FOR. Here by, upon the edge of yonder coppice; A ftand, where you may make the fairest shoot. PRIN. I thank my beauty, I am fair that fhoot, And thereupon thou fpeak'ft, the fairest shoot. FOR. Pardon me, madam, for I meant not fo. PRIN. What, what? first praise me, and again fay, no? O fhort-liv'd pride! Not fair? alack for woe! PRIN. Fair payment for foul words is more than due. -My balde bucke lyves ftyll to wayte upon yo. L. and my Ladie's coming hyther, w.ch I expect whenfoever shall pleas yow to apointe; onelé thys, thatt my Ladie doe nott hytt hym throgh the nofe, for marryng hys whyte face; howbeitt I knoe her Ladifhipp takes pitie of my buckes, fence the last tyme yt pleafed her to take the travell to fhote att them," &c. Dated July, 1605. STEEVENS. 4 Here, good my glass,] To understand how the princefs has her glafs fo ready at hand in a cafual converfation, it must be remembered that in thofe days it was the fashion among the French ladies to wear a looking-glafs, as Mr. Bayle coarfely represents it, on their bellies; that is, to have a fmall mirrour fet in gold hanging at their girdle, by which they occafionally viewed their faces or adjusted their hair. JOHNSON. Dr. Johnfon, perhaps, is mistaken. She had no occafion to have recourfe to any other looking-glass than the Forester, whom she rewards for having fhown her to herself as in a mirror. STEEVENS. Whatever be the interpretation of this paffage, Dr. Johnson is right in the hiftorical fact. Stubbs, in his Anatomie of Abufes, is very indignant at the ladies for it: "They must have their lookingglaffes carried with them, wherefoever they go: and good reafon, for how elfe could they fee the devil in them?" And in Maflinger's City Madam, feveral women are introduced with looking-glafjes at their girdles. FARMER. FOR. Nothing but fair is that which you inherit. PRIN. See, fee, my beauty will be fav'd by merit. O herefy in fair, fit for these days! A giving hand, though foul, fhall have fair praise.— When, for fame's fake, for praife, an outward part, The poor deer's blood, that my heart means no ill." BOYET. Do not curft wives hold that felf-fove reignty? Only for praife' sake, when they strive to be PRIN. Only for praife: and praise we may afford To any lady that fubdues a lord. When, for fame's fake, for praife, an outward part, We bend to that the working of the heart :] The harmony of the measure, the eafiness of the expreffion, and the good fenfe in the thought, all concur to recommend thefe two lines to the reader's notice. WARBURTON. 6 that my heart means no ill.] That my heart means no ill, is the fame with to whom my heart means no ill. The common phrafe fuppreffes the particle, as I mean him [not to him] no harm. JOHNSON. 7 that felf-fovereignty-] Not a fovereignty over, but in, themfelves. So, felf-fufficiency, felf-confequence, &c. MALONE. Enter COSTARD. PRIN. Here comes a member of the commonwealth. COST. God dig-you-den all! Pray you, which is the head lady? PRIN. Thou fhalt know her, fellow, by the reft that have no heads. COST. Which is the greatest lady, the higheft? PRIN. The thickest, and the tallest. Cost. The thickeft, and the talleft! it is fo; truth is truth. An your waist miftrefs, were as flender as my wit, One of these maids' girdles for your waift fhould be fit. Are not you the chief woman? you are the thickest here. PRIN. What's your will, fir? what's your will? Cosr. I have a letter from monfieur Biron, to one lady Rofaline. PRIN. O, thy letter, thy letter; he's a good friend of mine: a member of the commonwealth.] Here, I believe, is a kind of jeft intended: a member of the common-wealth is put for one of the common people, one of the meaneft. JOHNSON. The Princefs calls Coftard a member of the commonwealth, becaufe the confiders him as one of the attendants on the King and his affociates in their new-modelled fociety; and it was part of their original plan that Coftard and Armado should be members of it. M. MASON. God dig-you-den-] A corruption of-God give you good even. MALONE. See my note on Romeo and Juliet, A&t II. fc. iv. STEEVENS, Stand afide, good bearer.