injures the sense of the passage. Hate rotting the Springs of Love, is a strange Idea. It appears to me, that the true reading is, that suggested, though not adopted, by Steevens. ...Shall, Antipholus, Even in the Spring of Love, thy love-springs rot Which preserves both the sense and the Rhyme. ACT IV.-Sc. 2. DROMIO OF SYRACUSE,. A hound that runs counter, and yet draws dryfoot well. A hound that draws dryfoot, means what is usually called a blood-hound, trained to follow men by the scent. The expression occurs in an Irish Statute of the 10th of William II. for preservation of the game, which enacts, that all persons, licensed for making and training up of setting dogs, shall, in every two years, during the continuance of their license, be compelled to train up, teach, and make, one or more hounds, to hunt on dryfoot. The practice of keeping blood-hounds was long continued in Ireland, and they were found of great use in detecting murderers and robbers. LOVE'S LABOUR LOST. ACT II.-Sc. 1. BOYET....All senses to that sense did make their repair To feel, only lookin on fairest of fair. Surely Johnson is right in proposing, to read feed instead of feel; to feel could refer to one sense only; to feed is applicable to all: but the insertion of the particle by, after feed, which he also proposes, is unnecessary, is unnecessary, and rather injures the metre. ACT III.-Sc. 1. MOTH..And make them men of note (do you note men) that most are affected to these. I think the reading, do you note me, instead of men, a happy amendment; or, we may read, with equal propriety, (do you note, man) the text is not so good as either. 1 en Sipode s MOTH....You are too swift, Sir, to say so. Swift means here, hasty, inconsiderate.ed Act IV.-Sc. 1. BOYET....Who is the Shooter? Who is the Shooter? Both Malone and Steevens suppose that the word Shooter is here used equivocally for Suitor; and Steevens has admitted Suitor into his text, but I think injudiciously, as it does not appear to me that any quibble was intended. Boyet could not intend to ask, in consequence of the letter, who the Suitor was, as he knew Armado perfectly, and had just given the Ladies a description of him: the word Shooter, therefore, appears to me, to be used in its usual sense. The Princess, and her train, were going on a sporting party, and the Princess, at the beginning of the scene, asks the Forester, where was the bush at which they were to take their stand? but, before they reached it, they were interrupted by Costard's arrival; when that business was over, they return to their intended amusement, and Boyet asks which of them was to use the bow? ACT IV. Sc. 3. KING........Too bitter is thy jest, Are we betrayed thus to thy overview? BIRON...Not you by me, but I betrayed to you. This is clearly wrong: the sense requires that we should read, Not you to me, but I betrayed by you. BIRON.....Sowed Cockle reap'd no Corn.t I should read, reaps no corn. MIDSUMMER-NIGHT'S DREAM. ACT II. Sc. 2. TITANIA....The human mortals want their winter here. I have already expressed my opinion, that Winter-cheer is the true reading, and am confirmed in it by the following passage in Fletcher's Prophetess, where the Shepherd says, Our Evening dances on the green, our songs, TITANIA... Which she with pretty, and with fwimming gait (Following her womb, then rich with my young Squire) Would imitate. This passage, as it is printed, appears to me ridiculous, every woman who walks forward must follow her womb: the absurdity is avoided by leaving the word following out of the parenthesis. Warburton's grammatical objection has no foundation. ACT III.-Sc. 2. DEMETRIUS....No, no, he will, Sir, Seem to break loose, take on as you would follow, The only difficulty in this passage arises. from the word, he will, Sir, which are omitted in the second folio: in that edition it runs thus, No, no, Sir, seem to break loose, Take on as you would follow, But yet not come; you are a tame man, Sir. This appears to me the true reading. Johnson's concluding observation on this Play, is not conceived with his usual judgment. He says, that in Shakspeare's time, Fairies were "much in fashion; common tradition had made "them familiar, and Spenser's poem had made them great" but there is no analogy or resemblance whatever between the Fairies of Spenser, and those of Shakspeare. The Fairies of Spenser, as appears from his description of them in the 2d Book of his 10th Canto, were a race of mortals created by Prometheus, of the human size, shape, and affections, and subject to death; but those of Shakspeare, and of common tradition, as Johnson calls them, were a diminutive race of sportful beings, endowed with immortality, and supernatural power, totally different from those of Spenser. |