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BIRON. Neceffity will make us all forfworn Three thousand times within this three years' space:

For every man with his affects is born;

Not by might mafter'd, but by special grace:* If I break faith, this word fhall speak for me, I am forfworn on mere neceffity.

So to the laws at large I write my name: [Subfcribes. And he, that breaks them in the leaft degree, Stands in attainder of eternal fhame:

Suggestions are to others, as to me; But, I believe, although I seem so loth, I am the last that will last keep his oath. But is there no quick recreation' granted? KING. Ay, that there is: our court, you know, is haunted

With a refined traveller of Spain;

A man in all the world's new fashion planted,
That hath a mint of phrafes in his brain:

"Or did the cold Mufcovite beget thee,

"That lay here leiger, in the laft great froft ?"

Again, in Sir Henry Wotton's Definition: "An ambassador is an honeft man sent to lie (i. e. refide) abroad for the good of his country." REED.

8 Not by might mafter'd, but by Special grace:] Biron, amidst his extravagances, fpeaks with great juftness against the folly of vows. They are made without fufficient regard to the variations of life, and are therefore broken by fome unforeseen neceffity. They proceed commonly from a prefumptuous confidence, and a false estimate of human power. JOHNSON.

9 Suggestions] Temptations. JOHNSON.

So, in K. Henry IV. P. I:

"And these led on by your fuggeftion." STEEVENS. 2-quick recreation] Lively fport, fpritely diverfion.

So, in Antony and Cleopatra:

the quick comedians

"Extemporally will ftage us." STEEVENS..

JOHNSON.

One, whom the mufick of his own vain tongue
Doth ravish, like enchanting harmony;
A man of complements, whom right and wrong
Have chofe as umpire of their mutiny: '

A man of complements, whom right and wrong

Have chofe as umpire of their mutiny:] As very bad a play at this is, it was certainly Shakspeare's, as appears by many fine mafter-strokes scattered up and down. An exceffive complaifance is here admirably painted, in the perfon of one who was willing to make even right and wrong friends: and to perfuade the one to recede from the accustomed stubbornness of her nature, and wink at the liberties of her oppofite, rather than he would incur the impu tation of ill-breeding in keeping up the quarrel. And as our author, and Jonfon his contemporary, are confeffedly the two greateft writers in the drama that our nation could ever boast of, this may be no improper occafion to take notice of one material difference between Shakspeare's worft plays and the other's. Our author owed all to his prodigious natural genius; and Jonfon moft to his acquired parts and learning. This, if attended to, will explain the difference we fpeak of. Which is this, that, in Jonson's bad pieces, we do not discover the leaft traces of the author of the For and Alchemift; but in the wildest and most extravagant notes of Shakspeare, you every now and then encounter strains that recognize their divine compofer. And the reafon is this, that Jonfon owing his chief excellence to art, by which he fometimes ftrained himfelf to an uncommon pitch, when he unbent himself, had nothing to fupport him; but fell below all likeness of himself; while Shakspeare, indebted more largely to nature than the other to his acquired talents, could never, in his moft negligent hours, fo to tally diveft himself of his genius, but that it would frequently break out with amazing force and fplendour. WARBURTON.

This paffage, I believe, means no more than that Don Armado was a man nicely verfed in ceremonial diftinctions, one who could diftinguish in the moft delicate queftions of honour the exact boundaries of right and wrong. Compliment, in Shak fpeare's time, did not fignify, at least did not only fignify verbal civility, or phrases of courtefy, but according to its original meaning, the trappings, or ornamental appendages of a character, in the fame manner, and on the fame principles of fpeech with accomplishment. Complement is, as Armado well exprefles it, the varnish of a complete man,

JOHNSON.

Dr. Johnfon's opinion may be fupported by the following paffage in Lingua, or The Combat of the Tongue and the five Senfes for Superiority, 1607-" after all fashions and of all colours, with rings,

This child of fancy, that Armado hight,

For interim to our ftudies, fhall relate, In high-born words, the worth of many a knight From tawny Spain, loft in the world's debate. How you delight, my lords, I know not, I; But, I proteft, I love to hear him lie, And I will ufe him for my minstrelsy.7

jewels, a fan, and in every other place, odd complements." And again, by the title-page to Richard Braithwaite's English Gentlewo man, "drawne out to the full body, expreffing what habiliments doe best attire her; what ornaments doe beft adorne her; and what complements doe beft accomplish her."

Again, in Sir Giles Goofecap, 1606":

adorned with the exacteft complements belonging to ever lafting noblenefs." STEEVENS.

Thus, in Romeo and Juliet, Mercutio calls Tybalt," the Captain of complements." M. MASON.

