Patch grief with proverbs; make misfortune drunk Again, ibidem: '« Now grievous forrowe and care away !" Again, at the conclution of Barnaby Googe's third Eglog: "With cheese aud pleafaunt whaye; 66 me, in George Withers's Why should we grieve or pine at that? Hang forrow! care will kill a cat. Sorrow go by! is also ( as I am affured) a common exclamation of hilarity even at this time, in Scotland. Sorrow wag! might have been juft fuch another. The verb, to wag, is feveral times used by our author in the fenfe of to go, or pack off. 66 A& II. fc. iv. The Prince, in the First Part of King Henry IV. fays They cry hem! and bid you play it off." Mason obferves that this expreffion alfo occurs in As you like it, where Rofalind fays "Thefe burs are in my heart ;" and Celia The foregoing examples fufficiently prove the exclamation hem, to have been of a comic turn. replies Hem them away." 3 make misfortune drunk STEEVENS. With candle-wafters; ] This may mean, either wash away his forrow among those who fit up all night to drink, and in that sense may be ftyled wafters of candles; or overpower his misfortunes by fwallowing flap-dragons in his glafs, which are defcribed by Falstaff as made of candles' ends. STEEVENS. This is a very difficult paffage, and hath not, I think, been fatisfactorily cleared up. The explanation I fhall offer, will give, I believe, as little fatisfaction; but I will, however, venture it. Candle-wafters is a term of contempt for fcholars: thus Jonson, in Cynthia's Revels, A& III. fc. ii : fpoiled by a wholeson book-worm, a candle-wafter. In The Antiquary, A& III. is a like term. of ridicule: "He fhould more catch your delicate courta ear, than all your head-fcratchers, thumb-biters, lamp-wafters of them all." The fenfe then, which I would affign to Shakspeare, is this: "If fuch a one will patch grief with proverbs, cafe or cover the wounds of his grief with proverbial fayings; make misfortune drunk with candle-wafters, ftupify misfortune, or render himself infenfible to the strokes of it, by the converfation or lucubratious of Scholars; the production of the lamp, but not fitted to But there is no fuch man: For, brother, men To be fo moral, when he shall endure ANT.Therein do men from children nothing differ. LEON. I pray thee, peace; I will be flesh and blood; For there was never yet philofopher, That could endure the tooth-ach patiently; human nature." Patch, in the fenfe of mending a defect or breach, occurs in Hamlet, A& V. fc. i: 3 "O, that that earth, which kept the world in awe, WHALLEY. than advertisement. ] That is, than admonition, than moral inftruction. JOHNSON. 4 However they have writ the ftyle of gods, ] This alludes to the extravagant titles the Stoics gave their wife men. Sapiens ille cum Diis, ex pari, vivit. Senec. Ep. 59. Jupiter quo antecedit virum bonum? diutius bonus eft. Sapiens nihilo fe minoris aflimat. Deus non vincit fapientem felicitate. Ep. 73. WARBURTON. Shakspeare might have used this expreffion, without any acquaintance with the hyperboles of ftoicifm. By the style of gods, he meant an exalted language; fuch as we may fuppofe would be written by beings fuperior to human calamities, and therefore regarding them with neglect and coldness. Beaumont and Fletcher have the fame expreffion in the firft of their Four Plays in One: "Athens doth make women philofophers, ← And furẹ their children chat the talk of gods.". STEEVENS. And made a pish at chance and sufferance. ' do fo: My foul doth tell me, Hero is bely'd; And that fhall Claudio know, fo fhall the prince, And all of them, that thus difhonour her. Enter Don PEDRO and CLAUDIO. ANT. Here comes the prince, and Claudio, hastily. D. PEDRO. Good den, good den. CLAUD. Good day to both of you." LEON. Hear you, my lords, We have fome hafte, Leonatò, . LEON. Some hafte, my lord!-well, fare you well, my lord: Are you so hasty now? well, all is one. D. PEDRO. Nay, do not quarrel with us, good old man. ANT. If he could right himself with quarreling, Some of us would lie low. Nay, never lay thy hand upon thy sword, I fear thee not. And made a pish at chance and fufferance.] Alludes to their famous apathy. WARBURTON, The old copies read push. Corrected by Mr. Pope. MALONE. - ] I have repeated the word thou, for the fake 6 Thou, thou of measure. STEEVENS. CLAUD. Marry, befhrew my hand, If it fhould give your age fuch caufe of fear: In faith, my hand meant nothing to my fword. LEON. Tufh, tuíh, man, never fleer and jeft at me: I speak not like a dotard, nor a fool; What I have done being young, or what would do, And, with grey hairs, and bruife of many days, I say, thou haft bely'd mine innocent child; And the lyes buried with her ancestors: LEON. Thine, Claudio; thine I say. D. PEDRO. You fay not right, old man. LEON. My lord, my lord, I'll prove it on his body, if he dare; Despite his nice fence,' and his active practice, His May of youth, and bloom of luflyhood. CLAUD. Away, I will not have to do with you. LEON. Canft thou fo daff me? Thou haft kill'd my child; If thou kill'ft me, boy, thou fhalt kill a man. Defpite his nice fence, ] i. e. defence, or fkill in the fcience of fencing, or defence. DOUCE. Can't thou fo daff me?] This is a country word, Mr. Pope tells us, fignifying, daunt. It may be fo; but that is not the expofition here: To daff and doff are synonymous terms, that 7 ANT. He fhall kill two of us, and men indeed: But that's no matter; let him kill one first; Win me and wear me, let him anfwer me: Come, follow me, boy; come, boy, follow me: Sir boy, I'll whip you from your foining fence; Nay, as I am a gentleman, I will. LFON. Brother, 9 ANT. Content yourfelf: God knows, I lov'd my niece; mean to put off: which is the very fenfe required here, and what Leonato would reply, upon Claudio's faying, he would have nothing to do with him. THEOBALD. Theobald has well interpreted the word. Shakspeare ufes it more than once. Thus, in K. Henry IV. P. I: "The nimble-footed mad-cap Prince of Wales, "And his comrades, that daff'd the world aside.” Again, in the comedy before us: "I would have daff'd all other respects," &c. Again, in The Lover's Complaint: "There my white ftole of chastity I daffd." It is, perhaps, of Scottish origin, as I find it in Ane verie excellent and delectabill Treatife intitulit PHILOTUS, &c. Edinburgh, 1603 : "Their daffing does us fo undo.' STEEVENS. 7 Ant. He all kill two of us, &c.] This brother Antony is the truest picture imaginable of human nature. He had affumed the character of a fage to comfort his brother, overwhelmed with grief for his only daughter's affront and dishonour; and had feverely reproved him for not commanding his paffion better on fo trying an occafion. Yet, immediately after this, no fooner does he begin to fufpect that his age and valour are flighted, but he falls into the most intemperate fit of rage himself and all he can do or say is not of power to pacify him. This is copying nature with a penetration and exactness of judgement peculiar to Shakspeare. As to the expreffion, too, of his paffion, nothing can be more highly painted. WARBURTON. 8 come boy, follow me: ] Here the old copies deftroy the measure by reading come, fir boy, come, follow me : I have omitted the unneceffary words. STEEVENS. 9 foining fence;] Foining is a term in fencing, and means thrufting. DouCE. |