Bonian bears of you. —
[They all ttneover their faces. This is Trebonius.
Bru. He is welcome hither.
Cass. This, Decius Brutus. Brit. He is welcome too.
Cass. This, Casca; this, Cinna; and this,
Metellus Cimber. Bru. They are all welcome. — What watchful cares do interpose themselves Betwixt your eyes and night?
Cass. Shall I entreat a word? 100
[He retires xoith Cassius.
Dec. Here lies the east: doth not the day
break here? Casca. No.
Cinna. (>, pardon, sir, it doth; and yon grey lines That fret9 the clouds are messengers of day. ( Wa. You shall confess that you are both deceiv'd. Here, as I point my sword, the sun arises; Which is a great way growing on10 the south,
7 Path, walk.
8 Prevention, discovery, and consequent thwarting.
9 Fret, diversify, variegate.
™ Growing on, verging toward. 99
ACT II. ^cene 1.
.ll'LIUS CAESAR
ACT II. Sceue 1.
Weighing1 the youthful season of the year. Some two months hence up higher toward the north 109
]{•■ firsl presents his fire; and the high east Stands as the ( lapitol, directly here.
[Brutus and Cassius come forward.
Bru. Give me your hands all over, one by one.
Cass. And let us swear our resolution.
Bru. No, not an oath! If not the face of men, The sufferance of our souls, the time's abuse, — If these be motives weak, break off betimes, \n.| every man hence to his idle bed; Si i let high-sighted2 tyranny range on, Till each man drop by lottery. But if these, A< 1 am sure they do, hear fire enough 120 To kindle cowards, and to steel with valour The melting spirits of women; then, country- men, What need we any spur but our own cause To prick us to redress? what other bond Than secret Romans that have spoke the word, And will not palter?3 and what other oath Than honesty to honesty engag'd That this shall be, or we will fall for it? 12s Swear priests and cowards and men cautelous,4 I lid feeble carrions and such suffering souls That welcome wrongs; unto bad causes swear Such creatures as men doubt: but do not stain The even ' virtue of our enterprise, Nor the insuppressive0 metal of our spirits, To think that or our cause or our performance Did need an oath; when every drop of blood, That every Roman hears, and nobly bears, Is guilty of a several" bastardy If he '1" break the smallest particle < tf any promise that hath pass'd from him.
Cats. But what of Cicero? Shall we sound him? 141
I think he will stand very strong with us.
' 'asoa. Let us not leave him out.
Oiwna. No, by no means.
Met. 0, let us have him; for his silver hairs Will purchase us a good opinion, Ami buy men's voices to commend our deeds:
' ii". ightng, considering.
ll ighted, supercilious, haughty.
/■"//. /-, shuffle, equivocate. • CavUHoui, crafty, wary. * Even, pure, blameless.
« Inwppressive, irrepressible. 7 Several, separate. 100
It shall be said, his judgment rul'd our hands; Our youths and w i Id ness shall no whit appear, l!ut all be buried in his gravity.
Bru. 0, name him not: let us not break with him;8 150
For he will never follow any thing That other men begin.
Cass. Then leave him out.
I'ascu. Indeed, he is not tit.
Dec. Shall no man else be touch'd but only Caesar '.
Cass. Deems, well urg'd: — I think it is not meet Mark Antony, so well belov'd of Caesar, Should outlive Caesar. We shall find of him A shrewd'-' contriver, and you know his means, If he improve them, may well stretch so far As to annoy us all; which to prevent, 160
Let Antony and Caesar fall together.
Bru. Our course will seem too bloody, Cains Cassius, To cut the head off and then hack the limbs, Like wrath in death, and envy10 afterwards; For Antony is but a limb of Caesar; Let us be sacrificers, but not butchers, Cains. We all stand up against the spirit of Caesar, And in the spirit of men there is no blood; O, that we then could come by11 Caesar's spirit, And not dismember Caesar! But, alas, 170 Caesar must bleed for it! And, gentle friends, Let's kill him boldly, but not wrathfully; Let's carve him as a dish fit for the gods, Not hew him as a carcass fit for hounds: And let our hearts, as subtle masters do, Stir up their servants to an act of rage, And after seem to chide 'em. This shall make12 Our purpose necessary and not envious;13 Which si 1 appearing to the common eyes, We shall be call'd purgers,14 not murderers. And for Mark Antony, think not of him; isi For he can do no more than tVsar's arm When Cesar's head is oti'.
Ca.w. Yet I fear him;
For in the ingrafted love he bears fco I tesar —
Bru. Alas, good< 'assius, do not think of him:
8 Break with him, broach it to him.
• ffliv/n/, evil, mischievous. i° Envy, malice. n Come by, get at.
12 Make, make to appear. i* Envious, malicious.
1* Purgerx, cleansers or healers.
ACT II. Scene 1.
JULIUS CAESAR.
ACT II. &
If he love Caesar, all that he can do Is to himself, — take thought1 anddieforCaesar; And that were much he should ; for he is given To sports, to wildness, and much company.
Treb. There is no fear- in him; let him not die; 190
For he will live and laugh at this hereafter.
[Clock strikes.
Bru. Peace! count the clock.
Cass. The clock has stricken three.
Treb. 'T is time to part.
Cass. But it is doubtful yet
Whether Csesar will come forth to-day or no; For he is superstitious grown of late; Quite from3 the main4 opinion he held once Of fantasy, of dreams, and ceremonies:5 It may be, these apparent6 prodigies, The unaccustom'd terror of this night, And the persuasion of his augurers 200
May hold him from the Capitol to-day.
Dec. Never fear that. If he be so resolv'd, I can o'ersway him; for he loves to hear That unicorns may be betray'd with trees, And bears with glasses, elephants with holes, Lions with toils, and men with flatterers: But, when I tell him he hates flatterers, He says he does, — being then most flattered. Let me work;
For I can give his humour the true bent, 210 And I will bring him to the Capitol.
Cass. Nay, we will all of us be there to fetch him.
Bru. By the eighth hour; is that the utter- most1?
Cinna. Be that the uttermost, and fail not then.
Met. Caius Ligarius doth bear Caesar hard," Who rated him for speaking well of Pompey; I wonder none of you have thought of him.
Bru. Now, good Metellus, go along by him:8 He loves me well, and I have given him reasons ; Send him but hither, and I '11 fashion him.
i Take thought, give way to anxiety or despondency. - Fear, ground for fear, cause of fear. 3 From, away from, contrary to. * Main, strong, fixed.
5 Ceremonies, omens drawn from sacrifices, or ceremonial rites. 6 Apparent, manifest.
7 Bear Caesar hard, bear him a grudge.
8 Bij him, by his house.
Cass. The morning comes upon 's; we'll leave you, Brutus. — 221
And, friends, disperse yourselves; but all re- member What you have said, and show yourselves true Romans. Bru. Good gentlemen, look fresh and merrily. Let not our looks put on9 our purposes; But bear it as our Roman actors do, With untir'd spirits and formal constancy:10 And so, good morrow to you every one. —
[Exeunt all but Brutus, muffling up their faces in their togas. QBoy! Lucius! — Fast asleep? It is no matter; Enjoy the honey-heavy dew of slumber: 230 Thou hast no figures,11 nor no fantasies, Which busy care draws in the brains of men ; Therefore thou sleep'st so sound.]
Enter Portia.
For. Brutus, my lord!
Bru. Portia, what mean you? Wherefore rise you now? It is not for your health tints to commit Your weak condition to the raw cold moraine.
Por. Nor for yours neither. You've un- gently, Brutus, Stole from my bed; and yesternight, at supper, You suddenly arose and walk'd about, 239 Musing and sighing, with your arms across; And, when I ask'd you what the matter was, You star'd upon me with ungentle looks: I urg'd you further; then you scratch'd your
head, And too impatiently stamp'd with your foot: Yet I insisted, yet you answer'd not, But with an angry wafture12 of your hand Gave sign for me to leave you. Q So I did ; Fearing to strengthen that impatience Which seemed too much enkindled ; and withal Hoping it was but an effect of humour, 250 Which sometime hath his hour with every
man. It will not let you eat, nor talk, nor sleep, And, could it work so much upon your shape As it hath much prevail'd on your condition,13
9 Put on. show, disclose. 1° Formal constancy, outward self-possession. I1 Figures, pictures created by imagination. 1- Wafture, waving. ls Condition, disposition, temper. 101
A.I I ii. Boene t.
.lULIl'S C.KSAI!.
ACT II. Scene 1.
I Bhould not know you, Brutus.] Dearmylord,
Make me acquainted with your cause of grief.
Bru. I am not well in health, and that is all.
Bru. [Raiting htr] Kneel not, gentle Portia.— (Act ii. 1. 278.)
Por. Brutus is wise, and, were he not in health, He would embrace the means to come by it. Bru. Why, so I do.— Good Portia, go to bed. 2oo
Por. I- Brutus sick? -£ and is it physical1 To walk unbraced2 and suck up the humours
' /■in/sir,, i, medicinal, wholesome. r braa 'i, nngirl L02
Of tlie (lank3 morning? What! is Brutus sick,] And will he steal out of his wholesome bed, To dare the vile contagion of the night, And tempt the rheumy4 and unpurged air To add unto his sickness? No, my Brutus; You have some sick offence5 within your mind, Which, by the right and virtue of my place, I ought to know of: and, upon my knees, 270
[Kneels. I charm0 you, by my once commended beauty, By all your vows of love and that great vow, Which did incorporate and make us one, That you unfold to me, yourself, your half, Why you are heavy, and what men to-night Have had resort to you; for here have been Some six or seven, who did hide their faces Even from darkness.
lira. [Raising her] Kneel not, gentle Portia.
Por. I should not need, if you were gentle Brutus. Within the bond of marriage, tell me, Brutus, Is it excepted I should know no secrets 281 That appertain to you ? Am I yourself But, as it were, in sort or limitation, To keep with you at meals, comfort your bed, And talk to you sometimes? Dwell I but in
the suburbs Of your good pleasure ? If it be no more, Portia is Brutus' harlot, not his wife.
Bru. You are my true and honourable wife; As dear to me as are the ruddy drops That visit my sad heart. [Embraces her.
Por. If this were true, then should I know this secret. 291
I grant I am a woman; but withal A woman that Lord Brutus took to wife: I grant I am a woman; but withal A woman well reputed, Cato's daughter. Think you I am no stronger than my sex, Beinji' so father'd and so husbanded? Tell me your counsels; I will not disclose 'em: I have made strong proof of my constancy, Giving myself a voluntary wound 300
Here in the thigh ; can I bear that with patience, And not my husband's secrets?
3 Dank, damp, moist.
* Rheumy, causing rheumatism; according to some = damp
« Sonic sick offence, something that offends and makes you sick. c Charm, conjure.
■A:"'"''" i
1
ultty '-
mmmm
ACT II. Scene 1.
Jl LIUS CAESAR.
ACT II. S
Bru. O ye gods,
Render me worthy of this noble wife! — 303
[Knocking within. Hark, hark ! one knocks. Portia,go in a while; And by and by thy bosom shall partake The secrets of my heart. All my engagements I will construe to thee, All the charactery1 of my sad brows: Leave me with haste.— [Exit Portia.
Eater Lucius and Ligarius.
Lucius, who's that knocks?
Luc. Here is a sick man that wonld speak
with you. 310
Bru. Caius Ligarius, that Metellus spake
of.—
Boy, stand aside. — Caius Ligarius! how?
Lig. Vouchsafe good morrow from a feeble
tongue. Bru. O, what a time have you chose out, brave Caius, To wear a kerchief ! Would you were not sick ! Lig. I am not sick, if Brutus have in hand Any exploit worthy the name of honour.
Bru. Such an exploit have I inhand, Ligarius, QHad you a healthful ear to hear of it. 319 Lig. By all the gods that Romans bow before, ; I here discard my sickness. Soul of Rome ! Brave son, deriv'd from honourable loins ! Thou, like an exorcist,2 has conjur'd up My mortified3 spirit. Now bid me run, Anil I will strive with things impossible, , Yea, get the better of them. What 's to do ? Bru. A piece of work that will make sick
men whole. Lig. But are not some whole that we must
make sick? Bru. That must we also. What it is, my ; Caius, ]
I shall unfold to thee, as we are going, 330 To whom4 it must be done.
Lig. Set on your foot;
And with a heart new-fir'd I follow you, To do I know not what; but it sufficeth That Brutus leads me on.
Bru. Follow me, then. [Exeunt.
1 Character!/, handwriting.
- Exorcist, one who raises spirits. See note 89, II. Henry VI. 3 Mortified, deadened.
* To whom, to him to whom.
Scene II. A room in Caesar's palace.
Thunder and lightning. Enter Gesar in his night-gown.
Cces. Nor heaven nor earth have been at peace to-nighl ; Thrice hath Calpurnia in her sleep cried out, "Help, ho! they murder Caesar!" — Who within?
Enter a Servant.
Serv. My lord !
Cces. Go bid the priests do present5 sacrifice, And bring me their opinions of success. Serv. I will, my lord. [Exit.
Enter Calpurnia.
Cat. What mean you, Caesar? Think you
to walk forth ? You shall not stir out of your house to-day. Ca>s. Caesar shall forth. The things that
threaten'd me 10
Ne'er look'd but on my back; when they shall
see The face of Caesar, they are vanished.
Col. Caesar, I never stood on ceremonies,6 Yet now they fright me. There is one within, Besides the things that we have heard and
seen, Recounts most horrid sights seen by the watch. A lioness hath whelped in the streets; And graves have yawn'd and yielded up their
dead ; Fierce fiery warriors fought upon the clouds, In ranks and squadrons and right form of war. Which drizzled blood upon the Capitol; 21 The noise of battle hurtled7 in the air, Horses did neigh and dying men did groan; And ghosts did shriek and squeal about the
streets. O Caesar! these things are beyond all use,s And I do fear them.
Cces. What can be avoided,
Whose end is purpos'd by the mighty gods? Q Yet Caesar shall go forth ; f< >r these predicts >ns Are to the world in general as to < feesar.
5 Present, immediate.
> Stood on ceremonies, laid stress on omens.
1 Hurtled, clashed. 8 Use. what is usual.
103
ACT II. Scene 2.
JULIUS C-ESAR.
ACT II. Scene 2.
Cat. When beggars die, there are no comets seen; 30
The heavens themselves blaze forth the death of princes.
Ccea."2 ('"wards die many times before their deaths;
'111'' valiant never taste of death but once. < >f all the wonders that I yet have heard. It seems to me most strangethat men shouh 1 fear ; Seeing that death, a necessary end, Will come when it will come. —
Enter a Servant.
What Bay the augurers? Sen: They would nut have you to stir forth to-day. Plucking the entrails of an offering forth, 39 They could not find a heart within the beast. Cces. The gods do this in shame of cowardice; ( laesar should be a beast without a heart,
[Exit Servant. If he should stay at borne to-day for fear. NV), Caesar shall ["not. Danger knows full well 'That Caesar is more dangerous than he. We air two lions littered in one day, <And I the elder and more terrible; — . And ( !gesar shall] go forth.
Cal. Alas! my lord,
Four wisdom is consum'd in confidence. 1 )o not go forth to-day. Call it my fear 50 That keeps you in the house, and not your own. We 11 send Mark Antony to the senate-house, And he shall say you are not well to-day; Let me, upon my knees, prevail in this.
Cces. Mark Antony shall say I am not well, And, for thy humour, I will stay at home.
Enter Decius.
Here 's Decius Brutus, he shall tell them so.
Dec. < 'a?sar, all hail ! Good morrow, worthy 1 3ar; I come to fetch yon to the senate-house.
Cces. And you are come in very happy time To bear my greeting to the senators, 01
And tell them that [ will not come to-day.
Cannot is false; and that I dare not, falser;
I will not come to-day Tell them so, Decius.
Cal. Say. lie i- sick
Cces. shall ( tesar send a lie 1
Save I in conquesl stretch'd nunc arm so far,
104
To be afeard1 to tell greybeards the truth? — Decius, go tell them Caesar will not come.
/>•<■. Most mighty L'cesar, let me know some cause, Lest I be laugh'd at when I tell them so. 70
Cces. The cause is in my will, — I will not come: That is enough to satisfy the senate. But, for your private satisfaction, Because I love you, I will let you know: — Calpumia here, my wife, stays- me at home. She dream'd to-night she saw my statua,3 Which, like a fountain with an hundred spouts, Did run pure blood; and many lusty Romans Came smiling ami did bathe their hands in it; And these
Does she apply for warnings and portents so Of evils imminent; and on her knee Hath begg'd that I will stay at home to-day.
Dec. This dream is all amiss interpreted; It was a vision fair and fortunate. Your statue spouting blood in many pipes, In which so many smiling Romans bath'd, Signifies that from you great Rome shall suck Reviving blood; and that great men shall press For tinctures, stains, relics, and cognizance.4 This by Calpurnia's dream is signified. 90
Civs. And this way have you well ex- pounded it.
Dec. 1 have, when you have heard what I can say; And know it now. The senate have concluded To give this day a crown to mighty Caesar. If you shall send them word you will not come, Their minds may change. Besides, it were a
mock Apt to be render'd,5 for some one to say. "Break up the senate till another time, When Caesar's wife shall meet with better
dreams." If Caesar hide himself, shall they not whisper. "Lo, ( Vsar is afraid"? Pardon me, < fcesar, for my dear, dear love To your proceeding8 bids me tell you this; And reason to niv love is liable.7
1 Afeard, used interchangeably with afraid.
» Stays, i.e. makes me Btay. 3 Statua. statue.
* Cognizance, tokens, bou venire; plural
1 Apt to be render'd, likely to be uttered in reply.
■ /■, oa eding progress, career
' Liable, Bubject, subordinate.
ACT II. Scene 2.
.11'] JUS CESAR.
Cccs. How foolish do your fears seem now, Calpurnia! 105
I am ashamed I did yield to them. — QGive me my robe, for I will go. — ]
Enter Publius, Brutus, Ligarius, Metellus, Casca, Trebonius, and Cinna.
And look where Publius is come to fetch me.
[Exit Calpurnia.
Pub. ( rood morrow, ( 'a-sar.
t 'ass. Welcome, Publius. —
What, Brutus, are you stirrd so early too? — QGood morrow, Casca. Caiua Ligarius, uij < Isesar was ne'er so much your enemy As that same ague wl 1 ich hath niadeyou lean. — What is 't o'clock!1
Bru. Caesar, 't is strucken eight.
C<m] I thank youforyour pains and courtesy.
Art. Here will I stand till Caesar pass along.— (Act ii. 3. 11.)
Enter Antony.
See! Antony, that revels long o' nights, Is notwithstanding up. — Good morrow, An- tony. Ant. So to most noble Caesar. Cats. Bid them prepare within. —
I am to blame to be thus waited for. — Now, Cinna: — Now, Metellus: — what, Tre- bonius! 120 I have an hour's talk in store for you. Remember that you call on me to-day ; Be near me, that T may remember you.
Treb. Caesar, I will: — [aside] and so near will I be
That your beat friends shall wish I had been
further. 125
Ca?s. Good friends, go in, and taste some
wine with me;
And we, like friends, will straightway go
together.
[Exeunt Ccesar and Antony, Casea "ml Ur- dus, Cinna a ml Metellus, and Trebonius. Bru. That every like is not the same,1 O Caesar, The heart of Brutus yearns- to think upon!
V'-
i That evert/ like it not the same, that the Bemblance is not always the reality (the same as it seems).
- Yearns, grieves.
1 1 >5
ACT II. Sceue 3.
JULIUS < -Ks \l,\
ACT II. >
Scene III. A street near the Capitol.
/.' ■ ■ Artemidorus, reading a paper.
A '. " ' tesar, beware of Brutus; take heed of t a>- sius; come not near Caeca; have- an eye to Cinna; trust Qot Trebonius; mark well Metellus Cimbi Deciua Brutus loves thee not; thou hast wrong'd
t aius Ligarius. There is but one minol in all tl; men, and it is bent against (Aesar. If thou beest not immortal, look about you; security gives way1 to The mighty y^"'s defend thee! Thy
lover, AKTKMIDOIU s. '
Here will I stand till < teesar pass along, 11
Ami as a suitor will I give him this.
Mv heart laments that virtue cannot live
< hit "f- the teeth of emulation.3
If thou read this, < > < isesar, thou mayst live;
If not, the fates with traitors do contrive.4
[Exit.
Scene I V. Anotfu r part of the same street, ],. fore the house of Brutus.
Enter Poetu "//-/Lucius.
/'.-A [ prithee, boy, run to the senate-house;
Stay imt to answer me, but get thee gone: Why dost thou stay !
L.i,-. To know my errand, madam.
Por. I would have had thee there, and here
again, Ere I can tell thee what thou shouldst do
there. —
[Aside] 0 constancy,5 be strong upon my
side!
Set a huge mountain 'tween my heart and
tongue! I have a man's mind, hut a woman's might. Bow hard it is for women to keep counsel! — Ai i thou here 3 el 1
Luc. Madam, what should I do?
Run to the < apitol, and nothing else1? 11
And ni return to you, and nothing else? Por. Yea, bring me word, hoy, if thy lord
look Well,
I he went sickly forth; and take good note
1 Set ;/. carelessness, or lack of caution,
• I" n~ i ".i> - Out of, i e. out of the reach of.
wlation, envy * Contrive, conspire, plot.
tutaney, m if possession. 106
What ( a s.ir doth, what Buitors press to him.
1 I a 1 k, h,,\ ; what noise is that 1 Luc. I hear none, madam.
Por. Prithee, listen well;
1 heard a bustling rumour8 like a fray, And the wind brings it from the CapitoL
Luc Sooth,7 madam, I hear nothing. 20
l-Jiit'-r tin: Soothsayer.
Por. Come hither, fellow: which way hast
thoU heel! '. Sooth. At mine own house, good lady. Por. What is 't o'clock? Smith. About the ninth hour, lady.
Por. Is ( Vsar yet gone to the < lapitol ? Smith. Madam, not yet; I go to take my stand, To see him pass on to the Capitol.
/'///•. Thou hast some suit to (Vsar, hast
thou not j Sooth. That I have, lady; if it will please ( Vsar To be so good to Caesar as to hear me, 1 shall beseech him to befriend himself. 30 Por. Why, know'st thou any harm's in- tended8 towards him '. Smith. None that I know will he, much that I fear may chance. Good morrow to you. — Here the street is nar- row; The throng that follows < isesar at the heels, Of senators, of praetors, common suitors, Will crowd a feeble man almost to death: I 11 gel me to a place more void,9 and there Speak to great Ciesar as he comes along.
[Exit. For. I must go in. — Ay me, how weak a thing The heart of woman is! () Brutus, 40
The heavens speed thee in thine enterprise! — Sure, the boy heard me. — Brutus hath a suit, That ( Vsar will not grant. — O, I grow faint!— Run, Lucius, and commend me to my lord: Say I am merry: come to me again, And bring me word what he doth Bay to thee.
/■/ . .1 ,,i st ■■■ rally.
■ Rumour, murmur, noise. " Smith, in truth.
• Harm s intended, harm that is intended.
■ Void, open; opposed t" narrow above.
ACT III. Scene 1.
JULIUS (LESAR.
ACT III. Sceue 1.
ACT III.
Scene I. The Capitol; the Senate sitting.
A crowd of people in the street leading to the Capitol; among them Artemidorus and the Soothsayer. Flourish, Enter Gssab, Bru- tus, Casbius, Casca, Decius, Metellus, Trebonius, Cinna, Antony, Lepidus, Popi- lius, Publics, and others.
Cces. The ides of March are come. Sooth. Ay, Caesar; but not gone.
Art. Hail, Caesar! Read this schedule.
Dec. Trebonius doth desire you to o'er- read,
At your lust leisure, this his humble suit. Art. O, Caesar, read mine first; for mine's
;t suit That touches Caesar nearer: read it, great Caesar. Ctes. What touches us ourself shall be last servo! . 8
Par. Why, know'st thou any harm's intended towards him?— (Act ii. 4. 31.)
Art. Delay not, Caesar; read it in- stantly. Cas. What ! is the fellow mad 1 Pub. Sirrah, give place.
[Forcing the Soothsayer off. Cass. What! urge you your petitions in the street ? Come to the Capitol.
Caesar enters the Capitol, the rest following. All the Senators rise. Caesar sits in state chair.
Pop. [To Cassias] I wish your enterprise
to-day may thrive. Cass. What enterprise, Popilius ? Pop. Fare you well.
[Advances to Ccesar. 107
A.I I 111 Bcene 1.
JULIUS C-ESAU.
ACT III. Scene 1.
Urn. What slid Popiliufl Lena.' Cass. Eewiah'd to-day our enterprise might thrive. I fear our purpose is discovered.
[Casca crosses behind to Cassius, and Decius to Casca. Bru. L< " >k, how lie makes to Caesar; mark him. 1. ( asca, be sudden, for we fear preven- tion.— 10 Brutus, what shall be done? If this be known, ( lassiua or Cesar never shall turn back,1 For I will slay myself.
[Popilius kisses C&scn-'s hand. Bru. Cassius, be constant:
Popilius Lena speaks not of our purposes; For,look, he smiles, and Caesar doth not change.8 Cass. Trebonius knows his time; for, look you, Brutus, He draws .Mark Antony out of the way.
[Antony and Trebonius cross behind state el, air and exeunt. Dec. [Crosses to Brutus] Where is Metellus ( limber i Let him go And presently prefer his suit to Caesar.
[Metellus ad rauces to C&sar's chair. Bru. He is address'd:3 press near and second
him. Cinna. ('asca, you are the first that rears your hand. 30
Casca. Are we all ready?
[Goes to side of Cesar's chair. < 'ass. What is now amiss
That < '.'-sai' and his senate must redress? .1/ '. Most high, most mighty, and most puissant < tesar, Metellus < limber throws l>efoi*e thy seat An humble heart. — [Kneeling.
Cobs. I must prevent thee, Cimber.
These couchings and these lowly courtesies Might tin- the blood >>f ordinary men, And turn piv-ordinance and first decree
Into the law of children. Be not fond.1 To think th bears such rebel Mood
That will be thaVd from the true quality 4i With ' that which melteth fools, — I mean sweet words,
i Tn, „ bad . 1. turn home.
ilour or expri Mion d, prepared, ready. t Fond, foolish. With, by.
108
Low-crooked curtsies, and base spaniel fawn- ing. 43 Thy brother by decree is banished; If thou dost bend and pray and fawn for
him, I spurn thee like a cur out of my way. Know, Csesar doth not wrong; nor without
cause Will he be satisfied. [Metellus rises.
Met. Is there no voice more worthy than my own, 49
To sound more sweetly in great Caesar's ear For the repealing6 of my banish'd brother? Bru. [Kneeling] I kiss thy hand, but not in flattery, Caesar; Desiring thee that Publius Cimber may Have an immediate freedom of repeal.
[Brutus rises. Cats. What, Brutus !
Cass. [Kneeling] Pardon, Caesar; Coesar, pardon : As low as to thy foot doth Cassius fall, To beg enfranchisement for Publius < limber.
Cces. I could he well niov'd, if I were as you; If I could pray to move," prayers would move
me: But I am constant as the northern star, co
[Cassius rises. Of whose true-fix'd and resting quality There is no fellow in the firmament The skies are painted with unnumher'd sparks; They are all fire, and every one doth shine; But there s but one in all doth hold his place: So, in the world; 'tis furnish'd well with men, And men are flesh and blood, and apprehen- sive;8 Yet, in the number, I do know but one That unassailable holds on his rank, Unshak'd of motion: and that 1 am he, to Let me a little show it, even in this, — That 1 was constant Cimbershould be banish'd, And constant do remain to keep him so. Cinna. I Kneeling] 0 < Seesar! — Cces. Hence! wilt thou lift up Olympus? Dec. [Kneeling] Great Csesar, — Coes. I Mb not llrutus bootless kneel?
• /;. pealing, recalling (from exile). 1 Pray to move, resort to prayers in order to move others ^ Apprehensive, endowed with apprehension, intelligent
ACT III. Scene 1.
JULIUS CESAR
Mi ill. Scene l.
Casca. Speak, hands, for me. [Metellus lays hold on t 'cesar's robe; — Casca stahs Ccesar in t/t>- neck: Caesar catches hold of his arm. He then is stabbed by several other Conspirators, and at last by Marcus Brutus. Cm. Et tu, Brute/1— Then, fall, Caesar. [Falls dead at the foot of Pompey's statue. The Senators and People retire in con- fusion. rj Cinna. Liberty ! Freedom ! Tyranny is dead ! — j Run hence, proclaim, cry it about the streets. Cass. Some to the common pulpits, and cry out, so
'< " Liberty, freedom, and enfranchisement ! " ] Bru. People, and senators! be not affrighted; Fly not; stand still: — ambition's debt is paid. Q Casca. Go to the pulpit, Brutus. Dec. And Cassius too. Bru. Where's Publius? Cinna. Here, quite confounded with this
mutiny. Met. Stand fast together, lest some friend of Caesars Should chance —
Bru. Talk not of standing.— Publius, good cheer;2] S9
There is no harm intended to your person, Nor to no Roman else: so tell them, Publius. Cass. And leave us, Publius; lest that the people Rushing on us should do youragesome mischief. Bru. Do so; — and let no man abide3 this deed, But we the doers.
Enter Trebonius.
Cass. Where is Antony?
Treb. Fled to his house amaz'd. Men, wives, and children stare, cry out, and run, As it were doomsday.
Bru. Fates ! we will know your pleasures: — That we shall die, we know; 'tis but the time, And drawing days out, that men stand upon.
Casca. Why, he that cuts off twenty years of life 101
Cuts off so many years of fearing death.
1 Et tit. Brute! And thou, Brutus!
2 Good cheer, be of good cheer, be not alarmed. s Abide, answer fur.
Bru. Grant that, and then is death a benefit ; So are we Caesar's friends, that have abridg'd His time of fearing death. — Q Stoop, Romans,
BCOOp,
And let us bathe our hands in Caesar's blood Up to the elbows, and besmear our swords;] Then walk we forth, even to the market-place, And, waving our red weapons o'er our heads, Let 'sail cry, "Peace! Freedom! and Liberty! " ( 'ass. QStoop, then, and wash. — ] How many
cages hence
in
Shall this our lofty scene be acted o'er
In states unborn and accents yet unknown !
Bru. How many times shall Caesar bleed in sport, That now on Pompey's basis4 lies along No worthier than the dust !
Cass. So oft as that shall be,
So often shall the knot of us be call'd The men that gave their country liberty, lis
Dec. What! shall we forth ?
Cass. Ay, every man away;
Brutus shall lead; and we will grace his heels With the most boldest and best hearts of Rome.
Enter a Servant.
Bru. Soft, who comes here1? A friend of
Antony's. Serv. Thus, Brutus, did my master bid me
kneel ; [Kneeling.
Thus did Mark Antony bid me fall down; And, being prostrate, thus he bade me say: — Brutus is noble, wise, valiant, and honest; Caesar was mighty, bold, royal, and loving. Say I love Brutus and I honour him; Say I fear'd Caesar, honour'd him, and lov'd
him. If Brutus will vouchsafe that Antony 130
May safely come to him and be resolv'd5 How Caesar hath deserv'd to lie in death, Mark Antony shall not love Caesar dead So well as Brutus living; but will follow The fortunes and affairs of noble Brutus Thorough0 the hazards of this untrod state With all true faith. So says my master Antony. Bru. Thy master is a wise and valiant Roman; I never thought him worse. [Sercant rises.
4 On Pompeii'* basis, i.e. at the base of Pompey's statue.
5 Resolv'd, informed, satisfied.
6 Thorough, the original form of through.
109
a ( r in. Boene 1.
.HLir.s ( i;>ai;.
ACT III. Scene 1.
TelJ him, bo please him come unto tin- place, Hi- ahall be satisfied; and, by my honour, 141 I teparl untouch'd,
N rv. I'll fetch him presently.
[Exit s. rvant.
Bru. I know that we shall have him well t>> friend.1
< 'a&8. 1 wish we may : but yet have 1 a mind That fears him much; and my misgiving still- Falls shrewdly to the purpose.3
Bru. I'>ut here comes Antony. —
Enter Antony.
Welcome, Mark Antony. A at. O mighty CYesar! Dost thou lie so low ? [Kneeling by Ccesar's body. Are all thy conquests, glories, triumphs, spoils, Shrunk to this little measure? Fare thee well. — 150
\Rizei\ I know not, gentlemen, what you in- tend, Who else must be let blood,4 who else is rank;5 If 1 myself, there is no hour so fit As ( Vsar's death's hour, nor no instrument Of half that worth as those your swords, made
rich With the most noble blood of all this world. I do beseech ye, if you bear me hard,0 TNow, whilst your purpled hands do reek and smoke, ~\ Fulfil your pleasure. Live a thousand years, 1 shall not rind myself so apt to die; 160
No place will please me so, no mean of death, As here by" < Yesar and by you cut off, The choice and master spirits of this age.
Bru. O Antony! beg not your death of us. Though aow wemusl appear bloody and cruel, La, by OUT hands and this our present act, Sou see we do, yet see you but our hands And this the bleeding business they have done: Our hearts you see not: they are pitiful; igg And pity to the general wrong of Rome — As tire drives out tire, so pity pity — Hath done this deed on < toesar. For your part,
i a Mend - 8tiU, always
3 FaUt tkrewdly t., ti,,- purpose, turns out t'i be very uracil t" the purpose. « Let blood, bled, that la, put to death
• o full-iil led
• /;•'/. i, i«' html, i.e. dislike me '£]/, beside
110
To you our swords have leaden points, Mark
Antony; 173
Our arms in strength of malice, and our hearts I >f brothers' temper, do receive you in. With all kind love, good thoughts, and rever- ence. Cos. Your voice shall be as strong as any
man's, In the disposing of new dignities. 178
Bru. Only be patient, till we have appeas'd The multitude, beside themselves with fear, And then we will deliver8 you the cause Why I, that did love CYesar when I struck him, Have thus proceeded.
Ant. I doubt not of your wisdom.
Let each man render me his bloody hand : First, Marcus Brutus, will I shake with you; — Next, Cains ( 'assius, do I take your hand; — Now, Decius Brutus, yours; — now yours, Me-
tellus; — Yours,Cinna; — and, my valiant Casca, yours; — Though last, not least in love, yours, good
Trebonfus. Gentlemen all, — alas! what shall I say? 190 My credit now stands on such slippery ground, That one of two bad ways you must conceit9
me, Either a coward or a flatterer. —
[Bending over Ccesar's body. That I did love thee, Caesar, O, 'tis true! If then thy spirit look upon us now, Shall it not grieve thee dearer10 than thy death, To see thy Antony making his peace, Shaking the bloody lingers of thy foes, — Most noble! in the presence of thy corse? Had I as many eyes as thou hast wounds, 200 Weeping as fast as they stream forth thy
blood, It would become me better than to close In terms of friendship with thine enemies. Pardon me, Julius!— Here wast thou bay'd,"
brave hart; Here didst thou fall; and here thy hunters
stand, Sign'd1'- in thy spoil and crimson'd in thy
lethe."—
* Deliver, declare to. 9 Conceit, conceive, consider. 10 Dearer, more intensely " Bay'd, brought to bay.
i- Sign'd, marked, Btained. 1 /.. the, metaphorically tor flowing blood.
ACT 111. Scene 1.
JULIUS C.KSAl;.
act 111. Scene I.
|[0 world! thou wast the forest to this hart; \ And this, indeed, O world, the heart of thee. — ] How like a deer strucken by many princes ^Dost thou here lie!] 210
Cass. Mark Antony, —
Ant. Pardon me, Caius Cassius:
The enemies of Caesar shall say this; Then, in a friend, it is cold modesty.1
Cass. I blame you not for praising Caesar so; But what compact mean you to have with us ? Will you be prick'd2 in number of our friends; Or shall we on, and not depend on you ?
Ant. Therefore I took your hands; but was indeed Sway'd from the point, by looking down on Caesar. 219
Friends am I with you all and love you all; Upon this hope, that you shall give me reasons Why and wherein Caesar was dangerous.
Bru. Or else were this a savage spectacle: Our reasons are so full of good regard That were you, Antony, the son of Caesar, You should be satisfied.
Ant. That's all I seek;
And am moreover suitor that I may Produce3 his body to the market-place, And in the pulpit, as becomes a friend, Speak in the order of his funeral. 230
Bru. You shall, Mark Antony.
Cass. [Taking him aside] Brutus, a word with you: — You know not what you do: do not consent That Antony speak in his funeral: Know you how much the people may be mov'd By that which he will utter?
Bru. [Aside to Cassius] By your pardon; — I will myself into the pulpit first, And show the reason of our Caesar's death; What Antony shall speak, I will protest He speaks by leave and by permission; And that we are contented Caesar shall 240 Have all true rites and lawful ceremonies. It shall advantage more than do us wrong.
Cass. [Aside to Brutus] I know not what may fall;4 I like it not.
Bru. Mark Antony, here, take you Caesar's body.
1 Cold modesty, cool (dispassionate) moderation.
" Prick'd, marked, i.e. enlisted.
3 Produce, bear forth. * Fall, befall.
You shall not in your funeral Bp li blame us,
But speak all good you can devise of < And say you do't by our permission; Else shall you not have any hand at all About his funeral. And you shall speak In the same pulpit whereto I am going, 250 After my speech is ended.
Ant. Be it so;
I do desire no more.
Bru. Prepare the body then, and follow us. [Exeunt all but Antony.
Ant. [Kneeling at the feet of Casar's body] O, j:>ardon rue, thou bleeding piece of earth, That I am meek and gentle with these but- chers ! Thou art the ruins of the noblest man That ever lived in the tide of times. Woe to the hands that shed this costly blood ! Over thy wounds now do I prophesy, — Which, like dumb mouths, do ope their ruby lips 260
To beg the voice and utterance of my tongue : — A curse shall light upon the limbs of men; Domestic fury and fierce civil strife Shall cumber all the parts of Italy; Blood and destruction shall be so in use, And dreadful objects so familiar, That mothers shall but smile when they behold Their infants quarter'd with the hands of war, All pity chok'd with custom of fell deeds; And Caesar's spirit ranging for revenge, 270 E With Ate by his side come hot from hell,] Shall in these confines with a monarch's voice Cry " Havoc!"5 and let slip the dogs of war; That6 this foul deed shall smell above the earth With carrion men groaning for burial. —
Enter a Servant.
You serve Octavius Caesar, do you not? Serv. I do, Mark Antony. Ant. Caesar did write for him to come to Pome. 27 s
Serv. He did receive his letters and is coming; And bid me say to you, by word of mouth —
[Seeing the body. O Caesar!— [He is overcome with grief.
Ant. Thy heart is big; get thee apart and weep.
5 Havoc ! the old signal that no quarter was to be given, c That, so that.
Ill
a> I ill. Scene 1.
JULIUS CAESAR.
ACT III. Scene J.
Passion,1 I Bee, Lb catching; for mine eyes, Se< iii"' those beads of Borrow stand in thine, Began to water. Is thy master coming?
-. He lies to-night within Beven Leagues
of Rome. Ant. Post back with speed, and tell him
what hath chanc'd. Sere is a mourning Rome, a dangerous Rome, No Rome8 of safety for Octavius yet; 289
Eie hence, and tell him so. Yet, stay awhile; Thou shalt not back till 1 have borne this corse lnt<> the market-place: there shall I try, hi my oratimi, how the people take The cruel issue of these bloody men; According to the which thou shall discourse
©
T«i young * >itavius uf the state of things. Lend me your hand.
[E.ccunt with Casals body.
Scene II. The Forum.
Shouts of I Htun ns heard within. Enter Brutus and < 'assius, and a throng of Citizens.
Citizens. We will be satisfied; let us be
satisfied. Bru. Then follow me, and give me audience, friends. — < assius, go you into the other street, And part the numbers.3 — Those that will hear me speak, let 'em stay
here; Those that will follow Cassius, go with him; And public reasons shall be rendered Of ( asar's death.
First i 'it. I will hear Brutus speak.
AVe. Cit. I will hear ('assius; and compare their reasons, When severally4 we hear them rendered. 10 [Exit Cassius with some of the Citi- zens. Brutus goes into the rostrum. Third Cit. The noble Brutus is ascended: .-ileiice !
Bru. Be patient till the last. Romans, countrymen, and lovers!6 hear me for
my cause, and he silent, that you may hear;
believe me for mine honour, and have respect to mine honour, that you may believe; een-
i Paction, emotion. - Ronu . a play upon room
Part the numbers, < 1 i v i . I e the niultituile. * Severally, nparately. * Lovers, Mends,
112
sure0 me in your wisdom, and awake your senses, that you may the better judge. If there be any in this assembly, any dear friend of Caesar's, to bim [ say that Brutus' love to Caesar was no less than his. If then that friend demand why Brutus rose against < Jsesar, this is my answer, — Not that I loved ( lassar less, but that I loved Rome more. J Lad you rather Caesar wen- living, and die all slaves, than that ( ';esar were dead, to live all free men1? As Caesar loved me, I weep for him; as he was fortunate, 1 rejoice at it; as he was valiant, I honour him; but as he was ambi- tious, 1 slew him. There is tears for his love; joy for his fortune; honour for his valour; and death for his ambition. Who is here so base that would be a bondman? If any, speak; for him have I offended. "Who is here so rude that would not be a Roman % If any, speak; f( r him have I offended. Who is here so vile that will not love his country? If any, speak, for him have I offended. I pause for a reply. All. None, Brutus, none. 38
Bra. Then none have I offended. I have done no more to Caesar than you shall do to Brutus. The question of his death is enrolled in the Capitol; his glory uot extenuated, wherein he was worthy; nor his offences en- forced," for which he suffered death. 44
Enter four Guard* Inuring Caesar's body on a bier, Antony and others.
Here conies his body, mourned by Mark Antony, who, though be had no hand in his death, shall receive the benefit of his dying, a place in the commonwealth; as which of you shall not? With this I depart, — that, as I slew my best lover fur the good of Koine, 1 have the same dagger for myself, when it shall please my country to need my death. 63 [//,■ descends from the rostrum.
All. Live, Brutus, live! live!
First Cit. Bring him with triumph home unto his house.
Sec. ''it. < rive him a statue with his ancestors.
Third ('it. Let him be < 'asar.
Fourth ('it. Caesar's better parts
Shall now be crown :d in Brutus.
c Censure, judge.
7 Enforced, exaggerated.
ACT III. Scene 2.
.11' I.I IS C.KSAK.
ACT III. Scene 2.
First Cit. We '11 bring him to his house with shouts and clamours.
Bru. My countrymen, —
Sec. Cit. Peace ! silence ! Brutus speaks.
First Cit. Peace, ho ! oo
Bru. Good countrymen, let me depart alone, And, for my sake, stay here with Antony; Do grace1 to Caesai*'s corpse, and grace his
speech Tending to Caesar's glories; which Mark Antony By our permission is allow'd to make. I do entreat you, not a man depart, Save I alone, till Antony have spoke. {Exit.
First Cit. Stay, ho ! and let us hear Mark Antony.
Third Cit. Let him go up into the public chair;2 We '11 hear him. — Noble Antony, go up. 69
Ant. For Brutus' sake, I am beholding3 to you. [He (joes up into the rostrum.
Fourth Cit. What does he say of Brutus?
Third Cit. He says, for Brutus' sake,
He finds himself beholding to us all.
Fourth Cit. T were best he speak no harm of Brutus here.
First Cit. This Caesar was a tyrant.
Third Cit. Nay, that's certain;
We are blest that Rome is rid of him.
Sec. Cit. Peace ! let us hear what Antony can say.
Ant. You gentle Romans, —
All. Peace, ho ! let us hear him.
Ant. Friends, Romans, countrymen, lend me your ears; I come to bury Caesar, not to praise him. The evil that men do lives after them, so
The good is oft interred with their bones; So let it be with Caesar. The noble Brutus Hath told you Caesar was ambitious; If it were so, it was a grievous fault, And grievously hath Cesar answer'd it. Here, under leave of Brutus and the rest, — For Brutus is an honourable man, So are they all, all honourable men, — Come I to speak in Caesar's funeral. S9
He was my friend, faithful and just to me: But Brutus says he was ambitious;
1 Grace, honour.
2 Public chair, the rostrum or pulpit in the Forum. Beholding, beholden.
VOL. V.
And Brutus is an honourable man. U2
He hath brought many captives home to Rome, Whose ransom did the general coffers fill; Did this in Caesar seem ambitious?
When that the poor have cried, Caesar hath
wept; Ambition should be made of sterner stuff. Yet Brutus says he was ambitious; And Brutus is an honourable man. You all did see that on the Lupercal 100
I thrice presented him a kingly crown, Which he did thrice refuse: was this ambition? Yet Brutus says, he was ambitious; And, sure, he is an honourable man. I speak not to disprove what Brutus spoke, But here I am to speak what I do know. You all did love him once, — not without cause; What cause withholds you then to mourn for
him ?
0 judgment, thou art fled to brutish beasts, And men have lost their reason ! — Bear with
me; no
My heart is in the coffin there with Caesar, And I must pause till it come back to me. First Cit. Methinks there is much reason in
his sayings. Sec. Cit. If thou consider rightly of the matter, Caesar hath had great wrong.
Third Cit. Has he not, masters?
1 fear there will a worse come in his place. Fourth Cit. Mark'd ye his words? He would
not take the crown ; Therefore 'tis certain he was not ambitious. First ( 'it. If it be found so, some will dear
abide it.4 Sec. Cit. Poor soul ! his eyes are red as fire with weeping. i-'o
Third Cit. There's not a nobler man in
Rome than Antony. Fourth Cit. Now mark him, he begins again
to speak. Ant. But yesterday the word of ( tesar might Have stood against the world ; now lies he
there, And none so poor to do him reverence. O masters! if I were dispos'd to stir Your hearts and minds to mutiny and ra
* Dear abide it. pay dearly for it.
113 120
.\c l [II - tie 2.
JULIUS a-ESAR.
ACT III. Scene 2.
I should do Brutus wrong and Cassius wrong, Who, you all know, are honourable men: 129 I will Dot tic them wrung; I rather choose To wrong the dead, to wrong myself and you, Than 1 will wrong such honourable men. I tut here 'a a parchment, with the seal of Caesar; I found it in his closet; 'tis his wilL Let but the commons1 hear this testament— Which, pardon me, I do not mean to read —
And they would go and kiss dead Caesar's
wounds, And dip their napkins'- in his sacred blood, Yea, beg a hair of him for memory, 139
And, dying, mention it within their wills, Bequeathing it as a rich legacy Unto their issue. Fourth Cit. We'll hear the will: read it, Mark Antony.
' my — 77 " —
■
Ant. You nil do know tliis mantle.— (Act iii. -'. 174.)
All. The will, the' will ! we will hear Caesar's
will. 144
Ant. Save patience, gentle friends, I must
not read it;
It Lsnol iii'-ct you know how Caesar loVd you. You are qoI wood, you are not stones, but
men; And. being men, hearing the will of Cses It will inflame you, it will make you mad:
1 1 you knew nut that you are his
heii 150
For if you should, < >. what would come of it i
mm*. n people, plebeians. - Napkint, handkerchiefs.
114
Fourth Cit. Read the will! we'll hear it, Antony ! 152
You shall read us the will ! Caesar's will I Ant. Will you be patient? Will you stay awhile ? 1 have o'ershol myself, to tell you of it. I fear I wrong the honourable men Whose daggers have stabb'd < ';> -ar: I do fear it Fourth Cit. They were traitors ! honourable men !
Ml. The will! the testament! S . (Kt. They were villains, murderers! Tin will: Read the will! iw
Ant. You will compel me, then, to read the will?
ACT III. Soene 2.
JULIUS CESAR.
ACT III. 8-
Then make a ring about the corpse of Csesar, And let me show you him that made the will. Shall 1 descend ? And will you give me leave?
.1//. Come down.
Sec. ('it. Descend.
[He comes down from the rostrum, and goes to the head of the body.
Third Cit. You shall have leave.
Fourth Cit. A ring; stand round.
First Cit. Stand from the hearse, stand from the body.
Sec. Cit. Room for Autony ! — most noble Antony ! ito
Ant. Nay, press not so upon me; stand far1 off.
All. Stand back ! room ! bear back !
Ant. If you have tears, prepare to shed them now. You all do know this mantle: I remember The first time ever Csesar put it on ; 'Twas on a summer's evening, in his tent, That day2 he overcame the Nervii: — Look! in this place ranCassius' dagger through; See what a rent the envious Casca made; Through this the well-beloved Brutus stabb'd ; And as he pluck'd his cursed steel away, 1S1 Mark how the blood of Csesar follow'd it, As rushing out of doors, to be resolv'd3 If Brutus so unkindly knock'd, or no; For Brutus, as you know, was Caesar's angel:4 Judge, O you gods, how dearly Csesar lov'd
him! This was the most unkindest cut of all; For, when the noble Csesar saw him stab, Ingratitude, more strong than traitors' arms, Quite vanquish'd him: then burst his mighty heart; 190
And, in his mantle muffling up his face, Even at the base of Pompey's statua, Which all the while ran blood, great Csesar fell. O, what a fall was there, my countrymen ! Then I, and you, and all of us fell down, Whilst bloody treason flourish'd over us. O, now you weep; and I perceive you feel The dint5 of pity; these are gracious drops. Kind souls, what! weep you when you but behold
I Far, probably a contraction of farther.
" That day, on that day when. » Resolv'd, satisfied.
* Angel, darling. 5 Dint, impression.
Our Caesar's vesture wounded i Look you here, Here is himself, mam I, as y< >u see, with traitors.
First fit. 0 piteous spectacle ! 202
Sec. Cit. O uoble Csesar!
Third Cit. O woful day! Fourth Cit. O traitors, villains! First ('it. O most bloody sight! Sec. Cit. We will be reveug'd '. All. Revenge! About! Seek! Burn! Fire ! Kill ! Slay ! Let not a traitor live !
Ant. Stay, countrymen. 210
First Cit. Peace there ! Hear the noble
Antony. Sec. Cit. We '11 hear him, we '11 follow him, we'll die with him.
Ant. Good friends, sweet friends, let me not stir you up To such a sudden flood of mutiny. They that have done this deed are honour- able;— What private griefs0 they have, alas ! I know not, That made them do it; they are wise and
honourable, And will, no doubt, with reasons answer you. I come not, friends, to steal away your heart-: I am no orator, as Brutus is; 221
But, as you know me all, a plain blunt man, That love my friend; and that they know
full well That gave me public leave to speak of him. For I have neither wit, nor words, nor worth, Action, nor utterance, nor the power of speech, To stir men's blood: I only speak right on; I tell you that which you yourselves do know, Show you sweet Caesar's wounds, poor, poor
dumb mouths, And bid them speak for me : but, were I
Brutus, And Brutus Antony, there were an Antony Would ruffle up your spirits, and put a tongue In every wound of Csesar that should move The stones of Rome to rise and mutiny. All. We'll mutiny.
First Cit. We '11 burn the house of Brutus. Third Cit. Away, then! come, seek the con- spirators. A nt. Yet hear me, countrymen; yet hear me speak.
" Griefs, grievances. 11.-)
ACT 111 -
.11/ LI is CESAR
ACT III. Scene 2.
All. Peace, ho! Eear Antony, most noble '
Antony. Ant. Why, friends, you go to do you know not what. 240
Wherein hath ( iaesar thus deserv'd your loves? Ala-, .Mm know not! — I must tell you, then : You have forgot the will I told you of.
All. Most true; — the will ! — let's stay, ami hear the will.
Ant. litre is the will, and under Caesar's
Beal:— 245
[Reading tl,<- scroll] To every Roman citizen
he gives, To everv several man, seventy-five drachmas.1 Sec. i'it. .Most noble Csesar ! — we'll revenge
his death. Third <'it. <> royal Csesar! Ant. Hear me with patience. 2.r.o
Third Cit. leu him, tear him '.—(.Vet iii. ::. 40.)
All. Peace, ho ! 251
Ant. Moreover, he hath left you all his
walks,
II is private arbours, and new-planted orchards,2
< >n this side Tiber; he hath left them you, And to your heira for ever, common plea- sures,
To walk abroad, and recreate yourselves. II' re was a < Vsar ! when comes such another I First ('it. Never, never! — Come, away, a was !
We'll burn bis body in the holy place, Ami with the brands tire3 the traitors' houses. • ■ up the body. 201
Oil. Go, fetch fire. Third Cit. Pluck down benchea Fourth Cit. Pluck down forms, windows, any [Exeunt Citizens, with the body.
thing.
u equal to about 9</ each, dena all; :i dissyllable.
1 16
Ant. Now let it work. — Mischief, thou art afoot, Take thou what course thou wilt! — How now, fellow?
Enter a Servant.
Serv. Sir, Octavius is already come to Rome.
A lit. Where is he I 268
Sm: He and Lepidus are at Casar's house.
Ant. And thither will \ straight to visit him: He comes upon a wish. Fortune is merry. And in this mood will give us any thing.
Serv. I heard him say Brutus and Cassius Are rid like madmen through the gates of Rome.
Ant. Belike4 they had some notice of the people,
How 1 had mov'd them. Bring me to< dtavius.
[A'./- unt.
1 /;. like, probably.
ACT III. Scene :5.
JULIUS CESAR.
A.CT IV. Scene 1.
[[Scene III. The same. A street.
Enter Cinna the poet.
Cinna. I clream'd to-night that I did feast with Caesar, And things unlucky charge my fantasy: I have no will to wander forth of doors, Yet something leads me forth.
Enter Citizens.
First Cit. What is your name?
Sec. Cit. Whither are you going?
Third Cit. Where do you dwell?
Fourth Cit. Are you a married man, or a bachelor?
Sec. Cit. Answer every man directly. 10
First Cit. Ay, and briefly.
Fourth Cit. Ay, and wisely.
Third Cit. Ay? and truly, you were best.
Cinna. What is my name? Whither am I going? Where do I dwell? Am I a married man, or a bachelor? Then to answer every man directly and briefly, wisely and truly: — Wisely, I say, I am a bachelor.
Sec. Cit. That 'a as much as to say, they are
fools that marry; — you'll bear me a bang1 for that, I fear. Proceed; directly. 21
Cinna. Directly, I am going to Caesar's funeral.
First Cit. As a friend, or an enemy?
Cinna. As a friend.
Sec. Cit. That matter is answered directly.
Fourth Cit. For your dwelling, — briefly.
Cinna. Briefly, I dwell by the Capitol.
Third Cit. Your name, sir, truly.
Cinna. Truly, my name is Cinna.
First Cit. Tear him to pieces; he's a con- spirator. 31
Cinna. I am Cinna the poet, I am Cinna the poet.
Fourth Cit. Tear him for his bad verses, tear him for his bad verses.
Cinna. I am not Cinna the conspirator.
Sec. Cit. It is no matter, his name 's Cinna ; pluck but his name out of his heart, and turn him going.2 39
Third Cit. Tear him, tear him ! Come, brands, ho ! firebrands ! To Brutus', to Cassius' ; burn all. Some to Deeius' house, and some to Casca's ; some to Ligarius': away! go! [Exeunt. ]
<5
ACT IV
QScene I. Rome. A room in Antony's house.
Antony, Octavius, and Lepidus, seated at
a table.
A nt. These many, then, shall die ; their names are prick'd.3
Oct. Your brother too must die: consent you, Lepidus?
Lep. I do consent, —
Oct. Prick him down, Antony.
Lep. Upon condition Publius shall not live, Who is your sister's son, Mark Antony.
Ant. He shall not live; look, with a spot I damn him. But, Lepidus, go you to Caesar's house; Fetch the will hither, and we shall determine How to cut off some charge in legacies.
Lep. What, shall I find you here? in
i Bear me a bang, get a blow from me.
- Turn him going, turn him adrift, send him packing.
3 Prick'd, marked.
OsL Or here, or at the Capitol. 11
[Exit Lepidus.
Ant. This is a slight, umneritable man, Meet to be sent on errands; is it fit, The three-fold world divided,4 he should stand One of the three to share it?
Oct. So you thought him ;
And took his voice who should 1 te prick'd to die In our black sentence and proscription.5
Ant. Octavius, I have seen more days than you: And though we lay these honours on this man, To ease ourselves of divers slanderous loads, He shall but bear them as the ass bears gold, To groan and sweat under the business,6 22 Either led or driven, as we point the way; And having brought our treasure where we will,
* Divided, being divided, when it is divided. 5 Proscription; metrically four syllables. c Business ; here a trisyllable.
117
A' I iv. Scene l.
jrLirs cks.m;.
All IV. Scene 2.
Then take we down his load, and turn him off, Like to the empt\ ;i-s, t<> shake his ears Ami graze in commons.
Oct. You may do your will;
Bui he's a tried and valiant soldier.
Ant. So is my horse, ( »<ta\ ius, and for that 1 < 1< > appoint him store of provender: so
It i-< a creature that I teach to fight, To wind, to stop, to run directly on, — Sis corporal motion govern'd by niy spirit. And, in some taste,1 is Lepidus hut so: Be must be taught, and train'd, and bid go
forth;— A barren-spirited fellow, one that feeds ( )n objects, arts, ,uid imitations Which, out of use and staid by other men, Begin his fashion: do not talk of him, But as a property.*— And now, Octavius, 40 Listen great things:— -Brutus and Cassius Are levying powers;3 we must straight make
head: Therefore let our alliance be combin'd, Our best friends made, and our best means
stretch'd out; And let us presently go sit in council,
Bow COVert matters may lie best disclos'd,
And open perils surest answered.
Oct. Let us do so: for we are at the stake,4 And bay'd about with many enemies; An 1 some that smile have in their hearts, I tear, SO
Millions of mischiefs. [Exeunt."]
\e II. Before the U nt of r,rntn.<. in the camp near Sardis.
/>■ ,,,,. Enter Brutus, Lucilius, Titinius, and Soldier*; Pindarus meeting them; Lucius a* soriu distance.
Bru. Stand, ho !
Lucil. Give the word, ho! and stand. Bru. What now, Lucilius! is Cassius near? LucU. Be 18 a1 hand: and l'indarus is come do you salutation from his master.
[Pindarus gives a letter to Brutus.
1 T ree.
1 -I i tiling to be used as we please.
s Powers, forces.
4 -I' like a wild beast tied to a stake, to be
baited by dogs.
lis
Bru. He greets me well. — Your master, Pindarus, In his own change,5 or by ill officers, Hath given me some worthy cause to wish Things done undone; but, if he be at hand, I shall be satisfied.
Pin. I do not doxibl 10
But that my noble master will appear
Such as he is, full "f regard6 and honour.
lirii. He is not doulited. [Kcit Pindarus.1 — A word, Lucilius: How he receiv'd you, let me be resolvM.'
Lucil. With courtesy, and with respect enough, But not with such familiar instances,8 Nor with such free and friendly conference, As he hath us'd of old.
Bru. Thou hast describ'd
A hot friend cooling: ever note, Lucilius, When love begins to sicken and decay 20
It nseth an enforced ceremony. There aie no tricks in plain and simple faith; But hollow men, like horses hot at hand.'1 Make gallant show and promise of their mettle, But when they should endure the bloody spur They fall10 their crests, and like deceitful jades Sink in the trial. [Distant trumpets heard.'] ( 'Miles his army on i
Lucil. They mean this night in Sardis to be quarter'd; The greater part, the horse in general, Are come with ( 'assius.
[Trumpets sound nearer.
Bru. Hark, he is arriv'd. —
March gently on to meet him. 31
Cass. [Wit/iottt] Stand, ho!
Enter Cassius and Soldi* rs.
Bru. Stand, ho! Speak the word along. First Sold Stand! Sec Sold. Stand ! Third Sold Stand!
Cass. Most noble brother, you have done me wrong.
• In hit oum changs, because of some change in himself. r Full 1 if 11 ■inn!, worthy of .-ill regard.
I Resolv 'I. informed.
• Familiar instances, proofs or manifestations of fami- liarity. ■ //>•' at hand, spirited when held in.
' Fall, let fall.
ii
ACT IV. Scene 2.
JULIUS CKS .\i;.
ACT IV. Bo
Bru. Judge me, ye godsl Wrong I mine
enemies ?
And, if not so, how should I wrong a brother?
< 'ass. Brutus, this sober form of yours hides
wrongs ; -to
And when yon do them —
Bru. Cassius, be content;1
Speak your griefs'- softly, — I do know you
well: — Before the eyes of both our armies here, Which should perceive nothing but love
from us, Let us not wrangle: bid them move away; Then in my tent, Cassius, enlarge3 your griefs, And I will give you audience.
Cass. Pindarus,
Bid our commanders lead their charges off A little from this ground.
Bru. Lucius, do you the like; and let no man Come to our tent, till we have done our confer- ence. 51 Lucilius and Titinius, guard our door.
[Exeunt.
Scene III. Within the tent of Brutus.
Enter Brutus and Cassius.
Cass. That you have wrong'd me doth appear in this: You have condemn'd and noted4 Lucius Pella For taking bribes here of the Sardians; Wherein my letter, praying on his side, Because I knew the man, was slighted off.5 Bru. You wrong'd yourself to write in such
a case. Cass. In such a time as this it is not meet That every nice6 offence should bear his com- ment.7 Bru, Let me tell you, Cassius, you yourself Are much condemn'd to have8 an itching palm, To sell and mart your offices for gold 11
To undeservers.
Cass. I an itching palm !
[Half draws Ms sword.
1 Content, quiet, calm. - Griefs, grievances.
3 Enlarge, state fully. * Noted, stigmatized.
5 Slighted of, treated slightingly, disregarded.
6 Nice, petty, trifling.
7 Bear his comment, receive its criticism.
8 To have, for having.
You know that you are Brutus that speaks this, is
Or, by the gods, this speech were else your last. Bru. The name of Cassius honours this corruption, And chastisement doth therefore hide his head. Cass. ( Chastisement !
Bru. Remember March, the ides of March remember ! is
Did not great Julius bleed for justice' sake? What villain touch'd his body, that did stab, And not for justice? What ! shall one of as, That struck the foremost man of all this world But for supporting robbers, — shall we now Contaminate our fingers with base bribes, And sell the mighty space of our large honours For so much trash as may be grasped thus ? I had rather be a dog, and bay the moon, Than such a Roman.
Cass. Brutus, bay not me;
I '11 not endure it: you forget yourself, To hedge me in. I am a soldier, I, 30
Older in practice, abler than yourself To make conditions.9
Bru. Go to; you are not, Cassius.
Cass. I am.
Bru. I say you are not. Cass. Urge me no more, I shall forget myself; Have mind upon your health, tempt me no further. Bru. Away, slight man ! Cass. Is 't possible 1
Bru. Hear me, for I will speak.
[Cassius advances angrily, as if going to speak. Must I give way and room to your rash choler? Shall I be frighted when a madman stares 1 Cass. O ye gods, ye gods ! [Cassius paces agitatedly to and fro.] Must I endure all this? 41
Bru. All this? ay, more: fret till your proud heart break; Go show your slaves how choleric you are, And make your bondmen tremble. Must I
budge? Must I observe10 you ? Must I stand and crouch
a Conditions, the terms on which offices are to be con- ferred. io Observe, he obsequious to. 119
A'T IV. Scone 3.
.HI.II'S < .KSAK.
ACT IV. Seen.- ;;.
Under your testy humour? [Cassius stops, restrain in< i himself with great effort.'] By the gods, You shall digest the venom of your spleen, Though it il< i split you; for, from this day forth, I '11 use you for my mirth, yea, for my laughter, Winn vim are waspish. Cass. Is it come to this?
Bru. You say you are a better soldier: 51 Let it appeal soj make your vaunting true, And it shall please me well : for mine own
part, 1 shall be glad to learn of noble men.
Cass. [Calm/i/] You wrong me every way; you wrong me, Brutus; I said an elder soldier, not a better: Did I say better ?
Bru. If you did, I care not.
Cass. When Ca?sar liv'd he durst not thus
have mov'd me. Bru. Peace, peace! you durst not so have
tempted him. Cass. I durst in >t .' CO
Bru. No.
Cass. What? durst uol tempt him? Urn. |\,r your life you durst not.
Cuss. [Suppressing his anger by a great ef- fort] Do not presume too much upon my
love:
I may do that 1 shall he Borry for.
Bru. You have done that you should be
sorry for. There is no terror, Cassius, in your threats; For i am arm'd so strong in honesty Thai they pass by me as the idle wind Which I respect not. I did send to you For certain sums of gold, which you denied
me; — to
For I can raise no money by vile means: I'.y heaven, 1 had rather coin my heart, And drop my blood for drachmas, than to wring From tin' hard hands of peasants their vile
trash l'.\ any indirection.1 — I did send To you for gold to pay my legions, Which you denied me. Was that done like
( 'assius? Should I have answerM Caius Cassius so?
i Indirection, dishonesty
1 •_'< I
When Marcus Brutus grows SO covetous, 79 To lock such rascal counters- from his friends, Be ready, gods, with all your thunderbolts, I >ash him to pieces!
< 'oss. I denied you not.
Bru. You did.
( 'ass. I did not: — he was but a fool
That brought my answer back. — Brutus hath
riv'd my heart : A friend should bear a friend's infirmities, But Brutus makes mine greater than they are.
Urn, I do not, till you practise them on me.
Cass. You love me not.
Bru. I do not like your faults.
Cass. A friendly eye could never see such faults.
Bru. A flatterer's would not, though they do appear 9i
As huge as high Olympus.
Cass. Come, Antony, and young Octavius, conic. Revenge yourselves alone on Cassius! For Cassius is aweary of the world; Hated by one he loves, brav'd by his brother, Check'd3 like a bondman; all his faults ob-
serv'd, Set in a note-book, learn'd and conn'd by rote, To cast into my teeth. O, I could weep My spirit from mine eyes! — There is my dagger, 100
And here my naked breast; within, a heart Dearer than Plutus'4 mine, richer than gold: If that thou beest a Roman, take it forth; I, that denied thee gold, will give my heart: Strike, as thou didst at ('asar; for I know, When thou didst hate him worst, thou lov'dst
him better Than ever thou lov'dst Cassius.
Bru. Sheathe your dagger:
Be angry when you will, it shall have scope; Do what you will, dishonour shall be humour.5 ( > ( iassiuB, you are yoked with a lamb, no
That carries anger as the Hint hens tire, Who. much enforced,0 shows a hasty spark And straight is cold again.
*CounUn, pieces <>f metal used in casting accounts; here used contemptuously for money. Chi ri.-'ii. chided, reproved. 4 Plutus, the Roman '.'"'l of wealth.
M hr humour, Bhall be regarded as mere caprice, a Enforced, Btruck forcibly.
ACT IV. Scene 3.
JULIUS CLESAH.
ACT IV. >
Cass. Hath Caasius liv'd
To be but mirth and laughter to his Brutus, When grief and blood ill-temper'd vexeth him?
Zfr'M.When Ispokethat,I was ill-temper'dtoo.
Cass. Do you confess so much? Give me your hand. 117
Bra. [Embracing him.] And my heart too.
Cass. O Brutus! —
Bru. What 'a the matter?
Cass. Have not you love enough to bear with me, When that rash humour which my mother gave me 120
Makes me forgetful?
Cass. There is my dagger,
And here my naked breast.— (Act iv. 3. 100, 101.)
Bru. Yes, Cassius; and from henceforth,
When you are over-earnest with your
Brutus, 122
He '11 think your mother chides, and leave
you so. [Noise within.
I \_Poet. [Within] Let me go in to see the
generals : There is some grudge between 'em; 'tis not
meet They be alone.
Lucil. [ Within] You shall not come to
them. Poet. [Within] Nothing but death shall stay ] me.]
Enter [_ Poet, followed by ~^ Ltjcilius and
TlTINITJS.
[_Cass. How now? What 's the matter? Poet. For shame, you generals! What do you mean? 130
Love, and be friends, as two such men should
be; For I have seen more years, I 'm sure, than ye. Cass. Ha, ha! how vilely doth this cynic
rhyme ! Bru. Get you hence, sirrah! saucy fellow, hence!
121
A< 1 [V, 5
JULIUS c.KSAi;.
ACT IV. Sceue 3.
Cass. Bear with him, Brutus; 'tis his
fashion.1 Bra. 1 11 know his humour when he knows his time. What should the wars do with these jigging*
fools! — ( lompanion,3 hence!
< 'ass. A way! away! begone!
[Exit Poet."] Bra. Lucilius and Titinius, bid the com- manders Prepare to Lodge their companies to-night. i '■'.<.<. And come yourselves, and bring Mes- sala with you, i-u
Immediately to us.
[Exeunt Lucilius and Titinius. Bra. Lucius !
Enter Lucius.
A bowl of wine.
[ Exit Lucius. Cass. 1 did not think you could have been
so angry. Bra. < » < Sassius, I am -dck of many griefs! -. Of your philosophy you make no use, If you give place4 to accidental evils.
Bra. No man bears sorrow better: — Portia
is dead. Cass. Ha! Portia 1 /; it. She is (lead.
Cass. How scap'd I killing, when I cross'd you so? — ISO
O insupportable and touching loss! — Upon what sickness?
Bra. Impatient of my absence,
And grief that young Octavius with Mark
Antony Have 1 1 1 : i < 1 . • themselves so strong; — for with
her death That tidings came. — "With this she fell dis- tract;6 And, her attendants absent, swallow'd fire. ( 'ass. And died bo? Bra. Even so.
Cass. O ye immortals gods!
i Fathion; here a trisyllable. * Jigging, rhyming.
3 Companion; used contemptuously =/sMot0. J vi- way. F l distract, became distra [22
Enter Lucius, with ajar of wine, a gobht, and a taper.
Bra. Speak no more of her. — Give me a bowl of wine. — [Taking the goblet.
In this 1 bury all unkindness, Cassius.
[Drinks.
Cass. My heart is thirsty for that noble pledge. — 160
Fill, Lucius, till the wine o'erswell the cup; 1 cannot drink too much of Brutus' love.
[Drinks. Exit Lucius.
Enter Titinius, with Mkssala.
Bra. Come in, Titinius. — Welcome, good Mcssala. — Now sit we close about this taper here, And call in question8 our necessities.
[Titinius "i'il Mcssala sit. Cass. [Aside] Portia, art thou gone? Br i'. No more, I pray you. —
[Brufas and Cassius -<it at the tal>lc. .Mcssala, I have here received letters, That young < tetavius and Mark Antony ( mnc down upon us with a mighty power,7 Bending their expedition toward Philippi
Mess. Myself have letters of the selfsame
tenour. m
Bra. With what addition?
Mess. That by proscription and bills of out- lawry, Octavius, Antony, and Lepidus Have put to death an hundred senators.
Bra. Therein our letters do not well agree; Mine speak of seventy senators that died By their proscriptions, Cicero being one.
Cass. Cicero one ?
Mess. Cicero is dead,
And by that order of proscription.8 — 180
Had you your letters from your wife, my lord '.
Bra. No, Mess.ila.
Mess. Nor nothing in your letters writ of her?
/,'/•;/. Nothing, .Mcssala.
Mess. That, methinks, is strange.
Bra. Why ask you? Hear you aught of her in yours.''
* Call in question, consider, discuss.
i Power, force, army.
- Proscription, pronounced as a quadrisyllable.
ACT IV. Scene 3.
JULIUS C\<ESAR
ACT IV. Scene S.
Mess. No, my lord. 184
Bru. Now, as you are a Roman, tell me true.
Mess. Then like a Roman bear the truth I tell; For certain .she is dead, and by strange manner.
Bru. Why, farewell, Portia. [All rise and advance.] We must die, Messala: 100 With meditating that she must die once, I have the patience to endure it now.
Mess. Even so great men great losses should endure.
Cass. I have as much of this in art1 as you, But yet my nature could not bear it so.
Bru. Well, to our work alive.2 What do you think Of marching to Philippi presently P
Cass. I do not think it good.
Bru. Your reason (
Cass. This it is:
'Tis better that the enemy seek us; 199
So shall he waste his means, weary his soldiers, Doing himself offence; whilst we lying still Are full of rest, defence, and nimbleness.
Bru. Good reasons must, of force,4 give place to better. The people 'twixt Philippi and this ground Do stand but in a forc'd affection; For they have grudg'd us contribution: The enemy, marching along by them, By them shall make a fuller number up, Come on refresh'd, new-added,5 and encour-
ag'd; From which advantage shall we cut him off If at Philippi we do face him there, 211
These peojde at our back.
Cass. Hear me, good brother.
Bru. Under your pardon. — You must note beside That we have tried the utmost of our friends, Our legions are brim-full, our cause is ripe: The enemy increaseth every day; We, at the height, are ready to decline. There is a tide in the affairs of men, Which, taken at the flood, leads on to fortune; Omitted,6 all the voyage of their life 220
Is bound in shallows and in miseries.
1 Art, theory.
- Alive, connected with the living, not the dead. 3 Presently, immediately. * 0/ force, of necessity.
New-added, reinforced. 6 Omitted, neglected.
< )n such a full sea are we now afloat; l'l"2
And we must take tin- current when it serves, Or lose our ventures.
Cass. Then, with your will, go on;
We '11 along ourselves, and meet them at Philippi.
Bru. The deep of night is crept upon our talk, And nature must obey necessity, Which we will niggard with a little rest. There is no more to say ?
Cass. No more. Good night!
Early to-morrow will we rise and hence. 230
Bru. Lucius, my gown. — [Exit Lucius.] Farewell, good Messala! — Good night, Titinius ! — Noble, noble Cassius, Good night, and good repose !
Cass. O my dear brother !
[Embracing Brutus. This was an ill beginning of the night; Never come such division 'tween our souls! Let it not, Brutus.
Enter Lucius, with the goim.
Bru. Every thing is well.
Cass. Good night, my lord !
Bru. Good night, good brother !
Tit., Mess. Good night, Lord Brutus !
Bru. Farewell, every one ! —
[Exeunt Cassius, Titinius, and Messala.
Give me the gown. Where is thy instrument I
Luc. Here, in the tent.
[Goes for his lute, and returns.
Bru. What! thou speak'st drowsily?
Poor knave,7 I blame thee not; thou art o'er- watch'd.8 241
Call Claudius and some other of my men : I '11 have them sleep on cushions in my tent.
Luc. Varro and Claudius !
Enter Varro and Claudius.
Var. Calls my lord?
Bru. I pray you, sirs, lie in my tent and sleep;
It may be I shall raise you by and by On business to my brother Cassius.
Var. So please you, we will stand anil watch your pleasure.
^ Knave, boy.
s O'erwatch'd, worn out with watching. 123
ACT IV. N.-ia- :;.
JULIUS CAESAR.
ACT IV. fsceue S.
Bru. I will nut have it so: lie down, good sirs; It may be 1 shall otherwise bethink me. — Look, Lucius, heir s the book I sought for so; 1 put it in the pocket of my gown. 253
[Servants lie down. Luc. I was sure your lordship did not give it me.
Bru. Bear with me, good boy; I am much forgetful. 255
Canst thou hold up thy heavy eyes awhile, And touch thy instrument a strain or two?
Luc Ay, my lord, an 't please you.
Bru. It does, my boy;
I trouble thee too much, but thou art willing.
Bru. Ha ! who comes here?— (Art iv. :;. 475.)
Luc It is my duty, sir. 260
Bru. I should not urge thy duty past thy might; I know young bloods look for a time of rest. Luc I have slept, my lord, already. /;. . It was well done, and thou shalt sleep again; 1 will not hold thee long: if I do li\ e,
1 will In- g 1 to thee. —
[ Lucius sits, mnl begins to play, but soon falls asleep. This i> a sleepy tun.-. < > murderous slumber, LiyVt thou thy leaden mace1 upon my boy, That plays thee music? — Gentle knave, good night;
•v, club.
li'l
1 will not do thee so much wrong to wake thee: If thou dos! nod, thou break'atthy instrument: I'll take it from thee [Takes lute from Lucius
a nil lays it down']', and, good boy. g 1
night. — 27S
Let me sec, let me sec; is not the Leaf turn'd
down Where 1 left reading? Sere it is, 1 think.
[//>■ sits down.
Ent( ■ the Ghost of Caesar.
How ill this taper burns! — Hal who comes here? I think it is the weakness of mine eyes Thai shapes this monstrous apparition.2
[Ghost approaches.
- Apparition', metrically five syllables
ACT IV. Scene 3.
Ji'Lirs c.ksai;.
ACT V. 80
It comes upon me. — Art thou any thing? Art thou some god, some angel, or some devil, That mak'st my blood cold and my hair to stare?1 280
Speak to me what thou art. Ghost. Thy evil spirit, Brutus. Br u. Why com'st thou?
Ghost. To tell thee thou shalt see me at
Philippi. Bru. Well; then I shall see thee again? Ghost. Ay, at Philippi.
[(/host vanishes. Bru. Why, I will see thee at Philippi then. — Now I have taken heart, thou vanishest: 111 spirit, I would hold more talk with thee. — Boy ! Lucius ! — Varro ! Claudius ! Sirs, awake ! — 290
[Claudius!
Luc. The strings, my lord, are false. Bru. He thinks he still is at his instrument. — ■ Lucius, awake !]
Luc. [Advancing] My lord !
Bru. QDidst thou dream, Lucius, that thou
so criedst out? Luc. My lord, I do not know thai [didcry. Bru. Yes, that thou didst.] Didst thou see
any thing I Luc. Nothing, my lord. Bru. Sleep again, Lucius. — Sirrah, Claud ins! Fellow thou! awake! 301
Var. My lord!
Clau. My lord ! [Both advanc.
Bru. Why did you cry out, sirs, in your
sleep? Var., Clau. Did we, my lord? Bru. Ay; saw you any thing?
Var. No, my lord, I saw nothing. Clau. Nor I, my lord.
Bru. Go, and commend me to my brother Cassius ; Bid him set on his powers2 betimes before, And we will follow.
Var., Clau. It shall be done, my lord.
[Exeunt.
ACT V.
Scene I. The plains of Philippi.
Enter Octavius, Antony, and their arm;/.
Oct. Now, Antony, our hopes are answered. You said the enemy would not come down, But keep the hills and upper regions. It proves not so: their battles3 are at hand; They mean to warn4 us at Philippi here, Answering before we do demand of them. Ant. Tut! I am in their bosoms,5 and I
know Wherefore they do it: they could be content To visit other places, and come down With fearful bravery,6 thinking by this face7 To fasten in our thoughts that they have
courage; 11
Bat 't is not so.
1 Stare, stand up.
2 Set on his powers, move forward his forces.
3 Battles, battalions, forces.
* Warn, summon, attack. 5 Bosoyns, confidence.
6 With fearful bravery, with a show of courage though full of fear. 7 Face, appearance.
Enter a Messenger.
Mess. Prepare you, generals: 12
The enemy comes on in gallant show; Their bloody sign of battle is hung out, And something to be done immediately.
A at. Octavius, lead your battle8 softly on, Upon the left hand of the even field.
Oct. Upon the right hand I; keep thou the left.
Ant. Why do you cross me in this exigent ?9
Oct. I do not cross you; but I will do so. 20
I March.
Drum. Enter Brutus, Cassius, and their tinny; Lucilius, Titinius, Messala, and others.
Bru. They stand and would have parley.
[(Wvw. Stand fast, Titinius; we must out
and talk. Oct. Mark Antony, shall we give sign of<
battle?
8 Battle, army.
" Exigent, exigency.
1 25
.Ml V. Scene 1.
JTLirS CESAR
ACT V. Scene 1.
An'. N<>, Cseaar, we will answer on their
cliai -'1
Make forth;8 the generals would have some
\\M|I Is.
Oct. Stir not until the signal. Bru."2 Words before blows; is it so, coun- trymen ( Oct. Not l hat we l"\e words better, as you do.
Bni. ( ; i 'I »1 words are better than bad strokes,
Octaviu^. Ant. In your bad strokes, Brutus, you give good words; 30
Witness the hole you made in < ';esar's heart, Crying, " Long live ! Hail, ( 'a-sar !
Com. Antony,
The pusture3 of your blows are yet unknown;
Octavius, AnUiuy, and their army.— (Act v. 1.]
1 '.hi fi n yi nir words, they rob the Hybla4 bees, Ami leave them honeyless.
j I nt. Not stingless too.
Bra. O, yes, and soundless too; For you have stol'n their buzzing, Antony, Ami very wisely threat before you sting.
Ant. Villains, you did not so when your vile daggers I [ack'd "in' another in the sides of Caesar; 40 Y i ahow'd your teeth like apes, and fawn'd
liki hounds, Ami ln.wM like bondmen, kissing Caesar's feet; Whilst damned < jasca, like a cur, behind, Struck < tesar on the neck. O you flatterers !
i On their charge, when tiny attack us.
v forth, go forward.
!'■ hire, character, direction. 1 Hybla, in Sicily, was famous for its honey.
L26
Cass. Flatterers !— Now, Brutus, thank your- self; « This tongue had not offended so to-day, If Cassius might have rul'd.
Oct. Come, come, the cause;5 if arguing make
us sweat,
The proof of it6 will turn to redder drops. Look— so
I draw a sword against conspirators; When think you that the sword goes up
again '.' — Never, till Caesar's time ami thirty wounds Be well aveng'd; or till another Csesar
Have added slaughter to the BWOrd of traitors.
s The cause, let us to business.
i '/'//■ , rooj '/ it. the practical application or enforce- ment of it 7 Up again, hack to its sheath.
ACT V. Scene 1.
JULIUS C--ESAR.
ACT V. Si
Bru. < Isesar, thou canst not die by traitors1
hands, Unless thou bring'st them with thee.
Oct. So I hope;
I was not born to die on Brutus' sword.
Bru. O, if thou wert the noblest of thy s ain,1 Young man, thou couldst not die more hon- ourably. CO
Cass. A peevish2 schoolboy, worthless of such honour, Join'd with a masker and a reveller !
A tit. Old Cassius still !
Oct. Come, Antony; away! —
Defiance, traitors, hurl we in your teeth: If you dare fight to-day, come to the field; If not, when you have stomachs.3
[Exeunt Octavius, Anton?/, and their army.
Cass. Why now, blow wind, swell billow, and swim bark ! The storm is up, and all is on the hazard. J^JBru. Ho, Lucilius ! hark, a word with you.
Lucil. My lord !
[Brutus and Lucilius talk apart.
Cass. Messala !
Mess. What says my general?
Cass. Messala,
This is my birthday; as this very day 7-2
Was Cassius born. Give me thy hand, Messala; Be thou my witness that against my will, As Pompey was,4 am I compell'd to set Upon one battle all our liberties. You know that I held Epicurus strong, And his opinion; now I change my mind, And partly credit things that do presage. 79 Coming from Sardis, on our former5 ensign Two mighty eagles fell; and there they perch'd, Gorging and feeding from our soldiers' hands; Who to Philippi here consorted us: This morning are they fled away and gone, And in their steads do ravens, crows, and kites Fly o'er our heads and downward look on us, As we were sickly prey; their shadows seem A canopy most fatal, under which Our army lies, ready to give up the ghost.
1 Strain, race, stock.
3 Stomachs, appetites.
4 As Pompey was, i.e. at Pharsalia.
5 Former, foremost, forward.
• Peevish, foolish.
Mess. Believe not SO.
Cass. I but believe it partly;
For I am fresh of spirit, and resolv'd 91
To meet all perils very constantly.
Bru. Even so, Lucilius.'1
Cass.~\ Now, most noble Brutus,
The gods to-day stand friendly, that we may, Lovers in peace, lead on our days to age ! But since the affairs of men rest still incer-
tain,7 Let 's reason with the worst that may befall. If we do lose this battle, then is this The very last time we shall speak together; What are you then determined to do? loo
Bru. Even by the rule of that philosophy By which I did blame Cato for the death Which he did give himself. I know not how, But I do find it cowardly and vile, For fear of what might fall, so to prevent8 The time of life, — arming myself with patience To stay9 the providence of some high powers That govern us below.
Cass. Then, if we lose this battle,
You are contented to be led in triumph Thorough10 the streets of Rome? no
Bru. No, Cassius, no ! think not, thou noble Roman, That ever Brutus will go bound to Rome; He bears too great a mind. But this same
day Must end that work the ides of March begun; And whether we shall meet again I know
not. Therefore our everlasting farewell take; For ever, and for ever, farewell, Cassius ! If we do meet again, why, we shall smile; If not, why, then this parting was well made.
Cass. For evei*, and for ever, farewell, Brutus! If we do meet again, we'll smile indeed; 121 If not, 't is true, this parting was well made.
Bru. Why, then lead on. — O that a man might know The end of this day's business ere it come! But it sufficeth that the day will end, And then the end is known. — Come, ho! away! [Flourish of trumpets. Exeunt.
« Even so, Lucilius, indicating the close of the private conversation. 1 Incertain = uncertain. s Prevent, anticipate.
9 Stay, await. 10 Thorough, through.
127
ACT V. Scene 2.
• ITLUS C.KSAII.
ACT V. Scene 3.
[Scene II. The field of battle
Alarum. Enter Brutus and Messala.
Bru. Ride ride, Messala, ride, and give these bills1 Unto the legions on the other side.
[Loud alarum. Let them set on at once; for I perceive l'.ut cold demeanour in Octavius' wing, Ami sudden push- gives them the overthrow. Ride, ride, Messala; let them all come down.
| Exewnt.~\
Scene III. Another part of the field.
Alarums, drums, trumpets, and shouts. Enter Cassius with an eagle in his hand, and Titinius.
I 'ass. O, look, Titinius, look, the villains fly! Myself have to mine own turn'd enemy: This ensign here of mine was turning back; 1 slew the coward, and did take it:i from him.
Tit. O Cassius, Brutus gave the word too early; Who, having some advantage on Octavius, Took it too eagerly; his soldiers fell to spoil, Whilst we by Antony are all enclos'd.
[Alarums, drums, and shouts.
Enter Pindarus.
Pin. Fly f mther off, my lord, fly further off ! Mark Antony is in your tents, my lord! to Ely, therefore, noble ( assius, fly far4 off! Cass. This hill is far enough. [Gives ensign to PindarusJ] — Look, look, Titinius; Are those my tents where I perceive the fire? Ti'. They are, my lord. r"ss. Titinius, if thou lov'st me,
Mounl thou my horse and hide thy spurs in
him, Till he have brought thee up to yonder
troops, And here again, that T may rest assur'd W hether yond troops are friend or enemy. Tit. [will be here again, even with a thought.
[Exit.
i mils, written 'Tilers. - Push, onset, charge.
8 It. /• the ensign or standard, Implied in ensign, or staadard-beai < Far, farther.
128
' 'ass. Go, Pindarus, get higher on that hill; My sight was ever thick; regard Titinius, 2i And tell me what thou nor'st about the lield. —
[Pindarus goes up. This day I breathed first: time is come round, And where I did begin, there shall I end; My life is run his compass. — Sirrah, what news '. Pin. [Above\ 0 my lord !
( 'OSS. What news \
Pin, Titinius is enclosed round about With horsemen that make to him on the
spur; — Set he spurs on — Now they are almost on him; — 30
Now, Titinius ! — Now some light. — 0, he lights too. — He's
ta'en; — and, hark ! They sin nit for joy.
[Distant shouts rand flourish of trumpets. Cass. Come down, behold no more. —
O, coward that I am to live so long, To see my best friend ta'en before my face ! —
Pindarus comes down.
Come hither, sirrah !
In Parthia did I take thee prisoner;
And then I swore thee, saving of thy life,
That whatsoever I did bid thee do,
Thou shouldst attempt it. Come now, keep
thine oath ! 40
Now be a freeman; and with this good sword, That ran through Caesar's bowels, search this
bosom. Stand not to answer: here, take thou the
hilts;6 And, when my face is cover'd, as 'tis now. Guide thou the sword. [Pindarus takes the
sword, and Cassius runs upon it: he falls.]
Ceesar, thou arl revengM, Even with the sword thai kill'd thee. [Dies. Pin, So, I am free; yet would nol so have
been, Durst I have done my will.— O Cassius: Far from this country Pindarus shall run, 49 Where never Roman shall take aote of him.
[Exit. Alarums.
Hilts, i.e. the sword by the hilt.
ACT V. Scene S.
JULIUS CAESAR.
ACT V. Scene 3.
Enter Titinius, zoith a laurel crown on his head, and M kssala.
Mess. It is but change,1 Titinius; forOctavius Is overthrown by noble Brutus' power, 52 As Cassius' legions are by Antony.
Tit. These tidings will well comfort Cassius.
Mess. Where did you leave him I
Tit. All disconsolate,
With Pindarus his bondman, on this hill.
Mess. [Seeing Cassius' body] Is not that he that lies upon the ground '.
Tit. He lies not like the living. O my heart!
[_ Mess. Is not that he ?
Tit. No, this was he, Messala,
But Cassius is no more. — O setting sun! co
Pin. Titinius is enclosed round about.— (Act v. 3. 23.]
As in thy red rays thou dost sink to night,2 . So in his red blood Cassius' day is set; 62
The sun of Rome is set! Our day is gone; Clouds, dews, and dangers come; our deeds
are done! 3 Mistrust of my success3 hath done this deed. [Mess. Mistrust of good success hath done this deed. JO hateful Error, Melancholy's child! J Why dost thou show to the apt thoughts of men J The things that are not ? O Error, soon con- ceiv'd,
1 Change, alternation of fortune.
2 To night, that is, into night, or darkness.
3 Success, used in its neutral sense, referring to the issue whether good or bad.
VOL. V.
Thou never com'st unto a happy birth, 70 >
But kill'st the mother that engender'd thee.
Tit. ] What, Pindarus! Where art thou,j Pindarus ?
Mess. Seek him, Titinius, whilst I go to meet The noble Brutus, thrusting this report Into his ears; Q — I may say, thrusting it; For piercing steel and darts envenomed Shall be as welcome to the ears of Brutus As tidings of this sight. ]
Tit. Hie you, Messala,
And I will seek for Pindarus the while. — 79
[Exit Messala. Why didst thou send me forth, brave Cassius? Did I not meet thy friends? and did not they Put on my brows this wreath of victory, 129 121
ACT V. Si
JULIUS c.i-> A i;.
ACT V. Scene 4.
Ami bid me give it thee.' Didst thou not
hear their shouts 1 Alas! thou hast misconstrued every tiling! But hold thee, take this garland on thy brow; Thy Brutus bid me give it thee, and I Will do his bidding.- Brutus, come apace, And Bee bow 1 regarded Cains Cassius. — ss By your leave, gods: — this is a Roman's part; ( 'ome, ( 'assins' sword, and find Titinius' heart.
[Dies.
. 1 hi, -ii m. Entt r M kssala, icith Brutus, young Cato, Strato, Voli'mmis, and Lucilius.
IJru. Where, where, Messala, doth his body lie?
Mess. Lo, yonder, and Titinius mourning it.
Brit. Titinius' face is upward.
( 'ato. He is slain.
Urn. O Julius ( 'asar, thou art mighty yet! Thy spirit walks abroad, and turns our swords In1 our own proper entrails. [Low alarums.
Cato. Brave Titinius!
Look, whether he have not crown'd dead Cas- sius!
/,'/". Are yet two Romans living such as these? The last of all the Romans, fare thee well! It is impossible that ever Rome 100
Should breed thy fellow. — Friends, I owe
nioe'-' tears To this dead man than you shall see me pay. — I shall find time, Cassius, I shall find time. — ( Some, therefore, and toThassos send his body; His funerals3 shall not be in our camp, Lest it discomfort us. — Lucilius, come; — And come, young Cato; let us to the field. — [_ Laheo and Flavins, set OUT lattleson: — ]
"1" is ih n 'clock; ami, Romans, yet ere night
We shall try fortune in a second fight. no
[Exeunt.
Si'kvk IV. Another part of th'- th 1,1.
Alarum. Enter, /> I ghi in?/, Soldier 'sc \1 "both armies; then Bi young Cato, Lucilius, and
otfu
i> Y'-t. '-omit rymen, O, yet hold up your heads!
1 In, into. - Moe, more. 3 FuncraU = modern funeral. 130
Cato. What bastard doth not! Who will go with lie' .' I will proclaim my name about the field: —
I am the son of MarCUS ( 'ato, ho!
A foe to tyrants, and my country's friend;
I am the son of Marcus < ato, ho!
[Charges tin' enemy. Bru. And I am Brutus, Marcus Brutus. [; Brutus, my country's friend; know- me for Brutus!
[Exit, charging the enemy. Cato is
OCt'i-JKiirr/-,;/, ,1,/d fulls.
Lucil. <> young and noble Cato, art thou down? Why, now thou diest as bravely as Titinius, And mayst be honour'd, being Cato's son. n First Sold. Yield, or thou diest. Lucil. Only I yield to die:
There is .so much that4 thou wilt kill me
straight; [Offering mo
Kill Brutus, and be honour'd in his death. First Sold. We must not. — A noble prisoner! Sec. Sold. Room, ho! Tell Antony, Brutus
is ta'en. First Sold. I '11 tell the news. — Here comes the general. —
Enter Antony.
Brutus is ta'en, Brutus is ta'en, my lord. Ant. Where is he?
Lucil. Safe, Antony; Brutus is safe enough. 20
I dare assure thee that no enemy
Shall ever take alive the noble Brutus;
The gods defend him from so great a shame!
When you do find him, or alive or dead.
He will he found like Brutus, like himself. Ant. This is not Brutus, friend; but, I as- sure you,
A prize no less in worth. Keep this man safe,
Give him all kindness; I had rather have
Such men my friends than enemies. Go on,
And s.e whether Brutus lie alive or dead, And bring us word unto < >. tavius' tent 31
How every thing is chamd.
[Flourish of trumpets. Exeunt.
* That, on condition that.
ACT V. Scene 5.
JULIUS CESAR.
ACT V &
Scexe V. Another part nf the field.
Eater Brutus, Dardanius, Clitus, Strato, and Volumnius.
Bru. Come, poor remains of friends, rest on
this rock. Cli. Statilius show'd the torch-light, but, my lord, He came not back; he is or ta'en or slain. Bru. Sit thee down, Clitus: slaying is the word ; It is a deed in fashion. Hark thee, Clitus. —
[ Whispering. Cli. What! I, my lord? No, not for all the
world. Brit. Peace then! no words. Cli. I '11 rather kill myself.
[Bru. Hark thee, Dardanius!
[ Whispers him. Bar. Shall I do such a deed?
Cli. 0 Dardanius!
Bar. O Clitus! 10
Cli. What ill request did Brutus make to
thee? Bar. To kill him, Clitus. Look, he medi- tates. Cli. Now is that noble vessel full of erief, That1 it runs over even at his eyes.]
Bru. Come hither, good Volumnius; list a
word. Vol. What says my lord? Bru. Why, this, Volumnius:
The ghost of Caesar hath appear'd to me Two several times by night, — at Sardis once, And, this last night, here in Philippi fields. I know my hour is come.
Vol. Not so, my lord. 20
Bru. Nay, I am sure it is, Volumnius. Thou seest the world, Volumnius, how it
goes; Our enemies have beat lis to the pit:
[Low alarums. It is more worthy to leap in ourselves Than tarry till they push us. Good Volum- nius, Thou know'st that we two went to school together;
i That, so that.
Even fur that our Love <»f <>ld, T prithee, fluid tlxiu my s\v<»d-hilts whilst i run on it. I'"/. Thai s Dot an office fur a friend, my lord. [Alarums Mill.
Cli. Fly, fly, my lord! there is no tan
here. so
Bru. Farewell to you; — and you; — ami you, Volumnius. — Q Strato, thou hast been all this while asleep : Fai-ewell to thee ton, Strato.] — Countrymen, My heart doth joy that yet in all my life I found no man but he was true to me. I shall have glory by this losing day, More than Octavius and Mark Antony By this vile conquest shall attain unto. So, fare you well at once; for Brutus' tongue Hath almost ended his life's history. 40
Night hangs upon my eyes; my bones would
rest, That have but labour'd to attain this hour.
[Alarum. Cry within, " Fly, fly, fly!" Cli. Fly, my lord, fly!
Bru. Hence, I will follow. —
[Exeunt Clitus, Bardanius, and Volumnius. I prithee, Strato, stay thou by thy lord. Thou art a fellow of a good respect ; 2 Thy life hath had some smatch3 of honour in it : Hi ild then my sword, and turn away thy face While I do run upon it. Wilt thou, Strato? Stra. Give me your hand first; fare you
well, my lord. Bru. Farewell, good Strato. — Caesar, now be still; 50
I kill'd not thee with half so good a will.
[He runs on his sword and dies.
Alarums. Retreat. Enter Octavius, A ntony, Messala, Lucilius, and the army.
Oct. What man is that?
Mess. My master's man. — Strato, where is
thy master? Stra. Free from the bondage you are in, Messala: The conquerors can but make a fire of him; For Brutus only overcame himself, And no man else hath honour by his death.
- Respect, reputation, estimation. 3 Smatch, smack, taste.
131
J r LI I'S (VKSAJ!.
ACT V. ^cene 5.
/. //. So Brutus should be found. — I thank thee, Brutus, That thou hast proved Lucilius3 Baying true. Oct. All that serv'd Brutus, I will enter- tain1 them. Q Fellow, wilt thou bestow thy time with me? Sira. Ay, if Messala will prefer8 rue to you. Oct. Do so, good Mosala. Mess. How died my master, Strato? Stra. I held the sword, and he did run on it. Mess. * »<ta\ ins, then take him to follow thee, That did the latest service to my master.] Ant. This was the noblest Roman of them all.
1 Entertain, take into service.
132
- Prefer, recommend.
All the conspirators, save only he, 69
I>id that they did in envy of great Caesar: He only, in a genera] honest thought And common good to all, made one of them. His life was gentle; and the elements So mix'd in him that Nature might stand up And say to all the world, "This was a man!" Oct. According to his virtue let us use him, With all respect and rites of burial. Within my tent his bones to-night shall lie, Most like a soldier, ordered honourably. — So, call the field3 to rest, and let's away, 80 To part4 the glories of this happy day.
[Kveunt.
8 Field, army.
* Part, divide, share.
NOTES TO JULIUS CJESAR.
DRAMATIS PERSONS.
1. Caius Julius C^sar was born in July, 100 B.C. He belonged to the Julian family (Julia gens), one of Hie most ancient in Rome. Through the influence of Marios, who had married his aunt, he was made a priest of Jupi- ter when a mere boy. In S3 B.C. he married Cornelia, the daughter of China, which offended Sulla, who pro- scribed him when he refused to divorce his wife. After being in concealment for some time in the Sabine country he was pardoned by Sulla, who is reported to have said of him, " In that boy there are many Mariuses. " Soon after, Caesar went to Nicomedes, king of Bithynia, and subse- quently won distinction in the Roman campaign in Cilicia. About 76 B.C., while on his way to Rhodes to study oratory under Apollonius Molo, he was captured by pirates, and detained until his friends could ransom him. This done, he manned a Milesian fleet, pursued and took the pirates, and crucified them, as he had threatened while with them, though they supposed it to be a jest. In 08 B.C. he was elected quaestor at Rome. The same year his wife died, and in 67 B.C. he married Pompeia, a relative of Pompey and grand-daughter of
Sulla. He became axlile in Go B.C., and gained great favour with the people by the magnificence of the public games he instituted. In 64 B.C. he was chosen Pontifex Maximus. The next year the conspiracy of Catiline occurred, and being suspected of complicity in it he nar- rowly escaped sharing the fate of its leaders. Becoming praetor in 62 B.C. he was sent a year later as proprietor t<> Spain, where his military successes led to his being called imperator by the army. He was chosen one of the con- suls in 60 B.C., and to strengthen his influence with Pompey gave him his daughter Julia in marriage. He also formed a secret alliance with Pompey and Crassus, known as the first triumvirate. Soon after the gov- ernment of Gaul was decreed to him for five years, and in 58 B.C. his famous Gallic campaigns began. In two years he had subdued the Helvetii, the German Ariovistus, and the Belgic tribes. In 56 B.C. he overran and conquered nearly all the rest of Gaul; and in 55 he destroyed two German tribes that had tried to establish themselves in the province. He also bridged the Rhine and carried the war into the German territory. The same year he invaded Britain, and a year later made further conquests in the island. The next few years, to 51 B.C., 1 33
Dramatis Persons.
NOTES TO JULIUS CAESAR
Dramatis Persona}.
were spent in quelling formidable insurrections and otherwise completing the pacification of Gaul. Mean- while his daughter who married Pompey had died, and a (clilness ami jealousy bad sprung up between the generals. In 50 b.c. the senate, influenced by his ene- mies, required him to disband his army. This he deter- mined 1 1 ■ ■ t to do, and being supported by his soldiers be crossed the Rubicon and began ids triumphant pro- b, while Pompey, the consuls, and most of the senate lied towards Capua Pompey, closely pursued bj Caesar, kept on to Brundisium, and escaped into Greece. ir, unable t>> follow for want of Bhips, turned to Spain, where the lieutenants of Pompey had a formidable army. Completing the conquest of the country in forty days, and reducing Masailia also, he returned to Rome, where he had already been declared dictator. After many difficulties and delays he managed to get an army across into Greece, and encountered Pompey at Dyr- rachium, where he was repulsed with some loss, and withdrew to Thessaly, pursued by his rival. The battle of Pharsalia followed, with the defeat of Pompey and his flight to Egypt, where he was treacherously murdered BX, having followed bim to Egypt, was captivated by Cli opatra, and established her upon the throne to which her elder brother had been a claimant. He then marched against Pharnaces, king of Pontus, and defeated him near Zela, sending to the Benate the famous despatch, \'< hi, villi. Did. Returning to Rome in September, 47 B.C . he set out that same year for Africa, where he routed the Pompeian forces under Scipio at Thapsus. He now came back to Home master of the world, but was d called into Spain, where the sons of Pompey had gathered a powerful army, which, after a very severe action at Munda. he utterly defeated. This was the last of Coar's wars, and he henceforth devoted himself to the interests of his country and the world, reforming the calendar, enacting salutary laws, and carrying out great public improvements. The senate bad made him impera- Un for life, as well as dictator and prcqfectus morum; and he was already pontifex maxinius, or head officer Of the religion of the state. Having no legitimate children, he adopted his grand-nephew Octavius as his successor and inheritor of his name.
At this point in his history the play begins, and the rest is told better by Shakespeare than this concise sketch can give it The assassination occurred on the Ides of March, 44 B.C., in the fifty-sixth year of CsBsar's age.
2. Octavics c.ksai:, or Cains Julius Caesar Octavianus, as he was named when he became the heir of Julius ir. was born at Vclitr.-e. near Rome. (i:> B.C. He was the son of Caius Octavius and Atia. daughter of I a
i Julia At the age of twelve he pronounced a fune- ral oration in praise ol his grandmother Julia, and at siz- i assumed the '";/" ririlii Betng adopted by .lulius i. he wi nt with him to Spain in 16 b.c When Caesar u (^ assassinated he was pursuing his studies at Apollonia, whence he returned to Rome to claim his inheritance. Se found a rival in Antony, but in 48 B.O. defeated him near Mutina (Mo.bnai in Cisalpine Gaul The senate,
jealous of his growing power, transferred the command
of his army to Decimua Brutus; but he marched to Rome,
i:',i
was elected consul before he had reached the legal age, and formed the triumvirate with Antony and Lepidus against Marcus BrutUB and the other republicans. Then follow ed the events of the play, ending with the battle of Philippi, 42 b.c. Octavius and Antony soon quarrelled, but after a feigned reconciliation combined their forces against Sextus Pompey, over whom Octavius gained a decisive victory pi B.C.) while Antony was waning in the East or dallying with Cleopatra in Egypt Meanwhile Octavius was establishing bis power in Italy; and Antony's infatua- tion with Cleopatra and his neglect of Octavia (sister of Octavius) led to a final and irreconcilable breach with Antony and the war which ended in his ruin at Actium. 31 B.C. Octavius was now sole master of the Rmnan empire, and, after being several times elected as consul, received the title of Augustus from the senate in 27 B.C. lour years later he accepted the tribunitia potestas for life, and held it until his death, in August, 14 A.D. Of the glories of this reign it is unnecessary to add any detailed account here.
3. MARCUS ANTONIU8, born about_S3 B.C., was noted in his early years for his extravagance and dissipation. For a time he was a lieutenant of Caesar in his Gallic cam- paigns, and in January, 49 B.C . was intrusted by him on his departure for Spain with the command of his forces in Italy He did good service, and later commanded the left wing of Caesar's army at Pharsalia. When Caesar became dictator, in 47, Antony was made master of the horse; and in 44 he was colleague of Caesar in the consul- ship. His career after the death of Caesar is sketched in the preceding notice of Octavius, and Shakespeare fills out the outline in the present play and in Antony and Cleopatra. After the battle of Actium Antony retreated to Alexandria, where he killed himself in 30 B.C.
4. Marcus Junius Brutus was born so b.c. Cato
Uticensis was his maternal uncle, and became his father- in-law. In the civil wars Brutus sided with Pompey; but after the battle of I'harsalia he became the intimate friend of Caesar. The remainder of his history is included in the play. His death by his own hand occurred in 36 B.C.
5. CAIUS CASSrus LoNGINUS showed his early zeal for liberty at school, where he struck Faustus, the son of Sulla, for boasting of his fathers absolute power. He married a sister of his friend lirutus. He was quaestor under Crassus in the disastrous expedition against the Paxthians in 68 B.C., and saved the remnant of the army by a skilful retreat. Later be defeated the Parthians in Syria. He commanded a Meet for Pompey, and surren- dered to Caesar after the battle of I'harsalia His connec- tion with the conspiracj againBt Caesar and bis subsequent fortunes are related in the play.
6. Cam'ursia was tin- daughter of Lucius Calpurnius Piso, who was consul in 68 B.( She was married to Caesar in I ii and was his fourth wife; the other three being Cossutia, Cornelia, and Pompeia. Little else is known of her history beyond what Plutarch narrates and Shakespeare incorporates in the play.
7 Portia (or Poroia, as the name is also spelt) was
th. daughter of Cato and the wife of lirutus. Plutarch is
Dramatis Personsa.
NOTES TO JULIUS CvESAR.
ACT I. Scene 1.
the chief authority for the details of her life, ami most of these have been made use of by the dramatist.
8. 1'uuLius SERVILIUS CASCA. Of this character we know little except that he was tribune of the people at the time he joined the conspiracy against Caesar, that he fought at l'hilippi, and that he died soon after the battle.
9. Caius Trehonius had been a tribune of the people in 55 B.C., ami was also one of Caesar's legates in Gaul. He was elected city praetor in 4S and consul in 45 B.C. He took part in the conspiracy, as described in the play; and in 43 B.C. he was killed at Smyrna by Dolabeila.
10. Quintus Ligarius fought for Pompey in the civil war, and after Pharsalia he renewed the war against Caesar in Africa. He was pardoned by the victor, but forbidden to enter Italy. His friends endeavoured to have the sentence reversed, but, being opposed by Tubero, engaged the services of Cicero, who pronounced a well- known oration (1'ro Ligario) in his behalf. According to Plutarch, C.esar had resolved to give decision against Ligarius, but was led by the eloquence of Cicero to par- don him. He showed his gratitude by conspiring against his benefactor, as represented by Shakespeare.
11. Decimus Junius Brutus (the Decius Brutus of the play) had served under Caesar in Gaul, and been com- mander of his cavalry. He was slain in 33 B.C. by Camil- lus, a Gaul, to whom he had fled for refuge, and who was greatly indebted to him for former favours, and his head was sent to Antony.
12. Lucius Tillius Cimber (the Metellus Ciinber of the play) was a partisan of Cajsar in the civil war, but turned against him subsequently and became one of his
assassins.
13. Lucius Cornelius Cinna was a son of the more famous Roman of the same name. He was a brother-in- law of Ca;sar, and a son-in-law of Pompey. He was pra;- tor in 44 B.C., when he entered into the conspiracy.
14. Caius Helvius Cinna, who, according to Plutarch, was killed by the mob because he was mistaken for the conspirator, was a poet of no mean order, if we may judge of him by the tributes of his contemporaries and the few fragments of his works that have come down to us. He was a companion and friend of Catullus, and is supposed to be the Cinna of Virgil's ninth Eclogue.
15. The Cicero of the play is of course the great orator (106-43 B.C.), but the slight part he performs calls for no extended account of him here.
16. The young Cato was a son of Cato Uticensis and brother of Portia.
Of the other characters in the play little or nothing is known except what Plutarch tells us in the passages quiited from North's translation below. Most of them owe the preservation of their names to their connection with the fate of the great Dictator.
ACT I. Scene 1.
17. Line 3: Being mechanical.— Shakespeare uses this word as a substantive in Mids. Night's Dream, iii. 2. 9:
A crew of patches, rude mechanicals;
and in II. Henry VI. i. 3. 196:
liase dunghill villain and mechanical.
Shakespeare uses the substantive mechanic only once, in Coriolanus, v. 3. S3, ami he uses the adjective = belonging
to the class of workmen, in Henry V. i. 2. 200, and in An- tony and Cleopatra, iv. 4. 32; v. 2. 209. He neveruses either the substantive or adjective inw hatmaj be called, more or less, its scientific sense. Much stress has been laid by some commentators upon the anti-democratic tone of Shake- speare in his plays; and, indeed, this feature of his writ- ings has been used as an argument that the plays must have been written by some one who belonged to the aris- tocratic class: these persons would probably point out with triumph that Shakespeare never uses the word mechani- cal or mechanic except in a contemptuous sense, as will be seen from the quotations and references given above. But, on the other hand, we must not forget that Shakespeare was, above all things, a dramatist; and, in every instance that he has used either mechanical or mechanic, he has put the word into the mouths of persons who would naturally despise the working-classes. For the unreasoning mob, always ready to be led by the nose by any demagogue, Shakespeare undoubtedly had an honest contempt; and students of human nature will find that this contempt is just as strong amongst our middle class as it was in Shakespeare's day. That Shakespeare had any lack of sympathy with the honest and industrious poor, or that he was wanting in love of true liberty, no one who reads his plays intelligently can for a moment imagine.— F. A.M.
18. Lines 4, 5:
without the sign Of your profession.
On this passage Mr. Aldis Wright has the following note: "It is more likely Shakespeare had in his mind a custom of his own time than any sumptuary laws of the Romans" (Clarendon Press ed. p. 82). It is evident that there is no reference here to the mediaeval guilds ; as the next speech but one, that of Marullus, shows us that what the tribune meant was not that the mechanics should wear any special badge or sign, but merely the usual working dress of their trade or occupation; in short, that they had no right to be in holiday attire, or, as we should say, in their Sunday clothes, on a working day.— F. A. M.
19. Line 11: a cobbler. — He puts his answer in such a way as to suggest the meaning of a clumsy workman rather than a mender of shoes, and for some time the tribune does not perceive the quibble.
20. Line 14: a mender of bad si >i,ks. —We have a similar play upon sole in the Merchant of Venice, iv. 1. 123:
Not on thy sole, but on thy soul, harsh Jew.
21. Line 15: What trade, thou knave? — In the Ff. this speech is given to Flavins; but the reply, "Mend me," shows that it belongs to Marullus.
22. Line 16: be not out, &c. — The play upon out with (angry with) and out (at toes or heels) is obvious enough, though Marullus does not see it.
23. Lilies 24-27: all that I live by is ivith the awl. 1 meddle with no tradesman's matters, norwomen's matters, but WITH ALL. 1 am, indeed, sir. a surgeon to old shoes.
135
ACT I. Scene 1.
NOTES TO JULIUS CESAR.
At T [. S.-ene 2.
— F. 1 reads thus: "all that I line by, is with the Aide: I meddle with no Tradesman* matters, nor womena mattera; but withal I am Indeed Sir, a surgeon to old shooes;" a reading which, to my mind, is utterly indefen- sible. It is <|uite clear that there is a pun intended on with awl and with all; but that the full stop or colon lias been omitted in the Folio, and that withal is a misprint tor with all. If withal be joined on to the following sen- B, 1 cannot see what possible meaning it can have. I lir actor, in speaking the words, must pause after withal; and therefore it would show a most foolish and pedantic adherence to the old text if the very slight alteration adopted by nearly all modern editors were rejected. As to the question of printing "with awl," or "with all," that is a matter of no importance. To the ear the pun is clear enough, and that is the great point to be considered. Many instances might be noticed of this excessively pri- meval and obvious play upon words; in fact, I believe that no one, who has ever been guilty of a pun at all, has failed to make this one. — F. a. m.
24. Lilies 28, 29: As proper men as ever trod upon neat's bather. — This expression was proverbial. In The Tem- pest (ii. 2. 62, 73) the drunken Stephano cuts it in two, aud mixes the halves up with other familiar phrases: "As proper a man as ever went on four legs;" and " any emperor that ever trod on neat's leather."
25. Line 36: his triu)nph.— This was Crcsars fifth and last triumph, celebrated in honour of his defeat of the sons of Pompey in Spain, at the battle of Munda, March 17th, B.C. 45.
26. Line 47: To see great Pompey pass THE streets of Rome.— Vol a similar elliptical use of the verb to j compare King John, v. 6. 40: "Passing these flats;" and Richard ill. i. 4. iB:
I /.iss'd, methought, the melancholy flood. Rolfe very aptly quotes a parallel expression, Antony and Cleopatra, i. 4. 20, " To reel the streets at noon."
27. Line 50: Tiber trembled underneath HER banks.— A Roman would have said "hie lianks;" but there is no ground for changing the gender either here or in i. 2. 101 below, as some editors have done. Shakespeare undoubt- edly wrote her in both passages.
28 Line 56: That comes in triumph over Pompey's u.— That is, "over Pompey's offspring; " not, as might be supposed, over Pompey's death or murder. The elder 'f Pompey's sons, Cnseus Pompey, was slain after the battle of Munda; but there is no specific reference to that fact iii the present passage. Bio •'. in the sense of relations by blood, or lineal descent, is often used by Shakespeare. Compare Richard II. i. 3. 67, 58:
Farewell, my blood; which if to-day thou shed,
Lament we may, but not revenge thee d
[This certainly seems to me rather a strained interpre- tation of the text. " I'ompey's 6food " may be equivalent le re to •■ Pompey's blood relatione; bnt I can only and two passages, besides the one quoted, where Mood is used
by Shakespeare to signify "relations by W I," and not
merely "relationship. ' In the passage from Kirhard II . 13G
quoted above, King Richard is addressing Hereford, and it is evident that blood is there used in a double sense. In I. Henry VI. iv. 5. 16, 17, John Talbot says to his
father:
The world will say, he is not Talbot's blood. That basely fled when noble Talbot stood ;
where the expression is simply elliptical = of Talbot's blood, though there it might be taken to mean "offspring." The remaining passage is in Richard III. ii. 4. 61-03:
themselves, the conquerors, Make war upon themselves; brother to brother, Blood to blood, self against self ;
where blood certainly means blood relationship. As for blood being equivalent to "blood-shed,'' we may quote Macbeth, iii. 4. 126: "The secret'st man of blood." — F. A. M.]
29. Line 66: See whether.— The Ff. print where, as in v. 4 30 below, and some modem editors have whe'r or whir; but whether is equally common in the early edi- tions when the word is metrically equivalent to a mono- syllable (as in ii. 1. 104 below), and, in our day, it had better be read or recited as a dissyllable in all cases. The unaccented extra syllable is common enough in Shake- speare's verse.
30. Line 72: the feast of Ll'i'ERCAL.— The Lupercal was a cavern in the Palatine Hill, sacred to the old Italian god Lupercus, who came to be identified with Pan. Virgil refers to it in the JEneid, viii. 344:
sub rupe Liiptrcal Parrhasio dictum Panos de more Lycaei.
Here the feast of the Lupercalia was annually celebrated in February. Aftercertainritesand sacrifices, VaeLuperci, or priests of Lupercus, ran through the city, wearing only a goat-skin cincture, and striking with thongs of leather all whom they met. This symbolized a purifica- tion of the land and the people. The day of the cere- mony was called dies februata (from februo, purify), and the month Februarius.
31. Line 78: fly an ordinary 1'ITCH. — For pitch as a technical term of falconry compare I Henry VI. ii. 4. 11:
Between two hawks, which flies the higher filch;
and for its metaphorical use, as here, Richard II. i. 1. 109: How high a pitch his resolution soars!
ACT I. Scene 2.
32. Line 4: When he doth run his course —Com- pare Norths Plutarch1 (Life of Cauar): "At that time the feast Lupercalia was celebrated, the which in old time men say was the feast of shepherds or hcrdmen, and is much like onto the feast of I.yca'ans in Arcadia. But, howsoever it is, that day there are divers noble men's sons, young men, (and some of them magistrates them- selves that govern then), which run naked through the City, Striking in Bpori them tiny meet in their way with leather thongs, hair and all on. to make them give p] And many noblewomen and gentlewomen also go of purpose to stand in their way, and do pnt forth their
1 For the convenience of the reader we have taken the references from Skeat's Shakespeare's Plutarch, as the text from North's Plutarch contained therein is a most careful collation of all the best editions of
th.it book.
ACT I. Scene 2.
NOTES TO JULIUS CJ.SAI;.
A i | |. -rene 2.
hands to be stricken, as scholars hold them out to their schoolmaster to be stricken with the ferula; persuading themselves that, being with child, they shall have good delivery; and so, being barren, that it will make them to conceive with child. . . . Antonius, who was Consul at that time, was one of them that ran this holy course " (pp. 95, 96).
33. Line 19: the IDES of March.— In the Roman calendar the Ides fell on the 15th of March, May, July, and Octo- ber, and on the 13th of the other months.
34. Line 29: that quick spirit that is in Antony. — Simi- lar references to Antony's reputation for levity and pro- fligacy (e.g. below, ii. 1. 188, 189) are skilfully introduced by the dramatist, to make the contrast of his behaviour after the death of Caesar more impressive.
35. Line 39: Merely upon myself. — This emphatic sense of merely and the adjective mere is common in Elizabethan writers, but it has sometimes been a stum- bliug-block to editors. For example, Bacon in his 5Sth Essay (Of Vicissitude of Things) remarks: "As for confla- grations and great draughts, they do not merely dis- people and destroy" (that is, do not entirely do so); but Montague, Whately, and others, mistaking and pervert- ing the meaning, have changed "and destroy" to "but destroy." Compare Hamlet, i. 2. 135-137:
O, fie! 'tis an unweeded garden, That grows to seed; things rank and gross in nature Possess it merely.
36. Line 42: Which give some soil, perhaps, to my be- haviours.— There is no reason for suspecting the plural to be a misprint. Compare Much Ado, ii. 3. 8: "seeing how much another man is a fool when he dedicates his be- havioursto love;" and again, in line lOOof the same scene: "whom she hath in all outward behaviours seemed ever to abhor. ' Shakespeare uses the plural in five other passages, but more frequently the singular.
37. Line 52: for the eye sees not itself, &c. — Compare Troilus and Cressida, iii. 3. 105, 106:
nor doth the eye itself, That most pure spirit of sense, behold itself.
Steevens quotes Sir John Davies, >Tosce Teipsum, 1599:
the mind is like the eye, Mot seeing itself, when other things it sees.
[It may be worth noting that there is a curious optical experiment, by means of which the eye may be said to see itself. If in a darkened room, against any level plain- coloured surface (such as a drawn blind or a distempered wall), a lighted candle be waved vertically in front of the eye, you will presently see, projected on the plain surface behind the candle, a map of the interior of the eye, some- what magnified, in which the small blood-vessels and a dark cavity, representing the pupil of the eye, can be clearly distinguished.— F. A. m.]
38. Line 53: But by reflection by some other things. — This is the reading of the Ef. and is easily explicable as meaning "only by being reflected by something else." Pope, however, changed it to " reflection from some other things; " and Walker made the further alteration of thing for things, which Dyce adopts. [I think there can be no
doubt that the clumsy repetition of by is a printer's mis- take for from or in. It is unfortunate that there is no other passu-'- in Shakespeare in which he uses either the verb reflect or the noun reflection with a preposition after it in a similar sense. The plural may be allowed to stand.— F. a. m.]
39. Line 56: mirrors.— Walker, followed by Dyce, reads mirror.
40. Line GO: Except immortal Ccesar.— This is said sig- nificantly, if not ironically.
41. Line 62: Have wish'd that noble Brutus had his eyes.— Whether his refers to Brutus, or to his friends, has been disputed. On the whole, the former is the prefer- able explanation, as it avoids the necessity of making his equivalent to their, while it gives as good a sense. The friends of Brutus have wished that he could see himself as he is, or as in the mirror which Cassius would hold up to him.
42. Line 66: Therefore, good Brutus, &c— Craik (Eug- lish of Shakespeare, ad loc.) remarks: "The eager, im- patient temper of Cassius, absorbed in his own idea, is vividly expressed by his thus continuing his argument as if without appearing to have even heard Brutus's inter- rupting question; for such is the only interpretation which his therefore would seem to admit of."
43. Line 72: a common laugher.— The Ff. have "com- mon laughter;" emended by Pope, who has been followed by all the recent editors. Lover has been plausibly sug- gested as in keeping with the context. "A common lover" would be "everybody's friend."
44. Line 77: profess myself— That is, "make protesta- tions of friendship."
45. Line S6: Set honour in one eye, etc. — Coleridge says: " Warburton would read death for both; but I prefer the old text. There are here three things— the public good, the individual Brutus's honour, and his death. The latter two so balanced each other that he could decide for the first by equipoise ; nay— the thought growing— that honour had more weight than death. That Cassius understood it as Warburton is the beauty of Cassius as contrasted with Brutus" (Xotes on Shakespeare, p. 102, Harper's ed.). Craik remarks: "It does not seem to be necessary to sup- pose any such change or growtli either of the image or the sentiment. What Brutus means by saying that he will look upon honour and death indifferently, if they present themselves together, is merely that, for the sake of the honour, he will not mind the death, or the risk of death, by which it may be accompanied; he will look as fearlessly and steadily upon the one as upon the other. He will think the honour to be cheaply purchased even by the loss of life; that price will never make him falter or hesitate in clutching at such a prize. He must be under- stood to set honour above life from the first ; that he should ever have felt otherwise for a moment would have been the height of the unheroic,"
46. Line 95: / had as lief not be as live to be.— There is a play upon lief, which was always pronounced and often printed lieve, and live.
137
Ac I 1. Scene 2.
NOTES TO .11 LI IS C.KSAl;.
A.CT 1 >cene 2.
47. Line 98: Wi have both fed as well. — That is, "have been bred as well, brought up us well.'' Our birth and
training have been aa g l as his. it is a characteristic
Soman touch to lay so much stress on physical strength ami endurance as Casaius does in this passage.
48. Line 100: For once, upon a raw ami iiust)/ day. Arc. — r was a famous swimmer. Wright (Clarendon Press
ed.) quotes the following passage from Hollands transla- tion of Suetonius (already referred to by Malone, Var. Ed.
vol. xii. p. 16): "At Alexandria being busie about tin- assault and winning Of B bridge where, by a sodaine Bailie ol the enemies he was driven, to take a boat. & many besides made ha>t to get into the same, he lept into the Bea, and by Bwimming almost a quarter of a mile recouered dean the next ship: bearing up bis left hand all the while, for feare the writings which he held therein should take wet. and drawing his rich eoate armour after him by the teeth, because the eiiemie should not have it as a Bpoyle" (l.ife of Julius Caesar, ed. 1606, p. 26). Plutarch's account makes the feat still more difficult: "The third danger was in the battle by sea. that uas fought by the tower of Phar: where meauing to help his men that 'it by sea, he leapt from the pier into a boat. Then the .Egyptians made towards him with their oars on every side: but he, leaping into the sea, with great hazard Baved himself by swimming. It is said, that then, hold- ing divers books in his hand, he did never let them go, but kept them always upon his head above water, and swam with the other hand, notwithstanding that they shot marvellously at him, and was driven sointime to duck into the water; howbeit the boat was drowned presently" (p. 86).
49. Lines b'7-109:
Tht tot /■ nt roar'd; and ice did buffet it
With I".' throwing it aside,
And stemming it with hearts of controversy.
i lompare the spirited description of Ferdinand swimming,
in Tempest, ii. 1. 114-120:
I saw him beat the surges under him,
And ride upon their backs; he trod the water,
Whose enmity he flung aside, and breasted
The surge most swoln that met him; his bold head
'Bove the contentious waves he kept, and oar'd
Himself with his good arms in lusty stroke
To the shore.
50. Lines 112-114:
/. as .¥.-. I neat ancestor,
from the flames of Troy upon his shoulder The OLD AaOHISBS BEAK.
Compare n Henrj VI. v. 2. 62, 63:
As did slineas old Anchises bear.
So bear I thee upon my manly shoulders.
51. Line 122: His coward lips did from their colour fly. 'lb suing may be simply "lose their colour;" but
Craik remarks: "There can, I think, be no question thai ":n burton la Tight in holding thai we have lure a pointed allusiou to a soldier Dying from his colours." Possibly the dramatist had both ideas in his mind at the same time; and the double meaning of the sentence is inten- tional
L38
52. Line 130: Like a COLOSSUS. — For other allusions to the famous Colossus of Rhodes, see 1. Henry IV. v. 1. 123, where Falstafli asks Prince Ha] to bestride him if he is
struck down in the battle; and the Prince replies: "No- thing but a eolostUS can do thee that friendship;" and TroilUB and Cressida, v. 5. 7-:>:
bastard Margarelon
I lath Doreus prisoner.
And stands cotossus-uise, waving his beam, &c.
53. Lin« 155: wide WALLS —The Ff. have "wide JI'aM which some editors retain Rowe's emendation of walls is, however, generally adopted.
54. Line 156: E&ome indeed, and BOOM enough.— There
is an evident play on J^'m. and room, as in iii. 1
below:
No Rome of safety for Octavius yet.
The two words were probably pronounced alike in Shake- speare's day; but that the modern pronunciation of Rom* was beginning to be heard appears front 1. Henry VI. iii. 1. 51, where the Bishop of Winchester Bays, "This .Rome shall remedy," and Warwick replies. "Roam thither, then." For the play on room, compare King John, iii. 1. 180: "I have room with Rome to curse awhile;" and Hawkins, Apollo Shroving, p. 88: "We must have roome, more than the whole city of Rome," Hyce, in his Glos- sary (p. 367), quotes other examples of this pronunciation.
55. Line ICO: The eternal devil.— Johnson took eternal to be a misprint or corruption of infernal. Walker (Criti- cal Examination, vol. i. p. 63). followed by Abbott (Gram- mar, p. 16). regards it as used inaccurately in the sense of infernal. Schmidt explains it as "used to express ex- treme abhorrence;" as in "eternal villain "(Othello, iv. 2. 130) and "eternal cell" (Hamlet, v. 2. 878), According to Wright and Halliwell's Archaic Dictionary, eternal is used in the. east of England for ••infernal, damned;" and the Yankee tarnal is probably the same provincialism In the present passage it seems to be used in this way, or as a familiar intensitive.
56. LinelS8: by some SENATOBS.— Dyce reads senator,
which was suggested by Walker.
57. Line 192: Let me have men about me that are FAT.— Compare North's Plutarch (Life of Ceeaar): "Ccesar also had Cassius in great jealousy, and suspected him much: Whereupon he said upon a time to his friends, 'what will Cassias do, think ye.' 1 like not his pale looks.' Another time when Casar's friends complained unto him of An- tonius and DolabeUa, that they pretended some mischief towards him: he answered them again. • As for those fat men and smooth-combed heads, quoth he, ' I never reckon of them; but these pale-visaged and carrion lean people, I fear them most, meaning Brutus and CaSStUS." So also in Life of Brutus: "lor, Intelligence being brought him one day. that Antonws and DolabeUa did conspire against him: he answered, 'Thatthese/at long-haired men made
him not afraid, but the lean and whitcly-faced fellow.-,' meaning that by Bruttuand Cassias" (p- 97).
58. Line 220: Why, there uas a crown offer'd him, &c— Compare North (Life of Antonius): •When he [Antony] was come to Caesar, he made his fellow-runners with
ACT I. Scene
NOTES TO JULIUS CJESAK
ACT l. 81
him lift him up, and so he did put his laurel crown upon his head, signifying thereby that he had deserved to be king. But CcBSar, making as though he refused it, turned away his head. The people were so rejoiced at it, that they all clapped their hands for joy, Antonius again did put it on his head: Ccesar again refused it; aud thus they were striving off and on a great while together. As oft as Antonius did put this laurel crown unto him, a few of his followers rejoiced at it: and as oft also as Caesar refused it, all the people together clapped their hands. . . . Ccesar, in a rage, arose out of his seat, and plucking down the collar of his gown from his neck, he shewed it naked, bidding any man strike off his head that would. This laurel crown was afterwards put upon the head of one of C&sar's statues or images, the which one of the tribunes plucked off. The people liked his doing therein so well, that they waited on him home to his house, with great clapping of hands. Howbeit Ccesar did turn them out of their offices for it." In the Life of Caesar, the tearing open his doublet, and offering his throat to be cut, is said to have been in his own house when "the Consuls and Prretors, accompanied with the whole assembly of the Senate, went unto him in the market-place, where lie was set by the pulpit for ora- tions, to tell him what honours they had decreed for him in his absence," and he offended them by " sitting still in his majesty, disdaining to rise up unto them when they came in." The historian adds that, "afterwards to ex- cuse his folly, he imputed it to his disease, saying, 'that their wits are not perfit which have this disease of the falling evil, when standing on their feet they speak to the common people, but are soon troubled with a trem- bling of their body, and a suddain dimness aud giddiness " (p. 95).
59. Line 245: the rabblement shouted.— The Ff. have howted, which is clearly a misprint for showted — the spelling of the word above in "mine honest neighbours shoivted." Johnson and Knight read hooted, which is out of place as expressing "insult, not applause."
60. Line 256: 'T is very like;— he hath the falling-sickness. — In the Ff. there is no point after like, but it is evident from North that Brutus must have known of Caesar's in- firmity: "For, concerning the constitution of his body, he was lean, white, and soft skinned, and often subject to head-ach, and otherwhile to the falling-sickness (the which took him the first time, as it is reported, in Cor- I>UBA, a City of SPAIN:) but yet therefore yielded not to the disease of his body, to make it a cloak to cherish him withal, but contrarily, took the pains of war as a medi- cine to cure his sick body, fighting always with his disease, travelling continually, living soberly, and commonly lying abroad in the field" (p. 57).
61. Line 263: / am no true man. — In Shakespeare's day true man was the familiar antithesis to thief, as honest man now is. Compare (inter alia) Love's Labour's Lost, iv. 3. 187: "A true man or a thief;" and Measure for Measure, iv. 2. 46: "Every true man's apparel fits your thief."
62. Line 263: he pluck'd ME ope his doublet.— The me is the expletive dative, used generally to give a free and
easy tone to the discourse. Compare the confusion due to the us,- of it in the dialogue between Petruchio and Grumio in The Taming of the Sinew, i. 2. 8-17: "Villain, l say, knock me here Boundly," a c.
The doublet is the English garment bo called, which Shakespeare, with his usual carelessness in such matters, claps on the shoulders of his Romans.
63. Line 270: a man of any occupation. — Johnson ex- plains the phrase as in the font-note to the text. Grant White takes it to mean "a man of action, a busy man." The Clarendon Press edition suggests that both senses may lie combined, which is barely possible.
64. Line 282: Ay, he spoke Greek.— The absurdity of Cicero's speaking Greek in a popular assembly is suffi- ciently obvious; but it is introduced to prepare the way for the little joke, "it was Greek to me." According to Shakespeare's authority Casca knew Greek. See the quo- tation from North in note on iii. 1. 33, p. 147.
65. Line 300: He was quick mettle. -The reading of Collier's MS. Corrector is mettled. Walker would read metal on account of the blunt, but mettle and metal were used interchangeably in Shakespeare's time.
66. Line 304: This rudeness is a sauce to his yood wit, efce. — Compare Lear, ii. 2. 101-103:
This is some fellow, Who, having been prais'd for blitiitiiess, doth affect A saucy roughness.
67. Line 319: He should not humour me. — Johnson is clearly right in making he refer to Caesar. He explains the passage thus: "Caesar loves Brutus, but if Brutus and I were to change places his love should not humour me, should not take hold of my affection, so as to make me forget my principles" (Var. Ed. xii. p. 24). Warburton says it is a reflection on Brutus's ingratitude; he renders the sentence thus: "He (Brutus) should not cajole me as I do him" (ut supra). Wright is inclined to agree with Warburton, because "Cassius is all along speaking of his own influence over Brutus, notwithstanding the differ- ence of their characters, which made Csesar dislike the one and love the other." To this Rolfe replies: " The chief objection to Warburton's explanation, in our opinion, is that it seems to leave the mention of Caesar unconnected with what follows. We fancy that this occurred to Wright, and that what we have just quoted is an attempt to meet the objection; but, to our thinking, it is far from successful. If we accept Johnson's interpretation, he should not humour me naturally follows what precedes, and is naturally followed by what comes after: Coesar should not cajole me as he does Brutus; and I am going to take measures to counteract the influence Csesar has over him
ACT I. Scene 3.
68. Line 10: a tempest dropping fire. — The Ff. reading is "a Tempest-dropping-fire." Rowe was the first to delete the hyphens.
69. Line 14: any thing more wonderful. — That is. "any- thing more that was wonderful," as Craik explains it;
not "anything more wonderful than usual." as Abbott, in his Shakespearian Grammar (s o), makes it. L39
ACT I. Scene 3.
NOTES TO JULIUS C.l.sAl;.
ACT I. Scene 3.
70. Line 16: TOO KNOW him well hy sight. — A "graphic touch" tint lias needlessly vexed the souls of commenta- tors. Dyce suggests "you'd know him," and Craik ";/"" knew him" (that is, would have known him); hut the slaves had no distinctive dress by which one would recog- nize them as such.
[The only distinction was that the males were not al- lowed to wear the toga nor the females the stola; other- n\ Ise they were dressed like other poor people of the time, in dark-coloured clothes and crepidm (slippers). It had been proposed in the senate to give them a distinctive dress; hut it was decided not to do so, lest they should learn how numerous they were. Cicero in his oration in Pisonem (3S, 02), speaks of vestis servilis.— F. A. si.]
For the context, compare North (Life of Caesar): "Cer- tainly destiny may easier he foreseen than avoided, con- sidering the strange and wonderful signs that were said to he seen before Ceesars death. For, touching the flres in the element, and spirits running Ul, .U1,j down [D j|le night, and also the solitary birds to be seen at noondays sitting in tlie great market-place, are not all these signs perhaps worth the noting, in such a wonderful chance as happened? But Strabo the philosopher writeth, that divers men were seen going up and down in fire: and furthermore, that there was a slave of the soldiers that did east a marvellous burning flame out of his hand, in- somuch as they that saw it thought he had been burnt: but when the fire was out, it was found he had no hurt. Cotsar self also doing sacrifice unto the gods, found that one of the beasts which was sacrificed had no heart: and that was a strange thin;.' in nature: how a Beast could live without a heart" (pp. 97, 98).
71. Line 21: QLAR'D upon me.— The Ff. have "glaz'dvpon me," which Pope was the first to correct.
72. Lines 22, 23:
and there were drawn UPON A HEAP a hundred ghastly women. For the use of upon or on, compare Henry V. iv. 5. 18:
Let us on heaps go offer up our lives ;
and Exodus viii. 14 : "And they gathered them together heaps." For heap, applied to persons, compare also Richard III. ii. 1. 53: "Among this princely heap," <fec.
73. Line 35: CLEAN from the purpose.— This use of clean is common in the Authorized Version of the Bible. See Psalms lxxvii v.; Isaiah xxiv. 19; Joshua iii. 17, &C. Com- pare also Ascham's Scholemaster (Mayor's ed. p. 37): "This fault is clean contrary to the first. "
74 Line I'J: what NIGHT is this! Craik prints ■■irlmt ,, night is this:'' but the omission of the a in such excla- mations was not unusual. Compare Two Gentlemen of Verona, i. •_' 68, 64:
ll'ii.it/oolis she, that knows I am ■ maid, And would not force the letter to my view !
and Twelfth Night, ii. .".. 123-120:
Fat, What dish o" poison has she dress'd him :
Sir To. And with what -u tng the staniel checks at it :
75. Line 49: the TUX HDEB-8T0NB.— The ancients believed
that such a solid body fell with tin- lightning and did the
mischief. It is called brontia by Pliny in his Natural
History (wwii. io). Compare Cymbeline, iv. 2. 270, 271:
110
Guid. Fear no more the lightning-flash. .If.'. Nor the all-dreaded thUHder-stone.
and Othello, v. 2. 234, 235:
Are there no stones in heaven But what serve for the thunder?
It is said that the fossil shell known as the belemnite, or finger-stone, gave rise to this superstition. [Brontia has generally been identified with those roundish masses of crystallized iron pyrites (sulphuret of iron), often found in the neighbourhood of iron ore, which are still com- monly known by the name of thunder-stones. Pliny*s de- scription is as follows: "Brontia is shaped in manner of a Tortoise head: it falleth with a crache of thunder (as it is thought) from heaven; and if wee will beleeve it, quencheth the fire of lightning" (Holland's Pliny, edn. L601, roL ii. p. 625 B.)— F. A. M.]
76. Line (JO: CASE yourself in iconder.— The Ff. have "cast your selfe in wonder," which is followed by Collier, Staunton, and the Cambridge editors. Case was proposed independently by Swynfen Jervis and M. W. Williams, and is adopted by Dyce and others. Wright explains " east yourself in " as "hastily dress yourself in."
77. Line 05: Why old men FOOL, &c— The Ff. reading is " Why Old men, Fooles," &C. The correction was sug- gested by Lettsom, and is accepted by Dyce, the Cam- bridge editors, and others. Collier and Staunton read, with Blackstone: "Why old men fools;" that is, why old men become fools. [I think there is a good deal to be said here for the reading of F. 1, though Lettsom 's in- genious conjecture secures an effective antithesis; still the fact that old men, fools, and children were all trying to explain the phenomena and calcxdating what the various portents meant, would be a circumstance suffi- ciently unusual for Cassius to mention. — f. a. m.]
78. Line 75: As doth the lion in the Capitol.— That is, ' roars in the Capitol as doth the lion." Wright suggests that Shakespeare imagined that lions were kept in the Capitol, as they were in the Tower of London.
79. Line 70: .4 man no mightier than thyself or ME.— The grammatical error is not uncommon among Intelll
gent people even now. Than is easily mistaken for a pre- position. We can hardly, however, agree with Craik (p. 127), that "the personal pronoun must be held to be, in some measure, emancipated from the dominion or tyranny of syntax."
80. Line 89: / know ivhcre I will wear this dagger, then. — As Craik remarks, it is a mistake to omit the comma after dagger, as some editors do. "Cassius does not intend to be understood that he is prepared to plunge his dagger into his heart at that time, but in that ease."
81. Line 117: IloM>, my hand. — It is curious that some editors omit the comma otter Bold; and Craik explains thus: " Have, receive, take hold (of it); there is my hand." Of course tin- Sold is merely Interjections!, as in .Mac- beth, ii. 1. 1: "Hold, take my sword;" and many similar passages.
82. Line 120: Pompey't poreh. — Thto was a magnificent portico of a hundred columns connected with Pom] Theatre, in the Campus Martius.
ACT 1. Scone ::.
NOTES TO JULIUS C^ESAI;.
ACT II. Scene 1.
83. Line 128: the element.— Often used for the heaven or sky; as by North (Life of Pompey): "the dust in the element, " or the air. See also the quotation in note on liue 15 above: " the fires in the element." Milton uses the word in the same sense in ( 'onius, 208: " some gay creatures of the element" (spirits of the air).
84. Line 129: In FAVOUR'S like, &c— The Ff. read:
Is Fauors, like the AVorke we haue in hand.
The emendation is due to Johnson, and is generally adopted. Steevens suggested It favours, or Is favour'd; and Rowe, Is feverous.
85. Line 136: our ATTEMPT— The Ff. have "our At- tempts," which some editors retain. The emendation is Walker's.
86. Line 144: Where Brutus may but find if.— The but is apparently equivalent to only (as not uufrequently), the meaning being "only taking care to place it so that Brutus may be sure to find it" (Craik). Abbott (Grammar, § 123) gets at the same meaning by paraphrasing thus: " Where Brutus can (do nothing) but find it."
87. Line 146: Upon old Brutus' statue.— Compare North (Life of Brutus): "But for Brutus, his friends and coun- trymen, both by divers procurements and sundry rumours of the city, and by many bills also, did openly call and procure him to do that he did. For under the image of his ancestor Junius Brutus, (that drave the kings out of Home) they wrote: 'O, that it pleased the gods thou wert now alive, Brutus! ' and again, ' that thou were here among us now ! ' His tribunal or chair, where he gave audience during the time he was Praetor, was full of such bills: 'Brutus thou art asleep, and art not Brutus indeed'" (p. 112).
88. Liue 152: Pompey' s theatre. — This was the first stone theatre built in Rome, and could accommodate 40,000 spectators. It was opened in B.C. 55 with dramatic representations and gladiatorial shows lasting for many days.
ACT II. Scene 1.
89.— In the Ff. the heading of the scene is "Enter Bru- tus in his Orchard," that is, in his garden, the usual sense in which Shakespeare uses orchard (see As You Like It, note 6, and Much Ado, note 62). In iii. 2. 253 below, we have mention of "private arbours, and new-planted orchards," which are described in North's Plutarch as "gardens and arbours."
90. Line 10: It must be by Ins death. — Coleridge (p. 103) remarks here: "This speech is singular— at least, I do not at present see into Shakespeare's motive, \\\& rationale, or in what point of view he meant Brutus's character to appear. For surely— (this, I mean, is what I say to my- self, with my present quantum of insight, only modified by my experience in how many instances I have ripened into a pei'ception of beauties where I had before descried faults)— surely nothing can seem more discordant with our historical preconceptions of Brutus, or more lowering to the intellect of the Stoico-Platonic tyrannicide, than the tenets here attributed to him — to him, the stern Roman republican; namely, that he would have no objection to
a king, or to Ceesar, a monarch in Rome, would Cutsar but be as good a monarch as lie now seems disposed to be ! How, too, could Brutus say that he found no per- sonal cause— none in Csesar's past conduct as a man! Had he not crossed the Rubicon? Had he not entered Rome as a conqueror? Had he not placed his Gauls in the Senate? Shakespeare, it may be said, has not brought these things forward. True— and this is just the ground of my perplexity. What character did Shakespeare mean his Brutus to be?" Hy personal cause Brutus clearly meant such as " concerned himself personally ," as opposed to such as affected ' ' the general," or the public weal. The acts to which Coleridge refers all come under the latter head.
Dowden (Primer, p. 117) well says: "Brutus acts as an idealizer and theorizer might, with no eye for the actual bearing of facts, and no sense of the true importance of persons. Intellectual doctrines and moral ideals rule the life of Brutus; and his life is most noble, high, and stainless, but his public action is a series of mistakes. Yet even while he errs we admire him, for all his errors are those of a pure and lofty spirit. . . . All the practical gifts, insight, and tact, which Brutus lacks, are possessed by Cassius; but of Brutus's moral purity, veneration of ideals, disinterestedness, .and freedom from unworthy personal motive, Cassius possesses little."
Brutus was a scholar, a philosopher, but not a practical man. It is not without purpose that Shakespeare repre- sents him as a reader and quoter of books. His politics were those of books, and too good for the real life about him.
91. Line 12: But for the general.— This use of the general for the community or the people was common. Compare Measure for Measure, ii. 4. 27:
The general, subject to a well-wish 'd king;
and Hamlet, ii. 2. 457: " caviare to the general."
92. Line 15: Crown him?— that.— The use of that, though clear enough (Be that so, suppose that), is excep- tional. We do not know of any other instance of the word thus standing alone.
93. Line 24: the upmost round. — This is the only in- stance of upmost in Shakespeare; and uppermost he does not use at all.
94. Line 34: And kill him in the shell.— Craik (p. 150) remarks: " It is impossible not to feel the expressive force of the hemistich here. The line itself is, as it were, killed in the shell."
95. Line 40: the ides of March.— The Ff. have "the first of March;" corrected by Theobald. [This is one of the instances where one is obliged to substitute what Shake- speare ought to have written for what he, most probably, did write. See the note of Mr. Aldis Wright in the Claren- don Press ed., where the passage from the Life of Brutus is quoted which led Shakespeare into the error.— F. A. M.]
96. Line 53: My ANCESTORS.— Dyce reads "My ancestor; " but the plural may well enough stand, and most editors retain it; though, strictly speaking, the singular number would be more correct, for there was only one of his ancestors of whom Brutus could have been thinking, and
141
ACT II. Scene l.
NOTES TO JULIUS OESAK.
ACT II. Socne 1.
that was .Tuiiius Brutus, the first consul, ami the expellcr of the Tarquins.
97. Line 59: March is wasted FIFTEEN days.— This is the tally reading, but Theobald and the majority of modern editors change it to "fourteen days." The text is true to (toman usage, which in such cases counted the current day as complete. Thus in the New Testament, Christ says, "After three days I will rise again;" but the cruci- fixion was on Friday, and the resurrection early on Sun- day morning.
98. Line 00: The GENIUS and the MOETAI instruments.
I here has bun much dispute over these words, but they probably mean nothing more than the mind or soul and the bodily powers through which it acts. Compare lines 175-177 beUu :
And let our hearts, as subtle masters do, Stir up their servants to an act of rage, And after seem to chide 'em.
According to Johnson, the poet "is describing the insur- ■ it which a conspirator feels agitating the little king- dom of his own mind; when the genius, or power that watches fur his protection, and the mortal instruments, the passions, which excite him to a deed of honour ami danger, are in council and debate; when the desire of action, and the care of safety, keep the mind in continual fluctuation and disturbance" (Var. Ed voL s. p. 39). But though g< in'us elsewhere in Shakespeare has this sense (as in The Comedy of Errors, v. l. 332:
One of these men is Genius to the other, Stc), it does not suit the present passage, especially when com- pared with the one quoted, in which hearts is clearly parallel to genius here.
[I must say that I cannot agree with this note. In the first place Bhakespeare never uses genius in any other sense than in what may be called its spiritual sense, i.e. that of "a spirit, either good or evil, which governs our actions." Besides the passage in our text, and that given above from The Comedy of Errors, Shakespeare uses the word genius five times: in Twelfth Night, iii. 4. 142: "His very genius hath taken the infection of the device;" in TrollUB and Cressida, iv. 4. 52, 53:
Hark I you are call'd: some say the Genius so Cries " Come ! " to him that instantly must die ;
in Macbeth, iii. 1 56-67:
and, under him.
My Genius is rebuk'd; as, it is said,
Mark Antony's was by Cxsar;
in The Tempest, iv. 1 26, ^7:
the strong'st suggestion Our worsvr genius can;
and in II. Henry IV. iii. 2. 337, in the sense of the em- bodied spirit: "a' was the very genius of famine." The only one of these passages, in which genius can have any- thing but the meaning which Johnson gives it, is the one from Twelfth Night; and, as that is in prose, it is difficult to believe that Bhakespeare would have written genius hail he meant simply Spirit or souL Perhaps the dis- tin. Hon may seem to some persons not of much impor- tant,-. for the genius, whether good or bad, would act through the soul or spiritual part (if the man; but I think it would be a pity to lose sight of the special meaning 1 12
here— a meaning which it appears always to have had in English literature, at least up to the middle of the seven- teenth century— embodying, as it does, a belief which was a very characteristic one. As to the passage below (17'' 177). -Mr. Adams follows Craik in regarding it as the parallel or complement of this; but I cannot see any positive connection between them. There is no distinc- tion in the latter between the spiritual and bodily parts Of men; the meaning simply is: "let OUT hearts (i.e. our feelings) stir us up to an act of rage which afterwards, in our calmer moments, they may seem to disapprove (see note 110 below); while in the passage before us the struggle is represented as taking place, in one man's being, between the spirit that is supposed, more or less, to govern the actions, and the mortal part of him (including the will) which puts these actions into force. Mortal probably is used here in the sense of "deadly," as in Macbeth, i. 5. 42.— F. A. 31.]
99. Line G7: the state of man.— F. 1 has "the state of a man;" corrected in F. 2. Knight and Craik, however. retain the a.
On the passage comp. Troilus and Cressida, ii. 3. 184-180:
'twist his mental and his active parts Kingdom'd Achilles in commotion rages, And batters down himself.
100. Line 70: your brother Cassius. — Cassius had mar- ried Junia, the sister of Brutus.
101. Line 72: there are MOE with him. — This word moe
occurs forty or more times in the early editions of Shake- speare, as in other books of the time. It w as regularly used with a plural or collective noun. The only instance of the latter sort in Shakespeare is Tempest, v. 1. 234: "Ami moe diversity of sounds." The modern editions generally change the word to more, unless it is required for the rhyme, as in Much Ado, ii. 3. 72-75:
Sing no more ditties, sing no moe.
Of dumps so dull and heavy; The fraud of men was ever so.
Since summer first was Icavy.
[The difficulty in deciding whether or not to retain such forms as moe is to know where to draw the line; for we may soon, without intending it, lie logically committed to an old-spelling text. Skeat says that mo and more were originally "well-distinguished, the former relating to number, the latter to size."— F. A. 31.]
102. Line S3: For, if thou path, thy native semblance on.— This, except for the comma after path, is the reading of the Ff. Path is found as a transitive verb in Drayton, and its intransitive use ( = walk) is not more peculiar than many other liberties of the kind in Bhakespeare. It is possible, however, that it may be a misprint, and various emendations have been proposed. Southern and Cole- ridge independently suggested put, which Dyce adopts; but it seems a Hibemicism to speak of putting on one's natural appearance, other conjectures are pass and hadst Johnson well paraphrases the passage: " If thou walk in thy true form." [There is a verb in Sanskrit, path, ft nth. to go, which comes from the same root,;'"', to go, as the Greek txtuv, to tread, and our path. In the old slang word still used by thieves, to 2><td = to go, we have an old cognate form of the verb— F. A. 31.]
ACT II. Scene 1.
NOTES TO JUL US c.hs.U;.
ACT II. Scene 1.
103. Line 107: Which is a great way growing on the SOUTH, &C.— That is, "which must be far to the south, considering the time of year." It is curious that no com- mentator has noted that on the 15th of March, or previous to the vernal equinox, the sun would not rise at all to the south of the true east, but a little northward of that point. [It should be noted that during this and the pre- ceding speech the change from night to early dawn is supposed to take place; but, even in Italy, in the middle of March it would not be light at three o'clock in the morning.— F. A. M.]
104. Line 114: jVo, not an oath! &c— Compare North (Life of Brutus): "the only name and great calling of Brutus did bring on the most of them to give consent to this conspiracy: who having never taken oaths together, nor taken or given any caution or assurance, nor binding themselves one to another by any religious oaths, they all kept the matter so secret to themselves, and could so cunningly handle it, that notwithstanding the gods did reveal it by manifest signs and tokens from above, and by predictions of sacrifices, yet all this would not be be- lieved" (p. 114).
105. Line 114: the face of men.— This is the Ff. reading, and is retained by most of the recent editors. Warbur- ton proposed fate for face, Mason faith, and Maloue faiths.
106. Line 134: the insuppressive metal of our spirits. — The passive sense of insuppressive is paralleled by that of sundry other words in -ive. Compare unexpressive (in- expressible) in As You Like It, iii. 2. 10:
The fair, the chaste, and unexpressive she;
uncomprehensive (incomprehensible or unknown) in Troilus and Cressida, iii. 3. 198: "th' uncomprehensive deeps;" &c.
107. Line 138: a several bastardy. — "A special or dis- tinct act of baseness, or of treachery against ancestry and honourable birth" (Craik).
108. Lines 144, 145:
his silver hairs Will PURCHASE us a good opinion. Cicero was then about sixty years old. There is a play upon silver aud purchase.
109. Line 150: let us not break ivith him.— Compare North (Life of Brutus): "For this cause they durst not acquaint Cicero with their conspiracy, although he was a man whom they loved dearly, and trusted best; for they were afraid that he being a coward by nature, and age also having increased his fear, lie would quite turn and alter all their purpose, and quench the heat of their enterprise, (the which specially required hot aud earnest execution)" (p. 114).
110. Lines 170-180.— One part of this passage has been already alluded to in note 9S above. The point of what Brutus says, when we look at it in its entirety, is evident. He is advising a course of deliberate hypocrisy; the con- spirators are to try and entrap the sympathies of the people by committing the murder with all due delicacy and decorum, and then pretending to regret it. This is very characteristic advice, and shows that Brutus was
quite fit to be the leader of a political party which claimed
to be the "popular" one. But it appears that all the great actors who played the part of Brntoa, and, naturally enough, sought to make him a sympathetic character, have always omitted this passage on the stage; as well they might, considering their object. — F. A. If.
111. Line 183: Yet I fear him.— Tope, whom Craik fol- lows, reads "Yet I do fear him."
112. Line 187: take thought and die.— Both think and thought are used in this sense. Compare Antony and Cleopatra, iii. 13. 1:
Cleo. What shall we do, Enobarbus?
Eno. Think, and die.
See also I. Samuel ix. 5, and Matthew vi. 25. Bacon (Henry VII. p. 230) says that Hawis "dyed with thought'' (anxiety).
113. Line 192: count the clock.— A palpable anachron- ism, as the Roman clepsydrce, or water-clocks, had no mechanism for striking the hours.
114. Lines 204, 205:
That unicorns may be betray'd with trees, And bears with glasses, elephants with holes.
Steevens says: "Unicorns are said to have been taken by one who, running behind a tree, eluded the violent push the animal was making at him, so that his horn spent its force on the trunk, and stuck fast, detaining the beast till he was despatched by the hunter" (Var. Ed. vol. xii. pp. 50, 51). Compare Spenser, Faery Queene, ii. 5. 10:
Like as a Lyon, whose imperiall powre
A prowd rebellious Unicorn defyes,
T' avoide the rash assault and wrathful stowre
Of his fiers foe, him to a tree applyes,
And when htm ronning in full course he spyes,
He slips aside; the whiles that furious beast
His precious home, sought of his enimyes,
Strikes in the stocke, ne thence can be releast,
But to the mighty victor yields a bounteous feast.
There is a similar allusion in Timon of Athens, iv. 3. 339: " wert thou the unicorn, pride and wrath would confound thee and make thine own self the conquest of thy wrath."
Steevens adds (tit supra, p. 51): "Bears are reported to have been surprised by means of a mirror, which they would gaze on, affording their pursuers an opportunity of taking a surer aim. This circumstance, I think, is men- tioned by Claudian. Elephants were seduced into pitfalls, lightly covered with hurdles and turf, on which a proper bait to tempt them was exposed. See Pliny's Natural History, book viii."
115. Line 215: Cuius Ligarius doth bear Ctesar hard.— His real name was Quintus, but the mistake is in North. Compare the Life of Brutus: "Now amongst Pompey's friends, there was one called Cuius Ligarius, who had been accused unto Ccesar for taking part with Pompey, and Ccesar discharged him. But Ligarius thanked nut Caisar so much for his discharge, as he was offended with him for that he was brought in danger by his tyrannical power. And, therefore, in his heart he was always his mortal enemy, and was besides very familiar with Brutus. who went to see him being sick in his bed, and said unto
143
.Ml II Scene 1.
XOTKS TO JULIUS &ESAR.
ACT II. Scene 1.
him: ' bigarwA in what a time art thou sick!' Ligariw rifling ap in his bed, ami taking him by the right hand, said unto him: ' Brutus,' said he, 'if thou hast any great enterprise in hand worthy of thyself, I am whole"' (p. 113).
