Mar. Ass, I doubt not. Sir And. O, 'twill be admirable. Mar. Sport royal, I warrant you: I know, my phy sic will work with him. I will plant you two, and let the fool make a third, where he shall find the letter; observe his construction of it. For this night, to bed, and dream on the event. Farewel. Sir To. Good night, Penthesilea.3 Sir And. Before me, she's a good wench. [Exit. Sir To. She's a beagle, true-bred, and one that adores me; What o'that? Sir And. I was adored once too. Sir To. Let's to bed, knight.—Thou hadst need send for more money. Sir And. If I cannot recover your niece, I am a foul way out. Sir To. Send for money, knight; if thou hast her not i' the end, call me Cut.5 Sir And. If I do not, never trust me, take it how you will. Sir To. Come, come; I'll go burn some sack, 'tis too late to go to bed now: come, knight; come, knight. [Exeunt. 3 Penthesilea.] i. e. Amazon. Steevens. Send for money, knight;] Sir Toby, in this instance, exhibits a trait of Iago: "Put money in thy purse." Steevens. 5 call me Cut.] So, in A Woman's a Weathercock, 1612: "If I help you not to that as cheap as any man in England, call me Cut." Again, in The Two Angry Women of Abingdon, 1599: "I'll meet you there; if I do not, call me Cut.". This term of contempt, perhaps, signifies only-call megelding. Steevens. call me Cut.] i. e. call me horse. So, Falstaff in King Henry IV, P. I: "- spit in my face, call me borse." That this was the meaning of this expression is ascertained by a passage in The Two Noble Kinsmen: "He'll buy me a white Cut forth for to ride." Again, in Sir John Oldcastle, 1600: "But master, 'pray ye, let me ride upon Cut." Curtal, which occurs in another of our author's plays, (i. e. a horse, whose tail has been docked) and Cut, were probably synonymous. Malone. Enter DUKE, VIOLA, CURIO, and Others. Duke. Give me some music:-Now, good morrow, Now, good Cesario, but that piece of song, Cur. He is not here, so please your lordship, that should sing it. Duke. Who was it? Cur. Feste, the jester, my lord; a fool, that the lady Olivia's father took much delight in: he is about the house. Duke. Seek him out, and play the tune the while. [Exit CUR.—Music. Come hither, boy; If ever thou shalt love, In the sweet pangs of it, remember me: For, such as I am, all true lovers are; Unstaid and skittish in all motions else, Save, in the constant image of the creature That is belov'd.-How dost thou like this tune? Vio. It gives a very echo to the seat Where Love is thron'd.7 6 recollected -] Studied. Warburton. ́I rather think, that recollected signifies, more nearly to its primitive sense, recalled, repeated, and alludes to the practice of composers, who often prolong the song by repetitions. Johnson. Where Love is thron'd.] i. e. to the heart. So, in Romeo and Juliet: "My bosom's lord [i. e. Love] sits lightly on his throne—.” Again, in Othello: "Yield up, O Love, thy crown, and hearted throne So before, in the first act of this play: 66 when liver, brain, and beart, "These sovereign thrones, are all supplied and fill'd Duke. Thou dost speak masterly: My life upon 't, young though thou art, thine eye Hath it not, boy? Vio. About your years, my lord. Duke. Too old by heaven; Let still the woman take An elder than herself; so wears she to him, So sways she level in her husband's heart. Vio. I think it well my lord. For women are as roses; whose fair flower, The meaning is, (as Mr. Heath has observed)" It is so consonant to the emotions of the heart, that they echo it back again." Malone. 8 favour.] The word favour ambiguously used. Johnson. Favour, in the preceding speech, signifies countenance. 9 Steevens. lost and worn,] Though lost and worn may mean lost and worn out, yet lost and won being, I think, better, these two words coming usually and naturally together, and the alteration being very slight, I would so read in this place with Sir T. HanJohnson. mer. The text is undoubtedly right, and worn signifies, consumed, worn out. So Lord Surrey, in one of his Sonnets, describing the spring, says: "Winter is worn, that was the flowers bale." Again, in King Henry VI, P. II: "These few days' wonder will be quickly worn." Again, in The Winter's Tale: and but infirmity, "Which waits upon worn times Re-enter CURIO, and Clown. Duke. O fellow, come, the song we had last night:Mark it, Cesario; it is old, and plain: The spinsters and the knitters in the sun, And the free1 maids, that weave their thread with bones, Do use to chaunt it; it is silly sooth,2 And dallies with the innocence of love,3 Like the old age.4 Clo. Are you ready sir? Duke. Ay; pr'ythee, sing. SONG. Clo. Come away, come away, death, I am slain by a fair cruel maid. [Music. -free - Is, perhaps, vacant, unengaged, easy in mind. Johnson. I rather think, that free means here-not having yet surren dered their liberty to man;-unmarried. Malone. Is not free, unreserved, uncontrolled by the restraints of female delicacy, forward, and such as sing plain songs? Henley. The precise meaning of this epithet cannot very easily be pointed out. As Mr. Warton observes, on another occasion,“fair and free” are words often paired together in metrical romances. Chaucer, Drayton, Ben Johnson, and many other poets, employ the epithet free, with little certainty of meaning. Free, in the instance before us, may commodiously signify, artless, free from art, uninfluenced by artificial manners, undirected by false refinement in their choice of ditties. Steevens. 2 silly sooth,] It is plain, simple truth. Johnson. 3 And dallies with the innocence of love,] To dally is to play, to trifle. So, Act III: "They that dally nicely with words." Again, in Swetnam Arraign'd, 1620: 66 he void of fear "Dallied with danger —.' Again, in Sir W. D'Avenant's Albovine, 1629: 66 Why dost thou dally thus with feeble motion?" Steevens. the old age.] The old age is the ages past, the times of simplicity. Johnson. 4 5 And in sad cypress let me be laid;] i. e. in a shroud of cypress or cyprus. Thus Autolycus, in The Winter's Tale: "Lawn as white as driven snow, My shroud of white, stuck all with yew, Not a flower, not a flower sweet, My poor corpse, where my bones shall be thrown; Sad true lovers ne'er find my grave, Duke. There's for thy pains. Clo. No pains, sir; I take pleasure in singing, sir. Duke. I'll pay thy pleasure then. Clo. Truly, sir, and pleasure will be paid, one time or another. Duke. Give me now leave to leave thee. Clo. Now the melancholy god protect thee; and the tailor make thy doublet of changeable taffata, for thy mind is a very opal19—I would have men of such There was both black and white cyprus, as there is still black and white crape; and ancient shrouds were always made of the latter. Steevens. 6 Fly away, fly away,] The old copy reads-Fie away. The emendation is Mr. Rowe's. Malone. My part of death no one so true Did share it.] Though death is a part in which every one acts his share, yet of all these actors no one is so true as I. Johnson. * Sad true lover -] Mr. Pope rejected the word sad, and other modern editors have unnecessarily changed true lover to— true love. By making never one syllable the metre is preserved. Since this note was written, I have observed that lover is elsewhere used by our poet as a word of one syllable. So, in A Midsummer Night's Dream: "Tie up my lover's tongue; bring him in silently." Again, in King Henry VIII: "Is held no great good lover of th' archbishop's." There is perhaps, therefore, no need of abbreviating the word never in this line. Malone. In the instance produced from A Midsummer Night's Dream, I suppose lover to be a misprint for love; and in K. Henry VIII, I know not why it should be considered as a monosyllable |