After so long grief such festivity! Duke. With all my heart, I'll gossip at this feast. [Exeunt all but Ant. S., Ant. E., Dro. S., and Dro. E. [Exeunt Ant. S. and Ant. E. ne'er 403. burden ne'er] Dyce; burthen are F 1; burthens are Ff2, 3, 4; burdens are Warburton; burden not Capell; burden here Singer (ed. 1). delivered] undelivered Collier (ed. 1). 406. gossips'] Dyce; gossips Ff; gossip's Rowe. and joy] Dyce, ed. 2 (Heath conj.); and go Ff1, 3, 4; and goe F 2. 407. festivity] Staunton and Dyce, ed. 1 (Johnson conj.), withdrawn; nativity Ff; felicity Hanmer. 408. [Exeunt. ] Exeunt omnes. Manet the two Dromio's and two Brothers Ff. 409. SCENE VIII. Pope. go fetch] Dyce, ed. 2 (S. Walker conj.); fetch F 1. shipboard] shipboard for you Capell conj.; ship-board now Keightley. 414. [Exeunt. ]Exit. Ff. 403. ne'er] See line 316 supra, note mistake was easy." Hanmer's felicon "lamp.' ity is also excellent, as it affords a 405. calendars] the Dromios. Com- good antithesis to grief"; but, pare 1. ii. 41 ante. having regard to the "gossips' feast,' I think the balance inclines to Johnson's correction. Grant White, following Steevens, defends the palpable blunder of the Folio, on the ground that a long travail and a happy birth is plainly the dominant thought of Emilia's speech, and a "gossips' feast" was a feast of those who assisted at a birth or came in immediately after it." But surely the dominant word is feast? As for the punctuation, it is difficult to understand the editors who print a colon after "me." 406. gossips' feast] A christening or baptismal feast; " gossip" being a sponsor. Compare MidsummerNight's Dream, II. i. 47, and note (Arden ed.). 406. joy] enjoy. I think the prefix has been dropped here, just as in 2 Henry VI. III. ii. 365: "live thou to joy thy life." Compare "rejoice," line 414 post. 407. festivity] Probably the true reading. Johnson, reading "festivity," assigns the reason for the blunder of the Folio: Nativity lying so near, and the termination being the same of both words, the 409. stuff] Compare Iv. iv. 148, 157. 411. at host] Compare 1. ii. 9. Dro. S. There is a fat friend at your That kitchen'd me for you to-day She now shall be my sister, not Dro. E. Methinks, you are my glass, I see by you I am a sweet-faced Will you walk in to see their gos Dro. S. Not I, sir; you are my elder Dro. E. That's a question: how sha Dro. S. We'll draw cuts for the senior: Dro. E. Nay, then, thus: we came int and brother; two dr tonius 422. we try it?] we trie it. F 1; I try it. F Capell. 423. We'll] we will Capell, ending first. senior] Rowe (ed. 2); sig 424. [embracing] Rowe. Nay, then, thus: . 416. kitchen'd] entertained. 419. sweet-faced] handsome. Craig compares Marlowe's Jew of Malta, IV. iv.: "Is't not a sweet-faced youth, Pilia?" He might also have instanced Pyramus the "sweet-faced man" of Midsummer-Night's Dream, 1. ii. 88. 423. draw cuts] draw lots, e.g. with papers cut of unequal lengths. Not elsewhere in Shakespeare. See Chaucer, Prologue, 835 (Skeat, 1894): "Now draweth cut, er that we He which that hath the shortest and Beaumont and Fletcher's Scorn- 424,4 speech in two in thre other e is some of the so mu shows N The 1 in thi writter was u matick comic ferior in hand, not one before y it. Ff 2, 3, 4; we try it, brother? Náy, then, thús: we came into the world like brother and And now let's go hand in hand not one before another. The lines are examples of what APPENDIX I II. i. 109 sqq.: I see the jewel best enamelled, etc. The exact meaning of this vexed and difficult passage-difficult owing to the concise expression of the simile intended, and the necessities of the verse-may perhaps be most clearly arrived at by a formal tabular analysis of its several terms; those in italics showing the terms which Shakespeare does not express and leaves to the comprehension of his hearers. His thoughts are, I think, running on one of the enamelled rings common in Elizabethan times. I see the best enamelled jewel Will lose its beauty (by the wear- Yet the gold (setting), I find the man (husband) best endowed with moral qualities Will lose these qualities (by tempta- Yet the real man (husband), (And, in fact, often touching will (And frequent temptation will cor cause the gold to wear) Still remains gold; [And just as no gold (setting) well rupt him in the end) Still remains one's husband; Since, therefore, my husband's reputation is unassailable, and my beauty has faded and ceased to please him, I have no resource but to weep and die, etc. This view seems to be supported by II. ii. 171, "Be it my wrong you are from me exempt." With regard to the text, the chief difficulty 125 is in line 112; but the less change the better, I think. A syllable is clearly wanting in the Folio line; and the introduction before no man of so (which may have been accidentally omitted from the text owing to its likeness in sound to no) affords the simplest and clearest solution. THEOBALD'S Wear for the where of the Folio, a selfevident and certain change, must certainly be adopted. "Wear" is purely monosyllabic, and is never anything else in Shakespeare. See, e.g., As You Like It, II. i. 14, “the toad... Wears yet a precious jewel." Theobald's other emendations, given in the textual notes, seem unnecessary, and rather needlessly alter the sense. Read with these emendations, the meaning would be, according to WARBUR TON'S paraphrase, "Gold, indeed, will long bear the handling; however often touching (¿.e. assaying) will wear even gold: just so the greatest character, though as pure as gold itself, may in time be injured by the repeated attacks of falsehood and corruption." MARSHALL thinks the meaning may be "that the man who is the jewel of her love, will lose his beauty, i.e. the many charms with which her love had invested him; yet the gold, i.e. the setting of the jewel, the real man, bides (remains) still. The jewel, being enamelled, would not be a precious stone, and therefore of less intrinsic value than the gold setting. In any case the author seems to have neglected to carry out the simile he originally intended." GOLLANCZ (Temple Shakespeare, p. 90) offers this interpretation: "The wife (the jewel) soon loses her beauty and ceases to attract, but the man (the gold) still stands the test, assayed by other women; and although gold wears out if assayed too often, yet a man of good reputation is not shamed by his falsehood and corruption." The mistake in this interpretation is, I think, that Shake speare does not treat the mere enamel as the jewel; the latter consisting of the gold together with the enamel. HERFORD'S rendering (Eversley Shakespeare, in loc.) gives a good and concise meaning: "The best enamelled jewel tarnishes; but the gold setting keeps its lustre however it may be worn by the touch; similarly, a man of assured reputation, can commit domestic infidelity without blasting it." Some authorities take "gold" to mean gold coin; "touch" then referring to its currency. For the observation concerning the wear of gold, Malone refers to the old play of Damon and Pithias [1571, 1582; Dodsley, i. 254]: Gold in time doo wear away, and other precious things doo fade. |