MACB. Go, bid thy miftrefs, when my drink is. ready,+ She strike upon the bell. Get thee to bed. [Exit Servant. Is this a dagger, which I fee before me, The handle toward my hand? Come, let me clutch' thee: I have thee not; and yet I fee thee ftill. To feeling, as to fight? or art thou but As this which now I draw. Thou marshal'st me the way that I was going; Mine eyes are made the fools o'the other fenfes, And on thy blade, and dudgeon, gouts of blood," 4 when my drink is ready,] See note on " their possets," in the next fcene, p. 414. STEEVENS. 5 clutch-] This word, though reprobated by Ben Jonfon, who fneers at Decker for ufing it, was used by other writers befide Decker and our author. So, in Antonio's Revenge, by Marfton, 1602: "In the dull leaden hand of fnoring fleep." MALONE. And on thy blade, and dudgeon, gouts of blood,] Though dudgeon fometimes fignifies a dagger, it more properly means the haft or handle of a dagger, and is used for that particular fort of handle which has fome ornament carved on the top of it. Junius explains the dudgeon, i. e. haft, by the Latin expreffion, manubrium apiatum, which means a handle of wood, with a grain rough as if the feeds of parfly were ftrown over it. then So, in Lyly's comedy of Mother Bombie, 1594: have at the bag with the dudgeon hafte, that is, at the dudgeon dagger that hangs by his tantony pouch," In Soliman and Perfeda is the following paffage : Which was not fo before.-There's no fuch thing: It is the bloody business, which informs Thus to mine eyes.-Now o'er the one half world Nature feems dead,' and wicked dreams abuse " Typhon me no Typhons, But fwear upon my dudgeon dagger." Again, in Decker's Satiromaftix: "I am too well rank'd, Afinius, to be stabb'd with his dudgeon wit." Again, in Skialetheia, a collection of Epigrams, Satires, &c. 1598: "A dudgin dagger that's new fcowr'd and glaft." STEEVENS. Gascoigne confirms this: "The most knottie piece of box may be wrought to a fayre doogen hafte." Gouts for drops is frequent in old English. FARMER. -gouts of blood,] Or drops, French. POPE. Gouts is the technical term for the Spots on fome part of the plumage of a hawk: or perhaps Shakspeare ufed the word in allufion to a phrase in heraldry. When a field is charg'd or fprinkled with red drops, it is faid to be gutty of gules, or gutty de fang. 7 Now o'er the one half world STEEVENS. Nature feems dead,] That is, over our hemifphere all action and motion feem to have ceafed. This image, which is perhaps the most ftriking that poetry can produce, has been adopted by Dryden in his Conqueft of Mexico: All things are hufh'd as Nature's felf lay dead, Thefe lines, though fo well known, I have transcribed, that the contrast between them and this paffage of Shakspeare may be more accurately obferved. Night is defcribed by two great poets, but one defcribes a night of quiet, the other of perturbation. In the night of Dryden, all the difturbers of the world are laid afleep; in that of Shakspeare, nothing but forcery, luft, and murder, is awake. He that reads Dryden, finds himself lull'd with ferenity, and difpofed to folitude The curtain'd fleep; now witchcraft celebrates Whose howl's his watch, thus with his ftealthy pace, With Tarquin's ravishing strides, towards his de fign and contemplation. He that perufes Shakspeare, looks round alarmed, and starts to find himself alone. One is the night of a lover; the other, of a murderer. JOHNSON, Now o'er the one half world, &c.] So, in the fecond ""Tis yet dead night; yet all the earth is clutch'd "No breath disturbs the quiet of the air, "No fpirit moves upon the breast of earth, part of "Save howling dogs, night-crows, and fcreeching-owls, 66 "Unequal'd in revenge:-you horrid scouts 2 The curtain'd fleep; now witchcraft celebrates-] The word now has been added for the fake of metre. Probably Shakspeare wrote: The curtain'd fleeper. The folio fpells the word fleepe, and an addition of the letter r only, affords the propofed emendation. Milton has tranfplanted this image into his Mafque at Ludlow Caftle, v. 554 66 - fteeds "That draw the litter of close-curtain'd sleep.” STEEVENS. Mr. Steevens's emendation of "the curtain'd fleeper," is well intitled to a place in the text. It is clearly Shakspeare's own word. RITSON. So afterwards: -a hideous trumpet calls to parley "The fleepers of the houfe." Now was added by Sir William D'Avenant in his alteration of this play, published in 1674. MALONE. Moves like a ghoft.