-Boyet, you can carve; I am bound to ferve. BOYET. PRIN. We will read it, I fwear: Break the neck of the wax,' and every one give ear. BOYET. [reads.] By heaven, that thou art fair, is most infallible; true, that thou art beauteous; truth itself, 2 Boyet, you can carve; Break up this capon.] i. e. open this letter. Our poet ufes this metaphor, as the French do their poulet; which fignifies both a young fowl and a love-letter. Poulet, amatoriæ litera, fays Richelet; and quotes from Voiture, Repondre au plus obligeant poulet du monde; to reply to the most obliging letter in the world. The Italians ufe the fame manner of expreffion, when they call a love-epiftle, una pollicetta amorofa. I owed the hint of this equivocal ufe of the word, to my ingenious friend Mr. Bishop. THEOBALD. Henry IV. confulting with Sully about his marriage, fays, my niece of Guife would please me beft, notwithstanding the malicious reports, that the loves poulets in paper, better than in a fricafee."-A meffage is called a cold pigeon, in the letter concerning the entertainments at Killingworth Caftle. FARMER. To break up was a peculiar phrase in carving. PERCY. So, in Weftward-Hoe, by Decker and Webster, 1607: at" the fkirt of that beet, in black-work, is wrought his name: break not up the wild-fowl till anon." Again, in Ben Jonfon's Mafque of Gipfies Metamorphofed: "And when the carver up had broke him," &c. STEEVENS. 3 Break the neck of the wax,] Still alluding to the capon. So, in The True Tragedies of Marius and Sylla, 1594: JOHNSON. 22 STEEVENS. One of Lord Chesterfield's Letters, 8vo. Vol. III. p. 114, gives us the reason why poulet meant amatoria litera. TOLLET. 5 that thou art lovely: More fairer than fair, beautiful than beauteous, truer than truth itself, have commiferation on thy heroical vaffal! The magnanimous and moft illuftrate king Cophetua fet eye upon the pernicious and indubitate beggar Zenelophon; and be it was that might rightly fay, veni, vidi, vici; which to anatomize in the vulgar, (O bafe and obfcure vulgar!) videlicet, he came, faw, and overcame: he came, one; faw, two; overcame, three. Who came? the king? why did he come? to fee; Why did he fee? to overcome: To whom came be? to the beggar; What faw be? the beggar; Who overcame be? the beggar: The conclufion is victory; On whofe fide? the king's: the captive is enrich'd; On whofe fide? the beggar's; The catastrophe is a nuptial; On whofe fide? the king's?no; on both in one, or one in both. I am the king; for So ftands the comparison: thou the beggar; for fo witheffeth thy lowlinefs. Shall I command thy love? I may: Shall I enforce thy love? I could: Shall I entreat thy love? I will. What shalt thou exchange for rags? robes; For tittles? titles; For thyfelf? me. Thus, expecting thy reply, I profane my lips on thy foot, my eyes on thy picture, and my heart on thy every part. Thine, in the dearest defign of industry, DON ADRIANO DE ARMADO. More fairer than fair, beautiful than beauteous, truer, &c.] I would read, fairer that fair, more beautiful, &c. TYRWHITT. illuftrate --] for illuftrious. It is often used by Chapman in his tranflation of Homer. STEEVENS. 5 6 -- — king Cophetua —] The ballad of King Cophetua and the Beggar-Maid, may be seen in The Reliques of Ancient Poetry, Vol. I. The beggar's name was Penelophon, here corrupted. PERCY. The poet alludes to this fong in Romeo and Juliet, Henry IV. P. II. and Richard II. STEEVENS. 7 faw,] The old copies here and in the preceding line have fee. Mr. Rowe made the correction. MALONE. |