quently, or to yield frequent tidings;-if it be the adjective, it is not singular; for we find in As You Like It 593. My often rumination.” "Wherein I am false, I am honest ; not true, to be true." A similar play upon words occurred before, in the second act: 66 Doth ill deserve, by doing well.” The thought is like, "To do a great right, do a little wrong." And 595. "I must be cruel only to be kind.” 66 SCENE IV. Never bestrid a horse, save one, that had “A rider like myself, who ne'er wore rowel "Nor iron on his heel." I never rode a horse, but such a one as (belonging to a rustic like myself) was untrained to exercise-it should be "or iron," &c. "nor" disunites the kindred ideas of the spur, rowel and iron. 597. ACT V. SCENE I. Better than themselves." As this relates to the apostrophis'd, "married ❤nes !" it surely should be "yourselves." 6 "No bond, but to do just ones." (There is) no bond, &c. Milton makes use of a similar ellipsis : A dungeon horrible, on all sides round "As one great furnace flamed; yet from those flames "No light, but rather darkness," &c. i. e. No light (proceeded.) The abrupt introduction, thus, of the negative conjunction, without a leading negative, has been remarked already as unwarrantable: "not," or “neither,” is necessary before “ pitied.” 66 An ancient soldier, Who desero'd "So long a breeding, as his white beard came to." Who deserved to have lived so long as his beard indicated. 605. "With their own nobleness "Gilded pale looks." B. STRUTT. Flushed their cheeks with shame or emulation. Lady Macbeth says, If he do bleed, "I'll gild the faces of the grooms withal." See a note of Mr. Henley's on "the gilded puddle," first act of Antony and Cleopatra. This corruption of "he would rather" has been noted already. See Dr. Lowth's grammar. 618. "Tis still a dream; or else such stuff as madmen "Tongue, and brain not; either both, or nothing: "Or senseless speaking, or a speaking such "As sense cannot untie.” If it could for a moment be supposed that Shakspeare ever allowed such nonsense as is here alluded-to, to be associated or incorporated with any work of his, this may be considered a very proper comment by him upon it. 619. "Fear no more tavern bills; which are often the sadness of parting, as the procuring of mirth." This is imperfectly expressed: I suppose the meaning is that tavern bills are as often, when the hour of payment comes, the motive of sadness, as the articles which compose them had before been of mirth. 621. "I never saw one so prone." Prone implies addiction-prompt or natural inclination; in which sense the word occurs in King Henry VIII. Act 1, 189, and in Measure for Measure, Act 1, 275. 625. "When she had fitted you." When she had prepared you; made for her purpose. you ready 627. "Though he have serv'd a Roman." This is not the subjunctive sense; it should be, "Though he has serv'd a Roman-" the particles though," and "if," denoting, sometimes as they both do, the subjunctive mood, are often carelessly mistaken as the absolute signs of it. 66 Your life, good master, "Must shuffle for itself." This ingratitude of Imogen does not at all suit with her general character, and is, perhaps, an additional argument, to many which I think are obvious, that much of this play is spurious. 629. "Thou'lt torture me to leave unspoken that "Which, to be spoke, would torture thee." Cymbeline had commanded Iachimo to speak, on pain of the torture, and Iachimo replies, that it would be torture to him not to speak; the sense, therefore, requires that the passage should proceed-thus: "Thou'dst torture me to leave unspoken that Which, to be spoke, will torture thee." 631. For feature, laming "The shrine of Venus." But Posthumus, on the occasion referred to, gave no such extravagant description of his mistress; and, as Iachimo at this time has renounced imposture, there is an evident inconsistency in the passage. "That all the abhorred things o'the earth amend, By being worse than they.". This thought is introduced in King John, Act 4, Scene 3: "All murders past do stand excus'd in this; "To the yet unbegotten sin of time, 66 634. "Shall's have a play of this?". In the fourth act we found this barbarism before: 66 Where shall's lay him ?” 637. "I had a feigned letter of my master's." Pisanio is unwilling to disclose to the king the savage jealousy of Posthumus: the letter was not feigned. 639. "The whole world shall not save him." The king is in a very vindictive and ungrateful humour. -Those arts they have, as I The instances of harsh construction and false grammar that abound in an unusual measure in this play, are, I think, chiefly to be ascribed to sophistication. 641. " Beaten for loyalty "Excited me to treason." |