Caphis, I say! Caph. Enter CAPHIS. Here, sir; What is your pleasure? Plays in the right hand, thus:--but tell him, sirrah,7 Have smit my credit: I love, and honour him; Which flashes now a phoenix. Get you gone. Reason cannot find his fortune to have any safe or solid founda tion. The types of the first printer of this play were so worn and defaced, that f and are not always to be distinguished. Johnson. The following passage in Macbeth affords countenance to Dr. Johnson's emendation: "Whole as the marble, founded as the rock; Steevens. 6 ·be not ceas'd-] i. e. stopped. So, in Claudius Tiberius Nero, 1607: "Why should Tiberius' liberty be ceased?" Again, in The Valiant Welchman, 1615: 7 66 pity thy people's wrongs, "And cease the clamours both of old and young." Steevens. sirrah,] was added for the sake of the metre by the editor of the second folio. Malone. 8 -a naked gull,] A gull is a bird as remarkable for the poverty of its feathers, as a phoenix is supposed to be for the rich. ness of its plumage. Steevens. 9 Which flashes &c.] Which, the pronoun relative, relating to things, is frequently used, as in this instance, by Shakspeare, instead of who, the pronoun relative, applied to persons. The use of Enter FLAVIUs, with many Bills in his Hand. Flav. No care, no stop! so senseless of expence, Was to be so unwise, to be so kind.3 the former instead of the latter is still preserved in the Lord's prayer. Steevens. 1 Caph. I go, sir. Sen. I go, sir?] This last speech is not a captious repetition of what Caphis said, but a further injunction to him to go. I, in all the old dramatick writers, stands for-ay, as it does in this place. M. Mason. I have left Mr. M. Mason's opinion before the reader, though I do not heartily concur in it. Steevens. 2 take the bonds along with you, And have the dates in compt.] [Old copy—And have the dates in. Come.] Certainly, ever since bonds were given, the date was put in when the bond was entered into: and these bonds Timon had already given, and the time limited for their payment was lapsed. The Senator's charge to his servant must be to the tenour as I have amended the text; Take good notice of the dates, for the better computation of the interest due upon them. Theobald. Mr. Theobald's emendation may be supported by the following instance in Macbeth: 3 "Have theirs, themselves, and what is theirs, in compt." Steevens. Never mind Was to be so unwise, to be so kind.] Nothing can be worse, or more obscurely expressed: and all for the sake of a wretched rhyme. To make it sense and grammar, it should be supplied thus: Never mind Was [made] to be so unwise, [in order] to be so kind. i. e. Nature, in order to make a profuse mind, never before en. dowed any man with so large a share of folly. Warburton. What shall be done? He will not hear, till feel: I must be round with him, now he comes from hunting. Fy, fy, fy, fy! Enter CAPHIS, and the Servants of ISIDORE and VARRO. Good even, Varro: 4 What, Caph. You come for money? Is 't not your business too? Caph. It is;-And yours too, Isidore? Caph. 'Would we were all discharg'd! It is so. I fear it. وو Of this mode of expression, conversation affords many exam. ples: "I was always to be blamed, whatever happened -"I am in the lottery, but I was always to draw blanks." Johnson. 4 Good even, Varro:] It is observable, that this good evening is before dinner: for Timon tells Alcibiades, that they will go forth again, as soon as dinner's done, which may prove that by dinner our author meant not the cœna of ancient times, but the mid-day's repast. I do not suppose the passage corrupt: such inadvertencies neither author nor editor can escape. There is another remark to be made Varro and Isidore sink a few lines afterwards into the servants of Varro and Isidore. Whether servants, in our author's time, took the names of their masters, I know not. Perhaps it is a slip of negligence. Johnson. In the old copy it stands, "Enter Caphis, Isidore, and Varro." Steevens. In like manner in the fourth scene of the next Act the servant of Lucius is called by his master's name; but our author's intention is sufficiently manifested by the stage-direction in the fourth scene of the third Act, where we find in the first folio, (p. 86, col. 2,)" Enter Varro's man, meeting others." I have therefore always annexed Serv. to the name of the master. Malone Good even, or, as it is sometimes less accurately written, Good den, was the usual salutation from noon, the moment that good morrow became improper This appears plainly from the following passage in Romeo and Juliet, Act II, sc. iv: "Nurse. God ye good morrow, gentlemen. "Mercutio God ye good den, fair gentlewoman. "Merc. 