116. Line 219: / have given him REASONS.— Dyce adopts Walker's suggestion of reason; but no change is called tor.
117. Line 225: Let not our looks put on our purposes. — That is. "such expression as would betray our purposes," Craik compares the exhortation of Lady Macbeth to her husband (i. 5. 64-67):
To beguile the time, Look like the time; bear welcome in your eye, Your hand, your tongue : look like the innocent flower, But be the serpent under t.
See also Macbeth, i. 7. Si, 82:
Away, anil mock the time with fairest show:
Uce must hide what the false heart doth know.
118. Line 230: the honey-heavy dew of dumber.— The If reading is: " the hony-heauy-Dew of slumber." This, with the Blight change in the text, is retained by Knight ainl tin- Cambridge editors. It is aptly explained by Grant White as "slumber as refreshing as dew, and whose heaviness Is sweet." Dyce reads, "the heavy honey-dew of slumber."
119. Line 233: Enter Portia.— Compare North (Life of Brutus): "Now Brutus, who knew very well that for his sake all the noblest, valiantest, and most courageous men of ROME did venture their lives, weighing with himself the greatness of the danger: when he was out of his house, he did so frame and fashion his countenance and looks that no man could discern he had anything to trouble bis mind nut when night came that be was in his own house, then he was clean changed: for either care did wake him against his will when he would have slept, or else oftentimes of himself he fell into such deep thoughts of this enterprise, casting in his mind all the dangers that might happen: that his wife lying by him, found that there was some marvellous great matter that troubled his mind, not being wont to be in that taking, and that he could not well determine with himself. . . . This young lady being excellently well seen in philo- sophy, loving her husband well, and being of a noble courage, us Bhe was also wise: because she would not ask her husband what he ailed before she had made some proof by herself: she took a little razor, such as barbers occupy to pare men's nails, and causing her maids and women t" go out "f her chamber gave herself a great
i withal in lie]- thigh, that she was straight all of a • blood : ami incontinently after a vehement fever took her, by reason of the pain of her wound. Then per- ceiving her husband WBS marvellously out of quiet, and that be could take no rest, even in her greatest pain of all she spake in this sort unto him: '1 being, <> llrutus,' -in. 'the daughter of Goto, was married unto thee: not to 1m- tin bed-fellOW, and companion in bed and at board only, like a harlot, but to be partaker also with
tli'- of thy - I ami evil fortune. Now for thyself, I
can llnd no cause of fault in thee touching our match:
but for my part, how may I shew my duty towards thee,
144
and how much I would do for thy sake, if I cannot con- stantly bear a secret mischance or grief with thee, which requireth secrecy and fidelity? I confess, that a woman's wit commonly is too weak to keep a secret safely: but yet Brutus good education, and the company of virtuous men have some power to reform the defect of nature. And for myself, I have this benefit moreover, that I am the daughter of Cato, and wife of Brutus, This not- withstanding, I did not trust to any of these things before, until that now I have found by experience that no pain or grief whatsoever can overcome me.' With those words she shewed him her wound on her thigh, and told him what she had done to prove herself. Brutus was amazed to hear what she said unto him, and lifting up his hands to heaven, he besought the gods to give him the grace he might bring his enterprise to so good pass, that he might be found a husband, worthy of so noble a wife as Porcia: so he then did comfort her the best he could" (pp. 115, 116).
120. Line 246: an angry WAFTURE of your hand. — The Ff. have wafter, which probably indicates the current pronunciation of the word.
121. Line 261: Js Brutus nick?— This old English use of sick is still current in America. Grant White says here: "lor sick, the correct English adjective to express all degrees of suffering from disease, and which is univer- sally used in the Bible and by Shakespeare, the English- man of Great Britain has poorly substituted the adverb ill."
122. Line 271: / CHARM you— "I conjure you;" as in Lucrece, 1681, 1682:
And for my sake, when I might charm thee so. For she that was thy Lucrece, now attend me.
Pope needlessly changed charm to the prosaic charge.
123. Lines 289, 290:
As dear to me as are the ruddy drops
That visit my sad heart. Some commentators regard this as an anticipation of Harvey's discovery; but the general fact of the circula- tion of the blood was known centuries before his day, though the details of the process were not understood. Gray has imitated the passage in The Bard, 41:
Dear as the ruddy drops that warm my heart.
124. Line 308: All the oharactery of my sad brows.— For character;! compare Merry Wives of Windsor, v. 5. 77:
Fairies use flowers for their charactery.
It will be observed that the word is accented as here.
125. Line 315: To wear a KERCHIEF. — The word /.<•)•- chirf (French, courrir, to cover, and chef, head) is here used in its original meaning of a covering for the head. As M alone notes, Shakespeare gives to Borne the manners of his own time, it being a common practice in England for sick people to wear a kerchief on their heads. Coin- pan- Fuller s Worthies: " if any there fie sick, they make him a posset, and tye a kerchief on his head, and if that will not mend him, then God be merciful to him.
126 Line 323: like an EXORCIST. — See II. Henry VI.
note 89.
ACT II. Scene 2.
NOTES TO JULIUS OESAK.
A< I II. Scene 2.
ACT II. Scene 2.
127. Line 2: Thrice hath Calpurnia in her sleep cried out, &o Compare North (Life of Caesar): "ha heard his wife ( 'alpumia, being fast asleep, weep and sigh, and put forth many fumbling lamentable speeches: for she dreamed that Caesar was slain, and that she had him in her amies. . . . Insomuch that Ccesar rising in the morning, she prayed him, if it were possible, not to go out of the doors that day, but to adjourn the session of the Senate, until another day. And if that he made no reckoning of her dream, yet that lie would search further of the sooth- sayers by their sacrifices, to know what should happen him that day. Thereby it seemed that Ccesar likewise did fear or suspect somewhat, because his wife Calpurnia until that time was never given to any fear and supersti- tion: and that then he saw her so troubled in mind with this dream she had. But much more afterwards, when the soothsayers having sacrificed many beasts one after another, told him that none did like them: then he de- termined to send Antonius to adjourn the session of the Senate. But in the mean time came Decius Brutus, Burnamed Albinus, in whom Ccesar put such confidence, that in his last will and testament he had appointed him to be his next heir, and yet was of the conspiracy with Cassias and Brutus: he, fearing that if Ccesar did adjourn the session that day, the conspiracy would be betrayed, laughed at the soothsayers, and reproved Ccesar, saying, 'that he gave the Senate occasion to mis- like with him, and that they might think he mocked them, considering that by his commandment they were assem- bled, and that they were ready willingly to grant him all things, and to proclaim him king of all his provinces of the Empire of Rome out of Italy, and that he should wear his diadem in all other places both by sea and laud. And furthermore, that if any man should tell them from him they should depart for that present time, and return again when Calpurnia should have better dreams, what would his enemies and ill willers say, and how could they like of his friends' words?'" (pp. 98, 99).
128. Line 19: fought upon the clouds.— The Ff. have fight, which Knight and Craik retain. The emendation is due to Dyce.
129. Line 23: Horses DID neigh.— Here the 1st Folio has "Horsses do neigh," which F. 2 corrects.
130. Line 24: And ghosts did shriek and squeal about the streets.— Compare Hamlet, i. 1. 113-120:
In the most high and palmy state of Rome,
A little ere the- mightiest Julius fell,
The graves stood tenantless, and the sheeted dead
Did squeak and gibber in the Roman streets :
As, stars with trains of fire, and dews of blood,
Disasters in the sun; and the moist star,
Upon whose influence Neptune's empire stands,
Was sick almost to doomsday with eclipse.
131. Line 46: We ARE two lions litter'd in one day.— The Ff. reading is, " We Itcare." &c. Upton's correction is gen- erally adopted by the editors. Theobald proposed "We were."
132. Line 67: To be AFEARD to tell greybeards the truth. —See Midsummer Night's Dream, note 148.
VOL. V.
133. Line 72: That is enough to satisfy the seimt. . "That should be enough, as I look at it, or as I choose to admit. "
134. Line 76: my statua. — Here the Ff. have Statue, as in iii. 2. 192 below :
Euen at the Iiase of Pompeyes Statue; but the editors, with few exceptions, substitute which was common both in poetry and prose in Eliza- bethan writers. See 1 1. II. my VI. note 189.
135. Lines 79-81 :
And these
Does she apply for warnings and port
Of evils imminent We have printed this passage as in Dyce. In Ff. lines 79 and 80 are printed as one line, making an Alexandrine in a very awkward portion of the speech. Ff. read " A nd Evils imminent." Hanmer first substituted the obvious correction Of. There can be little doubt that And was a repetition by the printer in mistake from the line above. — F. A. M.
136. Line 89: For tinctures, stains, relies, and cogniz- ance.—" Tinctures and stains are understood both by Ma- lone and Steevens as carrying an allusion to the practice of persons dipping their handkerchiefs in the blood of those whom they regarded. as martyrs. And it must be con- fessed that the general strain of the passage, and more especially the expression 'shall press for tinctures,' &c, will not easily allow us to reject this interpretation. Yet does it not make the speaker assign to Csesar by implica- tion the very kind of death Calphurnia's apprehension of which he professes to regard as visionary? The pressing for tinctures and stains, it is true, would be a confutation of so much of Calphurnia's dream as seemed to imply that the Roman people would be delighted with his death -
Many lusty Romans Came smiling, and did bathe their hands in it.
Do we refine too much in supposing that this inconsis- tency between the purpose and the language of Decius is intended by the poet, and that in this brief dialogue be- tween him and Cfesar, in which the latter suffers himself to be so easily won over— persuaded and relieved by the very words that ought naturally to have confirmed his fears— we are to feel the presence of an unseen power driving on both the unconscious prophet and the blinded victim?" (Craik).
137. Lines 102, 103:
for mi/ dear, dear love To your proceeding bids me tell you this; i.e. "For my loving concern for your welfare or success leads me to take the liberty to say this." He apologizes for venturing to advise Csesar, but excuses it on the ground of affectionate interest.
138. Line 104: And reason to my love is liable.— "Bi
or propriety of conduct and language, is subordinate to my love" (Johnson); or. as Rolfe gives it, "my love leads me to indulge in a freedom of speech that my reason would restrain. "
139. Line 114: 't is stricken eight— Hot the anach- ronism see note 113 above. Elsewhere we find, as forms
145 122
A' 1 II. Scene 2.
NOTES TO JULIUS CAESAR
ACT III. Bcene 1.
ol tin- participle, ■ ■ ■ o* (a variation in spelling),
. and stricken.
140. Lines 128, 129:
Thai ■ ■• ry LIKE it not the SAME, 0 Ccesar, The heart of Brvixu ykakns Co think upon!
•It grieves me to the heart to think that to I thing i> in >t necessarily to be really that thing." It (shard toi Bi utus to plaj a part— to pretend to be other than he is. For his friend Cassius nothing is easier than to suit his behaviour to his immediate purpose.
For yearns the Ff. have earnes, which is merely a dif- ferent spelling of the word. Knife quotes examples of it from Spenser (Faerie Queene, iii. 10. 21):
And ever his faint hart much tarmd ax the sight
(where the sense is the same as here); and i. 6. 25: "he for revenge did earns." Shakespeare uses yearn both transitively ami intransitively. For an example of the former see Henry V. iv. 3. 20:
\lyeartti me not [grieves or troubles me not] if men my garments wear.
ACT II. Scene 4.
141. Line 20: Enter the SOOTHSAYER.— Eowe changed Soothsayer to Art It must be confessed that the introduction of the two characters is singular; but at the beginning of the next scene we have speeches assigned to them in immediate succession, and in the heading of that Bcene the l-'f. also give "Enter Artemidorus, Pub- lics, ami the Soothsayer." It is therefore improbable that there is any misprint or corruption in the original text; ami under these circumstances we are not justified in making any alteration.
142. Line 42: Brutus hath a suit. Ac.— This is said lest the boy, whose presence she has for the moment for- gotten, should suspect to what she refers in the line above:
The heavens speed thee in thine enterprise !
act III. Scene 1.
143. The CapitoL— Here, as in Hamlet (iii. 2. 109) and Antony ami Cleopatra (ii. ('.. 18), tin- assassination of
.1 is represented as occurring in the Capitol instead of the Curia of Pompey. Compart North (Life of Brutus): " Furthermore, they [the conspirators] thought also, that the appointment of the place "here the council should be kept waschosen of purpose by divine providence, and made all for them For it was one of the porches about the theatre, in the which there was a certain place full of Beats for men to sit in; where also was set up the image of Pompey, which the city bad made and conse- crated in honour of him. when he did In autify that part of the city with the thi atre he built, with divers porches about it. in this place was the assembly of the Senate appointed to be, just on the Bfb entfa daj of the moneth
en, which the Eton ins call, Idus Martins: so that it bad brought Casar thither to be slain, toi ath " (p. 116).
Iso the Life ol I \ml one Artemidorus also,
born in the Isli of Q-NJDOS, a Doctor of rhetoric in the
who by means of hi- profession was very
familiar with certain of Brutus' confederates; and there-
I 16
fore knew the mosl part of all their practice-, against Ccesar, came and brought him a UUe bill, written « Ltb his own hand, of all that he meant to tell him. He, mail. ing how Casar received all the supplications that were
offered him, and that he gave them straight to his men that Were about him. pressed nearer to him. and said: <ir. read this memorial to your .-elf, ami that quickly, for they be matters of great weight, and touch you nearly.' Qasar took it of him, but could never read it, though he many times attempted it, for the numbei of people that did salute him " (p. 99).
144. Lines: V7HAT toUCftea cm )\ ];>V.lS shall be last serv'd. I oiiier's Ms. Corrector reads:
That touches us? Ourstlf shall be last serv'd ;
and Craik adopts the unnecessary change.
145. Line 13: I vis), your enterprise to-day may thrive. —Compare North (Life of Brutus): "Another Senator. called Poptiius Lama, after he had saluted Brutus and ' ins more friendly than he w as wont to do, he rounded [that is, whispered] softly in their ears, and told them: 'I pray the gods you may go through with that you have taken in hand; but withal, dispatch, I reade you, for your enterprise is bewrayed.' When he had said, he presently departed from them, and left them both afraid that their conspiracy would out" (p. 117).
146. Line 18: Look, how he makes to Casar; mark him.— Abbott (Grammar, § 4S5) here would make mark a dis- syllable, or rather prolonged in utterance (so as to = ma ark), thereby introducing a most ridiculous and un- necessary vice in elocution. The line is obviously defec- tive of one syllable; but, most probably, this deficiency is intentional; the hiatus being filled up by the gesture of the actor, and the broken nature of the line adding to its dramatic force. Compare Richard II. note 170.
147. Line 21: Cassim OR Casar never shall turn back.— M alone proposed to read: "Cassius on Csesar. ' Ac. : but, asRitson remarks, "Cassius says, if the plot be discovert d, at all events either he or < ;csar shall never return alive; for, if the latter cannot be killed, he is determined to slay himself." Craik objects that to turn back cannot mean to return alive, or to return in any way;" but Rolfe quotes Richard III iv. 4. 184:
Ere from this war thou turn a conqueror;
and As You Like It, iii. 1. 6-8:
bring him dead or living Within this twelvemonth, or turn thou no more To seek a living in our territory.
148. Line 22: Cassias, be constant, Av — Compare North (Life of BrutuB): "And when Cassius and certaine other clapped their hands on their swords under their gowns to draw them, Brutus, marking the countenance and gesture of L<vna, and considering that he did use him- self rather like .hi humble and earnest suitor, then like an accuser, he said nothing to his companion (because
there were many ai igsl them that were not of the
conspiracy), but with a pleasant countenance eucour-
Cassius Ami immediately after, Lama went from r, ami kisfed his hand: which shewed plainly that
it was for soin> matter concerning himself that he had
held him so long in talk " (p. 11m
ACT III. Scene 1.
NOTES TO JULIUS ('.ESAU.
1 1. Scene l.
149. Line 26: He draws Mark Antony out of the way. This is also from North (Life of Brutus): "Trebonius on
the other side drew Antonius aside, as he came into the house where the Senate sat, and held him with a long talk without" (p. 118).
150. Line 31: Are we all ready?— The Ff. give these words to Csesar, in whose mouth they are palpably inap- propriate. Ritson proposed to join them to the speech of Cinna, but Collier's MS. Corrector gives them to Casca. This is better, and is adopted by Craik, Dyce, and others.
151. Line 33: Most high, must mighty, and most puis- sant Ccesar. — Compare North (Life of Brutus): "So when he was set, the conspirators (locked about him, and amongst them they presented one Tullius Cimber,1 who made humble suit for the calling home again of his brother that was banished. They all made as though they were intercessors for him, and tooke Ccesar by the hands, and kissed his head and breast. Ccesar at the first, simply refused their kindness aud entreaties: but afterwards, perceiving they still pressed on him, he vio- lently thrust them from him. Then Climber with both his hands plucked Ccesar's gown ouer his shoulders, and Casca that stood behind him, drew his dagger first and strake Ccesar upon the shoulder, but gave him no great wound. Ccesar feeling himself hurt, took him straight by the hand he held his dagger in, and cried out, in Latin: 'O traitor Casca, what dost thou?' Casca on the other side cried in Greek, and called his brother to help him. So divers running on a heap together to fly upon Ccesar, he looking about him to have fled, saw Brutus with a sword drawn in his hand ready to strike at him: then he let Casca' s hand go, and casting his gown over his face, suffered every man to strike at him that would. Then the conspirators thronging one upon another, because every man was desirous to have a cut at him, so many swords and daggers lighting vpon one body, one of them hurt another, and among them Brutus caught a blow on his hand, because he would make one in murthering of him, and all the rest also were every man of them bloodied. Ccesar being slain in this manner, Brutus, standing in the middest of the house, would have spoken, and stayed the other Senators that were not of the conspiracy, to have told them the reason why they had done this fact. But they, as men both afraid and amazed, fled, one upon another's neck in haste to get out at the door, and no man followed them. For it was set down, and agreed between them, that they should kill no man but Ccesar only, and should intreat all the rest to look to defend their liberty" (p. 110).
152. Line 3G: These COUCHiNGS.-^anmer substitutes crouchings; but, as Singer notes, couching had the same sense. He cites Huloet : " Cowche, like a dogge ; pro- cumbo, prosterno." Compare also Genesis, xlix. 14: "Issa- char is a strong ass couching down between two burdens."
153. Line 39: Into the LAW of children.— The Ff. reading is "the lane of children," an obvious misprint, first cor-
1 In the Life of Caesar he is called Metcllus Cimier, and in Sue- tonius |i. 8;) Cimier Tullius.
rected bj Johnson. Like most of the palpable errors of the type in the i arlj editions, it has sometimes been de- fended, though vi ry lamely.
154. Line 43: Low-OROOKBD curtsies. Collier's M8 Cor- rector reads •''Low -crouched; but Singer again quo Huloet, who has "croofce-backed or crowcAe-backed."
155. Line 47: Know, Ccesar doth not wrong, &c. Ben Jonson, in his Discoveries, speaking of Shakespeare, says: "Many times he fell into those things could not escape laughter; as when lie said in the person of Caesar, one speaking to him, 'Casar, thou dost me wrong,' he replied, 'Cajsar did never wrong but with just cause.'" And he ridicules the expression again in his Staple of News: "Cry you mercy; you never did wrung but with just cause." Craik believes that the words stood originally as Jonson has quoted them; but it is more probable, as Collier has suggested, that Jonson was quoting only from memory, which, as he himself says, was "shaken with age now, and sloth." If the passage stood at first as he gives it, the author must have subsequently modified it, and the present text should not be meddled with; but the Ame- rican editor Hudson adopts the reading proposed by Tyrwhitt:
Met. Caesar, thou dost ?ne wrong.
Ctzs. Know, Caesar doth not -wrong, but with Just cause.
Nor without cause will he be satisfied.
156. Line 51: For the REPEALING of my banish' d brother. — In the next speech we have the substantive repeal used in this same sense of recalling from exile. See also Corio- lanus, v. 5. 5:
Repeal him with the welcome of his mother;
and Lucrece, 640:
I sue for exil'd majesty's repeal.
157. Line 67: And men are flesh and blood, and appre- hensive.— For this use of apprehensive compare Fal- staff's eulogy on sack in II. Henry IV. iv. 3. 107: "makes it [the braiu] apprehensive, quick, forgetive. "
158. Line 77: Et tu, Brute! — It is curious that no ancient Latin authority has been discovered for this exclamation which Shakespeare has made classical. It is found in the True Tragedy of Richard Duke of York, which was first printed in 1595, and on which the Third Part of Henry VI. was founded; and also in a poem by S. Xicholson, entitled Acolastus his Afterwit, printed in 1600. In both we find the line,
Et tu Brute I Wilt thou stab Ca;sar too?
It may have been taken from the Latin play on the death of Cajsar which we know to have been acted at Oxford in 1582, though no copy has come down to our day. In Sue- tonius (i. 82) Ca;sar is made to say to Brutus K«i ri n*in (And thou too, my son ?).
159. Line 94: and let no man ABIDE this deed.— We find abide again in this sense (be held responsible for) in iii. 2. 119 of the present play:
If it be found so, some will dear abide it,
or pay dearly for it.
160. Line 101: Why, he that cuts off twenty years of life, <&c. — Some editors transfer this speech to Cassius, though
147
A< rill Boene 1.
NOTES TO JULIUS CJESAR.
ACT III Bcene 1.
the Kf. have the prefix Caxk. It is iu keeping with what
i has saiil in i. 3. 101 above:
indman in his own hand bears, &c.
161. Lines 111-113:
How many ages h* Shall this our lofty scene be acted o'er In stales uriboi n and nee, ,tts yet unknown ! Of coarse this ia put into the mouth of Cassius for stage effect; but it i> not out of keeping with the character, or the circumstances, as some have asserted That cassius should think of the great political significance of Ca downfall is natural enough; and also of the prominent place the event would have in histories and historical dramas to be written in future times and far-off lands. Chis "prophesying after the event" is no unfamiliar thing in poetry, and is historically justifiable whenever, as lure, we have to admit the possibility that the idea might occur to the speaker. In this particular instance it seems naturally suggested, and is impressively carried out in the following speeches.
162. Line 113: In STATES unborn.— F. 1 has state, and in line 115 lye along. Both errors were corrected in F. 2.
163. Line 136: Thorough the hazards of this untrod state.— The form thorough ■■ through is common enough in old writers. Compare v. l. no of this play: "Thorough the streets i. f Rome, But that is an imperfect line: a better instance is in Midsummer Night's Dream, ii. 1.
107:
And thorough this distemperature we see The seasons alter.
164 Line 143: 1 know that we shall have him weUtofru nd. - I he guileless confidence of Brutus that Antony will join their faction is characteristic of the man, as the shrewd misgiving ius are of Aim. Unit us, as we have seen,
is Inclined to think others as honest and disinterested as he is himself; but Cassius is an experienced politician, who has learned how selfish the great majority of men are.
165. Line 163: Toe CHOICE and master spirits of this age. U i- curious thai Craik should think that choice may be
a substantive. It is beyond all question an adjective in the same construction as ma ter
166. Line 171: An fire drives out tire, so pity pity.— The old proverbial comparison is a favourite one with Shake-
Romeo and Juliet, i. 2. 40: "one Are burns out another's burning;" Two Gentlemen of Verona, ii. 4. 192:
Even as one heat another heat expels ;
and Coriolanus, iv 7. 54: "One fire drives out one fire."
'•commentators think it necessary to point out here that/f/v is to be regarded as a dissyllable in the first pis
and as a monosyllable in the second; but to make such
a distinction in proi ncing this word on the stage is
practically impossible Owing to our system of vowels sue), words ai a,-., must be pronounced as
if ~!' r; but if we pronounced the * as it
Is pronounced in Italian, we could make such words mono- syllables 0T dissyllables at pleasure. Iii English we have no choice between pronouncing fire as e dissyllable ft i r,
or BMfir, if we Wish tO make a m By liable Of it. Kilt the
■ plan i- !•• regard the i. in such words as fire, ../,. ,&a, 148
as=<V. and when we want to make them monosyllables we must treat the dia-resis as we treat & portamento in music i a m J
167. Line 174: Our arms in strength of ma ice, .V' F. 1 reads thus:
< iur Amies in strength of malice, and our Hearts
Of brothers temper, do recciuc you in,
With all kinde loue, good thoughts, anil reuerence.
Pope reads ••exempt from malice;" Capell and Dyce, "no strength of malice;" Collier's MS. Corrector, "in strength of welcome;" and Singer suggests, "in strength of amity." Knight, the Cambridge editore, Grant White, and Kolfe follow the Folio. Grant White remarks: "The difficulty found in this passage, which even Mr. Dyee suspects to he corrupt, seems to result from a forj fulness of the preceding context:
Though now we must appear bloody and cruel. As, by our hands and this our present act, You see we do, yet see you but our hands And this the bleeding business they have done: Our hearts you sec not: they are pitiful; And pity to the general wrong of Rome, Ace.
So (Brutus continues) our arms, even in the intensity of their hatred to Caesar's tyranny, and our hearts in their brotherly love to all Romans, do receive you in."
168. Lines 177, 178:
Your voice shall be as strong as any man's,
in the disposing if new dignities. There spoke the politician Cassius, who assumes that Antony is more likely to be influenced by the promise of a share in the substantial profits of the revolution than by the fine patriotism of Brutus.
169. Line 189: THOUGH LAST, HOT LBABT in love, yours, good Trebonius. — This lias been quoted in support of the Quarto reading in Lear, i. 1. 85:
Although the last not least in our dear love:
but the expression Though lust not host was an allitera- tive commonplace at that time, and no argument can be based upon it where the comparative merit- of two t< \- are concerned.
170. Line 190: Shall it not grieve thee dearer than thy death . t— The use of dear in expressions like this (and
in stfoe in Hamlet, i. 2. 182, Ac.) is easily explained The word simply expresses intensity of feeling or interest, whether in the way of love or bate; or, in other words, it "imports the excess, the utmost, the superlative, of that to which it is applied." Compare Kiehanl II note 78.
171. Line 200: erimson'd iii thy LETHE.— That is, "in the stream that bears thee to oblivion." Collier's IIS
Corrector alters lethe to death; but Collier, in his second
edition, restores V the, which is also the reading of Knight,
Dyce, Staunton, the Cambridge editors. Grant White, and Rolfe.
172 Lines 207, 208:
rldl limn wast the forest to tail mart; Ami tins, indeed, <> world, the HEART if thee. Coleridge would not believe that Shakespeare » rote these
lilies, and endeavoured to show thai the i >n n »;„ not
introduced as i lits gi nerally are in plays, namely, as
ACT III. Scene 1.
NOTES TO JULIUS < '.KSAl;.
AiT III. s
a Diere verbal quibble; but there la im good reason for doubting that the passage is genuine. It is in the fashion of the time, which Shakespeare had not then outgrown— if, indeed, lie ever did outgrow it completely— and it fol- lows naturally enough from the preceding lines, with their picture of the slain /an i and the bloody huntsman. As Rolfe notes, the same quibble occurs in As You Like It, iii. 2. 260, and Twelfth Night, i. 1. 21; both of which plays, it may be added, were written about the same time as Julius iicsar. Compare Richard [I. note 115.
173. Line 228: Pbodtjce his body to the market-place. — It will be seen that produce is here used in its original Latiu sense of bear forth; but this does not show, as some have Bupposed, anything more than a schoolboy acquain- tance with Latin. The market-place was of course the Forum. Compare I. Henry VI. ii. 2. 4, 5:
Iirint; forth the body of old Salisbury And here advance it in the market-place.
174. Line 241: Have all true rites.— Dyce follows Pope in reading " due rites; " but the change is unnecessary and
prosaic.
175. Line 25S: Woe to the hands, <fcc— The Ff. have hand; but the plural is in accordance with line 158 above: "Now, whilst your purpled hands," &c.
176. Line 262: the LIMBS of men.— The old reading may be corrupt, but the case is not clear enough to justify a change. Hanmer reads kind for limbs; Warburton, line; Johnson, lives or lynuns (that is, bloodhounds); Collier's MS. Corrector, loins; Staunton, tombs; and Dyce, minds. Walker suggests times, and Grant White sons.
177. Line271: With Ate by his side come hot from hell. — Craik observes that " this Homeric goddess had taken a strong hold of Shakespeare's imagination;" as is shown by his repeated references to her. Compare Much Ado, ii. 1. 263: "the infernal AU;" Love's Labour's Lost, v. 2. 694: "More Ates, more Ates!" and King John, ii. 1. 63;
An Ate, stirring him to blood and strife.
178. Line 273: the dogs of war. — Steele, in the Tatler (No. 137), suggests that by the dogs of war Shakespeare probably meant "fire, sword, and famine." He compares Henry V. i. Chorus, 5-8:
Then should the warlike Harry, like himself, Assume the port of Mars; and at his heels, Leash'd in like hounds, s\\ou\& f am ine, siuordzndjire Crouch for employment.
See also I. Henry VI. iv. 2. 10, 11:
You tempt the fury of my three attendants, Leanfamiue, quartering steel, and climbing-_/2>*?.
179. Line 283: FOR mine eyes.—V.l has "from mine eyes," which F. 2 corrects. Dyce alters Began in the next
line to Begin.
180. Line 2S9: No Rome of safety for Octavius yet.— There is a play on Some and room, as in i. 2. 156 above. See note 54.
ACT III. Scene 2.
181 —For this scene and the next compare North (Life of Brutus): "Now at the first time, when the murther was newly done, there were sudden outcries of people
that ran up and down tin- city, the which Indeed did the more increase the fear and tumult. But when they saw
they slew no man. neither did spoil or make havoc <i
anything, then certain of (he Senatoi and many of the people, emboldening themselves, went to the Capi- tol unto them. There, a great number of men being assembled together one after another, Brutus made an
oration unto them, to win the favour of the people, and to justify that they had done. All those that were by said they had done well, and cried unto them that they should boldly come down from lie- Capitol: whereupon Brutus and his companions came boldly down into the market-place. The rest followed in troupe, but Br* went foremost, very honourably compassed in round about with the noblest men of the city, which brought him from the Capitol, through the market-place, to the pul- pit for orations. When the people sawhim in the pulpit, although they were a multitude of rakehels of all sorts, and had a good will to make some stir: yet, being ashamed to do it, for the reverence they bare unto Brutus, they kept silence to hear what he would say. When Brutus began to speak, they gave him quiet audience: howbeit, immediately after, they shewed that they were not all contented with the murther. For when another, called Cinna, would have spoken, and began to accuse Caesar, they fell into a great uproar among them, and marvellously reviled him ; insomuch that the conspirators returned again into the capitol. There Brutus, being afraid to be besieged, sent back again the noblemen that came thither with him, thinking it no reason that they, which were no partakers of the murther, should be partakers of the danger. . . .
" Then Antonius, thinking good his testament should be read openly, and also that his body should be honour- ably buried, and not in hugger-mugger,* lest the people might thereby take occasion to be worse offended if they did otherwise: Cassius stoutly spake against it. But Brutus went with the motion, and agreed unto it: wherein it seemeth he committed a second fault. For the first fault he did, was when he would not consent to his fellow conspirators, that Antonius should be slain: and there- fore he was justly accused, that thereby he had saved and strengthened a strong and grievous enemy of their conspiracy. The second fault was, when he agreed that Ccesar's funerals should be as Antonius would have them, the which indeed marred all. For first of all, when Ccesar's testament was openly read among them, whereby it appeared that he bequeathed unto every citizen of ROME 75 drachmas a man: and that he left his gar- dens and arbors unto the people, which he had on this side of the river Tiber, in the place where now the temple of Fortune is built: the people then loved him. and were marvellous sorry for him. Afterwards, when Ccesar's body was brought into the market-place, Antonius making his funeral oration in praise of the dead, accor- ding to the ancient custom of Rome, and perceiving that his words moved the common people to compassion, he framed his eloquence to make their hearts yearn the
1 Compare Hamlet, iv. 5. 83, 84:
and we have done but greenly In hugger-mugger to inter him.
I 1!»
ACT 111. -
NoTKS TO JULIUS I JSSAR
ACT III. iscene 2.
more; and taking I sown all bloody in liis hand,
he laid it open to the Bight of them all, shewing what i number of cats and holes it had upon it. Therewithal the people fell presently into Buch a rage and mutiny. that there was no more order kept amongst the common people. K..I Borne of them cried out, 'Kill the murtherers:' others plucked up forms, tables, and stalls about the market-place, as they had done before at the funerals of Clodius; and having laid them all <m a heap together, they set them on lire, and thereupon did put the bodj -i ■/•. and burnt it ill the mids of the most holy places. Ami furthermore, when the fire was throughly kindled some here, some there, took burning firebrands, and ran
with them to the murtherers' houses that killed him, to set them on fire. Howbeit the conspirators foreseeing the danger before, had wisely provided for themselves, and tied. But there was a poet called Cinna, who had been no partaker of the conspiracy, but was always one of Cce$a< 'a chiefeet friends: he dreamed, the night before that Oesar bad him to supper with him. ami that, he refusing to go, Ceesar was very importunate with him, and compelled him; so that at length he led him by the hand into a great dark place, where being marvellously afraid, he was driven to follow him in spite of his heart. This dream put him all night into a fever; and yet not- withstanding, the next morning when he heard that they carried I i dy to burial, being ashamed not to
accompany his funerals, he went out of his house, and thrust himself into the prease of the common people, that were in a great uproar. And because some one called him by his name Cinna: the people thinking he had been that Cinna Who in an oration he made had spoken very evil of C<rsar, they, falling upon him in their rage, slew him outright in the market-place " (p. 122).
182. Line 12: Be patient till the last, &c— Hazlitt says that the speech of Brutus "certainly is not so good as Antony's." To this Knight replies: "In what way is it not so good? As a specimen of eloquence, put by the side of Antony's, who can doubt that it is tame, passion- less, severe, and therefore ineffective? But as an example of Shakespeare's wonderful power of characterization, it is beyond all praise. It was the consummate artifice of Antony that made him say, 'lam no orator, as Brutus is.' Brutus was not an orator. . . . He is a man of just intentions, ol calm understanding, of settled purpose, when his principles are to become actions. But his notion of oratory is this:
I will myself into the pulpit first,
And show the reason of our Cajsnr's death.
And he does show the reason, ... He expects that Antony will speak with equal moderation— all good of o blame of Caesar's murderers: and he thinks it an advantage to speak before Antony, lie knew not what orotoi y really is. But Shakespeare knew, and he painted Antony "
Warburton remarks that the style of the speech of I'.rutus is an "imitation of his famed laconic brevity." Compare North (Life of Brutus): "But for the <■<
tongue, they do note in some of his epistles, that he coun- terfeited that brief compendious manner of speech of the Lacedaemonians. As when the war was begun, he I :,( )
wrote unto the Pergamenians in this sort: 'I understand you have given Dolabella money: if you have done it willingly, you confess you have offended me; if against your will-, -hew it then by giving me willingly.' Another tine- again unto the Samians: 'Your councils be long, your doings be Blow, consider the end.' And m another Epistle be wrote unto the Patareians: 'The Xanthiaus despising my good will, have made their country a grave of despair, and the Patareians that put themselves into my protection, have lost no jot of their liberty: and therefore, whilst you have liberty, either choose the judg- ment of the Patareians, or the fortune of the Xanthians.' These were Brutus' manner of letters, which were hon- oured for their briefness " (p. 107).
183. Line 17: OBNSUBH ftU in your wisdom. — The mean- ing of censure, if not clear in itself, is made so by the equivalent judge at the end of the sentence. Compare the use of the substantive in Hamlet, i. ::. 68:
Take each man's censure, but reserve thy judgment.
184. Line 41: The question of his death.— A statement of the reasons why he was put to death; or the answer to any question that may be asked concerning it.
185. Lines 42-44: his glory not EXTENUATED, wherein !>■■ loorthy; norhisoffena a enforced, for which he suffer i ,l
death.— Again, In Antony and Cleopatra, v. 2. 125, we have
enforce, in the sense of exaggerated, opposed to extenu-
a te :
We will extenuate rather than enforce.
186. Line 57: Shall NOW be croicn'd in Brutus.— The »as not in the Ff , but was Inserted by Pope, and has
been generally adopted by the editors.
187. Line 63: Ccesar's GLORIES, suggestion of glory.
-Dyce adopts Walker's
188. Line 66: Save I alone.— Compare v. 5. 69 of this play: "Save only he." This is one of many illustrations of the loose syntax of the Elizabethan time.
189. Line 70: J am BEHOLDING to you.— This word be- holding is often used by other writers of the time instead of beholden Craik has shown that the latter is probably a corruption of gehealden, the perfect participle of the Anglo-Saxon healden, to hold, whence its meaning of held. bound, or obliged.
190. Line 79: to BTJEY Casar.— Compare the reference in Coriolanus(ili. S. 61) to " the holy churchyard." Would Bacon have been guilty of such anachronisms? [It is true that the Romans usually cremated the bodies of their dead in i a'-ars time, but burial was the general practice up to the later period Of the Republic, and afterwards in the case of children and of persons -truck by lightning. Matins was buried, but Bulla was cremated. The urns containing the ashes and bones Of the dead were always placed in a sepulchre, it is worth remarking that in the well-know n speech Of Hamlet to his father's ghost he uses the word inurn'd (i. 4. 4-
the sepulchre* Wherein we saw thee quietly inurn'd.
But Hamlet's father was buru <'. not cremated. — f. a. m ]
ACT III. Seem
NOTKS TO JULIUS cksai;.
A' r iv. a
191. Lines 80, 81:
The evii that men do lives after them, The good is oft interred with their bones.
Compare Henry VIII. iv. 2. 15, W:
Men s evil manners live in brass; their virtues We write in water.
192. Line 115: Has he NOT, masters?— The Ff. omit not, which was supplied by Craik and is adopted by Dyce. Walker proposed " Has he, my masters?" but the nega- tive seems to be required by the context.
193. Line 138: And dip their napkins in his sacred blood.— Napkin, for handkerchief, is common in Shake- speare and contemporary writers, and is said to be still used in this sense in Scotland. Compare Hamlet, v. 2.
299:
Here, Hamlet, take my napkin, rub thy brows.
In Othello the famous handkerchief is more than once called a napkin; as in iii. 3. 290: "I am glad I have found this napkin."
194. Line 177: the Xervii.—A. warlike Belgic tribe, the subjugation of whom (B.C. 57) was an important event in Ciesar's Gallic campaigns.
195. Line 225: For 1 have neither wit, nor words, nor worth.— F. 1 has lorlt for wit; corrected in F. 2. Johnson and .Malone defend writ, and Knight considers that it " may be explained as a prepared writing."
196. Line 247: seventy-five drachmas.— The drachma was a Greek coin worth about uinepence. Of course the value of money was then much greater than in our day.
197. Lines 253, 254:
Bis private arbours, and new-planted orchards,
On this side Tiber. These orchards, or gardens, were on the other side of the Tiber, as a Roman would say, or with reference to the city proper, where the Forum, in which Antony is speak- ing, was situated. The error is copied by Shakespeare from North's Plutarch. See the passage in note 181 above. Compare also Horace, Satires, i. 9. IS:
Trans Tiberim longe cubat is prope Coesaris hortos
Compare Much Ado, note 62.
198. Line 273: / heard him say.— Capell and Collier's MS. Corrector change him to them, and Dyce to 'em. Knight, the Cambridge editors, and others retain the him of the Ff.
ACT III. Scene 3.
199. Line 2: And things unlucky charge my fantasy.—
The Ff. have "things unluckily." The emendation is due to Warburton, and is generally adopted. Knight, how- ever, retains unluckily, and Collier's MS. Corrector gives unlikely.
200. Line 3: / have no will to wander forth of doors.— Rolfe compares Tempest, v. 1. 160: "thrust/or//; './Milan;'' and III. Henry VI. ii. 2. 157: "forth of France."
201. Line 13: Ay, and truly, YOU WERE best.— The you was originally dative (it were, or would be, best for you), but was subsequently mistaken for the nominative. Com-
pare the similar misconception in regard to . a contraction of if it pi
202. Line40: To Bl CA88I1 S', A:,- —The Ff. have
"to Brutu us, bumeall. Some to Di cius Souse,
and some to Caska's; some to Ligarius: Away. go. ' H is evident that all the n einthepot mtGrant
White has "To Brutus, to Cassias," and " to lAgai
ACT [V. Scene 1.
203.— The heading of the scene in the Ff. is simply - Enter .1 ntony, Octavius, anil Lepidus; ' bul it is evident that they are supposed to be in Koine. Lepidus is sent to Caisar's house for the will, and is told that, on his return. Antony and Octavius will lie "or here or at the Capitol." The triumvirs actually met on a small island in the river Ehenus (now the Reno), near Bononia (the modern Bologna). Compare North (Life of Antony;: "Thereupon all three met together (to wit, Cesar, An- tonius, and Lepidus) in an iland environed round about with a little river, and there remained three days to- gether. Xow as touching all other matters they were easily agreed, and did divide all the empire of ROME between them, as if it had been their own inheritance. But yet they could hardly agree whom they would put to death: for every one of them would kill their Enemies, and save their Kinsmen and friends. Yet at length, giving place to their greedy desire to be revenged of their Ene- mies, they spurned all reverence of Blood, and holiness of friendship at their feet. For Caesar left Cicero to An- tonlus will, Antonius also forsook Lucius Caesar, who was his Uncle by his Mother: and both of them together suffered Lepidus to kill bis own Brother J'uulus. Yet some Writers affirm, that Ccesar and Antonius requested Paulus might be slain, and that Lepidus was contented with it. In my Opinion there was never a more horrible, unnatural, and crueller change then this was. For thus changing murther for murther, they did as well kill those whom they did forsake and leave unto others, as those also which others left unto them to kill: but so much more was their wickedness and cruelty great unto their friends, for that they did put them to death being inno- cents, and having no cause to hate them " (p. 169).
204. Line 5: YOUR sisters son.— According to Plutarch, the man was Lucius Caesar, and Mark Antony was the -on of his sister. Upton suggested that Shakespeare wrote " Ton are his sister's son;" but it is more probable that he got the relationships confused.
205. Line 22: To groan and sweat under the business.—
The trisyllabic pronunciation of business, which its deri- vation and orthography require, was not lost in Shake- speare's day, though beginning to disappear. Compare Richard II. ii. l. 217:
To see this business. To-morrow next, &c.
206. Line 27: .1"'/ graze in commons.— Craik adopts
the reading of Collier's MS. Corrector: "And graze on commons.''
207. Line 37: On <>i>jr<-ts, arts, and imitations.— The line is not improbably corrupt, but no satisfactory emenda- tion has been proposed. Theobald and Dyce read:
I »n abject orts and imitations ;
151
ACT IV. Scene 1.
\mtks To JULll.s c.ksai;.
ACT IV. Scene S.
mid .Staunton has:
objects, oris, and imitations,
defining Objects as "things thrown away as useless." This reading is adopted by the Cambridge editors. [There seems
t" me 11 1 > necessity for altering tile text at all; tile passage
: llits a man utterly devoid of originality, content
with the objects, ait.-., and fashions or imitations which
others have pursued or adopted for a long time, till they
have I.e. ..in.' stale ..r obsolete to most men. Object.* is
a favourite word oi Shakespeare, and used by him with a verj ui.lr range "i meaning; t.. change it to such an ety- mological abortion si mis to me a fantastic act ..f critical acrobatics, v. a. m.j
208. Line li: Our best friends made, and our best means stretch d out.— This is the reading of F. 2; F. l having only
best Friends made, our meanes stretcht. Mai. .in- suggested
Our best friends made, our means stretch'd to the utmost.
ACT IV. Scene 2.
209. Line 7: In his nun CHANGE, or by ill OFFICEI'.s .— Either because of some change on his own part, or from some fault on the part of Ins officers. Warburton wished t.> read chargi . and Johnson qffla s, neither of which is an improvement on the original text.
210. Line •_>:!: like horses HOT AT HAND.— " That is, ap- parently, when held by the hand, or led; or rather, per- haps, when acted upon only by the rein " (CTaik). Com- pare Henry VIII. V. ::. 21-24:
those that tame wild horses Pace 'em not in their hands to make 'em gentle, But stop their mouths with stubborn bits, and spur em. Till they obey the manage.
211. Line j<;: They fall their crests. — Compare Troilus and Cressida, i. 8 879, 3
make him/all His crest.
Craik says that this transitive use of /all "isuot common in Shakespeare ;" but Rolfe remarks that it occurs sixteen tunes.
212. LineSO: LuoiDS, do you the Wee; Ac— F. l reads thus:
I.ucillius, do you the like, and let no man
Come to our Tent, till we haue done our Conference.
Let Lucius and Titinius guard our doore.
' i uk transposed /."••.''sand Lucilius, which mends the asure and removes the absurdity of associating a ser- vant boy and an officer of rank in the guarding of the door. Cassius Bends his mix ant Pindarns with a un- to his division "f the army, and Brutus sends his servant Lncins on a Bimilar errand. The Polio itself confirms this correction, since it makes Lucilius oppose the intrusion >'f t! ad at the close of the . . • 1 1 f • - 1 .n.e Brutus ad- dresses "Lucilius and Titinius, " who had evidently re- mained on guard together all the while. Knight and the Cambridge editor- neverthi l< as retain the old reading.
AC|' IV. SCENH 3.
213— With this scene compare (forth (Life of Brutus):
"lh. let.. r.-. before they fell In hand with any other matter, they went into a little chamber together, and
L52
bade every man avoid, and did shut the doors to them. Then the] began to pour out their complaints one to the
other, and grew hot and loud, earnestly accusing one an- other, and at length fell both a weeping. Their friends that were without the chamber, hearing them loud within and angry between themselves, they wile both amazed and afraid also, lest it would mow to further matter: but yet they were commanded that no man should coiiie to them. Notwithstanding, on,- MOTCUS Phoonius [Favonius], that had been a friend and a fol- lower ..f Colo while he lived, and took upon him to coun- it a philosopher, not with wisdom and discretion, but with a certain bedlem and frantic motion: he would needs come into the chamber, though the men offered to keep him out. But it was no boot to let l'li<m,,i<t>, when a mad mood or toy took him in the head: for he was a hot hasty man. and sudden in all his doings, and cared for never a senator of them all. Now, though lie used this bold manner of speech after the profession of the Cynic philosophers, (as who would say. Dogs) yet his boldness did no hurt many times, because they did but laugh at him to see him so mad. This Phaonius at that time, in despite of the door - keepers, came into the chamber, and with a certain BCOffing and mocking ges- ture, which he counterfeited of purpose, he rehearsed the verses which old Nestor said in Homer:
My Lords, I pray you hearken both to me. For I have seen mo years than suchit three.
Cassius fell a-laughing at him: but Brutus thrust him out of the chamber, and called him dog and counterfeit Cynic, llowbeit bis coining in brake their strife at that time, and so they left each other" (pp. 134, 136).
214. Line2: You have condemn'd and noted Lucius Pella, At. On this matter compare North (Idle of Brutus): "The
next day after, Brutus, upon complaint of the SABDIANS, did condemn and note LudusPetta for a defamed person, that had been a I'netor of the ROMANS, and whom BrutUS had given charge unto: for that he was accused and con- victed of robbery, and pilfery in his office. This judg- ment much misliked Cassius, because he himself had secretly(not many days before) warned twoof Ins friends, attainted and convicted of the like offences, and openly
had cleared them: but yet he did not therefore leave to
employ them many manner of Berviceas he did before.
And therefore he greatly reproved BrutUS, for that he would shew himself so straight and severe, in such a time as was meeter to bear a little then to take things at the worst. BrutUS in contrary manner answer.. 1, that he should remember the Ides of March, at which time they slew Julius Ccesar, who neither pilled nor polled the country, but only was a favourer and suborner of all them that did rob aud spoil, by his countenance and au- thority " (p. 135).
215. Line i: my LITTER. V. l has "my Letters;" cor- rected in F.2. Dyes and some others retain the plural, and change was in the next line to were; but it is more likely that a letter should have been added to letter than that were should have been misprinted WOS.
216. Line 9: Lei me tell you, Cassius, you yourself.—
11 and Ilyce read "And let me tell you," &c. £The
ACT IV. Scene 8.
NOTES TO JULIUS CLESAR.
ACT IV. Scene 8.
line is deficient in a syllable, but there is do necessity to add anything. The speaker pauses before answering. The addition of .1 nd is incredibly weak.— p. a. m.]
217. Line 20: What villain touch' d his body, &C. — That is. ■•who that touched his body was such a villain,'' &c. Compare v. 4. 2 below: "What bastard doth not ! "
218. Line 28: bay not me. The Iff. have "oattenotme," which Theobald corrected.
219. Line 37: Away, slight man!— Compare iv. 1. 12 above:
This is a slight, unmeritable man; and Othello, ii. 3. 279: "aoslight so drunken, and so indis- creet an officer."
220 Line 45: Must J OBSERVE youi— "Must I be obse- quious to you, or treat you as a superior?" Rolfe com- pares II. Henry IV. iv. 4. 30:
For he is gracious, if he be observd (.that is, "treated with deference" or "with due regard to his rank.")
221. Line 54: of noble men. — Collier's MS. Corrector changes this early reading to "of abler men," and is fol- lowed by Dyce. Wright remarks: "Brutus says noble because it is what he wishes Cassius to be."
[Dyce accepts Collier's emendation "abler men" with- out any hesitation. Craik strongly supports it, and Staunton, in his note on the passage, calls it "a very plau- sible emendation." Collier, in his Notes and Emendations (p. 401), justifies this emendation by reference to the previous speech of Cassio, iv. 3. 30-32:
I am a soldier, I, Older in practice, abler than yourself To make conditions.
He adds afterwards: "Cassius had said nothing about 'noble men.' and his reply to the above has reference to what he did actually utter;" but Cassius has said nothing about "abler men" in its general and abstract sense = " more capable," but in a particular sense, with reference to the selection of persons for the offices at his disposal (to make conditions; and see foot-note on conditions). According to Collier's argument we ought to expect neither noble nor abler, but better, for that is the epithet which Brutus resents so strongly (see above, line 51). Moreover noble— pronounced, as it should be, emphati- cally— is a very appropriate word here, as it contrasts strongly with slight applied to Cassius by Brutus above (line 37). This emendation seems to me, like so many of those made in Collier's MS. copy, to be just such a one as a person, "going through the plays with his pencil, would make on the spur of the moment, because it was what he thought Shakespeare ought to have written. — F. A. M ]
222. Line 75: By any INDIRECTION.— By any dishonest course, any methods not "straightforward." Compare the adjective in II. Henry IV. iv. 5. 185: "indirect crook'd ways."
223 Line SO: To lock such rascal COUNTERS from his friends. — "To refuse this vile money to his friends." Unseal was originally the hunter's term for a lean and worthless deer, and was then applied metaphorically to human beings, like so many other names and epithets of
Inferior animals, ( were round pieces of metal
used in arithmetical computations. Compare winters
Tale. iv. 8 38: " I cannot do t withoul In tie-
present passage the word is used contemptuously.
224. Lines 81, 82:
Be ready, gods, with all your thun
Iltlsli I, nil tO pi
The Ff. have the comma after thunderbolts; but Collier
and one or two others omit it. Craik thinks that dash is the infinitive with to omitted; but Rolfe is clearly right in regarding it as the imperative: " Be ready, gods, with all your thunderbolts and clash him to pier
225. Line 91: A flatterer's would not. though they i>"
appear.— Collier's MS. Corrector needlessly changes do to did.
226. Line 102: PLUTUS' mine.— The Ff. have "Pluto's Mine;" as " Plutocz gold ' in Troilus and Cressida, iii. 3. 197.
227. Line 109: dishonour shall be humour; i.e. "Even dishonourable conduct (referring either to the bribery or to the behaviour of Cassius in this quarrel) shall be excused as a mere caprice." Craik suggests that humour is a misprint for honour, and Grant White agrees with him. The antithesis would be natural enough, but the text is equally natural and expressive, and quite as likely to be what Shakespeare wrote.
228. Line 110: you are yoked with a LAMB. — Pope changed lamb to man. The reference is of course to Brutus himself, though occasionally misunderstood.
[Certainly lamb does not seem a very appropriate word here; for Brutus scarcely resembled that innocent and frisky animal. But the commonplace emendation man does not mend matters, and, at the best, the imagery here is slightly confused; for the parallel between a lamb and a flint that gives fire when struck, is scarcely a happy one; though flint is certainly descriptive enough of the nature of Brutus. After all, it is most likely that the reading of the Folio is the right one ; and that the author may have intended to use asomewhat exaggerated similitude; there being in his mind, as there often was, a double idea. He meant Brutus to say that he had the gentleness of a lamb in his nature, as well as that slowness to anger which comes rather from a firm and resolute disposition than from a gentle one.— F. A. M.]
229. Line 119: Harr NOT YOU love enough to bear with me.— This is the reading of the Ff. Pope, followed by- some other editors, reads "Have you not," &c.
230. Line 138: Companion, hence! -For this contemp- tuous use of companion, compare II. Henry VI. iv. 10. 33: "Why, rude companion," &c. ; and see Midsummer Night's Dream, note 7. The word is found in this sense as late as the middle of the last century; for instance, in Smol- lett's Roderick Random (.v. p. 174s): "Scurvy companion .' Saucy tarpaulin ! Rude, impertinent fellow ! "
231. Lines 152-155:
Imi'atiknt of mil absence,
And grief that young Octavius with Mark Antony
linn- made themselves so strong;— for icith her death That tidings came.
153
a i r IV. Scene 3.
NOTES TO JULIUS CAESAR
ACT l\. 81 ::.
Craik remarks: "This speech is throughout a striking exemplification of the tendency of Btrong emotion to break through the Logical forma of grammar, and of how possible it is tor language to be perfectly intelligible, sometimes, with the grammar in a more or less chaotic or uncertain Btate, Some critics have nevertheless wished to correct the syntax by changing Impatient to Impa- ir m .
232. Line 150: And, her attendants absent, ewaUovfd Compare (forth (Life of Brutus): "Ami for Porcia,
Brutus Wife, Nicolaus the Philosopher, and Valerius Mcurimus do write, that she determining to kill herself (her parents and friends carefully looking to her to keep her from it), took hot burning coals and cast them into hex mouth, and kept her mouth so dose that she choked herself" (p. 151).
233. Line 173: That by proscription and bills of out- law/ii, &c.— Compare North (Life of Brutus): "After that, these three, Oc ■ tar, .1 ntonius, and Lepidus made an agreement between themselves, and by those articles divided the provinces belonging to the empire of Rome among themselves, and did set up bills of proscription ami outlawry, condemning two hundred of the noblest men of ROME to suffer death, and among that number Cicero was one " (p. 12s).
234. Line 179: Cicero is dead.— To fill out the measure Steeveus reads, ■■ .; i is dead." Abbott (Grammar, t 186) regards tin- preceding one as a dissyllable.
[It is a mercy that a race of actors educated by Dr. Abbott have not been let loose on the world; for, were they to follow his eccentric rules of pronunciation, our would be assailed uii the stage with a kind of booh- hooing to which even the slipshod elocution of our day- would seem a grateful melody. This line is one of those that need no patching; the pause amply supplies the place of the missing syllable. — p. a. m.]
235. Line 194: I have as much of this in art as you. — Malone explains in art as "in theory;" but Craik, better, ;ts "acquired knowledge, or learning, as distinguished from natural disposition. This is, however, only a more exact statement of what Malone probably meant.
236. Line 209: Come on refresh'd, neiO-ASDBD, "/"/ <•//•
—For the original reading, "new-added," Dyce and Singer independently suggested "new-aided, ' which is plausible if any change be called for. Collier's MS. Corrector has "new-Aearfed," which Craik adopts.
237. Line 22S: Which we "-ill NIGGARD with a little rest. —Craik remarks that this is probably the only instance iti the language of niggard as a verb; but Etolfe points out another in Sonnet i. 12:
And, tender churl, makest waste in niggarding.
288. Line 281: Farewell, o ; </• total Hanmer would i ".Voir, farewell,' and Walker, Fart you weU.
239 Line 268: Canst thou hold "/' thy heavy eyes a uhib ftc r z inn idles the paaaage as follows:
Canst thou hold up thy instrument a straine or And touch thy heavy eyes a-while.
240. Line 272. When I an. —Compare Nbrtb
L54
(Life of Brutus): " Brutus wis a careful ' man, and slept very little, both for that his diet was moderate, as also because he was continually occupied, lb never slept in the daytime, and in the night no longer then the time he was driven to bo alone, and when everybody else took their rest. But now whilst he was in war. and his head ever busily occupied to think of his affairs and what Mould happen, alter he had slumbered a little after supper, he spent all the rest of the night in dispatching of his W< •; and after he had taken order
for them, if he had any leisure left him. lie would read some book till the third watch of the night, at what time the captains, petty captains, and colonels, did use to come to him. So, being ready to go into EUROPE, one night very late (when all the camp took quiet rest) as he was in his tent with a little light, thinking of weighty matters, he thought he heard one come in to him, and casting his eye towards the door of his tent, that he saw a wonderful strange and monstrous shape of a body coming towards him, and said never a word. So Brutus boldly asked what he was, a god or a man, and what cause brought him thither .' The spirit answered him, ' I am thy evil spirit, Brutus: and thou shalt see me by the city of run.Il'l'i:s.' Brutus being no otherwise afraid, replied again unto it: 'Well, then I .-hall see thee again.' I In- spirit presently vanished away: and Brutus called his men unto him, who told him that they heard no noise, nor saw any thing at all " (p. 136).
See also the Life of CsBsar: "he thought he heard a noise at his tent-door, and looking towards the light of the lamp that waxed very dim, he saw a horrible vision of a man, of a wonderful! greatness and dreadful look, which at the first made him marvellously afraid. But when he saw that it did him no hurt, but stood by his bed-side, and said nothing; at length he asked him what he was The image answered him: 'I am thy ill Angell, Brutus. and thou shalt see me by the City of 1'hilippes.' Then BrufUS replied again, and said, 'Well. I shall see then.' Therewithal, the spirit presently vanished from him " (pp. 103, 104).
Concerning the introduction of the Ghost, llrici (Shake- speare's Dramatic Art) asks: "What can justify appari- tions ami spirits in an historical drama! And in any case, why is it that the ghost of CffiBar appears to Brutus, whose designs, apparently at least, are pure and noble, rather than to Cassius, his sworn enemy? Because, though they appear to be such, they arc not BO in reality ; the design is not really pUW which has for its first step so arrogant a violation of right. Moreover, Cesser had been more deeply wronged by l'.rutus than bj Cassius. Brutus, like Coriolanus, had trampled under foot the tenderesl and noblest affections of humanity for the sake of the phantom honour of free citizenship. Brutus, lastly, wa- ttle very soul of the conspiracy; if his mental energies Bhould be paralyse!, and his stron- courage unnerved, the whole enterprise must fail. And so, in truth, it went to pieces, because it was against the will of history that is, against the eternal counsels of Cod. It was to signify
1 That is, full of care. Compare Richard III. i. 3. 83, 84: Ily Him that rais'd me to this careful height From that contented hap which I enjoy'd.
ACT IV. Scene 3.
NOTKS TO JUL ITS CAESAR
ACT v. Scene I.
this great lesson that Shakespeare introduced the ghost upon the stage. Only once, and with a few pregnant words, docs the spirit appear; but lie is constantly hover- ing in the background, like a dark thunder-cloud, and is, as it were, the offended and threatening spirit of history itself. It is with the same purpose that Shakespeare has introduced spectral apparitions into another of his his- torical pieces Richard III. Both dramas belong to the same historical grade; they both represent important turning-points in the history of the world— the close of an old, and the commencement of a new state of things— and in such times the guiding fluger of God is more obviously apparent than at others."
ACT V. Scene 1.
241. Line 11: Their bloody. sign of battle is hung out. — North (Life of Brutus) says: "The next morning, by break of day, the signal of battle was set out in Brutus' and Cassius' camp, which was an arming scarlet coat " (p. 139).
242. Line 20: / do not cross you; but I will do so.— The American editor Hudson explains the line thus: "That is, ' I will do as I have said,' not ' I will cross you.' At this time Octavius was but twenty-one years old, and Antony was old enough to be his father. . . . The text gives the right taste of the man, who always stood firm as a post against Antony, till the latter finally knocked him- self to pieces against him." Mr. Aldis Wright also believes that the passage is intended "to bring out the character of Octavius, which made Antony yield." To this Rolfe replies: "We may be alone in our opinion (the editors generally make no comment here), but we believe that both Hudson and Wright are wrong. We can see neither truth nor point in saying ' I do not cross you, but I will do what you say crosses you.' We take it that Octavius yields to Antony, and does it readily, with a play upon cross: 'I do not cross you (in Antony's sense of the word), but I will cross you (in the sense of crossing over to the other side of the field);' and with the word he does cross over. According to Plutarch he commanded the left wing, and this makes the play agree with the history. It is also confirmed by the context. So far from setting himself in opposition to Antony, Octavius in his very next speech asks the former whether they shall give sign of battle, and when Antony says no he at once accepts this decision and gives orders accordingly."
243. Line 34: But for your words, they rob the Hybla bees.— Hybla in Sicily was proverbial in ancient times for its honey. We have another allusion to it in I. Henry IV. i. 2. 47: "the honey of Hybla."
244. Line 44: 0 YOU flatterers . for the sake of the metre.
-Some editors drop you,
245. Line 53: Ccesar's three and thirty wounds. —Theo- bald changed this to "three and twenty," the number given by Plutarch and Suetonius; but Shakespeare is careless in these numerical matters.
246. Line 60: die more honourably. —The Ff. have "more honourable;" but this is probably a misprint for " more honourablie."
247. Line 61: A peevish schoolboy, worthless of such
honour.— As Dyce (Glossary) remarks: "Peevish appears
to have generally signified during Shakespeare s days 'silly, foolish, trillie hough no doubt the word was
formerly um<], as now, in tie pettish, pervera .'
.v e " For a very eieai- instance of the former sense iw hich some have been inclined to doubt) see I Henry VI, v. :; 185,186, where, to Suffolk's suggestion that Margaret -hall send a kiss to the King as a "loving token," she replies: I will not so presume To send such peevish tokens to i i-
248. Line SO: our FORM] gn. Rowe chl former to foremost (as in the corresponding passage in
North's Plutarch quoted below), and Collier's MS. Correc- tor to forward; but other examples of this use of/oi mer have been cited by Dyce and others.
On the passage, compare North (Life of Brutus): "When they raised their Camp, there came two Eagles that flying with amarvellous force, lighted upon two of the foremost Ensigns, and always followed the soldiers, which gave them meat, and fed them, untill they came near to the city of Philippes ; and there one day only before the battle, they both flew away " (p. 137).
249. Line 97 : Let 's reason with the worst that may befall. — See the life of Brutus: "There Caseins began to speak first, and said: 'The gods grant us, 0 Brutus, that this day we may win the field, and ever after to live all the rest of our life quietly one with another. But sith the gods have so ordained it, that the greatest and chiefest things amongst men are most uncertain, and that if the battle fall out otherwise to-day than we wish or look for, we shall hardly meet again, what art thou then determined to do, to fly, or die?' Brutus answered him, being yet but a young man, and not over greatly experienced in the world, 'I trust (I know not how) a certain rule of philosophy, by the which I did greatly blame and reprove Cato for killing himself, as being no lawful nor godly act, touching the gods: nor concerning men, valiant; not to give place and yield to divine providence, and not constantly and patiently to take whatsoever it pleaseth him to send us, but to draw back and fly: but being now in the midst of the danger. I am of a contrary mind. For if it be not the will of God that this battle fall out fortunate for us, I will look no more for hope, . . . but will rid me of this miserable world, and content me with my fortune' " (p. 140).
250. Line 101: Ere» by the rule of that philosophy, Ac — The passage reads thus in F. 1:
Iuien by the rule of that Philosophy,
By which I did blame Cato, for the death
Which he did giue himselfe, I know not how:
But I do finde it Cowardly, and vile,
For feare of what might fall, so to preuent
The time of life, arminjj my selfe with patience,
To stay the prouidence of some high Po
That ^ouerne vs below.
It has been pointed in various ways by the modern editors. Knight and Dyce make / know not how . . . the time of life a parenthesis. Craik connects / know not how, &c. with the preceding words: "I know not how it is, but I do And it, by the ride of that philosophy, See., cowardly and vile, &c." The Cambridge editors follow 155
\t l V. Scene 1.
NOTES TO JULIUS C-KSAK.
ACT V. Scene 2.
Craik Collier puts a period after himself, as in tin- text Tin- Beeme the mkii.k -^t arrangement, the meaning being: " i am determined to do, or art, h>i >l„ rule of thai philo- sophy, &c." Then he adds: '•! know not why, but I think it cowardly to commit suicide for fear of what may happen— rather arming myself to endure whatever fate may have ill store for me. To stay of course mean- " (0 t."
251. Line 10(3: The timk of life.— That is, "the full time," "the normal period of life;" but Collier's MS. Corrector, in his meddlesome «ay. changes time to term,
ami in the next line he reads those high powers, which is a trifle more plausible.
252 Line 111: No, Cassias, no! etc.— Craik remarks: "There has been some controversy about the reasoning ol Brutus in this dialogue. Both Steevens and Malone . onceive that there is an inconsistency between what he here says and his previous declaration of his determina- tion not to follow the example of Cato. But how did CatO act? He slew himself that he might not witness and outlive the fall of tJtica. This was. merely 'for f. ar of what might fall,' to anticipate the end of life. It did not follow that it would he wrong, in the opinion of Brutus, to commit suieide in order to escape any certain and otherwise inevitable calamity or degradation, such a> being led in triumph through the streets of Home by Octavius and Antony."
ACT V. Scene 2.
253— With this ami the following short scenes, compare the Life of Brutus in North's Plutarch: "Then Brutus prayed Casein* In- might have the leading of the right wing, the which men thought was far meeter for Caasius, both bei ause lie was the elder man, and also for that he had the better experience. But yet Cassius gave it him, and willed that MeSSOla (who had charge of one of the
warlikest legions they had) should he also in that wing with .Brutus . . . In the meantime Brutus, that led ili. right wing, sent little bills to the colonels and cap- tains of private hands, in the which he wrote the word of the battle."
•• First of all, he (Cassius) was marvellous angry to see how Brutus' men ran to give charge upon their enemies, and tarried not for the word of the battle, nor command- ment to give charge: and it grieved him beside, that after be had overcome them, his men fell straight tt spoil, and were not careful to compass in the rest of the enemies ,iml: hut with tarrying too long also, more than through the valiantness or foresight of the captains his i -Hi ; [us found himself compassed in with the
right wing of his enemy's army Whereupon his horse- men brake Immediately, and fled for life towards the sea. Furthermore, perceiving Ids footmen to give ground, he did what he could to keep them from flying, and took an ensign from one of the ensign bearers that fled, and
Stuck it faSl at his feet: although with inilcli ado he could
nt keep his own guard together. So Cassius himself
was .it length compelled to fly, with a few about him,
unto a little hill, from whence they might easfij see
what was done in all the plain: howheit Cassius himself
L56
saw nothing, for bis sight was very bad. saving that he saw (and yet with much ado) how the enemies spoiled his camp before bis eyes. He saw also a great troupe of horsemen, whom Brutus sent to aid him. and thought that they were his enemies that followed him : but yet lie sent Titinnius, one of them that was with him, to go and know what they were. BrutUS' horsemen saw him coming afar Off, whom when they knew that he was one of Cassius' chiefest friends, they shouted out for joy, and they that were familiarly acquainted with him lighted from their horses, and went and embraced him. The re.-t compassed him in round about on horseback, With songs ol victory, and great rushing of their har- ness, so that they made all the field ring again for joy. But this marred all. f?OT Cassius, thinking indeed that Titinnius was taken of the tiieiuics. he then spake tl
words: ' Desiring too much to live, I have lived to see one
of my best friends talon, for my sake, before my face.' After that, lie got Into a tent Where nobody was. and took Pindarus with him, one of his bondsmen whom he reserved ever for such a pinch, since the cuised battle of the Pabthiahs, where Croesus' was slain, though he not- withstanding Bcaped from that overthrow: but then, cast ing his ch.ak over his head, and holding out his bare neck unto Pindarus, he gave him his head to be stricken Otf. So the head was found severed from the body: but after that time Pindarus was never seen more. Where- upon some took occasion to say that he had slain his master without his commandment. By and by they knew the horsemen that came towards them, and might see Titinnius crowned with a garland of triumph, who came before with great speed unto Cassius. But when he per- ceived, by the cries and tears of his friends which tor- mented themselves, the misfortune that had chanced to his captain Cassius by mistaking, he drew out his sword. cursing himself B thousand times that he had tarried so long, and slew himself presently in the field. Brutus in the meantime came forward still, and understood also that Cassius had been overthrown: but he knew nothing of his death till he Came very near to his camp. So when he was come thither, after he had lamented the death of Cassius, calling him the last of all the SOD UtS, being impossible that Home should ever breed again so noble and valiant a man as he: he caused bis body to be buried, and sent it to the city of THASSOS, fearing lest his funerals within the camp should cause great disorder." . . "There was the son of Marcus Cato slain, valiantly fighting among the lusty youths. For notwithstanding that he was very weary and over-harried, yet would he not therefore fly; but manfully fighting and laying about him, telling aloud his name, and also bis father's name, at length he was beaten down amongst many other dead bodies of his enemies, which he had slain round about him So there were slain in the field all the chiefest gentlemen and nobility that were in his army, who val- iantly ran Into any danger to save Brutus' life: amongst whom there was one of Brutus' friends called LucUius, who seeing a troupe of barbarous men making no reckon- ing of all men else they met in their way. but going all together right against Brutus, he determined to stay them
1 Misprinted " Cassius " in the cd. of 1676.
ACT V. Scene 2.
XoTKS TO .irucs c.ksai;.
ACT V. Scene 3.
with the hazard of his life, and being left behind, told them that lie was Brutus: and because they should believe him, he prayed them to bring him to Antonius, tor he said lie was afraid of Ccesar, and that he did trust Antonius better. These barbarous men, being very glad of this good hap, and thinking themselves happy men, they carried him in the night, and sent some before unto An- tonius, to tell him of their coming. He was marvellous glad of it, and went out to meet them that brought him. . . . In the meantime Lucilius was brought to him, who stoutly with a bold countenance said: 'Antonius, I dare assure thee, that no enemy bath taken nor shall take Marcus Brutus alive, and I beseech God keep him from that fortune: for wheresoever he be found, alive or dead, he will be found like himself.' . . . Lucilius' words made them all amazed that heard him. Antonius on the other side, looking upon all them that had brought him, said unto them: ' My companions, I think ye are sorry you have failed of your purpose, and that you think this man hath done you great wrong: but I assure you, you have taken a better booty than that you followed. For instead of an enemy, you have brought me a friend: and for my part, if you had brought me Brutus alive, truly I cannot tell what I should have done to him. For I had rather have such men my friends than mine enemies. Then he embraced Lucilius, and at that time delivered him to one of his friends in custody; and Lucilius ever after served him faithfully, even to his death."
"Furthermore, Brutus thought that there was no great number of men slain in battle: and to know the truth of it, there was one called StatUius, that promised to go through his enemies, for otherwise it was impossible to go see their camp: and from thence, if all were well, he would lift up a torch-light in the air, and then return again with speed to him. The torch-light was lift up as he had promised, for StatUius went thither. Xow Brutus seeing StatUius tarry long after that, and that he came not again, he said: 'If StatUius be alive, he will come again.' But his evil fortune was such that, as he came back, he lighted into his enemies' hands and was slain. Xow the night being far spent, Brutus as he sat bowed to wards CM Jus, one of his men, and told him somewhat in his ear: the other answered him not, but fell a-weeping. Thereupon he proved Dardanus, and said somewhat also to him: at length he came to Volumnius himself, and speak- ing to him in Greek, prayed him for the studies' sake which brought them acquainted together, that he would help him to put his hand to his sword, to thrust it in him to kill him. Volumnius denied his request, and so did many others: and amongst the rest, one of them said, there was no tarrying for them there, but that they must needs fly. Then Brutus, rising up, 'We must fly indeed, but it must be with our hands, not with our feet.' Then taking every man by the hand, he said these words unto them with a cheerful countenance: 'It rejoiceth my heart, that none of my friends hath failed me at my need, and I do not complain of my fortune, but only for my country's sake: for as for me, I think myself happier than they that have overcome, considering that I leave a perpetual fame of virtue and honesty, the which our enemies the con- querors shall never attain unto by force or money; neither can let their posterity to say that they, being naughty
and unjust men, have slain good men, to usurp tyranni- cal power nut pertaining to them. Saving so -..id, he prayed every man to Bhift for himself, and then he went a little aside with two or three only, among the which Strata was one, with whom he came first acquainted by the study of rhetoric, lie came as near to him as he could, and taking his sword by the hilt with both his hands, and falling down upon the point of it, ran himself through. Others say that not he, but strut,, (at his re- quest) held the sword in his hand, and turned his head aside, and that Brutus fell down upon it, and so ran him- self through, and died presently. Messala, that bad b Brutus' great friend, afterwards became Octaviu friend: so, shortly after, Cossar being at good leisure, he brought Strata, Brutus' friend unto him, and weeping said: 'Ccesar, behold, here is he that did the last service to my Brutus.' Ccesar welcomed him at that time, and afterwards he did him as faithful service in all bis affairs as any Grecian else he had about him, until the battle of Actium " (pp. 140-151).
ACT V. Scene 3.
254. Line 41: Now be a FREEMAN.— We have printed freeman here as one word, as It is no doubt equal to the Latin libertus or libcrtinus, the equivalent of freedman, i.e. a slave who has obtained or been given his freedom. Compare what Pindarus says below (line 47), So, I am free; by which he means, apparently, that he has obtained his freedom through the death of Cassius.
In the passage above, iii. 2. 25, "to live all free men," where some editors hyphen free men, as if it were equal to the Latin liberti, we prefer to print the words free men as two words ; free having the ordinary sense of one who enjoys liberty but is not, necessarily, a liberated slave. — F. a. M.
255. Line 43: here, take thou the HILTS. — Rolfe notes that Shakespeare uses hilts with reference to a single weapon Ave times, h Hi three times. For another instance of the plural, see Richard III. i. 4. 160: "with the hilts of thy sword.''
256. Line 61: As in thy mi rays thou dost sink to night. —Some editors read to-night, but Craik well says that "a far nobler sense is given to the words by taking sink to night to be an expression of the same kind as sink to rest. " There is no hyphen in the Ff.
257. Line 85: But hold thee, take this garland <ui thy brow. —Here the analogy of other passages shows that Craik is wrong in making hold thee equivalent to hold, in i. 3. 117 above (see note 81), meaning "but hold" or "but stop;" and that it is rather to be interpreted, as Dyce gives it, as "but have thou, receive thou." Compare Taming of the Shrew, iv. 4. 17: "hold thee that to drink;-' and Win- ter's Tale, iv. 4. 651: "yet hold thee, there's some boot" In these passages, as in sundry others, thee seems to be colloquially used for "thou."
258. Line 99: TSElastof all the Romans. Etowe, whom
Dyce fcdlows and defends, reads " Thou last.'' tftc. North (see extract above) has the expression the last of all the Romans; and though it does not occur in an apostrophe, as here, it is probable that Shakespeare copied it. Khe-
L57
ACT v. Scene 3.
Xo'l'KS TO JULIUS c.Ksai;.
• IK- 5.
torically the old reading is quite as appropriate as the modern one.
259. Line u>4: to I HASSOS send Ait body.— The Ff. have Tharsus, which \s obviously a misprint for Thassos, iii<- form in North, though Thasos, which the Cambridge edi- tors substitute, is the classical form of the name. Thasos was an island in the .dUgean Sea.
260. Lim- in.*. : Hi.- North uses the plural, which is also found in Titus andronicus, i. l. 381. Elsi where Shakespeare has funeral, except in the Midsum- mer Night's Dream, i. l. 14:
Turn melancholy forth X.o funerals,
where it is a true plural. On the other hand, Shake- speare uses nuptial for nuptials several times. See Much Ado, note 26S.
ACT V. Scene 4.
261. Line -J: What bastard doth not ! i.e. "Who so base,
so false to his ancestry, that he doth not?" See note 217 above.
262. Line 17: I'll tell THE news.— The Folio reading is - lie tell thee uewes;" corrected by Pope.
ACT V. Scene 5.
2S3. Line 19: And, this las t night, here in PhUippi fields. — Compare North (Life of Cesar): -'The second battle being at hand, this spirit appeared again unto him, hut spake never a word. Thereupon Brutus, knowing that he should die, did put himself to all hazard in battle, but yet fighting could not be slain " (p. 104). See also Life of Brutus: "The Romans railed the valley between both camps, tlie Philippian Fields "(p. 137).
264. Line 33: Farewell to thee TOO, Strato.— Country- men, &c.— The l-'f. read: "Farewell to thee, to Strato, countrymen;" which was corrected by Theobald.
205. Line 62: Ay, if Messala will prefer me to you. — Prefer seems to have been the' usual phrase for recom- mending a servant Compare Bacon, Advancement of Learning, ii. 21. l: "And if it be Baid, that the cure of men's minds belongetb to sacred divinity, it is most true; but yet moral philosophj maj be preferred unto her as a wise servant and bumble handmaid. "
266. Line OS: 27i£« was the noblest Soman of them all.—
Compare North (Life of Brutus): "For it was Baid that Antonius spake it openly clivers times, that he thought, that of all them that bad slain Ccssar, there was none but Brutus only that was moved to do it. as thinking the act commendable of itself: but that all the other conspira- tors did conspire bis death for Borne private malice or envy, that they otherwise did bear unto him " (p. 130).
267. Line 71: Heonly.in a QEXE&AI, honest thought, &c.— Cralk fi.ii,.ws Collier's MS Corrector in reading "&gi ous honest thought;" but general is simply an anticipa- tion of "to all."
268 Line 7::: His life was gentle, ami tht elements, &c.
There is a passage resembling this in Drayton's poem. The Barons' Wars, published in 1G03; and. before the date of the play was proved to be as early as 1601, it wi question whether Drayton or Shakespeare was the bor- rower. If either, it must have been the former; but allusions to the well-balanced mingling of the four ele- ments (tire, air, earth, and water) to produce the perfec- tion of humanity, are common in writers of the time. Compare, for instance, Ben Jonson, Cynthia's Revels, ii. 3: "A creature of a most perfect and divine temper, one in whom the humours and elements are peaceably met, without emulation of precedency."
It may be noted that the passage in Drayton, as printed En 1608 and in all the subsequent editions before 1G19, reads as follows :
Such one he was, of him we boldly say.
In whose rich soul all sovereign powers did suit,
In whom in peace th" elements all lay
So mixt, as none could sovereignty impute;
As all did govern, yet all did obey;
His lively temper was so absolute.
That 't seemed when heaven his model first began.
In him it showed perfection in a man.
Ill the edition of 1019 it takes the following shape, which, it will be seen, bears a somewhat closer resemblance to the passage in Julius Ca;sar:
He was a man (then boldly dare to say) In whose rich soul the virtues well did suit, In whom so mixt the elements did lay That none to one could sovereignty impute; As all did govern, so did all obey: He of a temper was so absolute, As that it seemed, when Nature him began, She meant to show all that might be in man
WORDS OCCURRING ONLY IN JULIUS OESAR
NOTE.— The addition of sub , adj., verb, adv. in brackets immediately after a word indicates that the word is
used a> a substantive, adjective, verb, ..r adverb only in the passage or passages cited.
The compound words marked with an asterisk () are printed as two separate words In F. 1.
Across' (adv.)..
\t Be, Line ii. 1 240
l — folded (of arms), also In Lit- ■ — from aide to aide; used as prep. in Winter IB.
\ t Si Line
Afloat2 iv. 3 222
- i. 3 !>4
Alchem- ■ i. 3 169
-' Sonnet Izzx. 9.
net x.vxiii 4; cxiv. -I.
i:,s
So. Line
Ulianee' iv. 1 43
Awl i. l '2.r>
' — league, confederal y; dif- degrees ol relationship, need frequently; — marriage, ais timet
\ • t So. lane
Bang (rob.).... iii. 3 20
Barren-spirited iv. 1 30
Basis' iii. 1 115
s = pedestal ; occurs live tiim->.
1 foundation.
WORDS PE< TLIAR TO JULIl'H < . I>.\l;.
3c. Line Bound i iv. 3 221
Chew* i. 2 171
Chimney-tops* i. l 44
"Climber-upward ii. l 23
Cobbler i. l 11,23
Coachings iii. l 36
Crimsoned .... iii. 1 206
Cynic iv. 3 133
Disconsolate. . . v. 3 55 Drowsily iv. 3 240
Engagements . . ii. 1 307
- Falling-sickness i. 2. 256.25S
tearfulness i. l SO
Ferret (adj.). . . i. 2 186
former* v. 1 so
Freeman5 v. 3 41
Gusty i. 2 100
High-sighted . . ii. 1 IIS
Honey-heavy . . ii. 1 230
Houeyless v. 1 35
*Honourable-
dangerous... i. 3 124
*Ill-tempered.. iv. 3. 115,116
1 = fated, destined.
2 Figuratively = to ponder; frequently used in its ordinary sense.
3 Chimney's top occurs in III. Henry VI. v. 6. 47.
4 = foremost ; frequently used in other senses.
b See note 254.
Act so. Line
Improve ii. 1 159
Indifferent'.... i. 3 115
Insuppressive.. ii. 1 134
Intermit i. 1 5'J
Laugher" i. 2 72
Lethe8 '. iii. l 206
Limitations ... ii. 1 283
Low-crooked . . iii. l 43
Mender i. 1 16
New added... iv. 3 20!)
New-fired™. ... ii. 1 332
New-planted . . iii. 2 253
Niggard (vb. tr.) iv. 3 22S
Nimbleness.... iv. 3 202
"Noblest-minded11 i. 3 122
Noonday i. 3 27
Noted" iv. 3 2
Obscurely18 . . . Outlawry
2 323
3 173
6 = of no moment; used else- where in other senses.
" Lover's Complaint, 124.
s Used figuratively = death ; = oblivion, in four other pas- sages; = the river of that name, in Hamlet, i. 5. 33.
9 = restriction ; = appointed time, in Coriolanus, ii. 3. 146.
10 Sonnet cliii. 9.
11 Noble-minded occurs in I. Henry VI. iv.4.37; Tit. And. i.l. 209.
!'- = stigmatized ; this verb is used in various senses elsewhere.
13 =. indirectly; = darkly, out of sight, in Lucrece, 1250.
1 ' [--earnest...
\' t Sc. Line
iv. 8 122
Path (verb).... ii. l S3 Phantasma ... ii. l 65 Posture" v. 1 33
Prator J [ :; 11:;
(. ii. 4 35
Pre-formed i. 3 67
Pre-ordinance . iii. l 38
/iv. 1 17 Proscription . . -; iv. 3 17:;,
( 178, 180 Protester i. 2 74
Pulpit iiU- 180,84,
1229,236,250 Purgers ii. l 180
Babblement... i. 2 245
Recover 15 i. 1 2S
Recreate i6 .. .. iii. 2 256
Rent" iii. 2 179
Replication1*.. i. 1 51
Rheumy ii. l 266
Round" ii. 1 24
Ruddy ii. 1 28'J
Sacriflcers ii. 1 166
Sleek-headed.. i. 2 193 Smatch v. 5 46
n = direction, nature.
15 = to cover again; used fre- quently in various other senses.
16 Venus and Adonis, 1095.
17 = a breach.
18 = reverberation ; =reply, oc- curs three times.
l» = step of a ladder.
159
|
At |
Line |
||
|
Soundless9 |
v. |
1 |
|
|
-> |
iv. |
280 |
|
|
Stingless |
v. |
1 |
35 |
|
Strange- disposei |
i. |
■ |
|
|
Sut-aty-- |
l. |
2 |
217 |
|
Sword-hilts... |
v. |
5 |
28 |
|
Tag-rag (adj.).. |
i |
2 |
|
|
Torch-light |
v. |
5 |
o |
|
True-fixed .... |
iii. |
1 |
61 |
|
i aassailable . . |
iii. |
1 |
|
|
i nd' rlings. . . . |
i. |
2 |
141 |
|
Pnpurged |
ii. |
1 |
266 |
|
I nscorched. ... |
i. |
3 |
|
|
i ntouchedH . . |
iii. |
1 |
142 |
|
I'ntrod |
iii. |
1 |
136 |
|
Upmost |
ii. |
1 |
24 |
|
Villager |
i. |
2 |
172 |
|
Void" |
ii. |
4 |
37 |
|
Wafture |
ii. |
1 |
246 |
|
Whizzing |
ii. |
1 |
44 |
|
YVrathfully.... |
ii. |
1 |
172 |
|
20 =dumb; occurs i 1 1 s. |
lm. |
x.\x. |
|
|
10= unfathomable |
|||
|
21 = to stand on |
end |
up |
star- |
|
iny, in this sense, |
.i . in - u |
The |
|
|
Tempest, i. 2. 213. |
|||
|
22=wet with perspiral |
ion; |
us.ul |
|
|
figuratively in Hamlet, |
i. 1 |
, . = |
|
|
toilsome. |
|||
|
23 = uninjured ; occurs in |
ii.-h. |
||
|
III. iii. 7. 19 = unnunti |
onei |
1. |
|
|
24 = open : = null, |
in |
III. |
|
|
Henry VI. iii. 3. 14 |
2: = |
destitute |
|
|
of, in four other passages. |
MEASUEE FOE MEASUEE
NOTES AND INTEODUCTION
BY
AETHUR SYMONS.
VOL. V. 123
DRAMATIS PERSONS.
Vikcextio, Duke of Vienna.
Angelo, the deputy in the Duke's absence.
Escaltjs, an ancient lord, joined with Angelo in the government.
Claim m >, a young gentleman.
Lucio, a fantastic.
Two other Gentlemen.
Provost.
Thomas,-) , .
- friars. Peter, j
A Justice.
Vabrii s.
Elbow, a simple constable. Froth, a foolish gentleman. Pompey, servant to Mistress Overdone Abhorsox, an executioner. Barxardixe, a dissolute prisoner.
Isabella, sister to Claudio. Mariana, betrothed to Angelo. Juliet, beloved of Claudio. Fraxcisca, a nun. Mistress Overdone, a bawd.
Lords, Officers, Citizens, Boy, and Attendants.
Scene — Vienna.
Historic Period : The historic period is indefinite.
TIME OF ACTION. The time of action consists of four days. Mr. Daniel thus divides them :
1: Act I. Scene 1 may be taken as a kind of pre- Day 2: Commences with Act I. Scene 2 and ends
lude, after which Borne little interval muarf with Act I\ . Scene 2.
be Bupposed in order to permit the new Day 3: Commences in Act IN. Scone 2 and ends
gov. of the city to settle to their with Art IV. Scene*.
work The rest of the play is comprised Day 4: Includes Act IV. Scenes .. and 6, and the
in three consecutive days. whole of Act V., which is in one scene only. L62
MEASUEE FOE MEASURE.
INTRODUCTION.
LITERARY HISTORY.
Measure for Measure was first printed in the Folio of 1623. No external evidence as to its date has been found, and the internal evidence is both slight and doubtful. Tyrwhitt considered that two passages in the early part of the play contain an allusion to the de- meanour of James I. on his entry into Eng- land at the time of his accession in 1603. In i. 1. 68-73 the Duke says:
I '11 privily away. I love the people, But do not love to stage me to their eyes: Though it do well, I do not relish well Their loud applause and Aves vehement ; Nor do I think the man of safe discretion That does affect it.
Again, in ii. 4. 24-30 it is observed by Angelo:
So play the foolish throngs with one that swoons; Come all to help him, and so stop the air By which he should revive: and even so The general, subject to a well-wish'd king, Quit their own part, and in obsequious fondness Crowd to his presence, where their untaught love Must needs appear offence.
" I cannot heljj thinking," says Tyrwhitt, " that Shakspeare, in these two passages, in- tended to flatter the unkingly weakness of James the First, which made him so impa- tient of the crowds that flocked to see him, especially upon his first coming, that, as some historians say, he restrained them by a pro- clamation." The Old-Spelling editors quote in their notes the following corroborative pas- sage : " But our King coming through the North (Banquetting, and Feasting by the way) the applause of the people in so obse- quious, and submissive a manner (still ad- miring Change) was checkt by an honest plain Scotsman (unused to such humble acclama-
tions) with a Prophetical expression; This people it-ill spoyl a gud King. The King as unused, so tired with multitudes, especially in his Hunting (which he did as he went) caused an inhibition to be published, to re- strain the people from Hunting Him. Hap- pily being fearfull of so great a Concourse, as this Novelty produced, the old Hatred betwixt the Borderers not forgotten, might make him apprehend it to be of a greater extent : though it was generally imputed to a desire of enjoy- ing his Recreation without interruption " (Arthur Wilson's History of Great Britain, 1653, p. 3). Other passages which have been conjectured to contain historical allusions are i. 2. 5: "Heaven grant us its peace;" and i. 2. 83: "What with the war, what with the sweat;" the last clause having perhaps some reference to the "sweating sickness "or plague, which in 1603 carried off more than 30,000 people in London; and the allusions to "peace" and "war" having perhaps some reference to the war with Spain, which came to an end in the autumn of 1604. All this is vague enough, but it may be said to lend a little colour to the theory which places the date of the play in 1603 or early in 1604. At all events, there can be no reasonable doubt that Measure for Measure belongs to a late, but not the latest, period of Shakespeare's work — to the period with which all its characteristics link it, the period of Hamlet, of Othello, of Troilus and Cressida.
The direct sources of the plot are Whet- stone's "endless comedy," The Bight Excel- lent and Famous Hi story e of Promos and Cassandra, 1578, and the prose version of the same story by the same writer in The Hep- tameron of Civil Discourses, L582. AYhetstone himself derived his story from the Hecatom- mithi of Giraldi Cinthio (Parte Seconda, Deca 163
MEASURE FOR MEASURE.
ottava, novella v.).1 The outline of Whet- stone's comedy may be given in the "Argu- ment of the Whole History" prefixed by the author or his publisher. "In the cyttie of Julio (sometimes vnder the dominion of Cor- uinus, Kinge of Hungarie and Boemia) there was a law, that what man so euer committed adultery should lose his head, and the woman offender should weare some disguised apparel duringher life, to make her infamous] ve noted. This seuere lawe, by the fauour of some ruerci- full magistrate, became little regarded vntill the time of Lord Promos auctority; who con- uicting a yong gentleman named Andrugio of iinoiitinency, condemned both him and his minion to the execution of this statute. An- drugio had a very vertuous and beawtiful gentlewoman to his sister, named Cassandra: Cassandra to enlarge her brothers life, sub- mitted an humble petition to the Lord Promos: Promos regarding her good behauiours, and fantasying her great beawtie, was much de- lighted with the sweete order of her talke; anddoying good, that euill might come thereof, for a time he repryu'd her brother; but, wicked man, tourning his liking vnto vnlaw- full lust, he set downe the spoile of her honour raunsome for her brothers life. Chaste Cas- sandra, abhorring both him and his sute, by no perswasion would yeald to this raunsome: but in fine, wonne with the importunitye of hir brother (pleading for life) vpon these conditions she agreede to Promos; first that he should pardon her brother, and after marry her. Promos, as feareles in promisse as care- lesse in performance, with sollemne vowe sygned her conditions: but worse then any in- fydel, his will satisfied, he performed neither the one nor the other; for, to keepe his aucthoi'ityc vnspotted with fauour, and to preuent ( lassandraes clamors, he commaunded the gayler secretly to present Cassandra with her brothers head. The gayler, with2 the out- cryes of Andrugio, abhorryng Promos lewde- aes, by the prouidence of God prouided thus for his Bafety. He presented Cassandra with
1 BecatommithJ onero Cento Novelle di M. Qiovan-
linttista Qiraldi Cinthlo. In Veneria, Appresso Knea de Alaris, mm.xxijii. Pp, 180 L85. - Probably there is some misprint or omission here. 164
a felon's head newlie executed, who (being mangled, knew it not from her brother's, by the gayler who was set at liliertie) was so agreeued at this trecherye, that, at the pointe to kyl her selfe, she spared that stroke t<> be auenged of Promos: and deuisyne a way, she concluded to make her fortunes knowne vnto the kinge. She (extent inge this resolution) was so highly fauoured of the king, that forthwith he hasted to do justice OD Promos: whose judgement was, to marrye Cassandra, to repaire her erased3 honour; which donne, for his hainous offence he should lose his head. This maryage solempnised, ( as- sandra, tyed in the greatest bondes of affec- tion to her husband, liecamean earnest suter for his life: the kinge (tendringe the general] benefit of the common weale before her special ease, although he fauoured her much,) would not graunt her sute. Andrugio (disguised amonge the company) sorrowing the griefe of his sister, hewrayde his safetye, and craued pardon. The kinge, to renpwne the vertues of Cassandra, pardoned both him and Promos." It will be seen from this summary of the main part of the action tliat Shakespeare is indebted to Whetstone for the general frame- work of his plot; it will be seen equally that he has transformed the revolting incoherencies of the original story into a closely-knit, cred- ible, and artistic whole. Shakespeare's debt to the comedy of his predecessor, beyond the mere framework — thegrdund-plan of his build- ing— may be set down at practically nothing, Promos and Cassandra is a crude and shape- less cento of ill-digested material ; a mere succession of heavy scenes set forth in jolting doggerel; bearing by no means so much rela- tion to the play of Shakespeare as the quar- ries at ( arrara bear to the marl ties of Michel- angelo. A quarry, a storehouse, we may call it : that at the very outside ; but certainly nothing with any pretence to art or vitality, nothing with any right to exist on its proper merits. No hints towards the characteriza- tion of any of the dramatis persona' common to Shakespeare and to Whetstone could be found in the lifeless pages of the earlier play-
a Orated, i.e. broken, damaged. Bee Mids. Night's Dream, note 17.
INTRODUCTION.
wright. Wherever for a moment there is the smallest similarity in thought or word — and this is very seldom indeed, considering the strong similarity of the incidents — such like- ness is nothing more or less than inevitable, and exists simply in the most obvious truisms, so to speak, of natural action. In Cinthio's version of the story there are one or two natural touches, good enough, if he had seen them, to have suggested a thought to Shake- speare. Epitia, for instance, the Isabella of Measure for Measure, is spoken of as one to whom Philosophy had taught how the human soul should meet every hap ("cui la Filosofia haueua insegnato qual debbia essere l'animo humano in ogni fortuna"). Could anything truer be said of Isabella ? Altogether Cinthio is very much more graphic and effective than Whetstone, either in the prose or poetry of his English imitator. Hazlitt, in his Shake- speare's Library, quotes two similar stories, told briefly and barely by Goulart, in his Admirable and Memorable Histories, 1607. Other such stories are known, some of them on historical evidence, such as the story of the governor of Flushing, in the old French chronicles. Perhaps, as has been suggested, the very story as we find it in Cinthio was based on an actual occurrence in the dark ages of the Italian despots.
STAGE HISTORY.
Of the performance of Measure for Measure we have no record before the Restoration; and when theatres were again licensed, the only form in which this play appeared on the stage was in the sadly-transformed shape of Dave- nan t's jumble of this play and Much Ado, called The Law against Lovers, which has already been alluded to in the Introduction to Much Ado (vol. iv. p. 172). What amazing devil, as the late Charles Dickens would have said, pos- sessed Sir William Davenant to spoil two plays, so different in their nature but each so good of its kind, by jumbling them together, it is difficult to conceive. It is possible, if the tradition that Davenant was Shakespeare's son be true, that he owed his father a grudge for begetting so extremely ill-looking an off- spring. If so, it must be owned that, in this
deformation of two of his father's great works, he had his revenge; for he has succeeded to a marvel in destroying all the comedy of Bene- dick and Beatrice, while at the same time he enfeebled the serious and almost tragical interest of Measure for Measure. It may be as well to give a list of the Dramatis Persons of Davenant's play:
The Duke of Savoy. Lokd Angelo, his deputy. Benedick, brother to Angelo.
• his friends. Balthazar, )
Esuhalus, a counsellor.
Claudio, in love with Julietta.
Provost.
Friar Thomas.
Bernardine, a prisoner.
Jailor.
Fool.
Hangman.
Beatrice, a great heiress.
Isabella, sister to Claudio.
Julietta, mistress to Claudio.
Viola, sister to Beatrice, very young.
Francisca, a nun.
Scene: Turin.
The first act follows the story of Measure for Measure pretty closely as far as the incidents so. The effect of the introduction of Bene- dick and Beatrice is that they are both entirely deprived of the wit and vivacity which charac- terized them in Shakespeare's Much Ado, while nearly all the beautiful poetry of Mea- sure for Measure is ruthlessly deformed into the dreariest prose-verse.
For a specimen of Davenant's work we may take the following lines from the Duke's speech to Angelo in act i. scene 1 :
That victory gives me now free leisuro to Pursue my old design of travelling; Whilst, hiding what I am, in tit disguise, I may compare the customs, prudent laws, And managements of foreign states with ours.
The victory alluded to is that which Benedick has just won. The scraps of Shakespeare that are dragged in, whether from Much Ado or Measure for Measure, but especially from the former, seem sadly out of place. Here is a specimen of Davenant's originality. After a scene between Benedick and Beatrice, Viola, 165
MEASURE FOR MEASURE.
who is thf young sister of Beatrice, says to Benedick:
V arc welcome home, my lord. Have you brought Any pendants and fine fans from the wars?
/>'. ,,. What, my sweet bud, you are grown to a blossom !
Via. My sister has promised me that I shall be A woman, and that you shall make love to me, When you are old enough to have a wife.
Ben. This is not a chip of the old block, but will prove A smart twig of the young branch.
This wretched stuff is printed as verse, though it is difficult to believe it was ever intended to be anything but prose. In the second act it is Benedick that pleads for the life of Claudio. Again the scenes between Bene- dick and Beatrice, that are dragged in, serve merely to encumber the action without lightening the play. Davenant preserves the scene between Isabella and Angelo, carefully injuring if not utterly destroying, wherever he can, the poetry of Shakespeare's language. The second act concludes with a mutilated version of Angelo's soliloquy in act ii. scene 4 of Shakes] naic's play, the last four lines of which are thus improved by Davenant :
The numerous subjects to a wcll-wisht King Quit their own home, and in rude fondness to His presence crowd, where their unwelcome love Dejs an offence, and an oppression prove.
The third act goes straight on with the same scene (from Shakespeare), beginning with the entrance of Isabella. This is followed by a long scene between Benedick and Beatrice, in which Beatrice urges Benedick to steal his brother's signet, and so seal the pardon of Juliet and Claudio. Then Viola comes in and sings a song, aproj/o.s f/ra Lottos; after which Lucio and llalthazar persuade Beatrice that Benedirk is in love with her. The extraor- dinary dulness of this scene, compared with the one it is founded on in Much Ado, is decidedly original Then we go back toMea- sure for .Measure, and have a scene between < 1 audio and Isabella in prison; next to which comes an original scene, in which Benedick
brings Beatrice tin- signed pardon for Juliet
and Claudio, which lie has obtained through
Bscalua The act ends with a short scene in the
L66
prison between Viola and Juliet, her cousin. In this scene, short as it is, Davenant's genius will burst out, as witness the following de- scription by the innocent little Viola when speaking of the Jailor:
The fellow looks like a man bofl'd In pump-water. Is he married .'
The beginning of the next act is apparently original. It appears that the Friar, i.e. the disguised Duke, is thwarting Benedick's scheme for the release of Juliet and Claudio, so he and Beatrice relieve their feelings by calling in Viola, who dances; the stage-direc- tion being Enter Viola dancing a saraband, awhile vitlt caxtiuiietos. This is the scene which so much pleased the sapient and taste- ful Pepys, who says, under date February 18th, 1661-2: "Saw 'The Law against Lovers,' a -nod play, and well performed, especially the little girl's (whom I never saw act before) dancing and singing; and were it not for her the losse of Roxalana would spoil the house." Then we have a scrap of Pompey in the shape of the Fool, and another scrap from Shake- speare in the shape of a scene between the Duke and Lucio; and then a scene between Juliet and Isabella in prison, quite original, in which the author bursts into poetry and, shaking off the trammels of blank verse, in- dulges in rhymed couplets. Juliet thinks that Isabella might make the sacrifice asked by Angelo for Claudio's sake, to which Isa- bella pointedly answers that she had better make it herself:
The good or ill redemption of his life Doth less concern his sister than his wife.
Then we have more original elephantine play- fulness between Benedick and Beatrice. Then, after a brief return to Shakespeare in a scene between the Duke, Provost, and Barnardine, we have an original scene in which Claudio gives the Fool a thousand pieces of gold as a bribe to help Juliet to escape in a page's dress. He declines to attempt to escape himself. Juliet, not to be outdone in generosity, sends her Maid with a proposal to Claudio to escape by a window in her room with the connivance of the Provost's wife, but she is not to escape
INTIIOIH'I Tlo.V
herself. All this is, I suppose, to make the character of Claudio more sympathetic. Then we have a sort of parody in rhymed verse of the great scene between Angelo and Isabella, in which we find such gems of poetry as the following speech of Isabella:
Catch fools in nets without a covert laid; Can I, who see the treason, be betray'd?
The effect of this exquisite couplet upon An- gelo is to make him completely change his tone, and to become suddenly virtuous, declar- ing that all that had happened before was only his fun. He never meant that Claudio should die; he never meant to make naughty proposals to Isabella. All that he meant was to propose honourable marriage. But Isabella is not to be taken in with these beautiful sen- timents; she remarks:
If it be true, you shall not be believ'd,
Lest you should think me apt to be deceiv'd.
Then she goes out, leaving poor Angelo in a very forlorn condition, who comes to the conclusion
Because she doubts my virtue I must die; Who did with vicious arts her virtue try.
In the fifth act we have more singing, in which Beatrice, Benedick, and Viola all take part, supported by the Chorus; this musical enter- tainment being, as it appears, for the benefit of Angelo, in order to rouse him from his sup- posed anchoritic existence. Then we begin to get serious again, and three servants come in, one after another, exhorting Angelo to "Arm, arm, my lord!" for his brother is in open re- volt and is besieging the prison where Claudio and Juliet are confined. Now we have a great deal of excitement and something like a panto- mime rally by all the characters; and the play ultimately ends with the marriage of Angelo and Isabella! They are kept in countenance by two other pairs of betrothed lovers, Bene- dick and Beatrice, and Claudio and Juliet. Lucio, who gets very waggish towards the end, is inclined to marry the Fool's grand- mother, but, finding she is dead, decides on remaining a bachelor.
I have given a full account of Davenant's play, because few persons are likely to take the trouble to read it for themselves, and, un-
less one does so, one might be deceived by tin- praises lavished on this contemptible work by contemporary and other critics.
In 1700 at Lincoln's Inn Fields tin- version of this play by ( foarles ( rildon, railed Measure for Measure or Beauty the best Advocate was produced with the following cast: Angelo = Betterton, Claudio = Verbruggen, Duke = Ar- nold, Escalus = Berry, Isabella = Mrs. Brace- girdle, Juliet = Mrs. Bowman. As in Dave- nant's version, the scene Avas laid at Turin, and Balthazar figures among the Dramatis Persona?. All the comic characters, including Lucio, are ruthlessly cut out. The title-page announces that the play was " Written origi- nally by Mr. Shakespear; and now very much altered; With additions of several Entertain- ments of Musick." There were no less than four of these Entertainments, with one of which the play concluded. Charles Gildon wrote several plays, but none of them were successful. Genest quotes two lines from the second act, where Angelo tells Isabella to meet him at the opera:
Consider on it, and at ten this evening
If you '11 comply, you '11 meet me at the Opera.
This wretched production does not appear ever to have been revived, though the next mention of the play, under date December 8th, 1720, at Lincoln's Inn Fields, is "not acted 20 years, Measure for Measure by Shakespeare," the following members of the cast being given: Duke = Quin, Angelo = Boheme, Claudio = Ryan, Isabella = Mrs. Seymour. On this oc- casion it was acted eight times, and revived again on October 10th, 1721, when Genest gives C. Bullock as the representative i if Lucio, which proves that it cannot have been Gil- don's version, as in that Lucio is omitted alto- gether. We may take it, therefore, that the performance in December, 1720, was the first revival of Shakespeare's play after the Resto- ration.
Quin was decidedly fond of the part of the Duke, which he played excellently, and he seems to have caused the piece to be revived, pretty nearly every season, at whatever theatre he happened to be; though it never was played more than once or twice during any KJ7
MEASURE FOR MEASURE.
one season. On March 10th, 1737, Quintook his benefit as the lhike at Drury Lane, when Mrs. Gibber was Isabella, a part to which she seems to have been very partial That wretched creature her husband, Theophilus C'ibber, ]il,i\ ed Lucio at least on one occasion, January 26th, 1738, when, for the first time, Elbow is mentioned in the cast, his representative being Harper. Mrs. C'ibber took her benefit as Isabella Oil April 12th of the same year. On January 4th, 1744, Mrs. Pritchard made her first appearance as Isabella at (Jovent Garden. She ultimately succeeded Mrs. Gibber in this role. At Covent Garden, April 11th, 174ti, Measure for Measure was represented for the benefit of Havard and Berry, "not acted 0 years," when Mrs. Woffington played Isabella for the first time; and she repeated the part on mure than one occasion, though it could not have been a very suitable one to her. Quin seems to have played the Duke for the last time on December 4th, 1750, when no particulars of the cast are given. It was at this theatre, Covent Garden, that he made his last appearance in 17f>3, the great sue- cess of Barry during the last two seasons had perhaps reminded Quin that it Mas time for him to retire. On February 22nd, 1755, Measure for Measure was played at Drury Lane, with Yates as Pompey, and Mrs. Gibber as Isabella, Woodward as Lucio, the Duke being Mossop. It was played once or twice during the three following seasons; but Gar- rick neve]- took any part in it himself. It was about this time that a singularly tragical occurrence took place in connection with this play. Joseph Peterson, an actor of consider- able ability and ^reat versatility, who had been long attached to the Norwich company, was playing the part of the Duke in this play, one of his best parts, some time in October, 1758; when, in the scene with ( 'laudio, played
on that occasion by M ly, in the third act,
jusl as he was Bpeaking the lines iii. 1. 6-8:
•on thus with life: If I do low thee, I do lose a thing That Done but fools would keep: a breath thou art.
he dropped dead into Moody's arms. Peter- eon made his oral ctebut at Goodman's Fields 168
as Lord Foppington, and played Buckingham to Garrick'a Richard on his first appearance as biihard III. He was interred at Bury St. Edmund's, with the lines he last spoke on the stage inscribed on his tomb. The next notable performance of Measure for Measure Mas on February 12th, 1770, for Woodward's benefit at Covent Garden. It was announced as "Not acted 20 years." Bensley was the Duke, Clarke Angelo, Wroughtoii Glaudio, and the b&neficiaire himself Lucio; Quick played Elbow; Mrs. Bellamy took the part of Isabella, ap- parently for the first time, and Mrs. Bulkeley was Mariana. The piece was repeated again on the 21st of the same month. At the same theatre in the next season on January 12th, 1771, YTates played Lucio to the Isabella of his wife. During this season it was played three times, and twice in the succeeding one. On March 18th, 177.">, this play was revived at Drury Lane, "Not acted 16 years." King was Lucio, Palmer Angelo, Parsons Pompey. It was represented on the 20th April follow- ing for Palmer's benefit. It was again acted on January 8th, 1777, "Not acted 5 years," when Lee and Mrs. Jackson appeared for the first time as the Duke and Isabella respec- tively. Passing over some unimportant per- formances of the play, we come to October 11th, 1780, when the play was again revived atCovent Garden, with Henderson as the Duke, Lee Lewes Lucio, Clarke Angelo, Wroughton Glaudio, Mrs. Yates again playing Isabella, and Mrs. Inchbald appearing in the small part of Mariana. At Bath, in the season 1779-1780, we find the first record of the performance of Mrs. Siddons as Isabella. She played the part six times during that season, and on November 3rd, 1783, she appeared at Drury Lane for the first time in this character. During this season she acted the part five times; in fact it was tlie only Shakespearian one she attempted in London. In speaking of Mrs. Siddons' im- personations it must not be forgotten that there was another Isabella, a very favourite part of hers. This was the heroine of South- e-rne's Isabella or the Fatal Marriage, al- tered by Carrick; but though many of her contemporaries seem to have c 'iisidered this Isabella to be one of her most powerful im-
INTRODUCTION.
personations, there is no doubt that the great actress was especially fine as the heroine of Measure for Measure, notably in the great scenes with Angelo, and in the prison scene with Claudio. The part is one which essen- tially requires an actress to assume moral dignity, if she has it not. The pretty pathos which serves well enough for Ophelia and Desdemona is of no avail here: indeed there is no part in any of Shakesjjeare's plays which requires greater elevation both of thought and of style than that of Isabella.
On December 30th, 1794, John Kemble appeared, at Drury Lane, for the first time as the Duke, with a strong cast which in- cluded Bannister, jun., as Lucio, Palmer as Angelo, Dicky Suett as Pompey, Parsons as Elbow; Mrs. Siddons, of course, was the Isabella; indeed no one seems to have at- tempted to rival her in this part for many years. The piece was acted eight times on this occasion. "We pass over several j:>er- formances at Drury Lane during the next eight years, till we come to November 21st, 1803, when the play was revived at Covent Garden, " not acted 20 years." Kemble and Mrs. Siddons again took their old parts, and Cooke appeared for the first time as Angelo; the Claudio was Charles Kemble, and the two comic parts of Elbow and Pompey were played by Blanchard and Emery respectively. The next memorable performance of this play was on October 30th, 1811, the beginning of Mrs. Siddons' last season at Covent Garden. The cast was much the same as on the last-men- tioned occasion, except that Barrymore was the Angelo, and, according to Genest, was the only one whose part was not well acted. In this revival Liston was the Pompey, and Emery took the small part of Barnar- dine. George Daniel says, in his preface to the acting edition of Cumberland's Bri- tish Theatre: "The few words put into the mouth of this dissolute prisoner were given with astonishing power by Emery, who, in reality, looked the wretch described by the poet, 'Unfit to live or die.'" The piece was played several times during this season ; Mrs. Siddons making her last appearance in the part on June 26th, 1812. It is said that she |
was then so enfeebled by age that, when she knelt to the Duke, she was unable to rise with- out assistance. WithMrs. Siddons the popu- larity of Measure for Measure as an acting play seems to have died, at least for a time. No actress since has succeeded in making her mark in the character of Isabella. On Feb- ruary 8th, 1816, Miss O'Neill made her first appearance in the part at Covent Garden, on which occasion Yates played the Duke. The next revival of any importance was that under Macready's management, May 1st, 1824, at Drury Lane, when it was only played twice. Liston, singular to say, was cast for Lucio, and was a dire failure. Phelps produced Mea- sure for Measure in his third season at Sad- ler's Wells on November 4th, 1846; Miss Addison's Isabella was said to have been a tine performance, but the play was not often re- peated; Phelps played the Duke, though he is said to have preferred the part of Angelo. In recent times the only memorable revival of this play was that at the Haymarket, when the late Miss Adelaide Neilson, whose premature death was so much regretted, played Isabella on Saturday, April 1st, 1876. The best fea- tures in the cast on this occasion were the Duke of Mr. Howe and the Lucio of Mr. Con- way, the best performance in the Shakespearian drama that the latter has ever given. Charles Warner was an earnest Claudio, and Mr. Buck- stone himself raised many a laugh as Pompey. Miss Neilson's Isabella was a ] >retty and grace- ful performance, and considered by many cri- tics to be her best Shakespearian impersona- tion; but she scarcely fulfilled the highest re- quirements of the part. The play had not been represented for 25 years in London, and there is no likelihood at present of its revival. Much virtuous indignation was expended on the nature of the plot by those whose moral susceptibilities had been invigorated by a course of playgoing in Paris. The grand les- son on the weakness of human nature, so powerfully taught in Measure for Measure, came as a shock to those delicate minds, which had been refined by a study of that Lais-wor- ship and deep pornographical science which serve as substitutes for religion ami morality on the Paris stage. — F. a. m. 169
MEASURE FOR MEASURE.
CRITICAL REMARKS.
Measure for Measure is neither the last of the comedies nor the first of the tragedies. It is tragedy and comedy together, inextricably interfused, coexistent in a mutual contradic- tion; such a tangled web, past hope of unravel- ling, as our life is, looked at by the actors in it, on the level of its action; with certain suggestions, open or concealed, of the higher \ iew, the aspect of things from a point of tol- erant wisdom. The hidden activity of the duke, working for ends of beneficent justice, in the midst of the ferment and corruption of the seething city; this figure of personified Providence, watchfully cognizant of act and motive, has been conceived by Shakespeare — not yet come to his darkest mood, in which man is a mere straw in the wind of Destiny — to give the sense of security indwelling in even such a maze as this. It is not from Isabella that we get any such sense. Her very courage and purity and intellectual light do but serve t<> deepen the darkness, when we conceive of her as but one sacrifice the more. Just as Cordelia intensities the pity and terror of King bear, so would Isabella's helpless vir- tues add the keenest ingredient to the cup of bitterness— but for the duke. He is a fore- taste of Prospero, a Prospero working greater miracles without magic; and he guides us through the labyrinths <>f the play by a clue of which he has the secret.
That Measure for Measure is a "painful" play (afl Coleridge called it) cannot be denied. Here is something base and sordid about the villany of its actors; a villany which has nothing of the heroism of sin. In Angelo we have the sharpest lesson that Shakespeare ever read self-righteousness. In Claudio we see a
Med youth" with the gilding rubbed off; and there is not under heaven a more pitiful sight. Prom Claudio's refined wantonness we sink deeper and deeper, through bucio, who is a Claudio by trade, and without even the pre- tence of gilding, to the very lowest depth of a citysfoulnessand brutality. The "humours "of bawd and hangman and the customers of both are painted with as angry a hand as Hogarth's; bitten in with the etcher's acid, as if into the 170
very flesh. Even Elbow, "a simple constable,"
a ])ogherry of the lower dregs, struts and maunders before us with a desperate imbe- cility, in place of the engaging silliness, where silliness seemed a hearty comic virtue, of the "simple constable" of the earlier play. In the astonishing portrait of Barnardine we come to the simply animal man; a portrait which in its savage realism, brutal truth to nature, cynical insight into the workings of the con- tented beast in man, seems to anticipate some of the achievements of the modern realistic novel. In the midst of this crowd of evil- doers walks the duke, hooded body and soul in his friar's habit; Escalus, a solitary figure of broad and sturdy uprightness; Isabella, "a thing enskied and sainted," the largest- hearted and clearest-eyed heroine of Shake- speare; and apart, veiled from good and evil in a perpetual solitariness of sorrow, Mariana, at the moated grange.
In the construction of this play Shakespeare seems to have put forth but a part of his strength, throwing his full power only into the great scenes, and leaving, with less than his customary care (in strong contrast to what we note in Twelfth Night), frayed ends and ' edges of action and of characterization. The conclusion, particularly, seems hurried, and the disposal of Angelo inadequate. I cannot but think that Shakespeare felt the difficulty, nay, impossibility of reconciling the end which his story and the dramatic conventionalities required with the character of Angelo as shown in the course of the play, and that he slurred over the matter as best he could. With space before him he might have con- vinced us— for what could not Shakespeare do? — of the sincerity of Angelo's repentance and the rightfulness of his remission; but as it is, crowded as all this conviction and peni- tence and forgiveness necessarilv is into a few minutes of supplementary action, one can hardly think that Coleridge expressed the natural feeling too forcibly when he said that "the strong indignant claim of justice" is baffled by the pardon and marriage of An- gelo. Of the scenes in which Angelo appears
as the prominent actor the incomparable
second and fourth scenes of the second act, the
INTRODUCTION.
first the temptation of Angelo, the second Angelo's temptation of Isabella — nothing can be said but that Shakespeare may have equalled, but scarcely can have exceeded them in Intensity and depth of natural truth. These, with that other scene between Claudio and Isabella, make the play.
It is part of the irony of things that the worst complication, the deepest tragedy, in all this tortuous action comes about by the inno- cent means of the stainless Isabella; who also, by her steadfast heroism, brings light and right at last. But for Isabella, Claudio would simply have died, perhaps meeting his fate, when it came, with a desperate flash of his father's courage; Angelo might have lived se- curely to his last hour, unconscious of his own weakness — of the fire that lurked in so impene- trable a flint. Shakespeare has sometimes been praised for the subtlety with which he has barbed the hook for Angelo, in making Isa- bella's very chastity and goodness the keenest of temptations. The notion is not peculiar to Shakespeare, but was hinted at, in his scram- bling and uncertain way, by the writer of the old play. In truth, I do not see what other course was open to either, given the facts which were not original in Shakespeare or in Whetstone. Angelo, let us remember, is not a hypocrite: he has no dishonourable intention in his mind ; he conceives himself to be firmly grounded on a broad basis of rectitude, and in condemning Claudio he condemns a sin which he sincerely abhors. His treatment of the betrothed Ma- riana would probably be in his own eyes an act of frigid justice; it certainly shows a man not sensually-minded, but cold, calculating, likely to err, if he errs at all, rather on the side of the miserly virtues than of the generous sins. It is thus the nobility of Isabella that attracts him : her freedom from the tenderest signs of frailty, her unbiassed intellect, her regard for justice, her religious sanctity; and it is on his noblest side first, the side of him that can respond to these qualities, that he is tempted. I know of nothing more consum- mate than the way in which his mind is led on, step by step towards the trap still hidden from him, the trap prepared by the merciless foresight of the chance that tries the profes-
sions and the thoughts of men. Once tainted, the corruption is over him like leprosy, and every virtue withers into the ronespondiiig form of vice. In ( Haudio it is the same touch- stone— Isabella's unconscious and misdirected Ithuriel-spear — thatbringsout the basest forms and revelations of evil. A great living painter has chosen the moment of most pregnant im- port in the whole play — the moment when Claudio, having heard the terms on which alone life can be purchased, murmurs, " Death is a fearful thing," and Isabella, not yet cer- tain, yet already with the grievous fear astir in her, of her brother's weakness, replies, "And shamed life a hateful" — it is this mo- ment that Holman Hunt brings before us in a canvas that, like his scene from the Two Gentlemen of Verona, throws more revealing light on Shakespeare than a world of commen- tators. Against the stained and discoloured wall of his dungeon, apple-blossoms and blue sky showing through the grated window be- hind his delicate dishevelled head, Claudio stands; a lute tied with red ribbons hansrs be- side him, a spray of apple-blossom has fallen on the dark garments at his feet, one hand plays with his fetters — with how significant a ges- ture!— the other hand pinches, idly affection- ate, the two intense hands that Isabella has laid upon his breast ; he is thinking — where to de- bate means shame, — balancing the arguments; and with pondering eyes, thrusting his tongue towards the corner of his just-parted lips with a movement of exquisite naturalness, he halts in indecision: all his mean thoughts are there, in that gesture, in those eyes ; and in the warm and gracious youth of his whole aspect, passionately superficial and world-loving, there is something of the pathos of things " sweet, not lasting," a fragile, an unreasonable, an in- evitable pathos. Isabella fronts him, an em- bodied conscience, all her soul in her eyes. Her eyes read him, plead with him, they are suppliant and judge; her intense fearfulness, the intolerable doubt of her brothers honour, the anguish of hope and fear, shine in them with a light as of tears frozen at the source. In a moment, with words on his lips whose far-reaching imagination is stuns into him and from him by the sharpness of the impending 171
MEASUEE FOR MEASURE.
death, he will have stooped below the reach of her contempt, uttering those words, "Sweet sister, Let me live!"
After all, the final word of Shakespeare in this play is mercy; but it is a mercy which comes of the consciousness of our own need of it, and it is granted and accepted in humilia- tion. The lesson of mercy taught in the Merchant of Venice is based on the mutual blessing of its exercise, the graciousness of spirit to which it is sign and seal.
It droppeth as the gentle rain from heaven
Upon the place beneath; it is twice blest ;
It blesseth him that gives and him that takes. 172
Here, the claim which our fellow-man has on our commiseration is the sad claim of common guiltiness before an absolute bar of jus- tice.
How would you be
If He, which is the top of judgment, should
But judge you as you are {
And is not the "painfulness" which impresses us in this sombre play, due partly to this very moral, and not alone to the circumstances from which it disengages itself? For it is so mournful to think that we are no better than our neighbours.
Duke. For you must know, we have with special soul Elected him our absence to supply.— (Act i. 1. 17, 18.)
MEASURE FOB MEASURE.
ACT I
Scexe I. An apartment in the Duke's palace.
Duke, Escalus, and Attendants, discovered.
Duke. [Seated] Escalus! Escal. My lord?
Duke. Of government the properties to un- fold, Would seem in me to affect speech and dis- course; Since I am put1 to know that your own science Exceeds, in that, the lists2 of all advice ?My strength can give you: Qthen no more re- mains <But that, to your sufficiency, as your worth
is able, < And let them work. ] The nature of our people, Our city's institutions, and the terms 11
For common justice, you're as pregnant in3 As art and practice hath enriched any That we remember. There is our commission,
i Put, made. 2 Lists, limits.
3 Pregnant in, well acquainted with.
From which we would not have you warp. [Escalus kneels and receives his commission. Call hither, I say, bid come before us Angelo.
[Exit an Attendant. What figure of us think you he will bear? For you must know, we have with special soul Elected him our absence to supply; Lent him our terror, dress'd him with our love, And given his deputation4 all the organs 21 Of our own power: what think you of it?
Escal. If any in Vienna be of worth To undergo such ample grace and honour,
It is Lord Angelo.
Duke.
Look where he comes.
Enter Angelo.
Ang. Always obedient to your grace's will, I come to know your pleasure.
Duke. Angelo,
There is a kind of character6 in thy life,
* Deputation, deputyship.
5 Character, i.e. writing, the primary sense of the word.
173
ACT I. Scene 1.
MKASl/RE R)K MKASrilK.
ACT I. Scene 2.
Thai to the observer doth thy history Fully unfold. {Taking the other commission.1] Thyself and thy belongings 30
Are not thine own so proper, as to waste Thyself upon thy virtues, they on thee. Heaven doth with us as we with torches do, Not light them for themselves; for if our
virtues Did not go forth of us, 't were all alike As if we had them not. Spirits are not finely
touch'd But to fine issues ; Q nor Nature never lends ! The smallest scruple of her excellence But, like a thrifty goddess, she determines 'Herself the glory of a creditor, 40
Both thanks and use.1 But I do bend my
speech To one that can my part in him advertise;2 < Hold, therefore, Angelo: —
[ Tenders his commission. ~J In our remove be thou at fvdl ourself ; Mortality and mercy in Vienna Live in thy tongue and heart: old Escalus, Though first in question,3 is thy secondary. Take thy commission,
[Rises and comes down to Angelo. Ana. Now, good my lord,
Let there be some more test made of my metal, llefore so noble and so great a figure 50
Be stamp'd upon it.
Duke. No more evasion:
We have with a leaven'd and prepared choice Proceeded to you ; therefore take your honours. [Angelo kneels and receives his commission. Our haste from hence is of so quick condition That it prefers itself and leaves unquestion'd Matters of needful value. "We shall write to
you, \- time and our corjcernings shall imp6rtune, How it goes with us, and do look to know What doth befall you here. So, fare you well: To the hopeful execution do I leave you go < »f your commissions.
. 1 ng. Yet give leave, my lord,
Thai we may bring you 'something on the way.
I)nh\ My haste may nol admit it; Nor Deed you, on mine honour, have to do
i Use, int i Advertise, instruct.
* Queition, consideration. i Bring you, accompany you. 174
With any scruple: your scope is as mine own. So to enforce or qualify the laws As to your soul seems good. Give me your hand: [Angelo gives his hand to the Duke. I '11 privily away. I love the people, But do not like to stage me to their eyes ; Though it do well, I do not relish well to
Their loud applause and Aves-' vehement; Nor do I think the man of safe discretion That does afi'ect it. Once more, fare you well.
[Going. Ang. The heavens give safety to your pur-
poses
Escal. Lead forth and bring you back in
happiness! Duke. I thank you. Fare you well. [Exit. Escal. I shall desire you, sir, to give me leave To have free speech with you; and it concerns
me To look into the bottom of my place: A power I have, but of what strength and nature so
I am not yet instructed.
Ang. 'T is so with me. Let us withdraw together, And we may soon our satisfaction have Touching that point.
Escal. I'll wait upon your honour.
[Exeunt.
Scene II. A sir
Enter Lucio and tvo (lentlemen.
Lucio. If the duke with the other (hikes come not to composition with the King of Hungary, why then all the dukes fall upon the king.
First (lent. Heaven grant us its peace, but not the King of Hungary's:
Sec. Gent. Amen.
Lucio. Thou concludest like the sanctimoni- ous pirate that went to sea with the Ten Commandments, but scrap'd one out of the table.
Sec. Gent. "Thou shalt not steal"? 10
Lucio. Ay, that he razed.
First Gent. Why, 't was a commandmenl to
•'• Arrs, acclamations (Latin aw = hail).
ACT I. Seen.- 2.
MEASUIK Foil MEASURE.
I. .Scene 2.
command the captain and all the rest from their functions: they put forth to steal. There's not a soldier of us all, that, in the
thanksgiving before meat, do relish the peti- tion well that prays for peace.
Sec. Gent. I never heard any soldier dis- like it.
Lucio. I believe thee; for I think thou never wast where grace was said. 20
£Sec. Gent. No? a dozen times at least.
First Gent. What, in metre?
Lucio. In any proportion or in any language.
First Gent. I think, or in any religion.
Lucio. Ay, why not ? Grace is grace, despite of all controversy: as, for example, thou thy- self art a wicked villain, despite of all grace.
First O'ent. Well, there went but a pair of shears between us.
Lucio. I grant; as there may between the lists and the velvet. Thou art the list. 31
First Gent. And thou the velvet: thou art good velvet ; thou 'rt a three - pil'd piece, I warrant thee : I had as lief be a list of an English kersey, as be pil'd, as thou art pil'd, for a French velvet. Do I speak feelingly now?
Lucio. I think thou dost ; and, indeed, with most painful feeling of thy speech : I will, out of thine own confession, learn to begin thy health ; but, whilst I live, forget to drink after thee. 40
First Gent. I think I have done myself wrong, have I not?
Sec. Gent. Yes, that thou hast, whether thou art tainted or free.
Lucio. Behold, behold, where Madam Miti- gation comes! I have purchas'd as many diseases under her roof as come to —
Sec. Gent. To what, I pray?
Lucio. Judge. 40
Sec. Gent. To three thousand dolours1 a year.
First Gent. Ay, and more.
Lucio. A French crown more.
First Gent. Thou art always figuring diseases in me; but thou art full of error; I am sound.
Lucio. Nay, not as one would say, healthy; but so sound as things that are hollow: thy bones are hollow; impiety has made a feast of thee. ~J
1 Dolours, an obvious pun on dolours and dollars.
Enter Mistress Overdone, crying.
Firs/ Gent. How now! which of your hips has the most profound Bciatica '. 59
Mrs. Or. Well, well; there's one yonder arrested and carried to prison was worth five thousand of you all.
Sec. Gent. Who's that, I pray thee?
Mrs. Or. Marry, sir, that's Claudio, Signior Claudio.
First. Gent. Claudio to prison! 'tis not so.
Mrs. Or. Nay, but I know 't is so: I saw him arrested; saw him carried away; and, which is more, within these three days his head to be chopp'd off. 70
Lucio. But, after all this fooling, I would not have it so. Art thou sure of this?
Mrs. Or. I am too sure of it: and it is for getting Madam Julietta with child.
Lucio. Believe me, this may be : he promis'd to meet me two hours since, and he was ever precise in promise-keeping.
Sec. Gent. Besides, you know, it draws something near to the speech we had to such a purpose.
First Gent. But, most of all, agreeing with the proclamation. si
Lucio. Away! let's go learn the truth of it. [Exeunt Lucio and Gentlemen.
Mrs. Or. Thus, what with the war, what with the sweat, what with the gallows, and what with poverty, I am custom-shrunk.
Enter Pompey.
How now! what's the news with you ?
Pom. Yonder man is carried to prison.
\^Mrs. Or. Well; what has he done?
Pom. A woman.
Mrs. Ov. But what 's his offence ? 00
/'"//*. Groping for trouts in a peculiar2 river. ~J
Mrs. Or. What, is there a maid with child by him I
Pom. No, but there's a woman with maid by him. You have not heard of the procla- mation, have yon '.
Mrs. Or. What proclamation, man?
-' Peculiar, i.e. belonging to an individual.
IT.".
ACT I. Boene 2.
MEASURE FOR MEASURE.
ACT I. Boene -'.
Pom. All houses in the suburbs of Vienna must be pluck'd down. 100
[_ Mrs. (>r. And what shall become of those in the city \
Pom. They shall stand for seed: they had iM.nc down too, but that a wise burgher pul in for them.
Mrs. <>r. Bui shall all our houses of resort in the suburbs be pull'd down \
Pom. To the ground, mistress.]
Mrs. <>r. Why, here's a change indeed in the commonwealth! What shall become of mel
Pom. Come; fear not you: good counsellors lark no clients: though you change your place,
Claud. Fellow, why dost thou show me thus to the world? Bear me to prison, where I am committed.— (Act i. 2. U9-1U.J
you need not change your trade; I'll be your tapster still. Courage! there will be pity taken on you: you that have worn your eyes almost out in the service, you will be con- Bider'd. [Loud voices heard without.
Mr*, or. What's todo here, Thomas tapster I let's withdraw.
/'■>iii. Here comes Signior Claudio, led by the provost to prison; and there's Madam Juliet. [Exeunt.
Enter Provost, < Ilatjdio, Juliet, and Officers.
<'hi.nl. Fellow, why dosi thou show me thus to the world? Bear me to prison, where 1 am commits cL 121
176
Prov. I do it not in evil disposition, But from Lord Angelo by special charge.
Claud. Thus can the demigod Authority Make us pay down for our offence by weight The words of heaven: — on whom it will, it will; On whom it will not, so; yet still t is just.
Re-enter Lucio and two Gentlemen.
Ludo. Why, how now, Claudio: whence
comes this restraint I CXavd. From too much liberty, my Lucio,
liberty:
As surfeit is the father of much fast. 130
So every scope1 by the immoderate use
1 Scope, license.
act I. Scene 2.
MEASURE FOR MEASLRK.
ACT I Scene 3.
Turns to restraint. Our natures do pursue, Like rats that ravin1 down their proper2 bane. A thirsty evil; and when we drink we die.
Lurlo. If I could speak so wisely under an arrest, I would send for certain of my credi- tors: and yet, to say the truth, I had as lief have the foppery of freedom as the morality of imprisonment. What's thy offence, Olaudio?
< 'In ml What but to srjeak of would offend again. 140
l/ucio. What, is 't murder ]
Cbt ml. No.
Lucio. Lechery?
Claud. Call it so.
Prov. Away, sir! you must go.
Claud. One word, good friend. Lucio, a word with you. [Takes him aside.
Lucio. A hundred, if they '11 do you any good. Is lechery so look'd after {
Claud. Thus stands it with me : — upon a true contract I got possession of Julietta's bed: 150
You know the lady ; she is fast my wife, Save that we do the denunciation3 lack Of outward order: this we came not to, Only for propagation4 of a dower Remaining in the coffer of her friends; From whom we thought it meet to hide our love Till time had made them for us. But it chances The stealth of our most mutual entertainment With character too gross is writ on Juliet.
Lucio. With child, perhaps?
('laud. Unhappily, even so.
And the new deputy now for the duke — Q Whether it be the fault and glimpse of new- ness, mi Or whether that the body public be ,A horse whereon the governor doth ride, Who, newly in the seat, that it may know He can command, lets it straight feel the spur; Whether the tyranny be in his plage, Or in his eminence that fills it up, 'I stagger in: — but this new governor] Awakes me all the enrolled penalties 170 Which have, like unscour'd armour, hung by
the wall So long, that nineteen zodiacs have gone round,
1 Ravin, ravenously devour. - Proper, own.
3 Denunciation, formal declaration. * Propagation, augmentation. VOL. V.
And none of then) heeii worn; and, for a name, Now puts the drowsy and neglected act Freshly on me: t is surely for a name.
Lucio. I warrant it is: and thy head stands so tickle5 on thy shoulders, that a milkmaid, if she be in love, may sigh it off. Send al the duke, and appeal to him.
Claud. I have done so, but he's not to be found. I prithee, Lucio, do me this kind service: This day my sister should the cloister enter And there receive her approbation: Acquaint her with the danger of my state; Implore her, in my voice, that she make friends To the strict deputy; bid herself assay him: I have great hope in that; for in her youth There is a prone6 and speechless dialect, Such as move men; beside, she hath prosper- ous art When she will play with reason and discourse, And well she can persuade. iw
Lucio. I pray she may; as well for the encouragement of the like, which else would stand under grievous imposition, as for the enjoying of thy life, who I would be sorry should be thus foolishly lost at a game of tick- tack.7 I '11 to her.
( It i ud. I thank you, good friend Lucio.
[Provost advances.
Lucio. Within two hours.
Claud. Come, officer, away! [Exeunt.
Scene III. The entrance to a monaxtr,y.
Eider Duke and Friar Thomas.
Duke. No, holy father; throw away that thought; Believe not that the dribbling dart of love Can pierce a complete bosom. Why I desire
thee To give me secret harbour, hath a purpose More grave and wrinkled than the aims and
ends Of burning youth.
Fri. T. May your grace speak of it?
Duke. My holy sir, none better knows than you
5 Tickle, ticklish. 6 Prone, appealing
" Tick-tack, a suit of backgammon (French, tric-trac). 177 124
ATI I &
MEASURE FOB MEASURE.
act l. Scei
Bow I have ever lo^d the life remov'd And held in idle price to haunt assemblies, Where youth, and cost, and witless bravery1 keeps. 10
I have deliver'd to Lord Augelo, A man of stricture and firm abstinence, My absolute power and place lure in Vienna, And he supposes me braveU'd to Poland; For so 1 have strew'd it in the common ear,
And SO it IS reeeiv'd. Now, pious sir, You will demand of me why I do this? /•>/. T. Gladly, my lord. Duke. We have strict statutes and most
biting laws. The needful bits and curbs to headstrong
weeds, 20
Which for this fourteen years we have let slip; Even like an o'ergrown lion in a cave, That noes not out to prey. Now, as fond
fathers, Having hound up the threatening twigs of
birch, Only to stiek it in their children's sight For terror, not to use, in time the rod's More mock'd than fear'd; so our decrees, Dead to infliction, to themselves are dead, And liberty plucks justice by the nose; 29 The babj beats the nurse, and quite athwart Goes all decorum.
/'•/. T. It rested in your grace
To unloose this tied -up justice when you
pleas'd: And it in you moredreadful would have seem'd Than in Lord Angelo.
Duke. I do fear, too dreadful:
Sit h - t was my fault to give the people scope, T would be mj \\ rannj to strike and gall them For what I bid them do: for we bid this he
done, When evil deeds have their permissive pass, And not the punishment. Therefore, indeed,
my father, I have on Angelo impos'd the office; 10
Who may, in the ambush of my name, strike
hone-. And yet my nature never in the fight, To do it -lander. And to behold his sway, I w ill, as t were a brother of 3 our order.
Query.
2 Sith, since.
Visit both prince and people: therefore, I
pl'ithee.
Supply me with the habit, and instruct me How I may formally in person bear3 Like a true friar. More reasons for this action At our more leisure shall I render you; < »nlv, this one: Lord Angelo is precise; 50 Stands at a guard with envy: scarce confesses That his Mood tlows, or that his appetite Is more to bread than stone: hence shall we see, I E ] lower change purpose, what our seemers be.
[Exeunt.
Scene IV. A nunnery.
Enter Isabella and Fkaxcisca.
Isab. Ami have you nuns no further privi- leges ? Fran. Are not these large enough ? hil>. Yes, truly: I speak not as desiring more; But rather wishing a more strict restraint Upon the sisterhood, the votarists of Saint ( hire. I/ado. [_ H Vf/ii/i] Ho! Peace he in this place! Isab. Who's that which calls?
Fran. It is a man's Aroice. Gentle Isabella, Turn you the key, and know his businessof him; You may, I may not; you are yet unsworn. When you have vow'd, you must not speak with men 10
But in the presence of the prioress: Then, if you speak, you must not show your
face; Or, if you show your face, you must not speak. [Lucio calls again within. He calls again; I pray you, answer him.
[ Exit. /sub. Peace and prosperity ! Whois't that calls {
Enter Lucio.
Lucio. Hail, virgin, if you be,— as those cheek-roses Proclaimyouarenoleas! ( 'an you so stead ' me As bring me to the sight of Isabella, \ novice of this place, and the fair sister To her unhappy brother ( laudio? 20
/. '/■, behave.
Sh ad, help.
178
A.CT I. Scene I
MKASUJK I'ol! MKASUIIK.
ACT I. Scene 4.
Isab. Why "her unhappy brother"? let Die
ask, 2]
The rather for I now must make you know L ;un that Isabella and his sister. Lucio. Gentleand fair, your brother kindly
greets you: Not to be weary with you, he's in prison.
Isab. Woe me! for wli.it j
Z/ucio. Fur thai whirl,, if myself might be
his judge, He should receive his punishment in thanks: He hath got his friend with child. 29
Jml). Sir, make me not vmir story.1 Lucio. 'T is true.
i .' . ■;-■". — — — : ■£.,.. \ — ., -i'} . . . ^,
■?z±t=^
',
Lucio. All hope is gone,
Unless you have the grace by your fair prayer To soften Angelo.— (Act i. 4. 67-69.)
I would not — though 't is my familiar sin With maids to seem the lapwing and to jest, Tongue far from heart — play with all virgins so : I hold you as a thing ensky'd and sainted, By your renouncement an immortal spirit, And to be talk'd with in sincerity, As with a saint.
Isab. You do blaspheme the good in mock- ing me.
Lucio. Do not believe it. Fewness and truth,2 'tis thus: fj Your brother and his lover have embrac'd:
i Your story, >'c. your jest.
- Fewness and truth, i.e. briefly and truly.
As those that feed grow full, as blossoming time 4i
That from the seedness the bare fallow brings To teeming foison,:i even so her plenteous womb Expresseth his full tilth4 and husbandry.]
Isab. Some one with child by him ( My cousin Juliet?
Lucio. Is she your cousin?
Isab. Adoptedly; as school-maids change their names By vain though apt affection.
Lucio. She it is.
Isab. O, let him marry her.
3 Foison, plenty.
• Tilth, tillage.
179
a i I [, Scene 4.
MEASURE FOR MEASURE.
Ml' II. Scene 1.
Lucio. This is the point.
Thr duke is wry strangely gone from hence; Bore many gentlemen, myself being one, :.i In hand and hope of action: but we do learn
l'.\ those that know the very nerves of state. His giving-oul were of an infinite distance From his true-meant design. Upon his place,
And with full line of his authority, Governs Lord Angelo; a mao whose blood Is very snow-broth; one who never feels The wanton stings and motions of the sense, QBut doth rebate1 ami hlunt his natural edge With profits of the mind, study and fast.] He — to give fear to use3 and liberty, 62
Whieh have for Ions run by the hideous law. As mice by lions — hath pick'd out an act, Under \\ hose heavy sense your brother's life Falls into forfeit: he arrests him on it; And follows close the rigOUT of the statute, T" make him an example. All hope is gone, Unless you have the grace by your fair prayer To soften Angelo: and that 's my pith of busi- ness Twixt you and your poor brother. 70
/.-•"/<. l)oth he so seek his life?
Llldo. Has censur'd:; him
Already; and, as I hear, the provost hath A warrant for his execution.
/suli. Alas, what poor ability's in me To do him g 1 i
Lucio. .Way the power you have.
/-•"/'. My power! Alas, I doubt —
Lucio. Our doubts are traitors.
And make us lose the good we oft might win By fearing to attempt. < ro to Lord Angelo, And let him learn to know, when maidens sue, Men give like gods; but when they weep and kneel, si
All their petitions are as freely theirs As they themselves would owe4 them.
Isab. I '11 see what I can do.
Ludo. Rut speedily.
Isab. I will about it straight; No longer staying but to give the mother0 Notice of my affair. I humbly thank you: Commend me to my brother: soon at night6 I'll send him certain word of my success.
Lucio. I take my leave of you.
Isab. Good sir. adieu.
{Exet'nt severally.
ACT II.
Scene. I. A hall in Amjilo's house. Enter Asgelo, EsCALUK, " ml ,i. f n. <{<'<;■ ; Provost,
Officers and Attendants in waiting behind.
A mj. We must not make a scarecrow of the law. Setting it up to fear" the birds of prey, And let it keep one shape, till custom make it Their perch, and not their terror.
/-'"/. Ay, but yet
Let us Le ken, and rather cut a little, Than fall, and bruise to death. Alas, this
gentleman, Whom [ would aave, had a most noble father! Let but your honour know, Whom I lielieve to be most strait in virtue,
1 Rebate, abate, flatten, make dull.
it. no-. I The mother, i.e the prioress. * Soon at night, this very night.
180
- Use, custom. * Owe, have.
Fear, affright.
That, in the working of your own affections, Had time coher'd with place, or place with
wishing, n
Or that the resolute acting of our blood Could have attain'd the effect of your own
purpose, Whether you had not sometime in your life Err'd in this point whieh now you censure him, And pull'd the law upon you.
An;/. 'Tis one thing to be tempted, Escalus, Another thing to fall. QI not deny. The jury, passing on the prisoner's life, May in the sworn twelve have a thief or two Guiltier than him they try. What's open
made to justice, That justice seizes: what knows the law That thieves do pass on thieves? Tis very
pregnant,8
s Pregnant, evident.
ACT II. Seem; I.
MEASURE FOR MEASURE.
ACT II. Soene 1.
The jewel that we find, we stoop and take 't, ' Because we see it; but what we do not see 'We tread upon, and never think of it. ] You may not so extenuate his offence For1 1 have had such faults; but rather tell me, When I, that censure him, do so offend, 29 Let mine own judgment pattern out my death, And nothing come in partial. Sir, he must die.
Escal. Be it as your wisdom will.
Ang. Where is the provost?
Prov. [Advancing] Here, if it like your honour.
Aug. See that Claudio
Be executed by nine to-morrow morning : Bring him his confessor, let him be prepar'd ; For that 's the utmost of his pilgrimage.
[Exit Provost.
Escal. [A side] Well, heaven forgive him ! and forgive us all ! £ Some rise by sin, and some by virtue fall ; Some run from breaks of ice, and answer none; And some condemned for a2 fault alone.] 40
Enter Elbow, and Officers with Froth and Pompey.
Elb. Come, bring them away: if these be good people in a commonweal that do nothing but use their abuses in common houses, I know no law: bring them away.
A ng. How now, sir ! What 's your name ? and what 's the matter?
Elb. If it please your honour, I am the poor duke's constable, and my name is Elbow : I do lean upon justice, sir, and do bring in here before your good honour two notorious bene- factor's. 50
Ang. Benefactors! Well; what benefactors are they? are they not malefactors?
Elb. If it please your honour, I know not well what they are: but precise villains they are, that I am sure of; and void of all profan- ation in the world that good Christians ought to have.
Escal. This comes off well ; here 's a wise officer.
Ang. Go to: what quality are they of? Elbow is your name ? why dost thou not speak, Elbow? 60
i For, because.
- .-I, one.
/'n,,/. He cannot, sir; he's out at elbow.
Ang. What are you, sir '.
Elb. He, sir! a tapster, sir ; parcel s-bawd ; one that serves a bad woman; whose house, sir, was, as they say, pluck'd down in the sub- urbs; and now she professes a hot-house,4 which, I think, is a very ill house too.
Escal. How know you that '.
Elb. My wife, sir, whom I detest before heaven and your honour, — 70
Escal. How ! thy wife !
Elb. Ay, sir ; whom, I thank heaven, is an honest woman, —
Escal. Dost thou detest her therefore?
Elb. I say, sir, I will detest myself also, as well as she, that this house, Qif it be not a bawd's house, it is pity of her life, for it] is a naughty house. 78
Escal. How dost thou know that, constable?
Elb. Marry, sir, by my wife ; who, if she had been a woman cardinally given, might have been accus'd in fornication, adultery, and all uncleanliness there.
Escal. By the woman's means?
Elb. Ay, sir, by Mistress Overdone's means : but as she spit in his face, [pointing to Froth] so she defied him.
Pom. Sir, if it please your honour, this is not so.
Elb. Prove it before these varlets here, thou honourable man ; prove it.
Escal. [To Angelo] Do you hear how he mis- places? 90
Pom. Sir, she came in great with child ; and longing, saving your honour's reverence, for stew'd prunes ; sir, we had but two in the house, which at that very distant time stood, as it were, in a fruit-dish, a dish of some three- pence ; your honours have seen such dishes ; they are not China dishes, but very good dishes, —
Escal. Go to, go to: no matter for the dish, sir. 98
Pom. No, indeed, sir, not of a pin ; you are therein in the right: but to the point. As I say, this Mistress Elbow, being, as I say, with child, and being great-bellied, and longing, as I said, for prunes; and having but two in the
3 Pared, part.
•• lint-house, bagnio.
181
ACT II. Scene 1.
MEASURE FOlf MEASURE.
Ad II. Scene l.
<lish, as I said, Master Froth here, this very man, having eaten the rest, as I said, and, as I saw paying for them very honestly; fur, as von know, Master Froth, I could not give you three-pence again.
Froth. No, indeed.
Pom. Very well ; you being then, if you be remember'd, cracking the stones of the fore- said prunes, — m
Froth. Ay, so I did indeed.
I'm a. Why, very well ; I telling you then, if you be remember'd, that smli a one and such a one were past cure of the thing you wot of, unless they kept very good diet, as I told you, —
Froth. All this is true.
Pom. Why, very well, then, — us
Escal. Come, you are a tedious fool: to the purpose. What was done to Elbow's wife, that he hath cause to complain of? Come me to what was done to her.
Pom. Sir, your honour cannot come to that yet.
Escal. No, sir, nor I mean it not.
/'(///). Sir, but you shall come to it, by your honour's leave. And, I beseech you, look into Master Froth here, sir; a man of fourscore pound a year; whose father died at Hallow- mas:—was 't not at Hallowmas, Master Froth?
Froth. All-hallond eve. 130
I' ma. Why, very well ; I hope here be truths. He, sir, sitting, as 1 say, in a lower chair,1 sir; — 't was in the Bunch of Grapes, where, indeed, you have a delight to sit, — have you not?
Froth. I have so; because it is an open room, and good for winter.
I'mit. Why, very well, then; I hope here be truths.
Ana. This will last out a night in Russia, When nights are longest there: I '11 take my have, 140
Ami Leave you to the hearing of the cause; 1 toping you '11 find good cause to whip them all. Escal. I think no less. Good morrow to your lordship. [Exit Angelo.
Now, sir, come on: what was done to Elbow's wife, once more?
I'm, i. Once, sirl there was nothing done to her once.
' .1 lower chair, > ••. an easy-chair. L82
Elb. I beseech you, sir, ask him what this man did to my wife.
Pom. I beseech your honour, ask me. 150
Escal. Well, sir; what did this gentleman to her I
Pom. I beseech you, sir, look in this gentle- man's face. Good Master Froth, look upon his honour; 'tis for a good purpose. Doth your honour mark his face?
Escal. Ay, sir, very well.
Pom. Nay, I beseech you, mark it well.
Escal. Well, I do so.
I'uiu. Doth your honour see any harm in his face? 160
Escal. Why, no.
Pom. 1 :11 be supposed2 upon a book, his face is the worst thing about him. Good, then ; if his face be the worst thing about him, how could Master Froth do the constable's wife any harm? I would know that of your honour.
Escal. He's in the right. Constable, what say you to it? 16S
Elb. First, an it like you, the house is a respected house; next, this is a respected fellow ; and his mistress is a respected woman.
Pom. By this hand, sir, his wife is a more respected person than any of us all.
Elb. Varlet, thou liest ; thou best, wicked varlet ! the time is yet to come, that she was ever respected with man, woman, or child.
Pom. Sir, she was respected with him be- fore he married with her.
Escal. Which is the wiser here? Justice or Iniquity ? Is this true ? isi
Elh. O thou caitiff ! 0 thou varlet! O thou wicked Hannibal ! I respected with her before I was married to her ! If ever I was respected with her, or she with me, let not your worship think me the poor duke's officer. Prove this, thou wicked Hannibal, or 1 '11 have mine action of battery on thee.
Escal. If he took you a box o' the ear, you might have your action of slander too. 190
Mb. .Marry, I thank your good worship for it. What is 't your worship 's pleasure 1 shall do with this wicked caitiff?
Escal. Truly, officer, because he hath some
a Supposed, i.e. deposed.
ACT 1 1. Scene I.
MEASURE FOB m i:.\sr i;i:.
ACT ll. Scene 1.
offences in him that thou wouldsl discover if thou couldst, let him continue in his courses till thou knowest what they are.
Elb. .Many, I thank your worship for it. Thou seest, thou wicked varlet, now, what's come upon thee: thou art to continue now, thou varlet ; thou art to continue. 201
Escal. [To Froth] Where were you born, friend 1 [Pompey pushes Froth forward.
Froth. Here in Vienna, sir.
Escal. Are you of fourscore pounds a year?
Froth. Yes, an't please you, sir.
Escal. So. [To Pompey] What trade are you of, sir? [Froth gets behind Pompey.
Pom. A tapster ; a poor widow's tapster.
Escal. Your mistress' name?
Pom. Mistress Overdone.
Escal. Hath she had any more than one husband ? 211
Pom. Nine, sir ; Overdone by the last.
Escal. Nine ! Come hither to me, Master Froth. [Pompey pushes Froth across to Escalus] Master Froth, I would not have you ac- quainted with tapsters : they will draw you, Master Froth, and you will hang them. Get you gone, and let me hear no more of you.
Froth. I thank your worship. For mine own part, I never come into any room in a taphouse, but I am drawn in. 220
Escal. Well, no more of it, Master Froth : farewell. [Exit Froth, Pompey pushing him off.] Come you hither to me, master tapster. What's your name, master tapster?
Pom. [Advancing] Pompey.
Escal. rj What else?
Pom. Bum, sir. 227
Escal. Troth, and your bum is the greatest thing about you; so that in the beastliest sense you are Pompey the Great. Pompey, you are partly a bawd, Pompey, howsoever you colour it in being a tapster, are you not? come, tell me true: it shall be the better for you.
Pom. Truly, sir, I am a poor fellow that would live.
Escal. How would you live, Pompey ? by being a bawd ? What do you think of the trade, Pompey ? is it a lawful trade ?
Pom. If the law would allow it, sir. 239
Escal. But the law will not allow it, Pom- pey; nor it shall not be allow'd in Vienna.
Pom, Does your worship mean to geld and splay1 all the youth of the < • i t \ i
Escal. No, Pompey.
Pom. Truly, sir, in my poor opinion, they will to't, then. If your worship will take order for the drabs and the knaves, you need not to fear the bawds. 248
Escal. There are pretty orders beginning, 1 can tell you: it is but heading and hanging.
Pom. If you head and hang all that offend that way but for ten year together, you 11 lie glad to give out a commission for more heads: if this law hold in Vienna ten year, I ;11 rent the fairest house in it after2 three-pence a bay:3 if you live to see this conic to pass, say Pompey told you so. 257
Escal. Thank you, good Pompey; and, in requital of your prophecy, hark you: — ] I ad- vise you, let me not find you before me again upon any complaint whatsoever; £ no, not for dwelling where you do: ~\ if I do, Pompey, I shall beat you to your tent, and prove a shrewd Caesar to you; in plain dealing, Pompey, I shall have you whipt: so, for this time, Pom- pey, fare you well.
Pom. I thank your worship for your good counsel: [Aside] but I shall follow it as the flesh and fortune shall better determine. Whip me! No, no; let carman whip his jade: The valiant heart 's not whipt out of his trade.
Escal. Come hither to me, Master Elbow; come hither, master constable. [Elbow ad- vances.] How long have you been in this place of constable ?
Elh. Seven year and a half, sir.
Escal. I thought, by your readiness in the office, you had continued in it sonic time. You say, seven years together?
Elb. And a half, sir. 278
Escal. Alas, it hath been great pains to yi .11 ! They do you wrong to put you so oft upon't: are there not men in your ward sufficient to serve it?
7:7/-. Faith, sir, few of any wit in such matters: as they are chosen, they are Mad to choose me for them ; I do it for some piece of money, and go through with all.
1 Splay, i.e. spay, castrate.
2 After, at the rate of.
183
s See note 67.
ACT II. &
MEASURE FOR MEASURE.
ACT 11. Scene 2.
Escal. Look you bring me in the names of some six or seven, the most sufficient of your parish.
Elb. To your worship's house, sir?
IWid. To my house. Fare you well. [i?.*;^ £&&ou>.] What 's o'clock, think you ? 290
./^x/. Eleven, sir.
Escal. 1 pray you home to dinner with me.
Just. 1 humbly thank you.
Escal. It grieves me for the death of Claudio; But there 's no remedy.
.hist. Lord Angelo is severe.
Escal. It is but needful:
Mercy is not itself, that oft looks so; I 'arc Ion is still the nurse of second woe: But yet, — poor Claudio! There is no remedy. Come, sir. [Exeunt.
Scexe II. Another room in the same.
Enter Provost and a Servant.
Serv. He 's hearing of a cause; he will come straight : I '11 tell him of you.
Prov. Pray you, do. [Exit Servant.] I'll know His pleasure; may lie he'll relent. Alas, He hath but as offended in a dream! All sects, all ages smack of this vice; and he
To die for't!
Enter Angelo.
Ang. Now, what's the matter, provost?
Prov. Is it your will Claudio shall die to- morrow |
Ang. Did not I tell thee yea? hadst thou not order? Win dost thou ask again?
Prov. Lest I might be too rash:
Under your good correction, I have seen, 10 When, after execution, judgment hath Repented o'er his doom.
Ang. Goto; let that be mine:
I > ■ you \ our office, or give up your place, And you shall well be spar'd.
Prov. I crave your honour's pardon.
What shall be done, sir, with the groaning
Juliet? She 's very near her hour.
Ang. 1 Mspose of her
To some more fitter place; and that with speed.
IS)
Re-enter Servant.
Serv. Here is the sister of the man condemn'd Desires access to you.
Ang. Hath he a sister?
Prov. Ay, my good lord; a very virtuous maid, And to be shortly of a sisterhood, If not already.
Ang. Well, let her be admitted.
[ Exit Servant. See you the fornicatress be remov'd: Let her have needful, but not lavish, means ; There shall be order for 't.
Enter Isabella and Lucio.
Prov.
Save your honour!
[Offering to retire. Ang. Stay a little while. [Provost with- draws.]— [To Isabella] You 're welcome: what 's your will?
[Lucio goes to back of stage. Isab. I am a woeful suitor to your honour, Please but your honour hear me.
Ang. Well; what 's your suit ?
Isab. There is a vice that most [do abhor, Ami most desire should meet the blow of justice; BO
For which I would not plead, but that I must ; For which I must not plead, but that I am At war 'twixt will and will not. Ang. Well; the matter?
Isab. I have a brother is condemn'd to die: I do beseech you, let it be his fault,1 And not my brother.
Q Prov. [Aside] Heaven give thee moving
graces! "2 Ang. ( londemn the fault, and not the actor of it? Why, every fault s condemn'd ere it be done: Mine were the very cipher of a function, 30 To fine2 the faults whose fine stands in record. And let go by the actor.
