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CURSORY NOTES



VARIOUS PASSAGES IN THE TEXT OF
BEAUMONT AND FLETCHER,

A3 EDITED BT THE •

REV. ALEXANDER DYCE;

AND ON HIS

"FEW NOTES ON SHAKESPEARE."

THE ArXHOE

JOHN MITPORD.



'Q^ Xtyji yepoi' ypctfif.ia.

.'EsCHYLl Frngm. cxxiit.



LONDON :
JOHN EUSSELL SMITH, 36, SOHO SQUARE.






1856.



fUCKKR AND CO., PRINTERS, PERR-j's PLACE, OXFORD STREET.






PREFACE.



" Primo rerum aspectu, cum investigandae veritatis copia non est, falli
possumus, et fallimur, idqiie a natura, sua genus habet huraanum : ast ubi
temporis ope mentis ille primus conatus deferbuit, et rationis lumine res
discuti ccepta innotuit, humana id monstrat conditio, ut errorem, quem ipsi
evitavimus, posteris ut evitent, ne nobis ipsi injurii esse velinms, propona
mus." " Ilabui quod verum esse pronuntiarem ; habui, quo falsitatem,
sed breviter et pro temporis opportunitate depellerem," — Leonis Allatii

Animadv. in Autiq. Etrusc. Fragmenta ah Ingiiiramio edita 1640,

4to.



" In delectu notarum, banc rationem sequebar, ut qua; alibi essent
obvia, fere transilirem. Id profitendum jam nunc fuit, ne quis hie qua^reret,
quae interpretum eruditissimorum passim extantia satis scripta declararent.
Nee tamen nova me omnia glorior afferre ; bene meum agi putaturus, si
vel pauca protulisse judicer, quae hoc serum Spicilegium, post uberrimas
aliorum messes, non usquequaque infelix probent." — Petki Possini,
s. 1, Fresh. S^icilegiiini EvangeUcurriy p. 1, ed. 1713.



The notes, though few in number, which are here pre-
sented to the reader, will form the best proof of the estima-
tion in which Mr. Dyce's edition of Beaumont and Fletcher
is held by me. I have emulated the diligence, though I
might not possess the learning, of the editor ; and have
examined the entire work with that care that is due to the
high reputation of the critic, as well as to the great and varied
excellence of the authors, whom he has so curiously and
successfully illustrated.* Indeed Mr. Dyce has favoured us
with an edition, so rich in all the required learning, as much
to surpass any previous attempts of the same kind on the
same text. He has collected in one view all the variety of

* " Aftei" all, Beaumont and Fletcher are but an inferior sort of Shakespeares
and Siclneys."-C. Lamb. ^^^ , , ^ ^^ ^^



4

readings which the different editions have afforded; and he
has much assisted the reader by his judgment and know-
ledge in the selection of those which have the most claim
to be adopted ; which are most congenial to the spirit of
the authors, and suitable to the language of the times,*
By his intimate acquaintance with the dramatic vocabu-
lary of om' early stage he has preserved readings which
former editors had rejected, and explained what they had
misunderstood ; and he has often thrown light, altogether
new, on those idiomatic turns and forms of expression which
gradually appear to arise, and to be willingly admitted,
before the full establishment of grammatical construction,
and which constitute a peculiar and characteristic feature of
every language ;t which are not to be examined with
philosophical analysis, nor subjected to grammatical restric-
tion, but received at once on the authority of usage and
prescription. Mr. Dyce has also shown much judgment in
his decisions on the conflicting claims of conjectures made
to improve a text, left inaccurate by the negligence of the

