As this line is short, and as further on there is a line with two superfluous feet, it is evident that there has been a misarrangement. I have, therefore, in my Edition, rearranged this and the following lines. I have there read, "Fallen in the first rank;" but it might be better, though less forcible, to read:—
I incline to read emulations.
1 Hen. VI. iv. 1.
Here one word appears, as elsewhere, to have become two in the printer's hands. (See Introd. p. 67.) But as the poet was probably familiar with Chapman's Iliads, the allusion may be to the various missions of Apollo, Minerva, Hermes, and Iris.
If 'question' be genuine here it must mean intercourse, conversation, a sense of which I have met with no example.
In Son. xxi. we have, "I will not praise that purpose not to sell." Hence some would add a negative here; but it is not necessary. He means that they would sell Helen dearly.
Editors read 'infants' in the genitive. In either case I think to has been omitted before it.
No sense has been, or, I think, can be made of 'venomous wights.' I think 'venomous' must be an error.
We should read zeal, as is usually done.
There can be little doubt, I think, that 'coasting' is a noun; and I regard it as the same as 'costing by aphæresis from accosting.
Tyrwhitt's conjecture, though for 'thou,' is a happy one, and should perhaps be admitted.
Perhaps 'odd,' which is so unusual, should be at odds.
As he elsewhere, it might appear, calls him brach, Hanmer's reading harlot would seem to have been the poet's word. But on the other hand, in the Honest Whore, varlet is used as synonymous with punk, of a woman in man's clothes. "'Tis a male varlet sure, my lord, for a woman's tailor never measured him."
The word him, requisite for the metre, had been lost.
The 4tos and folio read 'secretly open.'
This is a curious instance of a copyist's or printer's transposition. (Introd. p. 61.) It is downright nonsense; but read
and what excellent sense emerges! 'Subtle' (or, as we should now write, subtile), used also by Chapman (Odyss. x. 296) of Circe's web, is subtilis, 'fine-spun'; and the 'broken woof' is the web torn by Minerva; 'admits' is allows of, i.e. contains; for 'orifice' the originals have orifex. As Shakespeare was a great reader of Golding's Ovid, Ariachne could never have been his word. A perfect parallel to the embarrassed structure of this passage is offered by
Two Noble Kinsmen, i. 3.
Which should be:
(See on Cymb. i. 7.) The meaning of this very obscure passage is, that there could not be now even the slightest doubt of Cressida's infidelity, incredible as it might seem. 'Instance' in the following lines is, proof.
This is pure nonsense. The first 'as' cannot be right, and it probably gave origin to the second. I read with confidence,
In my Edition I read 'so to,' but it is needless. 'Count' is account, importance, value.
Meas. for Meas. ii. 2.
There is much here that seems dubious. Holds might seem preferable to 'Halts'; yet I would make no change; for 'Halts not particularly,' I think, may mean stops at, dwells on, no individual. For 'wax' we might read, as has been proposed, verse; but the allusion may be to the waxed tables on which the ancients wrote. We might also read Which for 'But,' yet it is more probable that a line is lost before it.
So Capell also; 2nd folio to him.
Better, perhaps, with 3rd folio, most needs.
Something is lost after 'be,' and Timon is never addressed during his prosperity by any one but Apemantus without Lord or some other title of honour. I therefore read 'he will be blest, Lord Timon.' In ii. 2, we have an omission of 'Lord' by the printer. Singer proposed rewarded after 'be.' Possibly 'Timon' was a mere addition of the printer's.
I cannot find a meaning in this. Perhaps 'no' should be so, and 'angry' little, mean, poor, or something of the kind. Warburton read hungry. Singer's folio an empty.
Timon had assigned him 'a table by himself.'
We should, of course, read liar to rime with mire.
This might seem to be a mere misprint of do it; but it is in reality a mere corruption of it.
The admirable restoration of Warburton. The 4tos and folio had "There, taste, touch, all pleas'd from thy table rise." The two first letters of smell had probably been effaced. See on Ham. iii. 4.
In the originals 'unto't and lustre.' The 2nd folio reads 'and lively lustre.'
Metre and rime both seem to require this addition. Perhaps in the two first lines we should read 'nearly,' thus making a rime, or omit 'thee.'
Tam. of Shrew, Induct. ii.
If 'sound' be the right word, it must be a nautical metaphor. Editors in general read found.
This is the reading of the folio, and is perfectly intelligible; perhaps we should read 'in mind.' Editors in general follow Theobald in reading for 'Come' compt.
Here 'to be' is being. See Introd. p. 70.
I think 'debt' was introduced from the next line. Malone reads 'date-broken.'
For 'master's,' both here, and in the following speech, Malone very properly read 'mistress'.' See on Tam. of Shr. i. 2.
By 'cock' here can only be meant a cockloft, and perhaps, as it is at the end of the line, loft may have been effaced. See Introd. p. 58.
