The cognizance of her incontinency Is this, she hath bought the name of whore thus dearly. There, take thy hire; and all the fiends of hell divide themselves between you! PHI. This is not strong enough to be believ'd Of one persuaded well of―― POST. She hath been colted by him. IACH. Sir, be patient: Never talk on't; If you seek For further satisfying, under her breast (Worthy the pressing*,) lies a mole, right proud Of that most delicate lodging: By my life, I kiss'd it; and it gave me present hunger POST. If you will swear you have not done't, you lie ; Thou hast made me cuckold. 3 The COGNIZANCE-] The badge; the token; the visible proof. JOHNSON. So, in King Henry VI. Part I.: "As cognizance of my blood-drinking hate." STEEVENS. 4 (Worthy THE pressing,)] Thus the modern editions. The old folio reads: 66 JOHNSON. (Worthy her pressing,)" The correction was made by Mr. Rowe. The compositor was probably thinking of the word her in the preceding line, which he had just composed. MALONE. Ілсн. I will deny nothing. POST. O, that I had her here, to tear her limb meal! I will go there, and do't; i' the court; before PHI. [Exit. Quite besides The government of patience!-You have won : Let's follow him, and pervert the present wrath 5 He hath against himself. POST. Is there no way for men to be, but women Must be half-workers 6? We are all bastards'; 5 PERVERT the present wrath -] i. e. turn his wrath to another course. MALONE. To pervert, I believe, only signifies to avert his wrath from himself, without any idea of turning it against another person. To what other course it could have been diverted by the advice of Philario and Iachimo, Mr. Malone has not informed us. STEEVENS. If they turned the wrath he had against himself to patience or fortitude, they would turn it to another course; I had not said a word about turning it against any other person. MALONE. 6 Is there no way, &c.] Milton was very probably indebted to this speech for one of the sentiments which he has imparted to Adam, Paradise Lost, book x. : 66 O, why did God, "Creator wise, that peopled highest heaven "With spirits masculine, create at last "This novelty on earth, this fair defect "Of nature, and not fill the world at once And that most venerable man, which I Did call my father, was I know not where When I was stamp'd; some coiner with his tools The nonpareil of this.-O vengeance, vengeance! Might well have warm'd old Saturn; that I thought her See also, Rhodomont's invective against women, in the Orlando Furioso; and above all, a speech which Euripides has put into the mouth of Hippolytus, in the tragedy that bears his name. STEEVENS 7 We are bastards all ;] Old copies—We are all bastards. The necessary transposition of the word-all, was Mr. Pope's. When I was STAMP'D; some COINER with his tools Made me a counterfeit :] We have again the same image in Measure for Measure: "To pardon him, that hath from nature stolen "A man already made, as to remit "Their saucy sweetness, that do coin heaven's image, This image is by no means uncommon. It particularly occurs in Burton's Anatomy of Melancholy, Part III. Sect. 3:" Severus the Emperor in his time made lawes for the restraint of this vice; and as Dion Cassius relates in his life, tria millia moechorum, three-thousand cuckold-makers, or naturæ monetam adulterantes, as Philo calls them, false coiners and clippers of nature's mony, were summoned into the court at once." STEEVENS. 9 Me of my lawful pleasure she restrain'd, A pudency so rosy, the sweet view on't Might well have warm'd old Saturn ;] A useless note on this speech [by Mr. Whalley,] which would make our poet equally vulgar and obscene, when he was expressing a sentiment of the most refined delicacy, may be well dispensed with in any future edition. DOUCE. I have not hesitated to adopt Mr. Douce's suggestion. Mr. Whalley's imaginations must have been “ as foul as Vulcan's As chaste as unsunn'd snow :-O, all the devils!- It is the woman's part: Be it lying, note it, All faults that may be nam'd", nay, that hell knows, stithy;" when he attempted to discover in this beautiful passage the language of a brothel. I BoSWELL. a German ONE,] Here, as in many other places, we have on in the old copy, instead of―one. See King John, Act III. Sc. III. In King Henry IV. Part II. Falstaff assures Mrs. Quickly, that "- the German hunting in water-work is worth a thousand of these bed-hangings." In other places, where our author has spoken of the hunting of the boar, a German one must have been in his thoughts, for the boar was never, I apprehend, hunted in England. Mr. Pope and Dr. Warburton read-a churning on; and, what is still more extraordinary, this strange sophistication has found its way into Dr. Johnson's most valuable Dictionary. MALOne. The copy of Shakspeare which Dr. Johnson made use of in selecting quotations for his Dictionary, was Dr. Warburton's edition it is now in my possession, and has occasioned more errors than that which is here pointed out. BOSWELL. 2 : - and MOUNTED :] Let Homer, on this occasion, keep our author in countenance : ̓Αρνειόν, ταῦρόν τε, συῶν τ' ἐπιβήτορα καπρον. Thus translated by Chapman : "A lambe, a bull, and sow-ascending bore." STEEVENS, 3 - that MAY BE NAM'D,] Thus the second folio. with its usual disposition to blundering: "All faults that name,' The first, Why, hers, in part, or all; but, rather, all: They are not constant, but are changing still Not half so old as that. I'll write against them, ACT III. SCENE 1. Britain. A Room of State in CYMBELINE'S Palace. Enter CYMBELINE, Queen, CLOTEN, and Lords, at one Door; and at another, CAIUS LUCIUS and Attendants. CYM. Now say, what would Augustus Cæsar with us ? Luc. When Julius Cæsar (whose remembrance yet Lives in men's eyes; and will to ears, and tongues, Be theme, and hearing ever,) was in this Britain, I have met with no instance in the English language, even tending to prove that the verb-to name, ever signified-to have a STEEVENS. name. to pray they have their will: 66 The very devils cannot plague them better.] So, in Sir Thomas More's Comfort against Tribulation : God could not lightly do a man more vengeance, than in this world to grant him his own foolish wishes." STEEVENS. Now say, what would Augustus Cæsar with us?] So, in King John: 66 Now say, Chatillon, what would France with us?" STEEVENS. |