"Of wreakful heaven; whose bare un- "To the conflicting elements expos'd, A passage much resembling this we find in King Lear: "Poor naked wretches, wheresoe'er ye are, "That bide the pelting of this pitiless storm; "How shall your houseless heads and unfed sides, "Your loop'd and window'd raggedness defend you "'Gainst seasons such as this." 159. Thou flatter'st misery.” This will not give the measure: I would read: Tim. "I hate thee worse." Apem. Tim. 66 Why?" That thou flatter'st misery." "To vex thee." Sir T. Hanmer's offered emendation ought to be received: "Only to vex thee." "Dost it enforcedly.” The metre requires: "Dost it enforc'd; thoud'st courtier be again.' 160. " I Best state, contentless, "Hath a distracted and most wretched being, "Worse than the worst, content." "Worse than the worst, contented to be worst." A similar reflection is made by Iago: "Poor and content is rich, and rich enough; "But riches fineless is as poor as winter "To him that ever fears he shall be poor.' paren Dr. Johnson has justly distinguished the thesis, here, which suspends the sense; but there is an apparent want of concord in what follows, which, whether studied or casual, is very natural in a passionate and desultory speech. 161. “Hadst thou, like us, from our first swath, proceeded." This appears, at first, to be ungrammaticalhadst thou (like us) from our first swath proceeded but this is not the construction; it is, hadst thou (like us, from our first swath) proceeded, &c. 162. "The icy precepts of respect." The cold and rigid rules of morality. 164 66 Have, with one winter's brush, "Fell from their boughs," &c. "Have fell" (fallen) has no proper nominative case; for the construction, as it stands, is this, but myself, who had the world as my confectionary; who had the mouths, &c. of men, that numberless upon me stuck, as leaves do on the oak, have fallen, &c. "Myself," as yet, holds, legitimately, the station of the governing noun; but, in the passionate allusion to the leaves on the oak, disorder and anarchy intrude; and what was employed as an auxiliary usurps the dominion. 165. " Art thou proud yet." For the sake of the metre thou should be withdrawn. 66 Ay, that I am not thee." "Thee" should be corrected, thou." Ay" was written I, and so follows, "I that I was no prodigal." 166. “If not, I would it were.” "Thou have" should be omitted. "Where ly'st o'nights, Timon?” Tim. " Why under, that's above me. "And where feed'st thou o'days, sour Ape mantus ?" But, presently, we have cureless prose. 168. "Wert thou a bear, thou wouldst be killed by the horse." This I do not understand. "Thou wert german to the lion." There is, in this argument, no just sequence of offence or odium, so as to make either the spots of the leopard, or his relationship to the lion, a cause of condemnation. The The page, I suppose, has been adulterated. 169. "When there is nothing living but thee." (thou) Errors of grammar so gross as this, whether of the poet himself or his transcriber, ought, certainly, to be corrected, without any scruple, in the text. The mistake, which is common enough, proceeds from confounding "but" (only) with 66 except, which must be followed by the accusative case. 170. "All villains that do stand by thee are pure. Posthumus says, "It is I "That all th' abhorred things o' the earth amend, "By being worse than they." 172. Long live so, and so die !—I am quit.” I suppose, at length I'm quit." 173. "How shall's get it?" This ungrammatical expression occurs in Cymbeline: "Shall's have a play of this?" 174. "Limited professions." Legal professions, says Dr. Warburton; but is it not, prescribed professions? 178. "Amen." This, I suppose, was added by the actor. The exclamation "O" is superfluous, here, but might be prefixed to supply the measure, in the line a little lower down: "O what an alteratíón of honour "Has desperate want made in my noble master!" "There is no time so miserable." This, as Dr. Warburton has remarked, should be the speech of the Second Thief. 181. "An honest poor servant of yours." This is not metre: I suppose it was, Tim. "A poor and honest servant of yours." "I know thee," &c. 182. "So comfortable? It almost turns.” We might read, in measure, "So comfortable? It doth almost turn." 183. "One honest man,-but one; "No more, I pray. Timon is not only at enmity with mankind, but feels a gratification in entertaining that enmity, and deprecates any occasion to abate or mitigate it. "No more, I pray, and he is a steward." This is a line only as it counts ten syllables; to render it metre, another must be added: But one; "No more, I pray,-and he is a poor steward." "I fell with curses.” Some words are wanting: perhaps, these: "Save only thee, I fell with bitterest curses.” If not a usuring kindness," &c. Kindness has fallen, by mistake, into this line, in awkward repetition, besides spoiling the verse: |
