Bentley's Miscellany, Volume II
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Immediately after he says, "Good faith, 'tis day." This observation may appear superfluously minute; but those who take the pains of reading the play critically will find that it is dated throughout with a most exact attention to hours. We can time almost every event. Ex. gr. Juliet dismisses the nurse on her errand to Romeo when the clock struck nine, and complains that she has not returned at twelve. At twelve she does return, and Juliet immediately proceeds to Friar Lawrence's cell, where she is married without delay. Romeo parts with his bride at once, and meets his friends while "the day is hot." Juliet at the same hour addresses her prayer to the fiery-footed steeds of Phœbus, too slowly for her feelings progressing towards the west. The same exactness is observed in every part of the play.
I may remark, as another instance of Romeo's ill luck, the change of the original wedding-day. When pressed by Paris, old Capulet says that "Wednesday is too soon, – on Thursday let it be;" but afterwards, when he imagines that his daughter is inclined to consult his wishes, he fixes it for Wednesday, even though his wife observes that Thursday is time enough. Had this day not been lost, the letter of Friar Lawrence might still have been forwarded to Mantua to explain what had occurred.
9
Vide Chaucer, &c.
10
For the former specimen, as well as some critical account of the comic sonnets of the Italians, see the April number of Bentley's Miscellany.
11
This incident has suggested to Sir Walter Scott the catastrophe of the diabolical Alasco, in Kenilworth:
"The old woman assured Varney that Alasco had scarce eaten or drunk since her master's departure, living perpetually shut up in the laboratory, and talking as if the world's continuance depended on what he was doing there.
"'I will teach him that the world hath other claims on him,' said Varney, seizing a light and going in search of the alchemist. He returned, after a considerable absence, very pale, but yet with his habitual sneer on his cheek and nostril. 'Our friend,' he said, 'has exhaled.'
"'How! what mean you?' said Foster; 'run away – fled with my forty pounds, that should have been multiplied a thousand fold? I will have Hue and Cry!'
"'I will tell thee a surer way,' said Varney.
"'How! which way?' exclaimed Foster. 'I will have back my forty pounds – I deemed them as surely a thousand pounds multiplied – I will have back my in-put at the least.'
"'Go hang thyself, then, and sue Alasco in the devil's court of Chancery, for thither he has carried the cause.'
"'How! – what dost thou mean? – is he dead?'
"'Ay, truly is he,' said Varney, 'and properly swollen already in the face and body. He had been mixing some of his devil's medicines, and the glass mask, which he used constantly, had fallen from his face, so that the subtle poison entered the brain and did its work.'
"'Sancta Maria!' said Foster; 'I mean, God in his mercy preserve us from covetousness and deadly sin!'"
12
Military terms for a professed duellist, and a duellist-killer.
13
Singularly enough, when her body was discovered near the Ponte Rotto, she was untouched by the fish, as though they even ventured not to deface her celestial purity. She looked like a marble form that slept.
14
Faust.
15
We cannot explain this last passage; but it is so beautiful, that the reader will pardon the omission of sense, which the author certainly could have put in if he liked.
16
I know this is an anachronism; but I only mean that he was performing one of the popular melodies of the time. – G.G.
17
Two hills in the county of Wicklow, so called from their conical shape.
18
The residence of the late Mrs. Henry Tighe, the charming authoress of "Psyche."
19
This close imprisonment, it must be observed, was not the unauthorised act of a subordinate, but the result of an express order from the king: and his majesty was equally rigorous in enforcing as in issuing this order; for Winwood tells us that "Sir Robert Killigrew was committed to the Fleet from the council-table for having some little speech with Sir Thomas Overbury, who called to him as he passed by his window, as he came from visiting Sir Walter Raleigh."
20
The national, and still favourite game of golf.
21
The king afterwards stripped Raleigh of his estate for the purpose of bestowing it upon his favourite, Carr. "When the Lady Raleigh and her children on their knees implored the king's compassion, they could get no other answer from him but that he 'mun ha the land,' he 'mun ha it for Carr!' But let it be remembered, too, that Prince Henry, who had all the amiable qualities his father wanted, never left soliciting him till he had obtained the manor of Sherborne, with an intention to restore it to Raleigh, its just owner; though by his untimely death this good intention did not take effect." —Life of Raleigh.
22
Act iv. sc. 2. Athens. – Quince's House. – Enter Quince, Flute, Snout, and Starveling.
"Qui. Have you sent to Bottom's house yet, &c.?
Flu. He hath simply the best wit of any man in Athens.
