For. Nothing but fair is that which you inherit. A giving hand, though foul, shall have fair praise.- When, for fame's sake, for praise, an outward part, The poor deer's blood, that my heart means no ill.9 Only for praise' sake, when they strive to be Lords o'er their lords? Prin. Only for praise: and praise we may afford To any lady that subdues a lord. Dr. Johnson, perhaps, is mistaken. She had no occasion to have recourse to any other looking-glass than the Forester, whom she rewards for having shown her to herself as in a mirror. Steevens. Whatever be the interpretation of this passage, Dr. Johnson is right in the historical fact. Stubbs, in his Anatomie of Abuses, is very indignant at the ladies for it: "They must have their looking-glasses carried with them, wheresoever they go: and good reason, for how else could they see the devil in them?" And in Massinger's City Madam, several women are introduced with looking-glasses at their girdles. Farmer. 8 When, for fame's sake, for praise, an outward part, We bend to that the working of the heart:] The harmony of the measure, the easiness of the expression, and the good sense in the thought, all concur to recommend these two lines to the read, er's notice. Warburton. 9 that my heart means no ill.] That my heart means no ill, is the same with to whom my heart means no ill. The common phrase suppresses the particle, as I mean him [not to him] no harm. Johnson. 1 that self-sovereignty-] Not a sovereignty over, but in, themselves. So, self-sufficiency, self-consequence, &c. Malone. Enter CoSTARD. Prin. Here comes a member of the commonwealth.2 Cost. God dig-you-den all!3 Pray you, which is the head lady? Prin. Thou shalt know her, fellow, by the rest that have no heads. Cost. Which is the greatest lady, the highest? Prin. The thickest, and the tallest. Cost. The thickest, and the tallest! it is so; truth is truth. An your waist, mistress, were as slender as my wit, Prin. O, thy letter, thy letter; he's a good friend of mine: Stand aside, good bearer.-Boyet, you can carve; Break up this capon.4 I am bound to serve. 2 a member of the commonwealth.] Here, I believe, is a kind of jest intended: a member of the common-wealth, is put for one of the common people, one of the meanest. Johnson. The Princess calls Costard a member of the commonwealth, because she considers him as one of the attendants on the King and his associates in their new-modelled society; and it was part of their original plan that Costard and Armado should be members of it. M. Mason. 3 God dig-you-den-] A corruption of-God give you good even. Malone. See my note on Romeo and Juliet, Act II, sc. iv. Steevens. 4 Boyet, you can carve; Break up this capon.] i. e. open this letter. Our poet uses this metaphor, as the French do their poulet; which signifies both a young fowl and a love-letter. Poulet, amatoria literæ, says Richelet; and quotes from Voiture, Repondre au plus obligeant poulet du monde; to reply to the most obliging letter in the world. The Italians use the same manner of expression, when they call a love-epistle, una pollicetta amorosa. I owed the hint of this equivocal use of the word, to my ingenious friend Mr. Bishop. Theobald. Henry IV, consulting with Sully about his marriage, says: "my niece of Guise would please me best, notwithstanding the malicious reports, that she loves poulets in paper, better than in This letter is mistook, it importeth none here; Prin. Boyet. [Reads] By heaven, that thou art fair, is most infallible; true, that thou art beauteous; truth itself, that thou art lovely: More fairer than fair, beautiful than beauteous; truer than truth itself, have commiseration on thy heroical vassal! The magnanimous and most illustrate1 king Cophetua set eye upon the pernicious and indubitate beggar Zenelophon; and he it was that might rightly say veni, vidi, vici; which to anatomize in the vulgar, (O base and obscure vulgar!) videlicet, he came, saw, and overcame: he came, one; saw, two; overcame, three. Who came? the king; Why did he come? to see; Why did he see? to overcome: To whom came he? to the beggar; What saw he? the beggar; Who overcame he? the beggar: The conclusion is victory; On whose side? the king's: the captive is enrich'd; On whose side? the beggar's; The catastrophe is a nuptial; On whose side? the king's?—no, on both in one, or one in both. I am the king; for so stands the comparison: thou the beggar; for so witnesseth thy low 9 a fricasee."-A message is called a cold pigeon, in the letter concerning the entertainments at Killingworth castle. Farmer. To break up was a peculiar phrase in carving. Percy. So, in Westward-Hoe, by Decker and Webster, 1607: at "the skirt of that sheet, in black-work, is wrought his name: break not up the wild-fowl till anon." Steevens. 5 Break the neck of the wax,] Still alluding to the capon. Johnson. One of Lord Chesterfield's Letters, 8vo. Vol. III, p. 114, gives us the reason why poulet meant amatoria litera. Tollet. 