There do I give to you and Jessica, From the rich Jew, a special deed of gift, POR. GRA. Let it be so; The first inter❜gatory, [Exeunt. VARIOUS READINGS. "Mislike me not for my complexion, The shadow'd livery of the burning sun." (ACT II., Sc. 1.) This is Mr. Collier's reading, after his folio Corrector, in the place of "the burnish'd sun." The African prince, according to Mr. Collier, "is speaking of his black complexion as the effect of the sun's rays. To speak of the sun as artificially burnish'd is very unworthy." " How easy is it to make the prosaic look "much more proper" (as this new reading is eulogised) than the poetical. The "burning" sun gives no notion of the brightness to which the Moor's complexion was the shadow. What is intensely polished appears to burn; and the active verbs "burn" and "burnish," are synonymous. Crashaw uses the same epithet, in the same way: "The judge of torments, and the king of tears, He fills a burnish'd throne of quenchless fire." Well, the most contagious fiend bids me pack." "Launcelot," says Mr. Collier, "in the old copies calls the devil a courageous fiend,—a word certainly very ill applied, when he is advising the boy to run away.” (ACT II., Sc. 2.) When the Corrector, in his dashing way, not having the slightest conception of humour, changed the epithet to contagious, he forgot to change the words of the next sentence, which carry on the humour: 'rouse up a brave mind, says the fiend, and run.” "Thus ornament is but the guiled shore To a most dangerous sea; the beauteous scarf The ordinary reading is "veiling an Indian beauty." The MS. Corrector, by this slight change in the punctuation, has removed a diffi (ACT III., Sc. 2.) We have adopted the corrected punctuation, without any doubt; for it is an unforced, and therefore valuable, change. culty; for Mr. Collier justly says, that "beauty," so punctuated, was the converse of what the poet intended. ! "Why he a bollen bagpipe." Shakspere's word, according to Mr. Collier, was unquestionably bollen, from the Anglo-Saxon, which means swollen. (ACT IV., Sc. 1.) Woollen is the original word. Steevens reads swollen. Douce adheres to woollen, as the Northern bagpipe is covered with cloth. GLOSSARY. BLACK MONDAY. Act II., Sc. 5. According to Stow, the chronicler, the Easter Monday of 1360 (April 14, 34 Edw. III.) was so called because then "King Edward, with his host, lay before the city of Paris, which day was full dark of mist and hail, and so bitter cold, that many men died on their horses' backs." BREAK-UP. Act II., Sc. 4. "An it shall please you to break up this." Steevens has said that to break-up is a term of carving, otherwise it would hardly need to be explained to mean to open. In the Winter's Tale' we have "break-up the seals, and read." CONTAIN. Act V., Sc. 1. "Or your own honour to contain the ring." Contain is here used as synonymous with retain. DANGER. Act IV., Sc. 1. "You stand within his danger." Dr. Jamieson says, "In his dawnger, under his dawnger, in his power as a captive. The old French danger frequently occurs as signifying power, dominion." Steevens quotes a passage in which the phrase is used for debt, but Portia uses it in a wider sense than this. DWELL. Act I., Sc. 3. "I'll rather dwell in my necessity." I'd rather continue, remain, in my necessity. EANLINGS. Act I., Sc. 3. "All the eanlings which were streak'd or pied." Eanlings are lambs just dropped. ENVY. Act IV., Sc. 1. "Out of his envy's reach." Envy is here used in the sense of hatred, malice; as in Mark xv. 10, "For he knew that the chief priests had delivered him for envy." Fall, as in many other instances, is here used actively to let "See to my house, left in the fearful guard A fearful guard is a guard that is the cause of fear. "I do wonder, Thou naughty gaoler, that thou art so fond." The old word fond is generally used in the sense of foolish, but here it seems to have the more modern sense of indulgent, tender, weakly compassionate. FOR THE HEAVENS. Act II., Sc. 2. A petty oath," according to Gifford. It occurs in Ben Jonson and Dekker. GEAR. Act I., Sc. 1. "I'll grow a talker for this gear." A colloquial expression, meaning for this matter. The AngloSaxon gearwian, is, to prepare, to make ready; gear is the the thing prepared,—the business or matter in question. GUARDED. Act II., Sc. 2. "Give him a livery More guarded than his fellows." More ornamented, laced, fringed. GUILED. Act III., Sc. 2. “This ornament is but the guiled shore." Guiled is here used actively for guiling-deceiving. The ac tive and passive participles are often substituted each for the other, by Shakspere, and the other Elizabethan poets. IMPERTINENT. Act II., Sc. 2. "The suit is impertinent to myself." Launcelot means pertinent. Though one "who can play upon a word," he is yet a blunderer. The in is used as an augmentative particle, the meaning being most execrable. INTER'GATORIES. Act V., Sc. 1. Interrogatories. several times used by Ben Jonson. KNAPP'D. Act III., Sc. 1. This elision is As ever knapp'd ginger." The word is still used To knap is to break off short, to snap. in the north: knapping stanes is to break stones small for the roads. O'ERLOOK'D. Act III., Sc. 2. "Beshrew your eyes, They have o'erlook'd me." The word is here used in the sense derived from the popular superstition, still current in the East and even in Ireland, of the effects of an evil eye, and of the influence of fairies and witches. The eyes of Bassanio have o'erlook'd Portia, and she yields to the enchantment. In the 'Merry Wives of Windsor' we have the same idea: "Vild worm, thou wast o'erlook'd even in thy birth." OSTENT. Act II., Sc. 2. "Like one well studied in a sad ostent." Ostent is display. PATCH. Act II., Sc. 5. "The patch is kind enough." The term patch was occasionally applied to the domestic fool, probably from the patched dress of his class, and in this way the word may have come to be used as an expression of contempt. The usurper in 'Hamlet,' the "vice of kings," was a king of shreds and patches;" and in 'A Midsummer Night's Dream,' we have,— "A crew of patches, rude mechanicals." Shylock here uses the word in this sense. But Horne Tooke says, that patch is derived from the Anglo-Saxon Pacan, Paccan, to deceive by false appearances, by imitation, &c., to counterfeit. PATINES. Act V., Sc. 1. "The floor of heaven Is thick inlaid with patines of bright gold." |