If it be made of penetrable ftuff; If damned cuftom have not braz'd it so, In noife fo rude against me? Нам. stakes off the rofe &c.] Alluding to the cuftom of wearing rofes on the fide of the face. See a note on a passage in King John, A&I. WARBURTON. I believe Dr. Warburton is mistaken; for it must be allowed that there is a material difference between an ornament worn on the forehead, and one exhibited on the fide of the face. Some have understood these words to be only a metaphorical enlargement of the fentiment contained in the preceding line: "blurs the grace and blush of modefty:" but as the forehead is no proper fituation for a blah to be displayed in, we may have recourfe to another explanation. It was once the custom for those who were betrothed, to wear fome flower as an external and confpicuous mark of their mutual engagement. So, in Spenfer's Shepherd's Calendar for April: 66 Bring coronations and sops in wine, "Worn of paramours.” Lyte, in his Herbal, 1578, enumerates fops in wine among the fmaller kind of fingle gilliflowers or pinks. Figure 4, in the Morrice-dance (a plate of which is annexed to the First Part of King Henry IV.) has a flower fixed on his forehead, and feems to be meant for the paramour of the female character. The flower might be defigned for a rofe, as the colour of it is red in the painted glafs, though its form is expreffed with as little adherence to nature as that of the mary gold in the hand of the lady. It may, however, conduct us to affix a new meaning to the lines in question. This flower, as I have fince difcovered, is exactly fhaped like the fops in wine, now called the Deptford Pink. An Address To all Judiciall cenfurers," prefixed to The Whipper of the Satyre his pennance in a white Sheete, or the Beadle's Confutation, 1601, begins likewife thus: "Brave fprited gentles, on whofe comely front From the fair forehead of an innocent love, Sets a blifter there, has the fame meaning as in Measure for Measure: "Who falling in the flaws of her own youth, "Hath blifter'd her report." See Vol. IV. p. 247 and 248, n. 9. STEEVENS. I believe, by the rose was only meant the roseate hue. The forehead certainly appears to us an odd place for the hue of innocence to dwell on, but Shakspeare might place it there with as much propriety as a mile. In Troilus and Crefida we find thefe lines: "So rich advantage of a promis'd glory, "As fmiles upon the forehead of this action." That part of the forehead which is fituated between the eyebrows, feems to have been confidered by our poet as the feat of innocence and modefty. So, in a fubfequent fcene: 66 brands the harlot, "Even here, between the chafte unfmirched brow In the foregoing quotation from Troilus and Creffida, I underftand that the forehead is fmiled upon by advantage, and not that the forehead is itself the fmiler. Thus, fays Laertes in the play before us: "Occafion fmiles upon a second leave.” But it is not the leave that fmiles, but occafion that fmiles upon it. In the fubfequent paffage, our author had no choice; for having alluded to that part of the face which was anciently branded with a mark of fhame," he was compelled to place his token of innocence in a correfponding fituation. STEEVENS. 6 contract. from the body of contraction-] Contraction for marriage WARBURTON. 7- Heaven's face doth glow; Yea, this folidity and compound mass, With trifful vifage, as against the doom, Is thought-fick at the act.] If any fenfe can be found here, it is this. The fun glows [and does it not always?] and the very QUEEN. Ah me, what act, That roars fo loud, and thunders in the index?"" folid mafs of earth has a triftful vifage, and is thought-fick. All this is fad ftuff. The old quarto reads much nearer to the poet's sense: Heaven's face does glow, O'er this folidity and compound mass, With heated vifage, as against the doom, From whence it appears, that Shakspeare wrote, Heaven's face doth glow, O'er this folidity and compound mass, With triftful vifage; and, as 'gainst the doom, This makes a fine fenfe, and to this effect. The fun looks upon our globe, the scene of this murder, with an angry and mournful countenance, half hid in eclipfe, as at the day of doom. WARBURTON. The word heated, though it agrees well enough with glow, is, I think, not fo ftriking as trififul, which was, I fuppofe, chofen at the revifal. I believe the whole paffage now ftands as the author gave it. Dr. Warburton's reading reftores two improprieties, which Shakspeare, by his alteration, had removed. In the firft, and in the new reading, Heaven's face glows with triflful visage; and, Heaven's face is thought-fick. To the common reading there is no juft objection. JOHNSON. I am ftrongly inclined to think that the reading of the quarto, 1604, is the true one. In Shakspeare's licentious diction, the meaning may be,—The face of heaven doth glow with heated vifage over the earth: and heaven, as against the day of judgement, is thought-fick at the act. Had not our poet St. Luke's defcription of the last day in his thoughts?" And there fhall be figns in the fun and in the moon, and in the ftars; and upon the earth diftrefs of nations, with perfkaity, the fea and the waves roaring: men's hearts failing them for fear, and for looking on thofe things which are coming on the earth; for the powers of heaven shall be shaken," &c. MALONE. That rears fo loud,] The meaning is,-What is this act, of which the difcovery, or mention, cannot be made, but with this violence of clamour? JOHNSON. 