You would for paradise break faith and troth; [To LONG. And Jove, for your love, would infringe an oath. [To DUM. What will Birón say, when that he shall hear 8 [Descends from the tree. Good heart, what grace hast thou, thus to reprove These worms for loving, that art most in love? Your eyes do make no coaches;1 in your tears, There is no certain princess that appears: You'll not be perjur'd, 'tis a hateful thing; Tush, none but minstrels like of sonneting. But are you not asham'd? nay, are you not, All three of you, to be thus much o'ershot? You found his mote; the king your mote did see; But I a beam do find in each of three. O, what a scene of foolery I have seen, Of sighs, of groans, of sorrow, and of teen!2 8 A faith infring'd, which such a zeal did swear?] The repeated article A (which is wanting in the oldest copy) appears to have been judiciously restored by the editor of the folio, 1632. At least, I shall adopt his supplement, till some hardy critick arises and declares himself satisfied with the following line: "Faith infringed, which such zeal did swear—" in which "ze-al" must be employed as a dissyllable. See Mr. Malone's note 5, p. 83. Steevens. 9 These worms for loving,] So, in The Tempest, Prospero addressing Miranda, says "Poor worm, thou art infected." Steevens. 1 Your eyes do make no coaches;] Alluding to a passage in the king's sonnet: Steevens. "No drop but as a coach doth carry thee." The old copy has-couches. Mr. Pope corrected it. Malone. 2 -teen!] i. e. grief. So, in The Tempest: "To think o' the teen that I have turn'd you to." Steevens. To see great Hercules whipping a gigg, 3 To see a king transformed to a gnat!] Mr. Theobald and the succeeding editors read-to a knot. Malone. Knot has no sense that can suit this place. We may readThe rhymes in this play are such as that sat and sot may be well enough admitted. Johnson. sot. A knot is, I believe, a true lover's knot, meaning that the king laid his wreathed arms athwart "His loving bosom so long: i. e. remained so long in the lover's posture, that he seemed actually transformed into a knot. The word sat is in some counties pronounced sot. This may account for the seeming want of exact rhyme. In the old comedy of Albumazar, the same thought occurs: "Why should I twine my arms to cables?" - sitting, "His arms in this sad knot." Again, in Titus Andronicus: "Marcus, unknit that sorrow-wreathen knot: 66 Thy niece and I, poor creatures, want our hands, "And cannot passionate our ten-fold grief as he walk'd, Folding his arms up in a pensive knot." The old copy, however, reads-a gnat, and Mr. Tollet seems to think it contains an allusion to St. Matthew, xxiii, 24, where the metaphorical term of a gnat means a thing of least importance, or what is proverbially small. The smallness of a gnat is likewise mentioned in Cymbeline. Steevens. A knott is likewise a Lincolnshire bird of the snipe kind. It is foolish even to a proverb, and it is said to be easily ensnared. Ray, in his Ornithology, observes, that it took its name from Canute, who was particularly fond of it. Collins. So, in The Alchemist: "My foot-boy shall eat pheasants, &c. Again, in the 25th song of Drayton's Polyolbion: "The knot that called was Canutus' bird of old, 66 Of that great king of Danes his name that still doth hold,` "His appetite to please that far and near were sought." Steevens. To see a king transformed to a gnat!] Alluding to the singing of that insect, suggested by the poetry the king had been detected in. Heath. The original reading, and Mr. Heath's explanation of it, are confirmed by a passage in Spenser's Fairy Queene, B. II, c. ix: And Nestor play at push-pin with the boys, 4 Where lies thy grief, O tell me, good Dumain? King. Too bitter is thy jest. Are we betray'd thus to thy over-view? Biron. Not you by me, but I betray'd to you; I, that am honest; I, that hold it sin To break the vow I am engaged in; I am betray'd, by keeping company With moon-like men, of strange inconstancy." "As when a swarme of gnats at even-tide "Their murmuring small trompettes sounden wide," &c. Gnat is undoubtedly the true reading, and is that, it seems, of the old copy. Biron is abusing the King for his sonneting like a minstrel, and compares him to a gnat, which always sings as it flies. Besides, the word gnat preserves the rhyme, which is here to be attended to. M. Mason. 