Графични страници
PDF файл
ePub
[ocr errors]

we take grief to be a nominative, or a second genitive governed by impatient. In principle, though not perhaps according to rule and established usage, "Octavius with Mark Antony" is as much entitled to a plural verb as "Octavius and Mark Antony." Tidings, which is a frequent word with Shakespeare, is commonly used by him as a plural noun; in this same Play we have afterwards "these tidings" in 729; but there are other instances besides the present in which it is treated as singular. It is remarkable that we should have exactly the same state of things in the case of the almost synonymous term news (the final s of which, however, has been sometimes attempted to be accounted for as a remnant of -ess or -ness, though its exact correspondence in form with the French nouvelles, of the same signification, would seem conclusively enough to indicate what it really is). At any rate tiding and new (as a substantive) are both alike unknown to the language.

590. She fell distract.-In Shakespeare's day the language possessed the three forms distracted, distract, and distraught; he uses them all. We have now only the first.

593. The original stage direction here is, "Enter Boy with Wine, and Tapers." The second "Drinks" at the end of 595 is modern; and the "Re-enter Titinius," etc. is " Enter," in the original.

596. And call in question.—Here we have probably rather a figurative expression of the poet than a common idiom of his time. Then as well as now, we may suppose, it was not things, but only persons, that were spoken of in ordinary language as called in question.

598. Bending their expedition.-Rather what we should now call their march (or movement) than their expedition (or enterprise).

599. Myself have letters.—We have now lost the right of using such forms as either myself or himself as sufficient nominatives, though they still remain perfectly unobjectionable accusatives. We can say "He struck myself," and "I saw himself;" but it must be "I myself struck him," and "He himself saw it." Here, as everywhere else, in the original text the myself is in two words, "My selfe." And tenour in all the Folios, and also in both Rowe's edition and Pope's, is tenure, a form of the word which we now reserve for another sense.

601. That by proscription, and bills of outlawry.— The ear at once perceives the peculiarity of rhythm given to this verse by the employment of the two weak syllables and and of in the second place of the foot in immediate succession. This is what may fairly be called an instance of poetic license, or of what can only be done in verse on rare occasions. Such deviations from the normal form of the verse, again, when not occurring in contiguous feet, are habitual with every poet in the language, and are to be accounted part of the system of our prosody.

604. Cicero is dead, etc.-In the original printed text these words are run into one line with "and by that order of proscription." The text of the Variorum edition presents the same arrangement, with the addition of Ay as a prefix to the whole. "For the insertion of the affirmative adverb, to complete the verse,' says Steevens in a note, "I am answerable." According to Jennens, however, this addition was also made

S

[ocr errors]

by Capel. In any case, it is plain that, if we receive the Ay, we must make two lines, the first ending with the word dead. But we are not entitled to exact or to expect a perfect observance of the punctilios of regular prosody in such brief expressions of strong emotion as the dialogue is here broken up into. What do the followers of Steevens profess to be able to make, in the way of prosody, of the very next utterance that we have from Brutus,-the "No, Messala" of 605 ? The best thing we can do is to regard Cassius's "Cicero one ?" and Messala's responsive" Cicero is dead" either as hemistichs (the one the commencement, the other the conclusion of a line), or, if that view be preferred, as having no distinct or precise prosodical character whatever. Every sense of harmony and propriety, however, revolts against running "Cicero is dead" into the same line with "And by that order," etc.

613. With meditating that she must die once.—For this use of with see 363.-Once has here the same meaning which it has in such common forms of expression as "Once, when I was in London," " Once upon a time," etc.-that is to say it means once without, as in other cases, restriction to that particular number. Steevens, correctly enough, interprets it as equivalent to “at some time or other ;" and quotes in illustration, from The Merry Wives of Windsor, iii. 4, I pray thee, once to night Give my sweet Nan this ring."―The prosody of the line is the same that has been noted in 426, 436, and 537.

66

615. I have as much of this in art as you, etc.—In art Malone interprets to mean "in theory." It rather signifies by acquired knowledge, or learning, as dis

tinguished from natural disposition. The passage is one of the many in our old poets, more especially Shakespeare and Spenser, running upon the relation between nature and art.

616. Well, to our work alive.-This must mean, apparently, let us proceed to our living business, to that which concerns the living, not the dead. The commentators say nothing, though the expression is certainly one that needs explanation.

619. This it is." The overflow of the metre," Steevens observes, "and the disagreeable clash of it is with 'Tis at the beginning of the next line, are almost proofs that our author only wrote, with a common ellipsis, This." He may very possibly be right. The expression "This it is" sounds awkward otherwise, as well as prosodically; and the superfluous, or rather encumbering, it is would be accounted for by supposing the commencement of the following line. to have been first so written and then altered to 'Tis. 620. Good reasons must, of force.-We scarcely now say of force (for of necessity, or necessarily); although perforce continues to be sometimes still employed in poetry.

620. The enemy, marching along by them.-This line, with the two weak syllables in the last places of two continuous feet (the second and third) might seem at first to be of the same kind with the one noted in 601. But the important distinction is, that the first of the two weak syllables here, the -y of enemy, would in any circumstances be entitled to occupy the place it does in our heroic verse, in virtue of the principle that in English prosody every syllable of a polysyllabic word acquires the privilege or character of a strong syllable

when it is as far removed from the accented syllable of the word as the nature of the verse requires. See Prolegomena. The dissonance here, accordingly, is very slight in comparison with what we have in 601. -For "Along by them" see 200.

620. By them shall make a fuller number up.-For this use of shall see the note on Cæsar should be a beast in 238.—The "along by them" followed by the "by them" is an artifice of expression, which may be compared with the "by Cæsar and by you" of 345.

620. Come on refreshed, new-hearted, and encouraged. "New-hearted" is the correction of Mr. Collier's MS. annotator; the old reading is new-added, which is not English or sense, and the only meaning that can be forced out of which, besides, gives us only a repetition of what has been already said in the preceding line, a repetition which is not only unnecessary but would be introduced in the most unnatural way and place possible, whereas new-hearted is the very sort of word that one would expect to find where it stands, in association with refreshed and encouraged.

620. From which advantage shall we cut him offShakespeare most probably wrote we shall.

622. Under your pardon.-Vid. 358.

622. We, at the height, etc.-Being at the height, are in consequence ready to decline -as the tide begins to recede as soon as it has attained the point of full flood.

622. Omitted.-The full resolution will be-which tide being omitted to be taken at the flood.

623. Then, with your will, etc.--In the original edition "We'll along" is made part of the first line. Mr. Collier prints, it does not appear on what, or whether

« ПредишнаНапред »