PIS. 'Twas, His queen, his queen! And kifs'd it, madam. IMO. Then wav'd his handkerchief? PIS. IMO. Senfeless linen! happier therein than I !— And that was all? PIS. No, madam; for fo long As he could make me with this eye or ear The deck, with glove, or hat, or handkerchief, lofs of that paper would prove as fatal to her, as the lofs of a pardon to a condemn'd criminal. 8 A thought resembling this, occurs in All's well that ends well: "Like a remorseful pardon flowly carried." STEEVENS. with this eye or ear-] [Old copy-his eye, &c.] But how could Pofthumus make himself diftinguished by his ear to Pifanio? By his tongue he might to the other's ear, and this was certainly Shakspeare's intention. We must therefore read: As he could make me with this eye, or ear, The expreffion is dentines, as the Greeks term it: the party Speaking points to that part spoken of. Sir T. Hanmer alters it thus: for fo long As he could mark me with his eye, or I WARBURTON. The reafon of Sir T. Haumer's reading was, that Pifanio defcribes no addrefs made to the ear. JOHNSON. This description, and what follows it, feem imitated from the eleventh Book of Ovid's Metamorphofis. See Golding's translation, p. 146, b. &c. "She lifting up hir watrie eies beheld hir husband fland 66 Upon the hatches making figues by becking with his hand : "And the made fignes to him againe. And after that the land "Was farre remooved from the fhip, and that the fight began "To be unable to difcerne the face of any man, "As long as ere he could the lookt upon the rowing keele. "And when the could no longer time for diftance ken it weele; Still waving, as the fits and flirs of his mind IMO. I would have broke mine eye-ftrings; crack'd them, but To look upon him; till the diminution Of space had pointed him sharp as my needle:* Have turn'd mine eye, and wept.-But, good Pi fanio, When fhall we hear from him? PIS. With his next vantage.3 Be affur'd madam, Iмo. I did not take my leave of him, but had Moft pretty things to fay: ere I could tell him, Shee looked fill upon the failes that flafked with the wind Upon the maft. And when she could the failes no longer find, "She gate hir to hir emptie bed with fad and sorie hart, &c." STEEVENS. 9 As little as a crow, or lefs,] This comparison may be illustrated by the following in King Lear: the crows, that wing the midway air, "Show Scarce fo grofs as beetles." till the diminution STEEVENS. The diminution Of space had pointed him sharp as my needle:] of Space, is the diminution of which Space is the cause. Trees are killed by a blaft of lightning, that is, by blafting, not blasted lightning. JOHNSON. 3 next vantage.] Next opportunity. JOHNSON. So, in The Merry Wives of Windfor: And when the doctor fpies his vantage ripe," &c. STEEVENS How I would think on him, at certain hours, fwear The shes of Italy fhould not betray Mine intereft, and his honour; or have charg'd him, At the fixth hour of morn, at noon, at midnight, To encounter me with orifons,4 for then I am in heaven for him ;5 or ere I could 6 Give him that parting kifs, which I had fet 4 ← encounter me with orifons,] i. e. meet me with reciprocal prayer. So, in Macbeth: "See, they encounter thee with their hearts' thanks." STEEVENS. I am in heaven for him ;] My folicitations afcend to heaven on his hehalf. STEEVENS. Give him that parting kiss, which I had fet Betwixt two charming words,] Dr. Warburton pronounces as abfolutely as if he had been prefent at their parting, that these two charming words were--adieu Pofthumus; but as Mr. Edwards has obferved,fhe muft have understood the language of love very little, if he could find no tenderer expreffion of it, than the name by which every one called her husband." STEEVENS. like the tyrannous breathing of the north, 7 1611 Shakes all our buds from growing.] i. c. our buds of love, as our author has eliewhere expreffed it. Dr. Warburton, because the buds of flowers are here alluded to, very idly reads-Shakes all our buds from blowing. The buds of flowers undoubtedly are meant, and Shakspeare himself has told us in Romeo and Juliet that they grow: This bud of love, by fummer's ripening breath "May prove a beauteous flower, when next we meet. MALONE. A bud, without any diftin&t idea, whether of flower or fruit, is a natural reprefentation of any thing incipient or immature; and LADY. Enter a Lady. The queen, madam, Defires your highnefs' company. IMO. Those things I bid you do, get them de fpatch'd. I will attend the queen. PIS. Madam, I fhall. [Exeunt. the buds of flowers, if flowers are meant, grow to flowers, as the buds of fruits grow to fruits. JOHNSON. Dr. Warburton's emendation may in fome measure be confirmed by those beautiful lines in The Two Noble Kinsmen, which I have no doubt were written by Shakspeare. Emilia is fpeaking of a rofe: It is the very emblem of a maid, "For when the west wind courts her gentily, "How modeftly fhe blows, and paints the fun "With her chafte blushes?-when the north comes near her "Rude and impatient, then like chastity, ،، She locks her beauties in her bud again, "And leaves him to bafe briars." FARMER. I think the old reading may be sufficiently supported by the fol lowing paffage in the 18th Sonnet of our author: แ Rough winds do shake the darling buds of May." Again, in The Taming of a Shrew: "Confounds thy fame, as whirlwinds Shake fair buds." Lyly in his Euphues, 1581, as Mr. Holt White obferves, has a fimilar expreffion. The winde haketh of the bloome, as well as the fruit.' STEEVENS. SCENE V. Rome. An Apartment in Philario's Houfe. 5 Enter PHILARIO, IACHIMO, a Frenchman, a Dutchman, and a Spaniard." IACH. Believe it, fir: I have seen him in Britain: he was then of a crefcent note; expected to prove fo worthy, as fince he hath been allowed the name of: but I could then have look'd on him without the help of admiration; though the catalogue of his endowments had been tabled by his fide, and I to perufe him by items. PHI. You speak of him when he was lefs furnish'd, than now he is, with that which makes him' both without and within. FRENCH. I have seen him in France: we had very many there, could behold the fun with as firm eyes as he. IACH. This matter of marrying his king's daughter, (wherein he must be weigh'd rather by her 6 Iachimo,] The name of Giacomo occurs in The Two Gentlewomen of Venice, a novel which immediately follows that of Rhomeo and Julietta in the fecond tome of Painter's Palace of Pleafure. MALone. 6 a Dutchman, and a Spaniard. ] Thus the old copy; but Mynheer, and the Don, are mute charaders. STEEVENS, la the fenfe in which we say, This will 7 makes him make or mar you. So, in Othello: 66 -- JOHNSON. This is the night "That either makes me, or fordoes me quite." Makes him, in the text, means forms him. M. MASON. STEEVENS |