Distinguish him from others, he did keep IMO. Thou should'st have made him As little as a crow, or less, ere left To after-eye him. PIS. Madam, so I did. IMO. I would have broke mine eye-strings; crack'd them, but To look upon him; till the diminution Of space had pointed him sharp as my needle": eleventh book of Ovid's Metamorphosis. See Golding's translation, p. 146, b. &c. : "She lifting up hir watrie eies beheld her husband stand Upon the hatches making signes by becking with his hand: "And she made signes to him againe. And after that the land "Was farre removed from the ship, and that the sight began "To be unable to discerne the face of any man, "As long as ere she could she lookt upon the rowing keele. "And when she could no longer time for distance ken it weele, "She looked still upon the sailes that flasked with the wind Upon the mast. And when she could the sailes no longer find, 66 "She gate hir to hir emtie bed with sad and sorie hart," &c. STEEVENS. 4 As little as a crow, or less,] This comparison may be illustrated by the following in King Lear: 5 66 the crows that wing the midway air, "Show scarce so gross as beetles." STEEVENS. till the diminution OF SPACE had pointed him sharp as my needle:] The diminution of space, is the diminution of which space is the cause. Trees are killed by a blast of lightning, that is, by blasting, not blasted lightning. JOHNSON. Have turn'd mine eye, and wept.-But, good Pisanio, When shall we hear from him? PIS. With his next vantage Be assur'd, madam, Imo. I did not take my leave of him, but had Most pretty things to say: ere I could tell him, How I would think on him, at certain hours, Such thoughts, and such; or I could make him swear The shes of Italy should not betray Mine interest, and his honour; or have charg'd him, At the sixth hour of morn, at noon, at midnight, I am in heaven for him; or ere I could 6 next VANTAGE.] Next opportunity. JOHNSON. So, in The Merry Wives of Windsor: "And when the doctor spies his vantage ripe," &c. STEEVENS. encounter me with orisons,] i. e. meet me with reciprocal prayer. So, in Macbeth : 66 See, they encounter thee with their hearts' thanks.” 8 I am in heaven for him ;] My solicitations ascend to heaven on his behalf. STEEVENS. Give him that parting kiss, which I had set Betwixt two charming words,] Dr. Warburton pronounces as absolutely as if he had been present at their parting, that these two charming words were adieu Posthumus; but as Mr. Edwards has observed," she must have understood the language of love very little, if she could find no tenderer expression of it, than the name by which every one called her husband." STEEVENS. I like the tyrannous breathing of the north, SHAKES all Our BUDS from growing.] i. e. our buds of love, Enter a Lady. LADY. The queen, madam, Desires your highness' company. IMO. Those things I bid you do, get them de spatch'd. I will attend the queen. PIS. Madam, I shall. [Exeunt. as our author has elsewhere expressed it. Dr. Warburton, because the buds of flowers are here alluded to, very idly reads― "Shakes all our buds from blowing." The buds of flowers undoubtedly are meant, and Shakspeare himself has told us in Romeo and Juliet that they grow: "This bud of love, by summer's ripening breath 66 May prove a beauteous flower, when next we meet." MALONE. A bud without any distinct idea, whether of flower or fruit, is a natural representation of any thing incipient or immature; and the buds of flowers, if flowers are meant, grow to flowers, as the buds of fruits grow to fruits. JOHNSON. Dr. Warburton's emendation may in some measure be confirmed by those beautiful lines in The Two Noble Kinsmen, which I have no doubt were written by Shakspeare. Emilia is speaking of a rose : "It is the very emblem of a maid. "For when the west wind courts her gentily, "How modestly she blows and paints the sun "With her chaste blushes ?-when the north comes near her "Rude and impatient, then like chastity, "She locks her beauties in the bud again, "And leaves him to base briars." FARMER. I think the old reading may be sufficiently supported by the following passage in the 18th Sonnet of our author: Rough winds do shake the darling buds of May.” Again, in The Taming of the Shrew : "Confounds thy fame, as whirlwinds shake fair buds." Lyly, in his Euphues, 1581, as Mr. Holt White observes, has a similar expression: "The winde shaketh off the blossome, as well as the fruit," STEEVENS. SCENE V. Rome. An Apartment in PHILARIO'S House. Enter PHILARIO, LACHIMO2, a Frenchman, a Dutchman, and a Spaniard3. IACH. Believe it, sir: I have seen him in Britain: he was then of a crescent note; expected to prove so worthy, as since he hath been allowed the name of: but I could then have looked on him without the help of admiration; though the catalogue of his endowments had been tabled by his side, and I to peruse him by items. PHI. You speak of him when he was less furnished, than now he is, with that which makes him both without and within. 4 FRENCH. I have seen him in France: we had very many there, could behold the sun with as firm eyes as he. IACH. This matter of marrying his king's daughter, (wherein he must be weighed rather by her 2 - Iachimo,] The name of Giacomo occurs in The Two Gentlemen of Venice, a novel, which immediately follows that of Rhomeo and Julietta in the second tome of Painter's Palace of Pleasure. MALONE. 3 — a DUTCHMAN, and a SPANIARD.] Thus the old copy; but Mynheer, and the Don, are mute characters. Shakspeare, however, derived this circumstance from whatever translation of the original novel he made use of. Thus, in the ancient one described in our Prolegomena to this drama: "Howe iiii merchauntes met all togyther in on way, whyche were of iiii dyverse landes," &c. STEEVENS. 4 MAKES him-] In the sense in which we say, This will make or mar you. JOHNSON. So, in Othello: 66 This is the night "Tha either makes me, or for does me quite." STEEVENS. Makes him, in the text, means forms him. M. MASON. value, than his own,) words him, I doubt not, a great deal from the matter". FRENCH. And then his banishment : IACH. Ay, and the approbation of those, that weep this lamentable divorce, under her colours 6, are wonderfully to extend him'; be it but to fortify her judgment, which else an easy battery might lay flat, for taking a beggar without less quality. 5 - words him,-a great deal from the matter,] Makes the description of him very distant from the truth. JOHNSON. 6 under her colours,] Under her banner; by her influence. JOHNSON. 7 and the APPROBATION of those,—ARE wonderfully to extend him ;] This grammatical inaccuracy is common in Shakspeare's plays. So, in Julius Cæsar : "The posture of your blows are yet unknown." See vol. xii. p. 134, and vol. iv. p. 389. The modern editors, however, read-approbations. Extend has here the same meaning as in a former scene. p. 8, n. 4. MALONE. See I perceive no inaccuracy on the present occasion. "This matter of his marrying his king's daughter,"-" and then his banishment;"- -" and the approbation of those," &c. are (i. e. all these circumstances united) wonderfully to extend him." 66 STEEVENS. 8 - without LESS quality.] Whenever less or more is to be joined with a verb denoting want, or a preposition of a similar import, Shakspeare never fails to be entangled in a grammatical inaccuracy, or rather, to use words that express the very contrary of what he means. In a note on Antony and Cleopatra, I have proved this incontestably, by comparing a passage similar to that in the text with the words of Plutarch on which it is formed. The passage is : 66 I-condemn myself to lack "The courage of a woman, less noble mind "Than she-." Again, in The Winter's Tale : 66 I ne'er heard yet "That any of these bolder vices wanted Again, in King Lear: 66 I have hope "You less know how to value her deserts |