The Complete Works of William Shakespeare - Israel Gollancz William Shakespeare [2540]
As into air the purer spirits f1ow,
And separate from their kindred dregs below,
So flew her soul.—
IV.v.171 (297,1) O how the wheel becomes it!] [W: weal] I do not see why weal is better than wheel. The story alluded to I do not know; but perhaps the lady stolen by the steward was reduced to spin.
IV.v.175 (297,2) There's rosemary, that'll far rememberance. Pray you, love, remember. And there's pansies, that's for thoughts] There is probably some mythology in the choice of these herbs, but I cannot explain it. Pansies is for thoughts, because of its name, Pensées; but rosemary indicates remembrance, except that it is an ever-green, and carried at funerals, I have not discovered.
IV.v.214 (300,7) No trophy, sword, nor batchment] It was the custom, in the times of our author, to hang a sword over the grave of a knight.
IV.v.218 (300,8) And where the offence is, let the great axe fall] [W: tax] Fall corresponds better to axe.
IV.vi.26 (301,9) for the bore of the matter] The bore is the calibier of a gun, or the capacity of the barrel. The matter (says Hamlet) would carry the heavier words.
IV.vii.18 (302,1) the general gender] The common race of the people.
IV.vii.19 (302,2)
dipping all his faults in their affection,
Would, like the spring that turneth wood to stone,
Convert his gyves to graces]
This simile is neither very seasonable in the deep interest of this conversation, nor very accurately applied. If the spring had changed base metals to gold, the thought had been more proper.
IV.vii.27 (302,3) if praises may go back again] If I may praise what has been, but is now to be found no more.
IV.vii.77 (304,5) Of the unworthiest siege] Of the lowest rank. Siege, for seat, place.
IV.vii.82 (304,6) Importing health and graveness] [W: wealth] Importing here may be, not inferring by logical consequence, but producing by physical effect. A young man regards show in his dress, an old man, health.
IV.vii.90 (305,7) I, in forgery of shapes and tricks/Come short of what he did] I could not contrive so many proofs of dexterity as he could perform.
IV.vii.98 (305,8) in your defence] That is, in the science of defence.
IV.vii.101 (305,9) The scrimers] The fencers.
IV.vii.112 (305,1) love is begun by time] This is obscure. The meaning may be, love is not innate in us, and co-essential to our nature, but begins at a certain time from some external cause, and being always subject to the operations of time, suffers change and diminution. (1773)
IV.vii.113 (300,2) in passages of proof] In transactions of daily experience.
IV.vii.123 (306,4) And then this should is like a spendthrift sigh/ That hurts by easing] [W: sign] This conjecture is so ingenious, that it can hardly be opposed, but with the same reluctance as the bow is drawn against a hero, whose virtues the archer holds in veneration. Here may be applied what Voltaire writes to the empress:
Le genereux Francois—
Te combat & t'admire.
Yet this emendation, however specious, is mistaken. The original reading is, not a spendthrift's sigh, but a spendthrift sigh; a sigh that makes an unnecessary waste of the vital flame. It is a notion very prevalent, that sighs impair the strength, and wear out the animal powers.
IV.vii.135 (307,5) He being remiss] He being not vigilant or cautious.
IV.vii.139 (307,7) a pass of practice] Practice is often by Shakespeare, and other writers, taken for an insidious stratagem, or privy treason, a sense not incongruous to this passage, where yet I rather believe, that nothing more is meant than a thrust for exercise.
IV.vii.151 (308,8) May fit us to our shape] May enable us to assume proper characters, and to act our part.
IV.vii.155 (308,9) blast in proof] This, I believe, is a metaphor taken from a mine, which, in the proof or execution, sometimes