With burdens of the dead;-fome that were hang'd, No matter:-wear them, betray with them: whore ftill; of the word pains, and partly from the generality of the expression. The meaning is this: he had faid before, follow conftantly your trade of debauchery: that is (fays he) for fix months in the year. Let the other fix be employed in quite contrary pains and labour, namely, in the fevere discipline neceffary for the repair of thofe diforders that your debaucheries occafion, in order to fit you anew to the trade; and thus let the whole year be spent in these different occupations. On this account he goes on, and fays, Make falfe bair, &c. WARBURTON. The explanation is ingenious, but I think it very remote, and would willingly bring the author and his readers to meet on easier terms. We may read: Yet may your pains fix months Be quite contraried : Timon is wishing ill to mankind, but is afraid left the whores fhould imagine that he wishes well to them; to obviate which he lets them know, that he imprecates upon them influence enough to plague others, and difappointments enough to plague themselves. He wishes that they may do all poffible mischief, and yet take pains fix months of the year in vain. In this fenfe there is a connection of this line with the next. Finding your pains contraried, try new expedients, thatch your thin roofs, and paint. To contrary is an old verb. Latymer relates, that when he went to court, he was advised not to contrary the king. JOHNSON. If Dr. Johnson's explanation be right, which I do not believe, the prefent words appear to me to admit it, as well as the reading he would introduce. Such unneceffary deviations from the text should ever be avoided. Dr. Warburton's is a very natural interpretation, which cannot often be faid of the expofitions of that commentator. The words that follow fully fupport it: "And thatch your poor thin roofs," &c. i. e. after you have loft the greater part of your hair by disease, and the medicines that for fix months you have been obliged to take, then procure an artificial covering," &c. MALONE. I believe this means,-Yet for half the year at least, may you fuffer fuch punishment as is inflicted on harlots in houfes of correction. STEEVENS. Thefe words fhould be included in a parenthefis. Johnfon wishes to connect them with the following fentences, but that Paint till a horse may mire upon your face: PHR. AND TYM. Well, more gold;-What then?Believe't, that we'll do any thing for gold. cannot be, as they contain an imprecation, and the following lines contain an inftruction. Timon is giving inftructions to those women; but, in the middle of his inftructions his mifanthrophy breaks forth in an imprecation against them. I have no objection to the reading of contraried, instead of contrary, but it does not feem to be neceffary. M. MASON, -thatch your poor thin roofs &c.] About the year 1595, when the fashion became general in England of wearing a greater quantity of hair than was ever the produce of a fingle head, it was dangerous for any child to wander, as nothing was more common than for women to entice fuch as had fine locks into private places, and there to cut them off. I have this information from Stubbs's Anatomy of Abufes, which I have often quoted on the article of drefs. To this fashion the writers of Shakspeare's age do not appear to have been reconciled. So, in A Mad World my Mafters, 1608: to wear perriwigs made of another's hair, is not this against kind ?" Again, in Drayton's Mooncalf: "And with large fums they ftick not to procure Again, in Shakspeare's 68th Sonnet: "Before the golden treffes of the dead, "Ere beauty's dead fleece made another gay." Again, in Churchyard's Tragicall difcours of a dolorous Gentle woman, 1593: "The perwickes fine must curle wher haire doth lack Warner, in his Albion's England, 1602, Book IX. ch. xlvii. is likewife very fevere on this fashion. Stowe informs us, that "women's periwigs were firft brought into England about the time of the maffacre of Paris." STEEVENS. See alfo Vol. V. p. 471, n. 8. The first edition of Stubbes's Anatomy of Abufes quoted above, was in 1583, Drayton's Mooncalf did not, I believe, appear till TIM, Confumptions fow In hollow bones of man; ftrike their fharp fhins, And mar men's fpurring.' Crack the lawyer's voice, That he may never more falfe title plead, Nor found his quillets fhrilly: hoar the flamen,' And not believes himfelf: down with the nofe, 3men's fpurring.] Sir T. Hanmer reads-Sparring, properly enough, if there be any ancient example of the word. JOHNSON. Spurring is certainly right. The disease that enfeebled their fbins would have this effect. STEEVENS. 