411. Both take and give.] This speech should rather be given to Menelaus. TYRWHITT. 412. I'll make my match to live.] I believe this means-I'll lay my life. TYRWHITT. 426. Why, beg then.] For the sake of rhime we should read, Why beg two. If you think kisses worth begging, beg more than one. 436. JOHNSON. motive of her body.] Motive, for part that contributes to motion. 438. courtship. make a prey. JOHNSON. -a coasting- -] An amorous address; JOHNSON. 441. -sluttish spoils of opportunity,] Corrupt wenches, of whose chastity every opportunity may JOHNSON. 454. 'Tis done like Hector; but securely done,] In the sense of the Latin, securus-securus admodum de bello, animi securi homo. A negligent security, arising from a contempt of the object opposed. WARBURTON. Dr. Warburton truly observes, that the word securely is here used in the Latin sense: and Mr. Warner, in his ingenious letter to Mr. Garrick, thinks this sense peculiar to Shakspere, "for," says he, "I have not been able to trace it elsewhere." This gentleman has treated me with so much civility, that I am bound in honour to remove his difficulty. It is to be found in the last act of the Spanish Tragedy: "O damned "O damned devil! how secure he is." In my lord Bacon's Essay on Tumults, "neither let any prince or state be secure concerning discontents.” And besides these, in Drayton, Fletcher, and the vulgar translation of the Bible. Mr. Warner had as little success in his researches for the word religion, in its Latin acceptation. I meet with it, however, in Hoby's translation of Castilio, 1561;"Some be so scrupulous, as it were, with a religion of this their Tuscane tung.” Ben Jonson, more than once, uses both the substantive and the adjective in this sense. As to the word Cavalero, with the Spanish termination, it is to be found in Heywood, Withers, Davies, Taylor, and many other writers. FARMER. Aga. 'Tis done like Hector, but securely done,] It seems absurd to me, that Agamemnon should make a remark to the disparagement of Hector for pride, and that Æneas should immediately say, If not Achil les, sir, what is your name? To Achilles I have venured to place it; and consulting Mr. Dryden's alte gation of this play, I was not a little pleased to find, shat I had but seconded the opinion of that great man in this point. THEOBALD. As the old copies agree, I have made no change. JOHNSON, 462. Valour and pride excel themselves in Hector;] Shakspere's thought is not exactly deduced. Nicety of expression is not his character. The meaning is plain: "Valour (says Æneas) is in Hector greater than valour in other men, and pride in Hector is less than pride in other men. So that Hector is distinguished by the excellence of having pride less than other pride, and valour more than other valour." JOHNSON. 486. -an impair thought-] A thought unsuitable to the dignity of his character. JOHNSON. So, in Chapman's preface to his translation of the Shield of Homer, 1598: "nor is it more impaire to an honest and absolute man," &c. STEEVENS. -488. -Hector- -subscribes way. To tender objects;-] That is, yields, gives JOHNSON. So, in King Lear, subscrib'd his power, i. e. sub (On whose bright crest Fame, with her loud'st O yes, Cries, This is he) could promise to himself, &c.] I think, that by Neoptolemus the author meant Achilles himself; and remembering that the son was Pyrrhus Neoptolemus, considered Neoptolemus as the nomen gentilitium, and thought the father was likewise Achilles Neoptolemus. JOHNSON. Shakspere might have used Neoptolemus for Achilles. Wilfride Holme, the author of a poem called The Fall and evil Successe of Rebellion, &c. 1537, had had made the same mistake before him, as the following stanza will shew : "Also the triumphant Troyans victorious, "By Anthenor and Æneas false confederacie, "Sending Polidamus to Neoptolemus, "Who was vanquished and subdued by their conspiracie. “O dolorous fortune, and fatal miserie ! "For multitude of people was there mortificate "With condigne Priamus, and all his progenie, "And flagrant Polixene, that lady delicate." In Lydgate, however, Achilles, Neoptolemus, and Pyrrhus, are distinct characters. Neoptolemus is enumerated among the Grecian princes who first embarked to revenge the rape of Helen: "The valiant Grecian called Neoptolemus, "That had his haire as blacke as any jet," &c. p. 102. and Pyrrhus, very properly, is not heard of till after the death of his father: "Sith that Achilles in such traiterous wise In the margin of Phaer's translation of Virgil, (Æn. II.) a book that Shakspere certainly had read, Neoptolemus and Pyrrhus are called brothers. MALONE. 534. We'll answer it ;] That is, answer the expectance. JOHNSON. 545- -your knights.] The word knight, as often as it occurs, is sure to bring with it the idea of chivalry, and revives the memory of Amadis and his fantastick followers, rather than that of the mighty confederates who fought on either side in the Trojan war. I wish that eques and armiger could have been rendered by any other words than knight and 'squire. Mr. Pope, in his translation of the Iliad, is very liberal of the latter. STEEVENS. 550. Worthy of arms!] Folio. Worthy all arms! Quarto. The quarto has only the two 'first, second, and the last line of this salutation; the intermediate verses seem added on a revision. JOHNSON. 564. Men.] The author of THE REMARKS Supposes this speech to belong to Eneas. REED. 566. Mock not, &c.] The quarto has here a strange corruption: Mock not thy affect, the untraded earth. JOHNSON. 575. Despising many forfeits and subduements,] Thus the quarto. The folio reads, And seen thee scorning forfeits and subduements. JOHN'SON. 594. As they contend- -] This line is not in the quarto, JOHNSON. 619. I shall forestall thee, lord Ulysses, thou!-] The repetition of thou! was anciently used by one who meant to insult another. So, in Twelfth Night: "if thou thou'st him some thrice, it shall not be amiss." Again, in The Tempest: Thou ly'st, thou jesting monkey, thou!" |