The Tempest by William Shakespeare (ebook reader color screen TXT) 📖

‘Now follow if thou darest to try whose right,

Of thine or mine, is most in Helena.’

Note VIII.

II. 1. 157. Of its own kind. There is no doubt, as Dr Guest has shewn, that ‘it,’ which is the reading of the 1st and 2nd folios, was commonly used as a genitive in Shakespeare’s time, as it is still in some provincial dialects. ‘Its,’ however, was coming into use. One instance occurs in this play, I. 11. 95, ‘in its contrary.’

Note IX.

II. 1. 241. she that from whom. Mr Spedding writes: ‘The received emendation is not satisfactory to me. I would rather read, “She that—From whom? All were sea-swallow’d &c., i.e. from whom should she have note? The report from Naples will be that all were drowned. We shall be the only survivors.” The break in the construction seems to me characteristic of the speaker. But you must read the whole speech to feel the effect.’

Note X.

II. 1. 249-251. All editors except Mr Staunton have printed in italics (or between inverted commas) only as far as ‘Naples?’, but as ‘keep’ is printed with a small k in the folios, they seem to sanction the arrangement given in our text.

Note XI.

II. 1. 267. Ay, sir; where lies that? if ’twere a kibe. Mr Singer and Mr Dyce have changed ‘’twere’ to ‘it were’ for the sake of the metre. But then the first part of the line must be read with a wrong emphasis. The proper emphasis clearly falls on the first, third, and fifth syllables, ‘Aý, sir; whére lies thát?’ See Preface.

Note XII.

II. 2. 165. Before ‘here; bear my bottle’ Capell inserts a stage direction [To Cal.], but it appears from III. 2. 62, that Trinculo was entrusted with the office of bottle-bearer.

Note XIII.

III. 1. 15. Most busy lest, when I do it. As none of the proposed emendations can be regarded as certain, we have left the reading of F1, though it is manifestly corrupt. The spelling ‘doe’ makes Mr Spedding’s conjecture ‘idlest’ for ‘I doe it’ more probable.

Note XIV.

III. 3. 17. The stage direction, which we have divided into two parts, is placed all at once in the folios after ‘as when they are fresh’ [Solemne and strange Musicke; and Prosper on the top (invisible:) Enter ... depart].

Pope transferred it to follow Sebastian’s words, ‘I say, to night: no more.’

Note XV.

III. 3. 48. Each putter out of five for one. See Beaumont and Fletcher, The Noble Gentleman, I. 1. (Vol. II. p. 261, ed. Moxon): ‘The return will give you five for one.’ Marine is about to travel.

Note XVI.

IV. 1. 146. You do look, my son, in a moved sort. Seymour suggests a transposition: ‘you do, my son, look in a moved sort.’ This line however can scarcely have come from Shakespeare’s pen. Perhaps the writer who composed the Masque was allowed to join it, as best he might, to Shakespeare’s words, which re-commence at ‘Our revels now are ended,’ &c.

Note XVII.

IV. 1. 230. Let’s alone. See Staunton’s “Shakespeare,” Vol. I. p. 81, note (b).

Note XVIII.

V. 1. 309. Of these our dear-beloved solemnized. The Folios have ‘belov’d’; a mode of spelling, which in this case is convenient as indicating the probable rhythm of the verse. We have written ‘beloved,’ in accordance with the general rule mentioned in the Preface.

‘Solemnized’ occurs in four other verse passages of Shakespeare. It is three times to be accented ‘sólemnized’ and once (Love’s Labour’s Lost, II. 1. 41) ‘solémnized.’