Notes to Shakespeare, Volume III: The Tragedies eBook

This eBook from the Gutenberg Project consists of approximately 303 pages of information about Notes to Shakespeare, Volume III.

Notes to Shakespeare, Volume III: The Tragedies eBook

This eBook from the Gutenberg Project consists of approximately 303 pages of information about Notes to Shakespeare, Volume III.

I.i.206 (14,8) Tell me in sadness] That is, tell me gravely, tell me in seriousness.

I.i.217 (15,1) in strong proof] In chastity of proof, as we say in armour of proof.

I.i.222 (15,2)

  O, she is rich in beauty; only poor
  That when she dies, with beauty dies her store]

Mr. Theobald reads, “With her dies beauties store;” and is followed by the two succeeding editors.  I have replaced the old reading, because I think it at least as plausible as the correction. She is rich, says he, in beauty, and only poor in being subject to the lot of humanity, that her store, or riches, can be destroyed by death, who shall, by the same blow, put an end to beauty.

I.ii.15 (17,2) She is the hopeful lady of my earth] The lady of his earth is an expression not very intelligible, unless he means that she is heir to his estate, and I suppose no man ever called his lands his earth.  I will venture to propose a bold change: 

  She is the hope and stay of my full years.

I.ii.25 (18,3) Earth-treading stars that make dark heaven light] [W:  dark even] But why nonsense [Warburton’s comment]?  Is any thing mere commonly said, than that beauties eclipse the sun?  Has not Pope the thought and the word?

  “Sol through white curtains shot a tim’rous ray,
  “And spe’d those eyes that must eclipse the day.”

Both the old and the new reading are philosophical nonsense, but they are both, and both equally poetical sense.

I.ii.26 (18,4) Such comfort as do lusty young men feel] To say, and to say in pompous words, that a young man shall feel as much in an assembly of beauties, as young men feel in the month of April, is surely to waste sound upon a very poor sentiment.  I read,

  Such comfort as do lusty yeomen feel.

You shall feel from the sight and conversation of these ladies, such hopes of happiness and such pleasure, as the farmer receives from the spring, when the plenty of the year begins, and the prospect of the harvest fills him with delight.

I.ii.32 (18,5)

  Such, amongst view of many, mine, being one. 
  May stand in number, the’ in reckoning none]

The first of these lines I do not understand.  The old folio gives no help; the passage is there, Which one more view.  I can offer nothing better than this: 

  Within your view of many, mine being one,
  May stand in number, &c.

I.iii.13 (22,1) to my teen] To my sorrow.

I.iii.66 (24,4) It is an honour] The modern editors all read, it is an honour.  I have restored the genuine word ["hour"], which is more seemly from a girl to her mother. Your, fire, and such words as are vulgarly uttered in two syllables, are used as dissyllables by Shakespeare. [The first quarto reads honour; the folio hour.  I have chosen the reading of the quarto.  STEEVENS.] (rev. 1778, X, 28, 2)

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Notes to Shakespeare, Volume III: The Tragedies from Project Gutenberg. Public domain.