[tab. <> just but severe law!
I had a brother, then. — Heaven keep your honour! [Retiring. Lucio comes down and met ts her.
■ Ills fault, i.e. his fault that is condemned. - Fine, punish.
ACT II. Scene 2
MEASURE FOB MEASURE.
a< I ll. Scene 2.
Lucio. [Aside to Isabella] Give 't not o'er
so: to him again, entreat him; 43
Kneel down before him, hang upon his gown:
You are too cold; if you should need a pin,
You could not with more tame a tongue desire
it: To him, I say.
/■<"!>. [Advancing rapidly to Angelo] Must
he needs die? Ang. Maiden, no remedy.
Isab. Yes; I do think that you might pardon
him, And neither heaven nor man grieve at the
mercy. so
Isab. To-morrow ! 0, that 's sudden ! Spare him, spare him !— (Act li. ■_'. 83. )
Ang. I will not do't.
Isab. But can you, if you would ?
Aug. Look, what I will not, that I cannot do. Jxiih. But might you do 't, and do the world no wrong, If si) your heart were touch'd with that re- morse 1 As mine is to him?
Aug. He 's sentene'd : 't is too late.
Lucio. [Aside to Isabella] You are too cold.
Isab. Too late! why, no; I, that do speak
a word,
May call it back again. AVell, believe this,
No ceremony that to great ones longs,2 59
' Hcinnr.se, pity.
Longs, belongs.
Not the king's crown nor the deputed sword, The marshal's truncheon nor the judge's robe, Become them with one half so good a grace As mercy dots.
If he had been as you, and you as he, Youwt >uld have si ipp'dlike him ; but hejikeyou, Would not have been so stern.
Ang. Pray you, be gone.
Isab. I would to heaven I had your potency, And you were Isabel! should it then be thus? No; I would tell what 't were to be a judge, And what a prisoner.
[Lucio. [Aside to Isabella] Ay, touch him;< there 's the vein. ] 70
Ang. Your brother is a forfeit of the law, And you but waste your words. 1 85
ACT (I. a
.MKASURE FUR MEASURE.
\<T II. Scene 2.
/sat>. Alas, alas!
Why, all the souls thai were were forfeit <>nce; Ami Hi' that might the vantage beat have took Pound "ut the remedy. How would you be, If He, which is the top of judgment, should But judge you as you are '. < >, think on that ; And mercy then will breathe within your lips, Like man new made.
Ang. Be you content, fair maid;
It is the law, not 1 condemn your In-other: Were he my kinsman, brother, or my son, It should be thus with him: he must die to- morrow. Isa b. To-morrow! O, that's sudden ! Spare him, spare him! Fie 's not prepar'd for death. QEvenforour
kitchens We kill the fowl of season.1 shall we serve
heaven
With less respect than we do minister
To our gross selves?] Good, good my had,
bethink you; Who is it that hath died fur this offence? There's many have committed it.
r_/,"'7</. \Axi<l>' to Isabella] Ay, well said.] Ang. Tin- law hath not been dead, though it hath Blepi : 90
Those many hail cot dar'd to do that evil, If tin- first that did the edict infringe Ihnl answer'd for his deed: [now t is awake, Takes uote "f what La done, and, like a prophet, Lnnks in a glass, that shows what future evils, Either new, or by remissness new-conceiv'd, And so in progress ti> he hatch'd and born, Are now to have no successive degrees, But, in- they live, to end. ] Isab. [Kneeling] 5Te1 show some pity.
Ang. I show it most of all when 1 show justice; 100
For tin n I pity those I do not know, Which a dismiss'd offence would after gall; And do him right that, answering our foul
wrong, Lives nol toad another. Be satisfied; Your brother dies to-morrow : be content.
[ He raises her. Isab. So you must be the first thai gives this sentence,
And he that suffers. < », it is excellent
To have a giant's strength; but it is tyrannous
To use it likr a giant.
Lucio. [Aside] That 's well said. Isab. ( 'ould great men thunder no
As Jove himself dues, Jove would ne'er be quiet,
For every pelting- petty officer Would use his heaven for thunder; Nothing hut thunder. Merciful Heaven! Thou rather with thy sharp and sulphurous
bolt Split'st the unwedgeable and gnarled oak Than the soft myrtle: but man, proud man, Drest in a little brief authority, Most ignorant of what he's most assur'd, His glassy essence, like an angry ape, 120
Clays such fantastic tricks before high heaven As makes the angels weep; [who, with our'
> 0/ season, i.e in its season.
ISC
spleens,3 Would all themselves laugh mortal.]
Lucio. [Asideto Isabella] ( >, to him, to him, wench! he will relent ; He 's coming ; I perceive 't.
Q/'/w. [Asidi 1 Pray heaven she win him!] Isab. We cannot weigh our brother with ourself: Great men may jest with saints; 't is wit in
them, But in the less foul profanation.
]. in 'a>. [Aside to Isabella] Thou 'rt i' the
right, girl ; more o' that. Isab. That in the captain's but a choleric word, 130
Which in the soldier is flat blasphemy. \_Lmiii. [Aside to Isabella] Art avis'd4 o'|
that ' more uu't. ]
Ang. Why do you put these sayings upon me? Isab. Because authority, tl gh it err like
others,
I lath yet a kind of medicine in itself,
That skins' the vice 01 the top. <;<> to your
bosom ; Knock there, and ask your heart what it doth
know That s like my brother's fault: if it confess
- Pelting, paltry.
,/-. supposed t" be the si at of mirth. i Avis'd, i ,e. advised, or conscious.
- skms. covers thinlj over.
ACT II. Scene 2.
MEASl i;K Kol; MKASIRK.
A' I II. -
A natural guiltiness such as is his, 139
Let it nut sound a thought upon your tongue Against my brother's life.
Ang. [Aside] She speaks, and 't is
Such sense, that my sense breeds withit. — Fare you well. [Going.
Isab. Gentle my lord, turn back. Ang. I will bethink me — come again to- morrow. [Going to door. [gab. Hark how I'll bribe you: good my
lord, turn back. Ang. [Returning] How! bribe me! Isab. Ay, with such gifts that heaven shall
share with you. Lucio. [Aside to Isabella] You had marr'd
all else. Isab. Not with fond1 shekels of the tested gold, 149
Or stones, whose rates are either rich or poor As fancy values them; but with true prayers, That shall be up at heaven and enter there Ere sun-rise, prayers from preserved souls, From fasting maids, whose minds are dedicate To nothing temporal.
Ang. [After a pause] Well; come to me to- morrow. \_Lucio [Aside to Isabella] Go to; 'tis well;
away ! ] Isab. Heaven keep your honour safe!
[Retiring. Ang. [Aside] Amen!
For I am that way going to temptation, Where prayers cross.
Isab. [Returning] At what hour to-morrow Shall I attend your lordship?
Ang. At any time 'fore noon.
Isab. 'Save your honour!
[Exeunt Isabella, Lucio, and Provost.
Ang. From thee, even from thy virtue!
What 's this, what's this? Is this her fault
or mine? The tempter or the tempted, who sins most? Ha!
!Not she; nor doth she tempt: Qbut it is I That, lying by the violet in the sun, Do as the carrion does, not as the flower, Corrupt with virtuous season. ] Can it be That modesty may more betray our sense
i Fond, foolish, trifling.
Than woman's lightness? Having waste
ground enough, L70
Shall we desire t" raze the sanctuary, And pitch our evils there? < >. fi.-. I'm-, tie! What dost thou, or what art thou, A.ngelo? Host thou desire her foully for those things
Ang. What 's this, what s thfe! Is this her fault or mine? The tempter or the tempted.— (Act ii. 2. 162, 163.)
That make her good? O, let her brother live: Thieves for their robbery have authority When judges steal themselves. What, do I
love her, That T desire to hear her speak again, And feast upon her eyes? What is t [dream
nil '
0 cunning enemy, that, t" catch a saint. iso
With saints dost bait thv hook! Most dan-
is:
A> r ii. Scene 2.
MEASURE FUR MEASURE.
All II. Scene 4.
I> thai temptation that doth goad its on m To sin in loving virtue: Q never could the
3 trumpet, With all her double vigour, art and nature, < toce stir my temper; but this virtuous maid Subdues me quite. 3 Ever till now, When nun were fond,1 I smil'd and wonder'd
how. [Exit.
Q Scene III. A room in a prison.
Enter, severally, Duke disguised as a friar, and Provost.
Duke. Hail to you, provost! so I think you
are. Prov. I am the provost. What 's your will,
good friar 1 Duke. Bound by my charity and my blest
order,
I come to visit the afflicted spirits
I I ere in the prison. Do me the common right To let me see them, and to make me know The nature of their crimes, that I may minister To them accordingly.
Prov. I would do more than that, if more were needful. 9
Look, here comes one: a gentlewoman of mine,2 Who, falling in the flaws8 of her own youth, Hath blister'd her report: she is with child; And lie that got it, sentenc'd; a young man More tit to do another such offence Than die for this.
Enter Juliet. Duke. When must he die I
Prov. As I do think, to-morrow.
[To Juliet] I have provided for you: stay
awhile, And you shall be conducted.
Duke. Repent you. fair one, of the sin you carry ! 19
■I"! . I do; and bear the shame most patiently. Duke. I 11 teach you how you shall arraign youi- conscience, And try your penitence, if it be sound, < >r hollowly put on.
Jul.
T '11 gladly learn.
i Fond, foolishly fond
- Of mine, i t in my custody.
- -ju-t~ of passion
188
Duke. Love you the man that wrong'd you?< Jul. Yes, as I love the woman that wrong'd
him. Duke. So then it seems your most offence- ful act Was mutually committed >.
Jul. Mutually.
Duke. Then was your sin of heavier kind
than his. Jul. I do confess it, and repent it, father. Duke. 'Tis meet so, daughter: but lest you do repent, SO
As that4 the sin hath brought you to this
shame, Which sorrow is always toward ourselves, not
heaven, Showing we would not spare heaven as we
love it, But as we stand in fear, —
.1 ul. 1 do repent me, as it is an evil, And take the shame with joy.
Duke. There rest.
Your partner, as I hear, must die to-morrow, And I am going with instruction to him.
Grace go with you! Benedict'/'!
[Exit.
Jul. Must die to-morrow! O injurious l< >ve, That respites me a life, whose very comfort Is still a dying horror!
Prov. 'T is pity of him. [Exeunt."]
Scene IV. A room in Angela's house.
Angelo discovered, seated.
Ang. When I would pray and think, I think
and pray To several5 subjects. Heaven hath my empty
words; Whilst my invention," hearing not my tongue, Anchors on Isabel: Heaven in my mouth, £ As if I did but only chew his name; ] And in my heart the strong and swelling evil Of my conception. The state, whereon I
studied,
[s like a g 1 thing, being often read, 8
Grown fear'd and tedious; yea, my gravity, Wherein— let no man hear me 1 take pride, ( !ould 1 with boot change for an idle plume
i As that, becaua s Several, separate.
ntion, imagination.
ACT II. Scone 4.
MEASURE FOB MEASURE.
ACT II Scei
Which the air beats for vain. U place, ( > form, I lew often dost thou with thy case, thy habit, Wrench awe from fools, and tie the wiser souls To thy false seeming! Blood, thou art blood: Let 's write good angel on the devil's horn, T is not the devil's crest.
Enter Servant.
How now! who's there! Serv. One Isabel, a sister, desires access to
you. Ang. Teach her the way. [Exit Servant.'] O heavens! is
Why does my blood thus muster to my heart, Making both it unable for itself, And dispossessing all my other parts Of necessary fitness ? [Rises.
QSo play the foolish throngs with one that
swoons ; \ Come all to help him, and so stop the air \ By which he should revive : and even so >The general,1 subject to a well-wish'd king, >Quit their own part, and in obsequious fond-
> ness
> Crowd to his presence, where their untaught ; love £ Must needs appear offence. ]
Enter Isabella.
How now, fair maid!
Isab. I am come to know your pleasure.
Ang. That you might know it, would much
better please me 32
Than to demand what 'tis. Your brother
cannot live.
Isab. Even so. Heaven keep your honour!
[Retiring. Ang. Yet may he live awhile ; and, it may be, As long as you or I: — yet he must die. Isab. Under your sentence? Ang. Yea.
Isab. When, I beseech you? that in his reprieve, Longer or shorter, he may be so fitted 40
That his soul sicken not.
Ang. Ha! fie, these filthy vices! It were as good To pardon him that hath from nature stol'n
i The general, i.e. the populace.
A man already made, as to remit
Their saucy sweetness that do coin heaven's i ii i a
ln stamps thai are forbid: Qi is all as easy Falsely to take away a life true made As to put mettle in restrained- means
To make a false ■.
Isab. 'Tis set down so in heaven, but not
in earth. Ang. Say you so? then I shall pose yon quickly. Which had you rather, that the most just law Now took your brother's life; or, to redeem
him, (live up your body to such sweet unclean n As she that he hath stain d '.
/sub. Sir, believe this,
I had rather give my body than my soul. Ang. I talk not of your soul: our compell'd sins
Stand more for number than for accompt.
Isab. How say you >
Ang. Nay, I'll not warrant that; for I can speak Against the thing I say. ] Answer to this: I, now the voice of the recorded law, Pronounce a sentence on you)- brother's life: Might there not be a charity in sin To save this brother's life '
Isab. Please you to dot,
I '11 take it as a peril to my soul. It is no sin at all, but charity.
Ang. Pleas'd you to do't at peri] of your soul, Were equal poise of sin and charity.
Isab. That I do beg his life, if it be sin. Heaven let me bear it! you granting of my suit, ""
If that be sin, I'll make it my morn prayer To have it added to the faults of mine. And nothing of your answer.
Ang. Nay, but hear me.
Your sense pursues not mine: either you're
ignorant, Or seem so, craftily; and that 'a not good.
Isab. Let me be ignorant, and in nothing
gO( H 1 ,
But graciously to know I am no better.
- Restrained, forbidden
189
ACT li. Bcene 4.
MKASIKK FOR MKASURE.
ACT II. a
Ang. Thus wisdom wishes to appear mosl brighl 78
When it doth tax itself; [J as these black masks Proclaim an enshield1 beauty ten times loader Than beauty could, display'd.] But mark me; To be received plain, I "11 speak mure gross: Your brother is to die.
Isab. So.
Ang. And his offence is so, as it appears, Accountant to the law upon that pain.2
Isab. True.
Ang. Admit no other way to save his life, — As I subscribe3 not that, uor any other, I Jut in the loss of question, — that you, his sister, 90
Finding yourself desir'd of such a person, Whose credit with the judge, or own great
place, ( lould fetch your brother from the manacles Of the all-building law; and that there were No earthly mean to save him, but that either You must lay down the treasures of your body To this suppos'd, or else to let him suffer; What would you do?
Isab. As much for my poor brother as myself: That is, were I under the terms of death, The impression of keen whips I'd wear as rubies, 101
And strip myself to death, as to a bed That longing have been sick for, ere I'd yield My body up to shame.
. I ng. Then must your brother die.
Isab. And 'twere the cheaper way: Better it were a brother died at once, Than that a sister, by redeeming him, Should die for ever.
Ang. Were not you then as cruel as the sentence Thai \ "U have slahder'd so \ no
Isab. [gnomy in ransom and free pardon Axe of two houses: lawful mere} [fl nothing kin to foul redemption.
Ang. You seem'd of late to make the law a tyranl ; And rather prov'd the sliding of your brother A merriment than a vice.
Isab. 0, pardon me, my lord; itofi falls out,
i Snthit I ■ nshii Ided, Le. covered.
i Pain, penalty f Subscribe, admit.
190
To have what we would have, we speak not
what we mean: I something do excuse the thing I hate. For his advantage that 1 dearly love. 120
Ang. We are all frail.
Isab. Else let my brother die,
Qlf not a fedary,4 but only he, Owe and succeed thy weakness.]
Ang. Nay, women are frail too.
Isab. Ay, as the glasses where they view
themselves;
Which are as easy broke as they make forms.
Women! Help heaven! men their creation mar
In profiting by them. Nay, call us ten times
frail; For we are soft as our complexions are, 129 And credulous to false prints.
Ang. I think it well:
And from this testimony of your own sex, — Since, I suppose, we are made to be no stronger Than faults may shake our frames, — let me 1 >e
bold; I do arrest your words. Be that you are, That is, a woman ; if you be more, you 're none: If you be one, as you are well express'd By all external warrants, show it now, By putting on the destin'd livery.
Isab. I have no tongue but one: gentle my lord, Let me entreat you speak the former language.
Ang. Plainly conceive, I love you. 141
Isab. My brother did love Juliet; and you tell me That he shall die for 't.
Ang. He shall not, Isabel, if you give me love.
Isab. I know your virtue hath a license in 't, AYhich seems a little fouler than it is, To 1 duck on others.
Ang. Believe me, on mine honour,
My words express my purpose.
hab. Ha! little honour to be much believ'd, And most pernicious purpose! Seeming,seem- ing! \Retreating.
I will proclaim thee, Angelo; look for't: 151 Sign me a present pardon for my brother, Or with an outstretch'd throat I'll tell the
world aloud What man thou art.
* Fedary, vassal.
act II. Soene 4.
MKASl'IiK I'm: mkasi i;i;.
,\c i ii. a
Any. Who will believe thee, [sabel 1
My unsoil'd name, the austerenesa of my life, My vouch against you, and my place i' the
state, Will so your accusation overweigh, That you shall stifle in your own report, And smell of calumny. I have begun,
And n.iw I give my sensual race1 the rein: Kit thy consenl to my Bharp appetite; \s\ Lay by all nicety and prolixious2 blush That banish what thej sue for; redeem thy
brother By yielding up thy body to my will; < >r rise he must not only die the death,
Isab. I will proclaim thee, Angelo; look for 't.— (Act ii. 4. 151.)
But thy unkindness shall his death draw out To lingering sufferance. Answerme to-morrow, Or, by the affection3 that now guides me most, I '11 prove a tyrant to him. As for you, Say what you can, my false o'erweighs your
true. [Exit,
hub. To whom should I complain? Did I
tell this, m
Who would believe me? O perilous mouths, That bear in them one and the self-same tongue, Either of condemnation or approof ; Bidding the law make court'sy to their will;
i Racn, natural disposition.
- Prolixious, tiresomely prudish.
3 Affection, impulse.
Hooking both right and wrong to the appetite, To follow as it draws! I '11 to my brother: Though he hath fall'n by prompture of the
blood, Yet hath he in him such a mind of honour, That, had he twenty heads to tender down On twenty bloody blocks, he 'd yield them up, Before his sister should her body stoop To such abhorr'd pollution. 188
Then, Isabel, live chaste, and, brother, die: More than our brother is our chastity. I '11 tell him yet of Angelo's request, And fit his mind to death, for his soul's rest.
[ Exit. 191
ACT III. Scene 1
MEASURE F<>!; MKASURE.
ACT 111. Scene 1.
ACT III.
Scene I. A room in the prison.
Enter Duke disguised as before, < Ilaudio, and
Provost.
Duke. So then yon hope of pardon from Lord
AngeL i i { laud. The miserable have no other medicine
But only hope:
1 have hope to live, and am prepar'd to die. Duke. Be absolute for death;1 either death
or life Shall thereby be the sweeter. Reason thus
with life: If I do lose thee, I do lose a thing That none but fools would keep: a breath thou
art, Servile to all the skyey influences, 9
That dost this habitation, where thou keep'st, Hourly afflict: merely, thou art death's fool; For him thou labourist by thy flight to shun And yet runn'st toward him still. Thou art
not noble; For all the accommodations that thou bear'st A re Qurs'd 1 ly 1 aseness. Thou 'rt by no means
valiant; For thou dost fear the soft and tender fork < >f a poor worm. Thy best of rest is sleep, And that thou oft provok'st; yet grossly fear's! Thy death, which is no more. Thou art not
thyself; 19
For thou exist'st on many a thousand grains That issue out of dust. Happy thou art not; For what thou hast not, still thou striv'st to get, And what thou hast, forgett'st. Thou art not
• •el-tain;
For thy complexion shifts to strange effects,2 After the moon. If thou art rich, thou'rt poor;
For, like an ass whose hack with ingots hows,
Thou bear'st thy heavy riches but a journey, And death unloads thee. Q Friend hast thou
none; For thine own bowels, which do call thee sire. The mere effusion of thy proper loins, 30
ibsoluU for death, Le. be certain you "ill die. ■ pressions.
192
Do curse the gout, serpigo,3 and the rheum, For ending thee no sooner. ] Thou hast nor
youth nor age, But, as it were, an after-dinner's sleep. Dreaming on both; for all thy blessed youth Becomes as aged, and doth beg the alms < >f palsied eld ; and when thou artold and rich, Thou hast neither heat, affection, limb, nor
beauty, To make thy riches pleasant. What s yet in
this That bears the name of life? Yet in this
life Lie hid moe thousand deaths:' yet death we fear, 40
That makes these odds all even.
Chi ml. I humbly thank you.
To sue to live, I And I seek to die; And, seeking death, And life: let it come on. Tsab. [ II 'it /tin] What, ho! Peace here; grace
and good company! Prov. Who's there? come in: the wish de- serves a welcome. [Goes to door. Duke. Dear sir, ere long I '11 visit you again. Claud. Most holy sir, I thank you. /sab. [Outside door] My business is a word
or two with Claudio. Prov. And very welcome. [Returns frorr door, ushering in Isabella] Look, signior, here 's your sister. 49
Duke. Provost, a word with you. Prov. As many as you p!e
Duke. Bring me to hear them speak, where 1 may be conceal'd.
[Exeunt hake and Provost; Duke is seen from time t<> time, listening. Claud. Now, sister, what's the comfort? Isab. Why,
As all comforts are; most good, most go
indeed.
Lord Angelo, having affairs to heaven, Intends you for his swift ambassador, Where you shall be an everlasting leiger:6
3 Serpigo, a creeping eruption of the skin.
< Moe thousand deaths, i e. a thousand inure deaths.
6 Leiger <<>r lieger), resident ambassador.
ACT III. Scene 1.
MEASURE FOR MKASURE.
v I III. Scene 1.
Therefore your best appointment1 make with speed; go
To-morrow you set on.
Claud. Is there no remedy?
Isab. None, but such remedy as, to save a head, To cleave a heart in twain.
Claud. But is there any?
Isab. Yes, brother, you may live: There is a devilish mercy in the judge, If you '11 implore it, that will free your life, But fetter you till death.
[_ Claud. Perpetual durance:'
Isab. Ay, just; perpetual durance, a restraint, Though all the world's vastidity you had, 69 { To a determin'd scope. ]
Claud. But in what nature?
Isab. In such a one as, you consenting to 't,
Would bark your honour from that trunk you
bear. And leave you naked.
Claud. Let me know the point!
Isab. O, I do fear thee, Claudio; and I quake, Lest thou a feverous life shouldst entertain, And six or seven winters more respect Than a perpetual honour. Dar'st thou die ?
[A pause. Claudio turns his face away. The sense of death is most in apprehension; And the poor beetle that we tread upon, 79 In corporal sufferance finds a pang as great As when a giant dies.
Claud. Why give you me this shame ?
Think you I can a resolution fetch From flowery tenderness ? If I must die, I will encounter darkness as a bride, And hug it in mine arms.
Isab. There spake my brother; there my father's grave Did utter forth a voice! [Embracing him]
Yes, thou must die: Thou art too noble to conserve a life In base appliances. This outward - sainted
deputy, Whose settled visage and deliberate word 90 Nips youth i'the head, and follies doth emmew2 As falcon doth the fowl, is yet a devil; <T His filth within being cast, he would appear )A pond as deep as hell.]
1 Appointment, equipment, s Emmew, mew up, inclose ; and so, clutch, grip. VOL. V.
( laud. The prenzie3 Angelo?
Isab. < >, t is the canning livery of hell, The damned'st body to invest and cover In prenzie's guards! Dost thou think, t laudio? If I would yield him my virginity, Thou mightst be freed.
Claud. O heavens! it .-,• .,i be.
Isab. Yes, he would give 't thee, from this rank offence, 100
Sotu offend him still. This night's the time That I should do what I abhor to name, Or else thou diest to-morrow.
Claud. Thou shalt not do't.
Isab. O, were it but my life, I 'd throw it down for your deliverance As frankly as a pin.
Claud. [Embracing her] Thanks, dear Isabel.
Isab. Be ready, Claudio, for your death to- morrow.
Claud. ["Yes. Has he affections in him, That thus can make him bite the law I >y the
nose, When he would force it? Sure, it is no sin; Or of the deadly seven it is the least. m
Isab. Which is the least I
Claud. If it were damnable, he being so wise, Why would he for the momentary trick Be perdurably fin'd?4] — [Despairingly] O Isabel !
Isab. What says my brother?
Claud. Death is a fearful thing.
Isab. And shamed life a hateful.
Claud. Ay, but to die, anil go we know not where; To lie in cold obstruction, and to rot; This sensible warm motion to become 120
A kneaded clod; and the delighted6 spirit To bathe in fiery floods, or to reside In thrilling region of thick-ribbed ice; To be imprison'd in the viewless winds, And blown with restless violence round about The pendent world; or to be worse than worst Of those that lawless and uncertain thought Imagine howling: 't is too horrible! The weariest and most loathed worldly life That age, ache, penury, and imprisonment
s Prenzie, a word of doubtful meaning; perhaps = prince. * Perdurably fin' d, everlastingly punished. 5 Delighted, accustomed to delight.
193 125
ACT III. Scene 1.
MEASURE FUR MEASURE.
ACT III. Scene 1.
(an lay on nature is a paradise 131
To what we fear of death.
Isab. Alas, alas!
Claml. Sweet sister, let me live:
What sin you do to save a brother's life, Nature dispenses with the deed so far That it becomes a virtue.
Isab. O you beast!
O faithless coward ! O dishonest wretch ! Wilt thou be made a man out of my vice? Is't not a kind of incest, to take life From thine own sister's shame ? Q What should ] I think? 140
Heaven shield my mother play'd my father fair! '
Isab. 0 faithless coward ! 0 dishonest wretch ! Wilt thou be made a man out of my vice?— (Act iii. 1. 137, 138.)
J For such a warped slip of wilderness1 2 Ne'er issued from his blood. ] Take my defiance ; Die, perish! Might but my bending down Reprieve thee from thy fate, it should proceed : I '11 pray a thousand prayers for thy death, No word to save thee.
Claud. Nay, hear me, Isabel.
Tsab. O, fie, fie, fie !
Thy sin 's not accidental, but a trade. 149
Mercy to thee would prove itself a bawd :
'T is best that thou diest quickly. [Going.
Claud. O, hear me, Isabella!
i Wilderness, wildness.
194
Re-enter Duke, disguised as before.
Duke. Vouchsafe a word, young sister, but one word.
Isab. What is your will ?
Duke. Might you dispense with your leisure, I would by and by have some speech with you: the satisfaction I would require is likewise your own benefit.
Isab. I have no superfluous leisure ; my stay must be stolen out of other affairs ; but I will attend you a while. [ Walks apart.
Duke. Son, I have overheard what hath pass'd between you and your sister. Angelo
ACT III. Scene 1.
MEASURE FOR MEASURE.
ACT III. Sc«iie 1.
had never the purpose to corrupt her ; only he hath made an assay of her virtue to practise his judgment with the disposition of natures : she, having the truth of honour in her, hath made him that gracious denial which he is most glad to receive. I am confessor to An- gelo, and I know this to be true ; therefore prepare yourself to death : do not satisfy your resolution with hopes that are fallible : to- morrow you must die ; go to your knees, and make ready. 172
Claud. Let me ask my sister pardon. [Crosses to Isabella, kneels, and kisses her hand.] I am so out of love with life, that I will sue to be rid of it.
Duke. Hold you there : farewell. [Exit Claudio; Duke comes down.] Provost, a word with you !
Re-enter Provost.
Prov. What 's your will, father? 178
Duke. That now you are come, you will be gone. Leave me a while with the maid : my mind promises with my habit no loss shall touch her by my company.
Prov. In good time. [Exit.
Duke. The hand that hath made you fair hath made you good : the goodness that is cheap in beauty makes beauty brief in good- ness ; but grace, being the soul of your com- plexion, shall keep the body of it ever fair. The assault that Angelo hath made to you, for- tune hath convey'd to my understanding ; and, but that frailty hath examples for his falling, I should wonder at Angelo. How will you do to content this substitute, and to save your brother? 193
Isab. I am now going to resolve1 him, I had rather my brother die by the law than my son should be unlawfully born. But O how much is the good duke deceiv'd in Angelo ! If ever he return, and I can speak to him, I will open my lips in vain, or dis- cover his government. 199
Duke. That shall not be much amiss: yet, as the matter now stands, he will avoid your accusation : " he made trial of you only." Therefore fasten your ear on my advisings: to
i Resolve, inform.
the love I have in doing good a remedy pre- sents itself. I do make myself believe that you may most uprighteously< lo a poor wronged lady a merited benefit; redeem your brother from the angry law ; do no stain to your own gracious person; and much please tin- absent duke, if peradventure he shall ever return to have hearing of this business. 211
Isab. Let me hear you speak further. I have spirit to do any thing that appears not foul in the truth of my spirit.
Duke. Virtue is bold, and goodness never fearful. Have you not heard speak of Mariana, the sister of Frederick the great soldier who miscarried at sea?
Isab. I have heard of the lady, and good words went with her name. 220
Duke. She should this Angelo have married ; was affianced to her oath, and the nuptial ap- pointed: between which time of the contract and limit of the solemnity, her brother Fred- erick was wreck'd at sea, having in that perished vessel the dowry of his sister. But mark how heavily this befell to the poor gen- tlewoman : there she lost a noble and renowned brother, in his love toward her ever most kind and natural ; with him, the portion and sinew of her fortune, her marriage-dowry ; with both, her combinate2 husband, this well-seeming Angelo. 232
Isab. Can this be so? did Angelo so leave her?
Duke. Left her in her tears, and dried not one of them with his comfort; swallowed his vows whole, pretending in her discoveries of dishon- our: in few, bestow'd her on her own lamen- tation, which she yet wears for his sake ; and he, a marble to her tears, is washed with them, but relents not. 239
Isab. "What a merit were it in death to take this poor maid from the world ! What cor- ruption in this life, that it will let this man live ! But how out of this can she avail?
Duke. It is a rupture that you may easily heal : and the cure of it not only saves your brother, but keeps you from dishonour in do- ing it.
Isab. Show me how, good father.
247
- Combinate. contracted. 195
AIT III. Scene 1.
MEASURE FOR MEASURE.
ACT III. Scene 2.
Duke. This forenamed maid hath yet in her the continuance of her first affection: his un- just unkindness, that in all reason should have quenched her love, hath, like an impediment in the current, made it more violent and un- ruly. Go you to Angelo ; answer his requir- ing with a plausible obedience ; agree with his demands to the point; only refer yourself1 to this advantage, first, that your stay with him may not be long; that the time may have all shallow and silence in it; and the place answer to convenience. This beiiiLi' granted in course, — and now follows all, — we shall advise this wronged maid to stead up your appoint- ment, no in your place; if the encounter ac- knowledge itself hereafter, it may compel him to her recompense: and here, by this, is your brother saved, your honour untainted, the poor Mariana advantaged, and the corrupt deputy scaled.2 The maid will I frame and make tit for his attempt. If you think well to carry this as you may, the doubleness of the benefit defends the deceit from reproof. What think you of it?
I.«il>. The image of it gives me content al- ready; and I trust it will grow to a most pros- perous perfection. 272
Duke. It lies much in your holding up. Haste you speedily to Angelo: if for this night he entreat you to his bed, give him promise of satisfaction. I will presently to Saint Luke's: there, at the moated grange, resides this de- jected Mariana. Atthat place call upon me; and dispatch with Angelo, that it may be quickly.
/sab. I thank you for this comfort. Fare you well, good father. [Exeunt severally.
Scene II. The street before the prison.
Enter, on one side, Duke disguised as before; on tlf other, Elbow, and Officers with Pompey ; the Duke keeps, at first, in the background.
Elb. Nay, if there be no remedy for it, but that you will needs buy and sell men and women like beasts, we shall have all the world drink brown and white bastard.3
i /.v/, /• yourself, i.e. have recourse to.
2 Scaled, laid bare, exposed.
3 Dastard, a sweet Spanish wine.
196
Duke. O heavens ! what stuff is here?
I'om. :T was never merry world since, of two usuries, the merriest was put down, and the worser allow* I by order of law a furr'd gown to keep him warm; and furr'd with fox and lamb-skins too, to signify, that craft, be- ing richer than innocency, stands for the facing. n
Elb. Come your way, sir. [Duke advances] Bless you, good father friar.
Duke. And you, good brother father.4 What offence hath this man made you, sir?
Elh. Many, sir, he hath offended the law : [[and, sir, we take him to be a thief too, sir; for we have found upon him, sir, a strange pick- lock, which we have sent to the deputy. ]
Duke. Fie, sirrah! Qa bawd, a wicked bawd! The evil that thou causest to be done, 2]
That is thy means to live. Do thou but think What 't is to cram a maw or clothe a back From such a filthy vice : say to thyself, From their abominable and beastly touches I drink, I eat, array myself, and live. Canst thou believe thy living La a life, So stinkingly depending? Go mend, go mend.
Pom. Indeed, it dens stink in some sort, sir; but yet, sir, I would prove — so
D"fre. Nay, if the devil have given thee proofs for sin, Thou wilt prove his. ] Take him to prison,
officer: Correction and instruction must both work Ere this rude beast will profit,
Elb. He must before the deputy, sir ; Q he has given him warning: the deputy cannot abide a whoremaster : if he be a whoremonger, and comes before him, he were as good go a mile on his errand.
Duke. That we were all, as some would
seem to be, 40
From our faults, as faults from seeming, free !
Elb. His neck will come to your waist, — a cord, sir. ]
Pom. I spy comfort ; I cry bail. Here 's a gentleman and a friend of mine.
Enter Lucio.
Lucio. How now, noble Pompey! What,
* Good brother father, a play on Elbow's father friar = father brother (frere).
ACT III. Scene
mi;.\sii;k fop mkasukk.
a< I III Scene 2.
at the wheels of Caesar! art thou led in I triumph ] Q What, is there none of Pygmalion's ''images, newly made woman, to be had now, for putting the hand in the pocket and extract- ing clutch'd '. What reply, ha? What sayest thou to this tune, matter, and method ? Is 't not drown'd i' the last rain, ha? What say'st thou, Trot? Is the world as it was, man?
Which is the way? Is it sad, and few words | or how? The trick of it?
Duke. Still thus, and thus; still worse!
Lucio. How dotli my dear morsel, thy mis- tress? Procures she still, ha i
Pom. Troth, sir, she hath eaten up all her beef, and she is herself in the tub.
Lucio. Why, 'tis good; it is the right of it;
Duke. Canst thuu believe thy living is a life, So stinkiugly depending? Go mend, go mend.— (Act iii. 2. 27, 28.)
>it must be so: ever your fresh whore and your s powder 'd bawd: an unshunn'd consequence; ';• it must be so. ] Art going to prison, Pompey ?
Pom. Yes, faith, sir.
Lucio. Why, 't is not amiss, Pompey. Fare- ,well: go, say I sent thee thither. QFor debt, 'Pompey? or how? 68
Mb. For being a bawd, for being a bawd.
Lucio. Well, then, imprison him : if imprison- ment be the due of a bawd, why, 'tis his fright: bawd is he doubtless, and of antiquity /too; bawd-born.] Farewell, good Pompey. Commend me to the prison, Pompey: you will
turn good husband1 now, Pompey; you will keep the house.
Pom. I hope, sir, your good worship will be my bail.
Lucio. No, indeed, will I not, Pompey; it is not the wear.2 I will pray, Pompey, to in- crease your bondage : if you take it not patiently, why, your mettle is the more. Adieu, trusty Pompey. Bless you, friar.
Duke. And you. 82
i Husband, i.e. house-band. - The wear, i.e. the fashion.
197
ACT III. Scene 2.
MEASURE FOR MEASURE.
ACT III. Scene 2.
Lucio. Does Bridget paint still, Pompey, ha?
Elb. Come your ways, sir ; come.
[Constables advance.
Pom. You will not bail me, then, sir?
Lucio. Then, Pompey, nor now. What news abroad, friar i what news ?
Elb. Come your ways, sir; come.
[Constables seize Pompey.
Lucio. Go to kennel, Pompey, go. [Exeunt Elbow, and Officers with Pompey. .] What news, friar, of the duke 1 [Duke turns his face away.
Duke. I know none. Can you tell me of any ?
Lucio. Some say he is with the Emperor of Russia ; other some, he is in Rome : but where is he, think you ?
Duke. I know not where; but wheresoever, I wish him well.
Lucio. It was a mad fantastical trick of him to steal from the state, and usurp the beggary he was never born to. Lord Angelo dukes it well in his absence; he puts trans- gression to 't. 101
Duke. He does well in 't.
Lucio. A little more lenity to lechery would do no harm in him : something too crabbed that way, friar.
Duke. It is too general a vice, and severity must cure it.
Lucio. Yes, in good sooth, the vice is of a great kindred; it is well allied: but it is im- possible to extirp it quite, friar, till eating • Hid drinking be put down. They say this Angelo was not made by man and woman, after this downright way of creation: is it true, think you?
I) 'i he. How should he be made, then?
Lucio. Some report a sea-maid spawned him; Qsome, that he was begot between two stock-fishes. But it is certain that, when he makes water, his urine is congealed ice; that I know to be true: and he is a motion1 gene- ^rative; that 's infallible. ~] 119
Duke. You are pleasant, sir, and speak apace.
Lucio. Why, what: a ruthless thing is this in him, Q for tin' rebellion of a codpiece to take away tin- life of aman!] Would the duke that is absent have done this? Ere he would have banged a man for the getting a hundred bas-
1 Not inn, puppet. 1SJ8
tards, he would have paid for the nursing a thousand: Qhe had some feeling of the sport; ' he knew the service, and that instructed him to mercy.]
Duke. I never heard the absent duke much detected2 for women; he was not inclin'd that way. 130
Lucio. O, sir, you are deceiv'd.
Duke. !T is not possible.
Lucio. Who, not the duke ? yes, your beggar of fifty; and his use was to put a ducat in her clack-dish : the duke had crotchets in him. He would be drunk too; that let me inform you.
Duke. You do him wrong, surely.
Lucio. Sir, I was an inward3 of his. A shy fellow was the duke: and I believe I know the cause of his withdrawing. mo
Duke. What, I prithee, might be the cause ?
Lucio. No, pardon ; 't is a secret must be lock'd within the teeth and the lips: but this I can let you understand, the greater file of the subject held the duke to be wise.
Duke. Wise! why, no question but he was.
Lucio. A very superficial, ignorant, un- weighing fellow.
Duke. Either this is envy in you, folly, or mistaking: the very stream of his life and the business he hath helmed4 must, upon a war- ranted need, give him a better proclamation. Let him be but testimonied in his own bring- ings-forth, and he shall appear to the envious a scholar, a statesman, and a soldier. There- fore you speak unskilfully; or if your know- ledge be more, it is much dai'ken'd in your malice.
lAicio. Sir, I know him, and I love him.
Duke. Love talks with better knowledge, and knowledge with dearer love. ico
Lucio. Come, sir, I know what I know.
Duke. I can hardly believe that, since you know not what you speak. But, if ever the duke return, as our prayers are he may, let me desire you to make your answer before him. If it be honest you have spoke, you have courage to maintain it: I am bound to call upon you; and, I pray you, your name?
- Detected, accused.
s An inward, an intimate.
< Helmed, i.e. steered through.
ACT III. Scene 2.
MEASURE FOR MEASURE.
\' I III. Scene 2.
Lucio. Sir, my name is Lucio; well known to the duke. 170
Duke. He shall know you better, sir, if I may live to report you.
Lucio. I fear you not.
Duke. O, you hope the duke will return no more ; or you imagine me too unhurtful an opposite. But, indeed, I can do you little harm ; you '11 forswear this again.
Lucio. I'll be hang'd first: thou art deceiv'd in me, friar. [_ But no more of this. Canst thou tell if Claudio die to-morrow or no? 180
Duke. Why should he die, sir?
Lucio. "Why, for filling a bottle with a tun- dish.1 I would the duke we talk of were return'd again: this ungenitur'd agent will unpeople the province with continency; spar- rows must not build in his house-eaves, because they are lecherous. The duke yet would have dark deeds darkly answered; he would never bring them to light: would he were return'd! \ Marry, this Claudio is condemned for untrus- sing. ] Farewell, good friar: I prithee, pray for me. The duke, I say to thee again, would eat mutton on Fridays. He's now past it; yet (and I say to thee) he would mouth with a befffar, though she smelt brown bread and garlic: say that I said so. Farewell. [Exit.
Duke. No might nor greatness in mortality Can censure scape; back-wounding calumny The whitest virtue strikes.
What king so
strong
Can tie the gall up in the slanderous tongue?
But who comes here ?
[Be retires.
Enter Escalus, Provost, and Officers [jcith Mistress Overdone].
Escal. £Go; away with her to prison!
Mrs. Ov. Good my lord, be good to me ; your honour is accounted a merciful man; good my lord.
Escal. Double and treble admonition, and still forfeit2 in the same kind? This would make mercy swear and play the tyrant.
Prov. A bawd of eleven years' continuance, may it please your honour. 209
Mrs. Ov. My lord, this is one Lucio's infor- mation against me. Mistress Kate Keepdown
was with child by him in the duke's time; he$ promis'd her marriage: his child is a year and a quarter old, come Phili]. and Jacob:- I have kept it myself; and see how he goes^ about to abuse me !
1 Tundish, funnel.
Forfeit, liable to penalty.
Duke. I pray you, sir, of what disposition was the duke?
—(Act iii. 2. M4, '-'45.)
Escal. That fellow is a fellow of much' license: — let him be called before us. Away<! with her to prisonl Go to; no more words. [Exeunt Officers with Mrs. 0verdona.J2 Provost,^ my brother Angelo will not be alter'd; Claudio must die to-morrow: let him be furnish'd
3 Come Philip ami Jacob, i.e. on the 1st of May, the feast of St. Philip and St. James (Jacobus).
199
ACT III. Scene 'J.
MKASURE FOR MEASURE.
ACT III. Scene 2.
with divines, and have all charitable prepa- ration. If my brother wrought by my pity, it should not be so with him.
Prov. [Pointing to Duke] So, please you, this friar hath been with him, and advis'd him forth' entertainment of death.
Escal. Good even, good father.
Duke. [Advancing] Bliss and goodness on
you!
Escal. Of whence are you?
Duke. Not of this country, though my chance is now 230
To use it for my time: I am a brother < >f gracious order, late come from the See In special business from his holiness.
Escal. What news abroad i' the world ?
Duke. None, but that there is so great a fever on goodness, that the dissolution of it must cure it: novelty is only in request; and it is as dangerous to be aged in any kind of course, as it is virtuous to be constant in any undertaking: there is scarce truth enough alive to make societies secure; but security1 enough to make fellowship accursed: much upon this riddle runs the wisdom of the world. This news is old enough, yet it is every day's news. I pray you, sir, of what disposition was the duke ?
Escal. One that, above all other strifes, con- tended especially to know himself.
Duke. "What pleasure was he given to? 24S
Escal. Rather rejoicing to see another merry, than merry at any thing which profess'd to make him rejoice: a gentleman of all temper- ance. But leave we him to his events, with a prayer they may prove prosperous; and let me desire to know how you find Claudio pre- pared. I am made to understand that you have lent him visitation.
Duke. He professes to have received no sinister measure from his judge, but most
i Security, i.e. suretyship. 200
willingly humbles himself to the determina- tion of justice: yet had he framed to himself, by the instruction of his frailty, many deceiv- ing promises of life; which I, by my good leisure, have discredited to him, and now is he resolv'd to die. 262
Escal. You have paid the heavens your function, and the prisoner the very debt of your calling. I have labour'd for the poor gentleman to the extremest shore of my modesty: but my brother justice have I found so severe, that he hath fore'd me to tell him he is indeed Justice.
Duke. If his own life answer the straitness of his proceeding, it shall become him well; wherein if he chance to fail, he hath sentene'd himself. 271
Escal. I am going to visit the prisoner. Fare you well.
Duke. Peace be with you!
[Exeunt Escalus and Provost. He who the sword of heaven will bear Should be as holy as severe; Pattern in himself to know, Grace to stand, anil virtue go; More nor less to others paying Than by self-offences weighing. 280
Shame to him whose cruel striking Kills for faults of his own liking! Twice treble shame on Angelo, To weed my vice, and let his grow! O, what may man within him hide, Though angel on the outward side! How may likeness, made in crimes, Making practice on the times, To draw with idle spiders' strings Most ponderous and substantial things! 290 Craft against vice I must apply: With Angelo to-night shall lie His old betrothed but despised; So disguise shall, by the disguised, Pay with falsehood false exacting, And perform an old contracting. [Exit.
ACT IV. Scene 1.
mkasujk koi; .mkasikk.
A i I I.
ACT IV.
Q Scene. I. The Moated Grange at St. Luke's. Enter Mariana and a Boy singing.
Song.
Take, 0, take those lips away, That so sweetly were forsworn;
And those eyes, the break of day, Lights that do mislead the morn :
But my kisses bring again,
Bring again; Seals of love, but seal'd in vain,
I'd in vain.
Mari. Break off thy song, and haste thee quick away: Here comes a man of comfort, whose advice Hath often still'd my brawling discontent.
[Exit I:
Take, 0, take those lips away, That so sweetly were forsworn.— (Act iv. 1. 1, 2.)
Enter Duke disguised as before.
', I cry you mercy, sir; and well could wish 10 ' You had not found me here so musical* \ Let me excuse me, and believe me so, My mirth it much displeas'd, but pleas'd my
woe. \ Duke. !T is good : though music oft hath such
a charm \ To make bad good, and good provoke to harm. $1 pray you, tell me, hath any body inquired
for me here to-day? much upon this time have I promised here to meet.
Mari. You have not been inquired after: I have sat here all day. 20
Duke. I do constantly1 believe you. The time is come even now. I shall crave your foi-bearance a little: maybe I will call upon you anon, for some advantage to yourself.
Mari. I am always In mud to you. [Exit.
i Constantly, firmly. 201
ACT IV. Scene 1.
MEASURE FOR MKASriJK.
ACT IV. Scene 2.
Enter Isabella.
Duke. Very well met, and welcome. What is the news from this good deputy?
/sab. He hath a garden circummur'd with brick, "Whose western side is with a vineyard back'd; And to that vineyard is a planched1 gate, 30 That makes his opening with this bigger key: This other doth command a little door Which from the vineyard to the garden leads; There have I made my promise Upon the heavy middle of the night To call upon him.
Duke. But shall you on your knowledge find this way?
Tsdb. I have ta'enadue and wary note upon 't: With whispering and most guilty diligence, In action all of precept, he did show me 40 The way twice o'er.
Duke. Are there no other tokens
Between you greed2 concerning herobservance?
/■«/!>. No, none, bnt only a repair i! the dark; And that I have possess'd3 him my most stay ( 'an be but brief; for I have made him know I have a servant conies with me along, That stays upon me; whose persuasion is I come about my brother.
Duke. 'Tis well borne up.
1 have not yet made known to Mariana A word of this. What, ho! within! come forth ! 50
Re-enter Mariana.
I pray you, be acquainted with this maid; She comes to do you good.
Isab. I do desire the like.
Duke. Do you persuade yourself that I
respect you? Mari. Good friar, I know you do, and have
found it. Duke. Take, then, this your companion by the hand, Who hath a story ready for your ear. I shall attend your leisure: but make haste; The vaporous night approachea
Mari. Will 't please you walk aside?
\_Ex< "nf Mariana and Isabella.
1 Planched, nude of planks or boards.
reed. Pouestfd, informed.
202
Duke. 0 place and greatness, millions of false eyes 60
Are stuck upon thee! volumes of report Bun with these false and most contrarious
quests Upon thy doings: thousand escapes4 of wit Make thee the father of their idle dream, And rack thee in their fancies.
lie-enter Mariana and Isabella.
Welcome ! How agreed \ Isab. She'll take the enterprise upon her, father, If you advise it.
Duke. It is not my consent,
But my entreaty too.
Isab. Little have you to say
When you depart from him, but, soft and low, " Remember now my brother."
Mart. Fear me not.
Duke. Nor, gentle daughter, fear you not at all. 71
He is your husband on a pre-contract: To bring you thus together, 't is no sin, Sith that the justice of your title to him Doth flourish5 the deceit. Come, let us go: Our corn's to reap, for yet our tilth :s to sow.
[Exeunt.^
Scene II. A room in the prison.
Enter Provost and Pompet.
Prov. Come hither, sirrah. Can you cut off a man's head ?
Pom. If the man be a bachelor, sir, I can; but if he be a married man, he 's his wife's head, and I can never cut off a woman's head.
Prov. Come, sir, leave me your snatches,0 and yield me a direct answer. To-morrow morning are to die Claudio and Barnardine. Here is in our prison a common executioner, who in his office lacks a helper: if you will take it on you to assist him, it shall redeem you from your gyves; if not, you shall have your full time of imprisonment, and your de- liverance with an un pitied whipping, Qfor you have been a notorious bawd.]
* Bseapet, sallies.
s Flourish, colour, varnish.
« Snatches, scraps of wit.
ACT IV. Scene 2.
MEASURE FOR MEASURE.
ACT iv -
Pom. Sir, Q I have been an unlawful bawd time out of mind; but yet] I will be content to be a lawful hangman. I would be glad to receive some instruction from my fellow partner.
Prov. What, ho, Abhorson! "Where's Ab- horson, there? 21
Enter Abhorson.
Abhor. Do you call, sir?
Prov. Sirrah, here 's a fellow will help you to-morrow in your execution. If you think it meet, compound with him by the year, and let him abide here with you; if not, use him for the present, and dismiss him. Q He cannot plead his estimation with you; he hath been a bawd.]
Abhor. Q A bawd, sir?] fie upon him! he will discredit our mystery. 30
Prov. Go to, sir; you weigh equally; a feather will turn the scale. [Exit.
Pom. Pray, sir, by your good favour, — for surely, sir, a good favour you have, but that you have a hanging look, — do you call, sir, your occupation a mystery ?
Abhor. Ay, sir; a mystery.
Pom. Painting, sir, I have heard say, is a mys- tery; Qand your whores, sir, being members of my occupation, using painting, do prove my occupation a mystery:] but what mystery there should be in hanging, if I should be hang'd, I cannot imagine.
Abhor. Sir, it is a mystery.
Pom. Proof?
Abhor. Every true man's apparel fits your thief.
Pom. If it be too little for your thief, your true man thinks it big enough; if it be too big for your thief, your thief thinks it little enough: so every true man's apparel fits your thief. so
Re-enter Provost.
Prov. Are you agreed?
Pom. Sir, I will serve him; Qfor I do find
\ your hangman is a more penitent trade than
^your bawd; he doth oftener ask forgiveness.]
Prov. You, sirrah, provide your block and
your axe to-morrow four o'clock.
Abhor. Q Come on, bawd;] I will instruct thee in my trade; follow. 58
Pom. I do desire to learn, sir: and I hope, if you have occasion to use me for your own turn, you shall find me yare;1 for, truly, sir, for your kindness I owe you a good turn.
Prov. Call hither Barnardine and Claudio: [Exeunt Pompey and A bhorson.
Pom. Pray, sir, by your good favour,— for surely, sir, a Rood favour you have, but that you have a hanging look,— . . . your occupation a mystery?— (Act iv. 2. 33-36.)
The one has my pity; not a jot the other, Being a murderer, though he were my brother.
Enter < 'i.atdio.
Look, here's the warrant, Claudio, for thy dt'ath:
T is now dead midnight, and by eight to- morrow
i Tan, ready.
203
ACT IV. Scene 2.
MEASURE FUR MEASURE.
ACT IV. Sceue 2.
Thou must be made immortal. Where's Bar-
nardine? Claud. As fast lock'd up in sleep as guiltless
labour 69
When it lies starkly in the traveller's bones: He will not wake.
J'rov. Who can do good on him 1
AVell, go, prepare yourself. [Knocking within.']
But, hark, what noise i Heaven give your spirits comfort! [Exit
Claudio.] By and by! I hope it is some pardon or reprieve For the most gentle Claudio.
Enter Duke disguised as before, with a letter having a large seal.
Welcome, father. Duke. The best and wholesom'st spirits of the night Envelop you, good provost! Who call'd here of late? Prov. None, since the curfew rung. Duke. Not Isabel? Prov. No.
Duke. They will, then, ere't be long.
Prov. What comfort is for ( 'laudio? Duke. There's some in hope.
Prov. It is a bitter deputy. si
I >uke. Not so, not so; his life is parallel'd Even with the stroke and line of his great
justice: He doth with holy abstinence subdue That in himself which he spurs on his
power To qualify1 in others: were he meal'd2 with
that Which he corrects, then were he tyrannous; But this being so, he's just. [Knocking within.
Now are they come. [Exit Provost. This is a gentle provost: seldom when The steeled gaoler is the friend of men. 90
[Knocking within. How now! what noise? That spirit's pos-
»'d with haste That wounds the unsistiug3 postern with these k I «.
• Qualify, temper, abate. i Mi aVd, sprinkled, defiled. r, ting, perhaps = shaking.
204
Re-enter Provost.
Prov. [Speaking to one at the door] There he must stay until the officer Arise to let him in: he is call'd up.
Duke. Have you no countermand for Claudio yet, But he must die to-morrow?
J'rov. None, sir, none.
I hd-e. As near the dawning, provost, as it is. You shall hear more ere morning.
Prov. Happily4
You something know; yet I believe there
comes No countermand; no such example have we: Besides, upon the very siege5 of justice Lord Angelo hath to the public ear Profess'd the contrary.
Enter a Messenger {with large sealed letter).
Duke. This is his lordship's man.
Prov. And here comes Claudio's pardon,
Mes. [Giving the letter, which Provost opens and reads] My lord hath sent you this note; and by me this further charge, that you swerve not from the smallest article of it, neither in time, matter, or other circumstance. Good morrow; for, as I take it, it is almost dav. 109
Prov. I shall obey him. [Exit Messenger.
Duke. [Aside] This is his pardon, purchas'd by such sin For which the pardoner himself is in. Hence hath offence his quick celerity, When it is borne in high authority : When vice makes mercy, mercy 's so extended, That for the fault's love is the offender friended. Now, sir, what news?
Prov. I told you. Lord Angelo, belike thinking me remiss in mine office, awakens me with this unwonted putting-on;6 methinks strangely, for h<' hath not used it before. 121
I>'il:,\ Pray you, let's hear.
Prov. [Reads]
" Whatsoever you may hear to the contrary, let Claudio be executed by four of the clock; and in the afternoon Barnardine: for my better satisfaction,
* Happily, i.e. haply.
* Siege (French mV.'v). seat. ■ Putting-on, incitement.
ACT IV. Scene 2.
MEASUKE FOR MKASl'KK.
\i i i ,
let mo have Claudio's head sent me by five. Let this be duly performed; with a thought that more de- pends on it than we must yet deliver. Thus fail not to do your office, as you will answer it at your peril. "
What say you to this, sir? 131
Duke. What is that Barnardine who is to be executed in the afternoon ?
Prov. A Bohemian born, but here nurs'd up and bred; one that is a prisoner nine years old.
Duke. How came it that the absent duke had not either deliver'd him to his liberty or executed him ? I have heard it was ever his manner to do so. 139
Prov. His friends still wrought reprieves for him: and, indeed, his fact,1 till now in the government of Lord Angelo, came not to an undoubtful proof.
Dake. It is now apparent?
Prov. Most manifest, and not denied by himself.
Duke. Hath he borne himself penitently in prison? how seems he to be touch'd? 148
Prov. A man that apprehends death no more dreadfully but as a drunken sleep ; careless, reckless, and fearless of what's past, present, or to come; insensible of mortality, and des- perately mortal.
Duke. He wants advice.
Prov. He will hear none : he hath evermore had the liberty of the prison; give him leave to escape hence, he would not : drunk many times a day, if not many days entirely drunk. We have very oft awak'd him, as if to carry him to execution, and showed him a seeming warrant for it: it hath not moved him at all.
Duke. More of him anon. There is written in your brow, provost, honesty and constancy: if I read it not truly, my ancient skill beguiles me; but, in the boldness of my cunning, I will lay myself in hazard. Claud io, whom here you have warrant to execute, is no greater forfeit to the law than Angelo, who hath sen- tenced him. To make you understand this in a manifested effect, I crave but four days' re- spite; for the which you are to do me both a present and a dangerous courtesy. 172
Prov. Pray, sir, in what?
1 Fact, deed, crime.
Duke. In the delaying death.
Prov. Alack, how may I do it, having the hour limited, and an express command, under penalty, to deliver his bead in 1 1 * « - vi.-w of Angelo? I may make my case as Claudio cross this in the smallest. 179
Duke. By the vow of mine order I warrant you, if my instructions may be your guide. Let this Barnardine be this morning executed, and his head borne to Angelo.
Prov. Angelo hath seen them both, and will discover the favour.2
Duke. O, death's a great disguiser; and you may add to it. Shaw the head, and tie the beard; and say it was the desire of the peni- tent to be so bar'd before his death : you know the course is common. If any thing fall to you upon this, more than thanks and good fortune, by the saint whom I profess, I will plead against it with my life.
Prov. Pardon me, good father; it is against my oath.
Duke. Were you sworn to the duke, or to the deputy?
Prov. To him, and to his substitutes.
Duke. You will think you have made no offence, if the duke avouch the justice of your
dealing?
201
Prov. But what likelihood is in that?
Duke. Not a resemblance, but a certainty. Yet since I see you fearful that neither my coat, integrity, nor persuasion can with ease attempt3 you, I will go further than 1 meant, to pluck all fears out of you. Look you. sir, \showvng him theletter] here is the hand and seal of the duke: you know the character, I doubt not; and the signet is not strange t< 1 \> hi.
Prov. I know them both. 210
Duke. The contents of this is the return of the duke; you shall anon over-read it at your pleasure; where you shall find, within these two days he will be here. This is a thing that Angelo knows not; for he this very day receives letters of strange tenour; perchance of the duke's death, perchance entering into some monastery, hut by chance nothing <>f what is writ. Look, the unfolding star calls up the
- Discover the favour, recognize the face. s Attempt, tempt.
■20b
ACT IV. Scene 2.
MEASl'ltK F«'l; .M KASi ' I; K.
ACT IV. Scene 3.
shepherd. Put not yourself into amazement how these things should be: all difficulties are but easy when they are known. Call your executioner, and off with Barnai'dine's head: I will give him a present shrift, and advise him for a better place. Yet you are amaz'd; but this shall absolutely resolve1 you. Come away; it is almost clear dawn. [Exeunt.
Scene III. A corridor in the prison; at back door of Barnardine's cell in the same.
Enter Pojipet.
Pom. I am as well acquainted here as I was in our house of profession: one would think it were Mistress Overdone's own house, for here be many of her old customers. First, here's young Master Rash; he's in for a commodity of brown paper and old ginger, nine-score and seventeen pounds ; of which he made five marks, ready money : marry, then ginger was not much in l-equest, for the old women were all dead. Then is there here one Master Caper, at the suit of Master Three-pile the mercer, for some four suits of peach-coloured satin, which now peaches2 him a beggar. Then have we here young Dizy, and young Master Deep- vow, and Master Copper-spur, and Mas- ter Starve-lackey the rapier and dagger man, and young Drop-heir that killed lusty Pud- ding, and Master Forthlight the tilter, and brave Master Shooty the great traveller, and wild Half-can that stabbed Pots, and, I think, forty more; all great doers in our trade, and are now " for the Lord's sake." 21
Enter Abiiorson.
Abhor. Sirrah, bring Barnardine hither.
/'urn. [Collin;/ outbid'- dour of cell] Master Barnardine ! you must rise and be hang'd, Master Barnardine!
Abhor. What, ho, Barnardine!
[<;,„:< ,ij, and opens door of cell.
Bar. [Within] A pox o' your throats! Who makes that noise there? What are you?
Pom. Your friends, sir; the hangman. You must be so good, sir, to rise and be put to death.
1 Resolve, convince.
Peachcn, i.e. Impeaches.
Bor. [ Within] Away, you rogue, away ! 1 am sleepy. 31
Abhor. Tell him he must awake, and that quickly too.
Pom. Pray, Master Barnardine, awake till you are executed, and sleep afterwards.
Abhor. Go in to him, and fetch him out.
Pom. He is coming, sir, he is coming; I hear his straw rustle.
Abhor. Is the axe upon the block, sirrah?
Pom. Very ready, sir. 40
Enter Barnardine; he comes doicn between Pompey and Abhorson.
Bar. How now, Abhorson! what 's the news with you?
Abhor. Truly, sir, I would desire you to clap into your prayers; for, look you, the warrant's come.
Bar. You rogue, I have been drinking all night; I am not fitted for 't.
Pom. O, the better, sir; for he that drinks all night, and is hang'd betimes in the mor- ning, may sleep the sounder all the next day.
Abhor. Look you, sir; here comes your ghostly father: do we jest now, think you?
[Retires ftp.
Enter Duke disguised as before.
Duke. Sir, induced by my charity, and hear- ing how hastily you are to depart, I am come to advise you, comfort you, and pray with you.
Bar. Friar, not I: I have been drinking hard all night, and I will have more time to prepare me, or they shall beat out my brains with billets: I will not consent to die this day, that's certain.
Duke. O, sir, you must: and therefore I be- seech you 60 Look forward on the journey you shall go.
Bar. I swear I will not die to-day for any man's persuasion.
hnke. But hear you, —
Bar. Not a word: if you have any thing to say to me, come to my ward; for thence will not I to-day. [Exit into cell.
Duke. Unfit to live or die: O gravel heart! After him, fellows; bring him to the block. [Exeunt Abhorson and Pompey.
■2i r,
ACT IV. Scene 3.
MEASUiK FUR MKASI HE.
.\< I [V. Scene S.
Re-enter Provost.
Prov. Now, sir, how do you find the pri- soner? TO Duke. A creature unprepar'd, unmeet for death ; And to transport him in the mind he is Were damnable.
I'rov. H< re in tin- prison, father,
There died this morning of a cruel fever One Ragozine, a mosl aotorioua pirate, A man of Claudio's years; his beard and head
Just of his colour. What if we do omil This reprobate till he were well inclin'd;
And satisfy the deputy with the \i
Of Ragozine, more like t<> ( laudio? 80
Bar. I swear I will not die to-day for any man's persuasion.— (Act iv. 3. 62, 63.)
Duke. 0,'tis an accident that heaven provides! Dispatch it presently; the hour draws on Prefix'd by Angelo: see this be done, And sent according to command; whiles I Persuade this rude wretch willingly to die.
Prov. This shall be done, good father, pre- sently. But Barnardine must die this afternoon: And how shall we continue Claudio, To save me from the danger that might come If he were known alive ?
Duke. Let this be done.
Put them in secret holds, both Barnardine and Claudio: si
Ere twice the sun hath made his journal1 greeting 92
To the under generation, you shall find
Your safety manifested.
Prov. I am your free dependant.
Duke. Quick, dispatch, and send the head to
Angelo. [Exit Provost.
Now will I wrrite letters to Angelo, —
The provost, he shall bear them, — whose con- tents
Shall witness to him I am near at home,
And that, by great injunctions, I am bound
> Journal, diurnal. 207
ACT IV. B
MEASURE FOR MEASURE.
ACT IV. Scene 3.
To enter publicly: him I'll desire 101
To meet me at the consecrated fount, A league below the city: and from thence, By cold gradation and well balanced form, We shall proceed with Angelo.
/,'.-. ,it< r PROVOST with Jiagozine's head in bag.
Prov. Here is the head; I '11 carry it myself.
Duke. Convenient1 is it. Make a swift return ; For 1 would commune with you of such things That want no ear but yours.
Prov. I '11 make all speed. [Exit.
Isab. [Within] Peace, ho, be here! no
Duke. The tongue of Isabel. She 's come to know If yet her brother's pardon be come hither: But I will keep her ignorant of her good, To make her heavenly comforts of despair, When it is least expected.
Enter Isabella.
Isab. Ho, by your leave!
Duke. Good morning to you, fair and gra- cious daughter. Isab. The better, given me by so holy a man. Hath yet the deputy sent my brother's pardon ? Duke. He hath releas'd him, Isabel, from the world: His head is off, and sent to Angelo. 120
Isab. Nay, but it is not so. Duke. It is no other: show your wisdom, daughter, In your close patience.
Isab. O, I will to him and pluck out his eyes! Duke. You shall not2 be admitted to his sight. Isab. Unhappy Claudio! wretched Isabel! Injurious world! most damned Angelo!
[Pacing about agitatedly. I) iikc Thisnor hurts him nor profits you a jot; Forbear it therefore; give your cause to heaven. [Isabel cornea down to him. Mark what 1 say, which you shall find 130 By every syllable a faithful verity: The duke comes home to-morrow; — nay, dry
your eyes; < toe of our covent,8 and his confessor, Gives me this instance:4 already lie hath carried
1 Convenient, becoming - Shall not, i.e. will nut.
s Covent, convent. * Instance, intimation.
208
Notice to Escalus and Angelo; Who do prepare to meet him at the gates, There to give up their power. If you can, pace your wisdom 137
In that good path that I would wish it go; And you shall have your bosom5 on this wretch, Grace of the duke, revenges to your heart, And general honour.
Isab. I am directed by you.
Duke. This letter, then, to Friar Peter give; Tis that he sent me of the duke's return: Say, by this token, I desire his company At Mariana's house to-night. Her cause and
yours I "11 perfect him withal; and he shall bring you Before the duke; and to the head of Angelo Accuse him home and home. For my poor self, I am combined0 by a sacred vow, And shall be absent. Wend you with this letter: 150
Command these fretting waters from your eyes With a light heart; trust not my holy order, If I pervert your course. Who's here?
Enter Lucio.
Lucio. Good even. Friar, where 's the pro- vost'
Duke. Not within, sir.
Lucio. O pretty Isabella, I am pale at mine heart to see thine eyes so red: thou must be patient. I am fain to dine and sup with water ami bran; I dare not for my head fill my belly; one fruitful meal would set me to't. But they say the duke will be here to-morrow. By my troth, Isabel, I lov'd thy brother: if the old fantastical duke of dark corners had been at home, he had lived. [Exit Isabella.
Duke. Sir, the duke is marvellous little be- holding to your reports; but the best is, he lives not in them.
Lncio. Friar, thou knowest not the duke so well as I do: he 's a better woodman than thou tak'st him for. 1T1
Duke. Well, you'll answer this one day. Fare ye well.
/. wio. Nay, tarry; I '11 go along with thee: 1 can tell thee pretty tales of the duke.
Duke. You have told me too many of him
■r' Bosom, i.e. heart's desire.
« Combined, pledged.
ACT IV. Srmr ;;.
MEASURE FOR MEASURE.
A I I IV E
already, sir, if they be true; if not true, lione were enough.
Lucio. I was once before him for getting a
wench with child. 180
Duke. Did you such a thing?
Lucio. Yes, marry, did I: but I was fain to forswear it ; they would else have married me to the rotten medlar.
Duke. Sir, your company is fairer than honest. Rest you well.
Lucio. By my troth, I '11 go with thee to
>the lane's end: Qif bawdy talk offend you, we'll
) have very little of it. ] Nay, friar, I am a kind
of burr ; I shall stick. [Exeunt.
Scene IV. A room in Angela's house.
Enter Angelo and Escalus, with letters.
Escal. Every letter he hath writ hath dis- vouch'd other.
Aug. In most uneven and distracted man- ner. His actions show much like to madness: pray heaven his wisdom be not tainted ! And why meet him at the gates, and reliver1 our authorities there ?
Escal. I guess not. 8
Ang. And why should we proclaim it in an hour before his ent'ring, that if any crave redress of injustice, they should exhibit their petitions in the street?
Escal. He shows his reason for that; to have a dispatch of complaints, and to deliver us from devices hereafter, which shall then have no power to stand against us.
Ang. Well, I beseech you, let it be pro- claim'd : Betimes i' the morn I '11 call you at your
house: Give notice to such men of sort and suit As are to meet him. 20
Escal. I shall, sir. Fare you well.
Ang. Good night. [Exit Escalus.
This deed unshapes me quite, makes me un-
pregnant,2 And dull to all proceedings. A deflower'd
maid ! And by an eminent body that enfore'd The law against it ! But that her tender shame
Will nut proclaim against her maiden Loss, How might she tongue me!3 Y> t reason dares
her 110 ;
For iii> authority bears of a credenl hulk, That no particular* scandal once can touch
1 Reliver, redeliver. VOL. V.
Unpregnant, unready.
Lucio. Nay, friar, I am a kind of burr; I shall stick.
—(Act iv. 3. 189, 190.)
But it confounds the breather. He should have liv'd, :;i
Save that his riotous youth, with dangerous sense,
Might in the times to come have ta'en revenge,
By so receiving a dishonour'd life
With ransom of such shame. Would yet he had liv'd!
Alack, when once our grace we have forgot,
Nothing goes right: we would, and we would
not!
[ Exit.
3 Tongue me, speak of inc. 209
* Particular, personal 126
ACT IV. Scene 5.
MEASURE FOR MEASURE.
ACT V. Bceuti I.
[SCENE V. Field* without the town.
/.' u r Duke in his own habit,and Fhiak Peter.
Duke, ['tiring letters] These letters at fit time deliver me : The provost knows our purpose ami our plot. J The matter being afoot, keep your instruction, And hold you ever to our special drift; {Though sometimes you do blench1 from this
to that, \ As cause doth minister. Go call at Flavius'
house,
And tell him where I stay: give the like notice To Valentius, Rowland, and to Crassus, And bid them bring the trumpets2 to the gate ; But send me Flavius first.
Fri. P. It shall be speeded well. [Frit.
Enter Varrics.
Duke. I thank thee, Varrius ; thou hast made good haste: 11
Come, we will walk. There's other of our
friends
Will greet us here anon, my gentle Varrius.
\ Exeunt. ~^
rj Scene VI. Street near the city gate.
Eater Isabella and Mariana.
Tsab. To speak so indirectly I am loth : I would say the truth; but to accuse him BO, That is your part: yet I am advis'd to do it :
He says, to veil full purpose. Mart. Be rul'd by him.
I.«th. Besides, he tells me that, if peradventure He speak against me on the adverse side, I should not think it strange; for 'tis a physic That 's bitter to sweet end.
Mari. I would Friar Peter —
Isab. O, peace ! the friar is come. ',
Enter Friar Peter.
Fri. P. Come, I have found you out a stand ) most fit, 10?
Where you may have such vantage on the duke. He shall not pass you. Twice have the trum- pets sounded ; The generous and gravest citizens Have bent3 the gates, and very near upon The duke is entering: therefore, hence, away!
\Exeunt^\
ACT V.
Scene I. Before the gates of Vienna. Flourish of trumpets and drums.
Enter from one side, Duke, Varrius, Lords, Officers; from the city gates, Soldiers, then Anoelo and Escalus, Lucio, Provost, &<\ At the back, Friar Peter, Isa- bella, and Mariana veiled.
[Angelo and Escalus kneel and deliver up their commissions, which the Duke hands to an Officer. Angelo and Escalus rise.
Duke. My very worthy cousin, fairly met! < tar old and faithful friend, we are glad to
••■'iu.
Ana. ) —
g , K Happy return be to your royal grace!
i Blench, start off. 2 Trumpets, trumpeters.
• //• nt, seized, taken possession of
I'll)
Duke. Many and hearty thankings to you both. We have made inquiry of you; and we hear Such goodness of your justice, that our soul Cannot but yield you forth to public thanks, Forerunning more requital.
Ang. You make my bonds still greater.
Duke. O, your desert speaks loud ; Q and I should wrong it, To lock it in the wards of covert bosom, When it deserves, with characters of brass, A forted residence 'gainst the tooth of time And razure of oblivion.] Give me your
hand, And let the subject see, to make them know That outward courtesies would fain proclaim Favours that keep within. Come, Escalus, | Takes the hands of both of th> m. placing .1 ngi'/n 'in one side of him, Escalus on the other.
< <
to
ACT V. Soene i.
MKASURE FUR MEASl l;K.
A< T V. S.
You must walk by us on our other hand ; And good supporters are you.
Friar Peter and Isabella come forward.
Fri. P. Now is your time : speak loud and kneel before him. 19
Isab. Justice, O royal duke! Vail1 your regard [Kneeling.
Upon a wr< >ng'd, I would fain have said, a maid ! O worthy prince, dishonour not your eye By throwing it on any other object Till you have heard me in my true complaint, And given me justice, justice, justice, justice ! Duke. Relate your wrongs; in what? by whom ? be brief. Here is Lord Angelo shall give you justice: Reveal yourself to him.
Isab. O worthy duke,
You bid me seek redemption of the devil : Hear me yourself ; for that which I must speak Must either punish me, not being believ'd, Or wring redress from you: hear me, O, hear me, here ! 32
A ng. My lord, her wits, I fear me, are not firm : She hath been a suitor to me for her brother Cut off by course of justice, —
Isab. By course of justice! [Rising.
Ang. And she will speak most bitterly and
strange. Isab. Most strange, but yet most truly, will I speak: That Angelo 's forsworn; is it not strange? That Angelo 's a murderer; is 't not strange? That Angelo is an adulterous thief, 40
An hypocrite, a virgin-violator; Is it not strange and strange?
Duke. Nay, it is ten times strange.
Isab. It is not truer he is Angelo Than this is all as true as it is strange: Nay, it is ten times true ; for truth is truth To the end of reckoning.
Duke. Away with her ! Poor soul,
She speaks this in the infirmity of sense.
[The Officers are about to seize her; she toaves them back, hub. O prince, I c6njure thee, as thou be- liev'st There is another comfort than this world,
1 Vail, lower.
That thou neglect me not, with that opinion That 1 am touch'd with madness! Make not impossible 51
That which but seems unlike: 1 is nol impos- sible. But one, the wicked'st caititl' on the ground, May seem as shy, as grave, as just, as absolute As Angelo; even so may Angelo, In all his dressings, characts,2 titles, forms, Be an arch-villain. Believe it, royal prince: If he be less, he 's nothing; but he 's more, Had I more name for badness.
Duke. By mine honesty.
If she be mad, — as I believe no other, — 60 Her madness hath the oddest frame of sen- . Such a dependency of thing on thing, As3 e'er I heard in madness.
Isab. O gracious duke,
Harp not on that; nor do not banish reason For inequality; but let your reason serve To make the truth appear where it seems hid, And hide the false, seems true.4
Duke. Many that are not mad
Have, sure, more lack of reason. What would you say?
Isab. I am the sister of one Claudio, Condemn'd upon the act of fornication 70
To lose his head; condemn'd by Angelo: I, in probation of a sisterhood, Was sent to by my brother ; one Lucio As then the messenger, —
Lucio. [Comes down, taking his cap off to the Duke] That 's I, an 't like your grace: I came to her from Claudio, and desir'd her To try her gracious fortune with Lord Angelo For her poor brother's pardon.
Isab. That 's he indeed.
Duke. You were not bid to speak.
Lucio. No, my good lord ;
Nor wish'd to hold my peace.
Duke. I wisli you now, then:
Pray you, take note of it : and when you have A business for yourself, pray heaven you then Be perfect. 82
Lucio. I warrant your honour.
Duke. The warrant 's for yourself ; take heed to't.
2 Characts, i.e. characters, distinctive marks.
■■ As, i e, that
* The false, seems true, i.e. the false that seems true.
•2\\
ACT V. Scene 1.
MEASURE FOR MEASURE.
ACT V. Scene 1.
Isab. This gentleman told somewhat of my tale, —
Lucio. Right.
Duke. It may be right; but you are i' the wrong To speak before your time. [Lucio botes and ires.] Proceed.
Isab. I went
To this pernicious caitiff deputy, —
Duke. That 's somewhat madly spoken.
Isab. Pardon it;
The phrase is to the matter. 90
Duke. Mended again. The matter; proceed.
Isab. In brief, to set the needless process by, How I persuaded, how I pray'd, and kneel'd, How he refell'd1 me, and how I replied, — For this was of much length, — the vile con- clusion I now begin with grief and shame to utter : He would not, but by gift of my chaste body To his concupiscible intemperate lust, Release my brother ; and, after much debate- ment, 99
My sisterly remorse2 confutes mine honour, And I did yield to him : but the next morn be- times, His purpose surfeiting, he sends a warrant For my poor brothers head.
Duke. This is most likely !
Isab. O, that it were as like as it is true !
Duke. By heaven, fond wretch, thou know'st not what thou speak'st, Or else thou art suborn'd against his honour In hateful practice.3 First, his integrity Stands without blemish. Next, it imports no
reason That with such vehemency he should pursue Faults ] >r< >] ier to himself: if he had so offended, He would have weigh'd thy brother by himself, And not have cut him off. Some one hath set you on : 11 2
Confess the truth, and say by whose advice Thou cam'st here to complain.
A-"''. And is this all?
Then, O you blessed ministers above, Bleep liir in patience, and with ripen'd time Infold the evil which is here wrapt up
; /. 'V'/J (Latin, refello), rebutted. - Remont, pity. 3 Practice, plotting.
212
In countenance!4 Heaven shield your grace from woe, us
As I, thus wrong'd, hence unbelieved go!
[Going. Duke. I know you 'd fain be gone. An officer!
[7'/"' officers ail ranee. To prison with her! Shall we thus permit A blasting and a scandalous breath to fall On him so near us? This needs must be a
practice. Who knew of your intent and coming hither? Isab. One that I would were here, Friar
Lodowick. Duke. A ghostly father, belike. "Who knows
that Lodowick I Lucio. My lord, I know him; 't is a meddling friar; I do not like the man: had he been lay, my
lord, For certain words he spoke against your grace In your retirement, I had swinged5 him soundly. 130
Duke. Words against me! this'6 a good friar, belike! And to set on this wretched woman here Against our substitute ! Let this friar be found. Lucio. But yesternight, my lord, she and that friar, I saw them at the prison: a saucy friar, A very scurvy fellow.
Fri. P. Blessed be your royal grace!
I have stood by, my lord, and I have heard Your royal ear abus'd. First, hath this woman Most wrongfully accus'd your substitute, 140 Who is as free from touch or soil with her As she from one ungot.
Duke. We did believe no 1.
Know you that Friar Lodowick that she speaks of? Fri. P. I know him for a man divine and holy; Not scurvy, nor a temporary meddler, As he's reported by this gentleman; And, on my trust, a man thai never yet Hid, as he vouches, niisnpoit your grace. Lucio. My lord, most villanously; believe it. Fri. /'. Well, he in time may conic to clear himself; 150
4 Countenance, false appearance, hypocrisy.
1 Swinged, whipt.
6 77m', i.e., this is.
ACT V. Scene 1.
MKASURE FOR MEASU.T:.
A i 1 V. -.L-ne 1.
But at this instant lie is sick, my lord, 151
Of a strange fever. Upon his mere request, Being come to knowledge that there was com- plaint Intended 'gainst Lord Angelo, came I hither, To speak, as from his mouth, what he doth
know Is true and false; and what he with his oath And all probation will make up full clear, Whensoever he's convented.1 First, for this
woman, To justify this worthy nobleman, So vulgarly2 and personally accus'd, loo
Her shall you hear disproved to her eyes, Till she herself confess it.
Duke. Good friar, let 's hear it.
[Exit Isabella, guarded. Do you not smile at this, Lord Angelo? O heaven, the vanity of wretched fools! Give us some seats. [The attendants bring two chairs of state from within the city gates.~\ Come, cousin Angelo; In this I '11 be impartial; be you judge Of your own cause.
{Mariana advances, veiled. Duke and Angelo seat themselves.
Is this the witness, friar? First, let her show her face, and after speak. Mari. Pardon, my lord; I will not show my face Until my husband bid me. 170
Duke. What, are you married ? Mari. No, my lord. Duke. Are you a maid? Mari. No, my lord. Duke. A widow, then? Mari. Neither, my lord. Duke. Why, you are nothing, then: neither maid, widow, nor wife? iso
Lucio. [Behind Duke's chair.] My lord, she may be a punk ; for many of them are neither maid, widow, nor wife.
Duke. Silence that fellow: I would he had some cause To prattle for himself. Lucio. Well, my lord. Mari. My lord, I do confess I ne'er was married;
1 Convented, summoned.
- Vulgarly, publicly.
And I confess, besides, I am do maid:
1 have known my husband; yet my husband
knows 1 1 < » t That ever he knew me.
Lucio. He was drunk, then, my lord: it can be no better.
Duke. For the benefit <>f silence, would thou wert so too! 191
Lucio. Well, my lord.
Duke. This is uo witness for Lord Angelo.
Mari. Now I come to't, my lord: She that accuses him f_of fornication,] In self-same manner doth accuse my husband; And charges him, my lord, with such a time When I'll depose I had him in mine arms [ With all the effect of love.]
Ang. Charges she more than me i
Mari. Not that I know.
Duke. No? you say your husband. 20]
Mari. Why, just, my lord, and that is Angelo, Q Who thinks he knows that he ne'er knew my
body, But knows he thinks that he knows Isabel's.]
Ang. This is a strange abuse.3 Let's see thy face.
Mari. My husband bids me; now I will unmask. [Unveils.
This is that face, thou cruel Angelo, Which once thou swor'st was worth the looking on ; 208
This is the hand which, with a vow'd contract, Was fast belock'd in thine; this is the body That took away the match from Isabel, And did supply thee at thy garden-house ' In her imagin'd person.
Duke. Know you this woman?
Lucio. [Behind chair] Carnally, she says.
Duke. Sirrah, no more!
Lucio. Enough, my lord. [Goes to Peter.
Ang. My lord, I must confess I know this woman: And five years since there was some speech of
marriage Betwixt myself and her; which was broke off, Partly for that her promised proportions6
3 Abuse, deception, delusion. * Qarden-Twttse, summer-house.
5 Proportions, shares of real arAl personal estate, Le. marriage portion.
213
A» I V. Scene 1.
MEASURE FUR MEASURE.
ACT V. Scene 1.
Came short of composition;1 but in chief 220 For that her reputation was disvalued In levity: since which time of five years I never spake with her, saw her, nor heard
from her, Upon my faith and honour.
MarL [Kneeling] Noble prince,
As there comes light from heaven and words
from breath, As there is sense in truth and truth in virtue, I am afnanc'd this man's wife as strongly As words could make up vows: [and, my
good lord, • But Tuesday night last gone in 's garden-house ' He knew me as a wife.] As this is true, 230 Let me in safety raise me from my knees; Or else for ever be confixed2 here, A marble monument: [Rises.
Ang. [Starting up] I did but smile till now: Now, good my lord, give me the scope of
justice; My patience here is touch'd. I do perceive These poor informal3 women are no more But instruments of some more mightier mem- ber That sets them on: let me have way, my lord, To find this practice out.
Duke. Ay, with my heart;
And punish them to your height of pleasure.
[Rises. Thou foolish friar, and thou pernicious woman, Compact4 with her that's gone, think'st thou
thy oaths, 242
Though they would swear down each particular
saint, Were testimonies against his worth and credit, Thai 'g seal'd in approbation? You, Lord
Escalus, Sit with my cousin; lend him your kind pains To find "lit this abuse, whence 't is deriv'd. There is another friar that set them on; Let him be sent for.
/'//. /'. Would he were here, my lord! for
he, indeed, 250
Hath se1 the women on to this complaint: your provost knows the place where he abides, And he may fetch him.
1 Ccmpotition, agreement. 3 informal, insane.
214
2 Confixed, fixed. * Com]idct, leagued.
Duke. Go do it instantly.
[Exit Provost. And you. my noble and well-warranted cousin, Whom it concerns to hear this matter forth, Do with your injuries as seems you best, In any chastisement: I for a while will leave you ; 258
But stir not you till you have well determin'd Upon these slanderers.
Escal. My lord, we '11 do it thoroughly.
[Exit Duke. Angelo and Escalus sit. Signior Lucio, did not you say you knew that Friar Lodowuck to be a dishonest person?
Lucio. Cucullus non facit moixirlnmifi honest in nothing but in his clothes; and one that hath spoke most villanous speeches of the duke.
Escal. We shall entreat you to abide here till he come, and enforce them against him: we shall find this friar a notable fellow.
Lucio. As any in Vienna, on my word. 269
Escal. [To an Officer] Call that same Isabel here once again : I would speak with her. [Exit Office?- through city gates.] Pray you, my lord, give me leave to question; you shall see how I'll handle her.
[Lucio. Not better than he, by her own; report.
Escal. Say you ?
Lucio. Marry, sir, I think, if you handled '^ her privately, she would sooner confess: per- chance, publicly, she '11 be ashamed.
Escal. I will go darkly to work with her.
Lucio. That's the way; for women are light < at midnight.] 281 \
Re-enter Officer with Isabella.
Escal. [To Isabella] Come on, mistress: here 's a gentlewoman denies all that you have said.
Lucio. My lord, here comes the rascal I spoke of; here with the provost.
Escal. In very good time: speak not you to him till we call upon you.
Lucio. Mum.
Re-enter Provost, with tit- Duke in his friar's habit.
Escal. Come, sir: did you set these women
s "The cowl does not make the monk."
ACT V. Scene 1.
MEASURE FOR MEASURE.
ACT v. Boene 1
on to slander Lord Angelo? they have con- fessed yon did. 291
Duke. T is false.
Escal. How! know you where you axe?
Duke. Respect to your great place! and let
the devil Be sometime honour'd for his burning throne! Where is the duke ? 't is he should hear me
speak. Escal. The duke 'a in us; and we will hear
you speak: Look you speak justly.
Duke. Boldly, at least. But, O, poor souls, Come you to seek the lamb here of the fox? ( rood night to your redress! Is the duke gone? Then is your cause gone too. The duke 's un- just, 302 Thus to retort1 your manifest appeal, And put your trial in the villain's mouth Which here you come to accuse.
Lucio. This is the rascal; this is he I spoke of. Escal. Why, thou unreverend and unhal-
low'd friar, Is't not enough thou hast suborn'd these women To accuse this worthy man, but, in foul mouth, And in the witness of his proper ear, 310
To call him villain ? and then to glance from
him To the duke himself, to tax him with injustice? Take him hence; '[Officers advance'] to the rack
with him! We '11 touse2 you Joint by joint, but we will know his purpose. What, unjust?
Duke. Be not so hot; the duke
Dare no more stretch this finger of mine than he Dare rack his own: his subject am I not, Nor here provincial.3 My business in this state Made me a looker-on here in Vienna, 319
Where I have seen corruption boil and bubble Till it o'er- run the stew; laws for all faults, But faults so countenanc'd, that the strong
statutes Stand like the forfeits in a barber's shop, As much in mock as mark.
Escal. Slander to the state ! Away with
him to prison!
[Two Officers approach the Duke.
' Retort, refer back. - Touse, tear.
3 Provincial, under the jurisdiction of this ecclesiastical province.
Aug. Wli.it can you vouch against him, Signior Lucio? Is this the man that you did
tell us of?
Lttcio. 'T is he, my lord. Come hither, good- man baldpate: do you know me?
[They advance towards each other.
Duke. I remember you, sir, l>y the sound of your voice: I met you at the prison, in the absence of the duke.
Lucio. 0, did you so? And do you remember what you said of the duke ?
Duke. Most notedly, sir.
Lucio. Do you so, sir? And was the duke a fleshinonger, a fool, and a inward, as you then reported him to be '.
Duke. You must, sir, change persons with me, ere you make that my report: you, indeed, spoke so of him ; and much more, much worse.
Lucio. O thou damnable fellow! Did not I pluck thee by the nose for thy speeches \
Duke. I protest I love the duke as I love myself.
Ang. Hark, how the villain would close* now, after his treasonable abuses !
Escal. Such a fellow is not to be talked withal. Away with him to prison! AVhere is the provost? [Provost advances.'] Away with him to prison! lay bolts enough upon him: let him speak no more. Away with those giglots5 too, and with the other confed- erate companion !
[Officers advance to seize Isabella and Mariana. The Provost arrests the. Duke.
Duke. [To Provost] Stay, sir; stay awhile.
Ang. What, resists he? Help him, Lucio.
Lucio. Come, sir; come, sir; come, sir; foh, sir! Why, you bald-pated, lying rascal, you must be hooded, must y< >u ; Sh< >\v your knave's visage, with a pox to you! show your sheep- biting face, and be hanged an hour! Will't not off? 360
[Pulls off the friar's hood, and discovers the Duke. Angelo and Esralus start up from their seats. Lucio steps back amazed.
Duke. Thou art the first knave that e'er mad'st a duke.
•» Close, come to an agreement, make reparation, s Giglots, wantons.
215
A ' I V. Scene 1.
MKASURE FOR MEASURE.
ACT V. Scene 1.
First, provost, let me bail these gentle three. [itninrs release Isabella and Mariana. Lucio is stealing away. [To Initio] Sneak not away, sir; for the friar
and you .Must have a word anon. Lay hold on him. [Officers seize Lucio and bring him back:
Lucio. This mayprove worse than hanging. Duke. [To Escalus] What you have spoke i pardon: sit you down: We'll borrow place of him. [To Angdo] Sir, by your leave.
[Takes Angela's choir. Escalus sits. Hast thou or word, or wit, or impudence,
Duke. Thou art the first knave that e'er mad'st a duke.— (Act v. 1. 361.)
That yet can do thee office?1 If thou hast, Rely upon it till my tale be heard, 370
And ho'd no longer out.
Ang. O niv dread hud.
I should be guiltier than my guiltiness, To iliink T can be undiscernible, When 1 perceive your grace, like power divine, H.ith look'd upon my passes.2 Then, good
prince, No longer session hold upon my shame, Km lei my trial be mine own confession: [mmediate sentence then, ,md sequent death, I- .ill the grace I beg.
Duke. Come hither, Mariana.
[Mariana advances. Say, waal thou e'er contracted to this woman ]
1 I)n Que offlee, i.e do thee service.
- /'Hum's, iii(Mtecling8.
216
Ang. I was, my lord. 3Si
Duke. Go take her hence, and marry her instantly. [Angela g<><-s to Mariana.
Do you the office, friar; which consummate, Return him here again. Go with him, provost. [Exeunt Angelo, Mario mi, Friar Peter, and Provost through the city gates. Escol. My lord, I am more amaz'd at his dishonour Than at the strangeness of it.
Duke. ( 'ome hither, Isabel.
[Duke and Escalus rise. [_ Tour friar is now your prince: as I was then Advertising3 and holy to your business, Not changing heart with habit, I am still Attorney'd at your sen i«-e.|]
3 Advirtising, i.e. assisting with counsel.
ACT V. Scene 1.
MKAsruK foii mkasiim:.
ACT A -
Tsab. O, give me pardon,
That I, your vassal, have employ'd and pain'd1 Your unknown sovereignty!
Duke. You are pardon'd, Isabel:
And now, dear maid, be you as free to us. Your brother's death, I know, sits at your heart; And you may marvel why I obscur'd myself, Labouring to save his life, and would not rather Make rash remonstrance- of my hidden power Than let him so be lost. O most kind maid, It was the swift celerity of his death, Which I did think with slower foot came on, That brain'd my purpose. But peace be with him! 401
That life is better life, past fearing death, Than that which lives to fear: make it your
comfort, So happy is your brother.
Isab. I do, my lord.
Re-enter Angelo, Mariana, Friar Peter, and Provost.
Duke. For this new-married man, approach- ing here, Whose salt3 imagination yet hath wrong'd Your well-defended honour, you must pardon For Mariana's sake: but as he adjudg'd your
brother, — Being criminal, in double violation Of sacred chastity, and of promise-breach 410 Thereon dependent, for your brother's life, — The very mercy of the law cries out QMost audible, even from his proper tongue,] " An Angelo for Claudio, death for death ! " Haste still pays haste, and leisure answers
leisure ; Like doth quit like, and measure still for
MEASURE.
QThen, Angelo, thy fault 's thus manifested; I Which, though thou wouldst deny, denies thee X vantage.]
We do condemn thee to the very block Where Claudio stoop'd to death, and with like haste. 4-:o
Away with him!
[Officers advance and stand by Angelo's side.
1 Pain'd, put to labour.
- Remonstrance, demonstration.
3 Salt, lustful.
Mari. Qo my most gracious lord,
I hope you will not mock me with a husband.
Duke. It is your husband mock'd you with a husband. Consenting to the safeguard of your honour, I thought your marriage tit; else imputation, For that he knew you, might reproach your life, And choke your oood to come: for his pos- sessions, Although by confutation4 they are ours, We do instate and widow you withal, To buy you a better husband.]
Mari. < ) my dear lord.
I crave no other, nor no better man.
Duke. Never crave him; we are definitive.3
Mari. [Kneeling] Gentle my liege, —
Duke. You do but lose your labour.
Away with him to death! | [[To Lucio] Now, sir, to you.]
[Officers about to remove Angelo.
Mari. O my good lord! Sweet Isabel, take my part; Lend me your knees, and all my life to come I '11 lend you all my life to do you service.
Duke. Against all sense you do importune her: Should she kneel down in mercy of this fact, Her brother's ghost his paved I ie< I would break, And take her hence in horror.
Man. Isabel, 441
Sweet Isabel, do yet but kneel by me; Hold up your hands, say nothing; I '11 speak
all. They say, best men are moulded out of faults; And,forthemost, become much more the better For being a little bad: so may my husband. O Isabel, will you not lend a knee?
Duke. He dies for Claudio's death.
Isab. [Kneeling] Most bounteous sir,
Look, if it please you, on this man condemn'd, As if my brother liv'd. 1 partly think 450 A due sincerity govern'd his deeds, Till he did look on me: since it is so, Let him not die. My brother had but justice, In that lie did the thing for which lie died: For Angelo,
His act did not o'ertake his bad intent, And must lie buried but as an intent
■> Confutation, conviction.
•'■ Definitive, resolved. 217
ACT V. Scene 1.
MEASURE FOR MEASVUK.
ACT V. Scene 1.
Thai perish d by the way: thoughts are no
subjects, Intents but merely thoughts.
Mori. Merely, my lord.
Duke. Y'Hir suit's unprofitable; stand up, I say. [Mariana and Isabella rise.
1 have bethought me of another fault. 461 Provost, how came it Claudio was beheaded At an unusual hour?
Prov. It was commanded so.
Duke.Hml you a special warrant forthedeed?
Prov. No, my good lord; it was by private message.
Duke. Fur which I do discharge you of your office: Give up your keys.
Prov. Pardon me, noble lord:
I thought it was a fault, but knew it not; Yet did repent me, after more advice:1 409 For testimony whereof, one in the prison, That should by private order else have died, I have reserve! alive.
Duke. What she?
Prov. His name is Barnardine.
Duke. I would thou hadst done so by Claudio. Go fetch him hither; let me look upon him. [ Exit Provost. Duke talks apart with Isabella.
Escal. I am sorry, one so learned and so wise As you, Lord Angelo, have still appeared, Should slip so grossly, both in the heat of blood, And lack of teinper'd judgment afterward.
Ang. I am sorry that such sorrow 1 procure: And so deep sticks it ill my penitent heart That T crave death more willingly than mercy; "I' is my deserving, ami I do entreat it. 482
Re-enter from the city, Provost, with Barnar-
dim . ' i u;dio muffled, and Juliet.
Duke. Which is that Barnardine?
Prov. This, my lord.
/>-//'. . There was a friar 1"ld me of this man. Sirrah, thou ait said to have a stubborn soul, That apprehends no further than this world, Ami squar'st thy life according. Thou Vt
condemn'd : But, fur those earthly faults, I quit them all;
And pray thee take this mercy to provide
' Advia . consideration, 218
For better times to come. Friar, advise him;
I leave him to your hand. [Exeunt Barnardine
Hud Friar int>> the city^\ What muffled
fellow's that '. l.'l
Prov. This is another prisoner that 1 sav'd, Who should have died when ( Haudio lost his
head; As like almost to Claudio as himself.
[Begins to unmuffle Claudio. Duke. [To Isabel/a] If he be like your bro- ther, for his sake Is he pardon'd, — [Claudio disnin-rs himself to
Isabella — she rushes into his arms, and then
kneels to Angelo, — ] and, for ydur lovely
sake; Give me your hand, [raising her] and say you
will be mine, He is my brother too: [taking Claudia's hand]
but fitter time for that. By this Lord Angelo perceives he's safe;
[Crossing to Angelo. Methinks I see a quickening in his eye. 500 Well, Angelo, your evil quits you well: Look that you love your wife; her worth worth
yours. I find an apt remission in myself; And yet here's one in place2 1 cannot pardon. [To Lucio] You, sirrah, that knew me for a
fool, a coward, One all of luxury, an ass, a madman; Wherein have I so deserv'd of you, That you extol me thus?
Lucio. Faith, my lord, I spoke it but ac- cording to the trick. If you will hang me for it, you may; but I had rather it would please you I might be whipt. 512
Duke. Whip! first, sir, and hang'd after. Proclaim it, provost, round about the city. If any woman 's wrong'd by this lewd fellow, As I have heard him swear himself there's
one
Whom he begot with child, let her appear, And he shall marry her: the nuptial finish'd, Let him be whipt and hang'd. 519
J. a rin. Q I beseech your highness, do notmarry me to a whorel] Your highness said even now,) I made you a duke: good my lord, do Dot re- compense me in making me a cuckold.
3 In place, present.
ACT V. Scene 1.
MKASIKK FoK .MKASIIM-;.
A i I \ . Scene 1.
Duke. Upon mine honour, thou shalt many her. Thy slanders I forgive; and therewithal
Remit thy other forfeits. Take him to prison;
[Officers seize Lucio. And see our pleasure herein executed.
lucio. Marrying a punk, my lord, is press- ing to death, whipping and hanging.
Duke. Slandering a prince deserves it. 530 [Exeunt Officers with Lucio. She, Claudio, that you wrong'd, look you re- store. Joy to you, Mariana! Love her, Angelo: I have confess'd her, and I know her virtue. Thanks, good friend Escalus, for thy much goodness:
There's more behind tli.it is more gratulate.1 Thanks, provost, for thy care and secrecy: We shall employ thee in a worthier place. Forgive him, Angelo, thai broughl y<»u home The head of Etagozine for Claudio's: The offence pardons itself. Dear Isabel, 540 [ Taking her hand and kissing it. I have a motion much imports your good; Whereto if you'll a willing ear incline, What's mine is yours, and what is yours is
mine. So, bring us to our palace ; where we '11 show What 's yet behind, that 's meet you all should
know. [Exeunt
1 Gratulate, gratifying. 219
NOTES TO MEASURE FOR MEASURE.
ACT I. SCBNE 1.
1. Line 5: Since I am put to know.— Compare Cymbe-
line, ii. 3. 110:
You/"/ me to forget a lady's manners.
2 Line 6: the LISTS of ail advice; i.e. the limits. Com- pare I. Henry IV. iv. 1. 51, 52:
The very list, the very utmost bound Of all our fortunes.
3 Lines 7-10:
then no more remaitm
But that, to your sufficiency, as your worth is able,
A ml let them work. This clause in the Duke's first sentence lias proved a more awkward stumbling-block to commentators than almost any passage in Shakespeare. The Cambridge editors chron- icle twelve conjectural emendations in their foot-note, and five others in the supplementary notes at the end of the play, Ithas been proved, however, by the Old-Spelling edi- tors that the lines as they stand are capable of explanation —an explanation, it is true, which leaves the whole pas- sage (lines S-9) an example of the most contorted and arbitrary syntax. I give their note: "The words 'my strength' include (1) the Duke's science, his knowledge of the properties of government ; (2) his ducal authority, which is his sole prerogative. ' Your owne science,' he says to Escalus, 'exceedes in that' (in that province of my strength which embraces my administrative skill) all that my 'aduice' (counsel) can give you. 'Then,' lie continues, 'no more remaines (is needful) but that (my strength per se. which is mine alone) to your suffi- ciency (legal science), — your 'worth' (character and rank) making you fit for the post,— and you may hence- forth let 'them' (your prior sufficiency and my now de- puted power) work together."
[This explanation of the Old-Spelling editors seems to me quite as involved ami obscure as the text which it pro- fesses to explain. It is evident that the text is corrupt, probably through there having been some interlineation in the MS. from which it was printed; nor can I believe that Shakespeare would have wished such a hideously unrhythmical verse as line s to he spoken by any actor If by my Strength the Duke means "my power," or "my authority, "we may imagine that the passage stood some- thin.: like this:
then no more remains
But that [i.e. my strength] to acid to your sufficiency, And, is your worth is able, lot them work.
The rest of line '■>. The nature of our people, would then form an Imperfect line !•> itself. V. -\ u ]
4 Line 11: the TERMS. — " Terms mean the technical
language of tin arts An old i k called Lee Termes
de la Lev (written in Henry the Eighth's time) was in Shakespeare's 'lays, and is now, the accidence of young
students in the law" (BlackstOUe).
220
5. Line is: with special SOUL.— Hub metaphorical use of soul (meaning preference or regard) may be compared with
a similar use of the word in The Tempest, iii. 1. 42-40:
for several virtues Have I lik'd several women ; never any With so full soul, but some defect in her Did quarrel with the noblest grace sne owd And put it to the foil.
6. Line 31: proper; i.e. proprius, peculiar to one's self. Compare Timon, i. 2. 100, 107: "what better or properer can we call our own than the riches of our friends?" and below, in this play, v. 1. 110: " Faults proper to himself."
7. Line 41: use.— Use was in Shakespeare's time a cus- tomary word for interest. Compare Venus and Adonis,
768 :
But gold that 's put to use more gold begets.
8. Lines 41, 42:
But I do bend my speech
To one that can my part in him advertise. The Duke has been giving Angelo advice; he now breaks off, intimating gracefully that, after all, lie is speaking to one who can instruct him in such matters.
9. Line 43: Hold, therefore, Anyelo.— This is generally- supposed to be spoken by the Duke as he hands his com- mission to Angelo. Grant White conjectures that a part of the line is lost, and he restores it thus:
Hold therefore, Angelo, our place and power; basing his guess on i. 3. 11-13 below:
I have deliver'd to Lord Angelo . . .
My absolute fourr and p lace here in Vienna.
But this is juggling with the text, not editing. Dyce quotes Girford, on the words "Hold thee, drunkard "(t e take the letter) in Jonson's Catiline: "There is no expres- sion in the English language more common than this. which is to he found in almost every page of our old writers; yet the commentators on Shakespeare, with the exception of Steevens, who speaks doubtfully on the sub- ject, misunderBtand it altogether. In Measure for Mea- sure, the Duke, on producing Angelo's commission, says: 'Hold, therefore, Angelo'" (Jonson s Works, vol. iv. p. 347).
10. Lines 45. -He.
Mortality and mercy in Vienna Lire in thy tunyue and heart Douce rightly emphasizes the importance of these words —"the privilege of exercising mercy," conferred by the Duke upon his deputy. See also lines 05-67 below: your scope is as mine own, So to enforce or qualify the laws As to your soul seems good. The Duke thus renders it impossible for Angelo to make the excuse— sin li as it would be- that his instructions were precise and without margin of mercy.
ACT I. Been* I
NOTES TO .MKAsll;!-: |'o|; MEASURK.
ACT I. Scene 2.
11. Line 52: We have with a leaven's and prepared choice.— A leavened ciioice is explained by Johnson as one "not declared as soon as it fell into the imagination, but suffered to work long in the mind." The metaphor may no doubt have this meaning, as leaven or yeast does take some hours to ferment; but may it not mean as well, or more primarily, that the choice was based on a thorough and searching scrutiny, as leaven works up through and permeates the whole mass of dough?
12. Lines OS, 69:
/ love the people
But do not like to stage me to their eyes. Stage is used again as a verb in two passages of Antony and Cleopatra, iii. 13. 29-31:
Yes, like enough, high-battled Caesar will
Unstate his happiness, and be staged to the show
Against a sworder!
aud v. 2. 216, 217:
the quick comedians
Extemporally will stage us.
ACT I. Scene 2.
13. Line 15: the thanksgiving before meat. — Hammer
reads after, and his reading, say the Cambridge editors, "is recommended by the fact that in the old forms of 'graces' used in many colleges, and, as we are informed, at the Inns of Court, the prayer for peace comes always after, and never before, meat. But as the mistake may easily have been made by Shakespeare, or else deliberately put into the mouth of the 'First Gentleman,' we have not altered the text."
14. Line 23: Well, there went but a pair of shears be- tween us. — An expression, which may almost he termed proverbial for, We are both of one piece. Steevens cites Marston, The Malcontent, 1604: ' ' There goes but a paire of sheeres betwixt an emperor and the sonne of a bagge-piper; onely the dying, dressing, pressing, glossing, makes the difference" (Works, vol. ii. p. 270). Compare, too, Dek- ker, The Gull's Hornbook, ch. i. : " there ivent but a pair of shears between them."
15. Line 35: as be pil'D, as thou art pil'd. — "A quibble between piled = peeled, stripped of hair, bald (from the French disease), and piled as applied to velvet, three- piled velvet meaning the finest and costliest kind of velvet " (Dyce). Compare Chaucer, Prologue, line 027:
With stalled browes blake, and/i/irrf berd.
16. Line 39: forget to drink after thee.— That is, for fear of the contagion.
17. Lines 45, 46, 4S.— These lines are given by Tope to the First Gentleman, and there is a good deal of proba- bility in the surmise; still, it is only a probability; and, as the Cambridge editors remark, " It is impossible to discern any difference of character in the three speakers, or to introduce logical sequence into their buffoonery."
18. Line 52: A French crown; i.e. the corona Veneris. Compare Midsummer Nights Dream, i. 2. 99: "Some of your French croicns have no hair at all."
19. Line 84: the sweat.— This very likely refers to the plague or "sweating-sickness," which ravaged London in
1003, carrying off about a fifth of the population The war, above, may also refer to the war with Spain, which came to an end in the autumn of 1004.
20. Lines 99, 100: All HOUSES in the SUBTJBBS of Vienna must be pluck' d dawn. — Tyrwhitt, quite unnecessarily, as I take it. would read all bawdy-houses. There is no doubt that this is meant, but when we remember who the speakers were, and how much a meaning look or an extra accent can convey, we may well suppose that Pompey saitl merely all houses, and that when he said houses Jlrs. Overdone quite understood what he meant. Asa matter of fact, houses of ill-fame were chieily in the suburbs. Compare Heywood, The Rape of Lucrece, ii. 3: " Bru . . . he removes himself from the love of Brutus that shrinks from my side till we have had a song of all the pretty suburbians " (p. 194)— a prelude to Valerius' rattling song of Molly, Nelly, Betty, Dolly, Nanny, Rachel, and Biddy.
21. Line 116: Thomas tapster.— Douce expresses his sur- prise that Mrs. Overdone "should have called the clown by this name when it appears by his own showing that his name was Pompey." But of course it is a mere class- name, no more peculiar to one man than John Barley- corn or Tommy Atkins. For a contemporary instance of the precise alliterative form, compare Fletcher's Rollo, iii. 1 (end of scene), where a song, expanded from the Three merry men snatch, is sung by a Yeoman or "Page of the Cellar," a Butler, a Cook, and a Pantler. The last sings:
O man or beast, or you at least
that wear a brow or antler, Prick up your ears unto the tears
of me poor Pant the Pantler.
22. Line 119.— The Folio after this line begins a new scene (Scena Tcrtia) with the entrance of the Provost, &c. The Collier MS. omits Juliet from the persons who enter here, since, if present, she is silent, and, as appears from Claudio's words to Lucio, out of sight and hearing. Yet Pompey has just said, "There's Madam Juliet." The Cambridge editors "suppose that she was following at a distance behind, in her anxiety for the fate of her lover. She appears again," they add, "as a mute personage at the end of the play."
[It looks very much here as if the author had originally intended to make some use of Julietta or Juliet in this scene, but in the course of working it out had changed that intention. It is evident, from act ii. scene 3, that Juliet was arrested as well as Claudio, and that, for some time at any rate, she was kept "under observation." In the acting edition Juliet does not come on with the Pro- vost and Claudio; but there is no reason why she should not be on the stage; for it is quite clear that the dialogue between Lucio and Claudio is spoken aside. Only one would certainly expect, if Juliet were at that time present on the stage, that Claudio would have made some allu- sion to the fact.— F. A. M.]
23. Lines 124-127:
Thus can the demigod Authority Make us pay down for our offence by weight. The words of heaven:— on whom it will, it will; On ivhom it will not, so; yet still 't is just. 221
Ml I. Bcene 2.
NOTES TO MEASURE FOR MEASURE.
ACT l. Bcene 8.
In the Kf there is no stop after weight, and this pointing is preserved in the Cambridge Shakespeare. Davenant, in his Law Against Lovers, gives the reading in the text, and he has been generally followed. He omits the next two lines altogether. Dr. Roberts, Trovost of Eton, con- jectured that "The words of heaven" should be "The sword of heaven." Henley, however, explains the passage as it stands, by an apt reference to the words in Romans ix. 15, IS: " For He saith to Moses, I will have mercy on Whom I trill have mercy;" and "Therefore hath He mercy on whom lb- will have mercy, and whom He will He hardeneth."
24. Line 133: Like rats that RATH) down their proper bane. Compare Macbeth, ii. 4. 28. 2D:
Thriftless ambition, that will ravin up Thine own life's means I
and Cymbeline, i. 6. 49: "ravining first the lamb."
25. Line 138: the MORALITY of imprisonment.— Ft have mortality, an obvious misprint, rectitled by Davenant,
and adopted into the text by Rowe.
26. Line 152: the denunciation.— This word, meaning proclamation or formal declaration ("To denounce or declare," Minsheu, 1617), is only used here by Shake- speare. Dyce quotes from Todd's Johnson's Dictionary, s.v. Denunciation, "This publick and reiterated denun- ciation of banns before matrimony " (Hall, Cases of Con- science). Boyer (French Dictionary) has "To Denounce, V. A. (or declare) dCnoncer, decla rer. sign ijhr.faire savoir,'' and "Denunciation. or Denouncing, S. Jlenonciation, de- claration. Signification, I' Action de denoncer, &c."
27. Line 154: Only for propagation of a dower.— F. 1 has propagation, corrected to propagation by F. 2. Vari- ous emendations have been proposed, e.g. prorogation by Malone, procuration by Jackson, &nd preservation by Grant White. Barely there is no need for any change in the text. Shakespeare does not use the substantive in any other passage; but he uses the verb to propagate three times, in All's Well, ii. 1. 200; Rom. and Jul. i. 1. 193; Timon. i. 1 <'i7. In these three passages it certainly seems to have the sense of "to improve" or "to increase." Only once, in Pericles, i. 2. 73:
From whence an issue I might propagate,
Shakespeare uses the verb in the sense of "to beget." Bteevens, in his note, makes the curious statement, — apparently on the authority of an article in the Edin- burgh Magazine, No\ember, I7SG.— that " J'ro/iagittion being here used to signify payment, must have its root in the Italian word pagare" (Var. Ed. vol. ix. p. 24). J'm- pagate is derived from the Latin /"•", before, forward, and pag, the root of pango, to tix. Hut surely either " in- or "bring to its maturity," is the sense which best suits this passage; the meaning being that Claudio and Juliet had not declared their marriage because her dower yet remained in the absolute control of her friends; and, till their approval was gained, the two lovers thought
it best to hide their love in case she should lose hex dower, y \. >t.
28 Una 182: Whether it be the FAULT AND glimpse of newness — Malone explains this by assuming fault and 222
glimpse to be used, by the figure known as hendiadys, for faulty glimpse. But may not the fa ult of newness mean simply the result of novelty and inexperience?
29. Line 171: like nnscour'd armour.— Compare Troilus and Cressida, iii. 3. 152, 153:
ijuite out of fashion, like a rusty mail
In monumental mockery.
30. Line 172: nineteen zodiacs. -Claudio states hen that the law has been in abeyance for nint teen years; in i. 3. 21 the Duke says that he has let it slip for fourteen years. No satisfactory explanation of this disagreement has been found before Dr. Brinsley Nicholson's acute sug- gestion, recorded in the Old-Spelling Shakspere, that the law was made nineteen years ago, but that the duke has reigned only/ourteen years.
31. Line 177: tickle. — Tickle for ticklish is used again by Shakespeare in II. Henry VI. i. 1. 215, 216:
the state of Normandy Stands on a tickle point.
32. Line 1S3: receive her approbation; i.e enter upon her
probation. Compare The Merry Devil of Edmonton, ii.
2. 70:
And I must take a twelve months' approbation;
and iii. 1. 17, IS:
Madam, for a twelve months' approbation We mean to make this trial of our child.
33. Line 185: in my voice; i.e. in my name. Compare As You Like It, ii. 4.87:
And in my voice most welcome shall you be.
34. Line 1S8: There is a PRONE and speechless dialed Editors are much at variance as to the exact sense of the word prone as here used, some taking it to mean "prompt, ready," and others (as I think with more likelihood) un- derstanding it as "humble, appealing," from the analogy of prone = prostrate, as in supplication.
ACT I. Scene 3.
35. Line 2: dribbling dart.— The sense is evident: a weak and ineffectual missile. But while dribbling may be used figuratively in its modern sense, it is perhaps an allusion to ndribbcrhi archery, i.e., according to Steeveiis. one who shoots badly.
36. Line 12: stricture; i.e. strictness. Warburton pro- poses strict i*w (we = use, practice); a word used in Pro- mos and Cassandra, but not anywhere by Shakespeare
37. Lines 20, 21:
The needful bits and curbs to headstrong WSEDB, Which for this fourteen gears we have let SLIP.
This, which is the reading of the Ff., is frequently altered by editors (following Theobald) from weeds to steeds, and from slip to sleep, Mr. V7. G. Stone writes nie on this passage: "Shakespeare was careless in linking metaphors. 1 think it possible that he combined the idea of B well- bitted horse (literally equivalent to enforcement of law), and the picture Of B rank, noisome growth of weeds, Buffered to spring up in a fair garden (literally' equivalent to relaxation of law). I do not evade the difficulty by accepting Collins s suggestion (quoted in Schmidt's Sh.
ACT I. Scene o.
NOTES TO MEASURE FOR ME AST UK.
ACT I. Scene 4.
Lex. s.v. Weed) that weed is a term still commonly ap- plied to an ill-conditioned horse; because this term denotes, l believe, a weak horse; and it weeds = horses,
the context shows that they are figured as robust animals. Sleep is a specious emendation, —more consistent, no doubt, with the metaphor of an old, drowsy lion,— but slip =let pass, makes sense."
38. Lines 26, 27:
in time the rod 's
More mock'd thanfear'd. Ff. read
in time the rod More mock'd than fear'd.
The Cambridge editors adopt Pope's conjecture and read the rod BECOMES more mock'd. The reading in the text is that adopted by the Old-Spelling editors, on the ground that becomes was not so likely to be overlooked as the inconspicuous 's after rod, which gives the same sense.
39. Line 30: The baby beats the nurse. — "This allusion,'' says Steevens, "was borrowed from an ancient print, en- titled The World turn'd Upside Down, where an infant is thus employed." It may be questioned whether Shake- speare's powers of observation and invention were ever at so low a zero as to oblige him to "borrow from an an- cient print" when he wanted to speak of a baby beating its nurse.
40. Lines 42, 43:
A nd yet my nature never in the fight,
To do it slander. Ff. To do in slander. The correction is Hanmer's, it re- ferring to nature. Sight instead of fight is adopted by many editors, after Pope.
41. Lines 47, 48:
How I may formally in person BEAR Like a true friar.
So Ff. It is almost universally altered by modern edi- tors, after Capell, to bear me. Furnivall and Stone read bear, adopting Schmidt's explanation, that it means " be- have."
42. Line 51: Stands at a guard loith. — This probably means, "stands on his guard against," is careful not to lay himself open.
ACT I. Scene 4.
43. Line 30: Sir, make me not your story. — This ad- mirable expressive phrase, perfectly obvious in meaning ("make me not your jest"), has been oddly misunder- stood by some editors, who have altered story to "scorn," and even "sport." Compare Merry Wives, v. 5. 170, where Falstaff, jeered at by his expected dupes, replies: " Well, I am your theme: you have the start of me."
44. Lines 31-33:
though 't is my familiar sin
With maids to seem the lapwing and to jest, Tongue far from heart.
The allusion here is probably to the lapwing's way of deceiving sportsmen by running along the ground for some distance before taking wing. Compare Comedy of Errors, iv. 2. 27, 28:
Far from her nest the lapwing cries away: My heart prays foi him. though my tongue do curse;
and see note 101 on that play,
45. Line 40: Your brother and his LOVER. — Lover in Shakespeare's time was used for a woman as well as a man. Compare As Vuu Like It. iii. 4. 43: "O, that's a brave man! he writes brave verses, speaks brave words, swears brave oaths, and breaks them bravely, quite tra- verse, athwart the heart of his lover." Coles, in his Latin Dictionary, has: "A Lover, amator, amasius, m. amatrix, amasia, fern."
46. Lines 51, 52:
Bore many gentlemen, myself being one, In hand and hope of action.
To bear in hand means, according to Schmidt, " to abuse with false pretences or appearances." Compare Much Ado, iv. 1. 305: " What, bear her in hand until they come to take hands; and then, with public accusation," Ac.
47. Line 60: But doth REBATE and blunt his natural edge.— I am indebted to Mr. Stone for the following note on this word: " Cotgrave (ed. 1632) has: 'Rabatre To abate, deduct, defaulke, diminish, lessen, extenuate; remit, bate; giue or draw backe; also, a horse to rebate his curuet . . . RABATRE: m. lie. f. Rebated, bated, abated, deducted, defaidcated, diminished; giuen, taken, or drawne backe.' Under llabattre Boyer (ed. 1729) has: 'Cheval qui rabat ses Courbettes de bonne grace, (en Termes de Menage), a Horse that rebates his curvets handsomely, or finely.' Amongst the senses of ' Rabattre, v. a. ' Bellows (Fr. Diet. ed. 1877) gives, ' aplatir, to flatten,' and 'Rabattu— e,a. flattened: smoothed.' Bellows's gloss admits of literal application to this line— for an edge flattened is blunted— but I think that Cotgrave's render- ings—and you will observe that he uses the English re- bate—ase near enough; for, if an edge be abated, dimin- ished, or lessened, clearly it is blunted. Compare Greene's Orlando Furioso:
And what I dare, let say the Portingale,
And Spaniard tell, who, mann'd with mighty fleets,
Came to subdue their islands to my king,
Filling our seas with stately argosies,
Calvars and magars, hulks of burden great;
Which Brandimart rebated from his coast.
And sent them home ballass'd with their wealth.
— Works, ed. Dyce, 1861, p. 90, col. 2.
This is the city of great Babylon,
Which proud Darius was rebated from. — id. p. 101, col. 1.
Collier wanted to read rebutted for rebated in both these passages. Dyce says: ' Mr. Collier is greatly mistaken:— the old copies are right in both passages. Greene uses rebate in the sense of beat back (which is its proper sense, — Fr. rebattre). So again in the first speech of the next play [a Looking-Glass for London and England, p. 117, col. 1] we find,—
Great Jewry's God, that foil'd stout Benhadad, Could not rebate the strength that Rasni brought,' &c.
I suspect that Rolfe and Dyce are both wrong in connect- ing Eng. rebate with 'rebattre,' to beat back again. 'Ra- battre' seems to be nearer the sense required." Compare Massinger, The Roman Actor, iv. 2:
223
ACT I Scene J.
NOTES To MEASURE F<>R MEASURE.
a i I ll. Scene 1.
.-Esop. Only, sir, a foil, The point and edge related, when you act, To do the murder—
where the Quart.' reads n butt
48 Line SS: Soon at night; i i . "this very night." Com- paxe Merry Wives, if. 2. 295 and 298: "Come to me soon at night;" II. Henry IV. v. E 96: "1 shall he sent for soon at night," &c Better still, compare Othello, iii. 4. ins. Bianca asks Cassio if she shall see him " soo/i at night." Returning shortly afterwards she says— with evident re- ference to this invitation: " An you'll come to supper to- night, you may," &c (iv. 1. igg).
ACT II. Scene 1.
[The Provost, according to Ff. . is not on at the beginning of this scene, hut is made to enter at line 32, just before Angelo says, "Where is the Provost?" This isveryabsurd; and it is much better that he should go on at the beginning of the scene, as marked by Capell and iu the stage-direc- tions of the Acting Edition.
In the arrangement of the play as acted at DrnryLane, 1*'J4, under Macready's management, this act is thus re- arranged for stage purposes. Scene 1 consists of the first part of Scene 1 as far as line 37, after which Escalus goes off; and the rest of the scene includes Scene 2 in the text. commencing with the Provost's speech, line 7. to tin- end of scene. Scene 2 is the scene in the street, and contains Dearly all that part of Scene 1 in the text from line 41 to line •J7'.1 inclusive. Elbow enters with his halbert and two con- stables having hold of Pompey and Froth; Escalus enters with two apparitors immediately after Elbow's speech; and the scene continues much as in the text, with a few omissions, including the part of the Justice, which is of course unnecessary. Scene 3 is omitted altogether; the third scene being identical with Scene 4 of the text. — F a. m. ]
49. Line 2: to fear; i.e. to affright. Used transitively
several times in Shakespeare, e.g. Merchant of Venice,
ii. 1. 8, 9:
I tell thee, lady, this aspect of mine
Hathfear'd the valiant.
50. Line 8: Let but your honour KNOW.— Johnson re- marks: "To know is here to examine, to take cognizance. So in A Midsummer Night's Dream, i. 1. G7, 68:
Therefore, fair Hennia, question your desires; Know of your youth, examine well your blood."
51. Line 12: oik blood. — So Ef. It is quite possible that this reading may he right, our meaning "our com- mon blood," and sol let it stand; but few emendations seem more reasonable and self-justified than that of Da- venant's, adopted b) Etowe, and followed by most editors —your. Mr. stone suggests that "by exchanging your for our, when using a word which might have a general application to human frailty. Kscalus avoided a too per- sonal reference in a supposititious case."
52. Line 22: what knoics the law, &c— Ff. u-hat knoiccs
ih. I. ■
53 Line 23: 'Tie very PREGNANT. — Compare Cymbe- line, iv. 2. 825: "«>, t is pregnant, pregnant I " That is, "it i> clearly evident."
224
54. Line 2S: Foil 1 have had such faults.— For -for that, i.e. because; often used by Shakespeare. Compare As Sou Like It, iii. 2. 133, 134:
Why should this a desert be? for it is unpeopled? No.
55. Lines 39, 40:
Some run from breaks of ice, and attswer none; And Kime condemned for a fault alone.
Ff. read brakes. This, following the Old-Spelling editors, I take to he merely a variant of breaks. The following is their note, given at the end of the play: "The thought uppermost in Escalus's mind is the capricious manner iu which punishment is inflicted. He compares this, ap- parently, to the luck which enables some to clear dan- gerous ground in the ice, but his metaphor is abruptly abandoned with the words and answer none, <fcc. The form brakes occurs in the epilogue of Marston and Web- ster's Malcontent, 1004, where brakes evidently means breaks, flaws; nut, as Bteevens supposed, brake-fern which grows on uncultivated ground:
Then let not too severe an eye peruse The slighter drakes of our reformed Muse, Who could herself herself of faults detect. But that she knows 'tis easy to com i. Though some men's labour, &C."
[This is one of the most difficult passages in the play, and marked with a dagger by the Globe edd. Steevens has a long and very interesting note, in the first part of which he explains the text thus: "Some run away from danger, and stay to answer none of their faults, whilst others are condemned only on account of a single frailty " (Var. Ed. vol. ix. p. 43), taking breaks to have the same meaning as that given above; but in the subsequent part of his note he produces very strong instances of the use of the word break iu the sense of "a machine for torture," and if it has that meaning, we must adopt the emendation first given by Rowe and read "brakes of vice." This was adopted also by Malone, who followed Rowe chiefly on the ground that the words answer none, i.e. "are not called to account by their conscience," show that the "brakes of vice" evidently here mean "engines of tor- ture." Brake originally meant a kind of severe bit, used for refractory horses, and also a contrivance, used by farriers to confine the legs of horses while they were being shod. I confess that to me the reading of the text is eminently unsatisfactory, though, no doubt, the ex- planation quoted above makes some sense of it. I can- not see the slightest connection between the Idea of running from a dangerous place on ice, and the words answer none; nor does the ice metaphor seem to me to fit in at all with the rest of the passage It ma] be that we should regard these two lines as being merely the sketch of some speech which Shakespeare intended to write; hut against that theory we must set the fact that the two lines are supposed to form part of a rhyming quatrain, such as we come across occasionally in blank verse scenes (e.g. in Much Ado, iv. 1. 253-250). Such passages generally contain some very sententious expressions. It is worth noting that line 38 is printed in F. 1 in italics, as if it were a quotation, which very powfbly it is. In the Quarto of Hamlet, 1003, many of the lines of the speech of t'. rambls
ACT II. Scene 1.
NOTES TO MEASURE FOR MEASURE.
At I II. Scene 1.
(Polonius) to Laertes in act i. sc. 3 are priuted with inverted commas before them; and, in the Quarto of 1004, though none of the lines in the speech of Polonius to Laertes are so marked, three of the lines in the speech to Ophelia are. This rhymed quatrain, spoken by Es- calus, was probably meant to embody some well-known apophthegms; and therefore the reading "brakes of vice" seems to me more suitable to the context; especially as Rowe's emendation involves such a very slight alteration of the text, and the misprint of ice for vice is one very likely to have occurred. I should take brakes to mean here not so much " engines of torture" as " means for re- straint of vice," the general sense of the line being, "some escape from all restraints of vice and yet have to answer for none," while some are condemned for a single fault. We might have expected, in line 40, " for one fault alone;" but the author seems to have purposely avoided that be- cause one would have rhymed to none at the end of the preceding line.— f. a. m.]
56. Line 54 : precise villains.— Tlolte well remarks on this: "He means of course that they are precisely or lit- erally villains; but, as Clarke notes, the word gives the impression of 'strict, severely moral,' as in i. 3. 50 above: ' Lord Angelo is precise.
57. Line 61: he 's out at elbow.— This, as Clarke observes, is "a hit at the constable's threadbare coat, and at his being startled and put out by Angelo's peremptory repe- tition of his name. "
58. Line 63: PARCEL-bawd.— Parcel for part is again used by Shakespeare in II. Henry IV. ii. 1. 94: "Thou didst swear to me upon a parcel-gilt goblet." It is met with not unfrequently in the dramatic literature of the period. Compare Day, Humour out of Breath, i. 1. 58-60:
Hip. My sister would make a rare beggar.
Fran. True, she's parcel poet, parcel fiddler already; and they commonly sing three parts in one.
59. Lines 6!) and 75: detest.— The same blundering use of detest for protest or attest is given to Mrs. Quickly in Merry Wives, i. 4. 160: "but, I detest, an honest maid as ever broke bread."
60. Line 92: stew'd prunes. — A dish proverbial in Eliza- bethan literature for its prevalence in brothels. It is referred to by Shakespeare in Merry Wives, i. 1. 296; I. Henry IV. iii. 3. 128; and II. Henry IV. ii. 4. 159.
61. Line 97: China dishes.— " A China dish, in the age of Shakespeare, must have been such an uncommon thing, that the Clown's exemption of it, as no utensil in use in a common brothel, is a striking circumstance in his absurd and tautological deposition " (Steevens).
62. Line 133: the Bunch of Grapes.— The practice of giving names to particular rooms in an inn seems to have been common. Compare I. Henry IV. ii. 4. 30: "Score a pint of bastard in the Half-moon;" and see the London Prodigal, i. 2, where Sir Lancelot, stopping at the George, and entering, says: "This room shall serve;" and having given his order to the drawer for a pint of sack, the drawer recapitulates, " A quart of sack in the Three Tuns" (ed. Tauchnitz, p. 229). According to the Return of a Jury
VOL. V.
to a Writ of Elegit, 7 May, 43 Eliz., there was, in the Tabard, Southwark, " una alia camera vocata '/"' fi"icer de Luce" (Hall's Society in the Elizabethan Age, 2nd ed. appendix, p. 162).
63. Line 180: Justice or Iniquity } Kscalus is of course referring to Elbow and Poinpey. Ritsoii thinks that by Iniquity is meant the old Vice of the Moralities. Com- pare Richard III. iii. 1. 82, 83:
Thus, like the formal Vice, Iniquity, I moralize two meanings in one word ;
and see note 305 to that play.
64. Line 200: thou art to continue. — Steevens suggests that Elbow, misinterpreting the language of Escalus, supposes that the Clown is to continue in confinement.
65. Line 215: they will draw you. — " Draw has here a cluster of senses. As it refers to the tapster, it signifies to drain, to empty; as it is related to hang ['they will draux you, Master Froth, and you will hang them'], it means to be conveyed to execution on a hurdle" (Johnson). In Froth's reply, drawn in is probably equivalent to "taken in."
66. Line 228: the greatest thing about you.— An allusion, it is generally supposed, to the "monstrous hose," as an old ballad calls them, or ridiculously large breeches, which were worn in the early part of Elizabeth's reign. See the lengthy note in the Variorum Shakespeare on this passage; and compare Romeo and Juliet, note 89.
67. Line 256: a bay. —Usually taken to mean the archi- tectural term bay; i.e., according to Johnson, "the space between the main beams of the roof;" according to Dyce, a term used "in reference to the frontage." Boyer, in his French Dictionary, has "Bay or empty Place in Masonry for a Door or Window." Coles (Lat. Diet.) has "A bay of building, Mensura viginti quatuor pedum.'" Furnivall and Stone suggest " a partitioned space, box."
[Pope's most obvious emendation day for bay may be noticed, only because it is so obvious, and because Poinpey, cceteris paribus, would be more likely to talk about " three pence a day" forahouse than "three pence a bay," even were it, as Jonson says, a common term in many parts of England. It certainly would be more satisfactory if the commentators could have found any instance of bay beiny used distinctly as part of a house, and not, as in the only- passage quoted by Steevens, as a term of measurement. If one could come across such an expression, for instance, as "a house with many bays in it" in any work of Shake- speare's time; or if we could discover any evidence of such a phrase so used in the vernacular, it would relieve one of the doubt which every editor must now feel that such an extremely common misprint of b for d may be really the only ground for admitting into the text what is a highly characteristic expression, and one which we certainly should not wish to get rid of for the sake of so ordinary a phrase as "three pence a day." Perhaps Pompey here only means by bay a room.— F. A. M.]
68. Line 275: your readiness.— Ef. THE readinesse; an evident misprint of the common contraction y (your), which was taken for y (the). The emendation is Pope's.
225 127
ACT II Scene 1
NOTES TO MEASURE FOR MKASIKK.
At' I' II. Scene 2.
69 Lines 291, 898:
Just, Eleven, sir.
ill / pray you home to dinner with me.
Knife cites Harrison's Description of England, eil. Furni- vall, p. 100: "With vs the nobilitie, gentrie, anil students, doo ordinarilie go to dinner at eleuen before noone, and to supper at Sue, or between tine and six at afternoone. The merchants dine and sup Beldome before twelue at lie, and six at night especiallie in London. The hus- bandmen dine also at high noone as they call it, and sup at seuen or eight: but out of the teanne in our rniuersi- ties the scholars dine at ten."
ACT II. Scene 2.
70. Line 4: He hath but as of ended in a dream .'— Grant White reads, Be hath offended but as in a dream— that being of course the sense; but why change? The beauty of the line is gone, and I scarcely see that it is even made appreciably elearer.
71. Line 40: To FINE the faults whose FINE stands in record.— Fine, both as verb and noun, is several times used by Shakespeare iu the sense of general, not neces- sarily of pecuniary, punishment It is used again in iii. 1. 114, 116:
Why would lie for the momentary trick Be perdurably./5V<tf I
■Compare CoriolanuB, v. 0 64, G5:
What faults he made before the last, I think Might have found tasyjtues.
72. Line 53: But might you do't. — Might you may be merely a transposition of you might, perhaps for the sake of euphony. [In the Cambridge .Shakespeare the passage is printed with a full stop at the end of the speech; but If. all agree in printing the sentence with a note of interrogation at the end after him. Walker (Critical Ex- amination, &C .. vol. ii. p. 250) suggested the emendation: "But //'in might do't," which the Cambridge editors should certainly have adopted if they altered the punc- tuation of the Ff. If the line is to be spoken as printed in the text it must be spoken as a question, or it would not be intelligible to the audience I cannot see any reason why the author should not have written "But you might do't," if he did not mean Isabella to ask a ques- tion. The fact that this sentence begins, like that above iu lineal, with But makes it probable that, like that also. it is intended to be interrogative. On the other hand Dyce, who adopts Walker's emendation and does away with the note of interrogation, points to Isabella's speech above (lini 19):
I do think that_>'L>» might pardon him. t A M.J
73 Line 58; May call it hack again. Well, believe this.
I i reads may call if againe;—back, which improves alike metie and sense, was added in F. 2.
11.-". !,.!„,, n,is. the reading of the F., is altered by Theobald to Well believe this(i.e " be thoroughly assured of this "). and the reading is adopted by some editors. It is a vei\ good reading, but the F. is, to say the least,
quite a^ g I, and I think better.
226
74 Line 70: If He, which is the TOP OF JUDGMENT.— Dyce quotes from Dante, Purgatorio, vi 87:
Che cima digiudicio non s avail. l ; precisely the same phrase, tuji of judgment. The word top is often used by Shakespeare to express the highest point: compare the Tempest, iii. 1 38: " the top of ad- miration;'' King John. iv. 3. 45-47:
This is the very t,f. The height, the crest, or crest unto the crest, Of murder's arms.
75 Line 79: Like man new made; i.e in Johnson's com- nion-sense phrase, "YOU would be quite another man." I think the references made by some commentators to Adam (as the man new made) are rather far-fetched.
[Most certainly I cannot see what Adam has to do with it; but may not neiv made here have the scriptural sense of "regenerated.'" Shakespeare is in a decidedly theo- logical vein of mind in this speech, and it is natural, having just spoken of the effect of the Redemption, he should have in his mind ' ' regeneration," such as our Lord explained to Nicodemus (John iii. 3-8).— f. a. m.]
76. Line 90: The law hath not been dead, though it hath slept.— llolt White compares the maxim iu law, Dormiunt aliquando leges, moriuntur nunquam.
77. Line 92: // the first that did the edict infringe — Several emendations of this line have been proposed, where none is needed. It is one of those lines, so fre- quent in Shakespeare, and so ruthlessly handled by his editors, where the first unaccented half of the first foot is wanting. If we remember this — making sufficient pause on the first word to make it accentually equal to two syllables — and la] the accent of edict on the second syl- lable (as Shakespeare does whenever the measure requires it), we shall see that the line is strictly rhythmical and very expressive in its solemn slowness. [This is all quite true as far as the study is concerned, but no actor could speak the line, as it stands, with any effect. Of the various emendations suggested, the best perhaps is that of Capell's: "If he the first." and Grant White's: "If but the first." Davenant altered the line to "if he who lirst." Shakespeare is very fond of the phrase " If that," and it is quite possible that he first wrote "If that the first;" but, seeing he had too many thati m the sentence, struck out the that after If Certainly, for stage pur- poses, the words If and first require to be emphasized. The emendation that would transpose the position of the last three words and read "infringe the idict," making the line end with a trochee, are. I think, much less pro- bable. Out of eight passages in verse in which Shake- speare uses the word edict, including this one, it is accented five times on the second syllable.— F. A. M.l
78. Lines 94, 95:
and, like a prophet, Looks in a glass.
An allusion to the beryl stone, iu which it was supposed that the future might be seen, and the absent brought before the eyes. This picturesque superstition lias been often utilized in romances and poems; the latest and greatest instance being Kossetti's ballad. "Rose Mary."
79. Line 99: But, EKE they live, to end. — Ff. print here,
ACT II. .Scene 2.
NOTES TO MEASURE FOR MEASURE.
ACT II. Scene 3.
doubtless a misprint, though the Old-Spelling editors resolutely adhere to it. The correction was introduced by Hanmer.
80 Line 11:2: pelting.— Pelting, in the sense of paltry, is used several times by Shakespeare (e.g. Lear, ii. 3. 18: "Poor pelting villages"); and Steevens quotes the phrase "a pelting jade " from Lyly's Mother Bombie (1594), iv. 2. The passage runs: "If thou be a good hackneyman, take all our foure bonds for the payment, thou knowest we are towne-borne children, and will not shrinke the citie for a pelting jade" (Works, vol. ii. p. 128).
81. Lines 113, 114:
Would use his heaven/or thunder; Nothing but thunder. Merciful Heaven!
Dyce arranged these lines, perhaps preferably, so as to leave Merciful Heaven! in a line to itself.
82 Line 122: As makes the angels weep. — So Ff., usu- ally altered to the modern grammatical make. But such constructions are not uncommon in Shakespeare ; comp. Henry V. i. 2. 118, 119. They are apparently a survival of the Northern plural in -es. In some cases the plural noun may be regarded as equivalent, in thought, to the singular.
83. Line 126: We cannot weigh our brother with ourself. —This is not, as might be supposed at first sight, a refer- ence of Isabella's to her own brother, but a general state- ment— our brother meaning "our fellow-man," whom she says we cannot weigh as we should, impartially, with ourselves, passing on each an equal judgment.
84. Line 132: Art avis'd o' thatf—Avised is used several times by Shakespeare in the same sense as here (i.e. ad- vised, aware); e.g. Merry Wives, i. 4. 100: "Are you avis'd o' that?"
85. Line 136: That SKJNS the rice.— Shakespeare uses the word skin (as a verb) only here and in a very similar passage in Hamlet, hi. 4. 147: "It will but skin and film the ulcerous place." In both places the verb has the mean- ing of "to cover with a skin;" not that which it usually has in our time, viz. "to take off the skin."
86. Line 149: shekels. — This word appears in the Ff. as sickles, a spelling used in Wyclif's Bible.
87. Line 154: dedicate. — This form of the participle is also used in II. Henry VI. v. 2. 37, 38:
He that is truly dedicate to war Hath no self-love.
88. Line 172: evils; i.e. privies. Used again in Henry VIII. ii. 1. 67:
Nor build their cvtfs on the graves of great men. Henley remarks: "The desecration of edifices devoted to religion, by converting them to the most abject pur- poses of nature, was an Eastern method of expressing contempt. See 2 Kings, x. 27."
ACT II. Scene 3.
89. Line 11: the flaws.— Here Warburton (after Dave- nant) reads flames, which is certainly a help to the meta- phor, and was perhaps in the original text. But, as John-
son says of Warburtou'8 emendations: " Who docs not see that, upon such principles, there is no end of correction ! '
90. Lines 30-34 :
but lest you do repent, As that the sin hath brought you to tin's .shame, Which sorrow is always toward ourselres, not heaven, Showing we would not si'ARE heaven as we love it. But as we stand in fear.
This passage is so broken up by parentheses that it ap- pears more obscure than it really is; and besides, there- is an aposiopesis, for the sentence is not finished ; the meaning, however, is tolerably clear. The Duke, in his assumed character of spiritual adviser, wishes to impress upon Juliet that her repentance, to be effective, should lie based upon the sorrow that she feels for having offended God, and not on account of the shame which her sin has brought upon herself. F. 1, F. 2, F. 3 read least instead of lest, which is the correction of F. 4. Steevens calls it "a kind of negative imperative." The meaning is: "In case you only repent as tha t ( = because) the sin has brought you to this shame;" and then he points out that the sorrow is merely selfish sorrow. The only difficulty in the remainder of the passage is the expression "spare heaven," which may mean either, as Malone explains it, "spare tooffend heaven," or "spare heaven (i.e. God) the pain that sin causes to Him." Juliet interrupts the Duke at this point without letting him finish his advice in the sense above. — F. A. M.
91. Lines 40-42 :
Must die to-morrow ! 0 injurious love, That respites me a life, whose very comfort Is still a dying horror!
This passage is certainly very difficult to explain ; Han- mer's emendation law for love is a very plausible one, and gets rid of the difficulty in the simplest manner. The meaning then would be plain enough, Juliet exclaiming on the law which spares her life, but takes that of her lover. Johnson supposes Juliet to refer to the fact that her execution was respited on account of her pregnancy; but it does not appear that the law, so greedily revived by the immaculate Angelo, inflicted any penalty upon the woman, further than the disgrace involved in exposure. If we refer to scene 2 of this act (lines 10, 17):
Dispose of her To some more fitter place; and that with speed;
and again, lines 23-25 :
See you the fornicatress be remov'd :
Let her have needful, but not lavish, means;
There shall be order for 't;
we find that Angelo does no more than direct that Juliet shall be taken care of till she has given birth to her child ; but, if we refer to the story, we find that the penalty for the woman was that she " should ever after be infamously noted by the wearing of some disguised apparell" (Hazlitt's Shak. Lib. vol. iii. pt. 1, p. 150). It is possible, however, that Juliet may, in this passage, refer to her unborn child, which should be her comfort, but who will now only remind her of the horrid death of her lover.— F. A. M.
32*7
ACT II. Scene 4.
NOTES TO MEASURE FOR MEASURE.
ACT II. Scene 4.
ACT II. Scene 4.
92. Line 9: Grown KEAR'D and tedious. —So Ff. Many editors read sear'd, after Banmer, ami Collier states that such is actually the reading in Lord Ellesmere's copy of the First Folio. Fear'd means, no doubt, just what it ■ :i\> on the surface, for, as Johnson says, "what we go to with reluctance may be said to he fear'd."
93 Line 11: with boot. — This expression occurs again in Lear, v. 3. 301, and boot, in the same sense, is used several times by Shakespeare. The meaning, according to Schmidt, is "something given over," a difference of sense from boot, meaning "profit, advantage."
94. Line 17: Til not the ilmTs crest. — This phrase is no doubt used ironically ; and there is nothing in the expres- sion so obscure as to give warrant for the two pages of annotation in the Variorum Shakespeare, and the con- jectural emendations of Hanmer and Johnson.
95. Line 27: The general.— This word, for "the people," occurs twice elsewhere in Shakespeare: Hamlet, ii. 2. 457: "caviare to the general;" and Julius Caesar, ii. 1. 10-12:
and, for my part, I know no personal cause to spurn at htm, Butforthe general.
96 Line 53: or.— Ff. and, an obvious error, corrected by Davenant, whose correction is adopted into the text by Rowe.
97. Line 56: 1 had rather give my body than my soul.— This is perhaps (? intentionally) misunderstood by Angelo; Isabella means, I had rather die (give my body to death) than thus forfeit my soul.
98. Line 75: Or seem so, CRAFTILY. — Ff. crafty; corrected by Rowe, after Davenant.
99. Line 76: Let ME be ignorant.— Me was omitted in F. 1, added in F. 2.
100. Lines 79, 80:
as these black masks
Proclaim an enshiki.i> beauty.
Various conjectures have been made as to the precise meaning of these black musks; but I think we may reason- ably take the word these to be equivalent to no more than ;in emphatic the — as indeed was its original significance. Compare Romeo and Juliet, i. 1. 236, 237:
These happy masks, that kiss fair ladies' brows, Being black, put us in mind they hide the fair.
Enshield is simply a contraction of enshielded. Similar contractions are not uncommon in Shakespeare. See, on the masks, Romeo and Juliet, note 22.
101 Line 90: But in the loss of question.— Schmidt nnderstandi this phrase to mean "as no better arguments present themselves to my mind, to make the point clear;" Steevens, however, seems nearer the mark in explaining it to mean " in idle supposition, or conversa- tion that leads to nothing;" as we should say now, "for the sake of argument."
102 Line 94; the all-building late.— Ho Ff. ; best ex- plained in the < ild-Spelling editors' alteration of Schmidt's definition: "being the foundation and bond of all." Roue
228
displaces all-building by all-holding, and Johnson by all- binding.
103. Line 103: That longing HAVE been sick for.— So Ff. Many editors follow Rowe's emendation I've; but the ellipsis of have for / have is perhaps intentional. The Cambridge editors (note xi.) say: "The second person singular of the governing pronoun is frequently omitted by Shakespeare in familiar questions, but, as to the first and third persons, his usage rarely differs from the modern. If the text be genuine, we have an instance in this play of the omission of the third person singular, i. 4. 72: 'Has censured him.' See also the early Quarto of the Merry Wives of Windsor, sc. xiv. 1. 40, p. 285 of our reprint:
He cloath my daughter, and aduertise Slender To know her by that signe, and steale her thence, And unknowne to my wife, shall niarrie her."
104. Lines 111-113:
Ignomy in ransom and free pardon
Are of two houses: lawful mercy
Is nothing kin to foul redemption. This is the arrangement and reading of F. 1, which I have not felt justified in disturbing, though Steevens' re- arrangement, as follows, is plausible:
lawful mercy is Nothing akin to foul redemption.
Ignomy is, of course, merely another form of ignominy (by which it is replaced in F. 2); but the spelling is pre- served in many modern editions. It occurs also in I. Henry IV. v. 4. 100:
Thy ignomy sleep with thee in the grave ;
and in Troilus and Cressida, v. 10. 33, 34:
ignomy and shame Pursue thy life ;
as well as in the Qq. of Titus Andronicus, iv. 2. 115:
I blush to think upon this ignomy.
105. Line 122, 123:
If not a FEPARY, but only he.
Owe and succeed thy weakness. Fedary (or feodary, as the later Ff. have it) originally meant a vassal; in Cymbeline, iii. 2. 21, it is certainly used in the sense of accomplice: "Art thou a fedary for this act?" Mr. Stone writes me: "I incline to the view that F. fedarie (F. 2 feodary) means a vassal, not an accomplice. If succeed could be supposed to mean follow — in a moral sense— feodary is better understood as meaning accom- plice. Accepting the other interpretation of feodary, Isabella may mean: If my brother be not an inheritor of frailty, but frailty begins and ends with him, let him die. As if a man could be heir to himself, and by this title hold his property. With either explanation we must take thy (line 123) to mean you men, since Angelo has not yet revealed himself."
106. Line 130: credulous to false prints. — Compare Twelfth Night, ii. 2. 31; and see my note on that passage (78).
107. Line 160: And now I give my sensual RACE tl,r rein —For the use of the word race in the sense here
ii to it — i.e. " natural disposition "(Schmidt i — compare the only other instance in Shakespeare, The Tempest, i. 2. 358-360:
ACT II. Scene 4.
NOTES TO MEASURE FOR MEASURE.
ACT III. Sceue 1.
thy vile race, Though thou didst learn, had that in't which good natures Could not abide to be with.
As Mr. Aldis Wright observes (Clarendon Press ed. of the Tempest, p. 96), "the word is used in this secondary sense like 'strain' (A. S. strynd, a stock, from strynan, to beget) in Troilus and Cressida, ii. 2. 154:
Can it be That so degenerate a strain as this Should once set footing in your generous bosoms?"
108. Line 162: prolixious blushes. — Steevens cites examples of the use of prolixious by Drayton, Gabriel Harvey, and Nash, but the sense is not precisely that of the text. The word is here evidently used, by a certain license of language, for "tiresomely prudish."
ACT III. Scene 1.
109. Line 5: Be ABSOLUTE/or death; i.e. be certain you will die. Compare Shakespeare's use of absolute in Cym- beline, iv. 2. 106, 107:
I am absolute 'T was very Cloten;
Pericles, ii. 5. 19: "How absolute she 's in 't;" &c.
110. Line 10: That dost.— Changed by Hanmer to do, leaving skyey influences as the subject, instead of breath. The sense is quite clear, and would come to much the same in either case.
111. Lines 11-13:
merely, thou art death's FOOL ;
For him thou labour' st by thy flight to shun
And yet runn'st toward him still. This appears to be a reference to a figure in the Dance of Death, some edition of which may very well have been seen by Shakespeare. The subject is very thoroughly ex- plored in a dissertation prefixed by Douce to Pickering's edition of The Dance of Death, 1833, to which the refer- ences given below are made. A reprint of it is included in Bonn's Illustrated Series.
"From a manuscript note by John Stowe, in his copy of Leland's Itinerary, it appears that there was a Dance of Death in the church of Stratford upon Avon: and the conjecture that Shakespeare, in a passage in Measure for Measure, might have remembered it, will not, perhaps, be deemed very extravagant. He there alludes to Death and the fool, a subject always introduced into the paint- ings in question" (p. 53). "Bishop Warburton and Mr. Malone have referred to old Moralities, in which the fool escaping from the pursuit of Death is introduced. Ritson has denied the existence of any such farces, and he is perhaps right with respect to printed ones; but vestiges of such a drama were observed several years ago at the fair of Bristol by the present writer" (pp. 176, 177). The Dance of Death, with 41 cuts, attributed to Holbein, was first published at Lyons in 1538. In 1547 an edition ap- peared containing 12 additional cuts, one of them (the 43rd of the series) having Death and the fool for its subject. In this the fool is mocking Death, by putting his finger in his mouth, and at the same time endeavouring to strike him with his bladder-bauble. Death smiling, and amused at his efforts, leads him away in a dancing attitude, play- ing at the same time on a bagpipe. The following text
(Proverbs, ch. vii. v. 22) is beneath the cut: "Quasi agnus lasciviens, et ignorans, nescit1 quod ad vincula Btultut trahatur " (see p. 261). Another illustration of the sub- ject is in an alphabet ornamented with subjects from the Dance of Death, which was introduced into books printed . at Basle by Bebelius and Cratandor about 1530. In Bohn's edition of the Dance of Death there is a reprint of this alphabet. The design for the letter B has fur its subject Death seizing the fool, who strikes at him with his blad- der-bauble and seems to strive to escape. English readers would be familiarized with this, since in an edition of Coverdale's Bible printed by James Nicolson in South- ward the same design is used for the letter A. It is found in other English books, and even as late as 1618 in an edition of Stowe's Survey of London. (See pp. 214-218.) Besides this, the so-called Queen Elizabeth's prayer-book, printed by J. Daye in 1569, of which there are other edi tions dated 1578, 1581, 1590, has at the end "a Dance of Death of singular interest, as exhibiting the costume of its time with respect to all ranks and conditions of life." Among the characters are both the Fool and the Female Fool (p. 147). Douce gives also (p. 163) from the Sta- tioners' Registers, under date January 5th, 1597, the entry to the Purfootes of "The roll of the Daunce of Death, with pictures, and verses upon the same." See also Richard II. note 220.
112. Line 24: For thy complexion shifts to strange EFFECTS.— Johnson would read affects, i.e. "affections of mind;" but the word in the text, in its natural meaning of "natural manifestations, expressions," is very little in need of improvement.
113. Line 29: sire.— So F. 4. The reading of the earlier Ff. is /ire.
114. Lines 34-36:
for all thy blessed youth
Becomes as aged, and doth beg the alms
Of palsied eld. This passage has given rise to a great deal of conjecture, and many unsatisfactory substitutions for aged have been brought forward. The meaning seems to me to be simply this. The Duke, with a pessimism worthy of Leopardi, is going over the catalogue of miseries, cunningly extract- ing poison from the fairest flowers of life, and finally he declares that neither in youth nor age is there anything enjoyable, at least according to man's way of dealing with the seasons; for even in youth he is devoured with the ennui and care proper to age, and is as feeble and nerve- less as a palsied beggar-man, with strength neither of body nor of will.
115. Line 40: MOE thousand deaths; i.e. a thousand more deaths. Moe is frequently used in Shakespeare for more. Compare Henry VIII. ii. 3. 97: "That promises moe thousands." Compare Julius Csesar, note 101.
116. Line 51: Bring me to hear them speak, where I may be conceal'd.—F. 1 reads Bring them to hear me speak, an obvious transposition, which, however, was not set right before the conjecture of Steevens, adopted by Malone.
1 The word nescit is not in the Vulgate
229
ACT III. .Scene 1.
NOTES TO MEASL'KE FoR MKASl'lIK.
ACT III. Scene 1.
117 Lines 57-59:
Lord Aiujelo, having affairs to heaven. Intend* youfor hit swift ambassador, Whi re .'/"» shall be an everlasting leiger.
Lt'i'jer, lieger, or ledger, means "a resident ambassador." Compare Cymheline, i. 6. 80: "leigers for her sweet." Steevens cites Look About You, a comedy, 1600: "as leiger to solicit for your absent love;" and Leicester's Common- wealth, "a special man of that hasty king, who was his ledger, or agent, in London." The word is used for "resi- dent" in Shirley's Lady of Pleasure, iv. 2:
Fools are a family over all the world ; We do affect one naturally; indeed The fool is leiger with us.
118. Lines 6S-70:
a restraint,
Though all the world's vastidity you had, To a determined scope.
This magnificent conception of a life fettered and confined within the limits of its remorse may be compared with the feebler, more rhetorical, but still fine image of Byron in The Giaour:
The mind that broods o'er guilty woes
Is like the scorpion girt by fire. In circle narrowing as it glows, &c.
— Works, Tauchnitz ed., 1842, vol. ii. p. 166.
Ff. print Through, a misprint which was corrected by Pope.
119. Lines 82, 83:
Think you I can a resolution fetch From FLOWKKY TENDERNESS?
The phrase flowery tenderness appears to be used by Claudio in mockery or resentment of his sister's stoic counsels, coming, as they do, from her, a mere woman, a creature tender as a flower, to him, a man, supposing himself valiant.
120. Line 88: conserve; i.e. preserve, a word used by Shakespeare only here and in Othello, iii. 4. 75: " Con- serv'd of maidens' hearts." Chaucer employs the word in the KniditesTale, 1471:
Syn thou art mayde, and kepere of us alle. My maydenhode thou kepe and wel conserve, And whil I live a mayde I wil the serve.
121. Line 93: U is filth within being cast. — "As a hawk i- made to cast out her 'casting,' a pellet put down her throat to test the state of her digestion" (Furnivall and Stone, Old-Spelling Shakspere, note).
122. Line 94: The PRENZIE Angelo?— Few words in Shakespeare have given rise to so much controversy as this word premie, repeated again in line 97 below. F. 2 has princely, and various conjectural emendations have been adopted, of which priettly (Hanmer's conjecture) is, justly, the most widely accepted. Accepting the word in the text as accurate, many attempts have been made to explain it The Cambridge editors Bay: "It may be ety- mologically connected with prim, In old French, meaning demure; also with prineox, a coxcomb, and with the word premier, which occurs more than once in skelton, e.g.:
This pevysh proud. this/rcmrVr gc.t, When he is well, yet can he not rest.
230
Mr Bullock mentions, in support of his conjecture, that pensie is still used in some north-country districts. J'nmsie is also found in Burns' poems [as 'primsie Mallie' in Hallowe'en] with the signification of 'demure, precise,' according to the glossary." Dr. Brinsley Nichol- son suggests that the word prenzie may stand tor the old Italian I'renze, a variant for Principe; and his suggestion is given in the note to the word in the Old-Spelling Shak- spere, from which I have adopted, at line 97, the reading prenzie's guards, for the prenzie gardes of F. 1; prenzie'* guards in this case meaning a prince's guards — the lace on his robe. Compare Love's Labour's Lost, iv. 3. 58:
O, rhymes are guards on wanton Cupid's hose.
123. Line 115: perdurably fin'd. — This is the only instance of the word perdurably in Shakespeare, but we have perdurable in Henry V. iv. 5. 7: "0 perdurable shame! " and in Othello, i. 3. 343: "cables of perdurable toughness."
124. Lines 122-128:
To bathe in fiery floods, or to reside
In thrilling REGION of thick-ribbed ice;
To be imprison' d in the viewless winds,
And blown ivith restless violence round about
The pendent world; or to be worse than worst
Of those that lawless and incertain THOUGHT
Imagine howling.
