In Pope's "Letter to the Honourable James Craggs," dated June 15, 1711, after making some observations on Dennis's remarks on the Essay on Criticism, he says—

"Yet, to give this man his due, he has objected to one or two lines with reason; and I will alter them in case of another edition: I will make my enemy do me a kindness where he meant an injury, and so serve instead of a friend."

An interesting paper might be drawn up from the instances, for they are rather numerous, in which Pope followed out this very sensible rule. I do not remember seeing the following one noted. One of the heroes of the Dunciad, Thomas Cooke, the translator of Hesiod, was the editor of a periodical published in monthly numbers, in 8vo., of which nine only appeared, under the title of The Comedian, or Philosophical Inquirer, the first number being for April, and the last for December, 1732. It contains some curious matter, and amongst other papers is, in No. 2., "A Letter in Prose to Mr. Alexander Pope, occasioned by his Epistle in Verse to the Earl of Burlington." It is very abusive, and was most probably written either by Cooke or Theobald. After quoting the following lines as they then stood:

"He buys for Topham drawings and designs, For Fountain statues, and for Curio coins, Rare monkish manuscripts for Hearne alone, And books for Mead, and rarities for Sloane,"

the letter-writer thus unceremoniously addresses himself to the author:

"Rarities! how could'st thou be so silly as not to be particular in the rarities of Sloane, as in those of the other five persons? What knowledge, what meaning is conveyed in the word rarities? Are not some drawings, some statues, some coins, all monkish manuscripts, and some books, rarities? Could'st thou not find a trisyllable to express some parts of nature for a collection of which that learned and worthy physician is eminent? Fy, fy! correct and write—

'Rare monkish manuscripts for Hearne alone, And books for Mead, and butterflies for Sloane.'

"Sir Hans Sloane is known to have the finest collection of butterflies in England, and perhaps in the world; and if rare monkish manuscripts are for Hearne only, how can rarities be for Sloane, unless thou specifyest what sort of rarities? O thou numskull!"—No. 2., pp. 15—16.

The correction was evidently an improvement, and therefore Pope wisely accepted the benefit, and was the channel through which it was conveyed; and the passage accordingly now stands as altered by the letter-writer.

James Crossley.

NOTES ON SEVERAL MISUNDERSTOOD WORDS

(Continued from p. 522.)

Dare, to lurk, or cause to lurk; used both transitively and intransitively. Apparently the root of dark and dearn.

"Here, quod he, it ought ynough suffice, Five houres for to slepe upon a night: But it were for an olde appalled wight, As ben thise wedded men, that lie and dare, As in a fourme sitteth a wery hare."

Tyrwhitt's utterly unwarranted adoption of Speght's interpretation is "Dare, v. Sax. to stare." The reader should always be cautious how he takes upon trust a glossarist's sly fetch to win a cheap repute for learning, and over-ride inquiry by the mysterious letters Sax. or Ang.-Sax. tacked on to his exposition of an obscure word. There is no such Saxon vocable as dare, to stare. Again, what more frequent blunder than to confound a secondary and derivative sense of a word with its radical and primary—indeed, sometimes to allow the former to usurp the precedence, and at length altogether oust the latter: hence it comes to pass, that we find dare is one while said to imply peeping and prying, another while trembling or crouching; moods and actions merely consequent or attendant upon the elementary signification of the word:

"I haue an hoby can make larkys to dare."

Skelton's Magnifycence, vol. i. p.269. l. 1358., Dyce's edition;

on which line that able, but therein mistaken editor's note is, "to dare, i. e. to be terrified, to tremble" (he however also adds, it means to lurk, to lie hid, and remits his reader to a note at p. 379., where some most pertinent examples of its true and only sense are given), to which add these next:

" · · let his grace go forward, And dare vs with his cap, like larkes."

First Fol., Henry VIII., Act III, Sc. 2.

"Thay questun, thay quellun, By frythun by fellun, The dere in the dellun, Thay droupun and daren".

The Anturs of Arthur at the Tarnewathelan,

St. IV. p. 3. Camden Society's Publications.

"She sprinkled vs with bitter juice of vncouth herbs, and strake The awke end of hir charmed rod vpon our heades, and spake Words to the former contrarie. The more she charm'd, the more Arose we vpward from the ground on which we darde before."

The XIIII. Booke of Ouid's Metamorphosis,

p. 179. Arthur Golding's translation: London, 1587.

"Sothely it dareth hem weillynge this thing; that heuenes weren before," &c.

And again, a little further on:

"Forsothe yee moste dere, one thing dare you nougt (or be not unknowen): for one day anentis God as a thousande yeeris, and a thousande yeer as one day."—Cm 3m Petre 2., Wycliffe's translation:

in the Latin Vulgate, latet and lateat respectively; in the original, λανθάνει and λανθανέτω. Now the book is before me, I beg to furnish Mr. Collier with the references to his usage of terre, mentioned in Todd's Dictionary, but not given (Collier's Shakspeare, vol. iv. p. 65., note), namely, 6th cap. of Epistle to Ephesians, prop. init.; and 3rd of that to Colossians, prop. fin.

Die and live.—This hysteron proteron is by no means uncommon: its meaning is, of course, the same as live and die, i. e. subsist from the cradle to the grave:

" · · · Will you sterner be. Than he that dies and lives by bloody drops?"

First Fol., As You Like It, Act III. Sc. 5.

All manner of whimsical and farfetched constructions have been put by the commentators upon this very homely sentence. As long as the question was, whether their wits should have licence to go a-woolgathering or no, one could feel no great concern to interfere: but it appears high time to come to Shakspeare's rescue, when Mr. Collier's "clever" old commentator, with some little variation in the letters, and not much less in the sense, reads "kills" for dies; but then, in the Merry Wives of Windsor, Act II. Sc. 3., the same "clever" authority changes "cride-game (cride I ame), said I well?" into "curds and cream, said I well?"—an alteration certainly not at odds with the host's ensuing question, "said I well?" saving that that, to liquorish palate, might seem a rather superfluous inquiry.

"With sorrow they both die and live That unto richesse her hertes yeve."

The Romaunt of the Rose, v. 5789-90.

"He is a foole, and so shall he dye and liue, That thinketh him wise, and yet can he nothing."

The Ship of Fooles, fol. 67., by Alexander Barclay, 1570.

Страница 1 из 21

Назад1 2…21 Далее