The Complete Works of William Shakespeare - Israel Gollancz William Shakespeare [2664]
La terre les eaux va boivant,
L'arbre la boit par sa racine,
La mer salee boit le vent,
Et le Soleil boit la marine.
Le Soleil est beu de la Lune,
Tout boit soit en haut ou en bas:
Suivant ceste reigle commune,
Pourquoy donc ne boirons-nous pas?—Edit. Fol. p. 507.
I know not whether an observation or two relative to our Author's acquaintance with Homer be worth our investigation. The ingenious Mrs. Lenox observes on a passage of Troilus and Cressida, where Achilles is roused to battle by the death of Patroclus, that Shakespeare must here have had the Iliad in view, as “the old Story, which in many places he hath faithfully copied, is absolutely silent with respect to this circumstance.”
And Mr. Upton is positive that the sweet oblivious Antidote, inquired after by Macbeth, could be nothing but the Nepenthe described in the Odyssey,
·Àµ½¸s Ľ Ç¿»y½ ĵ, º±ºö½ Àw»·¸¿½ Àq½Äɽ.
I will not insist upon the Translations by Chapman; as the first Editions are without date, and it may be difficult to ascertain the exact time of their publication. But the former circumstance might have been learned from Alexander Barclay; and the latter more fully from Spenser than from Homer himself.
“But Shakespeare,” persists Mr. Upton, “hath some Greek Expressions.” Indeed!—“We have one in Coriolanus,
——It is held
That valour is the chiefest Virtue, and
Most dignifies the Haver;——
and another in Macbeth, where Banquo addresses the Weïrd-Sisters,
——My noble Partner
You greet with present grace, and great prediction
Of noble Having.——
Gr. ǵ¹±,—and ÀÁx Äx½ Ç¿½Ä±, to the Haver.
This was the common language of Shakespeare's time. “Lye in a water-bearer's house!” says Master Mathew of Bobadil, “a Gentleman of his Havings!”
Thus likewise John Davies in his Pleasant Descant upon English Proverbs, printed with his Scourge of Folly, about 1612:
Do well and have well!—neyther so still:
For some are good Doers, whose Havings are ill;
and Daniel the Historian uses it frequently. Having seems to be synonymous with Behaviour in Gawin Douglas and the elder Scotch writers.
Haver, in the sense of Possessor, is every where met with: tho' unfortunately the ÀÁx Äx½ Ç¿½Ä± of Sophocles, produced as an authority for it, is suspected by Kuster, as good a critick in these matters, to have absolutely a different meaning.
But what shall we say to the learning of the Clown in Hamlet, “Ay, tell me that, and unyoke”? alluding to the ’¿Å»ÅÄx of the Greeks: and Homer and his Scholiast are quoted accordingly!
If it be not sufficient to say, with Dr. Warburton, that the phrase might be taken from Husbandry, without much depth of reading; we may produce it from a Dittie of the workmen of Dover, preserved in the additions to Holingshed, p. 1546.
My bow is broke, I would unyoke,
My foot is sore, I can worke no more.
An expression of my Dame Quickly is next fastened upon, which you may look for in vain in the modern text; she calls some of the pretended Fairies in the Merry Wives of Windsor,
——Orphan Heirs of fixed Destiny;
“and how elegant is this!” quoth Mr. Upton, supposing the word to be used, as a Grecian would have used it, “@ÁƱ½x ab @Áƽx—acting in darkness and obscurity.”
Mr. Heath assures us that the bare mention of such an interpretation is a sufficient refutation of it: and his critical word will be rather taken in Greek than in English: in the same hands therefore I will venture to leave all our author's knowledge of the Old Comedy, and his etymological learning in the word, Desdemona.
Surely poor Mr. Upton was very little acquainted with Fairies, notwithstanding his laborious study of Spenser. The last authentick account of them is from our countryman William Lilly; and it by no means agrees with the learned interpretation: for the angelical Creatures appeared in his Hurst wood in a