able colours.1 But, to return to the verses; Did they please you, sir Nathaniel? Nath. Marvellous well for the pen. 2 Hol. I do dine to-day at the father's of a certain pupil of mine; where if, before repast, it shall please you to gratify the table with a grace, I will, on my privilege I have with the parents of the foresaid child or pupil, undertake your ben venuto; where I will prove those verses to be very unlearned, neither savouring of poetry, wit, nor invention: I beseech your society. Nath. And thank you too: for society, (saith the text) is the happiness of life. Hol. And, certes,3 the text most infallibly concludes it. Sir, [to DULL] I do invite you too; you shall not say me, nay: pauca verba. Away; the gentles are at their game, and we will to our recreation. [Exeunt. SCENE III. Another part of the same. Enter BIRON, with a paper. Biron. The king he is hunting the deer; I am coursing myself: they have pitch'd a toil; I am toiling in a pitch; pitch that defiles; defile! a foul word. Well, Set thee down, sorrow! for so, they say, the fool said, and so say I, and I the fool. Well proved, wit! By the lord, this love is as mad as Ajax: it kills sheep; it kills me, I a sheep: Well proved again on my side! I will not love: if I do, hang me; i' faith, I will not. O, but 1 — colourable colours.] That is specious, or fair seeming appearances. Johnson. 2— 3 before repast,] Thus the quarto. Folio-being repast. Malone. certes,] i. e. certainly, in truth. So, in Chaucer's Wif of Bathes Tale, v. 6790: "And certes, sire, though non auctoritee "Were in no book," &c. Steevens. I am toiling in a pitch;] Alluding to lady Rosaline's complexion, who is through the whole play represented as a black beauty. Johnson. 5 this love is as mad as Ajax: it kills sheep; it kills me,] This is given as a proverb in Fuller's Gnomologia. Ritson. her eye, by this light, but for her eye, I would not Enter the King, with a paper. King. Ah me! [sighs SD. Biron. [Aside] Shot, by heaven!-Proceed, sweet Cupid; thou hast thump'd him with thy bird-bolt under the left pap:-I' faith secrets. King. [Reads] So sweet a kiss the golden sun gives not As thy eye-beams, when their fresh rays have smote The night of dew that on my cheeks down flows: den of night Nor shines the silver moon one half so bright Through the transparent bosom of the deep, As doth thy face through tears' of mine give light; No drop but as a coach doth carry thee, So ridest thou triúmphing in my woe; Do but behold the tears that swell in me, And they thy glory through my grief will show: thou dost 6 The night of dew, that on my cheeks down flows:] This phrase, however quaint, is the poet's own. He means, the dew that nightly flows down his cheeks. Shakspeare, in one of his other pieces, uses night of dew for dewy night, but I cannot at present recollect in which. Steevens. 7 Nor shines the silver moon one half so bright, Through the transparent bosom of the deep, As doth thy face through tears -] So, in our poet's Verus and “But hers, which through the crystal tears gave light, How shall she know my griefs? I'll drop the paper; Sweet leaves, shade folly. Who is he comes here? [Steps aside. Enter LONGAVILLE, with a paper. What, Longaville! and reading! listen, ear. Biron. Now, in thy likeness, one more fool, appear! Long. Ah me! I am forsworn. [Aside. Biron. Why, he comes in like a perjure, wearing papers. [Aside. King. In love, I hope; Sweet fellowship in shame! [Aside. Biron. One drunkard loves another of the name. [Aside. Long. Am I the first that have been perjur'd so? Biron. [Aside] I could put thee in comfort; not by two, that I know: Thou mak'st the triumviry, the corner-cap of society, The shape of love's Tyburn, that hangs up simplicity. Long. I fear, these stubborn lines lack power to move: O sweet Maria, empress of my love! These numbers will I tear, and write in prose. Biron, [Aside] O, rhymes are guards on wanton Cupid's hose: Disfigure not his"slop" seems.com. fol. 8 he comes in like a perjure,] The punishment of perjury is to wear on the breast a paper expressing the crime. Johnson. Thus, Holinshed, p. 838, speaking of Cardinal Wolsey: "— -he so punished perjurie with open punishment, and open papers wearing, that in his time it was less used." Again, in Leicester's Commonwealth :-"the gentlemen were all taken and cast into prison, and afterwards were sent down to Ludlow, there to wear papers of perjury." Steevens. 