Line 374. colours. -a very opal!] A precious stone of almost all So Milton describing the walls of heaven, With opal tow'rs and battlements adorn'd. POPE. The opal is a precious stone which varies its appearance as it re ceives the light at different angles. Line 386. But 'tis that miracle, and queen of gems, STEEVENS. That nature pranks her in,] The miracle and queen of gems is her beauty. As to her mind, he that should be captious would say, that though it may be formed by nature it must be pranked by education. Shakspeare does not say that nature pranks her in a miracle, but in the miracle of gems, that is, in a gem miraculously, beautiful. Line 417. in Hamlet: JOHNSON. -she pin'd in thought;] i. e. Melancholy. Thus "Is sicklied o'er with the pale cast of thought." Line 419. She sat like Patience on a monument, Smiling at Grief.] This most exquisite, yet intelligible idea, cannot be too much admired. In this place, however, the editor of these annotations cannot avoid lamenting the absurdity of that abstract criticism, which seems to have stung all our commentators on this passage. Some pages of old reading and analogies to illustrate this simple and beautiful phrase are really too bad for our patience. Line 425. I am all the daughters of my father's house, And all the brothers too;] This was the most artful answer that could be given. The question was of such a nature, that to have declined the appearance of a direct answer must have raised suspicion. This has the appearance of a direct answer, that the sister died of her love; she (who passed for a man) saying, she was all the daughters of her father's house. WARBURTON. a zoophyte, called the Urtica marina, abounding in the Indian seas. STEEVENS. -how he jets Line 463. -] i. e. How he struts. -471. the lady of the Strachy-] We should read, Trachy, i. e. Thrace; for so the old English writers called it. It was common to use the article the before names of places: and this was no improper instance, where the scene was in Illyria. WARBURTON. What we should read is hard to say. Here is an allusion to some old story which I have not yet discovered. JOHNSON. Straccio (see Torriano's and Altieri's dictionaries) signifies clouts and tatters; and Torriano in his grammar, at the end of his dic◄ tionary, says that straccio was pronounced stratchi. So that it is probable that Shakspeare's meaning was this, that the chief lady of the queen's wardrobe had married a yeoman of the king's, who was vastly inferior to her. shoots stones. Line 480. ·492. -blows him.] i. e. Puffs him up. SMITH. -stone-bow,] That is, a cross-bow, a bow which -a day-bed,] i. e. A couch. JOHNSON. wind up my watch,] In our author's time watches were very uncommon. When Guy Faux was taken, it was urged as a circumstance of suspicion that a watch was found upon him. JOHNSON. Line 495. Though our silence be drawn from us with cars,] i. e. Though it is the greatest pain to us to keep silence. WARBURTON. I believe the true reading is, Though our silence be drawn from us with carts, (or cars) yet peace. In The Two Gentlemen of Verona, one of the Clowns says, I have a mistress, but who that is, a team of horses shall not draw from me. So in this play, Oxen and wainropes will not bring them together. JOHNSON. Line 513. What employment have we here ?] A phrase of that time, equivalent to our common speech of– -What's to do here. WARBURTON. Line 519. -her great P's.] In the direction of the letter which Malvolio reads, there is neither a C, nor a P, to be found. There STEEVENS. may, however, be words in the direction which he does not read. To formal directions of two ages ago were often added these words, Humbly Present. Line 536. 546. -brock!] i. e. Badger. JOHNSON. -stannyel] The name of a kind of hawk, is very judiciously put here for a stallion, by Sir Thomas Hanmer. JOHNSON. Line 550. -formal capacity.] Formal, for common. WARBURTON. So in the Comedy STEEVENS. Formal capacity, i. e. any one in his senses. of Errors, "Make of him a formal man again." Line 558. -as rank as a fox.] Sir Thomas Hanmer reads, not as rank. The other editions, though it be as rank. JOHNSON. Line 566. And ○ shall end, I hope.] By O is here meant what we now call a hempen collar. JOHNSON. I believe he means only, it shall end in sighing, in disappointment. So somewhere else, "How can you fall into so deep an Oh?" STEEVENS. Line 