4 This child of fancy,] This fantaftick. The expreffion, in another fenfe, has been adopted by Milton in his L'Allegro:

"Or fweetest Shakspeare, Fancy's child." MALONE.

5 That Armado hight,] Who is called Armado. MALONE. 6 From tawny Spain, loft in the world's debate.] i. e. he shall relate to us the celebrated ftories recorded in the old romances, and in their very ftile. Why he fays from tawny Spain is, because those romances, being of Spanish original, the heroes and the scene were generally of that country. Why he fays, loft in the world's debate is, because the subject of thofe romances were the crufades of the European Chriftians against the Saracens of Afia and Africa. WARBURTON.

I have fuffered this note to hold its place, though Mr. Tyrwhitt has fhewn that it is wholly unfounded, because Dr. Warburton refers to it in his differtation at the end of this play. MALONE.

in the world's debate.] The world feems to be used in a monaftick sense by the king, now devoted for a time to a monaftic life. In the world, in feculo, in the bustle of human affairs, from which we are now happily fequeftred, in the world, to which the votaries of folitude have no relation. JOHNSON.

Warburton's interpretation is clearly preferable to that of John fon. The King had not yet fo weaned himself from the world, as to adopt the language of a cloifter. M. MASON.

And I will use him for my minstrelfy.] i. e. I will make a mintrel of him, whofe occupation was to relate fabulous ftories.

BIRON. Armado is a moft illuftrious wight, A man of fire-new words,' fashion's own knight. LONG. Coftard the swain, and he, fhall be our

fport;

And, fo to study, three years is but short.

Enter DULL, with a letter, and COSTARD.

DULL. Which is the duke's own perfon?*
BIRON. This, fellow; What would'st?

3

DULL. I myself reprehend his own person, for I am his grace's tharborough: but I would fee his own perfon in flesh and blood.

BIRON. This is he.

DULL. Signior Arme-Arme-commends you. There's villainy abroad; this letter will tell you

more.

Cosr. Sir, the contempts thereof are as touching

me.

9 — fire-new words,]" i. e. (fays an intelligent writer in the Edinburgh Magazine, Nov. 1786) words newly coined, new from the forge. Fire-new, new off the irons, and the Scottish expreffion bren-new, have all the fame origin." The fame compound epithet occurs in K. Richard III:

"Your fire-new stamp of honour is scarce current."

STEEVENS.

• Which is the duke's own perfon?] The king of Navarre in several paffages, through all the copies, is called the duke: but as this must have sprung rather from the inadvertence of the editors than a forgetfulness in the poet, I have every where, to avoid confufion, restored king to the text. THEOBALD.

The princefs in the next act calls the king-" this virtuous duke;" a word which, in our author's time, feems to have been ufed with great laxity. And indeed, though this were not the cafe, fuch a fellow as Coftard may well be fuppofed ignorant of his true title. MALONE.

I have followed the old copies. STEEVENS.

3tharborough:] i. e. Thirdborough, a peace officer, alike in authority with a headborough or a conítable. SIR J. HAWKINS.

KING. A letter from the magnificent Armado. BIRON. How low foever the matter, I hope in God for high words.

LONG. A high hope for a low having: God grant us patience!

BIRON. To hear? or forbear hearing?

LONG. To hear meekly, fir, and to laugh moderately; or to forbear both.

BIRON. Well, fir, be it as the ftile fhall give us caufe to climb in the merrinefs.

COST. The matter is to me, fir, as concerning Jaquenetta. The manner of it is, I was taken with the manner."

4 A high hope for a low having:] In old editions:

"A high hope for a low heaven;"

A low heaven, fure, is a very intricate matter to conceive. I dare warrant, I have retrieved the poet's true reading; and the meaning is this: "Though you hope for high words, and fhould have them, it will be but a low acquifition at beft." This our poet calls a low having: and it is a substantive which he uses in several other paffages. THEOBALD.

It is fo employed in Macbeth, A&I:

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great prediction

"Of noble having, and of royal hope."

Heaven, however, may be the true reading, in allufion to the gradations of happiness promised by Mohammed to his followers. So, in the comedy of Old Fortunatus, 1600:

"Oh, how my foul is rapt to a third heaven!"

STEEVENS.

5 To hear? or forbear hearing?] One of the modern editors plaufibly enough, reads.

"To hear? or forbear laughing?" MALONE.

as the file fhall give us caufe to climb-] A quibble between the file that must be climbed to pafs from one field to another, and ftyle, the term expreffive of manner of writing in regard to language. STEEVENS.

-taken with the manner.] i. e. in the fact. So, in Heywood's Rape of Lucrece, 1630: " -and, being taken with the

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manner, had nothing to fay for himself." STEEVENS.

A forenfick term.

A thief is faid to be taken with the manner,

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