Page images
PDF
EPUB

1

I have confider'd well his lofs of time;
And how he cannot be a perfect man,
Not being try'd, and tutor'd in the world:
Experience is by industry atchiev'd,

And perfected by the fwift course of time:
Then, tell me, whither were I best to send him?
PANT. I think, your lordship is not ignorant,
How his companion, youthful Valentine,
Attends the emperor in his royal court.'

ANT. I know it well.

PANT. 'Twere good, I think, your lordship sent him thither:

There fhall he practice tilts and tournaments, Hear fweet difcourfe, converse with noblemen; And be in eye of every exercise,

Worthy his youth and nobleness of birth.

ANT. I like thy counfel; well haft thou advis'd: And, that thou may'st perceive how well I like it, The execution of it fhall make known; Even with the speedieft expedition

I will dispatch him to the emperor's court. PANT. To-morrow, may it please you, Don Alphonfo,

3 Attends the emperor in his royal court.] Shakspeare has been guilty of no mistake in placing the emperor's court at Milan in this play. Several of the firft German emperors held their courts there occafionally, it being, at that time, their immediate property, and the chief town of their Italian dominions. Some of them were crowned kings of Italy at Milan, before they received the imperial crown at Rome. Nor has the poet fallen into any contradiction by giving a duke to Milan at the fame time that the emperor held his court there. The firft dukes of that, and all the other great cities in Italy, were not fovereign princes, as they afterwards became; but were merely governors, or viceroys, under the emperors, and removeable at their pleasure. was the Duke of Milan mentioned in this play. Mr. M. Mafon adds, that " during the wars in Italy between Francis I. and Charles V. the latter, frequently refided at Milan." STEEVENS.

Such

With other gentlemen of good efteem,
Are journeying to falute the emperor,

And to commend their service to his will.

ANT. Good company; with them fhall Proteus go:

And, in good time,+-now will we break with him."

Enter PROTEUS.

PRO. Sweet love! fweet lines! fweet life!
Here is her hand, the agent of her heart;
Here is her oath for love, her honour's pawn:
O, that our fathers would applaud our loves,
To feal our happiness with their confents!
O heavenly Julia!

ANT. How now? what letter are you reading there?
PRO. May't please your lordship, 'tis a word or

two

Of commendation fent from Valentine,

Deliver'd by a friend that came from him.

ANT. Lend me the letter; let me fee what news. PRO. There is no news, my lord; but that he writes How happily he lives, how well belov❜d, And daily graced by the emperor;

Wishing me with him, partner of his fortune. ANT. And how ftand you affected to his wish?

in good time,] In good time was the old expreffion when fomething happened that fuited the thing in hand, as the French fay, à propos. JOHNSON.

So, in Richard III :

"And, in good time, here comes the fweating lord."

STEEVENS.

now will we break with him.] That is, break the matter to him. The fame phrase occurs in Much Ado about Nothing, A&I. fc. i. M. MASON.

PRO. As one relying on your lordship's will, And not depending on his friendly wish.

ANT. My will is something forted with his wish: Muse not that I thus fuddenly proceed;

For what I will, I will, and there an end.
I am refolv'd, that thou shalt spend some time
With Valentinus in the emperor's court;
What maintenance he from his friends receives,
Like exhibition' thou fhalt have from me.
To-morrow be in readiness to go:
Excufe it not, for I am peremptory.

PRO. My lord, I cannot be so soon provided; Please you, deliberate a day or two.

ANT. Look, what thou want'st, shall be sent after thee:

No more of stay; to-morrow thou must go.-
Come on, Panthino; you shall be employ'd
To haften on his expedition.

[Exeunt ANT. and PANT. PRO. Thus have I fhunn'd the fire, for fear of

burning;

And drench'd me in the fea, where I am drown'd:
I fear'd to fhew my father Julia's letter,
Left he should take exceptions to my love;
And with the vantage of mine own excufe
Hath he excepted most against my love.
O, how this fpring of love resembleth

6 Like exhibition- -] i. e. allowance. So, in Othello:

"Due reference of place and exhibition.” Again, in the Devil's Law Cafe, 1623:

-

66 - in his riot does far exceed the exhibition I allowed him." STEEVENS.

70, how this Spring of love resembleth-] At the end of this verse there is wanting a fyllable, for the fpeech apparently ends in.

