Line 131. For it doth physick love;] That is, grief for absence keeps love in health and vigour. JOHNSON. Line 165. That run the clock's behalf:] This fantastical expression means no more than sand in an hour-glass, used to measure time. WARBURTON. Line 171. A franklin's housewife.] A franklin is literally a freeholder, with a small estate, neither villain nor vassal. Line 173. I see before me, man, nor here, nor here, Nor what ensues; but have a fog in them, JOHNSON. That I cannot look through.] The lady says: "I can see neither one way nor other, before me nor behind me, but all the ways are covered with an impenetrable fog." There are ob jections insuperable to all I can propose, and since reason can give me no counsel, I will resolve at once to follow my inclination. JOHNSON. ACT III. SCENE III. Line 185. -Their impious turbands on,] The idea of a giant was, among the readers of romances, who were almost all the readers of those times, always confounded with that of a SaJOHNSON. racen. Line 200. This service is not service, &c.] In war it is not sufficient to do duty well; the advantage rises not from the act, but the acceptance of the act. JOHNSON. . Line 204. The sharded beetle-] "The cases (says Goldsmith) which beetles have to their wings, are the more necessary, as they often live under the surface of the earth, in holes, which they dig out by their own industry." These are undoubtedly the safe holds to which Shakspeare alludes. MALONE. Line 207. than doing nothing for a babe;] A babe and baby are synonymous. A baby being a puppet or play-thing for children, perhaps, if there be no corruption, a babe here means a puppet. MALONE. Line 221. To stride a limit.] To overspass his bound. JOHNSON. 222. What should we speak of,] This dread of an old age, unsupplied with matter for discourse and meditation, is a sentiment natural and noble. No state can be more destitute than that of him, who, when the delights of sense forsake him, has no pleasures of the mind. JOHNSON. Line 232. How you speak !] Otway seems to have taken many hints for the conversation that passes between Acasto and his sons, from the scene before us. STEEVENS. Line 296. I stole these babes ;] Shakspeare seems to intend Belarius for a good character, yet he makes him forget the injury which he has done to the young princes, whom he has robbed of a kingdom only to rob their father of heirs.-The latter part of this soliloquy is very inartificial, there being no particular reason why Belarius should now tell to himself what he could not know better by telling it. Line 321. Italian poisons. ACT III. SCENE IV. JOHNSON. drug-dumn'd-] This is another allusion to JOHNSON. Line 333. Outvenoms all the worms of Nile; &c.] Serpents and dragons by the old writers were called worms. STEEVENS. Line 335. 349. JOHNSON. -states,] Persons of highest rank. -Some jay of Italy,] There is a prettiness in this expression; putta, in Italian, signifying both a jay and á whore: I suppose from the gay feathers of that bird. WARB. Line 350. Whose mother was her painting,] Some jay of Italy, made by art; the creature, not of nature, but of painting. In this sense painting may be not improperly termed her mother. JOHNSON. Line 364. Wilt lay the leaven on all proper men ; &c.] i. e. says Mr. Upton, "wilt infect and corrupt their good name, (like sour dough that leaveneth the whole mass), and wilt render them suspected." MALONE. Line 382. That cravens my weak hand.] That makes me afraid to put an end to my own life. MALONE. Line 386. The scriptures-] So, Ben Jonson, in The Sad Shepherd: "The lover's scriptures, Heliodore's, or Tatius'." Shakspeare, however, means, in this place, an opposition between scripture, in its common signification, and heresy. STEEVENS: Line 401. That now thou tir'st on,] A hawk is said to tire upon that which she pecks; from tirer, French. JOHNSON. Line 418. To be unbent,] To have thy bow unbent, alluding to an hunter. Line 464. Now, if you could wear a mind JOHNSON, Dark as your fortune is ;] To wear a dark mind, is to carry a mind impenetrable to the search of others. Darkness, applied to the mind, is secrecy; applied to the fortune, is obscurity. JOHNSON, Line 468. full of view:] With