More nor less to others paying, To weed my vice, and let his grow 2! 66 gible as it stands ; but a very slight alteration, the addition of the word in, at the beginning of it, which may refer to virtue as well as to grace, will render the sense of it clear. Pattern in himself to know," is to feel in his own breast that virtue which he makes others practise. M. MASON. "Pattern in himself to know," is, to experience in his own bosom an original principle of action, which, instead of being borrowed or copied from others, might serve as a pattern to them. Our author, in The Winter's Tale, has again used the same kind of imagery: 66 By the pattern of mine own thoughts I cut out "The purity of his." In The Comedy of Errors he uses an expression equally hardy and licentious: "And will have no attorney but myself;" which is an absolute catachresis; an attorney importing precisely a person appointed to act for another. In Every Woman in her Humour, 1609, we find the same expression : "A pattern in himself, what thou shall find "In others." MALONE. 2 To weed My vice, and let his grow!] i. e. to weed faults out of my dukedom, and yet indulge himself in his own private vices. So, in The Contention betwyxte Churchyeard and Camell, &c. 1560: "For Cato doth affyrme "Ther is no greater shame, "Than to reprove a vyce "And your selves do the same." STEEVENS. My, does not, I apprehend, relate to the Duke in particular, who had not been guilty of any vice, but to an indefinite person. The meaning seems to be-" To destroy by extirpation" (as it is expressed in another place) a fault that I have committed, and to suffer his own vices to grow to a rank and luxuriant height. The speaker, for the sake of argument, puts himself in the case of an offending person. MALONE. The Duke is plainly speaking in his own person. What he here terms "my vice," may be explained from his conversation in O, what may man within him hide, Most pond'rous and substantial things! Act I. Sc. IV. with Friar Thomas, and especially the following line: 'twas my fault to give the people scope." The vice of Angelo requires no explanation. HENLEY. 3 Though ANGEL on the outward side!] Here we see what induced our author to give the outward-sainted deputy the name of Angelo. MALONE. 4 66 likeness,] i. e. comeliness-appearance; as we say a likely man." STEEVENS. 5 How may likeness, made in crimes, Making practice on the times, To draw with idle spiders' strings, Most pond'rous and substantial things!] Thus all the editions read corruptly; and so have made an obscure passage in itself, quite unintelligible. Shakspeare wrote it thus: "How may that likeness, made in crimes "Making practice on the times, The sense is this. How much wickedness may a man hide within, though he appear angel without. How may that likeness made in crimes, i. e. by hypocrisy, [a pretty paradoxical expression, an angel made in crimes,] by imposing upon the world, [thus emphatically expressed, making practice on the times,] draw with its false and feeble pretences [finely called spiders' strings] the most pondrous and substantial matters of the world, as riches, honour, power, reputation, &c. WARBURTON. The Revisal reads thus: 66 How may such likeness trade in crimes, "To draw with idle spiders' strings "Most pond'rous and substantial things! Meaning by pond'rous and substantial things, pleasure and wealth. STEEVENS. The old copy reads-Making practice, &c. which renders the passage ungrammatical, and unintelligible. For the emendation now made, [mocking practise,] I am answerable. A line in Macbeth may add some support to it: 66 Away, and mock the time with fairest show." There is no one more convinced of the general propriety of Craft against vice I must apply: adhering to old readings. I have strenuously followed the course which was pointed out and successfully pursued by Dr. Farmer and Mr. Steevens, that of elucidating and supporting our author's genuine text by illustrations drawn from the writings of his contemporaries. But in some cases alteration is a matter not of choice, but necessity and, surely, the present is one of them. Dr. Warburton, to obtain some sense, omitted the word to in the third line; in which he was followed by all the subsequent editors. But omission, in my apprehension, is, of all the modes of emendation, the most exceptionable. In the passage before us, it is clear, from the context, that some verb must have stood in either the first or second of these lines. Some years ago I conjectured that, instead of made, we ought to read wade, which was used