Book-bot.com - read famous books online for free

Notes to Shakespeare — Volume 01: Comedies by Samuel Johnson
page 51 of 292 (17%)
sense] Nym, I believe, is out of place, and we should read thus:

_Away, Sir corporal._
Nym. _Believe it. Page, he speaks sense._

II.i.135 (225,1) [I have a sword, and it shall bite upon my necessity.--He
loves your wife] [V: bite--upon my necessity, he] I do
not see the difficulty of this passage: no phrase is more common
than--_you may_, upon a need, _thus_. Nym, to gain credit, says,
that he is above the mean office of carrying love-letters; he
has nobler means of living; _he has a sword, and upon his necessity_,
that is, _when his need drives him to unlawful expedients_,
his sword _shall bite_.

II.i.148 (226,3) [I will not believe such a Cataian] [Theobald and
Warburton had both explained "Cataian" as a liar.] Mr. Theobald
and Dr. Warburton have both told their stories with confidence,
I am afraid, very disproportionate to any evidence that can be
produced. That _Cataian_ was a word of hatred or contempt is
plain, but that it signified a _boaster_ or a _liar_ has not been
proved. Sir Toby, in _Twelfth Night_, says of the Lady Olivia to
her maid, "thy Lady's a _Cataian_;" but there is no reason to
think he means to call her _liar_. Besides, Page intends to give
Ford a reason why Pistol should not be credited. He therefore
does not say, _I would not believe such a_ liar: for that he is a
liar is yet to be made probable: but he says, _I would not believe
such a Cataian on any testimony of his veracity_. That is, "This
fellow has such an odd appearance; is so unlike a man civilized,
and taught the duties of life, that I cannot credit him." To be
a foreigner was always in England, and I suppose everywhere else,
DigitalOcean Referral Badge