As I weigh grief, which I would fpare: for honour, 'Tis a derivative from me to mine,' And only that I ftand for. I appeal To your own confcience,' fir, before Polixenes With what encounter fo uncurrent I Have ftrain'd, to appear thus: if one jot beyond 9 I would spare:] To Spare any thing is to let it go, to quit the poffeffion of it. JOHNSON. 2 'Tis a derivative from me to mine,] This fentiment, which is probably borrowed from Ecclefiafticus, iii. 11. cannot be too often impreffed on the female mind: "The glory of a man is from the honour of his father; and a mother in dishonour, is a reproach unto her children." STEEVENS. 3 I appeal To your own confcience, &c.] So, in Doraftus and Faunia, "How I have led my life before Egifthus' coming, I appeal, Pandofto, to the Gods, and to thy confcience." MALONE. 4 -fince he came, With what encounter fo uncurrent I Have frain'd, to appear thus:] Thefe lines I do not underftand; with the licence of all editors, what I cannot understand I fuppofe unintelligible, and therefore propofe that they may be altered thus: -Since he came, With what encounter so uncurrent have I At least I think it might be read: With what encounter fo uncurrent have I JOHNSON. The fenfe feems to be this:what fudden flip have 1 made, that Ifhould catch a wrench in my character: So, in Timon of Athens: 66 — a noble nature May catch a wrench." An uncurrent encounter feems to mean an irregular, unjustifiable Congrefs. Perhaps it may be a metaphor from tilting, in which the fhock of meeting adverfaries was fo called. Thus, in Drayton's Legend of T. Cromwell E. of Effex: Yet these encounters thrust me not awry," The bound of honour; or, in act, or will, The fenfe would then be:In what bafe reciprocation of love have I caught this ftrain? Uncurrent is what will not pass, and is, at prefent, only applied to money. Mrs. Ford talks of fome ftrain in her character, and in Beaumont and Fletcher's Cuftom of the Country, the fame expreffion occurs: frain your loves "With any bafe; or hir'd perfuafions." To ftrain, I believe, means to go awry. So, in the 6th song of Drayton's Polyolbion: "As wantonly fhe ftrains in her lafcivious courfe." Drayton is fpeaking of the irregular courfe of the river Wye. STEEVENS The bounds of honour, which are mentioned immediately after, juftify Mr. Steevens in fuppofing the imagery to have been taken from tilting. HENLEY. Johnson thinks it neceffary for the sense, to tranfpofe these words and read, "With what encounter fo uncurrent have I ftrained to appear thus?" But he could not have propofed that alteration, had he confidered, with attention, the conftruction of the paffage, which runs thus: "I appeal to your own confcience, with what encounter," &c. That is, "I appeal to your own confcience to declare with what encounter fo uncurrent I have ftrained to appear thus." He was probably misled by the point of interrogation at the end of the fentence, which ought not to have been there. M. MASON. The precife meaning of the word encounter in this paffage may be gathered from our author's use of it elsewhere: "Who hath "Confefs'd the vile encounters they have had "A thousand times in fecret." Much ado about Nothing. Hero and Borachio are the perfons fpoken of. Again, in Meafure for Meafure: "We fhall advise this wronged maid to ftead up your appointment, go in your place: if the encounter acknowledge itself hereafter, it may compel him to her recompence." Again, in Cymbeline: "found no oppofition "But what he look'd for fhould oppofe, and the As, to pafs or utter money that is not current, is contrary to law, I believe our author in the prefent paffage, with his accustomed licence, ufes the word uncurrent as fynonymous to unlawful. I have ftrain'd, may perhaps mean-I have fwerved or deflected from the strict line of duty. So, in Romeo and Juliet: Of all that hear me, and my near'st of kin LEON. I ne'er heard yet, That any of these bolder vices wanted Lefs impudence to gainfay what they did, Than to perform it firft.' HER. Though 'tis a faying, fir, not due to me. That's true enough; More than mistress of, LEON. You will not own it. HER. Which comes to me in name of fault, I must not At all acknowledge. For Polixenes, (With whom I am accus'd,) I do confess, I lov'd him, as in honour he requir'd; 6 "Nor aught fo good, but ftrain'd from that fair use, Again, in our author's 140th Sonnet: "Bear thine eyes ftraight, though thy proud heart go wide." A bed-fwerver has already occurred in this play. "To appear thus," is, to appear in fuch an affembly as this; to be put on my trial. MALONE. 