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
II.ii.188 (52,5) Hector's opinion/Is this in way of truth] Though
considering _truth_ and _justice_ in this question, this is my opinion;
yet as a question of honour, I think on it as you.
II.ii.196 (53,6) the performance of our heaving spleens] The execution
of spite and resentment.
II.ii.212 (53,7) emulation] That is, envy, factious contention.
II.iii.18 (54,8) without drawing the massy iron and cutting the web]
That is, _without drawing their swords to cut the web_. They use no
means but those of violence.
II.iii.55 (55,1) decline the whole question] Deduce the question from
the first case to the last.
II.iii.108 (57,6) but it was a strong composure, a fool could disunite]
So reads the quarto very properly; but the folio, which the moderns have
followed, has, _it was a strong_ COUNSEL.
II.iii.118 (57,7) noble state] Person of high dignity; spoken of
Agamemnon.
II.iii.137 (58,8) under-write] To _subscribe_, in Shakespeare, is to
_obey_.
II.iii.215 (60,2) pheese his pride] To _pheese_ is to _comb_ or _curry_.
II.iii.217 (60,3) Not for the worth that hangs upon our quarrel] Not for
the value of all for which we are fighting.
II.iii.267 (62,6)
_Ajax._ Shall I call you father?
_Nest._ Ay, my good son]
In the folio and in the nodern editions Ajax desires to give the title
of _father_ to Ulysses; in the quarto, more naturally, to Nestor.
III.i.35 (64,1) love's invisible soul] _love's_ visible _soul_.] So
HANMER. The other editions have _invisible_, which perhaps may be right,
and may mean the _soul of love_ invisible every where else.
III.i.83 (65,3) And, my lord, he desires you] Here I think the speech of
Pandarus should begin, and the rest of it should be added to that of
Helen, but I have followed the copies.
III.i.96 (65,4) with my disposer Cressida] [W: dispouser] I do not
understand the word _disposer_, nor know what to substitute in its
place. There is no variation in the copies.
III.i.132 (67,6) _Yet that which seems the wound to kill_] _To kill the
wound_ is no very intelligible expression, nor is the measure preserved.
We might read,
_These lovers cry,
Oh! oh! they die!_
But _that which seems to kill,
Doth turn_, &c.
_So dying love lives still_.
Yet as _the wound to kill_ may mean _the wound that seems mortal_, I
alter nothing.
III.ii.25 (69,1) tun'd too sharp in sweetness]--and _too sharp in
sweetness_,] So the folio and all modern editions; but the quarto more
accurately,
--_tun'd_ too sharp in sweetness.
III.ii.99 (71,4) our head shall go bare, 'till merit crown it] I cannot
forbear to observe, that the quarto reads thus: _Our head shall go bare,
'till merit_ lower part no affection, _in reversion_, &c. Had there been
no other copy, hov could this have been corrected? The true reading is
in the folio.
III.ii.102 (72,5) his addition shall be humble] We will give him no high
or pompous titles.
III.ii.162 (74,6)
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