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Taffata phrases, filken terms precise,

Three-pil'd hyperboles, fpruce affectation," Figures pedantical; thefe fummer-flies

Have blown me full of maggot oftentation: I do forfwear them: and I here proteft,

By this white glove, (how white the hand,
God knows!)

Henceforth my wooing mind fhall be exprefs'd
In ruffet yeas, and honest kersey noes:
And, to begin, wench,-fo God help me, la!—
My love to thee is found, fans crack or flaw.
Ros. Sans SANS, I pray you."

BIRON.
Yet I have a trick
Of the old rage:-bear with me, I am fick;
I'll leave it by degrees. Soft, let us fee;-
Write, Lord have mercy on us, on those three;

6 Three-pil'd hyperboles,] A metaphor from the pile of velvet. So, in The Winter's Tale, Autolycus fays:

"I have worn three-pile." STEEVENS. 7-Spruce affectation,] The old copies read-affe&ion.

STEEVENS.

The modern editors read-affe&ation. There is no need of change. We already in this play have had affection for affectation; -"witty without affection." The word was ufed by our author and his contemporaries, as a quadrifyllable; and the rhyme fuch as they thought fufficient. MALONE.

In The Merry Wives of Windfor the word affe&ation occurs, and was moft certainly defigned to occur again in the present instance. No ear can be fatisfied with fuch rhymes as affection and oftentation. STEEVENS.

8 Sans SANS, I pray you.] It is fcarce worth remarking, that the conceit here is obfcured by the punctuation. It should be written Sans SANS, i. e. without 3 ANS; without French words: an affectation of which Biron had been guilty in the laft line of his fpeech, though juft before he had forf worn all affectation in phrafes, terms, &c. TYRWHITT.

9 Write, Lord have mercy on us,] This was the infcription put upon the door of the houfes infected with the plague, to which Biron compares the love of himself and his companions; and pursuing

They are infected, in their hearts it lies;
They have the plague, and caught it of your eyes:
Thefe lords are vifited; you are not free,

For the Lord's tokens on you do I fee.

PRIN. No, they are free, that gave these tokens

to us.

BIRON. Our ftates are forfeit, feek not to undo

us.

Ros. It is not fo; For how can this be true, That you stand forfeit, being those that fue?" BIRON. Peace; for I will not have to do with you. Ros. Nor fhall not, if I do as I intend.

BIRON. Speak for yourselves, my wit is at an end.

the metaphor finds the tokens likewife on the ladies. The tokens of the plague are the firft fpots or difcolorations, by which the infection is known to be received. JoHNSON.

So, in Hiftriomaftix, 1610:

"It is as dangerous to read his name on a play-door, as a printed bill on a plague-door."

Again, in The Whore of Babylon, 1607:

"Have tokens ftamp'd on them to make them known, "More dreadful than the bills that preach the plague." Again, in More Fools Yet, a collection of Epigrams by R. S. 1610: "To declare the infection for his fin,

"A croffe is fet without, there's none within."

Again, ibid:

"But by the way he faw and much respected
"A doore belonging to a house infected,
"Whereon was plac'd (as 'tis the cuftom ftill)
"The Lord have mercy on us: this fad bill
"The fot perus'd." STEEVENS.

So, in Sir Thomas Overbury's Characters, 1632:

"Lord have mercy on us may well ftand over their doors, for debt is a most dangerous city peftilence." MALONE.

9- how can this be true,

That you ftand forfeit, being thofe that fue?] That is, how can thofe be liable to forfeiture that begin the procefs. The jeft lies in the ambiguity of fue, which fignifies to profecute by law, or to offer a petition. JOHNSON.

KING. Teach us, fweet madam, for our rude tranfgreffion

Some fair excuse.

PRIN.

The fairest is confeffion.

Were you not here, but even now, disguis'd?
KING. Madam, I was.

PRIN.

KING. I was, fair madam.

PRIN.

And were you well advis'd?

When you then were here,

What did you whisper in your lady's ear?

KING. That more than all the world I did refpect

her.

PRIN. When the fhall challenge this, you will

reject her.

KING. Upon mine honour, no.

PRIN. Peace, peace, forbear; Your oath once broke, you force not to forfwear.' KING. Despise me, when I break this oath of mine. PRIN. I will; and therefore keep it :-Rofaline, What did the Ruffian whisper in your ear?

Ros. Madam, he swore, that he did hold me dear As precious eye-fight; and did value me Above this world: adding thereto, moreover, That he would wed me, or elfe die my lover. PRIN. God give thee joy of him! the noble lord Most honourably doth uphold his word.