* Ml*. Seward's paraphrastic versions and supplements are inadmissible, as being
mere guesses at the truth, and also as generally wanting in poetic sph'it and feeling;
he has indeed attempted what genius itself could not successfully accomphsh —
" Facile excidisse aUqidd intelligitur. Ingenii vero solertia non sufBcit ad locos
restituendos, inquibus ne constat (\\x\den\,deqiid re agaturP " Hoi'um verborum,"
says a learned editor of an ancient poet, "quid verxuu sit, explorari vix potest, nam
facile quidem est ad dicendum quid poeta scribere potuerit, sed quid scripserit,
perquam difficile. Quamobrem, nescire nos quid poeta spectarerit, fateri, quam
vanis hariolationibus indulgerc maluimus."

t The following observation of a great master of language and criticism, on the
subject on which we are treatmg, is worthy of attention : — " Non, cum primum
fiugerentur homines, Analogia demissa coelo fomiam loquendi dedit ; sed inventa
est, postquam loquebantur, et notatuni in sennone, quid quomodo caderet. Itaque
lion ratione nititur sed exemplo ; nee lex est loquendi, sed observatio, ut ipsam
analogiam nulla res alia feccrit, quam consuetude." — Vide Quinctil. Inst. Orat.
lib. i, c. vi. To this, let me add the authority of an acute Greek grammarian : —
" Ad eos qui in omnibus verbis regulas et similitudines quserunt : non oportet
(inquit magister) in omnibus rebus quserere canones firmos, et typos certos. Nam
primis inventa sunt ab hominibus vocabida propter necessitatem mutui colloquii :
Postea, ars superveniens quaedam potuit in ordinem redigere et in similitudinem
quondam reducere, sed qua? non potuit, liarnv i<p' tjg dxov avvijQtiag, in ea quam
habuere, reliquit cotisuetudine.'" — Vide Choerobosc. in op. Trpoe tovq tv iraffi, &c.
To apply these observations to the present subject in particular, let us use the
words of a French critic : — " Quoique dans les questions de pliilosophie on ne




grammaire, ou d'analogie; on ne pent presque pas douter qu'on n'ait corrige mal
a propos bien des passages des anciens, et qu'on ne soit trompe dans une infinite
des reeherches touchant I'antiquit^, pour n'avoir pas assez pensc k cette maxime."



writer, or iimtilated by the ignorance and haste of the
transcriber or printer; and in those passages where the
words admitted a doubtful interpretation, the reader will
find no safer guide than in the cautious and careful direction
of one,* to whom the peculiar genius of the writers has been
more fully unveiled. In short, all the assistance that could
be afforded by variety of research, and familiar acquaintance
with the subject, will here be found ; and he who peruses
the annotations to these volumes with the careful attention
they deserve, will close his labours with that increased
knowledge which will facilitate his progress when he enters
the general field of dramatic literature ; and with the convic-
tion that the editor is in every way equal to the importance
of the undertaking, — that he possesses many of the qualities
said to be found wanting in one of his predecessors, but
which are considered necessary for the successful accom-
plishment of his task — " the vigour of imagination to make
a poet, and the strength of judgment to make a critic."

It may then be reasonably asked. If such is the superior
excellence of this edition — if such is its fulness of informa-
tion, and accuracy of remark — whence arises the necessity of
these supplemental observations, and where are the defi-

* Time, which Napoleon was used to say was the best answerer of letters,
will also so act in criticism, as to spare the necessity of numerous conjectures, as it
does in surgery, to save the patient from many needless operations.
MlWwj^ T larpog, rtj vorr^) SiSovq ;^p6vov,
'laaaT i'iSt) jiaXXov, ?/ tejiwv XP^'^-
To what extent " the Prm-itus Emendandi" can go, may be seen in an emendation
by Warburton to a line in Hem-y VI : — ■

" That whoso draws a sword, 'tis present death."
" Shakespeare (says Warburton) wrote —

" draws a sword, i' th' presence 'is death."

