With burdens of the dead;-fome that were hang'd, No matter:-wear them, betray with them: whore fill y of the word pains, and partly from the generality of the expreffion. The meaning is this: he had faid before, follow conftantly your trade of debauchery: that is (fays he) for fix mouths in the year. Let the other fix be employed in quite contrary pains aud labour, namely, in the fevere difcipline neceflary for the repair of those diforders that your debaucheries occafion, in order to fit you anew to the trade; and thus let the whole year be spent in thefe different occupations. On this account lie goes on, and says, Make falfe hair, &c. WARBURTON. The explanation is ingenious, but I think it very remote, and would willingly bring the author and his readers to incet on easier terms. We may lead: Yet may your pains fix mouths be quite coutratied: Timon is withing ill to mankind, but is afraid left the whores fhould imagine that he withes well to them; to obviate which he lets them know, that he imprecates upon them influence enough to plague others, and difappointments enough to plague themselves. He wishes that they may do all poffible mifchief, and yet take parts fix months of the year in vain. In this feufe there is a connection of this line with the next. Finding your pains contraried, try new expedients, thatch your thin 100s, and paint. To contrary is an old verb. Latymer relates, that when he went to court, he was advised not to contrary the king. JOHNSON. If Dr. Johnson's explanation be right, which I do not believe, the prefent words appear to me to admit it, as well as the reading he would introduce. Such unneceffary deviations from the text fhould ever be avoided. Dr. Warburton's is a very natural interpretation, which cannot often be faid of the expofitions of that tommentator. The words that follow fully fupport it: And thatch your poor thin roots," &c. i. e. after you have loft the greater part of your hair by disease, and the medicines that for fix months you have been obliged to take, then procure au artificial covering," &c. MALONE. I believe this means, Yet for half the year at leaft, may you faffer fuch punishment as is inflicted on harlots in houfes of correction. STEEVENS. These words fhould be included in a parenthefis. Johnfon. wishes to conne&t them with the following fentences, but that Paint till a horfe may mire upon your face: PHR.AND TYM. Well, more gold;—What then?— Believe't, that we'll do any thing for gold. cannot be, as they contain an imprecation, and the following lines contain an inftru&ion. Timon is giving inftructions to those women; but, in the middle of his inftructions his mifanthropy breaks forth in an imprecation against them. I have no obje&ion to the reading of contraried, inftead of contrary, but it does not feem to be neceflary. M. MASON. 2 thatch your poor thin roofs &c. ] About the year 1595, when the fashion became general in England of wearing a greater quantity of hair than was ever the produce of a single head, it was dangerous for any child to wander, as nothing was more common than for women to entice fuch as had fine locks into private places, and there to cut them off. I have this information from Stubbs's Anatomy of Abuses, which I have often quoted on the article of drels. To this fashion the writers of Shakspeare's age do not appear to have been reconciled. So, in A Mad World my Masters, 1608: to wear pertiwigs made of another's hair, is not this againft kund ?" Again, in Drayton's Mooncalf: And with large fums they ftick not to procure Hair from the dead, yea, and the most unclean; "To help their pride they nothing will difdain." Again, in Shakspeare's 68th Sonnet; Before the golden treffes of the dead, "The right of fepulchres, were fhorn away, Ere beauty's dead fleece made another gay." Again, in Churchyard's Tragical difcours of a dolorous Gentlewoman, 1593: "The perwickes fine müft curle wher haire doth lack ་ Warner, in his Albion's England, 1602, Book IX. ch. xlvii, is likewife very fevere 011 this fashion. Stowe informs us, that women's periwigs were firt brought into England about the time of the mauacre of Paris." STEEVENS. See allo Vol. Vlil. p. 81, n. 8. The first edition of Stubbes's Anatomy of Abufis quoted above, was in 1983. Drayton's Mooncalf did not, I believe, appear till 1627. MALONE. TIM. Confumptions fow 3 In hollow bones of man; ftrike their sharp fhins, And mar men's fpurring. Crack the lawyer's voice, That he may never more falfe title plead, Nor found his quillets fhrilly: 4 hoar the flamen, And not believes himfelf: down with the nose, 3 6 5 men's fpurring. ] Sir T. Hanmer reads-Sparring, properly enough, if there be any ancient example of the word. JOHNSON. Spurring is certainly right. The difeafe that enfeebled their Shins would have this effect. STEEVENS. 