Enter another Gentleman. CAS. What noife? 4. GENT. The town is empty; on the brow o'the fea Stand ranks of people, and they cry-a fail. CAS. My hopes do fhape him for the governour. 2. GENT. They do discharge their shot of cour[Guns beard. tefy; Our friends, at least. CAS. I pray you, fir, go forth, And give us truth who 'tis that is arriv'd. 2. GENT. I fhall. [Exit. MON. But, good lieutenant, is your general wiv'd? CAS. Moft fortunately: he hath achiev'd a maid That paragons defcription, and wild fame; One that excels the quirks of blazoning pens,' And in the effential vefture of creation, Does bear all excellency."-How now? who has put in? A paffage in Twelfth Night, where a fimilar phraseology is used, may ferve to ftrengthen this interpretation : "Give me excess of it; that, furfeiting, Again, in The Two Gentlemen of Verona: O, I have fed upon this woe already, "And now excess of it will make me furfeit." MALONE. I believe that Solomon, upon this occafion, will be found the beft interpreter: "Hope deferred maketh the heart fick." HENLEY. 5 One that excels the quirks of blazoning pens,] So, in our poet's 103d Sonnet: 66 a face "That over-goes my blunt invention quite, 66 Dulling my lines, and doing me difgrace." MALONE. 6 And in the effential vefture of creation, Does bear all excellency.] The author feems to use essential, for Re-enter fecond Gentleman. 2. GENT. 'Tis one lago, ancient to the general. exiftent, real. She excels the praises of invention, fays he, and in real qualities, with which creation has invested her, bears all excellency. JOHNSON. Does bear all excellency.] Such is the reading of the quartos; for which the folio has this: And in the effential vefture of creation Do's tyre the ingeniuer. Which I explain thus, Does tire the ingenious verse. This is the best reading, and that which the author substituted in his revifal. JOHNSON. The reading of the quarto is fo flat and unpoetical, when compared with that fense which feems meant to have been given in the folio, that I heartily with fome emendation could be hit on, which might entitle it to a place in the text. I believe the word tire was not introduced to fignify-to fatigue, but to attire, to dress. The verb to attire, is often fo abbreviated. Thus, in Holland's Leaguer, 1633: Cupid's a boy, 66 "And would you tire him like a fenator?" Again, in the Comedy of Errors, Act II. fc. ii: 66 To fave the money he fpends in tiring," &c. The effential vefture of creation tempts me to believe it was so used on the prefent occafion. I would read fomething like this: And in the effential vefture of creation Does tire the ingenuous virtue. i, e. invests her artless virtue in the fairest form of earthly fubftance. In The Merchant of Venice, Act V. Lorenzo calls the body"the muddy vefture of decay." It may, however, be observed, that the word ingener did not anciently fignify one who manages the engines or artillery of an army, but any ingenious perfon, any mafter of liberal science. So, in Ben Jonfon's Sejanus, A& I. fc. i: 66 No, Silius, we are no good ingeners, "We want the fine arts," &c. Ingener, therefore may be the true reading of this paffage: and a fimilar thought occurs in The Tempest, Act IV. sc. i: "For thou fhalt find the will outftrip all praise, CAS. He has had moft favourable and happy fpeed: In the argument of Sejanus, B. Jonfon likewife fays, that his hero "worketh with all his ingene," apparently from the Latin ingeniam. STEEVENS. Perhaps the words intended in the folio, were, 66 Ingene is ufed for ingenium by Puttenham, in his Arte of Pufe, 1589: such also as made most of their workes by translation out of the Latin and French tongue, and few or none of their owne engine." Engine is here without doubt a misprint for ingene.—! believe, however, the reading of the quarto is the true one.