Qui. Yea, and the best person too; and he is a very paramour for a sweet voice.
Flu. You must say paragon; a paramour is, God bless us! a thing of naught."
I propose that the second admirer's speech be given to Snout, who else has not anything to say, and is introduced on the stage to no purpose. The few words he says elsewhere in the play are all ridiculous; and the mistake of "paramour" for "paragon" is more appropriate to him than to Quince, who corrects the cacology of Bottom himself. [Act iii. sc. 1.
"Pyr. Thisby, the flower of odious savours sweet.
Qui. Odours – odours."
["I'll get Peter Quince to write a ballad of this dream," says Bottom,]is of too much importance in the company to be rebuked by so inferior a personage as Flute. In the original draft of their play Snout was to perform Pyramus's father, and Quince, Thisbe's father, but those parts are omitted; Snout is the representative of Wall, and Quince has no part assigned him. Perhaps this was intentional, as another proof of bungling.
23
In comparing the characters of Sly and Bottom, we must be struck with the remarkable profusion of picturesque and classical allusions with which both these buffoons are surrounded. I have quoted some of the passages from Midsummer Night's Dream above. The Induction to the Taming of the Shrew is equally rich. There, too, we have the sylvan scenery and the cheerful sport of the huntsman, and there we also have references to Apollo and Semiramis; to Cytherea all in sedges hid; to Io as she was a maid; to Daphne roaming through a thorny wood. The coincidence is not casual. Shakspeare desired to elevate the scenes in which such grovelling characters played the principal part by all the artificial graces of poetry, and to prevent them from degenerating into mere farce. As I am on the subject, I cannot refrain from observing that the remarks of Bishop Hurd on the character of the Lord in the Induction to the Taming of the Shrew are marked by a ridiculous impertinence, and an ignorance of criticism truly astonishing. They are made to swell, however, the strange farrago of notes gathered by the variorum editors. The next editor may safely spare them.
I have not troubled my readers with verbal criticism in this paper, but I shall here venture on one conjectural emendation. Hermia, chiding Demetrius, says, Act iii. sc. 2,
"If thou hast slain Lysander in his sleep,Being o'er shoes in blood, wade in the deep,And kill me too,"24
The usual spelling of this word is "huckaback;" but I suppose Mr. Kelly's excuse would be "licet facere verba."
25
Dudheen, short pipe.
26
Dartluker, the Irish name for a peculiar kind of leech that preys upon a small fish called pinkeen.
27
Dhuc-a-Dhurrish, the drink at the door.
28
The present King of the French.
29
The business of a porter in Paris is to open the gates of the house to comers and goers after dusk, by means of a cord, which is fixed in the lodge.
30
Germany is very rich in popular traditions. The nursery-tales collected by the brothers Grimm are known in this country by two translations. The present tale is written in the very words of an inhabitant of Steinbach, situate in Saxe-Meiningen, at one mile's distance from the watering-place of Liebenstein, and containing two hundred and seventy houses, with one thousand three hundred and thirty inhabitants, amongst whom are a hundred and sixty cutlers, and eighty lock-smiths. The inhabitants participate in the principal fancies of those regions, – singing-birds, flowers, song, and music. The music bands of Steinbach are some of the best of Germany, and are the delight of its principal fairs. In our translation we have kept as close as possible to the words of the man who related it.
31
Literally true.
32
A wicker boat covered with a horse-skin, much used by these islanders.
33
Ards is situated on the main, near the wild promontory of Horn Head, and is the seat of the Stewart family.
34
Booty.
35
Orlando Furioso, canto xxii. st. 1, 2, 3.