6 More fairer than fair, beautiful than beauteous, truer &c.] I would read, fairer that fair, more beautiful, &c. Tyrwhitt. 7 illustrate-] for illustrious. It is often used by Chapman in his translation of Homer. Thus, in the eleventh Iliad: 66 Jove will not let me meet 8 "Illustrate Hector," Steevens. ·king Cophetua-] The ballad of King Cophetua and the Beggar-Maid, may be seen in The Reliques of Ancient Poetry, Vol. 1. The beggar's name was Penelophon, here corrupted. Percy. The poet alludes to this song in Romeo and Juliet, Henry IV, P. II, and Richard II. Steevens. 9 -saw,] The old copies here and in the preceding line Mr. Rowe made the correction. Malone. have-see. liness. 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 thyself? 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 design of industry, Thus dost thou hear1 the Nemean lion roar 'Gainst thee, thou lamb, that standest as his prey; Submissive fall his princely feet before, And he from forage will incline to play: But if thou strive, poor soul, what art thou then? Prin. What plume of feathers is he, that indited this letter? What vane? what weather-cock? Did you ever hear bet ter? Boyet. I am much deceived, but I remember the style. Prin. Else your memory is bad, going o'er it2 ere while. 3 Boyet. This Armado is a Spaniard, that keeps here in court; 4 A phantasm, a Monarcho,5 and one that makes sport 1 Thus dost thou hear &c.] These six lines appear to be a quotation from some ridiculous poem of that time. Warburton. 2 -going o'er it-] A pun upon the word stile. Musgrave. ―erewhile.] Just now; a little while ago. So, Raleigh: "Here lies Hobbinol, our shepherd while e'er." Johnson. 3 4 A phantasm,] On the books of the Stationers' Company, Feb. 6, 1608, is entered: "a book called Phantasm, the Italian Taylor, and his Boy; made by Mr. Armin, servant to his majesty.” It probably contains the history of Monarcho, of whom Dr. Farmer speaks in the following note, to which I have subjoined two additional instances. Steevens. 5a Monarcho;] The allusion is to a fantastical character of the time:-" Popular applause (says Meres) doth nourish some, neither do they gape after any other thing, but vaine praise and glorie,-as in our age Peter Shakerlye of Paules, and Monarcho that lived about the court." p. 178. Farmer. In Nash's Have with you to Saffron-Walden, &c. 1595, I meet with the same allusion :-"but now he was an insulting monarch above Monarcho the Italian, that ware crownes in his shoes, and To the prince, and his book-mates. Prin. Who gave thee this letter? Cost. Thou, fellow, a word: I told you; my lord. From my lord to my lady. Prin. To whom shouldst thou give it? Prin. From which lord, to which lady? Cost. From my lord Biron, a good master of mine, To a lady of France, that he call'd Rosaline. Prin. Thou hast mistaken his letter. Come, lords, away.6 Here, sweet, put up this; 'twill be thine another day. [Exeunt Prin. and Train. quite renounced his natural English accents and gestures, and wrested himself wholly to the Italian puntilios," &c. The succeeding quotations will afford some further intelligence concerning this fantastick being: "I could use an incident for this, which though it may seeme of small weight, yet may it have his misterie with this act, who, being of base condition, placed himself (without any perturbation of minde) in the royall seat of Alexander, which the Caldeans prognosticated to portend the death of Alexander. "The actors were, that Bergamasco (for his phantastick humors) named Monarcho, and two of the Spanish embassadors retinue, who being about foure and twentie yeares past, in Paules Church in London, contended who was soveraigne of the world: the Monarcho maintained himself to be he, and named their king to be but his viceroy for Spain: the other two with great fury denying it. At which myself, and some of good account, now dead, wondred in respect of the subject they handled, and that want of judgement we looked not for in the Spaniards. Yet this, moreover, we noted, that notwithstanding the weight of their controversie they kept in their walk the Spanish turne: which is, that he which goeth at the right hand, shall at every end of the walke turne in the midst; the which place the Monarcho was loth to yeald (but as they compelled him, though they gave him sometimes that romthe) in respect of his supposed majestie; but I would this were the worst of their ceremonies; the same keeping some decorum concerning equalitie." A briefe Discourse of the Spanish State, with a Dialogue annexed, intituled Philobasilis, 4to. 1590, p. 39. The reader will pardon one further notice: "-heere comes a souldier, for my life it is a captain Swag: tis even he indeede, I do knowe him by his plume and his scarffe; he looks like a Monarcho of a very cholericke complexion, and as teasty as a goose that hath young goslings," &c. B. Riche's Faults and nothing but Faults, p. 12. Reed. |