The uncertain glory of an April day; Which now shows all the beauty of the fun, And by and by a cloud takes all away!

a quatrain. I find nothing that will rhyme to fun, and therefore shall leave it to fome happier critic. But I fufpect that the author might write thus:

"O how this Spring of love refembleth right,
"The uncertain glory of an April day;
"Which now fhews all the glory of the light,
"And by and by a cloud takes all away!

[ocr errors]

Light was either by negligence or affectation changed to fun, which, confidered without the rhyme, is indeed better. The next tranfcriber, finding that the word right did not rhyme to fun, fuppofed it erroneously written, and left it out. JOHNSON.

It was not always the custom, among our early writers, to make the first and third lines rhyme to each other; and when a word was not long enough to complete the measure, they occafionally extended it. Thus Spenfer, in his Faery Queen, B. III. c. 12: "Formerly grounded, and faft fetteled."

Again, B. II. c. 12:

"The while fweet Zephirus loud whifteled
"His treble, a ftrange kind of harmony;

"Which Guyon's fenfes foftly tickeled," &c.

From this practice, I fuppofe, our author wrote refembeleth, which, though it affords no jingle, completes the verfe. Many poems have been written in this measure, where the fecond and fourth lines only rhime. STEEVENS.

Refembleth is here used as a quadrifyllable, as if it was written refembeleth. See Comedy of Errors, Act V. fc. the last :

And these two Dromios, one in femblance."

As you like it, Act II. fc. ii:

"The

parts and

graces of the wrestler."

And it should be obferved, that Shakspeare takes the fame liberty with many other words, in which 7, or r, is fubjoined to another confonant. See Comedy of Errors, next verfe but one to that cited above:

"These are the parents to these children.” where fome editors, being unneceffarily alarmed for the metre, have endeavoured to help it by a word of their own:

"These plainly are the parents to these children."

TYRWHITT.

Thus much I had thought fufficient to fay upon this point, in the edition of thefe plays published by Mr. Steevens in 1778.

Re-enter PANTHINO.

PANT. Sir Proteus, your father calls for you; He is in hafte, therefore, I pray you, go.

Since which the Author of Remarks, &c. on that edition has been pleafed to affert, p. 7. " that Shakfpeare does not appear, from the above inftances at leaft, to have taken the fmallest liberty in extending his words: neither has the incident of, or r, being fubjoined to another confonant any thing to do in the matter.""The truth is," he goes on to fay, "that every verb in the English language gains an additional fyllable by its termination in est, eth, ed, ing, or, (when formed into a fubftantive) in er; and the above words, when rightly printed, are not only unexceptionable, but moft juft. Thus refemble makes refemble-eth; wrestle, wrefileer; and fettle, whistle, tickle, make fettle-ed, whifile-ed, tickle-ed." As to this fuppofed Canon of the English language, it would be eafy to fhew that it is quite fanciful and unfounded; and what he calls the right method of printing the above words is fuch as, I believe, was never adopted before by any mortal in writing them, nor can be followed in the pronunciation of them without the help of an entirely new fyftem of spelling. But any further difcuffion of this matter is unneceffary; because the hypothefis, though allowed in its utmost extent, will not prove either of the points to which it is applied. It will neither prove that Shakspeare has not taken a liberty in extending certain words, nor that he has not taken that liberty chiefly with words in which 7, or 7, is fubjoined to another confonant. The following are all inftances of nouns, fubftantive or adjective, which can receive no fupport from the fuppofed Canon. That Shakspeare has taken a liberty in extending these words is evident, from the confideration, that the fame words are more frequently ufed, by his contemporaries and by himself, without the additional fyllable. Why he has taken this liberty chiefly with words in which 7, or r, is fubjoined to another confonant, must be obvious to any one who can pronounce the language.

Country, trifyllable.

T. N. A&t I. fc. ii. The like of him. Know'st thou this country?
Coriol. A&t I. fc. iii. Die nobly for their country, than one.
Remembrance, quadrifyllable.

T. N. A&t I. fc. i. And lasting in her fad remembrance.
W. T. A& IV. fc. iv. Grace and remembrance be to you both.
Angry, tryfyllable.

Timon. Act III. fc. v. But who is man, that is not angry.

« PreviousContinue »