Shakespeare, Ben Jonson, Beaumont and Fletcher Part 7

Act i. sc. 1. Duke's speech:-

... "So full of shapes is fancy, That it alone is high fantastical."

Warburton's alteration of _is_ into _in_ is needless. "Fancy" may very well be interpreted "exclusive affection," or "pa.s.sionate preference."

Thus, bird-fanciers; gentlemen of the fancy, that is, amateurs of boxing, &c. The play of a.s.similation,-the meaning one sense chiefly, and yet keeping both senses in view, is perfectly Shakespearian.

Act ii. sc. 3. Sir Andrew's speech:-

An explanatory note on _Pigrogromitus_ would have been more acceptable than Theobald's grand discovery that "lemon" ought to be "leman."

_Ib._ Sir Toby's speech (Warburton's note on the Peripatetic philosophy):-

"Shall we rouse the night-owl in a catch, that will draw three "souls out of one weaver?"

O genuine, and inimitable (at least I hope so) Warburton! This note of thine, if but one in five millions, would be half a one too much.

_Ib._ sc. 4.-

"_Duke._ My life upon't, young though thou art, thine eye Hath stay'd upon some favour that it loves; Hath it not, boy?

_Vio._ A little, by your favour.

_Duke._ What kind of woman is't?"

And yet Viola was to have been presented to Orsino as a eunuch!-Act i. sc.

2. Viola's speech. Either she forgot this, or else she had altered her plan.

_Ib._-

"_Vio._ A blank, my lord: she never told her love!- But let concealment," &c.

After the first line (of which the last five words should be spoken with, and drop down in, a deep sigh), the actress ought to make a pause; and then start afresh, from the activity of thought, born of suppressed feelings, and which thought had acc.u.mulated during the brief interval, as vital heat under the skin during a dip in cold water.

_Ib._ sc. 5.-

"_Fabian._ Though our silence be drawn from us by _cars_, yet peace."

Perhaps, "cables."

Act iii. sc. 1.-

"_Clown._ A sentence is but a _cheveril_ glove to a good wit."

(Theobald's note.)

Theobald's etymology of "cheveril" is, of course, quite right;-but he is mistaken in supposing that there were no such things as gloves of chicken-skin. They were at one time a main article in chirocosmetics.

Act v. sc. 1. Clown's speech:-

"So that, _conclusions to be as kisses_, if your four negatives make your two affirmatives, why, then, the worse for my friends, and the better for my foes."

(Warburton reads "conclusion to be asked, is.")

Surely Warburton could never have wooed by kisses and won, or he would not have flounder-flatted so just and humorous, nor less pleasing than humorous, an image into so profound a nihility. In the name of love and wonder, do not four kisses make a double affirmative? The humour lies in the whispered "No!" and the inviting "Don't!" with which the maiden's kisses are accompanied, and thence compared to negatives, which by repet.i.tion const.i.tute an affirmative.

"All's Well That Ends Well."

Act i. sc. 1.-

"_Count._ If the living be enemy to the grief, the excess makes it soon mortal.

_Bert._ _Madam, I desire your holy wishes._

_Laf._ _How understand we that?_"

Bertram and Lafeu, I imagine, both speak together,-Lafeu referring to the Countess's rather obscure remark.

Act ii. sc. 1. (Warburton's note.)

"_King._ ... let _higher_ Italy (Those _'bated_, that inherit but the fall Of the last monarchy) see, that you come Not to woo honour, but to wed it."

It would be, I own, an audacious and unjustifiable change of the text; but yet, as a mere conjecture, I venture to suggest "b.a.s.t.a.r.ds," for "'bated."

As it stands, in spite of Warburton's note, I can make little or nothing of it. Why should the king except the then most ill.u.s.trious states, which, as being republics, were the more truly inheritors of the Roman grandeur?-With my conjecture, the sense would be;-"let higher, or the more northern part of Italy-(unless 'higher' be a corruption for 'hir'd,'-the metre seeming to demand a monosyllable) (those b.a.s.t.a.r.ds that inherit the infamy only of their fathers) see," &c. The following "woo" and "wed" are so far confirmative as they indicate Shakespeare's manner of connection by unmarked influences of a.s.sociation from some preceding metaphor. This it is which makes his style so peculiarly vital and organic. Likewise "those girls of Italy" strengthen the guess. The absurdity of Warburton's gloss, which represents the king calling Italy superior, and then excepting the only part the lords were going to visit, must strike every one.

_Ib._ sc. 3.-

"_Laf._ They say, miracles are past; and we have our philosophical persons to make modern and familiar, things supernatural and _causeless_."

Shakespeare, inspired, as it might seem, with all knowledge, here uses the word "causeless" in its strict philosophical sense;-cause being truly predicable only of _phenomena_, that is, things natural, and not of _noumena_, or things supernatural.

Act iii. sc. 5.-

"_Dia._ The Count Rousillon:-know you such a one?

_Hel._ But by the ear that hears most n.o.bly of him; His face I know not."

Shall we say here, that Shakespeare has unnecessarily made his loveliest character utter a lie?-Or shall we dare think that, where to deceive was necessary, he thought a pretended verbal verity a double crime, equally with the other a lie to the hearer, and at the same time an attempt to lie to one's own conscience?

"Merry Wives Of Windsor."

Act i. sc. 1.-