9 In love, I hope; &c.] In the old copy this line is given to Longaville. The present regulation was made by Mr. Pope. Malone. 10, rhymes are guards on wanton Cupid's hose: Disfigure not his slop.] The old copies read-shop. Steevens. All the editions happen to concur in this error: but what agreement in sense is there between Cupid's hose and his shop? or what relation can those two terms have to one another? or, what, indeed, can be understood by Cupid's shop? 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 observe from old family pictures; Long. This same shall go. [He reads the sonnet. Did not the heavenly rhetorick of thine eye Vows, for thee broke, deserve not punishment. Thou being a goddess, I forswore not thee: My vow was earthly, thou a heavenly love; Thy grace being gain'd, cures all disgrace in me. Vows are but breath, and breath a vapour is: Then thou, fair sun, which on my earth dost shine, Exhal'st this vapour vow; in thee it is: If broken then, it is no fault of mine; If by me broke, What fool is not so wise, Biron. [Aside] This is the liver vein,3 which makes flesh a deity; A green goose, a goddess: pure, pure idolatry. Long. By whom shall I send this?-Company! stay. [Stepping aside. Biron. [Aside] All hid, all hid,4 an old infant play: but they are now worn only by boors and sea-faring men: and we have dealers, whose sole business it is to furnish the sailors with shirts, jackets, &c. who are called slop-men, and their shops, slop-shops. Theobald. I suppose this alludes to the usual tawdry dress of Cupid, when he appeared on the stage. In an old translation of Casa's Galateo is this precept: "Thou must wear no garments, that be over much daubed with garding: that men may not say, thou hast Ganimedes hosen, or Cupides doublet." Farmer. 2 To lose an oath to win a paradise?] The Passionate Pilgrim, 1599, in which this sonnet is also found, reads-To break an oath. But the opposition between lose and win is much in our author's manner. Malone. 3 the liver vein,] The liver was anciently supposed to be the seat of love. Johnson. So, in Much Ado about Nothing: "If ever love had interest in his liver." Steevens. 4 All hid, all hid,] The children's cry at hide and seek. Musgrave. Like a demi-god here sit I in the sky, And wretched fools' secrets heedfully o'er-eye. Biron. O most prophane coxcomb! [Aside. Dum. By heaven, the wonder of a mortal eye! most Biron. By earth she is"but "corporal; there you lie. [Aside. 5 Dum. Her amber hairs for foul have amber coted." -four woodcocks in a dish!] See note on Much Ado about Nothing, Act V, sc. i. Douce. 6 By earth she is but corporal; there you lie.] Old edition: Dumain, one of the lovers, in spite of his vow to the contrary, thinking himself alone here, breaks out into short soliloquies of admiration on his mistress; and Biron, who stands behind as an eves-dropper, takes pleasure in contradicting his amorous raptures. But Dumain was a young lord; he had no sort of post in the army: what wit, or allusion, 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 him mistress divine, and the wonder of a mortal eye; and Biron in flat terms denies these hyperbolical praises. I scarce need hint, that our poet commonly uses 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 seem'd corporal, melted "As breath into the wind." Again, in Julius Cæsar: "His corporal motion govern'd by my spirit." This adjective is found in Bullokar's Expositor, 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. 7 amber coted.] To cote is to outstrip, to overpass. 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 steeds." The beauty of amber consists in its variegated cloudiness, which Dumain calls foulness. The hair of his mistress in varied shadows |