G. 401. W.368.-And without our commission!-Say! "This word destroys the metre. It might, however, be superadded by the author in revising the play, not thinking that he sinned against the rules of metre."-Poor Ford!"In this manner we ought probably to account for similar superfluities in Shakspeare's lines, which are so unnecessarily expunged by modern editors"! That two such unskilful and unpractised writers as Shakspeare and Ford should "siu against the rules of metre," without knowing it; and that they should do this more especially in the very attempt to render their poetry more complete, is an admirable conjecture; and does almost as much credit to Mr. Weber's modesty as to his judgment. G.402. W.369.-Thus bodies walk unsoul`d. “A very quaint word, coined by our author." No writer ever coined so many words as Ford, if we believe Mr. Weber; who fathers upon him every word which he cannot find in the commentaries on Shakspeare. But how is unsoul'd (" which signifies," as he says, "without a soul") more quaint than unbreech'd, or unshod, or a hundred other similar compounds, where un is used like the a privative of the Greeks, to express a negative of the simple word? G. 402. W.369.-Beard, be confin'd to neatness, that no hair "Stover," says Mr. Steevens, " in Cambridgeshire and other matter. And, as usual, the dictum of Mr. Steevens settles the But what is this to the speaker's meaning? His mistress surely was not about to eat this hay, "which the cows refused," though it might be put to her lips. Not to waste words on a plain passage, stover (which is here a verb) means to stiffen, bristle up, &c. In this sense it was perfectly familiar to Ford. G.403. W.370.-One, two, three. Let the solemn ass have his full measure. Read: One--two-and three. G. 405. W.372.-I will have my picture drawn in a square table. "A table signifies here a picture." Here, it certainly signifies no such thing: it means, as it frequently does, the board, or strained canvas, on which the picture was to be painted. To have a picture drawn in a picture, may do very well for Mr. Weber; but is much too bad for Mauruccio. G. 405. W.372.—Not further, r. No further. G. 405. W.372.-I will have a clear and most transparent chrystal in the heart. This does not appear very feasible. Read: I will have a clear and most transparent chrystal in the form of a heart. G. 405. W.373.-She shall no oftener powder her hair, surfell her cheeks, &c. On the word powder, we have all Steevens and Malone let loose upon us, not one of whose examples, after all, refers to powdering the hair, (a fashion of recent introduction in Ford's time,) but to the ancient practice of staining it. Surfell, not having the good fortune to be placed in the Index to Shakspeare, is, as usual, fathered on the poet. "As I have not met with this word (surfell) any where else,” our critic says," it has occurred to me whether it may not be a word coined by our author, who as we have before seen is very quaintly ingenious in the art." Surfel, or surphule, is so common a word in our old writers, that it may seem almost superfluous to produce any examples of it: yet, as Marston's "Scourge of Villanie" now lies before me, I will give the first two or three that occur; they are all within the compass of a few pages. "Smug Lelia Again: Again: Hath stinking lungs, although a simpering grace, "she is so vizarded, So steept in lemon-juice, so surphuled, I cannot see her face." "Hercules Lies streaking brawny limmes in weakening bed, Perfumed, smooth kemb'd, new glazed, fair surfuled." These, I presume, are more than sufficient to prove the extent of Mr. Weber's researches elsewhere. For the meaning of the word, see page 405 of this volume. G. 408. W.375.-Advance the glass, Giacopo, that I may practise, as I pass, to walk a portly grace, like a marquess. "This reminds us strongly of Shakspeare's Richard III. "Shine out, fair sun, till I have bought a glass, That I may see my shadow as I pass." This passage may "remind" Mr. Weber of Shakspeare; but certainly never brought that poet to the recollection of any other person. Our critic, however, is so possessed with the resemblance, that he ventures to speculate at large on the subject. "It is the practice," he says, "of the most valuable of Shakspeare's commentators to adduce similar instances, where the poet's lines are ludicrously imitated, as sneers upon him, especially from Fletcher, who was certainly very far from intending to cast ridicule on an author with whom he was on good terms- -The bitterness of Ben Johnson against his too powerful rival is well ascertained-But why should we increase Shakspeare's enemies, by an author who was so truly Shakspearian as Fletcher?" To argue with so perpetual a blunderer as Mr. Weber would be to waste both time and patience; or we might ask, with Mr. Gilchrist, why the same measure should not be meted out to Fletcher as to Jonson? But leaving this, Mr. Weber must bear to be told, when he introduces a mass of irrelevant trash, for the sake of traducing the character of such a man as Jonson, that he is an ignorant and impudent calumniator. "The bitterness of Ben Johnson," so far from being, as he says, "well ascertained," exists no where but in the slanderous falsehoods of Steevens, Malone, and their wretched followers, who imagine that they have established a claim to the public approbation, when they ape their conduct, and bring a senseless accusation of enmity against the most faithful and affectionate friend that Shakspeare ever possessed. With respect to Fletcher, of whose "profound regard for Shakspeare" Mr. Weber is so confident, he is, I lament to say, the only dramatic writer of those times, who can be positively pronounced to have attempted, ou more than one occasion, “to ridicule him." G.408. IV.376. here's laughter worth our presence. "The old copy reads, worthy our presence." And why not? it is, at least, as good a word as the critic has been pleased to put in its stead:-but, in fact, it is better; for it completes the metre, which his sophistication destroys. Read, here's laughter Worthy our presence! I'll not lose him so. G.410. W.377.-" Scene II. A room in the same, i. e. in Mauruccio's House." The writing of notes," as Mr. Weber formerly observed, “is of inferior importance to the well arranging of the scene:" he is, therefore, as might be expected, uncommonly attentive to this part of an editor's duty; and accordingly, wherever there is a mere possibility of committing a mistake, he very adroitly does it. Here the place of action is so clearly marked out by the author, that it requires no little power of blundering to miss it. "At night," Fer nando says, I'll meet you at my lord Petruchio's house." Yet Mr. Weber sends them both to Mauruccio's! G.411. W.378.-Oh for the party, who now? G.413. W.380. such harmony of admiral beauty. Admiral Beauty is very good! As the name however does not appear in the Navy-list of Pavy, we may venture to dismiss him at once, and read such harmony of admirable beauty. G.414. W.381.-The shrine of some fan'd Venus. “Fan'd, that is, enshrin'd." And this, too, is very good. But did it not occur to Mr. Weber that a shrined Venus stood in no need of a shrine? And at all events, a fane is not a shrine, but a temple. Read, 'Tis such a picture as might well become The shrine of some famed Venus. But our critic has less excuse than usual for his unwarrantable reading, as some of the copies have a faint dot over the first limb of the m:-fam'd (feign'd) it might be, and, perhaps, was; fan'd it could never be. G. 414. W.381.-" His name is Frinulzio." Name for name, I prefer the author's. Read, therefore, Trinultio. G.414. W.381.-Youth is threescore years and ten. Not, surely, since the Deluge. Read Youth in threescore years and ten! The allusion is to the juvenile foppery of the superannuated dotard, Mauruccio. G. 416. W.383.-These are very elements in a creature of little understanding. |