4 -critick Timon -] Critick and critical are used by our author in the same sense as cynic and cynical. Iago, speaking of the fair sex as harshly as is sometimes the practice of Dr. Warburton, declares he is nothing if not critical. Steevens. Mr. Steevens's observation is supported by our author's 112th Sonnet: "To critick and to flatterer stopped are." Malone. 5 With moon-like men, of strange inconstancy.] The old copy reads-"men-like men.' 99 Steevens. This is a strange senseless line, and should be read thus: With vane-like men, of strange inconstancy. Warburton. This is well imagined, but the poet perhaps may mean, with men like common men. Johnson. The following passage in King Henry VI, P. III, adds some support to Dr. Warburton's conjecture: "Look, as I blow this feather from my face, Strange, which is not in the quarto or first folio, was added by the editor of the second folio, and consequently any other word as well as that may have been the author's; for all the additions When shall you see me write a thing in rhyme? King. 7 Soft; Whither away so fast? A true man, or a thief, that gallops so? Biron. I post from love; good lover, let me go. Enter JAQUEÑETTA and COSTARD. Jaq. God bless the king! King. What present hast thou there? What makes treason here? Cost. Some certain treason. Cost. Nay, it makes nothing, sir. in that copy were manifestly arbitrary, and are generally injudicious. Malone. Slight as the authority of the second folio is here represented to be, who will venture to displace strange, and put any other word in its place? Steevens. I agree with the editors in considering this passage as erroneous, but not in the amendment proposed. That which I would suggest is, to read moon-like, instead of men-like, which is a more poetical expression, and nearer to the old reading than vane-like. M. Mason. I have not scrupled to place this happy emendation in the text; remarking at the same time that a vane is no where styled inconstant, although our author bestows that epithet on the moon in Romeo and Juliet: 66 the inconstant moon Again, in Antony and Cleopatra: now from head to foot "I am marble-constant, now the fleeting moon Again, more appositely, in As you like it: "being but a moonish youth, changeable,”—inconstant, &c. Malone. In pruning me?] A bird is said to prune himself when he picks and sleeks his feathers. So, in King Henry IV, P. I: "Which makes him prune himself, and bristle up "The crest of youth. وو Steevens. 7—a gait, a state,] State, I believe, in the present instance, is opposed to gait (i. e. motion) and signifies the act of standing. So, in Antony and Cleopatra: "Her motion and her station are as one." Steevens. King. If it mar nothing neither, The treason, and you, go in peace away together. Jaq. I beseech your grace, let this letter be read; Our parson misdoubts it; 'twas treason he said. King. Biron, read it over. Where hadst thou it? Jaq. Of Costard. King. Where hadst thou it? [Giving him the letter. Cost. Of Dun Adramadio, Dun Adramadio. King. How now! what is in you? why dost thou tear it? Biron. A toy, my liege, a toy; your grace needs not fear it. Long. It did move him to passion, and therefore let's hear it. Dum. It is Biron's writing, and here is his name. [Picks up the pieces. Biron. Ah, you whoreson loggerhead, you [To Cost. were born to do me shame. Guilty, my lord, guilty; I confess, I confess. King. What? Biron. That you three fools lack'd me fool to make up the mess: He, he, and you, my liege, and I, Are pick-purses in love, and we deserve to die. O, dismiss this audience, and I shall tell you more. Biron. Will these turtles be gone? King. True true; we are four:→ Hence, sirs; away. Cost. Walk aside the true folk, and let the traitors stay. [Exeunt COST. and JAQ. Biron. Sweet lords, sweet lovers, O let us embrace! As true we are, as flesh and blood can be: The sea will ebb and flow, heaven show his face; 8 Our parson-] Here, as in a former instance, in the authentick copies of this play, this word is spelt person; but there being no reason for adhering here to the old spelling, the modern is preferred. Malone. |