Region, the reading of the Ff., was altered by Rowe to-
regions, and Dyce, who follows him, declares that the
plural is "positively required" here, as also in thought,
line 127. "We contend," says Dr. Ingleby, "that Region is
used in the abstract, and in the radical sense; and that it
means restricted place, or confinement; also that thought is
used in the abstract, and that it is the objective governed
by imagine" (The Still Lion, 1874, pp. 97, 98). With the
latter statement I cannot agree. Perhaps we should read
thoughts Imagine or thought Imagines. With regard to
the possible sources of Shakespeare's conception of future
punishment, see the numerous interesting quotations
from mediaeval visions of hell and purgatory, given in the
notes to the play in the Old-Spelling Shakspere, with
special reference to " alternate torments of heat and cold,"
such as the fiery floods and thick-ribbed ice point to. An
extract from Macrobius, whose commentary on Cicero's
Dream of Scipio was well known in Shakespeare's time,
affords a curious parallel to the sentence "blown with
restless violence."
[Perhaps one of the descriptions that Shakespeare had in his mind was that contained in The Revelation of the Monk of Evesham, published in 1482. (See Arber's re- print of this curious work from the unique copy in the British Museum, and compare, especially chapters 16, 17. 24, in which the Three Places of Pains and Torments of Purgatory are described.) As to the word howling, it is worth while, perhaps, to quote the well-known lines in Samlet, addressed to the Priest by Laertes over his sis- ter's grave, v. 1. 263-i!< 16:
I tell thee, churlish priest.
A ministering angel shall my sister be
When thou liest hvwling. With the whole of the passage quoted above we may compare the following lines from Milton's Paradise Lost:
ACT III. Scene 1.
NOTES TO MEASURE EOE MEASl KK.
ACT III. Scene 2.
Thither by harpy-footed furies hal'd,
At certain revolutions, all the damnM
Are brought; and feel by turns the bitter change
Of fierce extremes, extremes by change more fierce,
From beds of raging fire, to starve in ice
Their soft etherial warmth, and there to pine
Immoveable, infix'd, .md frozen round,
Periods of time, thence hurried back to fire.
— Book ii. lines 596-^03. — F. A. M]
125 Line 130: penury.— This is the correction by F. 2 of the misprint periury in F. 1.
126. Line 141: Heaven SHIELD my mother play'd my father fair! — For shield in the sense of forbid, compare All's Well, i. 3. 174: "God shield, you mean it not!" and Romeo and Juliet, iv. 1. 41:
God shield 1 should disturb devotion !
127. Line 142: slip of wilderness ; i.e. wild slip. Wil- derness is used for wildness in Old Fortunatus, 1600, iv. 1:
But I in wilderness totter'd out my youth, And therefore must turn wild, must be a beast.
Steevens cites another line in which the word wilderness occurs, from Beaumont and Fletcher's Maid's Tragedy, v. 4; but the word may there be used in its modern sense.
128. Line 143: Take my defiance.— Explained by Schmidt as "rejection, declaration that one will have nothing to do with another." Compare I. Henry IV. i. 3. 228:
All studies here I solemnly defy.
I am not sure that this interpretation does not afford, after all, a tamer sense than if we take Isabella's indig- nant defiance to mean simply— defiance.
129. Line 170: do not SATISFY your resolution with hopes that are fallible. — Hammer conjectures falsify, not a bad conjecture as things go, but unnecessary. Steevens ex- plains the passage: " Do not rest with satisfaction on hopes that are fallible."
130. Line 194: / am noiv going to resolve him, 1 had rather, etc. — So most editors; the Cambridge editors follow the pointing of the Ff. : " I am now going to resolve him: I had rather," &c.
131. Line 217: Frederick the great soldier ivho MISCARRIED at sea; i.e. was lost. Compare Merchant of Venice, ii. 8. 29,
30:
there miscarried A vessel of our country richly fraught.
132. Line 221: She should this Angelo have married; was affianced to her oath. — She is of course used, by a gramma- tical license, for her. See Abbott's Shakespearian Gram- mar, par. 111. Very likely the latter clause is merely a misprint for "was affianced to her by oath" (as F. 2 corrects it), and so most editors read; the Old-Spelling editors retain the reading of F. 1, and Mr. Stone suggests that here "Mariana's betrothal vow to Angelo may be regarded as a quasi -agent, instead of the person who took the oath."
133 Line 266: the corrupt deputy scaled.— The mean- ing of this word is very doubtful. The verb is used by Shakespeare in its ordinary sense of " to climb" with a ladder in four passages, and in a peculiar sense in Corio- lanus, i. 1. 92-95:
I shall tell you A pretty tale : it may be you have heard it ; Hut, since it serves my pur] ose, I will venture To scale 't a little more.
where many modern editors read stale, an emendation which llalliwell in his Archaic Dictionary, under Scale, says is undoubtedly right, and is strongly supported also by Dyce. In another passage in the same play, ii. 3. 257, the word occurs,
Scaling- his present bearing with his past, where it is undoubtedly used in the sense of " to weigh;" a sense which seems to suit the passage in our text very well.
Johnson says : " To scale is certainly to reach as well as to disperse or spread abroad, and hence its application to a routed army which is scattered over the field." Ritson says: "The Duke's meaning appears to be, either that Angelo would be over-reached, as a town is by the scalade; or, that his true character would be spread or lay'd open, so that his vileness would become evident." This latter meaning suggested by Johnson has been adopted by many editors, and also makes very good sense. Richardson in his Dictionary, under Scale, says : " In Meas. for Meas. — 'The corrupt deputy was scaled, by separating from him, or stripping off his covering of hypocrisy.' The tale of Menenius (in Coriolanus) was 'scaled a little more,' by being divided more into particulars and degrees ; more circumstantially or at length. — 'Scaling his present bear- ing with his past,' (also in Coriolanus,) looking separately at each, and, thence, comparing them."
In a passage in Hall, copied by Holinshed, we have this verb used in a very peculiar sense; he is referring to the dispersion of the army of Welshmen collected together at the beginning of Buckingham's insurrection: "the Welshemen lyngerynge ydely and without money, vitayle, or wages sodaynely scaled and departed "(Reprint, p. 394). The meaning there seems to be simply "separated." It is difficult to decide authoritatively between the various meanings assigned to the word in the text; but "over- reached" or "exposed" both would suit the context. Grant White gets out of the difficulty by reading foiled; an emendation for which, however, there seems no neces- sity.— F. A. M.
134. Line 277: the moated grange. —A grange is a soli- tary house, frequently a farm-house; "some one particu- lar house," says Ritson, "immediately inferior in rank to a hall, situated at a small distance from the town or vil- lage from which it takes its name." Compare Othello, i. 1. 105, 106:
What tell'st thou me of robbing ? This is Venice ; My house is not a grange. The word is used again in Winter's Tale, iv. 4. 309: Or thou goest to the grange or mill.
The "lonely moated grange" of Mariana is equally fami- liar to the readers of the two most popular English poets, Tennyson as well as Shakespeare.
ACT III. Scf.NE 2.
135. Line 4: brown and white BASTARD.— Bastard is a sweet Spanish wine. Compare I. Henry IV. ii. 4. 30: "a pint of bastard;" line 82: "your brown bastard is your
231
ACT III. So-ii.- -J.
NOTES TO MEASURE FOR MEASURE.
ACT III. Scene 2.
only drink." Coles (Latin Dictionary) has " Bastard wine, pinum possum." Hares quotes Beaumont and Fletcher, The Tamer lamed, ii. 1:
I was drunk with bastard. Whose nature is to form tilings like itself. Heady and monstrous.
136. Line 2(3: / drink, I EAT, array myself, and live. — Ff eats <i way myself e. The reading in the text, an un- exceptionable and universally followed emendation, was first adopted into the text by Theobald, after Bishop's conjecture.
137. Lines 40, 41:
That we were all, as some ivould seem to be, From our faults, as faults from seeming, free ! This is the reading of F. 1, followed by the Cambridge and the Old-Spelling editors. F. 2 and F. 3 read "Free from our faults," and F. 4 "Free from all faults." The latter part of the line should be, according to Hanmer, as from faults seeming free— a widely-accepted emendation which has this among other drawbacks, that it turns a line of blank verse into a regular dactylic canter. Furnivall and Stone give, I think, the plain meaning of the Folio text in their foot-note: "Would that we were as free from faults, as our faults are from seeming (hypocrisy)."
138 Line 48: Pygmalion's images, newly made woman. —A double allusion to the story of Pygmalion's image coming to life, and to a meaning Bometimes given to the word woman, like the primary meaning of the Latin malier. See Cotgrave under Dame du milieu.
139. Line 53: What say'st thou, TEOT? — Needlessly altered by some editors to "What say'st thou to'ti" Trot (a contemptuous term for an old woman, used in Taming of sinew, i. 2. SO) is no unlikely epithet for the irreverent Lucio to use to his patron. Boyer (French Dictionary) has "an old Trot (or decrepit Woman) l'n eieille."
140. Line 60: in the tub.— Compare Henry V. ii. 1. 79: "the powdering tub of infamy "—an allusion to the treat- ment for the French disease; referred to again in Timon, iv. 3. 86.
141. Line 107: extirp.— Used only here and in I. Henry VI. iii. 3. 24: "extirped from our provinces." Extirpate is only used in The Tempest) i 2. 125, 126:
extirpate me and mine Out of the dukedom.
142 Line 119: a motion generative. — Compare Two Gent, of Verona, ii. 1. 100: "O excellent motion! O ex- ceeding puppet !"— which explains the word by giving a synonym for it. Theobald reads "a motion ungenerative," but the change seems unnecessary— indeed, I think the f ■ 'i re of the expression is weakened rather than heightened by the alteration.
143 Line 128: I never heard the absent duke much DE- TECTED for women. -^Detected is usually explained as
suing "suspected;" but Verplanck (quoted byBolfe)
remarks: "The use "f this word, In the various extracts from old authors, collected by the commentators, Bhowa that its old Dieanim; was (nut suspeeted, as some of them say, but) charged, arraigned, accused. Thus, in Green way's Tacitus (1622), the Roman senators, who informed
232
against their kindred, are said 'to have detected the dearest of their kindred.'
144. Line 135: clack-dish.— A dish with a cover, clacked to call attention to the beggars who carried it.
145 Line 138: A shy fellow was the duke.— Compare v. 1. 53, 54:
the wicked'st caitiff on the ground. May seem as shy, as grave, as just, as absolute.
This closely parallel passage (the only other instance of the word in Shakespeare) quite disallows, I think, the emendation sly, adopted in the present passage bj Han- mer.
146. Line 160: dearer. — This is Hanmer's correction of the reading of F. 1, deare. F. 2 follows E. 1; F. 3 and F. 4 read dear.
147. Lines 191, 192: The duke, I say to thee again, would eat MUTTON on Fridays.— The double entendre (mutton, or laced mutton, being slang for a courtesan) is a common one in plays of the period. It occurs in Shakespeare's original, Promos and Cassandra, pt. I. i. 3:
I heard of one Phallax, A man esteemde, of Promos verie much : I <i whose Nature, I was so bolde to axe, And I smealt, he loved las? mutton well. — W. C. Hazlitt, Shakespeare's Library, vol. iii. p. 114.
148. Line 198: //'• 's now past it; yet {and 1 say to thee) he would, Ac— This is the reading of the Ff., preserved by the Old-Spelling editors, but almost universally aban- doned in favour of Hanmer's plausible emendation: "He's not past it yet, and I say to thee, he would," Ac. — plausible, but surely less characteristic of Lucio and his reckless Bcandal-mongering than the expression in the Folio ; an expression explained well enough by Foins' remark con- cerning Falstaff (II. Henry IV. ii. 4. 283, 284): "Is it not strange that desire should so many years outlive perfor- mancet" The parenthetic "and 1 say to thee" is merely an emphatic pressing home of the point.
149 Line 232: the Sec— Ff. read Sea, a spelling not uncommon at the time. Furnivall and Stone quote Hall's Chronicles, 1548, ed. 1809, p. 789, 1. 3: "the Sea Apostolick;" and Stow's Annals, 1605. p. 1058, 1. 14: "the sea of Rome."
150. Line 237: and it is as dangerous . . . as.— This is the correction of F. 3 and F. 4 of the reading of F. 1 and F. 2: and as it is as dangerous.
151. Line 278: Grace to stand, and virvw 00; i.e. "to go." "He should have grace to withstand temptation, ami virtue to go (walk) uprightly" (Furnivall and Stone, note).
152 Line 287: How may likeness, made in crimes, &C Many attempts have been made to amend this pat or to explain it. Mr. W. G. stone attempts a paraphrase in his notes on Measure for Measure (New Shakspere So- ciety's Transactions, part iii. p. 115*): "How may a real affinity ot guilt (like that which attaches to Angelo, who meditates the same crime for which he has condemned Claudio), practising upon the world, draw with smb gos- samer threads as hypocritical pretences the solid advan- tages of honour, power," Ac. The addition of to in line
ACT IV. Scene 1.
NOTES TO MEASURE FOE MKASLKK.
A' I IV. Scene 1.
289 is not without confirmation, in the usage of Shake- speare's time.
ACT IV. Scene 1.
153. Line 1: Take, 0, take these lips away.— This song appears again in Fletcher's Bloody Brother, v. 2, with the addition of the following stanza:
Hide, O hide those hills of snow
Which thy frozen bosom bears, On whose tops the pinks that grow
Are of those that April wears ; But first set my poor heart free, Bound in those icy chains by thee.
The two stanzas are also found in the spurious edition of .Shakespeare's Poems, 1640; and it has been supposed by some that the same hand wrote the whole poem. It seems equally certain that Shakespeare did write the first stanza, and that he did not write the second. In the first place, the added stanza is of obviously poorer stuff than the original one — as inferior as Fletcher is to Shake- speare. In the second place, the original stanza is so written as to afford a very beautiful refrain in the last two lines:
But my kisses bring again,
Bring again ; Seals of love, but seal'd in vain,
Seal'd in vain.
The added stanza is written with no such intention; and a, refrain is impossible, without a perfect dislocation of sense, thus: "poor heart free," and "chains by thee." I <io not think there is anything very surprising in Flet- cher's using and continuing a song of Shakespeare's. Literary property was not then very strictly guarded; and both before and since there have been instances of apparently unfinished poems completed by other hands.
154. Line IS: much upon this time have I promised here TO meet. — Meet is used intransitively in Merry Wives, ii. 3. 5: "'Tis past the hour, sir, that Sir Hugh promised to meet;" and in As You Like It, v. 2. 129: " as you love Phebe, meet: and as I love no woman, I'll meet. "
155. Line 21: I do CONSTANTLY believe you.— Constantly here means firmly; the word is used in the same sense in Troilus and Cressida, iv. 1. 40-42:
I constantly do think —
Or, rather, call my thought a certain knowledge — My brother Troilus lodges there to-night.
In the other sense of firmly, i.e. with firmness of mind, it is used in Julius Caesar, v. 1. 92:
To meet all perils very constantly.
156 Line 30: a planched gate.— Steevens cites Sir Arthur Gorges' translation of Lucan's Pharsalia, 1G14, p. 18 (bk. i.):
Like a proud Courser bred in Thrace, Accustom'd to the running race, Who when he heares the Trumpets noyse, The shouts and cryes of men and boyes, (Though in the stable close vp-pent) Yet, with his hoofes, doth beat and rent The /l.iiic/itii fioore, the barres and chaines, Vntill he have got loose the raines.
157. Lines 34-36:
There have I made my prom Upon the heavy middle of the night To call upon him.
The Ff. arrange these lines thus:
There have 1 made my promise, vpon the Heauy midle of the night, to call vpon him.
The arrangement adopted in the text was proposed to Dyce by Lord Tennyson in 1844. It is adopted by Dyce, the Cambridge, and the Old-Spelling editors, Ac, and seems unquestionably right.
158. Line 40: In action all of precept. — " Showing the several turnings of the way with his hand" (Warburton).
159. Line 62: contrarious. — Used only here and in I. Henry IV. v. 1. 52:
And the contrarious winds that held the king. Quests is F. 2's correction of the quest of F. 1.
160. Line 64: make thee the father of their idle DREAM — So Ff. and Old-Spelling editors ; Pope's emendation dreams is almost universally followed. It seems to me more probable than not, but not certain, and I have allowed the original reading to stand.
161. Lines 74, 75 :
Sith that the justice of your title to lii)ii Doth flourish the deceit.
This is the only instance of flourish used as a verb in the sense obviously intended here. But flourish is often used as a noun with somewhat the same signification ; e.g. Sonnet lx. 9:
Time doth transfix the nourish set on youth;
i.e. the "varnish, gloss, ostentatious embellishment'' (Schmidt).
162. Line 76: Our corn's to reap, for yet our TILTH 'S to sow.—Y. 1, F. 2, F. 3 print tithes; F. 4 tythes, which Knight, the Cambridge editors, &c, retain. Johnson takes the word by metonymy for harvest, and Knight suggests that tithe may be understood as meaning " the proportion that the seed which is sown bears to the har- vest." The reading adopted in the text is Warburtou's very probable conjecture, to which great support is given by the passage in Markham's English Husbandman, 1635 (quoted in the Variorum Sh. ix. 145): "After the begin- ning of March you shall begin to sowe your barley iipon that ground which the year before did lie fallow, and is commonly called your tilth or fallowfield."
[I cannot find tilth in any of the numerous provincial
glossaries that I have searched ; but Halliwell in his
Archaic and Provincial Dictionary gives a quotation from
Gower:
So that the tiltke is ny3e forlorne,
Whiche Criste sewe with his owen honde.
—MS. Soc. Antiq. 134 f. 138,
which seems very appropriate, for there he speaks of sowing tilth; and Richardson, sub voce, gives a quotation from Appollonius Rhodius, Argon, b. iv. :
O'er the rough tilth he cast his eyes around, And soon the plough of adamant he found. And yokes of brass,
233
ACT IV. Si
NOTES TO MEASUEE FOR MEASURE.
ACT IV. Scene 2.
where it seems to mean "ground to be tilled." Fawkes appears to have published his translation in 1701.— F. A. M]
ACT IV. SCENK -J.
163. Line 30: mystery.— The word mystery is used by Shakespeare Beveral times for trade or profession; three times in the present scene; once in Othello, iv. 2. 30; and twice in Timon, iv. 1. IS; iv. 3. 458. [It is well to remem- ber that the word mystery in the sense of a trade, occu- pation, or art, is quite a different word from mystery in it- ordinary sense = " anything kept concealed, a secret rite;" the latter being derived through the Latin mys~ terium, from the Greek at/a-rsj/e*; while mystery, or mis- tery, as it should be spelt, is from the Middle English mistere, a word used by Chaucer, and is no doubt adapted from the old French meatier, which Cotgrave translates "a trade, occupation, mistery." As Skeat says, the two words have been sadly confused. Spenser uses mysterie = "the soldier's occupation" in Prosopopoia or Mother Hubberds Tale:
Shame light on him that through so false illusion. Doth turue the name of Souldiers to abusion, And that which is the noblest mysterie. Brings to reproach and common infamie,
— Pp. 6, 7, ed. 1617. — F. A. M.]
164. Lines 46-50:
Abhor. Every true man's apparel Jits your thief. Pom. If it be ton little, &c.
The distribution of speakers in the text is that of the Ff. Almost all the editors since Capell, including even the Old-Spelling editors, have given the whole passage, from Every tnn< man's apparel to so every true man's apparel Jits your thief, to Abhorson. But I consider the admissibility of the original reading to have been unite proved by Cowden Clarke in the following passage, quoted by Rolfe: " Abhorson states his proof that hang- ing is a mystery by saying, ' Every true man's apparel fits your thief,' and the Clown, taking the words out of his mouth, explains them after his own fashion, and ends by saying, to (in this way, or thus) every tine man's apparel jits your thief '. Moreover, the speech is much more in character with the clown's Bnip-snap style of chop-logic than with Abhorson 's manner, which is remarkably curt and bluff."
165 Line 54: he <intii oftener ask forgiveness.— Thia is an allusion to the practice, common among executioners, of asking the pardon of those whom they were about to send out of the world. Compare As You Like It, iii. 5. 3-0: The common executioner. Whose heart th' accustom'd sight of death makes hard, Falls not the axe upon the humbled neck Hut first begs pardon.
166. Line 50: and I hope, if you have occasion t<> use
for your Own turn, yon shall find me YARE. — The woid, which occurs several times in Shakespeare, is from L8 r< "". ready. There is a curious parallel to the use of this word in its present connection, in Antony and Cleopatra, iii 18 129, 130:
A haltcr'd neck which docs the hangman thank ! r being yore about him.
234
167 Line 86: meal'd. — Johnson's explanation, "sprinkled,
defiled," seems preferable to Blackstone's derivation from I'r metier, mingled, compounded.
168. Line 89: seldom when; i.e. 'tis seldom when. Com- pare II. Henry IV. iv. 4. 79, 80:
'T is seldotn when the bee doth leave her comb In the dead carrion.
169. Line 92: the unsistino postern— This is an expres- sion never satisfactorily explained, unless the guess of the Old-Spelling editors can be said to solve the difficulty. They suggest that the word may be derived from sisto, which is sometimes intransitive, and that tuisistiny may thus mean "shaking."
170. Line 103: This is his lordship's man.— Ff. Lords. The correction was made by Pope. " In the MS. plays of our author's time they often wrote Lo. for Lord, and Lord, for Lordship; and these corrections were some- times improperly followed in the printed copies" (Ma- lone).
171. Lines 103, 104:
Duke. This is his lordship's man.
Prov. And here comes Claudia's pardon.
This is the reading of the Ff. , and I do not see any certain reason why it should be altered, as most editors, follow- ing Tyrwhitt's conjecture, have altered it, by the trans- position of the speakers' names. Tyrwhitt bases hisehange on the seeming inconsistency of the Provost's words. " He has just declared a fixed opinion that the execution will not be countermanded; and yet, upon the first en- trance of the messenger, he immediately guesses that his errand is to bring Claudio's pardon." I cannot see any real inconsistency in this. The Provost, judging from what he knows of Angelo's character, has said that he has no expectation of a remand. At that moment Angelo's ser- vant enters. " This is his lordship's man," says the Duke significantly. "And here comes Claudio's pardon!" cries the Provost, now at last convinced. Is not all this very natural? The Provost, despite the opinion he holds to the contrary, has just confessed that "haply" the pre- tended friar may be in the secret, and "something know." Would not the unexpected entrance of Angelo's servant— at so very unusual an hour ("almost day," as he says in leaving)— force a strong probability on the Pro- vost's mind that after all the friar is right? Another imaginary inconsistency is brought forward by Knight in support of the charge: that of the Provost's first saying. "Here comes Claudio's pardon," and then, "I told yon [that he had no chance of a pardon]." Here again the process of mind is quite natural. Having read the letter, and found out what it really is, the provost is of course in the same mind as before as to Angelo's character, and the Improbability of his pardoning Claudio. Thus, when the Duke questions him, "What news?" he replies (ignor- ing his momentary change of front), "I told you;" that is, "I told you before that Claudio must die."
172. Line 135: one that is a prisoner nine years old. Compare Hamlet, iv. 0. 15: "Ere we were tiro days old at sea
173. Lines 1S7-189: Shave the head, and TIE the beard; and
ACT IV. Scene 2.
NOTES TO MEASURE FOR MEASIHK.
ACT iv. Scene 3.
say it was the desire of the penitent to be so bar'd.— So Ff., and there seems no reason to suppose there is any error, though Dyce reads trim, ami Simpson conjectures dye. Band, immediately following, has reference chiefly, no doubt, to the shaving of the head (probably receiving the tonsure, in order to die in the odour of sanctity); but it may also refer to the tying hack of the beard ; for, as Dyce notes, we have in All's Well, iv. 1. 54, the expression, "the baring of my beard."
174. Line 205: attempt; i.e. tempt, as in Merchant of Venice, iv. 1. 421:
Dear sir, of force I must attempt you further.
ACT IV. Scene 3.
175. Line 5: he's in for a commodity of FROWN paper. — Steevens cites Middleton, Michaelmas Term, 1607, ii. 3: "I know some gentlemen in town has been glad, and are glad at this time, to take up commodities in hawks hoods and brown paper " (Works, vol. i. p. 451) ; and R. Daven- port, A New Tricke to Cheat the Divell, 1G36, i. 2, fol. B:
Vsurer. . . . What newes in Holborne, Fleet-street, and the Strand? In th' Ordinaries among Gallants, no young Heires There to be snapp'd?
Scrivener. Th' have bin so bit already With taking up Commodities of browne paper. Buttons past fashion, silkes, and Sattins, Babies and childrens Fiddles, with like trash Tooke up at a deare rate, and sold for trifles.
Malone quotes the following passage relating to the prac- tices of the money-lenders from Nash, Christs Teares ouer Ierusalem, 1593, fol. 46: "He falls acquainted with Gen- tlemen, frequents Ordinaries and Diciug-houses dayly, where when some of them (in play) haue lost all theyr mony, he is very diligent at hand, on their Chaynes, or Bracelets, or Iewels, to lend them half e the value: Now this is the nature of young Gentlemen that where they haue broke the Ise, and borrowd once, they will come againe the seconde time ; and that these young foxes knowe, as well as the Begger knows his dish. But at the second time of their comming, it is doubtful whether they shall haue money or no. The worlde growes harde, and wee all are mortal, let them make him any assurance before a Iudge, and they shall haue some hundred poundes (per consequence) in Silks & Veluets. The third time if they come, they shall haue baser commodities: the fourth time Lute strings and gray Paper."
176. Line 21: "for the Lord's sake." — Malone compares Nash (Apologie for Pierce Pennilesse, 1593): "At that time that thy joys were in the fleeting, and thus crying for the Lord's sake out at an iron window;" and Papers Complaint, in The Scourge of Folly, 1611, p. 241, by John Davies (of Hereford):
Good gentle Writers, ./or the Lord sate, for the Lord sake. Like Lud-gate Pris'ner, lo, I (begging) make my mone to you.
Compare Heywood, A Woman Killed with Kindness, iii. 1:
Agen to prison? Malby, hast thou seene A poore slave better tortur'd? Shall we heare The musicke of his voice cry from the grate, " Meateyor the Lord's sate."
— Works, vol. ii. p. 116.
177. Line 43: / would desire /ton to OLAP INTO yon- prayers.— The phrase to clap '»'" is used again byShake- speare in Much Ado, iii. 4. 44: "Clap's into Light o' Love;" and As You Like It, v. 3. 11: "Shall we clap into 't roundly?"
178. Lines 92, 93:
Ere twice the sun hath made his journal greeting To THE UNDER GENERATION.
The word journal for diurnal is used again in Cymbeline,
iv. 2. 10: "Stick to your journal course." The Ff. read, in the next line, To yond generation. The emendation adopted in the text is that of Hanmer, who suggested that the yond of the Ff. was due to a misreading of ye ond', a contraction for the under. Pope reads yonder, Steevens takes the under generation to mean the Antipodes, and cites Richard II. iii. 2. 38. Dyce, understanding by the term "the generation who live on the earth beneath, — mankind in general," cites Lear, ii. 2. 170:
Approach, thou beacon to this under globe ; and Tempest, iii. 3. 53-55:
You are three men of sin, whom Destiny, That hath to instrument this lenuer world And what is in 't," &c.
179. Line 104: By cold gradation and WEi.L-BALANCED form. — F. 1, F. 2, F. 3 read weale -balanced ; F. 4 weal balanced, probably by a mere misprint; though some editors take iceal-balanced to mean "adhered to for the public weal. " The correction was made by Rowe.
180. Line 133: covent. — An alternative form of convent, used again in Henry VIII. iv. 2. 19. Some editors read convent, but as the Cambridge editors remark, "Shake- speare's ear would hardly have tolerated the harsh-sound- ing line:
One of our c6nvent and his c6nfessor."
Coles (Latin Dictionary) has:
Covent canobiitm, conventus monachorum.
181. Lines 137, 138:
If you can, pace your wisdom
In that good path that I would wish it go. The comma after can was inserted by Rowe: the Ff. read: "If you can pace your wisdome." The reading in the text is that usually followed. Rolfe adopts the conjecture of the Cambridge editors (not adopted by them):
If yon can pace your wisdom
In that good path that I would have ii,
182 Line 139: And you. shall have your bosom on this wretch— A somewhat similar example of this use of the word bosom is found in Winter's Tale, iv. 4. 573-"'7.">: he shall not perceive But that you have your father's bosom there And speak his very heart.
183. Line 171: he's a better woodman than thou tak'st
him for.— Reed compares Beaumont and Fletcher, The
Chances, i. 8:
Well, well, son John,
I see you are a woodman, and can choose
Your deer tho' it be i' the dark.
— Works, vol. i. p. 49S.
184. Line 1S4: the rotten medlar.— Compare As You Like It, iii. 2. 126: " you 11 be rotten ere you be half ripe, and that 's the right virtue of the medlar.''
235
ACT IV Scene 4.
NOTES TO MEASURE FOR MEASURE.
ACT V. Scene 1.
ACT IV. Scene 4.
185 Line 6: reliver our authorities there?— So F. 1; the later Ft deliver; modern editors read redeliver, which Is, in any case, the meaning of the word. Mr. Stone, in his notes "ii Measure for Measure (New Sh. Soc. Trans, part iii. p. 116), observes that Cotgrave has " Relivrer, to redeliver;" and that Iieliverer, to redeliver, appears in Kelham's < >l.l French Dictionary. Ducange gives Iiede- liberare, explaining it as " Iterum liberare, seu tradere," which he confirms by a quotation from a charter of 1502 (apud Rymer, torn. 13, pag. 53, col. 1). The uneompounded Low Latin verbs liberare, librare, and livrare, were all used in the sense of the French livrer.
186. Lines 19, 20:
Give notice to such men of SORT AND SUIT
As are to meet him. This means men of rank (sort: compare Much Ado, i. 1. 7, and note 3), and such as owed attendance to the prince as their liege lord (compare the term of feudal law: stiit and service).
187. Line 28: How mi<jht she TONGUE me .'—Compare Cymbeline, v. 4. 146, 147:
'T is still a dream, or else such stuff as madmen Tongue and brain not.
188. Line 29: For my authority bears of a credent bulk.
—So the first three Ft ; F. 4. changes of to off. Schmidt
explains the phrase of a credent bulk, as "weight of
credit."
ACT IV. Scene 5.
189. Line 5: Though sometimes you do BLENCH from this to that— Compare Winter's Tale, i. 2. 333: "Could man so blench!" and Troilus and Cressida, ii. 2. 67, 68:
there can be no evasion To blench from this, and to stand firm by honour.
190. Line 6: Flavins' house — Ff. have Flauia's. The emendation is Rowe's.
191. Line 8: To Valentius, Rowland, and to Crassus. — Ff. Valencius. The reading in the text is adopted by the Cambridge editors, though in the Globe edition they read, with Capell, Valentinus.
192. Line 9 : the trumpets; i.e. the trumpeters, as in Henry v. iv. 2. 61:
I will the banner from a trumpet take.
Shakespeare uses the form trumpeter as well, but four times only against five.
ACT IV. Scene 6.
193. Line 13: The generous and gravest citizens.— The ellipsis here is a common one in Elizabethan English. Ben Jouson has "The soft and sweetest music;" and see the other quotations in Abbott's Shakespearian Grammar, par
194. Line 14: hent — This word is used again in Winter's
Tale, iv. 3. 133:
And merrily hent the stile-a ;
and, as a noun, in Hamlet, iii. 3. 88:
Up, sword, and know thou a more horrid hent.
See note mi the latter passage.
236
ACT V. Scene 1.
195 Line 20: Vail your regard.— Compare Venus and Adonis, 956: "She vail'd her eyelids." Boyer (French Dictionary) has "To vail one's Bonnet, (to pull off one's Hat I Se tlecmivrir, lever ton Chapeau a quelqxt'un."
196. Lines 73, 74:
One Lucio
AS THEN the messenger.
As is frequently joined to expressions of time in Shake- speare. Compare Tempest, i. 2. 70: "as at that time;" and Romeo and Juliet, v. 3. 247:
That he should hither come as this dark night.
197. Line 158: Whensoever he 's CONVENTED. — Convent, for summon, is used also in Coriolanus, ii. 2. 58, 59:
We are consented Upon a pleasing treaty;
and in Henry VIII. v. 1. 50-52:
hath commanded . . . He be converted.
It is used in a somewhat different sense in Twelfth Night, v. 1. 391.
198. Line 168: First, let her show her face.— This is the correction found in F.2 of the evident error in F.l. " your face."
199 Line 205: This is a strange ABUSE.— Abuse here means deception, as in Hamlet, iv. 7. 51:
Or is it some abuse, and no such thing?
and Macbeth, iii. 4. 142, 143:
My strange and se\(-abuse Is the initiate fear that wants hard use.
200. Line 212: garden-house— Malone compares The London Prodigal, 1605, v. 1: "If you have any friend, or garden-house where you may employ a poor gentleman 08 your friend, I am yours to command in all secret Bervice" (Tauchnitz ed. p. 268). Reed refers to, but does not quote the following passage from Stubbes, Anatomic of Abuses, 1597: "In the Feeldes and Suburbes of the Cities tlui bane gardens, either palled, or walled round about very high, with their Harbers and Bowers fit for the purpose " [i.e. for assignations].— New Shak. Soc. Reprint, p. 88.
201. Line 219: her promised proportions. — Compare Two Gent, of Verona, ii. 3. 3: "I have receiv'd my pro- portion," i.e. my portion or allotment. The word is also used in the same sense in the prose part of Pericles, iv. 2. 29.
202 Line 236: These poor INFORMAL women.— This is
Shakespeare's only use of the word informal; but he uses
formal in the sense of sane, in Comedy of Errors, v. 1.
105:
To make of him ^formal man again,
i.e. to bring him back to his senses; and in much the same sense in Twelfth Night, ii 5. 128: "this is evident to any formal capacity."
203 Line 242: COMPACT with her that's gone; > e. leagued in conspiracy. The only other instance of this sense of the word in Shakespeare is in a doubtful passage in Lear, ii. 2. 125, 126, where the Ff. read:
ACT V. Scene 1.
NOTES TO MEASURE FOR MEASURE.
ACT V. Scene 1.
When he compact, and flattering his displeasure, Tript me behind.
The Qq. reading is conjunct, which is perhaps preferable.
204. Line 2G3: Cucullus non facit monachnm.— This proverb seems to have been a favourite with Shakespeare. He has quoted it in the Latin twice (here and in Twelfth Night, i. 5. 02), and given three translations of it; liter- ally, in Henry VIII. iii. 1. 23: "All hoods make not monks;" and freely here ("honest in nothing but in his clothes") and in Twelfth Night (" that s as much to say as, 1 wear not motley in my brain"). The proverb is quoted in Promos and Cassandra, pt. I. iii. 6:
A holie Hoode makes not a Frier devoute.
205. Line 2S1: women are light at midnight— The ob- vious quibble on light is one of Shakespeare's favourite puns. Compare Merchant of Venice, v. 1. 129, 130:
Let me give light, but let me not be light; For a light wife doth make a heavy husband.
206. Lines 320, 321:
Where I have seen corruption BOIL AND BUBBLE Till it oer-run the STEW. Steevens compares Macbeth, iv. 1. 19:
Like a hell-broth boil and bubble.
Stew may mean here a stew-pan, or its contents. The metaphor is taken of course from the kitchen, with an afterthought perhaps of the stews.
207. Lines 322-324:
the strong statutes
Stand like the forfeits in a barber's shop,
As much in mock as mark. " These shops," says Nares, "were places of great resort, for passing away time in an idle manner. By way of enforcing some kind of regularity, and perhaps at least as much to promote drinking, certain laws were usually hung up, the transgression of which was to be punished by specific forfeitures. It is not to be wondered, that laws of that nature were as often laughed at as obeyed." [In my copy of F. 4, which has some annotations in MS., I find the following note on this passage: "It is a custom in the shops of all mechanicks to make it a for- feiture for any stranger to use or take up the tools of their trade. In a Barber's shop especially, when hereto- fore Barbers practis'd the under parts of surgery their In- struments being of a nice kind, and their shops generally full of Idle people " [a written list was displayed i] "shew- ing what particular forfeiture was required for meddling." This note is much to the same purpose as Warburton's in the Var. Ed. ad locum.— F. A. m.]
208. Line 346: Hark, hoiv the villain would CLOSE now. —Compare Two Gent, of Verona, ii. 5. 13: " after they clos'd in earnest, they parted very fairly in jest;" and Troilus and Cressida, iii. 2. 51: "an 'twere dark, you'd close sooner;" where close is used, as here, in the sense of coming to an agreement. It is oftener followed by with; e.g. Winter's Tale, iv. 4. 830: "close with him, give him gold. "
209 Line 353: Away with those GIGLOTS too.—Giglot
1 There is a hiatus here in the MS.
(spelt giglet in Ff.) is used as an adjective (meaning, as here, loanton) in I. Henry VI. iv. 7. 41: "a giglot wench;" and Cymbeline, iii. i. 31: "O giglot fortune!"
210. Line 358: Shoio your sheep-biting face, and be hanged AN hour!— On sheep-biting, see note on sheep- biter in Twelfth Night, ii. 5. 6 (note 133). "Be hanged an hour" seems to have been something of a colloquialism. A n hour appears to mean nothing in particular, but to be intended to emphasize the expression in which it occurs. Gifford has a long note on the subject in his edition of Ben Jonson (vol. iv. pp. 421, 422), suggested by a passage in The Alchemist, v. 1:
like unto a man That had been strangled an hour and could not speak.
— Works, vol. iv. p. 162.
". . . Strangled an hour, &c. (though Lovewit perversely catches at the literal sense to perplex his informant) has no reference to duration of time, but means simply suffo- cated, and therefore, unable to utter articulate sounds. A similar mode of expression occurs in Measure for Mea- sure: 'Shew your sheep-biting face, and be hanged an hour!'"
Gifford then refers to the following passage in Bartholo- mew Fair, ii. 1: —
Leave the bottle behind you, and be curst awhilel
In his note on that passage he refers to the passage in As You Like It. i. 1. 38:
Marry, sir, be better employed, and be naught awhile I
and then continues as follows:
" It is not easy to ascertain the origin of this colloquial vulgarism; but that the explanation of Warburton (which Steevens is pleased to call 'far-fetched') is as correct as it is obvious, may be proved 'by witnesses more than my pack will hold.' It will be sufficient to call two or three:
"The first shall be our poet:
Peece and be naught I I think the woman 's frantic.
—Tale of a Tub.
plain boy's play
More manly would become him.
Lady. You would have him
Do worse then, would you, and be naught, you owlet !
— New Academy.
"Again:
Come away, and be naught a whylet
— Storie of Kyng Darius.
"Again:
Nay, sister, if I stir a foot, hang me ; you shall come together of yourselves, and be naught 1 —Green's Tu Quoque.
"Again:
What, piper, hoi be hanged awhile I
—Old Madrigal. "And, lastly:
Get you both in, and be naught awhile I
— Swetnam.
"It is too much, perhaps, to say that the words 'an hour,' 'a while,' are pure expletives; but it is sufficiently apparent that they have no perceptible influence on the exclamations to which they are subjoined. To conclude. 'be naught, hanged, curst,' &c. with or without an hour, a while, wherever found, bear invariably one and the same meaning; they are, in short, pithy and familiar maledictions, and cannot be better rendered than in the 237
ACT V. Scene 1.
NOTES TO MEASURE FOR MEASURE.
A l I V Scene 1.
words ol Warburton — a plague, or a mischief on you!" (Jonson's Works, vol. iv. pp. 421, 422).
211. Line 383: which consummate. — Consummate isused again as a participle ( - being consummated) in Much Ado, iii 2 2.
212. Line 3S7: Advertising and holy to your business. — < lompare i- 1. 42 above:
To one that . an my part in him ad~e'rtisc.
213. Lines 390-392:
0, give me pardon,
That I, your vassal, have employ'd and PAIN'D
Your unknown sovereignty ! This is the only instance in Shakespeare of the verb to jKiin being used in the sense of putting to trouble or lainiur; but painful is not infrequently used with the meaning of laborious, as in Tempest, iii. 1. 1: "some sports are painful;" ami painfully is twice used in the sense of laboriously: in Love's Labour's Lost, i. 1.74: "painfully to pore upon a book;" and in King John, ii. 1. 223, 224:
Who fainfntty with much expedient march Have brought a countercheck.
214. Line 397: Make rash REMONSTRANCE of my hidden power. — This is the only example of the word remon- strance in Shakespeare; here it evidently means demon- stration, manifestation. Dyce cites from Arrowsmith's Shakespeare's Editors and Commentators, p. 28, the fol- lowing quotations: Baruabe Barnes, The Divil's Charter, 1G07, i. 4, sig. B, 3:
Your sonne shall make remonstrance of his valour;
W. Barclay, The Lost Lady, 1639, p. 4:
with all remonstrances Of love, &C.J Taylor, Sermons, 1653, iv. p. 1G2, senn. 13, part 2: "mani- fested in such visible remonstrances;" Smith, Posthumous Sermons, 1744: " to make remonstrance and declaration of what he thinks " (vol. ix. p. 78, serm. 3).
215. Line 406 : Whose SALT imagination. — Compare Othello, ii. 1. 244: " the better compassing of his salt and in -t hidden loose affection."
216. Line 416: MEASI HE still FOR MEASURE — Mcasu re
for measure, in the sense of "like for like," seems to
have been a common phrase. It is used in III. Henry VI.
ii. 6. 54:
Measure for measttre must be answered;
and Steevens cites the same phrase from A Warning for lair Women, 1599 (lines 898, 899):
Then triall now rcmaines, as shall conclude, i ture/or measure, and lost blond for bloud.
— School of Shakspere, vol. ii. p. 304.
217 Line 428: Although by confutation they are ours. — SoK. 1; K. 2 reads confiscation, which has been followed by all the editors. The editors of the Old-Spelling Shak- spere have been the first to explain the meaning of the word confutation, and to restore it to its place in the text I give the substance of their note, as it appears, in a Blightly condensed form, in the New Shakspere So- . i> t\'s Transactions, 1880-86, part iii. pp. 118M17": "Al- though the sb. conftttatio, conviction, was unknown, there were examples of the post classical use of the vb. con- 238
future, to convict. In Amniianus Mareellinus. lib, xxvi. cap. 3, and the Theodosian Code, lib. xi. tit. viii. respec- tively, the past participles confutatos and confutatus oc- cur, the context showing that in both cases they bear the meaning of convicted.
" Moreover, as Angelo's crime was murder, not treason, conviction would be the proper English term for express- ing the antecedent cause of his forfeiture. 'Lands are forfeited upon attainder, and not before; goods and chattels are forfeited by conviction' (Blackstone's Com- mentaries, iv. 387, ed. 1873).
"There was another possible meaning for confutation. The Catholicon Anglicum, p. 263, has: ' to Ouer come; confundere, fundere, confutare, debellare,' Ac. Now apply this definition metaphorically to Angelo's circum- stances, and it might be said that he had been vanquished in single combat with his accuser Isabel. We, having no trial by battle, by duel of accuser and accused, which was frequent in early days, forget that overcoming your ad- versary was in fact convicting him of the crime of which you accused him, or he you. The addition of the mean- ing 'convict' to confutare, overcome, would follow as a matter of course."
218. Line 456: His act did not o'ertake his bad intent. — Malone compares the very closely parallel passage in Macbeth, iv. 1. 145, 146:
The flighty purpose never is o'ertook Unless the deed go with it.
219. Lines 495-498:
Jf he be like your brother, for his sake
Is uk pardon'd, — [Claudio discovers himself to Isa- bella -she rushes into his arms, and then kneels to Angelo,— and, for your lovely sake;
Give me your hand, [raising her] and say you will be mine,
lie is my brother too: [taking Claudio's hand] but fitter time for that.
In F. 1 the last three lines stand thus (without any stage- direction):
Is he pardon'd and for your louelie sake Giue me your hand, and say you will be mine. He is my brother too: But fitter time for that.
F. 4 has a comma after pardon'd and a semicolon after mine.
The awkwardness of the rhythm of line 496 is very manifest; and various emendations have been attempted, ilanmer reads He 's pardoned and rearranges the next two lines thus:
Give me your hand, say>o« 7/ be mine, and he's
My brother too.
All the difficulty as to rhythm would be got over if we could accentuate pardon'd on the second syllable; but I can find no instance of pardon, either verb or substantive, being so accentuated There is, however, no reason why it should not be, for it was originally spelt pardoun; and condone, the only other similar verb derived from the Latin dono, is always accentuated on the last syllable; the reason being because, in that case, the e mute is re- tained at the end of the word. Capell proposed: " Is he too pardon d?" to which Dyce very justly objects because
NOTES TO MEASURE FOR MEASURE.
ACT V. Scene 1.
of the too in the next line; and prints, apparently on his own responsibility, "Than is he pardon'd." It is easy to supply an extra syllable to make the line more rhythmical; I would suggest So rather than Then, but 1 should prefer to read "lie is pardon'd," letting the pause supply the place of the next syllable, but that the author seems to have wished to avoid the recurrence of He is at the be- ginning of two lines so close together. The dramatic force of the passage requires that the his in line 495 and the your in line 496 should be slightly accentuated.
The first important point to be considered is when does Isabella recognize Claudio? As the text stands, without any stage-direction, it would appear that Isabella took DO notice whatever of her brother when she finds he is alive; but, as has been pointed out by other commen- tators, Shakespeare wrote for the stage, and this recogni- tion of Claudio could easily take place inaction without any spoken words. In the acting version it takes place after the words Is he pardon'd, and Isabella is made to say 0, my dear brother! The next two and a half lines of the Duke's speech are omitted, and he resumes
By this Lord Angelo perceives he 's safe.
This, of course, gets rid of all difficulty, but to take such liberties with the text here is scarcely necessary. As the passage is arranged in our text, we imagine that Claudio —who is on the right side of the stage by the side of the Provost— having thrown off his disguise, turns round to Isabella at the word pardon'd; she interrupts the Duke by rushing across him to embrace her brother; and then, re- membering herself, kneels to express her respectful grati- tude. The Duke continues his interrupted sentence, and raises her from her knees, placing her on the left side of him. He then speaks the next line (497) holding her hand in his; and, at the words He is my brother too, turns to Claudio, giving him his hand as a confirmation of his pardon. The arrangement of the punctuation, adopted in our text, slightly alters the sense of the passage as printed by most modern editors; the words and for your lovely sake meaning that Claudio has been pardoned— as undoubtedly he was— chiefly for Isabella's sake. But, as the passage is usually punctuated, these words would mean that for Isabella's lovely sake, if she gave the Duke her hand, then he would consider Claudio his brother; but surely, in that case, the words for your lovely sake are redundant; for what the Duke meaus to say is that, if Isabella will marry him, he will look upon Claudio as his In-other. In any case the last sentence must be ellip- tical in its construction, being equivalent to "// you will give me your hand [in marriage], then he is my brother
too."— F. A. M.
220. Line 507: Wherein have 1 so deserv'd of you?— So the Ff.. which Pope took upon himself to "correct" as fol- lows:
Wherein have I deserved so of you;
a reading which Dyce says "at least restores the metre." I cannot conceive how any one (except Pope) could think the change an improvement metrically.
221. Line 510: / spoke it but ACCORDING TO THE TRICK. —Compare Lucio's jaunty words to Pompey, iii. 2. 53: " Is the world as it was, man? Which is the way ? Is it sad, and few words? or how? The trick of it?"
A<T v. Boene 1.
222. Line 515: If any woman's wrong" d '<;/ this lewd fellow. — Ff. read woman. The correction is due to Ilan- mer, and is generally adopted. The Cambridge editors read Is any woman.
223. Line 528: Marrying a punk, my lord, is pressing t" death, whipping and hanging. — There is a reference lure to that extraordinary freak of British law, the peine forte et dure, alluded to in Much Ado, iii. 1. 75, 76: "she would . . . press me to death with wit;" Richard II. iii. 4. 72:
O, I 3.xa press' d to death through want of speaking ! and Troilus, iii. 2. 218: "press it to death." On this punish- ment see note 178 on Much Ado. It is suggested in a letter in the Athenaeum of Feb. 23, 1884, signed H. C. Coote, that Shakespeare had also in mind an Italian law, in force during his lifetime in the States of the Church, by which a criminal could be released from the penalty of his crime on marrying a courtesan. In Prof. Fabio Gori's Archivio Storico, Artistico, Archeologico, e Let- tarario (Spoleto, Tip. Bassani), vol. iii. pp. 220, 221, is given, says Mr. Coote, "the petition of a Senese courtesan named Caterina de Geronime, living at Rome, to the governor of the city. It has been extracted from the public records of Rome, and may therefore be fully re- lied upon for truth and authenticity. This petition (sup plica), which is dated the 9th of February, 1611, sets forth that the lady has followed her profession for these twenty years ('sono 20 anni che sta in peccato') and now wishes to reform ('Hora si trova in volonta et [sic] fermo pro- posito di levarsi di peccato, et [sic] viver da donna da- bene et [sic] christianamente '). She then goes on to state- that Nicolb de Rubeis (i.e. de Rossi) di Assisi, alias Gattarello, who has been accused, though quite unjustly, of being a cheat at cards ('falso gioiatore'), he never having had such things as cards or dice in his possession, has been, through the persecution of his enemies, con- demned to exile from Rome and the States of the Church. The poor petitioner ('povera oratrice') has put up the banns between herself and the said >"icol6 in the church of S. Lorenzo in Lucina, and she implores his excellency the governor to remit to Nicolb his said exile, inasmuch as he wishes to relieve her from sin, which besides, she adds, will be a pious work. The governor has noted upon the memorial ' Concedatur.' Whatever may have been the value of the poor woman's opinion of her friend Nicott), there can be no doubt that she has represented the criminal law of the States of the Church with perfect accuracy, and that law was probably not confined to the Papal dominions. Some wandering Englishman had doubt- less heard of it, and told the poet, who, as we know, thirsted after all sorts of knowledge, and he afterwards applied it, as we have seen, to heighten the local colour of his play."
224. Line 545: What 's yet behind, THAT 's meet you all should know.—F. 1 reads that, by an obvious misprint; corrected in F. 2.
225. Line 538.— In the acting edition the following pas- sage (marked as a quotation) is substituted for the remain- ing eight lines of the Duke's speech, and the play con- cludes: .,, . , ,,
For thee, sweet saint— if for a brother sav d, From that most holy shrine thou wert devote to,
239
.VI V Scene 1.
NOTES TO MEASURE FOR MEASURE.
ACT V. Scene 1.
Thou deign to spare some portion toh, ev y 1 fo Thy Duke, thy friar, tempts thee from thy vow: [Isabel is falling on her knees, the Duke prevents her — kisses her hand, and proceeds with his speech.
In its right orb let thy true spirit shine,
Blessing both prince and people — thus we'll reign,
Rich in the possession of their hearts, and, warn'd
By the abuse of delegated trust.
Engrave this royal maxim on the mind.
To rule ourselves before we rule mankind.
Whence these lines come from I cannot discover. They certainly <lo not come from Gildon's version, which ends with a speech after "The last Musick," the concluding couplet of the Duke being:
Impartial Justice, Kings should mind alone For that 't is still perpetuates a throne.
On referring to Bell's edition, 1774, which is printed from
the Prompt Books, I find the speech concludes with the following lines:
Dear Isabel, I have a motion much imports your good. Shade not, sweet saint, those graces with a veil, Nor in a Nunnery hide thee; say thou'rt mine; Thy Duke, thy Friar, tempts thee from thy vows Let thy clear spirit shine in public life; No cloister'd sister, but thy Prince's Wife.
The last five are printed in italics by Bell; and, in a note, the editor adds "the five distinguished lines which con- clude, are an addition, by whom we know not; however, they afford a better finishing than that supplied by Shake- speare." Certainly none of the lines in either acting ver- sion are taken from Davenant's play, which indeed does not contain anything original so nearly approaching to poetry.— F. A. M.
WORDS OCCURRING ONLY IN MEASURE FOR MEASURE.
>"OTE.— The addition of sub., adj., verb, adv. in brackets immediately after a word indicates that the word is
used as a substantive, adjective, verb, or adverb only in the passage or passages cited.
The compound words marked with an asterisk (*) are printed as two separate words in F. 1.
Act Sc. Line
According1 v. 1 487
Adoptedly .... i. 4 47
Advisings (sub.) iii. 1 203
A«5 a (ni. 1 222
Affianced <
t v. 1 227
All-building... ii. 4 94
All-hallond.... ii. 1 130
Approbation^ . L 2 183
Attempts i. 4 79
Attorneyed*. .. v. 1 890
Audible' v. 1 413
Austereness ii. 4 155
Aves i. 1 71
Backed« iv. 1 29
Back wounding iii. 2 198
Baldpate v. 1 329
Bald-pated . . . . v. 1 35G
Bane » i. 2 133
'Bawd-born.... iii. 2 73
Bays ii. l 256
Bear'-* i. 3 47
1 Used adverbially — according- ly, as adj. used vi ry frequently.
- probation of a novice; used frequently elsewhere in other
■ Verb, used absolutely; used
transitively frequent ly el -e where.
4 — employed as an attorney.
I adverbially; as adj. ■-•- attentive, in i loriolanus, iv. 5. 238.
5 — having as a bark or limit;
i frequently elsewhere In other -
I Figuratively •> poison; used frequently elsewhere — destruc- tion, ruin.
note 67. » = t" Wliave.
Act Sc. Line
Belocked v. 1 210
Belongings i. 1 30
Billets iv. 3 58
Birch i. 3 24
Breather".... iv. 4 31
'Bringings-forth iii. 2 152
Cardinally"... ii. l Si
Carnally v. 1 214
Characts v. 1 56
China" ii. 1 97
Circummured.. iv. 1 28
Clack-dish iii. 2 135
Combinate iii. 1 231
Commandments13 i. 2 7,12
Concupiscible . v. l 08
Confessed >4 ... v. 1 533
Confixed v. 1 232
Confutation!5.. v. 1 428
Conserve10 iii. 1 88
Contracting (sub.) iii. 2 296
Counsellors1".. i. 2 111
Custom-shrunk i. 2 85
10 = aspeaker; = a human being, in three other passages.
u Elbow's blonder for carnally.
12 — porcelain.
IS =the Ten f'ommandments.
14 I'sed transitively in its ,,,!,•■ BiagUcal sense; in same sense in- trans. Rom, and Jul. It. i. 23; used very frequently in its ordi- nary tense elsewhere.
is _ conviction. See note 217.
ii to preserve; In culinary sense in Othello, iii. 4. 75.
i" lawyers; used frequently ■ i-i u here —advisers.
•JUl
Act Sc. Line
Definitive v. 1 432
Denunciation.. i. 2 152
Dependency18. v. 1 62
Dependent" (adj.) v. 1 411
Disguiaer iv. 2 186
Dismissed so.... ii. 2 102
Disvalued v. 1 221
Disvouched ... iv. 4 1
Doubleness iii. 1 267
Dribbling i. 3 2
Dukes (verb) . . iii. 2 100
Emmew iii. 1 91
Enshield ii. 4 80
Enskyed i. 4 34
Escapes2i iv. 1 o:s
Eve ** ii. 1 180
Facing iii. 2 11
Fewness i. 4 39
Fishmonger . . v. 1 337
Flourish 23 v. 1 75
Forenamed .... iii. 1 248
18 = consistency ; occurs in slightly different sense in i ym- beline, ii. 3. 123; Ant. and Cleo.
v. s. as,
19 =. occasioned by something previous.
20 = pardoned; used in various other senses elsewhere.
21 = sallies ; used elsewhere in
utll'T -' -
22i.e All-hallond eve.
sd tniu-itivcly = to colour; also transitively =^to brandish, Bom. and Jul i. l. 85; used in- transitively frequently elsewhere.
Act Sc. Line
Fornicatress... ii. 2 23
Forted v. 1 12
*Fruit-dish .... ii. 1 95
Garden-house., v. l 212,229
Generative.... iii. 2 118
Giglots v. 1 351
Gnarled ii. 2 lift
Gratulate (adj.) v. 1 535
Head 24 iii. i 91
Head s« (verb)., ii. 1 250,251
Helmed iii. 2 150-
Hot-house ii. 1 66
House-eaves. . iii. 2 186
Husband 20 .... iii. 2 75
Immoderate ... i. 2 131
Inequality v. 1 65
Infliction i. 3 28
Informal v. 1 236
Ingots iii. 1 26
Instate v. 1 429
Institutions i. 1 11
InwardM (sub.) iii. 2 133
Lamb-skins. Leavened . . .
Manifested 2».. iv.
2 9
1 52
2 170
24 =a bud.
25 = to decapitate.
26 = ,,ne who keeps house; used frequently elsewhere in other senses.
27 =a confidant; as adj. with similar meaning in Rich. III. iii- 4. B; used both as sub. and adj. in other passages.
■-• I' seil adject ively.
WOKDS PECULIAR TO MEASURE FOR MEASURE.
Act Sc. Liuc
Mealed iv. 2 8t>
Mercer iv. 3 11
Misreport v. l 148
Moated iii. l 277
.Morality i. 2 138
Mother* i. 4 86
Mouth- (verb), iii. 2 194
"New-conceived ii. 2 96
Nicety ii. 4 182
Notedly v. l 335
Offenceful ii. 3 26
'Outward-sainted iii. 1 89
Over-read iv. 2 212
Overweigh ii. 4 157
*Parcel-bawd . . ii. 1 63
Pardoner iv. 2 112
Pass* i. 3 38
Passes* v. 1 375
Penitently iv. 2 147
Perdurably. . .. iii. l nr>
Permissive .... i. 3 38
Pick-lock iii. 2 18
Piled i. 2 35
Planched iv. 1 30
Plausible iii. 1 254
Pose (verb) .... ii. 4 51
Pre-contract... iv. 1 72
Prenzie iii. 1 94, 97
i Applied to an abbess or prioress.
- Mouth with, i.e. exchange kisses on the mouth with; the verb is used in other senses else- where.
3 =
permission.
4 = proceedings. Used in Sonn. ciii. 11 in singular, per- haps in game sense.
VOL. V.
Id Sc. bine
Prioress i. 4 11
Procures8 iii. 2 58
Prolixious ii. 4 Ki2
Promise-breach v. 1 410
'Promise-keeping i. 2 77
Prompture . . . . ii. 4 178
Propagation... i. 2 154
Provincial' v. l 318
Provost i. 2 117, etc.
Razure v. l 18
Ready (money) iv. 3 S
Rebate i. 4 oo
Refelled v. 1 94
Remissness ii. 2 96
Remonstrance, v. l 397
Renouncement i. 4 35
Kent" ii. 1 254
Reproach s (verb) v. 1 426
Reprobate (sub.) i v. 3 78
Resemblances, iv. 2 203
School-maids.. i. 4 47
Seedness i. 4 42
Seemers i. 3 54
Self-offences .. iii. 2 280
Sheep-biting .. v. 1 35S
5 In the sense of to pimp; used frequently elsewhere in other senses.
6 Belonging to an ecclesiasti- cal province; as epithet, derived from 1'rovius in France, in Ham- let, iii. 2. 288.
" = to hold by lease; = to rend, used frequently elsewhere.
BThe sub. is repeatedly used throughout Shakespeare's plays.
9 = probability ; = likeness, occurs in Winter's Tale, v. 2. 39; Rich. III. iii. 7. 11.
Act Se. Line
ii. 2 149
Shy ini- 2 138
I V. I 54
Siege" iv. 2 101
Sisterly v. 1 100
Sliding (sub.) . . ii. 4 115
Snow-broth i. 4 58
Spawned iii. 2 1 14
Splay ii. 1 213
Starkly iv. 2 70
Stead "(up)... iii. 1 260
Stew" v. 1 321
Stifle" ii. 4 158
Stinkingly iii. 2 28
Stones" ii. 1 110
Straitness iii. 2 26S
Stricture i. 3 12
Stroke i» iv. 2 83
Sun-rise ii. 2 153
Taphouse ii. 1 220
Temporary v. 1 145
Tested ii. 2 149
Testimonied . . iii. 2 152
Thick-ribbed . . iii. 1 123
Tick-tack i. 2 196
Tongue" (verb), iv. 4 28
10 = a seat; used in other senses elsewhere.
11 =to supply; =to benefit, used frequently elsewhere.
12 See note 206. Used three times = a brothel.
13 Used intransitively ; used transitively elsewhere.
14 Of fruit.
15 Of a pen; used elsewhere in many senses.
16 = to speak of; in Cynib. v. 4. 148 = to speak.
241
Act Sc. Line
Touse v. 1 313
Treasonable... v. l 345
•True-meant .. i. 4 55
Tun-dish iii. 2 182
i nbelieved v. 1 119
rjncleanliness.. ii. 1 83
OhcleannesB". ii. 4 54
(Indiscernible . v. l 373
I n doubtful.... iv. 2 143
(Jngenitured... iii. 2 184
I Dgot v. 1 142
Unhurtful iii. 2 175
I iniiask (intr.). v. 1 206
Unscoured .... i. 2 17 1
rjnshapes iv. 4 •_■:;
(Jnshunned ... iii. 2 f'3
(Insisting iv. 2 92
Unskilfully. . .. iii. 2 155
(Tnsoiled ii. 4 155
Unsworn i. 4 9
Ohtrussing .... iii. 2 190
Unwedgeable . . ii. 2 116
On weighing .. . iii. 2 147
Uprighteously. iii. 1 206
Vastidity iii. 1 69
Viewless iii. 1 124
*Virgin-violator v. l 41
Vulgarly v. 1 160
Warranted (adj.) iii. 2 150
Waste" (adj.). ii. 2 170
Well-balanced, iv. 3 104
"Well-defended v. 1 407
Well-warranted v. 1 254
Well-wished .. ii. 4 27
Whoremonger, iii. 2 37
1" Lucrece, 1H". 18 Sonn. lxxvii. 10.
128
TEOILUS AND CEESSIDA.
NOTES AND INTEODUCTION
BY
A. WILSON VEEITY.
DRAMATIS PERSONS.
Priam, King of Troy.
Hector,
Troii.i b,
Pa k i s, ) his sons.
I h.II'HOBUS,
Helknis,
Margarelon, a bastard son of Priam.
,- Trojan commanders.
Axtkxor, ;
( ALOHAS, a Trojan priest, taking part with the Greeks.
Pandarus, uncle to Cressida.
Agamemnon, the Grecian general.
Mkxelaus, his brother.
Achilles,
Ajax,
Ulysses,
> Grecian commanders.
Nestor,
DlOMEDES,
Patroclus,
Thersites, a deformed and scurrilous Grecian.
Alexander, servant to Cressida.
Servant to Troilus.
Servant to Paris.
Servant to Diomedes.
I I blen, wife to Menelaus. Andromache, wife to Hector. ( ASSANDRA, daughter of Priam; a prophetess. Cressida, daughter of ( lalchas.
Trojan and Greek Soldiers, and Attendants.
Scene — Troy, and the Grecian camp before it.
Historic Period: the Trojan war.
TIME OF ACTION. Mr. Daniel gives the following time analysis — four days:
Day 1: Act I. Scenes 1 and 2. — Interval: the truce. Day 2: Act I. Scene 3; Act 1 1, and Act III.
■2U
• '
1 >ay 3: Act IV.. Act V. Scene 1. and part of Sceiu 2 Day I: Acl V., latter part of Scene 2, and the rest of the play.
TKOILUS AND CEESSIDA.
INTRODUCTION.
LITERARY HISTORY.
''This," says Dr. Furnivall, "is the most difficult of all Shakspere's plays to deal with." I think we may accept Dr. Furnivall's statement of the case. The history of Troilus and Cressida is perplexed and confusing to an extraordinary degree ; it has long been the crux of commentators, the sphinx-like pro- blem to which the wise man will modestly say, "Davus sum, non (Edipus." The date of the composition of the play; its relation to previous works upon the same subject; the circumstances attendant on its publication, both in the Quarto form of 1609 and later in the First Folio; the metrical peculiarities; the clear traces of irregular and composite work- manship ; the purpose of the piece, satiric, didactic, ironical, or what not, the idea, that is, that should run throughout, informing the parts with something of the continuity of an organic whole; all these are points upon which much has been conjectured and more written, and which, in spite of, or perhaps because of, the efforts of successive generations of com- mentators, remain as dark and bewildering as ever. Hence a complete theory which shall untie all the hard knots, must not be looked for. I shall content myself for the moment with a close statement of the facts, and later on there will be something to say as to the conclusions which may be drawn from the conflicting evidence. First, then, as to Shake- speare's choice of a subject.
The Troy legend was the favourite theme, the tale par excellence, of mediaeval romance writers; no other cycle of stories could in any way compete with it in point of wide- spread diffusion and popularity. Almost every European country had its version of the fall of Troy, and not a few countries |
claimed for themselves a Trojan origin. Thus the Welsh could trace their descent to ^Eneas with unimpeachable certainty, and London was regularly described as Troynovant. Of these early romances that of Benoit de Sainte- More, the so-called Eoman de Troves, is the first; it dates from somewhere between 1175 and 1185. A century later a translation of it into Latin was made by Guido de Colonna of Messina, whose Historia Destructionis Trojse was, according to his own account, completed in 1287. This version of Guido's was made the basis of various other versions, in Italian, Sjxanish, High and Low German, Dutch, &c, and amongst these the earliest that English literature can show is the long alliterative romance entitled The Gest Hystoriale of the Destruction of Troy; it was printed some years ago (1869 and 1874) for the Early Eng- lish Text Society, and should probably be assigned to the fourteenth century. After the anonymous author of the Gest Hystoriale came Chaucer, whose Troylus and Chryseyde is based very largely on Boccaccio's Filostrato. Chaucer indeed expressed his obligations to a certain Lollius, who seems to have been de- cidedly mythical; in fact, critics generally agree that a misunderstanding of Horace's lines —
Trojani belli scriptorem, maxinie Lolli, Dum tu declaims Romse Prseneste velegi —
— Ep. i. 2. 1.
was the sole basis of the poet's reference to this shadowy authority.
Besides Boccaccio, Chaucer probably used Benoit and other writers, possibly Guido, while much no doubt was due to his own in- vention. About 1460 Lydgate followed with his well-known Troy-Booke, and almost simul- taneously appeared the Recueil des Historres de Troyes by Raoul Le Fevre; the latter 245
TIMULUS AND CRESSIDA.
speedily passed into England under the title of the Recuyell of the historyes of Trove, translated and draun out of frenshe into Eng- liahe by W Caxton, 1471. This brings us to the end of the fifteenth century. From this bare r$8umee we see that the story of the siege and fall of Troy had penetrated into England as into almost every other European country. The dramatist, therefore, who wanted a subject had plenty of material at hand, and in this mass of material there was one episode — the story of Troilus and Cresedda (for which Homer and the classical writers have no counterpart, the legend being one of the embel- lishments added to the original by Benoit) — that appealed to writers with a special fas- cination. Chaucer, as we have seen, had made it the theme of his story, and Chaucer's poem seems to have been extremely popular. So Peele in his Tale of Troy writes: But leave I here of Troilus to say, Whose passions for the ranging Cresaida, Read as fair England's Chaucer doth unfold, Would tears exhale from eyes of iron mould.
Now at the beginning of the sixteenth cen- turv (1515), amongst the Christmas entertain- ments presented before Henry VIII. at El- tham, was a "Komedy" upon "the storry of Troylus and Pander.'' Unfortunately no account of the entertainment survives — it may have been merely a pageant (Ward, vol. i. p. 433); but the reference is interesting as serving to show that the Troilus and Cresaida tale was getting more and more differentiated from tin- general mass of incidents associated with the Trojan war. Possibly there were other interludes and crude dramatic treatments of the subject, though none such survive; in the same way song writers may have made use of it. Nothing definite, however, can be said of the interval from 1515 to 1565; but in the latter year a "ballett intituled the history of Troylus, whose throtes (Warton queried troth) hath well bene tryed" was entered upon the register of the Stationers' < lompany.1 Again, in L581 we find notice of another "proper ballad, dialogue-wise, betwene Troylus and Cresaida;"2 and in the Marriage of Wit and
1 Edited by Colllei tor the Old Shakespeare Society, vol. i p. 121. - Il'i.l v..l ii ]. 146
246
Wisdom3 Mr. Halliwell-Phillipps gives yet one more poem (from a MS. in the Ashmolean Museum) dealing with the same theme. The story, therefore, was becoming popular with writers of the period, and it seemed natural that some dramatist should essay to represent OD the stage this old-world tale of man's love and woman's faithlessness; and, as a matter of fact, if we turn to that storehouse of in- formation upon things dramatic, Henslowe's Diary, we find that "Mr. Dickers and harey Cheattell" had been commissioned by the manager to write a play on "Troyeles and creasseday." "Dickers and harey Cheattell" stand in Henslowe's somewhat fanciful ortho- graphy for Dekker and Henry Chettle; the date under which the entry occurs is April 7. 1599. Nine days later the play is again referred to in the Diary, and then in the next month we have the following: "Lent unto Mr. Dickers and Mr. Chettell, the 26 of Maye, 1599, in earneste of a Boocke called the tra- gedie of Agamemnone, the some ( = sum) of . . .;' This title, according to Collier, is interlined over the words "Troylus and cre- seda;" i.e. the name of the drama upon which Dekker and his friend were collaborating had been changed, why, we know not. The point should be noted. Still keeping to our dryas- dust catalogue we must chronicle two more entries. Under date February 7th, 1603, the register of the Stationers' Company has this notice: "Enti-ed for his (Master Robertes') copie in full court holden this day to print when he hath gotten sufficient auethority for yt, The booke of 'Troilus and Cresseda,' a* yt is acted by my Lord Ckamberlen'a men.* Six years later there is a fresh entry: on .January 28, 1609, Richard Bonion and Henry Walleys registered "a booke called the history of Troylus and ( Ireasida."6 This last, we may be quite sure, was Shakespeare's play. In the same year it was published, two editions being printed; one edition — and I think Mr. Stokes6 has satisfactorily shown, chiefly upon technical grounds of pagination and so forth,
Old Shakespeare Society Publications. * Taken from Arber'B Transcript of the Registers, vol
iii. p. '.'l b. 5 Ibid. p. 178b.
c Introduction to Quarto-Facsimile.
INTRODUCTION.
that it was the second issue — appeared with the following remarkable and almost unique preface: —
"A never Writer to an ever Reader.
Newes.
"Eternall reader, you have heere a new play, never staid with the stage, never clapper- claw'd with the palmes of the vulger, and yet passing full of the palme comicall; for it is a birth of your braine, that never undertooke any thing commicall, vainely ; and were but the vaine names of commedies changde for the titles of commodities, or of playes for pleas; you should see all those grand censors, that now stile them such vanities, flock to them for the maine grace of their gravities; espe- cially this authors commedies, that are so fram'd to the life, that they serve for the most common commentaries of all the actions of our lives, shewing such a dexteritie and power of witte, that the most displeased with playes, are pleased with his commedies. And all such dull and heavv-witted worldlings, as were never capable of the witte of a commedie, comming by report of them to his represen- tations, have found that witte there, that they never found in them-selves, and have parted better-witted then they came : feeling an edge of I witte set upon them, more then ever they dreamd they had braine to grind it on. So much and such savord salt of witte is in his commedies, that they seeme (for their height of pleasure) to be borne in the sea that brought forth Venus. Amongst all there is none mor witty than this: and had I time I would com- ment upon it, though I know it needs not, (for so much as will make you thinke your testerne well bestowd) but for so much worth, as even poore I know to be stuft in it. It deserves such a labour, as well as the best commedy in Terence or Plautus. And beleeve this, that when hee is gone, and his commedies out of sale, you will scramble for them, and set up a new English inquisition. Take this for a warning, and at the perill of your plea- sures losse, and judgements, refuse not, nor like this the lesse, for not being sullied with the smoky breath of the multitude; but thanke fortune for the scape it hath made amongst
you : since by the grand possessors wills I believe you should have prayd for them (?it) rather then beene prayd. And so I leave all such to bee prayd for (for the states of their wits healths) that will not praise it. Vale.:'
I shall return to this preface again. There is one more point in the history of the publi- cation of the play to be noticed before we can gather up the threads and give the general impression derived from study of the evidence. The First Folio of 1623 had, as all students know, a list of the plays at the beginning, arranged under the different heads of Come- dies, Histoi-ies, and Tragedies. Troilus and Cressida is omitted from this list. It is printed in the middle of the volume, between Henry VIII. and Coriolanus, i.e. between the last of the Histories and the first of the Tragedies; and practically it is unpaged. From these facts it has been conjectured that the inser- tion of the play in the Folio was an after- thought upon the part of the editors, Heminge and Condell. Collier thinks that the printing of the drama had been intrusted to some other publisher : hence the mistake. Really it seems most probable that the editors did not know how to class the play, and eventually compro- mised the matter by leaving it altogether out of the list, while a niche was found for it in the body of the work, between the Histories and Tragedies, as having something of the character of both.
Roughly summarized, then, these are the main facts with which we have to deal; they must, of course, be supplemented by such in- ternal evidence as metrical and aesthetic criti- cism can extract from the play. Let us look at some of these points in detail. In the first place, why did Dekker and Chettle change the title of their work? Perhaps, as Mr. Stokes suggests, because it was an infringe- ment upon the name of some other play upon the same subject which already existed; per- haps because the "Tragedy of Agamemnon'' sounded more telling and impressive. And, whatever the reason for the alteration, should their tragedy be identified with "the booke of Troilus and Cresseda" that was entered in the Stationers' Register in 1G03 1
Some critics are inclined to answer in the 247
TROILUS AND CRESSIDA.
affirmative. But it can scarcely be so; for several reasons, one of which seems quite fatal to the hypothesis— viz., the fact thai the 1603 play was "acted by my Lord Chamberlen's men;" and the Chamberlain's Company was long the rival of that directed by Henslowe.
The tli y, therefore, that the 1603 entry
refers to Dekker and Chettle's play can be dismissed, and t lie entry, so far as Shake- r speare's predecessors are concerned, may allude to the real Troilus and ( Iressida. I definitely think that it does. I believe that we must assign two dates to the play. Troilus and Cres- sida. as entered upon the Register in L609, was, I think, the drama that lies before us: Troilus and Cressida, as entered at the earlier date, 1(503, represented the tirst draft or version. One is always loth to introduce this much- used and, perhaps, much-abused theory of re- visions, but in the present case T can see no other way out of the difficulties which beset us, whether we would believe the writers of the ahove-quoted preface and allow that Troilus and ('ressida was "a new play" in 1609, or, disregarding their statement as a mere pub- lisher's artifice, would fix on the earlier date suggested by the 1603 entry. In favour of 1609, or thereabouts, there are two things that must be allowed to carry some weight: the statement that the piece had "never been st a I'd with the stage, never clapper-clawM with the palmes of | he vulger," if absolutely untrue, would have been equally unhappy and point- leas, because few people could have been de- ceived by it; hence the preface cannot be altogether ignored. Again, there is the pal- pable fact that a considerable portion of the drama is strongly penetrated by the tendency to bitter cynicism which we note in the parallel comedy of disillusion; I mean, of course, Timon of Athens. Ii i- impossible to read the latter without feeUng how close an affinity of thought aud emotional undercurrent unites it with the ue- in Troilusand Cressida, where worldli-
ness and the wis. h. iii of those who are wise in their generation are held up to admiration, while the moral i.s pointed with exceeding
keenness againsl the enthusiasm and buoyant
idealism that begin in froth ami end in failure.
Taken together these two points of external 248
and internal evidence might lead us to assign Troilus and ('ressida to the group which in- cludes Timon of Athens and Antony and Cleo- patra; but, unfortunately, the metrical Clitics here step in and assure us that the verse-struc- ture of the play is radically different from that which is usually associated with Shakespeare's later manner. According to Hertzlierg (quoted by Professor Dowden), Troilus and Cressida does not contain a single weak ending, and only six light endings, whereas these verse-peculi- arities appear with increasing frequency in all plays written after Macbeth. Verse-tests can- not he ignored, and this is precisely one of the cases where conclusions reached on other grounds must, if possible, be readjusted and brought into harmony with their testimony.
I think that the difficulties will be met to some extent if we suppose that Troilus ami Cressida is a composite work, the main part of which dates from 1602-3, while some of the scenes — those, for instance, in which Ulysses appears — were subsequently expanded, with the addition, perhaps, of fresh characters. In this way the statements of the piratical printers would be partially explained and accounted for, while aesthetically the tone of brooding irony that is only too traceable throughout would harmonize with the general gloom and despair of a period that, pretty certainly, produced Hamlet, Measure for Measure, and many of the later sonnet.-. Mr Fleay, I should say, carries the theory of revision and subsequent additions still fur- ther He traces three distinct stories in the play, stories that were written at different periods and that overlap only very slightly. They are the Troylus and Cressida episode — approximate date, C>!)4-6; "the story" — I '.rive Mr. Fleav's words — "of the challenge of Hector to Ajax, their combat, and the slaying of Hector by Achilles, on the basis of < laxton's Three Destructions of Troy; and finally, the story of Ulysses' stratagem to induce Achilles to return to the battlefield by setting up Ajax
as his rival, which was written after the publica- tion of Chapman's Homer, from whom Ther- sites, a chief character in this part, was taken."1
i Shakespeare Manual, pp. 232, 233.
INTRODUCTION.
Myself, I do nut quite understand the idea of a poet writing odd scenes at different periods of his life and afterwards patching them to- gether. A play that can be subdivided and split up in this way must be strangely inor- ganic, and Troilus and Cressida does not seem to me to be of this nature; there are parts, no doubt, where the work is unequal, notably in the fifth act, where not improbably we have the debris of some old play, perhaps of Dekker's tragedy, but the scheme of the drama is, to my mind, symmetrical and nicely thought out. How, for instance, can we sepa- rate Troilus from Ulysses? Dramatically they are complementary: they serve, and are meant to serve, as foils, antitheses. Troilus, in Dr. FurnivalFs graceful phrase, is " a young fool," full of hopes and beliefs, buoyed up by noble ideals and ambitions: Ulysses is the man of gray worldly wisdom, who has seen
Cities of men And manners, climates, councils, governments.
Once, no doubt, he too had his dreams, but time has taught its bitter lesson, and his idols have been long since broken, the tenrple long- since turned into a counting-house. It is grotesque to separate these characters. They developed side by side in the dramatist's brain, and we can no more divide them than we can divide Troilus and Cressida themselves. Again, can we believe that the love scenes in this play date from the period which gave the world Romeo and Juliet? It seems to me that Romeo and Juliet is to Troilus and Cres- sida very much what Troilus is to Ulysses. The love-note in the one play is wholly lyric, in the other quasi-satiric. It is the difference between a spring day and an autumn day. In Romeo and Juliet we might think of the poet as partially identifying himself with his characters: in Troilus and Cressida we cannot help feeling that he is rather laughing at them, exaggerating the passionate, some- what sensuous effects solely for the purpose of making the denouement more bitterly tell- ing and effective.
Upon this point, then, of the date of the play I can only repeat my belief that it was in the main written and acted before 1603,
and subsequently revised about 1609. As to the authorities used by Shakespeare, enough has already been said; moreover, Ids debts
are pointed out in .some detail in the notes. He had Chaucer's poem to draw upon, < laxton's Destruction of Troy, Lydgate's Troy-Booke, and Chapman's translation. He availed him- self of them all very considerably.
STAGE HISTORY.
The materials for the stage history of this play are very scanty. In fact there does not appear to be a single record in Genest of any performance of Shakespeare's play itself, but only of Dryden's adaptation. Unfortu- nately the old play on this subject byDekker and Chettle has been lost. The allusions to it in Henslowe's Diary are five, and all relate to payments on account of the book; the first being on April 7th, 1599, of iiju (£3); the next on the 16th of the same month of xxs (20/); the next is probably some time after A] ail 23rd, 1600, and is simply an entry " Troyeles and creasseday" (pp. 147-149); the fourth is on the 26th of May, 1599, when a payment was made to the authors of 30 shillings on account of the book (p. 153); and it is there called "the tragedie of Agamemnone."1 The fifth entry, on May 30th in the same year, is for " iij11 vs " ( £3, 5/), being "in full paymente of the Boocke" (p. 153), and the very next item is for the pay- ment "unto the Myof the Revelles man, for lycensynge of a Boocke called the tragedie of agamenmon," on June 3rd of the same year. There is no record of the absolute pro- duction of the piece, but we may suppose that it was played shortly after it was licensed. Whether Shakespeare made use of this ver- sion of the story for his play, or whether he himself had any hand in "the tragedie of Agamemnone ;' we do not know. It would ap- pear from an entry which I found in one of the domestic papers of the reign of Henry VIII. that in the early part of his reign an interlude called Troilus and Cressida was played before the court;'- so that Dekker and
i See above, in the Literary History, p. 240, column -. - Unfortunately the reference to this entry has been mislaid.
249
TROILUS AND CRESSIDA.
Chettles' play may have been founded on a \ el earlier dramatic version of the story.
As to Shakespeare's play itself, the only re- cord we have of its performance is an entry in the Stationers' Register on February 7th, 1G03, from which it would appear that the play was then being played "by my Lord Chamberlen's men;" and also a statement on one of the title- pages of the Quarto of 1609 that it was " acted hy the Kings Maiesties seruantsat the Globe." This title-page appears to have been with- drawn, and in the extraordinary preface ap- pended to the Quarto, as published in 1609, it is stated that it was "neuer staid with the Stage, neuer clapper-claw'd with the palmes of the vulger." That the above statement was a deliberate falsehood there can be little doubt. It is a short step from stealing to lying, either backward or forward; and the enterprising publishers, who sought to deprive Shake- speare and his fellow dramatists of their act- ing rights in a play by publishing it, and so enabling other companies to play it with im- punity, would not have stuck at such a trifle as a lie of this sort. We can learn nothing derisive from these allusions to the acting of the play; but we may fairly deduce that it was not a very popular one, or Roberts would nut have abandoned his idea of publishing it; and indeed the title-page as it stands in the Quarto of 1609 would lead one to believe that the play was more likely to be read than to be acted. In fact, what popularity it did enjoy was, as the stock phrase goes, in the closet and not on the stage. Nor can this be wondered at. for there are at most only two plays of Shakespeare which can dispute with Troilus and ( ressida the palm of being eminently un- dramatic; unless it be as a vehicle for specta- cular display there is absolutely nothing in this play In interest an audience. The love story, Such as it is, is but feebly handled; it has do exacl ending, cither happy or otherwise; the character of the heroine is decidedly un- sympathetic, while the admiration one feels for the hero is rather lukewarm and tinged with pity if not with contempt. Sector
is tin ly character in the play who really
bids fair to win our Bympathy; but the treat- ment adopted by Shakespeare, or by the 250
older dramatists from whom he may have taken his play, rendered it impossible to bring out Hector's character strongly, or that of Andro- mache, who might have made a noble heroine. In tad, as Mr. Verity has pointed out in note 311, the parting of Hector and Andromache is not nearly as pathetic in this play as it is in Homer; but Hector stands out amongst the men, almost more than Troilus, as at once a brave man and a gentleman. He is not a clumsy lout like Ajax, or a sensual bully like Achilles, or a complacent cuckold like Mene- laus, or a conceited and insolent fop like Dio- mede. Ulysses and Nestor are admirable in the abstract, and the former has some telling speeches from an elocutionaiy point of view; but neither of them has anything to do with any dramatic situation whatever, and hy a general audience there is little doubt that both of them would be ranked as bores. The long d iscussions that take place in the Grecian camp are great blots upon the play; in fact, whin regarded from a dramatic point of view, they are inexcusable. Whatever the faults of Dry- den's alteration, from a poetic point of view, may be, there is no doubt that his version of Troilus and Cressida serves its purpose better, as an acting drama, tlian Shakespeare's tragi- comedy, as I suppose we should call it.
The theatre, known as Dorset Gardens, was opened in the year 1671 by the Duke of York's company. Genest says it " was perhaps built on the site of the old one which stood there before the civil wars" (vol. i. p. 121). It would appear that the situation of this theatre was on the south side of the Strand, opposite Shoe Lane, and close to the ancient Bridewell Pal- ace; in fact, very near to what is known now as Salisbury Square. It was here that Dry- den's alteration of Shakespeare's play Troilus and Cressida or Truth Found Out Too Late was produced in 1679. The play was en- tered in the Stationers' Register on April 14th of that year. The exact date of the pro- duction of the play is not given by Genest. The cast was as follows :—" Agamemnon = Gillow: Achilles = David Williams: Ulysses = Harris: Ajax = Bright: Nestor = Norris: Dio- medes Crosby: Patroclus=JBowman: Mene- laus = Richards: Thersites — Underbill: —
INTRODUCTION.
Trojans — Hector = Smith : Trains = Better- ton : ./Eneas = Joseph Williams : Priam and Calchas = Pereival : Pandarus = Leigh : Cres- sida = Mrs. Mary Lee: Andromache = Mrs.
Betterton : — the Prologue was spoken by Betterton as the Ghost of Shakspeare" (Gen- est, vol. i. p. 266).
There are many plays of Shakespeare on which the adapter's hand cannot be laid with- out committing an act of sacrilege; but Troilus and Cressida is certainly not one of them. If everthere was a play that could be altered with advantage from beginning to end, this is cer- tainly one; that is to say, if a play is to be made of it at all. While one resents most strongly the wretched stuff introduced into the version of The Tempest by Dryden and Davenant, one cannot but admit that what "great and glorious John" has done for this unsatisfactory play is, in the main, done well. Most of his additions are, from a dramatic point of view, improvements; indeed one feels rather inclined to blame him that he did not do more, and did not get rid of some of the superfluous characters altogether, concentrat- ing the interest more on those which are the best drawn in the original play. Dryclen's arrangement of the first act was undoubtedly a judicious one, and, as will be seen hereafter, was followed by John Kemble when he pre- pared Shakespeare's play for the stage. In Act II. Dryden commences with what is the second scene in Shakespeare, and he has in- troduced Andromache with some effect, omit- ting Helen altogether ; and the scene ends with the incident of Hector sending a chal- lenge to the Grecian camp by ^Eneas. The next scene is between Pandarus and Cressida and Pandarus and Troilus. He concludes the act with a scene, nearly entirely his own, in which Thersites plays a very prominent part. Act III. is chiefly remarkable for the concluding scene between Troilus and Hec- tor, which is certainly a great improvement, as far as the dramatic interest of the play is concerned. It is said that he was in- debted to Betterton for the hint of this scene, which, according to Genest, is partly an imi- tation of the quarrel between Agamemnon and Menelaus in the Iphigenia in Aulis by
Euripides. It is certainly an effective acting scene, though the dialogue between the two is somewhat too prolonged. Dryden saw that some attempt must be made to render the character of Cressida more sympathetic. He therefore makes Calchas recommend her to make pretended love to Diomede, which she consents to do with the object of being able to return to Troy. Troilus is witness to tin- scene between them, as in Shakespeare, and believes Cressida to be false; though Dryden makes it clear to the audience that she never is so either in intention or fact. The act concludes with a quarrel between Troilus and Diomede, at which both /Eneas and Thersites are present. In the last act considerable liberty is taken with the story. The scene between Andromache and Hector is retained very much as in Shakespeare, and Troilus persuades Hector to fight in spite of his wife's remonstrances. Cressida enters with her father in search of Troilus, in order to justify herself with him ; and then Diomede and Troilus come in fighting. Cressida appeals to Troilus, and asserts her innocence ; but Diomede implies indirectly that she has been false with him. Troilus is reproaching her in a violent speech, when she interrupts him and stabs herself, but does not die before Troilus has for- given her. After that there is, as Genest re- marks, a great deal of fighting. Troilus kills Diomede, and is, in his turn, killed by Ulysses. The piece ends with a speech of Ulysses; the death of Hector being only related by Achilles and not shown on the stage. No doubt all this, from a strictly poetic point of view, is very indefensible; but the end of Shakespeare's play is so confused and so wretchedly abortive, that some such violent change in the story was necessary if it was to be effective on the stage. To alter the catastrophe of such a play as Eomeo and Juliet, or Hamlet, or Othello, is a crime; but to alter such a play as Troilus and Cressida is a. meritorious work, and can scarcely be considered disrespectful to Shake- speare, even if he were, as 1 very much doubt, the sole author of the work. Certain it is that it cannot have been a favourite play with him; for he does not seem to have expended on it much of that dramatic ability which is so 251
TROILUS AND ClIKSSIDA.
remarkable in all his best work. It can scarcely be a matter uf reproach to an audience of the seventeenth century that they should have preferred Dryden's version, though it certainly leaves very much to be desired; nor can we Maine Betterton if he insisted that the part of Troilus (which he played) should be made of more dramatic importance.
The next production of this piece (Dryden's version) appears to have been on June 2nd, 17o:i, at I ►rury Lane On this occasion Better- ton surrendered the part of Troilus to Wilks and played Thersites, as will be seen from the following cast: Troilus = Wilks : Hector^ Powell: Achilles = Booth: Agamemnon = Mills: Ajax = Keen : Ulysses = Thurmond : Thersites = Betterton : Pandarus = Estcourt: Cressida = Mrs, Bradshaw: Andromache = Mrs. Rogers (Genest, vol. ii. p. 420).
This play was revived at Lincoln's Inn Fields — " Not acted 12 years " — on November 10th, 1720. On this occasion Ryan played Troilus, and Quin took the part of Hector; the other chief characters were thus cast: I * lyases = Boheme : Troilus = Bullock : Pan- darus = Spiller: Cressida = Mrs. Seymour : An- dromache Mrs, Bullock (Genest, vol. iii. p. 54). At the same theatre about two years afterwards, on May 3rd, 1723, Hippisley selected this play for his benefit; on which occasii hi Quin took the part of Thersites, which would be more suitable to him than that of Troilus. Eippisley himself took Pandarus, Boheme Sector, Ryan again playing Troilus. In the following season, on November 21st, 1723, the piece was again played at the same theatre. The details of the cast are wanting, except that the Cressida was Mrs. Sterling. Ten years appear to have passed before any attempt was made to revive this play, which never seems to have proved attractive, or to have been performed more than once at a time. At < \>\ cut ( iarden, on December 20th, 1 733, Troilus and Cressida was represented with much the same cast as when it was given in 1723. Davies mentions this performance, and praises Walker as Hector, Quin as Ther- and Eippisley as Pandarus. Davies Bays: "Mrs. Buchanan, a very fine woman and a pleasing actress, who died soon after in 252
childbed, was the Cressida.'' He continues: "Mr. Lacy, late manager of Drury-lane, acted Agamemnon; and Tom Chapman1 pleased himself with the obstreperous and discordant utterance of Diomed's passion for Cressida" (vol. iii. pp. 163, 164). Davies says that the scene between Troilus and Hector in Act III. was "written in emulation of the quarrel between Brutus and Cassius in Julius Ceesar" (vol. iii. p. 163). It is probable that this scene was in Dryden's mind more than the one from the Greek play mentioned above. With this performance, as far as I can dis- cover, the stage history of Troilus and Cres- sida ceases. In none of the numerous theatri- cal memoirs which I have searched, nor in any of the many hooks and pamphlets concerning the English stage, can 1 find any mention of the performance of Shakespeare's play, or even of Dryden's adaptation, after this date.
The revival of Shakespeare's play never seems to have been contemplated by any of our great actors except one, and that was John Kemble, who prepared Shakespeare's play2 for the stage, and went so far as to cast it, and I believe to distribute the parts. At any rate they were copied out, but the piece was never represented. The alterations, which are confined to transpositions of portions of the dialogue, are made in that very neat hand- writing which was characteristic both of John Kemble and his brother ( Iharles. Not a single line appears to have been added from Dry- den's play; the alterations in the text are confined to one or two slight verbal ones and a few unimportant transpositions. Some of the characters are omitted altogether; among them Menelaus, Helen, Deiphobus, Helenus, and Antenor. The cast would have been a strong one; it was to include Kemble as Troi- lus, Dicky Suett as Pandarus, Bensley as Agamemnon, Barrymore as Ajax, Bannister, jun., as Thersites, and John Kemble himself
1 For some account of tins actor see Introduction to All's Well That End's Well, p. 7
- 1 am indebted to Mrs Creswick, the widowof the late well-known actor (one of the last of those who was asso- ciate! with Mr. Phelps in the Shakespearean revivals at Sailhi s Wells), for the original copy, as marked by John Kemble himself, which appears to have been sold at Death's sale in 1821.
INTRODUCTION.
as Ulysses. The female characters were ap- parently nut cast. I do not think that this arrangement, though it does credit to Kemble and shows a greater reverence for Shake- speare's text than he had shown in some of the acting editions prepared by him, could possibly have been successful. No amount of condensation can make a good acting play of Troilus and Cressida. There is no dramatic backbone in it, and it may be doubted whether it would ever repay a manager the cost of reviving it. — F. A. M.
CRITICAL REMARKS.
Of the characters of this play two — Troilus and Ulysses — stand out with special promi- nence, and about each it has already been necessary to say something. They are placed, as we have seen, in the sharpest contrast: Troilus, the perfect lover and knight, pas- sionate and pathetic in his boyish, buoyant idealism and fidelity, thinking no ill of others and expecting none; Ulysses, the man of gray experience, who has studied the foibles and frailties of weak humanity, and attained, not indeed to the splendid serenity of Prospero, rather to the coldly calculating prudence and insight of the critic and cynic. Artistically the antithesis is perfect : Ulysses stands at the point where Troilus, under the sting of bitter disillusion, will possibly end. Nowhere do their characters touch ; the one typifies hopeful, trustful youth; the other, incredu- lous age; combined they give us, as it were, an epitome of human experience. And if Troilus stands for loyalty, Cressida, assuredly, is the type of all disloyalty. Quick and clever of tongue, she is utterly shallow, a mere sur- face nature incapable of receiving, still more of keeping, any deep impression. For such characters environment is everything : they must change with their surroundings. With Troilus she is truth itself; we believe in her as does her lover; nay, more, as she believes in herself. And then she passes into the Greek camp, and straightway all is forgotten; vows are vows no more ; her heart is the prize of the first comer. It is the story of Romeo and Juliet reversed. The other side of the picture is turned to us. The poet had
given the stage a study of woman's love stead- fast to the bitter end: he now lavs bare the weakness of a heart that forgets and falls at the first trial. What more is there to say? Of the remaining dramatis persona? Thersites alone interests us much. What is he? A fore- taste, a suggestion of Caliban, only Caliban without the saving, sovereign grace and fa- vour of animal dulness? Perhaps; and some- thing more. He seems to represent the de- mocratic spirit on its most hateful side of Dabbling, blustering irreverence. A shrill- tongued shrew, ever railing and rancorous, he spares nobody, nothing. "We live by admi- ration!" To Thersites "admiration" would convey no meaning; he is nothing if not crit Leal in the worst sense of the word. Hector, Aga- memnon, Troilus, Ulysses — all present some aspect of greatness; and Thersites has a bitter word for all. Their greatness is non-existent for him : better far to find out a man's weak- ness, and gird and scoff at that. Thersites at his best is clever with cleverness contemj^tible : at his worst, he might fairly be disowned by Caliban.
The rest of the characters — except perhaps Pandar, on whom who would care to dwell I — are sketches rather than finished works of art ; the poet has just filled in the outlines so far as they are necessary to the development of the piece, and it is to be noticed that all through there is little which we can regard as classical in form or spirit. Change the name, and we might believe ourselves to be moving in some purely mediaeval scene.
And now a word as to the purpose of the play. What is the idee of Troilus and Cressida ? The question has been answered in a dozen different ways. For example: Ulrici finds in this drama an attempt to degrade and del lase the heroes of antiquity in the eyes of Shake- speare's contemporaries, an attempt, in fact, to spoil the classics of their prestige. Chapman had given the world Homer: through the roll of his golden rhetoric men had lived the long years of the weary war round Troy; spell-bound they had the far-off "surge ami thunder of the Odyssey." And here was the counterblast: Shakespeare was jealous of the classics,
253
Thus far Ulrici. Hertzberg seems
TIIOILUS AND CRESSIDA.
to look upon Troilus and Cressida as an un- conscious parody of mediaeval chivalry, a kind of unintentional Don Quixote. Mr. Fleay, again, is certain, quite certain, that the whole play is nothing more nor less than a satire <>n rival dramatists, Hector representing Shake- speare; Thersites, Dekker; Ajax, Ben Jonson. And so on.
Kveryone remembers Edgar Poe's story of the man who, having an important paper to conceal, put it in an old vase on his mantel- shelf, arguing that no one would ever look in so obvious a place. This old- vase idea is not inapplicable sometimes in matters of criticism. Critics in their efforts to find out a recondite interpretation are occasionally apt to overlook the ( (bvious one ; they forget the old vase. Perhaps it is so here. The name of the play may be the vase,
254
The ordinary mortal, seeing
the title of the play — Troilus and Cressida — would expect to find in the piece a love-story. And is it anything more than a love-story ? a love-story coloured by the peculiar phase of feeling and emotion through which the poet was passing at the time of its composition? Romeo and Juliet was written by a young man. It is natural for youth to believe strongly in the existence of such things as loyalty and love and truth. Time brings dis- illusions. The poet does not become a cynic and cease to believe in good; only he perceives that there is evil too in the world: fickleness and disloyalty as well as fidelity. And so, as a dramatist should, he shows the other side of the shield. Romeo and Juliet is a study of love from one stand-point; Troilus and Cressida is a study of love from exactly the opposite stand-point; et voild tout.
Pan. He that will have a cake out of the wheat must needs tarry the grinding.— (Act i. 1. 15, 16.)
TROILUS AND CKESSIDA.
i
[PROLOGUE.
? In Troy, there lies the scene. From isles of
Greece The princes orgulous,1 their high blood chaf 'd, ' Have to the port of Athens sent their
ships,
< Fraught with the ministers and instruments (Of cruel war: sixty and nine, that wore
< Their crownets regal, from th' Athenian bay (Put forth toward Phrygia: and their vow is
< made
(To ransack Troy; within whose strong im- mures \ The ravish'd Helen, Menelaus' queen, \ With wanton Paris sleeps ; and that 'a the quarrel. 10
\ To Tenedos they come ;
) And the deep-drawing barks do there disgorge '/ Their warlike f raughtage : now on Dardan
plains ; The fresh and yet unbruised Greeks do pitcli (Their brave2 pavilions: Priam's six- gated city,
i Orgulous = proud; Fr. orgueilleux. 2 Brave, making a great show.
Dardan, and Tymbria, Helias, Chetas, Troien, And Antenorides, with massy staples,3 And corresponsive and fulfilling4 bolts, Sperr up5 the sons of Troy. Now expectation, tickling skittish spirits, 20 On one and other side, Trojan and Greek, Sets all on hazard: — and hither am I
come A prologue arm'd, — but not in confidence Of author's pen or actor's voice; but suited In like conditions as our argument, — To tell you, fair beholders, that our play Leaps o'er the vaunt and firstlings of those
broils, Beginning in the middle ; starting thence
away To what may be digested in a play. 29
Like, or find fault; do as your pleasures
are; Now good or bad, war. ]
'tis but the chance of'
3 Staples, loops of iron through which the bolts are slid.
4 Fulfilling, i.e. filling full the staples; well-fitting.
5 Sperr «p = inclose.
255
.\< T I. Soene 1.
TKOILUS AND ( I: KSS IDA.
.Ml I. SO'IK' 1.
ACT I.
Scene I. Troy. Before Priam's palace.
'■ r Troilus armed, and Pandarus.
Tro. Call here ray varlet; I '11 unarm again: [_ Why should I war without the walls of Troy, That find such cruel battle here within ' ] Each Trojan that is master of his heart, Let him to field; Troilus, alas, hath none!
run. Will this gear1 ne'er he mended i
Tro. The Greeks are strong, and skilful to their strength, Fierce to their skill, and to their fierceness
valiant ; But I am weaker than a woman's tear, Tamer than sleep, fonder than ignorance, 10 Less valiant than the virgin in the night, And skilless as unpractis'd infamy.
Pan. Well, I have told you enough of this: for my part, I'll not meddle nor make no further. He that will have a cake out of the wheat must needs tarry the grinding.
Tro. Have I not tarried '.
Pan. Ay, the grinding; but you must tarry the bolting.
Tro. Have I not tarried?
Pan. Ay, the bolting; but you must tarry the leavening. 20
Tro. Still have I tarried.
/'■in. Ay, to the leavening; but here's yel in the word '•hereafter'' the kneading, the making of the cake, the heating of the oven, and the baking; nay,you must stay the cooling too, or you may chance to burn your lips.
Tro. Patience herself, what goddess e'er she be, 1 »nth lesser blench2 at sufferance than I do. At Priam's royal table do I sit; And when fair C'ressid comes into my
thoughts, — So, traitor! when she comes! — "When is she thence ? 31
Pan. Well, she look'd yesternight fairer than ever I saw her look, or any woman else.
Tro. I was about to tell thee, — when my luart,
1 Gear, business.
2 Blench = flinch.
As wedged with a sigh, would rive in twain; Lest Hector or my father Bhould perceive me, —
I have — as when the sun doth light a storm —
Buried this sigh in wrinkle of a smile:
QBut sorrow, that iscouch'd in seeming glad-;
ness, !s like that mirth fate turns to sudden sad- ness.] Pan. An her hair were not somewhat darker than Helen's, — well, go to, — there were no more comparison between the women, fj — but, for my part, she is my kinswoman; 1 would not, as they term it, praise her, — but] I would somebody had heard her talk yester- day, as I did. I will not dispraise your sister Cassandra's wit; but —
Tro. 0 Pandarus ! Q I tell thee, Pandarus, — { When 1 di 1 tell thee, there rnyhopes lie drown'd, Reply not in how many fathoms deep 50
They lie indrench'd.] I tell thee, I am mad In Cressid's love: thou answer'st, she is fair; i'liitr'st in the open ulcer of my heart Her eves, her hair, her cheek, her gait, her
voice ; Handiest in thy discourse, f_0, that her hand,3 In whose comparison all whites are ink, Writing their own reproach; to whose soft
seizure4 The cygnet's clown is harsh, and spirit of sense Hard as the palm of ploughman! — this thou
tell'st me, As true thou tell'st me, when I say I love her; ] But, saying thus, instead of oil and balm, oi Thou lay'st in every gash that love hath given
me The knife that made it.
Pan. I speak no more than truth. Tro. Thou dost not speak so much. Pan. Faith, I '11 not meddle in 't. Let her be as she is: if she be fair, 't is the better for her; an she be not, she has the mends in her own hands. 68
[_ 7Vo. Good Pandarus, — hownow,Pandarus! Pan. I have had my labour for my travail:) ill-thought on of her, and ill-thought on of/
3 That her hand, i.e. that hand of hers. * Seizurc^touvh.
256
ACT I. Scene 1.
TKOILUS AND CWKSSIDA.
ACT I. Scene 2.
vi m : gone between and between, but small ', thanks for my labour.] ~:i
Tro. What, art thou angry, Pandarus? what, with nit' '
I'm,. Because she's kin to me, therefore she's not so fair as Helen: an she were not kin to me, she would be as fair on Friday as Helen is on Sunday. But what care I? I care not an she were a black-a-moor; 'tis all one to me. so
Tro. Say I she is not fair?
L'<n\. I do not care whether you do or no. She 's a fool to stay behind her father; let her to the Greeks; and so I'll tell her the next time I see her: for my part, I'll meddle nor make no more i' the matter.
Tro. Pandarus, —
Pan. Not I.
Tro. Sweet Pandarus, —
Pan. Pray you, speak no more to me: I will
leave all as I found it, and there an end. 91
[Exit Pandarus. Alarum.
Tro. Peace, you ungracious clamours! peace, rude sounds! Fools on both sides! Helen must needs be fair, When with your blood you daily paint her
thus. 'QI cannot fight upon this argument; ' It is too starv'd a subject for my sword. ] But Pandarus, — O gods, how doyou plague me! I cannot come to Cressid but by Pandar; And he 's as tetchy to be woo'd to woo, As she is stubborn-chaste against all suit. 100 [_ Tell me, Apollo, for thy Daphne's love, What Cressid is, what Pandar, and what we? Her bed is India; there she lies, a pearl: Between our Ilium and where she resides, Let it be call'd the wild and wandering flood; (Jurself the merchant; and this sailing Pandar, Our doubtful hope, our convoy, and our bark.]
Alarum. Enter ^Eneas.
Mute. How now, Prince Troilus! wherefore
not a-field ? Tro. Because not there: this woman's an- swer sorts,1 For womanish it is to be from thence. no
What news, ^Eneas, from the field to-day?
1 Sorts, i.e. suits, fit-!.
, Ene ThatParis is returned home, and hurt. Tro. By whom, Q ^Eneas | ] JEne. [Troilus,] by Menelaus.
Q Tro. Let Paris bleed ; 'tisbuta sea rto m :< >in ;'-' Paris is gor"d with Menelaus' horn. [Alarum. jEne."2 Hark, what good sp< >rt is out of town
to-day ! Tro. Better at home, if "would I might'' were "may." — But to the sport abroad: — are you bound thither? jEne. In all swift haste. Tro. Come, go we, then, together.
[Exeunt.
Scene II. The walls of Troy.
Enter Cressida and Alexander.
Cres. Who were those went by ?
Alex. Queen Hecuba and Helen.
Ores. And whither go they ?
Alex. Up to th' eastern tower,
Whose height commands as subject all the vale, To see the battle. Hector, whose patience Is, as a virtue, fix'd, to-day was mov'd: He chid Andromache, and struck his armorer; And, like as there were husbandry3 in war, Before the sun rose, he was harness'd light, And to the field goes he ; where every flower Did, as a prophet, weep what it foresaw 10 In Hector's wrath.
Ores. What was his cause of anger '.
Alex. The noise goes, this: there is among the Greeks A lord of Trojan blood, nephew to Hector; They call him Ajax.
Q Ores. Good; and what of him?'
Alex. They say he is a very man per se, And stands alone.
Ores. So do all men, — unless they are drunk, sick, or have no legs.
Alex. This man, lady, hath robb'd many beasts of their particular additions; he is as valiant as the lion, churlish as the bear, slow as the elephant; a man into whom nature hath so crowded humours, that his valour is crush d into folly, his folly saue'd with discretion:
vol. v.
2 Scar to worn=scar to be scorned, i.e. a trilling scar, s Husbandry, economy.
257 129
ACT I. Scene 2.
TKOlLrs AND CRESSIDA.
ACT 1. Scene -J.
there is qo man hath a virtue that he hath not .1 glimpse of ; nor any man an attaint but he carries some stain of it: he is melancholy without cause, and merry against the hair: he hath the joints of everything; but every thing so out of joint, that he is a gouty Briareus, maii\ hands and no use; or purblind Argus, all eyes and no sight. 31
1. But how should this man, that makes me smile, make Hector angry ?
Ale.i\2 They say he yesterday cop'd1 Hector in the battle, and struck him down; the dis- dain and shame whereof hath ever since kept Sector fasting and waking.
Ores. Who conies here?
Alex. Madam, your uncle Pandarus.
Enter Pandarus.
40
Cres. Hector 's a gallant man.
Alex. As may be in the world, lady.
/'.'». What's that? what's that?
Cres. Good morrow, uncle Pandarus.
Pan. (iood morrow, cousin Cressid: what do you talk of? — Good morrow, Alexander. — How do you, cousin? When were you at Ilium?
Cres. This morning, uncle.
Pan. What were you talking of when I came? Was Hector arm'd and gone, ere ye came to Ilium? Helen was not up, was she?
' s. Hector was gone; but Helen was not up.
/''in. E'en so: Hector was stirring early.
Cres. That were we talking of, and of his anger.
I'<ii>. Was he angry?
Cres. So he says here.
Pan. True, he was so; I know the cause too; he'll lay about him to-day, I can tell them that: and there's Troilus will not come far behind him; let them take heed of Troilus, 1 can till them that too. 61
Cres. What, is he angry too?
Pan, Who, Troilus? Troilus is the better in in of the two.
' 0 Jupiter! there 's no comparison.
Pan. What, not between Troilus and Hec- tor? I to yon know a man if you see him?
1 Cop'd, encountered. 258
Cres. Ay, if I ever saw him before, and knew him.
Pan. Well, I say Troilus is Troilus. TO
( 'res. Then you say as I say ; for, I am sure, he is not Hector.
Pan. No, nor Hector is not Troilus in some degrees.
Cres. 'Tis just to each of them; lie is him- self.
Pan. Himself! Alas, poor Troilus! I would he were, —
£ Cres. So he is.
Pan. Condition, I had2 gone barefoot to India.
( 'res. He is not Hector.
Pan. Himself! no, he's not himself: — would 'a were himself! Well, the gods air above;] timemust friend or end: well, Troilus, well, — 1 would my heart were in her body! — No, Hector is not a better man than Troilus.
Cres. Excuse me.
/'mi. He is elder.
Cres. Pardon me, pardon me. 89
Pan. Th' other 'snot come to 't; Q you shall tell me another tale, when th' other 's come to 't.] Hector shall not have his wit this: year,—
Cres. He shall not need it, if he have his own.
Pan. Nor his qualities, —
Cres. No matter.
Pan. Nor his beauty.
Cres. 'T would not become him,— his own's better.
Pan. You have no judgment, niece: Helen herself swore th' other day, that Troilus, for a brown favour3 — for so 'tis, I must confess, — not brown neither, —
Cres. No, but brown.
Pan. Faith, to say truth, brown and not brown.
Cres. To say the truth, true and not true.
Q Pan. She prais'd his complexion above Paris.
( res. Why, Paris hath colour enough.
Pan. So he has. 109 ;
Cres. Then Troilus should have too much : ' if she prais'd him above, his complexion is,'
a Condition. I hnd = even on condition that I had. ' Favour, face.
ACT I. Scvllr 2.
TKOILI'S AND (h'KSSJDA.
ACT I. Scene 2.
higher than his; he having colour enough, and the other higher, is too flaming a praise for a good complexion. I had as lief Helen's golden tongue had commended Troilus for a copper nose. ]
Pan. I swear to you, I think Helen loves him better than Paris. 117
Cres. Then she 's a merry Greek indeed.
Pan. Nay, I am sure she does. She came to him th' other day into the compass'd win- dow,— [[and, you know, he has not past three ^ or four hairs on his chin —
Ores. Indeed, a tapster's arithmetic may/ soon bring his particulars1 therein to a total. .>
— j——. — ~ ■ , r ".■■';. .". i — ■/■ ■ . ■ . -. .
In1 1 <>■',. .; i1' '■ i
Cres. I had as lief Helen's golden tongue had commended Troilus for a copper nose.— (Act i. 2. 113-115.)
Pan. Why, he is very young: and yet will 'he, within three pound, lift as much as his ] brother Hector.
Cres. Is he so young a man, and so old a
lifter? 129
Pan. But, to prove to you that Helen loves
< him, — she came,] and puts me her white hand
to his cloven chin —
Ores. Juno have mercy! how came it cloven? Pan. Why, you know, 'tis dimpled: I think his smiling' becomes him better than any man in all Phrygia.
1 Particulars = items.
Cres. O, he smiles valiantly.
Pan. Does he not ? 138
Cres. O yes, an 't were a cloud in autumn.
Q Pan. Why, go to, then : — but to prove to ' you that Helen loves Troilus, —
Cres. Troilus will stand to the proof, if you '11 prove it so.
Pan. Troilus! why, he esteems her no more than I esteem an addle egg.
Cres. If you love an addle egg as well as you love an idle head, you would eat chickens i' the shell.
Pan. I cannot choose but laugh, to think '259
A< I I. Scene 2.
TKUILI'S AND (HKSSIDA.
ACT I. Steiie
how slie tickled his chin; — indeed, she has a marvell's1 white hand, I must needs con-
. — 151
Ores. Without the rack.
I'<tn. And she takes upon her to spy a white hail- on his chin.
r. Alas, poor chin! many a wart is richer.
Pan. Bui there was such laughing! — Queen Eecuba laughed, that her eyes ran o'er, — r. With mill-stones.
Pan. And Cassandra laughed, — 159
' 'eg. But there was more temperate fire under the pot of her eyes:— did her eyes run o'er too?
/'an. And Hector laughed.
Ores. At what was all this laughing?
1'<ik. Marry, at the white hair that Helen spied mi Troilus' chin.
Ores. An't had been a green hair, I should have laughed too.
Pan. They laughed not so much at the hair a> at his pretty answer.
Ores. What was his answer? 170
/'"/'. Quoth she, "Here's but one and fifty hairs on your chin, and one of them is white." . This is her question.
Pan. That's true: make no question of that. "One and fifty hairs,"' quoth he, "and one white: that white hair is my father, and all the rest are his sons.'' " Jupiter !" quoth she, "which of these hairs is Paris my hus- band?" " The forked one," quoth he; "pluckt out, and give it him." But there was such laughing! and Eelen so blushed, and Paris so chafed, and all the rest so laughed, that it passed. lss
•. So let it now; for it has been a great while going by.]
/'"/'. Well, cousin, 1 told you a thing yes- terday; think on 't.
Ores. So 1 do.
Pan. I 11 be sworn 'tis true; he will wee]. you, an t weiv ;, man horn in April.
' And I'll spring up in his tears, an t were a nettle against May.
[.1 retreat sounded.
Pan. Mark! they are coming from the field : -hall we stand up here, and see them as they
1 MonttCt, abbreviation of tnorveUoua.
2o0
jpa-s toward Ilium? good niece, do, — sweet niece ( 'ressida.
Ores. At your pleasure.
/'"/;. Here, here, here's an excellent place; here we may see most bravely: I'll tell you them all by their names as they pass by; but mark Troilus above the rest. 200
< res. Speak not so loud.
jExeas passes.
Pan. That's ^Eneas: is not that a brave man? he s one of the flowers of Troy, I can tell you : but mark Troilus ; you shall see anon.
Q Antenor passes.
Ores. Who's that?
Pan. That 's Antenor: he has a shrewd wit, I can tell you; ami he 's a man -cod enough: he's one o' the soundest judgments in Troy, whosoever, and a proper man of person. When comes Troilus? — I'll show you Troilus anon: if he see me, you shall see him nod at me.
Ores. Will he give you the nod?
J'ati. You shall see.
Cres. If he do, the rich shall have more.]
Hector passes.
Pan. That 's Hector, that, that, look you, that; there's a fellow! — Go thy way, Hector! — There 's a brave man, niece. — O brave Hec- tor!— Look how he looks! there's a counten- ance ! is 't not a brave man !
Ores. O, a brave man! 220
/'.'//. Is 'a not? it does a man's heart g 1:
— look you what hacks2 are on his helmet! look you yonder, do you see? look you there: there's no jesting; there's laying on, take't off who will, as they say: there be hacks!
('res. He those with swords?
Pan. Swords! anything, he cares not: an the devil come to him, it 's all one: by God's lid, it does one's heart good. — Yonder comes Paris, yonder conies Paris: 230
Paris passes. look ye yonder, niece; is't not a gallant man
• flacks, marks of blows, dints.
ACT I. Scone 2.
TKOlU'S AND (KKSSIDA.
ACT I. So
too, is 't not? — Why, this is brave now. — Who said he came hurt home to-day? he's not hurt : why, this will do Helen's heart good now, ha! — Would I could see Troilus now! — You shall see Troilus anon.
Q Helen us passes.
Cres. Who's that?
Pan. That's Helenus: — I marvel where Troilus is: — that 's Helenus: — I think he went not forth to-day: — that's Helenus. 240
Cres. Can Helenus fight, uncle?
Pan. Helenus! no; — yes, he'll fight indif- ferent well. — I marvel where Troilus is. — /Hark ! do you not hear the people cry -"Troilus"? — Helenus is a priest.]
( 'res. What sneaking fellow comes yonder ?
Troilus passes.
Pan. Where? yonder? that's Deiphobus: — 't is Troilus ! there 's a man, niece ! — Hem! — Brave Troilus! the prince of chivalry!
Ores. Peace, for shame, peace! 250
Pan. Mark him; note him: — O brave Troilus! — look well upon him, niece: look you how his sword is bloodied, and his helm more hacked than Hector's; and how he looks, and how he goes! — O admirable youth! £he ne'er j!saw three-and-twenty. — Go thy way, Troilus, : go thy way ! ] — Had I a sister were a grace, or a daughter a goddess, he should take his choice. O admirable man! Paris? — Paris is dirt to him; and, I warrant, Helen, to change, would give an eye to boot. 260
Cres. Here comes more.
Forces pass.
Pan. Asses, fools, dolts! chaff and bran, chaff and bran! porridge after meat! — I could live and die i' the eyes of Troilus. — Ne'er look, ne'er look ; the eagles are gone : crows and daws, crows and daws! — I had rather be such a man as Troilus than Agamemnon and all Greece.
Cres. There is among the Greeks Achilles, — a better man than Troilus.
Pan. Achilles! a drayman, a porter, a very camel. 271
Cres. Well, well.
Pan. Well, well! — Why, have you any dis-
cretion?1 have you any eyes? do you know what a man is? Is not birth, beauty, good shape, discourse, manhood, learning, gentle- ness, virtue, youth, liberality, and such like, the spice and salt that season a man?
Cres. Ay, a minced man: Qand then to be baked with no date in the pie, — for then the man's date's out.] j-i
Pan. You are such a woman! £one knows not at what ward you lie.
Cres. Upon my back, to defend my belly; upon my wit, to defend my wiles; upon my secrecy, to defend mine honesty; my mask, to defend my beauty; and you, to defend all these: and at all these wards I lie, at a thou- sand watches.
Pan. Say one of your watches. 290
Cres. Nay, I '11 watch you for that; and that's one of the chiefest of them too: if I cannot ward what I would not have hit, I can watch you for telling how I took the blow; unless it swell past hiding, and then it 's past watching.
Pan. You are such another! ]
Enter Troilus' Boy.
Boy. Sir, my lord would instantly speak with you.
Pan. Where?
Boy. At your own house ; there he unarms him. 300
Pan. Good boy, tell him I come. [Exit Boy.'] I doubt he be hurt. — Fare ye well, good niece.
Cres. Adieu, uncle.
Pan. I'll be with you, niece, by and by.
Cres. To bring, uncle ?
Pan. Ay, a token from Troilus.
Cres. QBv the same token — yon are a bawd.]
[Exit Pandarus. Words, vows, gifts, tears, and love's full sac- rifice, He offers in another's enterprise: But more in Troilus thousand-fold I see 310 Than in the glass of Pandar's praise may be; Yet hold I off. Women are angels, wooing: Things won are done; joy's soul lies in the doing:
1 Discretion, i.e. in its literal sense (disccrno). "power of seeing."
ACT I. Scene 2.
TROILUS AND CRESSIDA.
ACT I. Scene 3.
That sin- beloved knows naught that knows not this, — 314
Men prize the thing ungain'd more than it is: That she was never yet that ever knew Love got so sweet as when desire did sue: Therefore this maxim out of love I teach, — Achievement is command; ungain'd, beseech: Then, tin nigh my heart's content firm love doth bear, 320
Nothing of that shall from mine eyes appear.
[Exeunt.
Scene III. Agamemnon's tent in the Grecian camp.
Flourish of trumpets. Agamemnox, Nestor, Ulysses, Menelaus, and others discovered.
A gam. Princes, What grief hath set the jaundice on your
cheeks'? The ample proposition1 that hope makes In all designs begun on earth below Tails in the promis'd largeness: Q checks and
disasters < rrow in the veins of actions highest rear'd; As knots, by the conflux of meeting sap, Infect the Bound pine, and divert his grain Tortiveand errant from his course of growth.] Nor, princes, is it matter new to us, io
That we come short of our suppose so far, That, after seven years' siege, yet Troy walls
stand; ' L~ S i t h every action that hath gone before, Whereof we have record, trial did draw Bias and thwart, not answering the aim, \inl thai unbodied figure of the thought That gave't surmised shape.] Why, then,
L*you princes,] Do you with cheeks abash'd behold our
works, And call them shames, which are, indeed,
naught else
But the protractive trials of great Jove 20 To find pereistive constancy in men' QThe fineness of which metal is not found I n fortune's love; forthen the bold and coward,
The wise and fool, the artist and unread, The haul and Boft, seem all aftin'd and kin:
/<m = what hope sets before itself to achieve. 262
But, in the wind and tempest of her frown, Distinction, with a broad and powerful fan, Purring at all, winnows the light away; And what hath mass or matter, by itself Lies rich in virtue and unmingled.-] 30
Nest. With due observance of thy godlike
seat, Great Agamemnon, Nestor shall apply Thy latest words. In the reproof3 of chance Lies the true proof of men : the sea being
smooth, How many shallow bauble boats dare sail Upon her patient breast, making their way With those of nobler bulk ! But let the ruffian Boreas once enrage The gentle Thetis, and, anon, behold The strong-ribb'd bark through liquid moun-
tains cut,
40
Bounding between the two moist elements, Like Perseus' horse: where 's then the saucy
boat, Whose weak untimber'd sides but even now Co-rivall'd greatness? either to harbour fled, Or made a toast for Neptune. Even so Doth valour's show and valour's worth divide In storms of fortune: [[for in her ray and
brightness The herd hath more annoyance by the breese ' Than by the tiger; but when the splitting wind Makes flexible the knees of knotted oaks, 50 < And flies fled under shade, why, then the thing
of courage, \
As rous'd with rage, with rage doth sympathize, And with an accent tun'd in self -same key Retorts to chiding fortune.]
Ulyss. Agamemnon, —
Thou great commander, nerve and bone of
Greece, Heart of our numbers, soul and only spirit, In whom the tempers and the minds of all Shoidd be shut up, — hearwhat Ulysses speaks. Q Besides the applause and approbation The which — [to Agamemnoti] most mighty for
thy place and sway, — BO
[To Nestor] And thou most reverend for thy
stretch'd-out life — I give to both your speeches, — which were such
2 Unmingled, pronounced as a quadrisyllable, s Reproof; an obvious quibble is intended. * Brecnc. the gad-fly.
ACT I. Scene 3.
TROILUS AND CRESSIDA.
Ml I. ~.-eue 3.
strong as the
-knit all the Greekish
! As Agamemnon and the hand of Greece 63
Should hold up high in brass; and such again
' As venerable Nestor, hatch'd in silver,
Should with a bond of air
axletree < On which heaven rides jj ears
^To his experienc'd tongue, — yet let it please both,
> Though great and wise, to hear Ulysses speak.] I Agam. Speak, Prince of Ithaca; Q and be't of
less expect1 70
That matter needless, of importless burden, Divide thy lips, than we are confident, When rank Thersites opes his mastic jaws, ) We shall hear music, wit, and oracle. ]
Ulyss. Troy, yet upon his basis, had been down, And the great Hector's sword had lack'd a
master, But for these instances.2 The specialty of rule hath been neglected: And, look, how many Grecian tents do stand Hollow upon this plain, so many hollow fac- tions. SO Q When that the general is not like the hive, 5 To whom the foragers shall all repair, !>What honey is expected? Degrees being
> vizarded,
\ Th' unworthiest shows as fairly in the mask. ] The heavens themselves, the planets, and this
centre, Observe degree, priority, and place, Q Insisture, course, proportion, season, form,
'> Office, and custom, in all line of order:] And therefore is the glorious planet Sol In noble eminence enthron'd and spher'd 90 Amidst the other; whose med'cinable eye Corrects the ill aspects of planets evil, Q And posts, like the commandment of a king, Sans check, to good and bad: but when the
planets, In evil mixture,3 to disorder wander, What plagues, and what portents, what mutiny, What raging of the sea, shaking of earth, Commotion in the winds, frights, changes,
\ horrors,
1 Expect = expectation.
2 Instances, causes, reasons.
3 In evil mixture, perhaps an astrological term.
110)
Divert and crack, rend and deracinate4 The unity and married calm of states 100
Quite from their fixture!] O, when degree is shak'd,
Which is the ladder to all high designs, Then enterprise is sick! How could com- munities, Q Degrees in schools, and brotherhoods in cities, Peaceful commerce from dividable shores,] The primogenity and due of birth, Prerogative of age, crowns, sceptres, laurels, But by degree, stand in authentic place '. Take but degree away, untune that string, And, hark, what discord follows! Qeach thing
meets In mere5 oppugnancy: the bounded waters Should lift their bosoms higher than the shores, \ And make a sop of all this solid globe: Strength should be lord of imbecility, And the rude son should strike his father
dead : ] Force should be right; or rather, right and
wrong — Between whose endless jar justice resides — Should lose their names, and so should justice
too. Then every thing includes itself in power, Power into will, will into appetite; 120
And appetite, an universal wolf, So doubly seconded with will and power, Must make perforce an universal prey, And last eat up himself. [[Great Agamemnon, This chaos, when degree is suffocate, Follows the choking. And this neglection of degree it is, That by a pace goes backward, with a pur- pose It hath to climb.] The general's disdain'd: By him one step below; he, by the next; 130 That next, by him beneath: so every step, Exampled by the first pace that is sick Of his superior, grows to an envious fever Of pale and bloodless0 emulation: And 'tis this fever that keeps Troy on foot, Not her own sinews. [_ To end a tale of length, Troy in our weakness stands, not in her strength. ]
* Deracinate = uproot. 5 Mere, absolute.
r> Bloodless, because malignant and sluggish. 263
ACT I scene 3.
TROILUS AND CRESSIDA.
ACT I. Scene 3.
ffett. Most wisely hath Ulysses here dis- covert! The fever whereof all our power is sick. Again. The nature of the sickness found, Ulysses, 140
What is the remedy?
Uly&s. The great Achilles, — whom opinion crowns
The sinew and the forehand of our host, — Having his ear full of his airy fame, Grows dainty of his worth, and in his tent Lies mocking our designs; with him, Patroclus, Upon a lazy bed, the livelong day Breaks scurril jests;
And with ridiculous and awkward action — Which, slanderer, he imitation calls — 150
Ulyta. Sometime, great Agamemnon.— (Act i. 3. 151.)
1 1 e pageants us. Sometime, great Agamemnon, Thy topless1 deputation he puts on; 152
£ Ami, like a strutting player, — whose conceit Lies in his hamstring, and doth think it rich To hoar the wooden dialogue and sound Twixt his stretch'd footing and the scaffold- age,— Such to-be-pitied and o'er-wrested seeming] He a.ts thy '_rt'.atiiess in: and when he speaks, Tie like a chime a-mending; [with terms un-
Mjuai'd, Which, fioni the tongue of roaring Typhon
dropp'd, ir>o
Would seem hyperboles. At this fusty stuff ]
• Toplfnt, ie. which nothing overtops.
264
The large Achilles, on his press'd bed lolling, From his deep chest laughs out a loud applause; Cries, "Excellent! :t is Agamemnon just. Now play me Nestor; hem, and stroke thy
beard, Q As he being drest to some oration." That's done; — as near as the extremest ends Of parallels; as like as Vulcan and his wife: Yet good Achilles still cries, "Excellent ! 'Tis Nestor right. Now play him me, Patroclus. Arming to answer in a night-alarm."" i:i And then, forsooth, the faint defects of age Must be the scene of mirth; Q to cough and Bpit, And, with a palsy-fumbling on his gorget,2
- Gorget, piece of armour protecting the throat; cf. gorge.
ACT I. Scene S.
TROILUS AND CRESS1DA.
A.CT l. Si
Shake in and out the rivet:] — and at this sport Sir Valour dies; cries, "O, enough, Patroclus; < )r give me ribs of steel ! I shall split all In pleasure of my spleen." And in this fashion, All our abilities, gifts, natures, shapes, E Severals and generals of grace exact, ISO
Achievements, jilots, orders, preventions, Excitements to the field, or speech for truce,] Success or loss, what is or is not, serves As stuff for these two to make paradoxes.
Nest. And in the imitation of these twain — Who, as Ulysses says, opinion crowns With an imperial voice — many are infect. Ajax is grown self-will'd ; and bears his head In such a rein, in full as proud a pace 189
As broad Achilles; keeps his tent like him; Makes factious feasts ; rails on our state of war, Bold as an oracle; and sets Thersites — A slave whose gall coins slanders like a mint,1 To match us in comparisons with dirt, ! rjTo weaken and discredit our exposure,2 'How rank soever rounded-in with danger.]
I lyss. They tax our policy, and call it cow- ardice ; Count wisdom as no member of the war; Forestall prescience, and esteem no act 199 ]'>ut that of hand: Qthe still and mental parts, That do contrive how many hands shall strike, When fitness calls them on; and know, by
measure Of their observant toil, the enemies' weight, — Why, this hath not a finger's dignity: They call this bed-work, mappery,3 closet- war; ] So that the ram that batters down the wall, For the great swing and rudeness of his poise, They place before his hand that made the
engine, Or those that with the fineness of their souls By reason guide his execution. 210
Nest. Let this be granted, and Achilles' horse Makes many Thetis' sons. [A tucket.
Agam. What trumpet? look, Menelaus.
Men. From Troy.
Enter tEneas. Agam. What would you 'fore our tent?
1 Like a mint -us fast as a mint coins money.
- Exposure, defenceless condition.
3 Mappery, i.e. mere theory, bookish scheming.
jffine. Is this great Agamemnon's tent, I pray you?
Agam. Even this.
JEne. May one, that is a herald and a prince, Do a fair message to his kingly ears i
Agam. With surety stronger than Achilles'
arm 220
'Fore all the Greekish heads, which with one
voice Call Agamemnon head and general.
JEne. Fair leave and large security. \_ How may A stranger to those most imperial looks Know them from eyes of other mortals? Agam. How!
JEne. Ay; I ask, that I might waken reverence, And bid the cheek be ready with a blush Modest as morning when she coldly eyes The youthful Phoebus: t'30
Which is that god in office, guiding men ? Which is the high and mighty Agamemnon ! Agam. This Trojan scorns us; or the men of Troy Are ceremonious courtiers. JEne. Courtiers as free, as debonair, un- arm'd, As bending angels; that 's their fame in peace: But when they would seem soldiers, they have
galls, Good arms, strong joints, true swords; and, Jove's accord, 23s
Nothing so full of heart. But peace, iEneas, Peace, Trojan; lay thy finger on thy lips! The worthiness of praise distains his worth, If that the prais'd himself bring the praise
forth: But what the repining enemy commends, That breath fame blows; that praise, sole ] inre, transcends. Agam. Sir, you of Troy, call you yourself
^•Eneas ? JEne. Ay, Greek, that is my name.] Agam. What's your affair, I pray you? JEne. Sir, pardon; 'tis for Agamemnon's
ears. Again. He hears naught privately that
comes from Troy. JEno. Nor I from Troy come not to whis- per him: 250 265
A iT I. -cone 3.
TROILUS AND CRESSIDA.
ACT 1. Sceno S.
[ bring ;i trumpet to awake his ear; 251
'I'., set his sense on the attentive bent, And then to speak.
Agam. Speak frankly as the wind;
It is not Agamemnon's sleeping hour: That thou shalt know, Trojan, he is awake, He tells thee so himself.
jEne. Trumpet, blow loud,
Send thy brass voice through all these lazy
tents; 257
And every Greek of mettle, let him know, What Troy means fairly shall be spoke aloud.
[Trumpet sounds. We have, great Agamemnon, here in Troy A prince call 'd Hector, — Priam is his father, — Who in this dull and long-continu'd truce Is rusty grown: Qhe bade me take a trumpet, \nd to this purpose speak. Kings, princes,
lords!] If there be one among the fair'st of Greece That holds his honour higher than his ease; [ That seeks his praise more than he fears his
peril ; That knows his valour, and knows not his
fear;] 268
That loves his mistress more than in confession, With truant vows to her own lips he loves, And dare avow her beauty and her worth In other arms than hers, — to him this challenge. Ileetov, in view of Trojans and of Greeks, Shall make it good, or do his best to do it, He hath a lady, wiser, fairer, truer, Than ever Greek did compass in his arms; And will to-morrow with his trumpet call .Midway between your tents and walls of Troy, To rouse a Grecian that is true in love: If any come, Sector shall honour him; 2so If none, he '11 say in Troy when he retires, The* Grecian dames aire sunburnt, and not worth The splinter of a lance. Q Even so much.] Agam. This shall be told our lovers, Lord
. Eneas; If none of them have soul in such a kind, We left them all at home: [but we are soldiers; And may that soldier a mere recreant prove, Thai means not, hath not, or is not in love! [f then one is, or bath, or means to be, 289
1 hat ■ meets Hector; if none else, I am he.
'. Tell him of Nestor, one that was a man When Hector's grandsiresuck'd: he is old now; 266
But if there be not in our Grecian host 293' One noble man that hath one spark of tire, To answer for his love, tell him from me, — I'll hide my silver beard in a gold heaver, And in my vantbrace put this wither'd brawn; And, meeting him, will tell him that my lady Was fairer than his grandam, and as chaste As may be in the world: his youth1 in tiood, I '11 prove this truth with my three drops of blood. 301
^Ene. Now heavens forbid such scarcity i >f youth !
Ulyss. Amen.
Agam. Fair Lord yEneas, let me touch your hand ; ] To our pavilion shall I lead you, sir. Achilles shall have word of this intent; So shall each lord of < Jreece, from tent to tent: Yourself shall feast with us before you go, And find the welcome of a noble foe.
[Exeunt all except Ulysses and Nestor.
Ulyss. Nestor, — 310
Nest. What says Ulysses?
I lyss. I have a young conception in my brain ; Be you my time to bring it to some shape.
Nest. What is 't ?
Ulyss. This 'tis:— Blunt wedges rive hard knots: the seeded pride That hath to this maturity blown up In rank Achilles must or now be cropp'd, Or, shedding, breed a nursery of like evil, To overbulk2 us all.
Nest. Well, and how? 320
I lyss. This challenge that the gallant Hec- tor sends, However it is spread in general name, Relates in purpose only to Achilles.
Nest. The purpose is perspicuous [even as substance, Whose grossness little characters sum up: And, in the publication,] make no strain,''' But that Achilles, were his brain as barren As banks of Libya, — though, Apollo knows, 'T is dry enough, — will, with great speed of
judgment, Ay, with celerity, find Hector's purpose .';30 Pointing on him.
1 Hit youth, i.r. though his youth's.
s or, ilnilk = overtower.
3 Make no strain, i e. do not doubt that.
ACT I. Scene 3.
TROILL'S AND L'UKSSI DA.
!. Scene 3.
r/'/.s.s-. And wake him to the answer, think you ? 332
AV.«tf. Yes 'tis most meet: who may you else oppose, Tliat can from Hector bring his honour off, If not Achilles? Though 't be a sportful combat, Yet in the trial much opinion dwells;
Q For here the Trojans taste our deax'st repute With their fin'st palate: and trust to me,
Ulysses, Our imputation shall be oddly1 pois'd In this wild action; for the success, 340
Although particular, shall give a scantling Of good or bad unto the general;
Xest. But if there be not in our Grecian host One noble man that hath one spark of fire, &c.— (Act i. 3. 293-301.)
And in such indexes, although small pricks To their subsequent volumes, there is seen The baby figure of the giant mass Of things to come at large. It is suppos'd, He that meets Hector issues from our choice : ' And choice, being mutual act of all our souls, 'Makes merit her election; and doth boil, (As 'twere from forth us all, a man distill'd Out of our virtues; who miscarrvin?, 351
< What heart receives from hence the concpier-
ing part, To steel a strong opinion to themselves? Which entertain'd, limbs are his instruments,
1 Oddly, i.e. not evenly.
In no less working than are swords and bows Directive by the limbs. ]
Ulyss. Give pardon to my speech; — [[Therefore 'tis meet Achilles meet not Hector. Let us, like merchants, show our foulest wares, And think, perchance, that they will sell; if
not, 360
The lustre of the better yet to show, Shall show the better.] Do not, [[then, 3
consent That ever Hector and Achilles meet; For both our honour and our shame in this Are dogg'd with two strange followers.
Nest. I see them not with my old eyes: what
are they?
2(37
A.CT I. Scene 3.
THOILUS AND CKESSIDA.
ACT II. Scene 1.
Ulyu. What glory our Achilles shares from Hector, Were he not proud, we all should share with
him: But he already is too insolent; Ami wr were better parch in Afric sun 370 Than in the pride and salt scorn of his eyes, Should he scape Hector fair: if he were foil'd, Why, then we did our main opinion1 crush In taint of our best man. No, make a lottery; And, by device, let blockish Ajax draw The sort2 to fight with Hector : 'mong our- selves Give him allowance as the worthier man; For that will physic the great Myrmidon
Who broils in loud applause, and make him fall His crest that prouder than blue Iris bends. If the dull brainless Ajax come safe off, 3S1 We '11 dress him up in voices: if he fail, Yet go we under our opinion still That we have better men. f_But, hit or miss, "' ( )ur project's life this shapeof sense assumes, — Ajax empluy'd plucks down Achilles' plumes.]
Nest. Ulysses, Now I begin to relish thy advice; And I will give a taste of it forthwith To Agamemnon: go we to him straight. 3iJ0 Two curs shall tame each other: pride alone Must tarre3 the mastiffs on, as 'twere their bone. | Exeunt.
ACT II.
Scene I. A part of the Grecian camp.
Hater Ajax and Thersites.
Ajax. Thersites, —
Q Thcr. [Taking no notice of Ajax] Aga- memnon,— how if he had boils, — full, all over, ' generally ? —
Ajax. Thersites, —
Ther. And those boils did run? — Say so, — did in >t the general run then? were not that a botchy core? —
Ajax."} Dog —
[ Ther. Then would come some matter from him; I .see none now. 10
Ajax. Thou bitch- wolf's son,] canst thou not hear? Feel, then. [Beating him.
Ther. The plague of Greece upon thee, thou mongrel beef-witted lord!
Ajax. Speak, then, thou vinewedst4 leaven, speak: I will beat thee into handsomeness.
Ther. I shall sooner rail thee into wit ami holiness: but, I think, thy horse will sooner "■11 an oration than thou learn a prayer with- out bunk. Thou canst strike, canst thou? a red murrain o' thy jade's tricks! 21
Ajax. Toadstool, learn me the proclamation. DobI thou think I have no sense, thou strik'st me thus?
1 Opinion, reputation > Sort, lot *Tarre = &et. * PtntftanfrtssinoaldieBt.
2H8
Ajax. The proclamation!
Ther. Thou art proclaim il a fool, I think.
Ajax. Do not, porpentine. ' do not: Qmy fin- gers itch.
Ther. I would thou didst itch from head to foot, and I had the scratching of thee: I would make thee the loathsom'st scab in Greece. When thou art forth in the incur- sions, thou strik'st as slow as another.
Ajax. I say, the proclamation!'']
Ther. Thou grumblest and railesl everj hour on Achilles; and thou art as full of envy at his greatness as Cerberus is at Proserpina's beauty, ay, that thou bark'st at him.
Ajax. Mistress Thersites!
Ther. Thou shouldst strike him. 40
Ajax. Cobloaf!
Ther. He would pun thee into shivers with his fist, as a sailor breaks a biscuit.
rj.l/7/r. You whoreson cur! [Beating h im.
Ther. Do, do.]
Ajax. Thou stool for a witch!
Ther. Ay, do, do; thou Bodden-witted lord! thou hast no more brain than 1 have in mine elbows; fjan assinego7 may tutor thee:] thou BCurvy - valiant a^s! thou art here but to thrash Trojans; and thou art bought and
* Porpentiru . i ■ porcupine.
'" The proclamation l=gO and find out what the procla- mation is. ■ Aimtnego, Portuguese word = ass.
ACT II. Scene 1.
TROILUS AND CRESSIDA.
ACT II. Scene 1.
soli I ' among those of any wit, like a barbarian slave. Q If thou use to beat me, I will begin at thy heel, and tell what thou art by inches, thou thing of no bowels, thou!]
Ajax. You dog!
Ther. You scurvy lord!
Ajax. You cur! [Beating him.
Ther. Mars his idiot! do, rudeness; do, camel : do, do. 59
Enter Achilles and Patroclus.
Achil. Why, hi>w now, Ajax! wherefore do you thus? — How now, Thersites! what's the matter, man?
Ther. You see him there, do you?
Achil. Ay; what's the matter?
Ther. Nay, look upon him.
Achil. So I do: what's the matter?
Ajux. You cur !— (Act ii. 1. 57.)
Ther. Nay, but regard him well.
Achil. Well! why, I do so.
Ther. But yet you look not well upon him; for, whosoever you take him to be, he is Ajax.
Achil. I know that, fool. 71
Ther. Ay, but that fool knows not himself.
Ajax. Therefore I beat thee.
Ther. Lo, lo, lo, what modicums of wit he utters! his evasions have ears thus long. I have bobbed2 his brain more than he has beat my bones : I will buy nine sparrows for a penny, and his pia mater is not worth the ninth part of a sparrow. This lord, Achilles, Ajax, — fj who wears his wit in his belly, and his guts in his head, — ] I '11 tell you what I say of him. si
1 Bought and sold, i.e. fooled; a proverbial phrase.
2 Bobbed, thumped.
Achil. What? S2
Ther. I say, this Ajax — [Ajax offers to beat him, Achilles interposes.
Achil. Nay, good Ajax.
Ther. Has not so much wit —
Achil. Nay, I must hold you.
Ther. As will stop the eye of Helen's needle, for whom he comes to fight.
Achil. Peace, fool!
Ther. I would have peace and quietness, but the fool will not: he there; that he; look you there.
Ajax. O thou damn'd cur! I shall —
Achil. Will you set your wit to3 a fool's?
Ther. No, I warrant you; for a fool's will shame it.
s Set your tvit to = match your wit against. 269
A> I II. Scene 1.
TROILUS AND CRESSIDA.
A< r ii. Scene -J.
Patr. Good words, Thersites.
/. What 's the quarrel ? Ajax. I bade the vile owl go learn me the
tenour of the proclaniation, and he rails upon me.
Ther. I serve thee not. 101
Ajax. Well, go to, go to.
Ther. I serve here voluntary.
. 1 1 h ii. Your last service was sufferance, 't was not vi limitary, — no man is beaten voluntary: Ajax was here the voluntary, and you asunder an impress.
Ther. E'en so; a great deal of your wit too lies in your sinews, or else there be bars. Hector shall have a great catch, if he knock out either <>f your brains: 'a were as good crack a fusty nut with no kernel.
Achil. What, witli me too, Thersites?
Ther. There's Ulysses and old Nestor — whose wit was mouldy ere your grandsires had nails on their toes— yoke you like draught-oxen, and make you plough up the wars.
Aehil. What, what?
Ther. Yes, good sooth: to Achilles! to Ajax, to! 120
Ajax. I shall cut out your tongue.
Ther. 'Tis no matter; 1 shall speak as much as tin mi afterwards.
Patr. Nu inure words, Thersites; peace!
Ther. I will hold my peace when Achilles' braeh1 bids me, shall I :
Achil. There's for you, Patroclus.
Ther. I will see you hang'd, like clotpoles,2 ere I come any more to your tents: I will keep where there is wit stirring, and leave tin- faction of fools. [Exit.
Patr. A good riddance. 132
Achil. .Mai rv, this, sir, is proclaim'd through all our host: — That Hector, by the fifth hour of the sun, Will, with a trumpet, 'twixt our tents and Troy, To-morrow morning call some knight to arms Thai hath a stomach ; and such a one that dare Maintain — I know not what; 'tis trash. Fare- well.
Ajax. Farewell Who shall answer him?
Achil. 1 know not, — 'tis put to lottery; otherwise i-jo
■A=hound.
- Clotpoles = blockheads.
He knew his man.
[Exeunt Achilles and Patroclus.
Ajax. O, meaning you. — I will go learn more of it. [Exit.
Scene II. Troy. A room in Priam's palace.
Enter Priam, Hector, Troilus, Paris, and Helenus.
/'//. After so many hours, lives, speeches
spent, Thusonceagain says Nesti >r from the Greeks: — "Deliver Helen, and all damage else — As honour, loss of time, travail, expense, Wounds, friends, and what else dear that is
consum'd In hot digestion of this cormorant war- Shall be struck off: " — Hector, what say you
to't? Ifi.'i-t. Tin mgh no man lesser fears the Greeks
than I As far as toucheth my particular, Yet, dread Priam, 10
There is no lady of more softer bowels, More spongy to suck in the sense of fear, More ready to cry out "Who knows what
follows?" Than Hector is : the wound of peace is surety, Surety secure; but modest doubt is call'd The beacon of the wise, the tent3 that searches To the bottom of the worst. Let Helen go: Since the first sword was drawn about this
question, Every tithe soul, 'niongst many thousand
dismes,4 19
Hath been as dear as Helen, — I mean, of ours: If we have lost so many tenths of ours, To guard a thine not ours nor worth to us. Had it our name, the value of one ten, — What merit's in that reason which denies The yielding of her up?
Tro. Fie, tie, my brother!
Weigh you the worth and honour of a king, So great as our dread father, in a scale Of common ounces? will you with com iters sum The past-proportion of his infinite? And buckle in a waist most fathomless 30
3 Tent, probing; metaphoi from surgery. i Dtimcs, tenths (of the army).
ACT II. Scene 2.
TKOILI'S AND ('KKSSIJ)A.
ACT II. Scene 2.
With spans and inches so diminutive 31
As fears and reasons? fie, for godly shame!
Q I I<d. No marvel, though you bite so sharp I at reasons, You arc si i empty of them. Should not our
father Bear the great sway of his affairs with reasons, Because vourspeechhathnone that tells himso? Tro. You are for1 dreams and slumbers,
< brother priest;
( You fur your gloves with reason. Here are your reasons:
< You know an enemy intends you harm;
' You know a sword employ'd is perilous, 40 (And reason flies the object of all harm: (Who marvels, then, when Helenus beholds '. A Grecian and his sword, if he do set ,The very wings of reason to his heels, (And fly like chidden Mercury from Jove, <Or like a star disorb'd? Nay, if we talk of
< reason,
I Let 's shut our gates, and sleep : manhood and
honour | Should have hare hearts, would they but fat
their thoughts With this cramm'd reason : reason and respect \ Make livers pale, and lustihood deject. ] 50 Hect. Brother, she is not worth what she doth cost The holding.
Tro. What is aught, but as 'tis valu'd?
Sect. But value dwells not in particular will ; It holds his estimate and dignity As well wherein 't is precious of itself As in the prizer: 't is mad idolatry To make the service greater than the god; \_ And the will dotes, that is attributive
< To what infectiously itself affects, ^Without some image of th' affected merit.] 60
Tro. Q I take to-day a wife, and my election (Is led on in the conduct of2 my will;
< My will enkindled by mine eyes and ears, Two traded pilots 'twixt the dangerous shores Of will and judgment: how may I avoid, Although my will distaste what it elected, The wife I chose? there can be no evasion
|!To blench from this, and to stand firm by honour:
i For=the man for, or in favour of. 2 In the conduct of= under guidance of.
We turn not back the silks upon the merchant When we have soil'd them ; nor the remainder
viands To
We do not throw in unrespective sieve Because we now are full.] It was thought meet Palis should do some vengeance on the Greeks: Your breath of full consent bellied his sails; The seas and winds, old wranglers, took a truce,3 And did him service: he touch'd the ports
desir'd ; And, for an old aunt whom the Greeks held
captive, He brought a Grecian queen, whose youth and
freshness Wrinkles Apollo, and makes stale the morning. Why keep we her? the Grecians keep our aunt: Is she worth keeping ? why, she is a pearl, si Whose price hath launch'd above a thousand
ships, And turn'd crown'd kings to merchants. If you '11 avouch 't was wisdom Paris went, — As you must needs, for you all cried, "Go, go;" If you'll confess he brought home noble prize, — As you must needs, for you all clapp'd your
hands, And cried, " Inestimable!" — why do you now The issue4 of your proper wisdoms rate, And do a deed that fortune never did, — 90 Beggar the estimation which you priz'd Richer than sea and land ? O theft most base, That we have stol'n what we do fear to keep! Q But, thieves, unworthy of a thing so stol'n, That in their country did them that disgrace We fear to warrant in our native place ! ] Cas. \Within\ Cry, Trojans, cry! Pri. What noise, what shriek is this ?
[Tro. 'Tis our mad sister; I do know her
voice. ] Cas. [Within] Cry, Trojans! Hect. It is Cassandra. 100
Enter Cassandra, raving.
Cas. Ciy, Trojans, cry! lend me ten thousand eyes, And I will fill them with prophetic tears. Hect. Peace, sister, peace! Cas. Virgins and boys, mid-age and wrinkled eld,5
3 Took a truce, made peace.
* Issue, result. 5 Eld, old age.
271
ACT II. Scene 2.
TKOILCS AND CRKSSIDA.
ACT II. Scene '-'.
105
Soft infancy, that nothing canst bnt cry, Add to my clamours! lei us pay betimes A moiety of thai mass of moan to come. Cry, Trojans, cry! practise youreyes with tears! Troy must not be, nor goodly Ilion stand;
Mtr
Cat. Cry, Trojans, cryl lend me ten thousand eyes, An. I I will till them with prophetic tears.- ' Let ii. •-'. 101, 102.)
Our firebrand brother, Paris, burns us all no Cry, Trojans, cry! a Helen and a woe! Cry, cry! Troy burns, or 1 -l.se let Helen go.
{Exit. Hect. Now, youthful Troilus, do not these
high strains Of divination in our sister work S me touches of remorse 1 Q or is your blood So madly hot, thai qo discourse of reason,
Nor fear of bad success in a bad cause, Can qualify the .same?]
Tr<>. Why, brother Hector,
We may not think the justness of each act Such and no other than event doth form it; Nor once deject the courage of our minds, Because ( Sassandra's mad: her brain-sick rap- tures 122 Cannot distaste1 the goodness of a quarrel Which hath our several honours all engag'd To make it gracious. For my private part, I am no more touch'd than all Priam's sons: And Jove forbid there should be done anion- I
us Such things as might offend the weakest spleen To fight for and maintain!
Par. Else might the world convince2 of levity iso
As well my undertakings as your counsels: But 1 attest the gods, your full consent Gave wings to my propension, and cut off All fears attending on so dire a project. QFor what, alas, can these my single arms! What propugnation3 is in one man's valour. To stand the push and enmity of those This quarrel would excite? Yet, I protest,] Were 1 alone to pass4 the difficulties, And had as ample power as I have will, no Paris should ne'er retract what he hath done, Nor faint in the pursuit.
■n.
Paris, you speak
Like one besotted on your sweet delights: You have the honey still, but these the gall; \_ So to be valiant is no praise at all.]
Par. Sir, I propose not merely to myself The pleasures such a beauty brings with it ; But 1 would have the soil of her fair rape Wip'd off in honourable keeping her. What treason were it to the ransack'd6 queen, Disgrace to your great worths, and shame to me, ih
Now to deliver her possession6 up On terms of base compulsion! Can it be That so degenerate a strain as this Should once set footing inyour generous bosoms?
i Ditttute, make distasteful. 2 Convince = convict
a Propugnation, means of defence. i Topass - to pass through, undergo; reading Buapected * Ransaehfd, abducted by force. Herpoesestion Le. possession of her.
ACT II. Scene 2.
TROILUS AND CRESSIDA.
ACT II. Scene 3.
There's not the meanest spirit on our party Without a heart to dare, or sword to draw, When Helen is defended; nor none so noble Whose life were ill bestow:d,or death unfam'd, Where Helen is the subject: [then, I say, 160 Well may we fight for her, whom, we know well, The world's large spaces cannot parallel.] Hect. Paris and Troilus, Qyou have both said well; And on the cause and question now in hand Have gloz'd, — but superficially; not much Unlike young men, whom Aristotle thought I Unfit to hear- moral philosophy : ] The reasons you allege do more conduce To the hot passion of distemper'd blood Than to make up a free determination 170 'Twixt right and wrong; for pleasure and
Have ears more deaf than adders to the voice Of any true decision. Nature craves All dues be render'd to their owners: now, What nearer debt in all humanity Than wife is to the husband? If this law Of nature be corrupted through affection, Q And that great minds, of partial indulgence , To their benumbed wills, resist the same,] There is a law in each well-order'd nation To curb those raging appetites that are isi Most disobedient and refractory. If Helen, then, be wife to Sparta's king, — As it is known she is, — these moral laws Of nature and of nations speak aloud To have her back return'd : thus to persist In doing wrong extenuates not wrong, But makes it much more heavy. [[Hector's
opinion I Is this, in way of truth: yet, ne'ertheless, My spritely brethren, I propend to you 190 In resolution to keep Helen still; ', For 't is a cause that hath no mean dependance Upon our joint and several dignities.]
Tro. Q Why, there you touch'd the life of our design:] Were it not glory that we more affected Than the performance of our heaving spleens, I would not wish a drop of Trojan blood Spentmore in her defence. But, worthy Hector, She is a theme of honour and renown ; 199 A spur to valiant and magnanimous deeds; Whose present courage may beat down our foes, vol. v.
And fame in time to come canonize us : 202 For, I presume, brave Hector would not lose So rich advantage of a promis'd glory, As smiles upon the forehead of this action, For the wide world's revenue.1
Hect. I am yours,
You valiant offspring of great Priamus. — - I have a roisting2 challenge sent amongst The dull and factious nobles of the Greeks Will strike amazement to their drowsy spirits: I was advert is'd;: their great general slept, Whilst emulation4 in the army crept: 212
This, I presume, will wake him. [Exeunt.
Scene III.
The Grecian camp. Achilles' tent.
Enter Thersites.
Before
Ther. How now, Thersites ! what, lost in the labyrinth of thy fury! Shall the elephant Ajax carry it thus ? he beats me, and I rail at him: O worthy satisfaction! would it were otherwise; that I could beat him, whilst he rail'd at me: 's foot, I '11 learn to conjure and raise devils, but I '11 see some issue of my spiteful execrations. Then there 's Achilles, — a rare enginer. If Troy be not taken till these two undermine it, the walls will stand till they fall of themselves. f_0 thou great ^ thunder-darter of Olympus, forget that thou art Jove, the king of gods; and, Mercury, lose all the serpentine craft of thy caduceus; if ye take not that little little less-than-little wit from them that they have ! which short-arm'd ignorance itself knows is so abundant scarce,^ it will not in circumvention deliver a fly from a spider, without drawing their massy irons and cutting the web. After this, the ven- geance on the whole camp! or, rather, the bone-ache! for that, methinks, is the curse dependant on those that war for a placket.5 I have said my prayers; and devil envy say Amen.] — What, ho! my lord Achilles!
Enter Patroclus.
Patr. Who's there? Thersites! Good Ther- sites, come in and rail.
2G
1 Revenue and revenue both occur in Shakespeare. - Routing, blustering. ;* Advertised, informed.
1 Emulation=envy. 5 Placket, petticoat.
-'7."} 130
ACT II. Scene 3.
TROILIS AND CRESSIDA.
ACT II. Scene
Ther. If I could have remember'd a gilt counterfeit, thou wouldst not have slipp'd out of my contemplation: but it is no matter; thyself upon thyself! The common curse of mankind, folly and ignorance, be thine in great revenue! heaven bless thee from a tutor, and discipline come not near thee! Let thy
blood1 be thy direction till thy death! then if she that lays thee out says thou art a fair corse, I'll be sworn and sworn upon't she never shrouded any but lazars.2 Amen. — Where's Achilles'?
Patr. What, art thou devout? wast thou in prayer?
Ther. Then tell me, Patroclus, whats Achilles?— (Act ii. 3. 47, 48.)
Ther. Ay; the heavens hear me!
40
Enter Achilles.
Achil. Who'a there?
P"tr. Thersites, my lord.
Achil. Where, where? — Art thou come? why, my cheese, my digestion,3 why hast thou not serVd thyself in to my table so many meals? ('dine, — what's Agamemnon?
