Imagens das páginas
PDF
ePub

yet

Hub. Within this bosom never enter'd
The dreadful motion of a murd'rous thought,
And
you have slander'd nature in my fornt;

Which, howsoever rude exteriorly,

Is yet the cover of a fairer mind

Than to be butcher of an innocent child.

:

The dreadful motion of a murd'rous thought,] Nothing can be falser than what Hubert here says in his own vindication; yet it was the poet's purpose that he should speak truth; for we find, from a preceding scene, the motion of a murderous thought had entered into him, and that very deeply and it was with difficulty that the tears, the intreaties, and the innocence of Arthur had diverted and suppressed it. Nor is the expression, in this reading, at all exact, it not being the necessary quality of a murd'rous thought to be dreadful, affrighting, or terrible: for it being commonly excited by the flattering views of interest, pleasure, or revenge, the mind is often too much taken up with those ideas to attend, steadily, to the consequences. We must conclude therefore that Shakspeare

wrote:

-a murderer's thought.

And this makes Hubert speak truth, as the poet intended he should. He had not committed the murder, and consequently the motion of a murderer's thought had never entered his bosom. And in this reading, the epithet dreadful is admirably just, and in nature. For after the perpetration of the fact, the appetites, that hurried their owner to it, lose their force; and nothing succeeds to take possession of the mind, but a dreadful consciousness, that torments the murderer without respite or intermission. WARB.

I do not see any thing in this change worth the vehemence with which it is recommended. Read the line either way, the sense is nearly the same, nor does Hubert tell truth in either reading when he charges John with slandering his form. He that could once intend to burn out the eyes of a captive prince, had a mind not too fair for the rudest form. Joux.

The dreadful motion' &c. If the particular expression of Hubert be attended to- Within this bosom never entered yet the dreadful motion of a murderous thought;' it will be found that he would vindicate himself from the charge of murtherous intention at the same time hinting that what he had undertaken was on the principle of necessity; for it may readily be conceived that after John had made known his wishes, the life of Hubert, had he declined to act in conformity with them, would, in that tyrannous age, have been of very precarious tenure. In fine, it is meant to be insinuated that Hubert for his own safety first engaged to become a murtherer: that he undertook the dreadful business in compliance with the will of his Prince, however

[ocr errors]

repugnant to his own nature; and that it was so, he instances by Young Arthur is alive'-this too makes him farther say that nature is slandered in his form. This is the meaning of the passage. But such kind of casuistry will not be admitted by the man of rigid virtue, with whom conscience will be ever paramount to bodily sense. It is only in ordinary natures that it can have a place. B.

Sal. For 'twill be

Two long days' journey, lords, or e'er we meet.

——or e'er we meet.] This phrase, so frequent in our old writers, is not well understood. Or is here the same as ere, i. e. before, and should be written (as it is still pronounced in Shropshire) ore. There the common people use it often. Thus, they say, Ore to-morrow, for ere or before to-morrow. The addition of ever, or c'er, is merely augmentative.

That or has the full sense of before; and that e'er when joined with it is merely augmentative, is proved from innumerable passages in our ancient writers, wherein or occurs simply without e'er, and must bear that signification. Thus, in the old tragedy of Master Arden of Feversham, 1599, quarto, (attributed by some, though falsely, to Shakspeare) the wife says:

"He shall be murdered or the guests come in."

Sig. H. B. III. PERCY. Or e'er we meet.' Or.' This seems to have the same meaning as the french, or, which usually stands for yet, before, and sometimes for then. B.

Faule. This unhair'd sawciness, and boyish troops, The king doth smile at;

This unheard of sawciness, and boyish troops,] Thus the printed copies in general'; but unheard is an epithet of very little force or meaning here; besides, let us observe how it is coupled. Faulconbridge is sneering at the Dauphin's invasion, as an unadvised enterprize, savoring of youth and indiscretion; the result of childishness, and unthinking rashness; and he seems altogether to dwell on this character of it, by calling his preparation boyish troops, dwarfish war, pigmy arms, &c. which, according to my emendation, sort very well with unhair'd, i. e. unbearded sawciness. THEOB.

