Which was not so before.-There's no such thing: It is the bloody business, which informs Thus to mine eyes.-Now o'er the one half world Nature seems dead,' and wicked dreams abuse with a grain rough as if the seeds of parsley were strown over it. Thus, in the concluding page of the Dedication of Stanyhurst's Virgil, 1583: "Well fare thee haft with thee dudgeon dagger!" Again, in Lyly's comedy of Mother Bombie, 1594: "then have at the bag with the dudgeon hafte, that is, at the dudgeon dagger that hangs by his tantony pouch." In Soliman and Perseda, is the following passage: "Typhon me no Typhons, "But swear upon my dudgeon dagger." Again, in Decker's Satiromastix: "I am too well ranked, Asinius, to be stabb'd with his dudgeon wit." Again, in Skialetheia, a collection of Epigrams, Satires, &c. 1598: "A dudgin dagger that's new scowr'd and glast." STEEVENS. Gascoigne confirms this: "The most knottie piece of box may be wrought to a fayre doogen hafte." Gouts for drops is frequent in old English. FARMER. gouts of blood,] Or drops, French. POPE. Gouts is the technical term for the spots on some part of the plumage of a hawk: or perhaps Shakspeare used the word in allusion to a phrase in heraldry. When a field is charged or sprinkled with red drops, it is said to be gutty of gules, or gutty de sang. The same word occurs also in The Art of good Lyving and good Deyng, 1503: "Befor the jugement all herbys shal sweyt read goutys of water, as blood." STEEVENS. Nature seems dead,] That is, over our hemisphere all action and motion seem to have ceased. This image, which is, perhaps, the most striking that poetry can produce, has been adopted by Dryden, in his Conquest of Mexico: "All things are hush'd as Nature's self lay dead, The curtain'd sleep; now witchcraft celebrates & These lines, though so well known, I have transcribed, that the contrast between them and this passage of Shakspeare may be more accurately observed. Night is described by two great poets, but one describes a night of quiet, the other of perturbation. In the night of Dryden, all the disturbers of the world are laid asleep; in that of Shakspeare, nothing but sorcery, lust, and murder, is awake. He that reads Dryden, finds himself lulled with serenity, and disposed to solitude and contemplation. He that peruses Shakspeare, looks round alarmed, and starts to find himself alone. One is the night of a lover; the other, of a murderer. JOHNSON. Perhaps Sir Philip Sidney had the honour of suggesting the last image in Dryden's description: "Night hath clos'd all in her cloke, "Twinkling starres love-thoughts provoke ; "Jealousie itselfe dooth sleepe." England's Helicon, edit. 1600, p. 1. STEEVEns. Now o'er the one half world &c.] So, in the second part of Marston's Antonio and Mellida, 1602: "'Tis yet dead night; yet all the earth is clutch'd "No breath disturbs the quiet of the air, "No spirit moves upon the breast of earth, "Save howling dogs, night-crows, and screeching-owls. "Save meagre ghosts, Piero, and black thoughts. I am great in blood, "Unequal'd in revenge :-you horrid scouts "From your large palms." Malone. • The curtain'd sleep; now witchcraft celebrates-] The word now has been added for the sake of metre. Probably Shakspeare wrote: The curtain'd sleeper. The folio spells the word sleepe, and an addition of the letter r only, affords the proposed emendation. Milton has transplanted this image into his Masque at Ludlow Castle, v. 554: 66 steeds "That draw the litter of close-curtain'd sleep." STEEVENS. Mr. Steevens's emendation of " the curtain'd sleeper," is well Pale Hecate's offerings; and wither'd murder, Whose howl's his watch, thus with his stealthy pace, intitled to a place in the text. It is clearly Shakspeare's own word. RITSON. So afterwards: 66 a hideous trumpet calls to parley "The sleepers of the house." Now was added by Sir William D'Avenant, in his alteration of this play, published in 1674. MALONE. thus with his stealthy pace, With Tarquin's ravishing strides, towards his design Moves like a ghost] The old copy-sides. STEEVens. Mr. Pope changed sides to strides. MALONE. A ravishing stride is an action of violence, impetuosity, and tumult, like that of a savage rushing on his prey; whereas the poet is here attempting to exhibit an image of secrecy and caution, of anxious circumspection and guilty timidity, the stealthy pace of a ravisher creeping into the chamber of a virgin, and of an assassin approaching the bed of him whom he proposes to murder, without awaking him; these he describes as moving like ghosts, whose progression is so different from strides, that it has been in all ages represented to be as Milton expresses it: "Smooth sliding without step." This hemistich will afford the