'Tis no less I tell you; for the.....hand of the dial is now upon the.....of noon." So, in Hamlet's greeting to Marcellus, Act I, sc. i. Sir T. IIanmer and Dr. Warburton, not being aware, I presume, of this wide sense of Good even, have altered it to Good morning; without any necessity, as from the course of the incidents, precedent and subsequent, the day may well be supposed to be turned of noon. Tyrwhitt. Caph. Here comes the lord. Enter TIMON, ALCIBIADES, and Lords, &c. Tim. So soon as dinner 's done, we 'll forth again,5 My Alcibiades. With me? What 's your will? Caph. My lord, here is a note of certain dues. Tim. Dues? Whence are you? Caph. Tim. Go to my steward. Of Athens here, my lord. Caph. Please it your lordship, he hath put me off To the succession of new days this month: My master is awak'd by great occasion, To call upon his own; and humbly prays you, Mine honest friend, Tim. Tim. Contain thyself, good friend. Var. Serv. One Varro's servant, my good lord, Isid. Serv. From Isidore; He humbly prays your speedy payment,7 5 we 'll forth again,] i. e. to hunting, from which diversion, we find by Flavius's speech, he was just returned. It may be here observed, that in our author's time it was the custom to hunt as well after dinner as before. Thus, in Laneham's Account of the Entertainment at Kenelworth Castle, we find, that Queen Elizabeth always, while there, hunted in the afternoon: "Monday was hot, and therefore her highness kept in 'till five a clok in the evening; what time it pleaz'd her to ryde forth into the chase, to hunt the hart of fors; which found anon, and after sore chased," &c. Again: "Munday the 18th of this July, the weather being hot, her highness kept the castle for coolness 'till about five a clok, her majesty in the chase hunted the hart (as before) of forz,” &c. So, in Tancred and Gismund, 1592: "He means this evening in the park to hunt." Reed. 6 That with your other noble parts you'll suit,] i. e. that you will behave on this occasion in a manner consistent with your other noble qualities. Steevens. 7 He humbly prays your speedy payment,] As our author does not appear to have meant that the servant of Isidore should be less civil than those of the other lords, it is natural to conceive that this line, at present imperfect, originally stood thus: He humbly prays your lordship's speedy payment. Steevens. Var. Serv. 'Twas due on forfeiture, my lord, six weeks, And past, Isid. Serv. Your steward puts me off, my lord; And I am sent expressly to your lordship. Tim. Give me breath: I do beseech you, good my lords, keep on; [Exeunt ALCIB. and Lords. I'll wait on you instantly.--Come hither, pray you. [To FLAV How goes the world, that I am thus encounter'd Flav. Tim. See them well entertain'd. Flav. Do so, my friends: [Exit TIM. Enter APEMANTUS and a Fool.9 Caph. Stay, stay, here comes the fool with Apemantus; let's have some sport with 'em. 3 - of date-broke bonds,] The old copy has: Mr. Malone very judiciously reads—date-broken. For the sake of measure, I have omitted the latter letter of the second word. So, in Much Ado about Nothing: "I have broke [i. e. broken] with her father." Steevens. To the present emendation I should not have ventured to give a place in the text, but that some change is absolutely necessary, and this appears to be established beyond a doubt by a former line in the preceding scene: "And my reliances on his fracted dates." The transcriber's ear deceived him here as in many other places. Sir Thomas Hanmer and the subsequent editors evaded the difficulty by omitting the corrupted word-debt. Malone. 9 Enter Apemantus and a Fool.] I suspect some scene to be lost, in which the entrance of the Fool, and the page that follows him, was prepared by some introductory dialogue, in which the audience was informed that they were the fool and page of Phrynia, Timandra, or some other courte zan, upon the knowledge of which depends the greater part of the ensuing jocularity. Johnson. |