So, in All's Well that Ends Well: "To the utmost syllable of your worthiness." Recorded is probably here used for recording or recordable; one participle for the other, of which there are many instances, both in Shakspere and other English writers. Virgil uses penetrabile frigus, for penetrans frigus; and penetrabile telum, for telum penetrans. STEEVENS. 240. The way to dusty death.- -] We should read dusky, as appears from the figurative term lighted. The Oxford editor has condescended to approve of it. WARBURTON. Dusty is a very natural epithet. The second folio has: The way to study death. Which Mr. Upton prefers, but it is only an error by an accidental transposition of the types. JOHNSON. The dust of death is an expression used in the 22d Psalm. Dusty death alludes to the expression of dust to dust in the burial service, and to the sentence pronounced against Adam: "Dust thou art, and to dust thou shalt return."-Shakspere, however, in the first act of this play, speaks of the thane of cawdor, as of one "who had been studied in his death." STEEVENS. 260. 'Till famine cling thee:- -] Clung, in the northern counties, signifies any thing that is shrivelled or shrunk up. By famine, the intestines are, as it were, stuck together. In Pierce's Supererogation, or a· New Praise of the Old Asse, &c. 1593: "Who would have thought, or could have imagined, to have found the wit of Pierce so starved and clunged ?" Again, in George Whetstone's Castle of Delight, 1576: "My wither'd corps with deadly cold is clung.” Again, in Heywood's Pleasant Dialogues and Dramas, 1637: "His entrails with long fast and hunger clung." To cling, likewise signifies, to gripe, to compress, to embrace. So, in The Revenger's Tragedy, 1607: "side from the mother, "And cling to the daughter." Again, in Antonio's Revenge, 1602. "And found even cling'd in sensuality." Again, in Northward Hoe, 1607. "I will never see a white flea before I will cling you." Mr. Whalley however observes, that till famine cling thee, means— —till it dry thee up, or exhaust all thy moisture. Clung wood is wood of which the sap is entirely dried or spent. STEEVENS. 262. I pull in resolution; and begin To doubt the equivocation of the fiend, That lies like truth: -] Though this is the reading of all the editions, yet, as it is a phrase without either example, elegance, or propriety, it is surely better to read: I pall in resolution, I languish in my constancy, my confidence begins to forsake me. It is scarcely necessary to observe, how easily pall might be changed into pull by a negligent writer, or mistaken for it by an unskilful Printer. With this emendation Dr. Warburton and Mr. Heath concur. JOHNSON. There is surely no need of change; for Shakspere, who made Trinculo, in the Tempest, say, “I will let loose my opinion,” might have written, I pull in my resolution. He had permitted his courage (like a fiery horse) to carry him to the brink of a precipice; but, seeing his danger, resolves to check that confidence to which he had given the rein before. STEEVENS. 272. harness] An old word for armour. So, in The Cobler's Prophecy, 1594: "His harness is converted to soft silke." HENDERSON. 285. -I must fight the course- -] A phrase taken from bear-baiting. So, in The Antipodes, by Brome, 1638: "Also you shall see two ten dog courses at the great bear." 309. Seems bruited : STEEVENS. -] From bruit, Fr. To bruit is to report with clamour; to noise. King Henry IV. P. II. So, in "As common bruit doth put it." « Again, Again, in Acolastus, a comedy, 1540: "Lais was one of the most bruited common women that clerks do write of." STEEVENS. 830. As easy may'st thou the intrenchant air] That is, air which cannot be cut. JOHNSON. As easy may'st thou the intrenchant air "Nor in their liquid texture mortal wound STEEVENS. -] In the days. 333. I bear a charmed life,, of chivalry, the champion's arms being ceremoniously. blessed, each took an oath that he used no charmed weapons. Macbeth, according to the law of arms, or perhaps only in allusion to this custom, tells Macduff of the security he had in the prediction of the spirit. To this likewise Posthumus alludes in Cymbeline, act v. -I in my own woe charm'd, "Could not find death." UPTON. So, in the Dumb Knight, 1633, by L. Machin: "Here you shall swear by hope, by heaven, by Jove, "And by the right you challenge in true fame, "That here you stand, not arm'd with any guile, "Of philters, charms, of night-spells, characters, "Or other black infernal 'vantages," &c. Again, in Spenser's Faery Queen, b.i. c. 4. "" -he he bears a charmed shield, "And eke enchaunted arms that none may pierce." STEEVENS. JOHNSON. 342. palter with us in a double sense:] That shuffle with ambiguous expressions. So, in Marius and Sylla, 1594: "Now fortune, frown and palter if thou please." Again, in Julius Cæsar: -Romans that have spoke the word, "And will not palter.” 357. STEEVENS. -Hold, enough.] See Mr. Tollet's note on the words, "To cry, hold! hold!” acti. sc. 5. Again, in Stowe's Chronicle, one of the combatants was an esquire, and knighted after the battle, which the king terminated by crying Hoo, i. e. hold. STEEVENS. "To cry hold, is the word of yielding," says Carew's Survey of Cornwall, p. 74. i. e. when one of the combatants cries so. TOLLET. 358. Re-enter] This stage-direction is taken from the folio, and proves, that the players were not even skilful enough to prevent impropriety in those circumstances which fell immediately under their own care. Macbeth is here killed on the stage, and a moment after Macduff enters, as from another place, with his head on a spear. Of the propriety of ancient stage directions, the following is no bad specimen: Enter Sybilla lying in childbed, with her child lying by her, and her nurse," &c. Heywood's Golden Age, 1611. STEEVENS. |