Chapter XXIX: Act V

SC. 1. "That is hot ice, and wondrous strange snow."

'Strange' is a very feeble word here. If, as I have ventured to do, we read '_sable_ snow,' we have a parallel to 'hot ice.' Upton read _black_; Staunton _swarthy_; Hanmer _scorching_.

* * * * *

"And what poor duty cannot do, noble respect
Takes it in might not merit."

As there are no short lines in this play, I think a word has been lost in the first line. I read _faltering_, Theobald read '_willing_ duty.'

* * * * *

"His speech was like _unto_ a tangled chain."

* * * * *

"This grisly beast, which lion hight by name,
The trusty Thisby, coming first by night.
* * * * *
Did scare away, or rather did affright."

A line riming with the first appears to be lost. Some read 'by name hight,' making a triplet; but I cannot agree with them.

* * * * *

"Here come two noble beasts in, A lion and a man."

Theobald reads _moon_ for 'man.' The correction is ingenious, but not certain. I have, however, adopted it.

* * * * *

"A lion-fell, but else no lion's dam."

So Singer reads; others 'A lion'_s_ fell.'

* * * * *

"For by thy gracious, golden, glittering streams."

This is the reading of the 2nd folio; for the old editions repeat 'beams' from the preceding line. "Phebus of _gold his stremès_ down hath sent" (Chauc. Merch. Tale), was probably in the poet's mind; or

"Which erst so glistened with the _golden streams_,
That cheerful Phoebus spred down from his sphere."
(Induct. to Mir. for Magistrates.)

* * * * *

"Would go _well_ near to make a man look sad.--
Beshrew my heart, but I _do_ pity the man."

* * * * *

"These lily lips
This cherry nose."

Rime demands Theobald's 'lily _brows_.'

* * * * *

SC. 2. "Now the hungry lion roars,
And the wolf behowls the moon."

'Behowls' is Warburton's correction of _beholds_ of the originals. It is proved to be right by the following passage of Marston's Antonio's Revenge:--

"Now barks the wolf against the full-cheek'd moon,
Now lions' half-clamm'd entrails roar for food" (iii. 3).

As this play was not printed till 1602, this may be an imitation of the passage of our text.

* * * * *

"Ever shall in safety rest,
And the owner of it blest."

Singer and a friend of Mr. Staunton's very judiciously transposed these lines, the third, or rather fourth transposition in this play. We may observe that twice before it was the second line of the couplet that commenced with 'Ever.' For a fifth transposition in the original editions, see on iii. 1. By the 'owner' is meant the occupant of the 'chamber.' Malone read 'shall _it_,' which is the usual reading.

TAMING OF THE SHREW.

INDUCTION.

SC. 1. "No, not a denier. Go by, S. Jeronimy!
Go to thy cold bed and warm thee."

It is very strange that none of the critics should have seen that _S._ is _Signior_, not _Saint_. The poet probably wrote it _Sr_; for we shall find in the subsequent part of the play _sir_ twice used for _signior_, the ordinary address in plays the scene of which lies in Italy. The 4to edition of 1631 omits S., but it is of no authority. I should feel inclined to read the next line, "_Humph_, Go to thy cold bed, and wärm thee," which occurs again in Lear (iii. 4). It may have been borrowed from some unknown play; but there is nothing like it in Kyd's Spanish Tragedy, which is evidently referred to in what precedes.

* * * * *

"I know my remedy; I must go fetch the head-borough."

Theobald, whom most editors follow, induced by the reply of Sly, read _thirdborough_. But might not Sly have mistaken the word?

* * * * *

"Huntsman, I charge thee tender well my hounds.
Brach Merriman,--the poor cur is emboss'd"--
"And couple Clowder with the deep-mouth'd brach."

'Brach' cannot be right; for brach was bitch (see Index _s. v._), and what sportsman would say Bitch Sweet lips, for instance, of one of his hounds? In the usual manner the printer was led away by the 'brach' in the following line. The original word must have been a verb, and, were we not aware of what critics usually are, we might wonder at Johnson's most simple and natural emendation, _Bathe_ not being universally adopted. In his whole speech the lord shows his affection for his hounds; for the charge about coupling Clowder with another hound is evidently owing to his being united to an ill-conditioned dog. Poor Merriman, it is plain, had got a swelling in the leg or elsewhere--for that is the only possible meaning of 'emboss'd' in this place; so when the Prince (1 Hen. IV. iii. 3) calls Falstaff an "_embossed_ rascal," he means swollen up--the proper remedy for which was _bathing_ or fomenting with warm water; and this he directs to be done. But Mr. Collier tells us that "a _dog_ or a deer is said to be _embossed_ when fatigue makes them foam at the mouth;" from which all that can be inferred is that Mr. Collier is no sportsman; for any one who has been out with hounds knows that when fatigued they pant and put out their tongues, but _never_ foam. Shakespeare, who apparently knew something of hunting, has correctly, "_Lolling_ the tongue with slaughtering" (Cymb. v. 3), alluding to hounds. On the other hand, Mr. Dyce most confidently reads _Trash_, _i.e._, put a "heavy collar, strap or rope dragging loose on the ground" on him to check his speed. I fear that Mr. Dyce is no sportsman either. At least at the present day hounds do not carry weight; for that, I suppose, is what he means. He probably understood 'emboss'd' in the same sense as Mr. Collier. I adopt Johnson's reading, though aware that in cases of this kind (Introd. p. 65) we should not look for any similarity of form (Mr. Dyce's _ductus literarum_) in the word to be substituted. (See on Othel. iii. 3.) Here, for example, we might read _Mind_, or some other word.

* * * * *

"And when he says _what_ he is say that he dreams."

* * * * *

SC. 2. "And not a tinker, nor Christopher_o_ Sly."

* * * * *

"Madam wife, they say that I have dreamed _here_."