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700.

If I depend on the issue?] These words are

wanting in the first quarto.

STEEVENS.

705. -conjunctive.] The first quarto reads, communicative.

STEEVENS.

715. What say you?] This speech is omitted in

the folio.

STEEVENS.

717. I am chang'd.] This is omitted in the folio.

STEEVENS.

718. Go to; farewel: put money enough in your purse.]

The folio omits this line.

729.

STEEVENS.

-to plume up, &c.] The first quarto reads

STEEVENS.

to make up, &c. 735. The Moor is of a free and open nature,] The

first quarto reads,

The Moor, a free and open nature too,

That thinks, &c.

STEEVENS.

ACT II.

Line 8.

WHEN mountains melt on them,] Thus the

folio. The quarto reads,

"-when the huge mountain melts.”

This latter reading might be countenanced by the following passage in the Second Part of King Henry IV.

-the

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The quarto is surely the better reading; it conveys a more natural image, more poetically expressed. Every man who has been on board a vessel in the Bay of Biscay, or in any very high sea, must know that the vast billows seem to melt away from the ship, not on it. MONCK MASON.

11. -the foaming shore.] The elder quarto reads -banning shore, which offers the bolder image; i. e. the shore that execrates the ravage of the waves. So, in King Henry VI. P. I.,

"Fell, banning hag, enchantress hold thy tongue," STEEVENS. 15. And quench the guards of the ever-fixed pole:] Alluding to the star Artophylax. The elder quarto reads-ever-fir'd pole.

27. The ship is here put in,

JOHNSON.

STEEVENS.

A Veronese: Michael Cassio, &c.] The author of The Revisal is of opinion, that the poet intended to inform us, that Othello's lieutenant, Cassio, was of Verona, an inland city of the Venetian state; and adds, that the editors have not been pleased to say what kind of ship is here denoted by a Veronessa. By a Veronessa or Veronese (for the Italian pronunciation must be retained, otherwise the measure will be defective) a ship of Verona is denoted; as we say to

this day of ships in the river, such a one is a Dutchman, a Jamaica-man, &c.

STEEVENS.

Veronessa, a ship of Verona. But the true reading is Veronese, pronounced as a quadrisyllable.

-The ship is here put in,

A Veronese

It was common to introduce Italian words, and in their proper pronunciation then familiar. See Spenser in the Faerie Queen, b. iii. c. xiii. 10.

"With sleeves dependent Albanesè wise.”

The poet had not a ship in his thoughts.-He intend-
ed to inform us, that Othello's lieutenant, Cassio,
was of Verona. We should certainly read,
"The ship is here put in.

"A Veronese, Michael Cassio, (&c.)
"Is come on shore.".

This regulation of the lines is ingenious. But I agree with Hanmer, and I think it appears from many parts of the play, that Cassio was a Florentine. In this speech, the third gentleman, who brings the news of the wreck of the Turkish fleet, returns his tale, and relates the circumstances more distinctly. In his former speech he says, "A noble ship of Venice saw the distress of the Turks." And here he adds, "The very ship is just now put into our port, and she is a Veronese. That is, a ship fitted out or furnished by the people of Verona, a city of the Venetian state. WARTON.

I believe we are all wrong. Verona is an inland city. Every inconsistency may, however, be avoid

ed,

ed, if we read The Veronessa, i. e. the name of the ship is the Veronessa. Verona, however, might be obliged to furnish ships towards the general defence of Italy. STEEVENS.

The emendation proposed by Mr. Steevens is acute, but Shakspere's acquaintance with the topography of Italy (as appears from the Tempest) was very imper fect. Had any one objected to him against the reading in the text, that Verona was not a maritime city, he would probably have replied, as did Corporal Trim, in respect to Bohemia-" but it might have happened otherwise, if it had pleased God."

HENLEY. 42. Even till we make the main, &c.] This line and STEEVENS.

half is wanting in the eldest quarto.

47. -warlike isle,] Thus the folio. The first

quarto reads-worthy isle.

52. His bark is stoutly timber'd,

STEEVENS.

Therefore my hopes, not surfeited to death,

Stand in bold cure.] I do not understand these lines. I know not how hope can be surfeited to death, that is, can be increased, till it is destroyed; nor what it is to stand in bold cure; or why hope should be considered as a disease. In the copies there is no varia

tion. Shall we read,

Therefore my fears, not surfeited to death,

Stand in bold cure?

This is better, but it is not well. Shall we strike a

bolder stroke, and read thus:

Therefore

Therefore my hopes, not forfeited to death,
Stand bold, not sure.

Therefore my hopes not surfeited to death,

JOHNSON,

Stand in bold cure.] Presumptuous hopes, which have no foundation in probability, may be said to surfeit themselves to death, or forward their own dissolution. To stand in bold cure, is to erect themselves in confidence of being fulfilled. A parallel expression occurs in K. Lear, act iii.

"This rest might yet have balm'd his broken

senses,

"Which, if conveniency will not allow,
"Stand in hard cure."

Again,

-his life, with thine, &c.

Stand in assured loss.

In bold cure means, in confidence of being cured.

STEEVENS.

A surfeit being a sickness arising from an excessive over-charge of the stomach, the author, with his usual licence, uses it for any species of excess -The meaning, I think, is-Therefore my hopes, not being destroyed by their own excess, but being reasonable and moderate, are like to be fulfilled.

Or rather,

-Therefore my hopes of his safety, which indeed are faint and weak, but not entirely destroyed by excess of despondency, may chance to be fulfilled.

The word surfeit having occurred to Shakspere, led him to consider such a hope as Cassio entertained (not a sanguine,

E

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