opportunities of examining your affairs with your own eyes. JOHNSON. Line 474. Though peril to my modesty,] I read-Through peril. I would for such means adventure through peril of modesty; I would risque every thing but real dishonour. JOHNSON. Line 484. Exposing it, (but, 0, the harder heart! Alack, no remedy!)] I think it very natural to re- flect in this distress on the cruelty of Posthumus. All that good time will give us:] We'll make our work even with our time; we'll do what time will allow. JOHNS. I'm soldier to,] i. e. I am equal to this attempt; I have enough of ardour to undertake it. MALONE. ACT III. SCENE V. Line 616. And that she hath all courtly parts more exquisite Than lady, ladies, woman;] She has all courtly parts, says he, more exquisite than any lady, than all ladies, than all womankind. JOHNSON. Line 654. Or this, or perish.] These words, in my opinion, relate to Pisanio's present conduct, and they mean, I think, "I must either practise this deccit upon Cloten, or perish by his fury." MALONE! Line 720. To him that is most true.] Pisanio, notwithstanding his master's letter, commanding the murder of Imogen, considers him as true, supposing, as he has already said to her, that Posthumus was abused by some villain, equally an enemy to them both. MALONE. Line 738. -749. ACT III. SCENE VI Is sorer,] Is a greater, or heavier crime. JOHNS Take, or lend.] If you are civilized and peaceable, take a price for what I want, or lend it for a future recompense; if you are rough inhospitable inhabitants of the mountain, speak, that I may know my state. JOHNSON. Been less and so more equal ballasting-] The meaning is, Had I been less a prize, I should not have been too heavy for Posthumus.. JOHNSON ACT III. SCENE VII. Line 848. That since the common men are now in action 'Gainst the Pannonians and Dalmatians; And that &c.] These facts are historically true. Line 854. -and to you the tribunes, STEEVENS. For this immediate levy, he commands His absolute commission.] He commands the com mission to be given to you. So we say, I ordered the materials to the workmen. ACT IV. SCENE I. JOHNSON. Line 14. -in single oppositions:] In single combat. An opposite was in Shakspeare the common phrase for an adversary, or antagonist. ACT IV. SCENE II. MALONE. Line 40. Stick to your journal course: the breach of custom Is breach of all.] Keep your daily course uninterrupted; if the stated plan of life is once broken, nothing follows but confusion. JOHNSON. Line 48. How much the quantity,] How much soever the mass of my affection to my father may be, so much precisely is my love for thee: and as much as my filial love weighs, so much also weighs my affection for thee. MALONE. Line 75. I could not stir him:] Not move him to tell his story. Line 76. JOHNSON. gentle, but unfortunate;] Gentle, is well-born, of birth above the vulgar. JOHNSON. Line 103. Mingle their spurs together,] Spurs, an old word for the fibres of a tree. РОРЕ. Line 107. It is great morning.] A Gallicism. Grand jour. 169. the snatches in his voice, STEEVENS. And burst of speaking.] This is one of our author's strokes of observation. An abrupt and tumultuous utterance very frequently accompanies a confused and cloudy understanding. JOHNSON. Line 185. I am perfect, what:] I am well informed, what. So, in this play: "I am perfect, the Pannonians are in arms." JOHNSON. Line 189. —take us in,] To take in, was the phrase in use for to apprehend an outlaw, or to make him amenable to publick justice. JOHNSON. Line 222. Did make my way long forth.] Fidele's sickness made my walk forth from the cave tedious. JOHNSON. That possible strength might meet,] Such pursuit of vengeance as fell within any possibility of opposition. JOHNS. Line 249. I'd let a parish of such Clotens blood,] I would, says the young prince, to recover Fidele, kill as many Clotens as would fill a parish. JOHNSON. Line 295. what coast thy sluggish crare-] A crare, says Mr. Heath, is a small trading vessel, called in the Latin of the middle ages crayera. STEEVENS. Line 297. but I,] Heaven knows (says Belarius) what a man thou wouldst have been, had'st thou lived; but alas! thou diedst of melancholy, while yet only a most accomplished boy. MAL. |