Poz. What follows this ?

How prettily the young swain seems to wash

The hand, was fair before!-I have put you out:But, to your protestation; let me hear

What you profess.

FLO.

Do, and be witness to't.

POL. And this my neighbour too?
FLO.

And he, and more

Than he, and men; the earth, the heavens, and

all;

That, were I crown'd the most imperial monarch, Thereof most worthy; were I the fairest youth That ever made eye swerve; had force, and know

ledge,

More than was ever man's,-I would not prize them,

Without her love: for her, employ them all;

Commend them, and condemn them, to her ser

So well, nothing so well; no, nor mean better:
By the pattern of mine own thoughts I cut out
The purity of his.

SHEP.

Take hands, a bargain;

And, friends unknown, you shall bear witness

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to't:

"That pure congealed white, high Taurus' snow,
"Fann'd by the eastern wind, turns to a crow,
"When thou hold'st up thy hand." STEEVENS.

or the fann'd snow,

"That's bolted," &c. The fine sieve used by millers to separate flour from bran is called a bolting cloth. HARRIS.

I give my daughter to him, and will make
Her portion equal his.

O, that must be

FLO.
I' the virtue of your daughter: one being dead,
I shall have more than you can dream of yet;
Enough then for your wonder: But, come on,
Contract us 'fore these witnesses.

SHEP.

And, daughter, yours,

POL.

Come, your hand ;

Soft, swain, awhile, 'beseech you;

Have you a father?

FLO.

I have: But what of him?

POL. Knows he of this?
FLO.

He neither does, nor shall.

POL. Methinks, a father

Is, at the nuptial of his son, a guest

That best becomes the table. Pray you, once

more;

Is not your father grown incapable

Of reasonable affairs? is he not stupid

With age, and altering rheums 2? Can he speak? hear?

Know man from man? dispute his own estate3 ? Lies he not bed-rid? and again, does nothing, But what he did being childish?

2

altering rheums ?] Rowe has transplanted this phrase into his Jane Shore, Act II. Sc. I. :

3

when altering rheums

"Have stain'd the lustre of thy starry eyes,”

STEEVENS.

dispute his own estate?] Perhaps for dispute we might read compute; but “ dispute his estate" may be the same with "talk over his affairs." JOHNSON.

The same phrase occurs again in Romeo and Juliet:

Let me dispute with thee of thy estate," STEEVens. Does not this allude to the next heir suing for the estate in cases of imbecility, lunacy, &c.? CHAMIER.

It probably means—“ Can he assert and vindicate his right to his own property." M. MASON.

FLO.

No, good sir;

By my white beard,

He has his health, and ampler strength, indeed,
Than most have of his age.

POL.

You offer him, if this be so, a wrong

Something unfilial: Reason, my son

Should choose himself a wife; but as good reason, The father, (all whose joy is nothing else

But fair posterity,) should hold some counsel

In such a business.

FLO.

I yield all this;

But, for some other reasons, my grave sir,
Which 'tis not fit you know, I not acquaint
My father of this business.

SHEP. Let him, my son; he shall not need to

Mark your divorce, young sir, [Discovering himself.

Whom son I dare not call; thou art too base
To be acknowledg'd: Thou a scepter's heir,
That thus affect'st a sheep-hook!-Thou old trai-
tor,

I am sorry, that, by hanging thee, I can but

Shorten thy life one week. And thou, fresh

piece

Of excellent witchcraft; who, of force*, must know The royal fool thou cop'st with ;

SHEP.

O, my heart!

4-WHO, of force,] Old copy-whom. Corrected by the

editor of the second folio. MALONE,

Poz. I'll have thy beauty scratch'd with briars,

and made

More homely than thy state. For thee, fond

boy,

If I may ever know, thou dost but sigh,

That thou no more shalt never see this knack, (as 5 never

I mean thou shalt,) we'll bar thee from succession; Not hold thee of our blood, no not our kin,

Far than Deucalion off:-Mark thou my words; Follow us to the court.Thou churl, for this

time,

Though full of our displeasure, yet we free thee From the dead blow of it.-And you, enchantment,

Worthy enough a herdsman; yea, him too,
That makes himself, but for our honour therein,
Unworthy thee,-if ever, henceforth, thou
These rural latches to his entrance open,
Or hoop his body' more with thy embraces,
I will devise a death as cruel for thee,
As thou art tender to't.

PER.

Even here undone !

I was not much afeard: for once, or twice,

[Exit.

5 That thou no more shalt see this knack, (as NEVER-] The old copy reads, with absurd redundancy:

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That thou no more shalt never see," &c.

STEEVENS.

6 Far than I think for far than we should read-far as. We will not hold thee of our kin even so far off as Deucalion the common ancestor of all. JOHNSON.

The an

The old reading farre, i. e. further, is the true one.
cient comparative of fer was ferrer.
of Glocester and Robert of Brunne.
cer, was softened into ferre:

See the Glossaries to Robert
This, in the time of Chau-

"But er I bere thee moche ferre." H. of Fa. b. ii. v. 92.
"Thus was it peinted, I can say no ferre."

Knight's Tale, 2062. TYRWHITT.

7 Or HOOP his body-] The old copy has-hope. Corrected by Mr. Pope. MALONE.

8 I was not much afeard, &c.] The character is here finely

I was about to speak; and tell him plainly,
The selfsame sun, that shines upon his court,
Hides not his visage from our cottage, but
Looks on alike ".-Will't please you, sir, be gone?
[TO FLORIZEL.
I told you, what would come of this: 'Beseech you,
Of your own state take care: this dream of mine,-

sustained. To have made her quite astonished at the King's discovery of himself had not become her birth; and to have given her presence of mind to have made this reply to the King, had not become her education. WARBURTON.

9 I was about to speak; and tell him plainly, The selfsame SUN, that shines upon his COURT, Hides not his visage from our COTTAGE, but

Looks on alike.] So, in Nosce Teipsum, a poem, by Sir John Davies, 1599:

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Thou, like the sunne, dost with indifferent ray, "Into the palace and the cottage shine."

Again, in The Legend of Orpheus and Eurydice, 1597: "The sunne on rich and poor alike doth shine." "Looks on alike," is supported by a passage in King Henry VIII. :

66

No, my lord,

"You know no more than others, but you blame

66

Things that are known alike.”

i. e. that are known alike by all.

To look upon, without any substantive annexed, is a mode of expression, which, though now unusual, appears to have been legitimate in Shakspeare's time. So, in Troilus and Cressida : "He is my prize; I will not look upon.”

Again, in King Henry VI. Part III. :

"Why stand we here

"And look upon, as if the tragedy

"Were play'd in jest by counterfeited actors." MALONE. To look upon, in more modern phrase, is to look on, i. e. to be a mere idle spectator. In this sense it is employed in the two preceding instances. STEEVENS.

This passage has been imitated not inelegantly by Habington in his Queen of Arragon:

"An equal influence on the open cottage,

"Where the poor shepherd's child is rudely nursed,
"And on the cradle where the prince is rock'd

"With care and whisper." BosWELL.