6 To leave is a thousand-fold more bitter, than 'Tis sweet at first to acquire,-after this process, To give her the avaunt! it is a pity Would move a monster. OLD L. Hearts of most hard temper O, God's will! much better, Melt and lament for her. It from the bearer, 'tis a sufferance, panging 6 To leave Is-] The latter word was added by Mr. Theobald. MALONE. 7 To give her the avaunt!] To send her away contemptuously; to pronounce against her a sentence of ejection. JOHNSON. 8 Yet, if that QUARREL, fortune,] She calls Fortune a quarrel or arrow, from her striking so deep and suddenly. Quarrel was a large arrow so called. Thus Fairfax: "twang'd the string, out flew the quarrel long." WARBURTON. Such is Dr. Warburton's interpretation. Sir Thomas Hanmer reads: "That quarreller Fortune." I think the poet may be easily supposed to use quarrel for quarreller, as murder for the murderer, the act for the agent. JOHNSON. Dr. Johnson may be right. So, in Antony and Cleopatra : but that your royalty 66 "Holds idleness your subject, I should take you "For Idleness itself." Like Martial's—“Non vitiosus homo es, Zoile, sed Vitium.” We might, however, read: "Yet if that quarrel fortune to divorce "It from the bearer.” i. e. if any quarrel happen or chance to divorce it from the bearer. To fortune is a verb used by Shakspeare in The Two Gentlemen of Verona: I'll tell you as we pass along, "That you will wonder what hath fortuned." Again, in Spenser's Fairy Queen, b. i. c. ii. : "It fortuned (high heaven did so ordaine)," &c. 9 PANGING STEEVENS. As soul and body's severing.] So Bertram, in All's Well OLD L. She's a stranger now again?? ANNE. Alas, poor lady! So much the more Must pity drop upon her. Verily, I swear, 'tis better to be lowly born, OLD L. Is our best having'. ANNE. Our content By my troth, and maidenhead, I would not be a queen. That Ends Well: "I grow to you, and our parting is a tortur'd body." STEEVENS. Again, in Antony and Cleopatra: "The soul and body rive not more at parting, "Than greatness going off." MALONE. To pang isused as a verb active by Skelton, in his Boke of Philip Sparow, 1568, sig. R. v. : 9 "But when I did behold "My sparow dead and cold "No creature but that wold "To behold and see "What heavines did me pange." BOSWELL. 9 - stranger now again.] Again an alien; not only no longer queen, but no longer an Englishwoman. JOHNSON. It rather means, she is alienated from the King's affection, is a stranger to his bed; ' for she still retained the rights of an Englishwoman, and was princess Dowager of Wales. So, in the second scene of the third Act: 66 Katharine no more "Shall be call'd queen; but princess dowager, Dr. Johnson's interpretation appears to me to be the true one. I agree with Mr. Tollet. So, in King Lear: MALONE. "Dower'd with our curse, and stranger'd with our oath—." i. e. the revocation of my love has reduced her to the condition of an unfriended stranger. STEEVENs. our best HAVING.] That is, our best possession. So, in Macbeth: "Of noble having and of royal hope." In Spanish, hazienda. JOHNSON. OLD L. Beshrew me, I would, And venture maidenhead for't; and so would you, You, that have so fair parts of woman on you, Which, to say sooth, are blessings: and which gifts (Saving your mincing) the capacity Of your soft cheveril conscience would receive, ANNE. Nay, good troth,OLD L. Yes, troth, and troth,-You would not be a queen ? ANNE. No, not for all the riches under heaven. Old as I am, to queen it: But, I pray you, ANNE. No, in truth. OLD L. Then you are weakly made: Pluck off a little; 2-cheveril-] Is kid-skin, soft leather. JOHNSON. So, in Histriomastix, 1610: 3 "The cheveril conscience of corrupted law." STEEVENS. Pluck OFF a little, &c.] What must she pluck off? I think we may better read: Pluck up a little." Pluck up! is an idiomatical expression for take courage. JOHNSON. The old lady first questions Anne Bullen about being a queen, which she declares her aversion to; she then proposes the title of a duchess, and asks her if she thinks herself equal to the task of sustaining it; but as she still declines the offer of greatness, 66 says she; i. e. let us still let us descend yet lower, quality; and then adds: Pluck off a little," further divest preferment of its glare, and more upon a level with your own I would not be a young count in your way," which is an inferior degree of honour to any before enumerated. STEEVENS. I would not be a young count in your way, For more than blushing comes to: if your back Ever to get a boy. ANNE. How you do talk! I swear again, I would not be a queen For all the world. OLD L. In faith, for little England You'd venture an emballing: I myself Would for Carnarvonshire, although there 'long'd 4 In faith, for LITTLE ENGLAND You'd venture an EMBALLING: I myself Would for CARNARVONSHIRE,] Little England seems very properly opposed to all the world; but what has Carnarvonshire to do here? Does it refer to the birth of Edward II. at Carnarvon? or may not this be the allusion? By little England is meant, perhaps, that territory in Pembrokeshire, where the Flemings settled in Henry First's time, who speaking a language very different from the Welsh, and bearing some affinity to the English, this fertile spot was called by the Britons, as we are told by Camden, Little England beyond Wales; and, as it is a very fruitful country, may be justly opposed to the mountainous and barren county of Carnarvon. WHALLEY. So, in A Short Relation of a Long Journey, &c. by John Taylor the Water Poet: "Concerning Pembrookshire, the people do speak English in it almost generally, and therefore they call it Little England beyond Wales, it being the farthest south and west county in the whole principality." STEEVENS. Surely she means,-You would for little England. I would for a single Welsh county. Boswell. You'd venture an emballing." You would venture to be distinguished by the ball, the ensign of royalty. JOHNSON. Dr. Johnson's explanation cannot be right, because a queenconsort, such as Anne Bullen was, is not distinguished by the ball, the ensign of royalty, nor has the poet expressed that she was so distinguished. TOLLET. Mr. Tollet's objection to Johnson's explanation is an hypercriticism. Shakspeare did not probably consider so curiously his distinction between a queen consort and a queen regent. M. MASON. Might we read "You'd venture an empalling;" i. e. being invested with the pall or robes of state? The word occurs in the old tragedy of King Edward III. 1596 : 66 As with this armour I impall thy breast-." No more to the crown but that. Lo, who comes here ? Enter the Lord Chamberlain. CHAM. Good morrow, ladies. What were't worth to know The secret of your conference? ANNE. CHAM. It was a gentle business, and becoming ANNE. Now I pray God, amen! CHAM. You bear a gentle mind, and heavenly Follow such creatures. That you may, fair lady, And, in Macbeth, the verb to pall is used in the sense of enrobe : "And pall thee in the dunnest smoke of hell." MALONE. The word recommended by Mr. Malone occurs also in Chapman's version of the eighth book of Homer's Odyssey: 66 such a radiance as doth round empall "Crown'd Cytherea-." STEEvens. Might we not read-" an embalming?" A queen consort is anointed at her coronation; and in King Richard II. the word is used in that sense: "With my own tears I wash away my balm." Dr. Johnson properly explains it, the oil of consecration. WHALLEY. 5 Commends his good opinion to you,] Thus the old copy and subsequent editors. Mr. Malone proposed to read: "Commends his good opinion of you." The phrase I found in the text I have not disturbed, as it is supported by a passage in Antony and Cleopatra : "Commend unto his lips thy favouring hand." Again, in King Lear: "I did commend your highness' letters to them." STEEVENS. |