Notes and Queries, Number 184, May 7, 1853 | Page 7

"reader" into such a mistake as that! The words "and sorrow wag," I admit, are not sense; but the substitution of "call sorrow joy" strikes me as bald and common-place in the extreme, and there is no pretence for its having any authority. If, then, we are to have a mere fanciful emendation, why not "bid sorrow wag?" This would be doing far less violence to the printed text, for it would only require the alteration of two letters in the word "and;" while it would preserve the Shakspearian character of the passage. "Wag" is a favourite expression in {451} the comedies of the Bard, and occurs repeatedly in his works. The passage would then run thus--
"If such a one will smile and stroke his beard, Bid sorrow wag--cry hem! when he should groan."
In p. 73. we find--
"Soul-tainted flesh," &c.
substituted for "foul tainted flesh;" and we are told that the critics have been all wrong, who supposed that Shakspeare intended any "metaphor from the kitchen!" If so, what meaning can be attached to the line--
"And salt too little which may season give?"
If that is not a metaphor from the kitchen, I know not what could be? I still believe that "foul tainted flesh" is the correct reading. The expression "soul-tainted flesh" is not intelligible. It should rather be "soul-tainting flesh." The soul may be tainted by the flesh: but how the flesh can be soul-tainted, I cannot understand.
Turning further back, to p. 69., we find it asserted, quite dogmatically, that the word "truths" of the folios ought to be "proofs;" but no reason whatever is offered for the change. I cannot help thinking that "seeming truths" is much the most poetical expression, while in "seeming proofs" there is something like redundancy,--to say nothing of the phrase being infinitely more common-place!
In the play of the Tempest, p. 4., the beautiful passage--
"he being thus lorded Not only with what my revenue yielded," &c.,
is degraded into "he being thus loaded," &c. Can there be a moment's doubt that "lorded" was the word used by Shakspeare? It is completely in his style, which was on all occasions to coin verbs out of substantives, if he could. "He being thus lorded," i. e. ennobled "with what my revenue yielded," is surely a far superior expression to "being thus loaded,"--as if the poet were speaking of a costermonger's donkey!
Again, in p. 10.:
"Wherefore this ghastly looking?"
or, this ghastly appearance? Who will venture to say, that the substitution of "thus ghastly looking" is not decidedly a change for the worse?
In the Merchant of Venice, p. 118.:
"and leave itself unfurnished,"
is altered to "leave itself unfinished!" I confess I cannot see the slightest warrant for this change. The words--
"having made one, Methinks IT should have power to steal both his,"
distinctly show that the author was alluding to the eye only, and not to the portrait and how could the eye (already made) describe itself as unfinished? Surely the sense is unfurnished, that is, unfurnished with its companion, or probably with the other accessories required to complete the portrait.
P. 119. has the line--
"And swearing 'til my very roof was dry,"
transmogrified into--
"And swearing 'til my very tongue was dry."
Now, why "this lame and impotent conclusion?" What can be a more common expression than the "roof of the mouth?" and it is just the part which is most affected by a sensation of dryness and pricking, after any excitement in speaking, whereas the tongue is not the member that suffers!
In As You Like It, p. 127., in the line--
"Mistress dispatch you with your safest haste,"
the last two words are made "fastest haste," which, to say the least, are tautology, and are like talking, of the "highest height", or the the "deepest depth!" Surely, the original form of words, "Dispatch you with your safest haste;" that is, with as much haste as is consistent with your personal safety--is much more dignified and polished address from the duke to a lady, and at the same time more poetical!
In p. 129.,
"The constant service of the antique world,"
is converted into
"The constant favour of the antique world:"
in which line I cannot discover any sense. If I might hazard a guess, I should suggest that the error is in the second word, "service," and that it ought to be "servants:"
"When servants sweat for duty, not for meed."
In the Taming of the Shrew, p. 143., the substitution of "Warwickshire ale" for "sheer ale" strikes me as very far-fetched, and wholly unnecessary. There is no defect of sense in the term "sheer ale." Sly means to say, he was "fourteen pence on the score for ale alone:" just as one speaks of "sheer nonsense," i. e. nothing but nonsense, "sheer buffoonery," "sheer malice," &c. Why should Sly talk of being in debt for Warwickshire ale at Wincot? If he kind been