think, you are damn'd. There is but one hope in it that can do you any good; and that is but a kind of bastard hope neither. JES. And what hope is that, I pray thee? LAUN. Marry, you may partly hope that your father got you not, that you are not the Jew's daughter. JES. That were a kind of bastard hope, indeed; so the sins of my mother should be visited upon me. LAUN. Truly then I fear you are damn'd both by father and mother: thus when I shun Scylla, your father, I fall into Charybdis, your mother: well, you are gone both ways. thus when I shun Scylla, your father, I fall into Charybdis, your mother:] Alluding to the well-known line of a modern Latin poet, Philippe Gualtier, in his poem entitled Alexandreis : "Incidis in Scyllam, cupiens vitare Charybdim." MALONE. Originally from the Alexandreis of Philippe Gualtier; but several translations of this adage were obvious to Shakspeare. Among other places, it is found in an ancient poem entitled A Dialogue between Custom and Veritie, concerning the use and abuse of Dauncing and Minstrelsie, bl. 1. no date : "While Silla they do seem to shun, "In Charibd they do fall," &c. Philip Gualtier de Chatillon (afterwards bishop of Megala,) was born towards the latter end of the 12th century. In the fifth book of his heroic Poem, Darius (who escaping from Alexander, fell into the hands of Bessus,) is thus apostrophized: "Nactus equum Darius, rorantia cæde suorum "Retrogrado fugit arva gradu. Quo tendis inertem The author of the line in question (who was unknown to Erasmus) was first ascertained by Galeottus Martius, who died in 1476; (See Menagiana, vol. i. p. 173, edit. 1729,) and we learn from Henricus Gandavensis de Scriptoribus Ecclesiasticis, [i. e. Henry of Gaunt,] that the Alexandreis had been a common JES. I shall be saved by my husband"; he hath made me a Christian. LAUN. Truly, the more to blame he: we were school-book. "In scholis Grammaticorum tantæ fuisse dignitatis, ut præ ipso veterum Poetarum lectio negligeretur." Barthius also, in his notes on Claudian, has words to the same effect. "Et media barbarie non plane ineptus versificator Galterus ab Insula (qui tempore Joannis Saresberiensis, ut ex hujus ad eum epistolis discimus, vixit)-Tam autem postea clarus fuit, ut expulsis quibusvis bonis auctoribus, scholas tenuerit." Freinsheim, however, in his comment on Quintus Curtius, confesses that he had never seen the work of Gualtier. The corrupt state in which this poem (of which I have not met with the earliest edition,) still appears, is perhaps imputable to frequent transcription, and injudicious attempts at emendation. Every pedagogue through whose hands the MS. passed, seems to have made some ignorant and capricious changes in its text; so that in many places it is as apparently interpolated and corrupted as the ancient copies of Shakspeare. "Galterus (says Hermann in his Conspectus Reipublicæ Literariæ, p. 102,) secutus est Curtium, & sæpe ad verbum expressit, unde ejus cum Curtio collatione, nonnulla ex hoc menda tolli possunt ; id quod experiendo didici." See also, I. G. Vossius de Poet. Lat. p. 74, and Journal des Sçavans pour Avril, 1760. Though Nicholas Grimoald (without mention of his original) had translated a long passage of The Alexandreis into blank verse before the year 1557, (See Surrey's Poems, and Warton's History of English Poetry, vol. iii. p. 63,) it could have been little known in England, as it is not enumerated in Philips's Theatrum, &c. a work understood to be enriched by his uncle Milton's extensive knowledge of modern as well as ancient poetry. 66 STEEVENS. Nothing is more frequent than this Proverb in our old writers. Thus Ascham, in his Scole-master : If Scylla drowne him not, Charybdis may fortune to swallowe him." Again, Niccols in his England's Eliza: "To shun Charybdis jaws, they helpless fell "In Scylla's gulf," &c. I remember it is likewise met with in Lyly's Euphues, Harrington's Ariosto, &c. and Surrey's contemporary in one of his Poems: "From Scylla to Charybdis clives,-from danger unto death." FARMER. 