9 — and thunders in the index?] Mr. Edwards obferves, that the indexes of many old books were at that time inferted at the beginning, instead of the end, as is now the cuftom. This obfervation I have often feen confirmed. VOL. XV. HAM. Look here, upon this picture, and on this;' The counterfeit prefentment of two brothers. See, what a grace was feated on this brow: Hyperion's curls; the front of Jove himfelf; So, in Othello, A&t II. fc. vii: " an index and obfcure pro logue to the hiftory of luft and foul thoughts." STEEVENS. Bullokar in his Expofitor, 8vo. 1616, defines an Index by "A table in a booke." The table was almost always prefixed to the books of our poet's age. Indexes, in the fenfe in which we now understand the word, were very uncommon. MALONE. 2 Look here, upon this picture, and on this ;] It is evident from the following words, "A ftation, like the herald Mercury," &c. that these pictures, which are introduced as miniatures on the stage, were meant for whole lengths, being part of the furniture of the Queen's closet: 66 -like Maia's fon he stood, "And fhook his plumes." Paradife Loft, Book V. Hamlet, who, in a former fcene, has cenfured thofe who gave "forty, fifty, a hundred ducats apiece" for his uncle's "picture in little," would hardly have condefcended to carry such a thing in his pocket. STEEVENS. The introduction of miniatures in this place appears to be a modern innovation. A print prefixed to Rowe's edition of Hamlet, publifhed in 1709, proves this. There, the two royal portraits are exhibited as half-lengths, hanging in the Queen's clofet; and either thus, or as whole-lengths, they probably were exhibited from the time of the original performance of this tragedy to the death of Betterton. To half-lengths, however, the fame objection lies, as to miniatures. MALONE. We may also learn, that from this print the trick of kicking the chair down on the appearance of the Ghoft, was adopted by modera Hamlets from the practice of their predeceffors. STEVENS. 3 Hyperion's curls;] It is obfervable that Hyperion is ufed by Spenfer with the fame error in quantity. FARMER. I have never met with an earlier edition of Marston's Infatiate Countess than that in 1603. In this the following lines occur, which bear a clofe refemblance to Hamlet's defcription of his father: "A donative he hath of every god; "Apollo gave him locks, Jove his high front." dignos et Apolline crines. Ovid's Metam. Book III. thus tranflated by Golding, 1587: "And haire that one might worthily Apollo's haire it deeme." STEEVENS. An eye like Mars, to threaten and command; This was your husband.-Look you now, what follows: Here is your husband; like a mildew'd ear, Have you eyes? A ftation like the herald Mercury, &c.] Station in this inftance does not mean the pot where any one is placed, but the act of standing. So, in Antony and Cleopatra, A& III. fc. iii: "Her motion and her ftation are as one." On turning to Mr. Theobald's first edition, I find that he had made the fame remark, and fupported it by the fame inftance. The obfervation is neceffary, for otherwife the compliment defigned to the attitude of the king, would be bestowed on the place where Mercury is reprefented as ftanding. STEEVENS. In the firft fcene of Timon of Athens, the poet, admiring a picture, introduces the fame image: 66 How this grace Speaks his own ftanding!" MALONE. 1 I think it not improbable that Shakspeare caught this image from Phaer's tranflation of Virgil, (Fourth Eneid,) a book that without doubt he had read: "And now approaching neere, the top he feeth and mighty lims "Of Atlas, mountain tough, that heaven on boyft❜rous fhoulders beares;— "There firft on ground with wings of might doth Mercury arrive, "Then down from thence right over feas himselfe doth headlong drive." In the margin are thefe words: "The defcription of Mercury's journey from heaven, along the mountain Atlas in Afrike, highest on earth." MALONE. heaven-kiffing bill;] So, in Troilus and Criffida: like a mildew'd ear, STEEVENS. Blafting his wholesome brother.] This alludes to Pharaoh's Dream, in the 41ft chapter of Genefis. STEEVENS. |