587. yellow stockings;] Before the civil wars, yellow stockings were much worn. In Davenant's play, called The Wits, Act 4. p. 208. Works folio, 1673: "You said, my girl, Mary Queasie by name, did find your "uncle's yellow stockings in a porringer; nay, and you said she "stole them." Dr. PERCY. So also in Heywood's If you know not me you know nobody. "Many of our young married men have ta'en an order to wear "yellow garters, points, and shoe-tyings, and 'tis thought yellow "will grow a custom." Line 593.the fortunate-unhappy. STEEVENS. Day-light and champian discovers not more:] We should read, with thee, the fortunate, and happy, day-light and champian discover no more: i. e. broad day and an open country cannot make things plainer. WARBURTON. Line 597. I will be point-de-vice, the very man.] This phrase is of French extraction-a points-devisez. Chaucer uses it in the Romaunt of the Rose,---" Her nose was wrought at point-device.” i. e. with the utmost possible exactness. STEEVENS. Line 624. tray-trip,] Tray-trip is mentioned in The City Match by Jasper Maine, 1639, "while she "Made visits above stairs, would patiently And again in Glapthorne's Wit in a Constable, 1639, -"mean time, you may play at tray-trip or cockall, STEEVENS. "for black puddings." Line 630. waters. -aqua-vitæ- -] Is the old name of strong JOHNSON. Clown. No, Sir, I live by the church.] The Clown, I suppose, wilfully mistakes her meaning, and answers, as if he had been asked whether he lived by the sign of the tabor, the ancient designation of a music shop. STEEVENS. Line 12. -a cheveril glove -] i. e. A kid glove. 55. -lord Pandarus -] See our author's play of JOHNSON. Troilus and Cressida. Line 68. -the haggard,] The haggard is the unreclaimed hawk, who flies after every bird without distinction. STEEVENS. The meaning may be, that he must catch every opportunity, as the wild hawk strikes every bird. JOHNSON. JOHNSON. Line 72. But wise men, folly fallen,] Sir Thomas Hanmer reads, folly shewn, The sense is, But wise men's folly, when it is once fallen into extravagance, overpowers their discretion. HEATH. I explain it thus: The folly which he shews with proper adaptation to persons and times, is fit, has its propriety, and therefore produces no censure; but the folly of wise men, when it falls or happens, taints their wit, and destroys the reputation of their judgJOHNSON. ment. Line 82. 95. for ready. -the list] Is the bound, limit, farthest point. JOHNSON. -most pregnant and vouchsafed ear.] Pregnant WARBURTON. Pregnant is a word in this writer of very lax signification. It may here mean liberal. JOHNSON. Line 120. After the last enchantment you did here,] i. e. After the enchantment your presence worked in my affections. WARBURTON. Line 129. To one of your receiving] i. e. To one of your ready apprehension. She considers him as an arch page. WARBURTON. a cyprus,] Is a transparent stuff. JOHNSON. -a grise;] Is a step, sometimes written greese JOHNSON. from degres, French. Line 163. -maugre- -] i. e. In spite of. 171. And that no woman has;] And that heart and bosom I have never yielded to any woman. Line 172. JOHNSON. -save I alone.] These three words Sir Thomas Hanmer gives to Olivia probably enough. ACT III. SCENE II. JOHNSON. Line 208. -as lief be a Brownist,] The Brownists were a sect who separated themselves from the church of England, and whose tenets were the common topics of public ridicule. The Brownists seem, in the time of our author, to have been the constant objects of popular satire. In the old comedy of Ramalley, 1611, is the following stroke at them : -"of a new sect, and the good professors will, like the "Brownist, frequent gravel-pits shortly, for they use woods and "obscure holes already.". STEEVENS. Line 219. —in a martial hand; be curst-] Martial hand, seems to be a careless scrawl, such as shewed the writer to neglect ceremony. Curst, is petulant, crabbed-a curst cur, is a dog that with little provocation snarls and bites. JOHNSON. Line 221. taunt him with the licence of ink: if thou thou'st him some thrice,] There is no doubt, I think, but this passage is one of those, in which our author intended to shew his respect for Sir Walter Raleigh, and a detestation of the virulence of his prosecutors. The words quoted seem to me directly levelled at the attorney-general Coke, who, in the trial of Sir Walter, attacked |