" This reading," says a brother of the same craft, " ean^t he right, hecause it canH he
pronounced ! "

The most extraordinary typographical error in the text of one of our poetae
majores, is surely that of " Cerberus'''' for " Erelus" in the L' Allegro of Milton, not
only because it was not con-ected by the author, but passed on through each suc-
cessive edition to the present time. A professor of poetry, an historian, and editor
of poets, however says, " That Milton had a right to marry 31idnight to whom he
pleased." Certainly ; but why select Cerbertis — a husband with four legs and
three heads and throats, chained to a post for life in the entrance of hell, and of a
most disagreeable colour, temper, and disposition ? Midnight, like a Moravian sister,
never could have been permitted to see (if Midnight can see) her husband before the
marriage was settled and arranged by the poet. In this case —

" tlio funeral baked meats

'Would coldly fiurnish out the marriage tables."



()

ciencies tliat provoke still further inqiiiry in the investigation
of truth ? To this I am led to reply, from my partial expe-
rience in this branch of literature, that no edition of a great
author, vi^ho lived whether in ancient or modern days, long
anterior to the times in which his works call for illustration,
can be satisfactorily formed, except through the united
labours of successive commentators. Certainly such is the
case in ancient literature — that what has passed through the
hands of Scaliger may be improved by Bentley, and yet
leave an ample harvest to succeeding critics ;* and the same
cause acts on the works of oicr earlier writers, requiring the
same means of elucidation as those still further removed
from us : customs have been forgotten, manners altered,
language become obsolete or capriciously changed, and even
the very forms in which they have been transmitted to us by
the press,! are disfigured by such extraordinary corruptions
as to form a new source of difficulty, that can never be
entirely overcome. Every one, therefore, who is capable of
labouring in this field is called upon for his assistance. Some
necessary information may be added by him to the general
store : some difficulty that had escaped others may in a happy
moment, and when the inspiring genius is favourable, be

* The particiJar allusion here is to " Manilius,'" which poet was edited by
Jos. J. Scaliger, subsequently by Eichard Bentley — the two greatest scholars who
ever appeared ; and yet the ablest and most successful critic on the same poet,
gleaning in the field they had passed over, is one of a far less glorious name —
Adrian Heringa. — Vide Observ. Select. Critic. 8vo, 1749.

t In the play of Timon the following passage occurs —

" Go bid all your friends again —

Lucius, LucuUus, and Senipronius, all :
I '11 once more feast the rascals."

The first folio (1623) has—

" Lucius, LucuUus, and Sempronius, Ullorxa, all,"
which last amorphous and unseemly word, Ifalone has retained in the text!
and Steevens says, " it is, however, a name unacknowledged by Athens or Eome!!
What is it then ? In my opinion, the writer in the prompter's copy was jjuzzled,
as usually they are in proper names, especially ancient ones ; not being certain of
the spelling, he placed in the margin (a common custom) the letters of which he
was doubtful ; — whether LucuUus should be spelt with two II — whether " Semj)ro-
nius" should be" Sempornius" — and whether "a:a" should be used for "*e." — This
careful memorandum of the writer, the compositor, absolutely bewildered by the
mass of learning before him, took in the lump as he found it, and carried into the
text. We do not know what the modern editors have written on the subject, but
Messrs. Malone and Steevens have not added " a sprig of laiu*eU" by this note to
their general reputation.



removed ; he may bring a mind furnished with new
materials, enlarged with wider associations, and animated
with warmer feelings to his work of love.* Doubtless we
have been, in this department of dramatic literature, much
indebted to the industry and skill even of inferior work-
men ; and the names of Theobald and Ilanmer are permitted
to divide the glory of erecting the monument that has been
raised to the memory of Shakspeare from his own works,
together with the more illustrious ones of Warburton and
Johnson.

Etc ^' avtjp oil TTcivG' opa.f

* " He," says a late lamented writer, " who understands Shahespeare, must
admire and love him ; and unless we admire and love him, we cannot possibly
understand him." — The writer : Charles Julius Hare.

t The reader will perhaps allow me to give two restorations, which I have
attempted of passages utterly corrupt in the text of Shirley, after Mr. Gifford's
hand had been tried on them.