I"Donne, e voi che le donne avete in pregio,Per Dio, non date a questa istoria orecchia,A questa che 'l ostier dire in dispregio,E in vostra infamia e biasmo s'apparecchia;Benche, ne, macchia vi puo, dar ne, fregioLingua sì vile; e sia l'usanza vecchia,Che 'l volgare ignorante ognun riprenda,E parle piu, de quel meno intenda.IILasciate questo canto, che senz'esso,Puo star l'istoria, e non sara men chiara;Mettendolo Turpino, anch'io l'ò messo,Non per malevolenzia, ne per gara;Ch'io v'ami oltre mia lingua che l'a expresso,Che mai non fu di celebrarvi avara,N'ò falto mille prove, e v'o dimostroCh'io son ne potrei esser se non vostro.IIIPassi chi vuol tre carte, o quattro, senzaLeggerne verso, e chi pur legge vuoleGli dia quella medesima credenza,Che si vuol dare a finzion, e a fole," &c.which thus may be rollingly Englished,
Ladies, and you to whom ladies are dear,For God's sake don't lend to this story an ear.Care not for fables of slander or blameWhich this scandalous chronicler flings on your name.Spots that can stain you with slight or with wrongCannot be cast by so worthless a tongue.Well is it known, as an usage of old,That the ignorant vulgar will ever be bold,Satire and censure still scattering, andTalking the most where they least understand.Passed over unread let this canto remain,Without it the story will be just as plain.As Turpin has put it, so I put it too;But not from ill-feeling, dear ladies, to you.My love to your sex has been shown in my lays;To you I have never been niggard of praise;And many a proof I have given which securesThat I am, and can never be other than yours.Skip three or four pages, and read not a word;Or, if you will read it, pray deem it absurd,As a story in credit not better or worseThan the foolish old tales you were told by the nurse.I do not mean to defend my doggrel; but I think Ariosto has not yet had an adequate translator in English, or indeed in any language; nor, in my opinion, will he easily find one. The poem is too long, and requires the aid of the music of the original language to carry the reader through. I do not know what metre in English could contend against the prolixity; but I do know that Ariosto sadly wants – as what classic in the vernacular languages does not? – a better critic of his text than he has yet found, in Italian.
In the above passage it is somewhat amusing to find Ariosto assuring his readers that they might pass this particular canto, because without it "puo star l'istoria;" as if there were a canto in the whole poem of which the same might not be said.
36
Henry V. act i. sc. 2. Archbishop Chicheley's argument is
"The land Salique lies in Germany,Between the floods of Sala and of Elbe,Where Charles the Great, having subdued the Saxons,There left behind and settled certain French,Who, holding in disdain the German womenFor some dishonest manners of their life,Established there this law, to wit, no femaleShould be inheritrix in Salique land."37
Aristoph. Lysistr.
38
The speech of this porter is in blank verse.
Here is a knocking indeed! If a manWere porter of hell-gate, he should have oldTurning the key. Knock – knock – knock! Who is there,In the name of Beelzebub? Here is a farmerThat hanged himself [up]on the expectationOf plenty: come in time. Have napkins enoughAbout you. Here you'll sweat for it. Knock – knock!Who's there, in the other devil's name? [I'] faithHere's an equivocator, that could swearIn both the scales 'gainst either scale; [one] whoCommitted treason enough for God's sake, yetCannot equivocate to heaven. Oh! come in,Equivocator. Knock – knock – knock! Who's there?'Faith, here's an English tailor come hitherFor stealing out of a French hose. Come in, tailor.Here you may roast your goose.Knock – knock —Never in quiet.Who are you? but this place is too cold for hell.I'll devil-porter it no longer. I had thoughtT'have let in some of all professions,That go the primrose-path to th' everlasting darkness.The alterations I propose are very slight. Upon for on, i'faith for 'faith, and the introduction of the word one in a place where it is required. The succeeding dialogue is also in blank verse. So is the sleeping scene of Lady Macbeth; and that so palpably, that I wonder it could ever pass for prose.
39
Warburton proposes that we should read "from the nape to the chops," as a more probable wound. But this could hardly be called unseaming; and the wound is intentionally horrid to suit the character of the play. So, for the same reason, when Duncan is murdered, we are made to remark that the old man had much blood in him.
40
Warburton proposes that we should read "from the nape to the chops," as a more probable wound. But this could hardly be called unseaming; and the wound is intentionally horrid to suit the character of the play. So, for the same reason, when Duncan is murdered, we are made to remark that the old man had much blood in him.
41
Causes secretes de la Révolution de 9 au 10 Thermidor; by Vilate, ex-juré révolutionnaire de Paris.
42
This fact is not generally known; but a singular proof of the correctness of the above statement has recently been furnished. Within the last three months, the ground having been opened for the common sewer opposite Meux's brewhouse, by the end of Oxford-street, eight or ten, or more, skeletons were discovered. They were supposed to be the remains of suicides, who had been buried there, in the cross roads, under the old law against felo de se. One or two of them had perhaps committed self-destruction; but so many could hardly have been collected by the same act in one spot. It is much more probable that the bones there found were those of malefactors, who after execution had been interred under the gallows on which they suffered.
43
Prayed.
44
Hater.
45
Shoot.
46
Mayor.
47
Abuse.
48
Hews.
49
Severe.
50
Haze.
51
Beaux.
52
For Bess.
53
My Nell.