MER. O, pray, let's fee't: For the lord Timon, fir? Jew. If he will touch the eftimate: But, for that 8 POET. When we for recompenfe have prais'd the vile, It flains the glory in that happy verse Which aptly fings the good. MER. 'Tis a good form. [Looking on the jewel. JEW. And rich: here is a water, look you. PAIN. You are rapt, fir, in fome work, fome dedication To the great lord. POET. A thing flipp'd idly from me. Our poefy is as a gum, which oozes From whence 'tis nourished: The fire i'the flint Shows not, till it be ftruck; our gentle flame 6 He paffes. I have a jewel here.] The fyllable wanting in this line, might be reftored by reading: He paffes.-Look, I have a jewel here. STEEVENS. 7 -touch the estimate:] Come up to the price. JOHNSON. 8 When we for recompenfe &c.] We muft here fuppofe the poet bufy in reading his own work; and that these three lines are the introduction of the poem addreffed to Timon, which he afterwards gives the painter an account of. WARBURTON. —which oozes-] The folio copy reads-which uses. The modern editors have given it-which iues. JOHNSON. Gum and issues were inferted by Mr. Pope; oozes by Dr. Johnson. The two oldeft copies read: Our poefie is as a gowne which uses. STEEVENS. MALONE. Provokes itself, and, like the current, flies 2 and, like the current, flies Each bound it chafes.] Thus the folio reads, and rightly. In later editions-chafes. WARBURTON. This fpeech of the poet is very obfcure. He seems to boast the copioufnefs and facility of his vein, by declaring that verfes drop from a poet as gums from odoriferous trees, and that his flame kindles itself without the violence neceffary to elicit fparkles from the flint. What follows next? that it, like a current, flies each bound it chafes. This may mean, that it expands itself notwithftanding all obftructions: but the images in the comparison are fo ill-forted, and the effect fo obfcurely expreffed, that I cannot but think fomething omitted that connected the last sentence with the former. It is well known that the players often fhorten speeches to quicken the reprefentation: and it may be fufpected, that they fometimes performed their amputations with more hafte than judgement. JOHNSON. Perhaps the fenfe is, that having touch'd on one fubject, it flies off in queft of another. The old copy feems to read: Each bound it chases. The letters ƒ and are not always to be diftinguifhed from each other, especially when the types have been much worn, as in the firft folio. If chafes be the true reading, it is beft explained by the "fe fequiturque fugitque-" of the Roman poet. Somewhat fimilar occurs in The Tempeft: "Do chafe the ebbing Neptune, and do fly him The obfcurity of this paffage arifes merely from the mistake of the editors, who have joined in one, what was intended by Shakfpeare as two diftinct fentences.-It should be pointed thus, and then the fenfe will be evident : our gentle flame Provokes itfelf, and like the current flies ;- Our gentle flame animates itself; it flies like a current; and every obftacle ferves but to increase its force. M. MASON. In Julius Cafar, we have "The troubled Tyber chafing with her fhores,” Again, in The Legend of Pierce Gavefton, by Michael Drayton, 1594: "Like as the ocean, chafing with his bounds, "With raging billowes flies against the rocks, "And to the fhore fends forth his hideous founds," &c. MALONE. 2 PAIN. A picture, fir.-And when comes your book forth? 3 POET. Upon the heels of my presentment,' fir. Let's fee your piece, PAIN. 'Tis a good piece." POET. So 'tis: this comes off well and excellent." This jumble of incongruous images, feems to have been defigned, and put into the mouth of the Poetafter, that the reader might appreciate his talents: his language therefore should not be confidered in the abstract. HENLEY. 3 ·And when comes your book forth?] And was fupplied by Sir T. Hanmer, to perfect the meafure. STEEVENS. 4 Upon the heels &c.] As foon as my book has been prefented to lord Timon. JOHNSON. s-prefentment,] The patrons of Shakspeare's age do not appear to have been all Timons. "I did determine not to have dedicated my play to any body, becaufe forty billings I care not for, and above, few or none will bestow on these matters." Preface to A Woman is a Weathercock, by N. Field, 1612. STEEVENS. It should however be remembered, that forty fhillings at that time were equal to at least fix, perhaps eight, pounds at this day. MALONE. 