note, with which I will not afflict the reader, except just to observe, that he suspects tail to be abbreviated from entail; and so he has printed it. Read: Sure this bulk of mine G. 306. W. 275.-I observed your dulness, While the whole ging crowd to me. Mr. Weber misunderstands the poet. Auria does not speak of the ging (gang) crowding to him; but of their loud and cheerful congratulations, (crowings,) which he contrasts with the "grudging dulness" of his friend Aurelio. Read: When the whole ging crow'd to me. G. 303. W. 275.-How surely dost thou malice these extremes.— "Extremes refers to the extreme honours which had been bestowed on Auria." Mr. Weber had but to proceed to the next line, to see that extremes "referred" to the extremes of good and ill fortune which he had experienced. G. 311. W. 279.-in our discoursing brains; i. e. “ thinking, reasoning, an old sense of the word." So Mr. Weber found it in the Index to Massinger. Had he been able to comprehend his author, however, he would have seen that "the word" meant, here, wandering, incoherent, wild. G. 313. W. 281.—A mushroom sprung up by the sunshine of your benevolent grace, liberality, and hospitable entertainment, most magnificent beauty. I have long since lain bed-rid in the ashes of the old world, &c. For this nonsense, read: A mushroom sprung up by the sunshine of your benevolent grace. Liberality and hospitable entertainment, most magnificent beauty, have long lain bed-rid in the ashes of the old world, &c. G. 314. W. 282.-I put myself in service under the Spanish Viceroy. Till I was taken prisoner by the Turks, I have tasted in my days good and bad. Read: I put myself under the Spanish Viceroy, till I was taken prisoner by the Turks. I have tasted in my days, &c. G. 329. W. 293.-Pray mock it. Read: Pray mark it. G. 329. W. 293.-Desvir di Gonzado. "So the 4to. The corruption is so violent, that I have not been able to discover the Spanish word intended." Mr. Weber's discoveries in this language will not, I suspect, much enrich the Nuevo Diccionario: the violence of which he complains, consists merely in dividing, for humour's sake, a very common Spanish word, desvergonzado. As it appears in the text, it is much the same as if Ford had said in English, Duke Impu [of] Dence. G. 331. W. 295.-Read: Both. How? This trifling passage, which Mr. Weber has dropped, is the more necessary, as Futelli and Piero immediately reply to it. "Thus and thus, you stinkards;" and kick them both out. G. 333. W. 297.-Could your looks Read: Borrow more clear severity and calmness. G. 341. W. 303.-Ben. However my outside may appear, I have wrestled with death, Signior Martino, to preserve your sleep; and such as you are untroubled. A soldier, in peace, is a mockery. Unthrifts and landed babies are prey-curmudgeons lay their baits for.* "That is, who lay their baits for soldiers. This is the only sense I can extract from the passage, which is very inaccurately worded.” Very likely; but as this sense may not satisfy the reader, We have already had a similar expression: "Shallow fools and unthrifts Are the only game knaves fly at.”— Fancies. it is but just to give him an opportunity of "extracting" a better for himself, by laying the passage fairly before him. Read: Ben. However I may appear, I have wrestled with death to preserve your sleeps, and such as you are, untroubled. A soldier, in peace, is a mockery. Unthrifts and landed babies are prey curmudgeons lay their bait for. Martino had insulted the poverty of Benatzi before his mistress; to this he replies, as in the text, that soldiers were neglected and despised in peaceable times; and that spendthrifts, young heirs, &c. were the prey for which curmudgeons, (usurers,) such as Martino, threw out their baits. The passage will now, I believe, be allowed to be very accurately worded by the author, whatever it may be by the critic. G. 344. W.306.-Sure state and ceremony! Read: In habit here like strangers, we shall wait. Inhabit here. Like strangers, we shall wait G. 345. W. 307.-" Carriage, i. e. behaviour"! G. 347. W. 309. Behold these hairs, Great masters of a spirit! Mr. Weber seems to think, that this is addressed by Auria to Aurelio, Malfato, &c. How they could be termed great masters of a spirit," does not appear. But the critic mistakes the passage altogether. Auria alludes to Horace : Lenit albescens animos capillus, &c. Behold these hairs, Great master of a spirit-yet they are not In a word, Auria, like Othello, was somewhat declined into the vale of years; but that's not much. This speech. is exquisitely beautiful. G. 348. W.310.-Skirmish of words hath with your wife lewdly rang'd, Adulterating the honours of your bed. "The word not is accidentally omitted in the quarto. The context is so obscure, that I strongly suspect the omission of a line." Mr. Weber neither understands himself, nor his author. With is shuffled out of its place. G. 354. W. 313. Read: Read: Skirmish of words. Hath your wife lewdly rang'd, Adulterating the honour of your bed? Withhold dispute; but execute your vengeance. Futelli Hath wean'd her from this pain. from this pair: i. e. "of gallants," as it follows in the very next line. G. 355. W. 315.-" Debosh'd. This was the antient method of spelling this word." I have preserved this explanatory observation solely on account of its unsuspecting simplicity. THE SUN'S DARLING. G. 361. W. 323. While the stage flourished, the poem lived by the virtual favour of the court. "The 4to reads fervour," Mr. Weber says; but he has fortunately detected and rectified the blunder. It only required to read to the end of the line to see that his emendation was perfectly ridiculous, since the whole force of the sentence depends upon retaining the original word, fervour. G. 369. W. 331. I'd not be baited with my fears Here the critic, with that ill-fortune to which a distressed gentleman, who does not know one word from another, is sometimes exposed, in turning to his Index for the meaning of the passage, has pitched upon the wrong term, and given us all that the Variorum editors apply to bating or fluttering with the wings, as a hawk, to illustrate a very different act-baiting or worrying with dogs, which is the meaning of the text: and thus involved himself in unqualified This is the third or fourth time that Mr. Weber has cor rupted this expressive word. G. 372. W. 334. Roaring-boys and oatmeals.] "I have not been so fortunate as to discover any reference to these oatmeals, except the following title of an old pamphlet, mentioned in the British Bibliographer, (just published,) alludes to one of their order. A Quest, &c. Gathered by Oliver Oatmeale, 1595.'" I should not have noticed this, had not Mr. Nares condescended to adopt it, and to say, "that no trace of this odd appellation has yet been discovered, except in the title abovementioned." I can assure Mr. Nares, that I have found several traces of this "odd appellation." In the next edition of his valuable Glossary, he will do well to omit the name and authority of Weber altogether. While the volume is in my hands, I will just notice another word, of which the Glossary adopts the editor's explanation.--Cooling-card." This phrase," Mr. Weber says, originated probably from card-playing, when the exultation of one of the parties is COOLED by being over-trumped." |