How sweet the moon-light sleeps upon this bank! Sit, Jessica: Look, how the floor of heaven Still quiring to the young-ey'd cherubins : Such harmony is in immortal souls"; ously correcting some mistakes, through inattention committed others. STEEVENS. 9 and let the SOUNDS of MUSICK CREEP IN OUR EARS ;] So, in Churchyard's Worthies of Wales, 1587: "A musick sweete, that through our eares shall creepe, 66 By secret arte, and lull a man asleepe." Again, in The Tempest: "This musick crept by me upon the waters." REED. I - with PATINES of bright gold;] Dr. Warburton says we should read-patens; a round broad plate of gold borne in heraldry. STEEVENS. Pattens is the reading of the first folio, and pattents of the quarto. Patterns is printed first in the folio, 1632. JOHNSON. One of the quartos, 1600, reads-pattens, the other pattents. STEEVENS. A patine, from patina, Lat. A patine is the small flat dish or plate used with the chalice, in the administration of the eucharist. In the time of popery, and probably in the following age, it was commonly made of gold. MALONE. 2 Such HARMONY is in immortal SOULS; &c.] It is proper to exhibit the lines as they stand in the copies of the first, second, third, and fourth editions, without any variation, for a change has been silently made by Rowe, and adopted by all the succeeding editors: "Such harmony is in immortal souls; "But while this muddy vesture of decay "Doth grossly close in it, we cannot hear it." That the third line is corrupt must be allowed, but it gives reason to suspect that the original was : Doth grossly close it in. Yet I know not whether from this any thing better can be produced than the received reading. Perhaps harmony is the power of perceiving harmony, as afterwards: Musick in the soul is the But, whilst this muddy vesture of decay 3 Doth grossly close it in, we cannot hear it 3.. quality of being moved with concord of sweet sounds. This will somewhat explain the old copies, but the sentence is still imperfect; which might be completed by reading: 3 -- Such harmony is in th' immortal soul, But while this muddy vesture of decay Doth grossly close it in, we cannot hear it. JOHNSON. close IT in-] This idea might have been adopted from a passage in Phaer's translation of Virgil, b. vi. : "Nor closed so in darke can they regard their heavenly kinde, "For carkasse foul of flesh, and dungeon vile of prison blinde." STEEVENS. "Such harmony is in immortal souls; &c." This passage having been much misunderstood, it may be proper to add a short explanation of it. Such harmony, &c. is not an explanation arising from the foregoing line" So great is the harmony!" but an illustration : -"Of the same kind is the harmony."-The whole runs thus: "There is not one of the heavenly orbs but sings as it moves, still quiring to the cherubin. Similar to the harmony they make, is that of immortal souls; or," in other words, "each of us have as perfect harmony in our souls as the harmony of the spheres, inasmuch as we have the quality of being moved by sweet sounds (as he expresses it afterwards); but our gross terrestrial part, which environs us, deadens the sound, and prevents our hearing."-It, [Doth glossly close it in,] I apprehend, refers to harmony. This is the reading of the first quarto printed by Heyes; the quarto printed by Roberts, and the folio, read-close in it. It may be objected that this internal harmony is not an object of sense, cannot be heard ;-but Shakspeare is not always exact in his language: he confounds it with that external and artificial harmony which is capable of being heard.-Dr. Warburton (who appears to have entirely misunderstood this passage,) for souls reads sounds. This hath been imitated by Milton in his Arcades: "And keep unsteady nature in her law, "Of human mould, with gross unpurged ear." MALONE. Thus, in Comus : "Can any mortal mixture of earth's mold "Breathe such divine enchanting ravishment? Enter Musicians. Come, ho, and wake Diana with a hymn*; JES. I am never merry, when I hear sweet musick ". "And with these raptures moves the vocal air ་་ To testify his hidden residence." HENLEY. 66 [Musick. The old reading in immortal souls is certainly right, and the whole line may be well explained by Hooker, in his Ecclesiastical Polity, b. v.: Touching musical harmony, whether by instrument or by voice, it being but of high and low sounds in a due proportionable disposition, such, notwithstanding is the force thereof, and so pleasing effects it hath in that very part of man which is most divine, that some have been thereby induced to think, that the soul itself by nature is or hath in it harmony.” For this quotation I am indebted to Dr. Farmer. Mr. Malone observes that "the fifth Book of the E. P. was published singly, in 1597." STEEVENS. 4 — wake DIANA with a hymn ;] Diana is the moon, who is in the next scene represented as sleeping. JOHNSON. 5 And draw her home with musick.] Shakspeare was, I believe, here thinking of the custom of accompanying the last waggonload, at the end of harvest, with rustick musick. He again alludes to this yet common practice, in As You Like It. MALONE. 