Notes to Shakespeare — Volume 01: ComediesJohnson, Samuel
General
Notes to Shakespeare — Volume 01: Comedies
Johnson, Samuel
Shakespeare, William, 1564-1616 -- Criticism and interpretation
[Each your doing,
So singular in each particular,
Crowns what you're doing in the present deeds]
That is, your manner in each act crowns the act.
IV.iv.155 (338,8) [_Per_. I'll swear for 'em] I fancy this half line is
placed to a wrong person. And that the king begins his speech aside
Pol. _I'll swear for 'em
This is the prettiest_. &c.
IV.iv.164 (339,1) [we stand upon our manners] That is, we are now on
our behaviour.
IV.iv.169 (339,2) [a worthy feeding] I conceive _feeding_ to be a
_pasture_, and a _worthy feeding_ to be a tract of pasturage not
inconsiderable, not unworthy of my daughter's fortune.
IV.iv.204 (340,3) [unbraided wares?] Surely we must read _braided_, for
such are all the _wares_ mentioned in the answer.
IV.iv.212 (341,5) [sleeve-band] Is put very properly by Sir T. Hammer,
it was before _sleeve--hand_.
IV.iv.316 (346,9) [sad] For _serious_. (1773)
IV.iv.330 (346,1) [_That doth utter all mens' wear-a_] To _utter_. To
_bring out_, or _produce_. (1773)
IV.iv.333 (347,3) [all men of hair] [W: i.e. nimble, that leap as if
they rebounded] This is a strange interpretation. _Errors_, says
Dryden, _flow upon the surface_, but there are men who will fetch
them from the bottom. _Men of hair_, are _hairy men_, or _satyrs_. A
dance of satyrs was no unusual entertainment in the middle ages.
At a great festival celebrated in France, the king and some of the
nobles personated satyrs dressed in close habits, tufted or
shagged all over, to imitate hair. They began a wild dance, and
in the tumult of their merriment one of them went too near a candle
and set fire to his satyr's garb, the flame ran instantly
over the loose tufts, and spread itself to the dress of those
that were next him; a great number of the dancers were cruelly
scorched, being neither able to throw off their coats nor extinguish
them. The king had set himself in the lap of the dutchess
of Burgundy, who threw her robe over him and saved him.
IV.iv.338 (347,4) [bowling] _Bowling_, I believe, is here a term for a
dance of smooth motion with great exertion of agility.
IV.iv.411 (350,6) [dispute his own estate?] Perhaps for _dispute_ we
might read _compute_; but _dispute his estate_ may be the same with
_talk over his affairs_.
IV.iv.441 (351,7) [Not hold thee of our blood, no, not our kin, Far
than Deucalion off] I think for _far than_ we should read _far as_.
We will not hold thee of our kin even so far off as Deucalion the
common ancestor of all.
IV.iv.493 (354,2) [and by my fancy] It must be remembered that _fancy_
in this author very often, as in this place, means _love_.
IV.iv.551 (356,3) [Ourselves to be the slaves of chance, and flies]
As _chance_ has driven me to these extremities, so I commit myself
to _chance_ to be conducted through them.
IV.iv.613 (359,6) [as if my trinkets had been hallowed] This alludes
to beads often sold by the Romanists, as made particularly efficacious
by the touch of some relick.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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