--
His argument is just and well enforced, and its prevalence is allowed
throughout all civil nations: as for rudeness, he seems not to be mach
undermatched.
II.iii.124 (199,9) in self-figur'd knot] [This is nonsense. We should
read,
--SELF-FINGER'D _knot_;
WARBURTON.] But why nonsense? A _self-figured knot_ is a knot formed by
yourself. (see 1765, VII, 301, 8)
II.iv.71 (204,4) And Cydnus swell'd above the banks, or for/The press of
boats, or pride] [This is an agreeable ridicule on poetical
exaggeration, which gives human passions to inanimate things: and
particularly, upon what he himself writes in the foregoing play on this
very subject:
"--And made
The water, which they beat, to follow faster,
As amorous of their strokes."
WARBURTON.] It is easy to sit down and give our author meanings which he
never had. Shakespeare has no great right to censure poetical
exaggeration, of which no poet is more frequently guilty. That he
intended to ridicule his own lines is very uncertain, when there are no
means of knowing which of the two plays was written first. The
commentator has contented himself to suppose, that the foregoing play in
his book was the play of earlier composition. Nor is the reasoning
better than the assertion. If the language of Iachimo be such as shews
him to be mocking the credibility of his hearer, his language is very
improper, when his business was to deceive.
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