must be a pause at "urine;" as also that "for affection" must be connected with the next line. Shylock states three circumstances; first, that some men dislike a gaping pig; secondly, that some are mad if they see a cat; thirdly, that some, at the sound of the bag-pipe, cannot contain their urine: and he then accounts for these three peculiarities on a general principle. Waldron (Appendix to The Sad Shepherd, p. 213), observing that mistress was formerly written maistresse or maistres, would read; "Cannot contain their urine for affection, Mistress of passion, sways it to the mood Of what it likes, or loaths." Mr. Knight (whose alteration is greatly preferable, because it deviates from the old eds. only by omitting a single letter), prints; "Cannot contain their urine: for affection, Master of passion, sways it to the mood Of what it likes, or loathes." With respect to Mr. Collier's reading, I have further to observe, that " Masters of passion" (if we understand the words in the sense which, as his note shews, he supposes them to bear) were the very persons of whom Shylock would carefully avoid all mention. 66 66 SCENE 1.-C. p. 542; K. p. 325. O, be thou damn'd, inexorable dog," &c. Misprinted in the old copies, previous to the third folio of 1664, inexecrable." COLLIER. Malone thought that "inexecrable" might be right (in being an augmentative particle); Mr. Knight has adopted it; and Richardson has given the word a place in his Dictionary. I agree with Mr. Collier in considering it a misprint. SCENE 1.-C. p. 547. Shy. These be the Christian husbands! I have a daughter ; Would any of the stock of Barabbas Had been her husband, rather than a Christian! We trifle time; I pray thee, pursue sentence." Mr. Collier ought to have printed (with the other modern editors) "Barrabas," as the metre here positively requires. The word, I believe, was invariably made short in the second syllable by the poetical writers of Shakespeare's days: in Marlowe's Jew of Malta, " Barrăbas" occurs seventy-eight times; compare, too, Taylor; "These are the brood of Barrăbas, and these A Thiefe, p. 120,-Workes, ed. 1630. and Fennor; 66 Thou Barrăbas of all humanitie, Base slanderer of Christianitie." Defence, &c. p. 153,—ibid. Moreover, the three first lines of this speech ought to be marked as spoken "Aside." 66 Is thick inlaid with patterns of bright gold; There's not the smallest orb, which thou behold'st," &c. Pat This is the text of the second folio: the first folio has pattens, as well as the 4to. by Heyes. The other 4to. has pattents. terns' seems the right reading." COLLIER. By adopting the gross misprint " patterns," Mr. Collier has done much to injure the picturesqueness of a passage which an eminent writer has pronounced to be "the most sublime, perhaps, in Shakespeare" (Hallam's Intr. to Lit. of Eur. iii. 147). What are "patterns of gold?" and how could the "floor of heaven" be "INLAID" with " patterns?" The not uncommon word patten, paten, patin, or patine, means a plate. "The Patine of a chalice, Calici operculum, patina." Coles's Dict. AS YOU LIKE IT. [Vol. iii. COLLIER; vol. iii. KNIGHT.] ACT I. SCENE 1.-C. p. 8. Marry, sir, be better employed, and be naught awhile." See "A proverbial north-country expression, equivalent (says Warburton) to a mischief on you,' and Gifford agrees with him. Ben Jonson's Works, vol. iv. 421, and vol. vi. 160. Dr. Johnson was of opinion, that be better employed, and be naught awhile,' was to be taken in the same sense as saying, 'It is better to do mischief than to do nothing." Why should Dr. Johnson's utterly erroneous explanation be dragged again into light? Since the origin of verbal criticism, nothing more satisfactory has been written than the copious note of Gifford (Jonson's Works, iv. 421), in which he proves that "and be naught awhile" is a petty and familiar malediction. Besides, the first part of Warburton's remark is wrong; the expression was certainly not confined to "the north country." SCENE 2.-C. p. 15; K. p. 273. "Cel. Pr'ythee, who is't that thou mean'st? Touch. One that old Frederick, your father, loves. Ros. My father's love is enough to honour him enough," &c. "As Malone remarks, there is some error here, as Frederick is the father of Celia, and not of Rosalind. He suggests that we might read Ferdinand for Frederick.' Perhaps the name of the knight was Frederick, and the clown's answer ought to run, 'One old Frederick, that your father loves,' which only changes the place of 'that.' This is the more likely, because Frederick the usurper, being younger than the exiled Duke, would hardly be called by the clown Old Frederick."" COLLIER. The error lies in the prefix to the third speech, which is rightly assigned to Celia by Theobald, Steevens, and Knight. As to "old,"-Steevens justly observed that it is an unmeaning term of familiarity, without reference to age. "Orlando's reply has reference to the sentences often inscribed upon tapestry, or 'painted cloth :' 'I answer you right painted cloth;' i. e. exactly in the style of the inscriptions upon tapestry." COLLIER. Again, in note, vol. vi. 136, Mr. Collier says, "painted cloth was tapestry," &c. But it was really cloth or canvass painted in oil: see the long article in Nares's Gloss. Compare too the following homely story related by the honest Water-poet; "There's an old speech, a Tayler is a Thiefe, And an old speech he hath for his reliefe, He (truly) steales not, or he steales not, true.* Those that report so, mighty wrong doe doe him, For how can he steale that, that's brought vnto him? And with old painted Cloth the roome supply, With fiends and fleshhookes, whence ther's no returning. * "He cannot steale truly, or truly he cannot steale." His welcome to his father, and the feast, His feare was great, but at the last to rid it, A Wizard told him, 'twas the Tayler did it." A Thiefe, p. 119,-Taylor's Workes, ed. 1630. For the sake of those who are curious in such matters, I add a specimen of painted-cloth poetry, which has been preserved by the writer just quoted, who copied it from the walls of a room at the Star in Rye in the year 1653; "And as upon a bed I musing lay, The chamber hang'd with painted cloth, I found Poetry, Ænigmatick mystery. I know not what the Town in wealth may be, But sure, I on that chambers walls did see I will not hold my Reader in dilemma, No flower so fresh, but frost may it deface, Doth light at last with paine more sharp and strong. Time never was, nor n'ere I thinke shall be, That Truth (unshent) might speake, in all things free. My lying Chamber was adorned with : And 'tis supposed, those lines written there Have in that Roome bin more then 40 yeare." The Certain Travailes of an uncertain Journey, &c. 1653, p. 19. |