LONG. Am I the first that have been perjur'd fo? [Afide. BIRON. I could put thee in comfort; not by two, that I know: [Afide. Thou mak'ft the triumviry, the corner-cap of fo ciety, The shape of love's Tyburn that hangs up fimplicity. LONG. I fear, thefe ftubborn lines lack power to move: O fweet Maria, emprefs of my love! These numbers will I tear, and write in profe. BIRON. O, rhymes are guards on wanton Cupid's hofe : Disfigure not his flop." LONG. [Afide. This fame fhall go. [He reads the fonnet. 'Did not the heavenly rhetorick of thine eye ('Gainft whom the world cannot hold argument,) Perfuade my heart to this falfe perjury? Vows, for thee broke, deferve not punishment. O, rhymes are guards on avanton Cupid's hofe: Disfigure not bis flop.] The old copies read-bop. STEEVENS. All the editions happen to concur in this error: but what agreement in fenfe is there between Cupid's hofe and his shop? or what relation can thofe two terms have to one another? or, what, indeed, can be understood by Cupid's hop? It must undoubtedly be corrected, as I have reformed the text. Slops are large and wide-knee'd breeches, the garb in fashion in our author's days, as we may obferve from old family pictures; but they are now worn only by boors and fea-faring men: and we have dealers whofe fole bufinefs it is to furnith the failors with flirts, jackets, &c. who are called flop-men, and their fhops, flopShops. THEOBALD. I fuppofe this alludes to the ufual tawdry drefs of Cupid, when he appeared on the ftage. In an old translation of Caja's Galateo is this precept: "Thou muft wear no garments, that be over much daubed with garding that men may not fay, thou haft Ganimedes hofen, or Cupides doublet." FARMER. A woman I forfwore; but, I will prove, If broken then, it is no fault of mine; 3 BIRON. [Afide.] This is the liver vein, which makes flesh a deity; A green goofe, a goddefs: pure, pure idolatry. God amend us, God amend! we are much out o'the way. Enter DUMAIN, with a paper. LONG. By whom fhall I fend this?-Company! stay. [Stepping afide. BIRON. [Afide.] All hid, all hid,' an old infant play: Like a demi-god here fit I in the sky, And wretched fools' fecrets heedfully o'er-eye. More facks to the mill! O heavens, I have my wish; Dumain transform'd: four woodcocks in a difh!" 3 To lose an oath to win a paradife?] The Paffimate Pilgrim, 1599, in which this fonnet is alfo found, reads-To break on oath. But the oppofition between lose and win is much in our author's MALONE. manner. 4 the liver vein,] The liver was anciently fuppofed to be the feat of love. JOHNSON. So, in Much ado about nothing: 6 "If ever love had intereft in his liver." STEEVENS. All hid, all bid,] The children's cry at hide and feek. MUSGRAVE. -four woodcocks in a difh!] See note on Much ado about nothing, Act V. fc. i. Douce. DUM. O moft divine Kate! BIRON. O most prophane coxcomb! [Afide. DUM. By heaven, the wonder of a mortal eye! BIRON. By earth, fhe is but corporal; there you lic. Afide. DUM. Her amber hairs for foul have amber coted.& BIRON. An amber-colour'd raven was well noted. [Afide. By earth, he is but corporal; there you lie.] Old edition: By earth, he is not, corporal, there you lie." Dumain, one of the lovers, in fpite of his vow to the contrary, thinking himself alone here, breaks out into fhort foliloquies of admiration on his mistress; and Biron, who ftands behind as an eves-dropper, takes pleasure in contradicting his amorous raptures. But Dumain was a young lord: he had no fort of poft in the army: what wit, or allufion, then, can there be in Biron's calling him corporal? I dare warrant, I have restored the poet's true meaning, which is this. Dumain calls his mistress divine, and the wonder of a mortal eye; and Biron in flat terms denies these hyperbolical praifes. I fcarce need hint, that our poet commonly ufes corporal, as corporeal. THEOBALD. I have no doubt that Theobald's emendation is right. The word corporal in Shakspeare's time was used for corporeal. So, in Macbeth," each corporal agent." Again: and what feem'd corporal, melted "As breath into the wind." Again, in Julius Cæfar: "His corporal motion govern'd by my spirit." This adjective is found in Bullokar's Expofitor, 8vo. 1616, but corporeal is not. Not is again printed for but in the original copy of The Comedy of Errors, and in other places. MALONE. 8 -amber coted.] To cote is to outftrip, to overpafs. So, in Hamlet: certain players "We coted on the way." Again, in Chapman's Homer: Words her worth had prov'd with deeds, "Had more ground been allow'd the race, and coted far his fteeds.' The beauty of amber confifts in its variegated cloudiness, which Dumain calls foulness. The hair of his mittress in varied fhadows BIRON. Ay, as fome days; but then no fun must fhine. [Afide. And I had mine! [Afide. DUM. O that I had my wish! LONG. word? [Afide. DUM. I would forget her; but a fever the Reigns in my blood, and will remember'd be. BIRON. A fever in your blood! why, then incifion Would let her out in faucers; Sweet mifprifion! 2 [Afide. exceeded those of amber. Foul may be used (as Fair often is) as a fubftantive. STEEVENS. Quoted here, I think, fignifies marked, written down. So, in All's Well that ends Well: "He's quoted for a moft perfidious knave." The word in the old copy is-coted; but that (as Dr. Johnfon has observed in the laft fcene of this play) is only the old spelling of quoted, owing to the tranfcriber's trufting to his ear, and following the pronunciation. To cote, is elsewhere used by our author, with the fignification of over-take, but that will by no means fuit here. MALONE. The word here intended, though mifpelled, is quoted, which fignifies obferved or regarded, both here and in every place where it occurs in these plays; and the meaning is, that amber itself is regarded as foul, when compared with her hair. M. MASON. 9 but a fever fhe 2 Reigns in my blood,] So, in Hamlet: why, then incifion STEEVENS. Would let her out in faucers;] It was the fashion among the young DUM. Once more I'll read the ode that I have writ. BIRON. Once more I'll mark how love can vary wit. DUм. On a day, (alack the day !) Love, whofe month is ever May, Ne'er to pluck thee from thy thorn: " [Afide. gallants of that age, to flab themfelves in the arms, or elsewhere, in order to drink their miftrefs's health, or write her name in their blood, as a proof of their paffion. Thus in The Humorous Lieutenant, a gentleman gives the following defcription of him, when in love with the King. "Thus he begins, thou light and life of creatures, Angel-ey'd king, vouchfafe at length thy favour; "And fo proceeds to incifion." But the custom is more particularly defcribed in Jonfon's Cynthia's Revels, where Phantafte, defcribing the different modes of making love, fays" A fourth with ftabbing himself, and drinking healths, or writing languishing letters in his blood."-And in the Palinode, at the end of the play, Amorphus fays, "From ftabbing of arms, &c. Good Mercury deliver us!" M. MASON. 3 -'gan passage find;] The quarto, 1598, and the firft folio, have can. Corrected by Mr. Theobald. In the line next but one, Wish (the reading of the old copies) was corrected by the editor of the fecond folio. MALONE. 4 Air, would I might triumph fo!] Perhaps we may better read: "Ah! would I might triumph fo!" JOHNSON. my band is fworn,] A copy of this fonnet is printed in England's Helicon, 1614, and reads: "But, alas! my hand hath fworn." |