4 Nor found his quillets skrilly:] Quillets are fubtilties. Law Tricks, &c. 1608: " a quillet well applied!" So, in STEEVENS. Cole, in his Latin Didionary, '1679, renders quillet, res frivola, recula. 5 MALONE hoar the flamen, ] Mr. Upton would read-hoarfe, i. e. make boarfe ; for to be hoary claims reverence. 66 Add to this (fays he) that hoarfe is here moft proper, as oppofed to colds. It may, however, mean,-Give the flamen the hoary leprofy." So, in Webster's Dutchess of Malfy, --fhew like leprofy, 1623: "The whiter the fouler." And before, in this play: STEEVENS. "Make the hoar leprofy ador'd." 6 that his particular to forefee, ] The metaphor is apparently incongruous, but the fenfe is good. To forefee his particular, is to provide for his private advantage, for which he leaves the right Scent of publick good. In hunting, when hares have crofs'd one another, it is common for fome of the hounds to fmell from the general weal, and foresee their Own particular. Shakspeare, who feems to have been a skilful sportsman, and has alluded often to falconry, perhaps, alludes here to hunting [Dr. Warburton would read—fore-fend, i e. (as he interprets the word) provide for, fecure.] To the commentator's emendation it may be obje&ed, that he ufes forefend in the wrong meaning. To forefend. is, I think, never to provide for, but to provide against. The verbs compounded with for or fore have commonly either an evil or negative fenfe. JOHNSON. Smells from the general weal: make curl'd-pate ruffians bald; And let the unfcarr'd braggarts of the war PHR. AND TYM. More counfel, with more money, TIM. More whore, more mischief firft; I have ALCIB. Strike up the drum towards Athens. If I thrive well, I'll vifit thee again. TIM. If I hope well, I'll never fee thee more. TIM. Yes, thou fpok'ft well of me. 8 Call'ft thou that harm? The And dilches grave you all!] To grave is to entomb. word is now obfolete, though fometimes ufed by Shakspeare and his contemporary authors. So, in Lord Surrey's Translation of the fourth book of Virgil's Eneid: "Cinders (think'ft thou) mind this? or graved ghoftes ?" To ungrave was likewife to turn out of a grave. Thus, in Mar Ron's Sophonia : "Deny a grave; hurl us among the rocks To ftanch beafts hunger: therefore, thus ungrav'd, "I feek flow reft." See Vol. XII. p. 92, n. 4. STEEVENS. Yes, thou pok'ft well of me. ] Shakspeare in this as in many other places, appears to allude to the facred writings: unto him of whom all men speak well!" MALOVE. " Wo VOL. XVII. L 8 TIM. Men daily find it fuch. Get thee away, And take thy beagles with thee. ALCIB. Strike. We but offend him. [Drum beats. Exeunt ALCIBIADES, PHRYNIA, and TYMANDRA. TIM. That nature, being fick of man's unkind nefs, Should yet be hungry! Common mother, thou, [ Digging. Whose womb unmeasurable, and infinite breaft, Teems, and feeds all; whose self-same mettle, Whereof thy proud child, arrogant man, is puff'd, Engenders the black toad, and adder blue, The gilded newt, and eyeless venom'd worm,* With all the abhorred births below crifp heaven3 - find it fuch,] For the infertion of the pronoun -fuch, I am anfwerable. It is too frequently used on fimilar occafions by our author, to need exemplification. STEEVENS. 9 Whose womb unmeasurable, and infinite breaft,] This image is taken from the ancient ftatues of Diana Ephefia Multimammia, called παναίολος φύσις πάντων μήτηρ; and is a very good comment on those extraordinary figures. See Montfaucon, l'Antiquité expliquée, Lib. III. ch. xv. Hefiod, alluding to the fame represen tations calls the earth, ΓΑΙ ΕΥΡΥΣΤΕΡΝΟΣ. WARBURTON. Whofe infinite breast means no more than whose boundless furface. Shakspeare probably knew nothing of the ftatue to which the com. mentator alludes. STEEVENS. 2 eyeless venom'd worm, ] The ferpent, which we, from the fmallness of his eyes, call the blind-worm, and the Latins, cæcilia. So, in Macbeth: 3 JOHNSON. "Adder's fork, and blindworm's fting. ' STEEVENS. from the Latin crypta, a vault. WARBURTON. " JOHNSON, |
