H́nh ảnh trang
PDF
ePub

Enter VALENtine.

VAL. So please my lord, I might not be admitted,

But from her handmaid do return this answer:
The element itself, till seven years heat,8
Shall not behold her face at ample view;
But, like a cloistress, she will veiled walk,
And water once a day her chamber round
With eye-offending brine: all this, to season
A brother's dead love, which she would keep fresh,
And lasting, in her sad remembrance.

Το

DUKE. O, she, that hath a heart of that fine

frame,

pay this debt of love but to a brother,

"For her no sooner had mine eye bewraid,
"But with disdaine to see mee in that place,
"With fairest hand the sweet unkindest maid
"Casts water-cold disdaine upon my face:
"Which turn'd my sport into a hart's despaire,
"Which still is chac'd, while I have any breath,
"By mine own thoughts, sette on me by my faire;
"My thoughts, like hounds, pursue me to my death.
"Those that I foster'd of mine own accord,

"Are made by her to murder thus theyr lord.” See Daniel's Delia & Rosamond, augmented, 1594.

STEEVENS..

The element itself, till seven years heat,] Heat for heated. The air, till it shall have been warmed by seven revolutions of the sun, shall not, &c. So, in King John:

"The iron of itself, though heat red hot-."

Again, in Macbeth:

66 And this report

"Hath so exasperate the king-."

MALONE.

Again, in Chapman's version of the nineteenth Odyssey:

66

When the sun was set,

"And darkness rose, they slept till days fire het
"Th' enlighten'd earth." STEEVENS.

How will she love, when the rich golden shaft,
Hath kill'd the flock of all affections" else
That live in her!' when liver, brain, and heart,
These sovereign thrones,' are all supplied, and
fill'd,

(Her sweet perfections,)3 with one self king!^—

[ocr errors]

the flock of all affections] So, in Sidney's Arcadia: "has the flock of unspeakable virtues." STEEVENS.

10, she, that hath a heart of that fine frame,
To pay this debt of love but to a brother,
How will she love, when the rich golden shaft
Hath kill'd the flock of all affections else

That live in her !] Dr. Hurd observes, that Simo, in the Andrian of Terence, reasons on his son's concern for Chrysis in the same manner:

"Nonnunquam conlacrumabat: placuit tum id mihi.
"Sic cogitabam: hic parvæ consuetudinis

"Causâ mortem hujus tam fert familiariter:

"Quid si ipse amâsset? quid mihi hic faciet patri?" STEEVENS.

• These sovereign thrones,] We should read-three sovereign thrones. This is exactly in the manner of Shakspeare. So, afterwards, in this play: Thy tongue, thy face, thy limbs, actions, and spirit, do give thee fivefold blazon. WARBURTON.

(Her sweet perfections,)] Liver, brain, and heart, are admitted in poetry as the residence of passions, judgement, and sentiments. These are what Shakspeare calls, her sweet perfections, though he has not very clearly expressed what he might design to have said. STEEVENS.

with one self king!] Thus the original copy. The editor of the second folio, who in many instances appears to have been equally ignorant of our author's language and metre, reads-self-same king; a reading, which all the subsequent editors have adopted. The verse is not defective. Perfections is here used as a quadrisyllable. So, in a subsequent scene: "Methinks I feel this youth's perfections."

Self-king means self-same king; one and the same king. So, in King Richard II:

66

that self-mould that fashion'd thee,

"Made him a man." MALONE.

VOL. V.

R

Away before me to sweet beds of flowers;
Love-thoughts lie rich, when canopied with bowers.

SCENE II.

The Sea-coast.

[Exeunt.

Enter VIOLA, Captain, and Sailors.

VIO. What country, friends, is this?

CAP.

Illyria, lady.

VIO. And what should I do in Illyria? My brother he is in Elysium."

Perchance, he is not drown'd:-What think you,

sailors ?

In my opinion, the reading of the second folio ought to be adopted, as it improves both the language and the metre.

Malone has proved, that in Richard II., the word self is used to signify-same; but there it is a licentious expression. Once more he accuses the editor of the second folio as ignorant of Shakspeare's language and metre. It is surely rather hardy in a commentator, at the close of the 18th century, to pronounce that an editor in 1632, but 16 years after the death of Shakspeare, was totally ignorant of his language and metre; and it happens unfortunately, that in both the passages on which Mr. Malone has preferred this accusation, the second folio is clearly a correction of the first, which is the case with some other passages in this very play. M. MASON.

Enter Viola,] Viola is the name of a lady in the fifth book of Gower de Confessione Amantis. STEEVENS.

• Illyria, lady.] The old copy reads "This is Illyria, lady." But I have omitted the two first words, which violate the metre, without improvement of the sense.

7 in Illyria?

STEEVENS.

My brother he is in Elysium.] upon the words-Illyria and Elysium.

There is seemingly a play
DOUCE.

CAP. It is perchance, that you yourself were

saved.

V10. O my poor brother! and so, perchance, may he be.

CAP. True, madam: and, to comfort you with chance,

Assure yourself, after our ship did split,

When you, and that poor number saved with you, Hung on our driving boat, I saw your brother, Most provident in peril, bind himself

(Courage and hope both teaching him the practice)
To a strong mast, that lived upon the sea;
Where, like Arion on the dolphin's back,

I saw him hold acquaintance with the waves,
So long as I could see.

VIO.
For saying so, there's gold:
Mine own escape unfoldeth to my hope,
Whereto thy speech serves for authority,
The like of him. Know'st thou this country?

CAP. Ay, madam, well; for I was bred and born, Not three hours travel from this very place.

VIO. Who governs here?

[blocks in formation]

and that poor number saved with you,] We should rather read-this poor number. The old copy has those. The sailors who were saved, enter with the captain. MALONE.

9 A noble duke, in nature,

As in his name.] I know not whether the nobility of the name is comprised in duke, or in Orsino, which is, I think, the name of a great Italian family. JOHNSON.

V10. Orsino! I have heard my father name him: He was a bachelor then.

CAP.

And so is now,

Or was so very late: for but a month

Ago I went from hence; and then 'twas fresh
In murmur, (as, you know, what great ones do,
The less will prattle of,) that he did seek
The love of fair Olivia.

V10.

What's she?

CAP. A virtuous maid, the daughter of a count That died some twelvemonth since; then leaving her

In the protection of his son, her brother,
Who shortly also died: for whose dear love,
They say, she hath abjur'd the company
And sight of men.

VIO.

O, that I served that lady:'

And might not be delivered to the world,2
Till I had made mine own occasion mellow,
What my estate is.

They say, she hath abjur'd the company

And sight of men.

O, that I served that lady:]

The old copy reads:

They say she hath abjur'd the sight

And company of men.

O, that I served that lady;

By the change I have made in the ordo verborum, the metre of three lines is regulated, and an anticlimax prevented. STEEVENS.

* And might not be delivered to the world,] I wish I might not be made public to the world, with regard to the state of my birth and fortune, till I have gained a ripe opportunity for my design.

little

Viola seems to have formed a very deep design with very premeditation: she is thrown by shipwreck on an unknown coast, hears that the prince is a bachelor, and resolves to supplant the lady whom he courts. JOHNSON.

« TrướcTiếp tục »