ISRAEL GOLLANCZ'S NOTES

TO

TWELFTH NIGHT

I. i. 5. sound; so the Folios. Pope changed “sound’ to "south," and editors have generally accepted this emendation; but it seems unnecessary. Grant White appropriately asks, "Did Pope, or the editors who have followed him, ever lie musing on the sward at the edge of a wood, and hear the low sweet hum of the summer air, as it kissed the coyly-shrinking wild-flowers upon the banks, and passed on loaded with fragrance from the sweet salute?"

I. i. 22. like fell and cruel hounds; referring to the story of Acteon, who was torn to pieces by his own hounds, for surprising Diana when she was bathing.

I. i. 38. all supplied, and filled; the comma after “supplied" is not in the Folio: its insertion simplifies the lines. Others leave the Folio reading, but bracket “ Her sweet perfections" in the next line; making them appositional to "thrones.”

I. ii. 15. Arion on the dolphin's back; the Folios misprint "Orion" for "Arion.” Arion was a Greek musician, who was cast into the sea by mariners, but carried to Tænaros on the back of a dolphin.

I. iii. 65, 66. bring your hand to the buttery-bar and let it

drink; "a proverbial phrase among Abigails, to ask at once for a kiss and a present" (Kenrick).

I. iii. 90. Then hadst thou had an excellent head of hair. Sir Toby evidently plays upon "tongues" (line 87) and tongs (that is, curling-tongs).

I. iii. 111. an old man; Theobald proposed to read “a noble man," taking the allusion to be to Orsino. Clarke explains “an old man as "a man of experience," adding: “The word old gives precisely that absurd effect of refraining from competing in dancing, fencing, etc., with exactly the antagonist incapacitated by age over whom Sir Andrew might hope to prove his superiority."

I. iii. 130. That's sides and heart. Both Sir Andrew and Sir Toby are wrong in the parts assigned to Taurus in the old astrological figures of the human body. Taurus was supposed to govern the neck and throat.

I. iv. 3. three days. Mr. Daniel points out in his TimeAnalysis that this statement is inconsistent with the Duke's words in v. 1. 93, "Three months this youth hath tended upon me.”

II. i. 15. Messaline; possibly an error for Mitylene, as Capell conjectured.

II. iii. 15, 16. the picture of 'we three'; "a common sign, in which two wooden heads are exhibited with this inscription under it, We three loggerheads be,' the spectator being supposed to make the third" (Malone). of Queubus, etc. Mr. Swinburne sees in these "freaks of nomenclature the direct influence of Rabelais (see A Study of Shakespeare, pp. 155, 156).

II. iii. 22-23. Pigrogromitus

II. iii. 38. O mistress mine, etc. Chappell (Popular Music of the Olden Time) says: "This tune is contained in both the editions of Morley's Consort Lessons, 1599 and

1611. It is also found in Queen Elizabeth's Virginal Book, arranged by Boyd. As it is to be found in print in 1599, it proves either that Shakespeare's Twelfth Night was written in or before that year, or that, in accordance with the then prevailing custom, 'O mistress mine' was an old song, introduced into the play."

II. iii. 108. Out o' tune, sir? ye lie; Theobald proposed “time, sir?” which has been very generally adopted. The reading of the Folios may well stand without change. Sir Toby says to the Clown that he is out of tune, and that he lies in declaring “no, no, no, no, you dare not (that is, dare not bid Malvolio go). Hence the next words, Art any more than a steward,' addressed to Malvolio.

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II. v. 36. the lady of the Strachy; this is one of the unsettled problems in Shakespeare. Hunter ingeniously suggested that Shakespeare, in the scene between the Clown (as Sir Topas) and Malvɔlio (iv. 2. 18–58), ridicules the exorcisms by Puritan ministers in the case of a family named Starchy (1596–99), and that Strachy was a hint to the audience to expect subsequent allusion to the Starchy affair. Others suggest "Strozzi," "Stracci," and "Stratarch." Halliwell refers to a Russian word meaning lawyer or judge. The incident of a lady of high rank marrying her steward is the subject of Webster's Duchess of Malfy.

II. v. 59. with cars; so the first Folio; the later Folios read "with cares; " Johnson, "with carts." Many emendations have been proposed. Clarke defends the original reading, and compares "a team of horse shall not pluck that from me" (Two Gentlemen of Verona, iii. 1. 264, 265). Hanmer's suggestion "by th' ears has been generally adopted.

II. v. 147. yellow stockings; these were much worn in Shakespeare's time, and have still survived to our own day in the yellow stockings worn by the "Blue-coat boys."

III. i. 47. these, — that is, these coins which Viola has given him.

III. i. 53. Cressida was a beggar; according to the story, Cressida finally became a leper and begged by the roadside.

III. i. 61. And, like the haggard, check at every feather; so the Folios; Johnson proposed "not" for "and," and this reading has reasonably been adopted by most editors. "To check" is "a term in falconry, applied to a hawk when she forsakes her proper game, and follows some other of inferior kind that crosses her in her flight." The meaning, therefore, of the Folio reading would be "that he must catch at every opportunity," but this does not suit the context: the wise Clown must be discriminative; hence Johnson's "not."

III. i. 65. wise men, folly-fall'n, quite taint their wit; the Folio reads "wisemens folly falne; Hanmer and Warburton, "wise men's folly shown." The text is Theobald's, and is generally adopted.

III. i. 118, 119. a cypress, not a bosom, Hides my heart; the force of these words has, it would seem, been missed; the point of the "cypress " is not its blackness, but its transparency. See The Ballad of Robin Hood, Scarlet, and

Through which her rose-like cheeks did blush
All in a comely grace."

"Bosom" must, I think, be used in this passage in the sense of the bosom of the dress which conceals the body.

Olivia says, in effect, "you can see my heart; a thin gauze as it were hides it, not a stomacher."

III. ii. 24. sailed into the north, etc.; perhaps this is a reference to the discovery of Northern Nova Zembla by the Dutchman Barenz in 1596. (See C. H. Coote's paper

on "the new map," line 74.

Publications, 1878.)

New Shakspere Society

III. ii. 62. youngest wren of nine; the Folio has "mine," which was emended by Theobald. The wren is said to lay nine or ten eggs at a time, and the last hatched nestling is usually the smallest of the whole brood.

III. ii. 74. the new map with the augmentation of the Indies; no doubt a reference to the map which Hallam, in his Literature of Europe, calls "the best map of the 16th century." It is found in the first edition of Hakluyt's Voyages (1589); but, as it records discoveries made at least seven years later, it was in all probability a separate map, well known at the time, and made so as to be inserted in Hakluyt. The author was probably Mr. Emmerie Mollineux, who was also the first Englishman to make a terrestrial globe. It is noteworthy that the map shows a marked development of the geography of India proper. (See Transactions of New Shakspere Society, 1877-79.)

III. iii. 15. And thanks; and ever oft good turns. The Cambridge editors hold that some word has dropped out between "ever " and "oft." Many emendations have been proposed; perhaps the simplest reading is that of the Old Spelling Shakespeare,

"ever oft" in the sense of "with perpetual frequency." Theobald proposed,