which one in his wits could not but be suppo sed to make, he infers a communion of counses, and records it in the examination as an evidence of their guilt. SIR J. HAWKINS. If the learned annotator will amend his com ment by omitting the word guilt, and inserting the word innocence, it will (except as to the supposed inference of a communication of coun sels, which should likewise be omitted or cor rected), be a just and pertinent remark. RITSON. P. 70, last but one 1. Verg, Let them be in baud, I had conjectured that these words should be given to Verges, and read thus Let them bind their hands. I am still of opinion that the passage belongs to Verges; but, for the true reading of it, I should wish to adopt a much neater emendation, which has since been suggested to me in conversation by Mr. Steevens Let them be in band. Shakspeare, as he observed to me, commonly uses band for bond. TYRWHITT. It is plain that they were bound from a subse quent speech of Pedro:,,Whom have you offend ed, masters, that you are thus bound to your answer?" STEEVENS. Mr. Theobald gives these words to Conrade, and says But why the Sexton should be so pert upon his brother officers, there seems no reason from any superior qualifications in him; or any suspicion he shows of knowing their ignorance. This is strange. The Sexton through. out shows as good sense in their examination as any judge upon the bench could do. And as to his suspicion of their ignorance, he tells the Town Clerk, That he goes not the way to examine. The meanness of his name hindred our editor from seeing the goodness of his sense. But this Sexton was an ecclesiastic of one of the inferior orders called the sacristan, and not a brother officer, as the editor calls him. I suppose the book from whence the poet took his subject, was some old English novel translated from the Italian, where the word sacristano was rendered sexton. Dogberry would have them pinion'd. The Sexton says, it was sufficient if they were kept in safe custody, and then gots out. When one of the 'watchmen comes up to bind them, Conrade says, Off, çoxcomb as he says afterwards to the constable, Away! you are an ass. the editor adds, The old quarto gave me the first umbrage for placing it to Conrade. What these words mean I don't know: but I suspect the old quarto divides the passage as I have done. WARBURTON. But Theobald has fairly given the reading of the quario. Dr. Warburton's assertion, as to the dignity of a sexton or sacristan, may be supported by the following passage in Stanyhurst's Version of the fourth Book of the AEneid, where he calls Massylian priestess: ,, in soil Massyla begotten, STEEVENS. P. 72, 1. 7. And bid him speak of patience;] ,,And bid him speak to me of patience." Read, P. 72, 1. 13. Cry RITSON. Sorrow, wag! and hem, when he should groan;] The quarto 1600 and folio 1623, read ,,And sorrow, wagge, cry hem," etc. Mr. Rowe and Mr. Pope ,,Aud hallow, wag," etc. ,,And sorrow wage," etc. Sir Tho. Hanmer and Dr. Warburton ,,And sorrow waive," etc. Mr. Tyrwhitt ,,And sorrow gagge.", etc. Mr. Heath and Mr. T, Warton „And sorrowing cry hem," etc. I had inadvertently offered But I am persuaded that Dr. Johnson's explanation as well as arrangement of the original words, is apposite and just:,,I cannot (says he) but think the true meaning nearer than it is imagined. ,,If such a one will smile, and stroke his beard, ,,And, sorrow, wag! cry; hem, when he should groan, etc. That is,,,If he will smile, and cry sorrow be gone! and hem instead of groaning." The order in which and and cry are placed, is harsh, and this harshness made the sense mistaken. Range the words in the common order, and my reading will be free from all difficulty: If such a one will smile, and stroke his beard, Cry, sorrow, wag! and hem when he should Thus far Dr. Johnson; and in my opinion he has left succeeding criticks nothing to do respecting the passage before us. Let me, however, claim the honour of supporting his opinion. To cry Care away! was once an expression of triumph. So, in Acolastus, a comedy, 1540: ,, I may now say, Care awaye!“ Again, as Dr. Farmer observes to me, in George Withers's Philarete, 1622: ,,Why should we grieve or pine at that? ,,Hang sorrow! care will kill a cat." Sorrow go by! is also (as I am assured) a common exlamation of hilarity even at this time, in Scotland, Sorrow wag! might have been just such another. The verb, to wag, is several times used by our author in the sense of to go, ΟΙ pack off. The Prince, in the First Part of King Henry IV. Act II. sc. iv. says ,,They cry hem! and bid you play it off." And Mr. M. Mason obser ves that this expression also occurs in As you Like it, where Rosalind says These burs are in my heart; " and Celia replies ,,Hem them away." The foregoing examples sufficiently prove the exclamation hem, to have been of a comic turn. STEEVENS. P. 72, 1. 15. 16. make misfortune drunk With candle-wasters;] This may mean, either wash away his sorrow among those who sit up all night to drink, and in that sense may be styled wasters of candles; or overpower his misfortunes by swallowing flap-dragons in his glass, which are described by Falstaff as made of candle's ends. STEEVENS. This is a very difficult passage, and hath not, I think, been satisfactorily cleared up. The explanation I shall offer, will give, I believe, a little satisfaction; but I will, however, venture it. Candle-wasters is a term of contempt for scholars thus Jonson, in Cynthia's Revels, Act III. - se. ii: spoiled by a whoreson book-worm, a candle waster." The sense then, which I would assign to Shakspeare, is this:,,If such a one will patch grief with proverbs, -- case or cover the wounds of his grief with proverbial sayings; make misfortune drunk with candle-wasters, 'stupify misfortune, or render himself insensible to the strokes of it, by the conversation or lucubrations of scholars; the production of the lamp, but not fitted to human nature." Patch, in the sense of mending a defect or breach, occurs in Hamlet, Act V. sc. i: O, that that earth, which kept the world in awe, ,,Should patch a wall, to expel the winter's WHALLEY. flaw." P. 72, 1. 30. My griefs cry louder than advertisement.] That is, than admonition, than moral instruction. JOHNSON. P. 73, first 1. However they have writ the style of gods,] This alludes to the extravagant titles the Stoics gave their Sapiens ille cum Diis, ex pari, vivit. Jupiter quo antecedit virum wise men. bonum? diutius bonus est. Sapiens nihilo se Deus non vincit sapientem minoris aestimat. felicitate. Ep. 73. WARBURTON. Shakspeare might have used this expression, without any acquaintance with the hyperboles of stoicism. By the style of gods, he meant an exalted language; such as we may suppose would be written by beings superior to human calamities, and therefore regarding them with neglect and coldness. STEEVENS. |