-If tire was used in the fenfe of weary, then ingener muft have been used for the ingenious perfon who fhould attempt to enumerate the merits of Desdemona. To the inftance produced by Mr. Steevens from Sejanus, may be added another in Fleckno's Difcourfe of the Engl Stage, 1664: "Of this curious art the Italians (this latter age) are the greatest mafters, the French good proficients, and we in England only fchollars and learners, yet, having proceeded no further than to bare painting, and not arrived to the ftupendous wonders of your great ingeniers." In one of Daniel's Sonnets, we meet with a fimilar imagery to that in the firft of thefe lines: "Though time doth fpoil her of the fairest vaile The reading of the folio, though incorrectly fpelled, appears to have been, Does tire the engineer; which is preferable to either of the propofed amendments; and the meaning of the paffage would then be, "One whofe real per fections were fo excellent, that to blazon them would exceed the abilities of the ableft masters." The fenfe attributed to the word tire, according to this reading, is perfectly agreeable to the language of poetry. Thus Dryden fays: 66 "For this an hundred voices I defire, "To tell thee what an hundred tongues would tire; "How deeply thofe are feated in my breast." And in the last act of The Winter's Tale, the third Gentleman fays, "I never heard of fuch another encounter, which lamer report to follow it, and undoes defcription to do it." The objection to the reading of inginer, is, that although we find the words ingine, inginer, and inginqus in Jonfon, they are not the language of Shak Tempests themselves, high feas, and howling winds, The gutter'd rocks, and congregated fands,— Traitors enfteep'd' to clog the guiltless keel, fpeare; and I believe indeed that Jonfon is fingular in the use of them. M. MASON. Whoever shall reject uncommon expreffions in the writings of Shakspeare, because they differ either from the exact rules of orthography, or from the unfettled mode of fpelling them by other writers, will be found to deprive him no lefs of his beauties, than that the ornithologist would the peacock, who fhould cut out every eye of his train because it was either not circular, or elfe varied from fome imaginary ftandard.-Ingenieur is no doubt of the same import with ingener or ingeneer, though perhaps differently written by Shakspeare in reference to ingenious, and to diftinguish it from ingeneer, which he has elsewhere used in a military fenfe. Mr. M. Mafon's objection, that it is not the language of Shakspeare, is more than begging the queftion; and to affirm that Jonfon is fingular in the use of ingine, inginer, and inginous, is as little to the purpose. For we not only have thofe expreffions in other writers, but others from the fame root, as ingene, engene, &c. in Holinfhed, and Sir T. Moore; and Daniel ufes ingeniate: "Th' adulterate beauty of a falfed cheek "To fhew in thee the glory of her best." HENLEY. Traitors enfteep'd-] Thus the folio and one of the quartos. The first copy reads-enfcerped, of which every reader may make what he pleafes. Perhaps efcerped was an old English word borrowed from the French efcarpé, which Shakspeare not finding congruous to the image of clogging the keel, afterwards changed. I once thought that the poet had written-Traitors enfcarf'd, i. e. muffled in their robes, as in Julius Cæfar. So, in Hamlet: "My fea-gown fearf'd about me;" and this agrees better with the idea of a traitor: yet whatever is gained one way is loft another. Our poet too often adopts circumftances from every image that arofe in his mind, and employing them without attention to the propriety of their union, his metaphorical expreffions become inextricably confused. STEEVENS. Mr. Steevens's difficulty refpecting enfteep'd, would, perhaps, have been removed, if he had but recollected the paffage of the fourth act, where Othello alludes to the fate of Tantalus: "Had it pleas'd heaven "To try me with affliction; had he rain'd 8 As having fenfe of beauty, do omit MON. What is the? CAS. She that I fpake of, our great captain's captain, Left in the conduct of the bold Iago; Whose footing here anticipates our thoughts, Enter DESDEMONA, EMILIA, IAGO, RODERIGO, and Attendants. The riches of the ship is come on shore! "All kind of fores, and fhames on my bare head; "Steep'd me in poverty to the very lips." HENLEY. • Their mortal natures,] i. e. their deadly, deftructive natures. So, in Macbeth: "That tend on mortal thought." See Dr. Johnfon's note, Vol. VII. p. 374, n. 8. REED. 9 Great Jove, &c.] For this abfurdity I have not the fmalleft doubt that the Mafter of the Revels, and not our poet, is anfwerable. See The Hiftorical Account of the English Stage, Vol. II. MALONE. Make love's quick pants in Desdemona's arms,] Thus the folio. The quarto with lefs animation: And fwiftly come to Defdemona's arms. STEEVENS. And bring all Cyprus comfort!] This paffage is only found in the quartos. STEEVENS. |