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tunate and most serious defigns,-and of great import indeed, too;-but let that pafs:-for I muft tell thee, it will please his grace (by the world) fometime to lean upon my poor fhoulder; and with his royal finger, thus, dally with my excrement,' with my mustachio: but sweet heart, let that pafs. By the world, I recount no fable; fome certain fpecial honours it pleaseth his greatnefs to impart to Armado, a foldier, a man of travel, that hath feen the world: but let that pafs.-The very all of all is, but, fweet heart, I do implore fecrecy,-that the king would have me prefent the princefs, fweet chuck, with fome delightful oftentation, or show, or pageant, or antick, or fire-work. Now, understanding that the curate, and your sweet self, are good at fuch eruptions, and sudden breaking out of mirth, as it were, I have acquainted you withal, to the end to crave your assistance.

HOL. Sir, you fhall present before her the nine worthies.-Sir Nathaniel, as concerning fome entertainment of time, fome fhow in the pofterior of this day, to be render'd by our affiftance,-the king's command, and this moft gallant, illuftrate, and learned gentleman,-before the princefs; I fay, none fo fit as to prefent the nine worthies.

NATH. Where will you find men worthy enough to prefent them?

By" remember thy courtefy" I fuppofe Armado means—remember that all this time thou art ftanding with thy hat off. STEEVENS. 7 dally with my excrement,] The author calls the beard valour's excrement in The Merchant of Venice. JOHNSON.

8

chuck,] i. e. chicken; an ancient term of endearment. So, in Macbeth:

"Be innocent of the knowledge, dearest chuck—”

STEEVENS,

HOL. Joshua, yourself; myself, or this gallant gentleman, Judas Maccabæus; this fwain, because of his great limb or joint, fhall pafs Pompey the great; the page, Hercules.

ARM. Pardon, fir, error: he is not quantity enough for that worthy's thumb: he is not fo big as the end of his club.

HOL. Shall I have audience? he fhall prefent Hercules in minority: his enter and exit shall be ftrangling a fnake; and I will have an apology for that purpose.

MOTH. An excellent device! fo, if any of the audience hifs, you may cry: well done, Hercules! now thou crusheft the fnake! that is the way to make an offence gracious; though few have the grace to do it.

ARM. For the rest of the worthies?—
HOL. I will play three myself.
MOTH. Thrice-worthy gentleman!
ARM. Shall I tell you a thing?

HOL. We attend.

ARM. We will have, if this fadge not,' an antick. I beseech you, follow.

8myself, or this gallant gentleman,] The old copy has-and this, &c. The correction was made by Mr. Steevens. We ought, I believe, to read in the next line-fhall pafs for Fompey the great. If the text be right, the speaker muft mean that the fwain fhall, in representing Pompey, furpafs him, "because of his great limb." MALONE.

"Shall pass Pompey the great," feems to mean, fhall march in the proceffion for him; walk as his reprefentative. STEEVENS. 9 to make an offence gracious;] i. e. to convert an offence against yourselves, into a dramatic propriety. if this fadge not,] i. e. fuit not. ufe of this word are given in Twelfth Night.

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STEEVENS.
Several inftances of the
STEEVENS.

HOL. Via, goodman Dull! thou haft spoken no word all this while.

DULL. Nor understood none neither, fir.

HOL. Allons! we will employ thee.

DULL. I'll make one in a dance, or fo; or I will play on the tabor to the worthies, and let them dance the hay.

HoL. Most dull, honest Dull, to our sport, away. [Exeunt.

SCENE II.

Another part of the fame. Before the Princefs's Pavilion.

Enter the Princefs, KATHARINE, ROSALINE,
and MARIA.

PRIN. Sweet hearts, we shall be rich ere we depart,

If fairings come thus plentifully in:

A lady wall'd about with diamonds!-
Look you, what I have from the loving king.

Ros. Madam, came nothing elfe along with that? PRIN. Nothing but this? yes, as much love in rhyme,

As would be cramm'd up in a fheet of paper,
Writ on both fides the leaf, margent and all;
That he was fain to feal on Cupid's name.

3 Via,] An Italian exclamation, fignifying, Courage! come on!

STEEVENS.

Ros. That was the way to make his god-head

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For he hath been five thousand years a boy.

KATH. Ay, and a fhrewd unhappy gallows too. Ros. You'll ne'er be friends with him; he kill'd your fifter.

KATH. He made her melancholy, fad, and heavy; And fo fhe died: had the been light, like you, Of fuch a merry, nimble, ftirring fpirit, She might have been a grandam ere fhe died: And fo may you; for a light heart lives long. Ros. What's your dark meaning, mouse, of this light word?

KATH. A light condition in a beauty dark.

Ros. We need more light to find your meaning

out.

KATH. You'll mar the light, by taking it in fnuff; 5

Therefore, I'll darkly end the argument.

3

to make his god-head wax ;] To wax anciently fignified to grow. It is yet faid of the moon, that the waxes and wanes. So, in Drayton's Polyolbion, Song I:

"I view thofe wanton brooks that waxing still do wane." Again, in Lyly's Love's Metamorphofes, 1601:

"Men's follies will ever wax, and then what reafon can make them wife?"

Again, in the Polyolbion, Song V:

"The ftem fhall ftrongly wax, as ftill the trunk doth wither."

STEEVENS.

moufe,] This was a term of endearment formerly. So,

in Hamlet:
"Pinch wanton on your cheek; call you his moufe."

MALONE.

taking it in fnuff;] Snuff is here ufed equivocally for anger, and the fnuff of a candle. See more inftances of this conceit in K. Henry IV. P. I. A&t I. fc. iii. STEEVENS.

Ros. Look, what you do, you do it ftill i' the

dark.

KATH. So do not you; for you are a light wench. Ros. Indeed, I weigh not you; and therefore light.

KATH. You weigh me not,-O, that's you care not for me.

Ros. Great reason; for, Paft cure is ftill paft

care. 6

PRIN. Well bandied both; a fet of wit well

play'd.

But Rofaline, you have a favour too :

Who fent it? and what is it?

Ros.

I would, you knew:

An if my face were but as fair as yours,

My favour were as great; be witness this.
Nay, I have verfes too, I thank Birón:

The numbers true; and, were the numb'ring too,
I were the fairest goddess on the ground:
I am compar'd to twenty thousand fairs.
O, he hath drawn my picture in his letter!
PRIN. Any thing like?

6-for, Paft cure is ftill paft care.] The old copy reads-paft care is ftill paft cure. The tranfpofition was propofed by Dr. Thirlby, and, it must be owned, is fupported by a line in K. Richard II: "Things pat redress are now with me past care."

So alfo in a pamphlet entitled Holland's Leaguer, 4to. 1632: "She had got this adage in her mouth, Things paft cure, paft care.' -Yet the following lines in our author's 147th Sonnet feem rather in favour of the old reading:

"Paft cure I am, now reafon is past care,

"And frantick mad with evermore unreft." MALONE.

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a fet of wit-] A term from tennis. So, in K. Henry V:

play a set

"Shall ftrike his father's crown into the hazard."

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