G. 361. W. 328.-" The arms of Orgilus are bound, and pieces of tape tied round the elbows. He receives a stick in each arm.' This ingenious stage direction is the production of our critic. Instead, however, of taking credit for it, as he ought to do, he very unaccountably falls upon the luckless poet, for the "introduction of such ridiculous machinery." All that is "ridiculous" here, however, is his own. Ford ties no tape round the elbows, puts no sticks in the arms; and least of all, does he anticipate his own action, and begin at the wrong end of the scene: he proceeds simply enough; the arm is filleted, and a stick is then placed in the hand, to be grasped during the bleeding:—a practice which, though it diverts the ignorance of Mr. Weber, is familiar to every village doctor in the kingdom. The "present bleeding scene," and that of the trapchair, (O that unfortunate chair!) might, Mr. Weber thinks, "by the mere omission of the machinery, (i. e. the chair, and the bleeding,) be placed among the most beautiful scenes of the old dramatic age." A piece of criticism that sets the perspicacity of Mr. Weber's judgment in a most favourable point of view: since it will hardly be denied that if we take away the whole of the foundation on which an exquisite structure is raised, we contribute in a very eminent degree to the strength and beauty of the edifice. G. 363. W.330.-Oh, Tecnicus, Read: I call to mind the augury. thy augury. The force of the observation depends upon this word. G.368. W.334.-Argos, now Sparta's king, command the voices, &c. This false reading destroys the pathos of a very beautiful passage.-Calantha does not call on Argos. I have done, she says, with all earthly care, and Argos is now king Read, therefore, with the poet, of Sparta. One kiss on these cold lips,-my last! Argos now's Sparta's king.-Command the voices, &c. Mr. Weber winds up his folly on this admirable drama with quoting a passage which, for daring and frantic blasphemy, has not been equalled since the days of the Apostate. Were it only to get rid of this horror, Ford ought long since to have been re-edited. LOVE'S SACRIFICE. G. 374. W. 344.-Prescribed judgment. Read: Proscribed judgment; which is a very different matter. G. 374, W. 344.-" No engagement of friendship shall more justly live a president." Read: shall more justly live a precedent. G.378. W.348.-Whose commanding cheek. Read: Whose commanding check. G. 383. W.352. Read: a gentleman at Milan. a gentleman of Milan. G. 384. W.352. I am a monarch in felicity. Very inferior to the genuine text. : Read I am a monarch of felicity: i. e. I command happiness. G.384. W.353.-A perfect friend, a wife without compare. G.384. W.353.-My uttermost ambition is to climb To those deserts may grace the style of servant. Read To those deserts may give the style of servant. Mr. Weber has altogether perverted the speaker's meaning; but of this he sees nothing: he had the Index to Shakspeare open before him; and we are accordingly favoured with a note, by Mr. Steevens, on the word style! G. 385. W.353.-He has some change of words; "i. e. some newcoined words." Fernando has spoken but once since the entrance of Fiormonda, and it certainly required the eagle eye of Mr. Weber to discover any "new-coined words" in his speech, which is simple though courtly. Change of words, is plenty of words, fluency of language. Fiormonda speaks in scorn. G. 385. W.354.-You are too silent, Quicken your sad remembrance. "You must be understood before quicken; and the sense will then be, You quicken, or bring to life, the sad me Nothing like it. The sense clearly is, Chase your melancholy reflections; enliven them by the admission of brisker and brighter thoughts. Mr. Weber, however, is so confident of his interpretation, that he intimates, (somewhat uncourteously, it must be confessed,) that if the Duke did not mean as he (Mr. Weber) means, he did not know what he was saying. G. 387. W.355.-Dote on some crooked and misshapen form. G.388. W.356.-I do beseech. Read: I beseech. G. 388. W.357.-O these women-their very substance was quicksands. Mr. Weber has not the least idea of his author's meaning. I have already lamented the necessity of noticing these apparently slight variations; but there is no escaping from it with any justice either to Ford or myself. G. 390. W.359.-Fer. Shall I speak ? Shall I? This is far from Ferentes' meaning; whose thoughts run on something very different from speaking. Shall I Speak, shall I ?— Read: G. 391. W.359.—And I tasted enough. G. 392. W. 360.-How shy be that, la! "This is the only sense I could make of the original, which stands thus-How shey by that, la." If the reader will turn to the passage, he will discover nothing like sense in Mr. Weber's emendation. Read: How say you by that, la? and the sense is-What do you mean by that? G.392. W.360.-Thou art as fretting as an old gogram. “ i. e. A prim old lady." Ridiculous! Gogram is a species of taffeta, gummed, like most of the silks and velvets in those days of stiffness and brocade; and therefore remarkably obnoxious to cracking and fretting. It is mentioned by Swift in his tale of Baucis now become a vicar's wife "Plain Goody would no longer down, G. 393. W.361.-I have never found it. G. 393. W.361.—I would change. Read: I should change; which restores the sense. passage to G. 399. W. 366.-I am too much acquainted in the process. G.399. W.366. thou hast made me laugh Beside my spleen. Anciently the spleen was supposed to be the seat of laughter." And therefore the Duke laughs beside it! But what did Mr. Weber think he had explained? G.399. W.366.-Fernando, thou hast heard The pleasant humour of Mauruccio's dotage. That could not be; for the Duke comes to inform him of it. Read: Fernando, hadst thou heard The pleasant humour of Mauruccio's dotage, G. 400. W.366.-What counsels hold you now, sirs? |