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
_Endue with a sense of pain_, is an expression, which, though it might
be endured, if it were genuine, cannot deserve to be introduced by
artifice. The copies, both quarto and folio, read, _Endue our other
healthful members even to a sense of pain_. I believe it should be
rather, SUBDUE _our other healthful members to a sense of pain_.
III.iv.151 (463,2) (unhandsome warrior as I am)] [W: wrangler]
_Unhandsome warrior_, is evidently _unfair assailant_.
III.iv.178 (464,3) a more continuate time]--_more_ convenient _time_]
The folio has,
--_more_ continuate _time_;
Time _less interrupted_, time which I can call more my own. It gives a
more distinct image than _convenient_.
III.iv.180 (464,4) Take me this work out] The meaning is not, "Pick out
the work, and leave the ground plain;" but, "Copy this work in another
handkerchief."
IV.i.5 (466,6)
Naked in bed, Iago, and not mean harm?
It is hypocrisy against the devil]
_Hypocrisy against the devil_, means hypocrisy to cheat the devil. As
common hypocrites cheat men, by seeming good, and yet living wickedly,
these men would cheat the devil, by giving him flattering hopes, and at
last avoiding the crime which he thinks them ready to commit.
IV.i.22 (467,8) Boding to all] Thus all the old copies. The moderns,
less grammatically,
_Boding to_ ill--
IV.i.42 (468,2) without sone instruction] [W: induction] This is a noble
conjecture, and whether right or wrong does honour to its author. Yet I
am in doubt whether there is any necessity of emendation. There has
always prevailed in the world an opinion, that when any great calamity
happens at a distance, notice is given of it to the sufferer by some
dejection or perturbation of mind, of which he discovers no external
cause. This is ascribed to that general communication of one part of the
universe with another, which is called sympathy and antipathy; or to the
secret monition, _instruction_, and influence of a superior Being, which
superintends the order of nature and of life. Othello says, _Nature
could not invest herself in such shadowing passion without_ instruction.
_It is not words that shake me thus._ This passion, which spreads its
clouds over me, is the effect of some agency more than the operation of
words; it is one of those notices which men have of unseen calamities.
IV.i.76 (471,4) Confine yourself but in a patient list] For attention;
act of listening.
IV.i.82 (471,5) encave yourself] Hide yourself in a private place.
IV.i.89 (471,6) Or I shall say, you are all in all in spleen,/And
nothing of a man] I read,
_Or shall I say, you're all in all a spleen_.
I think our author uses this expression elsewhere.
IV.i.121 (472,8) Do you triumph, Roman? do you triumph?] Othello calls
him _Roman_ ironically. _Triumph_, which was a Roman ceremony, brought
Roman into his thoughts. _What_ (says he) _you are now_ triumphing _as
great as a Roman_?
IV.i.123 (472,9) a customer!] A common woman, one that invites custom.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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