Abbildungen der Seite
PDF
EPUB

reading; from no authority, I prefume: All the copies, that I have seen, have it; to think but nobly-i. e. otherwise than nobly; according to our Author's ufage. So, in Much Ado about Nothing ;

[ocr errors]

I know not; if they speak but truth of her,
These hands fhall tear her,

And fo in Timon;

I to bear this,

That never knew but better, is fome burden.
&c. &c.

L. 2. Good wombs have bore bad fons.

THEOB.*

Pro. Now, the condition :] Thus have all the editions divided these speeches; but, tho' I have not attempted to regulate them otherwise, I have great fufpicion, that our Author plac'd them thus ;

Pro. Good wombs have bore bad fons.-Now, the condition: How could Miranda, that came into this defart ifland an infant, that had never feen any other creatures of the world, but her father and Caliban, with any propriety be furnish'd to make fuch an observation from life, that the iffue has often degenerated from the parent? But it comes very properly from Profpero, as a fhort document, by the by, to his daughter; implying, "that she did very well to think with honour "of her ancestor; for that it was common in life, for good "people to have bad children." THEOB.*

Ibid.] Mr. Theobald's reafon is frivolous. Profpero tells us, he had educated her more carefully than ufual. Would he then fuffer her to be ignorant of the most common cafes in human life? Yet the Oxford Editor follows Mr. Theobald. WARE.*

P. 12. L. 12. When I have DECK'D the fea.] i. e. honour'd. But this is a poor thought. The Oxford Editor reads brack'd, which is ftill poorer. I imagine Shakespeare wrote MOCK'D, i. e. lent the fea this trifling addition of falt-water: for when any thing is given or added, the effect of which is not felt or perceived, it was in the language of that time properly called mocking. WARB.

Ibid.] To deck the fea, if explained, to honour, adorn, or dignify, is indeed ridiculous, but the original import of the verb deck, is to cover; fo in fome parts they yet say deck the table. This fenfe may be borne; but perhaps the poet wrote fleck'd, which, I think, is still used of drops falling upon JOHNSON and Rev.

water.

P. 12. L. 29. Pro. Now I arife:] i. e. now I come to the principal part of my ftory, for the fake of which I told the foregoing; namely this, that I have now my enemies in my power; and if I cmit this opportunity, I fhall never have another to recover my dukedom. The word is used to ufher in a matter of importance. So Richard III. when he comes to the murder of his nephews, fays to Tirrel,

-Rife, and lend an ear.

WARB.*

Ibid.] I am perfuaded not a single inftance can be produced where the word arife is ufed in the fignification here attributed to it. In the paffage quoted from Rich. III. it may be understood in its natural and obvious meaning. REVISAL.*

P. 13. L. 14.] Dr. Warburton rightly obferves, that this fleepiness which Profpero by his art had brought on Miranda, and of which he knew not how foon the effect would begin, makes him queftion her fo often whether she is attentive to his story. JOHNSON. L. 27.] The beak was a ftrong pointed body at the head of the antient gallies: it is used here for the forecastle, or the boltsprit.

JOHNSON. P. 14. L. 1. the wafte.] The part between the quarter-deck and the forecastle.

JOHNSON. L. 15. fever of the mad.] In all the later editions this is changed to fever of the mind, without reason or authority, nor any notice given of an alteration. JOHNSON.

is

P. 15. 1. 8. From the fill-vext Bermoothes.] So this word has hitherto been mistakenly written in all the books. There are about 400 islands in North America, the principal of which was call'd Bermuda from a Spaniard of that name who first discover'd them.-But why, fill-vext Bermudas ? These islands are fo furrounded with rocks on all fides, that without a perfect knowledge of the paffage, a small veffe! cannot be brought to haven. They are fubject to violent

forms, fometimes with terrible clattering of thunder, and difmal flashing of lightning. This, I take it, might be a fufficient foundation for our Author's ufing the epithet fill-vext. THEOB.*

Ibid.] This is the Spanish pronunciation of Bermudas HANMER.*

Ibid.] Theobald fays Bermoo hes is printed by miftake for Bermudas. No. That was the name by which the iflands then went, as we may fee by the voyagers of that time; and by the author's contemporary poets. Fletcher, in his WOMAN PLEASED, The Devil fhould think of purchafing that eggshell to victual out a witch for the Bermoothes. Smith, in his account of these islands, p. 172. fays, that the Bermudas was fo fearful to the whole world, that many called them the Ifle of Devils. p. 174. to all feamen no lefs terrible than an inchanted den of furies. And no wonder, for the clime was extremely fubect to ftorms and hurricanes; and the islands were furrounded with fcattered rocks lying shallowly hid under the furface of the water.

P. 15. L. 19. Pro. What is the time o' th' day?

Ari. Paft the mid feafon.
Pro. At least trvo glaffes.