Ther. Thy commander, Achilles.— Then tell me, Patroclus, what's Achilles?
' Thy blood = thy pas- 1
- Lcuars, lepers, or outcasts.
3 My di'jc*' ay after-dinner amusement.
274
Pair. Thy lord, Thersites: then tell me, I pray thee, what's thyself? 50
Ther. Thy knower, Patroclus: then tell me, Patroclus, what art thou?
Patr. Thou mnvst tell that know'st.
Achil. O, tell, tell.
Ther. T '11 decline the whole question. Aga- memnon commands Achilles; Achilles is my lord; 1 am Patroclus' knower; and Patroclus is a fool.
Patr. You rascal !
Ther. Peace, fool! I have not done. 60
Achil. He is a privileg'd man. — Proceed, Thersites.
ACT II. Scene 3.
TROILUS AND CHESS I DA.
ACT II. Scene 3.
Ther. Agamemnon is a fool; Achilles is a fool; Thersites is a fool; and, as aforesaid, Patroclus is a fool.
Ackil. Derive this; come.
Ther. Agamemnon is a fool to offer to com- mand Achilles; Achilles is a fool to be com- manded of Agamemnon; Thersites is a fool to serve such a fool; and Patroclus is a fool positive. 70
Pair. Why am I a fool?
Ther. Make that demand to the creator. It suffices me thou art. — Look you, who comes here i
Ackil. Patroclus, I '11 speak with nobody. — Come in with me, Thersites. [Exit into tent.
Ther. Here is such patchery,1 such juggling, >aud such knavery! Qall the argument is a cuck- old and a whore;] a good quarrel to draw emulous factions and bleed to death upon. <QNow, the dry serpigo- on the subject! and \ war and lechery conf ound all Q [Exit into tent.
Enter Agamemnon, Ulysses, Nestor, Diomedes, and Ajax.
Agam. Where is Achilles? Patr. Within his tent; but ill-dispos'd,.my lord.
Agam. Let it be known to him that we are here. ;QHe shent3 our messengers; and we lay by Our appertainments, visiting of him : | Let him be told so; lest perchance he think We dare not move the question of our place, \ Or know not what we are. ]
Patr. I shall say so to him. [Exit.
Ulyss. We saw him at the opening of his tent: He is not sick.
Ajax. Yes, lion-sick, sick of proud heart:
you may call it melancholy, if you will favour
the man; but, by my head, 't is pride: but why,
why ? let him show us the cause. — A word,
my lord. [Takes Agamemnon aside.
Nest. What moves Ajax thus to bay at him?
llyss. Achilles hath inveigled his fool from
him. ioo
Nest. Who, Thersites?
1 Patchery, roguery ; generally patch = a fool. - Serpigo=a kind of leprosy. 3 Shent, reviled, abused.
Ulyss. He. 102
Nest. Then will Ajax lack matter, if he have lost his argument.
I li/ss. No, you see, he is his argument that has his argument, — Achilles.
Nest. All the better; their fraction is more our wish than their faction : but it was a strong composure4 a fool could disunite.
Ulyss. The amity that wisdom knits not, folly may easily untie. — Here comes Patro- clus. in
Nest. No Achilles with him.
Ulyss. The elephant hath joints, but none for courtesy : his legs are legs for necessity, not for flexure.
Re-enter Patroclus.
Patr. Achilles bids me say, he is much sorry, If any thing more than your sport and pleasure Did move vour oreatness and this noble state5 To call upon him; he hopes it is no other But for your health and your digestion sake, — An after-dinner's breath.
Agam. Hear you, Patroclus: —
We are too well acquainted with these answers: But his evasion, wing'd thus swift with scorn, Cannot outfly our apprehensions.6 \_ Much attribute he hath ; and much the reason > Why we ascribe it to him : yet all his virtues, Not virtuously on his own part beheld, Do in our eyes begin to lose their gloss; Yea, like fair fruit in an unwholesome dish, Are like to rot untasted.] Go and tell him, We come to speak with him; and you shall not sin, 131
If you do say we think him over-proud And under-honest; Qin self-assumption greater Than in the note of judgment; and worthier
than himself Here tend the savage strangeness he puts on, Disguise the holy strength of their command, And underwrite7 in an observing kind His humorous predominance; yea, watch His pettish lunes,8 his ebbs, his flows, as if The passage and whole carriage of this action Eode on his tide. ] Go tell him this ; and add,
■» Composure = union, alliance. s State, noble attendants ; abstract for concrete. 6 Apprehensions, powers of understanding. i Underwrite = obey, subscribe to. s Lunes, caprices. 275
ACT II. Scene 3.
TROILIS AM) ( KKSSIDA.
ACT II. Scene :{.
Thai if he overhold his price so much, 142 We'll uoneof him; Qbutlethim, likeanengine Not portable, lie under this report, — Bring action hither, this cannot go to war:] A stirring dwarf we do allowance give Before a sleeping giant: — tell him so. I'atr. 1 shall; ami bring his answer presently.
[Exit into tint.
Agam. In second voice we "11 not be satisfied;
We come to speak with him. — Ulysses, enter
you. [ExU Ulysses into tent.
Ajax. What is he more than another?
Agam. No more than what he thinks he is.
Ajax. Is he so much? Do you not think he thinks himself a better man than I ami
Agam. No question.
Ajax. Will you subscribe his thought, and say he is i
Agam. No, noble Ajax; you are as strong, as valiant, as wise, no less noble, much more gentle, and altogether more tractable. loo
Ajax. Why should a man lie proud? How doth pride grow? I know not what pride is.
Agam. Your mind is the clearer, Ajax, and your virtues the fairer. He that is proud eats up himself; pride is his1 own glass, his own trumpet, his own chronicle; and whatever praises itself but in the deed, devours the deed in the praise.
Ajax, I do hate a proud man, as I hate the engendering <>f toads. ito
Nest. [Aside] Yet he loves himself: is't not Grange?
Re-enter Ulysses from tent.
Ulyss. Achilles will not to the field to- morrow.
Agam. What 's his excuse?
Ulyss. He doth rely on none;
But carries on the stream of his dispose, Without observance or respect of any, In will peculiar and in self-admission.2
Agam. Why will lie not, up mr fair request,
( " i it in t his person, and share the air with us?
Ulyss. Things small as nothing, for request's sake only, He makes important: possess'd he is with greatness; 180
it '-. its. self-satisfied.
276
And speaks not to himself, but with a pride That quarrels at self-breath: imagin'd worth Holds in his blood such swoln and hot dis- course, 183 That 'twixt his mental and his active parts Kingdom'd Achilles in commotion rages, And batters down himself: Qwhat should I
say ? He is so plaguy proud, that the death-tokens of :t Cry "No recovery."]
Agam. Let Ajax go to him. —
Dear lord, go you and greet him in his tent: :T is said he holds you well ; and will be led, At your request, a little from himself. 191
Ulyss. O Agamemnon, let it not be so! We '11 consecrate the steps that Ajax makes When they go from Achilles: Qshall the proud
lord, That hastes his arrogance with his own seam,3 And never suffers matter of the world Enter his thoughts, save such as doth revolve And ruminate himself,] — shall he be wor-
shipp'd Of that we hold an idol more than he? 199 No, this thrice-worthy and right- valiant lord .Must not so stale his palm, nobly acquired; Nor, by my will, assubjugate his merit. As amply titled as Achilles is, 1 '.y going to Achilles :
[That were t' enlard his fat-already pride, And add more coals to Cancer when he burns With entertaining great Hyperion.] This lord go to him! Jupiter forbid, And say in thunder, "Achilles go to him." Nc.it. [Aside] O, this is well; he rubs the vein of4 him. 210
Dio. [Aside] And how his silence drinks up
this applause! Ajax. If I go to him, with my armed list I '11 pash him o'er the face. Agam. < >. no, yon shall not go. Ajax. An a' be proud with me, I'll pheeze his pride: Let me go to him.
Ulyss. Not for the worth that hangs upon
our quarrel. Ajax. A paltry, insolent fellow! Nest. [Aside] How he describes himself !
s Seam, grease. * Rubs the vein o/= flatters, humours.
ACT II. Sceiie S.
TROILUS AND CItKSSI l>.\.
ACT III. Scene 1.
Aja.v. Can he not be sociable? 220
Ulyss. \Aside\ The raven chides blackness.
Ajax. I '11 let his humours blood.
Again. [Aside] He will be the physician that should be the patient.
Ajax. An all men were o' my mind, —
Ulyss. [Aside] Wit would be out of fashion.
Q Ajax. A' should not bear it so, a' should eat |' swords first: shall pride carry it?
Nest. [Aside] And 'twould, you 'd carry half.
Ulyss. [Aside] A' would have ten shares.]
Ajax. I will knead him ; I '11 make him supple.
Nest. [Aside] He's not yet through warm: force him with praises: pour in, pour in; his ambition is dry.
Ulyss. [To Again.] My lord, you feed too much on this dislike.
Nest. Our noble general, do not do so.
Dio. You must prepare to fight without Achilles.
Ulyss. Why, 'tis this naming of him does him harm. Here is a man — but 'tis before his face; 240 I will be silent.
Nest. Wherefore should you so?
He is not emulous, as Achilles is.
Ulyss. Know the whole world, he is as valiant.
Ajax. A whoreson dog, that shall palter thus with us! Would he were a Trojan!
Nest. What a vice were it in Ajax now, —
Ulyss. If he were proud, —
Dio. Or covetous of praise, —
Ulyss. Ay, or surly borne, —
Dio. Or strange, or self -affected! 250
Ulyss. Thank the heavens, lord, thou art of
sweet composure;1 261
Praise him that got thee, she that gave thee
suck: Fam'd be thy tutor, and thy parts of nature Thrice-fam'd, beyond all erudition: But he that disciplin'd thy arms to fight, Let Mars divide eternity in twain, And give him half: [and, for thy vigour, letS Bull-bearing Milo his addition yield To sinewy Ajax.] I '11 not praise thy wisdom, / £ Which, like a bourn, a pale, ashore, confine Thy spacious and dilated parts : here 's Nes- tor,— 2G1 Instructed by the antiquary times, He must, he is, he cannot but be wise : — ] But pardon, father Nestor, were your days As green as Ajax', and your brain so temper'd, You should not have the eminence of him, But be as Ajax.
Ajax. Shall I call you father?
Nest. Ay, my good son.
Dio. Be rul'd by him, Lord Ajax.
Ulyss. There is no tarrying here; the hart Achilles 269
Keeps thicket. Please it our great general To call together all his state of war; Fresh kings are come to Troy: to-morrow We must with all our main of power stand fast: And here 's a lord, — come knights from east
to west, And cull their flower, Ajax shall cope the best.
Agam. Go we to council. Let Achilles sleep:
Light boats sail swift, though greater hulks
draw deep. [Exeunt.
ACT III.
Q Scene I. Troy. A room in Priam's palace.
Enter a Servant and Pandarus.
5 Pan. Friend, you, — pray you, a word: do '^not you follow the young Lord Paris? < Serv. Ay, sir, when he goes before me. Pan. You depend upon him, I mean? 5 Serv. Sir, I do depend upon the lord.
Composure, disposition.
Pan. You depend upon a noble gentleman; I must needs praise him.
Serv. The lord be praised!
Pan. You know me, do you not?
Serv. Faith, sir, superficially. 10
Pan. Friend, know me better; I am the Lord Pandarus.
Serv. I hope I shall know your honour better.
Pan. I do desire it.
Serv. You are in the state of grace. 277
ACT III. Scene 1.
TROILUS AND CRESSIDA.
ACT III. Scene 1.
/'■>,<. Grace! not so, friend; honour and lordship are my titles. [Music within.] — What music Lb this 1
51 rv. I do but partly know, sir: it is music in parts. 90
Pan, Know you the musicians?
S .-. Wholly, sir.
Pan. Who play they to?
Sen. To the hearers, sir.
Pan. At whose pleasure, friend i
Serv. At mine, sir, and theirs that love music.
Pan. Command, I mean, friend.
Serv. Who shall I command, sir?
Pan. Friend, we understand not one another: I am too courtly, and thou art too cunning. At whose request do these men play \ 31
Si rv. That 's to 't,1 indeed, sir : marry, sir, at the request of Paris my lord, who's there
in person; with him, the mortal Venus, the heart-blood of beauty, love's invisible soul, —
Pan. Who, my cousin Cressida?
Serv. No, sir, Helen: could you not find out that by her attributes?
Pan. It should seem, fellow, that thou hast not seen the Lady Cressida. I come to speak with Paris from the Prince Troilus: I will make a complimental2 assault upon him, for my business seethes.
Serv. Sodden business! there's a stewed3 phrase indeed!
Enter Paris and Helex, attended.
Pan. Fair be to you, my lord, and to all this fair company! fair desires, in all fair measure, fairly guide them! — especially to you, fair queen! fair thoughts be your fair pillow! 49
//• ' n. I >ear lord, you are full of fair words.
Pan. You speak your fair pleasure, sweet queen. — Pair prince, here is good broken music.
Par. You have broke it. cousin: and. by my life, you shall make it whole again; you shall piece it out with a 1 liirr of your performance.
Nell, he is full of harmony.
Pan. Truly, lady, no.
//■ It n. ( >, sir, —
1 That's to 't - that 's to the point.
ourteona. 3 Steiced, fit for a stews; a quibbling expression.
278
r<m. Rude, in sooth; in good sooth, very rude. 00
Par. Well said, my lord! well, you say so in tits.4
Pan. I have business to my lord, dear queen. — My lord, will you vouchsafe me a word i
Helen. Nay, this shall not hedge us out: we '11 hear you sing, certainly.
Pan. Well, sweet queen, you are pleasant with me. — But, marry, thus, my lord, —My dear lord, and most esteemed friend, your brother Troilus, — to
Helen. My lord Pandarus; honey-sweet lord, —
Pan. Go to, sweet queen, go to:— commends himself most affectionately to you, —
Helen. You shall not bob"' us out of our melody: if you do, our melancholy upon your head!
Pan. Sweet queen, sweet queen; that's a sweet queen, i' faith, —
Helen. And to make a sweet lady sail is a sour offence. 80
Pan. Nay, that shall not serve your turn; that shall it not, in truth, la. Nay, I care not for such words; no, no. And, my lord, he desires you, that if the king call for him at supper, you will make his excuse.
Helen. My Lord Pandarus, —
Pan. What says my sweet queen, — my very very sweet queen ?
Par. What exploit's in hand? where sups he to-night? 90
Helen. Nay, but, my lord, —
Pan. What says my sweet queen? — -My cousin will fall out with you. You must not know where he sups.
Par. I'll lay my life, with my disposer Cressida
Pan. No, no, no such matter; you are wide : ,; come, your disposer is sick.
Par. Well, I '11 make excuse.
/'",>. Ay, good my lord. Why should you say Cressida? no, your poor disposer's sick.
I'm-. I spy.
/'■in. You spy! what do you spy? — Come. give me an instrument. — Now, sweet queen.
* Fits, the divisions of a song. 5 Bob, cheat. }'•" are wide, i e. wiile of the mark.
ACT 111. Sivm- I.
TKOILUS AND CI!KSSI1>A.
ACT III. Scene 2.
Helen. Why, this is kindly done. 105
Pan. My niece is horribly in love with a th}ng you have, sweet queen.
Helen. She shall have it, my lord, if it be not my lord Paris.
Pan. He! no, she'll none of him; they two are twain. m
Helen. Falling in, after falling out, may make them three.
Pan. Come, come, I '11 hear no more of this; I '11 sing you a song now.
Helen. Ay, ay, prithee now. By my troth, sweet lord, thou hast a fine forehead.
Pan. Ay, you may, you may.
Helen. Let thy song be love: this love will undo us all. O Cupid, Cupid, Cupid! 120
Pan. Love! ay, that it shall, i' faith.
Par. Ay, good now, love, love, nothing but love.
Pan. In good troth, it begins so. [Sings. Love, love, nothing but love, still more!1
Love, love, nothing but love, still more ! l For, 0, love's bow Shoots buck and doe: 1 The shaft confounds,
Not that it wounds,
But tickles still the sore.
These lovers cry— Oh! oh! they die! 130
Yet that which seems the wound to kill
Doth turn oh! oh! to ha! ha! he! So dying love lives still:
Oh! oh! awhile, but ha! ha! ha!
Oh! oh! groans out for ha! ha! ha! Heigh-ho !
Helen. In love, i' faith, to the very tip of
the nose. 139
/ Par. He eats nothing but doves, love; and
that breeds hot blood, and hot blood begets
^hot thoughts, and hot thoughts beget hot
deeds, and hot deeds is love.
Pan. Is this the generation2 of love1? hot blood, hot thoughts, and hot deeds? Why, \ they are vipers: is love a generation of vipers? < — Sweet lord, who 's a-field to-day ?
Par. Hector, Deiphobus, Helenus, Antenor,
and all the gallantry of Troy: I would fain
>have arm'd to-day, but my Nell would not
have it so. How chance 3 my brother Troilus
;went not? 151
1 Still more = evermore, always.
- Generation, the way love is generated.
3 How chance = how comes it that.
Helen. Ee hangs the lip at something:— you?
know all, Lord 1'andarus. 158?
Pan. Not I, honey-sweet queen. — I long; to hear how they sped to-day.— You '11 remem- ber your brother's excuse? /'"/•. To a hair. Pan. Farewell, sweet queen. Helen. Commend me to your niece. 159
Pan. I will, sweet queen. [Exit.
[A retreat sounded Par. They 're come from field : let us to Priam's hall, To greet the warriors. Sweet Helen, I must
woo you To help unarm our Hector: his stubborn
buckles, With these your white enchanting fingers
touch'dj Shall more obey than to the edge of steel Or force of Greekish sinews; you shall do more Than all the island kings, — disarm great Hecti ir. Helen. 'T will make us proud to be his ser- ' vant, Paris; Yea, what he shall receive of us in duty Gives us more palm in beauty than we have, \ Yea, overshines ourself. 1T1
Par. Sweet, above thought I love thee.
[Exeunt.^ .
Scene II. The same. Pandarus' orchard.
Enter Pandarus and Troilus' Boy, meeting.
Pan. How now! where 's thy master? at my cousin Cressida's?
Boy. No, sir; he stays for you to conduct him thither.
Pan. O, here he comes.
Enter Troilus.
How now, how now!
Tro. Sirrah, walk off. [Exit Boy.
Pan. Have you seen my cousin ? 8
Tr>>. No, Pandarus: 1 stalk about her door, Like a strange soul upon the Stygian banks Staying for waftage. Q O, be thou my ( Sharon, And give me swift transportance to those fields Where I may wallow in the lily-beds Propos'dforthedeserver!] O gentle Pandarus, From Cupid's shoulder ] duck his painted wings, And rlv with me to Cressid! 279
ACT III. Scene 2.
TKOILUS AND CRESS I DA.
ACT III. Scene 2.
/'a//. Walk here i' the orchard, I'll bring her straight. [Exit.
Tro. I am giddy; expectation whirls me round. Th' imaginary relish is so sweet 20
That it enchants my sense: what will it be, When that the watery palate tastes indeed Love'sthrice-repured1 nectar? death,2 1 fear me; Swooning destruction: or some joy too fine, Too subtle-potent, tun'd too sharp in sweetness, For the capacity of my ruder powers: \_ I fear it much; and I do fear besides, That I shall lose distinction in my joys; ■ As doth a battle, when they charge on heaps '• The enemy flying.] 30
Re-enter Paxdarus.
Pan. She 's making her ready, she '11 come straight : you must be witty now. She does so blush, Qand fetches her wind so short, as if she were fray'd with a sprite:] I'll fetch her. It is the prettiest villain: she fetches her breath as short as a new-ta'en sparrow. [Exit.
Tro. Even such a passion doth embrace my bosom : u I y heart beats thicker than a feverous pulse ; And all my powers do their bestowing3 lose, Like vassalage at unawares encount'ring The eye of majesty. 41
Re-enter Pandarus with Cressida.
Pan. Come, come, what need you blush? shame 's a baby. — Here she is now: swear the oaths now to her that you have sworn to me. — What, are you gone again? you must be watch'd ere you be made tame, must you? < "ine your ways, come your ways; Qan you ■ haw backward, we'll put you i' the fills.4—] Why do you not speak to her? — £Come, draw this curtain, and let 's see your picture. Alas tin- day, how loth you are to offend dayjight ! an 'twere dark, you'd close sooner. So, so; rub on, and ki--. the mistress. How now ! a kiss in fee-farm I6 build there, carpenter; the air is sweet X.iv. you shall fight your hearts out tic I part you. The falcon as the tercel, for all the ducks i' the river : goto, goto.] 56
i Repured puritied. 2 Death, i.e. it will be death
Lf-controL 4 Fills, shafts.
1 1 ',,/. metaphorically = in perpetuity.
280
Tro. You have bereft me of all words, lady.
Pan. Words pay no debts, give her deeds : Q but she '11 bereave you o' the deeds too, if she!> call your activity in question.] What, billing again ? Here 's — " In witness whereof the par- ties interchangeably" — Come in, come in: 1 '11 go get a fire. \Exti.
Cres. Will you walk in, my lord?
Tro. O Cressida, how often have I wish'd me thus!
Oret. Wish'd, my lord! — The gods grant — 0 my lord!
Tro. What should they grant? what makes this pretty abruption? what too curious0 dree, espies my sweet lady in the fountain of our love ?
Cres. More dregs than water, if my fears have eyes.
[Tro. Fears make devils of cherubins; they never see truly.
Cres. Blind fear, that seeing reason leads, \ finds safer footing than blind reason stum- bling without fear: to fear the worst oft cures the worst. ]
Tro. O, let my lady apprehend no fear: in all Cupid's pageant there is presented no monster. si
Cres. Nor nothing monstrous neither?
Tro. Nothing, but our undertakings; when we vow to weep seas, live in fire, eat rocks, tame tigers; thinking it harder for our mis- tress to devise imposition enough than for us to undergo any difficulty imposed. This is the monstruosity in love, lady, — that the will is infinite, Qand the execution confin'd; that the desire is boundless,] and the act a slave to limit. 90
Cres. They say, all lovers swear more per- formance than they are able, and yet reserve an ability that they never perform; vowing more than the perfection of ten, and discharg- ing less than the tenth part of one. They that have the voice of lions and the act of hares, are they not monsters ?
Tr<>. Are there such? such are not we: praise us as we are tasted," allow us as we prove; Qour head shall go bare till merit crown it: no per- fection in reversion shall have a praise in pre-
• Curious, perhaps "causing curiosity." " Tasted = tested.
ACT III. Scene 2.
TROILUS AND CEESSIDA.
ACT III Scene 2,
1 sent: we will not name desert before his birth;
5 and, being born, his addition shall be humble.] Few words to fair faith: Troilus shall be such to Cressid as what envy can say worst shall be a mock for his truth, and what truth can speak truest not truer than Troilus. \_Cres. Will you walk in, my lord?
Re-enter Pandarus.
Pan. What, blushing still? have you not/ done talking yet?
Cres. Well, uncle, what folly I commit, I dedicate to you.
Pan. I thank you for that : if my lord get
i
Pan. What, blushing still? have you not done talking yet?— (Act iii. 2. 108, 109.)
I a boy of you, you '11 give him me. Be true to \ my lord : if he flinch, chide me for it.
Tro. You know now your hostages; your < uncle's word and my firm faith.
Pan. Nay, I'll give my word for her too: our kindred, though they be long ere they are wooed, they are constant being won : they are burs, I can tell you; they '11 stick where they are thrown. ] 120
Cres. Boldness comes to me now, and brings me heart: — Prince Troilus, I have lov'd you night and day For many weary months.
Tro. Why was my Cressid, then, so hard to win ?
Cres. Hard to seem won: but I was won,
my lord, With the first glance that ever — pardon me — If I confess much, you will play the tyrant. I love you now; but not, till now, so much But I might master it: — in faith, I lie; My thoughts were like unbridled children,
grown 130
Too headstrong for their mother: — see, we
fools ! Why have I blabb'd? who shall be true to us When we are so unsecret to ourselves? — But, though I lov'd you well, I woo'd you not; And yet, good faith, I wish'd myself a man, Or that we women had men's privilege 281
ACT III. Scene 2.
TROILUS AND CRESSIDA.
ACT III. Scene 2.
( >f speaking first Sweet, bid me bold my tongue; For, in this rapture, I sball surely speak 188 The thing I sball repent. See, see, your silence, ( tannine in dumbness, from in v weaknessdraws My very soul of counsel! — stop my mouth.
Tro. And shall, albeit sweet music issues theme.
Q Pan. Pretty, i' faith. ] [Kisses her.
Ores. My lord, I do beseech you, pardon me; T was not my purpose thus to beg a kiss: I am aaham'd; — O heavens! what have I done ? For this time will I take my leave, my lord.
Q Tro. Your leave, sweet Cressid !
Pan. Leave! an you take leave till to-mor- row morning, — 150
Ores. Pray you, content you. ]
Tro. What offends you, lady?
Ores. Sir, mine own company.
Tro. You cannot shun
Yourself.
( res. Let me go and try: I have a kind of self resides with you; But an unkind self, that itself will leave,1 To be another's fool. I would be gone: — Where is my wit 1 I know not what I speak.
Tro. Well know they what they speak that speak so wisely.
Ores. Perchance, my lord, I show'd more craft than love; 160
And fell so roundly to a large confession, To angle for your thoughts: but you are wise; Or else you love not; for to be wise and love Exceeds man's might; that dwells with gods above.
Tro. O that I thought it could be in a woman — As, if it can, I will presume in you — To feed for aye her lamp and flames of love; To keep her constancy in plight and youth, I lutliving beauty's outward, with a mind That doth renew swifter than blood decavs! Or, that persuasion could but thus convince
'lie,— 171
That my integrity and truth to you
Might be affronted with the match and weight
< >f such a winnow'd purity in love;
Eow were 1 then upliftedl but, alas,
I am as true as truth's simplicity,
And simpler than the infancy of truth.
i Leave = cease.
282
Ores. In that I '11 war with you. Tro. O virtuous fight,
When right with right wars who shall be most
right!
179
True swains in love shall, in the world to come, Approve their truths by Troilus: when their
rhymes, Full of protest, of oath, and big compare, Want similes, truth tir'd2 with iteration, — £As true as steel, as plantage3 to the moon, As sun to day, as turtle to her mate, As iron to adamant, as earth to the centre, — ] Yet, after all comparisons of truth, QAs truth's authentic author to be cited,] "As true as Troilus" shall crown up the verse, 1S9
And sanctify the numbers.
Cres. Prophet may you be!
If I be false, or swerve a hair from truth, When time is old and hath forgot itself, When waterdrops have worn the stones of
Troy, And blind oblivion swallow'd cities up, QAnd mighty states characterless are grated To dusty nothing;] yet let memory, From false to false, among false maids in love, Upbraid my falsehood ! when they 've said
" as false As air, as water, wind, or sandy earth, Q As fox to lamb, as wolf to heifer's calf, 200 Pard to the hind, or stepdame to her son," ] — "Yea," let them say, to stick4 the heart of
falsehood, " As false as Cressid."
[Pan. Go to, a bargain made: seal it, seal it; I'll be the witness. Here I hold your hand; here my cousin's. If ever you prove false one to another, since I have taken such pains to bring you together, let all pitiful goers-between be called to the world's end after my name, call them all Pandars;5 let all inconstant men be Troiluses, all false women C'ressids, and all brokers-between Pandars! say, amen.
Tro. Amen.
TV'S. Amen.
Pan. Amen. Whereupon I will show you a chamber with a bed; which bed, because it
- Tir'd = be'ms tired : an awkward ((instruction. 3 See note 188. 4 Stick, stall, pierce.
5 Pandara. a correct piece of philology.
ACT III. Scene 3.
TROILUS AND CRESSIDA.
ACT III. Scene 3.
shall not speak of your pretty encounters,
press it to death: away! 218
Ami Cupid grant all tongue-tied maidens here
^Bed, chamber, Pandar to provide this gear'.]
[Exeunt.
Scene III. The Grecian camp. Before the tent of Achilles.
Enter Agamemnon, Ulysses, Diomedes, Nes- tor, Ajax, Menelaus, and Calchas.
Cal. Now, princes, for the service I have done you, Th: advantage of the time prompts me aloud To call for recompense. Q Appear it to your
mind That, through the sight I bear in things, to love] I have abandon'd Troy, left my possessions, 'Incurr'd a traitor's name; Qexpos'd myself, ' From certain and possess'd conveniences,1 ■ To doubtful fortunes; sequestering from me all That time, acquaintance, custom, and condition, Made tame and most familiar to my nature;] And here, to do you service, am become n As new into2 the world, strange, unacquainted: I do beseech you, as in way of taste, To give me now a little benefit, Out of those many registered in promise, Which, you say, live to come in my behalf. Again. What wouldst thou of us, Trojan?
make demand. Cal. You have a Trojan prisoner, call'd Antenor, Yesterday took: Troy holds him very deai*. Oft have you — often have you thanks there- fore— 20 Desir'd my Cressid in right great exchange, Whom Troy hath still denied: but this Antenor, I know, is such a wrest3 in their affairs, That their negotiations all must slack, Wanting his manage; and they will almost Give us a prince of blood, a son of Priam, In change of him: let him be sent, great princes, And he shall buy my daughter; and her pre- sence 28 Shall quite strike off all service I have done, In most accepted pain. —
1 Conveniences, comforts. - Into =xmto.
3 Wrest, an instrument for tightening the strings of a harp.
Agam. Let Diomedes bear him,
And bring us Cressid hither: < alchaa shall have
What he requests of us. — Good Diomed, 32 Furnish you fairly for this interchange: Withal, bring word if Hector will to-morrow Be answer'd in his challenge: Ajax is ready.
I>io. This shall I undertake; and 'tis a burden Which I am proud to bear.
[Exeunt Diomedes and Calchas.
Enter Achilles and Patroclus, from their tent.
Vlyss. Achilles stands i' th' entrance of his tent: — ■ Please it our general to pass strangely by him, As if he were forgot; and, princes all, 40
Lay negligent and loose regard upon him: I will come last. 'Tis like he'll question me Why such unplausive4 eyes are bent on him: If so, I have derision med'cinable, To use between your strangeness and his pride, Which his own will shall have desire to drink: Q It may do good : pride hath no other glass ', To show itself but pride; for supple knees Feed arrogance, and are the proud man's fees.] Agam. We '11 execute your purpose, and put on A form of strangeness as we pass along: — 51 So do each lord; and either greet him not, Or else disdainfully, which shall shake him
more Than if not look'd on. I will lead the way. Achil. What, comes the general to speak with me? You know my mind, I '11 fight no more 'gainst Troy. Agam. What says Achilles? would he aught
with us? Nest. Would you, my lord, aught with the
general? Achil. No.
Nest. Nothing, my lord. go
Agam. The better.
[Exeunt Agamemnon and Nestor. Achil. Good day, good day. Men. [Jauntily] How do you? how do you?
[Exit. Achil. What, does the cuckold scorn me \ Ajax. How now, Patroclus!
* Unplausive, i.e. giving no salutation. 283
ACT III. Scene 3.
TROILUS AND ( "IIKSSI DA.
ACT III. Scene 3.
Achil. (J 1 morrow, Ajax.
Ajax. Ha!
Achil. GrOOd marrow.
Ajax. Ay, and <jnod next day too. [j&ri£.
.!.■/<//. What in. an these fellows? Know
they not Achilles? to
Pair. They pass by strangely: they were us'd
to bend,
To send their smiles before them to Achilles; To com.' as humbly as they use to creep 73 To holy altars.
Arhil. What, am I poor of late?
Tis certain, greatness, once fall'n out with
fortune, Must fall out with men too: what the de-
clin'd1 is,
-r"\-
Nest. Nothing, my lord.
Agam. The better.— (Act iii. 8. 60, 61.)
II' shall as soon read in the eyes of others feel in his own fall; Qfor men, like butter- flies, Show not their mealy wings bnt to the summer; And not a man, for being simply man, 80
Hath any honour, hut honour for those honours That are without him, as place, riches, favour,8 Prizes of accident as oft aa merit: Which when they fall, aa being slippery
riders, The bve that lean'd on them as slippery too,
1 !>■ ■ ''. •'. fallen.
• Favour, used passively being In favour.
Do one pluck down another, and together Die in the fall.] But 'tis not so with me: Fortune and 1 are friends: I do enjoy At ample point all that I did possess, Save these men's looks; who do, methinks,
find out Something not worth in me such rich behold- ing As they have often given. Here is Ulysses: I'll interrupt his reading. — I low now, Ulysses!
Uli/88. Now, great Thetis' son!
Achil. What are you reading?
f Vy.-w.
A strange fellow here
ACT III. Scene 3.
TROILUS AND CKESSIDA.
ACT III. Scene 3.
Writes me, "That man — bow dearly ever parted,1 96
How much in having,'-' or without or in— Cannot make boast to have that which he hath, Nor feels not what he owes,9 but by reflection; Q As when his virtues shining upon others .' Heat them, and they retort that heat again ^To the first giver. " j
Achil. This is not strange, Ulysses.
The beauty that is borne here in the face The bearer knows not, but commends itself To others' eyes: nor doth the eye itself, That most pure spirit of sense, behold itself, Not going from itself; but eye to eye oppos'd Salutes each other with each other's forni: For speculation turns not to itself, 109
Till it hath travell'd, and is mirror'd there Where it may see itself. This is not strange at all. Ulyss. I do not strain at the position, — It is familiar, — but at the author's drift; Who, in his circumstance,4 expressly proves That no man is the lord of any thing, Though in and of him there be much con- sisting, Till he communicate his parts to others; Nor doth he of himself know them for aught Till he behold them formed in th' applause ^ Where they're extended; Qwho, like an arch, I reverberates 120
The voice again; or, like a gate of steel Fronting the sun, receives and renders back } His figure and his heat.] I was much rapt in
this; And apprehended here immediately The unknown Ajax.
Heavens, what a man is there ! a very horse ; That has he knows not what. Q Nature, what
things there are, 5 Most abject in regard, and dear in use!5 ?What things again most dear in the esteem, ?And poor in worth!] Now shall we see to- morrow— 130 An act that very chance doth throw upon him — Ajax renown'd. O heavens, what some men do, AVhile some men leave to do!
1 Parted, having good parts or qualities.
2 Having, substance, property. 3 Oivea, owns.
4 Circumstance, i.e. details of his argument.
5 Use, utility, opposed to reputation.
141
Q How some men creep in skittish Fortune's
hall, l.;l
While others play the idiots in her eyes! How one man eats into another's pride, While pride is fasting in his wantonness!] To see these Grecian lords ! — why, even already They clap the lubber Ajax on the shoulder, As if his foot were on brave Hector's breast And great Troy shrieking.
Achil. I do believe it; for they pass'd by me
As misers do by beggars, — neither gave to me
Good word nor look: what, are mydeeds forgot?
Ulyss. Time hath, my lord, a wallet at his
back, Wherein he puts alms for oblivion, A great-siz'd monster of ingratitudes: Those scraps are good deeds past; which are
devour'd As fast as they are made, forgot as soon As they are done : perseverance, dear my lord, Keeps honour bright : Q to have done, is to hang Quite out of fashion, like a rusty mail 152
In monumental mockery.] Take th' instant
way; For honour travels in a strait so narrow, Where one but goes abreast: keep, then, the
path; For emulation hath a thousand sons, That one by one pursue : if you give way, Or hedge aside from the direct forth-right,6 Like to an enter'd tide, they all rush by, And leave you hindmost; igo
QOr, like a gallant horse fall'n in first rank, Lie there for pavement to the abject rear, O'er-run and trampled on: then what they do
in present, Though less than yours in past, must o'ertop
yours;] For time is like a fashionable host, That slightly shakes his parting guest by th'
hand, And with his arms outstretch'd, as7 he would fly, Grasps in the comer: [[welcome ever smileis, And farewell goes out sighing. O,] let not
virtue seek Remuneration for the thing it was : lVo
For beauty, wit,
6 Forth-right ^the path that leads straight on. 1 As, as though.
285
v I 111. -
TROILUS AND C'RESSIDA.
ACT HI. Scene 3.
Bigb birth, vigour of bone, desert in service, Love, friendship, charily, are subjects all i::s To envious ami calumniating tune.
(>in- touch of nature makes the whole world
kin, — rThat all, with one consent, praise new-born
ids, Though they are made and moulded of things
past, Vuil give to dust, that is a little gilt, Mi.iv laud than gilt o'er-dusted.] 179
The present eye praises the pi-esent object: Then marvel not, thou great and cdmplete1
man, That all the Greeks begin to worship Ajax; Since things in motion sooner catch the eye Than what not stirs. The cry went once on
thee, And still it might, and yet it may again, If thou wouldst not entomb thyself alive, And case thy reputation in thy tent; Whose glorious deeds, but in these fields of
late, Made emulous missions 'mongst the gods
themselves, 189
And drave great Mars to faction.
Achil. Of this my privacy
I have strong reasons.
/ 7>/ss. But 'gainst your privacy
The reasons are more potent and heroical: 'Tis known, Achilles, that you are in love W nli one of Priam's daughters. Achil. Ha! known!
JJlyss. Is that a wonder? The providence that's in a watchful state \_ Knows almost every -nun of Plutus' gold; Finds bottom in th1 nncomprehensive2 deeps;] Keeps place with thought, and almost, like
the gods, 199
Does thoughts unveil in their dumb cradles.
L* There is a mystery with whom relation3 I >ur.-t never meddle —in the soul of state; Which hath an operation more divine Than breath or pen can pressure to:]
All the commerce' that you have had with
Troy
■)ii'-tr, usually accented sm by Elizabethan writers
* V . unfathomable.
• /.'• history
4 C lecret intercourse.
As perfectly is ours as yours, my lord; Q And better would it fit Achilles much To throw down Hector than Polyxena:] But it must grieve young Pyrrhus now at
home, When fame shall in our islands sound her
trump, 210
And all the Greekish girls shall tripping
sing, "Great Hector's sister did Achilles win; But our great Ajax bravely beat down him." Farewell, my lord: I as your lover speak; The fool slides o'er the ice that you should
break. [Exit.
Patr. To this effect, Achilles, have I mov'd
you: A woman impudent and mannish grown I- not more loath'd than an effeminate man In time of action, fjl stand condemned for
this; 219
They think my little stomach to the war. And your great love to me, restrains you thus:] Sweet, rouse yourself ; and the weak wanton
Cupid Shall from your neck unloose his amorous
fold, And, like a dewdrop from the lion's mane, Be shook to air.
Achil. Shall Ajax fight with Hector?
Patr. Ay, and perhaps receive much honour
by him. Achil. I see my reputation is at stake; My fame is shrewdly gor'd.
Patr. O, then, beware;
Those wounds heal ill that men do give them- selves: £ Omission to do what is necessary 230'
Seals a commission to a blank of danger; And danger, like an ague, subtly taints Even th.n when we sit idly in the sun.] Achil. Go call Thersites hither, sweet Pat-
roclus: T'll send the fool to Ajax, and desire him T invite the Trojan lords after the combat To see us here unarm'd: I have a woman's
longing, An appetite that I am sick withal, To see great Hector in his weeds5 of peace;
s Weeds, used of dress in general.
ACT III. Scene 3.
TROILUS AND CRESS J !>.\.
ACT III. Scene 8.
To talk with him, and to behold his visage, 240 Even to my full of view.
Enter Thersites.
A labour sav'd!
The?: A wonder!
Achil. What?
Ther. Ajax goes up and down the field, ask- ing for himself.
Achil. How so?
Ther. He must fight singly to-morrow with Hector; and is so prophetically proud of an heroical cudgelling that he raves in saying nothing.
Achil. How can that be ? 250
Ther. "Why, he stalks up and down like a peacock, — a stride and a stand : ruminates like an hostess that hath no arithmetic but her brain to set down her reckoning: bites his lip with a politic1 regard, as who should say "There were wit in this head, an 'twould out;" and so there is; but it lies as coldly in him as fire in a flint, which will not show without knocking. The man 's undone for ever; for if Hector break not his neck i' the combat, he '11 break 't himself in vainglory. He knows not me: I said, "Good morrow, Ajax;" and he replies, "Thanks, Agamemnon." What think you of this man, that takes me for the general ? [_ He 's grown a very land-fish, lan- guageless, a monster. A plague of2 opinion! a man may wear it on both sides, like a leather jerkin. ] 266
Achil. Thou must be my ambassador to him, Thersites.
Ther. Who, I? why, he'll answer nobody; he professes not answering : speaking is for beggars ; he wears his tongue in 's arms. I will put on his presence: let Patroclus make de- mands to me, you shall see the pageant of Ajax.
Achil. To him, Patroclus : tell him, — I humbly desire the valiant Ajax to invite the
1 Politic, shrewd, sly.
2 0/= upon.
most valorous Hector to come unarm'd to my tent; and to procure safe-conduct for his per- son of the magnanimous and most illustrious six-or-seven - times - honour'd captain - general of the Grecian army, Agamemnon. Do this.
Patr. Jove bless great Ajax! 281
Ther. Hum!
Patr. I come from the worthy Achilles, —
Ther. Ha!
Patr. Who most humbly desires you to invite Hector to his tent, —
Ther. Hum!
Patr. And to procure safe - conduct from Agamemnon.
Ther. Agamemnon! 290
Patr. Ay, my lord.
Ther. Ha!
Patr. What say you to 't ?
Ther. God b' wi' you, with all my heart.
Patr. Your answer, sir.
Ther. If to-morrow be a fair day, by eleven o'clock it will go one way or other: howsoever, he shall pay for me ere he has me.
Patr. Your answer, sir.
Ther. Fare you well, with all my heart. 300
Achil. Why, but he is not in this tune, is he?
Ther. No, but he 's out o' tune thus. What music will be in him when Hector has knock'd out his brains, I know not; but, I am sure, none, — unless the fiddler Apollo get his sinews to make catlings3 on.
Achil. Come, thou shalt bear a letter to him straight.
Ther. Let me bear another to his horse; for that's the more capable4 creature. 3io
Achil. My mind is troubled, like a fountain stirr'd ; And I myself see not the bottom of it.
[Exeunt Achilles and Patroclus into tent.
Ther. Would the fountain of your mind were clear again, that I might water an ass at it! I had rather be a tick in a sheep than
[Exit.
such a valiant ignorance.
s Catlinya, catgut.
4 Capable, intelligent.
■28;
ACT IV. Boene l.
TROILUS AND CRESSIDA.
ACT IV. Soese l.
ACT IV.
Scene I. A Street in Troy.
Enter, from one sid<', JErc&AB, and S< rvant with a torch; from the other, Paris, Deifhobus, Antenor, Diojiedes, andothers, with torches.
Par. See, ho! who's that there? // . Tis the Lord /Eneas.
. Is the prince there in person? — Had I so good occasion to lie long As yon, Prince Paris, nothing but heavenly
business Should rob my bed-mate of my company. Dio. That's my mind too. — Good morrow,
Lord .Eneas. Par. A valiant Greek, ..'Eneas, — take his hand, — Witness the process of your speech, wherein You told how Diomed, a whole week by days,1 Did haunt you in the field.
Health to you, valiant sir, During all question of the gentle truce; 11 {_ I !ut when I meet you arm'd, as black defiance As heart can think or courage execute.
Dio. The one and other Diomed embraces. Our bloods arenowin calm; a ml, so long, health; But when contention and occasion meet, By Jove, I '11 play the hunter for thy life With all my force, pursuit, and policy. JSne. And thou shalt hunt a lion, that will fly
*
With bis face backward. — In humane irentle- ness,J 20
Welcome to Troy! Qnow, by Anchises' life, Welcome, indeed! .] By Venus' hand I swear,
No man alive can love in BUCh a sort
The thing be means to kill more excellently. Ih<>. We sympathize: — Jove, let . Eneas live, If to my sword his fate be not the glory, A thousand complete courses of the sun! But, in mine emulous honour, let him die, With every joint a wound, and thai to-morrow! ./.' We know each other well 30
We do; and long to know each other woi
lays, bat not ative.
288
Par. This is the most despiteful gentle
greeting, 32
The noblest hateful love, that e'er I heard of. —
What business, lord, so early (
JEne. I was sent for to the king; but why,
I know not. Par. His purpose meets you: 'twas to bring this Greek To Calchas' house; and there to render him, For the enfreed Antenor, the fair Cressid: Let's have your company: or, if you please, Haste there before us: I constantly do think — Or, rather, call my thought a certain know-
led ire -
41
My brother Troilus lodges there to-night: Rouse him, and give him note of our approach, WTith the whole quality2 wherefore: I fear We shall be much unwelcome.
JEhve. That I assure you :
Troilus had rather Troy were borne to Greece Than Cressid borne from Troy.
Par. There is no help;
The bitter disposition of the time Will have it so. On, lord; we'll follow you.
jffine. Good morrow, all. [Exit with sere* tut.
Par. And tell me, noble Diomed, — faith, tell me true, 51
Even in the soul of sound good-fellowship, — Who, in your thoughts, merits fair Helen best, Myself or Menelaus?
Dio. Both alike:
He merits well ti 1 have her, that doth seek her, Not making any scruple of her soiluri . : With such a hell of pain and world of chai And you as well to keep her, that defend her, Not palatine- the taste of her dishonour, 59 With such a costly loss of wealth and friends: QHe, like a puling cuckold, would drink up The lees and dregs of a flat ' tamed piece; You, like a lecher, out of whorish loins Are pleas'd to breed out Your inheritors: Both merits pois'd, each weighs nor less nor
more;
But he a< he, each heavier for a whore.]
* Quality tenor of it. hire, defilement.
* Flat, metaphor from wine.
ACT IV. Scene 1.
TROILUS AND CRESSIDA.
ACT IV. Scene 2.
Par. You are too bitter to your country- woman.
Bio. She 's bitter to her country : Q hear me, Paris : — For every false drop in her bawdy veins 60 A Grecian's life hath sunk; for every scruple Of her contaminated carrion weight A Trojan hath been slain; ]. since she could
speak, She hath not given so many good words breath As for her Greeks and Trojans suffer'd death.
Par. Fair Dioined, you do as chapmen do, Dispraise the thing that you desire to buy: But we in silence hold this virtue well, — We '11 not commend what we intend to sell. Here lies our way. [Exeunt.
Scene II. Court of Pandarus' house in Troy.
Enter Troilus and C'ressida.
Tro. Dear, trouble not yourself: the morn is cold.
Cres. Then, sweet my lord, I'll call mine uncle down ; • He shall unbolt the gates.
Tro. Trouble him not;
To bed, to bed: sleep kill those pretty eyes, And give as soft attachment1 to thy senses As infants' empty of all thought!
Cres. Good morrow, then.
Tro. I prithee now, to bed.
Cres. Are you a-weary of me ?
Tro. O C'ressida! but that the busy day, Wak'd by the lark, hath rous'd the ribald2 crows, And dreaming night will hide our joys no longer, 10
I would not from thee.
Cres. Night hath been too brief.
Tro. Beshrew the witch ! with venomous wights she stays As tediously as hell; but flies the grasps of love With wings more momentary - swift than
thought. You will catch cold, and curse me.
Cres. Prithee, tarry; —
You men will never tarry. — \_0 foolish Cressid! — I might have still held off,
1 Attachment, arrest.
2 Ribald, perhaps with the idea of " noisiness." VOL. V.
And then you would have tarried.] — Hark ! there 's one up. Pan. [Within] What, :s all the doors open here?
Tro. It is your uncle. 20
Cres. A pestilence on him! now will he be mocking: I shall have such a life!3
Enter Pandarus.
[Pan. How now, how now! how go maiden- heads ? — Here, you maid ! where 's my cousin Cressid I
Cres. Go hang yourself, you naughty mock- ing uncle! You bring me to do — and then you flout me too. Pan. To do what ? to do what ? — let her say what: — what have I brought you to do? Cres. Come, come, beshrew your heart ! ', you'll ne'er be good, 30 J
Nor suffer others.
Pan. Ha, ha! Alas, poor wretch! a poor capocchio!4 hast not slept to-night? would he| not — a naughty man — let it sleep ? a bugbear ] take him!
Cres. Did I not tell you? — would he were! knock'd i' th' head ! — ] [Knocking within. '■ Who 's that at door? good uncle, go and see. — My lord, come you again into my chamber: Q You smile and mock me, as if I meant naughtily. Tro. Ha, ha! 39
Cres. Come, you 're deceiv'd, I think of no ', such thing. — ■ [Knocking within.',
How earnestly they knock ! — Pray you, come ' in:] \
I would not for half Troy have you seen here. [Exeunt Troilus and Cressida. Pan. [Going to the door] Who's there? what's the matter? will you beat down the door? How now! what's the matter?
Enter ^Eneas.
JEne. Good morrow, lord, good morrow. Pan. Who's there? my Lord iEneas! By my troth, I knew you not: what news with you so early?
s Such a life; in the modern cant phrase " such a time of it." 4 Capocchio, a fool; used coaxingly.
-'*!> 131
ACT I
TIMULUS AND CRESSIDA.
ACT IV. Scene 3.
[a Dot Prince Troilus here?
1'iin. Here! what should he do here? so
JE Come, he is here, my lord; do not deny him: It doth import1 him much to speak with me.
/''in. Is he here, say you? 'tis more than I know, I'll be sworn: — for my own part) I came in late. What should lie do here?
JEne. Who! — nay, then: — come, come, you'll do him wrong ere you're ware: you'll be so true to him to be false to him: do not you know of him, but yet go fetch him hither; go.
At Pandarus is going out, re-enter Troilus.
Tro. How now ! what's the matter? co
JEne. My lord, I scarce have leisure to salute you, My matter is so rash: there is at hand Paris your brother, and Deiphobus, The Grecian Diomed, and our Antenor Deliverd to us; and for him forthwith, Ere the first sacrifice, within this hour, We inns! '.rive up to Diomedes' hand The lady Cressida.
Tro. Is it so concluded?2
jEne. By Priam and the general state of Troy: They are at hand, and ready to effect it. 70
Tro. How my achievements mock me! — T will go meet them: and, my Lord iEneas, We met by chance; you did not not find me here.
JEne, (rood, good, my lord; the secrets3 of nature Have not more gift in taciturnity.
[ /.'.'•."/«/' Troilus unci JEncas.
Pnv. Is ;t possible? no sooner got but lost? The devil take Antenor! the young prince will go mad: a plague upon Antenor! I would they had broke 'a neck! 80
Enter Cressida.
r. How now! what's the matter? who
was h.i
/'"/*. Ah. ah I
Why sigh you so profoundly? where 's my lord ' gone I Tell me, sweet uncle, what's the matter?
Pa Would I were as deep under the earth
m 1 am a bore I
' // ■'}, import, i.e. h ,,f importance.
1 Concluded, arranged. » Secrets, a trisyllable.
290
Oret. I > the gods! — what's the matter?
Pan. Prithee, get thee in: would thou hadst ne'er been born! I knew thou wouldst be his death: — O, poor gentleman! — A plague upon Antenor!
Cres. Good uncle, I beseech you, on my knees I beseech you, what's the matter?
Pan. Thou must be gone, wench, thou must be gone; thou art changed for Antenor: thou must to thy father, and be gone from Troilus: 'twill be his death; 'twill be his bane; he cannot bear it.
t res. O you immortal gods! — I will not go.
Pan. Thou must. 101
Cres. I will not, uncle : I 've forgot my father; I know no touch of consanguinity; No kin, no love, no blood, no soul so near me As the sweet Troilus.— O you gods divine, Make Cressid's name the very crown of false- hood, If ever she leave Troilus ! Time, force, and
death, Do to this body what extremes you can; But the strong base and building of my love Is as the very centre of the earth, no
Drawing all things to 't. — I '11 go in and weep,—
Pan. Do, do.
Ores. Tear my bright hair, and scratch my praised cheeks; Crack my clear voice with sobs, and break my
heart With Bounding " Troilus." I will not £o from Troy. [Exeunt.
Scene III. Street in Troy near Pandoras' house.
Enter Paris, Troilus, jEneas, Deiphobus, Antenor, and Diomedes.
Par. It is great morning; and the hour pre- fix'd Of her delivery to this valiant Greek Comes fast upon: — good my brother Troilus, Tell you the lady what she is to do, And haste her to the purpose.
Tro. Walk into her house;
I'll bring her to the Grecian presently: And to his hand when 1 deliver her, Think it an altar, and thy brother Troilus
ACT IV. Scene 3.
A priest, there offering to it his own heart.
[Exit.
Par. I know what 'tis to love; 10
And would, as I shall pity, I could help! — Please you walk in, my lords. [Exeunt.
TROILUS AND CRESSIDA. act iv. Sceue 4.
Scene IV. A room in Pandarwf house.
Eater Pandarus and Cressida. Pan. Be moderate, be moderate. Cres. Why tell you me of moderation?
Cres. And is it true that I must go from Troy?— (Act iv. 4. 32.)
The grief is fine, full, perfect, that I taste, And violenteth in a sense as strong As that which causeth it: how can I moderate it? If I could temporize with my affection, Or brew it to a weak and colder palate, The like allayment could I give my grief: My love admits no qualifying dross; No more my grief, in such a precious1 loss. Pan. Here, here, here he comes. n
Enter Troilus.
Ah, sweet ducks!
Cres. O Troilus! Troilus! [Embracing him. Pan. What a pair of spectacles is here!
i Precious, i.e. which touches me so closely.
Let me embrace too. " 0 heart," as the goodly saying is,
" 0 heart, 0 heavy heart,
Why sigh'st thou without breaking?"
where he answers again,
" Because thou canst not ease thy smart
By friendship nor by speaking." 21
There was never a truer rhyme. Let us cast away nothing, for we may live to have need of such a verse: we see it, we see it. — How now, lambs?
Tro. Cressid, I love thee in so strain'd a purity, That the bless'd gods, as angry with my fancy, More bright in zeal than the devotion which 291
ACT IV Scene 4.
TROILUS AND CRESSIDA.
ACT IV. Scene 4.
( Sold Lips blow to their deities, take thee from me.
Have the gods envy? 30
/'.//<. Ay, ay, ay, ay; 'tis too plain a case. i And isil true that I must go from Troy?
Tro. A hateful truth.
('res. What, and from Troilus too?
Tro. From Troy and Troilus.
< '/v.n'. Is it possible ?
Tro. Andsuddenly; Qwhere injury of chance1 Puts back leave-taking, justles roughly by All time of pause, rudely beguiles our lips I >f all rejoindure, forcibly prevents 38
< Our lock M embrasures,- strangles our deal" vows Even in the birth of ourown labouring breath:] We two, that with so many thousand sighs Did buy each other, must poorly sell ourselves With the rude brevity and discharge of one. Injurious time now, with a robber's haste, ( 'rams his rich thievery up, he knows not how: As many farewells as be stars in heaven, £ With distinct breath and consign'd3 kisses to
them,] He fumbles up into a loose adieu; And Bcants us with a single famish'd kiss, 1 distasted with the salt of broken tears so
./.'/"'. [Within] My lord, is the lady ready?
Tro. Hark! you are call'd: some say the Genius so ( Vies "Come!" to him that instantly must die. — Bid them have patience; she shall come anon.
Pan. Where are my tears? rain, to lay this wind, or my heart will be blown up by the root. [ IC.rit.
Ores. 1 must, then, to the Grecians?
Tr No remedy.
( ret. A woful Cressid 'mongst the merry ( rreeks! When shall we see again ?'
Tro. Hear me, my love: be thou but true of heart, — M
[true! hownow! what wicked deem6 i- this?
Nay, we must use expostulation kindly, For it i- parting from us: \_ I Bpeak n. .t " be thou true," as fearing thee;
' ehana unklndneH ol fate
"'■ < nil.! » Consign'd, sealed.
"i. i e. gee each other * Dum, surmise: obsolete word.
292
For I will throw my ;_dove to Heath himself, That there's no maculation6 in thy heart: But "be thou true," say I, to fashion in
My sequent protestation;] be thou true, And I will see thee.
t res. O, you shall be expos'd, my lord, to
da Hirers
70
As infinite as imminent! but I '11 be true. Tro. And I '11 go friend with danger. Wear
this sleeve. Ores. And you this glove. When shall I
see you
?
Trv. I will corrupt the Grecian sentinels. To give thee nightly visitation. But yet, be true.
Cres. O heavens! — "be true" again!
Tro. Hear why I speak it, love: The Grecian youths are full of quality; They're loving, well compos'd with gifts of
nature, And flowing o'er with arts and exercise: 80 How novelty may move, and parts with person, Alas, a kind of godly jealousy — Which, I beseech you, call a virtuous sin — Makes me afeard.
Cres. O heavens! you love me not.
Tro. Die I a villain, then! In this I do not call your faith in question So mainly as my merit: I cannot sing, Nor heel the high lavolt,7 nor sweeten talk, Nor play at subtle games; fair virtues all, To which the Grecians are most prompt and pregnant : 8 90
But I can tell, that in each grace of these There lurks a still and dumb-discoursive devil That tempts most cunningly : but be not tempted.
Cres. Do you think I will (
Tro. No. But something may be done that we will not: And sometimes we are devils to ourselves, [J When we will tempt the frailty of our powers, Presuming on their changeful potency.]
JEne. [Within] Nay, good my lord, —
Tro. Come, kiss; and let us part. 100
Par. [Within] Brother Troilus!
Tro. Good brother, eome you hither;
And bring .Eneas and the Grecian with you.
i Maculation, flaw, spot (macula).
• Lavolt, a kind of dance. 8 Pregnant, ready.
ACT IV. Scene 4.
TROILUS AND CRESSIDA.
ACT IV. Scene 5.
Cres. My lord, will you be true? 103
Tro. Who, 1 1 alas, it is my vice, my fault : /^Whiles others fish with craft for great opinion, )I with great truth catch mere simplicity; !> Whilst some with cunning gild their copper
crowns, ( With truth and plainness I do wear mine bare.] Fear not my truth: the moral1 of my wit Is " plain and true;" there 's all the reach of it.
Eater jEneas, Paris, Antenor, Deiphobus, and Diomedes.
Welcome, Sir Diomed! here is the lady Which for Antenor we deliver you: 112
', {_ At the port, lord, I '11 give her to thy hand ; And by the way possess2 thee what she is.] Entreat her fair; and, by my soul, fair Greek, If e'er thou stand at mercy of my sword, Name Cressid, and thy life shall be as safe As Priam's is in Ilion.
Bio. Fair Lady Cressid,
So please you, save the thanks this prince ex- pects: 110 The lustre in your eye, heaven in your cheek, Pleads your fair usage; and to Diomed You shall be mistress, and command him wholly. Tro. Grecian, thou dost not use me cour- teously, To shame the zeal of my petition to thee In praising her: I tell thee, lord of Greece, She is as far high-soaring o'er thy praises As thou unworthy to be call'd her servant. I charge thee use her well, even for my charge ; For, by the dreadful Pluto, if thou dost not, Though the great bulk Achilles be thy guard, I '11 cut thy throat.
Bio. O, be not mov'd, Prince Troilus:
Let me be privileg'd by my place and message ^ To be a speaker free ; £ when I am hence, -I '11 answer to my lust: ] and know you, lord, I '11 nothing do on charge: to her own worth She shall be priz'd ; but that you say, " Be't so," I'll speak it in my spirit and honour, "No."
Tro. Come, to the port. — I '11 tell thee, Diomed, This brave3 shall oft make thee to hide thy
head. — Lady, give me your hand; and, as we walk,
1 Moral = meaning (almost).
2 Possess, inform.
3 Brave, boast, bravado
To our own selves bend we our needful talk. [Exeunt Troiltis, Cressida, and Diomrdcs.
I Trumpet within. Par. Hark! Hector's trumpet. JEne. How have we spent this morning! The prince must think me tardy and remiss, That swore to ride before him to the field. Par. 'T is Troilus' fault: come, come, to held
with him. Bei. Let us make ready straight. JEne. Yea, with a bridegroom's fresh alacrity. Let us address4 to tend on Hector's heels: The glory of our Troy doth this day lie On his fair worth and single chivalry. 150
[Exeunt.
Scene V. A plain between Troy and the Grecian camp.
Enter Ajax, armed; Agamemnon, Achilles, Patroclus, Menelaus, Ulysses, Nestor, and others.
Again. Hei'e art thou in appointment5 fresh and fair, Anticipating time with starting courage. Give with thy trumpet a loud note to Troy, Thou dreadful Ajax; that th' appalled air May pierce the head of the great combatant, And hale him hither.
Ajax. Thou, trumpet, there 's my purse. Now crack thy lungs, and split thy brazen pipe : Blow, villain, till thy sphered biase cheek Outswell the colic of puffd Aquilon: Come, stretch thy chest, and let thy eyes sjiout blood; 10
Thou blow'st for Hector. [Trumpet sounds.
Ulyss. No trumpet answers.
Achil. 'T is but early days.
Agam. Is not yond Diomed, with Calchas' daughter ?
Uh/ss. 'T is he, I ken the manner of his gait ; He rises on the toe: that spirit of his In aspiration lifts him from the earth.
Enter Diomedes with Cressida.
Agam. Is this the Lady Cressid ?
Bio. Even she.
* Address), make ready.
* Appointment, equipment. « Bias, swollen, convex.
293
ACT IV Scene 5.
TROILUS AND CRESSIDA.
ACT IV. Scene 5.
Again. Most dearly welcome to the Greeks,
sweet lady. [Kisses her.
.\. .-■'. < >ur general doth salute you with a
kiss. 10
Ulyss. Q Vet is the kindness but particular;1
'Twere 1 utter she were kiss'd in general.
Nest. And very courtly counsel: I '11 begin. —
[Kisses her. So much for Nestor.
Achil. I '11 take that winter from your lips, fair lady: [Kisses her.
I Achilles bids you welcome.
.1/ n. I had good argument for kissing once. /'■■/: But that's no argument for kissing now;
For thus popp'd Paris in his hardiment, Ami parted thus you and your argument.
[Kisses her.
Ulyss. 0 deadly gall, and theme of all our
scorns'. 30
I r which we lose our heads to gild his horns.
Pair. The first was Menelaus' ki.ss; — this,
mine: ( Kisses her again.
Patroclus kisses you.
Men. O, this is trim!
Patr. Paris and 1 kiss evermore for him. .!/■ a. I '11 have my kiss, sir.— Lady, by your
leave. ' .-.-. In kissing, do you render or receive? .!/■ n. Both take and give. Ores. I '11 make my match to live,
The kiss you take is better than you give; Therefore no kiss.
Men. I '11 give you boot, I '11 give you three for one. 40
You're an odd man; give even, or give Done. Men. An odd man, lady! every man is odd. No, Paris is not; for you know 'tis true Thai you are odd, and lie is even with you. Men. You fillip* me <>' the head. Or No, 1 11 be sworn.
Ulyss. It were no match, your nail against
his horn. ]
May I. sweel lady, beg a kiss of you? Ybu may. Uh/ss. I do desire 't
■ Particular, Indrridoal, not shared by all. 2 FOlip properly means to strike with the fingernail ; another form "f (Wp.
294
Ores. Why, beg then, do.
Ulyss. Why, then, for Venus' sake, give me a kiss, When Helen is a maid again, and his. 50
[Pointing to Menelaus. Ores. I am your debtor, claim it when 't is
due. Ulyss. Never 's my day, and then a kiss of
you.
Bio. Lady, a word : — I '11 bring you to your
father. [Exit with Cressida.
Nest. A woman of quirk sense.
Ulyss. Fie, fie upon her!
There 's language in her eye, her cheek, her lip,
Nay, her foot speaks; her wanton spirits look
out At every joint and motive3 of her body. O, these encounterers, so glib of tongue, That give accosting welcome ere it comes, And wide unclasp the tables of their thoughts To every ticklish reader! set them down 61 For sluttish spoils of opportunity And daughters of the game. [Trumpet within. All. The Trojans' trumpet. Agam. Yonder comes the troop.
Enter Hector, armed, with Attendants; and iENEAS, Troilus, ami other Trojans, who remain at hack of scene.
^Ene. Hail, all you state of Greece! Qwhat? shall be done To him that victory commands? or do you
purpose A victor shall be known?] will you, the knights ( Shall to the edge of all extremity Pursue each other; or shall they be divided4 By any voice or order of the field ? 70
Hector bade ask.
Aaaii). Which way would Hector have it?
JEne. He cares not; he'll obey conditions.
Achil. :T is done like Hector: but securely done, A little proudly, and great deal misprising5 The knight oppos'd.
AWnt . If not Achilles, sir,
What is your name?
Achil. If not Achilles, nothing.
' Motive, instrument or motive limb.
* Divided, i.e. parted.
■'• Misprising, undervaluing.
ACT IV. Scene 5.
JEae. Therefore Achilles know this: — In the extremity of great and little, Valour and pride excel themselves in Hector; The one almost as infinite as all, 80
The other blank as nothing. Weigh him well, And that which looks like pride is courtesy.
TItOILUS AND CRESSIDA but whate'er,
ACT IV. Scene 0.
This Ajax is half made of Hector's blood: 83
In love whereof half Hector stays at home;
QHalf heart, half hand, half Hector comes to seek;
This blended knight, half Trojan and half ', Greek.] Achil. A maiden battle, then? — O, I per- ceive you.
Htct. Why, then will I uo more : —
Thou art, great lord, my father's sister's son.— (Act iv. 5. 119, 120.;
Re-enter Diomedes.
Again. Here is Sir Diomed. — Go, gentle knight, Stand by our Ajax: as you and Lord zEneas Consent upon the order of their fight, 90
So be it; either to the uttermost, Or else a breath: the combatants being kin Half stints their strife before their strokes begin. [Ajax and Hector prepare to fight. Ulyss. They are oppos'd already. Again. What Trojan is that same that looks
so heavy?
Ulyss. The youngest son of Priam, a true
knight;
Not yet mature, yet matchless : firm of word ;
Speaking in deeds, and deedless in his tongue;
Not soon provok'd, nor being provok'd soon
calm'd : 99
His heart and hand both open and both free; For what he has he gives, what thinks he shows; 101
Yet giveshenot till judgment guide his bounty, Nor dignifies an impure thought with breath: Manly as Hector, but more dangerous; For Hector, in his blaze of wrath, subscribes To tender objects; but he, in heat of action, Is more vindicative1 than jealous love: They call him Troilus; and on him erect A second hope, as fairly built as Hector. QTlms says^Eneas; one that knows the youth*; Even to his inches,2 and with private soul Did in great Ilion thus translate him to me. ] [Alarum. Hector and Ajax fight. Agam. They are in action. 112
i Vindicative, original form of vindictive. - Even to his inches, i.e. minutely, thoroughly. 295
ACT IV. 8
TROILUS AND CRESSIDA.
ACT IV. Scene 0.
\< (W, A j.ix, hold thine own! Tro. Hector, thou sleep'st;
Awake tliee!
Again. His blows are well dispos'd: — there,
Ajax! Dio. V"U must no more. [Trumpets cease. Princes, enough, bo please you. Ajax. 1 am not warm yet; Let us right again. Dio. As Hector pleasea llixt. Why, then will I no more: —
Thou art, great lord, my father^ sister's son, \ cousin-german to great Priam's seed; The obligation of our blood forbids 122
A gory emulation 'twixt us twain: [ Weir thy commiztion Greek and Trojan so That t In nicniildst say, "This hand is< lieeianall, And this is Trojan; the sinews of this leg All Greek, and this all Troy; my mother's blood Unas on the dexter1 cheek, and this sinister- Bounds in my father's;" by Jove multipotent, Thou shouldst not bear from me a Greekish member 130
Wherein my sword had not Lmpressure made » >f our rank feud: but the just gods gainsay That any drop thou borrow' dsi from thy mother, My saered aunt, should by my mortal sword I!e drained!] Let me embrace thee, Ajax: By him that thunders, thou hast lusty arms; H.M-tor would have them fall upon him thus: ( oil-in, all honour to thee!
Aj I thank thee, Hector:
Thou art ton gentle and too free a man: I up to kill thee, cousin, and bear hence A jiv.,1 addition earned in thy death. m
£ Hect. Nol Neoptolemus so mirable3 — On whose brighl crest Fame with her loud'st
1 yes ( 'lies "This is he" could promise to himself \ thoughl of added honour torn from Hector.] jE)i< . There is expectance here from both the rid What further you will do. //• We'll answer it;1
ssae is embracement: — Ajax, farewell.
. If I mighl in entreaties find Buccess— Id* I have the chance — I would desire My famous cousin to our Grecian tents. 151
- Sinuttr, left.
wondered :it. 4 It, 1 •• til nice. s Sell, seldom.
296
Dio. 'Tis Agamemnon's wish; and gnat Achilles 15a
Doth long to see unarm'd the valiant Hector. Hect. ./Eneas, call 111 y brother Troilus to me: And signify this loving interview To the expecters of our Trojan part; Desire them home. [JEneas goes to Troilus and other Trojans at back] — Give me thy hand, n iv cousin [to Ajax]; I wdll go eat with thee, and see your knights. t \jax. Great Agamemnon comes to meet us
here. Hect. The worthiest of them tell me name by name; 160
\_ But for Achilles, mine own searching eyes !> Shall find him by his large and portly size.]
Again. Worthy of arms! as welcome as to one That would be rid of such an enemy; QBut that 's no welcome : understand more clear, What's pari; and what's to come is strew'd
with husks And formless ruin of oblivion; But in this extant0 moment, faith and troth, Strain'd purely from all hollow bias-drawing," Bids thee, with most divine integrity,] no, From heart of very heart, great Hector, wel- come. Hect. I thank thee, most imperious Aga- memnon. [JEneas and Troilus advance. Agartl. [To Troilus] My well-fam'd lord of
Ti'oy, no less to you. \_Men. Let meconium my princely brother's greeting;— You brace of warlike brothers, welcome hither. Hect. Who must we answer? JEne. The noble Menelans.
Hect. O, you, my lord ? by Mars his gauntlet, thanks! Mock not, that I affect th' untraded8 oath; Your quondam wife swears still by Venus- glove: She's well, but bade me not commend her to
you.
180/
Mi a. Name her not now, sir; she's a deadly theme.
Hect. < >, pardon; I offend.]
'. [To Hector] I have, thou gallant Tro- jan, seen thee oft,
/ '<i»/-present ' Bias-dratrinQ, turning awry.
8 Untraded, out of the beaten path, uncommon.
ACT IV. Scene 5.
TKOILUS AND CRESSIDA.
ACT IV. Scene 5.
Labouring for destiny, make cruel way 184 Through ranks of Greekish youth; and I have seen thee, )£ As hot as Perseus, spur the Phrygian steed, Despising1 many forfeits2 and subduements,3] When thou hast hung thy advanced sword
i' th' air, Not letting it decline on the declin'd; That I have said to some my standers-by, 190 " Lo, Jupiter is yonder, dealing life ! " QAnd I have seen thee pause and take thy
breath, When that a ring of Greeks have hemm'd
thee in,
'Like an Olympian wrestling: this have I seen;
'But this thy countenance, still4 lock'd in steel,
< I never saw till now.] I knew thy grandsire,5
And once fought with him: he was a soldier
good; But, by great Mars, the captain of us all, Never like thee. Let an old man embrace thee; And, worthy warrior, welcome to our tents. JEne. 'T is the old Nestor. 201
Hect. Let me embrace thee, good old chron- icle, That hast so long walk'd hand in hand with
time: — Most reverend Nestor, I am glad to clasp thee. Nest. I would my arms could match thee in contention, As they contend with thee in courtesy. Hect. I would they could. Nest. Ha! By this white beard, I 'd fight with thee to- morrow:— - Well, welcome, welcome! — I have seen the time — 210
Ulyss. [Interrupting] I wonder now how yonder city stands When we have here her base and pillar by us. Hect. I know your favour, Lord Ulysses, well. Ah, sir, there 's many a Greek and Trojan dead, Since first I saw yourself and Diomed In Ilion, on your Greekish embassy.
Ulyss. Sir, I foretold you then what would ensue:
1 Despising = not availing yourself of.
2 Forfeits, i.e. lives forfeited in battle.
3 Subduements, victories.
* Still, always. 5 Grandsire, i.e. Laomedon
My prophecy is but0 half his journey yet; For yonder walls, that pertly front your town, Yond towers, whose wanton tops do buss7 the clouds, 220
Must kiss their own feet.
Hect. I must not believe you:
There they stand yet; and modestly I think, The fall of every Phrygian stone will cost A drop of Grecian blood: the end crowns all; And that old common arbitrator, Time, Will one day end it.
Ulyss. So to him we leave it.
Q Most gentle and most valiant Hector, wel- (.
come: After the general, I beseech you next To feast with me, and see me at my tent. Achil. £1 shall forestall thee, Lord Ulysses,; thou! — ] 230'
Now, Hector, I have fed mine eyes on thee; Q I have with exact view jserus'd thee, Hector, ] And quoted8 joint by joint.
Hect. Is this Achilles?
Achil. I am Achilles.
Hect. Stand fair, I pray thee: let me look
on thee. Achil. Behold thy fill.
Hect. Nay, I have done already.
Achil. Thou art too brief: I will the second time, As I would buy thee, view thee limb by limb. Hect. Q O, like a book of sport thou 'It read me o'er; But there 's more in me than thou under- ) stand'st. ] 240
Why dost thou so oppress me with thine eye I Achil. Tell me, you heavens, in which part of his body Shall I destroy him? whether there, Q or there, ]
or there? E That I may give the local wound a name, And make distinct the very breach whereout Hector's great spirit flew:] answer me, heavens! Hect. It would discredit the bless'd gods, proud man, To answer such a question : stand again : Think'st thou to catch my life so pleasantly As to prenominate9 in nice conjecture 250
Where thou wilt hit me dead ?
6 Is but, has travelled but.
" Buss, kiss. s Quoted, observed.
» Prenom incite, say beforehand.
297
Al li -
TROILUS AND CRESSIDA.
ACT V. Scene 1.
.1,/,//. I tell thee, yea.
// '. Wert tli< .11 an oracle to tell me so, I M not believe thee. Henceforth guard thee well: 268
For I'll not kill thee there, nor there, nor
there; But, by tht* forge that stithied1 Mars his helm, 111 kill thee every where, yea, o'er and o'er. — Sou wis.st Grecians, pardon me this brag, His insolence draws folly from my lips; But I '11 endeavour deeds to match these words, ( >r may I never —
Ajax. Do not chafe thee, cousin: —
An, I y,,u. Achilles, let these threats alone, Till accident or purpose bring you to't: 888 Vmi may have every day enough of Hector, If you have stomach; the general state, I fear, ( an scarce entreat you to be odd with him.
Meet. I pray you, let us see you in the field : We have had pelting2 wars, since you refus'd The Grecians' cause.
Achil. Dost thou entreat me, Hector?
To-morrow do I meet thee, fell as death; To-night all friends.
Hect. Thy hand ujKjn that match.
Agam. First, all you peers of Greece, go to my tent; 871
There in the full3 convive* we: afterwards,
As Sector's leisure and your bounties shall ( oneur together, severally entreat5 him. — Beat loud the tabourines, let the trumpets
blow, That this great soldier may his welcome know. [Exeunt all except Troilus ami I'li/sses. Tro. My Lord Ulysses, tell me, I beseech you, In what place of the field doth Calchas keep? Clyss. At Menelaus' tent, most princely Troilus: 279-
There Diomed doth feast with him to-night; Who neither looks upon the heaven nor earth, But gives all gaze and bent of amorous view On the fair Cressid.
Tro. Shall I, sweet lord, be bound to you so much, After we part from Agamemnon's tent, To bring me thither ?
Ulyss. You shall command me, sir.
As gentle0 tell me, of what honour was This Cressida in Troy? Had she no lover there That wails her absence?
Tro. O sir, to such as boasting show their scars 290
A mock is due. Will you walk on, my lord? She was belov'd, she lov'd; she is, and doth: But still sweet love is food for fortune's tooth.
[Exeunt.
ACT V.
Scene I. The Grecian camp. Before Ac/idles' tent.
Enter Achilles and Patroclus.
AchiL 1 11 heat his blood with Greekish \\ ine to-night, Which with mysciniit.tr I'll cool to-moiTOW. — Patroclus, lei us feast him to the height.
Pair. Sere comes Thersitea
Eider Thersites.
A I low now, thou core of envy!
Thou crusty hatch7 of nature, what's the news?
forgi ,1. I Pdting = paltry.
I ■ ill ( .-.trier. • Contrive, feast.
1 JBW rtain. • Asgentle=&s kindly tell me. baked bread
Ther. Why, thou picture of what thou
seemest, and idol of idiot- worshippers, here 's
a letter for thee. [Gives letter.
Achil. From whence, fragment? 9
Ther. Why, thou full dish of fool, from Troy.
Patr. Who keeps the tent8 now J
Ther. The surgeon's box, or the patient's
wound.
Patr. Well said, adversity! and what need these tricks?
Ther. Prithee, be silent, boy; I profit not 1 >y thy talk : f_ thou art thought to be Achilles' ' male varlet.
Patr. Male varlet, you rogue! what's that?S 77c r. Why, his masculine whore. Now, the£
* Tent: Thersites quibbles upon its surgical meaning.
ACT V. Scene 1.
TROILUS AND CRESSIDA.
ACT V. Scene 1.
; rotten diseases of the south, the guts-griping, ruptures, catarrhs, loads o' gravel i' the back, /lethargies, cold jjalsies, raw eyes, dirt-rotten /livers, wheezing lungs, bladders full of impos- thume, sciaticas, limekilns i' the palm, incur- able bone-ache, and the ri veiled 1 fee-simple of the tetter, take and take again such prepos- terous discoveries!2
Patr. Why, thou damnable box of envy, ! thou, what meanest thou to curse thus?
Thcr. Do I curse thee? 30
Patr. Why, no, you ruinous butt; you whoreson indistinguishable cur, no.
Ther. No! why art thou, then, exasperate,] thou idle immaterial3 skein of sleave-silk, thou green sarcenet flap for a sore eye, thou tassel of a prodigal's purse, thou ? Ah, how the poor world is pester'd with such waterflies, — di- minutives of nature!
Patr. Out, gall! 40
Ther. Finch-egg!
Advil. My sweet Patroclus, I am thwarted quite From my great purpose in to-morrow s battle. Here is a letter from Queen Hecuba; A token from her daughter, my fair love; Both taxing4 me and gaging me to keep An oath that I have sworn. I will not break it : Fall Greeks; fail fame; honour or go or stay; My major vow lies here, this I '11 obey. — Come, come, Thersites, help to trim my tent; This night in banqueting must all be spent. — Away, Patroclus! 52
[Exeunt Achilles and Patroclus into tent. Ther. With too much blood and too little brain, these two may run mad; but, if with too much brain and too little blood they do, I '11 be a curer of madmen. Here 's Agamem- non,— an honest fellow enough, and one that loves quails; but he has not so much brain as ear-wax : and the goodly transformation of ' Jupiter there, his brother, the bull,Q — the prim- itive statue, and oblique memorial of cuckolds; ;a thrifty shoeing-horn5 in a chain, hanging at ) his brother's leg,] — to what form, but that he is, should wit larded with malice, and malice
1 Rivelled, wrinkled. 2 Discoveries, monstrosities. 3 Immaterial, slight, worthless. * Taxing, blaming. s Shoeing-horn, one subservient as a tool or instrument to another.
forced6 with wit, turn him to? To an ass, were nothing; he is both ass and ox: to an ox, were nothing; he is both ox and ass. To be a dog, a mule, a cat, a fitchew,7 a toad, a lizard, an owl, a puttock, or a herring without a roe, I woidd not care;8 but to be Menelaus! — I would conspire against destiny. Ask me not what I would be, if I were not Thersites; for I care not to be the louse of a lazar,9 so I were not Menelaus. — Hoy-day! — spirits and fires!
Enter Hector, Troilus, Ajax, Agamemnon, Ulysses, Nestor, Menelaus, and Diomedes, with lights.
Agam. We go wrong, we go wrong. Ajax. No, yonder 'tis;
There, where we see the lights.
Hect. I trouble you.
Ajax. No, not a whit.
Ulyss. Here comes himself to guide you.
Re-enter Achilles from tent.
Achil. Welcome, brave Hector; welcome,
princes all. Agam. So now, fair prince of Troy, I bid
good night. Ajax commands the guard to tend on you. Hect. Thanks and good night to the Greeks'
general.
SI)
Q Men. Good night, my lord. Hect. Good night, sweet Lord Menelaus. Ther. Sweet draught: sweet, quoth a' ! sweet/ sink, sweet sewer. ]
Achil. Good night and welcome, both at once, to those That go or tarry. Agam. Good night.
[Exeunt Agamemnon and Menelaus. Achil. Old Nestor tarries; and you too, Diomed, Keep Hector company an hour or two.
Bio. I cannot, lord; I have important busi- ness, The tide whereof is now. — Good night, great Hector. 90
Hect. Give me your hand.
6 Forced, stuffed (Latin, farcire). i Fitchew, polecat.
8 Would not care, i.e. would not mind being.
9 Lazar, a leper, outcast.
299
.V T v Boene l.
TROILUS AND CRESS IDA.
ACT V. Scene -2.
Ulyss. [Aside to Troilus] Follow hia torch; he goes t<> < blchas' tent: 98
I II keep you company.
Tro. [Aside to Ulysses] Sweet sir, you
honour me. //•.'. And BO, good night.
[/:'.' -it Diomedes; Ulysses and Troilus i<dl mring. Ach.il. ( Some, come, enter my tent.
[Exeunt Achilles, Hector, Ajax, and .V. star into tent. Ther. That same Diomed 'a a false-hearted rogue, a moat unjust knave; I will no more trust him when he leers than I will a serpent when he hisses: he will spend his mouth, and promiae, like Brabbler the hound; but when he performs, astronomers foretell it; it is pro- digious, there will come some change; the sun borrows of the moon when Diomed keeps hia word. I will rather leave to see Hector than ui.t to dog him: they say he keeps a Trojan drab, and uses the traitor Calchaa' tent: I'll after. — £ Nothing but lechery; all incontinent Ivarleta!] [Exit.
Scene II. The same. Before Calchas' tent.
Enter 1 >i<>mkdes.
Dio. What, are you up here, h<> ? speak. Cal. \ Within] Who calls.' /' . Diomed. — Calchaa, I think. Where's your daughter?
'. [Wit/tin] She comes to you.
E I Troilus and Ulysses, atsome distance; after them Thersites.
Ulyss. Stand where the torch may not dis- cover US.
Enter < 'i;i-»ii>.\ from tent.
T ■ • id cornea forth to him. /' I tow dow, my charge!
' Now, my sweet guardian 1— Hark, a word with you. [ Whispers.
Tro. \ ■ I imiliar!
I lyss. She will Bing any man at first sight.
E'/'/.. r. And any man may sing her, if he can
take her cliff;1 she 'a oot< d.] n
1 CUff, i.e i let; a term in mode key. 300
Dio. Will you remember? 12
Ores. Remember! yes.
J)io. Nay, but do, then; And let your mind be coupled with your words.
Tro. What should she remember?
Ulyss. List.
( res. Sweet honey Greek, tempt me no more to folly. 19
Ther. Roguery!
Dio. Nay, then, —
< 'res. I '11 tell you what, —
Dio. Foh, foh! come, tell a pin: you are forsworn.
Cres. In faith, I cannot: what would you have me do?
\Ther. A juggling trick, — to be secretly' open.]
Dio. What did you swear you would bestow on me?
Cres. I prithee, do not hold me to mine oath ; Bid me do any thing but that, sweet Greek.
Dio. Good night.
Tro. Hold, patience!
Ulyss. How now, Trojan !
Cres. Diomed, — 30
Dio. No, no, good night: I'll be your fool no more.
Tro. Thy better2 must.
Cres. Hark, one word in your ear.
Tro. O plague and madness!
Ulyss. You are mov'd, prince; let us depart, I pray you, Lest your displeasure should enlarge8 itself To wrathful terms: this place is dangerous; The time right deadly; I beseech you, go.
Q Tro. Behold, I pray you!
Ulyss. Nay, g 1 my lord, gooff: 40
"Sou flow to great distraction; come, my lord.
Tro. I pray thee, stay.
Ulyss. You have not patience; come.]
Tro. I pray you, stay; by hell and all hells torments, I will not speak a word!
Dio. And so, good night
( /v.s\ Nay, but you part in anger.
Tro. Doth that grieve thee?
O wither'.! truth!
I'li/ss. Why, how now, lord!
2 Thy better, meaning himself. > Enlarge, vent itself.
ACT V. Scene 2.
TROILUS AND CRESSIDA.
ACT V. Scene 2.
Tro. By Jove,
I will be patient.
Ores. Guardian f — why, Greek!
J) io. Fob, foh! adieu; you palter.1
Ores. In faith, I do not: come hither once again.
Ulyss. You shake, my lord, at something : will you go? 50
You will break out.
Tro. She strokes his cheek!
Ulyss. Come, come.
Tro. Nay, stay ; by Jove, I will not speak a \vi ird : There is between my will and all offences A guard of patience: — stay a little while.
Q Ther. How the devil luxury, with his fat/ rump and potato-finger, tickles these together! Fry, lechery, fry!]
Dio. But will you, then 1 58
Cres. In faith, I will, la; never trust me else.
Cres. Sweet honey Greek, tempt me no more to folly.— (Act v. 2. 19.)
Dio. Give me some token for the surety of it.
Cres. I '11 fetch you one. [Exit into tent.
Ulyss. You have sworn patience.
Tro. Fear me not, sweet lord;
I will not be myself, nor have cognition Of what I feel: I am all patience.
Re-enter Cressida from tent.
Ther. Now the pledge; now, now, now! Cres. Here, Diomed, keep this sleeve.
[Giving him the sleeve given her by Troilus. Tro. O beauty ! where is thy faith ? Ulyss. My lord, —
Tro. I will be patient; outwai'dly I will. Cres. You look upon that sleeve; behold it
well. — He lov'd me — O false wench! — Give't me
again. 70
1 Palter, trifle.
Bio. Whose was 't ? 71
Cres. It is no matter, now I have 't again. I will not meet with you to-morrow night: I prithee, Diomed, visit me no more.
Ther. Now she sharpens: — well said, whet- stone ! Dio. I shall have it. Cres. What, this?
Dio. Ay, that.
Cres. O all you gods !— O pretty, pretty pledge ! Thy master now lies thinking in his bed Of thee and me; and sighs, and takes my
glove, And gives memorial dainty kisses to it, so As I kiss thee. [Kissing the sleeve; Diomed snatches it from her] Nay, do not snatch it from me; He that takes that doth take my heart withal. Dio. I had your heart before, this follows it. Tro. I did swear patience. 301
ACT V -.vii.' 2.
TROILUS AND CRESSIDA.
ACT V. Scene 2.
You shall not have it, Diomed; faith, you shall not; I'll give you something else.
Dio. 1 will have this: whose was it?
'T is no matter. Dio. ( !ome, tell me whose it was.
T was one's that lov'd me better than you will. 89
But, now you have it, take it.
Dio. Whose was it?
Cres. By all Diana's waiting- women1 yond,2 And by herself, I will not tell you whose.
Dio. To-morrow will I wear it on my helm; Ainl grieve his spiritthat dares not challenge it. Tro. Wert thou the devil, and wor'st it on thy horn, It should be challeng'd.
. Well, well, 'tis done, 'tis past; — and yet it is not; I will not keep my word.
Dio. Why, then, farewell;
Thou never shalt mock Diomed again.
Cres. You shall not go: — one cannot speak
a word, ioo
But it straight starts you.
Dio. I do not like this fooling.
Ther. Nor I, by Pluto: but that that likes
not you pleases me best.
Dio. What, shall I come? the hour?
Ores. Ay, come: — O Jove! — do come:— I
shall be plagu'd. Dio. Farewell till then. Ores. Goodnight: I prithee, come.
[Exit Diomedes. Troilus, farewell! one eye yet looks on thee; But with my heart the other eye doth see. Ali, poor OUT sex!8 this fault in us I find, 'I'll.' error of our eve directs our mind: no
QWhat error leads must err; O, then conclude Mind sway'd by eyes are full of turpitude.]
[Exit. [ Ther. A proof of strength she could not publish more, Unless Bhe said, "My mind is now turn'd whore."] Ulyss. All 's done, my lord.
It is.
' Iiinna's waiting-women, i.e. the stars.
• Vund, yoml. r.
* Poor our sex, i.e. our poor sex.
302
I lyss. Why stay we, then?
Tro. To make a recordation to my soul Of every syllable that here was spoke. But £ if I tell how these two did co-act, Shall I not lie in publishing a truth? Sith] yet there is a credence in my heart, 120 \_ An esperance so obstinately strong, ] That doth invert th' attest of eyes and ears; rj As if those organs had deceptious functions, Created only to calumniate.]
[Pauses, overcome by emotion. Was Cressid here?
Ulyss. I cannot conjure, Trojan.
Tro. She was not, sure.
Ulyss. Most sure she was.
Q Tro. Why, my negation hath no taste 4 of madness.
Ulyss. Nor mine, my lord : Cressid was here but now.] 12s
Tro. Let it not be believ'd for womanhood ! Think, we had mothers; do not give advantage To stubborn critics, — apt, without a theme, For depravation, — to square the general sex ByCressid's rule: rather think this not Cressid.
I 'lyss. What hath she done, prince, that can soil our mothers ]
Tro. Nothing at all, unless that this were she.
Ther. Will he swagger himself out on 's own eyes?5
Tro. This she ? no, this is Diomed's Cressida: If beauty have a soul, this is not she; If souls guide vows, if vows be sanctimonies, If sanctimony be the gods' delight, ho
If there be rule in unity itself, This is not she. Q O madness of discourse, That cause sets up with and against itself! Bi-fold authority! where reason can revolt Without perdition, and loss assume all reason Without revolt:] this is, and is not, Cressid! Within my soul there doth conduce a fight Of this strange nature, that a thing inseparate Divides more wider than the sky and earth: Q And yet the spacious breadth of this division Admits no orifex6 for a point, as subtle 151 As Ariachne's broken woof, to enter. ] Instance, < I instance! strong as Pluto's gates; ( 'ressid is mine, tied with the bonds of heaven :
* Taste, suggestion in it.
s Swagger himself, &c. = persuade himself he never saw.
« Orifex, orifice.
ACT V. Scene 2.
TROILUS AND CRESSIDA.
ACT V. Scene IS.
Instance, O instance! strong as heaven itself; The bonds of heaven are slipp'd, dissolv'd, and
loos'd; 156
And with another knot, five-finger-tied, The fractions of her faith, orts1 of her love, The fragments, scraps, the bits, and greasy relics Of her o'er-eaten faith, are bound to Diomed. Ulyss. May worthy Troilus be but half
attach'd 161
With that which here his passion doth express1?
Tro. Ay , Greek ; and that shall be divulged well
In characters as red as Mars his heart
Inflam'd with Venus: never did young man
fancy2 With so eternal and so fix'd a soul. Hark, Greek: — as much as I do Cressid love, So much by weight hate I her Diomed: That sleeve is mine that he '11 bear on his helm; Were it a casque compos'd by Vulcan's skill, My sword should bite it : not the dreadful
spout, 171
Which shipmen do the hurricano call, Constring'd3 in mass by the almighty sun, Shall dizzy with more clamour Neptune's ear In his descent than shall my prompted sword Falling on Diomed.
Q Thei: He '11 tickle it for his concupy.4 ] Tro. O Cressid ! O false Cressid ! false, false,
false ! Let all untruths stand by5 thy stained name, And they '11 seem glorious.
Ulyss. O, contain yourself;
Your passion draws ears hither. isi
Enter ^Eneas.
JEne. I have been seeking you this hour, my lord: Hector, by this, is arming him in Troy; Ajax, your guard, stays to conduct you home. Tro. Have with you, prince. — My courteous lord, adieu. — Farewell, revolted fair! — and, Diomed, Stand fast, and wear a castle on thy head ! Ulyss. I '11 bring you to the gates. Tro. Accept distracted thanks. 189
[Exeunt Troilus, ^Eneas, and Ulysses.
i Orts, leavings - Fancy, love,
s Constring'd = compressed; an obvious Latinism. * Concupy, concupiscence. 6 Stand by, be compared with.
Ther. Would I could meet that rogue Diomed! I would croak like a raven; I would bode, I would bode. QPatroclus will give me any thing for the intelligence of this whore: the parrot will not do more for an almond than he for a commodious drab.] Lechery, lechery; still, wars and lechery; nothing else holds fashion; a burning devil take them!
[Exit.
Scene III. Troy. Priam's palace.
Enter Hector and Andromache.
And. When was my lord so much ungently temper'd, To stop his ears against admonishment? Unarm, unarm, and do not fight to-day.
Hect. You train0 me to offend you ; get you in : By all the everlasting gods, I '11 go!
And. My dreams will, sure, prove ominous7
to the day. Hect. No more, I say.
Enter Cassandra.
Cas. Where is my brother Hector?
And. Here, sister; arm'd, and bloody in intent. Consort with me in loud and dear petition, Pursue we him on knees; for I have dream'd Of bloody turbulence, and this whole night Hath nothing been but shapes and forms of slaughter. 12
Cas. O, it is true.
Hect. Ho! bid my trumpet sound!
Cas. No notes of sally, for the heavens, sweet
brother. Hect. Be gone, I say: the gods have heard
me swear. Cas. The gods are deaf to hot and peevish vows: They are polluted offerings, more abhorr'd Than spotted livers in the sacrifice.
And. O, be persuaded! do not count it holy To hurt by being just: it is as lawful, 20
For8 we would give much, to use9 violent thefts, And rob in the behalf of charity.
Cas. It is the purpose that makes strong the vow;
« Train, lead. 8 For = because.
1 Ominous, fatal. 9 Use, practise.
303
A i i v. Boene 8.
TROILUS AND CRESSIDA.
ACT V. Scene 8.
I *.iit tows to every ] impose must not hold: '.'4 Unarm, Bra ei I I [ector.
Hect. Hold you still, I say;
Mine honour keeps the weather of my fate: Life i \ erj man holds dear; but the brave man Holds liuiicnii' far mere precious-dear than life.
Enter Troilus.
How now, young man! mean'st thou to fight to-day? 29
And. < 'assandra, call my father to persuade.
[Exit Cassandra.
Hect. No, faith, young Troilus; doff thy harness, youth; I am to-day i' the vein of chivalry: Le1 grow thy sinews till their knots be strong, And tempt not yet the brushes of the war. Unarm thee, go; and doubt thou not, brave boy, I ll stand to-day for thee, and me, and Troy.
Tro. Brother, you have a vice of mercy in you, Which better fits a lion than a man.
Hect. What vice is that, good Troilus? chide me for it.
Tro. When many times the captive Grecians fall, 40
Even in the fan and wind of your fair sword, You bid them rise, and live.
I '!■'!. O, 'tis fair play.
Tro. Fool's play, by heaven, Hector.
Hect. How now! how now!
Tro. For the love of all the gods,
Let's leave the hermit pity with our mothers; And when we have our armours buckled on, Thevenom'd vengeance ride upon our swords, Spur them to ruthful work, rein them from ruth.
//• ■■/. Fie, savage, fie!
Tro. Hector, then 'tis wars.
Hect. Troilus, I would not have you fight to-day. so
Tm. "Who should withhold me?
Not fate, obedience, nor the hand of Mars Beckoning with fiery truncheon my retire;
Priamus and I [ecuba on knees, Their eyes o'ergalled with recourse1 of tears; Nor yon, my brother, with your true sword
drawn, < tppos'd to hinder me, should stop my way. Bul by my ruin.
1 Recoune, i.e. that come and go. 304
Re-enter Cassandra and Priam.
Cas. Lay hold upon him, Priam, hold him fast: 59
He is thy crutch; now if thou lose thy stay, Thou on him leaning, and all Troy on thee, Fall all together.
I'ri Come, Hector, come, go back:
Thy wife hath dream'd ; thy mother hath
had visions; Cassandra doth foresee; and I myself Am like a prophet suddenly enrapt, To tell thee that this day is ominous: Therefore, come back.
licet. ^Eneas is a-field ;
And I do stand engag'd2 to many Greeks, Even in the faith of valour, to appear This morning to them.
Pri. Ay, but thou shalt not go.
Hect. I must not break my faith. 71
You know me dutiful; therefore, dear sir, Let me not shame respect; but give me leave To take that course by your consent and voice, Which you do here forbid me, royal Priam.
Cas. O Priam, yield not to him!
And. Do not, dear father.
Hect. Andromache, I am offended with you: Upon the love you bear me, get you in.
[Exit Andromache.
Tro. This foolish, dreaming, superstitious girl Makes all these bodements.
Cas. O, farewell, dear Hector!
Look, how thou diest! look, how thy eye turns pale! si
Look, how thy wounds do bleed at many vents! Hark, how Troy roars! how Hecuba cries out! Howpoor Andromache shrills herdoloursforth ! Behold, distraction, frenzy, and amazement, Like witless antics, one another meet, And all cry "Hector! Hector's dead!" O Hector!
Tro. Away! away!
Cas. Farewell: — yet, soft! — Hector, I take my leave: Thou dost thyself and all our Troy deceive.
[Exit.
Hect. You are amaz'd, my liege, at her exclaim: 91
• Engag'd, pledged.
ACT V. Scene 3.
TROILUS AND CRESSIDA.
ACT V. Scene 3.
Go iii, and cheer the town: -we'll forth and
fight; 92
Do deeds worth praise, and tell you them at
night. Pro. Farewell: the gods with safety stand about thee!
[Exeunt severally Priam and Hector. Alarums.
Tro. They're at it, hark! — proud Diomed, believe, 95
I come to lose my arm, or win my aleeve.
As Troilus is going out, enter from the other side Pandarus.
Pan. Do you hear, my lord \ do you hear ?
Tro. Words, words, mere words, no mutter from the heart ; Th' effect doth operate another way.— (Act v. 3. 107, 108.)
Tro. What now?
Pan. Here 's a letter come from yond poor girl. [Gives letter.
Tro. Let me read. 100
Pan. A whoreson tisick, a whoreson rascally tisick so troubles me, and the foolish fortune of this girl; and what one thing, what another, that I shall leave you one o' th's days: and I have a rheum in mine eyes too; and such an ache in my bones, that, unless a man wore vol. v.
curs'd,1 I cannot tell what to think on't. — What says she there?
Tro. Words, words, mere words, no matter from the heart; Th' effect doth operate another way. —
[Tearing the letter. Go, wind, to wind, there turn and change
together.
110
i Curs'd, by a witch, or some evil agency. 305 132
.\ri \ . Bowie i.
TROILUS AND CRESSIDA.
ACT V. Scene 5.
M\ love with words and errors still ahe feeds; But edifiea another with her deeds.
| Exeunt sera-ally.
Scene IV. Plains between Troy and the Grecian camp.
Alarums: excursions. Enter Thersites.
. Now they are clapper - clawing one another; I'll go look on. That dissembling abominable varlet, Diomed, has got that same scurvy doting foolish young knave's sleeve of Troy there in his helm: I would fain see them nn-et; that that same young Trojan ass, Qthat 1( ives the whore there,] might send that Greek- ish Q whoremasterly] villain, with the sleeve, back to the dissembling luxurious drab, of a sleeveless errand. ( >' the t'other side, the policy <>f those crafty swearing rascals — that stale old mouse-eaten dry cheese, Nestor, and that same d( >g-fox, Ulysses — is not proved worth a black- berry:— they set me up, in policy, that mongrel cur, Ajax, against that dog of as bad a kind, Achilles: and now is the cur Ajax prouder than the cur Achilles, and will not arm to- day; whereupon the Grecians begin to pro- claim barbarism,1 and policy grows into an ill opinion. — Soft! here comes sleeve, and t'other.
'Cuter Diomedes, Troilus following.
'I'm. Fly not; for shouldst thou take the river Styx, I would swim after.
Dio. Thou dost miscall retire:
I do not fly; but advantageous care Withdrew me from the odds ol multitude: 1 1 ave at thee!
\_ T% r. Bold thy whore, Grecian! — now for thy whore, Trojan! — now the sleeve, now the sleeve!] [Exeunt Troilus and Diomedes,
fighting.
En1 ■ \\ ■ roR.
//•■■/. What art thou, Greek? art thou for i s match i thon "f l'l 1 and honour 1
• \", ii", I am a rascal; a scurvy rail- in Lr knave; a wry tilthy rogue. 31
bartim, mere itrcngth, force, opposed to policy.
306
J hrt. I do believe thee; — live. [Exit.
Tier. God-a-mercy, that thou wilt believe me; but a plague break thy neck for frighten- ing me! — What's become of the wenchine rogues? I think they have swallowed one another: I would laugh at that miracle: — [Set, in a sort, lechery eats itself.] I'll seek them. [Exit.
Scene V. Another part of the plains.
Enter Diomedes and a Servant.
Dio. Go, go, my servant, take thou Troilus' horse ; Present the fair steed to my lady Cressid: Fellow, commend my service to her beauty ; Tell her I have chastis'd the amorous Trojan, And am her knight by proof.
Serv. I go, my lord. [Exit.
Enter Agamemnon.
Agam. Renew, renew! The fierce Poly damas Hath beat down Menon: [bastard Margarelon Hath Doreus prisoner,
And stands colossus- wise, waving his beam, Upon the pashed corses of the kings to
Epistrophus and Cedius: Polyxenes is slain; Amphimachus and Thoas deadly hurt;] Patroclus ta'en or slain; and Palamedes Sore hurt and bruis'd: the dreadful Sagittary - Appals our numbers: — haste we, Diomed, To reinforcement, or we perish all.
Enter Nestor.
.Vest. Go, bear Patroclus' body to Achilles; And bid the snail-pac'd Ajax arm for shame. — There is a thousand Hectors in the held: Now here he fights on Galathe his horse, i'0 And there lacks work ; anon he 's there afoot, QAnd there they fly or die, like scaled sculls ; Before the belching whale; then is he, yonder,] < And there the strawy Greeks, ripe for his edge, Fall down befme him, like the mower's swath : 4 Here, there, and every where, he leaves and
takes; Dexterity bo obeying appetite, Thai what he will he does; and does so much, That proof is call'd impossibility.
= Tin dreadful Sagittary. See note 330.
s 5cuU«=Bhoals (of fish).
* Swath, grass cut by the scythe.
ACT V. Scene 5.
TEOILUS AND CEESSIDA.
ACT V. Scene 7.
Enter Ulysses.
Ulys8. O, courage, courage, princes! great Achilles 30
la arming, weeping, cursing, vowing vengeance: Patroclus' wounds have rousYl his drowsy blood, Together with his mangled Myrmidons, That noseless, handless, hack'd and chipp'd,
come to him, Crying on Hector. Ajax hath lost a friend, And foams at mouth, and he is arru'd and at it, Roaring for Troilus; who hath done to-day Mad and fantastic execution; Engaging and redeeming of himself,1 39
With such a careless force and forceless care, As if that luck, in very spite of cunning, Bade him win all.
Enter Ajax.
Ajax. Troilus! thou coward Troilus! [Exit. Dio. Ay, there, there.
Nest. So, so, we draw together.
£ Enter Achilles.
Achil. Where is this Hector? —
Come, come, thou boy-queller, show thy face;
Know what it is to meet Achilles angry: —
Hector! where 's Hector? I will none but
Hector. ] [Exeunt.
Scene VI. Another part of the plains.
Enter Ajax.
Ajax. Troilus, thou coward Troilus, show thy head!
Enter Diomedes.
Dio. Troilus, I say! where 's Troilus? Ajax. What wouldst thou ?
Dio. I would correct him. Ajax. Were I the general, thou shouldst have my office Ere that correction. — Troilus, I say! what, Troilus!
Eater Troilus.
Tro. O traitor Diomed ! — turn thy false face, thou traitor, And pay the life thou ow'st me for my horse! Dio. Ha, art thou there?
i Redeeming, &c, i.e. rescuing himself from the foe.
Ajax. I'll fight with him alone: stand, Dio- med. 9
Dio. He is my prize; I will not look upon.
Tro. Come, both you cogging2 Greeks; have at you both! [Exeunt, fighting.
[Enter Hector.
Ilect. Yea, Troilus? O, well fought, m) youngest brother!
Enter Achilles.
Achil. Now do I see thee, ha! — have at thee, Hector!
Hect. Pause, if thou wilt.
Achil. I do disdain thy courtesy, proud Trojan : Be happy that my arms are out of use : My rest and negligence befriend thee now, But thou anon shalt hear of me again; Till when, go seek thy fortune. [Exit.
Hect. Fare thee well: —
I would have been much more a fresher man, Had I expected thee.
Re-enter Troilus.
How now, my brother! 21 Tro. Ajax hath ta'en JEneas: shall it be? No, by the flame of yonder glorious heaven, He shall not carry him; I '11 be ta'en too, Or bring him off: — fate, hear me what I say ! I reck not though I end my life to-day. [Exit.
Enter one in sumptuous armour.
Hect. Stand, stand, thou Greek; thou art a goodly mark: — No? wilt thou not? — I like thy armour well; I '11 finish3 it, and unlock the rivets all, But I '11 be master of it: — wilt thou not, beast, >
abide ? Why, then fly on, I '11 hunt thee for thy hide.
[Exeunt. ]
Scene VII. Another part of the plains.
Enter Achilles with Myrmidons.
Acini Come here about me, you my Myr- midons; Mark what I say. Attend me where I wheel:
- Cogging, cheating
S Frush, batter.
307
ACT \ -
TIIOILUS AND ClIKSSIhA.
ACT V. Scene S.
Strike nol a stroke, but keep yourselves in
breath: And when I have the bloody Hector found, Empale him with your weapons round about; In fellesl manner execute your aims. Follow me, sirs, and my proceedings eye: — It isdecreed Hector thegreat must die. [Exeunt.
[Enter Menelavs and Paris, fighting; then
TlIERSITES.
Ther. The cuckold and the cuckold-maker
arc at it. — Now, bull! now, dog! 'Loo, Paris, 'loo! now my double-henned sparrow! 'loo, Paris, 'loo! — The bull has the game: — wart- horns, ho! [Exeunt Paris and Menelaus.
Aclal. Strike, fellows, strike ; toil U the man I seek. — (Act v. 8. 10.)
Enter Margarelon.
Mar. Turn, Blare, and fight.
Ther. What arl thou?
Mnr. A hastard son of Priam's.
■. I am a bastard too; I love bastards: I am a bastard begot, bastard instructed, bas- tard in mind, bastard in valour, in every tiling illegitimate. One bear will not bite another,
and wherefore should one hastard i 'lake herd, the quarrel 'a most ominous to us: if the son of a whore t i ;_r 1 » t for a whore, he tempts judg- ment :' farewell, bastard. ( Exit.
1 J> • ■■( heaven.
Mar. The devil take thee, coward! [Exit.~]
Scene VIII. Another part of the plaint.
Enter Hector.
Hect. [[Most putrefied core, so fair with- out, Thv goodly armour thus hath cost thy
' Life.] Now is my day's work done; I'll take good
breath: Rest, sword ; thou hast thy fill of blood and death.
[ Puts off his helmet, and hangs his shield behind him.
ACT V. Scene S.
TROILUS AND CRESSIDA.
ACT V. Scene 10.
Enter Achilles and Myrmidons.
Achil. Look, Hector, how the sun begins to
set;
How ugly night comes breathing at his heels:
Even with the vail1 and darkening of the sun,
To close the day up, Hector's life is done.
Hect. I am unarin'd; forego this vantage,
Greek. Achil. Strike, fellows, strike; this is the man I seek. [Hector falls.
So, Dion, fall thou next! now, Troy, sink down! 11
Here lies thy heart, thy sinews, and thy bone. — On, Myrmidons; and cry you all amain, " Achilles hath the mighty Hector slain."
[A retreat sounded. Hark! a retire2 upon our Grecian part. Myr. The Trojan trumpets sound the like,
my lord. Achil. The dragon wing of night o'erspreads the earth, And, stickler-like,3 the armies separates. QMy half-supp'd sword, that frankly4 would
have fed, Pleas'd with this dainty bait, thus goes to bed. [Sheathes his sword. ]
Come, tie his body to my horse's tail; 21
Along the field I will the Trojan trail.
[Exeunt.
Scene IX. Another part of the plains.
Enter Agamemnon, Ajax", Menelaus, Nestor, Diomedes, and others, marching. Shouts within.
Again. Hark! hark! what shout is that?
Nest. Peace, drums!
[Within] Achilles! Achilles! Hector's slain! Achilles!
Dio. The bruit is, Hector's slain, and by Achilles.
Ajax. If it be so, yet bragless let it be; Great Hector was a man as good as he.
Again. March patiently along: — let one be sent To pray Achilles see us at our tent. —
1 Vail, descent.
2 A retire., i.e. the sound for retiring.
3 Stickler-like, umpire-like. * Frankly, to the full.
If in his death the gods have us befriended, Great Troy is ours, and our sharp wars are ended. [Exeunt, marching.
Scene X. Another part of the plains.
Enter JEneas and Trojan*.
JEne. Stand, ho! yet are we masters of the field: Never go home ; here starve we out the night.
Enter Troilus.
Tro. Hector is slain.
All. Hector! — the gods forbid!
Tro. He 's dead; and at the murderer's
horse's tail, In beastly sort, dragg'd through the shameful
field.— Frown on, you heavens, effect your rage with
speed ! Sit, gods, upon your thrones, and smile at
Troy! I say, at once let your brief plagues be mercy, And linger5 not our sure destructions on! 9 JEne. My lord, you do discomfort all the host. Tro. You understand me not that tell me so: I do not speak of flight, of fear, of death; But dare all imminence that gods and men Address their dangers in. Hector is gone: Who shall tell Priam so, or Hecuba? Let him that will a screech-owl aye be call'd, Go into Troy, and say there " Hector 's dead : :' Q There is a word will Priam turn to stone; < Make wells and Niobes of the maids and wives, < Cold statues of the youth; and, in a word, 20^ Scare Troy out of itself. But, march away: \ Hector is dead ; there is no more to say. Stay yet. — ] You vile abominable tents, Thus proudly pight6 upon our Phrygian plains, Let Titan rise as early as he dare, I'll through and through you!— and, thou
great-siz'd coward. No space of earth shall sunder our two hates: I '11 haunt thee like a wicked conscience still, That mouldeth goblins swift as frenzy
thoughts. — Strike a free march to Troy! — with comfort
fro : 30
5 Linger on = protract.
309
« Pight, pitched.
-
TROILUS AND CRESSIDA.
ACT V. Scene 10.
1 1 c.j »t- of revenge shall hide our inward woe. [Exeunt JEneas and '/'>•<■
rj.-D Troilut is going out, enter, from the other side, 1'andaims.
Pan. But hear yon, hear yon! Tro. Bence, broker-lackey! ignomy and Bhame Pursue thy life, and live aye with thy name!
[Exit.
Pan. A goodly medicine for my aching
bones! —
<> world! world! world! thus is the poor
nt despised! <) traitors and bawds, how
earnestly are you set a -work, and how ill
requited ! why should our endeavour be so
loved, and the performance so loathed? what
verse for it? what instance for it? — Let rue
\see: — 41
310
Full}- merrily the humble-bee doth sing, Till he hath lost his honey and his sting; And being once subdu'd in armed tail, Sweet honey and swi together fail. —
G 1 traders in the flesh, set this in your
painted cloths.
As many as be here of pander's hall, 4s
Your eyes, half out, weep Out at Pandar's fall: < >r if you cannot weep, yet give some groans. Though not for me, vet for your aching bones. Brethren and sisters of the hold-door trade. Si me two months hence my will shall here be
made: It should be now, but that my fear is this, Some galled goose of Winchester would hiss: Till then I '11 sweat, and seek about for eases; And at that time bequeath you my diseases.
[Exit. 2
RUINSOF
HOMERIC TROY
(after Dr. Schliemanj to illustrate
TROIXUS &CRESSIDA
Reference
P la 111 of tke A. Ruinsof Large Building Prob'Priams Pal.
S i VI O i S B-B Temples.
C.C. .. . Houses.
°-° CarlierGate\Destroyed anterior
Scale of Yards 9 103030 4050 100
I
Wall.] totheSiegeof Troy.
•\S>\ C THETfACRfPOLlS
PfliGAMOS
s
Springs of Water
■ f^ms
O W E^f R
q I j^i»&^. y
^m
NOTES TO TKOILUS AND CRESSIDA.
PROLOGUE.
1. Lines 1-31.— This prologue is not given in the Quarto; it is only found in the Folios. Ritson and Steevens con- demn it as not genuine, and amongst modern critics Mr. Fleay rinds in the lines "much work that is unlike Shake- speare's" (Life and Work of Shakespeare, p. 220). Grant White attributed the authorship to Chapman.
2. Line 1: In Troy, there lies the SCENE.— Not an un- usual beginning: so the prologue to the Broken Heart (Ford) commences, "Our scene is Sparta."
3. Line 8: whose strong immukks.— We have the verb several times in Shakespeare; e.g. Venus and Adonis, 1194:
Means to immure herself and not be seen ;
Richard III. iv. 1. 100; Sonnet lxxxiv. 3. Mure, substan- tive, occurs in II. Henry IV. iv. 4. 119; circummure in Measure for Measure, iv. 1. 28.
4. Line 15: Priam's SIX-GATED city.— So the Folios. Theobald, to suit the plural verb, sperr up, below Qine 19), needlessly changed to " six gates i' the city," and was followed by Hanmer.
5. Line 17: Antenorides.— Ff. have Antenonid us; the
change (Theobald's), adopted by most editors, appears necessary. Shakespeare is obviously following the account in Caxtons Destruction of Troy, where, in the third book, a description of Troy is given: "In this city were six gates; the one was named Dardane, the second Timbria, the third Helios, the fourth Chetas, the fifth Troyen, and the sixth Antenorides" (Destruction, bk. 3, p. 4, ed. 1708). Dyce, too, quotes Lydgate, The historye, Sege and dystruccyon of Troye:
The fourthe gate hytfhte also Cetheas;
The fyfte Troiana, the syxth Anthonydes, where the edition of 1555 alters Anthonydes to the nearly right reading Antinorydes.
6. Line 18: fulfilling bolts; i.e. which fill the aperture so closely that no room is left; for this, the etymological sense of the word, we may compare Lucrece, 1258.
7. Line 19: Sperr up the sons of Troy.—F. 1 has stirr,; out of which no meaning can be got. Theobald made the admirable suggestion sperr; Collier's MS. Corrector had sparr in the same sense. The use of the word is well sup- ported. Thus Spenser, in the Faerie Queene, writes:
The other which was entered laboured fast
To sperr tke gate. — Bk. v. c. x. st. xxxvii.
311
Prologue.
NCTKS TO TROILl S AND ('KKSSII)A.
ACT I. Scene 1.
Ami again in The Shepherd's Calendar (May):
And if he chance come when I am abroad, Sfcrr the ^.ite fastt for fear of fraud.
Steevens, too, quotes from Warner's Albion's England 8), bk. ii. eh. 12: " When chased home into his holdes, there sparred up in gates.'' The word is identical with German sperren. As to the plural verb I see no ditliculty; Doming after the list of names it is far more natural t" tin- ear than the singular would have been, though grammati- cally, perhaps, less correct. Capell, however, prints
i S.
8. Lines 22, 23:
ami hither am I come
A PROLOGUE ARM'D.
The reference, as Johnson explains, is to the actor who spoke the prologue, and who usually wore a black cloak. An exact parallel may be found in the Piadudium to Thomas Randolph's amusing skit, Aristippus:
Be not deceived, I have no bended knees,
No supple tongue, no speeches steeped in oil;
No candied flattery, no honied words.
I come an armed Prologue; anu'd with arts
— Randolph's Work-,, ed. Carew Hazlitt, p. 3.
So in the stage-directions to the introduction to Ben Jon- son's Poetaster, we are told that the I'rolvgue enters hastily in armour, and in the following speech the ex- pression armed I'rolvgue occurs (Works, vol. ii. p. 394, with Girford's note). [Surely the superfluous and in line 22 might be omitted. In F, 1 there is a full stop after hazard.— F. A. M]
9. Line 27: Leaps o'er the vaunt.— In conformity with the Horatian maxim:
Nee gemino bellum Trojanum orditur ab ovo; Semper ad eventum festinat et in medias res Non secus ac notas auditorem rapit.
— Ars Poetica, 147-149.
For vaunt ( = avant) we may compare Lear, iii. 2. 5:
Kc»K«/-couriers to oak-cleaving thunderbolts.
So vanguard.
ACT I. Scene 1.
[In Mr. John Kemble's arrangement of this play, Act i. commenoee with Scene 3, and Scenes 1 and 2 become Scenes 2 and 3 respectively. This is certainly a better ar- rangement from a dramatic point of view, as it places a comparatively doll Scene at the beginning instead of the i n. 1 of the Act. which by that means is made to conclude v. itli a Scene in which the hero and heroine, Troilus and -i.l.i. an- both concerned, and which marks a distinct step in the progress of the story.— F. A. M]
10. Line l: Call here my varlet.— In Minshen varlet is translated by famulus, and Steevens quotes from Eolin- shed'8 account of the battle of Igincourt: "divers were
red by their varlete, and conveied out of the field."
The word, in fact, meant then what nil: I (of which it is
simply an earlier form) does now. So Cotgravc gives "a
tripling" for the ii. I', nirht, upon which
Uenagi remarks, Dictionnaire, i".r>0: "des escnyen
estoieni appelles valete. C'estoit aussi un
il homme qui n'estoit pas chevalier?" In this way
tin word came to be applied to the knave in a pack of
cards.
312
11. Line 7: and skilful To their strength. — For Shake- speare's use of "to" = "in addition to," see Abbott's Shakespearian Grammar, pp. 121, 122. Compare Mac- beth, iii. 1. 61-68:
*t is much he dares ; And. to that dauntless temper of his mind, He hath a wisdom ;
and same play, i. 6. 10.
12. Line 14: I'll not meddle nor HAKE.— Evidently a proverbial phrase, equivalent txi " I will keep clear of it." Cf. line 85. So in Much Ado, iii. 3. 56: "and. for such kind of men, the less you meddle or make with them, why, the more is for your honesty."
13. Lines 30, 31:
A ml when/air Cressid comes into my thoughts,— So, traitor!— " when she comes!"— Winn is she thence!
We have here an excellent correction of the text. Qq. and F. 1 and F. 2 gave:
then she comes, when she is thence.
The change is unimpeachable; the credit is due to Rowe, second edn.
14 Line 41: An her hair were not somewhat PARKER. — This is one of the many allusions that might be quoted to the distaste felt by our ancestors for dark hair and eyes. Walker (A Critical Examination of the Text of Shakespeare, vol. iii. p. 190) aptly refers to Massinger's Parliament of Love, where, in act ii. scene 3, Ueaupre says:
Like me, sir! One of my dark complexion?
—Massinger's Works, Cunningham's cd. p. 17;.
Still more to the point, however, is Sonnet exxvii., the first of the second great series of sonnets:
In the old age black was not counted fair. Or if it were, it bore not beauty's name; Rut now is black beauty's successive heir. And beauty slander'd with a bastard shame.
Therefore my mistress' brows are raven black. Her eyes so suited, and they mourners seem At such who, not born fair, no beauty lack, Slandering creation with a false esteem.
Compare Love's Labour 's Lost, iii. 198, 199, and the note (197) on Midsummer Night's Dream, iii. 2. 257. Red hair was regarded by the Puritans as a decided blemish; cf. Middleton's A Chaste Maid in Cheapside, iii. 2 (Dyce's ed.), vol. iv. p. 47.
15. Line 55: Handlest in thy diteourte, 0, that her HAND.— For a similar word-play compare Titus Androni- cus, iii. 2. 29. Malone well remarks upon the curious reverence which Shakespeare seems to have felt for the beauty of a woman's hand. Note, for instance, the deli- cacy and suggestiveness of the epithets and imagery in the following passages: Romeo and Juliet, iii. 3. 35, 36, where we have the splendid lines:
they may seize On the white wonder of dear Juliet's hand}
Winter's Tale, iv. 4. 373-376:
this hand. As soft as dove's down and as white as it. Or Ethiopian's tooth, or the fann'd snow, that 's bolted By the northern blasts thrice o'er;
ACT I. Scene 1.
NOTES TO TKOILTJS AND CRESSI1>\.
ACT [. >«me 2.
and Lucrece, 808-895, a perfect picture:
Without the bed her other fair Aanrfwas, On the green coverlet; whose perfect white Sbow'd like an April daisy on the grass.
[In the Q. the punctuation is thus:
I [andlest in thy discourse : O that her hand.
The Ff. have:
Handiest in thy discourse. O that her Hand.
Some editors, having regard to the punctuation of the old copies, make the verb handiest govern Bome of the nouns in the line above. Capell, for instance, puts a semicolon after gait in line 54, making her voice governed by handiest. Malone was the first to punctuate line 55 as it is in our text. Other conjectures have been made by various editors in order to make the passage intelli- gible. With regard to the punctuation of the old copies, certainly 0 that her hand seems more like an exclama- tion than the object of the sentence; but if we take that her hand to be the accusative case, and explain it as we have in our foot-note, then we must suppose 0 to be strictly a mere interjection, a parenthetical expression of rapture. For that her hand = "tha.t hand of hers" com- pare the following passages:— Antony and Cleopatra, ii. 3. 19: "Thy demon that thy spirit;" and in the same play, iv. 14. 79: "Draw that thy honest sword;" and also Mac- beth, i. 7. 53: " that their fitness."— f. A. M.]
16. Line 57: to whose soft seizure.— Seizure is used pas- sively; touch would be more natural.
17. Lines 58, 59:
The cygnet's down is harsh, and SPIRIT OF SENSE
Hard as the palm of ploughman. These lines are not easy. What are we to make of spirit of sense? Warburton, of course, emended, proposing svite of sense; upon which Johnson bluntly remarked: "it is not proper to make a lover profess to praise his mistress in spite of sense; for though he often does it in spite of the sense of others, his own senses are subdued to his desires." I see no necessity for any alteration. I think the sense is: "sense, i.e. sensitiveness personified, is not so delicate, so impalpable, as Cressida's hand." I believe the words can bear this interpretation, and it seems to me to carry on the line of thought. To make spirit of sense a mere variant on whose soft seizure is surely wrong; the lines contain two distinct concep- tions. Also we must not press hard as the palm, etc. too closely; the poet merely wishes to suggest something rough and coarse in contrast to that which, next to Cressida's hand, is the most ethereal thing we can con- ceive, viz. sensitiveness itself. Compare iii. 3. 106, and Julius Caesar, iv. 3. 74.
18. Line 68: she has the MENDS in her own hands.— This, as Steevens satisfactorily shows, was acant phrase meaning "to make the best of a bad bargain; do the best one can." In this sense is it used by Field in his Woman is A Weathercock, 1612: "I shall stay here and have my head broke, and then / have the mends in my own hands" (Dodsley, Old Plays, ed. Carew Hazlitt (1875), vol. xi. p. 25). Johnson's interpretation of the passage is char- acteristic: "She may mend her complexion with the
assistance of cosmetics," on the principle apparently ad- vocated in Randolph's Jealous Lovers, iv. 3:
Paint, ladies, while you live, and plaister fair, But when the house is fallen, 't is past repair.
—Works (llazlitt's ed.), vol. i. p. M'-
19. Lines 78, 79: as fair on Friday as Helen is on Sun- day.—Friday being a fast day when the " suit of humilia- tion" would be worn, while Sunday is a signal for don- ning smart attire. It is hardly necessary to point out the glaring anachronism; the play is full of such errors.
20. Line 99: And he 'a as tetchy to be ivoo'd; i.e. "fret- ful;" a corruption, perhaps, of " touchy." So Romeo and Juliet, i. 3. 32:
To see it tetchy, and fall out.
21. Line 105: Let it be call'd the wild and wandering flood.— A finely alliterative effect that comes in the last verse of the introductory stanzas to In Memoriam. Later on in the same poem Tennyson beautifully applies the epithet wandering to the sea:
O Mother, praying God will save
Thy sailor — while thy head is bow'd,
His heavy-shotted hammock shroud Drops in his vast and wandering grave. — Canto vi.
22. Line 108: How now, Prince Troilus! wherefore not a-fieldt— Troilus is always a dissyllable in Shakespeare; so Walker, Shakespeare's Versification, pp. 164-166. Thus in Lucrece, 1486, we have:
Here manly Hector faints, here Troilus swounds.
Again in the Merchant of Venice, in the almost incom- parable first scene of the fifth act, lines 3, 4:
in such a night Troilus methinks mounted the Troyan walls.
The only possible exception occurs in the present play, v. 2. 161, where the common reading is :
May worthy Troilus be half attach'd? Probably Shakespeare thought the name was derived from Troy. Peele, we may note, treats the word rightly as a trisyllable; e.g. Tale of Troy:
So hardy was the true knight Troilus.
— Peele's Works, p. 555.
23. Line 109: this WOMAN'S ANSWER sorts.— Troilus means that the logic of his reply—" not there because not there"— is the logic, or rather no-logic, in which women indulge; and then he proceeds to play upon woman, womanish.
24. Line 115: Paris is gor'd with Menelatu, HORN.- Alluding to the idea of which our old dramatists make perpetual mention, that the husband of an unfaithful wife was a cuckold, or as Mirabel says in The Wild Goose Chase, i. 3: "a gentleman of antler." Perhaps the most elaborate treatment of the subject comes in Middleton's A Chaste Maid in Cheapside, where we hardly know whether most to ridicule or to despise the complacent Allwit. Similar references occur later on in this play.
ACT I. Scene 2.
25. Line 8: he was harness' d LIGHT— Light may refer to the weight of their armour; more probably, however, it means "nimbly," "quickly." Theobald needlessly
313
.\c 'i !. Soene 2.
NOTES TO TROILUS AND CRESSIDA.
A< T I. Scene 2.
altered t i"hai t,' a reading, he remarked, which
"gives us the poet's meaning In the propereat terms Imaginable. Be was followed by Eanmer.
26 Lines 9, 10:
where r.\ ei;v flower
Did, u a prophet, weep. So in Midsummer Night's Dream, iii. l. 204:
And when she weeps, weeps every \iu\e/l<nuer. I>cw ..n the ground naturally suggests tears
27. Lin. > ;i man PHB BB. — Grey refers to the Testament oi < resseide:
ire Crcsseide, tlic floure and a/er sc i roi and Greece.
28. Line 'id: their particular additions.— Here, as often, in the sense of "titles," "denominations." Malone says it »as a law term, and in Cowell's Interpreter (ed. 1687) Addition is thus explained, "a title given to a man over and above bis Christian and aurname, sin wing his estate, degree, occupation, trade, age, place of dwelling, <fcc." Compare Ooriolanus, i. '.). 00; and for an instance outside Shakespeare, BuBsy D'Ambois, iv. 1:
Man i% a name of honour for a king: Additions take away from each thing.
— Chapman's Works, p. 163.
29. Line is : men;/ against THE HAIR.— Compare a eontre-poU: as we should say, "against the grain." The idea came from stroking the fur of animals the reverse way. Justice Shallow uses the expression in Merry Wives, ii. 3. 41:
if you should fight, you go against the hair of your professions.
30. Line 46: When were you at Ilium?— Shakespeare, as Eanmer and the other editors point out, applies the name Ilium >>nly to Priam's palace, and not to the city at large, [n this he was following Caxton's Destruction of Troy, where the palace is thus described: "In this open space of the city, upon a rock, King Priamus did build his rich palace named Won, that was one of the richest and BtT ingest in all the world. It was of height Ave hundred pact b, besides the height of the towers, whereof there was great plenty, bo high, as it seemed to them that saw from far, they reacht Heaven. And in this palace King Priamus did make the richest Hall that. was at that time in all the world: within which was his throne; and the table »ln ireupon he did eat, and held his estate anion-' his nobles, princes, lords, and barons, was of gold and silver, precious stones, and of ivory" (bk. iii. p. 5, ed. 1708).
31. Line 58: he'll LAY ABOUT him to-day.— We have a similar expression in Henry v. v. 2. 147: "I could lay on like a butcher;" and compare Macbeth's, " Lay on, Mac duff," v. 8. 33.
32. Line BO: gone harefoot to India.— A like exploit is suggested In Othello, iv.:;. 88,88: " I know a lady In Venice would have walked barefoot tn Palestine for a touch of his nether Up." We are reminded somewhat of the vera- cious Chronich - t Bii John Maundevflle.
33. I ■ //■■', ihaU not have hit wit; i.e. rroilus' wH K>'i a iti). and Ff. read trill. Elowe made the change.
314
34. Line 118: Then the 'sa mehky Greek.— Compare iv. 1 58. It is B classical touch. .See Horace, Satires, ii. 2. 2, where the hard life <>f a Roman soldier is contrasted with the easier, somewhat effeminate ways of the Greek :
Si Romana fatigat Militia assuetum Gracari.
So in Plautus, Mostellaria, i. 1. 21, perjrreecari=per totam
iioctem potare (Orelli). The idea passed into classical Knglish; e.j. Hen .loiison, Yolpone, iii. 5:
Let 's die like Romans Since we have lived like Grecians.
— Works, iii. p. 261, and Gifford's note.
Minsheu (1617) gives (under Grcelce) "a merit Qret hilar is Orcecus, a Jester;" and in Roister Doister one of the dramatis persona is Mathew Merygreeke who through- out acts up to his name; cf. i. 1, Arber's Reprint, p. 13. (Tares (HaJJiwell's ed.) has a vague generalism: "the Qreekt were proverbially spoken of by the Romans as fond of good living and free potations."
35. Line 120: into the cohpass'd window.— "Eos com- passed = " rounded," compare Venus and Adonis, 272: "compass'd crest;" also " compass' d cape" (Taming of the Shrew, iv. 3. 140). ' " Boiv window" would be more intel- ligible to us. Compassed, according to Malone, was also applied to a particular kind of ceiling.
36. Line 129: 80 old a LIFTER.— A word that has only survived in the special phrases, shoplifter and cattle- lifter. Though not found elsewhere in Shakespeare it occurs with tolerable frequency in the Elizabethan dra- matists. So in Ben Jonson's Cynthia's Revels, i. 1, we have "one other peculiar virtue you possess, is lift- ing" (Works, vol. ii. 231). In Middleton's Roaring Girl, "cheaters, lifters and foists" are mentioned in the same sentence (Works, vol. ii. 546). Etymologically the word is best seen in the Gothic hi ifan = to steal; cognate with Latin clepere (Skeat).
37. Line 158: With mill. stones.— A proverbial phrase = not to weep at all, to be hard-hearted. Cf. Richard III.
i. 3. 354:
Your eyes drop mill-stones, when fools' eyes fall tears;
and see notes 100 and 204 of that play.
38. Line 171 : Here '« but one and fiftyhairs.— Curiously
enough Q. and Ff. unanimously give "two and fifty." The correction (Theobald's) ought, I think, to be adopted, though the Cambridge editors keep to the copies. Fifty was the traditional number of Priam's sons. Shakespeare, however, may have made the mistake.
39. Line 178: " The FORKED one."— See note 24; and compare Othello, iii. 3. 276:
Even then tiiis/orted plague is fated to us.
So, too, Winter's Tale, i. 2. 186, spoken appropriately enough by Leontes.
40. Line 182: that it passed.— The meaning is clear: "it was excesssive, beggared description." So in Merry Wives of Windsor we have (i. 1. 310) "the women have so cried and shriek'd at it, that it past'd;" and later in the same play the verb occurs twice in the present tense, with the same meaning: " Why, this passes! Master Ford," iv. 2. 127, and line 143. See Timon of Athens, i. 1. 12, and com-
act [. Bceiie 2
NOTES TO TROILUS AND CRESSIDA.
ACT I. Scene 3.
pare the ordinary adjectival use of the participle, pass- ing. For instances outside Shakespeare note Greene, Works, p. 100, and Peele, Works, p. 510.
41. Line 200: That 's Antenor : he has a shrewd wit.— Shakespeare, as Steevena points out, is thinking of Lyd- gate's description of Antenor:
Copious in words, and one that much time spent To jest, whenas lie was in companie. So driely, that no man could it espie :
And therewith held his countenance so well. That every man received great content
To lieare him speake, and pretty jests to tell. When lie was pleasant and in merriment : For tho' that he most commonly was sad, Yet in his speech some jest he always had.
Antenor was one of the Trojan leaders who escaped; see Virgil's .Eneid, i. 242-24:).
42. Line 212: Will lie GIVE you THE NOD?— Steevens says that In nice the nod was a card term. There certainly was a game called noddy, to which references are not infre- quent. Compare, for instance, Westward Ho, iv. 1:
Bird. Come, shall 's go to noddy 1 Honey. Ay, an thou wilt, for half an hour.
— Webster's Works, p. 229.
In any case, Cressida is simply playing on the slang meaning of noddy, which then, as now, signified "a simpleton;" hence she hints that if Pandarus gets another nod he will be more of a noddy than ever. I find very much the same sort of quibble in Northward Ho, ii. 1:
'Sfoot, what tricks at noddy are these? —Webster, p. 258.
Minsheu, I may add, has a very characteristic explana- tion of the word: "A Noddie; because he nods when he should speake— A foole " (Dictionary, 1617).
43. Line 22S: by God's lid.— A. curious oath, which seems, however, to have been proverbial. So in Field's A Wo- man is a Weathercock, v. 2, we have:
Why then, by Gods lid, thou art a base rogue. I knew I should live to tell thee so. — Dodsley, ed. 1875, vol. xi. p. 81.
For lid= eyelid, cf. Hamlet, i. 2. 70, 71:
Do not for ever with thy vailed lids Seek for thy noble father in the dust.
44. Line 245: Helenus is a priest— So in Caxton's De- struction of Troy, bk. iii. p. 3, he is "a man that knew all the arts liberal.'' After the fall of Troy Helenus re- appears in the third book of the iEneid, lines 295-505.
45. Line 280: baked with no date in the pie.— Pies with dates in them appear to have been almost as inevitable in Elizabethan cookery as the "green sauce" with which the dramatists garnished their dishes, or as those plates of prunes to which continual reference is made. Com- pare Romeo and Juliet, iv. 4. 2:
They call for dates and quinces in the pastry.
So, too, All 's Well that Ends Well, i. 1. 172.
46. Line 283: at what ward yon LIE.— The poet has bor- rowed a term from fencing. So in I. Henry IV. ii. 4. 215, 216:
Thou knowest my old -ward; here I lay, and thus I bore my point.
47. Lines 304-306:
Pan. I'll be with you, niece, by and by.
Cres. To BRING, uncle!
Pan. Ay, a token from Troilus.
This very obscure and doubtful expression to briny occurs in Peele's sir Clyomon ami sir Clamydes:
And I 'II close with Bryan till I have gotten the thing That he hath promised me, and then I '11 be with him to bring.
—Peele's Works, p. 503.
Commenting on the passage just quoted, Dyce gives several other places where the phrase is found: Kyd's Spanish Tragedy, i. 2; Beaumont and Fletcher's Scornful Lady, v. 4; and Harington's Orlando Furioso, bk. xxxix. 48. In addition to these Grant White quotes from Tusser's Five Hundred Points of Good Husbandry:
For carman and colier harps both on a string, In winter they cast to be with thee to bring.
See also Dyce'a Middleton, ii 147, with his glossary to Shakespeare, p. 52. The meaning of the phrase cannot be determined; it was a piece of contemporary slang, the key to which has been lost. To briny, uncle? should cer- tainly be printed as a query.
48. Lines 313: Things won are done; Jor'S SOUL lies in the doing.— That is to say, "the essence of the pleasure lies in the doing:" a fine expression. F. 2 and F. 3 have the soule's joy, a correction as obvious as it is tame and ineffective. Hanmer preferred it. The best commentary on the thought developed in the passage is the great son- net exxix.:
The expense of spirit in a waste of shame Is lust in action.
For the converse idea we may compare the Friar's speech in Much Ado, iv. 1. 220-225.
49. Lines 319-321:
Achievement is command; ungain'd, beseech: Then, though my heart's content firm love doth bear, Nothing of that shall from mine eyes appear.
If line 319 is to be altered, we should, I think, adopt (with Singer) Mr. Harness's very ingenious suggestion— "Achieved, men us command." Collier's "Achieved men still command," seems to me far less satisfactory. I be- lieve, however, that the text of the copies should be retained. The difficulty comes from the poet's charac- teristic compression of thought, and in such maxims the sense generally gains in concentration at the expense of the clearness of expression. Summarized, the lines mean: " When men have won us they are our rulers; before they win us they are our suppliants." For achievement com- pare Taming of the Shrew, i. 2. 268:
Achieve the elder, set the younger free.
In the next line (320) Warburton took heart's content to signify " heart's capacity." Perhaps, however, Cressida simply means that love is the basis of her happiness.
ACT I. Scene 3.
50. Lines 14, 15:
trial did draiv BIAS iwrf thwart, not answering the aim.
These are bowling terms, best illustrated perhaps by a passage in King John, ii. 574-579:
Commodity, the bias of the world.
The world, who of itself is peised well.
Made to run even upon even ground,
Till this advantage, this vile-drawing bias,
315
Ail l -vene 3.
NOTES TO TROILUS AND < KKSSl 1 >A.
ACT I. Scene 3.
This sway of motion, this commodity, Makes it take head . . .
Tli.' original meaning of bias is seen in its derivation: I , slant, dope; hence, an inclination to one side.
51. Lines 17-10:
Why, then, you princes,
Do you with cheeks abash d behold oar WORKS,
And call THKM shames . . . Them must clearly refer back to works, which Walker condemns as "palpal ily wrong" (A Critical Examination, iii. p. \'.>-i) Work*, though not Impossible, 1b certainly weak. We want a more definite word, implying "disgrace," "defeat," and it is tempting to adopt (as does Dyce) the correction oi Colliers MS. Corrector wrecks. Singer less happily proposed mocks.
52. Line 32: Xestor shall APPLY.— Perhaps in the sense of "attend to."
53. Line 45: Or made a TOAST for Neptune.— Referring to the custom oi soaking toast in wine. So in the Merry Wires, iii. 5. 3, Falstaff, adjuring Bardolph to fetch a quart "f sack, adds: "put a toast in't," In the passage before us the " saucy boat" is to he the dainty morsel for V ptone to swallow.
54. Line 48 : The herd hath more annoyance by the BREBSB. -F. 1 lias brieze here, and in the passage from Antony and Cleopatra, quoted below, breeze. The word is also written brize, and in Minsheu brie; a species of stint:- big gadfly, often used metaphorically to signify some- thing " stinging, " 'annoying." Cf. Antony and Cleopatra.
iii. lo. H: . ,.. . .
The dreese.upon her, like a cow in June.
So in Ben Jonson's The Poetaster, iii. 1. :
I can hold no longer,
This brize has prick'd my patience.
—Works, vol. ii. p. 441.
It is, as Grey in his notes points out, the word used by Hi} den in translating Georgics, iii. 235:
This flying plague, to mark its quality,
sEstros the Grecians call, Asylus we ;
A fierce, loud sounding breeze, their stings draw blood,
And drive the cattle gadding through the wood.
55. Lite '" « i "i" under shade.— That is to say, "are fled." Theobald and Hanmer needlessly changed to "get under shade." Walkers "flee under" is prefer- able.
56. Line M: Retorts to chiding fortune.— P. 1 and F. •2 hare - tyn •: V ■'■ and F. i. and Quarto, retires. Some Change is necessary. Hanmer and Collier's MS. Corrector proposed n /'lies; Pope. Staunton, redadee; Dyce
and this is certainly the best r, torts. So the Cam- bridge editors and Qlobe I'.dn.
57. Line 64: Should hold up high in brass.— The editors are doubUeSS right in tracing b'le an allusion to the cus- tom .f , ngraving laws and public records on braes, and timgrng them tiji on the wall- ol temples and other build- in.- ral resort. It is the reference, perhaps, in
ire, v. l. 11, 12.
58. | BATCH'S hisilrcr.—A technieal engraver's term The word has survived in
316
hatchment and 'cross hatching " a, process, I believe, of shading familiar to all artists. Cotgrave has "hachc royalle;" also " haehe d amies." The verb haeher he translates "to hackc, shread, slice; also, to hatch a hilt. Similarly hache = •'hatched as the hilt of a sword." Per- haps the allusion is to enamel work or carving of some sort on the handle. In any case, it enables us to explain satisfactorily the rather curious phrase "hatched in blood, which Beaumont and Fletcher occasionally use {e.g. in the Humorous Lieutenant, i. 1), the fact simply being that the blood dripping from the blade was re- garded as a kind of ornament. In Twelfth Night, iii. 4. 257, Sir Andrew is described as a "knight, dubb'd with unhatch'd rapier and on carpet consideration," though some editors there read unhacked. Taking the present pas- sage we must refer silver, not, as did Johnson, to Xestor's voice, but to his white hair. Compare line 296, and iv. 5. 209. Tyrwhitt conjectured thatched; hut he must have forgotten, or did not know of, Shirley's exact reproduc- tion of Shakespeare's line:
Thy hair is fine as gold, thy chin is hatch'd with silver. —Love in a Maze, ii. 2, Shirley's Works, Gifford's ed. ii. p. 301.
The following lines (66-68) need no explanation, much less correction: bond of air is thoroughly Shakespearian. The whole passage is evidently a reminiscence of a stanza in Lucrece, 1401-1407:
There pleading might you see grave Nestor stand, As 't were encouraging the Greeks to fight ; Making such sober action with his hand, That it beguiled attention, charm'd the sight: In speech, it seem'd, his beard, all silver -white, Wagg'd up and down, and from his lips did fly Thin -winding breath, which purl'd up to the sky.
The suggested comparison is not, I think, without point.
59. Line 73: TF/ieu RANK Thersites opes his MASTIC jaws. —Apparently mastic is a corrupt form of mastigia, which in Terence means "a rascal," literally "one that always wants whipping." In late Latin the word came to sig- nify "a whip," "scourge," and that must be the sense here. Many editors, however, read mastiff. This line, it should be noted, is considered by Mr. Fleay to lend very strong support to his theory that the character of Thersites is a satirical portrait of Dekker. Why ? Be- cause Dekker in the Poetaster is called ran*, an astonish- ing coincidence with the first half of our verse, while mastic is the clearest of allusions to Dekker s Satiro- M astix. It is ingenious, mais ce n'est pas la crit,
60. Line 81. When that the general is not like the hive. -The general should be to an army what the hive is to the bees, viz. the central rallying point to which each member may resort. The sense is excellent. Yet the frenzy of emendation has not spared the line. Noth
(a not liked o'i, is nut the life o/,have all been suggest. d.
61. Line 85: the planets, and this 0BHTBB.— Referring obviously to the Ptolemaic system of astronomy, in which the earth was the centre. So Hamlet, ii. 2. 157-159:
I will find Where truth is hid. though it were hid indeed Within the centre.
Hi like the centre" was not an unusual expression. ( f Bossy Ii Ambois, ii. 1, Chapman's Works, p. 152.
ACT I. Scene 3.
NOTES TO TROILUS AND CHESS I DA.
ACT i. Scene 3.
62. Line 87: INSISTURE, course, proportion, &c.—Insis- ture seems to = constancy, persistency. According to Nares the word does not occur elsewhere. We may note here that this tine speech, where the perfect clearness of thought and expression leaves little scope for the anno- tate, has been mercilessly mangled in Dryden's version. [ndeed the whole of the scene (with which Dryden opens his play) has been unsparingly retrenched.
63. Line 100: married calm of states.— Married here simply means "closely united," as in Milton's:
Lydian airs
Married to immortal verse.
Compare Romeo and Juliet, note 43.
64. Line 113: And make a SOP of all this solid globe.— So in Lear, ii. 2. 35: " Draw, you rogue, . . . I '11 make a sop o' the moonshine of you." Compare, too, Richard III. i. 4. 1U2 ; see also note 53.
65. Line 127: And this NEGLECTION of degree it is.— NegleeUon occurs again in Pericles, iii. 3. 20, where, how- ever, Ff. read neglect. The general idea brought out in the passage is, that each man desires to aggrandize him- self, and, in order to do so, slights his immediate superior-
66. Line 137: Troy in our weakness STANDS.— Stands(Q.) is more graphic than lives (Ff.); at least it seems to remind us of Virgil's "Troiaque nunc staret."
67. Line 153: And, like a STRUTTING PLATER.— It is curious to note with what almost invariable contempt Shakespeare speaks of the stage and of the actor's calling, which, for a time at least, was his own. Compare the famous lines in Macbeth, v. 5. 24-26:
Life 's but a walking shadow, a poor player That struts and frets his hour upon the stage And then is heard no more.
Above all, in the Sonnets, where alone we can trace the personality of the poet, where— to adopt Matthew Arnold's line— Shakespeare "abides our question"— he gives full vent to his loathing of the actor's life:
Alas, 't is true I have gone here and there
And made myself a motley to the view,
Gored mine own thoughts, sold cheap what is most dear,
Made old offences of affections new. . . .
This (ex.) and the following sonnet are purely autobio- graphical; they let us know how Shakespeare estimated the art of the actor.
For he who struts his hour upon the stage Can scarce protract his fame thro' half an age; Nor pen nor pencil can the actor save — Both art and artist have one common grave.
The lines were written by Garrick. [I cannot agree with the views here expressed by Mr. Verity, although they are doubtless shared by many. In this passage, and in the one taken from Macbeth, Shakespeare is merely putting into the mouths of his characters the conventional estimate of the actor's profession which was held by Society in his time. The dignified and nobly-worded defence of acting and actors by Hamlet is worth a hundred such common- place sneers; and as for Sonnet cxi. (not ex., which latter has little to do wit* his profession of actor), the less said about that the better. Its unhealthy and morbid tone
does Shakespeare little credit. If once we lose sight of the intense artificiality of the greater portion of the Sonnets, we must be driven t<> very awkward conclusions as to Shakespeare's character.— v. A. u.)
68. Line 157: o'ER-vvrested seeming. — Q. and Ff. read "ore-rested; "the correction (made by Pope) seems certain. F'or the metaphor compare iii. 3. 23, and note 194. Delius' o'er-jested is ingenious.
69. Line 171: Arming to answer in a night-alarm. — So in Henry V. ii. 4. 2, 3:
And more than carefully it us concerns To answer royally in our defences.
In each case the idea is "repelling an attack."
70. Line 180: Severals and generals of grace exact.— This seems to mean "our individual and collective quali- ties of perfection," or as Johnson phrases it, of "excel- lence irreprehensible; " but I cannot help suspecting some corruption in the line. Staunton's suggestion " of grace and act" would make fair sense. Colliers MS. Corrector gave "all grace extract," i.e. deprived of all the grace which really belonged to them.
71. Line 184: As stuff for these two to make PARADOXES. —The force of paradox is not very clear. Johnson wished that the copies had given parodies.
72. Line 195: To weaken and discredit our exposure; i.e. he minimizes the dangers to which we are exposed. In the following speech Ulysses develops the idea that in war policy and forethought should count for more than brute strength and bravery.
73. Line 205: They call this bed-work, mappery, closet- war.— Theobald punctuated "bed- work mapp'ry, closet war," i.e. treating bed-work as an adjective.
74. Lines 211, 212:
Achilles' horse
Makes many Thetis' sons; i.e. at this rate Achilles' horse is as good as Achilles him- self. It is superfluous to say that Achilles was the son of "sea-born" Thetis.
75. Line 224: A STRANGER to those most imperial looks.— And yet this was the seventh year of the war. Perhaps, as Steevens explains, Shakespeare thought that the leaders on either side fought with beavers to their helmets after the manner of the medieval knights. So in act iv. 5. 195, 196, Nestor says to Hector:
this thy countenance, still lock'd in steel, I never saw till now.
76. Line 235: Courtiers as free, as DEBONAIR.— The word debonair only occurs in this passage in Shakespeare. Milton's line in L' Allegro (24) it would be superfluous to quote, but it may be worth while to note that Milton was plagiarizing from Thomas Randolph, in whose Aristippus
we have:
A bowl of wine is wondrous good cheer,
To make one blithe, buxom and debonair.
Perhaps Randolph in turn had remembered Pericles, i. Prol. 23.
77. Lines 238, 239:
Jove's accord,
Nothing sofxdl of heart.
317
ACT 1. 8
NuTES TO TROILUS AND CEESSIDA.
ACT II. Scene 1.
I tlimk we must take this (with Theobald) as an ablative lute ■/-" probante. The interpretation, of course, i> awkward, U not Impossible, but the corrections have little to say for themselves. Bteevena proposed "Jove's (i lord; Ifalone, most confidently, "Jove's a Qod;" Mason, most grotesquely, "Jove's own bird."
78. Line 244: that praise, sole puke, transcends.— Collier's MB. Corrector gave soul-pure, an expression, said Collier, "of great force and beauty;" but to Dyce it com eyed " no meaning at all."
79. Line 262: this dull and LOSG-continu'd TRUCK. —This is inconsistent with what has preceded; cf. for instance, the Becond scene, line 34. It is one of the contradictions that point to the composite nature of the play.
80. Lines 269, 270:
CONFESSION,
With truant vows to her own lips he loves, i.e. confession (or prof i ssion, which Hannier reads) made with idle vows to the lips of her whom he loves.
81. Line 272: to him this challenge. -The single com- bat between Hector and Ajax occurs in the seventh Iliad, 215-300. Such incidents abound in the old romances.
82. Line 2S2: The Grecian dames are SUNBURNT.— Com- pare Beatrice's complaint: "Thus goes every one to the world but I. and I am sunburn'd; I may sit in a corner, and cry Heigh-ho for a husband!" (.Much Ado, ii. 1. 331-333; and Bee note 188 of that play). In the Tempest, iv. 1. 134 the word docs not bear any uncomplimentary associa- tions.
83. Line 296: I'll hide my Silver beard in a gold BEAVER. —Properly beaver signified the visor of the helmet, its sense in the present passage; cf. Hamlet, i. 2. 230, with Mr Aldis Wrights note. Often used for the helmet Itself; bo I. Henry IV. iv. 1. 104. Skeat derives from baviire, a bib; another derivation is boire, because the beaver had t<> be raised if the wearer wanted to drink. Compare III. Henry VI. note 39.
84. Line 297: .1 ml in my vantbrace.— Q. has vambrace; a species of armour for the arm = avant bras. Compare " Vantbrace and greaves and gaunt let ' (Samson Agonistes, 1121).
85 Line :H3: He you my time: i.e. '•Time brings all schemes to maturity; in the present case do you fulfil the office of Timt "
86. I :i25:
Tlir purpose is perspicuous even as substance,
II I QROBBNXSS littl CHARACTERS gum lip. Wai burton iias a recondite note on these lines, the mean- ing of which seems to me fairly simple. Substance = estate, property; grossni rose stun, value; characters umerals; and the whole Idea la parallel to the thought expressed in Eenry V. prologue to act i. 15, 16:
a crooked figure may Attest in little place a million.
pare, too, the Winter's Tale. i. 2. 6, 7:
like a cipher, Vet standing in rich place.
87. Line 341 \shaUg\ CLTHO, &C.— Scantlingnne
318
signifies, not so much "a sample" (Schmidt, Shakespeare Lexicon), as "a measure," "proportion." Properly it means "a cut piece of timber; then, apparently, "a small piece of anything." So Malone quotes from Florio's translation (luo.'i) of Montaigne s Essays: "When the lion's skin will not suffice, we must add Bl scantling of the fox's." For derivation, cf. French eschantilUnu The general=the community, as in Julius Caesar, ii. 1. 12, and Hamlet, ii. 2. 4f>7: "'twas caviare to the general
88. Line 343, 344:
And in such indexes, although small 1'RICKS To their subsi quent volumes.
Several passages illustrate Shakespeare's use of the word index; e.g. Hamlet, iii. 4. 51, 52:
Ay me, what act That roars so loud, and thunders in the index t
Compare, too, Othello, ii. 1. 263: "an index and obscure prologue," and Richard HI. ii. 2. 14s: "as index to the story we late talk'd of." It is not enough in explaining these lilies to say that the index was usually prefixed to a volume; it should be remembered that the word did not bear quite its modern sense, but signified what we should now call the " table of contents." So Minsheu defines it: " Table in a book." Prick was used for a small mark or point; so in expression "prick of noon."
89. Lines 361, 362:
The lustre of the better yet to show, Shall show the better.
So the Folio, a great improvement on the reading of Q. :
The lustre of the better shall exceed. By shelving the worse Jirst.
Grant White's
Shall show the better thus. Do not consent gives an easier rhythm.
90. Lilies 375, 376:
let blockish Ajax draw
The sort. As applied to Telamonian Ajax the epithet blockish (and in line 881, dull brainless) is not very appropriate. In the Iliad he is the type of strength, but not of dull and blockish could scarcely be said of the subject of Sophocles' drama. Probably, as the editors explain. Shakespeare has confounded the Telamonian Ajax with Ajax OUeus.
91. Line 392: Must tarre the mastiffs on.— This was a
sportsman's term - to urge on dogs to tight; cf. King John, iv. 1. 117, and Hamlet, ii. 2. 370: "and the nation holds it in sin to tarre them to controversy."
ACT II. BCBNB 1.
92. Line 6: a botchy OORB.— Grant White has an inter- esting note on this disputed expression. "The old copies," he says, "have 'a botchy core;' which reading has been hitherto retained, although Its meaning 1b past conjecture. But core is a mere phonographic spelling of corps. Bacon'8 Life Of Henry VII. p. 17: ' For he was in a
of people « hose affections he suspected.' Thersitea mi a pun. and uses general to refer to Agamen n and to
ACT II. Scene 1.
NOTES TO TROIM'K AND Ol.'KSSI DA.
ACT II. Scene 1.
the general body or corps of Boldiers as in act iv. scene 5 ; of this play." Grant White prints corps; Collier's MS. C< irrector hail the obvious core. Throughout this first part of the scene we have persistent quibbling ami word-play. [It has always been a source of wonder to me how com mentatora could have missed the obvious meaning of the word core here, and have wanted to make utterly unneces- sary emendations. Even Staunton, who is generally so careful to abstain from tampering with the text, suggests "botchy cur." If we read the whole speech it is not a delicate or pleasant one— we shall at once see the mean- ing of the word core. Core, from the Latin cor, means, as is well known, "a kernel" or "seed-vessel of any fruit," and it also means in medicine "The slough which forms at the central part of boils " (see Hoblyn's Diet, of Medical Terms, sub voce); and Johnson (ed. 1756) defines the word as "The matter contained in a boil or sore," and appends
a quotation from Dryden:
Launce the sore,
And cut the head ; for, 'till the core be found.
The secret vice is fed, and gathers ground.
There very probably is a pun intended on core and corps (= " body of men," or simply " body") ; but there can be little doubt that the meaning of the word core in this passage is the one given above. — F. A. M.]
93. Lines 13, 14: The PLAGUE of Greece upon thee, thou mongrel BEE¥-witted lord! — Referring, probably, to the plague sent by Apollo upon the army of the Greeks, men- tioned in the first book of the Iliad. Mongrel, because Ajax's father, Telamon, was a Greek, his mother, Hesione, a Trojan; cf. iv. 5. 120. For 6ee/-witted Grey (Notes) very badly conjectured half-witted; he must have forgotten Sir Andrew's memorable " I am a great eater of beef, and I believe that does harm to my wit" (Twelfth Night, i. 3. 89-91). Shakespeare suggests a similar antagonism in Henry V. iii. 7. 161, and in Marlowe's Edward II. ii. 2, the brilliant court favourite, Gaveston, scornfully bids the English nobles "go sit at home and eat their tenants' beef" (Marlowe's Works, Bullen's ed. ii. 156).