5 I ne'er heard yet, That any of thefe bolder vices wanted Lefs impudence to gain-fay what they did, Than to perform it firft.] It is apparent that according to the proper, at leaft according to the prefent, ufe of words, lefs fhould be more, or wanted should be had. But Shakspeare is very uncertain in his ufe of negatives. It may be neceffary once to obferve, that in our language, two negatives did not originally affirm, but ftrengthen the negation. This mode of fpeech was in time changed, but, as the change was made in oppofition to long cuftom, it proceeded gradually, and uniformity was not obtained but through an intermediate confufion. JOHNSON. Examples of the fame phrafeology (as Mr. Malone obferves,) occur in this play, p. 31; in Antony and Cleopatra, Act IV. fc. xii. and in King Lear, Act II. fc. iv; and (as Mr. Ritfon adds) in Macbeth, A&t ÏII. fc. vi. STEEVENS. 6 For Polixenes, (With whom I am accus'd,) I do confefs I lov'd him, as in honour he requir'd; &c.] So, in Doraftus With fuch a kind of love, as might become To you, and toward your friend; whofe love had spoke, Even fince it could fpeak, from an infant, freely, I know not how it taftes; though it be difh'd Is, that Camillo was an honeft man; And, why he left your court, the gods themselves, Wotting no more than I, are ignorant. LEON. You knew of his departure, as you know What you have underta'en to do in his abfence. HER. Sir, You fpeak a language that I understand not: Which I'll lay down. LEON. your dreams," Your actions are my dreams; You had a bastard by Polixenes, and Faunia: "What hath passed between him and me, the Gods only know, and I hope will presently reveale. That I lov'd Egifthus, I cannot denie; "that I honour'd him, I shame not to confefs.But as touching lascivious luft, I fay Egifthus is honeft, and hope myfelf to be found without fpot. For Franion, [Camillo,] I can neither accufe him nor excufe him. I was not privie to his depar ture. And that this is true which I have here rehearsed, I refer myfelfe to the divine oracle." MALONE. "My life ftands in the level of your dreams,] To be in the level is, by a metaphor from archery, to be within the reach. JOHNSON. This metaphor, (as both Mr. Douce and Mr. Ritfon have already obferved,) is from gunnery. See p.65, n. 4. So, in King Henry VIII: I ftood i'th level "Of a full charg'd confederacy." STEEVENS. And I but dream'd it :-As you were paftall fhame, Thy brat hath been caft out, like to itself, HER. Sir, fpare your threats; The bug, which you would fright me with, I feek. To me can life be no commodity: The crown and comfort of my life, your favour, As you were paft all shame, (Thofe of your fact are so,) so past all truth :] I do not remember that fact is used any where abfolutely for guilt, which must be its fenfe in this place. Perhaps we should read: Thofe of your pack are fo. Pack is a low coarse word well fuited to the reft of this royal invective. JOHNSON. I fhould guefs fect to be the right word. See King Henry IV. P. II. Act II. fc. iv. "It In Middleton's Mad World, my Mafters, a Courtezan fays: is the cafieft art and cunning for our feet to counterfeit fick, that are always full of fits when we are well." FARMER. Thus, Falstaff, fpeaking of Dol Tearsheet: " So is all her fet: if they be once in a calm, they are fick." Thofe of your fact may, however, mean-those who have done as you do. STEEVENS. That fact is the true reading, is proved decifively from the words of the novel, which our author had in his mind, both here, and in a former paffage [" I ne'er heard yet, That any of these bolder vices," &c.]: "And as for her [said Pandofto] it was her part to deny fuch a monstrous crime, and to be impudent in forfwearing the fact, fince she had paffed all shame in committing the fault.' MALONE. Which to deny, concerns more than avails:] It is your business to deny this charge, but the mere denial will be ufclefs; will prove nothing. MALONE. 9 The crown and comfort of my life,] The fupreme bleffing of my life. So, in Cymbeline: "O that hufband! "My fupreme crown of grief." MALONE. |