Yet another reading might be recommended :

This unair'd sawciness,

i. e. untravelled rudeness. STEEV.

"Unair'd is," I think, the reading to be preferred. Unaired, however, is not, in this place, to be taken in the sense of untravelled. It rather means unseasoned, inordinate. B.

Mel. Fly, noble English, you are bought and sold;

[blocks in formation]

And welcome home again discarded faith.

Unthread the rude eye of rebellion,] Though all the copies concur in this reading, how poor is the metaphor of unthreading the eye of a needle? And besides, as there is no mention made of a needle, how, remote and obscure is the allusion without it? The text, as I have restored it, is easy and natural; and it is the mode of expression, which our author is every where fond of, to tread and untread, the way, path, steps, &c. THEOB.

[ocr errors]

The metaphor is certainly harsh, but I do not think the passage corrupted. JoHN.

Shakspeare elsewhere uses the same expression, threading dark ey'd night. STEEV.

Unthread has The word is used

"Unthread the rude eye of rebellion," is particularly harsh indeed; but Shakspeare certainly wrote tie. no allusion to a needle, but means loosen. in that sense by Milton. We must read,

"Unthread the tie of rude rebellion."

i. e. loosen the knot of rebellion.

Mr. Steevens, indeed, observes in support of the ordinary reading, that " Shakspeare elsewhere uses the expression, "threading dark-ey'd night." But this is nothing to the purpose: threading dark-ey'd night, is traversing or going about during the night. To thread or thrid is to pass through, to unthread is to loosen.

A similar expression is to be found in Henry IV. " Unknit this churlish knot of war." B.

Melun. Have I not hideous death within my view, Retaining but a quantity of life;

Which bleeds away, even as a form of wax
Resolveth from his figure 'gainst the fire?

—even as a form of war.] This is said in allusion to the images made by witches. Holinshed observes that it was alledged against dame Eleanor Cobham and her confederates," that they had devised an image of war, representing the king, which by their sorcerie by little and little consumed, intending thereby in conclusion to waste and destroy the king's person." STEEV.

-' even as a form of wax.' Why must the image of wax, devised by Dame Cobham, be brought forward on the present occasion? Supernatural means are supposed to have been employed in the first instance, while in that of our author the change is represented as being effected simply by the igneous element; and in which there is certainly nothing surprising, since every one must know that wax when set before a fire

must lose the shape which it may previously have borne, without the agency of the Witch or the Sorcerer. B.

Lewis. When with a volley of our needless shot,
After such bloody toil, we bid good night;
And wound our tatter'd colours clearly up,
Last in the field, and almost lords of it!

-tatter'd] For tatter'd, the folio reads tottering. JOHN. -'tattered-Tottering is no doubt our Author's word It signifies waving, playing in the air. The Dauphin would say-" our colours which were tottering i. e. floating in the wind (as is usual during a battle,) were wound or rolled up, (as is likewise usual) at the close of it." B.

Hen. It is too late; the life of all his blood Is touch'd corruptibly.

Is touch'd corruptibly.] Corruptibly for corruptively. The mistake was, however, probably the author's. MAL.

Is touch'd corruptibly.'-The mistake is with the annotator. Corruptibly is right. B.

SHAK.

II.

B

King Richard II.

ACT I. SCENE I.

K. Rich. Norfolk, throw down; we bid; there is no boot.

-no boot.] That is, no advantage, no use, in delay or refusal, JOHN.

'No boot.'' Boot' should in this place be bote, the old word for help. B.

Mowb. I am disgrac'd, impeach'd, and baffled here; Pierc'd to the soul with slander's venom'd spear;

-and baffled here ;] Baffled in this place means treated with the greatest ignominy imaginable. TOLLET.

-and baffled.' 'Baffled' must here mean mocked. Befler, french. It should be printed Beffled. B.

Boling. Shall I seem crest-fallen in my father's sight?

Or with pale beggar face impeach my height

Before this out-dar'd dastard?

Or with pale beggar face—] i. e. with a face of supplication. But this will not satisfy the Oxford editor, he turns it to haggard fear. WARB.

-beggar fear is the reading of the first folio and one of the quartos. STEV.

« AnteriorContinuar »