1. THE GEATEFUL SERVANT.

Astella. You may lead me with gossamer, or the least thread

The industrious spider weaves.

Jacomo. Whimseyes, caribit soes.

Gifford'a Note. — ^' Jac. Whknseys. Caribit soes." Perhaps we have some
vulgar exclamation, miserably disjointed at the press — if not, the ambitious Jacomo
is far above my comprehension. The publisher of the second edition has exchanged
one piece of hopeless nonsense for another, and gives the passage thus : —

Whimseyes our ibit soes.

Note hy the present Writer. — The publisher of the second edition has, instead of
exchanging nonsense for nonsense, given us a variation, which has enabled us to
follow the track up to the true reading, which, without it, would have been impos-
sible.

JEd. 1. Whimseys ! caribit soes.

Ed. 2. Whimseyes ! our ibit soes.

True reading. Whimsys ! or idiotcies !

Jacomo is ridiculing the fine, affected, and exaggerated language and phrases of
Asjella and Lodovick.

2. THE GAMESTER.

Saeard. We have enough of the tribe. I am soi-ry I cannot

Furnish her expedition with a pair

Of your garters.
Wilding. I of Athens grown.

For this Gifford gives the following extraordinary alteration : —

Hazard. I am sorry I cannot

Fm-nish her expedition with a pear-tree

Of your garden.
Wilding. Ay, of Athens growth.

Adding the note — " I have endeavoured to make these lines intelligible at least.



8

Tliere is a popular story of this kind, which is alluded to by Timon. It was a
wife, however, and not a mistress, who was fui-uished with a pear-tree for her
journey." Had Malone ventured on such an alteration, how severe would have
been the castigation ! The passage, however, is easily brought right, the corruption
being in the two last words.

Hazard. — — I am sorry I cannot

Furnish her expedition with a pair

Of your garters.
Wilding. Ay — oi your own garters,

I know thou art more charitable.

The words, " Athens grown," being "â– your own garters" the words mangled, and
letters transposed. Put the words in order thus < ^arowii^AUwns \ ^^^"^ ^^ ^^
be seen at once. Corruptions equal to these are not uncommon in the old and
wretched editions of this excellent though neglected dramatist, regarding whom we
also are much indebted to the present editor, whose hand is always open, when an
aged broken-down playwright begs for assistance. Had the present edition appeared
a few years since, the following sentence would assuredly not have been written : —
" I cannot read Beaumont and Fletcher but in folio. The octavo editions are
painful' to look at. I have no sympathy with them." So wrote Charles Lamb;
who would have spoken of Mr. Dyce ' in other words than he did of Mr. Malone —
as one who was not content with covering Shakespeare's text with a mass of dull
prose, but he must also whiteivash that old and venerable face, and bribe the Strat-
ford sexton to let him cover that immortal head — " cheek, eye, and eyebrow — with

a coat of white paint." "By [ ]," says the counterpart of The Enraged

Musician, " if I had been a justice of the peace for Warwickshire, I would have
clapt both commentator and sexton fast in the stocks, for a pair of meddUng,
sacrilegious varlets."

' The public has a debt of gratitude to pay to this gentleman, independent of
that which they owe to him as a Sospitator Poetarum Scenicorum : — few are ignorant
of that rare store of literature which he has collected on his shelves, which has
supplied him with the means of enriching his editions with such copious and
various learning. Provident of the futm-e, as careful of the present, he has secured
this treasure, by a wise disposition, frombeing lost to posterity : and so let us express
ourselves in words that record a similar act of magnanimity by an equally eminent
scholar of a fomier age : — " Non verendum est (thus writes David Kuhnken con-
cerning the noble legacy of the library df Tiberius Hemsterhuis), ne talis thesaurus
in dominos literarum rudes incidat, aut dissipatus pereat. Nam inusitata Hbe-
ralitate totiun iUum Tliesaurum, Bibliothecse pubUcse Leidensi (scr. Oxoniensi)
post fata sua, donare constituit ; jam nunc fidem suam omnibus ita astringens, ut
haec publica voluntatis declaratio, testamenti vim habere possit." — Vide JElogium
Semsterhusii a D. RuhnJcenio. Let us hope that the University may long be kept
out of the learaed treasure thus munificently bequeathed.



