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Two Gentlemen

OF

Werona.

ACT I.

SCENE I.

Speed. Ay, Sir I, a lost mutton, gave your letter to her, a lac'd mutton; and she, a lac'd mutton, gave me, a lost mutton, nothing for my labor.

I, a lost mution, gave your letter to her, a lac'd mutton;- -] Speed calls himself a lost mutton, because he had lost his master, and because Protheus had been proving him a sheep. But why does he call the lady a lac'd mution? Wenchers are to this day called mutton-mongers; and consequently the object of their passion must, by the metaphor, be the mutton. And Cotgrave, in his English-French Dictionary, explains luc'd mutton, Une garse, putain, fille de joye. And Mr. Motteux has rendered this passage of Rabelais, in the prologue of his fourth book, Cailles coiphees mignonnement chantans, in this manner; Coated quails and lac'd mutton waggishly singing. So that lac'd mutton has been a sort of standard phrase for girls of pleasure. THEOB.

Nash, in his Have with you to Saffron Walden, 1595, speaking of Gabriel Harvey's incontinence, says: he would not stick to extoll rotten lac'd mutton. So in the comedy of The Shoemaker's Holiday, or the Gentle Craft, 1610:

"Why here's good lac'd mutton, as I promis'd you."

Again, in Whetstone's Promos and Cassandra, 1578:

"And I smelt he lov'd lac'd mutton well."

Again, Heywood, in his Love's Mistress, 1636, speaking of Cupid, says, he is the "Hero of hie-hoes, admiral of ay-me's, and monsier of mutton Lac'd.". STEEV.

"I, a lost mutton, gave your letter to her, a lac'd mutton." The Commentators are right in their explication of mutton, but wholly wrong in respect to laced. Laced' or enlaced, is, confined, ensnared (Enlacé, fr. entrapped.) Laced mutton, therefore, means a sheep, pent up, or confined: and is here used in allusion to the public stews to which places many women were first enticed, and then detained, so that they were known by the name of, and likened to, laced or pent up sheep. B.

Jul. The mean is drown'd with your unruly base.
Luc. Indeed, I bid the base for Protheus.

Indeed, I bid the base for Prothcus.] The speaker here turns the allusion (which her mistress employed) from the base in music to a country exercise, Bid the base: in which some pursue, and others are made prisoners. So that Lucetta would intend, by this, to say, Indeed I take pains to make you a captive to Protheus's passion. He uses the same allusion in his Venus and Adonis:

"To bid the winds a base he now prepares." WARE.

'Indeed, I bid the base for Protheus.'

Warburton is right in saying, that the speaker here turns the allusion from the base in music to the country exercise, bid the base; but he is wrong in thinking that the Poet uses the same allusion in his Venus and Adonis. The meaning of "to bid the winds abase" is to lower the winds, to abate their fury. (Abaisser fr.)

B.

Pan. And did request me, to importune you,
To let him spend his time no more at home,
Which would be great impeachment to his age,
In having known no travel in his youth.

-great impeachment to his age,] Impeachment is hindrance. So in Henry V :

"--but could be glad

"Without impeachment to march on to Calais." STEEV.

I do not see how impeachment' can, in this place, have the sense of hindrance. In the quotation from Henry V. it certainly has that meaning, but here, I think, it signifies discredit, dishonor.

B.

296

Pro. Oh, how this spring of love resembleth
The uncertain glory of an April day;
Which now shows all the beauty of the sun,
And by and by a cloud takes all away!

Oh, how this spring of love resembleth.] At the end of this verse there is wanting a syllable, for the speech, apparently ends in a quatrain. I find nothing that will rhyme to sun, and therefore shall leave it to some happier critic. But I suspect that the author might write thus: Oh, how this spring of love resembleth right,

The uncertain glory of an April day;
Which now shows all the glory of the light,

And, by and by, a cloud takes all away. JouN.

I think we may read

'Oh, how love's spring resembleth in its run,
The uncertain glory of an April day;
Which now shows all the beauty of the sun,

And by and by a cloud takes all away!" B.

Laun. I am the dog-no, the dog is himself, and I am the dog,-oh, the dog is me, and I am myself; ay,

so, so.

I am the dog :-&c.] A similar thought occurs in a play printed earlier than the present. See A Christian turn'd Turk, 1612:

66

---you shall stand for the lady, you for her dog, and I the page; you and the dog looking one upon another: the page presents himself." STEEV.