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well advis'd?] i. e. acting with fufficient deliberation.. So, in The Comedy of Errors:

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My liege I am advis'd in what I say." STEEVENS. -you force not to forfwear.] You force not is the fame with you make no difficulty. This is a very juft obfervation. The crime which has been once committed, is committed again with less re luctance. JOHNSON.

So, in Warner's Albion's England, B. X. ch.

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he forced not to hide how he did err.

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STEEVENS.

KING. What mean you madam? by my life, my troth,

I never fwore this lady fuch an oath.

Ros. By heaven, you did; and to confirm it plain, You gave me this: but take it, fir, again.

KING. My faith, and this, the princefs I did give; I knew her by this jewel on her sleeve.

PRIN. Pardon, me, fir, this jewel did she wear; And lord Birón, I thank him, is my dear :— What; will you have me, or your pearl again?

BIRON. Neither of either; ' I remit both twain.— I fee the trick on't;-Here was a confent,+ (Knowing aforehand of our merriment,) To dafh it like a Christmas comedy:

Some carry-tale, fome please-man, fome flight

zany,

Some mumble-news, fome trencher-knight, fome Dick,

That smiles his cheek in years; and knows the trick

3 Neither of either;] This feems to have been a common expreffion in our author's time. It occurs in The London Prodigal, 1605, and other comedies. MALONE.

Part I:

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a confent,] i. e. a confpiracy. So, in King Henry VI,

the ftars

"That have confented to king Henry's death."

STEEVENS.

-zany,] A zany is a buffoon, a merry Andrew, a grofs mimic. So, in Marston's Infatiate Countess, 1613:

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fung

"To every fcuerall zanie's inftrument.”

Again, in Antonio's Revenge, 1602:

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Laughs them to fcorn, as man doth busy apes, "When they will zany men." STEEVENS.

6 -fome trencher-knight,] See the following page: "And stand between her back, fir, and the fire, "Holding a trencher," &c. MALONE.

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To make my lady laugh, when she's difpos'd,-
Told our intents before: which once disclos'd,

7 -fame Dick,

That fmiles his cheek in years;] Mr. Theobald fays, he cannot for his heart, comprehend the meaning of this phrafe. It was not his heart but his head that ftood in his way. In years, fignifies, into wrinkles. So, in The Merchant of Venice:

"With mirth and laughter let old wrinkles come."

See the note on that line- -But the Oxford editor was in the fame cafe, and fo alters it to fleers. WARBURTON.

Webster, in his Dutchefs of Malfy, makes Caftruchio declare of his lady: "She cannot endure merry company, for the fays much laughing fills her too full of the wrinckle." FARMER.

Again, in Lingua, or the Combat of the Tongue, &c. 1607:

That light and quick, with wrinkled laughter painted.” Again, in Twelfth Night: "he doth smile his cheek into more lines than is in the new map," &c. STEEVENS.

The old copies read-in yeeres, Jeers, the prefent emendation, which I propofed fome time ago, I have fince obferved, was made by Mr. Theobald. Dr. Warburton endeavours to fupport the old reading, by explaining years to mean wrinkles, which belong alike to laughter and old age. But allowing the word to be used in that licentious fenfe, furely our author would have written, not in, but into, years-i. e. into wrinkles, as in a paffage quoted by Mr. Steevens from Twelfth-Night: - he does mile his cheek into more lines than is in the new map," &c. The change being only that of a fingle letter for another nearly refembling it, I have placed jeers (formerly fpelt jeeres) in my text. The words-jeer, flout, and mock, were much more in ufe in our author's time than at prefent. In Othello, 1622, the former word is used exactly as here:

"And mark the jeers, the gibes, and notable scorns,
"That dwell in every region of his face."

Out-roaring DICK was a celebrated finger, who, with William Wimbars, is faid by Henry Chettle, in his KIND HARTS DREAME, to have got twenty fhillings a day by finging at Braintree fair, in Effex. Perhaps this itinerant droll was here in our author's thoughts. This circumftance adds fome fupport to the emendation now made. From the following paffage in Sir John Oldcastle, 1600, it feems to have been a common term for a noify fwaggerer:

"O he, fir, he's a defperate Dick indeed;
"Bar him your house."

Again, in Kemp's Nine daies Wonder, &c. 4to. 1600:
"A boy arm'd with a poking stick

"Will dare to challenge cutting Dick."

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