Act IV Sc. 1
“Have given you here a third of my own life.”
For ‘third,’ which might easily have been a printer’s error for thrid, i.e. thread, editors in general follow Theobald in reading this last word. It is easy to conceive how Miranda might be regarded as a thread or integral portion of her father’s life, but not how she could be a third of it.
“Do not smile at me that I boast her of.”
Of course Shakespeare wrote ‘of her.’ The editors, without, I believe, an exception, have ‘boast her off’—a phrase unknown to the poet—introduced by the editor of the 2nd folio, who had little or no idea of emendation by transposition.
“The strongest suggestion
Our worser Genius can, shall never melt
Mine honour into lust.”
As it is difficult to make any good sense here of ‘can’ alone, we should perhaps read ‘can make’, or ‘can give,’ making ‘Genius’ a trisyllable, and the line of six feet.
“Or night kept chain’d below.—’Tis fairly spoke.”
“Thy banks with pioned and twilled brims.”
‘Banks’ may be either the margins of streams or hillocks, or slight elevations of land; but ‘brims,’ which can only be the edges or margins of hollows, shows that it is the former that is meant. ‘Pioned’ seems to be a word of Shakespeare’s own creation; for, finding the word pioneer in common use, and pyonings—a word of Spenser’s coinage—in the Faerie Queen (ii. 10. 63) signifying defences, the work of pioneers, he thought himself at liberty to form a verb pion. This is generally taken to mean dig; and ‘twilled’ is supposed to be a term transferred from cloth, etc., and signifying ridged; and so the passage is made to mean dug, and laid out in ridges, which, however, hardly accords with the context. Steevens, on the other hand, read ‘pioned and lilied’; but neither the piony nor the lily can properly be regarded as a wild flower (though the former is said to grow on the Severn), and such only could be meant here. Others again for ‘twilled’ read tilled, or give strange meanings to ‘twilled.’ My own opinion is, that the sense which Shakespeare gave to his ‘pioned’ was fenced, and that ‘twilled’ was a printer’s error. We may observe that ’and twilled’ is pronounced an twilled, which differs very slightly in sound from ‘and willow’d.’ (See Introd. p. 52.) By reading, then, “Thy banks with pioned and willow’d brims” we get most excellent sense, the idea in the poet’s mind being the bank of a stream, fenced, as it were, and secured against overflow, with a range of willows along its edge, and ‘betrimmed,’ i.e. adorned, with primroses, violets, and other wild flowers; for “April showers bring forth May flowers.” I have not hesitated to make this correction in my Edition.
“To make cold nymphs chaste crowns.”
In my Edition I have here transposed the adjectives (See on i. 1). We are to take ‘cold,’ as so frequently, in the sense of cool, which agrees well with flowers growing on the edge of a stream, while it seems absurd to term them ‘chaste.’ ‘Nymphs’ is evidently maidens; for if the Naiades were meant there would be an article.
“Summon’d me hither to this short-grass’d green.”
This must be the right reading, as the folio has gras’d. Some would read graz’d, which can hardly be right.
“And the broom groves
Whose shadow the dismissed bachelor loves.”
For ‘broom’ Hanmer read brown, which I have adopted; though contrary to my rule (see Introd. p. 51), as I have met no earlier authority for this use of brown than Milton. The poet’s word may have been broad or trim. The broom never attains a height to justify the terming it a ‘grove.’ Dyer, a good authority, has in his Fleece “low-tufted broom,” and Bloomfield (Rural Tales) “tufts of green broom,” both using the proper term. I doubt if ‘grove’ is ever used of any but forest-trees.
“Spring come to you at the farthest,
In the very end of harvest.”
No one has ever made, or can make, sense of this. For ‘Spring’ Collier’s folio reads Rain—no great improvement. The fact is, as the context plainly shows, that the poet’s word was Shall. With this simple change the whole passage becomes clear and grammatical, and forms a parallel to the fairy-blessing at the end of Mids. Night’s Dream.
“So rare a wonder’d father and a wise.”
Some copies of the folio read ‘wife’ for ‘wise’; which has become the general reading, even that of the Cambridge Edition. I prefer, as more Shakespearian, the other reading, which is also that of all the succeeding folios.
“Makes this place paradise—O sweet, now silence.”
“You nymphs, called Naiads of the winding brooks,
With your sedg’d crowns and ever harmless looks.”
The word in the folio is windring; so it is doubtful whether we should read winding or wandering. ‘Sedg’d’ may have been sedge; for the sound is exactly the same in this place.
“You do look in a mov’d sort, my son.”
The folio reads “my son, in a moved sort.”
“Leave not a wrack behind.”
This is undoubtedly the true reading. The folio has racke, but instances of this error are common. See my note on Milton’s Par. Reg. iv. 452. We have wrack for rack in
“Even like a man new-haled from the wrack.”
1 Hen. VI. ii. 5.
“Humanly speaking all, all lost, quite lost.”
With Malone, I read are for the second ‘all.’ In the same way we have “sir, sir,” in All’s Well, v. 2.
“O good my lord, give me thy favour still.”
“Let us alone,
And do the murder first.”
With Theobald I read ‘Let us along,’ which connects so well with what follows: we have this very expression in Wint. Tale, v. 2; and see on L. L. L. iv. 3. Hanmer read ‘Let it alone.’
“Make us strange stuff...”
“Hey, Fury, Fury! there, Tyrant, there! hark, hark!”