-I am the dog, &c.] This passage is much confused, and of confusion the present reading makes no end. Sir T. Hanmer reads, I am the dog, no, the dog, himself is and I am me, the dog is the dog, and I am myself. This certainly is more reasonable, but I know not how much reason the author intended to bestow on Launce's soliloquy. JouN.

'I am the dog,' &c. This soliloquy appears to be written in imitation of that of Sosia, in the Amphitruo of Plautus. B.

Thu. And how quote you my folly?

-how quote you my folly ?] To quote is to observe. STEEV.

Cote is

Quote.' This word occurs in many of Shakspeare's plays-It should be printed cote, a French word signifying mark. thus explained in the Dictionaries, Marque dont se servent les gens de pratique. B.

Pro. O sweet-suggesting love, if thou hast sinn'd,

Teach me, thy tempted subject, to excuse it!
At first I did adore a twinkling star,

But now I worship a celestial sun.

O sweet-suggesting love.--] To suggest is to tempt, in our author's language. So again:

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Knowing that tender youth is soon suggested." The sense is, O tempting love, if thou hast influenced me to sin, teach me to excuse it. Dr. Warburton reads, if I have sinn'd; but, I think, not only without necessity, but with less elegance. JOHN.

'Sweet-suggesting' has something more than tempting in it. It means inspiring, or soul inspiring. Beside, tempted occurs in the following line. We should surely read-If I have sinn'd. B.

Pro. This night, he meaneth with a corded ladder
To climb celestial Silvia's chamber window;
Myself in counsel, his competitor:

Myself, who am his competitor or rival, being admitted to his counsel. JOHN.

Competitor is confederate, assistant, partner.

So in Antony and Cleopatra:

"It is not Cæsar's natural vice, to hate

One great competitor."

and he is speaking of Lepidus, one of the triumvirate. STEEV.

'Myself in counsel, his competitor.'

Johnson is right-(not however that there is any necessity for his note,) and Mr. Steevens is totally wrong. In the first place, Antony and not Lepidus is the person spoken of: and in the next, competitor will at no time bear the sense of confederate, assistant. Mr. S. has weakly imagined, because Cæsar and Antony are colleagues in office, that there can be no sort of rivalry between them; but it is from that very circumstance that a jealousy of each other arose. B.

.

Jul. A thousand oaths, an ocean of his tears,
And instances as infinite of love,

Warrant me welcome to my Protheus.

of infinite- -] Old edit. The emendation by the Editor of

the second folio. MAL.

Of infinite,' is right. Infinite, for infinity. I had from him assurances of infinity (boundlessness) of love." B.

Pro. For love of you, not hate unto my friend,
Hath made me publisher of this pretence.

-of this pretence.] Of this claim made to your daughter. Joux.

Of this pretence.' Pretence can scarcely be interpreted by claim. Protheus should rather be made to say-pretensions to your daughter.' By which he would insinuate, that Valentine aspired too high, in seeking alliance with the Duke. B.

Speed. Item, She hath a sweet mouth.

-sweet mouth.] This I take to be the same with what is now vulgarly called a sweet tooth, a luxurious desire of dainties and sweetmeats. JOHN.

How a luxurious desire of duinties can make amends for offensive breath, I know not: I rather believe that by a sweet mouth is meant that she sings sweetly. In Twelfth Night we have heard of a sweet breast as the recommendation of a singer. STEEV.

Sweet-mouth. A sweet mouth,' I believe, is a pretty mouth.' Sweet is an epithet very common with the vulgar, for any thing pretty, or well-formed. B.

Speed. Item, She hath more hair than wit.

—she hath more kair than wit,--] An old English proverb. See Ray's Collection:

"Bush natural, more hair than wil." STEEV.

She hath more hair than wit.'. Almost all in this scene is quibble. Hair' should therefore in the first instance be written Hare. Hare-brained is heedless, foolish. To hare, in old language, is to make a person appear confused or silly. She has more hare than wit.' She has more folly than wit, or sense; and more faults than hairs &c., Gracious,' may sometimes have the sense of graceful, but that cannot be the meaning here. 'Makes the faults gracious,' makes the faults acceptable. B.

Jul. Host, will you go?

Host. By my hallidom, I was fast asleep,

i. e. my holy dume; our lady. REM.

Halidom,' is not Holy dame, but holy judgment. Dom (Sax.) Doom, judgment. By the Halidom,' by the holy, or by my great judgment-day.' The expression is equivalent to that which

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