Notes to Shakespeare — Volume 01: Comedies — John Shaqi
Notes to Shakespeare — Volume 01: ComediesJohnson, Samuel
General
Notes to Shakespeare — Volume 01: Comedies
Johnson, Samuel
Shakespeare, William, 1564-1616 -- Criticism and interpretation
III.i.265 (154,9) [a team of horse shall not pluck] I see how
Valentine suffers for telling his love-secrets, therefore I will keep
mine close.
III.i.330 (156,4) [_Speed. Item, she hath a. sweet mouth_] This I take
to be the same with what is now vulgarly called a _sweet tooth_,
a luxurious desire of dainties and sweetmeats.
III.i.351 (157,5) [_Speed. Item, she will often praise her liquor_]
That is, shew how well she likes it by drinking often.
III.i.355 (157,6) [_Speed. Item, she is too liberal_] _Liberal_, is
licentious and gross in language. So in _Othello_, "Is he not a
profane and very _liberal_ counsellor."
III.ii.7 (158,8) [Trenched in ice] Cut, carved in ice. _Trencher_,
to cut, French.
III.ii.36 (159,9) [with circumstance] With the addition of such
incidental particulars as may induce belief.
III.ii.51 (160,1)
[Therefore as you unwind her love from him,
Lest it should ravel, and be good to none,
You must provide to bottom it on me]
As you wind off her love from him, make me the _bottom_ on which
you wind it. The housewife's term for a ball of thread wound
upon a central body, is a _bottom of thread_.
III.ii.68 (160,2) [lime] That is, _birdlime_.
III.ii.98 (161,4) [_Duke_. Even now about it. I will pardon you]
I will excuse you from waiting.
IV.i.36 (163,2) [By the bare scalp of Robin Hood's fat friar]
_Robin Hood_ was captain of a band of robbers, and was much
inclined to rob churchmen.
IV.i.46 (163,3) [awful men] Reverend, worshipful, such as magistrates,
and other principal members of civil communities.
IV.ii.12 (165,1) [sudden quips] That is, hasty passionate reproaches
and scoffs. So Macbeth is in a kindred sense said to be _sudden_;
that is, irascible and impetuous.
IV.ii.45 (166,2) [_For beauty lives with kindness_] Beauty without
kindness _dies_ unenjoyed, and undelighting.
IV.ii.93 (168,4) [You have your wish; my will is even this] The word
_will_ is here ambiguous. He wishes to _gain_ her _will_; she tells
him, if he wants her _will_ he has it.
IV.ii.130 (169,5) [But, since your falsehood shall become you well]
This is hardly sense. We may read, with very little alteration,
But since _you're false_, it shall become you well.
IV.iii.37 (171,2) [Madam, I pity much your grievances] Sorrows,
sorrowful affections.
IV.iv.13 (172,1) [I would have, as one should say, one that takes
upon him to be a dog indeed, to be, as it were, a dog at all
things] I believe we should read, _I would have_. &c. _one that
takes upon him to be a dog_, to be a dog _indeed, to be_, &c.
IV.iv.79 (174,3) [It seems, you lov'd not her, to leave her token]
Protheus does not properly leave his lady's token, he gives it
away. The old edition has it,
It seems you lov'd her not, _not_ leave her token.
I should correct it thus,
It seems you lov'd her not, _nor love_ her token.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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