-Thou fure and firm-fet earth,+ 3 thus with his fealthy pace, With Tarquin's ravishing ftrides, towards his defign Moves like a ghoft.] The old copy-fides. STEEVENS. Mr. Pope changed fides to ftrides. MALONE. A ravishing fride is an action of violence, impetuofity, and tumult, like that of a favage rushing on his prey; whereas the poet is here attempting to exhibit an image of fecrecy and caution, of anxious circumfpection and guilty timidity, the ftealthy pace of a ravifher creeping into the chamber of a virgin, and of an affaffin approaching the bed of him whom he propofes to murder, without awaking him; these he defcribes as moving like ghofts, whose progreffion is fo different from ftrides, that it has been in all prefented to be as Milton expreffes it: "Smooth fliding without ftep." ages re This hemiftich will afford the true reading of this place, which is, I think, to be corrected thus: and wither'd murder, thus with his fealthy pace, With Tarquin ravishing, flides tow'rds his defign, Tarquin is in this place the general name of a ravisher, and the fenfe is Now is the time in which every one is a-fleep, but those who are employed in wickedness; the witch who is facrificing to Hecate, and the ravisher, and the murderer, who, like me, are ftealing upon their prey. When the reading is thus adjufted, he wishes with great propriety, in the following lines, that the earth may not hear his fteps. JOHNSON. I cannot agree with Dr. Johnson that a ftride is always an action of violence, impetuofity, or tumult. Spenfer ufes the word in his Faery Queen, B. IV. c. viii. and with no idea of violence annexed to it: "With easy steps fo foft as foot could firide." And as an additional proof that a ftride is not always a tumultuous effort, the following inftance, from Harrington's Translation of Ariofto, [1591,] may be brought: "He takes a long and leifurable ftride, "And longeft on the hinder foot he staid; he either fide Orlando Furiofo, 28th book, ftanza 63. Hear not my steps, which way they walk,' for fear Whoever has been reduced to the neceffity of finding his way about a house in the dark, muft know that it is natural to take large ftrides, in order to feel before us whether we have a safe footing or not. The ravisher and murderer would naturally take fuch frides, not only on the fame account, but that their steps might be fewer in number, and the found of their feet be repeated as feldom as poffible. STEEVENS. Mr. Steevens's obfervation is confirmed by many inftances that occur in our ancient poets. So, in a passage by J. Sylvefter, cited in England's Parnaffus, 1600: "Anon he talketh with an eafy ftride, By fome clear river's lillie-paved side.” Again, in our author's King Richard II : 66 Nay rather every tedious ftride I make—.” Thus also the Roman poets: veftigia furtim Sufpenfo digitis fert taciturna gradu." Ovid. Fafti. "Eunt taciti per mæsta filentia magnis "Paffibus." Statius, lib. x. It is obfervable, that Shak fpeare, when he has occafion, in his Rape of Lucrece, to describe the action here alluded to, uses a fimilar expreffion; and perhaps would have used the word ftride, if he had not been fettered by the rhime: "Into the chamber wickedly he ftalks." Plaufible, however, as this emendation may appear, the old read- "His fide paft fervice, and his courage spent." Again, in Martial: Tu tenebris gaudes; me ludere, tefte lucerna, Out poet may himself alfo furnish us with a confirmation of the old reading; for in Troilus and Creffida, we find You, like a lecher, out of whorish loins "Are pleas'd to breed out your inheritors." |