4 Nor found his quillets frilly:] Quillets are fubtilties. So, in Law Tricks, &c. 1608: " a quillet well applied!" STEEVENS. Cole, in his Latin Dictionary, 1679, renders quillet, res frivola, recula. MALONE. shoar the flamen,] Mr. Upton would read-hoarfe, i. c. make hoarfe; for to be hoary claims reverence. "Add to this (fays he) that boarfe is here moft proper, as opposed to feolds. It may, however, mean,-Give the flamen the hoary leprofy." So, in Webster's Drchefs of Malfy, 1623: fhew like leprofy, "The whiter the fouler." And before, in this play: "Make the boar leprofy ador'd." STEEVENS. 6 that his particular to forefee,] The metaphor is apparently incongruous, but the fenfe is good. To forefee his particular, is to provide for his private advantage, for which he leaves the right Scent of publick good. In hunting, when hares have crofs'd one another, it is common for fome of the hounds to smell from the general weal, and foresee their own particular. Shakspeare, who feems to have been a fkilful sportsman, and has alluded often to falconry, perhaps, alludes here to hunting. [Dr. Warburton would read-forefend, i. e. (as he interprets the word) provide for, fecure.] To the commentator's emendation it may be objected, that he ufes forefend in the wrong meaning. To forefend, is, I think, never to provide for, but to provide againft. The verbs compounded with for or fore have commonly either an evil or negative sense. JOHNSON. Smells from the general weal: make curl'd-pate ruffians bald; And let the unscarr'd braggarts of the war PHR. AND TYM. More counfel, with more money, TIM. More whore, more mischief firft; I have ALCIB. Strike up the drum towards Athens. If I thrive well, I'll vifit thee again. TIM. If I hope well, I'll never see thee more. ALCIB. I never did thee harm. TIM. Yes, thou spok'st well of me. ALCIB. Call'st thou that harm? And ditches grave you all!] To grave is to entomb. The word is now obfolete, though fometimes ufed by Shakspeare and his contemporary authors. So, in Lord Surrey's Translation of the fourth book of Virgil's Æneid: "Cinders (think'ft thou) mind this? or graved ghoftes?" To ungrave was likewife to turn out of a grave. Thus, in Mariton's Sophonifba: and me, now dead, Deny a grave; hurl us among the rocks "To ftanch beafts hunger: therefore, thus ungrav'd, "I feek flow rest." See Vol. VIII. p. 278, n. 4. STEEVENS. Yes, thou spok ft well of me.] Shakspeare in this as in many other places, appears to allude to the facred writings: unto him of whom all men fpeak well!" MALONE. " Woc TIM. Men daily find it fuch. Get thee away, And take thy beagles with thee. ALCIB. Strike. We but offend him. [Drum beats. Exeunt ALCIBIADES, PHRYNIA, and TYMANDRA. TIM. That nature, being fick of man's unkind- Should yet be hungry!-Common mother, thou, 8 -find it fuch.] For the infertion of the pronoun-fuch, I am answerable. It is too frequently used on fimilar occafions by our author, to need exemplification. STEEVENS. 9 Whofe womb unmeasurable, and infinite breaft,] This image is taken from the ancient ftatues of Diana Ephefia Multimammia, called παναίολος φύσις πάντων μήτηρ; and is a very good comment on thofe extraordinary figures. See Montfauçon, l'Antiquité expliqueé, Lib. III. ch. xv. Hefiod, alluding to the fame reprefentations calls the earth, ΓΑΙ ΕΥΡΥΣΤΕΡΝΟΣ, WARBURTON. Whofe infinite breaft means no more than whofe boundless furface. Shakspeare probably knew nothing of the ftatue to which the commentator alludes. STEEVENS. 2 eyelefs venom'd worm,] The ferpent, which we, from the fmallness of his eyes, call the blind-worm, and the Latins, cæcilia. JOHNSON. So, in Macbeth: "Adder's fork, and blind-worm's fting." STEEVENS. 3 below crifp heaven-] We fhould read-cript, i. e. vaulted, from the Latin crypta, a vault. WARBURTON. Mr. Upton declares for crifp, curled, bent, hollow. JOHNSON. |