5 I shall be saved by my husband,] From St. Paul : HENLEY. Christians enough before; e'en as many as could well live, one by another: This making of Christians will raise the price of hogs; if we grow all to be pork-eaters, we shall not shortly have a rasher on the coals for money. Enter LORENZO. JES. I'll tell my husband, Launcelot, what you say; here he comes. LOR. I shall grow jealous of you shortly, Launcelot, if you thus get my wife into corners. JES. Nay, you need not fear us, Lorenzo; Launcelot and I are out: he tells me flatly, there is no mercy for me in heaven, because I am a Jew's daughter: and he says, you are no good member of the commonwealth; for, in converting Jews to Christians, you raise the price of pork. LOR. I shall answer that better to the commonwealth, than you can the getting up of the negro's belly the Moor is with child by you, Launcelot. LAUN. It is much, that the Moor should be more than reason: but if she be less than an honest woman, she is, indeed, more than I took her for. LOR. How every fool can play upon the word! I think, the best grace of wit will shortly turn into silence; and discourse grow commendable in none only but parrots.-Go in, sirrah; bid them prepare for dinner. LAUN. That is done, sir; they have all stomachs. 6 It is much, that the MOOR should be MORE, &c.] This reminds us of the quibbling epigram of Milton, which has the same kind of humour to boast of: "Galli ex concubitu gravidam te, Pontia, Mori, So, in The Fair Maid of the West, 1631: "And for you Moors thus much I mean to say, LOR. Goodly lord, what a wit-snapper are you! then bid them prepare dinner. LAUN. That is done too, sir; only, cover is the word. LOR. Will you cover then, sir? LAUN. Not so, sir, neither; I know my duty. LOR. Yet more quarrelling with occasion! Wilt thou show the whole wealth of thy wit in an instant? I pray thee, understand a plain man in his plain meaning: go to thy fellows; bid them cover the table, serve in the meat, and we will come in to dinner. LAUN. For the table, sir, it shall be served in ; for the meat, sir, it shall be covered; for your coming in to dinner, sir, why, let it be as humours and conceits shall govern. [Exit LAUNCELOT. LOR. O dear discretion, how his words are suited ! The fool hath planted in his memory An army of good words; And I do know A many fools, that stand in better place, 7 Goodly lord,] Surely this should be corrected Good lord, as it is in Theobald's edition. TYRWHITT. It should be-Good y Lord! FARMER. 8 how his words are suited!] I believe the meaning isWhat a series or suite of words he has independent of meaning; how one word draws on another without relation to the matter. JOHNSON. I cannot think either that the word suited is derived from the word suite, as Johnson supposes, as that, I believe, was introduced into our language long since the time of Shakspeare; or that Launcelot's words were independent of meaning. Lorenzo expresses his surprise that a fool should apply them so properly. So Jaques says to the Duke in As You Like It: 66 66 -I met a fool That laid him down and bask'd him in the sun, "And rail'd at Lady Fortune in good terms, "In good set terms." That is, in words well suited. M. MASON. Suited means suited to each other, arranged. BoSWELL. Garnish'd like him, that for a tricksy word How cheer'st * thou, Jessica ? And now, good sweet, say thy opinion, Is reason he should never come to heaven. Why, if two gods should play some heavenly match, And on the wager lay two earthly women, LOR. Even such a husband Hast thou of me, as she is for a wife. JES. Nay, but ask my opinion too of that. JES. Nay, let me praise you, while I have a sto mach. LOR. No, pray thee, let it serve for table-talk; Then, howsoe'er thou speak'st, 'mong other things I shall digest it. JES, Well, I'll set you forth. [Exeunt. ACT IV. SCENE I. Venice. A Court of Justice. Enter the Duke; the Magnificoes; ANTONIO, BASSANIO, GRATIANO, SALARINO, SALANIO, and others. DUKE. What, is Antonio here? ANT. Ready, so please your grace. * Quarto R. far'st. |