Notes to Shakespeare — Volume 01: Comedies by Samuel Johnson
page 22 of 292 (07%)
page 22 of 292 (07%)
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in the same expressions.
[_As wicked dew_,]--_Wicked_; having baneful qualities. So Spenser says, _wicked weed_; so, in opposition, we say herbs or medicines have _virtues_. Bacon mentions _virtuous Bezoar_, and Dryden _virtuous herbs_. I.ii.351 (25,4) [Abhorred slave] This speech, which the old copy gives to Miranda, is very judiciously bestowed by Mr. Theobald on Prospero. I.ii.364 (27,7) [the red plague] I suppose from the redness of the body universally inflamed. I.ii.396 (28,9) [Full fathom five thy father lies] [Charles Gildon had criticized the song as trifling, and Warburton had defended its dramatic propriety.] I know not whether Dr. Warburton has very successfully defended these songs from Gildon's accusation. Ariel's lays, however seasonable and efficacious, must be allowed to be of no supernatural dignity or elegance, they express nothing great, nor reveal any thing above mortal discovery. The reason for which Ariel is introduced thus trifling is, that he and his companions are evidently of the fairy kind, an order of beings to which tradition has always ascribed a sort of diminutive agency, powerful but ludicrous, a humorous and frolick controlment of nature, well expressed by the songs of Ariel. I.ii.425 (31,3) |
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