fhall have good fortune;' Go to, here's a fimple line of life! here's a small trifle of wives: Alas, Dr. Johnfon's explanation thus far appears to me perfectly juft. In fupport of it, it should be remembered, that which is frequently ufed by our author and his contemporaries, for the perfonal pronoun, who. It is ftill fo used in our Liturgy. In The Merry Wives of Windfor, Mrs. Quickly addreffes Fenton in the fame language as is here used by Launcelot :-" I'll be worn on a book the loves you:" a vulgarifm that is now fuperfeded by another of the fame import-" I'll take my bible-oath of it." MALONE. Without examining the expofitions of this paffage, given by the three learned annotators, [Mr. T. Dr. W. and Dr. J.] I fhall briefly fet down what appears to me to be the whole meaning of it. Launcelot, applauding himself for his fuccefs with Bassanio, and looking into the palm of his hand, which by fortune-tellers is called the table, breaks out into the following reflection: Well: if any man in Italy have a fairer table; which doth offer to fwear upon a book, I shall have good fortune-i. e. a table, which doth (not only promife, but) offer to fwear (and to fwear upon a book too) that I hall have good fortune. (He omits the conclufion of the fentence which might have been) I am much mistaken; or, I'll be hanged, &c. TYRWHITT. 3 I fhall have good fortune;] The whole difficulty of this paffage (concerning which there is a great difference of opinion among the commentators) arofe, as I conceive, from a word being omitted by the compofitor or tranfcriber. I am perfuaded the author wroteI fhall have no good fortune. These words, are not, I believe, connected with what goes before, but with what follows; and begin a new fentence. Shakspeare, I think, meant, that Launcelot, after this abrupt fpeech-Well; if any man that offers to fwear upon a book, has a fairer table than mine-[I am much mistaken:] should proceed in the fame manner in which he began:-I fhall have no good fortune; go to; here's a fimple line of life!" &c. So before: "I cannot get a fervice, no;-I have ne'er a tongue in my head." And afterwards: "Alas! fifteen wives is nothing." The Nurfe, in Romeo and Juliet, expreffes herself exactly in the fame ftyle: "Well, you have made a fimple choice; you know not how to choose a man; Romeo? no, not he;—he is not the flower of courtefy," &c. So also, in K. Henry IV. « Here's no fine villainy !” Again, more appofitely, in the anonymous play of K. Henry V: "Ha! me have no good luck." Again, in The Merry Wives of Windfor: "We are fimple men; we do not know what's brought about under the profeffion of fortune-telling." Almoft every paffage in these plays, in which the fenfe is abruptly broken off, as I have more than once obferved, has been corrupted. fifteen wives is nothing; eleven widows, and nine maids, is a fimple coming-in for one man: and then, to 'fcape drowning thrice; and to be in peril of my life with the edge of a feather-bed; here are fimple 'scapes! Well, if fortune be a woman, fhe's a good wench for this geer.-Father, come; I'll take my leave of the Jew in the twinkling of an eye. [Exeunt LAUNCELOT and old GOBBO. BASS. I pray thee, good Leonardo, think on this; These things being bought, and orderly bestow'd, Return in hafte, for I do feaft to-night My best-esteem'd acquaintance; hie thee, go. LEON. My best endeayours fhall be done herein, It is not without fome reluctance that I have excluded this emendation from a place in the text. Had it been proposed by any former editor or commentator, I fhould certainly have adopted it; being convinced that it is juft. But the danger of innovation is fo great, and partiality to our own conceptions fo delufive, that it becomes every editor to diftruft his own emendations; and I am particularly inclined to do fo in the prefent inftance, in which I happen to differ from that moft refpectable and judicious critick, whofe name is fubjoined to the preceding note. According to his idea, the mark of an abrupt fentence should not be after the word book, but fortune. MALONE. 3 in peril of my life with the edge of a feather-bed;] A cant phrafe to fignify the danger of marrying.A certain French writer ufes the fame kind of figure, "O mon Ami, j'aimerais mieux étre tombée fur la point d'un Oreiller, & m'être rompú le Cou." WARBURTON. GRA. I have a fuit to your BASS. 3 You have obtain❜d it. GRA. You must not deny me; I must go with you to Belmont. BASS. Why, then you must-But hear thee, Gratiano; Thou art too wild, too rude, and bold of voice;Parts, that become thee happily enough, And in fuch eyes as ours appear not faults; Something too liberal; 3-pray thee, take pain I be misconstrued in the place I go to, GRA. Signior Baffanio, hear me: If I do not put on a fober habit, Talk with refpect, and fwear but now and then, Like one well ftudied in a fad oftent" 3 Something too liberal;] Liberal I have already shown to be mean, grofs, coarfe, licentious. JOHNSON. So, in Othello: "Is he not a moft profane and liberal counfellor? STEEVENS. allay with fome cold drops of modesty Thy Skipping Spirit;] So, in Hamlet: Upon the heat and flame of thy diftemper 5hood mine eyes-] Alluding to the manner of covering a hawk's eyes. So, in The Tragedy of Crafus, 1604: "And like a hooded hawk, &c. STEEVENS, fad oftent —] Grave appearance; fhow of ftaid and ferious behaviour. JOHNSON. To please his grandam, never trust me more. ~ By what we do to-night. BASS. No, that were pity; I would entreat you rather to put on Your boldeft fuit of mirth, for we have friends GRA. And I must to Lorenzo, and the reft; SCENE III. [Exeunt. The fame. A Room in Shylock's House, Enter JESSICA and LAUNCELOT. JES. I am forry, thou wilt leave my father fo; Our houfe is hell, and thou, a merry devil, Didft rob it of fome tafte of tedioufness: But fare thee well; there is a ducat for thee. And, Launcelot, foon at fupper fhalt thou fee Oftent is a word very commonly used for how among the old dramatick writers, So, in Heywood's Iron Age, 1632; -you in those times "Did not affect oftent." Again, in Chapman's tranflation of Homer, edit, 1598, B. VI: 7 did bloodie vapours raine "For fad oftent," &c. STEEVENS. your bearing.] Bearing is carriage, deportment. So, in Twelfth-Night: "Take and give back affairs, and their despatch, STEEVING. Lorenzo, who is thy new master's gueft: And fo farewel; I would not have my father LAUN. Adieu!-tears exhibit my tongue.Moft beautiful pagan,-most sweet Jew! If a Christian do not play the knave, and get thee, I am much deceived: But, adieu! these foolish drops do somewhat drown my manly fpirit; adieu! [Exit. JES. Farewel, good Launcelot.Alack, what heinous fin is it in me, To be asham'd to be my father's child! But though I am a daughter to his blood, I am not to his manners: O Lorenzo, If thou keep promife, I fhall end this ftrife; Become a Chriftian, and thy loving wife. [Exit. SCENE IV. The fame. A Street. Enter GRATIANO, LORENZO, SALARINO, and SALANIO. LOR. Nay, we will flink away in fupper-time; Difguife us at my lodging, and return All in an hour. and get thee,] I fufpect that the waggish Launcelot defigned this for a broken fentence-" and get thee"-implying, get thee with child. Mr. Malone, however, fuppofes him to mean only-carry thee away from thy father's house. STEEVENS. I should not have attempted to explain fo eafy a paffage, if the ignorant editor of the fecond folio, thinking probably that the word get muft neceffarily mean beget, had not altered the text, and fubtituted did in the place of do, the reading of all the old and authentick editions; in which he has been copied by every fubfequent |