FREE BOOKS

Author's List




PREV.   NEXT  
|<   13   14   15   16   17   18   19   20   21   22   23   24   25   26   27   28   29   30   31   32   33   34   35   36   37  
38   39   40   41   42   43   44   45   46   47   48   49   50   51   52   53   54   55   56   57   58   59   60   61   62   >>   >|  
y interesting illustration of several misunderstood archaisms; and it may not be unacceptable to him if I call his attention to what seems to me a farther illustration of the above singular idiom, from Shakspeare himself. In _As You Like It_, Act I. Sc. 3., where Rosalind has been banished by the Duke her uncle, we have the following dialogue between Celia and her cousin: "_Cel._ O my poor Rosalind! whither wilt thou go? Wilt thou change fathers? I will give thee mine. I charge thee, be not thou more grieved than I am. _Ros._ I have more cause. _Cel._ Thou hast not, cousin: Pr'ythee be cheerful: know'st thou not, the duke Hath banish'd me, his daughter? _Ros._ That he hath not. _Cel._ _No hath not?_ Rosalind lacks, then, the love Which teacheth thee that thou and I _are_ one. Shall we be sunder'd," &c. From wrong pointing, and ignorance of the idiomatic structure, the passage has hitherto been misunderstood; and Warburton proposed to read, "Which teacheth _me_," but was fortunately opposed by Johnson, although _he_ did not clearly understand the passage. I have ventured to change _am_ to _are_, for I cannot conceive that Shakspeare wrote, "that thou and I _am_ one!" It is with some hesitation that I make this trifling innovation on the old text, although we have, a few lines lower, the more serious misprint of _your change_ for _the charge_. I presume that the abbreviated form of _the = y^e_ was taken for for _y^r_, and the _r_ in _charge_ mistaken for _n_; and in the former case of _am_ for _are_, indistinctness in old writing, and especially in such a hand as, it appears from his autograph, our great poet wrote, would readily lead to such mistakes. That the correction was left to the printer of the first folio, I am fully persuaded; yet, in comparison with the second folio, it is a correct book, notwithstanding all its faults. That it was customary for men who were otherwise busied, as we may suppose Heminge and Condell to have been, to leave the correction entirely to the printer, is certain; for an acquaintance of Shakspeare's, Resolute John Florio, distinctly shows that it was the case. We have this pithy brief Preface to the second edition of his translation of Montaigne: "_To the Reader._ "Enough, if not too much, hath beene said of this translation. If the faults found even by myselfe in the first impression, be now by the
PREV.   NEXT  
|<   13   14   15   16   17   18   19   20   21   22   23   24   25   26   27   28   29   30   31   32   33   34   35   36   37  
38   39   40   41   42   43   44   45   46   47   48   49   50   51   52   53   54   55   56   57   58   59   60   61   62   >>   >|  



Top keywords:

Rosalind

 

Shakspeare

 
charge
 

change

 

passage

 

cousin

 

faults

 
teacheth
 

translation

 

correction


misunderstood

 

illustration

 

printer

 
mistakes
 
readily
 

abbreviated

 

presume

 
misprint
 

mistaken

 

autograph


appears
 

indistinctness

 
writing
 

Preface

 

edition

 

Montaigne

 

Florio

 

distinctly

 

Reader

 
Enough

myselfe

 

impression

 

Resolute

 
customary
 

notwithstanding

 
persuaded
 
comparison
 

correct

 

acquaintance

 
Condell

busied

 
suppose
 
Heminge
 

Warburton

 

dialogue

 

banished

 

grieved

 
fathers
 
attention
 

unacceptable