94. Line 15: thou vinewedst leaven.— Q. has unsalted; Ff. whined' st; the latter is probably a corruption of vine wed' st. Why should the reading of Q. have been changed? "Because," says Johnson, "want of salt was no fault in leaven;" to which Malone replies that "leaven without the addition of salt does not make good bread." This is specializing too deeply; the poet was not a baker, and only a professional instinct could appreciate these editorial subtleties. The fact, I imagine, is, that of the two epithets vineived'st was far the more graphic, the more offensive and therefore the more appropriate; hence its substitution. As to the proposed alternatives, Han- mer suggested whinnid'st, which he explained to mean "crooked;" Theobald, unwinnow'd'st; Warburton, windy- est. Collier's MS. Corrector agreed with the Folio. For vinew, or finew = " mouldy," L. mucidus, Nares quotes from the Mirror for Magistrates, p. 417:
A souldier's hands must oft be died with goare, Lest, starke with rest, theyjti:eit/'rf wax or hoare.
Compare, too, Beaumont's Letter prefixed to Speght's edition of Chaucer, 1602, and subsequently reprinted: " Many of Chaucer's words are become as it were sinewed
and hoarie with over long lying." The substantive is given, and rightly explained, by Minsheu. As to etymology, Skeat connects with AS. finegian=to become mouldy, the same root being seen in A.S. /enn = mire, whence modern fen.
95. Lines 39-43:
Ajax. Mistress Thersiteal
Ther. Thou shouldst strike him.
Ajax. Cobloaf !
Ther. lie would fun thee into shivers with his fist, as a sailor breaks a biscuit.
There are one or two points here. "Why Mistress Ther- sites?" says Walker (A Critical Examination, iii. p. 193); and Nares echoed the query. Surely the application of the word to Thersites is not so inappropriate or strange. He is a scold, quick of tongue and coward of heart, and in Hamlet's phrase, "must fall a cursing, like a very drab." He stings and buzzes about the unwieldy Ajax, and the latter expresses his contempt for mere cleverness, by re- torting, You are not a man at all, you are only a shrill- tongued shrew. More formidable is the Cobloaf crux, chiefly because of the disagreement of Q. and F. 1. F. 1 gives the text printed above; Q. assigns the speeches as follows :
Ajax. Mistress Thersites.
Ther. Thou should'st strike him. Ajax, Coblofe, Hee would punne thee into shivers with his fist. Obviously the question resolves itself into this: to whom is Cobloaf as a term of contempt most applicable? To Ajax, as spoken by Thersites, or vice versa? The accounts of the word vary. Nares gives the following: "Cobloaf. A large loaf. Cob is used in composition to express large, as cob-nut, cob-swan." Similarly Gifford in a note on Every Man in his Humour, i. 3, says: "our old writers used the word as a distinctive mark of bulk" (Ben Jon- son's Works, vol. i. p. 28). From this it would seem that the Quarto is right. But Minsheu in his Dictionary speaks of a cob as " a bunne. It is a little loaf made with a round head, such as cob-irons which support the fire." He translates it by the French briquet, and briquet again in Cotgrave =" little round loaves or lumps, made of fine meal, . . . bunnes, lenten loaves." Minsheu, therefore, and Cotgrave favour the Folio; "little round lumps" would nicely fit one's conception of Thersites. But the point cannot be definitely settled; the meanings of cob are too various; the Imperial Dictionary enumerates no less than eleven. Of these a very curious one occurs in Nashe's The Unfortunate Traveller, where he speaks of a "lord high regent of rashers of the coles and red her- ring cobs " (Nashe's Prose Works, ed. Grosart, in Huth Library, vol. v. p. 14); cf. too, his tract, A Prognostication, vol. ii. p. 163, and Greene's Looking Glass for London and England, p. 144. Doron's eclogue in Menaphon begins: "Sit down Carmela, here are cobs for kings," where, how- ever, the reference may be to apples (Greene's Works, p. 291). I have known the expression cob applied by Lan- cashire people to small buns; perhaps its survival is a mere localism. Etymologically pun~ pound, the d in the latter being excrescent; from A.S. punian.
96. Line 46: Thou stool for a witch .'—Alluding, as Grey points out, to one of the many kinds of witch-torture.
319
A.C1 ii. B
NOTES TO TROILUS AND CRESSIDA.
ACT II. Scene 2.
■|1U! the custom in Brand's chapter on
"Witches (Popular Antiquities, Bohn's ed. iii. p. 23).
97. Line 48: on assinego may tut",- thee.— Q. and Kf. have arinieo, from which Binger conjectured that the true reading was assinieo, from Spanish acntco=a young or Little ass Pope proposed Assinego, a Portuguese word tor ass; probably this is right, the word being found in Beaumont and Fletcher (see Dyce's ed. iii. 107) and else- w here.
98. Line 75 : his EVASIONS have ears thus long; i.e. don- Itej B ears. — By evasions he means the artifices which a man employs in an argument The whole expression is an admiral ily humorous way of representing the clumsi- ness of ajax in discussion.
99. Line 77 : and his PIA mater is not worth.— Properly the /"■< mater is one of the membranous coverings of the brain; often, however, used as here to signify the brain itself. So in Twelfth Night, i. ;">. 123, the clown is afraid that sir i oby "lias a moBt weaken mater; " compare, too, Love's Labour a Lost, iv. 2. 71. In Randolph's Aristippua the quack physician. Signor Medico de Campo, opines that the philosoper after his beating is in a parlous case:
• Bj my troth, sir, he is wonderfully hurt Hisjna mater, 1 perceive, is clean out of joint; of the twenty bones of the cranium there is but one left" (Randolph's Works, p. 32). The converse, dura mater, Shakespeare does not use.
100. bine 'Jo. — Will you SET your leit to a fool's? i.e.
match your wit against. -The term is taken from tennis,
to which allusions are frequent Compare Midsummer
Night's Dream, iii. 1. 137. So in the Witch of Edmonton,
ii. 1:
A ball well bandied, now the set's half won.
— Ford's work, vol. ii. p. 481.
101. Line 107 : and you as under an impress. -Enforced servici . So in Hamlet, i. 1. 75 :
Why such impress of shipwrights.
102. Line 120: to Achilles-! to.— Thersites keeps up the previous metaphor of yoking, imitating what he supposes Nestor to say to Achilles.
103. Line 126.— Achilles' brach. — Q. and Ff. read brooch. The almost certain emendation was made by Rowe. Johnson, with forensic subtlety, suggested that a brooch being "an appendant ornament," the phrase tiii'.'ht here signify "one of Achilles' hangers on !" M alone hazarded brock=-fop; compare Twelfth Night, ii. 5. 114: " Harry, hang thee, orocfc/" The objection to brooch is that Shakespeare uses the word at least once in a compli- mentary sense :
the brooch, indeed,
And gem of all the nation;
— Hamlet, iv. 7. 94.
compare, too, Richard II. v. 5. 66. Brach is explained by \ 1. 18, 19.
ACT II. Scene 2.
104. Lines 14, 16:
the icound 0/ peace is surety, Sun >'/ m.i i ; An obvious Latinism. Compare Henry V. iv. Prol. 17:
I 1 iud of their numbers, and secure in soul
3a 1
So in the present play, iv. 5. 73. We may remember too the couplet in L' Allegro :
Sometime with secure delight
The upland hamlets will invite.
—91, 92.
105. Line 19: 'mongstmang thousand PISMES. — Minsheu has a long account of the word: "made," he says, "of the French Declines and signirieth tenth, or the tenth part of all the fruits, either of the earth, or beasts, or our labour due unto Coil, and so consequently to him that is of the Lord's lot, and hath his share, viz. our Taster. It signilieth also the tenths of all spiritual livings, yeerely given to the Prince— which in ancient times were paid to the Popes, until Pope Urbane gave them to Richard the Second, to aid him against Charles, the French Rang, Lastly it signitieth a tribute levied of the Temporaltie" (Dictionary, p. 234). In the present passage, of course, the w'ord merely means " tenths of the army."
106. Line 29. — The VAST -proportion of his infinite?— "That greatness," says Johnson, "to which no measure bears any proportion, "a tine expression needlessly changed by some last-century editors to "vast proportion." " Part proportion" is a curiously infelicitous proposal. The words should, I think, be hyphened.
107. Line 33: you bite so sharp at REASONS. — Perhaps, as Malone thinks, a quibble is intended such as Dogberry is guilty of in Much Ado, v. 1. 212.
108. Lines 49, 50 :
reason and respect
Make livers pale. So in Lucrece, 274, 275:
Then, childish fear, avaunt: debating, die! Respect and reason, wait on wrinkled age.
In each case respect means caution, fear of consequences Falstaff, it will be remembered, branded a pale liver as "the badge of pusillanimity and cowardice" (II. Henry IV. iv. 3. 113).
109. Line 52: What is aught, but as'tis valu'd.—Grey quotes Butler's couplet :
For what 's the worth of anything Hut so much money as 't will bring!
110. Lines 58-60:
And the will dotes, that is attributive To what infectiously itself affects, Without some image qfth' affected merit.
The meaning is fairly simple : "the man is foolish who invests an object with excellence, and excessively admires that excellence, « hen :i!l the time it has no foundation in fact, but is simply the creation of his fancy."
111. Line 64.— Two traded pilots; i.e. professional, experienced. See note 272, and compare King John, iv. 3. 109.
112. Line 71: in anrespective sif.ve. — Q. has rive, F. 1, same, F. 2, F. 3, F. 4, place. Sieve, the reading in effect of Q., makes excellent sense, the limitation of the word to utensils uith which to strain or riddle things being com- paratively modern : indeed in some country districts it is still applied to a certain kind of fruit-basket 80 Browning in his poem. A Soliloquy of the Spanish Cloister, has:
ACT II. Scene 2.
NOTES TO TROILUS AND CRESSIDA.
ACT II. Scene 2.
When he gathers his greengages, Ope a sieve and slip it in.
Probably the sieves in which witches were floated to sea were wicker vessels of some kind. Originally they may have been made of rushes, which would explain the origin of the word, seave, and the cognate forms in Icelandic and Swedish, signifying a rush,
113. Line 79: and makes stale the morning.— This, the Folio reading, has perhaps more force than the pale of the Quarto, which Malone retains. Shakespeare is fond of stale both adjective and verb; compare Winter's Tale, iv. 1. 12-14 :
so shall I do To the freshest things now reigning-, and make stale The glistering of this present.
But the word occurs too frequently to need illustration.
114. Line 82.— Whose price hath launch'd above A thousand ships.— Shakespeare is reproducing the open- ing lines of the great passage in Marlowe's Doctor Faustus, scene xiv. lines 83, 84 :
Was this the face that launch'd a thousand ships And burnt the topless towers of Ilium?
—Marlowe's Works, Bnllen ed., vol. i. p. 275.
It may be worth while to note that Christopher Marlowe is the only contemporary dramatist to whom Shakespeare definitely alludes in terms of admiration ; it is pleasant to think that it should be so. Modern criticism abundantly recognizes the fact that Marlowe rendered English litera- ture the most signal and sovereign services, at once by freeing blank verse from the fetters imposed upon it by the authors of the dreary Gorboduc, by elevating, and to a certain extent fixing the form and style of the romantic drama, and by driving off the stage the "jigging veins of rhyming mother wits" that are satirized in the pro- logue to Tamburlaine. Shakespeare's debt to Marlowe was great, and passages in his plays show that he was familiar with the works of his brother poet. Thus in As You Like It we have (iii. 5. 82) the direct apostrophe to the " Dead shepherd," followed by the quotation of the line from Hero and Leander, which soon became a proverb :
Who ever lov'd that lov'd not at first sight?
— Hero and Leander, First Sestiad, line 176.
Again, in The Merry Wives of Windsor, iii. 1. 17-20, a stanza is introduced from the immortal lyric, "Come live with me and be my love." For similar Marlowe touches compare Two Gentlemen of Verona, i. 1. 20-27 (a less complimentary allusion), All's Well that Ends Well, i. 3. 74, 75, and Romeo and Juliet, v. 1. 8, where Romeo's ' " breath'd such life with kisses in my lips" is an obvious reminiscence of Hero and Leander, Second Sestiad, line 3.
115. Lines 87, 88 :
for yov, all clapp'd your hands, And cried, " Inestimable!" The account in Caxton's Troybook of the carrying-off of Helen is very quaint and picturesque ; this is the descrip- tion of Paris' return: "There came forth of the Town King Priamus with a great company of noblemen, and received his children and his friends with great joy, who came to Helen, and bowed courteously to her, and wel- comed her honourably. And when they came nigh the city, they found great store of people glad of their coming, VOL. V.
with instruments of musick: and in such joy came into the palaceof King Priamus: he himself lighted down and helped Helen from her palfrey, and led her by the hand into the hall, and made great joy all the night, through- out all the city for these tydings. And the next morning, Paris by consent of his father, wedded Helen in the temple of Pallas, and the feasts were lengthened through- out all the city, for space of eight days" (Destruction of Troy, book iii. p. 19).
116. Line 90: And do a deed that fortune never did.— I think the meaning is: "you are more fickle than/mtu ,,, herself. One day you rate Helen above all price; the next, when you have won her, she is of no account in your eyes. Fortune s wheel is not so variable."
117. Line 100.— It is Cassandra.— In Caxton's Troy- book Cassandra, " a noble virgin; learned with sciences, and knew things that were to come," foretells, as here, the destruction of Troy, until " King Priamus hearing it intreated her to cease, but she would not. And then he commanded her to be cast into prison, where she was kept many days" (book iii. p. 19). It is a point to be noticed that Shakespeare does not make more out of Cassandra. In Troilus and Cressida she is only, to echo Heine's criti- cism, " an ordinary prophetess of evil," whereas it would have been an easy task to invest her figure with a mys- terious impressive awe.
118. Line 104 : mid-age and wrinkled ELD.— Q. has elders; Ff. old. Perhaps with Walker we should emend still further to " mid age and wrinkled eld;" the gain in symmetry is obvious.
119. Lines 110, 111:
Our FIREBRAND brother, Paris, burns us all. Cry, Trojans, cry! A HELEN AND A WOE !
The language and the allusions here are quite classical. "Firebrand brother" refers to Hecuba's dream, in which she supposed herself to be pregnant of a burning torch. It is a detail unknown to Homer: compare, however, jEneid, vii. 320:
nee face tantum Cisseis prezgnans ignes enixa jugales.
So also in yEneid, x. 704, 705 :
etfacepragnans Cisseis regina Parim creat.
Parallel references might be quoted from English classics Thus Peele, in the Tale of Troy, has :
behold, at length. She dreams, and gives her lord to understand That she should soon bring forth afire-brand.
—Works, p. 551.
A Helen and a woe reminds us of the famous line in the
Agamemnon (689), which Browning vividly reproduced in:
Ship's hell, Man's hell, City's hell.
120. Line 116: no discourse of reason. — The same phrase occurs in Hamlet, i. 2. 150 :
O God 1 a beast, that wants discourse of reason.
Compare same play, iv. 4. 36:
Sure, he that made us with such large discourse;
and Othello, iv. 2. 153:
Either in discourse of thought or actual deed.
321 133
1 1 M-eiie 2
NoTKS TO Tl.'nlUS AND C15KSSIDA.
ACT ll. Scene 8
ich case discourse bears the once common, but now
of reasoning; it points to the working of
the mind, to the logical processes through which the latter must puss in arguing.
121. Line 1".:;: my PROPENSION; i.e. inclination. Cf. line 190: "] op n& to you."
122. Line 141: Parte should ne'er retract.— Compare Diad, vii. :
123. Line 150 : the RANSAOK'D queen. — Ransaclc'd here = the Latin rapta; it means simply "taken away by force," that force being employed nol against the person taken away, bat against the persons from whom she was taken. Schmidt explains the word as ravished in this play; but this might be misleading, unless it were explained that ravishment, in legal phraseology, meant, originally, what w< now call "abduction;" and therefore ravished would mean simply "abducted," and not, as it would imply
rally nowadays, the crime of rape. It will be noticed that just above, in line 148, Paris uses rape in the sense in which it was used in Shakespeare's time, for mere "abduction." According to Cowell rape was used only in this sense in civil law, never in criminal. Spenser uses the word ransacked in the sense of "violat" (bk. i. c. i. Bt 6) in the well-known passage where Archimago tries to ravish fJna:
And win rich spoils of ransackt chastitee.
of course the queen is Helen, not, as Hunter says, ll -ione.
124. Line 162: The world's large spaces cannot paral- lel; i.e. cannot produce her equal.
125. Line 166: Have oloz'd. — A gloze or a gloss is a commentary; the word generally bears the idea of " d>- tit: cf. Milton's " well plac'd words of glozing cour- ts sj (Comus, 161). It is not hard to see how the mean- ing arose. The gloss (=y\atrrx) was the word which net di 'i explanation; then it came to signify the explana- tion itself; and finally, by an easy transition, a false ex- planation. A good instance of its use occurs in Foul's IVrkin Warbcck. i. 2:
You construe my griefs to so hard a sense. That where the text is argument of pity, Matter of earnest love, yonr gloss corrupts it.
— Ford's Works, ii. 17,
126. Line 166: whom Aristotle thought— To avoid the
rather absurd anachronism Howe and Pope read (with splendid courage) " whom graver sages think t" For sentiment we are referred to Bacon, Advancement of Learning, bk. ii. xxii.
127. Line 172: //■". ears more deaf than adders.— An old superstition, often alluded to; thus, in Randolph's
The Muse's Looking Glass the Anchorite remarks: happy arc the moles that have no eyes! How blessed the adders that they have no ears.
— Works, vol. i. p. 207. part II. lb my VI iii. J
NVh.it 1 art thou, like the adder, waxen dcafl
and see note 188 of that play
128. Line 189: in way of truth; i.e. "Judging the matter
322
solely on the ground of what is just and right." This speech is a line piece of characterization.
129. Line 202: canonize us. — This is Shakespeare's in- variable accentuation of the word. Compare Hamlet,
i. 4. 47:
Why thy taudniz'd bones, hearsed in death ;
and King John, iii. 1. 177:
Candnizcd, and worshipp'd as a saint. See, too, II. Henry VI. i. 3. 63. Similarly in Marlowe's Faustus, i. 1. 118, we find :
Shall make all nations to candnise us.
Whereas Chapman, in Byron's Conspiracy, ii. 1, writes:
Should make your highness canonised & saint.
(Works, edn. 1874, p. 229).
ACT II. Scene 3.
130. Line 7: a rare ENGINER— All such words as en- gineer, "sonneteer," "mutineer,'' Ac, were formerly spelt with a final cr instead of eer. So in chapman's Monsieur D'Olive, iii. 1, we have: " by the brains of some great enginer" (Works, edn. 1874, p. 129) For an ex- haustive discussion of the question see Walker, Shake- Bpeare's Versification, pp. 217-227.
131. Lin. Hi: lose all the SERPENTINE craft of thy cadu- eeus.—A classical touch, as Steevens notes; cf. Martial, Epigrams, bk. vii. 74:
Cyllenes ccelique decus, facunde minister, Aurea cui torto virga dracone viret.
132. Line 27: a gilt counterfeit.— Hanmer, following Rowe, read counter. In a note on As You Like It, ii. 7. 63 ("What, for a counter, would I do but good?"), Knight says that these counters or jettons were made of various metals, for the most part at Nurnberg. They were used to count with, and are alluded to in Julius Csesar, iv. 3. 80 (where see Clarendon Press note), and Winter's Tale, iv. 3. 38; also in this play, ii. 2. 28. In the present passage slipp'd is used quibblingly in allusion to the spurious coins known as slips— a word-play of which the dramatists were very fond. So in Romeo and Juliet, ii. 4. 50, 51, when Romeo asks "What counterfeit did I give you?" Mercutio replies, "The slip, sir, the slip;" so also Venus and Adonis, 515. Ben Jonson, too, in Every Man in His Humour, ii. 3, has: "Let the world think me a had counterfeit if I cannot give him the slip at an in- stant."
133. Line 37: never shrouded uny bid lazars.— Gene- rally applied to people afflicted with leprosy; cf. "most lazarMke," Samlet, i. 5. 72. It is perhaps superfluous to note the derivation; from Lazarus, Luke xvi. 20.
134. Lin.- .".:■: / 'll DE0LTN1 the whole question.— Thersites borrows a term from the gprammar-hook, and then pro- ceeds to quibble upon it. Compare Richard III. iv. 4. :i7.
135. Line B6: ll< siiknt our messengers.— -Q. has sate; Ff. sent Th.- absolutely certain emendation in the text is due t" Theobald. Hanmer printed "he sent us mes- sengers" (very l r); while Collier followed his MS. Cor- rector in reading "we sent our messengers," objecting to Theobald's conjecture on the ground that the fact of
ACT II. Scene 3.
NOTES TO TEOILUS AND < KKSSl I >.\.
M T II. >cene 3-
Achillea rebuking the messenger had not been stated in the play. Shent, it may be noted, entirely agrees with scene iii. of the first act, where Achilles is said to have taken pleasure in seeing Patroclus' pageant (i.e. mimic and burlesque) Agamemnon and the other leaders; also, if, as Dyce ingeniously suggests, the sate of the Quarto is a corruption of rates, we have afresh argument in favour of shent, a word which Shakespeare uses several times, e.g. Merry Wives of Windsor, i. 4. 38; Twelfth Night, iv. 2, 112; Hamlet, iii. 2. 416.
136. Line 103: if he havelost his argument.— Here in the sense of theme, subject; cf. argumentum. The word is of too frequent occurrence in Shakespeare to require illus- tration We may remember, however, Milton's famous invocation:
what in me is dark Illumine, what is low raise and support. That to the highth of this great argument I may assert Eternal Providence And justify the ways of God to men.
— Paradise Lost, i. 22-26.
137. Line 113: The elephant hath joints, but none for courtesy.— Ci. iii. 3. 48, 49. That the elephant's legs had no joints was a current superstition.
138. Line 121: An after-dinner' s breath.— So in Ham- let, v. 2. 182: '"t is the breathing time of day with me." In each case the idea suggested is "light exercise," "relaxation."
139. Line 134: Than in the note of judgment.— Note of judgment seems to be equivalent to judgment simply; so we now speak of a person as "having no judgment;" but possibly "judgedloy other people" maybe the idea. The text of this passage has been needlessly emended in various details.
140. Line 138: His humorous predominance.- Shake- speare is referring to the astrological term; it occurs in Lear, i. 2. 134: "knaves, thieves, and treachers, by spheri- cal •predominance."
141. Line 139: Bis pettish LUNES, his ebbs, his flows. — Ff. have "pettish lines;" Q. "his course and time, his ebbs and flowes;" Pope read his course and times. The emendation in the text is due to Hanmer. A similar con- fusion, lines for lunes, occurs in Merry Wives of Windsor, iv. 2. 22, where the correction was made by Theobald. For lunes ( = whims, freaks), cf. Winter's Tale, ii. 2. 30.
142. Line 149: In second voice we '11 not be satisfied; i.e. "a substitute will not be sufficient, he must come him- self."
143. Line 169: / do hate a proud man, &c— For the thought cf. i. 3. 241, 242.
144. Line 187: the death-tokens of't.—A reference to the small dark spots which appeared on the skins of people infected with the plague; they were supposed to portend certain death. Cf. Antony and Cleopatra, iii. 10. 9, 10:
like the token'd pestilence, Where death is sure.
145. Line 195: with his own SBAM. — Seam = tallow, fat; cf. enseamed, Hamlet, iii. 4. 92.
146. Line 213: I'll PASH him.— In Shakespeare only occurs here (where, however, Q. has push) and in act v. 5. 10. It is found in Greene (Works, p. 94) and Marlowe (Bullen's ed. vol. i. p. 59); also in tfassinger (Works, p. 10), Virgin Martyr, ii. 2; and in The White Devil of Web- ster (Works, ed. Dyce, vol. i. p. 8). The word is of Scan- dinavian origin (Skeat). Drowning has it in "Childe Roland to the Dark Tower came," stanza xii.
147. Line 215: / 'II pheeze his pride. — We have Pheezar in Merry Wives, i. 3. 9; while the Taming of the Shrew begins: " I'll pheeze you, in faith" (see note 1 of that play). The etymology of the word is not clear, nor its exact meaning. I take, however, the following from the Im- perial Dictionary, sub voce Feaze. " [Perhaps connected with Swiss fitzen, fausen, D. veselen, Fr. fesser, to whip.] To whip with rods; to tease; to worry. Written also Feeze, Feize, and Pheeze." The same authority gives a substan- tive Feaze ="State of being anxious or excited; worry; vexation." The eighteenth-century commentators seem to have misunderstood the wind. Hanmer, for instance, ex- plains it: " to separate a twist into single threads. In the figurative sense it may well enough be taken like teaze;" and this is the account offered by Steevens, Johnson, and others. But feaze in this sense looks like a derivative from the A.S. /aes = thread; cf. O.fasern. According to Gifford it was in his days still in common use in the west of England, and meant "to beat," "to chastise;" this is obviouslyits sense in the present passage, and as a localism the word may still survive. Wedgwood has a long article on the subject, discriminating between the two meanings.
148. Line 221: The raven chides blackness.— Obviously another version of the proverb, " the kettle calls the pot black." See Bohn's Proverbs, p. 108.
149. Line 222: I'll let his humours blood.— Malone points out that a collection of epigrams, satires, &c. , was printed in 1600 with the title, The Letting of Humours Blood in the Head Vaine.
150. Line 227: shoxdd eat swords first.— It is not neces- sary to change the reading; but Grey's ingenious proposal deserves mention: "a should eat 'swords first." In the next two lines there is an obvious word play.
151. Line 233: his ambition is DRY.— Dry often = thirsty. Cf. Romeo and Juliet, iii. 5. 59:
Dry sorrow drinks our blood.
152. Line 244: A whoreson dog , that shall PALTER thus with us.'— Here palter is used in the sense of trifle; in Macbeth, v. 8. 20, and Julius Csesar, ii. 1. 126 = "equivo- cating." Skeat derives it from pialter, rags, and says that it originally meant "to deal in rags," and so "to haggle about paltry things."
153. Line 252: Praise HIM that got thee, SHE that gave thee suck; i.e. Tela/mon and Eribtra though later in this play (iv. 5. 83) Hesione is represented as having been the mother of Ajax.
154. Line 258: Bull-bearing Milo.— The legendary athlete of Crotona.
155. Line 260: like a bourn, a pale, a shore.— For
323
ACT [I. So
NOTES TO TEOILUS AND CRESSIDA.
ACT III. Scene 1.
bourn boundary (its etymological meaning) cf. Winter's Tale, i. •-'. 184:
No bourn 'twixt his and mine.
156. Lilie 263: lie must, he is, he cannot but be wise.— .Such braobylogy is characteristic. Compare i. 3. 289.
ACT III. Scene 1.
157. Line 14: Y"u are in the state of grace. — Referring obviouslj to Che previous quibble, "know your honour better," i.e. a better man. Throughout this scene the servant persistently plays on words and misunderstands his interlocutor. Q. and Ft print the line as a query.
158. Lines 33, 34: the MORTAL VENCS, . . . loves LN VISIBLE soul. — That is to say, Helen, the representative of Venus on earth. Invisible has been changed by some editors to visible, and I think there is a good deal to be said for the correction.
159. Line ,r>2: <jood BROKEN MUSIC— This was the name technically applied to the music of stringed instruments. Its use here is one more instance of Shakespeare's perfect familiarity with the terminology of arts other than his own. For music in particular the poet seems to have felt a special sympathy. So Csesar, in describing Cassius, says:
he loves no plays, As thou dost, Antony; he hears no music.
— Julius Caesar, i. 2. 203, 204.
And still more decisive is a passage in The Merchant of
Venice, v. 1. 83-85:
The man that hath no music in himself,
Nor is not mov'd with concord of sweet sounds,
Is fit for treasons, stratagems, and spoils.
Goethe had exactly the same feeling. He speaks of him- self ;is having been inspired during the composition of his Iphigcnia by listening to Gluck's cantata; and apropos of the same plaj , we find him writing to theFrau Von Stein: " My soul by the delicious tones is gradually freed from tin Bhackles of deeds and protocols. A quartette in the green room. I am sitting here, calling the distant forms gently to me. One scene must be floated off to-day."— I'l>. 22nd, 1779. Reverting to Shakespeare, we must re- member that "unmusical "was not always an appropriate epithet to apply to the English. The mass of ballads and songs scattered throughout the plays and lyrical miscel- lanies of the Elizabethan and Jacobean periods points to a widely-diffused and. using the word in its best sense, popular love of music; and modern research has estab- lished the fact that, next to the Italian composers, Eng- lish musicians enjoyed the highest continental renown. Probably the death of l'urcell and the advent of Handel decided the eclipse of national music.
160. Line 61: you. say so in FITS.— A fit was a division in a poem, or a measure in dancing, or a verse of a song. Thus in the ballad of King Bstmere we have:
Whit wold ye doe with my harpc, he sayd.
If I did sell itt yee? To playe my wife and mc ayftf,
When abed together wee bee. —Percy's Rcliques, King Estmere, lines 241-244.
So in Ralph Roister Doister, ii. 3, Truepeny says: "Shall
we sing a fitte to welcome our friende, Arnot?" (Arber's
324
Reprint, p. 36). Not elsewhere in Shakespeare: the word is familiar to Chaucer students, being the A.S. fit = a song In the present passage there appears to be some quibble, though one does not quite see how.
161. Line 74 : You shall not bob us out of our melody.— Properly bob = to jerk, but by some undefined means the word gradually got the idea of cheating, obtaining by fraud. Compare Othello, v. 1. 16:
gold and jewels that I WW from him.
Again, in the Witch of Edmonton, iii. 2, a father looking upon the dead body of his child says :
I'll not own her now. She's none of mine : Bod me off with a dumb show !
Here the sense obviously is " to trick me with a show ! I find a curious phrase in Glapthorne's The Lady Mother, printed in Bullen's Old Plays, ii. p. 149, where a man remarks that another character is "like a bobbed hawk. i.e. like a hawk which has missed its prey, has struck, that is, at some small bird, and struck unsuccessfully. Very possibly it is from some such meta] ih< ir that the in .1 . 1 came eventually to signify any cheating, tricking opera- tion. The Imperial Dictionary has an excellent account sub voce.
162. Line 95: with »ii/disposer Cressida.— A well-known crux. Indeed the whole passage from What says mu sweet queen,— my very very sweet queen? down to Cres- sida (95), is difficult, the arrangement of the lines, in which I have followed Oyce and the Cambridge editors, being somewhat confused. There are two points to be noticed, points upon which many editors have gone hope- lessly wrong. Q. and Ff. assign the words, You must not know where he sups, to Helen: they certainly should form part of Pandarus' speech ; the change was made by Eanmer, and simplifies the dialogue very considerably. That is he first point: the other is "my disposer Cressida " How can Paris speak of Cressida as his disposer} The editors could not answer the question, and took refuge in rearrangements of the lines, in emendations of disposer. and other expedients which it could serve no purpose to enumerate at length. Enough to say that Collier (still assigning the speech to Paris) would read dispraiser, i.< . as not allowing the merits of Paris; while many editors substituted Helen for Paris and changed to de- poser (Steevens, Ritson) or dispouser (Warburton), Un- meaning in either case being that Cressida had sup- planted Helen in the affections of Paris. See the verj elaborate notes in Malone's Var. Ed. vol. viii. pp. 318-.';_'ii. Disposer will be equivalent to "She who disposes or inclines me to mirth by her pleasant (and rather free) talk.' So Dyce.
163. Line 102: / spy. —Probably alluding to the well- known game.
164. Line 118: Ay, you may, you may. — Evidently a current piece of slang. So Coriolanus, ii. 3. 39. In the present case it is a humorous way of saying " I see you are flattering and fooling me."
165. Line 119: this love will undo us all.— That this remark should be placed in the mouth of Helen— that she— causa mati tanti— should instinctively feel how fatal
ACT III. Scene l.
NOTES TO TROILUS AND CKESSIDA.
ACT III. Scene 2.
her amour was bound to prove, is a fine touch, and is noted by Seine in his Shakespeare's Frauen and Madchen. The
editors have not remarked what is, 1 believe, the case, viz., that the expression is some catch from a song; compare Fields A Woman is a Weathercock, iii. 3 (Dodsley, xi. 54).
166. Line 131 :— the wound to kill; i.e. the killing wound. This, like the other ballad-snatches in the play, seems to be untraceable.
167. Line 140: He eats nothing but doves.— In The Mer- chant of Venice, ii. 2. 144, Gobbo has a "dish of doves" that he would fain bestow on Launcelot. In Italy they are a very common article of food.
168. Line 144: Why, they are vipers.— Referring, as Hunter says, to Acts xxviii. 3: " there came a viper out of the heat."
169. Line 107: Than all the ISLAND KINGS.— The leaders that is, who came from "the isles of Greece, the isles of Greece."
ACT III. Scene 2.
170. Line 1: Pandarus' orchard.— Here, as often, or- chard is synonymous with garden. So in Hamlet, i. 5. 59: "Sleeping within my orchard;" and in many other pas- sages. See Much Ado, note 62. Compare Chapman's Widow's Tears, ii. 2:
Tha. What news, Lycus? Where's the lady?
Lye. Retired into her orchard. — Works, p. 317.
We repeatedly come across the expression "orchard of the Hesperides," e.g. in Marlowe's Hero and Leander, Sestiad ii. line 280; Middleton's The Changeling, iii. 3 (Works, vol. iv. p. 250); and Massinger's Emperor of the East, iv. 1, and Virgin Martyr, iv. 3 (Works, pp. 340 and 27). There is no reason why the word should be limited to places where fruit is grown; etymologically it simply means herb yard, coming from A. S. wyrt = & root.
171. Line 23: Love's tfiri'ce-REPURED nectar.— Ff. have reputed; so too (according to Dyce) some copies of the Quarto; but see Cambridge Shakespeare, vi. p. 265. Collier's MS. Corrector read repured ; there can be no question which is preferable. For an instance of the verb repure see Shirley's Lady of Pleasure, act v. sc. 1:
The winds shall play soft descant to our feet And breathe rich odours to re-pure the air.
—Works, Gifford's Edn. vol. iv. p. 95.
172. Line 29: As doth a BATTLE, ivhen they charge.— Battle often signifies a battalion. So in Caxton's De- struction of Troy we read: "In the night passed, Hector having the charge of them in the city, ordered early his battles in a plain that was in the city, and put in the first battle two thousand knights" (bk. iii. p. 40). Milton, too, has:
So under fiery cope together rushed
Both battles main. —Paradise Lost, vi. 215-216.
173. Line 34 : as if she were FRAY'Vtvith a sprite.— Fray is short for affray, which comes from a low Latin word ex/rediare = to break the king's peace. The same root is clearly seen in G. friede. For use oifray Steevens quotes from Chapman's twenty-first Iliad :
all the massacres Left for the Greeks, could put on looks of no more overthrow Than nowfray'd life.
174. Line 45 : you must be WATCH'D ere you be made tame?— Referring obviously to the custom of taming hawks by keeping them from sleep. So in Othello, iii. 3. 23, "I '11 watch him tame ;" and Taming of the Shrew, iv. 1. 196-11)8 :
Another way I Ixivc to man my haggard.
That is, to -watch her, as we watch these kites
For Shakespeare's use of such technical terms see note 178.
175. Line 48 : we ' 11 put you i' the FILLS. — Q. ha.s filles; F. 1, Jils ; and F. 2, F. 3, and F. 4, files. Hannier reads files, and in a note remarks, " alluding to the custom <>f putting the men suspected of cowardice in the middle place." There can be no doubt, however, that fills is the right reading, and that the editors of the Second Folio made the correc- tion from not understanding the word. Fill, or thill, is simply the shaft of a cart ; the word is cognate with the German diele = plank. Fill-horse occurs in Merchant of Venice, ii. 2. 101; see note 139 of that play.
176. Line 52 : rub on, and kiss the mistress. — All these terms are taken from the game of bowls. The mistress was the " small ball . . . now called the jack, at which the players aim" (Nares). A bowl that kisseil the mistress (i.e. remained touching the jack) was in the most favourable position; cf. Cymbeline, ii. 1. 2. Hub on is not so easily explained. Mr. Aldis Wright in his note on Richard II. iii. 4. 4, quotes from Fuller's Holy State, book I. chap. ii. : "But as a rubbe to an overthrown bowl proves an helpe by hindering it; so afflictions bring the souls of God's Saints to theinark." [Johnson gives as one of the special meanings of rub: "Inequality of ground, that hinders the motion of a bowl;" a definition which the Imperial Diet. follows, quoting the passage from Fuller, given above. But in British Rural Sports, by Stonehenge (J. H. Walsh), 1881 (15th edn.), rub is thus defined: " Hub ov Set— When a jack or a bowl, in its transit, strikes or touches any ob- ject or thing on the green which alters or impedes its motion;" and afterwards in Rule 17: "If a running bowl before it has reached the parallel of the jack do rub or set on any person (not of the playing party), or on a bowl or jack belonging to another party, it can be played again;" and in the next rule 18: " if the jack do rub or set on a bowl or person not belonging to the party," &c. From these extracts it would appear that to rub (in the game of bowls) meant "to come into contact with" any obstacle animate or "inanimate." — F. A.M.] For rub (subst.) = obstacle, see King John, iii. 4. 128. The origin of the expression " there's the rub" is clear.
177. Line 54 : a kiss in FEE-FARM '.—Fee, from A. S. feoh, properly meant cattle, as the natural form of property in an early civilization ; then property in general, but more especially land. Compare, in part, the use of peats, pecunia. Fee-farm signifies, I suppose, fee-simple, the most advantageous and lasting system of tenure. We have a "fee. grief" in Macbeth, iv. 3. 196, and "sold in fee," Hamlet, iv. 4. 22.
178. Lines 55, 56: The falcon as the tercel, for all the ducks i' the river. — The falcon was the female hawk; the tercel, the male ; the former was the larger and stronger. So Cotgrave, sub voce Tiercelet, has " The tassell, or male of any kind of hawk ; so termed because he is commonly
325
ACT III. Scene
No'l'KS To TIIOILI'S AND CIIKSSIDA.
ACT III. Scene 2.
a tliird part lesse than the female." Sec Skeat upon U real Pandarus means that he will match his niece against Troilus. Howe miBandentood the passage and read " the falcon has the tercel ;" so Pope. Tyrwhitt in- geniously conjectured "a< the tercel." In the second hall ,.f tlu- quotation we have an allusion to what appears to have been a favourite amusement, i.e. hawking along i i\i r banks. So in Ben Jonson's The Forest (III.) one of tin- country pursuits mentioned is:
Or hawking at the river.
So, too, Chaucer's Sir Thopas :
Couthe hunt at wild deer, And ride on hawkyng for ryver. With gray goshawk on honde.
— Chaucer, Works. Bohn's ed. ii. p. xi8.
Cunningham, in his edition of Gifford's Massinger, p. 640, remarks upon the close familiarity with country customs that our old dramatists display: they seem, he says, "to have been, in the language of the present day, keen sports- men." This is perfectly true : the works of Massinger, Ben Jonson, and others, abound with terms drawn from the technicalities of hunting, hawking, and kindred pur- suits. In the case of Shakespeare, however, it was only one aspect of the poets immense range of knowledge. \ / turn tetigit. he draws his metaphors and similes from every possible subject; and he invariably writes with a minute accuracy which at one moment convinces us that he must have been a painter, at another that he must have been a musician, at a third a lawyer, and so on through a dozen other professions.
179. Line 02 : " In witness wheri <-/'. A c. Alluding, says Grey, to the usual conclusion of indentures: "to which the parties to these presents have interchangeably set their hands and seals." Shakespeare was fond of this met- aphor of sealing a compact. Compare Measure for Mea- sure, iv. 1 , the boy's song ; Venus and Adonis, 511 and 516.
180. Line 80: in all Cupid's pageant there is presented no - 1 1 i:._" From this passage," says Steevens, "a Fear
appears to have been a personage in other pageants; or perhaps In our ancient moralities." To this circumstance Aspatia alludes in The Maids Tragedy:
And then a Fear:
Do that Fear bravely, wench.
Perhaps in Antony and Cleopatra, ii. 2. 196-218, in the -t. at passage describing the first meeting of the Queen and Antony, Shakespeare had in his mind's eye the details of some such Pageant of Love as is here hinted at.
181. Line 104: shall be a mock for his truth. Malone
explains tins, "Cven malice (for such is the meaning of the word envy) shall not be able to impeach his truth, or attack him in any other way, except by ridiculing him for iii- constancy." This may be right; I should have thought, however, that the meaning was rather, "the worst that malice cat dust him "ill be but a mock, a trifle
« hlch bis constancy can afford to despise, i e, his loyalty will be raised above and superior to the assaults of Jealoo
182. Line 119: they arc BDB8, / eOfl 'Wf >/»».— Properly "hurt mean the unopened Sowers of the Burdock (Are- '"'" d.llacombe, p. 32); a plant common on
326
waste places by roadsides. The bracts of the involucres which inclose the young flowers are furnished with hooked tips, which cling persistently to one's clothes or to a dog's coat, or to any other object. Several British wild plants are called Burs; e.ij. the Bur-marigold, the Bur-parsley, the Bur-reed; but none deserve the name better than the Burdock. It is cognate, no doubt, with the French bourre, applied to the hair of animals or the fluffy pollen shed by some plants. Milton speaks of " rude burs and thistles" (Comus, 353), and Shakespeare has the word several times. " Nay, friar, I am a kind of bur; I shall stick" (Measure for Measure, iv. 3. 189).
183. Line 140. CUNNING in dumbness.— Pope's correc- tion of the coming of Q. and Ff. The change seems entirely necessary. In the next line soul of counsel=the very essence of my design. Soul was used in this sense in act i. 2. 313.
184. Line 155: kind of self resides with you.— Collier's Ms. Corrector gave a kind self; at the best an unneces- sary change. The idea is the same as in Sonnet exxxiii.
13, 14:
for I, being pent in thee, Perforce am thine, and all that is in me.
185. Lines 163, 164:
Or else you. love not; FOE to be ivise and love Exceeds man's might; that dwells with <jods above. First, as to the origin of the expression to be wise and love; it is a literal reproduction of the maxim of Pub- lius Syrus: " amare et sapere vix deo conceditur. Curiously enough, the proverb is to be frequently found in Elizabethan and Jacobean writers. Bacon, for in- stance, in his Essay on Love, has: "for there was never proud man thought so absurdly well of himself as the lover doth of the person loved; and therefore it was well said that it is impossible to love and to be wise" (Works, ed. Spedding, vol. vi. p. 398). The occurrence, by the \\ ay, of the saying in the Essays and in Troilus and Cres- sida must be as meat and drink to the supporters of the "Bacon wrote Shakespeare" theory. Still Shakespeare is not the only poet who used it. Tynvhitt quotes from The Shepherd's Calendar, March:
To be wise, and eke to love,
Is granted scarce to gods above.
For a partial application of the idea we may compare Middleton's Women Beware Women, i. 2 (early). But the real difficulty, the rock over which the editorial barqui b of Hanmer and others have hopelessly been shattered, is the unlucky for in line 163, "Why for," said Malone, finding the unfortunate /or " inconsequential." No doubt Cressida's reasoning is a trifle irregular. Such arguments would not pass muster in Mill's Logic, but the edit might have remembered that, in the first place, the speaker is a woman; and, in the second place, being In love, she cannot, according to her own showing, "be wise." Really it is perfectly easy to trace the line of thought. " I angled." she says, "for your thoughts, but got nothing out of you, either because you are not in love, or because you are too wise;" and then the words and love remind her of the proverb, and she whimsi- cally rounds off her sentence with, "for you know, yon can't both love and be wise." It is an admirable rum
ACT III. Scene 2.
NOTES TO TROILUS AND CRKSSIDA.
ACT III. Scene 3.
scquitta; a triumph of feminine reasoning power, and ten times as true to life as the logical proprieties suggested by the commentators, amongst whom Hanmer barbar- ously printed, "a sign you love not" (103).
186. Line 169: Outliving beauty's OUTWARD.— The sub- stantival use of adjectives is very common in Elizabethan English. Thus in Shakespeare we have pale= paleness, Venus and Adonis, 589; Lucrece, 1512; fair = fairness, Sonnet lrviii. 3;t>ast = vastness, Hamlet, i. 2. 19S; and many others. See Abbott, A Shakespearian Grammar, pp. 20, 21.
187. Line 173: Might be affronted . . . —For affront = confront cf. Hamlet, iii. 1. 31. So in the well-known line from Paradise Lost, i. 391:
And with their darkness durst affront this light.
188. Line 184: as plantage to the moon.— This line is best illustrated by a passage which Farmer quotes from Reginald Scott's Discoverie of Witchcraft: "The poore husbandman perceiveth that the increase of the rnoone maketh plants fruteful: so as in the full moone they are in the best strength; decaieing in the wane; and in the con- junction do utterlie wither and fade." Pope misunder- stood the allusion and altered to planets. So Theobald.
189. Line 186: As iron to adamant.— A damant here, as often, signifies the magnet, or loadstone. So, to take an instance outside Shakespeare, in the Return from Par- nassus, ii. 1 we have:
I am her needle: she is my Adamant.
— Arber's Reprint, p. 24.
Compare Midsummer Night's Dream, ii. 1. 195, note 115.
190. Line 193 : When waterdrops have 100m the stones of Troy.— We may remember the familiar line:
Gutta cavit lapidem, non vi sed srepe cadendo. So Lucretius, bk. iv. 1280, 1281:
Nonne vides etiam guttas in saxa cadentes Humoris longo in spatio pertundere saxa.
So also Shakespeare himself in Lucrece, 959. Grey, too, in his notes refers to Spenser, sonnet xviii.
191. Line 201: or stepdame to her son.— Quite a classical touch. The Latin poets delight to lavish abuse on the " injusta noverca" (Virgil, Eclogues, iii. 33). On the Eng- lish stage she is not such a familiar figure. In the next line (202) stick = stab; of. Two Gentlemen of Verona, i. 1. 108. This speech is a finely-developed piece of character- drawing. Cressida's florid asseverations of loyalty are a fit prelude to her final faithlessness.
192. Line 217: press it to death.— See Much Ado, note 178. A description of the punishment will be found in the successive editions of Chamberlaynes' Anglia? Notitia.
ACT III. Scene 3.
193. Lines 3-5.
Appear it to your mind That, through the sight I bear in things, to LOVE 1 have abandon' d Troy.
This is a passage of considerable difficulty. According to the Cambridge editors things to love is the reading of the Quarto and the first three Folios. Johnson, however,
says " the word is so printed that nothing but the sen e can determine whether it be love or Jove." He himself printed Jove, which, combined with the next line, cer- tainly gives a possible sense. Myself I think that we ought
to retain what is almost conclusively the reading of the old copies, viz. to love; placing, then, the comma after things, and taking to love with what follows, we may interpret the passage with Steevens: "I have left Troy to the dominion of love, to the consequences of the amour of Paris and Helen." Obviously this is not a little fine-drawn and suggestive of special pleading; but, unless we adopt one of the sweeping emendations proposed, I di 1 not see what else can be made of the lines. Grant White's explanation, "Through my peculiar knowledge as to where it is well to place affection or regard I have abandon'd Troy," seems to me— and I am glad to ob- serve that Dyce was of the same opinion— extraordina- rily weak. Rowe, and after him Theobald, followed F. 4 in reading "in things to come.'' Collier's MS. Corrector gave "things above;" and in the previous line quite need- lessly altered appear to appeal. Dyce prints to Jove, and puts the comma at the end of the line. In Caxton's Destruction of Troy a dialogue takes place between Cres- sida and Calchas on the arrival of the former in the Greek camp. She reproaches her father with having been a traitor to his country, to which he replies: "Ha ha, my daughter, thinkest thou it is a fit thing to despise the answer of the gods, and especially in that which touches my health. I know certainly by their answers this war shall not endure long, this city shall be destroyed, and the nobles also, and the burgesses, and therefore it is better for us to be here, safe, than to be slain with them" (book iii. pp. 55, 56). Similarly Lydgate repre- sents Calchas as warned by his " sight in things to come,' (?) to desert the cause of the Trojans. The seer enters Apollo's temple and consults the god, and suddenly comes the answer:
Be right well ware thou ne tourne agayne To Troy towne, for that were but in vayne, For finally leme this thyngfe of me, In shorte time it shall destroyed be.
194. Lines 22-24:
thin Antcnor,
I laioiv, is such a wrest in their affairs,
That their negotiations all must SLACK.
Theobald conjectured rest, which Hanmer printed. Ma- lone, too, was inclined to adopt the same reading. " An- tenor," he says (Var. Ed. vol. viii. p. 341), " is such a stay or support of their affairs. All the ancient English mus- kets had rests by which they were supported. The sub- sequent words, 'Wanting his manage,' appear tome to confirm the emendation." If we are to read rest we may remember that then, as now, it was applied to a part 1 if the violin, from which in the present passage the meta- phor might possibly be drawn. Compare Return from Parnassus, Arber's Reprint, p. 65:
How can he play whose heartstrings broken are? How can he keep his rest that ne'er found rest?
Really, however, there is not the slightest necessity for meddling with the text. Wrest makes excellent sense. We have already had the same idea in " o'ei-icrested," i. 3.
327
ACT III a
NOTKS To TL'OIUS AND OHESSIDA.
ACT III. Scene 3.
167. The wrest was an instrument for tightening or drawing up tin Btrings of a harp; henoe the appropriate- n.-.- here oi the word slack that immediately follows. For similar metaphor compare Macbeth, i. 7. 60. In a yerj cnriona litter: " whearin, part of the entertainment nntoo theqaeenz SIaiesty,at KillingwoorthCasti, in War- wick Sheer, in this s ncrz Progress. 1.">7J, is signified."
written by Robert Laneham, and quoted in part in the introductory essay to Percy's Keliques of Ancient English Poetry, we have a minute account of the equipment of an ancient minstrel, and amongst his accoutrements uere: " About his neck a red ribband suitable to his girdle. His harp in good grace dependent before him. His wrest tyed to a green lace and hanging by." So again hi .1 treatise between trouth ami information, printed among Skelton's Works, and referred to by Douce (Illus- trations, vol. ii. p. 01), we find:
A harpe freveth SOunde as it is suite,
The harper may west it untunablye;
A harper with Ills wrest may tulle the harpe wrong,
Mystunyng of an instrument shal hurt a true son
Equally to the point is his reference to King James's edict against combats: " this small instrument the tongue being kept in tune by the wrest of awe." In Minsheu's Dic- tionary, ed 1627, p 757, the verb to wrest is explained: "towinde, to wring, to straine," and translated by the Latin torquere, contorqut re. Johnson seems to have mis- understood the word " It is used," he says, speaking of the substantive, " in spenser and Shakespeare for an active or moving power: I suppose from the force of a tilter acting with his lance in his rest;" and then he quotes the lines given above.
195 Line 20: a prince OF BLOOD.— Perhaps we should read with F. 4 "prince o the blood," a suggestion inde- pendently made by Walker, A Critical Examination, vol- iri. p. 195. Compare, however, "Art thou of blood and honour?" (v. 4. 28).
196. Line 30: In most accepted PAIN.— Pay (Hanmer Warburton, ami Dyce), payment (Keightley), and po\
Bted alterations of the well-supported, and to my mind entirely satisfactory, pain of the text Calchas says: "Give me Cressida and I will cry quits for all the labours I have undergone in your behalf, labours indeed which I was glad to undertake." It is precisely the line of argument that be adopts in I haucer:
Havyng unto my trcsour, ne my rent, Right no regard in respect of your cse; Thus al my good I lost, and to yow went, Wenjmg in this, my lordis, yow to plese ; Hut al my lossc ne doth me no dissese— I vouchesaaf al so wisely have I joy Foi yow to lese al tli.it I hail in I r
—Chaucer's Works, Holm's ed. vol. iii. p. 183.
197. Line 43: Why such unplausive ryes are beat on him. i,i. and Ff. read " are bent ■ Why torrid on him." 'Ii' 00 doubt that the latter is a variant which ha- crept into the text.
198. Line U: //"'/< any honour, but honour for.— 80
I 1 has "but honour'd," which naturally passed
into "but it honour'd" (Pope), and " but 's honour'd" (Ca-
pflll. The reading of the Quarto is quite satisfactory,
328
199. Line 96: how dearly ever parted.— That is to say, gifted, endowed. So in lien JonBon's Every .Man in his Humour, Macilcntc is described in the Character of the Persons as "a man well parted, a sufficient scholar and travelled." Compare also Cure for a Cuckold, act v. sc. 1:
fur as you Are every way well-farted. —Webster's Works (ed. Dyce), vol. iv. p. 351.
200. Lines 105, 106:
nor doth the eye itself,
That moat purr SPIRIT OF SENSE, behold itself. For the idea expressed in this passage compare Julius Caesar, i. 2. 52, 53. Spirit of sense we have already bad. with a somewhat different meaning, i. 1. 58. These lines (105, 106) are omitted in all the Folios.
201. Line 101): speculation. — Not merely "vision," "power of sight;" but "intelligence," operating through
the medium of the eye. So in Macbeth, iii. 4. 95: Thou hast no specttfation in those eyes Which thou dost glare with !
202. Line 110: mirror'd. — Q. and Ff. have married, which the Cambridge editors retain, though the Globe ed. prints mirror'd. The latter is the almost certain (at least I think so) emendation of Collier's MS. Corrector. It has been adopted by Singer and Dyce. Dr. Ingleby con- demned the conjecture as "just one of those emenda- tions which beguile the judgment, lull criticism, and en- list our love of the surprising and ingenious. But it is not sound." To which I think we may reply with Dyce, Why? Malone gives married without any note. If we retain this reading the word must bear much the mean- ing as in i. 3. 100, i.e. closely united, allied. Mirror as a verb does not occur elsewhere in Shakespeare. For the thought compare King John, ii. 406-503.
203. Line 120: WHO, like an arch, reverberates.— Q. and F. 1 read reverberate; i.e., says Boswell (Malone, Var. Ed. vol. viii. 348), "they who applaud reverberate. This elliptic mode of expression is in our author's manner. But lower down we have receives and render*, and at least the verbs must be uniform— all singular or plural. It is best therefore to read rer, rherates w ith T. 2, F 3. and F.4; so the Cambridge editors, Globe edn., Dyce, and most texts. Who will then which, i.e. "applause which." For a full discussion of Shakespeare's use of the relative pronouns (wTio, which, and that) see Abbott, Shakespearian Grammar, pp. 175-1S7.
204. Lines 123-128: T teas much nipt in this,&C, -These lines have passed in the hands of the editors through the strangest metamorphoses. The text here printed is that given by the first Folio. It is retained by the Cam- bridge editors, and makes excellent verse. The reading
of the Quarto is as follows :
I was much rap't in this, And apprehended here immediately, The unknoune Aiax, heavens what a man is there!
A very horse, that has he knovvcs not what
Nature what things there are.
Most abject in regard, and decre in use.
Now it may be worth while to pause for a moment and observe how Pope and Hanmer treated the passage. Their respective texts throw some light on the spirit in which
ACT III. Scene .'5.
NOTES TO TKOILUS AND CUESSIDA.
A.I T III. Scene 8.
they approached Shakespeare; not assuredly that "spirit of reverence" which O ileridge described as the first essen- tial of an editor. Pope, then, followed the Folio down to Mux; afterwards he read:
Heavens what a man is there! A very horse, //,■ knows not his own nature: what things are Most abject in regard, and dear in use.
Hanmer, who in his preface declared that his guiding principle had been never "to give a loose to fancy, or in- dulge a licentious spirit of criticism," printed the following rearrangement of the lines:
I was much rapt In this / read, and apprehended here Immediately the unknown Ajax: heavens! What a man's there? A very horse, that has He knows not what: in nature what things there are Most abject in regard, and dear in use.
The third line is surely a rhythmical curiosity. Unknown seems to mean, as Johnson explains it, ' ' who has abilities which are not brought into use."
205. Line 141: And great Troy shrieking.— So the Quarto. F. 1 has the far less graphic shrinking.
206. Line 145: Time hath, my lord, a wallet at his back. —Shakespeare may have been thinking of Spenser's Faerie Queene, bk. vi. c. viii. stanza xxiv. :
" Here in this bottle" said the sorry maid, " I put the tears of my contrition,
Till to the brim I have it full defray'd :
And in this bag which I behind me don,
I put repentance for things past and gone.
Yet is the bottle leak, and bag so torn
That all which I put in falls out anon,
And is behind me trodden down of scorn,
Who mocketh all my pain, and laughs the more I mourn."
207. Line 150: PERSEVERANCE, dear my lord. — Perse- re ranee only occurs in one other passage in Shakespeare, where it has the same accent as here, viz. in Macbeth,
iv. 3. 93:
Bounty, perseverance, mercy, lowliness.
Shakespeare never uses our modern verb persevere at all, but always persever. In one passage in Lear (iii. 5. 23) the Qq. read persevere, but Ff. rightly print persever.
208. Line 162: to the ABJECT REAR.— Hanmer' s excellent correction of the Folio reading, "abject, ueere." This simile does not occur in the Quarto. Throughout this speech (which a recent critic, Mr. W. S. Lilly, has singled out as one of the very finest in all literature) the readings are in small points confused and, so to speak, fluctuating.
209. Line 168: Grasps in the comer: ivelcome ever smiles. —I have ventured here to adopt (with Dyce) Pope's cor- rection. Q. and Ff. read "the welcome; " but omitting the we gain a far more pointed antithesis. Hanmer's sugges- tion, "grasps the incomer," deserves to be mentioned.
210. Lines ITS, 179:
And give to dust, that is a little gilt,
More laud than gilt o'er-dusted. Give: the I ild c< >pies have go; the correction (due to Thirlby) was first adopted by Theobald. For gilt (= " to gilt") in the second line Theobald and others, e.g. Staunton, would substitute gold; needlessly, however, because gilt may well bear the sense of gold. Cf. Richard II. ii. 1. 293-295:
Redeem from broking pawn the blemish'd crown, Wipe off the dust that hides our sceptre's gilt, Aiid make high majesty look like itself.
The thought embodied Is quite clear. "That which is solid and good, but a little antiquated, "ill always be put on one side in favour of that which is new and attrac- tive, though sham and unlasting."
211. Line 1S9: Made emulous missions 'mongst the goils themselves. — Referring obviously to the fact that the deities of Olympus took part in the struggle, some fight- ing for the Greeks, some for the Trojans. Shakespeare
may have borrowed the idea from Chapman's translation.
212. Line 197 : Knows almost every grain of Plutus' gold.— The Folio has " every graine of Plutoes gold;" so again in Julius Caesar, iv. 3. 101: "deerer than Plw mine." It seems best to alter to Plutus, although the confusion of the two deities is a very common occurrence in Elizabethan literature. Thus in Hero and Leander, second sestiad, we find:
Whence his admiring eyes more pleasure took
Than Dis, on heaps of gold fixing his look. —3=5. 3=6-
A still clearer instance comes in the Duchess of Malfi, iii. 2:
Pluto, the god of riches, When he 's sent by Jupiter to any man, He goes limping. —Webster's Works, p. 79.
Compare, too, the following from Hannibal and Scipio, reprinted among Bullen's Old Plays, New Series, vol. i. p. 1S7:
Borrow of Pluto; he will not deny it
Upon your bond. Stay : here's a great mistaking;
His state and riches were of poet's making.
In Timon of Athens, i. 1. 287, the Folio gives Plutus, which inclines us to attribute the error in the present line and in the Julius Cresar passage to the copyist rather than to Shakespeare himself. For the classical side of the question see Aristophanes, Plutus, 727.
213. Line 199: Keeps place with thought; i.e. "there is," says the sonorous Warburton, "in the providence of a state, as in the providence of the universe, a kind of ubiquity." He rightly condemns the obvious and pro- saic suggestion, " Keeps 2)ace." In the next line a syllable is wanting, which has led to various proposals, amongst which Collier's "dumb crudities," i.e. before they become thoughts, seems to me best. But to my ear dumb cradles in its emphatic position, forming the cadenza vi the verses, is equivalent to two feet.
214. Lines 222, 223:
Sweet, rouse yourself; and the weak wanton Cupid
Shall from your neck unloose. Collier adopted the Sioift of his MS. Corrector. Perhaps wanton should be treated as a substantive, and line 222 pointed, the weak wanton, Cupid. So Walker.
215. Line 225: Be shook to air.— Q. has air simply; F 1 and F. 2 ayrie ayre. Collier read with his MS. Corrector very air.
216 Line 228: My fame is shrewdly GOR'D.— Metaphor from bull-baiting. So in Hamlet, v. 2. 260, 261: I have a voice and precedent of peace, To keep my name ungor'd.
The editors compare Sonnet ex. 329
ACT [II. 8
NOTES TO TROILUS AND CRESSIDA.
ACT IV. Scene 1.
217. Line 231: Seal* ■< r. >m MISSION toa BLANK of danger.
-■ bmldt (Shakespeare Lexicon) quotes this amongst the pass:. Samlet, It. l. 42; Othello, iii. 4. 128, in
which ci blank signifies "the white mark in the centre of a target." II"" he applies the metaphor here I cannot see. Ilit' "niil surely hears the same sense as in Richard II. ii I. 24'.), 260:
And daily new exactions are devis'd.
As blanks, benevolences, — I wot not what.
pare, tun, in the same play, i. 4. 48, and note 101; in the Clarendon Press ed. of Richard II. Mr. Aldis Wright gives two interesting quotations from Holinshed that perfectly illustrate the use of the word: "many blanks charters were devised . . . when they were so sealed the king's officers wrote in the same what liked tin in. Holinshed p. 1102, col. 1; and again: "moreover tiny were compelled to put their hands and seales to certaine blankes . . . in the whiche, when it pleased hym hee might write what hee thought good " (p. 1103, col. 1). So in the Revenger's Tragedy we have:
Yet words are but great men's blanks. — Cyril Toumeur's Works, cd. Churton Collins, vol. ii. p. 24.
Briefly, it is our idea of " a blank cheque," as explained in note 101, Richard II ; and the metaphor exactly suits the present passage. Hunter repeats Schmidt's mistake.
218 Lines 252, 253 : like am hostess that hath no arith- metic—Compare the scornful reference in i. 2. 123 to a tapster ■ s arithmetic.
219 Line 294: God B' \\T you.—Q. and Ff. gave "God buy you." Rowe corrected.
220 Line 806: to make CATLINGS on; i.e. catgut. In Romeo and Juliet, iv. 5. 132, one of the musicians bears the expressive name "Simon Catling."
ACT IV. Scene 1.
221. Line 8: Witness the process 0/ your speech.— Pro- cess here has almost the legal official sense seen in the I'm mil /.,■■»■■ 8 m rbal.
222. Line 11: During all QUESTION of the gentle truce. — Apparently question is equivalent, in some rather vague undefined way, to intercourse; but Johnson was inclined t.. n ad quit 1.
223. Line 20: In ffUMANB gentleness. Pope, absurdly enough, retained tin- old pointing of the lines, which made exquisite nonsense:
halt limit a lion that will fly With his face backward in humane gentleness.
Theobald naturally seized upon such an opening for
laboured sarcasm at the expense of his arch foe. Walker,
comparing Midsummer Night's Dream, ii. 2. 57-60, would
1 "in Inn, in a gentlem - 1 \ Critical Examination, iii.
1 net dless chs
224. Line 36: £ .1 bring you his orders; " l am his m
225. Line 18: The bitter DISPOSITION of the time.— Dis-
circumsl i.e. the way affairs are die-
■'. arranged ; not a very common meaning, 330
226. Line 06: But he an he. EACH heavier Jor a whore. — Q. has " the heavier;'' F. "which heavier;" the latter certainly looks like an intended correction of each, a cor- rection, however, frustrated by a compositor's blunder. The reading in our text is Johnson's conjecture, adopted by Dyce.
227. Line75: i/ourfo as chapmen do.— Properly chapman meant the man who sold; it was used, however, indiffer- ently of buyer and seller : compare the legal phrase "dealer and chapman.'' The forms of the word vary: we have cheapman, chapman, and copeman. The etymology is obvious: modern cheap, A. S. dap, and German kauf, kaxifen, are all from the root seen in Latin eaupo, Greek xarrMOai. The slang word chap is merely short for chapman. Evidently these chapmen were not held in the highest repute. In the statute 14 Elizabeth, 1571, against "common players," and "for the punishment of vaca- bondes," "juglars, pedlars, tynkers, and petye chapmen'' are to he treated as "roges, vacabondes and sturdy beggers," unless they can show a formal license to trade. See English Drama, Documents and Treatises, pp. 21-23, Roxburgh Library.
228. Line 78: We'll not commend what we intend to sell. —This is the reading of the Quarto and of the Folios; it is doubtful whether any satisfactory meaning can be got out of the passage as it stands. Johnson, however, explains it thus: " though you practise the buyer's art, we will not practise the seller's. We intend to sell Helen dear, yet will not commend her;'' i.e. if ever the Greeks win Helen — which we do not intend that they shall do— the] will pay very dearly for her; hence it would be superflu- ous for us to praise her in advance. This is certainly 1 1
but I can offer no better suggestion. If we are to admit any alteration into the text, we ought, I think, to adopt Warburton's "What we intend not sell;" Collier's US. Corrector had the same proposal. It is very harsh, per- haps, as Walker says (A Critical Examination, vol. iii. p. 197), too harsh, though the rhyme would be some excuse, and it fails to give a proper antithesis to line 76; on the other hand, it is favoured somewhat by a curiously simi- lar couplet in Sonnet xxL 13, 14:
I. it them say more that like of hearsay well; I will not praise that purpose not to sell.
Other readings are "not to sell" (Hanmer); "that not intend to sell" (Walker); "not condemn what we intend to sell" (very bad): and " but commend what we Intend to sell;" the last has been accepted by Dyce and the Globe lain. The Cambridge Shakespeare keeps to the reading of the copies. For a parallel idea compare Love's Labour 's Lost, ii. 1. 10:
Beauty is bought by judgment of the eye. Not uttered by base sale of chapmen's tongues.
1 1 wish that many passages in this play were as easy to understand as this one which has appeared, to so many of the commentators, to present insuperable difficult^ -. It is necessary to give the whole speech of Paris in order to understand it:
I lit I Homed, you do as chapmen do, Dispraise the thing that you desire to buy: But we in silence hold this virtue well, — We '11 not commend what we intend to sell.
ACT IV. Scene 1.
NOTES TO TROILUS AND CRESSIhA.
ACT IV. Scene 4.
It seems to me that the key to the meaning of the whole passage lies in line 77:
But we in silence hold this virtue well.— Paris here answers, with the courtesy and dignity of a gentleman, the vulgar abuse which Diomede, with such execrably bad taste, heaps upon Helen in the presence of the man who might have wronged her husband, but was all the more bound to defend her. He has already rebuked Diomede above in line 67:
You are too bitter to your countrywoman; but Diomede, far from taking any notice of this rebuke, merely becomes more abusive. The reply of Paris may be awkwardly worded, but the meaning is quite clear; and the dignified sarcasm of it could hardly fail to have penetrated even Diomede's panoply of self-conceit. "You," Paris says, "practise the common trick of a petty dealer;"— chapman is evidently used here in a con- temptuous sense (see the last note)—" you run down the article you want to buy, but we decline to compete with you on your own ground; we despise such tricks, and in silence hold fast to this virtue, not to ' puff' " (as we should say) "what we have to sell, but to let its value speak for itself." Of course he means that they will part with Helen only as the prize of victory, and not for money; but the great point is that he excuses himse" : for not defending her from Diomede's vulgar abuse by pointing out that, in such a case, a noble nature thinks silence the best answer. The fancied necessity of having a rhyming couplet at the end of the scene may, perhaps, account for the somewhat obscure wording of the passage in the last two lines.— F. A. M.]
ACT IV. Scene 2.
229 Lines 4—6:
sleep KILL those pretty eyes,
And give as soft attachment to thy senses
As infants' empty of all thought. Kill, a very strong and effective word, was changed by Pope to seal. .4 Mac/iment= arrestment, a sense that the verb very frequently bears ; e.g. II. Henry IV. iv. 2. 109:
Of capital treason I attach you both.
With line 6 compare Merry Wives, v. 5. 56:
Sleep she as sound as careless infancy
230. Line 12: venomous wights; i.e., says Steevens, " Venefici, those who practise nocturnal sorcery;" the explanation does not seem to me entirely satisfactory.
231. Line 13: As tediously as hell.— The Folios have a curious variant: hideously.
232. Line 33: A poor CAPOCCHIO.— The word was too many for the printers; it appears in Q. and Ff. as ch ipoch la. Theobald suggested capocchio = the thick head of a club, and then, by a natural transition, "a thick- headed man," i.e. a simpleton. A=Ah, very probably; and Dyce prints the latter.
233. Line 58: you'll be so true to him, to be false to him; i.e. "in pretending that he is not here, and thus (as you think) serving his interest, you are really doing him harm."
234. Line 62: My matter is so RASH; i.e. requiring such
haste. For a somewhat similar, though not precisely parallel use, compare Komeo and Juliet, ii. 2. US:
It is too rash, too unadvis'd, too sudden.
235. Line 73: We met by chance.— Troilus means to enjoin secrecy upon .^Eneas.
236. Line 74: the secrets of nature.— So the Folios; Q. has "secrets of neighbour Pandar." The editors have displayed considerable ingenuity in correcting what needs no correction. Secrets is here a trisyllable: scanned so the line runs with perfect smoothness. Walker (Shake- speare's versification, p. 10) quotes several verses where secret has a trisyllabic force; e.g. Edward I., v. 4. 28:
Well do it bravely, and be secret;
and same play, v. 6. 5:
Whether thou wilt be secret in this.
— Marlow's Works, Bullen's Ed. ii. pp. 221, 230.
ftitson was alone, I believe, among the last-century critics in retaining the Folio reading. The proposed emendations would cover a page.
237. Line 103: / knoiu no TOUCH of consanguinity.— For touch = feeling, compare Macbeth, iv. 2. 9.
238. Line 106: the very crown of falsehood.— Compare Cymbeline, i. 6. 4 :
My supreme crown of grief.
A natural metaphor to signify the culminating point in anything. So Tennyson's "sorrow's crown of sorrow." In the next line (107) Hanmer greatly weakened the vigour of the verse by omitting (with F. 2 and F. 3) force.
ACT IV. Scene 3.
239. Line 1: It is great morning. -Rather an awkward Gallicism, grand-jour; repeated in Cymbeline, iv. 2. 61.
ACT IV. Scene 4.
240. Line 4: And VIOLENTETH in a sense as strong.— So Q.; the Folios give:
And no lesse in a sense as strong;
which Pope changed to:
And in its sense is no less strong.
Q. , no doubt, is right. Ben Jonson in The Devil is an Ass, ii. 2, has:
Nor nature viotenceth in both these.
— Works, vol. v. p. 66.
Fanner also refers (rather vaguely) to a passage in Fuller's Worthies: "his former adversaries violented— against him;" it will be found in Nuttall's ed. of the Worthies, vol. iii. p. 510.
241. Line 15: ae the goodly saying is.— I have not been able to trace this song; it is not given in Chappell, from which, perhaps, we may conclude that its origin is not known.
242. Line 21: By FRIENDSHIP nor by speaking.— This is not very far short of being sheer nonsense; perhaps we should read with Collier's MS. Corrector "by silence."
243. Line 26: in so STRAIN'D a purity.— An obvious and effective metaphor. Ff. are far less graphic: "strange a purity."
331
ACT IV. 8oene -i.
NOTES TO TROILUS AND CRESS1DA.
ACT IV. Scene 5.
244. Line 96: Jl stles roughly by.— It is worth while to notice that Shakespeare always uses the now obsolete form juitle. Bo In Byron's Conspiracy (1608), i. 1, Chap- man I
And justU with the ocean for a room.
Milton translates the concurrentia saxa of Juvenal (8atirezT. L9) by "jtutling cocks (Paradise Lost, ii. 1017). When, or why, jostle drove out its brother form I do not know.
245. Lines 52, 53:
some say the Genius so
Cries "Come I" Tlie editors naturally refer to Pope's lines in The Dying Christian to his Soul:
Hark: they whisper ; angels say "Sister spirit, come aicay."
Pope, we may remember, repeats the thought in Eloisato
Abelard:
"Come, sister, come," it said, or seemed to say, "Thy place is here, sad sister come away."
246. Line 55: rain, tn lay this wind.— Referring to the current idea that rain falling stopped a wind. Compare Lucrece, 17: m > :
At last it rains, and busy winds give o'er.
So Macbeth, i. 7. 25.
247. Line 58: the merry Greeks.— See note (34) on i. 2. 118.
248. Lines 78-80.— A full discussion of the difficulties of this passage is not possible in the space at our disposal. It must he sufficient if I say that line 79 is omitted in the Quarto; that line SO reads as follows in the Folio:
Flawing and sTucUing o'er with Arts and exercise;
and that in my text I have followed the Cambridge editors. Line 80, as given by the Polio, is surely wrong: flawing ( = flowing — a misprint) and swelling cannot very well be anything but varice lectiones; it is a question, therefore, which epithet we should adopt, and flowing seems to be the most likely to be correct rt was probably a marginal ing, tic latter being added by the prin- ter through some misunderstanding.
249. line 08: Presuming ■ n tfu ir changeful potency. — Why this line should be emended 1 know not, except indeed that there will alwa\s be some one ready to alter a verse of Shakespeare. /' . uming simply means " test- tog," "trying;" in other words, "seeing bow far we can go;" and taken in this way the words admirably round off the preceding thought Collier adopted chainful, the proposal of his M8. Corrector, and found it excellent, whereas to Dyce's thinking starker nonsense was never
put on pa] etc.
250. Line 106: catch m< are simplicity. — Not a very lucid phrase. Apparently Troilus means that while others win high praise he has to be content with "a plain simple approbation :" so Johnson.
251. Line 1J4: To thame the zeal of my petition,— Q.
and ft all read teal, which helius retains, with what
• it is hard to see. The emendation, due to Warbur-
ton. gives fair sense. According to Walker the converse
OCCUn in II. Henry IV. iv. 2. 27.
332
252. Line 134: J 'II amicer In my lust.— Not an easy line. Lust is difficult, and the editors have been verj ingenious in emending it away, of the proposed correc- tions Walkers "to my list" is decidedly good, the sense being "answer to my name; when I am elsewhere 1 will be Diomede; here I am the Greek ambassador.'' My- self I would suggest -and 1 observe the idea has occurred to Mr. Lettsom ■• thy lust.' i.e. will answer you in any w ay you please. The change is slight and the sense given fairly adequate. Perhaps, however, we should keep to the copies and explain, "When 1 am hence I shall be ready to answer fur what I have done here-heen pleased to do." Lust repeatedly = pleasure, its original meaning in O.E.
253. Line 138: Come, to the port.- The parallel scene in Chaucer — Troylus and Chryseyde, bk. v.— should be com- pared with Shakespeare's work. I do nut think Chaucer suffers in the comparison. Dryden in his "respectful perversion" of the play abridges and entirely transforms the episode.
254. Lines 146-150: Let us make ready . . . and single chivalry. — Five lines omitted in (J. Malone thinks they were added by the actors for the sake of concluding with a rhymed couplet. But without them the scene would end very abruptly, for which reason we may fairly attribute them to Shakespeare. The Folios give the speech "Let us make ready" to Diomede— an obvious mistake noted by Kitson and others; Diomede has made his exit with Troilus and Crcssida.
ACT IV. Scene 5.
I In the old copies we have, at the beginning of this scene, the stage-direction, Lists set out ibis i.s absurd. and introduces unnecessarily the customs of medieval chivalry in the Grecian camp. — F. A. si.]
255. Line 8: till thy SPHERED BIAS cheek.— We have repeated allusions in the dramatists to howls, a game at which churchwardens seem to have been peculiarly profi- cient. An exact parallel to the present line occurs in w ster's Vittoria Corombona, i.:
That nobleman Corib ! faith his cheek hath a mat excellent hins; it would t.\injitm/> with my mistress. — Works, p. ~.
Steevens says, with what authority I know not, "the idea is taken from the puffy cheeks of the winds as represented in old j Hints and maps." The bias of a bowl is the weight of bud inserted in one side of it, causing the bow] to tw 1st in its course towards that side. If the bowl is held with the bias on the outer side, it will run with an outward curve; if on the inside, it will "twist in." Cf. note on iii. 2. 52, and King John, ii. 1. 574-581.
256. Lines 20-23.— These lines are given as prose in Q. ami If.; tirst arranged in verse-form by Pope.
257. Line 23: thai WOtTSR/rom your lips; i.e. Nestor. A natural metaphor. So in Randolph's Hey for Honesty:
Can any man endure to spend his youth
In kissing Winter's frozen lips*
— Works, p. 467.
258. Line 37: I'll make my match to live; i.e. "I will make such bargains as I may live by," says Johnson, and
ACT IV. Scene 5.
NOTES TO TROILUS AND CEESSIDA.
\< I IV. Scene 5.
his explanation is probably right; but the phrase is very
clumsy.
259. Line 55: There 's LANGUAGE in her EYE.— Steevens quotes a curiously parallel thought from St. Chrysostom : " non locuta es lingua, sed lc^uta er gressu; non locuta es voce, sed oculis locuta es clarius quam voce."
260. Line 56: Nay, her foot speaks; her wanton SPIRITS lin,k out. -For "spirit" pronounced as a monosyllable, cf. Tempest, i. 2. 486; Julius Caesar, i. 2. 29. A scansion very common in Milton; e.g. A Vacation Exercise:
Which deepest spirits and choicest wits desire. —22.
261. Line 59: That give ACCOSTING welcome.— Q. and Ff. have "a coasting welcome," which Steevens interprets "a sidelong glance of invitation;" but what point there is in saying that a welcome is sidelong before it comes, or how it can be sidelong, Steevens does not make clear. Mason's accosting seems to me certain : it has been adopted by Grant White, Dyce, and other editors; cf. Walker, A Critical Examination, vol. iii. p. 199. For the exact force of the word see Sir Toby Belch's commentary, Twelfth Night, i. 3. 60. The only passage that at all makes in favour of the reading of the copies is Venus and Adonis, 870:
And all in haste she coasteth to the cry.
Collier's MS. Corrector gave occasion.
262. Line 60: And wide unclasp the TABLES of their thoughts.— So "our heart's table" ( = tablet), All's Well That Ends Well, i. 1. 106. Hamlet speaks of "the table of my memory" (i. 5. 98).
263. Lines 73-75.— -This speech is given to Agamemnon in Q. and Ff. Theobald restored it to Achilles, and rightly; jEneas' reply sufficiently shows who the last speaker must have been.
264. Line 91: either to the uttermost.— We have just had the phrase to the edge of all extremity (68). Cotgrave translates combatre d oultrance by "to fight at sharpe, to fight it out, or to the uttermost." Shakespeare uses to the utterance in Macbeth, iii. 1. 71.
265. Line 103: Nor dignifies an filPURE thought ivith breath. — Q. has impare, Ff. impaire. If retained, this would mean "a thought unworthy of his character," i.e. "not equal to him;" but for the use of the adjective no authority is given; in the passage (quoted by Steevens) in the Preface to Chapman's Shield of Achilles (1598) the word, as Dyce has conclusively shown, is a substantive. I think, therefore, that we should adopt the correction impure — it only differs from the Quarto by a single letter —suggested by Johnson, and accepted amongst modern editors by Dyce and Grant White. See, however, the note (xiii.) in Cambridge Shakespeare, vol. vi. p. 268.
266. Line 112: translate him to me; i.e. "explain his character." For translate = interpret, cf. Hamlet, iv. 1. 2.
267. Line 120: my father's sister's son.— See ii. 1. 14, with note.
268 Line 142: Not Neoptolemus so mirable.—Oi course Achilles himself is meant. Shakespeare had no Lem- priere to consult, and may have thought that Neoptolemus
was the nomen gentilitium. Warburton's " Neoptolemus' sire irascible" was amazing, even for Wartrarton.
269. Line 143: Fame with her loud'st oyes.— This was (and is) the regular proclamation of a crier, a summons in fact to people to be silent and lend attention. So in The Sun's Darling we have (ii. 1): "No more of this; awake the music! Oyez! music!" (Ford's Works, vol. ii. p. 389). Cf. also Dekker: "And, like a Dutch crier, make proclama- tion with thy drum; the effect of thy O-yes being, That if any man, woman, or child ..." (Prose Works, ed. Grosart, vol. ii. p. 204). Though, obviously enough, the French imperative (from an obsolete word onir, upon which see Littr6), it seems by some process of popular abbreviation to have been pronounced monosyllabically, the last syllable almost disappearing. Compare Merry Wives, v. 5. 45:
Mistress Quickly. Crier Hobgoblin, make the fairy O-yes. Pistol. Elves, list your names ; silence, you airy toys.
There is a still more curious form-variant in Gabriel Har- vey's Foure Letters: "As they will needs notoriously pro- claime themselves: as it were with a public oh-is" (Harvey's Prose Works, in Huth Library, vol. i. p. 234). I have noticed a strange seventeenth-century use of the word which seems to show that from meaning the call of the crier, it came eventually to signify the crier himself; the instance occurs in the prologue to Lee's Theodosius:
Your lawyer too, that like an O yes bawls, That drowns the market higher in the stalls.
Perhaps, however, this was merely a fragment of contem- porary slang. We must not forget the legal phrase oyer et terminer, on which see the Imperial Dictionary, s.v.
270. Lines 165-170.— Six lines wanting in the Quarto.
271. Line 172: most imperious Agamemnon.— For im- perious = imperial, cf. Venus and Adonis, 995, 996:
She clepes him king of graves and grave for kings, Imperious supreme of all mortal things.
272. Line 178: th' untraded oath.— That is to say, the unfamiliar, unusual oath. Etymologically trade and tread are the same word. Hence the old meaning of trade was a path; from which it came to signify "a beaten track," and then, by a natural metaphor, "a business." Its ori- ginal sense is seen in Richard II. iii. 3. 155-157:
Or I '11 be buried in the king's highway.
Some way of common trade, where subjects' feet
May hourly tramp;
where Theobald needlessly substituted tread. "Trade wind" is simply "the wind that keeps a beaten track," i.e. blows always in the same direction. Compare use of traded in act ii. 2. 64. For oath Q. has the not unnatural variant earth; for " that I" it gives "thy."
273. Line 202: good old chronicle.— So Hamlet speaks of the players as "the abstract and brief chronicles of the time" (ii. 2. 548).
274. Line 220: Yond towers, whose toanton tops do buss the clouds.— Compare Pericles, i. 4. 24:
Whose towers bore heads so high they tiss'd the clouds.
275. Line 224: the end crowns all— We have the same proverb (finis coronat opus) in All 's Well That Ends Well, iv. 4. 35.
333
aim IV. Scene 6.
NOTES TO TROILUS AND CRESSIDA.
ACT V. Scene 1.
276. Line 230: / shaUforestall thee, Lord Ulysses, thou ! \\ hv thou ! Tin- repetition, says Steevens, was intended
aa an insult. Bo in Tempest, i 2. 313, 314:
What, ho! slave! Caliban! Thou earth, thou! speak.
I'.ut why Bhould Achilles wish to insult Ulysses? Tyrwhitt saw the difficulty and proposed though, of which Ritson approved. Walker, condemning thou as "certainly wrong," suggested there, Le. "in that matter" (A Critical Exami- nation, vol. iii. p. 201). I have noi ventured to introduce Into the text either of these corrections. [One would expect Achillea to address any insult he had to spare to Sector, whom he treats much as a beer-sodden bargee uotiid treat a tirst-rate amateur boxer with whom he was about U) fight « Vrtainly Shakespeare does not favour the GfeekB in this play; and such an ill-mannered brute, as Achilles is here represented, would have been likely enough to insult Ulysses or any one else, as long as he could do so with impunity.— F. A. M.]
277. Line 233: A nd quoted joint by joint. — For quote = to observe, compare Hamlet, ii. 1. 112: " I had not quoted him;" and Romeo and Juliet, i. 4. 81:
What curious eye doth quote deformities?
Prom the French c6U, i.e. the margin of a book where notes and observations could be written.
278. Line 243: Shall I destroy him? WHETHER there, or there, or there.1 — An awkward verse, in which one is tempted (with Pope) to omit the last or there; but line 254 favours the text as it stands. For whether as a monosyl- labic (whir), cf. Tempest, v. 1. 111. See Abbott, Shake- spearian Grammar, p. 348.
279 Line 250: in flOE conjecture. — The adjective here suggests the idea of " fastidious minuteness," "precision." Etyntologically the word comes from Latin nesdus, through the o.F. nici ■; hence its original meaning was foolish, ig- norant, in which sense Chaucer uses both substantive and adjective. Cotgrave gives nicely as an equivalent for mignonement, which exactly tits the present passage.
280 Line 255: that stithikp Mars his helm.— Theobald would read smithied; he made the same change in Ham- let, iii -i. B9, win-re the substantive occurs The stithy was the place where the anvil stood. Malone says that tin word was still used in his time in Yorkshire.
281. Line 267: »'. have had PELTING ivars.— So "pelting river," Midsummer Night's Dream, ii. l. 91: "Poor pelting villages," Lear, ii. 8. 18; often in North's Plutarch.
282. Lim 276: Beat loud the tabotirines— For these words Q has to taste your bounties, i.e. "entreat him to taste,'1 the stop -.a the end of line 274 being removed; the reading ol the Folios is tar preferable.
ACT V. Sunk 1.
283. Line I: COM o/ envy.— Compare ii. 1. 7, with note.
284. Line 5: Thou crusty BATCH of nature. — Minsheu (Dictionary, p * : t » defines batch "aa much bread as an
oven will hold at one baking." why it should be used
as a term of contempt one does not quite see. Theobald
334
changed to botch. It must be remembered, however, that Thersites had previously been called a cob-loaf. The dra- matists often used the word, by a natural metaphor, to signify "of the same description, kind."
285. Line 18: Achilles' male VARLET.— Q. and F. 1, F. 2, and F. 3 have varlot; Theobald conjectured harlot. Whether or no varlet ever bore the same sense as harlot (which is extremely doubtful; cf. however, the passage quoted by the commentators from Middleton and Dekker's Honest Whore, i. 10) there can be no possible reason for altering the text. The expression is sufficiently explained by ii. 1. 126.
286. Line 28: such preposterous discoveries. — Various alternative readings have been proposed. Hanmer substi- tuted debaucheries; Collier's MS. Corrector discolourers; Singer — and this I believe to be right — discoverers, Le. in the sense which the word bears in Isaiah lvii. 8. Dis- coveries, if retained, must mean that Thersites regards Patroclus as something abnormal, as, in fact, a male varlet. See last note.
287. Line 35: skein o/sleave-si'M:.— Q. gives sleive; Ft. sleyd. We have the word in Macbeth, ii. 2. 37: "Sleep that knits up the ravell'd sleave of care;" where the Clarendon Press note quotes from Florio: "BaueUa, any kind of sleave or raw silke." Skeat connects with slip, German schleifen, the general idea of the word being looseness, slackness; hence it would naturally serve as a term of contempt.
288. Line 38: pester' d icif/isuc/t waterflies.— Compare Hamlet's " Dost know this water-fly f" (v. 2. 83). A water- fly flitting idly about the surface of a stream is "the pro- per emblem of a busy trifler." So Johnson.
289. Line 41: Finch-EQQ !— So in Macbeth, iv. 2. 83, h4:
What, you tggi Young fry of treachery.
Cf. Love's Labour's Lost, v. 1. 78: "pigeon-e#<7 of discre- tion."
290. Line 45: her daughter, my fair love; i.e. Polixena. This was one of the details borrowed from Caxtou.
291. Line 57: one that loves QUAILS; i.e. in an offensive sense; quail signifying, in contemporary argot, a wanton woman. The origin of the expression may lie seen in the French proverb, "Chaud comme xmecaiUe . . ." So in Cotgrave, caille coiffte; cf. Littre, sub voce Caille.
292. Line 59: transformation of Jupiter.— Warburton's explanation of this passage is satisfactory. "He calls BIenelau8tnetran</orma(ion of Jupiter, that is, as himself
explains it, the hull, on account of his horns, which he had as a cuckold This cuckold he calls the primitive statue cf cuckolds; le. his story had made him so famous, that he stood as the great archetype of his character." The epithet obliq ue, if retained, must be a continuation of the idea just developed. Hanmer printed antique; Warburton obelisque.
293. Line 67: a FITOHBW, a toad, &c— Thersites' reper- tory of abuse is extensive, and more than explains why earlier in the play he was addressed as "Mistress Ther-
ACT V. Scene 1.
NOTES TO TROILUS AND CRESSIDA.
ACT V. Scene 2.
sites" (ii. 1. 30). A fitchew was a polecat; as an appella- tion the word was not complimentary; see Lear, iv. C. 124. [This word was very variously spelt, fitch, fitchele, fitclwr, fitchet, fitchow, fitchole, fitchuk, and is from the old Dutch fisse, and old French fissa u , meaning a polecat, which hitter word Cotgrave explains as " a fitch or ful- mart," the latter being the old spelling of foulmart; which, in the form foumart, is the only name by which the pole- cat is known in the northern counties, where no form of the word fitch or fitchew seems to have been preserved. The name foulmart was given to the polecat to distin- guish it from the sweetmart or common marten, which is still not uncommon among the mountains of Cumberland and Westmoreland. Grose gives (Provincial Glossary) fitchet as the form used in Warwickshire, and fitchole as that used in Exmoor; while in Devonshire the form is fitch or fitchet. There is a proverb in Somersetshire, "As cross as a fitchet." Of the two words the Fromptorium Farvulorum gives apparently no form of fitch or fitchew; but it gives fulmare as a form of foumart. Baret gives fitchew and J 'ulmcr. Palsgrave gives fulinarde. There has been some doubt as to whether fitchew really meant a polecat, or some other form of weasel, perhaps a stoat. Bailey gives fitcher, fitchow, " a polecat, or strong-scented ferret." Bell in his British Quadrupeds gives the pole- cat under fitchet weasel, and gives as other English names only Fitchew, Polecat, Foumart, Fulmart. According to his classification the common marten, or beech marten, or stone-marten, is of a different genus to the polecat or fitchet weasel, which belongs to the genus Mustelidce, while the sweetmart belongs, in common with the pine marten, to the genus Martes. It is difficult to say why Shakespeare uses the word fitchew in the sense which it evidently bears in the passage from Lear referred to above; for however much the favourite prey of the polecat, the rabbit, may deserve the character which Lear there assigns to the fitchew, it cannot be said that this member of the weasel tribe is particularly libidinous. The female contents herself with one family in the year, varying from four to six. " Cross as a fitchet" is a natural proverb enough, for there are few fiercer animals than the pole- cat, considering its size, and I have known one success- fully to fight a dog which had often tackled even the most formidable half-wild cats. — f. a. si.]
A 2nittock = n kite, a worthless species of hawk; so Cym- beline, i. 1. 139, 140:
I chose an eagle. And did avoid nputtoci.
A herring without a roe was evidently a proverbial expres- sion; we have it in Romeo and Juliet, ii. 4. 39.
294. Line 83: sweet sink, sweet sewer.— Q. and Ff. have sure; the obvious correction was made by Rowe.
295. Line 99: Brabbler the hound.— This is the name technically applied to hounds (chiefly young hounds) that give tongue, or in sportsman's phrase "open," when they have not properly struck upon the haunt of game; the idea comes out clearly in a passage in Merry Wives of Wind- sor, iv. 2. 206-209: "Will you follow, gentlemen? I be- seech you, follow; see but the issue of my jealousy: if I cry out thus upon no trail, never trust me when I open again. " As to etymology, Minsheu rightly connects with Dutch
brabbelen^to stammer, and French babiller = use too many words (Cotgrave). Brabbling hedennesas"abrawle,
contention, strife." Compare King John, v. 2. 101, 102: We hold our time too precious to be spent With such a brabbler;
i.e. a noisy fellow. So "This petty brabble' (=broil, quarrel), in Titus Andronicus, ii. l. 02. For the same sense of the word cf. Greene (Works, p. 125), and Peele, Edward I. (Works, p. 390). Perhaps the generic idea underlying and connecting these seemingly different meanings is, "to make foolish, blustering noise, without end or aim."
ACT V. Scene 2.
296. Line 11: if he can take her CLIFF.— A term bor- rowed from music. So in The Lovers Melancholy, i. 1, in the beautiful passage describing the meeting of Mena- phon and Eroclea:
The young man grew at last
Into a pretty anger that a bird,
Whom art had never taught cliffs, moods, or notes . . .
— Ford's Works, vol. i. p. 13. Steevens, too, refers to The Chances:
Will none but my C Cliff serve your turn?
—Beaumont and Fletcher, Dyce's ed., vii. p. 282.
We may remember the music-lesson in the Taming of the Shrew, iii. 1. 72-80, and Biauea's reading of "the gamut of Hortensio." Cotgrave, s.v. clef, gives " a cliff in musicke." In the present passage there is doubtless some offensive innuendo.
297. Line 41: You How to great distraction.— So Ff., while Q. has destruction. So again in scene 3, line 85.
298. Lines 55, 56: How the devil LUXURY, with his . . . potato-finger.— An elaborate note on this passage by Col- lins is printed at the- end of vol. viii. of Malone, Var. Ed. It will be sufficient to say that luxury in Shakespeare always, and in the other contemporary dramatists very frequently, bears, like the French luxure, the sense of "lust," "lasciviousness." See Much Ado, note 262; to which I may add that luxurious is never used in its modern sense by Shakespeare, but always, like luxuriosus in canonical writings, in its worst sense of "lustful," " wanton."
299. Line 66: Here, Diomed, keep this sleeve.— Shake- speare was thinking of Chaucer's account, in whose Troylus and Chryseyde (bk. v.) we have:
And efter this, the storye telleth us That she him yat the faire bay steede, The whiche she ones wan of Troylus; And eke a brooch (and that was litel nede) That Troylus' was. she yat this Diomede; And ek the bet from sorw hym to releve, She made hym were a pensel of hire sieve.
— Chaucer's Works, Bonn's ed., iii. 272.
Pensel (penoncel)=s. small streamer. Commenting on the lines just quoted Bell remarks that for a knight to wear on his armour some badge or token of his mistress' love, was a common if not invariable custom. It would be easy to quote parallels without end, from the Morte D' Arthur down to Scott's novels. The editors all note the burlesque of this scene that occurs in the Histrio- Mastix, 1610:
O knight, with valour in thy face,
Here take my skreene, wear it for grace ;
335
ACT V. Scene 2.
NOTES TO TROILUS AND CRESS IDA.
ACT V. Sceue 3.
Within thy helmet put the same, Therewith to in. ike thine enemies lame.
300. Lines 81, 82: Nay, do not snatch it from me, &c. — In Q. and Ff. this and the next line are given to Dio- mede. They clearly are a continuation of Cressida's speech. The alteration was Hist adopted by Theobald.
301. Line 10S: But with my heart the other eye doth see. — Johnson and llannier preferred the more obvious:
Bui my heart u :th the other eye doth see.
Practically the meaning will be the same; but I think the text of the copies gives a better antithetical effect. This, it will be noticed, is the last speech that Cressida makes; henceforth she passes out of the play, and, but for a Bcorn- ful reference, is forgotten. This did not suit Dryden's taste; a guilty heroine unpunished in the fifth act was an anomaly In Restoration tragedy, and accordingly the di- <f nt in his version is contrived on more orthodox lines. Troilus overcomes Diomede, and is on the point of killing him, when Cressida enters and interposes. She pleads for Diomede's life, protests innocence, is re- proached and repelled by Troilus, and then to clear her- self of guilt produces the inevitable dagger:
Enough, my lord ; you 've said enough. The faithless, perjured, hated Cressida, Shall be no more the subject of your curses: Some few hours hence, and grief had done your work ; But then your eyes had missed the satisfaction, Which thus I give you— thus— [She stabs herself.
A alight dialogue follows; the heroine blesses her lover '■ with her latest breath," and dies; and afterwards "the dragnet ol death," to employ a phrase of Mr. Swinburne's, gathers in its meshes most of the remaining characters. Dramatically, such a catastrophe is effective enough; a heroine dying, after the manner of Otway s Monimia, with innocence and love on her lips, can never fail of pathos; but, after all. it is but a stage-artifice, and inappropriate here, because nothing could win our sympathies for Cres- sida. Scott rightly censures Dryden's perversion of Shakespeare's design (Dryden's Works, vol. vi. p. 228). [On this point see the Stage History, Introduction, p. 251.]
302. Line 122: That doth invert th' attest of eyes and So the Quarto. F. 1 gives that test; F. 2 that rest.
303. Line 131: To stubborn critics— Probably, as Ma- lone says, critic is here almost synonymous with ciniic; so in the familiar line, Love's Labour's Lost, iv. 3. 170:
And critic Timon laugh at idle toys.
304. Lines 132, 133:
to square the general sex By Cressid's rule.
to measure by, adjust to. Forasimilar use of this verb, compare Comus, 320, 330:
Eye me, blest Providence, and square my trial To my proportioned strength.
305 Line 1 II: rule in unity; i c. one is not two. "This | resalda la falsi-: my Cressida was true; they cannot be the same."
306. Line 144: Bl-FOLD authority. — The Folios have a pointless variant, by f Old. In line 147 conduce is highly doubtful. Rowe read commence.
336
307 Line 158: The fractions of her faith, ORTS of her lovc.—Oiis = leavings, fragments. Cf. Lucrece, 985:
Let him have time a beggar's oris to crave. As to derivative of ort S, Mr. Aldis Wright lias the following note upon the line just quoted: " Ort is probably the A. S. ord, w hich means Mist, the beginning, ami then, the point of anything; so that 'odds and ends' is only another form of ' orts and ends, the Icelandic oddr, a point, being the same as the A. S. ord." Professor Skeat has a different explanation. He says: "orts, remnants, leavings (E.). M. B. ortcs. From A. S. or, out (what is left); etan, to eat. Proved by O. Du. orete, a piece left after eating . . . same prefix or occurs in or-deal" (Etymological Dictionary, s.v. eat). Wedgwood, we may note, says that the verb tn ort is applied in Scotland to cattle that waste their food.
In line 160 o'er-eaten must bear the general sense of surfeited.
308. Line 172: Which shipmen do the HURRICANO call— We find the same form of the word in Lear, iii. 2. 2:
You cataracts and hurricanocs, spout.
309. Line 187: wear a castle on thy head! — Steevens quotes an exact parallel to this passage from The Most Ancient and Famous History of the Renowned Prince Arthur, ed. 1634, chap, clviii. : "Do thou thy best, said Sir Gawaine; therefore hie thee fast that thou wert gone and list thou well we shall soone come after, and breake the strongest castle that thou hast upon thy head." Pri - bably, therefore, to wear a castle on one's head was a proverbial expression, meaning "to be on one's guard, and not impossibly may point to the devices upon hel- mets. I can suggest no other explanation, and the editors do not lend us any aid.
310. Line 193: the parrot will not do more for an almond. — A proverbial expression, the locus classicus upon which is Skelton's poem, "Speke, Parrot," where we have in
stanza i. :
A n 1 1 sen me to greate ladyes of estate ; Then Parrel must have an almon or a date.
So later in same poem:
An Almon now for Parrot Ae\ycMy drest.
— Skelton's Works, ed. Dycc, vol. ii. pp. i, 4.
Compare, too, Webster's Westward Ho, v. 4; Works, p. '242.
ACT V. Scene 3.
311. Line l: When toot <"." lord so much ungently tci-
per'd.— The introduction of Andromache is a curious devi- ation from the classical story. It is early in the Iliad, in book vi., that we have the beautiful scene in which his "dear-won wife" bids Hector refrain from the fight: "nay. Hector, thou art to me father and lady mother, yea and brother, even as thou art my goodly husband. Come now , have pity and abide here upon the tower, lest thou make thy child an orphan and thy wife a widow." In the twenty-first book, where Hector goes out to the battle and is slain, only Priam and his "lady mother," before the city gates, pray him return.
Shakespeare, therefore, is following the account given in Caxton'8 Troy-P.ook, where we read: "King l'liamus sent to Hector, that he keep him that day from going to battle. Wherefore Hector was angry and reproached his
ACT V. Scene 3.
NOTES TO TROILUS AND CRESSIDA.
ACT V. Scene 4.
wife, as ho that knew well that this commandment came by her. Notwithstanding he armed him: and when Andromache saw him armed she took her little children, and fell down at the feet of her husband, and humbly prayed him that he would unarm him, but he would not do it. Then she said if not for my sake yet have pity on your little children, that I and they die not a bitter death, or that we be not led into bondage into strange countries." Compared with the wonderful pathos of Homer's story, compared even with the simple unwrought narrative of the Troy-Book, there is to my mind some- thing very tame and ineffective in all this scene. " An- dromache, I am offended with you." Contrast Homer's: ■ And her husband had pity to see her, and caressed her with his hand, and spake and called upon her name— •Dear one, I pray thee be not of over sorrowful heart; no man against my fate shall hurl me to Hades; only des- tiny, I ween, no man hath escaped, be he coward or be he valiant, when once he hath been born. But go thou to thine house, and see to thine own tasks ... for war shall men provide, and I in chief of all men that dwell in Ilios. The quotations are from the translation of the Iliad by Lang, Leaf, and Myers.
312. Line 6: OMINO0S to the day. —As in Hamlet, ii. 2. 476, ominous^ fatal. Pope, following Rowe, read "omi- nous to-day. " Dreams have always been a source of su- perstition. Compare Shakespeare's use of them in Julius Csesar.
313. Lines 20-22:
To hurt by being just: it is as lawful, For we would give much, to use violent thefts, And rob in the behalf of charity. These three lines are not in the Quarto. The compositor's eye, says Malone, passed over them and gave the follow, ing speech of Cassandra to Andromache. Of line 21 F. makes nonsense; it reads:
For we would count give much to as violent thefts. Tyrwhitt saw that count had crept in from line 19; he expunged the word, and proposed use for as in the second half of the verse. His correction is adopted in the Cam- bridge Shakespeare, and I agree with Dyce's remark that the other attempts to mend the passage are for the most part "not worth considering." Indeed what exception can be taken to Tyrwhitt's version I am at a loss to see.
314. Line 26: keeps the weather of my fate.— The phrase seems to = take the wind of, i.e. have superiority over; so Boswell. We may compare the French etre au-dessus du vent. In the next line Pope needlessly substituted brave for dear. The repetition of the latter in 28 is conclusive against any alteration.
315. Lines 40, 41 :
When many times the captive Grecians fa 11. Even in the FAN AND WIND of your fair sword.
We are reminded of the passage from the old play, in "jEneas' tale to Dido," recited by the First Player in Ham- let, ii. 2. 494-496:
Pyrrhus at Priam drives ; in rage strikes wide ;
But with the ivhiffatnd -luitid of his fell sword
The unnerved father falls.
Vol,. V.
In each case Shakespeare was probably thinking of the extravagant lines in .Marlowe's Dido, ii. 1. 254, 255: Which he disdaining, whisk'd his sword about, And with the wind thereof the King fell down.
Dido, Queen of Carthage, was written by Marlowe and Nash, and both names appeared on the title-page; it is pretty certain, however, that Nash was responsible for the greater part of the play. Cf. Introduction to Bullen's Marlowe, pp. xlviii. xlix.
316. Line 55: Their eyes o'erOALLED. — Shakespeare uses the word elsewhere to express the effect of soreness in the eyes produced by weeping; cf. Hamlet, i. 2. 154, 155:
Ere yet the salt of most unrighteous tears Had left the flushing in her galled eyes.
So, too, in Richard III. iv. 4. 53:
That reigns in galled eyes of weeping souls.
317. Line 73: shame respect; i.e. "I must go in any case; do not therefore force me into disobedience by forbidding me to go."
318. Line 91: You are ajiaz'd.— Not merely astonished; the word often signifies complete bewilderment, con- fusion, as in Cymbeline, iv. 3. 28; Richard II. v. 2. 85.
319. Line 112: But edifies another with her deeds. — After this verse the Folio gives these three lines:
Pand. Why, but heare you? Troy. Hence brother lackie; ignomie and shame Pursue thy life, and live aye with thy name.
These, it will be seen, are almost identical with lines 32-34 in the last scene of this act, where they are also found in F. 1, and to which place they evidently belong. We cannot insert them in both places; there is clearly some corruption of the text. See note 349.
ACT V. Scene 4.
320. Line 1: Now they are clapperclawing one another. — Doctor Caius, it will be remembered, asks, " Clapper- de-claw! vat is dat?" (Merry Wives, ii. 3. 69). The meaning may be guessed from the not too frequent pas- sages where the word occurs. Thus, in the remarkable preface prefixed to the second issue of the Quarto of this drama, the publishers claim that it is "a new play, never staid with the stage, never clapper-claw' d with the palmes of the vulger" (see Introduction, p. 24'. ). Ford, too, em- ploys it graphically enough in the Lovers Melancholy, v. 1 : "this she-rogue is drunk, anil clapper-clawed me, without any reverence to my person, or good garments" (Works, vol. i. p. 105). The word is obviously onomatopoeic.
321. Line 9: luxurious drab. — For luxurious see note 29S.
322. Line 9: sleeveless errand.- The epithet appears to have got a stereotyped meaning of " unprofitable," "unsuccessful." So in Nashe's Lenten Stuffe we have: "rather than hee woulde go home with a sleeveless answer" (Nashe's Prose Works, in Huth Library, vol. v. p. 287). The editors do not explain how the metaphor arose; perhaps it points to some custom of medieval knight-errantry
323. Line 10: SWEARING rascals. — Applied to Nestor
337 134
ACT V. Scene 4.
NOTES TO TROILUS AND C'RESSIDA.
ACT V. Scene 0.
and Ulysses, tutoring is not very appropriate. One is tempted to accept Theobald s sneering.
324. Line 13: not proved worth a blackbf.kry.— Black- berriea were evidently at a discount in Shakespeare's time. Cf. Falstaff's immortal "Give you a reason on compulsion! if reasons were as plenty as blackberries, I trould give in- man a reason upon compulsion" (I. Henry IV ii. 4. 264-266).
325. Line 19: here comes sleeve, and t'other.— Collier's MS. Corrector gave: "here comes sleeve and sleeveless;" an improvement, 1 think.
326. Line 29: Art thou of blood and honour ?— Every now and then we light on touches the most curiously non-classical in sentiment. Here, for instance, the idea is taken from the old romances, in which it is a point of etiquette that only knights of equal hirth and rank should engage in combat. We might be reading the history of such heroes as
Amadis de Gaul, The Knight o' the Sun, or Palmerin of England.
Everyone will remember parallels in Don Quixote.
327. Line 33: that thou wilt believe me. — This is an ex- quisite touch; self-criticism from the "demagogic Cali- ban " (Coleridge's phrase) is the most effective of criti- cisms.
ACT V. Scene 5.
328. Line 2: Present the fair steed to my lady Cressid. ( Ihapter xxvi. of Caxton'a Troy-Book (ii i.) describes how
"Dyomedes smote down Troylus off his horse, aud sent it to Briseyda his love that received it gladly." Also in Lydgate. the various chiefs, it will be noticed, are repre- sented throughout as fighting, like the mediaeval knights, from horseback; in Homer, of course, they are always on foot, or riding in chariots.
329. Line 9: waving hit beam.— So in Samson Agonistes, 1121,1122:
Add thy spear, A weaver's beam, and seven-times-foldcd shield;
where Milton probably had in his mind's eye the descrip- tion of Goliath's armour in 1 Sam. xvii. 6-7.
330. Line 14: the dreadful SAGITTARY.— Of this Centaur, which in the Destruction of Troy (bk. iii. chap, xiv.) is killed by Diomede, Homer, we are glad to think, has nothing to say. Curiously enough, Shakespeare intro- duces a Sagittary In Othello (L 1. 159); there, however, it is a less formidable monster, being, perhaps, part of the Arsenal of Venice.
331 Line 17: Go, bear Patroclus' body to Achilles. — In Iliad, xvi , Patrocloa dons Achilles' armour and drives the Trojans back from the ships, but at last meets Hector and is slain. Antilochus brings the news to Achilles (Iliad, xvii. 17-22).
332 Lines 22. 23:
.1 rid there they fly <•; die, like scaled sculls the belching whale. Btymologically teull andsnooi are Identical; Spenser uses the form tholt in The Shepherd's Calendar, May, 19, 20:
Sicker this morrow, no longer ago, I saw a shole of shepherds outgo.
The M.E. scole, from meaning "school," came to signify "a troop, crowd" (Skeat). I find the expression "sculle of fishes" translated in Minsheu (1617) by "examen or agmen piscium." According to Bitaon the word was used especially on the coast of Norfolk and Suffolk, and " a school of fish " is still a phrase current among sailors. Scull, however, in this sense, is not unknown to English classical writers. Compare Milton, Paradise Lost, vii. 399, and Todd's note thereon (Works, vol. iii. p. 43):
Each bay With fry innumerable swarms, and shoals Offish, that with their fins and shining scales Glide under the green wave, in sculls that oft Bank the mid sea.
Steevens, too, quotes Drayton's Polyolbion, the 26th song:
My silver-scaled sculls about my streams do sweep.
Hauiner, of course, read shoals in the present passage. By scaled (for which Q has scaling) Malone understands dispersed. It is doubtful, however, whether the word can have any such sense. The dictionaries indeed recog- nize a verb to scale, which, they say = to spread, and then, to scatter; but I know no case of it occurring in classical English, and in Malone's passage from Corio- lanus, i. 1. 95, Theobald's stale— one of his many admir- able corrections— has been adopted by the Cambridge editors and the Globe ed. I think, therefore, that the epithet bears its ordinary, and, as applied to fish, per- fectly appropriate, meaning; cf, Antony and Cleopatra, ii. 5. 95: " A cistern for scaled snakes !"
The simile, of course, is a natural one. So in Iliad, xxi. 22-25, we have: "As before a dolphin of huge maw fly other fish and fill the nooks of some fair-havened bay. in terror, for he devoureth amain wliichsoever of them he may catch; so along the channels of that dread stream the Trojans crouched beneath the precipitous sides." Perhaps Shakespeare's lines are a reminiscence of Chap- man's translation.
333. Line 24: the strawy Greeks.— For straii'y (so Q.) Ff. have straying; the metaphor, however, running through the two lines is decisive on the point. The epi- thet is thoroughly Homeric.
334. Line 44: So, so, we DRAW TOGETHER.— Steevens thinks that the idea is of horses drawing, or as we might say in current phrase, pulling together; the words would then refer to Ajax, in allusion to the fact that lately he had not co-operated well with the Greeks. It seems to me not impossible that the metaphor suggested is that of a pack of hounds drawing a covert; Ajax, Diomede, and Nestor all trying to track down Troilus.
335. Line 45: thou BOY-QUELLER, show thy face; i.e. be- cause Hector had killed Patroclus.
ACT V. Scene 6.
336. Line 10: / will not look DPOH; if. be a looker on. Compare Richard II. iv. 1. 237:
Nay, all of you that stand and loot upon ; where the Folios changed the reading of Qq. to "look upon me 337 Line 29: / 7/ Fra sh it.-Frush is the French frois-
ACT V. Scene 6.
NOTES TO TROILUS AN J) CKHSSIDA.
ACT V. Scene 10.
ser =to bruise, dash to pieces; a very strong word, only here in Shakespeare.
ACT V. Scene 7.
338. Line G: Infellest manner execute your aims. — Aims is Capell's indispensable correction of the copies, which all read arms. Singer, retaining arms, explains execute to mean employ, but even so the line is little better than a piece of pointless tautology.
339. Line 19: One bear will not bite another.— So Juvenal: Sajvis inter se convenit ursis (Satire xv. 1G4).
ACT V. Scene 8.
340. Line 7: \.JLlLand darkening of the sun. — Vail= "set- ting;" only here as a substantive in Shakespeare. The verb (Old French avaler, i.e. aval = ad vailem) occurs very frequently.
341. Line 9: I am vnarm'd; forego this vantage, Greek. — This account of Hector's death is in strict accord with the accepted traditions of the mediaeval romance writers. Here, for instance, is the story in Caxtou's Destruction of Troy:— "Among all these things, Hector had taken a noble baron of Greece that was richly armed, and to lead him out of the host at his ease he cast his shield behind him, and left his breast uncovered, and as he was depart- ing, minding not Achilles he came privily unto him and thrust his spear in his body, and Hector fell dead to the ground. When King Menon saw Hector dead, he assailed Achilles by great force, and beat him to the ground and hurt him grievously, but his men carried him into his tent upon his shield. Then for the death of Hector were all the Trojans discomfited and re-entered into their city, bearing the body of Hector with great sorrow and lamen- tation. "
342. Line 18: And, stickler-Wic, the armies separates. — A stickler was a non-combatant, or, as we should say, second, who stood by to see fair-play in fencing matches: one of his duties was to stop the duel when he thought fit. Minsheu gives the word in his Dictionary: "a stick- ler betweene two, so called as putting a sticke or staffe betweene two fighting or fencing together." This naive piece of philology was endorsed by Hanmer and others until Ritson in his Remarks (1783) hinted that "the nature of the English language does not allow the deriva- tion of stickler from stick." According to Skeat, the word is a corruption of the Middle English stightlen, stightilen = to dispose, order, arrange; it is cognate with the Ger- man stiffen, stift. For use of word compare Cynthia's Revels, iv. 2: "So he may have fair play shown him and the liberty to choose his stickler" (Gifford's Ben Jonson, vol. ii. p. 336, where see note).
343. Lines 19, 20:
My half-supp'd sword, that frankly would have fed, Pleas'd with this dainty bait, thus goes to bed. Pope placed these lines in the margin, and most of the editors condemn the turgid diction of Achilles' speech. It is too much in the Cambyses' vein to pass unchal- lenged.
344. Line 22: Along the field I will the Trojan trail.
—A strictly classical touch. The episode is given at length in Iliad xxii., which the ringing rhetoric of Tope reproduced as follows:
Then his fell soul a thought of vengeance bred ; (Unworthy of himself, and of the dead;) The nervous ancles bored, his feet he bound With thongs inserted through the double wound ; These fix'd up high behind the rolling wain, His graceful head was trail'd along the plain; Proud on his car the insulting victor stood. And bore aloft his arms, distilling blood. He smites the steeds ; the rapid chariot flies ; The sudden clouds of circling dust arise. Now lost is all that formidable air ; The face divine, and long-descending hair, Purple the ground, and streak the sable sand ; Deform'd, dishonour'd, in his native land, Given to the rage of an insulting throng, And, in his parents' sight, now dragg'd along!
It was one of the scenes sculptured (or frescoed) in the temple of Juno, described in the first iEneid, 483, 484: Ter circum Iliacos raptaverat Hectora inuros, Exanimumque auro corpus vendebat Achilles.
Also in Lydgate, chap. xxxi. Caxtou, as we have seen, represents the Trojans as bearing Hector's body back into the city, rather a remarkable deviation from classical tradition.
ACT V. Scene 9.
345. Line 4 : The bruit is, Hector 's slain, and by Achilles; i.e. the rumour, report. The verb generally im- plies "announcing with noise." So Macbeth, v. 7. 21, 22:
By this great clatter, one of greatest note Seems bruited.
Taken from the French; probably of Celtic origin.
ACT V. Scene 10.
346. Lines 6, 7:
Frown on, you heavens, effect your rage ivith speed.' Sit, gods, upon your thrones, and smile at Trey! A vexed passage. Q. and Ff. read:
Sit gods upon your thrones, and smile at Troy. I say at once ....
This reading, with only a slight change in the punctua- tion, I have retained. I cannot see with Mr. W. NT. Lett- som that smile "no doubt, is nonsense; " on the contrary, the line appears to me to make excellent sense. The difficulty, I think, comes in the next verse, which cer- tainly is very abrupt. But I doubt whether mere abrupt- ness should justify us in altering the undisputed text of both Quarto and Folios. If, however, any change is to be adopted— and apparently the Cambridge editors re- cognize no such necessity— it is tempting to combine the proposals of Hanmer and Lettsom, and print:
smite all Troy; Ay, slay at once—
347. Line IS: There is a word will Priam turn to stone. — Alluding, no doubt, to the story of the Gorgon's head. Cf. Macbeth, ii. 3. 77.
348 Line 19: Make ivclls and Siobes.— Compare the Widow's Tears, iv. 2:
My sister may turn Xtobe for love.
, —Chapman's Works, p. 328.
Hanmer naturally changed to "wells and rivers." 339
ACT V. Scene 10.
NOTES TO TKOILUS AND CRESSIDA.
ACT V. Scene 10.
349. Lilies 30, 31.— Walker (A Critical Examination, iii. p. I'll.!) contend! that these are the concluding lines of the piece: " the mind cf the reader is fully satisfied, and any thing additional suiinds like an impertinence and obtrusion." Verses 3-2-34 he would place at the end of scene 3, where see note; and the rest i>f Pandarus' epi- logue lie regards a- an interpolation. I think there is much tn lie said fur this view; at any rate, one would gladl; believe that the ribald rubbish with which tin' play ends was nut written by Shakespeare. Troilus here survives. In Caxton'8 Destruction of Troy he is killed by Achilles, and the event is narrated with considerable cir- cumstantiality. Curiously enough, this detail is unknown to Somer. He merely mentions (in Iliad xxiv. 257) that lioilus (<TTiexa?<*«) had been slain in battle before the time of the Iliad. Probably Vergil was the authority for the later accounts. Compare the beautiful lines in JSneid, i. 474-47S. beginning:
Parle alia fu^iens amissis Troilus armis, Infelix pucr atque inipar congressus Achilli —
350 Line 47; painted cloths. — This refers to the custom of hanging Dp texts, mottoes, verses, and what not, upon the walls of rooms. They were painted on canvas or cloth. Bo in As Vou Like It, iii. •_'. 287 -.".a, when Jaques .-ays to Orlando, " Yon are full of pretty answers. Have you not been acquainted with goldsmiths' wives, and • mud them out of rings?" the latter replies, "Not so; but I answer you right painted cloth, from whence you have studied your questions." This, I imagine, is the allusion in the following passage from Eastward Ho (by Ben Jonson, Chapman, MarstOD and Shirley), iv. 1: "I hope to see thee one o' the monuments of our city, and reckoned among herworthiesto be remembered the same day with the Lady Ramsey and grave Gresham when the famous faMc of YVhittington and his puss shall be for- gotten, mill thov and thy acts become the ponies for hospi- tals" (Chapman's Works, p. 474). Malone has aninter- - quotation from a tract published in 1601:
Read what is written on the painted cloth. Do no limn wrong; be good unto the pocr.
Beware the mouse, the maggot and the moth, And ever have an eye into the door.
Dyce in his Middleton, vol. iii. p. 97, has an interesting note on Dekker's Honest Whore, v. 1. Rather more ela- borate than these canvas inscriptions, though pointing the same elementary morals, must have been the tapestrj scenes from the Bible with which rooms were adorned. Amongst these a favourite and appropriate subject was the story of the Prodigal, and that of Lazarus. Com- pare I. Henry IV. iv. 2. 27-29, and note 206 of that play. See also Merry Wives, iv. 6. 9. where the host has gut ready for Ealstaff a chamber "/Minted about with the story of the Prodigal, fresh and new."
Sometimes the designs were classical; of these the story of Actajon seems to have been popular. Compare:
he stands Just like Actaon in Hit painted cloth.
—The Fancies, ii. i (Ford's Works, vol. ii. 161).
351. Line 55: Some galled goose of Winchester would hiss. Probably this was a proverbial phrase. So in Ran- dolph's comedy, Hey for Honesty; Down with Knavery, iii. 3, we have "The woman, perceiving me, put forth her hand; then I fell a-hiasing like a Winchester goose, or St. George's dragon" (Randolph's Works, p. 442). Unfor- tunately, however, many of 1'andarus' remarks contain some offensive double cut' nte, and the present line is an instance in point. It will be sufficient to say that one disreputable quarter of London was long under the juris- diction of the Bishop of Winchester, a fact to which there are many indirect and indelicate allusions in the dra- matists. This explains a passage in Chapman's Monsieur D'Olive, iv. 1; "Paris, or Padua, or the famous school of England called Winchester, famous J mean for the goose, where scholars wear petticoats SO lung; all these, I Bay, are but belfries to the body or school of the Court " (Works, p. 131). Compare, too, the editors on I Henry VT. i. 3. 53. Also Dyce's note on Webster's Cure for a Cuck- old, iv. 1 (Works, p. 307), and Halliwell's Xares, sub vine Winchester. Curiously enough, a goose was also an emblem of " meere modestie" (See Brand, Popular Anti- quities, i. 370).
WORDS OCCURRING ONLY IN TROILUS AND CRESSIDA.
NOTE The addition of BUD. adj. verb. adv. in brackets immediately after a word indicates that the word is
used as a substantive, adjective, verb, or adverb, only in the passage or passages cited.
The compound words marked with an asterisk ( ' ) are printed as two separate words in F. 1.
bed
Abruption .... iii
'• lite, I I..... iii.
tionately. iii.
Almond v.
i
:-t j
Antiquary (adj.) ii. Appertainmenl
Line
i. ,'! 1 s 2
1
• — aCO'l't tblfe
7<i 30 71 194 159 91
&7
V i 8c. Line
Aspiration
Assinego9
Assubjngate. . . LI tachment . . .
Utest (sui. i. .. Attributive .. . .
IV.
ii. ii. iv. ii. v. ii.
16 19
5 182
1 22
58
B7,
t" 'ill t" wilie •- : n-i'il
three timet - to certify, to testify.
340
Act Sc. Line Avuw-i j. :: 271
Barbarian (adj.) ii. l 52
Batch v. l 5
Bauble' i. 3 35
Beam* v. 5 9
< Used intransitively h in Henry VI! I. iv. •_•. 142.
'1 ;i'li. - tively. '' a spear t'siil else v various other s«-n-
|
A. i Be |
Line |
||
|
Bed-mate |
iv. |
1 |
5 |
|
Bed-work |
i. |
3 |
2".'. |
|
Beef-witted.. . . |
ii. |
1 |
14 |
|
Bellied (verb).. |
ii. |
2 |
74 |
|
Benumbed .... |
ii. |
2 |
179 |
|
ISeseeeh (sub). |
i. |
•j |
319 |
|
Kesotted |
11. |
2 |
14.'{ |
|
I!i:is (adv.) |
i. |
3 |
15 |
|
Bias' |
iv. |
5 |
8 |
' Used adjuetively.
WORDS PECULIAR TO TROILUS ANJ) < KKSSI I )A.
|
Act Sc. |
bine |
||
|
*Bias-d rawing |
iv. |
5 |
169 |
|
Bi-fold |
v. |
2 |
144 |
|
Bitch-wolf |
ii. |
1 |
11 |
|
Black-a-moor . |
i. |
1 |
79 |
|
Blockish |
i. |
3 |
375 |
|
Bone-ache . . . |
i ii. "( V. |
3 1 |
21 25 |
|
Botchy |
ii. |
1 |
7 |
|
Boy-queller.. . |
v. |
5 |
46 |
|
Brabblei-i... . |
v. |
1 |
99 |
|
Braglesa |
v. |
9 |
5 |
|
Brainless |
i. |
3 |
381 |
|
Breath " |
f ii. "( iv. |
3 5 |
121 92 |
|
Breads |
i. |
3 |
190 |
|
*Brokers-between iii |
2 |
212 |
|
|
Bugbear |
iv. |
2 |
34 |
|
Bull-bearing . |
ii. |
3 |
258 |
|
Calumniate . . |
(. v. |
3 2 |
174 124 |
|
Captain-general iii. |
3 |
279 |
|
|
Catarrhs |
v. |
1 |
21 |
|
iii. |
3 |
307 |
|
|
Changeful .... |
iv. |
4 |
99 |
|
Characterless |
iii |
2 |
195 |
|
Chests |
( i- liv |
3 5 |
163 10 |
|
Clears (adj.).. |
iv. |
2 |
114 |
|
i. |
3 |
205 |
|
|
Co-act |
v. |
2 |
118 |
|
Cobloaf |
ii. |
1 |
41 |
|
Cognition .... |
v. |
2 |
C3 |
|
Colossus-wise . |
v. |
5 |
9 |
|
Commodious . |
v. |
2 |
195 |
|
Communities i |
i. |
3 |
103 |
|
Complimental |
iii. |
1 |
42 |
|
Composure 8 . . |
ii. |
3 |
108 |
|
Concupy9 |
v. |
2 |
177 |
|
Conflux |
l. |
3 |
7 |
|
Consanguinity |
iv. |
2 |
103 |
|
Constringed.. . |
v. |
2 |
173 |
|
Convince10 . . . |
ii. |
o |
130 |
|
Convive (verb) |
. iv. |
5 |
272 |
|
Core 11 (of a boil) |" |
1 1 |
7 4 |
|
|
l Name of a dog ; = a |
noisy fel- |
||
|
low in John, v. 2 |
162. |
||
|
2 = a gentle exercise. |
Useil fre- |
||
|
quently in other |
senses. |
||
|
3 = puffed with |
pride; |
used fre- |
|
|
quently in other |
senses. |
||
|
4 = catgut. |
|||
|
5 = the thorax. |
Also Lucrece, |
||
|
761. |
|||
|
6 = sounding distinctly. |
|||
|
7 = societies; community = |
com- |
||
|
monness, occurs in I. Henry IV. |
|||
|
iii. 277. |
|||
|
8 = union, alliance; = |
qualities |
||
|
of disposition, in |
Proilue |
,ii.: |
.251; |
|
Ant and Cleo. i. |
4. 22. |
||
|
9 AVord coined by Thersites for |
|||
|
concupiscence. |
|||
|
10 = to convict. |
Used elsewhere |
||
|
in various other senses. |
|||
|
11 See note 92. |
Act So, Line
Co-rivalled i. 3 44
Corresponsive.. 1'rol. 18
Courteously... iv. 4 123
*Cousin-gerinan iv. 5 121
Crusty v. 1 5
"Death-tokens, ii. 3 187
Debonair i. 3 235
Deceptions.... v. 2 123
Deedless iv. 5 98
Deem (sub.).. . . iv. 4 61
Deep-drawing.. Prol. 12
Delivery i- iv. 3 2
Dependance ... ii. 2 192
Depravation . . v. 2 132
Derive i* ii. 3 65
Dexter iv. 5 128
Directive i. 3 356
Dirt-rotten M .. v. 1 22
Disdainfully is. iii. 3 53
Dismes ii. 2 19
Disorbed ii. 2 46
Disposer iii. 1 95, 98, 101
Distaste (trans.) •! 1L 2 123
' (iv. 4 50
Disunite ii. 3 108
Dividable i. 3 105
Dog-fox v. 4 13
*Double-henned v. 7 11
Draught-oxen., ii. 1 116
Drawis if. 3 277
Dumb-discoursive iv. 4 92
Ear-wax v. 1 59
Embrasures ... iv. 4 39
Encounterers. . iv. 5 58
Enfreed iv. 1 38
Enlard ii. 3 205
Enrapt v. 3 65
Errant i. 3 9
Erudition ii. 3 254
Expect (sub.). . i. 3 70
Expectance iv. 5 140
Expecters iv. 5 156
Expostulation . iv. 4 62
Expressly 17 iii. 3 114
False-hearted.. v. 1 95
Fan is i. 3 27
Fan" v. 3 41
Fantastic 20.. .. v. 5 38
*Fat-already. . . ii. 3 205
Fathomless ii. 2 30
Fee-farm iii. 2 54
Feud iv. 5 132
12 = surrender.
13 =to deduce; frequently used in its ordinary sense.
14 This word is not in F. 1.
15 Lucrece, 40.
16 = to displace water (said of a ship).
17 = distinctly. Lucrece, 1397.
18 = winnowing fan.
19 = whiff.
20 = incredible. Used elsewhere in other senses.
\< i Be. Line
Fills81 iii. 2 48
1'its-- iii. l 02
•Five-finger- tied (ad j.)v.2 157
Flap (sub.) v. 1 36
Fold sa iii. 3 223
Foragers i. 3 82
Forceless '-•». .. . v. 5 40
Fraction 23 jj. 3 ioo
Frayed iii. 2 34
Frush v. 6 29
Gainsay26 iv. 5 132
Gallantry iii. 1 148
Galled-' v. 10 55
Generals 28 i. 3 180
•Goers-bet ween iii. 2 208
Gorget i. 3 174
Gory =9 iv. 5 123
Grated so iii. 2 195
Gravel 3i v. 1 21
•Great-sized... iiil 3 147
( v. 10 26
Grossness32 i. 3 325
Guts-griping. . . v. 1 20
Hacks (sub). . .i. 2 222, 225
*Half-supped.. v. 8 19
Hamstring .... i. 3 154
Handsomeness ii. 1 16
Hatched 33 i. 3 65
*Heart-blood . . iii. 1 35
Heel (verb) . . . iv. 4 88
*High-soaring. . iv. 4 126
Hold-door (adj.) v. 10 52
Idiot- worshippers v. 1 7
*Ill-disposed . . ii. 3 84
•Hi-thought... i. 1 71
Imbecility i. 3 114
Immaterial v. 1 35
Imminence v. 10 13
Immures (sub.) . . Prol. 8
Importless .... i. 3 71
Indistinguishable v. 1 32
Indrenched .... i. 1 51
Infectiously.... ii. 2 59
21 = the shafts of a carriage.
22 = divisions of a song or tune.
23 Used figuratively = an em- brace; of the coils of a snake, Venus and Adonis, 879; of cloth doubled, Lear, i. 1. 221.
24 Venus and Adonis, 152.
25 = breach , discord.
26 = to forbid; used elsewhere in various other senses.
27 = rancorous.
28 = that which is com to all ; opposed to severals.
29 Used figuratively=deadly; = covered with blood, Romeo, V. :S. 142; Macbeth, iii. 4. 51.
30 = ground. This verb is used by Shakespeare in various senses.
;;i a disease.
32 = bulkiness. Used elsewhere in other senses.
33 = engraved.
341
Act Sc. Line
Inseparate .. . . v. 2 148
[naisture i. 3 87
Inveigled ii. 3 99
Justness ii. 2 119
Knower ii. 3 51, 57
Land-fish iii. 3 263
Languageless.. iii. 3 263
Largeness 34 i. 3 o
Launched89 ii. 2 82
Lavolt iv. 4 88
Learn so ii. l 22,98
Leavening (sub.) i. 1 22
Lifter i. 2 129
Lily-beds iii. 2 13
• Lion-sick ii. 3 93
Long-continued i. 3 262
Maculation . . . . iv. 4 66
Mail (armour) . iii. 3 152
Mappery i. 3 205
Mastic i. 3 73
Maturity 37.... i. 3 317
Maxim i. 2 318
Mealy iii. 3 79
Memorial (adj.) v. 2 SO
Mends (sub.) .. i. 1 67
Mirable iv. 5 142
Missions iii. 3 189
Mistress 38 iii. 2 53
Mixture 39 i. 3 95
Moderate (verb) iv. 4 5
Moderation iv. 4 2
Modicums .... ii. 1 74
*Momentary-swift iv. 2 14
Monstruosity. . iii. 2 s7
Mouse-eaten . . v. 4 12
Mower v. 5 25
Multipotent. .. iv. 5 129
Naughtily iv. 2 38
Negation v. 2 127
Negotiations . . iii. 3 24
New-ta'en iii. 2 36
Noseless v. 5 34
Obstinately.... v. 2 121
Odd40 iv. 5 44
Oddly4! i. 3 339
O'erdusted .... iii. 3 179
O'er-eaten v. 2 160
O'ergalled v. 3 55
O'er-wrested. . . i. 3 157
34 Lover's Complaint, 91.
35 of a ship.
36 = to communicate, to tell.
37 Sonnet, lx. 8.
38 = the "jack" at the game of bowls.
39 = state of confusion; =a draught, a coucoctiou, in three passages.
40= single; used elsewhere in many different senses.
41 = unevenly ; = strangely, in other passages.
WORDS I'KCULIAR TO TROILUS AND CRESSIDA.
|
A.t Be. Line |
||
|
in. |
3 230 |
|
|
Oppugnancy .. |
i. |
;; ill |
|
Orguloaa |
Prol. 2 |
|
|
v. |
2 151 |
|
|
Outfly |
ii. |
3 124 |
|
IV. |
5 9 |
|
|
Overbuilt |
i. |
:; 820 |
|
i iverhold |
ii. |
3 142 |
|
Pageants (verb) |
i. |
3 151 |
|
Parallels1 |
i. |
3 168 |
|
Parted - |
iii. |
:; 98 |
|
Pash(verb).... j |
ii. v. |
3 213 5 10 |
|
• Past-proportion |
ii. |
2 29 |
|
l. |
3 21 |
|
|
Perspicuous . . . |
i. |
3 324 |
|
Pettish |
n. |
3 139 |
|
Plaguy |
ii. |
3 187 |
|
Pluntage |
in. |
2 184 |
|
Pleasantly .... |
IV. |
5 249 |
|
Portable' |
n. |
3 144 |
|
•Precious-dear. |
v. |
:; 28 |
|
Preventions4.. |
i. |
3 181 |
|
Pricks5 |
i. |
3 343 |
|
Primitive |
v. |
1 60 |
|
Primogenity6.. |
i. |
3 106 |
|
Profoundly |
iv. |
2 83 |
|
Propend |
n. |
2 190 |
|
Propension .... |
ii. |
2 138 |
|
Propugnation.. |
ii. |
2 136 |
|
Protractive |
i. |
3 20 |
|
Publication .... |
i. |
3 326 |
|
Pun (verb) |
ii. |
1 42 |
|
Purely |
iv. |
5 169 |
|
Quails' (sub.).. |
v. |
1 58 |
|
Ransacked 8.. .. |
ii. |
2 150 |
|
Reader |
iv. |
5 61 |
|
Ki ar« |
iii. |
3 162 |
|
1 lines in the |
same direo- |
|
|
ti.in ; Bonn. li. 10. |
l-i.l hVuiM- |
|
|
lively - equal, in three other pas- |
||
|
MflCHI |
||
|
2 b gifted, endowed. |
||
|
1 — what may |
be |
carried ; |
|
— what may be endured, Uoi |
||
|
l>etl\. It. 8. 89; Lear, iii. |
8. 1 1... |
|
|
4 — precaution! |
; used fiv- |
|
|
qoentlj — hinderance. |
||
|
1 — 6lliall mils; |
the |
word i- |
|
used elsewhere in |
various other |
|
|
semes. |
||
|
• So v ; Ff. hare primogenitive. |
||
|
' Used punningly — |
...,>,. «,,. |
|
|
. -the bird of that |
Dame, in |
|
|
Ant. and i lea ii. .'! |
:t7. |
|
|
* ^abducted by faros |
the verb |
|
|
is used in several |
passages «■ to |
|
|
' |
||
|
an army. |
behind, in |
|
|
11 unlet, i. 3. w; w Inter*! Talc, |
||
|
n . |
Act Sc. Line
Recourse 10 v.
Refractory ii.
Etejoindure .... iv.
Relates" (intr.) i.
Retract ii.
Ribald iv.
EUvelled v.
Roisting ii.
Rump v.
Scaffoldage
Scantling
Sculls l-
Scurril
Seam '*
Seeded h
Seldis
*Self-admission -Self-affected.. Self-assumption Self-breath....
Sell (intr.)
Serpentine ....
Sewer
'Sfoot
Shedding"
Shoeing-horn .. Short-armed. . . Shrills (verb)..
Six-gated
Slack 1?
Sleave-silk
Sleeveless
Soilure
Sort™
Specialty i'J.. . .
Sperr
Sphered*1'
Sphered"
Sportful**
i.
i. v.
i ii.
i. iv. ii. ii. ii. ii.
i. ii. v. ii.
i. v. ii. v.
Prol. iii. 3 1 4 1 3 3
Prol.
i. 3
iv. 5
i. 3
v. v. iv. i. i.
55
lv_> 38
883
141
9
25
208 66
156
341
22
148
195
316
150
176
250
133
182
360
14
83
6
319
62
16
S4
15
24
35
10
56
376
78
19
90
8
10 = frequent flowing; = access, in three other passages.
11 = having reference. 1- shoals of fish.
U = grease. M Lucrece, 6n:). 15 l'ass. Pilgrim, 175. 1G — scattering; the verb is used very frequently in the HUH of " to pom out," ftc.
17 Verb iut rans. = to flag; the
transitive rerb is used in several
s in a similar sense.
1- a lot ; this sub. is used
very frequently by Bhakespears
in various senses.
15 —nature; used in plural
articles of agreement) Lore's
Labour's Lost, ii. 1. 163; laming of Shrew, ii 1. r.7.
20 — placed in a sphere.
21 — round.
22 — done In
342
Act Sc.
SDOUt** v. 2
Standera iii. 3
Staples 2< Prol.
Stickler-like ... v. 8
Stithied iv. 5
Strain " (tr.)..-j |v' i
(. iv. ;i
Strain 20 (snb.). i. 3
Strait-" iii. 3
Strawy v. 5
"Strong-ribbed i. 3
"Stubborn-chaste i. 1
Stygian iii. 2
Subduenients.. iv. 5
Subsequent i. 3
"Subtle-potent iii. 2
Superficially. . . -! .!!' 2
( in. 1
Superior 28 i. 3
Surety 23 (sub.) ii. 2
Swath** v. 5
Swing (sub.). . . i. 3
Taciturnity.. . Tassel
Tent"
iv.
v.
jli.
( V.
Tercel iii.
Thievery3- iv.
Thrash S3 ii.
Thrice-reputed iii.
Thunder-darter ii.
Tick iii.
Ticklish iv.
Tip** (sub.)'.... iii.
Tisick v.
lithe (adj.).... ii.
Toadstool ii.
To-be-pitied ... i.
Topless i.
Line I 171
84
17
18 255
26 169 320 164
24
40 100
10 187 344
25 165
10 133
14
25 207
75
36
16
11
56
45
51
23
12
315
61
138
101
19
22
157
152
Tortive
Total (sub.)
Transcends
Transportance.
Turbulence
23 = a waterspout; used three times = a pipe.
M ( if a bolt; —thread, occurs in Love's Labour 's Lost, v. 1. 19.
25 = to filter ; Lucrece, 1131. This verb is used by Shakespeare with different meanings.
26 = effort of thought.
27 = a narrow passage; Lucrece, 1670. In the plural =* difficulty, in As You Like It. v. 2. 71.
23 Lucrece, 42.
23 = confidence of safety.
MOf the scythe; —a bandage, in Timou, iv. .".. 252.
31 — a surgeon's probe.
32= that which is stolen; — theft, iu Two Gent. iv. 1. 40; Timon, iv. :|. 488.
33 = to beat, to drub ; in the sense of to thrath corn, iu Titus, ii. 3. 12.1.
34 Lover's Complaint, 120.
act Be.
i. 8 i. 2 i. 3 iii. 2 v. 3
Line
9
124
244
12
11
Unarm (intr.).. -j
Unbodied
Unboltss
Uncomprehensiv 'Under honest Underwrite**..
Unfamed
rjngained. ... i.
Unity 37
Unplausive
Unread
Unsecret
Uhsquared
rjntasted
(Intent**
Ohtimbered . . .
(Jntraded
Unveil
i. 1 1
v. 3 3,25
i. 3 16
iv. 2 3
e iii. 3 19S
ii. 3 133
ii. 3
ii. 2
137 159
2 315,319 v. 2 141
in.
i.
iii.
i.
ii.
ii.
i.
iv.
iii.
43
24 133 159 130 3 178 3 43
Vail (sub.) v. 8
Vantbrace i. 3
Vassalage** . . . iii. 2
Vaunt40 Prol.
Vindicative iv. 5
Vinewedst .... ii. 1
Violenteth (verb) iv. 4
Watery « iii. 2
Wedged**....
Wedges"
Well-famed.. . Well-ordered.
Wenching. . . . Wheezing ....
o 1 3 5
■_>
4
1
Whereout iv. 5
Whoremas terly (adj.) v.
Whorish iv. 1
Woof v. 2
Wrest (sub. ).. . iii. 3 Wrinkles (verb) ii. 2
i. i. iv. ii. v. v.
178 200
7
297
40
27
107
15
4
22
35
316
173
180
35
23
245
4 8
63
152
23
79
35 = to undo a bolt ; figuratively, to reveal, in Timon, i. 1. 51.
36 = to subscribe to; =to write underneath, Macbeth, v. 8. 26.
37 — the state of being one; = agreement, used by Shakespeare in many passages.
38 — to bring out of a tent; im- tented — incurable, iu Lear, i. 4. 833. 8* Bonn. xxvi. i.
40 --- first beginning; a boast, in (I. Henry VI iii. 1. 50.
41 = desirous of.
VI = cleft as with a wedge. « Used figuratively = masses (of gold), Rich. III. i. 4. 26.
MACBETH.
NOTES AND INTRODUCTION BY
ARTHUR SYMONS.
noblemen of Scotland.
DRAMATIS PERSONS.
Duncan, King of Scotland.
Malcolm, ) , .
_ Ins sons.
DonalbainJ
Macbeth,) , .., „. ,
„, }- generals ot the Ring s array.
Banquo, J °
Macduff, ""
Lennox,
Ross,
Men tk! tii,
Angus,
Caithness,,
Fleance, son to Banquo.
Siward, Earl of Northumberland, general of the English forces.
Young Siward, his son.
Seyton, an officer attending on Macbeth.
Boy, son to Macduff.
An English Doctor.
A Scotch Doctor.
A Sergeant.
A Porter.
An Old Man.
Lady Macbeth. Lady Macduff. Gentlewoman attending on Lady Macbeth.
Lords, Gentlemen, Officers, Soldiers, Murderers, Attendants, and Messengers.
Hecate. Three Witches. Apparitions.
Scene — Scotland ; England.
Historic Period: a.d. 1041-1057.
TIME OF ACTION. The tame of the play (according to Daniel) represents nine days, with intervals.
1 : Act I. Scenes 1-3. 1 >;iy -J: Act I 1 7.
I».-iy '■'■ : A. i II. Scenes 1—1.— Interval of a week or
two. Day 1: Act III I 5. (Ad III. Scene 6 "an
impossible time.") 344
Day 5: Act IV. Scene 1.
I >.. v 6 : Act IV. Scene 2.— Interval of a week or two.
Day 7 : Act IV. Scene 3; Act V. Scene 1.— Interval
of a few weeks. Day 8: Act V. Scenes 2, 3. Day 9: Act V. Scenes 4-8.
MACBETH.
INTRODUCTION.
LITERARY HISTORY.
Macbeth was first printed in the Folio of 1623, and the printing seems to have been done with singular carelessness, or from a singularly imperfect MS., probably a hastily- made transcript. All that we know with cer- tainty of the date when the play was written, is, that it was some time before 1610. In Collier's New Particulars regarding the "Works of Shakespeare, 1836, there is an account of a MS. discovered in the Ashmolean Museum, containing the "Booke of Plaies and Notes thereof " of Dr. Simon Forman, the notorious astrologer, who died in 1611. The entry for April 20, 1610, is given by Collier as follows:
" In Macbeth, at the Globe, 1610, the 20th of April, Saturday, there was to be observed, first how Macbeth and Banquo, two noble- men of Scotland, riding through a wood, there stood before them three women Fairies, or Nymphs, and saluted Macbeth, saying three times unto him, Hail, King of Codor, for thou shalt be a King, but shalt beget no Kings, &c. Then, said Banquo, What all to Macbeth and nothing to me I Yes, said the Nymphs ; thou shalt beget Kings, yet be no King. And so they departed, and came to the Court of Scot- land to Duncan King of Scots, and it was in the days of Edward the Confessor. And Duncan bad them both kindly welcome, and made Macbeth forthwith Prince of Northum- berland; and sent him to his own Castle, and appointed Macbeth to provide for him, for he would sup with him the next day at night, and did so.
" And Macbeth contrived to kill Duncan, and through the persuasion of his wife did that night murder the King, in his own Castle, being his guest. And there were many prodigies seen that night and the day
before. And when Macbeth had murdered the King, the blood on his hands could not be washed off by any means, nor from his wife's hands, which handled the bloody daggers in hiding them, by which means the}' became both much amazed and affronted.
"The murder being known, Duncan's two sons fled, the one to England, the [other to] Wales, to save themselves : they being fled, were supposed guilty of the murder of their father, which was nothing so.
"Then was Macbeth crowned King, and then he for fear of Banquo, his old companion, that he should beget kings but be no king himself, he contrived the death of Banquo, and caused him to be murdered on the way that he rode. The night, being at supper with his noblemen whom he had bid to a feast, (to the which also Banquo should have come,) he began to speak of noble Banquo, and to wish that he were there. And as he thus did, standing up to drink a carouse to him, the ghost of Banquo came and sat down in his chair behind him. And he, turning about to sit down again, saw the ghost of Banquo, which fronted him, so that he fell in a great passion of fear and fury, uttering many words about his murder, by which, when they heard that Banquo was murdered, they suspected Macbeth.
"Then Macduff fled to England to the King's son, and so they raised an army and came into Scotland, and at Dunston Anyse overthrew Macbeth. In the mean time, while Macduff was in England, Macbeth slew Mac- dufFs wife and children, and after in the battle Macduff slew Macbeth.
" Observe, also, how Macbeth's Queen did rise in the night in her sleep, and walk, and talked and confessed all, and the Doctor noted her words."
345
MACBETH.
The minuteness of this analysis, as well as
it- mistakes of memory, shows that tin' play was new to Dr. Potman, but this dues not prove that the play itself was new. The char- acteristics of the versification would be quite
inconsistent with so late a date. Much more probable, on this ground, is the date of 1600 or thereabouts, assigned by Malone and others chiefly on account of some allusions to con- temporary events, which do not, however, cany with them any great amount of cer- tainty. While there is undoubtedly an allu- sion to the union of the two kingdoms under James I. in iv. 1. 120, 121:
some I see That twofold balls and treble sceptres carry- it does not necessarily follow that the king's accession had but just taken place; nor is it eei tain that there is any allusion in the fifth and ninth lines of the Porter's soliloquy (the " fanner that hang'd himself on the expecta- tion of plenty,"' and the equivocator "who committed treason enough for (rod's sake") to the remarkably low price of corn in the summer and autumn of 1G0G, and to the equivocation and perjury of Garnet the Jesuit on the occasion of his trial in March of the same year. But while these references, if references they be, are too slight and too un- certain to afford by themselves any definite ground of opinion, they may be taken, cer- tainly, as in some sort confirmatory of the metrical indications of the earlier date. The first printed reference to the play occurs in I'.eaumont and Fletcher's Knight of the Burning Pestle, Kill, where a passage in the fifth act is undoubtedly meant as a good- natured burlesque of the ghost of Banquo.
Shakespeare found his materials for Mac- beth, as for all his historical plays dealing with England and Scotland, in Holinshed's Chronicles. Eolinshed took Ins narrative from the twelfth book of the Scotorum Bistoriae of Hector Boece, printed at Paris in 1526, and translated into the Scotch dialect by John Bellenden, archdeacon of Moray, in loll. Boece's narrative follows Fordun. The legendary fo lation on which Shakespeare
worked has very little in common with the 346
real facts of history. I take from the Claren- don Press edition (p. xlii) the following resume of the points in which Shakespeare and Holinshed are at variance with history, condensed from Chalmers' Caledonia, bk. iii. eh. vii. "The rebellion of Macdonwald and the invasion of Sueno during the reign of Duncan are fables; Banquo and Eleancc, the ancestors of the Stuarts, are the inventions of. the chronicler. Lady Macbeth, whose name was Gruoeh, was the grand-daughter of Kenneth IV., who was slain at the battle of Monivaird by Malcolm II. Her first hus- band, Gilcomgain, the maormor of Moray, was burnt in his castle with fifty of his friends. Her only brother was slain by Malcolm's orders. There were reasons there- fore why she should cherish vengeance against Duncan, the grandson of Malcolm. She took as her second husband Macbeth, the maormor of Ross, who, during the minority of her son Lulach, became maormor of Moray. The re- bellion of Torfin, Earl of Caithness, another grandson of Malcolm's, appears to have been the original of the revolt of Macdonwald, and Duncan was on his way to punish it when he fell a victim to treachery at Bothffownan, near Elgin, in the territory of Gruoeh and Macbeth. Macbeth on his side had motives for revenge. His father Finlegh, or Finley, maormor of Ross, had been slain in a conflict with Malcolm II. in 10:20. In Wyntown'a Cronykil of Scotland an entirely different version is given. Duncan is there the uncle of Macbeth, who is thane of Cromarty; and Gruoeh is Duncan's wife, who after the murder of her husband marries Macbeth. Malcolm is the illegitimate son of Duncan by a miller's daughter, and a supernatural parentage is invented for Macbeth himself. It is in YVyn- town that we first meet with the weird sifters, who, however, only manifest them- selves to Macbeth and spur his ambition in a dream. According to the same chronicler, the absence of Macduff from the feast was one of the causes which provoked Macbeth against him. It is worth observing that there is nothing of this kind in the narrative of Holinshed. The battle of Dunsinnan did not decide the fate of Macbeth. He was de-
INTKODCCTION.
feated there in the year 1054, but it was not till two years afterwards that he met with his death at Lumphanan by the hands of Mac- duff, December 5, 1056." I may add, from Scott's History of Scotland, vol. i. p. 18 (Lardner's Cabinet Cyclopaedia), a further detail in regard to the Macbeth of history: " Macbeth broke no law of hospitality in his attempt on Duncan's life. He attacked and slew the king at a place called Bothgowan [the name is variously spelt Bothgowan, Bothgownan, and Bothgowanan] or the Smith's House, near Elgin, in 1039, and not, as has been supposed, in his own castle of Inverness. The act was bloody, as was the complexion of the times; but, in very truth, the claim of Macbeth to the throne, according to the ride of Scottish succession, was better than that of Duncan. As a king, the tyrant so much exclaimed against was, in reality, a firm, just, and equitable prince."
In the construction of his play Shakespeare follows Holinshed on the whole closely, but he transfers a number of the details in con- nection with the murder of Duncan from the account of the murder of King Duffe (the great- grandfather of Lady Macbeth) by Donwald, "capteine of the castle" of Forres, "being the more kindled in wrath by the words of his wife." Lady Macbeth's sleep-walking, her fate hinted at by Shakespeare, the appearance of Ban- quo's ghost, and some points in the character of Banquo, are the only noticeable additious or variations from the narrative of Holin- shed.1
A few words must here be said on the debated question of the indebtedness of Macbeth to Middleton's Witch, or of The Witch to Macbeth. When, in 1778 or 1779, the MS. of the Witch was discovered, it was at once seen that there were certain resem- blances, at least in the witchcraft scenes, between the two plays, and that the words of
• I have given or referred to in the Notes all the pas- sages in the Chronicles which are of interest as the ori- ginals of scenes and passages in the play. No separate notes on Dramatis Persona? are, however, given, as so little is known historically of the characters. All needful information will be found in the preceding paragraph and in the various extracts from Holinshed in the Notes.
the songs referred to in the stage-directions to Macbeth, iii. 5. 33 and iv. 1. 43, — found, in- deed, in Davenaut's version, ami consequently
supposed to be his, — were taken from the plaj of Middleton. Steevens, with the pardonable enthusiasm of the discoverer, at once con- cluded that Shakespeare must have imitated Middleton. Others asserted that Middleton must have imitated Shakespeare. As the date of neither play is known with even an approach to certainty, it is impossible to decide the question by a simple appeal to precedence. The probability, however, of Shakespeare, at the height of his tragic power, falling back on plagiarism or imitation of a writer so much inferior to himself as Middleton, does not seem very strong. That Middleton should have imitated Shakespeare would be nothing at all remarkable. But, as it has been seen by the really critical critics, from Lamb on- ward and downward, the difference between the witches of Shakespeare and of Middleton is one, not of degree, but of kind. The witches of Middleton are among the most really ima- ginative creations of a singularly fine but singularly unequal writer — creations full of a fantastic horror and a grotesque ghastliness. But the witches of Shakespeare pass out of the region of the grotesque into that of sub- limity. The witches of Middleton, as Lamb has said, can hurt the body; "these have power over the soul." Fragments torn out of the texture of Shakespeare's work would thus be almost as much out of place in the work of Middleton as fragments of Middleton in the work of Shakespeare. The possibility remains of interpolation — for of the hypothesis of col- laboration between Shakespeare and Middleton one cannot well see so much as the possibility. The Clarendon Press editors, after raising the question of collaboration in ahesitatingmanner, dismiss it in favour of the former supposition. They say, in summing up : " On the whole we incline to think that the play was interpo- lated after Shakespeare's death, or, at least, after he had withdrawn from all connection with the theatre. The interpolator was, not improbably, Thomas Middleton ; who, to please the 'groundlings,' expanded the parts originally assigned by Shakespeare to the 347
MACBETH.
weird Bisters, and also introduced a new character, Hecate." They assign, in addition, Beveral other scenes, lines, or passages, to the interpolator, thus taking from Shakespeare ill.' second scene of act i., the first 37 lines of the third scene, line 61 in act ii. sc. 1, the Porter's scene in act ii., the fifth scene of act iii., the lines from 39-47 and 125-132 inclusive in act iv. sc. 1, with lines 140-159 of the third .-..He; the second scene of act v. they regard as doubtful, and in the fifth scene of that act they would allot to the interpolator lines 47- 50, with the words,
before my body I throw my warlike shield,
in scene 8, and the last forty lines of the play. The minuteness of this list is rather embar- rassing. That the jila_\ of Macbeth as we have it contains some interpolations out of Middle- ton seems to me decidedly probable; indeed, the only possible solution, in the light of the information before us, of an otherwise insol- uble problem. But that all the passages obel- ized bv Messrs. ('lark and Wright were inter- polated by Middleton 1 very decidedly dis- believe; and 1 doubt whether Middleton him- self was the interpolator. On the whole, I incline very much to the opinion expressed by Mr. Swinburne in his essay on Middleton — namely, that the interpolation of the "few superfluous and incongruous lines or frag- ment* from the lyric portions of the lesser poet's work " was done by the editors of the
first Folio, who have certainly left us a very corrupt text of the play as a whole.
STAGE HISTORY.
Macbeth seems from the first to have been a very popular play upon the stage, in
spite of its gl iv character and the want
of .- 1 1 1 \ comic relief, except in the scene with the porter (ii. 3). No doubt the remarkable popularity of tin's tragedy after the Restora tion was in a great measure owing to the supplementary attraction of Lock's music; but before it had the advantage of any ex- traneous aid from one of the sister arts the strong dramatic interest of the play Beems to have taken hold of the public, and although 348
there were no surreptitious Quartos published this was probably not owing to any want of literarj interest in the play, but rather to the fact that Shakespeare, by dint of experience gained in his long war against pirate pub- lishers, was able to defeat their nefarious devices with regard to this and one or two others of his later plays. In The Puritan, or Widow of Wat ling Street, first published in 1607, a comedy which was acted by the chil- dren of Paul's, being one of the seven plays attributed to Shakespeare in F.3 and F.4, there is an apparent allusion to the ghost of Banquo: "instead of a Jester, we'll ha the ghost i'th white sheet sit at upper end oth' Table" [Folio 1685, Act iv. (close to end)], and in Beau- mont and Fletcher's Knight of the Burning Pestle, published in 1613, but written two years previously, there is a more palpable allusion to the same scene (v. 1):
When then art at thy table with thy friends, Merry in heart, and fiU'd with swelling wine, I'll come in midst of all thy pride and mirth, Invisible to all men but thyself, And whisper such a sad tale in thine ear, Shall make thee let the cup fall from thy hand. And stand as mute and pale as death itself.
