Notes to Shakespeare, Volume III: The TragediesJohnson, Samuel
General
Notes to Shakespeare, Volume III: The Tragedies
Johnson, Samuel
Shakespeare, William, 1564-1616 -- Criticism and interpretation
III.iii.135 (90,5) And thou dismember'd with thine own defence] And thou
torn to pieces with thy own weapons.
III.iii.166-168 (91,6) Go hence. Good night] These three lines are
omitted in all the modern editions.
III.iii.166 (91,7) here stands all your state] The whole of your fortune
depends on this.
III.iv.12 (92,9) Sir Paris, I will make a desperate tender/Of my child's
love] _Desperate_ means only _bold, advent'rous_, as if he had said in
the vulgar phrase, _I will speak a_ bold _word_, and venture _to promise
you my daughter_.
III.v.20 (94,1) 'Tis but the pale reflex of Cynthia's brow] The
appearance of a cloud opposed to the moon.
III.v.23 (94,2) I have more care to stay, than will to go] Would it be
better thus, _I have more will to stay, than care to go_?
III.v.31 (94,3) Some say, the lark and loathed toad chang'd eyes] This
tradition of the toad and lark I hare heard expressed in a rustick
rhyme,
--_to heav'n I'd fly,
But the toad beguil'd me of my eye._
III.v.33 (95,4)
Since arm from arm that voice doth us affray,
Hunting thee hence with huntaup to the day]
These two lines are omitted in the modern editions, and do not deserve
to be replaced, but as they may shew the danger of critical temerity.
Dr. Warburton's change of _I would_ to _I wot_ was specious enough, yet
it it is evidently erroneous. The sense is this, _The lark, they say,
has lost her eyes to the toad, and now_ I would _the toad had her voice
too, since she uses it to the disturbance of lovers_.
III.v.86 (97,3)
_Jul._ Ay, Madam, from the reach of these my hands:
'Would, none but I might venge my cousin's death.!]
Juliet's equivocations are rather too artful for a mind disturbed by the
loss of a new lover.
III.v.91 (98,4) That shall bestow on hin so sure a draught] [Thus the
elder quarto, which I have followed in preference to the quarto 1609,
and the folio 1623, which read, less intelligibly,
"Shall give him such an unaccustom'd dram." STEEVENS.]
--_unaccustomed dram_.] In vulgar language, Shall give him a _dram_
which he is _not used_ to. Though I have, if I mistake not, observed,
that in old books _unaccustomed_ signifies _wonderful, powerful,
efficacious_.
III.v.112 (98,6) in happy time] _A la bonne heure_. This phrase was
interjected, when the hearer was not quite so well pleased as the
speaker.
III.v.227 (103,3) As living here] Sir T. HANMER reads, _as living_
hence; that is, at a dsitance, in banishment; but _here_ may signify,
_in this world_.
IV.i.3 (104,1) And I am nothing alow to slack his haste] _His haste
shall not be abated by my slowness_. It might be read,
And I an nothing slow to _back_ his haste:
that is, I am diligent to _abet_ and _enforce_ his haste.
IV.i.l8 (104,2)
_Par._ Happily met, my lady and my wife!
_Jul._ That may be, Sir, when I may be a wife]
As these four first lines seem intended to rhyme, perhaps the author wrote thus:
--my lady and my _life_!
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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