As to lack conscience is to be unconscionable, and would sound here rather ironically, I think 'lack' has been suggested by the following line for have, or some other word.
Here also 'crown'd' seems to occupy the place of some other word.
Several of the editors concur in this proper omission.
As this is not sense it requires emendation, and the simplest, I think, is dishonour for 'his honour.' I had also conjectured this hour, in which I had been anticipated. Collier's folio reads humour. Mr. Dyce thinks the error is in 'slave,' for which he reads scandal, quoting "This scandal of his blood" (R. II. i. 1). "Thou slander of thy heavy mother's womb" (R. III. i. 3). It must be observed that neither slave nor scandal is followed by unto elsewhere in Shakespeare.
I do not see the meaning of 'mistook' here, and I have no probable emendation to offer. For 'so many talents' here and elsewhere in this scene some read 'fifty talents.'
Theobald's reading, spirit for 'sport,' should be received.
It is quite plain that this or some such word was effaced.
For 'Thrice,' the correction of Johnson, the folio reads Thrive, which Steevens and Malone retain. It also reads 'Ventidius and Lucullus.'
The 2nd folio added I; the may seems also necessary.
So also Hanmer; the folio has 'only the gods.'
The barbarous term 'Ullorxa' is, I suspect, a mere corruption of all on 'em. How it has perplexed the critics!
'Behave' is Warburton's reading for 'behove' of the folio. It is generally followed, but I am dubious of it. Jackson and Singer have proposed behood.
With Hanmer, I read threatnings, for the sake of the metre.
Hanmer read 'But if.'
For 'fellow' Johnson read felon, which I adopt.
This is the reading of the 2nd folio.
For 'in bone,' which is not very clear, Mr. Staunton would read at home.
Hanmer reads 'with your flatteries.'
I read without hesitation 'at the brothel.' The t in at was not sounded. See Introd. p. 52.
In its ordinary sense, and I know no other, 'lined' cannot be applied to a crutch. I therefore read lean'd, with an ellipsis, in the usual manner, of on, which would give a tolerable sense. See Tr. and Cr. v. 3.
Fletch. Beggar's Bush, ii. 1.
I prefer let; Hanmer did the same.
If we read Upon or On for 'From,' and point as I have done, all seems simple enough. M. Mason ingeniously transposed 'From' and 'to.' After all, however, 'From' may have been the poet's word.
A 'dying deck' is an odd expression; sinking would apparently make better sense. Yet dying bed, i.e. death-bed, may still be heard.
I have ventured on these corrections, as this part of the speech is in rime. The folio reads 'compounds.' Collier's folio and Sidney Walker also propose comprehends. For 'or to live' we might read 'or would live.' See Temp. iii. 1.
The excellent correction of 'rother' for brother of the folio is due to Mr. Singer, and to Collier's folio. Rother-(hryther A.S.) beast is juvencus; there was a rother-market in Stratford.
Golding, Ovid. p. 52.
For 'lean' the folio has leave, an evident misprint. With respect to the addition to the first line, it is demanded by the metre, and the meaning is that even a diseased beggar, a Lazarus as it were, would have to change his nature to be able to bear prosperity with equanimity.
Perhaps the lost words may have been guilt, innocence, or guilty, innocent.
Hanmer read 'sick men's,' alluding to a practice of hired nurses.
For 'wappen'd' Singer read wapper'd, worn out, debilitated, of the use of which word he gives examples.
A foot has certainly been lost. Sense seems to require this addition.
This is a difficult passage. 'Milk-paps' seems to mean tender young maidens, and editors are probably right in reading bars for 'barne.' The 'bars,' as Mr. Staunton observes, seem to mean the cross-lacing on the bosom, still to be seen in Switzerland. We should perhaps omit ''em,' not 'But,' as the editors do, in the last line.
Singer adopts Upton's reading of hoarse for 'hoar'; but though it would agree with what follows, I know of no such verb. We might read 'make hoar,' or 'make hoarse.'
Here again, as so often, we have 'the' for thy.
For 'marrows' Mr. Dyce reads 'marrowy,' Collier's folio meadows. I read married sc. to the elms, etc. The marriage of the elm and the vine is noticed in Com. of Errors, ii. 2, Cymb. i. 7.
As 'pure' is rather an odd expression in the mouth of Timon, we should perhaps read 'impure.' The negative is often thus omitted. See on Com. of Err. ii. 2.
The folio has 'change of future'; the correction was made independently by Southern and Rowe.
Hanmer's emendation of moss'd for 'moist' has been generally and justly received.
There is evidently a line lost here.
For 'rag' Johnson read rogue, which is also in Singer's folio, and is probably right, as he afterwards terms him "poor rogue hereditary."
The folio reads thy for 'my.'
The folio reads sun and fire.
The reading of the folio is 'protest,' and also 'villain.'
Rowe also added not, which was indispensable.
The context plainly shows that for 'wild' we should, with Warburton, read mild.