6 I am never merry, when I hear sWEET musick.] In the age of Shakspeare it is probable that some shade of meaning (at present undeterminable,) was occasionally affixed to the words sweet and sweetness. Thus, in the Two Gentlemen of Verona, [See Act III. Sc. I.] we have "a sweet mouth;" and in Measure for Measure, [Act II. Sc. IV.] we are told of "Their saucy sweetness that do coin heaven's image, If, in the speech under consideration, Jessica only employs the term sweet in one of its common senses, it seems inadequate to the effects assigned to it; and the following passage in Horace's Art of Poetry, is as liable to the same objection, unless dulcia be supposed to mean interesting, or having such command over our passions as musick merely sweet can never obtain: 66 "Non satis est pulchra esse poemata, dulcia sunto, Sweet is pleasing, delightful, and such is the meaning of dulcis in Horace. MALONE. LOR. The reason is, your spirits are attentive: For do but note a wild and wanton herd, Or race of youthful and unhandled colts, If they but hear perchance a trumpet sound, You shall perceive them make a mutual stand", By the sweet power of musick: Therefore, the poet Did feign that Orpheus drew trees, stones, and floods; Since nought so stockish, hard, and full of rage, 7 - do but note a wild and wanton herd, Or race of youthful and UNHANDLED Colts, Fetching mad bounds, bellowing, and neighing loud, If they but hear perchance a trumpet sound, Or any air of musick touch their ears, You shall perceive them make a mutual stand, &c.] We find the same thought in The Tempest: Then I beat my tabor, "At which, like unback'd colts, they prick'd their ears, "Advanc'd their eye-lids, lifted up their noses, "As they smelt musick." MALONE. The man that hath no musick in himself, Nor is not mov'd with concord of sweet sounds,] The thought here is extremely fine; as if the being affected with musick was only the harmony between the internal [musick in himself] and the external musick [concord of sweet sounds;] which were mutually affected like unison strings. This whole speech could not choose but please an English audience, whose great passion, as well then as now, was love of musick. "Jam verò video naturam (says Erasmus in praise of Folly,) ut singulis nationibus, ac pene civitatibus, communem quandam insevisse Philautiam : atque hinc fieri, ut Britanni, præter alia, Formam, Musicam, & lautas Mensas propriè sibi vindicent." WARBURTON. This passage, which is neither pregnant with physical and mo Is fit for treasons, stratagems, and spoils; Let no such man be trusted.-Mark the musick. ral truth, nor poetically beautiful in an eminent degree, has constantly enjoyed the good fortune to be repeated by those whose inhospitable memories would have refused to admit or retain any other sentiment or description of the same author, however exalted or just. The truth is, that it furnishes the vacant fiddler with something to say in defence of his profession, and supplies the coxcomb in musick with an invective against such as do not pretend to discover all the various powers of language in inarticulate sounds. Our ancient statutes have often received the best comment by means of reference to the particular occasion on which they were framed. Dr. Warburton has therefore properly accounted for Shakspeare's seeming partiality to this amusement. He might have added, that Peacham requires of his Gentleman only to be able" to sing his part sure, and at first sight, and withal to play the same on a viol or lute." Let not, however, this capricious sentiment of Shakspeare descend to posterity, unattended by the opinion of the late Lord Chesterfield on the same subject. In his 148th letter to his son, who was then at Venice, his lordship, after having_enumerated musick among the illiberal pleasures, adds-" if you love musick, hear it; go to operas, concerts, and pay fiddlers to play to you; but I must insist upon your neither piping nor fiddling yourself. It puts a gentleman in a very frivolous and contemptible light; brings him into a great deal of bad company, and takes up a great deal of time, which might be much better employed. Few things would mortify me more, than to see you bearing a part in a concert, with a fiddle under your chin, or a pipe in your mouth." Again, Letter 153: "A taste of sculpture and painting is, in my mind, as becoming as a taste of fiddling and piping is unbecoming a man of fashion. The former is connected with history and poetry, the latter with nothing but bad company." Again :Painting and sculpture are very justly called liberal arts; a lively and strong imagination, together with a just observation, being absolutely necessary to excel in either; which, in my opinion, is by no means the case of musick, though called a liberal art, and now in Italy placed above the other two; a proof of the decline of that country." Ibidem. STEEVENS. 66 The lovers of musick may submit to have the opinion of Lord Chesterfield quoted against them, while they have that of Shakspeare in their favour. Boswell. |