Abbildungen der Seite
PDF
EPUB

640. Exit.] Here, in the original play, the Tinker speaks again, and the scene continues thus: "Slie. Sim, must they be married now? "Lord. I, my lord.

"Enter Ferando, and Kate, and Sander.

"Slie. Looke, Sim, the fool is come againe now. "Feran. Sirha, go fetch our horses forth, and bring them to the backe-gate presently.

"San. I wil, sir, I warrant you.

[Exit Sander. "Feran. Come, Kate: the moone shines cleere tonight, methinkes.

"Kate. The moone; why husband you are deceiv'd ; it is the sun.

"Feran. Yet againe ? come backe againe; it shal be the moone ere we come at your father's.

"Kate. Why Ile say as you say; it is the moone. "Feran. save the glorious moone!

"Kate.

save the glorious moone!

Feran. I am glad, Kate, your stomach is come downe z "I know it well thou knowst it is the sun;

"But I did trie to see if thou wouldst speake, "And crosse me now as thou hast done before: "And trust me, Kate, hadst thou now not named the

moone,

"We had gone backe againe as sure as death. "But soft, who's this that's comming here?

"Enter the Duke of Cestus alone.

"Duke. Thus al alone from Cestus am I come, "And left my princely court, and noble traine, "To come to Athens, and in this disguise

"To

[ocr errors]

"To see what course my son Aurelius takes. "But stay; here's some it may be travels thither: "Good sir, can you direct me the way to Athens? ["Ferando speaks to the old man.”

His speech is very partially and incorrectly quoted by Mr. Pope in the following page. STEEVENS. 663. And so it shall be so,] A modern editor very plausibly reads-And so it shall be, Sir. MALONE.

669. Tell me, sweet Kate,] In the first sketch of this play, printed in 1607, we find two speeches in this place worth preserving, and seeming to be of the hand of Shakspere, though the rest of that play is far inferior:

"Fair lovely maiden, young and affable,
"More clear of hue, and far more beautiful
"Than precious sardonyx, or purple rocks
"Of amethists, or glistering hyacinth-

66

man

-Sweet Catharine, this lovely wo

"Cath. Fair lovely lady, bright and chrystaline, Beauteous and stately as the eye-train'd bird; "As glorious as the morning wash'd with dew, "Within whose eyes she takes her dawning beams, "And golden summer sleeps upon thy cheeks. "Wrap up thy radiations in some cloud, "Lest that thy beauty make this stately town "Uninhabitable as the burning zone,

"With sweet reflections of thy lovely face."POPE. An attentive reader will perceive in this speech se. veral words which are employed in none of the legi

timate plays of Shakspere. Such, I believe, are, sardonyx, hyacinth, eye-trained radiations, and especially uninhabitable; our poet generally using inhabitable in its room, as in Richard II:

"Or any other ground inhabitable."

These instances may serve as some slight proofs, that the former piece was not the work of Shakspere: but I have since observed that Mr. Pope had changed inhabitable into uninhabitable. STEEVENS. 687. That every thing I look on seemeth green.] Shakspere's observations on the phænomena of nature are very accurate. When one has sat long in the sunshine, the surrounding objects will often appear tinged The reason is assigned by many of the

with green.

writers on opticks.

BLACKSTONE.

ACT V.

Line 5.

AND

ND then come back to my mistress as soon as I can.] The editions all agree in this reading; but what mistress was Biondello to come back to? he must certainly mean; Nay, faith, sir, I must see you in the church; and then, for fear I should be wanted, I'll run back to wait on Tranio, who at present personates you, and whom therefore I at present acknowledge for my master." THEOBALD.

28. -to Padua.] The reading of the old copies is from Padua, which is certainly wrong. The editors

have made it to Padua, but it should rather be from Pisa. Both parties agree that Lucentio's father is come from Pisa, as indeed they necessarily must; the point in dispute is, whether he be at the door, or looking out of the window.

TYRWHITT.

61. —a copatain-hat,] is, I believe, a hat with a conical crown, such as was anciently worn by welldressed men.

JOHNSON. This kind of hat is twice mentioned by Gascoigne. See Hearbes, p. 154:

"A coptankt hat made on a Flemish block."

And again, in his Epilogue, p. 216:

"With high copt hats, and feathers flaunt a flaunt." In Stubbs's Anatomie of Abuses, printed 1595, there is an entire chapter on the hattes of England," beginning thus:

"Sometimes they use them sharpe on the crowne, pearking up like the speare or shaft of a steeple, standing a quarter of a yard above the crowne of their heads," &c.

71.

STEEVENS.

-a sail-maker in Bergamo.] Chapman has a parallel passage in his Widow's Tears, a comedy,

1612:

-he draws the thread of his descent from Leda's distaff, when 'tis well known his grandsire cried coney-skins in Sparta."

STEEVENS.

85. Call forth an officer, &c.] Here, in the origi

nal play, the Tinker speaks again :

"Slie. I say weele have no sending to prison.

"Lord.

"Lord. My lord, this is but the play; they're but

in jest.

"Slie, I tell thee, Sim, weele have no sending

"To prison, that's flat: why, Sim, am not I don Christo Vari?

"Therefore I say they shall not goe to prison. "Lord. No more they shall not, my lord:

"They be runne away.

"Slie. Are they run away, Sim? that's well: "Then gis some more drinke, and let them play againe. "Lord. Here, my lord." STEEVENS.

92.

—coney-catch'd] i. e. deceived, cheated. STEEVENS.

113. While counterfeit supposes blear'd thine eyne.] The modern editors read supposers, but wrongly. This is a plain allusion to Gascoigne's comedy, entitled Supposes, from which several of the incidents in this play are borrowed. TYRWHITT.

This is highly probable; but yet supposes is a word often used in its common sense, which, on the present occasion, is sufficiently commodious. So, in Greene's Farewell to Folly, 1617: "with Plato to build a commonwealth on supposes." Shakspere uses the word in Troilus and Cressida: "That we come short of our suppose so far," &c. It appears likewise from the Preface to Greene's Metamorphosis, that supposes was a game of some kind. "After supposes, and such ordinary sports, were past, they fell to prattle,"

&c. Again, in Drayton's epistle from K. John to

Matilda:

H

"And

« ZurückWeiter »