By this must always be understood, that the word was not to be met with in the index to Shakspeare; for if he had ever looked into the work itself, he might have found it. Quab is there said to be a gudgeon. It is undoubtedly (among other things) a small fish of some kind; but I have given it a meaning more familiar to me, as I am persuaded it was to Ford. G.72. W. 176.-Palador. No interpretation. Read: Corax. No interruption! Never was such a tissue of blunders as Mr. Weber has here contrived to involve himself in. He first, no one can tell why, takes the speech from the person to whom it necessarily belongs, then gives it to another, who is otherwise engaged; and lastly celebrates his own sagacity in this double error, heightened by a senseless corruption of the text, as furnishing a key to the whole business!—of which, by the way, he does not comprehend a single word. G. 75. W. 180.-As we do hear. Read: As we do here. i. e. in Bedlam. A trifling error, but one which yet takes away all the sense and all the sting of the passage. G.77. W. 182.-" To limn, or limn, is to paint; hence a limner is a painter." Molto obligato, Signor mio! G. 80. W. 184-A weary guard. G. 83. W. 186.-Close griping grief. Here Mr. Weber grows quite facetious at the expense of our simple forefathers, who saw "nothing ludicrous" in the idea, but "sang (he says) with perfect seriousness "When griping grief the heart doth wound," &c. How very comical! But could not this pleasant gentleman, while he was copying what he did not understand, and dying with laughter at his own conceit, discover that he was perverting his author? For Read: 'tis not madness, but his sorrow's Close griping grief, &c. 'tis not madness; but his sorrows, Close-griping grief, and anguish of the soul, That torture him. Words that may, surely, be read without borrowing another's cheeks, except by those who, like Mr. Weber, know no sense of gripe but the belly-ach. G. 85. W. 188. Read: Stay thy paws, Courageous beast! also, lo! the gorgeous skull, Stay thy paws, Courageous beast; else lo, the Gorgon's skull, G. 85. W. 188.-Wriggle. As Mr. Weber was desperately bent on explaining this familiar word, the shortest way would have been to open the first child's spelling-book at hand:-but this is not the process. He takes up Cotgrave's Dictionary, turns to the English part for the French of wriggle, which he finds to be serpeger; he then turns to the French part for the English of serpeger, and finally presents this agglomeration of wisdom to the admiring reader. "Wriggle. Serpeger, is explained by Cotgrave, to wave, waggle, wriggle, or goe waving!" G. 89. W. 193.-A kind of cocks. Read: A kind of Cokes. i. e. a simpleton. The allusion is to a character in Bartholomew Fair. This speech is most vilely pointed. G. 89. W. 193. The old Trojan's daughter of this house. For this read the. But, above all, hear Mr. Weber. The popularity of the achievements of the Greeks and Trojans led to an application of their names not very honourable to them,"-learning and logic met together!"the former being used for cheats and the latter for thieves." There is more of this deplorable stuff; but I cannot copy it: the result, however, is, that Meleander, the most respectable character in the piece, is a thief. G. 89. IV. 193.-Toss-pot. "No uncommon name for a toper." Grammercy! G. 92. W. 195.-Enter Palador and Pelias. Read: Enter Palador, Amethus, and Pelias. This would not be worth noticing, were it not that Amethus is one of the speakers. G. 92. W. 195.-To say, to be great. I grieve to be reduced to notice such trifles; but there is no other way to escape the charge of capriciously altering the text. G. 97. W. 199.-The story of thy sufferings. Read: The story of my sufferings. The corruption makes nonsense of the text. G. 27. W. 200. Read: Come! to trial, if thou beest Eroclea: in my bosom I can find thee. Come, to trial: if thou beest i Eroclea, in my bosom I can find thee. The allusion is to the miniature which the prince wore, and which he here proposes to compare with the lady before him. G. 101. W.202.-With my sorrow. Read: With my sorrows. G. 102. IV. 202. What folly! I would ever Solicit thy deserts. i. e. court thy deserts. Thamasta means plead, urge them (in a forensic sense) to her brother; which she accordingly does in the very next page, and draws from him the following remark: "The ladies are turn'd lawyers, and plead handsomely!" Can Mr. Weber see nothing? The sudden meeting of these two fair rivulets, Even this obscurity Mr. Weber has contrived to thicken by a note. "For with (he says) I suspect we should read within th' island," &c. The truth is, that he knows not what he is saying. The sudden meeting of these two fair rivulets, The "fair rivulets," as the prince beautifully calls the two weeping sisters, had rushed into each other's embraces, and he separates them by taking Eroclea into his own arms. His address to Cleophila follows. G. 108. W.209.-You took a goodly nap. G. 109. W.209.-Apply'd 't t'you. "The old copy reads, apply'd t'ee: this is remarkably harsh." What a blessing, that Ford should light on such a friend in need as Mr. Weber, to harmonize his discords! Whether Cadmus, in his serpent state,' could enunciate his dulcet emendation is doubtful; but assuredly no other living creature (serpent or not) could by any possibility effect it. G.116. W.215.-Content. "Content was often used, in our author's age, for contentment.” G. 117. W.216.-A wife for him. This does not give the author's meaning, any more than his words. Read: A wife fit for him. "TIS PITY SHE'S A WHORE. G. 126. W.3.—Your noble allowance of these first fruits of my leisure, in the action. Mr. Weber raises a string of notable arguments on this passage. As it was the first piece, he says, that Ford brought out, it must have been written before the Sun's Darling, acted in 1623-4!--and why not before An ill Beginning has a good End, played in 1613? All this contradictory nonsense arises from inadvertence, and blindly blundering after Reed and Dodsley: the words, in the action, refer to Lord Peterborough, who had been present at the first representation of the tragedy, and applauded it. It does not follow that "the first fruits of the author's leisure" should necessarily be the first of his studies. The writer's drift (and he refers to it somewhat too ostentatiously) is to insinuate to his patron that he neglected no serious employ for "this idle trade!" |