PAGE. Ay, and the time seems thirty unto me; Madam, undress you, and come now to bed. For your physicians have expressly charg'd, That I should yet absent me from your bed: SLY. Ay, it stands so, that I may hardly tarry so long. But I would be loath to fall into my dreams again; I will therefore tarry, in despite of the flesh and the blood. Enter a Servant. SERV. Your honour's players, hearing your amendment, Are come to play a pleasant comedy, For so your doctors hold it very meet; And melancholy is the nurse of frenzy, SLY. Marry, I will; let them play it: Is not a commonty a Christmas gambol, or a tumblingtrick? 6 come now to bed.] Here Mr. Pope adds again,-Sim, drink to her. STEEVENS. Is not a commonty a Christmas gambol, or a tumbling PAGE. No, my good lord; it is more pleasing stuff. SLY. What, houshold stuff? PAGE. It is a kind of history. SLY. Well, we'll see't: Come, madam wife, sit by my side, and let the world slip; we shall ne'er be younger. [They sit down. trick?] Thus the old copies; the modern ones read—It is not a commodity, &c. Commonty for comedy, &c. STEevens. In the old play the players themselves use the word commodity corruptly for a comedy. BLACKSTONE. ACT I. SCENE 1. Padua. A public Place. Enter LUCENTIO and TRANIO. Luc. Tranio, since-for the great desire. I had And, by my father's love and leave, am arm'd Gave me my being, and my father first, A merchant of great traffick through the world, 7 for fruitful Lombardy,] Mr. Theobald reads from. The former editions, instead of from had for. JOHNSON. Padua is a city of Lombardy, therefore Mr. Theobald's emendation is unnecessary. STEEVENS. •-ingenious] I rather think it was written-ingenuous studies, but of this and a thousand such observations there is little certainty. JOHNSON. In Cole's Dictionary, 1677, it is remarked-" ingenuous and ingenious are too often confounded.” Thus, in The Match at Midnight, by Rowley, 1633"Methinks he dwells in my opinion: a right ingenious spirit, veil'd merely with the variety of youth, and wildness." Again, in The Bird in a Cage, 1633: "deal ingeniously, sweet lady." Again, so late as the time of the Spectator, No. 437, 1st edit. "A parent who forces a child of a liberal and ingenious spirit," &c. REED. Vincentio, come of the Bentivolii. • Pisa, renowned for grave citizens, '&c.] This passage, I think, should be read and pointed thus: Pisa, renowned for grave citizens, Gave me my being, and my father first, A merchant of great traffick through the world, In the next line, which should begin a new sentence, Vincentio his son, is the same as Vincentio's son, which Mr. Heath not apprehending, has proposed to alter Vincentio into Lucentio. It may be added, that Shakspeare in other places expresses the genitive case in the same improper manner. See Troilus and Cressida, Act II. sc. i: "Mars his ideot." And Twelfth-Night, Act III. sc. iii: "The Count his gallies." TYRWHITT. Vincentio, come of the Bentivolii.] The old copy reads-Vin centio's. The emendation was made by Sir T. Hanmer. I am not sure that it is right. Our author might have written: t Vincentio's son, come of the Bentivolii. If that be the true reading, this line should be connected with the following, and a colon placed after world in the preceding line; as is the case in the original copy, which adds some support to the emendation now proposed: 5 Vincentio's son, come of the Bentivolii, Vincentio his son,] The old copy reads-Vincentio's. STEEVENS. Vincentio's is here used as a quadrisyllable. Mr. Pope, I suppose, not perceiving this, unnecessarily reads-Vincentio his son, which has been too hastily adopted by the subsequent editors. MALONE. Could I have read the line, as a verse, without Mr. Pope's emendation, I would not have admitted it. STEEVENS. to serve all hopes conceiv'd,] To fulfil the expectations of his friends, MALONE. Virtue, and that part of philosophy-] Sir Thomas Han Will I apply, that treats of happiness od Bico 4 Glad that you thus continue your resolve, mer, and after him Dr. Warburton, read-to virtue; but formerly ply and apply were indifferently used, as to ply or apply his studies, JOHNSON. • The word ply is afterwards used in this scene, and in the same manner, by Tranio: "For who shall bear your part, &c. "Keep house and ply his book?" M. MASON. So, in The Nice Wanton, an ancient interlude, 1560: "O ye children, let your time be well spent, Applye your learning, and your elders obey." Again, in Gascoigne's Supposes, 1566: "I feare he applyes his study so, that he will not leave the minute of an houre from his booke." MALONE. Mi perdonate,] Old copy-Me pardonato. The emendation was suggested by Mr. Steevens. MALONE. Aristotle's checks,] Are, I suppose, the harsh rules of Aristotle. STEEVENS. Such as tend to check and restrain the indulgence of the passions. MALONE. Tranio is here descanting on academical learning, and mentions by name six of the seven liberal sciences. I suspect this to be a mis-print, made by some copyist or compositor, for ethicks. The sense confirms it. BLACKSTONE. So, in Ben Jonson's Silent Woman, Act IV. sc. iv: "I, in some cases, but in these they are best, and Aristotle's ethicks." STEEVENS. |