6 'Tis a good piece.] As the metre is here defective, it is not improbable that our author originally wrote 'Tis a good piece, indeed. So, in The Winter's Tale: " 'Tis grace indeed." STEEVENS. 7 this comes off well and excellent.] The meaning is, the figure rifes well from the canvas. C'est bien relevé. JOHNSON. What is meant by this term of applause I do not exactly know. It occurs again in The Widow, by Ben Jonfon, Fletcher, and Middleton: "It comes off very fair yet." Again, in A Trick to catch the old One, 1608: " Put a good tale "Fla. Faith, the fong will feem to come off hardly. PAIN. Indifferent. POET. Admirable: How this grace Speaks his own ftanding! what a mental power This eye fhoots forth! how big imagination Moves in this lip! to the dumbness of the gefture One might interpret." 8 How this grace Speaks his own ftanding!] This relates to the attitude of the figure, and means that it ftands judiciously on its own centre. And not only fo, but that it has a graceful ftanding likewife. Of which the poet in Hamlet, fpeaking of another picture, fays: "A ftation like the herald, Mercury, "New-lighted on a heaven-kiffing hill." which lines Milton feems to have had in view, where he says of Raphael : "At once on th' eaftern cliff of Paradife "He lights, and to his proper fhape returns. Like Maia's fon he food." WARBURTON. This fentence feems to me obfcure, and, however explained, not very forcible. This grace Speaks his own ftanding, is only, The gracefulness of this figure fhows how it stands. I am inclined to think fomething corrupted. It would be more natural and clear thus: How this ftanding Speaks his own graces! How this pofture difplays its own gracefulness. But I will indulge conjecture further, and propose to read: How this grace Speaks understanding! what a mental power The paffage, to my apprehenfion at least, speaks its own meaning, which is, how the graceful attitude of this figure proclaims that it ftands firm on its center, or gives evidence in favour of its own fixure. Grace is introduced as bearing witness to propriety. fimilar expreffion occurs in Cymbeline, Act II. fc. iv: never faw 1 figures "So likely to report themselves." STEEVENS. to the dumbness of the gefture A One might interpret.] The figure, though dumb, feems to have a capacity of fpeech. The allufion is to the puppet-shows, or motions, as they were termed in our author's time. The perfon PAIN. It is a pretty mocking of the life. Here is a touch; Is't good? POET. I'll fay of it, It tutors nature: artificial ftrife" Lives in these touches, livelier than life. who fpoke for the puppets was called an interpreter. See a note on Hamlet, Act III. fc. v. MALONE. Rather-one might venture to fupply words to fuch intelligible action. Such fignificant gesture ascertains the fentiments that should accompany it. STEEVENS. 2 artificial ftrife-] Strife for action or motion. Strife is either the conteft of art with nature: Hic ille eft Raphael, timuit, quo fofpite vinci WARBURTON. or it is the contrait of forms or oppofition of colours. JOHNSON. So, under the print of Noah Bridges, by Faithorne: "Faithorne, with nature at a noble ftrife, "Hath paid the author a great share of life." &c. STEEVENS. And Ben Jonfon, on the head of Shakspeare by Droefhout: "This figure which thou here feest put, "It was for gentle Shakspeare cut: "Wherein the graver had a ftrife "With nature, to out-doo the life." HENLEY. That artificial ftrife means, as Dr. Johnfon has explained it, the conteft of art with nature, and not the contraft of forms or oppofition of colours, may appear from our author's Venus and Adonis, where the fame thought is more clearly expressed: "Look, when a painter would furpass the life, In Drayton's Mortimeriados, printed I believe in 1596, (afterwards entitled The Barons' Wars,) there are two lines nearly resembling thefe : "Done for the last with such exceeding life, "As art therein with nature were at ftrife." MALONE. |