ter, with his horn full of good news; my master will be here ere morning. [Exit. Lor. Sweet soul, let 's in, and there expect their coming. And yet no matter;-Why should we go in? [Exit STEPH. How sweet the moon-light sleeps upon this bank! Sweet soul,] These words in the old copies are placed at the end of Launcelot's speech. Malone. These two words should certainly be placed at the beginning of the following speech of Lorenzo: "Sweet soul, let 's in," &c. Mr. Pope, I see, has corrected this blunder of the old edition, but he has changed soule into love, without any necessity. Tyrwhitt. Mr. Rowe first made the present regulation, which appears to me to be right. Instead of soul he reads-love, the latter word having been capriciously substituted in the place of the former by the editor of the second folio, who introduced a large portion of the corruptions, which for a long time disfigured the modern editions. Malone. I rather suppose, that the printer of the second folio, judiciously correcting some mistakes, through inattention committed others. Steevens. 9 - and let the sounds of musick Creep in our ears;] So, in Churchyard's Worthines of Wales, 1587: "A musick sweete, that through our eares shall creepe, Again, in The Tempest: "This musick crept by me upon the waters." Reed. 1 with patines of bright gold;] Dr. Warburton says we should read-patens; a round broad plate of gold borne in heraldry. Steevens. Pattens is the reading of the first folio, and pattents of the quarto. Patterns is printed first in the folio, 1632. Johnson. One of the quartos, 1600, reads-pattens, the other pattents. Steevens. There's not the smallest orb, which thou behold'st, Still quiring to the young-ey'd cherubims: Such harmony is in immortal souls; Doth grossly close it in, we cannot hear it,2. A patine, from patina, Lat. A patine is the small flat dish or plate used with the chalice, in the administration of the eucharist. In the time of popery, and probably in the following age, it was commonly made of gold. Malone. 2 Such harmony is in immortal souls; &c.] It is proper to exhibit the lines as they stand in the copies of the first, second, third, and fourth editions, without any variation, for a change has been silently made by Rowe, and adopted by all the succeeding editors: Such harmony is in immortal souls; But while this muddy vesture of decay Doth grossly close in it, we cannot hear it. That the third line is corrupt must be allowed, but it gives reason to suspect that the original was: Doth grossly close it in. Yet I know not whether from this any thing better can be produced than the received reading. Perhaps harmony is the power of perceiving harmony, as afterwards: Musick in the soul is the quality of being moved with concord of sweet sounds. This will somewhat explain the old copies, but the sentence is still imperfect; which might be completed by reading: Such harmony is in th' immortal soul, Doth grossly close it in, we cannot hear it. Johnson. close it in-] This idea might have been adopted from a passage in Phaer's translation of Virgil, B. VI: "Nor closed so in darke can they regard their heavenly kinde, "For carkasse foul of flesh, and dungeon vile of prison blinde." Steevens. Such harmony is in immortal souls; &c.] This passage having been much misunderstood, it may be proper to add a short explanation of it. Such harmony, &c. is not an explanation arising from the foregoing line" So great is the harmony!" but an illustration :"Of the same kind is the harmony."-The whole runs thus: There is not one of the heavenly orbs but sings as it moves, still quiring to the cherubin. Similar to the harmony they make, is that of immortal souls; or, (in other words) each of us have as perfect harmony in our souls as the harmony of the spheres, inasmuch as we have the quality of being moved by sweet sounds (as he expresses it afterwards;) but our gross terrestrial part, which environs us, deadens Enter Musicians. Come, ho, and wake Diana with a hymn;3 Jes. I am never merry, when I hear sweet musick. [Musick. the sound, and prevents our hearing.-It, [Doth grossly close it in] I apprehend, refers to harmony. This is the reading of the first quarto printed by Heyes; the quarto printed by Roberts and the folio read-close in it. It may be objected that this internal harmony is not an object of sense, cannot be heard;-but Shakspeare is not always exact in his language: he confounds it with that external and artificial harmony which is capable of being heard.-Dr. Warburton (who appears to have entirely misunderstood this passage) for souls reads sounds. This hath been imitated by Milton in his Arcades: "Can any mortal mixture of earth's mould Malone The old reading in immortal souls is certainly right, and the whole line may be well explained by Hooker, in his Ecclesiastical Polity, B. V: "Touching musical harmony, whether by instrument or by voice, it being but of high and low sounds in a due proportionable disposition, such, notwithstanding is the force thereof, and so pleasing effects it hath in that very part of man which is most divine, that some have been thereby induced to think, that the soul itself by nature is or hath in it harmony." For this quotation I am indebted to Dr. Farmer. Mr. Malone observes that "the fifth Book of the E. P. was published singly, in 1597." Steevens. 3 wake Diana with a hymn;] Diana is the moon, who is in the next scene represented as sleeping. Johnson. 4 And draw her home with musick.] Shakspeare was, I believe, here thinking of the custom of accompanying the last waggonload, at the end of harvest, with rustick musick. He again alludes to this yet common practice, in As you Like it. Malone. 5 I am never merry, when I hear sweet musick.] In the age of Shakspeare it is probable that some shade of meaning (at present Lor. The reason is, your spirits are attentive: For do but note a wild and wanton herd, Or race of youthful and unhandled colts, Fetching mad bounds, bellowing, and neighing loud, If they but hear perchance a trumpet sound, You shall perceive them make a mutual stand," By the sweet power of musick: Therefore, the poet Nor is not mov'd with concord of sweet sounds," undeterminable) was occasionally affixed to the words sweet and sweetness. Thus, in The Two Gentlemen of Verona, we have "a sweet mouth;" and in Measure for Measure, we are told of— "Their saucy sweetness that do coin heaven's image, If, in the speech under consideration, Jessica only employs the term sweet in one of its common senses, it seems inadequate to the effects assigned to it; and the following passage in Horace's Art of Poetry, is as liable to the same objection, unless dulcia be supposed to mean interesting, or having such command over our passions, as musick merely sweet can never obtain: "Non satis est pulchra esse poemata, dulcia sunto, do but note a wild and wanton herd, Or race of youthful and unhandled colts, If they but hear perchance a trumpet sound, Or any air of musick touch their ears, Steevens. You shall perceive them make a mutual stand, &c.] We find the same thought in The Tempest: 66 Then I beat my tabor, "At which, like unback'd colts, they prick'd their ears, "As they smelt musick." Malone. 7 The man that hath no musick in himself, Nor is not mov'd with concord of sweet sounds,] The thought here is extremely fine; as if the being affected with musick was only the harmony between the internal [musick in himself] and the external musick [concord of sweet sounds;] which were mutually affected like unison strings. This whole speech could not |