Notes to Shakespeare — Volume 01: ComediesJohnson, Samuel
General
Notes to Shakespeare — Volume 01: Comedies
Johnson, Samuel
Shakespeare, William, 1564-1616 -- Criticism and interpretation
IV.iii.59 (318,4) [youth and kind] _Kind_ is the old word for _nature_.
IV.iii.101 (319,5) [Within an hour] We must read, _within two hours_.
IV.iii.160 (321,6) [cousin--Ganymed!] Celia in her first fright forgets
Rosalind's character and disguise, and calls out _cousin_, then
recollects herself, and says Ganymed.
V.ii.21 (325,9) [And you, fair sister] I know not why Oliver should
call Rosalind sister. He takes her yet to be a man. I suppose
we should read, _and you_, and your _fair sister_.
V.ii.45 (326,1) [Clubs cannot part them] Alluding to the way of
parting dogs in wrath.
V.ii.74 (327,2) [human as she is] That is, not a phantom, but the
real Rosalind, without any of the danger generally conceived to
attend the rites of incantation.
V.iii.17 (329,3) [_It was a lover and his lass_] The stanzas of this
song are in all the editions evidently transposed: as I have regulated
them, that which in the former copies was the second stanza
is now the last.
The same transposition of these stanzas is made by Dr. Thirlby,
in a copy containing some notes on the margin, which I have perused
by the favour of Sir Edward Walpole. (see 1765, II,97,3)
V.iii.36 (330,4) [the note was very untuneable] [T: untimeable] This
emendation is received. I think very undeservedly, by Dr. Warburton.
V.iv.4 (331,5) [As those that fear, they hope, and know they fear]
[W: their hap, and know their] The deprivation of this line is
evident, but I do not think the learned commentator's emendation
very happy. I read thus,
_As those that fear_ with _hope, and hope_ with _fear_.
Or thus, with less alteration,
_As those that fear_, they _hope, and_ now _they fear_.
V.iv.36 (332,6) [Here comes a pair of very strange beasts] [W: unclean
beasts] _Strange beasts_ are only what we call _odd_ animals. There is
no need of any alteration.
V.iv.51 (333,7) [found the quarrel was upon the seventh cause] So
all the copies; but it is apparent from the sequel that we must
read, _the quarrel was_ not _upon the seventh cause_.
V.iv.56 (333,8) [I desire you of the like] [W: of you] I have not
admitted the alteration, because there are other examples of
this mode of expression. (1773)
V.iv.59 (333,9) [according as marraige binds, and blood breaks] I
cannot discover what has here puzzled the commentator [W]: _to
swear according as marriage binds_, ii to take the oath enjoin'd
in the ceremonial of marriage.
V.iv.68 (334,1) [dulcet diseases] This I do not understand. For
_diseases_ it is easy to read _discourses_: but, perhaps the fault
may lie deeper.
V.iv.114 (336,4) [_Enter Hymen_] Rosalind is imagined by the rest of
the company to be brought by enchantment, and is therefore introduced
by a supposed aerial being in the character of Hymen.
V.iv.125 (336,5) [If there be truth in sight] The answer of Phebe
makes it probable that Orlando says, _if there be truth in_ shape:
that is, _if a form may be trusted_; if one cannot usurp the form
of another.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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