CURSORY NOTES.



" Conjectural criticism has always something to abate its coufideuce. If we
suppose all corrupt that is inaccui-ate, there will bo no end of emendation," —
Johnson,

" In conjectural criticism the perfection of the art consists, in producing a given
effect witli the least possible force." — Tyewhitt.



VOL. I.
THE WOMAN-HATER.

P. 30. Before his slain wife gave him that offence.

As no allusion has been previously made to his (Gondarino's)
wife having been slavi, the commentators have altered the
word to "late;" — and to "lain," in the sense of "buried."
Indeed the word " slain wife," for murdered, sounds
strange, and seems scarcely idiomatic. "Late" is a mere
conjectural substitute, and "lain" I think speaks for itself.
My reading would be —

Before his stain d wife gave him that offence,

in the ordinary sense of " dishonoured, disgraced" — and
in the stain is the offence. — Vir^.jEn. x, v. 851, " Macu-
lavi crimine nomen."



THIERRY AND THEODORET.

P. 182. " May you starve, and fear of the gallows (which is a gentle
consumption to it) only jsreiw^^ it."

" Prevent " is a conjecture of Mason's, with which the editor
is not quite satisfied, the old editions having " prefer it."
Seward printed, "preserve you from it," and in a note,
" defer it." I propose reading, " only prefer to it," moving
the word " to t" from its present place, to follow "prefer,"
as Mason's reading of " consumption to 't," for " compared
to it," is not readily to be accepted.



10

P. 210. Till they saw Philas'ter ride through the streets pleas* d, aud
without a g:iiix^, At pJiicf'.'tXyQ,;^ threw their hats and their arms from
them.

The editor very reasonably asks, " Can the true reading be
releaid?'' I had conjectured, " Without a guard and
pleas d at which, they threw their hats from them." Thus
making any alteration of the words of the text unnecessary,
P. 246. And so high and glowing, that other kingdoms far and foreign.
This line, as the editor calls it, " of formidable proportions,"
was curtailed and thus rendered by Theobald —

So high and glowing, that kingdoms far and foreign,
and I think, very judiciously ; for "and" is quite unneces-
sary, and so also is " other." The editor however refers for
authority to a verse in The Woman Hater, p. 40, of similarly
disproportionate length: —

Heaven, if my sins be ripe, grown to a head,

And must attend your vengeance, I beg not to divert my fate,

Only to reprieve awhile thy punishment.

However, I think this may be set right, by considering
"grown to a head" as a various reading, or marginal
explanation, of " ripe," and reading —

Heaven, if my sins be ripe, and must attend
Tour vengeance, I beg not to divert my fate, &c.

Mistakes often occur from the printer copying from the

manuscript all the materials and alterations of a line, of

which the reading is not definitively finished, and not

separating the final improvement, or the first, from the

second thoughts.

P. 259. ~ Oh my fortune !

Then 'tis no idle jealousy, &c.

If " Oh ! my fortune" is to be replaced, 1 should recom-
mend as its substitute, not " Oh ! my misfortune ! " but
"Oh! misfortune!" as less colloquial, and common, and
therefore more poetical.

P. 264. What are the hounds before, and all the woodmen?
The editor's note — " Woodmen, foresters." Now, properly
speaking, a woodman is a hunter, and a woodward is a
forester, or keeper of the woods, who has no connection



11

with the chase. " lie," says Bishop Sanderson, in his
sermon, " that would be a skilful woodmmi, will exercise
himself first by shooting at a dead mark." See vol. ii,
p. 32, note.