— Works, vol. ii. p. 94, ool.l.
This extract is interesting as probably point- ing to a piece of stage business in the part of Macbeth in the Banqueting scene. What Si- mon Forman, that queer mixture of doctor and magician, had to say about Macbeth when he saw it at the Globe Theatre, April 20, 1610, has been already given above (p. 345). But it will be as well to repeat here what he says with regard to the management of Banquo's Ghost: "standing vp to drincke a ( larouse to him, the ghoste of Banco came and sate down in his cheier behind him;" the last two words seem to show that Macbeth, contrary to the tradi- tional stage business, was standing in front of his chair when the Ghost hist enters.
After the Restoration Macbeth was one of Shakespeare's plays which was revived with considerable success. Before that period it is most probable that Macbeth was represented with only the two songs that we find men- tioned in F. 1, and one or two dances for the witches introduced. On November 5,
i\ti;<>m<ti<>\\
1664, Pepya went to the Duke's bouse to see "Macbeth, a prettj good play bu1 admir- ably acted" (vol. iii. p. (!9). On December 28, 16ti6, Pepys saw this play again at the same theatre and calls it "a most excellent play for variety" (vol. iv. p. 195); and again, under date January 7, 1666-7, "To the Duke's house, and saw 'Macbeth,' which though I saw it lately, yet appears a most excellent play in all respects, but especially in divertise- ment, though it be a deep tragedy; which is a strange perfection in a tragedy, it being most proper here, and suitable" (vol. iv. 202). This more detailed account seems to imply that there certainly was music and singing, and most probably dancing, in the version of Macbeth which Pepys saw. On October 16, 1667, he writes, "I was vexed to see Young who is but a bad actor at best act Macbeth in the room of Betterton, who, poor man ! is sick . but Lord! what a prejudice it wrought in me against the whole play, and every body else in disliking this fellow" (vol. v. p. 57). Better- ton's absence did not prevent him seeing the play again on November 6 of the same year, "which we still like mightily, though mighty short of the content we used to have when Betterton acted, who is still sick (vol. v. 86). Again, on August 12, 1668, he "saw 'Macbeth' to our great content" (vol. v. p. 333), on December 21st of the same year, and on January 15th of the following one.
The question now arises, when was Dave- nant's version, as published in Quarto in 1673, and again reprinted in 1674 and 1687, first pre iduced ? On this point we have no decided evidence. Downes, on whose authority the alteration of Macbeth is attributed to Dave- nant, does not tell us. After the removal of the new company to Dorset Garden in No- vember, 1671, he says: "The Tragedy of Macbeth, altered by Sir William Davenant; being drest in all its finery, as new cloaths, new scenes, machines, as flyings for the witches, with all the singing, and dancing in it: the first composed by Mr. Lock; the other by Mr. Channell1 and Mr. Joseph Priest ;l it
1 These two gentlemen were not musicians, but ballet- masters.
being all excellently performed, being in the nature of an Opera, it recompenced double
the expellee: it proves still a lasting play.
Note, That this Tragedy, King Lear, and The Tempest, were acted in Lincoln's-Inn Fields" (pp. 42, 43). Now if this was the ease, we may fairly conjecture that Davenant had in- troduced a considerable amount of whatPepyB called "divertisement" into the tragedy be- fore 1671. He had evidently obtained some- how or other the MS. of MMdleton'a Witch, the music for which had been written, by an unknown hand, some time before the Res- toration. A j:>ortion of this music, the setting of the song " Come away, Hecket Hecket," was published from a MS. about 1812; and it ap- pears from an examination of it, that Lock had partly adapted it in his setting of the same song. Whether Davenant had first ventured on mutilating and defiling, one may almost say, with additions of his own the text of the tragedy is doubtful; but, without any great degree of presumption, we may reasonably conclude that it was not the text of Shake- speare which was presented at the Duke's Theatre in 1664, but something like the ver- sion known as Davenant's, of which I will now give some account
In act i. scene 3 the first change made is transforming the "bleeding captain" of the Folio into Seyton. The language is prosi- fied as much as possible, while still kept in the shape of verse. Seyton's speeches are but feeble versions of the "bleeding captain's." It is not Ross, but Macduff, who is made to bring the news of the defeat of the rebellious Cawdor; and, in the next scene, where Mac- beth and Banquo meet the Witches, Macduff is again made to take the place both of Ross and Angus. In Macbeth's speech aside there is no allusion to his having had any idea of murder in his mind. The speech ends with the following four lines:
Fortune, methinks, which rains down honours
on me, Seems to rain blood here: Duncan does appear Clouded by my increasing glories, but These are but dreams.
In the next scene (scene 4 in Shakespeare), in Macbeth's speech beginning "The Prince of
3 1!)
MACJ'.KTII.
( iumberland" the following alteration is made
in the last four lines:
The strange idea of a bloody act 1 iocs into doubt all my resolves distract. My eye shall at my hand connive, the sun Himself shall wink when such a deed is done.
These four lines are substituted for the last two lines of the original. Now comes an introduced scene which is full of strange beauties. Lady Macbeth enters, "having a letter in her hand," with Lady Macduff, who is supposed to be stopping with her as a visi- tor. We cannot give the whole of this scene, the following specimen will suffice:
[Aside] I willingly would read this letter; but Her presence hinders me ; I must divert her. [To Lad;/ MacditJ'] If you are ill, repose may do
you good; Y ' hail best retire; and try if you can sleep.
This exquisite passage puts quite into the shade whatever of Shakespeare's language is retained in this scene. Lady Macbeth, being alone, now reads the letter. Davenant has a delightful way of getting rid of any difficulty in the text, either by eliminating it altogether, or by converting it into the most common- place language. For instance, the passage beginning "thou 'dst have, great Glands," be- comes the very simple sentence:
Thou willingly, great Glamis, wouldst enjoy The end without the means.
Another singular alteration is worth noticing. Instead of "The raven himself is hoarse," &c, we have:
'I'll, re would be music in a raven's voice,
Which shoul 1 but croak the entrance of the king
Under my battlements.
1 1 i\\ Shakespeare's language is deformed, we may judge from this sentence:
That no relapse into mercy may
Shake my design, nor make it fall before
Tie ripened to effect;
ami how the rhythm is destroyed, we may judge from this line:
Where'er in your sightless substances you wait; instead >>f
Wh.rever in your sightless substances You wait, &c.
361 1
But it would be impossible to reproduce the countless outrages on Shakespeare's poetry that meet one at every turn. We must, how- ever, observe that the whole situation, as de- signed by Shakespeare, was changed by the presence of Lady Macduff and her husband in Macbeth's castle at the time of Duncan's murder. The second act, at first, follows Shakespeare very closely; but it is worth while seeing what the great Sir William made of the dagger soliloquy. It begins with the most wonderful emendation:
Go, bid your mistress, when she is undrest, To strike the closet bell, and I '11 go to bed.
Some of Shakespeare's magnificent lines are mercifully spared. We have one wonderful reading, a flash of genuine inspiration:
now murder is All arm'd by his night's centinel, the wolf;
and the magnificently tragic couplet that con- eludes Shakespeare's soliloquy is elegantly transformed into
0 Duncan, hear it not! for 'tis a bell That rings my coronation and thy knell.
The magnificent scene, after the murder, be- tween Macbeth and Lady Macbeth, is not very much revised; but we have one or two
gems in this, such as:
1 am afraid to think what I have done. What then with looking on it shall I do?
Again the passage, in which the line
The multitudinous seas incarnadine
occurs, is swept away, and we have:
Can the sea afford Water enough to wash away the stains? No, they would sooner add a tincture to The sea, and turn the green into a red.
Tincture has a delightful suggestion of coch- ineal. The Porter's scene is bodily removed; and in its stead we have a short dialogue be- tween Macduff and Lennox, introducing a beautiful speech of Macduff:
Rising this morning early, I went to look out of my Window, and I could scarce see farther than my
1 ireath ; The darkness of the night brought but few objects To our eyes, but many to our ears.
iNTRODrrnoN.
At the end of this act there is a considerable amount introduced. Macduff declares that his Avife and children have already gone to Fife, and that he will follow them. Then conies a scene, on The Heath, between Lady Macduff, Maid, and Servant (the latter of whom has been ordered " to attend his master with the chariot" ! — ). Macduff meets them; and there is a long concerted piece for the Witches, who are heard outside. Then three Witches appear and prophesy to Macduff and Lady Macduff. The third act goes on pretty straight till the end of the scene between Macbeth and the two Murderers; when there is introduced a scene between Macduff and Lady Macduff, in which they discuss together the question of Macduff assuming the sceptre for his country's good. The scene is written throughout in the heroic metre, but scarcely in a heroic strain; though we have some very beautiful lines, e.g. where Lady Macduff says:
But then reflect upon the danger, sir, Which you by your aspiring would incur.
In the banquet scene there is very little change. As to the ghost of Banquo, we learn from the list of Dramatis Persona? that this was not performed by the same actor, Smith, who played Banquo, but by another, Sandford. Genest says: " there is strong reason to believe that Smith was a fine figure, whereas Sand- ford was deformed" (vol. i. p. 140). The stage- direction, on the first entry of the Ghost is Enter Ghost of Banquo, and sits in Macbettts place. After Lady Macbeth says:
What ! quite unmann'd in folly?
the Ghost descends ; and when it reappears, just as Macbeth is drinking to Banquo, the direction is The Ghost of Banquo rises at his feet; and after the words, "Hence, horrible shadow," Exit Ghost. From these stage-direc- tions it would appear that the Ghost walked on at its first entrance, then disappeared down a trap-door, by which it came up at its next entrance ; it made its final exit walking off. After this scene there is introduced one be- tween Macduff and Lady Macduff, where the news of Banquo's murder, being brought to Macduff, induces him to flv from Scotland.
In the third act, scenes 5 and 6 of Shake- speare are transposed, and the act ends with the scene between Hecate and the Three Witches; considerable liberties having been taken here with Shakespeare's text, and some rubbish outofMiddleton's Witch is introduced, which was all set to music. It seems that Hecate appeared on a machine which descended with her. One alteration in her speech is amusing. Hecate, according to Shakespeare (iii. 5. 23-25), says :
Upon the corner of the moon
There hangs a vaporous drop profound;
I '11 catch it ere it come to ground;
which the refined Davenant converts into: For on a corner of the moon, A drop my spectacles have found, I '11 catch it ere it come to ground.
From this we gather the interesting fact that Hecate's goings-on at night must have affected her eyesight. Singular to say, the name of the manufacturer of the spectacles is not given; if it had been there might have been some substantial reason for the alteration.
In act iv. scene 1 Lady Macduff and her son are omitted altogether, and the murder is supposed to be committed off the stage. Scene 3, between Malcolm and Macduff, takes place in Birnam Wood and not in England — an attempt, I suppose, to preserve the unities of place. Then comes an introduced scene which, I suppose, is intended, by the deformer of the play, to win some sympathy both for Macbeth and Lady Macbeth. First there is a short dialogue between Seyton and Macbeth, in which Macbeth hesitates to join his army because of his wife's illness ; Lady Macbeth soon enters, and announces that she is haunted by the Ghost of Duncan. She urges her hus- band to resign the crown, reproaches him with obeying her counsels, ami declares that she has " had too much of kings already." Then Duncan's Ghost appears, when Macbeth, in a burst of poetry, exclaims, "Now she relapses !" He then calls her women to lead Lady Mac- beth out, and, when left alone, remarks: She does from Duncan's death to sickness grieve, And shall from Malcolm's death her health receive. When by a viper bitten nothing's good To cure the venom but a viper's blood. 351
MACBETH.
The ad concludes with a scene in which Len- nox (not Ross) announces to Macduff the mur- der of his wife and children. The fifth act begins with the Bleep-walking scene, which is \.i\ much curtailed; and Seyton takes the place of the hector. Nearly all the poetry of Shakespeare in this act is eliminated. When Macbeth hears of his wife's death he remarks:
She should have died hereafter.
I brought her here to see my victims not to die.
In tie- last scene Macbeth kills Lennox, not young Siward, and is killed by Macduff'. Be- fore he expires he exclaims :
Farewell, vain world, and what's most vain in it, ambition.
This line probably gave the cue to Garrick
for the dying speech winch he introduced. (See below, p. 355.)
I have thought it worth while to give this detailed account of 1 >avenant's version of Macbeth, in order that my readers may see what was the only form, in which Shake- speare's great tragedy was known to play- goers for something like a hundred years after the Restoration. The introduction of the songs and the music one can pardon; but how can one conceive that such detestable viol ne.' w.i- done to the exquisite rhythm and poetry of Shakespeare's blank verse, and persisted in, without the strongest protest from every educated person who witnessed such a performance? In an age which produced such masters of elegant corned} as Congreve and Vanbrugh, dramatists as true to nature as Farquhar, or as pathetic as Otway; when such poets as Milton and Cowley were yet alive, and Drydeh was in the full zenith of his power; when the voice of such a satirist as
Samuel Butler was not \>-t hushed; in an age
when, however much frivolity and pleasure might dominate society, t lure must have been
no inconsiderable number of persons of rank and quality, who knew something of Shake- speare and the best literal ure of the past; how such wretched rubbish, ;i- Borne of the lines which we have quoted, could be then tolerated by an audience; how actors like Betterton,
W ilk.-, and Booth COUld speak such fust ian Btuff 352
in lieu of the dramatic poetry of Shakespeare, which they must have had the opportunity of reading, is to me almost unintelligible. It is the fashion with certain lights of literature to sneer at the commentators of Shakespeare; but I think that we should remember that it is to such men as liowe, Hanmer, and Theo- bald, and, after them, to Samuel Johnson, Malone, and Steevens, that we owe the rescue of Shakespeare's text from the depths of degradation into which it had sunk. The publication of his plays with the text freed, to a great extent, from printers' errors, and from the very unattractive appearance which they presented in the old Folios and Quartos, enabled a much wider circle of educated persons to read Shakespeare's plays, and as they xad him, and the fact dawned upon tlcm that the lines which they had heard spoken over and over again by the greatest of actors, were never written by Shakespeare, there arose a desire for the restoration on the stage of something, at any rate, more approach- ing the poet's text. Even the timid and fumb- ling liberties, which Garrick ventured to take with his stage versions, were resented; and, for the first time, audiences heard, spoken with the advantages of the finest elocution, not the jingling trash of l)avenant and Tate, or the inflated bombast of Gibber, or even the resonant couplets of ihyden, but the true \ igorous, manly and rhythmic verse of Shake- speare himself. Small marvel is it that, when
Shakespeare's tragedy was known only through
such a version as that of which 1 have given an account, the conception of Macbeth and Lady Macbeth should have become blurred and confused; that the finer points of Shake- speare's great creations should have been lost sight of alike by actors and audience. The result was that instead of the many-sided and contradictory character, with its varied emotions, its subtle and complex motives, its Strange mixture of deep self-analysis, shallow superstition, and simple physical courage, Macbeth was treated as if he woe a manly soldier reluctantly tempted to crime; or as if he were completely dominated by a woman with scarcely any womanly qualities, and with d • of that strange fascination, that marvel-
INTRODUCTION.
lous power of assuming to be that which she was not, which we find in Shakespeare's Lady Macbeth, but not in Davenant's. It is much to the creditof the actorsand actresseswhoplayt <1 these two parts that they could form any con- cept ion at all of the characters from the garbled and mutilated text which they had to speak.
It looks like a work of supererogation; but, after the publication of Davenant's version of Shakespeare's tragedy, a certain Thomas Duf- fett, a milliner in the New Exchange, at- tempted a travesty of Macbeth in 1674, con- fined almost, if not quite, to the scenes in which Hecate and the Witches figure. This he tacked on to a farce of his called the Empress of Morocco, in the shape of an Epi- logue. It is excessively vulgar and devoid of humour even of the coarsest kind. The same individual is responsible for the travesty of The Tempest, which for dull filth and bestial vulgarity has scarcely ever been exceeded in the English language.
Macbeth had the singular fate of being turned into a puppet-show by one Harry Rowe, who was born at York, 1726, and died 1800. in great poverty. An edition of Mac- beth was published in his name, but it is sup- posed to have been really the work of one Dr. A. Hunter. Later still, when Elliston was manager of the Royal Circus, in St. George's Fields, he produced a version of Macbeth arranged as a Ballet d' Action by Mr. J. C. Cross. Elliston played Macbeth himself and spoke some of the text; the murder of Duncan was shown on the stage, and several new scenes introduced ; the characters included Edward the Confessor, and of witches there was a goodly array. Full particulars of this singular attempt to play the legitimate drama in defiance of the law will be found in the preface to Davenant's Macbeth, in vol. v. of his Works (edn. 1874).
The cast prefixed to the first edition of Davenant's Macbeth gives Betterton as Mac- beth, Lee1 as Duncan, Harris as Macduff,
1 According to Dowries this was Xat Lee, the dramatist, who failed totally in the part, and consequently gave up acting. This was in 1672; in the previous year Otway made a similar failure as the King in Mrs. Behn's Jealous Bridegroom. VOL. V.
Medbourne2 as Lennox, and .Mrs. Betterton as Lady Macbeth.
As to the performances of Macbeth that took place after 1673, they are far too numer- ous to record. While Davenant's miserable version held the stage the great actors who succeeded Betterton in the part of Macbeth were Powell, the elder Mills- and Quin. Wilks chose the part of Macduff, in which he was excellent, while Booth had to content him- self with the comparatively inferior one of Banquo. Amongst the Lady Macbeths of this period may be mentioned Mrs. Barry, Mrs. Bullock, and Mrs. Horton. Quin frequently played Macbeth, his first appearance being at Drury Lane on May 9th, 1717. He was the last representative of Davenant's Macbeth, and he never seems to have played Shake- speare's tragedy; though on January 31st, 1738, at Drury Lane, according to the play- bill, Macbeth, " written by Shakespeare," was produced. But I think Genest was quite right in rejecting the truth of that statement, and that nothing approaching Shakespeare's own play was produced till Garrick made his first appearance in the part, when Macbeth, " as written by Shakespeare," was announced at Drury Lane January 7th, 1744, and Quin was so ignorant that he believed he had been playing Shakespeare's Macbeth all the time. Garrick did not have the advantage of any great support. Mrs. Giffard was Lady Mac- beth, and her husband Macduff. According to Genest, before the end of May that year Macbeth was played thirteen times. During the next season it was acted only three times. In Fitzgerald's Life of Garrick (vol. ii. pp. 69-78) will be found a detailed account of his acting in this character. Downes praises his Macbeth very highly, but always in con- junction with the Lady Macbeth of Mrs. Pritchard, of whom it is not too much to say that to her a great part in the impression that the play produced was due. Garrick
- Medbourne, who was a Roman Catholic, was com- mitted to Newgate during the so-called Popish Plot, and died there.
3 He was very bad in the part. It is difficult to under- stand why he was put over the heads of such actors as Booth and Powell.
353 135
MACBKTII.
may have been great in the part of Macbeth; but he must have been heavily handicapped by his ridiculous dress, his red coal and silver lace and tie-wig all which absurd in- consistencies he h;ul nut the good sense to alter. But, however powerful may have been his rendering of some portions of the tragedy, it is not uncharitable to suppose that he felt himself rather overshadowed by Mrs. Pritchard; for he only revived Macbeth, as a rule, once in the season, after he had the advantage of her co-operation; and some sea- sons he did not play the part at all.
1 must pass over such actors as Barry, who was a magnificent failure in Macbeth, and Sheridan and Henderson, till we come to Macklio's appearance at Covent Garden, Oc- tober 23rd, 1773, when all the characters were dressed in Scotch costumes, and the absurdity of Macbeth walking about as a modern cap- tain in full uniform was discarded. Steevens pointed out that, when the piece was first pro- duced, there seems to have been some attempt to dress the characters in an appropriate cos- tume; for Malcolm discovers Eoss by his dress when he is still some distance from him. Macklin repeated Macbeth once or twice, his appearance in which was the occasion for the display of a considerable amount of malice on the part of his enemies, some of whom, in the following year, 1 774, he succeeded in convict- in-; of conspiracy before the Court of King's Bench.
No one seems to have rivalled Mrs. Pritchard in Lady Macbeth, not even Mrs. Cibber, much less Mrs. Woffmgton, who attempted the part; and she seems to have had no worthy suc- ot iill Mrs. Siddons appeared, with the iption, perhaps, of Mrs. Yates. Though Mrs. Siddons had appeared in London forthe first time in 1775, when she figured in the bill as "a young lady" (see Introduction to Merchant of Venice, vol. iii. p. 249), Bhe does not seem t" have again touched Shakespeare till she appeared as Isabella in Measure for Measure; and it was not till February 2nd,
17s.",. that she firsl acted Ladj Macbeth at
Drurj bane Theatre for her own benefit. The cast, on this occasion, included Smith Macbeth, Brereton as Macduff, Bensley as
Banquo, with Parsons, Moody, and Baddeley as the three witches. It must be confessed that this, on the whole, was not a particularly strong cast; but as to her own success then- could not be a moment's doubt. Space will
not permit of my giving any of the elaborate
criticisms which have been written upon the Lady Macbeth of Mrs. Siddons; but I would earnestly protest against any such foolish idea getting possession of our minds, as the one that Mrs. Siddons played Lady Macbeth in the style of a stern and forbidding termagant. Her peculiar form of genius lent itself natu- rally to the vivid portraiture of the more terrible features of the character; but her conception of the part was full of subtle and delicate touches, of exquisite passages of tenderness, as well as of. resonant notes of supernatural terror, and Hashes of fire, almost infernal in their devilish splendour; thus much is perfectly clear from the descriptions left to us by those who were happy enough to see her in that wonderful impersonation. As a piece of dramatic inspiration, one would feel inclined to place Mrs. Siddons' Lady Macbeth side by side with the Othello of Edmund Kean. On March 31st in the same year, Kemble appeared for the first time as Macbeth; and in the course of the season the play was represented ten times. Though Kemble's performance of Macbeth was un- doubtedly a very impressive one, he could not be said to outshine his sister in this play. The defective quality of his voice, against which his artistic career was one lontr strusj- gle, placed him at a great disadvantage in comparison with Garrick ; still he appears to have been, on the whole, the greatest Macbeth since Garrick till Edmund Kean appeared in the part, November 5th, 1814. Henderson's Macbeth was impressive — in fact this actor never seems to have done anything badly; Young was too sombre, Elliston too violent, and Cooke too rough and unimaginative; Kemble excelled in the banquet scene; but in the murder scene Kean was unapproach- able; he owned himself, with that generosity which always distinguished him, that in the third act Kemble had completely the advantage over him. Kemble published his
INTRODUCTION.
arrangement of Macbeth in 1803; but in a co])y which now lies before me I tincl a MS. note to the effect thai another edition with- out any date was sold at the Duke of Rox- burghe's sale, said to be with alterations by Kemble. Tlie cast printed in the edition, 1803, is a very strong one, and included C'liarlcs Kemble as Malcolm, Cooke as Mac- duff, Murray as Banquo, the great Incledon as Hecate, Blanchard and Emery as two of the Witches, besides, of course, Kemble and his sister in the two principal parts. The text seems very carefully edited. The addi- tions made by Davenant from Middleton's Witch are retained, as of course the}' were obliged to be whenever Lock's music was performed in its completeness. The only point to which one can take exception is the insertion, at the end of the play, of the follow- ing six lines spoken by Macbeth as he is dying :
'T is done ! the scene of life will quickly close.
Ambition's vain delusive dreams are fled,
And now I wake to darkness, guilt, and horror. —
I cannot rise : — I dare not ask for mercy —
It is too late ; — hell drags me down; — I sink,
1 sink ; — my soul is lost for ever ! Oh ! — Oh !
These were probably the same lines as added by Garrick, at least they appear in his acting- version; but, however that may be, these lines are eminently unsuitable to the character of Macbeth, and one is surprised at such a Shakespearean purist as John Kemble ad- mitting them into the text.
Macready made his first appearance as Mac- beth on June 9th, 1820, at Covent Garden. It was a favourite part of his; and in the banquet scene he introduced some very effec- tive business. This performance nearly led to a duel between him and Abbott, whom he had replaced in the part of Macbeth by Terry; but though the affair proceeded so far that the seconds were selected by both parties, Lieutenant Twiss acting for Macready, the unpleasant dispute was ultimately settled by an apology from Abbott. Phelj^s, when at Sad- ler's Wells, produced Macbeth, divested of the Singing Witches, in his fourth season, on Sep- tember 27th, 1847; the character of Lady Macduff restored, and the scene in which she
and her children are murdered. He had previously played the part to Mrs. Warn Lady Macbeth, on Whit Monday, 1844, with great success. His rendering of this character was considered one of his finest efforts by his admirers.
Macbeth was among the grand Shake- sjiearean revivals produced by Charles Kean when manager of the Princess's Theatre. One of my own earliest theatrical reminiscences is of seeing him in this character. The tragedy was performed first before the Queen, at Windsor Castle, on Friday, 4th February, 1853, and was produced at the Princess's on the 14th of the same month; but Kean had previously played the part at the Haymarket during the season 1840-41. He retained the whole of Lock's music.
The recent revival of this play at the Lyceum has created a great deal of discussion as to the characters of Macbeth and Lady Macbeth. It is likely that all who are interested in this subject will have an' opportunity of forming their own opinions, as the revival promises to be one of the most successful produced under Mi'. Irving's management. — f. a. m.
CRITICAL REMARKS.
Of all Shakespeare's tragedies Macbeth is the simplest in outline, the swiftest in action. After the witches' prelude, the first scene brings us at once into the centre of stormy interest, and in Macbeth's first words an am- biguous note prepares us for strange things to come. Thence to the end there is no turn- ing aside in the increasing speed of events. Thought jumps to action, action is overtaken by consequence, with a precipitate haste, as if it were all written breathlessly. And in the style (always the style of Shakespeare's ma- turity) there is a hurry, an impatient conden- sation, metaphor running into metaphor, thought on the heels of thought, which gives (apart from the undoubted corruption of the text as it comes to us) something abrupt, difficult, violent, to the language of even un- important characters, messengers or soldiers. Thus the play has several of those memorable condensations of a great matter into a little compass, of which Macduff's " He has no 355
MACBETH.
children!" is perhaps tlie most famous in literature: together with less than usual of mere comment on life. If here and there a philosophical thought meets us, it is the out- cry of sensation — as in the magnificent words which sum up the vanity of life in the remem- brance of the dusty ending — rather than a reflection in any true sense of the word. Of pathos, even, there is on the whole not much. In that scene from which I have just quoted the crowning words, there is, I think, a note of pathos beyond which language cannot go; and in the scene which leads up to it — a scene full of the most delicate humour, the humour born of the unconscious nearness of things pitiful there is something truly pathetic, a pathos which clings about all Shakespeare's portraits of children. But elsewhere, even in places where we might expect it, there is but little sign of a quality with which it was not in Shakespeare's plan to lighten the terror or soften the hardness of the impression one re- ceives from this sombre play. Terror — that was the effect at which he seems to have aimed; terror standing out vividly against a background of obscure and yet more dreadful mystery. The "root of horror," from which the whole thing grows, has been planted, one becomes aware, in hell: — do the supernatural solicitings merely foreshow or do they really instigate the deeds to which they bear wit- nessl Omens blacken evcr\ page. An "Old .Man" Lb brought into the play for no other purpose than to become the appropriate mouthpiece of the popular sense of the strange disturbance in the order of nature. Macbeth is the prey to superstition, and it seems really
as it' a hand other than his own forces him forward on the road to dot] net ion. In no other play of Shakespeare's, not even in Sam- let, is the power of spiritual agencies so pre- Benl with as; nowhere is Fate bo visibly the handmaid or the mistress of Retribution. In such a play it is no wonder that pathos is swallowed up in terror, and that the only
H\ frank abandonment to humour is in an interlude of ghastly pleasantry, the Shake- spearean authorship of which has been doubted.
In this brief and rapid play, where the 356
action has so little that is superfluous, and all is ordered with so rigid a concentration, the interest is still further narrowed and intensi- fied by being directed almost wholly upon two persons. Macbeth and Lady Macbeth till the stage. In painting them Shakespeare has ex- pended his full power. He has cared to do no more than sketch the other characters. As in the sketches of Michelangelo preserved at Oxford, the few lines of the drawing call up a face as truly lifelike as that which fronts us in the completed picture. But in the play these subordinate figures are forgotten in the absorbing interest of the two great primary ones. The real conflict, out of which the action grows, is the conflict between the worse and better natures of these two persons; the real tragedy is one of conscience, and the mur- der of Duncan, the assassination of Banquo, the slaughters with which the play is studded, are but the outward signs, the bloody signa- tures, of the terrible drama which is going on within.
When Macbeth, returning victorious from the field of battle, is met by the witches' pre- diction— "All hail, Macbeth, that shalt be king hereafter!" — is it not curious that his thoughts should turn with such astonishing promptitude to the idea of murder? The tinder, it is evident, is lying ready, and it needs but a spark to set the whole alight. We learn from his wife's analysis of his char- acter that he is ambitious, discontented, will- ing to do wrong in order to attain to greatness, yet, like so many of the unsuccessful crimi- nals, hampered always in the way of wrong doing by an inconvenient afterthought of virtue. He has never enough of it to sta\ his hand from the deed, but he has just sutli cient to sicken him of the crime when only half-way through it, He may plan and plot, but at the last he acts always on Impulse, and he is never able to pursue a deliberate course coolly. He knows himself well enough to
say, once:
No boastiny like a fool, This deed I '11 do before this purpose cool.
Before this purpose cool! — that is always the danger to fear in a nature of this unstable sort. He can murder Duncan, but lie cannot
INTRODUCTION.
bring himself to return and face his work, though his own safety depends upon it. It is the woman who goes back into the fatal cham- ber, whither he dares not return. No sooner has he dune the deed than he wishes it un- done. His conscience is awake now, awake and maundering. With the dawn courage returns; he is able to play his part with calm- ness, a new impulse having taken the place of the last one. Remorse for the present is put aside. He \Aots Banquo's death deliberately, and is almost gay in hinting it to his wife. Now, his feeling seems to be, we shall be safe — no need for more crime ! And then, per- haps, there will be no more of the " terrible dreams."
When Banquo's ghost appears Macbeth's acting breaks down. He is in the hold of a fresh sensation, and horror and astonishment overwhelm all. After having thought him- self at last secure ! It is always through the superstitious side of his nature that Macbeth is impressible. His agitation at the sight of the ghost of Banquo is not, I think, a trick of the imagination, but the horror of a man who sees the actual ghost of the man he has slain. Thus he cannot reason it away, as, before the fancied dagger (a heated brain conjuring up images of its own intents) he can exclaim : " There 's no such thing ! " The horror fastens deeply upon him, and he goes sullenly onward in the path of blood, seeing now that there is no returning by a way so thronged with worse than memories.
Since his initiate step in this path Macbeth has never been free from the mockery of desire to overcome his fears, to be at peace in evil- doing, to "sleep in spite of thunder." But his mind becomes more and more divided against itself, and the degradation of his nature goes on apace. When we see him finally at bay in his fortress, he is broken down by agitation and the disturbance of all within and without into a state of savage distraction, in which the individual sense of guilt seems to be lost in a sullen growth of moody distrust and of some- what aimless ferocity. He is in a state in which "the grasshopper is a burden" and every event presents itself as an unbeatable irritation. His nerves are unstrung: he bursts
out into precipitate and causeless anger at the mere sight of the messenger who enters to him. One sees his mental and bodily upset in the impossibility of controlling the least whim. He calls for his armour, has it put on, pulls it off, bids it be brought after him. He talks to the doctor about the affairs of war, and plays grimly on medical terms. He dares now to confess to himself how weary he is of every- thing beneath the sun, and seeks in vain for what may "minister to a mind diseas'd." When, on a cry of women from within, he learns that his wife is dead, he can say no word of regret. " She should have died here- after"— that is all, and a moralization. He has "supp'd full with horrors," and the taste of them has begun to pall. There remains now only the release of death. As prophecy after prophecy comes to its fulfilment, and the last hope is lost, desperation takes the place of confidence. When, finally, he sees the man before him by whom he knows he is to die, his soldier's courage rises at a taunt, and he
fights to the end.
Nothing in his life Became him like the leaving it.
The "note," as it may be called, of Macbeth is the weakness of a bold and vigorous mind and frame; that of Lady Macbeth is the strength of a finely-strung but perfectly deter- mined nature. She dominates her husband by the persistence of an irresistible will; she herself, her woman's weakness, is alike domi- nated by the same compelling force. Let the effect on her of the witches' prediction be contrasted with the effect on Macbeth. In Macbeth there is a mental conflict, an attempt, however feeble, to make a stand against the temptation. But the prayer of his wife is not for power to resist, but for power to carry out, the deed. The same ambitions that were slumbering in him are in her stirred by the same spark into life. The flame runs through her and possesses her in an instant, and from the thought to its realization is but a step with her. Like all women, she is practical, swift from starting-point to goal, imperious in disregard of hindrances that may lie in the way. But she is resolute, also, with a deter- mination which knows no limits; imaginative, .T>7
MACBETH.
too (imagination being to her in the place of virtue), and it is this ahe fears, and it is tins thai wrecks her. Her prayer to the spirits thai tend on mortal thoughts, shows by no means a mind steeled to compunction. Why should she cry:
Stop up the acceVs and passage to remorse !
if hers were a mind in which no visitings of pit} had to be dreaded' Her language
is fervid, sensitive, and betrays with her
tirst woids the imagination which is her capacity for suffering. She is a woman who can be "magnificenl in sin," but who has none of the callousness which makes the comfort of the criminal; — not one of the poisonous women of the Renaissance, who smile complacently after an assassination, but a woman of the North, in whom sin is its own "first revenge." She can do the deed, and she can do it triumphantly; she can even think her prayer has been answered; but the horror of the thing will change her soul, and at night, when the will that supported her indomitable mind by day, slumbers with the overtaxed body, her imagination — the soul she lias in her for her^torture — will awake and cry at last aloud. / On the night of the murder it is Macbeth who falters; it is he who wishes that- the deed might be undone, she who says to him
These deeds must not be thought After these ways; BO, it will make us mad;
but to Macbeth (despite the "terrible dreams") time dulls the remembrance from its first intensity; he lias not the fineness of nature that -ives the power of suffering to his wife./ < hlilt changes both, but him it degrades. I lers is not a nature that can live in degradation. To her do degradation is possible. Her sin was deliberate; she marched straight to her
end; and the means were mortal, not alone to
the man who died, ! mt to her. Macbeth could little comprehend the depth of her suffering
me his hesitancy in a determined action.
It is this fineness of nature, t his over-posses- sion by imagination, that renders her interest- ing, elevating her punishment into a sphere beyond the c< mprehension of a vulgar crimi- nal.
358
In that terrible second scene of act ii. — per- haps the most awe-inspiring scene that Shake- speare ever wrote — the splendid qualities, of Lady Macbeth are seen in their clearest light. She has taken wine to make her bold, but there is an exaltation in her brain beyond anything that wine could give. Her calmness is indeed unnatural, overstrained, by no means so composed as she wotdd have her husband think. But having determined on her purpose, there is with her no returning, no thought of return. It is with a burst of real anger, of angry contempt, that she cries "Give me the daggers! "and her exaltation carries her through the fearful ordeal as she goes back and faces the dead man and the sleeping witnesses. She can even, as she returns, hear calmly the knocking that speaks so audibly to the heart of Macbeth; taking measures for their safety if anyone should enter. She can even look resolutely at her bloody hands, and I imagine she half believes her own cynical words when she says:
A little water clears us of this deed: How easy is it then !
Her will, her high nature (perverted, but not subdued), her steeled sensitiveness, the intoxi- cation of crime and of wine, sustain her in a forced calmness which she herself little sus- pects will ever fail her. How soon it does fail, or rather how soon the body takes revenge upon the soul, is seen next morning, when, after overacting her part in the famous words — "What, in our house?" — she falls in a swoon, by no means counterfeit, we may be sure, though Macbeth, by his disregard of it, seems to think so. After this, we see her but randy. A touch of the deepest melan- choly ("Naught's had, all's spent") marks the few words spoken to herself as she waits for Macbeth on the nighl which is, though unknown to her, to be fatal to Banquo. No sooner has Macbeth entered than she greets him in the old resolute spirit; and again on the night of the banquet she is, as ever, full of bitter scorn and contempt for the betraying weakness of her husband, prompt to ever his confusion with a plausible tale to the -nests. She is still mistress of herself, and only the
INTRODUCTION.
weariness of the few words she utters after the guests are gone, only the absence of the reproacheswe are expecting, betray the change that is coming over her. One sees a trace of lassitude, that is all.
From this point Lady Macbeth drops out of the play, until, in the fifth act, we see her for the last time. Even now, it is the body rather than the soul that has given way. What haunts her is the smell and sight of the blood — the physical disgust of the thing. "All the perfumes of Arabia will not sweeten this little hand! " One hears the self-pitying note with which she says the words. Even now, even when unconscious, her scorn still bites at the feebleness of her husband. The will is yet indomitable in her shattered frame.
There is no repentance, no regret — only the intolerable vividness of accusing memory; the
sight, the smell, ever present in imagination. It has been thought thai the words "Hell is murky!" — the oidy sign, if sign it be, of fear at the thought of the life to come — are pro- bably .spoken in mocking echo of her husband. Even if not, they are a passing shudder. It is enough for her that, her hands still keep the sensation of the blood upon them. The ima- gination which stands to her in the place of virtue has brought in its revenge, and for her too there is left only the release of death. She dies, not of remorse at her guilt, but because she has miscalculated her power of resistance to the scourge of an over- acute imagina- tion.
359
First Witch. When shall we three meet again In thunder, lightning, or in rain?— (Act i. 1. 1, 2.)
MACBETH.
ACT I.
Scene I. An open place.
Thunder and lightning. Enter three Witches.
First Witch. When shall we three meet again In thunder, lightning, or in rain?
Sec. Witch. When the hurlyburly 's done, When the battle 's lost and won.
Third Witch. That will be ere the set of sun.
First Witch. Where the place?
Sec. Witch. Upon the heath.
Third Witch. There to meet with Macbeth.
First Witch. I come, Graymalkin!1
Sec. Witch. Paddock2 calls.
Third Witch. Anon! 10
All. Fair is foul, and foul is fair: Hover through the fog and filth)' air. [Exeunt.
Scene II. A camp near Forres.
Alarums within. Enter Duncan, Malcolm, Donalbain, Lennox, ivith Attendants, meet- ing a bleeding Sergeant.
Dun. What bloody man is that? He can report,
1 Graymalkin, a gray cat.
2 Paddock, toad.
As seemeth by his plight, of the revolt The newest state.
Mai. This is the sergeant
Who like a good and hardy soldier fought 'Gainst my captivity. Hail, brave friend! Say to the king the knowledge of the broil As thou didst leave it.
Serg. Doubtful it stood;
As two spent swimmers, that do cling together And choke their art. The merciless Mac-
donwakl — Worthy to be a rebel, for to that3 10
The multiplying villanies of nature Do swarm upon him — from the western isles Of4 kerns5 and gallowglasses6 is supplied; And fortune, on his damned quarrel smiling, Show'd like a rebel's whore: but all's too weak: For brave Macbeth, — well he deserves that
name, — Disdaining fortune, with his brandish'd steel, Which smok'd with bloody execution,
s To that, i.e. to that end.
4 Of, i.e. as we should DOW say, with.
6 Kerns, light-armed foot-soldiers.
iQallowglasses, foot-siddit'i-sunned with (/aMoKv/'us axes.
361
ACT I. Scene 2.
M ACBETH.
ACT I. Scene 3.
Like valour's million, carv'd out his passage Till he fac'd the slaw: 20
And Qe'er shook bands, nor bade farewell to
him, Till he unseam'd him from the nave1 to the
.haps, And tix'd his head upon our battlements. Durii Q valiant cousin! worthy gentleman! v /. Q As whence the sun 'gins his reflection Shipwrecking storms and direful thunders
break, So From that spring whence comfort seem'd
tn come Discomfort' swells. Mark, king of Scotland,
mark:] Nil sooner justice had, with valour arni'd, « "i 1 1 p. 1 I'd these skipping kerns to trust their
heels, so
But the Nbrweyan lord, surveying2 vantage, With rurbish'd arms and new supplies of men, I'.i'jan a fresh assault.
Dun. Dismay'd not this
Our captains, Macbeth and Banquo?
■Si rg. Yes;
As sparrows eagles, or the hare the lion. rj If I say sooth,-1 I must report they were \s cannons overcharge with double cracks; - i hey doubly redoubled strokes upon the foe: Except they meant to bathe in reeking wounds, < >!■ memorize4 another Golgotha, 40
I cannot tell — ] But I am faint ; my gashes cry for help.
Dun. So well thy words become thee as thy
W'lillids; They smack of honour both. Go get him
surgeons. [Exit Sergeant, attended.
Q Who comes her. I ]
Enter Boss.
[_}fal. The worthy thane of Boss.
Len. What haste looks through his eyes! So should he look
emsto speak icings strange. J Rota. God save the king!
Dun. Whence cam'st thou, worthy thane? Rt From Fife, greal king;
Winn the Nbrweyan banners floul the sky
1 A'.M. . navel •''. truth. 1 Memorise make memorable 362
'jing, perceiving.
And fan our people cold. Norway himself, With terrible numbers, 51
Assisted by that most disloyal traitor The thane of Cawdor, 'gati a dismal conflict; Till that Bellona's bridegroom, lapp'd in proof, Confronted him with self-comparisons, Boint against point rebellious, arm gainst arm, Curbing his lavish'' spirit: and, to conclude The victory fell on us.
I> 'm. Great happiness!
Rosa. That0 now Sweno, the Norways: king, craves composi- tion;7 Nor would we deign him burial of his men Till he disbursed, at Saint Colme's-inch,8 ci Ten thousand dollars to our general use.
Dun. No more that thane of Cawdor shall deceive Our bosom interest: go pronounce his present9
death, And with his former title greet Macbeth.
Ross. 1 11 see it done.
Dun. "What he hath lost noble Macbeth hath won. [Exeunt.
Scene III. A heath.
Distant thunder. Enter the three Witches.
First Witch. Where hast thou been, sister? Sec. Witch. Killing swine. Third Witch. Sister, where thou? First Witch. A sailor's wife had chestnuts in her lap, And munch 'd, and munch'd, and munch'd: —
"Give me," quoth I: "Aroint thee,10 witch!" the rump- fed ron-
yon11 cries. Her husband 's to Aleppo gone, master 0' the
Tiger: But in a sieve I '11 thither sail, And, like a rat without a tail, I '11 do, I'll do, and I'll do. 10
Q Sec. Witch. I '11 give thee a wind. First Witch. Thou 'rt kind.
•'• Lavish, unrestrained. 7 Compositioi
l Saint Col),
6 That, i.e. so that
7 Composition, terms of. peace.
t-inch, [nchcolm, the island of St.
1111 illliri'it S'tlint Ciilltm's
» bat nt Uolmes - inch, inclicolm, the island 01 fc Colnmba; pronounced Saint Colum's. » Prevent, instant 10 Aroint thee, begone.
" Ronyon, mangy creature (O. Fr. rognon).
o
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ACT I. Scene 3.
MACBETH.
ACT I Scene 3.
Third Witch. And I another. L3
First Witch. I myself have all the other; And the very ports they blow, All the quarters that they know I' the shipman's card.1] I will drain him dry as hay : Sleep shall neither night nor day Hang upon his pent-house lid; 20
He shall live a man forbid:2 Weary se'nnights nine times nine Shall he dwindle, peak,3 and pine: Though his bark cannot be lost, Yet it shall be tempest-tost. — Look what I have.
Sec. Witch. Show me, show me.
First Witch. Here I have a pilot's thumb, Wreck'd as homeward he did come.
[Brum within.
Third Witch. A drum, a drum! 30
Macbeth doth come.
All. The weird sisters, hand in hand, Posters4 of the sea and land, Thus do go about, about: Thrice to thine, and thrice to mine, And thrice again, to make up nine. Peace ! the charm 's wound up.
Enter Macbeth and Banquo.
Macb. So foul and fair a day I have not seen.
Ban. How far is't call'd to Forres? What
are these
So wither'd, and so wild in their attire, 40
That look not like the inhabitants o' the earth,
And yet are on 't ? Live you 1 or are you
aught That man may question ? You seem to under- stand me, By each at once her choppy finger laying Upon her skinny lips: you should be women, And yet your beards forbid me to interpret That you are so.
Macb. Speak, if you can : what are you ? First Witch. All hail, Macbeth! hail to thee,
thane of Glamis! Sec. Witch. All hail, Macbeth ! hail to thee, thane of Cawdor!
1 The shipman's card, i.e. the card contained in the compass, on which the points are marked. - Forbid, i.e. under a curse. 3 Peak, grow thin. 4 Posters, quick travellers.
Third Witch. All hail, Macbeth, that shalt
be king hereafter! so
/!</,/. ( rood si)-, why <l" you atari ; and seem
to fear
Things that do sound so fair? I' the name of
truth, Are ye fantastical,5 or that indeed Which outwardly ye show I My noble partner You greet with present grace and great pre- diction Of noble having and of royal hope, That he seems rapt withal: to me you speak
not: If you can look into the seeds of time, And say which grain will grow and which will not, 59
Speak then to me, who neither beg nor fear Your favours nor your hate. First Witch. Hail! Sec. Witch. Hail! Third Witch, Hail! First Witch. Lesser than Macbeth, and
greater. Sec. Witch. Not so happy, yet much happier. Third Witch. Thou shalt get kings, though thou be none: So, all hail, Macbeth and Banquo!
First Witch. Banquo and Macbeth, all hail!
Macb. Stay, you imperfect speakers, tell
me more: To
By Sinel's death I know I am thane of Glamis;
But how of Cawdor? the thane of Cawdor
lives, A prosperous gentleman; and to be king Stands not within the prospect of belief, No more than to be Cawdor. Say from whence You owe6 this strange intelligence? or why Upon this blasted heath you stop our way With such prophetic greeting? — Speak, I charge you. [Witches vanish.
Ban. The earth hath bubbles as the water has, And these are of them: whither are they vanish'd? so
Macb. Into the air; and what seem'd cor- poral melted As breath into the wind. — Would they had stay'd !
5 Fantastical, imaginary
c Owe, own, possess.
303
in i.
■
ADdthevtn ii the qua"
Sleep shall i Hang upon .
Shall he dwi Though his
Yet it shall Look what.
Wrak'da
Hi Macbeth do!
lie'
Ami tkiee ;
ACT I. Scene 3.
MACI'.KTII.
ACT I
Third Witch. And I another. 13
First Witch. I myself have all the other; And the very ports they blow, All the quarters that they know I' the shipman's card.1] I will drain him dry as hay : Sleep shall neither night nor day Hang upon his pent-house lid; 20
He shall live a man forbid:2 Weary se'nnights nine times nine Shall he dwindle, peak,3 and pine: Though his bark cannot be lost, Yet it shall be tempest-tost. — Look what I have.
Sec. Witch. Show me, show me.
First Witch. Here I have a pilot's thumb, Wreck'd as homeward he did come.
[Brum within.
Third Witch. A drum, a drum! 30
Macbeth doth come.
All. The weird sisters, hand in hand, Posters4 of the sea and land, Thus do go about, about: Thrice to thine, and thrice to mine, And thrice again, to make up nine. Peace! the charm's wound up.
Enter Macbeth and Banquo.
Macb. So foul and fair a day I have not seen.
Ban. How far is 't call'd to Forres ? What
are these
So wither'd, and so wild in their attire, 40
That look not like the inhabitants o: the earth,
And yet are on't? Live you? or are you
aught That man may question ? You seem to under- stand me, By each at once her choppy finger laying Upon her skinny lips: you should be women, And yet your beards forbid me to interpret That you are so.
Macb. Speak, if you can: what are you? First Witch. All hail, Macbeth! hail to thee,
thane of Glamis! Sec. Witch. All hail, Macbeth! hail to thee, thane of Cawdor!
1 The shipman's card. i.e. the card contained in the compass, on which the points are marked. - Forbid, i.e. under a curse, s Peak, grow thin. 4 Posters, quick travellers.
Third Witch. All hail, Macbeth, that shalt be king hereafter! so
Ban. < rood sir, why do you start; and seem to fear Things that do sound so fair? 1' the name of
truth, Are ye fantastical,5 or that indeed Which outwardly ye show I M\ noble partner You greet with present grace and great pre- diction Of noble having and of royal hope, That he seems rapt withal: to me you speak
not: If you can look into the seeds of time, And say which grain will grow and which will not, 59
Speak then to me, who neither beg nor fear Your favours nor your hate. First Witch. Hail! Sec. Witch. Hail! Third Witch. Hail! First Witch. Lesser than Macbeth, and
greater. Sec. Witch. Not so happ} , yet much happier. Third Witch. Thou shalt get kings, though thou be none: So, all hail, Macbeth and Banquo! First Witch. Banquo and Macbeth, all hail! Much. Stay, you imperfect speakers, tell me more: To
By Sinel's death I know I am thane of Glamis; But how of Cawdor? the thane of Cawdor
lives, A prosperous gentleman; and to be king Stands not within the prospect of belief, No more than to be Cawdor. Say f r< »m whence You owe6 this strange intelligence? or why Upon this blasted heath you stop our way With such prophetic greeting?- Speak, I charge you. [Witches vanish.
Bin. The earth hath bubbles as the water has, And these are of them: whither are they vanish'd ? 80
Macb. Into the air; and what seem'd cor- poral melted As breath into the wind. — Would they had stay'd !
5 Fantastical, imaginary
<s Owe, own, possess.
363
I scene 3.
AIACI5KTH.
ACT 1. Stone '.',.
Ban. Weresuch things here as we do speak about '. S3
Or have we eaten on the Insane root That takes the ivasmi prisoner?
Macb. Four children shall be kings.
/; hi. You sliall be king.
Macb. And thane of Cawdor too — went it not so?
Ban. To the selfsame tunc and words. —Who's here?
Enter Ross and ANqtrs.
Ross. The king hath happily receivM, Mac- beth, 89 The news of thy success: and when he reads Thy personal venture in the rebels' fight, His wonders and his praises do contend Which should be thine or his: silenc'd with
that, In viewing o'er the rest o' the selfsame day, He finds thee in the stout Norweyan ranks, Nothing afeard of what thyself didst make, Strange images of death. As thick as hail Came post with post; and every one did bear Thy praises in his kingdom's great defence, And pour'd them down before him.
Aug. We are sent
To give thee from our royal master thanks; Only to herald thee into his sight, 102
Not pay thee.
/,' its. And, for an earnest of a greater honour, He bade me, from him, call thee thane of
( awdor: In which addition, hail, most worthy thane! For it is thine.
Ban. [.I.-/''] What, can the devil speak
true? Macb. The thane of Cawdor lives: why do you dress me In borrowed robes !
A Who was the thane lives yet ;
But under heavy judgment bears thai life Which lie deserves to lose. Whether he was combin'd in
With those of Norway, or did line] the rebel With hidden help and vantage, or thai with
both lb 1 ill. in id in his country's wreck, I know not;
1 Luii . rapport, 364
But treasons capital, confess'd and prov'd, Eave "\ en hrown him.
Macb. [Aside] c lands, and thane of Cawdor! The greatest is behind. [To Ross and Angus]
Thanks for your pains. [Aside to Banquo] Do you not hope your
children shall be kings, When those that gave the thane of Cawdor
to me iig
Promis'd no less to them?
Ban. [Aside to Macbeth] That, trusted home,2 Might yet enkindle you unto the crown, Besides the thane of Cawdor. But 't is strange: And oftentimes, to win us to our harm, The instruments of darkness tell us truths; Win us with honest trifles, to betray s In deepest consequence. —
[Turn* to Rosa and Angus. Cousins, a word, 1 pray you.
Macb. [Aside] Two truths are told,
As happy prologues to the swelling act Of the imperial theme. — [To Ross and Angus]
I thank you, gentlemen, [.isiofe] This supernatural soliciting 130
Cannot be ill; cannot be good; if ill, Why hath it given me earnest of success, Commencing in a truth? I am thane of Cawdor: If good, why do 1 yield to that suggestion Whose horrid image doth unfix my hair, And make my seated 3 heart knock at my ribs, Against the use of nature? Present fears4 Are less than horrible imaginings : My thought, whose murder yet is but fantas- tical, Shakes so my single state of man that function Is smother'd in surmise, and nothing is 141 But what is not.
Ban. [To Ross and Angus] Look, how our
partner's rapt. Macb. [Aside] If chance will have me king,
why, chance may crown me, Without my stir.
Ban. New honours come upon him,
Like our strange garments, cleave not to their
mould But with the aid of use.
Macb. I Aside] ( tome what come may,
1 Trusted home, i • trusted to the utmost. 3 S< firmly fixed.
* Fears, i.e. objects of fear.
ACT 1. Scene 3.
MAti'.KTH.
A' I [, Boene 4.
Time and the hour runs through the roughest day. Ban. [Advancing] Worthy Macbeth, we stay
upon1 your leisure. Macb. Give me your favour:2 my dull brain was wrought3 With things forgotten. Kind gentlemen, your pains i5o
Are register'd where every day I turn The leaf to read them. — Let us toward the king. [Aside to Banquo] Think upon what has
chanc'd; and at more time, The interim having weigh'd it, let us speak Our free hearts each to other.
Ban. [Aside to Macbeth] Very gladly. Macb. [Aside to Banquo] Till then, enough. — Come, friends. [Exeunt.
Scene IV. Forres. A room in the palace.
Flourish. Enter Duncan, Malcolm, Donal- bain, Lennox, and Attendants.
Dun. Is execution done on Cawdor? Are not Those in commission yet return'd?
Mai. My liege,
They are not yet come back. But I have spoke With one that saw him die, who did report That very frankly he confess'd his treasons, Implor'd your highness' pardon, and set forth A deep repentance: nothing in his life Became him like the leaving it; he died As one that had been studied in his death To throw away the dearest thing he ow'd4 10 As 't were a careless trifle.
Dun. There 's no art
To rind the mind's construction in the face: He was a gentleman on whom I built An absolute trust. —
Enter Macbeth, Banquo, Boss, and Angus.
O worthiest cousin! The sin of my ingratitude even now Was heavy on me: thou art so far before, That swiftest wing of recompense is slow To overtake thee. Would thou hadst less deserv'd,
1 Stay tipon, await.
- Give me your favour, excuse me.
3 Wrought, agitated. * Ow'd, owned, possessed.
That the proportion'' both of thanks and pay- ment 10 Might have been mine ! onlj I have left to say. Mote is thy due than more than all can pay.
Macb. The service ami the loyalty I owe, In doing it, pays itself. Your highness' part Is to receive our duties; and our duties Are to your throne and state children and
servants; Which do but what they should by doing every thing 2«
Safe toward your love and honour.
Dun. Welcome hither:
I have begun to plant thee, and will labour To make thee full of growing. — Noble lianquo, That hast no less deserv'd, nor must be known No less to have done so, let me infold thee And hold thee to my heart.
Ban. There if I grow,
The harvest is your own.
Dun. My plenteous joys,
Wanton in fulness, seek to hide themselves In drops of sorrow. — Sons, kinsmen, thanes, And you whose places are the nearest, know, We will establish our estate upon Our eldest, Malcolm; whom we name here- after The Princeof Cumberland : which honour must Not unaccompanied invest him only, 40
But signs of nobleness, like stars, shall shine On all deservers. From hence to Inverness, And bind us further to you.
Macb. The rest is labour, which is not us'd for you: I '11 be myself the harbinger, and make joyful The hearing of my wife with your approach: So, humbly take my leave.
Dun. My worthy Cawdor !
Macb. [Aside] The Prince of Cumberland ! — that is a step, 4S
On which I must fall down, or else o'erleap, For in my way it lies. Stars, hide your tires; Let not light see my black and deep desires: The eye wink at the hand; yet let that be, Which the eye fears, when it is done, to see.
[Exit.
Dun. True, worthy Banquo; he is full so valiant ;
i The proportion, i.e. the due proportion.
3f.r>
ACT I. Boane 4.
MACliKTH.
ACT l. Scene 5.
Ami in his commendations I am fed; It is a banquet to me. Let V after him, Whose care is gone before to bid us welcome: It is a peerless kinsman. [Flourish. Exeunt.
. ni V. Inverness. A room in Macbeth' s castle.
LAST MACBETH, reading a letter.
Lady M. "They met me in the day of success; ami I have learn'd by the perfect'st report,1 they
have more in them than mortal knowledge. When I burn'd in desire to question them further, they • themselves air, into which they vanish'd. Whiles I stood rapt in the wonder of it, came mis- sives- fn.in the king, who all-hail'd me 'Thane of Cawdor;' by which title, before, these weird sisters saluted me, and referr'd me to the coming on of time, with ' Hail, king that shalt be !' This have I thought good to deliver3 thee, my dearest partner of greatness, that thou might'st not lose the dues of re- joicing, by being ignorant of what greatness is pro- mis'd thee. Lay it to thy heart, and farewell."
Lrt'iy it. ii. that 'a coming
.Must be provided for.— (Ait i. v. 07, 68.)
• Hamis thou art, and < lawdor; and shalt be What tip .u art promisM Xet do I fear thy
nature;
too full o' the milk of human kindness To catch the nearest way: thou wouldst be
it; Art not without ambition; but without so
' report, it the best intelligence. sives. messengers. » Deliver, report.
366
The illness4 should attend it: what thou
wouldst highly, That wouldst thou holily; wouldst not play
false, And yet wouldst wrongly win: thou 'dst have,
great Glamis, That which cries "Thus thou must do, if thou
have it;"
* Illness, evil.
ACT I. Scene 5.
MACHKTU.
ACT I. Si
And that which rather thou dost fear to do Than wishest should be undone. Hie thee
hither, That I may pour my spirits in thine ear, And chastise with the valour of my tongue All that impedes thee from the golden round, Which fate and metaphysical1 aid doth seem To have thee crown'd withal. 31
Enter an Attendant.
What is your tiding3?
Atten. The king comes here to-night.
Lady M. Thou'rt mad to say it: —
Is not thy master with him % who, were 't so, Would have inform'd for preparation.
Atten. So please you, it is true: our thane is coming: One of my fellows had the speed of him, Who, almost dead for breath, had scarcely more Than would make up his message.
Lady M. Give him tending;
He brings great news. [Exit Attendant.
The raven himself is hoarse That croaks the fatal entrance2 of Duncan 40 Under my battlements. Come, you spirits That tend on mortal 3 thoughts, unsex me here, And fill me, from the crown to the toe, top-full Of direst cruelty ! make thick my blood, Stop up the access and passage to remorse,4 That no compunctious visitings of nature Shake my fell purpose, nor keep peace between The effect and it ! Come to my woman's breasts, And take my milk for gall, you murdering
ministers, Wherever in your sightless substances5 50 You wait on nature's mischief ! Come, thick
night, And pall thee in the dunnest smoke of hell, That my keen knife see not the wound it makes, Nor heaven peep through the blanket of the
dark, To cry "Hold, hold!"
Enter Macbeth.
Great Glamis! worthy Cawdor! Greater than both, by the all-hail hereafter!
1 Metaphysical, supernatural.
2 Entrance, pronounced here as a trisyllable, s Mortal, deadly. * Remorse, pity. 5 Sightless substances, invisible forms.
Thy Letters have transported me beyond 67 This ignorant present, and I feel now
The future in tin- instant. Macb. My dearest love,
Duncan comes hen- to-night. Lady M. And when goes hence?
Maeb. To-morrow, as he purposes.
Lady 31. < >. never
Shall sun that morrow see! Your face, my thane, is as a Ik .ok where men May read strange matters; — to beguile the
time, Look like the time; bear welcome in your eye, Your hand, your tongue : look like the innocent
flower, But be the serpent under 't. He that 's coming Must be provided for: and y<m shall put 68 This night's great business into my dispatch; Which shall to all our nights and days to come Give solely sovereign sway and masterdom.
Macb. We will speak further.
Lady M. Only look up clear;
To alter favour6 ever is to fear: Leave all the rest to me. [Exeunt.
Scene VI. The same. Before MacbetKs castle.
Hautboys. Servants of Macbeth attending, with torches. Enter Duncan, Malcolm, Donalbain, Banquo, Lennox, Macduff, Boss, Angus, and Attendant*.
Dun. This castle hath a pleasant seat; the
air Nimbly and sweetly recommends itself Unto our gentle senses.
Ban. This guest of summer,
The temple-haunting martlet, does approve" Byhislov'dmansionry that the hea vens" breath Smells wooingly here: no jutty,8 frieze, Buttress, nor coign of vantage,9 but this bird Hath made his pendent bed and procreant
cradle: Where they most breed and haunt, I have
observ'd The air is delicate.
e To alter favour, i.e. to change countenance. 7 Approve, prove.
s Jutty, i.e. jetty, a projection in buildings. s Coiijn of vantag* . convenient corner.
367
A ' I I . Scene 6.
MA< T.KTII.
ACT I. Scene
Enter Lady Macbeth.
D>m. S.i', see, our honour'd hostess!
The love that follows us sometime is our
trouble, 11
Which still we thank as love. Q Herein I teach
you
(How ymi shall bid (it'd 'ild us for your pains,
5 And thank us for your trouble.]
Lady .1/. All our service
In every point twice done, and then done
double, Were poor ami single1 business to contend Against those honours deep and broad where- with Your majesty loads our house: for those of old, And the late dignities heap'd up to them,2 We rest your hermits.3
Dull. Where's the thane of Cawdor?
We cours'd him at the heels, and had a purpose To be his purveyor: but he rides well, 22
And his great love, sharp as his spur, hath
holp him To his home before us. Fair and noble hostess, \V<- are your guest to-night.
Lady M. Your servants ever
Have theirs, themselves, and what is theirs, in
com 1 it,' To make their audit at your highness' pleasure, Si ill to return your own.
Dun. Give me your hand;
( 'omlmt me to mine host: we love him highly, And shall continue our graces towards him. By your leave, bosto [Exeunt.
Si knk VII. The same. A lobby in Macbeth' s castle.
Hautboys and torch* s. End r <> ml pass over, a St -'•• r, and divers Si rvants with dishes and ■ ice. Then enter .Macbeth.
Man b. If it were done when "t is done, then 't were well It were dom- quickly if tli nation
• tuld trammel up6 the consequence, and catch,
> Single, Blight, tri
- /'•• them, in addition to than
1 // i • . beadsmen
* In eompt, lubject to account.
. entangle, aa in a net (trammel).
368
With his surcease,0 success; that but this blow Might be the be-all and the end-all here, But here, upon tin's hank and shoal of time, We'd jump7 the life to come. But in these
cases We still have judgment here; that we but teach Bloody instructions, which, being taught, re- turn To plague th' inventor: this even-handed justice 10
Commends th' ingredients of our poison'd
chalice To our own lips. He's here in double trust: First, as L am his kinsman and his subject, Strong both against the deed; then, as his host, Whoshould against his murderer shut the door, Not bear the knife myself. Besides, this
Duncan Hath borne his faculties8 so meek, hath been So clear in his great office, that his virtues Will plead like angels, trumpet- tongued,
against
JO
The dee]> damnation of his taking-off; And pity, like a naked new-born babe, Striding the blast, or heaven's cherubin hors'd Upon the sightless couriers of the air, Shall blow the horrid deed in every eye, That tears shall drown the wind. — I have no
spur To prick the sides of my intent, but only Vaulting ambition, which o'erleaps itself, And falls on the other. —
Enter Lady Macbeth.
How now! what news { Lmhj .)[. He has almost supp'd: why have
you left the chamber ' Macb. Hath he ask'd for me?
Lady M. Know you not he has'
Macb. We will proceed no further in this
business: SI
He hath honour'd me of late: and I have
boughl Golden opinions from all sorts of people, Which would be worn now in their newest
gloss, Not east aside so soon.
1 tii it). " Jump, hazard.
8 Faculties, power-, prerogath
ACT I. Scene 7.
&1ACBETH.
ACT II. Scene 1.
Lady M. Was the hope drunk
Wherein you dress'd yourself? hath it slept
since? And wakes it now, to look so green and pale At what it did so freely? From this time Such I account thy love. Art thou afeard To be the same in thine own act and valour As thou art in desire? Wouldst thou have
that 41
Which thou esteem'st the ornament of life, And live a coward in thine own esteem, Letting "I dare not" wait upon "I would," Like the poor cat i' th' adage?
Macb. Prithee, peace:
I dare do all that may become a man; Who dares do more is none.
Lady M. What beast was't, then,
That made you break this enterprise to me? When you durst do it, then you wTere a man; And, to be more than what you were, you
would 50
Be so much more the man. Nor time nor
place Did then adhere,1 and yet you would make
both: They have made themselves, and that their
fitness now Does unmake you. I have given suck, and
know How tender 'tis to love the babe that milks me: I would, while it was smiling in my face, Have pi uck VI my nipple from his boneless
Anddash'd the brains out, had I soswornasyou
Have done to this.
Macb. If we should fail? —
Lady M. We fail-
But screw your courage to the sticking-place, And we'll not fail. When Duncan is asleep, Whereto the rather shall bis day's hard journey Soundly invite him, — his two chamberlains Will I with wine and wassail- so convim That memory, the warder of the brain, Shall be a fume, and the receipt4 of reason A limbeck5 only: when in swinish sleep Their drenched natures lie as in a death. What cannot you and I perform upon 60
The unguarded Duncan? what not put upon His spongy officers, who shall bear the guilt Of our great quell?"
Much. Bring forth men-children only!
For thy undaunted mettle should compose Nothing but males. Will it not be receiv'd. When we have mark'd witli blood those
sleepy two Of his own chamber, and us'd their vei y
daggers, That they have done't?
I^tdy M. Who dares receive it other.
As we shall make our griefs and clamour roar Upon his death?
Macb. 1 am settled, and bend up
Each corporal agent to this terrible feat. f i
Away, and mock the time with fairest show:
False face must hide what the false heart
doth know. [Exeunt
ACT II.
Scene I. Inverness. Court of Macbeth'* castle.
Enter Banqtjo, preceded by Fi.kaxce with a torch.
Ban. How goes the night, boy I
Me. The moon is down; I have not heard
the clock. Ban. And she goes down at twelve. Fie. I take 't, 't is later, sir.
1 Adhere, i.e. cohere.
Ilni). Hold, take my sword. There's hus- bandry" in heaven, Their candles are all out. Take thee thai too. A heavy summons lies like lead upon me, And yet I would not sleep. Merciful powers, Restrain in me the cursed thoughts that
nature Gives way to in repose!
Wassail, carousing. t Receipt, receptacle. :> Limbed:, alembic. " Husbandry, economj
VOL. V.
s Con vince, overpower • Quell, murder.
369 13S
ACT II. Scene 1.
MACRKT1I.
ACT II. Sceue 2.
Enter Macbeth, and a Servant with a torch.
Give me my sword. Who's then 10
Macb. A friend.
Ban. Wli.it, sir, not yetat rest? The king's a-1 >ed : He hath been in unusual pleasure, and Sen! forth great largess to your offices: This diamond he greets your wife withal, Bv the name of most kind hostess; and shut up In measureless content.
Mad>. Being unprepar'd,
( )ur will became the servant to defect, 18
Which else should free have wrought.
Ban. All 's well.
I dreamt last night of the three weird sisters: To you they have show'd some truth.
Macb. I think not of them:
Yet, when we tan entreat an hour to serve, Would spend it in some words upon that
business, If you would grant the time.
Ban, At your kind'st leisure.
Macb. If you shall cleave to my consent, when 't is, It shall make honour for you.
Ban. So I lose none
In seeking to augment it, but still keep My bosom franchis'd and allegiance clear, I shall be counsell'd.
Macb. Good repose the while!
Ban. Thanks, sir: the like to you! :j,o
[Exeunt Banquo and Fleance.
Macb. Go bid thy mistress, when my drink is ready, She strike upon the bell. Get thee to bed.
[Exit Servant. Is this a dagger which I see before me, The handle toward my hand? Come, let me
clutch thee: — I have thee not, and yet I see thee still. Art thou not, fatal vision, sensible
To feeling as i>< sight? or ait th.ni bul A dagger of tin- mind, a false creation, Proceeding from the heat-oj .pressed brain?
■ t. in form a- palpable 40
\ 'his which dow 1 draw. Thou marshall'sl me the way that I was going; And such an instrument I was to use, — 370
Mine eyes are made the fools o' the other
senses, Or else worth all the rest: I see thee still; And on thy blade and dudgeon1 gouts- of
Mood, Which was not so before. — There's no such
thing: — It is the bloody business which informs Thus to mine eyes. Now o'er the one half- world 49 Nature seems d sad, and wicked dreams abuse The c.irtain'd sleep; witchcraft celebrates Pale Hecate's offerings; and wither'd murder, Alarum'd by his sentinel, the wolf, Whose howl 's his watch, thus with his stealthy
pace, With Tarquin's ravishing strides, towards his
design Moves like a ghost. — Thou sure and firm-set
earth, Hear not my steps, which way they walk, for
fear Thy very stones prate of my whereabout, And take the present horror from the time, Which now suits with it. Whiles I threat, he
lives: r>o
Words to the heat of deeds too cold breath
gives. — [.1 bell rings.
I go, and it is done; the bell invites me. Hear it not, Duncan; for it is a knell That summons thee to heaven or to hell.
[Exit.
Scene II. The same.
Enter Lady Macbeth.
Lady .V. That which hath made them drunk
hath made me bold; What hathquench'd them hath given me fire. —
Hark! — Peace! It was the owl that shriek'd, the fatal bellman, Which jives the stern'st g 1-night. — He is
about it : The doors are open; and the surfeited grooms3
1^ i mock their charge with snores: I have
drugg'd their possets, That 'death and nature do contend about them, Whether they live or die.
i Dudgeon, handle. a Qrotmu, sei rante
- Qouts, ilmps (Ft. gouttes). < That, i.e. so that.
ACT II. Scene 2.
MACBETH.
ACT II. Scene- 2.
Macb. [Within] Who's there? what, ho!
Lady M. Alack, I am afraid they have
awak'd, 10
And 'tis not done: the attempt and not thedeed
Confounds us. — Hark! — 1 laid their daggers
ready; He could not miss 'em. — Had he not resembled My father as he slept, I had done 't.
Enter Macbeth.
My husband! Macb. I have done the deed. Didsl thou
not heai' a imi.se? Lady M. I heard the owl scream and the crickets cry. Did not you speak? Macb. When?
Macb. Hark !— (Act ii. 2. 19.)
As I descended?
Lady M. Now.
Macb. L^ady M. Ay. Macb. Hark! Who lies i' the second chamber? Lady M. Donalbain.
Macb. This is a sorry sight. 21
[Looking on his hands. Lady M. A foolish thought, to say a sorry
sight. Macb. There 's one did laugh in 's sleep, and one cried "Murder!" That they did wake each other: I stood and
heard them: But they did say their prayers, and address'd
them Again to sleep.
Lady M. There are two lodg'd together. Macb. One cried "God bless us!" and "Amen!" the other; As they had seen me, with these hangman's
hands, Listening their fear: I could not say "Amen ! " When they did say "God bless us!" Lady M. Consider it not so deeply. so
Macb. But wherefore could not I pronounce "Anient" I had most need of blessing, and "Amen" Stuck in my throat.
Lady M. These deeds must not be thought After these ways ; -so, it will make us mad. Macb. Methought I heard a voice cry "Sleep no more!
371
ACT II. Scene 2.
MACBETH.
ACT II. Scene
Macbeth does murder sleep,'' — ^ie innocent
sleep, Sleep thai knits up the ravell'd aleave of care, The death of each day's life. Bore labour's bath, Balm of hurt minds, great nature's second
course, Chief aourisher in life's feast, —
Lady M. What do you mean?
Macb. Still it cried " Sleep no more!" to all
the house: n
" Glands hath murder'd sleep, and therefore
( 'a\vd"i' Shall sleep no more,- Macbeth shall sleep no
more! Lady M. Who was it that thus cried?
Why, worthy thane, Fou do unbend your noble strength, to think So brainsiiklv of things. — Go get some water, And wash this filthy witness from your hand. — Why did you bring these daggers from the
place? They must lie their: go carry them, and smear The sleepy grooms with blood.
Macb. I '11 go no more:
I am afraid to think what I have done; 51
! k on 't again 1 dare not.
Lady M. Infirm of purpose!
Give in.- the daggers: the sleeping and the
dead Are bill as pictures: t is the eye of childhood Tli.it fears a painted devil. If he do bleed, I II LfiM the faces of the grooms withal; For it musl seem their guilt
| Exit. Knocking within.
Macb. Whence is that knocking? —
How is t with me, when every noise appals
me ' What hands are here? ha! they pluck out
inille eyes ! 59
Will all •_• i ■ • 1 1 Neptune's ocean wash this blood
Clean from my hand ' No: this my hand will
ral li'-r The multitudinous seas incarnadine, Making the green-one red.
/>'■ -■ nU r Ladt M ICBETH. Lady If. My hands are of your colour, but
I shame
To wear a heart so white. [Knocking within.] I hear a knocking 372
At the south entry — retire we to our chamber; A little water clears us of this deed: How easy is it then! Your constancy Hath left you unattended.- [Knock ing within.]
Hark! more knocking: Get on your nightgown,1 lest occasion call us, And show us to be watchers: — be not lost VI So poorly in your thoughts.
M<nh. To know my deed, 'twere best not
know myself. [Knocking within.
Wake I Hincanwith thy knocking! I would thou
couldst! [Exeunt. Knocking continues.
Scene III. The same.
Eider a Porter. Knocking within.
Porter. Here's a knocking indeed! If a man were porter of hell-gate, he should have old turning2 the key. [Knocking within.] Knock, knock, knock! Who's there, i' the name of Beelzebub I Here 's a farmer that hang'd himself on the expectation of plenty: come in time; have napkins enow about you; here you'll sweat for 't. [Knocking within.] Knock, knock! Who's there, in the other devil's name? Faith, here's an equivocator that could swear in both the scales against either scale; who committed treason enough for God's sake, yet could not equivocate to heaven: O, come in, equivocator. [Knocking within.] Knock, knock, knock! Who'sthere? Q Faith! here 's an English tailor come hither, for stealing out of a French hose: come in, tailor; here you may roastyourgoose.] | Knock- ing within.] Knock, knock: never at quiet! What are you? But. this place is too cold for hell. I'll devil-porter it no further: [_\ had thought to have let in some of all professions, that go the primrose way to the everlasting bonfire.] [Knocking within.] Anon, anon! I pray you, remember the porter.
[Opens the </ate.
Enter Macduff and Lennox
Macd. Was it so late, friend, ere you went to bed, That you do lie so late '
1 Nightgown, i.e. dressing-gown. ■- Old turning, plenty of turning.
ACT II. Scene 3.
MACBETH.
ACT II. Sceue 8.
Port. Faith, sir, we were carousing till the second cock : l Q and drink, sir, is a great pro- voker of three things.
Macd. What three things does drink espe- cially provoke? 30 Port. Marry, sir, nose-painting, sleep, and urine. Lechery, sir, it provokes and unpro- vokes; it provokes the desire, but it takes away the performance: therefore, much drink may be said to be an equivocator with lechery: it makes him and it mars him; it wets him on, and it takes him off; it persuades him and disheartens him; makes him stand to and not stand to; in conclusion, equivocates him in2 a sleep, and, giving him the lie, leaves him. 40 Macd. I believe drink gave thee the lie last ; night.
Port. That it did, sir, i' the very throat on >me: but I requited him for his lie; and, I ) think, being too strong for him, though he took Hip my legs sometime, yet I made a shift to >cast him.]
Macd. Is thy master stirring?
Enter Macbeth.
Our knocking has awak'd him; here he comes.
Len. Good morrow, noble sir.
Much. Good morrow, both.
Macd. Is the king stirring, worthy thane?
Macb. Not yet.
Macd. He did command me to call timely on him: 51
I have almost slipp'd the hour.
Macb. I '11 bring you to him.
Macd. I know this is a joyful trouble to you ; But yet 't is one.
Macb. The labour we delight in physics pain. This is the door.
Macd. I '11 make so bold to call,
For 'tis my limited3 service. [Exit.
Len. Goes the king hence to-day?
Macb. He does; he did appoint so.
Len. The night has been unruly : where
we lay,
Our chimneys were blown down, and, as they
say, 60
Lamentings heard i' the air, strange screams
of death,
1 The second cock, about three in the morning. - In, into. 3 Limited, appointed.
And prophesying, with accents terrible, Of dire combustion4 and confus'd evente New hatch'd to the woful time: the obsrur.-
bird'' Clamour'd the livelong night: some say, the
earth Was feverous and did shake.
Macb. 'T was a rough night.
Len. Myyoungremembrancecannot parallel A fellow to it.
Macd. [Without] 0 horror, horror, horror! Tongue nor heart Cannot conceive nor name thee!
Re-enter Macduff.
Macb. Len. What's the matter?
Macd. Confusion now hath made his mas- terpiece! 71 Most sacrilegious murder hath broke ope The Lord's anointed temple, and stole thence The lifeo' the building!
Macb. What is :t you say ? the life I
Len. Mean you his majesty '. Macd. Approach the chamber, and destroy your sight With a new Gorgon. Do not bid me speak; See, and then speak yourselves.
[ Exeunt Macbeth and Lennox. Awake, awake! Ring the alarum-bell. — Murder and treason! Banquo and Donalbain! Malcolm! awake! Shake off this downy sleep, death's counterfeit, And look on death itself! — up, up, and see The great doom's image! — Malcolm! Banquo! As from your graves rise up, and walk like sprites, - 1
To countenance this horror! Ring the bell.
[Bell rings.
Enter Lady Macbeth.
Lady M. What 's the business,
That such a hideous trumpet rails to parley The sleepers of the house? .--peak, speak!
Macd. ( • gentle lady,
'Tis not for you to hear what I can speak: The repetition, in a woman's ear, 90
Would murder as it fell.
* Combustion, conflagration.
5 The obscure bird, i.e. the bird that loves the dark. i.e the owl
373
ACT II. Sceue 3.
MACBETH.
ACT II. Sceue S.
Eater Banquo.
O Banquo, Banquo, Our royal master's murder'd!
Lady M. Woe, alas!
Wli.it, in our house?
Ban. Too cruel any where.
Q Dear Duff, I prithee, contradict thyself, , And say it is not so.]
Re-enter Macbeth and Lennox.
Macb. Had I but died an hour before this chance, I had liv'd a blessed time; for from this instant There 's nothing serious in mortality : All is but toys: renown and grace is dead; The wine of life is drawn, and the mere lees Is left this vault to brag of. 101
Eater Malcolm and Donalbain.
Don. What is amiss?
Macb. You are,1 and do not know't:
The spring, the head, the fountain of your blood Is stopp'd, — the very source of it is stopp'd. Macd. Your royal father's murder'd. Mai. O, by whom i
Lea. Those of his chamber, as it seem'd, had done't: Their hinds and faces were all badg'd with
blood; S< i were their daggers, which unwip'd we found Upon their pillows:
They star'd, and were distracted; no man's life Was to be trusted with them. ill
Much. O, yet I do repent me of my fury, That I did kill them.
Macd. Wherefore did you so?
M'tcb. Who can be wise, amaz'd, temperate and furious, Loyal and neutral, in a moment? No man: The expedition2 of my violent love « hitran the pauser, reason. — Here lay Dun- <mii; —
diver skin Lac*d with his golden blood; And his gaah'd stabs look'd like a breach in
nature For ruin's wasteful entrance: there, the mur- der 120
1 You are, i.e. you are alive. 374
- Expedition, haste.
Steep'd in the colours of their trade, their
daggers 121
Unmannerly breech'd with gore: who could
refrain, That had a heart to love, and in that heart Courage to make 's love known ?
Lady M. Help me hence, ho!
Macd. Look to the lady. Mai. {Aside to Donalbain] Why do we hold our tongues, That most may claim this argument for ours? Don. [Aside to Malcolm] QWhat should be spoken here, where our fate, <j
Hid in an auger-hole, may rush, and seize us? ]< Let's away; Our tears are not yet brew'd.
Mai. [Aside to Donalbain] Nor our strong sorrow 130
Upon the foot of motion.
Ban. Look to the lady: —
[Lad// Macbeth is carried out. QAnd when we have our naked frailties hid, That suffer in exposure, let us meet, And question this most bloody piece of work, To know it further.] Fears and scruples shake
us: In the great hand of God I stand, and thence Against the undivulg'd pretence3 I fight Of treasonous malice.
Macd. And so do I.
All. So all.
Macb. Let 's briefly put on manly readiness,4 And meet i' the hall together.
All. Well contented.
" [Exeunt all but Malcolm and Donalbain. Mai. What will you do? Let's not consort with them: To show an unfelt sorrow is an offi' <■ Which the false man does easy. I '11 to Eng land. Don. To Ireland I; our separated fortune Shall keep us both the safer: where we are, There 's daggers in men's smiles: the near hi; blood, '/
The nearer bloody.
Mul. This murderous shaft that's shot^
Hath not yet lighted; and our safest way
1 Pretence, design.
* Manly readinrss, i.e. complete armour.
141^
ACT II. Scene 3.
MACBETH.
ACT II. Scene 4.
Is to avoid the aim. Therefore, to horse;
And let us not be dainty of Leave-taking, 150 ■ But shift away: there's warrant in that '< ■ theft
/Which steals itself, when there's no mercy left.]] [Exeunt.
QScene I V. The same. Without Macbeth! t cattle.
Enter Ross and an Old Man. old M. Threescore and ten I can remember
,,•11:
Ross. And Duncan's horses— a thing most strange and certain — Beauteous and swift, the minions of their race,
Turu'd wild in nature, broke their stalls, flung out, Contending 'gainst obedience, as they would make War with mankind.— (Act ii. 4. 14-18.)
Within the volume of which time I have seen Hours dreadful and things strange, but this
sore night Hath trifled former knowings.
Boss.
Ah, good father,
Thou seest, the heavens, as troubled with
man's act, Threaten his bloody stage: by the clock 'tis
day, And yet dark night strangles the travelling
lamp: Is't night's predominance, or the day's shame, That darkness does the face of earth entomb, When living light should kiss it?
Old M. 'T is unnatural,
Even like the deed that's done. On Tuesday last, n
A falcon, towering in her pride of place, Was by a mousing owl hawk'd at and kill'd. Ross. And Duncan's horses — a thing most strange and certain — Beauteous and swift, the minions of their race, Turn'd wild in nature, broke their stalls,
flung out, Contending gainst obedience, as they would
make War with mankind.
Old M. Tis said they eat each other.
375
All II. So
MACl'.KTK.
ACT III. Scene L.
Rose. They « i i* 1 so, to the amazement of mine ej es,
That lonk'd upon 't. Here conies the good
Macduff. 20
h'uf'-r M A< Mil FK.
How goes the world, sir, now?
}/.!,■,/. Why, see you not?
/,'".«. Is't known who iliil this more than bloody deed .'
Macd. Those that Macbeth bath slain.
Ross. Alas, the day!
What g 1 could they pretend?1
Macd. Tiny were suborn'd:
Malcolm and Donalbain, the kings two sons, Arc stol'n away and tied; which puts upon , them Suspicion of the deed.
Ross. 'Gainst nature still:
Thriftless ambition, that wilt ravin up
Thine own life's means! Then 't is most like The sovereignty will fall upon Macbeth. 30 Macd. He is already nam'd, and gone to'
Scone
To be invested.
Ross. Where is Duncan's body?
Macd. Carried to Colme-kill, The sacred storehouse of his predecessors, And guardian of their bones.
Ross. Will you to Scone?'
Macd. No, cousin, I'll to Fife.
R08S. Well, I will thither.
Macd. Well, may you see things well done there: adieu! Lest our old robes sit easier than our new!
Ross. Farewell, father.
Old •/- God's benisoii go with you, and
with those 40
That would make good of bad and friends of
foes! \Exeunt."^
ACT III.
SCENE I. Forres. Hall in the jxdace. Ross, Lennox, "nd Lords discovered.
Enter Banquo.
Ban. Thou hast it now: king, Cawdor, ( rlamis, all, A- the weird women proinis'd; and, I fear, Thou play'dst most foully for "t : yet it was
said
It should not stand in thy posterity,
But thai myself should be the root and father
I »t many kings. If there come truth from
them, As upon thee, Macbeth, their speeches shine,— Why, by the verities on thee made good, May they not be my oracles as well, 9
\iid Bel me up in hope? But, hush; no more.
sounded. Enter Macbeth, "■-• kin'j; Lady Macbeth, at queen; Lords, Ladies, ■ i,"/ Attendants.
Macb. Here 'a our chief guest.
Lady M. If lie had been forgotten,
i /■/. tend, propose, Intend. 376
It had been as a gap in our great feast, And all-thing2 unbecoming.
Macb. To-night we hold a solemn supper, sir, And I 'U request your presence.
I'm a. bet your highness
Command upon me; to the which my duties A iv with a most indissoluble tie For ever knit.
Macb. Kide you this afternoon?
II, i a. Ay, my good lord.
Macb. We should have else desir'd your good advice, 21
Which still hath been both grave3 and pros
perous, In this day's council; but we '11 taketo-nmrrow ; Is t far you ride |
11",/. As far, my lord, as will till up the time Twill this and supper: go not my horse the
better, I must become a borrower of the night For a dark hour or twain.
Macb. Fail not our feast.
- All-thing, every way
s Grave, weighty.
ACT III. Scone 1.
MACKKTH.
ACT III. Scene 1.
Ban. My lord, I will not. Macb. We bear, our bloody cousins are bestow'd 30
In England and in Ireland, not confessing Their cruel parricide, tilling their hearers With strange invention: butof that to-morrow: When therewithal we shall have cause1 of state ( 'raving us jointly. Hie you to horse: adieu, fill you return at night. Goes Fleance with you? Ban. \\\ my good lord: our time does call
upon s. Macb. I wish your horses swift and sure of foot; And so I do commend you to their backs. Farewell. [Exit Banquo.
Let every man be master of his time 41
Till seven at night; to make society The sweeter welcome, we will keep ourself Till supper-time alone: while2 then, God be witli you! [Exeunt all but Macbeth and an Attendant. Sirrah, a word with you: attend those men Our pleasure 1
Atten. They are, my lord, without the
palace-gate. Macb. Bring them before us.
[Exit Attendant.
To be thus is nothing,
But to be safely thus.— Our fears in Banquo
Stick deep; and in his royalty of nature so
Reigns that which would be fear'd: 'tis much
he dares; And, to3 that dauntless temper of his mind, He hath a wisdom that doth guide his valour To act in safety. There is none but he Whose being I do fear: and under him My Genius is rebuk'd, as, it is said, Mark Antony's was by Caesar. He chid the
sisters, When first they put the name of king upon me, And bade them speak to him; then, prophet- like, They hail'd him father to a line of kings: CO Upon my head they plac'd a fruitless crown, And put a barren sceptre in my gripe, Thence to be wrench'd with an unlineal hand, No son of mine succeeding. If 't be so,
1 Catise, a subject of debate.
J While, till. 3 To, in addition to.
For Banquo's issue have I fil'd* my mind; For them thegracious Duncan have I murderM; I'ut rancours in the vessel of my peace Only for them; and mine eternal jewel Given to the common enemj of man, To make them Icings, the seed of Banquo king Rather than so, come, fate, into the list, And champion me to th1 utterance!9 — Who there >.
Re-enter Attendant, with two Murderers.
Now go to the door, and stay there till we call.
[ Exit Ait, ndant. Was it not yesterday we spoke together? First Mar. It was, so please your highness. Macb. Well then, now
Have you consider'd of my speeches ( QRnow That it was he in the times past which held you So under fortune, which you thought hail been Our innocent self: this I made good to you In our last conference, pass'd in probation with
you,0 How you were borne in hand,7 how cross'd, the
instruments, Who wrought with them, and all things else
that might To half a soul and to a notion8 craz'd Say "Thus did Banquo."
First Mwr. You mad,' it known to us.
Macb. I did so; and wentfurther, which isnow Our point of second meeting. Do you find Your patience so predominant in your nature, That you can let this go '"J Are you sogospell'd, To pray for this good man and for his issue, Whose heavy hand hath bow'd you to the grave, 90
And beffgar'd yours for ever? E First Mur. We are men. my lb
Macb. Ay, in the catalogue ye go for men; As hounds, and greyhounds, mongrels, spaniels,
curs, Shoughs,9 water-rugs,10 and demi-wolves." are clept
4 Fil'd, defiled.
s Champion me to th utterance, fight with me ii outra i c -
e Pass'd in probation with .'/«<<. proved to you iu detail.
i Bonn' in hand, deluded with tab-.' hopes
8 Notion, mind. » Shoughs, shocks, shaggy dogs.
io Water-rugs, rough water-dogs
ii Demi-wolves, a cross between a dog and a wolf.
377
A < ! III. Scene 1.
MACBETH.
ACT III. Scene 1.
All by the name of dogs: the valued file Distinguishes the swift, the slow, the subtle, The housekeeper,1 the hunter, every one According to the gift which bounteous nature (lath in him clos"d; whereby he does receive Particular addition, from the bill 100
That writes them all alike: and so of men.
Now, if you have a station in the file, Not i' the worst rank of manhood, say 't, And I will put that business in your bosoms Whose execution takes your enemy off, < irapples you to the heart and love of us, Who wear our health but sickly in his life, Which in his death were perfect.] >
Jiaeb. Both of you
Know lianquo was your enemy. — (Act iii. 1. 114, 115.]
Sec. .!/"«;-. I am one, my liege,
Wh the vile blows and buffets of the world
Save bo incens'd that I am reckless what no I do to spite the world.
First Mw. And I another,
3o weary with disasters, tugg'd with fortune, That I would set my life on any chance, 'I 'o mend it or be rid on't.
Macb. Both of you
Know Banquo was your enemy.
Both Mm-. True, my lord.
Macb. So is he mine, and in such bloody
(list;
llice.-
' I/.. I/.., >,, ,/„ ,-. watch-dog. - /' tana . alienation, antagonism. 378
That every minute of his being thrusts Against my near'st of life: and though I could
With barefac'd j tower sweep him from my
sight, And bid my will avouch it, yet I must not, r.'o For3 certain friends that are both his and mine, Whose loves I may not drop, Q but wail his fall Who I myself struck down:] and thence it is, J That I to your assistance do make lovej Masking the business from the common eye For sundry weighty reasons.
«Sec Mm: We shall, my lord,
Perform what you command us.
3 For, on account of.
ACT III. Scene 1.
MACBETH.
ACT III. Scene 2.
First Mi": Though our lives —
Miirb. Your spirits shine through you. Within this hour at most, l-'s
I will advise you where to plant yourselves, Acquaint you, with a perfect spy, <»' the time, The moment on 't; for 't must be done to-night, And something from1 the palace; always
thought That I require a clearness: and with him — ■ To leave no rubs2 nor botches in the work — Fleance his son, that keeps him company — Whose absence is no less material to me Than is his father's — must embrace the fate Of that dark hour. Eesolve yourselves3 apart: I '11 come to you anon.
Both Mur. We are resolv'd, my lord.
Much. I '11 call upon you straight: abide within. [Exeunt Murderers.
It is concluded: — Banquo, thy soul's flight, If it find heaven, must find it out to-night.
[Exit.
Scene II. The same. A room in the palace.
Enter Lady Macbeth and a Srrcant.
Lad// M. Is Banquo gone from court?
Serv. Ay, madam, but returns again to-night.
Lady M. Say to the king, I would attend his leisure For a few words.
Serv. Madam, I will. [Exit.
Lady M. Naught 's had, all 's spent,
Where our desire is got without content: 'T is safer to be that which we destroy, Than by destruction dwell in doubtful joy.
Enter Macbeth.
How now, my lord ! why do you keep alone, Of sorriest fancies your companions making; Using those thoughts which should indeed
have died io
With them they think on 1 Things without4
all remedy Shoidd be without regard : what 's done is
done. Macb. We have scotch'd5 the snake, not
kill'd it:
i From, i.e. away from. - Rubs, hinderances.
s Resolve yourselves, make up your minds.
4 Without, beyond. 5 Scotch'd, slightly cut.
She'll close and he herself, whilst our poor
malice Remains in danger of her former tooth. But let the frame of things disjoint, both the
worlds suffer, Ere we will eat our meal in fear, and sleep In the affliction of these terrible dreams That shake us nightly: better be with the dead, Whom we, to gain our peace, have sent in peace, Than on the torture of the mind to lie 21
In restless ecstasy." Duncan is in his grave; After life's fitful fever he sleeps well; Treason has done his worst: nor steel nor
poison, Malice domestic, foreign levy, nothing, Can touch him further.
Lady M Come on;
Gentle my lord, sleek7 o'er your ragged looks; Be bright and jovial 'mong your guests to- night. \_ Macb. So shall I, love; and so I pray be you: I Let your remembrance8 apply to Banquo, Present him eminence, both with eye and
tongue : Unsafe the while that we must lave Our honours in these flattering streams, 3-_> And make our faces visards to our hearts, Disguising what they are.
Lady M. You must leave this.]
Macb. O, full of scorpions is my mind, dear
wife !
Thou know'st that Banquo, and his Fleance,
lives.
Lady M. But in them nature's copy 's not
eterne. Macb. There 's comfort yet; they are assail- able ; Then be thou jocund: ere the bat hath flown His cloister'd flight; ere, to black Hecate's summons 41
The shard-borne beetle with his drowsy hums Hath rung night's yawning peel, there shall 1 ie
done A deed of dreadful note.9
Lady M. What 's U> be done?
Macb. Be innocent of the knowledge, dearest chuck,
« Ecstasy, excitement. 7 Sleek, smooth.
s Remembrance, pronounced as if spelt remcmberance, in four syllables. Note, notoriety.
379
ACT III. Scene 8.
MACHKTH.
ACT III. Scene 4.
'Pill thou applaud tin- deed, — Come, seeling1
night, Scarf up the tender eye of pitiful day,
An. I with tin 1)1 Iv ami invisible band
Cancel and tear to pieces that great bond Which keeps me pale! Light thickens, and
the CTOW r.o
Makes wing to the rooky w 1:
1 1 1 things of day begin to droop and drowse,
Whiles night's black agents to their preys do rouse. —
Thou marvell'st ;it my words: but hold thee
still; Things bad begun make strong themselves by
ill: So, prithee, go with me. [Exeunt.
Q Scene III. The same. A pari; with agate leading to tin' palace.
Enter three Murden rs.
First Mur. Butwhodid bid thee join with us? Third Mur. Macbeth.
5 . Mur. He needs not our mistrust; since he delivers < hir offices, and what we have to do,
To the direction just.
First Mur. Then stand with us.
The west yet glimmers with some streaks of
day: Now spurs the lated traveller apace I mi the timely inn, and near approaches The subject of our watch.
Third Mur. Hark! T hear horses.
Ban. [ Within] Give us a lighl there, ho!
s -. .l/"/-. Then 't Ls he: the rest
That are within the note of expectation2 10 Already are i' the court.
/' vt Mur. His horses go about.
Third Mm-. Almost a mile: but he does usually, So all men do, from hence to the pal. Make it their walk.
Enter Banqi o, and Fi.k.am k with a torch.
. Mm: A light, a light!
Third Mur. Tishe.
' Mur. Stand tot.
blinding,
•'■....'. the list of expected guests
380
/!<'/). It will be rain to-night. First Mur. Let it come down.
[They set upon Banquo. Ban. <>, treachery! Ely, good Fleance. fly, fly, fly! Thou inayst revenge. O slave!
[Dies. Fleance escapes. Third Mm: AVho did strike out the light .' First Mm: Was't not the way i
Third Mur. There's but one down; the son
is fled. Sec. Mur. We have lost 20
Best half of our affair.
First Mur. Well, let's away, and say how much is done. [Exeunt.^
Scene IV. The seme. Hall in the palace. A banquet prepared. Eoss, Lexxux, Lords, null Ladies discovered.
Enter Macbeth, Lady Macbeth, and Attendants.
Mich. You know your own degrees; sit down : at first And last the hearty welcome.
Lords. Thanks to your majesty.
Mdcb. Ourself will mingle with society, And play the humble host. Our hostess keeps her state; but, in best time, We will require3 her welcome.
Lady M. Pronounce it for me, sir, to all our friends; For my heart speaks they are welcome.
Much. See, they encounter thee with their
hearts' thanks. '.'
Both sides an- even: here I '11 sit i' the midst:
Enter First Muni' rer to the door.
Be large in mirth; anon we'll drink a measure The table round. — [Approaching the door] There 's blood upon thy face. Mm: T is Banquo's, then. Macb. Tis better thee without than he wit bin. Is he dispatch'd '.
Mm: My lord, his throat is cut; that I did
for him. Macb. Thou art the best 0' the cut-throats: yet he 'a good
/:■ quire, ask fur
ACT III. Boene 1.
MACIiKTH.
A.CT III Boene I
That did the like for Fleance: if thou didst it, Thou art the nonpareil
Mm: Most royal sir,
Fleance is 'scap'd. 20
Much. [Aside] Then conies my fit again: I had else been perfect; Whole as the marble, founded as the rock,
As broad and general aa the casing air: 2.1 But now I am cabin'd, cribb'd, confin'd,
bound in Tosaucydoubts and fears.- But Banquo'ssafe?
Mtir. Ay,mygood lord: safeinaditch he bides, With twenty trenched gashes on his head; The least a death to nature.
Ban. O, treachery! Fly, good Fleance, fly, fly, fly! Thou mayst revenge. 0 slave!— (Act iii. 3. 16, 17.)
Macb. Thanks for that:
[Aside] There the grown serpent lies; the
worm that 's Med Hath nature that in time will venom breed, No teeth for the present. — Get thee gone: to- morrow 31 We "11 hear ourselves again. [Exit Murderer.
Lady M. My royal lord,
You do not give the cheer: the feast is sold That is not often vouch'd, while ;t is a-making, 'Tis given with welcome: to feed were best
at home; .
From thence the sauce to meat is ceremony;
Meeting were bare without it.
Macb. Sweet remembrancer! —
Now, good digestion wait on appetite, And health OH both!
Len. May't please your highness sit.
[The Ghost of Banquo appears in Macbeth' s place. Macb. Here had we now our country's
honour roof 'd, W
Were the grac'd1 person of our Banquo pre- sent ;
i Grac'd. gracious. 381
ACT III. Scone i.
MACBETH.
ACT III. Seeue 4.
Who may I rather challenge for mi kindness Than pity fur mischance!
/■' >88. His absence, sir,
l..i\ - Manic upon his promise. Please 't your
highness
r.i.c us with your loyal company. Macb. The table's full. /,• ,,. Sere is a place reserv'd, sir.
Macb. Where? Len. Eere, my good lord. What is 't that
moves your highness '. Macb. Which of you have done this \ Lords. What, my good lord?
Macb. Thou canst not say I did it: never
shake 50
Thy gory loeks at me.
Ross. Gentlemen, rise; his highness is not
well. Lady .)/. Sit, worthy friends — my lord is
often thus, And hath been from his youth: pray you,
keep seat; The tit is momentary; upon a thought Hi- will again lie well: if much you note him, You shall offend him, and extend his passion:1 Feed, ami regard him not. — Are you a man ! Macb. Ay, and a bold one, that dare look on
that Which might appal the devil.
Lady M. O proper stuff!
This is the very painting of your fear: 61
This is the air-drawn dagger which, you said, Led you to Duncan. O, these flaws2 and starts, [mpostors to true fear, would well become \ woman's story at a winter's fire, Authorize! by her grandam. Shame itself! Why € 1 1 > you make such faces? When all's
■ lone, You l,,ok but on a stool. Macb. Prithee, see there! behold! look! lo!
how say you ? Why, what care I? Tf thou canst nod, speak
tOO. 70
If charnel-houses and our graves must send Those that we bury back, our monuments shall be the maws of kites. [Ghost vanishes.
1 \f. What, quite unmann'd in folly ?
Macb. It I stand here, I saw him.
i. prolong liis agitation / commotions (primarily, gusts of wind).
Lady M. Fie, for shame!
Macb. Blood hath been shed ere now, i' the olden time,
Ere human statute purg'd the gentle wreal;
Ay, and since too, murders have been per- form VI
Too terrible for the ear: the time has been,
That, when the brains were out, the man would die, 79
And there an end; but now they rise again,
With twenty mortal murders on their crowns,
And push us from our stools: this is more strange
Than such a murder is.
Lady M. My worthy lord,
Your noble friends do lack you.
Macb. I do forget. —
Do not muse3 at me, my most worthy friends;
I have a strange infirmity, which is nothing
To those that know me. Come, love and health to all;
Then I '11 sit down. — Give me some wine: — fill full. 8S
I drink to the general joy o' the whole table,
And to our dear friend Banquo, whom we miss;
Would he were here! to all, and him, we thirst,
And all to all.4
Lords. <>ui- duties, and the pledge.
Re-enter Ghost.
Macb. Avaunt! and quit my sight! let the earth hide thee! Thy bones are marrowless, thy blood is cold; Thou hast no speculation in those eyes Which thou dost glare with!
Lady .V. Think of this, good peers.
But as a thing of custom: 't is no other; Only it spoils the pleasure of the time.
Macb. What man dare, I dare: oo
Approach thou like the rugged Russian bear, The arm'd rhinoceros, or the Hyrcan tiger; Take any shape but that, and my firm nerves Shall never tremble: or be alive again, And daie me to the desert with thy sword; If trembling 1 inhabit, then protest me
The baby of a girl. Hence, horrible shadow! I ureal moekery, hence! [Qhost vanishes.
Why, so— being gone, I am a man again. Pray you, sit still.
3 Uxue, wonder.
* All to all, i e. all good wishes to all.
ACT III. Scene 4.
M \r|;KT!|.
A' I III -
Lady M. You have displac'd the mirth, broke the good meeting, kw
With most admir'd disorder.1
Much. Can such things be,
And overcome us like a summer's cloud, Without our special wonder? You .make me
strange Even to the disposition that I owe,2 When now I think you can behold such sights, And keep the natural ruby of your cheeks, When mine is blanch'd with fear.
Ross. What sights, my lord ?
Lady M. I pray you, speak not; he grows
worse and worse ;
Question enrages him: at once, good night —
Stand not upon the order of your going, 119
But go at once.
Len. Good night; and better health
Attend his majesty!
Lady M. A kind good night to all!
\Exeunt all but Macbeth and Lady Macbeth.
Macb. It will have blood; they say blood
will have blood:
Stones have been known to move, and trees
to speak; Augurs3 and understood relations have By niagot-pies4 and choughs and rooks brought
forth Thesecret'st man of blood. — What is the night? Lady M. Almost at odds with morning,
which is which. Macb. How say'st thou, that Macduff denies his person At our great bidding?
Lady M. Did you send to him, sir? Macb. I hear it by the way; but I will send: 130
There 's not a one of them but in his house I keep a servant fee'd. I will to-morrow — And betimes I will — to the weird sisters: More shall they speak, for now I am bent to
know, By the worst means, the worst. For mine own
good All causes shall give way: I am in blood Stepp'd in so far, that, should I wade no more, Returning were as tedious as go o'er:
1 Admir'd disorder, disorder to be wondered at.
2 Owe, own, possess.
3 Augurs, i.e. auguries. * Magot-pies, magpies.
Strange things I have in head thai will to hand,
Which must be acted ere they may be
scann'd.6 uo
Lady M. You lack the season of all natures,
sleep. Macb. Come, we'll to sleep. My strain;. • and self-abuse Is the initiate fear that wants hard use: We are yet but young in deed. [Exeunt.
Q Scene V. A loath.
Thunder. Enter the three Witches, meeting Hecate.
First Witch. Why, how now, Hecate! you look angerly.
Hec. Have I not reason, beldams as you are, Saucy and overbold? How did you dare To trade and traffic with Macbeth In riddles and affairs of death; And I, the mistress of your charms, The close contriver of all harms, Was never call'd to bear my part, Or show the glory of our art '. And, which is worse, all you have done 10 Hath been but for a wayward son. Spiteful and wrathful; who, as others do, Loves for his own ends, not for you. But make amends now: get you gone, And at the pit of Acheron Meet me i' the morning: thither he Will come to know his destiny: Your vessels and your spells provide, Your charms and every thine- beside. I am for the air; this night I '11 spend Unto a dismal and a fatal end: Great business must be wrought ere noon; Upon the corner of the moon There hangs a vaporous drop profound; I'll catch it- ere it come to ground: And that distill'd by magic sleights Shall raise such artificial sprites As by the strength of their illusion Shall draw him on to his confusion: He shall spurn fate, scorn death, and bear 30; His hopes 'bove wisdom, grace, and fear: And you all know security Is mortals' chiefest enemy.
* Scann'd examined. 383
.VI ill B
MACBETH.
ACT IV. Sceue 1.
[Music ""(/ song within, "Come away, come away," &c. Hark! I am call'd; my little spirit, see. Sits in a foggy cloud, and stays for me. [Exit. First Witch. Come, let's make haste; .-lie 11
soon lie back again.
[Exeunt.
Scene VI. Forres. A room In the palace.
Enter Lennox <'nd another Lord.
Len. My former speeches have but hit
your thoughts, Wnich can interpret farther: only, I say, Things have been strangely borne. The
gracious 1 Duncan Was pitied "f Macbeth: many, he was dead: Ami the right- valiant Banquowalk'd too late; Whom, vou may say, if ;t please you, Fleance
kill'd,
For Fleance fled: men must not walk too late. Who cannot want the thought,1 how-monstrous- lt was for Malcolm and for Donalbain 9
To kill their gracious father? damned fact!3 I low it did grieve Macbeth! did he not straight, In pious rage, the two delinquents tear, Thatwere the slaves of drink and thralls of sleep Was not that nobly done? Ay, and wisely too; For 'twould have anger'd any heart alive To hear tin' men deny !t. So that, I say, II.' has borne all things well: and 1 do think That, had he Duncan's sons under his key, — A-. aii't phase heaven, he shall not, — they
should find Wliat't were to kill a father; so should Fleance. Hut, peace! for from broad4 words, and cause
he fail'd 2i
His presence at the tyrant's feast, I hear. 22 Macduff lives in disgrace: sir, can you tell Where he bestows himself?
Lord. The son of Duncan,
From whom this tyrant holds the due of birth, Lives in the English court, and is receiv'd Of the most pious Edward with such grace That the malevolence of fortune nothing Takes from his high respect. Thither .Macduff l~ -one to pray the holy king, upon his aid To wake Northumberland and warlike Si ward: That by the help of these, with Him above To ratify the work, we may again Give to our tallies meat, sleep to our nights, Free from our feasts and banquets bloody
knives, Do faithful homage, and receive free honours: All which we pine for now: and this report Hath so exasperate the king that he
Prepares for some attempt of war.
Len. Sent he to Macduff.'
Lord. He did: and with an absolute "Sir,
not I.
40
The cloudy6 messenger turns me his back, And hums, as who should say, "You'll rue'
the time That clogs me with this answer."
Len. And that well might
Advise him to a caution, to hold what distance His wisdom can provide. Some holy angel Fly to the court of England and unfold His message ere he come, that a swift Messing May soon return to this our suffering country Under a hand accurs'd!
Lord. I '11 send my prayers with him.
[ Exeunt."^
ACT IV
-. i. I. .1 caw /•/-. //' //"■ middle, a caldron boiling.
Thunder. The three Witches.
117' /'.Th rio- the hi Hided'' eat hath lllew'd.
1 Who cannot want the thought, i.e. who cannot lmt
tliink? trout, pronounced as a trisyllable.
* Fat < Broad, plain-spoken
udy, tullen Brindsd, brindled, Btreaked.
:;- 1
Sec. Witch. Thrice and once the hedge-pig7
whin'd.
Third Witch. Earpier cries. —>{ is time, 't is
time.
First Witch. Roundabout thecaldrongo; I n the poison'd entrails throw.
Toad, that under cold stone i n. dgi j ig, fa
ACT IV. Scene 1.
MACBKTII.
ACT iv. 8cene I
Days and nights lias thirty-one Swelter'd venom slet>j)inn- got, Boil thou first i' the channel 1 pot.
All. Double, double toil and trouble; Fire burn and caldron bubble.
Sec. Witch. Fillet of a fenny snake, In the caldron boil and bake; Hye of newt and toe of frog,
10
Wool of bat and tongue of dog,
Adder's fork and blind-worm's still".
Lizard's Leg and howlefs wring, For a charm of powerful trouble, Like a hell-broth boil and bubble.
All. Double, double toil and trouble; 20 Fire burn and caldron bubble.
Third Witch. Scale of dragon, tooth of wolf,
Macb. Call 'em, let me see 'em.
First Witch. Pour in sow's blood, that hath eateu Her nine farrow; grease that 's sweaten From the murderer's gibbet throw Into the flame.— (Act iv. 1. 63-67.)
Witches' mummy, maw and gulf1 Of the ravin'd2 salt-sea shark, Root of hemlock digg'd i' the dark, Liver of blaspheming Jew, Gall of goat and slips of yew Sliver'd3 in the moon's eclipse, Nose of Turk and Tartar's lips, Finger of birth-strangled babe Ditch-deliver'd by a drab, Make the gruel thick and slab:4 Add thereto a tiger's chaudron,5 For the ingredients of our caldron.
i Gulf, throat. '- Ravin'd, gorged with prey.
3 Sliver'd, stript off. * Slab, slimy. 6 Chaudron, entrails. VOL. V.
30
All. Double, double toil and trouble; Fire burn and caldron bubble.
Sec. Witch. < tool it with a balloon's blood. Then the charm is firm and good.
Enter Eecate.
Hec. O, well done! I commend your pains; And every one shall share i; the gains: 40 And now about the caldron sing, Like elves and fairies in a ring, Enchanting all that you put in.
[Music and a son;/, "Black spirits," &C.
[Exit Hecate. 385 137
ACT IV Scene 1.
MACBETH.
ACT IV. Scene 1.
- . Witch. By thr pricking of my thumbs,
Something wicked this way coin—. Open, locks, Whoever knocks!
Enter Macbeth.
Macb. How now, you secret, black, and midnight hags! What is t you do?
AH. A deed without a name.
Macb. I conjure you, by that which you
prof ess, 50
Howe'er you come to know it, answer me: Though you untie the winds, and let them fkdit
\ gainst the churches; though the yesty waves ( ionfound and swallow navigation up; Q Though bladed corn be lodg'd, and trees blown down;
Though castles topple on their warders' heads;] Though palaces and pyramids do Blope Their heads to their foundations; Qthough the
treasure I if nature's germens tumble all together, Even till destruction sicken;] answer me eo To what I ask you.
First Witch. Speak.
Sec Witch. Demand.
Th in I 1 1 riti A . We '11 answer.
First Witch. Say, if thou 'dst rather hear it Prom our mouths, < »r from our masters 1
Macb. Call 'em, let me see 'em.
First Witch. Pour in sow's blood, that hath eaten
Her nine farrow; grease that 's sweaten From the murderer's gibbet throw
Illto the tl.'lllle.
AH. ( nine, high or low;
Thyself and office deftly show!
/'■ ',,</.,-. First Apparition: ",i armed Head.
Macb. Tell me, thou unknown power, —
' Witch. Jle knows thy thought:
II' 11 hi- speech, but say thou naught to
First .1/7-. Macbeth! Macbeth! .Macbeth!
beware Macduff;
Beware the thane uf Fife. Dismiss me:
enough [Descends.
Ma b. Whatever thou art. for thy g I
ition, than!
386
Thou hast harp'd my fear aright: but one
word mole, — First Witch. He will not be commanded:
here's another, More potent than the first.
Thunder. Second Apparition: a bloody Child.
Sec. App. Macbeth! Macbeth! Macbeth! Much. Had I three ears, I 'd hear thee. Sec. App. Be bloody, bold, and resolute;
la uuli to scorn
79
The power of man, for none of woman born Shall harm Macbeth. [Descends.
Much. Then live, Macduff: what need I fear of thee ? But yet 1 :11 make assurance double sure, And take a bond of fate : thou shalt not live; That I may tell pale-hearted fear it lies, And sleep in spite of thunder.
Thunder. Third Apparition: o Child crowned, with a tree in his hand.
What is this, That rises like the issue of a king, And wears upon his baby-brow the round And top of sovereignty 1
All. Listen, but speak not to 't.
Third App. Be lion-mettled, proud, and take no care 90
Who chafes, who frets, or where conspirers are : Macbeth shall never vanquish'd be until Great Birnam wood to high Dunsinane hill Shall come against him. | Descends.
Macb. That will never be:
Who can impress the forest, bid the tree Unfix his earth-bound root? Sweet bode-
ments! good! Rebellion's head rise never, till the wood Of Birnam rise, and our high-plac'd Macbeth Shall live the lease of nature, pay his breath To time and mortal custom. Yet my heart Throbs to know one thing: tell me— if your art mi
Can tell so much — shall Banquo's issue ever : n iii this kingdom 1 All. Seek to know no more.
Macb. I will be satisfied: deny me this, And an eternal curse fall on you! Let me know: —
[The caldron sinks into the earth.
ACT IV. Scene 1.
MACBETH.
ACT IV. Scene 2.
Why sinks that caldron 1 and what noise is this '. \_Music.
First Witch. Show! Sec. Witch. Show! Third Wife//. Show!
.1//. Show his eyes, and grieve his heart; Come like shadows, so depart! A show of eight Kings, the last with a mirror in his hand', Banquo's Ghost following. Macb. Thou art too like the spirit of Banquo; down ! Thy crown does sear mine eyeballs: — and thy
hair, Thou other gold-bound brow, is like the first: — A third is like the former. — Filthy hags! Why do you show me this I — A fourth ! Start,
eyes! What, will the line stretch out to the crack of
doom i — Another yet! — A seventh! — I '11 see no more: And yet the eighth appears, who bears a glass ? Which shows me many more ; f_and some I see SThat twofold balls and treble sceptres carry: ] Horrible sight! — Ay, now I see 'tis true; 122 For the blood-bolter'd x Banquo smiles upon
me, And points at them for his. [Apparitions van- ish.] What, is this so? First Witch. Ay, sir, all this is so: but why Stands Macbeth thus amazed ly ] Come, sisters, cheer we up his sprites, And show the best of our delights: I '11 charm the air to give a sound, While you perform your antic round; 130
That this great king may kindly say Our duties did his welcome pay.
[Music. The Witches dance, and then vanish, with Hecate. Much. Where are they ? Gone ?— Let this pernicious hour Stand aye accursed in the calendar! — Come in, without there!
Enter Lennox.
Len. What's your grace's will?
Macb. Saw you the weird sisters \ Len. No, my lord.
Macb. Came they not by you I
i Blood-bolter' d, bloocl-besmeared.
Len. No, indeed, my lord.
Macb. Infected be the air whereon the} ride,
And damn'd all those thai trusl them! [did
hear The galloping of horse: who was't came by? Len. T is two or three, my lord, that bring you word Macduff is fled to England. Macb. Fled to England !
Len. Ay, my good lord. Macb. \_Aside] Time, thou anticipat'st m\ dread exploits: The flighty purpose never is o'ertook Unless the deed go with it: from this moment The very firstlings of my heart shall be The firstlings of my hand. And even now, To crown my thoughts with acts, be it thought
and done: The castle of Macduff I will surprise; L50
Seize upon Fife; give to the edge o' the sword His wife, his babes, and all unfortunate souls That trace2 him in his line. No boasting like
a fool; This deed I'll do before this purpose cool: But no more sights! — [To Lennox] Where are
these gentlemen ? Come, bring me where they are. [Exeunt.
T Scene II. Fife. A room in Macduff's castle.
Enter Lady Macduff, her Son, and Boss.
L. Macd. What had he done, to make him
fly the land '. Ross. You must have patience, madam, L. Macd. He had none:
His flight was madness: when our actions do
not, Our fears do make us traitors.
Ross. You know not
Whether it was his wisdom or his fear. L. Macd. Wisdom! to leave his wife, to-I leave his ha Iks, His mansion, and his titles, in a place From whence himself does fly? He loves us
not; He wants the natural touch:3 for the poor wren,
■i Trace, follow.
t The natural touch, i.e. Datura] feeling.
387
ACT IV. Sceue 2.
MACBETH.
ACT IV. Sceue 2.
The most diminutive of birds, will fight, 10 Hi young ones in her nest, against the owl. All is the fear, and nothing is the love; As little is the wisdom, where the flight
So runs against all reason.
A'< >.<.<. IS I v clearest coz,
1 pray you, school yourself: but, for your
husband, He is noble, wise, judicious, and best knows The fits o' the season. I dare not speak much
further: But cruel are the times, when we are traitors, And do not know ourselves; when we hold
rumour 19
I'i' rin what we fear, yet know not we fear, Bui float upon a wild and violent sea Each way and move. I take niv leave of you: Shall not be long but I '11 be here again: Things at the worst will cease, or else climb
upward To what they were before. My pretty cousin, Blessing upon you! /.. Macd. Eather'd he i-. and yet he 'sfather-
h'ss.
Ross. I am so much a fool, should I stay
longer, 28
It would be my disgrace and your discomfort:
1 take my leave at once. [Exit.
I.. Macd. Sirrah, your father's dead:
And what will you do now? How will you live?
Son. As birds do, mother.
L. Macd. What, with worms and flies?
Son. With what 1 get, I mean; and so do
they. L. Macd. Poor bird! thou'dst never fear the net nor lime, The pitfall nor the gin.
Son. Why should I, mother? Poor birds they an- not set for. My father is ool dead, for all your saying. L. Macd. Yea, be is dead: how wilt thou do
for a father? Son. Nay. how will you do for a husband? /.. Macd. Why. I ran buy me twenty at any market. 40
Then yon 11 buy 'em u> sell again. /.. Macd. Thou speak'st with all thy wit, and yet, i' faith,
With \Sjt enougb for thee. Son. Was my fathers traitor, mother? 388
/,. Macd. Ay, that he was.
Son. What is a traitor i
L. Macd. Why, one that swears and lies.
Son. And be all traitors that do so {
L. Macd. Every one that does so is a traitor, and must be hang'd. .oo
Son. And must they all be hang'd that swear and lie?
L. Mart/. Every one.
Son. Who must hang them ?
L. Macd. Why, the honest men.
Son. Then the liars and swearers are fools; for there are liars and swearers enow to beat the honest men, and hang up them.
L. Macd. Now God help thee, poor monkey ! But how wilt thou do for a father I 60
Son. If he were dead, you'd weep for him: if you would not, it were a good sign that J should quickly have a new father.
L. Macd. Poor prattler, how thou talk'st!
Enter << Messenger.
Mess. Bless you, fair dame! I am not to you known, Though in your state of honour I am perfect.1 I doubt some danger does approach you nearly:
If you will take a homely man's advice, Be not found here; hence, with your little one-. To fright you thus, methinks, I am too sava To do worse to you were fell cruelty, 7i
Which is too nigh your person. Heaven pre- '
serve you! I dare abide no longer. [Exit.
L. Macd. Whither should I fly i
I have done no harm. But I remember now [ am in this earthly world, where to do harm Is often laudable, to do good sometime Accounted dangerous folly: why then, alas, Do I put up that womanly defence, To say 1 have done no harm ?
Enter Murderers.
What are these faces First Mur. Where is your husband? so
L Macd. I hope, in no place so unsanctified Where such as thou niayst find him.
First Mwr. He 's a traitor.
Son. Thou liest, thou shag-hair'd villain!
1 Perfect, i.e. well acquainted.
ACT IV. Scene 2.
First Mur.
MACBETH.
ACT IV. Scene 3.
What, you egg! [Stabbing him.
'Young fry of treachery!
Son. He has kill'd me, mother:
J Run away, I pray you! [Dies.
't [Exit Lady Macduff, crying "Murder/"
and pursued by the Murderers."^
Scene III. England. . I country lane.
Enter Malcolm and Macduff.
Mai. Let us seek out some desolate shade, and there Weep our sad bosoms empty.
L. Mucd. 'What are these faces?
First Mur. Where is your husband?— (Act iv. 2. 79, 80.)
Macd. Let us rather
Hold fast the mortal sword, and like good
men Bestride our down-faH'n birthdom: each new
morn New widows howl, new orphans cry, new
sorrows Strike heaven on the face, that it resounds As if it felt with Scotland and yell'd out Like syllable of dolour.
Mai [What I believe, I'll wail:
'What know, believe; and what I can redress, (As I shall find the time to friend, I will.] 10
What you have spoke, it may be so per- chance.
[This tyrant, whose sole name blisters our tongues, !-
Was once thought honest: you have lovM him well;
He hath not touch'd you yet I am young; but something
You may deserve of him through me: ami wisdom
To oflVr up a weak ] r innocent lamb
To appease an angry god. Macd. I am not treacherous. 3b9
A< 1 IV. Scene 3.
MACBETH.
ACT IV. Scene 3.
j/,,/. But Macbeth is.
A good and virtuous nature may recoil1 In an imperial charge. But I shall crave your pardon; 20
That which you are, my thoughts cannot transpose: , An-. Is are bright still, though the brightest
fell: Though all things foul would wear the brows
of grace, Yet grace must still look so.
Macd. 1 have lost my hopes.
Mai. Perchance even there where I did rind
my doubts.
Why in that rawness2 left you wife and child,
Those precious motives, those strong knots of
love, Without leave-taking? I pray you, ; Let not my jealousies be your dishonours, But mine own safeties. You may be rightly
just, 30
Whatever I shall think.
Macd. Bleed, bleed, poor country!
Great tyranny, lay thou thy basis sure, For goodness dan- not check thee! wear thou
thy wrongs, The title is ati'eer'd'.3 Fare thee well, lord: I would not be the villain that thou think'st F( >r the whole space that's in the tyrant's grasp, And the rich East to boot.
Mai. Be not offended:
I .-peak not as in absolute fear of you.] I think our country sinks beneath the yoke; It we.-ps, it bleeds, and each new day a gash [s added to her wounds: 1 think withal 41 There would be hands uplifted in my right; Ami here from gracious England have I offer
llv thousands: but, for all this,
When I shall tread upon the tyrant's head, « 'i wear it ..u my sword, yet my poor country Shall have more vices than it had before, More sutler and more sundry ways than ever,
By hiin that shall succeed.
Macd. What should he be?
Mai. It is myself 1 mean: in whom I know All the particulars of vice bo grafted 1
That, when they shall be open'd, black Macbeth
Will seem as pure as snow, and the poor state Esteem him as a lamb, being compar'd With my confineless harms.
Macd. Not in the legions
Of horrid hell can come a devil more damn'd In evils to top Macbeth.
Mai. I grant him bloody,
Luxurious,4 avaricious, false, deceitful, Sudden," malicious, smacking of every sin
That hasa name: but [[there's no bottom, none,
In
I
1 /;. .-,.'. g^ve way. 3 Afeerd, confirmed.
7 Ravmese, haste.
390
my voluptuousness: your wives, your (.laughters, 61 '
Your matrons, and your maids, could not rill up The cistern of my lust, and] my desire All continent0 impediments would o'erbear That did oppose my will: Q better Macbeth Than such an one to reign.
Macd. Boundless intemperance
In nature is a tyranny; it hath been The untimely emptying of the happy throne, And fall of many kings. But fear not yet To take upon you what is yours: you may 10 Convey" your pleasures in a spacious plenty. And yet seem cold, the time you may so hood- wink. We have willing dames enough; there cannot be That vulture in you, to devour so many As will to greatness dedicate themselves, Finding it so inclin'd
.)/(»(.] With this there grows
In my most ill-compos'd affection such A stanchless avarice that, were I king, I should cut off the nobles for their lands, Desire his jewels, and this other's house: 80 Ami my more-having would be as a sauce To make me hunger more, £ that I should forge ' Quarrels unjust against the good and loyal, Destroying them for wealth.
Macd. This avarice \
Sticks deeper, grows with more pernicious root' Than summer-seeming lust; and it hath been; The sword of our slain kings: yet do not fear; Scotland hath foisons8 to fill up your will ( >f your mere own: all these are portable, With other graces weigh'd. so;
Mai. But I have none: the king-becoming; graces,
* Luxurious, licentious. ■ Continent, restraining. " Convey, conduct.
s Sudden, violent. 8 Foisons, jilt'iity.
ACT IV. Scene 3.
MACBETH.
ACT IV. Scene 3.
/As justice, verity, temperance, stableness, ^Bounty, perseverance, mercy, lowliness, /Devotion, patience, courage, fortitude, I have no relish of them, but abound 'In the division of each several crime, Acting itmany ways. Nay, had 1 power, I should Pour the sweet milk of concord into hell, Uproar the universal peace, confound 99
All unity on earth.]
Jfacd. O Scotland, Scotland!
Mai. If such a one be ht to govern, speak: Q I am as I have spoken.]
Macd. Fit to govern!
No, not to live. — O nation miserable, With an untitled tyrant bloody-sceptr'd, When shalt thou see thy wholesome days again, Since that the truest issue of thy throne By his own interdiction stands accurs'd, And does blaspheme his breed?— Thy royal
father Was a most sainted king: the queen that bore thee, 109
Oftener upon her knees than on her feet, Died every day she liv'd! — Fare thee well! These evils thou repeat'st upon thyself Have banish'd me from Scotland. — Omy breast, Thy hope ends here!
Mai. Macduff, this noble passion,
Child of integrity, hath from my soul Wrp'd the black scruples, reconciFd my thoughts To thy good truth and honour. Devilish
Macbeth By many of these trains1 hath sought to win me Into his power; and modest wisdom plucks me From over-credulous haste: but God above ) Deal between thee and me ! \_ for even now £l put myself to thy direction, and 122
J-Unspeak mine own detraction; here abjure The taints and blames I laid upon myself, For strangers to my nature. I am yet > Unknown to woman, never was forsworn, ■ Scarcely have coveted what was mine own, <At no time broke my faith, would not betray <The devil to his fellow, and delight ' No less in truth than life : ] my first false speaking 130
Was this upon myself: what I am truly, Is thine and my poor country's to command :
1 Trains, devices.
Q Whither indeed, before thy here-approach, Old Siward, with ten thousand warlike men,
■
Already ;it a point,2 was Betting forth: Now we'll together; ami the chance of goodni Be like our warranted quarrel! ] Why are you
silent '. Macd. Such welcome and unwelcome things at once 'T is hard to reconcile.
Q Enter a Doctor.
Mill. Well; more anon. — Conies the king
forth, 1 pray you? no
Doct. Ay, sir; there are a crew of wretched
souls
That stay his cure : their malady convinces3 The great assay of art; but at his touch, Such sanctity hath heaven given his hand, They presently amend.
Mai. I thank you, doctor.
[Exit Doctor.
Macd. What 's the disease he means !
Mai. TiscalTd the evil: \
A most miraculous work in this good king; Which often, since my here-remain in England, I have seen him do. How he solicits heaven, Himself best knows: but strangely- visited people, ISO
All awoln and ulcerous, pitiful to the eye, The mere4 despair of surgery, he cures, Hanging a golden stamp about their necks, Put on with holy prayers: and 'tis spoken, To the succeeding royalty he leaves The healing benediction. With this strange
virtue He hath a heavenly gift of prophecy, And sundry blessings hang about his throne That speak him full of grace.
Macd.'2 See, who comes here '
Mai. My countryman; but yet I know him not. 160
Enter Boss. J/^rtOlyever-gentlecousin, welcome hither. Mai. I know him now: good God, betimes remove The means that makes us strangers!
Ross. Sir, amen.
2 At a point, prepared. s Convinces, overpowers.
* Mere, utter.
391
ACT i\ Some S.
MACBETH.
ACT IV. Sceue 3.
Macd. Stands Scotland where it did?
Ross. Alas, poor country, —
Almost afraid to know itself! It cannot Be call'd our mother, l>ut our grave: where
nothing, Bui w ln> knows nothing, is once seen to smile; Where sighs and groans and shrieks that rent1 the air,
Arc made, not mark'd; where violent sorrow 111s 169
A modern ecstasy:- the dead man's knell Is there scarce ask'd for who; and good men's
lives Expire before the flowers in their caps, 1 tying or e'er they sicken.
Macd. O, relation
T • nice,3 and yet too true!
.1/.//. What s the newest grief?
Ross. That of an hours age doth hiss the speaker; Bach minute teems a new one.
Macd. How does my wife 1
Ross. Why, well.
Macd. And all my children?1
Ross. Well too.
Macd. The tyrant has not batter' d at their
peace
i
Ross. No; they were well at peace when I
did leave \-m. Macd Be not a niggard of your speech: how goes 1 1 180
Ross. When 1 came hither to transport the tidings, Which I liave liea\ iiv In irne. 1 here ran a rumour Of many worthy fellows that were out;6 Which was to my belief witness'd the rather, For thai I saw the tyrant's power a-foot: Now is the time of help; your eye in Scotland W oidd create soldiers, make our women fmht.
To doff their dire diBtree
Mtd. Be:t their comfort
We're coming thither: gracious England hath I., til us good Siward and ten thousand men; \n older an<l a Letter soldier none 191
That ( !hri8tendom rives out
'. .in alternative form of "rend."
tasy, an ordinary trouble "f mind • , elaborately detailed * Children, pronounced aa n trisyllable. ii Insurrection. 392
Ross. Would I could answer
This comfort with the like! But I have words That would be howl'd out in the desert air, When- hearing should not latch1' them.
Macd. What concern they.1
The general cause? or is it a fee-grief" Due to some single breast ?
Ross. No mind that's honest
But in it shares some woe, though the main
part Pertains to you alone.
Macd. If it be mine,
Keep it not from me, quickly let me have it.
Ross. Let not your ears despise my tongue
for ever, 201
Which shall possess them with the heaviest
sound Thai ever yet they heard.
Macd. Hum! I guess at it.
Ross. Your castle is surprise!; your wife and babes Savagely slaughtered: to relate the manner, Were, on the quarry8 of these murder'd deer, To add the death of you.
Mai. Merciful heaven!
What, man! ne'er pull your hat upon your
brows;
Give sorrow words: the grief that does not
speak Whispers the o'er-fraught heart, and bids it break. 210
Man/. My children too?
Ross. Wife, children, servants, all
That could be found.
Macd And I must be from thence!—
My wife kill'd too?
Ross. I have said.
Mai. Be comforted :
Let's make us medicines of our great reven To cure this deadly grief.
Macd. He has no children. All my pretty
ones '
Did you say all?- () hell kite!— All? What, all my pretty chickens and their dam At one fell swoop '.
Mai. Dispute it like a man.
Macd. T shall do so;
■ Latch, i e. catch. " .1 fee-grief, a --crief peculiar to one. arry, the slaughtered game.
ACT IV. Scene 3.
MACIJKTH.
A.I r V. So
But I must also feel it as a man: 221
1 cannot but remember such things were, That were most precious to me. — Did heaven
look on, And would not take their parti1 Sinful Macduff, They were all struck for thee! naught that lam, Not for their own demerits, but for mine, Fell slaughter on their souls. Heaven rest
them now! Mai. Be this the whetstone of your sword:
let grief Convert to anger; blunt not the heart, enrage it. Macd. O, I could play the woman with
mine eyes, 230
An. I braggarl with my tongue I But, gentli
heavens, Cut .short all intermission; front to front Bring thou this fiend of Scotland and myself;
Within my sword's length set him; if be 'scape,
Heaven forgive him too!
Mai. Q'l'his tune ooes manly.
Come, go we to the king; our power is ready; Our lack is nothing but our leave. Macbeth Is ripe for shaking, and the powers above Put on1 their instruments. Receive what
cheer you may : The night is long that never rinds the day."] ,
I Exeunt.
ACT V.
Scene I. Dunsinane. A room in the castle.
Enter a Doctor of Phi/sic and a Waiting- Gentlewoman.
Doct. I have two nights watch'd with you, but can perceive no truth in your report. When was it she last walk'd 1
Gent. Since his majesty went into the field, I have seen her rise from her bed, throw her nightgown- upon her, unlock her closet, take forth paper, fold it, write upon 't, read it, afterwards seal it, and again return to bed; yet all this while in a most fast sleep. 9
Doct. QA great perturbation in nature, to receive at once the benefit of sleep and do the effects of watching! In this slumbery agita- tion, besides her walking and other actual performances,] what, at any time, have you heard her say?
Gent. That, sir, which I will not report after her.
Doct. You may to me, and 't is most meet you should.
Gent. Neither to you nor any one; having no witness to confirm my speech. Lo you, here she comes! 21
Enter Lady Macbeth, with a taper. This is her very guise; and, upon my life, fast asleep. Observe her; stand close.
1 Put on, incite.
- Nightgown, dressing-gown.
Doct. How came she by that light ?
Gent. Why, it stood by her: she has light by her continually; 'tis her command.
Doct. You see, her eyes are open.
Gent. Ay, but their sense are shut.
Doct. What is it she does now '. Look, how she rubs her hands. SI
Gent. It is an accustom'd action with her, to seem thus washing her hands: I have km iwn her continue in this a quarter of an hour.
Lad// M. Yet here 's a spot.
Doct. Hark! she speaks: I will set down what comes from her, to satisfy my remem- brance the more strongly. :'•-;
Lady M. Out, damned spot! out, I say! — One, two; why, then 'tis time to do't. — Hell is murky. — Fie, my lord, tie! a soldier, and afeard1? What need we fear who knows it, when none can call our power to account? — Yet who would have thought the old man to have had so much bl 1 in him i
Doct. D<> you mark that >.
Lady M. The thane of Fife had a wife;
where IS she now?— What, will these hands
ne'er be clean ? — No more o' that, my lord, no more o' that: you mar all with this starting.
Doct. Go to. go to; you have known what \i>u should not.
Gent. She has spoke what she should not, 1 am sure of that: heaven knows what she has known.
393
At I \ Scene 1.
MACBETH.
ACT V. Scene 2.
Lady M. Here 'a the smell of the blood still: all the perfumes of Arabia will not sweeten
this little hand. Oh, oh, oh!
Doct. What a sigh is there! The heart is Borely charged. 60
Gent. I would not have such a heart in my In .sum for the dignity of the whole body.
JJoct. Well, well, well —
O'ent. Piay God it be, sir.
Doct. This disease is beyond my practice: yet I have known those which have walked in theirsleepwho have died holilyin their beds.
Lady M. Wash your hands, put on your nightgown; look not so pale: I tell you yet
Lady i£. Yet who would have thought the old man to have had so much blood in him?— (Act v. 1. 44, 45.)
tin, Banquo's buried; he cannot come out mi s grave. vi
DoCt. Kvell SO?
Lady M. To bed, to bed; there's knocking at the gate: come, come, come, come, give me your hand: what's done cannot be undone: to bed, to bed, to bed! [Exit.
£ Doct. Will she go now to bed?
Gent. Directly.
/' ' Foul whisperings are abroad: unna- tural deeds 79 Do breed unnatural troubles: infected minds 1 tli^ir deaf pillows will discharge their
More Deeds she the divine than the physician. 394
God, God forgive us all! Look after her; Remove from her the means of all annoyance,1 And still keep eyes upon her. So, good night: My mind she has mated,2 and amaz'd my sight: I think, but dare not speak. Gent. Good night) good doctor.]
[Exeunt.
Scene II. The country near Dunsinane.
Enter, with drum and colours, Menteith, Caithness, Angus, Lennox, anil S<>Itli> •/■>■.
Ment. The English power is near, led on by Malcolm,
i Annoyance, harm, injury.
Mated, confounded.
ACT V. Scene 2.
MACBETH.
ACT V. fSccnu 3.
His uncle Siwanl, and the good Macduff: [j Revenges burn in them; for their dear causes1 Would to the bleeding and the grim alarm , Excite the mortified man. ]
Aug. Near Birnam wood
| Shall we well meet them; [_ that way are they coming.
Caith. Who knows if Donalbain be with his brother ?
Len. For certain, sir, he is not: I have a file Of all the gentry: there is Siward's son, 9 And many unrough2 youths, that even now ) Protest their first of manhood.]
Meat. What does the tyrant'?
Caith. Great Dunsinane he strongly fortifies: Some say he's mad; others, that lesser hate
him, Do call it valiant fury : but, for certain, He cannot buckle his distemper'd cause Within the belt of rule.
A ug. Now does he feel
His secret murders sticking on his hands; Now minutely revolts upbraid his faith-breach ; Those he commands move only in command, Nothing in love: now does he feel his title 20 Hang loose about him, like a giant's robe Upon a dwarfish thief.
Merit. Who then shall blame
His pester'd senses to recoil and start, When all that is within him does condemn Itself for being there ?
Caith. Well, march we on,
To give obedience where 'tis truly ow'd: Meet we the medicine of the sickly weal, And with him pour we in our country's purge Each drop of us.
Len. Or so much as it needs,
To dew the sovereign flower and drown the weeds. 30
Make we our march towards Birnam.
[Exeunt, marching.
Scexe III. Dunsinane. A room in the castle.
Enter Macbeth, Doctor, and Attendants.
Macb. Bring me no more reports; let them fly all:
1 Their dear causes, the causes which touch them nearly.
2 Unrough, unbearded.
Till Birnam wood remove t<> Dunsinane
I cannot taint3 with fear. What 's the boj
Malcolm '. Was he not born of woman? The spirits that
know All mortal consequences have pronounc'd me
thus, "Fear not, Macbeth; no man that's born of
woman Shall e'er have power upon thee." Then fly,
false thanes, And mingle with the English epicures: The mind I sway by and the heart I bear Shall never sag4 with doubt, nor shake with
fear. 10
Enter an Officer.
The devil damn thee black, thou cream-fac'd
loon ! Where gott'st thou that goose look? Off. There is ten thousand — Macb. Geese, villain ?
Off. Soldiers, sir.
Macb. Go prick thy face and over-red thy fear, Thou lily-liver'd boy. What soldiers, patch?5 Death of thy soul ! those linen cheeks of thine Are counsellors to fear. What soldiers, whey- face? Of. The English force, so please you. Macb. Take thy face hence. [Exit Of)
Seyton! — I am sick at heart, When I behold— Seyton, I say!— this push0 Will cheer me ever, or dis-ease me now. 21 I have liv'd long enough: my way of life Is fall'n into the sear, the yellow leaf, And that which should accompany old age, As honour, love, obedience, troops of friends, I must not look to have; but, in their stead, Curses, not loud but deep, mouth -honour,
breath, Which the poor heart would fain deny, and dare not.
Seyton!
Enter Seyton.
Seif. What 's your gracious pleasure ? Macb. What news more?
s Taint, be infected 5 Patch, fool.
* Sag, droop. « Push, attack.
395
\' r \ Scene 8.
MACBETH.
ACT V. Scene 4.
All is confirm'd, my lord, which was reported. :;1
Macb. I II fight, till from my bones my flesh be hackU ( five me my armour.
v T is not needed vet.
Macb. I 11 | nit it on. — Scud cut moe horses, skin-1 the countryround; Bang those that talk of fear. — (Jive me mine armour. [Exit Seyton.
||,,w does vciur patient, doctor?
Doct. Not so sick, my lord,
Lb Bhe is troubled with thick-coming fancies, That keep her from her rest.
Macb. Cure her of that.
Canst thou not minister to a mind diseas'd, Pluck from the memory a rooted sorrow, Raze out the written troubles of the brain, And with some sweet oblivious antidote 43 Cleanse the stuff d bosom of that perilous stuff Which weighs upon the heart?
Doct. Therein the patient
Must minister to himself.
Macb. Throw physic to the dogs, I ;11 none of it.
Re-enter Seyton, with an Officer.
< !ome,put mine armour on; give me my staff. — Seyton, send out. — Doctor, the thanes fly
from me. — Come, sir, dispatch.— If thou couldst, doctor,
cast 50
The water of my land, find her disease, And purge it to a sound and pristine health, I would applaud thee to the very echo, That should applaud again, [trying to throw
off Ms coat of mail] Pull't off, I say. — What rhubarb, senna, or what purgative drug, Would Bcour these English hence? Hearst
thou of them i
Do '. Ay, my good lord; your royal pre- paration
Makes us hear something. .!/•"■//. [To Seyton and Officer] Bi tng it-after me. —
I will not he afraid of death and bane
Till Birnam forest come to Dunsinane. M [Exeunt [all except Doctor.
. -• "in-. - /• • the umour which he has thrown down.
396
Doct. Were 1 from Dunsinane away and clear, Profit again should hardly draw me here.
[Exit.2
Scene IV. The Wood of Birnam.
Enter, with drum and colours, Malcolm, ol ! Siward and young Siward, Macduff, Menteith, Caithness, Angus, Lennox, boss, and Soldiers, marching.
Mai Cousins, I hope the days are near at hand That chambers will be safe.
Ment. We doubt it nothing.
Sin\ What wood is this before us >
Ment. The wood of Birnam.
Mai. Let every soldier hew him down a bough, And bear 't before him : thereby shall we
shallow The numbers of our host, and make discovery Err in report of us.
Soldiers. It shall be done.
Siw. We learn no other but the confident tyrant s
Keeps still in Dunsinane, and will endure Our setting down before t. :
Mai. T is his main hope:
For where there is advantage4 to be given, Both more'' and less have given him the
revolt;0 And none serve with him but constrained
things, Whose hearts are absent too.
Macd. Let our just censun 9
Attend the true event, and put we on Industrious soldiership.
fj Siw. The time approaches
That will with due decision make us know What we shall say we have and what we Owe.
Thoughts speculative their unsure hopes
relate, But certain issue strokes must arbitrate: 20
Towards which advance the war.]
[Exeunt, marching.
lure '■in' setting down before t. stand a siege 1 Advantage, favourable opportunity.
1/ 1 . greater. ■ Qiven him the revolt, Le. revolted or deserted from him
ACT V. Scone 5. M A< T.KT 1 1
Scene V. Dunsinane. Within the castle.
ACT v. Scene 5.
Enter, with drum and colours, MLacbeth,
Skyton, and Soldiers.
Much. 1 [angout our banners on the outward
walls; The cry is still, "They come:" our castle's
strength Will laugh a siege to scorn: here let them lie
Till famine ami the ague eal them up: Were the} not forc'd1 with those that Bhould
be ours, We might have me1 them dareful, beard to
beard. And beat them backward home.
[.I cry of women within.
What is that noise I
Sey. It is the cry of women, my good lord.
[Exit.
Act V. Scene 4.
Maeb. I have almost forgot the taste of
fears: The time has been, my senses would have
cool'd 10
To hear a night-shriek, and my fell2 of hair Would at a dismal treatise3 rouse and stir As life were in't: I have supp'd full with
horrors; Direness, familiar to my slaughterous thoughts, Cannot once start me. —
Re-enter Seyton.
Wherefore was that cry } Sey. The queen, my lord, is dead. Macb. She should have died hereafter; There would have been a time for such a word. —
i Forc'd, reinforced. - Fell, skin. s Treatise, story.
To-morrow, and to-morrow, and to-morrow, Creeps in this petty pace from day to day To the last syllable of recorded time; 21
And all our yesterdays have lighted foolfl The way to dusty death. — Out, out, brief
candle ! Life's but a walking shadow, a poor player, That struts and frets his hour upon the stage And then is heard no more: it is a tale Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, Signifying nothing.
Enter a Messenger.
Thou com'st to use thy tongue; thy story quickly. Mess. Gracious, my lord, 30
1 should report that which I say I saw, But know not how to do it. 397
A> i V. Boena S.
MACBETH.
ACT V. Scene
Math. Well, Bay, sir.
Mess. As I « 1 1* 1 stand my watch upon the hill, I look'd toward Birnam, and anon, methought, The wood began to move.
Macb. Liar and slave!
.1/ ..-•.<. Lei me endure your wrath, if "t be not so: Within this three mile may you see it coming; 1 say. a moving gTOVe.
Macb. If thou speak'st false,
Upon tlie next tree shalt thou hang alive, Till famine cling1 thee: if thy speech be sooth, ) care uot if thou dost for me as much. — u I pull in resolution; and begin To doubt the equivocation of the fiend That lies like truth: "Fear not, till Birnam
wood Do come to Dunsinane;" — and now a wood < Somes toward Dunsinane. — Arm, arm, and out! If this which lie avouches does appear, There is nor flying bence nor tarrying here. 1 'gin t<> lie a-weary of the sun, And wish the estate- o: the world were now undone. 50
Ring the alarum-bell! — Blow, wind! come,
wrack! At least we 11 die with harness on our hack.
[Exeunt.
Scene VI. The same. A plain before the castle.
I'. ■•• i\ with drum and colours, Malcolm, old
SlWARD, Mum kf, etc., and their Arm;/
with boughs.
Mil. Now near enough; your leavy s.-reens thii.w i h . w o, And show like those you are. — You, worthy
uncle, Shall, with my cousin, your right-noble sou, I. id "in- Aral battle: worthy Macduff and we Shall take upon's what rise remains to do, irding t" our order.
Far.' you will. — Do we hut find tli.' tyrant's power to-night, is be beaten, if we cannot fight Mood. Make all our trumpets speak; give them all breath, 9
Cling, shrink, sliriwl
te, state, order.
Those clamorous harbingers of Mood and
death.
[Exeunt.
Scene VII. The same. Another part of the plain.
Alarums. Enter Macbeth.
Macb. They have tied me to a stake; I can- not fly,
But, bear-like, I must tight the course. What s he
That was not born of woman? Such a one
Am I to fear, or none.
\_l-'.i't>r young Siward.
Y. Siw. What is thy name i Macb. I'h.. 11 :lt be afraid to hear it.
Y. Silo. No; though thou call'st thyself a hotter name Than any is in hell.
J/acb. My name's Macbeth.
J'. Siw. The devil himself could not pro- nounce a title More hateful to mine ear.
Macb. Xo, nor more fearful.
Y. Site. Thou liest, abhorred tyrant; with my sword 1.1
1 11 prove the lie thou speak'st.
[They fight, and young Siward is slain.
Macb. Thou wast born of woman.
But swords I smile at, weapons laugh to scorn,
Brandish'd by man that's of a woman born.]
[Exit.
Alarums. Enter Macduff.
Macd. That way the noise is. Tyrant, show
thy faee! If thou be'st slain and with no stroke of mine, My wife and children's ghosts will haunt 1 nest ill. I cannot strike at wretched kerns, whose arms Are hir'd t ■ > bear their staves: either3 thou,
Macbeth, Or else my sword, with an unbatter'd ed-v. I sh.athe again undeeded.4 [[There thou^
shouldst be; 20?
Bv this -reat .'latter, one of greatest note Sei ins bruited.] Let me find him. fortune! And more I beg not. [Exit. Alarums.
3 Either, pronounced ;is n monosyllable. 1 Undeeded, i.e. having done nothing.
act v. Scene 7. MAl 'IlKTII
Enter Malcolm ami old Si ward.
ACT V. Scene 8.
sin-. This way, my lord; the castle's gently render'd:
The tyrant's people on both sides do tight; The noble thanes do bravely in the war;
The day almost itself professes yours, And little is to do.
Mai. We have met with foes
That strike beside us.
Siw. Enter, sir, the castle.
[Exeunt. Alarums.
Metal.
Turn, hell-hound, turn!— (Act v. 8. 8.)
,Q Scene VIII. The same. Another part of the
plain.~\
lie-enter Macbeth.
J/<ccb. Why should I play the Roman fool,
and die On mine own sword I whiles I see lives, the
gashes Do better upon them.
Enter Macduff.
Macd. Turn, hell-hound, turn!
Macb. Of all men else I have avoided thee: But get thee back; my soul is too much charg'd With blood of thine already.
Macd. I have no words;
My voice is in my sword; thou bloodier villain Than terms can give thee out! [ They fight.
Macb. Thou loses! labour:
As easy roayst thou the intivnchani air With thy keen sword impress, as make me bleed: Let fall thy blade on vulnerable crests; n I bear a charmed life, which must not yield To one of woman born.
Macd. 1 tespair thy charm;
And let the angel whom thou still hast scrv'd Tell thee Macduffwas from his mother's womb Untimely ripp'd.
Macb. Accursed be that tongue that tells me so, For it hath coVd my better part of man! And be these juggling tiends no more believM, 399
A< I V. Scene B.
MACliKTII.
ACT v a
'I'h. it palter with OS in a double sense; 20
'Tint keep the word of promise to OUT" ear. And break it x<< our hope!— I will nut tight
W itll thee.
Macd. Then yield thee, coward,
Ami li\f to be the Bhow and gaze "' t lie time: \\ I: have thee, as our rarer monsters are,
Painted upon a pole, and underwrit "Here may you see the tyrant."
Much. I will not yield,
To kiss the ground before young Malcolm's
feet , Ami to he Waited with the rabble's curse. 29 Though Birnam wood be come to Dunsinane,
All. Hail, King of Scotland !— (Act v. 8. 59.)
And thou oppos'd, being of no woman born, Yet 1 will try the last: before my body I throw my warlike shield: — lay on, Macduff; And damn'd be him that first cries "Hold, enough!"
[They fight. Macbeth is slain. [Mac- duff drags his body off.]
[Retreat. Flourish."] Enter, with drum and colours, Malcolm, old Si ward, Ross, Lsmrox, A-n'.i-. Caithness, Menteith, ,i,i'/ Soldiers.
£ M'il. I would the friends we miss were safe arriv'd.
Siw. Some must go off: and yet, by these I see, 9 great a day a- this is cheaply bought. 400
M<il. Macduff is missing, and your noble
son. Ross. Your son, my lord, has paid a soldier's Ij debt: He only liv'd but till he was a man; 40
The which no sooner had his prowess con- firm'd In the unshrinking station where he fought, But like a man he died.
Siw. Then he is dead?
Ross. Ay, and brought off the field: your; cause of sorrow Must not be measur'd by his worth, for then It hath no end.
Siw.
Had he his hurts before?
Ross. Ay, on the front.
Siw. Why then, God's soldier be he!,'
ACT V. Scene 8.
MACBKTIl.
ACT V. Scene 8.
Had I as many sons as I have hairs,
I would not wish them to a fairer death: 40
And so his knell is knoll'd.
Mai. He s worth more sorrow,
And that I'll spend for him.
Site. He 's worth no more :
They say lie parted well and paid his score: And so, God be with him! Here comes newer comfort.
Re-enter Macduff, with Macbeth's head on a pole.}
Macd. Hail, king! for so thou ait: Q behold, where stands The usurper's cursed head: the time is free: L see thee eompass'd with thy kingdom's pearl, That speak my salutation in their minds; Whose voices I desire aloud with mine: Hail, King of Scotland! }
All. Hail, King of Scotland! [Flourish.
VOL. V.
[_MkI. We shall not spend a large exp of time so
Before we reckon with your several loves, And make us even with you. .M v thanes and
kinsmen, Henceforth be earls, the fust that ever Scotland In such an honour nam'd. What's more
to do, Which would be planted newly with the time, As calling home our exil'd friends abroad That tied the snares of watchful tyranny, Producing forth the cruel ministers es
Of this dead butcher and his Bend-like queen, Who, as 't is thought, bj self and violenl hands Took off her life; this, and what needful else That calls upon us, by the grace of Grace, We will perform in incisure, time, and place: So, thanks to all at once and to each one, Whom we invite to see us crown'd at Scone.
[Flourish. Exeunt."} 401 138
NOTES TO MACBETH.
ACT I. Sckne 1.
1 Line 1: When shall ice three meet again. — Ff. have
a note "f Intenogatton after a ■ <■ The punctuation in
text ii due to Eanmer, who rightly saw that the
question has regard to the time, Dot to the Beason, ol
the (fitches' m \t met ting
2. Line 8: hvHyburly. — Cotgrave has "Grabuge: f. A
gn at ooyle, stirre, garboyle, turmoyle, hurlyburly." Hen-
■ii (\'nr. Bd v.p] \i. p. 11) quotes Peacham'a Garden
of Eloquence, 1677: "Onomatopeia, when we invent, de-
tayne, and make a name Intimating the sownd of
that it Bignifleth, as hurlyburly for an uprori and tmnul-
the word as an adjective in I II. nn l\. \. i :-. Compare Marlowe and Nash, Queen ol Carthage (ed. Dyce, p. 'Mb):
I think it was the Devil's revelling night, There was such hurly burly in the heavens.
102
3. Lines 8, 9:
First Witch. / come, Grayinalkin! Sec. Witch. Paddock calls. Compare Hamlet, iii. 4. 190: "a paddock, a hat, a gib." Harrick lias the word in "Another Grace for a Child" in Noble Numbers:
Heaving up my either hand, Cold as paddocts though they be.
—Works, ed. Grosart, vol. iii. pp. 138, 159.
The Clarendon Press edd. say that in Cumberland toad- stools are still called paddock-stools. The word is the diminutive ol pad, the Anglo-Saxon for a toad, cats and are among the principal attendants on witches; for, as Scot says in the Discoverie of Witchcraft (p. 8): "Some say they can keepe divels and spirits in the like- nesse of todes and cats;" and again (p, 103): " Put among the innumerable number of the portentous beasts, fowles, serpents, and other creatures, the tode is the most excel-
ACT I. Scene 1.
NOTES TO MACBETH. .
ACT I. Scene 2.
lent object, whose ouglie deformitie signifieth sweete and amiable fortune: in respect whereof some superstitious witches preserve todesfor their familiars. And some oue of good credit (whom I could name) having converted the witches themselves, hath starved diverse of their divels, which they kept in boxes in the likenesse of todes."
The cats, it seems on the indisputable authority of Bo- din, are witches in disguise, though " \Yhie witches are turned into cats," observes Scot, " he alledgetb no rea- son, and therefore (to helpe him foorth with that para- phrase) 1 saie, that witches are curst queanes, and manie times scratch one another, or their neighbours by the faces; and therefore perchance are turned into cats. But I have put twentie of these witchmongers to silence with this one question; to wit, Whether a witch that can turne a woman into a cat, etc: can also turne a cat into a woman ? " (Reprint, Nicholson, 1SSC, pp. 73, 74).
The arrangement of lines in the text is that of Hunter's conjecture. Ft read: "All. Padock calls anon: faire is foule," &c.
ACT I. Scene 2.
4. Line 6: the broil. — Broil is not unfrequently used by Shakespeare as almost a synonym for war or battle. Compare Othello, i. 3. 86, S7:
And little of this great world can I speak. More than pertains to feats of broil and battle.
5. Line 9: And choke their art.— The Clarendon Press edd. paraphrase, "drown each other by rendering their skill in swimming useless;" and compare Mark v. 13, where choke is used of suffocation by water: "The herd ran violently down a steep place into the sea . . . and were choked in the sea." — Macdomoald, the reading of P. 1, is in the later Ff. Macdonnel. Holinshed spells it Mac- dowald.
6. Line 13: kerns and galloivglasses. — " Galloivglasses, equites triarii qui securibus utuntur acutissimis. Kernes sunt pedites qui jaculis utuntur."— Coke, 4 Inst. 358 (ap. Furness, p. 290). See Richard II. ii. 1. 156: 'rug-headed kerns," and note 127. Furness, in his New Variorum ed. pp. 9, 10, quotes detailed accounts of both varieties of Irish foot-soldiers.
7. Line 14: And fortune, on his damned QUARREL smil- ing.— Ff. print damned quarry, which has been taken to mean "doomed prey," i.e. Macdonwald's army. But the word quarrel, which certainly gives a better sense, is used by Holinshed in the very passage of which Shakespeare is here making use: "for out of the Western Isles there came vnto him a great multitude of people, offering themselves to assist him in that rebellious quarrel, and out of Ireland in hope of the spoil came no small number of Kernes and Gallowglasses."
