(Male Dycius, "so written for the sake of the rhyme.") Shrewd, which in those times was akin to shrew in meaning, was also similarly pronounced; indeed it is often written shroud, and sometimes shrode. So beshrew; M. of V. iii. 2, folio, page 173, col. 2,—“ Beshrow your eyes." Shrewsbury is still pronounced by some Shrowsbury. XXVI. Love's Labour's Lost, i. 1, "Biron is like an envious sneaping [envious-sneaping] frost, That bites the first-born infants of the spring." Compare Milton, Samson Agonistes, 1575,— which now proves Abortive as the first-born bloom of spring, "So, so, quoth he, these lets attend the time, And give the sneaped birds more cause to sing." "I think thou'st never done, thou lov'st to talk on 't, 'Tis fine discourse, pr'ythee find other business. Servant. Nay, I am gone, I'm a man quickly sneap'd." [Exit. Snubb'd in fact. It appears as snubbed in Bunyan, Holy War, account of Mr. Lustings's trial,-" My Lord, I am a man of high birth, and have been used to pleasures and Snip, nip, snap, pastimes and greatness: I have not been wont to be snubbed for my doings, but have been left to follow my will as if it were law." Also spelt snib and sneb. snuff, sniff, all belong to the same family. eontent, iii. 1, Dyce's Webster, vol. iv. p. stands Mendoza? how is 't with him? Mal. Faith like a pair of snuffers, snibs filth in other men, and retains it in himself." Sidney, Arcadia, B. ii. p. 228, l. 14,— Marston, Mal81,-" But how "Thou heardst even now a young man sneb me sore, Because I red [counselled] him, as I would my son." W. B. Commendatory verses to Massinger, init.,"I am snapt already, and may go my way; The poet-critic's come; I hear him say, This youth's mistook, the author's work's a play." XXVII. Peculiar Construction with the Adjective. Othello iii. 3, "This fellow's of exceeding honesty, And knows all qualities, with a learned spirit, Of human dealings." Quare whether the comma ought not to be expunged after spirit? "And knows all qualities with a spirit learned of (i.e., in) human dealings." The folio has, "And knowes all Quantities with a learn'd Spirit Of humane dealings." (I believe I am wrong as to this passage.)55 This Latinized 55 Steevens's reprint of the quarto 1622 has also a stop after spirit, but has a comma after qualities. Quantities is the absurd reading of all the folios and Rowe. All other editors, I believe, construction is frequent in Shakespeare. King Lear, iii. 2, "Thou perjur'd, and thou simular man of virtue, Such I think is the construction of the line. 3 King Henry VI. ii. 6,— "Bring forth that fatal screech-owl to our house, So construe; and in like manner King Richard II. iii. 2, a long-parted mother with her child," &c. Macbeth iii. 6,— that a swift blessing May soon return to this our suffering country These unknown friends, to us, welcome." King Henry VIII. iii. 1,— "Bring me a constant woman to her husband." All's Well that Ends Well, iii. 4,— To this unworthy husband of his wife." Timon of Athens, iv, 2, "A dedicated beggar to the air." and Mr. Collier's old Corrector agree with the quarto. Notwithstanding Walker's hesitation, I prefer the construction which he has suggested. Quality here, as frequently elsewhere, seems to mean natural disposition. In this passage the poet has unconsciously described himself. In the next example, the folio, which in general, though less full, is far more correct than the quartos, omits man, and prints simular with a capital S.—Ed. VOL. I. 11 Sonnet xcviii., "Yet nor the lays of birds, nor the sweet smell Of different flowers in odour and in hue, Could make me any summer's story tell, Or from their proud lap pluck them where they grew." (a summer's story is a story suitable to summer; as a winter's "O, for my sake do you with Fortune chide, Romeo and Juliet, iii. 1,— "Tybalt, the reason that I have to love thee 1 King Henry IV. v. 4, seemingly,- Vulg., "a noble lord, in love, and one," &c.56 Proclaim'd in her a careless hand of pride." For pride [in the usual sense] has, I think, no place here; and the construction, a hand of pride, seems to be modern, and not Elizabethan. I suspect, by the way, that pride here means outward ornament. 56 This faulty punctuation is that of the folios and Rowe, not of the Vulgate. It was corrected by Pope.-Ed, Sonnet xliv., "No matter then, although my foot did stand Upon the farthest earth remov'd from thee," &c. i.e., upon the earth farthest removed from thee. Sonnet lxxxv., I suspect, "My tongue-tied Muse in manners holds her still." (Holds her still, i.e., keeps herself silent.) Tarquin and Lucrece, St. cxii. (Moxon's ed.),"And let thy misty 57 vapours march so thick, That in their smoky ranks his smother'd light, May set at noon, and make perpetual night." i.e., that his light smother'd in their, &c., may set at noon; not, may set in their, &c. Perhaps the editor of Moxon's ed. meant to indicate this by the comma after light. Taming of the Shrew, Introduction, i.,— with declining head into his bosom." So I think All's Well, &c. ii. 5, "The ministration and required office And perhaps K. Richard II. v. 3,— "Mine honour lives, when his dishonour dies, Antony and Cleopatra, i. 2, — the letters too Of many our contriving friends in Rome Petition us at home." (Pronounce Rome, as usual, Room; this removes the jingle between Rome and home.) Contriving here is not managing or plotting, but sojourning; conterentes tempus. See the 57 Mr. Collier reads musty, with the first edition.-Ed. |