P. 292. Batlid in new brave ballads.

Theobald printed "grav'd;" but the editor has judiciously
preferred Heath's conjecture, " hawTd^ if only for the alli-
teration — " Sung in sonnets, bawl'd in ballads ;" and
alliteration is one form of wit, however slight, as — " Thou
art the honeycomb of honesty ; the garland of good will, &c."
— I^'ord's Broken Heart, act iv, sc. 2.

P. 296. And let a man-of-war, an argosy,

Hull, &c.

Theobald's explanation of " hull" — •" when a vessel floats
or rides idle to and fro upon the water" — quite agrees with
the meaning in Paradise Lost, lib. xi, ver. 640 —
" He looked and saw the ark liull on the flood.
Which now abated," &c.
" The ark no more now floats, but sure on ground."
It is a word used by Sandys in the Psalms, and Massinger
in A Very Woman, 1655, 8vo, act v, sc. 1st:

" Becalm'd and hulVd so up and down twelve hours."

THE MAID'S TEAGEDY.

P. 336. "Commanding ^olus."

I must consider this as a marginal direction, and not as
a part of the text.

P. 838. And leav'st their losses open to the day.

The editor has with judgment, instead of " blushes,"
retained " losses " in the text ; the nature of which seems
explained in the next stanza.

P. 386. He has undone thine honour, poison'd thy virtue,
And of a lovely rose left thee a canker.

The editor explains "canker" as "a wild dog-rose;" but
surely a garden-rose diseased and blighted does not become
a wild dog-rose. Its true meaning is explained at p. 408
as a wormy disease : —

I was once fair ;
Once I was lovely, when blooming I'ipe,
More chastely sweet, till thou, thou /oh/ ca7iktr !
Stir not ! didst poison me.



12
The text of Shakespeare will attbrd authorities, as — ■

" Some to kill cankers in the musk-rose buds."

Midsummer NhjJd'a Dream, act ii, sc. 3.
" In the sweetest bud the eating canker dwells."

Two Gentlemen of Verona, act i, sc. 1.

" Hath not thy rose a canker ?"

1 Henry IF, act ii, sc. 4.

" The canker galls the infants of the spring."

Hamlet, act i, sc. 3.

Dr. Richardson indeed says, that " In Devonshire the dog-
rose is called the ca7iker-Y0SQ ;" but if so, doubtless it took
that provincial name from its being, as it is, very subject to
a disease from an insect that infests it, and destroys the bud.

p. 422. Oh! Heaven.

Weber unnecessarily altered this to " Oh ! God !" following
two other quartos. These, and similar words connected
with religious subjects and scriptural expressions, were
often expunged by the Licenser,* and the blank space
filled up ad libitim by the compositor. See examples,
vol. ii, p. 153 ; V, 141 ; ix, 232 ; x, 300 ; xi, SlO.f

VOL. II.

THE FAITHFUL SHEPHERDESS.

N. Field's verses, p. 7 —

But let Art look in Truth ; she, like a mirror,
Eeflects her comfort.

Editor's note. — " The three latest quartos have ' consort.'
The meaning of the passage is far from clear;" — but the
writer, N. Field, praises the play for an elegant propriety
of diction, including a moral purpose in its plot. This, he
says, the ignorant will not understand ; but let Art look into
Nature, and she will, as a faithful glass, reflect the true fea-

* This practice was not unknown among the ancients. In Claudian, De Con-
sulatu Honor. Aug. v. 96, " Oh ! niraium dilecto Deo cui mUitat alto ^olus"
some of the old copyists, not bearing the mention of a pagan god to a Christian
prince, erased ^ohis and supplied its place by ^ther, &c.

t A statute (3rd of James I) laid a penalty for the profane use of the name of
God in stage plays, &c. " This statute," llr. Steevens says, " was necessary; for
not only the ancient moralities, but the plays (those of Chapman in particular)
abounded in the most wanton repetitions of a name which never ought to be men-