8. Lines 20-23:
Till he fad d the slave;
And ne'er shook hands, nor bade farewell to him. Till he unseam' d him from the nave to the chaps, Andfix'd his head upon our battlements. The first two lines are printed and punctuated thus in F.l:
Till he fae'd theSlaue:
Which neu'r shooke hands, nor bad farwell to him.
The simple emendation adopted in our text is that of
Capell. Most commentators have suspected that this passage is corrupt, or that something is omitted. The diiiiculty is not as to making the which refer to i ; for that is common enough in Shakespeare; but, u the Clarendon edd. rightly observe, "As the text stands, the meaning is, Macdonwald did not take leave of, nor bid farewell to, his antagonist till Macbeth had slain him." Certainly, if we follow the reading of Kf. , which muBt refer to the slave, that is to tin- rebel Macdonwald; but it is quite clear that it should refer to Macbeth, for it would be very awkward were we to suppose line 21 to refer to Macdonwald, as the he in the next line, 22, must undoubtedly refer to Macbeth. The three first Folios all agree in the punctuation of the passage and in the text; but F. 4 reads never for neu'r and bid for bad, neither of which variations can be said to in- improvements. It will be observed that (in Ff.) line 21 commences with Which, as does line 18 above; also that the imperfect line 20 and the perfect line 22 both begin with Till he. It is therefore quite possible that the copyist's eye might have caught the which in line is; ami that some portion of line 20 may be missing, as we should have expected "Until he fae'd the slave," instead of " Till he fae'd the slave;" but this may be an instance of the omission of the first syllable at the beginning of a line. (See Measure for Measure, note 77.) On the other hand, there is this to be said for the reading of Ff., that the "bleeding Captaine," as he is called— rightly changed to Sergeant by most modern editors (see line 3 above)— having been severely wounded, would be naturally short of breath: and the imperfect line 20 having, as it has, a colon at the end, may have been meant by the author to signify that the speaker paused from exhaustion, and then resuming hi- story, but forgetting how he had begun his last sentei commenced the next one with which, intending to refer to Macbeth and not to the slave or rebel Macdonwald.— F. A. M.
9. Line 22: Till he unseam'd him from the NATE to the chaps.— Nave for "navel" has not been met with except in this passage. The curious character of the stroke bas exercised the minds of the commentators. Steevens, how- ever, quotes a closely parallel passage from Marlowe's Dido Queen of Carthage, ii. 1:
Then from the navel to the throat at once
He ript old Priam. —Works, p. 258.
10. Line 26: Shipwrecking storms and direful thunders
BREAK.— The word break is added from F. 2. In F. 1 the line ends at thunders.
11. Line 34: captains.— This should probably be pro- nounced eapitains, as in III. Henry VI. iv. 7 80. note 274 to that play.) The arrangement in the text i- Pope's. Ff. print the lines as prose.
12. Line 3S: So they doubly
foe.— This is the reading of Ff., and it i> preferable, I think, to any of the changes which have been made or suggested— as putting So they in a Beparate line, or coup- ling them with the line before. Doubly redoubled occurs also in Richard II. i. ::. 80-82:
And let thy blows, doubly redoubled. Fall like amazing thunder on the casque Of thy ad%erse pernicious enemy.
403
ACT I. >cene 2.
NOTES TO MACBKTH.
ACT I. Scene 3.
13. Line 40: m Compare Henry VIII. iii. 2.
from her Will f.ill some blessing to this land, which shall In it be memen
14. Line 45: thane— The Anglo-Saxon title of thanefe- ooted a rank midwaj between ear] and ealdorman. The
word is used by Shakespeare only in this play, where it seems to be equivalent to earl. The stage-direction of the Ft is Enter Bon and Angus; but as Angus neither speaks nor is Bpoken to in the scene, his name was omitted by CapeU and most succeeding editors.
15. Lines 49, 50:
Where thi m banners flout the sky
And/an our people cold. Compare John, v. 1. '■!:
Mocking the air with colours idly spread.
The meaning here is evidently that the Norweyan banners insult the sky in their pride, and chill the Scottish host with fear. The lines are only conjecturally arranged, and here, as elsewhere, the text is probably corrupted.
16 Line 54: Eell'ina'a bridegroom, lapp'd in PROOF; i.e. dad in armour of proof. Compare Richard II. i. 3. 73:
Add proof unto mine armour with thy prayers ;
and see below note 68. Bellona's bridegroom is not, as Steevena seems to think, Marx but Macbeth.
17. Line 56: J'oint against point rebellious, arm'gainst iu hi.— This punctuation is Theobald's, and is generally adopted in preference to that of the Ff., which read:
Point against Point, rebellious Arme 'gainst Arme.
Ross would nut he likely to speak of the arms of Macbeth's soldiers, who were fighting for the king, as rebellious.
18. Line 57: Curbing his LAVISH spirit.— Compare II. Henry IV. iv. 4 C2-04:
1 • r when his headstrong riot hath no curb. When rage and hot blood are his counsellors, When means and lavish manners meet together.
19 Line 69: Swcno— "There is near Forres a remark- able monument with Runic inscriptions, popularly called 'Sweno'i stum-,' and supposed to commemorate the de- feat of the Norweyians" (Clarendon Press edd.).
ACT I. Scene 3.
liilinshed's narrative of the meeting of Macbeth and
Banquo with the witches is as follows: "Shortly after
happened a straonge and vncouth wonder, whiche after-
warde was the cause of muche trouble in the realine of
■ • shall after heare. It fortuned as Makbeth
inquho tourneyed towarde Fores, where the king as
then lay, they went sporting by the way togither without
other companie, sane only themselues, passing through
the woodes and field. is, when sodenly in the middes of a
lanndi ,' thi re met them iij. women in Btraungedt ferlyi
apparell, resembling creatures of an elder worlde, whom
when they atteiitiinly behelde, wondering much at the
it, The first of them spake & sayde: All hayle Mak-
i Lawn,
2 Wonderful.
beth Thane of Glammis (for he had lately entred into that dignitie and office by the death of his father Synel.) The .ij. of them said: Hayle Makbeth Thane of Cawder: but the third sayde: All Hayle Makbeth that hereafter shall be king of Scotland.
" Then Banqubo, what maner of women (saith he) are you, that seeme so litle fauourable vnto me, where as to my fellow here, besides highe offices, yee assigne also the kingdome, appointyng foorth nothing for me at all? \ es sayth the firste of them, wee promise greater benefices vnto thee, than vnto him, for he shall reygne in deede, but with an vnluckie ende: neyther shall he leaue any issue behinde him to succeede in his place, where3 con- trarily thou in deede shalt not reygne at all, but of thee those shall be borne whiche shall gouerne the Scottishe kingdome by long order of continuall discent. Herewith the foresayde women vanished immediatly out of theyr sight. This was reputed at the first but some vayne fan- tasticall illusion by Makbeth and Ban<niho, in so niuche that Banquho would call Makbeth in ieste kyng of Scot- land, and Makbeth againe would call him in Bporte like- wise, the father of many kings. But afterwards the com- mon opinion was, that these women were eyther the weird sisters, that is (as ye would say) ye Goddesses of destinie. or els some Ximphes or Feiries, endewed with knowledge of prophesie by their Nicromanticall science, bicause euery thing came to passe as they had spoken.
"For shortly after, the Thane of Cawder being con- demned at Fores of treason against the king committed, his landes, linings and offices were giuen of the kings liberalise vnto Makbeth.
"The same night after, at supper Banquho iested with him and sayde, now Makbeth thou haste obtayned those things which the twoo former sisters prophesied, there remayneth onely for thee to purchase4 that which the third sayd should come to passe.
' ' Wherevpon Makbeth reuoluing the thing in his miude, began euen then to deuise howe he mighte attayne to the kingdome: but yet hee thought with himselfe that he must tary a time, whiche shoulde aduaunce him thereto (by the diuine prouidence) as it had come to passe in his former preferment" (Reprint, vol. v. pp. 268, 269).
20. Line 6: " AROINT thee, witch!" the RUMP-FED EOKTOH cries. — The phrase aroint thee is used by Shakespeare in Lear, iii. 4. 129: aroint thee, witch, aroint thee I In botb passages it must have the same meaning. The etymolog] of the wok! may be doubtful, but not the signification. All the commentators quote Ray's Glossary.5 " Rynt ye; by your leave, stand handsomly. As Rynt you Witch, quoth Besse Locket to her Mother, Proverb, Cheshire." Xares (sub voce) says: "A lady well acquainted with the dialect of Cheshire, informed me that it is still in use there. For example, if the cow presses too close to the maid who i- milking her, she v. ill give the animal a push, Baying at the same time, "Roini thee/'" Halliwell (Provincial and
3 Whereas. 4 Acquire.
5 Commonly so called. The title is "A Collection of English Words,
generally used, with their Significations and Original, In two
Alphabetical Catalogues," &c. The twofold division is into words
in the Northern and Southern counties Rynt is among the
Northern words.
404
ACT I. Scene 3.
NOTES TO MACI'.KTII.
ACT I. Scene 3.
Archaic Diet, sub voce) says a more plausible derivation is from "the Latin averrunco, the participle of which may have been formed into aroint, in the same way that punetum has become point; junetum, joint" Andrews defines averrunco as "A very ancient word, peculiar to the Ian g. of religion: To avert, hinder, remove; " quoting, among other instances, Cicero's Letters to AtticusO, 2. A: "quorum (prodigiorum) averruneandorum causa sup- plicationes senatus decrevit." The word is most pro- bably the same as arongt found on an old drawing of Christ's visit to Hell (commonly called "the harrowinge of hell"), the words "Out out arongt," being addressed to our Lord by Satan.
As to rump-fed the meaning of this epithet has always presented great difficulties to the commentators. I can- not think that it means "fed on the best part of the meat." Steevens makes out a good case for believing that the rump was included with the kidneys, &c, amongst the perquisites of the kitchen (see Var. Ed. vol. xi. pp. 30, 31); and therefore rump-fed would be equivalent to " fed on scraps, or offal," or perhaps to "grossly fed." Taking ronyon to mean, as it undoubtedly does, "a mangy or scabby person" (from the French rogneux), rump-fed (in that sense) would be a very appropriate epithet; but then people, when they are using terms of abuse, are not always very particular as to their appropriateness. Nares is very decided in favour of taking rump-fed as meaning simply "fat-rumped," and Schmidt agrees with him. Dyce favours the meaning of "nut-fed;" he quotes from Kilian's Diet. " Rompe. Nux myristica vilior, cassa, in- anis. " It is worth mentioning, in connection with this word, that I came across a very curious expression in an old book called the Fardle of Facions, published at London in 1555, and reprinted by Goldsmid in the Bookworms' Garner (Edinburgh, 1S88). In the 8th chapter, where the author is describing the manners of the people of Ynde, he says: "Theihauemany wiues. . . . Some to serve them as their vndrelynges, and some for pleasure and issue. Whiche maie neuerthelesse vse bottoke banquetyng abrode (for any lawe or custome there is to restreine theim) excepte their housebandes by fine force, can compelle them to kepe close" (vol. iii. p. 67). If the forcible expression "but- tock-banqueting " had any vulgar synonym, the meaning of rump-fed would not be very far to seek; aud perhaps, considering the moral character rightly or wrongly at- tributed to most sailors' wives, would not be an inappro- priate epithet of abuse.— F. A. M.
21. Line 7 : master o' the Tiger. — Compare Twelfth Night, v. 1. 65:
And this is he that did the Tiger board.
The Clarendon Press edd. give several references to ships of that name in contemporary documents.
22. Line 8: But in a sieve I'll thither sail— Steevens quotes an instance of witches going to sea in a sieve from a pamphlet entitled Newes from Scotland: Declaring the damnable Life of Doctor Fian, a notable Sorcerer who was burned at Edinbrough in Januarie last, 1591; &c: "all they together went by sea, each one in a riddle or cive." Scot, in his Discoverie of Witchcraft, tells us that some affirm of witches that " they can go in and out at awger
holes, .V sail.' in an Bgge shell, a cockle or muscle shell through and under the tempestuous sea- ( loan hit, 1 386
23. Line 9: And, like a rat without a tail.— Steevens says "that though a witch could assume the form of anj animal she pleased, the tail would still be wanting" (\ U Ed. vol. xi. p. 32). He then goes on to state 'the reasons given by some of the old writers.' l cannot And anything on this subject in Reginald Scot's liiscoverie of 'Witch- craft, though he has a great deal to say about tb.- trans- formation of witches (book v.). InThiselton Dyer's Folk Lore of Shakespeare (p. 30) the author says: " In German legends and traditions, we find frequent notice of witches, assuming the form of a cat, and displaying their fiendish character in certain diabolical acts. It was, howeri the absence of the tail that only too often was the ca of the witch being detected in her disguised form." That horrible creature of superstition, the were-wolf, or human being changed into a wolf, was distinguished by having no tail. The most usual form for a witch to take was that of a cat, or wolf, or mouse, or goat, sometimes of ;! hare, not very often of a rat; though rati have always been looked upon as uncanny creatures and connected, more or less, with the devil. The only historical demon- rat that I remember is that one in Dickens's amusing article Nurses' Stories, in The Uncommercial Traveller. How that diabolical animal persecuted the unfortunate Chips will be remembered by readers of that amusing work. Capell suggests another explanation of without a
tail, that, as tails are the rudders of such animals as the
water-rat, the witch means she could do without a rudder
as well as sail in a sieve.— F. A. M.
24. Line 15: And the very 2wts they BLOW; i.e. blow upou. Compare Love's Labour 's Lost, iv. 3. 109:
Air, quoth he, thy cheeks may blow.
Pope changes ports into points.
25. Line 20: pent-house lid.— Malone compares Dek- ker, The Gull's Hornbook, ch. iii. :" The two eyes are the glasse windowes at which light disperses itselfe into every roome, having goodly penthouses of hair to overshaddow them" (Reprint, 1812, pp. 78, 79).
26. Lines 22, 23:
Weary se'nnights nine times nine Shall he dwindle, peak, and pine.
Few of the enchantments of witchcraft arc more popu- larly known than that which consisted in placing a waxen image before a fire; as the wax melted, the body of the victim wasted away. See Two Gentlemen, note 53: Much Ado, note 107. Compare Webster, Duchess of Malfy. iv. 1, vol i. pp. 262, 262. The immediate suggestion for these lines was probably the passage in Holinshed telling of the bewitching of King Duff.
27 Line 32: The WEIRD sisters. -The Kf. have nryicard, which Theobald changed to weird. Holinshed, in telling the story of Macbeth's encounter, gives some account of "these women." which we have quoted in the note at the beginning of this scene. The word weird comes from the Anglo-Saxon wyrd, fate.
40.")
one 3.
NOTES TO MACBETH.
ACT I. Scene 4.
28 Line 30: Forres.— ¥t have Soris. Holinshed tells us that Macbeth and Banquowere journeying "toward , whore the King then lay."
29. Line 46: your BEARDS.— Beards, it seems, were supposed to belong to witches. Staunton compares Beau- mont and Fletcher, Honest Man's Fortune, ii. 1:
And the women that Come to us, for disguises must wear beards; And that 's, they say, a token of a witch.
— Works, vol. ii. p. 479.
<\mipare Dekker, Honest Whore,1 Part I. iv. 1: "Some women have beards; marry, they are half -witches" (Works, vol. ii. p. 59).
30. Lines 48-50: This triple prophecy is taken almost word for won! from Holinshed. See extract at the be- ginning of this scene.
31. Line 66: Of noble having. — Compare Twelfth Night, iii. 4. 379: " my having is not much;" and Merry Wives, iii. 2. 73: "The gentleman is of no having."
32. Line 71: By SlNEL's death I know I am thane of Glam is.— Holinshed gives the name of Macbeth's father as Sinel. It is otherwise given as Finleg, or Finlay, and Sinane; and in Fordun's Scotichronicon, bk. iv. c. 44 (quoted by the Clarendon Press edd.) Macbeth is called •■ Machabeus Alius Finele."
33. Line 81: corporal. —Shakespeare uses corporal in several places, never "corporeal." " Incorporal" occurs in Hamlet, iii. 4. 118; see note on that passage.
34. Lines 84, 85:
Or have we eaten on the Insane root That takes the reason prisoner f
The insane root, or root producing insanity, may mean hemlock; henbane, or some other herb. Steevens quotes Greene's Never Too Late, 1610: " You have eaten of the p 'ts of hemlock, that makes men's eyes conceit strange objects; and Douce cites Batman I'ppon Bartholome de Proprietatibua Serum, lib. ivii. ch. 87: Henbane . . . illi d Insana, mad. tor the use thereof is perilous; for if it be eate or dronke, it breedeth madnesse, or slow hk. ii. ssc ,,f sleepe. Therefore this heart) is called com- monly Mirilidium, tor it taketb away wit and reason."
35. Line !«',: Nothing afeard. — Afeard, now a vulgar- i-ni of constant occurrence among the lower classes, was formerly as legitimate a word as afraid. See i. 7. 39, and v. i. 42, below. Coles, in Ids Latin Dictionary, renders
■,./ by "pavidus, timidus."
36. Lines 97, 98:
As thick as HAIL
Came post with post. Yt. have
.iv thick as Tate Can prist with post.
The reading in the text, now generally accepted, is Rowe's emendation. at tale has not been without its
1 This play, '.n the authority of Henslowe, was the joint work of Dekker and Middletnn, and will be found in Dyce's Middleton's Works, vol. iii., where it is divided into acts and scenes. In the edi- tion of Dekkcr's works it is not so divided.
406
defenders, who consider thick to mean fast, and talc to be used in the sense of "the tale of bricks," Exodus v. 18, and the expression thus to mean that the men arrived as fast as they could be told. The expression seems very awkward, and is most unlikely to have been used.
37 Line 106: In which ADDITION, hail.— Addition is a technical term for title. See Troilus and Cressida, note 28.
38. Line 112: line.— Compare I. Henry IV. ii. 3. 86: "To line his enterprise;" and Henry V. ii. 4. 7:
To line and new repair our towns of war.
39. Line 120: trusted HOME.— Compare Cymbeline, iv. 2. 328: "That confirms it home;" Measure for Measure, iv. 3. 148; All 's Well, v. 3. 4; Tempest, v. 1. 71.
40. Line 135: Whose horrid image doth unfix my hair. —Compare II. Henry VI. iii. 2. 318:
Mine hair befix'd on end, as one distract ;
and Hamlet, iii. 4. 121, 122:
Your bedded hair, like life in excrements, Starts up and stands on end.
41. Line 136: my SEATED /tear*.— Compare Milton, Para- dise Lost, vi. 644:
From their foundations loosening to and fro They pluck'd the seated hills.
42. Line 137: Present FEARS; i.e. objects of fear, as in Midsummer Night's Dream, v. 1. 21, 22:
Or in the night, imagining some fear. How easy is a bush suppos'd a bear!
43. Line 140: my sinole state of man. — " Macbeth
means his simple condition of human nature" (Singer). " ' Single ' here bears the sense of iveak; my feeble govern- ment (or body politic) of man" (Staunton). "Man is compared to a kingdom or state, which may he described as single, when all faculties are at one, or act in unison, undistracted by conflicting emotions" (Clarendon Press edd.). Compare Julius Caesar, ii. 1. 63-69.— Function, later in this line, means "the active faculties." Compare Othello, ii. 3. 354.
44. Line 147: Time and the hour runs through the roughest day.— Time and the hour seems to be a proverbial expression, meaning Time and opportunity. Dyce quotes Michelangelo, Sonnet xix:
Ferminsi in un momento il tempo e Core.
45. Line 148: Worthy Macbeth, we stay upon your leisure. —Compare All 's Well, iii. 5. 48:
I thank you, and will stay upon your leisure.
46. Line 149: Give me your favour.— Compare Tempest,
iv. 1. 204:
Good my lord, give tne thy favour still.
ACT I. Scene 4.
47. Line 1: A re. -This is the reading of F. 2. P. 1 has Or.
48. Lines 26, 27:
Which do but what thri/ should by doing every thing
SAFE toward your lore and honour. Safe, as the Clarendon Press edd. note, is still used pro- vincially for " sure, certain." Compare such a phrase as,
ACT I. Scene 4.
NOTES TO MACBETH.
ACT I. Scene 5.
"He 's safe to do that." Schmidt queries: "Everything that is sure to show you love and honour? Or everything consistent with the love and honour we bear you? An expression undoubtedly strained and obscure on purpose. "
49. Lines 37-39:
We will establish our estate upon Our eldest, Malcolm; whom tee name hereafter The Prince of Cumberland. This enactment of Duncan, which of course destroyed Macbeth's chance of succession, is given in Holinshed, who also notes its effect upon the mind and plans of Mac- beth. "But shortely after it chaunced that king Duncane hauing two sonnes by his wife which was the daughter of Sywarde Earle of Northumberland, he made the elder of them clepedi Malcolme prince of Cumberlande, as it were thereby to appoint him his successor in the king- dome, immediatly after his deceasse.
" Makbeth sore troubled herewith, for that he sawe by this meanes his hope sore hindered, (where 2 by the olde lawes of the realme, the ordinance was, that if he that shoulde succeede were not of able age to take the charge vpou himself e, he that was nexte of bloud vnto him, shoulde be admitted) he beganne to take counsell howe he might vsurpe the kingdome by force, hauing a iuste quarell so to do (as he tooke the mater,) for that Duncane did what in him lay to defraude him of all maner of title and clayme, whiche hee mighte in tyme to come, pretende vnto the crowne " (Reprint, vol. v. p. 269).
50. Line 45: I'll be myself the HARBINGER.— Harbinger is used here in the technical sense, not merely with the general meaning of forerunner. The harbinger, say the Clarendon Press edd., was " an officer of the royal house- hold, whose duty it was to ride in advance of the king and procure lodgings for him and his attendants on their arrival at any place. "
ACT I. Scene 5.
51. Line 6: missives; i.e. messengers. — The word is used again by Shakespeare in Antony and Cleopatra, ii. 2. 72-74:
you Did pocket up my letters, and with taunts Did gibe my missives out of audience.
All-hail'd. Florio translates salutare, "to salute, to greet, to alhaile."
52. Lines 23-26:
thou 'dst have, great Glamis,
That which cries " Thus thou must do, if thou have it; " And that which rather thou dost fear to do Than wishest should be undone. In F. 1 this passage is printed thus:
Thould'st haue, great Glamys, that which cryes. Thus thou must doe, if thou haue it ; And that which ratliA thou do'st feare to doe, Then wishest should be vndone.
Modern editors print the passage after cries in inverted commas, or in italics, partly or wholly; some putting the second quotation mark after have it, and some at the end of the sentence after undone. It is very difficult to de-
1 Called.
- Whereas.
cide which is the better arrangement of these two. The first That which must refer to the CrOWD, which is sup- posed to say to Macbeth: " Thus thou mutt do, if thou wouldest have me." Johnson, who is followed by some editors, altered it to inc. If the whole passage is Included in inverted commas, then the second that which must be governed by the do in the line above.
As to the phrase if thou have it, we should doubtless rather expect "if thou would' si have it; " but Shakespeare might well seek to avoid too many icoulds and shoulde in the sentence; and, taking if thou have it to equal " if thou art to have it," the omission <>f the auxiliary verb adds to the force of the passage; the use of the present tense makes more real the fact of possession, anticipating, as it were, the steps that are to lead to it. If we are to suppose lines 25, 26 to be Lady Macbeth's own comment, and not part of the supposed cry of the half personified crown, then the meaning of them will be clear, namely, "What thou must do to attain thy end is that which rather thou dost fear to do," itc, and perhaps the sim- plest emendation which has been proposed is "And that's ivhat" instead of And that which. It seems better, on the whole, not to include lines 25, 26 between inverted commas. Indeed the Folio is perhaps right in printing the passage without any at all, and with no italics ; as the personification of the crown is so imperfectly carried out. Very probably there may have been some corrup- tion in the text through the occurrence of the two words That ivhich close together. By a very slight alteration we might make the passage perfectly clear, if we read:
Thus thou must do if thou have it An act which rather thou dost fear to do, &c. — P, A. M.
53. Lines 26, 27:
Hie thee hither,
That I may pour my spirits in thine ear. Compare Holinshed: "The woordes of the three weird sisters also, (of whome before ye have heard) greatly encouraged him herevnto, but specially his wife lay sore vpon him to attempt the thing, as she that was very ambitious brenning in vnquenehable desire to beare the name of a Queene" (vol. v. p. 269).
54. Line 30: fate and metaphysical aid.— The word metaphysical, used by Shakespeare only here, means supernatural. Minsheu has " Metafisica, things super- natural!, the metaphisickes." S. Walker quotes Ford, The Broken Heart, i. iii. (ed. Dyce, vol. i. 233):
The metaphysics are but speculations Of the celestial bodies.
55. Line 34: Would have inform'D.— Inform d is here used absolutely; or perhaps we should rather say ellipti- cally, me being understood. In ii. 1. 48 below informs is used absolutely, but in a somewhat dilf erent sense. In Mac beth's soliloquy, where it means "takes form. " The i 'laren don Press edd. seem to think that the sense of the word in the two passages is the same. The word inform is used without object of the person in Richard II. ii. 1. 242, and Coriolanus, i. 6. 42.
56. Line 43: top-full— Top-full, full to the brim, is used by Shakespeare again in King John, iii. 4. ISO:
Now that their souls are tof/ull of offence.
407
ACT I. Scene 5.
NOTES TO MACBETH.
ACT I. Scene
57 Line 45: Stop up the access and passage to kkmorse. —Remort* here means compunction, pity, not the "ayen- blte of imvyt " The meaning is very frequent in Shake- speare. Compare Measure for Measure, v. 1. 100:
My sisterly remorse confutes mine honour.
58 Line 48: The effect and IT.— So F. 3; F. 1, F. 2 have hit
59. Line 50: SIGHTLESS substances.— Compare Measure for Measure, iii. 1. 124:
To he ri on I in the viewless winds;
the invisible \\imls, as here is meant the invisible forms
60. Line 54: Nor heaven peep through the blanket of the dark.— Steevens quotes Drayton, Mortimeriadoa, 1596:
The sullen night in mistie riigge is wrapp'd j
which appears in the later version in the Barons' Wars, l.k. iii. 1. 129:
The sullen night had her Mart curtain spread.
C M. Ingleby (Notes and Queries, 1853, vii. 546) very aptly quotes the well-known passage iu Sartor Resartus (i>k. i. ch. iii), "Oh, under that hideous coverlet of vapours," A-c; and see later, " Such work goes on under that sui' >ke-counterpane ! "
61. Line 58: This ignorant present, aiid I feel now.— Perhaps a word has dropped out. Pope read present time, ami Hunter suggested e'en now.
62. Lines 64, 65 :
to beguile the time,
Look like the time. The Clarendon I'ress edd. quote Richard III. v. 3. 91, 92:
I, as I may,— that which I would I'cannot, — With best advantage will deceive the time;
delude observers. Steevens quotes Daniel, Civil War-. l,k. viii. 1. 709:
He drawes a Trauerse 'twixt his greeuances : Loots like the time: his eye made not report Of what he felt within.
ACT I. Scene 6.
63. Line 4: The temple-haunting martlet.— This is Rowe's emendation of the Barlet of Ef. Compare Mer- chant of Venice, ii. 9. 28, 29:
like the martlet. Builds in the weather on the outward wall.
Hunt r quotes Braithwaite's survey of History, 1638: "As the martin will not bnfld hut in fair houses, so this man will not live but In the ruins of honour." See Merchant of Venice, note 190.
64 Line 6: montionry. If. have mansonry, which Theobald changed to mantioniry, a word which is not found elsewhere.
65 Line 9: When they Most breed and haunt. — Most is Howe's correction of the must of Wt
66. Line 13: Ood 'ild.—God 'ild, a common contrac- tion of <;,,d y ward), is need by Shakespeare in As You Like It, iii :i 76: "Ood'Ud yon for your last com- pany, again in v. 4. 56: "Ood'Ud you. sir;" ami in Ham- let, iv 6, 4\ In Antony and Cleopatra, iv. 2. 33, it is used (lis
in its uncontracted form: "the gods yield you for't." Steevens quotes a similar use of the expression in the metrical romance of Guy of Warwick. It was often spelt God dild, as in Sir John Oldcastle, passim. See quota- tions in Nares, sub voce.
67. Line 16: poor and single business.— Compare Tem- pest, i. 2. 432: "A single thing, as 1 am."
68. Line 22: To be his ptJrveyor.— The Clarendon Press edd. quote Cotgrave: "Pourveyour: m. a prouider, a pur- veyor," and add: "He was sent before to provide food for the king and suite as the harbinger provided lodging."
69. Line 23: holp.— Compare Richard II. v. 5. 62.
70. Line 26: in compt. — This is the usual reading for the passage in Timon of Athens, ii. 1. 35, which the Ff. obviously distort. Compt is used in All's Well, v. 3. 57, and Othello, v. 2. 273.
ACT I. Scene 7.
71. Stage-direction: Enter . . . a Sewer.— Boyer, in his French Dictionary, has "Sewer. A Gentlemau Sewer (or Carver), Un Eeuyer tranchant." The name was generally
applied to the head servant who directed the placing of the dishes on the table. The office at court (perhaps equivalent to cup-bearer) was anything but a mean one. Thomas Carew is described on the title-page of his poems as Saver to Charles I. The word is variously derived from essayeur and escuyer.
72. Lines 1-3:
If it were done when 7 is done, then 'twere well. 'T were done quickly if th' assassination Could trammel up the consequence.
In F. 1 the passage is punctuated thus:
If it were done, when tis done, then 'twer well, It were done quickly: If th' Assassination Could trammel vp the Consequence.
This passage has caused much discussion. We may reject at once the unnecessarily commonplace interpretation of the first part of the speech "If it should be done at all when I do it, it would be well to do it quickly." There can be no doubt that the first done here has the sense which it often has in Shakespeare of "finished," "ended once for all." We here follow Grant White and an anony- mous writer in the Boston Review, quoted by Furness (Ap- pendix to vol. on Macbeth, pp. 441-443), in putting a full stop after well and joining It were done quickly to the next sentence. Kemble (ed. 1803) read the passage thus; and so does M iv 1 1 ving. The only point on which I am doubtful is whether It were done quickly should form part of the same sentence as the rest of line 3 and the following one (line 4). Let us look at the passage in F. 1 and see whether the punctuation there will help us. It certainly seems to me that it is difficult to get over the fact of the colon after quickly, and of If being printed with a capital letter. Both these facts seem to leave no doubt that the author's intention was that there should be a decided pause after quickly; and I would venture to suggest that the passage should be read thus:
If it were done when 't is done, then 't were well:
Ii were done quickly: if the assassination
ACT I. Scene
NOTES TO MACBETH.
ACT I. Scene
the speaker pausing slightly after the first done (I take it that the comma in F. 1 is meant to indicate this); the next sentence /( were done quickly stands by itself, and is equivalent to " In that case I should do it quickly, with- out hesitation." This arrangement seems to me, while not disregarding the punctuation of the Folio, at the same time to preserve what I may call the meditative aspect of the speech, which is somewhat lessened by run- ning the words It were done quickly into either the sen- tence before or the sentence after it.— F. A. M.
73. Lines 6, 7:
But heir, upon this bank and SHOAL of time,
We 'd JUMP the life to come. Shoal is Theobald's emendation; Ff. read schoole. Jump means hazard, as in Cymbeliue, v. 4. 188: "jump the after inquiry on your own peril." See also Coriolanns, iii. 1. 154. Jump is sometimes used (like skip) for pass over without notice: so here, "AYe would pass over (and so risk) the thought of the future life."
74. Line 11: ingredients. — "The Folios, both here and iv. 1. 34, have ingredience, and it is not unlikely that Shakespeare so wrote the word, using it in the sense of 'compound,' 'mixture'" (Clarendon Press edd.).
75. Lines 22, 23:
heaven's CHERUBIN hors'd
Upon the sightless couriers of the air. Malone quotes the Prayer-Book Version of Psalm xviii. 10: "He rode upon the cherubim and did fly; he came flying upon the wings of the wind." Many editors follow Jennens in reading cherubim. Sightless, as in i. 5. 50, means invisible.
76. Line 25: That tears shall dromi the wind. — Compare Troilus and C'ressida, iv. 4. 55:
Where are my tears? rain, to lay this "wind.
77. Lines 27, 28:
Vaulting ambition, which o'erleaps itself,
And falls on the other. In Fumess' New Variorum Ed. may be read two or three pages(pp. 73-75)of contradictory comment on this passage. Hanmer's addition of side makes decidedly easier sense and metre alike in the most perplexing part of the puzzle. But I am inclined to think that Steevens is right in hold- ing that Shakespeare, having used the word sides two lines above, would not have written side here. I think, too, that side was meant to be understood, and that Mac- beth is supposed to connect the word he has just used with the word he now has in his mind. The break in the metre comes very naturally at the entrance of Lady Macbeth.
78. Lines 35, 36:
Was the hope drunk
Wherein you dress'd yourself? hath it slept since? Compare King John, iv. 2. 116, 117:
O, where hath our intelligence been drii7ik t Where hath it slept !
79. Line 45: Like the poor cat i' th' adage. — "Catus ainatpisces, sed non vult tingere plantas;" or, as Hey wood gives it (Proverbs, 1562): "The cat would eate fyshe, and would not wet her feete."
80 Linea 46, 47:
/ dare do all that may become a man;
Wlm dares do more is none. Ff. read '• an nn. re ;" the emendation, as sure a one as was ever made, is due to Rowe. Compare If easure for Mea- sure, ii. 4. 134, 135:
Be that you arc. That is, a woman; if you be more, you 're twne.
81. Line 47: What BEAST was't, then, Ac— The Collier MS.'s emendation, boast, for the admirably appropriate beast of the Ff., is surely one of the unhappiest effoi I the respected Corrector. Macbeth has just said thai one who would do more than becomes a man is none. " What beast was't, then," retorts his wife, " that broke the en- terprise to me?"
82. Line 59:
Macb. If ice should fail—
Lady M. We fail.
These two words of Lady Macbeth 11 V fail are capable, as Mrs. Siddons showed, of three separate and distinct in- terpretations. In F. 1 there is a note of interrogation after We fail, in which case the actress can only speak the words as if scornfully asking the question; or, putting a note of exclamation after the words, she may then treat them as a contemptuous interjection; or with simply a full stop after fail — which is, perhaps, the preferable reading, — the words will mean "We fail, and there's an end of it." Some commentators object to Lady Macbeth admitting even the possibility of failure in the then un- settled state of her husband's resolution. But the admis- sion is instantly qualified:
But screw your courage to the sticking-place. And we '11 not fail;
her meaning being, " You are not alone in this business; you and I are to carry it out. I am not afraid of doing my part; it is for you to screw your courage up to the same point of resolution as mine, and failure is impos- sible." Admitting this interpretati Lady Macbeth
should emphasize your. She might, if she prefers to speak the words We fail as a contemptuous exclamation, also emphasize We; giving thereby to the words the mean- ing "You forget I am with you; alone you might fail, but together we cannot fail. "— F. a. U.
83. Line 60: But screw your courage to the STICKING- PLACE.— A metaphor perhaps taken " from the sorwing- up the chords of string instruments to their proper degree of tension, when the peg remains fast in its *ticki>io-placc, i.e. in the place from winch it is not to move " (Steevens). Compare Twelfth Night, v. 1. 125, 126:
And that I partly know the instrument
That scre7i>s me from my true place in your favour ;
and see also Coriolanus, i. S. 11, and Troilus and C'ressida, iii. 3. 22-25.
84. Line 64: ICOSSaU. — WassaU comes from the Anglo- Saxon waes hael, ' ' be of health. " Singer quotes Bullokar's Expositor, 1616: "Wassaile, a term usual heretofore for quajfing and curowsing."
85. Line 64: convince; /.<'. the Latin convincere, to over- power, as in iv. 3. 142 below.
4U! »
ACT I. Boene
NOTES TO MACBETH.
ACT II. Scene 1.
86. Line 07: limbeck.— This is a corrupt form of the i alembic, a still. The Clarendon Press edd. quote
Fairfax. Tasso. bk. iv. st. 75:
This streaming nectar fell, ' Still' J through the limbeck of her diamond eyes.
87. Lino 72: quell. — This word, meaning murder, is not met with elsewhere, though man-queller is used in II. Hrnry IV. ii 1. 6S. Queh and kill are both from the same root, the Anglo-Saxon civcllan. X ares quotes two examples <>f quell as a verb, in which form it was more common.
88. Lines SO, 81:
/ am nettled, and bend up Each corporal agent to this terrible feat.
The metaphor in bend up is from the stringing of a bow. The same figure is used in Henry V. in. 1. 16. 17:
Hold hard the breath and bend up every spirit To his full height.
ACT II. Scene 1.
89. Line 5: Their candles are all out.— So in Romeo and Juliet, iii. 5. 9: " Night's candles are burnt out." Shake- speare also compares the stars to candles in the Merchant <>f Venice, v. 1. 220:
For, by these blessed candles of the night ; and Sonnet xxi. 12:
As those gold candles fix'd in heaven's air.
90. Line 14: Sent forth great largess to your OFFICES. — Rowe took offices to be a misprint for officers, and he has been followed by many editors. Steevens, however, seems to have been right in saying that " Offices are the rooms appropriated to servants and culinary purposes." Compare Richard II i 2. 69, and see note 56 of that play.
91. Lines 15-17:
This diamond he greets your wife withal,
By the name </ most kind hostess; and shut up
/ measureless content
In Ff. the passage is printed thus:
This Diamond he grcetcs your Wife withall, By the name ofni'^t kiiul Hostesse, Ami shut up in measurclesse content.
Macbeth'! first words in the following speech. Being un- prepar'd, form a broken line by themselves. I much pre- fer the arrangement of the Folio, and do not know what induced commentators at first to meddle with it at all. The difflcnlty here is as to the exact meaning of a/id shut up. Borne hoM thai it means "and concluded," i.e. the examples of the use of the word in this sense are plentiful, eg. in Spenser's Fairy Queen, bk. iv. c. ix. *t. 1 ' vail in friendly love." Others take it to
mean that the king, uBoswell expresses it, was "enclosed In content;" and he quotes a paaaage from narrow's Ser- mon-. 1688 (VOL ii. p. 231): "Hence is a man shut up in an Irksome bondage of spirit.'' Line 17, as it stands in F 1.
And shut up in measureless content,
wants a syllable, which F. 2 supplied by printing "And shut it up;" explained thus by Hunter: " I'ndoubtedly "
410
shut up "the jewel in its case." This is practical, but scarcely poetical. If the missing syllable is to be supplied at all— and it is really needless to instance omissions by Shakespeare of the auxiliary verb— I would propose "And if shut up," taking Boswell's explanation of the word-. We must remember that Duncan has retired to rest, and the sentence is really equivalent to " has retired to rest immeasurably contented with his reception. "— F. A. M.
92. Line 25: // you shall cleave to my consent.— Schmidt takes consent here to mean "vote, voice, coun- sel;" Steevens takes itfmore reasonably, as I think) in the force of the Latin concentus, or agreement together in a party, quoting II. Henry IV. v. 1. 78: " they flock together in consent (i.e. in a party), like so many wild geese." Tak- ing consent in this sense, the meaning of the passage would be: "If you adhere to my party, your doing so shall make honour for you when the result is attained." See Furness, New Variorum, pp. 87, 88, for enough con- jectures and contradictory explanations.
93. Line 46: And on thy blade and dudgeon gouts of blood. — The dudgeon means the handle of a dagger. The word was used of handles made of box. Gerarde, Her- ball, 1597, p. 1225, says: " Turners and cutlers, if I mis- take not the matter, do call this woode [the root of the box-tree] dudgeon, whence they make dudgeon halted daggers." The Clarendon Press edd. quote Cotgrave: " Dague d roelles. A Scottish dagger; or Dudgeon haft dagger."[ Gout, the anglicized form of Fr. goutte, is only used by Shakespeare in this passage in its original sense; but gout, the disease, which occurs four or five times in Shakespeare, is supposed to be the same word (see Skeat sub Gout).— F. A. M.]
94. Line 53: Alarum'd 6;/ hissentinel, the wolf.— Alarum is again used as a verb in Lear, ii. 1. 55. " 'Alarum' is formed from the French alarme, Italian alarma, a new syllable being introduced between the two liquids The original word was doubtless Italian, dffarme" (Clarendon Press edd.).
95. Line 55: With Tarquin's ravishing strides.— Ff read sides. The very happy emendation in the text, fol- lowed by most editors, is Pope's. It has been baselessly objected that neither a ravisher nor a ghost would ad vance by strides, which, says Knight, "does not convey the notion of stealthy and silent movement." But the word is used in just this sense in Richard II. i. 3. 268; and in The Rape of Lucrece, line 365, Shakespeare had already described Tarqnin as stalking into the chamber. Grant White well says, "Pope's emendation will seem very happy to every cautious person who has stepped through a sick chamber, or any apartment in which there were sleepers whom he did not wish to awaken, and who remembers how he did it."
96. Line 56: Thou sure and firm-set earth.— Sure w:<- flrst introduced into the text by Capell, upon the con- jecture of Pope. 1". 1 has soicre. Sure might very likely, as Collier observes, have been written in the MS. setvre, which offers itself easily to a misprint.
97. Line 57: Hear not my steps, which WAY THEY walk. —This reading is Rowe's; Ff. have "which they may walk."
ACT II. Scene 1.
NOTES TO .MACBETH.
ACT II. Scene 2.
98. Line 58: The very stones prate. — An allusion, pro- bably, to Luke xix. 40: "the stones would immediately cry out." [The whole of this magnificent soliloquy is a capital instance of the way in which Shakespeare ex- presses his stage-directions in the words of his text. The actor here needs no marginal notes ; he finds every move- ment set down in the words which he speaks. One sees the murderer abruptly arrested on his way to the chamber, where his victim lies asleep, by the phantom dagger; one sees him following it with his eyes, which are riveted on it with a questioning but horror-stricken stare ; then he endeavours to shut out the vision with his hands, and it vanishes; then he begins again to move amidst the appropriate howls of the wolves heard from the not far distant forest. His legs almost refuse to carry him; with noiseless footfall, with stealthy half-reluctant strides, he creeps to the door of the fatal chamber, whence he is to return a blood-stained murderer.— F. A. M.]
ACT II. Scene 2.
The narrative of Duncan's murder in Holinshed is very brief, as follows: "At length therefore communicat- ing his purposed intent with his trustie trends whom Ban- quho was the chiefest, vpon confidence of theyr promised ayde, he slewe the king at Enuernes, (or as some say at Botgosuane,) in the . vj. yeare of his reygne " (vol. v. p. 269): Some of the details of the murder, however, are taken from Holinshed's account, a little previously, of the mur- der of King Duft'e by Donwald. This Donwald was cap- tain of the castle of Forres, where the king "was accus- tomed to lie most commonly" when he was "in that countrie." Some relations of bis having been implicated in a rebellion, Donwald "made earnest labour and suyte to the king to haue begged theyr pardon, but hauing a playne deniall, he conceyued suche an inwarde malice towardes the king, (though he shewed it not outwardly at the firste) that the same continued still boyling in his stomake, and ceased not, till through setting on of his wife and in reuenge of such vnthankfulnesse, he founde means to murder the king within the foresayd Castell of Fores" (vol. v. p. 234). " Donwalde thus being the more kindled in wrath by the woordes of his wife, determined to follow hyr aduise in the execution of so haynous an acte. Wherevpon deuising with himselfe for a while, whiche way he might best accomplishe his cursed intention, at length he gate oportunitie and sped his purpose as followeth. It chaunced, that the king vpon the day before he purposed to departe forth of the Castell, was long in his oratorie at his prayers, and there continued till it was late in the night, at the last comming foorth lie called suche afore him, as had faithfully serued him in pursute and appre- hention of the rebelles, and giuing them hartie thankes, he bestowed sundry honorable giftes amongst them, of the which number Donwald was one, as he that had bene euer accompted a moste faithfull seruaunt to the king. At length hauing talked with them a long time, he got him into his pryuie chamber, only with two of his eham- berlaynes, who hauing brought him to bedde came foorth againe, and then fell to banqueting witli Donewald and his wife, who had prepared diuers delicate dishes, and
sundry sorts of drinke for theyr arere supper > or collation, whereat they sat vp so long, till tiny had charged theyr stomakes with suche full gorges, thai theyr headei were
no sooner got to the pyllow, but a aleepe tiny v. fast, that a man might haue remoued the chamber oner them, rather than to haue awaked them out of theyr drunken aleepe. Then Donewalde though In- abhorred
the acte greatly in his harte, yet through instigation of his wife, he called foureof hisseruants vnto him (whom he had made priuie to his wicked intent before, and framed to his purpose with large giftes) and now declaring vnto them, after what sorte they should worke the feate, they gladly obeyed his instructions, and speedely going about the murder, they enter the chamber (in which the king lay) a litle before cockes crow, where they secretely cut his throte as he lay sleeping, without any buskling1 at all" (ut supra, pp. 234, 235). Then, after describing the precautions taken to throw off the scent of the murder, tin- narrative continues: "Donewalde aboute the time that the murder was a doing, got him amongst them that kepte the watch, and so continewed in companie with them al the residue of the night. But in the morning when the noyse was reysed in the kings chamber how the king was Blaine, his body conueyed away, and the bed all berayed^ with blond, he with the watche ran thither as though he had knowen nothing of the mater, and breaking into the chamber, and finding cakes of blond in the bed & on the floore about the sides of it, he foorthwith slewe the ehamberlaynes, as giltie of that haynous murder, and then like a madde man running to and fro, hee ransacked euery corner within the castell, as though it had bene to haue seene if he might haue founde either the body or any of y mur- therers hid in any pryuie place: but at length comming to the posterne gate, & finding it open, he burdened the chamberlaines whom he had slaine with al the fault, they hauing the keyes of the gates committed to their keeping al the night, and therefore it could not be otherwise (sayd he) but that they were of counsel in the committing of that moste detestable murder. Finally suche was Ins ouer earnest diligence in the inquisition and trial! of the offendours herein, that some of the Lordes began to mis- like the mater, and to smell foorth shrewed tokens, that he shoulde not be altogither cleare himselfe: but torso much as they were in that countrey, where hee had the whole rule, what by reason of his frendes and authorise togither, they doubted to vtter what they thought till time and place shoulde better serue therevnto, and here vpon got them away euery man to his home" (ut supra, p. 235).
99. Lines 3, 4:
the fatal BELLMAN,
H7. ich ;/''<■' i '/" ttern'st goodsnight
The Clarendon Press edd. compare Webster, The Duchess
of Malfy, iv. 2-4:
I am the common bellman.
That usually is sent to condemn d persons
The night before they suffer.
100. Line 6: / have druggfd their POSSETS.— Malone quotes Handle Holmes, Academy of Armoury. 168% bk.
1 Literally, an after-supper; a late meal after the usual supper.
2 Bustling. 3 Smeared.
411
ACT 1 1
NOTES TO MACBETH.
ACT II. Scene 3.
i,i p -i. ■/',,./ i> bol milk poured on ale or sack, baring sugar, grated biaket, and eggs, with other ingre- dienta boiled in it, which goes all to a curd." It was customary to take a posset immediately before going to bed There i- an allusion to it in ii. l. 31.
101. Line 16: 1 HBABDTHB OWL omSAM and tteeridfcets cry. - Compare Ovid, Metamorphoses, x 452, 453, where, Joat aa the fated woman i - the abhorred chamber,
tcr omen Funereus bubo letali carmine fecit;
thus translated by Sandys:
The funerall OwU tlirice rent The ayre with ominous shrcekes.
— Edn. 1632, p. 34:
George Meredith, in Margaret's Bridal-Eve, Part I V ., baa a wonderfully effective use of the same figure, when the bride la going to tell her bridegroom the secret of her shame:
She heard from the woods the hooting owl.
— Modern Love, &c, 1862, p. 140.
102 Lines 35, 36:
Methought I heard a voice cry "Sleep no more!
Mar':- th does murder sleep,"— As innocent sleep, etc. This arrangement is Johnson's, and seems greatly pre- ferable to that of llaniner, who gave all the lines from " sleep " down to "feast " to the voice.
103. Line 37: Sleep that knits >'p the ravell'd sleave 0/ ears.— Ft. print sleeve, which was probably intended to mean the same as sleave. The word meaus the soft, raw, untwisted silk; it is sometimes known as floss-silk. The Clarendon Press edd. quote Florio: " Bauella, any kind of slettue or raw silke."
104. Lines 5G, 57:
J 11 oii.i> the faces of the grooms withal;
For it must seem their quilt. QUd was often employed to represent smearing with blood. Compare ii. 3. US: "golden blood; " and King John, ii 1. 316. A similar pun on guilt and gilt occurs in II II. my IV. iv. 5. 129:
England shall double gild his treble guilt.
105 Lines 62, 63:
multitudinous seas incarnadine. Making the grt • n-one red. vrnadint (from the Italian incarnadine, flesh colour) is used hi re In the sense of to dye red; the only example of the word as a verb up to the time of Shakespeare. Carew uses it in his Obsequies to the Lady Anne Hay, but do doubt with Shakespeare in mind. In the first three PI the second line is printed: Making the Greene
. !i_lit and obvious printers' error in punctuation which some editors have actually had the incredible denseness to defend and even adopt! The three and more pages on these two lines in the Variorum Shake- are, so far as I know, quite the most amusing ling in any of those volumes Whetherwatera might admit of discoloration; whether the allusion was not rath' r to the flshes, whose hue, however, "could suffer no. in the tm. t of Mood;" corrective remarks
concerning some "ingenious author "who had suggested
that " Making the green-one red" might really be the
11 -J
right reading— a construction cpuite "unexampled ; " these, and other such divagations of the learned fancy, will be fouud in these exhilarating pages. [It is evident, from the use of the capital letters to both Greene and Red in Ft., that the interpretation given above is the right one.—
F. A. M.]
ACT II. Scene 3.
106. Lines 1-47.— The authenticity of this scene, from lines 1-47, the one humorous passage in the play, has been vigorously denied and vigorously upheld. Coleridge (Notes and Lectures upon Shakespeare, 1S4'J, vol. i. p. 249) says: " This low soliloquy of the Porter, and his few speeches afterwards, I believe to have been written for the mob by some other hand, perhaps with Shakespeare's consent; and that, finding it take, he, with the remaining ink of a pen otherwise employed, just interpolated the winds, 'I'll devil-porter it no further: I had thought to have let in some of all professions, that go the primrose way to the everlasting bonfire." Of the rest not one syl- lable has the ever-present being of Shakespeare."
Against this emphatic declaration of a great poet may- be set the emphatic declaration, on the opposite side, of another great poet — Mr. Browning, who, in a letter printed in the New Shakspere Society's Transactions, atlirms his belief that the passage must have come from the hand of Shakespeare. For my part, I can see no par- ticular reason to doubt that it is Shakespeare's, while I entirely fail to see that it is a very brilliant specimen of his humour, or at all above the capacity of Middleton, to whom some would assign it. In comparison with the Grave-digger's scene in Hamlet, to which the enthusiastic advocates of the Porter's scene would compare it, the humour here is, to my mind at least, of very middling quality. But I am far from being able to see that " not one syllable has the ever-present being of Shakespeare." ( in the contrary, I think it is a roughly-written passage introduced by Shakespeare partly for the sake of dra- matic contrast, partly to provide a part for the comic actor or low comedian, the clown. [After again seeing the play acted, it is evident that some such scene is necessary here in order to give time for Macbeth and Lady Macbeth to get rid of all traces of the murder from their bands, and for the former to recover his self-possession. Davenant, who makes Macduff and Lady Macduff both -nests of Macbeth at this time, introduces a short scene between Lennox and Macduff, in which occur the follow- in- exquisite lines:
M.icd. Rising this morning early, I went to look out of my Window, and I cou'd scarce see farther than my breath; The darkness of the night brought but few objects To our eyes, but many to our ears.
— Davenant's Works, vol. v. p. 340.
This is "po'try" with a vengeance I I think most persons will prefer the Porter's prose, coarse though it be.—
)' A. M ]
107. Line 2: he should have OLD turning the keg.— Com- pare merchant of Venice, iv. 2. 15: "We shall have old swearing." for a similar use of old as an emphatic exple- tive In Anleii of Fcversham. ii. 2. p. :}4 (IUillen's reprint) we have " For heere will be ould filching when the presse comes foorth of Pan
ACT II. Scene 3.
NOTES TO MACBETH.
ACT II. So
108. Line 5: Here 's << fanner that hang'd himself on the expectation of plenty. — Malone compares Hall, Satires, iv. 0-8:
Ech inuck-wormc will be riche with lawlesse gaine, Altho he smother vp mowes of seuen yeares jjraine, And hang'd himself when corfugrtnus cheap again.
109. Line 1C: a French hose. — Stubbes, in his Anatomie of Abuses, thus describes the French hose: " The frenche- hose are of two diuers makinges, for the common frenche- hose (as they list to call them) contayneth length, breadth, and sideues sufficient, and is made very rounde. The other contayneth neither length, breadth nor sidenes (being not past a quarter of a yarde side), whereof some be paned, cut and drawne out with costly ornamentes, with Canions annexed reaching down beneath their knees " (New Shak. Soc. Reprint, p. 66). Shakespeare refers to French hose in Henry V. iii. 7. 56; and in The Merchant of Venice, i. 2. 80, Portia says: "I think he bought . . . his round hose in France."
110. Lines 21, 22: the primrose ivay to the everlasting bonfire.— Compare Hamlet, i. 3. 50: "the primrose path of dalliance;" and All's Well, iv. 5. 57: "they'll be for the flowery loay that leads to the broad gate and the great fire."
111. Line 27: the second code— See Romeo and Juliet, iv. 4. 3, 4 :
the second cock hath crow'd, The curfew-bell hath rung, 't is three o'clock.
112. Line 63: combustion.— Compare Henry VIII. v. 4. 51: "kindling such a combustion in the state." Cotgrave has " Combustion: f. A combustion, burning, or consum- ing with fire; also, a tumult; and hence Entrer en com- bustion avec. To make a stirre, to raise an uproare, to keepe an old coyle against."
113. Lines 72-74:
Most sacrilegious murder hath broke ope The Lord's anointed temple, and stole thence The life o' the building! " There is a confusion of metaphor here. Reference is made in the same clause to 1 Samuel xxiv. 10, ' I will not put forth mine hand against my lord, for he is the Lord's anointed;' and to 2 Corinthians vi. 16, 'For ye are the temple of the living God ' " (Clarendon Press edd.).
114. Line 81: Shake off this downy sleep, death's counter- feit.— Compare Midsummer Night's Dream, iii. 2. 364:
" death-counterfeiting sleep."
115. Line S5: Ring the bell.— Theobald considered this to be a mere stage-direction that had crept into the text from the prompter's book; and anumberof very respectable editors have followed him in omitting it. But it seems to me that the reiteration of the order is a very natural one, and the break in the metre not more serious than many others in the play.
116. Lines 96, 97:
Had I but died an hour before this chance, I had liv'd a blessed time.
Compare Winter's Tale, iv. 4. 472, 473:
If I might die within this hour, I have liv'd To die when I desire
117. Line 107: Their hands and face* were all iiAl>o'D with blood. — Compare n. Henry VI. iii. 2. 200: "muni. crimson badge."
118. Line IIS: His silver skin lac il with his golden blood. — See note 104 above for the likening of blood to ;/<>/./ (compare the red gold of old ballade). Johnson WOt COT tainly right in taking these curiously artificial metapho as intended to convey a sense of Macbeth's dissimulation — " the studied language of hypocrisy."
119. Lines 121, 122:
their daggers
Unmannerly breech'd with gore.
Farmer cpuotes from the 6th Dialogue of Erondelle's French Garden, 1605: "Boy, go fetch your master's silver- hatched daggers, you have not brushed their breeches, bring the brushes," &c. Douce, on the other side, ) haps preferably, takes the more familiar breeches to be meant, and that " the expression, though in itself some- thing unmannerly, simply means covered as with breech* The Clarendon Press edd. compare Twelfth Night, iii. 4. 274: "strip your sword stark naked."
120. Lines 127, 128:
What should be spoken here, where our fate,
HID IN AN AUGER-HOLE, may rush, and seize us?
Scot, Discoverie of Witchcraft, speaking of the pretended powers of witches, mentions anion- other difficult feats, "They can go in and out at awger holes" (book i. chap. 4, Reprint, p. 8). The meaning here is that our fate may be concealed in the smallest hole or cranny.
ACT II. Scene 4.
With the portents described in this scene compare Holinshed's description of those which followed the mur- der of King Dutfe: "For the space of .vj. moneths to- gither after this haynous murder thus committed, there appeared no sunne by day, nor Moone by night in any parte of the realme, but stil was the skie couered with continual clowdes, and sometimes suche outragious windes arose with lightnings and tempestes, that the people were in great feare of present destruction " (vol. v. p. 235). And again further on: " Monstrous sigh tes also that wore seene within the Scottishe kingdome that yeare wore these, horses in Lothian being of singuler beautie and swiftnesse, did eate their owne flesh, A: would in no wise taste any other meate. In Angus there was a gentle- woman brought forth a child without eyes, nose, hande, or foote. There was a Sparhauke also strangled by an Owle"((^ sajira, p. 237).
121. Line 7: And yet dark night Strangles the TRAVEL- LING lamp. -F. l, F. 2 have travailing, V.3. V. 4 train
as most editors now print. It is possible there may be an allusion to both meanings "struggling with difficulty onward." What are now two distinct words of different spelling were formerly used interchangeably, as were. eg. "metal" and "mettle."
122. Line 8: Is't night's PREDOMINANCE. — Predomi- nance is an aBtrological term, referring to the planets whose power is at its height. Compare Lear. i. 2. 134.
1 1 3
NOTES TO MACBETH.
ACT III. Scene 1.
123. Line 12: -I /otoon.TOWKBlHG inker pride of PLACE. Both towering and place are technical terms In falconry.
am " the greatest elevation which a bird of prey attains in its flight" (Gifford) Compare Masslnger, The Guardian, i. 1:
Then, for an evening flight, A tiercel gentle, which I call, my masters, As he wore sent a messenger to the moon, In such * place flies, as he so See me, or see me not ! the partridge sprung, lie makes his stoop. —Works, p. 462, vol. i.
124. Line 28: ravin i'j> - "Bavin down" is used in the same sense in Measure for Measure, i. 2. 133. See note on that past
125 Lines 31, 32:
He is already nam'd, and gone to SCONE
To b( - called the Royal City of Scone or Scoan as early as the flrst decade of the teuth century after Christ. It was Bituated a little distance to the north of the town of Perth, and is now called old Scone; New Scone being a little to the B.E. of it. nearer Perth. The Stone of Des- tiny «as transferred to Scone, from Dunstaflnage in Ar- gyleshire, by Kenneth Macalpine, soon after the founda- tion of an abbey there in 888. Many of the Scottish. kings were crowned on this stone; till Edward I., having con- quered BalioL removed it to Westminster. In a separate stipulation, at the time of the Treaty of Northampton, the stone was to be restored to Scotland; but the restoration was never carried <'Ut Sir Walter Scott tells us that it was originally brought from Ireland by " Fergus the son of Eric, who led the Dalriads to the shores of Argyle- shire." It was used at the coronation of the present Queen, the chair of Edward the Confessor being placed upon it; and it is said that at that ceremony some small frag- ments of the stone were broken off. Charles II. was crowned at Scone, as a compliment perhaps to the Scotch, January 1st, 1051. This was after the defeat of the Scotch Cavaliers by Cromwell at Dunbar, but before the more decisive battle of W -F. A. M.
126 Line 33: Colme-kill. — The meaning of this word
» is the cell or cha- pel of Bt Columba or Colum, who landed on this little island (better known as [ona) in the year 688, in order to preach Christianity. The 1 oins of the cathedral and mon- ry which were built on the island may still be seen. AH • b kin--, from Kenneth III to Macbeth in-
■ \ from nr:; to 1040, were buried at Colme-kill. " 1 •■ the Highlanders of the present day [ona Is known as ' Innlanan-Druidhneach ' or the Island of the Druids— as • [I ■ bolum chille,' or the Island of Colum, <■/ the Cell, or iglishword leolymkill is derived" ccount of Scotland, 1846, voL vii p. 313).
',. Hi
ACT III. Sunk 1,
The murder of Banquo plotted in this seen'1 ami the
next, and carried out in tlm> told in Holinshed;
and the lik>- commendable lawes, Makbeth caused
to be 1 > n t as then In vse, gouerning the realme for the
•pace of tenne yearea in equal] justice. But this was but
414
a counterfayte zeale of equitie shewed by him, partely against his natural! inclination to purchase thereby the fauour of the people, shortly after, he beganne to shews what he was, in steede of equitie practising erueltie. For the pricke of conscience (as it chaunceth euer in tyrantes, and suche as attayne to any astate by vnrightuous ineaues) caused him euer to feare, least he should be serued of the same cuppe, as he had ministred to his predecessour. The woordes also of the three weird sisters, wold not out of his mind, which as they promised him the king- dome, so lykewise did they promise it at the same time, vnto the posteritie of llanquho. He willed therefore the same Banquho with his soune named Fleaunce, to come to a supper that he had prepared for them, which was in deede, as he had deuised, present death at the handes of certaine murtherers, whome he hyred to execute that deede, appoynting them to meete with the same Banquho and his sonne without the palayee, as they returned to theyr lodgings, and there to slea them, so that he woulde not liaue his house slaundered, but that in time to come he might cleare himselfe, if any thing were layde to his charge vpon any suspition that might arise.
" It chaunced yet, by the benefite of the darke night, that though the father were slaiue, the sou yet by the helpe of almightie God reseruing him to better fortune, escaped that dauuger: and afterwaxdes hauing some back- ling (by the admonition of some frendes which he had in the courte,) howe his life was sought no lesse then his fathers, who was slavne ni >t by ehaunce medley (as by the handling of the mater Makbeth would haue had it to ap- peare,) but eueu vpon a prepensed 1 deuise, wherevpon to auoyde further perill he fledde into Wales" (Reprint, vol. v p. 271).
127. Line 10: Sennet sounded.— The Ff. print sent*. The word was variously spelt, and of frequent occurrence, in the stage-directions of old plays. See III. Henry VI. note 66.
128. Line 13: And all-thing unbecoming.— "The ad jectives all, each, both, every, other, are sometimes inter- changed, and used as pronouns in a manner ditferentfrom modern usage. In this instance ' all' is used for every" (Abliott, Sh. Grammar, § 12). HI win quotes the Hymn in the Compline from Henry the Eighth's Primer:
0 Lordc, tlie maker of all-thing. We pray the nowe in the evening.
129. Lines 41-44:
Let every man be master of his time Till seven "' night; >•> make society The sir, me, we fill keep ourself
Till supper-tinu I he punctuation in the text is Theobald's, and seems very preferable to that of the 1*1'.. which place a comma after night and a colon after welcome.
130. Lines 66-57:
and under him
My Genius is rebuk'd, as, it is said, Marl; Antony's was by Castor.
1 Preconceived, predetermined.
ALT III. Scene 1.
NOTES TO MAUiKTII.
ACT III. .—ne 2.
Compare Antony and Cleopatra, ii. 3. 18-22:
Therefore, O Antony, stay not by his side: Thy demon, that's thy spirit which keeps thee, is Noble, courageous, high, unmatchable, Where Cxsar's is not ; but near him thy angel i fear, as being overpower'd.
This is closely copied from North's 1'lutarch (ed. 1631, p. 926, lines S-10).
131. Line 63: Thence to be wrench'd with an unUneal hand.— Compare Winter's Tale, v. 2. OS: " He was torn to pieces with a boar." Compare note 13'J below
132. Line 65: fil'd.— This word, meaning defiled, of which it is apparently an abbreviation, is not used else- w here 1 >y Shakespeare. Compare Spenser, Faerie Queene,
iii. 1. 62:
She lightly lept out of herjlted bedd.
133. Line 70: To make them kings, the SEED of Banquo kings!— Ff. have seedes, which some editors adopt. Very many more agree in taking the plural to be a mere error . if t he press. !NTo similar example has beeu adduced, except a few confessedly problematical oues from plays whose text is anything but dependable.
134. Line 72: And champion me to th' utterance !— This is, tight with me a Voutrance. Cotgrave has " Cumbattre d oultrance. To fight at sharpe, to fight it out, or to the vttermost; not to spare one another in fighting." The wood utterance is used again, in the same sense, by Shake- speare in Cymbeline, iii. 1. 73.
135. Line 81: How you were borne in hand.— See Taming of the Shrew, note 146; Measure for Measure, note 46. Compare also Hamlet, ii. 2. 65-67:
whereat griev'd, That so his sickness, age, and impotence. Was falsely borne in hand.
136. Line 88: Are you so GOSPELL'D.— Probably an al- lusion to the precept in the gospel, "Pray for them which despitefully use you and persecute you" (Matt. v. 44).
137. Line 110: Have so incens'd.—'Ei. print hath; the reading is Rowe's.
138. Line 116: distance — This word is not elsewhere used by Shakespeare in the sense it here has, "hostility," "antagonism as of opposing enemies." The Clarendon Press edd. give an instance of it in Bacon, Essays, xv. 62: "setting them at distance, or at least distrust among themselves." Coles, Latin Dictionary, has "Distance [dis- cord], dissidium, diseordia,"
139. Lines 129-131:
I will advise you where to plant yourselves,
Acquaint you, WITH A PERFECT SPY, O' THE TIME,
The moment on't. We have adopted a very simple emendation, first sug- gested by Johnson, of a for the, and the punctuation of Collier as said to be given by the Old Corrector. This passage has been made the subject of much discussion by the commentators, but the meaning of it seems to be clear. The difficulty, supposed or real, lies in line 130; but if we take irith to mean "by," "by means of," as it frequently does in Shakespeare (see line 63 above, and note 131), it is plaiu that Macbeth refers to his intention
to acquaint the two .Murderers, by means uf ■ who may
be trusted to watch Banquo closi ly, of the iim> when t>. commit the murder; and this interpretation is fully home out by a passage in the third scene of this act. When the Three Murderers • ater, it is evident that the Brat dis- trusts the man wh.. lias joined them, for he asks, "But who did bid tine join with us?" to which the Second Murderer answers:
He needs not our mistrust ; since he delivers Our offices, and what we have to do.
To the direction just.
This passage evidently means that the Third Murderer lias brought them exactly the direction, which Macbeth promised to send them by the j>< rfeci spy, o' the time. The alteration of the to k makes the meaning clearer, though it is possible the right reading may be " By the perfeet'st spy." Compare above, in the letter from her husband read by Lady Macbeth: "I have learn'd by the perfe. report."
Steevens proposed to put a full stop after line 129, and to take Acquaint you as= "Acquaint yourselves," and the perfect spy o' the tune as = "the exact time, the time most favourable to your purposes," winch they were to spy out. Undoubtedly you is frequently used for your- selves, but, on the whole, I think the interpretation given above is the preferable one.— F. A. II.
140. Line 134: To leave no RUBS nor botches in the work. —Compare Richard II. iii. 4. 4, and note 242.
ACT III. Scene 2.
141. Line 13: We have SCOTCH'D the snake, not killd it. — Scotch' d is Theobald's almost universally-accepted em- endation of Ff.'s scorch'd. Scotch'd occurs again in Corio- lanus, iv. 5. 198: "he scotch'd him and notch d him like a carbonado." Scotches occurs in Antony and Cleopatra, iv. 7. 10, as a substantive of similar meaning to the verb, which means "to cut slightly."
142. Lines 19, 20:
better to be with the dead,
Whomtve, to gain we PBAOB, have sent to peace. This is the reading of F. 1; F. 2, F. 3, F. 4, with a large proportion of modem editors, print place; to my mind a much less impressive and a much less Shakespearean word. [There is no doubt much to be said in favour at the correction made by F. 2, obvious as it is, and perhaps suspiciously simple. Macbeth did not murder Duncan to gain peace, but to gain the throna H this sentence referred to the murder of Banquo, peace would be the more appropriate word. Y«r the use of place in the sense of a high dignity, we may compare Measure for Measure,
ii 4 92 '
~ 'whose credit with the judge, or o» n great place.
Mr Irving, it may be mentioned, retains in ids acting- edition the readingof F 1; in favour of which reading
it may be said that Macbeth was nol Only thinking of the murder of Duncan, but also of the two gn>( whom he had killed in order to secure his own safety. — F. A. M.]
143. Lines 26-35.— F. 1 prints these lines as in our text, except that in line 28 it has amv,ei instead of utong, the 415
ACT III. -
NOTES TO MACBETH.
ACT III. Scene 4.
Utter being the correction of F. 2, which, however, in line 29 unnecessarily Introduces the word ttill, reading:
Let your remembrance still apply to Hanquo.
There is do aeed for the insertion of this word, as remem-
bran*. \\:\-. in Bhakespeare's time, often pronounced as a quadrisyllable. Me. rons, in his edition, 1793, who is followed by the Cambridge odd. and others, divided the two Imperfect lines (31, S2) thus:
Cnsafe the while, that we
: lave our honours in these flattering streams.
Mai. me arranges the passage thus:
Ltufy U, Come on; gentle my lord,
Sleek o'er your rugged looks; be bright and jovial Among your guests to-night.
So shall I, love; And so, I pray, be you : let your remembrance Apply to Hanquo: present him eminence, both With eye and tongue; unsafe the while, that we Must tore our honours in these flattering streams.
Steevens thought that something had been omitted from the text after the words Unsafe the while, and suggested that Shakespeare might have written:
Unsafe the while it is for us, that we.
I would suggest that while was intended to be connected closely with the words that we, and that line 31 in Ff. should have read something like this:
Unsafe, alas! tve rest the while that we,
or
Unsafe we needs must restthe while that we; the meaning being, not that Macbeth anil his wife were unsafe because they had to flatter Banquo, but that they were unsafe in spite of their stooping to that; and there- fore there was a stronger motive for his removal; a-. while he lived, flatter him as they might, they could never be safe.— F. A. M.
144. Line 38: Bui in them nature's copy's not eterne.— This is very likely an allusion to Legal phraseology, though some have supposed nature's copy to mean man, formed in the image of God. ('..well, in his Interpreter, has i.ii- hold (i, mini per copiam mini; curiae) is a tenure, for the which the tenant hath nothing to shew, but the • •i' tli.' Bolls made by tin- Steward of his Lord's court. . . . smii'' copyhold is Bneable, and some certaine: that which is Qneable, the lord taketh at his pleasure" (First IMn (1607) tub voce). The word eterne, for eternal, is only used by Shakespeare here, and in Hamlet, ii. 2. 512.
145 Line 42: The ihard&orne beetle.— F. 3, F. 4 print
l-born, which some suppose to mean born among
■hards, or in dung; Hut in one or two places Shakespeare
has linked tnard with ta (Is iii a way that leaves no doubt
• the meaning the scaly wings of the beetle. Com-
Intony and Cleopatra, iii. 2. 20:
They arc his shards, and he their beetle;
and Cymbeline, iii. 8, 20: "The tharded beetle.' [The tin. name for tin- wing-cases is elytra; anyone, who i rod beetles, knows the startling effect when these hard iiijtra are suddenly opened, and the membranous onderwings (which in some beetles are very large in pro- portion t., their body) are suddenly unfolded, and the t. that was just now walking or running, is borne away in rapid flight. The shards or elytra remain hu- ll*',
movable during flight, but probably help to buoy up the insect while on the wing.— F. a. M.]
146. Lines 40. 47:
Come, SEELING night,
Scarf tip the tender eye of pitiful day.
Seel is a term In falconry, meaning to sew up the eyes of a hawk. Compare Othello, i. 3. 270; iii. 3. 210; and An- tony and Cleopatra, iii. 13. 112. Cotgrave has "Siller let yeux. To seele, or sow vp, the eye-lids, (A- thence also), to hoodwinke, blind, keepe in darknesse, depriue of sight."
147. Lines 50, 51:
Liijht thickens, and the crow
Makes wing to the rooky wa
Rooky may be meant for "frequented by rooks " (which to me seems rather the preferable interpretation, so fat- as sense is concerned), or for "dusky, gloomy, or "foggy." The Clarendon Press edd. cite the Proruptorium Parvu- lorum: " Roky, or mysty. Xebulosus." [Rooky is given in Grose's Provincial Glossary as = "misty," and in Bailey as="musty;" both authorities state it to be a Xorth- c< umtry word. It is given in Brockett, but not in the York- shire, Westmoreland, or Tyneside Glossaries; and I have always heard reek, not rook or ruk, used for "smoke" in the North. Steevens proposes to read "makes wing to rook i'the wood," and ((Uotes III. Henry VI. v. 0. 47:
The raven rook'd her on the chimney's top (see note 333 of that play). Chaucer uses rouke and ruck- ing in the sense of "to lie close;" and Gower in the Con- fessio Amanda, bk. iv., has, speaking liguratively of the priests or monks :
And now they rucken in her nest And resten as hem liketh best.
— Works, vol. ii. p. 57, edn. 1857.
Rooky wood may mean here the wood into which the crow went to rook or roost.— F. A. M.]
ACT III. Scene 3.
148. Line 6: Now spurs the i.atf.h traveller apace.— Lated, for belated, occurs again in Antony and Cleopatra, iii. 11. 3.
ACT III. Scene 4.
149. Line 5: Our hostess keepe her STATE.— The State
was a chair of state, placed on a raised platform at the head of the table, and covered with a canopy. Cotgrave has ••Dais, or Daiz. A cloth of Estate, Canopie, or Heauen, that stands otter the heads of Princes thrones also, the whole State, or seat of Estate." Compare Corio- lanus, v 4. 22; Twelfth Night, ii. 5. 50; and I. Henry l\ ii. 4. 415.
150. Line 6: We will BSQTjiBB her welcome.— Require,
here, as in some other places in Shakespeare, means simply "ask," not "demand." Compare Antony and Cleo- patra, iii. 12. 12.
151. Line II: 'Til better thee without than he icithin — The grammar of this line is faulty, however we take it : but the meaning is either " It is better outside thee than inside him," or "It is better for his blood to be on thy (ace than for him to lie within."
ACT III. Scene 4.
NOTES TO MACBETH.
ACT in Scene 4.
152. Line 24: cabin'd, cribb'd.— Cabin as a verb occurs in Titus Andronicus, Iv. 2, 17;*: "And cabin in a cave." Crib, in the present sense, is not known t<> occur any where
but in this passage.
153. Line 27: With twenty TRENCHED gashes on his head.
Compare Arden of Feversham, iii. 1. (ed. Bullen, p. 42): And Mosbies name, a scaml.de vnto mine, Is deeply trenched in my blushing brow.
154. Line 32: We'U hear ourselves again. — Punctuated as in the text (the punctuation of the Ff.) the meaning may lie taken to be, We'll talk with one another again. Ourselves again has been understood as the ablative absolute, "when we are ourselves again;" and Dyce rendered the sense certainly easier, but perhaps not better, by punctuating, We'll hear, ourselves, again.
155. Line 41: Were the GRAC'D person of our Banquo present — Compare Lear, i. 4. 267, where graced is used, as here, in the sense of "gracious."
156. Line 55: upon a thought. — Compare I, Henry IV, ii. 4. 241: " and with a thought seven of the eleven I paid;" i.e. as quick as thought.
157. Line 63: 0, these flaws and starts. — Compare Hamlet, v. 1. 239, and see note on that passage.
158. Line 76: Ere human statute purg'd the gentle weal. — Ff. read humane, which in Shakespeare's time was often spelt human. The latter is Theobald's reading, and seems preferable. "Gentle," say the Clarendon Press edd. , " is to be taken prophetically. ' Ere humane statute purged the common weal and made it gentle.'"
159. Line 73: the time has been. — F. 1 prints times has, which the later Ff. correct into times have, a reading less easily explained as a printer's error, and not so good in sense.
160. Line 84: Tour noble friends do lack you. — Com- pare As You Like It, iv. 1. 1S2: "I cannot lack thee two hours."
161. Line 95: Thou hast no speculation in those eyes. —Compare Troilus and Cressida, iii. 3. 109. Singer quotes Bullokar, Expositor, 1616: "Speculation, the inward knowledge, or beholding of a thing."
162. Line 101: the Hyrcan tiger. — Compare III. Henry VI. i. 4. 155: " tigers of Hyrcania;" and Hamlet, ii. 2. 472: "the Hyrcanian beast." See Merchant of Venice, note 176.
163. Lines 105, 106:
If trembling /INHABIT, then protest me
The BABY of a girl. This is one of the many difficult passages in the text of Macbeth, perhaps the most difficult. Is inhabit a printer's or copyist's error or not; and if not, what does it mean? Many emendations have been proposed, the most gener- ally accepted of which is "If trembling I inhibit thee," the meaning of which is, I suppose, "If trembling with fear I bid thee avaunt, or fear to encounter thee." Shake- speare uses inhibited twice in the sense of "forbidden,'' in All's Well, i. 1. 157, and Othello, i. 2. 79. But if this emendation be right, the word would have something of its legal sense here, much the same as that in which the noun inhibition is used in the well-known passage in VOL. V.
Ilamlet, ii. 2. 846, One would certainly have expected this very slight alteration (inhibit th,,) t,, have bi made in the text by one of the lata If the line hod
ever been spoken thus; but it. looks here verj much as if
Shakespeare had used a very unusual word OI rather expression purposely; and that we must search for its meaning, if any, in the context. Macbeth has ahead) said to the spectre of Banquo dines 100, 101):
Approach thou like the ruggi I, ear,
The arind rhinoceros, or the Hyrcan tiger;
and it is possible that the wild beasts suggested the kindred idea of the desert inhabited by none but wild beasts; and that the meaning may be " If fen milling I in- habit," i.e. "keep in my cave or hiding plai e, Instl ad of mining out into the open to meet you." Schmidt plau- sibly explains inhabit as " to put on a habit," but be pro- duces no instance of the use of the word in that sense. In that case trembling is the accusative, and the meaning is "If I then put on the habit of fear." It is scarcely necessary to go into any of the other emendations pro- posed. The only question is whether we should adopt the punctuation of F. 1 :
If trembling I inhabit then, protest mee
The Baby of a Girle.
Taking inhabit to have something of the sense we have assigned to it above, and to be used absolutely, we prefer the punctuation of F. 2, F. 3, F. 4, which has the comma after inhabit and not after then. I can find no instance of exhibit being used as in modern times="to show" with regard to a feeling such as anger, fear. Ac; other- wise one might venture on the emendation " If trembling I exhibit," which I find lias been previously proposed by A. Hunter, and before him by Robinson, in The Gentle- man's Magazine in 1769 (vol. lix p. 1201).— F. a. m.
The baby of a girl; i.e. a girl's doll; or perhaps it should be taken literally. For the former sense see. Cotgrave under Poupe'e and its derivatives, and especially "Poupe- tier. A babe-maker, or puppet-maker. "
164. Line 111: *1m<Jovkrcome us like a summer's cloud. — Overcome is used in the sense of "conic over," "over- shadow." Compare Spenser, Faerie Queene, iii. 7. 4:
All cover'd with thick woodes that quite it overcame.
165. Lines 115, 116:
.1 ml keep the natural ruby of your cheeks.
When mine is blanch'd with fear. Malone and many subsequent editors change is to are, taking the word to apply to cheeks. But it may just as well relate to the natural ruby. i.e. the colour, of the cheeks.
166. Line 122: It will have blood; they say blood will have Wood. — Ff. print:
It will have blood they say : Blood will have blood.
The pointing in the text was first introduced by w hall, v A few editors follow the Ff.; but Johnson (Miscellaneous observations on Macbeth) is probably right in his inter- pretation: '•Macbeth justly infers that the death of Duncan cannot go unpunished, ' It will have blood I then after a short pause declares it as the general observation of mankind, that murderers cannot escape I cannot 117 139
Ai'l III Scene !.
NOTES TO MACBETH.
ACT III. Sceue 6.
help feeling, however, that, to the ear at least, the reading ol tin.' Ff. is more harmonious and more impressive.
167. Line 1-3: Stone* ham hem {known to move, and i to tptak, Mr. Paton (in Notes and Queries, Nov. 6, 1868) suggested that there was an allusion, in the first clause "f this line, to the rocking-stones (one of which was near G-lamis Castle), by which it was thought that the Druids tried persons suspected of crimes. In the trees that speak we have, perhaps, an allusion to the story in Virgil of the bleeding tree which revealed to -Kneas the murder of l'olydorus (.Kneid, hk. iii. 11. 22-48).
168 Line 124: Augurs and understood relations; i.e. BOOtbaaj IngS and knowledge of the secret links of things. A Ufftirs is spelt A ugures in Ff. Florio, 160s, has "A ugurio, anaupure, a soothsaying, ... a wishing of good hap, a forboding."
169. Line 140: scann'd. — This word is used, as here, for carefully examined into, in Hamlet, iii. 3. 75: "That would he scann'd."
170. Line 144: in deed. —Ft. have indeed, as one word. The rectification was made by Theobald.
ACT III. Scene 5.
171. Stage-direction. " Enter the three Witches, meet- ing Hecate."— Hecate, the "infernal" name of Diana in
B an mythology, was, in the middle ages, generally
supposed to be the goddess or mistress of witches. In S sofa Discoverie of Witchcraft (Hooke 3, Chap, xvi.), we read that " Certeine generall couucels, by their decrees, have condemned the confusions and erronious credu- litie of witches, to be vaine, fantastical] and fabulous . . . to wit; their night walkings and meetings with Herodias, and the Pagan gods: Ac. . . . The words of the councell are these; It may not be omitted, that certeine wicked women following sathans provocations, being seduced by the illusion of divels, beleeve and professe, that in the night times they ride abroad with Diana, the
«se of the Pagans, or else with Herodias, with an Innumerable multitude, upon certeine beasts, and passe 0T6X manie countries and nations, in the silence of the night, and do i whatsoever those fairies or ladies com- mand, \r." (Reprint, p. 61).
172. Line 1: Why, how /one, Hecate! yon look ANGERLY. — Hecate is spelt in F. 1, F. 8 Ureal, as, of course, it inii-t be pronounced.! The name is always so accented in Shakespeare, [n I. Henry VI. iii. 2. C.4 it is. however, a trisyllable It Is used as a dissyllable In Ben Jonson's Sad Shepherd, ii. 3. and in Miami's Comas. Angerly, for angrily, Is used in two other passages: Two Gent, of Ver-
i ! 62, and King John, iv. 1. 82.
173. Lines 28, 24:
Upon the earner of the moon
hangs a vaporous drop profound.
"T,li '■•P," says Steevens, "seems to have
meant for the same as the w>us lunore of the an-
1 '" ''"-' ' I Beton's Witch, mentioned in the Introdu
tion, it is written llectet.—T. A. M
lis
cients, being a foam which the moon was supposed to shed on particular herbs or other objects when strongly solicited by enchantment. Lucan introduces Fiictho using it (Pharsalia, vi. 666):
Et virus large lunare ininistr.it."
174. Line 33: Stage-direction. Music and song within, "Come away, come away."- -This is substantially Capi n - Btage-direction. Et h&veMusikeandasong. After line 36
is a second stage-direction: Siny within. Come away, come away, &c.
The words sung here in Mr. Irving's stage version are as follows:
Come away come away
Hecate, Hecate, come away I
Over woods, high rocks, and mountains.
Over seas, our mistress' fountains;
Over steeples, towers and turrets,
We fly by night, 'mongst troops of spirits:
No ring of bells to our ear sounds.
No howls of wolves, no yelp of hounds.
No ring of bells, iVe.
They are, however, transferred to the end of act iv. sceue 1. These words are taken from a scene in Middle- ton's Witch (act iii. scene 3) transferred bodily by Dave- nant into his hideous deformation of Shakespeare's play. It shows what a false estimate of Davenant his contem- poraries must have had, since they seem to have believed that he could have written the last eight lines of this song, which are infinitely superior to any of the desperately prosy rubbish he has introduced into his version of Mac- beth. It is doubtful whether the song, indicated in the stage-direction of the Folio, included much more than the first five lines of the song given in Middleton's Witch:
Come away, come away, Hecate, Hecate, come away!
lice. I come, I come, I come, I come, With all the speed I may. With all the speed I may.
— Works (Oyce's edn.), vol. iii. p. 303.
Whether Middleton wrote the lines beginning Over woods, high rocks, &c, himself, of course we do not know. One very good emendation is introduced by Davenant, either of his own invention or from the copy of the MS. to which he had access," and that is in the fifth line of the song as given above, which in Middleton runs
Over steep towers and turrets
instead of
Over steeples, towers, and turrets.
Dyce, in his edition of Middleton, vol. iii. p. 304, says that he suspects that that was the true reading, and refers to what Hecate says above in The Witch, act i. scene 2 (p. 260):
In moonlight nights, on steeple-tops.
— F. A. M.
act ill. Scene »;.
175 LineS: Who cannot want thethought, — This doable negative was sanctioned by the usage of Shakespeare's time, and seems in his own case to have been particularly seductive. Compare Winter's Tale, iii. 2. 55, <frc.
- It is " Over steeples" in the music to the Witch mentioned in the Introduction.
ACT III. Scene 6.
NOTES TO MACBETH.
ACT IV. &
176. Lines 21, 22:
and 'cause he fail' d
His presence at the tyrant's feast. Compare Lear, ii. 4. 143, 144:
I cannot think my sister in the least W ould faii her obligation.
Tyrant is perhaps used here, as in III. Henry VI. iii. 3. 69-72, for usurper, the original meaning of the Greek word.
177. LineSS: Ilath so EXASPERATE the king.— Compare Truilus and Cressida, v. 1. 34: "why art thou, then, exas- perate}" And see instances of the truncated participle in similar words, such as dedicate (Measure for Measure, ii. 2. 154), Ac. Ff. readtheirking; the correction is Hanmer's.
178. Line 41: The cloudy messenger.— Compare I. Henry IV. iii. 2. 82, 83:
Such aspect As cloudy men use to their adversaries.
179. Lines 48, 49:
this our suffering country Under a hand accurs'd.
Compare similar constructions in, for example, Richard II. iii. 2. 8:
As a long-parted mother with her child ;
Othello, v. 2. 4:
Nor scar that whiter skin of hers than snow.
ACT IV. Scene 1.
180. Line 1: Thrice the brinded cat hath mew'd.— Cole, Latin Dictionary, has " Brinded, variegatus." The more familiar form of the word is " brindled."
181. Line 3: Harpier. — This may be a misprint for Harpy (as Steevens considered), or it may be meant as another form of the same word.
182 Line 6: Toad, that wider cold stone.— Various at- tempts have been made, all as bad as possible, to render this line syllabically equal with its fellows. It is quite rhythmical as it stands. Cold and stone must, of course, each be pronounced slowly and with emphasis. Similar accentuations for effect will be found, in one form or another, in most poets who have paid much attention to the niceties of versification. The most remarkable in- stance I recollect of deliberate interference with natural accent is in a line in one of Tennyson's later Idylls of the King, Pelleas and Ettarre, which has to be read thus:
And | the sword | of the tour- 1 ney across | her throat.
— Works, ed. 1879, p. 495.
[In Davenant, this and the next line are printed:
Toad which under mossy stone Has days and nights lain thirty-one;
an arrangement which disturbs entirely the metre Shake- speare had chosen. Charles Kean, in his version, adopted the very cacophonous emendation:
Toad that under coldest stone ;
and so it is generally printed in all acting versions. In Mr. Irving's version he follows Rowe:
Toad that under the cold stone.
But, in this case, the, which, according to the rhythm,
would be accented, must be joined to the under pn ing it, and bo form a dactyl Even this, perhaps tin- i< objectionable of all the emendations, makes the line, to smiie extent, weaker; and the only reason tor its adoption in the acting version is that it is very desirable, on the stage, to avoid anything which compels the actor or actress tn pronounce the vowel as if it were a double sound, such as co-old for culd.—F. A. si.]
183. Line 8: Swelter'd venom.— Steevens quotes an old translation of Boccace's Novels, 1020, "an huge and mighty toad even weltering (as it were) in a hole full of poison." As for the question of the venom rightly or wrongly attributed to the toad, see note 202 to Richard II.
184. Line 16: Adder's fork.— See note 203 to Richard II.
185. Line 17: howlet's wing.—Vope, who altered every- thing, altered howlet to owlet. But hoivlet was the sjiell- ingof Shakespeare's time. Coles (Lat. Diet ) lias " Howlet, bubo;" and Cotgrave, "IJuelte. An Hoivlet, or the little Horne-Owle."
186. Line 23: Witches' mummy. Mummy was formerly used as a medicine. Compare Webster, The White Devil,
i. 11. 12:
Your followers Have swallowed you like mummia, and, being sick With such unnatural and horrid physic, Vomit you up i' the kennel.
Sir Thomas Browne, Hydriotaphia, v., says: "The Egyp- tian mummies which Cambyses spared, avarice now con- sumeth. Mummy is become merchandize, Mizraim cures wounds, and Pharaoh is sold for balsams."
187. Line 24: ravin' d, i.e. glutted with prey. Compare Phineas Fletcher's Locusta, 1027, c. iii. st. 18:
Whom that Greeke leopard no sooner spi'de, But slue, devour'd, and fill'd his empty maw: But with the raven'd prey his bowells broke; So into fowre divides his brazen yoke.
See ravin up, ii. 4. 28 above; ravin down, -Measure for Measure, 1. 2. 133; and ravin (as an adjective) in All's Well, iii. 2. 120.
188. Line 2S: sliver'd.— Boyer (French Dictionary) has "To sliver, verb. act. (or cut into slivers) Con per en tranches." The verb is used again in Lear, iv. 2. 34, and the noun in Hamlet, iv. 7. 174.
189. Line 32: slab.— Boyer has slabby ("plashy, full of Dirt"). Slab seems to be used here for slimy. The word, as an adjective, is not found elsewhere.
190. Line 34: ingredients.— The Ff. have ingredience. The correction is Rowe's.
191. Line 3S: Stage- direction. Enter Hecate. — This stage-direction is Ritson's. The Ff. have " Enter Ileeat, and the other three witches." As the other three witches were already on the stage it is difficult to see how they can now enter. Dyce gives examples of similarly- worded stage-directions from Cowley's Cutter of Coleman Street.
192. Line 43: Stage-direction. Music and a song: "Black spirits," &c— As is pretty generally known, the st:iL-e- direction indicates the introduction of the song begin-
419
ACT IV. Scene 1.
N<»TES TO MACBETH.
ACT IV. Scene 1.
Ding •• Black spirits :m<l white," also introduced into Middleton's play of The Witch, and by Davenant in his version of Macbeth, in the preparation of which he must have had accesa to a MS. or printed copy of Middleton'a play. Mo publication of The Witch is. however, known to have taken place before the year 177>; but many com- mentators have held that Shakespeare borrowed from Middleton, and not Middleton from Shakespeare. But there Is really not a tittle of evidence to support the former conjecture; while every probability is in favour of the more natural supposition that Middleton was the borrower. It must he said, in justice to both dramatists, that their treatment of the witches iii their two respective plays differs quite as much as these two plays do them- selves, which is saying a great deal. In his Shakespeare Noting-, appended to his admirable edition of Reginald 3cot'a Discoverie of Witchcraft (pp. 543, 540). Dr. Brins- ley Nicholson argues, with great force, that Middleton's Witch must have been written after Shakespeare's Mac- beth. \s for the songs, he shows that Black Spirits and White was really only an adaptation of some rhymes quoted by Scot in his xxxiii chapter, which treats of Witches and Devils, in which, when talking of a little book published by " W, W." on the Witches of St. Osees in Essex, he .--ays: "now Brian Darcieshe spirits and sliee spirits. little and Tiffin, Suckin and Pidgin, Liard and Robin, <vv. : his white sjiirit* and blacke spirits, grave tpirite and red spirits, divell tode and divell lambe, divels catanddivelsdam, Ac." (p. 455). Scot wrote in 1584. And on turning to Middleton's Witch, act v. scene 2, we find that the Bong (of which the Brst line is given in the first Folio of Shakespeare) runs thus:
spirits and white, red spirits and grey, Mingle, mingle, mingle, you that mingle may! Titty. Tiffin, Keep it stilfin ; I-iredrake, Puckey, M.ike it lucky; Liard, Robin,
You ii. ust bi Round, around, around, about, about! All ill come running in, all good keep out
— Works, vol. iii. p. 328.
It is evident from this that Middleton took the substance • d this song from Scot; and, as Dr. Brinsley Nicholson says, these rhymes are neither Shakespeare's nor Middle- s'. A. M 193. Line 55: Though bladed corn be lodg'd. — There are a number of refi rencea to the fancy of witches for trans- ferring corn from one place to another in Scot's Dis- ooverie of Witchcraft. The nearest parallel with the words in the text Is In chap, i. "And BrstOvuf afflrmeth, that they can raise and -uppresse lightening and thunder, nine and halle, clouds and winds, tempests and earth- quakes Others do write, that they can pull downe the moons and the staiTes Borne write that with wishing they can ^>ml needles Into the livers of their enemies, le that they can ha, ne in theblade/romone
»to another" (Reprint, p 8). For lodged "beaten down by the wind." compare Bichard II. iii. 3. 182, and
II II. i.ry VI ni. 'J 176:
I. ike to the summer's corn by tempest todtfd;
and see note 199 in the latter play. 420
194. Line 59: germens.— F. l. F. 2 have germaine; F. 3,
F. 4 iji rmaiii; i'ope read ijermains; Theobald;/'' mint, and the Cambridge editors germens. The same word, spelt germaines and germains in the originals, occurs in a similar connection and sense in Lear, iii. 2. 8, which makes it very unlikely that the reading of Ff. Is right, or that it means, as Pope supposed, "relations or kindred ele- ments."
195. Line 68. — "The armed head, represents symboli- cally Macbeth's head cut off and brought to Malcolm by Macduff. The bloody child, is Macduff untimely ripp'd
from his mother's womb. The child with a crown on his head, and a bough in his hand, is the royal Malcolme; who ordered his soldiers to hew them down a bough and bear it before them to Dunsinane" (Upton, Critical Ob- servations on Shakespeare, First Edn. 1740, p. 53).
196. Lines 80, 81:
none of woman bum
Shall harm Macbeth. This prophecy, together with the one contained in lines 92-94 below—
Macbeth shall never vanquish'd be until Great Birnain wood to high Dunsinane hill Shall come against him—
may be found in Holinshed: "a certeine witch, whome hee had in great trust, had told that he should neuer be slaiue with man borne of anie woman, nor vanquished till the wood of Bernane came to the castell of Dunsinane " (Re- print, vol. v. p. 274).
197. Line 96: bodements.— This word is only used by Shakespeare in one other passage, in Troilus and Cressida, v. 3. 79, 80 :
This foolish, dreaming, superstitious girl Makes all these bodtments.
198 Line 97: Rebellion's head list never.— The Ff. have Rebellions dead. The reading in the text is Hanmer's, said to be from a conjecture of Theobald's. [On referring to Theobald's Shakespeare Restored (First Edn, 1726) I find that he gives " Rebellious head rise never," adding in a foot-note "or Rebellion's head " (Appendix, p. 187). We have followed Theobald in omitting any comma after head; nearly all the editors insert one. although it changes the construction if not the sense of the emenda- tion.— F. A. M ]
199 Line 111: A show of eight Kings.— Holinshed gives (vol. v. pp. 272, 273) a long account of how Banqno's de- scendants became ultimately kings of Scotland. Fleance. after his escape from the murderers of his father, took refuge in Wales with the prince of that country, by whose daughter he became the father of a natural son. Walter, who subsequently came to Scotland, and having distin- guished himself very much, was made Lord Steward of the realm, and so took the name of Steward (which after- wards became Stewart or Stuart). Hi- great-grandson, »ho was also named Walter, hail a son John, who mar- ried the heiress of Boukill. This John was killed at Falkirk, leaving a son, also called Walter, who married Mai_" ne Bruce, daughter of Robert Bruce, by whom he bad a son, w ho succeeded to the throne as King Robert the Second. He was the first of the eigltt kings, the next
ACT IV. Scene i.
NOTKS TO .UAcmiTII.
ACT IV. Scene 2.
being Robert III. and the last James the Sixth of Scotland and First of England; and it is the latter that shows a glass to Macbeth, and not Banquo, as it says in the st direction of F. 1. Marie Stuart is omitted, for any allusion to that ill-fated queen would have been no leas unpleasant to her son than it would have been to her late "dear friend and cousin," Queen Elizabeth. It is rather curious to think what Macbeth might have seen in the glass, had Shakespeare been endowed with any prophetic powers. Could it have shown Macbeth the ultimate fate of the Steward or Stuart family, he might have been consoled by the reflection that in Banquo's case, as in his own, "royal honours" proved not to be an unmitigated blessing. — f. a. II.
200. Line 119: And yet the eighth appears, who bears a glass.— Compare Measure for Measure, ii. 2. 95, and see note 78.
201. Line 123: For the BLOOD-BOLTER'D Banquo smiles xipon me. — Steevens and Malone both say that boltered is a word well known in Warwickshire, meaning to besmear, befoul. Compare Arden of Feversham, iii. 1. p. 44 (ed. Bullen):
Me thinks I see them with their. bolslred haire, Staring and grinning in thy gentle face ;
where bolstered apparently means, as boltered here, "matted with sweat or blood. " Steevens quotes Holland's Pliny, xii. 17, where, speaking of a goat's beard, he says: "Now by reason of dust getting among, it baltereth and cluttereth into knobs and bals."
202. Line 155: But no more SIGHTS!— Collier, on the authority of his MS. Corrector, altered sights to flights, a very intelligible error of typography, but no improvement, that I can see, to the sense of the passage. Is it any wonder that Macbeth has had enough of sights for the present?
ACT IV. Scene 2.
203. Line 9: the poor wren. — Harting (Ornithology of Shakespeare, p. 143) says: "There are three statements here which are likely to be criticised by the ornithologist. First, that the wren is the smallest of birds, which is evi- dently an oversight. Secondly, that the wren has suffi- cient courage to fight against a bird of prey in defence of its young, which is doubtful. Thirdly, that the owl will take young birds from the nest."
[I think that Mr. Harting is a little hypercritical here. The common wren, Troglodytes vulgaris, is indeed not absolutely the smallest of British birds, for the golden- crested Regulus, otherwise called the golden-crested wren, is smaller. Yarrell gives as the length of the common wren four inches, and as the length of the golden-crested Regulus three inches and a half. The smallest of the tits is slightly larger than the wren.
The little wren is very bold and very familiar; but it is the common blue tit or Billy Biter, as the small boys call him, which is most especially vigorous in the defence of its nest. As to the accusation against the barn-door owl of taking young birds from the nest, Mr. Harting gives, on pp. 91-94, a most interesting summary of the evidence for and against the accused. It must be confessed that the circumstantial evidence is rather against the owl; though
he has found a vigorous defender in the late Charles Waterton. The wren has been the small centre of many traditions. For some unknown reason Jenny Wren was married to Cock Rubin; and I believe, with due deference to the translator, that the Zaunkonig (hedge-king) of the Tales, numbered io-j and 1 7 1 respectively, in Qrimm's col- lection (see Margaret Hunt's Translation ol Sousebold Tales, vol. ii.) was intended to be the common wren, to be seen in every hedgerow, and not the willow-wren or willow-warbler, a member of the family of the BylviadSB, and no relation to our friend Jenny. — F. A. M.]
204. Lines 19-22:
when ice hold rumour From what we fear, yet know not what we fear, But float upon a wild and violent tea Each tcay and MOVE.
This is one of the many obscure and difficult passages in this play which one scarcely knows how to treat; for one cannot make them clear and intelligible without
such a radical alteration of the text, as the most auda- cious commentator may fear to perpetrate. It is much safer to retain the text of the Folio, in spite of its ap- parent obscurity, if by the aid of that text we can make any sense of the passage in question. Ross is trying to excuse to Lady Macbeth the apparent cowardice of her husband in flying from his country, and leaving her and her children to the mercy of Macbeth. He says:
But cruel are the times, when we are traitors.
And do not know ourselves ;
the meaning of which is generally taken to be "When we are traitors and do not know ourselves to be traitors;" in which case we should have expected that the text would have been, as Hanmer printed it, "and know 't ourselves." It may be that the meaning of these words is " When we are,"— that is to say, " act as if we were— traitors, and do not know ourselves, i.e. the exact motive or effect of our own actions. " This meaning seems to coincide with what follows. He continues " when we hold rumour. that is to say " entertain or believe rumour, from abut we fear, i.e. " interpreting it by the aid of our fears," or "giving it the shape of our fears," yet know not what we fear, but float upon a wild and violent sea; being tossed up and down and driven each way without any control over our own movements." The words each way and move are those in which the chief difficulty lies. Shake- speare never uses move as a substantive, but always as a verb; and, if we understand it here as equivalent to " move up and down with the chopping action of the waves," it makes very good sense. However elliptical the expression may appear, we have a similar use of the verb in Cym-
beline, iii. 1, 26-29:
and his shipping —
Poor ignorant baubles !— on our terrible seas.
Like egg-shells moz'd upon their surges, cr.ick'd
As easily 'gainst our rocks. Ross's meaning may be thus paraphrased: "The times are cruel when such is the uncertainty and agitation of men's minds, that they play the part of traitors to their own duties, and lose the power of perceiving the effect of their own actions;" or. "when they are set down as traitors to their ruler, without the consciousness of having done anything to deserve it. At such times, when the 4_>1
A< I IV. Scene 2.
NOTES TO MACBETH.
ACT IV. Scene 3.
minds of men are full of a vague fear, and every idle ramonr takes its shape from these fears, they feel certain Of nothing; tiny have no sense of security in anything, hut are like persons tossed about on the waves of a stormy driven this way and that at the caprice of the billows."
— F. A M
205. Line 34: Poor bird! thou'dst never fear the net nor UXK.— F. 2, F. 3, F. 4 read line. Doubtless a misprint, whkh only two editors, singularly enough, seem to have adopted into their text, Pope and CapelL
206. Line 59: Now, God help thee, poor monkey !— Jfon- i- Dot elsewhere used by Shakespeare as a term of
endearment; but ape is thus used in two places, II. Henry I V. ii. 4. 234, and Romeo and Juliet, ii. 1. 16.
207 Line S3: Thou liest, thou shag-hair'D villain!— ft print >hag-ear'd. The reading here, and generally, adopted is Steevens' conjecture, first used by Dyce. The expression is unite common in the dramatists of the time. Compare II. Henry VI. iii. 1. 367: "like a shag-hair d crafty kern." Shag-hair'd occurs twice as a term of de- scriptive abuse in Cyril Tourneur's Atheist's Tragedy, ii. 7. (Mermaid ed. p. 284): "In the meantime comes a shag- haired dog by;" ami v. 2(p. 335): "Down, you shag-haired cur" (spoken by D'Amville to the headsman).
208. Line B8: you egg !— Compare pigeon-egg. Love's Labour's Lost, v. 1. 78, and finch-egg, Troilus and Cres- sida, v. 1. 41.
ACT IV. Scene 3.
This scene (down to line 139) follows Holinshed very closely, in many parts almost textually. It is indeed so close a transcript that it is unnecessary to give the prose at length. Perhaps the fact that Shakespeare has here merely turned prose into verse is the reason why the scene is (to my thinking, at least) so tame and artificial ipan 1 with the rest of the play. I can never feel that thi> interview between Malcolm and Macduff (of course 1 r. fer to the first 139 lines) has been treated by Shake- speare in a really convincing way; long before I was aware of it^ authority In Holinshed, I always felt as if I were ling a narrative, not overhearing a conversation. I think Shakespeare must have written it out of a sense of duty, or of historical fidelity, and that having no interest in it himself he was content to copy tamely. The incom- parable latter part of the scene has DO basis in Holinshed i ■ food the barest statement that " Makbeth most cruelly • 1 the Wife and children of Macduffe, with all whom be found in that castell, to be slaine."
209 Line 4: birthdom. — This word is spelt birthdome in the If It DWanaof course "birthright," and is formed by analogy with the numerous Finnish words ending in "•doii. "kingdom,' or the word used in i. 5. 71 above, " masterdom."
210 Line IS: deserve.— Tt have discerne. Theobald altered toll U>dt htm, which has been generally accepted.
211 Lines 19. 20:
A gnu<l and virtu,, us nature may RECOIL /ii mi imperial chu
422
Recoil is used in the same slightly irregular sense (" give way under," "swerve") in v. 2. 23 below, and in Cymbe- liue, i. 6. 128. "Perhaps," say the Clarendon Press edd., " Shakespeare had in mind the recoil of a gun, which suggested the use of the word 'charge,' though with a different signification."
212. Line 34: affeer d.—Y. 1, F. 2 have affear'd, F. 3 afear'd, F. 4 afeard. The spelling in the text was adopted by Steevens after Heath's conjecture. Affeer is a legal term meaning to assess, estimate, and also to confirm. We find in Cowell's Interpreter: " Affeers may probably bee thought to proceed from the french (afferatores, alius affidati) after (i.e. confirmare, affirmare). It signilieth in our common law those that be appointed in Conrt-leets, <fcc. upon oath to mulct such as have committed faults arbitrably punishable, and have no expresse penalty set downe by statute" (edn. 1607, C. 1). Boyer (Fr. Diet.) has "To Affeer, v. a. (a Term used in the Exchequer, that is, to confirm by Oath)."
213. Line 59: Sudden.— Compare II. Henry IV. iv. 4.
34, 35:
As humorous as winter, and as sudden As flaws congealed in the spring of day.
214. Line 71 : Convey your pleasures in a spacious plenty. — Convey is once or twice used by Shakespeare with the meaning of "conduct," "manage secretly," as in Lear, i. 2. 109: "I will seek him, sir, presently; convey the business as I shall find means, and acquaint you withal."
215. Line 86: summer -seeming. — Various needless at- tempts have been made to amend this epithet, which requires no amendment. Lust is compared to the brief and passing heat of summer; avarice takes ilc-per root, and has no date or intermission. Compare Donne's Love is Alchemy:
So, lovers dream a rich and long delight, But gett a WinUr-setmingc Sommer's ni^ht.
— Poems (Grosart's edn.), vol. i. p. 199.
216. Line 88: foisons; i.e. plenty, used generally in the singular = harvest. Shakespeare employs it again in The Tempest, iv. 1. 110, 111:
Earth's increase,_/<>jj0« plenty. Barns and gamers never empty.
217. Line 108: And does BLASPHEME his breed.— Boyer, in his French Dictionary, has " To Blaspheme, to speak Evil of;" and Bacon, Advancement of Learning, i. 2. §9, speaks of "blasphemy against learning."
218 Line 111: Died every day she liv'd.— This is pro- bably derived from 1 Cor. xv. 31: "I die daily." [Xote that in F. 1 liv'd is printed thus, and not lived as Dyce prints it. This is one of those minutiae of rhythm con- cerning which the Folio is generally trustworthy. Shake- speare could never have meant the final ed of lived to be pronounced here. The defective metre is supplied natu- rally by the speaker's pausing before he says Fare thee well.—r. A. M.]
219. Line 113: HAVE banish'dme.—FL print hath. The correction or modernization is Rowe's.
220 Line 118: trains; i.e. devices. Boyer (Fr. Diet.) has "Train (a trap or wheedle), Embuches, piege, amorce,
ACT IV. Scene 8.
NOTES TO MACBETH.
ACT IV. Scene 3.
ruse,\ attrapoire." The word is derived from the French Trains, "a plot, practise, conspiraoie, deuise" (Cotgrave). It is only used as a noun in the present passage, but it occurs as a verb in Comedy of Errors, iii. 2. 4f>, etc.
221. Line 133: before thy here-approach. — Y.l has they for thy. With here-approach compare my here-remain, line 14S below.
222. Line 134: Old Siward. — This famous warrior was, undoubtedly, a historical personage, although a great deal of tradition surrounds his origin. His grandfather was said to be a bear, not in a figurative but in a literal sense. According to Palgrave, referred to by French, Siward en- couraged this fable as tending to enhance his fame. He was a successful general under Hardicanute, and after- wards under Edward the Confessor, when he defeated the rebel Earl Godwin and his sons. He was the uncle of Malcolm, and partly for that reason was selected to help that young prince in his effort to regain the throne which Macbeth had usurped. Siward's eldest son Osberne (the young Siward of this play) was killed in the action be- fore Macbeth's castle. Earl Siward's wife was Elfreda, daughter of Aldred. By her he left a son Waltheof, who was beheaded by William the Conqueror, much to the sorrow of the English people, and was subsequently canonized as Saint Waldeve. One of Waltheof 's daughters, Maud, married Prince David, youngest son of Malcolm Canmore, and two of their grandchildren became kings of Scotland as Malcolm IV. and William the Lion, while the third grandson, David (the Kenneth of Sir Walter Scott's Talisman), had two daughters, from whom sprang Balliol and Bruce: so that, as French justly observes, the warlike Siward had as good a claim as Banquo "to be called the ancestor of kings." — P. a. m.
223. Line 135: Already at a point. — Rowe prints all ready in two words. At a point means prepared. The Clarendon Press edd. quote an instance from Foxe's Acts and Monuments, ed. 1570, p. 2092: "The Register there sittyng by, beyng weery, belyke, of tarrying, or els per- ceauyng the constant Martyrs to be at a point, called vpon the chauncelour in hast to rid them out of the way and make an end." Florio has: " Essere in punto, to be in a readinesse, to be at a point."
224 Lines 136, 137:
the chance of goodness Be like our warranted quarrel.
"Chance of goodness is equivalent to 'successful issue,' and like is also to be understood in connection with it: —may the issue correspond in goodness to our good, righteous cause. 'Chance of goodness' forms one idea like 'time of scorn,' Othello, iv. 2. 54" (Delius). The Clarendon Press edd. take the meaning to be "May the chance of success be as certain as the justice of our quarrel."
225. Lines 142, 143:
their malady CONVINCES The great assay of art.
Convinces Is used here, as in i. 7. 64, in the sense of " over- powers." Compare Cymbeline, i. 4. 103, 104: "Your Italy contains none so accomplish'd a courtier to convince the
honour of my mistress." As for assay, Furneu qnofc - Cotgrave: " l'reuve: f. A proof e, tryall, BSMy, txpt / tin experience."
226. Line 14G: T is cali'd the kvii,. - This passage about touching for the evil, that is to say scrofula or the king' 8 evil, as it was commonly called, is supposed to have been inserted out "f compliment to James I. Edward the Confessor was tin- first kiii',' who was said to have had this power, as Shakespeare might have learned from Holinshed's Chronicles, in tin- Eighth Book of the History of England, where we are told: "He vsed to helpe those that were vexed with the disease, commonlie called the kings mill, and left that vertne as it were a portion of inheritance vnto his successors the kings of this realme " (vol. i. p. 754). Many of the subsequent kings of England claimed and exercised this power. Andrew Borde, who wrote in the time of Henry VIII., mentions it: "Thekingesof England by the power that god hath gyuen to the, doth make sicke me whole of a sycknes called the kgnges euyll" (Reprint, C. 1. r). The same miraculous power was claimed for the kings of Frame. James I. was fond of exercising this supposed power, and so was his son. Charles II. touched for the king's when in exile, and also after the Restoration. In his case the virtue of his touch must have been certainly inherited from some very remote ancestor. Everyone who has read Boswell's Life of Johnson will remember that the great doctor recollected being taken, "when but thirty months old," to be touched by Queen Anne in 1712. This touch, however, was without any effect (Boswell's Life, ed. 1874, vol. i. p. 15). It was also the custom to hang some gold coin about the sufferer's neck (see below, line 153); but this additional consolation was certainly not administered by Edward the Confessor. When Charles II. touched in exile, from motives of economy he dispensed with the coin; but when he came to the throne, a special medal was struck called a touch-piece. The Clarendon Press edn. tell us that the identical touch-piece, hung round the neck of Samuel Johnson by Queen Anne, has been preserved in the British Museum.— f. a. m.
227. Line 168: When sighs and groans and shrieks that RENT the air. — Bent, the reading of the Ff., was an alter- native form of rend. It does not seem worth while to modernize it. This form occurs in Shakespeare in five other places, viz. in Midsuin. Night's Dream, iii 2. 815; III. Henry VI. iii. 2. 175; Richard III. i. 2. 120 (where the Qq. have rend); and in Titus Andronicus, iii. 1. 261, and Lover's Complaint, 55, both works of doubtful authen- ticity.
228. Lines 169, 170:
where violent sorroiv scans
A MODERN ECSTASY.
Modern is used in a number of places in the sense of trite and commonplace. Compare As You Like It, ii. 7. 156: Full of wise saws and modern instances.
Ecstasy was used for any commotion of mind, pleasur- able or the reverse. Compare iii. 2. 22 above In Ham- let, iii. 1. 168, in Ophelia's beautiful speech, and elsew here, it is used for "madness."
423
.Ml l\ . Scene ::.
NOTES TO MACBETH.
ACT V. Scene 1.
229 Lines i7<;. 177:
Macd Hov> does my wife?
&OS8, Why, veil.
Compare Antony and Cleopatra, ii. 5. 31-33:
First, madam, he is well.
Why, there's more gold* But, sirrah, mark. :tt use To say the dead are totU.
230. Line 105: Where hearing should not LATCH them.
I'm in )S8 ( New Var. Ed. p. '247) quotes Wedgewood's Dic- tionary: "Latch. To catch. Anglosaxon, laeean, gelcee- . to catch, to seize; QaeL, glac, catch." Compare Bon- net, c\iii. 5, 6:
1 <>r it no form delivers to the heart
■ 'I ! ird, of flower, or shape, which it (loth latch;
also Midsummer Night's Dream, iii. 2. 36, ami see note 175 of that play.
231 Line 196: a fee-grief; i.e. a grief that has a single
owner. " It must, I tliink, be allowed that the attorney has been guilt; of a flat trespass on the poet" (Steevens). Compare Troilus and Cressida, iii. 2. 54: "a kiss in fee- farm."
232 Line 210: Whispers the o'er-fraught heart.— "Wliis- pen is often used without a preposition before a personal object Barely as here, or in (Inch Ado, iii. 1. 4 [' Whis- per her ear']" (Abbott, Sn. Grammar, § 200).
233 Line 'J3.">: This tune goes manly.— AM the Folios have time, which seems to be a manifest misprint; in fact, one so wry obvious that, for that very reason, it may have escaped correction. It is quite clear how very easily tin- two words may be mistaken for one another. The emendation was first made by Rowe, and is followed by most editors; and, as Mabme remarks, it is supported by a previous passage in the same play, i. 3. 88: "To the self- same tune .Mid words." Gilford in one of his wonderful "bow-wow"' notes to The Roman Actor of Massinger, act ii. scenel, sneers at this emendation, and says: " Time, however, was the more ancient and common term: nor was it till long after the age of Massinger, that the use of
it, in the sense of ban i.v. was entirely superseded by
that of tune" <ed. 1805. p. 356). Unfortunately for this extremely cocksure statement, tin re is no proof that time was ever used for tune at all. If Gifford had said that
and (UM were the same words, there would have been somi sense in it; but no two words can well he more distinct in their meaning than time and tune; the former always referring to the measure or rhythm of music, ami the latt.r to the air or melody. '1 here N one well-known passage in II. unlet, iii. 1. 166:
Like sweet bells Jangled out of tune ami harsh, where the same misprint occurs at least in Qq., for Vt. have tune— and wh< re the reading may be doubtful; but that of the if is generally prefi rred t. \. u
234. Line 289: Pot on their instruments For this use
of put ,,,i con,]. are Hamlet, Iv 7 I
We 11 fut Kit those shall praise your excellence.
1 " I am Sir Oracle, And when I ope my lips, let no dog bark : "
— Merchant of Venice, i. l. 93. 94.
Schmidt, in both places, explains the phrase as="set to work."
ACT V. Scene 1.
235 Line 4: Since his majesty went UNTO THB field. — Steevens considered this statement to be an oversight on the part of Shakespeare. "He forgot that he had shut up Macbeth in Dunsinane, and surrounded him with be- siegers." But we may well suppose that Macbeth had taken the field before he was compelled to retreat into his castle. Ross, in the preceding scene, had said that he had seen "the tyrant's power afoot." Macbeth was not yet aware of the advance of the English auxiliaries
236. Line 29: Ay, but their sense ARE shut. — This is the reading of Ff. and it is strongly supported, I think, by a passage in Sonnet cxii. 10, 11:
that my adder's sense To critic and to flatterer stopped are.
Abbott points out in his Shakespearean Grammar (sec. 471) that: "The plural and possessive cases of nouns in which the singular ends in 8, se, ss, ce, and ye, are fre- quently written, and still more frequently pronounced, without the additional syllable" (p. 356). Horse is fre- quently used for the plural; compare ii. 4. 14 above: And Duncan's /torses— a thing most strange and certain — where horses should be pronounced if not written horse; and compare Antony and Cleopatra, iii. 7. 8, 9:
If we should serve with horse and marcs together,
The horse were merely lost.
A good reason for not adopting what was originally Davenant's alteration of "sense is shut," is because we thus avoid the very cacophonous conjunction of sibilants. — F. A. H.
237. Line 40: Hell is murky.— Steevens printed this sentence with a note of exclamation, and says: "She cer- tainly imagines herself here talking to Macbeth, who (she supposes) had just said, Hell is murky, (i.e. hell is a dis- mal place to go to in consequence of such a deed, ) and re- peats his words in contempt of his cowardice." I believe this to lie the completest misapprehension of the spirit of the passage. The words bubble up from a conscience never so much at ease as she tries to suppose, and they come, in this unconscious self-revelation, with the most poignant effect between words that are resolute (" why, then 'tis time to do t ") and words that are contemptu- ous of irresolution in another (" Fie. my lord, fie! a sol- dier, and afeard? "). This little sentence, though it passes and is forgotten, is said with an accent and shudder of the deepest conviction.
238. Line 84: Remove from her the means of all ANNOY- v. 1: — .1 anoyance, in the sense of "injury" (here, meant: of annoyance means of suicide), occurs several times in Shakespeare. Compare Richard II. iii. 2. 15, 16:
And heavy-gaited tn.vis, lie in their way, Doing annoyance to the treacherous feet.
239. Line 86: .1/// mtnd the has matei>. ami amasfd my sight. -Mated, in the sense of confounded, confused, oc- curs several times in Shakespeare. See Comedy of Errors, notes 82 and 187.
ACT V. Scene 2.
NOTES TO MACHKTII.
ACT V. Scene 3.
ACT v. Scene 2.
240 Line 5: the MORTIFIED num.- This has generally been understood to mean the man who has "mortified the flesh," the ascetic; compare Love's Labour's Lost, i.
1. 28:
My loving lord, Dumain is mortified. The Clarendon Press edd. suggest that mortified should be taken in its literal sense of dead; as in Erasmus on the Creed, Eng. tr. fol. 81a: "Christ was mortified and killed in dede as touchynge to his fleshe: but was quickened in spirite.
241. Line 10: And many UNROUGH youths. —Ft. spell the word unruffe. It is not elsewhere used by Shake- speare, though rowjh in the opposite seuse occurs in The
Tempest, ii. 1. 249, 250:
Till new-born chins
Be rough and razorable.
242. Lines 15, 16:
He cannot buckle his distemper'd cause Within the belt of rule. Compare for the obese metaphor Troilus and Cressida, ii.
2. 30-32:
And buckle in a waist most fathomless
With spans and inches so diminutive As fears and reasons.
S. Walker suggested that for cause we should read course, and his hint was taken by Singer, Dyce, Collier, and Hud- son. The change is, to say the least, quite unnecessary. Cause, symbolized as a distempered or disordered body, stands for the party belonging to Macbeth. The com- parison is one often employed by Shakespeare.
243. Line 23: His pester'd senses. — Pester was not in Shakespeare's time quite so undignified a term as it is now, and it occurs several times, very seriously, in the sense of "annoy," "hamper." Compare Hamlet, i. 2. 22: "to pester us with message."
244. Lines 27, 28:
Meet ice the medicine of the sickly weal, And with HIM, &c.
It is evident from the him of the second line that medi- cine, whether literally or figuratively, is meant rather for the physician (Fr. midechi) than for the physic. Florio has: "Medico: a medicine, a phisition, a leach;" but this sense was not usual. Compare All's Well, ii. 1. 75, and Winter's Tale, iv. 4. 598, where medicine is used some- what, though more playfully, in the same sense.
245. Line 30: To dew the sovereign flower.— Dew as a verb occurs in II. Henry VI. iii. 2. 340: "dew it with my mournful tears."
ACT V. Scene 3.
246 Line 3: I cannot TAINT with fear— Taint as an in- transitive verb is only used by Shakespeare here and in Twelfth Night, iii. 4. 145: "lest the device take air and taint."
247. Line S : the English e})icures. — Compare Holin- shed: "For manie of the people abhorring the riotous maners and superfluous gormandizing brought in among them by the Englyshemen, were willing inough to re-
ceiue this Donald for their king, trusting (bicause he had beene brought up in the lies, with "id customes and maners of their ancient nation, without tast of the Eng- lish likerous delicats) tiny Bhould by his seuere order in gouernement recouer againe the former temperance of their old progenitors" (Reprint, vol. v. p, 'jstj.
248. Line 10: Shall never SAG with doubt.— Sag is still used in some provincial dialects, as it is currently in America, for "droop," "give way," "become overloaded." Halliwell quotes Pierce Pennilesse, 1692: "Sir Rowland Russetcoat their dad, goes sagging every day in his round gascoynes of white cotton." The word often occurs in Walt Whitman. Compare "Out of the Cradle endlessly rocking" (Leaves of Grass, 1884, p. 200):
The yellow half-moon enlarged, sagging down, drooping, the face ot the sea almost touching.
249. Line 11: loon.— This Scotch word is used only here, very appropriately in a drama whose scene is Scotland. Lown, however, which is practically the same word, oc- curs in Othello, ii. 3. 95, and Pericles, iv. 6. 19.
250. Line 15: patch. — It has generally been said that Patch was the name of the fool who belonged to Cardinal Wolsey ; but it appears that it was rather a nickname given to the household fool before Wolsey's time; and that it may have been so used, either as an allusion to their dress of coloured patches, or it may have been connected with the Italian. pazzo, which Florio explains as " a fool, also "foolish." Douce in his Illustrations of .Shakespeare (pp. 158, 159) gives a long and interesting note on this subject.— F. A. M.
251. Line 16: those linen cheeks of th i ne. —Compare
Henry V. ii. 2. 73, 74:
Look ye, how they change !
Their cheeis are paper.
252. Lines 20, 21 :
tlii.-! push
Will cheer me ever, or dis-EASE me now. This passage has been a famous battle-ground for com- mentators. Dyce adopted the curious conjecture of Bishop Percy :
"Will chair me ever or disseat me now. F. 1 hasdis-eate,but the three other Folios all read disease. First, with regard to chair: although chair is used fre- quently in Shakespeare for the" chair of state' the "throne," for instance in II. Henry IV. iv. 5. 95, where the king, addressing his son, says:
Dost thou so hunger for mine empty chair >
and in several other passages in the historical plays, yet it is never misspelt cheere. F. 1, F. 2 have, in the passage in our text, cheere; F. 3, F. 4 cheer, and I think that it has been most clearly proved by Mr. Ellis in his communication to the Athenseum of January 26, 1808, and quoted at length by Furness (pp. 267, 268), that it is quite impossible to regard cheere or cheer tm a phonetic spelling of chair. I find that amongst the quotations given under chair, in Richardson's Dictionary, from obi writers before the time of Shakespeare, it is spelt vari- ously chare, chaire, chaiere (once in Wiclitf). chavere (once in Gower, while he spells the word chare in another passage), and, finally, chayre (in Sir T. Elyot's Governour). 425
A i I V. Scene 3.
NOTES TO MACBETH.
ACT V. Scene 4.
I have examined the passages in which it occurs in F. 1, in the nnae of a throne, where it seems invariably to be spelt ehayre, or chain.
\- to adopting the reading dissent I think that the authority ol F. 1 is quite insufficient, for it is much more probable that dis-tatt was a misprint for dis-ease than that it was meant to represent dis-seat, a word which Bi i ins only to be used in The Two Noble Kinsmen, act v. ie 4 (1 take the quotation from my own copy of the quarto, 1034); speaking of a horse l'irithous says (p. 87):
seekes all foule meanes Of boystrous and rough Iadric, to dis-scatc His Lord.
And it will be observed that dis-seat is printed there with the two ss, as we should certainly expect to find it in F. 1, in tiiis passage, if that were the true reading. If dis-eate were a misprint, is it not more probable that the syllable eate is a mistake for ease, rather than for seatei So far, as regards the literal and etymological aspect of this ques- tion. Next as to the sense. Is not the antithesis of cheer and disease quite as complete, and more poetic than that of chair and dis-seat! We have a passage in Hamlet which almost seems to guide us in deciding on the read- ing here (iii. 2. 174):
you arc so sick of late, So far from cheer and from your former state.
The word dts-ease is an extremely characteristic one. It occurs frequently in old writers, and especially in the earlier versions of the Bible, where it means "to grieve," "to render uneasy or unhappy;" and surely if we accept it here in its double sense, that is to say in its older one, already mentioned, and in the general sense "to render -id or diseased," is it not a most forcible word? Does not the reading which we have adopted in common with Mr. Furness— who, I believe, was the first to print the verb di$-ea»i with the hyphen, thereby reconciling the reading of I' 1 and F. 2— is not this reading much more in accordance with the whole sentiment of the passage? Macbeth Is not thinking of the throne, of his royal hon- ours; what weighs upon his mind throughout this scene i- his unhappy friendless position, old age is before him, but none of its consolations. Just two lines above he li is said " I am sick at heart." His mind is diseased (see line so below); and he goes on to ask the doctor if he could not find the disease of his land (line 51), could purge out the enemies who are thronging against him; then he would applaud him "to the very echo." The idea of sickness and disease seems present in his thoughts throughout this scene. As to adopting the course taken by the Cambridge i dd. and others, that is to say of re- taining cheer ami of altering the dis-eate of F. 1 into the -aic d isseat, that seems to me a course which is almost Indefensible upon any grounds whatever; for it sacrifices thi- beauty "f the pas -a; e w ithout even having the merit of retakilng the exact reading of the earliest text that has coin., down to us. For if disci.--, in its double and pregnant MUM, is not to be adopted, surely dis-seise = to dispossess, ■ word which is a thoroughly obi English
word and used by Spenser, Hall, Holland, and Drayton. WOUld be preferable As to ;.h>/( there is no real diffi- culty, this word being used frequently by Shakespeare, in a figurative sense, of a sudden violent attack.— F. a. m. 426
253. Lines 22, 23:
my WAY OF LIFE
Is fall' n into the sear, the yellow leaf.
Steevens (after Johnson's conjecture) read May of life, which yields an excellent sense, literally more exact than the Ff. reading, which yet seems to me entirely natural and probable. Compare Pericles, i. 1. 54: "ready for the way if life or death;" and Massinger, The Roman Actor,
If that when I was mistress of myself And in my way of youth, &c.
—Works (ed. Gifford), ii. 334.
1 think, too, that "my way" has a much better sound than the too close alliteration of "my May."
254. Line 35: SKiiut the country round.— This word is used again, but intransitively, in Henry V. iv. 7. 63, 64:
we will come to them, And make them skirr away.
Steevens quotes Beaumont and Fletcher, Love's Cure, or The .Martial Maid, act ii. scene 2:
Whilst 1, with this and this, well mounted, sctirr'd
A horse troop through and through.
— Works, ed. Dyce, vol. ix. p. 136.
[Sympson and other editors print skirr'd, but according to Dyce the first Folio of Beaumont and Fletcher reads scurr'd. — F. A. M.]
255. Line 39: Cure her of that— So F. 2, F. 3, F. 4. F. 1 omits her.
256. Line 55: What rhubarb, SENNA, or what purgative drug.—T. 1 has Cyme; F. 2, F. 3 Cany; F. 4 senna. "The P. 2, ' ' says Hunter, ' ' correctly represents the pronunciation of the name of the drug now called senna in Shakespeare's time, and is still the pronunciation of it by the common people. Thus, in The Treasurie of Hidden Secrets, 1027, ' Take the Seene of Alexandria one ounce,' " <fec. Cotgrave spells the word sene and senne, and explains it as "a little purgative shrub or plant." Dyce supposes the Cyme of V. 1 to be a misprint for Cynne, one of the ways of spell- ing senna.
ACT V. Scene 4.
257. Lines 4-7:
Let every soldier heio him down a bough, And bear't before him : (hereby shall we shadow The numbers of our host, and make discovery Err in report of us. Eolinshed says: "Malcome folowing hastily after Mak- letli. came the night before the battaile vnto Byrnan wood, and when his armie had rested a while there to refreshe them, hee commaunded euerye man to get a bough of some tree or other of that wood In his hand, as bigge as he might beare, and to march forth therwith in such wise, that on the next morow they might come closely and without sight in thys manner within viewe of hys enimies."
258 Lines 11, 12:
For where there is ADVANTAGE to be GIVEN, Both more and less have given him the revolt.
So Ff. Many emendations have been proposed; perhaps Johnson's is the best and the simplest. He proposed to
ACT V. Scene 4.
NOTES TO MACBETH.
.\< I \ , B-
read "where there is a vantage to be gone" in the sense of "to be off," "to depart," "to escape;" but there is surely no need for altering advantage to a 'vantage in this case ; for, as Johnson pointed out, advantage is frequently used by Shakespeare = a favourable oppor- tunity, e.g. in Tempest, iii. 3. 12, 13:
Do not, for one repulse, forego the purpose
That you resolv'd to effect. Sed. The next advantage
Will we take thoroughly.
In F. 1. the given, in both lines, is printed in the unelided form, and it certainly seems as if the double ending were intended in line 11; and for that reason, if for no other, we would not alter the text in spite of the repetition of the word given, which may seem awkward, but is quite Shake- spearean. The meaning may be "where there is to be, i.e. where there must necessarily be given the advantage, i.e. opportunity of desertion, the more and less, that is to say the greater and the less ( = probably, "the officers and private soldiers "), revolt from Macbeth. Macduff goes on to say, "none remain with him but those who are obliged to," which thoroughly agrees with what Macbeth says himself, line 49, in the preceding scene: "the thanes fly from me;" and again in the next scene (lines 5, 6) he says:
Were they not forc'd (i.e. reinforced) with those that should be ours, We might have met them dareful, beard to beard.
If Macbeth had elected to give battle to the enemy out- side his castle, he would have been compelled to afford an opportunity to those who were disaffected to desert to Malcolm's side.— f. a. m.
259. Line 21: Toivards which advance thewar. — Steevens has an interesting note on the irregular endings of many of the scenes in Macbeth. "It has been understood that local rhymes were introduced in plays in order to afford an actor the advantage of a more pointed exit, or to close a scene with additional force. Yet, whatever might be Shakespeare's motive for continuing such a practice, it may be observed that he often seems immediately to repent of it; and, in the tragedy before us, has repeatedly counteracted it by hemistichs which destroy the effect, and consequently defeat the supposed purpose of the an- tecedent couplets. " Compare in the present play, besides the instance here, the end of i. 5; iii. 2; iii. 4; iv. 1; v. 1; v. 2.
ACT V. Scene 5.
From here to the end of the play Shakespeare follows, in outline, the narrative in Holinshed, which, to avoid chopping it up into small pieces, I give here: "On the morow when Makbeth beheld them comming in this sort, hee first marueyled what the matter ment, but in the end remembred himselfe, that the prophecie which he had hearde long before that time, of the comming of Byrnane wood to Dunsinnane Castell, was likely to bee now fulfilled. Neuerthelesse, he brought his men in order of battel!, and exhorted them to doe valiantly, howbeit his enimies had scarcely cast from them their boughes, when Makbeth perceiuing their numbers betook him streight to flight, whom Makduffe pursued with great hatred euen till he came vnto Lunfannain, where Mak- beth perceiuing that Makduffe was hard at his back, leapt beside his horse, saying, thou traytor, what meaneth
it that thou shouldest thus in vaine follow me that am not appoyuted to be slain by any creature that is borne of a woman, come on therefore, and receyue thy rewards which thou hast deserued for thy paynes, ami therewith- all he lyfted vp his Bworde thinking to bane slaine him. But Makduffe quickly anoydlng from his horse, ere he came at him, answered (with his naked sworde in his haiule) saying: it is true Makbeth, and now shall thine insatiable crueltie haue an ende, for I am euen he that thy wysards haue tolde the of, who was neuer borne of my mother, but ripped out of hir wombe: therewithall he stept vnto him, <fc slue him in the place. Then cut- ting his heade from the shoulders, hee set it vpon a poll, and brought it vnto Malcolme. This was the end of Makbeth, after he had raigned .xvij. yeares ouer the Scottishmen " (vol. v. pp. 276, 277).
260. Lines 11-13:
my FELL OF HAIR Would at a diurnal treatise rouse and stir As life were in't.
Coles, Latin Dictionary, has "Fell [skin], pellis." The word is used again in Lear, v. 3. 24: "flesh and fell." With these lines compare Hamlet, iii. 4. 121, 122:
Your bedded hair, like life in excrements,
Starts up and stands on end.
261. Line 19: To-morrow, and to-morroic, and to-morrow. — "It is not impossible," says Halliwell, "that Shake- speare may here have recollected a remarkable engraving in Barclay's Ship of Fooles, 1570, copied from that in the older Latin version of 1498:
They folowe the Crowes crye to their great sorowe, Cras, eras, eras, to-morrow we shall amende,
And if we mend not then, then shall we the next morowe, Or els shortly after we shall no more offende; Amende, mad foole, when God this grace doth sende.
262. Line 23: dusty death.— It is scarcely to be believed that commentators have seriously exercised themselves over this incomparably appropriate epithet, one unfor- tunate person conjecturing that we should read dusky for dusty, and other unfortunate persons finding it plausible and convincing.
263. Line 37: Within this three mile.— This is precisely what a working-man would say to-day; in Shakespeare's time such constructions were not the vulgarisms they now are. Compare I. Henry IV. iii. 3. 54: " this two and thirty years."
264. Line 39: Upon the next tree SHALT thou hang alive. — F. 1 has shall.
265. Line 40: Till famine CLING thee.— Cling is from Anglo-Saxon clingan, to shrink up. Compare Piers Plough- man, 9010, 9011:
Or whan thou clomsest for cold Or elyngest for dry.
Cling, in some districts, appears to have a similar mean- ing to the more familiar clem or clam, meaning pinched with cold or starved with hunger.
266. Line 42: / pull in resolution.— Bo Ff. . with Un- meaning, evidently, of pulling-in a horse, checking. Johnson conjectured "I pall in resolution, ' and the Clarendon Press edd. suggest "I pale in resolution."
427
At 1 \ -
N'OTKS To MACIJKTH.
ACT V. Scene 8.
ACT V. Scene 6.
267. Line 1: leavv screens.— Leavy is Shakespeare's only form of the word now spelt leafy. Itoccursagain In Much A<lo. ii 8. 75 (rhyming with " heavy") and in Peri- cles, v. 1. 51. Coles (Lat. Diet.) lias " Leavy, frondusw;" I'.ojfi-. • heavy, A. (or full of leaves) Feuillu, plein de ft miles." Neither gives Leafy.
268 Line 4: Lead OUT first UATTI.E. — Battle is used here, asm III Henry VI i 1 B; Henry V. iv. 3. 69; Julius Cresar, v. 1 4. and v. 3. 10s. for a division of an army. The old English word bataille, like the French bataille. had the secondary sense of battalion. Cotgrave has: " Bataille: f. A battel, nr finht between two Annies; also, a battell, or maine battell; the middle battallion, or squadron of an Army, wherein the Prince, or generall, most commonly marcheth; . . . any squadron, battallion, or part, thereof."
ACT V. Scene 7.
269. Lines 1, 2;
They hare tied me to a stake; 1 cannot fly. But, bear-like, I must fight (Ae course. Course was the technical name for a single onset of dogs at a bear-baiting, The word is used again in hear, iii. 7. 54. Steevens quotes Brome, The Antipodes, 1638: "Also you shall see two ten-dog courses at the great bear."
270. Line 12: But SWORDS I smile at, weapons laugh to scorn.— Daniel conjectures that swords should be words, as in Henry V. iii. 2. 33: "a' breaks words, and keeps whole weapons."
271. Line 17 : kerns.— See i. 2. 13. The word is here u-e.l in the general sense of boors, as in the passage quoted by Dyce from The Tragedie of Claudius Tiberius Nero, 1607, sig. C 3 verso:
And these rude Gcrmaine itrttes not yet subdued.
ACT V. Scene 8.
272 Line 9: the intkkncha.nt air.— The word intren- ehant does notoccur elsewhere In Shakespeare, trenchant onl] in 1 inioii of Athens, iv. 3. 115. Intrenchant. which should properly mean "not cutting," is here used for "not to be cut," as In "the air, invulnerable," Hamlet, i. l. 14.'>; ■• the woundless air," ft. iv. i. 44.
273. I. ne i : DflSPAlB thy charm.— Compare Ben Jon- son's lines to Shakespi are, prefixed to the First Folio:
Shine forth, thou Starrc of Pen is. Bod with r
Dt influence, chide, or checre the drooping stage;
Which, since thy flight from hence, hath niourn'd like night.
And dtSfairtt day, but for thy Volume! light
274 Line 20: That PALTER with us in a double sense.— Compare Antony and Cleopatra, iii. 11. 01-63:
Now I must To the young man send humble treaties, dodge And poller in the shifts of lowness.
Cotgrave has " llarceler ... to haggle, hucke, hedge, or pouter long, jn the buying of a commoditie." I copy this
from the edition before me, that of lo.r>0. The Clarendon Press edd . in quoting the passage, give it as "haggle,
128
hucke, dodge." I suppose hedge is a misprint that has crept in with the revision.
275. Line 34.— Stage-direction. After this line we have apparently two rather conflicting stage-directions in P, 1: Exeunt fighting. Alarums, and Enter Fighting, and Mac- beth !-laiiie. Then immediately Retreat, and Flourish. Enter with Drumme and Colour*. Malcolm, Seytoard, Rosse, Thanes, and Soldiers, and below, after line 53: Enter Macduffe, witlt Macbeths head. It seems to me that unnecessary trouble has been made about this stage- direction. It is quite possible that, as the last scene was played in Shakespeare's time, Macduff and Macbeth, after one driving the other off the scene, returned fight- ing after a brief interval, when Macbeth was killed; and that after Macduff had killed him close to what we call the "wing" or " side entrance," he dragged the body off the stage; as he could not well pretend to cut off the head before the audience; Siward and the rest would appear upon the "upper stage," as they are supposed to have entered the castle before in the last scene, or rather, as it stands in the Folio, at the beginning of this scene, there being no eighth scene in the Folio. As the attack was made on Macbeth when in his castle, he must have been compelled by the besiegers to make a desperate sally; it is not likely that he got very far from the castle walls, and the fight between him and Macduff was sup- posed to take place on the ground in front of the castle. I really can see no reason to suppose, with the Clarendon editors, that Shakespeare's share of the play ended here, line 34; for if the slight episode of the death of Siward's son was Shakespeare's work, I think it is only natural that he should make those, on whose side he was fight- ing, take some notice of that brave young soldier's death. — F. A. M.
276 Lilies 39-53.— The incident of the death of young Siward is taken from Holinshed's History of England : "It is recorded also, that in the foresaid battayle, in which Earle Siwarde vanquished the Scottes, one of Siwardes sonnes chaunced to be slayne, whereof, though the father had good cause to be sorrowfull, yet when he heard that he dyed of a wound which he had receyued in fighting stoutely in the forepart of his body, and that with his face towarde the eniinie, hee greatly reioyced thereat, te heare that he died so manfully. But here is to be noted, y« not now, but a little before, (as Henry Hunt, saith,) y« Earle siward. wente into Scotlande htm- selfe in person, hee sent his sonne with an army to con- quere y* land, whose hap was ther to be slaine: and when his father heard ye newes, he demaunded whether he receiuved the wound wherof he died, in >> fore parte of the body, or in the hinder part: and when Itwastolde him y1 he rccej ucd it in the foreparte, I reioyee (saith lie) euen with all my harte, for I wonlde not wishe eyther to my sonne nor to my selfe, any other kind of death" (vol. i. p. 749).
277. Line 41: The which no sooner had his PROWESS confirm'd. — Prowess must be slurred over in pronunci- ation, so as to make it practically one syllable only. Walker (Shakespeare's Versification, p. 119) cites Greene, Alphoiisus, iii. 1 (ed. Dyce, ii 27):
Whose frtrwess alone has been the only cause.
ACT V. Scene S.
notes to macbp:th.
A i I
This line, too, gives an example of such pleonasm as that in the preceding line of the text:
Jle only liv'd but till he was a man.
278. Lines 54, 55;
behold, where stands
The usurper's cursed head.
ITolinshed says: " Then cutting his [Macbeth'S] head from his shoulders, he [Macduff] set it vpon a pole, and brought it vnto Malcolme " (see above note at beginning of this scene). It is on the authority of this passage that Malum- added the words "on a pole" to the stage-direction of the b'f.
279. Line 56: I see thee compass' d with thy kingdom'* pearl. — Compassed ivith a pearl is a rather curious ex-
pression, but there is very likely an allusion, as the Clarendon Press edd. say, to the row of pearls thai usually encircle a crown, Pearl is qo doubt used here as a col- lective term. The word was a common synonym for "treasure." •■ornament," as in Florio's Dedication to Lord Southampton of his World of Words: "Brave Earle, bright Pearle of Pearles."
280. Line 70: by *<■// and violent hands. —Compare Richard II. iii. 2. 166:
Infusing him with self and vain conceit.
281. Line 72: by the grace of Grace. -Compare All's Well, ii. 1. 163: "The great'st ciare lending grace;" Two
Gentlemen of Verona, iii. 1. 145, 140:
While I, their king, that hither them importune. Do curse the Grace that with such grace hath bless'd them.
WORDS OCCURRING ONLY IN MACBETH.
Note. — The addition of sub. adj. verb, adv. in brackets immediately after a word indicates that the word is used as a substantive, adjective, verb, or adverb, only in the passage or passages cited.
The compound words marked with an asterisk (*) are printed as two separate words in F. 1.
Act Sc. Line
Affeered iv. 3 34
Agitation i . . . . v. 1 12
Air-drawn iii. 4 62
* Alarum-bell .. \ "' 3 79
( v. 5 51
All-hailed 1. 5 7
All-thing iii. 1 13
Assailable iii. 2 39
Assassination.. i. 7 2
*Anger-hole ... ii. 3 128
Augurs2 iii. 4 124
Authorized3 .. iii. 4 66
Avarice iv. 3 78, 84
Avaricious iv. 3 58
Baby < iii. 4 106
Baby-brow .... iv. 1 88
Badged (adj.).. ii. 3 107
Bake5 (intr.) .. iv. 1 13
Bank h i. 7 6
*Be-all i. 7 5
Bear-like v. 7 2
Bellman ii. 2 3
Birthdom iv. 3 4
Birth-strangled iv. 1 30
Blanched iii. 4 116
Blanket? i. 5 54
l = emotion ; in Merchant of Venice (iii. 5. 5) used blunderingly for cogitation. 2 = auguries.
8 = accredited. Used in some- what different sense in Sunn. xxxv. 6 ; hover's Complaint, 104.
*=adolL
5 = to be hardened in heat.
6 = sandbank; used in other senses elsewhere.
1 Used figuratively = curtain; in its ordinary sense in four other passages.
|
Act Sc. |
Line |
||
|
Blood-boltered |
iv. |
1 |
123 |
|
*Bloody-sceptred iv. |
3 |
104 |
|
|
Boneless |
i. |
7 |
57 |
|
Botches (sub). |
iii. |
1 |
134 |
|
Brainsiekly .... |
.ii. |
2 |
46 |
|
ii. |
3 |
122 |
|
|
Brinded |
iv. |
1 |
1 |
|
Buttress |
i. |
6 |
7 |
|
Champion (verb) |
iii. |
1 |
72 |
|
Chaudron |
iv. |
1 |
33 |
|
Cheaply |
v. |
8 |
37 |
|
Choppy |
i. |
3 |
44 |
|
Clamoured 9 . . . |
ii. |
3 |
65 |
|
Clatter (sub.). . |
v. |
7 |
21 |
|
Clear io (adv.).. |
i. |
5 |
72 |
|
Clearness11 .... |
iii. |
1 |
133 |
|
Cling12 |
v. |
5 |
40 |
|
Cloistered (adj.) |
iii. |
2 |
41 |
|
Compunctious . |
i. |
5 |
40 |
|
Coiifineless |
iv. |
3 |
55 |
|
Conspirers |
iv. |
1 |
91 |
|
Copy13 |
iii. |
2 |
38 |
|
Cowed |
v. |
8 |
18 |
|
8 Used figuratively = sheathed; |
|||
|
in the sense of to flog occurs in |
|||
|
Merry Wives, iv. 1.81 |
, and Taming |
||
|
of the Shrew, iii. 1. |
18. |
||
|
9 = cried out; used in c |
oubtful |
||
|
sense in Winter's Tale, h |
. 4. |
■jr.o. |
|
|
10 = serenely; used ad\ |
erbially |
||
|
in other senses. |
|||
|
11 = spotlessness; |
= bri |
jhtness, |
|
|
elsewhere. |
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|
12 = to shrivel up; |
used twice in |
||
|
ordinary sense = to |
idhere to, in |
||
|
Macbeth, i. 2. 8, and Henry VII 1 |
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|
i. 1. 9. |
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|
13 —copyhold; ust |
d tit |
lui- |
ntly |
|
elsewhere in other senses |
Act Sc. Line
Cream-faced . . v. 3 11
Cribbed iii. 4 24
Dareful v. 5 6
Deftly iv. 1 68
Delinquents... iii. 6 12
Demi-wolves. . . iii. 1 94
Devil-porter (verb) ii. 3 21
Directly » v. 1 7S
Direness v. 5 14
Distance15 .... iii. 1 116
Ditch-delivered iv. 1 31
Downy ^ ii. 3 81
Drugged ii. 2 6
Dudgeon ii. 1 46
Earth-bound . . iv. 1 90
*End-all i. 7 5
Entry ii. 2 66
Equivocate (intr.) ii. 3 13
Equivocate (tr.) ii. 3 39 Equivocator. . . ii. 3 10,14,35
Even-handed.. i. 7 10
Faith-breach . . v. 2 18
Farrow iv. 1 66
Fast1? (ad j.)... v. 1 9
Fee-grief iv. 3 196
Fenny iv. 1 12
Filed is iii. 1 05
H = immediately ; used fre- quently elsewhere in other sensea
ij = alienation, antagonism; used frequently elsewhere in or- dinary sense.
'6 Used figuratively = soft.
17 = deep, sound; used fre- quent ly elsewhere in other senses.
18-= defiled; used elsewhere iu other senses.
429
Let Sc. Line
Fillet" iv. 1 12
Firm-set ii. 1 50
Fitful iii. 2 23
Blighty iv. 1 145
Forbid 20 j. 3 21
Forced J1 v. 5 5
Franchisee! . . . . ii. 1 28
Frieze i. 6 0
Gashed ii. 3 119
Gaze w v. 8 24
Gold-bound . . . iv. 1 114
Goose-3 ii. 3 IS
Gospelled iii. 1 88
Gouts ii. 1 46
Graymalkin.. . . i. 1 8
Gruel iv. 1 :;j
Guardian1*.... ii 4 35
Gums25 i. 7 ,,;
Hailed m iii. 1 GO
19 =a thin slice; =a hand, hover's Complaint, :;:t.
90— cursed; this verh is nsed in many different tenses w here.
21 —reinforced; nsed rerj fre- quently elsewhere in a variety of -. Dses.
.11 object of interest. Bonn. v. 2; used frequently else* hen
int. nt. regard.
a tailor's smoothing-iron.
24 _ thai w bleb keeps and
guards. - 1 >i the mouth; used in several
passages = the aiim of trees; also rheum from the eyes, Henry V. iv. •_'. J*.
26 —saluted; —to pour down like hail, in three othi r p isaages.
WORDS PECULIAR TO MACBETH.
•Half-world.. Eeathi
Act Be Line 4! I 6
ii. 1
( i. 1
( L 8 77
ll.at oppressed ii. 1 89
1 1 ■ dge pig iv. l i
Bell-broth .... iv. l 19
Sell-gate .... ii. 3 2
Hell-kite iv. 3 8H
' Here approach iv. 3 133 •II. in i. main., iv. 3 Ji- ll, units- i. 6 20
lliitli placed., iv. 1 98
Housekeepers, iii. l 97
Howl< ii. 1 54
Bowlet iv. l 17
Banter' iii. l 97
Hurlyburly« (sub.) i. 1 3
Ill-composed . . iv. 3 77
Illness i. 5 21
Imaginings i. 3 138
Impedes i. 5 29
[ncarnadine . . . ii. 2 68
Indissoluble... iii. 1 18
Initiate iii. 4 143
Interdiction... iv. 3 107
Intreiicliant ... v. 8 9
Jutty? (sub.)., i. C 0
King-becoming iv. 3 91
r.amentings ... ii. 3 61
limbeck' i. 7 67
Lion-mettled, iv. l 90
Loon v. 3 11
'M igot-pies... Malevolence. ..
Manly (adv.) ..
Maii-ioiiry
Mai i..u 1. ■
Masterdom. . . .
in. iii. iv.
i. iii.
i.
126 28
235
5
94
71
1 —a common; »=the plant of
me, in tempest, i. l. 7... 2 —beadsmen; in -.v. -nil pas- ■(l - elsewhere — anchunti -
a )|..ll«e-dogJ — a stay.r at
home, 111 < ••rii.laims, i. :>. .'.".; ami
rt mi sense In Twelfth Night, iv. •.'. 11.
* — the cry ..f a wolf; — aery
-ii. in Henry V. iii. 3. 39.
* — » kind of dog.
■ ■ ui- iaan a.ij. in 1. Hem 1 IV. v 1.78. 'The verb" to pt
■ 111 Henry V iii. 1. 1::. ■ x. 2.
Act s<\ Line
Masterpiece...
Meek"
Metaphysical ..
Milks'"*.
Minutely (adj.) More-having . . Mouth-honour.
11.
i.
i.
i. v. iv. v.
Oblivious v. 3
O'erfraught iv. 3
olden iii. 4
Overbold iii. 5
Overcome" iii. 4
Over-credulous iv. 3
Over-red (verb) v. 3
Pale-hearted . . iv. 1
Pali" i. 5
I'auser (sub.) .. ii. 3
Peak is i. 3
Pent-house10. . . i. 3
Pitfall iv. 2
Posters i. 3
Prattler iv. 2
Procreant (adj.) i. 6
Prophet-like. . . iii. 1
Provoker ii. 3
Purgative v. 3
Purge (sub.) v. 2
Purveyor i. 6
Quarters" (sub.) i. 3
Quell (sub.).... i. 7
71 17 30 55 18 81
Multitudinous11 ii. 2 02
Naveu i. 2 22
Navigation.... iv. 1 54
Night-shriek . . v. 5 11
Nose-painting., ii. 3 31
Nourisher ii. 2 40
43 210
75
3
111
120
14
85 52 117 23 20 35 33 64 8 59 27 55 28 22
16
9 Used adverbially.
10 = sucks; used in several pas- sages =t.. draw milk from the breast with the hand.
'■ = innumerable; = pertaining to the multitude, Coriolanus, iii. 1. 156.
12= navel.
13 _ to pass over; used elsewhere ill ..tli.r senses.
H = to wrap as in a cloak; to I.-, ay. t<> wane, in Ant. and Cleo. ii. 7. 88; Hamlet, v. 2. 9.
•S — to grow lean; in acontemp- tuous moral sens.- in MerryWiv.s, iii. 5.71; Hamlet, ii. 2. 594.
I wd a. lj. 'rtiv.lv; as -ui.. in Much \.l... iii. a. ui; Merchant of \ enloe, ii. 6. i.
17 — regions in the hemisphere.
430
Act 8c. Line
Ravined(adj).. iv. 1 24
Rawness" iv. 3 26
Receipt1-' i. 7 66
Resound20 iv. 3 6
Rhinoceros iii. 4 101
Rhubarb v. 3 55
Roofed iii. 4 40
Rooky iii. 2 51
Rouse" I"'' 2 53
( v. 5 12
Rubs 22 (sub.)., iii. 1 134
Rump-fed i. 3 6
Sag v. 3 10
•Salt-sea (adj.). iv. 1 24
Savagely iv. 3 205
Scale*' (sub.)., iv. l 22
Scream (verb). . ii. 2 16
Screams (sub.), ii. 3 61
Sear (sub.) v. 3 23
Seat" (sub). .. i. 6 1
Self-abuse iii. 4 142
Self-comparisons i. 2 55
Senna v. 3 55
Settled 25 i. 7 SO
Shag-haired.... iv. 2 83
Shard-borne... iii. 2 42
Shark (sub.). . . iv. 1 24
Shoughs iii. 1 94
Sickly 20 (adv.). iii. 1 107
Sightless!?....-! '• 5 50 ( i. 7 23
Skinny i. 3 45
Slab (adj.) iv. 1 32
Slaughterous . . v. 5 14
Sleave ii. 2 37
Sleek (verb).... iii. 2 27
Slope (verb) iv. 1 57
Slumber; v. l 12
!8 = haste.
19 =a receptacle ; used in other senses elsewhere.
-" Venus and Adonis, 268; Pas- sionate Pilgrim, 278.
I intransitively; intran- sitive sense used frequently else-
wllere.
-- inequalities, hinderances.
23 = the shell of a dragon; used frequently in other senses.
24 = site.
25 = firmly resolved ; this verb is ns.,1 frequently elsewhere in other senses.
2« — in ill health; figuratively --- reluctantly, in Antony and Cleopatra, iii. 4. 7.
27 = invisible ; used elsewhere in other senses.
Act Se. Line
sprites 28 iv. 1 127
Stableness iv. 3 92
Stanchless iv. 3 78
Stealthy ii. 1 54
stieking-place i. 7 60
Store-house.... ii. 4 34
Summer-seeming iv. 3 86
Supplied 29 i. 2 13
Surcease (sub.). i. 7 4
Sweltered iv. 1 8
Swoop (sub.). . . iv. 3 219
Temple-haunting i. 6 4
Thick-coming. . v. 3 38
Tie (sub.) iii. 1 17
Trains'0 iv. 3 118
Trammel i. 7 3
Trilled-1 ii. 4 4
Trumpet-tongued i. 7 19
Unaccompanied i. 4 40
Unattended.... ii. 2 69
Illbatteleil V. 7 19
Unbecoming... iii. 1 13
Undeeded v. 7 20
I'nderwrit v. 8 26
Inlineal iii. 1 63
Unmanned" . . iii. 4 73
Unprovokes. . .. ii. 3 32
Unrough v. 2 10
Unseamed i. 2 22
Unsex i. 5 42
Unshrinking. . . v. 8 42
Unspeak iv. 3 123
Untitled iv. 3 104
Unwiped ii. 3 108
Uproar (verb). . iv. 3 99
Valued (adj.).. iii. 1 95
Visitings i. 5 46
Vulnerable v. 8 11
Water-rugs iii. 1 94
Whey-face (sub.) v. 3 17
Wooingly i. 6 6
Wrongly i. 5 23
28 = mood, temper; Venus and Adonis, 181 ; Lucreee, 121 ; used elsewhere in ether senses.
29= reinforced; used in other senses elsewhere.
30 = devices ; used in various other Musis elsewhere.
31 = rendered trifling ; used in utller senses elsewhere.
Used in its ordinary sense-= unnerved; = untrained (of a haw k), Romeo and Juliet, iii. 2. 14.
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