true reading of this place, which is, I think, to be corrected thus: and wither'd murder thus with his stealthy pace, With Tarquin ravishing, slides tow'rds his design, : Tarquin is, in this place, the general name of a ravisher, and the sense is Now is the time in which every one is a-sleep, but those who are employed in wickedness; the witch who is sacrificing to Hecate, and the ravisher, and the murderer, who, like me, are stealing upon their prey. When the reading is thus adjusted, he wishes, with great propriety, in the following lines, that the earth may not hear his steps. JOHNSON. Hear not my steps, which way they walk,2 for fear I cannot agree with Dr. Johnson that a stride is always an action of violence, impetuosity, or tumult. Spenser uses the word in his Fairy Queen, B. IV. c. viii. and with no idea of violence annexed to it: "With easy steps so soft as foot could stride." And as an additional proof that a stride is not always a tumultuous effort, the following instance, from Harrington's translation of Ariosto, [1591,] may be brought: "He takes a long and leisurable stride, "And longest on the hinder foot he staid; Orlando Furioso, 28th Book, stanza 63 Whoever has been reduced to the necessity of finding his way about a house in the dark, must know that it is natural to take large strides, in order to feel before us whether we have a safe footing or not. The ravisher and murderer would naturally take such strides, not only on the same account, but that their steps might be fewer in number, and the sound of their feet be repeated as seldom as possible. STEEVENS. Mr. Steevens's observation is confirmed by many instances that occur in our ancient poets. So, in a passage by J. Sylvester, cited in England's Parnassus, 1600: "Anon he stalketh with an easy stride, "By some clear river's lillie-paved side.” Again, in our author's King Richard II: "Nay rather every tedious stride I make—.” Thus also the Roman poets: vestigia furtim "Suspenso digitis fert taciturna gradu." Ovid. Fasti. "Eunt taciti per mæsta silentia magnis "Passibus." Statius, Lib. X. It is observable that Shakspeare, when he has occasion, in his Rape of Lucrece, to describe the action here alluded to, uses a similar expression; and perhaps would have used the word stride, if he had not been fettered by the rhyme: "Into the chamber wickedly he stalks." Plausible, however, as this emendation may appear, the old reading, sides, is, I believe, the true one; I have therefore adhered to it, on the same principle on which I have uniformly Thy very stones prate of my where-about,3 proceeded throughout my edition, that of leaving the original text undisturbed, whenever it could be justified either by comparing our author with himself or with contemporary writers. The following passage in Marlowe's translation of Ovid's Elegies, 8vo. no date, but printed about 1598, adds support to the reading of the old copy: "I saw when forth a tired lover went, "His side past service, and his courage spent." Again, in Martial: "Tu tenebris gaudes; me ludere, teste lucerna, Our poet may himself also furnish us with a confirmation of the old reading; for in Troilus and Cressida we find— "You, like a lecher, out of whorish loins "Are pleas'd to breed out your inheritors." It may likewise be observed that Falstaff, in the fifth Act of The Merry Wives of Windsor, says to Mrs. Ford and Mrs. Page, "Divide me like a bribe-buck, each a haunch: I will keep my sides to myself," &c. Falstaff certainly did not think them, like those of Ovid's lover, past service; having met one of the ladies by assignation. I believe, however, a line has been lost after the words "stealthy pace." MALONE. Mr. Malone's reasons, &c. for this supposition, (on account of their length,) are given at the conclusion of the play, with a reference to the foregoing observations. How far a Latinism, adopted in the English version of a Roman poet; or the mention of loins, (which no dictionary acknowledges as a synonyme to sides,) can justify Mr. Malone's restoration, let the judicious reader determine. Falstaff, dividing himself as a buck, very naturally says he will give away his best joints, and keep the worst for himself. A side of venison is at once an established term, and the least elegant part of the carcase so divided-But of what use could sides, in their Ovidian sense, have been to Falstaff, when he had already parted with his haunches? It is difficult to be serious on this occasion. I may therefore be pardoned if I observe that Tarquin, just as he pleased, might have walked with moderate steps, or lengthened them into strides; but, when we are told that he carried his "sides" with him, it is natural to ask how he could have gone any where without them. |