WARB.

In this reading, both the queftion and the anfwer are made
impertinently. Profpero afks what time of day it was, when
he knew it was two glaffes paft the mid season.
The question and reply fhould be divided thus,
Pro. What is the time o' th' day?

Ari. Paft the mid feafon, at least, tavo glaffes.
UPTON and WARE.

Ibid.] This paffage needs not be disturbed, it being common to ask a question which the next moment enables us to answer; he that thinks it faulty may easily adjust it thus:

Profp. What is the time o' th' day? Paft the mid feafon?
Ari. At least two glaffes.

JOHNSON.

Profp. The time 'twixt fix and now——————--P. 16. L. 3. That the character and conduct of Profpero may be understood, fomething must be known of the fyftem of enchantment, which fupplied all the marvellous found in the romances of the middle ages. This fyftem feems to be

founded on the opinion that the fallen fpirits, having different degrees of guilt, had different habitations allotted them at their expulfion, fome being confined in hell, fome, as Hooker, who delivers the opinion of our poet's age, expreffes it, difperfed in air, fome on Earth, fome in water, others in dens or minerals under the earth. Of these some were more malignant and mischievous than others. The earthy seem to have been thought the most depraved, and the aerial the least vitiated. Thus Profpero obferves of Ariel,

saves,

Thou waft a fpirit too delicate

To act her earthy and abborr'd commands.

Over these spirits a power might be obtained by certain rites performed or charms learned. This power was called the Black Art, or Knowlege of Enchantment. The enchanter being, as king James obferves in his Demonology, one who commands the devil, whereas the witch ferves him. Those who thought beft of this art, the existence of which was, I am afraid, believed very seriously, held that certain founds and characters had a phyfical power over fpirits, and compelled their agency; others who condemned the practice, which in reality was furely never practifed, were of opinion, with more reason, that the power of charms arofe only from compact, and was no more than the fpirits voluntarily allowed them for the feduction of man. The art was held by all, tho' not equally criminal yet unlawful, and therefore Cafaubon, fpeaking of one who had commerce with fpirits, blames him, though he imagines him one of the beft kind who dealt with them by way of command. Thus Profpero repents of his art in the last scene. The fpirits were always confidered as in fome measure enflaved to the enchanter, at leaft for a time, and as ferving with unwillingness, therefore Ariel fo often begs for liberty; and Caliban obferves that the spirits ferve Profpero with no good will, but hate him rootedly. Of these trifles enough, JOHNSON.

P. 18. L. 5. The frangeness.] Why fhould a wonderful ftory produce fleep? I believe experience will prove that any violent agitation of the mind easily subsides in flumber, efpeIcially when, as in Profpero's relation, the laft images are pleafing. JOHNSON.

P. 19. L. 1. As wicked dew, as e'er my mother brush'd
With raven's feather from unwholfome fen,

Drop on you both.] Shakespeare hath very artificially given the air of the antique to the language of Caliban in order to heighten the grotefque of his character. As here he uses wicked for uncuholfome. So Sir John Maundevil, in his travels, p. 334. Edit. Lond. 1725. -at alle tymes brennetbe a veffelle of Criftalle fulle of Bawme for to zeven gode fmelle and odour to the emperour, and to voyden awey alle wYKKEDE eyres and corrupciouns. It was a tradition, it seems, that Lord Falkland, Lord C. J. Vaughan, and Mr.-Selden concurred in observing, that Shakespeare had not only found out a new character in his Caliban, but had also devised and adapted a new manner of language for that character. What they meant by it, without doubt, was, that Shakespeare gave his language a certain grotesque air of the favage and antique; which it certainly has. But Dr. Bentley took this, of a new language,, literally; for fpeaking of a phrafe in Milton, which he supposed altogether abfurd and unmeaning, he says, Satan had not the privilege as Caliban in Shakespeare, to use new phrafe and diction unknown to all others and again-to practife diftances is ftill a Caliban file. Note on Milton's Paradife Loit, 1.4. v. 945. But I know of no fuch Caliban ftile in Shakespeare that hath new phrase and diction unknown to all others. WARB,

Ibid.] Whence these criticks derived the notion of a new language appropriated to Caliban I canot find: They certainly miftook brutality of fentiment for uncouthness of words. Caliban had learned to speak of Profpero and his daughter, he had no names for the fun and moon before their arrival, and could not have invented a language of his own without more understanding than Shakespeare has thought it proper to bestow upon him. His diction is indeed fomewhat clouded by the gloominefs of his temper and the malignity of his purposes; but let any other being entertain the fame thoughts and he will find them eafily iffue in the fame expreffions. JOHNSON. As wicked dew.] Wicked; having baneful qualities. So Spenfer fays wicked weed, fo, in oppofition, we fay herbs or

« ZurückWeiter »