The Shakespeare-Expositor: An Aid to the Perfect Understanding of Shakespeare's PlaysKeightley, Thomas
General
The Shakespeare-Expositor: An Aid to the Perfect Understanding of Shakespeare's Plays
Keightley, Thomas
Drama -- Outlines, syllabi, etc.; Shakespeare, William, 1564-1616 -- Outlines, syllabi, etc.
The 4tos read 'He _sate_'; Theobald, who is generally followed, reads
'He _shent_; but this verb is never active in Shakespeare. Collier
reads '_We_ sent.'
* * * * *
"His pettish lunes, his ebbs and flows, as if."
Here 'lunes' is Hanmer's emendation of _lines_. See Mer. Wives, iv. 2.
* * * * *
"As amply titled as Achilles is
By going to Achilles."
We might perhaps add _in his tent_. See preceding speech.
* * * * *
"_I_ would he were a Trojan--What a vice."
* * * * *
"And give him half, and for thy vigour _let_."
* * * * *
"Fresh kings are come to Troy; to-morrow _morn_."
ACT III.
SC. 2. "Love's thrice-repured nectar."
Mr. Collier found this excellent reading in one of the 4tos, 1609. The
reading of all the others and of the folio is _reputed_. Nothing is
more common than the confusion of _r_ and _t_.
* * * * *
"Lady, you have bereft me of all words."
The original editions put 'Lady' at the end of the line.
* * * * *
"But you are _not_ wise,
Or else you love not; for to be wise and love
Exceeds man's might. That dwells with gods above."
As far as I am aware, not a single critic has discerned the absolute
necessity for the negative in this place. "The gods themselves cannot
be wise and love" (Marston, Dutch Courtezan, ii. 1). Both dramatists
were probably indebted to Spenser:--
"To be wise and eke to love
Is granted scarce to gods above."
Shep. Cal. March;
and he to Publius Syrus "Amare et sapere vix deo conceditur."
* * * * *
"_With a bed_; which bed," etc.
Sense and metre demand this addition of Hanmer's.
* * * * *
SC. 3. "That through the sight I bear in things to Jove."
For 'to Jove' most critics follow Mason in reading _to come_. Collier
hints at _above_. But the text is right; _to_ occurs constantly in the
sense of _at_, _chez_, _apud_: _ex. gr._ "Being a great favourite _to_
Queen Elizabeth" (Ashmole, Hist. of Berkshire, i. 249). "My heart _to_
her, but as guestwise sojourned" (M. N. D. iii. 2). "Lord Angelo
having affairs _to_ heaven" (Meas. for Meas. iii. 1).
"But let determin'd things _to Destiny_
Hold unbewail'd their way."
Ant. and Cleop. iii. 6.
It is to be observed that the word in the originals is _love_, not
'Jove,' and the very same error occurs in i. 3.
* * * * *
"In most accepted pain."
For 'pain,' which makes little or no sense, Warburton, who is generally
followed, read _pay_. I prefer _payment_, as effacement may have left
only a part of the _m_.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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