in our author's time in the sense of to proceed. But having since had occasion to observe how often the words mock and make have been confounded in these plays, I am now persuaded that the single error in the present passage is, the word making having been printed instead of mocking, a word of which our author has made very frequent use, and which exactly suits the context. In this very play we have had make instead of mock. [See my note on p. 34.] In the hand-writing of that time, the small c was merely a straight line; so that if it happened to be subjoined and written very close to an o, the two letters might easily be taken for an a. Hence I suppose it was, that these words have been so often confounded. The aukwardness of the expression— "making practice," of which I have met with no example, may be linewise urged in support of this emendation. 66 Likeness is here used for specious or seeming virtue. So, before: "O seeming, seeming!" The sense then of the passage is,-How may persons, assuming the likeness or semblance of virtue, while they are in fact guilty of the grossest crimes, impose with this counterfeit sanctity upon the world, in order to draw to themselves by the flimsiest pretensions the most solid advantages; i. e. pleasure, honour, reputation, &c. In Much Ado about Nothing, we have a similar thought: "O, what authority and show of truth "Can cunning sin cover itself withal!" MALOne. I cannot admit that make, in the ancient copies of our author, has been so frequently printed instead of mock; for the passages in which the one is supposed to have been substituted for the other are still unsettled. But, be this as it may, I neither comprehend the drift of the lines before us as they stand in the old edition, or with the aid of any changes hitherto attempted; and His old betrothed, but despis'd; [Exit. ACT IV. SCENE I. A Room in MARIANA'S House. MARIANA discovered sitting; a Boy singing. SONG. Take, oh take those lips away", must, therefore, bequeath them to the luckier efforts of future criticism. STEEVENS. By made in crimes, the Duke means, trained in iniquity, and perfect in it. Thus we say—a made horse; a made pointer; meaning one well trained. M. MASON. 6 SO DISGUISE shall, by the DISGUIS'D,] So disguise shall, by means of a person disguised, return an injurious demand with a counterfeit person. JOHNSON. 7 Take, oh take, &c.] This is part of a little song of Shakspeare's own writing, consisting of two stanzas, and so extremely sweet, that the reader won't be displeased to have the other: "Hide, oh hide those hills of snow, "Which thy frozen bosom bears, "On whose tops the pinks that grow, "Are of those that April wears. "But first set my poor heart free, "Bound in those icy chains by thee." WARBUrton. This song is entire in Beaumont's Bloody Brother, and in Shakspeare's Poems. The latter stanza is omitted by Mariana, as not suiting a female character. THEOBALD. Though Sewell and Gildon have printed this among Shak But my kisses bring again, bring again, seal'd in vain. Seals of love, but seal'd in vain, MARI. Break off thy song, and haste thee quick away; Here comes a man of comfort, whose advice I Enter Duke. [Exit Boy. cry you mercy, sir; and well could wish You had not found me here so musical: Let me excuse me, and believe me so,— My mirth it much displeas'd, but pleas'd my woe speare's Poems, they have done the same to so many other pieces, of which the real authors are since known, that their evidence is not to be depended on. It is not found in Jaggard's edition of our author's Sonnets, which was printed during his life-time. Our poet, however, has introduced one of the same thoughts in his 142d Sonnet: 66 not from those lips of thine "That have prophan'd their scarlet ornaments, "And seal'd false bonds of love, as oft as mine." STEEVENS. Again, in his Venus and Adonis : "Pure lips, sweet seals in my soft lips imprinted, MALONE. The same image occurs also in the old black-letter translation of Amadis of Gaule, 4to. p. 171: "—rather with kisses (which are counted the seales of love) they chose to confirm their unanimitie, than otherwise to offend a resolved pacience." REED. This song is found entire in Shakspeare's Poems, printed in 1640; but that is a book of no authority; yet I believe that both these stanzas were written by our author. MALONE. See more on this subject in a note on this song in Shakspeare's poems. BosWELL. 8 My mirth it much displeas'd, but pleas'd my woe.] Though the musick soothed my sorrows, it had no tendency to produce light merriment. JOHNSON. |